Andrew Lark

Links & Blinks

• Shel says let-up on Edelman. Shel, I think people are just having too fun fun with this one to let-up just yet. I do agree though that the Edelman issue reflects broader challenges any large organization faces: first, the actions of the many will be undermined by the few (look no further than the F-H billing incident in LA); second, all organizations are challenged to get employees to live the values they aspire to - this was ulitmately about honesty and transparency; and third, we assume that organizations are very integrated - they aren't. The smarts that exist on one team don't necessarily flow unbounded to another. Finally, few if any of the industry organizations ethics policies have any teeth and why should they?
• Post your slides online for all to see...
• A meme tracker for tracking people... great idea!

Links & Blinks |

• Stowe on Goplan - a Basecamp competitor
• Musings on the value of social software
• New agency launches (in Second Life of course) - Crayon. Joseph Jaffe is behind the deal that has attracted some star players.
• Edelman gets socially responsible.
• Scrybe - new ajax-based organizer.
• After These Messages...
• Self Titled... a flash masterpiece...

Question...

If anyone can point me to great books being written as blogs or blogs as books I'd love some pointers.

Sun Brings Whole New Meaning To Metal Wrapped Software...

I remember when McNealy used to wax on about metal wrapped software. Looks like Sun is about to take it one step further by putting the data center in a shipping container.

Great Quote From Vinod Khosla

Q  U  O  T  E D

"Things go wrong. There is lots of uncertainty, and there are times when you're unsure of yourself. I've found that the less people know, the more sure they are. It's this sort of schizophrenic divide between worrying that you're going out of business and dreaming big that's needed. Sophisticated entrepreneurs know this. Less sophisticated entrepreneurs don't even know whom to ask for advice. They'll ask a marketing and a technology question to the same person. Ask different questions of different people, both those who have been successful and those who haven't. You learn a lot when you fail. It's a seemingly small nuance, but they can make a huge difference in a company's trajectory.

-- Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla offers some free advice to budding businessfolk

Link to MercuryNews.com | 10/15/2006 | Venture capitalist a techie at heart

Practice your personal Kaizen - Lifehacker

Great article on applying Kaizen to your life.

A Japanese management strategy called Kaizen roughly translates to "continuous slow improvement." In the corporate world, it's an efficiency and defect-proofing system often used on factory floors. But Kaizen emphasizes the well-being of the employee, working smarter, not harder and developing best practices so that workers don't have to think. As such, Kaizen is an ideal approach to improve one's personal workflow.

Reads & Feeds

• Stanford University is launching a wiki that allows students to share campus information and and much more. Editable only by students but open to all.
• PodZinger to Offer Targeted Video Ads: "Audio and video search engine PodZinger is launching a new advertising platform that targets video ads based on search queries and the content being viewed."
• del.icio.us Plans To Become A Social Network: del.icio.us will essentially turn into a social network, with more focus on people instead of data. Please don't change too much - I love what you do. Josh says:

"One of the amazing things about our users is how smart and far-reaching their interests are. While delicious previously has been very much about just the data, in the future I hope to allow our users themselves to come forward within the system. Additionally, I want to help people connect with others within the system, either to people they already know or discovering new people and communities based on interest."

• WriteToMyBlog web-based post editor - Lifehacker: "New web app WriteToMyBlog is an advanced, rich web-based blog post editor."
• Advertising Age - John Battelle Leads Bloggers Into Land of Ad Respect: Profile of John Battelle
• Neil Patel gives a series of great tips on how to land your blog post on the digg home page. If you care more about architecting traffic than authenticity...
• Verizon has a policy blog.
• The blueorganizer. Very cool

US Airports Take The Liquids Out, Bangkok Puts It Back In...

Gizmodo reports that the new Bangkok airport will be cooled by fluids flowing beneath the floors: "Cold water flows directly underneath the floors on all levels, keeping the air a steady 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit up to 8.2 feet above the ground." Very cool (sorry, couldn't resist that...).

Eloqua Gets A Shot In The Arm

Eloqua - a product we use extensively at LogLogic - got a shot in the arm from U.S. VCs by raising US$13-million. We're going to see more marketing technology like Eloqua which rather that existing as a standalone product runs on your dominant sales and marketing platform - in our case Salesforce.com. This has been part of the challenge for many of the marketing measurement vendors - without a dominant marketing suite or application to pivot off they can't establish any reach throughout marketing organizations or real momentum. There is a real need for a suite of applications for the communications practitioner - something that perhaps blends Salesforce, biz360 and socialtext.

Sad...

In a sad reflection of the ever diminishing rights of people and extreme reactionary - and entirely unaccountable - travel policies here in the US a company has sprung up that will ship your products to the hotel for you...