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“That feeling - like a dull toothache - is a massively powerful heuristic that something is deeply wrong; wrong with McJobs; wrong with $100m bonuses for value destruction; wrong with the evisceration of variety, choice, and happiness; wrong with the long slow death of culture and community; wrong with the sinking intuition that like you’ve signed away your life when you walk into that cube, all for a few bucks and free lattes.

So who reinvents the firm? We do.”

This is something I talk about regularly with select friends and co-workers. A great many of us wish things were better. We see the problems, we see the waste, we see the selfishness, we see the value being sucked away. And we see our customers suffer.

Well, I have started to reinvent our organization. I’ll write about it here once I gain traction.

And if I don’t reinvent the organization or the firm, then I need to go. My path is clear: One way or the other I will reinvent!

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I think that is a great idea. This is something I have been thinking about for quite a while. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to subscribe to an event in such a way.

For the sake of discussion, I like to throw a couple of problems and a possible alternative solution:

First, in order for a person’s tweet to show up in the event, they would have to use one of the tracking keywords. That means correct spelling is required and existence of that keyword is a obviously critical. “John Stewart” and “Jon Stewert” wouldn’t be picked up. My idea of what keyword is associated to the Oscars event might be different than yours. Or, I might be a horrible speller.

But also, that means tweets couldn’t become part of the context of the event unless a keyword was present. “Wow he just slipped on stage” (as Colin Farrell and John Travolta did) wouldn’t show in the feed as there are no keywords that identify the context – yet obviously, this tweet should appear in the “Oscar Event Feed”.

So what is an alternative?

What if Twitter had the concept of events built in? For example, the organizers of the Oscars could register “Oscars” event at a Twitter event config site. Then, from my phone, IM, Twitter client, or via the web, I could get a list of current/upcoming events. If I had done that Sunday night, I would have seen “Oscars” as a list of events of the night. Then, I could type eventon Oscars on my phone. From this point on, all tweets I send would go to the “Oscars” event group. Also, I would receive all tweets from other people who were attending (have joined) the “Oscars” event via Twitter.

So rather than depending on keywords, I simply join an event. I get all tweets within the event context. When the event is over (i.e. the twitter event expires) then I stop getting tweets in that context.

Custom Twitter Nodes is the Answer-

In my opinion, it is this sort of functionality that will (should) take Twitter to the next level. What if Twitter were to add the concept of Custom Twitter Nodes where people could setup and configure Nodes to meet the needs of their event, or group, or whatever? The possibilities are endless were Twitter to start offering “Custom Twitter Nodes”. Events would be one type of node with a set of rules. Perhaps there would be a Private Twitter Node type that people could setup and join without content being publicly available. How about an Custom Twitter node at the club? Or a conference? What about a Custom Twitter Node type for the grocery store? Hmmmm. Somebody might pay for that.

Yes, much of this functionality can be hacked by third parties. And many of these third parties are doing great and cool stuff. However, this type of service - Twitter Events via Custom Twitter Nodes - would be much better if it were provided by Twitter itself.

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I was raised a Democrat so when I was a kid, in 1980, when my mother was working for his campaign, I met him. I vaguely remember the fund raising event.

Over the years, through my mother’s connections (and some of my own) I’ve gotten to meet or shake hands or be within speaking distance of many interesting people.

The first important one was Jimmy Carter in 1976. Then again in 1980. Later it was Senator Ann Richards, then Bill Clinton. A few years ago, Senator Hillary Clinton.

Today was another good day for me. While on my way to work (on a Saturday no less) I decided to take a drive past the new “green” research building being built at Saint Louis University to see how it was coming along. I was going north on Grand Ave, heading towards College Church. The research building looks cool.

As I got closer to SLU’s Church, I saw more police than one would expect on a Saturday afternoon. Then I remembered that Eagleton’s funeral service was today. Well, I wasn’t dressed to attend, but I thought I stood a pretty good chance of seeing some US senators. So I found a parking space as quickly as I could 3 blocks away. (police had put no parking signs on all the streets within two blocks of the church).

Anyhow, I walked up to the corner with the fountain at Lindel and Grand across the street from the church. I watched for a little while. A very nice catholic sister came up. It was 11:30 and she was on her way to 12:00 mass - and didn’t know that Eagleton’s ceremony, which started at 11:00, had nixed the noon mass. I told her I was trying to see if I could see Ted Kennedy. She mentioned that she had met Ted Kennedy when he visited her home state of Connecticut.

I finally went across the street to the church and stood and talked to a camera man who had been covering St. Louis news for 30 years. We spoke about the state of news media and Rupert’s influence over Fox’s local news production operations. We also spoke how neither of us watches local news any more.

I then wandered down the sidewalk along the church towards the side entrance (near the altar) to ask the secret service where the senators would be exiting. Obviously they were not forth coming with that information, though did point to a street light pole across the street 60 feet away that would give me a “perfect view”.

I then went back to the main entrance of the church were my camera guy and his producer/reporter were talking. They asked what I found out. I told them about the street pole on the other side of the street. At that point they moved their camera to the side entrance I had just visited.

I spoke to a policeman who offered that the senators would indeed be coming out of the side entrance and getting on the bus parked there. I then joined my camera guy with a couple of still photographers at that side entrance.

And I waited….about another 30 minutes. During that time a Secret Service agent approached me and asked what I had in my Starbucks cup. I opened it, told him it was empty, and said I was looking for a trash can. He offered to take the empty cup for me. That was nice of him!

Now, with all the secret service and police around I noticed that I was absolutely the only person who didn’t have a good reason to be there. I was after all, standing among the press, police, and secret service wearing shorts! Nevertheless, I did my best to look like I was “supposed” to be there. Thus, I started fiddling with my phone, reading my blogs. I even sent a text message to a buddy, telling him where I was.

A policeman (the one I had spoken to earlier) saw me with my phone and approached me. He kindly suggested I keep my phone in my pocket when the senators come out. I obliged. We then talked about these “security details” of policemen that handle St. Louis events. It was good work he said - especially the festivals and events with drinking - as there are so many people to look at. He said events having to do with politicians and such aren’t as much fun because everyone is so uptight. “Guard this door, don’t let anyone in - stuff like that,” he said. And then added, “but it beats chasing stolen cars or busting drug dealers.” He was pretty cool. Strangely enough, he reminded me a lot of my college roommate Gerard who happens to be in the NYPD.

Then Senator Dodd came out and walked directly over to the cameras - five feet from where I was standing. He said a few words about what a great man Tom was. He left immediately.

Then Claire McCaskill came out. She didn’t want to talk to the cameras. She also left immediately.

Then a whole group of people came out and lingered for a while. Senator Ted Kennedy was amoung them. A reporter called him over to where we were standing. He spoke very kindly, affectionately, and remorsefully about Tom Eagleton. They were friends.

Next Joe Biden stopped by. He talked about Christmas’s with the Eagletons over the years and mentioned that he and Tom spoke often. There was something very likeable about him.

Then I think I saw Senator Kit Bond, but he didn’t speak to the camera’s. Senator Harry Reid was around but I didn’t see him.

And finally Vice President Walter Mondale spoke to the cameras in a very heartfelt manner. He seemed like the most easy going guy in the bunch - a man who had no worries and who was living life to its fullest.

So, I was within conversation distance of all these people. What an exciting day!

I ask my camera guy what it was like to always be able to see important people and events up close and personal. He said it was really no big thing. “After all, I am just an observer - watching these people do their work. I’m not actually participating. If I was participating, then maybe I would feel differently.”

Well said, don’t you think? I suppose I should get to work myself. We have serveral large systems that we are rehosting tomorrow morning for my company. I doubt my camera guy will be covering that. Maybe I should be working on something else? …because I sure would like to see the camera guy again…..

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In response to Widget Removal - Please Vote:

First off, I’ve been a big fan of yours for over a year now.  In that time, I have read every post you’ve made, I have linked at least a couple of times from my blog, and I have made several comments (some perhaps naïve).  I read you not because you are worth millions, nor because, necessarily, that other people link to you.  Rather, I read you because your writing is good, your perspective is fresh, your insight is intelligent, and you mostly march to the beat of your own drum.  So I have an aspiration just like the tramp in Think and Grow Rich:  I plan to do business with you one day (today is not that day, though).

Additionally, I am a web application developer by trade.
Given the above self-perceived notion of my authority, I consider myself an expert consumer of your blog and have a good understanding of the technical issues that you face with your widgets.

So here are my thoughts.

You are an influential blogger who desires to express yourself with the best of breed that web services companies have to offer via widgets.  You are aggregating your presence on the world wide web into a single easily reachable and easily consumable web site.  Anybody in the world who wants to understand who you are has free access to more information than I have of my own best friend.  This you achieve with the help of all the wonderful widgets.

In my opinion, this has incredible cultural significance.  You are helping to usher in a world where people are no longer afraid to share their personal details – a world where transparency is the norm instead of just the occasional pleasant surprise.

Thus, I vote for you to keep all of your widgets.
Furthermore, I implore you to ask different questions in dealing with the widgets issue.  Instead of asking what to remove, ask what can be done to make them do what you want them to (speed, look-and-feel, etc).

Technology brought you all of these wonderful tools and technology can make them all work the way you want.  You know that is true.  Settle for nothing less.

Sincerely,
Jim Parker

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We can’t be everywhere all of the time.  But we want to be.  Back in the day, we purchased answering machines, and then voice mail.  These were (are) a very simple way of communicating to anyone the following:

1. Hello
2. Glad you called
3. I can’t take your call
4. Let me know what you want
5. I’ll get back to you

Perhaps not everyone wanted to communicate all of the above things, but everyone at least wanted to communicate one of them.  In effect, we “programmed” our answering machines/voice mail to handle contacts from the world.

And my point in bringing up voice mail is that people don’t always want to be live or can’t always be live – yet, they still want to be properly represented.  In this case, voice mail is acting as their agent.

Jump to today and beyond:

Avatars are commonplace today on the internet.  Second Life and such virtual worlds aren’t the only place to find them though.  Any graphical representation of your person is a form of avatar – be it a picture, a cartoon, a stick-in-the-mud, or anything.  It is something that represents you.  And these are found everywhere – Myspace, mybloglog, digg, blogs, youtube, flickr, etc, etc, etc.

However, the real future of avatars is with a company called OddCast.  OddCast provides slick animation-synced-with-speech avatars.  They move, they talk, they watch what you are doing.  And they are capable of Text-To-Speech.

Imagine this scenario:

1. I purchase an avatar (customized to my liking) with Text-To-Speech option from OddCast.  I set up that Avatar to read a particular text file from my web server’s file system whenever a person views my homepage.
2. I then set up an application in which my daily activities, schedule, etc are stuck into a database.  I add to that an API calls to Digg, Technorati, flickr, and delicious to pickup my online activity for the day.
3. I write some logic to figure out what’s important, what’s current, and what’s relevant – pretty easy to do with timestamps and importance fields in the DB.
4. I create a job that writes the text file that the avatar will read, I set it to update every 15 minutes.
5. Now, whenever anyone visits my site, they will be greeted by me and I will be able to share with them what’s going on in my life right now.  The ultimate personal greeting.

But this scenario is just the beginning.  Ray Kurzweil’s avatar “Ramona” can answer questions.  Thus, when the tools to consume natural language become more ubiquitous, I too will be able to easily setup a database of my life, my writings, my pictures, my video’s, etc and serve it all up through my avatar. 

Avatars are becoming programmable.  They will soon be our programmable agents, just as the answering machine is today.

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What a wonderful fall it has been, truly a dream come true.  I’ve been dying to come back and write about all my news.  I’ve got a lot to talk about.

Arianna and Ethan are doing well - they are a very loud bunch.  They’ve brought joy to my life I never knew I could have.

Thus, I have a different perspective on everything - different than the perspective I had yesterday.

And I have learned this:  Blogging, managing my online identity, and connecting to more and more people is something that I love to do.  This is my passion:  Using technology to bring people together in ways they never knew were possible  (in addition to the passion I have for my family).

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In the mean time, visit the Parker Family blog where I will be posting pictures every couple of weeks.

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We all have a limited amount of resources.  Money, Time, Capital, and Talent are just a few of the more important ones.

It suffices to say that if you have enough of the above resources, you can do anything - which means you can do everything you ever wanted to do.  But what is everything? What does it mean to “do everything you ever wanted to do”?  That’s the key.  Everyone has a different definition of what everything is.  A retired couple defines everything as the mean to live a comfortable existence for 30 years or more.  A technical school graduate considers everything to be going to work in an auto repair shop, like his dad did, and earning enough to buy a big boat to hang out on the lake with his buddies.  To a homeless man, everything may be for the deli owner to give him a couple of special made sandwiches that didn’t get picked up and then to sleep under the stars in the park with 75 degree weather.

For each it is different.  And for each, the amount of resources required to pull it off varies greatly.

Ah, but there is one more resource to consider: “Your Current Situation” – that is, what you have previously used your resources to accomplish.  The tech grad has is education and a standard of living taught to him by his father.  The retired couple has been saving their entire life – a full and productive life at that.  The homeless guy has a relationship with the deli owner which he has nurtured.

How you define everything is a product of your current situation, what your resources are, and yet, one more very important thing:  “What you choose to pay attention to”.  Framed in this context, since you can’t do anything to change your current situation at this moment in time or to change your quantity and quality of resources at this moment in time, then truly, the only thing you actually have a choice in is where you direct your attention.¼br /> Thus, if you want to have everything you can think of, then you need to properly spend your attention – properly focus your time – on ways to get what you want.

The only difference between the homeless guy and Fred Wilson is, over a number of years, they have chosen to pay attention to different things.  If the homeless man paid attention to things like Fred Wilson does for a period of 10 years, he’d be more like Fred Wilson today.  He could be rich.  If Fred Wilson paid attention to the things that the homeless man did for a period of 10 years, he’d be more like a homeless man.  He could be poor.

Thus, Attention is the great Equalizer.  What you think about and what  you pay attention to are all that matters.

What are you paying attention too?  And what are you getting from it?

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He says what I would say if I were so eloquent.

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Nevertheless, there are all sorts of things going on these days.  And there are so many things I yet want to do!  I’ve got a nice list of blog topics, but not the time to develop them into good postings.

So, I will talk now about what troubles me the most:

How can it be that there are so many people writing about, developing, thinking, reading, participating, contributing to The New Media(s), yet when I discuss it with someone on the street, say a co-worker, I just get yawns.  Yawns!!!

Why does the prospect of greatness within our new communications tools bring yawns from the general public?  How can there be so many people that don’t understand what it means to blog?  Or how can people not see the value in microchunking content so that they can consume it in absolutely any way that they want.

When is all of this stuff going to enter the mainstream?

Of course, there is mainstream reporting of what’s going on in Web 2.0.  But few of those articles themselves do a good job of explaining why all of this is so important.  In other words, the mainstream reporting is not having a large impact on people.

So how do we go the last mile?  How do we move from products for early adopters to mature, mainstream, ubiquitous products?

It is inevitable.  But When???

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On his site, Umair made a comment on one of my a recent posts.  My post included this:

“…Things like search cost and distribution cost and microchunking cost (sorry umair ) don’t add up to a hill of beans when it comes to true entertainment value.” jim parker

Umair added:

“What is microchunking, from a functional point of view? The ability for people to be more creative, without having to pay the costs of buying a block of mass media time.”

 …which is exactly true.  I was missing the point…which is this:  As we mitigate the costs of such powerful tools such as search, distribution, and microchunking, these tools will be much more desired by people who want to create (because they have become/will become cheap and easy to use).  People would rather play an active role in their entertainment - they don’t actually want to sit passively, (err sleeping), watching “a block of mass media time”.  They want to contribute, interact, meet people, make relationships, all in the name of fun entertainment.  That’s what super high-tech and super usable search, distribution, microchunking, etc, etc affords them.

It’s entertainment that develops you.  Improves you.  Excites you.  And it’s custom made just for you.

I don’t know why, but I have a huge, huge respect for “the tools of economics”.  Thanks for that Umair.

So I suggest this:  The people will, indeed, have the power.  We just need to get them the tools ASAP.  They are waiting on us right now.

jim

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Please explain me blogging…
Who has got time…to let alone write it….but to read all those…I do not get it…with all the flood of content around in the web… why would people spend time to read blogs… I know it is just me… there are already thousands of people already absorbed in blogs…

Actually, it is 10’s of millions involved in blogging.

Anyhow, it’s all about one simple thing:  Contribution.  See my first post:   http://www.attentiongrab.com/?p=11
…or maybe it’s about two things…Contribution & Relationships…Oh yeah, relationships are key.

Your questions above are exactly what I was asking before I started a blog.  Why would somebody ever read what so and so (who may know nothing) has to say about so and so???  Who’s got the time to sift through the crap?  Why do people read this nonsense?

Yes, there is tons and tons of content all over the web.  But it’s not just about the content.  It’s about the person behind the content.  Nobody reads blogs just looking for content value.  People read blogs looking for people they like.

When I read something I really, really enjoy and respect and learn from, automatically, I consider the person writing the blog to be a good person…a person that I can relate to.  I might contact that person.  I might write a comment in their blog.  But the key thing is that I have formed a relationship with that person.  It is now a person that I could walk up to on a street and have a conversation with.

Here are some examples of interaction via blogging:

I just received a thank you from Danah Boyd.  Danah is quite a celebrity in the blogging world.  She’s been on National cable news as an expert talking head on Bill O’Reilly’s show.  And she’s sending me a thank you note for me sending her a music recommendation.  Obviously I will never meet Danah face to face (though I wouldn’t mind it).  She’s not my best friend.  She’s not even a friend, really.  Yet, we have a connection.  And yes, it is a small, minuscule, tiny connection.  But a connection is a connection.  Something is always better than nothing, right?

And…There’s this experienced VC guy in Manhattan (Union Square - 14th and Broadway) whom I am a big fan of.  I read all about his business and his perspective on technology in the US.  I also read about his family.  I look at their vacations in Seattle, Vale, hiking, biking, skiing.  I see his kid’s baseball games.  I hear the music he likes.  I know where his office is and I know one of his favorite places to have lunch in the summer time.  He’s opened up his entire life to the world.  And what that buys him and his family is familiarity.  That is, people all over the world are familiar with the family.  And familiarity opens doors.  When you know a lot about someone, it is easier to find something in common with that person.  When you find something in common with them, you can more easily relate and communicate with them………so………. Forget MySpace and Facebook.  Fred Wilson has created the ultimate social networking platform for families!  See http://avc.blogs.com .

So it’s not about reading and getting information.  It’s about building a relationship with someone you respect.  I can’t build a relationship with CNN.  But I can build a relationship with another blogger if I want to.  Blogging is much more than passive content.  It is a conversation.  Now that’s entertainment!

Thus, you can’t possibly understand blogging until you blog.  Blogging is not one-way old communication where you have a producer and a consumer.  It is interactive.  It is conversational.

Become a blogger.  Then you will understand.

And it’s easy to do.  You don’t have to worry about the fact that you’re not a world class writer (which obviously I am not).  You don’t have to be concerned if you don’t get more than 20 people reading  your blog.  All you have to worry about is getting one single reader/contributer - somebody who comes back often and leaves comments.

So how do you do it?  You simply write about what you like…or don’t like…or what you love…what makes you happy or sad…what’s important to you…what’s silly to you…just all about you.  Now you may think that nobody cares about such nonsense.  That is actually untrue.  People who know you will want to know more about you.  And when several people start paying attention others will start to notice.  Maybe even people  you don’t know.  Either way, people will read - they always do… just as long as you keep giving them something to come back for.  So give them more.  Lots more!

And encourage your friends to write blogs too.  Next thing you know, they’ll be asking you to comment on their blogs.  Ah-HAH!!!  You’ve just created a network.  Now you know what it means to blog.

There is nothing wrong with going out and grabbing some attention.  Please come back to Attention Grab and tell us how you did it.

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Interestingly, I am currently engrossed in yet another book that also fully explores the God Part of the Brain - or at least the God part of life in the universe (which by default includes the brain).  It is called Contact - by Carl Sagan - a book which by the way is 1000 times more significant than the movie made from it. 

Nevertheless, the current flap about Nostradamus, err, I mean Da Vinci Code, got me thinking about the best story about a Code ever.  And that story is contained at the end of Contact, the book (not the movie).  It changed the way I look at life.

Read it, and you will never look at a circle the same again in your entire life.

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This isn’t nearly as harsh as it sounds:  Here’s a good analogy.  Say I had a house.  And say I knew of a couple of second cousins who through some circumstance became homeless.  I would be willing to help these folks.  I’d share my resources (home, car, yard, computer, etc, etc) in order to get them on their own two feet.  As a matter of fact, if I am able, it would be my obligation to help them.  This I would do happily.

However, what if 10 cousins needed help?  Would I be willing to take 10 cousins in?  That’s a lot more than two.  Of course I would do what I could to help.  But I might not be able to help 10 people very effectively without considerably affecting my standard of life.  Is that OK or not? 

Personally, I think I have a responsibility to my own family first.  Then I help others as needed.

I think that’s where the USA is right now.  We’ve been helping for quite a while - taking these folks in.  And we (and them) are better off for it for sure.  However, I think we may be reaching the limit of people we can absorb effectively.

There’s nothing wrong with saying “Enough is enough”.  Otherwise, Mexico is never going to mature itself.  It is important for global stability that Mexico stands on its own two feet.

It’s important also that the USA take care of those entrusted to us - that is, ALL of the people already here.  Citizens and non-Citizens.  Thus, if we control our borders, we can get our house in order - and then maybe in the future when we are better off and when Mexico has grown a bit on its own, we let people in again.

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Is Google the next Microsoft (Microsoft which eventually doesn’t come back)?  Yes.

Will Google be anywhere around $500/share in 5 years?  No.

Is Apple the next Google which is the next Microsoft which eventually doesn’t come back?  Yes.

Do I still wanna be the next Apple?  Yes.

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What most people forget about the Media business is that it is all about entertainment FIRST.  Entertainment value is the most significant factor in the media business.  Things like search cost and distribution cost and microchunking cost (sorry umair ) don’t add up to a hill of beans when it comes to true entertainment value.  Media still does an outstanding job of entertaining us.

But will innovative new things in search, distribution, and reconstruction add significant value in the near future?

Absolutely, but only at the pace that the PUBLIC wants.  That’s right.  It’s the Users that drive demand - not the media 2.0 Pundits.

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I had a conversation with a close body a couple of weeks ago about how Virtual Reality (VR) will enhance the family experience.  His argument was “Why would anybody want to spend any time in an area that just wasn’t real?  I’d rather have real life than a made up fantasy land.”  Which is a very well made point. 

Yet, I believe otherwise.  I asked:  “When you go see a movie in the movie theatre, how much of that 2 hours do you actually spend communicating with your family?”.  Continuing with, “Most families I see at the movie theatre are very quietly, politely sitting in submission to the big screen.”   “Is that what you call real?”, I asked.

Instead, my vision of what’s really real is when a family meets in VR on a Friday night from 6pm until 8pm every week. 

The Son, living in New York, the sister in Chicago, the parents in St. Louis, and everyone comes together for some family activity once a week.  Exploring the Taj Mahal this week, Grand Canyon next week, the Florida Keys the week after that - all virtually, but all together.  Making ripples back and forth on the pools of the Taj Mahal, standing at the edge of The Canyon, wind blowing everyone’s hair as we watch a beautiful sunset, or taking a couple of jet skis weaving in and out of dangerous coral areas…But never life threateningly dangerous…and all of this I share real-time with my family. 

What could possibly be more real than that?

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That’s always nice.

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