Just spell it out
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
NASCAR has started and I’m watching the Daytona 500 with the nearly 3-year-old –
“Daddy, Cheerios!
Look it’s, Target!
Hey, M & M’s!
Home Depot! Can we go Home Depot?”
Image via Wikipedia
The more I look at business cases related to whether an organization should consider moving their data center operations over to a managed services solution the more obvious it seems that it should be done. This is especially true for smaller businesses.
I’ll quickly recognize (and diffuse) the argument that some organizations have people on staff that can run their systems, and I don’t disagree. However, what about making decisions going forward? Is the current staff focused on just keeping current systems up and running to meet the current needs? How about handling issues in the future to keep pace with growing tech requirements? I am certain that the answers to these types of questions seldom consider issues that will be faced down the road, considering that so many teams are understaffed so maintaining current projects is enough to keep everyone busy.
I also used this article: Making the Case for Managed Services to think though other issues that need to be evaluated in the decision, such as hardware, new staff requirements and facilities. It is also important to remember that costs are not just the people costs for keeping your systems online.
Tim McGraw via last.fm
One of the tricks of country music song writers that are out of fresh ideas is to write a song that does nothing, but drop proper names, such as people (Conway Twitty rhymes with so much), places (Cabo is a fav) and things (happy hour). You don’t even need to be a country music fan, and I’m sure you have a jukebox of bad music in your head right now.
Well, I’m going to test one of the worst offenders of this: a song called Southern Voices that is sung by Tim McGraw and was written by Bob DiPiero and Tom Douglas — to make sure the blame is spread fairly. The opponent Zemanta and their semantic web publishing tool. I’m afraid to paste in the lyrics, because this thing will explode. The song is nothing but a name dropping brain dump in the hope that somewhere ol’ Tim will be able to hit the right note with the music public to make you, yeah you, want to buy this drivel.
(Now, before some heads explode, please note that I am not condemning the names in the song, which range from Charlie Daniels to Jesus. I’m a big fan of these people. It’s the shameless use of their names that is bad.)
Ready… time to hit ctrl-v, and I’ll tag the names that Zemanta finds:
Hank Williams sang itNumber 3 drove itChuck Berry twanged itWill Farmer wrote itAretha Franklin sold itDolly Parton graced itRosa Parks rode itScarlett O chased itSmooth as the hickory windThat blows from MemphisDown to AppalachicolaIt’s hi ya’ll did ya eat wellCome on in I’mSure glad to know yaDon’t let this old goat crossIn this Almond Brothers t-shirt and throw yaIt’s cicadas making noiseWith the southern voiceHank Aaron smacked itMichael Jordan dunked itPocahantas tracked itJack Daniels drunk itTom Petty rocked itDr. King paved itBear Bryant won itBilly Graham saved itSmooth as the hickory windThat blows from MemphisDown to AppalachicolaIt’s hi ya’ll did ya eat wellCome on in I’mSure glad to know yaDon’t let this old goat crossIn this Crimson Tide t-shirt and throw yaIt’s cicadas making noiseWith the southern voiceJesus is my friendAmerica is my homeSweet iced tea and Jerry LeeDaytona BeachThat’s what gets to meI can feel it in my bonesSmooth as the hickory windThat blows from MemphisDown to AppalachicolaIt’s hi ya’ll did ya eat wellCome on in childI’m sure glad to know yaDon’t let this old goat crossIn this Charlie Daniels t-shirt and throw yaWe’re just boys making noiseWith the southern voiceYeah, yeah, yeah, yeahI got a southern voiceA southern voice
Now, let it be said that I’m a big fan of Zemanta and their publishing tool is great for making the blogging process easier. However, Zemanta tried, but it was just overwhelmed by the country music hit formula. 10 of the 24 proper name references that I found as ‘in-text links’, but it did much better finding 20 of 24 pictures, and it offered a wide range of related articles to choose from.
To the Zemanta people and power users: If there is a way to request more in-text links, let me know and I’ll send it through again. This song should become the benchmark for all future improvements.
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Hyperlocal GuidesLast night I attended a panel discussion on The Future of Hyperlocal City Guides that was part of the Future of Local Media Salon Series.
The panel participants had a opportunity to discuss their company and products, and also voice some opinions. The panelists were: James Tunik the CEO of Mapcidy; Dennis Crowley the Co-Founder of hot start-up Foursquare; Polly Lieberman, VP at Buzzd; and Brad Rosen the Founder of Prximity.
However this is where I thought there might have been a disconnect between the topic and the panel — I do not really see these companies as being hyperlocal. Sure they are local-based guides, and each offer their own ways to gather and display information about where you are right now, but they do not present the hyper-local qualities of our two NY entries, outside.in or Patch.
With that behind me, I have to say that Mapcidy may be the closest to a hyperlocal implementation based on Tunik’s description of the planned launch on September 10. The plan is to gather data as it is published and build a layer on top of a Google Maps API. Foursquare seems to be the most fun, and likely the best chance to deliver the ad dollars that are missing from this business. The issue there appears to be scalability, though to be fair this has always been an issue with rolling out local sites. Buzzd seems to be approaching this more from the mobile web side, which is in-line with Lieberman’s comment that the mobile apps business is nothing but a phase the mobile industry is going through. She thought that apps go back to the days that applications where distributed on CD-ROM and ran as a standalone executable. Soon enough the apps will be standardized to run using a mobile browser. In the words of Rosen, Prximity is looking to be our virtual concierge with the ability match events to our interests, location and free time. It’s certainly very early in their development, so let’s give them a chance to evolve, but you can test their beta.
The next step is to sign up for these applications and see how each delivers. I’ll follow-up down the road after I get some testing under my belt.
NY Tech Meetup
From there the action moved into the Auditorium for the monthly Meetup gathering where the program was the standard 5 minutes to demo your product. It was a great a night for the demo teams. I can honestly say that I will try out each of these products, with the exception of the MakerBot. However, it was cool enough that I’ll share it with a brother-in-law who likes these robotic thingies.
Here are some links that you should check out:
– UpNext – If you are in the NYC area or a frequent visitor, you will want this great iPhone app that features a 3-D vision of the city, subway maps, and built in directory all by simple tapping on the map.
– Centrl – Another map-type app for iPhone and BB, but it focuses more on the social networking that pulls in feeds from all the major social platforms.
– Livestream / Procaster — High-quality live video from your lap-top is possible with these simple tools.
– Aviary – Think online Photoshop.
– MakerBot – It was hard for some of us to grasp what was being discussed here, but think of it as a desktop robot builder that grinds out mini objects. Check out the web site and you’ll see.
– NYSenate.gov – The new web site that will bring transparency to NY government. Cool I guess.
– Mahalo 2.0!
— Jason Calacanis showcased the new Mahalo and their plans for sharing the revenues with page owners.
This had to rock, like rock rocks when it is totally rockin. According to some comments on YouTube, Ness stayed on stage for about 5 songs including Born to Run.
Gratuitous Donuts PhotoVery compelling article in Ad Age today from Peter Hershberg at Reprise Media about search and social media called What Social Media Means for Search. On the upside, it adds to the observation that search and social media are coming together, and it also provides a good backgrounder for understanding the relationship. However, it does not offer any tactical side to take advantage of this activity.
Using his Search 3.0 label, Peter and I agree that the new feed-driven social world takes us beyond the “intent” shown by a user during their search engine experience and provides us direct insight to the “it is happening now” stage, such as the millions of daily tweets for “need coffee.”
We’ve heard the story forever from proponents of mobile advertising that they will be able to deliver a Dunkin’ Donuts (my coffee of choice) coupon when we walk past a store. Great in theory, but when does it reach the masses and will it work? My answer to when, is who knows. I’m sure it can happen now with the proliferation of location-based services, but is it better plan than monitoring social media feeds — I say no.
The mobile ad plan is not marketing to a person who has shown intent in this activity; they just happen to be walking by a Dunkin’ Donuts, so now you are hoping that you can change a user behavior as they pass by. However, monitoring a Twitter/Facebook feed will directly let you know who is going to get coffee, NOW! It is up to the marketeer to hit them directly with the coupon for the coffee or a complimentary donut. I guess the next question is when will Twitter or the Twitter apps we use start monitoring our Twitter feeds, or Facebook for that matter, to match ads to its updates.
Update: As I was posting this, I took a look back at the current Ad Age they have posted an article “Google Uses Twitter to Sell Ads.” So it looks like this idea is taking its first steps. This will evolve to feed-targeted networks, not the general Adsense network, because the higher “happening now” feed network will be drive higher CPC values.
From: Irish-Americans Gear Up For 'The Reinforcin' O' The Stereotypes'Nothing big today except for the expectations set by my forefathers that today I will drink an excessive amount of Guinness. Unfortunately to bystanders this is one (another) of those expectations that I never fulfill. Part of the enigma of being Tim McGuinness.
Maybe it’s the phoniness of the season. Yesterday I received an email promo from a big website addressed to “Timothy O’McGuinness”. Seriously, if you Google “Tim+Mc+Guinness,” the top result is a bar fight. Do we really have to add the “O’whatever” to Irish-up my name?
Bad News for Red StripeI am all for the idea of making some money where it can be made, but there’s one area that irks me a little, and that is the licensing of a person’s name or likeness after their death.
Today’s Wall Street Journal, has a article about Bob Marley’s family working with Hilco Consumer Capital to use Bob Marley’s name and likeness. One of the first products on the list is a “Marley Lager, a Jamaican beer featuring the singer’s likeness.” This means sell your Red Stripe stock.
Now, the Marley family and a private equity firm that invests in retail brands are preparing a major push to license Mr. Marley’s likeness, trademarks and themes to apparel, food and even video games. Hilco Consumer Capital, which has compiled a stable of retail brands including Halston and Ellen Tracy, this month invested some $20 million for half of House of Marley LLC, a joint venture with the Marley family, according to people familiar with the matter.
I am not sure how Bob would treat this idea, but in case my family gets any ideas about licensing my image, I have set some ground rules for the products that I will allow. Here we go:
What would you allow? Add it in the comments below.
Finally I can say it -- This was not even the worst thing that happened to Eugene Robinson that day.
The biggest change in that time is how SuperBowl.com handles news. The site was being produced and managed at Lycos under the strict guidance of the NFL which means at that time the site was just NFL propaganda. That was the year that Eugene Robinson of Atlanta found himself arrested for solicitation the night before the game. Big news, obviously, but we were not allowed by the NFL to mention it. The rules were so strict on blocking bad news that we were not allowed to even link to articles where coaches were being fired, and that’s all of the news during the weeks of the playoff run.
My involvement started as a photo editor for a six-week contract which became an offer to be the Lycos Search Producer. By Super Bowl night, I had worked myself up to where they trusted me with the keys to the whole site so I was publishing content from a dark, cold office park in Waltham until late into the night with my developer Mats. That was the year that Denver beat my Jets in the AFC Championship. I always wondered if I would have been able to come up with the pitch to go to Miami if the Jets were in the Super Bowl … if the Jets were Super Bowl (I seem to say that alot). My confetti celebration that night was a leftover pizza and a couple of beers around 3am while I watched game highlights on ESPN. There is nothing like game day.