07/27/06: Video breaks out of the box with Flash 8
The team has been flooding my Treo with links to sites featuring the latest technologies, strategies or simply sites with great creative. So while in the Palermo airport, I got a link that highlights how far we have come with the Internet.
The site was beatboxmixer.com, a site for Verizon where you can go mix your own songs. 'Not another lame online mixing site' I said to myself, but this most certainly was not. What you are mixing are actual musicians. You assemble video clips of these musicians as you like (or 'laying down tracks' as my nephew Special K tells me) to create your own song. And of course you can pass it along for a healthy dose of Word of Mouse Marketing.
Check it out. With the latest version of Flash 8, you no longer have to restrict video off onto its own little island in the site design. You can integrate video images, cut out the background, and create a powerful interactive experience. Video isn't a side dish on a web site experience, it's now the main course.
The BeatBoxMixer was a hit in Palermo. By the time my flight was called, I had a crowd of people crowded around me while I mixed my beats. While the technology definitely impressed me, I have to admit that spending an hour as Big Baddy B-Diddy was certainly a thrill!
Check it out. With the latest version of Flash 8, you no longer have to restrict video off onto its own little island in the site design. You can integrate video images, cut out the background, and create a powerful interactive experience. Video isn't a side dish on a web site experience, it's now the main course.
The BeatBoxMixer was a hit in Palermo. By the time my flight was called, I had a crowd of people crowded around me while I mixed my beats. While the technology definitely impressed me, I have to admit that spending an hour as Big Baddy B-Diddy was certainly a thrill!
07/26/06: Kevin Hudson finally gets engaged
She said Yes.
CONGRATS KEVIN AND CAROL ANN!
07/21/06: Note to Developers: If your software has a feature but your users can’t find it, you don’t have it.
Not that it is ever a quick trip, but I wanted to head down to Durban, South Africa to see some friends Andi and Pippi 
before heading to my planned wine tour in Italy. I'm actually attending a Sugar Technologist Convention at the ICC at the request of a friend who has a significant investment in Cane, but seeing friends makes the trip worth it.
Just after arriving in SA, I was asked to participate in a conference call with a company back in the States that was having trouble rolling out a new application. It seems the users were in an uproar with this new system because it was so hard to find everything. The developers were equally frustrated because almost every time the users complained about a missing feature, the developers were able to pull it up on the portal. Since our company has done a lot of work developing user interfaces and architecting applications, including portals, I was asked to mediate.
One of the developers brought up the often heard story about Microsoft and their applications. In an attempt how the problem was a user not looking rather than a developer issue, she mentioned that 90% of calls from Office users to Microsoft's Feature Request Hotline were to request features that were already in the current version of Office. Having heard the statistic first hand from my Microsoft friend Chris 'Capo' Capossela at a Developer’s conference last year, I knew it was an accurate statistic.
What I also knew was that she was misusing the statistic. Capo was reporting the statistic to highlight the amount of work ahead of developers to better understand users. I politely tried to change the mindset from 'users having to learn applications' to 'applications having to learn from users'. By the end of the conference call, we all agreed to develop a better picture of the users to help us develop a better application. These user requirements interviews were to be documented using an Archer Technique, called 'Bubble Mapping' to focus the development team on what needs to be fixed. A communication plan was also outlined to prepare the users for the changes. Everyone seemed happy with the plan.
Back to my South African trip. Having a few days before the conference starts, Pippi, Andi and I went on a cycle ride through Prince Alfred's pass. What an exhilarating ride!
Just after arriving in SA, I was asked to participate in a conference call with a company back in the States that was having trouble rolling out a new application. It seems the users were in an uproar with this new system because it was so hard to find everything. The developers were equally frustrated because almost every time the users complained about a missing feature, the developers were able to pull it up on the portal. Since our company has done a lot of work developing user interfaces and architecting applications, including portals, I was asked to mediate.
One of the developers brought up the often heard story about Microsoft and their applications. In an attempt how the problem was a user not looking rather than a developer issue, she mentioned that 90% of calls from Office users to Microsoft's Feature Request Hotline were to request features that were already in the current version of Office. Having heard the statistic first hand from my Microsoft friend Chris 'Capo' Capossela at a Developer’s conference last year, I knew it was an accurate statistic.
Well I'm packing up to leave Berlin. What a great night to cap a great World Cup. I've met so many nice people that I look forward to keeping in touch with via email until I return. I can hardly remember the time when mail via post was the only option.
On the subject of email, I ordered some tickets online for a Broadway Show 'Altar Boyz' that my friend Ken Davenport is producing. The show sounded like it was going to be superb, so I ordered some tickets for my friends Stephanie and Raymond in New York. Ordering online, I provided my email for the order confirmation, as I do for most orders.
Imagine my delight when I received an email from Kenny about the play. It turns out that this email wasn't sent just to me, but to all who bought tickets online. The email thanked me for supporting the show and gave me some ways to help support it by telling others or coming back.
As more and more transactions take place online, we will collect a lot of emails. These people have moved to the far right of the Marketing Lifecycle to 'Purchase'. Those of you who took my marketing classes know that after 'Purchase' is 'Repurchase' and 'Referral'. A gentle nudge may be all it takes to move the customer along the path!
Altar Boyz did just that. With their collection of email addresses from purchasers, they followed up with a timely email offering me specific ways to 'Repurchase' and 'Refer'. Great job Kenny – I'm buying the next Nat Sherman Churchill for us both!
On the subject of email, I ordered some tickets online for a Broadway Show 'Altar Boyz' that my friend Ken Davenport is producing. The show sounded like it was going to be superb, so I ordered some tickets for my friends Stephanie and Raymond in New York. Ordering online, I provided my email for the order confirmation, as I do for most orders.
Imagine my delight when I received an email from Kenny about the play. It turns out that this email wasn't sent just to me, but to all who bought tickets online. The email thanked me for supporting the show and gave me some ways to help support it by telling others or coming back.
As more and more transactions take place online, we will collect a lot of emails. These people have moved to the far right of the Marketing Lifecycle to 'Purchase'. Those of you who took my marketing classes know that after 'Purchase' is 'Repurchase' and 'Referral'. A gentle nudge may be all it takes to move the customer along the path!
Altar Boyz did just that. With their collection of email addresses from purchasers, they followed up with a timely email offering me specific ways to 'Repurchase' and 'Refer'. Great job Kenny – I'm buying the next Nat Sherman Churchill for us both!
07/03/06: Enlist Millions in Your Cause
Greetings again from Germany! I was looking out over the thousands of fans here in Frankfurt when France scored the only goal against Brazil. The place erupted with a common voice as the shot slipped by the goalie. The resulting voice was decibels louder than any one person or even tens of people could have created. In a seemingly unrelated incident, in my daily pack of papers from around the globe, I read a story about a mother and daughter who were reunited after 15 years through a plea that the mother made on a MySpace account. Apparently it took less than a day for the MySpace community located her and connected the two. Again, the voice of thousands came together in a way that produced results much greater than any individual could.
There are other examples of thousands or even millions of Internet users coming together to achieve something great. Dubbed 'Distributed Computing', people are turning over their unused computer time to a greater good, such as finding a cure for cancer, decoding the Human Proteome or even searching for aliens. By installing some software on your own computer, your computer's processing power is put to work when you aren't using it (i.e. when your screen saver is running) taking a small packets of decoding work, analyzing the data and returning the results.
Previously this was left to the Super Computers, with big machines and expensive bills for processing time. Now, with the Internet connecting millions of computers, unused processing cycles can now be put to a greater good. An as SETI@Home and others have found out, millions will donate their unused computer time for a healthy dose of good Karma.
A recent example of distributed computing is the proposed border cam project, where digital 'minuteman' can watch cameras on the border to guide officials when people attempt illegal border crossings.
To be successful, these programs follow a few simple guidelines:
1- The purpose is easy to understand and desired by many – i.e. Finding the Cure for Cancer or E.T.
2- The product is minimally invasive on the computer. While the person is using the computer, the computer must immediately put aside the community service.
3- The person receives some indication of the work being done. The SETI@Home screen saver offers a real time glimpse of the data being analyzed.
Keep an eye out for me at the games!
There are other examples of thousands or even millions of Internet users coming together to achieve something great. Dubbed 'Distributed Computing', people are turning over their unused computer time to a greater good, such as finding a cure for cancer, decoding the Human Proteome or even searching for aliens. By installing some software on your own computer, your computer's processing power is put to work when you aren't using it (i.e. when your screen saver is running) taking a small packets of decoding work, analyzing the data and returning the results.
Previously this was left to the Super Computers, with big machines and expensive bills for processing time. Now, with the Internet connecting millions of computers, unused processing cycles can now be put to a greater good. An as SETI@Home and others have found out, millions will donate their unused computer time for a healthy dose of good Karma.
A recent example of distributed computing is the proposed border cam project, where digital 'minuteman' can watch cameras on the border to guide officials when people attempt illegal border crossings.
To be successful, these programs follow a few simple guidelines:
1- The purpose is easy to understand and desired by many – i.e. Finding the Cure for Cancer or E.T.
2- The product is minimally invasive on the computer. While the person is using the computer, the computer must immediately put aside the community service.
3- The person receives some indication of the work being done. The SETI@Home screen saver offers a real time glimpse of the data being analyzed.
Keep an eye out for me at the games!
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