If I steal a brick from you, you no longer have the brick. But if I make a digital copy of a song on your hard drive, we both have it. Some people think that makes all the difference, and that copying digital information is an entirely different thing from taking a tangible thing. I …
Continue reading ‘SOPA, the copyright anarchists, and the future of content’ »
If you make a payment over the telephone, the guy on the other end will usually give you a “confirmation number” that’s something like this. 1H779301-0104725367489-C7283S I often joke that such a “number” is precise enough to define any particle in the known universe, but I’m exaggerating a little. It seems absurd that the numbers …
Continue reading ‘Designing account numbers for “convenience”’ »
I just read Ronn Levine’s thoughts on Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. Sounds like the sort of book I enjoy. If you have a direct-response professional on your Christmas list, you might want to consider it.
I was the co-chair (along with Heather Farley from Access Intelligence) of SIPA’s 28th Annual Marketing Conference in Miami Beach. It was fun and an interesting experience. Here’s my de-briefing, based on my own thoughts as well as the responses I got from attendees. (I tried my best to work the crowd and solicit reactions …
Continue reading ‘What I learned from co-chairing a conference’ »
“Thank you for calling. Your business is important to us, but we really don’t want to talk to you, so please go to our website. It’s a great website that makes perfect sense to us, because we use it all the time, but will confuse the heck out of you. “Of course we could talk …
I used to manage the audio conference department for a publishing company that sold legal reference guides. The guides covered everything you needed to know about the topic, and had monthly updates. If you needed instant information, you could call the editor. Nevertheless, we had a successful business selling 90-minute audio conferences on some narrow …
Continue reading ‘Why pay for a conference when you can read the white paper?’ »
I’m generally not the type to be giving a shout-out to Playboy, but I was encouraged to read that both Playboy and Rolling Stone have started using HTML5. This sidesteps the Evil Empire’s app store. Hurrah! So, to mix my sci-fi references, resistance is not futile, and the more you tighten your grip, Governor Tarkin, …
I have installed a WordPress plugin that optimizes this site on mobile devices. If you have any trouble reading this site on a mobile device, please let me know.
I just got an email from The Wall Street Journal advertising their digital edition. Part of the ad reads … When it comes to getting critical business news, there’s no substitute for The Wall Street Journal. You may agree or disagree with that claim, but at least it’s a reasonable claim that some people will …
Continue reading ‘Why the WSJ can charge for online content’ »
At a recent conference I was chatting with some SIPA friends about the idea that “something done adequately today is better than something done well tomorrow.” It’s not always true, but it’s often true. I thought of that when I saw this post from Chris Brogan: Simple Plans Executed Trump Complex Plans Still Planned.