Category: Thought of the Day

Share You OPML, Exposing 1% of Your Audience

According to the Feedburner widget 53,657 people are subscribed to TechCrunch.com. 746 of those people are also sharing their opml.

That’s 1.4% overlap.

If you’re running a tech startup, thanks to Share Your OPML, you now know which 746 people to talk with first.

Coincidently, I’ve talked to a bunch of ecommerce, direct-to-customer organizations over the years and 1% is the most frequent conversion rate quoted. On the one hand, it’s pretty cool that successful businesses can be built on 1%. On the other, it feels highly inefficient (99% waste).

If you’re interested, I’ve shared my feeds as well.

What’s the Browser Matter?

I’ve been pondering a redesign of this website for a while now. As it should be, it’s way down the bottom of my Things To Do, but it’s there.

I’m writing this in MarsEdit, I’ll read it in NetNewsWire. According to my server logs, some of you are reading this within your Google homepage, Newsgator account, email client, or something altogether different.

So, who would I be redesigning the site for?

Robots? They don’t appreciate interesting typography or color choices.

This is why the default WordPress theme is so popular – the value isn’t in the CSS. The value of a website is in it’s reception.

I’ve half-joked about rebuilding Amazon.com to make it friendlier to my Treo. Using their E-Commerce Service – it’d be a decent effort, but not outrageous. Completely do-able.

37Signals recently opened up the Basecamp API to developers.

ProgrammableWeb’s Mashup Matrix says there are 89 other APIs available.

If I can get the data from those services within applications I’m already using and comfortable with – what does it matter what their website looks like? I won’t see it.

Let’s say, you loaded up this page and found just a link to the RSS feed. Let’s say we got really real and just released the API of a web application. Leaving the interface design to the customers.

UPDATE 11 May 2006:

“The browser will explode into a thousand fragments, will spawn a thousand specialized offspring” – Stowe Boyd

You Have a Higher Tolerance for Ambiguity in Your Thinking Styles

I suspect anyone who spends more than 5 minutes with me could conclude that, including this neuropolitics.org survey.

Here’s their entire first impression of me:

“Your responses are consistent with the following attributes: You have a higher propensity for large-group social bonding. You have a probable elevation in your dopaminergic activation system. Your right prefrontal cortex is more involved in your political decision making than your left. Your olfactory system plays a less than average role in mating behavior. Indicators of enhanced left prefrontal and bilateral temporal activity in humor detection. Temporal cortical regions are facilitating diminished behavioral inhibition. Color preferences may indicate an enhanced dopamine level in your visual cortex. Responses point to a probable increase in activity in the right anterior cingulate and amygdala. You have a higher tolerance for ambiguity in your thinking styles, and a greater inhibition of your left inferior parietal cortex. Your responses indicated a tendency to classify facial expressions as more threatening, and an elevation in activity in your right amygdala. Overall, your cognitive style is balanced between your left and right hemispheres.”

Audio is to Books as Video is to Car Crashes

A conversation at last night’s PodcastMN meet-up got me thinking about the difference between audio and video.

As I see it, the goal of writing is to use the fewest words possible to illustrate the most to the reader. Density. In fact, I’m pretty sure the job of an editor is just that. In the end, chances are, the voice in your head reading this is different than the one in my head. That’s just the start. The specifics of the tiny, upstairs room I’m writing this in, with its plastic-coverd north-facing window, wall-long bookshelf, and boxes of unwanted cables is probably more comfortable in your head than in reality.

That’s the cool part.

The funniest sketch I’ve heard on Teknikal Diffikulties was a visual gag. Cayenne Chris gave just enough – then let us listeners build out the rest.

Unlike audio and text, video is a finished, self-contained product. Leaving little to the imagination. As such, it’s more expensive on all counts. From production, delivery, and most importantly – audience attention. Video demands 100% of the audience’s attention. Like a car crash on the freeway.

We all stare.

A Quick Reminder on Equivalent Power

Since finally listening to Dave Slusher’s the Human Touch presentation from the Podcast and Portable Media Expo, I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘equivalent power’. The notion that if you want to rebut anything I write on any of my blogs, you can do so on your own blog or podcast. This is different than in traditional media where the publisher (newspaper editor, radio show screener, TV producer) can easily censor comments.

Then this gem shows up from the guy I thank for starting us down this righteous path of togetherness:

“When people get the idea that they’re on some righteous path that’s exclusive of others, that’s when I start shaking my head….Get a clue, we’re all bozos on this bus, and none of us gets out of this alive.” – Dave Winer