Another web site makes a hit - FaceBook & Obama

Just watching Chris Matthews - front and center is the story on Facebook and how a group of users are rallying up to 1M supporters for Barack Obama, and the best part is, it is claimed that the campaign strategists did not even know and it evolved from grass routes effort - the power of the individual to make an impact still exists even as some try to police us. Another lesson for marketers - think out of the box or simply what is right in front of your eyes!

Not a killer app but a bloody good technology that does the job

It is not often you come across a use of technologies that just does a great job and is easy to get up and running at a reasonable price, especially in the enterprise. I have just got back from LegalTech East in NYC (I call it the high school reunion event for the legal space) - it has changed over the 2 years I have attended from inward looking delivery of solutions to law firms and groupware like applications for the Legal Department at public companies to emerging enterprise solutions for public companies around regulatory, compliance and litigation needs. Now the likes of Interwoven, OpenText, EMC, NetApp, BlueArc & other enterprise solution providers attend - one group that is emerging is the pure play "archiving" companies that have arrived on the scene - they solve the needs of many organisations to be better prepared (not totally prepared) for litigation, have a technology solution that addresses much of the needs of many regulatory bodies scrutinising an organisation and offers a way for senior management to monitor and to better pin point where to internally investigate for potential problems that could create serious risk to a public company - a few companies have really got the value proposition articulated, are delivering quality solutions and can be implemented seamlessly into a organisation's infrastructure, not causing pain to the CIO or users - they are rising stars, the ones I have been impressed by are: Archivas, Kazeon & Permabit, I am sure there are a few more and I guess the storage guys, the data management powerhouses and BI vendors will soon be watching them in their back mirror, and so they should - as it is not often a client pays for a technology that delivers to spec.

Second Life - an example of Why Not! for marketers

It is great to see how fast the good internet ideas get to mass market even in an offline world - take SecondLife (the virtual world avatar site) - it has been growing steadly over the last year or so among the geek, youth & core onliners, I suppose you would call us "addicts" - all of sudden it has started to get main stream attention in online & offline media - then this week there it is right in the middle of the World Economic Forum - Davos. It must frustrate traditional marketers to see all the old theories of big brand marketing, print & TV placement etc be outperformed ... to see a company and it's brand grow so fast and not only that but actually build "trust" into it's brand equity, and not have to spend $10s of millions. I wonder how long before Google, Yahoo or even one of those traditional media companies tries to acquire Second Life for a YouTube like price. Another great success story and another case study for Harvard etc ... to teach marketers to think out of the box, don't be afraid of change and embrace the new or at least test it - it seems easier for many marketers to say No, when Yes is risky. This lack of risk taking among many marketers - reminds me of an old story when growing up in Dublin, of the student who had an essay in his finals which was titled "Why?" and he wrote a 2 word response, and got an A+, the response was "Why Not!"