You Want A Piece of America? Well Here I Am.

9-11, 9/11, Sept 11

Last night I watched Tom Friedman on Charlie Rose. He put in words what I have been feeling for years. He said..

"To me 9-11 is the day between 9-10 and 9-12. I am not about an America defined by 9-11. I am about an America defined by the 4th of July"

How about you?

I am sick and tired of USA standing for the United States of Afraid. I want the United States of Aspirations.

Every time I take off my shoes to go through airport security I know we have lost. Next week I am going to the airport. I am going barefoot. That way I will not be surrendering by taking off my shoes for security.

I am not interested in or inspired by a government who wants to take away my freedom in the name of my security.

I dream of being great, not of being safely hidden behind armed guards.

I have always thought that our President - George Bush - had the chance to be remembered as our greatest President, to be put on Mt Rushmore, if on 9-11 he had stood up immediately and with fire in his eyes and smoke coming out his nose said...

"You want a piece of America? Well here I am. Come get me!"

Instead he sat there looking inept. Then he disappearred to a "secure and undisclosed location". He took this whole country with him.

Today I have had enough.

I will not give my life to or for a country that provides me a safe place to hide and be afraid.

I will give my life to and for a country that offers the American Dream of the 4th of July.

My America is where dreams come true.

My America is where you can become great.

My Amercia is not a hiding place.

Join me.

Google's Official Blog Post on Chrome

Here is the official Google Blog post on Chrome...

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html

Here is the link to the now famous cartoon...

http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/index.html

Google Chrome and the Power of Free

Google released Chrome today. Here is a good overview from the Alley Insider...

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/9/google-chrome-browser-takes-page-out-of-microsoft-book-link-and-lever

For the bigger picture it is pretty clear that Google's business model is the real problem for its competitors. How can Microsoft give Windows and Office, etc away for free?

Can you make Free your business model? Has a competitor already done this to you?

More on this in a post soon.

A Starting Point to My Thinking

Here is my basic premise about the World Wide Web.

1 - It is a fundamental change in the abilities of people to communicate and interact.

2 - It reduces or completely eliminates the financial barriers that have previously existed for publishing and distribution of anything which can be made digital.

3 - It removes time and distance as factors in what is possible.

Under this group of three, here is my early sub group of effects that flow from these changes.

1 - It destroys many existing business and professional models.

2 - It creates models that have never existed before.


What does this mean to you and how you may choose to go about the normal everyday activities of your life?

Let me say right now that I hope I put these restraints on myself…

1 - I will not ever say the web is the solution to any and all problems.

2 - I will not say the web will lead us to a utopia.

3 - I will never suggest the web is a get rich quick scheme. If I do, please someone, give me a gun and I will shot myself.

Here Comes Everybody

I have been reading Clay Shirkey's book Here Comes Everybody. I am going to be writing several entries about topics he discusses in his book.

I hope this will not simply be redundant for those of you who have read the book. I highly recommend this book and Sarah Lacy's book Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good.

These are the best two books I have read this year related to defining the current state of the Web.

In fact, at the moment, these are the two books that have had the strongest influence on my understanding the Web since I read Tim Berners-Lee's book Defining the Web. As the creator of the world wide web, Berners-Lee has a unique position and his book is well written in describing his concept and intent.


More later today.

Not More Traffic, Better Pages

A lot of folks spend most of their time trying to get more and more traffic to their web site. At some point this becomes a proposition with very diminishing returns.

With the idea in mind of making your site about your visitor, you need to spend at least as much, and maybe even more, time on making the pages as usable and effective as possible.

From a crass perspective it is better to provide a page where twice as many of the visitors you have take the actions they came to take - and the actions you want them to take – than a page that gets twice the traffic.

Remember, visitors come to your page for a reason of their own. They want that reason satisfied when they arrive. Twice the traffic at the same conversion rate is twice as many dissatisfied visitors.

Spend your time increasing the percentage of page visitors who are satisfied. This will give you more happy users, more positive word of mouth. Better results.

Here are a few good ideas for improving results on your pages.

1 - Consider removing the normal navigation and other distracting elements of your page. Studies consistently show that the headline and then the content in the top left corner of each page are the most viewed – visible – parts of a web page. Use these two spaces to make clear the purpose of each page.

2 - Add “trust indicators. Things like “Hackersafe” logo. Also testimonials. Make your visitor feel safe and comfortable.

3 - Make any forms that are completed on your site as simple as possible. The page of least resistance is a normal human choice.

Twitter and Business

I found this link through Wayne Sutton

Does Twitter Have a Business Plan

Any of you that use Twitter at all can probably come up with many more ideas.

Personally, I think the basic technology of Twitter, enhanced with more privacy features, is the much better business plan. Interestingly, while the data center is significant, the basic software is not cutting edge.

Just goes to show it is the imagination, execution and persistence that make a great application. And the folks at Twitter have all that and then  some.

What about you?