I first heard of Klout during an interview with their CEO Joe Fernandez, on This Week in Startups.

So what is it? For me, Klout is a method of measuring who is popular in social media and why.

Lets use a few examples:

• Scott Hanselman – Technologist and promoter of Diabetic awareness
• Em Rusciano – Australian television host & blogger
• Cathie McGinn – Australian social media commentator & blogger

Three people I admire, and all with a Klout score of 60 or better.

The “score” is a percentile rank. 60 or above means you are in the top 40%.

Below is a screen shot of Scott’s, Em’s & Cathie’s profiles:

This is very powerful stuff! It allows me to see how I compare to my peers, and provides me with intelligent data on what I can do to improve my social profile.

If I was being honest with myself, I’d say that I am focused, but not very consistent – the images above reflect this.

The lesson learnt here is that I need to create and I need to do this more often.

Back to Cathies’ tweet, it makes sense that she feels her most influential topics aren’t relevant to her – Klout describes Cathie as a Broadcaster – “She broadcasts great content that spreads like wildfire. An essential information source in her industry.”

Great!  From that I can conclude that I should be connecting with people like Cathie more often.  If what I write resonates with her, then there is a good chance she will tell her network.

Another extreme would Australian Comedian, Wil Anderson:

Klout thinks’ Wil is most influential on kurt cobain, the royal wedding & miley cyrus.  If you have listened to Wil’s podcast TOFOP, then you will have some idea of why the royal wedding was popular but also his material is very broad.

What can we learn from all this? 3 take home points:

1. Don’t take the score too seriously!  (Klout thinks I am influential on Unicorns…)  It is a great tool to see what makes up a person with a score of 20, 30 or 40.  It’s less clear on how you go from a 61 to a 67.
2. It is a good way to see who is doing what in social media – what’s working and what isn’t
3. Lastly, it is the only tool I’ve seen that allows you to compare yourself across a wide range of people

A good example is a post I wrote a couple of years ago.

What’s funny is that Rob even commented on the post. But unfortunately he missed the point. Rob is a classic “Ready, Fire, AIM!” type of person.

Case in point, I recently purchased a 12 month Tekpub subscription. (Tekpub is an online technical education resource).

Now a 12 month subscription for a little under $300 is good value. It’s competitors are either Youtube videos or companies like Plural Sight.

Last week, Rob posted this tweet:
.

Awesome! So why did I pay full price?

But that’s ok, Rob’s a good bloke! So I pinged him, asked if I could get a 29% extension, sent my Order Number (twice), followed him up…

And then? Well not much!

I don’t know what to make of it. Maybe he has updated my subscription? Maybe he hasn’t. Funny thing is that Tekpub doesn’t show when your subscription ends, just when you signed up.

I’ll keep you posted…

What do you think of Facebook in school?

I thought this was a great question that should be teased out.

In her post, she says that her school has banned access to Facebook, Youtube, Flickr etc. Yet these sites have kids excited about learning & excited about technology.

What I thought was interesting, is that Jaqui included a link to two youtube videos on what Social Media / Networking is.  But more on that in a moment.

My first reaction was to identify what would be banned in a school and should be banned.  There is no doubt that even soft porn has no place in school.  Even sites like Break (which has scantly dressed women and guys being kicked in the nuts) should be removed.

So what is the purpose of banning sites?  I can understand the argument that Facebook and Twitter offer limited (if any) educational value.  They are “fun”, but do they offer anything more meaningful?

But have a look at the two youtube video’s Jacqui linked to.  CommonCraft describe themselves as a creator of three-minute videos to help educators and influencers
introduce complex subjects.  (RSA have also done something similar).

To say the study of a businesses (and industry) that  just did not exist 5 years ago has no value in our schools is just crazy.  I think that if you are involved in media studies, art or even an english teacher and you are not using this medium, then you are doing your students a disservice.

Then again, there always will be someone willing to get kicked in the nuts!

The other day I tried to change my address through a company’s web site and it wouldn’t accept my new address because I “already have a phone number.” WTF??? I tried various workarounds including no phone number, and a fake phone number, but it insisted that once you have a phone number, and the system knows it, you can never change your address. So I asked myself, am I the first person who ever owned a phone and wanted to change his address?

Then he continues talking about all the dumb designs in his new house:

Our new light switches have light indicators to tell you when a switch is turned off. That’s right: The “on” light indicates that the switch is off. At least that’s how my brain has interpreted it nine hundred times in a row. I understand that they want to make it easy to find the switch in the dark. But did they ever test how people use these things?

Now I agree with the address change.  I’ve moved many times and kept the same phone number.  But I’d challenge Scott on the light switch thing.

He asked if they ever test the use of these things?  Well maybe, maybe not.  I bet what they did do, is test if people brought them or not!

So Scott I’d ask you this:  How did these get installed in your home?  What was the process there?

(I’m not picking on Scott here.)  Take mobile phones.  Personally I used to be very pro Nokia.  I once switched  to an LG and hated it.  Then along came the N95!

A great phone with lot’s of positive reviews – but the thing was just too cumbersome to use!  Features like GPS or Camera or some applications are great, but if it takes me 6 – 10 button clicks then its too hard and I loose interest!

Its interesting how some people feel it is absolutely necessary to choose visual detail like the right carpets, tiles, bathroom fittings, but will neglect some of the more cerebral elements.

Why is the iPhone so popular?  Why do people love Dorf Taps in their bathroom?

If this type of thing is pushing your buttons, then perhaps you should take a look at what you like and why?  What don’t you like and why?

Rock on!

During this adventure, I found author Justine Lee Musk.

Maybe it’s just me, but more than once I’ve found articles from totally separate worlds that seem to talk to each other.  Recently, Justine wrote about the concept of using Facebook or Twitter to get up close and personal with her audience.

As soon as I read this, Seth Godin’s Tribes sprang to mind.  I’ve joined a few networks and found them to be fantastic.

I think Justine is trying to get a balance of accessibility vs friction.  Facebook / Twitter have a low barrier to entry, but (as was suggested in the comments) has far too much noise.

Brilliant cartoonist Scott Meyer recently had a “ask me anything” Q & A on Reddit.

So there are multiple ways of connecting with your audience.

Personally, I prefer the Networks (or Tribes!) over Facebook or Twitter specifically because they have a higher amount of friction for entry.

The one question Justine didn’t answer was why?  Are you looking for a forum to push more product? To connect with your audience?  To better understand who out there is paying you attention?

One of the interesting things I’ve learnt from reading blogs, is how the right person can easily influenced what I buy.  It doesn’t take much for me to buy Seth’s next book, or to try out a new razor.

If someone at work suggested either, I would tell them to bugger off and stop wasting my time.

Who do you trust?

Some book publishers don’t like the Kindle. Either they’re afraid of it or they’ve crunched the numbers and they don’t like what they see.

Worried about the medium, they hold back, delay or even refuse to support it.

Which is fine if you have market power, but you likely don’t. No publisher does, certainly. The Beatles couldn’t stop iTunes from changing the record business by sitting out the platform, and there’s no book publisher who can stop the Kindle alone.

I like the idea of even  The Beatles can’t stop iTunes from changing the way we purchase music.  But I think Seth is being a little short sighted.  The Kindle isn’t available (yet) in Australia – actually it is only available in the US.  Compare this to another product that has international reach (iPhone!)

I think the Kindle is a game changer, but I can understand if Publishers haven’t jumped in just yet…

I once read that $30 was the upper limit price point for what people will pay without too much thought.  That makes sense when you think of CDs, DVDs or other items.

Would I pay more??  I don’t know.  Maybe if it came out in a week or so.

But if this takes much longer my attention span will disappear and he will have gone from a $40 sale to nothing…

Well on a whim, I decided to pre-order the game. This allows me to be part of the beta program.

First impression? This game is brilliant! I wrote previously that I would have paid $40 (rrp $20).

It is hard to describe how well done it is. The game is well polished, the music is brilliant and the concept (drawing on a screen) is very very well done.

If you remember back to the good ol’ Commodre 64 days, it’s like seeing Summer Games or Impossible Mission for the first time.  Or playing Doom on a PC.

That being said, the “beta” version is restricted and only has the first 18 levels.  That might sound a lot, but this includes the tutorial.  If you took longer than half an hour to do all 18 then there is something wrong with you.

I am disappointed that the game was completed so quick.  This smells more like a marketing / promotion exercise than a beta program.

Regardless, the game is very well done and I think it is the beginning of a genre of games.

Rock on!

Managed Services Search Result in Google

I thought I’d had an upgrade to one of my Firefox plugins.  Aparently not!

I read a post by Sebastian who couldn’t make heads or tails of it.  That inspired me to post this – thanks Sebastian!

Search for something on Google then you can vote up or comment wiki style.  I’ve used the Managed Services example above because our Company pays a hefty amount for that term.

Like Seth suggests, I believe the primary users of Adwords will jump in to game the system.

Who knows where it will go!?

Rock on!

Their market is background music for weddings and corporate functions.

One of the challenges when putting together something like this is what to include and what to leave out.

Apart from what you look like, the Repertoire List is the main focus of the site. The problem is, while everyone has heard it before, you may not know the difference between The Four Seasons (Vivaldi), Hallelujah Chorus (Handel) and Overture to Marriage of Figaro (Mozart).

I found this Pachelbel Canon on youtube:

Rock on!

FOUR-FOOT DIAL SHOWS PHONES MYSTERIES

The intricacies of using the dial telephone come easily to students at a western secretarial school, where a four-foot dial was recently rigged up to explain its mysteries.

Not a dummy, the big dial actually works. It is connected with two telephones, an amplifying apparatus, and a loudspeaker. When the instructor dials a number, the loudspeaker reproduces, so that all may hear them, the typical sounds that will be heard; and the instructor explains to the pupils what they mean.

I love it!

Everything new for a while…

In particular, Gen Y.

Seth Goddin did a post on Getting vs Taking

Most people spend a lot of time to get an education.
They wait for the teacher (hopefully a great one) to give them something of value.

Many employees do the same thing at work. They wait for a boss (hopefully a great one) to give them responsibility or authority or experiences that add up to a career.

A few people, not many, but a few, take. They take the best education they can get, pushing teachers for more, finding things to do, exploring non-defined niches. They take more courses than the minimum, they invent new projects and they show up with questions.

A few people, not many, take opportunities at work

I think then the better questions to ask is:  (As your Manager) What do I need to ask for you to take?

Why wouldn’t you take?

What do you think?

Read about it here

I saw this game in early Dec 07.  Right from the start this looks brilliant but I’ve found it frustrating how long this has taken.

I can understand the delayed release strategy though.   In early December, it would have been a great free game.

As time passed on, I still would have happily paid US$10 – $20 for it.

Now that it has won first prize???  Who knows how much he Petri will charge for it.

I once read that $30 was the upper limit price point for what people will pay without too much thought.  That makes sense when you think of CDs, DVDs or other items.

Would I pay more??  I don’t know.  Maybe if it came out in a week or so.

But if this takes much longer my attention span will disappear and he will have gone from a $40 sale to nothing…

Rock on!

He thinks that the “Designed in California” is a good thing.

A good thing??  I guess it might to someone from California.  It just sounds tacky to me.

I will agree with him on one point.  Guess what’s on the back of the Zune?

Hello from Seattle??  WTF is with that!

I think the Blue Monster has  a long way to go…

DISCLOSURE: I am a Project Manager with a competitor to Hothouse – IT Easy. A client of ours is developing a Peer to Peer Lending product.

Its a funny sort of thing to listen to. I’m not sure who their audience is. Everytime I have mentioned Peer to Peer lending, I have to explain just what it is.

They also talk about “wasabi”. What is that???

From what I can figure out, Linda Smith is the journalist who put this together. It just appears to me like something that was slapped together at the last moment.

After a quick look around I found Charis Palmer did a post on the podcast as well.She even got Wesabi right!

Now I could sit back from the cheap seats and have a rant and say this is why I no longer listen to radio, Cameron Reily  talks about this all the time and blah blah blah blah.

But seriously, I’d really like to know.  What’s the thought here?  Linda seriously, why not put a little more effort in?  Who is your audience?
Rock on!

Christian

What’s iGrin?  Well, there are two parts:

The Borrower:

You put up a profile, asking how much you would like to borrow, the interest rate and over what period

The Lender:

You review all Borrower details.  You can see their credit rating, what they want the loan for, how much they want and the interest rate.

You can select the loan you would like to fund (or part of loan) and bingo bango!  You have a deal!

It’s a weird concept but has worked in Europe and the US.

I’ll keep you posted…