Some of the minds that I respect the most have sounded off this week on a recent book written by Chris Anderson (Editor of Wired Magazine and Author of The Long Tail).
Malcolm Gladwell set off the debate with his book review... Seth Godin respectfully disagreed with Malcolm .... and Mark Cuban also weighed in (Interestingly enough - both Seth and Mark often blog about the relative topic for quite some time)...
Anyway - I'm obviously not as insightful as any of these people - but from where I sit - I think the clearest reality is somewhere in-between where the two sides sit...
The very brief overview:
(Disclaimer - I haven't read the book - just the commentaries above)
Anderson and Godin argue that information is expected to be free for end consusmers - and that the parties that fight this (ie Newspapers) will wither away... Gladwell and Cuban says that free isn't sustainable and that anyone who thinks it can will end up losing a lot of money in the long-run (ie Youtube/Google).
My personal take:
In the digital era there is a certain amount of information that is expected to be free. With "free" comes lower expectations of how well that information is displayed, written, consumed. Everyday I expect to get "the headlines" for free. I expect to read sports stories on the Miami sports franchises for free. I expect to get hotel reviews for free. I expect to watch an entertaining 3 min video clip for free. With free - I don't expect that I'm going to be blown away by this information... I'm just looking to casuaully consume it. In these cases - it's up to the providers of this information to monetize this content via other methods than from my pocket (hence the "FREE"). The only way the industry has seen fit to try and do this is through advertising. I work in the industry for 11+ years and rather than get sidetracked on this post - please trust me when I tell you that the online medium as a technology is way too amazing for smart marketers and publishers to not figure it out in the long run ... It's just not an over-night exercise...
There is another set of information that I don't expect to be free. Professionally written and insightful material. Top notch video. Trustworthy medical and legal advice.
I still pay $20 per month for weekend NYT delivery. I'm not looking for headlines when I sit down, drink my coffee, and read my weekend paper. I'm looking for valuable, professionally written material (some people may not value this - but I do). I still pay $12.50 per ticket to go see movies (and some of them shouldn't even be considered "professionally done").
So the "net-net" is that the good ol' information superhighway has commaditized certain elements information. It is merely the evolution of our economy. What happened to the railroad when airplanes began to become affordable to everyone? What happened to 411 when the Yellow Pages were first published? On the flip side - people used to pay $0.25 for a cup of coffee until Starbucks convinced people their coffee experience was 4x better than what they were used to...
It's been said for a while, but newspapers will have to change their model ... but that doesn't mean they have to go away or that it's impossible for consumers to value quality journalism. It just means they can't be in the mass-market headlines business anymore ... And it means that they can't sell advertising the same way... but they can figure it out.
There is a market for free information - and that market is enormous. There is a smaller market for professionally published information than there was 10 years ago - but it's just different that what existing providers of free information are used to...
7/02/2009
6/23/2009
Search Engine Optimization tools
At least once a month, I'll have a friend-of-a-friend or relative or acquaintance ping me and ask me how they can show up at at the top of Google search listings for particular keywords...
I'd say the aggregate knowledge over the years has definitely gotten better ...Nowadays people usually know that I, personally (or any one person for that matter) can NOT make their websites show up with a better ranking.
Typically - I will give the very basic overview of how search and PageRank generally work - and then will usually give a tip or two that is sure to improve their site SOMEHOW ... (sometimes it's just renaming URLs) ...
Well - I stumbled upon a blog post that did a very thorough job of listing all of the relevant and free SEO tools that folks can use to improve their rankings. Not only did I want to share it with my loyal blog readers - but I wanted to document it on my blog so I can send people to this post when they ask me how I can help their sites with better ranking. ;)
I'd say the aggregate knowledge over the years has definitely gotten better ...Nowadays people usually know that I, personally (or any one person for that matter) can NOT make their websites show up with a better ranking.
Typically - I will give the very basic overview of how search and PageRank generally work - and then will usually give a tip or two that is sure to improve their site SOMEHOW ... (sometimes it's just renaming URLs) ...
Well - I stumbled upon a blog post that did a very thorough job of listing all of the relevant and free SEO tools that folks can use to improve their rankings. Not only did I want to share it with my loyal blog readers - but I wanted to document it on my blog so I can send people to this post when they ask me how I can help their sites with better ranking. ;)
6/19/2009
Moneyball for Business
Micheal Lewis is in my top 2 favorite writers/authors (Malcolm Gladwell and him go back and forth). He originally got me hooked on his style and insight with the book, Moneyball. I am not a particularly quick reader (both in dedicated time and actual pace of reading), but I think I read the 300+ page book in a 48 hour period.
Moneyball is about one baseball General Managers' (Billy Beane) statistically focused approach to a sport, which traditionally tracks stats, but often mis-used these stats to make decisions... The book was revolutionary in a lot of ways. First, 5 years after it was published, it's fair to say that almost all of the Major League Baseball teams reconsidered their approach - and many hired quant guys to fill top positions rather than the traditional baseball guys. Secondly, other industries and sports began to think how they could apply the practices to their worlds. In particular, Bill Simmons talks incessantly about the MIT Sloan conference last year where several owners/GMs etc. of various sports leagues (the NBA in particlar) spoke about how they all have terabytes of data that help them make decisions - but different from Billy Beane and the A's ... they're choosing to keep their strategies private.
Now ... I work for a company that is notorious for believing that fast is better than slow and that most importantly DATA TRUMPS OPINION. In the classic business world - it's my belief that this is NOT the norm. Opinion and tradition are the reigning rulers - and there is always some way to cut metrics where they can partly defend such opinions...
I've had somewhat of a new role the past 6 months at work which is trying to QUANTIFY the tangible business impact (sales lift) that online media has on offline sales. We have sucessfully done this - and it's really exciting to see. I get to interact with a lot of smart Quant people - and I get to see some truly amazing ways that data metrics CAN be used to help make decisions... The challenge is getting people to buy-into the fact that DATA SHOULD TRUMP OPINIONS.
For Major League Baseball, holistic buy-in was attained through the success of a book. What is it going to take for the Marketing/Advertising/Media business to follow-suit? We shall see .... Maybe when it's all said and done - I'll need to play the role of Micheal Lewis, but for now, I'm merely on my soap box saying that this is the next big thing. Data models/algorithms/sophisticated math is 100% the way that successful businesses will make decisions in the future.
Moneyball is about one baseball General Managers' (Billy Beane) statistically focused approach to a sport, which traditionally tracks stats, but often mis-used these stats to make decisions... The book was revolutionary in a lot of ways. First, 5 years after it was published, it's fair to say that almost all of the Major League Baseball teams reconsidered their approach - and many hired quant guys to fill top positions rather than the traditional baseball guys. Secondly, other industries and sports began to think how they could apply the practices to their worlds. In particular, Bill Simmons talks incessantly about the MIT Sloan conference last year where several owners/GMs etc. of various sports leagues (the NBA in particlar) spoke about how they all have terabytes of data that help them make decisions - but different from Billy Beane and the A's ... they're choosing to keep their strategies private.
Now ... I work for a company that is notorious for believing that fast is better than slow and that most importantly DATA TRUMPS OPINION. In the classic business world - it's my belief that this is NOT the norm. Opinion and tradition are the reigning rulers - and there is always some way to cut metrics where they can partly defend such opinions...
I've had somewhat of a new role the past 6 months at work which is trying to QUANTIFY the tangible business impact (sales lift) that online media has on offline sales. We have sucessfully done this - and it's really exciting to see. I get to interact with a lot of smart Quant people - and I get to see some truly amazing ways that data metrics CAN be used to help make decisions... The challenge is getting people to buy-into the fact that DATA SHOULD TRUMP OPINIONS.
For Major League Baseball, holistic buy-in was attained through the success of a book. What is it going to take for the Marketing/Advertising/Media business to follow-suit? We shall see .... Maybe when it's all said and done - I'll need to play the role of Micheal Lewis, but for now, I'm merely on my soap box saying that this is the next big thing. Data models/algorithms/sophisticated math is 100% the way that successful businesses will make decisions in the future.
6/11/2009
Scruff is in (?)
I was hanging out with 2 of my single guy friends last weekend. They are both more on the "metro" side vs. typical "guys guys" ... but even so ... I was still pretty surprised to hear that they both have a strategic planned out implementation for their facial hair... Having a method for one's madness around shaving isn't that crazy - each person is different (Example - I like to shave in the shower every morning as I feel like a get a better shave that way).
However, their strategic plan revolved around ensuring that their "scruff" was at optimal length for the weekend. And unfortunately for these two guys - it takes 5 days for said optimal length to materialize... But let's go back to the original premise ... Chicks dig scruff?? So much so - that it requires an orchestrated plan in hopes to look optimally scruffy for the weekend...??
Lucky for the two of them, I guess, they both have jobs which don't require a daily shave.
Maybe my beard is different from theirs - or maybe I feel differently because I've rocked a goatee for 10+ years, but after 5 days of not shaving, my face gets itchy and I feel like my face looks like it has dirt on it (which my grandma used to tell me about my goatee).
I'm not questioning their methods at all -- I just felt the need to ask my loyal blog readers if they, too, have found that "scruff is in"???
However, their strategic plan revolved around ensuring that their "scruff" was at optimal length for the weekend. And unfortunately for these two guys - it takes 5 days for said optimal length to materialize... But let's go back to the original premise ... Chicks dig scruff?? So much so - that it requires an orchestrated plan in hopes to look optimally scruffy for the weekend...??
Lucky for the two of them, I guess, they both have jobs which don't require a daily shave.
Maybe my beard is different from theirs - or maybe I feel differently because I've rocked a goatee for 10+ years, but after 5 days of not shaving, my face gets itchy and I feel like my face looks like it has dirt on it (which my grandma used to tell me about my goatee).
I'm not questioning their methods at all -- I just felt the need to ask my loyal blog readers if they, too, have found that "scruff is in"???
6/05/2009
What do you want for your birthday?
My birthday is next week (June 12).
I’m a man – so friends don’t really buy presents for one another at this point in our lives outside of either big number birthdays or perhaps a goof-type gift that one may stumble upon…
Parents and relatives, though, still buy gifts for their children, son-in-laws, etc...
This said – without fail EVERY year – I get asked the question, “what do you want for your birthday?” Now, when I was 9 years old – this makes some sense. There is no way for a parent to know exactly what to get a 9 year old in the sense that 9 year olds could have temper-tantrums if, say, their parents bought them the “not cool anymore toy” for their birthday. So - my parents would ask me what I’d want – I’d say a skateboard or Colecovision (the smurf game was my favorite) and assuming the gift wasn’t too costly and I had been a good kid (which to be honest – I almost always was) – I’d receive the answer to the question "what do you want for your birthday?"
Fast forward over 20 years later – and the same rules do not apply.
I don’t want to come off as a brat. I understand why my parents are asking me the question: They would rather spend money on something I really want – rather then something I may not desire or use very often. And I get this – but at this stage of my life – I have greater appreciation of the thought given to the gifts then the actual gift/value/etc.
This all said – if anyone wants to know of a can’t miss gift for me …. An iTunes gift card is a great idea. For some reason – I enjoy buying $1.29 songs a lot more when there is already a balance in my iTunes account versus when there is not. So- - If my parents bought me $50 each of iTunes gift certificates – they would essentially be buying me “Music of my choice for a year.” That sounds like a great thing for me!
I don’t know if everyone agrees, but the reasons above is why I really try to never ask anyone what they wanted for their birthday.
I’m a man – so friends don’t really buy presents for one another at this point in our lives outside of either big number birthdays or perhaps a goof-type gift that one may stumble upon…
Parents and relatives, though, still buy gifts for their children, son-in-laws, etc...
This said – without fail EVERY year – I get asked the question, “what do you want for your birthday?” Now, when I was 9 years old – this makes some sense. There is no way for a parent to know exactly what to get a 9 year old in the sense that 9 year olds could have temper-tantrums if, say, their parents bought them the “not cool anymore toy” for their birthday. So - my parents would ask me what I’d want – I’d say a skateboard or Colecovision (the smurf game was my favorite) and assuming the gift wasn’t too costly and I had been a good kid (which to be honest – I almost always was) – I’d receive the answer to the question "what do you want for your birthday?"
Fast forward over 20 years later – and the same rules do not apply.
- I will not have a temper-tantrum if you buy me a present that I didn’t necessarily have my heart set on.
- I have my own money to buy things if I really really want them. When I was a kid, it would take me all year to accumulate $50 in weekly allowance in order to buy the new Donkey Kong game – so getting the game for my birthday was the best way to get it. That’s not really the case now. I’m not saying “I’m rich bitch!” – and I can afford anything I want – but yes – at this point I can afford something in the range of where parents spend money on birthday gifts (say $50-$100) if I really really want something…
- When I was a kid – for some reason even if I said that I wanted a skateboard, there was a mystery if I was really going to get it. I didn’t have a sense of if a skateboard cost $50 or $5,000 and so, I really would still be surprised if I got the skateboard. Now – if I tell you that I really want the new Micheal Lewis book – and you buy me said book, that’s not much of a surprise. It’s not really as much fun if I tell you what to buy me. (I don’t think I’ve ever written a post on registries – but trust me when I say I could easily fill up some space with my thoughts here)
I don’t want to come off as a brat. I understand why my parents are asking me the question: They would rather spend money on something I really want – rather then something I may not desire or use very often. And I get this – but at this stage of my life – I have greater appreciation of the thought given to the gifts then the actual gift/value/etc.
This all said – if anyone wants to know of a can’t miss gift for me …. An iTunes gift card is a great idea. For some reason – I enjoy buying $1.29 songs a lot more when there is already a balance in my iTunes account versus when there is not. So- - If my parents bought me $50 each of iTunes gift certificates – they would essentially be buying me “Music of my choice for a year.” That sounds like a great thing for me!
I don’t know if everyone agrees, but the reasons above is why I really try to never ask anyone what they wanted for their birthday.
5/29/2009
The Next Level of Weather Information
Amy asks me to turn on New York 1 (channel 1) at least 3 times a day on weekends. Not because she's a huge fan of Lewis Dodley's monotone delivery ... but because the temperature is always listed on the bottom left of the screen and there is supposed to be a weather report every 10 minutes (except when you really want it - like when the dorky guy talks about his obsession with NYC Transit or "On Stage" are on...)
Anyway - there is something inherently missing from standard weather reports - and it's an idea Amy's had for some time. While it could be a business idea that I'm exposing to the world - I haven't really thought of a way to make money off of it - so if someone can think of a way to do it - and Amy can benefit from it -- then go for it!!
Here's the concept: Traditionally - a weather report will tell you:
What I don't think is as easy (especially for women) is when it's 52 degrees in the morning, but could get up to 70 for the day - and it may rain later on ... What should they wear?
My solution is to simply create a large database of clothing options (cotton sweater vs. cashmere, wool pants vs. cotton, etc) and match them up with appropriate conditions (No leather jacket when it's raining, 50 degrees = long-sleeve shirt + sweater, etc) ... You could then match all of the conditions with clothing options to come up with what's appropriate. When the traditional weather reporters gave the traditional conditions - it could automatically be cross-referenced with the appropriate clothing index?
Look - it's obviously not a debilitating loss not having this information - and clearly people have gotten by just fine without it - but I do think people will find it a lot more useful than the current information that's given...
Anyway - there is something inherently missing from standard weather reports - and it's an idea Amy's had for some time. While it could be a business idea that I'm exposing to the world - I haven't really thought of a way to make money off of it - so if someone can think of a way to do it - and Amy can benefit from it -- then go for it!!
Here's the concept: Traditionally - a weather report will tell you:
- The Temperature
- Is it sunny, cloudy, or rainy?
- Wind conditions (on occasion)
What I don't think is as easy (especially for women) is when it's 52 degrees in the morning, but could get up to 70 for the day - and it may rain later on ... What should they wear?
My solution is to simply create a large database of clothing options (cotton sweater vs. cashmere, wool pants vs. cotton, etc) and match them up with appropriate conditions (No leather jacket when it's raining, 50 degrees = long-sleeve shirt + sweater, etc) ... You could then match all of the conditions with clothing options to come up with what's appropriate. When the traditional weather reporters gave the traditional conditions - it could automatically be cross-referenced with the appropriate clothing index?
Look - it's obviously not a debilitating loss not having this information - and clearly people have gotten by just fine without it - but I do think people will find it a lot more useful than the current information that's given...
5/26/2009
Longest Craps Roll of All-Time
Quick story that blew my mind today ...
This past Saturday night in Atlantic City - a woman who played Craps for only the 2nd time - apparently broke the record for longest craps roll of all time. The news story said she rolled for 4 HOURS and 18 MINUTES! (for non-savvy craps players, think of an average "roll" lasting 3 or 4 rolls - or roughly 1 minute ...)
The news story mentioned that the woman came to the table with $100 - but it didn't say what she (or the fellow players at the table) left with (had to be thousands of dollars... had to be!)
... It's stories like this that all people who enjoy playing craps dream of...
This past Saturday night in Atlantic City - a woman who played Craps for only the 2nd time - apparently broke the record for longest craps roll of all time. The news story said she rolled for 4 HOURS and 18 MINUTES! (for non-savvy craps players, think of an average "roll" lasting 3 or 4 rolls - or roughly 1 minute ...)
The news story mentioned that the woman came to the table with $100 - but it didn't say what she (or the fellow players at the table) left with (had to be thousands of dollars... had to be!)
... It's stories like this that all people who enjoy playing craps dream of...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
