Organizational Courage

Get viral. Have fun!

frank's friends at FigT Productions just kicked out a fun, short video commercial for a Nestle candy bar. No surprise that the video was great: FigT's a talented bunch.

The platform was interesting: rather than hosting a video contest on YouTube, Nestle went with XLNTAds, a web 2.0 video contest / branding hosting service. XLNTAds combines both the web 2.0 media with their branding expertise allowing organizations to use the meritocracy and user-generated verve of social media with a little branding polish.

So far XLNTAds doesn't feature (or seem to offer) employee films or internal organizational user-generated content / dialog. Brightcove - another frank favorite - hasn't done it yet either. But what a great edge for organizations: to create a StoryCorps type opportunity for employees to document their favorite short recollections of myths, heroes and legends from the company culture. And then to use that info for continuous improvement, deciding what cultural elements to reinforce. I haven't seen it online yet, but it seems like it would be easy to do. Thoughts?

Blog or Discussion Forum?

Sometimes it's necessary to choose between two really great ideas. Heath Bar Crunch or Cherry Garcia? Sneakers or flip flops? Oceans or mountains? Hip Hop or classical? Blog or discussion forum?

Like most things it's all a matter of preference. But here are some considerations:

• Conversation Style: Do you prefer being the main voice? Do you have lots of advice or opinions to share? Do you like posting or being online at odd hours? If so then a blog may be more your style. If you prefer more of the give-and-take of a widely open conversation then a discussion forum may be a better fit.
• Collaboration Level: Like the 'style' question above, if you're seeking more collaboration then a discussion forum may be a better fit. Many discussion forums have polling features, calendars and other collaboration tools. Blogs, while conversational, tend to have a main point of view and responses - a more one-way perspective.
• Time: how much time have you got to devote to care and feeding? Both blogs and discussion forums can survive with sporadic attention, both thrive with care and feeding. But if you truly don't have time to moderate (guide, respond to, weed through) your discussion forum you're probably better off blogging as you're able.
• Critical Mass:  do you have a group of like-minded individuals? Or are  you trying to build one? Blogs can start with a voice of one and build as more people comment. A discussion forum needs, well, discussion participants. Do you have them or can you find them?

These are just a few off-the-cuff considerations thrown out on a Saturday afternoon. What would you add?

Get the Word Out!

Yeah yeah yeah I know this is the lazy blogger's post, but this is good stuff, so what the hell. Great online article by Sante J. Achille on publicizing your blog. Simple, easy to follow and well written. Enjoy!

SLATES anyone?

Reading Andrew McAfee's Sloan article on characteristics of Web 2.0 (sorry - wish I could share but it's a 'purchase only' read). There are so many ways to look at Web 2.), and Mr. McAfee does a nice job outlining what to look for. In brief Web 2.0 includes those tools that include something he calls SLATES:

- Search function (making it easy to look for content that interests the user)

- Links (again, cutting down on slogging through lots of uninteresting info)

- Authoring (or, as we at frank like to call it, user generated content)

- Tags (categorization)

- Extensions (if you liked X, you'll enjoy Y)

- Signals (think RSS feeds)

A nice simple way to encapsulate the technological characteristics.

But I can't help adding a nod to the other equally important Web 2.0 characteristics - the Web 2.0 values. Speed over perfection. Open Source. Collaboration. (Alluded to in 'Authoring' but still worth calling out.) Real-time information. Authenticity. Transparency. Ease of Use.

All in all, Web 2.0 still defies a simple definition. But I liked McAfee's list, so what the heck.

holiday shopping savings!

This has nothing to do with OD, but since (in my opinion) it's the coolest thing since ShoutWipes, it goes on the blog. (I can sort of squeeze it in under disruptive technology, don't you think?)

So you're out holiday shopping, you want to buy that Magic Bullet shake mixer. Want to know the best price available? Pick up your cell phone and call 888-63-7822, enter the item bar code and receive the three best online prices for that item. Sign up on frucall and you can even purchase the item over the phone.

No more wondering how much of a premium you're paying for your impulse purchase....you can find out immediately! For a tried-n-true cheap New Englander like me, this is AWESOME!!

IM? Email? Neither or Both?

Interesting survey by AP-AOL reviews the generational gap in technology preferences - younger communicators tend to prefer im, while older (ouch) communicators overwhelmingly prefer email or phone contact. http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/ptech/12/08/im.poll.ap/index.html. What makes im so attractive with younger folks? What am I missing? Personally I don't generally im because either I've got one thought or question (so I email) or I want the faster interaction that a phone call provides. I'm a fairly quick keyboarder thanks to high school typing lessons and being a programmer 20 years ago, but still find phone most helpful for emotional nuances of a conversation. Should I try to catch up and catch on, or should I just chalk this up to another great example of the juicy diversity that exists all around us?

Tech Hook-up or Disconnect?

Great Star Tribune article in yesterday's paper outlining the delicate balance of technology access vs. overload. In his article Neal Justin points out the pleasures and pitfalls of our over-access to technology. He cited a study by NY media services company OMD, that breaks out the 41 hours per day an average person spends on electronic devices. (Mr. Justin came up with 43 hours, but I pulled the roughly two hours spent on magazines and newspapers). Obviously there are only 24 hours in a day, but the OMD study cites 41 because of multi-tasking. 

How does this info feel to you? About right? You putting in your 41 hours? And is that a good thing?

Java goes 2.0!

Looks like even the big guys are getting on board with web 2.0 thinking --- Sun Microsystems announced today that it will release Java as open source software. It may keep a licensed, supported version as well, but is offering an open source version to spread the gospel. Awesome! I'm curious about the culture and business process changes that will take place inside Sun, in order to make the shift. How will business success be measured under the new model? Will this have any impact on the internal Sun culture? What are the new rewards?

Anyone out there have any insight on 1.0 companies moving to 2.0? Would love to hear more.....

small business hr toolkit

FedEx has really gotten smart: they've created a special small business site for those of us who have yet to make the Fortune 500. Browsing through it led me to a great resource: Winning Workplaces, a not-for-profit dedicated to creating great workplaces. Interesting, very affordable toolkit available. Thanks FedEx and Winning Workplaces for waking me up with a nice surprise this morning!

look out MySpace?

Let's hear it for local ingenuity.....the Minneapolis Star Tribune (and others) announced today that local entrepreneurs Tom Petters and Drew Levin are launching YFLY.com, a competitor to MySpace and Friendster. Yfly will target the 15-26 year old demographic by featuring 'real' celebrities (as opposed to the Burger King mascot guy and movie characters you might see featured on MySpace). Technorati shows 89 blog hits for YFLY (which launched this week), vs. 223,074 for Friendster and 2,860,485 for MySpace. So there's a big mountain to climb there.

One way YFLY is differentiating itself is to offer users (again, teenagers and young adults) tips for networking safely: getting to know people without making themselves into on-line targets.

Another differentiator is the technical platform: YFLY is based on Ruby on Rails, an open source application that's the next hot technology. (Honestly, I'm no technology guru, so I'm not sure exactly how hot this is. But according to my geeky friends it's pretty cool.)

Rock'n'roll best wishes to YFLY!