How would you measure the creative culture of the company?

2 05 2008

At the Web 2.0 Expo, I attended a workshop by Scott Berkun who wrote the books “The Myths of Innovation” and “Making Things Happen”. You can find both on his website.

Selfishly, I go into more detail on his philosophy on innovation on my personal blog, but one statement Berkun said is right for this audience to weigh in on.

So here it is – and the context behind the statement is that Berkun was describing four incubation methods of where it’s safe to play with ideas at work.

Here’s what he said: What percentage of ideas from your employees actually makes it out to product? That is the best way to judge the creative culture.

What do you think?

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The psychology of a website

29 04 2008

This part of Web 2.0 caught my attention. I wish I would have studied more psychology in college, but that was my loss.

Gavin Bell gave a rather technical talk at the Web 2.0 Expo recently, but his points are worth sharing.

He says developers and designers should design web sites for people not companies. He also says that we are all systems of human behavior and make decisions based on the world around us. We need to design products to fit into how people think about the world, he says.

Creating web sites is a process of understanding people. Site owners have something to offer and they want to help people to use the site to help themselves. Cognitive psychology has a lot to say about how we should be approaching web development from pace of change to exploration and interaction. Read more.

Here are some bullet points from Bell’s talk:

  • Web sites need to be simple, adaptable and respect the audience you have acquired.
  • People don’t want features. They want experiences that you have designed just for them.
  • Don’t focus on the experts or new users, rather focus on the everyday person using your site.
  • If you do things right users will respect the context in which you provide an experience.
  • And, what I felt was most important, find a way to figure out what your users are doing right before they come to your site. It will help you better understand the experience they are having with your product.

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Two different Web 2.0 cultures: Bloggers vs. media

28 04 2008

I was searching for a way to describe some of the atmosphere at the Web 2.0 Expo last week I found another post that really summed it up in a way I think everyone at Gazette Communications can relate to.

J.D. Lasica of MediaShift’s Idea Lab caught onto it. A perfect example, as he writes, occurred on the third floor of the Moscone Center as the traditional media lounge sat right next to the blogger lounge, which was aptly named Blogtropolus.

Here’s how he described the press lounge:

Enter the press lounge and it’s akin to stepping into a public library: about 18 tech reporters are hunkered down at their laptops, sitting around small tables with nary a whisper. Stacks of brochureware and press releases line the room. A coffee stand is set to one side.

Here’s how he described the bloggers lounge:

Immediately next door, Blogtropulus brims with energy and buzz. About five dozen bloggers mill about, chatting up friends and new acquaintances. In the back, a line forms at the two chairs where you can lie down for a massage. At the far left, three bloggers in their 20s are taking turns playing virtual bowling on a Wii; one simulates a bowler’s stance, and moments later a bowling ball sails down the lane toward a perfect strike on the projection screen.

Where would you want to spend more time? Who do you think did a better job of covering the Expo? What culture would you rather play in?


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Another local media company at Web 2.0

25 04 2008

So Becky.com decided to take a leap today and put out early this morning that she wanted a discussion on traditional media in the Web 2.0 world.

The cool part of this expo is that you can propose any topic to discuss in a certain location – in this case she reserved a table at lunch – and then let people’s feet do the talking. If people show up, which they often do, a good discussion likely ensues.

In this instance we met a few people, but in particular Robert Wescott, vice president of audience development, and Scott Horton, multimedia creative director, for Opubco Communications Group, the company that does such sites as NewsOK.com, The Oklahoman newspaper and so on.

Oh, and a really cool new events site called wimgo.

There will be more that comes out of the discussion we had, but give props to Becky.com for coming up with the idea and following through.

By the way, we need to take a site visit to see how this media company functions. I think it would be beneficial. – Jason

From Becky.com

http://www.theslog.net is Scott’s blog. Very interesting.

Some interesting ideas that came out of our talks with them:
- They’ve set up a studio for online only content (podcasts etc., set up like a hip TV studio)
- They have a staff of maybe 12 that exclusively creates online content
- They operate out of one newsroom for all of their products (newspaper and niche)
- They employ a staff of talented developers and designers
- They evaluated the industy wages for online positions and pay very competitively (wink wink)
- The transition was not quick, took maybe 12 years to get to where they are from where they were as a traditional newspaper company

Very cool to meet some people who have been dealing some very similar issues to us, and they seem to be pushing full steam ahead with promise.


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A look at day 3 at the Web 2.0 Expo

25 04 2008

Here’s another video from day three here in San Francisco which includes these ad-hoc sessions called Birds of a Feather.


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Two ideas

24 04 2008

I just wanted to share two quick ideas that has come out of the Web 2.0 Expo that I think we could implement or be a part of at Gazette Communications. Here they are, but I want your feedback. What do you think about them?

  1. Create a ‘user experience’ position that works across platforms and channels: Everyone says this is a big factor in taking anything to market anymore, even on legacy products. The key question I’ve heard twice is do you know and understand what people are doing right before them use your services? What about what they do right after they stop using your products and services?
  2. Create that one space for all local bloggers: There are 69 people who list Cedar Rapids as there hometown on Twitter alone. How many people from Cedar Rapids are blogging? Location is important. Let’s create a space people to find all local bloggers.

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What’s your social responsibility strategy?

24 04 2008

At yesterday’s opening remarks Tim O’Reilly talked about big problems the world still needs solved that cool technologists are in a great position to be a part of the solution.

The internet, O’Reilly said, is quickly emerging as the platform of choice for everyday life. Those comments lead me to some thoughts after taking part in an ad-hoc session at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco this morning titled “Social Responsibility”.

I realize I am in the heart of tree hugger country, and there is no shortage of headlines about activists with a loud megaphone coming from theses parts, so bear with me.

The discussion was open, but led by two guys who started the Facebook group Geeks Doing Good.

Geeks Doing Good brings together geeks from all walks of life to socialize and network while providing service for the community with which they live.

The main focus of the discussion was this: Businesses should have a social responsibility strategy and practice what they preach for the betterment of their community, their employees and customers.

Very interesting, I thought. We, as part of a media company, should embrace this idea of having a social responsibility strategy. Not only for the health of the employees but for the overall good for the community.

So, who at Gazette Communications will help me form a social responsibility strategy?


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Micromedia, Microblogging and the enterprise

24 04 2008

The term micromedia, a panel here at Web 2.0 said, is only about a year old. It’s about those bit size bits of information floating around the web that’s beginning to take shape at a very rapid pace.

This panel was comprised of Gregarious Narain, Jeremiah Owyang, Stowe Boyd and Brian Solis.

The perfect example of a micromedia tool, obviously, is Twitter. The 140 characters of telling others what you are doing right now has taken off especially within the last month.

Micromedia examples are a great way to engage in conversation in real time, share content, learn, and ask questions. It is something completely different than blogging. I get more responses within Twitter than my blog posts.

Micromedia and microblogging are very different experiences, and require a different mindset. The cool thing about it, the panel said, is that you don’t have to dedicate your full attention to it, which makes it appealing to a more broad base of people and for different uses.

One person in the audience brought up a good question: How can you use Twitter for your business?One way is customer service. For example, Dell and other major companies monitor Twitter and can respond in real time.

Twitter, or any micromedia tool for that matter, allows for instant participation.

Oh, and we were told to look for this in the coming weeks. A version of Twitter for the enterprise, full of new features geared strickly for business, project management and customer service.


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Video from day two at Web 2.0

24 04 2008

Here is a look back from day 2 of the Web 2.0 Expo. The day was the first full day of sessions and keynotes speeches by Tim O’Reilly, Clay Shirky, Max Levchin and the launch announcment of Microsoft’s Live Mesh. It’s a little long again.


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Fail fast and often

24 04 2008

I sat in on a session all about failure.

The main point of the talk put on by Alan Lewis of eBay, Randy Reiland from the Discovery Channel, Scott Green from Google and Ryan Stewart from Adobe was that user adoption is the fundamental measure of success.

They specifically mentioned media companies here. Traditionally media companies have a hard time rolling out something in beta. We want to be perfect, right. Rather, the web is about launching, testing and tweaking constantly.

The lesson, the panel said, was that since users are more forgiving these days they are more apt to give new site or new application more of a chance if your are open and honest with them. Do this so the bad projects fail fast, they say.


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