Business Models Based on No Change

Should businesses that rely on predictable markets, cookie-cutter customers and time-proven marketing techniques blog? My business partner says probably not. I'd like to say he's not right. I tell him he's not right about 34 times a day, which is about three times short of how many times he tells me I'm not right. But who's counting.

He tells a recent story about our business:

Recently, we were working with a very large company on a potential blog. After much discussion, the executives decided that a blog was not appropriate for the company. And it was probably the right decision. The company is primarily a one-way communicator, and because of its business, cannot risk (or tolerate) much dissent or negative feedback--particularly in an open forum like a blog.

The thing is, most businesses believe that they can't weather negative feedback and would prefer to, given all options, opt-out of the conversation, which contains both negative and positive feedback--along with a lot of good jokes and some pretty tasty grafiks--that they could benefit from.

The conversation among self-publishers can go on pretty much as is without any voice from larger corporations. Markets are perfectly willing to chat amongst themselves. But I wonder if the same is true for large enterprises. Now, Big Tech almost has to blog at this point. Sun is doing it. IBM's doing it Scoble's doing it. If you're a big tech company, blogging's a mandate. You have to walk your talk.

But when it comes to large non-technology companies I wonder if it will take months, years, or if they'll be able to avoid participation altogether.

My aforementioned highly-ROI-focused and historically-successful business partner, Paul, sees opportunities for smaller, nimbler companies to take advantage of through blogging, especially as the old school enterprises are busy keeping their clothes clean of the blog mud:

It occurred to me that this is probably true of a great many larger/legacy enterprises. For them, there is little to be gained and much to be risked. So as far as communications goes, this company and others will generally have to rely on one-way communications like press releases, or "non public" feedback mechanisms like market research and customer satisfaction surveys.But for smaller companies (and those less risk averse) , the opportunities and advantages to blogging are great. While their larger competitors rely on one-way communications, they can acheive speed in their feedback loops through the immediacy of blogs.

That's a conversation he and I had the other day. Are there specific business models that should simply be reinforced against the blog hurricane? That are better served by barricading, hunkering down and waiting it out rather than evacuating business as usual?

Probably so--but you have to wonder if some might sustain serious damage because of it. And if some won't be able to weather this storm of change.

Google Talk Elegantly Simple

What's so damn cute about google talk is the typical google starkness of it. Google's stuff is never cluttered up with crap, just elegant simplicity, which is why google is worth $3403045530 billion, U.S.

For instance, in GoogleTalk, there are no fancy colors to muck up the chat, no foo-foo templates of snowmen and the backstreet boys. No extra spaces or fancy "who's talking now" boxes. No real way to distinguish much of anything. It's just pure gabbing.

I especially noticed this when chatting with Mr. Paynter this evening. You can examine a fun game based on UI Simplicity that we played during some of our interchanges, which follow:

Jeneane: just type zappa
I want to see how it looks after your name
Frank: zappa
Jeneane: cool.
Frank: Zappa
Jeneane: thanks.
better
I think you should do that whenever you're on IM
Try Sinatra
Frank: you can call me muthah
Frank: Sinatra
Jeneane: NICE!
Frank: Sinatra
Jeneane: LOL (really i am)
Frank: 'nStein
Jeneane: s n beans
Frank: s 'n beans
Frank: Great minds.
Jeneane: i'm blogging it.
Jeneane: ly
Jeneane: ly, scarlett, I don't give a damn.
Frank: laughing here too
Jeneane: gigglgggiggle.
Frank: okay... I'm not allowed to have this much fun.
Jeneane: guess this was the pinacle of google talk.
next app.?...
Jeneane: furter
you do it
Frank: furter
Jeneane: thank you

CoCo recaptured

She's back--George scored the capture this time, last night, in the livingroom, with a lead pipe... oops, sorry, that's Clue. But anyway, he got her! She's in her cage with a BUNDLE of twisties now serving as the barrier between her furry behind and freedom.

The things we do for rodents.

I'm all like: George, she's 3 ounces. Why don't we just let her run free. She wont eat much. In the year of life she's got left [[editor's note: I'm assuming she's about 8 months old now, and they usually don't live longer than 2 years]], how many turds could she leave around--a hundred? They'll shrivel up into nothing. Really, we've got more M&Ms under the couch from Jenna than that.

He's all like: We will not have a rodent loose in this house.

I'm all like: You're so uptight.

George: Everyone else is in bondage in this house. And besides she's a canibal!

Me: She's not a canibal. She was being a good mother when she ate those babies--they didn't have a chance.

George: She had a chance not to eat 13 babies. She's a canibal. She is a c-a-n-i-b-a-l.

Me: She was being merciful and she's a good mother.

George: Canibal.

Me: Good mother.

George: I know mother's like that.

Me: Okay fine. You win. Just keep her caged like a rat.

George: Like a canbal.

I knew it sounded quieter.

I hadn't heard this news. -- try here.

If every company sued everybody who talked about them on the web...

lawyers wouldn't have time to go after me for unpaid medical bills!

Check out Dave Taylor's post about a lawsuit by a company that claims a pack of "john does" released trade secrets in the comments of the now-defendant's blog.

Aaron Walls, the now-defendant, has a good run-down here, of what did/didn't go on, though he may have to remove the post based on legal advice, so Dave says read it now.

These things always raise those issues we all like to talk about when they're raised. Like how responsible are we for what others say on our sites. What does it mean for comments if it ends up costing Aaron $10K for what was left on his. What if we don't make any money doing this stuff and, well, were say on vacation when the Does descended. What's it mean for content and who "owns" what when multiple people are conversing on one site. Where does my fence line end and my neighbor's begin. And how the hell would I know they're trade secrets. Are we sure they are?

Seems to me that Traffic-Power.com (guess they were a little late on the domain name acquisition front) should be trying to find out who John Does 1-10 are and not sicking the dogs on Aaron.

On the business side, the case offers some fodder for thought, as Dave Taylor says:

What I find most telling about this lawsuit is that it's aimed directly at a blog and a blogger, not related to what the blogger is writing about, but about what others are adding in his comments. By leaving those comments intact while deleting comment spam, obscenities, pre-teen p0rn drivel, etc., Aaron has indeed walked into a surprise firestorm of legal troubles. However this case may turn out, I see it as a wakeup call to business bloggers who haven't yet thought through their own comment and comment moderation strategies. In a nutshell: what liability are you exposing yourself to by not strictly moderating the content of your entire blog, not just your own articles?

A mighty question indeed.

tombstone

someone asked me that age old question about what I want on my tombstone. They said not to think about it, but the first thing that comes into your mind that you would want, say it.

I said: "She was a good mom."

I haven't thought of anything better.

Oh Say Can You See.

Our sweet baby. She's in second grade. They sing the national anthem. They don't know the words so well. Jenna starts hers off this way:

"Oh the way that you see..
and the love that you bring..."

I'll salute that.

AI AI O.

Received a copy of Ray Kurzweil's new book, The Signularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. (fyi, Lots of articles on the singularity on his site).

Not for the casual scan, the book looks like a combination of interesting, bewildering, hopeful, and terrifying. Just as I like 'em!

As an inventor, Ray has been someone George has been intrigued by for a long time. He may dig into this book before I get the chance.

Now, for tonight's lullabye--remember to sing the first line really fast:

Old McDonald had a farm where everyone lived forever,
AI-AI-O.

I'll be your friend

Gil Friend, CEO of Natural Logic, rocks my world. There, Gil. It has been said. Out loud. Here's the thing--I interviewed Gil for an article I'm writing for -- you guessed it, I'm plugging it again -- Global PR Blog Week, happenin' in September.

All of the CEOs I talked to for the articles are brilliant. Gil nearly made my head explode. You know when you're talking to someone who gets the possibilities of what's possible and some of what's not--or at least you didn't think so until you are done talking to them and then you're ready to sign on the dotted line, any dotted line? That's what talking to Gil's like.

It's only after I talked to Gil that I started to snoop around to find out more about his business and Internet chops--I had seen Dave talk about him, but I'm still like, who is this guy? I mean, besides what I'd already gleaned from reading his blog occasionally.

That's when I figured out, OH, he's this Gil!

And this Gil!

And this one

And this one, too.

And maybe even this one?

Well, you can read what he says on CEOs and blogging once the article's up.

You can bet I'll let you know.

I didn't know writers could sue for working more than 12 hours a day!

Well here's the proof. Dang. Blogger, I'm suing your ass.

Born Free

That friggin little Coco gnawed through the metal twistie.

She's escaped again.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I've been reading some things this week that, independent of the debate at hand, which I'm not passionate enough about on either side to wade in on, raise other important issues around protocol and expectations among bloggers.

In my interviews with CEOs this week, I was speaking to an executive blogger who started blogging relatively recently. We were discussing people spouting off in posts and in comments and what the perception is when this happens.

I'm afriad that any dissent is quickly--just as it has become in American Politics during wartime--dismissed as having been uttered by a wacko, a troll, or someone who has no class.

As blogging becomes professionalized, expectations around conversational ettiquette have changed. It's no longer okay to 'talk off the top of your head,' you are supposed to fact-check. It's not okay to call someone an idiot, especially if you only half mean it, because if you utter such claims Google will decide that you are the everknowing, everloving authority on idiocy, something you never intended when you wrote: Dude, stop being such an idiot. But nonetheless, you become Google's Dr. Phil of Idiocy.

Early in blogging, we did nothing but talk off the top of our heads. That was the point--the whole medium was specifically tailored for talking off the top of our heads. Then, most of what we did was riff, and a good dose of name calling turned handshake was all the proof we needed that we cared about the other folks here.

And so blogging grows up. And it's not okay to call out something as wrong. You have to say, I think it's wrong, the facts show that it's wrong, or 38 percent of whomever have indicated that they think it's wrong.

What about me just saying, in my own online home, without qualification, that it's WRONG, and the next person saying, NO here's why it's RIGHT, and the next person saying, it's kind of right and kind of wrong but you're not taking into account THIS, and so it goes.

No. Can't do that anymore. We are expected to qualify our statements, to be fair and balanced, to temper our tempers.

I don't want to be fair or balanced.

I want to be me.

worlds colliding colliding

In a great post on the smudging of barriers and boundaries between what we do and who we are and who they are and where we are, PR smart guy Chuck Tanowitz talks about how it's all joined together by a common theme: The Story

Don Hewitt, when asked to explain the success of his show 60 Minutes, would lean in like a child and say "tell me a story." His point: it's that basic. Tell a good story and people will listen.

And interestingly, I interviewed Chuck as part of an article I'm writing for Global PR Blog Week, and we collided in a good way, and because I was interviewing a host of smart CEOs today, my brain turned to mush, because there is NOTHING like talking to smart CEOs to wear you out intellectually, and so I'm picking up Jenna from carpool and I'm thinking about CEOs and the disintegration of constructs and barriers that might make for a good case of dissociative identity disorder if not for the fact that we are in an age where technology enables the blurring of those boundaries and the smudging of lines--I work I play I write I mom I blog I clean I shit I type I weep I bully I love I hate--and I'm thinking of the "absence of" in a Cixous sort of way, and how brilliant white space can be and how treasures hide in the little tiny corners where nothing particularly is, and then I find myself wondering what a picture with no edges, no boundaries actually "looks" like... where both the absence and presence of disappear.

...and then I see her.

There's Coco, the hamster that won't stay caged, on the steps to the basement as I round the corner to come in from the garage, swinging my keys and thinking big bright CEO thoughts.

I knew she'd gotten loose again. Two days ago. She punched out of the front of her cage. And so I'm staring at her on the stairs, quite literally, and she's staring back, but she's got this weird look. It's not her usual look. I'm wondering if she's dead. But she's upright.

"Coco?"

Still she's staring past me. I'm moving my face in front of her--please don't let me be the one to find her dead--and she stares past me still or she is in a microsleep or suffering from dehydration dreams. Finally I put my hand in front of her, and she startles, seeing me for the first time.

And I can tell by her eyes, I'm no longer the large animal who tried to save her babies, who feeds her, who brings her carrots.

I am a predator.

EEEEKS!

She takes off like a hamster on speed and I half pick her up half drop her all the way to the living room, where she hides for another 10 minutes before I find her, bribe her with a carrot, grab her, and let her do cartwheels in my hands until I shove her back into her cage, which is now locked with a twistie from a box of garbage bags, with a phone book on top for good measure.

In those days where her perspective changed from being inside the cage to being free--the 16 days she was loose the first time--something in her brain changed. I'd be willing to bet a physical change took place in her brain. What was once inside is now out. What was once safe is now dangerous. It's all dangerous. Her lines of in and outside of the cage--of what it means to be "trapped"--have all changed.

And I wonder if the same thing isn't happening to me. To us. Here.

Busy Busy....

busy busy busy -- breathe breathe breathe -- busy busy busy... breathe breathe.

sorry.

no can write so busy...

lame, I know.

Go read some of the Blog Sisters:

Alexandra WolfeAmy BrazillerAndrea R. JamesAndrea SeeAnglela at SlolaneAnita BoraAnita RoddickAnn CraigAnne ZAnnie MasonAnnie RosarioAnvita SinghAnvita SinghAvi RappoportBadKittyBarbara FletcherBetsy DevineBlack LooksBrandy ReedBrooke Shelby BiggsBunny OtterCamille JacksCara MiniosaCatherine BerlinCeleste Dawn MitchellChris (of uffish)Christine ElieseChristine ThurowClancy RatliffCrystal Carneycurly mcdimpleCyndy RoyCynthia KingCynthia RockwellDawn FriedmanDeborah BranscumDeborah GussmanDenise HowellDervala HanleydrubloodElaine BennettElaine of KalililyElayne RiggsEliana KellenElise MillerElizabeth Lane LawleyElizabeth PerryElke ZimmermannEmmaEmma EEsta JarrettEve PearlmanFeithFidahGentry LaneGina GiulianoGlovefoxGreen ConsciousnessGretchen PirilloHalley SuittHapHapHeather ChampHeather HamiltonHeather SnowHelen JaneHelen RazerHetty WithamIda van LooseIndigo Oceanjacinda ughettiJane YangJanelleJean ChuJeneane SessumJenettJennJenni LJennifer BalderamaJennifer MedlockJenny BrownJenXJessa JunejfcatesJill CorralJill WalkerJo SpanglemonkeyJocelyn B.Judith BurtonJudith MeskillJudy WattJune/Uppity FemaleJyotsna KamatKaranKate CohenKate SKatherine DerbyshireKathie HeijtinkKatie - DaVinciFreedomKatie SaltKatie StahlKCKenokiKhelenaKim ThammKim WellsKirsten OsolindKristineKymberlie R. McGuireLa ReinaLady HLauren FriedmanLaurie JohnsonLaurie SLeah BrooksLeanne ShearleenawordsLinda ChandlerLindsay Vaughanlindsey rockLisa EnglishLisa EzraLisa Whitemanlisaz slamLiz KleinfeldLori McleeseLorie's Catch-AllLuchiLynne Bakerm. brooke robertshawMac DivaMad KaneMaggie SMamatha MekaMargaret ManningMarguerite EspanolMarie FosterMarigolds2Marita PaigeMary BrothertonMary WehmeierMaryaMaryam WebsterMB WilliamsMedleyMeg HourihanMeghan Rose AllenMelanieMena TrottMeredith BadgerMeris ShuwargerMeryl K. EvansMeryl YourishMichela LedwidgeMichelle MauriereMireleMiriam Jonesmisbehaving.netMissieMonica DrangerMorgaine SwannMorphelia BlantinMtnGrlNatalie DavisNicole E. FoxPamela Of The SilencesPascale SoleilPaulaPennyPoiesiaQueen EstherQuiet InfinityRambling WebgirlRebekah BennetchRobin DorstyRobyn PollmanRohinee KarmarkarRondaRosemary GraceRox Populis.w. lernerSamantha BlackmonSarah (Crazy Woman)Schizophelia JonesSerena MatthewsShannon CampbellShannon HoffmanSharon O'NeillShe-4Sheila LennonShelly PowersSusanSusan KitchensSuzanne MeyerSweet CitySyaTeresa KanagoTerri FallinTild DallelieTishTish GToby TellierTracy KennedyTranceJenTrish WilsonUltrapopValVicki RosenzweigVikkicarVirginia PostrelWendy CooperWicked MoxieWilla ClineXS Clothing WomanXtinezebahtronic

Read Tom on HSAs

George has been saying, why aren't we just putting the money that we spend on premiums every month in an account--we'd probably come out ahead. Read what Tom says on Health Savings Accounts. I need to learn more and I will by reading some of Tom's links. Tom gives a good summary here:

One thing I'm looking at is Health Savings Accounts - HSAs. The US Government thinks it's ok for us to deduct money we spend on healthcare from our incomes, similar to deductible IRA contributions. But you have to have a healthcare policy that offers the HSA option -- high deductible policies. (I don't see why we can't just have the accounts without the policies, but Blue Cross probably thinks that's a commie idea.) The good part is, the premiums are lower.

The thing is, as someone who has had four surgeries of varying seriousness over the last seven years, one alone that would have cost narly $20K without insurance, I'm afraid to NOT have health insurance. BUT I think what Tom is saying--and what might be a good combo--is to have a catastrophic policy that you pay for (they're much cheaper), which would cover "emergencies" like hospitalization and surgery, and you use your HSA for every day drugs and doctors appts.

That makes sense. But what if you get cancer? Or your kid develops some rare illness that requires lots of ongoing care ($) but doesn't land anyone in the hospital? Hospitals are known for keeping folks out, not in, these days. Which is generally good for us, the patients, since secondary problems can kill you quicker.

Is that a third kind of policy?

And, now what?

Customer Service Reps--It's Your Ass on the Line Too

People who make their living in customer service ought to believe what they say to customers. Otherwise, they probably shouldn't say it. What's interesting to me is that, through the net, a trail of what you say using Internet communications will follow you. So, say, if you work for Walmart and you're among the (what must be an unwieldly number) of customer service reps handling the online channel, and you're communicating with customers putting your own name on the line, or "online" as the case may be, you should be sure you're getting paid enough to make that sit well with you. Or get another job. Or adopt yourself a more common name than your own if you have a common name.

Ted Dumont, for example, might become Ted Dunn. I don't know, I'm just talking off the top of my head here, because I will bet you that the same Ted Dumont that likes Counting Crows is the same Ted Dumont that is responding in a way that pisses me off on behalf of his employer, ICH. Or maybe IHC's Ted is someone else who adopted Ted Dumont's name as his Service name. Or, maybe Ted's a bot.

So I'm just suggesting that in the era of blogging, I hope customer service reps are well compensated for putting their identities on the line.

Freaky.

Not So Dear Holiday Inn

-----Original Message-----
From: +AMER HI-Guest Relations (IHG) [mailto:HI-GuestRelations@ichotelsgroup.com]
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 4:36 PM
To: 'ewriter@bellsouth.net'
Subject: RE: 1727492 Holiday Inn Buffalo - International Airport

Dear Mrs. Sessum,

Thank you for your additional message. I again want to apologize for the problems you and your family experienced during your stay in Buffalo. We have re-reviewed the situation and your additional email and, unfortunately, are unable to offer anything further from our office.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Ted Dumont
Guest Relations
InterContinental Hotels Group

Phone: 800.621.0555
Fax: 801.975.1846
Email: hi-guestrelations@ichotelsgroup.com
www.ichotelsgroup.com
Reference No. 1727492

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeneane Sessum [mailto:ewriter@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 11:12 PM
To: '+AMER HI-Guest Relations (IHG)'
Subject: RE: 1727492 Holiday Inn Buffalo - International Airport

Hello Again Tom:

In light of your decision [[above]], I would like to recommend that you remove your 100% satisfaction guarantee from your Holiday Inn lobbies and guest rooms. Truthfully, it is false advertising to have your "If you are not 100% satisfied, we will make it right" messaging when that is not what you intend to do for your customers. What I read guaranteed 100% satisfaction. What we received was quite the opposite, as you know if you have read my posts.

I offered to donate the $50 gift certificate you are sending me to Children's Hospital so that a traveling family would have some hotel money when visiting a sick child. I asked you to do one small thing--throw in another $50 so that it would cover a night's stay in one of your facilities in the Atlanta area.

How astounding that your organization chooses not to oblige. What a statement that makes.

Jeneane Sessum

I Dug the River Denial

Okay folks. It's our annual Health Insurance Discussion forum! I haven't wanted to say it out loud, either to myself or to George who might find out by reading this post if I forget to tell him sooner, that our Health Insurance premium with Blue Cross/Blue Shield is going up to nearly $1K a month on October. That's WITH a $500 deductible that has to be satisfied first, and that's with $20 or $40 copay for RXs and $20 copay for doctor's visits.

It was $796 this year. And the year before that it was $620 and that was with an additional rider on it for therapy, etc.

Isn't there some kind of cap on this madness?

Remember when Hilary Clinton made healthcare her initiative?

Remember when it wasn't like this?

If one thing puts me out of small-businesshood, it'll be the cost of healthcare and the pressure of having to carry it ourselves.

Anyone have any better family premiums or companies I can look into?

Man oh man.

Guess now that I blogged it, I really do have to think about it.

Lawyers do it, doctor's do it, knitter's do it, mom's do it...

Why not cops?

Top of the Cop is fairly hilarious. Billed as Detective Steve Rose's North Fulton Neighbrohood Watch Report, Steve's blog gives us a look at some of the dumb things people do:

An office supply company’s alarm system activated when the offender apparently used his data card to enter at 6:24 a.m. He left the building at 6:28 a.m. His name was displayed on the card. Missing is a 15” LCD monitor, HP computer bundle and two Kodak digital cameras with one docking station.

It remains to be seen if the card was stolen or not. It could have been stolen and someone used it or the employee set up a “stolen card” scenario while in cahoots with someone else — or he could just be really dumb and forget what a data card does.

We had an ATM money stocker do that once. He set up a fake robbery at the ATM in the North River shopping center. While he was putting the money in the ATM, a man came up and robbed him, taking $37,000. During the interview with the victim at our precinct, he became nervous and developed about a dozen nervous twitches at which time the detectives changed the “sympathy” approach to a confrontation. He didn’t last five minutes before he gave up his friend as the other party to the crime.

It's a regular Cops on Blogs.

Traveling CPAPs

Paul Craig has a great post that folks who have to travel with a CPAP machine for sleep apnea (like George) should read. God bless Paul for educating the hospitality industry by calling ahead and asking/explaining/requesting for what he might need in the event of a power outage. I never thought to do this.

...I call several hotels in the area in which I am staying and start asking questions about generators and battery usage. After all, I’m not attempting to lug a 12 volt deep cycle marine battery through airports. I’m fairly certain this might arouse the suspicions of those very nice and accomodating security screeners. When I explain the situation to the hotel management, I get a quick indication of how accomodating the staff really is. Recently, on a trip to Chicago, the staff purchased a fully charged deep cycle marine battery just in case. On another trip, I was assured and then shown the backup generators with enough power for the entire facility for up to five days.

I guess I assumed, since Jenna and I have long used a nebulizer for asthma, that any real hotel chain would be prepared to provide backup power for their patrons medical devices. In the case of a nebulizer, you always know that you can go to a fire department and plug in. But with sleep, it's a different story. While you're on a nebulizer for the 20 minutes it takes for a breathing treatment every 4 hours, you're on a CPAP for 8 or so hours each night continuously.

The thing that perhaps the very young, healthy, nimble hotel 20-something Holiday Inn hotel management staff might not understand, is that these devices can be a matter of life or death. When george went for his sleep study, his Oxygen level dipped into the 70s while he slept. He stopped breathing more than once each MINUTE. During a waking state, this would probably send him to intensive care. They told him he was one of the more serious cases they'd seen. They didn't even let him finish the night there--they sent him home after two hours.

Paul explains the miraculous changes a CPAP machine can bring for someone with sleep apnea. For one--you reduce the risk of a certain heart attack or stroke. Second, you have a brain during the day.

After three days of using the CPAP, something rather strange and wonderful began to occur. It was a sensation unlike any other I have ever experienced. I can only describe it as feeling alive again.

The difference between the way Paul and George handle their sleep apnea and sleep machines is interesting. Paul is an advocate for himself. He doesn't want to spend a night without the CPAP on. George on the other hand has a real love-hate thing with his CPAP. He hates it. He loves what it does. After a night without it, he doesn't care either way about the machine because he disappears into the funk of semi-conscious "what's the use"ness.

Thanks to what Paul wrote, I know to ask questions when making hotel reservations that I would have assumed I wouldn't have to ask.

I guess the moral of the story is: If you depend on a breathing machine, don't assume anyone has you covered, even if you're paying them.