More about Web 22.0 below…but here’s the set-up first.

I tweeted yesterday, quite innocently, if I may add

‘ Steve Jobs is already working on a better version of you.’

I expected the tweet to go unnoticed since hootsuites magnificent metrics measured my Klout at a bottom scraping 10.

Not to be.

‘@Rawkreative Already standing in line RT @jacobvar: Steve Jobs is already working on a better version of you.’

I already knew that- Facebook had checked him in. I had to warn @rawkreative  that things were going to get worse.

‘ be careful, Zuckerberg has hidden the privacy settings on it.’ I subtly twitformed him.

However as a matter of public interest it’s my duty to divulge more in this blog post.

Steve has decided to name that better version of you ‘Web 22.0‘. Holding the iphone correctly is only one of the things that better version of you (called Web 22.0) will be capable of.

Don’t be alarmed. All the ‘social media marketing consultants’ that matter have already written blog posts (not in public domain yet) about how you should behave as Web 22.0.

It’s all laid out for you. Web 22.0 will be your adulthood, its been decided conclusively, you will have an infinitely better existence as Web 22.0.

What is not sure is if the Google, Verizon duo will love you- Web 22.0, on broadband as much as on wireless. Zuckerberg has decided to love you regardless, since you keep no secrets from him. You will be ‘public domain’.

Have any ideas on how Web 22.0 should be? Please feel free to comment or simply open up a wiki page on it and inform me. We can probably have inconsequential but serious deliberations. We can, at the least, laugh at our digitally recorded foolish notions when we finally become what we can be…Web 22.0!.

‘Was the last tenant a smoker?’ too innocent a question to unsettle the super so.

‘No! Smoking is prohibited in the building!’, he replied with terse finality. ‘Goodbye’ he continued to avoid her eyes. He suddenly seemed to be in a rush to go wherever it was he wanted to go to.

A decidedly abrupt ending to what was an amicable chat till then, thought Karen. He had helped her carry her boxes up the stairs. He had even gone out of his way to move a rocking chair, into her apartment, from the adjoining corridor saying  ‘Abandoned by the previous tenant, its yours if you want it’.

Anyway, she was tired from her trip. It was her first time using the U-Haul truck solo and the drive from Toronto had drained her. She had expected to get to Montreal before dark.

The rental was easy enough to get to even after sunset…in the heart of the McGill ghetto. She was pleased when she found out that the rent paid for wifi too. The McGill professor, also the landlord, took great pains to remind her of this fact during their negotiations.

‘Even though it is a reconfigured townhouse from the 1800’s’ he stressed. Almost as if he knew that it did matter to her since she did not have to rush on a smart phone purchase. Her trusty laptop could do for now.

She found that her newly acquired rocking chair was a comfortable spot for some digital surfing. After checking her inbox and finding nothing of great consequence, she hopped onto Twitter.

@tomcruise-BLOG: Mind-blowing Minority Report technology for real!? Watch video of new tech pulled straight from the screen: http://clicky.me/Gspeak

Tom Cruise – her moms first love and the only reason Karen was following his verified twitter account. She almost ‘unfollowed’ him when she figured out that his PR folks were managing and ghost-writing his blog and twitter account. But this post was interesting…she liked ‘Minority Report’ and the blog post showcased a good likeness of the technology she first saw in that movie.

Then the distinct smell of cigarette smoke and someone literally breathing down her neck. The breath was ICE COLD! She froze, whirled around. Nothing. The smell seemed to be receding too.

She better take a shower and get to bed, she decided, leave the unpacking for the next day.

The water was warm and she looked forward to bed, even though it was just a mattress on the bare but recently polished wood paneled floor.

As she stepped out of the bathroom the place reeked of cigarette smoke again. It almost made her physically sick. She had to talk to the super about this. Tomorrow. Time to sleep now.

She was surprised that she found herself fearfully staring into the darkness before her, for so long. She thought she would be asleep as soon as she hit the bed.

Maybe it was the smell. ‘No! Smoking is prohibited in the building!’ Her tired mind was playing tricks on her. Convincing her she was in the audience of…

Very so often it’s the simplest of things that draw your attention back to things that really matter.

Things that we know all along but are easily submerged, by the deluge of distraction in our digital lives.

That’s how the kids summer vacation went by. Compared to most, I do spend a lot of time with the kids…doing things together. Simple but enriching stuff.

Regular walks around the neighborhood. Hiking. Biking trips. Movies in the park.

Things that will form the memories of our lives together as a family. Beyond the reality shows and the hottest gadget, games or trends of the day.

However, there was so much more to do this summer. When I spent most of my time in the digital deluge.

@breakawaydad  does not tweet that much, I imagine he is away doing the more important stuff. His rare twitter appearances remind me to break away and do the bigger stuff…be a dad.

So tomorrow, the week before summer vacation ends. We wake up at 6 am to go climb a mountain.

Thanks @breakawaydad!
.

Them be strong words, thought Ramesh

Block out all that he did not agree with or try keep an open mind about it?

The profile showed:
Child of God – Married – Gun carrying NRA Conservative – Right Winger hard Core Anti Obama (Pro America), Parrothead – www.ABoldStepBack.com

It conflicted with his ‘tweet totem’. The words ‘tweet totem’ magically popped into his head. Apt description for someone he did not share much in common with.  He loved the movie that inspired the idiom.

@TPO_Hisself was the sort of the right wing guy that worried him even when he accepted the job offer in ‘Umreeka’ (as his mother called it). The irony being that he identified with the right-wingers back home, taking after his dad. Papa was the ardent RSS guy.

The current distance helped him step outside Papa’s commanding mental stranglehold over his opinions.

Now he felt the shoe was sort of on the other foot. He was the ‘outsider’, the one who had to prove his loyalties.

In America, all he knew about people of similar convictions as @TPO_Hisself  was from the mainstream media.

Why leave it to the media to interpret what someone else is or is not? Not when technology allows him to cut out the middle-man.

He will  follow @TPO_Hisself and find out what he has to say.

To an audience of one.

Whoa, Twitter is on fire. Lots of catching up to do.

‘Sonic booms’ is trending at number 1…what’s that about? Tweeted by @Breakingnews: Violation of airspace around President Obama’s plane scrambles fighter jets that cause sonic booms near Seattle – AP

A quick look @Rockwall. Following: 9285. Followers: 12,452
Tweets: 2. WHAT!? Must have been a powerful couple of tweets. Or I’m hopelessly uninformed.

Me? Uninformed? I religiously read the daily morning paper in addition to copious amounts of digital content.

Only visible tweet by @Rockwall: ‘The Monkey’s Child’ is my life work on self development with unique practical wisdom. www.personalskills4u.com I’ve just finished the shed!

Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. That does not seem all that impressive. Just makes me want to dig deeper. AHA! That’s the hook.

Checked the site out, googled too. Found more information on the site than on google. Sounds like hes doing some interesting work. Did not have much time but had to satiate that lingering feeling of inadequacy of being uninformed.

Signed up for the newsletter.

Will wait to see how our paths cross again, @Rockwall the enigma. What glimpse of serendipity you bring?

For an audience of one.

He made it a point to comment on most of her photo albums. To ‘like’ many of the random things that she said.

One would think Azad never got over the high-school crush he had on her.

It was like he was following her, watching everything she said or did online. Which lately was only on facebook. How could one make time for more than one of these ‘social’ thingies?

Azad was an uncommon name even in Lebanon. His Iranian dad apparently insisted on it.

She tried to dissuade Azad Hamidi in her own way. Not commenting on his posts or being excessively interactive. Even ignoring some of his posts.

Aaron, her 11 yr old, taking his first facebook steps noticed Azad too. He often joked that ‘AAAzed’ is all over facebook. That North American pronunciation of the exotic name always made Kyra smile.

The accent that a first generation Lebanese immigrant like her would have liked to own. Thank goodness her grammar in English and French was strong. Made her feel confident even without the local accent.

Then one day Azad sort of disappeared. Oh he was still logging in on facebook. Just not appearing in her feed…often enough.

Something similar happened before. Back then she made it a point to draw him back to her by commenting on some insignificant post of his. She missed the attention, it was different.

That tactic would not work again. Would be too obvious. Especially since she confided about Azads FB stalking to her best friend Suzanne. ‘AsStalker’ is what Kyra referred to him in jest. After all he was a world away. No harm done.

What Kyra could do for now, is follow everything that he said or did online. If only Suzanne knew what she was up to. Suzanne was never convinced of who was doing the stalking in the first place.

The audience of one.

Step2 : Say how you know what you did was wrong

Step 3: Ask what you can do to make it better

Last night, right after the twitter #blogchat with @chrisbrogan, Danny relapsed into one of his infamous temper episodes. It wasn’t too bad compared to the other times. His treatment was working. It still confused Theresa though. The lows and the highs.

Next morning Danny noticed a new twitter follower. ‘She’s cute’ he thought to himself. He followed @kellyhclay back.  Later, he was serendipitously glad he did.

Loved her morning tweet . ‘Good morning! Not a bad way to start my day… http://twitpic.com/2fb7za’ .

Any other day it was an ordinary picture of a sunrise or sunset (one has to trust what the photographer says). Today the twitpic seemed to wake him out of the slump he was in.

Maybe it was not just the picture. Joie de vivre transcending the intermediate divides?

So what was it about #blogchat ?

‘one thing #NOT to do is use LinkedIn only for Business, FB only for fun, etc.’ tweeted @chrisbrogan.

Easier said than done. Nevertheless, a lot of similar gems in that #blogchat, thought Danny. The dude knows what he is talking about. So do the others in there.

I’m a long way from all the things I have to get done to where I want to be. That explains the latest episode of grumpiness.

Theresa never complains. Be strong Danny, she said. Not being able to afford the child she badly wanted would have to be playing on her mind. Not just the fact that they were both unemployed for a year. Still ‘Be strong’ she says.

It’s tough when both partners are job-hunting in a struggling economy.

Danny had read the three steps somewhere sometime. He had to follow the steps now as Theresa returned from picking up the groceries.  In order to do all the things I have to get done to be where I want to be.

The audience of one.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3XzUYd6nrU

As the title implies, this is a movie that can probably be watched multiple times. Not that I found it difficult to follow, just that I am sure I missed bits and pieces. Which brings me to the question, why do I care enough to want to go back and fill in the details? Well the answer is that it is a pretty good movie compared to the some of the other stuff thrown our way. However, I do think this movie fell short of the great movie mark. A pity.

The good parts first. Visually amazing. A great way to use effects to tell a story. Nothing felt out of place or over the top. Come to think of it, there were instances when I felt I was watching scenes from ‘2012’ or ‘The day after tomorrow’. Given the plot, these visual déjà vus can be given a pass.

As for the acting… strong performances by Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Ellen Page. In that order imo. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was particularly impressive in what I think is his first major adult role. We are probably seeing the first glimpses of a promising thespian career. Ken Watanabe did not shine as much as he would have in any of his typically flamboyant roles. Still, a decent supporting performance. The rest of the cast were tight too.

In a movie like this, the plot is the star, and that is a good thing in the era of predictable plot lines. I cannot help feeling that the dialogues did not have to be so wordy and offer a play by play unraveling of the story. If these were handled more subtly, it would have probably helped with character development. I would have preferred to see more fleshed out and motivated characters à la ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ (Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet), one of my favourites which shares some plot elements. In my opinionated world, the folk behind ‘Inception’ lost out on the opportunity at making a good movie great by sacrificing in the character development department.

Then again, with ‘Inception’ the plot is the star. Not the characters. Nevertheless, the ending was a tad predictable.

Maybe the director Christopher Nolan made the conscious decision to opt for a more easily digestible commercial fare. Judging by the buzz, he succeeded.

So yeah, it’s worth a watch at the theater and you may feel the need to watch it again to flesh out some of the details you missed the first time around. A good sign.

Go for it!

About 8 months after a major media launch Google announced that it is going to be canning ‘Wave’. ‘Wave’ apparently did not gain enough momentum to transform into a tsunami and ended up little more than a ripple. Bad puns aside, the case illustrates that even talented proven teams, like the Rasmussen brothers who also gave us Google maps and huge companies like Google who gave us, well…the rest of the internet … can fail at making a product succeed in the market.

Get a real job:

Statistics show that 8 out of 10 businesses fail within the first three years.  I’ve also read (though I cannot find the link) that an average entrepreneur goes through 20 ventures before getting it right. So entrepreneurship is definitely not for the faint of heart. Imagine being fired from 20 jobs prior to finding one you like. It can take its toll.

In other words, statistically, one is more likely to make money at a job than in their own business AND psychologically (even without considering that it’s a lonely climb) most people are probably more equipped to work for someone else than to work for themselves.

In my first post on the subject of entrepreneurship here are my thoughts on what can be considered the two ‘book-ends’ of the entrepreneurial process:

• The Idea
• The process of Selling

The idea is not that ‘great’:

Many budding entrepreneurs are convinced that the initial ‘Idea’ is worth its weight in gold. They are sure that once the product or service is set up or manufactured, consumers will appear in droves. Build the website, set up the distribution channel or restaurant and away we go! After all, it’s a great idea!

From my experiences as an entrepreneur as well as helping other entrepreneurs move their products to market, I hold the view that the ‘Idea’ by itself is merely a catalyst to the whole process. Optimism is a necessary trait for launching a business. However, it can also be an impediment if no thought is given to how the idea is will be presented to and adopted by the market. Building a product is just the start of the battle. ‘Build it and they will come’ is not really true as most entrepreneurs find out. If Google with all their marketing power, reach and media resources could not get the formula right, it’s not going to be easy for anyone else either. The newer the product or service, the greater the risk… as the Rasmussen brothers have confirmed with their Google ‘Wave’ experiment.  In other words, the risk is generally lower if you have a proven product, brand, or service, like your grandfather’s jewelery store passed down to you vs. a franchise vs. a totally new concept in fine dining or technology.

I’ve built it but I cannot sell it:

I’ve often been approached by people offering me an equity in a product if I help them build the technology, website, design etc. It seems like a fair deal at the outset; their idea, my efforts. Not really, considering that if the product does not sell, my efforts are going to be in vain. Any percentage of ‘zero’ is still ‘zero’. For those with similar offers, it’s a good idea to look for the marketing commitment/resources in terms of budget allocated to actually ‘sell’ the product. Educating the customer about a product or service is expensive and/or time consuming. If the entire budget is spent on building a product that nobody knows about, everyone is going to be left with ‘zero’ by the end of it.

Social media tools have made it easier to educate a customer about a product or service. These tools provide businesses easier access to the customer. However, as businesses learn about these tools they also compete with each other for customer attention, increasing the noise that the customer eventually blocks out. Remember those banner ads that you now know how to ignore?

In this environment if one does not have the resources to help stand out from the crowd or at the least use these tools to build relationships using social media platforms, the chances of success diminish. Creating product awareness is often not enough to ensure product/service adoption as once again, the Google ‘Wave’ example shows. In the case of online products, adoption is still a long way from actual profitability or even revenue (in some cases…read on Twitter’s challenges in this regard).

Often the ‘idea’ person is totally unaware about the long road to product/service adoption in the market place, let alone profitability.

Using rapidly evolving social media marketing strategies is a skill in itself. As someone who handles social media accounts including twitter and facebook for my clients, I should probably mention the common mistakes some entrepreneurs make. Too much for this post, maybe later!

Are you a fool?:

Are you? . Am I being too negative?  Well, there’s a reason for the high number of failures in business. At the same time, one has to know that these failures are what help make your next steps or venture even stronger. After all, someone has to create those ‘secure’ jobs everyone likes. That is, if you are foolish enough to give it another go.

Video of Steve Jobs -- ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

More to come…

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