Disqus - Latest Comments for Dennis McDonald

Re: What Good is a Scientific Blog?

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:53:00 -0000

Blogging and all that goes with it is a natural evolution of the informal communication and real-world influence structures that have been around since scientific research started getting organized and communicated. For people to say they "don't have time" is also like saying, "I don't want anyone but my small circle of fellow researchers and students to know about what I'm doing till I'm good and ready." My response: "There are probably a whole lot more people out there who would benefit from knowing about your research than you can imagine. Why limit your audience?"

Re: What Good is a Scientific Blog?

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:15:48 -0000

Re: http://mashable.com/2009/07/30/social-networking-overload/

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:59:55 -0000

3 words: "Be more selective."

Re: Blogs to Peak in 2007 – Gartner

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:42:04 -0000

One of the things that might also be happening is that "blogging" by itself is just being talked about less. What I'm hearing is interest in how a variety of tools -- tagging, bookmarks, social networking, wikis -- fit into an organization's overall communications and/or content management infrastructure. That suggests less attention will be paid to tools by themselves and more attention will be paid to functionality. That's not necessarily a bad thing!

Re: My Mate Megite

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 13:41:58 -0000

Ian - i agree with your positive comments about Megite. It's one of the first things I check each day, and I don't understand completely what's going on. I just know that what shows up in MY MEGITE (http://www.megite.com/index.php?section=ddmcd) as new and a connected item often turns out to be useful, and it's a LOT easier than scanning through all the new items in my Google Reader. I am looking forward to being able to update my OPML file myself, though.

Re: More Equals Different: the Web 2.0 Mix

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 14:37:07 -0000

I wasn't thinking about marketing. For example, I don't consider Wal-Mart's foray into social networking evil, just poorly implemented.

I was thinking more in terms of politics and inernational relations. For example, it will soon (if it isn't already) be impossible to tell what videos are real and what aren't. This means that for propaganda purposes it will be possible for anyone to virally spread realistic fake news reports concerning atrocities, murders, massive civil rights violtions -- you name it -- in order to stir up opposition to or hatred/mistrust of another nation/religion/interest group/ethnic group/etc.

Re: More Equals Different: the Web 2.0 Mix

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 09:56:42 -0000

I agree that we are seeing a "paradigm shift." These new technologies do let us do more things both in a qualitative as well as a quantitative sense.

My fear is that these new technologies also generate new avenues for bad people to spread fear and hatred. I'm not talking about spam, I'm talking about sophisticated people using sophisticated technology to lie and deceive on a massive, virally-spread scale.

How do we control this? Assume that self regulation will be generated through the spread of education and political self determination? Will that be enough?

Re: Lies, Damned Lies and Weblog Statistics

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 09:32:58 -0000

sounds like my numbers, too.

i am alway surprised at the high proportion of Firefox users.

are you tracking RSS feeds separately?

I am always amazed at the HUGE amt of indexing done by MSN -- and the paltry number of searches it generates (as opposed to Google, of course)

Re: Thank you Forrester, a Grand Adventure!

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:21:12 -0000

Good luck, Jeremiah!

Re: Report: Companies Should Organize For Social Media in a “Hub and Spoke” model

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:43:33 -0000

Interesting (but not surprising) how this parallels some discussions of how IT should be organized.

Re: Contextual Ads Based Off Social Network Profile: Twitter and Facebook

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:58:24 -0000

Interesting - I was receommended a Jetta Spartswagon -- and I own a Passat! (I resisted the temptation to type in John Anderton's Twitter ID.)

Re: Looking Behind the Curtains on the Social Media Stage: Humans Don’t Scale

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:03:10 -0000

Jeremiah,

We all know that in business bigger numbers are usually better even if the average quality suffers. It just depends on how much quality control you can afford and still do your jobs authentically. Sounds like reality is setting in.

I think it's seriously time for you to write your book!

Dennis

Re: Social Media Marketing Storyboard #1: Fish Where The Fish Are

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:58:15 -0000

My statistics mentor, on explaining sampling theory, always said, "Shoot where the ducks are."

Re: A Running List of Sponsored Conversations

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:30:57 -0000

Jeremiah,

I know this may sound "picky," but before you start calling these initiatives "conversations," don't you need to determine (1) if there really is an ongoing conversation (following an initial post) and (2) don't you have to determine if the responsibility of the blogger who is paid to blog extends to engaging in followups and comments? Also, only a small proportion of readers of any given blog post actually comment or link the the post, so characterizing that as a "conversation" may be stretching things a bit.

- Dennis

Re: How To Make Sponsored Conversations Work

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:55:41 -0000

Alex, you ask, "Aren’t we all a little tired of the same ol same ol?" I think what Forrester is saying about sponsorship is that we aren't.

Re: How To Make Sponsored Conversations Work

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:35:25 -0000

I agree that disclosure is key, but that's nothing new. It's always up to the reader. Whenever I see "paid advertisement" at the top of a Washington Post page that's printed to look like the editorial content in the rest of the publication, I automatically apply a different set of standards to the advertising, since that's what it is. The Washington Post frequently runs sections sponsored by foreign government, for example, and that fact is clearly displayed even though the typography and design copies the rest of the paper. It's no different than when an interest group, company, or lobbyist buys a page in the Washington Post to sell its ideas to Congress. I immediately apply a different set of values to the content and that automatically means I simply assume the content is one sided and is making no attempt at objectivity. The same goes with sponsored blog posts, whether by an A-lister or someone like me. The minute you say something is sponsored, I'll automatically assume it may not be as objective or as straightforward as the rest of what you write. And that's fine; it should always be up to the reader to accept or reject a point of view.

As far as modifying link attributes to account for sponsorship, I think that's a rat's nest of problems since there are so many different influences on why someone incorporates a link in a publication. In my blog I frequently link to other posts I've written since my blog is how I promote my consulting and professional intersts. Does that mean my links should be treated differently by Google since I'm not "objective" with how I apply them? Good luck trying to keep track of such things! Once you start classifying links by sponsorship status you're on your way to classifying links as political, as violent, as sexually explicit, etc. etc. Good luck!

Re: Expulsion of the Social Media “Gurus” –Impacts of the Recession

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:12:57 -0000

My advice: conduct and publish original research.

Re: Cisco launches Community Platform “EOS” and aims at Media Industry

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:39:33 -0000

How much help will the Cisco brand name be in the marketing efforts to come? Isn't it likely that the non-tech decisionmakers won't even know what Cisco does?

Re: Understanding Izea’s Sponsored Blogging Service

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:47:36 -0000

I don't see what the big deal is. Advertisers have always bought access to trusted voices and they ride that train as long as it makes economic sense. As I posted on Chris' blog, "Arthur Godfrey did it, Willard Scott did it, C. Everett Koop did it, why can’t Chris Brogan do it?" I have to admit though, after reading Chris' original post, my initial reaction was, "Oh great, just what the world needs - another retail outlet for those ugly vacuum cleaners!"

Re: How Municipalities Should Integrate Social Media Into Disaster Planning

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:32:39 -0000

Excellent post, Jeremiah. The planning you recommend is gradually happening. Unfortunately, there is still resistance that is mostly based, I think, on the difficulty of integrating decentralized social media with secure command-and-control based communications such as those needed by first responders. It's going to take a massive disaster to finally overcome this type of resistance.

Re: The Motrin Moms Backlash by the Numbers

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:32:06 -0000

An alternate take on what this teaches marketers: test/revise each campaign ad nauseam till it offends no one, then release ad, then monitor all media, and then hope you hear nothing but the cash register.

Re: How Microsoft Can Win The PC/Mac Campaign

Dennis McDonald — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:07:00 -0000

Adam - I have the same question as you. What the campaign suggests to me -- and I have absolutely no data to back this up -- is that there are some key demographic groups that are declining in terms of positive perceptions of Microsoft and this whole campaign is nothing but an attempt to upgrade Microsoft's image with those groups. How this relates to the Seinfeld ads is beyond me, though. But then, I'm not the target. I'm too old to be hip and the only reason I like Apple products is that they tend to be more pleasant and easier to use than Microsoft products. But I'm also writing this on a Dell laptop running XP (grumble grumble ... )

Re: How Microsoft Can Win The PC/Mac Campaign

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:50:05 -0000

I think the ad you post here is infinitely better than the previous two, but it's not clear to me what the goal is.

Remind people that Windows really is the most popular platform? Do people really need to be reminded of that?

Make people feel less bad that they aren't "cool and hip" because they use a PC not a Mac? That's a weird message to promote since it seems a bit negative.

If all they're saying is "We're Number One and Look at All These People Who Agree" that's fine -- but what will that accomplish?

As cloying and cute as Apple's Mac vs PC ads are, they do something that this Microsoft ad totally misses -- the Apple ads actually talk about features and usability. You know, things that actually differentiate different types of computers?

You may not agree with the way Macs and Pcs are compared in Apple's ads, but they do seem to focus on some important features. For this Microsoft ad to remind me that everyone in the world uses PC's not Macs (and I'm using a Windows XP machine to write this) doesn't change the fact that using a Windows machine is a less pleasant experience than using a Mac. Just because "everyone uses a PC" doesn't change that fact.

Re: What ‘Facebook Connect’ Means for Corporate Websites

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:43:12 -0000

A possible scenario is that, as Facebook Connect starts to take off, Facebook itself as a destination for online networking -- as we now understand it -- will become less important. Facebook instead will evolve into more of a web-wide platform for socially-enabled online commerce. Would this therefore threaten Google? Or would it be complementary?

Re: What ‘Facebook Connect’ Means for Corporate Websites

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:29:47 -0000

Does this mean, now, that when you, Jeremiah, purchase a product at a participating Facebook Connect website, that when I log into that web site using my Facebook ID, that I will get a popup that says, "Hey Dennis, did you know that your friend Jeremiah -- or at least someone using Jeremiah's Facebook ID -- just bought a Widget here? Wouldn't you like to buy one too?"

Re: Buzzword Heaven: Social Networks

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:01:47 -0000

The nice thing about business cards is that you can still read them when the Internet and electricity are unavailable! I'm surprised these folks aren't using that as a sales message! ;-)

Re: Did I offend the Baby Boomers?

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:01:57 -0000

Rob, I'll let you handle the creativity, and I'll handle the fun!

Re: Did I offend the Baby Boomers?

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:10:55 -0000

Since I used to make a living crunching numbers and doing market research, I understand where you might be coming from, Jeremiah. There's always a need to categorize, simplify, and generalize. I've found though, that even when you do that, the distribution of the characteristics you're tracking tend to be pretty broad. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't understand the differences between even basic statistics such as a median and an arithmetic mean, and the push to create punchy PowerPoint slides means that it's just plain easier to generalize. Now we have categories like "younger boomers" and "older boomers." Sigh.

You have to understand that people resent being pigeonholed by marketers. If you watch the evening network news, you get the impression that everyone over 50 cares only about urinary problems, laxatives, and bone density.

I'll let you in on a secret - we also like to have fun.

Re: Gen Y Enter Stage Left, Baby Boomers Exit Stage Right

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:10:30 -0000

Jeremiah, thanks very much for including my link in your article.

As someone who has always been involved in information technology research, development, or consulting, I personally have always found "generational generalizations" to be somewhat limiting.

The good thing about today's technology environment is how second nature its use has become. But that hasn't extended to how technology is managed, which has lagged behind.

One question is, how much do people need to understand technology in order to manage its use? In the old days (you know, last week) we had "IT departments," but as technology and its use has become much more pervasive, the distinction between managing and using technology has become much more fuzzy.

I wonder if it is possible to really effectively manage technology without understanding how it operates? This might be one of the weaknesses of "younger generations" who take technology for granted without understanding the basics of technology. They're very fast at adopting and putting technology to use, but does that mean they know enough to make informed decisions about how it should be used and managed economically and effectively in an organization? Or am I over-generalizing based on my own limited experience?

Re: Gen Y Enter Stage Left, Baby Boomers Exit Stage Right

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:22:18 -0000

Some companies such as Dow Chemical are making active attempts to retain and/or network with retiring workers and the expertise they possess: http://www.ddmcd.com/my_dow.html

Re: LiveBlog: What’s Wrong with the White Label Social Networking Industry?

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:35:05 -0000

The "elephant in the room" here is cost. Veronica Giggey should go one more step in her final paragraph and say something like, "But before you select any of these alternatives, be prepared to understand the total costs through the first year of two of what it will take to actually implement, manage, and support the solution." The challenge: estimating the non-technology costs.

Re: COO and CFO Questions

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:09:48 -0000

Jeremiah, thank you for this good, clear thinking!

Re: Forrester Report: Global Enterprise Web 2.0 Market Forecast: 2007 To 2013

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:23:05 -0000

Jeremiah, my prediction next year is that you will be showing trend lines by type of functional application (project management, HR, customer service, etc.) instead of by technology -- or are you already doing that? (When I do corporate presentations I organize by business application.)

Dennis

Re: The Many Challenges of Widgets

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:14:48 -0000

How about "usability"?

I'm thinking of the increasing number of widgets that provide access to some mix of multiple feeds from multiple types of sources.

It's hard enough to keep track of multiple incoming data streams representing different people, sources, relationships, keywords, etc. When you try to cram too much though a widget you have a real usability problem because of the variety.

Re: Sophistication May Vary (Am I boring you?)

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:26:07 -0000

Keep up the good work, Jeremiah. The older I get the less I realize I know. I usually think of myself as reasonably sophisticated about "social media" but every time I turn around I'm learning something new. For example, I'm a moderator of the Linkedin Bloggers group on Yahoo! Groups and, you know what? I learn something new there every day, precisely because there is such a wide range of knowledge and experience.

Re: The Challenges, Evolution, and Success Factors of the Enterprise Intranet

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:04:04 -0000

This is a great compendium of ideas, Jeremiah.

Significantly, many of the issues you discuss focus on governance, not on technology. Increasingly, I am thinking that the single most important feature that any intranet should have is the ability to reflect the constant changes that go on within an organization and in how it relates to its constituencies.

Having a "expiration" review process that considers content, function, and relationships would be part of that. And how the intranet reflects ongoing changes would also drive both governance and technology features.

Re: A Q&A discussion with Plaxo’s Joseph Smarr and John McCrea

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:04:57 -0000

Anyone who publishes an email address in Facebook should assume it will get grabbed.

Also, did Plaxo tell Facebook in advance what they were doing? If not, why not?

It seems to me, though, that Plaxo will benefit financially from being able to scrape large numbers of email addresses from other sources. If they do, shouldn't they be willing to share the financial rewards with the people whose email addresses they scraped?

Re: Defining the term: “Online Community”

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:27:36 -0000

I like the short and sweet approach. "Similar goals and interests" might be too limiting, though. How about this: "An online community is a group of people who share interests, choose to identify themselves as a group, and communicate about their interests using web tools."

Re: Innovation at LinkedIn: From Business Utility to Platform

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:04:51 -0000

Agreed the issues are similar between Linkedin platform and Google Docs -- I've had clients refuse to use Google Docs for collaboration on the grounds it was "less secure" than the corporate intranet coupled with email send/receipt of attachments.

Re: Innovation at LinkedIn: From Business Utility to Platform

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 08:53:49 -0000

Jeremiah, I will be interested in seeing how far Linkedin can take the "sharing of information among business colleagues" feature. Just as some companies block Facebook or forbid employees to comment on blogs, I can imagine that some will scrutinize participation in even business oriented systems such as Linkedin for communications that might reveal corporate marketing or strategy interests.

Dennis McDonald
Alexandria, Virginia
http://www.ddmcd.com

Re: Are we moving too fast?

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:13:04 -0000

I stopped working weekends when my kids were born.

Re: MySpace and Facebook launch new Advertising products, why Hyper Targeting, Social Ads and rise of the “Fan-Sumer” matter to brands

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:57:18 -0000

This all reminds me of the arguments and discussions we used to have about "what's a community?" and "what's a friend?"

Before them I suppose there were arguments/discussions about whether or not it was moral/ethical/effective to put Magic Decoder Rings into boxes of Cheerios. If a kid got a Magic Decoder Ring and wore it he could be part of the "Masked Avenger's" "community of crime fighters" that would tune in every week (and get Mom to buy buy more Cheerios).

This is all starting to sound very boring...

Re: How Microsoft got their Passport afterall

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:46:29 -0000

As ras Facebook is concerned, I was born in 1900. Thank goodness I've never told them my religious or political preferences...

Re: The Challenges of Social Media in the Enterprise, why Business and IT need to align

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:32:08 -0000

In many large companies it is precisely because corporate IT departments spend so much of their time and money maintaining infrastructure technologies that they are shortchanged when it comes to being funded with enough staff to support agile and business-oriented responses to rapidly changing business needs.

Infrastructure costs are often treated as overhead or support costs that, by definition, are spread over multiple business goals and processes. Performance measurement in such instances is related to cost control, not to revenue enhancement. In such situations IT is something to be minimized. As a result, your pet new project employing shiny new technologies is going to get shortchanged.

It’s a vicious circle that in some companies has led to so much IT outsourcing that providing support for new technologies can’t happen without the involvement of outside contractors.

Re: Yet another reason why we need a single, trusted, and protected identity system

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 07:16:18 -0000

Jeremiah, thanks for writing this. I am beginning to think that the problem may be more difficult to solve than some people think. It's not just a question of being able to prove who you are so that a commercial entity will trust your purchase transaction, it's about proving who you are in the context of the relationships you have with other people. Social networks differentiate themselves via the types of communications and transactions they manage through different types of trusted relationships within their groups. Facebook "friends" are not the same as Linkedin "connections," etc. etc. To think that it would be possible to come up with a standardized -- and portable -- definition of friendships and personal and business relationships, that could be linked to an accepted personal identity program, is going to be a very tough sell, both to the networks that are trying to differentiate themselves, and to the individuals who may want to keep different aspects of their relationships separate.

Re: PhotoBlog: Silicon Valley elite swarms to the Techcrunch 9 Party

Dennis McDonald — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 11:07:36 -0000

Hey, I'm with you, Jeremiah! ("Citizen journalism" indeed!)

Re: PhotoBlog: Silicon Valley elite swarms to the Techcrunch 9 Party

Dennis McDonald — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 10:07:26 -0000

Interesting - the ratio of female to male faces in these pictures seems higher than in the bylines of text posts coming out of Silicon Valley. Is that just my imagination, or is that just your selection of photo subjects?

Re: How’d the blogger dinner go? Apparently, I don’t exist.

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:17:48 -0000

Jeremiah, welcome to Alexandria, Virginia, the Fun Side of the Potomac!

Re: Blogger Dinner Monday night in Alexandria Virginia, July 23, 2007

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 10:46:05 -0000

My wife works across the street from the Hilton and the folks in her office say that the restaurant in the Hilton is actually pretty nice -- and probably won't be too busy. Plus there won't be the pressure by restaurant management to "turn" the tables as there might be further down King Street towards to waterfront. So the only question is -- how many people and when?

Re: Liberate your Control Freaks

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:16:33 -0000

One thing I've learned is that it's rarely a good idea to attack the people in power when you are trying to change their minds.

Re: From Creation to Achivement: the other 5 Stages of Blogging

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:46:37 -0000

One comment I would make to Seth is that there are a lot of "long tails" out there. Some of the tails are very narrow, and some are very broad.

Put another way, consider a simple two dimensional matrix with the X axis being labeled "Pond Size" and having two regions, "Big," and "Small." Consider the Y axis being labeled "Fish Size," with two regions "Big" and "Small." Not everyone can be a "big fish in a big pond," since some of the ponds are really small.

Re: How do you describe Techmeme?

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:33:35 -0000

I use it Techmeme as a news tracker. I check it first thing in the morning to see what the blogosphere and tech communities are saying to each other. Then I check Megite (http://www.megite.com)for a more personalized view of what is going on.

Re: Trends: Social Networking becomes a site feature, updating the List of White Label Social Networking sites

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:40:03 -0000

Maybe this means that the corporate web site will evolve into a portal combining static, dynamic, and collaborative features.

Re: What every Web Strategist should know after going to Google Developer Day

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:48:58 -0000

What, no comments about privacy? Think GOOGLE IN CHINA.

Re: What every Web Strategist should know after going to Google Developer Day

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:09:43 -0000

Wow, Jeremiah, thank you for a VERY well thought out and organized rundown. Much appreciated!

Here are a couple of follow up questions:

(1) In all the discussions of extending access to data to so many different uses, systems, and contexts, were issues of privacy and security addressed by the Google folks who were discussing these tools? If so, what did they have to say?

(2) In a related question, as tools and data become increasingly distended and extended through the web, how do we ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data that these tools distribute? (This is obviously related to your "metrics" concern. I thought of this based on your "mashups within mashups" comment. On my own blog I'm using a little bitty combination of a remote db, an RSS feed, and an RSS display widget,and I have a hard time believing that such a kludge always will work in a real industrial strength situation where real financial and business transactions are being performed.)

Re: Is my blog crashing your browser?

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:43:16 -0000

Never had a problem, Jeremiah.

Re: Silicon Valley Sightings: Baby Geek Wear

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 16 May 2007 07:35:49 -0000

As horrifying to some as this might seem, it won't be too long before this type of clothing item shows up in your local WalMart...

Re: Ways to make your Website “Green” (are you doing this?)

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:46:10 -0000

This is a great idea Jeremiah but I fear the maintenance and upkeep might be a headache! (Can you see a "Digg-like" infrastructure built up to enable public ratings of whether a given product/web site/service/widget is/is not really "green?")

On a related "sustainability" topic I wrote recently about the relationship between the cooperation models promoted by "web 2.0" processes and the push to get scientists and researchers more involved in sustainability issues. The idea, promoted by the president of the AAAS, is to get researches more involved in communicating with the public directly about sustainability related topics (http://www.ddmcd.com/sustainability.html).

Re: Yahoo Mail Beta Feedback

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 09 May 2007 20:13:52 -0000

I love the product too but the lack of a real human responder with Yahoo is a real negative.

Re: Lunch 2.0 at Netgear and LinkedIn

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 02 May 2007 08:14:08 -0000

Heck - is there anybody in Alexandria Virginia interested in a Lunch 2.0?

Re: Strategies for organizing your Corporate Social Media Program (Starting internally first)

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:46:22 -0000

Excellent stuff, Jeremiah. I like the "control tower" analogy, too -- sort of like how the Google group of the Social Media Cllective functions as a counterpoint to the Social Media Collective web site.

Re: Defining “Engagement”

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:32:50 -0000

Another angle to measuring engagement relates to the willingness of the person to resist alternative choices. This relates not only to the individual's goals (idle surfing vs. targeted research vs. looking to buy something) but to the availability of alternatives ("stay here since it's the only source" or "stay here because it's better than the alternatives").

Re: Do you Hate the term “Social Media?” (I don’t) then help come up with a better term

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:26:41 -0000

Thanks for clarifying the title Jeremiah. I do like the term, too. But, as I've said before, "People Are Social and Media Are Plural!"

Re: Do you Hate the term “Social Media?” (I don’t) then help come up with a better term

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:16:34 -0000

Jeremiah-

I'd resist incorporating the word "marketing" in such a term since marketing related communicatisn is only a subset of how people are using social media -- and I see social media as being used within organizations to facilitate things like project management, innovation, and publishing.

- Dennis

Re: Apple, the Inverted Fortress

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 14:16:21 -0000

I am beginning to wonder if some of the negative feedback about the iPhone in the blogosphere is due at least partly to Jobs' success is going directly to the mainstream media and thereby making so many of the "long tails" in New Media bystanders?

Re: Lessons in Blogger Relations

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 20:48:33 -0000

Jeremiah - I hope you follow up on this post with some thoughts on how to identify the bloggers that the Relationship Manager develops relationships with. Also, who should coordinate the work the Relationship Manager does. It seems to me that the concepts of mutual trust and respect are more important than ever, so the people tasked with these responsibilities have to be in a position to be taken seriously.

Re: Media isn’t Social, People are

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:39:54 -0000

Also, Media are Plural! ;)

Re: Are Podcasts Social Media? and More on Measuring Social Media

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 20:23:58 -0000

Jeremiah, I'm serious!

Re: Are Podcasts Social Media? and More on Measuring Social Media

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 10:15:36 -0000

Media aren't social, people are.

Re: Social Media becomes line item for Corporate Marketing budgets 2007

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 12:25:21 -0000

I'll be curious to find out who has these budget dollars. As with Web 1.0 web sites, multiple departments will be involved in using social media; I can see marketing, advertising, sales, and service/support all using social media. It will also be interesting to see what the role of IT will be in these cross-functional applications of social media. (Remember IT departments, Jeremiah?)

Re: Web Theory: Respecting the Time of your Users

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:51:58 -0000

I agree with you 100% on this, Jeremiah. I call even minor logins "speedbumps."

Re: The Problem with Social Media Measurement

Dennis McDonald — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:46:26 -0000

Jeremiah, I completely disagree with the premise that, because something is difficult, it can't be done. Take your question about the image, for example. Ask an engineer familiar with remote sensing and satellite based measurement of vegetation and water conditions and he or she will give you a range of techniques for capturing a set of measurements that can be used to compare changes over time in a meaningful way. I believe the same will be true of measurement of social media related processes. If you define a context, measurement techniques can be developed.

No, they won't be able to peer into anyone's soul, but at least they'll be able to see into people's wallets! ;)

Re: Dismantle Content Management Systems (CMS)! Rebuild them with Social Media Features

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 10:14:51 -0000

Hey Robyn do you think one of these products might be useful for Linkedin Bloggers' current "collaboration project" exercise? - Dennis

Re: Dismantle Content Management Systems (CMS)! Rebuild them with Social Media Features

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 18:55:16 -0000

Jeremiah,
While I agree there will usually be the "we don't know how to handle bottom up content creation and collaboration" complaints, one issue I think might be a non-issue in many cases is what to do with existing content. In my experience with corporate intranets there is usually a huge amount of content that NOBODY ever uses simply because it was created as a byproduct of long-defunct workgroups. Just starting afresh might not be such a bad idea.
- Dennis

Re: Integration: Apple and Nike and WWW

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 17:06:59 -0000

I think the idea of the heart rate monitor is great -- insurance companies will be able to determine who's fit and who's not and adjust their rates accordingly! Cool!

Re: Cool Screens: Archos Portable Video and Apple Cinema Displays

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:34:43 -0000

Jeremiah, when you figure out how to re-synch your iPod contents from your old to new machines -- let us know how you did it!

Dennis

Re: Jeremiah has a mild case of ‘Corporatitus’, poppin’ some pills tonight, any doctors in the house?

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:48:59 -0000

my advice: the first time you are tempted to say "that's not my job" -- bite your tongue!

Re: Six RSS Resources for the Internet Professional or Web Strategist

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 13:51:40 -0000

I vote for "pull." I can't understand where the "push" concept would come in, given how the web works.

Re: Companies that Measure Social Media, Influence, and Brand

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 11:46:49 -0000

I would also be interested in measuring (and modeling) how messages propogate from one medium to another.

Re: Great Social Media Primer, but missing one key thing…

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 08:27:17 -0000

FWIW, Jeremiah, here are definitions I used in a recent presentation (http://www.ddmcd.com/member_services.html):

SOCIAL NETWORKING is the use of special processes and technologies to support the discovery, formation, and maintenance of personal and professional relationships.
SOCIAL MEDIA are collections of data and information that are developed collaboratively and/or shared interactively among individuals and groups.

Re: Second Life could use an ‘Observer’ or ‘Shadow’ feature, lower the barriers to view

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:23:34 -0000

On my first pass through Second Life I almost felt I was in the middle of an online version of Logan's Run, an old SF movie. In that sociaty no one was allowed to live past 30!

Re: Second Life could use an ‘Observer’ or ‘Shadow’ feature, lower the barriers to view

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:43:04 -0000

I'm still having troublemaking my avatar acceptable -- not everyone wants to look young and hip!

Re: What’s the difference between a Content Mall and a Web Ring?

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 10:01:09 -0000

Jeremiah, when I first read your description of "content malls" what popped into my mind was "Ah, that sounds like a magazine!" Magazines typically (a) mix editorial content and advertising; (b) the content is produced by a mix of full time and part time staff (the work of the latter frequently being governed by "works made for hire" contracts); (c) there is frequently a communication or influence "firewall" between editorial and advertising operations, and (d) there is a mix of revenue streams based on both subscription income as well as advertising income. Is this an accurate metaphor?

Re: Jeremiah headed to Podtech!

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 12:47:49 -0000

Congratulations, Jeremiah!

Re: Disclosure on the Blogosphere

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:13:22 -0000

I'm glad to see this getting more attention. I'm in the Washington DC area and would be very interested in chatting about the topic. I've tried to address it on my own blog (http://www.ddmcd.com/truth.html) but would like to discuss it further. The topic of how you promote "trust and confidence" in the world of social networking is imprtant to me and I'm eager to pursue it. Skype me to chat.

Re: Podcast interview of the IE Team, Topics generated from Community

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:12:15 -0000

Jeremiah, when I click on the link to this posting from the link that shows up in my own Technorati list of links to my own site, the Technorati link takes me to a blank page on your site, not to this post. Odd.
- Dennis

Re: IE7 is coming! What would you ask the Product Team?

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 09:22:27 -0000

I have to agree with Bess' comment, and it's not just the IE team that is "reaching out." I've been tracking various Microft team blogs and am very impressed with the openness. That doesn't mean I'll be switching from FireFox any time soon but it does somewaht negate the "evil empire" label applied to Microsoft. (Make sure you and Martin bring back many photos, Jeremiah!)

Re: IE7 is coming! What would you ask the Product Team?

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 17:05:32 -0000

Ask them why I should give up FireFox.

Re: My Embarrassing Scoble Powerpoint Incident in front of Hundreds of People

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 10:00:00 -0000

ctrl-alt-delete? you mean scoble was not using a Mac?

Re: PayPal to offer Online Storage, Online Storage Market to heatup

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:07:33 -0000

Jeremiah -

I read your "40 points." Very interesting! I'm also interested in what happens to the data beyond your being able to access it from multiple locations/computers (as I do now with Dabble DB). I'd also like to see online storage companies pay people for identity information (for example, pay me for access to my personal health and financial information) so that folks are compensated for the the value generated from use of personal data, as I discussed here:
http://www.ddmcd.com/buy_and_sell.html

- Dennis

Re: I’m being Cloned!

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:07:38 -0000

Jeremiah-
This type of situation is one of the reasons I put my byline in a link ("By Dennis McDonald") in each of my blog posts. That way at least some name recognition and a linkback opportunity will come trhough when this situation occurs.
- Dennis

Re: Future of Web Apps Conference Notes (Day 1)

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:03:01 -0000

Thanks for the writeup Jeremiah.

I think the comment about "two separate audiences" for HTML and RSS is very interesting. Would like to follow up a bit more on that. In my case it's very true - some blogs I read via blogs, some via my rss aggregator, and some via Netvibes (PRT blogs ususally via Netvibes).

Dennis

Re: Google launching it’s Online Office Suite –What’s the Catch?

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 16:48:24 -0000

Be sure to read the fine print about privacy and data ownership.

Re: Searching for a Web Based Ticketing System

Dennis McDonald — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 11:27:53 -0000

Another thought - you mentioned some automatic emailing features in your original requirement list. This gets you into some workflow capabilities. If you value the email functionality, being able to track the email's status (did Joe get this email? Did Joe respond?) automatically might also be a requirement.

Re: Searching for a Web Based Ticketing System

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 19:08:03 -0000

Jeremiah, more on what I remember from using Perfect Tracker:

Our team used it to track and report on software bugs for a very large and complex software development project, not a web site.. A key element was the ability to rank bugs in terms of severity. This helped us to prioritize scarce developer time to address the bugs.

One of the things i remember quite specifically was how important it is to have -- and be able to access -- a good history file view of a bug or transaction -- basically, who said what, when, about which segment of code.

Because of that experience, I would think that a modern ticketing product should offer a variety of ranking and sorting options (view by severity, view by review cycle, view by code type, view by owner, etc. etc.) in addition to the email/workflow capabilities you mention.

- Dennis

Re: Searching for a Web Based Ticketing System

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:40:45 -0000

check this page:

http://www.avensoft.com/

i've used perfect tracker which these have superseded.

- Dennis

Re: RSS, Feeds, and Awareness

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 17:03:53 -0000

Jeremiah -

I definitely agree with you on that last point. I am still amazed at how easy it is to publish my own feeds via my own web page (http://www.ddmcd.com/feeds/ and scroll down) ) and I figure even the simple 4-step process I describe can be easily improved upon.

It won't be long till new employees of a group or company will be provided a sign up page for selecting the feeds they are expected to subscribe to and monitor. If the process becomes prevalent, it could be like monitoring the "pulse" of the company.

- Dennis

Re: RSS, Feeds, and Awareness

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 09:09:26 -0000

Jeremiah, as useful as I have found public feeds to be, I really think that within-enterprise adoption ("enterprise 2.0" - note the quotes!) will also have value once projects, people, and proect intranet pages can all be configured to generate feeds -- and people have an easy way to subscribe and unsubscribe.

Re: Apparently, I’m an Evil Liar…

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:59:52 -0000

Oh well, things never change. Back when I was doing a mix of marketing and project management, I was regularly referred to as "marketing slime" by my company's programmers -- and this was after they allowed me to attend their meetings so we could do a better job of selling their services!

Re: Review of my blog improvement process

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 17:15:47 -0000

There's also the "evolutionary tweak" approach, made with little or no fanfare. A couple of weeks ago, realizing I was hopelessly behind on my movie reviews, I took the opportunity de-publish the reviews and to look in detail at the Google Analytics data I had on click behavior and entrance and exit rates per page. I've gradually redefined the front page, though most people will not have noticed.

Re: Web Strategy: Individual Blogs may be more effective than Faceless Team Blogs

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 08:23:51 -0000

Jeremiah - I wonder if what you say might also be relevant to the common "group blogs" put together by groups of professionally related people, say, groups of people interested in publishing, groups of consultants interested in e-learning, etc. Even with such group blogs, I invariably return (or subscribe) to see what oe particular individual has to say. Such might be the case with corporate group blogs -- failure to establish individual personalities and identities will result in less effectiveness, even if the grouping of content might have certain SEO benefits.

Re: Contact

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 18:46:59 -0000

jeremiah

i don't think the word "sanction" is appropriate in the title of your latest blog post. maybe you mean something else?

dennis

Re: Your Feedback Requested on This Beta Blog

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 18:38:42 -0000

"delight customers" is OK for a consumer focus but it might bring you into conflict with folks who are focusing on internal communications/collaboration or vendor relations as impacted by web 2.0/social software techniques.

Re: Your Feedback Requested on This Beta Blog

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 17:16:11 -0000

1. good look and feel.

2. it's good that the SEARCH box is big and prominent.

3. it's good that not a lot of "doodads" are displayed - again, a clean appearance is good. (A concept like "strategy" should not be associated with the concept "clutter.")

4. I would like to see your picture. One, it personalizes the site. Two, if you're young, hip, and good looking, advertise that fact -- it's the way the world is.

5. With no absolute control over whether the target browser will be displaying via Arial, Tahoma, or Verdana, I prefer a left-justified line with ragged right, especially since there is no word wrap as far as I can tell. Otherwise the kerning of characters is uneven when the right justification is calculated. (This is a personal preference).

6. Related to this I (happily) don't see any centered quoted text -- centering quoted text is a highly unusual practice that I think you should avoid.

7. Plan ahead for categories. Right now you've got just a few. What's your growth strategy? I recently figured out how to display index terms in my own sidebar (www.ddmcd.com) and I'm still working on a rule for deciding when to list the categories in the sidebar versus only make them accessible via the separate section indexes. If you have a lot of categories will your design scale up? (My vendor doesnt yet have a blog-wide search feature so I'm dependent on categories for look-up),

8. Do you have an ABOUT ME page?

9. Why are you doing this revision?

Re: Gartner’s take on Web 2.0

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 08:57:52 -0000

Good point about what's happening on the "edge." That makes it difficult for more traditional analysts to keep up.

Re: Newspapers can’t innovate — need “Switzerland Inc.” to survive

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 12:30:34 -0000

I have to agree with a lot of what Mohr says, especially his comments about standardization and consolidation. What's happened in newspapers has happened in other industries -- consumption habits evolve and traditional industries get hit with newcomers taking advantage of newer technology, processes, and lower costs. Here's my own review of his article:
http://www.ddmcd.com/newspaper_crisis.html

Re: Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Oct 17, 2007

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:32:47 -0000

AY? WHAT DID YOU SAY SONNY? (Holds ear trumpet to screen...)

Re: Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Oct 17, 2007

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:08:05 -0000

I'll tell you something even more creepy -- I'm over 50 and I STILL USE A LANDLINE TELEPHONE TO TALK WITH PEOPLE WHEN I'M IN MY OFFICE!

Re: Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Oct 3, 2007

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:06:10 -0000

what's the feed address for "digest"?

Re: Beyond Business: Impacts of VoIP and Live Streaming on the family dynamic

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 05:27:40 -0000

These are also examples of why it will be difficult for companies to completely block access to online networking sites -- people get so used to open communications they want the same capabilities even when they are "behind the firewall."

Re: Forrester Conference: Will answer how Consumers are impacted by Social Media, Chicago, Oct 11-12

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:23:27 -0000

It's your blog - write what you want.

Re: Pursuing the Web Strategy mission as a Forrester Analyst

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:10:56 -0000

Excellent work Jeremiah! Congratulations!

Re: Does Wal-Mart need a Robert Scoble or a Lionel Menchaca? Neither, says the community

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 11:59:40 -0000

How about James Stewart?

Re: Does Wal-Mart need a Robert Scoble or a Lionel Menchaca? Neither, says the community

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 11:13:03 -0000

Connie - I was not trying to interpret your model. My point is that with so many "communities" to deal with it's probably impossible to come up with a single model that appeals to all unless a serious attempt is made to limit the target audience (which is why I suggested the "independent online entity" model).

Like it or not, some folks may find a Betty Crocker type persona to be appropriate. I wouldn't but who am I to judge?

I also don't buy the "it's got to be a woman" argument. That's the flip side of "the president has to be a man" view, in my opinion.

PS -- The Walmart in Blacksburg VA goes out of its way to stock Hokey goods. I know it well and have purchased much there. Students at Virginia Tech can take the free bus service there and back to campus, too -- I'm not sure about Target but I have shopped at both. At Walmart I did buy two personal refrigerators [to kids there], a microwave, a collapsing bookshelf, and tons of purple and orange hangers at Walmart, though.

Re: Does Wal-Mart need a Robert Scoble or a Lionel Menchaca? Neither, says the community

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 08:47:27 -0000

An evangelist of the type you describe would be ineffective with respect to changing perceptions of the company overall. Instead I would recommend establishment of a parallel Wal-Mart business unit whose sole function is online relationship development, sales, and services.

The persona of such a unit would be "We're not like our parent." Pricing snd services would be exemplary. Competiton between terrestrial and online Wal-Mart would be openly encouraged. Online Wal-Mart would be free to openly criticize the behavior of terrestrial Wal-Mart, and vice versa.

Would it be physically and logistically possible to establish a truly independent unit like this given how well integrated Wal-Mart supply chain technology and processes are -- technology and processes that the online unit most certainly would have to piggyback on? I don't know. But if the unit were independent AND was able to convincingly demonstrate that to the public, THEN I think your idea of a scoblesque ombudsman might have a chance of working.

On a related note, a possible area for research might be to begin experimenting with 3-dimensional user-defined avatars as online intermediaries with companies. Some people may prefer generic machine like interaction since they just want to get in and get out to complete a sales transaction. But for those folks where establishing a persona for the intermediary might actually make sense, why not let THE CUSTOMER decide who he/she wants to deal with online? Some folks might opt for a Scoble, some for Betty Crocker, and others might like a Captain Kangaroo. Let the people decide how they want to experience the "face" of the company.

Re: Rules of Engagement for the Web Marketing Battleground: Wikipedia

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 11:25:41 -0000

I wonder if one of the inherent problems with Wikipedia is that the editors aren't always knowledgeable about the topics they are editing and it is difficult to make a judgement about that as a reader.

Understanding editorial processes is not the same as understanding the underlying topic that is being edited.

Re: Crises Management Template: Child Relations for Social Networks (Facebook)

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:54:38 -0000

Jeremiah, this is a terrific piece. While I have never been so rash as to actually "friend" my daughter -- the very thought fills her with revulsion -- there is an underlying reality here that relates to how social media and networking are used during real emergencies.

You don't want artificial boundaries making communications difficult in such situations. This suggests to me that "walled garden" systems such as Facebook should not be counted on during such emergencies, even though we have seen during the Virginia Tech shootings and the recent Minneapolis bridge collapse how useful such systems can be for certain types of communications.

Re: Web Strategy: What the Web Strategist should know about Facebook

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:03:07 -0000

I'm seeing people start up personal as well as corporate Facebook groups without thinking things through. Groups are started, then they languish. This reflects badly on the sponsor. So a piece of advice to add to the list is "Don't start a group unless you are willing to put the effort into being consistently involved."

Re: Web Strategy: What the Web Strategist should know about Facebook

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:37:10 -0000

Jeremiah, here are a couple of items that are relevant to this discussion:

(1) My Number One Daughter, a college student, insists that "Facebook is for college kids." She is adamantly opposed to my involvement there. She doesn't believe me when I tell her that it's the latest craze in social/professional networking (at least till the next thing comes along). I predict: if Facebook continues to gain in popularity among us "old farts," young folks will find another online home. (If I were a competitor to Facebook I would already be rolling out a campaign with the theme "don't hang out where the old folks are," and I'd be using a campaign symbol such as a rocking chair with a red line through it.)

(2) I would temper the "corporate web sites are irrelevant" statement with the caveat that not everyone is interested in "community." When I want to check a fact, buy something I already know about based on price and availabiilkity, locate a recipe, find out where a company is physically located, or do something else online where I want to "get in and get out fast," I will be quite happy with static web pages that provide barebones information without the annoyances of ratings, friending, and joining. (Maybe this has something to do with my aversion to shopping centers and my preference NOT to accompany my wife when she goes shopping for shoes!)

(3) A young professional whom I respect has been informed by the (very large and influential) employer that employees are NOT to use Facebook but should instead use the corporate social networking system due to security and confidentiality concerns.

So one of the things I tell clients is that they should balance the need to understand the potential for systems like Facebook with the need to figure out how they fit into an overall marketing and communications strategy.

Dennis

Re: Web Strategy Ownership: Enterprise 2.0 driven by Business or IT?

Dennis McDonald — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 09:21:11 -0000

Jeremiah - I agree with your observation about the departmental location evolving separately from marketing and IT. Whether this ends up being a "web" position is another question, though, especially if the organization is concentrating on the entire "user experience" in which the organization touches on only a subset of the entire set of user experiences. Interestingly, forward thinking CRM visionaries came up with similar schemas at least a decade ago -- I remember using them in proposals -- but at that time ownership was definitely with the technologists and different departments "owned" different pieces of the user experience pie. Now that relevant technologies are cheaper and more democratized, I still think that the ultimate barriers to a unified view will be political where different departments refuse to give up control. This could also mean that new and smaller more agile organizations will be able to run rings around the big guys.

Re: "The scholarly monograph isn't going anywhere" (except online)

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:39:22 -0000

One challenge to sustain the value of the printed monograph will be the ability to create environments where sustained partial (in)attention is not the norm. Book (your term is monograph) creation and book consumption benefit substantially from sustained attention on the part of author and reader(s). Technology wise I see something like the Kindle fostering that more than general browser based access.

Re: "The scholarly monograph isn't going anywhere" (except online)

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:31:36 -0000

"What does it take to create the attentional environment needed for the sustained intellectual work demanded of the reader."

Here's the start of a list:

1. Interest (assuming engagement is voluntary)
2. Community (to reinforce and encourage engagement)
3. Something to read (seems obvious but how this is created may be relevant)
4. Situation (including time and place to read and engage)
5.
6
7.
8.
9.
10.
5.

Re: Learning to speak a blogger’s language

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:20:23 -0000

I would also suggest being clear on why you want to communicate with bloggers. Do you want them to provide you with feedback, commentary, or ideas? Are you trying to get them to relay your message to their readers? Or are you trying to learn more about the industry/brand/communities they interact with so you can develop your own relationships down the road?

Re: Facebook vs. Linkedin - An unpopular opinion

Dennis McDonald — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 07:27:05 -0000

Another concern for me has been the closed nature of Facebook. If I create content (text) there it's only accessible to Facebook users. If I create content for my blog, it's available to everyone. Since I rarely use Linkedin for generating content (which is possible with the Answers system) that's usually not an issue.

Re: Twitter shakes the ground under major news websites: How they have to adapt

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:36:43 -0000

I agree in principle with much of what you said, with one significant caveat: not everyone agrees with what constitutes "news." Some people need certain types of information immediately and don't care about the "professionalism" source. For them, a Twittered message suffices.

For others, for certain topics they are happy to wait till they receive the morning paper or turn on network TV to get an edited, concise view of some event that occurred yesterday.

We make a major mistake if we think that everyone has the same needs. The essence of capitalism is figuring out how to meet those diverse needs profitably and consistently.

So, for some things -- like being aware of the well-being of my family members who live in Los Angeles -- Twitter has been a great boon for me. But I still periodically check Yahoo News and scan the morning Washington Post.

Re: Piclens And Brainstorm: The Future Is Now

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:43:46 -0000

I had forgotten how good that movie was!

Re: I Believe I Shan’t Pay For Content Anymore

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:37:15 -0000

You seem to be saying that "it will be free as long as someone else pays for it." This approach tends to break down, though, when end users are also content creators.

Re: I Believe I Shan’t Pay For Content Anymore

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:23:12 -0000

Whether you call it monetization, payment, or subsidization, at the end of the day money has to change hands. Content is not created by people who have died of starvation.

Are you arguing for treating information as a type of public property whose creation and distribution should be subsidized (via taxes?) as a public good?

Re: I Believe I Shan’t Pay For Content Anymore

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:26:39 -0000

I agree - subsidized media will always exist.

But not everyone will always be satisfied in every situation with what they can get "for free" that is being paid for by someone else.

Some users will be willing to pay for what they value very highly -- high quality performances as opposed to amateur, expert medical opinion instead of non-name first year residents, novels by best selling writers as opposed to fanfiction. Willingness to pay will be dependent on circumstances and need.

Re: Leading a Community

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:59:48 -0000

Chris: I'm forwarding this to a client whose role is changing. Thanks. - Dennis

Re: Pretty Good Spam

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:38:09 -0000

Why are people always giving the French such a hard time?

Re: Advice for Traditional and Local News Media

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:17:27 -0000

I have another, although radical suggestion: local news media should PAY bloggers, podcasters, and other creators of "user generated content" to republish their content. This will be an indication of the value of the content and will result in more attention being paid to placement, promotion, and ultimately, pricing of advertising by the local outlet.

I've been surprised at how many times I've been approached by sites of various kinds to "republish" my stuff for free, and some of the requesters are reputable properties whose sites are already crawling with ads. Granted, I'm no A-lister, but in our economy cash on the barrelhead still counts for something.

Dennis McDonald
http://www.ddmcd.com

Re: Enabling Peer Collaboration Using Social Networks

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 07:25:46 -0000

Everything you say is true Chris but trade associations have a distributed governance model that may restrict the success of traditional bottom up or viral approaches. Top level commitment and interest will be a key otherwise individual efforts may wither on the vine.

Dennis McDonald
Alexandria, Virginia
http://www.ddmcd.com

Re: Web 2.0- Was It Ever Alive?

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:56:47 -0000

I agree with Dennis that "collaboration" is an important topic -- when did he figure that one out? -- but having witnessed a number of technology adoptions over the years I believe a lot of the "resistance" we see to Web 2.0 stuff has to do with understanding and ease of use, not to actual resistance or logical cost benefit assessments.

He is right to put social media into the overall context of web impacts on daily life and business. And even if the term "social media" makes his skin crawl, one of the main reasons social media are growing in popularity is because -- surprise -- they are social. They enable people to work and communicate in a more social, person to person fashion.

In a society where traditional organizations, processes, and systems are built around depersonalization and repeatability, social enablement of even basic business processes can be a significant step. But it takes time. And this has all been said before.

Re: Advertising and Trust

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:55:14 -0000

Arthur Godfrey did it, Willard Scott did it, C. Everett Koop did it, why can't Chris Brogan do it?

People should stop being so sanctimonious about condemning the selling of access to trusted communication channels.

As long as there is disclosure and it is possible to shut off access to advertising channels we no longer trust, it's fine with me.

Dennis McDonald
Alexandria, Virginia
http://www.ddmcd.com

Re: Social Media is No Place for Robot Behavior

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:44:31 -0000

While I basically agree with this, especially when a robot pretends to be a human, I'm not sure where to draw the line between "authentic" and "unauthentic" communications. Using a search engine to search Twitter messages, for example, might be thought of as "unauthentic" by some people who say, "Ha - you're following so many people you need software to keep track of what they're saying!" Using add-on tools to group the people you follow could be viewed as a similar intervention. These things are just tools, and some people use the tools to manage communications with large numbers of people. If I get an obviously automated message, though, I do "unfollow" the source, too.

Re: Follow-Up on WGI’s Internal Blogging

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:41:13 -0000

Thanks for citing me as a source on this!

I also thought using new tools to ease knowledge transfer from retiring baby boomers but concluded, after doing some research (http://www.ddmcd.com/retirement_index.html) I concluded that this problem is not thought of as being that severe when compared with other challenges corporations face, HR-related or otherwise.

Dennis McDonald
Alexandria, Virginia USA
http://www.ddmcd.com

Re: Proof that the Real Time Web is Killing Google?

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:57:50 -0000

I would love it if the Google Alerts I receive weren't for data published weeks ago!

Re: Full text vs. Partial text feeds, Argument #495

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 06:16:16 -0000

Scoble is right because he understands the role of influencers and links in generating traffic. Indirect evidence of this in my own case comes from examining the search generated traffic I get versus the link referral traffic. Numerically the search generated traffic is greater but quality wise - quality being defined as "people hitting on posts for the reasons I wrote them" -- I get "better" traffic on my little specialized blog from links and referrals, since so much of my search generated traffic seems to be tangential to my real topics.

For example, I get a ton of hits because my last name is the same as a famous fast food restaurant.

While I don't have advertising, I would still think that advertisers would prefer quality over quantity, given the specialized nature of my site.

ps - say hi to Jeremiah for me next time you see him.

Re: The latest “shiny social object”: an open/controllable social network?

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 10:52:02 -0000

Even though Facebook has "momentum," somebody is probably going to figure out how to break the "walled garden" factor to share information. You can already get access to some of your "friends" info via RSS so I figure access to group info and app data cannot be far behind.

Re: TechMeme list heralds death of blogging?

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:00:47 -0000

My use of Twitter has caused me to think much harder about what to put in my blog. But Twitter is not so good a conversational tool, unless you follow all parts of the conversation. (I actually blogged about that issue here: http://www.ddmcd.com/turing.html.)

Re: Where the hell is Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook?

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:50:46 -0000

My advice to Facebook: fix the problem; tell your customers; tell your partners; don't let the blogosphere bully you.

Re: Can we have common sense in copyright laws?

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:52:50 -0000

It was earlier this year that I finally added "corruption" to the list of tags I use on my blog: a bill was introduced to cut off Federal aid to colleges if they didn't police file sharing on their networks. As if there are not more important things for colleges and universities to worry about?!?

Re: Can we get a first step in social networking portability?

Dennis McDonald — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:38:01 -0000

I think this switching function is something people should be able to do easily on their own web pages, rather than have links to other services appear on every social network we belong to.

Re: What I was using to hit Facebook — unreleased Plaxo Pulse

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:14:02 -0000

If you were to retrieve my birthday from Facebook you would find I was born somewhere around 1900.

Re: The real roadblocks to data portability on social networks

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:51:16 -0000

You should listen to the DataPortability.org podcasts, too, for more insight into why it's going to take so long for "social data portability" to happen without a few large vendors weighing in and knocking heads.

My take: unless I can control who can see what, I'm not in favor of "social data portability."

Re: Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton March 4 Primary Early Call

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:01:36 -0000

What did you say was the relationship between search volume and voting patterns?

Re: Web 2.0 Enters the Post Paradigm Shift Phase

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:47:38 -0000

Maybe a conference is not where to find out what's happening with Web 2.0 in the enterprise. Maybe we need to get out -- and into -- the companies themselves who have to deal with day to day business issues. Also, let's not just focus on "knowledge workers" as end users. Not every one who benefits from sharing or collaboration in the workplace is a knowledge worker.

Re: 7 Ways to Avoid Blogging Burnout

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 07:51:19 -0000

Excellent post! And, I think the same advice holds for leaving comments on other folks' blogs!

Re: Goodbye Vonage, Hello Gizmo Project Area 775

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:17:47 -0000

At the Podcast Roundtable we frequently use Gizmo for our recording sessions involving five different people in 5 different cities. Takes a lot of fine tuning to cancel out the echoes sometimes but it works.

Re: Why Web 2.0 Matters to your Business – Knowledge Sharing

Dennis McDonald — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 06:39:11 -0000

Ken-

To what extent is knowledge sharing hindered by the requirement that we use keyboards for so much of what networking, the Internet, and Web 2.0 enable? Ultimateley isn't the type of open and free communication within the organization that you are writing about here going to advance even more when the electronics allow better face to face communication without an intervening keyboard?

- Dennis

Re: I’m Linux!

Dennis McDonald — Mon, 29 May 2006 18:42:45 -0000

I hate those ads! And I'm a Mac AND Windows user!

Re: And now, some blog soul searching

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 14:06:20 -0000

DENNIS D. McDONALD's 10 BLOGGING RULES:

Rule #1: Don't write about blogging (i.e., no navel gazing)
Rule #2: Write about the things you care about.
Rule #3: Don't write anything unless you have something to say.
Rule #4: Write stuff you would be willing to print out and hand to someone you know or respect and say, "Hey you really should read this!"
Rule #5: Write often enough so that people won't ask, "Hey did this guy die?"
Rule #6: Be sure to use a spell checker.
Rule #7: Pay attention to what your stuff looks like through various feed readers.
Rule #8: Make it easy for visitors to navigate your web pages.
Rule #9: Make sure your links work.
Rule #10: Do as I say not as I do!

Dennis D. McDonald
http://www.ddmcd.com

Re: Enterprise Digg Application

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:11:41 -0000

I'd look for an application of this type of technology to help corporations build and rank networks of internal experts:

http://www.ddmcd.com/experts2.html

Re: Instant Messaging 2.0? Yahoo! Messenger Still Not

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 11:26:21 -0000

Ken, perhaps the problems is not the availability of customizable settings ("invisible to this group," "not invisible to that group") but the social expectation that when you are viewed as "online" or "available" that you automatically MUST respond to the IM? Shouldn't the situation be the same as answering the phone -- just because the phone rings; you don't have to answer it. With caller ID on the phone you can add an even greater level of control. Why should it be any different with Instant Messaging? - Dennis

Re: Instant Messaging 2.0? Yahoo! Messenger Still Not

Dennis McDonald — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 16:13:13 -0000

As you say, it is partly an issue of managing expectations, and partly an issue of how accurate the "presence" information is. If I answer the phone a split second before an IM message pops up, am I obliged to excuse myself from the phone call in order to type "can't talk" or switch my IM status to "busy"?

It seems we're talking a matter of etiquette here, in addition to the issue of whether or not the presence information visible at the other end is accurate and timely.

Re: Hosted Gmail Goodness

Dennis McDonald — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 18:04:24 -0000

Your comments about Gmail pretty much summarize why I find Yahoo's email beta so useful - a great interface accessible from the 3 machines I regularly use (XP, Windows 2000, and OS-X) with excellent spam control. I'm using my Eudora client less and less as a result.

Re: Is there such a thing as “too social?”

Dennis McDonald — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:35:28 -0000

My concern is a bit different. I don't mind multiple signups, and I don't think it makes sense to move "friends" from one network to another given the different focus that each network has. My greater concern is participation and comment creation. I care a lot about commenting, and having one more place to interact and create content is a real barrier for me. I don't know how common this is though.