Turning the corner onto Wisconsin always makes me a little anxious. And it's because sometimes, just sometimes, I have to look at what I saw last night:
The rear end of the #32 bus, two blocks away, moving up the street. (At that time of night, it would be at least 30 minutes, if not 45, before there's another bus.)
So I did some quick math on the value of my time given my schedule the next day and work still to be done, and determined the economically rational thing to do was hail a cab. Seeing one nearby, I raised my hand and I stepped in...
to a lecture on economics from the cab driver.
He turned down the NPR to tell me spending 40% or more of your income just to have a place to live is really too much, and that changing that in a persistent way could unlock a lot of wealth. Rather than letting house prices change with the market, he went on to say, the government should require owners to depreciate their homes as is done with buildings or equipment purchased by corporations. Then, use an inflation adjusted index as a cap to place a "ceiling" on resale value. By doing so, you could lower and keep low the price of housing across the U.S., allowing families to spend more money on other things.
It was a new idea to me and I said I would think about it. I'm not sure I agree with his proposal, but the idea of trying to lower (for everyone) the percentage of our income that goes into housing is kind of interesting.
Browser Game Adoption
If the Wii proves anything, it's that a large majority of us don't need eight synergistic processors to enjoy a video game; high definition gaming is a niche. So what's holding browser games back? Why aren't they dominating? One of the marketing frameworks I've been taught for analyzing technology diffusion is Rogers 5 Factors, and I think it makes sense to use that framework here. Here's a summary:
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Rogers 5 Factors:
Relative Advantage: The degree to which an innovation is perceived to be better (e.g. more favorable economics, more social status) than the idea it supersedes. In technology products, the "rule of thumb" is that if the product isn't about 10x better than whatever solution people are currently using, they won't be willing to overcome the switching cost.
Compatibility: The degree to which an innovation is perceived to be consistent with existing values, past experiences, current processes and the needs of potential adopters. Said another way, how much of a behavioral change do I (as the consumer) have to make?
Simplicity: The degree to which an innovation is easy to use and understand (intuitive appeal).
Trialability: The degree to which an innovation can be experimented with on a limited, low commitment basis.
Observability: The degree to which the results (benefits) of an innovation are visible to others. Apple's white iPod / iPhone headphones are a great example - everyone can see (and knows) what kind of music player you have just by looking at you.
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I think browser games score very highly on compatibility, simplicity, and trialability. They're easy to find, easy to try, and the better games really seem to take the design philosophy of "simple to learn, difficult to master" to heart.
Relative advantage is a bit of a problem right now, but one that is being solved over time. Browser games are becoming increasingly professional and complex, and are rapidly approaching the "good enough" threshold for most people (if they're not already past it).
Observability is the real problem. How do I know which of my friends are playing which games? How do I even know if any of them are playing? Browser games are in desperate need of a service to disseminate that information. It could be done through AddThis/ShareThis widgets and social network API's that let browser games update your social network status or profile preferences, or through a dedicated service like Microsoft Live.
Advertising and banner ads are better than nothing, but for the genre to really take off it has to help players promote games to each other.
-----------------------------
Rogers 5 Factors:
Relative Advantage: The degree to which an innovation is perceived to be better (e.g. more favorable economics, more social status) than the idea it supersedes. In technology products, the "rule of thumb" is that if the product isn't about 10x better than whatever solution people are currently using, they won't be willing to overcome the switching cost.
Compatibility: The degree to which an innovation is perceived to be consistent with existing values, past experiences, current processes and the needs of potential adopters. Said another way, how much of a behavioral change do I (as the consumer) have to make?
Simplicity: The degree to which an innovation is easy to use and understand (intuitive appeal).
Trialability: The degree to which an innovation can be experimented with on a limited, low commitment basis.
Observability: The degree to which the results (benefits) of an innovation are visible to others. Apple's white iPod / iPhone headphones are a great example - everyone can see (and knows) what kind of music player you have just by looking at you.
----------------------
I think browser games score very highly on compatibility, simplicity, and trialability. They're easy to find, easy to try, and the better games really seem to take the design philosophy of "simple to learn, difficult to master" to heart.
Relative advantage is a bit of a problem right now, but one that is being solved over time. Browser games are becoming increasingly professional and complex, and are rapidly approaching the "good enough" threshold for most people (if they're not already past it).
Observability is the real problem. How do I know which of my friends are playing which games? How do I even know if any of them are playing? Browser games are in desperate need of a service to disseminate that information. It could be done through AddThis/ShareThis widgets and social network API's that let browser games update your social network status or profile preferences, or through a dedicated service like Microsoft Live.
Advertising and banner ads are better than nothing, but for the genre to really take off it has to help players promote games to each other.
Mindfields Ahead
We're all pretty well programmed for three dimensions. And other than the occasional Funniest Home Video, we all seem to understand them.
But consider the plight of a flatland resident. He understands but two dimensions. We look down at him, through our third dimension, and interact with his world in incredible ways. We create and destroy structures at will (with our pencil), and even if he could catch us, we can always get away - we simply jump up (we've disappeared!) and put our feet down somewhere else (teleportation!).
As we are to flatland, so are 4-dimensional creatures (those who natively interact with time) to us. And while we may not be able to properly perceive space in 4D, it can be a lot of fun to try.
But consider the plight of a flatland resident. He understands but two dimensions. We look down at him, through our third dimension, and interact with his world in incredible ways. We create and destroy structures at will (with our pencil), and even if he could catch us, we can always get away - we simply jump up (we've disappeared!) and put our feet down somewhere else (teleportation!).
As we are to flatland, so are 4-dimensional creatures (those who natively interact with time) to us. And while we may not be able to properly perceive space in 4D, it can be a lot of fun to try.
Overthinking Link Etiquette
How much credit should the re-poster of a link (the "linker") get? Not the original writer of the story, but the person in your RSS/twitter/Facebook feed who said "hey lookit this". If you what they've linked and also want to link it, do you link to the post of your immediate friend? Or do you cut them out, and link directly to the source?
I make the decision based on whether or not they added enough value. If they did, and it's worth the intermediate read and click to a 3rd party reader, then I'll link-the-linker. I'm careful not to create a whole linked-list of referrals though (one intermediate step is about all I, as a reader, would be willing to put up with).
If the "linker" isn't adding value (omglolbbq *CLICK*), I've decided that cutting them out of the loop isn't going to keep me up at night. There's no "finders fee", short of a possible uptick in my opinion of you. :)
I still think the best way to add value to someone else's work is to write a thoughtful comment on the original post. It centralizes the debate, encourages further discussion, and is a really nice thing to do for the original author. But, people will share content in whatever way they please, and the method they use is not nearly as important as keeping them doing it.
I make the decision based on whether or not they added enough value. If they did, and it's worth the intermediate read and click to a 3rd party reader, then I'll link-the-linker. I'm careful not to create a whole linked-list of referrals though (one intermediate step is about all I, as a reader, would be willing to put up with).
If the "linker" isn't adding value (omglolbbq *CLICK*), I've decided that cutting them out of the loop isn't going to keep me up at night. There's no "finders fee", short of a possible uptick in my opinion of you. :)
I still think the best way to add value to someone else's work is to write a thoughtful comment on the original post. It centralizes the debate, encourages further discussion, and is a really nice thing to do for the original author. But, people will share content in whatever way they please, and the method they use is not nearly as important as keeping them doing it.
Post Once, Read Anywhere
In an effort to easily find, subscribe, comment and publish content on the web, I spent a lot of time this weekend trying to find the best online tools and the most efficient way to use them. Here's what I've come up with so far:
Finding, Reading and Sharing Links - Google Reader: I'm already in there for reading my RSS feeds, and with a single click I can share an article (with or without a note) or respond to the shared articles of others. The resulting list of shared items is organized by date, searchable (along with the rest of my feeds), and can be subscribed to by anyone with a gmail account or with a RSS reader. It's also pushed into my Facebook feed, and into the right panel of this blog. Being able to do this from my mobile is a huge benefit too, because it allows me to use short minutes of downtime in the day to stay on top of the volume.
Sharing Short Thoughts - Twitter Facebook App: It's a single posting place that updates my Facebook status, twitter, and this blog. That's pretty cool. It doesn't really let me reply to others though, so once I've made a post I'll usually jump over to actual twitter. It also doesn't work on my mobile, which frustrates me a little, and posting directly on twitter doesn't always seem to make it to my wall. I'm still looking for a better way to do this.
Sharing Long Thoughts - This blog: Not everything fits in 140 characters. I can do this from my mobile, which I like, and this content is easily shared (AddThis button, RSS feeds, email, etc.)
Reading and Commenting: This part is the most fragmented. People share things everywhere - Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, FriendFeed, on their blogs, etc. I use Disqus for comments on this blog to help fix that problem. I like what FriendFeed is doing, but I don't use it much because comments made there are often not pushed back to the content source. It seems like the best way is still to click through to the original post and comment there. So I do.
The Process:
Finding, Reading and Sharing Links - Google Reader: I'm already in there for reading my RSS feeds, and with a single click I can share an article (with or without a note) or respond to the shared articles of others. The resulting list of shared items is organized by date, searchable (along with the rest of my feeds), and can be subscribed to by anyone with a gmail account or with a RSS reader. It's also pushed into my Facebook feed, and into the right panel of this blog. Being able to do this from my mobile is a huge benefit too, because it allows me to use short minutes of downtime in the day to stay on top of the volume.
Sharing Short Thoughts - Twitter Facebook App: It's a single posting place that updates my Facebook status, twitter, and this blog. That's pretty cool. It doesn't really let me reply to others though, so once I've made a post I'll usually jump over to actual twitter. It also doesn't work on my mobile, which frustrates me a little, and posting directly on twitter doesn't always seem to make it to my wall. I'm still looking for a better way to do this.
Sharing Long Thoughts - This blog: Not everything fits in 140 characters. I can do this from my mobile, which I like, and this content is easily shared (AddThis button, RSS feeds, email, etc.)
Reading and Commenting: This part is the most fragmented. People share things everywhere - Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, FriendFeed, on their blogs, etc. I use Disqus for comments on this blog to help fix that problem. I like what FriendFeed is doing, but I don't use it much because comments made there are often not pushed back to the content source. It seems like the best way is still to click through to the original post and comment there. So I do.
The Process:
- Read all my subscriptions in Google Reader. Share links that I like, and add a note about why I'm sharing if necessary. If I really like the article, click through and add a comment. Hope they use Disqus.
- Read my Facebook feed. Comment/like items.
- Jump to the Twitter Facebook app. Post a tweet. Scan the feed to see if there's anything in it I want to reply to, and if so jump to twitter.
- Post a blog entry.
AddThis vs. ShareThis
As part of the recent site overhaul, I spent a fair amount of time tweaking how users would be able to share articles on this blog across other social networking sites. There are a lot of options - individual links, icons, aggregators, etc. I wanted something visible and useful, but not distracting from the page content.
The first product I tried was ShareThis. I'd liked it on other sites, so I ran through the registration and installed it here. I have to say - it was very, very easy. The button installed to exactly the right place, the first time.
Which was why I was so disappointed when I then re-ran this site through Firebug. My page load time had shot up, and there was a good 10 seconds where the site just seemed to hang waiting for some of the new scripts to finish. I tried simplifying the content on the widget, resetting the browser a few times, etc - but it seemed like a few of the core ShareThis scripts were just slow. They might have good technical support, but I really don't know - removing it solved the problem.
So then I tried AddThis. While the registration was easy and I liked the widget UI, the installation took me hours. By default, it installed to the wrong place with a presentation I didn't like. Changing those things looked at lot easier than it turned out to be, but at least it was flexible enough to let me do what I wanted. And when I was done, a few runs through Firebug again confirmed my suspicions: AddThis was fast, and wasn't affecting the page load time.
I'm happy now with the way it's looking and functioning - I hope you find it useful!
The first product I tried was ShareThis. I'd liked it on other sites, so I ran through the registration and installed it here. I have to say - it was very, very easy. The button installed to exactly the right place, the first time.
Which was why I was so disappointed when I then re-ran this site through Firebug. My page load time had shot up, and there was a good 10 seconds where the site just seemed to hang waiting for some of the new scripts to finish. I tried simplifying the content on the widget, resetting the browser a few times, etc - but it seemed like a few of the core ShareThis scripts were just slow. They might have good technical support, but I really don't know - removing it solved the problem.
So then I tried AddThis. While the registration was easy and I liked the widget UI, the installation took me hours. By default, it installed to the wrong place with a presentation I didn't like. Changing those things looked at lot easier than it turned out to be, but at least it was flexible enough to let me do what I wanted. And when I was done, a few runs through Firebug again confirmed my suspicions: AddThis was fast, and wasn't affecting the page load time.
I'm happy now with the way it's looking and functioning - I hope you find it useful!
You Never Really Leave the Playground
The first week of a new module is filled with all kinds of anxiety - shopping for the right classes, moving on and off wait-lists for the ones you want the most (and hoping you get in), and then building groups for the ~50% of your grade that will come from teamwork.
Like any group of people, there's a spectrum of talent and motivation in my MBA class. I want to group with the people I think are the smartest, the most motivated, and the best organized because getting the right people on the bus is damn near the only thing that matters in delivering a high quality end product. And I like delivering high quality end products.
That makes the first week feel a little like picking teams for kickball at recess. Totally worth the effort, and much preferable to assigned teams, but still...
Like any group of people, there's a spectrum of talent and motivation in my MBA class. I want to group with the people I think are the smartest, the most motivated, and the best organized because getting the right people on the bus is damn near the only thing that matters in delivering a high quality end product. And I like delivering high quality end products.
That makes the first week feel a little like picking teams for kickball at recess. Totally worth the effort, and much preferable to assigned teams, but still...
We Will Do Science To Them
It never made any sense to me when friends with bachelors and/or masters degrees in engineering would talk about wanting to get into investment banking. Really? Six years learning to build great things, and now you want to spend your time not outperforming an index?
I'm really glad that The U.S. President wants us to reverse course , and that it seems to be happening. Churchill was right: "Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted every other alternative."
I'm really glad that The U.S. President wants us to reverse course , and that it seems to be happening. Churchill was right: "Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted every other alternative."
Specifically Informed Voters
I've been thinking recently about how public opinion is set. Democracies need a way to get everyone thinking about an important topic, and then agreeing on it long enough to get something done.
Traditionally it's been done by mass media, but I haven't read a physical newspaper or watched a TV news program (The Daily Show doesn't count!) in years. Almost all of the information I see on a daily basis comes from social media: Google reader, link/bookmark sharing, twitter, etc. I suspect a large and growing number of people draw their information the same way. You can still run traditional media campaigns, we just don't see them.
We're still reachable. Increasingly Social Marketing campaigns and other public agenda influencers will find that these social networks aren't a way to reach people, they're the way.
The change is positive, both for voters and for those trying to raise an issue. By choosing our news sources and our networks, we self-select into well defined verticals. By understanding those niches, marketers can develop tailored messaging which will resonate with its audience. And voters will find they better understand an issue as it pertains to their interests, and can make a more informed choice about it.
It could mean the end of the "rationally ignorant" voter.
Traditionally it's been done by mass media, but I haven't read a physical newspaper or watched a TV news program (The Daily Show doesn't count!) in years. Almost all of the information I see on a daily basis comes from social media: Google reader, link/bookmark sharing, twitter, etc. I suspect a large and growing number of people draw their information the same way. You can still run traditional media campaigns, we just don't see them.
We're still reachable. Increasingly Social Marketing campaigns and other public agenda influencers will find that these social networks aren't a way to reach people, they're the way.
The change is positive, both for voters and for those trying to raise an issue. By choosing our news sources and our networks, we self-select into well defined verticals. By understanding those niches, marketers can develop tailored messaging which will resonate with its audience. And voters will find they better understand an issue as it pertains to their interests, and can make a more informed choice about it.
It could mean the end of the "rationally ignorant" voter.
C'mon In Off That Limb, Ian
I wrote earlier about creating an online brand. And while I only posted about it recently, it's something I've been working on over the last two years; I've intentionally changed this blog to make it very professional, both in layout and in content. I knew recruiters were looking, and I wanted everything to be as polished as I could make it.
I think these posts have become too guarded. Looking back, some of the entries are so cerebral they lack any spark of my personality or passions. Yet those are the very things most readers are here for!
I'm going to write more often, and focus on what I want to say, rather than the most optimal way to say it (My hope is that with the practice I've had now, I'll get most of the way there on the first try). I'm also going to share more on Google Reader (embedded now on the right side of this blog), contribute more on other social media platforms, and comment more on other people's work.
Starting...now!
I think these posts have become too guarded. Looking back, some of the entries are so cerebral they lack any spark of my personality or passions. Yet those are the very things most readers are here for!
I'm going to write more often, and focus on what I want to say, rather than the most optimal way to say it (My hope is that with the practice I've had now, I'll get most of the way there on the first try). I'm also going to share more on Google Reader (embedded now on the right side of this blog), contribute more on other social media platforms, and comment more on other people's work.
Starting...now!
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