Sometimes, parents really get hosed..
Little kid and his dad at Pier 40 this morning...
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links for 2006-09-09
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I like her "tag it" section
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Tag your entries timeoutnewyork.tv on Flickr
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Now THIS is going to be big.
The answer is MeVertising!!
From Searchviews...
"Marketers have been getting excited about the recent distribution deals cut between search engines and social networks....Now consider social networking sites. Users visit pages in those networks not because of the concepts being discussed, but because of the people they know. You may like the same bands, movies, books or sports teams as your friends, but that’s not why you’re ending up at their pages. You’re there to catch up on what’s new with your crew. This is going to completely change the way marketers need to message to these groups."
Can I repeat that?
"This is going to completely change the way marketers need to message to these groups."
Unless you get you users intimately involving themselves in your brand, like this young woman who has a Coach wallpaper as her background in MySpace, its all just going to sound like push advertising for products we don't want, like or care about... non-user selected or MeVertised advertising is going to be the pop-ups of Web 2.0... people will do everything to block, get rid of, and avoid this kind of messaging.
What kind of CPMs do you think she's getting on her page for that? How badly do you think Coach wants to be able to push that kind of thing out?
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Quotes of the Day: From the Gothamist Article on the new WTC Buildings
Here's the rest of what the WTC site is supposed to look like. If we have to wait any longer, they'll have to retrofit parking on the roof for flying cars.
Two great comments by Gothamist readers:
"I, for one, welcome our new steel and glass monolithic overlords."
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I believe
I was almost there when the Mets sent Dave Williams and Oliver Perez to the mound in a doubleheader and won both ends.
But last night, they shutout Brad Penny and the Dodgers. Jose Reyes hit an inside the park home run and Glavine cruised.
At first, I just thought they shouldn't have a problem getting out of the National League... but now...
Now I really believe they are going to win the World Series. Its all too perfect.. twenty years later. 1986. 2006.
No one is going to stop this team... not the Braves, Dodgers, Cardinals, Padres... not the Yanks, Tigers, or White Sox.
So if anyone has any access to playoff tickets, I'm all ears...
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The Faces Have Spoken and the Book Listens
I logged into Facebook this morning to see a public notice from Mark Zuckerberg (posted below) 
about the recent changes to Facebook. (It wound up in the Facebook blog as well.) danah asks whether or not Facebook has learned a lesson. I think they have and I really believe that they were pretty bummed out that they angered so many of their members. It really takes a lot to admit mistakes, and I think this will go far in making users feel like its their service. When your users start feeling like they own what you built, you've really got something.
danah wrote "People are taking to the (virtual) streets to object to what the architects are doing their (virtual) city. They don't like the changes in the architecture and they want their voices heard. And it also looks like virtual protesters can raise a far greater ruckus than the ones in meatspace."
Sad, but true... if only all these people would get as upset over the war or healthcare or just sign up to ban Paris Hilton from all media. I digress.
In response to this problem, Facebook built a really easy opt-out menu for the mini-feeds.
Its really amazing to see the expectation level on the part of the users as to how responsive a service should be. They didn't like a feature, so they banded together on the site and in a very short time, they got a resolution. Could you imagine anything like that happening in the enterprise software world? If I don't like any part of Vista, I'm going to make a group called "Vista looks like it was designed by a hyperactive 5 year old" (as one of the FB groups was) and then see how long it takes Microsoft to fix it. :)
Nice job by the Facebook team to recognize their mistake. I hope the users move on, because, as I mentioned the other day, this is a service that really has the potential to create positive change on college campuses because of its widespread use among a glocolized audience.
Here's Mark's letter:
An Open Letter from Mark Zuckerberg:
We really messed this one up. When we launched News Feed and Mini-Feed we were trying to provide you with a stream of information about your social world. Instead, we did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them. I'd like to try to correct those errors now.
When I made Facebook two years ago my goal was to help people understand what was going on in their world a little better. I wanted to create an environment where people could share whatever information they wanted, but also have control over whom they shared that information with. I think a lot of the success we've seen is because of these basic principles.
We made the site so that all of our members are a part of smaller networks like schools, companies or regions, so you can only see the profiles of people who are in your networks and your friends. We did this to make sure you could share information with the people you care about. This is the same reason we have built extensive privacy settings – to give you even more control over who you share your information with.
Somehow we missed this point with Feed and we didn't build in the proper privacy controls right away. This was a big mistake on our part, and I'm sorry for it. But apologizing isn't enough. I wanted to make sure we did something about it, and quickly. So we have been coding nonstop for two days to get you better privacy controls. This new privacy page will allow you to choose which types of stories go into your Mini-Feed and your friends' News Feeds, and it also lists the type of actions Facebook will never let any other person know about. If you have more comments, please send them over.
This may sound silly, but I want to thank all of you who have written in and created groups and protested. Even though I wish I hadn't made so many of you angry, I am glad we got to hear you. And I am also glad that News Feed highlighted all these groups so people could find them and share their opinions with each other as well.
About a week ago I created a group called Free Flow of Information on the Internet, because that's what I believe in – helping people share information with the people they want to share it with. I'd encourage you to check it out to learn more about what guides those of us who make Facebook. Tomorrow at 4pm est, I will be in that group with a bunch of people from Facebook, and we would love to discuss all of this with you. It would be great to see you there.
Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Mark
One more thing:
Interesting thought from UNC Fred on the size of the anti-Facebook Facebook group:
"The group has grown to almost 700,000 users, representing almost 8% of
Facebook's total user base. If the equivalent happened in Myspace, the
group would have grown to 8 million people. In two days."
This was my scheduled time waste today
Interactive tour of my desk on Flickr taken with my new Canon SD 500.
I would love to see what other people's desks look like... tag them "mydesk" in Flickr. :)
What else can YouTube do besides pre-rolls?
I disagree with Fred's assertion that YouTube could be making a ton of money on pre-rolls.
Pre-rolls, in their current form, suck.
No, really suck.
The other day I was watching some great wiffleball footage. Anyone who ever grew up playing would be really jealous of these guys who seemed to record every single pitch on video over eight seasons. Man, I pitched this one game where I gave up one hit and whiffed 25... of course I walked 11, but still... Anyway, repurposed TV car commercials and mortgage ads would have completely ruined the experience for me.... and that's all YouTube really is... its an entertainment experience.
We put up with TV commercials because, they're more than just entertainment. There's social capital being built. We're watching the same shows as our friends... the price for knowing what happens on Nip Tuck is that you have to watch some commercials... but socially, being in the Nip Tuck "know" is very valuable. Plus, we're planted in front of the TV... not much on... the value of switching is pretty low.
But when I watch these wiffleball clips, I may send them to a couple of friends, but its mostly a solitary experience... just pure entertainment value. I don't need to watch them, and there are a million other distracting entertaining things on the web to choose from. If I had to watch a 10 second preroll in front of each one, I'd quickly lose interest, because the entertainment value would suffer.
So how else can YouTube monetize these videos? Rather than a full pre-roll... how about just a "Sponsored by, around the player.... re-skin the player." Maybe not the same CPM, but that wouldn't really ruin my viewing experience.
More interesting would be the idea of a user selected theme of some sort... How about breaking down the elements of a brand and allowing the user to mix them in. So, with the wiffleball videos, the user could be given a little editor that allows him to stick a logo and some text right on the corner of the screen... they select from a menu of choices... they might pick Nike or Adidas or Gatorade or something. Or, let ESPN sponsor the sports videos, pull them onto their site, throw in the SportsCenter theme song, etc. In that scenario, the owner of the video knows something about the content and the audience that allows them to select an ad that fits, in a way that's not obtrusive. Plus, knowing that the owner selected it also makes it part of the content, versus something YouTube tacked on at the beginning.
Plus, the breadth and quality of video advertising has to get a lot better... maybe companies should be putting live offers out on YouTube for people to create advertising for them and make the videos themselves the advertising.
Pre-rolls are non-contextual. They degrade the user experience. They degrade the quality of the content. They are not expressive the way the content itself is.
I know its hard to be creative with your advertising and scale at the same time, but I don't think you'll ever see anyone put up with 10 second prerolls on half the videos they see on YouTube.
Timeoutnewyork.tv Contest on Flickr!
Timeoutnewyork.tv is having a photo contest to have your NYC photos featured on the front page of their site. Just tag your best NYC photos (horizontal only) timeoutnewyork.tv on Flickr and you're automatically entered. There might be a free magazine subscription in there or something, too... not sure... the details aren't up yet. Technically, it starts tomorrow, but here's your chance to get a head start.
Check out their site, too.... its pretty cool.
Doing your best when you're ready to do your best
GothamGal has a though provoking post up about the insanity of carefully crafting over acheivers and getting kids into college today. She says that we should drop the current system and look for a new way to screen students... fewer tests, less pressure.
I do think that what is going on is insane, but anytime there's insanity, you don't have to get caught up in it.
When I was in high school, the average graduating SAT score for my class was 1350. Now I hear its up over 1400... average... 1400! I was lucky because we all seemed to take a pretty healthy approach to it, but one could go nuts trying to test prep your way to a score like that.
If you need to take two test prep courses and hire a private tutor to get your kid to score a 1520, then, well, sorry, that kid just isn't a 1520 student. I remember this guy in my freshmen year of college who used to study in the lounge about 10 hours a day to get a 3.7 and I just remember heading out the door with my baseball glove to have a catch and enjoy a nice day while he was studying. If that was what it took to get the really high grades, well then I just wasn't going to be a great student... simple as that.
It was that kind of approach that I had in high school. In hindsight, I probably could have worked harder, I admit, but it was where my head was at the time. Pushing me wouldn't have helped.. .I had to push myself... which I did, big time, when I got to Fordham. Yeah, so I went to Fordham, which was a good school, but it wasn't Harvard or Yale or Princeton. However, I wouldn't be where I am today at another school. Being at Fordham, close to the city, enabled me to intern at the GM pension fund during school. It also meant that another Fordham grad who was at GM sort of took me under his wing, rather than the Harvard intern we had, because he felt like this guy would get everything he wanted anyway. That led directly to my job in the private equity group, which led to Union Square Ventures, which led to Oddcast.
If I was coming out of Harvard in '01, it wouldn't have been enough for me to just go to Harvard... I would have had to beat out all my own classmates for jobs. When you go to a top school, you almost have to be the best there, too, because there will already be 5 or 6 Harvard resumes in for a job, and they're not going to interview all of you.
You don't have to go to a top ten school and you don't have to be a Goldman Sachs investment banker to be successful either. Teach your kids to follow their own way at their own pace. Of course, give them all the tools and encouragement to be their best, but don't push them to be more than they're mentally ready to handle. I wasn't ready to take the lead in high school and I would have burned out very early had I tried. I'm lucky that my parents were just happy I was in a good school and supportive of whatever I did. They let me come around on my own terms.
Oh, and I wound up doing better than that kid who studied ten hours a day... and I really do owe it mostly to my mental health. In college, I really believe its really not about how hard you work, but more about how smart you work and how you handle stress. Oh, and networking, too. You'll never make good contacts in your field, which can take you a lot further than your GPA, if you're a big ball of stress that seems mentally unstable.
The Political Power of Social Networks
Facebook recently released an Elections section giving political candidates an opportunity to present themselves to the college audience in their own way with Facebook profiles.
Hmm... let's see... 85% penetration among 4 year colleges+candidate profiles=best opportunity to increase voter turnout ever!
Let's not underestimate what an impact this could be... if it wasn't for how incredibly difficult it is to get election information.
In an ideal world, since they already know my address, it should be one click to find out who my current reps are, who's running against them, and where they stand. I mentioned that to them and they said that would be great if they could find a "find your district" site...
...At first I was kind of annoyed, like they weren't trying... but, actuallly... it is really hard.
Way too hard actually.
I found one here, but you need to know your 9-digit zip, which requires going offsite to the US Postal Service and typing in my address. You can't even find this district info on the US Gov't's own website. Its ridiculous.
Google the word "vote" and see if you learn anything useful. Its doubtful. Until we leverage the web to make staying informed about elections less than a second job, we're going to have a very uninformed voter base.
One Goddamn Hit? Post game subway thumbing...
"That's all we got? One goddamn hit?"
You can't say goddamn on the air."
"Don't worry... nobody's listening anyway." (Click my avatar to hear the movie quote.)
Is it me, or when a no name rookie comes to town, doesn't that usually spell trouble for the Mets? I vaguely remember getting shutout by Chris Reitsma somewhere along the line, too, a year or two ago. Rotoheads, time to short Chuck James, because once you dominate the Mets, you're unlikely to be heard of again.
On the subject of Steve Trachsel, what's the record for the highest number of wins in a season for a picher who fails to make the post season roster? Because, right now, my rotation is Pedro, Glavine, Maine and El Duque, with the pen lining up as Wagner, Feliciano, Heilman, Bradford, Mota, Oliver, Hernandez and then either Bell or Ring if you take 12.
This team could use a righthanded bat. Oh, that's right, we had one and traded him for Roberto Hernandez, who we now don't really need because of Mota. Heath Bell could have gotten a shot at moving up the ladder, too. Oh well.
Having a lead this big in the East gives us too much time to worry.
Oh and I forgot to mention... A couple of weeks ago, it was Beatles night at Shea. When Chad Bradford took the mound, they played Yellow Submarine. It was hilarious. That should play everytime Underhandford takes the mound.
Both Pujos and Howard homered again last night...and so did Bonds, actually. Barry, where were you all year when my fantasy team needed ya?
Actually, Randy's take on Biz Dev 2.0 sounds about right... except for the BS part...
Randy, who won't let me comment without signing in, doesn't really buy Biz Dev 2.0.
He thinks its "Nice for a business that has a handful of employees and no expenses, but it isn’t sustainable."
Handful of employees?
Low on the expense side?
Sounds like these guys. Yeah... definitely not sustainable.
Here are the problems, as he sees them:
"No barriers to entry. Anyone can copy your business."
How many web businesses out there aren't able to be copied? How many offline businesses out there can't be copied, other than regulated monopolies, like the electric company? (Although, I'm pretty sure I can buy my power from somewhere else, too, which I don't quite understand.) Anyone can copy anybody else's business, yes, but that doesn't mean they'll do it better.
"No barriers to exit. Users can easily leave your business for the next big thing."
Did I mention Randy works for Verizon? I guess he'd like us to sign two year contracts with all of our web services. I can leave Skype anytime I want to use Google Talk, too... but I won't, b/c Skype provides a better service, allowing me to make domestic phonecalls for free. Oh, you could see Craigslist for that, too. I think, in the future, we won't see very many businesses that lock in their users at all... hopefully even wireless... and just compete on making them not want to leave.
"Nothing of value is owned."
So Feedburner owns nothing of value? Except, well... most of the rights to run RSS for major publishers, and, um, all the RSS ad relationships they signed up... the blogger relationships. Yes, they could quit anytime, but its not like anyone else could just replicate that overnight. Granted its not a bunch of fiber in the ground or rooftop towers, but who wants to own that stuff anyway?
"No control over your own destiny. Being completely
dependent on “partners” (I use this term loosely) that have no
contractual obligations to each other is dangerous."
Google, believe it or not, isn't in control of its own destiny. We could all decide tomorrow that we'd rather not have Google crawl our content. Advertisers could all say online advertising isn't worth it... and the company would be dead in the water. You're always dependent upon someone else... even if its just your customers. You can't force anyone to do anything forever.
So, I basically agree with all of his depictions of the landscape, but I look at them as reality, not a list of problems.
"Cingular Presents: The NYC Skyline. Get more bars with Cingular's All Over Network."
Hilarious.
Individually, I don't mind the designs. I always liked the exoskelatal concept and so I like Tower 3 the best. However, they absolutely look nothing like each other and seem sort of random. Hopefully, they'll gel a little better as the designs get tweaked.