Jon DiPietro is Domesticating IT

There are man interesting discussions happening right now concerning the International Society of Automation (ISA) and its current travails with regard to its membership, publications, and exposition.  For those not familiar with the situation, this volunteer organization has been around for over sixty years and has come upon tough financial times, not unlike most organizations.  Two of its major revenue generating enterprises (its InTech magazine and ISA Expo trade show) have declined precipitously and are necessitating major changes.

The dialog is starting to reach a boil with comments like those recently posted on Jim Pinto’s web site by former ISA Executive Director Glenn Harvey.  I wanted to focus on just one statement in his response, in which he said “Who knows, but if large numbers of members do not call for change, ISA will keep doing what it has been doing and the results will be the same.”  Although I certainly don’t disagree with him, there is a larger message here for institutions in general; in our Web 2.0 world, that’s not the worst thing that could happen to you.

Do-It-Yourself Institutions are possible in the world of Web 2.0

DIY Institutions

When it comes to institutions like ISA, dissatisfied members used to have two choices; to stay with the institution and either live with it or try to affect change, or to find a better institution that more closely aligned with the member’s needs and desires.  If there wasn’t a suitable competitor, then the institutions had very little need or incentive to change or adapt.  If competition is a factor, then the institutions would generally react only when and if they started to lose members.

But today there is a third and more unsettling option for these dissatisfied members – they can simply do it themselves.  As the transaction costs of building, organizing and managing organizations approaches zero (thanks to the explosion of free Web 2.0 applications), members who are dissatisfied with their institutions can simply go and build their own.  Why pour time and energy into fighting an established bureaucracy (an exhausting, sometimes nasty endeavor), when one can instead simply invest the same amount of time and energy into building the institution they wanted in the first place.

“Surely You Exaggerate”

If you think I’m overestimating the power of Web 2.0, then you need to read my blog more often (just kidding). But seriously, I’ll illustrate this with two examples.  The first is a presentation by Guy Kawasaki about how quickly and inexpensively he was able to launch a company:

The second example is a project on which I’m currently working as IT Director for a NH gubernatorial campaign.  I was able to put together an entire IT infrastructure for the campaign that includes staff collaboration tools, shared calendar, web site and email hosting, web site design and development, customer relationship management (CRM), and e-newsletter services for less than $90 per month and under$500 in up front costs.  The entire system is cloud-based, which allows the campaign staff to work remotely and eliminates the need for purchasing software licenses.

So, the catch phrase is no longer “If you build it, they will come.”  Now, it’s “If you don’t build it, they will.”

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Weekly High Five lists the most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links of each week.

This week saw a couple of major releases; Windows 7 and a new Facebook user interface.  On its surface, the new Facebook “Live” and “News” streams may seem innocuous, if not confusing, to most, it is an obvious reflection of their recent hiring of the FriendFeed founders and indicates their intent to leverage real time search as part of their business model.

#5: How To Build A WiFi Home Surveillance System With Your PC

Our next door neighbor’s home was broken into a couple of weeks ago and suffered significant loss.  I’ve been researching various surveillance options and found this:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-build-a-wifi-home-surveillance-system-with-your-pc/

#4: Email Being Replaced by Social Networks? Not So Fast Wall St. Journal

As someone who is just slightly obsessive compulsive, I love symmetry and this week’s #4 post provides the perfect follow up to the Wall St Journal article that was last week’s #4, “The End of the Email Era.”  This predictable response from email marketing provider Vertical Response” provides some lucid arguments against the somewhat overstated conclusions in the Wall St Journal article

http://blog.verticalresponse.com/verticalresponse_blog/2009/10/email-being-replaced-by-social-networks-not-so-fast-wall-st-journal.html

#3: New Views for Your Home Page

The new look of Facebook’s home page is no surprise to those of us who have used FriendFeed.  Recently, Facebook acquired the talent behind that social networking site and promptly gave it the “Friendfeed treatment.”  The thing that flabbergasts me is that Facebook did not publicize this change ahead of time, or provide users with a link to this otherwise obscure blog post that explains the how and why of the changes:

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=162536657130

#2: Lifehacker’s Complete Guide to Windows 7

Those of you who have suffered through Windows Vista with me should run, not walk to upgrade to Windows 7.  I’m still waiting for my free upgrades to ship, but the reviews I’ve read are unanimous in their praise that W7 absolves the worst sins of the horror show that was Vista.

http://lifehacker.com/5386953/lifehackers-complete-guide-to-windows-7

#1: Scan of Internet Uncovers Thousands of Vulnerable Embedded Devices

This article covers a serious networking threat to many home users.  If you use a home wireless router to connect your PCs to the Internet, and you’ve never changed the default administrator account password you are in danger!  This vulnerability has been addressed in recent years by Linksys and other manufacturers by requiring a password change before the device will work, but there are still thousands of devices in use that were taken out of the box, plugged in, and never touched again.  The problem is that these routers are exposed to the Internet and all have the same factory default username and password, which allows hackers to take control of your router and, potentially, gain access to your home network.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/vulnerable-devices/

Feel free to provide your thoughts and/or contributions…

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Jon DiPietro

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Facebook is a cloud with a huge silver lining

By now, you’ve heard all the hype about Facebook; how fast it’s growing, how vast its membership is, how much content is uploaded, how much time is “wasted”, etc…  But two things have happened this week that have really caused me stop and say, “Whoa.”  The reason?  It’s becoming clear to me that Facebook as a delivery mechanism for software applications is going to be a real game changer.

The “Whoa” Moments

The first moment was last week when it was well past the “old fogies’ bed time” and my wife, for some reason, was still down stairs.  I went down to see if there was a problem and discovered that she was in the middle of a strawberry harvest on Farmville and had to finish it.  The interesting point here is the years of jibes and ribbing I received when I was in the middle of a game and would report that I’d be at the dinner table after I finished “one more level.”  The tables had turned and this is actually an important business lesson.

The second moment was a couple of days ago when I found that one of my all-time favorite games, Civilization, is coming to Facebook next year.  Online gaming has been around for a long time, but this is different and significant.  Cooperative gaming has always been plagued by network issues that only geekiest gamers were equipped to handle, which greatly limited the addressable market.    Also, there was the infrastructure.  The game companies were forced to make massive investments in infrastructure (World of Warcraft) to host the games on their servers before they would really know if the games would take off. Many of the games on Facebook are small in scope and relatively simple.  To the best of my knowledge, Civilization is the first “mainstream” game with a large, fanatical following to jump on to Facebook and it’s going to be interesting to see what happens.

These two incidents together exemplify the true power of Facebook and every software company, and every business, needs to pay attention.  Here’s why.

Batteries Included

The first and most obvious benefit is the built in infrastructure of cloud computing in general.  Using Facebook’s development platform, you can write the software and use their servers.  Where Facebook is different from other cloud options is that their “infrastructure” includes built in networking capabilities like sharing, advertising, and inviting.  For the non-hardcore gamers in the audience, one of the things that we love to do is take screen shots of our successes and post them to forums and file sharing sites.  This is something that is done immediately and seamlessly on Facebook.

The Center for Disease Spreading

Viral marketing.  It’s a well known term and it’s something that has been studied, written about, and attempted time after time.  There are many theories and approaches to “going viral” but one thing is obvious; they need a medium to spread.  Facebook offers a built-in medium for spreading ideas and products virally.  Of course, the network is not enough to get something and that’s where the secret sauce comes into play.  Malcom Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” is the classic tome of viral messaging, but my personal favorite is “Made to Stick” by Dan and Chip Heath.

Crossing the Chasm

My wife never played a computer game in her life until last week.  In fact, she was down right hostile toward them.  How did she get started?  Our daughter Jacqueline sent her a request for help in Farmville and off she went.  At first blush, this may sound like a simple rehash of the built in viral marketing discussion, but it’s deeper and more important than that.  Her decision to start playing this game has its roots in a deep emotional connection with her child, something into which it’s very difficult to tap.  It demonstrates the platform’s ability to leverage the social connections between friends to get people to buy into things they otherwise never would have considered.

Don't underestimate the influence of pornography on "legitimate" business trends

They’re “Just Games”

Up to this point, you may be thinking this all well enough but they’re “just games” and don’t apply to my consumer product company, or magazine, or business to business service.  The first thing I will point out is that the influence of “entertainment” on technology is under appreciated.  And by “entertainment” I mean games and porn.

Seriously.  In the early days of the web, nothing drove the modem and data compression markets more than the pornography market.  Gaming pushed hardware and software limits to the max.  And let’s not forget the Beta versus VHS wars.  If you’re interested in more examples (come on, you know you are… it’s OK) you can check out “iSex: How pornography has revolutionised technology.”  The take way here is that any business can these entertainment trends as a crystal ball into the mainstream future.

Conclusion

This is the portion of our show where I put up or shut up.  Here are some glimpses into the future that I would be working toward if I were in any of these industries:

• Consumer Products Example: Nike is already half way there, but may have jumped the gun a bit with their Nike+ product line and web site.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Facebook app from Nike that allows people to upload their iPod data through a Facebook application and share it on their wall.  You could then create running networks where people compete with one another virtually by creating goals based on distance, time, etc…
• Publishing Example:  What if the Associate Press created an application that would allow friends to create their own “magazines” by simply grabbing posts, links, and photos from their walls to be assembled and published on their web site.  They could create their own branding and be indexed by search engines.
• Maintenance Business Example:  If I owned (or advised) a landscaping or home maintenance company, I would look into creating a Facebook application that allowed you to enter in the specifics of your home like region, grass species, lawn size, heating system type, etc…  The application could then build a maintenance plan with reminders and the occasional “special offer.”

That’s enough for now.  If you want more ideas than these, you’ll have to pay up… 

Or, feel free to propose your own Facebook game-changing application in the comments.

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Weekly High Five lists the most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links of each week.

Today’s post is the first in a new weekly series that will be called “High Five,” in which I will list the five most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links from each week.  I know, it’s an annoyingly uncreative name but you’ll have to put with it.  I wasn’t simply being lazy; it was somewhat deliberate on my part.  The reason is that when you’re trying to build brand recognition (as I am here on DomesticatingIT), I think you can run the risk of being “too creative” in some cases.  Sometimes, giving something a quickly, easily recognizable name that augments your existing brand works too.

Having said that, on with the show…

The theme of this week’s High Five is “cautionary tales.”  Four of the five links are to stories or announcements regarding the effects of Web 2.0 on “traditional” means of communication.

#5: Shameless Self-promotion

The first link is a shameless self-promotion for the new DomesticatingIT fan page on Facebook.  But hopefully you’ll simply recognize this as practicing what I preach; Be Authentic, Relentless, and Everywhere.

http://twitter.com/domesticatingit/status/4835717315

#4: The End of the Email Era

This article generated a fair amount of chatter on Twitter.  While I do think the title of the Wall Street Journal article (Why Email No Longer Rules…) may overstate the case a bit for the sake of sensationalism, it makes an important point.  It’s also a point that I harp on in many of my social media presentations; the communication landscape is changing as anyone with teenage or college age children knows.  My daughters’ primary means of communication are text messaging and Facebook updates (in that order).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203803904574431151489408372.html

#3: Judge: Cellphone Ringtones Are Not Concerts

I am fascinated by the recording industry’s ongoing declaration of war against its own customers and this article is an example of its unbridled arrogance and avarice.  What organization (other than our government) thinks it’s OK to charge people twice for the good or service?  Of course, there is that old adage about software development; “You pay us to put the bugs in, and you pay us to take the bugs out.”

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/judge-mobile-phone-ringtones-are-not-concerts/

#2: Google Wave Explained

This is a nice, short video that provides a simple (albeit abridged) explanation of just what Google Wave is.  I’ve just secured a Google Wave invitation and will surely be blogging about this in the future.  Be forewarned; this is a game changer and it deserves your attention.

http://holykaw.alltop.com/google-wave-explained-11?c=1

#1: ISA replaces annual expo with new knowledge-based event

This is an important article regardless of whether or not you have any interest in the International Society of Automation.   The ISA announced that it will be ending its trade show exhibition with an event more focused on “knowledge.”  I made my thoughts known on Gary Mintchell’s blog, so I won’t recount them right at this moment.  The more universal point here is that we are seeing another example of the Web 2.0 world imposing its will on traditional platforms for marketing, communication, and collaboration.

http://www.automationmag.com/200910132568/ma-content/industry-news/isa-replaces-annual-expo-with-new-knowledge-based-event.html

Feel free to provide your thoughts and/or contributions…

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Seth Godin's "Purple Cow"

If you’ve been reading this blog or attending any of my presentations, it’s no secret that I’m a fairly big fan of Seth Godin. I watched a 30 minute video of his presentation, “Using New Media, New Marketing, and New Thinking to Create 10 Bestselling Books.”  The timing of this was interesting because it came a couple of days after a discussion at the ISA Fall Leaders Meeting in which I was struggling to reconcile my assertion that the overall value of information is approaching zero with the fact that book publishing (at ISA and elsewhere) is holding strong compared to subscription media like newspapers and magazines.  Enter Godin with his ten stories about ten marketing strategies for ten books he wrote.  In it, he talks about the successes and failures of these various strategies.  More to the point, however, he summarizes these at the end of the presentation and, from his typically unique perspective, the reasons why they did or didn’t work.

So, why am I talking about book publishing in a technology blog?  First, it fits into a recurring theme of mine that Web 2.0 technologies are democratizing information and streamlining communications in a way that affects any organization whose primary mission is knowledge transfer; which includes just about any professional association.  Second, since publications is such a significant aspect of what ISA does, I wanted to highlight this presentation.

Since this video is thirty minutes long, I am summarizing his closing points:

• Books are souvenirs:  “There is nothing in a book that I can’t get faster, cheaper, and quicker online.”  He exemplifies this by asking how many people proudly display their audio book collections.
• Permission the only asset: “The only asset you can build on the Internet is permission. The privilege of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who want to get them.”
• Marketing is conversations: “If you can make people talk about what you’re doing because you wrote the right thing, then you win.”
• Words for readers, not readers for words: “You’re not in the business, any more, of finding readers for your words. And the reason is that readers are too hard to find. You’re in the business of finding words for your readers. Once you build the permission base, you get to say, ‘OK, what do my readers want next?’”
• Blogs work: “The very nature of dripping ideas into a place where they can spread.”
• It’s not about selling books: Godin doesn’t try to sell books any more than Disney tries to sell T-shirts. If you’re in the idea business, the books are going to sell themselves.

The full video is embedded here and even if you can’t spare the full thirty minutes, I still recommend watching at least the first few minutes.

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