Business Education

While the headline is a tad Doc Searl-ish in its faux mystique, I'm at the point with my web site changes and infrastructure updates to coin a "new" term: disinfrastructure.

I embrace change for the simple reason that one day I'm going to be dead and I don't want to be taken by surprise. I have to say however -- even as a techie, nerdy, geeky, professional engineer -- that the last month working on my various site, server and content upgrades has been trying to say the least. Apparently, and thankfully, I am still married.

I have managed to consolidate almost all of my domains and have a spiffy new server set-up with a new host. (If all goes well I will give you a referral.) I have tons of bandwidth, a pretty good amount of storage and have the capacity to host dozens of domains. For my friends that are having a hard time with hosting, content management and updating; shoot me a note and tell me your story. I'm also thinking of providing pay-it-forward, free hosting for people I really like that just want to write. The downside of web publishing is the backroom horse-pucky of "content management" -- some people just want to get the words out.

Content in this post is written by Brad Gibson and you should be reading it from www.bradfordgibson.net.

The moral of my experience with my myriad of behind the scenes changes is that continuous change is better than batch change. I had built my media "empire" into a series of discontinuous information islands each with a separate set of management headaches. I had to take the leap to a completely new and well thought out structure so that things would not completely breakdown in the future. But step change or batch change is the hardest change of all. That's why short term dieting or manic exercise campaigns only produce short term results; they are not long term, continuous processes of productive change. The batch change is not a behaviour modifying experience; it's a trial. You get bored, you don't see results, you revert to previous behaviours and then... No change at all.

I was losing interest in my complicated path back to simpler, cheaper, more logical web content management and hosting. I got disinfrastructured. I think I made it through however and from now on you will be seeing continuous, planned change at this site and at my others -- especially currentthinkingradio.com.

You've got to hand it to the buzz-marketing folks that work for Apple Computer... or, er, Apple! Apple! Apparently something happened yesterday. Apple managed to be bigger than the whole of CES and they were not even there.

In a stunning move, Steve Jobs invented -- or, pardon me, "innovated" -- the cell phone, the music player, digital camera and personal digital assistant. It does look cool but I have never gotten the appeal of these all in one things. Inevitably they do nothing well.

You think this is going to appeal to the Blackberry crowd? (Disclosure: I have a 7130e) Not a chance. How do you type coherent emails on a touch screen? Want to listen to music? Well not for very long because if need the iPhone available for calls you don't want to be wearing down the battery.

[Content in this post originates from www.bradfordgibson.net.]

The neatest trick that this box does is OS X. Apple has shrunken the kid in the family; this is the new Mac Mini. Elegant and sleek, with a bit more memory, a bluetooth keyboard and mouse; you may have the start of a super portable computer. I do feel kind of vindicated (ie: hear my prediction on Victor's New Year's Eve show) that the touch screen interface is somewhat tablet like... watch for the invention, or, er, the "innovation" of tablet computing in a future iteration of this device.

Victor Cajiao of the Typical Mac User podcast hosted a live Talkshoe edition of his podcast on New Year's Eve. The theme of the event was Apple predictions for 2007. I was privileged to take part in the conversation and would like to thank all of the participants for their positive contributions; it was a blast.

You can listen to or pick up the podcast here.

Be it resolved that:

In recognition of the above it's a good idea to;

Have a Happy New Year. This year, every year, every day.

[Content in this post originates from www.bradfordgibson.net.]

I was reading a Top 10 List recently that indicated that Top X Lists are a critical inducement to attracting web site readership. Kind of like commandments for clicks.

There are so many lists out there and all of them are not only generating value for readers, but also; are driving thousands of eager ad-clickers to create new web millionaires. At first I was cynical about the whole list thing but then I vowed to contribute rather than to criticize. So I have crafted a unique Top 10 List that, although it will do more good for me than it does for you, could help to make your life better once
you have read it.
1) Wear clean underwear every day. This one was easy; there's a tag on my underwear
that says "Change Daily" so it must be important right?
2) Things really were better when you were a kid. You knew less, you had experienced less, and people made meals for you. Clearly, this is a lifestyle worth pursuing; think of the admiration you have for adults that act like 12 year olds.
3) "Technology" means only talking about RSS and single-button mouse
computers. Remember that guy from the US patent office who advocated shutting the office down because everything had already been invented? Well, he was right. Now that we have RSS and crash-less computers, there is no further need to define technology in any other way. Anybody who doesn't believe this just doesn't get it.
4) Top 10 Ten List Rants are not only productive but serve all of humanity. If you took the population of the earth and compressed it to fit on the head of a pin, you would have a very heavy pin and a major human crisis on your hands. You're better off just ranting senselessly rather than trying to pursue crazy head-of-a-pin philosophies.
5) Belief in anything is better than being a non-believer. Being the member of a club of really good believers makes you better than believers who don't believe what you believe. In fact, that wouldn't make them believers at all, would it? Clearly, whatever you think is best.
[Content in this post originates from www.bradfordgibson.net.]
6) The Grass IS Greener on the other side of the fence. Climb it and check it out for yourself. Your neighbor's house is bigger and better decorated, their spouse is better looking, their vacuum sucks better, they are louder, have more fun, make more money and drive cars that use more gas. Just go over there and move in.
7) The market is a message that has no clue. And stuff like that. All maxims are true because common sense is unassailable.
8) Keep yourself informed by watching more TV. Reading, investigating and searching are clearly inferior to watching. Here's a corollary: If you write a book, you can get yourself invited to appear on TV so that people can watch you talk about stuff they aren't interested in reading about.
9) There is a business model for everything. You just don't know what it is yet. Until then; give it away. Later on, people always appreciate paying for something that they used to get for free. By the time you understand that you need money to pay the rent, they will understand your very special "value proposition".
10) "This page intentionally left blank" is not just a saying; it's a way of living. On a daily scale of 1 to 10 make sure every day is an 11. And speaking of 11...
11) Always provide a bonus "11th" tip in every Top 10 List that you create. Top 10 List readers are savvy, value seekers. Make sure you give them what they want.

Here we go again with another Pew Internet Project data memo. These things get such wide spread hype on the web that I feel my voice may go unnoticed.

Still, I couldn't help but observe that the latest telephone poll indicates that 1% of respondents download podcasts daily yet the poll indicates a margin of error of 3.5% of the sample size of 972 adults.So let me get this right... Either nobody or at least 4.5% of all internet users will download a podcast today. Back when I learned statistics, drawing conclusions from sampled data that was within the margin of error was considered invalid. Perhaps I have mistaken the way they posted their error -- please show me I'm wrong if that is the case.

How about this nugget of information; "Some 12% of internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time." They mean ever. At least once. Not necessarily regularly...That's as statistically significant as asking whether you have ever taken public transit.

Could somebody please start asking the right questions?

How many listen to podcasts each day, week or month? How many listening hours are spent each day or week? How many store and listen later? How many stream?

It seems that Dell UK has valued OEM Windows XP Home at

On your latest Bradcast -- a feature interview with Michael Auzenne of the Manager Tools Podcast. Michael, along with podcasting partner and management consultant Mark Horstman, produces one of the most consistently practical, useful and impactful podcasts in the 'sphere today.

Business advice, management consulting and personal coaching topics have been flogged to near extinction in various books, courses and schools. Despite this, Auzenne and Horstman routinely provide fresh conversational insight on these topics. You won't agree with everything these guys say on Manager Tools but more often than not you will find yourself realizing that they have developed a conversational mentoring approach that makes you feel like you're there asking for help at Mark's office door. This is the kind of approach podcasting was built for.

Manager Tools "Time to Party?" episode... Do the right things at this year's office party.

Update: Sorry for the dropped audio file... It has been newly restored and placed back on the server.

manager-tools auzenne