This is an email sent to me by my buddy, Jason M. Adams explaining Singularity (at my request). He is a very smart, thoughtful and trustworthy person in my experience over the past 9 years of knowing him. He blogs here: http://mendicantbug.com
"Singularity: What is it?" By Jason M. Adams
Singularity is the "technological singularity". A singularity in physics is a black hole, basically an end to time and space where both merge and become one or nothing or who knows what. So Kurzweil and vernor venge, two noted futurists and transhumanists, came up with this theory that as time progresses, the distance between life-altering breakthroughs is gradually getting shorter. At some point in the not-so-distant future, we'll reach a point where the distance between breakthroughs is in days or minutes. At this point, we will become something we can't even imagine, because we will be advancing so quickly. The theory is, the singularity will be achieved by a super-intelligent benevolent AI that will give mankind all the gifts that God has refused us.
It's horse shit.
the evidence is starting to suggest technological progress is slowing, not accelerating. we'll probably reach the end of our resources long before any of this, but if we don't, we'll probably max out the learning capacity of the brain to the point that further advancements come very slowly (sometime in the next 100-200 years).
If you're interested in other's who agree with Jason's rebuttal (he's not alone in his "horse shit" synopsis), check out any of the posts in this google search.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Thursday, March 17, 2011
HOW TO: Boost sales with Social Media Monitoring and Contextual Advertising
A colleague recently asked me a question. He asked, "How can I advise a new client to get the buzz started on the web around their product."
Here is my response:
For your client....
2 a) Second: Compile a list of "detractors" and "angels" and send directly to the CEO and senior leadership. Then the senior leadership needs to start an action plan (from Crisis PR management and product redesign to corrective advertising and customer retention/recovery, etc.). Action must consistently be implemented by Senior Leadership for as long as the chatter is non-existent or bad and at a high priority every week until a Social Media Manager can be hired. Social media chatter never stops-- it's 24-7. And therefore keyword monitoring cannot stop it's 24-7, too (negative keyword monitoring needs to happen on weekends as well). Studies have shown that negative social media reviews are forcing senior business leadership worldwide to craft "viral failure" strategies and crisis management strategies. Once hired, that manager can then take over the crafting of the "viral failure" and crisis management strategies and recommend and implement new safeguards.
2 b) Next, they need to start rewarding any socially connected "product champions" (angels) who already tend to promote their products for free. Whether they are using Social Mention (free) or the Fortune-100 standard, Radian6 (paid), they need to give their Social Media Guru/staff the responsibility to follow and connect with every possible "Champion" and offer them new products or ask for their pros and cons about existing products. Then the company needs to focus on these champions as their primary and objective sales influencers. More on that next...
3a) Third: Influence Monitoring.
Pick an Influence Ranking tool with an API Both http://www.tunkrank.com and http://www.klout.com have APIs (full disclosure: I'm the Co-founder of TunkRank).
3b) If there are "detractors", start a damage control strategy by determining the Detractor's Influence Ranking." Learning a Detractor's Influence ranking is easy to do and I will walk you through a strategy I wrote for GEICO here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/50983361/How-Tunkrank-makes-you-money
4) Fourth, After your client has created LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare accounts, they need to start cross-promoting their product message to the social media world across all those sites using HootSuite: www.hootsuite.com (best in class right now and free for up to 4 social media accounts). And also tell them to put the "Add This" widget from "addthis.com" prominently onto their web site.
5) Fifth, Advertise (from higher-end all the way to free). If they don't have some kind of social media advertising budget, tell them that they need to carve some money out of the regular advertising budget immediately. Tell them contextual advertising is totally the big bang for the advertising buck because it's true narrowcasting based on targeted and known interests in their products. Once they're on board with contextual advertising, tell them to pick some of the most product-applicable "long-tail" of media that they can find on http://www.federatedmedia.net and take out an ad or 2. Or, if their advertising budget is to small to afford them, tell them to do the same thing with the "long tail" of bloggers here: http://www.text-link-ads.com
RESOURCES
Here's the biggest research collection on Social Media Monitoring (a.k.a. "sentimate analysis" or "text analytics") that I've seen yet:
http://socialmedia-listening.
Also, here are a collection of gem tools I've found over the years that may also help you:
http://www.delicious.com/
Please let me know if this post was helpful to you. It has been successful for others and I hope to make it better with your help.
Here is my response:
For your client....
1 a) The First priority (whether they use a paid product or a free one): they need to buy (or register for a free) "listening platform" product. See Resources below for a list of both free and paid listening platforms. Also, here is a $2000 Forrester report (now free) below about Listening Platform software:
1 b) Then they need to dedicate at least 1 full time employee to Monitor for their product's "detractors" and "angels." Then Create Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin accounts representing the most talked about product(s) (good and bad). Then start "friending/following" (or at least monitoring) those who are "chatting" about the product (both good and bad).
2 a) Second: Compile a list of "detractors" and "angels" and send directly to the CEO and senior leadership. Then the senior leadership needs to start an action plan (from Crisis PR management and product redesign to corrective advertising and customer retention/recovery, etc.). Action must consistently be implemented by Senior Leadership for as long as the chatter is non-existent or bad and at a high priority every week until a Social Media Manager can be hired. Social media chatter never stops-- it's 24-7. And therefore keyword monitoring cannot stop it's 24-7, too (negative keyword monitoring needs to happen on weekends as well). Studies have shown that negative social media reviews are forcing senior business leadership worldwide to craft "viral failure" strategies and crisis management strategies. Once hired, that manager can then take over the crafting of the "viral failure" and crisis management strategies and recommend and implement new safeguards.
2 b) Next, they need to start rewarding any socially connected "product champions" (angels) who already tend to promote their products for free. Whether they are using Social Mention (free) or the Fortune-100 standard, Radian6 (paid), they need to give their Social Media Guru/staff the responsibility to follow and connect with every possible "Champion" and offer them new products or ask for their pros and cons about existing products. Then the company needs to focus on these champions as their primary and objective sales influencers. More on that next...
3a) Third: Influence Monitoring.
Pick an Influence Ranking tool with an API Both http://www.tunkrank.com and http://www.klout.com have APIs (full disclosure: I'm the Co-founder of TunkRank).
3b) If there are "detractors", start a damage control strategy by determining the Detractor's Influence Ranking." Learning a Detractor's Influence ranking is easy to do and I will walk you through a strategy I wrote for GEICO here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/50983361/How-Tunkrank-makes-you-money
4) Fourth, After your client has created LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare accounts, they need to start cross-promoting their product message to the social media world across all those sites using HootSuite: www.hootsuite.com (best in class right now and free for up to 4 social media accounts). And also tell them to put the "Add This" widget from "addthis.com" prominently onto their web site.
5) Fifth, Advertise (from higher-end all the way to free). If they don't have some kind of social media advertising budget, tell them that they need to carve some money out of the regular advertising budget immediately. Tell them contextual advertising is totally the big bang for the advertising buck because it's true narrowcasting based on targeted and known interests in their products. Once they're on board with contextual advertising, tell them to pick some of the most product-applicable "long-tail" of media that they can find on http://www.federatedmedia.net and take out an ad or 2. Or, if their advertising budget is to small to afford them, tell them to do the same thing with the "long tail" of bloggers here: http://www.text-link-ads.com
RESOURCES
Here's the biggest research collection on Social Media Monitoring (a.k.a. "sentimate analysis" or "text analytics") that I've seen yet:
http://socialmedia-listening.
Also, here are a collection of gem tools I've found over the years that may also help you:
http://www.delicious.com/
Please let me know if this post was helpful to you. It has been successful for others and I hope to make it better with your help.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Monday, February 07, 2011
The legality, adavantages and how-to of jailbreaking
The legality, adavantages and how-to of jailbreaking
A friend just asked me what jailbreaking her Verizon (CDMA) means... Here is my response:A basic primer to the legality adavantages and how-to of jailbreaking your iPhone. This should get u started:
http://www.appleiphoneschool.com/what-is-jailbreaking/
(one thing wrong in there is that it "voids your warranty"-- that's only if you return your phone to apple or verizon for repair *without* restoring it to factory default settings first-- which is easy).
FCC also recently ruled jailbreaking to be your LEGAL RIGHT:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_wguy/ytech_wguy_tc3236
According to this, you should be able to jailbreak your verizon iphone now:
http://mygadgetnews.com/2011/02/06/verizon-iphone-4-ios-4-2-6-jailbroken-with-greenpois0n/
HERE IS HOW:
http://mygadgetnews.com/2011/02/04/how-to-jailbreak-iphone-4-iphone-3gs-untethered-on-ios-4-2-1-using-greenpois0n-rc5/
A couple cool things jailbreaking allows you to do:
1) Talk FREE (not using you minutes) anywhere in the world using skype *without using any of your service plan minutes* (using the jailbreak app in the Cydia store called 3G Unrestricter)
2) tether to your iPhone and use it as a "thumb-drive" type storage unit and as a wifi-hotspot (an anywhere mobile connection to the Internet for an unlimited number of users) by downloading anf using the jailbreak app in the Cydia store called "my-wi")
LASTLY, here is a post I wrote recommending going 100% paperless by downloading to your iphone and using finarxfax (faxing) and zosh (signing):
http://www.wheresmystapler.net/2010/08/goodbye-paper-it-been-good-36-year-run.html
Thursday, January 27, 2011
TOP 10 MOST POPULAR POSTS
DRUM ROLL PLEASE...
PRESENTING MY TOP 10 MOST POPULAR POSTS FROM 2007 TO PRESENT
The Story of Emmanuel Chan
#1 http://www.wheresmystapler.Movie Review: Why We Fight
Promoting Zion Project
Open World Fundraiser
My Mom's New Horse
Are We Too Busy for Beauty in Washington DC?
A Bad Experience in Customer Service
On Accountability
To My Friends Who Fear Obama:
A Campaign For Darfur
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