Blogging for Business

(originally published at MNteractive.com)

Jim Cuene noticed Forrester has finally followed Jupiter Research into using weblogs to increase their analysts’ reputations and GoogleJuice.

I agree with 2.5 of Jim’s 3 suggestions for both Forrester and Jupiter. ‘Go out on a Limb’ and ‘Allow Comments’, both of these reinforce the ‘your readers know more than you’ notion. This notion builds a community around a weblog. Not only will the comments solidify the analyst’s findings, they could become an inexpensive recruiting tool.

In addition to commenting, I’d like to see these research firms offer TrackBacks. Whereas comments are internal to the weblog, TrackBacks are external and a very quantitative way to measure how much buzz a specific story has generated.

Oh, and Forrester, don’t forget the RSS feeds. Jupiter already offers them for each of their analysts.

Which brings me to the 1/2 point I disagree with Jim on. As far back as I can remember, Jupiter and Forrester made their money by selling research. I don’t see any reason for that to change. Just as I see RSS feeds as the compact disc for the 21st century, I think these research firms could charge for access to their blogs. These blogs would be their customer’s semi-private research channel, containing everything they publish on the topics purchased with special, semi-exclusive, in-depth coverage.

The real value in both these firms have is their customer list. With private blogs and commenting, Forrestor and Jupiter are in an amazing position to leverage Metcalf’s Law. How much would you pay to hear your major competitor’s reaction to the latest Jupiter report?

These research firms’ job is to start a smart conversation, for the real value is where the conversation goes. The question they need to ask themselves is: Are they in the newspaper business or the fish-wrap business?.

Elsewhere:
Jupiter’s thoughts on the benefits of half-using a weblog

The Object-Oriented Thought Process

On my way to better understand object-oriented programming ( ) and thereby check “Learn enough Objective-C to be dangerous” off my ThingsToDo list, I picked up The Object-Oriented Thought Process by Matt Weisfeld.

Not having formal training in software engineering, I found the book’s focus on the language-agnostic basics of OO extremely helpful.

Here’s what I learned from the book:

  • Classes are almost always nouns
  • A Class’s ‘Responsibilities’ are almost always verbs
  • In the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern;
    • Model = the application object, the data-model
    • View = the screen presentation
    • Controller = the user interface’s response to user input
    • (this wasn’t as helpful as I’d like, it may just need to sink in)
  • ‘is-a’ relationship = one object is a specific version of a more general object (e.g. Hamlin is a turtle)
  • ‘has-a’ relationship = one object has another object contained within it (e.g. a bicycle has a seat)
  • Patterns are general principles for solving programming problems
  • AntiPatterns are specific examples of programming problems solved poorly or solutions to redeem poorly-solved problems

Weisfeld was mostly language-agnostic, he uses Java ( ) for his examples. At times, the example code gets in the way of the illustrating the point. With the little I know about Ruby ( ) (100% object-oriented, simpler syntax than Java), I may have chosen that language to illustrate OO principles to novices.

If you’re looking for a non-programming book to wrap your head around OO, I haven’t found an alternative to The Object-Oriented Thought Process.

Phone Battery Dead No More

For a couple weeks straight, I kept forgetting to charge my phone overnight. A single charge is only good for a couple days, so I was stuck with a useless phone more than I’d like. With my addiction to BluePhoneElite, not having my T610 charged is like not having a phone at all.

One day it got so bad, I ran to the local Dunn Bros. and called Jen using Skype.

To prevent being phone-less again, I picked up Zip-Linq USB phone charger. Yes, like a miracle of modern technology, the phone charges off the USB port.

The package from Zip-Linq comes with a half dozen adaptors, for all the major phone brands. This means you can be even more popular at the office – by charging your co-workers dead phones off your USB drive.

I’m quite happy with it out of the box. If that changes, you’ll be the first to know.

Introducing Tag Maker for MarsEdit

I’m a big fan of MarsEdit, I use it for all my weblog posting. The other day, I was wondering about making any arbitrary text a Technorati Tag.

The result was the Tag Maker Applescript for MarsEdit.

It takes any selected text and appends a ‘(t)’ to it linking to the corresponding tag at Technorati, or a ‘(d)’ for del.icio.us tags. For example: MarsEdit (), Applescript ( ).

Download the Tag Maker AppleScript

For suggestions, comments, and all other ongoing concerns with this plugin, head over to the Tag Maker dedicated page

An Unexpected Yak Shaving

One of the bathtub faucets has leaked for a couple weeks. Monday, I could no longer ignore it. That same day, Seth Godin introduced me to Yak Shaving.

yak shaving: Any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of recursion later, solves the real problem you’re working on.

Tuesday, I headed to Home Depot for a replacement faucet stem seat.

According to the helpful Home Depot associate, great strides in faucet technology have been made in the 50 years since my bathroom’s was built (the faucet’s obsolete). He recommended I find a Plumbing Supply Specialty Store for the parts or pick up a new faucet. I opted for the new faucet.

Today, the Yak is clean shaven, er, the leak is gone.

Follow along if you will:

    Day 1:

  1. On Home Depot Trip #2 Jen and I pick up a new faucet.
  2. The old faucet framework wasn’t persuaded by the monkey wrench. It was however persuaded by Mr. Pipe Cutter. Unfortunately, Mr. Pipe Cutter left bare copper tubing rather than the more useful copper tubing + threading.
  3. Home Depot Trip #3 brought compression connectors adding threading to the bare copper tubes.
  4. With the faucet framework attached, it is obvious the old holes aren’t big enough for the new stems and the hole for the tub faucet is about an inch lower than the pipes will reach.
    Day 2:

  1. On Home Depot Trip #4 grab a 1 3/4″ hole cutter for the newer, bigger holes. (Where’d I put the power drill’s chuck wrench?) and a couple of pipes to reach the faucet hole.
  2. With the new holes drilled and faucet installed, I notice the faucet stem lengths don’t accommodate the wall between the plumbing and tub.
  3. Here I ponder tearing out and replacing entire the tub, surround, and wall. Instead…
  4. Mr. Hacksaw and I cut two copper tubing-size channels out of an offending 1×4, proving just enough space to connect the handles.
  5. Handles installed. Faucet installed. Leak ended. Mostly

Update 19 Mar 2005
My dad came by today and looked at the repair. Looks like I got it mostly right. Just needed to be more liberal with the teflon tape. Thanks dad.

Walking into this, I had no intention of shaving a yak. Nor did I anticipate replacing a small bit of formed metal would take 2 days. On the outset, I expected 2 hours, max. That reminds me, here’s a special bonus thought of the day from David J. Anderson: Stop Estimating.

Something takes as long as it takes. ETA isn’t known until you’re deep into understanding the problem you’re solving (i.e. doing it). In physics, there’s the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle principle: you can know a particle’s velocity or its precise location. Not both.
Let’s say ‘velocity’ is ‘doing’ and ‘location’ is ‘planning’. So, to rephrase; You can do or plan. Only doing will give you an ETA.

Are Newspapers in the News Business or Fish-wrap Business?

Doc Searls:

“If your paper is worth so much (and it is), and you want to charge for it, how about charging for fresh news, and giving away the stale stuff?”

The ‘more-for-new-less-for-old’ model is a good one. Let’s take a look a couple industries where it seems to work well:

  1. Movies
    If Jen and I want to see the newest Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy right when it’s released (doubtful), I’m paying upwards of $16 at the cineplex. A few months after that, I can rent the DVD for $2 and have a HHGTTG-themed party in the comfort of my own home. I’ll probably wait. The same is true of HBO’s shows, and other cable-only televison.
  2. Apparel
    If I need the hip-est Kenneth Cole or Michael Kors suit, it’s Marshall Fields. If I can wait a season, it’s Off-5th or Marshalls for far less. I usually wait.

Back to the newspaper business. If I want the latest, most up-to-date reporting, I turn on the TV, pick up a newspaper, or more likely, head to a news-provider’s website via Google News. Always free (if not heavily subsidized). If I want to link to their specific article in this weblog, you (the reader) will need either register or pay to have any context.

This is a disincentive for me to link to the newspaper’s articles. Thereby artificially limiting the useful life of the article (what’s being called the long tail).

This is fine if newspapers are actually in the fish-wrap business. In that case, the paper itself is the most valuable. The usefulness is not in the reporter’s words but in the fish, birdcage, or compost bin the paper eventually lines. Not a message I would send to the beat reporters.

A few months back, I heard the president of Schwan’s Foods talk. From his perspective, Schwan’s isn’t in the frozen food business as much as the food delivery business. Just like Amazon & Wal-Mart not being in the retail business, more the logistics and fulfillment business.

These slight shifts in perspective make a huge difference in your implementation and customer relationship.

If newspapers are in-fact still in the news business, the need to explore avenues that customers readers (not advertisers) will finance. Along the lines of Jupiter Research. Otherwise, they’re a history lesson just like the recording, oil, and airline industries.

Van Crashes into Paper Source

Van Crash 3

UPDATE: 25 Mar 2005
This from the Paper Source’s page on their Minneapolis location

If you’ve driven past our store you may have noticed that things are not what they once were. One big van crash took out half the building. The good news is that nobody was hurt. The bad news is that while we wanted to expand, this isn¹t exactly what we had planned….

Earlier this morning, a crazy red van crashed into the 2400 Hennepin Ave. in Minneapolis. The impact completely destroyed the NE corner of the building.

The building’s storefronts include; where Jen works – Paper Source, and the hair salon, Sudz.

The impact hit Sudz square. It’s goneUpdate: Sudz is back. The structural integrity of the rest of the building is uncertain and will be determined on Monday. Meaning, the Paper Source will be closed on Monday. Sudz, probably longer.

Considering Jen’s on staff at the Paper Source, we got the news almost immediately. We headed over and I snapped some photos with my T610.

At the time I was there, there were half a dozen others snapping away, a handful with camera phones and a handful with “real” digital cameras.

As of 10am Sun, the only other coverage I’ve seen on the incident is this brief write-up at WCCO.

Here’s KSTP’s coverage of the van crash

Laura Thayer took some great photos with a real camera.

First Crack 31. The Wine Episode with Tim Elliott

Tim Elliott, from winecast.net, and I met at Bev’s Wine Bar and talked wine, coffee, and technology.

Listen to the Wine Episode with Tim Elliott [32 min]

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