Career

Breathe Easier, California Affiliates!

Posted on Apr 28, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing, Career, Rambles |

I had the pleasure and pain of driving up to Sacramento yesterday to sit in on the hearing for AB 178, which I’ve talked about before putting California affiliates in jeopardy.  Lisa Picarille and I hopped into my car and made the drive up, and about 10 minutes away from our destination, we get the news that the hearing had been postponed.  The bill has been changed to a two year bill.  What does this mean, exactly?

Believe it or not, I couldn’t find a sufficient actual definition for what a two year bill is online, so I can only pass on what I was told in basic layman’s terms, which may be better anyway.  Basically what this means is that the hearing has been postponed until January, when it will be up again to be heard in hearings.  We were told by several seasoned lobbyists that if it’s not heard in January, this bill in this current incarnation will be dead.  However, the issue won’t necessarily go away.  We will need to keep an eye out for other bills to make sure language isn’t shoehorned into other bills that could affect affiliate livelihood and tax nexus, and we also have to pay attention in June when budgeting starts to make sure no strange budget items that could affect nexus show up.

This is a small victory and California affiliates can certainly breath easier for awhile, but it’s not over yet.  We’ve won the battle but the war rages on.  Of course, there’s a lot of blog coverage on the happenings of yesterday, so check out their points of view as well:

• Mr. Lewis Goes to Sacramento – David Lewis
• Calif. AB 178 on Hold for Now – Lisa Picarille
• California Hearing Postponed – that’s a good thing! – Rebecca Madigan
• No Hearing for California AB 178 – Shawn Collins
• Commission Junction’s Internet Retail Tax News

Web 2.0 Expo: Navigating the Maze: How to Sell to the Public Sector

Posted on Apr 28, 2009 in Conferences & Networking |

Session Description: Public sector agencies spend billions of dollars each year on contracts with IT providers, small and large. And with the changes in Washington and at the state level, there is a greater interest than ever in Web 2.0 tools and technologies in government. How can you determine if there is a need for your product or service in the public sector? How do you participate in those opportunities? How can you get your foot in the door? Why does is seem so hard? How can your firm can be a part of this dynamic marketplace? This session discuss some of the rules and constraints of dealing with public sector agencies and the opportunities which exist. Come and learn how the public sector entities buy products and services and how your business can become an active participant in this market.

This session took place Friday, April 3, 2009. The speakers:

• Carolyn Lawson, CA Public Utilities Commission
• Adrian Farley, Office of the CIO of California

Bullet Point Review!

• Virtually every agency within the state has a CIO.
• They all have a direct dotted line reporting to the state CIO.
• Mapping the public sector market.
  • Size of the market (large and growing market).
  • Trends.
  • Priorities.
  • Opportunities.
  • Large and Growing Market.
    • State of local government currently spending more than $60 billion annually on IT
      • State of CA spends over $2 billion annually on IT goods and services.
    • The market is expected to exceed $75 billion by 2011.
    • Federal government spends more than $66 billion annually on IT – almost even split between civilian and defense.
      • The Recovery Act includes bill more for health IT and other tech related spending.
    • Total federal expenditure expected to exceed $80 billion by 2011.
  • Government leveraging Web 2.0
    • State of California agencies leveraging YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other web 2.0 technologies to communicate with and engage the public.
      • Focus is now on opportunities to realize real program value – improved outcomes, better service at lower costs – through web 2.0 tools.
    • Federal government entered into agreements w/ YouTube, Flickr and others to enhance government services and improve internal productivity.
      • CIA using Facebook for recruiting.
      • The State Department, The Department of Defense, and Federal intelligence agencies.
  • Policy priorities for state CIOs.
    • Consolidation: centralizing, consolidating services, operations, resources, infrastructure.
    • Shared Services: business models, sharing resources, services, infrastructure.
    • Budget and cost control: managing g budget reduction, strategies for savings, reducing or avoiding costs, activity based costing.
    • Security: security safeguards, enterprise policies, data protection.
    • Electronic records management/digital preservation, discovery.
    • ERP strategy
    • Green IT
    • Transparency
    • Health IT
    • Governance
  • Tech Priorities for State CIOs
    • Virtualization
    • Document/Content/Email Management
    • Legacy application modernization and upgrade
    • Networking, voice and data communications, unified communications.
    • Web 2.0
  • Part of selling to the public sector is understanding the nomenclature.
• Looking at how to integrate social tools with search.
• Frame your solution within the context of what state CIOs feel is important.
• Know where their pain points are.
• Answer questions before they ask.
• Resources
  • NASCIO
  • California Office of the State Chief Information Officer
  • Federal Business Opportunities
  • BidSync
  • Procurement:  CA Department of General Services
  • CA Multiple Award Schedules
  • CA Small Business & DVBE Services
• Everything the individual agencies do has to align with the state goals.
• The purpose for what we do in IT is to meet the public need – no time to work with toys and “nifty things”.
• Carolyn: If you’re registered as a small business it’s easy for me to buy from you.
  • One set of terms and conditions across the state.
• Each agency has a delegation, an amount of money they can spend before the process gets more difficult (extended procurement process)which can take up to 18 mo.
• This power point is gold to you!
• It’s a long process to get CMAS, but don’t get discouraged.
• The government wants what you have!

Points brought up during the Q&A

• Is any of the procurement system organized by science or across departments?
  • Typically things are broken down by what they’re looking for.
• Less people are writing letters anymore, so they need more feedback from the people.
• As soon as you say web 2.0 their eyes are going to glaze over – talk about what these tools will do without relying on the web 2.0 word (as soon as you get to acronyms you’re pushed away).
• What are your feelings on software as a service?
  • There are pockets of resistance but they’re people that fear software as a service means less work for them. The added value is in connecting with the program.
  • Building an army of solution architects.
  • Supportive of cloud computing if they’re the right fit for the business problem.
  • There’s the fear of losing jobs but also the fear of losing control.
• There can be preferences based on location based businesses, whether you’re using a military base, only about a 5% preference. No preference on minority or women businesses due to Prop 209.
• How does the state define small and micro businesses?
  • A small business is $10 million per year or less, or $30 million over 3 years. A micro business is $1 million or less of annual revenue.
• What’s the time frame on the CMAS process and can you bid on jobs during the process?
  • It averages 30 days, sometimes up to 60 days. It’s based on the GSA (federal government pricing schedule). Find one thing that aligns with the product or service you’re offering. Complete the form thoroughly. If you don’t complete the whole thing, they’ll highlight what’s missing and send it back, starting the process all over again. No bidding during process.
  • Small business only takes 10 minutes to apply on the website.
• Are there any restrictions on a US company representing a company based outside the US?
  • Only if you’re incorporated in Bermuda or another country for the purposes of evading state or federal taxes. That’s the only real requirement.
• Recovery.gov
• Lots of people try to grease the rails; so public servants are extra diligent – many don’t even take private appointments to limit preferred access.
• Use broad and open process to make sure no one has more access than someone else.
• Trying to ensure it’s a level playing field.
• They want to find new and innovative ways, but they don’t want to cross lines and they want to be appropriate.
• Is there a schedule of vendor fairs?
  • They do them around segments of architecture, not just for people they’ve already done business with.
• Government technology conferences?
  • Plug for tech people to go there, govtech.com/events

Overall this wasn’t the best session of the Government 2.0 track, but it was insightful.

The slides are available for download here: Navigating the Maze: How to Sell to the Public Sector (PPT).

Web 2.0 Expo: Making Government 2.0 a Reality: A Citizen’s Guide to Essential Reforms

Posted on Apr 27, 2009 in Conferences & Networking |

Session Description: The potential for Government 2.0 is both real and exciting: technology-wise, we can now cheaply and efficiently enable a government that is transparent, participatory, collaborative, and effective. But there are some very real, very stubborn obstacles in the form of outdated laws, regulations, and policies. Andrew will outline these barriers, and set forth an agenda for reform.

This session took place Friday, April 3, 2009 and kicked off the Government 2.0 track of sessions.  The speaker:

• Andrew McLaughlin, Google

This was a fascinating session, and Andrew did his best to cover what he did to assist with the transition committee, Tigger, to transition President Obama into the White House.  Andrew dedicated his personal time, taking three months off from his job at Google to commute to Washington DC during the week and back home to the Bay Area on weekends, from Election Day to Inauguration Day, to help.

He used a really cool software called MindMap (I think) that he actually said was proprietary, but it was basically an outline on steroids, so forgive me if there are a LOT of notes; I tried to get everything, but I’m sure some might not make sense.

Bullet Point Review!

• The promise: transparency, participation, collaboration, efficiency & effectiveness.
  • Get a better government; spend less money.
• Some Examples:
  • DC: CapStat Mapping Application
    • Puts government data in citizens’ hands in real time.
    • Key facts:
      • All 911 and 311 reports are viewable online, same day, with full tracking to resolution.
      • Every city agency must provide public data feeds; now more than 260 live data feeds.
      • 2008 year to date homicide rate down 19% over 07.
    • Mapping applications
  • DataCatalog
  • Apps for Democracy
  • DC Stumble Safely
    • Virtual Alabama
      • Emergency response platform becomes backbone of statewide gov collaboration and performance.
        • Changed government culture across the state to reward sharing and use of data, rather than hoarding and ownership.
    • Now used to improve operations in all kinds of ways not originally envisioned.
    • Key facts
      • Total cost $160k + 2 staff.
      • Supports 550 agencies.
      • 10 days from decision to functioning system.
      • Enables state to mothball expensive emergency operations center, saving millions.
      • Uses Google Earth geo platform.
      • Can be used by governor and police/responding agencies.
      • If you want access to this, you have to give us your data in real time and keep it updated – has worked well.
      • Hopefully positive political pressure will also en courage participation.
  • Washington State Dashboards
    • Since 2005
      • 93% of highway projects completed on time, 95% within budget.
      • <24 hour response time to child abuse calls went from 69% to 95%.
      • Doubled job placement rates.
      • Lowest traffic fatality rate in history.
    • Data driven management isn’t new; what’s new are the cheap, powerful IT tools that drive performance.
  • SeeClickFix
    • Lets you create an area to monitor reports of complaints.
• The Obstacles:
  • Acquisition and procurement.
    • Federal procurement.
      • Must government use of free online service be subjected to a competitive bidding process?
      • Gratuitous service agreements for free apps.
        • Library of Congress iTunes, Flickr, YouTube
        • GSA: YouTube, Flickr, vimeo, blip.tv
      • Advertising: agencies are restricted from carrying advertising for private individuals, firms, or corporations (so if it’s ad supported, can’t use it).
      • Government subject to terms and conditions, but has to individually evaluate and perhaps not be subject to those.
    • Indemnification
      • Anti Deficiency Act
        • Federal contracts can only provide for ltd indemnification unless a specific statue provides otherwise.
        • But conventional website boilerplate terms and conditions like Google, YouTube, provide for unlimited liability.
        • Example: The VA wanted to use Second Life to rehabilitate vets.
          • Linden Labs contract specified unlimited liability, so had to have a special contract drafted.
    • Legal jurisdiction and venue.
      • Federal agencies are governed by fed law. Agency GCs won’t sign contracts that bind them to state law.
      • Most internet companies terms define legal jurisdiction in a specific state.
  • Access
    • Employee access and use of social media.
      • Acceptable use of Facebook during work.
      • Some agencies prohibit use of social networking and other web 2.0 sites.
      • Need to establish a presumption.
    • Disabled Access
      • Needs to be equally accessible for disabled and non disabled
      • Can the government sign a contract with a web service that is not section 508 compliant? If so, how to ensure equal access to info for disabled employees and citizens?
    • Freedom of Information Act
      • Challenge if iterative media
        • How many versions of a document are subject to FOIA requests?
      • Danger of disclosure of user login data, which would discourage citizen use of web tools.
        • Need to clarify that personal data is exempt from FOIA.
  • Privacy and Security
    • Privacy
      • OMB circular on cookies.
        • Prohibits federal websites from using persistent cookies unless certain conditions are met.
          • Persistent browsing.
        • So federal web can’t remember preferences or settings, or gather web analytics.
        • Needs to be fixed to enable persistent cookies while protecting citizen privacy.
      • 3rd party websites and embedded content.
    • IT Security
      • Malware, spyware via web 2.0 use, threat to agency networks and citizen personal information.
      • Every technology platform adopted by the government must undergo a rigorous security review.
      • Federal Information Systems” included.
  • Management Statuses.
    • Paperwork Reduction Act
      • Requires some forms of web 2.0 information collection to undergo a time-consuming OMB clearance process.
        • Example: solicitations of input and ideas to improve government that involve particular data about users.
          • Stories and Experiences
        • Public engagement tools can trigger OMB info collection requirement and approval process.
      • “Public Information Collecting Activities”
        • Example: TSA blog’s use of a survey.
    • Presidential Records Act
      • Requires preservation of all written white house communications.
        • “Document Material” = records
        • When is a wiki doc or online comment forum final and thus is a “record”?
      • Electronic records must be kept in written form.
        • Printer overload
    • • Need to enable electronic storage of web-based records.
        • Official websites like WhiteHouse.gov
        • Official postings on third party sites like YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Facebook status updates.
  • Commercial Endorsement
    • Advertising supported 3rd party sites?
      • YouTube
      • Facebook
    • Exclusive use of a single service?
      • They do redundancy of services.
• A Reform Agenda
  • Laws, regulation, rules
    • Takes time.
    • Sometimes there are statutes that require the cooperation of Congress, etc.
  • Culture
    • People -> Send Good People
      • President Obama really personally “gets it”.

Points brought up during the Q&A

• GMAP really fantastic management process but still needs work; not really parsable.
• Wonderful in theory, hard to manage in practice.
• Now considered mandatory in campaigning to have a great website with lots of awesome content.
• User interface always lags behind the back end.

Especially with my involvement of late in lobbying in Sacramento against legistlation that could really hurt my industry, this session hit home for me and convinced me to stay for the rest of the Government 2.0 sessions that day.

Web 2.0 Expo: Day 2 Keynotes

Posted on Apr 24, 2009 in Conferences & Networking |

As I mentioned yesterday, I only made it to day 1 and 2 of the keynotes.  I tried my best to get there on time, but just barely missed the BART train I needed to get to Moscone on time to catch the beginning of they keynotes.  So admittedly, these aren’t the best notes I’ve ever taken, and for that I apologize.

Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia: The Year of the Mobile Computer: Mobile Computers as Personal (Mobile) Computers

• Context is forming everything.
• Social locations are the future.
• Anssi showed video of the Morph phone, currently in development, and MAN does it look SWEET!

Ellen Miller, Sunlight Foundation: A Conversation with Ellen Miller

• Information is not public unless it is online.
• Real-time availability and disclosure.
• Creating accountability within government.
• Trying to do for data what open source did for software.
• Trying to redesign government.

Kevin Lynch, Adobe Systems Incorporated

• Kevin didn’t really talk about much except to demonstrate a new product they’re working on called Flash Catalyst.  It looked REALLY cool; basically Flash meets Illustrator to easily design widgets and apps.

I was stoked to see Flash Catalyst because it appeals to my designer side, and that Morph from Nokia… consider a smart phone that can fold, wrap around your wrist, match color to your purse or outfit of the day, etc.  Awesome!

Web 2.0 Expo: Day 1 Keynotes

Posted on Apr 23, 2009 in Conferences & Networking |

Most conferences I’ve been to have one keynote for the entire conference, maybe one keynote per day.  This conference had a bunch of keynotes all in one big block – every day!  On the official Day 1 of the conference, April 1st, they had the keynotes in the evening after the sessions and before the cocktail reception, sponsored by Palm. The other days the keynotes were in the morning. I made it to the keynotes on the 2nd, but not on the 3rd, so those notes are coming tomorrow. Without further ado, here is a recap of some random notes I took during the first day’s keynote sessions.

Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media: O’Reilly Radar

• Google figured out how to extract additional data.
• Able to extract meaning.
• Starting to see coordination of electronic sensors.
• A meaningful names pace is a very powerful tool.
• Meaning doesn’t have to be formalized.
• The energy signature of major appliances are so unique you can identify the make/model by the energy surge.
• We’re getting beyond the point where the web is just fun and it’s starting to work.
• Web 2.0 + World = Web Squared
• History is on a different course because of someone being able to understand how to apply technology (President Obama).
• The Power of Less
• Take what we’ve learned with the consumer internet and apply it to hard problems.
• Build a simple system – let it evolve.
• Create more value than you capture.
• Continue to create, invent, and make value.

John Maeda, Rhode Island School of Design: “Open Source Administration”

• Developed the laws of simplicity.
• Forever Stamp the perfect example of simplicity of design.
• Technology makes things happen at light speed.
• The pendulum swung towards tech and now it’s swinging back to humanity.
• RISD is a traditional art and design school.
• Perfect symbol for American innovation.
• Used to have a hierarchy of leadership tree, turning into a network that you can talk to anyone in.
• Creative Leadership:
  • Leading Creatively – example Steve Jobs
  • Google creative leadership

Stephen Elop,  Microsoft Business Division: A Conversation with Stephen Elop

• People are bringing in different perspectives.
• Has the benefit of learning from other areas of the business.
• Taking on the cloud: Microsoft working to combine offline.
• Will there be MS Office apps for the iPhone? Keep watching!
• Beta code for Office online soon (maybe next year).
• Software plus services.
• Sharepoint is the fastest growing product in the history of Microsoft.
• If they redo any interface, half a billion people use the products and would have to re-learn the software.
• OneNote is like Word on crack.
• Microblogging – will Microsoft get into that? They’re experimenting with it and blogs.
• There’s a joke that Microsoft is the evil empire, so Stephen gave Tim a “I am the Empire” shirt people around the MS campus have been wearing lately.

Amanda Koster, SalaamGarage: Imagine What You Can Do

• Telling stories that will make a difference in people’s lives.
• She told the story of a little girl and what it’s like to go on a SalaamGarage.com trip.
• Tell someone’s story through you, through your social media.
• Use your influence to educate to make a difference.
• It’s all for amateurs; not for professional photographers.
• They’ve used ReveNews
• It’s not a broad message, it’s one little girl, that you met, whose story you can share.

Michael Abbott, Palm, Inc.: High Order Bit

• New Palms run on a web OS
• Cards – multiple apps running at once.
• Palm Synergy – bring the data together in a single place.
• Notifications – notice manager.
• Web OS platform built with HTML, Java, and CSS.
• Doesn’t require a server to run.

Tim O’Reilly had very engaging and interesting things to say, and I loved listening to John Maeda’s presentation.  Stephen Elop seemed to be on the defensive a little during the Q&A portion of their conversation, and what he said kind of ran on a little and I tuned out unintentionally.  I appreciated Amanda’s passion and I really like what they’re doing at SalaamGarage, but towards the end it did sound like a Save the Children commercial.  Finally, since I have a Blackberry that I love I kind of tuned out Michael’s commercial for the new Palm Pre, but it DID sound like a pretty handy little PDA.

I’m glad that they made the video of John Maeda available and I wish they’d have made the video of Amanda Koster available too, because they were both good speakers.

Web 2.0 Expo: The Social Media Trilogy: Three Vital Components for Building a Successful Online Strategy

Posted on Apr 22, 2009 in Conferences & Networking |

Session Description: It’s time to look at the big picture – beyond starting a blog or getting your team on Twitter. To survive in these trying economic times, enterprises must adopt a trilogy of Web 2.0 fundamentals as part of their long-term communications objectives. This session leverages the experiences of some of the world’s most successful communities to help you develop a strategic vision for enterprise-oriented social media. Also included are several use cases that demonstrate the success of having organization-wide Web 2.0 technology and information on how Vignette is helping the world’s leading brands with their social media efforts. Takeaways include how Web 2.0 intersects with a broader online strategy, the social media success trilogy and how to integrate these fundamentals into your organization’s DNA. Sponsored by Vignette.

This session took place Thursday, April 2, 2009. The speaker:

• Gerardo Dada, Vignette

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this session was good.

Bullet Point Review!

• Only 12% rate their web 2.0 efforts as effective.
• Measurement is key.
• 40% of businesses have no real strategy.
• Web 2.0 is viewed as an immature medium.
• 2008 was the year of Trying, 2009 is the year of Embracing.
• How do you build a strategy?
  • You don’t; web 2.0 supports a strategy.  It’s a tool.  Marketing, Customer Service, Human Resources, Corporate Communications, PR, product development, knowledge management, etc.
  • People are looking for answers and information.  They don’t care as much where it comes from.
  • Social is integrated part of the web.
• How do you build a community?
  • You can only foster a community.
  • Participate in a community.
  • People have persona’s and want to keep them separate.
  • There’s nothing wrong with integrating technology buy you have to ask permission.
  • Strategy has to be flexible enough to work with what’s coming next.
  • Understand what people are saying.
• How do you succeed in Social Media?
  • It’s about the people.
  • Fundamentally change the company mindset.
  • There’s a resurgence of the personal brand.
  • Requires a mind shift and a new culture.
    • Be Passionate!
    • Develop a Strategy (set milestones).
    • Have clear goals and metrics
    • Without metrics you won’t get support from executives.
• Resourcing
  • Needs to be on top of mind
• Promotion
  • Marketing lead it, IT is jumping in now.

I didn’t write anything down from the Q&A portion, though I remember there being one.  I think it was a lot of people asking specific questions that really didn’t have any kind of broad appeal to my readers here, but overall it was a good session.

Slideshow Presentation: