Shel outlines four recent incidents in top level blogs that illustrate the coming of age of blogging.  At first its all idealistic, and deservedly so.  But then with maturity comes complacence, and worse, a sense of divine right.  In three of these new cases, my perception is that bloggers were trying to use their voice to intimidate other parties. In the fourth case, a potential employer was afraid that not hiring the blogger would give her cause to further embarrass the company by future postings. I’m sad to say their is legitimacy in the concern. Source: Global Neighbourhoods: Blogging Blackmailers & Death … Continue reading Global Neighbourhoods: Blogging Blackmailers & Death wishers

Microsoft reduced their forecast for their Internet business. Good grief … this is tantamount to corporate suicide.  Time to fire people, and get back to the drawing board.  Several months ago we expressed disappointment here in Ray Ozzie’s progress …. nuff said.  I feel strongly about Microsoft … they brought us IE when all there was, was Netscape.  They seemed to get it in the 90’s. “Microsoft’s Live branding has been tremendously confusing and has hurt the company, and it is very likely contributing to the situation they are in right now. They’ve created another brand and have not differentiated it.” –David Smith, analyst … Continue reading Message to Microsoft

We talked before about push to talk/ click to call.  This is the capability of your customer entering a phone conversation with the Bank, right from a web page.  Dan over at eStara pinged me with their latest white paper on the topic.  This chart struck me as useful, in determining which method to associate with what kind of customer activity.  Click to call is moire expensive because of the synchronous engagement of people, but its more focused, because it presents the employee with the web page that the customer is on, and the customer and employee can work through … Continue reading Strategic customer engagement – ‘click to call’ for the right reasons

 There are so many provocative thoughts arising from this few seconds of video, capturing Chad Hurley (Youtube) at Davos. Source: Youtube Who the hell is Chad Hurley? Who invited him to Davos? I thought Davos was for world leaders? Oops … the world has changed.  Within 24 months of launching a video platform, some geek is sitting in Davos.  Davos for the uninitiated is the place business and political leaders gather annually in January to discuss world progress.  I recall being amazed that Bill Gates was there a few years ago, but if you haven’t figured out that the world has … Continue reading Davos07: thoughts on the importance of video

Yes, its election time in Canada again.  Ordinary Canadians have seen an explosion of punishing fees at a time when Canadian banks are basking in record profits, Source: Canadian Banks & Insurance Putting aside the obviously political motivations of the Canadian NDP, the more basic matter is that Bank fees are a motivating issue for people.  The concept with this particular one is that ATM’s are a utility, available for all to use just like a water tap.  While this ignores the multi million dollar investments of the Banks’ in their ATM networks and associated infrastructure, that means nothing.  Telco’s … Continue reading Banks fees are not sustainable