Soni Pitts points us to Kiva. The idea seems to be that anyone can be a microlender… Instead of spending $25 on lattes, you can help a farmer in Bangladesh buy a bull… and then he pays you back.
This is one of a number of cool ways to do first world wealth transfer. The challenge, as always, is in the execution. There’s not a huge shortage of money for microlending operations–there’s a shortage of great banks, great people to run those banks and access to the right sort of people to make the loans to.
It’s easy to imagine that every culture is as crisp as ours when it comes to money. (and hey, we’re not even that good at it… just look at credit card debt for an example). Most of the challenge of microbanking is in changing social systems, not in moving the $25. But like all things on the net, this is a great first step in opening up bottlenecks.
October 26, 2005
Sneak peak of Google’s new Craig’s List/eBay alternative: google base
The challenge is whether people are better at sorting through junk than computers are. Because it’s Google and because there’s a "bulk loader", it will be filled (okay, not filled, but "well-populated" in less than a week.
One more layer in the multi-layered web…
Probably not as busy (or as tired) as our hero Tom.
He’s done an astounding number of lectures in a ridiculous number of countries over the last two months. 76,000 miles so far (he’s not very good at doing these gigs in the right geographical progression.)
So, congrats to Tom for spreading the word, and here’s a lesson worth hearing. (From: tompeters!):
So I’ve been consciously working on a new (for me) approach, with at least a smidgeon of success. Either at day’s end or dawn’s early light, I have a little meditation and self-counseling session on making the day count, rather than devoting the day to eager anticipation of the moment I can cross it off the calendar. Professionally, that first means looking anew and in depth at the forthcoming lecture to be sure that it clearly encompasses (as best I can) an ennobling purpose, challenges participants’ minds and engages their souls. (Will it at least aspire to the JFK idea that no speechifier should utter a word unless she "aims to change the world"?) Also professionally, I "work on" my attitude. This may be day 45 and mile 76,000 for me, but for the Client it is D-Day for an Important Event (often their year’s #1 event, for God’s sake); hence my exhaustion and accompanying short temper must be thrust aside … and downright cheeriness and spirited engagement must become the invariant orders of the day. Besides, such cheeriness, even if feigned, cheers me up first and foremost! Next, and in a way most important, even though I have little trouble infusing my lecture with meaning, I must thoroughly convince myself that this is a day every hour of which is worth savoring! Hackneyed though it is to write, 25 October 2005 ain’t gonna come around again and this 62-year-old is gonna be a day older and closer to checkout time when it’s done.
Whatever you’re making, designing, shipping or selling, it’s a Big Event for the person buying it and using it. It may be just another car/contract/widget to you, but someone is counting on it being remarkable.
October 25, 2005
I get a lot of mail about public speaking gigs. I was recently hired to do one on November 17th: Seth Godin presented by Move Ahead 1.
October 24, 2005
Ben Stein wonders (link) , in today’s Times, why Yale University keeps asking him for money (and why he gives it to them.) Last year, Yale earned about $3 billion on their endowment doing deals that you and I could never do. In the face of that sort of return, do the $3,000 alumni checks really matter?
Michael Motta answered that question for me when he quoted Ben Franklin in an email today. "he that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than whom you yourself have obliged".
In other words, Yale wants Ben Stein’s money so that Ben will be inclined to do the things that Yale really wants: send over great students, hire graduates, talk up the school and maintain its place in the pantheon of liberal arts colleges. And donors are far more likely to do that than disconnected alum.
It’s not always about giving. Yale wins by taking.
October 23, 2005
Michael Kenny points us to a story in Wired: Link: Wired News: Pumping Indies on MTV.
Pump Audio solves that problem by providing networks with a hard drive filled with 11,000 songs categorized and searchable by genre, instrument and lyrical theme. Customers pay a flat fee per episode (or commercial) to Pump Audio, which the company splits evenly with the musicians.
The music industry is broken. Has been for a while. Here’s a smart guy with a simple offering that is irresistible to all parties. Because he was willing to create a remarkable product that didn’t meet industry standards.
October 21, 2005
Why settle?
It’s not expensive to make a world-class roll. There are only a few ingredients, the recipe is straightforward (but not easy) and the ingredients don’t cost a penny extra.
Mediocre rolls are easier and more predictable. Once you figure out how to make a mediocre, tasteless, soggy roll, you can do it over and over again. Mediocre rolls can be baked by anyone, with very little care. And no one would ever go out of their way to purchase or consume a mediocre roll.
So why do we settle? Why bother being in the food business if you’re going to serve something you can’t possibly be proud of? Is making that extra dollar so important that all pride goes out the window?
Part of the curse of Wall Street is that enough is never enough. So short-term thinking sets in. Too many companies believe their owners (the stockholders) would rather have them make shlock and alienate customers to turn a little extra profit–even though it’s clear that this strategy virtually always leads to doom.
The real story here, though, has nothing to do with the stock market. It has to do with our willingness to settle for work product that just isn’t that good–at the same time we vote with our dollars to buy things and experiences that are exceptional.
October 20, 2005
Today’s Globe & Mail reports that over the last 12 years, the number of armed conflicts in the world has gone down by 40% and the number of extremely deadly conflicts (more than 1,000 battle-related deaths) is down by more than 80%.
A different source reports that New York is the safest large city in the US, with serious crime continuing to drop.
And it’s much harder to get sick from bad sushi, too. (has to do with aggressive refrigeration.)
So, what’s going on? Why is everyone so tense?
The internet doesn’t help. Today, bad news anywhere in the world shows up in your browser in seconds. Second, there are people making a full time living (and increasing their power) by scaring us (and not just on Halloween). And lastly, it’s human nature. Vivid images have more impact on us than cold statistics. If I had accompanied this post with a picture of someone in a gutter, the 80% decrease in serious wars over a decade would quickly be forgotten.
Optimism is hard. But it’s usually worth it.
October 18, 2005
Imagine a book publisher being upset because her company’s books were being shelved right next to competitive books on the same topic…
In fact, books sell far better at bookstores than they do at trade shows or supermarkets or pubs. That’s not news to you, I hope.
What about blogs? Blogs are far more read now than they were a few years ago when there were just a few blogs to choose from. And people visiting technorati are far more likely to read and discover a blog than someone who stumbles onto a blog link on, say, eBay.
And tuna? Tuna sells best in the fish store, lying next to the other, lesser fish, on ice.
Too often we’re beaten down by comparison shoppers and companies issuing RFPs and commodity buyers who won’t take the time to hear our story. Too often, frustrated marketers believe that they’d do better if they just didn’t have any competition.
In fact, the proximity effect can work in your favor. It usually does if your product or service is special. The proximity effect gives the consumer confidence. It creates a category where no category existed before. It lets you sell the difference, as opposed to the whole thing.
At a bar, you don’t have to sell vodka. You should have to sell why your vodka tells a better story than the other guy’s vodka.
Online, this effect is profound. Search engines add value when they present a collection of choices… because your proximity to the "competition" for your reader’s attention benefits both of you.
October 17, 2005
When I published everyone’s an expert, I promised that today we’d publish some sample lenses. So we did. Included, you’ll find a job seeker, an entrepreneur and an activist. I’ve also included the first draft of my lens, which I built with our lensbuilder tool, not using Photoshop as a mockup tool. See: Squidoo: sample lenses.
The beta starts today, and this seems as good a time as any to thank the four summer interns who took a risk and worked with me for two months on this: Aaron Sagray, Greg Narain Harper Reed and Corey Brown. Corey’s joined our team full time. We did this as an intense, focused exercise, building out every page, every bit of logic and wireframe in a short window… giving us the base to evolve from.
Since August, the astounding Squidoo team has included Corey, Gil Hildebrand, Jr., Megan Casey and Heath Row. These guys have been amazing. You can read about them (and see their lenses) and about board members Tom Cohen and Lisa Gansky on the Squidoo site once we open it to the public in a few weeks.
