Seth Godin has an interesting little post that nicely summarizes the movement of the tectonic plates of marketing. Here’s what he had to say:

Marketing dollars are getting spent on product placement (Panasonic provides plasma screens to Tony Danza, Pontiac gives cars to Oprah). Marketing dollars are also moving from magazines (stagnant) to adwords and online media (skyrocketing). Marketers are busy building viral campaigns, funding blogs, and yes, by the way, investing in products that are cool enough to actually blog about.

But who’s deciding?

My guess is that this is not an organized, top down effort led by the fancy CMO or VP of Marketing. I think it’s all happening around the edges while the middle (TV etc.) implodes.

This is accidental and random and it’s going to get ugly, fast.

I wonder how long before smart marketers realize the new middle of the marketing department is all that extra stuff

Seth Godin, “Who Decides? The New Middle”

As I read this, it makes me think just how many middles are feel pressure inwards and that could be fighting implosion. We’ve got blogging going after traditional journalism, podcasting going after radio, and maybe even vlogging going after TV on one level or another. We’re also seeing greater and greater disintermediation of the production process, beyond the actual creational efforts. Amazing times indeed.

Of course, I don’t think it’s worth writing off anyone for any time soon. Despite the excitement, that’s mostly what it is for the time being. Blogging has perhaps had the deepest impact so far, but the question still remains just what the relationship between blogging and traditional journalism is: who’s leading who?

This morning when I went to sleep, I was already into my 3rd decade. It’s been pretty uneventful to date. So far, I’ve spent the last 4 hours working on Beercasting code and getting the files ready from the Portland Beercast. I’m getting ready to head out to help the Chaj move all his shit as he finally gets out of NYC. Tonight, my brother’s supposed to be taking me to dinner.. haven’t heard yet who’s coming.

Ironically enough, I am pretty damned happy to be 30. It’s kind of this mental thing. I’m not a kid anymore (though I never really felt like one). But more importantly, once you get to 30 (at least I think) you cross that threshold in the eyes of many other people who would normally write you off as “too young”

All I have to say now is simple: Put on your sunglasses cuz this star’s going supernova soon!

Happy New Year to everyone out there. Of course, this message is probably 3 days late by many standards, but oh well.

A year’s gone by since I started blogging here at SocialTwister and the experience has been tremendous in many ways. I’ve learned all kinds of things about a wide array of technologies, I’ve designed and developed my own social networking system which never seems good enough to release, and I’ve met hundreds of new people in real life and online.

On that note, I’ve noticed my own interests going more and more away from what I used to be doing, in terms of this blog. For the past few weeks, I have been working quite heavily on my Beercasting/Sparkcasting/Podcasting ideas and it’s been a interesting ride to say the least. Looking back to where I was a year ago, I feel the same level of excitement and committment to Podcasting as I was feeling to Blogging and Social Media at large when I started.

That’s created somewhat of a dilemma for me. Lately, I’ve been trying to stay “on topic” for this blog but keep getting dragged into my other domain now. I can’t tell if it’s bothering people that I have made this partial switch, but I’d like to figure that out pretty soon.

What this all means is that I am considering making the shift here at SocialTwister from covering the wide base of Social Media to instead covering Podcasting and the other forms of emerging multimedia. Stowe’s been on me for some time to blog more with Corante and I might be inclined to push most of what used to be the daily grind here over to GetReal (when appropriate).

Though it’s maybe not the best thing for the people that read it now, it’s what seems right to me on too many levels. I started SocialTwister as a place to do my research publicly and the generate ideas. For me, making this switch keeps me true to that initiative.

What do you all think? Does it matter at all? Hello? Is anyone out there?

Just a quick hello to my new niece, Kaitlin Narain. She was born yesterday at 1:19 PM at a hefty 7 pounds 6 ounces. Funny part is she was due on Christmas Day and all her aunts and uncles came from everywhere to see her. The day they left, she was ready :)

I’ll post a pic as soon as my computer starts behaving.

BTW, is this a strange spelling for Kaitlin? I thought it was. How would you spell it?

It’s now going on 6 days since my laptop decided it was too tired to work anymore. Dell’s performance in resolving this issue has been anything but stellar. Here’s the background, you decide.

Problem 1: It’s the Motherboard, Stupid

When I first called and talked to the Tech Support technician, I explained to him that I thought the problem was with the main board. Why? Well for a year now I have been having an issue whenever I shutdown or restart my machine (you know that Blue Screen of Death thing). The most recent plague, and the one that led me to the call, was the consistent crashing and the Bios (yes, the message from the Main Board) complaining that the amount of system memory had changed and it was lowering the amount.

So this guy has me remove the RAM, put one in, put the other in, seat it, re-seat it. Whatever. A bunch of hokey-pokey dancing and the problems don’t go away, they just look more and more different. We don’t get the RAM mention for a 20 mins (so I guess that solved it, I should use half as much RAM). SO he blames it on my Windows install and leaves me to run one last Diagnostic (takes like 2 hours to complete). Finally, it complains of no errors, I start up the machine and I get the bloody memory warning again.

I call back now and tell the guy, “Hey, I think it’s the main board”. Again, he says that it’s the memory. At least he said he thought it could be the main board as well (he went on mute and checked with someone that told him no). SO they schedules some new memory to be sent to me. When Dell says new though, they actually mean some refurbished memory.

I get the new memory. No dice. Same error. Still no computer.

Problem 2: Thanks for the warning

So I call to alert them once again, “Hey, I think it’s the main board” Now that they’ve wasted 3 days with this stupid memory fix shit. So finally the guy agrees and says they’re sending out a new main board to the technician and he’ll call me on Thursday to come by and fix it.

Wow! That’s cool I am thinking. So I wait around all day like an asshole hoping that this guy is going to call me so I can get back to work. Guess what. No call.

I just got off the phone with another one of them now. According to her, that guy’s on holiday now and won’t be back until Monday. So he’ll call me then to make arrangements. Hello? When they scheduled this to go out, they knew he was not going to be available so why the hell didn’t they tell me this to begin with. Now I am stuck another 4 days without my machine.

To top it off, she’s warning me that I need to return my original memory so that they don’t charge me. The last tech told me that I should hold it until the main board is shipped so that we know for sure. Make up your damned mind. It would have been returned if your friggin’ tech got his ass over here today with my shit. Who’s fault is it exactly?

All I know is they’re so lucky it’s Christmas time and I’m in such a fucking cheerful mood ;)

Happy Holidays Friends!

Sorry for the morbid headline, but it’s an important thing to do. I’ve thought about this quite a bit in the past (and taken my own advice). Today, we’re using computers and other systems so much that we’ve got passwords, secret words, and PINs almost everywhere.

Good security practices advise us that we shouldn’t use the same password in any two places to prevent a breach. Of course, that’s easier said than done for your average, non-unix sys admin. Reality is that most of us might have a few passwords that we rotate through (along with a few screen names, member names, whatever).

But here’s a very compelling example of why we need to document this information for someone close to us to find in case we pass away.

The family of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq was denied access to the soldier’s Yahoo e-mail account due to the company’s policies, raising questions of whether businesses should balance privacy with special requests.

The Marine, Justin Ellsworth, 20, was killed in November by a roadside bomb in Falluja while assisting civilian evacuations before the large-scale military offensive against insurgents in the city, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. But when Ellsworth’s father John tried to recover his e-mail account, he was barred due to Yahoo’s policy of not giving e-mail passwords to anyone besides the account holder.

A Yahoo spokeswoman said the company’s terms of service require the company not to disclose private e-mail communications for its users. Yahoo will turn over the account to family members only after they go through the courts to verify their identity and relationship with the deceased. After 90 days of inactivity, Yahoo deletes the account.

Source: News.com, “Yahoo denies family access to dead marine’s e-mail”

So the advice here is to make your list and check it twice. In this case it really doesn’t matter if you’ve been naughty or nice. Oh yeah, and one last tidbit - if you’re using your ex’s name or some other form and your in a committed relationship - change it (how’s that gonna make your significant other feel) ;).

Sorry for the morbid headline, but it’s an important thing to do. I’ve thought about this quite a bit in the past (and taken my own advice). Today, we’re using computers and other systems so much that we’ve got passwords, secret words, and PINs almost everywhere.

Good security practices advise us that we shouldn’t use the same password in any two places to prevent a breach. Of course, that’s easier said than done for your average, non-unix sys admin. Reality is that most of us might have a few passwords that we rotate through (along with a few screen names, member names, whatever).

But here’s a very compelling example of why we need to document this information for someone close to us to find in case we pass away.

The family of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq was denied access to the soldier’s Yahoo e-mail account due to the company’s policies, raising questions of whether businesses should balance privacy with special requests.

The Marine, Justin Ellsworth, 20, was killed in November by a roadside bomb in Falluja while assisting civilian evacuations before the large-scale military offensive against insurgents in the city, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. But when Ellsworth’s father John tried to recover his e-mail account, he was barred due to Yahoo’s policy of not giving e-mail passwords to anyone besides the account holder.

A Yahoo spokeswoman said the company’s terms of service require the company not to disclose private e-mail communications for its users. Yahoo will turn over the account to family members only after they go through the courts to verify their identity and relationship with the deceased. After 90 days of inactivity, Yahoo deletes the account.

Source: News.com, “Yahoo denies family access to dead marine’s e-mail”

So the advice here is to make your list and check it twice. In this case it really doesn’t matter if you’ve been naughty or nice. Oh yeah, and one last tidbit - if you’re using your ex’s name or some other form and your in a committed relationship - change it (how’s that gonna make your significant other feel) ;).

I’ll be migrating the server to a new location at some point over the next couple of days. I’ve temporarily moved the archive to a new server in the new location to minimize downtime.

During this period, it may be impossible to post comments, but that shouldn’t trouble many.

In addition, the most recent Beercast of “The re:chaj Show” will be processed and uploaded as soon as possible. I hope you’ll all still take the opportunity to tune in despite this extended lapse.

I was struck by some observations Dave Winer made yesterday in his Morning Coffee Notes Podcast. His primary topic was the differentiation between Developers and Users (the Ying and Yang of Dave’s Tao). Problem is, the worlds way bigger than Developers and Users.

I wear many hats every day. Sometimes I am a Developer writing code, other times I am a User evaluating a design or experience, but most of the time I’m a Marketer trying to understand how to deliver a message to the Consumer. This year, we’ve seen Blogging rise in the Geek Ranks. We’re seeing Podcasting start to grow now as the new Toy De Jour. We’ve also seen things like Online Dating, Social Networking, and the catch-all Social Media blossom around us. Problem is, we’re just not looking far enough up the food chain. Here’s why:

If we want our systems to really work, we need to truly account for the world at large, not use Developer and Users. Success, from my market definition, is converting Consumers into Users in large numbers. Right now, we’ve been successful in proving that we can get Geeks to do Geeky things - but that’s about it.

Let’s put on our magic glasses and look at Podcasting to see how we’re missing the boat still:

• Developers - These are the Programmers; the people that are currently developing the applications that power the revolution. We’ve got people collaborating (like Adam and Dave working on things like BitTorrent and OPML integration) and other people developing their own applications that pick and poke at parts of the required functionality.

  So, here we have the first leg of the problem - Developers are too smart for their own good. As Dave notes, they try to push people towards doing things the way they see it being done. This is why we generally find super nerdy features that no on every uses as well as grotesque usability standards. Developers assume they are Users and figure if they can Use it and you can’t, well, then your stupid.

• Users - These are the Podcasters. Right now, we’re still in that super early-adopter stage of things, so we’re seeing a lot more geeks than usual.. the Developer-User ratio is fairly skewed. However, that’s not to say that we aren’t seeing the net widen quite a bit now and we’re finding people that may seem “unexpected” by geekdom.

  Users are always right. There’s something wrong with your app since it’s harrassing them - there’s NO WAY they could be doing something wrong. Admittedly, aren’t Developers writing software for the Users? Users don’t understand Software Engineering, Architecture, or anything in between. They’re needs and time-driven (”What’s taking so long? Just move it over there. I don’t understand why you can’t just….”). Worst of all, they’re the exact same of Developers - the way they want it is the way everyone should want it.

• Consumers These are the Podcatchers. For anyone that’s not familiar with the term, that’s someone that used to be called a Listener, Reader, etc. - but we have to assign all kinds of weird names to everything. Right now, again, this audience’s composition is skewed heavily to include the Users - the people listening are mostly the people producing.

  Consumers haven’t got the foggiest idea what we’re all doing. That’s not a jab at them, that’s a wonderful comfort. There are those crazy consumers that tinker to make their own solutions to problems (we call them inventors and entrepreneurs), but most of them are just waiting to hear about the latest problem they have and the solution we made for it.

So the major issue here is visibility into the needs and desires of the Consumer from the vantage point of the Developer. We need to stop being geeks and start asking ourselves questions about how we can get out Moms involved in this thing. How do we distill not only the process of doing something, but also the spirit of it?

Tipping Points don’t happen on their own, they require a rather unique and diverse cast of characters for things to go as planned. We need to involve more and more Connectors and Salesmen to get things to the next level. We need translators for the Geeky things we do so that the masses will not only understand it but also be excited about it.

These are some loose ramblings (started at 3AM) on a rather long and complicated subject. I look forward to any feedback everyone has and plan to revisit this many times in the coming weeks.

For anyone that’s attended a conference as of late has probably experienced the backchannel before. If not, it’s essentially a mix of technologies in place (IRC, IM, Blogs, E-mail, whatever) that lets the participants in the room or conference or world participate in the event.

Predominantly the backchannel serves the better good. People use it to continue discussion, provide hyperlinks, ask questions and things of that nature. Of course, there’s potential for some other forms of chatter. The most obvious kind, of course, is to ridicule the speaker or complain about the topic.

Well things are progressing in new and interesting directions. Here’s the scoop:

Passing notes in the classroom is probably as old as formal education itself, but the advent of cell phones and other sophisticated handheld devices has elevated this communication to a digital art form.

The growing number of Web-enabled wireless hotspots at universities, corporate campuses, coffee shops and elsewhere has further enabled real-time, behind-the-scenes conversations, making them increasingly difficult to control.

Researchers have coined the term “digital backchannel” for the secondary electronic chatter that occurs in response to primary discourse from a main speaker or group. And they note that these conversations aren’t confined to the classroom.

Source: USATODAY.com, “Digital note-passing gains respect among adults”

I’m sure this is a trend that will continue in the future. The trick is creating leverage around this generated content.