links for 2006-07-31
-
(tags: diplomacy)
15-inch MacBook Pro battery issues
Thanks to Jeff Nolan for this post about the problem and exchange program from Apple for the 15-inch MacBook Pro. I just had a problem with my MacBook Pro shutting down when in the low 80% range and running on battery power. I was just about to deal with the problem with Apple when I found Jeff’s post.
I submitted my information into Apple’s exchange program website and it seemed to work just fine. I’m now just waiting for my new battery.
– brian
NY Times on CEO Blogging
Or current lack thereof. Here is today’s interesting article on the topic. Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems and the only regular Fortune 500 CEO blogger, said as CEO is #1 job is to be a communicator. What better mechanism than Web 2.0 and blogging as an entry point? I’ve said here at the Listening Post a few times that Blogging alone is not an effective customer engagement strategy, but it will be interesting to see how many CEOs begin to lead the way for major corporations with blogging as an entry point.
A few are tipping their toes in the water. John Mackey of Whole Foods is referenced in the NY Times piece above. My last post was about Rick Wagoner of GM posting to the GM FastLane blog. This does not make Rick a CEO blogger, but at least he can make a first hand judgement of the effectiveness of Web 2.0 as a communications vehicle, and thus begin to expand his customer engagement strategy. Likewise, Gary Kelly recently & effectively posted to Southwest’s Nuts about Southwest blog in the same manner as Rick Wagoner at GM regarding the seating controversy there.
Blogging is the tip of the iceberg for true customer engagement effectiveness & CEO adoption among our largest corporations may be a necessary requirement for the adoption and validation of its effectiveness.
I hope this recent CEO blogging activity and attention is all a harbinger for greater and more comprehensive approaches to true customer engagment for all corporations.
– brian
links for 2006-07-30
Model to enable Information Arbitrage?
I recently posted on the topic of Information Arbitrage Opportunities related to some blogosphere chatter on the topic. As a follow-up to that post, I came across this Slashdot article talking about an approach of "topic modeling" that is being implemented by some computer scientists at University of California, Irvine.
A press release on the breakthrough is here and a ZDNet article about topic modeling is here.
Using this topic modeling approach may be an effective first step in successfully implementing Information Arbitrage to power an investment strategy. The topic modeling would need to monitor for, identify and alert interesting topics in the investment arena. Those alerts would need to be tied to a financial analysis and underlying database, and followed up with a trading strategy for the opportunity based on the information and the financial analysis.
Used in the right way, it seems that topic modeling could help indentify in a timely manner interesting opportunities for effective investment strategies.
– brian
Why Customer Engagement will be a necessity
Phil Windley recently authored a post called The Customer Is In Charge, describing with an example the trend toward greater customer power and influence due to Web 2.0 capabilities.
The example about which Phil wrote was an interesting incident involving T-Mobile and David Berlind at ZDNet’s Between the Lines blog. This is a case where a person with a wide audience for his blog on the Web encountered some poor customer service, and decided to report on it. What’s more, David recorded his support call, and attached it as a podcast, so there is no doubt about the situation.
The impact of this one incident is manifold for T-Mobile. Read more
links for 2006-07-29
Listening example from GM’s FastLane
GM is in the midst of a major turnaround that is required to save the company’s very existence. They are definitely making progress, and most certainly still have a long way to go. It seems that their FastLane blog is a part of the turnaround process, and it appears to be paying dividends. Rick Wagoner, GM’s CEO, recently posted to FastLane on GM’s progress. What a remarkable development …. any individual with an Internet connection can now get an audience with GM’s CEO and it’s Vice Chairman. Reading through the comments on Rick’s post, you’ll see individual customers, dealers, and suppliers all commenting. These are all insights that Rick in his position as CEO would have a tough time gathering one meeting at a time.
There is a saying that “necessity is the mother of all invention,” and it seems that GM has a high degree of urgency and necessity these days. I do not know if this is why the Vice Chairman started the FastLane blog or not, but if all was well at GM I’m not so sure they would have done it. Read more
links for 2006-07-28
-
(tags: feedburner weblog)
-
(tags: feedburner weblog)
links for 2006-07-26
-
Discover, Listen to, and Share Podcasts
Google concerns
Is Google forgetting or overplaying its entrepreneurial roots? Jeff Nolan and Silicon Beat each had postings today that give me pause for conern as a Google shareholder.
While wiz-bang features draw in the new users and win hearts and minds, it’s the slow and steady grinding of features that wins the long-term profit streams. Unlike the perennial innovator Apple, Google does not even get the benefit of charging for its innovations.
Microsoft got this more than anyone. The value of product management and persistence pays off, and the little details matter. To not be bothered to put in a feature that makes a product convenient to use just because "it’s been done before" is a very concerning M.O.
Let’s not forget that Google is still very much a one-trick pony. It’s one of the best tricks in the history of business, but it is still mostly reliant on search and PPC ads as its sole source of revenue.
I will disagree with Jeff on one point …. Gmail is a great product from my perspective.
Anyway, it is a pause for conern, but I am not betting against Google just yet. Their core search francise is very strong and powerful, and the operating system alone would still make Microsoft a very valuable business. The key questions are how much growth driven from beyond the core search engine is baked into Google’s stock now, how much risk is there of the search franchise being compromised competitively, and how to factor in this issue of product management capability?
ADDITIONAL NOTE: this post has some interesting numbers.
– brian
Zillow raised another $25mm … is this a sign?
I just do not get this one. $57mm in funding to-date, 126 employees. I know real estate is a huge market, but these guys really have not solved anything. Their valuation data is wildly inaccurate … you can do just as good with tax appraisal records and some local market knowledge. Have not seen stuff like this since the late nineties (i.e. over-funded land grabs).
I’m looking at homes out of state now and am selling mine. I’ve seen zero use for Zillow in the process.
Someone in this space may justify $57mm or more in funding, but I just do not see it here yet.
– brian
links for 2006-07-24
Information Arbitrage Opportunities?
I came across a couple of interesting posts today exploring the opportunity of exploiting the vast array of information available on the Web for investment gain.
Fred Wilson posted here with his perspective from being located in the financial capital of the world. He references some companies that have had success in this area over the past 8-10 years. NOTE - while Fred has seen a few examples, I am quite shocked that the number is so low.
Next, one of the blogs to which Fred refers notes here the lack of projects / companies trying to exploit this obvious opportunity.
This is something that has been near the top of my mind for quite some time. I was under the assumption that this space would be overly crowded by now. That now seems to be a false assumption … time to pick up the phone and call my buddies and MBA classmates to see what the current state of the art is here and where opportunity may lie.
To echo Fred’s point, while investing and the financial services industry is something that interests me quite a bit, it has not consumed me down in Austin, TX, as it consumes few people here like it would in a financial center such as NYC or even Boston where it’s tough to turn your head without being exposes to investing. This is not a judgement, but an observation.
– brian
links for 2006-07-21
-
Recent Posts
-->
-
Affiliations
-
-
Disqus Comments on this Blog
-
Plaxo Pulse
-
Twitter Feed
-
MyBlogLog Community
-
Enterprise Irregulars
-
Technorati
-
MyVenturePad
