How Do You Like Your Adversity and Thrills?

I read in the Wall Street Journal this morning how credit cards are essential to small businesses survival. And I thought, ugh, the weight of debt. Then another thought occurred to me:

You have a choice in your work and professional life: a steady feeling of "security" with occasional concentrated doses of adversity during layoffs (being an "employee"), or a steady feeling of adversity with occasional concentrated doses of thrills (being an entrepreneur.)

At least that is how I have experienced both.

I spoke to a very dynamic venture capitalist lately who noted that her willingness to endure the "high wire act" of entrepreneurship began after her divorce. A feeling of liminality that she got used to, I suppose.

It helps to know I'm not the only one who feels disoriented at times. Until I start wondering if my disorientation is as legitimate or praiseworthy or well-earned. :-)

Video Apps Dazzle, But They're Just Another Channel to be Managed

As I work on more video projects, particularly for online, I am apt to track the interactive video platform providers. I have some experience from my days with Symbol Technologies and Motorola evaluating small, custom video platforms (sometimes with no CMS behind them, oy!) to larger, varied providers such as Accela, Vignette, WebCollage, Feedroom and Brightcove.

Interesting how in this marketing spot from Brightcove, they are positioning themselves as the Windows platform of video. Hundreds of developers, they claim, add additional value to the platform with bolt-on applications.



The applications allow things such as links to Wikipedia and related video (from an Apture application, for example) to embedded commentary and more.

All these apps make the front end look shiny.

My question is, however, based on my dreaded experience with CMS: What's the back end look like? How cumbersome does all this get?

My experience with integrated marketing leads me to ask: what do we do with these varied additional channels and how do we track their usefulness?

If it were just about delivering cool to the customer, then additional apps are a no-brainer. But you do have internal processes and internal resources to be mindful off.

Just something I like to keep in mind, to keep my app lust in check, during these dazzling presentations.

Value Creation is on the Ground, Not in Washington

I'm not the world's greatest entrepreneur. But participating more actively this time in entrepreneurship than ever before, during this economic downturn, is teaching me something I never realized before, when I had a merely abstract understanding of and respect for the creative energies of the free market.

Value creation is damn hard work.

The government's "value destruction," in the mismanagement of wide swaths of the economy; from regulated and politicized finance (easy, printed money, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc), heavily mandated health care, the rampant inflation of government-funded education and tax and pork barrel energy policy, and the value destruction wreaked, are causing millions to lose their jobs, re-evaluate their value, and seek new work or ventures.

They are out there, with me, each day, attempting to navigate the marketplace and renegotiate their value. I see it in my friends running agencies. In my networking meeting with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. And in my own sales or "business development" meetings.

And it is at that level, not in the rarefied air of Capitol Hill, where the economy is being resurrected. I feel it in my bones at the end of each day.

I have talked to more people, interviewed more and done more new types of work than ever in my life.

And I have a new respect, at the gut level, for the "underemployed" millions who are grinding it out every day in this marketplace, exploring, questioning, negotiating, and ultimately creating new value, which will eventually re-ignite this economy.

Not to mention the millions of experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists already out there unlocking similar new value.

Anyone with an ounce of entrepreneurial experience has to watch the bluster and baloney of Washington about who is at fault for our downturn, and feel in their very guts that these people are not only full of it, but that they probably haven't worked very hard at much of anything in their lives. Except rhetoric and vilification. In that they are highly skilled. And there seems to be a market for it.

But it's not where the real action is in this economy.

A Great Video about Success

A great video, with a simple, inspiring message about success.

Where Are the Visual "Amplifiers" for My Mobile Device?

I'm taking the train today, and bringing my BlackBerry Storm. I would have liked to read a PDF that I downloaded about sound reinforcement equipment. But I'm not going to try, even though the BB has a decent touch screen.

If they invented headphones to solve the problem of amplifying portable, personal sound, and now they've even got MP3 playing sunglasses (see image) can similar "visual amplifiers" be far behind?

Actually, they already have, I suppose. But I don't want to wear wired-up, clunky things like these glasses.

When is somebody going to invent cool, unobtrusive Bluetooth-type sunglasses that double as enhanced mobile device monitors? To magnify the imagery I want to see as the mobile phone becomes my primary computing device.

It would really be the primary device then. Glasses like that could shake up the category entirely. (I used to think Laser Projection was the answer, and in some cases it might be, but you still would be in need of a surface all the time.)

Maybe these glasses could even have sensors on them like they have in the new cars today (that alert you if you're too close to another vehicle, while you're distracted or falling asleep) so you could surf the web while walking! (Just kidding.)

Actually, that's the next phase, the RoboCop-like computer assisted visual display.

I'd pay something for either version of those. But it's got to be "cool."

I bet they're closer than we think.

Personal Data Integration Tools Raise the Quality Stakes for Everyone

The data stream integration powers of my new BlackBerry Storm (the best buggy phone I've ever owned), and the Flock Social Media Browser have captured my imagination.

I get messages from many sources (email, text, images, chats) in one interface in BlackBerry. While mobile! It has raised the stakes on the quality of inbound messages. With so many alerts going off, I've been more diligent than ever about unsubscribing from spammy newsletters and more.

Likewise I'm noticing with Flock that it is empowering me to integrate a variety of social media I had previously considered marginal. Such as Bebo.

As I return to these social media and run them side by side with other social media, the stakes are raised on differentiation and quality. What does each of these sites offer me that I don't have already from other sites, or the integrative functionalities of the browser itself?

My God, I think, who then is the competition for each of these sites? Not just other sites. But third-party application developers on each of these sites, and the like for the browsers. Plus a whole bunch of other people I'm not even able to comprehend at the moment, but will be sure to wow me in a few years, uh, make that weeks.

My God, I also think. I better be a power user myself if I am to keep up with the changes, and advise people on how to use this stuff for themselves or their business.

Cool, mind-boggling, intellectually challenging stuff!

Additional Thoughts on the "Marcomm Problem"

An additional thought or two on the "marcomm problem" described in the previous post.

When I was trained in management of creatives by the Harvard Management Mentor at one of my old jobs, I remember specifically a discussion in that online training about "divergent" and "convergent" as aspects of corporate creative.

"Divergent" is a term for pure creative imagination.

"Convergent" is the process of bringing the creative back in line with real business goals.

What I have learned in my time in corporate marcomm is that the tools I describe in the previous post: data, project management, change management, etc. are tools of convergence.

It's not immediately apparent that they are, because they feel like the bailiwick of engineers. But you can't converge the divergent by sheer charisma or will power alone. I've seen people try, but it just doesn't work. For one, you are always surrounded by too many stakeholders for that.

I relish the challenge of balancing the creative and the more data-driven, analytical side. It's an opportunity to grow, and experience all sorts of additional enhancements to your thinking.