Whenever I get into the topic of blogging with friends or colleagues one of the standard questions I get asked is "What's the Return on Investment?". I usually mention the significant contribution Robert Scoble has made to the way that Microsoft is perceived by important influencers. I talk about Hugh MacLeod, English Cut and Stormhoek as examples of the positive impact of blogging. I talk about Kryptonite and how the global conversation can negatively impact.
I can almost hear the unspoken question that plays in their heads as my friends and colleagues say to themselves "Ok I understand all that, but it doesn't scale to my little world / my little company / my little problem / my little issue".
So here (courtesy of Hugh) is a real world example of (1) how blogging scales (2) why blogging is so damn important. Read the post, and then, and this is important, read the comments. Look at that for a conversation. You can almost feel the wow response from the customer end. You can almost hear the customer's thoughts: "they care about me and my problem", "they care enough to come and talk to me" and "if they sort this out they've got me for life". I'm projecting a little but I'm pretty sure I'm not majorly wide of the mark.
Technorati Tags: Robert Scoble, Hugh MacLeod, Blogging
Monday, January 16, 2006
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Boing Boing vanquished in a week?
I was looking at the Technorati Top 100 this morning and my jaw dropped on noticing that not only was Boing Boing no longer the most popular blog, having been overtaken by a japanese site, but what is extraordinary is the margin by which this new site has drawn into the lead and how quickly this has been done.
The Technorati Top 100 is measured by the number of sites that have linked to a blog in the last six months. Boing Boing has over 18,000 links in the period. Robert Scoble, has two blogs in the Top 100, which is splitting his ranking, but these blogs have 2600 and 2200 links in the same period. Dave Winer's Scripting News in 99th place looks like it might fall out of the Top 100 soon, with 2100 links.
The new leader of the Top 100 has over 50000 links and appears to have achieved this in less than a week from what I can see going back through the links.
Technorati Tags: Technorati, Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, Boing Boing
UPDATE 14th Jan - I noticed today that Boing Boing was back in it's number one spot. I wrote to Dave Sifry to ask if the the Top 100 was being gamed or had the Japenese site been removed for another reason. Dave was kind enough to write back and let me know that Hatena, the Japanese site involved, is a hosting site and that each blog links back to the homepage of the tool. Dave tells me that these tools are removed from the Technorati Top 100 as they notice them. Thanks for clearing that up for me Dave!
The Technorati Top 100 is measured by the number of sites that have linked to a blog in the last six months. Boing Boing has over 18,000 links in the period. Robert Scoble, has two blogs in the Top 100, which is splitting his ranking, but these blogs have 2600 and 2200 links in the same period. Dave Winer's Scripting News in 99th place looks like it might fall out of the Top 100 soon, with 2100 links.
The new leader of the Top 100 has over 50000 links and appears to have achieved this in less than a week from what I can see going back through the links.
Technorati Tags: Technorati, Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, Boing Boing
UPDATE 14th Jan - I noticed today that Boing Boing was back in it's number one spot. I wrote to Dave Sifry to ask if the the Top 100 was being gamed or had the Japenese site been removed for another reason. Dave was kind enough to write back and let me know that Hatena, the Japanese site involved, is a hosting site and that each blog links back to the homepage of the tool. Dave tells me that these tools are removed from the Technorati Top 100 as they notice them. Thanks for clearing that up for me Dave!
I can wish.
Yesterday I watched the webcast of Bill Gates keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). There is a lesson for Google here; I'm definitely interested to hear what Google had to say and it seems strange that you can't watch all of Larry Page's keynote on Google Video.
As always, Bill Gates keynote was full of things to think about in terms of where the future of gadgets and software in the home and office might be going. I captured a snap of what Bill thinks the office of the future might look like. I guess I can wish that one day my office will look like this!
Technorati Tags: Bill Gates, CES, Larry Page
Update Jan 13th - I've picked up that the Larry Page CES keynote has, finally, been made available on Google Video.
As always, Bill Gates keynote was full of things to think about in terms of where the future of gadgets and software in the home and office might be going. I captured a snap of what Bill thinks the office of the future might look like. I guess I can wish that one day my office will look like this!
Technorati Tags: Bill Gates, CES, Larry Page
Update Jan 13th - I've picked up that the Larry Page CES keynote has, finally, been made available on Google Video.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Redneck Palm Pilot
I couldn't resist, not having just written a post on the need for a "never miss" collection process. Here's the redneck version.
From: The Beachcomber
Technorati Tags: GTD, getting things done, lifehacks, productivity
My Flickr photostream
I've had a lot of fun learning more about Flickr over the holiday. You can view my photos and subscribe to my photostream (RSS).
I just got my new smartphone, the Nokia N70, and I'm having a ball with it. It has a 2 megapixel camera with 20X digital zoom, so I can see myself taking a lot more pictures than I have in the past. That led me to look at Flickr and how easy it would be to share my pictures with my family and friends. Flickr is currently the most popular choice with the photo-sharing community and therefore seems to be the obvious choice. The phone can also take short video clips so I'm looking this morning at options for sharing video.
Technorati Tags: Flickr, Nokia N70, smartphone
I just got my new smartphone, the Nokia N70, and I'm having a ball with it. It has a 2 megapixel camera with 20X digital zoom, so I can see myself taking a lot more pictures than I have in the past. That led me to look at Flickr and how easy it would be to share my pictures with my family and friends. Flickr is currently the most popular choice with the photo-sharing community and therefore seems to be the obvious choice. The phone can also take short video clips so I'm looking this morning at options for sharing video.
Technorati Tags: Flickr, Nokia N70, smartphone
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Collect Stuff and Process It
I'm paraphrasing and simplying quite a lot to make my point but you could sum up the first steps in the Getting Things Done (GTD) process as Collect Stuff and Process It. If you are going to enjoy the benefits of the stress free nature of GTD you need to trust your approach to collection so that it has a "never miss" feel to it.
The goal is to process all the stuff that's coming at you from all angles: the conversations, the telephone calls, the e-mails, the snail mail, the post-it notes and the thoughts & ideas and process them until you have a trusted list of the next actions that need to be undertaken to achieve high productivity. The "thoughts & ideas" is an important concept for me. Most of the day, when I'm on the go, my mind isn't quiet and processing. It's active and doing. There are times however; in the car, in the shower, just as I'm drifting off before sleeping when I have that thought; the answer to a problem I'm dealing with, the nagging thought, have I done X, did I remember to tell Y. That's where my Olympus digital voice recorder comes in. It's my mobile memory, and I find it incredibly useful now that I'm reaching an age when I'm just beginning to sense that my short term memory isn't quite what it used to be. I keep the recorder by my side all the time. When I have the thought I capture it. And then I process the recorder daily to make sure the thoughts are transferred to my trusted list of next actions.
My other tool of choice for thinking and capturing (collecting) is mind mapping. I'm trying to eliminate linear note taking from my work life as much as possible. With mind mapping, as I capture and visualise the information I'm capturing, I'm much more likely to think laterally and comprehensively. When I've mind mapped and derived the outputs, they go to my trusted list as next actions. My tool of choice for mind mapping is MindManager from MindJet.
In my mind I visualise all this capture activity as a funnel. Everything is thrown in, and out the bottom pops my list of next actions. My trusted list is kept in Outlook, but not in my inbox. The inbox is the kiss of death. I still see people at work with hundreds of items in their inbox and shudder. Every day when they open Outlook they have to process that list; what's important, what do I have to do today, what shall I keep ignoring. I use Outlook tasks. A much underused Outlook component. I must admit that I've supercharged mine with the GTD Outlook plugin from Netcentrics. I know, I know; I'm a geek.
Technorati Tags: GTD, Getting Things Done, Lifehacks, Productivity, David Allen, mind mapping, Mindjet, MindManager, information visualization, outlook
The goal is to process all the stuff that's coming at you from all angles: the conversations, the telephone calls, the e-mails, the snail mail, the post-it notes and the thoughts & ideas and process them until you have a trusted list of the next actions that need to be undertaken to achieve high productivity. The "thoughts & ideas" is an important concept for me. Most of the day, when I'm on the go, my mind isn't quiet and processing. It's active and doing. There are times however; in the car, in the shower, just as I'm drifting off before sleeping when I have that thought; the answer to a problem I'm dealing with, the nagging thought, have I done X, did I remember to tell Y. That's where my Olympus digital voice recorder comes in. It's my mobile memory, and I find it incredibly useful now that I'm reaching an age when I'm just beginning to sense that my short term memory isn't quite what it used to be. I keep the recorder by my side all the time. When I have the thought I capture it. And then I process the recorder daily to make sure the thoughts are transferred to my trusted list of next actions.
My other tool of choice for thinking and capturing (collecting) is mind mapping. I'm trying to eliminate linear note taking from my work life as much as possible. With mind mapping, as I capture and visualise the information I'm capturing, I'm much more likely to think laterally and comprehensively. When I've mind mapped and derived the outputs, they go to my trusted list as next actions. My tool of choice for mind mapping is MindManager from MindJet.
In my mind I visualise all this capture activity as a funnel. Everything is thrown in, and out the bottom pops my list of next actions. My trusted list is kept in Outlook, but not in my inbox. The inbox is the kiss of death. I still see people at work with hundreds of items in their inbox and shudder. Every day when they open Outlook they have to process that list; what's important, what do I have to do today, what shall I keep ignoring. I use Outlook tasks. A much underused Outlook component. I must admit that I've supercharged mine with the GTD Outlook plugin from Netcentrics. I know, I know; I'm a geek.
Technorati Tags: GTD, Getting Things Done, Lifehacks, Productivity, David Allen, mind mapping, Mindjet, MindManager, information visualization, outlook
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Tagging
I've gotten into tagging, as evidenced by my posts over the last few days. Co-incidentally, Jeff Jarvis, columnist for Media Guardian, has written a piece on tagging, what it is and why it's important. Here's the link. Here's the "how to" from the Technorati help pages.
Technorati Tags: tags, tagging, jeff jarvis, technorati
Technorati Tags: tags, tagging, jeff jarvis, technorati
Monday, January 02, 2006
I have a goal: to attend a Blogger Dinner in 2006
I just read Shel Israel over at Naked Conversations talking about Geek Dinners versus Blogger Dinners. I think Shel's main point is that the term "Blogger Dinner" is probably a more accurate label in terms of who turns up to these events, and it's certainly a more inclusive term.
Maryam Scoble recently wrote "The non-geeks survival guide for geek dinners". Maryam makes the point that attendees at "Geek" Dinners do have more to talk about that just geek stuff, but has some good strategies for what happens when the conversation just gets too geeky.
I left a comment on Maryam's blog to the effect that she'd kind of convinced me to maybe come to the next "geek" dinner in London. I read Scobleizer, gapingvoid and the blogs of a number of others who attend the "geek" dinners but I'm not a real tech geek. I do share a number of interests with them: GTD, Mind Mapping, Blogging, technology & it's impact on culture and as Maryam rightly points out there's always ways to have a conversation.
Having read Shel's post I'm even more convinced. I've started mind mapping my personal "Goals for 2006". I've added an objective to attend a Blogger Dinner before the end of the year.
Bonus Link: Here's my recent post about Naked Conversations.
Technorati Tags: shel israel, naked conversations, maryam scoble, mind mapping, robert scoble, gapingvoid
Maryam Scoble recently wrote "The non-geeks survival guide for geek dinners". Maryam makes the point that attendees at "Geek" Dinners do have more to talk about that just geek stuff, but has some good strategies for what happens when the conversation just gets too geeky.
I left a comment on Maryam's blog to the effect that she'd kind of convinced me to maybe come to the next "geek" dinner in London. I read Scobleizer, gapingvoid and the blogs of a number of others who attend the "geek" dinners but I'm not a real tech geek. I do share a number of interests with them: GTD, Mind Mapping, Blogging, technology & it's impact on culture and as Maryam rightly points out there's always ways to have a conversation.
Having read Shel's post I'm even more convinced. I've started mind mapping my personal "Goals for 2006". I've added an objective to attend a Blogger Dinner before the end of the year.
Bonus Link: Here's my recent post about Naked Conversations.
Technorati Tags: shel israel, naked conversations, maryam scoble, mind mapping, robert scoble, gapingvoid
Sunday, January 01, 2006
I choose to believe the glass is half full
I've been reading the blog of Kent Newsome since I found him in Robert Scoble's blogroll. I think the similarity of surname made me zero straight in on him, but I've stayed subscribed because I've enjoyed reading his thoughts, and his ongoing review of Scoble's blogroll.
Today, Kent has published a rather down in the dumps post that talks about the difficulty of building a succesful blog. All of Kent's points about the difficulties are valid but I'd like to devil's advocate his position. Let me make a few counter arguments:
(1) Funnily enough Robert Scoble has just written a post that suggests only 4% of users are using RSS. True or not I believe the RSS opportunity that exists is still huge. Wherever you stand on the Microsoft versus Google versus Yahoo debate I believe that Vista, the next version of Internet Explorer and Office 12 all with RSS built into the framework will be the engineroom that brings the biggest growth in RSS usage.
(2) A look at the Technorati Top 100 has blogs on it that were launched less than 12 months ago. PostSecret is the one that sticks out in my mind - a great viral idea that just exploded in a few short months. I believe that in 12 months time the current Top 100 on Technorati will be a radically different landscape.
(3) I agree with Kent that there probably isn't much room for new blogs about blogging. The innovators rightly have that ground, and good for them. There is an advantage to being an early adopter that exists in any marketplace. Let me add one caveat to that - unless a new kid on the block does something amazing. I believe there is still plenty of room for the new kids on the block to do something pretty amazing.
Today of all days, I choose to believe the glass is half full. I choose to believe that it is possible to set off and achieve something great. I make one prediction today for 2006. That by the end of the year the Technorati Top 10 will contain a blog that today is not even on the Top 100. It may not be Kent Newsome or Steve Newson that owns that blog, but I believe in the possibility.
Technorati tags: Kent Newsome, Robert Scoble, Technorati, Vista, Office 12, predictions
Today, Kent has published a rather down in the dumps post that talks about the difficulty of building a succesful blog. All of Kent's points about the difficulties are valid but I'd like to devil's advocate his position. Let me make a few counter arguments:
(1) Funnily enough Robert Scoble has just written a post that suggests only 4% of users are using RSS. True or not I believe the RSS opportunity that exists is still huge. Wherever you stand on the Microsoft versus Google versus Yahoo debate I believe that Vista, the next version of Internet Explorer and Office 12 all with RSS built into the framework will be the engineroom that brings the biggest growth in RSS usage.
(2) A look at the Technorati Top 100 has blogs on it that were launched less than 12 months ago. PostSecret is the one that sticks out in my mind - a great viral idea that just exploded in a few short months. I believe that in 12 months time the current Top 100 on Technorati will be a radically different landscape.
(3) I agree with Kent that there probably isn't much room for new blogs about blogging. The innovators rightly have that ground, and good for them. There is an advantage to being an early adopter that exists in any marketplace. Let me add one caveat to that - unless a new kid on the block does something amazing. I believe there is still plenty of room for the new kids on the block to do something pretty amazing.
Today of all days, I choose to believe the glass is half full. I choose to believe that it is possible to set off and achieve something great. I make one prediction today for 2006. That by the end of the year the Technorati Top 10 will contain a blog that today is not even on the Top 100. It may not be Kent Newsome or Steve Newson that owns that blog, but I believe in the possibility.
Technorati tags: Kent Newsome, Robert Scoble, Technorati, Vista, Office 12, predictions
Microsofties and Googlers - How's Them Apples?
I set the bar and Dave Sifry rose to the challenge. Within seven hours of posting about my Technorati tagging problems, Dave responded and left me a comment. On a day when you'd expect most people to be spending time with their families, Dave took the time to respond to my issue. Kudos to Dave. To the Microsofties & Googlers having a minor spat about who works the longest hours - how's them apples?
Technorati Tags: Dave Sifry, Robert Scoble, Mark Lucovsky, Technorati
Technorati Tags: Dave Sifry, Robert Scoble, Mark Lucovsky, Technorati
GTD and good procrastination
I just read an essay on procrastination that struck some chords with me and given where the link came from I immediately starting relating the essay to GTD. Some key points:
(1) There is a form of procrastination that's good. It's where you're not working on something because you're working on something more important.
(2) I might be getting things done but are they the right things?
(3) "Any advice about procrastination that concentrates on crossing things off your to-do list is not only incomplete, but positively misleading, if it doesn't consider the possibility that the to-do list is itself a form of .... procrastination. In fact, possibility is too weak a word. Nearly everyone's is. Unless you're working on the biggest things you could be working on, you're .... procrastinating, no matter how much you're getting done."
(4) What is your most important issue / problem? Are you working on it? Why not?
These are points I definitely need to try and incorporate into my weekly review.
Via: [David Allen]
Technorati Tags: GTD, getting-things-done, Lifehacks, procrastination
(1) There is a form of procrastination that's good. It's where you're not working on something because you're working on something more important.
(2) I might be getting things done but are they the right things?
(3) "Any advice about procrastination that concentrates on crossing things off your to-do list is not only incomplete, but positively misleading, if it doesn't consider the possibility that the to-do list is itself a form of .... procrastination. In fact, possibility is too weak a word. Nearly everyone's is. Unless you're working on the biggest things you could be working on, you're .... procrastinating, no matter how much you're getting done."
(4) What is your most important issue / problem? Are you working on it? Why not?
These are points I definitely need to try and incorporate into my weekly review.
Via: [David Allen]
Technorati Tags: GTD, getting-things-done, Lifehacks, procrastination
Why doesn't Technorati tagging just work?
I've been trying out tagging on my blog, figuring it's one of the tech trends I ought to take up but my experimenting is not going well.
I read a couple of blog posts on the basics of tagging, and then the Technorati help pages. I use the tag search page on Technorati to see if the tags I am going to use exist and take the html code straight from the helpful "this code" function on the results page. I paste that straight into my post (using the Edit Html screen on Blogger).
I've even manually pinged Technorati even though the guide on pinging says that Blogger automatically pings Technorati if your Blogger blog is configured correctly. I've checked and I'm configured as described in the Technorati help page on pinging.
A few hours later and my posts are not appearing on the Technorati search pages for the tags I've used. Hmmmm. It shouldn't be this hard. Stuff like this should just work, especially when you follow all the help.
I wonder if Dave Sifry or one of the Technorati team is around on New Years Day and can point out where I'm going wrong? I know that Robert Scoble and some of the Google guys have been playing ping pong with a meme on working long hours. Let's see if Technorati can take the crown?
Technorati Tags: technorati, tags, tagging, Dave Sifry, Robert Scoble, scoble
[UPDATE:] Well, nobody left a comment or emailed me, but everything now appears to be working fine. Even a slighly older post (from 12 days ago) has appeared correctly on the tag search page. If someone at Technorati did fix this, thank you, I appreciate it and thanks for doing it on a holiday!
I read a couple of blog posts on the basics of tagging, and then the Technorati help pages. I use the tag search page on Technorati to see if the tags I am going to use exist and take the html code straight from the helpful "this code" function on the results page. I paste that straight into my post (using the Edit Html screen on Blogger).
I've even manually pinged Technorati even though the guide on pinging says that Blogger automatically pings Technorati if your Blogger blog is configured correctly. I've checked and I'm configured as described in the Technorati help page on pinging.
A few hours later and my posts are not appearing on the Technorati search pages for the tags I've used. Hmmmm. It shouldn't be this hard. Stuff like this should just work, especially when you follow all the help.
I wonder if Dave Sifry or one of the Technorati team is around on New Years Day and can point out where I'm going wrong? I know that Robert Scoble and some of the Google guys have been playing ping pong with a meme on working long hours. Let's see if Technorati can take the crown?
Technorati Tags: technorati, tags, tagging, Dave Sifry, Robert Scoble, scoble
[UPDATE:] Well, nobody left a comment or emailed me, but everything now appears to be working fine. Even a slighly older post (from 12 days ago) has appeared correctly on the tag search page. If someone at Technorati did fix this, thank you, I appreciate it and thanks for doing it on a holiday!
Terribly Cute
I snagged a link to Cute Overload from my friend Kimberley this morning. Subscribed! So I'm a big softy! Sue me!
To add to the general pool of cuteness here are a couple of my favourite terribly cute places to visit:
(1) Stuff on my Cat
(2) The Cat's Meow
Anyone got any other unbearably cute blogs they would recommend?
Technorati Tags: cute, cuteness, Kitties
To add to the general pool of cuteness here are a couple of my favourite terribly cute places to visit:
(1) Stuff on my Cat
(2) The Cat's Meow
Anyone got any other unbearably cute blogs they would recommend?
Technorati Tags: cute, cuteness, Kitties
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