October 2008 Archives

The comic below from Dueling Analogs was sent to me this morning, and it was a good laugh. Two of the characters featured are from the television commercials Apple produced in which PC's are depicted as arcane and institutional machines, and Macs as the undeniably cool and anti-establishment computer of choice. The third character is something Apple never added to the official commercials: the Linux operating system personified. Linux is an open source operating system that in many circles is considered superior to Mac or PC operating systems (full disclosure: Mac's OS is loosely based on some of Linux). Why? Because Linux allows individuals everywhere to collaborate on it using the knowledge of groups to produce an operating system that has been refined an infinite amount of times, and by different brains. Obviously this system would be perceived as a threat to Mac and PC operating systems if they were personified, and of course, let loose in a white-walled room with no windows (like the Apple commercials). Anyway, a funny little bit of geek humor for you today.

Yesterday LinkedIn launched several profile applications for users based on OpenSocial. What I really like about LinkedIn is that it's not for kids (or kid-like behavior) or MySpace users looking for a new playground.

If you know me, you know I'm not a fan of Facebook, or similarly ubiquitous social networking sites. I don't have any desire to receive "hatching eggs" that turn into baby dinosaurs or bright yellow chicks. I also don't want to post shout-outs to people I already know, simply for the hell of having everyone see what I wrote on someone's "Wall." Unlike Facebook, I see LinkedIn as having a distinct purpose: to grow and solidify your business or career network. And now LinkedIn is offering more tools to help move the site beyond simply a place for amassing contacts and recommendations from colleagues.

With new applications like TripIt, BlogLink, CompanyBuzz, and Amazon Booklist, LinkedIn has given us more ways to strengthen our existing connections, and grow new ones--all with a distinctive business slant. Here's a very quick rundown of my two favorite tools from the release:

With TripIt, I can enter information about my travel plans both past and present and the application uses my itineraries to find similarly travelled individuals, if you will. Plus, it allows your contacts to see where you are at any given time (based on the information you enter; again, a good safeguard against stalkers--just kidding!-- and generally having too much info "out there"). By having all of your info, TripIt makes it easy to see when you and your contacts are in the same city or country for a business meeting or an informal meet-up.

Have a blog like me? Rather than simply linking to it from your LinkedIn profile and hoping people bother to check it out, BlogLink puts your blog posts right on your profile with very little effort.

What I find most annoying about Facebook is the pointlessness of many of the applications. You can add an application like "Cities I've Visited" to your profile, but because Facebook has a very unclear purpose (I know, I know, it's to "make friends," but isn't that rather ambiguous these days?), you're never sure how you should use the tool other than to brag that you've travelled to hundreds of cities to people who bother to even look at that part of your profile. I know there will be lots of people who disagree with me about Facebook, but I guess I just don't see the point of posting all of your personal information on a site without getting too much out of it--other than, perhaps, a hatching egg?

The Official Google Blog reports that they'll finally be helping out fools like me who often hear songs on YouTube videos that they'd love to have on their iTunes playlist, but unfortunately, have no idea the identity of the artists that create them. YouTube users who like a song on a video will now be offered "Click-to-Buy" links which the blog claims will be "unobtrusive."

While I think the "Click-to-Buy" idea is great, I also think it might be helpful to the music industry (and, of course, YouTube) to use music recognition software like Shazam or Midomi to automatically link the music/content for purchase. Many people think Shazam does a better job of recognizing songs overall, according to GigaOm, but I suspect that the debate will soon be eclipsed by a larger issue--the issue of how this technology can continue to remain relevant and become useful to us in generating new sources of revenue through YouTube videos and the like.

How could any of the players in this arena take it to the next level, technologically speaking? As it stands right now, any time a song is in a YouTube video, the content producer must go in and tag their content (in this case, a song). Wouldn't it be easier if the process could be automated so that anything in a YouTube video could be identified by applications such as Shazam or Midomi (or an as-yet-uninvented Google app) and automatically tagged? If the technology is already there, then it might be easier than having content producers "claim" a song in every YouTube video.

Midomi's parent company, Melodis, might be ready to set themselves apart from leader Shazam by being the first innovator in this arena: GigaOm reports that they have raised $7 million in Series B funding. Whatever Melodis is up to with their cash is anyone's guess, but one thing is for sure: innovation is necessary to take this technology to the next level. Of course it goes without saying that Google has the resources to simply build an application like this themselves anyway and integrate it seamlessly into YouTube. Guess we'll have to stay tuned and see how it all plays out.

In a sea of competitors offering the same service, companies that want to survive (and thrive) simply have to put their unique stamp on goods and services. Essentially, they must do business differently.

So what exactly is "doing business differently"? A really good example comes courtesy of JetBlue, the airline that prides itself on offering a friendlier (and funnier) flying experience. Part of what makes the company so different is that they really do live up to their friendly image, and flying is therefore a bit less stressful. And TV at every seat does not hurt either.

But what really makes JetBlue different is their desire to take calculated risks.

Case in point: JetBlue recently announced that they'd be expanding their services at a time when other airlines are cutting costs and putting the brakes on new projects. Is this a mistake? If the risk is calibrated properly, my answer is "no." Why? JetBlue has done their homework, and that's the first step in evaluating whether or not a potentially risky move could spell disaster or not.

Nicole Wong of the Boston Globe profiled JetBlue on October 21st, revealing the company's plans to make Boston one of three cities integral to their expansion project. It's all due to the unique composition of the market in Boston: you've got a steady supply of students flying in and out of Logan every day, with no signs of slowing, and a solid amount of business travelers, such as myself. In addition, the article points out, there's a growing demand for shuttling groups to and from events across the country. Boston boasts successful sports teams on both the professional and college levels, as well as biotech companies moving key team members, both of which require a plane to get them where they need to go. For JetBlue, it's a lucrative market that has the potential to become even more so if they play their cards right.

But JetBlue isn't just expanding without doing a little maintenance. It appears they're willing to do what it takes to pull in customers that don't already rely on their 26 non-stop flights out of Boston, more than any other carrier out of Logan. Doing what it takes will, according to JetBlue, include boosting in-flight internet access, as well as doing a better job of promoting some of JetBlue's amenities such as refundable fares and substantially more flights than competitors. According to the Globe piece, JetBlue's Chief Executive, David Barger said, "The business customers are saying, 'Give me at least three [flights] a day, or four a day, or five a day,'". The customers spoke, and apparently, JetBlue listened.

I know from personal experience that it's hard to find a non-stop flight to a preferred destination out of Logan, but when I do find it, it's usually from JetBlue. In fact, I regularly fly from Boston to Austin, Texas, where GotVMail's second outpost is located. I've never been unhappy with JetBlue's services, so the idea that they're only going to improve upon them is exciting.

JetBlue's approach is reminiscent of that taken by Southwest Airlines, the airline that originally did things differently (an idea discussed at length in Mavericks At Work). Both JetBlue and Southwest take the institutionalized quality that other airlines often have, and make customer satisfaction and freedom their primary concerns. During times in our history when it seems like businesses are thinking of anything except the regular person just trying to visit their family or close a deal on a business trip, that's a pretty smart move.

Mark Cuban his putting his money where his mouth is. After offering up $50 million of his own money to to buy into a fund created by the treasury comprised of all the assets and related items from the bailout, Cuban's hot on the trail of the U.S. government with BailoutSleuth.com to see if, in fact, we're really doing anything different from what we did to get ourselves into this financial mess. As it turns out, argues Cuban, we're really not (what a surprise!).

For example, the U.S. government has awarded its first contract after the bailout to Bank of New York Mellon Corp., and instead of opting for transparency (which would be ideal given that the lack of it created the crisis in the first place) and revealing how much they're paying the private corporation to manage the bailout transactions, they've blacked out all of the information pertaining to payment. So much for learning from your mistakes!