Technology

Items about the technology that underlies online communication

Friday, April 04, 2008

Geoffrey Moore’s curve still matters

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It may seem like I’m piling on Steve Rubel. I’m not, really. I like the guy, admire him, respect him and often agree with him. But re-reading his post on the Pollara survey that shows people trust friends and family more tha A-list bloggers, a line he tossed off grabbed my attention; I’d glossed over it before.

This comes as more of the action shifts to micro communities like Twitter or Friendfeed...

I would challenge this assumption. What action, exactly, is switching to Twitter and Friendfeed? Yes, some action is, but it’s the action of the innovators and early adopters, not the mainstream. The mainstream hasn’t heard of Twitter. They’re still wrapping their minds around Facebook and blogs. And Friendfeed? Way, way too leading edge.

Don’t get me wrong. I love both Twitter and Friendfeed, and am waiting to get an invitation to SocialThing. But I’m an early adopter. I’m a geek (and proud of it).

I’ve just spent two days in Saskatchewan talking to recruiters from several large companies about how to use social media in their recruiting efforts. I did three sessions with a total of maybe 30 people. None of them had heard of Twitter. Not one of them. Neither had my client, a local agency that brought me up to do the talks for their clients. If the recruiters haven’t heard of Twitter, it’s a safe bet the people they’re trying to recruit (such as agronomists) haven’t either (with the rare geek exception). These folks are still just getting accustomed to the idea of “social media,” the label Steve wants us to abandon in favor of just calling it all “media.”

Are we really ready to ascribe our innovator and early-adopter behaviors to others who reside elsewhere—early majority, late majority, and laggards—on Geoffrey Moore’s curve? They do represent the majority of the people we seek to reach through our PR efforts, and where they are today is roughly where Steve was three or four years ago.

I’ve always resisted the idea that the PR social media space is an echo chamber, but if we’re ready to say bloggers are moving to Twitter and Friendfeed—and their readers are following—then I may have to change my tune. 

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Storage schmorage

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The other day, I was told about an IT department that was refusing to implement social media internally because of (ready?) storage. “All those employee-generated videos and photos!” they worried. “We don’t have the storage for those files.”

My immediate thought: Bunk. It was an excuse that belied other issues. Why do I guess this? Because a few weeks back, I added a 1-terabyte drive to my home server. That 1-terabyte drive cost $400. One more time: $400 for a terabyte. I’m sorry, but no company, no matter how small or how tight the budget, can get away with invoking the cost of storage as a reason to avoid the introduction of social media...or anything else that might reside on the network.

I wonder how hard a time that IT person had keeping a straight face while offering up the excuse.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Tech journalism at a crossroads

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The January 2 edition of John C. Dvorak’s video podcast CrankyGeeks is must-viewing for PR practitioners, and in particular those who work for technology clients. Dvorak’s guests include New York Times writers John Markoff and Gregg Zachary, who offer an intriguing take on the state of technology journalism; Sebastian Rupley from PC Magazine rounds out the panel.

Some of the group’s observations:

• Tech PR firms are driving the coverage of technology in the press
• The requirement to have fresh copy online daily has led reporters to abandon the more in-depth and substantive coverage that once characterized technology reporting
• The fact that so many reporters are chummy with the companies they cover has resulted in little critical coverage of executive performance

Zachary suggested that the day is approaching when technology reporters won’t be necessary at all. As he put it, companies will issue press releases sliced and diced into distinct sections that can be assembled anywhere without journalistic intervention. That sounds awfully close to the hRelease specification currently under development by a working group under Shannon Whitley’s direction. The hRelease microformat that defines the various elements of a social media press release just as the hEvent miroformat describes the elements of a calendar entry.

Also discussed is the inadvertent release of a journalist’s dossier maintained by PR firm Waggener Edstrom for its client Microsoft. The mistaken release wasn’t the point of the discussion; it merely revealed that Waggener Edstrom maintains such dossiers, a clear attempt to control Microsoft’s media coverage.

Agree or disagree with the panel’s views and conclusions, it’s captivating viewing for those of us working in this field.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Rogers experiment is bad for business

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Companies should worry about the experiment Rogers is undertaking in Canada.

Rogers—one of the largest Internet Service Providers in Canada—has begun inserting ads at the top of screens, above the website to which customers have navigated. (A screen shot of Google’s spartan home page defaced by a Rogers ad was oroginally posted to Lauren Weinstein’s blog. Google, of course, authorized nothing of the sort.)

The messages in the experiment relate to customers’ accounts: The screen shot shows a message alerting the customer that he is about to reach his data limit and provides information on how he could upgrade his account to allow more surfing. It’s a small step, though, to using the technology to deliver targeted ads based on the kinds of sites a user has visited.

Most of the commentary on the Rogers experiment have pointed to the need to legislate Net neutrality, noting that this program puts the issues into sharp focus. Weinstein—co-founder of People for Internet Neutrality—said in an interview with Wired:

This is what Net Neutrality is about—it’s not just making sure that data is handled in a competitive and non-discriminatory manner, but it’s also that the data that’s sent is the data that you get—that the content is unmodified, not with messages that are woven into your data stream [from third parties].

Indeed, the separation of content from the pipes that deliver it is a founding principle of the Internet. Or, as ”Good Morning, Silicon Valley” put it, “Bits should be bits, and pipes should be pipes, and the latter should know or care nothing about the former, merely deliver them as instructed.”

From a business standpoint, though, there is more to worry about than the general creepiness of your ISP inserting content on the pages you visit. Consider, first of all, the amount of time and money organizations invest in site design. A lot of effort goes into ensuring key content appears on the home page. A look at the Rogers customer’s screen shows the account status notice occupies a good 25% of the screen, pushing the Google home page down. What vanishes below the fold on your website could be content you assumed people would see without having to scroll to get to it.

ISPs interfering with what people see when they visit your site will throw site design into chaos and render most current designs ineffective.

But wait. There’s more.

How would Mattel feel if the ad appearing over its home page was from Hasbro? The system analyzes past surfing habits but, as far as I can tell, doesn’t account for the actual site being viewed. Chervron ads could appear over Exxon’s website, Republican ads over Democratic content, Nordstrom ads over a Macy’s page.

I fear that a lot of businesses will simply look at the Rogers experiment as a new channel for deploying their own ads. Instead, companies should unite in opposition to the practice and people who didn’t agree with the desirability of Net neutrality should think again. This may be one more way for Rogers (and their ISP brethren) to eek a few more bucks out of the Net, but I would hope that the unified opposition to the program will spell its quick demise.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Wearable WiFi Locator

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Every year around this time, Michele asks me for a gift list. This will definitely be on it. I need to boost my geek quotient, and nothing will accomplish that like wearing a t-shirt that detects WiFi signals, and at $29.99, it’s way cheaper than a new VAIO.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

My most indispensable utility

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Since Neville Hobson wrote about Total Commander, calling it his most indispensable PC application, I’ve been thinking about mine. It’s a very simple little application that doesn’t do a lot, but what it does it does extremely well. It’s called Starter from a shareware company called Codestuff. It makes management of the applications that run at startup a breeze. Most important, though, is its “terminate” function. Windows users know how frustrating it is when an application freezes. You can click CTL-ALT-DEL all day long, but the app won’t budge. Open Starter, go to the tab for currently running applications, highlight the one causing the problem and click the terminate button. Instant closing. Best of all, Starter is free.

Get it here.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Sony announces Reader enhancements

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Not too long ago, I finished reading “Alexander Hamilton,” by Ron Chernow. It took me over a year to read this book. It wasn’t densely written or complex. In fact, it was a good read. The problem was the physical size of the book. At 900-some-odd pages in hardcover, it was simply too big and heavy to take with me on my travels. The only time I have to read at home is that brief phase between crawling into bed and falling asleep. Typically, I got through a page or two before drifting off.

I actually read about 30 other books while I was reading “Hamilton.” They were small paperbacks that tucked nicely into my briefcase.

This is no longer a problem. My wife, sympathizing with my plight, bought me a Sony Reader. It holds up to 80 books, is light, thin, and easy to use. The screen is very readable, I can adjust the font size, and a battery charge lasts forever. (At least, I haven’t had to recharge while on a weeklong business trip, and that includes reading in the hotel room as well as on the plane and in the terminal.)

There have been a number of complaints raised about the Reader. Some think it’s too expensive, but $300 is less than I paid for my 80GB iPod. Some think it’s too confusing. (I don’t get this. I find it downright simple.) Some lament the lack of a backlight (I bought a $30 snap-on light.) I was listening to ”This Week in Tech,” the episode about the iPhone in which Leo Laporte talked about waiting in line at the Apple Store. One of his guests commented that people just left their laptops on the sidewalk while they went to use a bathroom; their new friends in line watched after them. Laporte said he left his Sony Reader hoping someone would take it, but nobody did.

I just don’t get it. I do hope that a next generation Reader does a better job of placing buttons; I sometimes inadvertently push buttons when holding the book. But overall, I love this gadget. I’m currently reading “The Naked Corporation” by Dan Tapscott. I’ve already read half a dozen other books. I have a few other business books, a couple American history books, and a few Elmore Leonard and Robert B. Parker novels loaded and ready for reading, as well as Charles Dickens’ “Hard Times,” which was a free download.

My one real complaint is the lack of titles available at sony’s Connect store, which stocks only about 10% of the popular titles available elsewhere. But there’s still plenty for me to read and those books not available in the proprietary Reader format (like David Weinberger’s “Everything is Miscellaneous") I buy in the traditional paper format and put on my nightstand.

I was thrilled to read in a BusinessWeek story that Sony is not discouraged by the tepid sales of its Reader. The company has several plans in the works, particularly since it looks like it may have to compete with an Amazon-branded gadget the online retailer has in the works.

To begin with, Sony is going to incorporate Adobe’s ebook software into the Reader, which will let me obtain books from outlets other than the Connect store. That’s great news. Most of the other tweaks are of more interest to people who don’t already have a Reader. The price is coming down, for example, and marketing will target business travelers (like me).