Disqus - Latest Comments for JeffBach

Re: Op-Ed: The outdoor industry makes way too much stuff. We can use this unprecedented moment to fix it. - by Nate Porter

Jeff Bach — Tue, 19 May 2020 10:48:05 -0000

For me, two things come to mind. The first is who is "we"? From my perspective, there is no 'collective'. I would bet there would be 10,001 different voices weighing in on uniform rules, even for something as mundane as packaging. Who would collect and manage all the individual shops in this effort to 'unionize' and present a united front to the faceless corporate entities that do all the automated factory production of packaging materials? Which faceless entity would this collective entity approach about change? Major mess to deal with there, imo. And no, imo the OIA does not have the juice to do anything like this.
The second issue, in my mind, is that the whole of the outdoors industry is based on want, not need. The author is presenting an outlook that is based almost in whole on 'need'. I think there's just too much of a gulf between an ecosystem based on 'want' and the more pedantic 'need' to streamline product lines, material options, packaging, etc. To my eye, all of what the author writes happens in places like grocery store chains and mass produced CPG, not in a low volume, high touch industry built around what people 'want' for a 'leisure time' pursuit.

Re: 6 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Have an Autoplaying Homepage Video

Jeff Bach — Sun, 27 Aug 2017 16:22:13 -0000

Nicely done. I've always tried to persuade clients about the importance of audio in a video project, and it mostly goes over their heads. I suspect this does as well, but it MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!

Re: A critical space

Jeff Bach — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 10:31:24 -0000

Thanks mostly to my aging parents I am increasingly hearing about any number of issues from the 'good old days'. According to them, what we have today is nowhere near as good as what they remember from the 50s, 60s, and 70s when they (and I) were growing up and in school, etc. So I remind them of the diseases, abuses, sexism, unhappiness, inflation, unemployment etc. that were every bit as present then as those issues are now. Very few heard about those issues back in the day, because society was more closed AND communication and discovery were mightily inhibited relative to what we have today.

More importantly, information was scarce and any ability to find it was limited to the library and newspapers. Consequently, people including readers, had to rely on scholars and critics for what scarce information existed and could be found. Educated readers and thinkers with an awareness of the analytical skills needed in criticism were rare. Book reviews were rare and subsequently more valued. In my opinion, literary critics had a much better fit and were more relevant in the prior stages of this ecosystem. They were special.

All of that simply is not true today. Information and its attendant discovery and curation are MUCH more widespread and popular. Books, their reviews, and publicity are commodities now. Readers, not only are more educated, but far more plentiful. Criticism, in the literary and analytic sense is no longer confined to a few rare scholars. Book reviews in a newspaper are no longer the main way to publicize books, much like bookstores are no longer the only place to buy them.

While I understand Mr. Jones wistfulness for a bygone era and share it to some extent, it is dangerous terrain to occupy if one fails to recognize changing conditions at virtually every level of his premise. There's simply no reason, in my opinion, to think the old versions are better than the new. What we have now is MUCH better, in virtually every sense, than what existed back in the day, in my opinion.

Like the pump attendant proudly standing next to the gas pump, literary critics and their reviews pretty much belong to an ecosystem that has evolved, expanded, and become something completely different from its roots. And fine roots they were. For a select few.

Re: Poetry Writing Prompt

Jeff Bach — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 12:20:10 -0000

A road trip and book research put me at the top of Lemhi Pass in Idaho this past summer. This is pretty much ground zero for Sacajawea and a couple dudes she pretty much saved, Lewis and Clark.....she at age 14 and carrying a newborn I might add.

Silent aching vastness
The wind caresses up above. Softly
Impossible blue sky arches overhead
Heat squeezes down
I go to the edge of the road
Look down into Agency Creek
Ground level crickets chirp
But the view out to forever
Draws me back to the big sky
I imagine what this pass was like
When two million miles of unknown
Surrounded Lewis and Clark

Re: New Warnings On Rising Seas

Jeff Bach — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 10:45:21 -0000

Three things -
1 - As a numerical modeler of groundwater and contaminant transport, I lived by matching my models to existing records. Calibrating the parameters w/in the model to match real data as closely as possible. The problem is that real data. In the real world of geoengineering, landfilll siting, etc. real data is VERY expensive, hard to get, always located in the wrong place, obtained in stressful conditions with uncertain accuracy, etc. Real data is messy. So how good is the data they are validating their model against?
2 - Has anyone looked at how salt water invades? If I remember correctly once salt water is part of the ground water, it is pretty much permanent. How many big time municipal wells will find fingers of salt water in their cone of depression, thus sucking salt water into muni water supplies?
3- Liquefaction. Started my career in Seattle. Much of Seattle is built on fill. Rising sea levels will immensely increase the filled pore space of fill like this, increasing issues of liqufaction with any sort of shaking.
Glad I live in flyover country on high ground.....

Re: Finding American Resilience

Jeff Bach — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 09:45:17 -0000

I think the devil tends to be in the details. Some will look at small things or at one slice of the USA and see the gloom and doom. It's there for sure, but it's just that one slice. There's likely even multiple slices of legit doom and gloom. But those slices, imo, are not in the majority. It's like using Flint, MI as a poster child for water quality. Yes that city is in trouble. Yes there are other cities with the same problem, but what about the other 250,000,000 (giver or take) of us with no problem water? If you go to the right scale you can always find what you're looking for, good or bad. If you change the scale of what you look at, the problems often seem to be cast in a better proportion.

Both parties are super skilled at calling out a 'tactical' issue and touting it as a 'strategic'-sized issue. Yet time and again, a diverse US economy and a collective, superb, problem solving mindset has guided the US in the right direction. History and the world around us bear this out imo.

I think early listeners in the early days of a campaign might consider a larger perspective and maybe not latch on to these gloom and doom proclamations quite so tightly.

PS - I grew up in Duluth in the 70s and 80s. It was a forlorn ~!@# hole on its death slide. Interesting to hear it touted as an example for the good side by Mr. Fallows.

Re: The future of bookstores is the key to understanding the future of publishing

Jeff Bach — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 11:35:48 -0000

One could look at other industries and see a similar evolution. One could view this simply as a "specialty" becoming a "commodity", with the change being ushered along by the introduction of a new player that has finally achieved significant critical mass. History is full of upstarts pushing the giants to the curb.

At a high level, the software world- Novell - MSFT - "open source" comes to mind. Not a perfect fit, but several bits come to mind.

For starters, MSFT chugged along for years quietly getting bigger, until finally after several years of being ignored, it hit a home run and that was the end of Novell. Likewise, the open source movement yutzed around for years and was cast by MSFT as some little gnat buzzing around. Now years later, open source is too big to ignore and is sucking up lots of the oxygen that used to go to MSFT.

"open source" still basically lacks the solid monolithic business/revenue model that MSFT enjoyed and still does. I think this is a great parallel to the solid mature offline book business model and how this newish ebook ecomm fragmented model is disrupting the old model.

One could observe how the "buzz" factor goes to the latest figure atop the mountain. Back in the day not too long ago, MSFT was eagerly watched for in just about everything. It was the rock star everyone wanted at their party. It was on top and Novell was the aging relict struggling to find its way. Today one could say that MSFT is the new Novell as it gets beat up and cast as the aging, "out of step" dinosaur. Today, the software world is fragmented and could include services as much as pure software. Way different from the more streamlined glory days.

On the upside for established models, there are other interesting parallels. MSFT is STILL the 800lb gorilla when one looks at quarterly profits, etc., but yet it is portrayed as this aging relict from another time struggling to find its way in a new world. Really though, I think it is still laughing all the way to the bank. Much like B&N, which everyone portrays as being on its death bed. I believe current reality for B&N still includes the phrase "nice quarterly profits".

The software world grew once people saw that there was a market. It grew as other advances made the market possible. Where, after all, would MSFT be without Intel? Importantly for the established giant, where would MSFT have gone if Bill G had agreed to do the dance with IBM? Basically, the established giant chose to ignore the upstart and that upstart went on to great things.

I do like how "open source" in the software world seems to be a good parallel for "indie author" in the book world. One could see this turmoil in the book business merely echoing what has preceded it in many other verticals in our disruptive, destructive, capitalist economy. Like Rome, most things are built from the ashes of the model below it.

my .02

Re: Who Are You, And Why Should We Care?

Jeff Bach — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 20:28:32 -0000

Once upon a time there was a guy living in a flyover state. Every once in awhile he would look up at the con trails the jets were leaving as they flew their way west to various destinations. Those jets always reminded him of where he had spent years of his life. Some great years of his life. School in Montana, river guiding in Idaho, amazing telemark skiing in the powder at Lost Trail Pass, first job in Washington state, love and marriage, first house, kids - all "out west".

Life's second chapter started in 1998 with a move from "out west" to... the midwest. Simple small town living, way less traffic, beaucoup sunshine, and agriculture everywhere. You know - like Mayberry. No dormant volcanoes on the horizon, no mountain passes with avalanche chutes to look up as you drove by. But no mist either. Amazing bike roads. And a cost of living that was way better. One more kid came along and the world's best dog ever also arrived.

That guy was and still is the father of three daughters. On road trips through midwest flyover country he would spin yarns about a set of sisters growing up on a ranch in the outback of Idaho. To his surprise, the young girls sitting in their car seats would listen. They stayed awake and quit asking how much farther it was to grandma's house. So he kept telling stories about these sisters growing up wild on a ranch in Idaho, and he started writing those stories down, making them part of a bigger narrative. The stories got bigger and bigger. As the girls in the car seats started school, the girls in the story started school and became a bit more complex. The road trip stories to his back seat daughters kept on going and so did the book.

The guy realized he had never read a book involving grandparents, so he added them in along with other rarely seen family members. Soon there were real places in this story, from Lolo Pass to the Tendoy store, from Shoup and the turn at North Fork to Stanley and the Payette River canyon. Beautiful wild places that needed a little telling, to beautiful to ignore, all spun around a cast of characters living on River and Ranch in the outback of Idaho.

And that would be a bit about me.

Re: Self-publishers will be the publishers of the future

Jeff Bach — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:58:23 -0000

To me there are two things going on in this space. The first is the self publishing toolset allowing for much more widespread content creation. I see these tools as more tactical than strategic though. We all now have the tools to get the words in our head out on paper and even onto the shelf of a virtual marketplace. But is that enough? I think not.

Enter the second part - the aggregation of customers. In the new world as in the old, success is still defined as selling your book to LOTS of readers. Selling involves lots of marketing and promotion. If you still buy into the "blockbuster" school, then lots of other people's money comes into play to purchase the marketing, advertising and promotion to generate the desired sales.

Yes self publishing may be the publisher of the future but we may all be going back to the smaller simpler model of being the local craftmaker, with the occasional sale here and there. Sadly more in keeping with the long tail model of retail sales than the higher volume of selling required by more commercially successful models.

Look at O'Reilly - yes he was the product of disruption to the prior model. But in a way O'Reilly is doing exactly the same thing as that prior model. O'Reilly looks at the marketplace, tries to sniff out the next trending high volume sales success and then he points his machine at it. O'Reilly has costs to cover and bills to pay. They can't fiddle around with loving word crafters (like most of us are). They need to find the one or two or three next big sellers and spend their money supporting those very few they judge to be the next success. O'Reilly is almost forced into being the next gatekeeper. Because the SAME PROBLEM still exists. How does anyone gather enough people together to make a market that is big enough to make enough money?

Hugh Howey is an admirable recent story that goes against what I just wrote, but given the seething hordes of us wanting to be authors, he is definitely the exception and not the rule. Although, Wool certainly shows how much faster the new model "word of mouth" can work relative to the old model.

Self publishing needs to be more about the other tool set that is also along for the ride. The marketing, selling and business toolset. And that might be where the old model still has quite the advantage......

Re: YouTube Will Have Paid Subscription Channels Soon

Jeff Bach — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:29:27 -0000

FINALLY. While viewers may want free, the content creators trying to make a go of things in the wild west of web video and its variants are NOT all independently wealthy and doing it for free. To me, as a content creator, this much needed announcement from YT/Google is not so much about going against the viewers wishes as it is finally facing the reality that narrowcast web video simply cannot survive under an ad-based broadcasting model. Virtually everything is different. Creators need to be able to pay their bills in order to continue creating the content. This paywall model gives the creators a chance to make money and survive to create another day. If viewers want to see the content that they like and can now search for (and hopefully find) there is no "someone else" to pay for it like there is in the broadcast world.

And yes a VERY select few can and are making it on YT under the current ad-based model. The current model does work. But it only works for about 0.0003% of the creators out there. I see this announcement as eventually giving everyone an opportunity, NOT just the VERY SELECT FEW that are currently able to do things the broad way in the narrow world.

Re: Vine, Twitter’s Instagram for Video, Launching Soon – At Apple’s App Store

Jeff Bach — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:19:06 -0000

I read somewhere that an adult eye takes ~~ 8 seconds to get "acclimated" to the topic they are viewing. I wish I could find that article again sorry I can't provide the source. fwiw, watching my wife when she encounters a new topic while viewing a small screen shows me an agreeable confirmation to that number. I guess something frivolous and intended mostly as entertainment could fit in this hyper short "movy" context but for now I can't see any business value in a six second clip. I know that is a repeat of Twitter's early days comments but it seems to me that text can be rapidly read and assimilated AND the first word does not get overwritten and disappear like the first video clip does. Call me a skeptic but at the moment Vine is not passing my very first sanity filter.

Re: Google Field Trip and Your Mobile Strategy

Jeff Bach — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:07:18 -0000

In digging into the app a bit more, I found that Google does have several content partners who supply the content. This changes things a little bit, but not too much. For the most part, it appears that the content suppliers are themselves scrapers and collectors and not so much creators, so the issue of mediocre content is still a primary issue.

Re: Google Field Trip and Your Mobile Strategy

Jeff Bach — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:24:39 -0000

The importance of content is my immediate takeaway after spending a few days enjoying the "surprises" of what Field Trip pops up for my viewing pleasure. I live in a small town just south of Madison, WI. Prior to Field Trip, nothing had ever been brought to my attention via the efforts of an AR-driven app. To my surprise, Field Trip has dredged up several pieces of relevant content. The location-aware bit seems to be working as it should. But the content is dodgy, to be charitable. Dry and boring, quiet and still..and small if I am a bit more critical.

So for me, Field Trip is illustrating the gulf that exists between travelers who seem to be on the lookout for "interesting" things, places, etc. and the mostly feeble, low energy efforts of the DMO people who seem quite often unable to create anything with a little zing to it. Root causes are many and some are legitimate. Budget is an issue, tech literacy is an issue, no awareness of the world changing around them is yet another issue. Sometimes (rarely), there is just nothing of interest in the area.

Google is a scraper and a collector. It doesn't create and it does not really even curate (imo). So the creation of content and the ability to make that content discoverable comes down to the grassroots level. Some understand that and sadly many do not. Google can only find what is out there and Field Trip is the result.

Re: The Next Frontiers for SEO and Online Video - Interview with Performics' Chris Keating

Jeff Bach — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:32:16 -0000

I would quibble a bit with CK asserting that online video and TV ads are alike in his quote - "..TV advertising is video, and online video could just as well be put on TV. Those are really false differences.."

Maybe some similarity some of the time, but in my experience if an online video comes across like a TV ad it is going to miss the mark and not be as effective as it could be. The differences between TV broadcasting and online narrowcasting are vast. Just use a simple example like the well-known voice over. Pretty much a rule in TV broadcasting and something to be avoided in online video. One of the strengths of online video (and an opportunity) is for the speaker to be seen as they are talking. This allows for the many messages found in non-verbal communication to be sent and received. TV ads mostly fail at this miserably.

So no CK - in my opinion online video is TRULY different from TV.

Re: The Next Frontiers for SEO and Online Video - Interview with Performics' Chris Keating

Jeff Bach — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 09:45:20 -0000

"attraction strategy" vs. "distribution strategy" - so simple and so good that I missed it the first time I scanned the interview.

Re: Design Your Own Profession

Jeff Bach — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:09:23 -0000

I agree but I think this presents only part of a bigger picture. For this new style of worker to become a link in this new chain, that means that all the other links in the chain must also be evolving. For instance, are the buyers of the finished product/service ready to buy this new widget? Are the sellers, marketers, and advertisers ready to sell this new product/service? Is tech support and IT ready to support this new worker as they go about their new style of work?

This is like a chain of dominoes are falling into place as one taps the next. I'm not so sure that entire work places and purchasing entities are up to speed with this outlook.

Re: 67% Of Small Business Owners Won’t Invest In Social Media In 2012 [INFOGRAPHIC] - AllTwitter

Jeff Bach — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:16:15 -0000

To me, the smaller you go, the less time/effort/awareness there is for "new media" particularly the media and effort that is perceived as "not making money". I think that small business owners get into it in the first place based on a passion for their subject manner. Everything else comes after. And not just second place. Business, family, pursuit of pleasure, watching football, laundry etc. QUITE often comes before anything that requires the owner to sit down and do something on a computer.

One might also see this as a general reluctance to create content. A good chunk of my clients don't like to write. When I do finally get them to the table to write, I can see why...they are not good writers. Even worse they are nervous in front of the public regardless of media. A dislike of writing/marketing/media is often times what got them going down the path of opening their own business. They thought of their passion and thought that they might be able to avoid exposure to the public, that the world would come to them somehow. They also blissfully skipped over all the steps required to support their passion.

On the upside, every smb that is nervous or unable to create content or spends no time on innovation and creativity just means that the client pool is staying large........

Now if I could just face down my own demon (sales) and get out there and convince those smbs to hire me for content creation, things would be cookin' !

Re: We Already Have The World's First iPad 2 Movie

Jeff Bach — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:08:40 -0000

Are they a couple of angst-filled trust funders trying to find meaning with their lives? OR did they make any money as a result of this exercise?

Re: Small Businesses Plan to Embrace Online Video in a Huge Way

Jeff Bach — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:09:28 -0000

Not surprised at the numbers at all. Would also add that nearly all business owners are unlikely to go looking for places to spend their money. Instead they MIGHT listen if you approach them and then go through the long sales cycle which (I also agree) is dominated by education. So this market segment is still tough to crack.

My main point though is finding a salesperson that knows this space. I know the product and have the experience but I don't have the sales bkgrd or the SMB network to try and sell into. The sales people I try and partner with are no where near understanding the product and service they are trying to sell. This is as big a problem as actually finding the clients.

Re: Intel Endangers Netflix, Google TV and DVD Sales in One Fell Swoop

Jeff Bach — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 10:01:27 -0000

x2 what cresence suggests. I think below is your most important phrase, written almost as an afterthought it would appear.

"..because the chances of most consumers instantly upgrading is slim.."

Tech history is loaded with these events though. The sudden appearance of a "disruptive" object (hard or soft) and that sets off a wave throughout the relevant areas of the economy. If all goes well at some point in the future this should make consumers lives better and producers lives easier. Once enough of these little beasties are in play.

Good for Intel. About time they figured out something that makes processors relevant again.

Re: 2010 Internet Television In A Nutshell and 2011 Predictions

Jeff Bach — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:04:48 -0000

Unless I am missing something, there is not really a revenue model for internet TV. So while internet TV is a great whiz bang thing for consumers, it is really putrid if you happen to be a content creator/producer trying to pay a few bills every other month. Ad-based revenue works for about five companies in the entire media universe, for the rest of the producers, ad-based revenue does not work and never will. Easy to use, widely accepted, and trustworthy micropayments would sure be nice. There are some other interesting options out there as well, that will hopefully further emerge in 2011!

Re: Web Video Production Advice for Aspiring Filmmakers - Interview With Demand Media

Jeff Bach — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 10:54:11 -0000

I've had the pleasure of talking with Jay Holzer as well as Patrick Conway, another Demand Media video guy. Both sure seem like good guys. The Demand Media model is a tough one however. At least to me. It has also stuck around for years longer than I ever thought it would. So someone somewhere must be playing along with it. The pay rates (unless they have recently shot up) in my opinion, are absolutely through the floor. And I'm already used to the low dollars that media production tends to pay. So when Jay says "go in prepared and be efficient" he is absolutely right. Even then it is a pretty tough gig. I've never produced anything for demand media. I can't afford it. Or else I am not efficient enough :) But they do seem to be a player in this online video world.

Re: Stallone Blows Up YouTube, Shows Impressive Online Marketing Chops

Jeff Bach — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:25:23 -0000

I thought the Youtube blowup thing describing the movie was a novel and eye catching piece of media. It sucked me in, surprised me, made it easy to watch from start to finish.

Now I'm left with wanting to do something like this myself. Any idea what agency created this? Would love to see and read a tutorial on how they did it. "The Expendables" most likely had a budget larger than most African countries, as well as most of my clients. Any idea of the costs involved? Hard not to imagine Youtube charging a kazillion dollars to hang this off of their domain.
Very interesting. To me anyway.
JB

Re: Ooyala Gives Video Publishers Integrated Paypal Payment System

Jeff Bach — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:41:34 -0000

Ooyala seems like a good company and no doubt they are going where they think there is money. I wish them well. But, there product/service is at a price point that is still out of reach of about 98% of the marketplace. The old Long Tail analogy comes to mind here. 3 or 4 data points at the head of the curve are gigantic and the remaining 99,996 data points cumulatively make up the rest. To me, Ooyala's latest product is a step in a great direction, but it is out of reach of the Long Tail of producers. A company like Mindbites, to me, has a much more affordable product that does nearly the same thing as far as I can tell.

500.00/month vs. 14.00/month.

Glad Ooyala is going to town and likely fits the bill for the Fortune 500, but I need something affordable that I can use to monetize my video library. I think Mindbites is looking like that company.

Re: Ooyala Gives Video Publishers Integrated Paypal Payment System

Jeff Bach — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:46:27 -0000

Ooyala continues to look good in some ways and not so good in some ways. After stumbling around some more today and using Google's spiff auto-complete feature to try and find better keywords for video-related topics, I found Mindbites. http://www.mindbites.com/sell. Have been back to their site 3x now, trying to find the flaw in their model. Each time leaving a bit more hopeful that what they offer could do the trick for what I need.

Why don't you big brains at ReelSEO interview this company so we can all learn from your probing and in-depth analysis :)

Seriously - you should, I think the company looks very interesting. Like Ooyala's product it solves my monetization problems but at a price I can afford.