Here’s a little secret: statistically speaking, no one cares about what you have to offer, show or say. But rather than have me beat you over the head with that statement of fact, I’ll let Loren Feldman tell you in this video.
In fact, the collective “they” care so little, “they” aren’t even going to bother putting forth the effort to steal your content. Tim O’Reilly told us that in 2002. And while a goodly number of creative people finally took that message to heart in recent years, the vast majority of people are still spending to much time protecting what is rightfully theirs — when (statistically) nobody cares.
Today this issue came to a head for me (again) in the guise of the full-text vs partial feed debate, so I sent over this classic comment as a stand-in for my arguments. Podcasters who bitch about feed-hijacking are singing the same tune. Funny how the issue of media-serving ownership doesn’t seem to bother video producers. And people wonder why YouTube is more popular than any podcast directory. Go figure.
Here’s the bottom line: If you are a creative person, you should be primarily concerned with people being able to consume your product. Worrying over how it is consumed or what might happen to it after it is consumed is a clear case of chicken-before-the-egg. Get it out there. Make it easy to find and enjoy. If not… well then you’re as crazy as my cousin in Iowa with an irrational and all-consuming fear of sharks. Guess how often I take her call?
The title — and inspiration — for this post came from an article on Techdirt last year. Worth the read as it’s applicable to much more than the issue of the proper contents of an RSS feed.
Yesterday I tweeted about an incident involving one of my favorite food establishment and an unfortunate outbreak of Hep A. It wasn’t a store in my local area. I had no immediate connection to the happenings and I’m honestly not at all concerned it can/will happen to me, though it certainly could. No, I tweeted it out because I wanted to bring the funny, and by accounts from others I was successful in my mission.
But it bugged me all day.
Food-born illness is a serious concern in our way life. I get that. But there isn’t a doubt in my mind that the incident mentioned was isolated and in no way linked to the food handling standards of the institution. Forgive the pun, but shit happens. It’s not an epidemic. It’s not a blatant violation of safety standards. It’s probably one lone (again pardon the pun) dipshit responsible — and likely not intentional. Mass-hysteria isn’t the best reaction. Calls for company-wide investigations and more strict regulations of the entire industry (yes, I read Fast Food Nation) probably aren’t going to help curb this in the future. As I said before, shit happens.
Yet I propagated the story via my tweet, lending fuel to the fire and my name to a growing list of pundits and activists demanding someone take action. I didn’t want to do that. I don’t feel that way. I just wanted to be funny. (And no, I’m not linking to the tweet. You can back up in my Twitter stream to find it if you must. It wasn’t that funny).
Happy Earth Day, everyone. There’s more where that came from.
I started my morning with the following tweet:
“Trying to tap into a network of influencers is pointless: it’s very hard to know who really has influence and who’s just got a big mouth.”
That pearl of wisdom comes from Suw Charman in her blog post on Strange Attractor. Like Suw, I’ve always questioned the idea that if you reach some “key” people in any organization (blogs, podcasts, companies, schools, meetup-aholics) then it will trickle down to the unwashed masses below. That smacks of Reaganomics to me — been there, done that.
Granted, there is a huge “follower” mentality and echo-chamber effect for some of those groups (you know the ones), but most people won’t truly adopt something and incorporate it into their life unless it speaks to them and is useful — to them. Not just because Brogan (and I loves me some Brogan) said it was cool. It actually has to BE cool and be something that I need to be cool to me.
But I like the ripple effect. It’s how I learned about podcasting, Word Press, Twitter… you name it. Sure, I hear about lots of cool stuff from the Top Brass and I’ve been known to adopt early. But most people aren’t watching as closely as I and a handful of others. Let’s hear it for the ripple effect.
Props to Thomas for the link!
Several folks called for me to clarify a tweet I made today:
I think your Following list says a lot about you and your relationship with Twitter. That’s not a judgment call, just an observation.
My tweet was designed to cause you to look at your list and determine one thing: does the list of people you Follow meet with the way you want to use Twitter? The obvious question is “yes, that’s why I do it that way”, but I wonder. Personally, I can count at least three times that I’ve taken a hard look at how/why I use Twitter and made appropriate changes. And since the choice of who to follow is one of only three things1 you can change about Twitter, you should consider what your list of those you follow says about you.
To whom, you might ask? Well… to you. If you’re on Twitter or some other ’social’ site for another reason, then you’ve missed the point.
1. The other two are your “meta” data and the frequency/content of your tweets.
Seriously. Why bother posting anything to this website when Hugh MacLeod has all the insights?
So says a person guilty of being an asshole. But I’m trying to change. Not from being an asshole. Just from doing asshole marketing.
It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me. Today I leave you with this small exception:
A Softer World is my most favoritest web-comic. It speaks to me. Some days more than others.
Meet my friend Brian Shaler. Brian… jumps. Well, he does lots of other cool shit as well. But he’s best known (by me anyway) for his jumps.
Brian fell in to my trap the other day. What’s the trap? Simple. I’ve talked before how I tend to assume that I’m the smartest person in any room I walk into. But occasionally, I discover someone else in the room who is more deserving of that mantle. And when that happens, I tag that person as a friend and do my best to not only get to know him/her, but also work like a dog to find out how that person and I (and perhaps others) can work together to make something hellaciously cool.
Why? So that I don’t develop Brain Crack. I didn’t know that’s what I was avoiding until Brian told me about it over lunch a week or so ago. Nor did I know that it was a term coined by Ze Frank back in the summer of ‘06. But hey, I can’t be everywhere at once and neither can you. So if you missed it:
Image from Adam Nollmeyer, the finest photographer I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. In the market for a pro-photographer? Look no further.
It’s a tradition: the Lovely Wife gets the itch to paint this time every year. Started with NJ’s bathroom and has spilled over into my office. Which is a good thing, as I was starting to not enjoy working in it. New paint helps. I hope.
Happy Xmas to those who celebrate it. We don’t, but I’m not beyond recognizing an event with significance for others. Oh, and I’ll take the time off, too.
Keep your eyes on Podiobooks.com. I’m working on a Top 20 Books of 2007 post.
I’ve decided to approach my 2008 convention schedule with significantly more thought and care than previously. On the top of my list of I CAN HAZ is ROFLCon. Teh funny, to be sure!
I reached out to the organizers today to see if the whole podiobook movement is worthy of inclusion or not. As I told them, we’re not Tay Zonday, but we too move away from the mic when we breathe.
Regardless of the result, I’m giving the event serious consideration.
This is the ongoing record of an effort to assemble every famous internet meme or celebrity to come to Harvard in the spring of 2008 to attend a conference.
Presumably, they’re going to talk about fame online.
But with Homestar Runner and Dinosaur Comics coming and Goatse on the guest list, getting there is going to be about 80% of the fun
Party like a rockstar
ROFLCon 2008. Go ahead and block off April 25th & 26th. And someone near Cambridge MA clear off some floor space for me.
I consider myself a fan of science fiction. That status is open to interpretation, as some people equate “fan” with the original meaning of an abbreviated version of “fanatic”, which I am certainly not. And I recognize others are. But languages — especially the English language — are fluid, and the accepted meaning of “fan” is now “someone who likes”. And I like. But I don’t ‘dress up’, I don’t own a light sabre, and I don’t blindly follow the industry, authors, producers, actors or directors and fall in love with their next project just because it’s scifi and I’m “supposed to”. And that sometimes puts me at odds with the crowd who assume that all fans are — or at least should be — fanatics.
I noticed a post from Debbie yesterday that a campaign is underway to save The Dresden Files, currently the recent SF show to be placed on the chopping block from The SciFi Channel. (I posed a comment on her LJ blog, then realized that the social aspect of the campaign gave me an excuse to talk about it here as well.) This may be the more creative of the “Save [insert show name here]” campaigns; supporters are encouraged to send a drumstick (as in, used by drummers, not a part of tasty poultry) to the president of Skiffy (a less-than-affectionate term for The SciFi Channel for those that need the reference) with the protest message “SAVE DRESDEN” marked on the instrument.
Interesting and novel as the campaign may be, drumsticks won’t help save a show that sucks. Yes, I know that there are die-hard fans of SF who want every SF show ever made continually produced through the end of time. And yes, there are the die-hard fans of Jim Butcher (I, too, enjoy his writing style) who think this particular adaptation of his books is high art.
Unfortunately, a good number of people who like SF and enjoy Butcher’s books think this show blows as hard as Enterprise did — and we’re not watching. When networks notice (don’t get off on the measurement tangent, please) a show isn’t bringing in the audience, it needs to go. That’s not the fault of the original content that inspired the show. And it’s not the fault of SF as a whole. In fact, it doesn’t matter wherein the blame lies.
A turd is a turd, and sometimes the collective wisdom of the masses is appropriate. This incarnation of Dresden needs to go away, and they (whoever the hell ‘they’ are) need to try again. Note that this is not a blanket statement saying that television studio executives always make the right decision. Some times they make decisions that piss me off, too. See Firefly, Police Squad, Dinosaurs and Farscape for reference materials.
If you are fan, bust your ass to save the show. That is your prerogative, and I’ll not stand in your way. Make your Facebook groups. Launch an email campaign. Storm the castle both figuratively and literally. Use every tool in the chest — web based and real-world — and make your feelings known. But I reserve the right to stand on the sidelines, commenting on how this is yet another example of hope’s desire to triumph over experience.
I hope you are all aware of Beatnik Turtle. Every day this year, this horn-powered rock band releases a brand new song with their Song of the Day project. When you try to crank out a new tune each and every day, you take your inspiration from a variety of sources. Some folks, like my friends Charlie the Beer Guy & Mur Lafferty, ask for songs to be written, and they group is happy to comply. Check out Speaking of Beer and Mason Rocket.
Sometimes the inspiration comes from sad moments, as happened when Joe Murphy passed. I can’t find the tune ‘For Joe’ on their site right now, but I’ll see if I can’t find it later and post a link.
Anyhow… Sometimes that inspiration comes from the strangest and most mundane places. Like a totally throw-away post I made on Twitter some weeks (months?) ago. The song is Just Getting Off The Call With Rob Safuto. I gotta start posting some high-value stuff if people are going to use it as inspiration.
My new favorite quote, attributed to Johnny Appleseed:
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.
Right on. That’s me.
And by the way: the Johnny Appleseed story you were told as a kid is a whitewashed version. Check out Michael Polan’s book The Botany of Desire for the real deal. Fantastic book.
I’m not a huge fan of comics — either online or off. But I have been following A Softer World for a while. They make it easy for me, putting the image right in their RSS feed. Love that!
I felt the need to share their most recent:
What kind of funny do I like? This kind.
I’ve been reading Joe Marchese’s Online Spin for some time now. Very good and very dense information on the changing nature of marketing and advertising — including what it means to even try to advertise in the digital space. Always good.
Recently, he posted a piece on targeting. I realize that most of my audience probably couldn’t care less about advertising. Hey, if it wasn’t how I earned a living, I’d be inclined to agree. But many of my readers are content producers of one size or another. Assuming you fit that bill, this may interest you:
Targeting and relevancy unlock the potential for QUALITY publishers (from individuals to professional media producers) to sell so much more than the attention of their audience and advertisers in order to build effective targeting strategies, offering so much more than just a demographic mix. But publishers must do a better job of defining what their true value is to advertisers and help advertisers to create greater relevance to the publisher’s content and audience alike.
It interests the hell out of me. I’m not exactly sure how to apply it in our situation at Podiobooks.com. But that’s part of the fun, now isn’t it?
The latest and lastest Harry Potter book is out, and the intrawebs have been buzzing about bootleg copies circulating around the net. Two things seem to be cited the most as the negative of that:
Less copies will be sold, since readers can get it free online
Early-readers were posting spoilers from the book
Let’s deal with these in reverse, shall we? Spoilers happen every time any piece of highly-anticipated media is released early. Advanced copies are a normal part of the distribution process. Spoilers are easy to avoid — don’t read anything or listen to things that are likely to spoil. It’s not 100% fool-proof (I’m guilty of one of the larger ones, but it was also funny), but it should keep almost everyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled away from the offending content.
And to the first, that’s a crock. Unfortunately, the debunkers are also off the mark. I have a lot of respect for most of what future-thinker Seth Godin has to say, but when he poo-pooed the power of freely available publics desire to read online books:
Books are souvenirs. No one is going to read Potter online, even if it’s free. Holding and owning the book, remembering when and how you got it… that’s what you’re paying for. Books are great at holding memories. They’re lousy at keeping secrets.
… he blew it. I agree that books are souvenirs and that holding a book in your hands is a great feeling. But to say that no one would read HP online, even if it is free? Seth, wake up. People *are* reading things online. And quite often, when they read things online, they then go out and buy those things in the store.
Strange as it may sound, there are folks who aren’t reading the HP series. I’m one of them and I know countless others. I’m on the Cory Doctorow side of the fence on this issue. I know that putting something like HP out as a free digital download — by the publisher or by enterprising readers — will actually increase the overall sale of the hard copy by allowing folks who didn’t care to give it a shot. Yeah, it’s heretical. Yeah, it flies in the face of conventional wisdom. But I remain convinced that the group of folks who want to read it free were not going to buy the book anyhow. And more importantly, exposure to folks who weren’t planning on buying the book can actually cause some of those to make the purchase — assuming the material is good. And I’ll bet you that last group will back up and grab the previous six books as well.
Let the fruit fly. ‘Tis a brave new world when content wants to be freed.
A few days ago, J.C. Hutchins was good enough to list me on Gleamd. What is Gleamd? Damn fine question. I’ve read the FAQ, and I’m still not sure. Well, I have an idea, but I don’t want to mischaracterize the site. Perhaps one of you has some further experience with the site and can help me figure out the point?
Insert witty banter about pitting bitter rivals against one another. But I’m tired and lazy…
Though it’s not really an apples to apples comparison, I thought I’d showcase how I’ve personally been adopting two hot trends in the world of Web 2.0 — social networks and social… chatter. So let’s put Facebook against Myspace and Twitter against Pownce, comparing simply a single metric — “friendship”.
I’ve had a Myspace account for over a year, though I pretty much blew it off until about six months ago.
Myspace Friends - 357
Only a month or so ago, I decide to give Facebook a try. Personally, I like it beter.
Facebook Friends - 81
I’ve been an avid user of Twitter ever since C.C. Chapman got me hooked on it months ago.
Twitter Followers - 418
And I’m going on two days of active Powncing.
Pownce Friends and Fans - 84
I’m not suggesting that one will win over the other, but I do tend to use the pairs of services in similar way. Each has their own nuances, and the difference in time (and activity) on my part speaks volumes to the delta in friendship size. But I wonder how it will grow and change? I wonder how you, the readers of this blog, will decide to influence those numbers?
It is with hat in hand I come to you tonight. Not to beg for money, subscribers or your undying love — but for ideas. A well known podcast novelist who’s name rhymes with Spot Stigler has recently completed releasing another podiobook on his main site and is ready to have us continue the distribution on Podiobooks.com. And we’d like to make a splash with it.
This particular book deals with football (albeit a far-future football tale with aliens) and the pre-season for NFL football is about to get underway here in the states. Seems like there’s an excellent opportunity of timing to be had, if only we can tap it.
Thoughts? Ideas? How can we build a promotional strategy around the re-launch of this book on Podiobooks.com? May thousands of folks already enjoyed the book, but there are thousands more that just discovered podcast novels today, and probably many thousands who hit the book in mid-stream who would love a chance to listen from the beginning.
The call is open. Let the outpouring of ideas begin!
I was doing some research for an article I was contemplating for PopSci magazine. I’m not a subscriber to PopSci, but their podcast has nearly caused me to become one. Prior to today, I was considering PopSci a model for the magazine industry faced with the inevitable and inexorable change that is digital media. Now, I realize they have some work to do.
Consider first the advances PopSci has made. They have RSS feeds, a content-rich website, a print magazine and a podcast. As mentioned, it was their podcast that drew me in. Rather than other magazines that just read out a digest of a few stories each week or so, PopSci gets Jonathan Coulton to interview either the journalist of subject of one of the articles in the current issue. What a great way to get a feel for the content of the magazine by giving extra contant you can’t get from the magazine. Additionally, their website is great — heck, they’ve even embraced blogging.
But they are missing huge opportunities with their RSS feeds. First, they are making the classic blunder of excerpting their feeds. Rather than pushing out the full text and images of a story, they only give you a few dozen words, hoping you’ll come back to the site to read the full story. This is a huge mistake, and it’s made for one simple reason: They want me to come to the website so that they can:
impress me with an ad (read: additional revenue stream)
have more interactions with their website
Both are the wrong approach. First, my news reader (NetNewsWire - It rocks) acts as it’s own browser. When I click a link in my reader, it opens the page internally and doesn’t throw it to FireFox. I’m not sure how PopSci has encoded their ad units, but they don’t show up in my reader’s browser. There’s a bonus for me. Oh, and it doesn’t have to be that way. They ads should display, they just don’t. See the image to the left. The top is the site when displayed in FireFox, the lower in my reader. An easy fix!
Second, PopSci might think they want me to interact with their website, but they really don’t. What they want is me interacting with their content, which I’m trying to do — but on my own terms. Not only could they solve the ad problem above, but they could also do so much more with their feeds:
Embed advertising inside of the feed. You guys are already using Feedburner. You have the technology. Call ‘em up and ask for help! You’re leaving money on the table, and those of us who subscribe via RSS are going to be OK with it.
Give me the full text in the feed, but sprinkle in messages and incentives to get me to subscribe. I know that the magazine business lives and dies by ad revenue and subscriber fees. So flood my reader with so much news and information from your journalists and contributors that I can’t possibly keep up with it all and will be begging you to give me a monthly digest in print-form.
You’re close, PopSci. And I hope you make it to the next stage. I’ll be waiting.
