Saturday, August 27, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/10-t...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-me/
5 Things You Didn’t Know About Me
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 26, 2011 in English | 5 Comments
Giving my blog an annual break from seriousness: what led to this?
While laid up in hospital last week, recovering from a hernia operation, I had five days without the many people I network with, discover, learn, and share social media and entrepreneurial ideas with, and it occurred to me that I might not be viciously attacked for just this once sharing more of myself.
Call it social media transparency, if you will.
I’d like you to know a much about me as you care to. (And then let’s talk business.)
1. Without surgery, pills, or any help, I lost 55% of my body weight, going from 165.5 to 73.9 Kg in 3 1/2 years. I have kept most of it off, three years since. I continue with my very own program, much of which entails taking a long, brisk walk every morning, regardless of the weather, on an empty stomach. I probably skip that 2-3 hour walk less than 20 mornings per year. The photo below shows me at about 130 Kg; I suppose I wasn’t photogenic enough at 165.5 Kg to get photographed much.
2. My parents were artists, I studied film-making, and nothing was more important to my parents than creativity – except that we question everything. For creativity, my father insisted we not have a TV in our home. From questioning, its no wonder that I am the most devout atheist you might ever know.
And yet, I love believers. I love that you have faith. It serves you well, gives you a peace of mind that isn’t available to me. Don’t ever change. After all, when I croak, I’ll be all dressed up, boxed, baked – and then, nowhere to go!
3. Though I’ve traveled around the world by ship (not the yacht in the photo to the left), been to 18 countries, and speak Japanese, I was the first of my family to drive (age 19) or board an airplane (age 21). I always was curious about foreign lands and peoples, and have been befriending those from places most different than my place of birth from age six – until even now.
What comes of such cultural curiosity?
I have lived close to half my life in Japan and have no yearning to return to Philadelphia. I am often asked if I will ever return to the U.S. Yes, and it may even soon be time for that kind of change for my wife and I. As for where, a place with good living would be nice. I meet great people wherever I go, so that wouldn’t be a problem. I have nothing drawing to one locale or another, though; I have no sense of “home.”
4. I am from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but Philly is a big city, and one of many very different neighborhoods. Mine was hardly the metropolitan, crime-ridden, drug-infested “inner-city” neighborhood that nearly everyone assumes it to have been; we lived a walk away from fields, streams, hills to sled down in the winter, and our backyard was large enough that a game of soccer rarely interfered with my mother’s vegetable garden. My father’s art studio used to be a stable for horses and there were many other houses in our neighborhood that were well over one hundred years old.
5. Thanks to social media, I have met several great new friends, just over the last two years. This is handy since, truth be told, I have had the misfortune of losing many friends due to people (or me) moving far away, an occasional major falling-out, and even early deaths. I make every effort to strengthen relationships, meeting in person with those with whom this is possible, and via SKYPE when it is not. People are very important to me. I try to keep my people close to me, meeting or at least speaking by voice – rather than just tweeting, google+ posting, G+ commenting/hanging out or Facebook-updating with them.
I have gone rogue and off-brand. (It wont happen often. But do let me know if a post like this really irks you.) Tomorrow I m back in the thick of social media, opinionated as usual, with Another Ten Reasons You Get Unfollowed in Twitter.
5 Things You Didn’t Know About Me
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 26, 2011 in English | 5 Comments
Giving my blog an annual break from seriousness: what led to this?
While laid up in hospital last week, recovering from a hernia operation, I had five days without the many people I network with, discover, learn, and share social media and entrepreneurial ideas with, and it occurred to me that I might not be viciously attacked for just this once sharing more of myself.
Call it social media transparency, if you will.
I’d like you to know a much about me as you care to. (And then let’s talk business.)
1. Without surgery, pills, or any help, I lost 55% of my body weight, going from 165.5 to 73.9 Kg in 3 1/2 years. I have kept most of it off, three years since. I continue with my very own program, much of which entails taking a long, brisk walk every morning, regardless of the weather, on an empty stomach. I probably skip that 2-3 hour walk less than 20 mornings per year. The photo below shows me at about 130 Kg; I suppose I wasn’t photogenic enough at 165.5 Kg to get photographed much.
2. My parents were artists, I studied film-making, and nothing was more important to my parents than creativity – except that we question everything. For creativity, my father insisted we not have a TV in our home. From questioning, its no wonder that I am the most devout atheist you might ever know.
And yet, I love believers. I love that you have faith. It serves you well, gives you a peace of mind that isn’t available to me. Don’t ever change. After all, when I croak, I’ll be all dressed up, boxed, baked – and then, nowhere to go!
3. Though I’ve traveled around the world by ship (not the yacht in the photo to the left), been to 18 countries, and speak Japanese, I was the first of my family to drive (age 19) or board an airplane (age 21). I always was curious about foreign lands and peoples, and have been befriending those from places most different than my place of birth from age six – until even now.
What comes of such cultural curiosity?
I have lived close to half my life in Japan and have no yearning to return to Philadelphia. I am often asked if I will ever return to the U.S. Yes, and it may even soon be time for that kind of change for my wife and I. As for where, a place with good living would be nice. I meet great people wherever I go, so that wouldn’t be a problem. I have nothing drawing to one locale or another, though; I have no sense of “home.”
4. I am from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but Philly is a big city, and one of many very different neighborhoods. Mine was hardly the metropolitan, crime-ridden, drug-infested “inner-city” neighborhood that nearly everyone assumes it to have been; we lived a walk away from fields, streams, hills to sled down in the winter, and our backyard was large enough that a game of soccer rarely interfered with my mother’s vegetable garden. My father’s art studio used to be a stable for horses and there were many other houses in our neighborhood that were well over one hundred years old.
5. Thanks to social media, I have met several great new friends, just over the last two years. This is handy since, truth be told, I have had the misfortune of losing many friends due to people (or me) moving far away, an occasional major falling-out, and even early deaths. I make every effort to strengthen relationships, meeting in person with those with whom this is possible, and via SKYPE when it is not. People are very important to me. I try to keep my people close to me, meeting or at least speaking by voice – rather than just tweeting, google+ posting, G+ commenting/hanging out or Facebook-updating with them.
I have gone rogue and off-brand. (It wont happen often. But do let me know if a post like this really irks you.) Tomorrow I m back in the thick of social media, opinionated as usual, with Another Ten Reasons You Get Unfollowed in Twitter.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
http://osakabentures.com/2011/03/quor...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/03/quora-vs-stackexchange-reputation-measurement/
Quora vs. StackExchange: Reputation Measurement
Posted by OsakaSaul on March 18, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
URL: http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/20/quora-vs-stackexchange/
What I have been saying for the last eight months: our entries/votes should be weighted, recommendations and degrees certified, and the full gamut of the reputation management issue dealt with by a professional (i.e. LinkedIn, Quora, StackExchange, Facebook app “Branchout,” etc.) social media platform. This will provide tremendous value to users who evaluate each other regularly.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/hNio0t
Quora vs. StackExchange: Reputation Measurement
Posted by OsakaSaul on March 18, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
URL: http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/20/quora-vs-stackexchange/
What I have been saying for the last eight months: our entries/votes should be weighted, recommendations and degrees certified, and the full gamut of the reputation management issue dealt with by a professional (i.e. LinkedIn, Quora, StackExchange, Facebook app “Branchout,” etc.) social media platform. This will provide tremendous value to users who evaluate each other regularly.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/hNio0t
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/twee...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/tweeting-just-enough/
Tweeting Just Enough
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 25, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
If you’re actually looking to tweet more often without wasting time, here’s a good way to do it:
First, consider why you’re tweeting. Is it really necessary? Not everyone needs a Twitter account, we’ve only been brainwashed to think so.
Tweet 4 times daily. Writing a tweet takes less than 2 minutes.
Some of these can just be links. That takes even less than 2 minutes, especially if you have a browser plugin.
Use a desktop application (or iPhone) to set alarms at specific times of the day if you’re not tweeting.
If you are new to Twitter, try using Keep on Posting to make sure you don’t fall behind your average tweet frequency.
Got a little more time? Then do what should make up 90% of your timeline: comment on blogs and tweets, and share them in Twitter. Promote others, and the world will love you.
Need followers, no time and no patience for building an account of uninteresting tweeps? This helps and is great for the non-techies out there:
Quickly Growing a Targetted Following:
Most twitter scheduling tools allow you to pre-schedule a selection of posts in a given date and time. Doing this may mean spending more than an hour each day searching for the latest buzz on the Web that you think your followers may find worthy, on top of entering each info into the system… eating up too much of your time already when you could have spent it in talking to your tweeple for real. This is why there are Twitter scheduling tools like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, etc. that let you grab feeds from your favorite blogs or messages from your text file – without you thinking of which time and date it will be posted for the tool will do it randomly for you, as if you’re doing it for real.
Tweeting Just Enough
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 25, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
If you’re actually looking to tweet more often without wasting time, here’s a good way to do it:
First, consider why you’re tweeting. Is it really necessary? Not everyone needs a Twitter account, we’ve only been brainwashed to think so.
Tweet 4 times daily. Writing a tweet takes less than 2 minutes.
Some of these can just be links. That takes even less than 2 minutes, especially if you have a browser plugin.
Use a desktop application (or iPhone) to set alarms at specific times of the day if you’re not tweeting.
If you are new to Twitter, try using Keep on Posting to make sure you don’t fall behind your average tweet frequency.
Got a little more time? Then do what should make up 90% of your timeline: comment on blogs and tweets, and share them in Twitter. Promote others, and the world will love you.
Need followers, no time and no patience for building an account of uninteresting tweeps? This helps and is great for the non-techies out there:
Quickly Growing a Targetted Following:
Most twitter scheduling tools allow you to pre-schedule a selection of posts in a given date and time. Doing this may mean spending more than an hour each day searching for the latest buzz on the Web that you think your followers may find worthy, on top of entering each info into the system… eating up too much of your time already when you could have spent it in talking to your tweeple for real. This is why there are Twitter scheduling tools like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, etc. that let you grab feeds from your favorite blogs or messages from your text file – without you thinking of which time and date it will be posted for the tool will do it randomly for you, as if you’re doing it for real.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/ikea...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/ikea-faked-in-china/
Now its Ikea Getting Knocked Off in China
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 23, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
Just two week ago it was the fake Apple store fiasco that we looked at in my article on that – within the context of blog post virality. See that one here. This time, a store which on the outside appear as this:
Is, on the inside, this (complete with the entire IKEA “package” – customer service, staff attire, spacial cues, etc.):
I thus ask you to weigh in: what will it take for China to be brought to reason in intellectual property acknowledgment?
Conversely, on a brand new idea, at the end of August, 2011, I will be asking you to vote on the opposite point of view: what do you think of an “open source brand?”
Now its Ikea Getting Knocked Off in China
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 23, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
Just two week ago it was the fake Apple store fiasco that we looked at in my article on that – within the context of blog post virality. See that one here. This time, a store which on the outside appear as this:
Is, on the inside, this (complete with the entire IKEA “package” – customer service, staff attire, spacial cues, etc.):
I thus ask you to weigh in: what will it take for China to be brought to reason in intellectual property acknowledgment?
Conversely, on a brand new idea, at the end of August, 2011, I will be asking you to vote on the opposite point of view: what do you think of an “open source brand?”
Monday, August 22, 2011
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/stum...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/stumbleupon-triberr/
Pow-Wow on Getting StumbleUpon Triberr-Ready
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 21, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
Triberr’s integrating with StumbleUpon
I, for one, want to know how the integration and the sharing will happen.
It might not be ala TriberrXTwitter, or, a StumbleUpon “like” or “recommendation” is not a going to go far, but then, we simply don’t know how Triberr is going to tap into tribemembers’ StumbleUpon accounts.
Let’s Pow-Wow on getting ready, and understanding how it will work. It may or may not be the sharing we know in the Triberr X Twitter style, I’m thinking. Standards may change, to meet StumbleUpon’s needs, theoretically (looking at the “safe for work/not” issue).
Let’s all talk – and with Triberr and with interested bloggers and other Triberr Chiefs (who are actually going strong with Triberr), let’s trade ideas on getting as ready as possible before the integration of StumbleUpon in Triberr.
What we are not discussing yet are the actual dynamics. We need to know, we need to be able to answer our tribespeoples’ questions.
Example: will my blog simply be recommended to you via Stumble, or will (as with Triberr X Twitter) my blog articles be auto-shared by your StumbleUpon account. This would be awesome. See what I mean?
Let’s do a little multi-time-zone series, maybe get Dan and/or Dino in on the fun, and for as much insight they would like to or are prepared to provide? I am posting this in Facebook now as well – since I hope you ll see this, but I’d like to do this conference with you all in either a hangout or SKYPE.
Perhaps roughly 10,000 times more than in a tedius “tweetchat,” I would prefer to conference with you all in a Google+ Hangout or SKYPE, actually, to give-n-take ideas with you all on prepping our own Stumbleupon accounts in advance of Triberr integration. SKYPE works for nearly all. G+ Hangouts work (audio, at least) for many. Tweetchats I find discordant, subject-veering, unengaged… People 10%-engaged…People mystified as to how to work the thing.
Let’s do this another way, thus?
Would be fabulous to get +Dan Cristo and +Dino Dogan to join, no?
IDEAS…? When’s good, Dan/Dino/et al?
I’ll work with you on that.
Pow-Wow on Getting StumbleUpon Triberr-Ready
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 21, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
Triberr’s integrating with StumbleUpon
I, for one, want to know how the integration and the sharing will happen.
It might not be ala TriberrXTwitter, or, a StumbleUpon “like” or “recommendation” is not a going to go far, but then, we simply don’t know how Triberr is going to tap into tribemembers’ StumbleUpon accounts.
Let’s Pow-Wow on getting ready, and understanding how it will work. It may or may not be the sharing we know in the Triberr X Twitter style, I’m thinking. Standards may change, to meet StumbleUpon’s needs, theoretically (looking at the “safe for work/not” issue).
Let’s all talk – and with Triberr and with interested bloggers and other Triberr Chiefs (who are actually going strong with Triberr), let’s trade ideas on getting as ready as possible before the integration of StumbleUpon in Triberr.
What we are not discussing yet are the actual dynamics. We need to know, we need to be able to answer our tribespeoples’ questions.
Example: will my blog simply be recommended to you via Stumble, or will (as with Triberr X Twitter) my blog articles be auto-shared by your StumbleUpon account. This would be awesome. See what I mean?
Let’s do a little multi-time-zone series, maybe get Dan and/or Dino in on the fun, and for as much insight they would like to or are prepared to provide? I am posting this in Facebook now as well – since I hope you ll see this, but I’d like to do this conference with you all in either a hangout or SKYPE.
Perhaps roughly 10,000 times more than in a tedius “tweetchat,” I would prefer to conference with you all in a Google+ Hangout or SKYPE, actually, to give-n-take ideas with you all on prepping our own Stumbleupon accounts in advance of Triberr integration. SKYPE works for nearly all. G+ Hangouts work (audio, at least) for many. Tweetchats I find discordant, subject-veering, unengaged… People 10%-engaged…People mystified as to how to work the thing.
Let’s do this another way, thus?
Would be fabulous to get +Dan Cristo and +Dino Dogan to join, no?
IDEAS…? When’s good, Dan/Dino/et al?
I’ll work with you on that.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Making the Move: CEO to Chairman ...
Making the Move: CEO to Chairman
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/from-ceo-to-executive-chairman-sgn/
Making the Move: CEO to Chairman
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 20, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
Shervin Pishevar, responds, in Quora, in his answer to “Is it true that Shervin Pishevar is out as CEO of SGN.”
Damage Control
I loved Shervin’s answer, voted him up, and then garnered his permission to use the answer as a guest-blog – on recruiting a CEO and moving to the Executive Chairman role, Social Gaming Network. Considering the tone and imaginable intentions of the questioner, while I found his answer informative, it is also far more important as reputation damage control. Shervin explain why “out” is not what happened:
A Moving Story of Executive Recruitment
“I thought I would share my experience recruiting a CEO and moving to the Executive Chairman role for other founders/entrepreneurs to learn from. I spent a year searching for an amazing CEO for SGN to help take it to the next level. I met Randy Breen in March 2009 and spent the rest of the year forging a great relationship with him.
Randy was highly recommended to me by a number of my trusted mentors. Randy had joined EA when it was less than 100 people and pre-IPO and spent 15 years there helping build EA. He then joined Lucas Arts and spent 5 years helping build the gaming business. Prior to EA Randy spent 4 years in the Navy in a nuclear submarine. That background plus racing Ducati’s thoroughly impressed me.
I reached out to mentors and friends like Reid Hoffman, as well as other unnamed mentors in very large companies, to learn how how they handled recruiting a top CEO to their start ups. I learned a lot from those interactions. Some of the takeaways were:
Bring the ideal candidate into the company in an interim title like COO but give them a CEO’s package in terms of equity and pay.
Internally announce that the person you are bringing in is effectively running the company as CEO and that you (the founder) are Executive Chairman.
Give the interim candidate the room to run the company without too much interference so that you can watch their performance.
If things are working well don’t wait longer than 6 months to promote the interim candidate officially to CEO.
I feel very lucky to have had such sage advice about this process. I have heard about a lot of nightmare scenarios where the wrong candidate, the wrong process or a combination of both wrecked or permanently debilitated a company, a culture and/or a team. Mistakes in leadership transitions such as this are very difficult to recover from especially in a fast moving start up and/or space.
I find that, often times, founders are married to the CEO position for the wrong reasons. You should only remain CEO if you truly believe there is no one in the world better than you as CEO to help grow the company. If you find that person and you decide not to recruit them then you have done yourself, your team and your shareholders a huge disservice. I have found that there is a lot of surprising confusion from founders about the difference between a Chairman and Executive Chairman of a company. Chairman is not active and heads the Board of Directors. Executive Chairman is active and works at the company day-to-day (with the focus and role something that can be defined to suit the specific company).
There is a small ratio of founder CEO’s who are in the right evolutionary and developmental time and space in their careers as entrepreneurs and business leaders to successfully transition from very fast moving founders in a small start up to a larger company with hundreds if not thousands of employees. Bill Gates and now Mark Zuckerberg are the exceptional outliers at the far end of the spectrum of this example.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page are examples of exceptional outliers in the other end of the spectrum who successfully recruited an incredible CEO in Eric Schmidt at exactly the right inflection point in Google’s history. They created a unique management and leadership structure perfectly aligned for Google’s culture and future growth. It is easy to forget that when Larry and Sergey recruited Eric Schmidt in the summer of 2001 the Google business was only a $70 million business. The timing of this transition was, in hindsight, immaculate.
There are examples in between this spectrum littered with horror stories where Board members and/or entrepreneurs misjudged the timing, either too early or late, or the candidates fit, which led to unrecoverable dents in the businesses growth.
In my case, after observing Randy’s performance from September 2009 to late December 2009 I grew certain that I had made the right choice. After seeing him hit every single milestone and deadline, especially during the crucial Christmas holiday season for iPhone apps, I decided to pull the trigger and promote him officially to CEO. First, however, I assembled my key leadership team (without Randy) and asked each of them if they would give their vote of confidence in Randy as CEO. To a person, they all voted for him with absolute confidence.
Randy was getting married in Australia the last week of December. I waited for him to come back right at new years and invited him and his wife to a home cooked Persian meal that my wife made. After the dinner, I took Randy for a walk and walked over a few blocks away to Steve Jobs’ house for inspiration. It was there that I told him that I wanted to promote him to CEO of SGN right at the cusp of a new year. I knew the timing was perfect and that there would be no better time to start a new year and a new beginning both professionally and personally for him. Everything was aligned perfectly. To my joy he accepted wholeheartedly and we both hugged. We looked at Steve Jobs’ house and we thanked him for the incredible opportunity he had opened for so many new companies like ours in the mobile space.
That night I went home inspired and wrote this email to my Board and investors:
“Dear Board,
As you know, in September when we hired Randy I followed David Sze’s advice about how Reid Hoffman handled the hiring of Jeff Weiner: give him a CEO’s package, give him an interim period to run the company as if he is a CEO and when you are sure that he is the right guy promote him without hesitation.
I have been blessed with mentors who I can count on and learn from. This was a important process for me and I couldn’t have done it without them. In the preceding months, I reached out to various entrepreneurial friends and mentors like Eric Schmidt, Reid Hoffman, Bobby Yazdani and Jack Dorsey to seek their advice. What was fascinating was that almost all of them agreed on the main meta and micro issues. One of my mentors hit it out of the park with this gem:
“The other piece of advice I would have is to embrace it enthusiastically. People will instinctively smell your hesitation or hacks to the purity of the change. And it only backfires. It hurts your reputation, makes you look weak/insecure, and hampers the chances to have the company succeed, not to mention Randy. Own it, act as it is your initiative [which it is], give Randy all the support and rope to climb or fall, and then monitor closely.”
Last week, I went to dinner with Reid Hoffman and the key takeaways from my discussion with him was that he felt like he could and should have done the switch over to Jeff sooner. The risk in not calibrating the timing is losing someone like Randy’s interest and impacting our 2010 goals. I have been watching Randy closely and giving him room to lead and I am convinced he is ready.
I invited Randy and his wife to dinner at our home tonight. I took Randy on a walk by Steve Jobs house for inspiration and brought this up and he enthusiastically embraced it and hugged me. He has been waiting for this moment his whole career and is ready to hit the ground running.
I would like your support and we can do an official vote on at the Board call on Tuesday. I will separately bring my executive leadership together and will announce it. Randy is very popular in the company and I am sure they will all embrace it. I will become an operational Executive Chairman and Randy would be the CEO reporting to the Board. All reports in the company would be under Randy. We will then make an announcement later in the month publicly.
I want to thank also deeply thank David Sze and Justin Fishner Wolfson for their advice throughout this process. I look forward to growing SGN with you all and Randy to become the number one Mobile Social Gaming company in 2010 and beyond. These are exciting times. Look forward to our call on Tuesday.
Cheers,
Shervin”
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/from-ceo-to-executive-chairman-sgn/
Making the Move: CEO to Chairman
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 20, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
Shervin Pishevar, responds, in Quora, in his answer to “Is it true that Shervin Pishevar is out as CEO of SGN.”
Damage Control
I loved Shervin’s answer, voted him up, and then garnered his permission to use the answer as a guest-blog – on recruiting a CEO and moving to the Executive Chairman role, Social Gaming Network. Considering the tone and imaginable intentions of the questioner, while I found his answer informative, it is also far more important as reputation damage control. Shervin explain why “out” is not what happened:
A Moving Story of Executive Recruitment
“I thought I would share my experience recruiting a CEO and moving to the Executive Chairman role for other founders/entrepreneurs to learn from. I spent a year searching for an amazing CEO for SGN to help take it to the next level. I met Randy Breen in March 2009 and spent the rest of the year forging a great relationship with him.
Randy was highly recommended to me by a number of my trusted mentors. Randy had joined EA when it was less than 100 people and pre-IPO and spent 15 years there helping build EA. He then joined Lucas Arts and spent 5 years helping build the gaming business. Prior to EA Randy spent 4 years in the Navy in a nuclear submarine. That background plus racing Ducati’s thoroughly impressed me.
I reached out to mentors and friends like Reid Hoffman, as well as other unnamed mentors in very large companies, to learn how how they handled recruiting a top CEO to their start ups. I learned a lot from those interactions. Some of the takeaways were:
Bring the ideal candidate into the company in an interim title like COO but give them a CEO’s package in terms of equity and pay.
Internally announce that the person you are bringing in is effectively running the company as CEO and that you (the founder) are Executive Chairman.
Give the interim candidate the room to run the company without too much interference so that you can watch their performance.
If things are working well don’t wait longer than 6 months to promote the interim candidate officially to CEO.
I feel very lucky to have had such sage advice about this process. I have heard about a lot of nightmare scenarios where the wrong candidate, the wrong process or a combination of both wrecked or permanently debilitated a company, a culture and/or a team. Mistakes in leadership transitions such as this are very difficult to recover from especially in a fast moving start up and/or space.
I find that, often times, founders are married to the CEO position for the wrong reasons. You should only remain CEO if you truly believe there is no one in the world better than you as CEO to help grow the company. If you find that person and you decide not to recruit them then you have done yourself, your team and your shareholders a huge disservice. I have found that there is a lot of surprising confusion from founders about the difference between a Chairman and Executive Chairman of a company. Chairman is not active and heads the Board of Directors. Executive Chairman is active and works at the company day-to-day (with the focus and role something that can be defined to suit the specific company).
There is a small ratio of founder CEO’s who are in the right evolutionary and developmental time and space in their careers as entrepreneurs and business leaders to successfully transition from very fast moving founders in a small start up to a larger company with hundreds if not thousands of employees. Bill Gates and now Mark Zuckerberg are the exceptional outliers at the far end of the spectrum of this example.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page are examples of exceptional outliers in the other end of the spectrum who successfully recruited an incredible CEO in Eric Schmidt at exactly the right inflection point in Google’s history. They created a unique management and leadership structure perfectly aligned for Google’s culture and future growth. It is easy to forget that when Larry and Sergey recruited Eric Schmidt in the summer of 2001 the Google business was only a $70 million business. The timing of this transition was, in hindsight, immaculate.
There are examples in between this spectrum littered with horror stories where Board members and/or entrepreneurs misjudged the timing, either too early or late, or the candidates fit, which led to unrecoverable dents in the businesses growth.
In my case, after observing Randy’s performance from September 2009 to late December 2009 I grew certain that I had made the right choice. After seeing him hit every single milestone and deadline, especially during the crucial Christmas holiday season for iPhone apps, I decided to pull the trigger and promote him officially to CEO. First, however, I assembled my key leadership team (without Randy) and asked each of them if they would give their vote of confidence in Randy as CEO. To a person, they all voted for him with absolute confidence.
Randy was getting married in Australia the last week of December. I waited for him to come back right at new years and invited him and his wife to a home cooked Persian meal that my wife made. After the dinner, I took Randy for a walk and walked over a few blocks away to Steve Jobs’ house for inspiration. It was there that I told him that I wanted to promote him to CEO of SGN right at the cusp of a new year. I knew the timing was perfect and that there would be no better time to start a new year and a new beginning both professionally and personally for him. Everything was aligned perfectly. To my joy he accepted wholeheartedly and we both hugged. We looked at Steve Jobs’ house and we thanked him for the incredible opportunity he had opened for so many new companies like ours in the mobile space.
That night I went home inspired and wrote this email to my Board and investors:
“Dear Board,
As you know, in September when we hired Randy I followed David Sze’s advice about how Reid Hoffman handled the hiring of Jeff Weiner: give him a CEO’s package, give him an interim period to run the company as if he is a CEO and when you are sure that he is the right guy promote him without hesitation.
I have been blessed with mentors who I can count on and learn from. This was a important process for me and I couldn’t have done it without them. In the preceding months, I reached out to various entrepreneurial friends and mentors like Eric Schmidt, Reid Hoffman, Bobby Yazdani and Jack Dorsey to seek their advice. What was fascinating was that almost all of them agreed on the main meta and micro issues. One of my mentors hit it out of the park with this gem:
“The other piece of advice I would have is to embrace it enthusiastically. People will instinctively smell your hesitation or hacks to the purity of the change. And it only backfires. It hurts your reputation, makes you look weak/insecure, and hampers the chances to have the company succeed, not to mention Randy. Own it, act as it is your initiative [which it is], give Randy all the support and rope to climb or fall, and then monitor closely.”
Last week, I went to dinner with Reid Hoffman and the key takeaways from my discussion with him was that he felt like he could and should have done the switch over to Jeff sooner. The risk in not calibrating the timing is losing someone like Randy’s interest and impacting our 2010 goals. I have been watching Randy closely and giving him room to lead and I am convinced he is ready.
I invited Randy and his wife to dinner at our home tonight. I took Randy on a walk by Steve Jobs house for inspiration and brought this up and he enthusiastically embraced it and hugged me. He has been waiting for this moment his whole career and is ready to hit the ground running.
I would like your support and we can do an official vote on at the Board call on Tuesday. I will separately bring my executive leadership together and will announce it. Randy is very popular in the company and I am sure they will all embrace it. I will become an operational Executive Chairman and Randy would be the CEO reporting to the Board. All reports in the company would be under Randy. We will then make an announcement later in the month publicly.
I want to thank also deeply thank David Sze and Justin Fishner Wolfson for their advice throughout this process. I look forward to growing SGN with you all and Randy to become the number one Mobile Social Gaming company in 2010 and beyond. These are exciting times. Look forward to our call on Tuesday.
Cheers,
Shervin”
Friday, August 19, 2011
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/drup...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/drupal-vs-wordpress/
Choosing Between Blog Platforms: Drupal vs WordPress
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 13, 2011 in English | 9 Comments
Drupal has much to offer, such as the ability to define content types, their structure, required fields, and assignment of accessing and editing content as defined by user roles is nearly as simple as it is in WordPress (now). Consistent content input removes inconsistencies associated with multi users sites. The resultant is web pages that look neater. Drupal Filters can strip off any undesired formatting – but without loosing the authors intent as this is retained in the database for future reference. This is cumbersome in WordPress. Drupal also opens up opportunities to write mySql reports using the Drupal friendly Views Add in component and extract this content and place anywhere on a page or peripheral area such a left side bar.
Drupal Japan
Let me share with you the Japanese Drupal Logo
The new version Drupal 7 does provides easier access in the backend. (It used to be more annoying to access.) You can slap up a Drupal site in about the same time as a WordPress site, but often choice comes down to which has the most amazing free templates for new users.
From Dries Buytaert, Founder and Project Lead of Drupal
WordPress looks better on the outside (administration UI); Drupal looks better on the inside (architecture, API design).
WordPress is better than Drupal at blogging, but Drupal excels when you have more sophisticated needs. Non-technical people tend to like WordPress better because it is easier to use. People with a formal background in engineering seem to like Drupal better because it is better to develop on/for. There is a gray area in the middle that I would describe as follows:
Designers that developed some PHP coding skills tend to like WordPress because they can quickly ‘hack’ WordPress and get their job done.
Developers that developed some CSS/PS skills tend to like Drupal because they don’t want to hack Drupal — they want clean code that is maintainable and upgradeable. (I know it is dangerous to generalize and I recognize that there are many exceptions.)
For the past 3 years, the number one stated objective for Drupal is improving usability. The result of that collective effort is a completely new administration backend, improved information architecture, and more. It will soon be available as Drupal 7. I expect Drupal 7 to have a positive impact on Drupal’s adoption, both with a non-technical and a technical audience.
If you don’t want to deal with installing, upgrading or scaling your Drupal 7 site, take a look at http://drupalgardens.com — it is free, and allows you to build a Drupal 7 site similar like you would on WordPress.com or SquareSpace. It is designed to take additional complexity out of Drupal.
I think Drupal Gardens could be a game changer for Drupal as it eliminates many barriers to adoption for Drupal. If you previously discarded Drupal because it was too hard to use, I recommend looking at Drupal Gardens. It is early (we’re still in beta) but keep an eye on it (we have 25,000 sites already)
From Stanton Champion, Marketing Manager at uTest
WordPress is a terrific blogging tool, and we use it for our blog sites. It works very smoothly for rapid content creation, and it’s easy enough that I can allow get in the company to write without having to spend time training them. Creating original content is a big part of our strategy, and having a platform that makes that easy is a plus for us.
Drupal, on the other hand, is a powerful but difficult tool. It requires more training for even basic content creation, and it takes a lot of time to get it up and working correctly. For big sites with lots of moving parts, Drupal is a great system. But for blogs, it’s overkill. In the time it would take me to properly train everyone to use Drupal, they could already be publishing from a WordPress.
WordPress:
fast easy content creation platform
low training overhead
easy to setup and get going
simple to add new sites and blogs as our content needs expand
Drupal:
sophisticated CMS that can do anything
high training overhead
difficult to setup and get going
great for complex sites that need to do a lot of different things
Related OsakaBentures Articles
How Big Need a Community Be Before it Has Value to a Company?
Sorry, Scoble, Quora is not your playground
How much should start-up founders get as initial salary?
← Tribe-Sourced Blog Promotion Standards
Twitter’s Culpability in TOS Violations →
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Vitaly Tennant 5 days ago
Thanks for this breakdown Saul. I'm sure in the time to come Drupal is gonna get better, but for the time being, lots of plugins are still made specifically for Wordpress ... which gives it more leverage.
Keri at Idea Girl Media liked this
Keri at Idea Girl Media 4 days ago in reply to Vitaly Tennant
Vitaly,
Agree! :)
~Keri
Brandon Clapp 4 days ago
I agree, drupal can be more flexible and expandable than wordpress, but it does have more of a learning curve. I've still yet to figure out the API.
Fransgaard 5 days ago
The two aren't immediately comparable in my experience. It simply breaks down to Wordpress being a content management system whereas Drupal is a content management framework.
As pointed out Wordpress is easier to deploy and get in to for a wider audience but drupal is a lot more scalable and as such used for organisations like NATO, NASA, the White house and playboy.
Historically from a UX point of view Drupals admin interface is a disaster for majority of users and one of the main reason why it is somewhat inaccessible for regular people. I don't know if it still holds true as it's been more than a year since Ive worked on. Drupal site.
But Wordpress admin UX seems to improve with every release.
Keri at Idea Girl Media 4 days ago in reply to Fransgaard
Thanks for your words, Fransgaard.
I'm not a web developer, per say, but I do run my website and blog on my own, and have become somewhat savvy in navigating around websites and some of the code/langugage.
I had been working with a client - their web developer set their site up in Drupal. The client needs easy, but wants a good, sound site.
I suggested Wordpress, as there is a need for blogging - content management. But they opted for Drupal.
When we went in recently to make some minor adjustments and check on the blog, the interface was not user-friendly at all.
Not having a ton of experience with Drupal, I appreciate this insight and feedback. I'll stick with Wordpress for now. :) ~Keri
Choosing Between Blog Platforms: Drupal vs WordPress
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 13, 2011 in English | 9 Comments
Drupal has much to offer, such as the ability to define content types, their structure, required fields, and assignment of accessing and editing content as defined by user roles is nearly as simple as it is in WordPress (now). Consistent content input removes inconsistencies associated with multi users sites. The resultant is web pages that look neater. Drupal Filters can strip off any undesired formatting – but without loosing the authors intent as this is retained in the database for future reference. This is cumbersome in WordPress. Drupal also opens up opportunities to write mySql reports using the Drupal friendly Views Add in component and extract this content and place anywhere on a page or peripheral area such a left side bar.
Drupal Japan
Let me share with you the Japanese Drupal Logo
The new version Drupal 7 does provides easier access in the backend. (It used to be more annoying to access.) You can slap up a Drupal site in about the same time as a WordPress site, but often choice comes down to which has the most amazing free templates for new users.
From Dries Buytaert, Founder and Project Lead of Drupal
WordPress looks better on the outside (administration UI); Drupal looks better on the inside (architecture, API design).
WordPress is better than Drupal at blogging, but Drupal excels when you have more sophisticated needs. Non-technical people tend to like WordPress better because it is easier to use. People with a formal background in engineering seem to like Drupal better because it is better to develop on/for. There is a gray area in the middle that I would describe as follows:
Designers that developed some PHP coding skills tend to like WordPress because they can quickly ‘hack’ WordPress and get their job done.
Developers that developed some CSS/PS skills tend to like Drupal because they don’t want to hack Drupal — they want clean code that is maintainable and upgradeable. (I know it is dangerous to generalize and I recognize that there are many exceptions.)
For the past 3 years, the number one stated objective for Drupal is improving usability. The result of that collective effort is a completely new administration backend, improved information architecture, and more. It will soon be available as Drupal 7. I expect Drupal 7 to have a positive impact on Drupal’s adoption, both with a non-technical and a technical audience.
If you don’t want to deal with installing, upgrading or scaling your Drupal 7 site, take a look at http://drupalgardens.com — it is free, and allows you to build a Drupal 7 site similar like you would on WordPress.com or SquareSpace. It is designed to take additional complexity out of Drupal.
I think Drupal Gardens could be a game changer for Drupal as it eliminates many barriers to adoption for Drupal. If you previously discarded Drupal because it was too hard to use, I recommend looking at Drupal Gardens. It is early (we’re still in beta) but keep an eye on it (we have 25,000 sites already)
From Stanton Champion, Marketing Manager at uTest
WordPress is a terrific blogging tool, and we use it for our blog sites. It works very smoothly for rapid content creation, and it’s easy enough that I can allow get in the company to write without having to spend time training them. Creating original content is a big part of our strategy, and having a platform that makes that easy is a plus for us.
Drupal, on the other hand, is a powerful but difficult tool. It requires more training for even basic content creation, and it takes a lot of time to get it up and working correctly. For big sites with lots of moving parts, Drupal is a great system. But for blogs, it’s overkill. In the time it would take me to properly train everyone to use Drupal, they could already be publishing from a WordPress.
WordPress:
fast easy content creation platform
low training overhead
easy to setup and get going
simple to add new sites and blogs as our content needs expand
Drupal:
sophisticated CMS that can do anything
high training overhead
difficult to setup and get going
great for complex sites that need to do a lot of different things
Related OsakaBentures Articles
How Big Need a Community Be Before it Has Value to a Company?
Sorry, Scoble, Quora is not your playground
How much should start-up founders get as initial salary?
← Tribe-Sourced Blog Promotion Standards
Twitter’s Culpability in TOS Violations →
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Saul Fleischman (edit profile)
413 comments 65 likes received
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Vitaly Tennant 5 days ago
Thanks for this breakdown Saul. I'm sure in the time to come Drupal is gonna get better, but for the time being, lots of plugins are still made specifically for Wordpress ... which gives it more leverage.
Keri at Idea Girl Media liked this
Keri at Idea Girl Media 4 days ago in reply to Vitaly Tennant
Vitaly,
Agree! :)
~Keri
Brandon Clapp 4 days ago
I agree, drupal can be more flexible and expandable than wordpress, but it does have more of a learning curve. I've still yet to figure out the API.
Fransgaard 5 days ago
The two aren't immediately comparable in my experience. It simply breaks down to Wordpress being a content management system whereas Drupal is a content management framework.
As pointed out Wordpress is easier to deploy and get in to for a wider audience but drupal is a lot more scalable and as such used for organisations like NATO, NASA, the White house and playboy.
Historically from a UX point of view Drupals admin interface is a disaster for majority of users and one of the main reason why it is somewhat inaccessible for regular people. I don't know if it still holds true as it's been more than a year since Ive worked on. Drupal site.
But Wordpress admin UX seems to improve with every release.
Keri at Idea Girl Media 4 days ago in reply to Fransgaard
Thanks for your words, Fransgaard.
I'm not a web developer, per say, but I do run my website and blog on my own, and have become somewhat savvy in navigating around websites and some of the code/langugage.
I had been working with a client - their web developer set their site up in Drupal. The client needs easy, but wants a good, sound site.
I suggested Wordpress, as there is a need for blogging - content management. But they opted for Drupal.
When we went in recently to make some minor adjustments and check on the blog, the interface was not user-friendly at all.
Not having a ton of experience with Drupal, I appreciate this insight and feedback. I'll stick with Wordpress for now. :) ~Keri
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/crow...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/crowdsourcing-article-standards/
Tribe-Sourced Blog Promotion Standards
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 12, 2011 in English | 5 Comments
It started with a choice of verbiage for blog post title that soured relations (okay, not that much, but, this will serve as an example) for The Business of Change Triberr tribe’s Down Under faction. Names will be withheld so no one gets Cross with me. My Applicant Requirement guidelines may not have been clear on language. Lately, a fairly new member to the same tribe published an article that is most certainly an over sales promotion for a report. I cannot blame the member, I must assume, because I did invite him with an internal invite (he was already a Triberr member), and he may not have perused our guidelines. As it happens, we ask that marketing, self-promotion and sales-oriented material be limited to site/blog static areas (i.e. pages, or in the sidebar, header/footer, etc.) but kept out of blog articles themselves.
I intend to monetize my blog.
Why would I point fingers at you using your blog for marketing, then?
In here long enough, and I believe you should like what you get from Triberr. If it is of value to members of my tribes, I need them to acknowledge the importance of 5, 10 or even 40+ bloggers carrying their message further, amplifying their reach dramatically, and in the tribes I am building, one condition is that we don’t ask other members to do our selling for us. Our tribes are for bloggers happy to share knowledge, know-how, and ideas, and as for promotion, to do so passively. We lead people to our blogs by showing what we know, who we are, and why you should do business with us – rather than going for the jugular (selling, I mean) within a blog post.
The responsibility to be clear on terms is mine, as chief.
I did not invite a single member to any of my tribes without designating a Name, Category and then completing the Tribe Description and Applicant Requirements sections. When I have been proven to have been unclear, I have revised the description and requirements sections. While I am comfortable with the current state of the applicant requirements (our charters, actually; Applicant Requirements is Triberr terminology), and will provide them for two of the tribes I have launched in tomorrow’s follow-up post, having spoken with nearly all our members, I believe we have too much of a blogging think-tank to not crowd-source or tribe-source input for what our Article Quality & Quantity Standards should include.
The request I make to members of my tribes is to contribute to the creation of our standards.
While most of our “charter,” or what appears in “Applicant Requirements” can be handled by me, I believe that we will all take more confidence in a section on Article Quality & Quantity Standards that is a product of all the members we have who are thoughtful enough to contribute to it.
The cooperation I ask of members of my tribes is that they read “Applicant Requirements,” add ideas to be used to write our Article Quality & Quantity Standards, and then, join me in adhering to them. I ask members of my tribes to provide ideas for the governance of the tribes they belong to, and give their fellow members a chance to uphold them. We will retain members who uphold them, and who, in time, demonstrate solidarity with us with the automatic setting. It shows our confidence in each other. I begin by giving you all the benefit of any doubt from me. After all, while I have invited or accepted all members after reviewing blogs, I cannot know what you would publish in the future, and thus, it does come down to a judgment call.
Article Quality & Quantity Standards
For suggestions for blog content quality and quantity guidelines, I’ll go first:
A. Think “article,” rather than “post.” Kindly proofread before you publish. This isn’t Facebook or Google+. An occasional typo here or there are excusable. When they are strewn throughout your “article,” clearly with reckless abandon, you show lack of respect to readers of your site. Please don’t have your tribe sharing that which is disrespectful to the reader. (Punctuation is good too.)
B. If the body, tags, metadata, or title of the article might lead it to be flagged by search engines and article bookmarking site as “not safe for work” (NSFW), please edit out the offending text. Below is a screen-shot of how I was rejected by reddit.com when I attempted to surprise a Business of Change member with a backlink boost – bu was rejected. The word “sucks” in he article titled relegated this article to the dreaded NSFW realm:
Sorry about the Japanese all over my Reddit; that’s how we see it over here in Japan. As for this case, though, besides what banned words do for your backlinks ban-ability, let’s not put our tribespeople in a bad situation – by having them tweet our articles containing titles or body material with foul language.
The article: fabulous. The title: a problem for any of my tribes.
C. Tribr.it (paid tweets, sent through a tribe): firehose your other tribes as you see fit; kindly send no more than one/week through SMMAKERS. I do not care if you are saving children or doing whatever other good deeds you believe you should burden our Twitter accounts with; this will soon be a large tribe and cannot be asking members to carry more than one tribr.it/week.
D. Triberr lets you send up to two blog posts/day to your tribes. I have zero confidence in regards to getting overbearing about this. I want your feedback. Many members are in other tribes, all of which are more lax in requirements, so Triberr members seem to expect that “anything will be okay,” but, do we want to ask our members to limit to 1/day? 10/week? Please give your position on this, and please add additional items E… F… and so on, additional content quality and quantity control guidelines below. I see a couple members are sending through 2+/day, and that is a bit many. What do others think, though?
Thank you, in advance, for helping your tribe become much stronger.
I expect it to be nothing short of a cornerstone of your blog marketing. I ask that you afford this tribe and fellow tribe members with the consideration it is worth.
Related OsakaBentures Articles
What Determines Influence?
Charging Meetup Organizers > Fewer Meetup Groups?
Onsite, Offsite Blog Promotion
← Ranking & Reaching 3/3: About My Tribes
Choosing Between Blog Platforms: Drupal vs WordPress →
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Paul Morin 6 days ago
Saul,
As you know, I'm quite new to this tribe and to Triberr in general. I am very happy to be part of the group and I applaud you for what you are doing with the tribe. I can say that you were very thorough and meticulous in making clear to me the key rules of the tribe. You took a good chunk of your own time on Skype to do so. I appreciate it.
I am too new to make any strong statements about the rules and regulations. Everything you explained to me on Skype and you cover in this article seems very fair and reasonable. At this point, I have the sense that you've been clear enough with me that if I run afoul of the expectations, it will have been my oversight, not yours.
I look forward to being a contributing and respectful member of the tribe and will be a little less reserved with my opinions once I've been around a while and have a better sense of what's going on.
Thank you again for all that you are doing.
Paul
Saul Fleischman liked this
Saul Fleischman [Moderator] 6 days ago in reply to Paul Morin
Thanks, Paul @companyfounder the pleasure was mine, and I look forward to
give-n-taking with you on blog stuff, Triberr stuff, and more. Maybe
even weight-control (though, if you can Triathlon, I’m going to guess
that weight-control probably is not an issue for you or your wife).
If you recall, I did also note that sometimes we all go a little
“off-brand.” Sometimes we talk, when that happens - or when people have problems with what others are doing.
I speak with people, while nearly everyone using Triberr, I
find, likes to make snap decisions and the press buttons. They add
bloggers easily, find fault easily… “idiot me,” I talk with people…
Very glad to have you with us – and, as you may have noticed, just as
“The Business of Change” is about to hit a reach of 400,000!
Dan Cristo 1 week ago
I've got to say, Saul. You are one of the most dedicated and ambitious Chief's out there. You've amassed a reach larger than most celebrities, and you are dead set on making your tribe even strong. Much respect.
Saul Fleischman liked this
Saul Fleischman [Moderator] 1 week ago in reply to Dan Cristo
Thanks, Dan, but actually, what I think I do better is refinement in regards to policy and communication: I look to the membership for contributions, and we build strong tribes together. And then, since every single day I get applicants who are not perfect fits for my own tribes, I enjoy helping those people, bloggers who are not yet in Triberr, find "homes" in tribes being developed by other Chiefs.
Looking forward to the upcoming tribr.it replacement system. Perhaps we can test that with The Business of Change (if testing does anything for you, that is). Just let me know.
Samantha Bangayan 6 days ago
Great idea to set these guidelines, Saul! It really helps keep every member of a tribe on the same page! I'll be looking into doing something similar with my tribes! =)
Tribe-Sourced Blog Promotion Standards
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 12, 2011 in English | 5 Comments
It started with a choice of verbiage for blog post title that soured relations (okay, not that much, but, this will serve as an example) for The Business of Change Triberr tribe’s Down Under faction. Names will be withheld so no one gets Cross with me. My Applicant Requirement guidelines may not have been clear on language. Lately, a fairly new member to the same tribe published an article that is most certainly an over sales promotion for a report. I cannot blame the member, I must assume, because I did invite him with an internal invite (he was already a Triberr member), and he may not have perused our guidelines. As it happens, we ask that marketing, self-promotion and sales-oriented material be limited to site/blog static areas (i.e. pages, or in the sidebar, header/footer, etc.) but kept out of blog articles themselves.
I intend to monetize my blog.
Why would I point fingers at you using your blog for marketing, then?
In here long enough, and I believe you should like what you get from Triberr. If it is of value to members of my tribes, I need them to acknowledge the importance of 5, 10 or even 40+ bloggers carrying their message further, amplifying their reach dramatically, and in the tribes I am building, one condition is that we don’t ask other members to do our selling for us. Our tribes are for bloggers happy to share knowledge, know-how, and ideas, and as for promotion, to do so passively. We lead people to our blogs by showing what we know, who we are, and why you should do business with us – rather than going for the jugular (selling, I mean) within a blog post.
The responsibility to be clear on terms is mine, as chief.
I did not invite a single member to any of my tribes without designating a Name, Category and then completing the Tribe Description and Applicant Requirements sections. When I have been proven to have been unclear, I have revised the description and requirements sections. While I am comfortable with the current state of the applicant requirements (our charters, actually; Applicant Requirements is Triberr terminology), and will provide them for two of the tribes I have launched in tomorrow’s follow-up post, having spoken with nearly all our members, I believe we have too much of a blogging think-tank to not crowd-source or tribe-source input for what our Article Quality & Quantity Standards should include.
The request I make to members of my tribes is to contribute to the creation of our standards.
While most of our “charter,” or what appears in “Applicant Requirements” can be handled by me, I believe that we will all take more confidence in a section on Article Quality & Quantity Standards that is a product of all the members we have who are thoughtful enough to contribute to it.
The cooperation I ask of members of my tribes is that they read “Applicant Requirements,” add ideas to be used to write our Article Quality & Quantity Standards, and then, join me in adhering to them. I ask members of my tribes to provide ideas for the governance of the tribes they belong to, and give their fellow members a chance to uphold them. We will retain members who uphold them, and who, in time, demonstrate solidarity with us with the automatic setting. It shows our confidence in each other. I begin by giving you all the benefit of any doubt from me. After all, while I have invited or accepted all members after reviewing blogs, I cannot know what you would publish in the future, and thus, it does come down to a judgment call.
Article Quality & Quantity Standards
For suggestions for blog content quality and quantity guidelines, I’ll go first:
A. Think “article,” rather than “post.” Kindly proofread before you publish. This isn’t Facebook or Google+. An occasional typo here or there are excusable. When they are strewn throughout your “article,” clearly with reckless abandon, you show lack of respect to readers of your site. Please don’t have your tribe sharing that which is disrespectful to the reader. (Punctuation is good too.)
B. If the body, tags, metadata, or title of the article might lead it to be flagged by search engines and article bookmarking site as “not safe for work” (NSFW), please edit out the offending text. Below is a screen-shot of how I was rejected by reddit.com when I attempted to surprise a Business of Change member with a backlink boost – bu was rejected. The word “sucks” in he article titled relegated this article to the dreaded NSFW realm:
Sorry about the Japanese all over my Reddit; that’s how we see it over here in Japan. As for this case, though, besides what banned words do for your backlinks ban-ability, let’s not put our tribespeople in a bad situation – by having them tweet our articles containing titles or body material with foul language.
The article: fabulous. The title: a problem for any of my tribes.
C. Tribr.it (paid tweets, sent through a tribe): firehose your other tribes as you see fit; kindly send no more than one/week through SMMAKERS. I do not care if you are saving children or doing whatever other good deeds you believe you should burden our Twitter accounts with; this will soon be a large tribe and cannot be asking members to carry more than one tribr.it/week.
D. Triberr lets you send up to two blog posts/day to your tribes. I have zero confidence in regards to getting overbearing about this. I want your feedback. Many members are in other tribes, all of which are more lax in requirements, so Triberr members seem to expect that “anything will be okay,” but, do we want to ask our members to limit to 1/day? 10/week? Please give your position on this, and please add additional items E… F… and so on, additional content quality and quantity control guidelines below. I see a couple members are sending through 2+/day, and that is a bit many. What do others think, though?
Thank you, in advance, for helping your tribe become much stronger.
I expect it to be nothing short of a cornerstone of your blog marketing. I ask that you afford this tribe and fellow tribe members with the consideration it is worth.
Related OsakaBentures Articles
What Determines Influence?
Charging Meetup Organizers > Fewer Meetup Groups?
Onsite, Offsite Blog Promotion
← Ranking & Reaching 3/3: About My Tribes
Choosing Between Blog Platforms: Drupal vs WordPress →
Disqus
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liked this.
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Saul Fleischman (edit profile)
414 comments 65 likes received
Image
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Paul Morin 6 days ago
Saul,
As you know, I'm quite new to this tribe and to Triberr in general. I am very happy to be part of the group and I applaud you for what you are doing with the tribe. I can say that you were very thorough and meticulous in making clear to me the key rules of the tribe. You took a good chunk of your own time on Skype to do so. I appreciate it.
I am too new to make any strong statements about the rules and regulations. Everything you explained to me on Skype and you cover in this article seems very fair and reasonable. At this point, I have the sense that you've been clear enough with me that if I run afoul of the expectations, it will have been my oversight, not yours.
I look forward to being a contributing and respectful member of the tribe and will be a little less reserved with my opinions once I've been around a while and have a better sense of what's going on.
Thank you again for all that you are doing.
Paul
Saul Fleischman liked this
Saul Fleischman [Moderator] 6 days ago in reply to Paul Morin
Thanks, Paul @companyfounder the pleasure was mine, and I look forward to
give-n-taking with you on blog stuff, Triberr stuff, and more. Maybe
even weight-control (though, if you can Triathlon, I’m going to guess
that weight-control probably is not an issue for you or your wife).
If you recall, I did also note that sometimes we all go a little
“off-brand.” Sometimes we talk, when that happens - or when people have problems with what others are doing.
I speak with people, while nearly everyone using Triberr, I
find, likes to make snap decisions and the press buttons. They add
bloggers easily, find fault easily… “idiot me,” I talk with people…
Very glad to have you with us – and, as you may have noticed, just as
“The Business of Change” is about to hit a reach of 400,000!
Dan Cristo 1 week ago
I've got to say, Saul. You are one of the most dedicated and ambitious Chief's out there. You've amassed a reach larger than most celebrities, and you are dead set on making your tribe even strong. Much respect.
Saul Fleischman liked this
Saul Fleischman [Moderator] 1 week ago in reply to Dan Cristo
Thanks, Dan, but actually, what I think I do better is refinement in regards to policy and communication: I look to the membership for contributions, and we build strong tribes together. And then, since every single day I get applicants who are not perfect fits for my own tribes, I enjoy helping those people, bloggers who are not yet in Triberr, find "homes" in tribes being developed by other Chiefs.
Looking forward to the upcoming tribr.it replacement system. Perhaps we can test that with The Business of Change (if testing does anything for you, that is). Just let me know.
Samantha Bangayan 6 days ago
Great idea to set these guidelines, Saul! It really helps keep every member of a tribe on the same page! I'll be looking into doing something similar with my tribes! =)
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/twit...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/twitter-culpability-in-tos-violations/
Twitter’s Culpability in TOS Violations
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 16, 2011 in English | 3 Comments
Below is a thread of my question, “How can I speak with an actual human being about getting a Twitter account reinstated?” and the patent, plain-vanilla, stock answer from Laura i. Gómez, Manager, Localization at Twitter, and our little dialogue.
(My stance: Twitter calls foul, and a TOS (terms of service) violation, when we mass-unfollow those who do not follow us in Twitter – but we do this with a mere two clicks and in applications that Twitter authorizes)
As appeared in Quora:
I wrote:
I have replied to a suspension notice, replied for a ticket, and am left hanging. Rather than being left to deal with whatever data a Twitter Support staff person relies upon to make decisions with, I would like to speak with someone.
Laura replied:
Laura i. Gómez, Manager, Localization at Twitter
I work in the User Services (Support) team and you can send us a ticket by filling out one of our forms, we usually answer within 24 hours:
https://support.twitter.com/forms If you deleted your account, we can help you with it. If it was suspended, then our Trust and Safety team will evaluate and let you know the steps to getting it unsuspended. If you haven’t heard back from us, follow @Support and send a DM with your ticket number so we can look for your ticket.
I replied:
Yes, this is all info we receive in the email sent to those who suffer this arbitrary indignation. It would be delightful if Twitter recognized their own culpability and stopped penalizing people – who use an application like ManageFlitter, which makes it a mere two clicks to a violation of Twitter TOS.
I would love to know your rationale on this, Laura i. Gómez
Laura replied:
I am not very familiar with the ManageFlitter (there are over hundreds of thousands of apps out there) and what are these two clicks that led to your suspension. Our Director of Trust and Safety, Del Harvey is here on Quora. But I also recommend that you read our Following Rules: https://support.twitter.com/articles/68916-following-rules-and-best-practices
Laura i. Gómez
My reply:
We know your rules. Do you know how Twitter is quick to authorize apps that make it just two-clicks to a Twitter TOS violation for the app’s users?
This is what I take issue with.
ManageFlitter, Twunfollow, Twibs, and so on: like many apps that make it just a couple clicks to mass-unfollow and/or mass-follow, Twitter authorizes it. And then penalizes those who use it. I only ask that folks like Del Harvey acknowledge that Twitter shares culpability – and rather than arbitrarily suspending an account, talk to the user. Ask what’s going on. Give them a day or so to reply. And then do something like a one-week suspension, which seriously interferes with many peoples’ lives. That way I wont have to collect cases studies and blog on the draconian practices of Twitter Trust and Safety. I am thinking to title the article “Twitter’s Culpability in TOS Violations.”
Bonus points for good-will: have another look at @sparticusian (No need to write me on this, its not my account. He is a dear friend, who really needs that account back – and all its SEO, comments associated with it, etc.)
I appreciate your consideration.
(To which I got “dead air” – no further replies – which provided sufficient impetus for me to blog this little dialogue between Twitter Safety and I. )
Related OsakaBentures Articles
Japan Stifling its Economy - by Screwing its Own Youth
Reducing Group-Think
Early June Triberr Goodness
← Choosing Between Blog Platforms: Drupal vs WordPress
Ten Reasons We Get Unfollowed →
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Saul Fleischman (edit profile)
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Mark Aaron Murnahan 3 days ago
Seriously? You are frustrated about a suspended account? I wouldn't advertise that, because even if there is not a great reason ... there is still a reason.
I look at this from a standpoint of a long-time service provider. I have killed hundreds of thousands of email accounts for abusing my company TOS over a period of far more than a decade.We service providers set rules based on known variables and based on user input. Those rules are not just arbitrary whims of power-seeking networks, but rather based on mathematical and psychographical data reflecting what people like and what people find offensive.A good rule-set will have a small margin of error, but even in those cases, there is always a reason for the trigger of a set rule. I have been in the field of providing services to millions of end-users over many years, and the number of which were undeservedly suspended or deleted represents a minuscule fraction.The rules are the rules, and although you may feel screwed to the wall and like somebody got it all wrong, they are usually not just in place to tease you or frustrate you. They are there to keep the majority happy. If you find yourself outside the majority as it is read by the algorithmic rule set, it is important to reflect on why ... and work to avoid doing it again.
1 person liked this.
Dave Larson 2 days ago
ManageFlitter takes one click to check the box by EACH account you want to unfollow, and one click to implement unfollowing. It actually takes more clicks to unfollow people via ManageFlitter than by Twitter.
While Laura at Twitter is unfamiliar with the conversation ManageFlitter had with Twitter long ago, Twitter told them they had to remove the capability to select multiple users or their application would be blocked from accessing Twitter.
So if you are selecting multiple users with a single click, you are at minimum using a browser add-on to check multiple boxes for you, not a ManageFlitter feature. (Or an underpaid team of mouse-wielding primates checking boxes for you).
If you find an app that uses OAuth to connect to your Twitter account that has a built-in feature to select multiple users users to unfollow, I can virtually guarantee that the same week you find it it will be suspended by Twitter.
Saul Fleischman [Moderator] 7 hours ago in reply to Dave Larson
I used ManageFlitter @davidglarson @murnahan with no browser add-on and I entered ManageFlitter
via oAuth and selected 100 people per page – and did all this by following MangeFlitter’s
own instructions.
Whatever Laura (of Twitter, and who, in Quora took it upon herself to address my question as to Twitter's dismissal of their culpability in Twitter TOS disputes) may be familiar with or not, what I know
full well was that when I actually used ManageFlitter, I actually was
able to select 100 per go – with no browser add-on – and while Twitter
authorized the application, they found me in violation of their TOS for
following the instructions ManageFlitter provided.
Still don't see why I would cry foul?
Twitter’s Culpability in TOS Violations
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 16, 2011 in English | 3 Comments
Below is a thread of my question, “How can I speak with an actual human being about getting a Twitter account reinstated?” and the patent, plain-vanilla, stock answer from Laura i. Gómez, Manager, Localization at Twitter, and our little dialogue.
(My stance: Twitter calls foul, and a TOS (terms of service) violation, when we mass-unfollow those who do not follow us in Twitter – but we do this with a mere two clicks and in applications that Twitter authorizes)
As appeared in Quora:
I wrote:
I have replied to a suspension notice, replied for a ticket, and am left hanging. Rather than being left to deal with whatever data a Twitter Support staff person relies upon to make decisions with, I would like to speak with someone.
Laura replied:
Laura i. Gómez, Manager, Localization at Twitter
I work in the User Services (Support) team and you can send us a ticket by filling out one of our forms, we usually answer within 24 hours:
https://support.twitter.com/forms If you deleted your account, we can help you with it. If it was suspended, then our Trust and Safety team will evaluate and let you know the steps to getting it unsuspended. If you haven’t heard back from us, follow @Support and send a DM with your ticket number so we can look for your ticket.
I replied:
Yes, this is all info we receive in the email sent to those who suffer this arbitrary indignation. It would be delightful if Twitter recognized their own culpability and stopped penalizing people – who use an application like ManageFlitter, which makes it a mere two clicks to a violation of Twitter TOS.
I would love to know your rationale on this, Laura i. Gómez
Laura replied:
I am not very familiar with the ManageFlitter (there are over hundreds of thousands of apps out there) and what are these two clicks that led to your suspension. Our Director of Trust and Safety, Del Harvey is here on Quora. But I also recommend that you read our Following Rules: https://support.twitter.com/articles/68916-following-rules-and-best-practices
Laura i. Gómez
My reply:
We know your rules. Do you know how Twitter is quick to authorize apps that make it just two-clicks to a Twitter TOS violation for the app’s users?
This is what I take issue with.
ManageFlitter, Twunfollow, Twibs, and so on: like many apps that make it just a couple clicks to mass-unfollow and/or mass-follow, Twitter authorizes it. And then penalizes those who use it. I only ask that folks like Del Harvey acknowledge that Twitter shares culpability – and rather than arbitrarily suspending an account, talk to the user. Ask what’s going on. Give them a day or so to reply. And then do something like a one-week suspension, which seriously interferes with many peoples’ lives. That way I wont have to collect cases studies and blog on the draconian practices of Twitter Trust and Safety. I am thinking to title the article “Twitter’s Culpability in TOS Violations.”
Bonus points for good-will: have another look at @sparticusian (No need to write me on this, its not my account. He is a dear friend, who really needs that account back – and all its SEO, comments associated with it, etc.)
I appreciate your consideration.
(To which I got “dead air” – no further replies – which provided sufficient impetus for me to blog this little dialogue between Twitter Safety and I. )
Related OsakaBentures Articles
Japan Stifling its Economy - by Screwing its Own Youth
Reducing Group-Think
Early June Triberr Goodness
← Choosing Between Blog Platforms: Drupal vs WordPress
Ten Reasons We Get Unfollowed →
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Saul Fleischman (edit profile)
413 comments 65 likes received
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Showing 3 comments
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Mark Aaron Murnahan 3 days ago
Seriously? You are frustrated about a suspended account? I wouldn't advertise that, because even if there is not a great reason ... there is still a reason.
I look at this from a standpoint of a long-time service provider. I have killed hundreds of thousands of email accounts for abusing my company TOS over a period of far more than a decade.We service providers set rules based on known variables and based on user input. Those rules are not just arbitrary whims of power-seeking networks, but rather based on mathematical and psychographical data reflecting what people like and what people find offensive.A good rule-set will have a small margin of error, but even in those cases, there is always a reason for the trigger of a set rule. I have been in the field of providing services to millions of end-users over many years, and the number of which were undeservedly suspended or deleted represents a minuscule fraction.The rules are the rules, and although you may feel screwed to the wall and like somebody got it all wrong, they are usually not just in place to tease you or frustrate you. They are there to keep the majority happy. If you find yourself outside the majority as it is read by the algorithmic rule set, it is important to reflect on why ... and work to avoid doing it again.
1 person liked this.
Dave Larson 2 days ago
ManageFlitter takes one click to check the box by EACH account you want to unfollow, and one click to implement unfollowing. It actually takes more clicks to unfollow people via ManageFlitter than by Twitter.
While Laura at Twitter is unfamiliar with the conversation ManageFlitter had with Twitter long ago, Twitter told them they had to remove the capability to select multiple users or their application would be blocked from accessing Twitter.
So if you are selecting multiple users with a single click, you are at minimum using a browser add-on to check multiple boxes for you, not a ManageFlitter feature. (Or an underpaid team of mouse-wielding primates checking boxes for you).
If you find an app that uses OAuth to connect to your Twitter account that has a built-in feature to select multiple users users to unfollow, I can virtually guarantee that the same week you find it it will be suspended by Twitter.
Saul Fleischman [Moderator] 7 hours ago in reply to Dave Larson
I used ManageFlitter @davidglarson @murnahan with no browser add-on and I entered ManageFlitter
via oAuth and selected 100 people per page – and did all this by following MangeFlitter’s
own instructions.
Whatever Laura (of Twitter, and who, in Quora took it upon herself to address my question as to Twitter's dismissal of their culpability in Twitter TOS disputes) may be familiar with or not, what I know
full well was that when I actually used ManageFlitter, I actually was
able to select 100 per go – with no browser add-on – and while Twitter
authorized the application, they found me in violation of their TOS for
following the instructions ManageFlitter provided.
Still don't see why I would cry foul?
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/ten-...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/ten-reasons-we-get-unfollowed/
Ten Reasons We Get Unfollowed
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 18, 2011 in English | 2 Comments
Unfollowed? In Twitter, I meant. Sorry, it would have made the title too long. I’ll do a couple more of these, but here are an initial 10 reasons people tend to get unfollowed in Twitter:
1. You are all business, all the time. It’s like being stuck in an elevator with a salesman. Plus, you’re sanctimonious.
2. You tweet once every three months.
3. You broadcast, and are an emotional black void.
4. 90% of your tweets are links.
5. You have no sense of humor and your tweets do not engage me.
6. You unfollowed me first, and I’m petty and vengeful.
7. You tweet links to inappropriate content – and then expect me to buy stuff with your affiliate links.
8. You post tweets that cross “the line.”
9. All you do are retweets and mentions. You have nothing to say. Or, you think you “should” be on Twitter – but don’t rally have time for us “little” people.
10. Its all one-way with you. You want me on your blog, or buying from you, but don’t want your mentions. You don’t “listen.”
Ten Reasons We Get Unfollowed
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 18, 2011 in English | 2 Comments
Unfollowed? In Twitter, I meant. Sorry, it would have made the title too long. I’ll do a couple more of these, but here are an initial 10 reasons people tend to get unfollowed in Twitter:
1. You are all business, all the time. It’s like being stuck in an elevator with a salesman. Plus, you’re sanctimonious.
2. You tweet once every three months.
3. You broadcast, and are an emotional black void.
4. 90% of your tweets are links.
5. You have no sense of humor and your tweets do not engage me.
6. You unfollowed me first, and I’m petty and vengeful.
7. You tweet links to inappropriate content – and then expect me to buy stuff with your affiliate links.
8. You post tweets that cross “the line.”
9. All you do are retweets and mentions. You have nothing to say. Or, you think you “should” be on Twitter – but don’t rally have time for us “little” people.
10. Its all one-way with you. You want me on your blog, or buying from you, but don’t want your mentions. You don’t “listen.”
Sunday, August 14, 2011
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/drup...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/drupal-vs-wordpress/
Choosing Between Blog Platforms: Drupal vs WordPress
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 13, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
Drupal has much to offer, such as the ability to define content types, their structure, required fields, and assignment of accessing and editing content as defined by user roles is nearly as simple as it is in WordPress (now). Consistent content input removes inconsistencies associated with multi users sites. The resultant is web pages that look neater. Drupal Filters can strip off any undesired formatting – but without loosing the authors intent as this is retained in the database for future reference. This is cumbersome in WordPress. Drupal also opens up opportunities to write mySql reports using the Drupal friendly Views Add in component and extract this content and place anywhere on a page or peripheral area such a left side bar.
Drupal Japan
Let me share with you the Japanese Drupal Logo
The new version Drupal 7 does provides easier access in the backend. (It used to be more annoying to access.) You can slap up a Drupal site in about the same time as a WordPress site, but often choice comes down to which has the most amazing free templates for new users.
From Dries Buytaert, Founder and Project Lead of Drupal
WordPress looks better on the outside (administration UI); Drupal looks better on the inside (architecture, API design).
WordPress is better than Drupal at blogging, but Drupal excels when you have more sophisticated needs. Non-technical people tend to like WordPress better because it is easier to use. People with a formal background in engineering seem to like Drupal better because it is better to develop on/for. There is a gray area in the middle that I would describe as follows:
Designers that developed some PHP coding skills tend to like WordPress because they can quickly ‘hack’ WordPress and get their job done.
Developers that developed some CSS/PS skills tend to like Drupal because they don’t want to hack Drupal — they want clean code that is maintainable and upgradeable. (I know it is dangerous to generalize and I recognize that there are many exceptions.)
For the past 3 years, the number one stated objective for Drupal is improving usability. The result of that collective effort is a completely new administration backend, improved information architecture, and more. It will soon be available as Drupal 7. I expect Drupal 7 to have a positive impact on Drupal’s adoption, both with a non-technical and a technical audience.
If you don’t want to deal with installing, upgrading or scaling your Drupal 7 site, take a look at http://drupalgardens.com — it is free, and allows you to build a Drupal 7 site similar like you would on WordPress.com or SquareSpace. It is designed to take additional complexity out of Drupal.
I think Drupal Gardens could be a game changer for Drupal as it eliminates many barriers to adoption for Drupal. If you previously discarded Drupal because it was too hard to use, I recommend looking at Drupal Gardens. It is early (we’re still in beta) but keep an eye on it (we have 25,000 sites already)
From Stanton Champion, Marketing Manager at uTest
WordPress is a terrific blogging tool, and we use it for our blog sites. It works very smoothly for rapid content creation, and it’s easy enough that I can allow get in the company to write without having to spend time training them. Creating original content is a big part of our strategy, and having a platform that makes that easy is a plus for us.
Drupal, on the other hand, is a powerful but difficult tool. It requires more training for even basic content creation, and it takes a lot of time to get it up and working correctly. For big sites with lots of moving parts, Drupal is a great system. But for blogs, it’s overkill. In the time it would take me to properly train everyone to use Drupal, they could already be publishing from a WordPress.
WordPress:
fast easy content creation platform
low training overhead
easy to setup and get going
simple to add new sites and blogs as our content needs expand
Drupal:
sophisticated CMS that can do anything
high training overhead
difficult to setup and get going
great for complex sites that need to do a lot of different things
Choosing Between Blog Platforms: Drupal vs WordPress
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 13, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
Drupal has much to offer, such as the ability to define content types, their structure, required fields, and assignment of accessing and editing content as defined by user roles is nearly as simple as it is in WordPress (now). Consistent content input removes inconsistencies associated with multi users sites. The resultant is web pages that look neater. Drupal Filters can strip off any undesired formatting – but without loosing the authors intent as this is retained in the database for future reference. This is cumbersome in WordPress. Drupal also opens up opportunities to write mySql reports using the Drupal friendly Views Add in component and extract this content and place anywhere on a page or peripheral area such a left side bar.
Drupal Japan
Let me share with you the Japanese Drupal Logo
The new version Drupal 7 does provides easier access in the backend. (It used to be more annoying to access.) You can slap up a Drupal site in about the same time as a WordPress site, but often choice comes down to which has the most amazing free templates for new users.
From Dries Buytaert, Founder and Project Lead of Drupal
WordPress looks better on the outside (administration UI); Drupal looks better on the inside (architecture, API design).
WordPress is better than Drupal at blogging, but Drupal excels when you have more sophisticated needs. Non-technical people tend to like WordPress better because it is easier to use. People with a formal background in engineering seem to like Drupal better because it is better to develop on/for. There is a gray area in the middle that I would describe as follows:
Designers that developed some PHP coding skills tend to like WordPress because they can quickly ‘hack’ WordPress and get their job done.
Developers that developed some CSS/PS skills tend to like Drupal because they don’t want to hack Drupal — they want clean code that is maintainable and upgradeable. (I know it is dangerous to generalize and I recognize that there are many exceptions.)
For the past 3 years, the number one stated objective for Drupal is improving usability. The result of that collective effort is a completely new administration backend, improved information architecture, and more. It will soon be available as Drupal 7. I expect Drupal 7 to have a positive impact on Drupal’s adoption, both with a non-technical and a technical audience.
If you don’t want to deal with installing, upgrading or scaling your Drupal 7 site, take a look at http://drupalgardens.com — it is free, and allows you to build a Drupal 7 site similar like you would on WordPress.com or SquareSpace. It is designed to take additional complexity out of Drupal.
I think Drupal Gardens could be a game changer for Drupal as it eliminates many barriers to adoption for Drupal. If you previously discarded Drupal because it was too hard to use, I recommend looking at Drupal Gardens. It is early (we’re still in beta) but keep an eye on it (we have 25,000 sites already)
From Stanton Champion, Marketing Manager at uTest
WordPress is a terrific blogging tool, and we use it for our blog sites. It works very smoothly for rapid content creation, and it’s easy enough that I can allow get in the company to write without having to spend time training them. Creating original content is a big part of our strategy, and having a platform that makes that easy is a plus for us.
Drupal, on the other hand, is a powerful but difficult tool. It requires more training for even basic content creation, and it takes a lot of time to get it up and working correctly. For big sites with lots of moving parts, Drupal is a great system. But for blogs, it’s overkill. In the time it would take me to properly train everyone to use Drupal, they could already be publishing from a WordPress.
WordPress:
fast easy content creation platform
low training overhead
easy to setup and get going
simple to add new sites and blogs as our content needs expand
Drupal:
sophisticated CMS that can do anything
high training overhead
difficult to setup and get going
great for complex sites that need to do a lot of different things
Saturday, August 13, 2011
http://osakabentures.com/2011/07/prod...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/07/product-suicide-by-bad-ux/
Product Suicide Via User Experience
Posted by OsakaSaul on July 15, 2011 in English | 3 Comments
MySpace made a slew of mistakes, while Facebook (and recently, G+) have enough of the right moves, arguably. Some friends’ “pet hates” in user experience (UX):
From Tom Harrington, Independent iOS developer: Google Wave. Whether the goals were worthy or useful quickly became irrelevant in the face of a confusing, annoying user experience. I always found it difficult to tell if anything new had appeared in a wave, and if so what it was. The description of Wave sounded promising but the implementation was awful.”
To add some personal experience, a few of us in KdL Web2.0 Social Media networking group tested Google Wave, found it to be more nuisance than utility.
From Kevin Ernest Long, “Geek at Large”: “Older examples of apps that failed to evolve fast enough. Lotus 123. Word Perfect. UX was not the only factor but it was a significant one. Good UX depends a primarily on who your users are. If you want into a large emerging market you need to design for them, possibly even at the expense of annoying a small loyal existing following.”
Up to the moment, an anonymous user of Quora provided thoughts on the UX goodness and poor terminology:
Good: Visual design.
Not good: Language choices. “Limited”, “Extended Circles”, “Public”… really? Does anyone outside of the Google bubble know what the heck those things mean without sitting down to think about it? If even 5% of your users confuse Public with Your Circles then you have a huge privacy fiasco waiting to happen. I’m calling this the worst because it is virtually costless to fix.
Even less good: Confusing the Friend/Follow function (and calling it “Add”). Does anyone know what “Add” means?
Three directions on this sign, on a two-way road = broken UX
To close, I like what Jared Zimmerman, Interaction Designer wrote on the subject: “…the ‘old guard’ of IxD people came to interaction design from a liberal arts or engineering background. Many new UX professionals are coming to the field from other design based fields and are much more adept at explaining their ideas in a much more aesthetically pleasing way.
It can be hard to separate the meaning from the message but it is often very important in this field to understand that many of these people do have brilliant ideas but lack the visual design skills to communicate them in an ideal fashion.”
Product Suicide Via User Experience
Posted by OsakaSaul on July 15, 2011 in English | 3 Comments
MySpace made a slew of mistakes, while Facebook (and recently, G+) have enough of the right moves, arguably. Some friends’ “pet hates” in user experience (UX):
From Tom Harrington, Independent iOS developer: Google Wave. Whether the goals were worthy or useful quickly became irrelevant in the face of a confusing, annoying user experience. I always found it difficult to tell if anything new had appeared in a wave, and if so what it was. The description of Wave sounded promising but the implementation was awful.”
To add some personal experience, a few of us in KdL Web2.0 Social Media networking group tested Google Wave, found it to be more nuisance than utility.
From Kevin Ernest Long, “Geek at Large”: “Older examples of apps that failed to evolve fast enough. Lotus 123. Word Perfect. UX was not the only factor but it was a significant one. Good UX depends a primarily on who your users are. If you want into a large emerging market you need to design for them, possibly even at the expense of annoying a small loyal existing following.”
Up to the moment, an anonymous user of Quora provided thoughts on the UX goodness and poor terminology:
Good: Visual design.
Not good: Language choices. “Limited”, “Extended Circles”, “Public”… really? Does anyone outside of the Google bubble know what the heck those things mean without sitting down to think about it? If even 5% of your users confuse Public with Your Circles then you have a huge privacy fiasco waiting to happen. I’m calling this the worst because it is virtually costless to fix.
Even less good: Confusing the Friend/Follow function (and calling it “Add”). Does anyone know what “Add” means?
Three directions on this sign, on a two-way road = broken UX
To close, I like what Jared Zimmerman, Interaction Designer wrote on the subject: “…the ‘old guard’ of IxD people came to interaction design from a liberal arts or engineering background. Many new UX professionals are coming to the field from other design based fields and are much more adept at explaining their ideas in a much more aesthetically pleasing way.
It can be hard to separate the meaning from the message but it is often very important in this field to understand that many of these people do have brilliant ideas but lack the visual design skills to communicate them in an ideal fashion.”
Friday, August 12, 2011
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/rank...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/ranking-reaching-about-my-tribes/
Tribe-Sourced Blog Promotion Standards
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 12, 2011 in English | 2 Comments
It started with a choice of verbiage for blog post title that soured relations (okay, not that much, but, this will serve as an example) for The Business of Change Triberr tribe’s Down Under faction. Names will be withheld so no one gets Cross with me. My Applicant Requirement guidelines may not have been clear on language. Lately, a fairly new member to the same tribe published an article that is most certainly an over sales promotion for a report. I cannot blame the member, I must assume, because I did invite him with an internal invite (he was already a Triberr member), and he may not have perused our guidelines. As it happens, we ask that marketing, self-promotion and sales-oriented material be limited to site/blog static areas (i.e. pages, or in the sidebar, header/footer, etc.) but kept out of blog articles themselves.
I intend to monetize my blog.
Why would I point fingers at you using your blog for marketing, then?
In here long enough, and I believe you should like what you get from Triberr. If it is of value to members of my tribes, I need them to acknowledge the importance of 5, 10 or even 40+ bloggers carrying their message further, amplifying their reach dramatically, and in the tribes I am building, one condition is that we don’t ask other members to do our selling for us. Our tribes are for bloggers happy to share knowledge, know-how, and ideas, and as for promotion, to do so passively. We lead people to our blogs by showing what we know, who we are, and why you should do business with us – rather than going for the jugular (selling, I mean) within a blog post.
The responsibility to be clear on terms is mine, as chief.
I did not invite a single member to any of my tribes without designating a Name, Category and then completing the Tribe Description and Applicant Requirements sections. When I have been proven to have been unclear, I have revised the description and requirements sections. While I am comfortable with the current state of the applicant requirements (our charters, actually; Applicant Requirements is Triberr terminology), and will provide them for two of the tribes I have launched in tomorrow’s follow-up post, having spoken with nearly all our members, I believe we have too much of a blogging think-tank to not crowd-source or tribe-source input for what our Article Quality & Quantity Standards should include.
The request I make to members of my tribes is to contribute to the creation of our standards.
While most of our “charter,” or what appears in “Applicant Requirements” can be handled by me, I believe that we will all take more confidence in a section on Article Quality & Quantity Standards that is a product of all the members we have who are thoughtful enough to contribute to it.
The cooperation I ask of members of my tribes is that they read “Applicant Requirements,” add ideas to be used to write our Article Quality & Quantity Standards, and then, join me in adhering to them. I ask members of my tribes to provide ideas for the governance of the tribes they belong to, and give their fellow members a chance to uphold them. We will retain members who uphold them, and who, in time, demonstrate solidarity with us with the automatic setting. It shows our confidence in each other. I begin by giving you all the benefit of any doubt from me. After all, while I have invited or accepted all members after reviewing blogs, I cannot know what you would publish in the future, and thus, it does come down to a judgment call.
Article Quality & Quantity Standards
For suggestions for blog content quality and quantity guidelines, I’ll go first:
A. Think “article,” rather than “post.” Kindly proofread before you publish. This isn’t Facebook or Google+. An occasional typo here or there are excusable. When they are strewn throughout your “article,” clearly with reckless abandon, you show lack of respect to readers of your site. Please don’t have your tribe sharing that which is disrespectful to the reader. (Punctuation is good too.)
B. If the body, tags, metadata, or title of the article might lead it to be flagged by search engines and article bookmarking site as “not safe for work” (NSFW), please edit out the offending text. Below is a screen-shot of how I was rejected by reddit.com when I attempted to surprise a Business of Change member with a backlink boost – bu was rejected. The word “sucks” in he article titled relegated this article to the dreaded NSFW realm:
Sorry about the Japanese all over my Reddit; that’s how we see it over here in Japan. As for this case, though, besides what banned words do for your backlinks ban-ability, let’s not put our tribespeople in a bad situation – by having them tweet our articles containing titles or body material with foul language.
The article: fabulous. The title: a problem for any of my tribes.
C. Tribr.it (paid tweets, sent through a tribe): firehose your other tribes as you see fit; kindly send no more than one/week through SMMAKERS. I do not care if you are saving children or doing whatever other good deeds you believe you should burden our Twitter accounts with; this will soon be a large tribe and cannot be asking members to carry more than one tribr.it/week.
D. Triberr lets you send up to two blog posts/day to your tribes. I have zero confidence in regards to getting overbearing about this. I want your feedback. Many members are in other tribes, all of which are more lax in requirements, so Triberr members seem to expect that “anything will be okay,” but, do we want to ask our members to limit to 1/day? 10/week? Please give your position on this, and please add additional items E… F… and so on, additional content quality and quantity control guidelines below. I see a couple members are sending through 2+/day, and that is a bit many. What do others think, though?
Thank you, in advance, for helping your tribe become much stronger.
I expect it to be nothing short of a cornerstone of your blog marketing. I ask that you afford this tribe and fellow tribe members with the consideration it is worth.
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/ranking-reaching-about-my-tribes/
Tribe-Sourced Blog Promotion Standards
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 12, 2011 in English | 2 Comments
It started with a choice of verbiage for blog post title that soured relations (okay, not that much, but, this will serve as an example) for The Business of Change Triberr tribe’s Down Under faction. Names will be withheld so no one gets Cross with me. My Applicant Requirement guidelines may not have been clear on language. Lately, a fairly new member to the same tribe published an article that is most certainly an over sales promotion for a report. I cannot blame the member, I must assume, because I did invite him with an internal invite (he was already a Triberr member), and he may not have perused our guidelines. As it happens, we ask that marketing, self-promotion and sales-oriented material be limited to site/blog static areas (i.e. pages, or in the sidebar, header/footer, etc.) but kept out of blog articles themselves.
I intend to monetize my blog.
Why would I point fingers at you using your blog for marketing, then?
In here long enough, and I believe you should like what you get from Triberr. If it is of value to members of my tribes, I need them to acknowledge the importance of 5, 10 or even 40+ bloggers carrying their message further, amplifying their reach dramatically, and in the tribes I am building, one condition is that we don’t ask other members to do our selling for us. Our tribes are for bloggers happy to share knowledge, know-how, and ideas, and as for promotion, to do so passively. We lead people to our blogs by showing what we know, who we are, and why you should do business with us – rather than going for the jugular (selling, I mean) within a blog post.
The responsibility to be clear on terms is mine, as chief.
I did not invite a single member to any of my tribes without designating a Name, Category and then completing the Tribe Description and Applicant Requirements sections. When I have been proven to have been unclear, I have revised the description and requirements sections. While I am comfortable with the current state of the applicant requirements (our charters, actually; Applicant Requirements is Triberr terminology), and will provide them for two of the tribes I have launched in tomorrow’s follow-up post, having spoken with nearly all our members, I believe we have too much of a blogging think-tank to not crowd-source or tribe-source input for what our Article Quality & Quantity Standards should include.
The request I make to members of my tribes is to contribute to the creation of our standards.
While most of our “charter,” or what appears in “Applicant Requirements” can be handled by me, I believe that we will all take more confidence in a section on Article Quality & Quantity Standards that is a product of all the members we have who are thoughtful enough to contribute to it.
The cooperation I ask of members of my tribes is that they read “Applicant Requirements,” add ideas to be used to write our Article Quality & Quantity Standards, and then, join me in adhering to them. I ask members of my tribes to provide ideas for the governance of the tribes they belong to, and give their fellow members a chance to uphold them. We will retain members who uphold them, and who, in time, demonstrate solidarity with us with the automatic setting. It shows our confidence in each other. I begin by giving you all the benefit of any doubt from me. After all, while I have invited or accepted all members after reviewing blogs, I cannot know what you would publish in the future, and thus, it does come down to a judgment call.
Article Quality & Quantity Standards
For suggestions for blog content quality and quantity guidelines, I’ll go first:
A. Think “article,” rather than “post.” Kindly proofread before you publish. This isn’t Facebook or Google+. An occasional typo here or there are excusable. When they are strewn throughout your “article,” clearly with reckless abandon, you show lack of respect to readers of your site. Please don’t have your tribe sharing that which is disrespectful to the reader. (Punctuation is good too.)
B. If the body, tags, metadata, or title of the article might lead it to be flagged by search engines and article bookmarking site as “not safe for work” (NSFW), please edit out the offending text. Below is a screen-shot of how I was rejected by reddit.com when I attempted to surprise a Business of Change member with a backlink boost – bu was rejected. The word “sucks” in he article titled relegated this article to the dreaded NSFW realm:
Sorry about the Japanese all over my Reddit; that’s how we see it over here in Japan. As for this case, though, besides what banned words do for your backlinks ban-ability, let’s not put our tribespeople in a bad situation – by having them tweet our articles containing titles or body material with foul language.
The article: fabulous. The title: a problem for any of my tribes.
C. Tribr.it (paid tweets, sent through a tribe): firehose your other tribes as you see fit; kindly send no more than one/week through SMMAKERS. I do not care if you are saving children or doing whatever other good deeds you believe you should burden our Twitter accounts with; this will soon be a large tribe and cannot be asking members to carry more than one tribr.it/week.
D. Triberr lets you send up to two blog posts/day to your tribes. I have zero confidence in regards to getting overbearing about this. I want your feedback. Many members are in other tribes, all of which are more lax in requirements, so Triberr members seem to expect that “anything will be okay,” but, do we want to ask our members to limit to 1/day? 10/week? Please give your position on this, and please add additional items E… F… and so on, additional content quality and quantity control guidelines below. I see a couple members are sending through 2+/day, and that is a bit many. What do others think, though?
Thank you, in advance, for helping your tribe become much stronger.
I expect it to be nothing short of a cornerstone of your blog marketing. I ask that you afford this tribe and fellow tribe members with the consideration it is worth.
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/ranking-reaching-about-my-tribes/
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/rank...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/ranking-reaching-about-my-tribes/
What to know about the Triberr Tribes that I am building
What works for building small blog-promotion communities, as well
As promised, I will conclude this three article series on blog promotion and developing Triberr tribes well with how to get help with tribe-selection, assuming that none of my tribes are just right for you. This applies to the majority of bloggers, so no hard feelings, either way, please. In fact, when I cannot offer an applicant to one of my tribes a place, I have been speaking with them and helping them decide if blog cross promotion ad sharing is really right for them, and if so, making a wise entry into Triberr (via the right group or “tribe”), and getting the most out of what’s possible, using my knowledge of and connections in the Triberr community.
In this article, let me tell you what you should know about my tribes, whether you are considering applying or, just to see what works for developing a cohesive, on-brand, targetted feed tribe. First, I will provide a run-down on the tribes I have created, a brief look at their themes and requirements, and links that non-Triberr members can use to peruse the full descriptions and requirements.
My non-closed Tribes, with space for a few more bloggers each are listed below, along with a partial list of requirements. Please review “Member Requirements” (from the links provided) carefully before selecting a good fit for your blog and Twitter account:
Slammin’ SEO
We blog on SEO, blogging, monetizing blogs and sites, platforms, plugins, widgets, services, ideas, web tech, and a bit of social media. We just started, but already reach 33,000 with our first four members. For those with a good blog but small Twitter following, some pro bono SEO work can get you in Slammin’ SEO. Email me with your blog URL and Twitter handle, and kindly suggest what you might be able to bring to the table. See what we’re about and who we are.
Japan Networking
We are Japan bloggers who blog in English. Original content and a Twitter following of 5,000 or more will get you serious consideration for this tribe, which currently reaches 143,000 and has 8 members. See what we’re about and who we are.
The Business of Change
This tribe focuses on entrepreneurship and consulting, solopreneurship, and related topics. This blog promotion group is tight, supportive, collaborative and as such, is pretty tough to enter. We have grown beyond 15 members and a reach of over 350,000 in Twitter, and consider new tribespeople blogging on starting up, business coaching, tips and tools of social media, with Twitter accounts with 10K+ Twitter followers. When our reach grows to 500K we will probably only consider bloggers with Twitter accounts with high true authority (ask – Klout alone doesn’t cut it for me) and over 25K followers. See what we’re about and who we are.
Social Media Moguls
We reach 238,500 with just 3 members, and look for prominent names in social media with Twitter followings of 50,000+. See what we’re about and who we are.
Social Media Makers
We reach many, we have high Klout, solid social media and tech and social networking blogs and due to all of us carrying a volume of Triberr tweets on our Twitter accounts, this tribe is all but capped off. Please be Ben Parr or Pete Cashmore himself or nearly as prominent to avoid me having to gently explain the problems with including you in this tribe. But keep your ego in check; while your blog may be in the AdAge top 50, Klout 80+, and last book on Oprah’s reading list, we are all fairly prominent, and the tribal reach is currently the highest of any Triberr tribe. See what we’re about and who we are.
What to know about the Triberr Tribes that I am building
What works for building small blog-promotion communities, as well
As promised, I will conclude this three article series on blog promotion and developing Triberr tribes well with how to get help with tribe-selection, assuming that none of my tribes are just right for you. This applies to the majority of bloggers, so no hard feelings, either way, please. In fact, when I cannot offer an applicant to one of my tribes a place, I have been speaking with them and helping them decide if blog cross promotion ad sharing is really right for them, and if so, making a wise entry into Triberr (via the right group or “tribe”), and getting the most out of what’s possible, using my knowledge of and connections in the Triberr community.
In this article, let me tell you what you should know about my tribes, whether you are considering applying or, just to see what works for developing a cohesive, on-brand, targetted feed tribe. First, I will provide a run-down on the tribes I have created, a brief look at their themes and requirements, and links that non-Triberr members can use to peruse the full descriptions and requirements.
My non-closed Tribes, with space for a few more bloggers each are listed below, along with a partial list of requirements. Please review “Member Requirements” (from the links provided) carefully before selecting a good fit for your blog and Twitter account:
Slammin’ SEO
We blog on SEO, blogging, monetizing blogs and sites, platforms, plugins, widgets, services, ideas, web tech, and a bit of social media. We just started, but already reach 33,000 with our first four members. For those with a good blog but small Twitter following, some pro bono SEO work can get you in Slammin’ SEO. Email me with your blog URL and Twitter handle, and kindly suggest what you might be able to bring to the table. See what we’re about and who we are.
Japan Networking
We are Japan bloggers who blog in English. Original content and a Twitter following of 5,000 or more will get you serious consideration for this tribe, which currently reaches 143,000 and has 8 members. See what we’re about and who we are.
The Business of Change
This tribe focuses on entrepreneurship and consulting, solopreneurship, and related topics. This blog promotion group is tight, supportive, collaborative and as such, is pretty tough to enter. We have grown beyond 15 members and a reach of over 350,000 in Twitter, and consider new tribespeople blogging on starting up, business coaching, tips and tools of social media, with Twitter accounts with 10K+ Twitter followers. When our reach grows to 500K we will probably only consider bloggers with Twitter accounts with high true authority (ask – Klout alone doesn’t cut it for me) and over 25K followers. See what we’re about and who we are.
Social Media Moguls
We reach 238,500 with just 3 members, and look for prominent names in social media with Twitter followings of 50,000+. See what we’re about and who we are.
Social Media Makers
We reach many, we have high Klout, solid social media and tech and social networking blogs and due to all of us carrying a volume of Triberr tweets on our Twitter accounts, this tribe is all but capped off. Please be Ben Parr or Pete Cashmore himself or nearly as prominent to avoid me having to gently explain the problems with including you in this tribe. But keep your ego in check; while your blog may be in the AdAge top 50, Klout 80+, and last book on Oprah’s reading list, we are all fairly prominent, and the tribal reach is currently the highest of any Triberr tribe. See what we’re about and who we are.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/rank...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/ranking-reaching-ideal-tribe/
Ranking & Reaching 2/3: Your Ideal Tribe
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 10, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
Expanding on what Dino Dogan of Triberr often says, I wholeheartedly agree: when selecting a tribe, evaluate whether the syndicated addition of your blog to the existing members’ Twitter (and in the future, potentially other networks) timelines will be of benefit to them, rather than just what the tribe would do for you. For those without an invite, searching for tribes to request an invite, look at more than the tribal reach (combined following of the Twitter accounts that a tribe potentially sends blog articles out to) and also look beyond a few prominent names among the membership of the tribe.
Getting into Triberr – Tactically
1. Read beyond the name, category and reach (yes, while you talk of community, learning… I do see this “reach” thing is what everyone new to Triberr is fixated on) and read on to tribe’s description and requirements. Be concerned if these are weakly defined or completely blank. Find tribes to apply to (it may take many applications – took me close to 20, for whatever that tells you) where you get the sense that they are looked after. Beware the Chief (blogger who started the tribe) who appears to look to grow lazily and without much thought in who they will open their tribe to: they started with a hefty following (or inbred it up to that), and now rests on those laurels, and takes nearly everyone with a large Twitter following. Inbreeding: this is the inviting to a tribe of members already in Triberr (open to just a handful of tribes, currently), a thing that is as good as it is bad, and a function that we asked for… and a sticky subject – something for another post.
2. Look at the bloOur Members Publish on: Blog Promotion, Social Media, SEOgs of the tribe members. Nearly all have it as the link declared in their Twitter profile. Are you blogging on similar topics? If you are an up-and-coming technology or social media blogger with 3,200 Twitter followers, and discover that the large-reaching tribes on those topics will not take you, you may see that mommy-blogger-themed tribes offer a large reach and many Twitter mentions (nice and nice, yes) – but get in such a tribe and you are signed on for turning your Twitter account into a vehicle for we-blog-anything characters, with too many Triber.it (paid Triberr blog post sendings) per day… coupon deals… cockamamie sweepstakes and dogs of about seven other colors. Truly, people’s definitions and standards on blogging are radically different. As such, do find a tribe where your blog fits. Join this one, and once in, the other members will like you, and you’ll like them. After all, since you may only join one and create three tribes (the Triberr system), apply to ones that you would be happy calling home. The good start that I enjoyed is much owed to the fact that I got into a tribe that I continue to like: Janet Callaway’s Networking Peeps.
3. Personalize your application, including your main Twitter handle and blog URL – and do so after reading the requirements. You will get the chief’s attention; they’ll definitely at least look at your Twitter following, and some, like me, will look at you blog as well. I, for one, am one chief who is thoroughly impressed when I see that you did not apply for my largest-reaching tribe (perhaps having read the follow-up to this post in which you see where you might fit and also qualify for), but rather, one or two of my tribes that are most appropriate.
A few suggestions on configuring Twitter and RSS connections
Assuming you have an invite code, be logged in to the Twitter account (in Twitter) that you will register, initially, for use in syndicating fellow tribemembers’ blog posts. You can add up to two other Twitter accounts later. If you see your Twitter avatar in Triberr, it is configured correctly. If you don’t see your Twitter avatar, watch their video (see their blog) to learn how to fix that.
RSS
Feedburner is supposed to be supported, but tends to send Triberr tweets doubling (multiple tweets of the same content – a really bad thing, and a Triberr “beta” unfortunate problem than Dan is working on, I am told). I thus ask people to install their standard RSS, or, if part of their blog would not b right for any specific tribe, look into setting up a category, such as “Triberr” and using the category-specific .rss to got to our Tribal feed. Normally, though, the whole .rss is fine; for WordPress blogs, just follow the .com with /feed. My .rss, for example, is http://osakabentures.com/feed
You will see an RSS message when you first create your account and before your first post is tweeted. This is a reminder to make sure you installed your RSS correctly. And if you have any concerns or difficulty, the guys are fast-acting, so contact @triberr for help. Kindly understand that I am just a user, not in the Triberr business, and cannot do your registering for you or fix problems. I can help you trouble-shoot, if you SKYPE me. I am always glad to help – but you need to speak with me during Japan business hours, sorry.
See Part Three of this three-part article series, on tribes I am developing, entry requirements, themes, to be published tomorrow: Ranking & Reaching 3/3: About My Tribes
I began this blog series yesterday, with Ranking & Reaching 1/3: Blog Cross-Promotion
Ranking & Reaching 2/3: Your Ideal Tribe
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 10, 2011 in English | Leave a comment
Expanding on what Dino Dogan of Triberr often says, I wholeheartedly agree: when selecting a tribe, evaluate whether the syndicated addition of your blog to the existing members’ Twitter (and in the future, potentially other networks) timelines will be of benefit to them, rather than just what the tribe would do for you. For those without an invite, searching for tribes to request an invite, look at more than the tribal reach (combined following of the Twitter accounts that a tribe potentially sends blog articles out to) and also look beyond a few prominent names among the membership of the tribe.
Getting into Triberr – Tactically
1. Read beyond the name, category and reach (yes, while you talk of community, learning… I do see this “reach” thing is what everyone new to Triberr is fixated on) and read on to tribe’s description and requirements. Be concerned if these are weakly defined or completely blank. Find tribes to apply to (it may take many applications – took me close to 20, for whatever that tells you) where you get the sense that they are looked after. Beware the Chief (blogger who started the tribe) who appears to look to grow lazily and without much thought in who they will open their tribe to: they started with a hefty following (or inbred it up to that), and now rests on those laurels, and takes nearly everyone with a large Twitter following. Inbreeding: this is the inviting to a tribe of members already in Triberr (open to just a handful of tribes, currently), a thing that is as good as it is bad, and a function that we asked for… and a sticky subject – something for another post.
2. Look at the bloOur Members Publish on: Blog Promotion, Social Media, SEOgs of the tribe members. Nearly all have it as the link declared in their Twitter profile. Are you blogging on similar topics? If you are an up-and-coming technology or social media blogger with 3,200 Twitter followers, and discover that the large-reaching tribes on those topics will not take you, you may see that mommy-blogger-themed tribes offer a large reach and many Twitter mentions (nice and nice, yes) – but get in such a tribe and you are signed on for turning your Twitter account into a vehicle for we-blog-anything characters, with too many Triber.it (paid Triberr blog post sendings) per day… coupon deals… cockamamie sweepstakes and dogs of about seven other colors. Truly, people’s definitions and standards on blogging are radically different. As such, do find a tribe where your blog fits. Join this one, and once in, the other members will like you, and you’ll like them. After all, since you may only join one and create three tribes (the Triberr system), apply to ones that you would be happy calling home. The good start that I enjoyed is much owed to the fact that I got into a tribe that I continue to like: Janet Callaway’s Networking Peeps.
3. Personalize your application, including your main Twitter handle and blog URL – and do so after reading the requirements. You will get the chief’s attention; they’ll definitely at least look at your Twitter following, and some, like me, will look at you blog as well. I, for one, am one chief who is thoroughly impressed when I see that you did not apply for my largest-reaching tribe (perhaps having read the follow-up to this post in which you see where you might fit and also qualify for), but rather, one or two of my tribes that are most appropriate.
A few suggestions on configuring Twitter and RSS connections
Assuming you have an invite code, be logged in to the Twitter account (in Twitter) that you will register, initially, for use in syndicating fellow tribemembers’ blog posts. You can add up to two other Twitter accounts later. If you see your Twitter avatar in Triberr, it is configured correctly. If you don’t see your Twitter avatar, watch their video (see their blog) to learn how to fix that.
RSS
Feedburner is supposed to be supported, but tends to send Triberr tweets doubling (multiple tweets of the same content – a really bad thing, and a Triberr “beta” unfortunate problem than Dan is working on, I am told). I thus ask people to install their standard RSS, or, if part of their blog would not b right for any specific tribe, look into setting up a category, such as “Triberr” and using the category-specific .rss to got to our Tribal feed. Normally, though, the whole .rss is fine; for WordPress blogs, just follow the .com with /feed. My .rss, for example, is http://osakabentures.com/feed
You will see an RSS message when you first create your account and before your first post is tweeted. This is a reminder to make sure you installed your RSS correctly. And if you have any concerns or difficulty, the guys are fast-acting, so contact @triberr for help. Kindly understand that I am just a user, not in the Triberr business, and cannot do your registering for you or fix problems. I can help you trouble-shoot, if you SKYPE me. I am always glad to help – but you need to speak with me during Japan business hours, sorry.
See Part Three of this three-part article series, on tribes I am developing, entry requirements, themes, to be published tomorrow: Ranking & Reaching 3/3: About My Tribes
I began this blog series yesterday, with Ranking & Reaching 1/3: Blog Cross-Promotion
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/rank...
http://osakabentures.com/2011/08/ranking-reaching-blog-cross-promotion/
Ranking & Reaching 1/3: Blog Cross-Promotion
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 9, 2011 in English | 4 Comments
I set out to write a follow-up article to Blog Amplification, with updated statistics, more tribe openings, more details on tribe entry requirements, and more take-away on what Triberr does for the blogger who wants to create their own authority with solid blogging, innovative SEO, and promotion of themselves as authors. I intended to answer the questions I get about Triberr, what works, how to optimize the experience and adapt tribe-building policies that are fair to everyone – including the Chief. It turned into so much that it is going out as a three-part series.
Please collect your knowledge on the following from just about everyone else churning out articles on blog promotion and SEO:
It takes masses of months invested in steady, regular blogging to amass trust-building amongst the search engines. Romance them with optimized keywords, diligently researched audience-engaging and engine-revving titles, tags, embedded media – all within your stellar, sparkling prose.
Analyze (obsess?) on what flavors of blogging, subjects, and niche consistency garners repeat visitors, commenters, and induces social sharing.
Build inbound links to drive click-though traffic from the blogosphere and build search engine ranking. Pay for them if you do not have them time to do the work and cultivate them.
Prove authority by standing out – everywhere. Really, I do hate to do this; as if any of us have the time to make our presences prominent across all portals, sites, platforms and social networks. Comment on prominent blogs, register your blog or articles on Technorati, Reddit, blog directories, and Stumble, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn-share articles.
Finally, measure and calculate what your advertising choices are generating for you and refine what you opt for based on what delivers affordable results.
All of the above is pretty sound advice – but takes time that few of us have available to invest. So here’s what I like, instead: dropping from 1,800,000 Alexa ranking to under 300,000 in just three months, without so much as a modification of my meta-data, internal links, or any change in the number of backlinks or links in to http://osakabentures.com/ I have to attribute the rise in the prominence of my blog to networking, broadly. Specifically, cross-promotion of articles: I nurture relationships with bloggers I like, and we look out for each other, commenting on and sharing each others’ content. My relationships with a growing number of bloggers of quality tech, social media, self development, SEO, marketing, and entrepreneurship content continues to strengthen, and we all are reaping a noticeable growth in authority by supporting each other.
Bloggers Helping Bloggers
Late May, 2011 Alexa (Via SiteLogic)
This is accomplished best through developing real relationships: just good, smart people figuring out how they can help each other, not just with sharing, but with site and social media tweaks. This is accomplished second-best through automated sharing between like-minded bloggers who consistently write on similar topics. It is Triberr, which links up to three .rss feeds and up to three Twitter accounts in painstakingly crafted small groups, or “Tribes,” with bloggers with similar personal brand messages and publishing policies.
Triberr
We publish articles on our blogs and tweet them through our own Twitter accounts. Some people retweet those tweets, right? Some people comment on our blog posts and then tweet comments or our articles with their comment, right? We like all of this – and would like more people promoting our blog, because this get our writings, our creations, and authority – and us – in front of thousands of people who we do not actually have access to without the help of others. I tweet new blog articles to my own following in Twitter through @osakasaul. This reaches close to 21K followers (and a few thousand more, via those who follow some of the more than 600 Twitter lists following @osakasaul). With the Triberr tribes that I have launched, defined, re-defined, I still reach my currently 20,800+ followers – and another 3,000,000+ followers through Twitter recommendations (not retweets, but actual page tweets: see below) because 120+ people, my blogging “tribespeople” also tweet my articles, just as I tweet theirs. An actual Triberr tweet, by one of my tribespeople, of a recent blog post of mine (note that it is not a retweet, but rather a page tweet, from my blog): Note that it is not a retweet, but rather a page tweet: a recommendation, as such, with blog article title, Triberr’s generated mini-URL, ad a mention of the Twitter account designated to the Tribe in which Douglas and I are both members. It is valuable to look at the tweet, and see what followers of @douglasi will see: a page recommendation, rather than a simple retweet, and I invite you to consider the importance of this. (I have already worked this point out.)
@OsakaSaul mentions: Triberr tweets and a RT of one of them
Care to see proof of that bold statement? Just check mentions of @osakasaul in Twitter. Look at how many people tweet my blog articles (you can see this because there is a mention of @osakasaul in each one). They are not all sent at the same time, but over several hours:
Targetted Syndication
When you publish an article on your blog, you tweet it, and get some retweets of that, which amplifies your reach; when I publish on my blog, I tweet it, many other people tweet it, and we get, well, in total, far more retweets than I would if it was just me tweeting the article.
Want in?
Not yet? Your twitter timeline is pristine and you want to keep it that way, right? As well you should. Firstly, Triberr is invite-only. If I invite you, it will be after looking both at your Twitter stats and also your blog. My tribes are focused. Tribespeople are happy to tweet your new blog posts since they are on subject that they already tweet about. You probably comment and tweet many blogs, and a couple of their owners have the sense to reciprocate, rather than simply thanking you in Twitter. Many bloggers align themselves with fellow bloggers, and comment on each others’ blogs and tweet/retweet each other. This is great, but how would you like to be part of an instant “tribe” of several bloggers, just a few, or perhaps 20 or more bloggers, who publish on subjects similar to your blog and Twitter content? This is what I have going within Triberr, and what I would recommend to anyone with a good blog, providing value, and looking to engage a larger audience.
More to come, on using Triberr perfectly, in tomorrow’s article in this series:
Ranking & Reaching: Your Ideal Tribe
and we will finish on August 11, 2011 with Ranking & Reaching: About My Tribes
Ranking & Reaching 1/3: Blog Cross-Promotion
Posted by OsakaSaul on August 9, 2011 in English | 4 Comments
I set out to write a follow-up article to Blog Amplification, with updated statistics, more tribe openings, more details on tribe entry requirements, and more take-away on what Triberr does for the blogger who wants to create their own authority with solid blogging, innovative SEO, and promotion of themselves as authors. I intended to answer the questions I get about Triberr, what works, how to optimize the experience and adapt tribe-building policies that are fair to everyone – including the Chief. It turned into so much that it is going out as a three-part series.
Please collect your knowledge on the following from just about everyone else churning out articles on blog promotion and SEO:
It takes masses of months invested in steady, regular blogging to amass trust-building amongst the search engines. Romance them with optimized keywords, diligently researched audience-engaging and engine-revving titles, tags, embedded media – all within your stellar, sparkling prose.
Analyze (obsess?) on what flavors of blogging, subjects, and niche consistency garners repeat visitors, commenters, and induces social sharing.
Build inbound links to drive click-though traffic from the blogosphere and build search engine ranking. Pay for them if you do not have them time to do the work and cultivate them.
Prove authority by standing out – everywhere. Really, I do hate to do this; as if any of us have the time to make our presences prominent across all portals, sites, platforms and social networks. Comment on prominent blogs, register your blog or articles on Technorati, Reddit, blog directories, and Stumble, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn-share articles.
Finally, measure and calculate what your advertising choices are generating for you and refine what you opt for based on what delivers affordable results.
All of the above is pretty sound advice – but takes time that few of us have available to invest. So here’s what I like, instead: dropping from 1,800,000 Alexa ranking to under 300,000 in just three months, without so much as a modification of my meta-data, internal links, or any change in the number of backlinks or links in to http://osakabentures.com/ I have to attribute the rise in the prominence of my blog to networking, broadly. Specifically, cross-promotion of articles: I nurture relationships with bloggers I like, and we look out for each other, commenting on and sharing each others’ content. My relationships with a growing number of bloggers of quality tech, social media, self development, SEO, marketing, and entrepreneurship content continues to strengthen, and we all are reaping a noticeable growth in authority by supporting each other.
Bloggers Helping Bloggers
Late May, 2011 Alexa (Via SiteLogic)
This is accomplished best through developing real relationships: just good, smart people figuring out how they can help each other, not just with sharing, but with site and social media tweaks. This is accomplished second-best through automated sharing between like-minded bloggers who consistently write on similar topics. It is Triberr, which links up to three .rss feeds and up to three Twitter accounts in painstakingly crafted small groups, or “Tribes,” with bloggers with similar personal brand messages and publishing policies.
Triberr
We publish articles on our blogs and tweet them through our own Twitter accounts. Some people retweet those tweets, right? Some people comment on our blog posts and then tweet comments or our articles with their comment, right? We like all of this – and would like more people promoting our blog, because this get our writings, our creations, and authority – and us – in front of thousands of people who we do not actually have access to without the help of others. I tweet new blog articles to my own following in Twitter through @osakasaul. This reaches close to 21K followers (and a few thousand more, via those who follow some of the more than 600 Twitter lists following @osakasaul). With the Triberr tribes that I have launched, defined, re-defined, I still reach my currently 20,800+ followers – and another 3,000,000+ followers through Twitter recommendations (not retweets, but actual page tweets: see below) because 120+ people, my blogging “tribespeople” also tweet my articles, just as I tweet theirs. An actual Triberr tweet, by one of my tribespeople, of a recent blog post of mine (note that it is not a retweet, but rather a page tweet, from my blog): Note that it is not a retweet, but rather a page tweet: a recommendation, as such, with blog article title, Triberr’s generated mini-URL, ad a mention of the Twitter account designated to the Tribe in which Douglas and I are both members. It is valuable to look at the tweet, and see what followers of @douglasi will see: a page recommendation, rather than a simple retweet, and I invite you to consider the importance of this. (I have already worked this point out.)
@OsakaSaul mentions: Triberr tweets and a RT of one of them
Care to see proof of that bold statement? Just check mentions of @osakasaul in Twitter. Look at how many people tweet my blog articles (you can see this because there is a mention of @osakasaul in each one). They are not all sent at the same time, but over several hours:
Targetted Syndication
When you publish an article on your blog, you tweet it, and get some retweets of that, which amplifies your reach; when I publish on my blog, I tweet it, many other people tweet it, and we get, well, in total, far more retweets than I would if it was just me tweeting the article.
Want in?
Not yet? Your twitter timeline is pristine and you want to keep it that way, right? As well you should. Firstly, Triberr is invite-only. If I invite you, it will be after looking both at your Twitter stats and also your blog. My tribes are focused. Tribespeople are happy to tweet your new blog posts since they are on subject that they already tweet about. You probably comment and tweet many blogs, and a couple of their owners have the sense to reciprocate, rather than simply thanking you in Twitter. Many bloggers align themselves with fellow bloggers, and comment on each others’ blogs and tweet/retweet each other. This is great, but how would you like to be part of an instant “tribe” of several bloggers, just a few, or perhaps 20 or more bloggers, who publish on subjects similar to your blog and Twitter content? This is what I have going within Triberr, and what I would recommend to anyone with a good blog, providing value, and looking to engage a larger audience.
More to come, on using Triberr perfectly, in tomorrow’s article in this series:
Ranking & Reaching: Your Ideal Tribe
and we will finish on August 11, 2011 with Ranking & Reaching: About My Tribes
Monday, August 8, 2011
Valley Breeze ????????????? http://t....
Valley Breeze の岩村さんのインタービュー http://t.co/gQMvNJy via @OsakaSaul
Valley Breeze の岩村さんのインタービュー
Posted by OsakaSaul on May 20, 2011 in 日本語 | Leave a comment
Valley Breeze の取締役岩村さんのインタービュー
ValleyBreeze-Iwamura.K
Mr. Kimihiko Iwamura, Man. Director Valley Breeze Consulting, LLC
Valley Breeze Consulting (VBC) は、シリコンバレーを拠点とし、米国のビジネス、技術、サイエンスの日本への導入と、日本企業のシリコンバレー進出を実行するコンサルティング会社です。
ハードウエアのみならず、ソフトウエアでも物造りの中心は中国とインドにシフトしているといわれていますが、シリコンバレーには優れたサイエンス、技術、人材及び豊富なキャピタルが存続しており、VBCは、この膨大な資産を活用し、付加価値の高いサービスを日米のクライアントに提供します。VBCは再生可能エネルギー、ワイアレスセンサーネットワーク、ITの領域を対象にしています。
日本でのネットワークは、経営者層と実務層の双方にあり、直接のコンタクトの背後の膨大なネットワークを活用出来ます。
Valley Breeze Consulting の資産は、20年間に亘り築いて来たシリコンバレー中心した米国でのネットワークと、30年間にわたる日本企業での経験及び、日本でのネットワークです。 VBC のシリコンバレーでのネットワークは、実際のプロジェクト、投資、戦略提携を実行する中で築かれたものであり、その範囲は、広範であり、深さは固有名詞で のネットワークです。具体的な仕事を通して構築されたこの資産は、即活用が出来ます。 (Via http://www.vbcllc.com)
ソール フライシュマン (SF): 初めての独立はいつ・どんな業界・事業の種類・どんな形で始まりましたか。
岩村 公彦 （岩村さん): 1996年、Fuji Xeroxの子会社FXGI, Incの社長を辞めて、独立のコンサルタントとして、日本とシリコンバレーのビジネスと技術を相互に持ち込む仕事を始めました。業界は、ITが中心でした。
SF: その一回目の営利的に独立した経験上、よく思い出す「乗り越えた」ストーリーを教えて下さい。
岩村さん: 独立して直ぐ、シリコンバレーの友人がクライアントを紹介してくれました。又、日本の友人がクライアントになってくれました。人の繋がりの大切さ、又、感謝する心を持てました。
SF: その一回目の営利的に独立した経験上、よく思い出す「乗り越えた」ストーリーを教えて下さい。
岩村さん: 独立して直ぐ、シリコンバレーの友人がクライアントを紹介してくれました。又、日本の友人がクライアントになってくれました。人の繋がり の大切さ、又、感謝する心を持てました。
SF: その初めての事業での大きな損害・がっかりしたこと・「大失敗」と自分で考えるストーリーを教えて下さい。
岩村さん: 大きな障害や失敗もなく、初めての事業を開始出来ました。その時の分が２回目の独立時に回ってきているかも知れません。
SF: その独立した事業の始めのころの状況、その間に起こった事、その自分の経験がなかったら今はないだろうと思うことはありますか。慣れると考えられますか？
岩村さん: やはり、友人の大切さです。
SF: 今回の自営業の、創立年・所在地・業界・URL・会社の紹介を教えて下さい。
岩村さん: 今回は、2008年にシリコンバレーで、ハイテク領域のコンサルティングです。 Valley Breeze Consulting, LLC: www.VBCLLC.com
SF: 特に「成功する！」という自信のもとを教えて下さい。
岩村さん: ユニークなbackgroundと、信念です。
SF: アメリカにでもそういう対され方が多いですが、日本人の主の差は、私の経験上、独立しようという気持ち・活動は、どんなサラリーマンよりも、どう見ても大成功するまで、我がままと思われます。そういう考え方と反応は正しいと考えますか。
岩村さん: それは、正しいか、正しくないか、の問題ではなく、文化・習慣の問題だと思います。ので、人によって、選択は異なるのですが、私の場合は、自分の仕事の結果として、少しでも、そのような面を変えられれば、と思っています。
SF: その一般的な社会の考え方の変化はすぐ変わらないとかくごをしていますが、独立しようという頑張る気やオリジナル工夫のある人々のため、我々独立している ビジネスマン達は、何か出来ますか？
岩村さん: 先ず、自分の仕事をしっかりとやる事だと思っています。私は、日本を離れ、国籍も米国になっているので、当事者にはなれませんが、自分の 仕事を通して影響をあたえ続けたいと思っています。
SF: 独立したい人々に対して、「頑張って」などより、具体的で重要なアドバイス、ぜひ教えて下さい。
岩村さん: 何をしたいか、と言う事と同時に、どうすればお金を稼げるかを考える事ではないでしょうか。その為に、自分の持っている人脈を武器に、色 々な人のやっている事を見るのも、直ぐ出来る事の一つと思います。
SF: 貴社のソーシャル・メディアのポリシー（ソーシャル・メディアを活かして、人材・紹介・やり方など）を2011年に変えると考えていますか。
岩村さん: これは、私自身、大変遅れています。Saulの教えを受けなければなりません。
大変時間頂いて、まことに有難う御座います。
Valley Breeze Site: http://www.vbcllc.com/
ソール フライシュマン (SF) からのお勧め・必見: http://www.vbcllc.com/assets_j.html
English Company Profile, Valley Breeze, LLC: http://www.vbcllc.com/index.html
Valley Breeze の岩村さんのインタービュー
Posted by OsakaSaul on May 20, 2011 in 日本語 | Leave a comment
Valley Breeze の取締役岩村さんのインタービュー
ValleyBreeze-Iwamura.K
Mr. Kimihiko Iwamura, Man. Director Valley Breeze Consulting, LLC
Valley Breeze Consulting (VBC) は、シリコンバレーを拠点とし、米国のビジネス、技術、サイエンスの日本への導入と、日本企業のシリコンバレー進出を実行するコンサルティング会社です。
ハードウエアのみならず、ソフトウエアでも物造りの中心は中国とインドにシフトしているといわれていますが、シリコンバレーには優れたサイエンス、技術、人材及び豊富なキャピタルが存続しており、VBCは、この膨大な資産を活用し、付加価値の高いサービスを日米のクライアントに提供します。VBCは再生可能エネルギー、ワイアレスセンサーネットワーク、ITの領域を対象にしています。
日本でのネットワークは、経営者層と実務層の双方にあり、直接のコンタクトの背後の膨大なネットワークを活用出来ます。
Valley Breeze Consulting の資産は、20年間に亘り築いて来たシリコンバレー中心した米国でのネットワークと、30年間にわたる日本企業での経験及び、日本でのネットワークです。 VBC のシリコンバレーでのネットワークは、実際のプロジェクト、投資、戦略提携を実行する中で築かれたものであり、その範囲は、広範であり、深さは固有名詞で のネットワークです。具体的な仕事を通して構築されたこの資産は、即活用が出来ます。 (Via http://www.vbcllc.com)
ソール フライシュマン (SF): 初めての独立はいつ・どんな業界・事業の種類・どんな形で始まりましたか。
岩村 公彦 （岩村さん): 1996年、Fuji Xeroxの子会社FXGI, Incの社長を辞めて、独立のコンサルタントとして、日本とシリコンバレーのビジネスと技術を相互に持ち込む仕事を始めました。業界は、ITが中心でした。
SF: その一回目の営利的に独立した経験上、よく思い出す「乗り越えた」ストーリーを教えて下さい。
岩村さん: 独立して直ぐ、シリコンバレーの友人がクライアントを紹介してくれました。又、日本の友人がクライアントになってくれました。人の繋がりの大切さ、又、感謝する心を持てました。
SF: その一回目の営利的に独立した経験上、よく思い出す「乗り越えた」ストーリーを教えて下さい。
岩村さん: 独立して直ぐ、シリコンバレーの友人がクライアントを紹介してくれました。又、日本の友人がクライアントになってくれました。人の繋がり の大切さ、又、感謝する心を持てました。
SF: その初めての事業での大きな損害・がっかりしたこと・「大失敗」と自分で考えるストーリーを教えて下さい。
岩村さん: 大きな障害や失敗もなく、初めての事業を開始出来ました。その時の分が２回目の独立時に回ってきているかも知れません。
SF: その独立した事業の始めのころの状況、その間に起こった事、その自分の経験がなかったら今はないだろうと思うことはありますか。慣れると考えられますか？
岩村さん: やはり、友人の大切さです。
SF: 今回の自営業の、創立年・所在地・業界・URL・会社の紹介を教えて下さい。
岩村さん: 今回は、2008年にシリコンバレーで、ハイテク領域のコンサルティングです。 Valley Breeze Consulting, LLC: www.VBCLLC.com
SF: 特に「成功する！」という自信のもとを教えて下さい。
岩村さん: ユニークなbackgroundと、信念です。
SF: アメリカにでもそういう対され方が多いですが、日本人の主の差は、私の経験上、独立しようという気持ち・活動は、どんなサラリーマンよりも、どう見ても大成功するまで、我がままと思われます。そういう考え方と反応は正しいと考えますか。
岩村さん: それは、正しいか、正しくないか、の問題ではなく、文化・習慣の問題だと思います。ので、人によって、選択は異なるのですが、私の場合は、自分の仕事の結果として、少しでも、そのような面を変えられれば、と思っています。
SF: その一般的な社会の考え方の変化はすぐ変わらないとかくごをしていますが、独立しようという頑張る気やオリジナル工夫のある人々のため、我々独立している ビジネスマン達は、何か出来ますか？
岩村さん: 先ず、自分の仕事をしっかりとやる事だと思っています。私は、日本を離れ、国籍も米国になっているので、当事者にはなれませんが、自分の 仕事を通して影響をあたえ続けたいと思っています。
SF: 独立したい人々に対して、「頑張って」などより、具体的で重要なアドバイス、ぜひ教えて下さい。
岩村さん: 何をしたいか、と言う事と同時に、どうすればお金を稼げるかを考える事ではないでしょうか。その為に、自分の持っている人脈を武器に、色 々な人のやっている事を見るのも、直ぐ出来る事の一つと思います。
SF: 貴社のソーシャル・メディアのポリシー（ソーシャル・メディアを活かして、人材・紹介・やり方など）を2011年に変えると考えていますか。
岩村さん: これは、私自身、大変遅れています。Saulの教えを受けなければなりません。
大変時間頂いて、まことに有難う御座います。
Valley Breeze Site: http://www.vbcllc.com/
ソール フライシュマン (SF) からのお勧め・必見: http://www.vbcllc.com/assets_j.html
English Company Profile, Valley Breeze, LLC: http://www.vbcllc.com/index.html
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