Business

I've decided to move back to a blogger-based website. The folks here running supersized.org have been excellent, MORE than excellent. My decision has nothing to do with how amazingly great the service was here. Instead, it's just because Blogger has lots of software companies writing add-ons and things to make the site more useful, and I can't get 1:1 parity for the Serendipity software used here at supersized.  (For the average blog user, this wouldn't matter a lick. If you're considering getting a blog, use supersized.org. They're great folks!)

My URL will still be: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/  as this is redirected wherever I want it to go. However, my RSS will change.

Update your RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/chrisbrogandotcom

This site will stay active as long as Jannis permits. Please grab whatever you like for your archives (in case we take it down).

I'll see you at the new place.

Dave Gray is productive. This man puts out more graphics in more media than a graffiti tagger with a hardware store full of paint. Besides inventing his own visual language (you do that in your spare time, right?), Dave has written a book, taught class in the physical world, started a visual thinking school, and landed a spot in the Top 10 popular lenses at Seth Godin's Squidoo project. Dave was kind enough to give me an interview recently, and there's lots to cover. So, without delay, here's Dave Gray:

Tell me about founding XPlane. What came before, and how'd you make your move?

Before founding XPLANE I had a career as a graphic journalist. It was my job to quickly understand any complex situation and create a visual infographic that explained it to the general public. These "visual stories" typically explained something that was difficult to convey with words alone.

Here are some real-life examples:

• "So-and-so just won a Nobel prize in physics -- figure out what he discovered and why he's so brilliant and explain it for tomorrow's paper"

• "Explain the various methods for soundproofing freeways, along with the pros and cons of each"
• "Explain why that bridge sank to the bottom of the ocean" etc. There was also a lot of visualization of complex data in the form of weather maps, stock charts, timelines, etc.

This was great training because I learned questioning/listening skills, fact-finding/fact-checking, and storytelling, all through the lens of visual thinking.

A newspaper job was also good training because of the timelines involved. Usually I had a day to put an infographic together. When I had a week it was a luxury. You learn not to overthink things.

I made the move because in my newspaper job I usually reported on things "after the fact" -- an often I was reporting on disasters (The plane crashed, the bridge sank, etc.) and by then, while people could learn from the event, it was too late to fix the situation.

Most often the problem boiled down to "lack of information" or "lack of communication." It occurred to me that many disasters could be avoided if various scenarios could be thought through and visualized in advance.

What does a typical Xplane engagement look like?

We work with our customers to solve their most difficult communication problems. For example:

• "How do we get people's attention in a world that's already oversaturated with information?"
• "How can we change people's deeply embedded behaviors, when it's a fundamental necessity to business success?"
• "How can we communicate consistently to a global, multicultural audience?"
• "How do we explain complex ideas consistently to thousands or even millions of people?"

Engagements vary, but most follow a similar pattern:

1. Define: contextual inquiry to gain a deep and rich understanding of the business context and human factors involved, rapid visualization of complex information or stories that are rich in meaning.

2. Distill: boil the information down to it's essence: "What's the 20% that really matters?"

3. Depict: Visualize or otherwise capture this "mission-critical" information for the page or screen.

4. Deploy: Find innovative ways to get the message inside the heads of the people who need to understand it. We use traditional media but also employed a variety of devices such as cards, board games, placemats and other means to get our customers' voices heard.

What's your work and skills background?

I went to art school and then went into visual journalism as my first career. I have also taught at the university level, washed dishes, stocked retail shelves, waited tables,bartended and cut fish. Since starting XPLANE I have been a bookkeeper, artist, designer, consultant, general manager and CEO. I have learned valuable things in every job I ever had.

You recently started up the Visual Thinking School. What was on your mind?

Well, this is completely unrelated to my fish-cutting background, but there's the old adage that says "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime."

I felt that in order to really support our customers they needed to go beyond hiring a services company and begin to develop visual thinking competencies inside their organization. In 2006 XPLANE will be rolling out workshops to teach our customers how to improve their communications. Our goal is to make our customers master communicators.

What has most surprised you about the Visual Thinking School Project?

I have really enjoyed the enthusiasm and energy of the participants. The popularity of it perhaps is the most surprising. It's in the top ten of more than 12,000 sites on Seth Godin's Squidoo. More people join the visual thinking Flickr group every day.

How much of your networking, your connecting to new people, are you accomplishing through these online venues like Flickr, Squidoo, and the other places you're hanging your work?

Well, I'll start with tangible, measurable results: I started blogging seriously in August and so far the blog has resulted in - an invitation to an international conference - two great new hires - an article in a German business magazine featuring XPLANE

I also noticed the other day that Communication Nation is the number one result on msn.com when you search for the term "Communication."

I think these things are a great start.

As far as I can tell the online activities have not directly driven any new customers our way yet (at least not that I have been able to measure). However I do believe there are many less concrete benefits that are difficult to measure.

XPLANE was not founded simply for the purpose of making money. My purpose in starting the company was to enrich people's lives by improving the flow of communication throughout the world.

This is a big vision and we are still only at the very beginning. The online activities provide a hub where like-minded people can share ideas, and where their skills, enthusiasms and passions can coalesce.

We know that life can emerge from a primordial soup. I see these online activities as the primordial soup of ideas, from which new forms of "business life," like XPLANE, can emerge.

What's up for Dave Gray in 2006?

Well I told you that as a company we will be working to find ways to "teach our customers how to fish." I will be doing a lot of the thinking and support work on that. We'll also be working on new ways to measure and improve customer satisfaction.

I will continue to work with XPLANE customers on selected engagements, as I always have. We have a goal to launch one new breakaway product this year, so that's another area of focus. I will also be continuing to challenge our XPLANE team to continually improve and grow, and do my best to support them in their efforts to do that.

If someone were interested in getting involved in Visual Thinking or Visual Communication, what are some tips and advice you'd give them?

Follow your passion, believe in yourself, and take any expert advice with a grain of salt. The best learning is self-directed. Also, get out there and join the conversation, either in the real world or on the web. That's the short answer anyway.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Oh, reams I'm sure, but I don't want to jump the shark!

And for a set of links:

Dave's Blog - Communication Nation
Dave's Company - Xplane
Dave's Visual Thinking School Blog - Visual Thinking Art
Dave's Flickr Stuff - Dave at Flickr
Dave's Visual Thinking School Lens - Visual Thinking School

Technorati Tags: graphics , visual , xplane , business , presentation , communication , davegray , interview

3M came out with a book full of ideas on how to use their Post-It(r) Notes. Lego is turning to their fans to create the next great kits (which is absolutely brilliant). Software companies are opening up their APIs shortly after people validate that it's worthwhile software (Amazon's A9, Google Maps, eBay, etc.). More and more businesses are realizing that it's consumers in the design chair, and that the way people are using their products isn't always something the company even imagined. I think that businesses who miss this wave will be doing so at their peril. Here are some ideas and thoughts along those lines regarding distribution and platforms.

Sony PSP - Sony, STOP trying to patch this platform. It's captured the hearts and minds of lots of people. That's why there are hacks abound, and all to the tune of "hey neato!" and not, "Sony, I will crush you!" Open it up. Let go this notion that you have to control the vertical and the horizontal. Who are you protecting?

Movie Theaters - Enough with the $8 nachos. You could be media centers bar none. You could push kiosks full of DVDs and CDs and sweatshirts and all kinds of great stuff to people leaving the theater, when they're so jazzed and ready to buy it. I think the movie theater could be the killer platform for content, if only they caught on.

Book Stores - Here I am writing this at the big green bookstore. I found two books I think I'd like to buy, but I'm going to look online and see if I can get them in electronic format. Why? Because I want to be able to search them, rework them, cut to the parts I want, and paper isn't very reworky (without a razor blade). Stick a kiosk here and let people dock their USB drives and their iPods in here. Talk about a content spot: if I could buy albums digitally (iTunes-like) at the bookstore for similar prices, I could see loading up my iPod when I'm feeling a bit bored or vulnerable.

Mozilla and the Greasemonkey Folks - If you're not using Firefox, do. And if you haven't tried out Greasemonkey, it's pretty darned cool. Greasemonkey lets you apply Javascript to websites and rework them to your interest. But let me show you uses: through MY browser, when I search Amazon, I also have a button beside the [buy now] and [add to Wishlist] that says, [check library]. Some books you want to own; some you can borrow. Best part? Lots of folks are developing these scripts. I haven't written any yet. I just get to tweak the ones that are out there. I think Mozilla should work with Greasemonkey to get the word out to more than the average geeks. There are useful cases for this technology that the average consumer could use.

Telcos and Cable Providers - Throw out the fighting and open this platform up. Charge providers for the services. Charge consumers like one would a power consumption bill. Get away from landline phones and concede that business to VoIP. And enable things such that VoIP can swing between the landline and the wireless device a little more smoothly. (Note: lots of activity is happening in this area. I can't gripe *too* much about them).

Fabrication Stores - MIT has already proved you can cheaply perform fabrication tasks that used to be relegated to factory owners. (How's $20,000 sound? Instead of a Mini Cooper, buy your own fabrication factory in a box). This means we could be doing all kinds of one-off design work that would cost little more than the particle-board wonders one acquires at IKEA (I love this store). Imagine designing your new kitchen counter in the material of your choice, in the shape (curvy!) of your choice, and for less money than the pros will charge you today. I think fabrication is the next thing after internet technologies, as it comes up with real-world applications for all the things we think are neato in the virtual world. Talk about the ultimate platform.

Cars - So, why are we sitting around hoping for Ford or Honda or BMW to serve our needs in an automobile? Why are we passive about this technology, when we're so demanding of other technologies? Why not open up the design process of automobiles beyond the average focus group? In fact, why not "open up" the design, such that all kinds of designers can bid on the various parts. We do it with car audio. But, why not a dashboard by Apple? (Imagine the clickwheel for the heating/AC system?). Why not displays by Sony? Why not interiors by the fabric vendor of our choice? And while I'm there, why can't we buy bizarre patterns of our own making?

These are ideas to spur conversation. I'm interested in knowing what platforms YOU wish were opened up? What distribution methods are waiting to be discovered? What can YOU do about it?

Technorati Tags: business , mit , lego , cars , firefox , greasemonkey

My vice president is visionary, which is exceptionally useful when you're a malcontent like me. We had a great discussion around some opportunties my company might come into. I was excited to hear his take on this, especially because I came away with an idea as to what I might want to do in 2006 professionally at work. And here's part of it.

He said that it was all well and good that I wanted to noodle around and come up with better ways to use our products and services, but he said I wasn't to go off inventing solutions and then looking for a problem it'd solve. (Mind you, that's probably someone else's job in another part of the company). Instead, he wanted me to keep my eyes and ears open to situations where our customer base might have a business problem to solve, and then think of ways to apply our expertise, our existing technolgy knowledge, our apps, and a little bit of "stretch" to help them scratch their itch.

I think this relates to my post yesterday about participating, and being part of the solution. I think that there are lots of opportunities for people to develop their roles, and expand their capabilities within their organization, but the one fast-track way to move into work that's more interesting and more challenging is to find solutions for problems that exist, and then deliver the solution.

It's a little too soon for me to talk about next steps for myself, but I'm definitely looking into ways to build on my realizations of yesterday, and incorporate this into them. I'm in a great spot, in that I can noodle around with technology, and then talk about it with others in such a way as they get what I'm saying. I'm just going to capitalize on that a bit more in 2006.

Are there ways you can change your role to "scratch itches" within your organization?

Technorati Tags: business , productivity

As mentioned in an earlier post, I'm a sucker for a good beta of new technology. I love seeing what might come of something. In owning up to this, I got into a conversation with a guy who's writing his own social search engine.

Some of the tricks inside Seekum are that it allows you to vote on the results of the search, and then it goes one step further: Seekum lets you discuss the results with others. So, people can not only look for something, but ultimately, they can come to understand how others came across the results they found as well.

Michael Whitney of Seekum says that he is one of the growing number of people who think Google's incredible math chops aren't all that's needed to make good search happen.

So what makes someone decide, "I think I'll make my OWN search engine?"
I like to toy around with many ideas at the same time and seekum is just one of many juggling around in my head. I feel that search overall can be improved, and that allowing people to make single decisions on results will affect the results as a whole as the user base grows.

What are you programming this in? Is this LAMP, RoR, AJAX?
Currently we are using a barrage of technologies. The major horse work is being done with PHP. We are using MYSQL for our database, and are looking to implement AJAX in the near future to clean up and further develop the interface.

When you get into your "wildest dreams" mode, where does Seekum end up?

I would like to see Seekum being a platform that allows the masses to answer questions that search in today's world cannot. I want the meaning of a search to be understood by Seekum through the use of the people's tags, and other user contributions. A person might search for "Apple" looking for Washington apples, while another is looking for the new Mac. Of course I wouldn't mind seeing it as the most visited website on the planet.

What were you doing BEFORE you started working on Seekum?
Well before I started working on Seekum, I spent the greater part of last year working on Taxigrab.com. Taxigrab.com is an online taxi aggregator that allows people to find taxi services and reserve them online. Before Seekum was placed online I had spent sometime working on the idea and general algorithms with search to help with search results. I wanted to measure click through as a basis, as well as include synonyms to greater understand a pages contents.

When you get huge and want to hire everyone away from Google and MySpace, what qualities/skills/mindsets do you think people will need to survive in the future?

The future is the most fascinating part of any company in my opinion. The word "change" keeps resonating in my mind when I think of seekum being huge and an industry leader. The truth is we are a company that is able to adapt to change fast and without hesitation. Breaking the rules doesn't guarantee that you will grow huge and become famous, but following them does guarantee that you will never do anything extraordinary. A mindset looking towards the future requires that you have an open mind, we don't have a master plan in place to elevate us to the top, but when the time comes to make the crucial decision that makes or breaks us, we will be ready.

Take a look around. Search for a few things, and then let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: search , web2.0 , social , seekum

It's fun when you read someone's blog and find yourself agreeing with lots of his ideas, and appreciating the links he leads you to. Here's Jeremiah.

I was so excited by a recent experience with Verizon. I called them up and asked, "Can I buy more bandwidth?" I wanted to kill my voice plan and get VoIP, so I figured I should double my DSL or something. The girl says, "Let's see. Um, oh look! I can double your bandwidth for free." Huh? She goes clickity-clack, and next thing you know, I'm up to 3Mbps without paying a dime. Feeling good, I let her tell me about Verizon's VoiceWing service.

VoiceWing is Verizon's VoIP offering. I imagine they decided to give Vonage and others a fight. So, I'm thinking: okay, this will work. At least I know it's my local telco. Sure. I'll sign up! This, by the way, is going to save me $50 a month based on my current calling plan. I go through the process.

Four days later, I get an email from VoiceWing saying they can't give me the service. There's a federal regulation in the way, something to do with providing 911. Hold on, I think. Vonage can give me service. Why can't Verizon? I'm betting this is one of those weird FCC things. (Brief disclaimer: I worked for 7 years for New England Telephone, then NYNEX, and quit before Bell Atlantic). The FCC does all kinds of things to telcos that they don't do to competitors. But this got me thinking.

Maybe Verizon should throw all its weight behind everything BUT voice. They have a booming wireless service, with their EVDO data product really spiking as an alternative to Wi-Fi. They are rolling out FiOS, fibre connectivity to your home. They're already in the home data transport service with DSL and now fibre. Maybe they should adopt AT&T's recent (pre-SBC-merger) stance of: we're the pipes.

How much money goes into keeping the FCC happy on all the little bits of delivering traditional voice? How much more goes to developing relevant services? And the pricing model is nothing but dropping, because Verizon has to compete with Vonage, Skype, and all kinds of others. So, would it become a cost savings to say, "Screw this. Let's just keep the wireless and the data hauling business, and flip into the IPTV space while we're at it!"

It's hard to shift such a huge company, but maybe this would be the option that would keep the "old" part of Verizon still relevant. What do you think?

Technorati Tags broadband , verizon , telecom , voip , vonage , skype , evdo , fcc , wireless , voicewing

Have you heard of the Long Tail theory? It's basically this: there's as much or more value in selling just a few units of a lot of varied things as there is in selling the #1 or #2 thing. Amazon.com, for instance, sells WAY more onesie-twosie things in a day than they do their bestselling books. Here's another blog to help with the definition.

I believe that viral marketing is overtaking all other kinds of marketing, and that word-of-mouth is as powerful as it's ever been. That's one reason I spammed my friends, urging them to try out Yelp! I believe it's a great way for people to get better advice than what the marketeers would have you want to know about their products.

Amazon.com has made a living off it. Those little stars and the purchaser-written reviews are a solid part of what makes their business go. Netflix must THRIVE off folks recommending movies to each other, because most of the obscure things I get from them comes from a friend's recommendation.

To this end, here are a few random recommendations I have for you:

*If you like coffee, try Burger King's BK Joe. No, really. I think it's one of the best tasting coffees around. Especially if you like your coffee black and not all foo-foo'd up.
*Do you like Ice Cream? I love Breyers Vanilla for a change. It's made with real vanilla bean speck goodness.

*Most of my clothes come from Old Navy. Cheap. Easy. Relatively casual but presentable.
*I'm currently addicted to Flickr.
*If you like science fiction and you haven't picked up Firefly or Serenity yet, shame on you. This is WAY entertaining. Addictive, one might say.

*Looking for a great podcast? I'm a big fan of the following:

Diggnation for gadget stuff and humor

IT Conversations for more in-depth talk on technology.

Gartner Voice for interesting future-focused stuff.

Want new blogs to read? Try:

Seth Godin for marketing ideas.

Presentation Zenfor presentation tips

Communication Nation for ideas about communicating.

Fake Movie Critic for great B-movie reviews.

Lifehacker for all kinds of ways to make life easier.

Digg for tech info.

Signal vs. Noise for ideas on simplicity in design.

So now, I want to see you post in kind. Do it on your blog and send me the link to your post. I'd love to experience some of the things you appreciate or like or recommend.

My mother, Diane Brogan, has a long career within a major telecommunications company. Her career has revolved around getting others to cooperate on projects of great importance. She passed along the following:

When I read Factor 5 about being creative, I instantly thought of you. Stand up meetings with no chairs, no coffee... Read the Article.

What's cool about the article is that someone is offering a change to the norm. It goes right back to my post about The Naked Organization. Shake things up, humans.

Oh, and Thanks, mom!

Way back when, Dear Abby and the like were fairly useful. You could write in and say, "My son just said a curse word. What should I do?" And Abby would launch into sage words about how your son just needs to learn some more clever alternatives, insert tittering laughter here.

In the 90's, I read Dan Savage, a great feller who wrote sex advice from a really non-Dr-Ruth perspective. He's still out there doing his thing. It's an entertaining read.

Advice abounds for tech lovers. There's engadget,slashdot, and a million other sites. But that advice comes in two forms: this tech is great; that tech sucks, and it's based on the "wisdom of crowds" methodology of Web 2.0, which as Tim O'Reilly points out doesn't always  work out.

You come here. You read this site. I think that my readership is somewhere around a steady dozen and another 20 occasional lurkers. Do you have questions about your own work situations that you want answered? Is there anything about your personal career development that I've not covered, or haven't covered to your needs that you're still looking for?

I'd love to hear from you. Drop a comment or send email to : advice @ chrisbrogan.com . Let's see if this takes things in a different direction, shall we?