Who Talks on the Phone Anymore

Clive Thompson has a great piece in wired magazine right now about how minutes talking on the phone have been on the decline since 2007.  He points to the rise of other means of staying in touch, and the rising practice of text, email, or chat precursors to a call asking for permission.  I would imagine that caller ID helps us to not answer calls that we don't want -- further reducing the volume of calls.

I remember a time a few years back when I would come out of an hour long meeting and have 5 to 7 new voicemail messages -- in just one hour!  I had to clear out the box multiple times during a single day just to make sure callers were not presented with the voicemail box full message.

Now I have my voicemails delivered to my email box with caller ID info in the subject line.  Most of them never get listened to and I also get to listen to the ones I want in the order I want (like email).

The one thing that I would like to add to Clive's post:  I have more scheduled conference calls than ever before.  This must map to the expanded geography of the people I am working with, but I find myself doing this even for people close by that I would have otherwise met in person.

I wonder if this is tracked in the survey referenced, because often we will have ten or more people on these calls for a full hour -- something we never would have done before.  Also, does the tracking capture VOIP services like Skype and Google Voice -- there could be a rotation to that mode that is not visible to the phone data trackers.

Next up:  Video calls.  We are currently expanding our calling capabilities to have conference calls enhanced with video.  So don't count the phone as dead just yet.

Re-Entering Civiliziation

I have been out on vacation for the last couple of weeks and to my surprise was able to just about disconnect from the news stream.  Today I am reconnecting through one of my favorite activities -- reading the Sunday NY Times.  This has sparked a string of maybe a dozen blog post ideas, some of which I will just rip out here and then come back and dig into deeper in the days ahead.

What is China Going to do in Afghanistan?

China is not even in Afghanistan!  Well, the British were there a hundred years ago, and it contributed to their fall from world leadership, the Russians were there in the '80s and it drained their coffers, and we are getting humbled there now as detailed in the Wikileaks story of last week.  So could it be that China's rising star will land there next?

Waste and Corruption are the Same Thing

Following this thought, if we were to assess corruption by a the single measurement of money wasted, the US would be the most corrupt country on the planet.  The big numbers of course are: $1T on military spending and unneeded wars, $1T on the half of healthcare that makes our system cost twice as much as the next one on the list and without any incremental benefit, $1T of bail outs of banks and other institutions that don't reform, and $500B in trade deficits created by buying more from others than we can convince them to buy from us.   I am not sure how to parse the interest we pay on past debts, and undoubtedly there are many smaller numbers to add up.  So let's just call it $5 trillion wasted every year -- no one can top that!

The Internet as Border Town

From the NY Times piece on Mexico today: "In 1958, Orson Welles used the border as backdrop for his classic noir film “Touch of Evil.” (“This isn’t the real Mexico,” says the character Mike Vargas. “You know that. All border towns bring out the worst in a country."  

The story goes on to list all of the bad stuff you can do in Tijuana -- all of which you can get on the Internet quite easily: porn, sex, gambling, danger... maybe not drugs so much but I am sure if you looked hard enough you could.

Apple and Facebook are underway building the new AOLs to protect us from our attraction to a quick trip across the border for a little fun.

Alarming the Alarmists

The BP oil spill may have been avoided had the crew not disabled the alarm.  When was the last time you got up to see if the neighbors home or car alarm actually meant there was a robbery underway?  Not a day goes by without someone trying to tell us that we should pay more attention to the global temperature alarm.  Our economic indicators for GDP and unemployment are at a constant full volume. Now that we are so overloaded with alarm inputs -- how are we possibly going to focus our attention on the important things?

Often vacation is referred to as slowing down.  This high temperature re-entry into the news atmosphere leads me to believe that my vacation somehow released me from the usual confines and now I am returning to earth. 

Signs of the Future

Attracting customers to a business has involved putting an image in front of the largest population possible with the hope that some of them will come to your physical store.  This proved to be such a popular business tactic that municipalities started regulating retail signage with building codes and city ordinances.  It seems that voters like retail signs about as much as they like junk mail.  But we still have plenty of both -- so they must be effective.

 

(Credit for this photo goes to the blog Ephemeral New York)

Now that an increasing number of customers come equipped with GPS / mapping smart phones, the need for physical signs could become a thing of the past.  Search for what you want on the web, get directions, watch yourself blink across the map on the way there and you can find what you are looking for without ever looking at a sign in the physical world.

(Credit for this photo to the Observer.com)

One of these days we may find ourselves telling our kids that back in the old days we had to find things with the phone book, printed map, and signs posted on the side of buildings.  

How Good is Good Enough?

When building a product, or delivering a service, quality is a very big contributor to buyer/user satisfaction.  Anyone who has ever sought zero defects in either a manufacturing or service delivery context will tell you it is not possible.  True, custom one offs can get pretty close -- but I would argue that a volume of one unit does not a manufacturing process make.

I am sure there is a study out there (let me know if you have one) that shows the increasing investment required to capture each additional percent of quality.  I would bet that once you get over 90% the cost curve turns up pretty hard, that over 95% it is too steep to climb, and that as it approaches 100% it goes nearly vertical.  

So knowing that the extreme cost prevents an outright avoidance of defects, what next?  Here are three ideas:

1. Communicate that you know the facts of life. It is hard to be credible while saying that you strive for 100% quality.  Such statements do not empower the people in your organization that handle the exceptions.  If five of every 100 products is returned -- just say so.  
2. Don't pocket all of the money.  Cutting back on the pursuit of 100% quality can sometimes lead to a budget windfall.  After all, each percentage point on the way back down the quality cost curve will reduce costs dramatically.  Make sure to invest some of that money in other customer satisfaction initiatives.  You could even reward customers for finding defects -- i.e. shifting QA cost to the customer.
3. Be extraordinary at exception handling.  Nordstrom accepts returns of products they don't even sell, Costo accepts returns on electronic items, make sure that when the roulette wheel of defects calls your customer's number -- you are there to make the experience as good as possible.

Customers know products or services cannot be 100% defect free.  They can be satisfied with an exception handling process.  Just admit the problem,  give them something, and do it like a pro.

MetaWork

If metadata is data about data, then I say metawork is data about work.  I am sure this is not most accurate translation, but go with me just for this post.

When working on a team information about what you are doing is almost as important as the work itself.  Your team needs to know what you are accomplishing and when you are accomplishing it in order to synchronize the work of the team effectively.  The faster the pace of work, the more important information about the work becomes -- because more of the work is being done in parallel.  

There are many new tools available to make documenting work in progress as easy as possible.  Blogs, microblogs, and wikis are great ways to capture information quickly and make it accessible to the people you work with.  The two things working against efforts to capture information about work are perception about what work is, and security.

What is Work

I count myself as a person who used to think that writing reports, sharing information about work in progress, going to meetings, and other "corporate" mumbo jumbo is a waste time.  I was the first one to say that stuff was not real work.  Real work was making deals and ringing the revenue bell.  

Every organization has a person or two that does the meta part to the extreme.  Their emphasis on building the file for CYA, or trying to win favor from execs by taking credit for the work of others, is enough to turn anyone off on good documentation.

Somewhere between the gun slinger that wants to ride in with the big deal at the end and the all talk no action kiss up is the person with just the right balance of work and metawork.

Security

Those that want to kill off open communication usually sound the security alarm.  Their organizations have barriers to the free flow of information erected to protect IP, or prevent competitors from gaining an advantage, or something of the sort.

Sensitive information, or even not so sensitive information out of context, can be used by enemies or competitors to do harm.  

I think that if there is someone on your team that wants to do harm -- security measures are not going to do much good.  Loyal employees treated well don't broadcast sensitive information.  Open communication uninhibited by security measures build loyalty in a paradoxical answer to the security naysayers.

Some Quick Rules of Thumb

* Spend a tenth of your time documenting

* If you think a team mate can re-use your work - document

* If you think a team mate is counting on your delivering something - document

* If you want to get feedback on your thinking - document

* If you want to get buy in to your thinking - document

* When in doubt go open (open = trust and loyalty)

* Don't wait until everything is settled to openly communicate

* If you find yourself keeping secrets -- ask why (and then communicate).

What are you NOT going to do?

Leaders spend a good deal of time talking about what they or their organizations are going to do.  At times more effort should be put on what they or their organizations are not going to do.  Everyone listening will code and decode the messages and decide for themselves what the leader is saying.   Without a concrete and credible declaration on what is not happening -- controlling the message is difficult.

Cortez Burned His Ships

When Cortez landed in Mexico his first order was to burn his own ships.  He had long ago proclaimed they were going to Mexico to conquer it, his men already knew that.  Without the ships it was pretty clear they were absolutely committed to winning the conquest.  Do:  Conquer.  Not Going to Do:  Retreat.

Palmisano Sold the PC Division

When Samuel Palmisano took over as Chairman and CEO of IBM in 2002 he engaged in a company wide debate over the values of the company.  He then wrote an email to the entire company proclaiming their newly articulated values.  Then in 2004 he sold the PC division.  Sure IBM had many product lines before the PC.  But for 20 years the PC had been a big part of IBM's image.  For many years the PC was called the IBM PC -- just like copiers were called Xerox machines -- even when made by Ricoh.  Do: Follow our Values.  Not Going to Do: Exempt any part of the company.

When deciding what you or your organization is going to do, articulating what you are not going to do is just as important.

Bank Shopping

Lately I have been shopping for a new bank.  The last time I did this was about seven years ago.  The comparison of the things I consider important in the decision says a lot about how fast our world is changing.

in 2003 my number one criterion was personal service.  I was leaving a large bank's private banking group where I had been for ten years or more.  The service had been amazing, and probably very expensive for the bank.  At that time the service took a noticeable turn for the worse; so either the bank had decided not to continue to invest in amazing service, or not to continue to invest in me as a customer.  Either way I was leaving in search of a replacement.  I also wanted my new bank to have online banking -- this was a Yes/No thing -- either the bank had it or it did not. 

Now my number one measure is online banking, second is security which is closely related on online banking, and third is branch locations, and customer service is fourth.  

Online Banking and Security

We all now know that all online banking experiences are not the same.  We also all know that everyone  "has online banking".  We have also been exposed to many online banking systems as our credit card companies have changed hands.  From this alone, I was able to try out the Bank of America online system because of my Alaska Airlines Visa card, the Chase online system because of my Amazon Visa card, and the US Bank online system because of my Travel Perks Visa card.  This demonstrated that all online experiences are not the same.  

Here is where security comes in.  I want my online banking to be secure.  I also want to be able to use it.  If the security measures are so extreme that I can't understand them -- or cannot get them to work -- that is a problem.  If they are too easy -- then I have to wonder when the Russians are going to get into my account.  I am sure security is a very hard thing to do well.  The measure is simple though.  If I can get in -- then I can use the system.  If not -- not.  

It was over security that I eliminated US Bank for the simple reason that it could never remember my machine -- and made me re-enter my extra security information every time.  I probably would have been OK with this -- after all I can remember 2 passwords and 2 makes it more secure.  But they put that check box about remembering this computer -- so I was trained to expect a better experience and they did not deliver.  There were other smaller functionality things that pushed them out the door.

It was over functionality that I eliminated Bank of America.  Their online banking system is like their bank.  A conglomeration of acquired units that really don't work all that well together.  The checking account group is different from the credit card group, every state is different, business and personal are different fiefdoms.  What a mess.  If you ever get on the phone with someone to help -- it is always the wrong person.  In addition, some parts of the online experience just don't work and without explanation.  At Bank of America it seems that online dysfunction follows real life dysfunction.  Not for me.

So Chase was left standing and I still had not graduated past my first two factors.  

Branches -- Really?

These are modern times, we do most of our banking online, so why do branches matter?  Two reasons:  kids and travel.  I want to teach my kids about banking and I want to do so by walking into a branch with their cash and handing it over the counter.  It is unlikely that they are going to be getting direct deposit of their allowance anytime soon.  

It is true that ATM cards work everywhere and should take care of any banking need that could occur while traveling.  However, being able to walk into a branch anywhere and have my issue addressed is still important to me.  Whether I need to get cash, notarize something, send a wire, get my credit card turned back on -- it seems like these days travel equals credit card suspension-- or exchange currencies, I want a large branch network.

People -- Still Make a Difference

So I opened an account to try it out.  After all, you never really know until you experience it first hand.  The people at Chase were great.  They even gave me their cards with direct phone numbers on them.  They got me all set up and were eager to win other business from me.  A very good experience.  Someone who knows what is important is running that company.

Business Lessons Learned

The business lessons that were reinforced for me through this experience were:

1. Partnerships matter:  The only banks I evaluated were ones I had been introduced to through the bank's credit card partners.  
2. Be careful of the Y/N:  Many bank executives probably still think of online banking as something they have. (i.e "We have that").  New innovations tend to get adopted in that way.  The difference in quality is important.  Having a car is different than having a BMW.
3. People Still Matter:  Customer service fell to number four on my list because my expectations had dropped so far that I was not inclined to make a decision based on it.  I don't think I would be a satisfied customer if I had signed up at Chase and had a bad in person experience.  And I definitely would not be writing this blog post

Please Somebody Make the iPhone News Stop

I was not going to say anything about the iPhone 4 antenna thing because I thought that doing so would in effect say that I too think it is actually news.  

So instead I am going to just say the opposite -- this is not news, let's move on.  Can you believe the coverage?  Look at this search from the WSJ a few minutes ago:

If by some insufferable malady you still want to read more on this topic, try this post by Dave Winer.  I particularly like the part where he says this about Apple: "You have to count your change, and don't expect them to do the right thing, unless you twist their arm real hard, and usually it isn't worth the trouble..."

Let's move on to something...anything.

Dear Microsoft (or anyone): Please Make This

I have written a bunch about how Microsoft should just focus on the enterprise.  However, if they are committed to the consumer -- I this is what I would want:  the iTunes of PC management -- maybe it could be called iPC.

I think Windows 7 is great.  Each of the two times it was installed on my machine it ran great.  Well it did for a month or so anyway.  After a while it just seems to get full, and like someone that can breathe in but not out.  Once it gets that full feeling everything seems to slow down.

But wipe the thing clean and it smokes again.  Unfortunately, to wipe it clean is a 3 or 4 day process.  Half a day to find the my files all over the thing and back them up, half a day to reinstall the main applications, a couple of days to chase down the other apps as I discover I still need them.  I am getting better at keeping track of all of my software license keys and install files, but the install, update, configure process is taxing.  Yes I do know about the rollback feature, but it has never worked well for me.  I go back to a prior point but the bloat hangs on and the performance really does not seem to change.  The last time I did the wipe and reinstall I got 10GB of disk space back!

So I would like someone to make iPC – essentially a parallel to iTunes that would run my computers.  One of the things I like about my iPad and my iPod Touch is that any time I want I can wipe the device and reinstall everything – in just a few minutes – push restore and faster than rebooting a Windows machine my iPod is completely reinstalled.

I think it would work like this: An application that would run on my desktop, backs up in the cloud, and keeps track of everything I install on my machine from the "App Store".  It would enable me to wipe my machine clean and reinstall everything with just one push of a button – it would be an infinitely better experience.

Now the insiders are going to say either: we have that already or we tried that already.  To that I say -- if it exists sign me up, and come on already -- Bob was 15 years ago!  Let's try again.  

The Demise of Large Top Down Organizations: Will China Be the Exception?

Sometime during World War II the large centrally controlled organization started to be undermined by the rise of smaller autonomous actors.  While the Americans and the Russians are still arguing over who won the war, everyone agrees that the Germans and the Japanese lost.  And they were defeated by a scattered array of small semi autonomous units from an informally coordinated group of Allies.  D day and Hiroshima were big institutional operations for sure, but the Allies made it happen, and the coordination was minimal or ineffective. 

Ever since then the large organizations has been on the decline. The world was re-ordered and marshaling the resources of an enterprise has been in rapid evolution from centralized to decentralized.

I bring this up now because evidence of this evolution is presented to us every day.  From our ineptitude in every war since WW II, to our inability to manage healthcare cost or quality, to the steady decline in the effectiveness of our education system, or our failure to regulate the financial markets and the protection of the environment, top down administration on a large scale is failing and doing so quite spectacularly.

I have a hard time imagining that China can be exempt from this trend away from large centralized institutions.  One significant contributor to their demise is their ability to deceive themselves about reality.  I don't know about Hitler, but the Japanese Emperor clearly was not getting accurate information towards the end of the war.  Later, the fall of the USSR was sudden and dramatic because those in power were deceiving the public and probably themselves too.  It would be interesting to look into how well China is doing in assessing the effectiveness of its policies.  When in complete control of the information, changing the results reported is often easier than changing the actual outcomes.  

This will be an interesting area to watch.

Double Time

I am using the double time (2X) feature on my iPod more and more often when listening to podcasts or books.  This is not a good thing.  Sure I am taking in the information faster, but there is no question it is less enjoyable. I do not think my motivation is from a time maximization neuroses -- but rather an impatience with poor quality recordings.

There are many benefits to audio books, but the one significant new element that too often is a drawback, is the addition of the style of the person doing the narration.  A good narrator is of critical importance to the success of an audio book. And it appears that good narrators are hard to come by.  I have abandoned many books based on the quality of the narrator.  I always think I am going to go and get the printed book, but often that does not ever happen.

To all of the authors out there -- do not read your own books.  Good authors do not often occupy the same bodies as good narrators.  The two exceptions I have encountered are Steve Martin and Michael J. Fox.  If you are an author, and your skills as an entertainer are as good as these guys -- go to it.  Otherwise leave it to the professionals.

Right now I am a few hours into David Kirkpatrick's "The Facebook Effect".  The book is good, narration -- terrible.  I am quite interested in the subject, so I am sticking with it at double time.  At that pace the large inhales between sentences are less distracting.  Ever notice how something like that will charge into your brain and get louder and louder until you are ready to jump off the nearest bridge?  I have to wonder if the guy ever exhales.  My mental picture is of this guy the size of a hot air balloon and I find my shoulders up by my ears, all scrunched up and waiting for the guy to pop.  Every so often I have to turn it off and go for a walk to calm myself back down.  

On the podcasts, I find that people that come from a traditional media background seem to be filling the space in between the commercials.  This is crazy in the context of a podcast because if you don't have any content, just shorten the show.  My favorite podcast is still Rebooting the News with David Winer and Jay Rosen.  Anyone thinking of doing a podcast should follow their lead.  Packed with content but still open enough that they can pursue tangents.  It is awesome and I eagerly await each installment.  The other end of the spectrum is anything produced by Leo Laporte.  Now I really like TWIT, and Leo does an amazing job getting interesting people onto his shows.  But they crawl, and double time is definitely needed.  I think he just cannot escape his history in traditional broadcast media where the challenge has always been finding enough content to fill out the hour.

Kevin Turner has Gloves Off and is Ready to Fight

It was a sharp contrast to Steve Ballmer's presentation when Microsoft COO Kevin Turner took the stage today at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.  For every implied competitive situation in Ballmer's presentation, KT took direct aim at a competitor, and was not shy about naming names.  It will be interesting to see the press coverage, because he was handing out some juicy quotes.  Try these:

"We (Microsoft) are the undisputed leader in commercial cloud services."

"Sharepoint online is the fastest growing product in the history of Microsoft."

 "The smartphone game is just starting."

"The Go Do is don't let our customers get Googled."

"We don't want some of the customers, we want all of them."

"In a market where we were left for dead." (about search)

"Don't let Customers pay the Apple Tax".

"It looks like iPhone 4 may be their Vista."

He didn't stop there.  Without hesitation he rolled into direct assaults on Linux, VMware, and Oracle.  After Turner's show, Microsoft's 640,000 strong partner army know one thing:  General Turner is itching for a fight and he is willing to engage on not just more than one front, but all of them.  Forget Sun Tzu and wasting time trying to figure out whose enemy's enemy is the friendliest.  Let's get busy shooting.  

As crazy as it seems for a strategy, it could just be the right recipe for Microsoft.  Microsoft's partner army is so large, so deep, and so well developed -- this kind of thing just could work.  Given the press over the past few months and the morale in Redmond, Kevin Turner's energy did seem to be quite welcome.  The Ballmer / Turner 1-2 could be a knock out.

Bill Says Steve has Taste, and Steve Says Bill can Partner

In my quest to figure out what is happening in the computer business I have been thinking a good deal about how we got here.  In two separate conversations in less than a week friends have pointed me back to the 2007 All Things Digital conference where Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal interviewed Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together.  The whole thing is available on YouTube here.  There are many fine moments, but if you want to cut to the best one, go to 3:30 of part 11.  Where an audience member has just asked what they had learned from each other and Bill Gates says:  "Oh I would give a lot to have Steve's taste."  He then goes on to eloquently summarize the magic of Steve Jobs all in a couple of sentences.  

The focus moves to Steve and he talks about Microsoft's skill at partnering: "Bill and Microsoft were really good at it." and Steve further explains how Apple didn't need to think that way because they were building the "whole banana" and Microsoft needed to be good at it because they needed partners to succeed.  This could not be more true today.  While a fair amount has transpired in the three years since this interview was taped, the basic facts are as the two founders said on that day:  Apple has taste and Microsoft knows how to partner.

There has been all kinds of news out of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner conference this week about how Microsoft is going to leverage its partner ecosystem to be the biggest player in the cloud and other areas.  I don't think anyone could have said it better than Bill and Steve did in 2007.

The entire hour is very much worth watching and amazingly revealing about post PC devices, tablets, social media, multiple screens -- all the stuff we are talking about today.  Check it out.

Parsing Ballmer at WPC 2010

A couple of days ago I said that it was time that Steve Ballmer step and take a swing... at just about anything.  Today he was the keynote at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner conference in Washington DC.  

Here it is point by point:

• Thank you, Thank you, Thank you - to partners (9,500 in attendance) for taking Azure (cloud services) from 0 to 10,000 paying customers in the last 12 months.
• Cloud - A rework of the UW Speech from February - getting IT savings reinvested in services is both an opportunity and responsibility -- big emphasis on enterprise.
• Cloud - can do things that could not be done anywhere else (natural language, search...again focus on enterprise).
• Cloud - Better social and professional interactions (Sharepoint is the answer to Salesforce.com's chatter); Dynamics CRM online.
• Cloud - Server advances drive the cloud.  Managing scale is different.  Microsoft knows scale through windows update, Bing, Live, Hotmail.
• Cloud - Rich Client instead of thin client.  Smart cloud and smart/rich clients (not thin) - HTML5 is supported by MS. Cloud enabled Kinect (Natal). 
• Cloud - Windows 7 Slates and Windows 7 Phones - this is on to the consumer, uses language like "you need to see" and is different from the more concrete statements in the earlier points.

We are ALL IN together.  You want to know if you can bet on Microsoft?  If you want to help people be more productive -- you need to bet on Microsoft.  Microsoft Enterprise IT and IT management. If you don't want to move to the cloud then we are not your folks.

Here is some other coverage of his talk and the event:

eWeek's Microsoft Watch

Channel Insider

Seattle Times

My take:  He delivered on the enterprise, promised on the consumer.  Since it was an enterprise audience I suppose that works.  The slate promise was really the only new product announcement, but new product announcements were not what was needed.  There was not much encoded partner messaging -- and I think that is a good thing.  Microsoft has so much to offer the enterprise customer -- it is nice to see the focus on that and a minimum of other distractions.

Remembering the 2010 World Cup

I do like big sporting events and so I did my best to get into the World Cup.  It was a little easier to get into it before the US was eliminated, but even after that I kept watching.  The pure athleticism of the game is truly impressive.  The truly worldwide nature of the game was also refreshing.  The fact that the US was an underdog by a good margin also drew me in.  When it came to yesterday and the final I really did not have any strong feelings for either of the teams, so I thought I would cheer for the Dutch because they were the underdog.  That was until the game started anyway.  

I had not been following close enough to understand that Bert van Marwijk, the coach of the Netheraland's team, had been encouraging his team to play rough.  It was clear from the beginning that the central element of this game was what I had come to appreciate as the underlying premise in soccer:  you do what you can to injure the other guy when the ref is not watching.  Followed closely by objective number two in soccer:  do whatever you can to make it look like the other guy tried to injure you when the ref was not watching.  I admit that we have our share of violence in American football, and our share of theatrics in basketball, and it is hard for the officials in either sport to keep control of the game.  I am sure that my reaction to the way the game of soccer is played is also colored by my unfamiliarity with the game itself.  

To me it looks like all of the action in this world cup final was guys trying to break each other's legs when the ref was not watching, interspersed by occasions when the ref was watching.  This World Cup set a world record with 13 yellow cards and one red.  

Astonishingly, the one red card was not issued for the time Nigel De Jong of the Netherlands, executed a flying kick to the chest of Spain's Xabi Alonso.  An act described by the announcer as a Kung Fu kick.  Now I don't know much about soccer, but I suspect that this is extraordinary behavior.  Apparently not extraordinary enough, because the offending player got a yellow card for trying to kill his opponent.  From what I can tell, a yellow card is given out for intentionally doing something against the rules, and a red card (ejected) is either the second yellow card or a really bad version of a yellow card.  Seems to me that trying to end a players life would be in the really bad category.  Like with any sport, once a tone of lawlessness is set, the whole thing goes downhill.  

So my memory of the 2010 World Cup is going to be dominated by this scene:

Credit to the AP for the photo.

Microsoft Partners Ponder Their Future

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner conference starts on Monday at a time when many people inside and outside of the company are wondering what the company is doing and where it is going next.  Ever since AAPL passed MSFT in market cap everyone has raised the issue -- is Microsoft doomed?

The announcement last week that the KIN was dead did not help.  The Mini Microsoft blog really lit up with that one and the lay off rumors.

The consumer geek world has been amazingly silent about Microsoft -- which may be a good thing but says a good deal about where the excitement is in the industry (not at Microsoft).  John Dvorak wrote a column on Marketwatch about what Steve Ballmer should do.

The list of people giving Microsoft advice is long.  Here is a post I did summarize some of it last month.

Mark Anderson did a short interview on KPLU this week where he boiled it down to this:

• Microsoft has to decide if it is going to be in the consumer business or not.
• If yes, it needs to create a new division and get outside leadership.
• If no, it needs to double down on the enterprise.

I could not agree more.  In fact, I think Microsoft's strong position with the enterprise has been under appreciated and undervalued for a long time and mostly because Microsoft under-appreciates and undervalues it.

Microsoft has 9,000 products -- most of them are aimed at the enterprise, and many of them are quite good.  Microsoft has hundreds of thousands of partners that are in place and driving billions in enterprise business.  These are partners with substantial and established businesses with big revenues and loyal customers.  They are a significantly different group than could be found at the Google partner conference or the Apple Developer conference.

So this is it.  Monday morning Ballmer gives the keynote -- its showtime.

Are You Serious?!

Seriousness to me means having good intentions and doing your best.  Often seriousness gets a bad wrap because people equate seriousness with not having fun.  To this point I would counter with Jon Stewart.  Here is a guy that is having all kinds of fun, but is also doing his best to call the not so serious people out into the light of day.

Not Even Trying

I suppose this line of thinking started for me when I read Game Change and concluded that Barack Obama won the election in 2008 because he was the only candidate that was even trying to win.  Hillary was focussed on damage control for her husband, Edwards was chasing tail, and McCain was so bound up with his Maverick-ness that he could not put in an honest day's work.  As the book tells the story, McCain had no money because he felt it was not his job to call donors (he just did not like doing it).  Meanwhile Barack and Michelle Obama were having daily competitions to see who could make the most calls or raise the most money.  And this is the race for President of the United States!  Serious people have good intentions and try hard.  Obama was the only candidate that even showed up.

The Hardship of Moving

Marketplace did a segment this week on a GM plant closure where the workers were offered jobs at other locations -- but they had to move.  The central thrust of the piece was how unfair it was to ask employees to move to keep their jobs.  From the time of the wagon trains, we have always moved to create better lives for ourselves.  Why do we now think this is too much to ask?  

Giving the House to the Bank

The New York Times reported today that rich homeowners, and in this case rich is mortgages of $1 million or more, are much more likely to walk away from their mortgages than borrowers with more modest means.  One out of every seven mortgage of over 1,000,000 is seriously delinquent.  One out of every twelve of mortgages under 1,000,000 are delinquent.  Either one of these numbers is staggering.  Typical mortgage default rates are in the 2 or 3 % range -- this is approaching 10%.  The article goes on to explain that borrowers with means are walking away from their obligations because they just plain think they can get away with it.  

If we are going to keep our place at the top of the world heap we are going to have to work at it.  Seriously.

Microsoft's Best Investment Ever?

Does anyone remember Steve Jobs and Bill Gates getting together in 1997 right after Jobs came back to Apple?  On that August day in 1997, the companies announced that Microsoft would invest $150 million into Apple and promised to refresh the Microsoft products for the Mac OS.  

I have no idea if Microsoft held on to the 31 million shares they would have been able to buy for $150 million.  If Microsoft still owns those shares they would now be worth over $8.5 BILLION! 

Vic Maui on Google Maps (How to put Lat Lon data onto Maps)

This year I have some friends racing their sailboat to Hawaii.  The nine boat fleet left Victoria over the weekend and they should be there within two weeks.  This kind of thing is more fun than ever to track with the new web enabled tools available.  The race committee is posting the lat and lon and standings each day on the official web site.  The numbers are fun to look at, but not as revealing as a map.  

I thought it would be an interesting exercise to figure out how to put this information onto a map.  It took me an hour or so to figure out, and I think I can update it daily in about 10 minutes.  Here are the steps:

1. Use the web import tool in Excel to scrape the data off of the web site.   (Exel 2010, Data Tab, From Web...follow instructions -- very easy)
2. Build some formulas in Excel to format the data to be read by EarthPoint.  (combine the data imported, label columns -- also very easy)
3. Use EarthPoint to import the spreadsheet and create a KML file that can be read by Maps or Earth.  (just follow the instructions -- also very easy.  Hardest part is deciding on the types of Icons.)
4. Create a MyMap in Google Maps.  (Go to maps.google.com, My Maps, Create New Map, Edit, Import, follow instructions).  I did this step a few times until I got the thing to look like I wanted.  
5. Get Link to embed or email around.  (just click on the Link button on the top right corner).

Here are the results embedded: 

View 2010 Vic Maui in a larger map

Thoughts on Blogging After Six Months

This is my first post for the second half of the year.  So far I have made 170 entries to this journal and have really enjoyed the process.  I stopped a few months ago to reflect on the first 100 posts and the thoughts there are still central to my work on this blog.  My numbers have gone up and down a bit, but overall, I have now had over 2,000 unique visitors view over 7,000 pages on my blog.  I still have not many comments -- so if you have a thought, don't hesitate to contribute.  

Blog = Organize my Thoughts

The one thing I appreciate most about the process of writing is it forces me to think through my ideas.  It is pretty easy to throw out an idea in a conversation at a party and much harder to think it through enough to craft it into a blog post.  Also, I have found very interesting reading on the web that I never would have found otherwise because I make it a habit to search for thoughts similar to mine while writing.  I do want to contribute some original thinking -- not just say the same thing everyone else does.  When I find a piece that says everything I want to say, I just link to it.

Twitter = Keep Track of Links

I also make some entries at Twitter @jcleon.  These are links to articles I find that I want to go back to later.  Sometimes I will add bit of an intro, other times not.  I think I will be using Twitter more and more -- particularly after the World Cup is over.  I use backupify to back up my Twitter entries. This is a great service and gives me the ability to get the full list of links without being subject to Twitter's ups and downs.

So it has been a great six months and I am looking forward to hitting over 300 posts before the end of the year.  If you want me to write about something in particular, don't hesitate to put it in the comments.