Ian Usher: A Life For Sale

Being jilted is never good.

But when Ian Usher of Australia found himself jilted, he decided it was time to make big changes. He wants a new life.

But one man's poison is another man's meat, and there are many who would find his life pretty sweet. Clutch house, jetski, and a bunch of other stuff. All up for auction on Sunday. Here's what Ian says on his home page:

Hi there, my name is Ian Usher, and I have had enough of my life! I don't want it any more! You can have it if you like!

No, I'm not contemplating suicide, I am going to sell my life!! I have my reasons, for further details click the "Why" tab below. However, I am still not sure whether this is inspired madness, complete foolishness, or just some sort of mid-life crisis.

Whatever it is, it's all going up for sale in one big auction. Everything I have and everything I am.

On the day it is all sold and settled I intend to walk out of my front door with my wallet in one pocket and my passport in the other, nothing else at all, and get on the train, with no idea where I am going or what the future holds for me.

You will have the opportunity to bid on his life and take it over. He takes the money and hops a plane to the future. You get the house, the toys, the job, the works.

Want a flutter?

When I say everything is included in the sale I mean EVERYTHING is included! Upon completion and settlement I will walk out of my home for the last time in just the clothes I am wearing, and carrying only my wallet and passport.

You've gotta week to bid, people! But if you win and make the move, keep reading OLDMTA please. I need the unique.

Start of auction - Noon Sunday 22nd June 2008
End of auction - Noon Sunday 29th June 2008
Australian Western Standard Time

That;s 13 hours ahead of Pacific time. 16 ahead of NYC time.

I love his inventiveness, but caution him with the sagest thing anyone has ever said to me about making a geographic change as a way of avoiding issues.

"Wherever you go, there you are..."

Still, a house in Australia sounds nice...

Hey French Government: Less is Never More.

I just read on Ars Technica that the French Cabinet is smiling upon a law requiring ISPs to police their networks and identify people who illegally distribute copyrighted content. The likelihood is that this rule will be implemented in January.

A portion of the Ars Technica post reads:

The plan, announced last November by President Nicolas Sarkozy, will yank the Internet access of those caught sharing copyrighted content via P2P after they've been caught three times (the first two times would involve warnings at various levels). Their access would be cut off for up to a year, which lawmakers hope will be enough to dissuade other would-be downloaders from hopping on the pirate ship. "It takes a preventive and educational approach," France's Culture Minister, Christine Albanel, told the Times Online.

Two comments:

1. I am generally not a cheerleader for ISPs, but HOW ON EARTH is it the job of an Internet Service Provider to provide police protection? This is the responsibility of the state, not an ISP.

2. Why does the recording industry continue to believe that less will somehow be more? In other words, that RESTRICTING the distribution of content will somehow help them make more money. It’s backwards. Think about it in the context of TV. Low ratings mean cancellation, not the gravy train. There should be a positive relationship between audience size and revenue – and there is in any sensible revenue model. The music biz should be taking the lead of the video industry which is rapidly growing distribution of recorded video content while ensuring it is always paired with revenue producing ads. I understand that the industry would rather sell us content as they did with CDs. But them days is gone, and tilting at piracy windmills is an absurd business strategy.

Ads are the answer. Ads.

Lip Synch Fridays - Dancers 'n Movers

ADVERTISING'S NEWEST AWARD!

coming july 16 and only on OLDMTA!
old is the new black!

Self Regulation: Can BT Do a Better Job?

So let's talk about the NAI for a bit. NAI is the Network Advertising Initiative, the group that is defining standards for BT and privacy, and also houses the BT opt out mechanism. The mechanism enables the consumer to opt out of being racked for BT.

I have some positive comments and a peeve or three.

First Positive: Our industry voluntarily put up an opt out site. Remember how tooth and nail the telemarketers fought opt out? OH. MY. GOD. did they lobby against it. Back when Do Not call was an issue, I had a friend in Congress who told me they had NEVER gotten so much mail about anything. Those cards and letters crushed the dinnertime cold call lobby only because Congressmen and Senators genuinely thought the wrong vote would lose them an election.

It took a law to make the Do Not Call happen, and the telemarketing industry had so overstepped the bounds of acceptable business practice that everyone with a browser opted out in about ten seconds after the site when up. Death of an industry, more or less, and THANK BLOODY HELL for that. I spit on your graves, prospector telemarketing kingpins.

So the BT industry put up their site without a law -- indeed to avoid one. But whatever the reason, I'm happy it is up. And generally works.

Second Positive: (After a bit of manual doing) I opted out as an experiment, and the opt out worked. I don't get the cookies anymore. It's as if my McAfee scan gives me an incredulous look when it does its auto scan and finds nary a tracking cookie. It's like the Maytag repairman of 2008. Bravo.

Third Positive: The NAI is putting BT standards together in a very complex space. This isn't simple stuff. My next post is about their proposed standards -- which have been out for public comment for a couple months. I applaud them for trying.

First Peeve: The site is not terribly easy to find, and it's the place people need to go to opt out if they so choose. The site has a Google Page Rank score of 8, which is high, but I type NAI into Google and the site comes up fourth. On Yahoo it is not on the first page. Call me crazy, but an org with the sharpest webbies on the planet could make itself easier to get to. Type "Opt Out of Cookies" and NAI comes up 5th. Type "Behavioral Targeting Opt Out" and the NAI is not on the first page. I don't think that the NAI is deliberately hiding (heck, not if it has a PR of 8,) but part of being a responsible self regulation org is making yourself easily available to consumers. Look, the world is give and take. I am not suggesting the NAI OEM a widget with the title "You want to opt out, don't you?" with a Big Brother picture above it, but an org of the biggest web smarties in the universe can make a site that is easier to find than this. I mean, search NAI on Yahoo and it's not on the first page???

Second Peeve: That bit that so many web publishers are saying about consumers enjoying the Internet more because of targeted ads. Well, sample size of one, but that is a load of crap in my experience. I opted out to see how different my Internet experience would be. Frankly I didn't notice one at all. OK, actually I perceived that I saw more Mortgage snake state banners, which seems logical given that mortgage DR is total bottom feeder untargeted sub a buck CPM crap. Net net, selling consumers on the idea that the internet is a magical experience because of targeted banners -- it just ain't believable. Or true, come to that. And please spare me comments about the surveys that say people prefer targeted banners. Yadda yadda. It's crap and you know it. In fairness, there is nary a mention of this on the actual NAI site, but it is a common message coming from members. It is on page one of their proposed standards doc.

Third Peeve: When I went to opt out, I had to fill in which ad networks I wanted to opt out of by ticking 16 boxes saying I want to opt of 16 networks. I find this silly. What is the consumer REALISTICALLY going to do. Surmised internal dialogue of Mabel in Decatur: "Well, I want to opt out of Advertising.com, but those nice people at ValueClick, I think I will keep their cookies." Again, I don't think this is deliberate barrier creation, but it strikes me that some consumers might THINK they were being put through hoops. Which is not a good thought to provoke if you are trying to head off regulation.

Fourth Peeve: Even when I tick the 16 boxes, I got an error message that for some reason I am not opted out of a couple of the networks and need first try again (didn't work) and then go to their sites to finish the job. Hello! A faulty app is NOT my problem. That is not a good consumer experience. Opt out either works or it doesn't. If for some reason it is actually difficult to make a perfect opt out mechanism, I say work it out, because it's either make it work or have the feds order you to.

So, in sum, I applaud the efforts of NAI to self regulate. I just think they need to step up the game just a bit. While as a citizen I am not opposed to government regulation of any industry, I fear the sort of regulation that may come from our government because so far at least I am totally unimpressed by their understanding of the Internet. Ignorance does not begat good law.

If you've read two posts on this blog you'll know that I think BT (at least the traditional ad network sort) is just fine, and that it is essential to pay for the web. But advertisers are always suspect in the eyes of consumers. We need to prove we are worthy of their trust. NAI can help, and is helping. I just think it could help more.

Not a Good Month PR Wise for NebuAd

I am sure some of you are already familiar with NebuAd, the ad network that partners with ISPs to capture all of your HTTP travels for the purposes of better ad targeting. That's ALL your nonsecure web travels, not just some.

As you know, BT has been a particularly controversial area for the past...couple years among privacy advocates. Naturally, because NebuAd captures more information about consumers, ISP based targeting has been particularly questioned.

NebuAd and FrontPorch have been quietly working with ISPs for some time doing this sort of tracking, but the big break in the industry came when NebuAd signed Charter ISP to be a part of its service. Before Charter, most of the participating ISPs have been small and quiet about their partnerships.

But as NebuAd and Charter made their announcement, the inquiring minds of privacy advocates really turned the klieg lights on this BT segment. Reps Ed Markey (D) and Joe Barton (R) -- yes you are seeing Democrats and Republicans work together for once -- sent a letter to Neil Smit, President and CEO of Charter, to ask him not to move forward without further review. When you visit the letter you'll see it's written in that impenetrable Congessional way, but as I read it the "request" is the governmental equivalent of getting a black rose in the mail from Mafiosi.

Charter postponed their move (natch), and the trades have been abuzz pretty much ever since.

But the story got a scosh darker for NebuAd with report from Free Press entitled "NebuAd and Partner ISPs: Wiretapping, Forgery and Browser Hijacking."

The press release for this study reads in part:

Topolski found that NebuAd, after being installed on the WOW! network, injects extra hidden code into a user’s browser that was not sent by the Web site being visited. That code directs the user’s Web browser to another site not requested or even seen by the consumer, where hidden code is downloaded and executed to add more tracking cookies. The consumer then sees ads based on NebuAd’s profile of a user’s browsing habits — built through the secretly collected information.

By changing the computer code for Web sites to insert information into the packets of data sent to consumers, NebuAd and its ISP partners “violate several fundamental expectations of Internet privacy, security and standards-based interoperability,” the report found.

The study itself is rather technical -- I had to read it seven times before I got the gist, and there are nine pages of packet trace code as an appendix -- but posits that there are fundamental issues with the NebuAd methodology. The parts I found most interesting were the connections it drew between what it said NebuAd is doing and browser hijacking (common manifestations are when your home page is changed of favorites appear on your list without your consent,) XSS attacks (when others have access and control of your PC,) that Intel serial number controversy of 1999 when Intel inserted unique codes into chips that made it impossible for users to remove encroachments to their anonymity, and something called a "man in the middle attack" which allows a third party to monitor messages sent between your PC and others.

I don't pretend to understand all of the above paragraph. What I do understand is that this is more evidence that the business of digital media and understanding it is becoming incredibly complex and technical.

The thought that comes to my mind, though, is that it's a little scary that our federal government will be making decisions on this stuff given that relatively few of our elected leaders have even my puny level of technical knowledge. Naturally there will be experts involved in setting guidelines and standards if it comes to that, but make no mistake...there are very few people in Congress or on Congressional teams that have even an iota of knowledge about the privacy issues raised by the Internet.

Let's hope that for the sake of the web and the future of media, the decisions are made not based on hyperbole or selective presentation of facts, but rather on a real assessment of the issues by people who have depth of Internet understanding.

In any case, it can't be a whole lotta fun to be NebuAd this week.

POST SCRIPT: I got two emails about my second to last sentence here. I did not mean to imply that either NebuAd's position, nor that of the study referenced above, are hyperbole or half truth. I am just weary of technical issues being resolved in "food fights" on cable news when the reality is that people who actually know what they are talking about should be helping guide the regulatory future of ISP-based targeting.

White Paper Thursdays Bonus Post - Tween Spending Habits

There is some great data from Marketing Sherpa available here on Tweens and their discretionary income spending habits. This is the kind of stuff you are going to need some day for a presentation. The data are available via free access until 6/26, so print it NOW before it goes away. And while you are at it, join the Sherpa mailing list and get announcements of free data as well as their paid studies delivered right to the ole in-box. They do nice research and studies, and offer great webinars.

I have no economic relationship with the Sherpa. This is advice from the heart.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

SmugMug: Quality Experience Wins Payers

After a dozen or so years, it's still darned tough to get people to pay for services online. Mobile -- no problem, but online it's always an uphill battle.

So it's great to see a company win payers with an outstanding consumer experience. Smugmug is just such a company.

Photography is a subject very near to my heart. I have more cameras than fingers at the moment, and I have always felt that the photo sharing experience online is a little lacking. I'm not focusing that statement on the share and print platforms like KodakGallery, Shutterfly or Snapfish. I am a KodakGallery loyalist and have been so since 2000, chiefly because I like the way they print stuff, and the print "oddities" that they sell that make photos more fun. I've spent more than $5K with them over the years I 'spect.

But it strikes me that the market had really stratified into fun, no frills experiences like Slide versus the photo printing sites. I draw a parallel to retail -- with Slide and Flickr being analogous to WalMart and Target. Higher up the ladder are the Gallery, Shutterfly, and Snapfish.

But it appears that is a still higher level, and SmugMug is right there more or less owning it. Smugmug is a pay site -- no free memberships available. Their technology really provides a very attractive format in which to showcase photos. With the choice of background display colors and templated pages, this is really on another level than an embedded widget.



With more than 300,000 payers (Price is $40 a year -- hardly a budget buster, but a significant revenue source) this site seems to be carving out a superpremium segment. More money can even get you pages without SmugMug branding -- just the thing for pro and semi pro photogs who wish to create their own proprietary environments.

For $40 you get to create a templated gallery page, bigger photo display, iPhone display capabilities, no ads, the opportunity to direct people to your page without making them register, group and community apps, and a bunch of other stuff. Each item small in itself but as a bundle very nice.

They also offer some interesting print options including something called Fotoflot, a glass free magnetic mounted printing option. Flot I suppose is supposed to be said float and not flot as in Aeroflot. 4x6es are 19 cents a pop -- I couldn't find whether it was Kodak, Fuji or Agfa printing. My guess is Fuji. Fuji has its fans, just like Kodak has its believers. 19 cents is higher than the classic print services, but not a BAD price by any stretch.

This site has clearly spent a lot of time on user experience. Very nice ways to browse and select photos for printing, as well as a public keyword environment to find photos that might interest you. Organization is worlds easier than some other sites. Which is to say, it reflects prevailing web technologies of today rather than yesterday. The site also showcases remarkable photographers in their midst, which is nice for people like me that would love more photo recognition.

The question in my head is...is this market headed to three tiers with the low end, the high end, and the long running brands like Gallery and Shutterfly getting squeezed in the middle? Like Sears and Penney's are in retail?

I don't think that is how things will play out. I am very happy that Smugmug exists, and there are certainly hundreds of thousands of people willing to pay for it. I see strong growth for them in the next months and years. But I also think that Kodak and Shutterfly and Snapfish can continue to fulfill a role for millions of people looking for a more quality experience than offered by disaposaphoto widget platforms, but not needing all the bells and whistles of a Smugmug.

It's really a question of a maturing market -- now large enough to support three tiers of quality and service.

Though I also think Kodak and Shutterfly and Snapfish need to get on with improving their services and adding more global sharing options and easier to use interfaces. No doubt they are working on it. It'd be good for that work to reach fruition ASAP. Kodak is making lots of statements about how their future is digital, as it clearly is. Part of being digital is being truly up to date. But in fairness, they have a much broader range of print options and for that I will stick with them and see what they come up with.

But Smugmug is really quite a site, and it's worth a look around if, like me, you spend a lot of time and money on photography as a hobby -- or indeed as a profession.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

White Paper Thursdays! Digital Music Report 2008

An absolutely incredible report on the digital music industry is available here. Written by the IFPI, it discusses the state fo the business, provides sales and growth numbers for various segments, and outlines some interesting issues like ISP responsibility for illegal downloads. Even if you are not in the music business, it is a must read. The perspective on a set of issues that are being faced in so many consumer categories is an important one.

I've read it twice so far. Really good stuff.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

THOUGHT TO PONDER

Heard someone in a meeting today say this:

"We all talk about making sure the content on web pages isn't offensive before we advertise on them. But shouldn't we buy buying pages where the content actually enhances the brand?"

NOTCHUP: WHAT DO WE CALL THIS? PPI? PAY PER INTERVIEW?

One of the most maligned areas of business is HR. Many people view HR as an expense -- actually expense pit -- and that has to be tough on people who are, by definition, drawn to the field because of a passion for people.

Me, I have never held that view. Often, my favorite people in past employers have been in HR -- they tend to be fun, caring, and polite. And those three qualities are enough to make anyone a fast friend for me.

I also think that people outside of HR have NO IDEA how hard the job can be. First, there are the people who must navigate the unbelievably complex state-by-state rules around employment. It can take months to get rid of -- I was going to say dead wood, but that's not half the issue. Even the stinkiest wood can be a pain in the neck to separate from a firm.

But lets talk about the ginormous problem of recruiting in certain industries. Try to find a digital media salesperson willing to work for a wage that reflects their sales value and you'll soon realize that "it's not brain surgery" should be replaced by "it's not sales recruiting in the Bay Area."

And then there are the perks that are necessary to find people. Daycare -- that is actually a benefit that I think pays huge dividends in terms of employee loyalty. But there are companies now providing free doggie day care -- that's the kind of recruiting environment we are in. As a doggie daycare customer, such a benefit would make me happy, though I will be the first to point out how absurd it is to expect a company to pay private nursery school fees for my $130 pound pup. I can choose to do so, but my employer shouldn't be expected to.

So imagine you are a recruiter trying to fill a senior level post in sales or marketing or tech or really wherever. You post on Monster and Craigslist and the niche sites for the specific business area. And you get 1745 resumes in nine minutes. 1371 are from unemployed people. And I am NOT saying the unemployed are not worth consideration. Especially in tech. Stuff happens and awesome people end up outa work all the time. But some people are unemployed for good reason. Then another couple hundred are from people trying to do job switches. Then there are scores of resumes from people who are too junior or senior, then 7 from current employees too stupid to look at the company name making the post. One resume has a horrible virus that infects the entire company network.

You COULD call a headhunter, and you might be wise to do so. A great headhunter can really shake the trees to find someone exactly right for a firm. Of course, that'll cost ya. Might be worth it though. But lots of companies have a huge aversion to headhunters.

Doesn't leave too many good candidates. In fact, one of the refrains of people I know in HR is that the people they want aren't looking for jobs. So how do you get them to interview?

Well, this is America, and no one ever overestimated the value of the dollar in our country.

Which is what NotchUp is all about. This site matches employers to quality employees willing to entertain the possibility of interviewing for a job for the right price. The way it works is you apply to join. And if they think you are an exceptional candidate, you do a profile, set an asking price, and wait to get bids from companies to interview. Companies get a bunch of data about your background, what you are (not) looking for, what seems to be your interview price, etc. The companies don't get your name until you accept. And you can prevent your listing from showing up on your company's searches.

A company can try to get you to meet for less than your asking price, but you could also counteroffer.

As you interview, the companies you talk to get to provide feedback on you, and that becomes part of the profile. Presumably this is a way for them to eliminate liars, and serial interviewers just looking for the interview fees. As if people have the time to do that.

So what do we you and I think about this. Well, I see positives and negatives from the perspectives of the companies:

Positives

1. You get to interview people not actively looking, though presumably a candidate has to be at least a little open to a new position if they bother to join.
2. You talk only to people you want.
3. It's pay for performance.
4. IF your HR team has a decent close rate, it could be cheaper than a headhunter. Though again, a headhunter worth his or her salt does more than fill the pipe with possibles -- they really try to match your firm to the right sort of person. Though there are of course lots of headhunters not worth their salt, and this service makes quick work of their careers.

NEGATIVES

1. All things being equal, it would be nice if a person actually wanted to work for your company rather than just be willing to talk to you for the Benjamins. But again, we live in tough times HR-wise, so willing may be enough for lots of outfits.
2. No more posting boards.
3. No more trawling competitor phone lists.

I think this model is going to work in some particularly challenging fields. Which is what it is all about, of course -- I don't expect that they think McDonald's in Decatur is going to use it to find fryguys or burgergals. But then, it may be darned tough to find restaurant workers in Central Illinois. What do I know?

Anyway, that's NotchUp. It's an interesting thing for people who think that maybe there's a position out there that will make them happier than their current slot. And being happy is a reasonable expectation for everyone to have.

Thanks for reading, and don;t forget to write.

Firefox 3.0 - On Fire!

Over at Tech Crunch they report that Firefox 3.0 got over 8 million downloads in its first 24 hours. That's a whole lotta downloads, and shows that the world of browsers is poised for change.

Or has it changed already? I went to Net Applications to check out the market share of browsers globally. I expected that Firefox had gotten pretty close to 2 digits.

And boy was I wrong. They report that Firefox's market share is 18.4%! I really had no idea. To me Firefox was the browser for bay Area freaks and people who read Slashdot. Well, unless Slashdot has grown rather a lot in the last year, I'm guessing that Firefox is really ALMOST mainstream now.

Which begs a question: What is going well for MSFT of late? Hey, I am not trying to be a total snark there. Is there ANY good news for Redmond?

D'ja Ever Have a Morning...

More on i-caught

I mentioned i-caught last week, and have since been enjoying the site so much I thought I'd talk some more about. i-caught is a product of ABC News, and it collects video segments that have been caught by regular folks and posted online. I know, I know, lots of the big news and media properties are doing this. What sets i-caught apart are both the depth of content and the design of the site itself.

Organizationally, i-Caught divides submissions into a number of categories that make the content easier to navigate:

news
weather
out of control
red-handed
entertainment
fun
politics
animals
flashback

It further offers categories of the most watched, most favorited, and newest. Again, I know this isn't rocket science, but the layout of the pages and the browsing interfaces are really rather well designed and create that sort of entangling "keep on clicking" feeling that Yahoo's OMG started. But in my view i-caught works a lot better than OMG.

I will also confess that I was always a little skeptical of the whole idea of citizen created videos in news, not withstanding the fact that for example, the vids of 9-11 were mostly amateur. But I am coming around to this. In comparison to the professional videos that pass for news these days, amateur flicks hold up well. Will the new Woodward and Bernsteins get started via UGC? They have to get started somehow, and the networks don't seem to be doing the investigative thing much anymore. Much easier and cheaper to be spoon fed by PR firms and pressers.

Like all UGC environments, there is a mix of genuine consumer stuff as well as semi pro by would be newscasters and the like.

Here's some CGM from the South Korea Beef Riots:



Besides the unfortunate reflecto logo, i-caught offers a great visual experience. My only complaint is that ABC needs to be cognizant that a :30 preroll is a bit excessive on an :08 vid of anything, even if they only come once every three or four clicks. I will say, though, that the TV ads I suffered through were better than the average :30s on TV, which makes me think ABC helps its clients make better content for the web. But I was probably just lucky on the days I went.

So check out i-caught and tell me what you think.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

I Assure You Prices Are Low...

Time for Wordle

I learned about Wordle from this post by Renny Gleeson. Wordle converts text into beautiful word clouds and sizes the words according to their frequency in the content. I think it is an interesting way to see the emphasis in a text -- on the ideas and concepts that are driving the text. two examples below. The first is the text from the RNC's website home page, the second from the DNC front page.





Want to emphasize I am not making a political statement here as the comparison is apples to oranges. GOP.gov uses graphics much more heavily than Democrats.org, which throws the issues counts. Just thought the two sites would make timely illustrations of how it works.

You can do it with any text, change the colors, directions of the words, and a number of other things. I think this could be a really interesting presentation tool to demonstrate emphases in the blogosphere, etc.

To Heck With The War of The Roses. This is War of The PushPins

Between 1455 and 1487, the English fought a series of wars over the monarchical succession. The wars, between the Houses of Lancaster and York, pitted Lancastrian Henry VI and his followers against Richard, Duke of York. It was a period of tremendous tumult, with uneasy peace broken up dozens of times by bloody battles.

Thanks to Feedjit, a concern that makes free widgets for bloggers, Catalyst:SF has entered into its own internal war -- but our war is over push pins.

And truth be told, it isn't much of a war at all, but I will get into that later.

Back to Feedjit and how much fun their geo widget is. By planting a little piece of code into your blog, you get a world map that shows the locations of the last 100 visitors to your blog. I fully concede it is the penultimate vanity applet -- penultimate because it is second to WhoLinkstoMe? (a chicklet for which you can find still lower in the right hand column of this page.)

The Feedjit geo widget appears on my blog about a third of the way down the page. It is great both for the vanity thing as well as to get constant -- and I mean constant -- proof of how the Internet has broken down borders and the like because of its ability to spread information anywhere at any time.

Get yourself a Feedjit geo widget if you blog. Check out their collaborative filtering and most popular posts widgets as well. I'd add them to this blog if it weren't already so overchickleted that if three people ever load it simultaneously it will crash the entire world wide web.

But back to how Feedjit has transformed life at Catalyst:SF. Those who know our company will be aware that many of our team members were (and indeed are) college and pro athletes, and therefore have a bit of competitiveness woven into their entrails. Virtually everything can become a competition with these guys. And don't EVEN get me started about how much time they spend talking about Fantasy Futbol. The mind reels. When three guys can spend entire minutes talking about players from countries too small to even have been listed in the Iraq War "coalition of the willing," you know a hobby has become obsession.

Well. When my coworkers saw the eye catching little Feedjit widget on my page, they all had to have one. And with the several installs that followed, there grew a lively competition to see who can get the most posts from the most places.

To advertise this competition to the Black Bag Advertising people we share an office with, we now have a 3.5x2 foot world map with pushpins that mimic the locations of our hits.

Out of the goodness of my heart, which you know is all good, I chose clear pushpins as my color. Because clear shows up a lot less than colors, and, frankly, Oldest Living gets more hits than all their blogs combined. This despite the frankly pathetic pandering they are making in their posts -- witness this transparent attempt to score a Botswana hit.

As you know, Oldest Living is above such childish acts. Although we agreed this evening to race for a Kazakhstan "hit", I would never stoop so low as to make a pandering post, making a number of references to a search for Kazakhstan software developers in hopes that software developers in Kazakhstan were using bots to find articles or blog posts on the outsourced software industry in Kazakhstan and individuals looking for outsourced software development in Kazakhstan or indeed companies looking for outsourced software development in Kazakhstan, whether they be LLCs looking for outsourced software development in Kazakhstan or C corps looking for outsourced software development in Kazakhstan. To refer to outsourced software development in Kazakhstan or software development outsourcing specifically in the region of Kazakhstan would be tantamount to pandering. And you, dear reader, deserve to read better than reckless pandering about outsourced software development in Khazakhstan just for the sake of putting a clear pushpin in the region of Kazakhstan.

Just FYI, the words to the Kazakh national anthem are:

Golden sun in heaven,
Golden corn in steppe,
Legend of courage -
It is my land.
In hoary antiquity
Our glory was born,
Proud and strong
Is my Kazakh people

CHORUS
My country, my country,
As your flower I'll grow,
As your song I'll stream, country!
My native land - Kazakhstan!

I've a boundless expanse
And a way, opened in future.
I have an independent,
United people.
Like an ancient friend
Our happy land,
Our happy people
Is welcoming new time

Perhaps surprisingly, our interns, who operate the Culture Catalyst blog, are the
closest thing I have to competition in this so-called war. I liken it more to a Grenada invasion. Perhaps Panama.

So, here it is. The Catalystas may have their pro soccer career memories, their team trophies, their clippings of amazing scores and saves and whatnot. But I have more pushpins. And which, after all, matters more?

And at any rate, it has us all blogging more, which is an excellent development.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Kontera in Da House...err...Blog

(Note: Kontera is a Catalyst:SF client.) So you may notice that the in-text ad service Kontera is now in place here on OLDMTA. Kontera now offers a special service for bloggers to include on their missives, and it operates via a rev share.

I like the Kontera type of in text ad platform. I find the ads useful and pleasant and use them when I find them, especially when looking for books or other purchases. Kontera is not the only offering in in-text, but to my knowledge it is the only one that has a blogger offering in addition to its big site and mid-tail site services.

As I told you a couple of weeks ago, OLDMTA is a not for revenue blog, but I thought I would try out this offering to see if people preferred the blog with these rollover ads. Please send comments, smileys, or frownies to:

oldmtaomnimedia@yahoo.com

I get a lot of spam, so if you could include Kontera in the subject line I would appreciate it.

In keeping with my no revenue promise, anything I make from Kontera will go to Smile Train, the charity that helps kids with cleft lips and palates get needed medical treatment.

So roll over and click. It's definitely a good cause...

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Where Do Your Fave Blogs Fall On The Blogopticon?

From Vanity Fair. Click the link to get a big version. Mine (Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Huff Post, Daily Kos, and Crooks and Liars) fall in three different squares. Those who know me should take note that my reads tend NOT to be the most scurrilous. I get that in my Brit Celeb tabs. ;-)

Viewdle is All That and a Bag of Chips

Have you heard about Viewdle? Viewdle is a start up that has technology to index video through facial recognition. They are building an enormous catalog of faces that will make video searchable just as easily as text is for Google.

How does it work? Hell if I know. All I know is that this is the coolest thing since sliced bread. To see how cool, roll over the underlined name "Barack Obama", wait a few seconds, and see what happens.


Barack Obama

Now roll over this one about John McCain

John McCain

What Viewdle is doing is bringing up segments of the latest videos available containing these persons. And it is finding those segments via facial recognition, not keyword indexing.

Oh, and what you're looking at is their little freebie widget. Obviously the concept is a lot bigger than a little clip of Barack.

There are a number of challenges facing video, of which one of the most significant is how to index the unbelievably massive stream of vids that are added to the web every moment. Round one of video indexing was via keywords that were added by video producers. But that isn't a real solution -- much better that technology be able to do all that indexing for us. And also more accurate, given the number of times the 24 hour news stations put the wrong name below a face.

Honestly, I know this is a big money area -- video search and indexing I mean. In addition to the critical utility purposes that are so telegraphic, Viewdle technology also holds the promise of other monetization solutions. Hey, I am no visionary, I'm more of a here and now person. But as the world explores many new ways of monetizing of video, the ability to index and catalog video contact by person seems a no brainer as a potential source of big bucks. Whether video ends up being mostly an ad supported media form (as I expect) or whether consuemrs can be convinced to actually pay for video content, this technology helps in either scenario. Content and context are both central to the future of video, and Viewdle seems a big step forward in both areas.

The widget doesn't only work for pols.

Jessica Alba

Viewdle says they are building the largest facial recognition database in the world, which I love the sound of. Here's their 60 second elevator pitch from the Tech Crunch site.



Can you tell I love this?

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Are the Best Things in Life Free?

One of the things that amazes me most about the web is that so much content is available for free. Research, ideas, documents, white papers, there are millions of useful bits out there ready for the taking.

It really amazes me when professionals put their hard work out there for anyone to download and view gratis. Which is why I was flabbergasted by SlideShare, a site boasting a community of generous givers of Powerpoint presos and other forms of digital largess. All there for the taking, for nuthin, by you you you.

Go ahead. Surf on over there and type virtually anything into the search bar. I bet you will find some really valuable docs. About half of the files are view only, and the other half downloadable by registered users.

So, the presentations are free, the downloads are free. And yet they have venture capital. I am always amazed by the ingenuity of people to figure out a way to make a free service pay off. But their VC is Venrock, so I would imagine there is a solid business plan with good odds of working out. What will it be? Ad supported? Monthly sub? Pay per download rev share? I am on pins and needles waiting to see. Venrock funds some companies with usual models, so it should be an interesting story about to unfold.

And I am most shocked to say that free is addicting. I don't mean the getting part -- of course everybody likes to get something for free. But I was really puzzled by who on earth would put their work out there for no charge. And yet, a few months after I joined, I find myself uploading our white papers and other forms of content to the World with their platform. It only seems fair. And it always amazes me when fair prevails. As it does so often online.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Who's in Charge Here?

I don't get, like, all philosophical 'n stuff very often on OLDMTA, but I have been thinking a lot about the nature of community and its role in actually getting things done. It's come to the forefront for me because I was working on a project that was really heavy on the collaborative software and platforms, but very light on the actual progress.

Slow doesn't work for me. I would rather take a day to think and plan and then try something the next day than take a month making 100% sure what we are doing is perfect. I also think that taking a month causes a host of problems like goal drift, fragmentation, and loss of perspective.

Leadership has always been in short supply, and I think even moreso in a collaborative age because teams are no longer guided by carrots and sticks from on high. As always, the true leaders are born with something and learn over time how to use it. But leading has gotten a lot harder even if collaboration has gotten a whole lot easier.

And it got me to thinking about how we now have the tools for collaboration, but perhaps what we need is a better understanding about how to use tools to extend the presence of a team leader into that collaborative environment. I don't mean as the top down dictator but rather as the community guide and motivator -- someone who leads with goals but empowers others to find the means.

What makes a good leader has changed. I have always admired Lyndon Johnson's leadership ability. He got the government to embrace a bunch of legislation (Great Society, Civil Rights) the Congressmen and Senators either didn't like or were afraid to pass. He did it through a few carrots and a whole lotta threatening with the gigantic Johnson stick of doom.

The Johnson model wouldn't work today.

Tools are only good for a team that has a leader that evangelizes goals but relinquishes directing the means.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Supply, Demand, the Drug War, Email, and GoodMail

I think we've been fighting the drug war since I was born in 1964. That's 44 years and counting if I am right about that first sentence. And of course, it hasn't been all that successful a war, which seems to be because we focus so much effort trying to tamp down supply but very little on reducing demand.

I also think there are parallels to the fight to stop unwanted email, be it SPAM or phishing or whatnot. Naturally, most of our energy has been focused on stopping the supply with filters, crackdowns on SPAMkings, and the like.

But is there a way to address demand? GoodMail thinks so, and is working to build a business on the idea. GoodMail's flagship product is called Certified Email, and the idea is to help commercial emails stand out better in in boxes so consumers can pay attention to the emails they want and make quick work of eliminating the ones they don't. Voila, demand (read-open and buy rates) of unwanted emails plummets.

The way it works is that a commercial emailer like a retailer gets certified by GoodMail and when its emails show up in users' in boxes they bear a little seal of approval that attests that they come from the company they appear to (that the email is not from a phisher), and that you actually asked for the email to be sent to you. The second part would appear to be a bit of a googly -- but rest assured they aren't tracking you around the web and recording your preferences. Rather, they ensure that the marketer that sent the email maintains very high email list standards -- stuff like double opt-in and easy opt out.

In fact there are a number of standards, the highlights of which are:

1. Permission based emailer only
2. Very low complaint rates as determined by email service providers
3. Commercial or non-profit with a dedicated private domain
4. Transparent and easy opt out policies, and quick turnaround on the unsubscribe.
5. Regular use of suppression lists.
6. At least a full year of business history.
7. US, Canada, or UK based.
8. At least one year of history using the same dedicated IP address.



So Certified Emails come with a little flag, and when you open them there's a message at the top also attesting to their legitimate place in your in-box. The flags appear in web based email clients. Not sure if this works in Outlook - though surely that's coming. In any case, more and more people are using web based email.

The other advantages of GoodMail are that the email systems don't need to protect you from graphics and the like. because the sender is certified, these components of emails can be rendered automatically. Since HTML emails THAT DISPLAY PROPERLY are always better from an ROI perspective than broken HTML or text emails, this can be a distinct advantage beyond the consumer assurance component.

Companies can also make a more concerted effort to migrate consumers from paper to digital, secure in the knowledge that their messages will be displayed properly. This is surely a huge source of potential savings.

Here's a schematic of the process from their site.



GoodMail gets paid for by the sender, and the costs are .25 cents per email for businesses and.05 cents for nonprofits. Presumably recouped in better buy rates, open rates, and migration of customers away form paper correspondence.

Now, not every email provider accepts the GoodMail seal -- but they currently have about 65% CONSUMER coverage with ISPs like ATT, Comcast, Cox, Roadrunner, and web mail providers Yahoo and AOL.

On the other end, most of the major email providers are able to send Certified Email if you so desire to do as a marketer.

So there it is. As always, you will need to make a decision as to whether GoodMail will work for you. This post is not a recommendation to buy but rather a sharing of something to think about.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.