Noise kills conversations. Twitter works best when it is conversational. Conversations expand your virtual network. Bots generate noise.  Twitter was growing based on its conversational content.  It is still growing but now the content is primarily noise generated by bots or their human equivalents....

In Fast Company Ken Musgrave wrote an interesting article about Brands see http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ken-musgrave/thinkdesign/enduring-power-brand-leica-vs-panasonic?  In it he compares the pulling power of the Leica D-Lux 4 with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3.  Ken says they are virtually identical cameras.  So why would one out-perform the other in anyway?  Why would one command a higher price?  Why would one get better web reviews and have greater referrals?  Ken Musgrave is interested in Design and tangentially in Brand power.  The following is the comment I left on Fast Company.

"Are these two cameras really the same? No they are not. Why? Because the online community that uses the Leica adds to its DESIGN. They add the human experience - that is they tell their tribe that the Leica is blah blah blah. When their tribal peers use the Leica they experience what they were told and then some. What the tribe is talking about is what they "experience" not what the camera is capable of in purely technical terms. In essence, the tribal members add a metaphysical aspect to the experience of using the Leica.

Persig wrote about this in his famous book 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' as he explored the notion of "quality". Quality is a human experience more than a practical fact when it comes to motorcycles and cameras.

For example, if DELL wants to DESIGN a better quality computer all it has to do is to work very closely with my Facebook friend Lionel Menchaca Jr.to ensure the DELL tribe online add the experiential elements of good design when they use their computer.

And so it goes. Tupperware Parties added the experiential design to their home-based distribution of plastic products in the 1950s. These were home-based tribal gatherings were women had a good time and bought a lot of Tupperware products. At these parties they also commented on what they wanted or needed to see from the company in the future. All this can be done online today.

We are seeing the demise of the brand as we return to a referral system of product differentiation."

The biggest hype in the world today surrounds social networks.  Self appointed experts tell us what they are, what strategies work, and how best to make money from them.  Guess what this is all bunk.

Nothing has changed within social networks.  They are still the same clusters, clans, and tribes that I first spied at Sunday in the park.  Clusters of people meet in the park - they talk, play games, eat, etc.  On the web the same people form clusters with different people - they talk, play game, swap stories, etc.  At the park people are not always what they seem and on the web this is also true.  In some ways it is more apparent on the web because people often deliberately wear a digital mask.

The same social rules apply in the park and on the web.  The same outcomes occur at both venues - people complain long and hard about the amenities.  The amenities are never in the right place at the right time.  In the park we are talking toilets and cooking facilities.  On the web we are talking digital technologies that sustain these clusters.  People are the same in the park and on the web - they are social beings who cluster.  There is no mystery here.  There is no need for new strategies or insights here.  There is no one size fits all rule about how to get the best experience or set of outcomes from these two social networks.

The one thing that is different about social networks on the web and those in the park is the size of the clusters.  That difference is huge.  It is what makes digital networks a whole new deal.  It is what requires new thinking from social change agents.  It is what will change business models this century.  Who is talking about that - some learned people are but not the mob.

Do you have a home phone?  Do you use your fixed phone to communicate with people or to connect to your Internet Service Provider?

The home phone has been an institution for more than 100 years.  It was our connector to friends, businesses, and community workers.  Today it is being replaced by a computer - most mobile phones these days are small powerful hand held computers.  The extent to which you use one of these hand held devices to provide you access and connection to your social networks depends on 1) availability of the technology where you live 2) the price of buy in and use of it.

A lot is being written about social networks today due to the arrival of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. What is not written about is how these tools help you organise your life around hand held computers rather than your home phone.  So what is the key issue you should consider before you design and implement your new organisational arrangements around a mobile rather than a fixed phone.  How accessible do you want to or need to be?  How much time do you want to stay connected to the world?


My tool for handling all these issues is DigitalCore.  It is a filter.  It is designed to filter your access and connections.  It is designed to enable you to facilitate your life work balance.  It is not a management tool - most of what you see on the web are tools to help you manage your new digital networks but they can not be managed they have to be facilitated.  You are at the centre of your social network now whether you like it or not.  You are the facilitator whether you like it or not.  You are responsible for your social network outcomes whether you like it or not. 

Don't you wish you still had a home phone and the simple life?
  

Google is great - the Googleplex is not.

Google is like Microsoft - it is a prisoner of its own device.  It is a prisoner of its own success.  Too much success doing things that were cool in the 1990s.  Success that came despite the fact that it has 1990s style management and systems.  Sure they have the smartest 1990s management team going around today but they are not focused on doing 2010-20 things in search.

Search is heading into real-time via Twitter.  It is relational and thus real-time interactive search.  Meaningful search.  Search that connects you to options to solve your problem or the query you have running around inside your head.  Google is pages behind your needs and your current mindset.

iGoogle is a great idea - it needs to become a real-time networked search engine like Twitter then it will be a great help to me and you.....

Are you on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ning, or some other web-based network?  Listening to Marc Andreessen on Charlie Rose was fantastic - I recommend it see http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10093  he started to talk about playing offence or defence.

This got me thinking (a hell of a lot slower than Marc) about what you and I think about our use of digital networks.

It strikes me that most of us now think we are an integral part of this new digital revolution but are we really part of it or are we just clogging up these new networks? 

To find out where each of us stand we have to ask ourselves a simple question and then do the hard work to discover our own unique answer. The question is "Am I  playing offence or defence?

If I am playing offence then I am willing closing down my analogue business models, habits, and cultures.  If I am playing defence then I am playing around with these new digital networks as an adjunct to what I have always done.

Kindle 2 is a new medium.  It is digital technology designed for book readers.  It allows book readers to access the content of a book online. To read it and recall it for a second read without access to the physical content. So this is not a book.  It is not a computer.  It is not a TV.  What is Kindle 2?

At present Kindle 2 is an expensive toy.  It is useful for some book readers who use their Kindle to replace many hardcover and paperback books.  It is useful for those who are opposed to pulping wood to make paper for books.  It is convenient for those who travel and want to read a new release on an aircraft or in a hotel.  But this is not a book or a replacement for a book.  Rather it is a new way of accessing the content of a printed book.

As readers become comfortable with Kindle 2 as their portal to books this technology platform will change.  Kindle 3 might bring other content to your digital slate.  Kindle 4 or 5 might bring new ways of presenting the material in a printed book - ways that are not practical in a printed form.  For example, links to different parts of the book or to outside materials that support the premise, assumptions, points, etc being raised within this part of the story, case study, or fable.  kindle 6 might include video clips or pod-cast interviews with the author, etc. 

Kindle 2 is not a book or is it?  Perhaps it is a digital replacement for the traditional analogue book.

Tweets about Facebook form a Theme Cluster. Key themes get shared via Facebook Clans. Themes become actions within MySpace Tribes .

Imaging is creating and solving new challenges.  Digital technology is the platform for imagining breakthroughs from games through medicine to "who knows what?"  So the new capabilities we call the Digital Age is a simple combination of your imagination and their technology.  The intersection between those two is where imagining begins and ends.  Its a new world because it is virtual.  It is a virtual world that works in our real world.  It is a virtual world that is an extension of our minds and our reality.  Example, Google takes 'real world' data and runs it through a Graphic Processing Unit (create seemingly three dimensional Maps) to bring you images of your Facebook Friend's street which is on the farside of the world from you.

You can now follow me on Twitter.  Catch me at http://twitter.com/digitalwarrrior   Note that warrrior has 3 r's - a penalty for not being 'first in' with this cool name.

What is the relevance of what you do or what you make?  What you do today is very similar to what you did last year, last decade, last century but what is the relevance of what you do today to what is needed next year by the digital generation.  

There is a trick here.  What you see is what you have always seen but it is faster than ever before.  So you are trying to keep up with the pace of thise change process.  What is driving this change - well you know and I know that it is digital technology.  Digital technology is taking what you do to mobile, 24/7, global, and networked.  It is the technology not the people you compete with in your industry that is reshaping your world.

So here is the rub!  The new competition for you and your company is coming from disruptive technologies - these technologies are digital.  They are pervasive. They are being applied to what you do and that means you have to compete with what can be done in your field by new digital technologies.

The new competition is digital technology and what it does to what you have always done without it.  How can you compete within this new digital world?  

You have to find your own answers to the challenge of the new competition. 

Get a free eBook about eTransformation by clicking on Public above...... cheers!   You can now follow me on Twitter.  Catch me at http://twitter.com/digitalwarrrior   Note that warrrior has 3 r's - a penalty for not being 'first in' with this cool name.

MySpace is full of Chattering Tribes.  Look at me and hang with me.  It is the monetized site on the social web.  The reason is it was designed and built as a social portal to music, videos, and friends. It is an integral part of the digital networked economy.  

Facebook is full of Chattering Clans.  Look at this brilliant idea, conversation, relationship, product, etc. and try it on with me.  The reason is it was designed and built to be a social networking tool and then innovated and innovated and innovated.  It is becoming a social incubator for virtual communities.  No real economy here just yet.

Twitter is full of Chattering Clusters.  Look at this content and share it through your web-based conversations.  The reason is that this was a happening in social networking for its original creators then you and me.

PS Love you to Tweet about my free ebook...  Get your copy by clicking on Public above - then click on Tunnelling through the big house...  The book is old now but the lessons are still valid - I think?  Let me know...

At Davos there was a session focused on advising the new US President on the economic crisis.  At the opening the Chairman, Professor Michael Porter, posed a question for the Facebook web-based community to answer as his session proceeded. Professor Porter asked if the Facebook community thought the President's new stimulus package was going the work.  The answer was no.  The answer is not that important - it might have been the wrong question or it might have been incorrectly phrased.  The community, I believe from what I heard in an interview with Randi Zuckerberg from Facebook, is only 1000 people.  This is a virtual community - its demographic definition or its geographic spread it not know to the audience so what are we to make of this answer.  But again the fact that an important session at Davos was linked upto a Facebook web-based community is important - it is a dramatic social change.

You can now follow me on Twitter.  Catch me at http://twitter.com/digitalwarrrior   Note that warrrior has 3 r's - a penalty for not being 'first in' with this cool name.

Digital networks supported by cloud computing - which is a web-based computing capacity that you have access to as if it was inside your PC.  Cloud computing is just one more step towards the fast approaching digital age.  Taking full advantage of this digital age will not be difficult for those who give up their analogue thinking.  Digital thinking is based around network not private capacity, notions of abundance not scarcity, and cooperation not competition.

 Would you like to rent a digital warrior?

Richard Lipscombe - digital warrior for rent.  I work on digital business issues for a monthly retainer.  I will travel to a client site anywhere in the world but I prefer to work as a virtual input to your business.   I prefer to work on digital network design, build, and maintenance issues.  Also, I prefer to work on user or customer issues - with a clear emphasis on building web-based networks that link clusters, clans, and tribes.  I can work equally well with your staff or with your customer base.  Contact me at lipscombe.richard@gmail.com.

Apple moves to make digital business smarter - they have removed copy protection from your downloaded digital music.  Digital music is available at different prices but the real deal is it is convenient.  Hear a song on your radio that you just have to have - well within a nanosecond it is yours.  It is delivered to you in the way that is most convenient for you and at a price that you are more than willing to pay.  2009 may provide us with a gateway to digital business.

Here is the letter I received today as an email inviting me to contribute to US Climate Change and Energy issues, ideas, and policy formulation process. So I did just that... If you would like to become part of the new Chattering Clusters advising the next President of the United States on America then you can simply follow the prompts on my invitation....

Dear Richard,

62 days. That's how much time we have left to prepare for the Obama-Biden Administration that will bring the change Americans demanded so strongly in this past election.

President-elect Obama has set a high bar for the Transition team: to execute the most efficient, organized, and transparent transfer of power in American history. As a co-Chair for the Transition, I want to tell you about a few steps we've already taken to achieve this goal.

First, we adopted the strictest ethics guidelines ever applied to any transition team. President-elect Obama pledged to change the way Washington works, and that begins with shifting influence away from special interests and restoring it to the everyday Americans who are passionate about fixing the problems facing our country.

Opening up the Transition means listening to your ideas and stories and providing a window into how the process works.

To give you a look at how we're approaching some of the nation's most pressing issues, we filmed this meeting of our Energy and Environment Policy Transition Team and interviewed team member Heather Zichal.

Watch the video and submit your ideas on energy and the environment:


President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden have set an ambitious agenda, and we are going to make Change.gov a source of information, as well as a place to participate in the decisions being made about your government.

Since the decisions we're making affect all Americans, we're counting on citizens from every walk of life to get involved. You can help us right now by making sure your friends and neighbors know about Change.gov and give their input, too.

We're continuing to develop new ways to open up the process, and we'll keep you posted along the way.

Thanks,

John

John Podesta
Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team

The world is changing.  It is changing in ways that I never would have thought possible when I was a child.  The new world order for children today offers so much that it is hard to reconcile the fear and angst that many of their parent feel right now about matters economic.

Here is just one window into what changes are happening and what is possible in this wonderous digital age.

The window is provided by the those who hold to the notion of global unity and especially those who work on the "one laptop per child programme"..... To learn more use this link...  http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9553

Executives of C20th organisations, living in the C21st, just do not get it! 

Brands and trademarks do not work online.  The reason is simple and I have written about it many times here.  Success online comes when one is inclusive not exclusive.  Branding your product or service is an attempt to be exclusive.  It is an attempt to add value by restricting access or connection to your product or service.  This is a recipe for failure on the web.  Instead the art of doing business in the C21st is to become inclusive.  Network your product or service and distribute your advantage (whether it be through superior design, IP, research and development, etc) to everyone who can usefully benefit.

You will read about how Dell is trying to own the term 'cloud computing' or Microsoft is trying to brand Live Mesh and it all makes perfect sense in a C20th world.  Last time I checked we are living in the C21st.  All you need to remember from this blog therefore is "brands and trademarks fail online".... 

Ideas are great to talk about and hard to implement.  This blog is about thinking, habits, and change.  Ideas are a direct product of Clear Space Thinking.  The notion here is that if you want to get into clear space, beyond the reach of your best competitors, then you have to come up with some new ideas.  If those ideas are to be implemented then you will have to change some habits.  Its the habits not the absence of clear space thinking or lack of new ideas that holds back most businesses.  Altering habits is the key to unlocking new futures.  When you replace habits you change.

There is no better environment for change, no better context for change, no better time for change than right now. 

Why?  Because the carbon expensive global economy is no longer sustainable in its current form. Crude oil costs are rising sharply and this is flowing right through our Nation-State economies.  Adding to the pressures for change are new networked businesses which connect everyone to everyone.  Networked businesses bring speed to commerce because they link people but they do not depend on people processes.  So the two big changes on the world scene are 1) the high cost of carbon 2) less need for people-intensive processes.

You have been given a gift of 'disruptive changes' to your world.  You are sitting at the cross roads of history.  You have the opportunity to turn all your good ideas into innovations.  You are well placed to implement your ideas because the world around you is changing in ways that were not imagined just 8 years ago.  You have the chance to push your most 'out there' ideas and push them hard.  You have the chance to develop your own special Clear Space with your ideas if, and only if, you can actually implement them.

You can implement your best ideas if you can find a flexible, transparent, and passive revenue model to match them.  The sticking point is not what most people think - it is usually the existing revenue model.  If you have good ideas about passive revenue models then you have a perfect opportunity to change your past habits in business.  If you can adopt your revenue models to better suit a high cost carbon world and the emerging C21st networked business process than you are on your way to a relevant and remarkable success.

Perhaps the best news for digital business innovation is the rising cost or crude oil.  The cost of oil is a dagger into the core of the C20th businesses which are still addicted to carbon-intensive and people-intensive processes.  Carbon-intensive business models are no longer competitive with C21st digital business models.

Digital business models are different - very different.  The core asset is information not people.  The core discussion is about users not customers.  The core structure is networks not organisations.  How different can you be?  Information is increasingly machine not people based.  It is networked via machines not people-intensive organisations.  It is networked free to more and more users in a business model that defies the old paradigm of staff serving customers.  The carbon and people component of global and local networked businesses can be very low.  The marginal cost of doing business within a supportive network can approach zero.

What is your business model?  Is it dependent on a constant supply of cheap labour and oil?  If so then go fold your tent..... Then go figure out how to go digital....