Check out the 212 Movie! This is one of the best pieces I have seen on these Internet(s) ever. I have been surfing for quite some time, before Netscape; before Mosaic. This short piece is phenomenally well done and quite moving.
It will make your day.
I have a great neighbor. His name is Frank Barrett (family name is really Barrettino but the judge shortened it when his father emigrated from Italy. Maybe figured the family would fare better with a Waspy name?). He is 84 years old (more or less). Frank is a retired baker. Owned his owned bakeries since he was 22. Grew up in Pittsburgh. Served his country in WWII; definitely part of the greatest generation. Hard working. Honest. Street wise. Comes over so I can review various types of paper work he doesn't understand, but mostly comes over to shoot the breeze. If I don't see him in a couple of weeks I make it a point to give him a special invite. He waters my lawn twice a week (early bird gets up at 4:30 to walk) and keeps me informed of the neighborhood gossip.
Frank Barrett (Largo, FL) is one of many reasons that I love this country. His story is an American story. Smart, but undereducated, he managed to live the American dream. But this is not the end of the story. Frank continues to live the dream. Besides walking 40 minutes a day, he does daily aerobic exercise for another twenty. He loves to watch baseball and play the lotto. Goes out every day for 2-3 hours to have lunch, buy his lotto tickets and drink a few beers. Hasn't missed a day out in the four years that I have known him. Now Frank, as you might imagine, doesn't have a blog; I am sure he has never touched a computer in his entire life, but he is now on the Internet(s).
I was listening to Don Henley's CD "Inside Job" and specifically to "My Thanksgiving" when I thought of Frank. A couple of verses follow:
Now the trouble with you and me, my friend
Is the trouble with this nation
Too many blessings, too little appreciation
And I know that kind of notion well, it just ain't cool
So send me back to Sunday school
Because I'm tired of waiting for reason to arrive Its too long we've been living
These unexamined livesIve got great expectations
Ive got family and friends
Ive got satisfying work
Ive got a back that bends
For every breath, for every day of living This is my thanksgiving
Yeah it has been too long that we have been living these "unexamined lives." I don't have many friends like Frank Barrett, but I have a few. Some are not close enough to invite over for coffee, but because of the Internet they are not as far away as they use to be. I can email them. I can see them on live video. I can talk to them for next to nothing using VOIP. I can go online and hangout where they hangout. I can do all of these things, but I don't do them enough. But that will change. Why? Because the wife and I have been blessed with grandchildren and these kids were born digital. They don't live close but we can still be part of their lives. So I think that my grandchildren are inspiring me to become more connected just like Frank Barrett inspires me to be more connected.
For every breath, for every day of living This is my thanksgiving
Like Walt, I too hear America singing, our best days lie ahead. The dream remains alive in the 21 Century. The Internet will play a role. Sure it is great for commerce, but I am confident it will drive the American Renaissance. I wrote about that in What Comes After What Comes Next? many moon ago.
You heard it hear first.
I have been doing more than my usual share of hardcore surfing in preparation for the launch of a new “digital venture.” Much of this has been related to SEO and online marketing in general. This post has been “brewing” for more than a week now and I finally found some bandwidth to get it out.
Some posts are obviously “routine” and others require much more thought/editing, and hence the delay. I have great admiration for those bloggers that apparently can consistently write long “stream of consciousness” posts while at the same time making them eminently readable and coherent (either they have more talent or they don’t sleep much—likely both). I admit that for me these kinds of posts are a bit more painful to write.
I had the opportunity to listen to Chris Matthews speak a few months back and wanted to borrow his five key points with respect to “why it is early in web years?” I am neither a big fan (though I admit to watching “Hardball” in a past life when I watched more TV than I do now) nor a Matthews’ basher, but he was quite interesting and entertaining. His talk had nothing to do with the web. I am just using his five key points (I’ll call them rules) as a metaphor (while giving Chris his “props” at the same time).
Note to self.
Rule #1: Get in the game
It has often been said, but bears repeating, to “get” the web you have to “live” the web. You don’t live the web simply because you use Google and read the web. You have to join the conversation. You have to make some mistakes. If you want to leverage enabling technologies, whether it is blogging, social media, twitter or the next new thing, you need to start experimenting with them. If you want to learn about SEO you have to do some SEO. The same holds true for PPC. No, you don’t need to press all the buttons, but you are not going to “get it” if everything is delegated either. Why? Because you won’t understand what it is you asking someone else to do, since you don’t have the first clue. In short, if you want to play the game you have to get in the game and get off the sidelines.
Rule #2 Listen
Listening is painful because there is a lot of “snake oil” being sold and sometimes from corners that you least suspect. You can waste a lot of money and time (wasting the latter may have even more negative implications) if you don’t learn to listen. But, with the noise to information ratio so high, the first problem is figuring out whom you should listen to. There are more “experts” than “Carter has pills” (who the hell is Carter?) and you must sift through and triangulate the BS before you arrive at any sense of clarity. This is not a trivial exercise and it can’t be accomplished from the sidelines (see rule #1).
But lets just limit the conversation to online marketing. Sure SEO is important, but that is only a piece of the puzzle. If you are going to completely turn your online marketing over to Google and the SEO rabble (unless of course you find the needle in the haystack) then by all means plow ahead. But your business judgment should guide you online as it does off line. Online marketing is mostly about having a strategy and building key relationships (same as off line). If you think that all you need are links then it is clear that you haven’t been online long enough to realize that that particular game has been over for quite some time. What you really need is an interesting story to tell. You tell a story with content. Content is hard. That is the dirty little secret.
Rule #3 Ask
Sure you may eventually have to drop some coin on the problem. But you just might be amazed at what people are willing to tell you for free (often precisely because they believe you will drop some coin). Get engaged. Listen. Ask for some advice. Here’s some free advice, yeah you didn’t ask but I am giving it to you anyway. There are no solutions to the online marketing problem. There are processes that you need to develop and maintain over time. If you want a quick fix go to Starbucks and buy some espresso. Hey, I would like to press the PFM key and get results just like everybody else, but we all know (or should) that is not the way it works. Yeah asking might be humbling but there is simply too much complexity in the world. Get over it.
Rule #4 Get along with your competitors (practice civility)
The distance between two points on the network is zero. The circles are small. Be careful. How many reputations have imploded due to an organization’s own actions? Sure, there are powerful ways to leverage the network, but the network can also punish with devastating ferocity if you don’t understand its ethos. There are acceptable and unacceptable modes of behavior. You can run but you can’t hide. The network will find you. You can disagree. It is important to disagree. You can have controversial opinions. It is important to have controversial opinions. All of that is fair game if you practice civility. There are no reasons to create acrimony where civil conversation works just as well.
Rule #5 Wherever you go that is where you are (huh?)
Ok, I have no idea what Chris meant by this one but it is a “five rule post” so I have to give it a shot. This is how I think this one works for the web. The web is a journey. It takes us to places both near and far (i.e. to our understanding of the evolving “digital universe”). We must travel often and travel well. There are lots of opportunities for exploration. This journey that we are on is in its infancy. You are not too late. The journey has barely gotten started. It will continue to surprise us. That is, if we let it. It is still early in web years. If this were a book we don’t as yet have a table of contents. Yeah the ship has set sail but we have no earthly idea where it is headed.
Find a good story and tell it. Get in the game (find a boat). Listen. Ask. Practice civility. Wherever you go that is where you are.
Link: Official Google Blog: Announcing Project Virgle. You may have to volunteer but I in fact was recruited for project Virgle (mission to Mars). In my case, I think it is a conspiracy to try and remove me from this planet before my time.
As Jimi once said: "See ya in the next world, don't be late."
Link: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Meanwhile, back at the plantation. Nick writes a populist post for the Internet masses (musicians in this case) which is not exactly what you might expect from him. It is quite well done and manages to "pull at the heart strings" for the little guy (in all sincerity it does). And while many us have similar sentiments for the "sharecroppers" of the world (either having been among them or watched our parents labor in those fields)--the argument Nick makes is fatally flawed.
The musicians who "licensed their works" did so obviously because they thought that they would benefit from doing so. The fact that the other party to the "contract" benefited more, leaves them no real room to complain. This does not have the markings of a "contract of adhesion" where the "little guys" had no other alternative but to sign on the dotted line. They freely entered into a private agreement. Private agreements (i.e. contracts) control most of what occurs in the business world on a daily basis. They allocate risk, not after the fact, but at the time the contract is made. Sans some kind of illegality or fraud, they are a critical part of the legitimate engine that drives commerce as we know it.
Aren't book publishers a kind of plantation owner? Large corporations? Newspapers? The point is that we can't start denying a party the benefit of the bargain without it having much broader implications with respect to the society in which we live. A society (despite its shortcomings) that has produced arguably the best standard of living, for the most people, that the world has ever known. It can and should be improved. There are iniquities in the distribution of wealth that "scream for a solution" in a civilized society, BUT contract doctrine is not the place to muck with "social engineering" experiments.
Link: Michael Geist - Why Is There No Canadian MIT?. There is something fascinating (and important) with respect to what MIT (and the consortium) is doing vis-a-vis higher education. It is called "accessibility" to the masses. The dissemination of knowledge, and the rate by which it is being disseminated, could be what makes (or breaks) some nation states in the 21 century. Don't believe me, just see who is following MIT's lead--China of course, and India and the rest of the developing world are soon to follow. Why? Because the rules of the game have changed (again) and these countries are seizing the opportunity. Thank God that MIT is right here in the good 'ole USA, because where there is no vision, the people (eventually) perish...
Victor Hugo (I think) once said: "if you build more schools then you can build less prisons." We should be investing heavily in education, but instead our politics is still dominated by the type of thinking that leads more toward prisons and less toward education. To borrow from JFK: "progress is a nice words but progress has its enemies."
Link: E-Greetings Gain Ground at Businesses This Season - New York Times. Many commentators like to indicate how e-greeting are "green friendly"--which of course they are, but it is as if they need some justification for this behavior. It is simply a reflection of our "digital lives"--a profound transformation of how we live, work and play.
This is the beginning, the tip of the metaphorical "digital iceburg," we should stop pretending that we know where all of this is headed, we don't. But one thing is clear, paper Christmas cards are already a thing of the past. It just make more sense to send the bits...they are just as effective for reaching out and touching friends and family, at Christmas or any other time.
Link: blog.pmarca.com: Open Social: screencast and screenshots. Looks like Google just turned Facebook into Microsoft (i.e. proprietary social network). Ouch! Here Marc is having some fun with the new "Open Social API."
The medium indeed appears to be much, much bigger than the message. The fun is just starting....
Link: Poll: US Attitudes About Internet Are Insane. I am not sure what to think of these results other than this "thing" we call the medium is perhaps more powerful than what we have previously attributed to it.
The absolute obsession with search, social networks, and all things digital on college campuses (and elsewhere) is startling--even for those of us who have been long time netizens and observers of this space.
There is something transformative happening that is perhaps more fundamental and profound than even what a credible futurist (e.g. Alvin Toffler) might acknowledge. Perhaps a "singularity" of sorts is starting to manifest?
Link: Doc Searls Weblog � Go from hell. I am a big fan of the "good doctor" and "the cluetrain manifesto" was a major part of the inspiration behind "Silicon Stories" but I do not understand Doc's obsession with the "evil that is marketing."
Sure, I don't necessarily want to be marketed to 24/7 on each and every connected device that I own and over the telephone at dinner, or most other times, but that does not lead me to the conclusion that "marketing is evil." Doc may not be going this far, but his rants are pretty damn close.
Our (as in "us Americans") ability to market has led to one of the greatest standards of living the world has ever known. Yeah, there are no perfect economic systems, but this one has managed to work quite well, thank you very much, despite the fact it often abuses the least of those among us and over compensates the rest.
Even the non-marketing "buy side movement" will require marketing if it is to succeed!
Link: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Adblock Plus: what would Jesus do?. While I agree with most of Nick's analysis I am not necessarily convinced that Jesus would be anti-market or anti-advertising. The hidden premise here being that Jesus was the "original socialist." A more plausible argument is that Jesus might have believed in a "less Darwinian market" but the basic workings of supply and demand and a free and open marketplace are not necessarily, or even probably, inconsistent with the kind of Christianity espoused by Lord himself--including marketing and advertising (i.e. marketing and advertising are NOT evil). Granted I am far from an expert on these matters, so consider the source.
Link: The angst of Silicon Valley (Scripting News). We die. Those were the two words that made the cluetrain manifesto the great read that it was/is--markets as conversations yes, but within the context of our own mortality. It is only through recognizing our own mortality that we begin to get a perspective on the important issues in life, only a subset of which have to do with what we do for a living and the benefits we derive therefrom.
If you believe, as I do, that all good things in the universe happen through divine grace, then you will have no problem understanding why those among us (see link above) with north of a million dollars (or several million) in net worth do not feel secure with such a pittance. There is no amount of net worth that will make people feel secure. Security, if it can be had at all given the "heartaches and the thousand natural shocks the flesh is heir to," comes from what we believe in and the way that we live.
There is nothing wrong with material wealth, only a fool would believe that there is. However, the Beatles had it right: "I don't care too much for money, because money can't buy me love" nor much of anything that is really worth having! I would rather spend my days doing what I love and earn a modest living than to be a "fat man in the eye of a needle."
Link: New Freedom Destroys Old Culture: A response to Nick Carr. Many-to-Many: I love Clay's piece and I also enjoyed Nick's, despite the fact that they (presumably) take different sides of this argument. Nick's piece did not strike me as nostalgic when I read it (it has been awhile) and I will have to revisit it in light of what Clay has written. It just appeared to be a well researched and eloquently articulated post. His argument appeared plausible and, like I said, I enjoyed reading it. I seriously doubt that re-reading it will change that, even if I find it to be "nostalgic."
That said, I have little patience for the kind of nostalgia that Clay describes. I wrote about it in What Comes After What Comes Next? When someone waxes nostalgic about the "good 'ole days" (e.g. the 1950's), the first thing that comes to mind is "good for whom?" Change happens, deal with it.
I have written on this topic in the past here and the more things change the more they remain the same. In a skills based economy, talent trumps! However, it is not clear that the majority of knowledge-based enterprises (which aren't?) "get it." But, even those that do, have the enormous challenge of growing, finding and retaining their fair share of talent.
Formerly, in the technology space, it was "superior technical skills" that were highly sought after. These remain important, but more important is the combination of "hard and soft skills" required to compete in the new economy. It is all about relationships and effective communications. It is all about story telling. But the billion dollar question is "where are the combination of these skills taught?"
Companies are forced to consistently find the "needle in the haystack" or create a learning environment where a constant supply of needles are "manufactured" over time. The latter is the ultimate differentiator but it is difficult to do in a hyper-competitive economic environment. The former (i.e. recruiting) will continue play a significant role. The right combination of the two is the challenge in the short run--that and ensuring you retain the talent once you acquire it.
Link: Online Sales Lose Steam as Buyers Grow Web-Weary - New York Times. The data for e-Commerce sales going forward is not a rosy as it has been in the past. The "data collectors" have been predicting this for some time now and there are many factors contributing to the slowdown. The interesting phenomenon that is emerging is not "clicks versus bricks" but "clicks & bricks." The so called hybrid models may be the e-Commerce winners going forward. Why? Because we do not live in the on-line world as opposed to the off-line world, we simply live and work in the world, which is a world of bits and of atoms. What we want is the integration of the two. The companies that can provide a "seamless integrated experience" are likely to get our attention.
The takeaway is that face time still matters; personal relationships still matter; service from a human being that we know and trust still matters. Yeah the bits still matter, but you cannot hide behind the faceless facade of the network.
I like this post by Doc Searls. We are all "authors of each other." Why? Because everyone once in a while, when the "good doctor" is not busy ranting about VRM, a topic no doubt important but for whatever reason my interests don't go there, he will post something "Cluetrainesque." Here he addresses how we all get caught up in the sound of our own wheels turning with "social media this" and "web 2.0 that" (guilty as charged) but in reality the best of the web is grounded in our humanity and when we inform (as opposed to delivering information) we "enlarge" these ties that bond, something writers (of all stripes) have been doing now for thousands of years...
Link: Chuck Newton: How To Choose A Law School. I really enjoy Chuck Newton's (or Mr. Chuck, or Mr Chuck Newton, or well never mind it is just "an 'ole Texas thing") writing style/voice as well as that of my good friend Rick "Saint" Georges not only because they inform, but primarily because they also entertain. It is a rare gift to be able to do both. It seems to me that they both just love to write and it shows...
BTW Chuck, I really believe that your post on choosing a law school is really "on point," especially that part about it being "all about the karma dude." Strange that Chuck would use the word "dude" (from Texas and all). I lived in Houston for 20 years and the only time I heard "dude" was when I said it--so Mr. Newton (sir), I appreciate you being both brilliant, Texan and west coast hip at the same time!
There is a danger/paradox of becoming disconnected when we spend a large part of our time in the "online world." Being online is obviously becoming more and more a requirement in the western world and everywhere else as well. Here's a podcast about the importance of "face time" in business and here why "face time" is an absolute requirement in China.
The importance of seeing and hearing to our "lizard brains" is one of the reasons that Internet video is quickly becoming the "next killer app" (best way to describe it despite the cliche). But even this is no substitution for the real thing.
I often go to the spa as a way of "social networking"--not because I am looking for professional contacts but simply because I enjoy sitting in a coed sauna and chatting with the "old timers" (read retirees) about everyday stuff. It makes me feel "plugged in" socially in a much more profound way...
Link: Dealing_with_Darwin: Dateline Davos: The Shifting Power Equation. Geoff doesn't post often but when he does it is usually quite insightful. Here he comments on many different kinds of power shifts but particularly on the shift from those that don't communicate well to those that do. This idea is also captured in a manifesto by Steve Hardy entitled "The Creative Generalist" here. It is, according to Geoff, the antithesis of the "revenge of the nerds."
While I agree with this for the most part (i.e. a shift to the liberal arts enabled) I would qualify that and say that the shift is to the "geeky liberal arts enabled"--a kind of techno literacy is still required but it is much less engineering centric.
Link: Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Honey, I shrunk the culture. There is something that feels right about "short" for lots of day to day informational needs. Probably that is just the nature of things in the wired (always on) universe. Sure, a long read has its place and is not going away, but it certainly feels like short is becoming more and more relevant.
Sounds like a "hippie" gathering (more info here) but honestly there is lots on the web to be thankful for. I recently was diagnosed with Type II diabetes and was out of commission for a few days. Still I was able to get a "ton of stuff" done from home and felt connected and "plugged in." For the universe of knowledge workers, being out of the office no longer means "missing work"--at least not entirely. Clearly 24/7 connectivity should be having a positive impact on productivity and no doubt the increasd productivity should "soon, if not already" be reflected to the upside in the economic data.
Not only was I somewhat productive, I got to do some reasearch on what the hell I had been diagnosed with--no shortage of information regarding diabetes on the net, including at http://www.diabetes.org. Again the number of people doing personal medical research on the net includes just about everyone (for sure the old folks like me). Again a better medically informed populis should have positive system wide benefits.
The list goes on and on...we may never have a perfect "electronic commons", BUT what we have is pretty damn good, and certainly worth celebrating!
My Mom, bless her heart, was brought kicking & screaming into the 21st century. She has often railed against gadgets, gizmos, controllers and other complex, but useful devices that we find indispensable in a post post modern world (whatever that means, it just sounds cool when people say it). She survived Katrina but not without the trials and tribulations associated with being rescued from the rising water. Her world, like many others, was turned upside down. In addition to losing her house and worldly possessions, she lost her ability to effectively communicate with friends and family since the cell phone was one of those infernal contraptions she eschewed.
Luddite no more, she now confidently wields her cell phone and is happy to have it. The initial learning curve and fear and trepidation of dealing with a new device is over. She has not yet mastered the built in rolodex, but in time this wall will be climbed. She has proved to herself that can learn to use these gadgets because they are useful to her. In many ways her fears were similar to executives that initially refused to use email & now wield Treos and Blackberry's.
Truth be known there is a Luddite in all of us. Every time we face learning a new technology, we initially resist. We are comfortable with the status quo (our PC's or Mac's or Ipods or whatever) and fear and loathe the initial wall, until necessity or a friend help us over it.
Josh Howard of the Dallas Mavericks made a critical mistake last night in the 5th game of the NBA playoffs. One that Josh should lose lots of sleep over, so that it rarely happens again. He missed two critical free throws at crunch time that could have made all the difference between winning & losing. The little timeout episode he should just chalk up to shit happens. Josh, don't lose any sleep over this nonsense, making a mistake like that does not make you a loser, it make you human. Unfortunately this winner take all culture of ours is going to blow this incident up so much that if you pay attention to them an army of shrinks won't be able to help you!
There is a story that in the early days of IBM a green sales executive had botched a $5 million dollar deal (in the days when $5M was real money). A reporter/bystander (whatever) asked Thomas Watson (founder) if he was going to fire the employee, and he responded with "fire him? I just payed $5 million dollars for his education."
Related Tags: Heat, Mavericks, Josh Howard, NBA
The Dixie Chicks have shown more courage and integrity than most politicians; whatever the political import of their statements, the response from some "fans" is indicative of what can happen when hatred is used to divide a nation. I have yet to hear any politician, from either side of the aisle, condemn the fan behavior. I guess that politicians are all too ready to make nice, do not have the courage of their convictions (i.e. are unwilling to take risks), and then wonder why voters are apathetic. Here are three courageous women willing to emotionally challenge the nation's drifting sense of right and wrong.
They may have lost some "fans" but they are gaining others by the thousands. By challenging hatred head on, and making no excuses about it, they are providing a much needed example for the rest of us, who often live our lives pretending not to see the elephant in the room of our nation's house. This house is in dire need of some repair, otherwise Lincoln's famous words may yet live to haunt us, again.
Related Tags: Dixie Chicks, Anthem, Music
These are the good 'ole days living in the promise land. Took the dog (Dallas) for a long walk, longer than expected because we had some time to kill before the library opened. Met some friends I didn't know after they let their dogs out to run with Dallas. Funny how dogs bring people together. Nice people, hope to see them again.
Kicked back in the Santa Fe and opened the sun roof to get some rays. Listening to Willie Nelson songs on a bright sunny day in Largo, FL--it doesn't get any better!
Give us your tired an poor, and we will make them strong
Bring us your foreign songs, and we will sing along
Give us your broken dreams, and we will help them mend ...
There is room for everyone living in the promise land
Ah the hope that is America, the greatest social experiment known to man, may our children seize the moment and keep the dream alive! And may we keep the fires burning long enough for them to do so!
Felix Gerena talks about the power of poetry here, and while poetry sounds like something "far out" for a business consultant to be talking about, I believe Felix is right on target. A madman wrote about the coming American Renaissance in What Comes After What Comes Next? and emerging digital technologies (e.g Ajax) and "new media everywhere" are poised to help launch it.
Felix here is hoping that you "keep on rocking in the free world!"
Tags: Web 2.0
