Month: September 2005

Rex suggests that I list my answers to seven things. These are thought-provoking (well, some of them are), but I’m not likely to devote the time to answering this fully, or honestly. The blog is a public forum, even when you’re writing for yourself. I like to be honest with myself and others, but not every line needs to be crossed publicly. Rex, thanks for thinking of me, but don’t hold your breath on this one. 😉

I haven’t played many group games recently, but telephone pictionary sounds simple, quick, and fun.

I’m learning a lot about marketing in recent months. I’m no longer believing that an idea will succeed (at least in part) simply because it’s a good idea. OK, naive to ever pretend such a reality exists, but don’t we all want good ideas to win out? Sure, but life isn’t fair. Never has been, never will be.

So I remind myself that part of getting a message across is saying the same thing many times to different people. (Actually, this works with the same people, too, because not everyone listens carefully each time.) Every time, listen to the response, not just with your ears. Watch how body language demonstrates acceptance or rejection. Adapt to what works, dismiss that what doesn’t. And don’t let the necessary repetition bore you, because it is necessary.

These vague, unkempt musings spring from last night’s event and a presentation this morning. Both went well, but were different for me.

The blogging/marketing panel last night brought out 60-70 people, smart folks who were eager to learn how they could apply lessons of blogs and social media to their businesses. What I learned is that my experience reading dozens of blogs for several years is uncommon and that some of the mental checklists I take for granted are not yet common. The idea that you must influence and cajole, rather than shout and control, is emerging, but not yet standard fare. I hope last night’s conversation helped reinforce the right ideas.

This morning, I shared my excitement about a project at work with several dozen people whose understanding of why I’m excited is critical to its success. The conversation is really just beginning, but I appreciated the time devoted to learning and listening. Now I need to repeat and expand upon those themes with many of the same people in smaller groups, again and again, so the excitement doesn’t diffuse to the point where it can be shared no further. Enthusiasm may be contagious, but everyone has an immune system all the same. I hope I ‘infected’ some of my colleagues this morning.

Tomorrow, Thursday, September 15, 2005, I’m moderating a panel at a meeting of the San Francisco chapter of the American Marketing Association: Blogging: Leveraging Blogs for Marketing, an Evolution of Journalism. A bit of a mouthful, but read the description and I think you’ll see why I’m interested and involved. Thanks to David Shimada for the invitation to participate.

The real fun, of course, starts with the panel, which includes:

• Dan Gillmor
• Bill Flitter
• Om Malik
• Brad Bowers
• Nathaniel Murdo of Ubisoft

This group is certain to have informed opinions about how marketing and the media landscape will continue to change… perhaps in sync, but more likely in fits and starts.

I know Bill and Brad, and have met Dan and Om ever-so-briefly at previous industry events. Looking forward to the discussion, and I’ll report back afterwards.

I’ve considered several questions and thoughts, but I also hope audience participation removes the need for my moderation. If you have any last-minute questions or thoughts, drop me a email at my initials @ this domain (see the copyright line on the website if you don’t know my middle initial).

frieNDA n.

1. An agreement between friends to “non-disclose” confidences without formal paperwork, such as an NDA.
2. A necessity in the Bay Area (and beyond).

Talking with a friend recently, I traded some information, after we assured each other that this wasn’t to be shared more widely. I said, “Yes, this is all under frieNDA.” To my surprise, he had never heard the term. I don’t remember where I first heard the term here in San Francisco, but it’s a favorite, and a reality. The signed piece of paper may have significance in some venues, but if you can’t be trusted to be discreet in the right places, you’re not going very far.

How many frieNDAs are you party to?

Few things more useful in the world of general knowledge than an accurate representation of the world: a globe. Of course, every map is out of date shortly after it’s printed, but the physical form of a globe certainly helps reinforce the reality, even if the labels and colors and lines move over time.

I only wish I had room for the world’s largest globe somewhere in my life. Or even the slightly smaller versions — you can buy one! (Check for the link to a 10-page PDF at the bottom right of that page.)

However, before you whip out the credit card, the smallest Eartha globe (6.25m) is 2 million euros worth of custom-built cartographic splendor. (Why priced in euros when Delorme is a Maine, USA, company?) Since Google is telling me that each euro is 1.241 dollars, the price tag only get higher.

In other words, probably cheaper to visit Yarmouth, Maine for your globe fix, no matter where in the world you live. I do find it ironic that Delorme doesn’t have a map on either their Visit Us page or their Directions to Delorme page. Sure, they have their lat and long at the bottom of every page, but are they really going to make me go look up the location in Google Maps??? No, the actual street address (Two Delorme Drive) is on their Contact Us page. So here is the Google Maps link, or satellite version, though not of high enough a resolution to even guess which building houses the Eartha.

For someone who sells mapping software to not provide a map to their own location… can I get a link in This is Broken? (Am I missing something?)

But I still love their globe.

Found this older post by Tim O’Reilly on Books That Have Shaped How I Think. Several quotes in there which resonate, especially:

Wilson also shaped my relationship to books. So many critics write about literature and philosophy as a dead thing, an artifact. Wilson writes about it as a conversation with another mind about what is true.

Blogs are only snippets of that conversation… still nothing like a book.

I’ve only read two of the books he cites, Dune and The Innovator’s Dilemma, so some ideas for the future, although not all are of interest. Poetry doesn’t reward my mental time invested, for example. I do think about other books; maybe I’ll compile the life list sometime.

If you’re into web development, check Anil Dash’s predictions for Web Development in 2006. I’m not playing with the sharp end of the programming stick, so I don’t have the skills required to jump in here. The list is compelling (even if I’d quibble about some of it, in my uninformed way) since I agree completely with the importance of UI.

Some of the overall areas of focus are integration (as always) and front-end technologies that have highly visible impacts on end user experience.

To me, Web 2.0 means technologies serving the experience, rather than vice versa. If that becomes the norm, everyone benefits.

I haven’t turned to the LazyWeb often because I don’t have many readers, but maybe there’s just enough with the right bent.

The question:

What’s the best example on the web today of listing several hundred (or thousand) RSS feeds in a useful way, so readers can find the feed(s) they might be interested in without having a needle-in-haystack feeling?

Send suggestions, preferably with example URLs, to my work email address: john.roberts AT cnetDOTcom.

Why? The current News.com RSS listing page isn’t complete any more, and the current design hardly scales to even the few dozen feeds listed. I think it deserves a fresh start.

One answer to the question is “don’t try; use auto-discovery contextually everywhere,” and that’s not a terrible answer. I’ll aim to do that, too, as more feeds become public material. But I believe a single page (or group of pages, perhaps) can be a meaningful, useful method all the same, and it would be a handy place for offering OPML file(s) of groups of feeds, if nothing else.

Thanks for the help, syndication mavens everywhere.

What does it mean that syndication stuff is what I turn to when I can’t sleep and I don’t want to do my more urgent (though not important) tasks?

I suspect Jakob Nielsen enjoyed tweaking Chris Anderson (or just grabbing attention) by titling his latest Alertbox “The Slow Tail.” Useful research brought to light, demonstrating that some things take time, even purchases from buy-focused links on search results pages. But the name was even better. Long Tail, eat your heart out.