Pa^2 Patois

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Open Advertisements: A Shouting Match In An Empty Room

In a nutshell advertising doesn't work in Social Media because it violates my first Law of Business:

There are no friends in business and there is no business between friends.

How can an advertiser pose as a friend when their only objective is to conduct the business of opinion swaying?

Doc and David started off their "Markets are Conversations" chapter of the Cluetrain Manifesto with this prophetic observation...

When you think of the Internet, don’t think of Mack
trucks full of widgets destined for distributorships,
whizzing by countless billboards.

Think of a table for two.

- @man

... so in the empty room we find an intimate table for two. And the Ad people still want to engage in a SHOUTING MATCH. Is it any wonder Why Current Social Media is Crashing?

If we, as advertisers, are to be successful in influencing the opinions and behaviors of consumers then our message must be molded to fit into the framework of current social media. The currency of the current social media is attention. Whether acknowledged as fame, notoriety, or popularity the consumer's object of attention is the value of the moment. The business relationship that affixes an opinion or behavior changing stimuli to the object of attention is where advertising's value is pinned.

Social Media is the intimate conversation being held at the table for two. One or the other or both of the members of this intimate party have to be willing (incentivized?) to bring an opinion or behavior changing stimuli to the table. This calls for an example ...

My little sister Sally just loves the plush cuddly Coca-Cola(TM) Polar bear cubs. I am confident that she would allow the animated little cherub cub to wink and wave and drink the occasional Coke(TM) on her MySpace/FaceBook page in return for say a free 12oz bottle of Coke(TM) per month.

Sally would be even more pleased when the little animated cub displayed different behaviors - because it is not a static jpg image but a embedded feed from the PR firms servers. (Note to PR: This allows you to control dynamic content AND monitor the number of 'hits' that Sally's "Ad" is generating.)
Wouldn't Sally be pleased when, as her site becomes more popular, the little cub "gives" more and better rewards?

...so please stop SHOUTING!

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Open Zimbabwe?

Zimbabwe in Crisis

view presentation (tags: refugee hyperinflation mugabe africa)

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Open Patois, redux

I have now come to learn that all Jamaicans are multilingual, and while some may not speak patois, they all understand it. The switch back and forth between patios and standard English goes back to slavery days, when the slaves were not allowed to use their native language.The rebellion against that was that the slaves simply used English when they wanted to be understood and used patois ( which has English words thrown in here and there) so passing listeners might assume the language being spoken is English.

”farrina and dem plenty questions” meaning foreign people who ask a great deal of questions.

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Open Question Mark?

I have no idea what you're talking about... so here's a link.

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Open Landmark

17 July 2008

CIO News View: Telegraph CIO on swapping Google in for Microsoft

Martin Veitch

The Telegraph Media Group’s move to Google Apps could be a landmark
. . .

In an exclusive interview with CIO magazine, TMG CIO Paul Cheesbrough told us why. Here are the highlights:
“We’ve got Office 2003, Windows XP and Exchange 2003 and we started to look at the refresh cycle at the beginning of this year. We had a decision to make as to whether to sign up for a three-year enterprise agreement with Microsoft or look at something else. [As a pilot] we put 10 per cent of our 1400 user seat estate and allowed them to use Google Apps alongside their Office and Exchange infrastructure. Overwhelmingly, the feedback was positive and there would have been uproar if we had said we were turning it off. We were faced with the decision of whether we pursued the same [Microsoft] path and paid the price for that or put more and more internal solutions in the cloud.

“We made a conscious decision not to refresh any of [the Microsoft infrastructure]. We’re not going to remove it but we won’t upgrade it. Some users might use Outlook as the client but we’re moving to migrate people from Outlook onto Google by the end of the year. We’re not going to rip and replace but we’ve decided not to refresh Office 2003 and we’ll sweat that asset. Google Apps is good enough and rich enough for us to do what we need to do. Collaboration has been very powerful [in Google Apps] and as people use Google Mail and Calendar they’ll naturally stray to use Google Docs.

BRAVO!

Observation: Once the PC=Microsoft paradigm is broken I foresee a very short delay before shifting to an open source desktop alternative. (Hint: Firefox runs just as well, if not better, in Linux!)

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Open Dream

"It is called the American Dream ... because you have to be asleep to believe it."
- George Carlin

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Open Note.to.self

The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is
waiting.
-- Fran Lebowitz, "Social Studies"

(Note to self: must practice more waiting.)

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Open Blog Administrivia: Comments

I have returned to the practice of moderating comments as it appears they are being (unintentionally) misplaced.

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Open Mugabe

Bob’s Your Uncle!

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Open Quandry: McBama or O'Cain?

A sign of our changing political landscape ... same as it ever was!

This is rapidly becoming a sad
state of affairs.

I ~~am going to~~ might vote for Barack Obama.
I (probably) won't vote for John McCain.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message, maybe.

Open Grilled Snacks

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Open Economy of Protein

In keeping with my belief of "following the money" I read The Economist for much the same reason I read the WSJ. The article recently posted in The Economist brought to the fore my concern for the economy of protein.

Let them eat bugs

Jul 12th 2008
From Economist.com

. . .
Scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico have an answer: entomophagy, or dining on insects. They claim the practice is common in some 113 countries. Better yet, bugs provide more nutrients than beef or fish, gram for gram.
. . .

Coincidentally this dovetails with my long standing belief in the concept put forth by the sci-fi classic Soylent Green (cannibalism aside). As a world community we will have to use innovative means to address the issue of hunger.

Before the days of soaring fuel prices and the subsequent drain on grain reserves the long standing question was why we didn't just feed the hungry? Now that our abundance of food resources are being put into the gas tank even that simple answer has evaporated leaving only a lingering hydrocarbon foot print.

Having visited China (as just one example) and having seen first hand the entomological culinary delights I can make one observation. No matter how delightfully prepared or presented Americans will will not eat grasshoppers on a skewer. So then the next most reasonable course of action would be to 'process' this cost effective protein source into a more palatable dish.

In much the same way that we have accepted faux foods made of processed soy beans we must concentrate on producing acceptable food stuffs made of protein rich insects. Properly processed, spiced and packaged Hopper Patties come to mind. Grilled lightly and covered with a slice of American soy cheese on a toasted bun. Just think of the potential profit margin.

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Open: notes of record

In no particular order...

A great comment was posted to my post ... sure wish I knew who Mr. A. Nonymous is (winkwink) so go here and enjoy a great meandering walk through the memories of another who knows Albion, MI
Open Memories: Albion MI

Can't you hear Stephen Wright's voice when you read, "There is so much sand in North Africa that it covers the entire Sahara desert."

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Open: Equality "McCain=Bush"

An exact reproduction of the original "McCain=Bush" placard seen around the world this week--get yours now in T-shirt, sticker, and other hard-to-remove forms. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the fund to defend Carol Kreck, the 60-year-old librarian who carried the original sign into history--now awaiting her court date for "trespassing."

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Open and clear voice of reason

From Larry Lessig,

The immunity hysteria

...it is not "compromising" to recognize that we are part of a democracy.

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Open but stashed away for 6 years

Wired reports

Volkswagen's had its super-thrifty One-Liter Car concept vehicle -- so named because that's how much fuel it needs to go 100 kilometers -- stashed away for six years.

Makes one wonder what other technological advances are being conveniently withheld?

Six years? What were they waiting for?
$4.00 per gallon gasoline?

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Open truth.spoken.to.power

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Open Sadness: a light has gone out.

Vietnam: Dissident monk passes away
from Global Voices Online by Mong Palatino
Ven. Thich Huyen Quang, the Supreme Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam has passed away. Vietnam Human Rights Journal comments:
It is sad that a man of Thich Huyen Quang's stature could have been forced into a form of internal exile in central Vietnam, essentially cut off from the outside world, for no crime other than speaking out boldly for religious freedom and human rights. He has truly lived by the Quaker expression, "speak truth to power", and has paid a price for it.