Can I.T. be Green?

I decided to check back in with Dell's Ideastorm site to see the latest developments. The site is still going strong and most importantly, the customer dialogue continues.

In May, Dell announced the availability of a Linux operating system (Ubuntu) on three PC models - an offering created as a direct response to overwhelming demand on IdeaStorm (where customer submitted ideas are voted "up" or "down" - in a process made famous on Digg.com).

Most recently the conversation has steered towards environmental initiatives. Dell's customers have been asking how Dell can produce "greener" products.

And now Dell has decided to focus on this initiative.

To be fair, Dell has always promoted PC recycling efforts and has made attempts to use earth friendly components in their PCs. Michael Dell says they're one of the greenest companies in the Fortune 50. Dell supports a plant a tree program and their founder recently announced a personal commitment to match donations to this effort for the next three months.

Dell will be measuring their carbon footprint with an effort towards reducing it. And they'll be looking up and down their supply chain to hold their partners equally accountable.

Of course the reasons for "going green" are many. The Greener Computing website features an article on The Rise of The Chief Green Officer.

All this begs the question; What are YOU doing to reduce your carbon footprint within your I.T. department?

Here are some ideas:

1. For years I.T. departments have had to be careful when disposing of outdated PCs and laptops because of environmental concerns with some of the components. How about extending the life of these machines by replacing the licensed software with Ubuntu and donating the machines to schools, or charities? Giving these PCs an extended life will keep them out of landfills.

2. Do you offer everyone the ability to work from home and avoid the gas consuming commute to work? Is working from home done on an exception basis (inclement weather) or can employees do this more frequently? Could it be an option for your team?

3. Do you still have paper based processes at your work? If so, make these electronic. Once a process begins with a piece of paper, it automatically generates an environmental impact. Whether the paper gets used for a short period of time then gets tossed or whether the paper is moved around the organization for approvals, then gets filed. Electronic workflow processes dramatically reduce the environmental costs of routing, storing, archiving, shredding and disposal.

4. Hopefully, your company is already purchasing recycled paper for its printers. But have you done a print audit? If your company is using the same amount of printer paper as it was five years ago, you may not be taking advantage of the multitude of technologies which allow you to publish and subscribe (blogs and RSS feeds) or to hyperlink documents to one another or to collaborate (TeamRooms, Sharepoint, wikis) to reduce that mountain of paper we all consume each year.

5. Does your company continue to print its annual report? Why not simply put it online as a pdf document? Or offer a print on demand solution (at Lulu.com or similar site) to allow interested parties access to a printed version only as required.

6. Are you asking your employees for suggestions as to how to be a greener corporate citizen? Are you listening and acting on the suggestions?

If your company is adopting innovative solutions towards reducing its environmental impact, let me know how. I'm happy to publish your ideas.

Internet Tokyo Rose

Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News introduced a "story" last night which detailed how radical Islam was placing phony stories on the Internet in an effort to undermine support for the war in Iraq.

Did NBC News just get their broadband hookup yesterday? Is this story so shocking, so unbelievable, so horrifying that it made the Evening News? Those tricky Islamic radicals, posting anti-war messages on YouTube? How diabolical!

Give me a break.

Have we forgotten how to reason? The video example that the NBC showed was so clumsily edited, it looked like a badly dubbed Kung Fu movie.

When I was growing up, my teachers and parents cautioned us not to believe everything you read. Anyone who has spent more than five minutes on the Internet knows the same thing.

I guess the staff at NBC never learned that lesson.

YouTube Democracy in Action

I recently came across this YouTube video by Chris Dodd, who is sponsoring a bill to restore Habeus Corpus to America.



I think this is a tremendous use of YouTube (I'm over the water skiing squirrel.) Can you imagine a day where all Senators and Congressmen record and publish the reasons for each vote and publish on the Internet?

What more effective way to combat the terrible effect of those 30 second attack ads that we all endure as elections grow near. Now, forward thinking politicians have an unedited communication channel with which to articulate their thinking.

Over 10,000 citizen co-sponsors went to his website to "sign up". I hope this is the future of democracy in action.

The Best Technology?

On a recent trip to Toronto, I became aware of a major addition to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), pictured above. The unique style is the work of famed international architect Daniel Libeskind. He's also the architect of the proposed New World Trade Center.

Apart from the stunning Royal Ontario Museum architecture, what caught my attention was how the whole project was conceived. The new addition was created as the result of a 2002 contest. In a TV interview, Libeskind, divulged that his winning submission consisted of sketched images drawn on eleven cocktail napkins!

From personal experience I can tell you that you never know when inspiration will strike. I was on a trip to Belgium several years ago with four of my team members. After a long day of work, we visited the hotel bar, where we started brainstorming how we could become more effective in delivering IT services and projects. The session ended with a stack of scribbled-on drink coasters, filled with ideas.

The guys at 37signals , who write elegantly simple software, suggest that great software starts with brainstorming, followed by sketches - drawings, sketches, doodles to convert your ideas onto paper.

I spend most of my time in the technology world and it amazes me how often true inspiration begins with pencil and paper.

The Two Most Important Words?

I recently visited my brother in Ontario. The night before I arrived, he and his wife had hosted 24 people at his home for dinner. Bob is a partner in a small accounting firm in eastern Ontario. His firm has three regional offices and he runs one with about 7 staff members.

His office environment is hard working, friendly, collegial - a typical "small town" business.

The reason for the party was to celebrate the career of a woman, who was retiring after 38 years. She joined the firm in her early twenties and had seen the company letterhead change five times as partners came and went. And she's not alone. A couple of other staffers have been there forty years.

It seems to me that when you're an any relationship for that long, you and your employer must be doing something right.

And so it was against this backdrop that the party was held - a celebration of almost four decades of working together. The wine and beer flowed, shish-kabobs sizzled on the BBQ, and the evening was capped with a huge cake and presents.

But as the evening drew to a close and all the guests drifted home, Bob felt something was missing.

And then it hit him.

The guest of honor had left the party without ever saying perhaps the two most important words; "Thank you".

As a small business owner, the $1200 party came out of Bob's pocket. His co-workers (including all the firm's partners, past and present) made the effort to show up and contribute to her expensive retirement gifts. The company in effect, said a big "Thank you" to her.

But the sentiment was left unrequited.

Perhaps she assumed that people knew she was grateful. Perhaps she felt deserving of the honor. But she never said the words. And she won't get the chance to tell everyone tomorrow at the office.

After a career of 38 years, that's all people are talking about.

The moral of the story? Never miss a chance to thank someone. It's a huge gesture that costs very little. Once you've missed the opportunity, it's gone forever. You can't get it back.

And in this case, the absence of those two little words defined a 38 year legacy.

Microsoft introduces Surface

A few hours ago, Microsoft introduced it's new computing platform, called "Surface".

Surface is tabletop computing featuring a multi-touch screen interface, with obvious applications in hotel, restaurant and retail industries. Using a combination of touch and gesture, users can work and interact in a more natural way, with computers.

New devices won't be introduced until the fall/winter and will cost between $5K and $10K. At the moment they will be offering a 30" tabletop with other form factors promised in the future.

What I find surprising is that no one seems ambivalent about this technology. Some reviewers write it off as "nothing new" while others see it as "the future". I'm somewhere in between.

For me, Surface looks like it was designed by Apple. I think the interface will resonate with future users and of course, that will be the key.

I doubt the machine will do away with waiters and waitresses or the hotel concierge - after all someone will have to be around to reboot the thing! (I couldn't resist!). Besides it's obvious "cool factor", the adoption rate will depend on the answer to the questions: will this help me sell more wine? fill more hotel rooms?

The Assault on Reason

I was reading Al Gore's new book yesterday. He argues that reason and civic discussion are becomingly increasingly absent from America's political landscape. Part of the reason is the fact that news organizations have become profit centers and therefore are required to draw audiences with distracting, eye-catching stories, rather than focusing on issues that really matter, and are falling short in helping to educate the country's citizens.

Here's an example from today's CNN.com home page.

Listed with news on Iraq is the terribly important story about 3 pigs who trash a foreclosed home. And let's not forget the story about how a crowd is snipping off pieces of a beached whale.

When I see CNN (just one example) doing stuff like this, it makes me realize that we get the government (war, economy, environment, energy, immigration and healthcare outcomes) we deserve.

And if you don't believe me that it's all about entertainment, just take a look at the "headlines" that have accompanying video. How many of these are important?

At least they led with the War in Iraq.

My Pictogame

Who say's blogs can't be fun? Brings me back to my old Pong days. (I said PONG). Have fun.

Put this game on your blog Create your own More games

So why insert this game in my blog?

Well, think about using eye-catching techniques like this to spice up your corporate internet - to involve your reader, like this example ad for a company picnic.

Give it some thought.

Another Great one from Hugh McLeod

I'm quickly becoming a fan of GapingVoid, Hugh McLeod's website. Hugh is a marketer who creates these tremendous cartoons which he offers as business cards.

His latest creation, really hit home with me. As someone who's spent a LOT of time in the information technology field, no message rings truer. As you can read in my profile, my motto is: "It's NOT the software, stupid!"

So go purchase 50 or so of these business cards for your CIO. S(he) will appreciate it!

When is being a cultural icon a BAD thing?

One thing you NEVER want to see happen to your company is to become a cultural icon - in a bad way.

That's just what has happened to McDonalds.

They are now the proud parents of the cultural term; McJob.

And apparently, this phrase is now in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Yikes!

Middle Ages Helpdesk Support

Thanks to my wife, Karen for alerting me to the following.



I especially liked the customer's comment about how he preferred the scroll.

Let's take some lessons from this:

1. Notice that the customer did not know why he now had to use a book? How many times have you come across systems users who had no idea why a change was being made or what the benefits were supposed to be?
2. Obviously whatever "book training" was given, there was no post training assessment to see whether the customer understood how to use it.
3. In the Middle Ages, just like today, it seems we still believe that Helpdesk "training by exception" is the way to support systems. Obviously in the Middle Ages they didn't believe in local (business side) subject matter experts.

Enjoy.

Getting Real

A friend invited me to the upcoming Wisconsin Entrepreneur's Conference held at the Hyatt in Milwaukee June 12 and 13th. One of the planned keynote speakers is Jason Fried of 37Signals.

Knowing nothing about Jason Fried or 37signals, I decided to hit their website for a quick "look see." About 90 minutes later, I was still there, finishing their online book, "Getting Real".

The book's subtitle is; "The smarter, faster, easier way to build a sucessful web application". It is pure gold.

It's the book I wish I had written.

Literally every single page, rang true. Whether you're an entrepreneur or a web application developer, a marketer or a CIO, you can takeaway a LOT from this book.

It's definately about "Less is More" in terms of web development. It's about agility. It's about focusing your attention on the things that matter. It's about executing a few things very well, instead of a lot of things poorly. It's about working within constraints. It's about not playing it safe. It's about David vs. Goliath and why David can have such a huge advantage.

It's about time everyone read this book.

Oh, and their web services look pretty cool, too!

Increasingly Irrelevant?

Does anyone else find this morning's Today Show interview with former President Jimmy Carter somewhat ironic?

In a nine minute segment, host Merideth Vieira spent seven and a half minutes talking about Jimmy Carter's weekend remarks, in which he stated that George Bush's presidency was the worst in history (context: when compared on the basis of foreign policy accomplishments vs. Richard Nixon's presidency.)

The press took his remarks out of context and then, for seven and a half minutes, tried to make a story about it.

I found the interview especially ironic when Vieira asked President Carter to respond to the Bush administration's characterization that he was becoming increasingly irrelevant. The question was posed against a backdrop of re-construction efforts led by Jimmy Carter's Habitat For Humanity, in New Orleans.

Only 90 seconds of the interview focused on today's announcement that Habitat For Humanity was completing the construction of their 1000th house, in a major effort to begin to restore New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina.

Carter also announced the beginning of a second building campaign to build another 1,000 houses.

It begs the question. Who's increasingly irrelevant?

I'm a Fan of Internet "Broadcasting"

Have you noticed that TV shows are starting a trend whereby, post television broadcast, they offer unscripted, causal dialog over the Internet?

I'm becoming addicted.

For me it started with Bill Maher's "Overtime" segment, where, immediately after the show, his guests stay back to answer random email questions posted by viewers .

Today I saw George Stephanopoulos' "Green Room", where the show's producer candidly talks with the three panelists about topics du jour.

Maybe it's that feeling that no one is watching. Maybe it's because it's done "behind the scenes" - without the set, the studio lights and rigid, time limited discussion format. But I'm really enjoying it.

The panellists seem far more relaxed, more accessible. The conversations approximate those you might have with your neighbors over the back fence. Everyone seems so much more civil. I'd love to see this phenomenon take off and perhaps surpass viewership of the highly formatted programming offered by the networks.

For me it really underscores the fact that one can't explore topics like the Iraq War, Global Warming, Immigration reform etc in five minute segments. The Internet format helps us escape from a "sound bite discussion" and move the discussion forward in a more meaningful way.

The "problem" is that the Internet segments are only about 7 minutes long. They should be MUCH longer. I'd "tune in" on my laptop to watch.

And I bet a whole lot of other people would too.

Plant a Seed. Change the World.

Thanks once again to Seth Godin's blog, I came across this video from Microsoft's Steve Clayton. He was given a cartoon (by marketer Hugh MacLeod) of a blue monster designed as a rally cry to re-engage Microsoft employees, partners and customers.

The interesting approach that I noticed is that they aren't trying to craft the message. They introduce the blue monster image (on business cards, email signatures, presentations) as an icon, provide the message "Change the World or go home!", then let the reader/viewer, internalize the message.

No employee meetings, printed brochures, website updates, letters to employees' homes. Just a cartoon. They simply planted a seed.

And now it's appearing in posters, at people's desks, in employee, vendor and customer conversations.

Here's the video.

Mission accomplished?

If you were to plant a seed to engage the employees at your workplace, what might it be?

Some Companies "Get It"

I was just reading Seth Godin's blog on How to be a great receptionist. I know of at least one company that already "gets it".

And that's my local Lexus dealership.

The last time I arrived at my dealer to pick up my car, I was shown to the customer waiting room. It was a very tidy, comfortable, well appointed place, complete with complimentary beverages, freshly baked cookies and fresh fruit. In one corner was a TV. The coffee tables were anointed with recent magazines.

While the receptionist paged the Service Manager, my salesperson, "magically appeared" to say hello, greeting me by name. Shortly thereafter, the Service Manager arrived and explained what repairs were done to the car.

After paying for the repairs, I jumped in my newly washed car and drove off. There's not one thing I could think of, that would have improved my customer experience (well, except maybe a smaller bill).

This dealership really gets it - and lives up to the Lexus motto - the relentless pursuit of perfection.

And that's what I told the person who called me the very next day, to ask how my service experience was.

Support your candidate online - lose your privacy?

The old "gold standard" for campaign data were voter registration lists and campaign contributors lists.

It suddenly struck me that the new data "gold standard" for political campaigning are the email lists that each campaign is building. While you may sign up to support your favorite Presidential hopeful, you may be signing up for more than you bargained for.

If you read the fine print in the Privacy policy, you might come across something like this: (example taken from the Barack Obama website).

"It is our general policy not to make Personal Information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents. We may also make personal information available to organizations with similar political viewpoints and objectives, in furtherance of our own political objectives."

I suspect that candidates will profit handsomely from the lists that we've been so willing to help build. How much is it worth ($$$) to a future candidate to use Barack's supporters email database list for a future election?

When all the dust settles, and a new President has been selected, your email address will remain in the files of the candidate, unless "sold/rented/given" to his/her successor. So while your intention may have been to support a single candidate in the upcoming elections get ready, because in Dec 2008, you may start receiving unsolicited emails from the 2012 candidates!

Better learn how to use your spam filter now.

You've Got to be Joking, Right?

I've been following how Web 2.0 is changing political campaigning. When I came across the MSNBC headline: "Dean's Web Experts Boost 2008 Dems", I had to take a look.

Ironically, clicking on the link took me to MSNBC's Breaking News page instead.

Perhaps Dean's web experts should lend a hand to MSNBC?

The End of Mass Marketing?

Recent Neilson ratings are showing a dramatic drop-off of TV viewership. The network nightly news ratings are dropping substantially (and have been for some time). While the networks seem surprised, they shouldn't be.

It seems like the family dinner meal (with Walter Cronkite in the background) is long gone. The advent of 24 hour news channels (lots of them), make choices greater than ever. By the time the nightly news airs, the stories are already old.

Add a political filter to some news channels (appealing to Republicans or Democrats) and the viewing audience is segmented even further. With expanded choices, we have become a nation of niche consumers (and perhaps we've always been).

More content and more delivery options.....

Now we have many ways and devices with which we can receive content (DVRs, TIVO, cell phones, iPods, computers), that are not easily accounted for, using traditional ratings systems. While Neilson ratings include recorded content, they only count those shows viewed within 24 hours of original broadcast towards a show's rating.

In my case, I time shift everything I watch. For example, I record hour long shows throughout the week, which I watch each morning while on the treadmill. There's no urgency to view these shows within 24 hours because I only walk for one hour per day! In fact, we own three DVRs, all recording different shows, for different family members. We all time shift viewing.

The third big challenge for TV advertisers is the fact that just because a show contains ads doesn't guarantee that anyone is actually seeing them. My own "live" viewing habits have changed. I tend to "pause" live TV and skip past the commercials. (In the old days, we took bathroom breaks!). I always skip past ads on DVR shows. I'm actually a Zen Master at it - stopping just as the show resumes.

Can you imagine the angst that this is causing Marketing departments? As Neilson ratings drop, so will the advertising rates. Now what will Marketers do with those big ad budgets?

They may actually be forced to do what they should have been doing all along - to find audiences who are interested in their messages and passionate about their products/services. Then try to find a way to get their loyal consumers to spread this message via word of mouth.

Take a quick test. Answer two questions:

1. What's your favorite network TV show?
2. Who sponsors it?

If your answer to #2 was "I don't know.", you're in the majority. And that's why mass marketing is no longer effective.

To be honest, my favorite TV show is on HBO. And they don't have sponsors.

Pee Your Pants for the Brewers!????!

My son brought this website to my attention.

Pee Your Pants for the Brewers is designed to rally support for our hometown heroes, who haven't seen this much success since the 1982 season. While it's very premature to compare this team to the team from 25 years ago, early expectations and optimism seem to have some giddy fans ready to pee their pants.

In three days, the website has caused 420 fans to sign up.

Just in case you're not sure how to pee your pants, the site also offers suggestions. My favorite suggestion so far: "Closet Cardinals Fan: Injecting your penis with steroids so you can pee longer and farther than anyone else."

I have no idea how to react to this site. Shock and Awe?

A Cleaner Environment, thanks to Beer!

Today MSNBC reported that Foster's is looking at adding (sugar consuming) bacteria to brewery waste water, the results of which yield clean waste water and the potential of generating 2 Kw of power, when used in a 660 gal fuel cell.

The real news story is that scientists managed to find something on the planet that would consume Foster's beer.

Is it time for Webtrospection?

When is the last time you honestly evaluated your website? If you're like most of us, your good intentions of relevant, compelling, frequent content updates vanished minutes after your site launched - like New Years resolutions quickly forgotten.

You posted the new sales brochures, updated the product descriptions and maybe updated some photography. But somehow, only a month or two later, it seems a little stale or worse yet, boring.

Is it time for some Webtrospection?

If so, perhaps you need to ask yourself these questions.

1. Does my site feel "authentic"? Can readers get a sense of who we are and how we operate? Do we seem personable or does the copy read like a boring marketing brochure? Does the site display a personality?

2. How do I stand out? Can a reader differentiate you from the crowd? Do you sell the thickest pizza on the block or the brightest paint colors? What makes your customers drool?

3. Am I bold and brief? Does your site design and content tell a story that sticks in the mind of the reader? Is it brief enough to be read?

4. Am I relevant? Does your story matter to the person who comes across your site? Who is your audience and do they care about your content? Are your keywords, meta tags or site links attracting the right audience?

5. Boutique or Big Box store? Are you trying to be all things to all people or do you do something particularly well? Can your audience tell?

6. Dialog or diatribe? Does your site invite a conversation, question, suggestion? Or are you simply "blah-casting". Does your site involve your customers or prospects?

7. Am I measuring what matters? Unless you define website success metrics and are regularly collecting and analyzing them, you're shooting in the dark. It's not enough to have a website. It has to be put to work.

Now get to work.

Motivation or Self-fulfilling Prophecy?

I have to start keeping a digital camera with me at all times. I'd use my cell phone camera but it's pretty crappy and I'm pretty inept with it.

Yesterday I was at a car dealership and noticed a whiteboard behind the counter where all the "deals" are approved. It looked something like this: (names changed to protect the innocent)

Dan XXX
Sue X
Bill XX
Bob XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Jim X
Carol XXXXXXXX
Brian X
Dave X
Sid XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Clearly, this chart was showing each salesperson's productivity for the month.

And it got me thinking.....

If I were the dealer's general manager, what would happen if I let every salesperson go, except Bob, Carol and Sid?

I wonder whether Bob, Carol or Sid have any incentives to share their secrets with the rest of the staff?

What's the reasoning behind posting the sales results in such a public place? If the management is trying to motivate their poor performers, they'd better understand that they're also sending silent signals to their customers as well.

As a customer, would you rather deal with a high performer or a low performer?

Is the chart a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Digg: Frustratingly Addictive

I've recently added Digg to my iGoogle home page. It's both addictive and frustrating at the same time.

Digg is basically a collection of stories, comments, articles, presented to the Digg community for comment. Digg(ers) can promote or demote articles, with the most popular appearing in my iGoogle homepage.

At any time, there's at least two or three articles that I must read. It is addictive.

Now here's the frustrating part.

At the same time I want to read the atricles, everyone else wants to read them too! So intense is the server traffic, that in most cases, it takes persistence to even get the original article to load into my browser.

Some sites mirror the original content to allow better access and sometimes Digg(ers) will post the original content in a reply so people can see it.

Unless Digg can address this situation soon, I think my impatience will win out over my curiosity. My attention span is just too short.

My Own Radio Station

Today I discovered a very cool website called Pandora that allows you to create your own Internet music station.

By entering in the name of a favorite song or by naming your favorite artist, Pandora plays a selection and then asks questions to further refine what it is that you like about the song. Then it plays other songs that correspond to those attributes. With each selection, you can provide guidance as to whether you like the song - and thus the process is further refined.

It's a better version of Amazon.com's suggestions "other people who purchased this also bought...".

If you have eclectic tastes and have a wide variety of favorite songs or artists - no problem. You can create up to 100 different music stations.

They offer a free service if you don't mind ads, and you can also subscribe for an ad free service. I play my radio stations (minimized) in the background so FREE works for me.

If I were a record company, I'd be licensing this application to expose listeners to my entire music catalog.

Watery Mustard and other Gripes!

A week ago I was watching Real Time with Bill Maher. During his "New Rules" segment, he made the following observation;

"New Rule: Someone has to make a mustard container that doesn't squirt out yellow water before it gets to the actual mustard. Someone had to say it. I get all excited for lunch, and then Grey Poupon pees on my sandwich. I suppose I could shake the bottle first, but, f*ck you, I'm an American consumer! Not only should your mustard be pre-blended to my specifications, it should also whiten my teeth."

Based upon the crowd response (loud cheers) this would seem to be a problem everyone can relate to. The question is: does Grey Poupon know they have a problem? Do they know there are a large number of people who recognize a flaw in their product?

Have you ever tried to make a product improvement suggestion to a manufacturer? It's almost impossible. Most websites offer NO method by which to submit an opinion or suggestion. Yet there are thousands of consumers out there who would willingly offer ways to improve your product. I'm one of them. Can you imagine the product loyalty one could build if someone out there actually listened?

I drive a Lexus RX330. It's the small Lexus SUV. I love the truck - it drives like a dream. But there are two problems with it. The first, is that the low fuel alarm is very poor. It's a small yellow (size of a pinhead) light that silently appears on the dashboard when fuel levels are low..

No chimes, no flashing light - it just silently appears.

For me, it's useless.

My vehicle has integrated bluetooth phone, a touch screen navigation system - thousands of dollars worth of electronic extras - but no low fuel chime. I'm certain that most Lexus drivers have the same complaint - but they have nowhere to lodge it. I suppose I could mention it to my sales or service guy, but frankly, I don't have much faith that it would go anywhere. There's something more satisfying about lodging a written complaint/suggestion on a Corporate website - if only I had the opportunity.

The second issue I have is with the quality of the tires on the new vehicle. Lexus is so focused on delivering a quiet ride, they install relatively soft tires at the factory. Unfortunately they sacrifice tire wear in the process. I am very happy with the quality of the car and the driving experience, but get pissed off when I have to replace the tires after 25,000 miles. When ordering the new car, had I the option of paying the difference for tires that last (perhaps $100 more on a $45,000 vehicle) it would have been a no brainer.

Not only that, but when I went back to the dealer to get replacement tires and asked for a tire with a 50,000 mile warranty, they informed me that none of their tires carried that kind of warranty.

So I went to my local Tires Plus store and got outfitted with 60,000 mile tires, which are performing very well.

Not only did Lexus disappoint a customer, but they lost the replacement tire business as well.

I would gladly tell Lexus about these shortcomings, but have no easy way to do it. Can you imagine the massive amounts of positive goodwill they could generate if they offered an easy venue for customer feedback, then listened and made the changes? What a huge competitive advantage!

The folks at Lexus really do an excellent job during the sales and service experience. But the downside of all this service is that you've raised my expectations.

So go fix your website, your "low fuel" warning light and your crappy factory tires.

Make me a fan for life.

More Web 2.0 and Politics - Predictions

MSNBC today reports on how the Internet is affecting political campaigning. As I've been saying for some time now, Web 2.0 phenomenon changes everything. Barack Obama has energized over 130,000 contributors to date and has a far wider contributor base than any other Democratic candidate. His online efforts focus on building communities of interest, around ideals and issues. The effects of online campaigning will be felt long after this current race has concluded.

Here are some predictions.

1. The dialog won' stop after the election. Savvy politicians will continue to cultivate their bases, explain their position, strengthen the bonds between support base and themselves. This is an especially important point for the eventual winners.

2. Web 2.0 encourages dialog between ALL interested parties. This campaign isn't about the candidates just talking to crowds. It's about them talking to crowds who share their values. It's about those supporters talking to each other. And it's about those supporters helping to spread the word. Those politicians who understand this will win.

3. Perhaps as soon as this election, any politician who refers to "the internets" or "the Google", will be immediately written off as being out of touch. Being Internet savvy will become a criteria upon which to judge a candidate - a "relevancy filter".

4. Internet campaigning will help engage a younger demographic. Internet campaigns most importantly will engage first time voters, a full two years before their first election. Old white male politicians beware! Watch for voter registrations among first time voters to jump, over previous elections.

5. Can Web 2.0 generate lifelong candidate support? If these politicians identify and capture their support base early, (in their twenties) and are authentic (vote their personal values rather than their party line), they may be able to retain this support across elections, possibly for decades. Instead of lifelong Republicans or lifelong Democrats, we might have lifelong Huckabee supporters or lifelong Clinton supporters. Watch for candidate support to begin to trump party support.

6. The Internet strategy is far cheaper and far more effective that the mass-marketing strategy that campaigns currently employ. While it will be some time before we see the death of TV campaign commercials, they are becoming less relevant. The 2008 election will be won on "word of mouth", spread in blogs, and spread in people's homes. The Internet will be THE mainstream campaigning tool, post 2008 elections. This may help break down the mandatory fundraising barrier and pave the way for a broader field of candidates in future. More choice can't be bad for the process.

7. We may be seeing a tipping point in how campaigns are run. The Internet allows people to be "heard" in venues other than the 30 second sound bite. It allows for a thoughtful explanation of a vote or a point of view, that doesn't get reported (at least with any immediacy) anywhere else. It allows politicians control over their message. The recent TV debates demonstrate the weakness of TV as a campaigning medium, where short, unexplained answers to questions can't demonstrate what a candidate is all about. Post review discussions were constrained to whether a candidate made a "gaffe" or not. I don't think this format is the way that thoughtful Americans want to choose their next leaders. it was strikingly similar to American Idol (without the voting)!

8. Candidates beware! Authenticity matters. If candidates come off as "spinning a party line" or as being phony in some sense, their support will evaporate in a heartbeat. The Web offers immediacy. And that can work for you or against you.

Let's see how many of these predictions come to pass.

Moderating Web 2.0 Discussions Can Be Like Navigating a Minefield

...As the founders of Digg, found out yesterday....

Sometime yesterday, someone posted a digital key which is supposed to enable those with the know how to unlock the copy protection on HD-DVDs on Digg.com. Facing a Cease and Desist order, Digg decided to remove all posts relating to the digital key.

What followed was a huge backlash by the online Digg community.

Today, one of the founders has decided that to suppress the discussion ran contrary to what Digg was all about and vowed to allow discussion on this topic, regardless of the legal consequences.

The situation highlights a few (self-evident?) truths.

1. If you're going to host an online community, you have to be very careful when you insert your right to moderation (links to porn and hate speech are obviously banned).

2. We're still learning "the rules" in a Web 2.0 world.

3. Ownership in an online world is very muddy. Who owns Digg? The founders or the community? The answer is both. One doesn't exist without the other. And they're still figuring out the power sharing.

Is all of the pain worth it?

Absolutely.

Are You the Smartest Kid in Summer School?

I've worked for several interesting companies in my life. One company, was a leader in it's industry - not the biggest, but definitely the most profitable. It had been around for over 100 years - a boast few companies can make.

We were victims of our own success - measuring ourselves solely against direct industry competition and feeling pretty good about ourselves.

The world's standards for process performance had long ago raised the bar, but in our industry, the bar was set very low. And we (as well as the stock analysts) only compared our performance within our industry.

The signs were all there... We took ten days to close our books at quarter end. World class performance is a two day close. We were unable to bill a customer for up to two weeks after an order had shipped, because we were busy doing job cost analysis (manually) to be certain we hadn't made any billing omissions. World class performance sends the bill the day the order ships. (Actually Dell gets paid before they even start your order!)

All that didn't matter. We were at the head of the class - just look at our income statement! So we had no sense of urgency when it came to improving our performance. My Dad would have described us as "fat, happy and stupid".

We never saw it coming. Less than 5 months after an unsolicited takeover bid, the company was swallowed up by a bigger competitor. It is no more. One hundred years of history erased. Hundreds of jobs lost.

Venture capitalists don't care that you're successful within your industry. They look for bargains - under performing businesses based on world class metrics, not necessarily your metrics.

As Thomas Friedman describes in his bestseller, "The World is Flat", whether you know it or not, you're competing against everyone, everywhere.

Successful companies, like Toyota, don't benchmark against their competition, they benchmark against perfection. And they seem to be doing pretty well.

If your company benchmarks it's performance solely against direct competitors, you may think yourself the brightest kid in class and never realize that you're in summer school.

Use Creative Writing Class to Blog!

I've only recently begun blogging. I started because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. After all, it's reported that thousands of blogs are started every hour. (I suspect that an equal number die each hour as well.)

I think that many blogs have the same lifespan as fruit flies.

That said, I've learned a lot about my writing style by blogging. I wish I was better at it. And I think it would be an interesting experiment if our high school students used blogging as a tool to hone their writing skills.

After all, the next generation will be communicating in "chunks" - snippets of information typically used in web communications. And I think that as Web 2.0 entrenches itself in our society, effective writing will be an even more valued skill than in past generations.

Here are four things I've learned from my blogging experience, so far.

1. Completely coherent thoughts (in draft mode) somehow become obscured as soon as I hit the "publish" button. I need to re-read everything I write. I probably re-edit 80% of my posts after they've been published.

2. My spell checker only catches about 90% of my spelling errors. I'm on my own for grammatical errors.

3. I use 20 words when 5 will do. Brevity is an art.

4. I'm not as interesting as I think I am!

After learning these lessons, I wince when I think of how many emails I've written and how many PowerPoint presentations I've composed over the years. Had I the opportunity to learn these lessons earlier, I might have saved myself some embarrassment and been a more effective communicator.

So, lobby your schools to introduce a blogging class. Effective writing is a skill that will serve your kids well over time. And a little reflection and introspection doesn't hurt either.

On Being Remarkable

I've been reading recently about how our businesses need to stand out - to so impress, that we become "remarkable" - worthy of mention within our customer (and prospect) community.

It reminds me of a story from my past.

A decade ago, I ran a small B2B Direct Marketing department. Our company primarily sold safety signs, labels and tags (and other OSHA compliance products) by catalog.

Our challenge was this. As every direct marketer will tell you, we mail and mail our catalogs until the mailing campaign becomes unprofitable. You never want to miss a potential sale and so you tend to carpet bomb your customers with the same (or only slightly changed) catalogs over and over again.

If you happened to be a "current customer" you were especially vulnerable to these tactics!

In actual fact, we were training our best customers to ignore our catalogs because we were mailing so frequently.

Now here's the dilemma we faced. In an attempt to better position ourselves within our market, we undertook a huge product line expansion. At stake, was whether our customers would even notice. Had we trained them to ignore us?

Our goal was to get our best customers to notice our new book AND to take the time to glance through all the new products.

Our catalog size had increased by over 150 pages (to a total of 384). Knowing that customers spend no more than 3 seconds glancing at a catalog page, if we wanted them to see all our products, we needed to hold their attention for almost 20 minutes!

We knew that we had to do something "remarkable".

So we sent a "coffee break" to our best customers.

We created a gift package that contained a high end mug with our logo, along with samples of tea, coffee, sugar, powdered creamer and shortbread cookies along with an advanced copy of our new catalog. And to make sure it got noticed, we sent it by FedEx.

Upon opening the gift, our customers uncovered a letter inside the box stated that our catalog contained so many new products that it would take at least 15 minutes to browse - so we felt it only fair that we send along a coffee break as well.

Based upon the subsequent sales and comments received by our customer service department, our strategy of trying to be "remarkable" proved to be a good one. Being remarkable works.

When is the last time your company was "remarkable"?

I don't get BudTV!

In case you missed it (and you probably did), Budweiser launched a very slick internet based "TV Network" called BudTV. Initially it attracted 500,000 "viewers" but its popularity seems to be waning.... fast.

I love innovation and send kudos to anyone who tries something different, but I have to admit that I just don't get it. To me, they haven't addressed the main question, "Why should I care?"

Once you get past the registration process (they seem to be very concerned that you're over 21 before entering), they offer a very slick video experience with short (2-6 minute) "snippets" of "shows" designed for the 21-35 year old crowd.

While it has been decades since I've been in their target demographic, it seems to me that Bud TV has several major challenges.

First, Generation M has way too many choices, that are more accessible than logging into Bud TV. Why go to BudTV for six minute behind the scene of a Bud NASCAR driver, when there's the racing channel? Why tune in to watch BudTV video, when there's YouTube?

Secondly, launching a network means trying to hold my attention with entirely new content. That's an uphill climb.

Clearly Budweiser has spent a ton of money on this website. If it were me and I wanted to attract a large 20 something audience, I'd program the following:

1. Bill Maher's "New Rules" segments with 5 new rules each week or pay to host the "Overtime" segment.
2. Jon Stewart's "best opening monolog of the week" or better yet, 5 minutes of new, exclusive programming from the Daily Show.
3. A BudTV exclusive segment of Stephen Colbert's "The Word" segment.
4. Music video "exclusive previews" from up and coming stars (or established ones, if possible)
5. "Behind the Album" artist interview segments
6. Concert/Movie reviews with Adrianna Costa (CNN Headline News Entertainment reporter)
7. Exclusive access to a "Bud" Woot-off, featuring Bud swag
8. Family Guy, South Park, American Dad clips featuring Bud beer....

...for a start...

By aggregating known content, Bud would have a much easier time attracting 20 somethings AND keeping them coming back...

Secondly, Budweiser needs to find a way to create a two way dialog with their customers. BudTV is an "old" one way conversation, just delivered over a different medium. Find a way to engage the audience ("live" ask Jon Stewart segment, post your Bud Video, post pictures and a story from the last NASCAR race you attended, etc, etc..)

But the bigger question is:
Assuming that all my ideas worked, now that you have the 20 somethings engaged, how are you going to sell them Budweiser beer? Coupons in boxes of beer to be "redeemed" on the website?

I haven't figured that out yet.

Best Presentation Style Ever?

For those of you who have sufferred through Death by Powerpoint presentation, here's a video of an interesting style you may want to copy http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/

Thanks to my buddy Gene Wright, on who's blog this link originally appeared.

Georgia D.O.T. Not So Peachy

In yet another story of government gone terribly wrong, it was reported yesterday, that Georgia's DOT forces hybrid car owners to take emissions tests despite the fact that their testing centers aren't equipped to properly test hybrids.

Perfect.

Because the law is poorly written (probably before hybrids), DOT officials must test every car. When a Georgia resident pulls up in his or her new Prius, the local DOT actually performs what they call an "aborted test", since a) they must test and b) they can't test because the Prius doesn't idle long enough using it's gas engine before switching to electric, hence no emissions! They then follow-up the aborted test with a manually issued "waiver".

If the goal of the emissions testing program is cleaner air, they've gone horribly wrong. I fear that the tests remain mandatory because the original goal of the program has long since been obscured by the revenue the program generates ($25 per car).

Here's a wild idea; Why not give hybrid owners a break and exempt them from the testing and then raise the fees for those folks who continue to drive gasoline powered vehicles? Perhaps you could change a practice that is the source of ridicule. and turn it into a program that would help "drive" the right behaviour (pun intended) AND generate a few more bucks for your treasury.

Makes one wonder how many other government processes are broken. I shudder to think..

A Teaching Moment - What I've learned

After seeing "Meet the Press" today, I heard the discussion panel refer to the Don Imus firing, hoping that the incident would be a "teaching moment". No doubt, the panelists are fervently hoping that this will ignite a national dialog about how the races can be more tolerant of one another, how we can become more gender sensitive and how we all need to be watchdogs against intolerance.

Here's what I've learned from the "teaching moment".

1. There's a reason why, in our justice system, we have a trial which determines guilt or innocence, then at a later time, the actual sentencing. The time between trial and sentencing allows the judge to consider the appropriate penalty within certain prescribed guidelines, after a calm, re-evaluation of all the facts, including the context of the offense, any prior history of offenses as well as consideration of the moral or immoral deeds of the defendant. In the Imus case, the trial and sentencing were conducted all at once, in the public court.

In fact, I recent poll I saw yesterday asking how people felt about the firing in response to Don Imus' comments, had about 45% of the respondents thinking that a two week suspension was the correct sentence, 25% agreed with the firings and the remainder thought that nothing should have been done.

Rightly or wrongly, I wonder whether the outcome would have changed had the Rutgers team meeting and announcement of apology acceptance had happened before Don Imus was "sentenced".

2. "Imus in the Morning" sponsors' actions should in no way be taken as as "moral indignation" to what was said. The Imus sponsors have a financial responsibility to their shareholders and a huge amount of choice as to where they place their advertising dollars. There was absolutely NO financial upside to continue to sponsor any controversial show. Their abandonment of Imus had little or nothing to do with Corporate moral outrage. Need proof? How long have most of these sponsors been supporting a show that regularly offended minorities, religions and even personal physical appearance? Most of them, for a long time.

3. The Media is very lazy. When it came to getting a response to the entire issue from the "Black perspective" the only two numbers on speed dial were Rev Sharpton and Rev Jessie Jackson. They appeared on every show, throughout the day for a week. Frankly, the discussion I heard was loud and vehement outrage and rhetoric - the usual shouting points.

By about day 9, I started to hear from other black journalists, preachers and community leaders (and the Rutgers team) who engaged in a much more productive discussion about the events that transpired, which helped me better understand the entire situation. Lesson learned here is to make sure that we (and the media) regularly dialog with a wide range of minority voices from throughout society to improve the quality (and hopefully outcome) of our discussions. Let's lose Sharpton's and Jackson's phone numbers for awhile.

As for whether we've learned a lasting lesson about intolerance, only time will tell.

Could NASCAR Fix Global Warming?

Probably not.

But North America's best attended and fastest growing sport could go a LONG way towards influencing consumers to move to bio-fuels.

After a quick read of http://www.jayski.com/teams/fuel-sponsor.htm, it would appear that NASCAR and their mega-sponsors are sorely lagging behind the rest of the world on environmental issues. Beginning in 2008, NASCAR will BEGIN to use unleaded fuel. C'mon guys, you have to be kidding!

And one word to the petroleum industry. Stop with the "field of daisy's" ads and get on the bandwagon. I don't want to hear how wonderful you guys are for the environment. I want to SEE it in action. The time for pretty "sunny" logos is past, BP. Images of waves crashing on the shore doesn't give Shell a free pass anymore.

Imagine the positive consumer influence NASCAR could have on the switch to bio-fuels if they ran their races on E-85. What about featuring an E-85 logo on the hood of your favorite NASCAR driver? How about Sunoco (NASCAR's official fuel sponsor) adverising "E85 - the fuel of NASCAR" on their pumps?

We'd all be breathing easier next year.

52,496 Reasons to love Milwaukee

It was the fall of 1995 when I was transferred to Milwaukee, by my (then) employer. People kept asking us, how do you like Milwaukee? Is it very different from Toronto? How do you like the Midwest?

My answer to the question is that we immediately liked living in Milwaukee. I describe it as a little big city. It has major league baseball, basketball in town, and our beloved Green Bay Packers, just a couple of hours drive away.

Traffic is virtually non existent (as compared to Chicago or Toronto, my former home town).

But the real reason we like Milwaukee so much is the people who live here. And nothing exemplifies this fact better than the past three days.

The week, Miller Park, home of the Brewers, hosted a three game series between Cleveland Indians and the Angels of Anaheim. On extremely short notice, Cleveland called the folks at Miller park and asked to borrow the venue for their home opener series, because the weather was just too crappy in Cleveland to play baseball. Rather than try to reschedule the entire series, they opted to play three "home games" at Miller Park, while the Brewers were on the road in Florida.

Without hesitation, the folks at Miller Park said yes, then immediately went about trying to make it happen. That's the kind of people we have here.

With virtually no prior warning, the games were placed on sale with all tickets $10 and preferred parking for $8. They sold the field level seats first, then the loge (second level seats) next, trying to sell the venue from the bottom up, in order to run the concession stands effectively and to minimize post game cleaning efforts to those levels where seating was sold.

No one knew whether anyone would show up. With virtually no warning, on a Tuesday evening in April at 6:05pm, 19,031 fans arrived to root for the "hometown" Indians. On Wednesday evening, literally minutes after a record breaking April blizzard blew through town, 16,375 fans enjoyed the second game. Just minutes ago, I returned from the third "getaway" game. The 12:05pm Thursday start garnered 17,090 fans.

Total attendance for the three games was an astounding 52,496. And that's why I love Milwaukee.

Web 2.0 The Dark Side

Few recent issues have garnered as much press, so quickly as the current Don Imus fiasco, where he hurled a racial insult at the Rutgers women's basketball team in a lame attempt to make a "joke".

There has been a tremendous amount of conversation about this incident - 24 hour cable news coverage on MSNBC (which, until today simulcast his radio show) and of course, CNN. The scene was completed with the usual suspects, Rev Sharpton and Jessie Jackson who immediately lobbied for his dismissal and in my opinion overshadowed the very articulate response from the Rutger's coach and team.

But here's the Dark Side of a participatory web..... just a few minutes ago, I searched Google: Here are the results:

Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 1,970,000 for "nappy-headed hos". (0.19 seconds

In three days, the racial epitaph has exploded (almost 2 million references) on the web. The anonymity provided by the web allows all sides to be judge and jury, without the scrutiny of personal accountability.

No one is in the middle on this issue. Fire him (the majority) or give him a second (or third or fourth chance depending on who you listen to) seem to define the entire discussion.

The Dark Side of Web 2.0 has amplified the slur and polarized the discussion without providing adequate direction and discussion to address the underlying issues.

I can't help feeling that the entire incident is coated with hypocrisy; whether from the self-righteous bloggers (on both sides), MSNBC who "listened to their internal employees" just as sponsors were pulling their ads, to Rev Sharpton and Jessie Jackson, (who have had more TV airtime in the past 72 hours than the previous 3 months) and who give some Rappers and Comedians within the Black community a free pass to sling the same mud.

If however this incident causes all the media to re-evaluate and enforce their standards of conduct, the FCC to review enforcement of their policies and practices, Rev Sharpton and Jessie Jackson the voice to address racial injustices regardless of their origin, then perhaps it will be an outcome worth talking about.

I'm not holding my breath.

The voices I'm most interested in listening to over the next week are those of the Rutger's women's basketball team.

Getting to Fourth Base

Yesterday, some friends asked me to meet them for a couple of beers after work, at a small hole-in-the-wall sports bar called Fourth Base.

Before yesterday I didn't even know the place existed.

As it turns out, Fourth Base, which is located just south of Miller Park, (here in Milwaukee) is a Brewer fan favorite. Its walls (and ceiling) are completely covered in sports memorabilia. The televisions constantly broadcast all things sports related. The cramped quarters and noisy atmosphere are augmented by a tremendous staff, surprisingly great food and of course, cold beer.

It's the last place you'd consider high tech.

By complete coincidence I had downloaded Google Earth yesterday morning just to play around with its features and functionality. So when I got the call to meet up at Fourth Base, I decided to see if I could find it using Google Earth.

I launched Google Earth, clicked on "Find Businesses" tab and typed "Fourth Base, Milwaukee".

Lo and behold I was presented with a satellite photo of the area, with a red "push pin" identifying the very building on National Avenue. Clicking on the push pin presented me with an option of driving directions, showed me it had been rated "5 stars" and hosted links to 3 reviews of the place.

I never got the chance to ask the staff whether they knew they were listed on Google Earth, but after sampling the food, beer and service at Fourth Base, I have resolved to do more restaurant research from 200 miles up in space.

Martha, Martha, Martha!

This week Martha Stewart, the Domestic Diva, unveiled her new website. While I can't claim to be a fan, whenever Martha does something marketing related, I pay attention.

The new site is designed to position itself as THE place to go for answers on all things domestic. The big effort here was to re index all the content; tips, recipes, video, products etc to make searching the site far more effective for visitors. They went back and re tagged and indexed 15 years worth of TV, Magazine and Web content. To quote the MSNBC article; "When you search for chicken, you're getting 6,000 results, you're not getting 40 results."

For the record, when you search for "chicken", you only get 1263 results. Arguably it's not 6,000, but it's certainly more chicken than I care to eat.

For those companies out there who are EVA based (the concept of which is to leverage asset performance to the max), Martha's strategy is a good one. After all, the value of Martha's brand lies in her ability to position herself as an expert. 15 years worth of information was (until this week) a tremendously underutilized asset.

So this begs the question. Does your company have any underutilized information asset? How does your website position YOUR company as THE expert in your industry? Chances are, like Martha, you'll discover that there's more to your story, than you're telling.

The Pity Blog

A number of weeks ago, I wrote an article about how fun it was to work with my son. He's a geek (like his old man) and for his birthday, asked for a copy of Photoshop. Over the past number of months he learned the program and put it to use designing T-Shirts, Posters and helping a local company design Websites.

After writing about how fun it was working with him, my daughter demanded equal time. She calls it the "Pity Blog".

Jessie is a junior in High School. Like every girl her age, has a MySpace page and can IM at light speed. In fact as we speak, she's with her mother in Toronto, visiting relatives. While Jessie would NEVER describe herself as a geek (she's way too cool for that) she did bring along her laptop to stay connected with friends. In fact she's keeping tabs on Dad and her brother who are busy being bachelors while they're gone. Just yesterday we made dinner and exchanged photos by phone - including a mandatory picture of a clean kitchen after dinner was done!

A social animal (just like her mother), she can enter a room and take over a party. Perhaps her most amazing talent is being able to conduct a conversation over the phone while IMing 4 friends, listening to music and watching television - all while doing her homework.

She's a whirlwind. When not taking one (of her three) dance classes, or working at a local clothing outlet, she's bombing around the neighborhood in her (slightly dented and scratched) Corolla.

We can always count on Jessie for some excitement. While only driving for about 18 months, Jessie's claim to fame as a driver are her five (very minor) accidents she's had so far, including backing down our driveway (into "the forest"), scraping her car while parking in our garage, backing into a light pole at the local gas station, and being rear ended by a neighbour. Even nature is working against her. Last fall she suffered hail damage to her car! The local repair guys love her.

I have to admit that while she's been in Toronto, its been very quiet around here. I can't wait till she returns and the chaos resumes!

Love ya sweetie.

Web 2.0 and Politics...more musings

I just read that Chris Hughes (creator of Facebook) has joined Obama's campaign team. Not that Obama's campaign needed more coaching in building community - he's already garnered double the number of campaign contributors than his closest Democratic rival. Agree with his politics or not, clearly he's a candidate whose campaign really understands the power of online community.

And now they have added Chris Hughes, who as founder of Facebook, clearly understands how communities can be built and grown over the Web. It will be very interesting to see what is in store.

To that end I have one idea... I've been writing recently about how Dell courageously introduced IdeaStorm - an open discussion with the online community about how to improve their products and services. If you're not familiar with IdeaStorm, click here. Dell invited interested parties (anyone) to suggest improvements. Participants can vote to promote or demote any proposed idea. They also promised to respond to the most popular ideas. So far, they've committed to take action on the most popular idea - which was to expand their offerings of Linux based PCs and laptops. This is already underway.

I bring this up, because the same idea could be a powerful way to further engage Obama support. What if Obama's team launched their own IdeaStorm? Can you imagine the power of unleashing the creativity of hundreds of thousands of people, engaging them in discussions about every major issue facing the country?

The campaign could then respond, by issuing position papers on the highest ranked suggestions or by having Obama issue a YouTube video, responding to the ideas - or both. I can't imagine any other tactic more engaging that allowing voters to interact directly with a candidate and one another. Besides the benefit of potentially surfacing ideas that might otherwise stay at our kitchen tables, it also reinforces the fundamental message that we all need to work on these problems together rather than falling into the trap of thinking and acting along traditional party lines.

This could potentially energize the voting public in a way that's never been done before. For Obama, it might offer a competitive advantage over the other candidates who seem to be struggling with Web2.0 - relying on the shifting tides of public opinion polls and recreating their images to better the outcome. What a great way to sidestep the interests of PACs and special interests and let the voice of the people be heard. What a terrific way to drive a constructive conversation on the issues that matter.

When Web 2.0 goes from campaign to government.....

Yesterday I mused about how Web2.0 was affecting the political races. Here's an opine from the Obama website discussing the same thing.. http://www.barackobama.com/2007/04/05/obamas_savvy_internet_campaign.php

It now makes me wonder. If he gets elected, without PAC money and WITH the social networking skills and apparatus that helped spread his proposed policies, how might Web2.0 affect the way government works?

Can you imagine the power of putting the Iraq War question to the people? Asking Americans how they would support the efforts against global warming? What to do about security on our southern borders?

And what will it say about representatives and senators who don't use the web's collaborative tools to help raise and discuss issues?

The next few years will be an interesting ride!

Will Web 2.0 Change Politics?

That's the question I've been asking myself recently. I've signed up to a number of campaign websites just to observe how campaigns are using the Web to energize each politician's support base. Obama sends me emails monthly and makes it very easy to host, find and attend "house parties" in my neighborhood, to discuss his campaign platform and build support.

In my view this is a tremendous marketing and organizing tool. In 3 months he's raised virtually the same amount of cash as his primary rival who is better known, better connected and has the advantage of an ex-President husband for fundraising.

Of most interest to me is the number of contributors. Raising $25 million across a far wider (double the base) of Hillary's contributors must surely translate into broader support (more votes) at the polling station.

Another recent example of Web 2.0 technology in action is the candidates use of MySpace and YouTube. Just yesterday, I saw Newt Gingrich clarifying remarks he made with respect to his views of English as the "official" language in the U.S.. In the old days he would have had to make the talk show circuit to get his message out (and be exposed to potential bias of the interviewers). Now politicians can quickly craft their own messages, in their own words and distribute it for free to an awaiting internet public.

John McCain has his own MySpace account. His campaign is going through a bit of a learning curve with respect to internet etiquette. His campaign used a MySpace template without proper accreditation, and was subjected to a graffiti attack.

It's clear to me that candidates resonance with the younger voter will in some part be measured by their internet savvy. McCain's campaign is going through a steep learning curve, Obama's seems to be more "at home", with Web 2.0.

I wonder how this will affect the "traditional media buys" that accompany every election? Will it help level the playing field in future elections? Ten years from now, will campaigns be run entirely over the internet? Probably not. But it would be interesting nonetheless.

Instead of making a New Year's Resolution, this year I changed my Windows wallpaper to remind me to keep all things in perspective.

I selected perhaps one of the most famous photographs in the world - Earth Rise. It's the shot from the moon showing the Earth rising over the lunar surface.

It sends me a powerful daily message to try to keep things in perspective and to stay focused on the "big picture". It strikes me that we all live in one big ant farm. To listen to the nightly news about Iraq, local crime or perhaps a local "News Team investigation" on "Escalators - The Silent Killers!"strikes me that our priorities are all screwed up.

When you look at the tiny blue marble we call home, one might think that the environment, health care and generally looking out for one another might take precedence over Corporate profits, gun lobbyists, illegal immigration, disputes over territory, wondering about the real father of Anna Nicole's baby, or whether Sanjaya will be voted off American Idol.

I think we all need a different perspective. Perhaps one from space.

Time for mainstream Linux!

After reading more on Dell's IdeaStorm about Dell's proposed actions to offer pre-installed Linux on more of their desktops and laptops, it came to me that if there are any CIOs out there who are NOT experimenting with Linux based operating systems and OpenOffice 2.0 (or other web based applications like Zoho), they're crazy.

Eliminating the Microsoft "tax" is the next big cost savings opportunity for your IT department. Not only does their software cost more and more as a percentage of the cost of a PC or laptop, the forced upgrade support costs are completely none value adding (IMO).

Many companies must now support at least two operating systems (assuming they're running Microsoft exclusively) as PCs and laptops "refresh". And anyone who has gone through this learning curve knows the pain; applications that don't quite work the same way (or at all) under the new O/S. Then there's the learning curve of the employees (and your IT department!).

Even those intrepid souls who try to keep standard by upgrading older machines are faced with the possibility of having to upgrade memory, video cards etc or face deteriorating performance. Our end users don't need to be put through this! The whole exercise is simply non value adding for most companies.

So perhaps the time has come for the great Linux and OpenOffice experiment. What have you got to lose?

Some Predictions!

1. Jobs that will become in high demand in the future: will include Business process Engineers, Organizational Development professionals and Technologists. Increasingly U.S. businesses will compete based upon the effectiveness and engagement of their people, their effective and efficient processes and the tools they use. Managers (in the traditional sense) will become increasingly irrelevant

2. PowerPoint presentations will be considered "old school". They will be replaced by video as Generation M enters the workforce. The "YouTube effect" will mean that younger persons entering the workforce will increasing become more comfortable with video capture and editing as a means of communicating and collaborating. Certainly, most people I know would rather view a 10 minute video than read a brochure or a website for the same information.

3. Communications will "come alive and converge" in the form of multi-media blogs. I recently played with embedding both video and a PowerPoint presentation in my personal blog. It was VERY simple to do (I consider myself the lowest common denominator) and I think will make for much more interesting presentation instead of multiple embedded links which lead to more text pages.

4. Collaborative social skills will propel the wiki to new heights in usage. What seems to come naturally to so many of the "younger generation" will revolutionize the way information is captured and continually refined. Most will see this as the smart way (the only way?) to work. The older generation's watch phrase "Knowledge is Power" will take on a new meaning: "Shared Knowledge is Power". Collaboration will be King.

5. It will take some time, but Mash Ups will rule the world. Mash Ups bring together various web services to create applications on the fly. Here's an informative video from IBM on their QEDwiki..

Web 2.0 video

Here's one of the best videos I've seen which explains the phenomenon called Web 2.0.





Here's a Powerpoint presentation I made a couple of years ago and just recently uploaded into Zoho...

Watch this space!

A couple of days back, I wrote about Dell's new IdeaStorm project - the one where they allow anyone to make suggestions to Dell regarding their product and services offering. I hailed it as a highly innovative and courageous decision. I still believe it is.

But, what's next? After recently reviewing new posts, the newer ideas generated less than thirty days after the opening of the site seem very narrow and specific. The major (most popular) ideas seem to be unchanging. The two most popular ideas suggest that Dell offer Linux as an O/S option (and make their PC drivers Linux compatible). The second most popular suggestion is for Dell to offer OpenOffice2.0 as an installation option.

If anyone out there has ever participated in a brainstorming session, all the great ideas (most obvious?) seem to get generated in the first 5 minutes, followed by dozens of suggestions with ever declining value. Can it be that after only a couple of weeks, Dell has mined all the great ideas?

So the trick will be - how Dell tries to generate sustained interest and participation in the site. In my estimation they need to:
1. Quickly identify the best ideas and respond to them (They are doing this).
2. Implement some of them.
3. Archive the IdeaStorm database and clean the slate every 6 months to allow other ideas some prominence. Right now, there is so much clutter that even if a great idea was submitted today, it's unlikely that members would find it, to vote for it.

Another idea I would have would be to duplicate IdeaStorm for each country where they do business. In this way they could solicit country/cultural ideas that might help them better serve Global customers.

I applaud Dell for their courageous initiative and truly believe that we need to "Watch this Space".

Have you visited Dell's new IdeaStorm?

About a month ago, Dell launched a brand new, leading edge, daring experiment called IdeaStorm. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, Dell has started an open suggestion/discussion forum with its customers using many of the concepts from Digg. The software was developed by Crisp Ideas and private branded by Salesforce.com.

Their IdeaStorm site allows users to suggest improvements to product and services offered by Dell. All users can then "vote" acceptance for the ideas they like. In this way Dell begins to directly solicit product and service improvements from their customers.

I think this is a very novel idea and an exciting one, but it's a double edged sword. By allowing customers (and I may be making an assumption here - users need not register using real names, nor do they have to be customers) to register suggestions, Dell is obliged to respond to the most popular.

Early on, the process was a free-for-all, with many duplicate posts, accusations of censorship (Dell was actually merging similar ideas and votes to help reduce the suggestion clutter). The process seems to be stabilizing somewhat now.

Interesting enough, the top ranked suggestion was for Dell to offer (free) Linux O/S instead of shipping all PCs and laptops with Microsoft Vista. The second most popular suggestion? Install OpenOffice2.0. Clearly the IdeaStorm has attracted many Linux fans.

What this has shown me (and Microsoft?) is that consumers want choice in their operating systems, directly from the hardware supplier. Obviously anyone can download their version of Linux, post hardware purchase, but the fact remains that they had to buy MS software they didn't want in the first place! As the price of computer hardware declines, the pre-bundled software is becoming an ever increasing portion of the purchase price.

The fascinating thing about IdeaStorm, is that Dell's competitors (like any participant) can see the suggestions and voting. If Dell doesn't act, their competitors might!

And it makes one wonder what the folks in Redmond are talking about this week.

My Inner Child is Growing Up

I used to tell everyone that while I was forty-something on the outside, I was 14 years old on the inside. Lately I find myself doing some things that signal some major changes are underway.

1. I find myself muting TV Commercials. My Dad (who is in his eighties) used to do this quite often. I found it mildly amusing and somewhat eccentric - until I became tired of the same old voices trying to get me to buy their products or services. It is somehow comforting (empowering?) to just shut off the sound - to tune out. After all, these days it seems that unless you're looking for a medication with potential side effects worse than the illness the medication pretends to alleviate, there's not too much to buy.

2. I find myself talking to the TV. Yes, I know it can't hear me. But it's so frustrating to watch 24 hour "news" when 23.5 hours is spent speculating about what might happen, could happen and only 30 minutes is spent on what IS happening. What's with all the political speculation on who's running for President in 2008? Don't we have issues that need to be addressed NOW? Do we waste the next 2 years while more people die in Iraq and Darfur, while we continue to be addicted to middle eastern oil, while 40 million of us go without healthcare, while our status in the World continues to erode, while our education system crumbles, while Political ethics continues to be an oxymoron, whil;e the Earth continues to warm, while Homeland Security continues to be a priority, but open borders do not?

3. I'm tired of people trying to scare me. Whether it's the local 6 o'clock news telling me about deadly escalators, why I can't eat spinich (or was that lettuce?), what the Homeland Security threat color of the day is or whether killer bees are coming to get me. I'm too busy to worry about terrorist threats. I can't waste my time on deadly trans fat. I have the upcoming bird flu pandemic to worry about!

4. Is it me or do "Talk Shows" do more shouting than talking? It seems to me that for an exchange of ideas to occur, one needs to listen to a response. More and more, the news show hosts pose a question or state an opinion, wait 3 seconds, then talk over their guest! I am especially frustrated with the 4 person split-screen format when everone talks at once. I'm barely interested enough to listen to one person that to pay attention to four all talking simultaneously!

5. The butchering of the english language is beginning to bother me. I think it began with the phrase "You've got mail." Whatever happened to "You have mail"? While we're on the subject, I think that any TV interview with any professional or college athlete should include closed captioning. I'm also tired of words like "spin", unless it describes rotation. "Spin" is nothing more that "lie" or intentionally misprepresenting the facts in support of one's belief. Like "We're winning in Iraq" or we may recoomend a troop "surge" when we really mean escallate troop levels for an undetermined amount of time.

Okay. I hereby declare myself Andy Rooney.