Mindnumbing Thoughts

Links for 2009-07-09 [del.icio.us]

2009-07-10T00:00:00-07:00

Golf is Hard TV - Episode 52 - Putter Tech
Golf is Hard TV Episode 52 tackles putter technology. Grab your putter and find out about face balan

Links for 2009-06-30 [del.icio.us]

2009-07-01T00:00:00-07:00

Golf is Hard TV - Episode 51 - Puttering Around
We're back with another episode talking about putting... Golf is Hard TV, episode 51 will have you p

Links for 2009-06-27 [del.icio.us]

2009-06-28T00:00:00-07:00

The Best Change-Up PITCH SOFTBALL: Valuable softball pitching advice ...

The Democratization of Philanthropy

2009-06-25T10:44:00.003-04:00

Amazing TED video (as per usual). I love, love, love what Katerine Fulton is trying to say.

Mass Collaboration - "big things are being done for love" (Shirky)
Online Philanthropy Marketplaces - peer to peer philanthropy (check out donorschoose.org)
Aggregated Giving - every giver should have his or her own fund and foundation (check out acumenfund.org)
Innovation Competitions - maybe my favorite!
Social investing - perhaps the biggest of them all - this blows up our assumptions business is business and philanthropy is philanthropy

Amazing, amazing talk. Thanks TED.

Links for 2009-06-23 [del.icio.us]

2009-06-24T00:00:00-07:00

Golf is Hard TV - Episode 49 - Heavy Putter Part 2
Dave continues his chat with Heavy Putter's Stephen Boccieri in Golf is Hard TV episode 50 (yes, 50!
UI desing patterns

The Geeks Have Inherited The Earth

2009-06-23T12:54:00.001-04:00

Thank God for that!

I originally saw this on Boing Boing.

Links for 2009-06-20 [del.icio.us]

2009-06-21T00:00:00-07:00

Golf is Hard TV - Episode 49 - Heavy Putter Part 1
We spent some time with the guys from Heavy Putter and are thrilled to present Golf is Hard TV episo

Links for 2009-06-17 [del.icio.us]

2009-06-18T00:00:00-07:00

Golf is Hard TV - Episode 48 - A Touch of Etiquette
Golf is a game of etiquette for sure. Episode 48 of Golf is Hard TV shows you some common errors and

Links for 2009-06-09 [del.icio.us]

2009-06-10T00:00:00-07:00

Idea Bounty | Creative Briefs & Ideas | A Social Think Tank
Golf is Hard TV - Episode 47 - Putting Direction
Which way did it go? Golf is Hard TV episode 47 helps you get the ball going the right direction! Go
Softball.com

Amazing Times We Live In

2009-06-08T11:19:00.001-04:00

Technologically, this just couldn't be any cooler. We live in interesting times for sure.

What Would Google Do: Non-Profit Edition

2009-05-19T21:47:00.003-04:00

I've been tweeting and yapping to friends about Jeff Jarvis's terrific book "What Would Google Do" even before I've properly finishing the thing. I sat myself down tonight and plowed through the last 100 pages where Jarvis examines different industries including automotive, manufacturing, telcom, healthcare and more to see what Google would do if they were in those businesses.

On one hand, I was really hoping that Jarvis had taken a look at the non-profit sector given my personal history in the sector and my ongoing interest in how non-profits operate. I'll also note that I used to write a fairly well read non-profit marketing blog. Unfortunately, the book doesn't delve into this much, if at all. I thought, instead of a basic set of notes or a book review as I usually do that I'd jump back in time and take a look at the sector with fresh, and "Googley" eyes.

If you haven't yet read the book, the basic premise is that Google fundamentally operates differently than traditional businesses by embracing concepts like abundance (as opposed to scarcity) along with open communication, collaboration and community. That's too simple an explanation, but to be honest, you should read this book anyway, so I'll skimp on that since I know you'll order it immediately!

In any case, those same traits and behaviors that Google uses are polar opposite of how many traditional non-profits operate. Like most traditional business models, many non-profits have are caught in an odd spot - it's clear that something big is happening, but there hasn't been a forcing function like Napster demolishing the music business for example that has created a need for massive, fundamental change. Unfortunately for many large non-profits, I believe it's about to happen and is going to really surprise and destroy a lot of well known and traditional institutions.

For example, in the international aid and micro-lending space, organizations like Kiva have been literally exploding out of the woodwork, using business models that traditional aid agencies either can't or won't embrace create massive shifts in how donors think about, and interact with both the institution and the recipient of their donation!

Now that I've finished the book, I've cherry picked a few key concepts and have applied them to a non-profit business and business model. One last note before I jump into the deep end for you non-profit types who are rolling your eyes... "You don't have to be Google, to act like Google..."

New Relationships: Give people control
Over and over I've seen it happen. Donors say to a non-profit, I'll give you money but you need to focus on this or on that. The non-profit's response (rightly so in the "old world") is we'll take your money, but we're the experts on what we fund, not you. Sorry.

Let's start here because I think at some fundamental level, what non-profits do with their money is the most basic buiding block for a traditional non-profit business model. In a "Googley" non-profit, the organization would open up and let folks have a say where their money is going. Non-profits could start by allowing patients, researchers, donors and more rate and rank what is being funded. As Jarvis points out, this doesn't mean they give up total control, but it does mean that the non-profit starts listening closely. In the future, someone is going to listen, and that's where I'll (and everyone else) will donate. Think Yelp, but for what to fund, what programs to create, etc.

How else could non-profits give people control? How about in fundraising? It already happens organically and primarily offline, out of site of the "brand police," but why not allow donors to create, publicize and promote events that they create, run and manage on a technology platform that supercharges these small, long tail events. Why not create leaderboards, wikis, best practices around these events and share them with everyone and anyone who wants to get involved? A few years ago I saw a site that Invisible Children created that had leaderboards and wiki where kids could rate, rank and collaborate on the best ideas to raise money. Afraid of losing control? Bad news, you've already lost control, and now you are in danger of losing your donors to boot.

New Architecture: Be a Platform
Non-profits are about to find themselves on the outside of the very conversation they created. I've seen it happen before... a donor has a great idea and raises a ton of money. The non-profit at first loves the volunteer, but then suddenly, the balance of power shifts and the volunteer decides to take their "network" and their several hundred thousand dollars in donations a year elsewhere.

Instead, create a "virtual non-profit" platform where you manage infrastructure but give the freedom to create entirely new market opportunities. For example, say you have a great volunteer in a remote location where you do not have a chapter or an office. Why not empower that donor (with proper training of course!) to use your platform to serve the local community? AOL did this for ages as they rapidly expanded their online communities. Instead of 20 or 40 chapters in 30 states, chapter based organiations could have locally run outposts, managed by committed volunteers in every town in every state and country across the world. Think CafePress or Blogger.. or hell, Salesforce.com for volunteers to create, manage and run their own "chapter" on your behalf. Chaos? Nope, that's what we call trust baby!

Connect the dots like Best Buy does with their Blue-shirt nation, or like the Red Sox do with their online community to provide guidance, collaboration, support and the help they need to help you succeed. Can you imaging a site like Starbucks or Dell's idea site that allows both internal and external folks to help redesign everything from structure, policies to fundraising campaigns? If you work in a traditional non-profit, I bet you can't.. but you'd better.

Radical? I think necessary.

New Society: Elegant Organization
My favorite quote in the book comes from Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook. Zuckerberg said "You don't start communities, they already exist." Zuckerberg's point was that we should be asking how we can help them do whatever it is they want to do better. I've already outlined a few ideas above on how non-profits can think about this concept, but I think we can go even further.

Non-proftis can use community for just about everything under the sun. Here are a few ideas off the top of my head...

Testing ads with mission affected patients
Collaborating with donors on how to raise more money
Collaborating with patients on how to best deliver services locally
Talking openly with families about policies and program services
Connecting patients to other patients in similar situations
Connecting families to families
Allowing patients and families to rate hospitals, doctors, treatments and more (gasp!)

One more... Get Out of the Way
This is a big one for me and is at the heart of why I think non-profits are headed for big trouble in this new world. Non-profits, like many traditional businesses and business models live for control. They love controlling messaging (you MUST breast feed!), and because they aren't last I checked under CAN SPAM laws, love spamming and blasting out direct mail, email and more. They rely on controlling the event experience at walks, runs and dinners. They simply think that because they've been successful in the past, that they know best.

Those days are over. It's time to flip things inside out and let your true fans help redesign your organization from the ground up. Have you really talked to donors, patients and families about what they think about those controversial policies? Have you asked your event participants to collaborate with you on how to make the event suit them better? Have you done anything that would indicate that you are actually listening?

Please don't tell me you are having a conversation and prove it with your e-mail newsletter, Twitter account full of donate now or register for our fun event links or a lame Youtube channel where you've turned off video replies and comments.

When I was at a nameless non-profit a few years ago I found myself in drag out fights with legal on creating a liberal link policy. I wanted to publish banners and give anyone/everyone permission to TAKE our content and republish it (with due credit of course) anywhere and everywhere. I begged them to open our image archives, put the entire thing on Flickr and use a Creative Commons license to allow anyone and everyone to enjoy and use the images.

No they said, that's too scary, and besides, what do we get for that?

What they didn't understand was that in a gift economy, you have to be the giver, not the taker. I'm afraid that most non-profits today continue to be the takers and not the givers. Give your fans, your patients, your donors and your staff permission to get "googley" and to create new opportunities, or else.

Phew, glad I got that all off my chest.

Certainly Mindnumbing

2009-05-14T15:58:00.003-04:00

Thanks Ray!

My Business Book Bible

2009-05-13T13:55:00.005-04:00

I've been devouring business books for ages, I can't seem to get enough. The latest book I picked up is "What Would Google Do" by Jeff Jarvis. I'm about halfway through and will hopefully do a blog post on the book when I'm done if I can find the time.

What hit me as I was reading it is that this book is clearly going to be my "new bible" - I even tweeted that it was already.

Thinking back and looking through my old web site and my bookshelf in my office, I was curious what some of my old "bibles" have been - remember these beauties?

The Innovators Dilemma - Clayton Christenson
Mavericks at Work - Bill Taylor
Rules for Revolutionaries - Guy Kawasaki
Don't Make Me Think - Krug
Cluetrain Manifesto - Searls/Weinberger - as relevant as ever, what were those guy smoking when they wrote this?
Purple Cow - Seth Godin

Going way back, I seem to remember a book called "Blur" that I obsessed over, as well as the one that got it all started: "Being Digital" by Negroponte.

What are some of your current and past "bibles?"

My First Seesmic: Managing Your Identity

2009-04-23T16:08:00.005-04:00

Listen, and then comment or have a chat about it on Seesmic. What do you think?

Got Kids Playing Sports?

2009-04-11T21:39:00.003-04:00

I just wrote a new blog post on a terrific new book I picked up at the library that is focused on being the parent of a child who plays sports. Instead of re-posting it here, head on over to my coaching blog and check it out; book notes on "The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting."

2009-03-26T15:04:00.001-04:00

this is a ping.fm bomb... doing some testing and trying to make things easier to update for myself.

My Obsession with Failure

2009-03-25T10:00:00.002-04:00

I've blogged about failure before... and here we go again. This video is really powerful. The solution to failure is clearly... to keep on going. Fail fast and move one.

It strikes me that it takes a certain type (or lack) of ego to push on after failing.

Are You the One?

2009-03-10T14:56:00.004-04:00

UPDATE 6/22/09...

I never saw this coming but I ended up taking the job myself. I'm as stunned as you are. More to come for sure...

Original post:
I'm working with a high profile non-profit who is looking to fill a very senior level position: Chief Community Officer.

Here' s a bit from the job description... if this sounds like you or someone you know, please email me.

Exploits the new media of social and community networking in the previously untapped not-for-profit sector; democratizes the process of reaching a mass audience, thereby capitalizing on new revenue-generating opportunities.
Provides thought leadership both internal and external; strategizes with senior managers and Board members.
Leads the social direction organizationally, via creation and execution of mission statement, in areas such as: social (general), social technologies and communities, and social media.
Develops a strategic plan for social and community networking and implements the coordination efforts with various departments such as Awareness/ Communications, Development, Information Technology and Program Services.
More.. much more

Interested or know someone who is qualified? Email me.

Thank God for Great Spam

2009-03-02T13:34:00.002-05:00

I know, I shouldn't be re-posting spam e-mails, but I'm in an odd mood (it's probably the jet lag)... so I just had to share.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am contacting you based on my plan for establishment in your country. Please get back to me to enable me furnish you information on my desire of investing in your country.

I look forward hearing from you as soon as possible.

Thanks for your expected co-operation

Martin Dent

Ok... enough of that... "Report spam" button has been engaged. Although, I do have to say I'm curious how I could possibly help him "enable me furnish you information."

Reminds me of Borat, or All Your Base Are Belong To Us.

India Baseball

2009-02-25T09:57:00.003-05:00

I felt compelled to post this. There is something about this story that gets me both on a personal and a marketing level. I make fun of American Idol, but this exactly, exactly the same thing.

As a lifelong baseball fan and someone who couldn't have been more dissapointed by A-Rod and Barry Bonds, this is what I needed.

I wish the Yankees had signed them, but a piece of my heart is now in Pittsburgh.

Enjoy.

Saving the U.S. Auto Industry

2009-02-22T10:34:00.003-05:00

Finally!

It's finally time for the big reveal on "How I, someone with no automotive industry experience can save the U.S. Auto Industry with singularly great idea."

You'll recall, that I teased you about 2 months ago (I've been busy in my underground lab working on this) and threw out some clues to my idea. The first was that regular folks don't give a crap about performance. Yes, certainly some do, and the auto industry and the magazines would have you believe the opposite. The truth is though, that average folks worry more about car payments than how fast their depreciating hunk of metal goes from 0-60. Blasphemy, I know, but hey, I'm saving an entire industry here folks!

Second was a remark about the theater of cars is the most important factor... I'm a marketer by profession and am constantly blown away when I see superior designs and user interfaces winning over better technological solutions. Case in point... the iPod. There isn't a person on the planet that would have guessed that music that sounded worse than competing technologies would become so successful (well, maybe the guys at Apple knew, but no one else knew it!).

Lastly, you'll remember that I'm fully aware that my solution will require a completely new business model and futuristic (or even Alien) technology.

Enough already!

I'm going to tell you a story of how a person of the future (a future where the U.S. auto folks listen to my idea and/or alien technology helps us) buys a car.

Joe is 28 years old and needs a new car. One night, he happens to catch a showing of "Bullitt" on TV and remembers watching it with his dad years ago. Joe remembers the feeling he had as a kid, thinking when he was old enough, he'd own that car.

After some searching on the Internet finds that the car from the movie was a 1968 Mustang GT 390 but he decides that driving a '68 anything is either too expensive or impossible practically speaking.

Joe gives up his brief dream to drive the Mustang and starts poking around on Ford's web site. He finds a new program on the site that promises that he can "design" his own car, selecting from several classic designs.

Each design is based on a classic car and includes a wide selection of muscle cars, movie cars and some really insane looking future cars. Each car comes on one of three different chassis (small, medium or large depending on the design choice); all of them hybrid or electric.

Additionally, he can custom order the colors (or select from pre-designed templates like "Road Warrior" or "Bullitt"). After selecting the Bullitt template, he further customizes the interior (leather, Bluetooth, DVD, Satelitte radio etc). Joe completes his order by shopping online for the best financing deal he can find (Lending Tree anyone?) and orders his car.

That's it...

Awesome, right?

The U.S. auto industry (all the manufacturers as a single entity or on their own) all own an amazing set of brands that people LOVE. Who wouldn't want to buy a Gremlin that doesn't catch on fire and that gets hybrid or electric like efficiency. How about a '69 Dodge Charger (Dukes of Hazzard in your own colors), or a pimped out Caddy?

The trick here of course, is to design a transformers like set chassis that are extensible (3 should cover all the possibilities, small, medium and large). That way, each design could be tweaked a little to fit the right sized chassis.

If that wasn't crazy enough, how about this.. how about you can buy the chassis but lease the design... make the designs themselves extensible so that once you are sick of the Gremlin, you can upgrade to any other design that fits that body style. Come to think of it, this could be the real idea here... think of the secondary market for "Car designers"... Threadless for autos! Sweet.

While I do believe that performance is secondary, I do think the cars need to feel and sound like their classic counterparts... this means designing each car to handle and make the same noises as the original... no idea how you'd do this, but I want my car to rumble and rock (or putter and puke like the real deal.

No, it's not easy, but yes, it would totally save the U.S. auto industry by bringing the romance and theater back into the cars we drive.

Personally, I want the car from the Road Warrior... Ford Falcon XB Coupe, V8 351.

What car do you want?

This is What I Do

2009-01-29T15:15:00.001-05:00

Online Community Management: Yes, it's really a job

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: job career)

Earning and Spending Points

2009-01-28T22:55:00.004-05:00

I've gone over this "theory" a bunch of times with friends over the years and finally am going to attempt to blog about it.

Guys, you know how when you do something good for the one you love you think to yourself...

"Big points for that!"

You know what I'm talking about, right? Come up with that special gift and you get points. Doing the dishes gets you points. Remembering birthday's gets you points, but remembering her sisters birthday gets you even more. I'm not talking about lame airline points, miles or fake currency here... I'm talking about pure relationship pointage... and you know what that could get you!

Different acts gets you different points - everyone has their own scale. The scale isn't what's important here at all. No. Before I get into the heart of the matter, here's a sampling of possible things you can do with points to whet your appetite:

Long golf weekend with the boys
Poker nights
Ability to purchase new gadgets with immunity
Your favorite meal
Being left alone for 3 friggen minutes already
A 3 letter word that starts with a capital S
Add your own per your own relationship

What is crucial here, and what sits at the heart of my theory is how and when you can spend those hard earned points.

I've done a lot of thinking about this over the years and I'm fairly certain I've got it right. Pay close attention here, because this is important. I'm going to give you the key right up front so you can chew on it while I continue to blather on...

You lose points at a dramatically faster rate than you can ever accumulate them.

Read it again, because it's critical that you get this part right. The key piece of the theory is the word "dramatically."

Please understand that the way this works is that you can happily accumulate points for as long as you want. But you'll lose them all immediately with simple slip ups. Trust me here, it's true.

Don't want to blindly trust me? Ok... then take a look at some of my well-honed and immutable points laws...

You cannot safely accumulate points over a long span of time. Any attempt to hoard points will be met with complete point bankruptcy
It takes effort to earn points, yet takes no effort to lose them.
You cannot trade in points
Points are not transferable under any circumstances
There are no negative points, thank God.

Right? See where I'm going yet?

In conclusion and to wrap this up; when you earn points, you must find ways to spend them immediately!

A Brief Return to Non-Profit Land

2009-01-26T14:22:00.003-05:00

I started reading Fast Company again after a year or so of giving it up and am happy to be back. While I dug the Shaun White article in the Feb 09 issue what really caught my attention was an article titled "No Vacancy - Job Seeking refugees from the for-profit world shouldn't go running for the not-for-profit sector."

During my tenure in the not-for-profit sector (yes, I had a blog then too)this was probably the #1 question I got from friends and colleagues looking for something else to do professionally. I'm pretty much done giving advice around that topic, especially in light of my decision to join Microsoft instead of pursuing another post inside a non-profit. That said, I even wrote a blog post "So You Want to Work In Non-profit Land?"

I think the FC article makes some good points and it really brings me back to the last 8 years of my professional life. The one comment I'll make however is that during my first 3 years or so (while at March of Dimes) I think I considered myself more of a volunteer than anything.

It wasn't until I snapped back to reality and got "serious" about developing my non-profit career did I start running into problems (problems like deciding to take promotions, making more money etc). That was a mistake. I wish I had simply been content in considering myself a free agent volunteer. I'm terrible at managing my career and much better and simply sinking myself into things and letting the water flow any which way it wants.

Anyway, check this article out if you are considering a move.

Betty Crocker

2009-01-23T00:55:00.003-05:00

I was fortunate to be in Seattle this week and to get an invite to a Social Media Club meeting from my good friend Filiberto Selvas.

Filiberto and I recently traded comments on SocialCRM blog and on Twitter about the idea of agencies running/managing online communities for brands.

As per my usual, I started with a very strong opinion that brands who want to start customer communities should not use an agency for hands on community management. My entire concept of online communities revolves around creating open and honest conversations. The thought of hiring an agency to manage it to me at first seemed ludicrous. I felt strongly that any brand that would outsource that function ought to reconsider their strategy and perhaps hold off on building customer communities until they were more ready to commit.

At the SMC meeting of course, I met someone with a different opinion (surprise, he's an agency guy!). Thing is, he mentioned Betty Crocker. According to Wikipedia, Betty Crocker was invented in 1921 and was in fact an invented persona who became a cultural icon.

Now, before you jump to conclusions, I realize Betty Crocker wasn't exactly a community manager. But even still, Betty Crocker became a brand that had very real relationships with customers. In today's world, I don't want to believe that a brand could build a community around a fake personality... but then again we've seen some interesting things lately like lonleygirl and other examples that I should be able to point to, but can't think of any right now.

Could a brand use a fictional character as a community host to help them build a community effectively? I think the answer is maybe. If I had to guess, it's happening a lot already. I believe there are brands out there who are building communities where the community manager isn't an actual person but is rather, a collection of people, a committee or some other grouping of markters or maybe even (gasp!), an agency. Maybe one day you'll be able to buy a Turing machine to do it for you.

I'm conflicted... what do you think? Am I incorrrectly drawing connections between things that aren't comparable or is there something worth thinking about here?

A Higher Calling

2009-01-05T08:31:00.005-05:00

It's funny, when you start to focus your attention on things, all sorts of interesting bits come your way. I had been holding on to a copy of an article from NYT Magazine about Philip Seymour Hoffman for a few weeks and finally read it over coffee this morning. It's a great article, a rare look inside a terrific actor and a stunningly intense guy.

In describing when he first saw "All My Sons" on stage, he uses some really interesting images and vocabulary that is really sticking to me this morning.

"It was like a miracle to me. But that deep kind of love comes at a price: for me, acting is torturous, and it’s torturous because you know it’s a beautiful thing. I was young once, and I said, That’s beautiful and I want that. Wanting it is easy, but trying to be great — well, that’s absolutely torturous."

I'm struggling myself with what it means to be great in all my own roles - father, husband, employee, sports coach, son, grandson, brother, friend, etc... It really is tortuous in many ways, some of what is required is totally unnatural and sometimes uncomfortable for me.

While I realize it's OK to forgive yourself for failing, I think it's als OK to push forward in trying to be great.

Sorry about the lack of marketing blogs lately. Frankly, I'm bored with a lot of the social media talk, predictions and baloney that the pundits are throwing around. I'm much more interested in relationships and examining myself these days. That said, here are some terrific links to keep your eye on if you care about social media and engagement marketing:

More Presents!

2009-01-03T17:23:00.003-05:00

As part of my ongoing, annual goal setting and life re-orientation as I now call it, I just finished reading "The Present," a parable by Spencer Johnson. This book is a lot more accessible, though not as deep as Tolle's "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth" and is a quick read.

It's amazing to me that I've been trying to live more in the now for the last few years and have not made more progress. That said, I do finally find myself recognizing when I am in fact, not living in the present. A few nights ago, I totally flew off the handle after talking to my mom and while I was able to recognize what I was doing, I was unable to curb my behavior. Some things continue to get to me!

Alternatively, on Christmas day as the girls were opening their gifts, this amazing wash of joy came over me. I know looking back that I was experiencing "flow" and was wonderfully, totally in the present moment.

In any case, the book essentially presents 3 ways to use present moments to enjoy life... I do not think posting these here will help you, but since I've read the book I think it will serve as a reference point for me. I'm also considering turning this into a wallpaper :)

Be in the present
When you want to be happier and more effective

Focus on what is right now
Respond to what is important today

Learn from the past
When you want to make the present better than the past

Look at what happened in the past
Learn something valuable from it
Do things differently today

Help create the future
When you want to make the future better than the present

Imagine what a wonderful future would look like
Make a realistic plan
Do something today to help it happen

Realize your purpose
Explore ways to make your work and life more meaningful

Off to a Fast Start

2009-01-02T16:22:00.005-05:00

Cross 'em off! I'm off to a roaring start in '09, completing 3 goals right off the bat.

#1 was to figure out how to get GPS working properly on my mobile phone, and thanks to some slick software (GPSToday), it's not only working great, but it allows me to automatically add geodata to photos on the fly. Sweet. Check.

#2 was to reorganize how we (my family) manages all our digital files and to put into place a better backup strategy. Basically, I've turned my home computer into a basic file server and mapped public folders to the kids and wife's mobile desktops. Once that was complete, I configured Cobian backup software to run daily backups on those folders, offloading the backup data to an external 250gb drive.

For those really valuable digital photos, I'm using Cobian to create DVD ready archives so I can easily (and quickly) make DVD backups. Not only do I feel good about crossing these things off the list, I've got some peace of mind regarding those digital photos!

#3 Confirm I have the best possible mortgage and life insurance rates... done. (No refinancing needed, unfortunately)

Next up on the list:

Check for better auto insurance rates
Reconfigure my workout plan

Off the Tracks

2008-12-29T11:07:00.003-05:00

I'm doing my annual "goal planning" this week and took some time to review the past few years goals (and success rate) and it isn't pretty.

First, here are the stats:
2005 9/14 63%
2006 12/15 80%
2007 7/13 54%
2008 5/9 56%

My goals are a combination of personal (fitness, finance, charity, vacation etc) and professional goals. clearly, 2006 was a great year, but I've been sliding hard since then.

2008 was an odd year from the beginning with me leaving the IRC for Microsoft, so I expected some fluctuation (notice the drop in total number of goal targets - down to 7 from 13 in 2007). As a way to get this out of my system, here's what I achieved, and what I didn't this past year:

Success!

Maintain 180 lbs
Coach sports (specifically spring/fall softball and winter basketball). I also helped out with all-star softball and recently started a coaching blog.
1/2 speaking gigs
Establish myself in my new role at Microsoft
Build blog readership (>200 visits per month) - actual from both npMarketing and Mindnumbing was 1208!)

Things I didn't Achieve :(

Break 95 in golf
No credit card debt (it's creeping up a bit lately)
Save 10-15 gross salary (I haven't calculated it yet, but I'm certain it's less than 10%)
Board of small NGO (this is now removed however

I'm feeling like I need to totally retool my goals for 2009 and in someways, up the ante a bit.

In case you are curious, my process includes an important step of writing down a purpose for each goal and culling the master list each year down to about 10 priority goals for the year.

Book Notes: Rebound Rules

2008-12-28T20:03:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading Rick Pitino's latest book "Rebound Rules." I was looking for some inspiration in both my professional and coaching life and found it here. This is a breezy read for those of us who read a lot of self help books, much of what Pitino talks about is well-tread in other books.

That said, I especially liked some of what he has to say about managing young players. Granted, the difference between the type of coaching he does is a galaxy away from the type of coaching I do!

What I loved most about the book however is how Pitino recounts his Celtics failure and how he rediscovered himself and his passions. His "PHD" (Passion, Hunger, Drive) framework is something that I will be using personally as I begin to plan for 2009.

One other phrase that I really liked was the "darkness of doubt." I've had some recent failures myself in my professional life and realized that the doubt I felt was natural, but something that I simply need to move past. That's a phrase I'll keep in mind for a long time to come.

It's a good read and worth your time.

Book Notes: Exodus to the Virtual World

2008-12-26T12:04:00.003-05:00

I guess I've been revisiting my own ideas on virtual worlds and the immersive internet these past few months and picked up a copy of Castonova's "Exodus to the Virtual World" to see how things have been evolving since reading his first book "Synthetic Worlds." It is my opinion that his first book was quite a bit better, although this book does really expand on where virtual worlds are headed in more tangible ways.

The book is really interesting, if not way out there. While the idea of people "migrating" to virtual worlds seems (and feels) odd to me, Castronova makes some extremely compelling and interesting points given from an economist's perspective of the world. That said, I'm not so sure his core concept is valid. It would help me if I were a social scientist and had any sort of knowledge to validate or debunk his thesis.

For scale's sake, Castronova points out that "when 100 million people do something" governments need to take notice. He speaks a lot about "policy making" in the virtual world and does a good job outlining the core areas needed for good policy both in the real, and virtual world.

The main point of the book however, is simple. If people can get a better quality of life by inhabiting virtual worlds, they'll do so - and en masse.

A few things jumped out at me as I read the book, presence being one of the stranger concepts to grasp I thought. What exactly is presence when inhabiting a virtual world? Perhaps "attention" is a better way to think about presence - that is to say that what you are focused on is actually where you are at any given time. The phrase "gaze is location" was a bit of a mind trip for me.

In the chapter named "The Fun Society," Castronova imagines a company modeled on how virtual worlds work. I think in the entire book, this fascinated me more than anything. Below are a few key things that made me stop and think:

"New employees wouldhave to work their way into the company just as new players work their way into games: they start at low levels and work their way up."
"They acquire reputations as good drivers, good mechanics, good forklift operators. Once they get enough points, they are allowed to look for bigger jobs at a different loading dock."
"Management would organize all this activity by stating when and whre it would give out points."
"In general, a company organized along these lines would operate the weird emergent order that one sees in games. Instead of ad hoc bands of one hundred people marching more or less after one another the other into a dungeon to do battle with a dragon and get treasure, it would be ad hoc bands of workers gathering more or less where and when needed to perform some work task to which explicit rewards had been attached."

I'm not sold on that vision, but it is extremely compelling to think through.

I Can Save the US Auto Industry, Really!

2008-12-22T14:35:00.005-05:00

I have the answer! I really do. But I want to lay out some ideas before dropping the bomb on you.

A few disclaimers before we get started...

In reality, I have very little car experience. Never marketed a car, built a car or designed a car. That said, I've paid for CV boots, brakes, tires and once, an entire new front end. I've wrecked a few cars (no one hurt), and certainly spent plenty of time at the gas pump. I have washed cars occassionally, but don't like it that much.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, here are some actual disclaimers:

I'm not a huge car nut. My brother fills that gap in our family. I did once subscribe to Car & Driver, but only for a short time. I tend to view cars as a depreciating asset, but I do trip out when I see a really cool looking ride.

I actually (delusional or brilliant, you tell me) believe I can save the US Auto Industry with my idea.

The idea is free for you to take and use. All I ask is that I get a free one of my choice one day.

As I said, I am not going to simply drop the idea on you just like that. It would feel trivial I think. Or be misunderstood. You might make smarmy comments on my blog like "you idiot" or "that's the dumbest thing ever. Go die jerkboy." Stuff like that.

Instead, in this first post, I'm going to layout a few ideas. You smarties out there will see where this is going straightaway. Feel free to use your car industry contacts to take the idea and make it happen.

Concept 1: Most folks don't give a crap about [high] performance

Since I have literally no statistics, I'm going to take the bloggers perogative and assume this is true for MOST (but not all) of us. If it is true, I'm already on the right track. Sure, lots of folks want high performance vehicles. But me, I just want something efficient that never breaks. My solution isn't for those of you who can afford $150,000 cars. Hell, it isn't for those of you who can afford $50,000 cars. The sort of performance we want is fuel economy and advanced cup holding technology.

Concept 2: My solution bets on the fact that the theater of cars is the most important factor

As I mentioned in a recent tweet, "my auto industry solution based on: It's a fact that U.S. Auto design has always been more about theater than innovation." I'll expand on this soon, but you already know it's true, don't you!

Concept 3: My solution requires a totally new business model. The record companies thought Napster was tough - ha! My solution will require even more pain (hey, I never said my solution was going to be easy did I?)

Ok, more to come soon... if you can guess what my solution here is by leaving a comment, I'll give you a special prize. Yes, I'll tell you if you are right.