Draw a line

When making a decision, you can get there in two ways:

1. You can define what you want.

OR

2. You can define what you don't want.

Now, those two things are not the same, and one is far more limiting than the other. Take a look at the two, odds are your natural reaction will be the same as everyone else's. It's unfortunate for us, but human nature is to go with the first option and be blinded by what we want, as opposed to what we don't want.

Look at this image:



Here we have a visualisation - say the circle is the entire range of possibility. In the one on the left  we've nailed down exactly what we want, which is shown by being coloured in. In the one on the right however, we've nailed down exactly what we don't want and filled that space in. In the first diagram, the remaining space may as well not exist, because we don't consider it. In the second, while what we want takes up slightly more space, what is left over is nothing less than a far larger opportunity for success.

The next time you're working through an issue, a brief, a life-changing decision, try focussing instead on what you're not willing to accept, decide what you're not willing to compromise on.

Draw a line, and then revel in the opportunity left over. You might be surprised.

The Google Flow

I was sketching business models the other night (I know I know, there's a reason eveyrone wants to party with me...) and drew the below diagrams while thinking about how people use Google and Facebook. It struck me that Google benefit as much from people leaving their site as they do from entering it - maybe even more so! Contrast this with Facebook, who derive no value from people getting to anywhere else.

With next-gen strategy in mind, Google are so far ahead of the curve it boggles the mind. Not only that, but the flow of users through their system is engineered into their core DNA - it isn't an idea they have to get stakeholders on board for. Sure they have occasionally dabbled in other fields, like their ill-fated attempt to take on Wikipedia, but for the most part they can focus on things other than strategic innovation as there are so very few people even playing in their league.

Strategy for the next revolution

At the risk of this becoming a Fred Wilson love-in, I'm catching up on my unread items and he mentioned a conference coming up focused solely on creating add-ons for browsers. I'm a BIG fan of add-ons that make it easier for what I'm trying to do - as I've said before this revolution we're going through is based around making it easier for the majority to express themselves (which is subsequently why there are now businesses around organising information - see what we did?).

What is happening in this space though is people are harnessing the notion of the web as the platform and getting away - slowly but surely), from operating systems as we knew them.

The moves that Microsoft, Google and Mozilla have been making though are ones towards the inevitable (and closer than you think) point where there is no such thing as an offline experience. At that point the browser is the experience, with different plugins and views for different things (word processing, spreadsheets, etc.).

Where we're also headed is the recovery of our personal data away from the social networks and back to a central repository, one we are in control of. I wrote the following for Marketing back in May this year:

(Facebook are) desperately trying to maintain hold on user data, under the daft assumption it was somehow their's to play with in the first place.

That idea, and the moves MS, Google and Mozilla are making, brings the online experience back to the user, it takes the data back to the source, rather than downstream where it currently resides. Facebook exists as a repository for personal data, wrapped up in a layer of communications software that shares it with your friends. Nothing more, nothing less. Facebook gambled - and rightfully so - on that information being worth something; they've made a fundamental mistake though in attempting to build a business around something they do not own or control: your information.

So, in playing the game of would-be gate-keeper, distracting you long enough with werewolf bites and status updates, Facebook are trying to build a profitable business around supplying access to the owners of the information.

...stop me if you've heard this one...

Meanwhile, people innovating in the browser space are building out their own platforms - ones that exist at a pre-site level. By doing this, they will tap the water supply at the source and not down-stream, and while yes we will still be the ones handing over the information, they know we need software to facilitate interaction with the web, that isn't changing any time soon.

Facebook's strategic advantage could be in opening up its system and allowing people to build Facebook applications that reside in the browser and not on their website. But in order to do that, they have to make some fundamental shifts in strategy and philosophy, and move from a siloed-mentality, the kind that built businesses in the 90's, to an open one - the kind that builds businesses today. They have the scale, what I doubt they have is the will to become, almost overnight, one of the largest publishers of web applications on the planet and give a massive boost to the fledgling economies of browser plug-ins. In Facebook Connect they half-heartedly attempted to extend the reach of their platform beyond their own domain, and it plays like it is: an attempt to be a little bit open, but not too much.

Meanwhile companies like Zemanta, and like Adaptive Blue with Glue, are building businesses for the next revolution by creating technologies that do not require something as decidedly old-fashioned as a website to exist. Indeed they more than anyone recognise there is limited value in pushing a destination, but endless value in pushing content.

As soon as the hardware conversation goes away, the website-as-destination will quickly follow as we embrace the distributed web. So too, I imagine, the gross over-valuation that came and went with everyone's favourite social network.

This year's one anyway.

--

Props to Alisa Leondard who got me thinking about this, you should go and read Socialised. Wait, she's American, so it's SocialiZed. Dig.

Image courtesy of Digger Digger Dogstar, with thanks to compfight, who've just had a facelift. Go tell them they look pretty - they'll put out. Promise!

Tools for the linked economy

Last week I was talking about business opportunities that exist around the aggregation and sorting of information, something Fred Wilson just wrote about:

This gets me excited. Because someone could do so much more with this idea. We have a few companies that are trying to extract meaning out of content on the web. Adaptive Blue recognizes pages about things (books, music, film, stocks, wine, people, etc). Outside.in recognizes posts and articles about places (neighborhoods, schools, parks, etc). And Zemanta recognizes concepts in blog posts and recommends content to add to your post.A VC, Nov 2008

I'm digging this notion of building a business around the curation of content right now - not that I'm looking to start one, but there are opportunities to leverage this moment with the right execution and the right brand(s).

Which of course means the race is on to see which ad agency fucks it up first.

(Incidentally, I use Zemanta in regular posts as well as having used it to re-blog the above quote from Fred. It is a fantastic service, any blogger reading this should go check it out - you'll see the little re-blog image in the bottom-right corner of this post)

How to draw a car by Dave Gray

I adore this, so cute and simple.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.749479&w=425&h=350&fv=]

posted with vodpod

I'm finding myself increasingly drawing pictures to get my ideas across to clients, definitely on a bit of a visual-thinking kick (I've even created an Amazon wish-list... *whistles nonchalantly* Jingle bells, jingle bells...).

I am an atrocious artist, and can only claim to follow the Impressionist movement as justification for drawings that don't look even remotely like what I'm attempting. Watch this space for a story about a seahorse, which will be (poorly) illustrated by yours truly - thanks to Alysha who gets partial credit for having been on the other end of the conversation when I came up with the idea.

Marketing quote of the day, take 2

Image via Wikipedia

When you fall in love with the system, you lose the ability to grow - Seth Godin

He says this in his new book Tribes. A little more conventional than Bob, though perhaps a bit more obvious.

So...are we there yet?

Creative Is Not A Digital Marketing & Media Summit

Never the less, I shall be there this Friday with my favourite partner in crime, Julian Cole. Also along for the fun will be Peter Wagstaff and Zac Martin, who will join me in assisting Julian in a somewhat unusual but hopefully engaging presentation.

And now to the good stuff.

After the summit, we'll be hightailing back into the city for drinks at Madame Brussels from 6pm. You don't have to attend the conference to come along for a drink, I've arranged for a special room, so upon arrival ask for (and you have to say it in the most sultry voice you can muster, lest Pearls, the proprietor of Madame Brussels not let you in!) "The parlour up the rear of Madame Brussels." Take my number --> 0404 078686 <-- in case you get into any trouble (knowing you lot this is bound to happen) and come out for a drink to kick-start the weekend.

I should also add our lovely location would not have been possible without the assistance of Michelle Matthews at Deck of Secrets who this week launched their own iPhone app. Entitled DRINK, it is a handy guide to the best bars in Melbourne, soon to be rolled out across all the cities her cards have appeared in. Go say hi. Go on, it's polite.

Now get outta here.