Online reputation and anonymous comments: sxore to the rescue?
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? After all, it’s his name, his email address, and his blog address. Right?
I see huge negative potential for this in the blogosphere. In fact, it’s already happening. Check out Scoble’s comment on one of his own posts: some creep is trackbacking sites as if he’s Scoble, and making it look as if Scoble has commented.
Hugh Macleod had the same problem on Tara Hunt’s blog: some sleazeball posting false and inflammatory comments, putting words into Hugh’s mouth, and potentially damaging both Hugh’s relationships and his reputation.
Here’s my question: can Dick Hardt’s sxore service prevent this problem? Sounds like it could:
sxore is an identity and reputation system for blog authors, readers and commenters. By acting as an intermediary between blog posts and comments, sxore provides a framework of identity for participants in the blog dialog.
But will my fake Guy Kawasaki comment make it through?
If I recall, when I signed up for sxore I had to authenticate myself via an automated email link. That has the potential to make it more difficult. Guy may be getting an email from sxore right now wondering what on earth is going on.
I could have put his email address as guy@sparkplug9.com … and unless there was a person checking it or an automated check that the email address is from the same domain as the blog (a potentially limiting factor for all those denizens of the blogosphere who do not have their own domain) my comment would probably still go through … because I could create that address and authenticate it. At least, however, there’d be some kind of audit trail that could be traced.
So sxore may be a solution to the problem. (In fact, there’s a Wordpress plugin available right now.)
It just needs wide enough adoption to become a standard.
Tags: sxore, dick hardt, guy kawasaki, reputation, blogosphere, comments, spam, john koetsier
Waging a living
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 Francisco, making $9-10/hour. A raise of 25 cents an hour is a big deal to him. One is a nurse in New Jersey who supports 5 people on $11/hour. Another is a waitress whose husband left and didn’t pay any alimony or child support. Another is a woman who was abused through childhood and has slowly, painfully been getting her education and increasing her standard of living: 3 steps forward and 2 steps back.
These people are inspiring. But their stories break my heart.
I’m a social, political, fiscal, and moral conservative, but:
- it is not right that some make hundreds of millions and some make pennies
- it is not right that a waitress could be paid less than $3/hour in New Jersey
- it is not right that the gap between executive management and rank-and-file is wider now than ever (200-400x more, I think)
- it is not right that many of us make so much money we don’t even think about spending it, or even know how much exactly we have, while others have basic living expenses that outpace their wages
- it is not right that people die because they cannot afford medical insurance
- it is not right that single mothers working for very limited wages have to spend half a week’s pay for over-the-counter medicines
- it is not right that we have so little respect for people that we think we can pay them a wage that reduces them to living in inhumane circumstances
We can call a spade an implement for digging, or we can just simple say that this is evil. And - yes, I’m a Christian too - God will judge us for this sin.
That said, if I was counselling young people in school today, I would say the world is not fair, and you should never expect it to be. Get your education. Get your education. Get your education! It will improve your life.
And I would say to spouses: divorce will not only kill your relationship. It will not only scar your children for life. It will reduce you to poverty. All of the people profiled in this POV were divorced, and it adds greatly to the strain of trying to make a living.
May God make us thankful for what we have, and generous to those who have not been so blessed.
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And, PS: I’m glad to live in Canada, where anyone, anytime, anywhere, is guaranteed to get the medical care that he or she needs, to the best of our ability to provide it, regardless of the size of his or her bank account. Choosing not to help someone who is sick because they can’t afford medical care is revolting.
Tags: POV, PBS, waging a living, working poor, poverty, america, minimum wage, ceo compensation, social justice, health insurance, john koetsier
User-generated content is not new
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.
Are there other examples of producerism that predate the internet era? Here’s the components you need, as far as I can tell:
- a shared and social media space
- a community that gathers there
- content of some kind that they create and share
Talk radio fits, I think, but the 18th-century tavern doesn’t. Am I missing something?
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[ update Sept. 4 ]
America’s Funniest Home Videos comes to mind. A significant difference? The centralized gatekeeper/editor. Perhaps a necessary part of the definition of producerism/user-generated content is the lack of a centralized gatekeeper.
Tags: cgm, consumer-generated media, producerism, team1040, radio, talk, social media, community, john koetsier
World’s worst landing page
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 stupid does, right?
Tags: Ze Frank, popup, the show, landing page, john koetsier
500 echoes
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.)
Tags: chris pirillo, echo, blogging, blogosphere, john koetsier
Google library: saving books from themselves
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, mixing, and “burning” books:
Tags: google, video, books, connexions, library, gutenberg, john koetsier
Marketing and the manuals
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. Darren Barefoot says: keep marketing away at all costs. And this was my take on it - agreeing with Kathy, and suggesting some reasons why new clients take precedence in most organizations.
Who’s right?
The funny thing is: I guarantee that if you get these two people in the room, they will agree. Kathy will say that manuals should be clearly written and free of exageration and falsehood. Darren will say that manuals should have a lot more attention and dollars.
I understood her article in the context of a previous one: Are your users stuck in “P” mode, in which she argued that most manuals focus on the wrong thing.
Most manuals focus on how to operate the tool … not on how to achieve what you bought the tool for. For example, the high-end digital camera that you bought tells you all about how to set shutter speed and focal length … and not a word about why you would actually want to do that, when you will want to adjust those parameters, and what effect it will have on your photos.
In other words, the manual is about the camera, not photography. It’s about the product, not the activity.
That’s the context in which I understand her saying: the amount of energy and resources that go into marketing a product should also go into explaining the use of the product.
That just makes sense.
And that’s where marketing can help … because marketing is always (or should always) be focused on the reasons why a person would buy a particular product.
Tags: kathy sierra, darren barefoot, passionate users, marketing, manuals, john koetsier
Sound of one blog clapping
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.)
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Issue
Technorati is not updating its index of this blog as I ping it to notify it that I’ve updated. This has only been going on for a couple of days now, but some other bloggers have had the same issue for 45 days, 146 days, or longer.
It may, repeat may, have something to do with Technorati deciding that your blog is a splog, but I have no real evidence for that. (Only that it IS indexing my other two blogs which are right on this same server - and base domain!)
As I find out more about this problem and others that are having it, I’ll post the links here.
Apparently, I am not alone. In fact, there’s hundreds, maybe thousands, in the same nasty boat. Hmm, even more. And more! This blogger says Technorati is eating her shorts.
This issue is not new, as many posts around the blogosphere can attest. These issues, however, have not stopped Technorati from releasing new features.
If you’re having an issue as well - or especially if you had an issue and got it fixed - let me know in the comments. Thanks! Somehow we have to let Technorati know about this and make enough noise so they actually get it fixed.
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Update: Sept 1 3:14 PM
This story has been seeded to Newsvine. Please vote for it to get more volume behind the need for Technorati to fix the below issues. Thanks! ]
Update: Sept 2 12:10 PM
Technorati has started updating its index of bizhack again. I still haven’t heard from anyone there, and about 4-5 posts have fallen into the aether, but Technorati has picked up my 2 latest posts. That’s good … but there are still MANY bloggers stuck in index limbo. Some communication from Technorati about this would be a positive sign.
Update: September 4, 11:03 PM
OK, I’m in the Technorati black hole again … it’s no longer picking up my new posts. It’s now missing about 7-8 of them. Ditto last comment above: some communication would be nice.
Update: September 5, 10:23 PM
Now Technorati has forgotten that it knows my blog: on my account page it says “Errors listing claimed blogs,” and a search for bizhack in the blog directory turns up no results. Meanwhile a search for bizhack in blog posts turns up 248 links.
Tags: technorati, horribly-slow-and-unreliable, buggy-and-annoying, takes-a-whole-day-to-update, has-last-weeks-data, somebody-please-fix, google-buy-it-now-please-pretty-please, john koetsier
Horses, water, and social media
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 John,
I enjoy reading your blog – your Increase your IQ: blog article caught my attention. We too have been inspired by the Stormhoek example which has been on my radar screen for some time now, and have also been trying to get corporates interested in leveraging the blogosphere …
We (name deleted) recently won a small project with (large Australian company - name deleted). We found a small group of bloggers based on geographic location and invited them to the launch party of a new brand … and … we are now endeavouring to get (the large Australian company) to have a link on their web site to all the bloggers/podcasters.
But we have found it difficult to convince (large Australian company) to do this – full marks for getting the project started but now it’s on the way it seems (to date anyway) they lack the ‘will’ to finish the job!
That, of course, is always great fun for consultants and outsourced talent: a hanging, incomplete project that the client seems to have forgotten.
My reply:
Hi Paul,
Can be tough, hey? Horse and water come to mind.
Reality is: if the client doesn’t get it, you’re probably wasting your time. Because then even if they do it they’ll do it as a tactic or as an episode … not as a new way of doing business and communicating and seeking input and telling people who care what they’re doing.
Hope everything goes well for you. I have a few buddies in Australia, on the Perth side. Where are you?
At this point, it’s probably better not to dip your toes in the social media water than to jump in and then find out that it’s way too cold, the currents are unfamiliar, and besides, you really like your old swimming hole much better anyways.
Authenticity (or lack thereof) will surface … and the social media sphere is extremely hostile to fakery, old-style marketing, or just simple BS.
Why existing clients don’t matter (as much)
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 user manual is a thing of boredom. The brochure gets the big budget while the manual gets the big index. What if we stopped making the docs we give away for free SO much nicer than the ones the user paid for? What if instead of seducing potential users to buy, we seduced existing users to learn?
Let’s take the whole damn ad/marketing budget and move it over to product manuals and support. Let’s put our money where our users are. If we’re in it for the short term, then sure–it makes sense to do everything to get a new user, while doing as little as possible once we’ve got them. But if we’re really in it for the long haul–for customer retention and loyal users–then shouldn’t we be using all that graphic design and pro writing talent for the people we care about the most? Our users?
The answer, of course, is no.
In spite of common sense … in spite of the fact that the cost of winning new clients is much higher than satisfying the ones you have … in spite of the fact that it is in a company’s best interests to ensure that clients are getting full value from their products.
Why? Many companies ARE in it for the short term. That’s not what they’ll SAY, of course. But it is what they’ll DO. And behavior is a much better predictor of belief than language.
- Sales leaders want to know how much they’ll sell next month.
- Investors are asking: what have you done for me lately?
- Wall Street is looking for next quarters’ results, not 2 or 3 or even 4 quarters from now.
- C-level executive compensation - and bonus plans throughout an organization - are built on short-term results.
- Sales consultants begin their year assuming most/all of their existing clients will stay in that category.
How do you fix it?
Short of rejecting Wall Street and taking your company private, I don’t know if there’s a good answer. Here’s a few I think might help. Feel free to add more on your blog.
- Focus on annual results over quarterly results
- Compensate based on client longevity instead of “capture”
- Start your sales strategy plans with existing clients, not prospective clients
- Commission sales people on how well clients use your products, not just how often they sell
- ???
The truth is: to most organizations, existing users/clients are less important than new ones. At least, if you go by behavior.
And frankly, behavior is what counts.
Tags: users, clients, kathy sierra, sales, marketing, manuals, john koetsier
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Sparkplug 9 is John Koetsier's blog on life, the universe, and everything,
but mostly the stuff you see big in the tags to the left.
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