Peter Dawson whipped up pointed me to a visualization so I could (nervously) watch the Valleywag voting. LOL. You know that your friends are geeks, when... this is awesome!

Cocaman!

He's right...

...Technology changes how we do things. It doesn't change what we do. Ain't no technology that's gonna do that for us. Wanna better world? Be better people.

Exactly. But the real poetry comes later on in the post:

You're a pimple on the ass-end of progress! So just shut up already!

I just had to add that one. Perhaps Hugh could make a cartoon? ;)

[Dave Rogers]

Web 2.0 hottie list - "The ladies round"

Two things wrong with this:

1. I'm going to get totally creamed. The competition is effing gorgeous. But maybe it isn't about looks? Maybe it's about substance...which doesn't necesarily mean I'm ahead, either. But now I get to sound like the ugly whiny sister and get the sympathy vote.
   
   
2. In the guy contest, Nick picked some obvious "we love them for their minds" guys (won't say who, but I find the snake more of a competitor than a couple of them). Not a single unhottie in the girls...or wait...maybe that's me. Ack.

Hey...and what happened to my girls? (the lovely Alicia Preston & Jennifer Myronuk of LaGeek)






(besides Amber Mac is a WAY hotter vlogger than Amanda anyday and Amanda shouldn't qualify since she left Rocketboom, should she?)

update: the vote is up. Damn. I'm supposed to not care. Darned Valleywag. Um...please, for the love of [insert religious figure here], vote for me so that my fragile ego will go on another day... I'm 33 dontcha know? With a teenage son. Do any of these other supposed 'hotties' have that? Hmmmm?

[photo credit: Oh Sephora! How I Love Thee! by xtinemarie]

I was so inspired by Evelyn's Anthropologie experience post, it brought me back to a not so distant past obsession of mine: Sephora.

Before Sephora existed, I didn't care too much about high end makeup. I wore Clinique because it was supposedly dermatologist approved, but even then, I often waited for the bonuses and substituted alot of drugstore cheap stuff. I was a practical make-up buyer. (is that an oxymoron?)

Then I started hearing the buzz from other women about Sephora. OMG...Sephora is coming to Toronto...rumours...speculation...excited titters. What was Sephora?! I had to know. I convinced a fancy PR friend of mine to wrangle me onto the guestlist of the grand opening.

The first time I entered Sephora, it felt like entering a magical dream land. Rows and rows of makeup with gorgeous packaging. Eyeshadow pallets that looked like trashy old pulp novels. Amazingly illustrated tin packaging that contained a body balm that made your skin 'glow'. Strange and wonderful shampoos and soaps in 'flavours' with 'recipes'. Teeth whitening in elegant compacts I could imagine whipping out after a fancy dinner.

This wasn't makeup. This was a store filled with gorgeous novelties that could strike up conversations between women. Where did you get that? I stood in line for a makeover, then purchased over $200 worth of makeup. I was so excited. I went home and lined up my new pulp novel eyeshadow on my counter proudly. I slipped the GoSmile compact into my evening bag. I strategically placed the Bathina on the ledge of the tub so it would appear that I balm my body after each shower.

God, it felt good. I was so excited. And you know what? It worked. Girlfriends came by and, post washroom visit, we talked about the products...exchanged stories ("I found the lipstick a bit too matte, I would try Chanel instead.") When I went to that dinner, I would pull out my compact and check the teeth and hear, "I loooove GoSmile! Can I have one?" The experience from the store translated beyond and I didn't regret spending that grotesque amount of money on makeup at all.

So, the other day when I complained to Chris that the Sephora website sucks (it does - three clicks? Have to use back buttons? Cookies disappear overnight?), he replied, "Why not just go to drugstore.com."

I stared at him blankly. Um. Because it isn't Sephora. Sephora started a store that is filled with delightful things just for me that connects me with other girly type women and indulges my guilty (but delicious) pleasures. Sephora made me love this stuff. Not drugstore.com. It discounts generic items and looks for volume discounts. Yech. Sephora gives me an experience...even if it's crappy (and online and offline, shopping at Sephora isn't always an 'experience' - it's the delightful things that make Sephora ... um... Sephora).

He thought I was nuts. And I am. Nonetheless, I went back online and ordered my $109 worth of makeup (not the full deal, just some upgrades) and resolved that he just couldn't understand...

...that was...

...until he ordered the monitors...;)

Took the night off last night from all things tech-geekery to geek out in a whole other way: being uber girly. My uber girly co-horts: Molly Bloom (formerly known as Golightly), Miss Alicia Preston and a group of amazing women chowing down on Mexican food and tequila.

Somewhere between the nuclear margeritas and the Sephora "experience" ('cause its not about the makeup, is it?) tales, Molly told the kind of story that deserves it's own meme: The Donut Cheeseburger Moment

Actually having recorded this story last year in Smith Magazine, Molly tells it much better than I could:

There is a moment in all failing relationships when you know things won’t last. For me, that moment was the donut-cheeseburger.

...
It was a frigid spring day and everyone was crowded into the kitchen. We’d been drinking beer and snacking on the ubiqutous brie and hummus. A good time, but nothing spectacular. I was making more salad when I heard frantic shouts of “Molly!” Sensing emergency, a burn victim or other certain disaster, I moved toward the cachophony that was heading up the back steps.

It’s Richard*, they shouted. “Richard’s eating a cheeseburger between two Krispy Kremes!” Men were high-fiving, everyone was laughing. Except for me. My first thought was, “Now I know how Marge Simpson feels.” Then I felt my heart sink. I knew. I knew this was an omen, a sweet and greasy sign that things were over. There was no turning back to the time before the donut cheeseburger.

Man. I've had some major donut-cheeseburger moments in my life. Thank goodness Chris is a vegetarian! ;)

And thanks, Molly, for making me laugh so hard, I choked on my 5 layer bean dip.

Not like we have any shortage of them here. Whew! But here are some of note:

Snakes on a Plane ! The event of the millenium... [August 18]
Get your tickets ahead of time
Join the FlashGroup
I hear there are parties...

TechCrunch Party [August 18]
The guest list is all filled up, but you can always bid on eBay to get in...

BarCampEarth [Aug 25-27]
Simultaneous BarCamping around the world...cool.

BayCHI Speaker Series [September 12]
Marc and I are both speaking at this one - and the organizers didn't know ahead of time he is a client. Pretty funny, but it should be a good session. (no bias here)

The Future of Web Apps [Sep 13-14]
Two of my heroes, Ted Rheingold and Tantek Celik are speaking
Put on by Carson Workshops...who also does Vitamin, which is awesome

WineCampFrance [Sep 23-24]
Are you kidding? OF COURSE we will be there!

BarCampBerlin [Sep 30-Oct 1]
Just a hop, skip and a jump over from France!

I encourage that you check out the incredible array of BarCamps around the world. This community has grown far beyond the wildest dreams of the founders or Tim O'Reilly, who created FOO Camp, just begging to be open sourced by the community. ;)

...that most VCs are as brilliant as they were in 1999:

• one
• two
• three
• four

...and that there is one with a soul. Oh wait, he's an Angel.

But what is the major difference here? All of these VC's are backing (or dying to back) products that feed into MySpace...so what makes Jeff's product different? It's subtle, but it really is the winning ticket...

So, I've spent the majority of my weekend (apart from posting like a madwoman), trying out ... or trying to find screencasting tools for the Mac. Here is what I found:

A. The following windows only programs can kiss my PowerBooked bum:

Camtasia Studio, Adobe Captivate, Viewlet Builder (although they do have a Linux product so a half a point for them), BB Flashback, and about a dozen or so not-so-great alternatives. You can tell from their demos that they don't have Mac versions...because they are fugly. Seriously, wouldn't you want to develop for a Mac audience just to make your product demos look better?

B. The following programs were promising but turned out to be way problematic:

Snapz Pro...so much promise. But the editing tools are non-existent and when imported into iMovie, the quality goes bad. :( (Snapz meet AppZapper)

vnc2swf...um...even the name makes me want to cry with frustration. I have to download what? Python, PyMedia and what? There is no 'interface' to speak of. You lost me at vnc2swf.

And a bevvy of others that are either short on features (can't select a specific part of the screen or lack an interface or can't edit, etc.).

I actually went into this project with much hope and excitement. I was going to spend my $300+ to get the best product I could get that would record clicks with fancy flashes, allow me to draw 'description bubbles' and allow me to lay music and sound effects. I'm baffled that I can't even find a program!

Anyone know of any in development? I'll gladly be a guinea pig. I already sent letters of disgust to the Windows only people. Or...something that records inside of the browser...(heh. Okay, maybe I was being a little hasty.)?

Scott points us to Bacardi's ad agency ripping off a grassroots group without giving any credit. I betcha they call this one 'viral', too.

F&**kers.

::ps. I haven't changed my feed to partial (heaven forbid! So NOT my style)...Blogger is being stupid again. I can't wait to say goodbye...

Congrats to:

• Pandora (yay Tim & Tom!) - music
  
• Pixsy (yay Chase) - photosearch
  
• Blurb - photo/blog book making
  
• Tailrank (yay Kevin) - newsfeed site
  
• Dodgeball - text messaging
  
• Yelp - reviews
  
• Kayak - travel

and congrats to the rest... Time missed a few others, but I think they picked some amazing sites.

A couple of months back, someone asked me why I'm such an extremist. Surely, everything traditional marketing can't be bad. Why not be a big more moderate.

I replied, I'm an extremist because someone has to swing the pendulum over. Here is a diagram to illustrate what I mean:


You see, if I just sat on the fence, meeting halfway, wouldn't mean much. Because I'm extreme, meeting halfway means that there is a major shift on both sides. Of course, I wouldn't mind if the pendulum swung all of the way over...'cause it's the happy side for communities...but hey.

I am not really an unreasonable person. I'm actually very much a fan of finding the 'right' situation for clients. That is why the whole debate on viral is really quite silly in the end (including my involvement in it).

There are a couple of things that I have learnt in my career that are not absolutes - but are good ideas to absorb:

1. No amount of money, pressure, cleverness, 'viralness', advertising, MySpace pandering, p.r., community building, or 'story' telling, etc. can save a crappy product. People don't give a flying snake. (for JP)
   
   I have gone into many clients and employers to find them 'chomping at the bit' to grow the buzz and get adoption while their products are buggy, slow, crashy, broken, etc. Why would you want to spread something that is going to leave a bad impression? All of a sudden, word of mouth becomes extremely damaging. Why not gather a group of focused and understanding early adopters who are willing to work with you to improve what you are building, THEN when it is kickass, unleash it and put a bit of pressure on.
   
   
2. No matter how 'cool' you are, someone else is probably 'cooler'. And if you are the 'coolest', you probably won't be that for long.
   
   In other words, enjoy your 'clear blue ocean' because in a capitalist mindset, competition isn't far behind. And they are often younger, brighter, more agile and hungrier than you. Especially after you've been the reigning 'King of the Castle' for a while. So, how do you combat that? Well, you may have a better advantage when people love you (instead of just thinking you are 'cool'). That's where strong communities mean longevity comes into play.
   
   
3. Quite often, that thing that you thought was the 'killer app' turns out to be nothing and that side project that you dismissed because you didn't think it had a broad appeal takes off like wildfire.
   
   Maybe it isn't monetizable, or you don't think there is a 'market' for it - but you've been throwing all of this energy and money and time behind the promotion of something you just can't figure out why it doesn't take off and all of a sudden, you notice that this feature or this side project has become super popular. Don't fight it. I've seen so many companies kill it because they use that popularity to try and steer people back towards the 'main' project or, even worse, they integrate it into the main project. Watch, observe...water it, garden it...understand why is happening.
   
   
4. You don't find or create community. Community happens...well...sometimes.
   
   I've walked into countless projects where there was some sort of marketing plan laid out early in the game. 'The Target Market is A, B and C' - which usually means they've covered the entire gamut of possible people on the planet except for who is actually using their product. The issue is that these companies continue to go after these 'Target Markets' - trying to build community where nobody is interested, whilst alienating and/or ignoring the actual community that is building up...to a long term detriment.
   
   It's fine to guess at who may find your product useful, but don't throw your energy behind that group until you see it actually manifesting. I've always believed in a much more organic way of researching these things. Let's put it out there and be part of that community...watching who gathers, understanding the real appeal and building the future of the product in that direction. I don't mean to do this to everyone else's exclusion, but seeding and building in specific directions is crucial to community growth.
   
   
5. Being vulnerable is often your best defense/offense.
   
   Open source is the most vulnerable thing I know. Code that is open, free, available, transparent, etc. Anyone can and will come along and scoop it up and make it their own and make money off of it, etc. There are all sorts of jerks around the world who burn Firefox onto a CD, package it up and sell it for $29.95 to people who don't know that it is free for download online. They laugh all the way to the bank. But not as much as Firefox does. What was it? $72 million last year? I doubt that CD burner dude makes enough to replace a full time salary. S/he certainly couldn't get into major retailers - Firefox has built a strong reputation. A name. A community of people, gathered to protect it. That's not the only example.
   
   Making oneself publicly vulnerable is scary. Putting yourself 'out there', offering up source code, telling your 'secrets', involving your community (which could include...your enemies!) - yikes. There is something to be said for surprise and delight - which is a whole other story, but my point is that community is built on trust and someone who puts themselves out there honestly has a leg up when it comes to community.
   
   
6. If you aren't Hugh Macleod, Guy Kawasaki or Seth Godin, you probably couldn't get away with Stormhoek, Film Loop or Squidoo.
   
   In fact, they have a tough time getting away with them. Their own 'brands' are worth way more and the minute they step back, they will still be Hugh, Guy and Seth (marketing superheroes), but Stormhoek will be just another bottle of wine, Film Loop will be...um?..., and Squidoo will be just another abandoned social network.
   
   Either way, I respect all three of them a great deal more than I've expressed here, but the point here is that none of them could get away with what they have if they were, say, me.
   
   
7. Any agency or person who says they are a viral marketing expert is full of it. And this is damaging to the entire industry.
   
   So many agencies win business because they go in and pitch bull about being able to create brilliant campaigns that will make the world fall in love with a company's brand. And so many companies end up disappointed in the results. Which results in a general distrust of marketing. Which nobody seems to learn from.
   
   We get oodles of phonecalls and emails from companies that ask whether we can build a viral campaign that will drive 100,000 people to their website. I always answer no. Even if we think we may be able to, based on them having an amazing product and our connection to strong communities that would like their product. They've completely missed the point. But the problem is...they just talked to 3 other agencies that said they could. Unironically. It makes me want to cry. I've watched perfectly great products tank because of this attitude.
   
   
8. Companies with pure hearts will trump companies with money in the end.
   
   I'm a hippie 2.0. I have eternal faith in karma. You will never convince me otherwise.
   
   
9. When it comes to forumulas and absolutes and buzzwords and case studies and lists of 10 things to do (heh), marketers are missing the point.
   
   Relationships take time. They take trust. They take real connection. Sometimes you can mass produce some sort of connection, like JetBlue does with the 'experience' it creates for passengers - from the language on the screens to the blue chips it serves to the way it has removed class distinctions from the seating - and in the end, they have a business and want my money and if I asked them to help me move, they would laugh at me. I think. But then again, a PlanePurple may come along tomorrow that gives me the same level of service and I'll probably switch without thought (or I may just pick the cheapest flight - commoditizing the whole damned process).
   
   And community building on a truly personal level is not scalable, so all of you traditional marketers and advertisers can continue to buy up your billboards and tv ads, etc., because in your world, numbers matter...no...big numbers matter. I've done the numbers game. There is nothing satisfying in it for me. I like looking at the world in a non-zero-sum way (thanks Kevin!) and hope for a time when the world flattens (not in a Thomas Friedman sense, but in a 'we all get a nice piece of the pie we worked for', which is, I suppose, the Chris Anderson sense).
   
   
10. The bar is set excrutiatingly low.
    
    A little kindness goes a long way in a world filled with unfriendly and disempowering consumer experiences. I spend so much energy feeling ripped off that when a company does the smallest thing to show me they give a shit about me, I throw my whole being into their promotion. I'm not the only one.
    
    Egad, we need something to give. And I know my ideas are extreme, but they come from a real place of wanting to continue to hold onto my world filled with good, real people who give a snake about others. And, no, I won't just get real. If it doesn't exist right now, I want to dedicate my life to making it exist. I don't care what you call it or how it happens.

Damn. Another list of 10. See, I'm not altogether unreasonable. ;)

So the recent Feedburner issue has brought up a rather heavy issue. I have littered pieces of myself all over the web, in varying identities, avatars, pseudonyms, passwords and logins. I don't want to start getting into the identity stuff, 'cause I could give a damn about single sign on. Seriously, sometimes I just want to dabble. I also have various degrees of interest where I have littered my being. And I most certainly don't want to commit to one place for all of my 'stuff' - I like variety. So, let's not go there.

What I wouldn't mind, though, is the ability to watch all of it. Watch who watches me. Watch someone else and who watches them. I want to subscribe to a person, as much or as little as interests me.

Liz commented that she didn't want to see photos or bookmarks...she just wants posts. That's cool. Liz should have that choice. Chris may want to see more...he may want to follow my photos, bookmarks, blogposts, who is talking about me, what I'm wanting to do, who I want to meet, my career updates, etc. etc. The next person may want more or less or nothing at all.

So, as Chris has discussed before, we need to be able to subscribe to a person. But I don't want to depend on a browser to do this. I would love webpages to just inherently have this function. Oh, wait...Microformats. Heh. But will they allow me to show a little or alot while others subscribe to a little or alot?

I really like what ClaimID has done. It made compiling this blog post way easy. I only claim what is important to me there (although I haven't updated it because I've been busy....gah!). Perhaps that is a start? Maybe not.

So, everyone claims to be working towards solving this and no one is working together, really. It seems like little-old-end-user-me gets lost in the kerfuffle of who is going to go down in Wikipedian history as having solved identity or loss of it or subscription to it...and they all certainly want their name on it or to gain wealth from the adoption of it.

Sigh. I mean, really, it's a very 'high end' problem anyway. I was chatting with a brilliant Celebrity blogger a couple of months back who has been blogging for 3 years and has over 50,000 daily readers who told me:

"I haven't the slightest clue what you mean by a 'feed of my blog'. You want me to write a restaurant guide?"

Heh. Her and her 50,000 readers didn't give a flying snake whether she was RSS or Atom compatible. She hadn't even turned on the ability for her readers to subscribe to her. She still sends out email newsletters and that works just fine, thank you. In fact, one of my favourite feeds in my feedreader, Photojojo, has over 10,000 email subscribers compared to their 4,000 RSS readers.

And I wonder, sometimes, whether we get a little too ahead of ourselves. And maybe we think it is progress, but it really is just a different approach. Feeds vs email vs whatever. And what I need to know about Chris is just turning around and asking him, "How are things?" But then again, that is sacreligous speak from a geek girl whose life has been transformed by Bloglines, because, previously, the information I read was from a few 'expert' sources and now I get to absorb a gaggle of voices and delve into the lives that inform them.

I don't know. What do you think? Would you like to be able to subscribe to a person? Do we really need the 'whole story'?

:: Nicole has an amazing follow up post to this...way more thought out than I could ever.

Okay...so I usually don't try to manipulate anyone's behaviour...but in this case, I am preparing for a really big move (over to Wordpress in the next month or so...yay!) and I don't want to lose too many readers in the process.

I noticed that there are about 4x as many people (!) pulling from various atom and rss feeds than from my Feedburner feed. So, in order to make it really simple to switch to Feedburner for my upcoming transition, I want to highlight to you that the following feeds suck:

http://www.horsepigcow.com/roguereport/atom.xml
http://www.horsepigcow.com/roguereport/rss.xml
https://www.blogger.com/atom/11380990
http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11380990/posts/full

(I think that is it...if you have something else, please alert me)

And the following feed rocks:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/horsepigcowLifeUncommon

With my Feedburner feed, you will get newly pimped goodness like:

• Screenshots and reviews of new apps I try when I post them on Flickr (as well as the occasional 'cool website' I point to that way). These come in a couple of times per week...and believe me, some of them are superfly.
  
  
• A daily link round-up (from Ma.gnolia) of relevant bookmarks I've found that range from interesting new apps to marketing tips to intriguing articles.

See? All sorts of reasons to move over. :) Thanks in advance! I know what a pain switching can be.

From John Dvorak's recent article on YouTube:

Two things seem to be at work. The first is the incredible desire people have to share video clips with each other. That's now apparent.

What's not so apparent, unless you actually have tried to use the various video sharing sites, is that nobody -- and I mean nobody -- made it easy until YouTube.

By merely combining a pent-up demand with ease-of-use you get the YouTube phenomenon. It's brain dead simple, but I'm telling you that is all there is to it.

Now, Chad and Steven (YouTube founders), most likely totally understood the importance of simplicity and usability, but I highly doubt they understood the depth of the impact they would have. You could have asked 10 people on the street a year ago, "Do you think that a site that allows people to post their personal videos will become one of the most visited sites on the net in the next year?" Then describe some of their 5 top rated videos of all time: Evolution of Dance (amateur), Pokemon Theme Music Video (amateur), The Simpsons Real Life Intro (from tv), D1大整古-流動廁所 (from tv), and Hey clip (amateur); you would surely be met with a WTF? kind of stare.

So, simplicity alone, as Dvorak stated, wouldn't cut it. It's the combination of the two: desire + simplicity. And that is why YouTube has been so disruptive.

From The Innovator's Dilemma, by Clayton Christianson:

Disruptive technologies...are distinctly different from sustaining technologies. Disruptive technologies change the value proposition in a market. When they first appear, they almost always offer lower performance in terms of the attributes that mainstream customers care about. In computer disk drives, for example, disruptive technologies have always had less capacity than the old technologies. But disruptive technologies have other attributes that a few fringe (generally new) customers value. They are typically cheaper, smaller, simpler and frequently more convenient to use. Therefore, they open new markets.

Basically, YouTube blew open a new market. All of a sudden, we looked around the Valley and saw oodles of startups as well as large technology firms getting interested in the space. TechCrunch posts a new company nearly every day that is coming into this space. And everyone is simple. Dead simple. And useful. And usable. And we all know that there will only be a few survivors remaining after the VC money runs out, so then the DESIRE + SIMPLICITY thing won't cut it any more....well, unless the desire to switch becomes apparent and you are the next simple thing that comes to mind.

Well, then what? I would never ever say, "Throw in the towel" because, as you know if you've been reading me, I'm all about entrepreneurialship. Competition is good. It pushes innovation. It gets us engaged. It's good for the customer.

But what I am saying is that unless the stars align just right as they did with YouTube (they knew about simplicity, but they sure as heck didn't estimate the demand) and you are truly offering something innovative, you probably won't seen the success of YouTube.