Keep Trying

Robert Scoble Leaves the Stumbling Goliath

2006-06-11T16:44:00.000-04:00

Good luck to Robert Scoble who is leaving Microsoft to go to a start up called Podtech.net.

I thought for sure that Robert would stay until after the release of Vista, so I'm assuming that Vista will be a big disappointment for Microsoft, although Robert is too much of a mensch to ever say such a thing.

Who are we gonna talk to at Microsoft now? Most of the other bigger Microsoft bloggers don't do what Robert's done in terms of emailing and linking to other bloggers, nor do they see it as their responsibility to communicate with their customers.

Although it is always silly to count a big rich company out, I'll reiterate Mini Microsoft's proposal to split Microsoft up it to smaller smarter companies.

In the new world of the Army of Davids, Microsoft is playing the role of the Stumbling Goliath.

Mini-Microsoft Helps Change the Dinosaur's Insides, But the Outside is Still Ugly

2006-05-19T09:34:00.000-04:00

On April 7, 2005 I blogged the following:

I like Robert Scoble a lot. He's a really nice guy who answers emails and he's even linked to me a few time. I truly wish him continued success in whatever he does. But I don't think he's really a good example of the power of Corporate Blogging. His success constrains him in enabling his blogging to improve his company. Instead he is compelled to become a cheerleader in blogging pajamas.

If you want to see the real power of Corporate Blogging, then check out Mini Microsoft. Here's a Microsoft employee who truly realizes Microsoft is in trouble and actually has some constructive suggestions to deal with it. He recently suggested that perhaps Microsoft would be better of without old-schooler Ballmer. I'm not sure if he thinks Gates should go, but he doesn't absolve him of blame in the current Microsoft mess.

Here's to hoping that the big bloggers start pointing to this guy, because a more humble, honest and customer-oriented Microsoft will benefit everyone.

On April 11, 2005 Doc Searls objected to Mini Microsoft's anonimity, to which I responded in this post:

Doc Searls pointed to my recent post on Microsoft Blogging (Thanks Doc). He makes the following point

Problem is, Scoble has a real name, while Mini Microsoft is written by "Who da'Punk," whose unrevealing profile is here.

Who da'Punk may be right as rain, but he's also borderline anonymous. It's a lot easier to be frank and hard-hitting when nobody knows who you are.

I agree with Doc that "It's a lot easier to be frank and hard-hitting when nobody knows who you are". Sometimes people are forced to be anonymous to make important hard-hitting points. If changing Microsoft for the better is a valid goal, I would not dismiss the anonymous blogging of Mini Microsoft so quickly.

Well lucky for the Microsofties, Mini-Microsoft was not dismissed and yesterday he optimistically blogged that Microsoft was making major changes on how it treats its employees.

And to top it all off, let's see what Robert Scoble had to say about this:

Oh, and thanks Mini! These changes are due in no small part to you. Even if you don't get official props in the press releases.

Can one person change a huge company? Mini did. And we don't even know his name.

In this particular case, Mini could not have done what he did without being anonymous. And I think that the fact that he was focused on improving his company more than becoming an A-list blogger contributed greatly to his success.

Of course, Microsoft still has a long way to go as it still barely listens to its customers. I've tried communicating my concerns to Scoble many times and he is never really interested in hearing what this customer has to say, despite the fact that my Wall Street location gives me a good pulse on why the NY market loathes Microsoft.

Which is why I agree with Mini's basic premise that Microsoft must be split up into smaller more responsive companies to regain its competive edge.

Thanks to Dave Winer for the New A-Listing Mechanism

2006-05-08T10:36:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Dave Winer, Michael Arrington, Robert Scoble, Steve Rubel and others for the invention and publicity of this new A-Listing Mechanism.

It's exactly what the blogging world needs at this time.

Nick Carr - The Web's Leading Contrarian Strikes Gold Again

2006-04-27T17:49:00.000-04:00

Nick Carr is one of the most insightful writers on the Web. His latest piece cogently explains why Wikis will not be successful in most corporations.

His amazing ability to de-hype all the latest fads helps me understand why some leading bloggers try to marginalize him by unfairly classifying his sharp wit as snarkiness.

Microsoft Should Break Up Microsoft

2006-04-24T10:59:00.000-04:00

Robert Scoble has a courageous post titled How Microsoft can shut down Mini-Microsoft. He's angle is that by improving Microsoft from within, Mini Microsoft, the anonymous and increasingly influential Microsoft blogger will change his airing-the-dirty-laundry tune.

The courageous part of the post is where Robert says:

...if Mini were fired I'd quit on the spot.

I give Robert a lot of credit for truly trying to change Microsoft from within, but I think Mini-Microsoft's solution of breaking up Microsoft is the way to go. Here's what I told Robert in his comments:

I think it comes down to trust. Neither developers nor customers trust Microsoft. Developers like me don’t trust you because of technology churn and lock-in. My business customers don’t trust you because of the price gouging and the forced update cycle (without commensurate payoff) of your flag ship Office products.

Personally I think that Mini’s solution of breaking up Microsoft so they can become more customer and developer centered is the only solution, but it’s nice to see that you are trying.

Seven Rules for Corporate Blogging

2006-03-27T13:38:00.000-05:00

I don't know if it's because I like the number seven (ie 7 Habits) or because I like Nicholas Carr or because I like Robert Scoble and the fact that he can take a lot of heat, but I had to dust off the old blogging shoes and link to Mr Carr's recent Seven Rules for Corporate Blogging. Here's a sneak peak at rule number one:

Don't do it.

Getting Things Done in Blogging

2006-01-18T09:25:00.000-05:00

I accidently deleted "Blog" from my Getting Things Done list and thus have not blogged in close to a month.

One of the nicest things about blogging is that you can disappear for a long time and the blogsphere will carry on fine without you. It's nice to know you can take that long blog break when needed.

Dave Rogers on Consumerism and Commercialism

2005-12-21T08:04:00.000-05:00

Dave has another thoughtful piece on Consumerism and Commercialism. Here's a paragraph that hit home with me:

The second theme, or organizing principle is a belief in consumerism. By that I mean the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods. It seems to me, based on what I am able to observe around me, that we have the belief that the main purpose of life, its meaning, if you will, is to be found in the production and consumption of things. This is more than simply materialism, because it is not just the mere possession of things, that is meaningful, it is the desire, pursuit and acquisition. Put simply, the distinguishing difference between consumerism and materialism is that in consumerism we value what we don't already have more than what we already do. This is at the expense of more abstract, some would say spiritual values, which might otherwise define or shape our views on the purpose of life and its meaning. And it is often to our material disadvantage as well.

Please read the whole thing.

The Benevolent Corporation - No User Lock-In

2005-12-06T11:50:00.000-05:00

Dare Obasanjo, one of the top bloggers at Microsoft posted an interesting piece on Social Software as the Platform of the Future last year. I just saw it on this populicio.us aggregator, which is why I am posting about it one year later. Here are some of the thoughts on Dare's post.

To me there are five broad classes of social software. There is software that enables

1. Communication (IM, Email, SMS, etc)
2. Experience Sharing (Blogs, Photo albums, shared link libraries such as del.icio.us)
2. Discovery of Old and New Contacts (Classmates.com, online personals such as Match.com, social networking sites such as Friendster, etc)
4. Relationship Management (Orkut, Friendster, etc)
5. Collaborative or Competitive Gaming (MMORPGs, online versions of traditional games such as Chess & Checkers, team-based or free-for-all First Person Shooters, etc)

I would include a class that I believe is the number one business application of social software and an important part for consumers as well - Project Management. Integrating that into the social software platform would be very useful.

Many people will admit that the reason they can not migrate from a platform is due to the fact that they have data tied to that platform they do not want to give up. For the most part on Windows, this has been local documents in the various Microsoft Office formats.

I recently blogged about the lock-in caused by Microsoft Office and the senseless billions we waste because of this Microsoft engineered lock-in.

Lock-in based on office document formats can't last forever and I suspect that within the next five more years it will cease to be relevant.

It's good to see that a key Microsoft employee sees an end to this destructive Office lock-in.

The interesting thing about the rise of social software is that this data lock-in is migrating from local machines to various servers on the World Wide Web. At first the battle for the dominant social software platform will seem like a battle amongst online portals.

(The above quote actually came before the end of office lock-in quote.) It is sad that Dare just hopes to replace one form of lock-in with another. Although lock-in is the key to corporate success measured strictly in dollars, it does not benefit the customers the corporation is supposed to serve. Google and Yahoo are no better than Microsoft in regard to their lock-in intention although they currently own a much less substantial piece of the lock-in pie.

What we really need is some group of Silicon Valley millionaires to decide they already have enough money (let's pick $5+ million for argument's sake) and decide that they are going to build a company that will really serve their customers interest first. And their rallying cry will be No User Lock-in.

They'll build a platform, that's useful, open, interoperable and portable - where they are not looking to have a monopoly on all the moving parts. Yes they might not be able to IPO or be taken over for $100M+, but by changing the equation and moving away from the lock-in monopoly attitude, they will be better able to serve their customers and perhaps even their employees.

Isn't their anybody out their with the strength and courage to break out of the it's-all-about-the-money trap? One can always hope and pray.

Ten Things We Love About Microsoft

2005-12-02T12:34:00.000-05:00

In the spirit of fair play, let me end the week by pointing to Download Squad's Ten Things We Love About Microsoft:

We love that Microsoft spread computing beyond geekdom.
We love to hate Microsoft.
We love Microsoft's recent openness.
We love Microsoft's remarkable agility in the marketplace.
We love Microsoft's unheralded wealth creation engine.
We love Microsoft's own wealth creation engine.
We love The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
We love Paul Allen's ventures.
We love Steve Ballmer.
We love that, from time to time, Microsoft really does innovate.

Have a Microsoftic weekend!

Is It Time to Take $8 Billion Out of Microsoft's Pockets

2005-12-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

Tim Bray of Sun recently posted Office Profits and Politics which discusses the obscene amount of money Microsoft extracts from Office lock in. Mr Bray relates that he often tells journalists that market share is part of this story:

"..., but we think that our interests, and the customers’, are both best-served when there’s no file-format lock-in and there’s a wide-open competitive market.”

Mr Bray then gets into the dollars and cents perspective:

"But indeed, there is a dollars-and-cents business dimension. And to help broaden the knowledge of those dollars and cents, I went and checked Microsoft’s Investor Relations page to look up the Office-related numbers. In the fiscal year that ended July 1st, they reported profit of $7.915B on $11.013B in revenue. The trend continu*es: in the most recent quarter (ending last September), it was $1.934B on $2.675B. Just FYI."

It's safe to say that Microsoft's $8 billion dollar a year cash drain from the Office products is not serving the interests of other businesses and consumers. We can finally start to do something about it by encouraging the use of Open Document Formats wherever we have any influence.

Why Office Formats Matter

2005-11-29T09:35:00.000-05:00

Tim Bray of Sun recently called for one standard Open Document Format (ODF) based on the current Oasis standard.

After smearing Mr. Bray with a hypocrisy label, Dare Obasanjo of Microsoft explains that Microsoft needs to move forward with a legacy compatible format (O12X) as soon as possible and can not wait for the standards process to plod forward.

Dare's answer sounds reasonable, but it is clear that Microsoft's primary business objective is to retain control of the enabling Office architecture (O12X). Even after Microsoft's ECMA approval, they will still effectively control the direction of the standard.

Dave Winer complains that he doesn't care about this issue and therefore it's not important.

The reason this is important is that every year businesses of all sizes spend billions of dollars on Microsoft Office for features they never use or could live with out. This is due to Microsoft's brillant lock-in strategy which Mr Winer often complains about.

If the Oasis ODF standard is widely adopted by the business community, we will see increasingly improved Office Suites at one tenth the price and great free versions as well. The money no longer going into the pockets of Microsoft will be used on development projects that add real value to the business and help their customers.

In addition, developers of all stripes will create unbelievable mash ups of Office Docs which will make Google Map mash-ups look like the toys that they are.

So this is an issue that does matter and it is clear that the Oasis Open Document Format is best for almost anybody who is not a Microsoft employee. So do all you can to push for ODF adoption in your organization.

Contrarian Carr on Blogging

2005-11-23T12:10:00.000-05:00

I've always got a lot of mileage reading contrarians. Which is why I regularly consume the words of both Dvorak and Winer. My current favorite is Nicholas Carr, best known for his "Does IT Matter?" writings.

In a recent entry, Mr. Carr addresses the topic of what's wrong with blogging. Here's an excerpt:
The blogosphere's a seductive place - it's easy to get caught up in it - and there's lots of interesting thoughts and opinions bouncing around amid the general clatter. But does it really provide a good way of becoming informed? Experiencing the blogosphere feels a lot like intellectual hydroplaning - skimming along the surface of many ideas, rarely going deep. It's impressionistic, not contemplative. Fun? Sure. Invigorating? Absolutely. Socratic? I'm not convinced. Preferable to the old world? It's nice to think so.

For all the self-important talk about social networks, couldn't a case be made that the blogosphere, and the internet in general, is basically an anti-social place, a fantasy of community crowded with isolated egos pretending to connect?

Mr Carr takes it a little too far, as is the tendency of many contrarians. But I agree that the pace of blogging does not allow for much depth. And to call it Socratic, like Dan Farber did, is quite humorous. As far as information, I think we would all be better off if we spent more time reading books.

But at the end of the day, many of us have created meaningful friendships and have learned a bit more about the human condition, which may justify the time cost of admission. I'm not sure, but here I am still playing the game.

Oogling Google

2005-11-22T18:56:00.000-05:00

Some more interesting articles about Google.

Here are some Disturbing Facts About Google including:

2. Google records everything they can:
...
3. Google retains all data indefinitely:
...
4. Google won't say why they need this data:
...
5. Google hires spooks:
...
6. Google's toolbar is spyware:

And The Great Google Wipeout Chronicle of a Corporate Death Foretold:

Having plunged into too many businesses at once, Google had become distracted. Regulators throttled its local Wi-Fi initiative. Its plan to build out ad-supported computer services—word processors, spreadsheets, databases—for end users had died when Microsoft jumped in first with a superior polished suite. Google, as users of its desktop search had learned, wasn't good at writing client applications. Microsoft, now run by Scott Moore, who had defected back to the company from Yahoo!, continued to trump Google on the desktop and used its know-how and market muscle to write lingua franca search and communications software for all the smart devices, services, and nano-gizmos that people were plugging into the Web: phones, media players, medical monitors, life recorders, cars, houses, ships at sea, personal satellites, and USB-ready newborns as well as the Club Webs belonging to individuals and institutions.

I feel a little guilty about blogging negatively about Google using Blogger on Blogspot, since I do appreciated the years of solid service they've provided. But if Google's mantra is to "Do No Evil", which of course is impossible for a public company, then I'm sure they appreciate all input to set them in the right direction.

Cringley On Google's Domination

2005-11-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Robert Cringley has an interesting piece on how Google will dominate the Internet:

There will be the Internet, and then there will be the Google Internet, superimposed on top. We'll use it without even knowing. The Google Internet will be faster, safer, and cheaper. With the advent of widespread GoogleBase (again a bit-schlepping app that can be used in a thousand ways -- most of them not even envisioned by Google) there's suddenly a new kind of marketplace for data with everything a transaction in the most literal sense as Google takes over the role of trusted third-party info-escrow agent for all world business. That's the goal.

All this is based, of course, on Google's proven network and hardware expertise. Have you seen Google's Search Appliance? They ship you a 1U prebuilt server. You connect it to your network, fill out a simple configuration screen, and it scans and indexes your web site (or sites) for you. Google monitors and manages it remotely, and sucks up the data and adds it to theirs. You just plug the thing in and turn it on. It just works. You need do nothing else to keep it running. Google understands how to do this stuff. Microsoft definitely does not.

And there lies the differences between the two companies. Last week, I wrote about Windows Live and Office Live as Microsoft's best attempts at pretending to be Google. And Google will do those kinds of applications, too. But they'll build them atop a network infrastructure that Microsoft can't match.

Worth a read if you have five minutes. But the recent breach of Gmail might put a damper on the scenario that Cringley has laid out.

Seth Godin on How to Get Unstuck

2005-11-15T10:45:00.000-05:00

Seth Godin has one of the best minds in the blogosphere today. Recently he blogged an entry on how to unstick your life or company, which he titled "Understanding Local Max".

Since he uses a simple chart to make his point you need to read the post to get the flavor. It is short, insightful amd an easy read. If you haven't already seen it, give it a spin.

37 Signals Stands Up For Honesty

2005-11-14T13:10:00.000-05:00

Jason Fried of 37 Signals recently posted:

Jason Kottke is blogging his trip to Hong Kong. In an entry about having dim sum with a few girls writing an article on blogging, he mentions:

"A favorite conversational tidbit was that when you buy fake electronics in Hong Kong, they ask you which logo you want on it (Sony, Panasonic, NEC, etc.) and then affix the proper sticker. Awesome."

Tongue-in-cheek or not, there’s nothing awesome about IP/brand theft. On the surface it’s funny for a second, but that’s where the humor and awesomeness end. When it becomes ok to steal someone’s brand, copy someone’s product, or blatantly rip off someone else’s design for your profit, well, we’re all in trouble.
...

You know, everyone wants corporations to be more like people — more responsible, more honest, more respectful of the environment, etc. Yet we’re not as quick to treat corporations like people. We want to see what we can to do scam them. We want to see what we can do to take advantage of them. We call it awesome when people take their brands or their IP. Respect is a two-way street.

In the 37 Signals' comments, the overwhelming sentiment is against Fried. I blogged the following comment there:

There seems to be two points here, what was Kottke’s reaction to the brand theft and what is our personal reaction to brand theft.

Let’s give Kottke the benefit of the doubt for a second and assume he’s not a fan of brand theft. It does seem clear that many of the commentors to this post have no problem with some form of illegal brand theft.

I think Jason’s clear point is how can we ask for more honesty from corporations, when we are not willing to be honest ourselves. That seems to me to be a pretty good question.

If any of the clearer thinkers out there can give me some solid justification for brand theft, I'd love to hear it.

Understanding the Microsoft Gorilla

2005-11-09T11:45:00.000-05:00

Dave Winer points to two recent memos from Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie. Scoble is still reeling from their significance. Personally, I'm trying to keep from falling asleep as I read them.

To understand what is going on at Microsoft, it might be helpful to refer back to a quote from this article by the legendary strategic marketing expert Geoffrey Moore: "Companies that have proprietary architectural control over a product that has high switching costs are gorillas". And as Moore points out in the article and his book the Gorilla Game, "the market confers a tremendous competitive advantage on that vendor".

For Microsoft, Office enables the production of Word Documents and Excel spreadsheets which is why Microsoft can't switch to open formats. The Windows API (and now the .NET api) enables the creation of client software, which is why Microsoft is pushing so hard to keep the client relevant.

Open standards, the browser and Web Services are changing what matters and if Microsoft can not lock the world in with a proprietary and enabling architecture they will lose big time. In addition, the Office cash cow is coming under relentless attack from open document standards and cheaper tools like Open Office.

What they need is a Ruby on Rails for Web Services, which could possibly induce developers to lock themselves into Microsoft, but I think the problem space is too big and complex to provide a simple enough solution.

So the bottom line is Microsoft seems cooked regardless of their current product pipeline, which is drawing tremendous yawns from the community. The only question left is whether it is proper to be joyful as we watch the mighty and arrogant giant descend.

The Flattening of the Capital Hierarchy

2005-11-07T16:07:00.000-05:00

Although I certainly don't think the world is currently as flat as some in the blogging hierarchy assume, there is ample evidence that the deflating of various hierarchies is making it flatter.

In the Venture Capital Squeeze, Paul Graham illuminates the current deflation of the VC hierarchy due to the lessening need for money by startups due to four factors:

...open source, which makes software free; Moore's law, which makes hardware geometrically closer to free; the Web, which makes promotion free if you're good; and better languages, which make development a lot cheaper.

Graham points out the companies such as Google are buying companies earlier because:
What they really want is the software and the developers, and that's what the startup is in the early phase: concentrated software and developers.

Graham suggests that VCs allow founders to cash out for their first million (which is the most important to the founders) in the first round of financing to make the VC value proposition more attractive to the startup company.

It's a short and easy read and it might convince you that a good idea and a some serious elbow grease can lead to nice rewards. It might make sense to take your ideas to the next step in the current tech environment.

Some Truth From the Cluetrain

2005-11-04T09:33:00.000-05:00

I was just reading this short review of the Cluetrain Manifesto. Although I disagree with some of the substance of the book, there are clearly some great insights thoughout. Here is one the reviewer quotes:

"Every business is dysfunctional because everything human is at least a bit broken. It's not an accident. It's the human condition."

There is so much truth and insight in that statement. If I could just internalize this a little bit and try to understand and deal with my own brokeness, my own world would improve immeasurably.

Thanks to Doc, David, Chris and Rick for that one.

Have a nice weekend.

37 Signals Vs Microsoft

2005-11-03T10:40:00.000-05:00

I love the people at 37 Signals and regularly read their words and watch their products. Sometimes they generalize their particular challenges to those of the whole technical world providing some good entertainment in the process.

Today they 37 Signals guys seem to be calling out Microsoft after their Windows Live announcement.

The “run your business on the web” space is getting interesting. With Microsoft jumping in the ring in 2006, with our 4 new apps currently in development, and with some other plans yet to be announced, we’re very much looking forward to this battle of the bands 2006.

I think Scoble makes the obvious, but often overlooked point that Microsoft has a huge financial obligation to its shareholders and therefore must be in this business to make *significant* sums of money.

37 Signals seems to be growing nicely and I am looking forward to the day that somebody makes them an offer they simply can't refuse for investment or buy out. They still won't be even close to facing Microsoft's challenges, but at least it will align their perspective a little bit.

Microsoft and the End of the Intellectual Hierarchy

2005-11-02T10:48:00.000-05:00

The three most important hierarchies in the Western World are the power, wealth and intellectual hierarchies. It is very interesting to watch the intellectual hieararchy deteriorate throught the prevalent market-speak in technological circles.

Let's start with some quotes from Tim O'Reilly's take of the Microsoft Conference from yesterday:

The big takeaway: Microsoft is fully engaged with thinking about what I've called "Web 2.0." They are focused on the internet as the platform, on software as a service, on creating rich experiences across multiple devices, on live update as a metaphor for both software and documents, on grassroots adoption as a result of user conversations. They are also very clearly focused on advertising as a new business model. We're hearing all the Web 2.0 buzzwords: RSS, AJAX, social networking.

I might be missing something, but I thought this was one of the most underwhelming major announcements I've heard from Microsoft in the past 15 years. But Tim seems to be excited as the announcement was sprinkled liberally with the appropriate buzzwords and phrases.

I went to Dare Obasanjo's site to see his take on this:

From a practical perspective, when I think about Windows Live I think about three things:

1) User-centric web applications with rich user interfaces: You can expect more applications with rich, dynamic, user interfaces such as has been shown in the Mail beta and on http://www.live.com. For the geeks out there this means that you'll be seeing a lot more AJAX applications coming out of us and a focus on software that puts the user in control of their online experience.

2) Smart desktop applications that improve the Windows user experience: The MSN division has slowly become Microsoft's consumer software division. From desktop search to instant messaging, a number of key applications that were once thought of as bits that ship with the operating system are now being shipped on a more frequent basis by MSN. With Windows Live, this reality is being acknowledged and embraced. Expect to see more beneficial integration between consumer applications coming from Microsoft and our web properties such as the integration between MSN Messenger & MSN Spaces.

3) The Web as a platform: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msn was just the beginning, expect a lot more. Coincidentally I just finished giving a presentation to a few hundred of my co-workers from across the company on MSN Windows Live services as a Web platform. This is definitely an area I will be spending a lot of my time on in the following months.

This sounds a lot like Microsoft's 1995 and 2000 embraces of the Internet but maybe from deep inside Microsoft it looks like something new.

I think I figured it out. Microsoft in the past decades hired a great percentage of the smartest people in America, as Microsoft is fond of telling us. They then spent their time dumbing these people down with endless marketing hype and some good money to keep the restless happy. Now they plan to continue to substitute market-talk for good ideas and useful products.

Unfortunately it seems to be working.

Dismatling the Microsoft Hieararchy

2005-11-01T08:41:00.000-05:00

Almost every software veteran has been burnt by Microsoft at some point, whether through outlandish pricing, technological churn, poor support or buggy software. So the industry is watching with some satisfaction as the Microsoft software hierarchy starts to crumble.

I think it's safe to say that the blogosphere is an active participant in the dismantling. It gets even more interesting when a key Microsoft employee, like Robert Scoble participates in the hierarchy realignment. Today, Robert blogs in response to Ross Mayfeld, about the top 12 reasons Web entrepreneur aren’t using Microsoft’s stuff.

In the comments to the above post, Mr Scoble writes in response to the Unofficial Microsoft Weblog:

John (Microsoft Weblog): I am on a spiritual journey, but I’m not leaving Microsoft. The world is about to change, though, you’re right! Microsoft is going to need to change with it.

It is pretty clear to me that Microsoft in its present form can not adapt to the changing technological world, since breaking the hierarchy is an integral part of that change. The Microsoft Mammoth by definition needs to sit at the top of the hierarchy and can not play on the same field as the entrepeneurs due to pressure from 50,000+ employees, shareholders, the stock market and other large company pressures.

A possible solution would be listening to another important Microsoft blogger, Mini-Microsoft, who has been advising that Microsoft break itself up into smaller more nimble companies. But for the life of me, I can't imagine Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer being content with being the boss of a smaller, less powerful companies, regardless of how innovative they might be because the money/power hierarchy trumps the innovation hierarchy almost every time.

Note: I posted this quickly before a 9:00 meeting, prior to proofreading it and thus the misspellings in the title. I can't change the title now since it will change the permalink and some people have already linked to it. The World Live Web is not always all wine and roses.

Hierarchy Chasers

2005-10-31T17:02:00.000-05:00

Nicholas Carr has an good piece on the Forbes article:

Bloggers haven't been shy about pointing out the flaws of traditional print and broadcast journalism - what they often call the "mainstream media." Up until now, the criticism has been mostly a one-way street.
...
That's changing now. As the blogosphere's influence grows, its own flaws are finally getting the inspection they deserve.

Bloggers have been successfully advancing up the news reporting hieararchy with some good posting and by continuously attacking the main stream media. It should be no surprise when the empire strikes back with some flaw-finding of it's own.

There is an interesting thread at Shelley Power's blog which is discussing the further solidification of the A-List Blogging Hierarchy through tools such a Memorandum.

The promise of blogging was that the little guy can be heard and that is still the convential wisdom spouted by the A-Listers covered on Memorandum. But the hierarchy has solidified and the little guy is just a speck on the collective long tail, which is why there is some discontent.

I think that "Blogging is the Voice of the Little Guy" meme is dying and long tailers need to rethink why we're here and where we're going. Did somebody say bring back the on-the-blog posted Blogroll?

Forbes: Blogging Minus Accountability Equals Damage

2005-10-28T10:39:00.000-04:00

Forbes has a decent article highlighting the problem of lack of accountability combined with the growing influence of blogging. The author documents a few cases where bloggers caused a great deal of damage to individuals and companies. In each case a mob of bloggers acted as prosecuter, jury and executioner.

Of course it is no surprise that the blogosphere has exhibited this same mob-attack behaviour on the writer of the article. Robert Scoble conceded that there was some truth to what Forbes wrote, but suggested conversation with the mob-bloggers was the answer. The article clearly highlighted how conversation was ineffective with the blog-mob.

Power without accountability is a dangerous mix and it is very sad that the blogosphere as a group is Clueless about the potential consequences and possible solutions.

The Beginning of the End of Hierarchies

2005-10-12T10:54:00.000-04:00

After spending much energy railing against marketers and their endless pursuit of advancing up the hierarchy, Dave Rogers came to the insightful conclusion that trying to prove yourself right and another wrong is also a form of competition in a hierarchy.

I agree with Dave, competition in hierarchies is not the smart way to go. However in the fast paced, got-no-time world of blogging, it's unlikely that many people will take the time to see the deficiencies in the hierarchical world in which we imprison ourselves.

Tonight is Yom Kippur and many Jews around the world will spend somewhere on the order of 14 hours of the next 24 hours praying, regretting their mistakes and confessing to God. When it's just you and God, there is no deception, no confusion, no hierarchies - it's just a fragile human being, committed to improvement - asking God for help. It's an opportunity to achieve a glimmer of clarity and stop the never ending pursuit of ladder climbing. Here's a prayer for a world of true cooperation and caring.

Judging Spammers Favorably

2005-10-06T10:17:00.000-04:00

One of the things we try to work on in the days between Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur (and all year long) is judging people favorably and not speaking negatively about others. Every person has good and bad traits and when you speak poorly about a person, you are focusing on the negative, and in the process you yourself become negative, cynical and bitter.

In reading my comments after the holidays a friend suggested I turn on some Blogger feature to stop the spammers. But to tell you the truth, I was beginning to warm up to those cuddly spam-bots.

On my last post, over 76 spammers bothered to comment which was very nice. And not only did they comment, but they said nice things like "Great Blog!", "Interesting Post!" and "Cool Blog, I never really thought about it that way". And when they were done complimenting and giving encouragement they gave me so many suggestions of blogs they thought *I* would be interested - like a personal del.icio.us.

So please try to judge the comment spammers favorably because when you look closely you'll see they're really nice.

Intelligent Design, Self Centeredness and Rosh Hoshana

2005-09-29T10:31:00.000-04:00

The major problem with the Intelligent Design theory is that it is a philosophical theory and not a scientific one. Philosophy is not supported through the same means as science and thus it was a mistake to advance Intelligent Design as an alternative to the scientific evolution theory. Furthermore evolution and Intelligent Design can comfortably coexist and there is a growing body of philosophy which reconciles the two.

The field of science however, does itself a disservice when it tries to use evolution theory to suggest there is no God. The Big Bang is the most widely accepted scientific theory on the origins of the universe, and the big question it leaves unresolved is what caused the big bang itself. To say that it came out of nowhere, would support a theory of spontaneous generation which has long been discredited since the days of Louis Pasteurs' discovery of germs.

According to this article, the renown cosmologist Stephen Hawking says in his writings, "the actual point of creation lies outside the scope of presently known laws of physics". For the record, there is also a growing body of philosophy which reconciles the current accepted 15 billion years of the universe with the biblical account of the universe's creation.

So if there are indications in both directions, why is there so much resistance to belief in the existence of God? It's probably because that's the way God created the world. Every person has within himself/herself a tremendous sense of self. This sense of self puts us in the center of our own universe and creates a resistance to us accepting the fact that God is in the center of everybodies universe. But the theological concept of free will suggests that God wants us to come to this belief through our own devices, so he creates a world where belief and non-belief of God are both viable alternatives.

In our times the growth of the me generation with it's accompanying self-centered technologies such as blogging has lead to even more resistance to the idea of the existence of God. It seems that only when we are struck with overwhelming tragedies do we even glance in the direction of God. But when things are going well, we are very quick to attribute the good times to our own collective technical brilliance.

In the Jewish Calendar we have a long period beginning a month before Rosh Hoshana where we refocus on the choices we have made. We increase our awareness that we are responsible for our decisions and that often our choices are harmful to ourselves and to others. We make amends via thought, speech and action and we resolve to be better in the future. We are made aware that there is a grand plan and this is the time of year to realign ourselves with that plan. What's interesting is that in this intense introspective process we usually give ourselves a grade of NI - needs improvement.

May the entire world achieve success in aligning itself with the grand plan so that we can all be the beneficiaries of a world of peace, prosperity, happiness and meaningful lives for all.

I Love Times Warner Cable - Please Don't Ever Blog

2005-09-23T12:53:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to post a thank you note to Times Warner Cable whose technicians always we give me nice, courteous, and conscientious service.

In addition I was recently given an offer to switch from Times Warner to Earthlink and save about $20 a month. Times Warner made the switch as painless as possible even though they service the Earthlink accounts in my neighborhood.

If anybody at Time Warner is reading this (and I hope that you're not), please don't every consider starting a blog, just keep on focusing on giving me better services at better prices.

In other news, Dave Rogers published part 3 of his Markets aren't Conversations series which is well worth reading. Doc Searls responds that he will continue to march to the Markets are Conversation metaphor because he sees some genuine conversational efforts in the marketplace.

So Markets are Conversations wins again as genuine nice guy Microsoft blogger, Robert Scoble illustrates by pleasantly conversing with 10,000+ readers about his employees latest products. Meanwhile Microsoft unleashes a new set of technologies that will collectively cost us billions of dollars in upgrades with very little commensurate return. But since Markets are Conversations, and Robert is conversing, this must be what we want. I'll take Time Warner's approach any day.

Thinking and Feeling

2005-09-14T09:49:00.000-04:00

Dave Rogers has done it again and written back to back excellent pieces on why Markets are not Conversations.

Dave points out that

...Marketing messages are mostly about emotions, creating impressions.
...The problem is that more and more of our language is being influenced by the methods of marketing, where explicit meaning is deprecated in favor of an emotional impression.

Dave points out that the goal of marketing is to get your attention and to get you to surrender some of your authority usually in the form of a purchase. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, it's just important to understand the framework.

Noted Cluetrain author, David Weinberger responded to Dave and pointed out in the comments:
If you think that the phrase "Markets are conversations" means that all markets are always conversations, then you've misunderstood Cluetrain. That book was an argument that marketing _ought_ to engage in conversations, instead of what it's been doing for generations.

I never realized that the Cluetrain authors meant that marketing _ought_ to engage in conversations. That seems like some decent advice, but given that the Cluetrainers often use conversation as a substitute for communication, I'm not sure that marketers should communicate is exactly meme-spreading material.

Dr Weinberger also notes:

...when we hear marketing rhetoric we've learned not to take words too seriously.

I think this highlights Dave Rogers point that marketers are not too concerned with the meanings of the words they use, which is troublesome to some people.

It could be that this is a faceoff between the Myers and Briggs personality types of thinking and feeling:

Thinking (T)
When I make a decision, I like to find the basic truth or principle to be applied, regardless of the specific situation involved. I like to analyze pros and cons, and then be consistent and logical in deciding. I try to be impersonal, so I won’t let my personal wishes--or other people’s wishes--influence me.

Feeling (F)
I believe I can make the best decisions by weighing what people care about and the points-of-view of persons involved in a situation. I am concerned with values and what is the best for the people involved. I like to do whatever will establish or maintain harmony. In my relationships, I appear caring, warm, and tactful

It seems clear that people like Dave Rogers would lean towards the thinking category, while the metaphorically-oriented marketers like David and Doc Searls lean in the direction of the feeling category.

Arnold Kling wrote a good piece about the thinking and feeling categories as it applies to the political spectrum and would be well worth your time to give it a read if this kind of stuff interests you.

Conversation is Dead

2005-09-01T08:47:00.000-04:00

"Markets are Conversations".
"Knowledge is a Conversation".
"Journalism is a Conversation".
"Blogging is a Conversation"

Let's look at the primary dictionary definition of conversation:
The spoken exchange of thoughts, opinions, and feelings; talk.

The reason that marketing oriented metaphorists like to use the word conversation is because it implies an intimate mode of communication. The goal is to elicit a positive emotional response and thereby increase the probability of acceptance of the delivered message.

So now that the word conversation has morphed into meaning any communication with a warm fuzzy twist, can someone please coin a new word that describes a one on one speech based communication between two people?

Splogs

2005-08-25T09:55:00.000-04:00

Doc shows us once again why he is one of the best "State of the Internet" bloggers with this piece titled How to Save the Web from Splogonoma.

He notes in that piece that somebody in the online advertising business told him that his blog might easily make $100,000 annually in advertising.

Besides that interesting tidbit, he lays out a scenario how Google and the big publishers might succeed in making us pay for content on the Web. And splogs or spam blogs are the Internet cancer enabling this move.

If you are interested in the future of the Internet, this is a must read.

Thanks Doc.

Of Manifestos and Principles

2005-08-24T08:29:00.000-04:00

My friend, Troy Worman has condensed the Longtailers' Principles as follows:

1) Call it like you see it.
2) Be objective.
3) Be tolerant.
4) Recognize humanity.
5) Be constructive.

Here's my version:

1) We see the world from inside our own heads, our own perspectives, our own needs first.
2) Most people think that they are correct and objective most of the time.
3) Discover the fragments of truth in opinions with which you disagree.
4) Recognize the humanity behind the blogger, especially when you disagree.
5) Keep focused on your constructive reasons for being involved with blogging.

Troy has developed Orbit Now! The Manifesto which reads as follows:

Be positive. A positive attitude is the single most important quality you can develop. Develop your personal network. Your sphere of influence is limited only by your own personal network. Develop a burning desire to succeed. Embrace accountability. Accept personal accountability for organizational objectives. Embrace competition. Competition will make you strong. Be tolerant. Recognize humanity. Embrace diversity. Diversity of thought and diversity of perspective will make you a better leader. Be unique. Be yourself. Call it like you see it. Think. Every action, every creation, every success begins with a single thought. If you can conceive it, you can achieve it. Be objective. Have the courage to face the truth. Be patient. Be patient with yourself and be patient with others. Protect the weak. Help those less fortunate than you. Protect the absent. Do not participate in criticism of those unable to defend themselves. Protect your reputation. Don't make promises you cannot keep. Fire bad customers. Fire bad employees. Fire bad bosses. Eliminate negative influences. Be fearless. Fear begets indecision. Indecision results in missed opportunity. Stretch. Venture beyond your comfort zone. Be diligent. Develop consistency of purpose. Be constructive. Build bridges. Reach out to others and find common ground. Be constructive. Build momentum. Desire, determination, and diligence generate momentum. Consistency of purpose is required to maintain it. Build competitive advantage. Leverage your strengths. Don't wait for permission to succeed. You are the best judge of your capabilities. Be your own worse critic and your own biggest fan. Don't live for 10 minutes of fame. If you live for 10 minutes of fame that is all you will achieve. Think big. Don't try to shortcut evolution. Personal growth is a process. Be kind. It's easy. Collaborate. Directive leadership does not have the same impact it did 20 years ago. Be constructive. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. Be thoughtful. Never minimize others, their desires, or their ideas. Have a bias for action. Remember the self-starter self-motivator. Do it now! Have fun. If it is not fun, it is probably not worth the effort. Play at work. Have faith. Have faith in others. Believe. Believe in yourself.

Here are six of my favorites of Troy's Principles
1) Have the courage to face the truth.
2) Embrace accountability.
3) Don't live for 10 minutes of fame
4) Personal growth is a process.
5) Develop consistency of purpose.
6) Eliminate negative influences.

Keeping Focused on Why Your Blogging

2005-08-16T09:10:00.000-04:00

I think the last of the Longtailers' Principles is something like this:

5) Keep focused on your constructive reasons for being involved with blogging.

We live in a distracted world and it's very easy to be prevented from achieving our goals. Blogs are a tremendous distraction and one can easily spend hours reading and writing blogs. So I think we need to constantly re-evaluate what we're gaining from spending so much time with blogs.

I think blogging, like most communication tools has great potential to achieve worthy goals, but like most pursuits - focus is the key.

Truth, Tisha B'Av and the Rebuilding Process

2005-08-11T10:55:00.000-04:00

Judith Weiss is coordinating a blogburst about:

... the relation of Tisha B'Av to the destruction of Temple Mount archeological relics under the authorization of the Muslim authority in charge of the Mount, and the relationship of those topics to the ongoing propaganda attempts to erase Jewish history.

This coming Sunday is Tisha B'Av, the day that Jews mourn the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller points out that we can not truly understand the enormity of the loss because we do not have access to the spirituality that existed in the Temple.

Judaism teaches that all our physical misfortunes are dependent on our spiritual deficiencies. The destruction of the Temple resulted from the baseless hatred of one person towards another.

In the Antidote for Baseless Hatred, Rebbetzin Heller points out that nobody wakes up and says "It's a great day today, I think I'll hate people". We dislike each other for two reasons: One, we love truth and tend to not believe that other people could have it if their spark of truth is different from our own. Two, we are threatened by other people’s differences, and are often unwilling to expand ourselves.

The solution to accepting differences and getting closer to people is to approach every person with two questions:
1) What can I learn from them?
2) What can I give to them?

When we follow this formula we expand ourselves and bring others closer. That is the world God wants and that is the world we are all capabable of building today.

Intelligent Design For Bloggers

2005-08-05T12:21:00.000-04:00

Is there a God? According to many (or most) philosophers and theologians it can't be absolutely proven either way whether God exists or not, although you'll probably find a few a bloggers who think they've discovered an iron-clad proof.

If you want to start to examine the philosophical evidence, I suggest reading Theism Vs Atheism. In this piece, Dr. Phil Fernandes examines 9 different aspects of human experience that are more adequately explained by theism (the belief in a personal God) than by atheism (the rejection of the belief in a personal God). The 9 different aspects are:
1) The Beginning Of The Universe
2) The Continuing Existence Of The Universe
3) The Design & Order Found In The Universe
4) The Possibility Of Human Knowledge
5) The Reality Of Universal, Unchanging Truths
6) The Existence Of Absolute Moral Values
7) The Absurdity Of Life Without God
8) Respect For Human Life
9) The Existence Of Evil (it's Cause & Ultimate Defeat)

Go read the article, it's not a very difficult read and you'll be better informed on a very important topic as a result.

Although you might think less of me, I want to go on the record as a believer in God and I have some objections in the very few areas where Dr. Fernandes has mixed in his own personal theology.

And please don't let President Bush's personal beliefs cloud your thinking on this. Examine the evidence. Of course you could look at the Ultimate Guide to Shooting Rubber Bands instead, that's the beauty of free will.

Have a thought-filled weekend.

Longtailers' Guide to Blogging - Version 0.92

2005-08-02T06:00:00.000-04:00

Some adjustments to the Longtailers' Guide to Blogging. First, a change to the first principle so it reads:

1) We see the world from inside our own heads, our own perspectives, our own needs first.

I'm removing "It's also what makes our life unique and full of unlimited potential and greatness." Although I think that this is a correct statement, I don't think it make sense to include it in these principals which I want to make as short and to the point as possible.

The second principle is being changed to read:

2) Most people think that they are correct and objective most of the time.

I think the objectivity principle is important because it can help us understand where a blogger is coming from as they maintain their strong opinions.

And here's the first shot at the third principle is:

3) Discover the fragments of truth in opinions with which you disagree.

I haven't been so good at this lately, but discovering the truths on which we agree will lead to having better feelings towards a given blogger. This will lead to us being able to express that which we disagree in a manner that the blogger in question might actually hear.

Problems of Objective Blogging

2005-07-28T08:44:00.000-04:00

A friend recently emailed me contending that my statement: "This is a big myth about blogging, that since blogger's are individuals they are trustworthy and truthful - they're not." implies that I think that bloggers and other individuals are untrustworthy liars.

That was not the implication. What I did mean was that our human limits on objectivity make the highest levels of trust impractical. Although I feel that most people do not outwardly lie, the fact that we see the world from own perspective colors our opinions. I believe most people take this into account when reading blogs and other periodicals.

The objectivity and trust issue has become a hot topic in regard to journalism, because it seems that most journalists believe they are being objective. What's interesting is that in the political arena most media consumers view a given media outlet as having either a Republican or Democratic slant, so there's an impedance mismatch somewhere between the reader and the writer.

I believe the disconnect is that we are not usually introspective enough to examine own biases. The two main reasons are: we don't have or take the time to examine our beliefs and actions and it is a painful process which most of us would rather avoid. As a result of this lack of introspection we fall into the trap of believing that since we believe objectivity is good and we truly want to be objective, that we are objective - and this is not the case.

Of course, blogging is a tool and as such, does not change basic human nature. If anything it causes us to be less objective, since when we put something in writing we have more invested in it and that increases our bias and lessens our objectivity.

Your comments are welcome.

Trust Me, Trust Me - I'm a Blogger

2005-07-26T13:06:00.000-04:00

Doc has an interesting discussion of Public Relations. If you don't have time to read the whole thing here's the money line:

PR needs to become an advocate, and an instrument, of truth and trust. This has always been an ideal of PR; but let's face it ... that's not usually what PR gets hired to do.

Of course most people understand that every employee and consultant is looking primaily from the companies point of view, so the trust we can place in them is limited.

For example, Doc is an advisor to Technorati, so everything he says about them is somewhat discounted. Since he sees Technorati from his own subjective view, high levels of trust are not possible. This is not to say that Doc is not a wonderful person trying to be objective - he is, but he's also human.

This is a big myth about blogging, that since blogger's are individuals they are trustworthy and truthful - they're not. We can be wonderful people, but blogging does not remove our human limitations - we see things from our own perspective and we think we're right most of the time.

My advice to PR and marketers is don't buy into the myth that you can be seen as truthful and trusted. Use that as your starting point and thing about the first two principals of the Longtailers' Guide to Blogging:
1) We see the world from inside our own heads, our own perspectives, our own needs first. It is also what makes our life unique and full of unlimited potential and greatness.
2) Most people think they are right most of the time.
3) Coming Soon...

Longtailers' Guide to Blogging

2005-07-22T09:30:00.000-04:00

Ethan Johnson, who blogs at The Vision Thing asked where exactly am I going with the Longtailer's Manifesto. I wrote a reply here in which I said that I wanted to create a framework for myself where I can reject the nonsense and often self-centered efforts of the Tech Industry Insiders, while at the same time learn from them on the occasions where they seem to have a clue.

To that end we have the first two principles:

1) We see the world from inside our own heads, our own perspectives, our own needs first. It is also what makes our life unique and full of unlimited potential and greatness.

2)Most people think they are right most of the time.

Dave Rogers mentioned his dislike of the word manifesto so I have renamed it, "The Longtailers' Guide to Blogging".

Focusing on these two principles have actually helped me recently in some real-life communal activities, so I figured it's worth finishing the effort. Your mileage may vary.

Admit It - You're Clueless About Podcasting

2005-07-22T09:21:00.000-04:00

One of the best opening paragraphs I've read in a while in today's Times:

By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
Published: July 22, 2005

Admit it. You don't know what podcasts are. Your plan is to do that thing of half-reading tech articles and waiting in denial until it's scarily mandatory that you really understand it -for instance, you have to create your own podcast for some random reason in one hour - and then desperately turning to Wikipedia or a teenage relative for a last-minute explanation. Just as you did long ago with the World Wide Web.

Read the whole thing.

Blogging Timeout

2005-07-21T10:49:00.000-04:00

Out to Lunch. Back in 10 minutes - give or take a week.

LM Second Principle - Most People Think They are Right Most of the Time

2005-07-14T09:25:00.000-04:00

I'm still working on the second principle of the Longtailers' Manifesto which is an attempting to provide a useful perspective on the blogosphere for Longtailers, who are not entangled in the Life is Marketing viewpoint of the Cluetrain Manifesto.

I think that the second principle of the LM (Longtailers' Manifesto) goes something like this:

Most people think they are right most of the time.

It seems obvious, but I find that when I don't understand where a person is coming from, invoking this principle helps. A person often says and does the things they do, because they think they are right. On many occasions trying to understand the person's perspective is called for, but sometimes it is better to just move on. In general it is difficult to convince a person that they are wrong, if they think they a right.

In the recent Technorati duststorm, Dave Sifry is trying to do what he thinks is right. Making a useful service more useful is certainly a laudable move and I applaud those efforts.

But for all Dave's good intentions, Technorati is now a company with VC investor backing which means their primary objective better be (from the investor's perspective) to make a significant amount of money.

An illustration would be the amount of money they will charge companies for their blog filtering services. If this is truly good for society at large, then getting it in the hands of more companies would be a worthwhile goal. However, the price and profit side of the equation will probably keep it out of the hands of most companies.

This is neither illegal or immoral, but it puts significant limits on the public good Dave and his company can accomplish as long as making significant money is a major goal. This is of course my perspective, and it's probable safe to say that Dave and Doc would disagree, because as the first LM principle says - we see the world from inside our own heads.

Technorati - Making Millions From the Work of Bloggers

2005-07-11T15:54:00.000-04:00

Silicon Valley Watcher has an interesting post on how Technorati is trying to make a lot of money from the work of millions of bloggers. Peter Hirshberg, a very high powered marketing guy (see his bio) representing Technorati:

...talked about the current tracking services that Technorati offers, and new products coming that will offer a deeper analysis of web blogs and will assign a value of authority, and other tags. All the better to more accurately distinguish how important a blog post is, the sphere of influence of a particular blogger, and the many number of ways to slice and dice the wealth of blog data Technorati is collecting and selling.
...
Well, Technorati is offering services that will help companies control their corporate message by identifying those blogs and their social network, that have posted around the "wrong" message. Then, I would imagine, some sort of corporate "SWAT" team could parachute in and engage those off-message bloggers.

"You need to become involved in the conversation," Mr Hirshberg strongly advised his audience.

I was surprised by how aggressive Technorati was in its pitch because it has a very good standing within the blogging community, a community that bristles at the thought of others commercializing its work.

Of course legally and ethically there is nothing wrong with a company using public information to make millions. And I am pretty sure that Technorati advisors and Cluetrain authors Doc Searls and David Weinberger have thought about how this benefits the little guy, furthers the emergence of voice, and is additional proof that markets are conversations.

But, from a longtailer's perspective it seems like the continuation of business as usual. Just color me clueless.

Moving Beyond the Self Absorbtion of Blogging

2005-07-07T10:28:00.000-04:00

The Longtailers' Manifesto is attempting to go beyond the self-promotion, hear my voice, it's all about me, narration of the Cluetrain Manifesto. The first principle acknowledges the reality that this view point dominates our thinking:

We see the world from inside our own heads, our own perspectives, our own needs first. It is also what makes our life unique and full of unlimited potential and greatness.

In the second principal, I think it makes sense to go beyond the self and acknowledge the importance of giving to others. We come into this world as takers and it is only in maturity do we see the superiority of giving. In American Culture, where the one with the most (money, power, authority, links) is deemed the winner, taking gives precedence to giving by a 10-1 margin (note: no statistics were harmed in the computing of that margin).

Steve Pavlina has an article titled How Selfish are You? in which he concludes:

Allow your greed to fuel your service and your service to fuel your greed. Accept and integrate both the selfish and the selfless parts of you. Learn to use both the dark and the light sides of your nature.

I think Steve is way off the mark here, but his thoughts are consistent with the me-first techno-culture in which the blogging world resides. We need to work on overcoming our greed and self-serving focus not fuel it.

If Business Blogging is the Answer, What was the Question?

2005-07-06T11:44:00.000-04:00

Doc postulates:

It's clear Boeing is hardly as open to blogging as its neighbor in Redmond — yet. But it's off to a worthy, if cautious, start.

I'd like to see a blog vs. blog contest between Boeing and Airbus. Betcha that would result in more sales for the company that has the most employees blogging.

I wonder if the massive numbers of bloggers at Microsoft, in addition to employing league leading business blogger Robert Scoble, has increased sales or stock prices at MSFT.

Personally, I've always been a proponent of leading with great products focused on the needs of the customer, which I'd bet Doc agrees with.

I wouldn't be surprised in a few years if people look at business blogging as primarily another Public Relations tool, which has the additional feature of giving individuals a new avenue to promote themselves.

Losing the Rat Race - Winning at Life

2005-07-05T13:41:00.000-04:00

I'm reading a book called Losing the Rat Race - Winning at Life.

The author characterizes the Rat Race as

- An inordinate emphasis on external matters - good looks, wealth, power, popularity, fame.
- A profound feeling that life is a great competition, that we must not allow ourselves to fall behind.
- An acceptance of standards set by others; a drive towards conformity even at the risk of betraying one's own values;
- A willingness to abandon ethical standards at times in order to advance oneself.
- A realization at some point and on some level the rat race is ultimately meaningless. What have I achieved by winning? Has success brought me real happiness?

It would seem that being in the Rat Race is not an all or nothing thing. Since we are all influenced to some degree by American Culture, we need to constantly work on extricating ourself from the race.

To Be Continued.

Doc On Conversation

2005-07-01T15:02:00.000-04:00

Doc recently posted some more thoughts on the Cluetrain usage of the word conversation.

As for conversation, I have many understandings of the word, as do we all. When we said "markets are conversations" in Cluetrain, we were trying to get past a pile of other synonyms and metaphors for markets: battlefields, arenas, bulls & bears, invisible hands, demand, demographics, regions, categories and so on. We wanted folks to remember what the Industrial Age caused us to forget, which is that markets originally were places where people gathered to do business and make culture. We believed (and still do) that the Net is by nature a place where those kinds of markets can flourish again.

In early-mid 1999, when we wrote the the website and then the book, the dot-com madness was at high ebb. Much of that madness involved leveraging the worst of what we learned in the Industrial Age (e.g."targeting" and "capturing" "eyeballs" with sites we called "sticky" even though they rarely were). It seemed nearly everybody getting venture funding in those days was attempting to extend some industrial supply-side practice (advertising, malls, retailing) into a new environment where — nobody seemed to notice — customers had far more power than ever before. There was a revolution on the demand side, and not just the supply side. Calling what was happening on the demand side (and between the supply and deand sides) "conversation" might not have been accurate in the narrow literal meaning of conversation, but none of the traditional economic descriptions framed it adequately, either.

David Foster Wallace on the First Principle of the LM

2005-06-30T09:16:00.000-04:00

Dave Rogers was thinking about the First Principal of the LM (Longtailers' Manifesto). In the course of his day he finds Jason Kottke's highly recommended link to David Foster Wallace's commencement address at Kenyon University. Listen to Wallace as he teaches his audience of graduates about the first principle:

Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe; the realist, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness because it's so socially repulsive. But it's pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute center of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.

Here's Mr Wallace on freedom:

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.

You really owe it to yourself to read the whole thing, and thanks to Jason and Dave for bringing it our way. I eagerly await Dave's upcoming thoughts on truth, freedom and ignorance.

First Principle - Version 0.3

2005-06-28T12:21:00.000-04:00

Steve Sherlock suggested we remove the "- we have no choice" from the first principal, questioning the veracity of that statement and pointing out that it does not really add anything. So here is the first principle version 0.3:

We see the world from inside our own heads, our own perspectives, our own needs first. It is also what makes our life unique and full of unlimited potential and greatness.

The First Principle - Inside Our Own Heads - Field Trip

2005-06-27T15:40:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to come up with a simple framework to put blogging and the numerous assertions, opinions and rants it hath wrought into a rational perspective. By last count there are anywhere between 4 and 7 people interested in this effort and so the name Longtailers Manifesto seems appropriate. The first principle is currently under construction and states:

We see the world from inside our own heads, our own perspectives, our own needs first - we have no choice. It is also what makes our life unique and full of unlimited potential and greatness.

A look at the recent Microsoft RSS announcement yields a great example of this principle:

Dave Winer, the man with the most investment in RSS on the planet calls the announcement a home run.

Tim Bray, a primary supporter of Atom, a competing format called the announcement good stuff, but was primarily interested in Microsoft support for Atom.

The Head Lemur, a Microsoft skeptic, warns that Microsoft is the last company in the world to do anything for the people.

Rick Segal, a former Microsoft employee who works very hard to convince us of his objectivity, says give Microsoft some credit.

Shelley Powers, who spends much time applying Web based technologies, gives the announcement a big ho-hum.

My take. Well first let me disclose that I own 100 shares of Microsoft stock and have been consistenly burnt as a developer and user of Microsoft technology. I have on occasion loved some of their products. Since I deal with a nunber of enterprise customers I have no alternative but to wait for Atom. I see Microsoft's embrace of RSS over Atom as just another step in their descent into enterprise irrelevancy.

Just some examples of seeing the world from inside our own heads. The first principle is obvious, but when we keep it in mind the blogging world becomes a much understandable and tolerable place.

Gluetrain Manifesto

2005-06-24T11:25:00.000-04:00

One of the Cluetrainers recently pointed to the Gluetrain Manifesto. It's funny every time I read it. Here are some tidbits:

1) Markets are conversations. Conversations are markets. Markets are he as you are we and we are all together.

11) People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from a rock than from most Linux distributors.

89) We have real power and we know it, clap our hands. We have real power and we know it, clap our hands. We have real power and we know it, and we really want to show it.

90) Even at its worst, our newfound conversation is more interesting than you are, you jerks.

91) Our allegiance is to ourselves—not you, you jerks.

Your mileage may vary. Have a great weekend.

Weight Management Site

2005-06-23T11:31:00.000-04:00

Esko Sarkkala is a middle aged IT-professional who started a site as a learning and weight management project. He found daily weight logging so helpful that he wanted to provide the system for everybody else, too.

Check out his free weight management site at www.noeasyway.com, it's pretty cool.

In case you are interested I'm basically on Phase 3 of South Beach which means you can eat anything you want, but you feel guilty when you eat sugar, trans-fats and bad carbs. I am still a fan of the diet.

Longtailer's Manifesto - First Principle - Take II

2005-06-22T09:30:00.000-04:00

Let's try this on for size as the first principle of the LTM:

We see the world from inside our own heads, our own perspectives, our own needs first - we have no choice. It is also what makes our life unique and full of unlimited potential and greatness.

Comments, corrections and criticisms welcomed.

Rethinking the First Principle

2005-06-21T12:31:00.000-04:00

Dave Rogers had some good objections to the first principal so I am going back to rethink and reword it.

In particular, he thought that the concept of every person in their own world positions us as worlds apart, which is not a great starting place. He also doesn't like the word world, since we all live in the same world. After all my discussions with Doc over the limitations of metaphor, I definitely need to be careful with my own use of them.

So back to the drawing board it is.

Longtailer's Manifesto - First Principle - Center of Our Own Worlds

2005-06-16T08:55:00.000-04:00

The first principle of the Longtailer's Manifesto is:

The human condition places every person at the center of their own world.

Our environment, experiences, thoughts, beliefs and character traits create a different perception and experience of the world for every person. Each of us is given a unique life experience from which we have the opportunity to maximize our potental and live a meaningful life. This unique life mission is everyone's gift, regardless of their wealth, fame, beauty or Technorati 100 ranking.

While centered in our own world, we should not become imprisoned by it. A new thought, a new attitude, a new perspective can make our own worlds infinitely better. It makes sense to look out for ideas and opportunities to improve.

An recent interesting example of being imprisoned by our own world is occuring in a discussion between Doc Searls and Dave Rogers. Doc who is usually a very good listener, seems to be imprisoned by his Cluetrain world view and can not hear the very good points Dave is making about authority, responsibility and accountability in the blogosphere. In addition, Dave talks of selling in the more general sense of influencing, where as Doc takes offense at the notion that he is selling anything. (Update: Doc says that he's listening.)

So the first principle is realizing everybody is at the center of their own world with a great deal of control on how they blossom or are imprisoned by the one world in which they have control.

Voice, Shavuos and the Grateful Dead

2005-06-09T08:42:00.000-04:00

At its heart, the Cluetrain Manifesto is about voice, or rather the loss of it in today's alienating environment. This is a real problem and is also at the center of Covey's 8th habit.

The goal of the Longtailer's Manifesto is to produce a simple framework to address our perception of the loss of voice despite the ever increasing modes of communication in the Internet Age. In the spirit of the diminishing attention spans of the Blogging Generation, it needs to be the simplest thing that could possibly work, no more than 7 or so ideas. Since writing less takes more time, the first draft will have to wait.

I'm taking a blog break until next Thursday primarily because next Monday and Tuesday are Jewish Holidays on which we don't do any creative activity except for cooking. The special food for Shavuos is actually cheese cake. If you are interested in the holiday, I hghly recommend this story titled Shavuos and the Grateful Dead.

The Cluetrain Battles Da Man

2005-06-08T10:55:00.000-04:00

This is the age of rebellion against authority. We question the authority of the press, of the government, of corporations, the clergy, of just about everything. In Cluetrain and the blogosphere this questioning of authority often takes the form of Rage Against the Machine.

The Cluetrain viewpoint is that my frustration at loss of voice is everyone else fault. Bring down Da Man and everything will be just fine. Of course we soon find the Da Man has just been replaced by another Da Man and we feel stifled once again. In the blogosphere, Technorati has proclaimed that the Top 100 are the new authorities because they have lots of links. If links alone determine authority, we're in big trouble.

There will always be hierarchies, both explicit and implicit. Despite the exhortations of Thomas Friedman, our world will never be flat, you will always be subject to authority, often by your own choice. Dave Rogers has done a lot of clear thinking on authority and you might want to start with this recent piece.

I'm almost done with the fork of the Cluetrain and next time I hope to conclude with the Longtailers Manifesto.

Lifecycle of Bloggers, Trendalicious, and Who is Rich?

2005-06-07T10:16:00.000-04:00

Before sharing some thoughts about authority, I wanted to link to some things I found funny or interesting. Check out this piece on the Lifecycle of Bloggers. Here's an excerpt:

#4. You become really personal on your site as the online and real-life worlds start confusing you.
...
#5. You faux “retire” from blogging.
...
#6. You cave back into blogging in less than 72 hours.
...
#7. You decide to “get serious” about blogging.
...

Trendalicious is the day-traders version of tagging. It takes a feed from the tagging site del.icio.us and All URLs that have been posted by a minimum of two people in the past fifty minutes are displayed, ranked by the total number of recent posts. Since most of the people using tagging seem to be geeks, most of the links are technical, but there is usually a few things of a more general nature on the list. If you need to waste, I mean spend, some time on what's hot, check out Trendalicious.

In the Ethics of the Fathers, the classic Talmudic work on ethics it says: Who is rich? The one who is appreciates what he has. In Sunday's NY Times there was an article that provides some evidence for the wisdom of this statement:

And yet, despite his accomplishments -- and the relatively majestic size of his bank account -- Pincus suffers from something of an inferiority complex. ''There's an A-list here, and then there's everyone else,'' he says. ''And I'm not A-list.'' No one asks Pincus to speak at the top technology conferences or to appear on ''Charlie Rose.'' He's a player, investing with the Google founders in one Internet startup. If not already friends with a fellow tycoon in the making, he is never more than a single e-mail message away from any number of people who can make an introduction on his behalf. Yet when he was out raising money for Tribe, among the venture capitalists turning him down was one who had financed him before and even had his name on his ''wall of fame.''

''Those of us who haven't yet attained rock-star status, we still need a good script,'' Pincus says. ''Everyone knows that in Hollywood, too many people are doing dysfunctional things for all the wrong reasons,'' he says, ''but somehow it creates something positive and successful. It's the same thing here.'' Or, as Eric Greenberg puts it: ''All of us -- all of us serial entrepreneurs -- go through the same postpartum depression. There's the same soul searching and need for reinvention. It's almost like we have to prove ourselves all over again.''

Counterfeit Conversations in the Blogosphere

2005-06-06T09:31:00.000-04:00

Seth Finkelstein has a good recap of last week's discussion on mediation, authority and converation in the blogosphere. It seems like Doc and David have exited the discussion, but I have some more thoughts that I'd like to share.

Both Cluetrain and Covey discuss the feeling of alienation and loss of voice many people feel in today's corporate and societal structures. The Cluetrain folks noted that there was some new types of discussions occuring on the Internet and gave them a nice marketing-type metaphorical twist by calling them "conversations". These discussions were definitely an improvement, but clearly they're not conversations.

One of the problems with bringing forth emotion through metaphor, is that at the end of the day, the customer might feel cheated when the real experience is not delivered. Most people realize there is a significant difference between a real live conversation and a cross blog discussion, and although the latter is certainly a worthwhile endeavor, in the long run people probably won't be fooled.

From a business point of view, I think customers primarily want the product they've been promised. Substituting the warm fuzzy metaphor of "blogging conversation" will fool some of the people, but if a company like Technorati continues to ignore the "it's broken" refrain of their users, all the "conversations" in the world may be of no avail.

Let me once again note that I do not feel that Cluetrain adherents (or Technorati) are out to fool people. But the problem with marketing and metaphors is that things are often not the way they feel.

Tomorrow: More thoughts on authority.

Higher Authorities

2005-06-03T09:59:00.000-04:00

Dave Rogers' has written some more excellent thoughts on authority in the blogosphere.

Authority is an important topic, because the exercise of authority without the acceptance of responsibility is usually an unheathy situation. We protest about it in the government, the media and we should make noises about it in the blogosphere as well. The fact that bloggers might not recognize that they are accumulating and exercising authority, does not make the situation better.

I think it's important to end with the following quote from Dave Rogers:

Technology changes how people do things, not what they do. It compresses activities in time, and expands them in space. It does not discriminate between the good and the not-so-good. Our world grows more crowded and competitive, and our technology is no answer to our spiritual problems. If my children are to grow up in a world at least as good as the one I grew up in, and hopefully better, we're going to have to begin to focus our attention more on ourselves, and less on our fascination with technology. We're going to have to find at least as much faith in ourselves, as in our technology. We're going to have to find the courage to take a hard look at ourselves, to truly know ourselves, and begin to think about who we might wish to be. We're going to have to find a way to "become the change we wish to see in the world."

Have a nice weekend, maybe some deep conversations with Higher Authorities are in order.

Blogging is More Broadcasting than Conversing

2005-06-03T09:31:00.000-04:00

One of the interesting things about blogging is where it fits on the communication continuum, which broadly ranges from broadcasting to intimate conversation. In my experience, deeper levels of communication occur when two people are alone in a relaxed environment. Seeing a face, hearing a voice, watching body language are absolutely essential at the deeper levels of communication.

Blogging can only be considered a conversation in the loosest sense of the word. It is much closer to broadcasting with its one-to-many mostly unidirectional format. No matter how deep you feel you are getting with those who are reading your blog, without real human voice, tone, expression and immediate feedback you are limited. Yes comments, emails and cross-blogging help, but they do not magically transform blogging into a conversation.

Exactly where blogging can be placed on the continuum is an interesting topic of discussion, dialog, debate or discourse, but unfortunately we can't have a conversation about it on a blog.

The Seeds of the Longtailer's Manifesto

2005-06-02T09:13:00.000-04:00

Doc blogged the following this morning:

Unmediated is more excellent pushback from Dave Rogers on his Groundhog Day blog.

I think Dave is doing more than pushing back, I think he is forking the Cluetrain. Since I agree with just about everything he said, I wanted to highlight some points which might be the beginnings of The Longtail Manifesto. I did paraphrase and add some thoughts, so you would be well served by reading Dave Roger's original post.

- Favorable reaction to the Cluetrainers on Chris Lydon's show is just an example of echo-chamberism.

- The lack of any real challenge by Chris was a disservice to his listeners.

- The assertion that the Web is unmediated is a distortion of the plain meaning of the word mediate.

- The assertion that the Web is more a world than a medium is a distortion of both those words.

- Many aspects of blogging are in fact mediation.

- The fact that bloggers have no editors, does not mean that they are unmediated and the current A-List gatekeepers in the blogosphere certainly act as mediators.

- Almost all commnications require mediation and to suggest otherwise is incorrect.

- Marketers have a loose relationship with language and truth which is why they are comfortable with statements like Markets are Conversations and notions like Authority without Responsibility.

- Authenticity is the difference between speaking the truth and trying to sell it.

- People sell authority and so they mediate their messages to make their own authority as pleasing and palatable as possible.

- Despite the statements of Cluetrainers, technology only changes *how* we do things, not *what* we do.

- If Cluetrain ideas have merit, they deserve to be challenged, tested and criticized.

- Perhaps the best rejoinder to all the hyperbole offered in the service of authority is the following:

"A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, or the return of your absent friend, or some other favorable event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."

Thanks Dave for all your work and insight.

Updated 5:45 PM EST

Flattening the Curve

2005-06-01T12:48:00.000-04:00

To no one's surprise, David Sifry did not remove the word authority from the Technorati 100 even though it's not a true statement. Many people are bothered when people grab and and delegate authority. This is one of the biggest problems with the bigheaders in the blogosphere's longtail curve.

So in the spirit of the new Flat World, it's a service to keep on questioning this grab for authority. I don't think the Technorati 100 is a case of authority being earned. Popularity, possibly, but authority - not in my blog.

Doc, David Weinberger and Dave Winer were discussing Cluetrainerisms on Chris Lydon's new radio show. They clearly see themselves as authorities on a wide variety of subjects like from technology, education, community and just about everything.

In a must read post, Dave Rogers questions the authority of the Cluetrainers and particularly the statement that the Web is unmediated:

Doc is, or was, (always will be?) a marketer. His job was to craft messages to "sell" products. His weblog is crafted in a way that "sells" his ideas.
...
Doc's weblog is as heavily mediated as network television, it's just that there's only one box in the org chart and his name is in it. This isn't a criticism, it's just an observation.
...
I've mentioned before that marketers have a very loose relationship with language and the truth. Words mean what they want them to mean in the particular circumstances they're using them. Which is why "markets" can be "conversations," and "authority" without "responsibility" isn't a cause for alarm.

I need to reiterate once again that Doc, Dave and David are fine people, but I am often troubled by their word-pirating and sad world view (examples to follow). I think they really believe what they are saying, but they are so mesmerized by their own authority that they can't really hear other points of view. It's ironic that in their world of "conversations" they are truly carrying on the "dialog of the deaf".

The Dangers of Headism

2005-05-31T12:42:00.000-04:00

Chris "Longtail" Anderson, the editor of Wired and the leading spokesman for the longtail, the curve that is, has an interesting post on the Dangers of Headism. He points out:

...I've been riffing on the dangers of "headism", the mistake of assuming that the economic incentives and other forces that dominate at the head of a demand curve apply equally down the tail

In the Incentives area, Mr. Anderson posits the following distinctions:
Head: $$$
Middle: Reputation Leading to $$$
LongTail: Expression

In blogging, I think it may be more connection, rather than expression. And despite the fact that blogging is a fairly weak form of connection, the isolation that many people feel leads them to seek connection wherever it can be found. To be fair, Mr. Anderson was not just talking about blogging so his identification of expression may be more correct in all the markets to which he is collectively applying the longtail.

In any case, the post is definitely worth a scan.

Dave Sifry Offers his Assistance

2005-05-30T09:11:00.000-04:00

I've been bitchin 'n moanin about Technorati and whadda ya know, Dave Sifry left the follow message in my comments:

Hmmm, are you still seeing Technorati problems? If so, please let me know, drop an email to dsifry at technorati dot com - I thought we had you all fixed up...

I'm gonna send Dave an email to help him verify the problem and I'm not even gonna bill him for my time or for pain and suffering. I'm going to point out that in a recent post I linked to both Doc and Dave Winer, but when I Techno Doc or Techno Dave, the post does not show up in either place.

While I have Dave on the line, I'm going to suggest that he change verbiage on the Technorati 100 from The most authorative blogs, ranked by the number of sources that link to each blog, to The most linked blogs, based on our most recent calculations.

I think the change is warranted because the wording most authorative blogs is not a true at its most basic meaning. In fact right now there is a hosting company at the top of the list and you might remember how certain girls with questionable moral standards held at least 3 of the top spots at one point.

So Dave, good luck with your technical fixes, and go with the truth The Top 100 Technorati - The most linked blogs, based on our most recent calculations. Thanks again for your sincere concern.

Positive Posting

2005-05-27T09:59:00.000-04:00

I really want to end this week's blogging on a positive note. It's a marvelous spring day in New York. I went to a leibidik (lively) wedding last night of two friends in their forties. And it is Lag B'Omer, a joyous Jewish holiday, signifying the end of a 33 day mourning period in which we don't have celebrations (like weddings), take haircuts or listen to music.

So let me leave you with the words of one of the wisest people I know, Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller: "Everyone of us has something to say, something that was never said by anyone else."

We have to keep reminding ourselves of this. Our greatness doesn't lie in outside recognition, but in the knowledge that every single person on the planet has a unique, wonderful and meaningful mission to carry out in the real arena that we call life.

Have a great weekend.

The Nice People of Technorati,... But We Still Have a Problem - Houston

2005-05-27T09:43:00.000-04:00

Kevin Marks of Technorati was kind enough to check into my alleged problems and post this comment:

Your posts are in the index (I found this one from checking my cosmos) and we're measuring your links just fine. Keep on blogging, we'll keep on counting.

So I feel a little guilty pointing out to Kevin that I am still having problems. When I Techno Doc, my recent posts pointing to him don't show up.

Thanks for your continued efforts Kevin and if you send me an email at msand1000-at-hotmail.com, I'd be happy to take this conversation off-web.

The Creative Disney Model of the Blogosphere

2005-05-26T09:34:00.000-04:00

In their book Introducing NLP, the authors describe Robert Dilts modelling of the wonderfully creative strategy of Walt Disney, and observed that Disney played three personnas:
- The first was the dreaming visionary who came up with the idea.
- Then there was the realist who balanced the issues of time, money, resources and managment to make the vision a reality.
- Lastly was the critic who questioned whether the resulting product - was really worth it.

Those who worked with him, recognized the three positions, but never knew which one Disney would take at a meeting. He probably balanced the meeting by supplying the one that was not well-represented.

In the 'sphere we have the dreamers like Doc and Mr. Weinberger. Then their are the critics like John Dvorak and USA Today's
Kevin Maney. And then there are the realists, who move progress forward, maybe Dave Winer is a good example. Of course, at any time anybody in the 'sphere can fulfill all three roles.

So to the dreamers out there, who crunge when a critic snarks them - think about Disney and all the success that the idealist, realist, critic model brought and listen to what the other voices are saying.

(Note: - I know I used bigheaders in my examples, but that does not mean that I have jumped the tail as a result of my recent blogebrity - I'm forever a longtailer - Mike.)

Identity Crisis - I Made the Blogebrity C-List

2005-05-25T08:44:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe, but I made the Blogebrity C-List.

Blogebrity is a primary source for links to the most authoritative blogs, in a similiar way to the Technorati 100. The major difference is that we can trust Blogebrity's methodology, because they just add the names manually, while Technorati continues to have trouble accurately spidering, storing and searching their link database.

The Blog Herald declared Technorati broken on February 4, 2005, which according to the date difference calendar makes this Day 113 in the Technorati is Broken Watch. I told Dave Sifrey in his comments yesterday, that I love his service (I really do!), and asked if there are any upgrades in the works or should we just sit tight. I'm taking the lack of any communications on the part of Dave and Technorati as an indication that we should just sit tight. Gotta love those conversing markets.

My real problem is that I am having a sort of identity crisis. Here I was championing myself as a voice of the downtrodden longtailers, and all of a sudden, some johnny-come-lately blog pushes me in the direction of the bighead. It's gonna take me a while to parse this one, so please bear with me.

The Blogosphere as the FIfth Estate

2005-05-24T08:41:00.000-04:00

The press evolved as the fourth estate, because there was a need to monitor the first three estates established in government, despite the built in checks and balances.

As time went on there became a growing need to monitor the fourth estate, and I believe that need is being partially served by the blogosphere - the new fifth estate.

An interesting observation is that although the blogosphere has done an admirable drop criticizing the fourth estate, they are not very comfortable being criticized themselves. Although criticism is not usually delivered in the best possible way and often is snarky, try to listen - in the same way you hope the fourth estate is listening to you.

Product in the Age of the Blog

2005-05-23T08:43:00.000-04:00

Is it just me, or is Technorati erratic for everybody? I see that Doc Searl's blog has many new references in Technorati, but none from my blog, despite recent links. Let's see if my most recent posts get picked up. (Some other longtailers have indicated that I'm not alone.)

Maybe in the age of the blog a good reliable product is no longer a necessity, you just need some warm blog-buzz. I think that might be Microsoft's Scoble Strategy.

Connecting in the Real World

2005-05-23T08:01:00.000-04:00

Toby from the Diva Marketing Blog makes an interesting point in a recent post:

Got to thinking...in the blogosphere people are intense about sharing themselves with the virtual word at-large. But how many bloggers know the names of the people who they come into contact with on a regular basis? Do you know the name of your mail person? Your gardener? Your cleaner? Or the kid who bags your groceries?

If the blogoshere's goal is to connect with people, shouldn't bloggers be setting examples by knowing the names of the people who "serve" them in the real-world (vs. the virtual world)?

One reason that people might connect more in the blogosphere is that it's easier - less social skills are required. Although once you have met someone in the blogosphere, you already have the icebreaker for face-to-face conversation - most people's gardeners don't have a blog.

However if you come across a gardener, cleaner or custodion blog - please send Toby a note.

Right Wing Stamp Conspiracy

2005-05-20T12:21:00.000-04:00

Went to the post office the other day to pick up stamps, but didn't look at them. As I was about to mail an invoice payment to a left-leaning friend, I reached into the stamp envelope and pulled out a Smiling Ronald Reagan. I used the American Flag one instead - I'll send RR to Citibank.

Nice Things About Technorati

2005-05-20T11:27:00.000-04:00

I've given some attention this past week to the "Myth of the Longtail" and some of the other "Conventional Wisdom" of the Main Stream Blogging Authorities (MSBA).

On the positive side, I think Technorati offers a wonderful service, but I noticed that in the latter half of this week, neither links from or to my blog are being picked up.

Question for Kevin, Doc, David or other Technorati stakeholders - is it a spider, database or search problem? Any ETA on a fix?

Have a great weekend!

Will Blogs Go the Way of Personal Web Pages

2005-05-19T09:10:00.000-04:00

Do you remember Geocities and the Personal Web Page explosion? There were millions of them. But where are they now?

Are blogs destined to go the same route? Yes we know that 20 million blogs have been created, but we also know that 10 millions have been completely or partially abandoned.

On a more philosophical point, when does an infrequently updated blog become a Personal Web Page?

Here are some factors to consider:
1) Blogs are easier to create than personal web pages, but still not a easy as Hotmail, YahooMail or Gmail.
2) The reverse chronological order makes it easy to find what's new and encourages the blogger to create new stuff. People are always interested in what's new.
3) Blogging as a social form is focused on the expression of opinion unlike Personal Web Pages. In the blogging world, everybody's an Op-Ed'r.

Examining More Half-Truths of the Blogosphere

2005-05-18T09:57:00.000-04:00

Before reading this post please go to the mirror and repeat the following 7 times:
"Bloggin's gonna save the world"
"Bloggin's gonna save the world"
"Bloggin's gonna save the world"
...
Are you back? Did it feel silly? Good - then you're ready to read this post.

The reason I like to follow Cluetrain and Blogosphere "wisdom" is that there are a lot of half-truths out there. I find it helpful to try to discover what part, if any, is true.

What is also interesting, but unfortunately not instructive, is how many smart people(note: no scare quotes there) buy the whole thing hook, line and sinker.

In a recent rebuttal to Kevin Marks of Technorati, Dave Rogers does a fantastic job of exploring many half-truths including "Markets are Conversations" and bloggers are "Writing Themselves into Existence". Here's Dave:

He (Kevin Marks) continues, "Of course conversations are meant to shape perception; if they didn't there would be no point."

I don't agree. The "point" of a conversation is the experience of exchanged and shared attention. It is not to have a "point." As Phil would say in Groundhog Day, "Did you want to talk about the weather, or were you just making chit-chat?" This is an example of how marketing corrupts language in the service of mercantilism. Conversations are pleasant, social interactions. They aren't used to "shape perception," except by calculating, manipulative people seeking some advantage. We're not having a conversation here. We're not having much of a "considered discussion" either, since half the discussion isn't considering what the other half is discussing. We might be having a debate, or a dialog, or a vigorous exchange of opposing points of view. We are most assuredly not having a conversation.

(Kevin Marks again) "Doc Searls and David Weinberger express this well, and differently. Doc explains that the root of information is that we are trying to form one another. David points out that without each other we are not human - look at children raised by wolves, and says we are writing ourselves into existence online."

Again, I don't agree with either Doc or Dave. I especially don't agree with Dave. Existence precedes narrative. If anything, we're writing ourselves out of existence and painting ourselves into corners instead.

So a problem with Doc's "Markets are Conversations" is that the conversation referred to are themselves a stretch of the word conversation. As for David's, "Writing Ourselves into Existence Online" - blogging or any writing captures a very small portion of the thoughts, depth and richness of any human being and proposing otherwise seems in some ways to be - dehumanizing.

Just a note that needs to be reiterated time and time again. I think that Doc and David and Kevin (who I haven't actually interacted with that much) are fine, sincere individuals who truly believe much of what they expound. Of course that doesn't mean that it's true.

Jon Garfunkel on the New Gatekeepers in the Blogosphere

2005-05-18T09:52:00.000-04:00

Jon Gafunkel has written an interesting analysis of the new gatekeepers in the blogosphere. Here is the opening paragraph:

I will argue here that gatekeepers are inherently needed by the architecture of the blogosphere-- as it has evolved, since 2001, into a public consciousness. This architecture has been developed out of certain values, and those values are the ones espoused by those same thought leaders.

Please Don't Drink the Blogging Kool Aid

2005-05-17T09:49:00.000-04:00

There is a generally known principal, that the more a person stands to benefit from a situation, the more his objectivity is impaired. The intelligent reader understands that opinions are partially reflected by self-interest.

A second known principal is that once someone has drunk the blogging kool aid, there is very little that can be done. In some cases the person can be brought back to reality, but 95% of the time they must give up blogging in the process.

Sometimes smart people drink the blogging kool aid and stand to benefit from the popularity of blogging. What happens then - (imagine a Rod Sterling voice over) -"You are now riding aboard the Cluetrain - there are no stops, there are no exits, there are only proclamations".

In other news, Kevin Marks, a longtailer who works for the Main Stream Blogging authority, Technorati, blogged his defense of the purity of Technorati and their quest for global goodness. Please read the whole thing, it's Cluetrain theory at its finest, and he does a pretty authoritarian job of dissing Dave Rogers and myself.

I'm not going to go through the trouble of pointing out to Kevin the instances where I was being facetious in my post or to point out all the great examples of blustery writing in his post, because Kevin is very smart and can figure this out by himself.

Let me just offer a blessing to Kevin and Technorati: They should successfully IPO or be bought out and then Kevin and his co-workers can use their well earned money to do something really wonderful for the world.

I just hope we don't find them walking around mumbling to themselves, "But blogging was gonna save the world, But blogging was gonna save the world, But...".

Authority with a Capital A

2005-05-16T09:22:00.000-04:00

Despite the increased modes of communication, human communication itself does not seem to be improving. In the Blogging is Journalism discussion, not only do we lack good understandings of the essence of professional Journalism, but we have even introduced an additional source of mis-communication by introducing journalism with a small j, which can mean anything. So now when you use the word journalism there is a 80% chance the person you are conversing with is on a different wavelength (and sometime a different planet).

One of the new exciting discussions is about authority. Since I have run out of blogging time, let's start with some definitions of Authority from Answers.com:

Authority
1.
a. The power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine, or judge.
b. One that is invested with this power, especially a government or body of government officials: land titles issued by the civil authority.
2. Power assigned to another; authorization: Deputies were given authority to make arrests.
3. A public agency or corporation with administrative powers in a specified field: a city transit authority.
4.
a. An accepted source of expert information or advice: a noted authority on birds; a reference book often cited as an authority.
b. A quotation or citation from such a source: biblical authorities for a moral argument.
5. Justification; grounds: On what authority do you make such a claim?
6. A conclusive statement or decision that may be taken as a guide or precedent.
7. Power to influence or persuade resulting from knowledge or experience: political observers who acquire authority with age.
8. Confidence derived from experience or practice; firm self-assurance: played the sonata with authority.

[Middle English auctorite, from Old French autorite, from Latin auctōritās, auctōritāt-, from auctor, creator.]

To be continued...

The Grand Unifying Force of the Blogosphere

2005-05-12T10:25:00.000-04:00

Since we have entered the age of tagging, maybe it makes sense to start eliminating the space from words like longtail and bighead, so their usage is more consistent with their tag.

Kevin Marks has posted a piece of some economic implications of the longtail. When I blogged about the "Myth of the Longtail" it was an objection to the social side of the theory, the economic side has its own set of issues.

There is an elegance to having one theory describe everything. So let's take the left hand side of the bell curve and call that the Bighead. Then we'll group the big middle and the right hand side as the Longtail and voila, we have transformed the bell curve into the longtail. I know graphics would make this clearer, but I am just a low-budget longtailer giving my contribution to the Grand Unifying Force of the Blogosphere.

Changing Directions at Microsoft

2005-05-11T12:13:00.000-04:00

Microsoft recently reversed themselves in endorsing a political position and received some recognition for listening to their employees. A good question is how did they put themselves into that position in the first place. Unfortunately this is another example of the big ship lost in the harbor.

Robert Scoble was somewhat involved in this affair and after achieving success he proclaimed:

Any Microsoft employee who thinks he or she is being discriminated against for any reason, please let me know and we'll shine light on that problem together. It's just not acceptable.

Dave Rogers questioned Robert's new role:

Has Robert established a parallel process to resolving discrimination complaints? If so, has he coordinated this with human resources or some other responsible authority at Microsoft so that the two processes might work together and not a cross-purposes? Does Microsoft welcome Robert's efforts in resolving discrimination complaints through public exposure without a clearly defined process that protects the rights of all concerned? Again, I don't know.

My only interest in this subject is my interest in the ideas of responsibility, authority and accountability. Ideas with which I'm afraid too many people in the "blogosphere", flush with the thrill of attention confused with authority, are unfamiliar; and may have to learn the hard way. Or who, having not learned them, may needlessly injure or harm innocent people.

Jon Husband also blogged:

"Its NOT appropriate for Scoble to play cop, prosecutor, judge and jury all by his lonesome (especially in public) any times he thinks he sees or has heard of someone sneezing the wrong way..."

To Robert's credit he recognized his mistake and reversed course:

Excellent points. I went overboard. I was wrong. Jon is right. So is Dave Rodgers who also made similar points.

That's the neat thing about having so many smart readers. They educate you. If you're listening.

It looks like the mix of a slightly off-course company like Microsoft and a powerful blogger like Robert Scoble will be an interesting situation to watch.

Main Stream Bloggers (MSB) Assert Their Authority

2005-05-08T12:22:00.000-04:00

It didn't take long, but the Main Stream Bloggers (MSB) are asserting their authority.

Last week I wrote:

The long tail is a blogging myth in which the heavy-traffic bloggers try to convince the little guys, like you and me, that we are really the important ones in the blogosphere. And we should keep on blogging and linking to the big guys, since collectively the bottom 99% has much more viewership than the top 1% - or something like that.

In a comment here, Kevin Marks one of the very smart employees of Technorati authoritatively decrees:

The long tail is not a myth, and the many do outweigh the few. Pick a few words around a topic that you are interested in and search for them at Technorati and see who you find.The top 100 is not the most interesting page on our site by any means. I wrote about this before - Call off the Search.

Dave Rogers responded:

I think Kevin misunderstands the use of the word “myth” in this context. Whether or not “the many do outweigh the few,” it is the few that most profit. If the Top 100 is not the most interesting page on Technorati, then where does it rank in Technorati’s hierarchy of interesting pages?

On his blog Dave says:

I still have hope that Kevin Marks will reply, it is the weekend and he probably has a life, but so far, nothing heard.

My bet is that Kevin will stonewall the issue, given his interest in maintaining the authority of his MSB company Technorati. Markets are Conversations - sometimes.

Dave gives a cogent analysis of Technorati's position:

What Technorati needs is sustained and growing attention, so it must do things to attract attention to itself. This is the purpose of the Top 100 list. It makes Technorati a valued asset to the highest attention-earning webloggers, who, in turn, direct attention to Technorati.

That may be a source of diminishing returns, however; as the Top 100 stratifies and stagnates, there isn't as much "flow" being generated toward Technorati except as the subject of criticism. Once Jeff Jarvis made the Top 100, he pretty much stopped talking about it, preferring, naturally, to talk about himself.

Dave concludes

You know, I wouldn't care, normally. But the bull- level is getting pretty high around here, and it's starting to stink up the joint.

Anyway, just thought I'd point this out in the interests of "transparency." Just doing my bit to subvert hierarchy and make the world a flatter place. Just your friendly conductor handing out barf-bags onboard the Cluetrain™.

It may be too late, as the money has started to flow, but it would be nice to take back the blogosphere from those who are exerting excessive and unearned authority. The MSB, like their MSM predecessors will probably stonewall this attempted conversation, so all we can do is link to Dave Rogers, Shelley Powers and others, so that the sad and unfortunate truth gets heard. (Note: I still think a number of the MSB 100 are very fine people.)

On Big Headers and Blogrolls

2005-05-06T08:34:00.000-04:00

Thanks to old friends Dave Rogers and Shelley Powers for showing appreciation for some recents quips on the "Myth of Blogging's Long Tail".

What bothers me is the unintended abuse of the Long Tailers (low traffic blogger) by the Big Headers (high traffic bloggers). I think most people would love to be Big Headers, and no Big Header wishes they were a Long Tailer, but they are two distinct types of bloggers, with different investments and payoffs. If we acknowledge that fact, maybe we would have less misunderstanding.

Which brings us to Blogrolls. Seth Finkelstein astutely pointed out here that Blogrolls are important because of what they represent.

In my mind they represent a more permanent relationship with a person, because he/she is a person who has virtues you appreciate - irrespective of their writing, political views or technical expertise. They can be much more than a hyperlink, navigational tool, or bookmark - possibly a first step toward a longer and deeper relationship.

A call to my fellow Long Tailers, give the gift that keeps on giving, add a new (or old) friend to your publicly visible Blogroll (the one on your blog, not bloglines) today.

The "Smart" People at Microsoft

2005-05-05T09:36:00.000-04:00

One of the most striking things about the people at Microsoft is that they are incredibly nice. My most recent encounter with Robert Scoble's boss, Jeff Sandquist deepens my conviction. Former Slate editor-in-chief Michael Kinsley pointed this out a few years ago:

The shock of adjustment that New Yorkers report undergoing will be familiar to anyone who has moved from the East Coast to the Pacific Northwest. People here really are nicer in the mundane interactions of life.

But instead of playing the nice card, Microsoft often leads with the smart card. Doc Searls recently discussed this in a must-read essay, Getting Flat - Part 2 on Thomas Friedman's new book:

A friend who worked at Microsoft once told me he could describe his employer in two words: more school. ... My friend noted that Microsoft executives "can't go two paragraphs without using the word 'smart'." He asked, "Are there any other companies that want to know your SAT scores? Your GPA? Or that grade you on a curve?"

But as Doc astutely points out:

I can save Microsoft a pile of time and money by reporting a fact no school wants to admit, one that will flatten the world far more than any other factor: pretty much everybody is smart. What's more, they're all smart in their own ways.

As others have pointed out, Microsoft has IQ, but is often lacking in EI, emotional intelligence which is rooted in the insight that applied intelligence is much more valuable than raw intelligence.

In my mind Doc Searls is the perfect example of beautifully applied intelligence. By his own admission there may be others with greater raw intelligence in his Cluetrain circle, but nobody comes close to him in the number of wise observations he makes - month after month.

Part of it comes from Doc's strict adherence to the Talmudic principle: "Who is wise? He who learns from every man."

So Microsoft's high IQ actually works against them in that they don't really listen. They may meet with many customers, but their
"smartness" prevents them from learning. In fact East Coast managers I have talked with often regard Microsofters as a little clueless. When Microsoft drops the "We're so smart" mantra, and really listens to learn, the company and the industry will benefit from a better customer relationship.

Next: Microsoft's Confusion of Management Versus Leadership

Watching Microsoft - A Lesson in Leadership - The Products

2005-05-03T08:21:00.000-04:00

I have been blogging frequently about Microsoft over the last few weeks because I think they provide an excellent before-our-eyes example of what leadership and management is and isn't.

First let me say that I still love many Microsoft products. I think SQL Server is a great choice for many medium-size database applications. Access is great on the small end, except for the unforgivable incompatibalities with "standard" Sql (i.e. delimiting dates with # instead of quotes). And what's not to like about Word and Excel, except for the exorbitant price.

However on the application development side, the technological churn that Microsoft has imposed on the community (VS, ASP, NET, Longhorn) in such a short time span is a crime against humanity (please forgive the hyperbole).

On the net-side MSN, Hotmail and Spaces are clearly nothing to get excited about - and no one has. And of course, I share the same love/hate relationship with Windows as the rest of the world.

Next Time: Watching Microsoft - The People

The Compliant Long Tail

2005-05-02T13:54:00.000-04:00

There is a blogging dinner in NY tonight featuring Robert Scoble, Joel Spolsky and Dave Winer. It is also Dave's 50th birthday and he has requested links to boost his Technorati 100 ranking. As an obedient long-tailer, I am happy to comply.

The long tail is a blogging myth in which the heavy-traffic bloggers try to convince the little guys, like you and me, that we are really the important ones in the blogosphere. And we should keep on blogging and linking to the big guys, since collectively the bottom 99% has much more viewership than the top 1% - or something like that.

Keep in mind that the blogosphere pie has been mostly carved out. If you are not munching on a big piece, and the relatively small fame and fortune that goes with it, make sure your blogging is satisfying some other basic human need.

Note: Whether the long tail is a valid hypothesis in other endeavors besides blogging is beyond the scope of this blog entry.

Microsoft, Getting Things Done, and Freedom

2005-04-20T10:25:00.000-04:00

Lenn Pryor Director of Platform Evangelism at Microsoft and boss of Robert Scoble recently resigned and it was no surprise that the anonymous Microsoft blogger, Mini Microsoft gave us more insight into the troubling situation at Microsoft then any non-anonymous Microsoft blogger. Predictably, corporate blogging has become another form of marketing or a way for employee bloggers to earn corporate feathers in their cap.

I was happy to see that both Dave Winer and Dare Obasanjo linked to the anonymous Microsoft blogger. And it seems that the new Director of Platform Evangelism, Jeff Sandquist is a Getting Things Done fan. The problem is that GTD is about management and Microsoft needs leadership before management. Perhaps a review of Habit 2 - Begin With the End in Mind would be helpful. How about "Web before Windows" as a directional mantra?

In the total scheme of things Microsoft, Windows and the Web are really bit players in the real game of life. We are approaching Passover and a teacher recently pointed out that we put all our old dishes away on Passover and start from scratch - everything is not kosher. Wherever we are holding today must be reexaminee, we can take the opportunity to become better in all that we do. This is one of the major messages of Passover - The Holiday of Spring Time - A Time for Renewal.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Blogging

2005-04-12T09:44:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to adapt Getting Things Done to blogging, but it seems a little forced. Maybe I'll just blog some of David Allen's main concepts. Today I have very little blogging time, so here are the links to the previous series on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers. Thanks to Joe Katzman of Winds of Change for the links.

Doc On Anonymous Microsoft Blogging

2005-04-11T09:38:00.000-04:00

Doc Searls pointed to my recent post on Microsoft Blogging (Thanks Doc). He makes the following point

Problem is, Scoble has a real name, while Mini Microsoft is written by "Who da'Punk," whose unrevealing profile is here.

Who da'Punk may be right as rain, but he's also borderline anonymous. It's a lot easier to be frank and hard-hitting when nobody knows who you are.

I agree with Doc that "It's a lot easier to be frank and hard-hitting when nobody knows who you are". Sometimes people are forced to be anonymous to make important hard-hitting points. If changing Microsoft for the better is a valid goal, I would not dismiss the anonymous blogging of Mini Microsoft so quickly.

Getting Things Done in Blogging

2005-04-11T09:07:00.000-04:00

David Allen's book Getting Things Done has helped many people become more efficient in their day to day lives. I though it might make sense to apply some of his principals to blogging.

One of Allen's primary thesis is that we have too many psychic post-it notes in our mind and that creates stress in our lives. Allens suggests that we get everything we are doing or plan to do on paper (or electronic media) - a to-do list for life. According to Allen, this act alone is one of the most important productivity principles a person can apply.

Applying this to blogging, one might make a list of all the things that he wants to blog about. When one of the topics comes in-focus in the blogosphere, blog about it right then. Alternatively on a day that you hit bloggers-block you can pick from your topic list.

How To Start a Blog

2005-04-08T09:44:00.000-04:00

Michael Hyatt has a good post on How to Start a Blog.

Corporate Blogging at Microsoft

2005-04-07T09:21:00.000-04:00

I like Robert Scoble a lot. He's a really nice guy who answers emails and he's even linked to me a few time. I truly wish him continued success in whatever he does. But I don't think he's really a good example of the power of Corporate Blogging. His success constrains him in enabling his blogging to improve his company. Instead he is compelled to become a cheerleader in blogging pajamas.

If you want to see the real power of Corporate Blogging, then check out Mini Microsoft. Here's a Microsoft employee who truly realizes Microsoft is in trouble and actually has some constructive suggestions to deal with it. He recently suggested that perhaps Microsoft would be better of without old-schooler Ballmer. I'm not sure if he thinks Gates should go, but he doesn't absolve him of blame in the current Microsoft mess.

Here's to hoping that the big bloggers start pointing to this guy, because a more humble, honest and customer-oriented Microsoft will benefit everyone.

I Arise in the Morning Torn

2005-03-31T12:19:00.000-05:00

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

- E. B. White

From David Allen's Ready for Anything, which I highly recommend.

If Not For a JCL Error

2005-03-23T15:13:00.000-05:00

There was a funny piece in Computerworld many years ago where Michael Cohn wrote that he could have been as successful as Bill Gates if not for a JCL error in his Job. (JCL stands for Job Control Language and is used on IBM Mainframes to control job processing.)

Sometimes I feel that way about blogging. If only I had consistently continued to blog about blogging all these years, who knows what could have been.

In any case, I think I'm going to re-focus this blog to blogging about blogging and the people, technology and issues that make it tick. So here's one to meta-blogging.

Reb Lazer is Back

2005-03-17T10:11:00.000-05:00

One of the most amazing people I know, R' Lazer Brody is back.

Welcome back Reb Lazer - glad to hear your consistently productive and positive voice on a regular basis.

Sanders Family - South Beach Diet Update

2005-03-11T13:31:00.000-05:00

Somebody recently asked about how the South Beach Diet was going at the Sanders' household. Here are some points:

1) South Beach isn't really a short term diet, it is a lifestyle eating change.
2) In a nutshell - cut out trans/bad fats, sugar, processed and high glycemic foods.
3) Nobody in my family lost the 8-13 pounds in the first 2-week phase. More like 2-3 pounds. But we weren't really that overweight and we weren't 100% because of Shabbos.
4) Overall we have all lost between 3 and 12 pounds on the diet.
5) Like all diets, it is restrictive.
6) You still will have cravings for certain foods.
7) We have more energy on the diet.
8) We never used to use sugar substitutes and now we use them too much.
9) Our experience is colored by the fact that we have 3 elaborate meals with whole grain Challah (bread) on Shabbos. (Really 2 1/2 since the third meal is not all that elaborate)
10) We highly recommend that you try the diet, if you stick to it you will lose weight and feel better with more energy.

Here is link to a recent article: Florida School Testing South Beach Diet. Here's an excerpt:

The goal of the study is to figure out whether school cafeterias are capable of serving more nutritious food, whether kids will eat it and whether their health will improve.

The program underscores growing concerns across the nation about childhood obesity. Government data suggest about 15 percent of U.S. youngsters are severely overweight or obese, a problem that may lead to diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Some state surveys indicate the obesity rate could be higher
....
Besides initial student finickiness, the biggest obstacle has been access to healthier ingredients. The school district is part of a buying group with other districts that have a long-term contract with a food distributor. Most schools, for example, aren't ordering whole-wheat pasta.

In addition, the shelf life of fresh fruits and vegetables is shorter than frozen or canned items, making it difficult sometimes to buy in bulk.

Studying Talmud, Daf Yomi and Herman Wouk

2005-03-01T09:17:00.000-05:00

Today marks the end of the cycle of Daf Yomi a 7 plus year program in which a two sided page of the Talmud is studied every day. A recent estimate puts the number of participants around the world at 100,000.

I have taken the opportunity to participate in this program and tonight I will be going to Madison Square Garden to celebrate the Siyum HaShas (completion of the Talmud). But the reality is, that in the hour a day that many of us spend on the Daf we barely scratch the surface. So the real excitement is in beginning again tomorrow and trying to spend a little more time to learn it a little better.

Let me leave you with the words of Herman Wouk who describes what learning Talmud is about:

In the Talmudic method of text study, the starting point is the principle that any text that is deemed worthy of serious study must be assumed to have been written with such care and precision that every term,expression, generalization or exception is significant not so much for what it states as for what it implies. The contents of ideas as well as the diction and phraseology in which they are clothed are to enter into the reasoning. This method is characteristic of the Tannaitic interpretation of the Bible from the earliest times; the belief in the divine origin of the Bible was sufficient justification for attaching importance to its external forms of expression. The same method was followed later by the Amoraim in their interpretation of the Mishnah and by their successors in the interpretation of the Talmud, and it continued to be applied to the later forms of rabbinic Literature.

Serious students themselves, accustomed to a rigid form of logical reasoning and to the usage of precise forms of expression, the Talmudic trained scholars attributed the same quality of precision and exactness to any authoritative work, be it of divine origin or the product of the human mind.

Their attitude toward the written word of any kind is like that of the jurist toward the external phrasing of statutes and laws, and perhaps also, in some respect, like that of the latest kind of historical and literary criticism which applies the method of psycho-analysis to the study of texts. This attitude toward texts had its necessary concomitant in what may again be called the Talmudic hypothetico-deductive method of text interpretation.

Confronted with a statement on any subject, the Talmudic student will proceed to raise a series of questions before he satisfies himself of having understood its full meaning. If the statement is not clear enough, he will ask, 'What does the author intend to say here?' If it is too obvious, he will again ask, 'It is too plain, why then expressly say it?' If it is a statement of fact or of a concrete instance, he will then ask, 'What underlying principle does it involve?' If it is broad generalization, he will want to know exactly how much it is to include; and if it is an exception to a general rule, he will want to know how much it is to exclude. He will furthermore want to know all the circumstances under which a certain statement is true, and what qualifications are permissible. Statements apparently contradictory to each other will be reconciled by the discovery of some subtle distinction, and statements apparently irrelevant to each other will be subtly analyzed into their ultimate elements and shown to contain some common underlying principle.

The harmonization of apparent contradictions and the interlinking of apparent irrelevancies are two characteristic features of the Talmudic method of text study. And similarly every other phenomenon about the text becomes a matter of investigation. Why does the author use one word rather than another? What need was there for the mentioning of a specific instance as an illustration? Do certain authorities differ or not? If they do, why do they differ? All these are legitimate questions for the Talmudic student of texts. And any attempt to answer these questions calls for ingenuity and skill, the power of analysis and association, and the ability to set up hypotheses - and all these must be bolstered up by a wealth of accurate information and the use of good judgment. No limitation is set upon any subject; problems run into one another; they become intricate and interwoven, one throwing light upon the other.

And there is a logic underlying this method of reasoning. It is the very same kind of logic which underlies any sort of scientific research, and by which one is enabled to form hypotheses, to test them and to formulate general laws. The Talmudic student approaches the study of texts in the same manner as the scientist approaches the study of nature. Just as the scientist proceeds on the assumption that there is a uniformity and continuity in nature so the Talmudic student proceeds on the assumption that there is a uniformity and continuity in human reasoning. Now this method of text interpretation is sometimes derogatorily referred to as Talmudic quibbling or pilpul. In truth, it is nothing but the application of the scientific method to the study of texts.*

Havel Havelim at Kesher Talk

2005-02-28T11:50:00.000-05:00

Judith Weiss of Kesher Talk is hosting this week'sHavel Havelim, a collection of Jewish blog posts. Havel Havelim is a phrase from Koheles (Eccliastes) which was written by King Solomon and it means "Vanity of Vanities".

Bill Gates Must Go

2005-02-17T15:57:00.000-05:00

Veteran high tech reporter, Michael Malone wrote an article recently in which he asks "After Dominating the Technology Industry for Years, is Microsoft Poised to Collapse?". It is quite clear that Microsoft has already lost its dominance in the industry, and even without a collapse Microsoft today is a shadow of its former self.

Microsoft Blogger, Robert Scoble posted a Microsoft defense by pointing out that it is still a great place to work, which I have no reason to doubt.

The real problem at Microsoft is that they have not really transitioned from Windows to the Web. Yes I know Mr. Scoble will tell me that Firefox and IE will run fine on Longhorn. But that's not the point, Microsoft must get actively involved in advancing the state of the art for Web development in a way that truly makes their business customers happy. That means no lock-in and greatly reduced technology churn.

From my vantage point it seems that the real problem is Bill Gates himself. He insists that Windows continues to be the primary focal point of Microsoft. Now Windows certainly got Microsoft to where it is today, but it is clear to everybody except for Mr. Gates that it won't propel them into the future.

There is only one solution, Bill Gates must resign from any active role within Microsoft so they can truly move into the Web world and bring increasing value to their customers, shareholders, partners and employees. Thank you Mr Gates for all you have done, now please step aside so Microsoft can take us to where we really want to go - to the Web and beyond.