Disqus - Latest Comments for leigh

Re: Age & The Invisibility Of The Network

leigh — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:22:13 -0000

Hey Cindi - thanks for your comments. Hopefully you come back and see what Mark Federman has to say in his comment below. A very powerful perspective.

Re: Age & The Invisibility Of The Network

leigh — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:19:47 -0000

Awesome perspective as always Mark. Love the McLuhan quote - and no i cannot believe that was in 67.

I particularly like your comment that we can understand it, but we can't experience it. That is the key to this generational gap more than anything. :)

Re: Blatchford pines for the monologue

leigh — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:55:13 -0000

On a related note, I"m pretty sad about the whole disappearance of typesetting.

Re: My New Gig: Twist & Shout

leigh — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:23:48 -0000

Thanks Michael. I know you have a new role as well, congrats on that and sorry we won't be working together :)

Re: http://leighhimel.blogspot.com/2008/08/pitching-is-for-baseball-players-not.html

leigh — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:28:15 -0000

I know what your saying Svetlana but I still think you would be much more inclined about getting an email from a service that someone you recognize as a regular blogsophere contributor than a complete stranger.

Take twitter for an example. I often get a new follower that i think is a person to find out they are a company. Do i usually link through and check them out? Sure i do but I am inclined if they are following 10000 people, only have 10 followers and have only tweeted a few messages to have a negative predisposition.

You only usually get one chance to entice someone, and building a presence that is beyond your own desire to have your product known in my mind is crucial to biasing someone in your favour.

Re: Who Died And Make The Box King?

leigh — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:43:10 -0000

Ironically, she has boxes all over her blog template...hum i tink i might just have to go and mock her right now. :)

Re: http://leighhimel.blogspot.com/2008/08/pitching-is-for-baseball-players-not.html

leigh — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:19:14 -0000

I think they will still have lots of work.....it just won't be selling people tactics that aren't going to be successful. There are still many different ways to approach the problem and all involved getting paid but as my favorite saying goes, a question well asked is half answered - the question "what should we send the bloggers to get them to write positive things about us" is just the wrong question and it's in my mind what a pitch generally implies.

Re: http://leighhimel.blogspot.com/2008/08/pitching-is-for-baseball-players-not.html

leigh — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:15:44 -0000

It's something that a number of bloggers have said for a while in various posts but it appears to me as if the "experts" don't seem to be listening. I would have thought that the Chris Anderson debacle would have changed people's perspectives but i guess ironically, it might take time before the marketers change to the changing market

Re: Salon builds it — but will anyone come?

leigh — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:36:11 -0000

"Open" Salon makes you become a member to comment. Fracking hate that. I'm gone.

Re: My New Gig: Twist & Shout

leigh — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:55:53 -0000

NP Mathew - I've now discovered there is a Tim Horton's just around the corner from both of our offices. I hear Timmy's Chile is simply divine.....

Re: My New Gig: Twist & Shout

leigh — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:54:00 -0000

Thanks everyone!

Re: My New Gig: Twist & Shout

leigh — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:08:39 -0000

Tnx Mitch! :)

Re: Group reveals (gasp!) Larry’s address

leigh — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:56:01 -0000

Loved to comment intelligently on the post but just can't get passed the fact that their name is "the borings"

Re: Muskoka, Canada

leigh — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:41:37 -0000

I take it Rob is having trouble making ends meet.....is the cottage original or rebuilt?

Re: Delicious 2.0: Who bookmarks any more?

leigh — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:14:05 -0000

I've got a new tagline idea for Yahoo. "Where great services go to die"

Re: Is it Duncan Riley, or is it Techmeme?

leigh — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:19:56 -0000

I find it interesting that if Duncan doesn't get on Techmeme it's bc Gabe doesn't like him. If Scoble doesn't get on Techmeme it's bc Scoble has shifted his focus and doesn't care about Techmeme. If I don't get on Techmeme I guess it's just cuz other people have more interesting content than me? No slag to all the "A" listers (whatever you wanna call them) but often I've written things and then days later months later they do and they end of on Techmeme and I didn't. I don't take it personally. I don't think Gabe hates me (actually i'm quite sure in my case Gabe has no clue who i am). That's just the way the "A" list blogger ball bounces.

Re: Corporate Venture Capital

leigh — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:15:11 -0000

"Their [corporations who invest directly in venture deals] track records have been mixed."
Hum...but truth be to told their start up acquisition strategy has been a bit mixed as well n'est pas? I assume they are trying to move up that food chain as well as likely invest in the start up ideas that their own employees are probably coming to them with on a daily basis.....

Re: Opt Out Should Be Banned From The Marketing Playbook

leigh — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:50:49 -0000

I was going to go find the name of the head of credit card services but I have a bunch of stuff on my Visa that i need to expense to work so I just decided to 'let it go' (must be the pregnancy - clearly i'm becoming more relaxed as I lose more brain cells). But let me know what happens Colin!

Re: The Death Trap

leigh — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:17:17 -0000

I agree with his last point (shld focus on market share, business model, sustainability, and profitability) however, i think using un-networked product metaphors and applying them to the Web is off base. While Web companies are known for disintermediating the big monopolies back in the day, many of those same upstarts have become near monopolies now themselves in a market where technology is somewhat of a commodity. Why? Building community is not a commodity. Never has been and never will be. No matter what the GM marketing people try to do, the switching costs for my Chevy just simply aren't that high. Ebay's reputation engine, or my network all being connected to me on Twitter/linkedin/Facebook make leaving for a me2 product far more difficult unless there is some sort of new and incremental value (ala friendfeed).

Re: Wrong — Steve’s health is my business

leigh — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:51:37 -0000

Once again, I think if you set expectations and part of your brands star power (and therefore stock price) is your marketing usage of your CEO, then fair or not, their personal lives becomes public territory.

Re: louisgray.com: Twitter Finding New and More Creative Ways to Fail

leigh — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:11:12 -0000

Again, I don't agree about your comment about the "right" to complain. Regardless of free, if it's broken all the time then free means I'm paying too much. I pay with my time, my frustration, my wasted efforts etc. All start ups should get a break as they ramp up, get better resources and real money. However, if they get 20 million bucks and STILL can't fix the issues, that means to me that the problem simply might be unfixable and therefore the product will become useless and we as users will look elsewhere. I believe that on the Web products often become co-owned with their customers so regardless of what their user agreements might say, the power of the network will prove the lawyers and the business folks wrong every time (think Facebook Beacon or Myspace widget ad policy).

As for taking things personally, respectful disagreement is one of the reasons i love the web. No offense ever taken. :)

Re: louisgray.com: Twitter Finding New and More Creative Ways to Fail

leigh — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:02:25 -0000

With humblest respect, I don't think your question is relevant. Whether I can or not is besides the point.

The point is, that once you leave your alpha and beta stage and are taking big money hoping to be bought for big money than customers expectations change. That's just a fact. It's like the expectations of a child vs. an adult. Once you become an adult, you can't just turn the clock back when it's convenient. Either they are a real business or they aren't. I would suggest once you have 20 million dollars involved, you've graduated to being a real business and with that comes real customer expectation. Like it or not. Fair or not.

Re: louisgray.com: Twitter Finding New and More Creative Ways to Fail

leigh — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:47:45 -0000

Someone else gave them 20 million dollars. Are you saying they can't afford to build a proper architecture that won't fail every other day for 20 million dollars? I would suggest taking that kind of money and expecting that people won't be pissed and/or leave the service if it keeps going down is an unrealistic expectation.

Re: Podtech failure: Scoble’s lessons

leigh — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:05:16 -0000

Re: "Fire idiots quickly" It's not that I think one shouldn't fire idiots (although I personally try not to hire idiots in the first place) but if one is trying to build "a place where excellence is expected, allowed, and is enabled" being the tough decision maker (vs. inspiring leader), rewarding only revenue (vs. rewarding success/innovation) and firing people (vs. supporting them in a constructive manner to help them succeed) is the way NOT to have that happen - particularly in the digital space where innovation and experimentation means the necessity of the freedom to fail.

Re: Reputation, Racism & The Reality Of Search Results

leigh — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:53:29 -0000

I would agree with both of you on this one. And yeah Dave, I think Feldman and Stern are a good comparison especially considering that Stern himself has lost business for similar crossing of lines.