About time. And product. And being more deliberate.
Here’s the WordPress Technorati Tag plugin I mentioned a few posts back.
WP-CaTT appends a link in a post’s category listings to the corresponding Technorati Tag page.
In the case of this site, it’s the “(t)” you see in the category listing just above this post.
For suggestions, comments, and all other ongoing concerns with this plugin, head over to the WP-CaTT dedicated page
Overheard at the Dunn Bros in downtown St. Paul:
“It’s like gambling, losing all that money at the gas pumps these days.”
Complaining about gas prices is like complaining about a bad haircut. Each of us has the power to change the impact it has on us. In the case of cars; drive less, use public transit, bike, buy a car that gets better than a mile per gallon, or just stop whining.
Similarly, it should be illegal to complain about traffic and gas prices. They’re directly correlated.
To finish the metaphor, in the case of bad haircuts; get it re-cut by the same stylist, get a wig, re-cut it yourself, get a new stylist, let it grow out.
Yesterday, I grabbed a coffee with one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. We were talking about project teams wallowing in the unknown and stalling out. He proclaimed:
“Just put a stake in the ground and move on.”
His recommendation reinforces Charlie Lazor’s advice, “You really won’t know until you build it.”
Both of these thoughts require an acceptance of being wrong. An acceptance that the first solution, based on what is currently known, just might be faulty. The only way to find out is to build something and get more information – either from the customers, the technology team, or the prototype itself.
Every instance I’ve seen where a project team wasn’t able to easily define an interaction was due to lack of information. Similarly, every instance I’ve seen where defining an interaction has reached Heated Debate, the available information was faulty. A quick call to a customer or developer diffused the situation immediately.
Update: 9 Mar 2005 9:04 am
Everyone, send good vibes Dave Sifry’s (Technorati CEO) way.
Niall, perhaps this would be helpful to remember in your position as Technorati Community Manager:
“Provocation and controversy are good for building hype, bad for building community”
“Being provocative or negative is one way to generate traffic, but it doesn’t generate culture.”
I’m googling for the author of this quote, if you know please drop it in the comments. I think it was said in the context of podcasting. Thanks.
Found it, 15 Mar 2005 11:30 pm, credit for this quote goes to Mark Vandewettering via Dan Lyke of Flutterby (see the comments. Thanks Dan!)
Update: 8 Mar 2005, 11:30 am
Jason Kottke is a smart person. He changed the title of his original post because as more information came out, Technorati was not at fault. I agree and have followed suit.
Frankly, I find the entire situation artificial and awkward. As it turns out, Kennedy set himself up. I saw nothing wrong with his original post. Poor taste or otherwise. He then went around and basically asked his employer to find fault with it. Quid pro quo, he proved his own point – when given the chance, employers are happy to say no. Blah and now I’m out of coffee.
Original Post
The last couple days, I was thinking about exploring integrating Technorati’s Tags into WordPress. Then I read Technorati censoring employee blogs? over at Kottke.org.
I concur with Jason, if I ran a company that aggregated weblogs, the last thing I would do is piss off webloggers.
The post in question was on Niall Kennedy’s personal site. Niall was comparing employer’s desire to restrict employees blogging to wartime propaganda.
Last night I modified a few propaganda posters from the 1940s to express how corporations would like to control what their employees say on a weblog, at a bar, or even to their families.
Cue Technorati being, um, ironic (Employer commands employee to pull down blog post commenting on employers restricting employees weblog posting). It’s funny, cause it’s true:
Will opinions expressed on employee weblogs be considered official company positions?
Unless the weblog is http://Technorati.com/OfficialTechnoratiWeblog and has a big Technorati logo on it, NO!
Just 2 days earlier, Steve Gillmor commented on the Google’s new Autolink “feature” and offered this advice:
Who cares if you can do it because. Forget the stuff about do no evil. Do no stupid.
Technorati Bloggers and companies should follow the same advice. or I say we stop pinging them. I’m holding off digging into their tagging until they do.
I’m starting to see more tags (see Better Email Tips) in my email subject lines. Today, I received an email canceling a meeting, with all the information contained in the subject line with “(eom)” at the end.
eom: end of message
I’d recommend using it when your entire message can be included in the subject line and I suspect it could be more than you think 🙂
Late last week, a client and I were discussing a struggling project. The client mentioned his project team regularly works nights and weekends to meet the deadlines he had scheduled. I was stunned. This was months into a years longs project.
For other arguments against overtime, crunch time, and aggressive planning, I recommend:
For as long as I can remember, my mom has taught developmentally-disabled children. I’ve always been in awe of her patience with these kids. Each year, the level of functioning can swing from nearly “normal” to extremely trying. A few years back, she told me about a specific autistic kid, functioning on the low side and unable to communicate. He was a constant distraction for the rest of the class and at times could be violent. To calm him down, my mom gave him any markers and loose paper she had on hand. From memory, he would draw what he saw on television the night before.
I was enamored of his work and asked my mom for a selection of the drawings. This morning, while doing some spring cleaning, I re-discovered his work and thought I’d share some of them with you.
I hope you enjoyed these. Let me know.
The thought for today is brought to you via Seth Godin:
“All marketing failures are boring. Most are self-centered.”
This morning, NPR had a segment on Homeland Security requiring illegal immigrants to wear electronic monitoring ankle bracelets (read the comments). Yes, I’m all for reducing the load on the detention centers and allowing the immigrants to contribute something to America while they prepare an asylum claim.
This program needs to be closely watched. Closely. It, combined with other secret laws, has the potential to slide us down a slippery slope destroying the American Dream and accelerating the emigration from America described by Richard Florida in his latest book (The Flight of the Creative Class).
Norwegianity, thanks for the link.
A couple days back, I wrote a half-formed rant on the current state of department stores (Picky Customer or Circling Vulture). This morning, while skimming my blogroll [opml] in search of a pick-me-up, Hugh McLeod 1) knees me in the groin 2) points and laughs. He did both in his Cheapest or Best post.
First, his enigmatic business card cartoon:
“if the f’r doesn’t cost you your life, it isn’t a quest.”
Hugh, thanks, I needed the reminder. Today especially.
Second, the post reads like a better Picky Customer, with fewer words. Actually, I should just replace that post with these 2 thoughts from Hugh:
“You have no automatic right to revenue.”
“We are now moving into a world where you have two basic survival choices:”
- “You can be the cheapest.”
- “You can be the best.”
“There is no middle option.”
Amen. Why are department stores, commercial radio stations, hub-airlines, and advertising agencies failing left and right? In Hugh’s list of survival options, they are neither.
Choosing either cheapest or best will give people a reason to do business with you more than once. As an added Free Prize, it will inspire passion (positive and negative) all around – in customers, employees, the press. Passion always means people care and that’s why we’re all here.
UPDATE: Brand Autopsy dissects JC Penny’s Missing Middle strategy. While McLeod and current market conditions are promoting cheapest (Wal-Mart / Target) or best (Neimann Marcus / Nordstroms), JC Penny’s is firmly planting themselves in the middle. Short term, it seem to be working for them (year over year sales up 3.3%), long term it sounds like a strategy to be bought by Kmart’s real estate arm.