Ciao, Debora.
Volevo parlarti del solito argomento, perdonami se ti assillo, ma volevo dirti che ho raggiunto una conclusione.

E leì, ne sono sicuro.
Se prima era solo un ipotesi avventata, ora è impossibile non rendersene conto. Anche se durante la notte, la luce è troppo poca per poterla distinguere bene, so che è lei. Ormai non ho più dubbi, perché sono troppe le coincidenze che accomunano quelle due persone.
So che cosa mi risponderesti… “Te l’ho già ripetuto un milione di volte Ricky! Non esistono quelle sciocchezze, quelle robacce! Quella ragazza non è un vampiro! Quindi torna coi piedi per terra, per cortesia e mettiti a pensare al lavoro!”
Ma io sono rimasto di questa convinzione e non cambio opinione.
Ormai le sue visite si fanno più frequenti. Ora si avvicina sai? Prima non oltrepassava la siepe che porta ai campi. Se ne stava lì immobile ad osservarmi. Ora però ha preso l’abitudine di nascondersi sotto il vecchio pino del Nonno. Mi è impossibile vederne il volto nell’ombra. Poi, sai quelle parole? Sai che ti dicevo che sembrava che sussurrasse qualcosa? beh l’altra notte sono riuscito ad avvicinarmi tanto da poter distinguere qualche parola…senza che lei si volatilizzasse come sempre. Deve avere una tale forza per comparire in quel modo…

So che non puoi venire qui in paese per un po’, ma ti chiedo di continuare a darmi supporto via mail o via chat. Ne ho bisogno altrimenti non so a chi rivolgermi.

Attendo con ansia tue risposte,

Riccardo

Thanks to everyone who came along to the GoGetters presentation in Glasgow this morning. Video content and a full run-down will be posted over the next few days, but for those of you seeking something more immediate – here’s a wee recap:

What do you know about your business audience?

Do you know exactly who your business needs to be talking to?

Do you know what your audience really wants to hear?

Do you know how and where your audience wants to hear it?

You need to deliver the right message to the right audience through the right media. At the heart of an effective communications strategy lies the ability to speak to your audience in a language they can relate to and through the channels they are listening to.

For many businesses the challenge is made harder by variations across the business audience. Of course no customer is ever the same, but what about the customer purchase process?

Who is the ultimate decision maker?

What is their business pain?

How can you meet that need?

How can you let them know you have their answer?

But the probing really needs to go deeper than that:

Who is your decision maker influenced by?

Who do they charge with finding suppliers with solutions to their need?

Where do they look for the answer?

How do you let them know you have their answer?

How do you help the influencer sell your offer back to the decision maker?

We know from experience that understanding your audience is the best route to building an effective communications strategy for your business. From experience we know that your audience is influenced by channels beyond the traditional or conventional.

Surely everyone starts with a google search these days, right?

Sure they do, and of course you’ll have a website and hopefully it’s easily found by your audience.

But where else do your audience get informed?

What do they really listen to?

Regularly-updated blogs become a point of reliance: Robert Peston arguably drove the final nail into the coffin of the banking boom through his blog.

Twitter is a search engine too. And the content is posted by people your audience trust (or at least know or can relate to).

Linked-in has a similar dynamic:

Who are your contacts buying from?

Who are your competitors buying from?

What are their experiences?

And then there’s the media itself: Why read copy if you can watch a video or listen to a podcast?

More than 1/3 project managers log-on to youtube weekly looking for business content.

Why aren’t you providing the video content your audience would appreciate?

What’s the address of your youTube channel?

Most 16-25 year olds see their mobile as their primary touch-point with the internet.

Welcome to the age of media rich communications!

Of course there’s no point in charging your business into a new media age if there’s no clear ROI to it. For that you need a communications strategy. One that isn’t focused on a single media. And one that doesn’t eat up all of your revenue. (or marketing spend?)

You want to see signs that it is working for you: Build confidence through progressive implementations. Find out what works for your audience and build on it.

You need to build and deliver the right marketing tools to meet your audience needs with your business offer, and to suit your budget. With measurable milestones against which you can challenge your investment.

And to work in the long-run, your strategy has to reflect you – your business, not to just be what you think your audience wants to hear. Your audience will soon learn from experience and with the help of influencing channels such as social media what your true colours are. And if this turns off your audience it will be a much longer, harder, expensive job to switch them back on again to your offer.

And what does your brand stand for?

What does your audience interpret?

What do you want them to see?

You need to understand the underpinning values and vision upon which your business has made its success to date. Then understand where you want to be, and what that new horizon means and will look like to you – whether you need to build a brand from scratch or just give it a helping hand to keep things on track.

This is what lies at the heart of an effective communications strategy. …..what drives your ability to speak to your audience in a language they can relate to and through the channels they are listening to.

It’s the right message to the right audience through the right media.

More soon…

[Blog post originally on Brightfire Blog: Nov 24th '09]

It is important that your marketing message matches the message delivered by your sales team.

Force Management has worked extensively with clients to insure that the messages match.

As if my platonic problems couldn’t get weirder…

Me and the hipster are friends.

I think he still believes it was a mutual thing. He probably tells his friends, “Well, we didn’t really break up. We just both aren’t really ready. Plus I’m sooo busy.” Oh please.

I’m fine with being friends. He’s much easier to handle. Now I can endlessly banter while “It’s Always Sunny” is on and I don’t have to plate his food. I can tell him in all honesty that he wants a 1950s housewife and he can laugh. He got drunk the other night and texted me — “I think you’re a great girl. I’d like to keep dating you.”
Um, nice one. I mean, I’m totally in love with you so just say the word and I’ll jump in the wagon. Buddy– I DUMPED YOU. Would you like me to order a fancy stamp and punch you in the forehead? Jesus.

I texted him back and it felt so good. “I’d like to be friends”.

The next morning he pleads the fifth. Of course, he thinks the ball’s in his court. I also mentioned this since my newfound bluntness is oddly exhilarating, “So you think you can just TELL me to date you, eh? I think you’re supposed to ask a girl.” He finds this amusing and tries to weasel out of his faux-pas but whatever.

We play scrabble via iPhone app everyday. It’s kinda creepy. He also has started to be oddly fascinated by who I am, as a person. GASP. He asks me questions like, do you sew?… do you want a pet? …Why don’t you like [token indie band]?

What I’ve realized about myself in this incredibly confusing and depressing process we call dating, is that we don’t spend enough time getting to know each other. If I have to be romantic on the first date, it’s so much pressure! It’s gonna be years before you see me air guitar or put straws in my nose — common occurrences for many of my friends. Whatever happened to courtship?

I’ve decided to stop dating for now and to stop building this wall. All women have this idea about how we have to be to date. We can’t be overbearing or too invested. We must be confident and sexual. However, we can’t date other people, then we’re sluts. And we can’t be too shy, then we’re just boring.

We’re not allowed to fall in love.

I’m sick of dumbing myself down or being belittled. Fix your own damn plate, I’m gonna go sing to some Britney. Yeah I said it, Britney Spears.

Brand extension occurs when a company intentionally takes a well known brand and applies it to another product category. Companies extend their brands quite regularly.The objective is to take advantage of the awareness of the brand, reach new audiences, and ultimately make more money.

For example, Arm and Hammer moved from Baking Soda into Dental Hygiene products.  They utilized their association with cleanliness and fighting germs and odor and found a space in a new market (though their competitors are aggressively fighting back).

And the Virgin brand has been successfully extended from records to airlines to mobile phones and even to space travel (Virgin Galactic).

Of course, brand extension doesn’t always work. McDonald’s had a significant failure with their McPizza offering. And does anyone remember LifeSavers soda? Coors Spring Water? Or Colgate Kitchen Entrees? (I kid you not!)

Another form of Brand Extension is when two well known brands, are brought together. One very successful example of this is the Lego Star Wars toys and games.

I believe the reason for this success is that there is overlap in the market segments of people who like Lego and those who like Star Wars.  i.e. mostly male, but with an age range skewed much higher than the typical target audience for Lego.

Those of us who grew up playing with Lego and saw the original Star Wars movies in the theaters can now spend some more money on the combination of those two passions, or introduce our children to them.

But this kind of combination doesn’t always work. Lego recently announced a new game for the Wii, entitled Lego Rock Band.

There is whole family of Rock Band games including:

• Rock Band (2007)
• Rock Band 2 (2008)
• Rock Band Unplugged (2009)
• The Beatles: Rock Band (2009)
• Lego Rock Band (2009)

Who is the target audience for Lego Rock Band? And will this game appeal to them?

The songs provided with the game are a curious mix of hits from various decades, with music from:

• Jimi Hendrix, The Jackson 5
• The Police, David Bowie
• Carl Douglas (gotta love “Kung Fu Fighting”)
• Foo Fighters, Bon Jovi
• Spinal Tap (set the volume to 11)
• Queen, Pink
• Iggy Pop (yeah, this guy ===>)
• Elton John, Korn
• Counting Crows
• and KT Tunstall (Who???)

to name just a few.

Forget about the video game for a second. Who would be the target for  that group of musicians????

Now combine the Rock Band portion, and maybe you’ll get some eclectic rocker/video game enthusiasts.

Now combine in the Lego theme, and who’s left? Young videogame playing, Lego fanboys who like 1970s punk rock?

Perhaps I’m not the target audience for this? I do own a Wii, and I actually do like some of the musicians listed above, and I did like Lego as a kid. But combining them all into a Rock Band game? I don’t think so.

Am I wrong here? Let me know.

Saeed

There’s a great article at http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/1437/pretense-alert/?adref=NmiT4B9 on how it can backfire when speakers and writers try to use words that are more complicated than needed in an effort to sound smart.

The article also provides the following Marketing Inspiration: “If you choose words because you think they sound smarter, there’s a good possibility they’re having the opposite effect.”

This also applies when you hire someone to write an article, speech, Web content, or collateral materials for you… it’s the art of properly capturing who you are and how you speak! There’s a proper balance to strike between being correct and not lazy with how you use the language and trying to “talk up” or sound more erudite than is needed.

Okay so I haven’t posted for a while but I have been rather busy of late. And the next obsession I created for myself was finding some kind of software that would allow me to sign into Facebook chat, (seen as though Facebook killed MSN).

Well I found better.

IM+ and Beejive (pronounced b-h-v, I think their touchy about that one). These are both BlackBerry apps that allow any user to log into a variety of chat services including Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo… and of course MSN (amongst others).

These each come with Push IM services that allow any BlackBerry user to shutdown the app and have IM emailed direct to your inbox. Very useful if you want to prolong battery life and still catch messages from friends or clients.

In honesty the preferable UI would have to be Beejive over IM+. Beekive looks more finished and professional looking; IM+ seems to offer a rather basic design that I don’t fully commit to. Beejive gives you confidence to use it.

There are 2 key downsides to the apps. Beejive and IM+ seem to suffer at times connection issues which can result in errors been sent via email which is not entirely useful. Also the prices of these apps for the BlackBerry are phenomenal. I certainly do not want to have to pay £25 for IM+ when I change my phones like underwear. Beejive is an improvement at around £18 but even so, when the iPhone users get a $9.99 price – a slight insult.

Overall both offer a 30 day Free Trial to use, if your interested take them up but if you can’t justify the money – well, its your call. You could always try ebuddy.

- Loveland

Republicans have a potent issue to win over Independents and other swing voters in the 2010 congressional elections – the deficit. And the Democrats’ defense against deficit spending charges so far has been “Bush did it first.”

That “Bush did it first” blaming is certainly true. Bush’s Democratic predecessor eliminated the deficit, and Bush built it back up. Worse yet, Bush’s spending and tax cutting spree was during a time of prosperity, when economic stimulus wasn’t needed. So, it’s easy to see how grating it is for Democrats to be lectured by Republicans, of all people, about deficits.

But they can’t take the bait. While the “Bush did it first” message is truthful and cathartic, it makes them sound defensive and co-guilty of wrong-doing, and it is wholly insufficient to persuade Independents and other swing voters that Democrats can be trusted with the purse strings into the future.

Republicans are correct, a ballooning deficit is scary. But the lower-cost alternatives would have been much scarier. If Obama and congressional Democrats had not spent on financial industry bailouts, automaker bailouts, and stimulus funding, most experts say we would have had a total economic catastrophe that would dwarf what we experienced.

So, yes, we have a larger deficit, but the deficit spending mitigated a meltdown. Instead of a dramatically shrinking economy, we now have a modestly growing economy. Instead of no credit to fuel economic growth, we have some money flowing to businesses and individuals again. Instead of a stockmarket crash, we have a stockmarket rally. Instead of a housing collapse, we have signs of a modest housing recovery. Instead of hundreds of millions of more unemployed Americans from shuttered banks, insurance companies, automakers and small businesses dependent those central pillars of the economy, we now have economists predicting job growth early next year.

So the message framing for the deficit can’t be “Bush did it first.” It must be something more like “Deficits defeat Depressions.” Americans need to understand that President Hoover fixated on avoiding deficits at all cost, and that put us in the Great Depression, with failed banks, 30 percent unemployment, and breadlines. FDR chose short-term Keynesian deficit spending and it got us out of the Great Depression. Obama’s programs prevented a catastrophic financial meltdown too. Democrats made the wise choice during the meltdown, and now that the economy is recovering, Democrats will balance the budget again, as they did under Clinton.

Democrats have be direct with citizens and treat them like grown ups. They have to explain the Hoover-esque cost of doing nothing when money isn’t flowing. They have to explain that they hate deficits too, but show why deficit spending was a must with the economy in meltdown. Finally, and this is critical, they have to lay out a plan for cutting the deficit in the future, to show swing voters that they have a plan for getting us back to normal.

And in terms of tone, Democrats have to make this “deficits beat Depression” case proactively, not reactively. The have to proclaim it on offense, not on defense. They have to communicate that they are, like FDR and congressional New Dealers, supremely proud of what they achieved, not apologetic. They have to boast, not blame. Blaming others – tempting as it is — makes it sound like they are embarrassed and got caught doing something wrong. And if they carry that tone into the 2010 mid-term elections, it is going to be a butt ugly year for congressional Democrats.

- Loveland

I noticed an interesting pair of tweets this week by a newspaper reporter who was complaining about someone she had interviewed. The first tweet was;

“Going crazy again from Kafkaesque non-responses to media inquiries. I wonder how they would like it if I answered their questions like that.”

Shortly after that, she tweeted;

“Example: PR guy asks: Are you reporting on our event? Jen: The NOW plays an important role in regularly reporting on events in the community”

That one made me chuckle. The reporter is Jennifer Moreau and she works for a community newspaper called NOW. The next morning, I decided to interview her. I left a message at about 10 am and waited for her to call back.

While I waited, I googled her. Rabble.ca described her as “a community news reporter with a background in feminist anti-violence work.” I found a sports story she had written for a college paper. A blog published an opinion piece she had written in 2005 opposing legalized prostitution. On her Twitter profile she called herself a “reporter and an Argentine tango dancer”.

Shortly after noon, she called back and we had a chat about how people answer a reporter’s questions. Her main complaint is with government types who provide what she calls “vague non-responses”. That makes her suspicious. She assumes they are hiding something. To her, “transparency is the new objectivity.”

Like most reporters, Moreau believes there are certain “basic questions that need to be answered” on behalf of her readers. Her belief is that she is simply an unbiased story teller and her readers will decide the veracity of anyone’s statements. She can imagine few situations where there might be legitimate reasons not to speak publicly.

The problem, of course, is that sometimes there really isn’t a story and people are put in the position of denying an unfounded accusation. If the source of the charge has any credibility (and sometimes even if they don’t) reporters will rarely kill the story. Their version of transparency is to allow the accused to make a statement of defence. And if that statement is not very good, well – in Moreau’s words “I’m not there to protect people if they make stupid remarks.”

That is precisely why no one should talk to the media if they haven’t been properly trained. I am very concerned that my clients don’t make “stupid remarks”. I also know that they must have clear, concise messages before talking to reporters and they need to be prepared to say them more than once.

Jennifer Moreau seemed uncomfortable when I pressed her on her past position against legalized prostitution. If I had a client in favour of it, I asked, should I suggest the client refuse to be interviewed by you. After some hesitation she replied, “If I were in your position – yeah.”

Near the end of our chat, I asked if she had been interviewed before and what it had been like for her. She confessed that she had done interviews as a spokesperson for a volunteer organization. She hadn’t had formal media training but, she said, “we had points that we wanted to get across in the media that we just kept repeating all the time.”

Gee Jennifer, maybe in the end we’re not as different as you think.

7 steps on engaging with mobile consumers

Market research shows that consumers are very attached to their mobile phone. It is usually the first thing they check when they wake up and the last thing they check before going to bed. The average person uses the phone to make calls, exchange text messages, send photos, surf the Internet or check email, in that order.

Here are some steps on how to engage with mobile consumers.

1. Define the strategy
It starts with understanding mobile users, their behavior and usage. This will help develop a strategy that leverages the mobile platform and enables consumers to do what they like, which is to connect with friends using the mobile phone.

2. Determine the communication
First thing is to leverage the existing channels that you already use with your customers — email, direct mail, point-of-sale advertising, banners, Web site and print ads — and get them to interact or respond via their mobile.

Next, clearly state the basic steps required to engage with the brand. The key to a successful mobile campaign is to launch it as part of an integrated campaign instead of a standalone effort.

3. Understand the true cost
Mobile marketing is not cheap for anyone. The consumer pays for every single SMS message — if not subscribing to an unlimited data plan — and a typical mobile campaign will require 4 SMS messages.

SMS 1 to start the request to opt-in
SMS 2 back to the consumer to notify of the request
SMS 3 to have the consumer confirm
SMS 4 is to welcome the consumer to the program, before the engagement begins

4. Allow the customer to choose
The subscriber has to opt-in to your mobile marketing program. Like other marketing channels, a consumer has a right to privacy and as a marketer, you should gain approval.

Additionally, provide clear directions on how to unsubscribe or opt-out from the marketing program.

5. Allow customers to manage the communication
Subscribers should have a mechanism for telling you when and how they would like to receive marketing messaging on the mobile phone. Manage and limit mobile messaging programs to a reasonable number.

6. Manage consumer data with respect
The data points that you have on the consumer should be used to drive segmentation and personalization. Most importantly it should be used to tailor the message to the interest of the consumer.

This will help you to manage spam issues, and will make the content more relevant and valuable to the consumer.

Also, commit and state clearly that you will not share the consumer’s information with others i.e. non-affiliated third-parties.

7. Make the offer relevant and valuable
When you develop your offer for the campaign, make sure that it is something of value in return for the objective of the communication campaign.

Remember to respect the protocol of communication by following these simple steps: State very clearly your offer, securely manage the data you are leveraging and add value and relevance to market.

The more you engage with the customer, the more loyalty and trust will be created, which will enable you to engage with them with mutual and beneficial outcome.

Problem Statement

A consuming application/business process wants to integrate with your reusable asset. However, the consumer doesn’t want to take your standard message – wanting a specific format that will make it easier for them. Why? Could be because of several reasons: lack of time/money/skills or technical limitations (e.g. their system can handle only delimited files and cannot parse XML).

Suggested Approach

The immediate, tactical (and often tempting) solution would be to just format the data per the consumer’s format and integrate in a point-to-point fashion. Don’t settle for this option too quickly! Prefer to publish a standard publication in that is in line with your long-term direction (e.g. offer reusable message publications in XML format indicating changes to critical data entities or state changes in business processes). Create a subscriber that tranforms the standard message to the consumer-specific format.

Rationale

If point to point integrations go ungoverned, you will end up with a rat’s nest of tightly coupled integrations that ultimately hurt business agility.Your long-term intent is to have multiple consumers (web applications, backend systems, business processes, etc.) consume reusable message publications.If several business processes need the same core data or notifications about state changes, why would you want to integrate with them separately? Publications will not only reduce integration effort, they place less strain on your system resources – publish once and subscribe several times. No need to query databases or invoke external systems every time there is a new integration.

Note: The additional transformation logic will require extra logging/error handling but over the long haul is a better option than going for a point-to-point integration approach.

This will enable the asset provider, to integrate new applications faster (no need to custom develop messages and integration code for every new consumer) and reduce the cost of maintenance. Reducing application to application coupling is a key motivation for pursuing this approach as well.

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Update: this weekend the National Department of Commerce “strongly opposes” taking action on Climate Change. Mr. Donahue said that the bill was a “job-killer” and a “regulatory nightmare,” and classified the vote as crucial with determining who it would endorse for Congressional elections next year. With 18 full-time lobbyists telling leaders this in Washington, who’s going to go out of their way to question that authority?

The policy response: strong incentives to develop a clean technology sector. Government deficit-spending can encourage real production growth in the economy, as shown in New Deal in the thirties. A green jobs potentials report shows growth across all sectors breaks down like this:
—about 490,000 (65 percent) are in engineering, legal, research, consulting, or government administration sectors;
– about 197,000 (26 percent) are in renewable power generation, construction, systems installation, and manufacturing sectors.

America needs these jobs. Download this fact sheet (pdf). Massachusetts will gain 38,410 new clean energy jobs from The American Clean Energy and Security Act, or spend 4.5b to oil and adaptation in the next ten years if it doesn’t pass. (not to mention the loss of the fishing sector). MA fact sheet: The Economics of Clean Energy.
Carbon tax as uncompetitive? Just the unsustainable businesses which are harming our planet. Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act as a start to a new economy. Thank you.

So, to Mr. Donahue:
Reorienting our antiquated energy infrastructure around the platforms of sustainability, efficiency, and reduced greenhouse emissions represents an economic engine for innovation, productivity growth, and international competitiveness in coming decades.

Senator Kerry, stay strong! Know in Copenagen that we
support you. (please click!)

New York Times Article on Green Jobs: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/business/businessspecial2/26collar.html
New York Times Article on Chamber of Commerce Decision: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/business/energy-environment/19CHAMBER.html?scp=1&sq=Storm+over+the+chamber&st=nyt
Clean Energy Resources: http://www.americanprogress.org/projects/energy_hub/
The Leadership Campaign.
A Global Organic Mindset: My own post on: 350 for the Economy

For Change.
Eddie Miller, concerned Student Activist
Community Outreach, the Leadership Campaign.

Please comment/forward!

So Asgood & Better has been cruising along for nearly two years now, providing marketing work that’s as good – and better – than larger-scale agencies without the hefty price tag. This was always our goal, but the friendly, professional brand identity we developed for ourselves and the bright orange ampersand “stamp” of a logo didn’t come about overnight. The process took awhile, and we thought it would be fun to look back at (and share with you) a small slice of it here.

We’ve love the name of our business, and many others have told us they do too. It was intended to be a cheeky antidote to agencies whose name is simply a mashup of their partners’ names. At the beginning, we took that concept quite literally, creating characters called “Asgood” and “Better.” This seemed to call for a “retro” logo style, so that’s where we began.

That led to a “geekier” brand identity (and a redesign of the logo using glasses as the central element), which then gave way to the more toned-down, professional look that you see today. We scrapped the cheeky, “fictional character” approach, and chose a more subtle, friendly one. The logo we created was akin to what you’d see at a high-powered agency, but we used a bright orange color palate and a few twists on the letters to suggest our underlying playfulness.

Below is an initial creative exercise we wrote back then. We hope it amuses you – and please remember this: nothing worth doing comes about quickly or easily. If you need a strong brand identity developed for your organization, we hope you’ll give us a ring, and allow us to help create  an identity you love as much as we love ours.

Enjoy!

In 1967, Clarence Asgood and his partner Roy Better started a marketing operation in the back room of a little print shop in Raleigh, North Carolina. Before long, the business was known its excellent work for such clients as Gee Whiz Reusable Gumballs, Justin Case Insurance Co., and the Ford Edsel.

Asgood was satisfied, but Better was already thinking outside the box – literally.

“Clarence,” he said, “we need fewer walls around here.”

And with that, the story goes, he brought in his own personal pick-axe and began demolishing partitions between employees’ desks, bringing down office walls, and opening things up a bit.

“Not good enough,” he mused. “We’re still trapped in here. We need to be free.”

To Asgood’s surprise, Roy Better demolished the outer walls of the building and exclaimed, “Go! Create in the real world!” as employees of A&B gathered their belongings and scattered into the parking lot.

These days, A&B prides itself on offering the services of an experienced marketing team without the overhead associated with four walls and a roof. So get in touch, and see what freedom from boundaries can do for you.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

So how soon is too soon to give up on match.com??? It’s been 2 days and I’m already exhausted, I’ve gotten plenty of winks, messages, and profile views and have yet to not cringe at the pic or profile of said winker.  I know this makes me sound completely shallow, but really people, how hard is it to take a decent picture and write a normal ‘about me’.  Is it so much to ask to find a decent normal man? I think so…  I may be too picky but I’d rather be single than settle. Oi.

Just finished draft 4 of REST-* Messaging.  Please check our our discussion group if you want to talk more about it.  Here’s a list of resources and their corresponding relationships for a high level overview.  See the spec for more details.  It relies heavily on Link headers.  The current draft shows a lot of example HTTP request/responses to give you a good idea of what is going on.

Destination

A queue or a topic resource.

Relationships:

• post-message – link to POST/create a message to a queue or topic.  This can be
• post-message-once – link to POST/create a message to a queue or topic using the POST-Once-Exactlly (POE) pattern
• post-batch – POST/create a batch of messages using Atom or Multipart
• post-batch-once – POST/create a batch using the POE pattern.

Message

Every message posted creates a message resource that can be viewed for adminstration, auditing, monitoring, or usage.

Links Relationships:

• reply-to.  Destination that you can reply to
• reply-to-once.  Destination that you can reply to once using the POST-Only-Once pattern
• reply-to-batch. Destination that you can reply with a batch of messages
• reply-to-batch-once.  Batch using POE.
• next.  If pulling from a topic, messages will have this link.  This is the next message after this one.
• acknowledgement.  If pulling from a queue, this link allows you to change the state of the message to acknowleged or not.
• generator, Destination that the message came from

Topic

Has the same links as Destination with these added:

Link Relationships:

• next.  GET the next incoming message.  Clients should use the Accept-Wait header to set a blocking timeout (see later).
• last.  Last posted message to the topic
• first.  First message posted to topic, or, the first message that is still around.
• subscribers. URL that allows you to view (GET) or create/register (POST) a list of URLs to forward messages to.

Queue

Same as Destination, but these additional link relationships:

Link Relationships:

• poller.  Alias to the next available message in the queue.  Returns a message representation along with a Content-Location header pointing to the real one.  a POST is required to access this because the state of the queue is changed.
• subscribers.  Same as topic push model.

Since the arguments in favor of acting now to avert serious problems later are so compelling, why don’t they penetrate the public and policy maker’s consciousness?”  The answer is complex, but is in large part because of seen and unseen perceptual barriers and competing core values that most campaigns and communicators have not yet overcome.

Improving communications on children’s issues and policy change has been a challenge because people value their own children and put their health and welfare first, but believe that it is the responsibility of other families to do the same.  Children are seen as “encased” in families and Americans don’t meddle in private family matters unless things get really, really bad.

Children’s problems are often seen as resulting from bad or undeserving parents who made bad choices.  Parents are blamed for causing their own problems, are deemed untrustworthy and likely to waste what “we give them” — to buy drugs, gamble, etc., rather than use support to care for their kids.

Through our research, comments that describe “the problem” include:

•    Money won’t solve these basic problems, but many child advocacy groups focus their narrative on funding requests.

•    Communicators are down in the policy weeds and fail to engage people on an emotional or values level.

•    Overpromising the results of programs is also a turnoff that makes people suspicious.

Too many of the arguments and stories told about addressing the needs of children contain convenient “escape hatches” that let people off-the-hook:

•    Money will solve it.  But we have none, so we can’t help.

•    Playing up stories emphasizing that some children come from really bad family situations, inadvertently reinforces the idea that we “outsiders” can do little to change things.

•    When we trumpet individual success stories, we reinforce the idea that it’s up to the individual to make it, not society to ensure that they do.  If the campaign seeks systemic reform, it will need systemic stories to support its goals.

•    Messages that “shame and blame” disengaged people for standing on the sideline are easily deflected as being about “someone else.”

•    Making government funding “the answer” is obviously wrong to many.

•    A focus on early childhood education, and cute lovable kids, cuts youth out of the picture.

Right now, people tend to default to thinking in terms of the “family bubble” – parents and grandparents are all kids need; broader systems and structures are not visible to them. What suggestions can you offer to help shift the publics’ perspective from addressing the needs of “my kid” to the broader lesson of community support for “all kids?”

วันนี้ตลาดโทรศัพท์มือถือไทยกำลังอยู่ในช่วงที่กระแสการใช้งานอีเมลบนมือถือ ได้รับความนิยมอย่างมาก โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งบริการ Push E-mail ที่ทำให้ผู้ใช้งานรู้ได้ทันทีเมื่อมีอีเมลใหม่ส่งเข้ามา รวมถึงการแชตบนมือถือได้สร้างสังคมรูปแบบใหม่ให้กับการใช้งานบนมือถือกลาย เป็นกลุ่มสังคมผู้ใช้มือถือแบบเดียวกัน เพื่อที่จะสื่อสารกันได้อย่างสะดวกในกลุ่มเช่นเดียวกับการใช้งานบน คอมพิวเตอร์

ผลิตภัณฑ์ที่สร้างชื่อจากปรากฏารณ์ที่เกิดขึ้นต้องยกให้กับแบล็ก เบอร์รี่ หรือที่เรียกกันจนติดปากผู้บริโภคไทยไปแล้วว่า “BB” จนกลายเป็นกระแสที่ร้อนแรงที่สุดของผลิตภัณฑ์มือถือในปีนี้ หลังจากที่แบล็กเบอร์รี่เริ่มต้นจากการใช้งานในเชิงธุรกิจก่อนขยายมาสู่คอน ซูเมอร์ โดยใช้บรรดาผู้มีชื่อเสียงในสังคมเป็นจุดขายดึงคอนซูเมอร์มาใช้งานแบล็กเบอร์รี่จนเพิ่มจำนวนมากขึ้นอย่างต่อเนื่อง

จุดเด่นที่ถูกพูดถึงมากที่สุดของแบล็กเบอร์รี่คือเรื่องการใช้งาน Push E-mail และการแชตผ่านทาง BB Messaging ที่ผู้ใช้แบล็กเบอร์รี่แต่ละเครื่องจะมีรหัส (Pin) ไว้แลกเปลี่ยนกันเพื่อใช้แชตในระหว่างกลุ่มเพื่อนเดียวกัน จุดนี้เองส่งผลให้แบล็กเบอร์รี่มีการเติบโตแบบก้าวกระโดด เนื่องจากเมื่อเพื่อนหนึ่งคนในกลุ่มใช้และบอกต่อเพื่อนคนอื่นๆ ก็จะเข้ามาเป็นสมาชิกที่ใช้แบล็กเบอร์รี่เหมือนกันจะได้ใช้งานแชตในกลุ่มได้

“อีเมลบนมือถือเกิดขึ้นมากว่า 3 ปีแต่อยู่ในวงจำกัด แต่วันนี้อีเมลและ Push E-mail มาสู่ตลาดแมสแล้ว” เป็นคำกล่าวของ สมชัย เลิศสุทธิวงศ์ รองกรรมการผู้อำนวยการ สายงานการตลาด บริษัท แอดวานซ์ อินโฟร์ เซอร์วิส จำกัด หรือเอไอเอส

และด้วยความร้อนแรงของแบล็กเบอร์รี่ที่เกิดขึ้น ย่อมส่งผลให้บรรดาขาใหญ่ในค่ายโทรศัพท์มือถือต้องหันมาทบทวนกลยุทธ์ของตนเอง ว่าจะสามารถเกาะกระแสที่เกิดขึ้นในขณะนี้ และผลักดันให้ผลิตภัณฑ์ของตนเองเป็นอีกหนึ่งทางเลือกสำหรับผู้บริโภคที่มอง หาผลิตภัณฑ์ที่มีความสามารถเหมือนกับแบล็กเบอร์รี่อีกหรือไม่

โนเกีย ค่ายมือถืออันดับหนึ่งของโลกและในเมืองไทย ได้ขยับตัวครั้งแรกสำหรับการเปิดตำรานำผลิตภัณฑ์และบริการมาแข่งขันกับแบ ล็กเบอร์รี่ด้วยการร่วมมือกับทางเอไอเอส เปิดตัว “Nokia Messaging” สำหรับลูกค้าเอไอเอส โดยเอไอเอสนับเป็นผู้ให้บริการโทรศัพท์เคลื่อนที่รายแรกในประเทศไทยที่ให้ บริการ Nokia Messaging ซึ่งมีบริการ Push E-mail เป็นบริการแรกที่ให้กับผู้ใช้งานโนเกียและเอไอเอสได้สัมผัส ก่อนที่จะมีการเปิดให้บริการแชตผ่าน Nokia Messaging ระหว่างมือถือโนเกียด้วยกันในช่วงเดือนตุลาคมนี้ เป็นบริการในลักษณะเดียวกับการใช้งานแบล็กเบอร์รี่

“โนเกียมุ่งมั่นให้ผู้บริโภคทุกคนได้เข้าถึงการใช้งานอีเมลบ นโทรศัพท์มือถือ โดยบริการ Nokia Messaging จะทำให้ผู้บริโภคสามารถเชื่อมต่อกับอีเมลได้ทุกที่ ทุกเวลาที่ต้องการ” ชูมิท คาพูร์ ผู้จัดการทั่วไป บริษัท โนเกีย (ประเทศไทย) จำกัด กล่าว

Nokia Messaging เป็นบริการ Push E-mail ที่ออกแบบมาให้ติดตั้งและใช้งานได้โดยง่าย โดยสามารถใช้งานได้สูงสุดถึง 10 อีเมลแอกเคานต์บนโทรศัพท์มือถือเพียงเครื่องเดียว นอกจากนี้บริการ Nokia Messaging ยังรองรับบริการอีเมลทั่วไป เช่น Gmail Windows Live Hotmail Yahoo mail รวมถึงอีเมลของผู้ให้บริการอีเมลในแต่ละประเทศ โดยผู้ใช้งานสามารถอ่านอีเมล ส่งอีเมล ฟอร์เวิร์ดเมล ตอบอีเมล ดาวน์โหลด อ่านและแนบไฟล์ต่างๆ ได้โดยตรงจากโทรศัพท์มือถือ ซึ่งผู้ใช้มั่นใจได้กับความรวดเร็วของ Push E-mail เทคโนโลยีของโนเกียที่ทำให้ได้รับอีเมลบนมือถือทันทีที่อีเมลส่งถึงอีเม ลเซิร์ฟเวอร์

สำหรับแพกเกจที่โนเกียร่วมกับเอไอเอสจัดให้กับผู้ใช้งานในเครือข่าย เอไอเอส ใช้งานอีเมลบนมือถือได้แก่ แพกเกจ Nokia Messaging 199 บาท โดยผู้ใช้สามารถใช้บริการ Nokia Messaging ได้สูงสุดถึง 5 เมกะไบต์ต่อเดือน ในราคาเพียง 199 บาท หรือ Nokia Messaging 399 บาท Unlimited ที่ผู้ใช้งานสามารถใช้บริการ Nokia Messaging ได้แบบไม่จำกัด ทั้งนี้ บริการดังกล่าวใช้งานได้เฉพาะอีเมลเท่านั้น ไม่รวมการใช้งานดาต้าอื่นๆ

หากพิจารณาแพกเกจของโนเกียในครั้งนี้จะพบว่ามีข้อจำกัดเรื่องการใช้ งานเพียงอีเมลอย่างเดียว ขณะที่แพกเกจของแบล็กเบอร์รี่สามารถที่จะใช้งานดาต้าอื่นๆ ได้ด้วย และหากพิจารณาเปรียบในส่วนของการใช้งานแบบไม่จำกัดของโนเกียที่ราคา 399 บาท หากมีการใช้งานจีพีอาร์เอสแบบไม่จำกัดจะต้องเสียค่าใช้จ่ายเพิ่มอีก 999 บาท ส่วนแพกเกจ Unlimited ของแบล็กเบอร์รี่ที่เอไอเอสให้บริการเช่นเดียวกันมีค่าใช้จ่ายอยู่เพียง 650 บาท

แหล่งข่าวในเอไอเอส กล่าวว่า การทำแพกเกจร่วมกับโนเกียในครั้งนี้ถือเป็นการเริ่มต้นเท่านั้น เหมือนกับเป็นการทดลองตลาดว่ายอมรับกับแพกเกจนี้หรือไม่ ซึ่งหากเปรียบเทียบกับแพกเกจของแบล็กเบอร์รี่แล้วถือว่ายังเป็นรองอยู่ อีกประการหนึ่งที่เอไอเอสยังไม่สามารถเปิดแพกเกจกับโนเกียเช่นเดียวกับแบล็กเบอร์รี่คือ ความกังวลเรื่องที่ผู้ใช้โนเกียจะนำแพกเกจนี้ไปเชื่อมต่อเพื่อใช้งานอินเทอร์เน็ตตลอดเวลา ซึ่งส่งผลกระทบต่อแพกเกจการใช้งานจีพีอาร์เอสที่เอไอเอสให้บริการอยู่ในปัจจุบัน

อีกปัจจัยหนึ่งที่ส่งผลต่อการกำหนดราคาแพกเกจการให้บริการอีเมลบนมือ ถือ คือหากเปรียบเทียบเทคโนโลยีการส่งข้อมูลระหว่างแบล็กเบอร์รี่และโนเกียนั้น ทางแบล็กเบอร์รี่มีเทคโนโลยีการบีบอัดข้อมูลที่ทำให้ใช้แบนด์วิธของเครือข่ายเอไอเอสที่น้อยกว่าทางเทคโนโลยีของโนเกียมาก

“ในอนาคตเราอาจมีการพิจารณาทำแพกเกจที่มีราคาลดลงได้ หากโนเกียมีการพัฒนาเทคโนโลยีการส่งข้อมูลที่ทำให้ข้อมูลเล็กแบบเดียวกับแบล็กเบอร์รี่” แหล่งข่าวคนเดิม กล่าว

นอกจากนี้การเปิดให้บริการ Nokia Messaging ในครั้งนี้ของโนเกียยังไม่มีการเปิดให้บริการแชตเหมือนอย่างบริการ BB Messaging น่าที่จะเป็นอีกหนึ่งความเสียเปรียบที่ทำให้ผู้ที่จะมาเลือกใช้บริการ Nokia Messaging แต่ชอบแชตด้วยตัดสินใจรอให้โนเกียเปิดให้บริการนี้ก่อนในเดือนตุลาคม รวมถึงข้อจำกัดของบริการ Nokia Messaging ที่ให้บริการเฉพาะผู้ใช้งานจีเอสเอ็ม แอดวานซ์ เท่านั้น ส่วนผู้ใช้งานวัน-ทู-คอล! จะมีการเปิดให้บริการในระยะต่อไป

การชิงเปิดให้บริการของโนเกียจึงเหมือนกับการออกมาหยั่งเชิงตลาด และชะลอผู้บริโภคที่กำลังจะตัดสินใจเลือกใช้บริการแบล็กเบอร์รี่มากกว่า โดยพยายามที่จะเป็นหนึ่งในค่ายโทรศัพท์มือถือที่มีผลิตภัณฑ์และบริการที่รอง รับอีเมลบนมือถือเช่นกัน

นอกจากแพกเกจที่เปิดตัวออกมา โนเกียยังเปิดตัวโทรศัพท์ Eseries 2 รุ่นล่าสุด คือ โนเกีย E52 และโนเกีย E63 ที่รองรับบริการ Nokia Messaging ซึ่งโทรศัพท์ทั้งสองรุ่นมีแป้นกด QWERTY เต็มรูปแบบและจอภาพขนาดใหญ่เช่นเดียวกับแบล็กเบอร์รี่มาเป็นตัวเลือกสำหรับ ผู้บริโภคไทยด้วย

อย่างไรก็ตาม บริการ Nokia Messaging ยังสามารถใช้งานได้บนโทรศัพท์โนเกีย E75 และโทรศัพท์โนเกียที่ใช้ระบบปฏิบัติการ S60 อีกกลายรุ่น อาทิ โนเกีย N97 โนเกีย E71 และโนเกีย N95 8GB โดยผู้ใช้งานบริการ Nokia Messaging สามารถติดตั้งอีเมลบนมือถือได้ง่ายๆ เพียง 3 ขั้นตอน ก็สามารถใช้งานได้ทันที

และไม่ใช่เพียงโนเกียที่กำลังจะพยายามเปิดตัวผลิตภัณฑ์และบริการออก มาโค่นกระแสแบล็กเบอร์รี่เพียงรายเดียวอย่างแน่นอน ค่ายมือถืออื่นๆ คงกำลังค้นหาวิธีการที่จะให้ผู้บริโภคยอมรับในผลิตภัณฑ์ของตนเองให้ได้ในยุค อีเมลมือถือฟีเวอร์

โดย ผู้จัดการ 360° รายสัปดาห์

Finally! You can now connect with iPhone users all over the world, just like all those Blackberry lovers!

WhatsApp is a free (only for a limited time, so download NOW) app for iPhone users, which allows you to message other iPhone users for free by using 3G or Wi-fi. The best part about WhatsApp is that you have the option of receiving push notifications so you don’t have to keep entering the app like a crazy person to see if you have any new messages. WhatsApp notifies you just like a text message does, down to having the same ringtone. If you put your phone on silent, WhatsApp notifies you of new messages just like your text message app does. I absolutely love it!

Plus, you do not have to go through the hassle of manually adding people to your “chat list.” WhatsApp automatically searched your address book, finds the people who have WhatsApp and then adds them to your list. I didn’t even know some people had iPhones until I saw their name on my list. iTouch users can also use WhatsApp, which is very cool!

I downloaded a competitor iPhone app called “Ping” a few weeks ago. It was free when I downloaded it but it was nowhere near as user-friendly. I definitely like What’sApp a lot more. WhatsApp also gives you the opportunity to ask your friends to download the app through a text or email. Remember, the person you message needs to have WhatsApp to receive your message.

I have been using WhatsApp for only a couple of days now but I am absolutely loving it! It’s an app that the iPhone really required. With this app, the iPhone can finally compete with the Blackberry in terms of “BBMing.” The app also connects to Facebook so that you can update your status through WhatsApp. I haven’t really found it super useful yet because I have the Facebook app but it does not hurt to have this feature available.

I also read on a forum that WhatsApp is planning to enable a feature, which allows Blackberry users and iPhone users to connect through WhatsApp. I think this would be a great feature and will really help bring smartphone users together from all over the world!

Download WhatsApp now before it becomes a paid app!!

Are there any other apps out there that you think function better than What’sApp?

Check out WhatsApp at  http://www.whatsapp.com/

Join the conversation on WhatsApp VS Ping here

Till next time!