MIT Blog survey
Just took the MIT blog survey (at last) - funny little link images. If you have ever met me, I will think you agree I am a bell curve...
Hat tip to my old colleagues at ntl.
The new ntlworld site has gone live. One of the last things I worked on within the Internet Product Development team 20 months ago (before I moved to a new role) It metamorphed a few times, from an internal project to using outside contractors to outsourcing, however it was always something I have a soft spot for... strange that I am. So congrats to Peter, Steve, Chris and anyone else working on the project. You've got it out there!
David Wilcox offers a view on storytelling and how it can be used in any community to increase understanding in terms of research and develop a programme by getting the community to build its own stories:
...and prefer doing projects that lead to action and not just another report on the shelf... so we suggested something entirely different. As I've written before, we proposed that we run workshops at which residents invented fictional characters and told their life stories, so we could analyse the issues that surfaced. To our surprise, we got the job - and pressed ahead with a storytelling kit developed by Drew that we could use and also hand on to local groups to use. It's the sort of thing that could fall flat, lead to pieces in the paper about wasting money on tale-spinning focus groups, or at best a polite thank you for the report but no follow-through. In fact it all turned out really well, thanks to the enthusiasm of those taking part...
I've worked very briefly with stroytelling in the past and am a great advocate. Stuart however has taken this a lot further.
I've always found qualitative research more rewarding and it certainly opened lots of doors when using an unstructured interview technique, however the story model seems to achieve so much more. I especially see this with my children and how it impacts them - stories change their world and its how they interpret it.
My favourite story about ntl is how my then manager described the comapny as Anglo-Saxon Britain, full of fiefdoms, petty kings and battles being fought over nothing. One of those petty kings eventually took him out. Vital information for any new manager there I feel. When I use to tell that story, so many of the people working there would agree and bemoan the fact. I regret not trying to get their stories to take it further.
Seem to be having a problem with my tags - although they show up nicely on the entry (see below). And I think they are showing up in my feeds. However neither Technorati nor Tag Clouds seem to be picking them up.
Does any one have any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
Lloyd now has the audio of the conference up on his wiki page. Fantastic job Lloyd - Thanks!!!!
Perhaps more importantly, his articulate response to Johnnie's anarchy has been blogged here:
I blog because I want to understand who I am and make better choices about who I want to be. I see life as an endless process of self-discovery and self-definition. When I blog, I say "This is who I am today, this is what I've done and this is what I think about it". I then invite you to reflect on that and to add your experience. Both these acts, of me expressing myself and then seeing what comes back help me to remember better who I really am and how I wish to present myself to the world.
Beautiful - go read the rest...
I just realised I can look at a satellite image of where I live.
Very cool - probably only for 15 mins but coooooollllll.
Sometimes I really want to be a geek...
Oh I live here: Betaroad
Following up on some thoughts from last night.
I notice Suw has published her mindmap notes from last nights talk and her own notes on the event at Strange Attractor.
Suw takes issue with Johnnie's view on speakers:
I disagree, however, with Johnnie's dislike of having speakers. Yes, having speakers stand up in front of an audience does create an us-them dichotomy which is especially false when you are in a room full of your peers, but in an ideal world that's because the speaker knows something the audience doesn't, and the audience wants to find out what. As a speaker, I don't feel that I seize the authority to stand up in front of people talk about the stuff I talk about, I feel that I am granted grace to do so by the audience and that I had better damn well say something interesting.
On this point I agree with Suw that a speaker doesn't seize authority and I also agree with Johnnie that engagement and involvement are what more speakers should try and do. Its difficult when you are brought up on a diet on lectures and yet move into a world of blogging. Perhaps when I get up next to do a talk I should remind myself of this.
The aspect of authority itself though is most telling. The different definitions of authority being traded with both Johnnie and Adriana using the same dictionary.com reference to multiple meanings of the same word - just like blogging offers you multiple views of the world. Authority comes when we allow it to, whether internally from being the author of your own life to giving legitimacy to speakers, bowing to greater experience.
The emergence of this authority in blogging and of etiquette and behaviour modes is fascinating - at one point someone (apologies as to who) said that we have a means of dealing with other people, its called politeness. Well yes but then as James pointed out subversion is fun too.
So is questioning and so is storytelling. Right now blogging is interesting and fun and cool and disrupting and as Alastair Shrimpton and others suggested, going to be so not cool when it hits the real mainstream and yet still full of authority because we will give it to ourselves as affirmation and to others as little dances, with passion and with enthusiaism.
The blogtrain is running, some have seats, some will stand, but we are all going to get there, because the network and linkages are king.
It reminds me of the old adage 'content is king' - is it more so now that personality with content and linkages are king? Or is it interativity - the ability to have somenthing to do when you get to the endof that link i.e. post comments in a blogging context?
This is one conference that actually has me thinking more after the event than during it and that's good. Maybe it engaged me more than I thought, maybe it affirmed and empowered me more than I thought.
The one thing i wanted to say last night and didn't manage to get it out was that people long to make connections, and last night I made some relationship connects and some intellectual connections.
If I had a moodometer on the blog it would say VBG.
Blogging is all about conversations and it fascinates me the number of conferences about the subject tend to fall back into a broadcast rather than conversational model. BARC (as Lloyd has already acronym-ised it) was set up to be one of these but occasionally morphed into the other. More of that later...
Order of the day was two panels with three speakers each, chaired by Steve Bowbrick of Webmedia, who did a good job of keeping the event flowing.
Of most interest was her quote from a book called Out of Control by Kevin Kelly, which described the behaviour of bees when they find new food sources and how they communicate this back to the hive. The more vigourous and exciting the dance, the more bees visit that location. An excellent analogy for the virtuality that is the blogosphere.
His three points about what journalists thought about the internet (together with his impression of Powerpoint slides) were inciteful (and probably insightful too):
What he would like to see in the future - importance of human aggregators or editorial skills coming to the fore, and the emergence of a subscription model...
Nice little model of conversation - private (email), semi-public (RSS / Nokia lifeblog), Public (web).
Felt that blogging had the potential of huge change and disruption, if enough people are fed up enough to pay attention. In a business sense brands are not listening and need to et better at using the technology.
Things to note:
Words to note: Fairness, Thoroughness, transparency, accuracy
Ideas to float:
Johnnie also offered a unique participatory style which encouraged contribution and was genuinely a conversation.
As I mentioned afterwards in the pub - I took notes for all the other presentations - for this I put down my pen and listened - wish I had contributed too.
Lloyd offered a brilliant reason of why he blogs, which you can hear over at his blog (not up yet) as he recorded the event (Thank you and well done).
Disruption at its best and also fascinating to watch Ceacescue's (sic) last speech...
Key point: Blogging + transparency = credibility
Markets are conversations - storytelling, crediiblity, personality, permanence NOT advertising.
Marketers think of internet as another channel - really its what punctures the others...
Disruption comes from blogging becuase it bypasses normal channels.
Changes dynamic of interaction - speed, amplification and lack of control.
People's attention becomes the most expensive commodity.
Quote from Sun microsystems - Andy lark "You've got to pay to play but every community has its price"... and that Sun has been authenticated more by blogging than advertising or branding could ever hope to achieve.
Two paths for marketing (promotion?):
Blogosphere immune system is attuned to deception
That is you can lie for a while but inevitably it will be found out and exposed. If that happens the damage is huge for any company.
Well those are the notes - I'll put some more comments up later...
Just took the MIT blog survey (at last) - funny little link images. If you have ever met me, I will think you agree I am a bell curve...
Still, Grokster has turned out to be the kind of friend that assures the worst enemies. Among those enemies is a Supremely false distinciton between creativity and technology. I don't know how we're going to unf**k this one, but I'm sure it will take a very long time. And that tech can't do it alone.The most worrying point I have seen is one made by Cory Doctorow:
...what today’s decision will kill is American innovation. Chinese and European firms can get funding and ship products based on plans that don’t have to comply with this decision’s fuzzy test, while their American counterparts will need to convince everyone from their bankers to the courts that they’ve taken all measures to avoid inducing infringement. This is good news if you’re an American corporate lawyer but not if you’re an inventor creating a new way to enjoy content.Its not that I don't support European firms (or Chinese ones for that matter) however innovation breeds innovation. Anything that could slow this down is bad news. Marc Canter isn't too happy either:
This totally effects the fuure of DLAs (digital lifestyle aggregators.) I want to store my music, video and photos - the content I BOUGHT and access it from anywhere I go. We want to provide the tools to do that. We'll ask all our users to agree to terms which say "I understand that the copyrights laws forbid me from illegally distributing content I haven't paid for." But we sure as hell will protect our fair use rights! So to what limits can our customers 'share' the music they've legally purchased? That's the question.Legal and political arguments are all interwoven in this decision, not to mention aspects of the right to intellectual property versus the commons. I wonder if this decision will ultimately affect blogging and user created content?
If you look good and dress well, you don't need a purpose in life.
Robert Pante
Well, that will be where I am going wrong :)
I try and read Marc Canter on a regular basis. Not only because he is a software guru, not just because he is passionate funny and inventive, no, because he believes. And when Marc Canter believes, he starts to shape the world around him to make that belief become reality. And that's really why I listen. This latest post had me moving to the edge of my chair:
Marc's Voice: Open Source Infrastructure: A World of Possibilities
But without a doubt the MOST exciting developments are in the area of micro-content standards. Open Source Infrastructure is coming into being! The mesh of islands of functionality are forming into an archipelago - and the standards are the causeways and bridges!
both Adam Curry and Dave Winer alluded and contributed to - this burgeoning world of open standards and user uptake.Both Adam and Dave speak eloquently of a world of possibilities - where open standards and cooperation create bottom up swell in the world of distribution, viral uptake and new compelling experiences.
Marc goes on to outline the progress in these different standards and how everything is flowing together - a world of possibilities indeed.
So while the technology itself may not float your boat the possibilities for co-creation should.
Its worth taking a look at the Broadband Mechanics website too for more possibilities about digital lifestyle aggregators or a piece of software that glues and enables your online presence in one place...
gapingvoid: blogger's wine freebie
Wine for free and I needn't
even blog about it. Is this really a free lunch?
Cynicism aside, the whole idea of providing products and services to influential people for endorsement isn't new and this is worth keeping an eye on as the next step in the viral marketing approach.
The Stormhoek blog doesn't have much content on it yet. I have to admit to being intrigued by whether this will achieve its objectives - my assumption being to boost sales or long term loyalty. I'm also interested in who it is aimed at consumers or wholesalers/retailers.
Still if I get a free bottle of wine and its a good wine, I shall be more than happy to promote it - do I influence anyone though?
BBC NEWS | Business | Lessons from Silicon Valley
Peter Day offers another excellent column on business and the future (or now if you know about this stuff already).
Quite interesting to note the fundamanetal flaw in Excite mentioned here:
Lesson two says: the internet is a new sort of market place that needs new business plans to make it work. ...But Excite took the conventional view that the ads would come from the top 100 companies in the USA, the people who buy huge amount of TV time and blanket the newspapers and the magazines.Google did not go for the big spenders. Google's squads of PhDs wrote algorithms that would make it viable for the company to take hundreds of thousands of ads from hundreds of thousands of small (or big) companies, and pop the ads up in highly relevant spaces close to the search lists.
So lesson number two is about the new markets created by the internet, the ones making big profits for Google quarter by quarter.
"The 20th Century mass production world was about dozens of markets of millions of people. The 21st Century is all about millions of markets of dozens of people," observes Mr Kraus.
Classic stuff about Long Tail (as Peter mentions) but no real point about co-creation and community. Amazon and Google both inspire community involvement in terms of development (both allow people to interact with the service via APIs to work with the software and develop new applications) and participation Amazon with reviews and its shops programme and Google with its ad services.
Its a shame that that aspect is missing from Peter's review as I think ultimately millions of markets is going to be about co-creation as the markets are far more demanding and creative than businesses can be on their own... thoughts anyone?
I really enjoyed the Communities Dominate brands book, and the blog is shaping up to be interesting too (not unexpected given its written by the authors)
Communities Dominate Brands: Designing your own revolution
...And it seems the notion of co-creation is moving into public policy as a new 'co-creation' approach to health care is set out in this paper from the Design Council's RED unit.Red Paper 01 Health - Co-creating Service
Authored by Charle [Leadbetter] and Hilary Cottam won the London Design Museum designer of the year award 10 days ago.
Cottam does not design for people but with them. Her aim is to give users the tools and support to develop their own solutions. She is particularly committed to applying this thinking to big public-service issues in education, crime and health.
The co-creation model is springing up everywhere. This triggered off something in my mind about democrary and participation. After all public services in theory should be 'by the people, for the people', so this initiative should prove to be a powerful model.
One experiment I would like to do myself is engage in this type of community based approach to development my own business. So if you are interested in participating, drop me a mail.
When it comes to business, which philosophy do you subscribe to?
1. I believe my business could ultimately be destroyed by factors beyond my control, such as inflexible unions, shifting demographics, competitive monopolies, governmental regulation or acts of god.
2. I believe my business is in complete and utter control of its destiny, regardless of outside factors.
If you picked answer one, then you probably hold stock in determinism, which basically posits that every event, act, and decision is the inevitable consequence of outside influences independent of human will.
If you picked answer two, you picked the more difficult choice but ulitmately, I believe, the right choice: free will.
Quick aside: Philosophy is obviously the term of the day although having studied a fair bit of social science, I think i would be inclined to call it social theory.
Back on track: I agree that the answer two is how I perceive the world, although what I think perhaps is missing is the understanding that it is not as simple as that. The world is a complex place with so many interdependent variables that it is almost impossible to say that you are 'in complete and utter control'. Control being the word I object to. You are responsible for your own actions, despite being heavily influenced by lots of macro and micro environmental factors (not to mention those nasty little voices inside your head [why can't they be nasty little newspapers?]). Control though is a fallacy.
The quote from Fortune makes this point. And noting from the Start the week email from Ecsw.com
Ask any Southwest employee what the price of aviation fuel is at the moment and they'll tell you. They'll also know the implications for the company's profits if that fuel price goes up or downby a given amount
Southwest makes everyone in the company responsible - they know the score - they cannot control the price of fuel, they can take appropriate action.
I would really like to work with a company that gives you that type of responsiblity (but remember NOT control, never control, control is impossible, must read more complexity theory books)
Blogging and Authority
Johnnie gets philosphical (after a little plug - see you there btw):
Just a reminder, in case you're interested, that I'm on a panel for Blogging: A Real Conversation? next week.I think I might ask what we mean by the notion of authority. Often we see authority as being outside ourselves and one of the ways blogging helps to change that is to support the blogger in being the author (note those syllables) of his or her own experience. By writing a blog, we take the opportunity to express our own experience and arguably acknowledge it more. Perhaps we can value blogs not simply because some popular ones become a rival external authority to mainstream media, but also because the act of writing them is a way for anyone to take some authority of their own. If that's not too fancy a philosophical point.
Dictionary.com defines Authority in eight ways and I think this is the meaning Johnnie is trying to convey:
Confidence derived from experience or practice; firm self-assurance: played the sonata with authority.
Or perhaps that should be blogged with authority. It isn't then about being able to influence others, rather a sense of self-affirmation and if you get feedback affirmation (or not) from others. It is therefore the process which one engages with when one seeks to write that is the importance. Being able to focus the mind and articulate you, in a way that rarely happens in the big wide world.
I strangely find it much easier to express myself in writing than in conversations. I don't mean I am not capable of holding an articulate conversation, although some would disagree. What I mean is that feelings and deeply held beliefs are much easier written than spoken. I wonder whether this is the case for many people? I imagine its related to your learning style and way of interating with the world. Some people prefer auditory, others visual some kinesthetic (touch) and there are others. It has quite profound impact on the way we communicate with others and with ourselves if as a visual person I am spoken to or think in sounds rather than words.
The point I want to get across is that you can find authority in blogging, though I think it has to be your medium - some people may prefer to draw or speak or take photos or make videos - the act of self expression is perhaps what conveys authority.
Edit: David Wilcox picks up on Johnnie's meme, although he takes the view of authority as influence. Different point but worthwhile considering. David, as James and Communities Dominate Brands points out, notes the power of communities to influence. This event could be very informative if only I can get my verbal and auditory skills going.
This from Max Blumberg a while ago (found it while browsing a more recent entry - Max Blumberg Positioning Game: The Future of Blogging: Microsoft Joins the Fray
Baumeister & Leary (1995) suggested the belonginingness hypothesis which states “human beings have a pervasive drive to form and maintain at least a minimum quantity of lasting, positive, and significant personal relationships”.So far the Internet has helped(?) us interact with email and chat facilities. Dating sites arrived and we are also seeing the emergence of social forums such as LinkedIn and Ryze. Blogs are an addition which allows us to show more of ourselves to those who wish to interact with us.
I liked the idea encapsulated here that the 'social' aspects of blogging (and other forms of social software) are part of an innate quality within the human psyche to form relationships. It also resonates well with the idea of authority that Johnnie and I (here) were playing with the other day. Self-expression not only as a form of affirmation but also as a form of establishing relationships by 'showing more of ourselves'.
The True Impact of Social Software
During the excellent Reboot conference there was naturally a lot of talk about technology. The true impact of social software of course is not the technology (though a lot of fun to play with!), but in the way these tools help us build new relationships and strengthen existing relationships with other people (and that got a lot of attention at Reboot as well). Previous systems like e.g. corporate intranet have the information or content (terrible word) as a central aspect. People are more or less anonymously feeding the system in such cases. Putting distance between people.
Social software tools are all smaller than us, we control them individually. And instead of us feeding the information systems, the tools start feeding us. It brings people closer. In my mind we haven't really begun to see the impact of that, though the atmosphere on Reboot, and the way e.g. bloggers describe feeling their world opening up before them is an indication of what is to come.
Ton is almost poetical in his language (perhaps Reboot has that effect on you) as he describes social software. That's what i like about blogging - you can always find someone who gives credance to your point of view. Social software is fantastic and its about relationships not the technology. How many times have I tried to make that point in business... I get too excited by the toys and labeled a geek. Well guess what? I study social science not technology and I agree with Ton. Anyone want to argue?
I've just updated my feed service as well. Used a template off of Johnnie's site and also added the Technorati tags within the feed.
Just need to close the loop by implementing del.icio.us feed here too. I know I have a link to how to do that somewhere: del.icio.us/betaroad
Just added technorati tags - hopefully it will work! Seems to on this page just have to see whether it gets to technorati :)
Don't let "reality" rule your dreams
I've been working my way slowly through Curt's excellent e-book on Occupational Adventure, particularly in creating a passion core - and the techniques in that are what he talks about here:
Too often people try to create a picture of what they really want and at the same time start factoring "reality" into the picture. I always tell them, "We're not looking at reality yet. Let's create a picture of what the best of all possible worlds would look like for you first."
Reality does come into the picture, but not in the exploration stage. When you let what's realistic define your dreams, you limit yourself severely. It creates false boundaries beyond which you won't even try to venture, because you don't believe you can.
What is possible will keep expanding, if you let it. Allow yourself to get the big dream picture, and then figure out how much of that is feasible right here, right now (i.e., what is realistic). Then look at how much of that is feasible next week, or next year.
I had two dreams within my list - one a boyhood dream of being a train driver and the second to be a TimeLord (keeping with the Dr Who theme). Now I ruled out the train driver becuase it didn't fit with my passion core (the things I love doing) however being a timelord did! Now it doesn't mean that I can suddenly have a time machine and have two hearts etc and yet it does mean I can try and make the world a better place. I haven't gotten too far with it yet :) however its simply a matter of time. To quote Rose from the parting of the ways - "he [the Doctor] showed me a better way of life". So what I am saying is its good to do a little dreaming - it helps us be creative without fear of falling into reality. And you can change reality.
Just wanted to reference this partly because of my own experience of travelling on GNER (which was quite good - although the people on the food trolley were quite miserable), partly because of continuing 'pratfalls' of any of those happy sheets that companies hand out (as per example) - is there a reason why these companies don't just talk to customers and staff? and mostly because of Doctor Who - which I was a bit apprehensive about and was a huge triumph with 13 excellent episodes and a brilliant denounment. That was creativity and vision - I don't think you can get those sort of insights from traditional market research.
Heading North to Newcastle today to meet up with my old friend Stuart. He promises to show me the sights as well as the odd meeting. Look forward to it :)
Johnnie identifies a theme that is very close to my heart from Reboot 7
...the advocacy of taking small steps over theorising. David Heinemeier Hansson, who built web application Ruby on Rails, stressed the advantage of getting something basic up and running fast. In a presentation on The Skype Brand, Malthe Sigurdsson talked about getting out frequent, small revisions.Pretty closely related was the idea of ordinariness and "good enough" solutions. David Weinberger championed "good enough" knowledge classifications; Skype favoured simple language ("Talk" not "VOIP").
I named this website betaroad in part becuase of the very ideas that Johnnie articulates. The need for us all perhaps but organisations in particular to get something basic out and then build or perhaps a better analogy is cultivate.
The idea of something basic and simplicity are fundamental in innovation but technical people, those who heavily understand complex ideas, often forget that these things are complex because they are made up of lots of very simple things. People can't relate to the complex, they need the simple otherwise it become magic (not high tech). This applies both to customers and those inside an organisation who struggle to manage.
So for beta read partly simplicity but also the other concept of taking the step in terms of something good enough. Beta releases are the step before a final release (in software terms) and I wanted something to convey this idea of 'its never finished only published' in some way. It does help that the road in which I live is called betaroad however the choice of naming was for the reason above.
Its this idea of exploration and the new that drives me and how I approach things. Not that new is always right but that the discovery of what could be and the creative moment of something new. Like Johnnie's observations.
I'm still reading Communities Dominate Brands (slowed down because of CIM exams) but its a great read. I particularly enjoy all the examples in the book which as always in whatever context helped to bring the ideas alive and resonate with the reader (well me anyway). Blogging over at the linked site Tomi notes two related pieces in the Economist and Business Week:
In March the Economist said that community-empowered customers were such a dramatic change to business, that it threatened the very survival of all businesses in all industries. Today's Business Week says this is the biggest change to business "...since the Industrial Revolution".
This is heady stuff. The stuff of revolution? Certainly the stuff of step change evolution. Change (evolve) or you're dead!
At ntl their was an interesting development in this area where the commnity developed around an anti-ntl stance. ntl eventually responded by taking the site in-house i.e. they bought the site and gave its owner a job. The community bristled but because little overtly changeed it proceeded okay. The onwer for various reason got fed up becuase of the way ntl is, and ntl decided to close the site. What does community do? Develops its own site and brings that up. Not only that but because people like the ntl product but not the service surrounding it, they also developed self-help groups and user communities. Interestingly all of these forums have ntl employees actively engaged with them BUT none are offically sanctioned or even approved of by management (unless this has changed in the last few months).
My point here is to emphasise that communities simply go around the brand. ntl at best is a label rather than a brand but neverthe less, the lower level links of customers to employees mitigate to a certain extent the deficiencies of the brand, although they course also highlight the inadequacy of ntl's approach.
Its an interesting example which I am sure is being repeated elsewhere, particularly in the service industry. The idea od Open source support as well as open souorce marketing (branding?) can be extremely powerful if organisations were to accept that they cannot control and that they must now work in partnership with customers.
Excited - yep!
Scared - of course!
But then that's what makes life so interesting... :)
Edit - just noticed that James has linked to Business Week too noting its Open Source credientials.
gapingvoid: london marketing soiree july 11th
Hadn't realised this was happening but the chance to meet Seth Godin really shouldn't be passed up. Therefore hope to be there on 11th July.
Johnnie reports from Reboot
I'm liveblogging from reboot7 in Copenhagen. But I've just realised I'd rather be listening than blogging!
I'm not jealous... much...
CIM Exams - Reboot in Copenhagen - Which would you choose?
I think I chose wrongly :(
The Long Tail: What the Long Tail isn't
Mini-rant by Chris Anderson about What the long tail isn't. I feel I need to study this in much more detail as its important - just haven't got time to 'think' and analyse why!
Expect I'll need to talk more about this and the other 20 or so draft posts sat in the blog management screens :)
Modern Marketing - Collaborate Marketing Services: IF Modern Marketing...
James has updated his outside in marketing ideas (used in Open Sauce Live) unfortuantely only available for a short time before being a premium service. Nevertheless worth a look
Just commented on James' site...