Disqus - Latest Comments for PaulSweeney

Re: Geography

PaulSweeney — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 08:27:00 -0000

Great post. Clear and meaningful. Curious about what would drag you all the way over to London... methinks media.....

Re: Geography

PaulSweeney — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 08:27:00 -0000

Great post. Clear and meaningful. Curious about what would drag you all the way over to London... methinks media.....

Re: SaaS ROI, do we know the facts?

PaulSweeney — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:58:41 -0000

Thought that this Andrew McAfee piece chimed in on this theme very well. http://andrewmcafee.org/blog/?p=544

I have to say that our experience with VoiceSage is that the "strategy/structure" benefits as outlined have been significant for our users. Typically in the area of not-involving IT Dept, and the attendant costs, but also of looking at Data in a "non typical way" for that organisation, and then being freed (praise the lord), the share, adapt, and re-share. Not bad, not bad at all.

Re: Crack cocaine economics and six ways to get off it

PaulSweeney — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 06:41:24 -0000

yeah. totally. Three things to add:
(1) Pat Phelan, please post both your review process and the items that you hit for cost reduction :)

(2) Innovation often performs well under conditions of restraint. Imposing some themes works well here (i.e. Reduce Features, Pre-emptive, Ready to Go etc.) I am sure that just putting the phrase "how could we do better web-demo's would be a huge benefit for everyone;

(3) Bald Plug: www.VoiceSage.com will bring in your outstanding cash twice as fast just through simple SaaS based messaging service. See the biggest online retailers get this http://www.retail-week.com/News/2008/07/otto_cu... Most companies have debtors and debtor days, yet most companies leave this money "out there" when there is no need to do so. As an afterthought, it also actually forces you to look at "who is a good customer", and what does that mean.

Re: Open Source Product Management: Which Call To Action Is Clearer

PaulSweeney — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:21:11 -0000

Ah, came to this late, but would go with "grab this" or similar: However, I would give some thought to the positioning of the button. If I "consume" the widget by browsing down it, may I not want it bottom right? then (I usually) really like a little drop down ajax a la "book mark it to here" type apps.

Re: The Google Myth Rolls to Mobile - RussellBeattie.com

PaulSweeney — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:12:36 -0000

Good post. Informative. Might be a nice follow on post from someone to point out the "true cost of viral marketing". There have been a few nice posts on Free-to-Fee (freemium) models out there, disperson patterns, etc., but it would be good to have someone with actual hands on experience from the "big player" point of view, point out the True Cost of marketing in a start up's plans. I guess you are looking at some of these issues with Mowser.....

Re: Jangl’s new angle on phone calling

PaulSweeney — Sun, 28 May 2006 05:24:07 -0000

It is a good idea though because people fear SPIT, SPEW and SPAM (sounds like Kellogs Rice Crispies). Being able to have "do not call" type functionality on your IP phone may well prove useful. However, add inserts into phone based communications have to the best of my knowledge, never worked. The service could have value in an IP calling world where you offer to mediate between two people or parties that find each other online so that you can retain some control over who calls you and when. THink Match.com:You call someone, talk, talk some more, and only then do you give permission for that person "to see" your number, or even call you back "though the service". It could also be the equivalent to having a "phone certificate" where at the very least I know that your online "IP number" is traceable, and perhaps that you are who you say you are. However, this entire area may very well be subsumed under companies offering idendity management and protection tools.

Re: Kara Nortman, as Willie Loman venture capitalist

PaulSweeney — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 23:13:47 -0000

VentureInside her blog goes a pretty decent job or overviewing he online video space. Might be interesting to get other VC opinions about whether it is advisable to "jump the sofa" like this as it does take you out of deal flow. Or does it?

Re: Why banks are not doing enough to stop identity fraud

PaulSweeney — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 11:55:18 -0000

Well there are several interesting points there. Absolutely, the problem cannot be addressed until it is surfaced. Will customers want to engage in processes that protect their money? Absolutely. With nearly 100% of people carrying mobile phones, surely there is a way to validate on-line and off-line purchases? I think the Gomez watchfire report tracks these issues? http://www.watchfire.com/news/whitepapers.aspx But perhaps more fundamentally, there are ways to think of "credit worthiness" and "fraud" in social terms, and to adopt social networking models to combat these. Perhaps thinking might shift from considering this as an "institutional issue" and to start thinking of it as an "interaction issue", and a social cost? Again, I don't know, I am not an expert.

Re: NearByNow, the shopping mall search engine

PaulSweeney — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 04:51:04 -0000

Maybe there is a model that doesn't require their co-operation. The Wi-fi model initially sought to sell the location connectivity, and it was just downright thrown out by the customer where they had new options. The same could happen here. The mall owners and stores are maybe not the people that need to lead the model.

Re: NearByNow, the shopping mall search engine

PaulSweeney — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 11:21:05 -0000

Must say, I like the LCD Panel approach outlined by RK above. And a completely valid questioning of the context, social and cultural as well as economic, in which the "location based search request" might be made. Perhaps messages, and images, can be used to motivate a change in foot fall flows? Perhaps the system might be used to actually market the Mall as a destination, as opposed to in-mall competition?

Re: Satisfaction, the Web 2.0 customer service site, raises $1.3M

PaulSweeney — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:00:08 -0000

Just downright one of the most exciting start ups I've come across in a while. This will be huge. Of course execution is everything, but I can't see this one not working...

Re: Killing the goose that laid the golden egg

PaulSweeney — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:01:44 -0000

Hi There. Just thought you might like to know that I had to get up at 04.30 in the morning, to get a cab at 5.00 to be at their airport at 5.30 to be on a flight at 6.30. I had meetings in London at 12.00 and 15.00 so with a meeting length of aprox 90mins I would be finished my last meeting at 16.30, with a 15 minute trip to get to the tube that put me back in Liverpool St. station at about 16.45. One hour, yes, one hour on stanstead express brings you to 17.45. Flight time, 18.15. Too tight to book in and risk missing flight, and being stranded, so had to phone up during the day and change my already confirmed 18.15 time to 21.45 flight. So, I got home at about 12.00 midnight. A take away lesson, if you have a meeting in London, you just cannot book it for anything later than 14.00-14.30 if you want to make the 18.15 flight home. Remember, you are already up 1t circa 4.30 in the morning. If you travel to London every week, as I have to do this takes chunks out of three days and leaves employees tired and unproductive. The problem with "infratstructure" such as good electricity supply, water, and sunshine (sic) is that it is very difficult to tie them empirically to the conditions ideal for growing nice green plants. We will leach the soil under us unless we make it convienient for one city to do business with another.

Re: Gardai Traffic Corps Take Advantage Of Riverfest

PaulSweeney — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:52:59 -0000

Perhaps for traffic to flow through the city, they had to take care of illegally parked cars? However, it doesn't win over "public confidence" in the force. Doing things that are helpful and useful does.

Re: Top Cats, New exclusive event - Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

PaulSweeney — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:21:56 -0000

Hi Paul, did this event continue, and if so, could you give me the details of the next one? thanks.

Re: Ireland Inc. Let’s just do it! - Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

PaulSweeney — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:39:45 -0000

Put me in the hat anyway. I don't know how much of a contribution I could make.

Re: New Irish Industry Association for Digital Media - Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

PaulSweeney — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:41:54 -0000

OK Count me Inn. :)

Re: No clear alternative today to Facebook as a platform for friends

PaulSweeney — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:07:03 -0000

Nic, as you point it out in the post there are a number of issues tied together here. One that genuinely does interest me is how to "signify" that a friend really is a friend, i.e. someone that I know, admire, and would stand up for. Do I have a "special secret room" for them, do I present them in a different manner when I go to my social network etc. etc. If someone comes up with a way of "digging your friends without offending people" they would be on to something. Some services are looking at tracking your interaction activity via email, IM, sharing etc, in order to figure out who you are contacting and how frequently, in that this is likely to be a fair indication of your closeness. Perhaps people will only feel comfortable doing this within an OpenID environment.... but google has a fair chance at this if it can get us to use their other apps...

Re: No clear alternative today to Facebook as a platform for friends

PaulSweeney — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:41:00 -0000

Good points from leafar above. One point that I might add to that comment is that even where "recommendations are very tight" (ie. amazon) I sometimes miss the serendipity of a more general browsing experience. Also, do we always want to be introduced to people "just like us"? That can become a pretty boring conversation! Back to Facebook: time-event based as is, is just not going to work. We are going to need to be alerted, or fed, through relevance. People are already complaining that they have a "mini feed" two pages long...

Re: Don’t be fooled by ramdomness

PaulSweeney — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:35:46 -0000

An experiment carried out in a us university divided students into two groups, and gave them a computer game to play, but did not tell them what the rules of the game where. Some time through the session the randomly increased one half of the students score. At the end of the session the students starting to get higher scores claimed that they were "getting the hang of it now". Lesson: people claim credit for good results, failure is an orphan, as usual :(

Re: OpenID starting to take hold

PaulSweeney — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 16:36:35 -0000

Just a great point nic. One or two additional comments that might be worth thinking about: (1) does OpenID make data more accurate, and if so, by how much? this would should the true scale of the opportunity, and (2) if we all move to firefox 3 with their new cashing strategy, we will all have an easy option to control the exposure of our own data, and even to trade our own data profile for adsense! Hat tip, John Hagel III, circa 2001

Re: Musings on micro-blogging

PaulSweeney — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:59:26 -0000

Nic, super useful insight here. My friend Ken Thompson over at swarmteams (www.swarm-it.com) has been plowing this furrow for about two years now at http://www.bioteams.com/ and launched an app at about the same time as twitter. I think he would have a few articles that would interest you. (he also has around 14,000 readers I think!).

Re: More musings on the effectiveness and necessity of ads

PaulSweeney — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:27:19 -0000

Nic, aren't people completely freaked out by the fact that the viewer is not even seeing the advertising impression, never mind making an active decision to engage? Perhaps the challenge has even moved past attention to engagement: now what would be the true metric of engagement? Just a thought (The Attention Trust?)

Re: ‘Groups’ an important concept in enterprise2.0

PaulSweeney — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:37:50 -0000

There are a lot of "group applications" out there, and now tools for building social networks can be pretty easily mashed. Maps, Presence, docs, email, IM.... perhaps this might be termed "light-weight" group collaboration.... each vertical is likely to have its own spin on what's needed specifically for them. What's your take?

Re: ‘Groups’ an important concept in enterprise2.0

PaulSweeney — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:15:22 -0000

Maybe facebook has some interesting lessons to teach us all about what people want from a group and what the "data inside" looks like. i.e. it groups information and reports it at one time, it prioritises information that is "close to you", and it gives you "a view" on information that is tertiary to you (friends you kinda know, who if they were doing something where their might be benefit in putting out a "stay alive" message (in networking terms, you ping them!). From a telecommunications point of view we want to see our exposure to others as "faceted", and we want our information, attention and interruption flows to be faceted to each facet of the group, and in a way, this is like the iLike application: by knowing what we all like, or declare, we can begin to facet the information flows. I cant think of any value in "groups" or "grouping" as a term, unless you are thinking of porting a Group from platform to platform, as one might port an individual identity, as per OpenID. GroupID anyone?

Re: ‘Groups’ an important concept in enterprise2.0

PaulSweeney — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 07:38:41 -0000

Ok. I get where you are coming from.

Re: Enterprise 2.0 - some great posts on the beauty of edge-in adoption

PaulSweeney — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:34:13 -0000

In general I think we can all agree that people will use their retail based/ edge services in their personal and social life, and that the use will bleed on over into business context. The big example here is SMS. Where it becomes a bit more difficult to generalise is where the E2 links into the existing infrastructure. You may not have any actual software or hardware integration issues, but someone usually owns "the way we do things round here", i.e. the process, or the interaction philosophy. In a way the existence of the traditional software gives the E2 player something to define themselves, and their offer against. Perhaps though this boundary definition doesn't open up the thinking enough for truly innovative approaches.At FOWA I saw some damn good innovators (www.getsatisfaction.com) but did we didn't see many truly E2 companies there.

Re: Google doing too much?

PaulSweeney — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 07:29:21 -0000

Nic, I think the point of the Google projects is to "let it all percolate" and open initiatives out internally to the forces of evolution as quickly as possible. I'd say Umair has some pretty good insights into the reasoning here....

Re: Musings on mobile social networks

PaulSweeney — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:07:51 -0000

This may sound a bit stupid, but one of the things they might need is a reason to exist ! I use jaiku and plazes, and have been contributing to both for over a year. I access via my mobile to "broadcast" where I am, and what I might be thinking about. But is there any real benefit to being mobile, or location aware (at the moment?). In the "early user echo chamber" there is some value in knowing things quickly, thus the amount of journos on the sites. Facebook on mobile (blackberry) does roughly the same thing by broadcasting my "status update".

Re: From supply chain management to the future of web hubs

PaulSweeney — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:10:38 -0000

OK nic, might be a bit off point here, but I presume you did the research on this: what camera did you buy?

Re: The economics of free - and how they might change everything

PaulSweeney — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:07:50 -0000

in 1995 I had a lecturer in UL (University of Limerick) who was all on about "clubs, societies, and communities" as the new company, as the new branding. Some of the examples he had were Churches, Manchester United (OK, we could use Chelsea), and Harley. When you look into it though, they all have a "founding event", or "place-belonging", "place-belief-identity". How many new propositions have or can create this? The recent mantra of "don't start a company, start a movement" comes to mind. Building the audience with a view that an actual money making model will emerge is founded on near zero cost customer acquisition and support, near zero cost infrastructure, and "network effects" data generation, all with a view that it will somehow create "better context". Perhaps, these near-zero baselines aren't here to stay. Cast your eyes over Jaxtr, Jangle, and jajah and we can see this model play out in micro.

Re: Authenticity, respect and the changing nature of business

PaulSweeney — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:00:13 -0000

Great Linking article. Thought it might be interesting to see how social studies people are viewing the societal changes, and also if their sociology guys can throw new lens over the whole "market-companies-society" triad. Also just a FYI, the new site doesn't allow you leave a comment from a mobile device (blackberry pearl) because it doesn't present the antispam word.

Re: The end of &nbsp erros

PaulSweeney — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:26:21 -0000

Yeah, I've just gone back to using them. It really is a very easy way of blogging/commenting on the page that the browser tab is open on. It would also have made a great early commenting system... oh well,....

Re: Zillow goes after mortgages

PaulSweeney — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:27:08 -0000

Nic, I've spoken with a couple of the leading online real estate intermediaries, and its all about charging the agent for leads. What ever way it adds up, that is the current model. The problem for the last few years was that the market was so hot, the agent could just sit back and not invest all that much in developing capability. The only thing that mattered (seriously) is that the Agent looks like they are doing the best job possible for the seller, and that was measured by how high their property appeared on google search. If your house appeared on the first page of a search, hey your agent knows what he is doing.

In terms of selling your house, it seems to me that the the "final hook" for the agent, is that they are better at showing people around your home, and that people buy a "depersonalised home" + "a lifestyle" (I think).

Here's a a thought (and an off beat one at that), "if you could hire, "professional presenters", as opposed to estate agents, would you then be able to break the grip of the old guard"? So why not a "zillow market" for professional presentation talent?

And because now I can't shut up, here's another point, "how long do you think it took the new 2.0 real estate plays to build the level of eyeballs that the old 1.0 Real Estate intermediaries had"? HINT: not as long as you might think. That means the API/OPEN/Social dimensions might be more powerful in this space than people give credit, at least for audience building.

Re: A note of optimism in these hard times

PaulSweeney — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 06:47:44 -0000

I think elements of this point are true, but not all of it. Yes, selling benefit will beat out selling "applications"; yes, holding back on the cash investment into the start up will help them to sharpen heir proposition and their business model (out of necessity), but for companies that have addressed these issues and are now ready for the big internationalisation heave, the money is still required for marketing and sales. I would posit that not all SaaS is the same: horizontal, vertical, focus etc. will all influence how the lack of investment will hit. But here's my take away: if you are selling incremental benefits through SaaS then this downturn will hurt you; if you are selling ten fold benefit that can be measured, its not going to hurt you. There is also value in gaining market leadership in any segment by investing when it is proven that the money will be well spent, and that the management is capable of spending that money well. IMHO.

Re: The Economist misses the point on social networks - they are platforms not comms tools

PaulSweeney — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 06:56:27 -0000

Gee, I was hoping to get to leave your site today, but just had to comment. I agree with everything you've said here. Here is one more example that hit me this morning: on twitter, people are saying things like "sitting down at Cafe Crust to have delicious Free Trade Coffee". Its like a "personal beacon". The concept behind beacon was fine (IMHO), it was the implementation that screwed the pooch. Commenting and recommendations are incredibly powerful, but so are commentaries about actual consumption.

Re: A note of optimism in these hard times

PaulSweeney — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:00:56 -0000

Just an update: today from trendwatching on "conspicious consumption" in what I think is a related point: http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/statusstori...

Re: The New New Thing

PaulSweeney — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:36:31 -0000

Again, I am reminded of Umair's point: solve something socially meaningful and you will reap the just rewards. The second point I'd like to make, is that "the net" hasn't really reached into devices, and between devices. We are in the early stages of the the People As Network, but this will be augmented by the Objects As Network. Sounds hi-filluten, but hey, your phone, your car, your house, your office all linked to social and physical infrastructure could make dramatic differences. The Irish Health service just rolled out a Web2.0 infrastructure (http://www.enn.ie/article/10124268.html) The old "top down approach" cost a fortune and failed (http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?sto...)

Re: Investing in the next revolution

PaulSweeney — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:33:35 -0000

Nic, I can see the challenge in that. But look at this post from Fergus Burns, at Web2Ireland today http://www.web2ireland.org/2008/07/04/irish-gov...

Think of the $100m spent on an integration hub for government services so that people could get access to government information by "life stage". This is a societal block screaming out for redesign.

I've been fascinated by how real estate has been not so much disintermediated, but re-mediated, and "exposed" by the internet. If Boris in London wants to expose crime data by area, so that citizens can perhaps make grounded suggestions as to how their areas might be better policed etc, then that is genuine redesign. If companies like Qik can let citizens record in real time, then car accidents, bad driving, evidence of social misconduct are immediate, mappable, findable, and "valuable".

I love the question "are you solving a real problem", but here's another question for you "is this a problem really worth solving"?

Re: Investing in the next revolution

PaulSweeney — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:43:30 -0000

Great post from martin above. Actually I've been hearing great things about Africa, and SA in particular, around the use of innovative use of "machine to machine wireless solutions", and general 2.0 adoption.

Re: The power of community in action - eBay

PaulSweeney — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:51:02 -0000

There is such an awful lot to say about "communities dominate brands" and "good vs evil", etc., but as someone who studied Transaction and Interaction economics, there is an awful lot of deep change to be enacted in the very theory of the firm itself. Umair attracts some swipes for being "too naive" about the way google realy competes, but people don't seem to be addressing the key issues of "what are companies for", "what role to they perform in a market", and "how do markets work when you remove information asymmetries".

Re: The power of small changes

PaulSweeney — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:00:15 -0000

By changing error messages from "failed delivery" to much more specific messages telling the user what kind of failure it was, and why it probably happened, we actually surfaced areas of benefit that we didn't previously know about. By being specific, and using specific language, we were able to position ourselves even further ahead of competing offers. I like the follow language, because it is "collegial".

Re: The problem with market research

PaulSweeney — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:14:05 -0000

That's the problem with Market Research into "intent". people don't always know how or why they act in particular ways. Some interesting analogies in how people pick their life-partners :)

Re: The impact of price comparison on brand

PaulSweeney — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:53:32 -0000

nice point about the "showing the comparitors" as a way of undermining scale of reach in branding as a differentiator. I'd love to see a scaled model of traditional brand creation/ distribution and one that uses "click-visibility" or some such value.

Re: Moore’s Law is the fifth such law

PaulSweeney — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 07:42:08 -0000

That's the second time I've come across this point: see Telco2 & The Long Tail re-examined for use of log-scale.http://www.telco2.net/blog/2008/11/exclusive_interview_will_page.html#more

Re: Social media: data versus interface

PaulSweeney — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:00:24 -0000

How did online boards make money?

Re: Enterprise2.0 - McKinsey reports it is starting to work

PaulSweeney — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:40:07 -0000

For me, as Twitter is almost the bellweather of Social Media Retail (man on the street), GetSatisfaction is for me the Bellweather of E2.0 (surprise). And they still "have to crack it", IMHO. But is the business model innovation there that is compelling, not the technology, as you point out.

Re: 2006/11/21/zemble-launches-social-network-with-group-text-messaging/

PaulSweeney — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 06:33:57 -0000

For another way take on doing this check out www.swarm-it.com

Re: 2009/01/06/free-blackberry-communications-apps/

PaulSweeney — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:10:29 -0000

for my money TinyTwitter has been excellent on my Blackberry Storm. Does anyone have any feedback on using Truphone on Storm? After Ken Kamp's rage on it, I am a little hesitant.

Re: Where the clicks are

PaulSweeney — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:01:32 -0000

Neat. I am wondering if this is the first part of a "data strategy" to make valuable information available to the browser and the 3rd parties alike?

Re: Irish Software Association Conference 2008 – web2.0 focus

PaulSweeney — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:11:55 -0000

The Link to sign up seems to be broken?

Re: Polldaddy Answers… the latest in market research intelligence

PaulSweeney — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:52:57 -0000

2.0 Genius. This is the smartest move I've seen from an Irish company in a long time. Real, Real, smart.

Re: Dial2Do at CTIA…

PaulSweeney — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:21:47 -0000

Super. Great idea just begging to happen. Best of luck with it.

Re: Irish Government – Data Sharing, APIs, and Mashups

PaulSweeney — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:15:42 -0000

Absolutely massive ideas in here. I think you might be surprised at how open some of the government people might be to such "pilots". Drop me an email if you need a few contacts.

Re: Geography

PaulSweeney — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 08:27:00 -0000

Great post. Clear and meaningful. Curious about what would drag you all the way over to London... methinks media.....