Thoughts

Road to Authenticity – Part 1

/ / Leave a comment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 In the several roles I have online (professional, educational, consultative, personal) I find that I have to cope with varying degrees of perceived authenticity.  I’ve been reading Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, partly because I’m a storyteller and I appreciate being able to look at the way I formulate ideas and thoughts into stories in more a narrative arc, and partly because of the Web Strategies for Storytelling class I am taking this Fall at the University of Washington in conjunction with my Master of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) program.

Anyway, the chapter I’m reading now is on the credibility of your story. Since credibility leads pretty much straight to authenticity, I started to think about how credible I am in each of these arenas and how that came about (and how it might change).  Not surprisingly, the online roles that are bolstered to some degree by personal, face-to-face contact carry a different quality of credibility.  This really points up the nature of the more human nature of social media (“I’ve met you, I know you a little better, and that helps me trust what you say.”).  It also points to the challenges of online roles that have little or no face-to-face components.

I watched an online video today on Jason Falls’ blog about four books he recommended reading.  Although I only came upon his blog (“met him”, if you will) today, he has attained greater credibility with me because of two things:

  1. His video book reviews.  He has personalized an experience that is important to me; I enjoy hearing about good books in my chats with friends and colleagues, and the video creates an openness that reached past what a simple blog post book review would have done.
  2. I already have two of the four books on my Kindle.  OK, so that’s serendipity, but it strengthens his other recommendations to me.  And it also made me bookmark his blog….

So these are all things that I want to get to. The kind of online credibility and authenticity that makes a first-time visitor go with your recommendations (or at least some of them) and want to come back for more.

Truly wonderful things: Pandora, Webcasting see victory in Senate

/ / Leave a comment

This is wonderful. I can’t express how happy I am that Pandora will continue…especially with the track record of IP openness in Washington.

Truly wonderful things: <CNET> Pandora, Webcasting see victory in Senate

/ Jeff Hora / Leave a comment

This is wonderful. I can’t express how happy I am that Pandora will continue…especially with the track record of IP openness in Washington.

Intriguing item – FaceBook and Twitter use in the Enterprise

/ Jeff Hora / Leave a comment

<eWeek> Facebook, Twitter Use in the Enterprise Sparks Hot Debate – In the face of a Gartner report that says that corporations shouldn’t ban Social applications like Twitter, debate rages over their benefits, challenges, and launches a side debate on whether or not people can ACTUALLY multi-task (the answer is no….).

Intriguing items – DRM run amok

/ Jeff Hora / 2 Comments

<ZDNET>: A look at risk-reward: Apple may nuke apps on your iPhone remotely – apparently Apple feels that its iPhone customers won’t mind if apps they have installed and opted-into just “go away”.  It’s a FEATURE….the blogger posting this feels that Apple (DRM) wins.  Zittrain might disagree….

<CNET>: Much ado about the iPhone’s ‘kill-switch’ – More on this same thing. The writer here says we should all just wait and see what actually happens and/or what Apple’s explanation is….

Intriguing news items

/ Jeff Hora / 1 Comment

Just wanted to share:

<WEBWARE>: New search engine Cuil takes aim at Google – A challenger in approach to relevance and ranking.

<CNET>: When worlds collide: Microsoft funds Apache – …you read it right.

<CRAVE>: Five ways to make digital music sing – Advocating audiophile digital recordings….what else are you going place on 60-80 GB of space?

Comment on Raquel’s Book Critique

/ Jeff Hora / 1 Comment

I find your critique of The Long Tail well balanced.  Given the tone of the book and audience for which the book is written, it would be easy to agree with Anderson.  By focusing on the sociological shifts that the information economy technologies afford and staying within that scope, it is a little easier to make the case.

Continue reading →

Comment – Long Tail and HBR

/ Jeff Hora / 3 Comments

<comment re-posted here to include links>

There seem to be a number of things that influence The Head and The Hit. The sheer volume of content available has made it more unlikely that a high number of, say, movies will achieve Blockbuster status. More consumers with more choices, both for content and when they can consume it (now = theater, later = DVD, On Demand, premium cable movie channel, Tivo) means a Hit need not attain enormous initial box office returns. According to a new poll by AP-AOL, 73% of adults said that they prefer watching movies at home on DVD and VOD (Video on Demand) over going to the theater. Another study by the Journal of Marketing found that studios stand to gain a 16% increase in revenue in the U.S. if they release films in theaters, on rental DVD and video-on-demand at the same time, followed three months later by a DVD sell-through release. The nature of The Hit is changing, and much more attention should rightly be centered in The Tail, but The Head isn’t going away. As businesses figure out where to draw the line between what they and their customers define as The Head and The Tail, semantics and definitions become more important. This is culture shift, which may take some time and never actually be complete.

Continue reading →

Thoughts – on Free

/ Jeff Hora / 3 Comments

The idea of Free as put forth in Chris Anderson’s article invites scrutiny, especially around assumptions and  (more or less) hidden connections.

So much of the discussion seems to assume that everyone has access to the digital marketplace. While that is a goal that is represented by efforts like One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), the fact remains that the greater part of humanity has no access to a computer or other online portal. Perhaps, that being understood, discussion about the portion of humanity that does have access becomes just that.

Continue reading →

Well that happened….

/ Jeff Hora / Leave a comment

First entry into the blog that will house, initially, my work surrounding the Masters of Communication in Digital Media and, to start, the Net-Centric Economics class.

Sweet…