Bjorno.licio.us

no, this is not a lurid post. So, back off, all you pervs out there…

Naked Conversations is this book I have been trying to finish for the past 2 months. Its about corporate blogging and how it can be useful in strengthening customer relationships. Its written by Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble who has been acclaimed by some people for single-handedly softening the image of Microsoft from "The Evil Empire" responsible for our Windows crashes and security vulnerabilities to "A Benevolent and Slightly Less Evil Empire" image. SO what the hell, yes i dun like Microsoft. Google rocks, please hire me… lol

So here's an excerpt I am reproducing from the book:

(Conversation with Michel-Edouard Leclerc, President, Assocation des Centres Distributeurs E. Leclerc)

Said LeClerc, "In order to save energy and capitalize on already formulated answers, I decided to create a personal site. My colleagues, younger than me and more expert on the Internet, convinced me to blog in order to be more interactive and in line with the current events." He said it serves two purposes. On a personal level, it is a space where he can structure and organize his ideas, helping him clarify his vision. On a professional level, it provides an efficient mechanism in which he can communicate with people who are interested in the organization."

LeClerc is an enormously busy person, perpetually in meetings, at conferences or in transit. "I am constantly questioned about my organization and how i view the company, the economy and social relations." The blog is a place where the questions more frequently asked of him can be answered, and anyone who wants to know can go to read him."

Here's my little pitch today about the importance of blogging and how it can communicate more about you as a person to a broader audience. Humans are social creatures, with internet, we gain access to a digital pipeline that connects us with an unprecedented number of people around the world. Yes, there might be negatives consequences of such unparalleled openness and access across the world, leading to privacy issues. However, we also gain by being able to communicate with like-minded people across the world that we learn from or help through interaction with them on the web. I am also an advocate of using blogging to express your personal views on issues that concern you in the world.

Some of my friends ask me: "why is your blog so boring? Its very different from what I am used to reading where people blog about their daily life." Yes, my answer is, I think blogs that showcase what clothes people wear, what they eat, where they went to study today, the things they do are but only one genre of blogs. In Singapore, such aforementioned blogs form an overwhelming majority. I am cool with that, I believe blogs are about self-expression, feel free to choose to express yourself anyway you like, by all means. I choose to express myself on issues I am concrned about such as technology, entrepreneurship, media, politics, space travel blah blah…

Oh, i also wanted throw in another pitch for blogging for businesses and corporations. I remember a professor who once mentioned that there are only two reasons why businesses hide and conceal information from the public –> INCOMPETENCE or ILLEGALITY. Transparency is the name of the game today in corporate governance. The "keep-customers-at-arms-length" approach is not going to work anymore for developed economies with sophisticated consumers who can blog about your crappy product on the internet, IM (instant-message) 20 friends that this product sucks. Think about the network effect of this negative publicity. No one is going to buy this product especially if the company is unable to speak up and respond directly on the internet which is where communication happens and resides today. Blogs solve that problem. Why? Because the internet is about conversations between its users. Get with the program, and join this naked conversation!

Addendum: Applause to my school, NUS Business School, for taking up my suggestion for a corporate blog. Helen, the Vice-Dean for Undergraduate Affairs, is a real evangelist now.

Check them out here

To realize the value of one year
Ask a student who failed his exam.

To realize the value of one month
Ask a mother who gave birth to a pre-mature baby.

To realize the value of one week
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of one day
Ask a daily wage laborer who has ten kids to feed.

To realize the value of one hour
Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of one minute
Ask a person who missed the train.

To realize the value of one second
Ask a person who survived an accident.

To realize the value of one mili-second
Ask the person who won a silver medal in olympics.

From a friend’s Facebook profile…

 My childhood dreams of being an astronaut might just come to fruition. This is gonna be the next Big Boom for the technology sector. And interesting enough, it was spawned by the dotcom boomers like Paul Allen who funded Scaled Composites and now Elon Musk of Paypal. If that space elevator materializes, we r gonna credit it to Sergey and Larry too. 

Just another thought: Google's NASA campus now doesn;t look like too far-fetched an idea. Imagine the government contracts they will secure with NASA and technological diffusive effects on the consumer internet world by engaging in space-age research.

 Article here.

Deliberately been lagging in my blogging to check out how my traffic will plunge after the "SGEnterpreneur" Effect. Thanks to Bernard and his flattering attribution of my article from his article which sent quite a number of referrals to my blog. 

 And so i have been watching my traffic, using the basic Wordpress tracker. I must say traffic-watching by itself is quite enjoyable, especially when you see what type  of searches pple typed in order to reach your blog. Just a coupla minutes ago, I saw "ibanking blog" appear and googled it to find myself ranked No. 4. I also clicked on No. 1 and found a pretty good blog by someone who blogged about her MBA admissions process and her successful acceptance into Columbia. Dun you just apreciate the randomness and subtle wonders of Google searches sometimes? I do. 

 Another thing to confess is that yes, Arpit, I have had quite a number of "Taammy"-related searches(ignore the double "a"s, intentional typo there to ward off unwanted traffic). I just did some google searches and i am no. 1 on the "taammy coppycat" searches.

Now, thats a good way to game the google system i must say, especially if i m a google adsense gamer who wants to trick the hordes of desperate porn-seekers into clicking bogus sites thinking they are gonna see some action. Makes me wonder if click fraud's ever gonna be the Achilles heel that breaks the back of Google. 

Update: I just realized the pic below doesn't turn out quite right on Internet Explorer. My recommendation? Click here. Firefox Rulez!! =)

Lifted this off someone's blog. Click on it to see it better. Which threshold do you lie above?

You guys shld check out his blog.

And Nev, if you read this, i am trying to raise your traffic, maybe some folks will buy some pixels on your blog? lol