Our "clicked" list

stuff we thought was worth sharing or commenting on

Teachable Moments

Over the past several days we have been reminded that the White House is hoping the hubbub surrounding the Gates/Crowley incident in Cambridge can become a  "teachable moment" for America. While we no doubt need to encourage more open dialog on race issues and racial profiling, perhaps the real "teachable moment" needs to be directed at the Administration -- which let a single off-topic question become the dominant news cycle headline for several days; derailing an otherwise well-crafted and desperately-needed message on the need to work together for healthcare reform.

Failure to Teach
The Administration -- and the President -- should know better. The media today crowdsources its headline stories, reaching for ratings rather than providing reasoned context and interpretation. And in the last two minutes, the intended message of the press conference was drowned out -- lost in the background noise.

Failure to Listen
But the message was also missed because we as a population are losing the ability to listen and pay attention -- to sort out the bigger message. Even when the topic is something that affects us all, as healthcare certainly does, we cannot seem to stay focused... instead showing increasing signs that we have all succumbed to ADOS -- Attention Deficit... Oooh, Shiny!

Walter Cronkite - was special

Walter Cronkite had a very special relationship with the television audience - he not only delivered the news headlines, he also provided context. Though the news timeslot was limited in those days, he had a gift for making us feel that he understood our concerns.

It is noteworthy that through some of America's most troubling times, Walter Cronkite was the one person we trusted to keep us informed - more trusted than our elected officials. So influential in fact that when he openly stated his views on the Viet Nam War in a TV special, LBJ supposedly said, "If I've lost Cronkite, we've lost the war."
That kind of influence doesn't come easily, and no one has replaced him.

Celebrate Cultural Diversity

Our country seems to be becoming more of a cultural melting pot as people move to follow job opportunities. But what I thought should be a "good" thing is increasingly being railed against by elements in our society who spout hate against anything that seems to threaten the status quo. How sad that we choose to see cultural diversity only as a threat rather than accept and celebrate the fact that our world is changing. Technology has the power to interconnect people from all across the world. I would hope that it would help us see how alike we all are rather than how different.

Where is Search Headed?

Social_relevancy_jul09f

Alex Iskold talks about the future of search requiring a "Social Relevancy Ranking" as we get further inundated by social data feeds. I wholeheartedly agree!  And the folks who thunk up the PageRank algorithms we all use today are likely focused on it. These suggestions seem right on-the-mark and very timely. It could totally change the way we view streams of information we get from friends.

Information Overload - the Data Tsunami


Social Data Revolution by Andreas Weigend
"In 2009, more data will be generated by individuals than in the entire history of mankind through 2008. Information overload is more serious than ever. What are the implications for marketing?"

Who Consumers Trust by Nielsen
"Ninety percent of consumers surveyed noted that they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70 percent trusted consumer opinions posted online." And Search Engine results Ads score a comparative 41%.

The Tsunami Effect
The implications from my perspective are that as we continue to drown in ever-increasing amounts of online data, fewer people are doing their own buying research through search engines and are instead tending to rely on recommendations from their peers and friends. The stats seem to indicate that I will look first at what my social network friends have to say, secondly to other consumer opinions posted online, then lastly to what I can find through the search engines.

Clearly this has implications for marketing and the monetization models that the search engines have achieved and that the social networking sites are grabbing for. 

Social Relevancy Ranking

Alex Iskold notes a great recommendation that would go a long way toward addressing this - by providing a social relevancy ranking system. See details here.

 

Move from Lotus Notes to Google?

Google-apps1

Migrate from Lotus Notes to Google Apps using new tools just announced from Google. While their recently announced Chrome Operating System won't be available until next year, they are definitely rolling out tools to get Enterprise IT folks on board. In a tight economy, these approaches are making more and more sense for business use. Looked at your licensing budget recently? Is Google a solid enterprise strategy for you? Maybe its time to take a harder look.
(image from TechCrunch article)

Twitter Goes Mainstream?

I'm not sure how to gauge when a technology shifts into high gear, but Steve Rubel points out today that Whole Foods has become the first consumer brand to pass one million followers on Twitter. While known for social trivia, tech babel, celebrity gossip and the occasional political rebellion, maybe Twitter is finally coming of age if reasoned promotional campaigns can be successful in this space. The trick would seem to be knowing and watching your target audience well. Of course coming from a company with a Facebook presence, a CEO blog and RSS feeds, Whole Foods Market is focused on using tools of the times.

Still, seeing this success will undoubtedly get the attention of others in the digital PR and digital marketing arena. And who knows, maybe there's a business model for Twitter after all!

Visualizations of Twitter Traffic

Twitter-conv

As Twitter has grown in the public consciousness, so has interest in getting a handle on just what it is and what folks are doing with it. People may just want to know stats about themselves, or their followers, or more about subjects being discussed, or the volume of traffic on a particular subject, or the number of tweets from a particular person. All of this information is available through a public API from Twitter, and several nice ways to visualize the information is starting to be available.

Some of the better ones I have seen are linked here:
  http://flowingdata.com/2008/03/12/17-ways-to-visualize-the-twitter-universe/
  http://neoformix.com/Projects/portfolio/index.html
  http://hashtags.org/

Let me know if you have other Twitter visualizations that you like.


Google Heats Up the Tech Wars

Ahh, it is nice to see tech innovation and competition heating up again, as Google announces it's entry into the Operating System market.

Google Chrome OS - What is it and what it isn't:
  www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_google_os_becomes_reality_google_announced_the.php

  googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Google docs and apps competing with well-entrenched desktop suites; Google's Android entry into the cell phone marketplace; Google Voice; the Chrome Browser and now a slim, supposedly speedy web-access-focused OS. Certainly the turf wars will abound, but with this open-source offering, enterprise IT has to be looking at ways to save BIG licensing dollars. Isn't competition wonderful?

Update: Great list of outstanding questions:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10_things_were_dying_to_know_about_chrom...