Matt’s Cuppa Diigo Post 05/13/2008
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Lessons from SOBCon08
Some of you have noticed that my blog theme has been changed every, oh, thirty seconds or so this morning. I’ve posted a lot on the great lessons and relationships I took away from SOBCon08. Over the next few days (or however long it takes) I’ll be working to incorporate those lessons into the blog here at Matt’s Cuppa. But it’s not just my blog, it’s your community as well. So, please, provide feedback as I do this. And, thank you for your patience as I make Matt’s Cuppa a better blog.
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Philosophical Moments in an Irish Pub Chicago
I was sitting at a table at Emerald Loop last Friday with a boatload of bloggers when Thomas sat down and introduced himself. He noted that I wasn’t drinking and asked what I prefer instead of alcohol. “Well,” I responded, “I prefer a really good tea.” “What kind?” he pressed. I took a deep breath and began to tell him about Runglee Rungliot.
Runglee Rungliot is a tea garden high in the Darjeeling region of India, and also the name of the tea produced there. I was first introduced to this tea nearly a decade ago and have yet to be disappointed, assuming it is properly brewed. The name Runglee Rungliot is translated as something like, “Thus far and no further,” referring to the garden’s situation at top of a mountain. Now, if one were to take one of these tea plants and plant it anywhere other than this garden at the top of this mountain, it would not produce the same tea. In fact, it would most likely produce dreadful tea. In short, it would no longer be Runglee Rungliot.
I realized as I was speaking that we each have our own personal Runglee Rungliot. We each have our mountain to climb and somewhere near the top of our mountain is a garden where we produce our best, whatever that best may be. There’s a place up there where the soil is perfect and the temperature is just right, and rainclouds cling to the mountain side in just the right way.
It’s up there, but we have to climb our mountain to find it. In today’s world it’s not easy to make that climb. The news media, politicians, and product marketers all want you to climb their mountain. So many distractions exist that get in the way and confuse us into thinking we’re hiking up the right slope when we’re really not.
It’s up to us to look deep inside ourselves, to see the shape of the mountain at our core. The mountain represents the landscape created by our unique combination of skills and abilities and talents and beliefs. All these culminate, at the top of a steep climb, in the right conditions for you to become You.
This was a bit of a sweeping vista of a thought to have while sitting in an Irish pub talking to someone I’d met less than five minutes ago. It’s what we’re all struggling for in life, though, to find our mountain and to stand on its peak looking down at how far we’ve come. We each have our own personal garden up there– our very own Runglee Rungliot– It’s up to us to make the climb.
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Why I Think BooRah Will Succeed
In my recent eHub post about restaurant review aggregator, BooRah.com, I mention that one of the most difficult things about writing the article was deciding on what I should leave out. I called the website “…the tip of the BooRah iceberg.” Perhaps I should have added that my review touched on only the tip of the tip of the BooRah iceberg. (Maybe that makes it an ice cube instead of an iceberg…)
Talking with Brian and Nagaraju prior to preparing the article was quite different than many of the interviews and demos in which I’ve participated. In speaking with people who operate in the world of “web 2.0″, you inevitably run into a wide spectrum of professionalism. (While that’s true elsewhere as well, I sometimes think that the speed of change on the internet doesn’t always leave time for professionalism in our interactions.) Throughout our communication, there was a general sense that these two weren’t strangers to the business side of Silicon Valley.
This became more apparent as we discussed what BooRah actually was. While a tremendous amount of energy and investment has gone into building BooRah.com, the website is really only BooRah’s public face. The technology behind the face, the semantic aggregation of data that meets particular criteria, is really where the future lies. Our conversation in this direction was naturally limited. There is the whole corporate secrecy thing, and besides that, I would have immediately gotten lost as they tried to explain how exactly BooRah did what it did.
It was explained to me that BooRah definitely has plans to move beyond the bounds of a website. Indeed, they have already made in-roads by establishing partnerships with media producers to incorporate BooRah’s technology into their own sites. And there is no reason that BooRah can’t expand beyond aggregating foodie blogs and restaurant reviews, either. According to Nagaraju, preparations for such an expansion are already underway.
It very evident, and rather refreshing, that BooRah is one “Web 2.0″ startup whose business plan extends beyond being bought out by Google. Although the demo was rather one-sided due to some Skype issues on my end, I was shown a multi-faceted product built on a flexible and future-oriented technology. I was introduced to a team who is able to speak very competently about their business, not just their product. And as an added bonus, I learned a lot about the restaurant scene in Chicago just in time for SOBCon08.
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Farewell SOBCon08
Dear SOBCon’rs,
I wish I could have said good-bye to each of you in person. It was an amazing, inspiring weekend and I feel so fortunate to have shared with you. If I start thanking individuals I’m sure to miss someone important, but I have to say thanks to Liz and Terry, of course. And Chritine Kane for showing us that song writing is blogging out loud.
Of the many many things I will take away from SOBCon08 perhaps the most powerful is the sense that I am part of a community. It’s not a community of elitists as we see too often. It’s a community that is open and encouraging and welcoming. It didn’t matter that I walked in the door with a small obscure blog, SOBCon’rs still went out of their way to make me a part of what was happening.
One of the big themes I picked up from the event is the importance of community. I used to think it was conversation that was important, but there’s a difference between the two. Trust developes among a community. This is where your “social proof” comes from. And this is where Chris Brogan’s pirates come from.
I’ve come away today with so many ideas and resourses for both Matt’s Cuppa and my company, Ecogeekified. I can’t wait to explore these things. The best part is that I won’t be exploring them alone. I’ve always felt pride in being a blogger, but now I’m proud to be part of a COMMUNITY of bloggers.
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Decompressing at SOBCon08
I have so many new ideas spinning around in my head now from listening to today’s speakers. But what’s really amazing is that you listen to these people share their knowledge and then think, wow, I was hanging out at the bar with this person last night and they were totally approachable!
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Wendy Piersall
Err… Due to problems with sockets and stuff I lost my Wendy post failed to post. Stay tuned for more after I rest my fingers…
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Liz Strauss
On writing compelling offers.
Are they traffic, readers, or customers? Head, heart, meaning = frosted mini wheats. The frosting is what makes people buy.
Liz makes a HUGE point about meaning. Meaning turns people into customers. In sales its called the WIIFM- what’s in it for me (them). If the answer is nothing then you sell nothing.
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Chris Brogan
Starts with a secret: businesses are full of people.
Make people feel important. And the first Webkinz funeral is going to suck.
Hack your environment. Drive the world around you.
Community vs. Marketplace
people do things for people. Pirates will come in and take over if you fack with your community. And hell hath no fury like a scorned customer. AND what are the Pop Tarts for your community?
I have to admit Chris B is one of the primary reasons I’m here. I love how positive he sounds. I also love the idea of hacking your environment. Leveraging the communities where you’ve gained trust. And pirates. Leverage your army of passionate users. It’s not enough to lifehack any more, you’ve got to environmenthack. It’s broader and you’ve got to think broader than you. Actually, you’ve got to become broader than you if you want to make money on your reputation. The better your relationship with the PEOPLE in your community, the better your reputation and the more the people around will WANT you to make money, indeed will HELP you make money. (Of course I can’t take credit any of these thoughts. That’s why I’m a Chris B fan!)
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David Bullock
START: Business development action plan. “repackage” David talks about taking content, repackaging and selling it. It’s funny because I think there is a stigma against the idea of using someone else’s content in the blogosphere. What he is referring to, but hasn’t mentioned is taking content and adding value to it. This is different than simply rehashing content, which is a waste of your visitors’ time.
I’m totally getting into David’s application of business flow, process engineering to the business of blogging. Being a data geek means I can relate.
Covering web 2.0 companies for my own blog and for eHub, I see a lot of companies that don’t have business processes in place to systematically define, measure, and continue generating revenue. I also see some that have some these things. And I see the difference. It’s huge.
I wonder if bloggers, who tend to be creative types, tend to think that if they get the hits then the revenue generating system will fall into place. This means that the process of making money is out of our control. But as bloggers, imagine if we could take control of that process ourselves. That’s what David is talking about.
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