Talk about community!

Check out Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher's  website, Learning to Love You More. The general public creates art based on "assignments" given by the artists. When you take on an assignment, you have to produce a "report" in which you document your artwork. The assignments are everything from "Take a flash photo under your bed" to "Make the saddest song".  From the site:

Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments is intended to guide people towards their own experience.

Check it out. It's worth a gander for anyone interested in new views of the collective. 

Posted by brucelee [General] ( October 01, 2007 12:00 AM ) Permalink

Compare and contrast, who gets my business?

I'm a creature of habit. I buy my tires from the same family-owned business—since the 80s. The owner has retired and died in that time, and now his sons own the business, and have their own sons. I know I can get my tires from Costco for cheaper, but I don't care. I tried other places to buy tires, but no one else compares. What's their secret? They are exactly who they say they are. Pictures of the family (Dad's a war hero) are posted in the office. A year's worth of smudged Car & Driver magazines are piled up on the plastic table inside. The taciturn brothers jack up my car and spin the lug nuts off, and in a few minutes I'm back on the road. But, in the meantime I've gotten to sit on the curb and stare at the graveyard across the road for a bit, let my mind wander. I know I'll be back to Holser's Tire Service. What's so great about it? There's no coke machine. No one has been obsequious, or even particularly friendly. I've just been able to be in a business where people are real. I know something about them. They consistently treat me the same way, year after year. I trust them.

Another stand-out is Sweetwater Sound. I've never been there. The company is in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and they are maybe the biggest music store in America.  I bought a couple of things from their on-line catalog, so every quarter or so Kurt calls me. It's not like he's trying to sell me something. He's just checking in with me like a friend. He remembers what we talked about last time, and he never "sells". I also get a catalog every month or so. On every page or two there's another Sweetwater Sales Engineer. and I decided to look up Kurt. Sure enough, there he was, right next to the electronic sequencers, looking every bit like he sounded, casual, friendly, kinda laid-back. I haven't bought any audio gear in a while, but when I do, I know where I'll go.

Contrast this with the 7 emails from Quark in a little over a month. I used to enjoy their sales people calling me every now and then. They were like Kurt—friendly and interested—and they kept Quark top-of-mind for me. But after the third "special offer" in three days, I sent them an email:

"I'm predisposed to like Quark. You're the underdog to Adobe, with what may be a superior product. I don't do print work now, but may return to a job that includes it eventually. However, the impression you've created in the past few days is two-fold: One that Quark is desperate. Only a sinking company would send out so many emails. The other is cheap. This many messages amounts to spam. Before, I thought Quark was there for me should I need them. Friendly "I'm here" reminders, fine. But the tone of the emails is shrill and insistent, and it makes me think I'll get a sales person who is shrill and insistent. Not good for you. I thought you'd want to know, but maybe I'm wrong."

What is it that makes a difference to me? It's surely not cost. It's the sum total of my experience, and get this, my experience with people, that makes a difference. Quark failed not only for it's insistence that I take advantage of "special offers", but for it's failure to provide a person to whom I could address myself. I don't even know if my email will be read by anyone. They'll have to take extraordinary measures to get me back. Best not to have fallen out of favor in the first place.

Posted by brucelee [General] ( September 25, 2007 09:14 AM ) Permalink

More on Apple

Just a couple of days ago, when I entered "How many iphones have been sold?" into Google, I got confusion, much confusion. But today, I got this "1 million iphones sold" just 74 days after the product was released. And plenty more. Check out this article from The Street about how confusing finding out anything from Apple is and always has been. Does rigid control really equal good design? Ask Steve. Then again, don't bother. He won't answer you anyway. Great thing about a take-it-or-leave-it policy, it's a true test of whether you've got a good product or not, eh?


Posted by brucelee [General] ( September 10, 2007 03:20 PM ) Permalink

I love/hate Apple

It took me by surprise. I clicked on computer software catalog link that was just one step away from spam in my email, and I saw the iphone being advertised as an ipod. Can't they get this straight? Wait a minute. Something's fishy. 

Turns out that the iTouch is just an iPhone without the phone. Check out this Eflux article for the skinny. So far as I can tell, the only diff is that the itouch has no phone. Otherwise, it's exactly the same. Oh, and shave about three quarters of an inch off the top of the thing. And to top it off, the iPhone is now two-hundred dollars cheaper.

There is great tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth with the analysts, who are trying to figure out what Apple is trying to do. "Sounds like a move of desperation" says one. "Brilliant long-range plan" says another.

Apple doesn't care. Let the analysts, customers and competition stew in their own juices while Apple laughs all the way to the bank. No matter what you might think of Steve Jobs, he's a canny operator. Biggest music store on the net, one million phones sold by the end of September? No big, right?

Posted by brucelee [General] ( September 06, 2007 11:38 AM ) Permalink

Don't think of an Elephant

The way the human mind works is amazing. If you read the title, it's a good guess you probably thought of an elephant whether you intended to or not. Plus, if you continue reading and I mention your left knee, then you are probably aware of your left knee, and you weren't before. Maybe you say something like, I was thinking of my left knee because it always hurts, and it's never out of my conciousness. O.K. Fair enough.

 

What about the sensation on the back of your neck? Whatever you read about or hear, the amazing part is this:  reading about it or hearing it brought it into existence in your mind.  So you can bring anything into your mind. So what?

The what is this: Your thought of an elephant, a crowd, a bottle of beer occurs in your mind in a way that is unique to you.  That's why advertising is not 100% effective at eliciting precise behaviors. Sally may have an image in her mind of an elephant as a smelly, huge, loud and wild beast, whereas James might have an image of an elephant as sweet, harmless and pink, like Dumbo. And there is no way to know what sounds, images or feelings that the words and images of marketing communications conjure up in  individuals. The reason communications work at all is that there are some agreed-upon mental maps that can be used in marcomm. Some images, such as that of a mother and child, even transcend culture. But some kind of communication is required in order for an idea to be known. Something has to elicit the elephant.

Whatever the technological means for communicating ideas—blogs, ads, articles, newscasts—they must be made known. Someone needs to say "Don't think of an elephant". Otherwise, a thing ceases to exist. Who's thought of a Chia pet, or a Model T Ford recently? Can you even think of the Oscar-winning movies from last year? Ideas—and the companies that represent them—compete an increasing chaotic world for even a fragment of your attention.

So think of Sun Microsystems. What comes into your mind when you do? Post a comment and tell me about it. I'll blog more about this idea when I hear from you.

Posted by brucelee [General] ( August 18, 2007 12:00 AM ) Permalink

Google's up to something

Does it matter that I'm not supposed to like Google for their closed attitude? They get a lot of credit for making things easy, for which I'm willing to forgive their close-mindedness. Apparently Apple and Google both know that people will forgive them being secretive in exchange for really easy to use software. Think of how powerful Sun could be if we were both open and easy to use.

Check out the new Google Map features with this little tutorial page.

Posted by brucelee [General] ( August 15, 2007 12:00 AM ) Permalink

More on Deloitte's Little Blue Book

 If you are brave enough, listen to this blistering podcast on Digg by Lucy Kellaway, blasting the "Little Blue Book" that Deloitte distributed to its employees recently. It's really worth listening to, because Lucy's attitude surely represents a valid response to poorly targeted employee communications. Surely the folks at corporate brand and comms at Deloitte were just trying to communicate with employees, but someone should have done a sanity check on the concept and the language. Deloitte isn't a manufacturer of consumer goods, it's a business auditor for goodness sake.

To read quotes on this go to heute denken morgen fertig.

 Good blog on this at Cognitive Edge, also. From this blog, "Good leadership does not attempt to control values, it lives them."

 

 

Posted by brucelee [General] ( August 14, 2007 03:38 PM ) Permalink

King Abdullah visits me...

Alright. The king of Jordan didn't come to visit me, but he did come through my town--Davenport California, remember?--and stopped. He and his 15 year old tipped off their Harley's long enough to pop inside the corner store for a soft drink or something. The whole town was a titter. Even Americans who aren't that aware of middle east politics love King Abdullah. His mom is American. He was, according to local gossip channels, on his way down to see her in LA. Apparently King Abdullah has a strong brand presence. Read that: Reputation index is strong."

Ziad, one of the brothers who owns the corner store told the king that he was Jordanian. I always thought Ziad was Palestinian, but what do I know? I said the king was popular with Americans, and he agreed.

We all felt better for the visit of the king.

Posted by brucelee [General] ( July 19, 2007 06:00 AM ) Permalink

A new blog...

Hey everybody, 

My pals in xdesign are going to start a new blog. Rich B. has already posted on this, but I'm really excited about it. They are all great designers, clear brand advocates and they have some great stuff to talk about. And I get to contribute. More here when they have a name for the blog.

Posted by brucelee [General] ( June 28, 2007 12:30 PM ) Permalink

The best new optical illusion, ummm, ever...

I couldn't resist posting this. It really is the most amazing illusion I've ever seen. If you watch the above images below from your seat in front of the computer, Mr. Angry is on the left, and Mrs.Calm is on the right, right?

Get up from your seat, and move back 12 feet, and they switch places!

I believe this illusion was created by Phillippe G.Schyns and Aude Oliva of the Univ. of Glasgow.

This proves that we may not always be seeing what's actually there. This is not an illusion you can check in or out of, like the chair illusion or the devil's fork. Never seen those? I'll post some examples. And check out this link for more info on this amazing illusion.

Posted by brucelee [General] ( June 28, 2007 12:07 PM ) Permalink

Check out Ohloh

You may have already seen this, but this is a good aggregator site, and Openoffice.org is sixth, beat out by some of the obvious candidates. It's ahead of Ubuntu.

Ohloh 

Way to go Open Office team! 

Posted by brucelee [Rants] ( June 27, 2007 08:23 PM ) Permalink

Found. Owned.

 So, Guess what I found at a yard sale? Hint. One of these things is not like the other.

Alright, it's not an intelligence test already. The Sun shot glass was actually an afterthought. I found the Georgia Corn bottle because I wanted to send it to my brother. I'm from Georgia, and he still lives there, and we used to find tacky little souvenirs like this amusing when we were 6 and 8 years old. I knew he'd get a kick out of it. The melon guy--well he's just strange--and the woman at the yard sale didn't want to charge me a full fifty cents for both of these items. She only let me pay a quarter. Then, as I was turning to leave, she said "If you see anything else on that table you like, just take it with you." It was past three on a Sunday, and the yard sale was winding down. Anything left would be taken to the dump.

Then I saw something fully that had gotten my attention in a distant way, but I'd ignored it. I see so many items with the Sun logo on them, that I barely noticed the Sun shotglass. Actually the blue glass has a little class, but I was amazed that a random yard sale should have Sun swag on the table and that the swag should be, well, a shot glass. I did as she asked and scooped it up off the table. It's Sun, after all, but its  bedfellows are a little odd.

Posted by brucelee [General] ( June 15, 2007 09:17 AM ) Permalink

Today's reading...

Today's reading comes from Miyamoto Musashi's A Book of Five Rings, The Fire Book.

Musashi wrote this book on sword strategy in the last few weeks of his life in 1644, but the book is widely read  for business strategy, and it really is a brilliant essay on strategic action. Note: Please use these techniques on the business competition, not as part of an internecine struggle.

"To Hold Down a Pillow" means not allowing the enemy's head to rise.

In contests of strategy it is bad to be led about by the enemy. You must always be able to lead the enemy about. Obviously the enemy will also be thinking of doing this, but he cannot forestall you if ytoui do not allow him to come out. In strategy, you must stop the enemy as he attempts to cut; you must push down his trust, and throw off his hold when he tries to grapple. This is the meaning of "to hold down a pillow". When you have grasped this principle, whatever the enemy tries to bring about in the fight, you will see in advance and suppress it. The spirit is to check his attack at the syllable "at...", when he jumps check his jump at the syllable "ju...", and check is cut at "cu...".

The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions. However doing this alone is defensive. First, you must act according to the Way, suppress the enemy's techniques, foiling his plans, and thence command him directly. When ytou can do this you will be a master of strategy. You must train well and research "holding down a pillow".

Posted by brucelee [General] ( May 15, 2007 08:53 AM ) Permalink

JavaOne dispatch #2

I'm attending the Services section of Business day with Thorsten Laux, Brenda Herlihy, and Bill Curchi.

Thorsten Laux is up first and talks about the Java platform, and how we can leverage the Java platform into a services distribution vehicle. He talks about the Google Toolbar. It's a search toolbar that gets put into Explorer and is installed as part of the Java Runtime Environment. 

We've had success with it. Then he shows the work that we've done with the improvements in the Java Download experience. They look good. However, he's using the old startup animation. Oh well. Then he talks about the Application marketplace. He gives an address to talk about this with distribution-services@sun.com. There's a unique distribution channel, and we want to take advantage of these channels, and share that with our customers.

Brenda Herlihy is next. She's in Developer Services. She loves talking to customers about how to build the best application in the shortest amount of time. Here's her basic model.

Train

Assist

Maintain

Build

Peace of Mind

This offering is really about step by step help to develop and deploy Java applications. It's pretty short, but I get it. Sun really wants to work with folks on this. 

Bill Curchi--who I just met--is up next, in this three part scenario, and he's pretty calm about all this.

He's promoting a kind of partnership with these business customers. He starts off with a recap about the state of Java today. Java is available and widely used. It's available everywhere, and is managed by Sun. Sun is ensuring a quality user experience vis-a-vis a regular, but widely spaced cadence of updates. Sun actually does a pretty good job of this. Most everyone is pretty happy about this. On the business side, though, there are some different requirements. Specifically, they want more control. (Doesn't everybody?) They want to guage and control change. In the past, and in fact, right now, lots of fixes go into every Java release. Businesses want to use to reduce cost.

They want the fixes faster, and they only want the ones that they need. They also want a more predictable schedule. They want more time to roll out updates. They want synchronized fixes across release families.

 From now, we'll go to a model that addresses the need for faster updates. The refractory period for cooking a release will be reduced. That way they happen faster, every few weeks, for example. This allows general updates to be less frequent. Support periods for updates, more complex migration strategies, extending past the usual GM date, to allow businesses to get more of what they want.

It's all about having more choice, better planning, and better schedules. Sounds like a good idea, Bill. I'm sold.

In the future, Sun will communicate better about this stuff. They'll also configure the software better for production environments. Bill extends the hand of partnership around this, and he really means it people. ISVs are an important part of this. If you want to know more about this, send email to Production-Java@sun.com.

 

Posted by brucelee [General] ( May 08, 2007 04:23 PM ) Permalink

Dispatch #1 JavaONE

Business Day track #1

The Business of Open Source

Simon Phipps is on the stage talking about the change from the hub and  spoke model  to the peer to peer model.  We are beginning to  experience the mesh.  People are defined by their  time zones, or when you are awake.  Marketing ceases to be the polishing and firing of messages to targeted audiences, but instead in community. He talks about the virtuous cycle of code use and code contribution. Open Source is not about abstract behavior. Instead it is about creating richness. This is feeling rich in whatever way is meaningful for you. It's different for Sun than for Sao Paulo, Brazil. The enriched code gets sent back to the code commons as a part of this virtuous cycle. If you keep the code to yourself, then the effects are negative.

This virtuous cycle is very important because it's cost saving.

1.0 Software was indivisible from hardware. Hardware came with software.

2.0 Software was decoupled from Hardware and sold unbundled. This model cannot hold up in the face of the free software movement.

3.0 Software is paid for at the point of value.  In this model, the glossy box model is no longer needed, because its contents are not seen as valuable. We can now purchase what we need when we need it. The value is not that you get software free, but instead, that you get to select and pay for only what you want.

Patrick Finch is brought to the stage, and he talks a little about the Value Flows in Open Source. He expands the simple diagrams that Simon was talking about. It's a little complicated, but fairly self evident. There is a difference here between businesses that see IT as a competitive weapon, vs. IT as a cost center. Most of Sun's customers are the former. Users will only pay for things that have value add. He's written a white paper about this, and it will be available soon.

Sun, the original open source company! We really need to here your feedback on this material.

Sun has, for years, been interested in monetizing this, as well as facilitating our partners and customers to do this.

Then he talks about the Java/Linux opportunities. Now the Java source code availability is making Linux part of the Java family. Now Customers have a choice about whether to license the Java software from us, or to join the development community and directly affect the code. But you have responsibility to pay your developers, respect the open-source license, and to deal with the community.

The license is GPL v2, along with a classpath exception. That excepts some of the applications that live on top of the Java code.

He looks a bit at the history of open sourcing Java. Then a guest comes up to talk about the mobile and embedded community. PhoneME. All of Sun's Mobile development is now being done out in Open Source. There are already 60 projects since November.

The application development communtiy is being nurtured here, along with other tools communities around open source communities. He talks a bit about who benefits from the open source model. They include Handset OEMs, application developers as well as Operators Tools/component vendors.

Ken Drachnik talks about Project GlassFish. Now licensees take about 1/3 the time to develop implementations. Anyone can join the community. Lots of people can now contribute. Ericsson has contributed communications APIs to Java EE. This allows communication bits to be built on top of GlassFish. Lots of different customers have contributed to and built on the work of this community.

Finally, OpenJDK.java.net Rich Sands runs us through the JavaSE version of this. Our community is about 3 hours and 10 minutes old. All of the JDK is now available. A few bits of encumbered code still exist. Please help us remove it. You can open it in NetBeans, and compile it there. We are working on governance and a constitution. OpenJDK is based on JDK 7, not JDK 6. It's significant that this is the ongoing live tree.

Simon continues. This is the perfect time for free and open source Java. The potential is huge in many areas, especially in Linux. Last year, 97% of the software written in China is open source.

Posted by brucelee [General] ( May 08, 2007 11:52 AM ) Permalink