Topic: technology

Applying the right technology solutions to enhance business growth is something Bjorn Espenes, CEO at Infopia, is passionate about. As a growth company itself, Infopia delivers a SaaS (software as a service) eCommerce platform for businesses who need to manage the common operational challenges that growth creates. Things like inventory management and merchandising, order management, and shipping and fulfillment all work together in a seamless online system.

Infopia is the "next step" for many of the savviest online sellers looking to grow their business. Titanium and Platinum PowerSellers on eBay not to mention multi-million dollar merchants have dramatically improved revenues with Infopia.

Espenes sits down with Brad Baldwin from Rocky Mountain Voices and shares the Infopia story and highlights the business problems Infopia solves. Espense shows why he was recognized as one of Utah’s "Top 40 Executives Under 40" and a member of vSpring Capital’s v100 Entrepreneurs.

Download This:iPod

A few days ago, I wrote about the commoditization of social networks or rather the social networking feature sets that currently make Myspace and Facebook so unique and neat. Pioneers in social networking like Friendster and Myspace introduced a new data and software architecture that, at the same time clumsily and elegantly, met Internet users’ desire to interact and share content with each other. Finding old friends, connecting with new friends, sharing music and videos, playing collaborative games, and expressing oneself to virtual audiences of thousands all were groundbreaking features or functions that captivated a whole new generation of Web users.

These features generated higher levels of engagement (or stickiness) many times greater than traditional web properties. This stickiness in turn attracted marketers and advertisers who wanted to be where the people were. This stickiness premium netted the founders of social networking startups wealth reminiscent of the dotcom bubble. Myspace sold for nearly $600 million in a buyout by News Corporation (NWS-A), Facebook was valued at $15 billion by Microsoft (MSFT), and Bebo’s owners sold out to AOL (TWX) for $850 million.

With great rewards come hordes of wannabes and copycats. Many people are staking their future on social networking. Some are attempting to create me-too social networks. Others are pimping themselves as “experts” in social networking and offering their “consulting” services. I did the same with my SocialOptimize startup. Although my now defunct startup was able to deliver good social networking applications to prominent venture-funded startups, I soon realized that social networking would become a game with few winners and many losers. I argued that once Web 2.0 methodologies become widely adopted and social networks become a feature set rather than destinations, those same Web 2.0 methods will become standardized commodities.

That march to commoditization may occur faster than anticipated. Google (GOOG) recently announced its Friend Connect program, which allows virtually any website to plug in a turnkey social networking suite. Owners of websites can, like Google’s AdSense product, embed a snippet of code in their webpages and immediately enjoy the benefits of offering social networking features to their site customers or visitors. Think of Google Friend Connect as a more powerful Google AdSense, but instead of offering relevant text ads it offers your site visitors the ability to connect with their friends, connect with new friends, interact with each other with messages, and share content.

Here are the search engine giant’s stated high-order benefits of Google Friend Connect (GFC):

• Anyone with a basic understanding of the Web can implement GFC, no need to hire an expensive programmer or self-branded “social media guru.”
• Drive traffic: people who discover interesting sites can bring their friends with them, and can opt-in to publish their activities on those sites back into their social network, attracting even more visitors.
• Increase engagement: access to friends and OpenSocial applications provides more interesting content and richer social experiences.
• Less work: any site can have social components without hiring a programming team or becoming a social network.

That last point is key. Google doesn’t want more “social networks” per se - it just wants more websites to have social features. A while ago, it signed a deal with Myspace to serve Google ads. At the time, Google paid a huge premium and there are reports that claim the Mountain View, CA behemoth has not recouped its cost. Signing advertising deals with mass market social networks can be expensive. Helping mom and pop sites to have social networking features will, in the long run, give Google a cheaper alternative. Google is simply facilitating the creation of more web pages (places to serve its ubiquitous ads), pageviews, and advertising inventory.

The message is clear. You don’t need to become a social network; social networking features are a commodity. Here, have a few social networking features for free.

Chris Anderson, a writer at Wired Magazine and author of the influential The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, makes some good points about the insanity of Facebook’s $15 billion valuation, the inadequacy of current approaches to social networking, and the implications of an over-reliance on advertising as a business model. His arguments are useful because entrepreneurs can use them to make concrete business or strategic decisions. He doesn’t use namby pamby qualifications to hedge his bets and predictions. I do have a huge doubt about Anderson’s conclusions though.

First, Anderson argues that social networking should be a feature, not a destination. I agree wholeheartedly. The ability to interact with friends, share content, and engage in self-expression should be standard features on most websites. The unique methods of encouraging creative online behaviors known as Web 2.0 will filter through the rest of the Internet and, soon, your grandfather’s favorite website will allow him to engage in “social networking.”

Second, Anderson cites stats regarding advertising revenues or costs from Myspace (NWS-A), Facebook, and Ning. He shows that monolithic social networks like Myspace and Facebook, which attempt to be all things to all people, are having immense struggles with selling advertising at worthwhile rates. He also implies that Ning’s niche vertical social networks built by customers command higher advertising rates. Some marketers happily pay the higher rates because the engagement level is greater on these niche vertical networks. Advertisers also prefer the more intelligent targeting of relevant audiences. Myspace, Facebook, Bebo (TWX), and other undifferentiated mass networks are actively trying to improve their targeting abilities so it will be interesting to watch this competition evolve.

Finally, Anderson asks a pointed question about Facebook’s implied $15 billion valuation when Microsoft (MSFT) bought a small percentage of the company a few months ago. If Facebook is struggling to target its advertising and improve its advertising revenues, does its gargantuan valuation make sense? I think Zuckerberg should take the money and run. I also think that Lee Lorenzen, a venture capitalist, and his prediction that Facebook is worth $100 billion is a case of shrewd exaggeration. What I think is most funny is the fact that all of Lorenzen’s fanboys, the self-branded “social app gurus” and developers of tiny Facebook apps are all eagerly drinking the spiked punch. There are few better examples of confirmation bias in action.

My main problem with Anderson’s analysis is his implied assumption that the currently high advertising rates the niche vertical social networks enjoy will stay relatively high. Based on his personal experience, he concludes that Ning’s advertising rates are greater than Facebook’s and Myspace by at least a factor of ten. I don’t think this will last. Web 2.0 methods are precisely that, methods. They can be products, but they are also methods or general, conceptual best practices. As such, the ability to create robust social networks for different verticals will diffuse to a critical mass of software engineers. As that process accelerates, social networks and features of social networking will become commonplace or commoditized. I’ve alluded to the commoditization of social networking applications, which is a related problem. When this process nears its peak, advertising rates for all social networks will have diminished drastically. Self-proclaimed “social app gurus” and “social network gurus” who have staked their futures on social networking will ultimately prove themselves as less than prudent.

So my travel was supposed to be finished until mid-June, but alas, I find myself this week in San Mateo, CA for 4 days of administrator training for Salesforce.com. Salesforce.com is a very robust customer relationship management Software as a Service platform. We’ve decided at Doba to move our CRM (marketing, sales, and service) operations [...]

The technology sector gets a big surprise with Microsoft (MSFT) announcing that it will cease to pursue the acquisition of Yahoo! (YHOO). Most analysts and market pundits expected Jerry Yang & Company would ultimately accept a deal, albeit at a higher price than Microsoft’s initial offer. Expect Yahoo! stock to take a precipitous plunge at the market open and the announcement of class action lawsuits from its larger shareholders. While this saga of two tech giants unwinds, plenty of news in the rest of the tech sector deserves attention.

The Nasdaq Composite continues to roar back from the recent market slide with a strong 2.2% gain last week. This makes my tech market bifurcation thesis look increasingly faulty. The bellwether technology issues have performed well as predicted, but so has the middle tier and even the bottom tier. International growth accounts for much of the resilience and strong performance. Technology companies reporting satisfactory or better results included Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a business processing outsourcing and information technology services firm, Ansys (ANSS), a provider of engineering simulation software, Expedia (EXPE), the online travel e-commerce company, TeleCommunication Systems (TSYS), a provider of carrier-class wireless technology, Concur Technologies (CNQR), a maker of expense management software, LoopNet (LOOP), a website for commercial real estate listings, and Symantec (SYMC), the security software giant.

What about the rest of the market? Hallelujah! The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, has openly stated that the worst of the recent credit crisis has passed. Many value lemmings and growth copycats will take this as reason to dive back into the market with enthusiasm. Indeed, we are an eager shareholder society and investing is both pastime and profession. Investing might very well be religion. It is so for the pilgrims that never miss the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) annual pow-wow to join in the proceedings presided over by high priests Buffett and Munger. The event occurred just this past week and, as usual, Buffett warned shareholders of smaller future returns for Berkshire. This warning is coming from the greatest investor alive, the prophet of profit, and the diminishing returns doctrine is probably the one part of the gospel the congregation finds hard to believe. We’ve all grown accustomed to his ability to outperform and deliver us from the evil of poor returns.

Macro

American taxpayers should be receiving their economic stimulus checks in the coming weeks. Will this provide the country with a sudden explosion of consumer spending? The bureaucrats in Washington believe that the increased spending will pull us out of the recent economic slump. But what will we probably do with our returned tax dollars? For the legions of homeowners who have seen the value of their most significant asset plummet in price, will they put the check towards a mortgage payment? Robert Shiller, the economist and father of the Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller housing price index, predicts that housing declines have not come to an end and further declines could exceed the damage suffered during the Great Depression. In that scenario, homeowners on the brink of mortgage default would just walk away and spend their stimulus checks elsewhere instead of holding onto homes with values underwater.

Micro

Interactive Intelligence profit drops, sales rise - Confirmation bias, the cognitive error whereby investors search only for evidence that confirms their beliefs, is a very common mistake. With the second paragraph of this post, I run the risk of committing the more surreal non-confirmation bias, whereby I cite only evidence that refutes my tech market bifurcation thesis. So I best avoid this masochistic foible by pointing to Interactive Intelligence’s (ININ) somewhat disappointing earnings report. The company’s call center management software generated record sales but profits actually declined from the year ago quarter. There has been much debate about where corporations cut back expenditures in recessionary or slowing economic environments. The consensus is that advertising is the first thing cut. I don’t think so; I believe that short-sighted corporations tend to cut customer service functions and budgets. If true, ININ remains in trouble. Full Disclosure: I currently have a long or short position in ININ in one or more of my private investment partnerships.

MicroStrategy 1Q profit declines as operating expenses rise - Here is another case of a technology company that was able to grow sales while seeing profits decline. Are second-tier technology companies losing pricing and negotiation power? Are large corporate customers taking advantage of the slowing economy as an opportunity to demand better terms from technology suppliers? I remember when MicroStrategy (MSTR) generated as much hype as Salesforce.com (CRM); the promise of business intelligence software was as big as sales management software. Michael Saylor’s company took investors on an 18.6% dip last Friday.

Sohu 1Q profit soars with rising brand ad, online game sales - Last week, I profiled Sohu.com (SOHU), a Chinese Internet portal and online gaming company. Since then, the company reported record results and the stock rose an astonishing 25.6% in the space of five trading days. Sohu.com’s TianLong Babu massive multiplayer online game has become a best seller. The long term prospects for this company should be extremely bright and so are the long term prospects for the gaming industry in Asia. However, buyers of the stock now would be paying premium prices.

Perfect World Collaborates with Intel and Haier - Perfect World (PWRD) is another online gaming company based in China. The new alliances with Intel (INTC) and Haier give it some serious marketing muscle to push its massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs). They’re usually called “massively multiplayer online role playing games” (MMORPGs) but I’m going to keep it short and sweet. I’m also going to assume that future large scale games will not all be role playing game formats. Someone is going to produce a smash hit with a massive scale first person shooter like Halo.

Dolby posts higher Q2 profit; raises 2008 view - I used to take the public bus to high school in the ghetto and pass by the red brick building that houses Dolby Laboratories (DLB). San Francisco was an interesting place to grow up. One minute I’m riding the bus through the South of Market neighborhood and checking out the shingles of creative technology companies and the next minute I’m riding through the ghetto looking at beat up cars and pit bulls loosely chained behind chain link fences. Unlike in the digital video space, where scores of competing codecs vie for dominance, the digital audio space is in fact dominated by Dolby technology.

AgFeed Industries Completes Previously Announced Acquisition - China’s economy is bound to slow down just a bit as global macro factors diminish the competitive advantage of its low cost labor force. Nevertheless, population growth is unlikely to slow much and all those billions of hungry mouths to feed bode well for food companies. AgFeed Industries (FEED) produces hog feed and chicken feed. The company is aggressively expanding into hog raising and turning itself into a vertically integrated food producer.

Economist.com — “Pick almost any American newspaper company and you can tell a similar story. The ABC reported that for the 530 biggest dailies, average circulation in the past six months was 3.6% lower than in the same period a year earlier; for Sunday papers, it was 4.6% lower. Ad revenues are plunging across the board…”

Fact: many technologists were quick to predict the death of pen and paper with the rise of typewriters and personal computers. Similarly, many technologists predicted book sales would decrease with the rise of e-book readers.

That being said, older technology can often persist in light of new technology through adaptation (i.e. new technology does not always obviate older technology). I believe the same is true for newspapers and magazines, provided they accentuate their remaining value (portable text, reputation, local community, and/or more non-ephemeral reporting like features).

[via Digg]

In March I read a post by Lucian Beebe, Director of Product Management, called Get Your Inside Connections with BusinessWeek & SimplyHired. I was simply jealous at the very cool interface that BusinessWeek offered to their readers, and immediately sent an e-mail to the address at the bottom of the post asking how we could do the same thing.

Thankfully, we got a quick reply and were able to give this functionality to YOU. How cool is that? A huge THANKS to LinkedIn (and the LinkedIn API) to help make your experience richer! Here’s how it works:

First, you get real data when you are actually logged into LinkedIn … so go login to LinkedIn! If you don’t login to LinkedIn, you’ll be prompted to, like in this picture:

Next, log into JibberJobber and go to the Company List Panel. This You can get there by clicking Companies on the main menu (or, in the image below, click on the link in the QuickView Stats for your Target Companies).

Next, on the right side of the List Panel you’ll see all the icons. You should see the little “in” icon (if you don’t, click Manage Columns and add that icon). Simply click the in icon and you’ll see a popup of who you know at that company, like this (these are the contacts that I have that have eBay in their profile… based on my connection relationship with them… so your results will look different):

Finally, you can drill down to any of the options they show… which goes to LinkedIn’s page, and shows as search results.

Again, thank you LinkedIn for opening up and allowing this type of functionality - it really does make the web a richer place!

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about my pessimism regarding the technology sector. The market had seemed to interpret the surprisingly good results reported by Big Blue (IBM), Google (GOOG), and even Yahoo! (YHOO) as reasons for unleashing optimism and a bargain hunting shopping spree for stocks of publicly traded technology companies. Maybe the recessionary environment and the woes faced by banks and the American consumer would not negatively impact corporate budgets for technology. My skepticism rests on the ability of secondary technology companies to weather the economic slowdown. In other words, I think there is going to be a bifurcation of the technology sector, with blue chips performing in line with expectations and second tier players getting hit hard by purchasing slowdowns.

How has my skepticism aligned with reality? As usual, I’m wrong more often than I’m right. Over the past week, Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT) all reported earnings greater than expectations. These blue chips however warned of weaker results in the foreseeable future. For the week, Apple stock rose 5%, Amazon ticked up 1%, Microsoft ticked down 1%, and Yahoo! fell a whopping 6%. Yahoo’s weak showing had a lot to do with Microsoft reiterating its reluctance to increase its bid for Jerry Yang & Company. These mixed results mask a surprisingly strong showing by the Nasdaq Composite Index which rose 0.8% for the week. This implies that a lot of the secondary technology issues performed better than other sectors of the economy. Industrials in the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose only 0.3% and the blue chips in the S&P 500 did slightly better with a 0.5% rise. We’ll get an even better reading on the technology sector as bellwethers like Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIMM), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), and Dell (DELL) report their earnings in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, I’ll be looking for a lot of smaller technology companies to run into a brick wall.

Macro

The media just started latching onto the rising cost of food story. All throughout Ben Bernanke’s easing of credit and interest rates, which in the short run looks like a success, I worried about his staying power because of inflation. The Federal Reserve is stuck between a rock and a hard place because of the conflicting forces of inflation and the slowing economy. Everyone knew about oil’s incessant march to record prices, but few worried about food prices. Recently, The Economist ran a cover story on the food crisis. Much of the blame rests with increased planting of corn for biofuels instead of wheat for food. The unintended consequences of government initiatives and regulations bolstering or subsidizing the use of ethanol are now materializing in record food prices. The head of the United Nations warned that the dearness of food could cause political and social instability. Asian countries are in a mini-panic because of the skyrocketing price of rice, the staple input of Asia. Riots have erupted in Egypt and even the prime minister of Haiti was forced to resign over food shortages. Crises bring opportunities, so rumors of American food conglomerates craving foreign food companies abound as executives weigh their next move in response to the food crisis. Will we want to drive more or eat more? That is a very basic question.

Micro

Interactive Intelligence to Announce First Quarter Operating Results - Interactive Intelligence (ININ) provides software applications used by contact centers or call centers. ININ has some award-winning products. One of the most interesting to me is their Interaction EasyScripter, which is software that allows for management of “scripts” for call center agents. Companies that rely on call center agents to sell products or perform customer service should find EasyScripter very useful. I’m considering using EasyScripter or something similar in the sales efforts of the startup I’m involved in. The company reports earnings after market close on Monday and analysts expect 8 cents of earnings per share for Q1 this year. ININ is one of the second tier technology companies that will test my thesis, that blue chip technology companies will do fine through the economic downturn while the smaller technology companies suffer from budget cuts. Full Disclosure: I currently have a long or short position in ININ in one or more of my private investment partnerships.

Decker surges on higher outlook - We can’t always focus just on technology and food. Let’s take a look at fashion for a bit, albeit low fashion. Decker Outdoor Corporation (DECK), the maker of those annoying UGG boots took short sellers on a 21.55% ride after reporting earnings growth of 18% for Q1 2008. DECK has other product lines, but the primary driver of growth is the UGG boots line. Always be skeptical about fashion fads. Take a look at the stock charts of CROCS (CROX) and Heelys (HLYS) for an illustrative warning.

Focused Strategy Helps Chipmaker Rise Above Sector’s Slump - Back to technology, I just had the power brick on my Hewlett-Packard Pavilion laptop fail on me. Replacement power bricks are unbelievably expensive. Why can’t laptop manufacturers standardize on power bricks and power cords so we can all buy a one-model-fits-all commoditized power unit? The Universal Serial Bus (USB) port has worked so well for consumers. Power Integrations (POWI) makes a tidy business supplying the chips that control power bricks.

Citi upgrades Sohu.com - I pay great attention to the China tech sector and, recently, the Chinese passed the United States for the most Internet users. Sohu.com (SOHU) is China’s version of Yahoo!, an Internet portal company. Sohu.com, unlike Yahoo!, is growing by leaps and bounds. Also unlike Yahoo!, Sohu.com has figured out online gaming. Going forward, its online game, TianLong Babu, will be a strong contributor to the bottom line. If you think World of Warcraft and online gaming has had a big impact on the American gamer, just keep your eye on what massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs) will do in China and the rest of Asia.

Netgear shares tumble after profit drops on US, UK woes - I love Netgear (NTGR) products. Netgear powers my home network. However, it seems that Cisco System’s Linksys division is taking market share by sparking an industry-wide price war. Wireless networking, once the next big thing, has become a commodity. Aside from a few gifted companies like Apple and Cisco, hardware makers often fall prey to the commoditization trap. It happens sooner rather than later. Netgear reported Q1 earnings dropped 20% and promptly saw its stock take a 16.74% dive.

Shares of Synaptics drop after fiscal 3Q profit slides - Synaptics (SYNA) specializes in touchscreen technology. It used to do a lot of business with Apple supplying technology for iPod user interfaces. The long term growth of electronic equipment with touch interfaces like the iPod, iPhone, and the flood of iPhone competitors soon to come bodes well for this company. Cell phones and smart phones will have increasingly intelligent touch interfaces. Even automobile dashboards will become flattened digital touch interfaces rather than today’s analog dials and switches.

Find my latest post on The Gadgets Page here.

“@kevinrose how do I get you to follow me back???” - anonymous self-proclaimed “social app guru”

This is Part 2 of a series that explores the science of Social Media Measurement. Let me preface this post by saying that this is a lighthearted post trying to come up with a simple measurement regarding a hugely successful social web service.

Previously, I explored the measurement of popularity, novelty, and attention on the very popular crowdsourcing news aggregation site Digg. My post was based on an arcane academic study involving the half-life of popularly “dugg” items. It turns out that stories frantically “dugg” by Digg members that make it to the coveted front page have a half-life of only 69 minutes. That’s a lot of work for a relatively short period of attention. Having that knowledge should prove useful to some marketers.

Why do we want to be able to measure social media? Why should we attempt to develop metrics? The ability to measure our efforts gives us valuable information to guide changes or course adjustments. It gives us baseline comparisons to measure against. It allows us to set measurable goals. It also helps us to make decisions when considering outside consulting help. In the social media space, there is a preponderance of self-styled “social media gurus” or “social app gurus” who try to trade off of non-existent influence. Like snake oil salesmen, they make grand claims about their reputation and expertise but their products or services are essentially worthless. Perhaps a few hard measurements could help marketers and advertisers identify the frauds from the really reputable experts.

This time around, I’d like to keep it a little lighter with a simple measurement I came up with to measure that amorphous quality called influence. This is a light-hearted attempt and nothing nearing the scientific exactitude I cited in my previous post. I consider influence as much more important than popularity, novelty, or attention. Indeed, influence implies popularity and attention. More specifically, I’m measuring influence on the hugely popular Web service known as Twitter. Twitter is a micro-blogging or mobile blogging service that essentially asks the question, “What are you doing right now?” When used correctly, it can be a helpful service for networking, sharing ideas, and staying abreast of buzz.

Twitter’s format is conducive to understanding and measuring influence because of its reciprocal structure of “follows” that makes for easy measurement. You can elect to “follow” other members of the Twitter service. Every time someone you are following “tweets” about something, you will get that update on your cell phone. People who elect to follow you are “followers.” Your followers get an update every time you twitter about what you’re doing or thinking.

Initially, most people “follow” their friends and family but eventually move to following other people on the Twitter network. Implicitly, people follow each other because they find each other interesting. I wouldn’t want to be following someone who is telling me and the whole world, “I’m going to the bathroom.”

There is a small group of highly influential members of Twitter that are so interesting and have such important thoughts to share that they quickly draw a whole army of “followers.” Their follower bases grow organically, naturally, and virally because they add a lot of value to the network and their followers. They don’t need to actively campaign for followers. Not surprisingly, their follower base is much larger than the number of people they follow.

There is also a larger group of sycophantic, self-branded “social media gurus” or “social app gurus” that have very little actual influence. We all know a few of these “leaches” and if they weren’t so spammy, they’d actually be mildly amusing. They are actively trying to get more followers. They spend a lot of time in self-promotion mode. They kiss your butt and play nice so that you might decide to follow them. They trade “follows” like high schoolers in a popularity contest. So instead of “I’ll vote you for best looking if you vote me for most popular,” they say “I’m following you so will you please follow me too?”

Not all “social media gurus” are frauds. However, you can spot the ones that are frauds when they try to build their follower base by asking truly influential Twitter members questions like this, “@kevinrose how do I get you to follow me back???” This is one case of a self-proclaimed “social app guru” asking Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg and a member of Twitter, to follow him. How inane is this? Please get a life.

So let’s get right into the Twitter Influence Ratio. It’s very simple really and very similar to the price to earnings or PE Ratio found in stock investing. In the financial PE Ratio - you get an idea of how much in earnings you getting for every dollar you pay for the stock. It’s a nice, convenient measure of how much value you’re getting or your bang for the buck.

Stock Price / Earnings = PE Ratio

EMC Corporation: 15.56 / 0.77 = 20.21

In the above example, EMC Corporation (EMC), a data storage company, saw its stock close at a price of $15.56 for the day. During the last twelve months, EMC earned $0.77 per share. Dividing $15.56 by 77 cents gets you a PE Ratio of about 20.21 - pretty simple right? Essentially, what the PE Ratio tells you is that for EMC Corporation stock, you are paying approximately $20.21 for every one dollar of earnings. Like I said, bang for your buck.

With the Twitter Influence Ratio, we’re going to try and get a read on someone’s true influence level. It stands to reason that if you are interesting, have neat thoughts, and add value to the network, people will naturally gravitate to you and “follow you.” Some of the most influential members of Twitter have many more followers than people they follow. So the Twitter Influence Ratio will attempt to express this relationship as;

Followers / Following = Twitter Influence Ratio

Example: 533 / 609 = 0.875

In the above example, one such self-branded “social app guru” has 533 followers and is following 609 others. This gives him a Twitter Influence Ratio of only 0.875 which means this person is not very influential. Intuitively, you ought to have more followers interested in what you have to say than the number of people you’re following. One might say that 533 followers is nothing to sneeze at. I agree, but the fact that this person has so many followers and is following so many more makes it highly probable that he is what is known as a “friend whore” or “follow whore.” Like the desperate high schooler, he’s just trading votes. Someone with a TI Ratio of less than 1 but is only following 30 others is probably not out there actively trading votes or follows. If I were looking for a consultant, I would run away from this guy and find someone more influential.

Let’s take a look at some folks who are truly influential. The aforementioned Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, is one of the most influential members of Twitter. As of this writing, he has a Twitter Influence Ratio of:

18,416 / 72 = 255.77

The Twitter Influence Ratio attempts to give you a sense of how influential someone is. In Kevin Rose’s case, for every one person he follows, he has just over 255 persons following him.

Justine Ezarik, or iJustine, a talented web designer is another influential member of Twitter:

12,652 / 1,047 = 12.084 Twitter Influence Ratio for iJustine

Of course, the TI Ratio doesn’t always work. If I claimed that it did always work, you could peg me as one of those phony, self-branded “social media gurus.” In the case of Robert Scoble, one of the most influential journalists and bloggers in the technology industry, he actually has a really low TI Ratio:

20,939 /21,243 = 0.985

Scoble’s a journalist so he has to follow as many people as possible to get the scoop. He is basically following as many people as he has followers. His Twitter Influence Ratio is almost a ratio of 1.

Well, there you go, the Twitter Influence Ratio is not a perfect measure of influence. But it does give you a sense of who is truly influential and who is just pretending. OK, this will probably be the last time you here me talk about the Twitter Influence Ratio. Tell that “social media guru” or “social app guru” you know to stop his Twitter spam before you “unfollow” him!

Update: I just found someone, Andreas Gohr, who wrote a script to tell you if someone on Twitter is likely to be a spammer. It’s based on the same principles as the Twitter Influence Ratio and is very well thought out. It helps classify users on Twitter in these categories: Newbie or Social Climber, Twitter Spammer, Twitter Caster, Notable, and Socially Healthy. Good stuff. My friend, the “social app guru” is definitely a Twitter Spammer.

I wrote about my short thesis on Netflix (NFLX) just about ten days ago. The company just the other day reported growing earnings but disappointed with a weak outlook. The stock fell a whopping 24% as investors ran for the exits. The market responded negatively to the increase R&D costs for developing streaming technology that would allow the company to deliver long-form digital video content over the Internet. These recent expenses have slowed down profit growth and promise to weigh on foreseeable future earnings.

My short thesis was based on the potential for developing technologies from obscure upstarts to steal market share from Netflix and competitor Blockbuster (BBI). I also reasoned that Comcast (CMCSA) is really the company, however hated cable companies might be from a customer service point of view, that has the greatest chance of success in the battle for the future of digital video distribution.

For any chance that Netflix stands to survive the creative destruction of innovation, the company indeed needs to be spending more money developing next generation technology for content distribution. The market’s shortsightedness is punishing the company for the one thing it should absolutely be doing to ensure long-term survival. The only other way for it to acquire the technology to survive is to buy it from technology startups that are actively trying to address the digital content distribution problem.

So although my trade is working, the reason for the stock’s drop is not what I posited. Long term, I stand by my short on Netflix and Blockbuster, their valuations are currently too high once their competitive advantages are eroded by new technologies.

Last night I got the umteenth e-mail asking me what I think about Naymz.

Naymz is a site that I have recommended, based on a friend’s recommendation, as a tool to help you claim more of your online profile.

Theoretically it is a site that helps your name come up on a Google search … at least, that’s the way I understood it.

I finally signed up for Naymz to check it out. I was discouraged by two things:

1. Of course, like social networking sites, they wanted me to invite all of my contacts to the network. The problem with this, in my opinion, is that if I do this, I’m strongly endorsing Naymz to my contacts, which I’m not in a position to do yet. Plus, I might recommend it to a few people, but I don’t want to do a blanket endorsement to all of my contacts (some of whom I have a strong (or weak) relationship with).
2. Just by filling out my profile I get points. Want another five points? Put what country you are in (but don’t put USA - they don’t like abbreviations)! Want another five points? Put what city you are in! Hold on… I want privacy (well, you know what I mean :p)… this idea of getting points is a yellow flag for my skeptical side.

My understanding is you get more points, which makes you more credible (ie, the more points you have, the more real/genuine/trustworthy/??? you are… ??).

Instead of discouraging anyone from using this, I’ll throw it right back at you - what do you know about Naymz? Is this something that has helped you, or that you recommend? How or why?

If you are interested in reading more about Naymz, here’s some buzz in the blogosphere:

• Liquid HR writes Naymz.com business model and context
• Favorite Online Resources writes Naymz Reputation Network
• Technology Evangelist writes A Stalker Enabled Social Network (note, his argument applies to LinkedIn, too. Read the comments on that post to figure out how to “resolve” it, if you are concerned (I’m not))
• Web 2.0 Weblog writes What The Hell Is This Naymz Thing?

Here is a list of things I want to see changed on the Web:

• Social Networking
• Blogrolls
• RSS feeds
• email

It helps to think conceptually of the commonalities in these items. Primarily, I’m concerned about how we manage information flow. In the future, sociologists will look at our nascent digital culture as a clumsy initial attempt to acquire and manage useful information and relationships. Our current clumsiness is resulting in information overload. Our feeble attempts at keeping up with information flow is leading to new symptoms of “digital addiction” for which we have few remedies short of disconnecting and turning it all off.

Social networking is obviously a big idea with big problems. If I can muster some good thought and eloquence, I might visit this topic at a future time. The problem set is so huge and daunting that I’m honestly intimidated by it. I’m not one of these amateurish, self-styled “social networking gurus” or “social app gurus” who think they have the answers while spouting nonsense and demanding ill-deserved retainer fees.

Blogrolls used to be novel and useful. Good bloggers often included other great writers in their blogrolls. Blogrolls were great places to discover more great content back when blogging was new and we had tolerance and time for discovery. Blogrolls now are bloated and less helpful. The problem boils down to one word: Awareness. We are unaware of what is going on behind our blogrolls. I don’t have a blogroll because of the ineffectiveness of blogrolls. Maybe its time we scrap the blogroll.

A related problem is RSS feeds. RSS feeds are a great solution to the aforementioned blogroll problem. Instead of clicking through blogrolls to find content or information, RSS feeds bring content back to you anytime your “subscriptions” publish new content. Generally, you would subscribe to individual bloggers or news content sites. However, we’ve all seen our RSS subscriptions grow to gargantuan proportions because we’re reluctant to miss out on anything our favorite bloggers are writing about.

The problem is, even our favorite bloggers seldom write about things we care about. That’s why the most popular blogs are focused on very specific verticals. TechCrunch covers the technology startup space. The Huffington Post covers politics, and even more specifically, politics from a liberal or progressive point of view. Engadget is a blog about gizmos and electronic gadgets. The Official Google Blog is about all things Google (GOOG). Curiously, ProBlogger is focused on blogging and making money with blogs.

This blog, Incoherence, will never get popular because it is scattered all over the place. It is literally a latticework of incoherent topics that appeal to me personally. I have some major areas of focus but even these are disparate enough that few people will derive consistent value from subscribing to my RSS feed.

Indeed, RSS feeds need to be rethought. Managing this channel of information flow needs to be rethought. Perhaps the very method or paradigm of information acquisition needs to be completely redesigned.

Email is the big hairy monster. I don’t pretend to know how to fix email, but I do have ideas of what I’d like to see so please bear with me as I brain dump. Everyone knows about the hazards of email including spam and phishing so I won’t get into that here. It goes without saying that security is a chief concern.

Email has changed the least of all the foundational technologies of the Internet. We now have sophisticated filters that help us fight spam and phishing, but aside from that, the basic functionality of email hasn’t improved much over the years. It is still a “solid-state” piece of information that doesn’t change or react dynamically to customized user needs. The dynamism that does occur must occur over a thread of conversation that changes from a delayed back and forth between conversation participants.

Another problem is the outdated link concept within email. With current technology, we’re mostly limited to the ability to type out Web addresses as links within email. When my bank or car dealer sends me an email, they must provide a link to an external website that will take me where they want me to go. This opens up a whole set of vulnerabilities that spammers and phishers try to exploit. A dynamic approach to email might solve this problem.

New ideas abound so I will explore some companies addressing these problems in future posts. I believe that fresh thinking and action in these areas will result in next generation innovations that will indeed create great value.

Venture capital follows the public equity markets. So it is no coincidence that many VCs think that funding activity will slow down in the foreseeable future. KPMG, the large accounting firm, surveyed venture capitalists and found that 69% of respondents think that we are currently in a recession. A whopping 90% believe we will see a drop in initial public offerings. All in all, this will result in less money raised in venture capital partnerships and thus less money available for startups. Startup funds will find it exponentially harder to raise institutional money. It is often these first-time funds that are willing to take the most risks to deploy capital in a quick manner, the proverbial “quick trigger.” Second-tier ideas and management teams get funded in bull market environments, resulting in an increase in overall funding activity. In a bear market environment, the more venturesome first-time funds can’t raise enough money to take second-tier risks. This leads to a drop in overall funding activity.

Another report by the National Venture Capital Association found that only five venture-backed startups achieved an IPO in Q1 2008. We’ve never seen levels this low since the bottom of the bear market in Q2 2003. A public market with a healthy appetite for new issues is essential for the venture capital industry. It drives the lucrative exits that VCs are looking for and also, in a roundabout way, cycles money back into venture fund coffers for the next generation of startups. In a market wary of IPOs, the only remaining exit opportunity is acquisition by strategic buyers.

We know that VCs are frustratingly lemming-like in behavior. As with all investment activities and fields, it is much safer to follow the crowd or herd than to venture out, pardon the pun. But as with all investment activities and fields, it is much more profitable to invest with a contrarian framework.

Bull market vintage funds usually pay top dollar in terms of valuations. It is notoriously difficult to time the markets, but a good or lucky venture fund could exit handsomely on a few investments while valuations are still rising. However, most investments will have been made at the most expensive valuations. This is not usually a recipe for success.

Bear market vintage funds usually buy equity in startups at favorable valuations. It is still notoriously difficult to time the markets, but the depressed valuations paid by venture funds make it more likely their exits will be profitable. Investments made now while we are in a bear market will take several years to harvest. When portfolio companies are ripe, if history is any guide, the markets will have turned for the better and exit opportunities will abound.

What would I do if I wore the shiny shoes of a VC? As I said before, I would resolutely shun the second-tier ideas that are social networking apps built by self-styled “social networking gurus” or “social app gurus” because these toy ventures will never achieve noticeable success. If I had to play in the Web 2.0 playground, I would concentrate on “primary platforms” that will compete directly against existing social networks like Myspace (NWS-A) and Facebook in a unique way. I’m sure there are entrepreneurs frantically trying to figure out different ways to address the social networking space. I would not fund any social networking apps that would need to exist within Myspace, Facebook, OpenSocial (GOOG), or other platform ecosystems. In the big picture, the cost to build a primary platform versus a secondary web application, or even networks of secondary web applications, differs little. The reduced cost of building consumer Web 2.0 businesses means perhaps we should be allocating less capital to this space anyway.

Of course, not everything is Web 2.0 - let’s not be myopic here. Enterprise 2.0 looks promising as it actually has a potential revenue model around it. I’m crossing my fingers that the clean tech guys will launch something truly revolutionary and world-changing. The already significant attention given to that space by VCs will pale in comparison to the resultant capital flooding to clean tech if some genius scores a big hit.

What would I do if I wore the worn-out sneakers of an entrepreneur? I would try and do what Marc Andreessen did with Ning and raise more money than I need to weather the coming slowdown. Giving up a bit more equity in this environment makes sense in order to ensure that my startup makes it through alive. This is exactly what I’m trying to do with my new stealth mode startup. Now I’m no Andreessen and my deal is so new, but I’ll just have to keep pitching to see how far we get.

Prompted by the rumblings of activist hedge funds Harbinger Capital and Firebrand Partners last month, I wrote about the New York Times (NYT) and its evolving technology assets. I found the Times to be surprisingly forward-thinking in its investments in the online world. As a strategic investor, it has made some fairly impressive investments in innovative startups that could solve the riddle of monetizing online news and content. Its investments include bets on blog advertising networks, news aggregation websites, blogging platforms, video sharing sites, job search engines, mobile Web technology, and advertising management technology.

The question really is, will the newer investments and initiatives take hold in time to stem the bleeding? Traditional classifieds advertising, the lifeblood of old line newspaper operations, is quickly disappearing as cheaper online alternatives destroy that business. The Times just released its earnings report and it isn’t pretty. The latest quarter resulted in a $335,000 loss compared to a $23.9 million profit in the quarter a year earlier.

My sense is that Harbinger and Firebrand are getting the Times for a bargain if indeed they can insert their own directors onto the board and fix some strategic errors. The company has agreed to expand the board to 15 seats from 13 but this proposal will need to be approved by shareholders. I expect that disgruntled shareholders will consent.

Here are some notable points or ideas sparked from the earnings release:

• Overall revenue dropped but circulation revenue actually increased 25%. This was made possible by raising prices on newspapers like The Times and The Globe. This to me seems ridiculous. Physical, cellulose-based newspapers are no longer premium products. The short term boost in circulation revenue will quickly fade as customers flee to online news sources. Younger readers are already there and older readers will soon be there. The strategy should be to gently help older readers make the transition from paper to Web. In order to do this, the company should actually be lowering prices on newspapers to increase readership. Content should then be written and presented in such a way as to encourage usage of online properties the company controls.
• The About Group, the company’s Web division, showed healthy gains in revenue and income. Online efforts are working so continued investment in this space is imperative. I’d look seriously at buying news aggregation and crowdsourcing website Digg.com - a company that has been trying to sell itself. It’s one of the Web’s most popular websites and it has been for sale for quite some time. Perhaps the asking price has been lowered.
• Local search and local advertising is the next big thing on the Internet. Venture capitalists are looking for the next generation of startups that will displace first generation local services like CitySearch (IACI) with intelligent application of search engine technology, search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), and geostamping technology. The best implementations are probably still being stewed over by entrepreneurs, but some existing acquisition candidates include Zillow.com, Local.com, LocalBizNOW, ZipLocal, and Smalltown.

As I have said before, “if creative destruction is going to happen, you might as well do it to yourself.”

Optimism abounds with the market resolutely shaking off bad news while focusing myopically on the good, or relatively good, news. The cheerleaders on CNBC (GE) can scarcely be heard uttering the dreadful words of inflation, recession, stagnation, credit crisis, and foreclosures. Happily, they talk about earnings beats. Surprisingly, there are a number of really substantial earnings beats that seem to justify the current sanguine tone of the market.

A lot of the beats thus far have come from blue chip companies that dominate their industries and sectors. Logically, this makes sense. If we are in a recessionary environment, only our very best companies will be able to capture market share. Secondary companies or second tier competitors will lose market share in tough environments. I suspect that the cash coffers of the Fortune 500 will soon start to be deployed, resulting in a nice pickup in mergers and acquisitions activity and the buying of market share. Beware the rash of earnings reports coming from the middling middle of our corporate roll call.

Now, on with the ceremony:

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. Q1 2008 Earnings Call Transcript - The maker of the revolutionary da Vinci robotic surgical system, this has been a growth stock for the future and the recent past, but apparently not for the present. After hours, Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) reported EPS growth of 81% and sales growth of 65%. These numbers actually beat estimates, something this company has become habitually good at doing. However, the beat was not as large as previous beats and the stock dove 8.6% in after hours trading. Come again? Kudos to the boys at Bespoke Investment Group for calling the potential for a “bad beat.” Full Disclosure: I currently have a long or short position in ISRG in one or more of my private investment partnerships.

IBM shares rise to highest price in 6 years after earnings - Big Blue (IBM) is one of the primary drivers of this recent rally. While everyone was gloomily expecting credit crisis-sickened earnings, the House That Watson Built comes out with an outstanding report. Net income rose a whopping 26% while revenue grew 11% during the first quarter. I have to quibble here with the unalloyed euphoric reaction. The ability to cut or manage costs is exactly what is needed in a recessionary environment and while revenue grew healthily, this is not a case of sales growth keeping in line with profit growth. Everyone else is taking this bellwether stock as indicating unexpected strength in the technology sector. Extrapolation is a dangerous game to play. IBM’s domestic business represents only 35% of total revenues. Unless your small-cap technology stock has a global presence, you may be disappointed yet.

Russia’s White Gold - Cramer is an entertaining fellow. He’s onto the story of how American food conglomerates are beginning to crave Russian food makers. Gobble, gobble, gobble, buying on acquisition speculation is for turkeys. Wimm Bill Dann (WBD) is one such Russian food maker and has benefited from the worldwide inflation of food prices. I’ve mentioned before that food inflation will make us all a little hungrier and Ben Bernanke’s job a little harder.

Crown Holdings sets high following jump in 1Q profit - Population growth in emerging countries is one of the main drivers of the growing demand for food. Someone’s got to package all that food to meet exploding demand from a burgeoning global marketplace. Crown Holdings (CCK) has been a big beneficiary of the demand for food and thus the derivative demand for packaging for food. Beware the toxic balance sheet. Beware even more the equally strong inflation in raw materials. Basic metals for beverage cans have seen strong price advances. Oil’s record-setting price march will surely increase the cost of plastic packaging.

Amphenol raises 2008 profit, sales outlook above estimates - My skepticism of IBM and the rest of the technology sector is made to look silly as smaller player in technology also beats comfortably. Amphenol (APH), a maker of fiber optic cables and connectors reported that sales rose 18% while income saw a 25% jump. Demand for bandwidth remains strong as countless millions waste precious minutes watching stupid videos on YouTube for free. Someone has to produce the digital pipes that make our devolved entertainment needs possible. Oh, did I mention that Google (GOOG) also pleased Wall Street with a rosy earnings report? I’m looking stupider and stupider by the minute.

I have been using Darren’s Related Posts plugin (DRPP) for a long time. For my purposes it was the best plugin for showing related posts that I had encountered. After a while I decided that I was not completely satisfied with the way that it seemed to favor more recent posts. I developed a new algorithm that I felt would not give preference to newer posts unless they were actually more related.

When I learned that Wordpress would be adding native tag support in version 2.3 I decided that I would create my plugin to work with tags after they arrived. Life got busy so I never worked on the plugin until version 2.5 came out (partly because I wanted to convert the post_meta “keywords” from DRPP to tags). I finally buckled down and created my Similarity plugin this week. I have tested it on version 2.3.3 and version 2.5 (I assume it will work with any version of 2.3).

To install it simply unzip the file linked above and save it in your plugins directory under wp-content. In the plugin manager activate the plugin. Settings for the plugin may be altered under the Similarity page of the Options menu (version 2.3) or Settings menu (version 2.5).

Options include:

• • Number of posts to show - this is a maximum, it won’t invent connections that don’t exist, set it to 0 (or less) and it will display all matches.
  • Default Display if no matches - if there are no matches this is what will be displayed, this is not displayed if there are matches, but fewer than the set maximum.
  • Text and Codes before the list - assuming you want to do a list this is where you would place the <ul> or <ol> You may also place any other code you would like to have preceeding the list.
  • Text and Codes after the list - this would be the place for </ul> or </ol> You may also place any other code you would like to have following the list.
  • Output template - this would be where you place the <li> tags. There are also 4 template tags you may use (in any configuration you can imagine) to define how the results are displayed
    • {link} - provides a link - equivelent to <a href=”{url}”>{title}</a>
    • {strength} - outputs the calculated degree of relatedness
    • {url} is the permalink for the related post
    • {title} is the title for the related post

The plugin allows for two function calls anywhere in your page templates (both use the same options):

• • <?php sim_by_tag(); ?> - determines similarity based on the tags applied to the posts
  • <?php sim_by_cat(); ?> - determines similarity based on the categories assigned to the posts

According to Wikipedia, milk was first delivered in bottles on January 11, 1878. As of April 14, 2008, it is still delivered to Wasatch Front doorsteps in plastic jugs.

Though Lindsey and I had heard and tried Winder Dairy in the past, we recently become customers in a cooperative with our downstairs neighbors, the Johnstuns. We pay about a dollar more per gallon than we would at retail. The milk (not to mention bread, cheese, and whatnot) is not only deliciously fresh, but it’s delivery method is loaded with history, something I’m convinced makes the cow extract taste even better.

To my surprise, milk is still delivered in isolated regions of the United States, but it’s seemingly a rare luxury for most. It’s amazing how long older technologies can endure, and with the quiet resurgence of web-to-order grocery delivery, the milkman may still have a future.

Fun Fact: I was in talks with Winder Dairy many years ago as a web consultant to redesign their website.

Unless you are an active participant in the Libertarian Party, this is probably the first and last time you will hear that Bob Barr is exploring a run for President in 2008. Why do I bother to mention it - because I was bored.

I got an email as part of an email list I didn’t know existed with the announcement about Mr. Barr. As soon as I located the way to unsubscribe I visited the campaign website. I decided to write about it because of how familiar some of the features were - they looked like they had been lifted off of the Ron Paul website. Some of the widgets he had looked like leftovers from the Mike Huckabee website. It turns out that the firm that designed Bob Barr’s site also designed Ron Paul’s site. (I have no information on who designed the Huckabee website.)

Unless Obama is convicted in October of having McCain assassinated in September there is no way we will be hearing about Barr in November. If he, or any other third party candidate, gets into any debates he will be largely ignored as every minor candidate is (as determined by the media) during each debate where they are allowed a backstage pass - I mean a place at the debate.

At the blogger briefing this morning with Mark Shurtleff I was reminded of why I believe that every public official ought to have a blog of some sort. Mark started by talking about how important he things that transparency in government is and how he has used his time in office to try to make more information available to citizens and help citizens work with their government - specifically with law enforcement (he is the AG after all).

Later, the discussion began to focus on blogs and media and I realized that running a blog as an elected official amounts to a certain degree of personal transparency. It indicates a willingness to put yourself out there on record where others can challenge you through comments and other responses. It also provides original source information about your positions where you can explain yourself without a media filter. This can prove very beneficial to any honest public official because anyone who is taking the time to look will be able to see how well you do at sticking to principles or how thoughtful you are in correcting a mistaken opinion as you gain more information.

For those who would say anything to get elected, that inconsistency would become apparent quickly when they blatantly ignore the positions they espoused on the campaign trail or else offer up lame excuses for changing their positions.

Of course blogging politicians will not solve all our problems, and those who do blog are not all perfect, but that willingness to leave a lasting trail and be held accountable is definitely suggestive of a good candidate and a good public servant.

Good PR gets Robert Scoble to break news for Cemaphore product. 22 Finalists named for the Utah Innovation Awards. Solera raises $5m from Canopy Group and the MWCN entrepreneur of the year for 2008 award goes to Amy Rees Anderson of Mediconnect Global, Inc.

Jared Youtsey a senior developer from Configuresoft and Warren Wilbee, a Microsoft Architect Evangelist sit down and discuss how to utilize Microsoft’s WorkFlow Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation for building workflow enabled service oriented solutions. Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is the programming model, engine and tools for quickly building workflow enabled applications. WF enhances a developer’s ability to model and support business processes. Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is Microsoft’s unified programming model for building service-oriented applications. It enables developers to build secure, reliable, transacted solutions that integrate across platforms and interoperate with existing investments.

Microsoft ISV Architect Evangelist John Wiese sat down recently with Karl Treier, Chief Technology Architect for Bluespring Software, to talk about building a solution on Microsoft Office Open XML, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Windows Workflow Foundation, and other Microsoft .NET 3.x Framework technologies. They also had a chance to discuss the benefits of Microsoft Early Adopter Program for ISVs and the ISV Concierge site.

How should SmartClient technology integrate with web solutions? VP Development at Vertafore Chris Kinsman talks with Microsoft Architect Evangelist Bruce Kyle about how and why SmartClient deployment of Windows Forms deliver the most value to its financial services customers in the AMS 360 product. And he describes how the Software + Services (S+S) company uses Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 in Windows Server 2008 to the update the data center.

Are you trying to produce a fantastic user experience on the Web? Come spend 15 minutes with Kapil Tundwal and Mohan Dhandapani from Quark’s emerging technologies and Warren Wilbee (ISV Architect Evangelist for Microsoft). Their discussion provides a crisp view of the real world experience of a large software company who is leveraging Silverlight for use with their commercial software package

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, released to manufacturing recently is designed with a single unified-code base for both on-premise and on-demand deployments. It enables customers to choose the right deployment model for their specific business and IT needs with flexibility to change deployment models over time. Sanjay Jain sits down with Doug Wofford President & CEO, and Keith Beindorf VP Product Development of 422 Group to discuss their insights into build/buy/partner decision making process as well as share some key learning and experiences on developing with the MS CRM 4.0 platform.

I have made a goal ever six months for the last couple of years to review every talk from general conference before the next general conference. I have to make the goal anew each conference because each time I fail - until now. Thanks to my introduction to ScriptureCast I reviewed the final talk from the October 2007 conference this morning. ScriptureCast allows you to create custom podcasts from the scriptures (and the last conference or two) where you set the starting point and completion date and it generates a podcast for you. They don’t have the Bible but I hope they are working to add it - though I have no information about whether they are or not. it’s nice to finally meet that goal - just in time to start over again (as soon as this week’s conference gets added).

I have been trying, with pretty good success, to be consistent at writing here. I had hope of ensuring that my blog would be consistent enough to hold the interest of those who read it, and attract responses to continue refining my thinking. At one point I had an average of more than 2 comments for every post on the blog. That may not sound like much to some people, but considering the large number of posts from when I started the blog where there was nobody to respond I felt pretty good about that. Then I went through and added something above 100 posts from my earlier blogging and the comment count was again well below the 2:1 ratio I had achieved - I’m almost back to that ration thanks to much feedback from a half a dozen regular readers.

I have recently recognized that I have been holding back somewhat because of that relatively arbitrary goal (the 2:1 comment ratio). I have avoided writing about things that don’t feel very current or likely to generate some interest. I have decided that being picky is not my strong suit and I would like to make more strides on another goal that I had made - to go through all the founding documents (especially the Federalist Papers). I have decided to push for two posts per day until I achieve that goal - one covering Federalist papers, and another like what I have been posting regularly (that way I won’t put off studying one of the Federalist papers just because I saw something interesting to write. Hopefully that study will make my other writing and thinking deeper and more grounded in principle.

Wish me luck.

William Borghetti, founder and CEO of Sendside Networks, is no stranger to big ideas–he sold his last startup, Campus Pipeline, to Sungard after automating inefficient “stand-in-line” processes at Universities. Now, in the same way FedEx® revolutionized traditional mail with overnight delivery, Sendside Networks aims to provide an entirely new way for individuals and organizations to interact and transact electronically. Borghetti and team see a future where businesses replace paper, postage, and delivery time. Instead Borghetti expects businesses to offer an exchange of rich, interactive messages, documents, even full-blown web applications in a trusted messaging environment free of spam, fraud, and phishing scams.

Borghetti’s shares the story with Brad Baldwin from Rocky Mountain Voices and explains why Sendside created an entirely new technology offering for sensitive and confidential communication. Sendside believes SMTP and “bolt-on” solutions (like encryption) just can’t extend SMTP’s life. To protect its vision, Sendside created an IP arsenal filing 16 patents.

Want to send or receive secure messages with complete tracking and guaranteed retraction–even after someone opens it? Sendside Networks opens for public sign-up on April 3, 2008.

Download This:iPod

DAZ Productions is a market leader in 3D graphics software and content creation. DAZ may be most well known for its “Victoria” line of articulated 3D figures and their popular and active Artzone.com community, a social marketplace for sharing art and exchanging ideas.

The DAZ Studio software –available as a free download, allows anyone to create their own 3D digital figures and content. The figures can be loaded into 3D posing and rendering applications to be posed or animated and then rendered. In addition, a wide variety of clothing, hair and other accessories are available for purchase which can be applied to the figures to achieve different looks.A variety of other support content is available from DAZ as well including such categories as vehicles, buildings, trees and plants, furniture, weapons, etc.

Christopher Creek, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President, describes the business model to Brad Baldwin from Rocky Mountain Voices, and then persuades Baldwin to pose inside a laser scanner that creates a 3D wire-frame model of his own body in 17 seconds.

Download This:iPod

Visit CouchCast.org for all of our shows. Come and be part of this sometimes wacky, sometimes funny and sometimes techie podcast. Hosted by Robert Merrill, Matthew Reinbold and Thom Allen.

While thinking about the importance of voting my mind led me back to a personal belief that voting a straight party ticket with one mark is a bad thing for government. I have nothing against someone choosing to cast all their votes for one party, but they should do so for each candidate - parties are not supposed to run the government, elected individuals are.

The only argument that I can imagine in favor of the straight party option on a ballot is that someone might accidentally vote for the wrong candidate when they mean to vote for candidates from a single party. Imagine that they vote D, D, D, D, D, D, R, D where that R was a candidate for the school board that they accidentally mixed up the name since there was less advertising for that race.

This is where technology can help us. Since we have already moved to touch-screen voting machines (here in Utah as well as many other places) we could change the straight party selection so that instead of casting our votes for us that selection would make the candidates from our chosen party stand out (change color, larger font - there are plenty of options) but the voter would still be expected to select the individual candidates for their votes to be cast in each race.

The last few weeks we’ve spent quite a bit of time on my re-branding… I hope to wrap this up and bring a message back to you.

It’s no secret that I’m big on personal branding. I love personal branding. Why? Because with a strong, or appropriate, personal brand you can create pull-marketing, rather than push-marketing.

When I was in my job search I was a nobody. I was cliche, a commodity, a dime-a-dozen. No one had heard of me, and I was a perceived expert in … nothing.

I knew that I had expertise, and could bring value to the equation, but nobody knew that, nor did they know me. My job search was a lot of push-marketing, and it was painful.

The power of a personal brand changes all of that. Create your personal brand, be on-brand, let your brand permeate your market, and you’ll see pull-marketing. People will call you and want to get to know you better. Your job search will be completely different (be aware, this doesn’t happen overnight!).

In my JibberJobber re-branding exercise I’ve been amazed at the feedback. Not only have the votes and comments been powerful, I’ve received a lot of advice outside of the Survey Monkey poll (hey, one more day to vote - go do it now!).

How would YOU do the same thing for YOUR brand? A lot of times, in order to figure out what our brand is or could or should be it’s helpful to understand how we are perceived. This has been huge for me, and it could be huge for you.

It’s actually quite easy. There’s a company called Reach Communications Consulting, which helps professionals like you develop and execute your own personal branding strategy. One of the tools they offer is a 360 Personal Branding Assessment. For less than $30 you sign up and get started. The idea is many of your professional contacts get a survey about YOU, and they anonymously enter their thoughts on who you are… helping you understand how you are perceived.

Maybe you think you are a hotshot, CEO-type that excels in strategic planning and motivating the worker-bees.

And then you get your Reach 360 feedback and learn that most people think you are more reserved, very logical and detail oriented - perhaps you are better suited for a Project Management role right now.

Just knowing that empowers you to make a better decision for your career path, or can encourage you to get better training and mentoring to become that motivating CEO.

There’s power in knowing how you are perceived. If this is interesting to you, I encourage you to check out the Reach 360 program. Again, it’s less than $30. If you need help there are over 200 certified personal branding strategists in 21 countries who can help you. My JibberJobber partners who are certified can be found on my career expert partner page. The partners who are sponsoring this contest who are also Reach Personal Branding Strategists are:

• Deb Dib
• Walter Akana
• Megan Fitzgerald

If you do it, let me know how it goes! I think it’s a great investment!

Footnote.com is adding social media tools to The Vietnam Memorial, one of the most recognized memorials in Washington, D.C. For those who have visited the wall, you know finding names is not easy. Nor does a visit to the wall allow you to learn more about the many people and heros who served.

Footnote.com’s new social media version of The Vietnam Memorial brings The Vietnam Memorial inside the comfort of your own home.