Andrew Lark

The Last Lecture

Sad to read on landing in San Francisco that Randy Pausch died today. If you only had a matter of months to live, this would be the way to live it. He made a difference.

The Message Men

Good read in the WSJ on the "Message Men" surrounding McCain:

Some of Mr. Schmidt's campaign changes are easily visible: Sen. McCain now speaks in the round, surrounded by voters, not staid backdrops like in the June 3 event, when an ugly green banner got unwanted attention. But most critical has been shaping a clear, concise message to hammer each day.

Above all, Mr. Schmidt argues that a campaign needs one positive message about its own candidate, and one negative message about the opponent. Sen. Obama has that: He's for change, while Sen. McCain represents more of the same. Sen. McCain long didn't have a strong, simple message of his own.

Intriguing that they are the Message Men - a frame imposed by the WSJ and not a label applied by McCain. But just the same, speaks the the diversity of the inner circle.

Either way, he's got some pretty solid views on messaging.

Worth A Read

How Google works...

I Believe In Open

And standards. And the ability of both to fuel communities and commerce. Which is precisely why I don't own an iPhone - and won't. TechCrunch gets at this...

Geeks and enthusiasts wearing Wordpress t-shirts, using laptops covered in Data Portability, Microformats and RSS stickers lined up enthusiastically on Friday to purchase a device that is completely proprietary, controlled and wrapped in DRM. The irony was lost on some as they ran home, docked their new devices into a proprietary media player and downloaded closed source applications wrapped in DRM.

I am referring to the new iPhone - and the new Apple iPhone SDK that allows developers to build ‘native’ applications. The announcement was greeted with a web-wide standing ovation, especially from the developer community. The same community who demand all from Microsoft, feel gifted and special when Apple give them an inch of rope. When Microsoft introduced DRM into Media Player it was bad bad bad - and it wasn’t even mandatory, it simply allowed content owners a way to distribute and sell content from anywhere.

I Believe In Open

And standards. And the ability of both to fuel communities and commerce. Which is precisely why I don't own an iPhone - and won't. TechCrunch gets at this...

Geeks and enthusiasts wearing Wordpress t-shirts, using laptops covered in Data Portability, Microformats and RSS stickers lined up enthusiastically on Friday to purchase a device that is completely proprietary, controlled and wrapped in DRM. The irony was lost on some as they ran home, docked their new devices into a proprietary media player and downloaded closed source applications wrapped in DRM.

I am referring to the new iPhone - and the new Apple iPhone SDK that allows developers to build ‘native’ applications. The announcement was greeted with a web-wide standing ovation, especially from the developer community. The same community who demand all from Microsoft, feel gifted and special when Apple give them an inch of rope. When Microsoft introduced DRM into Media Player it was bad bad bad - and it wasn’t even mandatory, it simply allowed content owners a way to distribute and sell content from anywhere.

Wordle Fun

Kind of fun way of visualizing a feed. Here is the feed from Ideastorm visualized - you can seem big themes and words coming through. Not sure what the source of the words was to generate prominence.

Off Blogging. Onto Email.

The whole Jason thing has ignited a fair amount of debate about blogging. No question, he has every right to communicate to fewer folks but the cynic in me says that isn't really his intent.

By creating an "exclusive" email list Jason is essentially attempting to make his content more valuable and perhaps - just perhaps - increase it's impact and distribution. I don't buy that creating a mailing list of 1,000 people will make it more personal.

He makes some valid points when it comes to the blogerati:

[...] while blogging is clearly booming, there has been a deep qualitative change in the nature of the ’sphere. There are so many folks involved in blogging today, and it’s moving at a much quicker pace thanks to “social accelerants” like TechMeme, digg, Friendfeed and Twitter. Folks are so desperate to be heard - and we all want to be heard that’s why we blog - that the effort put into being heard has eclipsed the actual hearing.

Bloggers spend more time digging, tweeting, and SEOing their posts than they do on the posts themselves. In the early days of blogging Peter Rojas, who was my blog professor, told me what was required to win at blogging: “show up every day.” In 2003 and 2004 that was the case. Today? What’s required is a team of social marketers to get your message out there, and a second one to manage the fall-out from whatever you’ve said.

I simply don't buy that this is the motive for many bloggers - for the heat seeking blogerati, yes. For the majority, we enjoy our conversations with a much smaller sphere of folks. We don't think about standing out. Even about content that much. We just think about the conversation and connecting.

Jason's first email does point to a broader trend - a widening gap between the authentic blogger and the "plogger" (publisher as blogger). Different motives, approaches, and behaviors characterize each.

On a personal note, I'll be sad to see Jason stop blogging. I enjoyed his blog and found all the tips and thoughts helpful in understanding more about Mahalo. I can't help wondering if there isn't something else going on here given the strong link between the blog and Mahalo?

Some PowerPoint Tips...

I get to review many, many PowerPoint presentations. Some of them long, some of them short. Many littered with the same basic nitty, gritty errors. Here are some things to watch for:

1. Use one font and one font only. "Fonitis" is a disease. Don't let it infect your presentation.
2. Watch bullet types. Keep them clean and consistent.
3. Use tabs in the ruler to adjust space between the bullet and your text, not the space bar
4. Use the line spacing tool to adjust the space between lines and paragraphs. Do not use the font size. As soon as you reapply the template you will nuke your presentation.
5. Get consistent font sizes via the template tool. It's a nightmare doing it slide-by-slide
6. Review it on the big screen. You'll be amazed what you notice

Just some thoughts...

All Mikes Are Hot

Media training 101... all mikes are hot... hot, hot...

Are We Consciously Abandoning Print...

Steve ponders how we are abandoning print media...I think we attach way too much value to people consciously making a decision about print vs. digital. Is green a factor? I'm not so sure...

...For the vast majority, I think they'll continue to switch to digital as part of their daily habits and technology use. Before they know it, they are driving over the paper each morning. The reality is most papers aren't going to be road kill by virtue of a revolt - if only it were going to be that grand. They are just going to quietly ride the irrelevancy curve into oblivion...

Like any product, most newspapers are dying because to lousy product management. Content that isn't interesting. Bad design. Lack of promotion... They have just become uninteresting to so many...

So do they switch to digital forms because of "greeness"? Don't think so. Mainly to find their lost customers.

There might just be one exception - where communities are strongest (say Austin) papers might thrive due to their relevance and high-degree of localization. Where communities are most diverse (say New York), the broadcast form of print seems to be having less appeal in favor of real-time and highly localized digital ink.

The joke in all this is that the future of print might actually be in small run, localized rags with rich and relevant content - this in an industry so keen to scale to volume and reach...