Author Archives: mark

What makes a good product manager?

Loved this answer by Bob Corrigan of the Smithsonian Institution: That quality is a deep compassion for the suffering of others.  Because the very best product managers understand the following: products that address real, pervasive and urgent problems are ultimately embraced, championed and sustained by the people they serve.  You can’t buy that kind of […]

October 29, 02013 – 10:52 | By mark | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on What makes a good product manager?

Product Ideation in Social Networks

Interesting sounding paper out of the Marketing Science Institute. I didn’t read the paper, but their conclusion hits home:  These findings suggest that denser, tightly interconnected communities—which are very typical in online communities and social networks—are counterproductive to the generation of more-innovative ideas. This implies that managers who use online communities and networks for ideation […]

August 22, 02013 – 10:31 | By mark | Posted in Online Community | Comments Off on Product Ideation in Social Networks

Rethinking news presentation

I love the concept that the Lux.at team put together a while back. It’s what I imagine a true news website should look like. I am often disappointed at the level of information available on a news story. Right here on the page, you have a sample of everything that’s happening. I wish someone would […]

August 14, 02013 – 11:55 | By mark | Posted in Social Media, User Experience | Tagged | Comments Off on Rethinking news presentation

Google Reader shutdown: an observation

It’s interesting that I learned about the Google reader shutdown through NetNewsWire syncing through Google Reader…[ “Napoleon’s Numbers” is the headline, and they begin with 1, making sure it is known he was the only player in the top 25 in NFL Jerseys China NCAA statistics in rushing, scoring, kickoff returns and all purpose yards […]

March 19, 02013 – 07:04 | By mark | Posted in random | Comments Off on Google Reader shutdown: an observation

Thresholds

The theme of the service on Jan 27, 2013 at UUCPA was “Thresholds”. There were some intensely interesting bits in it. For instance, the Navajo ceremony to celebrate a baby’s first laugh: The ceremony takes place because the Navajo believe the baby is connected to two worlds when he is born and may bring evil. Thus, they […]

February 18, 02013 – 11:46 | By mark | Posted in religion | Comments Off on Thresholds

Offer an integrated search experience when you have a community and website

Françoise Tournaiaire of FTWorks has a new list of things to do with your community based on her reading of the Ten Best Web Support Sites report published by the Association of Support Professionals. Offer an integrated search experience. You don’t want your poor users to have to create separate searches for the knowledge base […]

December 3, 02012 – 10:45 | By mark | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Offer an integrated search experience when you have a community and website

How the Huffington Post handles 70+ million comments a year

How the Huffington Post handles 70+ million comments a year | Poynter.: “ I really found the concept of Julia interesting Now, we’re a bigger team with the equivalent of about 30 full time moderators. They work 24/7/365 in six-hour shifts going through hundreds of comments per hour each. They’re all based in the U.S. […]

November 27, 02012 – 11:09 | By mark | Posted in Community Management, Online Community | Comments Off on How the Huffington Post handles 70+ million comments a year

Ambassador programs – be careful with “volunteers” if you are for-profit

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Community Manager Breakfast (San Francisco) where we discussed Ambassador Programs.  Most of the attendees were considering/planning some type of VIP/Ambassador program. I reminded them that there are some legal challenges with “volunteers” for for-profit companies and that they needed to discuss with an attorney since it […]

November 27, 02012 – 07:58 | By mark | Posted in Community Management, Online Community | Comments Off on Ambassador programs – be careful with “volunteers” if you are for-profit

Man-Machine Framework and spam reduction

Two unrelated articles came across my feed reader this week.  Forbes had a very interesting article on Man-Machine interfaces: The whole picture is completed by the human element. People provide the peripheral vision. They fill in the gaps and create a complete context in a way that a machine cannot. Gupta calls this successful partnership […]

November 16, 02012 – 14:32 | By mark | Posted in User Experience | Comments Off on Man-Machine Framework and spam reduction

Federated Twitter, tent.io and spammers

Last week the world digerati had a conniption as Twitter really started tightening the screws to developers. I think it’s too bad that Twitter is taking the path of greater inclusion of ads and generally screwing the developers. However, at the same time, it’s their service that they are providing to most people for free, […]

August 30, 02012 – 15:16 | By mark | Posted in User Experience | Comments Off on Federated Twitter, tent.io and spammers