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Is Anything Off the Record?

September 30th, 2008 | 13 Comments | Posted in Blogs, Media

Off The Record
A little while ago, I was quoted in a blog post following an e-mail exchange.

At first, I was a little surprised because the exchange wasn’t an interview or a Q&A. But then I realized that I was talking to a blogger, and the rules of engagement are different. In the blogosphere, pretty much everything is on the record.

Comments you make on blog posts, things you spit out on Twitter, and conversations you have at a conference all become part of the public record. It’s not very often that you hear someone say “By the way, this is off-the-blog”.

It makes for a fascinating environment because everything you say/write is public, even casual conversations over a coffee, is on the record. While most people don’t think about it, the reality is you need to be conscious and careful about what you what you/write and where you do it. Anyone with a blog is potentially a “reporter” looking for a juicy quote or tidbit they can use.

Of course, this on-the-record reality is just an offshoot of how the Web has made our lives public exhibits. Anyone doing anything on the Web has decided to some degree to give up their privacy to become part of the digital landscape.

The strange part is a lot of people don’t really get this digital deal. They don’t understand that every time you reveal something about yourself, you’re peeling back the onion in a very public way that never disappears.

In Canada, Michael Geist notes that several politicians in the current federal election have resigned due to controversial or embarrassing things said on blogs. Conservative candidate Chris Reid, for example, walked away after writing some bizarre things on his blog.

Geist puts it nicely that: “The digital generation posts everything from party photos to their thoughts on the issues of the day. This content has a “Hotel California” quality to it — you can post it anytime you like, but it never leaves.”

In a survey, CareerBuilder.com found that 20% of employees look at Facebook and MySpace when looking to hire someone, while another 9% said they will start looking at social networking profiles in the future.

Another interesting angle is how your life can become a permanent part of the Web without you even knowing it.

Ivor Tossell, a reporter with the Globe & Mail, discovered this recently when some of his songs (ostensibly written for family and friends) ended up online after his wife downloaded Last.FM. Next time you see Ivor, ask him about his album Tweet, Tweet, Mon Amour?, a fictional album listed on his Last.FM profile.

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Tumbling off the Apple Cart?

September 29th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in Apple/iPod

With the U.S. economy in “crisis” (Geoge Bush’s description, not mine), it comes as no surprise that everyone’s looking for victims.

The freshest specimen seems to be Apple, which has been riding high for the past four years on the aura of Steve Jobs, robust sales of iPods and Macs and the mainstream embrace of Apple as cool and hip.

While Apple is still as cool and hip as ever, some analysts seem to be getting a little nervous the Apple cart could be headed for a bumpy ride. RBC Capital’s Mike Abramsky has slashed his target price to $140 form $200, as well as his earnings estimate amid concerns about “a worsening consumer spending environment”. He cites research from ChangeWave suggesting there are fewer people looking to buy Macs over the next 90 days, even though he does expect higher iPhone sales.

While analysts establish their ratings based on fundamentals and financial expectations, I just don’t see consumers becoming any less enamored with Apple and its products. The iPhone, the iPod, MacBooks and even Mac desktops seem as popular and cool as every. I’ve heard no one suggest that they were going to buy a Mac or an iPod but have backed off because they’re worried about the economy.

In fact, I would argue Macs are probably a pretty good investment amid tough economic times because they work well and have excellent re-sale value. My sense is many people are going to make smarter choices about the products they purchase when every dollar counts, which means Apple could continue to ride high even if the economy stumbles.

More: For some thoughts about Apple shares, check out Henry Blodget’s recently post in Silicon Valley Insider.

Update: It turns out the ChangeWave reports looked at the spending expectations of corporate IT buyers as opposed to the general population. Given Macs don’t have a huge presence in the corporate market, you have to think Abramsky may have reacted too bearishly. Apple 2.0 has all the details.

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So, What’s In it For Me?

September 27th, 2008 | 5 Comments | Posted in Web 2.0

Update: The irrepressible Jason Calacanis has proclaimed that “50% to 80% of the venture-backed startups currently operating will shut down or go on life-support (i.e. 3-4 folks working on them) within the next 18 months”. Matthew Ingram boils down Calacanis’ key messages.

Anyway, back to our original programming, which is focused on an important element that startups need to focus on:

The Web 2.0 landscape is like going to a wonderful all-you-can-eat buffet where the menu is never-ending and there’s no worry the kitchen is going to run out of food.

With new services easy to create, launch and distribute, the Web 2.0 pipeline is gushing with new entries - some of them innovative, some of them useful/valuable and, sadly, many of them vanity projects that serve a niche so small that you wonder why they were created in the first place.

With so much choice and competition, the biggest challenge facing every new Web 2.0 is answering one fundamental question: What’s in it for me?

By that, I mean a service needs to communicate quickly and clearly why someone should use it. What does the service do? What problem does it solve? What are the benefits? How easy is it to use?

They sound like simple questions but you’d be surprised by how many Web 2.0 put the cart (the technology) before the horse (what the service does).

The pattern is pretty familiar: new service is launched to much excitement, gains a little traction from bleeding-edge users before quickly losing steam because it fails to resonate with “regular” people because the “What’s in it for me?” question isn’t answered or badly handled.

In the fast-moving Web 2.0 world where users exhibit little customer loyalty, you have to capture the attention and imagination of people immediately. Even if your service is great, you’re doomed if you fail to tell people from the start what it is and why they should use it.

The second part of the “What’s in it for me? equation is getting people into the service as quickly as possible once you convince them to cross the registration/trial hurdle. Your service needs to be intuitive, easy to use and user-friendly.

Again, this sounds like Web 2.0 101 but it’s difficult to pull off without a lot of work, insight and experimentation. How you think someone is going to use your service may be totally different from how it’s actually used. The features you believe are going to resonate with users may gather dust while features added as after-thoughts may be really popular.

The bottom line is you’ve got to watch how people use your service and what they do.

If you get no traffic or usage, there are fundamental problems that may force you to re-load. It could be the service sucks or you’ve done a terrible job telling people why they should use it. If people try the service and then leave, you may have a flow problem, which is a deal-breaker given many people will give up and move on to the next service if they run into any problems they can’t solve quickly.

So when you’re developing a new online service, put yourself in the shoes of the user, and ask yourself: “What’s in it for me?”. You may come up with answers that surprise you.

Update: An important part of any Web site that probably doesn’t get as much attention as it should is “About Us”. A good one can be an extremely valuable tool while a bad one will cause people to flee in frustration. Jakob Nielsen’s latest usability newsletter focuses on how to make “About Us” resonate with users. It’s a fascinating read.

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Firefox 3.0.2 - Evil!

September 26th, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted in Browsers

It looks like the latest version of Firefox (3.0.2) may not be ready for prime time. Lots of complaints that extensions that aren’t compatible and disappearing bookmarks.

You figure Firefox would be at its best behavior now that Chrome’s on the scene and looking for any chance possible to lure Firefox users over to the dark side.

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Are Political Lawn Signs an Anachronism?

September 26th, 2008 | 6 Comments | Posted in Media

Lawn Sign
As some of your may know, there’s another election happening in North America other than Obama vs. McCain.

In Canada, Stephen Harper is looking to turn a minority government into a majority so he can do all kinds of wonderful things to Canada (e.g. new, restricted copyright laws) with far less hassle. In any event, one of the things I noticed riding home yesterday was the appearance of lawn signs for local candidates.

There’s lots of different colors, although few for the Green Party, which, I guess, makes sense given the Green Party probably wants to be environmentally-friendly and focus its limited budget on different campaign priorities.

One thing that struck me is whether lawn signs - and, for that matter, campaign pamphlets - are an anachronism. In an age where the distribution of information is increasingly easy because of the Web, do we really need to be cutting down trees to create election collateral.

If you think about it, how much of an impact do lawn signs have anyway? Is the way you vote impacted at all?

Personally, lawn signs are a waste. They don’t say anything other than my name is Joe Smith and I’m running for the ABC company. There has to be better, more effective and greener ways to communicate and educate. It’s time for the political lawn sign to disappear.

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Five Questions with….SoftShell

September 26th, 2008 | 3 Comments | Posted in Five Questions With..., Software, Venture Capital

SoftShell
My mother is a Luddite with a capital “L”. But the reality is she’s pretty typical of the 60+ demographic that find computers far from user-friendly.

What’s interesting is that for all the hype about Web 2.0, meeting the computing and Web needs of a huge population hasn’t received nearly as much love or attention.

London, Ont.-based SoftShell is looking to fill the “senior’s void” with software that makes using a computer simple and easy to use. Sitting on top of Windows, Softshell lets people do four things and four things only: e-mail, games, photo-viewing and Web browsing. There’s no bells and whistles. It’s no-frills computing.

At first blush, SoftShell looks like a no-brainer given the market is potentially huge. There are, however, two major challenges: developing a business model where people pay for the software directly or indirectly; and getting distribution, whether direct through retail channels or deals with computer makers.

SoftShell hopes to take an interesting forward by seeking $200,000 in funding from the Dragon’s Den - a venture capital reality show now in its third season. SoftShell co-founder Stephen Beath wouldn’t spill the beans on whether SoftShell was successful but he did answer Five Questions with….

Q: So, how did SoftShell get started?

A: Our story started two years ago. For me, my family thought about getting my grandmother a computer to keep in touch. There was no way I was going to give her a Windows or Apple interface – the fonts are tool small and there’s too much going on. We looked around for a simple interface so we could e-mail. There was nothing around so we decided to build an interface.

We want to get this generation that had been left behind by current computers engaged. We had alpha version of the software. It is an interface that takes over the whole computer. It provides e-mail, games, photo viewing and Web browsing - the four most popular things that seniors are interested based on our research. It puts really simplified easy high-visible intuitive interface on those functions and strips out a lot of the functionality.

Q: Where are you in terms of development?

We have had an alpha version for eight months. We have been in beta testing of the past eight months. We have been testing with individual users, retirement homes, senior centers and geriatric centers. The software will be publicly available on Monday. You can download it for free from our Web site.

Q: What’s SoftShell’s business model?

Eventually, we are going to go with a two-tier system. You can pay or maybe you can have an ad-supported or partnership-supported version. We could build Skype into it. If the user goes for a Skype subscription, maybe Skype could pass along $5.

Q: How much money are you seeking from the Dragon’s Den?

A: We asked for a $200,000 investment on the show. We now have a product people love, we see it as marketing issue. We are looking to hire a marketing focused CEO; that would be the main purpose of that money to promote software and get us into other channels. It would be amazing to go into Future Shop or Shopper Drug Mart and see the product.

Q: Are there are companies focused on the seniors market?

A: There is a couple – none quite like ours. There are two Silicon Valley start-ups. Presto and Celery.

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Bell’s Brilliant Strategy: Charge for GPS!

September 25th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in ILEC News, Analysis

Money
Armed with a gazillion dollars in debt (Actually, $30-billion give or take a few dollars) if a private equity buy-out is consummated, Bell Canada’s new corporate mantra is: more cash flow, more cash flow.

In practical terms, what it means is Bell needs to squeeze as many dollars as it possibly can from consumers without squeezing too hard that they flee to their local cablecos (e.g. Rogers, Videotron, Cogeco).

So far, the Mo’ Cash Flo’ (MCF) strategy has seen Bell start to charge wireless users for incoming text-messages if they happen not to subscribe a monthly (aka recurring revenue) text-message bundle.

Now, there’s growing speculation that Bell wants to change the rules for wireless GPS.

According to Wellington Financial Blog, rather than stand on the sidelines while GPS becomes the new mobile “killer app”, Bell is apparently thinking of doing two things:

1. It could lengthen the time it takes for wireless user to access GSP services such as Google Maps and Blackberry Maps to 2 to 10 minutes from 15 to 20 seconds. And it could resolve GPS data to 1 to 2.5 kilometers rather than 10 to 25 meters.

2. For consumers looking for superior GPS service, Bell - surprise, surprise - would be more than happy to sell you its own service called GPS Nav for $10/month. Sweet.

Knowing the state of competition within Canada, Rogers and Telus will likely use Bell’s move as an excuse to also offer advance GPS service.

Putting aside Bell’s financial needs, it’s a shame that it’s trying to piggyback on the growth of GPS. We’re on the cusp of some really amazing innovation and services based on the ability to use location for all kinds of different things. To get in the way of free GPS to make a buck is sad but, frankly, not that surprising.

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PlanetEye Wins Fast 50 Award

September 25th, 2008 | 3 Comments | Posted in Uncategorized

With the recent launch of our new design, there has been a lot of working happening behind the scenes to make PlanetEye one of the world’s leading online travel planning destinations.

So, it’s exciting and gratifying to be recognized as one of Canada’s Companies-to-Watch Award as part of the 2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards. The award recognizes early-stage technology companies that have been in business for less than five years. and show management expertise and superior technology that set the stage for an early-stage company to enjoy continued growth.

By the way, we also got a great review on Webware earlier this week.

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Common Craft Tackles Search

September 24th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in Search Engines, Video

I’m a big fan of the Common Craft videos, which explain technology in plain English that anyone can understand - even my mother (aka The Luddite).

The latest offering looking at doing effective Web searches. You have to love how it uses “mullet” as an example.

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Tracking the the Conversations

September 23rd, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted in Web 2.0

Social Mention
When it comes to social media, everyone talks about being part of the conversation. As a result, there’s a lot of talking happening on blogs, micro-blogs (Twitter, et al) and social networks.

One of the challenges is trying to listen to all these conversations. If you’re interested in a particular idea, issue, trend, company or person, how do you effectively tap into the conversation?

The good news is over the last little while, new and interesting social media “listening” tools are starting to emerge. One of the most intriguing is Social Mention, a social media search engine for blogs, micro-blogs, bookmarks, comments, event, images, news and video.

For anyone who wants to track social media, Social Mention is an impressive tool with plenty of potential. Now, if this was a Silicon Valley startup, I suspect it would the toast of the town. But Social Mention is based in Ottawa, which is known more its telecom roots (Nortel, Newbridge, Mitel, etc.) than a social media hub.

I’m not sure if Social Mention wants to stay under the radar but it’s impossible to learn much about it given the “About” section tells you nothing other than what it does. But, hey, we’re Canadian so being meek and humble is part of our cultural DNA.

That said, Social Mention may not stay under the radar for too much longer. Mashable gave it a glowing review earlier this week so the world may be beating a path to its door any time soon.

If, by any chance, the people behind Social Mention use Social Mention to track conversations about themselves, I’d love to ask them a few questions. You know, the typical who, why, what stuff.

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