His presentation was good - he's an engaging speaker who's only fault is that he puts too much data on his slides which is just a preference thing with me. I feel like I'm getting distracted when I read it. At any rate, it's kind of weird seeing people in rapture of what he's talking about because I'm part of the generational shift in how things are done. What he's talking about - organic user bases, everything as a social connection, etc., etc. - are just what I do.
He mentioned Threadless.com like it was this amazing thing and it's just natural for me to check it out if I'm looking for a cool shirt. The fact that the designs are user contributed and voted on is a footnote for me, for him that's the ball game. It's definitely interesting to see an "outsiders" perspective on the current state of the markets.
His website is http://the56group.typepad.com/.
2 comments
Editor's Note: I received this message via Facebook from Paul Greenberg and am reposting it here with his permission. Apparently, my spam filter was blocking email addresses from Comcast. That's fixed now though.
Hey Travis,
I tried posting this on your blog but it didn't recognize my email and I didn't look too hard to see where to register. I figured I'd just leave it here.
Its interesting to see your "outsider's" perspective to me. I do need to clarify a few things though based on what I read on the blog.
I don't think user submitted design are the ballgame. The thing that makes Threadless interesting to me is the business model it uses to make money - which it does well. Keep in mind as you rightfully point out people are enraptured by this because its out of the range of their experience and while it may seem to be a footnote to you, the folks I have to convince are the ones who are not used to this stuff. My message, as a baby boomer, is not that this is wonderful and marvelous (though it is fun) but that this is a social change with a substantial impact on all institutions and that the businesses that are trying to ignore it are doing so at their own peril exactly because people of your generation see UGC as a "footnote." I check out Threadless to see if there are any cool shirts too but the business model is what counts to the audiences I have to talk to, not the use of the site.
Also, as far as the data, you might be right. The only reason for all of it, since you might have noticed that I ignore most of it, is that those people who want the slides will have more than just my presentation when I send it to them.
BTW, I LIKE this blog. I'm gonna be reading it.
About the slides, I blogged about that a bit already. It didn't even cross my mind that the info was there so people could get the full effect of the slide show when you send it to them because I use S5 whenever I put a slide show together. I can mark data as "handout"s if I only want it visible when it's printed or viewed as regular content.
Glad the blog's entertaining :-)
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