May 3, 2009

All Along Broad Street: Volunteers

At Wachovia Spectrum: people directing traffic. SEPTA: express trains. Mile 2.1: Gatorade. Mile 4: Water. Traffic light: Philly cop keeping cars at bay. Mile 6.5: EMT caring for a runner on a stretcher.  Mile 8: Cheery and cheering woman handing out more Gatorade. All along route: bands, gospel singers, drummers. Finish line: kids with bottles of water.

It wasn’t until I hit the 6 mile marker of the Broad Street Run this morning that I began to consider what it takes to organize a race of 26,500 runners.  As the web site says: hundreds of volunteers.

I know that we don’t say it as we run past, but we runners really appreciate the people who spend a day – or months – doing the tasks that make the run possible.

It may seem a simple thing, to fill cups with water and offer them to passing runners.  I know from my own experience that I never really see the outstretched arm or the smiling face. I’m just focused on the cup. Get. Cup. Drink. Run.

So, I’m sure that while volunteers may sense that their work is appreciated, they may not know how much. Let me tell you: I may not look beyond the cup, but I do see you, and I’m extremely glad you’re there.

This was my first time at the Broad Street Run, and I really enjoyed it. It’s one of the best organized races I’ve been to. Everything was simple, despite the rain and a field of more than 23K.  It was a breeze to register and pick up our packets on the day before the race. I thought parking and getting to the start line would be a nightmare with so many people. It wasn’t. Frequent, free express SEPTA trains made it easier. The corral system worked because runners were started in waves, which avoided the bunching up of the field at the start. There were plenty of water stops. And everyone working along the route supported the runners with great enthusiasm.

This is what makes the race fun – but it’s also what makes it possible. Thank you, Broad Street Run volunteers, for sharing your city with us and helping to make this a successful run.

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April 30, 2009

Gobbledygook, ROI and ESI

I know, I know. Awful title for this post – crazy word plus acronyms. Yuck! But all are good, interesting things I’d like to share.

Per my OED, Gobbledegook (we spell differently in America), is “official, professional, or pretentious verbiage or jargon.” David Meerman Scott agrees and what’s more, he hates to see it in press releases (or marketing, for that matter).  I completely agree. That’s why we at Dow Jones enthusiastically helped David analyze 711,123 press releases for frequently used (actually, overused) jargon. We produced this analysis with one of our coolest services: Dow Jones Insight, which is used by PR pros to measure media coverage and identify the hot spots in social media conversations about their organizations.

ROI usually stands for Return on Investment, but lately when we use the acronym, it’s about Return on Intelligence. This is a knowledge economy, and we can’t underestimate the value of the stuff that fuels our ideas: information.  Brigitte Ricou-Bellan just published an ebook that offers some ideas on how to justify the investment in knowledge and information management solutions. My colleague, Ken Sickles, extends the conversation on this topic in his blog, Let’s Talk Knowledge.

Finally, ESI stands for the Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator, but I really think it’s best described as an optimism indicator. You’ll want to check this out. We’ve paired the proprietary algorithm of Dow Jones Insight with the economic expertise of Dow Jones editors to produce a new leading indicator of the state of the economy. We’ve tested the optimism indicator against other well-regarded indicators – and it has been a better predictor than all of them. It will be the one to watch over the coming months.

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March 19, 2009

The new rules according to Twitter

Twitter is everywhere these days.  This morning, the Today Show (@todayshow) ran a funny segment on the basics of Twitter. But it was yesterday’s story in the New York Times about how Twitter and the Internet have contributed to mistrials that had me ruminating about some new rules of life. Twitter is not the biggest contributor to mistrials – it’s actually jurors searching for case details on the Web during proceedings – but when we see senators twittering during presidential speeches… Well, it doesn’t take much imagination to see where this might be heading.  How will we define the new rules of justice?

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March 17, 2009

Kindle is a noun

It’s true; kindle is a noun. According to the OED, it’s a litter of kittens. Of course, we all know it as a wireless reading device from Amazon. Neither of these definitions are in the built-in dictionary that comes with the Kindle, but that’s ok. There’s still plenty to like.

I ordered my Kindle after reaching the 3-minute mark of the 6:22 demo video on Amazon. That’s all it took to sell me.

A lot of folks – particularly my literary friends – have questioned my reasons for buying a Kindle. And of course, by contrast, my techie friends have been wowed.

My literary friends have their reasons:

1) You can’t share books. True, but Kindle books, while not free, are cheaper. And, I like to point out, just having an wireless reading device doesn’t mean I’ll never buy another hard copy book again. Which brings me to complaint 2:

2) We like to show off our book purchases in our bookshelves. Yes, but, not all of them. Several times I’ve bought the book for book club because all other copies had  been loaned out already.  Then, it turns out to be a mediocre book, and one I don’t want to show off in my bookcase.  Now, what do I do with it? Kindle will minimize the clutter in my house.

3) It’s overpriced. Perhaps. But I only need to buy 18 best sellers to recoup my cost. I buy a lot of books, so 18 over the course of 2-3 years seems reasonable.

I’ve had the Kindle for about two weeks, and here’s what else I like:

  • The seamless buying experience. The first email told me it had shipped; the second told me that I could start building my library now – while the Kindle was in transit. I ordered six books. When the Kindle arrived three days later, I turned it on and my books immediately downloaded.
  • Built-in dictionary. Highlight a word and the definition pops up. I love this feature! It’s nice not having to pull out the 10 pound SOED from underneath my bed (two volumes!).
  • Saves my place automatically. No more digging around for slips of paper to use as bookmarks.
  • Easy to change font size (for those of us who need bigger type).
  • Compact. I usually read 5-6 books at a time. I can bring them all on vacation and not add more than 10.2 ounces to my carry-on.

I do think the Kindle could use a few improvements (and to reassure my techie friends, yes, I will send an email to the Kindle team):

  • Touch screen technology. Kindle doesn’t have it, and I’m sorry, but the iPhone has permanently spoiled me. Make the reading screen bigger, use touch screen technology to turn the pages and add a virtual keyboard.
  • The joystick. Not very user friendly. Again, touch screen technology!
  • Rubber grips. I know this is going to sound silly, but its sleek design has caused it to nearly slip out of my hands.

It’s becoming my constant companion – and I haven’t yet subscribed to any newspapers. Of course, thanks to the Kindle app for iPhone, I don’t really need to take my Kindle everywhere to have my books available anytime and anywhere I want.

Final assessment: I love it.  I expect that the Kindle will do for books what the iPod did for music.

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February 22, 2009

Leaps of Faith and Pockets of Prosperity

I have a 16-year-old son – with a driver’s permit. What do you think it takes for me to get in the car with him, just two months after his first driving lessons? I’d say it takes a leap of faith to entrust him not only with my car and my life, but with the thing I value most – his life.

It’s not so different, really, from the way I think about the titans of finance and government and their ability to drive the economy. It’s a leap of faith to entrust them with not only my fortune – but my son’s. And, given the bubbles we all live in that limit our perspectives, it’s a huge leap of faith. When I hear bailed-out bankers complain about being forced to live on half a million dollars, I do wonder if that leap is possible for me at all. I’m not sure they understand how little sympathy they’re getting outside of lower Manhattan.

Let’s face it, many of the titans are living in what I call pockets of prosperity, which might skew their perceptions of what needs to be done to manage this crisis.

If you were with me, my husband and some friends last night, you might, like us, be justifiably puzzled about the existence of this so-called “recession.” At the sushi restaurant, we waited half an hour for a table, despite having a reservation. The comedy club was full to capacity. But we live in one of those pockets of prosperity. For weeks now, every time we go out, we’re met with a crowd of spenders – the movies, the clubs, and the restaurants. There is no recession in our pocket of the world.

But that’s a dangerous perception that can lead to even more dangerous assumptions. There is a recession in other, less prosperous, pockets.

We can only hope that the titans have good communications pros advising them, who can provide them with insight from disparate viewpoints – from the small towns in the West to the streets of south Florida to the suburbs of LA and NYC – that allow them to understand the crisis as it affects everyone.

Even my son is learning how to be a better driver by listening to different voices. His driver’s ed teacher explains road conditions using scenarios; the driving school instructor focuses on technique; my husband is a calming force in the passenger seat.

And then there’s me, working on that leap of faith, trying to find new ways to describe how to decelerate besides “BRAKE!”

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February 4, 2009

The $10,000 Device

Mass-market advertising is not dead. In fact, sometimes it can be immediately and powerfully effective. Apple, the hip, cool, and bleeding-edge company, spent $133 million in 2008 on advertising, which includes TV commercials. The other night, a minute or two after watching an ad for Apple’s iPhone, I downloaded a new app (“as seen on TV!”); five minutes later, after a second commercial, I downloaded another app (Classic books!).

Appropriately enough, both commercials ran during NBC’s Medium. Though not the definition for the subject of the show, one way OED defines a medium is as “an intervening substance through which a force acts on objects at a distance or through which impressions are conveyed to the senses.” I’m thinking airwaves here. Very influential airwaves.

As it turns out, I’d been wondering recently how much I’ve spent on iTunes since I bought my first green Mini in January 2004. Although I fell instantly in love with the device, it took me a while to warm up to iTunes. Most of the music I initially downloaded was from CDs I already owned, so it’s not really surprising that in the first 20 months, I spent just $8 in the music store. In 2006, I spent $12. It wasn’t until 2007, when I bought my second iPod, that I really began tapping into iTunes for both music and video. Over the next two years, I spent a whopping $100.

I think the problem was that even as I thought the iPod was the coolest thing I had ever owned, I still treated it as if it were my old Sony Walkman. A single purpose device.

And then I bought the iPhone. Suddenly, iTunes looked completely different to me. It was no longer simply a place for music. I discovered podcasts (NPR on demand!); I renewed a childhood interest in word games, stayed connected to friends via social networks, and iTunes gradually became my preferred – and only – provider of music. In ten weeks of ownership, I’ve spent about $80, roughly about eight times my monthly spend pre-iPhone.

I’ve been joking that my iPhone will become my $10,000 device. Truth be told, if you add up all the costs – the iPhone itself, the monthly fees, 3,000 or so songs, a few hundred megabytes of apps, video and audio – it might be a $4,000 device. That’s still a staggering number for a small electronic device that slips into my purse.

Yet, I won’t be surprised if it actually ends up costing me more than that, particularly since I can swap files with new podcasts, audiobooks, etc. After all, my external storage device holds 500GB.

The reason the Apple iPhone apps ad is so effective is that it does a good job of making me aware of applications that are relevant to my life. Apple then makes it extremely easy for me to find and download those apps – instantly. It may be that wireless download is the future of mass advertising.

People keep talking about how innovate Apple is. First they change the game in the phone market, next they’ll change the game in wireless downloads (I’m all for instant gratification, by the way). And now they’ve figured out how to innovate an old medium by making mass advertising relevant again.

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November 3, 2008

Use your voice – Vote

Every now and then we have a chance to be part of something that is bigger than ourselves. Tomorrow is such a day. Tomorrow, we will have a say in our country’s future and a chance to make history. But, that’s only if we vote.

About a year ago, one of the young woman in my class admitted that she wasn’t going to vote in the presidential election. After I faked a heart attack, I reminded her that a vote – particularly one cast by a woman – should never be wasted. It took more than a century for us to win this right, as well as great personal sacrifice for many of the women involved in the fight. (See Iron Jawed Angels, HBO’s movie about Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. HBO is playing the movie at 3:45 p.m. EDT tomorrow.)

So, when I step into the booth, I do it for the right to have a say in the direction of my life and my country. But I also do it to honor Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony and all the other brave women who believed our gender had a right to make a difference. I step into that booth to preserve this right not just for me, but for our daughters.

We cannot afford to be apathetic, because it will only lead to second-class citizenship. There’s too much at stake: We are a country at war, burdened by a financial crisis and still struggling with far too many social problems. We need the wisdom of women to solve these problems. Our votes do mean something.

Perhaps this is why I get so frustrated when people talk about writing in a friend’s name, rather than choosing a candidate. It’s their out – a vote that is not really a vote. Choose! I say. You may not like either candidate, but chances are, there’s one in the field that you like just enough.

Likewise, I’m equally frustrated with those who think the outcome is a foregone conclusion. They won’t bother to vote because the exit polls say one candidate is so far ahead, that the election has already been decided. No. Not true. No one has it in the bag; if enough people decide to give up their vote, they may just see their opportunity to make a difference evaporate.

So find your voice – and go vote. It’s worth it.

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