This site... · 1304 days ago by JP Fozo
Might not be much, but I built it more or less from scratch. Yeah, yeah, they’re Meaghan’s wicked squares and I’m using Typepad as a CMS, but I assembled the pieces! What sucks is that I can’t get the comments working and I’ve been in user groups and stuff and they’ve looked at my backend, so to speak. Nuthin. So I might end up moving it somewhere else that does blogs for a living.
It’s not user friendly, I know that. The fonts are small, lines a little tight and my del.icio.us links should be highter up. And my business is helping make websites fun and user-friendly. So it’s a poor reflection of what I know works. But I don’t have time to revamp it right now and it’s still mine!
Oh yeah a link…quick…stream of consciousness…(not thinking until I get to http://)...
Am I back or just teasing myself? · 1304 days ago by JP Fozo
OK, so the last post before this was more than three months ago. I actually have posted a few times but they were more personal than education related. SSo I hid those because this is an education blog damnit! Anyway, I think I’m almost at a point where I can commit to writing somewhat regularly. Those of you who know me, know I’ve been as busy as I’ve ever been lately. Been fun, but hectic. Works been pretty busy, school’s been out of control, and I’m helped put together my buddy’s stag that starts this weekend in Collingwood: three days, a couple kegs and a day of snowboarding. It might not be tame, but it’ll be clean. We’re respectable young men!
So the reason is I’m posting—and I never thougth I’d say this—but a Project Manager saved my life. My PM prof postponed our 15-20 final from next Wed., Feb. 14, until the following Mon. THANK YOU! We have our Tech and Org Strategy this Mon. and I’m drinking and playing poker all weekend! Nice fit.
But the kids from class are meeting Friday night at 7 and I might have some free time around then. If I can steal some wireless from around the chalets we rented, then I’m Skyping into a study group. I figure if I write it here I’ll try harder to make the call!
What else? Well that’s it for now. Oh yeah, I said I would never post without leaving a link. So here are three.
Recent project I worked on that was tough but fun:
Rogers and Canoe
Our team:
Canoe.ca
Our new friends’ relaunch:
Macleans.ca
First movers and last standers · 1434 days ago by JP Fozo
There’s been a lot of reading and subsequent discussion about first movers in class—with regards to innovative technology. An example might be my trusty MSN wireless watch—a technology or product that is first to market.
I’m not as concerned with the first movers as I am with displacing technology or innovation. See I’ve now worked in two industries where the Internet has come in and proven (over time) to be a real threat to ciphen streams of revenue from the bread and butter products. In the early days of magazine and newspaper publishing, most publishers were deathly afraid of the Web cannibalizing the print product (many still are) and were slow publish content online (let alone exclusive content). But communities were being built and many first movers built audiences that were necessary for sufficient revenue to continue to invest and expand their online presences. Of course, the barriers to enter online publishing are relatively low, so if you weren’t in at the start, there was time. I worked for two separate web development teams at Rogers magazines around the same time (1999-2003) and the success of each was incredibly different. (More on that another time.)
Another industy I’ve worked in is the B2B conference industry, and now webinars and web conferencing are legitimate threats to traditonal conference companies. Sponsorship dollars are being spent online more and more, and it is now a legitamate money maker. Here’s an article The Times did about Webconferencing, using our company as the example! (Or one step further, an article about how the conferencing industry—well, at least our friendly neighbourhood Xtalks—is now utilizing podcasting as well. Again, great work Meaghan.)
It’s interesting to watch and be a part of a shift in consumer and business behaviour as technology evolves.
Gotta go…but I’d like to think about this more…
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Web conferencing · 1434 days ago by JP Fozo
Our group met today online in a web conference. I loved it! We met yesterday at school for a couple hours and hashed out some great ideas. It was Barb’s turn to do the initial write up so she was gracious enough to do so on her Saturday eve (thanks Barb!). It was a great start. Instead of us hiking all the way back to school (not bad for me as it’s a 10-minute skateboard, but Barb and Usamah are coming from Hamilton and Mississauga, respectively), we met online using WebEx. There were some initial bugs, but I think it’s the way to go. Nothing beats face to face. But after that initial discussion, online conferencing is great. We were all working off one desktop (mine) and as we discussed our thoughts I could edit Barb’s draft—and the team could see the changes I was making in real time. Perfect for collaborative writing—which is hard under the best circumstances.
It was our last group meeting, but I think we’ll be using a similar format for future projects.
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Can you crowdsource at rock concerts? · 1436 days ago by JP Fozo
I’ve been thinking a lot about crowdsourcing lately. It seems to be popping up in many aspects of my life.
On a personal level, I’m very interested in citizen journalism (which is the editor’s form of crowdsourcing), just as many online publishers are with the rise of a more interactive Internet (I cringe a little to use the term, but Web 2.0 is changing online business models substantially). A straight push delivery is no longer enough—you need to push and pull.
From a professional perspective, we’re looking at social networking and also talking a lot about different ways firms are outsourcing, nearsourcing and now crowdsourcing. A lot of high tech organizations are turning to crowdsourcing instead of third party suppliers for various functions. Read the Wired article on crowdsourcing for a good overview.
My colleague Nathan sent me a great source today. I haven’t really had a chance to digest, but essentially it’s a collective work of content that can be reproduced for free—I think. Audio, images, video, text, educational materials, etc. I’m sure there’s a union somewhere unhappy about this. But check out Creative Commons. They use the term “some rights reserved” instead of “all rights reserved.”
And in school, we’ve been looking into new and innovative models of R&D within firms like P&G and 3M. P&G, for one, is utilization a network of 1.5 million people in its Connect and Develop model for research and development. Astonishingly, they want 50% of their R&D to be done outside its own R&D department. Now, this is not crowdsourcing per se. But crowdsourcing, citizen journalism and the Connect and Develop models are all part of a related, connected, innovative and changing world. Cool stuff.
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New goal on this blog · 1437 days ago by JP Fozo
I am a firm believer in linking—it’s what the Web is all about. After realizing most of my posts are just ramblings without any good links, I am now determined to include a link in every post I write. Sometimes they’ll relate to the post and other times, not so much. But come hell or highwater, there will be a link damnit!
Johnny does a great job here, and hey, I could use a cold one
Internet Business Models · 1437 days ago by JP Fozo
A good friend of mine, John, and I are always talking about Internet* business models, although I don’t think we’ve ever actually used that term. Most people following the Web* out there have equal amounts of respect and jealousy for Alex Tew, who came up with the brilliant, simple concept for the Million Dollar Homepage, selling one pixel at a time (sort of). Well, making money online is possible, but it’s also a crapshoot. Ken, our Strategy professor sent me a great link outlining different Internet* business models. Worth checking out if you’re even part geek.
*I truly hate capitalizing Internet and Web—it’s silly, but it’s also Canadian Press style that’s been beat into my head. Sorry about that.
http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html
Lead users · 1437 days ago by JP Fozo
Here’s one example of how school is helping me at work. Here’s an email I sent our Chief Production Officer after reading a piece about 3M’s innovation and seeing how it could help us. What they call “lead users”, we call “thought leaders”. But our producers use pretty much this same technique—starting with someone they read about, talking with them and asking for others who are smarter than they are!!! lol
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I read this on the weekend. It’s great. It’s about how 3M innovates. Would be a good read for your producers too. Essentially, they say, they have a problem, and begin with telephone interviews with “lead experts” in the area, who one by one pass them up to the top thought leaders. They then have conferences with all the top leaders and create new products. It also tells why these people would even talk/present in the first place. Great read.
http://leaduser.com/documents/3M_Breakthrough_Article.html
Man down · 1437 days ago by JP Fozo
It seems Trevor has enough transfer credits that he can afford to only take one class. I’m very happy for him because I know he works hard at his day job and is on a new project. This is a nice mental break for him. But it really hurts our group in Strategy. Trevor was the best of us at crunching and understanding the numbers, but, more importantly, he was also great at keeping us on track and works very well in team environments.
We’ll be fine, but it’s too bad. I hope we get to work together again sir.
Industry Analysis Paper · 1438 days ago by JP Fozo
For my Technololgy and Organizational Strategy course, I have to choose an industry to perform a complete industry analysis for. I’m in class right now (shhh…don’t tell Professor Grant) and we’re talking about how Porter’s Five Forces will help with our analysis. It really gives a great view about competition within an industry from five perspectives—Supplier Power, Barriers to Entry, Threat of Subsitutes, Buyer Power and Industry Rivalry. It’s a huge help to understand any industry. The problem I just realized is that my industry—online publishing—is very young and there is not a lot of data out there. This will make my task a lot more difficult than originally planned. I’m going to have to be very nice to friends in the research biz. (Amy..how are you?!? It’s been way too long. Let’s catch up. ;-).