• Microsoft Windows 8 Public Beta will be ready in February 2012. This was announced in December but Microsoft is notorious for missing deadlines so it is nice to hear that they’re still on track.
• Microsoft is going to disrupt television. They are looking to make shows two-way interactions via Xbox. In other words, television will no longer be just a lean-back technology
• Kinect will be available for the PC in February 2012. In my mind, this is Microsoft’s admission that gaming can occur on any device, not just a specific console since NUI’s (natural user interfaces) are the wave of the future.

Full notes are below:

9:40 PM Ryan Seacrest taking the stage; explains partnership with MSFT Bing. Ballmer hugs him; Ryan makes fun of his height.

9:41 PM Ballmer to talk about innovations on phone, PC, Xbox, and TV’s. Cools to see Metro interface/ live tiles in the background.

9:43 PM Ballmer is showing it off on a Nokia device; says that Windows Phone is about putting people first and highlighting your relationships. Explains how easy it is bring information together.

9:45 PM Derek Snyder (Sr Product Manager, Windows Phone) comes onto stage. Shows off “People Hub” that brings information about favorite people together. Shows how he great it is to see information for a specific group. Talks about they’re using Facebook Chat and Window Messanger together. Can also dive into conversations across all communications with a specific user. Phone also has a voice recognition (app crash stirs audience!). Demo’s live tile that shows off critical data without forcing user to dive into an app. Showing off how apps share information.

9:54 PM Ballmer talks about new LTE phones: Nokia Lumia 900 with LTE from AT&T  with 4.3″ AMOLED display, HTC Titan 2 with 4.7″ Super LCD and 16 megapixel camera.

9:56 PM Changing to Windows PC’s. Ballmer excited about the competition. Talks about the way that Windows PC’s have spurred innovation. Ballmer mentions that people have moved from desktops to notebooks. Ballmer pumps up Intel.

9:58 PM Ballmer shows off video of various Windows 7 PC form factors. Samsung Series 9 HP NV14 Spectra — lots of awesome looking ultrabooks.

10:01 PM Tami Relleer (CMO, Windows) takes stage. Mentions how Windows 8 introduced at CES 2011. “No compromise Experience”: effortless/flexibility of tablet but the power of a PC. Lock screen shows off critical bits of info (like unread email). Device uses picture password. With Windows 8, get charms with swipe from right. Launches finger-painting app which takes over the entire screen. Windows 8 runs on ARMS and x86 chips. Apps will run on both chipsets. Windows Store in now populated (vs. empty at MSFT Build Conference). Apps will connect people to as many as possible. Shows off Cut the Rope app — partnered with ZeptoLab to create an HTML5 app game. Shows seamless app switching by swiping from left. Windows Store to launch in late February — only free apps at first. Will have free and paid apps across 200 languages later in the year. Explains semantic zoom — can see how easy to manage apps by zooming out — can rename grouping. Talks about how Win8 works with touch and pointer device (mouse + keyboard). Can also use search to find an app. Apps share via app contracts — will share info without leaving app, makes for a richer experience. Demo’s snap function where two apps can be visible on the same screen at the same time. Tablet is very responsive. Next Windows 8 milestone will come in late February 2012. Samsung Series 9 is available in 15″; Dell will announce a new PC tomorrow.

10:18 PM Ballmer says that Windows 7 is the most successful OS – 500 M users. And Windows 7 PC will be compatible with Windows 8.

10:19 PM Tweet Choir. Impressive vocals but this is the lamest part of the show so far!

10:23 PM Gaming Discussion: XBox. Ballmer claims the most successful console: 66 M Xbox Users; 40 M Xbox subscribers tuning in. About delivering entertainment that you want, making it easy. Creating a different entertainment experience — Kinect is a leading part of this experience. Sold 15 M Kinect units.

10:26 PM Greg Davidson (Microsoft Xbox Team). Shows how he can control console via his voice. Discovery powered by Bing. Says “Bing [actor name]” and it brings up movie.

10: 28 PM Broadcast temporarily suspended due to intellectual property.

10:30 PM And we’re back! Talks about 26 of the most popular channels being broadcast live from Verizon FiOS will have program guide. Additional partnerships: Comcast Xfinity (launching library of top shows and movies), News Corp (bring Fox, WSJ Live, Fox News Channel and IGN), AT&T U-Verse. All coming this year!

10:34 PM Jamie Bauer and Ansley demo-ing two-way Xbox TV. Creating new experiences with the TV. Sesame Street TV via Kinect. Shows how kid can throw a coconut into basket — kid can shift from lean back mode to active mode. Also demonstrate how kid is a part of Elmo’s world. Not just watching — being a part of the TV. Coming later on this year!

10:40 PM Steve says that it will impact things like healthcare and education. Kinect commercial plays. Announcement that Kinect is coming to Windows in February!!!

10:42 PM Ryan asks what else is going on at Microsoft? Ballmer talks about Sync installed in Fords; 4 M since 2007, 9 M additional cars in the next 3 years. Office 2010 is the fastest selling version of Office; moving to the Cloud and stunning competition to Google Docs. Since CES last year, MSFT acquired Skype: 200 M people who used 300+ B minutes of voice and video in the last year . Bing reached 30% marketshare in US.

10:45 PM Final question: what’s next? Windows 8 and dynamic, more natural user interface. Ballmer makes fun of his “developers, developers, developers” chant by saying “Metro, Metro, Metro.”

So imagine my frustration when a lazy marketing email arrived in my inbox from Netflix, a company that I’m a big fan of and I’ve written about in the past. It was a win-back offer asking me to renew my recently cancelled subscription. I had closed my account when Netflix announced that their 1-DVD rental/unlimited streaming service was increasing from about $10 to $16 per month earlier this year. Actually, I considered subscribing only to their streaming service but felt that the value wasn’t there at the $7.99 per month price point. While I am a believer that streaming media is the wave of the future, I felt that the Netflix library (or anyone else’s these days) is a bit anemic. So shortly after shutting it down, the win-back emails started rolling in and while I ignored the first one or two, I started to notice a surprising pattern.

The imagery and copy varied slightly between the emails but the offer was always the same — $7.99 for streaming service (see for your self below).

Email #1 (click to enlarge):

Email #2 (click to enlarge):

Basically, the Marketing team was using two win-back email templates, and these templates were being “personalized” by inserting my name, which is an emailing marketing 101 tactic. Now for a company that’s recognized for their data mining prowess, I am surprised at how little of my user data was introduced into the email, especially when considering that higher levels of personalization drive engagement and that most ESP’s (email service providers) have significant built-in email personalization capabilities, like showing your prior viewing behavior. If you’re looking for solid example of such marketing efforts then check out the 26% increase in open rate and 2.3% average sales conversion rate that Ice.com experienced when they started personalizing email offers earlier this year.

I do realize that win-back emails were probably a low priority for the Marketing team since Netflix saw robust subscriber growth up until October, which is when the price increase drove 800,000 subscribers to turn off their Netflix service. But I would have expected that by now someone in the Marketing department would have experimented, maybe just a little more, by adding a template that varies more than the messaging. How about changing the offer? Considering that Netflix spends approximately $0.05 to deliver a 2-hour movie, I would need to watch 5+ movies a day on a $7.99 per month account to break the business model and I doubt that most folks have that kind of time. At the very least, applying such a simple solution would buy time for the Netflix Marketing and the Data Science teams (aka, data mining team) to join forces to devise an alternate and probably more elegant, data-driven approach to bring subscribers back.

What’s the worse thing that could happen? You may even net me back!

Over the past 3 years working for an agency, I have tried out various systems to track time. I was searching for a system that met two (and a half) simple criteria:

1. Easy to use; no training required!
2. Can be used to enter time throughout the day regardless of where I’m at (so no special device or connectivity is necessary!)

Lastly, I wanted a system that I could stick to once the one week trial run ended, which is also when the newness typically wears off. Thanks to our very own Andrew Jones I now have a paper-based solution that I love because it makes me more productive! So what is it?

As I chatted with Andrew a few weeks ago, I noticed that he had a Scantron like sheet on his desk which turned out to be his time tracking solution. He explained that while he’s scheduled to complete only a few tasks a day, he’s oftentimes interrupted as he’s asked to provide a status on a project or answer a question about a coding approach. In his own personal search for a solution that tracks the time that “fall in between the cracks,” he came across the Emergent Task Timer by Dave Shea.

The way that this system works is that you use one sheet per day. You simply enter your tasks in the left hand column of the sheet and then bubble in the time in 15 minute increments across the horizontal axis of the sheet throughout the day. The real neat thing about the sheet is that you can easily total time for tasks — even ones that are interrupted by time spent on other task. And as an extra bonus, one can immediately determine how many hours you’ve worked by scanning the sheet. It is freaking brilliant!

I’m now well into my third week of using this system and I can’t stop. Below you’ll see a sample of my time entry into the sheet. Please note that while you may become more productive, Emergent Task Timer will not improve your handwriting. Oh well, one out of two isn’t half bad!

Sample Entry into Emergent Task Timer Sheet

Over the past few days, I’ve had a chance to get “under the hood” and check out Facebook Places. Below are the essential things that Facebook marketers and developers need to know about this new service.

How does Facebook Places work?

Facebook has created a short video that explains the features of Places (see below). The critical feature to note is that friends can easily add a location by completing a couple of fields (Name and description of location). However, once a location is added, friends cannot edit or delete it.

But with an iPhone, you can report on a location — you can tell Facebook that the location has closed (eg: gone out of business!) or it is a duplicate listing.

How can Facebook users access Places?

At the present time, Places works only on the iPhone or via the Places mobile site. To access Facebook Places via the website, you must have a browser that supports the W3 Geo-location specifications. This means that you can check-in on advanced browsers such as Firefox (3.1 or greater) or Chrome (assuming that you know how to enable the -enable-geolocation flag). While this service is currently available only in the United States on the iPhone, Facebook has indicated that they will offer this service in new countries and support other platforms in the near future (no specific dates were provided).

What can business owners do with Places?

Business owners can claim their location by clicking on the “Is this your business?” link on the listing page and completing a short form. They must also provide a official document and confirm that they  authorized to manage that listing. Once the information is submitted to Facebook,  they  receive a confirmation email that their information is being processed. They are also taken to the Facebook business centers where brands can learn how they can interact with Facebook users (eg: purchase ads).

How can developers and marketers leverage Facebook Places?

Facebook Places provides additional data about users on Facebook. The data is available only once a user has agreed to share their information with the application. Since this data is not a part of the standard user profile (it requires a user_checkin extended data permission), Facebook developers have to create an application that would compel users to allow/release their location information. The data that marketers can access includes, the location information, the user’s information, the check-in date/time, etc. (view diagram via MindMeister). Once a Facebook user checks-in at a location, the information is readily viewed from the news feed as Facebook has elevated the weight of these postings. To maximize exposure and access to Places data, it is highly recommended that developers add friends_checkin extended data permission. This permission would authorize marketers to collect check-in data for a user’s friends, which can enhance the overall experience. At the present time, Places data can only be read — Facebook has not exposed the check-in API calls. These calls surely exist but are available only to partners FourSquare and Gowalla who are currently working to integrate their services with Facebook Places.

Why did Facebook create Places?

At first glance, you’d think that Facebook saw the success of FourSquare or Gowalla and got location-based services envy. However, it seems that there are more compelling reasons to roll out this service, including:

• Access to more data. Google showed the world that user data is king. The people at Facebook are smart and they see how the additional location data provides one more bit of information about the user that can be used to better target the user. Places also provides Facebook with user-generated data on businesses that otherwise would have to be purchased.
• Location-based services offer an important dimension. One of biggest challenges with web searches is the lack of context. For example, a user that searches for “tiger” may be interested in either tigers (the animal) or Tiger (the golfer).  Facebook has the same problem when it comes to social media data. For example, the Like button may convey a user’s interest or preference but it lacks context, as a user may like the brand, the product or some other attribute. With Places, Facebook is one step closer to understanding what the user wants. (NOTE: Om Malik also shares my point of view on this matter; source).
• Revenue from businesses. Google monetizes each and every search using their ad network. In the same way, Facebook has attempted to monetize their network of users. Facebook is promoting Pages as the desired location where brands should engage with the user in conversations. Looking to the future, it is not unimaginable that Facebook will require brands to pay a fee for either a premium Page listing or a premium position within the news feed (which is no different than what Twitter is doing these days). By that point in time, brands will be forced to jump on board and pay a premium to differentiate themselves or ignore Facebook, which is highly unlikely.

It seems that Facebook took a page out of Google’s playbook when they considered this service. As Facebook Places gains momentum, it will be interesting to see how brands utilize this service to interact with and market to their consumers.

One book that I just finished reading is Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, written by Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh. The book chronicles Tony’s entrepreneurial journey from his first successful business where he sold mail-ordered button to the rise of Zappos.com and subsequent sale to Amazon. Throughout the book, Tony weaves in mini-lessons on what made things work (and what caused things to fail at times). Since the book is about delivering profits, passion, and purpose, I wanted to highlight a few lessons that struck a cord with me about running a business (or a team):

Lesson #1: Your business won’t survive without having positive cash flow.
It should come as no surprise that you cannot spend more than you collect. You may be able to float a few short periods of negative cash flow but in the long term your business must break even at the very least. To this point, learning to do more with less can help you stay in the black.

Lesson #2: Hire passionate people.
Building on lesson #1, cash helps you hire help. But when hiring, you must focus on your company’s culture! You may consider hiring talented individuals that bring new skills but unless they fit culturally (in other words, they’re looking to connect with your current employees on both a professional and personal level), you’ll see the negative impact of your decision on your culture, your customers and ultimately your business.

Lesson #3: Develop a shared company vision.
Again, building on lesson #2, it helps to hire passionate, like-minded, people. As the “tribe” leader, it is critical for you to organize employees so they cohesively work in support of your business goals. You’ll see amazing results when your employees work as a team and take risks to help the company reach/exceed its goals. But don’t forget the reward once your company reaches the goal. The absence of incentives, either tangible or intangible, will likely result in employees losing their drive over a period of time. Keep the passion burning by keeping your promise.

If you’re looking for a meaningful book about creating and managing a business with a purpose, then look no further than this book or check out the supporting blog.

I lined up at 7:30 am and anxiously waited to hear the announcer yell “go” to the crowd of 100+ runners. As soon as I heard the words, I quickly jumped to the front of the line but I quickly got this odd feeling as my heart started pounding at what felt like a 100 miles an hour. A good part of my nervousness was driven by my thoughts about foot — was it going to hurt or was it going to carry me through the race? Once I realized that my foot was solid, I focused on the run and stayed within my pace. And as I hit the first mile, I unexpectedly found myself outside of the pack for the first time. I realized how the pack helps me gauge my progress and pace. Being outside of the pack, I noticed that there was no real feedback so I decided to just go as fast as my body would take me.

I found the feeling of being out of the pack unusually exhilarating. I stayed focused — watching my pace and looking back every so often to determine if any other runners were catching up to me. Once I started climbing the final hill of the race, I noticed how my brain became poisoned with the idea of taking a short break but I immediately talked myself out of it. And as soon as the finish line was in sight, I picked up the pace and hurled my body over the line clocking in at 20:50 for a 3.1 mi run, my best time for a 5K.

And while I’m darn proud of my 7 minute per mile pace, I was actually more proud of the unexpected lesson that I learned today that is applicable to running as much as development and entrepreneurship: you shouldn’t be afraid of getting out of the pack. The course and goal remains the same so first focus on pulling away from your competition and then just go!

If you are a prospective college graduate/recent graduate with a CS/IS degree or currently in between jobs, this is the perfect opportunity to learn about the delivery of technology to mid-size businesses and enterprises and the inter-workings of a digital agency. Qualifications that I’m looking for:

• Positive attitude
• Great verbal and written communication skills
• Exceptional analytical skills and an insatiable appetite to troubleshoot technology problems — big or small!
• Experience in Office Suite apps including Word and PowerPoint
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Working knowledge of HTML/JS/CSS/PHP or Web App Development using .NET/Java
• Working knowledge of web platforms (Content Management, eCommerce, Web Analytics, Social) a plus

If you’re interested, please provide me with your brief qualifications via the contact form. NOTE: Carpooling experience is not required!

As a technologist, I’m fascinated by how the writers took advantage of the well publicized iPad release event. The timeliness of this makes the show even more relevant and possibly makes fans of the show and Apple even more loyal. It’s also an amazing feat since writing the show’s script and producing it cannot be done overnight. Just goes to show how efficient we’ve become. Kudos to the show’s staff!

NOTE: Adage is reporting that Apple did not pay for the iPad placement in the Modern Family episode. (Thanks to Karna Crawford for that nugget of info).

“Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.”

At last night’s AiMA event on search engine strategies, the speakers referenced a study where users showed no significant preference to Bing or Google. After a short web search (via Google), I found the research paper by the Catalyst Group (see below). In the study, users reported that they wouldn’t switch from their current search engines even though Bing possessed some favorable improvements to Google.

While the findings attempted to explain how Bing will never catch up to Google, I was surprised that the speakers chose to quote the study as fact. There were two glaring issues that I immediately noticed once I located the study:

• The participants used Google as their main search engine.
• The study involved only 12 participants.

While some may argue that the opinion of the participants was tainted (since none used Microsoft Search as their primary search engine), I was even more surprised that no one considered the small participants pool. While I subscribe to the notion that we’re creatures of habit and users won’t change when they can’t find a significant value in the new “shinny object,” the bottom line is that the study’s findings are statistically invalid. While I’m fairly certain that the speakers were not aware of flaw in the study, it demonstrates how easy it is to rely on and propagate bad statistics and how careful marketers need to be when they quote a study.

NOTE: I recently wrote a blog post about Twitter data and Rapleaf based on an NPR radio bit. Rapleaf reached out and explained the issue with the misinformation that I had referenced. It goes to show that we’re all human; we make mistakes.

Catalyst Group Bing V. Google Usability Study

A few weeks ago, I tweeted about the streaming service from Comcast called Fancast. While other streaming services allow you to watch videos from the major networks, none give you streaming content from premium channels like HBO, Cinemax and Stars. So when my DVR started being flaky this past Saturday night, I decided to give it a try.

The log-in process was painless and the search functionality worked well. To watch premium content, the service required a special Adobe AIR player, which I promptly downloaded and installed. Everything was smooth sailing until up to the point when I tried to start Watchmen. For some reason, the service kept displaying a message that I was an HBO subscriber thought I was. After reading the FAQ’s, I confirmed that was I logging in with my primary Comcast.net account, which is a requirement, so I decided to call in to Comcast’s local customer service. After waiting on hold for a short while, the representative confirmed that all of my account settings were correct but indicated that another department would be better equipped to handle the issue. She tried to switch me to that department by I kept getting disconnected.

When I called in to customer service again, I spoke with another representative but the second one didn’t even know about Fancast. Yikes! Even though I explained to her how the service worked, she questioned me whether it was something that Comcast offered. My wife, who was sitting in the room, was rolling on the floor laughing as I attempted to convince the woman to help me. When the rep tried to switch, I was promptly disconnected again. So, I searched Fancast and (finally) found the toll-free number for support. When I called it, the Fancast rep informed me that my account was working correctly but error that I kept getting was due to an issue that Comcast/Fancast has been having for a week. And there’s no ETA for when it will be fixed. Now that’s a bummer!

While most would chalk this up to Comcast’s poor service, I think that the issue is actually a combination of poor user experience and internal communication/training. NOTE: I challenge you to name a cable television provider that you think is doing a great job these days! While the integration between Comcast and Fancast isn’t where it should be (and there’s a myriad behind the scenes reasons why that’s the case), I would have liked to see a simple error message that indicates that the service is currently down and that they’re working on it. Also, it would have been nice if the customer service reps at Comcast get training on Fancast so that customers like me don’t have to feel like I’ve just made a prank call. Lastly, both Fancast and Comcast should communicate on a regular basis about system status — it would have been much better if the Comcast rep told me that the service was down and to try again later instead of trying to fix my when in actuality it wasn’t the problem.

Comcast must be feeling the pressure to adapt to shifting consumer behavior and increasing pressure from competitors. According to eMarketer, nearly 25% of all TV content watched each day will be time-shifted, on-demand, on the Web or on a mobile device by 2012 (source). Viewers are abandoning television for the internet. Also, both Apple and Google are looking to challenge traditional video distribution channels by offering their own subscription services (source and source). While the service is still in Beta, it is just a shame that Comcast wasn’t able to deliver on the concept.

After spending more than an hour trying to use Fancast, I’ve decided that I need to give Comcast another few weeks to work out the bugs — eventually this service is going to be Comcastic.