One of Vista’s killer features…
Vista has a ton of killer features… most are lost in a wave of MS cynicism and Apple hype… Ed gets at a few of these… And some more from Thomas Hawk…
Thomas is using Drobo, one of the hot new consumer devices here in the US. I’m getting one of these soon…
Interesting facts on ugc
Some interesting facts on user generated content from a recent Deloitte study… Highlights include data on:
- User-generated content as an activity for all generations
- 40% of all survey respondents are making their own entertainment (editing movies, music and photos)
- One-third of online content viewing is done on user-generated site
- An interest in traditional media for all consumers – even Millennials
- 72% enjoy reading magazines over finding the same information online; 58% of Millennials agree magazines help them learn what’s “in”
- Compared with online activities like surfing the Web and downloading music, all generations aspire to reading a book in the coming year
- How habit and personal relationships drive Web traffic
- Search engines and word of mouth are the most effective way to drive site traffic — 85% of Xers are influenced by a recommendation
- 87% of respondents continually visit the same Web sites
- The future: centralizing home media into one entertainment center
- Millennials are combining different technologies and platforms:
- 64% want to connect their TV to the Internet for viewing videos and downloading content to the TV
- 57% want a device that lets them do everything
- 49% want one device to be the center of the home media experience
Digital NZ Keynote…
I managed to beam into the Digital NZ keynote out of Austin using an amazing Polycom system. Ok, I sure missed an All Press coffee, breakfast at Cafe Melba Vulcan Lane, a plate of green-lipped mussles and catching up with Greg, Sandy, Rod and crew… But then I didn’t have to sit on a plane for 21 hours either…
The kit up at Polycom blew me away. HD video conferencing. Awesome.
My main premis was:
- Broadband is an issue but in a tightly regulated economy Telecom, Telstra and the Govt will need to sort that out. Hopefully while giving enterprises like Woosh a chance at succeeding. Somehow we manage to stay ahead of demand when it comes to the Internet. I heard an interesting soundbite the other day – YouTube today consumes all of the Internet capacity that existed five years ago. And, every second, six hours of video is loaded to YouTube.
- But, given this does happen we face two greater issues. First, if we continue to deploy infrastrucutre as we have been, there simply won’t be enough power to go around. Now, given that many of the major sites used by Kiwis are offshore – like YouTube — that might not be such a problem to the consumer. But for businesses planning on participating in the global economy this is a major issue. Green computing coupled with low cost, low impact power could be a major source of competitive advantage for NZ.
- Then, to the real problem. Running out of power is one thing. Running out of people is much more problematic. We are simply not outputting talent to run and build on the infrastructure we need to dearly. This is a problem we must fix for the long-term. Fixing it means getting started now though.
So, those are the main tenets of my story.
Rod had a few things to say, as did ComputerWorld.
A few had follow-on questions about the correlation between bandwidth and power. I’ll get you some data courtesy of our friends at Gartner. The key to understanding this is to grok not what it takes to run the bandwidth but rather what the bandwidth is accessing… Massive and multiplying data centers across the planet. It’s not jsut Google or Microsoft. It’s nearly every Enterprise of any substance facing this challenge.
Minor thing: I few journos keep reporting that I chair the NZTE beachhead program in the US. As they expanded the program I stepped out of this role. Bridget Liddel has that honor. I do play a leadership role on the technology team that exists as part of the overall program though.
Mid-Week Take Wed 19
About TIme! James over at Redmonk speaks to the evolution of the analyst industry in some of his most recent posts:
We’re going to be following up with a nod to the meme… Taking an editorial stance based on available information. We find new ways to package information so it wil me more appealing – in narratives, for example. Part of RedMonk’s business model is too package information in stories rather than reports.
This is refreshing. Are citizen analysts going to eventually drive traditional industry analysts out of business? I doubt it. But boy is technology going to ignite a more vigourous conversation about what is happening in the industry. Content (analysis) will become more freely available and accessible than it is through the costly models of traditional analysts today – and less linked to their clients (and source of revenue). And the smaller firms such as Redmonk are in a better position – both from an economics and credibility standpoint – to fuel it by driving conversations out of board rooms and into the blogsphere.
If nothing else, Redmonk deserves big points for a) blogging like they do and, b) being so clear about their business model. James’ blog is a must read.
Love Those Zines. I’m an eZine fanatic. Amongst my faves are Cuisine Mag out of New Zealand and Flavorpill (which produces are range of others in the city/design/style category).
Flavorpill’s most recent SF edition points to a new eZine with intriguing design – IntoTheStorm – which it wraps as:
With just about every rag these days offering a Face-like barometer of cool, digital ‘zine Into the Storm offers a refreshing take on style-mag journalism. The clincher is the examination of ideas and concepts rather than gadgets and parties: think Franz Ferdinand on Russian art, Nicholas Hawksmoor’s London churches, and how literature got hip again. Issue two is deliriously self-referential, subtitled “Everything Style Magazines Forgot To Tell You”. Spot-on advice includes how to create a global trend and how to talk your way into a nightclub. (“Create a diversion by faking a drug overdose or screaming class war from a megaphone.”) (KW)
The only drawback to all three (at least from my reading) is the lack of RSS feeds. These would make my life so much easier. Tip for Communicators #4 – RSS every content category you can. Create feeds and feed’em.
Speaking of RSS, take a look at the new news site sponsored Fabrica, the philanthropic arm of Benetton.
Every hour, 10×10 scans the RSS feeds of several leading international news sources, and performs an elaborate process of weighted linguistic analysis on the text contained in their top news stories. After this process, conclusions are automatically drawn about the hour’s most important words. The top 100 words are chosen, along with 100 corresponding images, culled from the source news stories.
Then hop on over to Wordcount an interactive presentation of the 86,800 most frequently used English words created by Number 27. Brilliant work. Ah, what the heck, visit here as well.
That Apple Thing. I’ve been getting lots of comments and questions on my comments on Apple. Here’s an edited response with the caveats a) I’m not a lawyer and b) haven’t been able to get a copy of the lawsuit.
Apple’s Lawsuit, if they continue with it, will be an unfortunate test of who is and isn’t media, fifth amendment rights, and the power of the blogsphere.
Apple’s ‘news power’ comes less from PR itself and mostly from the stunning products and business models it has launched (although they do some pretty smart things). More than anything Apple is riding a wave of innovation and market success – and those of us have been around long enough know that the wave does break at some point. When this happens they might wish they’d banked a little more goodwill in the blogsphere.
Having spent the last 17 years trying to keep products under wraps till launch I do empathize with Apple. But suing journalists for reporting will do nothing to stop this happening again. Sure it’s easier to pick on the little guys but this hardly sets any example for big media (who wouldn’t have been sued if they’d done it). And, I’m not sure the little guys could buy the resulting publicity. So why not focus on re-emphasizing to employees the importance of keeping products under wraps and leave it at that (I would be with Apple if they fired the employee that leaked the information).
The notion of Bloggers as Journalists is worth a longer conversation – in the blogsphere. I don’t think we should confuse the two – although someone can clearly succeed at being both. Nevertheless, they should have the same ‘rights’ to free speech, reporting with perspective, protecting sources etc… Yes! Thanks to Katie Payne for flagging this story on the Bloggs vs. Journalist debate.
That the one company that has so long stood for the right things now stands for limiting free speech is a tragedy. To anyone that owns and Apple and loves the brand, the notion that this is nothing more than a PR stunt is asinine. There are better and more subtle ways of working with the fans that feed you. Forbes said it well:
Apple’s current lawsuit alleges that “Unauthorized disclosure of product news diminishes the interest of both the mainstream and trade media in the launch of a new product.”
Huh?
Can you think of another company whose product news garners more coverage–regardless of unauthorized disclosures–from the geek and mainstream media?
See you later in the week.
News & Views Jan 17
Companies would be so much smarter for using Smart Cards. The Merc has a cover story on the use of Smart Cards by the military – all very similar to my days at Sun (the Smart Cards – not the military). The overall solution was so much better than the conventional badge access used by many corporations. My Java Card – as Sun calls them – allowed me access to the building and also served as my primary security log-on for computing. I just slid it in my Sun Ray and bingo, there was my compute session just like I left it. The WSJ also covers this in today’s Technology Report with a story on the savings resulting from Sun Ray-like technologies. These devices are as much a productivity boon as they are a cost saver.
Looking Back At Apple Week. It’s amazing to me how effective Apple’s PR machine has become. Or maybe how wrapped-up in Apple the media and public is these days. Apple is locked in a seemingly unstoppable positive news cycle.
First, let me say that I’m a die-hard Apple fan and Powerbook user – and I’m nothing like these guys – and I’m not about to switch Skyler! But I found last week’s announcements underwhelming. The new cheap desktop seemed to be a refresh on the Cube – albeit tipped on it’s side, encased in metal and much cheaper (the Cube started at around $1800). This isn’t a cheap desktop though. This is a cheap desktop. Or this. While not many Journalists picked-up on this, the Merc did take a look at iLife and the new iPod shuffle. Neither particularly innovative products. I do like and recommend iPhoto and iTunes but have little interest in the rest of the package and wonder why I am forced to buy them.
It also bugs me that there is still no specific launch date for Tiger and that none of these new products were on display at the Apple Stores over the weekend. From my POV this is a massive marketing oversight. I get the whole “building buzz” thing but believe we’ve moved to an increasingly real-time marketing environment. No one but the die-hard fan (that’s me) is going to keep coming back for second looks. The rest of the market simply moves on. Tip For Communicators #1 – Make Sure People Can (At Least) Experience The Products You Launch! Apple has done a good job of this on the Web, but what’s the point of the Apple store if I can’t experience new products there with all the evangelizing power of the best trained retail team in the business.
Tip For Communicators #2 – Build An Awesome Demo Foundry! Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs’ demo crashes also continue to be a talking point. One thing I will be eternally grateful of at Sun was the quality of the demo team – they were simply the best. All communications teams should be investing in a ‘demo foundry’ that brings cool technology to life. An in between keynotes they can produce stunning content based on their technical smarts and insight – take a look at Sun’s Science Notes…
Hi-Tech Marketing Confuses Marketers – No Kidding! I’m on a bit of a Merc roll. Great story via AP on how Tech marketing confuses customers.
High-tech companies don’t release products anymore, they provide solutions. And those solutions don’t simply run a program or play a song. Instead, they enable experiences, optimize agility or make people’s passions come alive.
Say what?
Here are some of the worst offending buzzwords highlighted by AP:
Solution: Instead of making a product or offering a service, technology companies “provide solutions.” Whether the solutions solve actual problems is a different matter.
Bandwidth: Technically refers to the capacity of a communications line, but is now used much more broadly. For example, people might say they don’t have enough “personal bandwidth” (translation: time) to do a project.
Paradigm: An example or model.
Scalable: The ability of a computer or system to get bigger, typically as more users are added.
Synergy: Usually means that combining forces produces a better product – although that’s not always the case in the software world. Also seen in reference to corporate mergers.
Robust: Implies that a product is bug-free and will work under rigorous circumstances. In many products, this claim can be debated.
World-class, best-of-breed, bleeding-edge, state-of-the-art: Variations on the claim that this is a unique and superior product.
E-anything: Something that is now being done online or in another electronic space, such as e-commerce or e-mail.
Win-win: A deal where everyone allegedly benefits.
Tip For Communicators #3 – Scan For Hollow Words and Phrases. Take five or so of you most recent press releases, web articles, brochures and scan for the repeat offenders. Circulate the list and get them out of your materials.
The Naked Corporation & Communicator. Interesting opinion piece by Gordon Crovitz of Dow Jones in the WSJ this morning looking at new proposed rules from the SEC that will allow Internet broadcasts of IPO roadshows. Well about time! Technology will continue to drive transparency, leveling the playing field just as it has done before.
In the mid-1800s, James Rothschild foretold the impact of the Internet. His family had become the world’s leading banking institution by setting up offices throughout Europe, gathering intelligence and delivering it in private letters by courier and sometimes by pigeon, tipping one another off to the latest news. They used this confidential information to move local markets. But Rothschild began in the 1850s to complain, “The telegraph is ruining our business.”
Crovitz also makes some interesting points on the nature of financial markets as early adopters:
Technology changes tend to revolutionize the financial industry first because it’s early adapters in the markets who can most easily justify the effort and expense of embracing innovations. Wall Street was the first neighborhood to be “electrified” by Edison, and after the lighting of offices, an early commercial use of electricity was to power ticker machines that sped financial information (often originally transmitted by the telegraph) to traders and brokers…. It may take some time before our culture can adjust to always-on information. James Rothschild called it “a crying shame that the telegraph had been established,” delivering market news even as he took the waters on his summer vacation. “One has too much to think about when bathing, which is not good,” he wrote. Our wired, 24/7 world gives us the unprecedented privilege of limitless access. It also imposes new obligations on us to become more informed and, as regulators yield to the tide of information, to make the most of our new knowledge.
Citizen Journalism Site To Debut. Via Steve, TakeBacktheNews.Com will debut next week.
And then there is this little doozy… My faith has been restored in the media…
Have a great week!
