Startup Success on Social Media with Steve Rubel
Bob and Pat talk with Social Media and PR thought leader Steve Rubel on the changing roles of blogging, social media, public relations, and advertising. Steve talks frankly about both the role of social media in business and his consulting in that field.
I find it particularly interesting because this is a realistic breath of fresh air from the social mania that has been sweeping the tech world. I have done some minimal social consulting and execution as a line item on greater web development projects. It is incredible easy to scan the surface, look at the number of fans or followers and shift around whichever version of the omnipresent share link we decided to use. For our efforts, which admittedly were always a distant second to the creation of the site itself, we saw little or now measurable results.
Steve frames the social world as communication and talks through some thought processes on *almost* measurable results that his company is working toward with real clients. He rather humbly discusses some of his own successes and abandoned ideas framing his work as one part of a larger company's strategy. It's a refreshing interview, because there are no easy answers, which is the way it is.
Startup Success has been one of my favorite business podcasts for over a year now. If you haven't heard the show and are into this sort of thing, I recommend starting from Episode 1 and listening to the entire run.
http://startuppodcast.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/show-70-steve-rubel-on-the-evolution-of-social-media/
Pricing
If you're involved in pricing web services, check out this post over at 47 hats. It's good. No time to write up a rewording that I'm not inclined to write.
I'm out.
Great podcasts on motivation
The Startup Success podcast has a great two part episode in which they interview Daniel Pink concerning motivation. I don't have time at the moment to dive into my favorite parts (such as intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, non-standard management practices and reasons for going it alone as opposed to working at a larger company) so I'll let you coast over there to check it out if you will. I would if I were you and I know this is true because, while I'm not you, I'm me and I did. See?
Steve Job’s mission to change the world
Things are getting a little tense when it comes to computer platform and operating system preferences and loyalties these days. This is especially true along the Mac / Non-mac (read windows, but also marginally Linux). Mac users have always had a fanatical side to them, which is appropriate for a small group defending a way of computing that has, for decades, been scraping along strong, but small. Now, however, Apple is pushing hard in many directions (mobile, tablet, desktop and laptop) and it is the Non-Mac people who are starting to match the partisan fervor.
As a rare cross-user, I'm caught in the middle. Not so much the middle between people moralizing about why Apple is a cult that is evil for going against the sainted precepts of open software (which I believe in) or why 'those people' can deal with lousy interfaces and crashing computers if they want (those mac users obviously haven't spent much time on Win7.) I enjoy those conversations. I generally stay out of those that remain at the surface level, because I frankly don't care about those criticisms. I've used both platforms now professionally for a year. Sure, I like win7 over osx, but I enjoy the experience of my mac book pro more than any other mobile computer I've ever owned. Sure this and that about one system is dumb, so's the other in a thousand ways. But there are a number of interesting angles:
Flash not allowed on Apple Mobile devices
It's hard to weigh on this one fully without being a fly on the wall between the colorful conversations between Apple and Adobe. Sure, Flash is the most popular rich media plugin on the web. Sure, Adobe (the winner of the creative software wars) has done well in developing it into an extremely powerful platform for designers and programmers alike. And, sure, by blocking it on its mobile devices Apple has devalued the work of thousands of Flash developers.
On the other hand, Flash programs can easily require more bandwidth, processor power and ram than the iPhone and iPad have to offer. Further, there's no way to throttle these apps, which means that browsing the web on these devices would turn into walking a minefield, which could bring your device's battery (or at least it's browser app) down at any minute. Can't blame Steve on this one for preserving the experience over the flexibility.
Also, it's important to note that Adobe is by no means an open company. Their Flash standard is as proprietary as anything Apple does. Flash has, in fact, quietly stifled HTML5 and other open projects, such as many in javascript. This, to my knowledge, was not done overtly but the effect is the same: give people a good proprietary solution and it will take longer for the open community to develop. Apple's add network, to be released with the iPad OS4, is heavily HTML5 dependent. This will do wonders for interactive web design, and help out those who don't want to shell out hundreds of dollars every 18 months for the latest Flash upgrade.
Steve Jobs vs Programmer Freedom
Subtitle: should we reserve the programmer's 'right' to push around any bit on a system or should we allow people with a vision for their platform to enforce standards of their choosing?
Before using the iPhone, I would have been squarely in the programmer's rights camp. I come from the gnu world, grew up on linux and gcc via emacs and got old and lazy in the php mysql open source web world. I love how there's a million scripts and modules up there for me to get to do just about anything I want. Server space is cheap and the software running on it is free. Sweet. And I had the potential to be a part of it to the core. I could contribute to the php project (but didn't) or the apache project (but didn't again.) I could, just maybe, tweak the fate of the industry of which I was a part (probably didn't, but who knows with that whole butterfly effect principal.)
The iPhone quickly and seamlessly integrated into my lifestyle. This was a big deal for me, as, suddenly, I was carrying around this device that did really cool tech stuff but also never forced me to jump through hoops to do simple things in the moment or read endless documents to add a new feature. It, in a very real way, delivered the promise of technology, which for me was always to enhance life. It delivered the communication, information and media without getting in the way of the moments of my life that I was using them in. Ok, sure, I did go a bit over the deepend and get sucked into using it more... but that's my choice. My lifestyle is constantly adjusting to include more communication, information and media. It's not my choice to hunt through a half dozen menus to find an obscure option (read: doesn't work for me).
So I developed a great respect for the iPhone. I got a mac book pro, and found, unfortunately that OSX didn't hold the same magic for me. The hardware, however, and some of the packaged software did.
As the Apple mobile OS (iPhone, iPad) matures, Apple is adding more and more features for programmers to use in their SDK. At the same time, they are taking steps to limit developers to using their SDK for programming apps. They are also making judgment calls to allow or ban apps from their app store, the only way to get apps onto the devices of course. There's no doubt that there's business motives at the heart of the Apple / Adobe divide, and cutting off their CS5 iPhone authoring tool was probably as aggressive as it was practical. But, at the same time, the biggest bone of contention is Flash, which is a plugin that allows programmers to easily use up far more resources than the iPhone and iPad have to offer.
Ultimately, again, I can't blame Apple for holding the keys to their kingdom in the name of preserving the experience on their devices. If there were no competition, I would get nervous, but there is much competition. For now, I'm happy to go along on the iPhone ride because beyond simply being best one out there, it is intensely interesting in many ways.
When it comes to seating sensors to deny apps, I get a little weirded out. They do occasionally cross the line of making anti-competitive choices, but I don't believe these are status quo. The web lets some really disgusting stuff slide around in digital form and I don't want it showing up on my, my (if I'm lucky) kid's or anyone else around me's phone. If that's censorship, call me an advocate of censorship. But, again, there are other open devices and a hundred ways to get any media you want on the iPhone as well.
What do you think?
.htaccess php error controlling
I just came across an unusually good guide covering how to control php error messages and logging via .htaccess. Thought I'd toss it a bit of link love, the purest form of love there is in these parts...
http://perishablepress.com/press/2008/01/14/advanced-php-error-handling-via-htaccess/
it’s All Around Podcast 002: The Big Box, a response
This is a response to The Diary of a Cartoonist Episode 144, in which Scott Johnson muses on the common controversy surrounding WalMart. I recommend you listen to his podcast (~10 minutes long) before you listen to this response.
For me, the issue isn't about the free market vs. regulation or capitalism vs socialism, it's about human behavior. The rise of WalMart is perhaps the clearest example of one of the greatest human tragedies of our time.
The presence of WalMart, especially in already underprivileged areas, extracts wealth out of communities and destroys all sorts of jobs while offering only sub living wage, short term labor.
Ultimately, people are driven to act against their best interests because they are either lack education or aren't paying attention.
In the end WalMart is here to stay, along with many other monopolistic victors of capitalism. But, as individuals, we shouldn't justify their existence on this fact alone.
Let me know what you think
Going Open Source 1: Coding Style
This is the first article in 'So you want to go Open Source', a journal of my process as I work toward releasing a company project that has been in development for a very long time as open source. This article covers my first passes through the code base.
I have already taken my most advanced implementation of the code base, set it up in a shiny new dev area and stripped all traces of the former project. I'm left with a fully functional engine with no polish that basically purrs great but does very little - isn't attached to any gears, drive trains or tires... etc. My temptation is to start implementing the meta-code that will give the project shape, but that would be getting ahead of myself.
Before shaping the logic and design of the app, I ought to do a full audit of every line of code. In my fist pass through the code, I am focusing on two things:
- Cleaning up, stylizing and commenting the code and
- Creating an itemized list of all elements of the project that will have to be dynamicized and genericized
Style, style, style...
My approach to style focuses on clarity and accessibility with a bit of dry sarcastic wit. I will be using php documentor so I'll largely taking my inspiration from their style guide. I also recommend reading the pear guides, and articles and guides for other open source projects just to round out the ideas.
Framework?
I'm basing my software on a simplified MVC, so won't have to package any other framework or incorporate bridge notes on how issues may arrise.
Comments!
I'm finding that the process of commenting is the most helpful aspect of this exercise. By forcing myself to explain each segment of code, I am rigorously exposing potential inefficiencies, insecurities and even some contextual errors. I am also developing my master ToDo list concurrently as a place to organize the tasks. I recommend Basecamp for ToDoing.
This process will take me a while, as I have to fit it in amongst other responsibilities. Stay tuned for part 2.
Multitouch
Multitouch is one of the most exciting technologies on the cusp of breaking into the main stream. It seems that every major hardware company has serious R&D going and every software platform manufacturer is scrambling to pull the elements into their languages and apis. Here are a few interesting videos and articles that give a good flavor of things to come.
Virtual autopsy via multitouch
Adobe's initiative via the almighty TED
A good rundown of issues and initiative from 10/GUI
A demo of MTJ4, a Java Based Multitouch API
... and Tom Cruise, our favorite Scientologist, from Minority Report
Share and enjoy!
HTML 5 – it’s time
After a long run up, it's finally time to start embracing HTML 5. With support in Chrome, Firefox 3.5, Opera, and Safari it is just around the corner. IE is sulking in the corner as usual, too good to join the party but there are already efforts such a fiks-html5 in public development that will bypass the iempetulence (consider the term coined).
Here are the specs for scanning and/or reference:
and here's some authoritative light reading:
- http://www.alistapart.com/articles/previewofhtml5/
- http://html5doctor.com/
- http://www.alistapart.com/articles/get-ready-for-html-5/
Stay tuned for tales of integrating HTML 5!
Inside look into successful design shop
A List Apart is running a great article by Simon Collision, a driving force behind http://erskinedesign.com/. Simon gives an intimate account of how his shop began with just two people, ran into the traps and pitfalls indemic to such a venture, but then systematically overcame them with clear vision and sound operating priciples to move past the problems and grow to (what seems to be) a very successful six person shop. As half of a small business myself I closely identify with the challanges and am inspired by Erskine's solutions.
Read the full article here: http://www.alistapart.com/authors/c/simoncollison
Here's a video interview with Simon that looks interesting but is too long for me to watch right now because I'm eye-brows deep in one of the pitfalls that stems from setting out on the frontier: avoidance stemming from stress resulting in a dual whammy of lack of setting of clients expectations and allowing projects to run far over schedule due to lack of client engagement: http://www.colly.com/comments/starting_from_the_beginning/
Update: If you like the article on alistapart and are hungering for more check out the 9 part writeup on the Erskine website. Simon has a great passion for what he does and puts it out there with fearless abandon. If I had a hat I would tip it to him.