Best Practices Not Included

The Use Of Social Media In Real Time Events

If there was ever any doubt about how game changing social media would be in societal communication, it's been put to bed.  Not trying to sound like a broken record but what's going on right now in Tehran is maybe the most demonstrative example of social media's influence and far reaching impact to date.

As I'm writing this, the Iranian government has for the most part blocked and censored the traditional media's coverage of protests in Tehran and people are turning to the internet and specifically Twitter, despite government efforts to stop it.  Even more impressive, than the tweets, pictures, and video's being sent in is the what's going on with proxy servers.  The protesters are winning the numbers game and the rest of the world is lending a hand!

By that I mean, people on Twitter all over the world are out setting up proxy servers specifically for Iran IP addresses in an effort to keep the information from Iran proliferated and flowing.  The beauty of this is the power of collectivism.  Everyday people are working together, taking 5-10 minutes of their time and creating new proxy addresses faster than the Iran government can shut down the current ones.  True power will always lie in the hands of numbers, especially when those numbers are mobilized and connected.  Here are some great links:

Proxy address posts on Twitter: here

Internet brings events in Iran to life: here

Also, my favorite.  San Fransisco based Twazzup has built this Twitter tool to compile/aggregate tweets, pictures, video's coming in from live events.  Check out the Iran page.  The real time pictures and videos coming in from tweeters and bloggers in Iran are pretty incredible.

Mark my word, this will be text book Communication/PR material down the road.

Venture Capital A Systemic Risk?

I came across an article in TechCrunch on how the U.S. Treasury is also targeting Venture Capital (VC) in the plans to increase regulatory oversight on all private investment vehicles.  The rationale for this of course is in the name of systemic risk.   Systemic risk?  The entire 30 Billion invested from all Venture Capital nationwide is too small to pose any sort of systemic risk to the U.S. economy at large, not to mention Venture Capital investing involves little leveraging unlike the kind that went on in big financials.  We need to remember the structure of VC has made it one of the most effective and thereby important investment vehicles ever created. 

VC's put up equity under the knowing realization that they could lose it all.  The SEC is clearly moving in the direction of regulating risk taking being made for purpose of economic self interest.  The new administration needs to wake up and smell the roses, for when we examine history, we find that self interested investing aka 'greed' has been the economic growth engine in this country from day one.  How ever socially un-virtuous that my sound, it's the truth and the sooner we stop berating it as "unnoble" and segmenting everyone into two categories (Wall Street and Main Street). Regulating Venture Capital could have the same unfortunate affect as it had on Bernie Madoff's investors by creating illusions of safety in endeavors that are ultimately risky ventures.

But let's not forgot the societal benefits private sector risk taking through Venture Capital has yielded.  Companies like: Intel, Apple, Genentech, Cisco, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Twitter would not be what they are today if they hadn't found funding from Venture Capital along the way.  Not to mention, the millions of jobs and economic growth spawned from this risky investing.  Let's think about, would the government have invested in any of these companies in their early stages?  And how would our lives be different without the innovation that's come out of these organizations.

As far as I can see, the only systemic risk the U.S. Economy faces going forward is for the government to convince the general public that we should let the SEC, Treasury, and Banking Committee put their hands in every privately organized financial decision made going forward. Thus lets continue to expand the size of public regulatory agencies like the SEC, an organization that has done nothing more than create a false sense of security as the suposed umbrella over the financial industry.  Tim Geithner, keep the government's business out of Venture Capital, I don't want the government's hand in innovation.

Homo Evolutis...

This is one of the best TED videos I've seen in a long time.  Very inspiring and forward looking.  Surely cell engineering and generation will see great innovative progress over the next 30-40 years.  Be sure to checkout TED.com if you have sometime, there's lots of good stuff on there, definitely one of my favorite sites.

MovieCube = More Competition For Box Stores

If you've entered the Bellingham Fred Meyer from the North entrance lately, you've probably noticed the dvd rental kiosk known as Moviecube. I've rented 2 or 3 movies from it now and I must say that aside from a smaller selection, I would much rather rent a movie a for $1 from a conveniently placed kiosk like Moviecube than deal with Blockbuster or Hollywood Video paying $4 to $5 for a 5 day rental I don't need. Granted, out of 200 movies or so, there are only a handful I'm interested in seeing; as I would rather watch documentaries and other content farther down the long tail. But, moviecube and other kiosk competitors have the potential to take a majority share of the new release market from the likes of Blockbuster and Hollywood Video as overhead and wage requirements will prevent Blockbuster from competing with kiosks on a price level. All this will amount to these traditional brick and mortar stores losing more market share just like what happened when Netflixs came along.

Next time you walk into a Blockbuster or Hollywood video, you should ask yourself if all that space is really necessary. Do we really need 30 aisles of wasted space to stock a commodity product like a movie, a product that has very little physical value?

In the long run, content wants to be free to roam.  By that I mean consumers want the choice to purchase, view, and dispose of media in a proliferated manner.  Eventually, Blockbuster’s brick and mortar business will no longer be feasible as the convenience through at home streaming media rentals will force Blockbuster to close unprofitable stores.  In the long run, they’re costs in operating brick-and-mortar stores will make them uncompetitive.  They need to transition most of their resources towards electronic distribution, if they wish to survive with the likes of Netflix’s, Moviecube, or even Apple through its iTunes movie rentals.  Given, the average consumer does not yet possess the technological ease to order and dispose of content electronically and from their own home. In the same respect, most communities fail to possess the broadband capacity required to stream or download video in HD quality. It might take another 10 to 20 years until this becomes the standard. However, don't expect Blockbuster’s stock to do well anytime in the near future. Check out this article from Bloomberg back in 2007.

The Long-Tail of Social Networks

I was flying through my Google Reader and this post from Pete Blackshaw over at ConsumerGeneratedMedia caught my attention and I'd like to expand on it. I was surprised when I went to check my facebook friend count I was sitting at 465, and naturally someone one just added me so now I'm at 466, approaching the 500 friend count in essence.  So in adding my two cents, Pete raises a great question in: how much is too much?  Do you believe there is  a point of diminishing returns when it comes to the size of our social networks on sites like facebook, myspace, and others alike.  At what point are conversation and traditional efforts of staying connected being sacrificed by the ease of access to the many aspects of our lives which we are living out and making public on a daily basis? What are the implications are all this information proliferation having on social norms and are ability to communicate at large?  These are important questions to be asking. 

Here's my dilemma, I see  people on campus everyday, people who I've had class with before, or met once or twice at some point over the last 4 years, and sometimes I realize: Hey I'm facebook friends with that person.  Very often nothing ends up happening, we can be sitting across each other in the same computer lab, or go as far as making eye contact but no one speaks.  I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me.  While this might not seem like that big of deal, does the fact that I can't always remember someones name in one of these situations and it's only later that I go home, log onto facebook and confirm that I am friends with person because they just posted new photo's, or are attending this event, or are now dating this person, or wrote on this persons wall (Thanks NewsFeed).

Point being, as all our social networks continue to grow, at some point does it become reasonable to nullify online friendships by canceling friends we haven't talked to in years?  I'm not saying I can't handle 500 online friends, but I think it's reasonable to believe I would still be a member of facebook in 10 years.  At that point, how many friends will I have...a 1000...2000?  Is there any value in viewing newsfeed photo's from someone you knew for a short time but haven't talked to in over a decade?  These are questions we will all surely be asking ourselves at some point.  Last fall I wrote a post on why I came to the decision to cancel my myspace account because I didn't see enough long term value to being a member anymore.  Now, I am in no way saying this will eventually become consensus with facebook, but like Howard Zinn talked about: "you can't be neutral on a moving train".   Or this blogs on theme: change is the only constant.  This reality will be imperative for social networks to understand.

Here's my prediction, as our social networks continue to expand, the overwhelming flood of information available will eventually result in diminishing value.  In general, social networks will need to take on a format in which the information overload can be managed.  User controls will have to be put in place so as to continue filtration.  We've seen facebook adjust their format but what will need to be implemented eventually is the ability to manage and filter are networks in a long-tail sort of way.  I checked some of facebook's newsfeed settings and while a lot can be managed, for those out there who already have more than 1000 friends, it doesn't seem to be enough. 

Lastly, while we've seen even middle aged working professionals embrace platforms like facebook.  The greater question at large remains: how will facebook and other social networks continue to bridge generational gaps as it's original patrons age and pressures to grow force them to attract younger users?  Can many or any of these social networks become  multi-generational brands 10-20-30 years down the road?  One thing is for sure, the choice in segmentation for users will be key moving  forward as our friend counts reach new heights.

Note: the picture at the beginning of this post is a graphical representation of all 466 0f my facebook friends.  This is an application called the friend wheel and is available on facebook.

Paper or........

It was bound to happen eventually, but Kudos to Whole Foods for being a leader on this one.  Today Whole Foods announced that they will be eliminating the use of plastic bags in all of their 270 stores.  The company has committed to reaching this goal by April 22, which I might add is Earth Day for all of you keeping score at home.  It's been interesting to watch consumer perceptions change in recent years.  I'm only 22 years old, but I can positively remember an older time when this move would have been called a mistake by analysts and the general public would have been laughing.  Other domestic retailers will surely follow this trend as many retailers in Australia and China have also made commitments to stop using plastic.  Because of concerns over environmental impact, governments will without a doubt continue to crack down and eliminate plastics when it's feasible.  For this reason, Whole Foods efforts will continue to yield the organization competitive advantages in the retail sector.  Ingrained in Whole Foods core values has been caring  for the environment and localized community.  The company has said they will continue to offer 100%  recycled paper grocery bags.  However, I have to believe the company is hoping shoppers will bring their own reusable bags.  One thing is for sure, while these are only small steps towards a more eco-friendly society, we will continue to see major cultural attitude shifts when it comes to the environment and how we interact and co-exist with the planet at large.

Goodbye MySpace

I was pensive to do it, but I'm happy to report that I'm no longer a MySpace member.  That's right, I just canceled my MySpace account.  Not sure how I'll feel about it a week from now, but right now it's pretty liberating.  I was on MySpace at least since freshmen year of college.  Actually, I think I joined Facebook and MySpace at about the same time. 

I've always preferred Facebook for it's aesthetics, design, and overall how information is laid out and navigable.  I never really understood MySpace.  You'd think with billions of dollars behind them, they could develop a better overall product.  It's unfortunate that too much customization has taken away from the overall experience.  I've never liked the major inconsistencies from page to page.

Furthermore, not many of my friends use MySpace any more.  Fortunately, most everyone is on Facebook at this point.  The spam is what pushed me over the edge, I must have been receiving at least 10 spam friend invitations per week.  On top of that, there's been the consistent spam posts on the wall.  It's just ridiculous, when I was going through the cancellation steps, the spam issue was addressed on the site, as if they knew that's why I was canceling. 

Unlike many other web brands that I associate with (Flickr, Technorati, Typepad, Ebay, Facebook, and of course Forums...Forums...Forums), I finally realized that for me, there is no long term value to remaining a MySpace member.  Here’s my reasoning:

• It’s hard to do most anything
• All the services MySpace provides are available elsewhere (e.g. Facebook)
• I don’t need to be a member to take advantage of their media (i.e. music)
• Almost all the friends in my network I can communicate with using other means

So I guess that's it. Goodbye MySpace, its been fun, I just wish it could have been more.

Radiohead's Experiment

This morning I got up and ordered the new Radiohead album 'In Rainbows'.  For those of you that might not know, Radiohead has just done something historic, in the evolution of the music industry.  Instead of going to iTunes, or using Limewire, or searching for torrents, or going downtown to Avalon or Cellophane Square, all I did was go to Radiohead.com, followed the check out process and a few minutes later, I had my download.  While some have reported nightmare stories about going through the download process, my experience was smooth.

So why is this important you might ask?  It was inevitable this would eventually happen, this kind of direct-to-consumer model has completely cut out the middle man.  This new album is only available via Radiohead.com.  It's cool to think how much mobility media can have now a days.  If your an artist, and have a website with e-commerce capabilities, what's stopping you from taking this approach?  Granted, Radiohead was the perfect candidate to try and start this kind of revolution.  They realize their music has value, and they don't need any of the marketing bullshit that comes along with the music industry.  I'd still say 2000's 'Kid A' is the all time weirdest album to hit number 1 in the U.S. While it is weird, it's also my favorite album of theirs.

The most interesting thing about the whole process is the "No Really. It's Up To You" approach to paying.  It's an honor system.  I've talked to people who didn't pay anything for the album and I've heard people say they'd paid upwards of hundreds of dollars...Wow!  I can tell you right now I did pay something for it, however, I don't think I'm going to be sharing what that was here on this blog.  If you really want to know, ask me in person, I'd love to talk about this one some more.

Bottom line, we are living through radical change in the music industry right now.  This gets said a lot on 'Best Practices Not Included', but 'content is king' and great content will travel on it's own.  The Internet has evolved to a point where this kind of organic communication and interaction trump's most alternative processes in my opinion.  The hype has been phenomenal, the words been on the streets, in forums, the blogosphere, even the mainstream is all over it.

I'm still curious if this approach will take off and if it does, how will this model look with smaller bands where it's arguable, and on a case-to-case scenario, regarding how much and what kind of marketing is appropriate, if any.  Curious to hear some opinions, I know there's music snobs out there who read this blog.

Lastly, the album is brilliant.  Their music never seems to disappoint my ears.  The melodies are dark, enchanting, and beautiful.  I'm on my third listen right now as I'm typing this.  As far as lyrics go, Thom Yorke seems that he might finally be finding some peace of mind.  Notably, the last track on the album ends with:

No matter what happens now
I won’t be afraid
Because i know today has been
The most perfect day i’ve ever seen

It's this kind of optimism I've been waiting to see from Yorke...                                                            

Joost: At First Glance

Back in March I wrote a post about a new video service called Joost, a free ad-supported online TV service.  Initially, I was very excited to learn that dreams of internet TV were coming a reality.  So after months of private beta testing that caused the biggest invite demand since Gmail, Joost is as of last week now open to the public.  Again anyone can now try Joost out without an invite.  Just follow the link at the beginning of this post and you can get in on the action.  The official notice can be found here on the Joost blog.

Initially known as the Venice Project, Joost has garnered a lot of attention for being a very usable and well-designed product.  After playing around with the platform.  I can attest that the dashboard is very well put together, aesthetically I love it.  Overall the design could have been make or break, and the guys at Joost hit a home run in my opinion.

Now to the bad news, Joost received so much hype and after a few failed attempts at getting invite tokens, I put getting a hold of it on the backburner for the Summer.  So when I first heard that Joost went live last week, I couldn't wait to use it and after messing around with it for a few hours, I have to say I'm optomistically disappointed (if that isn't an oxymoron, I don't know what is).  Joost has a few major flaws in my opinion.

First off, I'm not sure how excited I am about having it run through a standalone application.  Matt Dickman over at TechnoMarketer was musing about this last Spring in his first review here.  Since I am a full time student with a laptop that might as well not be portable (it weighs like 9 pounds), this is a big inconvenience for me since I find myself in the computer labs on campus killing time between classes and studying, and I can't download and launch any applications from the school owned computers.  This sucks, as much as I dislike YouTube for various reasons, if they solved this problem, why couldn't Joost?  In this day and age, it does seem crazy that I have to run all these different applications.  Let's take Second Life for example, as I'm writing this, I'm remembering that I havn't used SL in months even though the application icon is right on my desktop stareing me in the face.

Furthermore, Joost has been proactively signing deals with various content providers, and believe me, there's a lot of content.  15,000 TV shows and 250 something channels to be exact.  The video quality is not the greatest but it will surely improve over time. But Joost needs to be careful they are not just becoming another distribution point.  I'd like to see them continue to think about formulating their strategy to survive in this time of incredible media proliferation.  Granted, content is still king and out of all the other players, Joost has by and far the most premium content.

Something you initially notice is the lack of user generated content.  Many reviewers seem concerned about this but I think Joost was smart to not try and compete with YouTube for the UGC.  Many have said that Joost should come up with a way to filter out the crap content and let premium user generated content be viewed through it's platform, but in the situation they're currently in, this could sacrifice user experience and there are to many other options out there right now.  Joost should stick with their PGC (Professional Generated Content) niche.  After the storm is over and the dust has settled, then Joost could experiment with this.  But again, right now, don't try and be all things to all people.

Lastly, when I think about the idea of TV, it brings a certain stigma, mostly a negative one to my mind.  And after watching some content on Joost, I felt like I was doing just that, watching TV.  Is this a good or a bad thing? Well in my opinion, if Internet is supposed to be about change and doing things differently, whether that be: reading, writing, banking, shopping etc. then Joost has some issues, because from what I can see, Joost is operating to great extent in the way of traditional television models.  It's no secret these models have issues, and if we want to save TV, what we'll need is innovation through some creative thinking.  Since when has innovation been reduced to a repackaging of what's already been seen?

On the surface, Joost might look different but I'm afraid to say that when it comes down to it, the living room is not dead yet.  Since Joost is relying on traditional ad models by placing 15 and 30 second spots in front of content clips, what's their value proposition?  Why would I want to switch from one broken model to the other?  Because if I have a choice, I will chose to watch content on my big screen from the comfort of my coach.  I wonder if anyone over at Joost has read Life After The 30 Second Spot?  How is Joost possibly going to compete against the coach?

In closing, Joost is still very much an experiment as the need to improve overall user experience is evident.  Right now, Joost has been smart to seek out and aggregate premium content, it's an important niche for web-based television that has been previously unfulfilled.  Bottom line, I might describe Joost as a two-step-forward one-step-back kind of deal.  Although, it's clear we will need to see far more out-of-the-box thinking to avoid a one-step-forward two-step-back kind of reality. Hope some of you reading this give Joost a shot and let me know what you think?

Fiamma Burger - Taste The Difference

I've been back in Bellingham for about a week now and after being gone all Summer, it's been interesting seeing some of the changes taking place around town. I am dissapointed with the dismantling of the Up & Up.  Don't get me wrong, I love Rudy's Pizza's but it's a shame that the "Up" had to go.  And for those of you thinking to yourselves that it's still there, sorry all is lost, it will never be the same.  But thinking more positively, I must say that most of the changes are for the better...my neighbors new house, the student instruction center on campus, Bellingham's "beautification" aka concrete sidewalks and asphalt.  Lastly, I'm happy to say I enjoyed my first Fiamma Burger experience the other day.  I've always loved La Fiamma Woodfire Oven Pizza to say the least...next time your there try a panini!  It seems about a year ago I first heard the concept of Fiamma Burger.  Initially, I had my doubts about using La Fiamma’s brand equity, I’ve just never really liked this approach to branding.  I believe products should organically stand for something that’s their own.  However, in the case of Fiamma Burger, I felt it was totally appropriate.  Am I being egocentric?  It’s interesting though because in the restaurant business, you often don’t see this kind of direct approach to using brand equity.  But since the ownership of both restaurant’s are (correct me if I’m wrong) one in the same.  It made this option very feasible.  For those of you who know me well enough, I’m thinking of Fred specifically, you won’t be surprised I’m transitioning to this rant. 

The other point I would like to hit on is that we’ve seen to some extent the commoditization of the burger.  Come on, let’s be honest with ourselves, burgers from traditional fast food joints are all created equal, they’re basically the same because in essence they begin with the same ingredients which are then processed, distributed, and prepared in similar manner.  It’s been an absolute battle for a long time with the goal of cutting costs as much as possible to put an inexpensive burger on your plate.  So point being Fiamma Burger was smart not to take the “Dick’s” approach to the burger (by that I mean prices, not smaller menu selection because indeed Fiamma Burger is doing that).  Not to mention you would have undoubtedly hurt La Fiamma’s equity.  So realistically, if your Fiamma Burger, your competing against two of  Bellingham's staples being Boomer’s and Bob’s.  This is healthy competition to say the least.  I have reason to believe Boomer’s is more of a direct competitor we thinking about similarities between dining experience offered when you factor out the food itself.  Everyone will have their own opinion when it comes to the Bob’s, Boomer’s, and Fiamma Burgers.  So instead of offering my opinion, I’d like to offer Fred’s from his post on his Fiamma Burger experience earlier this month.  Here are some excerpts but if you would like to read his entire review check out his blog: http://stonecries.typepad.com/blog/2007/09/the-only-burger.html

“So, how good is the burger?  I think it tastes great.  The meat is lean (not dripping with fatty nastiness), the veggies full of flavor, the "secret sauce" is not overpowering, and heck--I could eat the bun by itself.  Some complain that the burgers are not as big as at Bob's (can't avoid the comparison, what, being across the street), and neither are the servings of french fries.  Personally, my appetite is rarely big enough to finish a full "platter of fries with side of hamburger" at Bob's, so that complaint isn't relevant to me.  For people just looking to throw back as many calories as possible for as cheap as possible, Fiamma might not be your place.  Let's just say that, as far as proportions go.  But if you are like me, and your appettite isn't that of a small rhinoceros, the meal is very satisfying.  The french fries are also good--still french fries, but not greasy, and not over-fried.”

“One thing you will probably hear about Fiamma burger is that it is over-priced.  I have responded to that review with the old adage, "It all depends on what you want, and if you're willing to pay for it."  Sure, I could get Five burgers from Wendy's for the same as One from Fiamma, but I want fresh ingredients, a clean restaurant, and (pardon me here) solid waste.  None of which I will get from five burgers at Wendy's.  For $4.75 you get the burger--for 75 cents you can add cheese, and for $1.50 you can add that delicious bacon I was telling you about.  For another $1.95 you can add fries.  So, say you get the bacon burger & fries--that'll run you about $8.25.  Seem like a lot?  Maybe, with the Bob's comparison ($8.95 for the platter of fries/bacon cheeseburger), but at Fiamma you aren't tipping waitresses and running to the bathroom in two hours.  So ultimately you pay about $3-4 less than at Bob's all things considered, and maybe $2-4 more than at Boomer's, but you get the best "quality" burger in Bellingham, and like I say, enough food to satisfy the appettite of anyone smaller than a small rhinoceros.”

There you have it.  As Fred stated, he cares about fresh ingredients and I have good reason to believe that in Bellingham there are many more like him.  So Fiamma Burger is in a very “healthy” niche…haha no pun intended.  In all seriousness though, it’s hard to say how Fiamma Burger will do.  It’s just questionable to me if for the price, there is a big enough market.  They’ve had a lot of initial expenses to get off the ground and even though the burger is using fresh and more expensive ingredients, I would think there has to be a nice margin built into the prices.  Time will tell, and I wish them the best, I know I enjoyed my experience and I would say Fiamma Burger is the best tasting one in town.  Business will probably be slow during the Boomer’s sale cause we all know how that can get patronized.