Test dimdim

OK, so it is a link and not an embed.

http://decision3d.com

I hope you like it.

The new logo (DRAFT):

You may wonder, “Why announce if you don’t even have a site up yet?” Well I am attending Barcamp Charlotte today and I just couldn’t pass up the chance to sponsor the event, so what better way to come out of stealth mode.

Please be patient, everything should be live in a few days and I will tell you more about the company then.

Email Strengths:

• Ubiquity - Everyone has email access, and almost everyone can and does use it (even my Mom)
• Simplicity - Whatever tool you use, you have come to a level of competency  that allows you to send an email quickly without too much thought about the mechanics

Email Weakness:

• “Email is where information goes to die” - Have you ever tried to follow a long thread of emails between multiple people? Nuf said.

Wiki Strengths:

• Centrality - The information resides in one place, so there is no confusion about the “latest” information

Wiki Weakness:

• Not Ubituitious - Most people have never heard of wikis, much less have access to one.

If you look at it, the strength of each could counter-balance the weakness of the other, if we could find a way to combine the two.

A Suggestion for Google (or whoever…)

Add functionality to Gmail that will automatically direct the contents of an email, that is addressed to 2 or more people, into a Google Doc or Google Page, and then add the link to the email. So when the recipient gets the email, instead of the dreaded “Reply All”, they have a single click to edit the central doc which then automatically sends a “Notify All” response.

(Note to my Twitter followers: This is not the big plan in the works, just an idea I had this morning.)

Sounds simple. Why isn’t it?

According to the RNIA, it is because we do not have a viable “Relationship Economy”. I recently discovered the Relationship Networking Industry Association (RNIA), liked what I saw and joined the association.

Here is a slide deck I put together to better explain RNIA and its core concepts.

• Duke Thinking Online assesses the event positively, particularly liked the SaaS and Social Media sessions.
• Taylor Barr comments on Bob Young’s (Red Hat and Lulu.com founder) presentation.
• Online Community Strategist provides notes from the Corporate Blogging session.

Following my initial enthusiasm, I quickly became underwhelmed by the old-school atmosphere of the event. Every session, with the exception of the opening keynotes, were panel discussions, considered by many to be one of the weakest presentation formats. There was little opportunity for the “audience” to participate. The one exception was Jim Tobin using Twitter during his session to field questions. Yes, the other sessions  did take questions, but it was always just a couple of quick ones during the last 5 minutes. Not what I call engaging the audience.

Another thing that bothered me was that there was a strong theme, in the sessions I attended, toward using the internet only as a customer acquisition tool; CPC, Page views, traffic, conversion, etc. I heard almost no one talking about how online tools can also be used to keep customers and add value to the customer relationship, through things like better customer service, and communities.

And my final rant, there was no attempt (oops, my bad, there was a “networking lunch”) little opportunity for attendees to interact. Sessions were back-to-back with typically less than the scheduled 15 minutes before the next session. I would have liked to see a published attendee list, a pre-conference social space, an official conference backchannel and conference tag.

PLUS

I realize it is not like me to rant so much, but I think we have such a great opportunity to show off how this area of the country has so much to offer, and I want our local events to be excellent. And to show that I am not just sitting in the back row lobbing grenades, I would be happy to talk to the folks that put on the event and look at combining Internet Summit 2009 and BlogCarolinas next year, taking the best from both and holding a truly world class event.