A Fuller View

Great post on KK discussing downtailing and uptailing - nice concepts. I like the potential use of both terms. I can even see downtailing being something to aspire to as part of a down shifting strategy - you know less is more, focus on quality of life, maybe even lifetailing… Uptailing, I can see becoming a widely accepted we all fight for some attention and “crawl” up the long long long tail. Also a sweet piece on the Freeconomy - well worth a read. And makes me think time to revisit Freecycle and get some stats on this service in terms of growth and economic value…

This piece on Business Week - Deliver a Presentation like Steve Jobs - is pretty cool and well worth a read if you want some good tips to help improve your presentation style. Even mere mortals like me should try to learn a thing or two from one of the master presenters of all time - the Apple CEO (and a master of spin). Don’t get me wrong, I am never going to present on such a scale (ie, no delusions of glory here on A Fuller View), but even if just to a handful of co-workers or 30 people at a trade show, it is always a good idea to try to improve the quality of any presentation. There are just so many boring presentation styles; my biggest goal is to at least “NOT be boring!” Here are the 10 tips, my faves are Nos 2, 4 & 7:

1. Set the theme
2. Demonstrate enthusiasm
3. Provide an outline
4. Make numbers meaningful
5. Try for an unforgettable moment
6. Create visual slides
7. Give ‘em a show
8. Don’t sweat the small stuff
9. Sell the benefit
10. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

Even FSJ almost agrees this is a good analysis of his style.

Just a link this very insighful post - Beyond Vertical Search to Business Networks - on RWW. I wll digest this and then add some thoughts at a later date. I see lots of opps in the vertical search space that potential tie into the beach gig of the future…

Yes, that’s right I have deactivated my Facebook account and am “officially” quitting the social networking service. Some people will ask me why, others we get it already and then some may even wonder “what’s the deal with FB in the first place”.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not politically or morally against Facebook like some pundits (but I completely agree with Tom on spending more time in the real world and that neocons suck) nor I am not interested in online social networking. I have simply found Facebook to be a useless service and a complete waste of my time. This move it really part of personal “online downsizing” efforts (this is a life hack, trust me!). I am downsizing so I can have more time to do fun stuff in the real world - like go to Tumble Tots with my little one, go to pub with mates, go for a run, do xxx with my wife and maybe even finally learn to play the ukulele. I want limit what attention and time I give for online stuff (Note to self: there is alink to the ‘attention economy’ thread to this move). You get the idea.

I estimate that for me Facebook easily eats up at least 1 hour a week. That’s 52 hours a year. According to piece in the BBC back in Sept, Facebook is costing companies as well. I have too many online accounts and too many online services that want my attention. My time is valuable. So, I am downsizing.

This week I am cutting the following as a start:

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Dopplr
4. BlueChipExpert

I am sure I can find some others to kill off as well… Instead, I am going to focus my time online. For me, LinkedIn works well. I am haevy into email, blogs, news and search. That should keep me busy. I can use YoutTube, Flickr and del.icio.us to get the same type of functionality from the better parts of FB.
What did I like about FB?

• The fun wall
• Connecting with a few old friends

For the fun wall there are better services out there (YouTube, Flickr, etc). Old friends can find me online and if I have old friends who are hard to find, well maybe they want it that way.What did I hate about FB?

1. emails telling me go get messages
2. lack of useful stuff
3. waste of time
4. to much hype
5. slow, sluggish service
6. friend request from people I barely know or don’t really like - see Costanza Rule
7. Groucho 2.0 Rule

So, I say let’s all try to spend more time doing “real social networking” and spend more time offline in 2008. That’s it for now. I would like to hear from other people who have quit Facebook.

Note: I will be back to update my Social Networking Hype and 7 Rules for Success next week.

[Photocpation : Giant Dog Terrorizes Florida Suburb, from googlesightseeing.com]

A fun piece on SEL with 20 photos that should make you smile on Google Maps. If you think this is good then be sure to visit Google Sightseeing as well - a complete site of this stuff and there is a companion book - Off The Map site.

What’s cool is the folks running Google Sightseeing have created a nice little derivative business off Google… A life hack for sure.

Here is a good challenge from Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion blog - nice post, worth a read. I am going take this challenge as part of my personal blog development for 2008. This fits in with of my blog goals to:

Improve the quality of my content with probably less posts but more depth when time allows

I often use my blog as an easy way to track and tag things of interest but it looks like I need to get more sophisticated on this front start to use a link blog or RSS reader to keep track of stuff. I need to find a clever way to print out key blog and news posts for consumption on the train/tube - maybe DailyMe, any other tools out there? This is why paper never goes way - totally portable, no juice required and you can recycle it. Now I just need to start noodling away and come up with some worthwhile ideas.

One of the gifts I got for Christmas was a Diabolo - which is a kind of juggling toy. Its harder than it looks to master and to get it to do tricks. I am now able to flip it into the air and catch it. Playing with the Diabolo is a great stress reliever and is all about getting into flow.

This is good life hacking tip post on SEL about how to optimize your use of social networking in business. Worth a quick read.

Docoloco is a new entry into the user generated local info space with a couple of unique features and a fresh approach. btw - I did a previous post on Docoloco when they launched back in July - which didn’t deserve to live (=lame post) so I deleted it.

Now let’s try to explain what this site is all about - it is an innovative twist on user generated content (UGC) meets social networking meets local search (as in a business directory, IYP)… My initial take is that the site is some combo of: UGC + social network + a pinch of yahoo answers + a pinch of yelp + Google maps (of course) + lists (some secret sauce) + ajax/ruby-on-rails UI = Docoloco!

What I like:

• Site creates lists of related entries based on folksonomy
• the look and feel of the user interface
• the design and look (nice logo!) of the site
• presentation of the data and maps
• asking questions
• global coverage (not just one country, but in theory world wide coverage)
• post to blog feature

what I didn’t like:

• not very intuitive to navigate around
• some parts of the UI hard to follow, input validations tricky
• not much help or FAQs
• geo data validation is funky for UK
• search and navigation could be improved

I am sure the founders have a ton of changes and improvements planned, so this is just an initial view [not a full(er) view]. I definitely think they are onto something here. The list feature and global coverage is sweet. I will watch and continue to use the site see how it develops. The founders have significant experience in local search, so I would bet some money this site does get better. Johnny Cussen one of the founders, who I know personally, has worked for both Looksmart & Sensis). The other founder, Chris Mander has a serious web design background, we used him to help with UI deisgn while I was working at FAST.

I hope to see Docoloco get some traction. If I were a VC or angle investor I’d be contacting them for sure.

I plan to do a follow-up post or update to this one with a little bit of a deeper dive into key features and a profile on the company when I get a chance.

Be sure to check out the great intro video on the site or below:

Here are some screen shots of what you will find on Docoloco (note: just click on the thumb nails to get the fullsize image).

1. Sample business entry with a map:

2. Sample ratings page:

3. Sample list (ie, list of related businesses):

4. Sample homepage, with live update of what’s happening (ala - Facebook):

A couple of weeks ago in the Guardian (Sat 3 Nov 07 to be exact - full article is here) I read an interesting article about a couple who house sit professionally. Completely surprised me that this could be a full-time gig. This is definitely a true life hacking killer gig. Combine this with some blogging revenue and a small beach house for the stints in between and this sound like a way to retire early on the cheap. The couple is this article run a small website and offered some tips.

This started me thinking about jobs (or gigs really) that have become much more possible or easier to manage thanks to the Internet. House sitting has to be one of them. I did a search on Google just now for “house sitter” and the page was full of paid AdWords links. [I will be back with a screen shot and bid prices tomorrow]