Obviousness

Innovation and Evolution

John Ounpuu — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:57:00 +0000

The question: What do misconceptions about evolution have to do with marketing and innovation?

I love it when something you’re reading that is theoretically miles away from the your job/life/field of interest jumps off the page and gives you’re a flash of unexpected insight that hits close to home.

This happened to me recently on a flight back from Oklahoma (long story). The unexpected source was an interview (unfortunately only excerpted online) with Mary Midgley in The Believer.

I had previously never heard of Mary. It turns out she is an English moral philosopher and the author of many books, including Evolution as Religion. The basic premise of that book appears to be something like this:

We’ve come to think of evolution as more of a myth or religion than a scientific theory. This fact, combined with some common misconceptions about the theory itself, have lead us astray in some unexpected and important ways.

As someone who is always on the lookout for fresh, commonsense ideas that challenge conventional business and marketing thinking, I was struck by two points that Mary made in the interview.

Here’s the first . . .

“The idea that growth—for instance, economic growth—is natural and required is a mythical idea. This can’t be right, because things do not grow indefinitely in nature; they grow until they’re big enough.”

This reminded me of Jason Fried at 37Signals and his views on the perils of buying into the religion of growth for growth’s sake. It also reminds me of a recent client, who saw their stock tumble dramatically due to small dip in growth.

Here’s the second quote . . .

“The other main misunderstanding is the one which says the universe is run by a hostile competition between individuals . . . (the idea that) if you had enough savage competition eventually things would come right.

But this is a fantasy about how life was made because organisms cooperate constantly. And the sort of “competition” by which they get ahead very often has nothing to do with fighting anything, but finding a new place. You find a new food source, or you start photosynthesis, or something of that sort."

So you’re saying that scrapping it out over that same turf is not nearly as effective as changing the rules and “finding a new place”? Sounds like innovation to me.

Time for Mary to add “business guru” to her resume.

Ma.gnolia link dump

John Ounpuu — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:58:00 +0000

Here are some highlights from my Ma.Gnolia bookmark feed, which, combined with Facebook activities, has replaced actual blogging for me.

Vitamin Features » How to measure the success of your web app

Posted: Fri, 11 January 2008 14:56:32 PST

Great post on measurement. Simple, common-sense and easy to understand.

Tags: metrics, measurement, analytics, conversions, web apps

What Designers Can Learn From Facebook’s Beacon: the collision of “fronts” « Design Research

Posted: Thu, 27 December 2007 21:32:40 PST

Facebook and the question of multiple selves. Good post on an interesting topic.

Saved By: John Ounpuu | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: facebook, identity, public faces
The Web’s Link-Driven Attention Economy - Publishing 2.0

Posted: Mon, 17 December 2007 21:58:33 PST

It's all about the link.

Saved By: John Ounpuu | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: attention, web, link, links, attention economy

The Year in Advertising

Posted: Mon, 17 December 2007 21:51:02 PST

"Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking."

Saved By: John Ounpuu | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: advertising, marketing, myfootballclub

Webkinz Adds Kiddie Ads, to Parents’ Dismay

Posted: Mon, 17 December 2007 21:41:12 PST

Seems a little greedy, maybe. And disappointing.

Saved By: John Ounpuu | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: webkinz, ads, advertising

Seths Blog: Thinking about Canadian pricing

Posted: Wed, 12 December 2007 14:07:12 PST

Hey book publishers. Wise up and listen to the bald guy.

Saved By: John Ounpuu | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: canadian pricing, seth godin, seth, canada, pricing

The 4 types of community: Church of the Customer Blog

Posted: Fri, 7 December 2007 11:46:16 PST

Good stuff. Like any model that attempts to boil down something this complex it may not be perfect or completely accurate. But that doesn't mean it's not really useful.

Saved By: John Ounpuu | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: community, communities, insight

OpenSocial Still “Not Open for Business”

Posted: Fri, 7 December 2007 11:21:43 PST

Vapourware. Oh my.

Saved By: John Ounpuu | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: OpenSocial, google, open social, facebook, vapourware, delays

Recent tidbits from my Ma.gnolia bookmark feed

John Ounpuu — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:09:00 +0000

In case you didn't know, there are two flavours of feed on offer here.

Posts have been admittedly quiet lately, but I've been sharing loads of links via my Ma.Gnolia bookmark feed.

Here are a few recent favourites . . .

MisEntropy: Where's the long tail of brand communication?

Posted: Wed, 4 April 2007 16:01:43 PDT

This ebook offers a fresh and interesting way to look at marketing through the lense of the Long Tail. Here's a quote that got my gears moving . . . "In effect, the communication for every brand represents an individual market in which different messages for that brand compete for consumer attention and time."

Tags: marketing, brands, long tail
BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Drinks with Dell

A Dell Hell update from Jeff Jarvis . . . "Welcome to the age of customer control. This isn’t just crowdsourcing. This is crowdmanaging. Companies still fear this. But, hell, if even Dell can lean back and let its customers begin to take charge, anyone can."

Tags: dell, dell hell, jarvis, buzzmachine, jeff jarvis, ideastorm, blogs, business, customers
Purpose Beyond Profit

"I believe that we as humans search for a meaningful purpose in everything we do. We are at our very best when we find it."

Tags: management, strategy, leadership, meaning, motivation, business, work
The Daylight Saving change: no savings, no point

My life's mission is to ban this daylights savings nonsense.

Tags: daylight savings
glumbert.com - Supermarket 2.0

“It’s free right?” “Of course. It’s the Internet. Just take a cookie and I’ll remember you tomorrow.”

Tags: humour, humor, web 2.0, funny, video, accents

Northern Voice Wrap-Up

John Ounpuu — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:02:00 +0000

I spent Friday and Saturday at Northern Voice.

A lot of information went into my brain during that time. Some of it survived.

So what is Northern Voice? The organizers describe it as “Canada’s Blogging Conference”. It’s really about a lot more than just blogging, though.

A more accurate but much more wordy description would be “Canada’s Conference for People Who are Interested in the Power and Potential of the Social Web and it’s Impact on All Aspects of Our Lives.”

Attendee-wise, there was a great, eclectic mixture of folks at the event. This mix included but was not limited to journalists, educators, activists, marketers, entrepreneurs, photographers, artists, writers, uber-geeks, web designers and at least one guy who dressed like a dragon because the people who read his blog voted and decided that he should.

For me, this mixture demonstrates exactly why I get so excited by this stuff—it has the potential to change so many aspects of our daily life.

As far as the sessions went, here are a few of my favourites:

I’ve never been part of a human bar graph before, but the Meatspace meets the Blogosphere Mash-Up run by the folks at Foo Associates changed that. Fun!

Nancy White and Lee LeFever moderated an excellent discussion on the big theme of community As the discussion went on Nancy and Lee added keywords to the blackboard, which ended up embodying the current state of online community—very messy and very interesting.

I noticed a fundamental divide in this session—and other sessions as well—that boils down to differing opinions about the fundamentals of human nature. Is the social web a force of good or will the spammers and flamers inevitably ruin it all?

Along these lines there was a hilarious moment when someone made this deadpan comment to the group: “I just wanted to mention that I have some low cost Cialis and Viagra if anyone is interested.”

The panel session on social software and learning laid out a compelling vision of the educational environment my kids will hopefully have in store for them—bottom up instead of top down, active instead of passive. Great to see so many smart folks giving this such careful thought.

Dave Olson’s session on podcasting was very smart and very funny. I got a kick out of his Bob Dylan-inspired “paper point” presentation and his advice was straightforward and useful.

Nancy White’s solo session on Saturday was a thoughtful look at some of the tensions at the heart of life on the social web. Nancy’s enthusiasm is contagious and she managed to shed a lot of light on the complex interplay between personal and collective experience. Bravo Nancy!

So there you go. It was fun. It was exhausting. I’m looking forward to next year. Big thanks are due to all of the organizers. So . . . thanks.

Were you there too?

What did you think?

Leave me a comment or a link and let me know.

Technorati Tags:
nv07, northernvoice, blogs, blogging, education, community

Welcome to the World of Webkinz

John Ounpuu — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:42:00 +0000

Webkinz is the most interesting new business idea I’ve heard about in a while.

And what makes it even more interesting is that I first heard about it not from Steve Rubel or Michael Arrington but from a very sweet 5-year old girl named Kendra.

Created by Ontario-based gift and toy maker Ganz, Webkinz is an interesting mash-up of up beanie babies, neopets and a whole whack of the best ideas from the online world—from social networking to chat to avatars to online virtual worlds and beyond.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent Washington Post piece on the phenomenon:

Each stuffed animal comes with an identification number that gives children access to the Webkinz site. There, owners discover their pets' online personas ("I'll let you in on a secret," reads the profile of a cocker spaniel. "I love fish sticks, and I've always wanted a bunny clown.") Children can buy clothes for their pets using virtual money, outfitting them in baggy jeans or pink tutus. They can also decorate their pets' virtual rooms with such items as a stove, a boy-band poster or a bed shaped like a pirate ship.

For many children, Webkinz offers a "Velveteen Rabbit" moment: a chance for their real-world toys to come to life and play with their friends. Snuggling next to your Webkinz before falling asleep is fun, kids say. Designing outfits for a pet in the Webkinz SuperModelz game and having your friends vote on their favorite is even better.

Children can also train for the instant messaging marathons of their older siblings' worlds by sending preset phrases to their friends. They can even invite pets over to hang out -- virtually, of course.

Since it launched in 2005, the site has grown to over 1,000,000 users. And even more impressive, it’s all been done without an advertising budget.

I have seen first hand how this works—thanks to our conversation with Kendra and her enthusiastic mom this past weekend, my 4 year old is one of those million-plus users as of yesterday!

When it comes to security—obviously a big deal in the minds of parents for anything online involving kids—Ganz seem to have their based covered too. As B.L. Ochman sums it up in a recent post:

Safety is Webkinz' biggest parental appeal, and the site says that "chat is constructed, so users can’t type in whatever they want. Nothing inappropriate can be said, and there is no way to exchange any personal information."

I find this whole thing incredibly interesting on a number of levels . . .

First, as the Washington Post’s Ylan Q. Mui observes, it’s a fascinating illustration of “how children's play is changing, moving effortlessly between the real world and the Web.” My son is growing up in such a different world than I did.

And second, I am fascinated by the way a farily traditional consumer goods manufacturer like Ganz has suddenly established this powerful direct connection with their customers by merging the physical and virtual worlds in such an innovative way. I would love to know the inside story of how this innovation came about.

And finally, I am convinced that there are many more companies that could benefit from a similar approach—taking a traditional product and adding a new network-powered dimension to create an infinitely richer and more valuable customer experience.

TAGS: webkinz, beaniebabies, neopets, kids, games, socialnetworks, avatars, chat, marketing, toys, ganz

Jet Blue's YouTube Apology

John Ounpuu — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 17:20:00 +0000

Welcome to damage control 2.0.

After a disastrous few days that saw dozens of cancelled flights and hundreds of stranded passengers, Jet Blue have made been making a real effort to offer a sincere apologize to their customers and explain what they're doing to make sure it doesn't happen again.

What's interesting is how they've done it.

No press releases or canned sound bytes from the media relations people. Instead, they've posted this video on YouTube (also embedded on their site):

If the user comments at YouTube are any indication, the response from customers has so far very positive:

"I couldn't live without JetBlue! I appreciate your personal message and attention to every new problem. We ALL learn from our mistakes."

"This is the way a CEO should act in such situations! Good Luck jetBlue!"

"I will still fly jetBlue, even though the airline kindda screw up the past few days. Thank you jetBlue for recognizing a problem and doing something about it!"

Beyond the video apology they've instituted a new Passenger Bill of Rights that's retroactive to cover the period of disruption. Here are the details (from the Consumerist):

• Delays 1-2 hours: $25 off a future flight
• Delays 2-4 hours: $50 off a future flight
• Delays 6+ hours: Free round-trip ticket

TAGS: jetblue, airlines, pr, damage control, passengerbillofrights

But what does it all mean

John Ounpuu — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:38:00 +0000

I added this video to my ma.gnolia bookmarks when I first saw it a few weeks back. But having just watched and enjoyed it again I've decided to go beyond a bookmark and share it here.

So what is it?

It's a brief and actually quite moving summary of why we live at such an interesting moment in history. Enjoy . . .

Tags: wesch, web2.0

Punishing loyalty and other bad ideas

John Ounpuu — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:52:00 +0000

I will admit there delicious irony in complaining about the customer service offered by a magazine that gleefully publishes lists of the worst moments in customer service.

But of course it’s really not that surprising. What that old saying about the cobbler’s children lacking appropriate footwear?

So, on to the story . . .

I am picking on Business 2.0 here—a good magazine that I actually like and enjoy—in order to make a larger point about unfortunate tendency of many companies to dangle elaborate, generous bargains in front of new customers while leaving long-time loyal customers out in the cold.

In the case of Business 2.0 the disappointing news came in the form of an “Important Advance Notice for Automatic Renewal Customers”. Basically I got a slip in the mail telling me that my subscription was about to be automatically renewed at the wonderful rate of $39.95 for the year. A stunning 27% savings on the cover price!

Sounds good so far.

But then I thought back to the moment when I subscribed to the magazine in the first place. I remembered . . . I remembered it being REALLY CHEAP!

So I fired up a browser and had myself a look. Sure enough, it’s cheap. Since I’m in Canada I don’t qualify for the lowest rate, but as I new subscriber I could still pick up two years of the magazine for $13.75. One year for $9.65!

In other words, the bargain rate they were kind enough to automatically renew me at was a full four times more expensive than what they were offering a new subscriber.

Ouch! That hurts.

In fact it hurts so much that I cancelled my subscription.

Of course it’s not just Business 2.0 that are pulling this sort of thing. It’s a bit of an epidemic. Mobile phone providers are all over it. And broadband providers, too. For example, I just heard the other week that my broadband provider was offering a free Dell PC to new subscribers. New subscribers ONLY.

Poor slobs like me that have been paying their bills for years are outta luck.

Well guess what? We poor slobs (a.k.a your customers) would like a new Dell PC too. Or an iPod. Or a boatload of free extras. Or a steep discount. Or whatever you’re dangling in front of everyone-but-us while we look on like a poor kid who just found out Christmas has been cancelled but only at his house.

And until you realize that we want want all these goodies too—that we’re just as important or probably even more important than those folks who aren’t actually your customer yet— we’re gonna keep on deserting you and cashing in on the great offers your competitors are dangling in front of us.

And that in turn will force you make even more ridiculous offers to lure us back. And so on. And so on. Welcome to the vicious cycle.

As for Business 2.0 I’ll probably renew it soon. I like the magazine.

And hey . . . I hear they’re offering some really great rates for new subscribers.

TAGS: customerservice, service, loyalty, business2, business2.0

Indexed

John Ounpuu — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:31:00 +0000

I discovered Jessica Hagy's Indexed via Seth Godin a few days ago and I'm already a huge fan. What an incredible concept. And so consistently clever and funny.

TAGS: indexed, hagy, funny, brilliant, blogs, bloggers

The Helsinki Complaints Choir

John Ounpuu — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:24:00 +0000

Complaints as art. I love it.

"Finnish artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen collected the pet peeves and angst-ridden pleas of people in Helsinki and then composed this choral work around the list of complaints. "

odd, beautiful, complaints, video

Why indeed, Darren. Why indeed.

John Ounpuu — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 23:55:00 +0000

Darren Barefoot's getting lots of link love today for his latest (very funny) meme grenade, but I'm here to tell you all about something else he's working on.

In preparation for his talk at Northern Voice, Darren has posted a short "Why Do You Blog?" survey at, appropriately enough, whydoyoublog.com.

I just filled it out myself and I found it to be very interesting excercise. In the spirit of true confessions, here's my answer to one of the questions. I share it because I think the last bit is a very true and very worthwhile lesson for anyone who's on the fence about keeping their blog alive:

Q: If you've ever stopped blogging for a long period of time, or abandonded a blog, why did you?
I started the blog at the beginning of February 2005. Eleven posts and thirty days later I stopped and didn’t write another post for over a year.
What was going through my head when I decided to quit? There was a little bit of “What do I know and who would want to read it?”, definitely.
And I think I found the freedom of it very appealing on paper but scary in practice. I had worked for years as a writer, doing tech docs and marketing stuff. I was used to going through multiple drafts and reviews before publishing anything. A direct channel to the world made me feel sort of naked and unprotected.
But eventually I started it up again because I felt like I was missing out on connecting with interesting people who were interested in some of the same stuff I was. This turned out to be absolutely true.

Tags: blogs blogging darrenbarefoot northernvoice northernvoice07

Web 2.0 apps I couldn’t live without

John Ounpuu — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:43:00 +0000

A few weeks back, Mike Arrington posted a list of the Web 2.0 apps he couldn’t live without. I haven’t noticed it developing into a meme but it sort of deserves to.

I mean, we love to talk/blog about so many of them, but which of these apps are actually being used daily? Which are actually being loved?

So, here’s my list. I encourage you to come up with your own and leave a comment linking to it.

What if you could search hundreds of Mp3 blogs through a single, friendly interface. And what if you could then take it a step further and turn your favorite searches into RSS feeds? If you are serious about new music, the Hype Machine is paradise. I can honestly say that I use it pretty much every day and would really, really miss it if it suddenly vanished.

Bloglines is still my one-stop destination for fresh bloggy goodness. I switched over from NewsGator about 9 months ago and I’ve never looked back.

And incredibly intuitive re-imagining of email. The more I use it the more I love it.

In the past year I have used YouTube to:

1) Discover all kinds of crazy random shit that made me laugh
2) Watch video footage of breaking news stories
3) Watch passionate customers assert their power (sleep on, oh weary Comcast technician, sleep on)
4) Track down rare content that I can’t find anywhere else
5) Introduce my son to some of my all-time favourite bands
6) Share videos of my kids with family and friends

That about sums it up.

I always saw the value of del.icio.us but try as I might I was never able to turn it into a regular habit. Then came Ma.Gnolia. More usable. More beautiful. More social. And I never get tired of using their Roots bookmarklet.

I still haven’t switched this blog over from Blogger to WordPress but it’s only a matter of time. I use Wordpress for two other blogs I write and I love it.

Always raising the bar for usefullness, simplicity and elegance.

Loads of fun. I click on my StumbleUpon bookmarklet at least once a day and I am constantly discovering interesting things.

Full disclosure—I am very, very involved with Sutori. In fact that’s why it’s here. Leaving it off this list would be like leaving one of my kids out of my will.

So what about you? Which Web 2.0 apps have become an indispensable part of your daily life?

Tags: web2.0, web20, lists

Look ma, I’m a Z-lister!

John Ounpuu — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:04:00 +0000

(image snagged from paulfrankenstein.org)

Thanks are due to Kate (of "My Name Is . . ." fame) for adding my to her Canadian appendix to the Z-list meme. Her post is a few weeks old but I have been off the radar.

It’s a great honour and I will do my best to live up to it (sob!).

Here’s Kate’s full list -- great company all around:

Tags: katetrgovac mynameiskate z-list zlist marketing canada canadian bloggers blogging pr

A brilliant observation and a perfect example

John Ounpuu — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 01:00:00 +0000

As I was writing my previous post and glancing at my Ma.Gnolia bookmarks, it occurred to me that two items I’ve bookmarked recently are related in an interesting way.

The first is a piece by Doc Searls with a title that I have already repeated to at least three people: There is no demand for messages.

Here’s a great quote that just about sums up Doc’s argument:

Let me see a show of hands: who here wants a message? Right: none. And who wants to shield themselves from messages they don't want? Exactly: everybody.

Further down the link roll is another post that illustrates Doc’s point quite nicely. David at Ironic Sans has written a brilliant piece about his ridiculously huge K-mart receipt. He only bought 2 items and the receipt was 21 inches long!

A quote:

Only the top 6 inches of the receipt contains information relevant to the purchase: the date, items purchased, price, store number, etc. The remaining 15 inches contains ads for things I could have purchased if I’d known about them before I went to the register, and also a list of store hours. I don’t know about you, but when I want to know a store’s hours or what they sell, I never dig out old receipts to find the answer.

You’re absolutely right, David. No one digs out old receipts. No one reads them even when they’re new, at least not those bottom 15 inches.

So why are those extra 15 inches there? Simple. Because K-Mart’s got a message for David and his fellow customers. In fact they’ve got a whole slew of them. They’ve got more messages than they know what do with.

But as David’s post makes abundantly clear, there is no demand for these messages. None at all. Zilch. Zero. But there is demand for something else—environmental accountability. As David puts it:

How many miles of paper must K-Mart waste every day?

Amen.

Here’s a scan of the actual receipt to drive the point home:

Tags: docsearls, messages, customerpower, cluetrain

A new approach to sharing links

John Ounpuu — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 00:39:00 +0000

I’ve been hemming and hawing since at least July about the value and merits of link dumping posts.

On the one hand, I love sharing links and I believe that pointing readers to hand picked pages has some real value. But on the other, I acknowledge the difference between a posting a list of links and posting something original.

So here’s my solution: two feeds. One to subscribe to new posts and another to subscribe to links I’ve bookmarked for sharing at Ma.Gnolia.

I’ve also added a Ma.Gnolia link roll to the sidebar so site visitors can see both content streams as well.

Any feedback you might have would be great.

Tags: ma.gnolia magnolia links linkdumps feeds rss subsriptions

Turns out this whole learning from experience thing actually works

John Ounpuu — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 23:42:00 +0000

This post is part of a group writing project on the theme of "What I Learned This Year" being spearheaded by Ben Yoskovitz at the Instigator Blog.

- - -

Professionally, 2006 has been a really interesting year.

First and foremost, I was lucky enough to be able to spearhead a project—on my employers dime, no less—that embodied a lot of my personal passions, interests and beliefs.

Besides being lots and lots of fun this was also quite a challenge.

One of the things I learned along way was how alarmingly easy it is to lose sight of your convictions when you're focused on execution and all of the minutia it entails. It wasn’t until I slowed down and came up for air that realized I had been drifting away from some of the ideas and principles that had intially inspired me to take the project on.

And even though I eventually caught myself drifting and cranked the wheel hard to get back on course, I remain surprised by the experience.

And humbled.

And there’s more—an extra layer of irony to really drive it home. You see, foremost among the convictions I ended up losing sight of was a belief in the importance of remaining relentlessly focused on the user.

Which is exactly the opposite of what started to happen as I drifted towards myopia.

So anyhow, I think there are a few worthwhile lessons in there. Lessons about the difference between theory and practice, vision and execution. Lessons about human fallibility and our capacity for self-deception. And lessons about stones and glass houses, too.

Here’s hoping each and every one of them sticks in my rusty ol’ noodle.

Tags: lessons, insights, whatIlearned, what_i_learned

Links for December 15, 2006

John Ounpuu — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 21:45:00 +0000

Modern Marketing: When You Say Community... A very insightful post from James Cherkoff on what community really means and why marketers need to be careful.
The Long Tail: What Would Radical Transparency Mean For Wired? Chris Anderson wades well out into the blue ocean an imagines a totally transparent media model for Wired . . or anyone else, really.
AdRants: Sony Takes It Up the A** For For Fake Blog. Oh man, oh man, oh man.

AdWeek: Southwest Embraces User-Created Spots. Something to keep and eye on as it unfolds.
Creating Passionate Users: Become the thing that replaces you. Best title for a post I’ve seen in a long time. And the actual post is great too.

Verizon’s embarrassing math problems

John Ounpuu — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:25:00 +0000

This is just excruciatingly painful to listen to. And it must be painful for Verizon as well, especially when you consider theseYouTube stats:

Views: 328,715
Comments: 1579

. . . and counting, off course.

(via the always wonderful Consumerist)

Bonus 1: a semi-happy ending
Bonus 2: another instance of Verizon math-impairment

Tags: youtube verizon consumers customerpower customers service customerservice math education

MyBlogLog and the meaning of life

John Ounpuu — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:54:00 +0000

So I’ve been poking around at MyBlogLog.com—let’s connect if you’re a member—and earlier today I came across something that really made me smile. Buried among the usual fare on their FAQ page is this question:

What is the meaning of life?

And this answer:

What we've come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts. One, people are not wearing enough hats. Two, Matter is energy. In the universe, there are many energy fields, which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source, which act upon a person's soul. However, this soul does not exist automatically, as orthodox Christianity teaches, but has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved due to mankind's unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia.

Not sure I agree exactly, but kudos to them for giving it a go. Who says FAQs have to be dry and boring?

---

Related: Signal vs. Noise have started a new feature called On Writing, highlighting interesting online copy. The first post is great and I’m looking forward to more.

Tags: writing funny humor humour copywriting onlinecopy

Links for December 11, 2006

John Ounpuu — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 01:03:00 +0000

Consumerist: Happy Returns Mean Happy Returning Customers. I’ve always been surprised how many retailers miss the obvious fact that making returns painless is a great way to create happy customers.

Joy of Tech: The Digg Stamp. It’s funny but I think it makes a good point, too. It would be great if more of the value created by social media could find its way into the real world. Maybe not as stamps on a booty though. (via Business Innovation Insider)

Brilliant invention: never lose your keys again

John Ounpuu — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 00:32:00 +0000

This ingenious device is called the loc8tor. It's basically the classic spy movie homing device now available for home use. Attach a homing tag to your wallet, keys or even your kid and track them using the display screen in combination with--wait for it--beeps.

Just like Maxwell Smart.

Basic starter kits go for $100 USD. Are you listening Santa?

Tags: gadget homing spy jamesbond maxwellsmart cool wishlist

Vancouver social media and marketing events

John Ounpuu — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 00:50:00 +0000

So, as I emerge from my paternity cocoon I can't help but notice that things are happening around town. Here's a few upcoming events of note:

Event: Marketing in the Myspace Era
Date: Tonight!
Host: HTCE (Hight Tech Communicators Exchange)
Description: This is being put on by a local high marketing group, mostly made up of writers. I've been attending their functions for a while and tonight the writer side of my professional life meets the social media side as frieds of Obviousness Michael Fergusson and Kate Trgovac deliver the Web 2.0 goods. Looking forward to it.

Event: Social Media Club comes to Vancouver
Date: Thursday, December 7th
Host: Bryght
Description: Chris Heuer, co-founder of Social Media Club, will officially launch the local chapter.

Event: DemoCamp Vancouver
Date: February 22. 2007 (tenetive)
Venue: TBD
Description: This is just starting to cook. The idea is to have a DemoCamp, sort of like a shorter BarCamp, just before Northern Voice starts.

Event: Northern Voice 2007
Date: February 23-24, 2007
Venue: University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Description: "Northern Voice is a gathering place for good people and great ideas. It’s a portal to the Canadian tech lifestyle." I almost went last year and really regretted not being there. I won't make that mistake this time around.

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Where I've been, what I've been up to

John Ounpuu — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 23:44:00 +0000

I haven't posted in a very long time. The main reason is named Markus Ounpuu and he's 3 1/2 weeks old.

I hope you stay tuned as Obviousness gradually returns to life.

Splogged update

John Ounpuu — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:54:00 +0000

The sploggers have finally posted their own content at my old blogger domain. I won't link to it here because, well, they'd like that.

I call them sploggers, but based on the posts so far I suppose there is a small chance that they are actually avant garde poets obsessed with online poker. It's open to interpretation.

These are thousands of casinos
with mew ones opening every.
Mac Compatible No System Requirements
Must download software from the top right of casinos

What do you think? Is it art or a ridiculous cash grab by a posse of reprehensible ass clowns?

splogs sploggers splogging blogger blogs blogging poetry

Buzzwords on trial

John Ounpuu — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 22:47:00 +0000

As a technology-focused writer who loves to keep it simple, you might think it's safe to assume that I hate, hate, hate buzzwords.

Actually, my feelings on the matter aren't that cut and dry. I tried to articulate this in one of my first posts ever back February of last year.

Basically I agree that they can be evil things and most of them are dreadfully misused and overused. But I also think that at least some of them are actually necessary to kick-start valuable and worthwhile new ideas and help them spread.

The example that comes to mind is Web 2.0. Some may find it cringe-worthy, but I think it conveys a worthy idea:

We've had a few years to figure out the web and this time around we're doing things differently--smaller, simpler, more participatory. More about real people connecting with each other and less about making unscrupulous stock speculators rich.

Of course, the ideas behind most buzzwords are probably not so worthy. But if buzzwords are just the messengers, do they deserve to be shot?

Maybe. Maybe not. I do think that some form of forced retirement would be nice, but I admit it doesn't sound too practical.

Anyhow, two recent pieces have got me thinking about buzzwords again. The first is an article from USA Today. Here's a key quote that highlights a major problem with buzzwords.

Ryan Donovan, a Hewlett-Packard public relations director, concedes that terms like "data migration" and "optimizes agility" — both of which have been found in his company's press materials — might be confusing to your average reader. But he says the company uses those phrases in documents intended for technology experts and executives who might be turned off by more plain-spoken wording.

"This is the language that they're comfortable with, and it's our job to make sure that we're speaking to them in a language that they understand," Donovan says.

Poor buzzwords. They go from conveying a potentially worthy idea to something admittedly much, much sadder--a sort of "nudge nudge" appeal to the ego of a potential customer. "You're in the know, I can tell. Well so am I. Let's do business!".

The second piece that caught my eye was a blog post riffing of the USA piece from Steve at Signal Vs Noise. Here's a quote:

These buzzwords are often a mask. People who use them are covering up their ideas--or the lack thereof. They are overcompensating. They don’t have anything substantial to say so they try to use impressive sounding words instead.

But people who abuse buzzwords don’t sound smart. They sound like they are trying to sound smart. Big difference.

All true. All true. I just think it's more of a criticism of the way some people use buzzwords than a critique of the buzzwords themselves.

Who knows? Maybe I'm just deluded. Maybe I'm just a marketing writer trying to reconcile a love of simple, direct communication with a portfolio that contains more than a few buzzword-heavy pantloads.

So what are your thoughts on buzzwords? I'd love to know. Can you think of more potentially worthy ones? Do you think they will ever go away?

Tags: buzzwords jargon marketing web20 web2.0 tech