OpenMarketing

I’ve taken an Interim CMO gig at Zannel

2008-08-30T16:56:00+00:00

Zannel is the mainstream alternative to Twitter. Far more graphic, no fail whale, optimized for mobile so people can post pictures and videos when they micro blog (we like to call it “nano blogging”) and lifecasting. Oh yes, and unlike Twitter, we actually have a business model that enables us to monetize our instant media network by selling targeted advertising opportunities, sponsored lifecasts, and other premium opportunities to reach the 16-34 years old who are addicted to Zannel and its snack size media updates. (Should we call these addicts “Zannelists?”)

In any event, you can catch up with what I’ve been posting on my nano blog using the widget (above) and with Zannel by going to the site or from your mobile phone simply text “join” to 58888

You’ll also find me blogging in log form here:

http://www.zannel.com/blog/

Enjoy!

Where I’ve been lately

2008-07-06T17:15:00+00:00

Blogging over at MuseStorm, this neat widget company for professionals ... meaning agencies and brand marketers. You can catch up on what I and the rest of the company have been up to by going here:

http://www.musestorm.com/blog

Also, traveling to the East Coast for my sister Betsy’s wedding. Catch up on family pictures here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43537&l=f894c&id=508142645

Great discussion on crowdsourcing as the basis of a commercial company

2008-02-29T22:32:00+00:00

Over at Tech Crunch, talking about a company called Kluster which just launched in open beta.

Kluster, ... is designed so that companies can offer cash rewards for each phase of a project. Participants who back the winning idea get to share the reward. Projects can range from creating logos and marketing campaigns to designing a product. Participants start off with points, or “Watts,” that they can invest in different projects. Explains Kaufman:

“Our Watt system is like a currency. You get a certain amount of Watts. As you do more things you get more Watts. Instead of voting on ideas, you invest your Watts in concepts you like.

So if a company decided to offer $5,000 for the best new logo to come out of Kluster, some graphically-inclined members might upload a few sketches. Other members could then invest Watts in the design they think is best suited for the company’s product, make suggestions for improvements, or upload their own variation of the logo. Whichever logo gets picked by the company at the end wins the $5,000, which is distributed to all the members who backed that particular logo based on how much they contributed to the idea, how early they got behind it, and what percentage of their total Watts they put at risk. Kluster computes what your stake is in any given project.”

Watts are never directly convertible into dollars, but they do influence how much of a cash reward each member is entitled to. At the end of each phase, all the Watts invested in the losing ideas are redistributed proportionately to the investors in the winning idea. As people collect more Watts, they gain standing in the community and have more to invest in subsequent projects.

What I Think
The problem with these and similar ideas is that the success of the underlying business depends on getting to critical mass. Kluster seems to have spent a great deal of time thinking through how to make their currency appealing to a mass market of creative types and also how to create an ecosystems around its site. It remains to be seen whether Kluster - which is launching at the TED Conference will attract enough followers to create a vibrant community as needed to make wattage take off as a currency. The site itself is very appealing and the founders have obviously spent a lot of time thinking through how to use great design to appeal to “connected creatives” as the target demographic.

Relevant Links

Chumby launches - internet gizmo you can customize using widgets

2008-02-28T16:26:00+00:00

Chumby is cute, positioned as an internet device for your home, designed to sit on your desk and serve as an alarm clock and stream stuff from the internet that can vary based on your personal preferences based on the widgets you add to its dashboard. Chumby is small, doesn’t run on batteries and therefore isn’t exactly mobile (you have to plug it in), but does use WI FI to access the ‘Net. I’d classify this device with the Nokia N810 or the ASUS Eee PC. These are a dynamite way to get some but not all the features/functionality of a full-fledged computer and to access selective websites. Like them, this device runs on LINUX to keep costs down which means that it’s development environment is open.

Of the three devices mentioned Chumby is the lowest cost device available with - for now - the fewest number of widgets, but I’m sure this will change over time. After all, Chumby just started to ship. There’s a discussion of how they handled their beta program on their blog that is of interest to marketing types like myself, in terms of managing interest and excitement around the launch of a new hardware platform.
Note that the discussion of widget development seems to require skills at Flash to develop them. Too me, this is too bad ... as developing in Flash requires “real programming skills” versus developing in PHP or Javascript where typically I can muddle through by copying somebody’s else’s code, so long as the task at hand is simple. Adobe’s Flash is one of those “virtual standards” ... not exactly open ... but so ubiquitous you can almost consider it to be an open standard. It will be interesting to see how the Chumby ecosystem fares and whether the need to develop widgets in Flash limits the number of widgets available or not.

A brief note on terminology. Chumby, Apple, and Opera calls the small, focused, single-purpose applications that plug into their dashboard or browser “widgets”, which is the term I prefer. Google calls them gadgets ... for better alliteration I guess.

Relevant Links

Now that I’m thinking about getting an iPhone

2008-02-21T23:57:00+00:00

I find this great guide to all things BlackBerry:

The Power User’s BlackBerry Guide: 121 CrackBerry Tips, Hacks and Resources
from the editors of Inside CRM of all people

Why the time is right to move to an iPhone? It has nothing to do with the fact that the iPhone is now available with 16GB of storage. While more storage is always nice, I was holding out for the 3G version on AT&T’s network. But now that the iPhone developers kit is about to ship there’s a wave of innovation coming in new mobile applications being developed exclusively for the iPhone.

Must read blogs for social marketers

2008-02-12T02:30:01+00:00

Came across this entry just updated based on an original entry published May 2008:

Source
Sempahore Software Blog

More good news on the 1 million missing iPhones

2008-01-30T03:07:00+00:00

The phones aren’t missing ... they’re simply unlocked. Which means that no matter how hard you try to keep a platform closed, end users and entrepreneurs will do whatever it takes to open up the platform. Even if it means voiding the warranting, inconveniencing themselves with multiple update cycles, or the like. So much so that 27% of the iPhones volume has gone “missing”.

Just today the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported that analysts have begun to search the globe for 1.7 million lost iPhones.

Apple said that it has sold 3.75 million iPhones through the end of last year, but AT&T has activated a bit less than 2 million phones. There was a moment of panic as investors imagined more than a million unsold iPhones piled up in the stock rooms of AT&T stores.

Upon reflection, several analysts have come to the conclusion that the vast bulk of these have been bought and unlocked to use on carriers other than AT&T in the United States and on European carriers who are Apple’s partners.

Revelant Link
Good news in the One Million Missing iPhones

How IKEA is like Facebook

2008-01-30T02:41:01+00:00

Great article on Slate showcasing how IKEA is like Facebook because both companies have business models that are based on having their customers co-create value. In IKEA’s case the value co-creation comes from enlisting their customers to build furniture.

I’m not convinced that Facebook’s value comes from co-created value. Instead what sets Facebook apart - at least - is the fact that its web strategy is multi-threaded. It relies on crowd sourcing - to reduce the cost of content and/or other manufacturing costs - and mass customization - to ensure that the resulting products meet the needs of the widest possible audience. These two strategies TOGETHER are what have given IKEA’s business model longevity and make Facebook much more valuable as a platform than any of the other social networking platforms.

Whatever you call it ... there’s more going on here than meets the eye. With value-co-production Ikea is not only offering consumers a discount to build their own furniture. But it means much more: Ikea recruited its customers to the idea that they could not only put up shelves, but also design their own stylish living spaces, equipping them with tape measures and printing almost 200 million catalogs that also serve as design manuals. It also devoted huge energies to helping its suppliers and designers play their part. ... Rather than passively buying what the suppliers offered and reselling it, Ikea provided suppliers with technical assistance, equipment, guidance on standards, and even a kind of dating service that introduced them to new business partners.”

Tim Hart of Slate goes on to argue that “Not many technology companies have succeeded in mobilizing an army of “value co-producers” in the same way. Microsoft is the most important exception, creating a platform that supports—and is supported by—the efforts of countless other software companies. Game-console manufacturers live or die with the companies that produce the games. And eBay is an old-school dot-com company that has created a near-unassailable position: The buyers go there because the sellers go there, and vice versa.

Whatever you call it - value co-production - or a web strategy that is multi-threaded, relying on crowd sourcing and mass customization - it is true that Facebook, like Ikea—and like Microsoft—has mobilized an army of independent suppliers. In Facebook’s case, they are developers who produce applications that can be plugged into the Facebook platform. In all these cases, the idea is the same: If Facebook (or Ikea) can woo the customers, independent suppliers will be queuing up to help, and if the independent suppliers are queuing up, Facebook (or Ikea) should be able to woo the customers. It’s for this reason - Facebook as a platform for crowd sourcing/mass customization - that venture capitalists like Lee Lorenzen think that Facebook might be worth $100 billion.

Relevant Links

How Facebook is Like Ikea by Tim Harford as published on Slate, January 19, 2008
Lee Lorenzen key note at Web Community Forum December 6, 2007

Nice video of me over at Jeremiah’s blog

2008-01-23T23:41:00+00:00

Do watch the video but here’s the cliff note version ... there are 5 key elements that should be considered as key elements of any companies web strategy:

Actively listening to your customers ... using blogs, wikis, and customer forums to facilitate customer as they interact with each other; listening as customers talk to collect valuable insight and then using that insight to drive fundamental changes in product or marketing strategy
Community building ... either on your site or where your target customer hangs out on the web
Crowd sourcing ... relying on your customers to finish or extend the work you and your development team have started
Engagement marketing ... a strategy to actively engage customers in your brand and differentiate how you market to customers based on their differential engagement
Mass customization... Offering unfinished or partially finished products or services that end users or channel partners can then combine; the resulting products or services are often highly customized

(The one I “forgot” in the interview was ... sadly enough ... #2 ... community building!)

Did anyone catch the great mention of Jeremiah’s work in this week’s eWeek? EWeek reprinted a list provided by Jeremiah on “white-label” community-building technologies. The list was first published in February 07 and is now getting a little long in the tooth.

Relevant Links

To view the video shameless self promotion!
Jeremiah Owyang’s list of white-label community-building technologies
Eweek Article Social Computing Developers give Customers the MySpace Touch

Crowd sourcing used to fund and found a company

2008-01-21T22:05:01+00:00

Launched just before the holidays, Los Angeles-based nvohk aims to create the first community-managed, environmentally conscious, surf-inspired clothing company. It is currently recruiting a minimum of 20,000 members (capped at 40,000), each of whom will contribute USD 50 in exchange for the chance to co-develop the nvohk brand. Members will make major business decisions including logo, web and product design along with advertising; they’ll also receive 35 percent of nvohk’s net profits in the form of points that can be redeemed to purchase products, as well as 25 percent off all nvohk goods. nvohk, meanwhile, will donate another 10 percent of its net profits to environmental organizations selected by its members.
Brendan Lynch, nvohk’s president, explains: “Consumers are concerned with the environment and want to be associated with brands that are too. With nvohk, members have the opportunity to make critical decisions that not only affect the direction of the brand, but also make a positive impact on the world around them.”

nvohk has just started to recruit members, with only 400 or so signed up by early January, so it’s still too early to tell whether it will meet its target number. Assuming it does, however, this will test the power of the crowds on a new level. Joint corporate decision-making by tens of thousands of people should make for an interesting ride; on the other hand, with a common interest in surfing and a shared concern for the environment, they just may have what it takes to make it fly. One to watch!

Relevant Links
As Reported on Springwise, 1.08.08
Project Nvokh

Browser and email market attract new entrants on mobile thanks to open source

2008-01-15T15:04:00+00:00

Companies like Wake3 and Funambol are starting to use open-source in the development of software for mobile computing devices. Open-source seems to be the perfect conduit to bring iPhone type browsing and e-mail to handheld devices. During a meeting of the Mobile Monday Silicon Valley group associates of Wake3, Funambol and Wind River noted the rise of open-source software on handsets. Wake3 is bringing the open-source WebKit mobile Web browser to Windows Mobile systems.

“WebKit for Windows Mobile really is, in essence, a kind of iPhone browsing for Windows Mobile,” said Daniel Zucker, CTO of Wake3.

He and an official at Wind River stressed the paradigm shift brought on by the iPhone. Instead of persons inquiring about what type of wireless service someone is using, they want to know if they have an iPhone, said Bill O’Such, Wind River director of engineering.

“It’s really changed the balance,” O’Such said.

“The iPhone opened up everyone’s eyes. For the first time, you could really get true desktop browsing on a device,” Zucker said.

Long given up for dead, mobile browsing and email is seeing renewed interest. Why? The ability to quickly mobilize (pun intended) a large development community to get its software into the hands of more developers more quickly. The developers can help test, fix and contribute to code changes that make the software better, Steger said.

“If you’ve ever developed a mobile phone application and you’re trying to address the mass market, there’s a fundamental problem,” he said. Half the world owns a cell phone but there are more than 1,000 models and many operating systems to support. But developers via open source can test the software and try it on their own phones.

“What we like to say is open source enables the largest mobile developer community to make any device work on any network. That’s probably the biggest single advantage at least from our experience of open source to mobile,” said Steger.

Source
MobileCrunch, January 11, 2008

OpenDNS a great company now in hypergrowth

2008-01-11T19:47:01+00:00

OpenDNS is a great company with a somewhat geeky product that almost everyone can benefit from. DNS servers track user-friendly web names (like http://www.openmarketing.com) and how they correspond to hard to remember IP addresses (mine here at OpenMarketing is 207.44.169.197. Kind of rolls off your tongue doesn’t it.) Every time you surf the web, a DNS server somewhere is doing a look up to translate the web address you requested into an IP address. If you’re running a home network, it’s likely that your ISP - those nice folks at Comcast or AT&T - gave you a set of IP numbers and told you to enter them into your router, to tell your router where to go to do DNS lookup.

To use OpenDNS, set up an account and (optionally) enter the OpenDNS servers IP addresses into your router:

From within your account, you can set up shortcuts to directly navigate to the various sites you frequent. For example, if you use Google mail for applications, set up a shortcut called “mail” or even “m” and everytime you enter “m” into your browser window you’ll go directly to Google mail. Short cuts are very handy and I’ve become addicted to them.

Equally handy is the ability to block adult sites. I’ve got nothing against this kind of content in theory. In practice, I don’t need or want to fall into a X-rated site by accident nor does anyone else in my family.

How OpenDNS makes money is using what is called the direct navigation method. Shortcuts are great but every once in a while we humans make mistakes. To the extent we enter something in the navigation bar that is not a shortcut up comes a page that looks like this:

This page and all the links on it are controlled - and presumably monetized by OpenDNS.

What Makes this an example of Open Marketing?
Aside from the name, OpenDNS is based on open-source technology and as such can’t charge a licensing fee for its software or for its core service it offers customers. What makes this an interesting example of OpenMarketing–in my view–is that this hasn’t stopped the company from monetizing what it has. My best guess is that the company is profitable. Certainly, the company is growing at a torrid rate.

Relevant Links

OpenDNS
Comments on OpenDNS
Almost everything you always wanted to know about Direct Navigation Business 2.0 Magazine cover story dated 5.22.07

Open devices hit the mainstream ... case in point: Neuros OSD

2008-01-06T17:48:00+00:00

Neuros OSD is a strange animal, a new video recorder designed from the outset to appeal to hackers who - with a modicum of skills - can customize or hack the device and then pass along the improvements to others. There are other categories of open-source devices, of course. According to Anne Eisenberg of the New York Times, What sets Neuros apart is its versatility. Using a memory card or a U.S.B. storage device, it saves copies of DVDs, VHS tapes and television programs from satellite receivers, cable boxes, TVs and any other device with standard video output.

What interests me - of course - isn’t just the products particulars - although these are of interest to the part of me that loves gadgets - but the fact that this type of product is part of a trend.

Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley forecaster, said openness was likely to apply to new products like the OSD, rather than to existing proprietary products. “It’s a lot easier to design future products with openness built into them,” he said, “than to open a closed product.”

The product is supported by a community of active and engaged users who provide help via a community bulletin board. The company uses open-source technology through out its products (based on Linux) and its site (PHP, MySQL).

About the Product
Because the OSD saves the recordings in the popular compressed video format MPEG-4 (pronounced EM-peg), the programs can be watched on a host of devices, including iPods and smartphones. The OSD is for sale through selective retailers for $199. See the Neuros Technology website for details.

The OSD’s capabilities will grow to suit changing times, said Joe Born, founder and chief executive of the company. “Digital video is a fast-moving space,” he said, and many consumers don’t want to buy a new piece of hardware every time a media company comes out with a new way to watch its shows. “The best way to address this problem was to make the product open source, allowing our smartest developers and users to modify it.”

The OSD has not only open hardware, but also open software: it is based on the Linux operating system. Neuros Technology encourages hacking of the device; it has contests with cash rewards for new applications for the OSD. One winner, for instance, designed a program that lets people use it to watch YouTube on their televisions. Using the OSD for daily video recording demands no special technical background, and no PC is required. Setup is easy: Plug a U.S.B. hard drive or other memory device into one side of this lightweight unit, and plug the TV and, for example, the DVD player into the other side. The OSD does not have a display screen. Its menu is viewed on the television screen and navigated by using the remote control that comes with it. The device can also be connected to a computer or to a home network of computers. People who are tired of stacks of DVDs and VHS tapes in the living room may find the Neuros an inexpensive way to tidy up: an entire library can be archived on a U.S.B. hard drive. Then you can stroll through your own personal video shop from the living room couch or, when traveling, plug the drive into a laptop to watch programs recorded from satellite or cable service at home.

Part of a Trend
Products like the OSD are a good example of a small but growing trend toward openness, said Jimmy Guterman, editor of Release 2.0, a technology and business newsletter published by O’Reilly Media of Sebastopol, Calif. “The open source hardware movement parallels the earlier open source software movement that started off as a renegade thing 15 years ago,” he said. “Now it’s the center of I.T. at many major Web sites like Google.” He hopes for the same openness in hardware, although he said that the issue was more complicated. “Companies may keep some aspects of their hardware closed, while opening others,” he said.

Relevant Links

What this Gadget Can do is Up to You - New York Times - January 6, 2008
Neuros Technology site

Open is as open does

2007-12-19T00:20:00+00:00

On the one hand, its delightful to see AT&T touting itself as “Open”. That gives us three ostensibly open-mobile networks here in the US ... in the form of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. AT&T has always been open as has T-Mobile - in the sense that their GSM technology allowed you to purchase unlocked devices to run on their networks. Contrast this with Sprint and Verizon each of which supports a slightly different flavor of CMDA. Sprint does not allow foreign devices ... although it is considerably more liberal when it comes to foreign applications like Mobio’s. Verizon has always run one of the most closed networks, where both foreign devices and applications are barred from its networks. So its great to see Verizon joining the Open bandwagon with a commitment to open up its network by the end of 2008. T But the end of 2008 is a long time away and a lot can happen in a year. So while we applaud Verizon’s for saying they’re “Open,” we want to see them put their money where their mouth is ... that is put capital behind making their network open.

Not to be outdone, AT&T followed with an “open announcement” of its own. This is clearly a marketing announcement only and one that does not rock the mobile world here in the US. GSM-based mobile phone companies - we have two in the US ... AT&T and T-Mobile ... start out far more Open than those based on CDMA. The technology allows you to take any unlocked phone and run it on any GSM-based network in the world. And AT&T has always allowed both “foreign” (not purchased through AT&T) devices and foreign applications on its network. T-Mobile is not quite as liberal on the application side so the AT&T announcement will - no doubt - put pressure on executives there to open up their network to downloadable mobile applications other than those available through its TZone program. Largely the issue with T-Mobile is that they don’t have their own data network but lease capacity from others, which means that they have kind of a love:hate relationship with all-you-can-eat mobile data plans. Love ‘em - but only so long as I can ensure the consumer is buying a lot of value-added applications from T-Mobile. Hate ‘em otherwise ... because there’s a chance we might be losing money on ‘em. If you get my drift.

Both AT&T and Verizon are getting in on “Open Chic” in response to Google’s announcement of the Open Handset Alliance aka “Android”. This is a move to create a phone operating system based on Linux that will work across networks and will allow customers to create their own mobile widgets and applications and contribute them to the phone ecosystem. However this shakes out, one thing is clear. Mobile phone companies like to sell applications that Google, Mobio, and others in the mobile ecosystem would like to give away for free in exchange for advertising support. And consumers are getting fed up with paying through the nose for mobile phone service in the US that is far inferior to that seen in the rest of the world. The situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. Why? Because Census data shows that the cost of telephony service - which used to amount for 7% of household income - is now pushing into double digits.

Relevant Links

Read/Write Web just declared the Open Source Movement the most promising for 2008

2007-12-18T02:32:01+00:00

Which is pretty cool for me personally since I just recently moved/consolidated my personal website to this new URL here at OpenMarketing - dedicated to new marketing models inspired by Open Source software. The URL was not new ... I had to purchase it ... and consequently I’m suffering a little from Google’s policies towards domain squatters. So its nice to see that this notion ... that the Open Source software movement has inspired true change in how we think about the web and interactions between businesses and people ... is one that others see as lasting as well as myself. Added benefit. I’m cautiously optimistic people will stop giving me blank looks when I hand them new business cards. Speaking of which - Moo cards - are hot. Simple idea, well executed. Who would have thunk it.

Relevant Links

Open Source is the Most Promising Meme (I guess) for 2008 declares Read/Write Web
Moo cards where to get ‘em