This was all brought on by my coming across the latest updated version of OnSwipe, an free wordpress plugin that converts your blog content into something more like Zite or Flipboard (two of my favorite apps) when browsing from a tablet. Also with school starting back up I wanted to take another stab at actually blogging some more, and to top it off we are reviewing our blog strategy at work so it seemed appropriate. Anyways, always remember to keep your installations up to date and don’t be scared to test out plugins

Shirky posits that every successful platform needs three things : a realistic promise, an effective tool, and an reasonable bargain with the users.  As he puts it, “the promise is the basic ‘why’…The tool helps with the ‘how’…the bargain sets the rules of the road.”  Unlike a recipe, however, the complex interactions between these elements means that every platform needs to address them in unique fashions.  The question I have is : How is Google addressing them?

THE PROMISE OF GOOGLE PLUS

There are already a veritable cornucopia of social media networks and platforms available.  Most active netizens have memberships on Facebook, Twitter, and / or LinkedIn.  In some cases, they have more than one (more on this later).  Why would someone join Google+?  Why did I?  What does it offer that I can’t get somewhere else?

The funny thing about Google+ is that it doesn’t really offer anything new – it’s service offerings are predominantly available elsewhere in the previously mentioned networks (and some others).  It has some interesting video-conferencing and group-texting capabilities – and these are extraordinarily easy to set up (see Shirky’s discussions on the lowering of transaction costs) – but even these services are available elsewhere.  The one thing it’s NOT offering is arguably the most important in social platforms – the availability of your friends and acquaintances.

So functionally one of the main promises is that it allows you the one-stop shopping experience for your online networking.  The other part of the promise – that remains to be proven effective – is the highly discussed “Circles”.  If used correctly, these could allow people to stop having multiple FaceBook and Twitter profiles (most commonly adopted for the segregation of work and personal lives).  By relegating different contacts to different groups and releasing information judiciously, your one Google+ profile can suffice.

Shirky also talks about how “the larger the number of users, the harder it is to get going”.  In the case of something aiming to replace Twitter and Facebook (who have upwards of 700 million users), the number of required users is great indeed.  The two ways to accomplish this are through making joining easy and adding personal value.  There are no migration tools available (although there are many posts on how to do it through third party applications such as Yahoo! Mail) and as mentioned there is limited personal value.  Right now, in it’s pre-release incarnation, the only real promise Google+ is making good on is to prove how geeky you are.  This is clearly exhibited in it’s very skewed demographics.  If it can’t start making good on the rest of it’s promises, it is likely to fail.

GOOGLE PLUS TOOLS : CIRCLES AND CRACK BARS

A few weeks before the beta launch of Google Plus, visitors to the worlds most visited search engine and most frequent home page noticed something new : a black bar across the top with various service options in it.  Google has been known to tweak their interface from time to time so many did not think much of it, and simply enjoyed the improved access to various services from Google.

For Google+ users, however, this bar offers far more.  In addition to being the predominant sign-in mechanism for the new service (or any other Google services they may enjoy such as Gmail), it also hosts the interactive components of the site : the sharing button, account access, and the notification badge.  The latter of these has become so addictive to some that it has caused the entire strip to be affectionately referred to as the “crack bar” because people are so addicted to checking their updates.  Even for those less compulsive users, the toolbar makes for very easy access to the site and related features.

The rest of the tool is designed very similarly to competitors (namely Facebook), allowing for relatively easy adoption of the paradigm.  (Shirky shares a similar story where upon converting to a new site due to technical capacity issues, admins of Bronze – a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan site – explicitly insisted that the new site be as bare-bones and as “apples-to-apples” as the old site).  This will make it reasonably simple for users to get used to the new system.  The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is how they are addressing their biggest promise : the highly discussed “Circles”.

Due in part to a snazzy user interface, Circles have been highly touted as the one of the big new features of Google Plus.  Fancy programming aside, the main idea is that by putting your contacts into different groups, you can control what you share with whom.  This is implemented basically by adding a share filter on your posts, where you determine what “circles” or groups you want to share your post with.

In theory, this is a great idea.  Google’s argument is that we do this naturally, but my counter-argument is that we do it TOO naturally.  We do it in speech on the fly but not in our technological broadcasts.  Active twitter users post upwards of 30 tweets a day.  If they have to think about who the tweet is going to, it places a significantly increased cognitive load on them and will INCREASE transaction costs of information.  Effectively, this is turning Clay Shirky’s maxim of “Publish then Filter” upside down : by filtering at publication time, we loose many of the advantages we normally gain.

The other challenge of “circles” is that unlike the binary basic Facebook (or before it, MySpace) “friend” paradigm, the new taxonomical relationships are not necessarily reciprocal.  This is because G+ wants to merge the unilateral bonding capabilities of Facebook with the broadcast bridging capabilities of Twitter.  This, however, is likely to lead to some misunderstandings.  How often do two associates think differently of their shared relationship?  Perhaps that is why they are only allowing “people that can enter into a legally binding relationship” – i.e. adults.

THE BARGAIN: WE WILL DO NO EVIL

According to Shirky, the bargain comes after the promise and tools are integrated and functional.  It is the least explicit and most complex element of a successful social networking tool / platform, as well as the one most dynamically built by it’s constituents.  Shirky compares it to the question of which side of the road to drive on : it is something that becomes a social norm from place to place and platform to platform.  As a result, these elements of the community are still building : nobody, even those in the Googleplex, know exactly what is going to happen with Google+.

I applaud Google for doing a few things right here.  They have created and publicized a clear “take all your stuff with you” policy.  One of the largest challenges people have with Facebook and other services is the “locked in” nature of their content.  From a business standpoint this is great because it creates stickiness and increases swiching costs (something  that is arguably slowing down Google+ adoption – “What about all my posts and pictures?”).  From a reduction-of-transaction-costs (which switching costs are a form of) it is obviously not so great.  Additionally, signup is easy (even more so for someone with a Picassa, GMail, or other Google Services account) and they have released some solid mobile applications – one of the most common mechanisms for accessing social media.

Despite their commitment to user portability and their current lack of ad presence, Google makes the vast majority of their profit from ads.  They have been tailoring natural search engine results to individuals for at least a year and clearly having a peek into the life and interests of myself and those around me will allow them to only offer more tailored and targeted commercial content.  Additionally, despite their corporate mantra of “Do No Evil”, the “legally binding” nature of their user agreement leaves me with second thoughts about giving them any information at all : what am I binding myself to?

Lastly, the early adopter community – the users who will likely be setting the rules of the road – is a distinctly different demographic than that of other networks.  This is likely to have some unexpected and perhaps alienating effects on the under-represented demographic groups, namely women (who constitute the majority of users on other networks) and the 14-18 crowd (who are not only a major user group but are the users of tomorrow).  If Google doesn’t find a way to involve and integrate these groups, they are likely to see Google+ relegated to a niche player as opposed to the monolithic unified platform they likely want to be.

I’ll be on the lookout for Shirky’s official opinion, of course, but I like to think he would agree with most of my assessments.  What do YOU think?

Reading this was about as timely as it gets for me. Clay Shirky, one of the contemporary thought leaders examining the sociological ramifications technology – and specifically the internet – bring to us, provides a seminal analysis on the new forms of organization that the information highway facilitate. In the same vein of Wikinomics (a work he references on occasion), he takes a look at how the lowering of social transaction costs allow us to connect and communicate more rapidly and effectively. He examines the differences between bonding and bridging capital (between and among heterogeneous groups) and why some initatives have failed and succeeded where similar ones have not.




The only disappointment was that he didn’t have a chance to write this book a few years later. He stays relatively neutral with regard to the various tools and social media platforms, but because of when this was written he discusses more MySpace and MeetUp (he seems particularly fond of the latter) and only mentions LinkedIn and Facebook in passing. Twitter barely gets any ink at all. I appreciate the fact that these tools move so fast that by the time a book can be published the odds of any given platform remaining ascendant have declined (making the whole publish then filter argument somewhat ironic).



I would be excited to see what Mr. Shirky would have to say about the new Google+ network / platform recently released, and his last chapter or two discuss specifically the “winning formula” for social media tools. He talks of the specific needs a successful platform has (namely a promise, a tool and a bargain between the platform and the group). Additionally, I would love to hear his thoughts on the Obama campaign (he discusses the well-publicized but less-successful Howard Dean candidacy) and I look forward to his comments on the pending elections.



I look forward to reading more of Mr. Shirky’s work.





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I love Summerfest.  I mean I REALLY LOVE Summerfest.  Anyone who has had the opportunity to talk to me for more than 15 minutes in any sort of conversational settings knows this, as does nearly anyone who has seen me out on a casual day – darn near every shirt I have heralds my favorite hometown music festival. My eyes light up just writing about it now.

Maybe you don’t know me, or maybe you’ve somehow otherwise escaped my “Summerfest is the greatest thing in the world” rant. Just in case, you can find more at the Wikipedia entry here or the main Summerfest page here. In my own words, however, Summerfest is truly the most awesome event in the world. For nearly two weeks, from noon to midnight, people from all over the country (nay, the world!) come to Milwaukee’s lakefront to listen to musicians on 12 different stages, eat a variety of local cuisines, drink beer, and people watch. The throngs of happy people brought together in their collective love of this great event has brought me to joyous tears more than once, and restores my faith in humanity.

I’ve attended the “Big Gig” every year for the last 31 years (since I was six), missing only one year when I was out of the country for a foreign exchange program. I grew up on the playgrounds that have transformed from wood to plastic over the years, watching David Seebach’s magic show. I worked at the local WKLH t-shirt booth one summer in High School. I always made a point to come back for a few days, if not the whole 12 days, when I was at school in Madison, and now that we live in Las Vegas, we still make the pilgrimage every year. Heck, we even scheduled our wedding around Summerfest (and “honeymooned” there)! Sure, I don’t go on the playground anymore, and my liver can’t handle going to the festival for more than 3 or 4 days (and not more than 2 in a row) but it’s a tradition that I plan on keeping alive until I die.

With less than a week to go, I am getting excited. We’ve arranged a house-sitter, bought the flights, hotels, car rentals, and even prepurchased festival tickets (I bought them in January online). This year, we are planning on seeing a lot of the old mainstays – Styx, REO Speedwagon, and O.A.R. – and with a little luck, we will catch one of the mega-shows at the Marcus Amphitheater, too. I remember when you could get in to the general admission seats there for free, with handstamps that were easily replicated using Tide laundry detergent. Even now that you have to pay for them, $40 for a show like Katy Perry (or even Def Leppard) is a small price to pay compared to Las Vegas or other metropolitan concert venues. I’m sure to get some of Venice Club’s eggplant strips (a tradition almost as old for me as Summerfest itself), and I can guarantee we will drink copious amounts of beer. If you’re down there this year, keep an eye out for me, Summerfest’s number one fan!

This was yet another drive-by pickup in the library, so I’m not surprised that it was a little different than what I expected. Greene starts with what I thought would be the meat of the matter – a discussion of prescriptivist vs. descriptivist linguistics (which is a battle I’ve been having with my father for the entirety of my life). He quickly moves on, however, into the socio-political ramifications of language and language policy. In another life I had plans to become a socio-linguistic antropologist so you can imaging my delight at this! Unlike other reviewers, I appreciated his application of linguistic science to his descriptions, but I can see where all the talk of suffix, prefix and phoneme might have gotten a little boring for the uninitiated. As a “Spanish” speaker, I enjoyed his discussions on the sociological and political development of the language in the old and new world. My undergraduate degree was in Mandarin Chinese and I spent a year studying abroad in Hong Kong so I was already familiar with some of the linguistic challenges facing China, and while he did shed some light on things I had not considered before, I wish he had spent more time discussing Chinese and Asian Languages in general. Maybe in a sequel? I would sure pick it up. Either way this is a book worth reading if you’re interested in language, politics, or culture.



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I’m certain most of this is par for the course and related to my not reading documentation.  Luckily, good habits developed on the job prompted me to backup (using this awesome backup plugin, XCloner, which also works for Joomla and custom-coded sites!).  So now the site sports a sexy new theme, I have access to the latest and greatest plugins and core WordPress features.  I can rest assured knowing that my site is secure against the various hacks people bring against older sites.  Last but not least, I have learned a lot more about the ins-and-outs of WordPress, and have advanced my skills.  Please feel free to check back later and I beg your patience while we clear out some more of the remodeling dust!

This may be old news to some people, but I just noticed today when I was doing a quick search for a fish dish that Google does dynamic search helpers for Recipes!

And sure enough, along with addresses and shopping information, SkyNet has a microformat to make recipe data more digestible (sorry, I couldn’t resist).  You can find the Recipe microformat cheat sheet here.

What this really serves as is a great reminder to make sure that your websites are in Google-friendly formats, including microcode.  General SEO tactics aside (such as navigation optimization, crawlability audits, and performance / speed enhancements), in today’s highly competitive search-engine-driven world, ensuring Google can not only consume your site but understand it is of penultimate importance.

Go Go Google Gobbler!

(note this article originally appeared in my work blog at NSR.  I’ve made some small updates and wanted to move it here as well).

Ever had one of those days where Murphy’s Law has put you in the circumstance where you need a file and don’t have it? Maybe you forgot to email it to yourself, or you saved the wrong copy to your flash drive. Nearly all knowledge workers are shackled to their Microsoft Word and Excel files, Adobe PDFs and a variety of other documents that are either inputs of outputs of their work. Salespeople invariably use images, slideshows, or multimedia files in their presentations. At the same time, telecommuting is becoming the new norm and salespeople have always been on the road, two trends only accelerated by the increasing popularity of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Some businesses have moved some or all of their file storage to web-based mediums such as Microsoft SharePoint. Others have pushed much of their data “to the cloud” and are running online software such as Google Apps or the new Microsoft Office 365 packages. These brave firms are seeing cost savings by adopting these leading edge technologies, but many companies cannot make the investment in a migration or are not comfortable jumping into the still-evolving marketplace. Enter online file storage and synchronization! There are a number of services available in this space, focusing on backup (carbonite.com) or as a large scale provider (Amazon S3). Two services stand above the rest in their ease of use strong focus on desktop file syncing: Dropbox and SugarSync.

Introduction:

Both services function in a similar fashion. You simply creates an account, download their resident sync application, and decide what folder or folders you want to include. Both have free “starter” storage packages and allow for referral bonuses that increase that allocation. Both have clients that work on PC, Mac and mobile platforms, offer web-based access and sharing of your files, and allow for integration with other applications. So which one to choose? Although comparable, both services offer specific advantages that you may want to consider in your selection.

Site Experience and Client Download:

Dropbox is very straightforward (including having what I consider the very best “Call To Action” page EVER!) and just gets you into the action right away. SugarSync has a more traditional site that offers more information. Both had applications for mobile devices (including iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry and Symbian) as well as Windows and Macintosh, although only Dropbox supports Linux. With either service, just download and install the client software, create an account, and you’re off and running. Drop a file into a sync folder, and it will be synced to the website as well as any other computers that are affiliated with that account! Both services offer full-featured browser clients (optimized for mobile or desktop accessible), so you can view, edit, organize and share your files with any client at all.

File Management and Sharing:

SugarSync has a more distributed paradigm, allowing you to sync multiple folders from multiple computers, and not requiring that they all sync the same folders. They also offer a “web archive” that you can store things in that are not synced anywhere. SugarSync allows you to share individual documents, or entire folders. It also allows you to specify rights at a granular level with read-only or add/and edit (which allows the user to sync that folder to their computer as well). You can also set an access password on the folder. Dropbox does not allow you to sync multiple or various folders : it is more of an all-or-nothing operation. During configuration you select one, and only one, folder to synchronize. They have recently introduced Selective Sync which allows you to select which folders under the sync folder you want to include, but it is still stems from a single root location. Dropbox allows you to simply share a folder and send a link in email.

Integration with 3rd Party Apps and Unique Features:

SugarSync is integrated with most of the major (iOS) mobile applications, such as Documents to Go, GoodReader and Readdle. The integration is fast and reliable, but limited to only a few partnered applications. Dropbox on the other hand, integrates with nearly everything. Docs to Go, QuickOffice Connect, GoodReader, ReaddleDocs, as well as Notability, FlashCards Deluxe, iThoughts HD, Thinkbook, Nozbe ToDo, and Simplenote to name a few from the iOS platform. Dropbox has avidly engaged the developer community and you can see the plethora of applications available at https://www.dropbox.com/apps/list. This strategy has allowed Dropbox to overcome some of it’s weaknesses. Dropbox also offers a unique feature called “LAN Sync”. This option, toggle-able in the client, allows for multiple computers on the same network to sync directly with one another instead of going through the service provider site. By forming an ad-hoc sync network, the Dropbox machines are able to communicate at much faster speeds and avoid choking off a sites internet bandwidth. SugarSync offers a feature called Web Archive. This is a location that is not synced with any computers, but is accessible from the web client. This is a great place to put files that are not needed for day-to-day use but are still nice to have accessible from any networked location. SugarSync has also invested more heavily in their web client, allowing for slideshow presentations of images and enhanced viewing of documents in general.

Pricing and Referrals:

BASIC PRICING
5GB free 30GB @ $4.99 or $49.99/yr60GB @ $9.99 or $99.99/yr 100GB @ $14.99 or $149.99/yr 250GB @ $24.99 or $249.99/yr 500GB @ $39.99 or $399.99/yr	2GB free* 50GB @ $9.99 or $99.00/yr100GB @ $19.99 or $199.00/yr *users get an extra 250MB for completing “Dropbox Guru” training
BUSINESS PRICING
“SugarSync Business”  $29.99 or $299.99/yr for 100GB & 3 users +100 GB @ $29.99 or $299.99/yr + 1 user @ $9.99 or $99.99/yr	“Dropbox Team”  $795/yr for 5 users & 350GB +100 GB @ $200/yr +1 user @ $125/yr
REFERRALS
Sugarsync gives you and the referred customer each 500MB. If they sign up for a paid plan, each of you get an additional 10GB.	Dropbox gives you and the referred customer each 250MB (up to 8GB max)

If you examine this pricing, it is clear that SugarSync is offering a better deal for the new user (5GB vs. 2GB) and scales better. They also have a better “starter package” for smaller business users (under 5 people). Dropbox’s pricing is significantly more competitive for larger groups with large amounts (over 300GB) of data to sync.

Conclusion:

Both of these services offer considerable value and it is difficult to select a clear winner. Ultimately, as with many information technology investments, it depends on your specific needs and preferences. If you have Linux, are anticipating a large number of centrally-managed business users, or have specific business or personal applications with integration needs, Dropbox would be my recommendation. If you have a smaller number of users, want a more polished user interface (Dropbox just came out of beta in December 2010), or have a need for more granuar sharing, I would recommend SugarSync. They both offer free packages, so why don’t you give them both a try and decide for yourself which one you like more?

You can sign up for sugarsync here

You can sign up for dropbox here

1)      TEXTING.  Even though we texted a little bit when she had her old Samsung phone, it was never very reliable, and we never carried on extended conversations.  I suspect that this was due to the fact that the T9 configuration, compared to the iPhone’s well-designed software QWERTY keyboard, is downright tedious.  In fact many of my friends and coworkers noticed I became much more chatty after I dumped my HTC (which had a hardware keyboard).  Whatever the reason, we now find ourselves texting one another on a daily basis, having extended conversations about both trivial and important household matters.

2)      EMAIL.  I am an IT consultant, and as such, I pretty much live and breathe email.  I was indoctrinated early with Eudora many years ago, and in the last 20 years it has become a requisite part of my life.  I suffer the disease of not storing excess details in my head because I can always refer to the paper digital trail.  At work, I can reasonably expect that my coworkers and clients will be willing to read my (sometimes lengthy) emails, but unfortunately, I could never convince my wife of its importance so messages sent to her fell into a black hole of cyberspace.  NOT ANYMORE!  Now we are consistently emailing one another and including each other on important 3^rd party emails such as travel arrangements and family communiqués.

3)      CALENDARING.  I have been a fanatic about managing my calendar on my smartphone since I got one 5 years ago.  I get teased at work about putting all my personal appointments and even my sleep schedules into our corporate Exchange server.  I’ve always been after Lauren to update a calendar so I know what days she works, what days she has exams, and so on, and I’ve always dreamed she could see mine.  Now, we can!  Through the use of the iPhone’s easy Exchange configuration, and ability to handle multiple calendars, we now have immediate access to work and personal schedules, school assignments, and everything else.  No more double booking for this family!

4)      MEDIA.  I hated her old phone.  Every time it rang its 8-bit melodies were like fingers on the chalkboard.  Changing it didn’t help – every sound on that antique piece of electronics was terrible.  Due to the split schedules, she set her alarm to go off at all sorts of random times so it was like the equivalent of screaming children and howling cats would just show up.  The iPhone, true to its roots as an iPod designed for media consumption, has a plethora of pleasing sounds, and as an an advanced computing device, the alarms are much more configurable.  Not to mention we now share Pandora stations and watch YouTube in bed.

5)      FACEBOOK.  My wife is one of the most social people I know.  She comes from a ginormous family with many cousins her same age, who are all her best friends.  This allows me to have an abnormally inflated Facebook profile, but Lauren had never wanted to get involved.  As a result, I would often come home and let her know that someone got married, or had a baby, or what have you.  I’d been after her for years, but it took the iPhone and it’s easy, everywhere access to convert her.  Now, she is usually the first to with people a happy birthday or respond to their posts, and more importantly, she feels much more connected to her friends and family back home.  For the unmarried reader, a simple equation: Happy Wives => Happy Husbands => Happy Marriage

6)      WORDS WITH FRIENDS.  For Halloween one year, I went as the Wizard of Words.  Anyone who knows me (or has made it this far in the post) knows that I am a wordy dude.  As a result, I like wordy games, and grew up on Scrabble and Boggle.  Traditionally, this has led to an imbalance when these games would come out, but apparently Lauren was just bored.  Unbeknownst to me, my wife is some sort of lexical genius who at this very moment is probably playing 15 or more WWF games – and winning most of them (including at least half against me).  The iPhone has unleashed this sort friendly competition which has enhanced our sense of mutual respect.

7)      SHARING / OTHER APPS.  I could go on and on about different apps that have allowed us to communicate or enhanced our shared lives (among them GroceryIQ, Siri, and xx) but one the greatest things is that now that she can share in my digital indulgences (we use the same iTunes account), many of my expenses are considered acceptable.  I download mostly free or discounted games anyways, but I think that this also creates a much better tolerance from her regarding my iPad purchases.  Mostly, exposure to all these wild and wacky technology outlets has helped my wife to appreciate technology (and with it, her technologist husband) just a little bit more.

Here goes nothing!

I’m hoping I haven’t been added to the blacklist, and look forward to next years Grand Tasting, perhaps with a few Rock And Roll Wines events in between!