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Smart entrepreneurs digitally capture...everything!

In our multiple media lives, we can never predict when we will say something memorable and useful. That means we should record everything.  Any medium that helps spread your story, should be used to grow your audience and stimulate deeper engagement.

With the plethora of devices available, in any given meeting, most of the audience has one or more ways to record the meeting.  Gone are the days when we need to document meetings with notes,  we can simply record the meeting.  If some notes are written down, take a picture.  Then share everything.

WARNING: Failure to accomplish this and you risk obscurity.

Six years ago in Puerto Rico, we still hadn't seen any significant interest in social media.  Back then, the typical company website was an outdated Macromedia Flash, now Adobe Flash, movie.  The most prominent view of the Internet at that time was that your company web page was nothing more than a digital brochure.  There was little or no interaction and updates to the site were few and far between.  Unfortunately, many still are, even today.  Fast forward to today, and if you're not on Facebook or Twitter then you're out of the picture.

Brand Visibility Driven By Organic SEO

Leading many to believe that, social media has made websites obsolete, right?  Again, what is missing is an understanding of how the Internet works.  The only way to generate organic growth in your SEO (brand visibility) is to have a web page where you publish Googlebot ready content.

For the most part, social media is an SEO wasteland, the main reason why is due to the wealth of sensitive information that sites like Facebook and Google Plus contain.  Due to the possible risk, many constrain they privacy settings, which then makes that information "virtually" invisible to search engines.

One way I like to explain this concept is for website owners to picture their company's website at the middle of a wagon wheel.  There may be numerous spokes liking your business with different websites and services, but everything should be linked back to the hub of the wheel.  In terms of effectively telling a consistent story about your brand, then the hub is where the story canon resides.

On YouTube, only thousands of channels, among the millions available earn six figures in ad revenue

Olga Kay, who already earns six figures in ad revenue, shares a growing list of worries with other creators: the precipitously dropping prices that advertisers are willing to pay, the huge increases in uploaded content that has made it harder for viewers to find their work, and the escalating costs of producing higher-quality content.

Robert Kyncl, Google’s head of content and business operations, acknowledged the fundamental tension built into the YouTube business model. Yes, he acknowledged, revenue per views is depressed and will probably drop even further in the near future as high-growth markets like Brazil and Russia continue to expand.

I'm reading Dov Seidman's "How" and I'm really finding his synthesis of his theories of a "New Era of Behavior." here's an example where his theories align perfectly with mine:

"Information becomes powerful when you get everybody on the same page with you, and it the most powerful thing if you spread a consistent message to more and more people."

 While this quote refers to the power of transparency, it is exactly what I have been saying about the max-strategy and social media.  This is the  new challenge for any creative entrepreneur, telling a consistent story across multiple mediums, classic textbook definition of transmedia. Word!

Few people understand the seemingly scatter-shot approach I use for web production.  It shouldn't be a mystery, it is very simple. It is ALL about search engine optimization.  From the domain name to the content, each of my web sites is SEO driven.

However, they also accomplish one other thing.  Each of the sites is a tribe.  A tribe built around keywords.  As I continue to add more and more sites, I unite more and more tribes.  They are my tribes (translated into Spanish, Mis Tribus).  This is what I'm talking about:

I recently received an infographic from SocialBaker that blew me away.  In their report "January 2013 Social Media Report: Facebook Pages in the United States" they include the following table:


In the section entitled the "Top 5 Facebook Brands by Post Engagement Rate" it clearly states that the "Average Post Engagement Rate" is ONLY 0.166 %

Of the top 5 Facebook brands, the highest, the highest, is still only 5.8873 %.  There it is ladies and gentleman, as plain as the nose on the end of your face.  Even if you are the best at brand engagement in Facebook, you will only get a 5% engagement rate for any piece of content (advertisement) you share.

Is the holy grail of computer and cognitive science.

Reality? Whose? None, only one.

There are four types of people when it comes to AI.  The majority of people have never heard of the term (think of rural and third world areas where poverty reigns and there is a vast digital divide).  They've never seen books, let alone a computer;  they seldom have running water and electricity;  this is a world that is hidden from most western civilized societies.

Civilized society, on the other hand, may have heard of the concept, perhaps even seen it in a science fiction movie, television series or read about it in a novel, but they think of AI only as an idea, not a reality.

Then there is the computing community.  Within this community are people who know that AI is a reality and can identify its' on-going influence in our society.

Only a few people know how difficult AI really is.  We have barely scratched the surface in knowing and understanding reality and how we accomplish things in that reality.  You can't automate what you don't understand.

Others believe that we can create an AI that will surpass our intelligence, the singularity.  When artificial intelligence exceeds our own.  Where will that lead?

I'm reading a book by Frank Tipler, "The Physics of Immortality," who argues that our only hope to survive forever, is to record as much data about our reality and scattering it throughout the universe. Self-replicating itself from the raw materials available on each planet, moon or asteroid the vonNeuman probes.

In this publishing experiment, author Todd Sattersten compares the process of publishing a book to the process of starting a new company. In both situations, the author (or founder), makes a series of assumptions that guides their efforts to deliver a book (product) that consumers want.  "Every Book Is a Startup" builds upon the work of Eric Ries and Steve Blank, where each proposes building products (books) in a cyclical fashion that allows real customers to give direct feedback. Each cycle is expected to improve the product until it fills a "felt need" of the customer.

The basic comparison between writing/publishing books and startups is that they are both risky endeavors.  Todd successfully completes the analogy and anyone familiar with the world of high-technology startups will recognize the similarities.  Drawing from the lean (agile) programming process, Todd illustrates how using short iterations of writing, publishing, and collecting feedback substantially reduces the risk of the publishing process.  This connection between lean programming and thinking of a book as a startup, has led many to call this new process, "lean publishing."

In this vain, "Every Book Is a Startup" is a work in progress.  Three versions have been published so far. The latest version contains six chapters.  This iterative approach encourages early buyers of the book, and then promises them each update, as the book evolves and matures. Unfortunately, at this stage of the book's progress, it is more theoretical than practical.  Anyone looking for how to implement a lean publishing process will have to wait until Todd fleshes those topics out in future updates.

In general, I love the concept of this book. As an entrepreneur, this approach resonates with me.  I'm especially looking forward to a more complete examination of developing a minimal viable product for books. I think my favorite section of the book is the discussion of how to construct a book pitch. That said, I was disappointed that that the book wasn't more complete.  However, if you lack any startup experience, then I would definitely recommend jumping on this bandwagon early.  I believe that this technique will become more dominant in the future and veteran publishers will definitely benefit from exposing themselves to the entrepreneurial spirit.

I've been thinking a lot lately about my max-strategy theory. Even after watching the livestream of this year's O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, I still think it is valid. However, I do have a confession.

If you follow a max-strategy out to its' ultimate convergence point, it concludes in only one observation. By trying to be everywhere, all the time, you will eventually just clog up all of the user-generated content (UGC) and social media sites with a message so ubiquitous, it will become indistinguishable to spam.

One of the Ignite sessions examined the curious phenomen of @Horse_Ebooks. During the Ignite session, I saw a comment that quickly dismissed Horse Ebooks as a spam account. As an early adopter of technologies and hacking, I've even fallen into that categorization myself.

Who decides what is a spam Twitter account? Unless the account is reported and suspended by Twitter,  I guess spam is in the eye of the recipient.

Conclusion

I think the future of max-strategy will have to be more selective. Instead of a massive blast that blanket carpets every social media and UGC site, it will have to use some variant of sentiment analysis. It will have to choose the locations most likely to receive the marketing message. I'm not the only one who thinks sentiment analysis is an important technology, recently Google announced they were buying the sentiment analysis engine, fflick.

Hallelujah. Can a brother get an "Amen?"

Here's an interview of Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" from this year's O'Reilly Tools of Change For Publishing Conference:



Seems like I've been telling everyone Eric's last point for ever, well at least for the last 18 months. Every publishing company is now in the software business. Every content company, (TV, Music, Movie, Web, etc.) is now in the software business.

I'll go even farther. Any company who wants to know what people think about: them, their products, their ads, their employees,etc. (isn't that every company?) is in the software business. It's all out there.

Remember? Markets are conversations, and they're taking place on the Internet. Therefore, you must mine the Internet for those conversations, determine what the market is saying, and then join the conversation. Every company is a bigdata company. You've got to suck-in as much of the Internet as possible, and spit out information to support decision making.

I'm sorry you see it differently, but the longer you delay making peace with this shift, the lesser your chances are for survival.

Found this little gem in the archive of video generated from this year's Grammy Awards, Social Media Rockstars Highlights:


I found D. Wallach's comments particularly interesting. At about 2:30 he brings up the growing dilemma of the artist in the Social Media Age. He shares his annoyance with: "As a recording artist, being told to promote your music with everything but your music." As any content producer will tell you, blogging, Tweeting, using social media are probably not part of your core competency. Solving this challenge is the key problem for the emerging artist. Do you produce content or do you market?

It has become a paradox. If the artist isn't going to engage with potential customers on social media, then someone has to do it for them. Doing nothing is not an option.

I think one of the reasons Lady Gaga has been so successful on Twitter is because she has been able to incorporate it into her life. It's not an afterthought. Through her mobile phone she shares, interacts, and engages as she lives. I'm sorry  Margaret, but she has become a product. Every aspect of her life is a product, her process, her Twitter stream, her conversation is a product.

Sobering implications of this presentation. Regardless of the accuracy of one slide, the rest of the conclusions here are very believable.



This is a thought provoking video by Marc Goodman, "The Business Of Illegal Data: Innovation From The Criminal Underground."

I think an underlying observation here Marc is suggesting is: "it is difficult to anticipate how anyone (criminal, governemental, or individual) might use the massive amounts of data we generate."

Certainly something to consider more carefully.

- Tough competition from video and music

Been thinking a lot over the holidays. Words are too plentiful and can only generate deep engagement with a small percentage of people. As culture continues to converge, we are surrounded by media much more engaging than words on a screen. With a strong push by an increasingly SMS dependent culture, we are consuming words with shorter and shorter attention spans.

It's really no surprise that micro-blogging has become so successful. With Pinterest, we've reduced micro-blogging to a caption and a title. The photo replaces the text. I pity the fool that is hoping to earn a living writing words for screens, because all signs point to ADD-centric populous.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting the death of words or reading. Technology, especially one that has been with us for over 500 years, never dies. No, the fate authors face is much worse, it's  irrelevance. that's what happens to technology, it becomes irrelevant, that is, unless it has some un-reproducible value. What quality does a book have that will keep it relevant?

Image via Wikipedia

- Huge gap between what people are willing to do and what they are "allowed" to.

With the rate of people joining the Internet growing exponentially, we are way beyond being able to anticipate just what someone is willing to do. Whether it is a transmedia story, an open source project, an alternate reality game, or any other crowd sourced activity. Heck let's add revolution and regime change into the mix, while we're being honest.

Transmedia

Culture convergence forces us to look at all of these people-powered initiatives as being essentially the same challenge. Each becomes a simple problem: How can we tell a consistent story across multiple mediums, that inspires people to care.

The Rub

Unfortunately for content producers the most common currency on the web is attention. For me, I have to tell you, I can't deposit attention into my company's account and spend it to buy the services I need to grow my company. But I digress...

Honestly that would be a nice problem to have, first we have to generate the attention first. For it seems backwards, to think about getting more attention than revenue, when you don't really even have the attention. Heady times indeed!

Why Free Changes Everything

I've been blogging, and networking, and using every means possible to generate revenue online.  I've also participated deeply within the open source community.  I started browsing the Internet in 1994, so I've been using the Internet for 18 years.  Through all of these experiences, there's one thing that is consistent. People love free stuff and the Internet is an infinite supply of free stuff.

The combination of computers and the Internet drive the price of every product they touch to $0 (free).  This observation is at the heart of the problems with the music, newspaper, magazine, and publishing industries.  Before computers and highly capable software were so easily obtainable, each of these industries competed in a scarce economy. Not everyone could publish a book, make a CD, or produce news. Now everything online exists in an abundant economy.  It's a very challenging problem to have, but that's not the dilemma I'm most concerned with.

When consumers get a taste for "free" a few things happen:

• The first thing that happens is that quality is no longer a threshold. We will accept any free version over one we have to pay for.  Ever watched a recently released movie recorded with a camcoder?
• Logging onto the Internet or turning on a computer is a trigger which immediately makes us assume everything should be free.
• Free becomes a habit. Once you can download Open Office or GIMP, then we get into the habit of expecting everything else to be free too.

The Paradox of Free


The dilemma of free is that when no one wants to pay for anything, then the only alternative left is advertising. And boy do we love advertising, am I right? So from open source advocates to independent authors or movie makers, we're all struggling to produce a good product. Since we're not Seth Godin or Mozilla, then we start pricing everything for free. When we try to move up the value chain and charge for our products we get little or no support. I've been sharing Amazon Associate links for 8 years. I've gotten only 16 click throughs, and no sales. I've got Google Adsense running on half a dozen websites, and I'm lucky if I meet the minimum once a quarter.

We easyily drop money on the stupidest of things offline, on vacation, at the fair, or at a Disney on Ice show. However, when we fire up the Internet, we close our wallets and expect everything for free. Going out drinking with your peeps on Friday after a long week of work, we will spend $20, $50, or maybe even a $100. When we conduct these transactions, we rarely thing twice. What is so different about online commerce?

Every company, every project, every artist(author) needs money to survive. Yet, we commonly entertain ourselves with their products for free. How are they supposed to find the money they so desparately need to continue producing entertaining or useful products, if no one wants to buy their products? Don't want to buy, then what about donations? Nope, we rarely do that either. When was the last time you made a donation to an open source project while using their products all the time?

Crying in my Coffee


As we are in the holiday spirit, I'd like to make one wish. If you find something on the Internet for free, and it entertains you, or makes you more productive, then find a way to compensate the producers of said product. Here are a few suggestions:

• If they have products for sales and you've enjoyed their work, please make a purchase. If you already got it for free, then buy it and give it as a gift to a friend.
• If they accept donations, then make a donation. Come on, if you're using software from an open source project, cough up a little money to show your appreciation.
• If they only have advertising on their sites, then by all means click on their ads. I suggest this a lot and most people will say that's cheating.

How Advertising Works


Here is another example of the paradox between offline and online behaviour. When you buy a magazine or newspaper, there are a lot of advertisements. Sometimes there are products in those advertisements, that  you may never buy, ever. Yet the publisher collects their payment for putting that ad in front of you. Do you feel guilty or like your cheating those advertisers for not looking at their ads? Of course you don't.

Yet, when you see ads on a website that is providing something valuable, you don't click on them. If that is the ONLY way for the website owner to get paid, why don't we want to show our appreciation for the effort of making something valuable available for "free?"
Still leave a bad taste in your mouth?


The only option

We vote with our money. When we pay for something we say,"I want things like this." If we never vote for the products we enjoy by buying them, then we are subconciously saying I want to see more advertising. We are still in the infancy of the Internet, so it's hard to predict if a different model will emerge. Unfortunately the only option other than advertising is opening our pocketbooks and exchanging money for value. Let's make the Internet the global marketplace it has the potential to become.

Best perk of transmedia research? Playing collaborative games with children, playing ARGs, & entertaining yourself(watching movies, trying new experiences, going to remote islands). What a life!

What I've been playing lately:

• Animal Jam
• Monkey Quest
• Left 4 Dead
• Call of Duty
• Survival Code

Video from Power to the Pixel 2011

In this presentation Lance suggests that we're asking the wrong questions when we think about building storyworlds. Specifically, he wonders about these questions:

• How can funding opportunities evolve to support R&D?
• What is it about an experience that stays with someone?
• How can we develop a language to tell stories that are 21st century ready?
• How can we design with instead of for?
• How can storytelling be used to empower creativity in others?
• What does it take to co-create?
• How can we document the process of making work and share it efficiently?
• If we don't take digital literacy as storytellers seriously, who will?

Pay attention! How many are based on computers?

The Top 20 Technologies for the World Ahead:

1. Computer Technology
2. Ubiquitous Computing
3. Human Language Interface for Computers
4. Machine Vision
5. Robot Technology
6. Telecommunications Revolution
7. Fullerene Chemistry
8. Multi-Level Coding System in DNA
9. Biotech Analysis Instrumentation
10. Human Biogenetic-Chemical Computer Model
11. Treatment of Hereditary Disease
12. Control of Bio-Metabolic Disorders
13. Blood and Tissue Matching Drugs
14. Tissue Engineering
15. Neurotechnology
16. Nueropharmacology
17. Cellulose-to-Glucose Process
18. Nanotechnology
19. Chaos Theory and Complexity Models
20. Fuel Cells to Allow Deep Sea Habitation

Click on the fractal and see it come to life...

Official Google Blog: Say yes to CS during CSEdWeek: Last Sunday marks the start of the third annual Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek), taking place in the U.S. from December 4-10. CSEdWeek underscores the need for strong computer science education programs to ensure the nation has a pipeline of future workers skilled in technology. It’s a call to action that urges local efforts by parents and teachers to not only pay attention to CS education, but also to elevate its status and quality.

Current projections show we’ll have 1.4 million new computing jobs by 2018, but a recent report from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) found that only nine states count high school computer science courses as a core academic subject in graduation requirements. You don’t have to be an engineer to do the math here—if things stay this way, there will be a shortage of skilled workers to fill these valuable jobs.

We want to increase access to education and technology for all students, which is why we support initiatives like CSEdWeek that are vital to accomplishing that very goal. CSEdWeek is a chance to eliminate misperceptions about CS and computing careers and increase awareness about all the opportunities understanding computing enables. Furthermore, a high-quality education that includes CS teaches students skills and processes that will benefit them no matter what field they choose to go into. The overarching goal is to have K-12 computer science become one of the core disciplines in our national education system.

A few ideas about what you can do this week:

• Students can celebrate CSEdWeek and spread the word by changing their Google+, Facebook, Twitter or other social media profiles to a computer scientist you identify with most.
• Teachers can use CS Unplugged to teach lessons that explain how computers work, and at the same time, address critical mathematics and science concepts from number systems and algorithms to manipulating variables and logic.
• Anyone can “Take the Pledge” to join in and/or support teachers, students, parents and others who are participating in CSEdWeek activities and events.

CSEdWeek is a major activity of Computing in the Core (CinC), a non-partisan coalition of which we’re proud to be a member, alongside other corporations, associations, scientific societies and nonprofits striving to elevate computer science education to a core academic subject in K-12 education. Including CS as a core subject will give young people career-readiness knowledge and the skills necessary to thrive in a technology-focused society.

For additional information on CSEdWeek or to find out about events for students, parents and educators in your area, please visit the CSEdWeek website: www.csedweek.org.

Aren't markets conversations?

In a new study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and The George Washington University. The study addresses questions about how news outlets use the social media tool to share, gather and curate information.

Analysis

One of the most counter-intuitive findings was that news organizations were much similar in the focus of their Twitter activity. The vast majority of the postings promoted the organizations' own work and sent users back to their websites. On the main news feeds studied, fully 93% of the postings over the course of the week offered a link to a news story on the organization's own website.

Is this trend caused by the addition of a News or Media base? I believe that those "labels" (keywords) causes people to act in the opposite of what they do with companies that aren't News or Media. Aren't markets conversations? How can there be a conversation if one party of the conversation talks 93% of the time?

The difference between a start-up do it all yourself publisher has become nearly indistinguishable from a major publisher. eBooks have made selling on the Internet a data and IT race. Independent authors and publishers, like Mis Tribus, have only to build their reputation. It's all downhill from here for major publishers, as the price & reputation races to 0 (zero). If publishers don't become bigdata companies, around customer information given by permission; publishers will see there revenues drop like a Led Zeppelin.