If you’re into data visualization at all, and you’re not familiar with Information Architect’s continuing work on visualizing current web trends as a subway map, I highly recommend checking it out. Beautiful is the word.
Today has been an interesting day - found lots of new stuff that expanded my horizons:
A colleague of mine forwarded me the link to this excellent report on Chinese internet company, QQ, and the Chinese online media industry in general.
China’s largest search engine, Baidu, is going to launch a Japanese version. This is potentially very big, as Japan is one of the companies where Google is not a player. More to follow.
Martin Laetsch, a colleague of mine from SEMDirector, shares his thoughts about Wikia Search on MediaPost.
I created an account on Wikia, and I didn’t see anything too compelling yet, but I think Martin has tuned into something important about what Wikia is trying to do. Open-ness benefits everyone and it’s good to see at least one party going down that path.
Mahalo is turning into a very interesting project, despite naysayers, and is probably even better equipped to do what Wikia is trying to do at this point in time.
I enjoyed this post from Gord today: Human Hardware and our Operating System. Why ask why?
Earlier today, I wrote about my experiences with two online life insurance brokers. I actually had Mack’s post about a woman’s experience with Panera in mind as I wrote it.
Because both of the insurance brokers don’t come off as Web 2.0 type companies, I figured that neither of them would ever see what I wrote, and that was unfortunate. I would always want to know how my customers or prospects felt after they had an encounter with a service that I was offering.
I was pleasantly surprised when Sean Cheyney responded to my comments and explained more about his business and the way it works. Because I have no reason to do otherwise, I take his comments at face value and now the company he works for (AccuQuote) have a much higher standing in my opinion.
It takes a lot of time and energy to track down people who are talking about your company and even more integrity to engage them in conversation. If more companies did this, the concept of “PR Nightmares” would largely go away.
People want to talk to other people. That’s why social media works.
Our exchange can be read here.
I had lunch with Chuck Longanecker, CEO of digital telepathy, at El Zarape in University Heights (my ‘hood) today.
He wants to do something that I’ve wanted to see for quite some time now - create an open community for players in San Diego’s small but vibrant Web 2.0 hub.
Chuck has a lot of good things planned for it and I’m happy to be a part of it. If you’re in SD and into this sort of thing, feel free to check it out.
The best way to get involved and get updates on future events is to join the Facebook group.
Every day I see or hear someone talking about the current internet boom and drawing comparisons to the last boom and the inevitable bust. Sure, business is cyclical, but I think the real, comprehensive shift that the internet imposes on business, society, and culture is still in its infancy. I’m not prone to hyperbole or breathless prognostications, and I write this from the perspective of someone who maintains a healthy degree of skepticism.
Here’s an example: I’m reviewing life insurance policies to ensure that we have the proper coverage for my family. I did some research and found two online brokers / aggregators: AccuQuote and Insure.com. I ended up going with Insure.com to connect me with the right policy for two reasons: 1) AccuQuote sent my information (without my permission) to dozens of local agents, who then bombarded me with calls over the next few days and 2) Insure.com has a clean process, better rates, and a clear rating system for their partner’s policies.
One of the local agents that called me did have a better over-the-phone pitch than the others, so I agreed to meet him in person. I’ve done a lot of research on my own and have a decent enough knowledge of the financial landscape (thanks to a variety of self-service tools on the web) to make my own decisions. What amused me was every single decision I have made in regards to my own investment portfolio (types of insurance, indexes vs. stocks / managed funds, etc.) was criticized by this local agent (who is also a “financial planner” and who also has direct incentives to steer me away from things like non-managed index funds. (If you want to read a great book on this subject, I highly recommend The Four Pillars of Investment).
He quoted me a plan that was six times higher than what I found online (and three times higher than what I knew a comparable plan would be elsewhere online) and lost all credibility when he told me “we’ll get control of your assets and move them out of index funds.” And I bet he would.
The point is this: based on my experience, AccuQuote and Insure.com don’t even come close to sexy Web 2.0 applications. There is no social networking application built yet for this space. But I was able to quickly find the information I need and make an informed decision for far less work and, most importantly, I had the confidence that I was only buying what I needed. I wasn’t being sold anything.
This is the difference between “full service” and self-service. You take only what you need, and if you need more you come back to trusted sources. This is what the internet helps to enable and it’s going to take more than the 10-15 years we’ve had so far to complete the revolution of over 500 years of business practices and socialization.
The World with Lisa Mullins broadcasted the gut-wrenching story of a doctor who is trying to help victims of rape in the Congo (and rape, as bad as it is in most circumstances, does not come close to describing what is happening in this case). It’s one of those stories that instills doubt about the future of the entire human race.
It’s one of those stories that makes people - religious and non-religious alike - wonder why God, if there is one, doesn’t do anything about this sort of thing. I’ve heard all sorts of explanations and attempts to answer this question throughout my life, but the best one I’ve heard so far comes from Alyosha, the main character in The Brothers Karamazov.
Alyosha came from probably one of the worst families in literary history (and an obvious symbol for the human race) and after witnessing all the worst things that people could do to one another, he (himself deeply spiritual) came to one conclusion: he was responsible for it all.
He was a good man despite his family background, and yet he, and everybody else in the world who cared about goodness and life, was responsible for all of the bad things that people did to one another. It’s only the good people in this world who can and will ever stop the horrors that people inflict on one another.
The lesson is clear. When we ask “Where was God?” the response echoes back: “Where were you?”
