Ben Shoemate's Notebook

The internal IT department, headed by the CIO, no longer acts as the gatekeeper for all new technology coming into the enterprise. IT may stand at the gate to the castle, but SaaS and social media startups are swimming across the moat. Internal IT can still set fire to the moat and otherwise make life difficult. But how do you make this a win/win relationship, so that they welcome your entry? Start by understanding how IT is thinking about social media.

Although we will make some generalizations about CIOs in this post, we recognize that there is a huge continuum from progressive to traditional.

Generally CIOs love technology and innovation. It is why they went into technology. Nor do CIOs want to control everything, they know it is impossible and life is too short. Most see that Social Media technology has positive potential. But they do have legitimate concerns. Specifically, social media startups that want to tap enterprise budgets need to deal with 5 big worries:

1. Unpredictable scaling issues. Twitter failure is OK when we are just twittering about our cats, but would be totally unacceptable if this was an enterprise app. The viral nature of adoption is a concern for people who have to ensure that the lights are on and the trains run on time. If you are asking people to do serious business on your service, you have to be solid on the reliability and performance scores.

2. Security against IP loss. This is a legitimate concern. The impact can be major. The fact is that it is no longer possible to "bolt the stable door" as the horse has already escaped. It is virtually impossible to stop an employee, either foolishly or maliciously, sending digital data that should not be sent. Just make sure that your service does not make this worse and has some reasonable controls.

3. Integration. This is the big "well what about...." objection. Just touting open Internet standards is not enough. You need to show how to build adapters to internal legacy systems that don't work to those standards. Without integration you cannot answer the next one. Building adapters is tedious work. But once you have a library of them, they become a barrier to entry.

4. Loss of productivity. Services for consumers do not need to answer the productivity question. We do this stuff for fun and in our free time. But when that time creeps into the 9-5 workday, it is a legitimate concern for those who pay the salaries.

5. Accidental brand damage. People who grew up with social media know that the brand cannot be be protected other than by great products and services. Anything bad that happens will get out there. However this scares the bejesus out of traditional Enterprise managers. It is also a legitimate concern that if you give a lot of powerful social media tools to people who don't know how to use them wisely, there will be a lot of collateral damage. Like physicians you need to show that your service will "do no harm".

These are all negative, objection issues. Clearly there needs to be a compelling positive reason. We will focus on that in a future post. First step is making sure these objections don't stop you on the way in.

If you want to listen directly to one CIO who is thinking hard about this, see this podcast by Intel CIO John "JJ" Johnson on social media in the enterprise.

What have you experienced? As a vendor, have you found and handled these or other issues? As a customer, have Social Media start-ups shown a good understanding of these issues? What other issues are critical?

One of the interesting aspects of this campaign is watching the scales fall from the eyes of many of John McCain's closest admirers among the veteran DC press corps. I'm not talking about the freaks on Fox News or any of the sycophants at the AP. I'm talking about, let's say, the better sort of reporters and commentators in the 45 to 65 age bracket. To the extent that the press was McCain's base (and in many though now sillier respects it still is) this was the base of the base. And talking to a number of them I can understand why that was, at least in the sense of the person he was then presenting himself as.

But over the last ... maybe six weeks, in various conversations with these folks, the change is palpable. Whether it will make any difference in the tone of coverage in the dominant media I do not know. But it is sinking in.

All politicians stretch the truth, massage it into the best fit with their message. But, let's face it, John McCain is running a campaign almost entirely based on straight up lies. Not just exaggerations or half truths but the sort of straight up, up-is-down mind-blowers we've become so accustomed to from the current occupants of the White House. And today McCain comes out with this rancid, race-baiting ad based on another lie. Willie Horton looks mild by comparison. (And remember, President George H.W. Bush never ran the Willie Horton ad himself. It was an outside group. He wasn't willing to degrade himself that far.) As TPM Reader JM said below, at least Horton actually was released on a furlough. This is ugly stuff. And this is an ugly person. There's clearly no level of sleaze this guy won't stoop to to win this election.

And let's be frank. He might win it. This is clearly a testing time for Obama supporters. But I want to return to a point I made a few years ago during the Social Security battle with President Bush. Winning and losing is never fully in one's control -- not in politics or in life. What is always within our control is how we fight and bear up under pressure. It's easy to get twisted up in your head about strategy and message and optics. But what is already apparent is that John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes. So let's stopped being shocked and awed by every new example of it. It is undignified. What can we do? We've got a dangerously reckless contender for the presidency and a vice presidential candidate who distinguished her self by abuse of office even on the comparatively small political stage of Alaska. They've both embraced a level of dishonesty that disqualifies them for high office. Democrats owe it to the country to make clear who these people are. No apologies or excuses. If Democrats can say at the end of this campaign that they made clear exactly how and why these two are unfit for high office they can be satisfied they served their country.

Apple aims to enhance your audio listening experience by releasing the Apple In-Ear Headphones that feature two separate high-performance drivers, where a woofer caters for bass needs and mid-range sounds while the tweeter handles high-frequency audio. These drivers will ensure you get accurate and detailed audio all the time, but of course, that is subjected to the quality of your MP3 encoding as well. Amazingly enough, Apple has priced this pair of headphones at just $79, making them much more affordable compared to Shures and other premium brands. Each purchase comes with three different sizes of ear tips to cater for different people, a carrying case for the said ear tips and a cable-control case for the headphones themselves.

Add a comment | From: Apple In-Ear Headphones | Visit Ubergizmo

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A news story from 2002 about United Airlines filing for bankruptcy tripped up investors yesterday when it re-appeared on Google News, Barry Schwartz reports. The Google News team follows with their own explanation. However, the entire issue raises the lack of transparency that permeates the major news aggregation sites. It's time for them all to come clean.

According to Reuters consumers are increasingly turning to news aggregation sites for their info fix because of the growth of the mobile web and an appetite for broad perspectives. These sites, which include Google News, Yahoo News, Topix and Daylife, differ from RSS readers. Feed readers also roll up news but they put the user in complete control of the sources they consume.

News aggregation sites operate without editors. So, they're prone to the occassional glitches like the one that occurred yesterday. The problems are deeper, however. Most of these sites also roll up blog content and they don't tell you that. Yahoo just recently quietly started to links to blogs.

The problem is that these sites don't delineate blogs from news sources. As we all know the quality can range here and that presents a challenge for the reader in determining who to trust.

Although this specific incident with United Airlines did not invovle blogs, it underscores the lack of transparency that permeates these sites. They are doing everyone a disservice by not providing detailed information on who they chose aggregate and why they roll up some sites and ignore others.

by Mark Dykeman of  Broadcasting Brain

There’s been a lot of speculation this year about when microsharing will finally have its moment in the spotlight and move firmly into the mainstream.  A BusinessWeek Special Report: CEO Guide to  Microblogging may be the sign that early adopters have looked for.

This special report includes several features on the capabilities of tools like Twitter, Pownce, and Jaiku.  The articles cite how well-known companies like JetBlue, Dell, and GM are taking advantage of the power of what we call microsharing.  Whether a company is listening for customer feedback, answering questions, or otherwise helping the customer meet their needs, large companies are finding the customer at point of need.

Here’s a quick guide to the contents of the Special Report:

• How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands provides a few examples of how companies are reacting to consumers. JetBlue reacted with stunning speed to a Tweet about one of their terminals. GM corporate communications helped a customer in need buy a Saturn. Southwest Airlines empathized with a customer who lost his luggage.

• Brands That Tweet – Comcast, Kodak, Newell Rubbermaid, Whole Foods Market, and Zappos are other prominent examples of brands that are listening and speaking on Twitter, extending their customer service presence.

• CEOs’ Take on Twitter – Twitteriing CEO profiles: how 18 leaders and entrepreneurs are using Twitter for work and play.

• Getting Intimate (With Customers) On Twitter – a look at how companies are conversing and sharing directly with their customers. The customer has the microphone and is in the driver’s seat – companies are getting onboard for the ride… and the conversation.

• AMC’s MadMen: Running Amok on Twitter reports on the apparent “Fan Fiction” characters from the popular AMC TV show who have been Twittering in character since mid-August. (Our post on this trend).

Just one example from the report is that H&R Block, which helps customers through one of the least sexy tasks ever, is using a tool like Twitter to listen to its customers.  Web 2.0 technologies coupled with a focus on listening, are helping the venerable tax preparation institution to better introduce itself to younger customers. H&R Block is a good example of reaching out to a previously underserved segment of its potential customer base.

The report provides general tips and examples that will be familiar for those who have already adopted 140 character exchanges of links, information, and socialization into their daily routines. What’s significant is that businesses not already visiting these online gathering areas will find it increasingly harder to ignore the unfolding opportunities.  When BusinessWeek targets a special report to the C-suite, the trend is certainly growing, a few more executives will feel the concept “tip” in their minds, and more will start exploring the space.

Is microsharing mainstream yet?  Maybe not.  But it’s a whole lot closer than it was last week.

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