http://crosstechpartners.com/blog.html CrossTech Partners is a Second Circle Technology solutions company delivering a comprehensive set of platform technology and services for digital marketing, event technology, collaborative networks, and audience intelligence. We provide products and services that use Second Circle Technology. Second Circle Technology is driving innovation today. In the mid-1990’s the Internet was the new driving force for innovation. Today, these technologies include New Media Strategies and Implementation, Mashups and Composite Apps, Virtualization, Enterprise Collaboration (social media), Web Oriented Architecture (SaaS), Fabric Computing (virtualization plus networking), and Unified Communications. 11/9/2009 6:46:53 AM Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:46:53 GMT Subscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with Pageflakes I have to admit to it &#8211; I am obsessed with this topic. I was watching this morning on MSNBC when they mentioned that USA Today is coming up with a for fee version of their online product. They followed it up with the &#8220;brilliant&#8221; comment &#8211; &#8220;Everyone should charge&#8221; and that &#8220;if everyone charged, [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/IzeZqz-9UAw" height="1" width="1"/> <p>I have to admit to it &#8211; I am obsessed with this topic. I was watching this morning on MSNBC when they mentioned that USA Today is coming up with a for fee version of their online product. They followed it up with the &#8220;brilliant&#8221; comment &#8211; &#8220;Everyone should charge&#8221; and that &#8220;if everyone charged, people would pay&#8221;. Sure &#8211; if everyone charged there would be no choice, but that sounds like the death statement of every industry right before the final nail was struck &#8211; &#8220;I do not understand, what we offer is great, what that guy offers for free is a sub-standard product in my opinion,why won&#8217;t people pay for what I offer???????&#8221;</p><p>Keep up that spirit &#8211; please. Keep pushing in the direction of futility, hoping that the entire world will follow the way of the media and publishing giants who cannot figure out a different business model to support their business that is stuck in second gear. What are you doing &#8211; creating opportunity. Look at Zappos &#8211; which just sold to Amazon for $800 million plus &#8211; when everyone else was looking at an industry and saying the consumer could not change and we cannot allow them to change and we cannot adapt to their change, this company came along and embraced that change, supported that change, and lived within that environment. And look at the end result &#8211; $800M. Not bad.</p><p>I see the door opening, and with every crack and comment like this, the door is just gettting wider and wider. Someone will come along with a lower cost, more efficient, consumer embracing model and will emerge the winner. Mark my words. Maybe the stars will not make as much money. Maybe the &#8220;Journalists&#8221; will not be as rich. Maybe the &#8220;personalities&#8221; will not be as famous. I am not sure. But will the consumer move backwards in behavior? Please tell me one instance where this has happened successfully in an industry. My bet &#8211; it will never happen in this one.</p><p>So who is going to grab the opportunity? Who will be the winner?</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/6NGAz9jovS4" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/IzeZqz-9UAw/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Everyone-will-be-charging-for-content-–-really/674b3a6b-cf6f-4716-bb0e-03adf783c6a2 Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:42:00 GMT 7/28/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Everyone-will-be-charging-for-content-–-really I have to admit to it &#8211; I am obsessed with this topic. I was watching this morning on MSNBC when they mentioned that USA Today is coming up with a for fee version of their online product. They followed it up with the &#8220;brilliant&#8221; comment &#8211; &#8220;Everyone should charge&#8221; and that &#8220;if everyone charged, [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/IzeZqz-9UAw" height="1" width="1"/> <p>I have to admit to it &#8211; I am obsessed with this topic. I was watching this morning on MSNBC when they mentioned that USA Today is coming up with a for fee version of their online product. They followed it up with the &#8220;brilliant&#8221; comment &#8211; &#8220;Everyone should charge&#8221; and that &#8220;if everyone charged, people would pay&#8221;. Sure &#8211; if everyone charged there would be no choice, but that sounds like the death statement of every industry right before the final nail was struck &#8211; &#8220;I do not understand, what we offer is great, what that guy offers for free is a sub-standard product in my opinion,why won&#8217;t people pay for what I offer???????&#8221;</p><p>Keep up that spirit &#8211; please. Keep pushing in the direction of futility, hoping that the entire world will follow the way of the media and publishing giants who cannot figure out a different business model to support their business that is stuck in second gear. What are you doing &#8211; creating opportunity. Look at Zappos &#8211; which just sold to Amazon for $800 million plus &#8211; when everyone else was looking at an industry and saying the consumer could not change and we cannot allow them to change and we cannot adapt to their change, this company came along and embraced that change, supported that change, and lived within that environment. And look at the end result &#8211; $800M. Not bad.</p><p>I see the door opening, and with every crack and comment like this, the door is just gettting wider and wider. Someone will come along with a lower cost, more efficient, consumer embracing model and will emerge the winner. Mark my words. Maybe the stars will not make as much money. Maybe the &#8220;Journalists&#8221; will not be as rich. Maybe the &#8220;personalities&#8221; will not be as famous. I am not sure. But will the consumer move backwards in behavior? Please tell me one instance where this has happened successfully in an industry. My bet &#8211; it will never happen in this one.</p><p>So who is going to grab the opportunity? Who will be the winner?</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/6NGAz9jovS4" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/IzeZqz-9UAw/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Everyone-will-be-charging-for-content-–-really/4f54f2af-ab71-4f84-ab0d-7ce8a4d4ca12 Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:42:00 GMT 7/28/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Everyone-will-be-charging-for-content-–-really I was looking around facebook the other day and came across this strange bit of functionality that I am guessing very few people know about&#8230;I had a &#8220;friend&#8221; who was tagged in a photo taken by a &#8220;friend&#8221; of his. I took a moment and checked out this photo. While there, I discovered that I [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/wFiDYWJBvPU" height="1" width="1"/> <p>I was looking around facebook the other day and came across this strange bit of functionality that I am guessing very few people know about&#8230;</p><p>I had a &#8220;friend&#8221; who was tagged in a photo taken by a &#8220;friend&#8221; of his. I took a moment and checked out this photo. While there, I discovered that I could browse not only the picture of my &#8220;friend&#8221; but the entire &#8220;album&#8221;. This album was loaded with photos of people whom I did not know but were in some interesting and potentially compromising positions. There I was, able to view the photos of people that were posted by someone who had assumed that they had posted them only for &#8220;approved&#8221; people to see.</p><p>In the new online world &#8211; the definition of privacy and permission has taken on a whole new meaning. Now, you could be at a party, someone you did not know could take a picture with you in it, that person could post in on facebook or some other online social networking site, and then people that person does not even know could be able to view that picture. Sound complicated? It is. Sound scary? It is. Particularly scary is the fact that few people know the permissions associated with what they post.</p><p><strong>So then &#8211; can I avoid it?</strong></p><p>I often hear people who say &#8211; &#8220;that is why I am not on facebook&#8221; or &#8220;that is why I will not allow my kid to be on those sites&#8221;. Well&#8230; that is not good enough. Can you say &#8220;that is why I am not going out&#8221; or &#8220;that is why I am not going to be around people&#8221;? No. But that is what it will take. In time, like everything else, regulation will take over once some people are sued over this. But interestingly, I do not think the regulators are smart enough to think through this problem. I am not sure who is?</p><p><strong>So what do you do?</strong></p><p>My recommendation is &#8211; 1) don&#8217;t avoid &#8211; participate &#8211; get smart by being a part of the new wave, understanding it, and then teaching yourself and others how to manage within the new paradigm, 2) educateand inform &#8211; help others to learn what is really going on &#8211; don&#8217;t fight it but educate so that people are more aware.</p><p>Your thoughts?</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/s1of1ImEesw" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/wFiDYWJBvPU/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Facebook-–-Did-you-know/98c7533c-2b81-4050-90fc-0a0164d6c63a Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:16:10 GMT 7/12/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Facebook-–-Did-you-know I was looking around facebook the other day and came across this strange bit of functionality that I am guessing very few people know about&#8230;I had a &#8220;friend&#8221; who was tagged in a photo taken by a &#8220;friend&#8221; of his. I took a moment and checked out this photo. While there, I discovered that I [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/wFiDYWJBvPU" height="1" width="1"/> <p>I was looking around facebook the other day and came across this strange bit of functionality that I am guessing very few people know about&#8230;</p><p>I had a &#8220;friend&#8221; who was tagged in a photo taken by a &#8220;friend&#8221; of his. I took a moment and checked out this photo. While there, I discovered that I could browse not only the picture of my &#8220;friend&#8221; but the entire &#8220;album&#8221;. This album was loaded with photos of people whom I did not know but were in some interesting and potentially compromising positions. There I was, able to view the photos of people that were posted by someone who had assumed that they had posted them only for &#8220;approved&#8221; people to see.</p><p>In the new online world &#8211; the definition of privacy and permission has taken on a whole new meaning. Now, you could be at a party, someone you did not know could take a picture with you in it, that person could post in on facebook or some other online social networking site, and then people that person does not even know could be able to view that picture. Sound complicated? It is. Sound scary? It is. Particularly scary is the fact that few people know the permissions associated with what they post.</p><p><strong>So then &#8211; can I avoid it?</strong></p><p>I often hear people who say &#8211; &#8220;that is why I am not on facebook&#8221; or &#8220;that is why I will not allow my kid to be on those sites&#8221;. Well&#8230; that is not good enough. Can you say &#8220;that is why I am not going out&#8221; or &#8220;that is why I am not going to be around people&#8221;? No. But that is what it will take. In time, like everything else, regulation will take over once some people are sued over this. But interestingly, I do not think the regulators are smart enough to think through this problem. I am not sure who is?</p><p><strong>So what do you do?</strong></p><p>My recommendation is &#8211; 1) don&#8217;t avoid &#8211; participate &#8211; get smart by being a part of the new wave, understanding it, and then teaching yourself and others how to manage within the new paradigm, 2) educateand inform &#8211; help others to learn what is really going on &#8211; don&#8217;t fight it but educate so that people are more aware.</p><p>Your thoughts?</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/s1of1ImEesw" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/wFiDYWJBvPU/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Facebook-–-Did-you-know/65f36382-3be3-4d18-a703-3adc0935f8f6 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:16:10 GMT 7/12/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Facebook-–-Did-you-know I do not want to sound preachy in my message in this, nor do I want to sound blind to the current economic gloom (believe me &#8211; I am seeing it every day&#8230;), but I am recommending to anyone who is looking for a job or is in fear of losing a job &#8211; Now [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/gYcKOzlU0cU" height="1" width="1"/> <p>I do not want to sound preachy in my message in this, nor do I want to sound blind to the current economic gloom (believe me &#8211; I am seeing it every day&#8230;), but I am recommending to anyone who is looking for a job or is in fear of losing a job &#8211; <em><strong>Now is the time to launch&#8230;</strong></em></p><p>The &#8220;pundits&#8221; might have their opinion, speaking of which Robert Gibbs this morning, in defense of the administration&#8217;s miscalculation re: unemployment said &#8211; yes we were wrong but so was every other blue chip analyst&#8230;, but the reality is clear &#8211; jobs have been lost and they are not coming back soon. So what is someone to do? Keep looking? Keep banging your head against the wall trying to find a job? I heard from a friend the other day who was describing a job fair &#8211; he said &#8220;it is a bunch of 40+ year old MBA&#8217;s standing around talking to people who say &#8211; &#8216;check out our web site&#8217;&#8221;.</p><p>My suggestion &#8211; launch. Control your own destiny and give yourself a chance, not only now but into the future. Be conservative, yes. But take advantage of this time to create a business that will allow you to control your future and be the one to determine your success. And I am not saying to think big &#8211; yes &#8211; no one is funding a startup. But start a pizza restaurant. Or a small service business. Or whatever you can do that can work and can allow you to be successful. I talked to someone the other day who discussed opening a golf range and doing golf and tennis lessons. Interesting idea.</p><p>Again &#8211; I am not this eternal optimist or the one who thinks the sky is always blue &#8211; in fact &#8211; if anything &#8211; I am a pessimist at heart. But the job market is going to get worse. And as we get older, it is going to get worse again. Your best bet is to control your own destiny and get ahead of what is happening and what is coming. Is it nerve &#8211; no question. Will you be happier &#8211; no idea. Will you make more money &#8211; maybe / maybe not. But will you be in control &#8211; yes.</p><p>We are headed into tougher time for workers &#8211; all around all the talk is about more layoffs, not more hiring. Make it simple. Start it while you can &#8211; even start it while looking for that new job. But take control of your future and own your destiny.</p><p>Am I wrong? Too optimistic? Thoughts?</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/rb_m9TkXt9U" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/gYcKOzlU0cU/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Now-is-the-time-to-launch…/80fa26ed-36fb-4bb9-b4e9-56db9a1df0bb Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:47:12 GMT 6/23/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Now-is-the-time-to-launch… I do not want to sound preachy in my message in this, nor do I want to sound blind to the current economic gloom (believe me &#8211; I am seeing it every day&#8230;), but I am recommending to anyone who is looking for a job or is in fear of losing a job &#8211; Now [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/gYcKOzlU0cU" height="1" width="1"/> <p>I do not want to sound preachy in my message in this, nor do I want to sound blind to the current economic gloom (believe me &#8211; I am seeing it every day&#8230;), but I am recommending to anyone who is looking for a job or is in fear of losing a job &#8211; <em><strong>Now is the time to launch&#8230;</strong></em></p><p>The &#8220;pundits&#8221; might have their opinion, speaking of which Robert Gibbs this morning, in defense of the administration&#8217;s miscalculation re: unemployment said &#8211; yes we were wrong but so was every other blue chip analyst&#8230;, but the reality is clear &#8211; jobs have been lost and they are not coming back soon. So what is someone to do? Keep looking? Keep banging your head against the wall trying to find a job? I heard from a friend the other day who was describing a job fair &#8211; he said &#8220;it is a bunch of 40+ year old MBA&#8217;s standing around talking to people who say &#8211; &#8216;check out our web site&#8217;&#8221;.</p><p>My suggestion &#8211; launch. Control your own destiny and give yourself a chance, not only now but into the future. Be conservative, yes. But take advantage of this time to create a business that will allow you to control your future and be the one to determine your success. And I am not saying to think big &#8211; yes &#8211; no one is funding a startup. But start a pizza restaurant. Or a small service business. Or whatever you can do that can work and can allow you to be successful. I talked to someone the other day who discussed opening a golf range and doing golf and tennis lessons. Interesting idea.</p><p>Again &#8211; I am not this eternal optimist or the one who thinks the sky is always blue &#8211; in fact &#8211; if anything &#8211; I am a pessimist at heart. But the job market is going to get worse. And as we get older, it is going to get worse again. Your best bet is to control your own destiny and get ahead of what is happening and what is coming. Is it nerve &#8211; no question. Will you be happier &#8211; no idea. Will you make more money &#8211; maybe / maybe not. But will you be in control &#8211; yes.</p><p>We are headed into tougher time for workers &#8211; all around all the talk is about more layoffs, not more hiring. Make it simple. Start it while you can &#8211; even start it while looking for that new job. But take control of your future and own your destiny.</p><p>Am I wrong? Too optimistic? Thoughts?</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/rb_m9TkXt9U" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/gYcKOzlU0cU/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Now-is-the-time-to-launch…/658b547a-6e60-453d-9232-d27f33b04ac4 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:47:12 GMT 6/23/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Now-is-the-time-to-launch… &#8220;I actually wonder if this post could have been titles &#8211; &#8220;Is there an opportunity arising that will make someone very rich&#8230;&#8221;&#8230;But&#8230; Bary Diller was quoted as saying -The Internet &#8216;Absolutely&#8217; Will Become a Paid System&#8217;. Time Projection: Within 5 Years&#8221; &#8211; http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19552. And he is not the first to make this statement. News organizations [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/GZEc3B_T620" height="1" width="1"/> <p><em>&#8220;I actually wonder if this post could have been titles &#8211; &#8220;Is there an opportunity arising that will make someone very rich&#8230;&#8221;&#8230;</em></p><p><!--[endif]-->But&#8230; Bary Diller was quoted as saying -The Internet &#8216;Absolutely&#8217; Will Become a Paid System&#8217;. Time Projection: Within 5 Years&#8221; &#8211; <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19552">http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19552</a>. And he is not the first to make this statement. News organizations around the work are grappling with this dilemma &#8211; the paradigm has shifted and their businesses and business models are proving to be out of touch and out of date. Everyone is scrambling to tell us that real content should be paid for and people should pay. This question is being asked by so many people and so many businesses as they struggle for survival and try to figure out the next generation of news and entertainment. But will they? Can you really stem the tide and change the mentality of a consumer who is accustomed to getting free content online? Or are you just opening a door for new competitors who can think of a reduced cost business model where they can still provide free content and can get reimbursement some other way???</p><p>I think there are 2 problems with the idea that content will be paid for. I wonder which business can be pointed to that provided free access and then successfully made the transition to paid. I cannot recall one that did it successfully. The internet mentaility is spilling over now and affecting conferences, magazines, newspapers, and televisions. And second, even if there were a business model to follow &#8211; are you not just opening the door to new competitors who figure out a lower cost model and do not charge for content? Media companies will argue that their content is superior, that their writers are true journalists and people should pay for that. But look at the trend in local news stations &#8211; the &#8220;credible&#8221;, &#8220;senior&#8221; newscasters are being replaced with younger, lower cost newscasters. Why? Because credible, while important, is not a deciding factor for the consuming public. The second issue is timing. There is a wave of ways to get news now, and that wave is growing. And to have these &#8220;credible sources&#8221; and &#8220;credible processes&#8221; intervening in the distribution of news slows down the process and ultimately causes these &#8220;credible sources&#8221; to be late to the game.</p><p>No question &#8211; these sources can and will become opinion pages and opinion sources and some people will be willing to pay for that. Is that enough to sustain these businesses &#8211; I would think not &#8211; but we will see.</p><p>So go ahead, start charging. Let&#8217;s see what happens and how it plays out. My opinion &#8211; the door is opening for new competitors and soon we will be hearing about news and information sources that we never heard of before, and some entrepreneurial thinkers will become very rich in the process&#8230;</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/28TciKYK2Nw" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/GZEc3B_T620/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Could-Barry-Diller-be-wrong/aff8d0e5-4435-4073-b26c-144282c7288f Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:33:18 GMT 6/11/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Could-Barry-Diller-be-wrong &#8220;I actually wonder if this post could have been titles &#8211; &#8220;Is there an opportunity arising that will make someone very rich&#8230;&#8221;&#8230;But&#8230; Bary Diller was quoted as saying -The Internet &#8216;Absolutely&#8217; Will Become a Paid System&#8217;. Time Projection: Within 5 Years&#8221; &#8211; http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19552. And he is not the first to make this statement. News organizations [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/GZEc3B_T620" height="1" width="1"/> <p><em>&#8220;I actually wonder if this post could have been titles &#8211; &#8220;Is there an opportunity arising that will make someone very rich&#8230;&#8221;&#8230;</em></p><p><!--[endif]-->But&#8230; Bary Diller was quoted as saying -The Internet &#8216;Absolutely&#8217; Will Become a Paid System&#8217;. Time Projection: Within 5 Years&#8221; &#8211; <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19552">http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19552</a>. And he is not the first to make this statement. News organizations around the work are grappling with this dilemma &#8211; the paradigm has shifted and their businesses and business models are proving to be out of touch and out of date. Everyone is scrambling to tell us that real content should be paid for and people should pay. This question is being asked by so many people and so many businesses as they struggle for survival and try to figure out the next generation of news and entertainment. But will they? Can you really stem the tide and change the mentality of a consumer who is accustomed to getting free content online? Or are you just opening a door for new competitors who can think of a reduced cost business model where they can still provide free content and can get reimbursement some other way???</p><p>I think there are 2 problems with the idea that content will be paid for. I wonder which business can be pointed to that provided free access and then successfully made the transition to paid. I cannot recall one that did it successfully. The internet mentaility is spilling over now and affecting conferences, magazines, newspapers, and televisions. And second, even if there were a business model to follow &#8211; are you not just opening the door to new competitors who figure out a lower cost model and do not charge for content? Media companies will argue that their content is superior, that their writers are true journalists and people should pay for that. But look at the trend in local news stations &#8211; the &#8220;credible&#8221;, &#8220;senior&#8221; newscasters are being replaced with younger, lower cost newscasters. Why? Because credible, while important, is not a deciding factor for the consuming public. The second issue is timing. There is a wave of ways to get news now, and that wave is growing. And to have these &#8220;credible sources&#8221; and &#8220;credible processes&#8221; intervening in the distribution of news slows down the process and ultimately causes these &#8220;credible sources&#8221; to be late to the game.</p><p>No question &#8211; these sources can and will become opinion pages and opinion sources and some people will be willing to pay for that. Is that enough to sustain these businesses &#8211; I would think not &#8211; but we will see.</p><p>So go ahead, start charging. Let&#8217;s see what happens and how it plays out. My opinion &#8211; the door is opening for new competitors and soon we will be hearing about news and information sources that we never heard of before, and some entrepreneurial thinkers will become very rich in the process&#8230;</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/28TciKYK2Nw" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/GZEc3B_T620/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Could-Barry-Diller-be-wrong/c65ad5d6-412a-4d27-9783-8824a31cd1d5 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:33:18 GMT 6/11/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Could-Barry-Diller-be-wrong Use new technologies to enhance your education and information delivery strategy!I think we all agree that education and learning is critical - for students, educational institutions, corporations, and governments. An educated workforce delivers competitive advantage of nations, and our educational institutions and information resources must deliver the best possible learning experience.Corporations and governments need to [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/89ZYJYKNv5g" height="1" width="1"/> <p><strong>Use new technologies to enhance your education and information delivery strategy!</strong></p><p>I think we all agree that education and learning is critical - for students, educational institutions, corporations, and governments. An educated workforce delivers competitive advantage of nations, and our educational institutions and information resources must deliver the best possible learning experience.</p><p>Corporations and governments need to address the full spectrum from concept education to on-demand learning, information delivery, and electronic performance support. These organizations need to educate their audience with new concepts, processes, policies, procedures and products on a continuous basis and deliver insights and help at the point of delivery and execution. The traditional classroom education paradigm is no longer adequate to ensure students receive the education and learning insights they need. We know there is significant value in the face-to-face, instructor led educational experience, but the traditional model needs to be enhanced with new information delivery models that take advantage of the new second circle technologies available today.</p><p>What are some of the challenges we experience with the traditional model?</p><ul> <li>It is difficult for educational institutions to deliver a compelling and accredited educational experience to students while under increasing cost pressure</li> <li>Students learn at different paces and preferring different learning styles and media and need to balance group learning with individual study to avoid distraction</li> <li>The classroom schedules are not always convenient or accessible when restricted to specific times and locations - especially with the competing classes, sports and extracurricular activities</li> <li>Not all instructors are created equal (see <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_unplugged.html">Bill Gate's talk at TED</a>) and with Virtual Learning, we can scale our very best instructional talent</li> <li>Companies need to continuously educate their rapidly changing employee base and inform customers and partners on new products, procedures, policies and processes - these programs must satisfy the full spectrum from learning broad concepts to gaining tactical content at the point of customer interaction.</li> <li>Employees move rapidly between companies, positions and roles while procedures change; companies need on-demand learning and support solutions especially for high turnover positions</li> <li>The costs of traditional in-person classroom education is high and with increased pressure to manage the cost/value equation for students and meet difficult budget constraints, new models must be considered</li></ul><p>I worked with a large insurance company with a non-captive agent workforce spread broadly across geographies. They needed a solution that delivered critical insights at the point of client delivery and communication, but they also needed to deliver a broader educational foundation for these agents. Delivering formal educational programs to an audience this diverse was prohibitively expensive and couldn't support the day-to-day support needs. They needed both a performance support solution AND an online teaching solution.</p><p>Increasingly educational institutions need new sources of income while providing the services that are being demanded by students. Major online education providers are signing up well over 20,000 new online students a month - I think we can confirm the demand is here. Prestigious educational institutions should naturally preserve the integrity of their educational brand and foster the complete on-campus educational experience that includes personal relationships, but they can also begin to more effectively compliment their delivery model with enhanced delivery methods and media.&nbsp; Tufts is working on programs that will deliver the Tufts-brand of education through distance learning to places like Dubai.</p><p>In another business example, a leading retail bank needs to better leverage their expert knowledge about innovative products and services across the branch store network. Why lose a valuable product cross-sell or adoption because branch platform personnel were not yet up to speed on key product features and advantages?&nbsp; Use experts to deliver content on-demand at the point of sale. They need both a broader educational content foundation and live video services that deliver &nbsp; real-time branch to branch and web-based video conferencing and delivery services.</p><p><strong>Education and learning delivery should blend traditional classroom learning with new on-demand virtual teaching and information delivery models.<br /></strong></p><p>New virtual education and information delivery technologies provide the mechanisms to deliver education at the pace students need and provide critical knowledge content on-demand to a company's customers, employees, partners and students. One example is <a href="http://www.panviva.com/">Panviva</a>'s Supportpoint solution which is being used by companies that need a performance management solution delivered at the point of delivery. The technology integrates with existing applications to provide context-sensitve help and educational performance support.</p><p>Another compelling solution is being delivered by <a href="http://www.retrieve.com/index.html">Retrieve Technology</a> in Henniker, NH.&nbsp; Retrieve's vBook technology delivers rich educational content in video /multi-media on-demand to governments, corporations and educational institutions. Teachers and publishers can record their content/classroom using green screen technology and&nbsp; blend text book, assessments and evaluation structures. The teacher can collaborate with students both on-line and in person using collaborative web 2.0 services to deliver a rich educational experience.&nbsp; These technologies can be applied in a wide range of contexts - including traditional education, corporate and government training and individual eBook authorship.</p><p>Some of the features to look for in a winning new media education solution include:</p><ul> <li>Deployment flexibility using either cloud-based or installed platform</li> <li>Human factors oriented design (e.g. using familiar and proven metaphors: books, chapters, sections, book shelves, index, FAQ, etc)</li> <li>Efficient online course creation and delivery with user/ content owner controls</li> <li>Powerful Boolean Search and browse access methods to gain access to the full range of content and zero in quickly on what you need to see</li> <li>Full multi-media - text, graphics, images, audio and video - to enhance the learning and engage audience</li> <li>Tools that facilitate grading and evaluation and certification</li> <li>Branding flexibility to allow institutions to control the learning information and content assets and distribution</li> <li>A balanced approach that facilitates a blend of virtual and live instruction</li> <li>The ability to manage individual content segments and manage version control</li> <li>Notification for students and users for changes to subscribed content</li> <li>Asset and content manageability for individual accounts and groups with full accounting and tracking</li> <li>The ability to track detailed usage and apply custom commercial models with maximum flexibility</li></ul><p>Take a look at the new second circle solutions that are out there - the industry is changing quickly, and solutions - like Retrieve Technology - are transforming how we educate and learn. Please comment at <a href="http://www.revenuearchitects.com">Revenue Architects</a> or contact <a href="mailto:jcstone@revenuearchitects.com">me </a>if you want to learn more about these exciting technologies and the economic value they create!</p><br /><br /><a href="http://www.revenuearchitects.com/2009/05/changing-education-information-delivery-paradigm/"><small>Link To Original Post</small></a> John Stone http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/89ZYJYKNv5g/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Changing-the-Education-and-Information-Delivery-Paradigm/9fd4a8a2-158a-4112-a35c-6f2f96e2d963 Sun, 31 May 2009 01:00:00 GMT 5/30/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Changing-the-Education-and-Information-Delivery-Paradigm I am looking forward to visiting some friends in Napa Valley over the weekend of June 30-31 where I will get to see how the other half lives! After that, I will be heading to San Francisco to facilitate a workshop at the Gilbane Conference on June 2-4. My topic: Social Media and the [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/FdvTp_KVOLQ" height="1" width="1"/> <p>I am looking forward to visiting some friends in Napa Valley over the weekend of June 30-31 where I will get to see how the other half lives! <img src='http://www.revenuearchitects.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> After that, I will be heading to San Francisco to facilitate a workshop at the <a href="http://gilbanesf.com/index.html" target="_blank">Gilbane Conference</a> on June 2-4. My topic: <a href="http://gilbanesf.com/workshops.html#workshope" target="_blank"><strong>Social Media and the Digital Marketing Platform</strong></a>.</p><p>Everyone is talking about social media. Social networks are growing by the day with more and more people joining. New networks are popping up all over the place. Companies are challenged with building out community platforms around their products and services. Corporations are trying to figure out what social media is and how to integrate both the corporate communities and public social media platforms into their businesses.</p><p>Where do you start? Should you be on Twitter? What about Facebook? How do you go about building out a platform solution? This workshop will teach new media techniques, including blogging and social media as well as how all of this ties into business strategies and goals. The session will provide a roadmap for building out and integrating these solutions.</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.revenuearchitects.com/2009/05/at-gilbane-san-francisco-june-2-4/'><small>Link To Original Post</small></a> John Stone http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/FdvTp_KVOLQ/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=At-Gilbane-San-Francisco-June-24/7c2c4acc-00eb-4c17-872e-ced55d96f60d Fri, 22 May 2009 13:53:31 GMT 5/22/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=At-Gilbane-San-Francisco-June-24 T.J. O&#8217;Connor and I are looking forward to speaking on June 25-7:Ritz Carlton-Lodge Reynolds PlantationOne Lake Oconee TrailGreensboro, GA 30642Abstract:Companies are undergoing a massive shift in investment away from traditional media toward online media. New web sites and social networks are accelerating brand awareness and audience engagement. Customers are making their product purchase selections and [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/LBodHs5mkC8" height="1" width="1"/> <p><a href="http://tj-oconnor.com/" target="_blank">T.J. O&#8217;Connor</a> and I are looking forward to speaking on June 25-7:</p><p>Ritz Carlton-Lodge Reynolds Plantation<br />One Lake Oconee Trail<br />Greensboro, GA 30642</p><p><strong>Abstract:</strong></p><p>Companies are undergoing a massive shift in investment away from traditional media toward online media. New web sites and social networks are accelerating brand awareness and audience engagement. Customers are making their product purchase selections and engaging brands online. While they follow a familiar buying process, the selling process needs to adapt to a more dynamic online environment that you can't fully control. How do you capture customer value in a complex online environment? The answer is to use new online marketing strategies to nurture and engage your direct and indirect audience across the buy-sell process.</p><p>opei_newsletter09_spread</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.revenuearchitects.com/2009/05/opeis-57th-annual-meeting/'><small>Link To Original Post</small></a> John Stone http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/LBodHs5mkC8/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=OPEI’s-57th-Annual-Meeting/156c5d93-194c-455e-9ef3-bf860f0ade29 Tue, 19 May 2009 18:00:15 GMT 5/19/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=OPEI’s-57th-Annual-Meeting When setting out to develop an Internet Marketing strategy, you need to connect the dots between a wide range of business, marketing, technology and project elements. An Internet strategy today involves a lot more than your web site. In the late 1990s it was very much about defining your branded online presence via the web [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/B6f2RCkzs74" height="1" width="1"/> <p><strong>When setting out to develop an Internet Marketing strategy, you need to connect the dots between a wide range of business, marketing, technology and project elements. </strong></p><p>An Internet strategy today involves a lot more than your web site. In the late 1990s it was very much about defining your branded online presence via the web site and related web services and online applications. Today, with the important roll of Search and Social Media, your brand presence must now consider delivering impact and engagement across the broader social web and involves a far more sophisticated strategy for inbound marketing and lead capture. With that in mind, if you are about to embark on a comprehensive Internet Marketing Strategy, you might want to get answers to a range of questions. So, here is a list, but let&#8217;s add to the list- what have you found as critical success factors and key issues that should be addressed in developing your internet strategy. Comment at my <a href="http://www.revenuearchitects.com" target="_blank">Revenue Architects blog</a>.</p><p><strong>1) Market, Audience and Sales Model - </strong>You need to define the underlying business model for marketing and sales so that you can tie your Internet Marketing Strategy to business goals:</p><ul><li>What is your revenue generation strategy?</li><li>How will you capture market share?</li><li>Who is your customer and what are their needs, intents and values?</li><li>What are the major market segments we wish to target?</li><li>What defines these segments and what are their major characteristics?</li><li>What is the typical customer life cycle for each segment?</li><li>What are the various dialogue needs across the life cycle chain and what implications does that have for the business operations model?</li><li>What are the demographic, psychographic, and channel preference factors of the targeted audience segments?</li><li>What capabilities will be needed to meet this targeted audience's needs?</li><li>Who is the competition and what are their strengths, weaknesses?</li><li>What is the overall differentiating business strategy to capture market share?</li><li>What is the closed-loop marketing model and funnel process?</li><li>What opportunities are being created by the emergence of new media and technologies?</li></ul><p><strong>2) Functionality and Services - </strong>Now that you understand your core business model and your audience, what are the capabilities that your audience will be seeking to engage your brand online - both at your site(s) and across the social and mobile web?</p><ul><li>What segment needs and intents will be addressed?</li><li>What is the unique functionality required? (transaction, database, content, syndication, lead capture, community, collaboration, forms, Configurator, eCommerce transactions, search, customer service, eNewsletters, events, eMail database, browser requirements? Privacy and Security? Accessibility?</li><li>In addition to basic site requirements, will the project seek to include interactive web platforms (such as logins, BLOGS, Forums, and Q&amp;A chat rooms) in aims to enhance outreach tools?</li><li>Have you considered strategies regarding mobile devices/ web / social media?</li><li>Do you currently have any site utilization monitoring tools in place?</li><li>What role will your supplier play in determining the audience analysis?</li><li>Design concepts development and selection</li></ul><p><strong>3) Branding and Design - </strong>maybe you already have a brand identity - including logo marks and look and feel -but you may also need to develop a &#8220;brand architecture&#8221; that ties together all your related product and services into a unifying identity - both on and offline.</p><ul><li>Do you have an overall brand strategy? Offline and Online?</li><li>Have you a set of creative concepts under consideration?</li><li>Have these creative concepts been mapped to specific audience needs and/or business strategy drivers?</li><li>Which existing sites best approximate the desired look and feel? functionality?, info architecture?</li><li>Do you need a logi, brand architecture or single mark?</li><li>What are the various branding concepts that will suit our identified target segment?</li><li>Is the brand achieving Completeness, Transparency, Flow and Dialogue with the user?</li><li>How will we roll out the branding?</li><li>How will it be represented and communicated to the market?</li></ul><p><strong>4) Content and Information Architecture - </strong>How do you arrange your content into a clear information architecture that your audience can understand and access?</p><ul><li>What content will the business will deliver (media types?)?</li><li>Do you have readily available content?</li><li>What effort is needed to design and develop the content? Initial? On-going?</li><li>Are there content partners and providers/ syndication that we have to consider?</li><li>Is there an archive of photos or other art that might be used for the site?</li><li>If appropriate, would the company commission original illustration or photography?</li><li>What is a representative site map?</li><li>Is their a wire frame model outlining envisioned experience?</li><li>How do the navigation scheme and content schema function?</li><li>are we considering tagging models? taxonomy? semantic models?</li><li>How should the content be organized for usability? What IA works best given known constraints?</li></ul><p><strong>5) Marketing and Promotion - </strong>After you build out your sites, Internet presence, content and services, how are you going to attract the audience?</p><ul><li>What are our traffic growth estimates and how do we intend to achieve them?</li><li>What is our awareness strategy, advertising strategy?</li><li>What are the SEO/ SEM marketing requirements?</li><li>Are their viral or velocity marketing opportunities?</li><li>How are you engaging the social web and online influencers?</li><li>Do you have a print and media marketing plan?</li></ul><p><strong>6) Technical Architecture Design - </strong>Once you have defined an overall business and functional blueprint, it will be a lot easier to select the right technology foundation to handle your needs.<strong><br /></strong></p><ul><li>Do we need to address an existing systems/ technology assessment, existing technology?</li><li>Are there preferred technology standards?</li><li>What content management and web services platform is required?</li><li>What are the hosting and managed services requirements?</li><li>What kind of user volumes will you expect at the site?</li><li>Do you need listening platforms to gauge sentiment on the broader web?</li><li>How effective is your audience intelligence platforms and data management skills?</li><li>Do you need specialized technology for mobile deployment, database marketing?</li></ul><p><strong>7) Operating Model - </strong>This is a key step to your strategy - defining a core business and process model that will ensure your digital assets and systems are well managed and that your content and services are up to date.</p><ul><li>What are the operational procedures that will need to be in place to deliver the Internet Marketing Strategy?</li><li>What are the staffing skills and capability needs? Content? Service?</li><li>Do you understand what the potential impact on your existing organization will be?</li><li>Is there a team currently in place for site management? Do they require continuing training and support?</li></ul><p><strong> <img src='http://www.revenuearchitects.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_cool.gif' alt='8)' class='wp-smiley' /> Implementation Plan - </strong>With all the core business, marketing and technical elements framed out, you can now better layer in an overall project time line driven by critical business commitments.</p><ul><li>Is there a compelling event or critical implementation date? What is the required time line/ milestones?</li><li>Is there a project charter?</li><li>Is there a Business Case in place? Benefits? Investments?</li><li>Is there budget to match ambition?</li><li>Have stakeholders &amp; team members been identified?</li><li>What are the key assumptions, constraints and risks?</li></ul><br /><br /><a href='http://www.revenuearchitects.com/2009/05/internet-marketing-strategy-checklist/'><small>Link To Original Post</small></a> John Stone http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/B6f2RCkzs74/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Internet-Marketing-Strategy-Checklist/3f445572-7d29-4f83-b71e-db1129dd8cf1 Thu, 14 May 2009 02:33:14 GMT 5/13/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Internet-Marketing-Strategy-Checklist Here is a quick update. We spoke at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium and the feedback was positive. Tushneem posted a review of the panel talk here. Also, you can find more discussion at the MIT CIO Corner.The issues confronting the adoption of a virtual organization are many, but with the right culture, business systems, [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/x0bkM0eo_ZM" height="1" width="1"/> <p>Here is a quick update. We spoke at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium and the feedback was positive. Tushneem posted a review of the panel talk <a href="http://tushneem.wordpress.com/2009/05/24/why-is-the-concept-of-virtual-organizations-all-encompassing-an-analysis-from-technology-business-and-culture-pov/">here</a>. Also, you can find more discussion at the <a href="http://www.mitcio.com/blog/">MIT CIO Corner</a>.</p><p><strong>The issues confronting the adoption of a virtual organization are many, but with the right culture, business systems, and technologies companies can really benefit.</strong></p><p>We have all seen it - organizations adopt virtual working models and productivity falls. Management is unable to manage teams effectively and workers can&#8217;t collaborate with colleagues. The result can be a drop in productivity and a lack of customer innovation. With careful consideration, companies can successfully adopt flexible working models to reduce the real-estate footprint and contribute to a more green economy. On May 20th, I am joining a discussion at the <a href="http://www.mitcio.com/aboutus.php" target="_blank">MIT Sloan CIO Symposium</a> along with some great Panelists:</p><ul><li>Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Chairman Emeritus IBM Academy of Technology and Visiting Professor of Engineering Systems, MIT;</li><li>Ms. Lorie Buckingham, CIO Avaya</li><li>Mr. Simon Crosby, CTO of the Virtualization and Management Division Citrix Systems</li><li>Mr. Bilal Husain, Director of eServices Projects Saudi eGovernment Program, Saudi Arabia</li></ul><p><strong>Here is the abstract:</strong></p><p>The Virtual Organization</p><p>Flexible, dynamic, and mobile, organizations are no longer constrained by traditional barriers of place and time. Business leaders are looking at virtual organizational structures to address critical resource, personnel and logistical issues. This session will examine the ways that technology is helping business leaders implement optimal models to gain competitive advantage.</p><p><strong>Considering the Opportunity:</strong></p><p>There are real opportunities to both retain great employees who need a more flexible working model that delivers work-life balance, lower costs and better remote working models. With changing demographics and an increasingly global workforce, virtualization is no longer an option, it is a critical need. However, we have all seen it - organizations adopt virtual working models and hoteling models and see productivity fall. Often, management is unable to organize virtual teams effectively and workers can&#8217;t collaborate and coordinate with colleagues. The result can be a drop in productivity and a lack of product and customer innovation.</p><p>At the same time, changing demographics and an increasingly global workforce suggest that succeeding in deploying a virtual organization model is no longer an option. For key segments of the workforce, global virtual working is the norm and must be delivered with the right technology and business systems. Companies can successfully adopt flexible working models to reduce the real-estate footprint, retain great employees, increase employee satisfaction and productivity while contributing to a more green economy.</p><p>The value of a virtual organization is particularly strong for knowledge workers and those workforce segments that are working with global distributed teams and are on the road with clients and customers. R&amp;D teams and developers can benefit from follow-the-sun strategies for continuous development and delivery. Obviously, it is far more challenging for production workers or call center staff to work in a virtual organization. Today&#8217;s broadband networks, telephony and computing capabilities to offer a secure collaborative environment for virtual workers. The results can be lower costs of occupancy, a happier workforce, and a green environment.</p><p><strong>A wish list of the technology enablers for a virtual organization (please add to this list!)</strong>:</p><p><em>Core Office</em></p><ul><li> I am not ready to give up traditional desktop office applications like MS Office PowerPoint and Word applications but I will also use emerging cloud models like Google Documents</li><li>Advanced Calendaring and synchronization (MS Exchange for the enterprise, Google Calendar is getting better, but it can still be difficult interacting outside our firewall)</li></ul><p><em>Communications</em></p><ul><li>VOIP - I use Skype to communicate with a team in Portugal and Kiev ... great!</li><li>The perfect PDA - I use an iPhone, but enjoyed my blackberry before. Why can&#8217;t iPhone work well with Exchange calendaring? It is a fun media toy, but not yet a powerful tool for virtual working</li><li>eMail - &#8216;nough said</li><li>Electronic scheduling across networks - including people and resources of all types</li><li>Synchronization of my calendar (e.g. Google Calendar Sync) and someday my contacts with LinkedIN? Plaxo? (not really there yet)</li><li>Presence and interoperable collaborative secure chat (Which chat service is everyone on? How do I connect?)</li></ul><p><em>Collaboration</em></p><ul><li>Knowldege Management and Expertise Location - we have had this for a while, but collaborative systems and communities are improving and we can now begin to get access to valuable information - if tagged and stored in the right shared spaces!</li><li>Videoconferencing ( I use a free service, but everyone needs to dial a toll number - not too bad)</li><li>Virtual Whiteboards and collaborative workspaces (Everything from Google Docs to the Groove Application MS Live)</li><li>Adobe Connect vs Webex (these are getting better all the time, but can still be a bit awkward to use)</li></ul><p><em>Broadband and Infrastructure</em></p><ul><li>I am always in search of speed and the coffee shops are still behind the times</li><li>Secured Shared File Storage - We need trusted identity solutions that will help ensure authentication and protect our critical assets. What about those really big files?</li><li>Auditing technology - how can we ensure remote workers are using their collaboration tools appropriately without being a big brother?</li><li>Organizations need continuous operations and better service management using ITIL standards - this is particularly important for un-tethered workers engaging in critical business activities.</li></ul><p>Share your thoughts on <a href="http://www.revenuearchitects.com" target="_blank">www.revenuearchitects.com</a> I look forward to hearing your views.</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.revenuearchitects.com/2009/05/technologies-for-virtual-organizations/'><small>Link To Original Post</small></a> John Stone http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/x0bkM0eo_ZM/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Technologies-for-Virtual-Organizations/c618bfaa-ead1-4701-a722-28e9a8825c23 Tue, 05 May 2009 15:31:54 GMT 5/5/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=Technologies-for-Virtual-Organizations Here is an event you might want to attend in Boston - and if you do, use CTP2009 to get a special rate of $150! Check it out here.New Marketing Labs and our sister company CrossTech Partners are working with the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium team to build out new innovations in the event and [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/_RW3U7BmKrg" height="1" width="1"/> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">Here is an event you might want to attend in Boston - and if you do, use CTP2009 to get a special rate of $150! Check it out <a href="http://www.mitcio.com/">here</a>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">New Marketing Labs and our sister company CrossTech Partners are working with the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium team to build out new innovations in the event and community experience. We are introducing new technologies and community strategies to help evolve the event into an increasingly valuable on-going community and educational experience for CIOs the senior technology officers. We see this experience evolving over the next few years. Come check out the event in Cambridge, MA on May 20.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">The MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is the nation&#8217;s premier CIO event bringing together information technology executives from around the world and leading faculty from MIT. The annual event offers a day of interactive learning and thought-provoking discourse on the future of technology, best practices, and business that is not available anywhere else. It includes presentations, panels, networking and a closing reception.</span></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/ewDBGcTE2O8" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/_RW3U7BmKrg/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=MIT-Sloan-CIO-Symposium-–-May-20/d1136a13-dff6-4602-9516-aa606be4d236 Fri, 01 May 2009 13:45:49 GMT 5/1/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=MIT-Sloan-CIO-Symposium-–-May-20 Here is an event you might want to attend in Boston - and if you do, use CTP2009 to get a special rate of $150! Check it out here.New Marketing Labs and our sister company CrossTech Partners are working with the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium team to build out new innovations in the event and [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/_RW3U7BmKrg" height="1" width="1"/> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Here is an event you might want to attend in Boston - and if you do, use CTP2009 to get a special rate of $150! Check it out <a href="http://www.mitcio.com/">here</a>.</span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">New Marketing Labs and our sister company CrossTech Partners are working with the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium team to build out new innovations in the event and community experience. We are introducing new technologies and community strategies to help evolve the event into an increasingly valuable on-going community and educational experience for CIOs the senior technology officers. We see this experience evolving over the next few years. Come check out the event in Cambridge, MA on May 20.</span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">The MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is the nation's premier CIO event bringing together information technology executives from around the world and leading faculty from MIT. The annual event offers a day of interactive learning and thought-provoking discourse on the future of technology, best practices, and business that is not available anywhere else. It includes presentations, panels, networking and a closing reception.</span></p><img width="1" height="1" src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/ewDBGcTE2O8" /> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/_RW3U7BmKrg/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=MIT-Sloan-CIO-Symposium-–-May-20/08b5baac-0e3a-41e3-8c5a-f303f97af8da Fri, 01 May 2009 13:45:00 GMT 5/1/2009 MIT Lead http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=MIT-Sloan-CIO-Symposium-–-May-20 We are working with a few clients to build and deploy solutions for Closed Loop Marketing. I was reviewing my materials and presentations in preparation for a meeting next week and thought I would scan the web to see what is out there.. I wanted to see a visual image - or diagram - that [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/VlAlOWtnRYs" height="1" width="1"/> <p>We are working with a few clients to build and deploy solutions for Closed Loop Marketing. I was reviewing my materials and presentations in preparation for a meeting next week and thought I would scan the web to see what is out there.. I wanted to see a visual image - or diagram - that painted a good picture of closed-loop marketing. I found a huge amount, bit very little that was on target with a good CLM vision and captured the key elements of both traditional and new media marketing.</p><p>Marketing is one of the last business functions to embrace integrated technology solutions to automate the management of marketing logistics. Unlike ERP and CRM, Marketing Automation is only now beginning to hit the growth curve. With the advent of new media and the business complexity in managing data and blending traditional and new media channels with CRM/ sales force automation, leading companies are now adopting more sophisticated solutions. New technologies and new approaches are make Marketing Automation more attractive.</p><p>My google search for images around CLM resulted in quite a number of images - few that made sense for my purposes:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-214 aligncenter" style="border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 1px; margin-bottom: 1px;" title="new-picture-1" src="http://www.revenuearchitects.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/new-picture-1.bmp" alt="Google Search Results" width="403" height="135" /></p><p>So what is next? I am going to put together the story and make sure it includes a comprehensive view of CLM - in particular - for this client -from a B2B perspective. Elements of the model must include:</p><ul><li>Market Segmentation &amp; Targeting</li><li>Data Management and Cleansing</li><li>Campaign Management</li><li>Lead Capture</li><li>Scoring &amp; Routing</li><li>New Media, Web and Traditional Channels</li><li>Business and Audience Intelligence</li><li>Marketing Dashboard</li></ul><p>Wish me luck&#8230;</p><br /><br /><a href='http://www.revenuearchitects.com/2009/04/in-search-of-closed-loop-marketing-models/'><small>Link To Original Post</small></a> John Stone http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/VlAlOWtnRYs/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=In-Search-of-Closed-Loop-Marketing-Models/418e8e25-fb33-4879-bd16-3473693f019d Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:26:24 GMT 4/28/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=In-Search-of-Closed-Loop-Marketing-Models An incident occurred yesterday that got me thinking about the importance of branding. At our company, like many I am sure, we often deliberate about &#8220;where to brand&#8221;. Recently, there have been some great blog posts and great reads thinking through the question of personal versus corporate branding &#8211; the most recent of which I [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/7MQyw2GdNw4" height="1" width="1"/> <p>An incident occurred yesterday that got me thinking about the importance of branding. At our company, like many I am sure, we often deliberate about &#8220;where to brand&#8221;. Recently, there have been some great blog posts and great reads thinking through the question of personal versus corporate branding &#8211; the most recent of which I found compelling from a CEO who had tried to transition his personal brand into a corporate success. If you look at some of the models out there &#8211; they would tell you that there is success at every level.</p><p>Before I go into the more recent of these examples, let&#8217;s look at the well known examples. In terms of mixing personal and corporate branding, you need to look no further than Steve Jobs of Apple and Bill Gates of Microsoft. Most people see this model and think &#8211; that is it! But there there are other models which I think are very compelling. For instance, look at IDG. For the most part, what IDG has chosen to brand is the product &#8211; the business units and their solutions &#8211; not the personality and in many ways not even the parent company. And then look at CNET &#8211; that is a corporate brand which has then inspired personality brands beneath &#8211; but always kept the branding at the corporate level strong and intact. And finally, look at Rachel Ray and Martha Stewart &#8211; these are individuals who focused on building the personal brand and then leveraging that brand into a opportunity</p><p><strong>So how does a CEO decide?</strong></p><p>With the proliferation of social media, there is no question that personal branding is going to be an important part of every branding scenario. To that end, I would suggest that CEO&#8217;s do not resist it for themselves or for their employees, but instead encourage it. Ask as many employees as possible to blog, tweet, and promote their brand within the overall umbrella of the company and organization.</p><p>But then &#8211; there is a decision to make. The decision, I think, comes down to three option &#8211; 1) Brand yourself as the leader or 2) Brand the company or 3) Brand the products and solutions you offer. I would suggest that each CEO needs to decide a primary option and push on that. Few of us, if any, can push more than one option and be successful without being diverted. For me, all decisions need a clear focus and what I have focused most on it which will be the most effective in driving revenue and building value. To that end, a CEO can look at each of these options and work through the if-then analysis &#8211; if I choose this path where will the organization be whereas if i choose that path where will the organization be. With that in mind, the decision should rise to the top and be obvious to the CEO.</p><p>Are you thinking about branding? Are you struggling with the personal versus corporate versus product branding dilemma? What have you decided and why?</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/ywVvNrrq-xo" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/7MQyw2GdNw4/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=The-importance-of-deciding-what-to-brand-–-the-personal-versus-corporate-versus-product-branding-dilemma…/5063a9d1-39f1-44e6-b5ab-545ec20209dc Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:59:53 GMT 4/22/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=The-importance-of-deciding-what-to-brand-–-the-personal-versus-corporate-versus-product-branding-dilemma… An incident occurred yesterday that got me thinking about the importance of branding. At our company, like many I am sure, we often deliberate about &#8220;where to brand&#8221;. Recently, there have been some great blog posts and great reads thinking through the question of personal versus corporate branding - the most recent of which I [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/2CEFoSwhbPw" height="1" width="1"/> <p>An incident occurred yesterday that got me thinking about the importance of branding. At our company, like many I am sure, we often deliberate about &#8220;where to brand&#8221;. Recently, there have been some great blog posts and great reads thinking through the question of personal versus corporate branding - the most recent of which I found compelling from a CEO who had tried to transition his personal brand into a corporate success. If you look at some of the models out there - they would tell you that there is success at every level.</p><p>Before I go into the more recent of these examples, let&#8217;s look at the well known examples. In terms of mixing personal and corporate branding, you need to look no further than Steve Jobs of Apple and Bill Gates of Microsoft. Most people see this model and think - that is it! But there there are other models which I think are very compelling. For instance, look at IDG. For the most part, what IDG has chosen to brand is the product - the business units and their solutions - not the personality and in many ways not even the parent company. And then look at CNET - that is a corporate brand which has then inspired personality brands beneath - but always kept the branding at the corporate level strong and intact. And finally, look at Rachel Ray and Martha Stewart - these are individuals who focused on building the personal brand and then leveraging that brand into a opportunity</p><p><strong>So how does a CEO decide?</strong></p><p>With the proliferation of social media, there is no question that personal branding is going to be an important part of every branding scenario. To that end, I would suggest that CEO&#8217;s do not resist it for themselves or for their employees, but instead encourage it. Ask as many employees as possible to blog, tweet, and promote their brand within the overall umbrella of the company and organization.</p><p>But then - there is a decision to make. The decision, I think, comes down to three option - 1) Brand yourself as the leader or 2) Brand the company or 3) Brand the products and solutions you offer. I would suggest that each CEO needs to decide a primary option and push on that. Few of us, if any, can push more than one option and be successful without being diverted. For me, all decisions need a clear focus and what I have focused most on it which will be the most effective in driving revenue and building value. To that end, a CEO can look at each of these options and work through the if-then analysis - if I choose this path where will the organization be whereas if i choose that path where will the organization be. With that in mind, the decision should rise to the top and be obvious to the CEO.</p><p>Are you thinking about branding? Are you struggling with the personal versus corporate versus product branding dilemma? What have you decided and why?</p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/ywVvNrrq-xo" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/2CEFoSwhbPw/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=The-importance-of-deciding-what-to-brand--the-personal-versus-corporate-versus-product-branding-dilemma…/921bc7a0-d34d-40a1-a4f9-a5241f01f45c Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:59:53 GMT 4/22/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=The-importance-of-deciding-what-to-brand--the-personal-versus-corporate-versus-product-branding-dilemma… I was debating in writing this morning&#8217;s post which of the two titlesI should use for the post &#8211; so i decided to use both&#8230; What should McDonald&#8217;s do? What do you do when there is a public negative comment about your product??First let me set up the situationWatching &#8220;Morning Joe&#8221; this morning (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/), they [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/pIdkEXtrHiA" height="1" width="1"/> <p>I was debating in writing this morning&#8217;s post which of the two titlesI should use for the post &#8211; so i decided to use both&#8230; What should McDonald&#8217;s do? What do you do when there is a public negative comment about your product??</p><p><strong>First let me set up the situation</strong></p><p>Watching &#8220;Morning Joe&#8221; this morning (<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/</a>), they were announcing the anniversary of the launch of the first McDonald&#8217;s restaurant. At that point, Willie Geist &#8211; (@WillieGeist1) &#8211; brought out a bag of McDonald&#8217;s breakfast food to &#8220;celebrate&#8221;. He handed out certain pieces to each commentator. At that point,Mika Brzezinski &#8211; (@morningmika) &#8211; quickly said &#8220;No&#8230;&#8230;&#8221; and refused to accept the food &#8211; citing that she would not eat it and &#8220;that food is bad&#8230;&#8221; (please note that these quotes are the closest to what I recall &#8211; not exact quotes but give the sentiment of the comment). If that was not bad enough, when Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) starting eating a McDonald&#8217;s hash brown, Mika reached over, urged him to stop, and told him that &#8220;if he were to squeeze the hash brown he would see fat and grease oozing out&#8221;&#8230;</p><p><strong>Now why do I care &#8211; what is the lesson</strong></p><p>I wondered the same question to myself. I have lots to worry about in my life &#8211; why did this bother me so much. Then I realized, it caused me to think &#8211; what is the appropriate reaction when someone makes a blanket, public, negative comment about your product? Any honest CEO will tell you that he / she has faced this problem at least once in his / her career. Sometimes they are grounded in fact. Other times, they are just perception &#8211; but perception that can drive a lot of momentum.In business school we studied in earnest the Tylenol case &#8211; a case in which they reacted &#8220;quickly and decisively&#8221; to the scare surrounding the issues around their pills in the drug stores. But we are also taught that sometimes ignoring the comment is the most effective solution. So how do you decide? Is it simply weighing the PR impact versus the opportunity and cost? Is it weighing the character of the person who made the comment and deciding that way? Also &#8211; has it changed now that social media and internet communications have become the backbone of viral communication?</p><p><strong>So &#8211; what is the appropriate reaction when someone makes a blanket, public, negative comment about your product?</strong></p><p>I think it is a combination of all of these that is factored into the decision as to what to do and how to act. Most important, I think, is to look at the potential opportunity cost if the perception were to spread out of your control and also the opportunity to leverage this into a win for your organization. To that end, if I were in McDonalds, I would seize upon this as an opportunity. There is this perception out there that their food is bad as represented by Mika Brzezinski on the show. Most people are aware of it, and I am assuming that McDonald&#8217;s is as well. To that end, why not capitalize on this poor exchange on TV to promote a new message about McDonald&#8217;s. In essence, take this negativity, surround it with truths about the value of the product and what McDonalds offers, and create a strong and supporting viral campaign. Here are some ideas -</p><ul><li>Turn it into a fun but valuable YouTube video &#8211; with real people commenting on your product surrounding the comments by Mika Brzezinski.</li><li>Launch a web site talking about the experiences of real people who eat your food and why they think it is good</li><li>Search out experts who can comment about the menu you provide and why it is not &#8220;bad&#8221;</li><li>Stress the other items on your menu on this site that are healthier in nature</li><li>Stress the good things that McDonald&#8217;s does for the community &#8211; with a slogan as simple as &#8220;Are we that bad when we do so much good&#8221; (or something much more savvy than that&#8230;)</li><li>Use Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Youtube to your advantage to really rally people around your brand and your products &#8211; make this comment an example of the people who are driving tis mis-perception</li><li>And finally&#8230; offer a promotional program to people to havea coupon to get a hash brown for free or some very reduced price and encourage them to take a web video of themselves eating it and speaking &#8220;back to Mika&#8221;</li></ul><p>In this day and age, the times have changed. The proliferation of the internet and social media tools have afforded companies like McDonald&#8217;s to really launch into a viral campaign to send a message and drive its brand. In a recent interview on Ellen, P. Diddy stated that he liked Twitter &#8220;Because it allowed him to talk to his people directly without filters&#8221;. The same can be said for companies and their brands. My recommendation is to take advantage of this and to leverage this negative &#8220;perception&#8221; comment into a strong and positive viral communications program.</p><p>Am I off? Do you agree? Should McDonald&#8217;s take another approach?</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/E5Mv6bl2fOA" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/pIdkEXtrHiA/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=What-should-McDonald’s-do-–-what-do-you-do-when-there-is-a-public-negative-comment-about-your-product/adc41aac-b753-42e2-b66c-2132050e59b3 Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:07:07 GMT 4/15/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=What-should-McDonald’s-do-–-what-do-you-do-when-there-is-a-public-negative-comment-about-your-product I was debating in writing this morning&#8217;s post which of the two titlesI should use for the post - so i decided to use both&#8230; What should McDonald&#8217;s do? What do you do when there is a public negative comment about your product??First let me set up the situationWatching &#8220;Morning Joe&#8221; this morning (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/), they [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~4/H9eW4cIR-8M" height="1" width="1"/> <p>I was debating in writing this morning&#8217;s post which of the two titlesI should use for the post - so i decided to use both&#8230; What should McDonald&#8217;s do? What do you do when there is a public negative comment about your product??</p><p><strong>First let me set up the situation</strong></p><p>Watching &#8220;Morning Joe&#8221; this morning (<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/</a>), they were announcing the anniversary of the launch of the first McDonald&#8217;s restaurant. At that point, Willie Geist - (@WillieGeist1) - brought out a bag of McDonald&#8217;s breakfast food to &#8220;celebrate&#8221;. He handed out certain pieces to each commentator. At that point,Mika Brzezinski - (@morningmika) - quickly said &#8220;No&#8230;&#8230;&#8221; and refused to accept the food - citing that she would not eat it and &#8220;that food is bad&#8230;&#8221; (please note that these quotes are the closest to what I recall - not exact quotes but give the sentiment of the comment). If that was not bad enough, when Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) starting eating a McDonald&#8217;s hash brown, Mika reached over, urged him to stop, and told him that &#8220;if he were to squeeze the hash brown he would see fat and grease oozing out&#8221;&#8230;</p><p><strong>Now why do I care - what is the lesson</strong></p><p>I wondered the same question to myself. I have lots to worry about in my life - why did this bother me so much. Then I realized, it caused me to think - what is the appropriate reaction when someone makes a blanket, public, negative comment about your product? Any honest CEO will tell you that he / she has faced this problem at least once in his / her career. Sometimes they are grounded in fact. Other times, they are just perception - but perception that can drive a lot of momentum.In business school we studied in earnest the Tylenol case - a case in which they reacted &#8220;quickly and decisively&#8221; to the scare surrounding the issues around their pills in the drug stores. But we are also taught that sometimes ignoring the comment is the most effective solution. So how do you decide? Is it simply weighing the PR impact versus the opportunity and cost? Is it weighing the character of the person who made the comment and deciding that way? Also - has it changed now that social media and internet communications have become the backbone of viral communication?</p><p><strong>So - what is the appropriate reaction when someone makes a blanket, public, negative comment about your product?</strong></p><p>I think it is a combination of all of these that is factored into the decision as to what to do and how to act. Most important, I think, is to look at the potential opportunity cost if the perception were to spread out of your control and also the opportunity to leverage this into a win for your organization. To that end, if I were in McDonalds, I would seize upon this as an opportunity. There is this perception out there that their food is bad as represented by Mika Brzezinski on the show. Most people are aware of it, and I am assuming that McDonald&#8217;s is as well. To that end, why not capitalize on this poor exchange on TV to promote a new message about McDonald&#8217;s. In essence, take this negativity, surround it with truths about the value of the product and what McDonalds offers, and create a strong and supporting viral campaign. Here are some ideas -</p><ul><li>Turn it into a fun but valuable YouTube video - with real people commenting on your product surrounding the comments by Mika Brzezinski.</li><li>Launch a web site talking about the experiences of real people who eat your food and why they think it is good</li><li>Search out experts who can comment about the menu you provide and why it is not &#8220;bad&#8221;</li><li>Stress the other items on your menu on this site that are healthier in nature</li><li>Stress the good things that McDonald&#8217;s does for the community - with a slogan as simple as &#8220;Are we that bad when we do so much good&#8221; (or something much more savvy than that&#8230;)</li><li>Use Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Youtube to your advantage to really rally people around your brand and your products - make this comment an example of the people who are driving tis mis-perception</li><li>And finally&#8230; offer a promotional program to people to havea coupon to get a hash brown for free or some very reduced price and encourage them to take a web video of themselves eating it and speaking &#8220;back to Mika&#8221;</li></ul><p>In this day and age, the times have changed. The proliferation of the internet and social media tools have afforded companies like McDonald&#8217;s to really launch into a viral campaign to send a message and drive its brand. In a recent interview on Ellen, P. Diddy stated that he liked Twitter &#8220;Because it allowed him to talk to his people directly without filters&#8221;. The same can be said for companies and their brands. My recommendation is to take advantage of this and to leverage this negative &#8220;perception&#8221; comment into a strong and positive viral communications program.</p><p>Am I off? Do you agree? Should McDonald&#8217;s take another approach?</p><img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/r/Stephensaber/4/E5Mv6bl2fOA" height="1" width="1"/> StephenSaber.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CrossTechBlog/~3/H9eW4cIR-8M/article.html http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=What-should-McDonald’s-do--what-do-you-do-when-there-is-a-public-negative-comment-about-your-product/cfe2e415-b466-47b8-aad8-f0f81b5b32bf Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:07:07 GMT 4/15/2009 http://crosstechpartners.com/article.html?a=What-should-McDonald’s-do--what-do-you-do-when-there-is-a-public-negative-comment-about-your-product