If you know me, you know I ramble on about Platforms. They are very specific things. I love the writing and work of Sangeet Paul Choudary.

He Highlights ..

1. scalable gatekeeping
2. spare capacity
3. aggregating highly fragmented markets
4. transparency to help buyers and sellers understand each other better
5. creating intelligence for increased efficiency

... as the 5 key aspects that are unique to platforms - and IMHO - why they will win.

Read All About It.

I attended VRM day yesterday down at The Computer History Museum. More of that to come. But one of my new friends mentioned an ‘alternative’ guide to Silicon Valley.

It really is rather good and I particularly liked the line;

Silicon Valley is more of a state of mind than a physical location.

Of course, I knew of Mr. Blank - and so, spent a little time wandering around his site and re-discovered;

The Customer Development Manifesto

• There Are No Facts Inside Your Building, So Get Outside
• Pair Customer Development with Agile Development
• Failure is an Integral Part of the Search for the Business Model
• If You’re Afraid to Fail, Your’e Destined to Do So
• Iterations and Pivots are Driven by Insight
• Validate Your Hypotheses with Experiments
• Success Begins with Buy-In from Investors and Co-Founders
• No Business Plan Survives First Contact with Customers
• Not All Startups Are Alike
• Startup Metrics are Different from Existing Companies
• Agree on Market Type. It Changes Everything
• Fast, Fearless Decision-Making, Cycle Time, Speed and Tempo
• If it’s not About Passion, You’re Dead the Day You Opened your Doors
• Startup Titles and Functions Are Very Different from a Company’s
• Preserve Cash While Searching. After It’s Found, Spend
• Communicate and Share Learning Startups Demand Comfort with Chaos and Uncertainty

Who am I to find fault with the summary. Why would I ? So, capturing for posterity.

Footnote:

(My friends business)

I clicked on that link on 25th October, 2018 …and sadly, gone, as of October 7th 2018. Time to investigate.

I have never understood why Apple hasn't really used the RoI story to sell its Macs. I have long held that although the initial Apple purchase is high - when you examine what comes with it - and how little support you need - and if it does - Apple will just help you .... it is an absolute no brainer.  

IBM found that not only do PCs drive twice the amount of support calls, they’re also three times more expensive. 

Read All About It.

Me - apparently I bought my first Mac 15 years ago. I know that because that was when Apple launched the iPod - which only worked with the Mac. I am such a music nut - I wanted the iPod - and bought the Mac to make it work. Within two years I had left Windows completely behind at a personal level. One year after that, my business side also moved on. 

In the corporate environment, if they insist I use a PC - I don’t work for them. It isn't just pendanticism (is that a real word), it is because that attitude reflects a deeper problem in the culture of the company.

I wrote about it here ... although I don't call out the Mac / PC issue specifically.

If you track my stuff you will know that there are a couple of consistent threads that run through my writing.

1] VRM - an initiative that emerged throughs the work of Doc Searls. VRM is an acronym for 'Vendor Relationship Management' - basically the flip side of CRM. It wonders how do 'we the people' manage our relationships with vendors? It all ties into my own thoughts of being 'My own System of Record' - that you might have heard me expound on.

2] The Impact of Technology on Publishing - that I wrote about here, amongst many other places.

Dave Wrote This Today.

Doc Wrote This Today ( in a discussion group that I belong to )

Dave just posted this. Interesting angle. Or angles. For those who don’t know, Dave is the father or co-father of outlining, presentation software, blogging, RSS, podcasting and much more. BTW, my original blog was on Dave’s first blogging platform. And my latest blog is on his newest one.

The world is highly connected.

Tomorrow (Monday) - I get to hang with The Doc and 100 of his 'closest friends' at The Computer History Museum - a twice yearly 'VRM Day' - that he hosts in preparation of IIW.

30 Days. 30 Songs.

“A playlist of songs that Donald Trump will hate.”

'The Washington Post'

This one is number 13 - it is called 'little failure' - which is interesting - because 'Trumpette' probably would see that as a bigger insult than 'big failure'.

One per day coming out up until the election. If you like Moby, REM, Aimee Mann, Death Cab for Cutie - I think you might enjoy.

I mean - really enjoy!!

Music to blow your mind too. 

One guy. One guitar and a little bit of looping.

I often find myself reading that Apple has lost its ability to innovate. Most recently demonstrated by the fact that because the iPhone 7 looks like the iPhone 6 and 6S - then no innovation has occurred under the hood. This I lay firmly at the feet of analysts, writers and pundits who clearly have little understanding of what

• innovation
• technology or
• design

actually is.

John Gruber has long commented on Porsche’s 70 year old iconic design as basically the same as it always has been, yet nobody would ever accuse Porsche of lacking innovation. This post just last month being a clear indication of his thinking.

Delighted therefor to see Om Malik weighing in today in The New Yorker.

“If you’re a fan of reading the Apple tea leaves to see what it’s going to do next, and in turn how it will influence the industry, then the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are the most interesting iPhones ever.” Apple’s iPhone 7 devices are truly computing monsters—the iPhone 7 is said to outpace some Macs, not to mention other phones. Its core processor is forty per cent faster than its predecessor and a hundred and twenty times faster than the original iPhone. The iPhone 7 internals are able to do complex and intensive computing tasks right on the device, instead of trying to send them to the cloud for heavy lifting."

Read all about it.

Oh - and while I am about it - Brian Solis on Iteration versus Innovation. Nice.

.. the original post was called 6 Steps to Marketing Automation Success. 

Further to this post, while my mind is in that frame I came across a post from the inimitable Nathan Yau - over at Flowing Data. He does great work. 

Beyond the point I made in the prior post, there is something else. Data - despite what you might think when you look at the paucity of data that is getting shared in the current US Presidential race. Data is everywhere. It just needs to be freed,

Data mind you. Data ... not Opinion.

Nathan takes data a step further and often provides a way that emotionally connects with the view - essentially allowing those two half brains of ours to connect. Take this one ......to share data - you can use a line chart - like the one at the top of the post ...

... or you can engage, embrace, bond with and tap into the viewer directly with a video.

The shockingness of 2008 to 2010 is palpable.

Read All About It.

I am in the process of writing an article about Visual Thinking, which is in turn a set up for a wider conversation about how we typically 'think' about presenting information for others to absorb.

For example, have you ever noticed that when you get an excel spreadsheet - the cells are 'bottom of cell' aligned. Drives me nuts.

The sad thing is how little importance is given to how presentations can be better understood by more people through the visual language that gets used, rather than 'this is the way I do it' mentality.

I intend to write more on this - because as an ardent fan of Edward Tufte - I think it is important for better mutual understanding and idea sharing.

For a reference of some of the peeve's that I have - look no further than here ...

But there will be more to come. Soon. Here.

By the way - if you can't read the information on that image at the top of the post, it is taken from a Tufte poster - you can see it - and others - better here.

I knew there had be one.

Well I would say to any one of my kids and any children in this country that Donald Trump and I are committed to a safer and more prosperous future for their family. The weak and feckless foreign policy that Hillary Clinton promises to continue has literally caused wider areas of the world to spin apart.

and then ...

The rise of terrorist threats that have inspired violence here at home, and we’ve seen an erosion of law and order in our streets. And we’ve seen opportunities and jobs evaporate and even leave Ohio and leave this country. I would say to any of our kids that if Donald Trump and I have the chance to serve in the White House that we're going to work everyday for a stronger, safer and more prosperous America.

and then more .....

Pence - when asked by an eleven year old about her self image.

Really?

Would love to read/see/hear how anyone can argue against this.

Back in the day, because I knew a little bit more about technology than other family members, I was the defacto 'go to' dude for technical support. You all know what I mean. Interestingly, more often than not, a fix could be achieved by the  simple 'switch it all off - switch it all on again' 'command'.

At a similar time, I remember a friend getting out of her corporate marketing role, to follow her dream of becoming an artist. A couple of years later, I asked how it was all going. Oh great she answered - loving every minute of it. I just wish I could sell more.

I offered to help and asked for a copy of her marketing and sales plan.

'Oh, I don't have one' she replied.' Give me a few days, I will send it to you.'

This is someone who had spent her life working in large corporations, developing and implementing marketing plans for a living. That was the reason she was paid 'the big bucks'. But when it came to her own business, despite everything she knew. she hadn't done it - and couldn't work out why sales were so poor.

So, back to that technical support question. For the past two days, this service that I am writing on has been down. I submitted tickets to the provider. I asked for help in a community and nothing - until Andy Sylvester responded with 

When I see problems like this, one thing I do is to reboot the server.

Of course!  The simple 'switch it all off - switch it all on again' 'command'. How quickly we forget even the simplest of things. Thank-you Andy. And I think I know understand a little better what happened to my friend the artist!

Just some of the one liners from him today ....

Right from the outset, there was bad news for Trump: His mic worked. 

Looking for a glimmer of hope? TV ratings for this debate were down 20%. (Apparently a lot of people weren't able to replace the TVs they shot during the first debate.) 

The long-predicted Trump pivot finally arrived. He went nuclear.

 Read All About It.

Blaming ad blocking and tracking protection on the companies providing them is like blaming pharmaceuticals for treating diseases. People use ad blockers and tracking protection for the same reason they use umbrellas and sunblock: to protect themselves from something they don't want.

via Doc Searls

Great article from Doc - and I agree with him - BUT - I still think we need to be careful about our terms. 'Ad blocker' has become a universal term that IMHO favors the Ad Tech industry. Their defense is that they need to advertise - why should be block them. 

We should call them what they really are. Tracker Blockers.

I don’t mind ads being served to me - if that helps pay the bills for my free content. What I object to is those ads tracking me - storing my data and my movements around the web and selling that info on. Which is why they are putting those trackers in.

To prove my point - here is an ad for MailButler

MailButler is great. If you use Apple Mail, you should really take a closer look. It's free to try out - click here to see what I mean.

Please note - this ^^^ is an ad. Simple though it is, an ad it is. Promoting Mailbutler. No 'ad blocker' is going to block this ad  -because 'ad blockers are 'tracker blockers' - and there is no tracking in this ad.

Via Paris Lemon

Funny. Here is a short extract.

Clinton: I want to do all kinds of things. I want to do good things. There’s nothing we can't do together, you and me Patrice. I want to work with people of all ethnicities. I want to heal the country. Make it a better place. For you and for me and the entire human race. And our children. And grandchildren.

and then

Trump: This country’s going to shit. Healthcare costs are going up. We made Iran great again. We get killed on trade—an $800 billion deficit last year. We’re gonna make great trade deals. We’re gonna bring back law and order. Did you hear about those policemen that were shot today? We need justice. I want to fix the blacks in the cities. I want to fix the Latinos, Hispanics, etc. I want to make them great again. Make America great again.

Read the whole thing here.

... including Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards. Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey and of course Canadian Neil Young.

America's only defense was Bob Dylan.

I think Ronnie Wood at 69 is the only one under 70.

Welcome to the Palm Springs retirement home for genteel musicians

... Mick Jagger

Read All About It. (There are some great photos)

BTW - a couple of days after I published this post - Dylan got the Nobel.

#JustSayin