I’ve been wondering lately about online reputation in a world in which anyone can comment on any blog with any credentials. For example, I could go to Dick Hardt’s blog Blame Canada and pretend to be Guy Kawasaki, and create a very nasty comment. And who would know that Guy didn’t flip his lid?...
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I just saw POV on PBS: Waging a Living, and I am ashamed that I am ever in any way discontent with my life or my job or my salary. Waging a Living follows the lives of 4 individuals who are “working poor.” (More details about them.) One’s a security guard in downtown San...
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Driving home tonight listening to the local sports station riff with call-in guests on the Vancouver Canucks’ prospects for the coming NHL season, I started thinking. “User” or “consumer” generated content is nothing new. It’s at least as old as talk radio, which relies heavily on call-in listeners to stimulation conversations and generate interest....
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I just watched Ze Frank’s latest show on branding. After which was an ad for a music contest, which, mildly interested in, I clicked. Only to see this fairly ugly sign-up page exhorting me to take the “Workshop Live Contest” (why? who are you? what for?) with this prominently displayed: Well, stupid is as...
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Did you notice that 500 people echoed Christ Pirillo’s eliminate the echo chamber post? (I might be slightly exagerating.) This post, however, is an anti-echo. (The above comment should be taken with precisely one grain of salt.) chris pirillo, echo, blogging, blogosphere, john koetsier
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Google Book Search is now releasing full books as downloadable PDFs … in some ways similar to what Project Gutenberg has been doing for years. To me, Google is saving books from themselves. Not hit books, of course, and not recent books either. But the long tail of books. Related: Project Connexions … ripping,...
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What matters more … existing clients, or prospective clients? Can you tell by comparing the amount of money spent on brochures (prospective clients) and manuals (existing clients)? Kathy Sierra wondered why marketing (and the big marketing $$$) doesn’t have more do with the manuals … the drab 1-color pieces that clients get after purchase....
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If I update my blog and Technorati doesn’t notice, did I really update my blog? (Please scroll down for numerous updates. As things change, I’ll update the updates, which will then be updated with new updates, when updatability is required. And so on.) . . . . . . Issue Technorati is not updating...
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The benefits of social media and business blogging are not immediately apparent to all. I recently received an email from an Ausssie who’s trying to convince a client to open up. Names changed to protect his privacy … and his relationship with his client! Also, I’ve done some very slight editing for clarity. Hey...
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Kathy Sierra makes me gag. How can one person have so many great ideas that (once she’s said them) seem like the commonest of common sense? I’m envious. Why do so many companies treat potential users so much better than existing users? Think about it. The brochure is a thing of beauty, while the...
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This is a “holy mother” moment: everyday on Vimeo Six years of a self-portrait every. single. day. Wow. Mesmerizing. (And the music is great, too. I want to know where to buy it.)
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I followed a link to Vox today. I vaguely remembered the service from seeing it months and months ago, but I had no clue what it was actually about. “Vox,” of course, is sort of a clue … but “voice” could be a lot of things. So I scanned. Welcome … to what? Explore...
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I started this post about 3 months ago. The paradox of choice – why more is less is a great video of Barry Schwarz talking at Google about his research on choice. His counter-intuitive result was that more choice leads to less satisfaction. More products, less happiness. More options, more stress. It’s fascinating –...
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Reason #379 to have an open and honest corporate structure that is designed to encourage questions and act ethically on the answers: getting outted on YouTube. Like Lockheed Martin and the US Coast Guard: Note: the actual video is boring and longish, though it deals with potentially critical design flaws in coast guard ships....
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OK, I’m perverse. Intentionally, abysmally, and irredeemably. Flock (the Firefox-based but much-friendlier web browser) came out with new buttons yesterday. And they’re cool. And one of them was even based on a suggestion of mine (errr, down in the comments). But it wasn’t exactly the button I wanted. So I made one myself (stealing...
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Welcome to Sparkplug 9, John Koetsier's blog on technology, social media, education, innovation ... and anything else that catches my fancy.