Is the Web dead? Hardly.
Nevertheless, some serious people, most notably Chris Anderson of Wired, are saying that it is. While the argument is intriguing, it is surely wrong and betrays a serious misunderstanding of what the web is and where the digital world is going.
Make no mistake, the web, conceived in a single month but embellished over two decades, not only survives, but thrives. In fact, it’s just getting started.
read more…
Smart people accomplish things by finding solutions to important problems. This is a tough, disconcerting process that’s full of frustration and boredom. The great physicist Richard Feynman likened it to being a confused ape.
Yet succeeding isn’t enough for most people, they also want to be prophetic and that’s where they run into trouble. They try to codify their performance by making up simple rules that inevitably fail. It’s a trap that we all fall into sometimes, but should do our best to avoid.
What follows is a particularly instructive example of how, in the quest for simple, core beliefs, smart people can say some pretty dumb things.
It’s hard to believe, but it was only one year ago when, during a late night scotch drinking session, I came up with the dubious idea of starting a blog. A few days later (with some help from my developer friends: Pasha, Aleksey and Yuri) Digital Tonto was born!
I’d like to thank everybody for their enormous support over the last year. I never thought anybody would actually want to read anything that I wrote, much less participate in such an enthusiastic and meaningful way. I’ve learned a ton from your comments and suggestions.
In honor of the occasion, I’d like to share some of my favorite posts.
What ever happened to those big fat sloppy media companies that “just didn’t get it?” Dead? Buried? Nope. The profits are rolling in.
Companies from Time Warner to News Corp to NBC have reported increased earnings that beat analyst’s most optimistic forecasts. Even Time Warner’s magazine division posted impressive results and, what’s more, the supposedly dead newspaper industry is showing signs of life.
What’s going on here? Weren’t these companies supposed to be steamrolled by the digitized social media colossus? Actually, the media rebound was predictable and, moreover, the comeback is here to stay. Here’s why:
Successful marketers spread ideas. Regrettably, some unsuccessful marketers do as well. There is no shortage of false gurus that gain fame and fortune for themselves while doing very little for any product or service. Bad ideas can spread just as well as good ones.
Memetics can help us understand why. Unfortunately, “meme” is a term that gets thrown around a lot without much thought. People often use it to denote something they think is new and cool, but that misses the point entirely.
Understanding how memes work can help us understand how both good and bad ideas get spread.
Wanna jump on the Next Big Thing? Then you have probably already failed.
The problem with new media marketing channels is that most of them don’t work very well. Compared to traditional media, there is a lack of experience, established best practices and standard operational interfaces. In short, we’re just not that good at it.
However, as the old saying goes, “You don’t need to outrun a bear, just the guy running next to you.” In that same spirit, here are 6 simple tips that will help you achieve well above average performance.
read more…
Are you a professional?
Most people think they are and, technically speaking, merely getting paid for what you do qualifies you as a professional. However, we use the term to imply much more than a paycheck; it’s intended to signify merit.
Unfortunately, it’s often also used as an excuse for bad behaviour. People say, “I am a professional” as a way of adding legitimacy to their actions. Therefore, it isn’t a word that should be thrown around, but should stand for something meaningful.
Hey! Wanna buy 10,000 followers on Twitter?
Lately there seems to be an ever increasing amount of silly offers to increase your social media following. Not only is this sleazy, it betrays a complete lack of understanding of how social networks function.
The evidence is clear: the quality of the communities you build is much more important than the size of your following.
Do you want to get better at what you do best or do something else entirely?
That’s an important question and one that is not asked nearly enough. All too often the line between creating efficiency and creating value is blurred so much that we hardly even care to make the distinction.
There is, however, a difference and it’s an important one that requires some serious thinking about how you approach your business, especially as more of what we do becomes digitized.
Oh, those poor moguls…
Media and entertainment companies, since the internet came on the scene, have been very poor investments. New media advocates tell us that it’s because traditional media companies are old and slow. The moguls themselves say it’s because people don’t want to pay for content.
Yet above the din and mindless babble, the evidence supports only one conclusion: It is the moguls misplaced egos, more than anything else, that does them in.
