Archive for November, 2006
November 30, 2006
8 Comments
I’m having a very busy week. Too much stuff going on for me to process all of it. So instead, a list:
1. IT@Cork was great. Always a treat to see Tom Raftery, and I especially enjoyed meeting Jeff Nolan for the fist time.
2. Last night’s London Girl Geek Dinner was fun, as usual. Steve Clayton has a good synopsis here.
3. Tomorrow is the Scoble/MacLeod London pub crawl. Anyone fancies coming along, just turn up. Details here.
4. I’m heading back up home to Cumbria on Saturday. Cannot wait.
5. English Cut is getting busier. Expect to see a lot of new products in 2007. Shirts, cashmere, ties, shoes, all that good stuff etc.
6. I continue to be swamped with manifesto submissions. Sorry I can’t post them all, but I love receiving them, and I do read each and every one. Thanks for that, and keep ‘em coming. Rock on.
To be honest, I find it all very exciting. I’m hoping it evolves into something fairly permanent and ongoing for gapingvoid, but only time will tell etc.
What do you think?
8 Comments
[Click here to download coupon etc.]
A we update on the Thresher’s story.
Basically, it’s going nuts. I have seen the web stats, and they are off the scale. I also heard an unconfirmed rumor that the Thresher’s website crashed briefly two days ago, from everyone visiting their Store Finder.
And yeah, the British blogosphere seems to be talking about it. Very cool. And it looks like the trade press is picking up on it as well.
[UPDATE:] Andrew Porton, the marketing guy at Stormhoek, is on BBC Radio 5 this evening at 6.45, being interviewed about the story. The virus spreads beyond the blogopshere. Rock on.
[UPDATE:] Neville Hobson hits the nail on the head:
Discounting product like this is not new and this is hardly a story to get anyone excited about (well, setting aside the nice cost savings).
What makes it interesting is that Thresher is not advertising this offer anywhere. As Hugh explains, no in-store promotions, no advertising. Only the coupon that you can get via blog posts like Hugh’s, mine and others who write about it.
By the way, Stormhoek is carried by Thresher’s. I hope you’ll check it out when you pay them a visit, thanks.
7 Comments
Mark Boyd, a working artist, sent me this rather heartening manifesto:
WHY MAKE STUFF?
You can change the world with a pencil, a piece of paper, a chunk of
charcoal and piece of cardboard, a paintbrush, a crayon, a d-cam, a
blog, a cell phone, a recorder; a projector, some clay and a kiln, some
wood and a few tools, some sticks, stones, and grasses, a stove and
some vegetables, found glass, paper, metal, plastic, a torch, a welder,
a stick and some sand, a knife to carve with, an idea, some mud and
hay, a computer, some seeds, a needle and thread and scrap of fabric,
the list goes on. You can change yourself by using any of this stuff or
any thing else that might come to mind and hand.
Why we make stuff matters. How we make stuff is secondary. Any method,
material or vehicle that allows you to get to what you’re trying to
see/feel/say/suggest is equally valid. What we make is not the point.
That we make, that we DO, is.
Making stuff develops the ability to see, hear, taste, smell and feel.
Making stuff is about problem solving, the openness to possibilities,
development of skills, internal and external navigation and resolution,
a sense of exploration and adventure. Making stuff transforms one from
a consumer to a contributor. Making stuff is not passive. Making stuff
involves making choices. Realizing you have choices and making them is
empowering. Empowerment leads to confidence, and the courage to
question and challenge the status quo. Making stuff and sharing it is a
social and political act, which opens avenues for communication. That
can help prevent us from becoming mindless drones subservient to the
mass media, politicians, advertisers and commercial interests that have
constructed the consumer culture for the purposes of distracting and
desensitizing us from reality.
Make it up, make do, make it real, make it personal, make it public.
Make it work, make it accessible, make it cheap, make it fun, make it
serious. Make it loud or soft, make it bright or dim, make it big or
small. Make it obvious, make it subtle, make it to be touched, tasted,
smelled, heard. Make it open to interpretation, open for discussion,
open to criticism. Make it open. Make it from found stuff, made stuff,
recycled, reused and repaired stuff. Make it from scratch, from a kit,
a mix, a box. Make it new or make it old. Make it specific, make it
general, make it purposeful, make it pointless. Make it a question,
make it an answer, make it clear, make it vague. Make it high tech,
make it lo-fi, make it inclusive.
Just make it. When you’re done, make more and make different. No need
to explain, justify, apologize, or validate. Make it, and let it go.
Dare to fail big, and attempt to change the world. Resist conformity,
think for yourself and go make some stuff of your very own.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
November 29, 2006
3 Comments
Thom Singer recently posed the following question to me, vis-a-vis The Global Microbrand:
A global microbrand is a wonderful thing to have and what many people desire to attain. However, as the blogosphere becomes more crowded, is it thus harder to get noticed? Two years ago most regular folks did not know what a blog was.…now they is one themselves! I agree that if you get traction, a global microbrand would be easier to build than before the internet, but my thought is that while a blog is still important, the blogosphere is more skeptical nowadays. Could Scoble achieve his fame as quickly if he started today with so many big company insiders writing blogs?
I suppose it’s like anything else– the more crowded the market, the bigger the offering has to be in order to stand out. Blogs are no different.
Sure, if Scoble had started blogging only yesterday, his job would be a lot harder. Same with myself. First-Mover Advantage and all that.
That being said, the blog hierarchy as it now exists is not set in stone. It’s there to be disrupted, so go ahead and disrupt it.
Do something wonderful and unique, and good things will happen. Do something dull and commonplace, and nobody will care.
11 Comments
For all you non-religious folk out there, Ian Green [whose blog I read regularly] kindly sent in this manifesto:
Ten Commandments Manifesto
I like the Bible – it’s a great piece of literature – but needs some context. So here’s my manifesto based on Exodus 20:1 – 17
1. God may, or may not exist – you decide. Does it matter if you believe in God? No, but if you do believe, believe in a good one.
2. Don’t mess about with symbols – Swastikas, Crucifix, Crescents, it all ends bad. Avoid them
3. If you mess with any of the above – you’re fucked.
4. Best to forget a Supreme Being, chill out, have a beer, scotch or claret, and treat everyone the way you would like to be treated.
5. Get a life and concentrate on being nice to others even if other people are assholes.
6. Stop being stupid – you’re not as smart as you think you are. But remember neither is your boss nor are all the other people who tell you they are smarter than you.
7. Put one day aside a week for your self – your deserve it.
8. Don’t be a slave and don’t make slaves of others.
9. If your mum and dad love you – give it back in spades.
10. Don’t do any bad stuff like murder, adultery, theft, lying, or fucking a donkey.
By and large life is good, people are good. Keep a song in your heart and the truth on your tongue.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
PS. I am not an atheist myself [or at least if I am, I’m very bad at it], but hey, I can also appreciate other people’s perspectives etc.
3 Comments
Anna Farmery of The Engaging Brand blog sent me in this manifesto:
If… a brand starts inside, an employee’s confusion
1. If you believe in the strategy, why can’t you explain it?
2. If talent is important, why is promotion based on your social circle?
3. If we are entrepreneurial, why do we make decisions by consensus?
4. If values are important enough to put on a card, why are they not applicable to leaders?
5. If the future is important, why do we spend time in meetings looking at the past?
6. If you embrace talent why, do you only speak to me about my weaknesses?
7. If we aim for a USP why, are encouraged to produce sameness?
8. If we believe in diversity, why are you all 40+, white and male?
9. If we need to cut development and R&D to hit budget, how can you afford a two-day team bonding session in a 5-star hotel?
10. If it is us that interact with customers, why don’t you see we should feel the brand values first?
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
10 Comments
I’m in Ireland today, talking at the IT@Cork about the Global Microbrand idea.
A small, tiny brand, that “sells” all over the world.
The Global Microbrand is nothing new; they’ve existed for a while, long before the internet was invented. Imagine a well-known author or painter, selling his work all over the world. Or a small whisky distillery in Scotland. Or a small cheese maker in rural France, whose produce is exported to Paris, London, Tokyo etc. Ditto with a violin maker in Italy. A classical guitar maker in Spain. Or a small English firm making $50,000 shotguns.
With the internet, of course, a global microbrand is easier to create than ever before. A commercial sign maker in New England. Or a sheet metal entrepreneur in the U.K.
And with the advent of blogs this was no longer just limited to people who made products. We saw that any service professional with a bit of talent and something to say could spread their message far and wide beyond their immediate client base and local market, without needing a high-profile name or the goodwill of the mainstream media. People like Jennifer Rice, Johnnie Moore and Evelyn Rodriguez come to mind.
But it’s not just limited to cottage industries. The great Tom Peters talks about “Brand You”, a personal brand that transcends your organisation or job description. The grand-daddy of this space is probably Robert Scoble, who may work full-time for Microsoft, but whose brand is much, much larger than any job description they could give him; that’s worth far more than anything they’re ever likely to pay him.
Once I created my own fledgling global microbrand (i.e. via this weblog) I started helping other people do the same. A bespoke Savile Row tailor. A Master Jeweler. A small vinyard in South Africa. It was something I really wanted to know about. It was professionally the most compelling idea I had ever come come across. I was hooked.
Of course, “The Global Microbrand” is not conceptual rocket science. You don’t need a Nobel Prize in order to understand the idea. What excites me about it is the fact that I now live in a small cottage in the English boonies, and careerwise I’m getting a lot more done than when I lived in a large apartment in New York or London, for a fifth of the overheads. For one fiftieth of the stress levels.
Global Microbrands do not need to have a blog or a websire. But it’s very useful to have one, just my opinion.
I have two global microbrands under my belt, Stormhoek and English Cut.
A few months ago I talked about what had led to English Cut’s success:
1. A great product. Thomas is one of the best tailors in the world. His suits REALLY ARE that good. If we were just selling commodified drek, I doubt if anyone would’ve paid much attention.
2. A unique story. When he started, Thomas was the only Savile Row tailor writing a blog, and this gave him a unique voice in the blogosphere. This fuelled the interest. Had masses of tailors already been blogging, it would’ve been much harder for his own unique “idea-virus” to spread. The first-mover advantage rule still applies.
3. Passion & Authority. Thomas has both in spades. That’s what kept people coming back. That’s what built up trust. That’s what turned his readers into customers. Which is why “Share what you love” is the best advice there is.
4. Continuity. He kept at it. He didn’t expect the blog to transform his fortunes overnight. As I’m fond of saying, “Blogs don’t write themselves”. Based on our experience, if you want blogs to transform your business, I’d say give yourself at least a year.
5. Focus. It was always about the suits. It was never about what he had for breakfast, Technorati rank or frothy gossip about other bloggers.
6. Thomas spoke in his own voice. Thomas is a straightforward, affable fellow, and the voice on the blog is the same as the voice you meet in real life. He never tried to misrepresent himself on his blog, nor try to create some over-glamorized image of his profession. He just told it like it is. And people responded well to that. As he once put it, “We’re so lucky we don’t have to create the brand out of thin air. We just tell the truth and the brand builds itself.“
7. Sovereignty. The only people we had to please were the two of us. No bosses or outside investors to keep happy. Bosses and investors like guarantees, but there aren’t any.
8. We were both broke when we started. Had we had masses of money at the beginning, we would have had a lot more options on how to get the word out. In all likelihood, these options would have been a lot more expensive and not nearly as effective. Sometimes lack of capital is a definite advantage.
With Stormhoek, the process was much more indirect. That being said, having a blog doubled our sales in 12 months.
I have been saying this for years, and still not everybody believes me: “Blogs are a good way of making things happen indirectly.“
No, bloggers and their friends didn’t start suddenly descending on supermarkets, buying the wine in large numbers. That’s not how it works.
What happened is that by interfacing with the blogosphere, it fundementally changed how Stormhoek looked at treating their primary customers (the supermarket chains) and the end-users (the supermarkets’ customers).
i.e. It caused an internal disruption, both within the company and the actual trade. Wine drinkers’ basic purchasing habits didn’t change because of the meme, but the meme allowed Stormhoek to align itself more closely with said habits.
My conclusion: Having a global microbrand is not a bad way to make a living. The biggest benefit to me has been not necessarily the money, but the level of personal sovereignty it affords me. I think that’s the main appeal.
Secondly, if I were again to create a global microbrand from scratch, there’s no way I would do it without a blog. No way on God’s Earth.
November 28, 2006
8 Comments
If you’re looking for something to do this Friday afternoon [December 1st], Robert and Maryam Scoble and myself are meeting at 1pm at the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus. Then we’re off on a pub crawl.
Anyone who fancies a good day out is welcome to turn up. We’ll probably leave around 1.15 for our first pub. If you’re running late, or want to join us later, I’ll have my cell phone with me: 0770 309 9462.
Hope to see you there!
4 Comments
Ben Curtis, a British expatriate living in Spain, sent me “The Ex-Pat Manifesto”:
1. I live here because I want to. Just because I could be paid better for the same job back home does not give me the right to complain about it. In fact, just because anything at all is different here, I do not have the right to be rude about those whose country it really is (”the locals”).
2. Having infinite patience means it goes on forever, or, no matter how long those effing Spaniards (insert other expletive/nationality as appropriate) take to process a form or fix the plumbing, I’m the only one that cares if I loose my patience.
3. Even if I am conned, robbed, humiliated, lonely or homesick, it is worth remembering afterwards that I decided to step out of my comfort zone in the first place.
4. It really doesn’t matter if I hang out with the locals or with other ex-pats, as long as I am happy…
5. But those who continually complain about their new surroundings are to be avoided. It’s contagious.
6. Wow, everything is… new… it’s not the same as where I came from! What a chance to stimulate my senses! I will take photographs, maybe write a blog or keep a diary, produce podcasts, videos — I’m enjoying the fact that my new point of view is necessarily different, I’m revelling in these new opportunities to feel creative!
I liked this manifesto because it is about SOMETHING relatively tangible and real-world, not just touchy-feely etc.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
3 Comments
Tuesday and I find myself back in London YET AGAIN. Exhausting.
This weekend I was in Bristol, drinking beer with rugby players. Much fun. Great town.
So far this is a big ol’ week for me.
Monday [Yesterday]. Long English Cut meeting. Something to do with the shirts. Very productive.
Tuesday. Flying out to Ireland. Some kind of geek dinner in Cork.
Wednesday morning: Speaking at the IT@Cork conference.
Wednesday evening. Flying back to London for the London Girl Geek dinner. My friends, Robert and Maryam Scoble will be there.
Thursday. General depravity.
Friday. Meeting up with the Scobles & pals at 1pm underneath the Eros statue at Piccadilly Circus. The plan is to do some kind of pub crawl. Anyone who wishes to is welcome to come along. Then there’s the Firefox 2.0 launch party Friday evening.
Saturday. Hopefully back up to Cumbria.
[Meanwhile:] Thanks to everybody for submitting your manifestos. So far I’ve received almost 100 of them. Wow. It’ll take me a while to work through them, so please bear with me.
November 27, 2006
6 Comments
Paul sent me this great manifesto on Charity:
[1] Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
[2] And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
[3] And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
[4] Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
[5] Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
[6] Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
[7] Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
[8] Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
[9] For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
[10] But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
[11] When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
[12] For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
[13] And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
November 24, 2006
3 Comments
6 Comments
Chris Houchens sent me this rather amusing marketing manifesto, based on something he wrote a while ago:
“Marketing by Committee”
If one person can produce ineffective crappy marketing, imagine what a committee can do.
Too many companies have a marketing committee to help brainstorm and provide input for the organization’s marketing department. Management feels that this allows employees to “be involved” in marketing.
If you want everyone to sit around and feel good about themselves while complaining about things they don’t like, a marketing committee is a fabulous idea.
Why don’t you have an office supply committee to pick out the colors of pens you order? How about an accounting committee to help figure out where the credits and debits are posted? Or even better, what about a human resources committee to help decide who is hired and fired?
Even if your committee is full of intelligent, creative people, the great ideas are lost. Committees, by nature, are full of compromises so solutions from a committee are usually watered down versions of the original. Marketing by committee leads to lots of bad ideas and poorly thought out plans. Instead of bold strokes from the marketing brush, you get a wall of beige.
This is not to say that the marketing department should be sitting on the mountaintop handing down dogma to the rest of the company. A good marketer in a company will already be engaging other departments about their needs and concerns. Good marketers will always have an ear to the ground about what the feel of the company is.
Hopefully, you hired the people in the marketing department because they’re good marketers who know how to market. Let them do it.
Amusing is good. I like amusing.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
No Comments
Thomas R. Clifford like the mini-manifesto idea so much he went out and wrote his own in under ten minutes. Rock on.
49 Comments
[Click here to download coupon etc.]
I got this story from the guys at Stormhoek [one of my main clients].
Here’s the deal. Thresher, one of Stormhoek’s main customers, is one of the largest wine store chains here in the UK. They’ve got them all over the country, pretty much in every small town you go to. Hundreds and hundreds of them.
So they have this wee pre-Christmas offer.
For ten days, from 30 November until 10 December, they will offering 40% off ALL their wine. That means all Stormhoek, all red and white, all French, all Spanish, all Australian, all Champagne. Everything.
Not a bad deal etc. There’s just one catch: They’re not promoting it. Nada. No ads, no in-store promotion. Zilch.
The only way to get the 40% off is by getting your hands on one of their special, “super-secret” coupons. This means either someone you know has to give you one, or you have to download it here [PDF file].
So they’re not expecting everybody to find out about it. They’re just expecting a few people “in the know” to take advantage etc.
So my British pals, here’s a chance for you to save 40% off your next plonkfest. And if you tell your friends, they’ll save a bunchload of money too, and with the Christmas party season coming up, this is no bad thing.
OK, enough about the offer. That’s not why I’m blogging it.
I’m blogging it because this strikes me as a potentially interesting Word-Of-Mouth story. I don’t know if 40% off is enough to make the story truly viral [maybe, maybe not, but 40% isn’t bad either, especially for this country]. Now that Word-of-Mouth is the hot new buzzword in marketing circles, I think it would be fun to put it to the test.
I’m just thinking that if every British reader who reads this blog finds out about it, and they tell their friends, and they tell their friends, we could collectively save ourselves quite a lot of money [Brits drink a TON of wine in December, after all].
And maybe we’ll have a nice story to show for it.
So I’m planting the seed, just too see what happens…
Anyway, I hope you will download the coupon. I suspect it’ll be good for Stormhoek-Thresher relations if you do [even you end up buying something else], and even better for us if your friends end up hearing about it, so thanks in advance. Rock on.
[THRESHER STORE FINDER HERE.]
21 Comments
I asked one of my heroes, Seth Godin, to submit a manifesto. Here is what he e-mailed me back:
Unforgivable.
Does it take 500 words to change things?
Probably not. It probably takes less than a hundred, plus a secret ingredient.
The secret ingredient is your desire to actually do something about it. To take action, to believe that it’s worthwhile, to confront what feels like a risk but really isn’t. The secret ingredient is to ignore excuses, abandon procrastination and stop looking for proof.
So, where’s my manifesto?
1. The greatest innovations appear to come from those that are self-reliant. Individuals who go right to the edge and do something worth talking about. Not solo, of course, but as instigators of a team. In two words: don’t settle.
2. The greatest marketers do two things: they treat customers with respect and they measure.
3. The greatest salespeople understand that people resist change and that ‘no’ is the single easiest way to do that.
4. The greatest bloggers blog for their readers, not for themselves.
5. There really isn’t much a of ‘short run’. It quickly becomes yesterday. The long run, on the other hand, sticks around for quite a while.
6. The internet doesn’t forget. And sooner or later, the internet finds out.
7. Everyone is a marketer, even people and organizations that don’t market. They’re just marketers who are doing it poorly.
8. Amazing organizations and people receive rewards that more than make up for the effort required to be that good.
9. There is no number 9.
10. Mass taste is rarely good taste.
So, decide. Decide before the end of the day. If you reject the aphorisms above, replace them with your own. But don’t settle. That’s unforgivable.
Thanks, Seth! Seriously.
Seth, besides being THE MASTER of brevity [I’ve referred to him in the past as “the Ernest Hemingway of marketing”], is no slouch in the Manifesto department himself. He founded ChangeThis.com, although yeah, he’s no longer involved with it etc etc.
He’s been a great inspiration to me over the years. Indeed.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
1 Comment
I love this one from Rodrigo Dauster. Beautifully written and short:
Elusive Consumer Manifesto
1. Listen, don’t ask
Don’t ask me what I want. To ask is to admit you don’t know. If you don’t know, it means you haven’t been listening. If you haven’t been listening it means that you don’t care about me. So why should I care about you? Every day I express what I want and what is wrong with what I have. If you care about me, observe the joy I get from company; how hard I laugh at your jokes; how happy I am to by the time I get to the front of the queue to pay; the pleasure I take from drinking that coffee; how often I return.
2. Be honest
Yes, I am a fool some of the time. I don’t have the time to be smart about everything; to always make the most informed decisions. That means others can profit from me in these moments of weakness, busy-ness or fatigue. But I don’t forget. So if you rip me off; I won’t trust you again.
3. Help me want less
Stop telling me what else I need to be happy. We all know that more this and more that will only lead me into a down-ward spiraling, unfulfilling consumption binge. If you really want to add value — to be different — show me how I can get more with less: simplify, defeature, unbundle, open up.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
2 Comments
Mike Peter Reed, a UK sound designer, wrote this over breakfast this morning. I like:
A Manifesto for Us and Them
You move among them on a cycle of ignorance. They shape your world,
they polarise your view, they create and shatter perceptions. Don’t
listen to them just because they are talking. Don’t learn how to be
dumb. Scratch your own head from time to time. Before you let them
into your mind find out if they have anything to say or if they are
just saying anything. Don’t just listen, be attentive. Watch them
earn their credibility.
On the cusp of insidious recursive events, take your risk, make your
mark, change your life, go in a new direction. They can’t stop you.
Do you know when to stop? Just as great artists steal, they also know
when to abandon their art. You cannot live forever, and the greatest
of empires will crumble. With every action or inaction, no matter how
small or seemingly insignificant, you steer the future of a world
that will resonate throughout the universe for eternity. Some will
make a dent, some will create an almost unnoticed harmony. Others may
be panel beaters seeking discord. So the pendulum swings. What’s old
is new once more.
You can choose to isolate yourself from this situation on a bed of
selfishness and pity, or you can choose to extend yourself outwards
with far reaching consequences and untold prosperity. Choose now.
Choose the present. Shaping lives from a distant star they will see
you as they see themselves.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
2 Comments
In a recent gapingvoid post, Jan wrote in the comments:
The first step toward happiness is to cease and desist intake of mainstream media. Another step was to allow myself to buy anything I wanted so long as it was a tool toward manifesting art. Ah. Life is pretty good these days.
Heh. Wonderful. Thanks, Jan!
[Jan’s blog is here.]
3 Comments
Shane Carey, a musician from Arizona [his music podcasts are here], sent me this:
A Music Mini-festo.
Amateur musicians: You no longer need to “make it big.”
The Internet is slowly killing the myth that only rock stars make popular music. The record industry still controls most of the fame and fortune, but a record contract is no longer necessary to reach listeners. If all you want is people to hear your music, get a website or put it on MySpace. Maybe you’ll get fame if 50 million people like it, and maybe you’ll have fortune if they send some money your way. If not, at least you have shared your music. Needing stardom puts the power in someone else’s hands; being a musician is yours, right now.
Professional musicians: Kill your contracts.
To pick an example, Joe Satriani fans cannot just replace him with some other virtuoso guitarist released under a Creative Commons license; only Joe will do. Your uniqueness means the fans can’t escape the music industry unless you do it first. Don’t sign; if you’ve signed, don’t renew. If you can’t afford to quit without your fans’ support, make sure they know it. If they won’t give you that support, then you’re not the star that you thought you were, and the record industry owns you more than you know.
Music fans: Support your musicians.
Enough about your right to hear the music, whether you can afford it or not: living in a world where people can afford to make that music is a privilege to be earned. Professional musicians who stop receiving money will have to start spending their days at jobs instead of writing music. A free download is not necessarily stealing, but if you don’t want to wait ten years for the next album to come out, throw them a few bucks to buy them the time.
Record industry professionals: Change or die.
An industry might exist in which people like you make money from the honest practice of making it easy for musicians to get their music to listeners, but yours is not currently such an industry, or honest practice. Without you, the musician can author, record, and distribute; without the musician, you have no product. Stop alienating your market by suing them for telling you that the value you add is no longer worth the asking price: increase your value, lower the price, or get out of the business and leave the producers and consumers to work it out amongst themselves.
I especially like the line, “Needing stardom puts the power in someone else’s hands; being a musician is yours, right now.” Thanks, Shane!
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
No Comments
Todd Mallcoat, an SEO maven sent me this:
The Stunt Train SEO Marketing Manifesto
1. SEO is a marketing school of thought…not a process.
There are plenty of people that understand the process, and don’t “get” SEO. Here’s the process — SEObook, SEO glossary, and Ranking factors. There’s still only ten spots that matter.
The process of SEO is fundamental in just the same way that there are formulas for headlines in direct marketing that have MUCH higher likelihood for success — read the playbooks and the process becomes second nature.
2. It’s much easier to plan a website than to retrofit it.
Understanding fundamentals makes it much more valuable when you hire a consultant or agency. 18 questions your CEO forgot to ask.
3. Search increasingly impacts every form of media.
Every media distribution point is doing their best to incorporate search to personalize the conversation rather than just screaming at random people.
4. It’s all about the links (but also about the exposure, rankings, conversation, and conversion).
Building link equity is the new brand branding. It’s really all about the conversion — but you gotta love links (and openly admit to it).
5. Any marketing decision impacts search engine rankings — and vice versa
TV, radio, print and other ads can all be used for attracting links.
Want to use all flash as the homepage? Pick a different school of thought.
6. Creating a “purple” idea is much easier than begging for links.
There is always an extraordinary, remarkable new angle to any industry.
SEO is about understanding the indirect correlation of things to execute on great ideas that no one else has envisioned by having a unique perspective on marketing. Looking for quick fixes and the latest loophole is NOT SEO. Drinkbaiting is SEO — if you can’t figure out why — you’ve never spent a full 40 hour week asking for links.
7. Social media can be optimized
Optimization does not mean manipulation. Optimization is examining the rules of the game and using them to your advantage. Social media increases both exposure — as well as the level of public scrutiny. People appreciate when bias is disclosed, and conversation is HUMAN.
If you are not authentic — you will not last. The higher the value for financial gain of the industry — the more reluctant consumers and agents of distribution become to helping you distribute your message for free.
8. Top rankings won’t fix a shitty product
9. Blackhat is lying to clients, customers, partners, or vendors.
Whitehat is proactively discussing risk tolerance, process, expectations, and contribution to a community instead of just bilking people into teaching you to think.
10. It’s all about the results
Great results can be rankings, sales, or the spread of ideas. There are many great business leaders that don’t realize they are SEO’s. It is more than a process — it is understanding the process and stacking the deck in your favor within the confines of the game — which ultimately changes the game. SEO is the understanding of the dynamic game of business marketing.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
3 Comments
[Julien Smith sent me this manifesto. Sure, a lot of of the ideas here go straight back to the Cluetrain, but unlike the latter, it’s only 311 words. Rock on.]
We are not the suckers we always have been.
Looking back on the things that we, the people, have believed, it’s hard to wrap your head around how people could so often and so easily be huckstered. P.T. Barnum said “There’s a sucker born every minute,” but it’s high time we realized that these days, for every minute, the sucker in someone is withering away. Now, with every passing minute, there’s a sucker out there wising up. You had better be ready. It’s a sucker revolution, and it’s about time.
The reason for this sucker revolution is simple: In 1835, when Barnum started in show business, the people in the town he just left couldn’t tell the people ahead that his freakshow was just a great makeup job. But now we can, and we leave our evidence everywhere. Karma is taking a virtually physical presence in our communities and mindspace. We know not only that we don’t like a company, but also why we don’t like it… or if we don’t, finding out is just a few keystrokes away.
Like Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, this manifesto attempts to nail the hypocrisy of the hype machine on the door of the town church for everyone to see. It works on the principle that whatever happens comes back to you, and that there’s no such thing as “getting away with it”. As individuals, we already know this. As businesses, we have yet to admit that the specter of deceit is even in the room.
If you’re a business, and you’re worried, that’s because you probably should be. You’re probably realizing that your customers are catching up with you. The upcoming generation is larger than you, and faster than you. And they won’t mind messaging their 5,000 MySpace friends to get them involved, either. Be prepared.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
November 23, 2006
4 Comments
[Douglas Karr writes this lovely manifesto about happiness:]
Our culture is inundated with messages that lead us down a path of self-destruction. Happiness is equated with things we do not have… cars, money, 6-pack abs, awards, lifestyles, or even just a soda. Knowledge is equated with wealth, albeit accumulated or inherited. This is the disease of our culture, assuring us that we are never smart enough, never wealthy enough, never have enough.
The media entertains us with stories of wealth, sex, crime, and power – all things things that may hurt us or others when taken in excess. Our government even participates in the misdirection, tantalizing us with lotteries. Every marketing message and every commercial is the same, “You will be happy when…”
We are not happy with our spouses, so we get divorced. We’re not happy with our homes, so we relocate our families and buy bigger until we can’t afford them. We shop until our credit is used up and we go bankrupt. We are not happy with our jobs, so we join in hurtful politics to try to accelerate our promotions. We’re not happy with our employees so we hire new ones. We’re not happy with our profits, so we let faithful employees go.
We are a culture of individuals who are told that hording is the best path to happiness. The grass is always greener – the next girlfriend, the next home, the next city, the next job, the next drink, the next election, the next, next, next… We are never taught to be happy with what we have now. We must have it, and have it now. That’s when we’ll be happy.
Since it’s only possible for the selected few to have it all, the bar is always higher than we can reach. We can never achieve happiness as defined by our culture. How do we cope? We medicate. Illicit drugs, alcohol, prescription medications, tobacco are all necessary and popular since they take the edge off of our unfulfilling lives.
In truth, we are on top of the world. We are the leaders with everything element of success that a culture is measured against. We have the mightiest armies, the most fantastic natural resources, the greatest economy, and the most amazing people.
Yet, we are not happy.
Don’t rely on anyone or anything outside your own self to drive your happiness. It is up to no one but yours. When you own your happiness, no one can steal it, no one can buy it, and you don’t have to look elsewhere to find it.
God bless you and yours this fantastic Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is 1 day out of a year. Perhaps we should have ‘Self-giving’ and reverse our calendar. Let us spend the rest of the year being happy with what we have and one day spoiling ourselves with what we don’t have. Let us be happy with our family, our children, our home, our job, our country and our lives.
You’ll be happy when… you find happiness in yourselves.
Thanks, Doug! Good topic for Thanksgiving etc.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
9 Comments
Please submit a mini-manifesto.
I have to say, after writing an under-five-hundred-word mini-manifesto, I find myself quite taken by the format. Somehow the brevity just clicks for me.
Why take 50,000 words [the length of your average business tome] to say what you have to say, when 500 will do? Brevity. I love brevity. We’re both in a hurry.
So I’m thinking, well, there’s also a lot of people out there besides myself and the bloggers I read, with ideas needing spread. Powerful ideas that could be easily summed up in 500 words or less. And I would really, truly, seriously like to do what I can to help get them out there.
So here’s the deal. If you’ve written a manifesto in 500 words or less, and you want help spreading the word, just e-mail it to me, or send me the link. If it’s any good I’ll either link to it, or post it here on gapingvoid [under the same Creative Commons terms with which I publish my own work].
It doesn’t necessarily have to be about a topic I’m professionally close to. Nor does it have to be the greatest piece of writing since Cluetrain or Purple Cow. Just make sure it’s written with authority and passion. Just make sure it’s good.
Two points to consider:
1. I’m interested in changing the world [however you wish to interpret that statement]. And I believe gapingvoid readers tend to be interested in writers who feel the same. That’s the quality we’ll collectively be looking for, so please keep that in mind.
2. I am more likely to publish something “specific”, as opposed to “general”. By that I mean, I prefer manifestos that are about something tangible, for example, accounting or driving in Phoenix, than vague, self-help/lifestyle coach/quasi-spiritual/motivational “Go, Me!” stuff. I hope that makes sense…
Thanks. Let’s see what happens…
[Manifesto archive is now here.]
10 Comments
THE HUGHTRAIN MkII
1. The market for something to believe in is infinite.
We are here to find meaning. We are here to help other people do the same. Everything else is secondary. We humans want to believe in our own species. And we want people, companies and products in our lives that make it easier to do so. That is human nature.
2. The most important word in marketing is “complicity”.
It’s not enough for the customer to love your product. They have to love your process as well.
3. Your customers are becoming smarter about your market a lot faster than you are.
Thanks to the internet, your customers are able to talk to each other. They are able to find better information about your product than you are able of willing to give them, much quicker than you are capable of giving them. The conversation will happen with or without you, you’re better off joining in.
4. The primary job of an advertiser is not to communicate benefit, but to communicate conviction.
It’s not about what you have; it’s about why it matters.
5. A company’s primary role is to function as an “idea amplifier”.
A company’s primary role is not to make or do stuff. Making and doing are mere subsets.
6. The future of advertising is internal.
The hardest part of a CEO’s job is sharing his enthusiasm with his colleagues, especially when a lot of them are making one-fiftieth of what he is. Selling the company to the general public is a piece of cake compared to selling it to the actual people who work for it.
7. Your job is no longer about selling. Your job is about firing off as many synapses in your customer’s brain as possible.
The more synapses that are fired off, the more dopamines are released. Dopamines are seriously addictive. The more dopamines you release, the more the customer will come back for more. Your customer thinks he is coming back to you for sane, rational, value-driven reasons. He is wrong. He is coming back to feed.
8. Good-bye, Messages. Hello, Social Gesture.
A well-executed marketing campaign is an act of love.
9. Control the conversation by improving the conversation.
Choosing to have a “smarter conversation” with the market is not a marketing decision; it’s a moral decision.
10. The more porous the membrane that separates your business from your market, the easier it is for both parties to be in alignment. And the more porous the membrane, the easier it is to fix non-alignment.
I mentioned recently that The Hughtrain was in dire need of a re-write.
So what did I do? Basically, I made it shorter. A LOT shorter. 418 vs. 4,500 words. In this regard, I was partially inspired by John Dodd’s most excellent J-Train Manifesto [438 words].
The power of brevity etc.
[PS: Thanks to John for the impetus.]
[Speaking of manifestos: Two years on, my “How To Be Creative” still remains the most downloaded manifesto on ChangeThis.com. You can also read the original online version here etc].
5 Comments
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
2 Comments
The great filmmaker, Robert Altman, has passed away.
November 22, 2006
5 Comments
Microsoft’s Steve Clayton interviewed me a week or so ago. Not my worst interview ever, by any means. About 7 minutes long. Enjoy.
[NB. I interviewed Steve about a week prior to this. All good fun etc]
4 Comments
My friend, JP Rangaswami writing in The Daily Telegraph blog:
As technologists, we have two choices:
One is to provide the customer a better experience, the freedom to select what he wants, a differentiation based on service quality against a backdrop of abundance.
The second is to create artificial scarcities around the things that are abundant, create new inconveniences for the customer, new lock-ins, new irritants. Irritants like Region Coding on DVDs. Lock-ins like we see in digital music.
For the last thirty years, too many of us in IT have focussed on creating these artificial scarcities, often without even knowing it. First we paid to bury the data in vendor stacks, then we paid to try and dig it out. We’ve been doing this for years. And we’re in danger of doing it again.
Time for a change.
Time to focus on ways of delivering service where the customer wants, when the customer wants, how the customer wants. Time to focus on open platforms, open protocols, open software, open ways of doing business.
That’s what the economics of abundance is really about. Making money because of what you do, and not with what you do. Having customers who stay with you because they want to, not because they have to.
Great stuff from JP, as usual.
2 Comments
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
9 Comments
I have a favor to ask y’all.
I’ve just signed up with Federated Media, to handle my advertising.
Before we can get the ball rolling, I need as many gapingvoid readers as possible to fill in this survey, to give the potential advertisers some data to work with.
If you could give it a go, it would be very helpful for me, thanks.
[NB: The information is only for demographic purposes, and individual information will not be used for marketing directly to the user, or sold to another party etc etc.]
November 21, 2006
6 Comments
I’m about to head up up North via train. In Cumbria for a day or two, then hopefully up in Glasgow by the weekend.
I’ve been down here in London for God knows how long, and I’m feeling a wee bit frazzled from it, to be honest. Can’t wait to get out of here and let the next mini-chapter of my life to kick in.
A month ago I was actually contemplating moving here. But the appeal wore off.
This town simply does not suit me, long-term.
Even though business is good and everything is hunky dory, the truth is, I’m far better suited to places where one does not need a lot of money in order to live. It’s the Scottish Highlander in me, no doubt.
November 20, 2006
No Comments
I don’t link to The Social Customer NEARLY often enough.…
November 19, 2006
23 Comments
From The Houston Chronicle:
Forty-seven percent of your most productive, most creative, most valuable workers are mailing out resumes, going on job interviews, even contemplating other offers.
Even worse, many managers are actually accelerating those departures by how they treat those employees, said Mark Murphy, chief executive of Leadership IQ and co-author of The Deadly Sins of Employee Retention: Cutting Edge Strategies for Keeping Your Best People.
“Frankly, we treat our high performers worse than any other employee,” he said.
“When a manager has a tough project upon which the whole company depends, to whom do they turn?
“Who gets the late hours and the stress? It’s not the low performers, because managers want the project done right. Instead, managers turn to their handful of high performers.
“Over and over we ask our high performers to go above and beyond, making their jobs tough and burning them out at a terrible pace. Meanwhile, low performers often get easier jobs because their bosses dread dealing with them and may avoid them altogether.“
Little wonder that “high performers hate slackers,” he said. “Eighty-seven percent of (high performers) say working with a low performer or a slacker has actually made them want to change jobs. They’re really sick of having to carry the load for everybody else.”
Man. Do not get me started.…
November 18, 2006
10 Comments
Scoble recently posed the question, “Does being on TechMeme improve your sex life?“
In the comments, I wrote:
For grabbing a quick snapshot of what’s happening in Web 2.0 at any given moment, Techmeme works brilliantly.
Hey, and guess what? That’s all it was meant to do.
To give it any more power over your life than that is frankly pathetic.
I wonder if Gabe concurs… [UPDATE:] Gabe leaves the folowing in the comments:
That’s a fair statement, though I hope Techmeme extends beyond “Web 2.0″. (It’s not really as broad as “Tech” though, despite the name.)
A few clarifying points:
When issues of comprehensiveness or “fairness” come up, I think people should think of Techmeme as just another blog. And in many ways, it’s just that. So suggesting that Techmeme is keeping you down because it doesn’t expose your writings is about as wise as depending on a particular blog as your ticket to fame or whatever.
Interesting fact: I’ve read probably hundreds of complaints about the lack of inclusiveness on Techmeme. Yet how often have I heard this from non-bloggers (whether in emails, or in person, etc.)? Never. I can’t recall a single such case. Now I hear a lot from non-blogging readers, but complains of “A-listers” and “circle jerks” just don’t seem to come up.
I imagine these e-mails Gabe has received include many mentions of noble concepts like “fairness”, “meritocracy” and “democracy”, and far less use of “me me me me me me” etc.
10 Comments
Been a while since I plugged my blogcards.
Oh well, I’m doing it now. Heh.
I’m told that in America, they seem to be EVERYWHERE these days, especially at geek events. Is that true?
I never really targeted them to the geek community per se. “Horny singles in New York bars” was more like it.
But one never controls where a virus will spread…
November 17, 2006
2 Comments
[Link: Techcrunch]
13 Comments
AdAge.com, the large US advertising trade mag, has just released its annual “Marketing 50″. [You can download the PDF off this page here.]
It’s a pretty big deal in US marketing circles etc.
Interesting. It seems a certain Hugh MacLeod, and this small African winery called Stormhoek, made the list [see page 12].
I dunno. Something to do with blogging or whatever.
2 Comments
The big story of the day is, of course, Jason Calacanis resigning from AOL.
Techcrunch first broke the rumor, then The New York Times broke the news officially soon after, and of course, Nick Denton over at Valleywag had something interesting to say:
But I suspect that Miller’s departure will prove a convenient exit for Calacanis. He faced an uphill struggle to turn around Netscape.com, and seemed to enjoy the gathering frenzy around Web 2.0. For him, especially, it can’t have been easy to sit out the bubble, rewarded only by salary and big-company stock. Miller’s exit provides news cover.
When the news first broke, of course, it came as bit of a shock. But hey, Jason will land on his feet. Regardless, congrats to him for fighting a good fight, and for fighting it valiantly.
November 16, 2006
7 Comments
Thanks to Doc Searls for the kind words.…
8 Comments
I remember the day I drew this cartoon… back in New York in 1999, I showed this drawing, when the ink was barely dry, to a really cool friend of mine, a lesbian who had this talent for giving heterosexual males like myself very sound advice about women [the latter being something very rare in Manhattan, believe you me].
Her remark:
“This is SO ‘Hugh’!!!”
To this day, I am still grateful for that. Heh.
November 15, 2006
6 Comments
John Dodds, a frequent gapingvoid commenter, has written a marvelous marketing manifesto, called The J-Train Manifesto. Inspired by frequent rides on New York’s “J” Train, back when he was living there, it’s also a pun on Cluetrain, Hughtrain etc.
1. All Markets Are Up For Grabs.
It’s no longer possible to control the conversation. While incumbents spend their time trying to cling to that belief, you have the opportunity to step in, reframe the discussion and win a new argument.
2. Difference Not Differentiation.
Customers have either too much stuff or not enough time and value current choices over substitutes. Minimise the behavioural change you demand of them, but give them a real reason or reasons to love your product/service.
3. Don’t Disappoint.
Ensuring that everything works and instantly reacting to any problems is a given. Bad news travels much faster and wider than it did before. An informed customer is your best promotion but potentially your worst nightmare.
4. Make Your Marketing Sociable.
You can’t control the conversation, but you can facilitate and, to some extent, host it in a way that allows you to build genuine relationships with potential customers rather than white-noise relationships with anyone you can bombard.
5. Interaction Requires Iteration.
It’s not enough to listen and a single return path does not constitute a dialogue. Meaningful long-term connection with prospective customers can only come from community, co-operation and co-creation.
6. See The Wood For The Trees.
Don’t assume you’re like the customers. You’re much closer to your business than they are or care to be. Find out what they’re like. The shared interest at the heart of your relationship will probably not to be the product itself.
7. Relate, Renew and Reinvent.
If you want them to keep coming back to you, then you must keep coming back to them. It’s not about new campaigns that look different. The new focus is more on product and customer development and less on explicit promotion.
8. Don’t Forget To Sell.
Engagement is great but it doesn’t pay the bills, so remember to sell. Selling is responding to the customer’s interest when they choose to make the move. It’s not about cutting deals, it is about making it easy for them to buy or trial.
9. Le ROI Est Mort.
Marketing cannot be a measurement-free zone, but increasingly its overall impact is indirect and qualitative. However, as engagement methods are less expensive than advertising, ROI will almost certainly rise and, crucially, with no increase in spending, it will continue to rise as your engagement intensifies.
10. Marketing Is Not A Department.
Marketing is a combination of elements that creates the environment in which it is possible to meet a customer need (starting right back at product development). It operates online and off and should inform and occupy every aspect and department of an organisation. More than ever before, it is everybody’s job.
One thing that really impressed me [besides the great thinking behind it] is how short it is. Ten small paragraphs, and that’s it.
I bet even Seth Godin, the master of marketing brevity, will be impressed.
November 14, 2006
31 Comments
My brand new 13″ MacBook laptop arrived today.
So this makes it about 10 years since I last used an Apple properly. It’s certainly a lovely piece of hardware [Euan Semple recently told me, “Even opening the cardboard box is a religious experience”], however so far I’m not crazy about, or at least, not used to the Operating System.
Yes, I felt much the same way about my old Mac, a decade ago. Something about their “hipster cute” software has always rubbed my cynical and misanthropic self the wrong way.
Yes, I’ll still be using my M1400 Tablet PC, especially for the cartoons and graphics.
I’ll let you know how I get on with my new cuddly toy…
[Bonus Link:] From my archives– “Why I prefer Windows to Macintosh”:
10. When I was in high school, people who were overly into hipster brands were routinely taken behind the bike sheds and savagely pummeled. That is the natural order of things.
This post inspired one commenter’s ire:
As for your final point … you should be bloody ashamed of yourself for that one Hugh. How many other non-mainstream kids got “pummeled” behind that bike shed? Maybe a few gay kids? A couple of racial minorities perhaps? Natural order my ass.
Two years on, I still remember that comment well. One of my favorites.
4 Comments
Video: gapingvoid meets Microsoft
A wee 10-minute video interview I did with Microsoft’s Steve Clayton, back at the recent London Girl Geek Dinner.
Some of the stuff we covered you might have read on gapingvoid already. Steve and I seem to be having this long, ongoing conversation at the moment [“Think of it as a Work In Progress, Dah-ling!”], which I for one am really enjoying. Hope he feels the same.
November 13, 2006
13 Comments
[Disclaimer: I was the biggest Brian Eno/Robert Fripp fanboy back in college. “Here Come The Warm Jets” saved my life etc.]
Good article from the Associated Press about creating the music for Windows Vista, with legendary guitarist Robert Fripp, and MS team leader, Steve Ball:
Fripp, best known for his work with the ‘70s rock band King Crimson, recorded hours of his signature layered, guitar-driven sound for the project, under the close direction of Ball and others at Microsoft. Then, it was Ball’s job to sort through those hours of live recordings to suss out just the right few seconds.
Fripp’s involvement is not surprising. His occasional collaborator, Brian Eno, recorded sounds for Windows 95. Also, Ball, the Microsoft group program manager for WAVE — Windows Audio Visual Excellence — has in the past been Fripp’s student and business partner.
I had a nice exchange with Steve Ball over on his blog:
HUGH:
Hey Steve, I just heard the four-second VistaFripp for the first time. Congrats! Loved it. Intense stuff.
fyi back in college I was the biggest Fripp/Eno fanboy.
I am still stunned [in a good way] that 18 months could go into writing a four-second piece of music. Then again, no I’m not. I wonder how long it took Beethoven to write the first four notes of the fifth symphony. I guess that was your ultimate competiton? Congrats again =)
STEVE:
Thanks for stopping by, Hugh -
I’m a big fan of your work, so hearing from you is satisfying.
It’s actually rather strange to assume that 18 months were ‘spent’ working on one sound. Actually, a more accurate way to look at it is that over 18 months, 10 people created over 2000 three to six second sounds (‘jewels’ as Eno used to call them, and “splashes” as RF, David Singleton, and I were calling them at the beginning of this project.)
Many of the thousands of ‘rejects’ are also intense, provocative, and excellent — but not right for use as the ‘Windows Vista brand sound.
There are many other things that happened during that 18 months: a few dozen people across Microsoft received a first-class education in how to listen and how to speak to each other about sound using the same language.
There are many other things that happened during that 18 months: a few dozen people across Microsoft received a first-class education in how to listen and how to speak to each other about sound using the same language.
We also have ~11 two to twelve minute “themed Soundscapes,” and two incredibe videos (only one of which is public, the second is coming soon) that provide an intensse behind the scenes look at this risky (creative) process.
18 months may sound like a long time, but most probably do not realize that this was not even really my ‘day job’ — this was really an extra credit project for me as my primary deliverables for Windows Vista were the new desktop Volume Mixer, the Sound CPL, as well as managing the team delivering the Audio Video infrastructure in Windows.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and best wishes,
–Steve
Like I said earlier, being nice pays off. Microsoft has plenty of naysayers. The best way to beat them at that game is simply by being nicer than them.
I believe very strongly that blogs can make it a lot easier for any company, not just Microsoft, to be nice. Do you?
[Cartoon inspired by Microsoft geek, Keith Combs’ recent post, “The Glass is 10% Full”.]
2 Comments
[Link to all the recent “Web 3.0″ brou-ha-ha on Techmeme. The journo at the NYT is pretty much getting slammed, and rightly so.]
1 Comment
“A cartoonists’ most valuable tool is Anger.”
I heard that somewhere once, well over fifteen years ago.
The older and the less angry I get, the more I actually believe it.
[Bonus Link:] For all you guys and gals down in Barcelona for Tech Ed 2006, there will be a second Girl Geek Dinner tomorrow night [Tuesday, the 14th]. There are still a few spaces left [for now], so you can go here and sign up. Microsoft is sponsoring it, so there’s no admission charge.
Apparently last week’s dinner [for developers] was a real success, so… Rock on.
Any MS folk reading this, if you know of anyone attending Tech Ed, please feel free to spread the word. Thanks.
November 12, 2006
6 Comments
Important post from Joi Ito:
I’m often asked to speak about “Web 2.0″. I personally think that people are trying to build Bubble 2.0 on top of Web 2.0. Instead of becoming a platform for the future of the Web, it’s possible that Web 2.0 is becoming the platform for the short-term future of greedy people. However, I do think that it is important to understand that the recent success and surge in innovation on the Web is due to a semi-new set of principles. Part of the principles are a return to fundamental principles. The innovation on the Web and the Internet is driven by what David Weinberger has called “Small Pieces Loosely Joined” - a network created by small groups working together around open standards. It is and was a community of people and projects trying to connect to each other.
Loic adds his thoughts:
Differences between web 2.0 and bubble 2.0 ?
For me, the big thing about web 2.0 is the amateur revolution.
Easy to publish
2.0: anybody can publish its content text, photos and videos very easily, as easy as sending an email.
1.0: was too complicated, home page builders, hosting and too much html code. News is simplicity.
Discoverable
2.0 amateurs can get their content known easily and for some of them reach a broad audience thanks to the efficiency of search engines enabling the long tail.
1.0 search engines were sending most of of their audience to the mass news sites and already known brands such as CNN and the like. Now amateur content has the same voice or even a louder one in some cases.
Control of your own data
2.0 your content belongs to you (like in Second Life) and you can export it or get it back easily (like in Flickr, Typepad)
1.0 when you upload your data the sites own it and don’t let you get it back.
I wonder what Steve Gillmor would say? Or Doc, Calacanis, Arrington, Farber etc. N.B. Last night was the Gillmor Gang’s last broadcast. Kinda intense to be on it last night, I thought. Though I have to say, I loved being on it over the last few months. You can listen to it here. Rock on, Steve! And thanks to all the other guest for many months of very stimulating, spontaneous thought. I grew much richer from participating on it, and it will be sorely missed. Amen.
[Bonus Link:] What was the biggest news at the recent Web 2.0 Summit? “Web 3.0″, of course. Dan Farber reports.
