Lawrence Gee | Marketing, Internet, Creativity, Strategy

This Blog Post Will Live In The Internet Forever

Society is in a transition stage when it comes to information.  Technology has enhanced not only the speed in which people access information but also the breadth of it.  This leads to less anonymity and cases like one that I came across about a Ryerson University freshman who is fighting 147 charges of academic misconduct because he was helping run a chemistry study group on Facebook. I’m not saying that the student wasn’t in the wrong here but he shouldn’t be at risk for expulsion either.  Comparing answers, discussing problems, and helping other students out is a part of academia and whether it was done in person or online shouldn’t matter.  In the end, it’s student education and the learning process that should be the focal point here.   

As part of the learning process, everyone, especially younger generations, needs to understand that anything that is posted on the web is probably able to be found with enough searching.  Again, it goes back to the breadth of information and speed to which you can access it.  There are many tools like Wink.com which can search social networks, blogs, websites, and more and give you back results based on search criteria such as last name, location, school, interests, etc. 

Students are not the only ones who are naive about the drunken photos they post on their social networks.  Last July, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey was discovered to have anonymously posted negative forum posts against his company’s competitor, Wild Oats Markets from 1999 to 2006. With so much data being stored and tracked, you can find out almost anything these days. 

Society needs to be more sensitive to these issues and should be conscious about what they do online.  I understand that my blog, my social networking profiles, pictures that I and other people post, etc. are all potentially accessible by anyone.  But, I’m also quite vigilant in monitoring what is out there and accessing the risk when I put content out there myself.

That being said, I’m sure that I’m in the minority of those who strongly considers how they interact with the Internet.  There are new rules of conduct that are taking shape in this digital world today and it’ll take time for the adjustments to take place.  I believe that society should be more forgiving towards conflicts that arise and issues like the one at Ryerson University. 

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Will You Be Reading This Post On An Amazon Kindle Someday?

The Amazon Kindle is another big company foray into the world of e-books.   Similar to the Sony Reader, Amazon is trying to capitalize on the belief that people are willing to forego the paper version of books and convert to an all digital solution.  There was a time when the publishing industry was extremely worried about their business model dissolving and were thinking about ways to offer digital solutions.  Even my company before business school, Aplia, incorporated digital versions of Economic textbooks into our product offerings.  However we didn’t see them as a full replacement for a physical textbook.  Rather, we treated the online version as a lower cost alternative for students. We certainly didn’t see digital books as transforming publishing as much as the major publishers did.  And as of now, the fear of people throwing away their paper based books have certainly not been realized.

There are several problems that people have generally had with reading text digitally - it’s usually the complaint of eye strain/fatigue, readability and the scannability of digital text, and portability. Amazon’s Kindle seems to have gotten rid of most of the common complaints of digital text.  It has a paper-like screen that acts and feels like you are reading a real book.  The screen is not backlit and actually uses real ink (just displays the ink particles electronically).  There are different font sizes for your reading preference and has an ergonomic design and shape that’s similar to holding a book.  Plus since it’s a stand alone reader that weighs only 10.3 pounds, you can bring it anywhere.  If you watch the video demonstration of the Kindle, it looks pretty impressive.  Definitely much better than I initially thought it would be.

The only issue right now I have with the Kindle is it’s price point.  The reader itself costs $399 with Kindle formatted books for $9.99 each.  Subscriptions to newspapers like the NY Times and The Wall Street Journal range from $9.99 to $14.99.  Magazines cost $2-3 an issue.

I think the price of the Kindle itself is prohibitive to the mass market and mass acceptance.  While early adopters will gobble up the Kindle (as evidenced by the fact it’s already on backorder), I think in the long run Amazon will need to take a “razor and blades “or “cell phone and service” model.  This means essentially giving the Kindle away with a large subsidy or as close to free as possible.  Where they will make their money is on the books, magazines, and newspapers that I presume they get a cut of due to Kindle’s proprietary format and specific networks. 

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Is Facebook the Next Evolution of E-mail?

 From the daily (often hourly) ritual of checking Facebook for updates on the lives of my friends I began to wonder, could Facebook be the next evolution of personal e-mail?  What is E-Mail?  Well, Wikipedia defines it as ”a store and forward method of composing, sending, storing, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems.”  On the personal side, many people send emails to share news, forward interesting articles, discuss topics, and/or communicate to multiple people at once.

On Facebook, one can definitely compose, send, store, and receive messages (via private message or on someone’s wall).  One can share news (through status updates) and forward interesting articles (group postings).  Topics can be debated via wall posts and status updates can be equivalent to a message to multiple friends. 

The difference for Facebook is interactivity, speed, and personality.  Yes emails are informative, but on Facebook wall posts back and forth are conversations.  Yes I can spend the time to email all my friends to what’s new in my life, but in Facebook I can merely change the status in my profile and instantly let all my friends know what I’m up to or feeling.  While e-mail is merely an address, Facebook provides profiles where I can put a face and personal information (via what they put in their profiles, show in their photos, etc.) to the messages they send.  These aspects seem quite powerful.  Could we be saying in the future, “I’ll Facebook it to you?” instead of “I’ll e-mail it to you?”

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Why iTunes Should Be Worried

Yesterday, Amazon.com unveiled their new digital download service called amazonmp3.

Simply, this is great for consumers and troublesome for Apple.  The competition is great for the industry as it will create more incentives to be price competitive.  Consumers will benefit from lower prices, more promotions, and more innovation from both companies to keep or take away business from each other.

Amazon has positioned their product for success and it’ll be interesting to see Apple’s reaction. 

• Amazonmp3s can work with both iPods and other MP3s — will Apple finally succumb and allow iTunes music to be played on other non-Apple players?
• Amazonmp3s are DRM-free — this means that the files can be burned and transfers without restriction.  iTunes currently limits the number of times the file can be used and burned to CD.
• Amazonmp3 has 2 million songs right now - this is much less than the 6 million songs that iTunes currently has but record labels will be wise to negotiate deals with both companies.
• Amazon.com has a trustworthy name and the capital to keep this service going — unlike other failed mp3 sellers, Amazon has the money and branding to pull this off.  If purchasing music is as easy as iTunes, they can likely be a threat to Apple.

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Go Go Google Gadget

Apparently Google is continuing its efforts to push advertising to be more dynamic, engaging, and interactive.  It has apparently been testing its latest ad format - Google Gadget ads - since May 2007 but now is starting to slowly rollout. 

According to Google’s help - “If gadget ads are enabled in your account, you will have received an invitation to create gadget ads from the Google support team. If you haven’t received this notice, don’t despair: We expect to offer Google Gadget Ads to other advertisers in the future as the launch progresses.”

This looks like a better alternative to rollover video ads as it provides the user a greater chance to interact with the ad without committing to going to the actual site.  For an example, click here.

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