Murdoch Shackles Media

On Mashable.com today, blogger Paul Glazowski discusses Murdoch's business strategy and how Murdoch attempts to revamp the Wall Street Journal in the coming months.

I say pony up, Murdoch. Quit stalling. Just give us the stories, and stop asking for our credit card info when registering accounts. Yes, we know, you like making the most money you can. But as we all know, news on the Net is now news without fees. Give in, dude. Now. Or at least soon. There’s simply no point in holding out any longer.

Well, the internet is definitely taking over the media and a lot of paper-based models, like the Wall Street Journal, are going to have to ways to cope. Certainly, a lot of odd-ball pricing models are going to make their way out especially if media companies want to try to avoid the advertising revenue stream as their main pricing strategy.

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Seriously, to blog or not to blog?

Another discussion on blogging...
http://takingtheblogosphereseriously.com/

'Nuff said.

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Get on the Ski Bus, Gus

Yesterday, I talked about the importance of authenticity in business relationships, which aren't as casual as with your friends, where you can wear what you want and they probably follow the same fashion trends (or lack thereof).

Well, friends are part of your network, too. Yesterday I got into this referral program for a ski bus that takes you to Lake Tahoe and back all in one day. It got me thinking about how smart these ski bus people are. They combined some really important elements of referral marketing (sometimes negatively called the pyramid scheme) and utilized secondary relationships through their ski bus members.

To be more specific, the ski bus solves time, money and efficiency problems that alpine lovers hate. Normally, I don't get suckered in to the things like this but money is an issue and I don't want to sacrifice the snow season either. Here's an imagined conversation with said ski bus company.

Me: I am a snowboarder and I have friends who snowboard. We carpool together and share motel rooms and we've done the whole quick, dirty, cheap snowboarding trip thing. It's not that great, because we spend our first day of the weekend driving! This is why: Driver A thinks it sucks because he has to stay awake while everybody is napping. Then, we stop on the side of the road for gas, and Driver A switches with Driver B so that Driver A can take a nap. Then somebody absolutely has to go to the bathroom, especially the girls who have small bladders, and another wants a snack from the 7-11. We spend more time driving than snowboarding!

Ski bus says:No problem. We'll hire someone to drive, have no stops, keep a lavatory on the bus for emergencies and everybody can take a nap on the way to the slopes.

Me: I just updated all my gear--boots, bindings and board. I don't want to pay for a lift ticket and your bus ride. It sounds like it will be more expensive.

Ski bus says:: You can ride our bus for the same price as a lift ticket with transportation included, because we reduce our costs by not advertising. Instead, what about YOU do our marketing for us? Tell your friends about us and we will give them SKIBUS dollar discounts if they sign up and also, you'll get more discounts if they tell their friends.

Me: Yeah, I would totally refer my friends because I will do anything not to pay my entire year's salary just to have some fun and I know my friends don't want to pay huge amounts either. Not only that, but I'll keep using this service since I get discounts through them and don't spend all my time trying to drive up to Tahoe.

***
The only thing that is a bit annoying about this site is that they have an e-mail address called "typos at skibus dot com" because who ever is doing their copy doesn't know how to spellcheck their work. They know that us snow people are the types who say "Will do anything for snowboarding/skiing" and they really employ high level participation to the max. I mean, typos--that's not our job to notice things like that. It's yours.

If you want a $5 discount to go snowboarding, just comment to let me know. Like I said, if it works on me, it'll work on any ski bunny. OK, I admit, it is a sort of plug for said ski bus but think of it more as me glowing in admiration.

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Relationship Marketing

I heard the oddest piece of advice yesterday in regards to office politics. The advice was: "Don't worry about it." It was an awfully simple thing to say but perhaps the most true.

There should be a large distinction between using tact in your business relationships and worrying too much about your reputation because the latter can create too much distance and perhaps mar the quality of those relationships. Too often, we think too much about the money at stake and this can create barriers in developing strong, authentic relationships that build for example, your customers' loyalty to you and your brand.

The same goes for networks. If you're at a networking event, it's better to stay positive, exhibit confidence and show interest in both your specialty and shared interests with your counterparts. In other words, be your best self and don't worry so much about what other people think.

I've been thinking a lot about this lately because when I was in Montréal, Quebec, people in general seemed to converse more naturally than we do in Silicon Valley. They are less distracted by Blackberrys and a glass of wine and good food is enough to inspire conversation. Again, I know I am generalizing, but what I've learned from Montrealites is that they don't acknowledge you as a business contact or a social contact but simply they acknowledge you as a person and stay self aware of the subjects of conversation.

Before I start to lose focus on all this, it is food for thought. We have a lot to learn from a traditional culture that still values face-to-face communication and interaction. When things revolve around money and politics, the world gets to be quite odd. So maybe that is why art and humanities exist in the world--so we can remember we are human beings after all.

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Ocean's Twelve in the Office

Here's a perspective on Ocean's Twelve that got me really excited. I'm not sure if the screenwriters meant to write it as an office culture and interpersonal dynamics sort of movie, but it's a cool twist on a conventional action/thievery film. Some say that Ocean's Twelve abides by the "Sequels usually suck" principle but I disagree.

Maybe it's more obvious for anyone who has worked a full time office job. George Clooney and Brad Pitt did an awesome job of playing two company CEOs of a professional thievery consultancy but really the thievery could be a metaphor for any company since we're all rooting for Ocean's Twelve when we watch it. You've got all the aspects of business involved.

Barriers to Entry: Catherine Zeta-Jones is the talented detective Lahiri who wants to prevent Ocean's Eleven from succeeding at their task
Competition: Thanks to the talented and arrogant young thief, Francois Toulour, Ocean's Eleven can't get to their objective without Toulour attempting to get at it first.
Partners: You've got your business partners, and in this case one guy who makes their holographic egg.
Stakeholders: Terry Benedict plays the sinister stakeholder who wants his money and fast, so he is as invested in Ocean's Eleven's success as much as they are although their motivations are different.
International relations: There's international business travel, Shen as a rather talented business consultant, and the scene itself in Italy and France. Also, they know a ton of people, have a huge network and worry about their reputations so that they can continue working in the business.

Rookie/Entry-level thief:
My favorite one is the portrayal of Linus Caldwell, the rookie. He's new to the game, wants to play a larger role, stammers when he begs Rusty Ryan for more responsibility. He's got the skills, the motivation and a new-generation respect for morality. It's so comforting to get to know Linus in Ocean's Twelve, because I can relate to him and know that anyone in business is going to be embarrassed once in a while. I loved one of the beginning scenes where they meet Matsui for a job because it is so true: when you go to a business meeting for at least the first few times, everyone else might as well be speaking a different language. That changes, of course, once the rookie is acclimated to the industry language. The movie is awesome and great inspiration on how to run a good business, but mind you, Hollywood is the only place where they can use thievery as a metaphor for corporations.

I'll post a few lines of the movie soon that really hint at the business culture slant of this film.

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Bring It, 2008

New year, new thoughts and new resolutions. I cannot predict what will happen in 2008 but they say that thought and determination can create amazing results. In the last year, I learned a ton about social media and geeky technology news.
Richard McManus lists his top 10 stories on ReadWriteWeb and amazingly, some of the same stories mentioned (plus more) have been floating around in Silicon Valley came about in conversations during my vacation in Montreal this year. Not all of them are about Silicon Valley but many are telling of the way Bay Area technologies are changing how people live, talk and interact. Some of my favorites:

Yahoo!

Jerry Yang takes over Terry Semel. Everyone wants to know whether Yahoo will win the Google war. Others say Google is bad because it's the Microsoft of the Internet.

Google

The wiki market continues to await Google's entry with their former acquisition of JotSpot, which made all the talk around JotSpot near-news instead of full launch news. On top of that, Google launched OpenSocial to compete with Facebook following a Microsoft buy of Facebook shares back in October.

American Idol

Worst American Idol auditioner, William Hung, gains popularity with his naive charisma and can be easily found on YouTube.

All Dig Down

A friend's client, AllDigDown has the ambition and courage to try and take a bite of the social networking market. All I have to say about that is good luck, Shelley Taylor. Late entrants into this market will have a hell of a time trying to get consumers to sign up, even if Taylor claims that record companies are excited to get in on the deal. It's a lot to ask of people these days to put in their personal information and get high level participation on yet another Facebook but for music.

In Politics and Society

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated before the end of 2007.

CFO of Baidu Shawn Wang dies of unknown causes

A teenager dies of an attack by a Siberian Tiger at the San Francisco Zoo which makes one wonder what exactly the Zoo officials were thinking in the first place.

Also, let's not forget Facebook because I found out all kinds of odd news from friends through Mini-Feeds, and there's nothing like finding out your high school classmate is married and having his first son soon to make you feel one year older.

Welcome 2008!

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Blog, Vlog, Glog

As I was browsing Techcrunch today, there was an article on a new company called Glogster where you can create a vanity poster on the web without downloading any software.

First, I disagree with Arrington's review of Glogster where he says it's like Geocities in a bad way. I mean, it's true that when we had Geocities, it didn't really create a lot of traffic--it was a bunch of people trying out how to use the internet. But I think it's great because it's a nice place to create mini works of art and who knows? Maybe you can get some mini celebs who are really great artists or just like playing around with design. I suppose we are in an era of super production, where everything is made to increase productivity and efficiency, but I don't think it's such a bad thing to have a goofy creative outlet to test out your ideas and have them hyperlinked.

Glogster is a vanity product. After the world-conscious Millenial Generation, comes the vain "me first" Generation Me. It may just well be a pull market product where the consumers will shape the product capabilities.

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