Entries from April 2008
29 April 2008
Plug: Design event coverage on Nokia Conversations
We have two writers there, posting things as the day progresses. We're also hoping to get some cool photos and footage to share with everyone.
So, if you're into Design, come check us out.
28 April 2008
25 April 2008
22 April 2008
21 April 2008
Just wanted to say that Nokia Conversations is live
It's been a long slog, but the site is now as tweaked as it can get, so we removed the password protection and we're off on a new journey.
As with any site, we'll be adding and removing things as folks give us feedback. And I know you all will have plenty to say.
I want to thank everyone involved and those who laid the ground work for me.
Now I need to get dinner ready.
Link: Nokia Conversations: Welcome to the conversation
ESPOO, Finland - Welcome to the Conversation. This one, though, is unlike any you'll have seen before. It's being written, presented and hosted by people in and around Nokia and pulls together all the conversations going on around the Nokia neighbourhood.
UPDATE: Oh, I meant to say that 21apr is the traditional day observed for the founding of Rome. And while Rome wasn't built in one day, it sure had to start somewhere, by Jupiter.
19 April 2008
18 April 2008
Blood from stone: Don't focus on ad revenue from social networking services
Ok, so it's not a revelation when I say that you don't need to make money off your core service. Your core service drives the interaction with the customer, but the money can come from some other area.
But, be careful where you _think_ you can get the money.
I've never been a fan of ads as a mean to make money. At least not for someone who is just displaying the ads. The real money maker is the one who _sells_ the ads.
But, for most services, it's the best we got.
Bollocks.
I've never been satisfied with folks trying to build services that generate 'eyeballs' just to 'monetize' that traffic with ads. I've been even less enthused by social networking services that try to convert what is a personal interaction between the users of the service into a chance to score advertising views.
Online social networking services thrive because they are a form of social lubrication. They are a means to an end, but not the end. We're social grooming to _do_ things together - learn, invent, trade, strengthen trust.
Then make money by promoting the activity, not by having folks mill about. Yes, social network is the concentrator, but what the folks end up doing is where the money's at.
One good example is O'Reilly. Is it a social networking service? Sure is. Where do they make money? Selling info to the network, the info the network trades in when within the O'Reilly social network. For O'Reilly, it is the social network that differentiates them from just another publisher.
So, now I'm wondering about social networks overlaid on top of interest domains.
Social networks, such as Facebook, which do not have a focus for the _why_ people come together, might never gain the proper traction to make money beyond a few anemic ad clicks, or, like Facebook, will have to contrive sleazy ways to get money off the social network.
Someone like Facebook should optimize the service around the key reason folks use the service, rather than crate gimmicks to just keep folks around.
MySpace is at least trying to capitalize on Music and LinkedIn on business services. And there are a ton of examples, I am sure.
Just thinking out loud. These thoughts arose from noting that Google and Facebook are seemingly slowing down, and observing the interactions happening in my Twitstream. For some of you, I am sure this line of thinking is nothing new.
Comments?
16 April 2008
15 April 2008
14 April 2008
13 April 2008
Bacteria still rule: Great Long Now seminar by Craig Venter (and Bonus!)
I finally got to listen to the Long Now seminar by Craig Venter. And, wow, was it great.
If you've been a regular reader of mine, you know that I think Venter deserves the Nobel many times over. He's been the big disruptor in genomics for decades, taking technological risks that made the industry jump forward farther than our prejudices would have expected.
The talk followed a thread through his disruptions, providing a foundation for why he's doing what he's doing now, which is to define the genome of an organism for practical purposes, such as creating biofuel.
One thing that he made me think about was bacteriology. When I was a scientist, we studied mammalian genes, proteins, and diseases. A bacteriologist always felt like someone from the distant past, with a lab full of smelly slimy plates, studying a 'boring' organism. A real microbiologist was studying fungi, like brewer's yeast, the laboratory workhorse and a model system for mammalian genetic and cellular processes.
Well, after listening to Venter, and aligning my perspective with his, it's clear that bacteriology is the domain to be in.
His recent Sorcerer II expedition has re-ignited interest in bacteria and bacterial ecology. With the recent rise in metabolomics (the analysis of all the metabolites in the body), we're starting to realize that our mammalian cells are an even smaller part of the body functions we have than we previously suspected. And as, I hope, the antibiotic era starts to wind down and people start redefining our relationship with bacteria, understanding bacteria has become ever more important.
That makes me think that the kinds of professions that will be on the rise in the post-genomic age are bacterial ecology, bacterial genomics, bacterial virology (phage therapy to replace antibiotics, is a new one for me), and bacterial biochemisty.
Questions I now would like to see answered: what are there bacteria who are exclusive inhabitants of humans, what is the total genomic signature of a human (the sum of human and microbiological), how can we live in a sceptic world (the rise of super-bugs is partly a consequence of our cleanliness).
I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like there's been a phase shift in biology on the order of the early days of molecular biology, with the excitement and promise of a very interesting future.
BONUS: One thing that I heard about that was intriguing was the Personal Genomics project, an open source community kind of project to not only get more genomes to sequence and analyze but also to drive the technology to cheaply sequence genomes (see X Prize, too). Indeed, I've been reading about the biological parts registry and wondering weather we are at a stage of garage molecular biology. But that's a later post. :-)
11 April 2008
09 April 2008
08 April 2008
06 April 2008
Old calculators and future steampunk
Heh. My Dad also had some of these types of clunker calculators. Uh, I was curious to see how it worked and opened it and, well, destroyed the whole thing. It was expensive, but my Dad was kind.
Funny, also, to see these photos today. Earlier I was wondering what would be the 'steampunk' version of my grandchildren's generations, as they look back at how backwards were were.
What got me thinking was a segment from Science Friday about folks who are reviving a pre-antibiotic anti-bacterial treatment (bacteriophage).
It also dovetalis with a recurring thought of setting up a bio-lab at home and trying to remember all I learned about early genetics labs and such. That's my 'steampunk' - milk bottles with fruit flies (I used to use them), capillary tubes with rubber hoses to measure microliters, funky autoclaves, light microscopes, different stains, and ... ah, it's so cool.
05 April 2008
Someone has noticed what we're doing
If we can toot our own horn, Ewan at SMS Text News gave Nokia kudos for our blogger outreach work. He's written an article about how different device manufacturers deal with bloggers. And it ain't pretty.
Ewan says:
Nokia is the run-away leader in mobile blog relations. They’ve two main setups that I’m aware of. There’s a Nokia USA blogger program and a WOMWorld offering. As far as I’m aware anyone, whether you’re writing about mobile or otherwise, can talk to the leaders of these two operations and, provided you meet certain criteria, get admitted and in the door, to receive test devices and so on.
With the recent formation of our Social Media team, it's sure to get better.
I also left a comment there as a thanks and an elaboration of what we're doing:
Ewan,
Thanks for the kudos. I (with boss, Christian Lindholm) was the first in the company to start reaching out to bloggers, back in February 04, with Lifeblog. If you knew of Lifeblog in 04-05, it was because of me and and the bloggers that helped me.
WOM World and the US loaner program was set up, I think, in 06, and was Nokia trying the waters in social media relations (I was not involved, ironically). As you comment, the focus was not well balanced.
This year I was called back to join the newly formed Social Media team. My first task was to get a basic (modest) blog up and running for the communications team (a few more weeks if all goes well). Of course, we do have a few blogs existing (the S60 and Betalabs blogs are the most prominent) and we have a ton of employees who have identified themselves as employees publicly on their personal sites (like me) and occasionally participate in the conversations about Nokia. But my site will cover stories (not specs and tech) that are about the people and companies who use, are affected by, or are related to the products and services from Nokia.
While I might be setting up a Nokia-wide blog, that's not going to be the only place my team will be (I'm not trying to control the conversation, just add to it). We've set up channels in Flickr, Share on Ovi, YouTube, del.icio.us, and may set up more, so that we not only participate where people are, but provide media that folks can play with, forward, comment on, and basically follow.
Yeah, Social Media finally is official at Nokia and we have a ton of people who actually know it. This time around, we are trying to set up a coherent, consistent, and for the long-run strategy to participate in the conversations happening around the Nokia neighborhood.
What do you think?
Ping me in a few weeks to see where I'm at. If we're not public with the (damned) blog by then, I might be able to give you a peek.
Cheers and keep up the good work!
Tchau,
Charlie
PS The site is called Nokia Conversations. Watch my blog for any further comments on it <http://cognections.typepad.com/lifeblog>
Ta!
image from caseywest
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