Brian Feener

$1mm … $4mm  … whatever the amount, text message-based payments are a big deal for this Haiti rebuilding effort.

And it makes perfect sense to me why - it’s a painless payment.

In less than 25 characters, you can pledge money to a charity through your cell phone bill, something you won’t see for maybe 2 or 3 weeks.  It’s the same psychology that makes credit cards so dangerous; that makes teenagers text over their 1,000 allowed; that turns a pay-nothing-for-24-month deal into a real problem….

It’s the same psychology that got us into the debt crisis, and the same psychology that allows iTunes to be so successful.

The buyer never feels the pain of the purchase.

Don’t get me wrong!  I’m not saying it’s a bad thing in this case!  It’s just that it’s encouraging to know that someone has figured out that the psychology that hurts us in many cases, can be used for the public good.

It does make me wonder if this type of strategy is going to be more and more prevalent in society for other less altruistic purposes?  I’m already a victim of the Straws of Subscription (these are the same straws that broke the camel’s back).  Magazines, TV, internet, phone … I’d love MobileMe and a better HD package but “I need to be careful in this economy.”*

*Translation: I’m broke.

With the speed that some of the services got up and running, I’m glad that we have smart, business savvy people running some of these relief efforts.  I couldn’t have done it better myself.

I only have one New Years Resolution this year - not to text and drive.

Did you know! That 60% of texts are answered within 90 seconds. … I know the culture is what the culture is but how is a text functionally different than an email? We don’t have a 90 second rule for emails.

So if you’re texting me just be prepped for a long delay. I took all my sounds and alerts to only phone calls.

All these pings and Pongs an dings all day long need to be filtered out some how. There’s no way that you can concentrate and be creative with a constant series of distractions.

So there you go. You can copy me if you want.

Bold prediction: Facebook is 24 months away from being as relevant as MySpace is in 2009.

The more stuff like Facebook Connect pushes every single action/comment power users do on the web into the site, the less people are going to use it. Tech companies are regularly recommending integrating it, and, while potentially good for the clients, it’s going to be tech like this that’s going to DESTROY Facebook.

It’s more fun to have an exclusive party than go to one where everyone has to stand in line at the bar. Facebook stopped being a cool secret.

Plus, Zuckerberg is obsessed with Twitter. … He turns over the home page of the site every 6 months. … He had a terrible time selling Beacon to the public and clearly had some hubris issues in the planning phase (though kudos for taking it behind the woodshed as quickly as he did). … People I talk to are calling it boring and the novelty of status the updates has worn off. It’s got a fantastic photo application but more and more people I know are “untagging” everything. The core group of users who started using it first came out in college are getting older and, from a technology standpoint, the new group of users are from a different generation (both way younger and way older). Kids don’t use AIM- they text instead. I never had texts in high school. …. Parents are starting to get profiles to get back in touch with old high school classmates and reconnect with old flames. (The site is being cited in divorce cases on a regular basis: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/6857918/Facebook-fuelling-divorce-research-claims.html ).

It’s a different set of people doing considerably more (or considerably less) than the site was originally built to do. Twitter came out and people can bullshit with each other easier and faster. MySpace was supposed to last forever right? AOL?

…and from a revenue standpoint, the site has never been in a better position. It’s going to pass MySapce for social networking ad revenue. So why stop the train while the dough is rolling in?

24 months.

Update:

Unprompted, I found this on my news feed….

So you can add that to the reasons above: too many mobile alerts that just get annoying after a while.

Sweedish singer Lykke Li sat down and spoke with W+K Radio to talk about some of the particulars of her music videos.

Her overall point is a little disjointed as she comes to the final conclusion that she wants to hang over a pool of sharks because it’s important for artists to be good live BUT she does illustrate the point that while the music video is still important, the traditional distribution model is all but dead.

VH1 plays their videos in the morning, overnight, and then the rest of the day is a series of trainwreck-reality (to which I often fall victim, but that’s another story for another day). MTV hasnt played a video since the Buggles.

Two reactions:

1. CHANGING BIZ MODELS

We’re always going to see business models change.  The interesting point here is that people are now producers of passionate content. The guy/gal who couldn’t get a job at The Big Newspaper is now able to go down the career path that they want in spite of the social, political, demographic, geographic or whateverographic barriers.  Ultimately, if you’re good at what you do, you have a chance to do it for a career. [I understand that there's a bit of luck involved, but so is the case for any business/career.]  Lykke Li is an example of a person who has a passion, a bit of intellectual acumen and a bit of foresight to understand a changing market place.  It’s a combination that will lead to success.

2. SHOW ME THE MONEY

While she is the producer of content, she has a separate revenue stream to support it.  Her videos are the way many of her fans connect with her, but her business is primarily the production and execution of quality live performances.  While video may be an important piece of the overall business, the closer to the production, the more OTHER stuff needs to be done in order to support it.

Lykke Li. “I’m Good I’m Gone” (YouTube)

Buy her album, DRM-Free:

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Google Latitude has been getting a lot of coverage lately and my two cents is this:

There is a difference between a tool and a problem solver.

Take the case of a standard claw hammer.

If I am trying to type out a word document or play the guitar, a hammer retains its status of being a tool but it doesn’t help me solve the problem of writing a story or playing a song.

However, if I have nail I need to put in the wall, the tool becomes a problem solver.

While I’m sure someone will figure out what to use Latitude for, I’m not entirely sure that the technology as it stands is valuable. It’s going to be up to us (the masses) to do the next part of figuring out what the nail is and then using Latitude to fix it.

(Also, this is why Twitter is great for some people and useless to others. Some people don’t have a social network problem they need fixin’.)

Apple can make a computer that’s “green,” a service that synchronizes EVERYTHING across multiple media platforms (MobileMe), and the most technologically advanced thumbscoop, ever.

But iTunes and CDDB still puts all the Artist Featuring Artist (example: T-Pain featuring Akon, Diddy & Mary J. Blige) together. I just want one more column of “featured” performers. It’s not that hard, Apple. And then instead of using CDDB, link it back to the Apple Store. It just drives me crazy that 1) all my songs have extra info in it, 2) that, left as-is, my iPod would be a MESS.

Gordon Haff, blogger for CNet, is skeptical about Netbooks.

I think that Gordon is spot on about this being a niche industry.  One reason that we’re seeing so many of these Netbooks pop up (Wiki’s list) in the past couple years is that they are so dang easy and cheap to produce.

Users of the device will accept a 1GB RAM, 20 GB HD, 1.2 GHz processor in a Netbook where in a full Notebook they would never accept something so slow/weak.

There is a niche market in kitchens, on coffee tables, and in classrooms for these light, very portable, utilitarian devices.

How can Netbooks solidify a place in the market?  I think the secret is to focus on a traveling and focused audience: high school and college students.

• Encourage publishers to make their textbooks downloadable.  Or usable with a CD.  Something digitial.  I know if I had the option in college to carry around my unabridged works of Shakespeare (yes, 2 semesters of a 2k page book) or a Netbook, I know what I’m choosing.
• Luck into more wi-fi hotspots in classrooms.  (Not 100% controllable by the tech industry, but subsidies would help.)
• Develop light, user-friendly software for operating home entertainment.  (Can a computer control your Tv or DVR?  Of course!)
• Educate people on Linux.  With more Netbooks running a Linux OS, the more comfortable your audience is with the system, the better for the producers.
• Optimize for presentations.  If you have a Netbook that’s GREAT for presenting lectures, you have an opportunity.
• Leverage cloud computing.  (Its Bill Gates’s one wish, and why can’t you make it happen?  It can lighten the load on your RAM and make things more accessible with the users’ main laptop/desktop.)
• Make it easy to transfer files to and from the main computer to and from the Netbook.  Wireless?  Wired?  If this is going to be an extension of the user’s main system (kinda like an escape pod from the mothership), then it ’s got to be a seemless transfer back and forth.
• Battery life.  It’s supposed to be 100% portable right?  Make it that way.  48 hr battery?  Maybe?
• Keep the price down.  Parents have enough to worry about, schools are always looking to keep budget down.

For the comments, what do you think the Netbooks should have to achieve relevancy in the market?

[photo courtesy: Ruckman.net]