Web 2.0 and Problem Resolution

If your IT department is still using a traditional knowledge base to speed problem resolution, you'll want to consider stepping up the pace by automating the process.

Wiki-based automated runbooks take advantage of collaboration and clickable fixes with advantages similar to those of Wikipedia over a hardback Brittanica. I wrote a short article describing the new breed of RBA that the good people at TechRepublic were kind enough to publish this week - you can link to it here.

Marketing China

Ten years after Bill Clinton returned from the far east to say, "China is moving to join the thriving community of free democracies," the ancient empire is surging forward from an economic standpoint, but that seems to be in increasingly starker contrast to their stubbornly repressive social policy.

Last summer, economic reports positioned China as a threat to Germany's status as the world's third largest producer after the US and Japan. Today Germany has its work cut out in quelling doubts about its economic challenger's ability to host the quickly-approaching summer games. The proponents of commercialized Leninism seem bent on the idea that they can reverse Gorbachev's strategy of politics-then-economics for a winning model of modernized communism.

On the other side of the globe, how much of a stake do we hold? 30% of China's exports currently come to the United States. For 1.3 billion Chinese, western perceptions will affect more than the disposition of the Olympics, but as Tibet is well aware, the Olympics may be anything from a harbinger to a flash-point of what is to come. With a quickly diminishing latency, the Sino-American relationship has potential to be one of the central issues driving the candidates' platforms by November.

Just Jott A Voicemail To My E-mail

When the iPhone came out, one of the spiffs Apple touted was the ability to organize your voicemails like e-mails.

But what if your voicemails came to your inbox and you could read them, hear them, forward them or archive them? That might be enough to switch to AT&T... or maybe not. Save that dilemma for another day - you can do it with Jott.

You can also transcribe a reminder to be sent to your phone or computer on a given date, or transcribe notes in the car on your phone as you're coming back from a meeting. In the messages I've sent so far the voice recognition works remarkably well, although I haven't used it long enough to be the poster child for Jott.

But maybe you will. Try it out here.

Let Us Talk of William F. Buckley

The silver cord has finally broken for a man who lived the fullest of lives. William F. Buckley, Jr. died today at 82.

On a cloudy night in 1987, as a sergeant at the end of the cold war, I was driving an eight-hour night shift with a truck full of barbed-wire through the streets of West Berlin between Andrews Compound and Doughboy Field. It was part of an exercise for logistics measurement so we never unloaded, just turned around and drove back and forth again. Fortunately the giant diesel beast had a cassette player and I brought my new copy of William F. Buckley's book "Right Reason" on tape and listened the entire time.

I missed the prematurely-abbreviated "Jaunt Around The Globe at Mach 2" on the Concorde with Buckley that year, but I did get started on his Blackford Oakes spy series with "Stained Glass" and named my first son after one of his characters. It wasn't until fifteen years later that I met Mr. Buckley in person after attending a debate at the Moody Church in Chicago and got to talk with him for a few minutes. He was obviously tired after the event and the interviews that followed and I truly appreciated his graciously taking the time.

His thoughts were always on a higher level and seemed to look beyond the superficial even making more mundane matters seem elevated. In fact, one of Buckley's greatest books is "Nearer my God" about the victories and struggles of his life of faith. You don't get any nearer than he is now.

Starbucks - The Missing Three Hours

Caribou should have seen a little spike for three hours yesterday afternoon as thousands of Starbucks customers were forced to drive down the road to order "grandes" instead of "ventis." Can you communicate the importance of "we'd rather not do business at all than not do business right" by closing your doors to your customers in order to do training?

Jon writes to explain the logic behind Starbucks' marketing decision: Howard Schultz wants everyone to know he has "retaken" the company and is behind this move. They are reigning in growth in the States in favor of more overseas expansion which could make more sense. Building more stores doesn't mean people will stop in more times in a day for coffee just because they pass five more stores on their ride home.

They grew too fast, took business away from established stores, caused managers to miss their bonuses (because of the cannibalization) and created some unhappy baristas. It looks like they are going back to their "happy place" of what makes Starbucks what it really is; a company that is 100% coffee. To wit, they just got rid of their expanded food program. Customers don't go to Starbucks for a salad and sandwich, they go there for a latte and a scone.

It's clearly a great company that had the right marketing going, but got too big and drifted away from their roots and their niche of what they do THE BEST IN THE WORLD. If they get back to what made them great, they'll be fine. An anchor on FoxNews was just ripping on customer service and how it took ten minutes to get a latte. That's not good. You pay $5 for a latte that is made fast, well and with a dash of coffee attitude. Today's closing is for that reason. Back to basics!

Thanks Jon - great lesson here for all of us.

Marketing Darwin and Ben Stein

Thirty years ago, we remembered this as Abraham Lincoln's birthday and every year we cut out silhouettes of the president who guided us through one of our nation's most troubled times. Now the 12th of February is being marketed as "Darwin Day" by several groups in the US, such as PETA.

I have a wonderful dog (boxer) and of course I view dogs as far superior to cats, but I have a tough time grasping PETA president Ingrid Newkirk's claim that "A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy." (In fact, I have to wonder if she has ever had a dog.) There are at least a few, like the author Aldous Huxley in "Ends and Means," who admit that they embrace this kind of worldview without any deeper meaning, "because it frees me to my own...pursuits."

But not former presidential speechwriter (and game show host, lawyer, professor, etc.) Ben Stein. The trailer for his new movie "Expelled" came out today, not coincidentally. An interesting new/old challenge for the 21st century's egalitarian claims in the marketplace of ideas. Every generation has its rebel - see what you think.

Video on Demand and a Worthy Competitor (Redbox)

Have an opinion on downloadable video? With the introduction of Apple's online video offering, Techdirt is running a poll for market input on how Netflix stacks up against the iPod company's foray into the growing market.

In the world of physical DVD's, the innovative folks at Redbox have offered to give you a free rental just to try them out. You can find their kiosks all over, from Walgreen's to Wal-Mart (parent company: McDonald's Ventures). As of late last year, they had over 6000 locations - more than Blockbuster - and you can return the disc at a different location than you rented it with no penalty.

Best thing about the Redbox business model - every rental is $1/night. Can't beat it - except free, which you can get by entering "dvdonme" when you check out.

Measuring Leadership

Leadership is a topic I'm fascinated by - and I am intrigued by the ways it is measured both commonly and at a higher level. I'm enjoying re-reading Maxwell's book on leadership's 21 irrefutable laws at the moment with a group of friends and would recommend his organization highly.

Different people view leadership as distinctly as any other thing in my experience. I remember sitting on a conference call where a silver-fringed senior manager bristled back at the voice on the phone with a vicious, "what do you mean exactly by servant-leadership?!" She obviously saw it differently than Tom Peters does.

My friend Eric Lannert at i.c. stars wrote recently about the difficulty in quantifying leadership in his non-profit organization. He says for-profits have it easy. Thanks a lot Eric!

The Internet Voter

In the building swirl of issues and debates, you may be wondering just which candidates you might want to vote for. Wouldn't it would be helpful to have a guide to some of the key financial, moral and foreign affairs issues (as well as noting how key they are to you) like immigration, Iraq and definition or marriage along with the relative positions of the candidates? Enter my politically savvy friend Tony who sends us this fourteen-question virtual voter quiz to a sort of online candidate dating service to help sort things out. Try it - it may not be give you the result you expect...

12 Questions with Sharon Taylor on ITIL V3

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which has become the best-practices standard in managing technology, has just come through a much-anticipated revision ("refresh") which effectively transforms it into a new kind of animal. I had the opportunity to talk with ITIL's key contributor Sharon Taylor about the impact of the new version and how it changes the best-practice landscape and the role it now plays in the business of technology. Here's a link to the interview in TechRepublic magazine. Feel free to digg, vote, forward...

Character in Advertising

A friend of mine thought this ad from Hyundai was unusual enough to point out its decidedly narrow-appeal message in a society where commitment isn't trendy. I think so too - interesting angle for a car company.

The more democratic our society, the more its success depends on our collective character. And on keeping our commitments.

Spheres of Influence

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday! As we get closer to the end of the year and looking back on what was important in 2007, it's certainly the relationships and interactions that are at the top of the list. Especially the ones where we made a difference to someone.

Spheres of influence are being highlighted by the growth in the number and varieties of online social networking mediums. The emphasis for most of these is mainly on breadth rather than depth - lots of superficiality: a mile wide and an inch deep.

Other influence is laser-focused. Take Tony Dungy's story. After his son committed suicide he said he was not going to continue with his career. A friend asked him if, knowing where his son was when he was living and where he is now, he would want to bring him back. After considering this awhile, he decided he really wouldn't do that and was able to return to football and ultimately bring the Colts to their Super Bowl win last year. I would trade that kind of positive influence in someone's life for a record-breaking Facebook network any day.

Most of the time it's more a matter of being ready for the opportunity than seeking it out. The genuineness and spontaneity are hard to fake. Here's a clip of a 13-year old whose influence would be tough to match. I hope we all see our opportunities for real influence in the new year.

Christmas Booklist

Here's a list of books that are on my Christmas wishlist - send me your own recommendations.

Anti-Christmas Entertainment

The battle lines of Merry Christmas vs. Happy Snow Season are being drawn up earlier each year. "The Golden Compass" rolls out with its story for children "about killing God" according to author Philip Pullman in a neo-Nietzsche quip.

But on the other hand there's Mitt Romney saying there's room for religion still/again in politics. And Oxford philosophy professor and distinguished atheist Antony Flew has just come out with his long move toward faith with the long title, "There is a God - How The World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind."

Abel's lamb was for a man. The passover lamb was for a family. The lamb on the temple altar was for a nation. The Lamb on the cross was for all of us. The world is flat - as of 2000 years ago.

- link to 24-hour Christmas music on your PC

Pleasure to burn...

Do people ever ask you what you think of television? Not of "24" or MTV or The Antiques Road Show, but television itself. Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man,...) said this:

The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.

His assessment of the internet is a bit more optimistic: "Well, I hope it's an experiment that works." Here's the whole clip: Bradbury on the internet

The i.c. stars Technology "Boot Camp"

Here's a recent article from the Tribune about a technology training program in Chicago I'm proud to be a part of called i.c. stars.

Thankful

Are you thankful today? Of course you are. "If you've got three or more TV's in your house, you're richer than 95.4% of the world; if you've got two refrigerators, you're richer than... etc."

Are you humble today? (Be careful - as soon as you take any pride in it, you're not humble anymore!) I think these two are hard to separate. It's hard to be proud and thankful.

It seems to me there are three areas where we are most often thankful. There are probably more but to keep it simple let's say we're thankful for things, people and ideas.

We have a lot of great stuff that improves the quality of our daily lives, no question about it. And of course a lot of that is recent technology that makes us more fortunate than those before us. Beyond that, we know we should be thankful for our relationships. Pop stars are thankful for their fans, authors are thankful for people who buy their books, athletes are thankful for season ticket holders and bloggers are just happy for people's attention.

At another level, we are thankful for the bigger things -- the goodness in the world. Freedom, for example. The freedom to do what we should (and not necessarily what we want to) do is a true cause for thanks. Things like mercy and kindness, hope and forgiveness. To me, these are the things we need to be more thankful for. And only when we are humble enough to realize we don't deserve them can we be truly thankful for them. And that true thankfulness motivates us to give them to others.

In just a few lines I hope this is an encouragement to you. A friend of mine, Josh, expresses it better talking about his own genuine thankfulness in spite of circumstances in his iTunes download here.

Persistence

Are you persistent?

Really persistent when you believe in something?

More persistent than the other guys?

Watch the difference in the responses of these two division 3 college teams as the play gets more and more incredible.

On Giving Thanks

At the risk of recommending something that those who are inclined to appreciate already know about (because it's been out for awhile now)... I was picking some music out for Thanksgiving and came across Chip Davis' Holiday Musik from 1996. If you like this one, there's a #2 album also, but this one is the best, imho. In an era of specific, splintered, niche collections on your iPod, this is one everyone should have. Pop it in your playlist and see if it helps you to think of things you're thankful for.

And to start things off, find someone who is a veteran today and thank them for their part in our continuing freedoms in the most free nation on this earth. Lots of great people, our veterans. People who know how much something costs always appreciate it more.

Technology in Vancouver

I visited Vancouver, British Columbia for the first time last week at a conference -- what a beautiful city! Just over the border, things are familiar enough but have a European air about them. You know you're not in Iowa (no offense, I love Iowa). BC and Canada in general seem to have a larger share of long-haired men, demure women, cigarette smokers and panhandlers. Vancouver is bustling with construction projects everywhere.

And payphones. Hard to figure out why, unless they are subsidized by the government. There seems to be a Telus payphone every couple blocks while in the states the only one I can remember seeing recently is the one in the basement of the library.

Here are some photos and I recommend it as a place to visit - be sure to see Stanley Park and Granville Island, formerly an industrial park now converted to a quaint shopping area. The photo with the two gentlemen is of Doug Mueller, the father of the top-rated Remedy Service Desk and our presenter Marc Thames, who spoke to a packed out Friday morning session on the difference between asset and configuration management.