Where this really becomes a sore spot is when someone wants to build a business out of their idea. All too often, “idea people” want too much ownership or revenue from their idea while failing to possess the skills necessary to bring it to life. Sometimes that bridge can be gapped but in most cases if you really want your idea to take off, you have to be prepared to give up a lot of the money to see that happen. It’s important to also remember that giving up money doesn’t necessarily mean giving up control but be prepared to give up some of that too. At the end of the day, if you are nothing more than the idea person and wind up with 3% - 10% of the bounty, you’re doing pretty well. If you are able to also help bring the idea to life, you’ll likely wind up with more but keep your expectations in check.

Always remember, it’s better to own 5% of something than 100% of nothing. Here are a few thoughts that might help keep you grounded as you set out to bring your ideas to life:

1. Focus on ideas that are in an area you know, you’ll have better luck knowing what the need really is and of having the ability to contribute to executing on the idea. So, if your idea is for the next generation of social networking websites but you can’t even spell HTML, be prepared to give up some ownership.

2. Be diligent in working with people who have the skills you don’t and compensate them well.

3. Don’t be a tyrant. It might be your baby but other people may be very good at expanding an idea even if they didn’t think it up to begin with.

4. Work with people you can trust. I can’t emphasize this enough.

5. Be prepared to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week if you really want to make it. If it’s a labor of love, you probably won’t mind anyway.

The reality is that most of the hard work and true art is in the execution, not in the idea; so, if the idea is what you bring to the table, great. It might start a business or product, but be satisfied with not owning the whole thing. Trust me, if you have thought of it, odds are someone else has too so learn to execute if you want to win the game.

As an added thought, if you just want to be an idea person and don’t want the rest of the hassle and are willing to accept a less ownership, learn the licensing game and license your ideas to people or companies that will run with them. You might only get a modest percentage but it takes the work off of you beyond a prototype.

To be sure, the iPhone interface kills anything else out there but the essential functionality for me is great email, messaging and a great phone, all of which the 8310 does with ease. I never thought that day would come when my need for reliable and practical (at least in a phone/PDA) would outstrip my need to feel cool!

The other downer about the I phone is expandability. I can drop a micro SD card into the 8310 to expand the memory but no such luck on the iPhone. And given the nominal cost of memory these days it bothers me that Apple charges such a premium for 16GB vs 8GB. I probably wouldn’t carry quite that much media on the device at onetime anyway but it really is the principal of the matter. I’ve already paid for Apple “coolness” when I chunk down $200 for the device, why should doubling the memory add $200? Of course they got it by selling millions of the things in the first weekend so I guess I’d take everyone’s money too but it seems to me to be a short sighted purchase by many consumers and a bit pompous on Apple’s part.

I may eventually get one because they are so damn cool but then again I might just want to see what those Google guys pull off with Android. I love disruptive technology and Google might just make the iPhone popularity a  short-lived event in it’s current form. Plus I like Google’s “Don’t be evil” philosophy, and I’ll bet I can add extra memory.

All of that said, this might have changed my mind. It’s WordPress for iPhone and as a big WordPress user this is a major turn on.

http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/21/mobile-bloggings-next-step-wordpress-for-the-iphone-about-to-launch/

lijit is a new search application designed for publishers, which, with the advent of applications like Twitter, blogs, Facebook, etc… we all are to some degree.

lijit enables you to add a search widget (er.. wijit) to your site or blog and return results based on your network of content. For example, if someone searched this site through the lijit search (very top right) for “Community Crush” (shameless plug I know, you might experiment with “Wordcamp” too and get a lot back) you would get results from all of my content sources (Facebook, twitter, this blog, Linkedin, stories I’ve dug, …). In another tab, you can see search results from my “network” or sites that I follow and/or trust. Of course you can get plain ol’ web results too or you can get results that are specific only to this site.

The idea is that it aggregates all of my content and trusted sources so you can find it in one place while still differentiating between my content (in the case of me) or content from my network.

It’s a clever idea and one which should do well. I’m going to continue testing it for a while but if all goes well I’ll remove the default search for this site and use only the lijit wijit.

I learned about lijit at WordCamp 2008 while talking to Aaron Brazel who is now working with lijit.

lijit has also secured $7.1M in Series C funding so they should be araound and doing well for sometime. I’m looking forward to seeing how this grows and evolves.

If you’re a WordPress user they also have a lijit search plugin with integrated statistics to replace the default WordPress search. I’ll be pluggin that in shortly. Note: ***This plug-in is only available for those WordPress users with versions 2.3-2.6.***

Do some lijit searches and let me know how it works for you.

Current features include: Discussion Forums, Guides, Calendars, Wiki’s, Blogs and Social Networking with more features slated for each release.

To experience Community Crush or request your community to be added please visit: http://www.communitycrush.com

Community Crush is currently in Beta with six active communities and more coming online shortly. Individuals interested in opening their community can request their community on the home page.

Community Crush is owned and Operated by BlackBox Technologies.

Visit Community Crush at http://www.communitycrush.com

SEO Tip: Use Multiple RSS Feeds (for each category)

Plugins:

SEO Title Tag
WP-Sticky or Adhesive
Progressive License

Operator : Firefox Add On

Link Love from WC 2008:

netconcepts.com : seo

redmonk.com - open source analyst firm

http://redmonk.com/sogrady/ - stephen o’grady

revolutiontheme.com : Premium WordPress themes from Brian Gardner

engrishfunny.com

LOLCats

http://markjaquith.com/ : code animal

http://getsatisfaction.com/ : syndicate your profile

technosailor.com : Aaron Brazell

ma.tt : Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress

SEO Rapper : Charles Lewis

Do the Page Rank: From the SEO Rapper

http://www.vcwear.com/

Quotes:

“Find the intersection of commercial and open-source interests.” - Stephen O’Grady

“I just bought one of your themes. But what is WordPress? ” - Brian Gardner on a support e-mail he received.

“WordPress.org now drives 2,604,288 blogs and is increasing by thousands a day.” - Matt Mullenweg

FYI:

Version 2.5.1 and higher is secure. If you are on a lower version, UPGRADE!

Other good coverage from WordCamp 2008:

TechCrunch

ZDNet

CNET

Aaron Brazell

Sneak Peek at “Crazy Horse” The next generation of WordPress

]]> http://www.vsellis.com/newsinfo/updates-from-wordcamp-2008/feed/ http://www.vsellis.com/technology/twitter-applied/ http://www.vsellis.com/technology/twitter-applied/#comments Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:26:04 +0000 Scott Ellis http://www.vsellis.com/?p=263 It hasn’t failed to surprise me how many people don’t get an application like Twitter. I will concede that most of the “noise” on Twitter, not unlike much of the noise on the web is just that, “noise.” However, like the web, Gwitter like applications have potential to be more than the “Me-generations” platform for narcissistic self indulgence. I’ve started to see some fairly interesting uses of twitter for actual conversation and relaying useful information rather than simply telling everyone what you are doing right now (really, do we need to know you are having lunch?).

So I’ve looked around and pondered the question and here are a few ideas for getting something more out of Twitter and making the platform useful for all:

1. Ask a question about something you really need to know the answer to. Instead of “How is everyone today?” try “Has anyone seen the new Movie? How was it?”
2. Answer other people when they ask useful questions, ignore them when they don’t.
3. Get Local, connect with people who live where you do, the conversations will be more relevant to your daily life.
4. If you aren’t already, Tweet from your mobile phone, real-time is more relevant and the spontaneity more genuine.
5. Think of your tweet as a mini-blog, not a way to broadcast your every thought. Trust me, no matter how funny it is in your mind, it may not be to everyone else.
6. Twitter as a news source, spread timely info.
7. If you’re traveling, Twitter your location from time to time. It can be fun and is a good way for close family or friends to know where you are (I’ve done this on a couple long road trips and it’s helpful).
8. Twitter announcements like a press release, but do so sparingly otherwise people will stop paying attention.

This is hardly an all encompassing list but should get you started on some more practical uses for Twitter.

Enter Tripit. The service works by simply setting up your account and then when you book travel, such as with an airlines, you just send the same confirmation e-mail to Tripit that you receive and their system will parse the information and add it to your Tripit calendar which can also be syndicated to another application such as to your Google Calendar. The first time I sent an itinirary in I was surprised at how quickly and accurately everything showed up. Next, Tripit will compare your travel itinirary to people with whom you choose to share your information and let you know when you will be in close proximity to someone else, either because they live there or because of their travel.

I love Tripit on two fronts. One, the ease of getting my travle schedule into my calendar which I previously had to manually type in from whatever obscure form it was sent and the ability to know whhen I’m close to other people I know who are also traveling.

I’m not sure how Tripit will fare (har har) as a standalone business but they seem like a likely acquisition target or would do well to license or otherwise sell their technology to the big travel sites by creating an integration point between them. Hopefully they have a patent or other protection on their idea as the idea would not be difficult to replicate.

Business Intelligence is the process by which we gather meaningful, raw information about our business and make sense of it through well thought out analysis and defined analytics. More simply put, BI is the process of putting the puzzle pieces together so you can see the real picture. For example, it’s great to know how many visitors you have to your web site but it’s also essentially useless unless you also know things like:

• where they came from (google, direct, a link on someones site, …)
• what keywords drove them to your site
• when they came
• what they did when they were there
• what place in the purchase process they are dropping off
• etc…

Once we define the analytics that are important to us and gather a meaningful amount of raw data we can begin to draw a picture of our visitors/customers and their behaviors that will help us make decisions about how to better target our efforts to them, make our site easier to use, buy things from and generally provide a positive user experience.

The intent is of course to drive more traffic and more sales as measured in visits and conversions respectively. The difference between where you are now and where you will be when you start mining and making sense of your data can be enormous. But even if the difference is smaller than you would like, it is still likely to be enough to give you an edge over your competitors who don’t leverage BI.

Effective use of Business Intelligence is also an important tool for small businesses who want to grow beyond small and into medium and eventually large status. Besides the raw analytics and data you will collect over time, the process of BI may also help you stay focused on what is working for you and helping you grow, an important consideration since so many businesses start to loose their way or try to be all things to all people as they grow which is typically a huge mistake.

Consider very carefully the intelligence you can derive from your business and if you’re not sure where to start, contact me if you would like help getting started. We’ll look at your business wholistically to make sure we consider as many relevant areas as possible. Your website is a great place to start but there is a lot of info that can also be derived from your daily operations and interactions as well.

Watch the data and get smarter!

However, over the past few years, the open source movement has gained tremendous ground in it’s battle for broad acceptance and reliability. I would dare say, open source is coming of age. The broad use of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) to build still more open source applications is eclipsed only by the applications built on that framework. Of course WordPress and Firefox immediately come to mind but the number of open source projects abounds.

The open source platform enablers such as Apache and Linux have enjoyed wide use in the enterprise for some time but the applications built on them have struggled to gain acceptance in those same businesses though for good reason. Most of them simply weren’t ready for prime time. But that’s changing and quickly so. With applications such as MySQL driving more and more databases, and WordPress running some large and complex websites, businesses are starting to realize the benefits of using free, open source applications and are finding out how reliable they can be. More importantly, the age and durability of those applications means there is also a growing talent pool of professionals capable of supporting them.

The idea is, that out of this movement a few things will happen.

1. Incumbent, non-open source giants will begin to be displaced for basic service offerings (think Apache instead of IIS).
2. New businesses will grow on the backs of open source applications, and not just new products, but services companies as well
3. Open source technologies could eventually rival complex enterprise applications.

Number 2 is exactly why I started BlackBox Technologies. A lot of businesses are using open source applications and need expertise to support them and help them get up and running or to maintain those applications. Also, a lot of small businesses and individuals can now afford powerful, scalable, flexible websites because they can be built by professionals at a relatively low cost without incurring software licensing fees, now or ever.

But, number 3 is what intrigues me the most and is where I hope BlackBox will go, eventually, even if only in part. The open source movement has proven that it is capable of building applications that can operate effectively at the enterprise level. When coupled with a subject matter expert in a particular discipline such as law, real estate, corporate governance, etc… the technical minds that contribute en masse to open source projects will have an opportunity to compete or displace incumbent software providers.

There will be concerns about security, reliability, support … all of which are quite valid to the enterprise, and all of which can be addressed and mitigated. Early adoption would likely begin at a snails pace, but there is a very viable opportunity with a fortune waiting to be made from the services associated with those applications (see #2). At the same time the cost savings to large companies would be quite literally billions per year.

There are some applications which don’t lend themself to a services oriented revenue stream and will always cost money, and quite frankly, that is ok. People deserve to make money for their hard work and some apps will demand a premium, but the opportunity abounds for those willing to start the ball rolling now on the open source revolution for the enterprise.

PS: Just as I was finishing writing this I caught wind of a website that is at the grassroots level of just such a project. Slipfire is a start-up, open source project aimed at developing a CRM (Customer Relationship Mangement) application on the WordPress platform. If you are inclined to help an open source application out this might be a good one to get involved with. I don’t know much more about it but I’ll be keeping a close eye on where this goes.