cleverness: exploiting rss by making it vanish

I was knocking around Boxxet this evening when I came across a clever piece of functionality there that has opened my eyes to a possiblity I hadn't considered.

Some background first: as far as I can tell, the majority of RSS feed usage comes from a long-ish list of RSS readers, also known as Aggregators. For example, Feedburner tells me that the following readers are used to access ack/nak: Firefox live bookmarks, Bloglines, NewsGator Online, Yahoo, SharpReader, Bitacle, Netvibes, Oema Reader, Pluck, Safari RSS reader, and a few even more obscure ones too.

Articles in an RSS feed show up as line items under the header of the feed title. In other words, a straight-forward index of content. Clicking on the content header opens up either the target page or a text representation of the content itself which is included in the XML feed.

This was how I thought you consumed RSS feeds. Blog name, topic index, click to view.

So imagine my surprise when I went to add a link to Boxxet this evening: it reported that it found an RSS feed at the target site, and would I like to add the entire feed as a bookmark, or just the individual item?

It then proceeded to ask me how I'd like Boxxet to evaluate the feed content, and a few other very clever, pertinent questions. Rather than describe the entire process to you, go experience it for yourself. If you need an "invitation" to get into Boxxet, let me know and I'll send you one.

For those of you who haven't been keeping up with your reading here, Boxxet is a new web-based solution for aggregating all manner of digital content related to specific topics into collections known as a "box sets". Through the combined work of a special learning engine and ongoing user feedback, it makes smart choices about what should belong in a given set.

In being able to not only detect and bookmark a feed - something any RSS reader does - but also offering the ability to incorporate the feed as one of the content streams flowing into Boxxet, it's doing something very special. Because any given feed can provide content which is applicable to a variety of topics, running it through the Boxxet learning engine can in fact associate its content with a variety of distinct "box sets".

For example, I've posted on a variety of topics related to software marketing. Boxxet would point those posts toward a box set dedicated to software marketing (if one existed). I've also posted a few bits of poetry, reviews of cheese and other oddness. Because it's smart enough to be able to differentiate content from a mixed feed like mine, it's smart enough to associate this non-software marketing content with the appropriate box sets. Like the one dedicated to stinky cheese. Which also does not exist. Yet.

In effect, Boxxet makes RSS vanish by treating feeds as sources of content that can be associated with meta-topics. It breaks the straight "index and content" metaphor. The user doesn't have to know what RSS is to benefit from the flexibility and specialization of RSS.

This turns the fact that RSS' brand recognition is somewhere in the ballpark of 4% into an irrelevant statistic. Just so long as content providers make their content available through an RSS feed (which is dead easy), consumers don't ever have to know what RSS is. All they will see is the content that matters to them.

Which is the promise of RSS in the first place.

commentary: web 2.0 reality check

Basement.org has an excellent article today titled Reality Check 2.0 - with 279 diggs as of 10am central, it's competing nicely with other hot topics like How to Drive Your web Developer Insane: A Primer, but is still getting crushed by Retouching photos to the max!

Of particular interest is the author's observation that you'll need an awful lot of AJAX to compete with the next version of Office 2007. Amen to that.

But at the heart of his article is an unspoken question that leads me to ask: what is Web 2.0 really about? Is it really about "breaking the surly bonds of established computing metaphors"? Is it about "a new generation of solutions based on an on-demand model of both delivery and solution creation"? Is it about being cool?

My cynical answer: Web 2.0 is a de-centralized incubator for companies that hope to be acquired by MSFT, GOOG or YHOO before they have to actually attract too many customers or articulate a value proposition that can be understood by someone who doesn't own an EFF t-shirt.

My hopeful answer: Yes. Except the being cool part.

My hope: That companies like Feedburner and Boxxet survive and thrive. Those are the only ones that make obvious sense to me. So far.

networking: product marketing manager opening

I've got an opening on my team. You can read the job description here. No, you won't have to move to Chicago - it's based out of our Santa Clara office. Good luck.

relief: in praise of a good day (with guest vo)

It's been a while since I've had an end-to-end good day. I had one today. Started on an up note, ended on an even better up note. In between, while everything wasn't up, there were enough up moments to fill a normal week.

Then. . .it. . .just kept going.



(Doesn't that sound like William Shatner? I wonder what the rest of this post would sound like with him doing the VO. . .hmm.)

The kids weren't hollering when I got home. Julie. . .darling Julie. . had been to the Shedd Aquarium with them during the day, and on her way home she stopped at Fox and Obel where she. . .bought me some. . stinky cheese.

Then the kids wandered off after dinner and we. . ..sat and. . .

Talked. Just. . . talked.

Incredible.

The stress lately has been so,. . . palpable, so truly. . . tangible. . . with the constant itch of unknown deadlines and. . .impending doom. . .whirring in my mind like a swarm of angry bees, that I had forgotten. . . forgotten what it felt like to have a good day.

They won't all be good. But I'll. . .take one day. . .one day.

And I'll go from there.

(Denny Crane)

pricing: learning from the man who said no to wal-mart

There is an article on Slashdot right now that you should read titled The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart. It references an article of the same name written by Charles Fishman, who is also the author of The Wal-Mart Effect- How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works -- And How It's Transforming the American Economy.


Slashdot features a lengthy extract from his article, a small fraction of which I'd like to highlight here:

Selling Snapper lawn mowers at Wal-Mart wasn't just incompatible with Snapper's future -- Wier thought it was hazardous to Snapper's health. Snapper is known in the outdoor-equipment business not for huge volume but for quality, reliability, durability. A well-maintained Snapper lawn mower will last decades; many customers buy the mowers as adults because their fathers used them when they were kids. But Snapper lawn mowers are not cheap, any more than a Viking range is cheap. The value isn't in the price, it's in the performance and the longevity.

You can buy a lawn mower at Wal-Mart for $99.96, and depending on the size and location of the store, there are slightly better models for every additional $20 bill you're willing to put down -- priced at $122, $138, $154, $163, and $188. That's six models of lawn mowers below $200. Mind you, in some Wal-Marts you literally cannot see what you are buying; there are no display models, just lawn mowers in huge cardboard boxes.

The least expensive Snapper lawn mower -- a 19-inch push mower with a 5.5-horsepower engine -- sells for $349.99 at full list price. Even finding it discounted to $299, you can buy two or three lawn mowers at Wal-Mart for the cost of a single Snapper.

If you know nothing about maintaining a mower, Wal-Mart has helped make that ignorance irrelevant: At even $138, the lawn mowers at Wal-Mart are cheap enough to be disposable. Use one for a season, and if you can't start it the next spring (Wal-Mart won't help you out with that), put it at the curb and buy another one. That kind of pricing changes not just the economics at the low end of the lawn-mower market, it changes expectations of customers throughout the market. Why would you buy a walk-behind mower from Snapper that costs $519? What could it possibly have to justify spending $300 or $400 more?

That's the question that motivated Jim Wier to stop doing business with Wal-Mart. Wier is too judicious to describe it this way, but he looked into a future of supplying lawn mowers and snow blowers to Wal-Mart and saw a whirlpool of lower prices, collapsing profitability, offshore manufacturing, and the gradual but irresistible corrosion of the very qualities for which Snapper was known. Jim Wier looked into the future and saw a death spiral.

Deciding "who you want to be" as a company and what your brands truly stand for should advise your pricing and channel strategy - not the other way around. I think this is as applicable for the software space as it is for durable goods - is your channel merely a fulfillment vehicle you offer as a way to drive down your cost-of-sales, a defensive play in response to competitors, or is it something more?

lesson: avoid the biggering urge

The guys over at 37 Signals have made less is better into a mantra, and that's swell. It's awfully nice that a small company should feel good about its essential smallness in a world where eveyone else is hell-bent on biggering.



But for the rest of us who work in the "XL to XXL" world and not the "S to M" world, it's hard to embrace the "tao of less" all of the time. Lots of products, lots of customers, lots of colleagues, lots of everything. How can we get small in a big world?

1. Smaller meetings - the near-irresistable pressure to put as many players in the room (or on the phone) as possible is OK when there are only three people total, but as the team gets big, meetings get big. Biggering your meetings is a little like packing all of your clothes for a two-day trip on the off-chance that it might hail and you'd really rather have your hard hat handy. Focus on what you need to accomplish, and who is absolutely required for that. People will accept your meeting invites more often when they know you're inviting them because you need them.
2. Shorter meetings - let's assume you've managed to distill your attendee lists to the absolute minimum. Now do yourself a favor and avoid holding them hostage for an hour. There is a peculiar joy that registers on the face of a busy person when you "give 15 minutes of their life back". It's a little mitzvah, believe me. Yes, bring the agenda, start on time, stay focused on the topic at hand. You should already know that. Now try to do it faster. Which leads me to. . .
3. Shorter sentences - my wife the editor constantly reminds me to speak without commas, semi-colons, ellipses or footnotes. She's right. While I can follow the exquisite internal logic of my polysyllabic compound sentences, no one else can, or wants to. Do you and your peers a favor and be concise in your speech.
4. Fewer committments - there is only so much you can do. So don't sign up for everything. There is nothing wrong with saying no - but I've learned (painfully) that there is something wrong with saying yes then not delivering because you said yes too often, and too quickly.
5. Less fluff - if you only need five items on your list, just list five. Nothing of value benefits from the hamburger-helper treatment.

After writing this, I'm left with the impression that while "less is better" is a fine statement, "less is best" is my personal take on getting things done. Focusing on the essential tasks at hand, in all endeavors, is a worthwhile pursuit.

lure: in pursuit of the rare and obscure

Collecting is a disease, an affliction, a curse, a malediction of the first degree. It compels, it entices, it whispers in the quiet moments, urging you to folly. It draws you close and holds on for dear, dear life.

I should know.

I've learned to recognize the siren's call to collect. . .collect. My survival technique is when presented with an opportunity to go broad, I settle for narrow. Case in point: I'm a huge fan of Edward Gorey, but allowing myself to fall victim to the "I collect Edward Gorey" virus would have bankrupted me years ago, so I settled for collecting instances of his art that include one of his characters - the Figbash. It narrowed my focus, and my potential investment, without unduly narrowing my enjoyment.

(Note: I discovered Gorey back when he was a) still alive and b) you could wander in to the old Gotham Book Mart and sweet-talk one of the staff to show you their 2nd floor Gorey gallery.)

So when I found myself drawn in an unseemly way to the private press movement, I narrowed my focus to the output of one private press: The Whittington Press. When I got bitten by the modern Japanese vinyl toy bug, I narrowed to Secret Base, then even further to one particular character created in partnership with a magazine I subscribe to (Ghostfighter).

I could go on. Genre fiction? Focus on R.A. Lafferty, Jeff Noon, Paul di Filippo. 20th century fabulists? Focus on Flann O'Brian and Italo Calvino. Post-modern comic book authors? Focus on Bob Burden. Pottery? Focus on pinch pots. Modern firsts? Focus on Jonathan Lethem. History? American Civil War. Craft? Letterpress and typography. Japanese woodblock? Katsuyuki Nishijima. Wine? Rhone Valley.

Learning everything there is to know about a narrow topic has a certain appeal - it harkens back to the argument I made for expertise making you an expert.

Whenever presented with something new, I find myself looking for depth, for that one avenue of inquiry that affords the opportunity for deep exploration and specialization. I was watching Tony Bourdain's "No Reservations" show on China tonight (on the Travel Channel) and caught myself thinking, Wow, wouldn't it be cool to learn a lot about different sorts of Chinese tea. Can you say Pu'er?

In my work, I operate at a level of broad abstraction completely at odds with my fondness for pursuing the narrowly discrete. Then I read articles written by tchnologists who I just know must be operating at that deep level of specificity whose flavor I know - and love. But from the outside, what they write about (talk about, argue about, start companies about) is utterly incomprehensible to me. It's not the technology that's obscuring - it's the passion.

Working in that "zone" of desire, surrounded everyday by the objects of one's fascination, must be as easy as breathing - an effortless exercise of a singular vision for the rare and the obscure.

Is that what its like to be a software geek, where eveything one sees is an expression of desire?

I'm curious. Because if it is - if it is anything like how I feel when I'm hot in the pursuit of the San Diego Comic Con Ghostfighter exclusive, or when I'm wrapping a fresh Brodart dust jacket protector around a signed first edition, or when I'm researching what the 69th New York volunteers were up to in 1864, or learning a new song that Frank Harte collected - then that tells me a lot about them, and myself.

voyeur: chum in the water

If you haven't already tuned in, there's a veritable orgy of self-loathing going on over at Mini-Microsoft in a post titled Vista 2007. Fire the Leadership Now!

It's a fascinating look behind the curtain into the collective thinking of the working class as they rail against the many failures of the bourgeoisie they blame for. . .for. . .missing a ship date.

I'm waiting for some MSFTie to adopt the nom de plume of marxengel, then team up with another guy with the logon robspierre_roxxors and then the real fun will start. Cue La Marsellaise for added angst:

Let's go children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny's
Bloody flag is raised! (repeat)
In the countryside, do you hear
The roaring of these fierce soldiers?
They come right to our arms
To slit the throats of our sons, our friends!

Refrain

Grab your weapons, citizens!
Form your batallions!
Let us march! Let us march!
May impure blood
Water our fields!

Job #1 for Vista should be getting it right - you can crucify MSFT for being "late", but how much worse will it be if they ship a product that is broken from "go"? There is a simple solution - instead of turning an assignment to the bug patrol into the equivalent of a trip to the gulag, each of the engineers at MSFT (if they don't already) should have a specific named portion of their workload designated to fixing bugs. Saaaay, 20%.

shame: smarthouse throws an ID-10-T error

I'm guilty (as some of you are, I imagine) of a wee bit of schadenfreude over the recent news from Redmond that the consumer flavor of Vista won't make it into the dirty hands of the unwashed masses until early next year. A few more weeks for QA is understandable, and given the heat that MSFT has taken over security, even forgivable.

PMs like to commiserate over stuff like this, because g-d knows there's enough suffering to go around. Since I'm one of those unfortunates who gets to make ship/don't ship decisions, I understand why products get delayed. In the case of this particular product, a March announcement of what amounts to a three week delay around November wouldn't normally raise any eyebrows.

But when stuff like this gets printed in response, I have to shake my head in disbelief. Not at the ability for sources to lie, but for the lack of understanding some "journalists" have for how big software gets manufactured.

Mr. Richards, if you honestly believe that 60% of the consumer Vista code has to be re-written for an early 2007 launch (not to mention the late 2006 RTM), then you must believe that in lieu of smart people MSFT employs vast hordes of Ring-Tailed Lemurs banging away with their opposable thumb-free paws at keyboards, and that after discarding the inevitable texts of Hamlet, they take whatever code the lemurs write and ship it.

Come on. You know full well that you don't re-write 60% of an operating system in under a year. You don't pull in developers from hither and yon, hand them shovels, and let them start digging you out.

If you've got an axe to grind with MSFT, try again, and try harder.

(In case you were curious, it is well-documented that Ring-Tailed Lemurs code in C#; Chimpanzees are old-school Cobol fans, and Gorillas are too proud to code in anything other than LISP.)

ashbery: paradoxes and oxymorons

This poem is concerned with language on a very plain level.
Look at it talking to you. You look out a window
Or pretend to fidget. You have it it but you don't have it.
You miss it, it misses you. You miss each other.

The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot.
What's a plain level? It is that and other things,
Bringing a system of them into play. Play?
Well, actually, yes, but I consider play to be

A deeper outside thing, a dreamed role-pattern,
As in the division of grace these long August days
Without proof. Open-ended. And before you know
It gets lost in the stream and chatter of typewriters.

It has been played once more. I think you exist only
To tease me into doing it, on your level, and then you aren't there
Or have adopted a different attitude. And the poem
Has set me softly down beside you. The poem is you.

Paradoxes and Oxymorons
by John Ashbery
from Shadow Train
(Viking Press, 1981)

lesson: start at the end

I've been working through some "adult care" issues with my wife relating to her parents. Believe you me, watching her and her siblings struggle as they come to grips with the declining health of their mom and dad is no treat.

But as we talked, I came to understand that the emotional issues relating to this are slowing down - and in some regards preventing - the creation of a "plan". Instead, they are doing what they think is best in the "now", without first coming to an agreement with their parents and each other about what the ultimate goal is.

As a de facto outsider, I see this pretty clearly. I can see that there need to be conversations with my in-laws about what they want, so that whatever needs to be done to get there, they've bought in. It's entirely possible that what they want isn't achievable, or only partially so, and that's OK - a facts-based discussion should help shed some light on the options.

And once we know where we're going, we can start to develop the right plan for long-term care, which should defuse some of the emotional landmines that everyone is dancing on right now.

What, you ask, does this have to do with product marketing.

I've seen a strong tendency throughout my career for senior management to order up some marketing like they're going through a drive-through. We all saw a lot of this earlier in the decade - companies were buying expensive ads, building collateral, writing value propositions, buying Aeron chairs - without either a clear sense of what outcome they wanted or whether that outcome was even consistent with their long-term plan.

Thankfully, I'm not getting that now - but as I work through my own minefields, I'm constantly reminded of the value of planning with the end in mind, however eager I am to start writing speeches, talking to the press, briefing sales. There will be plenty of time to do all the "fun" stuff.

But right now, I'm starting at the end. Both personally and professionally.

Art imitates life, round and round.

beauty: mandelbrot buddha

source:

The Gallery of Computation | Generative Artifacts

buddha.brot

.

anthem: mao tse tung club

Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?

M - A - O . . . T - S - E. . . T - U - N G!

Although we're over-a-billion we're as happy as can be!

With M - A - O . . . T - S - E. . . T - U - N G!

Mao Tse Tung!

(Chiang Kai-Shek!)

Mao Tse Tung!

(Chiang Kai-Shek!)

Forever let us hold our red books high!

(High. . .High. . .High!)

Come along and sing a song for the Com-mu-nist Par-ty!

With M - A - O . . . T - S - E. . . T - U - N G!

(repeat: Mao. . .Tse. . .Tung. . .Club)

insight: the three jewels of taoism

I'm going to say this softly. Bear with me.

Brad Feld opened my eyes to something somewhat disturbing in a recent post of his.

If Brad is any indication, VCs like it when you are direct and honest.

On reflection, it seems to me that a great many people in business like it when you are direct and honest. Hmm. Was I direct and honest? I thought I'd go find out.

So when I looked for - and got - some "direct and honest" feedback from a trusted peer that I am (occasionally, but dramatically) indirect and prevaricating, I struggled to figure out a way to be direct and honest without being insulting, since most people I've met who are uniformly direct and honest are, frankly, lacking in that je-ne-sais-quoi artistry of sprit that I really treasure in myself and others. Put another way, I used to think folks like this were utter $@%@#.

When I thought about this some more, it occurred to me that this might not be an entirely generous - or accurate - impression. My world view was broken, somehow. Something had to change.

Sensing I needed to be compassionate with myself, I thought I'd see how directness and honesty would feel if they were advised by little doses of that compassion, and voila, I found the three jewels of Taoism laid out for me: moderation (akin to directness), humility (akin to honesty), and compassion.

Compassion is a strange thing. It's a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering. Some would argue that there is no place for compassion in business.

I could argue that compassion could make all the difference. An awareness of and sympathy for the position of someone else advises you in ways that mere knowledge cannot.

So in my own efforts to struggle through my current constellation of suffering, I'll try to be direct, honest and compassionate with those around me. We'll see how that works.

There. That feels better.

observed: boxxet

I don't remember where I learned about Boxxet - but when I first logged in, they weren't accepting new users, thanks for your application, though, we'll let you know when we're ready for you.

So when the invite landed in my inbox today I had to think hard - what the hell was Boxxet again? A down-market Porsche knock-off? Something in undergarments? A smaller species of low, leafy evergreen shrub for the border?

It turns out, Boxxet (pronounced "box set") is something entirely different - but strangely familiar. And fun.

Boxxet takes a few familiar concepts and repackages them in a clever new way. The concepts are social networking, news aggregation, learning engines and - my personal favorite - the vote button. Throw in a little wikipedia "specialist magnet" flavor, and a functional, "work in progress" UI, and you're about there.

When I finally logged in to Boxxet I immediately found an assortment of existing "box sets" - collections of digital "stuff" (news, pictures, locations, etc) arranged around a central topic, be that a sports team (I spend a blissful 15 minutes making the NY Yankess box set better today), a TV show, a company, whatever. The default page has a few of these box sets neatly laid out with a clear eye to print design principles - you feel like you're looking at a magazine cover.

Dig a little deeper and you discover that box sets are defined through a process of users both qualifying and disqualifying machine-searched data and explicitly including new content on their own. For a box set in a state of "becoming", a real person (comme moi) can click through a series of questions, in which you vote whether a news item, place, piece of gear, picture has anything to do with the topic of the box set.

For a "mature" box set, you can add new entries, blogs, and whatnot, and in principle (because I haven't fully experienced it yet) the learning engine must get "smarter" about what it pulls into the specific box set - because after a while, the NY Yankees box set I was working on seemed to look better than it did when I started.

In a nice touch, if you spend any time working on a box set, your user icon is shown as a "contributor", along with the most recent item you purged.

A few observations:

1. The UI is clearly a work-in-progress. Finding your way around isn't entirely intuitive, but at this point, that's not a bad thing. The forced-exploration that an early UI demands of you is a great way to learn.
2. Site performance is spotty. Sometimes you'll fly from screen to screen, other times you. . . just. . .wait. Success is a bitch.
3. The current roster of box sets is, shall we say, limited. Which wouldn't be bad were it not for the fact that. . .
4. You can't create your own box sets. Yet. The operators claim this is coming, and I'll take their word for it.

Tim O'Reilly had a lot of nice things to say about Boxxet at his conference back in early March - and I have to agree. To quote a comment I left on the founder's blog at Boxxet:

The exciting element I see behind the Boxxet concept is being able to capture - in a broad-based way - the combination of passion and knowledge that so many individuals carry around for their favorite topics. Then share it. It's a "benevolent cycle" - more readers create more specificity create more impressions drive better content which draws more readers. . .lather, rinse, repeat.

I hate to compare it to anything, but it's almost a live wikipedia, a snapshot of the digital gestalt around a particular topic, distilled and presented in a tight, relevant way. Charming and terribly addicting.

BTW - I have two invitations left - if you want in, drop me a private note.

chorus: richard gardner agrees with ack/nak (and vice-versa)

Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner, in an Industry Note dated today titled Thoughts on the Delay of Microsoft Vista, validated my bold (and obvious) obvervation of last evening when he not only affirmed that the Vista slip would be bad for PC makers (and especially bad for Gateway, who has more consumer PC exposure than Dell), but that it would be good for Apple.

Curiously, part of his rationale for this (and a "buy" recommendation he's giving on Apple stock) is based around Apple's leadership in digital media management extending through the holiday season, claiming that Vista's new digital media management features would compete with Apple's.

Funny I don't see that as the justification, but hey, he's agreeing with me, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

In a related story, I'm announcing that cold weather will continue to be bad for growing things, and that bad thunderstorms will have an adverse impact on travel times. You read it here first.

envy: contains no fruit juice

I experienced pure beauty this evening. Pure marketing beauty, that is!

In a TV ad for Propel Vitamin Enhanced Water Beverage, which featured athletic types doing athletic things (including skatboarding, rock climbing, playing tennis and such), divers large fruit images were featured prominently and - dare I say it - suggestively.

Imagine my surprise when text on the lower left-hand side of the screen flashed:

CONTAINS NO FRUIT JUICE

Perfection!

This is what we need in the software business, kids. Advertising that suggests - in powerfully visual ways - that the product delivers a feature, when in fact it doesn't deliver at all! All impression, no substance!

(ahem)

Which is why we see so little in the way of advertising in the software business. When one of the most successful ad campaigns of the last decade or so is the Oracle print ad, you know you're not working in an ad-rich environment. Other than MSFT, who advertises extensively? Other than dot-coms with a white-hot burn rate, that is, and those days are done. We've got nothing but print and tchotchkes and trade show booth graphics.

And Propel water!

sigh: the consumer Vista ship date pool, and commentary

It's maddening, but not unexpected. Jim Allchin told analysts today (two random press mentions can be found here and here) that the consumer flavor of Vista won't RTM in time for the 2006 holiday season. If you listen hard, you can hear Santa cancelling the contract for a small army of muscular elves (elfs?) he had planned to have around to lug Christmas PCs.

Allchin is predicting January 2007. For poops and giggles, let's translate that as January 10, 2007. I'm going to call March 4, 2007. Any takers? Remember, I get the vig.

(Matisyahu fans will immediately recognize my date as the next Purimpalooza.)

Impact?

1. PC vendors are going to have a crappy holiday season - while they weren't banking on Vista, they sure were betting on it, and with so many bets on so many numbers, Jim just rolled a seven for them. Thanks Jim.
2. Apple is going to have a much better holiday season than they normally would have - families with a cool grand and a half or thereabouts who were going to buy a home computer around the holiday season will take a closer look at the goodies under Steve's tree. Odds are now that he'll ride his team hard and put them away wet to guarantee some new hotness for early Q4.
3. Independent software vendors (ISVs) in the B2C market are right now experiencing mixed emotions. Their development teams are smiling (more QA time to get ready for Vista), but their sales guys are cursing (no Vista-ready product for year-end). No such break for the B2B ISVs, they (we) are still full-steam-ahead for a Q4 Vista-for-business launch.
   

Until Jim announces that the business flavor is going to slip too. It could happen.

anticipation: the first day of beta

I work at one of those old-fashioned companies where a beta program has a start and an end date. And tomorrow - if all the stars align - is the start date of our latest beta. Huzzah.

So it is with some degree of anticipation and even a little anxiety that I write this tonight. Submitting a new product, freshly-tested and packaged, to the probing inspection of the masses. . .well, it's not for the faint of heart. But it's necessary, so we roll out the carpet.

There's an odd vibe that rustles through the dev team the day before beta. I used to walk around and ask "ready?" to each of the team members, but then I started to get threatening notes, and that was the end of that. Then I used to ask the dev leads "how do you feel about the beta?" To which they'd reply "how do you feel about the requirements?"

So this time all I did was say thank you, and that seemed to strike the right tone. Because in the weeks leading up to beta, as everyone holds their breath through system test, the dev team puts in crazy hours. We all know that once the beta hits that everything will go kablooey, but for a few brief days, there's a sense of quiet.

Like all things, you find a balance after a while.

So the website looks good, the enrollment process is clean, we've got the community set up, binaries loaded up, even a few good questions queued up for beta candidates. We go into beta knowing we've got stable code, but we don't know what the gorilla testing will reveal. To paraphrase Von Molke, "No beta survives first contact with the user."

And that's OK.

Populating your beta with the first wave of candidates feels a little like inviting your mother-in-law over. You're glad she's there, but you really, really hope that you remembered to clean the oven. There's always something you missed, something that makes you slap your head and flip furiously through the PRD and go "crap! how the &*$^&@ did I miss that?"

Because at the end of it all, it's a PM failure, not a coding failure, when you miss a use case, a scenario, a required platform, whatever. I know some of those will happen.

And that's OK too.

Thanks in advance to all of you who decide to come over and check out the new hotness. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think about our new baby.

yeats: the choice

The intellect of man is forced to choose
Perfection of the life, or of the work,
And if it take the second must refuse
A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.
When all that story's finished, what's the news?
In luck or out the toil has left its mark:
That old perplexity an empty purse,
Or the day's vanity, the night's remorse.

The Choice
by William Butler Yeats
from The Winding Stair and Other Poems
(Pan Books, 1974)

theatre: junie b jones

The stage production of Junie B. Jones is touring the country this spring, with a stop-over this weekend at the Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake, IL.

I mention this because a very talented young lady is featured in the starring role of the irrepressible Ms. Jones.

In the program notes, you can read:

HEATHER CORRIGAN (Junie B. Jones) is thrilled to be a part of this wonderful cast. LA: Bark! (Chanel), Sequins! (Karina, original cast recording), Cindy and the Disco Ball (Cindy), You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Sally). Favorite roles: Liesl, The Sound of Music; Harper, Angels in America . Enjoy the bestest show ever. Thank you Mom and Dad – I love you!

It takes more dedication and sacrifice than I can capture here to pursue a career in "show business", and she's got both, along with a razor-sharp intellect and real talent. I'm looking forward to the show.

(Post Show Edit - What a hoot! We had four seats waaaay up in the sound box, which for the uninitiated, is home to the best seats in the house. How can I describe her performance?

SET VINCENT_CANBY_ADJECTIVE_GENERATOR=ON

Captivating!

Heather Corrigan radiated boundless energy with a picture-perfect performance!

Thoroughly engaging and enjoyable!

SET VINCENT_CANBY_ADJECTIVE_GENERATOR=OFF

The crowd, full of well-dressed and bright-eyed 5-9 year olds and their parents, called the cast back for two curtain calls.

Later at lunch, she shared some of the "facts of the road" with us - seems the cast isn't just talent, they're roadies - and drivers. They're one of two "teams" of Junie B. Jones casts touring the country right now. They do something like 10 shows a week. For those of you counting at home, Broadway is only eight. The good news is that it's a fun role, and it's a great way to hone her craft as she prepares for the more challenging, rewarding roles she hopes to play in New York.

There. I've had my brush with greatness. Well done, Heather!)

epiphany: realizing you are not cool

I've suspected it for a very long time.

But when I was researching the Lauguing Squid webhosting site this evening (yes, Traci, I am thinking about breaking free of blogspot, so I owe you more coffee) I came across HorsePigCow.

After ten minutes knocking around the site, I have now realized I will never be cool.

Definitely not BarCampAustin cool. I mean, wow, this is one doozy of a cool pitch - starting with the premise - "marketing with no $$ and alotta (sic) heart".

I'm speechless. Mute, even. But since it is still St. Patrick's Day, an ostensibly Catholic holiday, and since all good Catholics do things in threes, I have three questions.

If HorsePigCow is a "Web2.0 Marketing Site" (work with me here and tell me if it is or isn't), then:

Is Web2.0 marketing all about branding and communication? One would think that reading this.

Is Web2.0 marketing all about communities? I thought all marketing was about communities.

Or is Web2.0 marketing all about being. . .cool?

If so, then my geometric logic suggests that Web 2.0 marketing is about being Fonzie. Which makes me feel better, since Fonzie got along fine with Richie Cunningham, who definitely wasn't cool.

(Ed: the comments feature a brief - at least so far - dialog between me and the author of the abovementioned site, with an insightful thought by Ron too)

anecdote: care of frank harte

Collector to Ozark Fiddler: Great, great tune. What's it called?

Fiddler: "Napoleon Crossing the Rockies"

Collector (with slightly patronising tone): Sir, there is no historical record of Napoleon Bonaparte ever being in America.

Fiddler (with dramatic pause): Ah well. Scholars differ!

holiday: the high holy day is upon us

Unfortunately, I had to spend the lion's share of the day in transit. To complicate matters, upon arriving home, I discovered my son in a state of upchuckitude, which immediately cancelled any plans of corned beef, cabbage and praties.

I hope you enjoy a lovely St. Patrick's Day. Cast out some snakes, wear some green, partake of divers fermented and distilled beverages, and generally thank G-d for the Irish, who preserved civilization for you, wouldn't you know.

More tomorrow.

shift: the future face of retail - discussion

This may go over like a lead balloon, but on my flight to San Jose this morning, I had a brief moment of clarity that I thought I'd run by ya'll. Is this something worth exploring in more detail? (ed. apparently yes - see comments)

Pretend you're a big-box retailer. Now look at the following five "value propositions" and rank them in terms of most important to least important:

1. Convenience
2. Community (your ability to participate in / be associated with local events and local identity)
3. Customer service
4. Cost
5. Customization (your ability to serve local and niche markets)

You would immediately pick out #1 and #4 as your top two value props. You'd flirt with #3, but it wouldn't be one of your core competencies. If you're Target, you'd add #5, just because you're trying to be the "hip" big-box store, and your branding naturally aims you at the "hip" demographic.

Now pretend you're a local community retailer and do the same exercise. You'd naturally gravitate to #2, #3 and #5, knowing that you can't compete on #4. You'd flirt with #1, but only if you delivered a specific named service, such as dry cleaner, drug store, coffee shop, or if you were a specialty retailer serving a unique local need (e.g. comic book store in a college town).

Gross economics have driven the success of the big-box retailers; simply put, more SKUs in greater volumes translate into greater convenience at lower costs for consumers. But when asked, most consumers readily admit that they would prefer to give their custom to a local retailer, but they don't - because the smaller, local retailer can't match the convenience of greater selection with the lure of lower prices.

Let's take it as read that in 2006, the retail merchant trade demands that anyone who cares to play in it successfully needs to be in tune with trends, knows how to merchandize, has a passion for the product, etc. But how can you compete when price is positioned as the differentiator?

The answer is you don't - you break open your Value Innovation toolbox and you find a way to compete in a way that delivers value in a new, exciting and compelling way. For retailers, it requires a shift in how local business is done, and one key catalyst for that shift will be technology.

I would argue that the availability of and aggressive use of three specific technologies is going to change the face of retail, giving local community vendors the ability to compete against the big-box retailers if they modify their business practices in a coordinated way to adopt them.

These three technologies play together - shared affinity programs + shared marketbasket data analytics + shared feedback systems. Done well, and done in real-time, this would arm local retailers with the same sort of visibilty the big box stores have into buyer behavior.

"But how does an individual vendor compete on cost?" you ask.

"By making the four other value propositions so much more compelling, picking select loss-leaders, and leveraging on-line vendors to complement your own stock. Local retailers need to think of themselves as a team - and act like a team."

To that I'd add the extra spice of "scarcity marketing", but that's just me.

(continued)

(photo borrowed from an Engadget post, and included here in a moment of whimsy)

unblocking: switching (writing) perspectives

In the course of exploring the Performancing site this evening, I came upon a post there on the topic of changing your writing perspective. Ostensibly, the author's goal was to improve productivity, but I think that there are many good reasons to regularly and purposefully reorient your writing perspective beyond simply wanting to get over a writer's block and churn out more blog posts.

If you've ever watched a new team member lose their "fresh eyes" over time as they become indoctrinated into the broader team's point of view, then you know what I'm talking about. Fresh perspective is an asset, not a disruptive liability, and it needs to be cultivated like an asset.

So - for breaking through/out/beyond the group-think and/or unplugging your writer's block:

I am a big fan of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies - but like many powerful tools, it punishes the impatient and unimaginative. Best to use it sparingly. But if you can't wait. . .visit here and indulge yourself in the entire list. Don't blame me if you're disappointed. You're the one who didn't play by the rules.

Another idea for re-orienting your writing perspective is to detach yourself from your normal point-of-view - yes, that's axiomatic, but hang with me here.

Exampli gratia 1: If your normal PoV is writing like a technology wonk, try writing like you were talking to your auld granny who doesn't know technology but knows you and is interested in hearing about why you like technology.

Exampli gratia 2: If your normal PoV is writing compare and contrast pieces with the sharp tools of cool reason, try writing like you are oblivious to any alternative world view on a given topic - be an unrepentant zealot, a wild-haired fanboy.

And if these fail, I've found standing on your head works too. There is a reason why kids like to roll down hills and get dizzy. It shakes up the world like a snowglobe, and makes everything brand new. Don't do it down the stairs.

(Graphic: Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion World Map)

anthem: complexity kills

I picked this up third-hand, but MSFT's Ray Ozzie might have indirectly coined the software product marketing anthem of the 21st century when he wrote in his memo "The Internet Services Disruption" that. . .

...complexity kills. It sucks the life out of (software) developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges, and it causes end-user and administrator frustration.

I know he was writing this from the perspective of a technologist, but look at it sideways - that is, from the perspective of a marketer - and you have to agree with him, especially if I re-write it the following way. . .

...complexity kills. It sucks the life out of (software) marketers, it makes products difficult to price, package and deliver, it introduces positioning challenges, and it causes end-user and channel frustration.

Avoiding the descent into unnecessary complexity requires vigilance paired with clarity of vision and purpose. Left to our own devices, marketers - like developers - will start playing with our toys and create monsters that should never see the light of day.

(I hope Ray sent this message to the MSFT marketing team in addition to his developer team.)

surreal: matisyahu on sale at target

I found myself, as I ofttimes do, shopping at Target the other day when what to my wondering eyes did appear but a well-appointed endcap featuring stacks of brand new CDs by Hasidic Reggae artiste Matisyahu. I could only think of one thing - it's Purimpalooza time, kids!

I discovered Matisyahu a few years ago via the Internet Archive, when I listened to his December 25, 2004 concert recording with a-maze-ment. Go ahead, go listen to it. It's free, and you'll feel better for it. I'll wait.

His story is amazing too - he's a 27-year old kid from Pennsylvania who discovered Lubavitch Hasidic Judiasm and (somewhat like the people who put peanut butter and chocolate together) realized that nothing went quite so well with Lubavitch Hasidic Judiasm as reggae. I could have told him that.

So to discover one of the soulless purveyors of community retail destruction stocking him - nay, promoting him - right near the front door, was an eye-opener. In a positive way.

If Matisyahu can find a place at Target, there is hope yet. But only if it is not on the shelves at WalMart or KMart.

observed: ovid on marketing 2

There is no death -- no death, but only change
And innovation; what men call birth
Is but a different new beginning; death
Is but to cease to be the same.

Ovid's Metamorphoses
Book 15
The Doctrines of Pythagoras, line 72-5

brautigan: the winos on potrero hill

Alas, they get
their bottles
from a small
neighborhood store.
The old Russian
sells them port
and passes no moral
judgment. They go
and sit under
the green bushes
that grow along
the wooden stairs.
They could almost
be exotic flowers,
they drink so
quietly.

The Winos on Potrero Hill
by Richard Brautigan
from The Pill Versus The Springhill Mine Disaster
(Dell Books, 1968)

hilarity: promise & leave

Slashdot featured a Business Week online article this morning in which David Cole, head of MSN and the Personal Services Group, boldly announced:

Over the next 3-6 months, we'll ship more innovative technology into the marketplace than during our entire 10-year history.

As a stand-alone quote, it's a whopper. But the Leprechauns over at BWO weren't content to let him fire this one off without a bit of pre-St. Patrick's Day mischief. Here's how the quote is presented in the article (my italics):

A slew of other features are on the way, the company says. "Over the next 3-6 months, we'll ship more innovative technology into the marketplace than during our entire 10-year history," writes Cole, who said in February he'll be taking a year's leave of absence starting in April.

Takes some of the wind out of the sails of the announcement, doesn't it? Hyperbole makes the software world go 'round, but if you're going to peddle in ultra mega-hyperbole, have the good grace to be there to answer for yourself when the inevitable happens.

My hat is off to the tricksters at Business Week Online for giving me a chuckle. After laying down 6 yards of mulch, I needed it.

angst: chinese menu pricing

The tao of pricing is difficult, and full of suffering.





The Tao Te Ching doesn't use the word suffering once - even though it offers many cures to suffering. A thorough examination reveals it doesn't talk about pricing either.

So naturally, I went looking for cures to pricing-related suffering.

Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place. (Chapter 3)

OK, let's start here. There is a powerful temptation to create complex pricing schemes that requre an advanced degree in mathematics and business theory. Why? Because the people who do pricing need to prove how smart they are, by gum. The worst example of this was with a company I worked for that did very little in the way of unit sales (maybe 10 units per year), but gosh, we had a world-class pricing model with more flexibility than a Cirque du Soleil contortionist.

I always figured, worry first about getting the product into the hands of customers, learn about how customers want to buy it, then find a pricing model that makes this happen. That's a start.

Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. (Chapter 9)

"But you're giving it away!" cry the sales guys. "We need to recoup our investment!" scream the VCs. "You'll destroy our business model!" holler the senior managers. Pricing should not be an impediment to sales if you have correctly communicated the value of our product and if the customer has agreed. Pricing must align with how your customers acknowledge value, not with what you presume that value to be. Making this distinction is difficult, but necessary, and requires huge balls on your part.

Somehow the smarty-pants way up at the top of the food chain fail to realize that 100% of zero dollars is zero. Pricing is a realty-based exercise, not a hope-based one, regardless of what the valuation needs to be for the next round.

Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself? (Chapter 15)

There is huge pressure to change your pricing if the market doesn't respond to your product out of the gate. But you need to ask yourself if you've fired on all cylinders in marketing, sales, advertising, etc. What have your competitors done in response to your pricing? Did they move?

Whoever relies on the Tao in governing men doesn't try to force issues or defeat enemies by force of arms. For every force there is a counterforce. Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself. The Master does his job and then stops. He understands that the universe is forever out of control, and that trying to dominate events goes against the current of the Tao. (Chapter 30)

Over time, under pressure from all angles, you may find yourself left with pricing that looks like a bad Chinese menu - too many options, too many pieces, too many combinations. Then you'll start suffering. Turning around, going the other way, requires bravery. So be brave.

lesson: getting to the point, doing it nicely

A month and a day ago I was on the march - the powerpoint deathmarch, that is - but today. . . today, me hearties, I arrived. Today was the day it would see the light of day, or more correctly, it would see the customer. Alea jacta est, and whatnot.

The Deck, burnished, glowing, dare I say, perfect, was emailed off in advance of the call. Needless to say, by the time The Call was over, the deck was in tatters and out of order, but it had served its purpose.

So as I type, 2 oz of Lagavulin (neat) at my elbow, what did I learn about giving pitches over the phone that I didn't already know? I'll admit to nothing. But for illustrative purposes, I offer the following:

1. It is a good thing to put your big point up front. Make it. Then move on.
2. If you've got fluff in your slides, embrace their fluffiness. And move on. Sometimes they have to be there for "later on". That doesn't mean you have to talk to them all.
3. Don't let your audience derail you - too much. If you're there to have a conversation, that means both of you get to have your way. Roll over completely and you come across like a chump. Frog-march your audience through every. . .last. . .damn. . .slide, and you come across like a chump. Find the balance - this is why they pay you the Big Bucks.
   
4. If you have a cast of thosands who need to be on the call, discuss your roles ahead of time and use your favorite IM client to communicate during the call.
5. If you must talk, don't talk over someone else.
6. If you've got comparisons, make them.
7. If you need architecture slides, show them.
8. If you have pros and cons, state them.
9. Avoid slides with close-up pictures of cows. It seems every Web 2.0 luminary, consultant, CEO likes to put up a slide with a big picture of a cow on it. Schmidt did on Analyst Day last week, gawd bless his 'eart. Which means you can't. Take a moment to live with the disappointment. . .there. Now move on.
10. Unless you're Steve Jobs, avoid empty slides with single words on them. If you are Steve Jobs, keep doing what you're doing, cause golly, it sure seems to be working out swell for you.
    
11. Leave the dense eyechart slides for the appendix, which is the useless collection of extra slides you tack on the end of the deck that don't really need to be there, but you'd feel remiss if you failed to include them. No one will read them, but they make you feel better, and that's OK.
12. You don't have to answer every question on the phone. But keep track of the questions, because sometime soon you will have to answer them.
13. And above all, be honest, have fun, be nice, and stay focused on the clock. You need time to wrap up and talk about what happens next, so as much as you want to roll in the dark goodness of technical minutae, avoid the temptation to do so.

Then end on time. I leave this to the very last, because I fear it is the only thing you will remember. Even if you sucked royally, ending on time leaves your audience thinking well of you. So at least you'll have that going for you, right?

meditation: on loss and opportunity

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be out delight

'Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Elder Joseph Brackett, 1848

.

curious: goals vs strategies

I had a long(ish) conversation the other day on the topic of "strategic vision". I encourage all of you to have such conversations. They will quickly open your eyes to the difficulty of talking about strategy when you're not sure of the goals that drive them. But that's another story.

For all of you keeping score at home, strategy (from the Greek strategos, or "general's art") is one of those topics that sooner or later you're going to have to learn about. Having learned all you can, you are best advised to promptly forget it all.

"Strategy," as my old da is wont to say, "is the methodology for achieving goals and objectives. It's silly to have a strategy without first having goals that are achievable. Until you have a goal, don't worry about strategy, now get me my shoes, you blackguard." G-d love him, but he's right, mostly.

The trifecta of goals, strategies and tactics occupy roughly the same space for me. If you're going to embrace the sort of creative thinking you need to thrive (and stay interested), you need to be prepared to be somewhat plastic in your approach to all three, in that they advise, expand and describe one another.

Does this make you an opportunist? Why yes, it does. An acceptable outcome - the goal - isn't rigid. So it goes without saying that the strategies which can be employed in pursuit of movable goals shouldn't be rigid either.

I say this because I am very careful about setting goals - they can't be so narrowly defined as to exclude the possibility of change. They should be measurable, and achievable, yes. But they should also yield to reality which - as we all know - does not yield to structured planning.

gear: the nixon dictator watch

I've never worn a watch on a regular basis. Perhaps this has something to do with all those years I've played piano, or maybe I'm just nuts. Or maybe it can be blamed on never finding the right watch - it takes me a while to settle on the "right" anything, as I've discussed.

But when I laid my eyes on this odd beauty, I was smitten. It's not just the aesthetics. It's the sounds. Now, once a day, I can enjoy the top of the hour to the dulcet sounds of Greg the Bunny hollering "Skatchamagowza", or Yoda declaring "There is no try". Or maybe just some church bells. Or the Howard Dean yell. Or, better yet, the Wilhelm scream.

I especially like that it isn't water-safe. Because I need all the reminders I can get that I shouldn't be going down to 10 fathoms.

Link

commentary: on working with the press

Chris T shared the following story with me:

I love this post. As a result of an experience I had once, I can really relate to press fear. I managed to break every one of these rules, but I somehow I lived, so I'll relate my sad story:

I was in college, and I found myself in a course with one of those professors who all the other professors think is crazy but the students love. This particular course was built on some eureka moment he had had about teaching philosophy in its original language, no matter how little of it we understood or how slowly we plodded through it. What struck some as sadism struck him as the next big thing in teaching methods, and of course his excitement dragged us along with him.

His technique was just unusual enough to catch the attention of the school daily, which sent a reporter to interview us. Our professor left us alone with her, confident that he'd soaked us deeply enough in his philosophy that we'd represent him just fine. Well, it soon became obvious to her that even in the company of blowhards I was uniquely incapable of keeping my mouth shut. Owing to this inability, she asked to interview me further -- and, owing to a different personality flaw, I consented.

I made every mistake in her followup. For some reason I kept talking whenever she remained silent. I answered questions she hadn't even bothered asking. I offered opinions and ruminations and pontifications until she cried mercy and hung up the phone. What had stuck with her, though, was the part where I dumbed down the explanation of the course until I got to something she could quote.

Of course, when I finally saw the piece run, I was appalled. While I had to admit I said all those things, I really didn't understand quite how stupid it would look until I saw it in print. But I wasn't just embarrassing myself spouting idiocy in public, I was also badly representing my professor's endeavor, and I was petrified. It seems silly now, but at the time I was sure that I had done something career-threateningly awful.

As soon as his office opened in the morning, I went to apologize. Before I could say anything, he thanked me. He told me couldn't have summarized the course's objectives any better himself! I was stunned, and I was still embarrassed about what I had said, but he seemed to think it hadn’t done any harm, or he at least had the kindness to say so. (Now, when reporters ask me questions, I can at least tell them that I speak no English.)

considered: keychain permission marketing

Like every other software geek trawling the blogosphere today, I gobbled up the recording of Seth Godin's talk at Google with equal parts keen interest and self-aware embarassment at my keen interest. Curiously, as I was watching the talk, a charming song by They Might Be Giants whose lyrics I really shouldn't quote here was chiming away on the stereo in the background. . .a juxtaposition I found equally charming.

But I digress.

One of Seth's early points was on the power of "permission marketing". Which reminded me of the most powerful bit of permission marketing going on today. I am, of course, referring to the keychain tags of retail affinity programs.

I had the happy accident of borrowing the wife's car yesterday, which entailed borrowing her keys as well. I was surprised to see that her keychain fairly bristles with thin plastic rectangles festooned with all the big local names. Dominics (food), Speedway (gas), Blockbuster (movies), CVS (drugs) and so forth. Since they are her keys, they represented all of her "favorite places", so to speak.

"Man, what a load of horse hockey" I remarked smugly to myself. "I wouldn't get caught dead signing over my info to all of these. . .hold on a minute there. . ."

What drew me up short was the new affinity program on offer at Borders. Seems the nice people from Ann Arbor have taken a lesson from Barnes & Noble and have started their own program, with a pleasant wrinkle. You don't pay to get it (B&N charges you a fee), and each time you use it you accrue "rewards" which you can redeem on stuff like gift cards and discount coupons and pony rides. Typical stuff.

Now since I spend an inordinate amount of $ on books, and since we've already established that I'm cheap, the Borders program immediately appealed. The B&N program which suggested that I "spend money today to get a nominal discount later" always struck me as odd - and made me wonder what sort of idiot B&N took me for.

And so, my point, however slim.

Since the B&N program cost $, and Borders's cost nothing, the decision to "declare affinity" to Borders was easy - even though the B&N program gives you an on-the-spot discount with each order. Their program was dumb, Borders' is less dumb. I would prefer an on-the-spot discount, but I'm not prepared to pay for it. I'm not a fan of having to chase rewards, but since it's free, I signed up.

When I asked my wife how much she paid to get all of those little plastic rectangles, she said, "nothing". When she added, "Why would I pay for one of these?" I figured it out.

My lesson was that the threshold of effort a consumer must overcome to partcipate in your marketing program must be so low as to be nearly invisible. Unless you're Publisher's Clearinghouse, in which case you're allowed to make it silly-difficult, and force consumers to do it over and over, licking stamps, folding pages, standing on one leg. So make the threshold effort zero.

(SET CYNIC_ALERT=ON)

What does this have to do with Google, or Yahoo, or any other on-line purveyor of stuff, other than their threshold cost of participation is zero? Not much, at least not today. But what would you say if they correlated all of the permission marketing touchpoints they have with you so as to build a complete précis on you? Wouldn't this be like giving each of the vendors on my wife's keychain visibility into her buying patterns with each of the other vendors?

What would they do with that information? As a marketing guy, I know what I'd do.

The market basket described by my wife's keychain is an apt metaphor for what is possible down the road for providers of on-line services who operate primarily via permission marketing. Be prepared to be fully and comprehensively known by them, because the extent to which they know you defines their worth to the advertisers who will pay them to reach you.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

(SET CYNIC_ALERT=OFF)

BTW - It was a lovely talk by Seth. I liked the part about the X-Ray glasses. And the "need vs want" anthem. To be fair, his concept of permission marketing is interesting, even if it seems. . .manufactured. Yes, we want our users to talk about us. But shouldn't our products elicit that on their own? Does it still count if we (indirectly) make it happen? Just curious.

lesson: working with the press (part 1)

I hesitate to characterize it as a "fear", for doing so immediately activates the pride of the reader who, in a fit of pique, proceeds to reject any suggestion that any aspect of work elicits fear, and stops reading.

But between us kids, let's be honest. There is a wide-spread fear of the press among software product marketing types, who experience an involuntary transverse colon-clenching sensation of abject misery when it comes to dealing with the press in any of their many incarnations.

"With good reason!" you cry. You say you know of someone who committed a CLE (career-limiting error) in an interview? Someone who "thought they were off the record" and shot their mouth off? Someone who talked when they should have shut up? Or worse - far worse - someone who had an opportunity to talk and elected to say nothing?

To you, gentle reader, all I can offer is this: knowing how to interact with the press is a skill that will serve you well. But much like scuba diving, driving fast, spelunking, sky diving, bungee jumping, getting married, playing with pit cobras, operating a cherry picker, bull fighting, alligator wrestling, manufacturing fireworks (and so on) it can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, but quite rewarding once you do.

So as we begin our discussion on working with the press, I offer you the following for your consideration. I'm taking it as read that you are articulate, succinct, well-coached and aware of your objective, that you know what is and isn't covered under NDAs (long story), and that you're talking to someone you actually want to talk to:

1. Remember you are always on the record. Unless you're a White House staffer muttering from behind a big Corinthian column with a sack over your head, please remember that what you say will be reported with your name attached to it. It is not your business to be providing anonymous color commentary. So don't. Failure to obey this single directive has resulted in more misery than I can name for people I like, respect, and miss working with.
2. Always bring a buddy. In much the same way you should never wander off into the woods or the ocean alone, you must bring someone with you when you do an interview. Ideally, you will have a member of your PR staff (agency or internal) whose job it is to handle the logistics. If it's a phone interview, you can have a few other folks on your side of the call to help with facts or cheer. I've found Instant Messaging is a great way for people to communicate "off-line" during a call. Another reason to bring a buddy is plausible denyability in case you're quoted as saying something you didn't. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, whooee.
3. The Reporter is not your Confessor (a.k.a. The Reporter Did Not Give You Sodium Pentathol). There is a difference between what you think in your heart of hearts and what you should say out loud. If you think your corporate direction is wrong, that your boss is an ass, that you (and you alone) know the right way things should be run, go dig a hole and whisper into it. Similarly, just because the reporter asks you a question does not mean you have to answer it. Be aware that the reporter (being a good reporter, clever and full of guile) will ask you the same question in a bunch of different ways. If you shouldn't answer the first one, don't answer the second, third, and so on.
4. Serve Up Sound Bites. Reporters are busy people. They work on deadlines that make lesser folks (like me) cry for mercy. They are also gifted with very accurate BS meters. They know when hey are being fed a canned marketing line which is devoid of meaning, such as "We're the market leader!" and "This will change the world!" and "Not even Google has this!". So come ready with some pithy, meaningful summary statements that encapsulate your message in a way that would look good in writing. Anything that helps the reporter to grok your message quickly will, in some cases, see print.

There is a lot more than this, but on a Sunday afternoon, I think it's enough to start. Next time I'll share some guidelines for how to manage your personal relationship with the press. Hint: you need one.

revisited: product names

My trip to England opened my eyes to a whole world of new brands, including Danone - which translates in the States as Dannon. Are Americans unable to pronounce Danone, perhaps because of its vaguely French da-NUN or da-NO-nee pronounciation, as opposed to DAH-nun, which sounds nice with a Chicago accent?

Then somewhere in the ballpark of my second cup of coffee I saw a commercial for "Revlon Age Defying Makeup with Botafirm(TM) for Dry Skin". Revlon's website describes Botafirm as "a patented blend of hexapeptides and botanicals". Hexapeptides are amino acids that reduce the production of the enzyme needed for muscle contraction. If you buy that facial wrinkles are caused by facial muscle contractions then reducing the number of facial contractions will reduce wrinkles, QED.

Since this is the value proposition of Botox, they wanted to create a name that was Botox-ish, but still intelligible to the unwashed wrinkly masses. Ergo, "Botafirm", which is marginally superior to "Botofirm" or "Botifirm", two names that must have been short-listed by the Revlon naming gurus but lost out in the final focus-group rounds.

So we're left hearing about Botafirm. Makes sense, intellectually. But it "sounds" like something you use to shore up the hull of your water-going vessel. No matter, the buyer is someone with an imagination who is buying into a dream, a promise, not something clinical with defined proof points.

No wonder software marketeers don't make up names - our buyers are cynical and dream-free, and would crucify a product with a silly-sounding name as an insult to their intelligence. This must be why it's only free software that gets the fun names. . . which you could argue is why free software is so much more fun. Hmm.

travel: recovering, highlights

Landed yesterday around 3pm, and thanks to the genius of unnamed individuals who put US Customs in Dublin, I was able to breeze through, collect my bag, and order a cab. The ride home seemed to flash by - in part because I was thumbing away (via the evil Treo) at the stack of email ("all urgent") that had accumulated in the last day.

There is something odd about how "distant" your point of origin feels by the time you get home. Yesterday morning, I was looking around at the frosty fields and hedges around Stretton, Cheshire, but it might as well have been years ago.

After you've been on the road for a non-trivial amount of time, it takes time to recover and get your legs back underneath you. You're neither here, nor there, but in some state of permanent transit, your circadians all confused.

Some highlights:

There is a world of different between a "real" pub and a "chain" pub. The former was wonderful; the latter, where I had dinner Thursday, was a disaster of glossy menus and indifference.

You can't buy more than two boxes of fizzy aspirin at a time. The fizzy aspirin (Panadol) was one of a list of stuff my wife wanted me to bring back. For those of you who don't get away much, Panadol (active ingredient: paracetamol) is one of the strongest analgesic brands in the world, but is utterly unknown in the states. Apparently, there were some unfortunate events with teens over there who tried to kill themselves by overdosing on it. This led me to wonder: was it a drug overdose they wanted, or to blow themselves up with a excess of effervescence?

British TV is. . .is. . .very good. They didn't have 100+ channels of crap, and that was OK with me. The BBC had all manner of interesting stuff, and there were not one, not two, but three SkyTV stations on around the clock, one of which introduced me to. . .

Cricket is strangly hypnotic, much like Curling. England was in India for a Test Match (which means they play for 5 whole days in a row), and there was both live coverage in the wee hours of the morning and taped coverage late in the day. There is something truly delicious about watching a game whose rules you don't understand, but thanks to computer graphics and some surprisingly understandable commentary, I began to figure it out. When last I checked, the score at the close of day four was England 393 & 297-3; India 323.

Nearly all of the newspapers are "tabloid" format, as opposed to "broadsheet" format. At least the ones I was able to get my hands on.

A "full English breakfast" is like nothing you've experienced. Ingredients include: grilled tomatos (pronounced toe-MAH-toe, not toe-MAY-toe), button mushrooms, baked beans, black pudding, grilled sausage, fried egg, hash browns, toast/butter/preserves, and gallons of tea. I was able to do it once, then cried no mas and settled for fruit and yogurt in the morning.

There are traffic cameras that will track your speed in designated areas, and will, if you go too fast, actually earn you a ticket.

The biggest highlight was that everyone I met was very nice, generous with their time, and eager to make a travelling Yank feel comfortable. I'm looking forward to going back.