Monthly Archives: September 2011

seth godin: The forever recession

1 Reply

4592494419_c93ffdbdc8_z.jpg

Via Seth’s Blog: The forever recession (and the coming revolution):

This means we may need to change our expecations, change our training and change how we engage with the future. Still, it’s better than fighting for a status quo that is no longer. The good news is clear: every forever recession is followed by a lifetime of growth from the next thing…

Job creation is a false idol. The future is about gigs and assets and art and an ever-shifting series of partnerships and projects. It will change the fabric of our society along the way. No one is demanding that we like the change, but the sooner we see it and set out to become an irreplaceable linchpin, the faster the pain will fade, as we get down to the work that needs to be (and now can be) done.

This revolution is at least as big as the last one, and the last one changed everything.

Godin says in a more intelligent, eloquent and much less expletive-ridden way what I was trying to say a few weeks ago. The country is experiencing a fundamental shift away form manufacturing, away for service and toward entrepreneurship driven by digital connectivity. if you’re depending on a big company that makes things to keep you employed and keep you happy, you’re going to be disappointed. The next economy — which is coming, but isn’t here yet — will be based on an individual’s ability to think creatively and innovate, work in small teams and create products (using the term loosely here) not paperwork.

This is going to be a difficult transition for many Americans, and many will be out of work or have to transition to lower-paying menial jobs. It will disrupt everything from how we educate our kids, to how we power our society, to how (or even if) we get from point A to point B. Lots of Americans will suffer from this change, but many more will eventually live more prosperous, fulfilling and balanced lives based on their own ingenuity.

Now is not the time to tear down the social safety net, cut back on education spending, environmental regulations, or provide tax breaks for businesses and industries that are so clearly on their death bed and acting in opposition to the revolution that is coming. Now is not the time to try to inject a terminal patient with the false panacea of “jobs.” Now is the time to recognize what is ahead, clearly articulate the changes and challenges that are coming and invest in the things that are going to make that transition as easy and painless as possible. I have yet to see anyone with the political will or skill to do all three.

(Photo: Abandoned marble factory (10) by Flickr user Joelk75. Used under a Creative Commons License.)

dwayne de rosario hat trick and dc united playoff run

Leave a reply

While Washington sports fans marvel at their professional football team’s 2-0 start and wonder if they can beat the hated Cowboys tonight, their professional futbol (aka. soccer) team is making a late playoff run powered by veteran Canadian Dwayne De Rosario. This weekend he scored his second hat trick of the season, which happened to be the fastest hat trick recorded in MLS history.

After several seasons in the wilderness this year, DC United is in hot pursuit of the playoffs. They are one point behind New York  for the final playoff spot with two games in hand and four points behind Houston for the top spot with three games in hand. In the moribund Eastern Conference, a playoff birth is United’s to lose.

bring your own device to work: a happy worker is a productive worker

Leave a reply

Via The New York Times: Workers’ Own Cellphones and iPads Find a Role at the Office“

You shouldn’t reject things that make employees more productive, and if those things happen to be consumer technologies, so be it,” said Ted Schadler, an analyst with Forrester Research.

Corporate I.T. departments often resist allowing consumer technology on their networks because of security concerns. Adding a hodgepodge of devices and services also complicates their job.

But I.T. departments are gradually warming to the idea simply because their bosses left them little choice. The I.T. staff may grieve for their lost power, but they do it.

“They’re over the denial and anger stage, and now they are in the acceptance and ‘How can we help?’ stage,” said Mr. Schadler, who co-wrote the book “Empowered,” which addresses consumer technology in the workplace. “What broke the camel’s back was the iPad, because executives brought it into the company and said ‘Hey, you’ve got to support this.’

At its heart, the “Bring Your Own Device” to work philosophy is about productivity. Its about allowing workers to choose the device that works for them so they will want to use it. In my own experience, once my job allowed me to switch from a PC to a Mac, I found I wanted to use it after hours. Sure, that sometimes meant surfing the web and blogging, but it also meant checking email, catching up on an overdue assignment and working on passion projects that may or may not pan out.

Even when I’m not doing something “work related” on my computer I’m often checking out new websites for design or content ideas, reading TechCrunch, or otherwise building my knowledge of how the digital world works — all of which I bring back to my job and increases the company’s knowledge base.

So make no mistake about it, bring your own device to work is not just about giving employees choice so they are happy. It’s about giving employees choice so they are happy and always working.

Hat tip: Daring Fireball

john krasinski and alec baldwin rivalry ads for new era

Leave a reply

AdWeek has a great piece on the New Era rivalry commercials starring John Krasinski and Alec Baldwin. The spots help bring back some cool to baseball and help bring non-fans into the game.  Interesting tidbits include the fact that Krasinski and some writers for the Office rewrote most of the scripts to amp up the humor. Also, Alec Baldwin does most of his acting for this series and 30 Rock off of a teleprompter, which he uses to help get his timing right.

The spots have only aired a few times on television,  but have found a huge audience online. In fact, my wife — not exactly a baseball fan, but a huge Krasinski and Baldwin fan — told me about them.

My favorite spot, “912,” is posted below, and you can see all of them over at AdWeek.

first thoughts: what the new Facebook means for non-profits

Leave a reply

FBTimeline

Yesterday, Facebook unveiled a slew of new changes that will be coming soon to the free social networking service used by everyone with an internet connection. These changes represent perhaps the most profound remaking of Facebook since it opened itself up to the outside world, becoming something more than a place for college kids to socialize online.

Lifehacker has a pretty good list of all the changes, but the two areas that I think are going to have the most impact for the non-profit space, where I work, are The Timeline and Social App integration. Below are my initial thoughts on both.

The Timeline
Writing in TechCrunch, Joe Green, Founder and President of Causes summed up the transition to Timeline and what it might mean for non-profits really well, at least as it relates to fundraising through Causes:

The current profile benefits applications that have frequent usage, such as games, but offers no way to show how deeply someone cares about something…

This new version of profile, if it works correctly, should achieve a balance between displaying things you have done recently and representing a comprehensive view of who you are. Key to this will be understanding which actions you really care about, even if they happen infrequently, and which frequent actions you care less about. Facebook seems to be intending to do this algorithmically, but I bet they will end up incorporating a big dose of direct user curation, as they are now doing with friend lists. Being able to ‘star’ a story is a good start, but it will need to be able to happen more in the flow of posting.

Certainly, the prospects of non-profits raising money through Causes goes up when the service has a permanent spot on the user’s Timeline and has better integration into the social stream. However, I think we all need to ask ourselves, “How often do Facebook users actually look at other user’s profile page?” The answer, of course, is, “not very often.” Right now, users typically only view a profile page when they decide to become friends with a new user or like a new brand.

While The Timeline is certainly a huge improvement in displaying a user’s profile, will it be compelling enough for people to spend more time on profile pages? I have my doubts. People use Facebook to know what’s happening right now, historical curation is fun but it’s not going to be a huge draw.

More interesting to me is how non-profits will set up their timelines and what it will mean for companies like Buddy Media, which has built a business on creating Facebook tabs for brands in order to boost user engagement. With the new timeline, non-profits will be able to create beautiful Facebook pages themselves and install apps directly to their timeline to boost engagement. Suddenly, a custom-built tab doesn’t seem quite as necessary. However, custom built apps for non-profits (and brands in general) to place in their timeline do seem increasingly necessary. If I were a developer at Convio I’d be building a donation app for Facebook right now.

The Timeline will give non-profits (and all brands, really) the opportunity to use Facebook more as a destination site, rather than just a platform to push messages. This will come through custom widgets, more meaningful photo integration and flexibility for clever people to figure out how to showcase their fans and user generated content on The Timeline.

Social App
This is a hard one to wrap your head around, but what it basically means is the ability to seamlessly share what you’re doing online and give your friends the opportunity to do it along with you. This will be built into applications — if you’re listening to music, it will be shared in your stream instantly and others will be given the opportunity to listen to it as well (presumably “with” you). It will also be built into web content — if you’re reading TechCrunch, others will be notified of that in the Ticker window. You will be able to turn this function on and off, but once its turned on sharing will be automatic.

For non-profits this means that donations, petitions and other actions can now be instantly shared across Facebook with the hope that others will join in, in real time. Just as you can now listen to music “with” your friends, you will now be able to take action “with” them as well. A well-run campaign built around this functionality could be huge for a non-profit.

It also has implications for building engagement in fun and non-traditional ways. Non-profits should be thinking about partnering with one of the dozen or so music services that will allow for instant sharing to host listening parties for their Facebook fans. Bring in a celebrity DJ, allow fans to listen to some good tunes and chat about why they support their cause. A similar model could work with documentary premiers or other online video.

The possibilities around experiencing rich content with your fans are vast, and more importantly fun.