The Altimeter by Charlene Li

Redesign and logo for Altimeter Group

It's with great excitement that I'm beta launching a redesigned web site at www.altimetergroup.net today. I welcome your feedback before I port the main altimetergroup.com site over to the new design on Friday.

The site was designed by Horn Group, a digital communications agency (disclosure: Horn Group is a client and they were paid for their work on the site). The goal of the site is to provide more information about Altimeter, the services being offered, and also be a home for The Altimeter blog. My favorite gee-whiz feature -- the rotating tag cloud sphere on the home page.

A big shout out goes to the Horn Group team for the pushing me to adopt an innovative design, porting it to WordPress, and most importantly, being patient with me!

If you have any feedback on the site, I would love to know about it. What do you like, or dislike? What content am I missing? Please leave them in the comments below or send via email to charlene (at) altimetergroup (dot) com.

You'll also note that I'm finally using the logo that I had designed on crowdspring.com last fall. The Horn Group team keyed the design of the Web site off the name and logo, giving the site a sense of flight.

The logo project on crowdSPRING received 146 entries and I gave feedback to every design because I was grateful that these designers took the time to submit a concept. In the end, I gave two awards of $400 each because I needed more time to decide between the two winning designs.

Both designs were done by professional designers, which was a surprise to me - a common misconception is that it's students and creatives just starting out that use the crowdsourcing sites.  The first award (see the logo to the left) went to Orbis, a creative designer who specializes in logo and brand development. The second award for the logo I eventually chose was done by ANV, who has a day job as the creative director for an ad agency -- he participates in crowdspring to "keep his design chop up". 

I wanted to provide some background on the two different approaches I took to designing the logo and site, especially as the NO!SPEC community has taken umbrage with my use of crowdSPRING. I believe there is a time and place for different approaches to brand marketing and design. In relation to logos, I have done projects that ranged from an agency-led, tens of thousands of dollars logo and branding for a new online product to paying LogoWorks a few hundred dollars for a few designs. For the scope of my logo needs, I had a clear sense of the brand and didn't need all of the support that a formal branding and logo process required -- I just needed a good logo that met the detailed specs I provided with the project.

But when it came to Web site design, a different type of relationship was needed, one that was much more collaborative requiring an ongoing relationship. That is the reason I decided to work with Horn Group, a team that understands how to use social media, Web design, and also author promotion. Left to my own devices, I would have veered toward a more traditional design. But the relationship with Horn -- and the trust I developed in them over the engagement -- gave me the confidence to try a different approach. And I love it!

There is a time and place for crowdsourcing design, and I would definitely use sites like crowdSPRING again. But they do not spell the death of agencies or creative designers, as the iterative, collaborative process is still very much needed and alive.

I hope you'll take a moment to visit the new site at altimetergroup.net and let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: website,logo,design,horngroup,crowdspring,altimetergroup,charleneli

Would you invite 16 bloggers to spend 24 hours with your company? The Navy did.

(I previously wrote an intro and link post about the bloggers who went on the USS Nimitz.)

When the Navy issued the invitation for 16 bloggers to spend a day on the USS Nimitz, I thought there had to be string attached, or that the Navy wanted to use us bloggers as propaganda spreaders. But hey, I'm used to people pitching me and trusted myself to be able to figure out the real story behind the Navy "story".

But surprisingly, there were no pre-conditions, no restrictions on access other than to safeguard our well-being. The schedule was packed with organized tours to different parts of the trip, but we were free to approach anyone and ask them anything.

In fact, the only thing they would *not* let us see was the nuclear reactor -- but then again, nobody gets to see them (there are two of them onboard). They also would not let us video the operations room because of the sensitive strategic information on the displays. But that was about it. 

After our public affairs dropped us off in our staterooms, we were encouraged to head back to the officer wardrooms or mess halls to talk with people during midrash (midnight rations) when the final shift came off duty. Most of us took up the opportunity, and then spread out around the ship, from the top of conning tower to the fan tail. I personally got completely lost and engaged several sailors in fun conversations on the way back to my room. This is what I am still amazed by, that the Navy gave us so much access.

Would you let 16 bloggers come into your organization and have access to pretty much anything and anybody? If not, why not - after all, what do you have to hide?

This was the biggest take-away for me, the tremendous openness of the Navy. Open to us asking any question, engaging us in debates, and at the same time, steadfast in their belief of their mission, goals, and responsibilities. With that openness also came exceptional transparency, such as fighter pilots sharing their joy of flying, but also their naked, raw fear about night landings on a carrier deck.

In my conversations with organizations about social media, openness and transparency is often what companies engaging in social media most fear -- it isn't about the technologies that enable openness, but the relationships that force companies to face their biggest insecurities and flaws. 

So as an exercise, think about how *your* organization would deal with and fare under the scrutiny of a 24 hour visit by outsiders. Would you script each and every interaction with talking points? Would you limit access only to departments and people who showed the best side of you, and then escort the visitors to the reception area?

Or would you trust that each and every person understands their role in the organization? Do you trust that they can and will speak with honesty but also respect "that which cannot be spoken", the secrets that if exposed, would be detrimental to the organization?

It says a lot about an organization when its leaders and executives can step back and be secure in the knowledge that their people will do the right thing, up and down the hierarchical chain. The photo at the top of this post is of a poster that hangs in the library, right next to rows of computers where sailors can email and post on Facebook and Twitter. It's a reminder to keep "OPSEC", or operational security. Sailors are reminded to not disclose information that would compromise operations, as such as their location and mission.

And yes, the Navy has a social media policy, that governs the use of Web 2.0 tools -- basically, that anything goes as long as it does not "compromise data confidentiality and integrity". And the Army just this week lifted a ban on social media sites. The military realizes the opportunity for their service members to "facilitate the dissemination of strategic, unclassified information." Yet in many organizations, executives are pondering whether to ban access to Facebook and Twitter, rather than how these technologies can foster collaboration between employees and also bring customers and partners closer to the company.

To close out, here is a video interview with Commander Charlie Brown on why the Navy invited bloggers to visit the Nimitz, and how they will measure the success of the trip. Highlights are included below.

Why is the Navy inviting all these bloggers on the ship?

We wish we could bring every tax payer out to see what the Navy does, but we can't. So we try to bring out folks who have the ability to share the experience with a wider audience. And for us, this group of bloggers...that was a perfect group to do that.

How are you going to measure the success of the embark?

Our goal was to bring folks out who don't necessarily have a familiarity with what naval aviation does. It's your Navy, it's your aircraft carriers, so we want to show you what we're doing with those. So by having you folks coming and joining us, I think it's already a success.

Are you a little bit nervous about what we are going to write?

Only a few of you! You're going to have open access. You'll be able to talk to whomever you like, and see whatever you want to see, and I think you'll get a lot out of it.

Technorati Tags: nimitz,blogger,embark,open,transparency,policy,charleneli

Nimitz Blogger Embark: Intro & Links

At the end of May, I joined 15 other bloggers for a trip on the aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz which was about 80 miles off the coast of San Diego. Which meant that we had to fly on and off the carrier. And yes, it was a pretty amazing to experience to get caught by a wire and catapulted off the carrier. But my longest lasting memories will be of the amazing people I met. I will be writing a few additional posts with more details, but below is a quick overview as well as links to the content from the other bloggers. 

The trip was initiated by Guy Kawasaki, who last fall made a similar trip on the USS Stennis. At the end of the trip, he realized that this was a great story that would benefit from other blogger perspectives. Working with Dennis Hall and Guy's Garage.com partner Bill Reichert, they invited 16 bloggers to participate. Fifteen went on the main trip with Chris Pirillo making the trip a few days later because of a schedule conflict.

 

From left to right: Jefferson Wagner, Beth Blecherman, Jennifer Jones, Robert Scoble, Pamela Slim, Charlene Li, Jenny Lawson, Bill Reichert, Jennifer Van Grove, Jen Leo, Guy Kawasaki, Andy Sernovitz, Andrew Nystrom, Dennis Hall, (not pictured, Carroll "Lex" LeFon & Chris Pirillo)

The public affairs officers on the trip continually commented that we documented everything - and as you can see from the content below, this is quite true (the list will be updated as we add more content).

If you want even more of the USS Nimitz, check out the PBS 10-part series, "Carrier" on Hulu.

Finally, a disclosure: I am a liberal, anti-gun, Prius-driving, anti-war protest marcher. I set aside all of those feelings in order to go on the blogger embark because I wanted to see first hand how our military works and more importantly, because I thought there were some important lessons to be learned from the people who serve us so well.

I come away from the trip with a deep and profound respect for the people who in the military -- their dedication, professionalism, and sacrifice are awe-inspiring. My personal views on military action have also been shaped, in that I appreciate that this is *my* navy. I take great pride that the Navy is there to serve me and the people of the United States, and also to help in other parts of the world if possible and if allowed. There are, and always will be, times when the military will be called into military actions, actions that I hope our political leaders have the wisdom to engage in only when absolutely necessary, and actions that I may not politically agree with.

But it is with tremendous awe and gratitude that I know that these men and women are there to come to someone's rescue, just as they did four a ship captain on a lifeboat held hostage by four pirates. Seeing them in action, and understanding their tremendous sacrifice firsthand is something that I will never forget. Now when I see a person in uniform, I extend a hand in grateful thanks, and send a silent prayer that they never see action and will be safe in their duties.

Blog posts - from the embark

Guy Kawasaki: 24 Hours at Sea on the USS Nimitz. Highly recommended for the comprehensive tour, photos, and videos.

Carroll "Lex" LeFon: The Embark, The Ship, The Wing, and The Bloggers. Perspective from Lex is especially helpful given that he used to be a Navy pilot who not only flew off carriers but also helped run the "Top Gun" training school.

Pam Slim: Lessons on fear, focus and career from the crew of the USS Nimitz 

Jennifer Jones: Learning Navy & Marine Corps Terms for Bloggers’ Embark

Jenny Lawson: "The Bloggess": This is too long for one post but I’m too lazy to do two.

Chris Pirillo: The Navy’s USS Nimitz Aircraft Carrier Experience

Jennifer Van Grove: Bloggers Embark, The Prelude and Bloggers Embark, In The Mist

 

Pre-trip posts

Dennis Hall: Bloggers' Embark  

Charlene Li: Bloggers On The USS Nimitz (pre-trip)

Beth Blecherman: USS Nimitz Blogger Adventure - Night Before Dinner

Jen Leo: The truth is stranger than fiction. Leo to meet the U.S. Navy, Guy Kawasaki & Robert Scoble on an aircraft carrier

Audio interviews

USS Nimitz Interview With Lia Reynolds - Corporate Staff Judge Advocate For Carrier Strike Group 11 

A Candid Perspective From Fighter Pilot Lieutenant Luis Delgado

Bloggers Embark: USS Nimitz Plans To Receive 16 Podcasters, Bloggers and Others for May 29-30, 2009 Interview by Jennifer Jones with Dennis Hall, the organizer of the trip

 

Photos

Robert Scoble: Nimitz Blogger Embark Flickr set. Beautiful shots

Guy Kawasaki: Nimitz MobileMe photo album

Beth Blecherman: USS Nimitz Blogger Embark 09 Flickr set

Jennifer Van Grove: Bloggers Embark Flickr set

Jennifer Jones: USS Nimitz - Bloggers Embark 2009 Flickr set

Jenny Lawson: USS Nimitz Flickr set

Carroll "Lex" LeFon: Nimitz Blog Embark Flickr set

Andy Sernovitz: USS Nimitz Flickr set

Charlene Li: Nimitz Blogger Embark May 2009

Videos

USS Nimitz Flight Deck With Landing Jet landing behind Jennifer Jones

USS Nimitz Navy Aircraft Carrier Flight Retrievals by Chris Pirillo

USS Nimitz Navy Aircraft Carrier Operations by Chris Pirillo

Interview: Commander Charlie Brown on why the Navy invited bloggers by Charlene Li

Technorati Tags: nimitz,blogger,embark,charleneli

Microsoft Bing's focus on decisions is smart -- but not a Google killer

Apologies for the long title, but I wanted to get one thing across before diving into my review of Microsoft's new search engine Bing. (The site was announced on Thursday at the All Things Digital conference and will be available June 3rd. I was given a pre-launch briefing and have had access to a preview site.)

Bing is not a Google killer. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing, and in fact, I think Microsoft is taking a pretty darn smart move by focusing on being a "decision engine". Here's why.

Bing's goal is to improve the search experience, and it does that well overall in an incremental way, but especially in four key categories - shopping, travel, local, and health -- by tailoring the experience to specific goals associated with those categories. Why these categories? Well, they are the ones that generate the most concentrated revenues from advertising, the ones where people need to make complex, multi-step decisions every day.

So Microsoft doesn't want to beat Google in terms of displacing it from it's lofty 70% dominant share of US searches. Rather, Microsoft is out to win more users in the most lucrative categories where advertisers want to influence decision making. This is a focused strategy, and a smart one for (distant) #3 player Microsoft to pursue not only against formidable general search players but also vertical leaders like Yelp and Kayak. Thus, the nickname floating around that Bing stands for "Bing Is Not Google" is apt because Microsoft has a very healthy understanding that it is not trying to beat Google at its game, but rather, winning in specific categories.

If Microsoft can convince a small portion of its loyal users (think of all the people using Hotmail or Windows Live Messenger) to use Bing for specific decisions and tasks, it will be making inroads where it matters most -- making money. So forget about the debate of Bing versus Google - it's the wrong question to be asking. A better question is whether Bing is succeeding in its mission to gain a greater share of decisions made in these four areas.

The Four Key Categories

I've been playing with Bing for almost a week and while it won't replace Google as my default search engine (I love using the Google search that's built into the Google Chrome browser navigation bar) there are some instances where I will make an effort to navigate over to Bing. This is not about beating Google and Yahoo!, but exploiting an opportunity where the traditional 10 blue links on a page falls short.

Shopping. The most obvious one is shopping. Here are the steps I took recently to replace my coffee maker

- Do a Google search to figure out what current model most closely resembles my broken coffee maker.

- Look for reviews to see if the options are any good. Go to Amazon, epinions, and coffeegeek.

- Go back to Google search to find places that sells the models I'm considering.

- Identify a few stores, open up another tab and do a search for "coupon codes" for those stores.

- Plug in the coupons into each of the stores to see what combination of price, discounts, and shipping is the lowest price.

And all that for a coffee maker! I exaggerate as I know that most people won't do this for a kitchen appliance -- but they would for a flat screen TV. But I think you get the point that online shopping is a painful, multi-step process fraught with missteps and hard to keep track of.

Bing integrates many of these steps, in particular bringing in detailed reviews and discounts. My favorite feature by far is the aggregated reviews from across different sites -- and when available, an aggregation of feature ratings. I've included a screenshot of these featured ratings for a Sony LCD TV. The bars on the left side are an aggregation of the detailed reviews from sites like CNET, epinions and ciao.com. Some very cool algorithms pull the reviews, get the details and norm them across sites.

Another tab on the same product page allows me to compare prices by store, if free shipping is offered, and the percent "cashback" being offered by the merchant because you searched for the product on Bing. (The cashback program already exists on Live.com, but not in a comparison chart like this.) My only pet peeve is that I still needed to have a calculator handy to figure out what the actual price was, rather than Bing just calculating it for me.

 

 

Local.  Bing's local search engine leverages the same computational firepower used in Shopping to aggregate reviews and norm detailed feature rankings like service and food quality for restaurants. In my quest for good sushi in San Diego, I found RA Sushi with 186 reviews from CitySearch, Judy's Book, and Yelp.com. On the right of the page are "1-click directions". Microsoft realized that most people know how to get to a major highway, so directions are available for "Driving from the north", removing the need to click and enter your starting address.

I currently do most of my local searching in either Google Maps or Yelp. I'm definitely going to be using Bing's local search to decide where to go out for a date night dinner, meaning that Yelp is probably going to lose out the most in this area.

 

Travel. Bing's flight fare search reminded me very much of Kayak, my favorite travel search engine. In fact, it feels like an exact copy except for one major improvement -- the integration of Farecast, which Microsoft acquired a year ago. This feature is actually already available on the Farecast site, but Bing improves on it by also automatically searching for hotels in the destination city.

 

 

In the hotels search, I'm given some information about how the current list price compares to historical list prices, giving me confidence that the price I'm getting is fair.

They key benefit of Bing Travel is that I get more information on whether I am getting a good deal or not, giving me greater confidence on when I should be timing my purchases.

 

Health. Lastly, Bing does some nice semantic work for key health terms. They licensed content from leading health sites like Mayo clinic to provide information right in the search results.

 

 

 

In addition, the rest of the search results are categorized into specific topics. In my search for "insomnia", the results are grouped into "Causes Insomnia", "Insomnia symptoms", "Insomnia treatment", and so on. This is a much better experience compared to trying to figure out what lies behind each blue link.

While this is definitely an improvement, it doesn't go as far as specialized search engines like Kosmix. I've included a screenshot here of the same search for "insomnia".

Not only does Kosmix do a good job of categorizing different topics about insomnia, it also integrates on to the same page news stories, general Web search, images, videos, and even Tweets!

But still, given that Bing is a positioned as a general search engine, the new health results are a definite improvement.

 

Other changes

Two other improvements stood out for me. The first is a "hover" technology that allows you to preview a page. Ask has had this feature for a while, and it's very nice to see it integrated into Bing.

 

 

 

The other main feature is "Best Match" which takes commonly used search terms like "UPS" and returns not just UPS.com as the top result, but also hides other Web results. This happens for only a few hundred terms that Microsoft saw people using as navigation rather than search.

But the key feature that I love is that the most commonly used functions on the destination site are embedded into the search results. For example, the UPS search yielded the top navigational links on UPS.com like Locator and Tracking. But it also features the customer service number (!) and a "Track a package" search box.

It is this focus on what I call "reading my mind" that most impresses me about Bing. Is it revolutionary, groundbreaking technology like WolframAlpha? No. Life changing? Far from it. But in it's incremental advances, Bing makes the decisions in my life easier. And I'll take that any day versus the next supposed "Google killer".

Technorati Tags: microsoft,bing,google,search,charleneli

Where I'll be in May and June

I'll be speaking/traveling to the following events and cities in the next few months. Hope to catch some of you in person. You can find a full list of my future engagements on my Calendar page.

May 12, 2009: Women Who Tech TeleSummit, "Breaking Through the Digital Ceiling".

This is a particularly passionate topic for me. This is an online event and this single panel is a bargain at $10!! The entire TeleSummit will be available as a podcast if you can't make it. Other panelists are Lynne D. Johnson, Fast Company, Susan Mernit, Consultant, Connie Reece, Every Dot Connects and Social Media Club. The moderator is Allyson Kapin, Rad Campaign and Women Who Tech.

May 14, 2009: Silicon Valley American Marketing Association (SVAMA), "Understanding And Capitalizing On The Groundswell". Palo Alto, CA.

I'll be presenting on social media marketing for an hour, then joined by a stellar panel with deep, hands-on experience in social media, marketing, and community building:

- Joel Nathanson, Wells Fargo
- Larry Nelson, HP
- Scott Wilder, Intuit

May 18, 2009: Government Leadership Summit 2009, Williamsburg, VA.

This event looks at how government and the military can use technology to deliver and enhance existing as well as new services. I'll be delivering a dinner keynote and facilitating and open discussion.

May 29-30, 2009: Blogger Embark on the USS Nimitz, San Diego, CA.

This isn't really an event, but I'll be going on an aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz -- flying from San Diego, landing on the Nimitz at sea, spending the night with the crew, and taking off again the next day. I'll be documenting all of it along with 14 other bloggers, and am currently prepping by watching all 10 episodes of PBS' "Carrier" series.

June 2, 2009: Brandworks University® 2008, Madison, WI.

The theme of this event is "The Conversation Economy" and I'll be showcasing an update to the "participation ladder" as well as new ways for brand marketers to engage with their customers.

June 5, 2009: Travel to Omaha, NE for client work.

June 16, 2009: WITI's 20th Anniversary Summit, "Other Tools: Widgets, RSS, Wikis, Blogging – What are they and why should your company care?" Santa Clara, CA.

I'll be showing examples of how companies are using different social technologies to reach out to customers and employees.

MLB.TV Blog - MIA

I was tipped off by IDG report Juan Carlos Perez that Major League Baseball had pulled their MLB.TV blog earlier today, after opening day problems for the paid service that broadcasts games in real time. (The service starts at $14.95/month or $79.95/year). You can read the story by Perez at Computerworld.

As Perez wrote, the MLB.TV blog had been active for months, with hundreds of comments from MLB.TV subscribers. But now all that remains is a single terse entry. Gone are the posts chronicling the beta testing results. Gone are useful links and customer service numbers. And I believe, gone is the opportunity that MLB had to support and dialog with unhappy subscribers during what is probably a pretty stressful crisis.

I don't know the reasons why MLB killed off the blog and Perez couldn't get the organization to return his calls. If the MLB.TV team didn't have time to handle comments, they could have turned off comments and explained why. If they were "all hands on deck" to fix the service and didn't have time to blog, they could have written a post explaining that.

But to engage the MLB.TV audience in a rich dialog for months, and then to suddenly kill it off feels like a teenage break-up. MLB could have and should have been more respectful of its audience (and especially PAYING subscribers!)

You can see what the blog *used* to look like - I've included screen captures of a cached page that is no longer available. I'm including the posts in chronological order so that you can see what happened. Note that these are just four posts that I was able to see -- there were many more.

Posted April 3, 2009 at 4:24pm. Only two games are being shown on Friday for free, and there are two updates acknowledging some of the problems the service has been having. There were 73 comments, but these weren't viewable in the cached page.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted April 4, 2009 at 12:03pm. This is the second day of the beta weekend, with only three games being broadcast. There continues to be acknowledgement that there are problems, but the tone is open and casual. There are 49 comments on this post.

 

 

 

Posted April 5, 2009 at 6:28pm. This post starts off with an apology. "First off, yesterday was not great. Apologies for the lack of communication. There were many fires and we were off working on them and didn't man the blog."

The post addresses many of the key issues raised by people commenting on the blog. It appears to be a good give and take between the MLB and subscribers.

Not included in the screenshot at the bottom of the post are customer service phone numbers, emails, and links to FAQs. There are 43 comments.

 

Posted April 6, 2009 at 11:37am. Includes appreciation for the feedback, "Many  bugs and issues would not have been caught without your help. We have a lot more to do still to get the player to perform in a more stable manner across the board."

Also helpful are links at the bottom of the post and customer service phone numbers, similar to the content from the day before. There are 45 comments.

 

Posted April 6, 2009 at 11:37am. Note that this is the same time as the previous, now-gone post. But the time stamp on the first comment is April 7, 2009 at 6:32pm, more than a day later.

The full text of the post is, "After the predictable Opening Day issues with our first opportunity to truly do end-to-end live HD video (we don't get a Spring Training), we have launched our new HD player. Please visit the MLB Support Forum to post a solution, suggestion, or question. Thank you."

MLB.TV posted a few comments directing people to the Support Forum. In the forums, MLB Support has been active in responding to threads. But they are missing an opportunity to answer multiple questions directly and to give updates on service status directly on the blog.

This reminds me of how Dell effectively used its Direct2Dell blog to handle the battery recall crisis back in 2006. I'm hoping that MLB comes around to bring back the dialog they started with the MLB.TV Blog - I bet baseball fans would really appreciate it.

Technorati Tags: blogs,blog,social,mlb,baseball,video,charleneli

Why Social Media Marketing Fails - Notes From Web 2.0 Expo panel

I had the honor and pleasure of being on a panel with my two former Forrester colleagues, Peter Kim (now at Dachis Corporation) and Jeremiah Owyang (still at Forrester). Our topic: "Why Social Media Marketing Fails -- and What To Do About It".

Peter organized the panel to discuss four topics:

• How can I get my culture to adapt?
• How can I make my campaigns work?
• What am I supposed to measure?
• Does social media even matter?

I've included an audio podcast of the panel.

Update: Slides are available on SlideShare.net

There are also some excellent summary posts - let me know if there are others and I'll add the links.

Jessica Valenzuela, Maven Digital Mashup

Susan Etlinger, Horn Group, Brass Tacks blog

Mia Dand, Marketing Mystic

Michael Cayley, Social Capital Value Add

Jennifer Leggio, ZDNet 

Holger Nauheimer, Change Management Blog

If you'd like to see the Twitter discussion, it's tagged #smfail and available via Twitter Search.  

And finally, some photos at Flickr by John J Welsh. 

Technorati Tags: web2e,smfail,jowyang,peterkim,charleneli

Bloggers On the USS Nimitz

I was recently invited to participate in a Blogger Embark to visit and spend the night on the USS Nimitz off the California coast along with a dozen or so other bloggers at the end of May. When I got the invite, I just about fell out of my seat -- my first thought was COOL.

But very quickly, my second thought was whether it made sense for me to go. As you can imagine, the military isn't something I write about, and clearly, the Navy PR team is hoping to get some good coverage out of it. Moreover, I'm personally ambivalent about military action, but at the same time grateful and indebted to the people who put on a uniform in the service of our country.

Guy Kawasaki is the lead blogger behind this adventure, having visited the USS Stennis last October -- you can visit his blog post that includes many, many photos of the ship, but more importantly, the people. It was his post that convinced me to accept the invitation, because there is a story to tell -- in fact, multiple stories to tell.

So I'll be flying from San Diego and landing on an aircraft carrier at sea. I have several topics I'll be exploring on the trip, which I've detailed below. But I'd also like to hear from you -- if you could go on an aircraft carrier (!) what would you like to see, what would you like to learn? I'll do my best to report back what I find.

People's stories: Being at sea is a unique experience -- how do the women and men of the Nimitz approach and deal with it? How do they stay connected with family and friends at home? I'm following a few Twitterers on the Nimitz and hope to connect with them once onboard. Like Guy, I will post as many photos, videos, and interviews as I can so that folks back home can catch a glimpse of their loved ones on board.

Organizational structure and operations: How is a "tight ship" really run? There is an excellent article on how to manage people in the chaotic, restrictive environment of a carrier -- and there's a lot for businesses to learn from this. And note this -- every 40 months, there is an almost 100% turnover of the carrier crew. Talk about managing in a stressful environment!

Blogger outreach: How is the US military reaching out to bloggers? What are the goals, expectations, and measurements they will use to gauge success? What do the bloggers think of the Navy's outreach efforts?

The ship: And of course, I'm going to really enjoy just being the ship and at sea. To prepare, I'll be watching all 10 episodes of the PBS series "Carrier" to better understand operations and life aboard the Nimitz.

I consider myself very lucky to be going on this trip, and want to bring back and share as much information as I can. So please, let me know how you think I can/should maximize this opportunity.

Technorati Tags: nimitz,blogger,blogs,org,military,navy,charleneli

International Editions of Groundswell Book

Every few weeks I get a package from the Harvard Business Press, the publishers of "Groundswell". Inside are usually two Groundswell books, translated and printed in another language. I thought I'd share some of the cover images with you, where they are available, and updates on when other editions will be published. I'll update this page as more information becomes available

Why are the covers and even the titles different? The publisher in each country decides what works best for each market. For example, in Germany, the title is "Facebook YouTube, Xing & Co: Winning With Social Technologies".

Personally, I'm most excited to see a Mandarin, Cantonese, and French versions of Groundswell. That's because my extended families (my husband is French Canadian) would prefer to read the book in their native language. And interestingly, there is no direct translation of the word "Groundswell" so my parents are keenly curious about what the title will be.

 

Cover art	Language	Link / When available
	Italian	ETAS
	Japanese	Amazon Japan
	Korean	Kyobo Book
	Danish	Hanser.de
	German	Amazon.de
	Spanish	chaos.com Barnes & Noble (pre-order) Amazon (pre-order)
	Croatian	Publisher: Mate April/May 2009
	Polish	Publisher: MT Biznes March 2009
	Russian	Publisher: Vyscshee Obrazovanie May 2009
	Portuguese	Publisher: Elsevier Editora Spring 2009
	Finnish	Publisher: Tietosanoma Spring 2009
	Simplified Chinese	Publisher: Hua Zhang/China Machine Press April 2009
	Complex Chinese	LinkingBooks.com
	Vietnamese	Publisher: Alpha Books
	Slovak	Eastone Publishing

 

Technorati Tags: groundswell,book,editions,charleneli

Future Of Social Networks presentation from SXSW

I had the honor of presenting at the SXSW conference last Saturday, on the topic "The Future Of Social Networks". I've embedded the slides below, and you can also access them on SlideShare.

Below the slides I've included a quick synopsis, including examples of what the future will look like. I'd also like to get your ideas of what you think the experience will be like if/when your identity, contacts, and social activities are ubiquitous.

Update: Some additional resources include a Twitter feed of the proceedings and notes from Amy Sample Ward and Louis Gray.

SXSW09: The Future Of Social Networks

View more presentations from Charlene Li.

Thesis: Social networks will be like air.

Description: Your friends, your family, the people you care about, the people like you, will be available anywhere and anytime that you need them.

Examples: (Accompanying screenshots are in the slideshow.)

• Shopping: When buying something on Amazon, you'll be able to filter reviews to see those from friends, or chat with your music-loving friends to get advice on which headphones are best. (Slides 5-6)
• Events: At conferences, you'll be able to find friends or people with similar interests who are in the same session with you. (Slide 7)
• Mobile: Apps on devices like iPhone will recognize when friends have the same app downloaded too, and invite them to play games, interact with content, etc. (Slide 8)
• TV: Twitter streams were integrated into Current TV's presidential debates coverage. Integra5 is building a platform that will enable friends (via Facebook Connect) to chat with each other right on the TV screen via PC or mobile. (Slides 9-10)
• Enterprise: Salesforce.com integrates Facebook profiles into customer records, while Lotus Notes shows the LinkedIn profile of an email sender. (Slide 11)

I welcome any additional ideas that you may have about what it will mean to have social networks be like air in your life. Feel free to include them in the comments below, or to email them to me at charlene (at) altimetergroup (dot) com.