December 2007
The Cult Of The CEO Gene
I am not a fan of most management books. Perhaps I overdid it in the ’80s and ’90s, with Drucker, Porter, Davenport, Handy, Senge, and company. Or maybe I just lost my belief in the management game: the centralization of decision making in a cadre of professionally-trained business managers, being churned out by the business schools.
Gary Hamel, one of the most well-known...
links for 2007-12-30
Wikipedia warriors hit delete Is Wikipedia really open, or do the wiki-police cull too aggressively. (tags: wikipedia wikis pointer:steve+rubel)
RIAA’s Target In 2008: You RIAA trying to argue in a court case that ripping legally purchased CDs for personal use — like iPod — is illegal. Horse pucky. (tags: riaa music ipod piracy)
Will The iPod Kill Blockbuster? - Forbes.com...
Matthew Ingram on Wal-Mart And Scalable Experience
Matthew Ingram gets to the core message from Wal-Mart’s abortive attempts in downloaded movies, paraphrasing Ian Rogers of Yahoo Music:
Inconvenience doesn’t scale.
When providers of services structure user experience to be painfully annoying or unusable, people will stay away in droves.
What was Wal-Mart thinking? “We have 800K visitors a day, so…” They thought they...
Google Reader Sharing: Getting Social Scale Wrong
Google’s Chrix Finne (love the name!) posted about Google’s attempts to correct the social scale glitch inherent in their new Sharing capabilities:
We’ve gotten a lot of helpful feedback about our new sharing feature. We’d hoped that making it easier to share with the people you chat with often would be useful and interesting, but we underestimated the number of users...
Third Time's The Charm
Things happen in waves.
The other day, in San Francisco, I went to the nearest Starbucks, as is my pattern. I asked for the same coffee I get every time I go in.
Tall with room Americano, please.
The young woman at the register called out, like every other morning,
Tall with room Americano!
And the barrista, a guy, echoed back the same thing:
Tall with room Americano!
However, when...
Immanuel Kant
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above and the moral law within.
Harold Laski
Civilization means, above all, an unwillingness to inflict unnecessary pain.
Charles Darwin
If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
links for 2007-12-21
A Pause From Death - New York Times The countries in the U.N. against outlawing the death penalty as official barbarism: “The United States, as usual, lined up on the other side, with Iran, China, Pakistan, Sudan and Iraq. Together this blood brotherhood accounts for more than 90 percent of (tags: death penalty, united nations)
PR Squared - The Bastardization Of Social Media by Todd...
Open Web Awards: Judge’s Choice Winners Announced
I voted for most of these, I am happy to see:
[from Open Web Awards: Judge’s Choice Winners Announced]
Mainstream and Large Social Networks Facebook
Applications and Widgets Flock
Social News and Social Bookmarking Digg
Social Search Mahalo
Sports and Fitness ESPN
Photo Sharing Flickr
Video Sharing YouTube
Start Pages Netvibes
Places and Events Meetup
Music Last.fm
Social Shopping...
Chip Griffin on Throwing Out The Social Media...
I initially dismissed Chip Griffin’s luke-warm conservative thinking as tripe — calling him an ‘idiot’ in a del.iou.us link published here — and rereading it just confirms my feelings. It one of those wrong-headed posts that is based on a shadowy strawman that has hypothetically made a bunch of assertions Chip endeavors to knock down. But who actually made the...
links for 2007-12-20
Blog - Adegga.com » Blog Archive » We are on BusinessWeek Adegga is featured in Businessweek! (tags: social+wine+discovery businessweek adegga andre+ribeirinho wine)
Pew survey: Half of us have looked up people we know on Internet “47 percent of Internet users have searched for themselves online, up from 22 percent in 2002” (tags: pew, google, google mastubation)
Stowe Boyd
The world will never tell us why we are here.
New Office In South Park!
I was boosted from my old desk at 625 2nd Street (Looksmart building), but I have no regrets. I am moving into 156 South Park, actually a block closer to my studio apt on Brannan, and best of all, right on South Park!
Looks like Brian Solis will be occupying one of the desks there.
My ‘office’ is an open area on a mezzanine, up the stairway in the image below.
Stairs to my...
I'm Being Stalked By Amanda Chapel
Facebook | Message: with all due respect, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.
Yikes. My dissing of Chip Griffin on the ‘Social Media Rulebook’ nonsense has brought a hyena lusting for flesh after me — Amanda Chapel — because of the scent of blood in the air.
“She” said:
With All Due Respect
What makes a “Stowe Boyd” any less of a “sock...
Why I Enjoy Flickr
Why I Enjoy Flickr, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.
Flickr is persistently fun, and a really great ongoing conversation on my ‘life as a photostream.’ Here’s some recent activity: people commenting, favoriting pictures, adding tags.
Murmurs from WeFeelFine.org
WeFeelFine.org is super cool. Based on pulling text strings from the web that start with ‘I feel’. This is the ‘murmurs’ view. Designed by Jonathan Harris.
[from Murmurs, below]
I feel around there you are cool these engines calm these jets I ask you how hot can it get and as you wipe off beads of sweat slowly you say I’m not there yet.
wefeelfine -...
AIIM Market IQ On Enterprise 2.0 Survey
Dan Kneldsen at AIIM asked me to join a group he was putting together to join with him, Carl Frappaolo, and some others think deeply about Enterprise 2.0. They have blown the trumpets, and announced this advisory panel — Da Da Da Daaa!!! — like a Cecil B. DeMille movie. However, it is a group of smart people, so I can forgive the overblown hyperbole about how distinguished we...
links for 2007-12-19
That Rulebook Thing - Media Bullseye Chip Griffin returns to the Social Tools Rulebook meme, but not adding very much to the rewarmed and dumb conventional wisdom he served up the first time. (tags: chip+griffin the+social+rules+rulebook social+media pr)
Hashtags For My Followees
It looks like the Twitter #hashtags convention that Chris Messina and others— including me — have been pushing has been implemented by a group of developers (Eli, Neil, and Paul, Cody Marx Bailey and Aaron Farnham, thank you!). The site is up and running at hashtags.org.
You only need to do a few things for it to work:
Add @hashtags as a Twitter contact (‘follow’), and...
That Rulebook Thing
Throwing Out the Social Media Rulebook - Media Bullseye Chip Griffin is an idiot, proven by having Amanda Chapel, that sock puppet, applauding as the first comment to this screed. (tags: old media, pr, dinosaurs, social media)
Open Web Awards: Voting Begins
Here are the first four categories for the Open Web Awards voting:
Category:
Mainstream or Large Scale Network
Sponsors: Cohn & Wolfe PR & Mashable
Web Poll by Vizu
Category:
Application or Widget
Sponsors: Cohn & Wolfe PR & Mashable
Web Poll by Vizu
Category:
Social News or Social Bookmarking
Sponsors:...
Yiddish Saying
The whole world isn’t crazy.
[pointer: Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate]
Albert Einstein
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.
links for 2007-12-18
Best Web LittleCo of 2007: Twitter - ReadWriteWeb RWW picks Twitter - I’m down with that. (tags: twitter, readwriteweb, best little co)
A VC: Social Blogging Fred and others are struggling to differentiate the various sorts of social media — tumblr, twitter, vox, typepad, etc. I think it’s about social scale and tempo, about which I plan to write later this week. (tags:...
Alexander Pope
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Vancouver 12 December
I am recording some shows for Leo LaPorte’s TWiT this week, in Vancouver. Anyone want to have dinner Wednesday evening?
links for 2007-12-16
Journalism.co.uk :: US local site adapts to Twitter format for breaking news The Web is reforming the greater world, 140 characters at a time. (tags: twitter, newspapers, sms)
Kucinich: “I Hope That You’re Going To Talk About More Than A Tongue Stud.” - Horserace Kucinich’s wife is gorgeous, and the tongue stud (or ring?) makes for some salacious journalism. (tags:...
Look
I am looking forward to seeing this. I have written a number of posts on the world of surveillance we float in. This is a movies that sounds like it captures the ickyness inherent in being looked at all the time:
[from Film Shot Spy-Camera Style | Newsweek Entertainment | Newsweek.com]
With more than 30 million surveillance cameras in this country, the average American is caught on tape...
Champagne In A Can
Anybody out there - especially in Europe — wondering about what to get me for Xmax?
I’m not a Paris Hilton devotee, but champagne — or prosecco — sounds good. Supposed to be available in Europe now, and in the States in 2008.
Wind Dam
UK design firm, Chetwood Associates, have dreamed up a ‘wind dam’ to power a turbine:
[from Chetwood Associates’ sail-like ‘wind dam’ lands on Lake Lagoda]
The dam, which would be located over a gorge at Lake Lagoda in north-west Russia, includes a cup-shaped spinnaker sail, believed to be the first of its kind, which will generate renewable energy by funnelling the wind through...
DNA Dating: The Secret Is In The Body Odor
A new twist on online dating: ScientificMatch promises to match you up with people based on DNA analysis.
[from ScientificMatch.com]
The DNA analysis at ScientificMatch helps you find a partner with physical chemistry. When you share the magic of chemistry with someone, you’ll realize some amazing effects—which, admittedly, often sound fantastical. We’ve identified six specific benefits of...
Google Reader with Gtalk Contacts
Chrix Finn announced a new feature of Google Reader, an integration with Gtalk:
[from Reader and Talk are Friends!]
One of my favorite uses for Reader is to share interesting stuff with my friends. I click “Share” whenever I find an interesting item, be it hilarious or serious. This way, all my friends can subscribe to my shared items (and I to theirs), and we can easily see if...
T-Mobile Blocks Twitter: Enclosing The Commons
The news that T-Mobile is blocking Twitter, so that T-Mobile subscribers cannot update their status remotely, is bad news on several levels.
First of all, the immediate issue is the disruption of service, and the annoyance factor involved for those users.
The greater issue is the power play involved, where a cellular provider — who has been granted a license to use our radio spectrum by...
Google's Knol: No Wikipedia Killer (Yet)
One of the reasons I like blogs is that they are written by individuals: at least the good ones are. A specific perspective on some issue is presented, without the necessity for a review or editorial process, except for whatever the author wants to impose on his or her self.
This is also one of the reasons that I don’t really groove on wikis: they are a collectivized, blendo kind of...
Placely: A New Build, Cured At Least One Major...
I got a message from the CEO of Placely through the service:
[via Placely]
Hi Stowe —
My name is Denis Khoo and I am the CEO of Placely. I wanted to personally extend a warm welcome to you.
We saw your comment about Placely on your blog, and took immediate action. We just released a new build last night, and you are the first to be informed of this. I hope you enjoy the latest build,...
Knol = Unit Of Knowledge?
One errant thought about the Google knol announcement: they are suggesting that the work ‘knol’ represents a unit of knowledge.
[from Official Google Blog: Encouraging people to contribute knowledge by Udi Manber]
[…] a new, free tool that we are calling “knol”, which stands for a unit of knowledge.
And by associating this ‘unit’ with authoritative...
Word Of The Moment: Random Acts Of Traction
James Governor inspired Hugh McLeod to coin Random Acts of Traction as a description of breakthroughs in engagement with others.
Playyoo Goes Live
Playyoo — a new mobile casual game service — has gone live. The service is free, although downloading games incurs fees from your cell provider.
[I have been consulting to the company on the product for several months, and I have both an emotional and financial relationship with the firm, so I am decidedly biased. We have some great things planned for 2008.]
There are many...
Ear Wax Cleaner
EAR WAX CLEANER Originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd You’ve got to be kidding me.
Open Web Awards: Final Categories
I have been so scattered over the past few days that I’ve done a bad job keeping up with the blizzard of other categories in the Open Web Awards. Here are the remaining ones:
Category: Video Sharing
Sponsors: Cohn & Wolfe PR & Mashable
Web Poll by Vizu
Category: Start Pages
Sponsors: Cohn & Wolfe PR & Mashable
Web Poll by...
Muriel Rukeyser
The universe is made of stories, not atoms.
I'm Too Sad
Pictures of sad people from flickr from I’m Too Sad.
[pointer from tiny gigantic]
Bob Carlton on The 10th Anniversary Of Blogging
[via email]
Greeting[s,] fellow bloggers. Next Monday, we all have an anniversary - our tenth. According to Wikipedia:
the term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger (http://www.robotwisdom.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorn_Barger) on 17 December 1997. The short form, “blog,” was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog...
Chris Messina on DiSo And Inside-Out Social...
Chris Is trying to clarify the ambitious agenda he has for DiSo, the distributed social network project:
[from The inside-out social network]
I think the objective should not be to obviate Facebook or MySpace, but to build systems and to craft technologies that will benefit and make such sites more sustainable and profitable, but only if they adopt the best practices and ideals of openness,...
Bertrand Russell
Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer’s day.
Blognation Is Dead
According to Mobilejones, Blognation has been shuttered.
Sam Sethi has thrown in the towel. There’s no place to take Blognation given the reality of zero funding and mounting debt. No bills were paid and the train wreck has run over Sethi. He announced today that he will not continue and steps down from Blognation.
Ugly, ugly mess.
Scoble Headed For Fast Company
Scoble has again proven that the rumor mills are grinding out the truth, just as they did the last time around when he denied he was leaving Microsoft until the last day (see Scoble Is Moving On). This time, he is leaving PodTech, just as everyone has been suggesting for months. He is headed for Fast Company, another foray in the public media marketplace. Podtech is apparently headed for the...
Tin Cup McIlroy
Greatness courts failure.
links for 2007-12-12
» Survey: One in 3 IT projects fail; Management ok with it | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com “one in three companies’ technology projects fail to meet expectations and 43 percent of organizations say their managers accept these problems as the norm.” Yikes. That’s too much to just be a learning curve. (tags: it+project+failure)