Where we're headed regardless of what business

[Kisa]

I think this is a great blog post about where we're headed... it can and should be applied to this business:

Over a decade ago, when I was working at an investment bank, one of the topics that kept coming up was “the multiprovider portal”. [Yes, it was that long ago, those forgotten times when investment banks still existed, when startups made no money, just "revenue", and nobody cringed if you used the word "portal"].

The multiprovider portal was a simple concept. Let’s take an example.

At that time, it appeared that portals were built by financial services providers for financial services providers and nobody else. Customers went to the portal of the provider. Everything was very product and service and provider centric. Which was fine and dandy as long as nobody complained. But customers did complain. Customers wanted something better than that which they were being offered. If they held multiple accounts with one bank, they wanted to manage all those accounts from one place. More importantly, if they held accounts with a number of banks, they wanted to manage all those accounts from one place. As a result of this demand, people started offering account aggregation services.

At the time, we felt that companies would want something similar from their investment banks. Most large corporates had relationships with more than one investment bank. Usually at least two, sometimes more. So rather than force the customer to go to different portals for different services, we wanted to build something different. Allow the customer to use our portal to manage their relationships with investment banks other than us. Allow the customer to build a portal designed around the customer, as it were, rather than the service provider.

Imagine the scene: A customer of “our” bank using software provided by us in order to do business with other banks. Perish the thought. Well, the thought did perish. [So, too did investment banks. But that was in another country, and besides, the wench is dead.]

Roll the clock forward from 1998-99 to a few years ago. I remember those early discussions with Doc Searls as he convinced me through and through about the importance of Vendor Relationship Management. At least part of the drive behind VRM was this whole thing about doing things with the perspective of the customer. Amazon, do you realise that I buy books from people other than Amazon? For Amazon read eBay, Borders, Barnes and Noble, Abebooks, <insert name of preferred bookseller here>. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could aggregate all those purchases somewhere, so that my recommendations were based on my true purchases? Wouldn’t it be nice if I could choose which purchases I wanted to include and which ones I wanted to exclude, so that I didn’t get recommendations based on books I bought my 10-year old, or books I bought as presents for others? Wouldn’t it be nice if I had the ability to switch on “private shopping”?

Doc spent time explaining to me that people weren’t “getting” this inversion, this 180 degree shift away from Customer Relationship Management to Vendor Relationship Management. Where everything was viewed from the customer’s perspective, not the provider’s.

I kept on wondering why people didn’t “get” it.

Now move the clock forward to today. When I move to the world of “social media”, hearing all the arguments about authority and power and traffic, I get slandered, libelled, I hear words I never heard in the Bible……just trying to keep my customers satisfied. Satisfied.

I must be wired differently. When I started using Facebook, and realised the value of the news feed when used properly, I used to keep my status updated regularly. Then, when Twitter came along, I did the expected thing and connected my tweets to Facebook status.

Until someone complained. Until I realised that some of my facebook friends weren’t interested in the high-frequency status change that twitter represented. So, hearing the complaints, I changed. I cut the connection between Twitter and Facebook. Now, if someone wanted to know about my status with twitter-like frequency, they came to twitter, not to Facebook.

More recently, a few days ago, I started playing in earnest with blip.fm. And I misread the small print while turning on the twitter service, thinking that only the tweets I preceded with a “!” would go to twitter. My bad. So when I started using blip, every blip I made resulted in a tweet being sent to twitter.

Until someone complained. And I realised what I’d done. And I fixed it.

2009 is going to be about big changes in this space. I guarantee it. Put whatever’s left of your house and your savings on it.

People will not come to “my” blog. They will go to “their” feed aggregator, where they can read all the people they’re interested in reading. If they see something of interest, they will dig deeper and come to my blog.

People will not come to read “my” tweets. They will go to “their” tweet aggregator, where they can read all the tweets of all the people they’re interested in following. If they see something of interest, they will follow the links provided.

People will not come to see “my” pictures in Flickr. People will not come to hear “my” music wherever.

“My” time is over.

It’s a different perspective.

Readers want everything and everyone they read aggregated; they select what to read, when to read it, how to read it. How to read it, where to read it, what device to use.

Similarly, listeners want everything they listen to and everyone they listen to aggregated for them; watchers want everything they see and everyone thet see aggregated for them.

We have had aggregation before. Past paradigm aggregation was about content owners and distribution and channels and audiences. Which allowed for words like authority and traffic. Which begat strange things like advertising.

Next paradigm aggregation is about the owner of the power to bestow attention, and to do something with that attention. The customer.

So the customer will not watch a television channel, but instead create her own, an aggregation at viewing guide level. The same with news and reviews, the same with music.

* First, the ability to aggregate a directory of services selected by the customer rather than the provider.
* Second, the ability to drill in, to dig deeper into these directories in order to do something with the particular service. Time shifted, place shifted. She will read your blog if she finds something of interest, when she wants to, how she wants to, using the device she chooses.
* Third, the ability to participate, to feed back, to comment, to rate, all these services.
* And finally, the ability to reuse all or part of the service so provided in a Creative-Commons-like way in order to produce something else, and to share that something else.

[Bill]

Interesting.

I personally don't aggregate nuthin. I tour a list of sites that I suppose are "1st&2nd gen aggregators" - metafilter, boingboing, various business boards.

I notice I'm spending less time at the few social networking sites I have profiles on.

I can barely conceive or place myself in the mindspace of a twitterer.

I do like going to pornhub to jerk off. It feels like a public service to eat off their servers.

[p3rlphr33k]

this post would have been great right here: http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...ad.php?t=50684

Thanks Kisa

[Kisa]

Originally Posted by Bill

Interesting.

I personally don't aggregate nuthin. I tour a list of sites that I suppose are "1st&2nd gen aggregators" - metafilter, boingboing, various business boards.

I notice I'm spending less time at the few social networking sites I have profiles on.

I can barely conceive or place myself in the mindspace of a twitterer.

I do like going to pornhub to jerk off. It feels like a public service to eat off their servers.

heh

I know. I think Twitter is dumb but at the same time, I twitter away because I've made more connections and been added to more blog networks than I could have done anywhere else. And that's really all it is, a giant network of bloggers and programmers really- Sure there are people who will twitter that they're eating a bagel or that they're driving their car but people will not continue to follow- It takes a creative tweets to maintain and sustain.... it's really very interesting. Don't forget that most of the time, people are tweeting links. So if you have a site you want people to see, you're going to send tweets out with that link but you have to be careful because spammers are always blocked. So you have to be social and enticing. That's the magic combo- No one likes robots-

I have a couple of pornstars too... Their tweets are actually horribly boring but at least they understand they need to keep it up to keep their fans interested.... social networks are there to stay so people can either scoff at them and watch their numbers dwindle or find a way to embrace and use them for their advantage... Here's a list for 2009 that I thought was very funny because number five pretty much sums it up-

If I had to write 12 Things to Stop Doing in 2009, they would be
1.) Stop watching the news 24/7. Nothing has changed since yesterday.
2.) Stop thinking about risky chances and just start taking them.
3.) Stop wanting to be an entrepreneur/small business owner and do it already.
4.) Stop saying you will travel the world. Flights to Europe just got a lot cheaper— anyone for the Azores?
5.) Stop thinking your company will succeed without a social media presence.
6.) Stop thinking that you don’t have to contribute to the discussion.
7.) Stop thinking that the world is going to come to your feet.
8.) Stop thinking you don’t have to work for it because he didn’t have to.
9.) Stop thinking economic recession means you are doomed to failure (see Iceland and geothermal warming).
10.) Stop thinking you don’t have what it takes….
11.) Stop believing that filling your life with things/meetings/work means you are living a full life.
12.) Stop. Stop reading. Stop doing. Stop wasting time avoiding thinking

[Kisa]

Originally Posted by p3rlphr33k

this post would have been great right here: http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...ad.php?t=50684

Thanks Kisa

Hey! Aren't you supposed to be following me on twitter!!! I haven't seen you tweet yet!

[Kisa]

There's a poster here who is quite established and I know she's on twitter but I can't remember who she is?? I swear I saw her telling Jester about it... and I'm sure she had and will have a better explanation for why she uses it than mine. I'm just winging it 24/7 And my site is tiny so it doesn't apply to much-

[Toby]

I guess I just don't get the whole Twitter thing.

I don't care let everyone know what I'm up to all the time, and for the most part I don't care to know what they're up to either. Just hit the high spots once or twice a week and I'm good.

[Kisa]

Originally Posted by Toby

I guess I just don't get the whole Twitter thing.

I don't care let everyone know what I'm up to all the time, and for the most part I don't care to know what they're up to either. Just hit the high spots once or twice a week and I'm good.

that's okay I'm not trying to sell you on twitter and yes, sometimes I feel like it's for people who spend way too much time up their own asses...lol... but those are the people who are just prattling on about themselves..most people are using it as a rapid fire way to exchange information and get info out about their product-

I think this thread probably should have gone in the blogging section. I'm sorry It does seem to apply to blogs more than anything-

[MeatPounder]

Originally Posted by Kisa

There's a poster here who is quite established and I know she's on twitter but I can't remember who she is?? I swear I saw her telling Jester about it... and I'm sure she had and will have a better explanation for why she uses it than mine. I'm just winging it 24/7 And my site is tiny so it doesn't apply to much-

Perhaps our Aussie grandma?
http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...hlight=twitter

[p3rlphr33k]

Kisa has made a few good points concerning twitter in previous conversation. I am willing to look into it further to find the marketing aspect or at least some good ideas. Thanks Kisa!

[Kisa]

Originally Posted by MeatPounder

Perhaps our Aussie grandma?
http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...hlight=twitter

oh thank you!!!! I knew I read a thread here about twitter, I just couldn't find it! That's it! thank you!!!

[Greenguy]

Originally Posted by Toby

...I don't care let everyone know what I'm up to all the time, and for the most part I don't care to know what they're up to either. Just hit the high spots once or twice a week and I'm good.

This DOUCHEBAG seems to have taken the "attention whore" thing to a new level.

* Douchebag comment based solely on hat

[Useless]

Originally Posted by Greenie

This DOUCHEBAG seems to have taken the "attention whore" thing to a new level.

* Douchebag comment based solely on hat

I think it's more than the hat. The whole concept seems juvenile to me. If he wasn't wearing cameras, he'd get punched for wearing cameras.

Originally Posted by Kisa

I must be wired differently. When I started using Facebook, and realised the value of the news feed when used properly, I used to keep my status updated regularly. Then, when Twitter came along, I did the expected thing and connected my tweets to Facebook status.

I am anti-Facebook and anti-Myspace. That said, I have a Facebook page, but I don't use it to keep my friends and family informed about my daily/hourly activities. I amuse myself with it by interacting, in my own special way, with my friends. (I also don't see my friends list as some sort of competition to see who can get the most friends. There's not a single stranger on my friends list. They are all people who I genuinely like.)

How would one apply any of that to world of porn-surfing? Surfers will interact on a porn message board and they'll comment on photos, links, etc. But I'm not sure how much more can be expected of them. I need to hear some concrete ideas. I've been playing with making a site interactive forever, but getting porn surfers to actually do anything is difficult. They are almost as bad as adult webmasters.

[MadCat]

UW, seems we're in the same boat more or less. I've been considering making a more web-two-point-oh-ish site for my surfers, and actually got quite a way, but the thought keeps nagging at the back of my head that a surfer is really only there for a quick wank and doesn't want to rate, share, or judge anything.

Still trying to come up with a workable idea

[Greenguy]

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

...There's not a single stranger on my friends list. They are all people who I genuinely like...

Two is not a list.

[NY Jester]

I have a facebook and I actually was very surprised today that I had 50+ friends...I dont remember sending out that many checks..I like it, but I dotn get into all the "so-n-so sent you a poke or a jaegar bomb or a chill pill" I just see who's new and check it out once or twice a week to say hey to everyone...I will say that Tommy is my friend on there

[Useless]

Originally Posted by Greenie

Two is not a list.

I have more than two friends. Whether or not they are willing to admit it is a whole other issue.

Originally Posted by NY Jester

...I dotn get into all the "so-n-so sent you a poke or a jaegar bomb or a chill pill"

I currently have 49 "requests" that I've allowed to go unanswered. I don't know what a "lil green patch" or a "lil blue cove" are. I should probably look into that.

I don't use my real name on Facebook. Some day, this journey is going to end and I'm going to want a civilian job. I really don't want the things I say online being paired-up with my name. (My wife's best friend works in HR for well-known national company and she said that one of the first things they do is search for an applicant's name on Myspace and Facebook.) Just so you know, this tool is not me. Nor this one, or this one. And I'm not this cool.

[Star Man]

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

I am anti-Facebook and anti-Myspace.

Face book and myspace have two great uses.Stalking my x-girlfriends and talking to chicks I normally would never get to talk to like the girl of my dreams (don't ask) Kelli Young from Kelliyoung.com!

Other then that though,both sites suck.

And no,I'm not going to give away her real name...

[p3rlphr33k]

I tend to stay away from both sites, the only thing that fascinates me is the ability to generate so much traffic and not make a dime.

[Star Man]

Originally Posted by p3rlphr33k

I tend to stay away from both sites, the only thing that fascinates me is the ability to generate so much traffic and not make a dime.

What fascinates me is why both are so damn popular.Myspace I could sort of understand because it basically gives anyone the ability to have their own web page but why facebook? It's so....simple ya know?Theres nothing to it.


Maybe I answered my own question...

[p3rlphr33k]

It's so....simple ya know?Theres nothing to it.

I will agree with that. I think that facebook is the myspace for the not so savy social network dweller.

[Pasha]

While news remain interesting no matter of their content - my taste in sex/porn remains same during years - I won't watch porn content which isn't exactly the same as I want.

And one thing remains (almost) same forever: editors' choice. There are millions of authors and it's hard to find those who can provide similar content daily/weekly - day by day. And it's way easier to find editor/s (link post owner) who pick up same material as years ago. Like Tommy - or GG. This is one more reason why web 2.0 concept doesn't work for porn: people don't want to see everything that Internet may show them then it comes to sex/porn/eroctic.

[tickler]

Originally Posted by MadCat

UW, seems we're in the same boat more or less. I've been considering making a more web-two-point-oh-ish site for my surfers, and actually got quite a way, but the thought keeps nagging at the back of my head that a surfer is really only there for a quick wank and doesn't want to rate, share, or judge anything.

Still trying to come up with a workable idea

One of my projects for the new year which is adult, but not yet purely selling porn.

I guess that you could call Utherverse a 2.0 type of place, and I tend to promote them rather than the cam sites.

If you haven't heard of them, they are a Adult 3D Virtual world with profile, blogs, calendars, forums, sex, etc. all rolled into one. It's interesting grabbing some hottie in a nightclub, and bend her over the bar for a quicky while whispering in her ear on Skype.

Besides all the interaction(chat/sex), there is also an in world currency that you can make/spend which can be converted to $$$s. Currently thinking about building a virtual PPV porn theater, and maybe a few other interesting features.

[Bill]

Second Life, but you pay for it.

The secondlifers would lulz.

Virtual world sex is something tho.

[susanna]

Anyone making money from Second Life?

The concept I was most interested in from the post that started this thread ;o) was

So the customer will not watch a television channel, but instead create her own, an aggregation at viewing guide level.

My first thought was the ability to purchase your specific niche vs. membership to a paysite. I know that a partnership in a massive site has been tried before. Remember someone way back was trying to get content from many different big paysites/niches to participate in one huge site and therefore offer everything to the surfer imaginable. The issues were on profitability for the paysite owners etc.

What if though someone could facilitate a paysite experience in a way that imaginatively offers exactly what one specific surfer is looking for? I guess one could say thats what bookmarking and search engines are for LOL

Anyways just a weird thought taken from that post.