Show them the money?

How should you treat your best customers?:

"But what if you define 'best customer' as the person who brings you new customers through frequent referrals, and who sticks with you through thick and thin? That customer, I think, is worth far more than what she might pay you in any one transaction. In fact, if you think of that customer as your best marketer instead, it might change everything."

Great post by Seth Godin, simply putting another moniker on the segment or group turns the perception around. And thereby also the scope for what kind of activities to consider, the communication and then some.

-...and the sun is somewhere for 2011, but not to sure where...

I'll get to it

...one of these days, at any minute now, just as soon as I...

Yes, procrastination is a drag on productivity. But might it be more than that?
After some days I got around to reading this New Yorker piece on the subject (the irony is certainly not lost on me), based again on a book

Why do we put things off?
Is it just because we don't want to do them? Or because it gives a feeling of power to control and postpone?
Is it bad to keep things nagging at you, or good to enjoy your selected option all the more since it is "forbidden time"?
Let me get back to you on that... Tomorrow, or maybe next week - by New Year at the latest.

- ...and the sun Is sorely missed, as it has just turned around from the darkest and coldest nights of the year...

Once upon a time a new technology cut the price of books by 90%, flooded the market with many times as many as before crowding out the real classics, and supposedly cut into the quality and care given each book.

Ebooks?

No, still just the Gutenberg and moveable type innovation.

The literate classes experienced exactly the kind of overload we feel today — suddenly, there were far more books than any single person could master, and no end in sight. Scholars, at first delighted with the new access to information, began to despair. “Is there anywhere on earth exempt from these swarms of new books?” asked Erasmus, the great humanist of the early 16th century.

[Boston globe]

And yet we still read. In fact most people can read in the Western world, even if they chose not to buy prose books all the time.
So the market is "flooded" with readable content;

296 newspapers in 2003. These account for a combined circulation of more than 3 million.

Wikip

Would the world suffer if there were fewer printed options?
Is online and digital a viable substitute? For news? prose? Poetry? Facts?

Apparently it might look like the politicians here in Norway will have to make some educated guesses along those lines - the main ruling party (labour, social democrat) is more or less pushing for sales tax to be applied to electronic books (but not printed) and the discussion is on for the future of media support (currently newspapers get no sales tax added, magazines do get the full 24%) in general and for digital in particular.

Fun times ahead. Might just need to look into an US or online based payment solution for my Kindle needs.

Paint me a picture, sing me a song

Amongst other things the evening has been given partially over to reading up on some blogs, and a great post from Mitch at Six Pixels sparked of some ideas of my own;


When The Definitions Are Wrong

One of the biggest disruptions you may have noticed since the pervasiveness of Social Media is our definition of things

So what is a blog?

For me it is mostly a personal journal, that is available to me at anytime and any place. Yes it is public, but mostly only technically so as there are few links and prompts for readers.
It is a place to reflect, gather up links, insights and ideas. To make things clearer by putting them into writing, and to challenge myself in terms of concepts and ideas that need a bit more thought.

For a lot of people it is a way of life - the teen blogs and fashion blogs spring to mind. It is how they interact with their peers, how they define and shape themselves. It is about communication certainly, but also about building an image (or a brand?), shaping the story.

Above all it is everything it has ever been - meaning archives by date, tag or topic - a repository of collected posts, comments, links and media (images, video etc)

So what is a website?

Simply a subset of content, structured and presented at a certain time to a certain user. On a blog everything is (in principle) there for everybody, whilst a website might adapt to the user (dynamic content, personalized) and vary over time with out storing the older versions.


Just those two words give so much meaning and so many expectations when we navigate the web. Will the page be there tomorrow? Will it look the same, and will it give us the same information?

I took some time put to watch a video on MTV - in and of itself a rare occurrence these days, as the music videos have almost all moved to the sub-channels that are premium paid - namely Runaway by Kayne West (YouTube).
No doubt a video that stretches the definition and scope of music video, more like a mini movie or the visual equivalent of a concept album. Yet it was still clearly a music video. The visuals tied into and built around the music. The story was there but served mostly to lift the different segments (verses?) into their own setting.

Would it have been better at five minutes?

Maybe, but sometimes to change and evolve things we need to push it beyond the natural limits, cross into a different but related realm in order to get a new frame of reference. Disruption and discomfort breeds innovation and change. You don't change by looking closer at yourself, but by looking at other things, other fields, other industries, other people or cultures.


Or like a short but thoughtful post put it (talking about people first, then companies):

Brand-driven businesses are of necessity mired in the competitive trap of trying to be somebody. To be the biggest, loudest, bestest somebody on the block. Innovation-driven businesses are trying to do something: they win by making better, doing better and being better.

(unfinished business)

So if you are trying to BE a blog - how is that working out? And just what is a blog - for YOU?

- ...and the sun is so far away, and sorely missed - ten below for weeks now...

Storytelling, what is it really?

Interactive book
Doesnt work out so well, according to N.carr's post, inning off another 'story' on interactive storytelling.

"As soon as the reader begins to fiddle with the narrative - to take an authorial role - the spell of the story is broken"

But isn't that what immersive games are all about? And they are certainly "designed by comittee", yet the time apent with games for youths would seem to surpass the lovely old linearly novel.
So, it is possible to do way more in terms of story and involvement, butmere word are not really enough to "keep the spell" - it takes a full experience, and even then it is hard to do (but then again so is writing a really great novel as opposed to just airplane fare...!

Another angle I miss in the post is the bardic / fairytale angle, when an oral story was told and retold countless times and over a length of time - with the Teller adjusting to fit the audience reaction and sentiments.

- ...and the sun gives scant comfort, with solid ice and show on the grpund and 8-10 below, 'tis winter time again...

Navigate to your level, or beyond?

Getting smart about the hierarchy of smart - post by Seth Godin

The Dreyfus model of skill acquisition;
1. Novice
2. Advanced beginner
3. Competent
4. Proficient
5. Expert

Made me think about navigation models for web and tablets, do we give the different types of users the means to explore to their level of comfort? Are we aware of the differences, or simply settle for a common ground based on an assumed average user?
Can we offer several paths, while still giving the edited overview?
Are rss and other auto feeds one step? and social sharing or filtering on facebook or twitter another path, partially outside our "control" as such?

-...and the sun hid away behind nightshowers ...

Because we can

Cost reduction for high-end markets:

People who can afford to pay for service often choose to pay for service.

Another Seth G. golden nugget - there are a lot of markets where products don't cost anything proportional to their cost - call it branding or fashion, sometimes there is just a little bit extra there that makes it a comfort purchase more than anything else. So don't squander that on making "yet another" product. Make something special.

Books? Who needs them...

The first printed books came with a question: What do you do with these things? (boston.com via Nieman Lab)

Great read on the history of print and publishing, and how it evoloved - lots of interesing similariteis to the cahnge towards digital now; business leading the way with internal documents, lots and lots of classics reprinted / repurposed, and slim odds for authors expecting to make it big.

And one more thought from this weekend, as I've picked up a couple of magazine for the iPad - at 20-30 NOK ($ 3-5) the digital version is going for ~20% of the retail price here in Norway. And pretty close to the coverprice for a daily newspaper (at least weekend editions)

What does that imply short to medium term for those selling magazines at retail in Norway? 

And for those translating and re-issuing localized versions? Suddenly there is a very direct and very cheap competitor right there. Would you rather have the latest fashion trends the same day as 'everyone' worldwide, or at best a week or three later when the print editon is in the store - or the local version is out?

Learning? No so fast

Picked up a NYT piece a while ago from a tweet by Tim O'Reilly;

Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits, By Benedict Carey from September 6, 2010

Summed up; a disconnect between science findings and popular opinions (no! say it ain't so....)
But there is more; it is better to vary - both in terms of content/subject and place of study. And repeat.

Seems to match up pretty good with the way my own studies were set up - doing four or five different courses at a time, each with a mix of lecture, assignments and projects - spanning roughly four months and then a month of deep diving before final exams. Preparing for the exams by doing the previous exams - thereby mixing up the types of tasks and focus.

But still a nice read and good to know now that junior is in kindergarten, looking ahead to "learning games" and other boost to give him a solid foundation

- ...and the sun hasn't been out in view over the weekend, fall is here and the storms are making themselves known...