New Scene

New from SceneCaster

The ability to embed your 3D scenes on your blog and to link your 3D scene to any URL and to any 3D scene created by a SceneCaster user. Here's an example:

Shana Tova

I thought I would ring in the Jewish New Year by posting for the first time since April. Interestingly, I believe that the day after my last post, I read that the average blog has a lifespan of less than three months, almost exactly how long my blog was active before it went dark. Perhaps this blog entry will kick-start another ninety day period of active blogging. Who knows.

So, on to Rosh Hashana. This year, for the first time, we welcomed Rosh Hashana with the blowing of the Shofar at our Erev dinner. One of the reasons we didn't do so before was because none of us could blow a Shofar. Trust me, it's a lot harder than it looks. Well this year, a Shofar blower emerged among us...and his name is Zachary. Blow on, little man!

Pimp My Blog

A few weeks ago, I mentioned to my wife how much I enjoy "pimping out" this blog with highly customizable and easy-to-embed widgets like FilmLoop (photos), Pandora (music), Feedburner (blog registration and feed), FeedFind (blog search), Sitemeter (blog tracking), YouTube (video) and so on. This is the latest example of how technology is democratizing the creation, customization and publication of content.

The demand for the mass customization of blogs is so overwhelming that there is actually a website called Pimp My Blog that offers free blog tools to "pimp your blog". Large media companies have taken notice as well. Six Apart, one of the largest blogging software platform providers, recently announced the availability of an open widget platform, including a widget directory with over thirty applications, for its users. These widgets include job searching, game playing, photosharing, publishing tools, search and music.

The key point here -- and it is not specific to the blogging community -- is that today's consumers are empowered like they have never been before. They demand personalization, customization and a high degree of interaction with the products and services they choose to purchase. Successful companies will follow Six Apart's example and offer their customers technology and tools to allow them to easily "pimp out" their products and services. For another great example of this trend, check out HGTV's Online 3D Kitchen Designer, where consumers can customize their kitchens online.

So, in the spirit of further "pimping out" the Z Axis, I'm adding a photocast to this blog entry today that features the three most important people in my life. This new widget comes courtesy of Bubbleshare, a Toronto based online photo site that incorporates many Web 2.0 features such as tagging, blogging, sharing, searching and community voting.

Enjoy!

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BubbleShare - Add to my blog

Rumsfeld, MBAs and Tribalism

I wake up each morning genuinely astonished that Donald Rumsfeld still has a job to go to every day, let alone that his job continues to be Secretary of Defense of the United States of America.

After all, this is the man who is responsible for the planning, strategy and ongoing operation of the Iraq war, which even hardened conservatives like William F. Buckley and William Kristol now admit is an utter failure. It should also be noted that both Buckley and Kristol have severely criticized Rumsfeld directly: Buckley has called him a "failed executor" and Kristol called for Rumsfeld's resignation over one year ago. If that's not enough, how about the fact that it was Rumsfeld who authorized the interrogation techniques that led to the shameful and illegal acts that took place at Abu Ghraib prison. As Seymour Hersch reported in the New Yorker in May 2004:

The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq.

With a record like that you'd think that Rumsfeld would be sweating out his annual performance reviews. Not a chance. To the contrary, his boss still goes on about what a "great job" Rummy is doing running the Iraq war. I know I've extolled the benefits of "time-in" management before, but for f*ck's sake if anyone is deserving of a five year "time out", it's Donald Rumsfeld.

But, alas, no. The fact of the matter is that if you happen to be one of Bush's "chosen ones" (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove and even Card) the only thing that could get you fired from your job is if CNN catches you live on tape snorting cocaine with Marion Barry while performing a sex act on a farm animal that you lovingly refer to on camera as "sweet little Laura". And frankly, I'm not even sure that that would be enough to get you fired.

The irony of all this is that Bush and his cronies have often trumpeted the fact that Bush is the first President to hold an MBA (they don't like to highlight the C+ graduating average) and that his management style and philosophy is akin to that of a corporate CEO.

Well, the reality is that no corporate CEO would continue to support a senior executive with Rumsfeld's record of unequivocal failure and his direct contribution to massive shareholder losses. The right decision is to fire this executive and begin the process of rebuilding the management team. But this is exactly where Bush's management style fails him and his country. His penchant for loyalty, political victory and ideology consistently gets in the way of sound management decision-making.

As Ross Baker, a political scientist from Rutgers recently told U.S. News, "Personal loyalty plays an enormous role in this administration. One of the things a CEO has to do is make tough personnel decisions. He hasn't made any of them." Baker goes on to say that Bush, more than most presidents, is "dependent on personal friends and confidants... It's almost tribal."

And, so there it is. As a member of the Bush tribe, Rumsfeld is afforded almost unlimited immunity and impunity. I dare say, though, that the tribal culture within the Bush White House -- which, characteristic of most tribes, does not tolerate minority rights and dissident views -- poses as much a threat to democracy and world freedom as the extreme sectarian and religious tribalism that the White House is trying to quash in Iraq and large parts of the Middle East.

Vault Radio: It's Quite a Trip

I've wanted to write about Vault Radio since I began this crazy blog adventure.

If you love live music...If you love classic rock, blues and soul music from the late 1960's and early 1970's...If you never got a chance to see Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, John Mayall, Led Zeppelin, Albert Collins, Jefferson Airplane and other rock and blues legends play live...If you always wanted to hear a concert at the Fillmore (West and East) or the Berkely Community Theater or Webster Hall or Madison Square Garden....If you love bootlegs but want to support the artists...then, go visit Vault Radio right now.

Vault Radio is the digital re-incarnation of Bill Graham. Graham, whose given name was Wolfgang Granjonca, produced more than 35,000 concerts through the late 1960's and mid 1970's. Graham recorded most of these concerts on tape, including seminal live performances by the Doors, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Traffic, BB King, Paul Butterfield, Janis Joplin and others. This treasure trove of live music lay dormant in Graham's attic until 2003 when his music archive was acquired by Wolfgang's Vault, the owners of Vault Radio.

Today, Vault Radio is playing selected tracks from Graham's recorded concerts in an FM-quality, 128K digital radio stream. While Vault doesn't provide listeners with the option to fast forward through the playlist or select a specific artist or track -- how very lo-fi -- there is no denying the unique experience of listening to Aretha Franklin sing "Love the One You're With" from her 1971 concert at The Fillmore West. It is truly spine tingling.

So, dust off your old LPs, put on your bandana and bell bottoms and head off to Vault Radio. It's quite a trip.

Hooters Air Goes Tits Up

Too often brand and marketing gurus get so caught up believing their own hype that they convince themselves that consumers will lap up new product variations or brand extensions regardless of how insane these may seem to the detached observer. Cases in point include New Coke, the McRib and the Phaeton.

The latest example of this "brands gone wild" syndrome is Hooters Air. Believe it or not, Hooters, the (in)famous chain of restaraunts best known for its scantily clad and buxom young "Hooters Girls", launched its own airline in 2003. Why fly Hooters Air? Well, safety first and foremost. Hooters Air is the only airline which can legitimately claim that, in the unlikely event of a water landing you can use the attendants as floatation devices!

Well, you can imagine how shocked I was this morning to read that Hooters Air is going out of business. What a bust! Who was the boob who dreamed up this idea? Apparently, the company was getting too top heavy. Management was trying to milk it for all it was worth. They tried to get their hands around the situation but business started to sag. Frankly, they needed additional support.

Ok, enough of that. The real point here is that Hooters, like New Coke and Phaeton before it, broke three of the cardinal rules of marketing and branding:

1. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Coke is great. Leave it alone.

2. Know where your brand can go and where it cannot. A VW logo on a luxury sedan? Please.

3. Innovation is only real innovation when there is a customer need. Does anybody really need another tacky discount airline?

So, farewell Hooters Air. We salute you.

Time-In Parenting, Time-In Management

Let me begin by saying that I am blessed to have two beautiful, kind, smart, fun, resourceful and loving children. Ninety-six percent of the time (I have detailed daily logs to support this figure), my children are a joy to be around. But, let's face it, there are those occasions when my children, like all children, become irritable, rude, upset and angry. Not surprisingly, it is on these same occasions that their Dad also becomes irritable, rude, upset and angry. The result is a vicious cycle that ends up with all of us throwing tantrums and being "timed out".

Last year, my wife brought home a book called Time-In Parenting by Dr. Otto Weininger that dramatically changed the way in which our family deals with emotional outbursts and misbehaviour. At its core, Time-In Parenting takes issue with the common advice given to parents to send their children for a "time out" when emotions build up and lead to misbehaviour. The prevalent practice of “timing out” children, argues Dr. Weininger, sends them the absolutely wrong message; namely, that they are unacceptable to their parents when they are experiencing strong emotions and that they need to cope with their anger and emotions on their own.

Instead, Time-In Parenting calls for parents to "time-in" with their kids during these emotional moments and say, "I am here for you". While this may seem obvious and trite it is, in fact, quite profound. Offering children support and empathy when they are troubled let’s them know that their parents believe in them and their ability to manage through their troubles. It also, from my own personal experience, creates an extremely strong emotional attachment between parent and child. Holding your child’s hand or squeezing them close when they are experiencing strong negative emotions let’s your child know that you will be there for them in times of crisis. And isn’t that what parenting is all about?

I was having lunch yesterday in Des Moines, Iowa (don’t ask) with a key prospect who also has two children. We were discussing Time-In Parenting when it dawned on us that the fundamental principle of “timing-in” applies equally as well to business management. Too often business managers “time out” their staff by sending them away to “fix the problem” or “deal with the issue” on their own. However, what if these same managers would “time-in” with their employees? What if they would communicate to their staff that “I am here for you” and let them know that their boss will always support them in times of crisis? How powerful and motivating would that be? And, after all, isn’t that what good management is all about?

Are You Unbundled?

On the most recent podcast of All Songs Considered, Bob Boilen noted that the Red Hot Chili Peppers have finally agreed to sell their music on iTunes. Why is this news? Because the Chili Peppers have until now objected to allowing consumers to "unbundle" the band's music by purchasing individual songs rather than the entire album.

While it's not clear yet how much of an impact the availability of individual tracks is having on album sales -- though music sales from online digital stores like iTunes now exceed those made in traditional bricks and mortar stores -- what is clear is that the unbundling of the music track is just the latest example of how technology is fragmenting and atomizing the production, distribution and consumption of media. Some other examples of the unbundling of media include blogs (unbundled news), vlogs (unbundled television) and podcasts (unbundled radio).

While it is natural to bemoan the impact of unbundling on traditional media, the flip side is that unbundled media or, micromedia, is generally more personal, more portable, more shareable and more consumable than macro-media. What's more, as Ricky Gervais, Saturday Night Live and Rocketboom have proven, micromedia is inherently viral. This is all great news if you are a creator, producer or distributor of content.

So, let's all pause and pay our respects to the album, the newsaper and the traditional television and radio show. They have served us well. But, if you are interested in having your content shared, distributed and consumed, start today by unbundling it into its simplest discrete form -- or, as Fred Wilson says, "microchunk" it -- and allow your consumers to easily access it, mix it, tag it, customize it, search it, store it and share it.

Oh yeah, and then blog it!

David Bowie Uncovered

Ok, I admit it. I have never been a huge fan of David Bowie's. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Bowie's music and Space Oddity and Ziggy Stardust are clealry classic albums. But, I just haven't connected with his music like I have with other 70's art rock groups like Roxy Music, Pink Floyd or The Talking Heads (my wife would add Brian Eno here if she had any editorial rights).

By the way, I know that I am in the minority here. In 1999, David Bowie was voted the most influential artist of the 20th century by his fellow musicians and Pitchfork named his 1977 album Low the best album of the 70's beating out The Clash's London Calling, Dylan's Blood on the Tracks and Led Zeppelin's IV.

So how is it that some of the most haunting and beguiling music I've been listenting to lately is Bowie's? The answer, interestingly enough, is that I've finally found my way into David Bowie's music by not listening to Bowie himself. Instead, I've been listening to mesmerizing cover versions of some of Bowie's classic songs by two very talented and very different contemporary artists: Seu Jorge and M. Ward.

Let me stop here for a second and say that I am generally not a fan of cover versions. Rare is the cover that is better than the original or that adds a new dimension to the music or the lyrics to warrant listening to the song being interpreted by another artist.

So, back to Seu Jorge and M. Ward. Seu Jorge is a Brazilian actor and musician. He has appeared in the movies City of God and The Life Acquatic with Steve Zissou. For the movie The Life Acquatic, Jorge also recorded acoustic Portugese language cover versions of fifteen Bowie classic songs, including Changes, Ziggy Stardust and Suffragette City. But my personal favourite is his version of Rebel, Rebel. Listening to these songs sung in a different language, in Jorge's throaty and romantic voice and totally stripped down to their bare elements reveals the narrative brilliance of Bowie's songs as well as the beautiful rhythm and tension within his music. I urge you to buy this album right away as well as Jorge's two original albums, Carolina and Cru (all are available on iTunes).

M. Ward is quite simply one of the best singer-songwriters and folk-blues acoustic guitar players on the face of the planet right now. As his record company says, "his voice sounds like it should come out of a 75-year-old Mississippi Delta bluesman." On his second album, The Transfiguration of Vincent, Ward takes on Bowie's 1980's song "Let's Dance". Listen to his stark, slowed down version of the song here and I am sure you will find it to be a revelation. Almost unrecognizable from the original, Ward manages to explore and highlight the deep sadness, fragility and heartbreak of this song, which is totally lacking in the Bowie original. Listening to Ward's version of this song will haunt you for weeks. Again, if you don't have this album, run as fast as you can to iTunes and purchase everything by M. Ward, including his most recent album Transistor Radio. You can also listen to both M. Ward and Seu Jorge on the Z-Axis radio station.

So, thank you Seu Jorge and M. Ward for uncovering David Bowie's music by stripping it bare, singing it in a different language and ultimately revealing the genius of The Thin White Duke.

Microsoft Vista and the Future of Software

This has been a very bad week for Microsoft. Earlier in the week, Redmond announced what everyone was already expecting; that the much anticipated release of Vista, Microsoft's new Windows software platform, will be delayed until 2007. This is a big deal since Microsoft will now miss the critical holiday selling season. Reeling from yet another delay, Microsoft named Steve Sinofsky, the former Office chief, to head the Windows unit.

But, that's small potatoes. The bigger news here is that Microsoft is crumbling under its own weight and is in danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant as a force in the consumer software industry. As Business Week noted, "the delay raises larger questions about Microsoft's ability to innovate at today's pace." Indeed, the whole business model and process of releasing monolithic packaged software in three or five year cycles is an archaic notion in today's Web services world.

Update: Kevin Johnson, Microsoft's Co-President of the Windows division, sent an email yesterday to his entire group laying out the challenges facing Mircrosoft today. Specifically, he stressed the need for greater agility, explaining that MSFT needs to: "Lay the foundation for accelerating our pace of innovation, including focusing on ways to improve clarity of decision making, drive greater accountability, and reduce layers in the organization so we can move faster. It also means utilizing existing expertise within the division to embrace services -- and rapid release cycles that services can enable -- to all aspects of our business."

While Microsoft continues to futz around with Vista's 50 million lines of code [Update: According to a report this morning, up to 60% of the Vista code will have to be rewritten before launch], its competitors are re-inventing the way in which consumers will access and purchase software. Take Google for example. It is quickly putting together the pieces to challenge Microsoft's dominant Office product suite . Two week ago, Google acquired a small Web-based word processor company called Writely. Writely is a free collaborative web application that offers many of the features of Microsoft Word. However, unlike Word, Writely doesn't require an install, is updated regularly (not every five years) and can be accessed on any computer or browser. More significantly, Writely provides Google with a natural springboard for introducing other Web-based productivity applications (can you say GOffice) as an alternative to Microsoft's desktop software.

As if that's not enough to send Bill Gates to the medicine cabinet, today Michael Robertson announced the release of AjaxWrite, another browser-based word processing application. I've tried AjaxWrite and it's simply awesome. It looks and feels like Word, reads and writes Microsoft Word formatted documents, has tabbed browsing for easy access to multiple files and documents, is quick and responsive and it all lives in a browser. Oh yeah, and it's free.

What we are witnessing is a revolution in the delivery and economic model for computing software applications. As Michael Robertson explains:

The impact of this shift in how software is delivered to users cannot be understated. First and foremost, we're blowing up the economic model that companies like Microsoft and Adobe have built their empires around selling packaged software for big dollar amounts. Software is transforming into a service more akin to web mail, news, IM and VoIP where the basic offering is free. That doesn't mean that the companies behind these services don't make money, but that the way they make money will change.

Can Microsoft adapt and thrive in this new Web 2.0 world? The recent launch of Windows Live suggests that they are on the right track. But, as someone once said, supertankers are more likely to sink than to sprint.

Phaeton Phiasco

Last month, German auto maker Volkswagen announced that it would be withdrawing its once heralded ultra luxury sedan, The Phaeton, from the US market. This comes on the heels of a Wall Street Journal report that only 38 Phaetons were sold in the US in February. To put that in perspective, Ferrari sells about three times as many cars per month in the States.

The Phaeton fiasco didn't come as a surprise to anyone following this story. The Phaeton was a marketing and branding disaster from the day it was launched. In the US, the Phaeton was positioned directly against the Mercedes S-Class and the BMW 7 Series. The problem is that S-Class and 7-Series buyers are not going to plop down $90,000 to drive a car that's emblazened with the big VW logo. After all, Volkswagen means "people's car" not "rich SOB's" car.

But, aside from the lethal branding blunder, VW violated rule #1 in product marketing: never tempt the Gods. As many of you will remember from your Greek mythology class -- apparently this is not a prerequisite course in German high schools -- Phaeton was the son of the sun god Helios. One day, Phaeton asked his dad to take the family car (ok, it was a sun chariot) out for a spin. Dad reluctantly agreed but told Jr. to drive safely. Well, Phaeton being an exuberant youth without a driver's permit, got a little reckless and soon found himself hurtling out of the sky on a collision course with Earth. To save Earth and the universe from utter destruction, Zeus threw a thunderbolt at the chariot destroying Dad's wheels and instantly killing Phaeton.

And so with this as background, the VW braintrust gathered one day and, seemingly unware of the irony of it all, decided to name their new luxury sedan after the victim of a fiery car crash. Frankly, they had this one coming to them!

Get in the Loop

The most recent addition to the Z-Axis is the scrolling FilmLoop of my family (I've named this loop The X and Y of the Z) just below the "Links" section on the right hand sidebar and copied here below. You can click to view.



This is a great Web 2.0 application. It's interactive, dynamic, collaborative, social, viral, simple and embeddable. My only complaint, and it's a major one, is that the application is not easily searchable or taggable. That is, I can't easily search through the FilmLoop photcasting network to find and tag loops that I'd like to subscribe to. That is a major shortcoming right now, though I did manage to find and subscribe to Hugh MacLeod's amazing cartoon FilmLoop as shown below.



Enjoy the Loops and keep checking back as we will be adding new features regularly, including an audio blog segment soon.

Wallace Roney: Just My Imagination

Jazz trumpeter Wallace Roney is one of those musicians that has never received the recognition he deserves. This is partly due to his rather humourless personality and the fact that he played -- and continues to play -- deep in the shadow of his mentor Miles Davis.

This is truly unfortunate as Roney is not only a great musician, but he has put out some stellar recordings over the past five or six years, including No Room for Argument (2000) and Prototype (2004). He is also playing with a great band these days that includes Gerri Allen on piano.

Earlier this week, I heard Roney being interviewed on NPR. He has just released a new album (ok, it's a CD) called Mystikal on High Note records. I haven't heard the entire album yet, but the one track that was featured on NPR simply blew me away. Roney has orchestrated a cover version of The Temptations hit song, "Just My Imagination" that stays true to the melody but hides it within layers of beautifully improvised and gently swinging jazz. It's a real gem. Take a listen to a sample of it here.

Value Innovation and Blue Oceans

As the founder of an Internet software company, I spend a lot of time considering how to create, maintain and extend competitive advantage through innovation. Of course, innovation can take many forms, including technological innovation, process innovation and value innovation. In North America and Europe, the first two types of innovation are quickly becoming commoditized due to the proliferation of open source software and free or very cheap Web collaboration, tracking and reporting tools. While technology and process improvements remain necessary building blocks for most any business, they are no longer the key drivers of competitive advantage. Rather, and as detailed in the brilliant book Blue Ocean Strategy, the pendulum of competitive advantage has now swung decisively towards value innovation.

At its core, value innovation is a customer oriented strategy that does not use competitors as benchmarks and largely ignores existing industry conditions. Instead, value innovators create competitive advantage by focusing on differentiation, customer needs and by creating uncontested market space ("blue oceans"). Consider how Starbucks, Cirque de Soleil and Ikea have come to dominate their industries by fundamentally redefining the coffee shop, circus and funiture store.

So, as you consider your own company or business think about how you are going about creating competitive advantage. Is it through a conventional strategy of focusing on technological, process and cost improvements -- which are unlikely to be sustainable over the long term -- or, is it through a commitment to value innovation and blue ocean strategy? As for me, I am hoping that in a few years I will be writing this blog on the sandy beach of a very blue ocean.

Aloha.

Keeping it in Perspective

Love. Family. Children. Joy.

Z-Axis Radio and The Channel of Me

Uncork the champagne. Z-Axis took to the airwaves today with the official launch of Z-Axis Radio. Powered by Pandora, Z-Axis Radio (located on the righthand side bar) is a compilation of personalized Web radio stations that stream a continuous playlist of music that share similar musical attributes or "genes" (e.g., harmony, melody, instrumentation, vocal structure, lyrics, etc.). You can learn more about the process behind Pandora's musical discovery engine by reading up on the Music Genome Project.

Beyond the immediate cool factor of being able to easily and quickly (less than three minutes) create your own Internet radio stations and embed them on your blog or website, this is yet another example of how the Web is fundamentally altering social interactions and the creation and distribution of digital content.

Consider the impact and implications of a technology (actually a suite of technologies and tools such as Flash, JSP, Ajax, DHTML, etc.) that allows individuals to create, publish and share their own content and rich media experiences at a click of a mouse and generally for free. This is the foundation of and driving force behind "The Channel of Me"; a self-produced narrowcast channel that broadcasts each individual's unique digitalDNA. As Business Week declared in their Best of 2005 article, "The Channel of Me makes consumers the ultimate producers."

By providing consumers with their own digital soap box, The Channel of Me fundamentally alters consumer-to-consumer interactions as well as business-to-consumer interactions. For businesses, The Channel of Me requires a new mindset and approach that offers empowered consumers personalization tools and customization options -- not uniform products -- and social networking and collaboration tools to allow consumers to express and share their digitalDNA across the bitstream universe.

So, tune in to Z-Axis Radio and enjoy The Channel of Me.