Archive for the ‘innovation’ Category

ChartBeat is just cool

Posted by tom.altman on February 26th, 2010

We ran across this tool for real time analytics about a week ago called “chartbeat” – which is just plain cool.  I learned of it while enjoying the podcast “This Week in Startups” by Jason Calacanis and crew.  #twist

This offers a real time (within seconds) look at the visitors to our site.  Some of the metrics are total people on the site; if people are reading, writing or idle; average USER page load times (more how this works later); and a very niffty twitter monitor.

Oh yea – and it keeps a historical record.  (At least 30 days worth.)

So How Does it work?

I have had a lot of people ask “How does it work?” and “Doesn’t it cause the server to slow down?” – which is actually the brilliant part about the whole deal.  It works with AJAX and analysis on the chartbeat side.

Here’s picture:

chartbeat visual

Step 1

User goes to your site (which already has the chartbeat embeded in the page.)

Step 2

Server sends the code back to user’s computer.  At this time, a javascript timer is executed within the users browser – to give us an idea of the page load speed.

Step 3

After the page loads – the browser communicates in very, very small files to the chartbeat server, telling it the information about the page and what they have done.  It does this with AJAX and after the page loads – as to not interfere with the transfer of information.  (AJAX is asynchronous communication with the server, or stated differently, a message sent to/from the server which doesn’t interfere with the user’s browsing.)

Then What?

chartbeat takes that data and crunches the numbers, and builds the very cool charts, graphs and dials.  Which gives us a look at our site’s performance.

It’s a great idea and one that has saved us a lot of time wondering if the site is slow because of a programming issue – or if we have a sudden influx of users.  We can see in real time the story.  The cost is $10/month for 5 sites, and is well worth it.  (They do not sponsor this blog – I just really, really like the product.)

Take a test drive here.  It is a demo chart they have running.  Let me know if you like it – or have used it.

Posted in analytics, cloud computing, innovation, marketing Tags: , , , , , No Comments »

The good kind of Fail

Posted by tom.altman on February 23rd, 2010
EPIC FAIL.
Image by locusolus via Flickr

Some say the only kind of fail that is bad, is to not fail at all.  I had saved this post from unstructuredadventures for a while – and now seems like a great time to pull it out.  It’s called “How to fail: 25 secrets learned through failure” and it is GOOD!

As I was reading, I really wanted to put them all down in my highlights…but I settled on these.  They are my favorites considering the current climate I work in.  But they may be different for you, Taylor Davidson is the author and he kind of puts up the “normal” analogy and then tells you what we should be looking at “instead”.

5. Solve your problems.
Instead: Solve their problems.

Tom’s comment:  How true.  How many times are we looking to fix our issue or increase our revenue.  That will last only as long as WE want it to.  When we give up passion – the idea will wither.

6. Focus on the long-term.
Instead: Focus on the short-term.

Tom’s comment:  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve built a process/data manipulation/system which took longer to build than the project actually lasted.  It gets you down.

7. Build prototypes, mockups and samples.
Instead: Start building in a format and medium as close to the finished product as possible, and iterate, iterate, iterate.

Tom’s comment:  Guilty as charged.  :)

15. “We can build a successful business by capturing just X% of the market.”
Instead: Sell to one customer. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Tom’s comment:  How many times are decisions made for a huge group.  If we went out and solved an issue for one mom, student or business owner – then repeated.  How would that change the outcome?

19. Hire resumes.
Instead: Hire people: curiosity, passion, interpersonal skills and drive.

Tom’s comment:  I’m a gut feel kind of guy.  So this is a no-brainer to me, the smartest person who cannot function on a team will ruin us all.

22. Meet to discuss.
Instead: Meet to decide.

Tom’s comment:  This hit me like a ton of bricks.  Wow, how many times have I facilitated a meeting which resulted in discussion – when it could have been decision!

Please take a look at the full post, there are 19 more which are as good as these.  If you have more – please share.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted in business, innovation Tags: , , , , , 2 Comments »

2700 MPG!!!

Posted by tom.altman on February 23rd, 2010

Yes – it is the Cal Poly Black Widow and they have tuned it to a mere 2700+ MPG.  Wow.  The best part is its not even a hybrid.

Posted in Quick Post, future, innovation Tags: , , No Comments »

If your a innovation ‘guy’ you need to #twist

Posted by tom.altman on February 15th, 2010

I’ve been tuned into This Week In Start-ups #TWIST since the beginning.  But if you have not checked it out yet – @Jason is epic in a great talk he did at Penn State.

Check it out.  And let #TWIST know they are killing it.

Posted in innovation, technology Tags: , , No Comments »

A Message (and lesson) to Old Media

Posted by tom.altman on February 11th, 2010

For a while now I have been ranting within the company I work for that we throw away too much data – with particular emphasis on throwing away the data we have about our customers.

As I listened to the TWIST #38 (This Week In Start Ups with Jason Calacanis) Jason absolutely nailed this point to the wall.  He was warning publishers not to give apple complete control over their customer.  By using the Apple store to deliver the media product – you are giving the customer away to Apple to nurture and harvest for ever and ever more.  You have no idea who they are, where they live or other super important demographics.

Media companies have so many opportunities to harvest information about their customers – and many times i is just wasted.  I’m not speaking of the kind of creepy, stalker type way of getting information – but the smart, collective, long-term collection like Amazon does.

Amazon knows so much about me and what I have bought from them – it is crazy.  Crazy good!

Check out this screen shot of what Amazon has for me right now…all I did was go to amazon.com.

amazon.com

As you can see – it knows who I am right away and displays that at the top.  I have outline a few sections with numbers sowe cna look at the dffernt things Amazon is doing.

  1. Section 1 is called “Amazon Remembers” – this data is straight from my iPhone. Amazon’s iPhone app will allow you to take a picture of something and ‘remember’ it.  As you can see – it doesn’t want me to forgot – so it shows me when I came back to the site.Very cool.  Don’t get excited about the bottle of Miller Light.  It seems like I am always showing off my favorite apps and this time I happened to be at a bar with some people – but the tin beer sign is recommended for $15 isn’t a bad deal.
  2. Shameless promotion in my opinion.  This is where they push (way too much IMO)  the Kindle. This was OK when it first came out – but I’d like to say no-thanks now.
  3. Under the heading “More Items to Consider” we get helmets and tools.  Why?  I’ve searched for both recently.  I was simply looking for pictures of tools – but I “need” a new helmet before it gets warmed up.
  4. This is what Jason is ranting about – and me too.  Section 4 “it is” – this is why Amazon is the best.  They listen and look for you.  These are all things based on things I have looked at, reviewed and purchased in the past.
  5. Wow – #5 is great too.  I use Amazon’s wish lists because they are easy.  Oh – and Amazon doesn’t mind.  In fact – they help me remember what I want to buy.

That is pretty much it – but it explains exactly the point.  The more you know about your customer - the better. This goes for car sale people, it goes for laundry detergent and it goes for media – and media is WAY behind.

And customer service can benefit here too – customers do not want to have to tell you everything about them every time they call in.  They like that you know their information – as long as we’re not creepy about it.

It’s not too late.  Media companies have the data people in place, in fact the circulation departments of many media companies have been working with some of this kind of data for a long time…we just need to start collecting the new data and then do something with it.

Posted in business, community, customer service, innovation, marketing Tags: , , , , , , , No Comments »

Don Dodge, Google and Goals

Posted by tom.altman on February 2nd, 2010
Google Uses Microsoft!

Dod Dodge is a very cool guy.  He was ousted from Microsoft a few months back and has taken up residency at Google.  He has a great post here in regards to goals and kicking butt.

Google sets impossible bodacious goals…and then achieves them. The engineering mindset of solving the impossible problem is part of the culture instilled in every group at Google.

This post is full of information – but this has to be my favorite quote:

Achieving 65% of the impossible is better than 100% of the ordinary

We have a goal program at my work – but it is nothing like this.  Take the time and read this post – they set goals on 90 day time periods, it makes you think and achieve.  Everyday.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted in business, community, innovation Tags: , , No Comments »

Should Your IT Department Support the IPhone

Posted by tom.altman on January 25th, 2010
When making a call, the iPhone presents a numb...
Image via Wikipedia

Here is a post I found last week but didn’t get to it until this morning…this is a great post.  It is from cio.com – “Should Your IT Department Support the IPhone”

When the iPhone was first launched in June 2007, it was generally panned by IT managers and systems administrators. It didn’t support any encryption of user data, could not have any enforced security policies and offered no way to remotely wipe data if it were lost or stolen. At the time, a lot of companies weren’t prepared to accept those security gaps. Perhaps more importantly, the iPhone didn’t yet support any third-party applications or interact with most office suites.

Another good point is budgets.  At my company many of the perks (cell phones, internet service at home and others) were cut out of the budget the last few years.  This meant IT geeks like myself would have to provide their own phone.  Many went for the iPhone.  Now we’re being asked to “plug in” on our own dime and our own time – but I say too, on my iPhone (or Android).  I’m not planning on giving up my smart phone for a blackberry – no thanks.

It will be itneresting to see how rumors of a new iPhone 4G and new models of Google’s Andriod will affect these interesting times for IT and support of personal equipment.

When the iPhone was first launched in June 2007, it was generally panned by IT managers and systems administrators. It didn’t support any encryption of user data, could not have any enforced security policies and offered no way to remotely wipe data if it were lost or stolen. At the time, a lot of companies weren’t prepared to accept those security gaps. Perhaps more importantly, the iPhone didn’t yet support any third-party applications or interact with most office suites.

Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in iPhone, innovation Tags: , , , , Comments Off

Google goes live with StreetView Ads

Posted by tom.altman on January 13th, 2010

This is brilliant.  Just like many of the video game makers ahve been doing for a while.

This patent, which was originally filed on July 7, 2008, describes a new system for promoting ads in online mapping applications. In this patent, Google describes // <![CDATA[// how it plans to identify buildings, posters, signs and billboards in these images and give advertisers the ability to replace these images with more up-to-date ads. In addition, Google also seems to plan an advertising auction for unclaimed properties.

Check it out over at Red Write Web

Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in innovation, marketing, technology, wedia Tags: , , , Comments Off

The million dollar idea

Posted by tom.altman on December 21st, 2009

It’s funny, the newspaper I work for is trying hard – but spinning its tires a lot.  We’ve gone from build a “super blog” network, to atomizing all content into a distribution engine to looking for the “million dollar idea”.  It’s crazy, but it is possible to make a million with a blog.

Here is a quote from a post which outlines the process:

that blog is read by over 3 million readers a month and is quickly paying my mortgage – in fact in November it generated more than $100,000, most of that in a week

WOW.  Unreal?  Not really.  But here is what I left out:

Today, 3 and a half years later, that blog is read by over 3 million readers a month and is quickly paying my mortgage – in fact in November it generated more than $100,000, most of that in a week after launching a Portrait Photography Tips E-book.

See, it’s not the fact that a million dollar idea/or blog is not possible.  It’s the how to do it part we miss.

We need good content, we need to nuture the people who come, we need to let those people become a part of the site and you have to hustle.

Check out the full article.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Posted in innovation, marketing, new media, wedia Tags: , , Comments Off

YouTube + Movies = Marriage Made in Marketing Heaven [STATS]

Posted by tom.altman on December 2nd, 2009

YouTube + Movies = Marriage Made in Marketing Heaven [STATS]

This is a great idea

and the day before the film hit theaters, the studio bought prominent placement on YouTube’s homepage.

And check out the stats – they crushed it.

Posted in Quick Post, innovation, marketing Tags: , Comments Off
« Older Entries
Twitter Delicious Facebook Stumbleupon