One of the readers of Web 3.0 (check out his blog at www.makingcreativematter.com) forwarded a great link to a another blog which I thought I should pass on.
Maybe that last sentence demands a diagram? Maybe - but the point is this. The Boy Genius Report published an email eerily similar to the one I posted not long ago, from the CEO of an Arizona startup regarding a cracked iPhone screen.
The BGR speculated that these emails are coming from a rogue Apple employee. But maybe the reality is that Steve Jobs (pronounced with the soft J of the Spanish language), staff accountant at Apple, has been receiving the REAL Steve's emails, and simply having a little fun?
In any event, it seems unlikely that this is unsanctioned communication, and given that, the consensus seems clear. Not a great way to treat customers.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Naymz - Good Idea with a Laym Name
At the risk of insulting the founders - the name of this new take on social networking needs to be changed. Enough already with the misspelling thing. We got it. Move on.
Anyway, naymz.com is interesting, especially as an indication of how social networking apps are changing - here's an early assessment:
1) They have some good nuggets hidden under some hackneyed tricks. Good nuggets - manage your personal identity on line! Bad stuff like a Plaxo-style "invite your friends" (quick way to annoy your friends) and the opportunity to share your maiden name (great way to provide a key piece of info to data zombies).
2) A score (they call it a "RepScore") for your reputation and some identity verification services - a huge hole in social networking apps, especially for business, is a means of ensuring you are who you say you are, and that there is greater transparency to your reputation. So this is an important first step. But unfortunately, the rep is based on stuff similar to that of LinkedIn, like whether my profile is complete, and how many contacts I have. So it remains a score, not of reputation, but of my ability to do what naymz.com needs me to do to build out a comprehensive database.
3) Strategically, www.naymz.com has internalised that their competitive advantage won't come through a walled garden - so they work with LinkedIn and others. How well, I cannot say, but simply focusing on extending the value of current social networking apps by being a reputation and identity verification engine is an important step in the evolution.
Anyway, naymz.com is interesting, especially as an indication of how social networking apps are changing - here's an early assessment:
1) They have some good nuggets hidden under some hackneyed tricks. Good nuggets - manage your personal identity on line! Bad stuff like a Plaxo-style "invite your friends" (quick way to annoy your friends) and the opportunity to share your maiden name (great way to provide a key piece of info to data zombies).
2) A score (they call it a "RepScore") for your reputation and some identity verification services - a huge hole in social networking apps, especially for business, is a means of ensuring you are who you say you are, and that there is greater transparency to your reputation. So this is an important first step. But unfortunately, the rep is based on stuff similar to that of LinkedIn, like whether my profile is complete, and how many contacts I have. So it remains a score, not of reputation, but of my ability to do what naymz.com needs me to do to build out a comprehensive database.
3) Strategically, www.naymz.com has internalised that their competitive advantage won't come through a walled garden - so they work with LinkedIn and others. How well, I cannot say, but simply focusing on extending the value of current social networking apps by being a reputation and identity verification engine is an important step in the evolution.
The Power of Photoshop Comes At A Price?
Free stuff is great, and more software providers are giving a taste of their products for free (although we all know TANSTAAFL). Photoshop Express is Photoshop's foray into this space - don't be surprised if Sign Up and demo links are not working. Looks as if they may be getting some volume based on the news?
They've caused a stir, however, with terms of use that seem to give them rights to user's photos.
Again, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, folks.
They've caused a stir, however, with terms of use that seem to give them rights to user's photos.
Again, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, folks.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Social Networking - Not Panning Out "As Well As We Hoped"
In last week's Economist (March 22nd 2008), the article "Everywhere and Nowhere" ran - and it had a great reference to an admission by Sergey Brin that social networking wasn't working out as planned, and the "monetisation work we were doing didn't pan out as well as we had hoped."
MySpace, Facebook, and others are not living up to the hype? Wow, surprising. Perhaps people are only temporarily entertained by throwing sheep at each other?
The article discusses some of the recent attempts to monetize people's friends...again, I'm really surprised that this idea hasn't captured the imagination of the collective user base. (I forget, what's the icon for sarcasm?).
Open standards is held out as the gold standard of the future by the Economist's writers...well, they're partially right, anyway. At least in my opinion, so take it for what it's worth.
The real answer is that social networking is actually, in many ways, a step back to Web 1.0 combined with an oversimplification. Many of the products in vogue at the moment are semi-simplistic gadgets - in a reversal from the ambition of Web 1.0.
Simply linking to your friends, or sending out text messages to a defined group, and funding it through advertising simply doesn't seem to be enough, does it? Well, not unless you're positioning your company for sale to Google within 3-5 years.
But why would anyone want to do that?
The real answer is for these products companies to get bold, and create products that truly create value for consumers, not simply allowing them to hawk products to their friends. A good example of companies embracing this idea, ironically, are Google itself, and Apple.
Perhaps not surprisingly, share performance in both companies has been consistently hot for a while now. And I don't expect it to cool down much, or for long.
MySpace, Facebook, and others are not living up to the hype? Wow, surprising. Perhaps people are only temporarily entertained by throwing sheep at each other?
The article discusses some of the recent attempts to monetize people's friends...again, I'm really surprised that this idea hasn't captured the imagination of the collective user base. (I forget, what's the icon for sarcasm?).
Open standards is held out as the gold standard of the future by the Economist's writers...well, they're partially right, anyway. At least in my opinion, so take it for what it's worth.
The real answer is that social networking is actually, in many ways, a step back to Web 1.0 combined with an oversimplification. Many of the products in vogue at the moment are semi-simplistic gadgets - in a reversal from the ambition of Web 1.0.
Simply linking to your friends, or sending out text messages to a defined group, and funding it through advertising simply doesn't seem to be enough, does it? Well, not unless you're positioning your company for sale to Google within 3-5 years.
But why would anyone want to do that?
The real answer is for these products companies to get bold, and create products that truly create value for consumers, not simply allowing them to hawk products to their friends. A good example of companies embracing this idea, ironically, are Google itself, and Apple.
Perhaps not surprisingly, share performance in both companies has been consistently hot for a while now. And I don't expect it to cool down much, or for long.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Spring Cleaning Time
OK, this video is only slightly related to my topic...or is it? I am not actually advocating boot stretchers and the like.
But spring is a time of renewal, and it is also the cruelest month...meaning, as the woman in this video rightly points out, it's time to get some things crossed off your technology "to do" list.
Here's a quick list to get you started:
1) Get a credit report or a D&B report, and look at what you see. Start your cleaning there. Put a 7 year lock on your credit report - there's really no reason not to.
2) Open the Google Home page. Type your name into it. Hit search. What do you see? Repeat for your family, etc.
3) Organize the files on your computer(s) (and phone...and websites...). Then back them up. 1 terabyte of storage is around $250 at this point. You have no excuse. If you are a business, be sure that your IT policies from security to backup are up to snuff. Then test them.
4) Assemble a list of all the web accounts you have. Those that are worthless, cancel. Those you use, be sure you check. Change your passwords, if you haven't in the last year.
5) Be sure that you have either secured or shredded files and papers with confidential information.
OK - maybe now you can buy those boot stretchers you've had your eye on.
But spring is a time of renewal, and it is also the cruelest month...meaning, as the woman in this video rightly points out, it's time to get some things crossed off your technology "to do" list.
Here's a quick list to get you started:
1) Get a credit report or a D&B report, and look at what you see. Start your cleaning there. Put a 7 year lock on your credit report - there's really no reason not to.
2) Open the Google Home page. Type your name into it. Hit search. What do you see? Repeat for your family, etc.
3) Organize the files on your computer(s) (and phone...and websites...). Then back them up. 1 terabyte of storage is around $250 at this point. You have no excuse. If you are a business, be sure that your IT policies from security to backup are up to snuff. Then test them.
4) Assemble a list of all the web accounts you have. Those that are worthless, cancel. Those you use, be sure you check. Change your passwords, if you haven't in the last year.
5) Be sure that you have either secured or shredded files and papers with confidential information.
OK - maybe now you can buy those boot stretchers you've had your eye on.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Customer Service...and Apple
The CEO of a start up in the Southwest we work with - Dave - recently had an interesting run-in with Steve Jobs. (Read the blog post on said run-in here.)
Yup, that Steve Jobs.
We've written before about the sorry state of customer support in many a technology business these days - but this particular story is kind of disturbing. If for no other reason than I own Apple stock.
Serving customers ain't easy, but it is easier than paying to get them back. I was considering buying an iPhone with the upcoming tax rebate...that won't be happening now.
As with my experience with Skype, an experience like this moves the iPhone from a "must-have" to a "maybe I can just deal with another provider."
Yup, that Steve Jobs.
We've written before about the sorry state of customer support in many a technology business these days - but this particular story is kind of disturbing. If for no other reason than I own Apple stock.
Serving customers ain't easy, but it is easier than paying to get them back. I was considering buying an iPhone with the upcoming tax rebate...that won't be happening now.
As with my experience with Skype, an experience like this moves the iPhone from a "must-have" to a "maybe I can just deal with another provider."
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Augmented Human Intelligence & Singularity
It goes without saying that there are many, many dimensions of technology, and as each part of the equation develops, exciting new possibilities come about.
You may or may not be tracking with this, but "infrastructure" related development, like faster machines, faster data transfer speeds (better bandwidth), etc. is increasingly not where massive leaps forward will happen -
Also, it is becoming less likely that human relationship mapping, or network analysis, and ad delivery is where the great leaps forward will come.
This technology (see video) addresses the user interface we all experience technology through - historically, we've needed an abstract visual interpretation of data and objects in order to interact with them. In more basic terms, we've needed technology created by PARC a few decades ago, which was the appropriated by Apple, which was then copied by Microsoft. And now that same interface has lots of different children on cellphones, in cars, etc.
Increasingly, however, we'll see massive leaps forward in using thought and embedded technology. (look up the Singularity for some other interesting takes on where this is all headed).
Although the speaker focuses on ALS (medical) and search applications (where's my bus stop), what is entirely possible with this innovation plus any embedded technology (including RFIDs in devices like an EZ Pass toll gate) is some "magical" stuff:
- Instructions thought sent via the web (silently) to a machine (aka telekinesis)
- Instructions thought sent to nanotechnology devices within your body (aka self-healing)
- Instructions thought intercepted by "hackers" using similar technology (aka telepathy or mindreading)
- Location picked up by RFID monitoring systems enabling constant monitoring of your location (call it what you want - Big Brother is an easy label)
Although it isn't surprising that the human mind can think this up, and it's inspiring to think of all the ways this could be used, the ethical dilemmas and issues are potentially extraordinarily complicated.
You may or may not be tracking with this, but "infrastructure" related development, like faster machines, faster data transfer speeds (better bandwidth), etc. is increasingly not where massive leaps forward will happen -
Also, it is becoming less likely that human relationship mapping, or network analysis, and ad delivery is where the great leaps forward will come.
This technology (see video) addresses the user interface we all experience technology through - historically, we've needed an abstract visual interpretation of data and objects in order to interact with them. In more basic terms, we've needed technology created by PARC a few decades ago, which was the appropriated by Apple, which was then copied by Microsoft. And now that same interface has lots of different children on cellphones, in cars, etc.
Increasingly, however, we'll see massive leaps forward in using thought and embedded technology. (look up the Singularity for some other interesting takes on where this is all headed).
Although the speaker focuses on ALS (medical) and search applications (where's my bus stop), what is entirely possible with this innovation plus any embedded technology (including RFIDs in devices like an EZ Pass toll gate) is some "magical" stuff:
- Instructions thought sent via the web (silently) to a machine (aka telekinesis)
- Instructions thought sent to nanotechnology devices within your body (aka self-healing)
- Instructions thought intercepted by "hackers" using similar technology (aka telepathy or mindreading)
- Location picked up by RFID monitoring systems enabling constant monitoring of your location (call it what you want - Big Brother is an easy label)
Although it isn't surprising that the human mind can think this up, and it's inspiring to think of all the ways this could be used, the ethical dilemmas and issues are potentially extraordinarily complicated.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
The iPhone SDK - Delicious Lemur Meat
I'm not sure which I like more about the iPhone SDK - the fact that it is coming (there is little doubt it will extend the functionality of an already legendary integrated device, see prior posts...), or the names of the development companies cited in this eWeek article:
- Delicious Monster
- United Lemur
- Flying Meat
Ah, poor Flying Meat, I knew him well.
I am reminded of the indie rock bands I played in, and the many great names I ran into at the time. My band was, for a short time MonkeySoft. If you are starting a band or development company, feel free to use this name, but only if you agree to make a monkey sound before addressing audience or customer.
Aside from the observation that startups are the indie bands for today's youth, there is one important point to make about the iPhone SDK - "Why did it take so long?"
The other technical limitations of the device, which we've raised before, will require a hardware rev, so this is the biggest bang for buck available to Apple. And it is a fairly big one.
- Delicious Monster
- United Lemur
- Flying Meat
Ah, poor Flying Meat, I knew him well.
I am reminded of the indie rock bands I played in, and the many great names I ran into at the time. My band was, for a short time MonkeySoft. If you are starting a band or development company, feel free to use this name, but only if you agree to make a monkey sound before addressing audience or customer.
Aside from the observation that startups are the indie bands for today's youth, there is one important point to make about the iPhone SDK - "Why did it take so long?"
The other technical limitations of the device, which we've raised before, will require a hardware rev, so this is the biggest bang for buck available to Apple. And it is a fairly big one.
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