The number of people you need to ask for permission keeps going down:

1. Go, make something happen.

2. Do work you’re proud of.

3. Treat people with respect.

4. Make big promises and keep them.

5. Ship it out the door.

When in doubt, see #1.

Seems simple and obvious right? Once again, I think Seth has it right

Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University.

“Hardly a day goes by when I don’t have a rookie entrepreneur ask for advice on raising money from VCs. They usually have a fancy-looking business plan with detailed spreadsheets showing how their company will be worth billions by capturing just 1% of a market. All they need is some financing, and they’ll take the world by storm. My advice is always the same: ditch the business plan, and buy a lottery ticket. Your odds are better, and you’ll suffer less stress.”

via Ditch the Biz Plan, Buy a Lottery Ticket.

Google Translate for Animals.

Introducing Translate for Animals (beta): Bridging the gap between animals and humans

Making the world’s information universally accessible is a key goal for Google. Language is one of our biggest challenges so we have targeted our efforts on removing language barriers between the species. We are excited to introduce Translate for Animals, an Android application which we hope will allow us to better understand our animal friends. We’ve always been a pet-friendly company at Google, and we hope that Translate for Animals encourages greater interaction and understanding between animal and human.

Translate for Animals is an application for Android phones that recognises and transcribes words and phrases that are common to a species, like cats for example. To develop Translate for Animals, we worked closely with many of the world’s top language synthesis teams, and with leaders in the field of animal cognitive linguistics, including senior fellows at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

It’s about time…

In a speech before an Federal Trade Commission roundtable yesterday, outgoing FTC Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour called on Web services services like Yahoo!, Facebook and Hotmail to start using HTTPS/SSL encryption.

Google has recently shown leadership in this space, by enabling HTTPS for Gmail, as well as making it the default behavior so that even users who don't understand security will be protected. It’s time for other services (including Google Search!) to catch up with Gmail.

If you are running any web apps that have sensitive information passing back and forth, please secure it using HTTPS/SSL.  It is relatively inexpensive and fairly painless to set up.

via FTC to Internet Companies: Start Using SSL | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

While this statement blows my mind (and the numbers don’t even include Hong Kong):

Staggering as it may to conceptualize, there will be more mobile Internet users in China in 2010 than the entire population of the US.

This may be true, but looking deeper into the situation will review that:

- These mobile internet users in China don’t monetize well and the spending levels in China are still relatively low when compared to the size of the mobile Internet user base.

- While there are more consumers buying smartphones, these are still not in the majority.  The users in the BRIC countries have a high percentage of people that are on 2G mobile networks and will be for the next few years.

This means that marketers in these markets should still emphasize messaging campaigns for now and less on the latest mobile sites and mobile apps TODAY.  But, keeping in mind that the smartphones and faster networks are on their way…

via Looking Beyond the Staggering Mobile Stats in the BRIC Countries – The eMarketer Blog.

Just thought it would be insightful to see what tech startup lawyer, Ryan Roberts, would do if he were to launch a startup.

Here’s what I’d do in the beginning:

Incorporation

(1) Entity Choice: Corporation or Corporation
(2) State of Incorporation: Delaware
(3) Authorized Shares in Charter: 10,000,000 Shares
(4) Type of Shares: Common Stock

(5) Par Value of Common: $0.0001
(6) Initial Founders Issuance: 8,000,000 Shares
(7) Founders Equity Split: Depends on the Team, But Quickly and After the Awkward & Difficult Conversations
(8) Vest Founders Shares?: Hell Yes

(9) Vesting Schedule for Founders Shares: 4 years with a One Year Cliff
(10) Consideration for Founders Shares: Cash & IP
(11) Handling of “Lost Founders”: Lock Down the IP (then Wish Them Well)

Raising Capital

(1) Length of NDA: 0 pages

(2) Fees Paid to Pitch my Startup: $0
(3) Investors: Accredited Investors
(4) Structure of First Capital Raise up to $1MM: Convertible Notes

Have a read over the rest of his blog. There are some nice gems there.

In advising clients trying to drive more traffic to their niche sites, I’ve stumbled onto a trend. The relentless drive to gain visits, clicks, and eyeballs are making us dumber–online publishers and marketers have been creating a culture of shallowness through link-baiting and the hyping of sensationalist celebrity fluff.

This gives the masses what they want. But, by pandering to the crowds with the collective attention span of a gnat, these publishers are actually dredging up the segment of the population that matters the least. These viewers are here today and gone tomorrow–or more likely in about 2 seconds. These are not likely the people that will convert into loyal customers.

Although the usual web metrics are easy to measure, if you care about making a difference or for real action, you need to take on a different mindset. You have to find the people that you are willing to listen and think.

Similarly, in Seth Godin’s recent post:

The majority of people who sign up for a new online service rarely or never use it. The majority of YouTube videos are watched for just a few seconds.

and makes the conclusion that:

In the race between ‘who’ and ‘how many’, who usually wins–if action is your goal. Find the right people, those that are willing to listen to what you have to say, and ignore the masses that are just going to race on, unchanged.

Take the time to read Seth’s post about Driveby culture and the endless search for wow.

Steve Blank posits in his post that:

“Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model.

Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success.”

As a former “bean counter”, I understand the need for GAAP compliant statements for reporting to the tax man.  However, as an entrepreneur and coach to multiple startups, I also realize how futile “getting the numbers ready” for board or VC review is.  I’ve witnessed a company nearly die because they fretted so much and spent all their time working on “the numbers.”

The key here is FOCUS.  Yes, someone needs to keep the statements up-to-date, but these standard statements are next to useless in helping the entrepreneur or its VC track progress.  Think about it, what’s the point of tracking income month-to-month when…um…there is none?  And, even worse, everybody in the room knows and agrees that there will not be any in the near future!

The focus of metrics for a startup should be to see if the concern is growing and moving in the right direction towards profitability.  Track things that matter to this goal and adjust the business model to move towards profitability.  Track things like whether there are more paying customers every period, the customer retention rate, how fast you’re burning through cash reserves/months of cash left, cost to acquire and keep a customer, web metrics, etc.

Check out Steve Blank’s post.  It is a worthwhile read whether you’re a entrepreneur or a VC.

Now they do. This is an oath that was being forwarded by the Young Global Leaders Forum at Davos 2009. It is similar to the MBA Oath.

The YGL Global Business Oath aims to transform the value system dominant today among business leaders around the world by (a) explicitly recognizing that the ultimate purpose of management is to serve society by bringing together people and resources to create sustainable and inclusive prosperity that no single individual can create alone, (b) recognizing that the effects (good and bad) of managerial decisions in the welfare of society are amplified by the accumulation of resources under legal corporations, and (c) proposing a code of conduct—a modern day “Hippocratic Oath of Business”—that spells out a commitment to “doing no harm” throughout the practice of management.

This is the text of the latest draft of the Oath:

Global Business Oath

As a business leader I recognize that

* The enterprise I lead must serve the greater good by bringing together people and resources to create value that no single individual can create alone,
* My decisions can have far-reaching consequences that affect the wellbeing of individuals inside and outside my enterprise, today and tomorrow,
* As I reconcile the interests of different constituencies, I will face choices that are not easy for me and others,

So I promise that

1. I will manage my enterprise diligently and in good faith and will not let personal considerations and compensation supersede the long-term interest of my enterprise and society at large,
2. I will understand and uphold, both in letter and spirit, the laws and contracts governing my own conduct and that of my enterprise,
3. I will respect and protect the human rights and dignity of all people who are affected by my enterprise and will oppose all forms of discrimination and exploitation,
4. I will respect and protect the right of future generations to enjoy a clean and resourceful planet,
5. I will not engage in nor tolerate bribery or any other form of corruption,
6. I will represent the performance and risks of my enterprise accurately and honestly to each of the constituencies that are affected by it,
7. I will actively engage in efforts to finding solutions to critical social and environmental issues that are central to my enterprise, and
8. I will invest in my own professional development as well as the development of other managers under my supervision

In exercising my professional duties according to these principles I recognize that my behavior must set an example of integrity and responsible conduct.

This pledge I make freely and upon my honor.

What do you think?

Venture capitalist Larry Cheng puts out a list of the top VC blogs ranking them by average monthly unique visitors, based on Compete data.

These are good reads for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs alike. I find them helpful in keeping abreast of the trends and where the capital markets are at anytime. Here’s the list…enjoy!

1. Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures, A VC (100,279)
2. Guy Kawasaki, Garage Technology Ventures, How To Change The World (82,838)
3. Paul Graham, YCombinator, Essays (71,924)
4. Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Feld Thoughts (45,633)
5. Mark Suster, GRP Partners, Both Sides of the Table (39,389)
6. Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital, Above The Crowd (23,084)
7. Dave McClure, Founders Fund, Master of 500 Hats (21,462)
8. Josh Kopelman, First Round Capital, Redeye VC (12,972)
9. Bijan Sabet, Spark Capital, Bijan Sabet (12,451)
10. Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Ventures Partners, LSVP (12,097)

800-CEO-Read selected the best business books of 2009. These are the winners in the eleven categories:

1. Entrepreneurship and small business. Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur by Pamela Slim.
2. Leadership. Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening.
3. Management. The Four Conversations: Daily Communication That Gets Results by Jeffery Ford & Laurie Ford.
4. Marketing and advertising. Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith.
5. Sales. A Seat at the Table: How Top Salespeople Connect and Drive Decisions at the Executive Level by Marc Miller.
6. Finance and economics. False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World by Alan Beattie.
7. Biographies and narratives. The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, the Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy.
8. Current interest. Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin.
9. Personal development. Power of 2: How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life by Rodd Wagner & Gale Muller, Ph.D.
10. Innovation and creativity. The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage by Roger L. Martin.
11. Big ideas. What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis.

Criticising social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook is as pointless as knocking people who discuss the weather

Cory Doctorow, via guardian.co.uk

Here are some suggested things to say if you want to sound like an idiot when you talk about social media:

• It’s inconsequential – most of the verbiage on Twitter, Facebook and the like is banal blather

Yes, it certainly is. The reason for that is that most of it is “social grooming” – messages passed between friends and family members as a way of maintaining social cohesion. The meaning of the messages isn’t “u look h4wt dude” or “wat up wiv you dawg?” That’s merely the form. The meaning is: “I am thinking of you, I care about you, I hope you are well.”

I don’t call my parents in Canada and recount the latest additions to my daughter’s vocabulary because they need to know that the kid can say “elephant” and “potty” now; I call them up to say, “all is well with your son and his family”, and “you are in my heart”, and “I love you”.

Criticizing the “banality” of Facebook conversation is as trite and ignorant as criticising people who talk about the weather. There’s a reason we say “Did you sleep well?” at breakfast and “How was your weekend?” when we turn up to the office on Monday (and it’s not that we care about the weekend or the rest).

Yes, people sometimes say consequential things on social media. The Twitter tag #whatTwitterdidforme has lots of sterling examples. But these are rare events that are not Twitter’s raison d’etre. People don’t join Twitter because they hope that someday they’ll be sprung from jail, land a job, or reunite with a long-lost friend. These are bonuses.

The real value of Twitter et al is to keep the invisible lines of connection between us alive.

And other things that make you sound dumb…check out the article to see why.

• It is ugly – MySpace is a graphic designer’s worst nightmare
• It is ephemeral – Facebook will blow over in a year and something else will be along

It’s that time of year again. I guess time flies when you’re having fun. A hearty THANK YOU all our clients, vendors, friends that helped make 2009 a great year.

Happy Holidays and may you spend it in the company of your loved ones…we wish you all the best in the coming year!

In case you are looking for us, our office will be closed from Monday December 21, 2009 and will be reopening in the next decade on Monday January 4, 2010.

P.S. The photo is of our office Charlie Brown Christmas Tree after being glam’d up with some Photoshop treatments.

Over the past year, I’ve been speaking about the importance of social media to both businesses and individuals. Some people “get it” right away, but I’ve also been asked countless time to defend why social media isn’t just a fad and a big fat stupid waste of time.

Shelly DeMotte Kramer, a friend of mine and a super smart lady that happens to run a marketing firm out of Kansas City, explains it so well in her blog entry. Shelly graciously allowed me to share this in its entirety, so without further ado…
-=-=

It seems that every day I’m having a conversation with someone – friend, client, prospective client, you name it, about the importance of social media and the need to integrate it into your life and into your business. In fact, I get a little sick of having the same conversation over and over and over again – especially since social media isn’t all that I do. I own a marketing firm. We do anything and everything relating to marketing and advertising and public relations. And yet, here we go, focusing once again on social media. But here’s the kicker – marketing and advertising and pr – and everything about the entire world of business and the world of life in general, as we’ve known it for the past few decades, has changed. And, it’s going to change more, and more often, than ever before.

The most common complaint that I hear is that people just don’t have time to add social mediums to the mix of the things they do, whether work-related or personally, on a daily basis. And they aren’t really interested in sharing information about themselves, or think that Facebook is stupid and that Twitter is for idiots, and that all social media is nothing more than a huge time suck and so on and so forth, yadda yadda yadda.

Here’s what I say – new media is really all about the Brand of You. Whether you own a business or want to own a business, have a job or are looking for a job (or might some day be interested in looking for a new job), branding yourself, especially in today’s online world, is nothing less than imperative. Do you have an up-to-date profile on LinkedIn? Do you blog or have a personal website? Do you have a working knowledge and understanding of Facebook, even if you don’t choose to participate? Do you have any idea of the demographics of the user group that comprises a community like Twitter? Do you know what happens if you Google yourself? Do you have a Google profile? If you answer no to one or two of those questions, that’s probably not the end of the world. If you answer no to three or more, frankly, I feel sorry for you.

We used to operate in a world where people had resumes and business cards and static websites that never needed updating, and they networked face-to-face. We now live in a world where people have avatars and profiles and blogs and micro-blogs and are connected to, influenced by and collaborating with not only people who live in the same town, but people who live all over the world. The world isn’t changing – it HAS changed, and it is those of us who choose to acknowledge those changes and adapt ourselves accordingly who will reap the most benefit.

So, what about you? What’s the status of the Brand of You? How are you positioning yourself to let people know who YOU are, what you have to offer and why they should collaborate with or, from a personal standpoint, even get to know you? Are you sitting in your office waiting for them to call you on the phone or send you an email and ask to get together or see your resume? Are you feeling complacent and secure because today you happen to have a job and, as such, don’t need to concern yourself with what’s happening in the world around you? If so, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you could be sitting there, alone or, even worse, job hunting with little chance of success, for a long time to come.

As we close out a year and a decade and move into a fresh year, I suggest we all spend a few moments reflecting on the Brand of You. What is it today? What would you like it to be in the future? What makes you a valuable asset? What makes you worthy of attention? What do you do really, really well? What do you have to contribute that might make the world a better place? What do you have to contribute at all? And, most importantly, what are you going to do to make sure that people know about it? You. Who are you and why do you matter?

What have I forgotten? I would love to hear your thoughts on the Brand of You.

With so many self-professed social media “gurus” these days, it would serve us well to be able to distinguish the ones worth listening to from the ones that are bullshitters.

The brilliant Sam Ladner, PhD wrote in her blog:

The bottom line is this: social media bullshitters have no knowledge of social theory or methodology. Trust a person who provides no easy answer, who carefully selects their research method, and who understands complex concepts.

This is basically the same criteria for the evaluation of all “experts”. Beware of those with the easy answers…

For startups, Christmas comes in November. Partners come back from vacation in September and deals start closing a few months later; since the credit crisis deferred fund-raising for most of the past year, November 2009 will probably end up being especially busy.

Redfin is one of the companies that just closed a round. Already the process has resulted in a huge shift in our mindset: from just surviving to building a juggernaut. That shift is one every startup can try on for size, whether it needs capital or not, by asking itself the same basic questions that VCs asked...

Just wanted to share this with you…

Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself. Rory Sutherland makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider “real” value — and his conclusion has interesting consequences for how we look at life.

According to the rumours before Google Wave was introduced it was something to replace all current social media networks (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.). It’s not that at all–-it’s a work collaboration tool. The basic premise is that Google was is what email would look like if it was invented today.

I think Google Wave has a lot of potential to do exactly what Google set out to do with it–which is to create a collaboration tool which will replace email. As it is now, Google Wave would only be good for working directly with someone directly.

Here’s Google’s own 10 minute explanation on when to use Wave.

Securities Industry News has a fascinating analysis of how Bernie Madoff’s systems and technology made the billion-dollar crime possible.

This is fascinating tale of how the preservation of legacy technology enabled someone to commit a huge crime by creating systems that didn’t disrupt the status quo.

But it’s more than that. It’s also a cautionary tale to information technology managers and executives at shops up and down Wall Street. If you think something is amiss, don’t let it rest. Do your own investigation. Before the company you work for turns out to be missing as well.

Think twice about that huge font and those glassy icons: Look and feel is the first thing we see and notice about most web apps and is often critical to an app’s user experience, adoption, and ultimate success.

We chatted with a panel of expert aesthetes in the space, including Spymaster designer Eston Bond, veteran creative director Rich Barrett, designer/developer Warren Benedetto, Mike Rundle of 9rules and Beak fame, and the Paul du Coudray Lowdown, the winner of this year’s Rails Rumble appearance category. Here’s what they had to say about developers doing double duty as designers, trends they’d like to see disappear, and how aesthetics can help a startup sink or swim.

The Aesthetics of Web Apps in 6 Questions

• Is a web app’s look and feel critical to its overall success or failure?
• What web design trends have surfaced and dominated in 2009?
• What elements of web app design should disappear forever?
• What design elements are simply overused, and are there still good reasons to employ them?
• Do certain design elements signal to users – and investors and media – the scope, uses, and meaning of an application?
• What’s good advice for the team developing and designing The Next Big Web App?
• Bonus round! What are your favorite colors and fonts for web design?

Check out the article here.  Worth a read…

Image by http://www.prestonlee.com/archives/67 via CrunchBase

Another smart post by Seth Godin.  It is obvious, but…

This is a good overview with summary of what Web 3.0, Linked Data, and Semantic Web is all about. Well worth a read to get a better understanding of where the web is going…

The series aimed to tie together 3 big trends, all based around structured data: 1) the still nascent “Web 3.0″ concept, 2) the relatively new kid on the structured Web block, Linked Data, and 3) the long-running saga that is the Semantic Web. Greg’s series is probably the best explanation I’ve read all year about the way these trends are converging.

Read more…

Once again, sage advice from Seth’s Blog:

“Three things you need if you want more customers

If you want to grow, you need new customers. And if you want new customers, you need three things:

1. A group of possible customers you can identify and reach.
2. A group with a problem they want to solve using your solution.
3. A group with the desire and ability to spend money to solve that problem.

You’d be amazed at how often new businesses or new ventures have none of these. The first one is critical, because if you don’t have permission, or knowledge, or word of mouth, you’re invisible.

The Zune didn’t have #2.

A service aimed at creating videos for bestselling authors doesn’t have #1.

And a counseling service helping people cut back on Big Mac consumption doesn’t have #3.”

It is always amazing to see the number of investment proposals for “The Next Big Thing” that have NONE of these three things. Follow this simple tip and your chances of success will skyrocket!

It’s that time of year again. We’d like to wish our friends a hearty, and heartfelt, Happy Holidays. May you spend it safely in the company of your loved ones…

Our office will be closed from Monday December 22, 2008 and will be reopening on Monday January 5, 2009.

Thank you all for your support in the past year. Here’s wishing you and yours all the best. We look forward to working with you again in the new year!

Chris Yeh, VP of Enterprise Marketing, PBWiki and social networking guru talks about the importance of collaborating across corporate boundaries. This piece is also a good reflection on how “small is the new big.” This ability of small and medium sized businesses to do more with less is seen to trump “too big to fail” in our economic downturn.

How Does Collaboration Help Me Do More With Less?
While collaboration in the cloud has many soft benefits like allowing greater geographic diversity and encouraging a participatory culture, during these tough times, the hard benefits of collaboration take center stage. The bottom line is that collaboration helps you do more with less, and by definition, virtual companies and teams are all about less. Less time. Less money. Less inefficiency. Less employees.

Here are four practical ways that collaboration in the cloud enables businesses (virtual and otherwise) to do more with less:

Ditch your servers
Cut down on travel
Enable outsourcing and offshoring
Improve knowledge worker productivity

From Regular Geek, here is the required reading list for people interested in social media:

First, there are the blogs I recommended in the quick guide, Louis Gray, Alexander van Elsas, Muhammad Saleem, SarahInTampa and SheGeeks. In many cases, you may see these people or others in the list guest posting (or writing full time) at ReadWriteWeb or Mashable, which you should be reading anyway. Here is the rest of my list:

• Tamar Weinberg of Techipedia (and Mashable and several other sites)
• Reem Abeidoh
• Mark Dykeman of Broadcasting Brain, with apologies to Mark for falsely accusing him of including social marketing Sorry Mark.
• Colin Walker
• Hutch Carpenter of I’m Not Actually a Geek, but absolutely should admit his geekiness.
• Social News Watch, which covers the social news sites almost exclusively.
• JD Rucker of Soshable
• Chris Miller of The Social Networker
• Julian Baldwin
  

The following tools are broken down into a few buckets for clarity of function. Note, these choices are purely subjective, but we use most of these daily or have implemented them for various groups.

Google Suite

This is the most obvious especially for smaller organizations that don’t want to be bothered with running their own infrastructure. It works especially well if there is a strong need to collaborate. Besides being free, there is a huge amount of storage allocated, and is available on mobile devices, or even offline through Google Gears.

Gmail for email
Google Docs for documents spreadsheets and presentations
Google Calendar for time management and scheduling
Google Reader for keeping up with RSS feeds
GTalk for chats…great for working as remote teams

37 Signals Suite

These applications aren’t free if you go beyond what is basically a trial use of the applications. However, they are well conceived and pretty inexpensive.

Basecamp – Basic Project Management…I say basic, but it is likely more than you need.
Highrise – CRM
Writeboard – Text editor, collaborative whiteboard
Backpack – Intranet
Campfire – Group Chat

Content

To present words and pictures on the web, that is easily updatable, there are a few options. Among those are a few really good Open Source Content Management Systems. We like:

Drupal
Joomla

Another option to look at is a blogging engine. For instance, we use Wordpress as the basis of this website. It is designed for blogging, but we’ve bent it to suit our needs as a web content management system as well. It seems to be working well for us. There is a hosted version at www.wordpress.com and if you wish to install it on your own server (like us) go to www.wordpress.org

In this category, we’ve also been looking at another option that isn’t free, but is inexpensive. Expression Engine.

All worth a look…

(Also, see Part 1 of this article)

We’ve had questions from clients on what they should look at on the web if they want to learn more about Social Media. While surfing, we found that an apropos post by Regular Geek. Here is the Regular Geek’s required reading list for people interested in social media:

First, there are the blogs I recommended in the quick guide, Louis Gray, Alexander van Elsas, Muhammad Saleem, SarahInTampa and SheGeeks. In many cases, you may see these people or others in the list guest posting (or writing full time) at ReadWriteWeb or Mashable, which you should be reading anyway. Here is the rest of my list:

• Tamar Weinberg of Techipedia (and Mashable and several other sites)
• Reem Abeidoh
• Mark Dykeman of Broadcasting Brain, with apologies to Mark for falsely accusing him of including social marketing Sorry Mark.
• Colin Walker
• Hutch Carpenter of I’m Not Actually a Geek, but absolutely should admit his geekiness.
• Social News Watch, which covers the social news sites almost exclusively.
• JD Rucker of Soshable
• Chris Miller of The Social Networker
• Julian Baldwin
  

We have been getting a few questions about what web apps that we like and use. There are A LOT of tools out there. So, it is our duty to remind you that as always, IT ISN’T ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY!

Our job is NOT to simply develop and implement tools or technology for our clients. Anybody can cut a few corners and do that badly. Our specialty is creating best-of-class solutions by revealing and refining YOUR business processes and helping you streamline and automate some of these refined processed using the most appropriate technology.

It just happens that some of the best tools for the job are cheap or free. OK, got that?

If you have have any questions on what you should do for your organization…CALL US!

Photos

For photos, we love Flickr. Not only is it a great host for your photos, you can embed the photos into your own site easily (see the widget to the right of this post) and there is a fantastic community of snap happy users.

RSS Feeds

To syndicate feeds, we like Feedburner. This app makes it easy for people to subscribe to your feed, and has good reporting tools.

Videos

Videos are part of the web now and will only become more important as time goes on. It is already some of the most viewed content on the web based on the stats from YouTube. While almost everyone knows about YouTube, it has some limitations. Among these are a 10 minute video limit.

A great alternative is Vimeo. This service has a 500mb upload limit a week, but should give you plenty of space for larger videos.

So, our strategy is to use YouTube for teaser pieces and Vimeo for full videos.

For streaming LIVE video, check out:

UStream – Live interactive video streaming

Qik – Stream Video from your mobile phone!

Tell us. What do YOU like?

Cold Drinks, originally uploaded by matrixmeridian.

Hey! We haven’t seen you for a while…

Besides our world famous espresso and drip coffee, our fridge is now stocked up with ice cold drinks for the summer.  Yes, this is wishful thinking, but nonetheless.

Stop in for a chat and a drink…and let us know what you’ve been up to.  We’re looking forward to it!

Illustration by Bell Mello

In The Economist this week, there is an article about how modern workers resemble nomads, and this has changing the buildings, cities and traffic.

The premise is that:

“The fact that people are no longer tied to specific places for functions such as studying or learning, says Mr Mitchell, means that there is “a huge drop in demand for traditional, private, enclosed spaces” such as offices or classrooms, and simultaneously “a huge rise in demand for semi-public spaces that can be informally appropriated to ad-hoc workspaces”. This shift, he thinks, amounts to the biggest change in architecture in this century. In the 20th century architecture was about specialised structures—offices for working, cafeterias for eating, and so forth. This was necessary because workers needed to be near things such as landline phones, fax machines and filing cabinets, and because the economics of building materials favoured repetitive and simple structures, such as grid patterns for cubicles.”

This may be otherwise know and the re-emergence of “Third Places” as Sociologist Ray Oldenburg calls it in his 1989 book, “The Great, Good Place”.

What we’re finding is that this is definitely the case. The widespread use of laptops by our consultants, ubiquitous wireless technology, the use of Instant Messaging and VoIP has changed our physical office. “The Office” has evolved from a place where everyone came to work everyday, to a multi-use space that is split between formal/casual work and private/meeting spaces. So, on some days, there is hardly anyone here. Other days, it is packed to the gills for client meetings and team reviews.

The point here is choice. While we understand the value of face time with each other and our clients, we often have a choice of working where it is the most comfortable and productive. The choice of work location is sometimes determined by the nature of the work being performed, and at other times by how the individual prefers to work.

What this has also done is let us use less space to get more work done without affecting productivity. That’s good for the environment and also keeps our overhead to a reasonable level while expanding the scope and size of our businesses.

What do you think? It works for us, does it work for you?

It’s that time of year again.  The Learning Guys are going to PodCamp Toronto 2008!

See you there…

Sean just sent out this announcement:

Sean and Holly are happy to welcome Nathaniel Paul Healy to the world. He was born on Friday, January 11 at 10pm, 8lb 9oz at McMaster Univeristy Medical Centre.

Mom and Baby are doing well, and are both expected home on Monday when big sister Juliana gets to meet her new little brother. Nathaniel has been relatively quiet and peaceful during his first few day; we’re hoping that his big sister won’t teach him all of her tricks too quickly.

Welcome to the world, Nathaniel! We’ve been waiting (and waiting) for you. Glad that you’re finally here. It’s a cool place…

We look forward to meeting you soon!

We’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our old and new friends/clients a happy holiday! May you spend it in the company of your loved ones…

Our office will be closed from Friday December 21, 2007 and will be reopening on Monday Janurary 7, 2008.

Thank you all for your support in the past year. You mean the world to us. Here’s wishing you and yours all the best for the coming year!

P.S. In case you ever doubted that we were geeks, the image is of Open Cluster NGC 2264…otherwise known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster” (it looks right-side up in a Newtonian telescope) Check it out here.

Open Social was announced yesterday to a lot of fanfare and pontification by social media geeks. However, there were few people that explained its significance to the Business audience…our clients.

The basics of Open Social is an open (vs. proprietary) application platform (also called Maka-Maka)that is very similar to the one released by Facebook a few months ago. By opening up the ability for third-parties to write applications that work within the popular social media site, Facebook has added tremendously to the popularity and stickiness of the site. There are little apps that let you give virtual gifts to other members and our favourite, a Facebook version of Scrabulous where we’re geeking out battling each other in games of online Scrabble!

While the Facebook application environment is fine, it is proprietary and the apps you write for Facebook can ONLY be used on Facebook. Open Social is being backed by an alliance headed by Google, and promises to create an open standard whereby the applications written for one social media site can be made to run on other Open Social sites with only minor adjustments.

The announcement of Open Social was broken by Techmeme here, and Google says:

Common APIs mean you have less to learn to build for multiple websites. OpenSocial is currently being developed by Google in conjunction with members of the web community. The ultimate goal is for any social website to be able to implement the APIs and host 3rd party social applications. There are many websites implementing OpenSocial, including Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.

What does this mean to Business though? Jeremiah Owyang, explains it very clearly in an excellent post. Spend some time and read it and understand what Open Social is all about and how to capitalise on these opportunities:

Efficient development: Since there’s standardization in the code use (APIs) If you develop an application for OpenSocial, it should be easily re-used on all the social networks that are particiating. This greatly reduced development time, you no longer need a ‘myspace strategy’ or ‘bebo strategy’.

Harness existing communities: Since these applications will be plugged into existing communities, the need to ‘build an audience’ isn’t as crucial, as you can leverage the communities where they already exist. Why build if you can easily join.

Open standards help long term: It appear that the standards and development languages are commonly known and not proprietary so it reduced the chance of vendor lock in. Having a common code (API) across all networks makes movement easier, reducing development and re-configuring in the long term. One should always be cautious, as no system is perfect.

Your existing applications become social: Now, your standalone applications can now be shared with communities. If you’ve already spend resources on creating interactive marketing, large libraries, or other projects, consider how they can be re purposed on these websites, be efficient with your resources.

Future brings social to your website: The trend clearly nods towards the direction I forsee, that social networking features (friends and connections) will be brought to the static corporate website. Soon, there will be customers, prospects and employees networked on your own corporate website. We’re not there yet, but start planning on how that will look.

It is embarrassing that it has taken so long, but we’re finally done moving. The last bits of Ikea furniture have been put together for storage; extra tools and gear have been put into storage; and the office has been cleaned by a professional cleaner. Yeaaaa!

The reason it has taken so long is that, well, we’ve been busy working hard for our clients. These little details always seem to get pushed to the back burner. Sorry for all those that had to endure the messy office, but we’ll try and keep it up to at least a livable standard. So, don’t call Health and Safety on us!

Here’s some snaps of the new place. If you haven’t been by yet, come by for a coffee…

Yes, moving is a drag, but we’re almost done. Just a few more boxes to move followed by a quick cleaning of the old place and tidying of the new place.

The only snag so far is that the air conditioning at the new office didn’t work over the last few days. Of course it broke down when it was HOT HOT HOT! The ceiling fans that we had installed prior to moving in saved us. We didn’t expire from the heat, but it wasn’t pleasant either. For now, the ancient air conditioner is fixed. Hopefully, it’ll stay that way.

We’ll post some photos of the new place soon so that you can take a look around. Even better yet, come by for a visit!

After 7 years on Richmond St. E at Church, we’re moving across town to the Garment District!

We’re in the final stages of formalizing our new lease, but the new address will be 20 Maud Street.

From the landlord’s website:

20-30 Maud Street is located in the heart of Downtown West in the King-Spadina area. Maud is a two way street connecting Adelaide and Richmond Streets, west of Spadina Avenue with easy access to the Gardiner Expressway, the Spadina and Harbourfront LRT system and to the Downtown Financial Core. In the immediate area is a mix of new condominium residential and entertainment development with the historic commercial and industrial properties. Queen Street West provides a lively commercial thoroughfare. Attracted to the area are growing creative businesses such as design, communications, software, film and TV production, as well as the more traditional fashion sales, showrooms, printing and import-export.

The new space is in an older converted brick building. The main building is mill construction featuring wooden beams, columns and floor joists with hardwood floors throughout.

The new landlord is working on our new space now. The floors have been refinished and they will be painting and working on the electrical next. We’re installing new lighting and fans to move some air around.

We’re excited about our new neighbourhood and exploring its many cool stores, restaurants and cafes (very important feature even though we have backup machines to the backup expresso machine…)

The lease officially started June 1, and we’ll be renovating the new space and moving our stuff across town througout the month. We’ll be fully installed as of July 1st. Come for a visit and visit your favourite geeks!

The Matrix Meridian website has been stagnant for years. While we admire great design, it is time for a fresh start and for now we’re putting substance ahead of style.

For a quick and dirty site that’s easy to maintain, we’ve chosen Wordpress. We’ve recommended this course of action to some of our clients as well and everyone is happy with the recommendation.

Wordpress is a very nicely put together blogging engine and works well as a basic content management system (CMS) as well. The combination of blogging engine and easy to use CMS means that this web will be updated much more frequently than in the past.

As you may imagine, it is the typical story of the cobbler’s children not having shoes of their own. Being a small firm, we’re so busy making our clients look good that we’ve neglected to maintain our own web.

So, this is to make amends. The site will get prettier as time goes on, but for now, the basics will have to do…

What do you think?