Evo Terra's Blog, page 25
November 18, 2013
Google+ as a podcasting platform?
Well... maybe. Sort of. And that's what I go on and on and on about...
Google+ as a podcasting platform?
Well... maybe. Sort of. And that's what I go on and on and on about for almost 50 minutes below, taking questions from the live audience and from those who watched this live HOA.
It was part of +TechPhx, which was (as always) a lot of fun!
#hangoutsonair
Well... maybe. Sort of. And that's what I go on and on and on about for almost 50 minutes below, taking questions from the live audience and from those who watched this live HOA.
It was part of +TechPhx, which was (as always) a lot of fun!
#hangoutsonair
This dapper young man is terribly excited to see that Avery is back in AZ!
That's the Avery IPA. I ...
This dapper young man is terribly excited to see that Avery is back in AZ!
That's the Avery IPA. I am pleased.
That's the Avery IPA. I am pleased.
Five Publishing Personas - Preamble
Over the next five days, I'm going to share my breakdown of the...
Five Publishing Personas - Preamble
Over the next five days, I’m going to share my breakdown of the five key personas I see in modern publishing. While you’ll find each of these personas familiar, their individual motivation, time-horizion and focus is unique.
Through a series of Google+ posts, you’ll get a contrast of these attributes across all five personas. It may help you understand where you fit or where you want to fit.
Why serialize it? Because it’s about 2,000 words long, and that makes for a pretty hefty post. Plus, I want to play around with this platform a little more, as I think I have a novel way to keep it well organized even for those who come through at mid-point. At least that’s the theory.
It all starts tomorrow morning, where I’ll take on the first of two author personas. After those, I’ll dig into the minds of the “enablers” of the industry, if you will.
My goal is to post around 7:00 a.m. MT (14:30 GMT) but I’m not going to be a slave to that. If you don’t want to miss it, turn on your notifications for me. I’m not a high-volume poster, so you won’t have to deal with random chatter from me. At least not too much.
Let’s begin! I started with RFAS (Reader first, author second): http://goo.gl/DXwkhU
Creative commons photo from Flickr: http://goo.gl/L36KNh
Over the next five days, I’m going to share my breakdown of the five key personas I see in modern publishing. While you’ll find each of these personas familiar, their individual motivation, time-horizion and focus is unique.
Through a series of Google+ posts, you’ll get a contrast of these attributes across all five personas. It may help you understand where you fit or where you want to fit.
Why serialize it? Because it’s about 2,000 words long, and that makes for a pretty hefty post. Plus, I want to play around with this platform a little more, as I think I have a novel way to keep it well organized even for those who come through at mid-point. At least that’s the theory.
It all starts tomorrow morning, where I’ll take on the first of two author personas. After those, I’ll dig into the minds of the “enablers” of the industry, if you will.
My goal is to post around 7:00 a.m. MT (14:30 GMT) but I’m not going to be a slave to that. If you don’t want to miss it, turn on your notifications for me. I’m not a high-volume poster, so you won’t have to deal with random chatter from me. At least not too much.
Let’s begin! I started with RFAS (Reader first, author second): http://goo.gl/DXwkhU
Creative commons photo from Flickr: http://goo.gl/L36KNh
Five Publishing Personas
#1. RFAS (Reader First, Author Second)
Most of the authors I know are readers...
Five Publishing Personas
#1. RFAS (Reader First, Author Second)
Most of the authors I know are readers first, and authors second. Like all readers, they are infatuated (perhaps in love) with the act of reading and all it entails.
Previous post in this series: Preamble http://goo.gl/dZoZcQ
They collect, evangelize, worship, romance over and reminisce about books. Sometimes it borders on irrational, because that’s what love is. And some — a good many, actually — take the next logical step and decide to become authors. Yet they remain readers first, author second. For simplicity, I’ll call them by the acronym RFAS.
There’s a parallel path to this; the foodie-cum-chef, cook or baker. Most of the fabulous cooks (or chefs or bakers) I know are devout foodies, and follow a similar trend as the readers above, but with better decked-out kitchens. Fall in love deep enough with food, and it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll likely dabble in the dark arts of food preparation and ultimately consider yourself — if not exclaim to the world — that you’re a cook, chef or baker. And of course ... you are. But you’re a foodie first.
RFAS are motivated by the same things that motivate readers: gratification. Personal gratification by finishing — and that means publishing — a quality book. Public gratification when good reviews come in, and professional gratification when others industry professionals recognize and endorse your book. Gratification is a powerful motivator that exists for the other players below, but is of primary importance to the RFAS.
The time-horizion — the considered future-state —for RFAS is relatively short. Typically, RFAS concentrate on two things: finishing this book or starting the next book. I don’t mean to imply that they don’t ponder writing an epic six-book series. Of course they do. But that’s still part of “next” and usually doesn’t go much beyond a rough plot outline. For most RFAS, world-building is simply procrastination from their current time-horizon, so that doesn’t count. Eventually, they’ll recognize that and get back to writing. Or abandon the notion all together and leave the manuscript (or several) incomplete. Which is a shame and comes down to failing to recognize their position as an RFAS, which is where they need to be.
RFAS focus on outputs, and they are closely tied to their time-horizion. Finishing the first draft. Finishing the chapter. Writing the book blurb. Building their platform. Posting their daily word count. All things that need to be done, and all valuable outputs. It keeps them on task, offers a simple way to stay organized in a mostly linear fashion, and increases gratification each time they can check an item off their list. Outputs are necessary and good. You’re reading one right now.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about Author-first authors.
Previous post in this series: Preamble http://goo.gl/dZoZcQ
Creative commons photo from Flickr: http://flic.kr/p/9paFTo
#1. RFAS (Reader First, Author Second)
Most of the authors I know are readers first, and authors second. Like all readers, they are infatuated (perhaps in love) with the act of reading and all it entails.
Previous post in this series: Preamble http://goo.gl/dZoZcQ
They collect, evangelize, worship, romance over and reminisce about books. Sometimes it borders on irrational, because that’s what love is. And some — a good many, actually — take the next logical step and decide to become authors. Yet they remain readers first, author second. For simplicity, I’ll call them by the acronym RFAS.
There’s a parallel path to this; the foodie-cum-chef, cook or baker. Most of the fabulous cooks (or chefs or bakers) I know are devout foodies, and follow a similar trend as the readers above, but with better decked-out kitchens. Fall in love deep enough with food, and it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll likely dabble in the dark arts of food preparation and ultimately consider yourself — if not exclaim to the world — that you’re a cook, chef or baker. And of course ... you are. But you’re a foodie first.
RFAS are motivated by the same things that motivate readers: gratification. Personal gratification by finishing — and that means publishing — a quality book. Public gratification when good reviews come in, and professional gratification when others industry professionals recognize and endorse your book. Gratification is a powerful motivator that exists for the other players below, but is of primary importance to the RFAS.
The time-horizion — the considered future-state —for RFAS is relatively short. Typically, RFAS concentrate on two things: finishing this book or starting the next book. I don’t mean to imply that they don’t ponder writing an epic six-book series. Of course they do. But that’s still part of “next” and usually doesn’t go much beyond a rough plot outline. For most RFAS, world-building is simply procrastination from their current time-horizon, so that doesn’t count. Eventually, they’ll recognize that and get back to writing. Or abandon the notion all together and leave the manuscript (or several) incomplete. Which is a shame and comes down to failing to recognize their position as an RFAS, which is where they need to be.
RFAS focus on outputs, and they are closely tied to their time-horizion. Finishing the first draft. Finishing the chapter. Writing the book blurb. Building their platform. Posting their daily word count. All things that need to be done, and all valuable outputs. It keeps them on task, offers a simple way to stay organized in a mostly linear fashion, and increases gratification each time they can check an item off their list. Outputs are necessary and good. You’re reading one right now.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about Author-first authors.
Previous post in this series: Preamble http://goo.gl/dZoZcQ
Creative commons photo from Flickr: http://flic.kr/p/9paFTo
November 15, 2013
Back in the day, I fancied myself a drummer. But I was never this good, and I have hands.
Foo Fighters...
Back in the day, I fancied myself a drummer. But I was never this good, and I have hands.
Foo Fighters - Everlong drum cover.
Foo Fighters - Everlong drum cover.
November 14, 2013
Copyright violation is not a valid content strategy.
Companies are under enormous pressure to keep ...
Copyright violation is not a valid content strategy.
Companies are under enormous pressure to keep up with the flood content created every second of the days. Old-school "We must keep them on our site!" thinking sends normally smart people into a spiral that, when combined with mind-numbing ignorance of the law, leads to some pretty stupid business decisions.
Just because you can read/watch something online, that doesn't make it yours.
Copyright still exists. Plagiarism is still illegal. I really don't care if your perception is "everyone does it." It's wrong. It's illegal. And you'll eventually get busted for it. It's a risk you cannot afford to take.
But getting back to the point: why does this happen? Mostly it's due to some asshat thinking that quantity trumps quality. They see some study talking about 100 hours of content uploaded every minute, and they want a piece of the action. Or they read how adding a news section to your site can retain visitors for an extra 2.3 pageviews per session.
Dumb thinking. All of it. It's a focus on outputs, not outcomes. It's the result of having zero naysayers in the organization with the cojones to speak up. And it's indicative of a culture of cowardliness and cluelessness.
The good news is that there's an easy answer. Just. Stop. Just stop doing the silly things that don't align to your business outcomes or that have zero bearing on your business. OK, you get a few less video views and your page counts go down by 10%. So what? It makes no difference to your customers. And as a bonus, you get to refocus your efforts on making them happy, and that will result in increasing tangible business outcomes every time.
Companies are under enormous pressure to keep up with the flood content created every second of the days. Old-school "We must keep them on our site!" thinking sends normally smart people into a spiral that, when combined with mind-numbing ignorance of the law, leads to some pretty stupid business decisions.
Just because you can read/watch something online, that doesn't make it yours.
Copyright still exists. Plagiarism is still illegal. I really don't care if your perception is "everyone does it." It's wrong. It's illegal. And you'll eventually get busted for it. It's a risk you cannot afford to take.
But getting back to the point: why does this happen? Mostly it's due to some asshat thinking that quantity trumps quality. They see some study talking about 100 hours of content uploaded every minute, and they want a piece of the action. Or they read how adding a news section to your site can retain visitors for an extra 2.3 pageviews per session.
Dumb thinking. All of it. It's a focus on outputs, not outcomes. It's the result of having zero naysayers in the organization with the cojones to speak up. And it's indicative of a culture of cowardliness and cluelessness.
The good news is that there's an easy answer. Just. Stop. Just stop doing the silly things that don't align to your business outcomes or that have zero bearing on your business. OK, you get a few less video views and your page counts go down by 10%. So what? It makes no difference to your customers. And as a bonus, you get to refocus your efforts on making them happy, and that will result in increasing tangible business outcomes every time.
Splitting water with sunlight = sustainable hydrogen economy.
Almost. We just have to pay for the i...
Splitting water with sunlight = sustainable hydrogen economy.
Almost. We just have to pay for the infrastructure.
▶ READ: http://goo.gl/2hu3dw
Fossil fuels are still cheap, at that makes getting this going down here a bit of a challenge. But what about up there?
There are absolutely no fossil fuels in space, none on the moon, and (probably) none on Mars. So when we do have a sizeable off-earth population (yes, I said when not if,) we'll need tecnologies like this to produce power. I'm not quite ready to invest, but this seems a great step in the right direction.
Image from the linked article. An artist’s conception of a commercial hydrogen production plant that uses sunlight to split water in order to produce clean hydrogen fuel (Credits: University of Colorado Boulder).
Almost. We just have to pay for the infrastructure.
▶ READ: http://goo.gl/2hu3dw
Fossil fuels are still cheap, at that makes getting this going down here a bit of a challenge. But what about up there?
There are absolutely no fossil fuels in space, none on the moon, and (probably) none on Mars. So when we do have a sizeable off-earth population (yes, I said when not if,) we'll need tecnologies like this to produce power. I'm not quite ready to invest, but this seems a great step in the right direction.
Image from the linked article. An artist’s conception of a commercial hydrogen production plant that uses sunlight to split water in order to produce clean hydrogen fuel (Credits: University of Colorado Boulder).
Great new video, +Terry Simpson! Love the pointer you use. Though I'be sloshing beer all over the place...
Great new video, +Terry Simpson! Love the pointer you use. Though I'be sloshing beer all over the place, as mine would be open.
▶ Watch it on vimeo: http://player.vimeo.com/video/77986688
http://brewdiet.com
▶ Watch it on vimeo: http://player.vimeo.com/video/77986688
http://brewdiet.com
If it's good enough to analyze exoplanets, I suppose food makes sense.
Welcome to the future. Again...
If it's good enough to analyze exoplanets, I suppose food makes sense.
Welcome to the future. Again. TellSpec promises to tell you about the chemical composition of your food with a simple scanner. And dammit... I want one.
▶ Indiegogo-get it: http://goo.gl/Qtj6Xn
$200 and wait until next year? Yeah... I probably will. What do you think, +Terry Simpson? I wonder how this would work analyzing beer?
Welcome to the future. Again. TellSpec promises to tell you about the chemical composition of your food with a simple scanner. And dammit... I want one.
▶ Indiegogo-get it: http://goo.gl/Qtj6Xn
$200 and wait until next year? Yeah... I probably will. What do you think, +Terry Simpson? I wonder how this would work analyzing beer?
