Interestingly, this passing comes with a lesson, at least for me. It’s a lesson that is directly applicable to my current desire to build something big and my current participation in an as-yet-not-openly-discussed program that I’ll describe as a “support group for people who are trying to move forward.”¹ It’s a good lesson, and so far it’s the best one that I’ve learned:

There’s always something.

Yeah, it’s simple and obvious, but for me, it’s a good lesson.

So far, my first three weeks of this group have been coincident with two deaths and a horrible sickness.² Not a single week has been, let’s say “clean.” I think my biggest lesson so far is just that. What does “clean” mean? Should the regular occurrences of life be the reason you don’t move forward?

One of the other members mentioned at a social last night that what he values in our group is the focus on making consistent progress, and I’m really beginning to appreciate that. I get a lot of stuff done, but I also get a lot more stuff merely started. I suspect that my previous style would have been to let a week or two slip by here and there if something like this happened- even if  I’m not actually doing anything about the something that “happened.”

Previously, I tended to be very unorganized, and that means that things could easily (and often) consume my full attention, regardless of their actual importance. Mind you, I’m not at all suggesting that the importance of this family member is small in any way. This occurrence deserves and requires attention. But my earlier style would have been to divert my attention if, say, I needed to wash my car, or if I decided that my bicycle chain was a bit too dirty.

There was an aspect of “all or nothing” to my progress that made “fits and starts” the rule of the day, with great pauses and slides in between both of those.

This week, I’m working on defining and planning ways to react to this new crisis, while keeping focused on the bigger picture. That’s pretty big for me. I’m not really sure how I would have reacted previously, but I suspect that I may not have thought much about my project at all until after the funeral- which is in a couple weeks. It’s not like I would’ve done or thought about anything during that time, I just would’ve put stuff off because there was a convenient reason. Oh how I loved those convenient justifications for procrastination!

Now, I grab my planner and reorganize the stuff that I have to get done in a consistent and considered manner. Even if things get pushed back, I’m choosing the things that get pushed back and doing so with both long- and short-term strategies in mind.

It feels good. Mostly because I know that I’m making time for the things that I want to accomplish, rather than just passively trying to get things done whenever they pop into my head. It means that I’m not missing out on things that I would previously be upset about.

1. There’s a press release or some such thing in the works for this group, and some people have heard about it, but I don’t want to steal anyone’s sailwind.
2. well, that’s a bit over the top- I’m a wimp, so this flu/fever/strep thing was horrible for me, but might have been a piece of cake for someone else.

Imagine, you’re going through your day to day business, just trying to scrape by,  paying bills, working, spending time with family- a decent life over all. Yet something keeps bugging you. Not something tangible, more like an itch that you can’t actually scratch away, but that’s not bad enough for you to figure out why.

And there are these events that happen around you- even to you. Situations come up again and again that seem like they are leading to something. They’re not connected in any way, yet somehow they are- almost as if there’s a part of you that thinks, maybe, they should be. Sometimes those situations seem almost contrived, as if you are being pushed. You find your self in places, or talking to people, and you think “Why in the world am I the one here?”

Then it happens. Something shifts imperceptably. Maybe you see the color yellow, or maybe you hear a song, or maybe your foot itches a little and you scratch it without thinking…

…and you suddenly see a million shining stars pointing at you. Suddenly all those disjointed connections slide into place.

I just swallowed the red pill. I just swallowed that pill and I have to say that, though it’s not quite as graphically appealing an experience as in The Matrix, it’s certainly as dramatic- at least from the inside.

Suddenly, all the situations make sense. My friend Jon writes a blog post partially in response to my post and that means something. Rediviva Magazine is building a website and that means the same thing. The Christian Science Monitor axes their print edition and it means the same thing. Lia Hollander tells us to Stop Faking It and, Jesus! It means the same thing. Even the fact that so many people want the Oregon Blogs aggregator back means the same damn thing!

It’s all pointing the same way. Like you’re walking in a field of flowers and notice one pointed toward the sun, then your vision shifts and you see they are all pointed toward the sun. “How’d I miss that?” You wonder.

Indeed, how did I?

Blogging means something, and it means oh so much more than I realized. My only guess is that it means so much more than anyone realizes. It means something, blogging means something, and all I can think is “My god, it’s full of stars!”

Time to get moving on this. I need a plan, some quick market research, and a smart angel. And I need them fast!

Somebody has to have seen this.

You don’t have to care about Yahoo!, and you don’t have to know what OpenID is. You don’t All you have to do is know that there are two important things that a blog will add to your organizations interaction with the public. The first is called humor and the second is called humanity.  It’s Interesting that those words are rooted in the same place, is it not?.

Here is today’s example: Yahoo! Releases OpenID Research (Yahoo! Developer Network Blog).

The Yahoo! Team: “Observing these tests was more than a bit frustrating for the Yahoo! OpenID team, and the test subjects may have been distracted by the sounds of the groans and head-pounding coming from the other side of the one-way mirror. Certainly there is a lot of work to be done on the OpenID UX (user experience) front.”

Now, many of you will read that and say something to the effect of “Well, that explains why we don’t have a blog, because that’s not an appropriate thing to have on an official company site and blah blah blah.”

Look, you have a company site, and you have people that work at your site. Those people have opinions that are not always reflective of the company perspective. Why? Because the company perspective is large, beaurocratic, terrified, and often incredibly stupid. Here’s something to consider: You’re public often doesn’t have opinions that are reflective of your company perspective. Why don’t you give people- especially if they are good writers and adhere to basic rules of decency- the chance to connect with those people?

I know that you’re all afraid of letting go of the control- you want the unified public face and all that 1950′s IBM claptrap. I know. But this is not the 1950′s, and your public wants to connect with you not as an organization, but as a human. Having someone in your organization who is an actual human and who writes a bit of the inside story from the perspective of an actual human is, in every sense of the word, A Good Thing.

Get a blog, people. Really. More and more of your customers are expecting it. They want updates on your humanity to hit their RSS feeds. They want to know that there’s a person there.

I’m just one stupid guy, huh? Don’t believe me? Listen to what smart company stooges think:

• It’s a Blog World After All: How companies such as Verizon, IBM, Microsoft are using blogs for knowledge management — and marketing
• Professionals, Publishing for the People: David Weinberger on how conversations within companies can scale globally
• Post(er) Boy: Robert Scoble’s starter set of corporate blogging guidelines
• Best Blog Ever: How VH-1 leverages the Web to produce a TV show
• A Little Help from Your Friends: The state of online business networking
• Between the Lines: Six Degrees of Competition: Alison Overholt on the complicity and competition among social network software makers
• FC Now: Fast Company‘s team blog

Can you hear me now?

1. What do you mean websites are outdated?
2. Posterous proves why Twitter works for Customer Service

Hence the argument.

Websites themselves are fairly outdated technology, and we don’t even have one of them!

While discussing this with a co-worker, I said something to the effect of “I can’t believe we don’t have a website. I mean, the whole idea of website’s being necessary is old- websites themselves are fairly outdated technology- and we don’t even have one of them!”

This comment struck my co-worker by surprise.

“If websites are outdated- and we haven’t even really gotten a grip on that yet, what in heaven’s name is current?”

Thus insued the following discussion- begun as an email message, which I thought would be a decent, if incomplete, introduction to some of the fundamental natures of Web 2.0 and Social Networking- what Doc Searls calls “The Live Web.”

Mind you, this is not for my friends who are geeks and following me on Twitter. They understand all this the same way a salmon understands that this clear, cold, wet stuff is gonna keep them alive. This is a description for non-geeks. For people like my mother and my boss.

Presence is Passé

It was the early 90s and the world was heady with the smell of free money on the internet (this is in contrast to the early 00s when the world was heady with the smell of free money in the real estate market). The catchword of the day was presence. There was this thing called The Web (which everyone assumed was the same thing as the internet- some still do).

Most companies and organizations felt that they needed the web as much as they needed some old fish carcasses rotting under their desks.

In the 90s, the idea was that you needed presence on The Web. This was a tough sell at first because most companies and organizations felt that they needed the web as much as they needed some old fish carcasses rotting under their desks. Basically, the thought was that if you were a computer company, you’d have a website, otherwise, you have a phone book.

Then Yahoo started allowing people to search, and soon the web was a phonebook. There’s the turning point. Presence became crucial because people were using the web to find stuff, and you needed a sign in that landscape if you wanted to be found.

And that’s the key. A website became your sign, your entry in the computerized phonebook. Without it, you were missing a hell of a lot of opportunities (for instance, super qualified people would look for organizations they want to help grow in tiny little cities in the Columbia River Gorge- and they wouldn’t find them… for instance).

Eventually, this sign became a storefront for many, and free money rained down on all of us like manna from overexcited VCs.

What replaces presence?

So life was great. Everyone had websites and everything stopped progressing, right? Well, not quite. Eventually people got bored.

You see, the problem is that there are signs everywhere now, and 97.3% of them say nothing more than “Hey! Look at me! I’m a sign!”

You see, the problem is that there are signs everywhere now, and 97.3% of them say nothing more than “Hey! Look at me! I’m a sign!” People want more than a web search engine and a phonebook entry. They’ve already heard of your organization- and if they haven’t, they’re certainly not going to listen to the Dilbert-quality proto-typical marketing mumbo-jumbo that your overpaid MBA copied from your competitor’s website two days after graduating college. They’ve heard it before and they’re smarter than that.

For organizations to be successful into the future, they have to be willing to do more. It’s not about presence anymore- it’s about engagement and communication.

But mostly, it’s about trust.

The fundamental point here is that I want to know who you are, and if I know who you are, I can begin to trust you. If you put yourself out there in ways that are- let’s face it- vulnerable, I’m going to more easily connect with you. Why? Because I am an individual who is interacting with multiple organizations. Whether it’s real or perceived, I am inherently vulnerable.

So we have things like company blogs. When done well, a company blog is a way for me to learn what’s going on inside a company- both personally and professionally. It’s a way for me to see that the company is  not only made up of real people, but that it is connected with the overall field in which it works.

When done well, a company blog is a way for me to learn what’s going on inside a company- both personally and professionally.A pertinent example. If I put up a static website for my company, you’ll visit it and get the company line: “We’re X company and we do environmental consulting.” Now, the marketing team will put all of this jive in writing about how well we do environmental consulting, and about the fact that “we do environmental consulting just so you’re safer and happier,” yada yada. It’s all jive, and you know it.  Unless I preface “happier” with pictures of topless women, you don’t even see it. All you get out of that interaction is “X does Y.”

Now, if I have a company blog that I take seriously and I spend an hour on Friday writing about the news that Oregon DEQ is about to announce that Ethylbenzene and Napthalene are carcinogens (true story, by the way)- you start to perk up. Why? Well, it’s not because the news is inherently exciting. What the hell is Ethylbenzene anyway? But you would get excited- or at least interested- because someone in the company already writing about and analyzing news in their field that hasn’t even hit the media venues yet.

Now, imagine that the blog is written specifically for people who don’t know what the hell Ethylbenzene is? Imagine that you, as an individual, can learn a little bit about gasoline and diesel contamination, and how we assess whether an industrial site is “clean” or not? Now, you no longer have merely “X does Y.” Now, you have “X knows so much about Y that they are breaking news stories in it, and teaching me about what the news story means.”

Social Networking

So, we have blogs, but it doesn’t end there. People, as individuals, are connecting to each other in strange ways that (honestly) they don’t even understand. Social networking has even surpassed pornography as the internet’s most popular activity- something some analysts thought just wouldn’t happen.

Granted, some aspects of social networking will always be out of the realm of utility for an organization, but most social networking platforms are exactly what organizations should be targeting.

Wait. Read that again:

Most social networking platforms are exactly what organizations should be targeting.

Why? This goes back to trust. The most interesting thing about the Social Web is that you can immediately connect with a person or an organization. In any number of spheres, it is possible for two people on either side of the world to have a conversation and for another person to join them immediately.

Think about that for a moment. In fact, go try it. Go to Twitter Search, and type in a search word or phrase- something pertaining to a subject you know or are interested in. You’ll see what people on Twitter are discussing in relation to that subject (There are myriad ways to do this, of course, this is but one).

Because of what I do, I typed “groundwater.” Immediately a post by @VicAdvocate pops up about the local municipality developing a groundwater management plan. Now, not only can I connect with @VicAdvocate (don’t feel shy on Twitter, by the way), but can read the story and connect to other similar events. I can even blog about this and how it effects Oregon and Washington aquifer planning. For another example, there an excellent post on The Los Angeles Fire Department’s (eh hem) blog about the success that the LAFD has had using a Twitter account to post announcements and requests for information.

If you can’t see how powerful this is, then you’re already losing ground.

If you can’t see how powerful this is, then you’re already losing ground. Home Depot, Jet Blue, Dell and others routinely use Twitter and similar services to connect to customers and individuals. Why? Because a Dell employee can get a continually updated feed of all occurrences of the word “Dell” that happen globally. Someone buys a Dell computer in the US, takes it to France and it craps out- they Twitter to their friends that they’re “Out of commission because their stupid Dell crashed,” and half and hour later there’s a Dell employee contacting them asking how they can help.

Don’t know about you, but if that happened to me, I’d be thinking a lot more about Dell computers.

And don’t think that this is only for huge companies and organizations, either. Many businesses in Portland like @pdxgreendragon use Twitter frequently to announce events and meetings- and Twitter folks love it.

The Finale

This is, of course, very simplified, and focused on my argument with my boss- which is focused on why our company needs a website. Thus, the description is fairly marketing driven. But you shouldn’t think that Web 2.0 and Social Networking is about marketing, because it is emphatically not. It’s about interaction and communication. And it’s about trust.

But you shouldn’t think that Web 2.0 and Social Networking is about marketing, because it is emphatically not.

If you have a blog only to sell your product or service, only to tout how amazing you are, I’ll smell it. We all will. We don’t want to hear an organization yelling “Choose us!” so steer clear from that kind of message unless you’re directly competing with me.

We want to hear an organization saying “Hey, we’re doing this because we really think it matters and it’s important to us, and here’s why…”

Blow that whistle, and I’ll follow like a happy little mouse.

The basic point is that if you are there interacting with people, finding ways to help them, then the rest will fall into place. It’s not marketing, it’s involvement. If you tell me you can solve my problem, I may (but probably won’t) trust that you can and will. If you simply solve my problem or help me in another way, or even just connect with me on a personal level, I may (and probably will) trust you and continue to build a relationship. It may not lead to a financial gain from me immediately, or ever, but it will be a relationship.

And those relationships are what will help you survive and grow.

Evildoing cover blowers

A name change, millions of dollars in FBI funding, dozens of people working on Christmas, a special section of Britain’s MI6 created just for me.

Not to mention 10 whole bucks for the domain registration.

Now, after nearly a week of back-breaking work setting up my super secret website, Google has decided to blow my cover!

I mean, what good is the witness protection program with Google flunkies out there?! How can we super secret agents work our super secret magic if Google is busy showing off all of our super secrets!

Now I’m avoiding scantily clad women like the plague

Now I’m not getting any work done because I’m too busy dodging bullets, running around small towns in the south of France, carrying suitcases full of money, and avoiding scantily clad women like the plague!

Here I go, trying to create a website and spending months, maybe years, populating it with random bits of meaningless information in the hopes of one day unveiling it to a maniacally excited audience after a huge publicity event- and Google decides to spider me!

You blew everything, Google!

How Joupla got indexed, I’ll never know. I mean, it seems like it would be hard to get indexed since there are people actually selling the service of getting you listed on search engines. Seriously, do a search on Google for “search engine strategies” and you’ll see. If you happen to have a few thousand dollars hanging around that you need to dispose of quickly, you can pay some serious money to people trying to get your site on search engines.

Why people would buy this service is beyond me. All you have to do is attempt to develop your site in total secret and you’ll instantly be #1 on the indexing list. Give it a try, contact the FBI, turn in a Mafia hitman, become a super secret agent, then make a blog and see how many days you have before the bullets start flying.

Millions of people type “Joupla” into search engines every day

The problem is that now when anyone types “Joupla” into Google, they’ll find a site that’s not ready. And don’t even say it! You don’t know how many people are into the word Joupla! Hell, there’s even a Joupla Blog! Millions of people type “Joupla” into search engines everyday. You have no idea how popular the word is.

Seriously, you can even Google it!

Told you. There’s a Joupla blog- right there in Google. And if it’s in Google, you know it’s real.

Secrets don’t go over well with the Google flunkies.

Look everyone, learn from my mistake, don’t try to create your site in secret if you want it in secret. Spend the thousand bucks on search engine listing services to ensure that it’s hidden away for good. Google’s just to mischievous to let you go free. They want you dodging bullets and drinking possibly poisoned gin and tonics with topless women on an Italian beach.

I know, I had to type this blog entry in an abandoned boiler room while listening to annoyingly suspenseful music and trying not to have my keyboard echo loud enough for the blond, japanese, martial arts expert hitman to find me.

Real angels aren't this cute

…nor any drop to bank.

I learned some interesting things today at my lunchtime meeting with an auditorium full of formerly interested, silly angel investors¹. I have to say that, despite the extra expense I now have in providing sufficient bandages to patch the wounds of my shoddy Executive Summary, it went surprisingly well.

As I like to say, it’s always nice to hear people tell you that you are completely full of a blunt excrement. You can take those lessons and move on to the fabulous world of improvement! Here are Mettadore’s lessons for the day:

0: Don’t ever say “social networking.”

In fact, don’t even say “social.” They are bad words only to be used by people with enough money to back them up.

(Hint: Those people- you know, the ones with enough money to back them up- well, they’re not you).

You might also consider staying away from the word “networking” unless you’re holding a Cat 5 cable.

1: Have plenty of money.

There’s no substitute for already having enough money to do what you want. Seriously, the best way to get someone to give you the money you need to do market research is to get the money you need to do market research. Nothing says “give me your money” like “I don’t need your money.”

2: Don’t ever say “social networking.”

Yes, you can repeat yourself, as you see, it makes a point. When you are repeating yourself, however, you should never repeat the term “social networking.” It’s not worth repeating and you shouldn’t have said in the first damn place.

e: Foundations crumble

At some point, someone is going to start as sentence with something like “Now I don’t know about [whatever market sector you are attempting to address] but…”

During the next part of their statement, you are going to listen as the entire foundation of your concept crumbles. If you have any ego at all, you’ll want to ignore what they say- or give up and go home- before they even finish. Don’t. For some strange reason, these people seem to want you to succeed, so listen to everything. Put a shim under your ego until you can rebuild using their advice- and there will be advice. Again, it seems like they want you to succeed, so they don’t seem to stop giving advice. At some point, it seems like talking to these people is more valuable than getting money from them.

3: Listen, seriously people!

Don’t say it! I know you’re plan is fundamentally focused on using these techniques, I know that you already have a Facebook app, I know that you were the first beta tester for OpenSocial. I’m with you on this one, believe me. I’m just saying that it’s not worth throwing your life away! Don’t say it!

pi: Do your homework.

So, it would seem, sadly, that there is no substitute for work. These people need numbers, and imaginary numbers like i simply won’t cut it. I know, it’s a lot easier to to just think of random numbers or use Google’s market share as your base estimate for revenue in 5 years, but it doesn’t work. They won’t buy either of them. I know, I just tried them both. It seems that, for some reason, if people are going to give you gobs of money to start a company, they want to know that it’s going to eventually turn a profit. I can only assume this is because they want the money to come flowing back.

I know, I can’t really figure it out either, but there you are.

4: Keywords and catchwords

It’s a really good idea to know your keywords.

I mean, no-one is stupid enough to mention Google or even Cuil, right? What I didn’t know is that even the phrases “search engine” and “web portal” are fairly dangerous. There’s another keyword  phrase that you should stay away from, but I forgot it right now.

What was that phrase…?

5: I’m watching you!

Hah! That was a test! Nooo! Don’t you say it! You’re going to be in so much trouble!

6: See #1

Oh, here’s a good point, if you or your fellow founders and advisors haven’t actually invested anything, what’s the chance that these people will? Remember, nothing says “give me your money” like “I don’t need your money.”

x: Ask for a lot of money.

Don’t figure out just what you need for Ramen and rent for one year.

Not the best development platform

I know that it sounds good to try to do everything on the cheap by building your site with old Commodore Vic-20s that you found in the back lot of an old abandoned church. I know, there’s all this stuff about dilution and saving money, but you should probably do some research on what it’s honestly going to take to get the job done- and in that research, it might be a good idea to budget a large amount for actual equipment and marketing. Apparently, no-one is going to give you any money unless they are confident that you are asking for enough money.

7: Practice. A lot.

Probably the most important, don’t stand up in a room full of investors and try to sell the company that you dreamed up last night after drinking too much Double Mountain. The best idea you can get is to try to sell it to as many people as possible. No one will buy it if no one has bought it. It’s strange, I know, but the idea is fundamentally sound. Get your ducks in a row as best you can, then talk- and people will show you all kinds of holes you never saw. Fill them well, rinse, repeat.

8: Competition is good.

In fact, competition is fundamental. If you don’t have any competition, you seriously need to re-think your product. I mean, no offense and in all due respect but, you’re not that damn smart. If you’re thinking it up, chances are it’s already been done, or it just ain’t worth doing. And remember, the status quo is probably the most serious competition you will ever have.

Lessons learned

That’s pretty much what I learned today. Again, it went as well as could be expected, considering the whole summary was scratched in crayon the night before (Rememeber, there’s no substitution for real work).

Good luck if you’re in a similar situation.

And remember, if you are directly competing with me- competition is good. Just remember to sell them on the Social Networking aspect of your business. It’s all the rage right now- people will throw money at you!

1. Actually, that’s “SILLI,” The Super Intelligent League of Leveraging Investors