July 2008 Archives

Just to update everyone on the past couple of days... On Sunday night around 8:30pm I'd done all my chores and had enjoyed a lovely warm weekend in London and satisfied with everything I breathed a sigh of relief - and immediately regretted it.

As I exhaled my entire back went in to spasm.  I have had this kind of thing happen before and often it just needs bed rest to subside.  I went to bed early and tried to visualise calming the muscles through the breath.  Unfortunately this seemed to aggravate it, so I took a Syndol (Mersyndol in Oz) and hoped that would work its wonders.  I slept alright (Mer/Syndol tends to knock me out) but I dreamt of pain and woke at 2:30am with my whole back quivering with spasms.

Somehow I made it to dawn whereupon I attempted a trip to the bathroom.  After almost blacking out with pain I made it back to bed, knowing I needed therapy - fast.  I began my research of possible physiotherapists and at 7am started sending emails. After what passed for a shower (standing very still under warm water and then collapsing on the bed afterwards), I checked my messages. The first physio I had contacted by email let me know she was on holiday for a week and the clinic was closed. So back to the drawing board.  By now it was 8am and I was in serious pain.  Fortunately the next physio was available and had a cancellation for a 9am appointment.  So at 8:25, after a quick call to the local minicab service, I made a very painful journey down my 3 flights of stairs to wait for the cab.  The cab rolled up quickly but then took me the longest possible route to the physio, over every single speed hump in the vicinity.  He was aware I was becoming more and more distressed and I started to feel sorry for him, because he was clearly trying to take me via the 'short cut', due to roadworks at Shepherd's Bush, but had instead been thwarted by oversized lorries, unthinking pedestrians and cyclists and yet more roadworks.  When we finally got to the physio, I was in tears and could only shuffle to the reception.  

However the staff at Kensington Physiotherapy were wonderfully sympthetic and so caring.  They took me straight in and when I finally got to lie down on the bed, they stared in amazement as the rippling mess that was my back continued to bubble and pop before them.  My physio got straight to work, releasing the spasms in the erector spinea muscles, psoas, and finally - the source of all my problems - the quadratus lumborum.  Unfortunately by the time I had that treatment, a lot of damage had been done.  The iliolumbar ligament had weakened and torn, as had the top of the quadratus lumborum on the right bottom rib. As a result, the spinal nerve tissue had gone in to overdrive and shut everything down.  

An hour in to treatment the spasms had finally stopped.  But the damage was going to take longer to fix.  After walking around a bit, the physio decided to strap my back to keep it from reverting in to spasm.  I couldn't bend forward at all, or move well and sitting was uncomfortable, but at least I could move a little bit.  Perched on the edge of the treatment bed, the physio strapped my back and just as she was finishing tugging at the flesh, I announced to her that I was blacking out.  The physio caught me and lay me back, but I think I lost consciousness for a few seconds.  Apparently I had changed colour to a pale grey.  A sip of water and a few minutes later I was okay again, but decided NOT to walk home.  I doubt I'd have got far anyway.  After making another appointment for the next day, I hailed a cab, got home and managed the three flights of stairs to collapse on my bed and within an hour, fell asleep.  The pain and the treatment had exhausted me.

As the day progressed I seemed to improve and was confident of going to work on Tuesday (today).  Even this morning when I left for the next appointment, I considered walking all the way there but got half way and decided to take the bus as the walk had stirred up a bit of pain.  But when I arrived at the physiotherapists I proudly showed off my increased movement, only to discover that I was completely out of alignment.  My physio, CJ, showed me that I was healing incorrectly and she would have to work hard on the surrounding tissue for the misalignment to be corrected.  The therapy itself was painful but not unexpectedly so.  But once it was over, she asked me to get up.  The act of pulling myself to my knees nearly made me physically ill.  I didn't faint this time but the pain was unbelievable. My physio made it clear I was going nowhere but to bed today.  The fact that I couldn't move without severe pain made me quickly agree with her. I was once again strapped up and allowed to depart.

Shuffling gently out the door I messaged my staff that there was no way I could make it in to the office, and began the slowest and most painful hour-long journey home, on two buses.  

About 20 people stopped me and asked if I was okay.  Well clearly, not.  But what the heck did they think asking me was going to do?  I couldn't mask the agony etched into every line in my face and I still needed to get to the bus stops and to pick up some food along the way so I could take an anti-inflammatory pill.  By the time I finally got up the stairs to my flat, I admit I was whimpering fairly pitifully, and only stopped to get my ice pak before heading to my bed where I lay in positive agony.  I was terrified the physio had done more damage, I was in such pain.  

So the day today has been spent recovering from that brutal physio session... but I have to say, while I'm still much more sore than I was last night, I feel more confident about my ability to move tomorrow.  I know I felt the same way last night but I feel the alignment is improving... and that in turn is reducing the pain levels.  I'm hoping another night and a light day tomorrow may actually fix matters.

Of course, it will only ever be partly fixed.  I have a scoliosis and one leg is slightly longer than the other, plus I'm hyper flexible and have a high pain threshold.  The combination is not good.  The hyperflexibility and the high pain threshold mean that I throw my body around without realising I am doing it damage.  The scoliosis and the hip tilt (caused by one longer leg) mean that the natural response of my body to minor injuries is to continue to emphasise the S-bend.  The constant strain on the surrounding tissue means that unless I get regular adjustments and deep tissue massage to mobilise the vertebral joints, then this kind of neural attack will happen again.

It wipes me out for 2 days. At least.  I don't want it to wipe me out again.  So what this means is that for the rest of my life, if I want to avoid this kind of pain I MUST have a fairly painful, but preventative adjustments.  So much for massage being about luxury.  For me, it's a brutal attack on deep-set muscles, designed to correct the flaws of nature.  

Anyway - I want to thank everyone who has been kind enough to send good wishes these last couple of days.  It's been a miserable and painful journey, but hopefully I am nearing its end.  Maybe then I can get back to the things that matter.  

Contrary to the sub-editor's opinion, this commencement speech by Harry Potter author, J K Rowling seems to me to have very little to do with Buddhism, and a lot to do with honesty and fostering creativity.  It's probably one of the best speeches for an academic assembly I've ever read.  I rather believe it is closer to being an advocacy of open source-style creative problem solving and the breaking down of barriers between people than any mystical journey to enlightenment.  Indeed, I rather feel that Jo focuses on the possible in the context of her environs, rather than on seeking any ascetic revelation.  In essence, this is a speech that should be enjoyed for its simplicity, its humour and its more profound message about what she calls the 'burdens' of opportunity - although perhaps it would be more accurate to describe them as the obligations of those opportunities. 

Read.  Enjoy.  It's a truly fabulous speech. 

Okay it's an old topic, and the methods are not exactly new, but it's still worth reading Mashable's article, 3 ways to make more money blogging.  Essentially the recommendations are:
1.  Behavioural marketing and targeted content
2.  Building brand with video
3.  Sponsorship rather than advertising.

Now I've been promoting all three ideas for at least 5 years. The trouble with executing these idea are as follows:

1.  Behavioural marketing is limited by the Terms and Conditions under which you collected information.  If you are the usual run-of-the-mill agency who collected data only for registratin purposes, and used a stock standard contract declaring you would use that information for no other purpose then the chances are that a lot of the information you collect is functionally worthless (except in terms of your own registration process).  And even if you do find a way around your Terms and Conditions limitations (usually with a clause saying you will vary your Ts&Cs on a semi-regular basis), then really you have an obligation to ask your users if they mind you targeting them this way.  Otherwise you risk breaching the Spam Acts in force all over the world.

2.  Building brand with video is a fantastic idea.  But only if you are any good at all in creating video.  If you have no media training, don't know how to light subjects, and have no eye for editing, then it's highly likely that your brand will be damaged by video than enhanced.  Of course if you have any idea at all how to do video and you don't then you're either stupid or insane.  It's just too easy to disseminate video for there to be any excuse at all.

3.  Sponsorship can work.  Indeed it does work.  But it doesn't have to be separated from advertising.  Microsites and sponsorship oriented programs enable information rather than pretty pictures and bells and whistles of advertising.  Sponsorship as a revenue strategy is a retainer, so it's secure, it provides a free channel for collaboration, so it's productive, and it usually involves better returns for both parties.  But find me a company that is prepared to write a sponsorship contract and I'll find you a company with reputation management issues. 

Making money from blogging is never going to be straight forward.  But the more that organisations collaborate on service provision and skilled labour, the more likely it is that we can all start making some money.  The trouble isn't so much the revenue generation approach, it's a cultural shift within organisations to develop a co-dependent supply chain. 

Quite a few interesting stories coming up today on social media experimentation.  The Wall Street Journal has an article investigating why so many experiments in social media fail, noting specifically that:

"Businesses say that their primary objectives are generating word-of-mouth marketing and increasing customer loyalty. Yet the metric that businesses use most often to measure success is the number of visits to the site."

This is actually a fairly important point, and it takes us back to an old nut I've been trying to crack for some time on measuring social media.  Of course, the primary reason why visits are important, is that revenue generation from social networking sites that involve advertising is based on CPM or 'cost per mille' (cost per thousand users accessing the site).  And of course, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the number of visitors to a site are indicators of either increased customer loyalty or heightened brand awareness.  Indeed with sophisticated search engine optimisation or viral marketing campaigns, brand awareness may be entirely unaffected by social networking site strategies.  But the trouble with measuring the success of word-of-mouth marketing and customer loyalty is that it is actually rather an expensive and inexact science.  While focus groups and surveys can reveal increased brand awareness, there is not necessarily a high intention-to-purchase correlation.  Lamborghini is a well-known and identified brand.  Not many of us are in the market to buy one.  And while increased traffic to a website can be an indication of the success of a word-of-mouth marketing campaign it is often difficult to distinguish between traffic sourced from an internal social networking site and that which develops organically as people cross-link in blog posts.

Although to be honest, advertising has, for generations, been just as inexact.  It's just the margins mean so much more these days.

Also of interest is the new Facebook page layout experiment, which is supposed to be going live imminently.  It's gone from 3 columns to two columns, folks.  Excited?  I know I'm not.  It looks like pretty much every blog that ever existed in the late 1990s.  But ... *shrug* ... as an experiment in simplified design I'll be interested to see the consumer response.  Good design doesn't always look very pretty. 

Finally I'm fascinated by the research conducted over at the London School of Economics on the use of mobile and portable devices for web-browsing and email access.  It seems that the mainstream are increasingly interested in a mixed media consumption model, and that mobile is now a legitimate channel for something other than plain old voice and SMS.  Time to ensure our sites are all mobile accessible.  When more than half the population are using a mobile to access email it's almost necessary to have a Blackberry-oriented enterprise server push solution in place.  It's not just about waiting for the user to pull the data; it's about selectively pushing data to us.  And with twitter just about everywhere these days, then selective push media isn't just about email, but about a range of feeds, locationally specific and influenced by recommendation systems. 

It's funny actually; I was thinking over the weekend about the changes to the landscape of the technology sector since the 1980s, and about how Microsoft made its name through software (where predecessors had focused predominantly on hardware), and the next challenge that came up was in terms of browsers accessing content online, and after that there was the search engine wars, and probably most recently the wars over portable media and communications devices.  I think the next 'wave' of high competition will be in terms of filtration and adequate location aware experiences.  It's not enough to have social networks just online.  Mixed media approaches and bridges exist and organisations that can adequately partner with one another to offer content and services to people based on their location-specific and time-limited needs have an immense opportunity to gain market domination over the next decade.

I can't replicate the comments problem anymore... though I can still replicate the cms problems... So if you want to comment on this blog you will have to establish an OpenID account.  Once you have your own unique Open ID URL, you should be able to post.  Please let me know how you go. 

Very interesting article from Om Malik on information overload and the fact that search 'needs to change'.  Increasingly, I'm using my Twitter feed, del.icio.us and selected RSS feeds to access information, rather than relying on search, merely because the process of searching is now so time-consuming and hit-and-miss.  Om says:

The problem is that there's too much data coming online too quickly, and the traditional method of search that involves first finding and then consuming the information is not going to work for much longer. There just won't be enough time for us to do that and still have a life. It's a problem, and therefore solving it is an opportunity--a very big opportunity.

What we're doing at Xenial is trying to make better recommendation systems and providing more specialist-interest-driven, but high quality information services.  Personally I see this as the business of the future: understanding a business/individual's information needs is becoming a key transferable skill in the marketplace.  Unfortunately for discipline oriented research and education, this means developing a much more rounded and perhaps eclectic professional portfolio, and requires much more self-education than ever before. 

But as Malik says, this isn't really a problem, but rather an opportunity.  Getting out there and finding out about ideas and practices isn't really a new idea, it's just necessary now.  And while Malik calls it 'serendipity' it's really about strategic thinking and information filtering.  And that requires a level of understanding across stakeholders as well as ideas. 

Just a quick update to let you know I'm still working on making comments work again on this blog.  It seems to be a session problem as I can't even make a post to the blog without logging in twice.  Any suggestions on how to fix, please contact me by email or on twitter at joannejacobs.  Or Skype on bgsbjj.  In the meanrtime, please feel free to email me your comments, and I'll include manually.  

I absolutely love that the excitement and appeal of #2gether08 has produced a sense of community in and among social media producers and advocates in London.  There's now the opportunity to instigate a wider Network of Networks... bringing together the folk from Social Media Cafe, Creative Coffee Club, Chinwag events, mediacamp and a whole series of other initiatives around London to support interesting projects.  Exciting times!

And in an example of the kind of thing that may happen with the #2gether08 community, The Economist's latest community debate on competitiveness among wealthy nations is in full swing, and I'm loving the level of interaction being achieved.  It really feels like the active, 'produser' oriented community has come in to being!

A snapshot of the headlines tonight following the launch of the GPS iPhone in the UK:

"Glitches for iPhone launch in Britain"
"Report from London: A failed bid to upgrade"
"iPhone fiasco"
"On hold: new iPhone launch hits technical problems"
"O2 shambes closes London Apple Store"

... and from my Twitter feed, of the dozens of entries dealing with the public relations hilarity known as the iPhone 2.0 launch, the star entry would have to be:
"Taking an N95 [Nokia phone] home with me since I have no idea how long it'll be before my iPhone works again. If you need me, email me, don't call :S".

Loving my crackberry right now!

I spent part of yesterday installing and playing with the very ordinary Google Lively - a poorer quality, cartoonish-version of Second Life.  Yes, it takes up much less processing power than SL but it still is full of people amazed at the gameplay rather than actually doing anything interesting.  This is why I'm still rather cynical about SL, and several other virtual worlds.  Unless you're playing a game (as in Everquest and World of Warcraft or any of the Multi User, Object-Oriented games) there's really only novelty holding you in these environments.  And novelty wears off.  This is why I'm still struggling to come to grips with a value proposition for virtualised worlds.  I know the usual argument is that vehicles like SL create a useful integrated platform for virtual conferencing, but to be honest, I'm finding a range of tools - such as Skype, video streaming like qik.com, twitter and slideshare - are actually more efficient and less processor-hungry than SL.  I also don't believe SL actually works as well as applications like twitter where you can have a private back channel with just a few friends - much like whispering to your neighbour in the audience of a conference.

The trouble is that actually meeting people is a far better way of experiencing a conference than virtual conferencing.  And when you do have to virtual conference (due to distance or time constraints) you have to really *commit* to participation to prevent yourself from getting distracted by phone calls, client issues and other media, distracting your attention.  And when all you're getting in an SL virtual conference is the slides and the people... which you could get through a range of other media with less processing power and (let's face it) less digital hair... then I just don't see SL as being compelling enough to adopt. 

Now Google Lively is even *less* likely to attract me.  Unless you're online just to meet new people and have a bit of manga-esque cybersex (let's not beat around the bush here) then I just don't see why you'd use it. 

Sorry Google.  Until you can actually add value to participation with an avatar, I just don't want to use it. 

Okay have fixed up the sign-in feature for comments to this blog but you will still need to set up a Type-key, or OpenID account (I think the latter is better to be honest) if you don't already have one.  This should then let you comment to your heart's content.

EDIT: Then again... maybe not.  Can't seem to get it to register any IDs as being signed in!!!

Corporate reputation management online

Judith deCabbit is running the mid-afternoon session on this topic and begins with a quick background and reasons for monitoring online content.  She notes that managing expectations online is crucial to dealing with corporates.  With an increasingly fragmented series of channels online for tags to describe the organisation.  So many tales of 'fake blogs' and fake bloggers designed to promote an idea or brand, and they *never* reflect well on the product.  And under new model European Law, from May 20 in the UK, it is regarded as in breach of the European directive to promote a brand without disclosing the relationship the author has with the product.  

Negative publicity is all the more difficult to unseat from top-rated Google search responses, the larger the company. Judith notes that negative news and negative PR is potentially a death sentence for small business, but equally it is possible to maximise the positive messages through as many channels as possible.

It's obvious to monitor the brand, but it's also important to watch the employees of an organisation - both for positive and negative reasons.  I'm a bit nervous about this as it sounds like censoring your staff, but in the end there needs to be a common-sense approach to this kind of tracking.  Productive criticism is useful.  Defamation is another thing entirely.  But on the positive side, I totally agree that positively reinforcing employees can have a strong positive impact on the organisation.  It still annoys me on Flickr that if you search for 'Joanne Jacobs' the first image that comes up is of me downing a glass of wine.  It's not such a bad shot, it's just that it does nothing for my public image.  I probably should fix that by tagging a whole stack of other images I have taken with my own name.  Note to self: do that.  

Judith goes on to articulate the range of tools she uses for monitoring - everything from Google searches and Alerts, Yahoo alerts, etc.  She also notes that press releases via email are not necessarily a good idea.  News worthy items are more valuable than trying to pack out a newsletter with rubbish.  She also notes that you shouldn't spam journalists with the same content through multiple channels - it only irritates.  Lots of free distribution systems like newswire that can assist - but you should only use one.  Possibly also better to pay and to target mainstream outlets. 

Corporate blogging is useful where there is a need to engage with an audience and where there is strong competiton from a leading player.  But key to this is responding to suggestions and complaints.  Personal voice is important for making of connections to individuals running businesses.  Engagement is key.

Broadcasting company ideals

Good early afternoon session on the use of YouTube and video as a means of delivering information about your product or service.  The classic 'Will it Blend?' video is used as an example of cheap but highly effective promotion of a product or service.  But there is also a lot of fairly average video content on YouTube from companies that could even damage the reputation of the company.  The question is raised, when is video useful, and how do you deliver video cheaply and creatively in a manner which is addressing the needs of a consumer base.  

Responses vary from those collected in the audience, but there is a general belief that video can be useful in communicating a brand.  I recommended the actions of Hue and Cry in developing a video content channel for members as a means of bringing the brand closer to their fan base.  

The question is raised from the floor is about competitive advantage being based on speed-to-market.  People keep saying 'content is king' in this room.  Not sure if I agree.  Content is only a context for communication.  In and of itself it's nothing; it's only if that video produces a call for action - at least this is true of commercial marketplaces.  Someone says that consistency of image is also really important.  

A point is raised that a good narrative and specifically a personal story is more likely to generate traffic and interest than factual or 'cool' content.  But can we make such generalisations?  Perhaps this might be true of some bright personalities but may not be always true.  It's still true that quality video, or at least well planned and executed content (even if it's Lego versions of scenes from Star Wars or Eddie Izzard stand-up routines) is going to have greater cache than a personal story for some subject matters.

What it comes down to is why you are creating video and what expectations you have for the content once it is out there.  Video content won't necessarily drive traffic to your site or even convert to sales, but it might be a good thing for your organisation to educate your markets on your products/services.  

Tribes and social media.

Chris Hambly's notions of ideological amplification is when a belief within a tribe becomes the norm and expected and is then exponentially amplified among its members.  He warns there is a potential problem of groupthink and even militiaristic vigilante behaviour where people are excluded from such groups.  He noted that Marketers want small niche tribes - partly because it's cheaper to acces them.  But he says that understanding and engagement on an issue is not based on 'how many' but 'who is connecting'.  He posed the question - is social media making companies more honest and do the marketing agencies have to choose their clients more wisely now?  

Responses from the room include an advertiser's perspective, where he explained that in his experience, it is better to deploy social networking technologies where an existng fan base exists, but no opportunity or platform exists to access each other.  However, there is no 'safe' deployment of a technology where there is controversy or faithlessness in the product.  So in this case, 'honesty' - or perhaps product quality - is crucial.  

I guess this comes down to what is being 'honest'.  There's a lot of marketers and corporate reputation management companies who would argue that truth is a matter of perspective.  Malcolm Gladwell talks extensively in Blink about the truth about products, and the notion of truth - or at least fashion - being a moveable feast.  Perhaps this is more about organisations admitting vulnerability rather than being necessarily 'honest'?

Hambly went on to introduce the ideas of Thomas Schelling and his ideas on 'Dynamic Models of Segregation' - an observation on segregation based, on race, class, age, gender, etc.  Hambly argues that in pursuing the long tail and social media tribes, you are encouraged to segregate and to enter into environments that are concentrating the interests you have - heightening the sense of difference.  Eran says it's 'a funnel' of ideas.  

So... where to from here?  Does this need to be 'fixed'?  Do we need to regulate diversity of idea generation?  Or orthogonal links between people enough to sustain tolerance in social media communities?

I challenged the notion of people necessarily being ostracised for differing opinions in groups - agree with everything else, but just a bit concerned that there is necessarily the kind of vigilante response....someone else said that perhaps a more violent opposition is likely to incite an army of advocates who do ostracise others. Good point - and again it comes down to a matter of perspective.  We might see ourselves as educating a naysayer, while they would see it as being ostracised. Do we need to develop a language of tolerance online?  Do we need to accept that the nature of the long tail is that it is undemocratic?

Hambly brings us back to the point and asks what do we need to do.  Someone else notes that because there is no structure of generic shared experiences, because you are highly targeted.  Spare time is being dedicated to highly targeted niche interests, and there is less time to be exposed to differing opinions.  Do we need therefore to ensure that some time every day is spent in consuming a variety of ideas?  Is this too intrusive a regulatory process?

At Media Camp London today with the social media mafia, and I am taking notes throughout the day as my wireless feed and twitter seemed to be a bit crap.  So here are my general thoughts on various sessions.

There was a session in the morning on the nature of work.  An amusing point was raised when Steve Lamb from Microsoft related an interesting incident where we had to answer the question, 'Are you at work?', and he was at a social media cafe session. He ended up answering 'I don't know'.  It's funny, I have always considered events such as these - including networking gigs, conferences and festivals - as 'work'.  It's certainly very interesting work, and really rather enjoyable work, but it is work. Without it I wouldn't be able to engage with the ideas that both enhance and threaten my business.  Competitive advantage is not sustained by cooping yourself up in the office and not learning anything.   

Lamb argued that there's no point in blogging if you've been told to blog.  I have to disagree.  There are people who need to be told to blog.  Particularly bosses.  I'm not sure this is entirely disagreeing as Lamb also argues that if you want to say something then you should blog.  But bosses who have something to say but don't know that they should blog or indeed what language and processes are appropriate for the activity. 

Other speakers spoke about the need for social tools as a means of information mining, but dealing with the issues associated with businesses blocking access to social networking tools.  Personally I think this is effectively irrelevant, as with the explosion in mobile technologies, you simply can't block these technologies.  Twitter is a classic case in point: try and block Twitter on a BlackBerry! 

Hilarious.  

I just presented my paper at 2Gether08 and as it was live streamed on the internet, my mother was able to tune in and see the presentation.  After coming out of the session, I got an email from Mum on my BlackBerry over lunch, giving me feedback on my session.

And what did she say?

"Joanne you are looking too thin!"

For those interested, the presentation slides are availabe for viewing on slideshare or if you want to see all the animations you can download a copy here.

Okay for the next 2 days I will be at 2Gether - a festival for creative entrepreneurs and digital media production organisations.  I'll be sustaining a series of twitter posts on all sessions which you can follow at http://www.twitter.com/joannejacobs or via Summize you can see everyone's posts that are tagged #2Gether08. 

Enjoy!

Several people have contacted me saying their comments are not getting through... I am afraid I have had to turn off anonymous postings to this blog as I have been getting in the order of 2000 blog spam posts *per day* over the past week.  Therefore, if you would like to post a comment you will need to sign in to post a message.  I'm sorry to do this folks but it seems the only way to ensure that only real people and not spambots are posting to this blog.