My readers know that my partner Alex and I’ve been working on a company called Akoha with a great team. We’ve been working in quiet on something that that we’ll be launching later this year.
The entire Akoha team are proud to be able to start to pull back the curtains on some of what we’ve been up too. We’ve just launched a new website for Akoha where we introduce our team and are starting to do some blogging about some of our influences, ideas and technologies.
We have begun some private application dress rehearsals this week and will be working towards a growing private invite list, public dress rehearsals and ultimately full opening launch as we get the right feedback and community built. Please sign up for the beta if you want to get an invite and be one of our first community players.
I’m going to be blogging here more frequently, as well as blogging at the new Akoha blog. If you are a subscriber to this feed, I think you’ll want to also subscribe to the Akoha feed as well.
We’d also love for you to join our Facebook fan page, where we’ll be discussing some details on the project over time.
I’m most proud to introduce the members of our team. Our team has been hard a work on a number of cool technologies we’ll be releasing to the open source community and a service that we are really excited to start building a community around.
They are a fun bunch of people and we are really proud of them. Check out our team page to meet some of them.
Whenever I get into a new business I study it pretty extensively. I read everything I can get my hands on and spend time with a lot of experts to be able to make new connections, form my own opinions and re-think how and why things might work once a new product or service is introduced. A lot of my opinions of the social media industry is based on my research of community, economics and anthropology.
My study of gift economies started with the work of Marcel Mauss and formed a lot of my thinking of how our social economies work. The participatory nature of our social playgrounds are powered by reciprocity. By social playgrounds I refer to places such as Flickr, Facebook, blogs, Digg, MySpace, Last.Fm, Twitter, Wikipedia, Second Life which are just a few places people gather to express themselves and interact. Reciprocal exchange power each of these communities. This act of reciprocal exchange is described in a concept called ‘total prestation’. This is from the Wikipedia entry on Mauss theories.
In his classic work The Gift, Mauss argued that gifts are never “free”. Rather, human history is full of examples that gifts give rise to reciprocal exchange. The famous question that drove his inquiry into the anthropology of the gift was: “What power resides in the object given that causes its recipient to pay it back?” (1990:3). The answer is simple: the gift is a “total prestation”, imbued with “spiritual mechanisms”, engaging the honour of both giver and receiver (the term “total prestation” or “total social fact” (fait social total) was coined by his student Maurice Leenhardt after Durkheim’s social fact). Such transactions transcend the divisions between the spiritual and the material in a way that according to Mauss is almost “magical”. The giver does not merely give an object but also part of himself, for the object is indissolubly tied to the giver: “the objects are never completely separated from the men who exchange them” (1990:31). Because of this bond between giver and gift, the act of giving creates a social bond with an obligation to reciprocate on part of the recipient. To not reciprocate means to lose honour and status, but the spiritual implications can be even worse: in Polynesia, failure to reciprocate means to lose mana, one’s spiritual source of authority and wealth. Mauss distinguished between three obligations: giving - the necessary initial step for the creation and maintenance of social relationships; receiving, for to refuse to receive is to reject the social bond; and reciprocating in order to demonstrate one’s own liberality, honour and wealth.
These are interesting times and we have only just begun to see what kind of services and new opportunities will be created, as old economic models based on scarcity are replaced.
The startup that Alex Eberts and I are working on, Project Ojibwe is looking to hire a talented Python wrangler. Our preferred team member will have experience with Python web frameworks (preferably Django) and experience with database, web services and web application architecture.
I’ve always wondered why if all markets are conversations, that the job market where we hire the people to make our products begins with a process that is as impersonal as asking someone to drop their pants.
So we are going to start an experiment in conversational recruiting. (Thanks Shel)
If you think you can add something special to our team, and are interesting in learning how we are building a fun, kick ass product that will help change the world then please start a conversation with us.
While we want to see your CV we are more interested in who you are through your work and in your own words.
Introduce yourself to us, show us your work, send us a screencast, or a video of you telling us why you want to be part of what promises to be an incredibly rewarding adventure with our team. Show us your online blog, open source contributions, Flickr fetish or the communities you contribute too.
We want to get to know you, not just what is on your CV.
You can send us large file attachements by using YouSendit and any screencast, video, sample source code, or other portfolio material (along with your CV) to pythonwrangler<@>project-ojibwe.org.
This is for a full time position in Montreal.
To help start this conversation we decided to have some fun and have prepared this video for you.
Although we aren’t discussing the details about our project publicly just yet, we have ensured in keeping with the modus operandi of stealth companies we are fully buzzword compliant.
Here is a version of the video with our buzzword compliance filter activated.
Here is the full job description.
Sr. Python Wrangler & Developer Project Ojibwe, Montreal’s hottest new startup, is looking for an experienced Python developer who wants to work in a fun environment with other motivated, talented developers.
We are creating an original idea that we hope will change the way people think about social networks and online communities. We are a small team that believes in creating mind-blowing web apps that have a positive impact on the world, avoiding meetings as much as possible, iterating quickly, and having fun at work. We’re looking for a senior python programmer with architecture experience and a positive attitude to help us bring our baby to the world.
Project Ojibwe will be coming to a browser near you in Summer 2007. The web community project is a funded startup founded by a team of Canada’s top Internet entrepreneurs.
Essential experience includes 3+ years of python development, architecture of large-scale web applications, database design and HTML/JavaScript, a sense of humour, an understanding of creating passionate users and a preference for getting things done.
Useful experience includes Django development and web service design. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate their ability to stand out from the crowd. Creativity and a willingness to showcase your talent will be required of the successful candidate.
This position is full-time and not contract. Please, no recruiters.
Interested candidates should contact us with a resume and portfolio by email.
Développeur Python expérimenté.
Project Ojibwe, une des startups de Montréal les plus en vue de Montréal, est à la recherche d’un développeur Python expérimenté, ayant envie de travailler dans un environnement amusant, en compagnie d’une équipe motivée et talentueuse.
Nous travaillons sur un concept original qui, nous l’espérons, changera la manière dont on considère les réseaux sociaux et les communautés en ligne. Nous sommes une petite équipe qui pense que des applications web radicales peuvent changer positivement le monde, que moins il y a de meetings, mieux c’est, qu’il faut faire des itérations rapides et qu’il faut s’amuser au travail ! Nous sommes à la recherche d’un développeur Python expérimenté, ayant une expérience en architecture logicielle, et surtout ayant une attitude positive qui nous aidera à accoucher de notre bébé !
Project Ojibwe sera prochainement sur vos navigateurs, aux alentours de l’été 2007. Notre projet de communauté web est une startup fondée par une équipe d’entrepreneurs les plus actifs du Canada.
L’expérience indispensable est d’au moins 3 ans de développement en Python, architecture d’applications web à grande échelle, conception de base de données et HTML/JavaScript, un sens de l’humour, une compréhension de comment rendre les utilisateurs passionnés, et un goût prononcé pour “getting things done”.
Des connaissances de Django et en conception de services web sont un plus. Nous attendons des candidats qu’ils fassent vraiment la différence, qu’il fassent preuve d’une forte créativité et d’une volonté à démontrer leur talents.
Ce poste correspond à un emploi à plein temps seulement. Pas d’agents de recherche d’emploi, svp.
Hugh MacLeod posted a link to my Valentine’s Story and must have caught on to my Calgary background when I get the Redneck mention in his great cartoon. I guess you can’t avoid your roots, even on the Internet. I get called loser often enough - it’s the Redneck one that I haven’t heard in awhile
Those kind enough to wade through my monstrously long post about Microsoft’s sense of humor and Hugh MacLeod’s Valentine videos left some great comments including a comment from John Wilson with a link to Microsoft’s Steve Clayton’s collaboration with Hugh on the Blue Monster.
This is how the Blue Monster is described by Hugh,
The Blue Monster was designed as a conversation starter. To paraphrase the ongoing dialogue between Steve and I:
For too long, Microsoft has allowed other people tell their story on their behalf- the media, their competition and their detractors, especially- instead of doing a better job of it themselves.
We firmly believe that Microsoft must start articulating their story better- what they do, why they do it, and why it matters- if they’re to remain happy and prosperous long-term.
If they can do this, well, we don’t expect people in their millions to magically start loving Microsoft overnight, but perhaps it might get people- including the people who work there- to start thinking differently. Small moves.
[Afterthought:] Granted, none of this is rocket science. But maybe that’s Microsoft’s main problem.
[Disclosure: gapingvoid is more evil than Microsoft. Just so you know.]
Small moves - but they are needed ones. It’s good to see people at Microsoft listening and reaching out and engaging people like this.
Microsoft faces a lot of challenges in the coming years and I think the company Microsoft will be in 5 years will be very different from the Microsoft of today.
Microsoft comes to the table with lot’s of smart people and huge existing franchises. At the same time they are facing an array of new competitors and massive industry wide adoption of new software models (open source and Web-based software as a service).
More people like Steve engaging conversations with people can only help them navigate these changes and I wish him the best in his Blue Monster campaign. I’m meeting a friend who serves on the board of Microsoft in a couple of weeks and am anxious to get his opinion on it
Valentine’s Day is approaching, and I have to say that I’ve always considered myself a bit of a romantic. This was a great year for my partner Kelly and I so I wanted to come up with something really great for Valentines this year.
I’m nursing a bad cold, so my Saturday morning was going to be spent catching up with my newsfeeds, finishing one of my many draft posts I’m itching to get out, and coming up with something special for Valentines for Kelly. If I had time I was going to to upgrade one of my machines to the new Office 2007 and Vista while I was reading news on Google Reader.
Instead I had my heart broken by Microsoft, fell in love with Stormhoek and Hugh MacLeod’s sense of humor and found the perfect Valentine gift for my girlfriend in the process.
Microsoft Breaks my Heart with a Silenced Paperclip Shot Not Heard Round the World
It happens quite often as I scan hundreds of news feeds that a few disparate posts all of a sudden come together and hit me in the head with an insight for a post. This time, it was my heart.
I had a passing thought about how stupid it was that Microsoft quietly killed Clippy by passing it off to UI coherency rather than acknowledging loudly it was most likely the most hated innovation in user interfaces. Almost every Microsoft employee I know hates the Clippy and has for years and everyone knows that users hate the Clippy. Microsoft was ignoring users and their own employees while defending the Clippy back when Office 2003 came out. While it’s great they have cleaned UI for Office 2007, the answers about Clippy’s death were arrogant by not saying to users “We heard you loud and clear and agree with you”.
For all the work Scoble and other great Microsoft bloggers have done, I was a little saddened that no one thought to just admit that Clippy was a condescending little shit pimping for a complicated user interface that made users feel stupid when they went to look for help.
I’m the first to admit that I love Office and am a serious power user. I use it every day and am incredibly productive with the suite. I have spreadsheet models that are too complicated for Google Spreadsheets (as of now) and I have more plug-ins running to pimp up my experience then most users. Despite some small experiments I’m doing with online office suites for collaboration with various projects, I’m generally a happy Office fan. I am looking forward to testing the new Office 2007 upgrade which I’ve been hearing great things about.
I passed it by without further thought, thinking that I have to get around to upgrading to Office 2007.
It would take a bit of time to realize what had just occurred.
Hugh Seduces me with Big Love
So it was an hour later while browsing my feeds from Gaping Void that my plans for the day where thrown for a loop.
The Hughtrain Manifesto plays a role in how I look at my angel investments, the projects I get involved with and is a central theme to my two current startups. It contains many insights into how to succeed in social media and how communities of change can be formed.
I knew from his blog that Hugh does some marketing work with a wine company Stormhoek - but since I stopped drinking last year (I’m getting healthy for my various startup projects - I’ve lost 85 lbs. since May 2006) and am not the type of wine collector to import wine into Canada, I never really explored Stormhoek further and was happy to enjoy his cartoons & blogging conversations.
So when I ran through my feeds and start to see the series of new video’s he is doing for Stormhoek leading up to Valentines my morning was lost in ensuing entertainment and this blog post that he inspired.
As you can see, Hugh has put himself out there in a hilariously naked conversation. He is inviting us to laugh with him, and share his journey. His heart isn’t just on his sleeve, it’s on his product and part of his story and I immediately wanted to show Kelly knowing that she is going to enjoy these.
Humor and love go hand in hand. When you can share your humor with someone it builds a strong bond if it’s done in an authentic way.
It was this comment from Hugh recent post that brought the pieces together,
Part of love is taking risk, being vulnerable and putting yourself out there for someone else and leaving your own sense of self importance aside.
The disparity between Microsoft’s Clippy approach and Hugh’s Global Microbrand approach to marketing caused my heart to sadden.
By experimenting with funny videos Hugh entertained me for awhile, and caused me to purchase a bunch of Stormhoek swag for Kelly and lithographs for my office. I can’t find anywhere where he is selling a good lithograph copy of my favorite Hughtrain image (which is my investment philosophy) but the Stormhoek ones are great for our the office wall at Project Ojibwe.
I ended up spending the morning checking out Stormhoek learning more about how they are building their microbrand. The entire time I was increasingly getting frustrated about Microsoft’s lack of humor, imagination and the wasted opportunity to engage and entertain me that they passed up.
Microsoft’s Marketing Muscle Mangles My Heart
Hugh’s microbrand marketing with simple authentic humor and love had me engaged and spending a couple hundred bucks on swag. Microsoft’s lack of humor or creativity in marketing Office 2007 or Vista ended up bothering me, and made me dislike them for not even trying to show they listened to users and have a sense of humor.
Amid Microsoft’s marketing muscle being flexed for Vista and it’s $500 million dollars quickly resulting in Vista everywhere marketing (Including a increasingly annoying number of interstial web ads that are annoying me across the web) we have Microsoft bungling so many opportunities to generate good will.
Bill’s quick exit from the set of The Daily Show aside, he has not been doing Vista or Microsoft any favors with his recent performance. Contrast this with his alter-ego, Mr. Jobs, who even in the face of controversy surrounding the Apple options backdating scandal can get up on stage and wow his employees, his customers and the technology community at-large. Steve is a rock star. Bill looks as if he’s been living under a rock. Check out some of his answers in a February 1st interview with Steven Levy of Newsweek:
NEWSWEEK: If one of our readers confronted you in a CompUSA and said, “Bill, why upgrade to Vista?” what would be your elevator pitch? Bill Gates: The most effective thing would be if I could sit down with them and just take them through the new look for a couple of minutes, show them the Sidebar, show them the way the search lets you go through lots of things, including lots of photos. Set up a parental control. And then I might edit a high-definition movie and make a little DVD that’s got photos. As I went through, they’d think, “Wow, is that something I could use, would that make a difference for me?”
******************** You also talk about improved security in Vista.
Yes, although security is a [complicated concept]. You’re [referring to] the fact that there have been some security updates already for Windows Vista. This is exactly the way it should work. When somebody comes to us [after discovering a vulnerability] we’ve got [a fix] before there is any exploit. So it’s totally according to plan, and that’s why we have the whole Windows Update thing. We made it way harder for guys to do exploits. The number [of violations] will be way less because we’ve done some dramatic things [to improve security] in the code base. Apple hasn’t done any of those things.
******************** Are you bugged by the Apple commercial where John Hodgman is the PC, and he has to undergo surgery to get Vista?
I’ve never seen it. I don’t think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are.
How about the implication that you need surgery to upgrade?
Well, certainly we’ve done a better job letting you upgrade on the hardware than our competitors have done. You can choose to buy a new machine, or you can choose to do an upgrade. And I don’t know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don’t even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you’re really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There’s not even the slightest shred of truth to it.
Does the entire tenor of that campaign bother you, that Mac is the cool guy and PC—
That’s for my customers to decide.
Are you kidding me? Bill sounds a little like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, and that he is getting ready to boil Steve Jobs’ bunny. First off, Bill, after having spend an amount exceeding the GDP of several sovereign nations - $500 million - to launch Vista, don’t you think you could have spent even a little of that on media training? THAT is your elevator pitch? Sorry, Bill, but you’re not getting the VC funding you desire. You’re not even getting out of the elevator. Your answer on security: poor. Your paranoia and irritation at Apple’s successful branding and image-making? Nauseating. You’re the richest guy in the world. You do lots of great things with your money. You’re a brilliant man. The Apple threat and a changing world is making you become unhinged. Do something about this. Fast. For your shareholders sake. Please.
I couldn’t agree more. I respect Bill a great deal for the work he is doing with his foundation and think he’s an incredibly intelligent person - but his lack of vulnerability (and some media training) is hurting Microsoft.
I immediately was struck with what a wasted opportunity the death of Clippy was for Microsoft. If I were a marketing manager at Microsoft I would have gotten $250k to sponsor a prize pool for user submitted animations, videos and mockumentaries about the death of the Clippy. Eulogies to this much hated user innovation would be hilarious.
Allow users to submit videos and split the prize money with a charity of their choice. Give the grand prize to the best video that shows the Office 2007 Ribbon User Interface taking the rightful place from Clippy and leave the rest in a prize pool for various categories like Apple vs. Clippy, Tux vs. Clippy, or How a Ninja would Kill Clippy or any other funny ideas. Include special prizes for Microsoft employees or ex-employees to submit videos. Invite Google and Apple employees to join in on the fun.
Proudly admit on Daily Show and your Vista media tours that you are listening to users and show some self depreciating humor as you showcase the funniest user videos about the death of Clippy. Leverage the fact that you HAVE LISTENED TO USERS and gotten rid of an annoying pest. Hire a few joke writers for Bill and get the online community laughing with you.
Microsoft, please let us know you made a huge mistake that took 10 years to correct and publicly bury Clippy’s annoying head in a mass of funny, community generated laughs at your own expense. It’s not the death of Clippy, but rather the lost opportunity to be authentic with your users that hurts me.
With a few of the generally positive reviews of some of the features of Vista and Office 2007 you could milk a fun challenge like this for plenty of positive press and good laughs to support some of your media spending. You could engage the community instead of having us all blog about how weak your marketing is. Move the discussion away from Apple’s funny pokes at you, to your own confident self effacing pokes at yourself.
Make it easy for me to like you. I’ve worked with some of great people in Redmond including a lot of the senior executive team. There are a lot of smart people at Microsoft and say what you will about them, they work hard to release good products. They may not be cool, but the do run a large percentage of the worlds computers for more reasons then they generally get credit for.
I’ve also bitten into enough worms in my long history with Apple (Can anyone say Newton?) that I’m not a religious fan one way or another. I don’t view Apple ads as telling me I’m an ‘dullard’ for using Windows. I view them as funny because they all have an element of truth. Most people in Redmond know this. Bill knows this. We all knows this. That’s why they work and people like them.
I don’t need Bill analyzing the factual basis of the parody. I need to see him joining in and laughing harder at himself to make me like him and his company on an emotional level.
Unfortunately even when I go to find this video to show off a case where Microsoft laughed at itself I can only find a fan copy on YouTube. I know Google owns it, and Windows Media Player is nowhere to be found, but your customers look for video on YouTube and you should get any video that helps your image up there ASAP. Don’t just leave fan versions, it shows you don’t love me.
Hell any decent creativity on how to leverage Bill being on the Daily Show could have included him showing the dance scene from the end with him and John Heder on a Vista machine. Bloggers everywhere would have played the clip and laughed with Microsoft. (Comedy Central’s removal of clips from YouTube makes it hard for me to compare, but I’m sure there have been more views of his mishap on the Daily Show then the 160k views of the Napoleon Dynamite clip on YouTube)
I’m a big fan of my Tablet PC which I’ve had for 2yrs (until it’s graphics card went kaput right in the middle of writing this blog post - it’s on it’s way to Toshiba to be repaired and I spent Sunday trying to mount my hard drive in VMWare on another machine to access all my stuff easily - Arrgh…), and I also enjoy the Macintosh computers and Apple devices I have. I have 7 computers between my office and my home. I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in Microsoft software licenses throughout my career, at my various companies and at home. Yes I am now using open source for all my development projects - but I am still using your software and tools happily in many places and probably will for years to come.
Why do you make it so hard for me to defend your brand?
A Valentine Gift Emerges - I will work for Love
Instead of upgrading to Vista or Office 2007 I spent the day writing this blog post and thinking about the differences between big and small marketing. Authentic and mass marketing. Hugh’s gift of humor and Microsoft’s annoying blunders.
Bloggers work for love in most cases and that is what caused me to spend my day working on this instead of upgrading. Love. I realized what Hugh’s lesson and Microsoft’s failure to engage me could teach me and I realized how to help someone I love.
Amidst writing this blog post, an idea for a gift for Kelly emerged (in addition to the stuff I bought her at Stormhoek Swag and the mandatory chocolate).
My girlfriend is a massage therapist and does organic body & skin treatments. She has a small business and has been working really hard lately doing promotional brochures, coupons and trying to build her clientele.
She is eager for my help in teaching her how to use the Internet to market herself better but I end up not always finding the time beyond just helping her writing a few brochures. She tries her best (and has done a great job) learning desktop publishing tools and wants my help to be able to market online better, but she doesn’t want to bother me given how busy she knows I am. (She hates to bother me with her small business when I’m busy with the ‘big’ family businesses - but that doesn’t make her work or business not important to both of us).
So for Valentines this year, thanks to Hugh’s inspiration I am giving her a book of coupons I created for lessons on online marketing and helping her build her own little global microbrand. I’ve included items like,
How to set up and create an email newsletter for your clients
How to use Google Reader and Technorati to track content and industry news for your customers and networking
How to use Meetup and Upcoming to organize informational and promotional educational events
How to setup a database of her customer visits with email reminders and CRM systems
and of course….if and when she would like how to setup a blog and an intro course to blogging.
This is going to take some time out of my schedule, but it’s quality time that I’m happy to spend with Kelly and will be the best Valentine gift that I could give her. [Personal Note: Happy Valentines Day Baby - I didn't want to wait until Valentines to post this, and she reads my blog, so I'll have to add some surprise element for this week]
So now Microsoft may have to wait a bit longer for me to upgrade and play with their new toys.
Other people who love me more are competing with you for my time, and I’m sorry to say that you just don’t know how to say I love you - so for now I bid you adieu….
A well known venture capitalist recently asked me how viral our Internet community project will be. I wanted to scream.
Our service won’t be viral - it will be authentic.
It won’t infect the world - we hope to inspire a few who might invite us into their daily lives and share us with the many.
We won’t be for everyone - but we’ll strive to be meaningful to those who choose to spend time in our community.
We won’t be more viral than Ebola on a hot summer day! Do you really want to invest in a company that wants to be?
Language shapes behavior. What do your words mean?
We don’t talk about features to make our community spread in unwanted ways - we discuss removing barriers allowing authentic relationships to form. If our team doesn’t use this language, should our investors?
Buzzwords are alluring, spreading virally as memes that tap into the wisdom of crowds to create tipping points that are explained by freakonomics, enabling critical mass and cost effective word-of-mouth advertising to build crowdsourced marketing campaigns that will revolutionize <insert industry name while speaking in a sarcastic tone here>.
I’ve ordered the same books from Amazon. In fact you are welcome to have my copies. We would much rather explore unique paths, discovering new ways to make meaning.
We discuss providing a safe place for people to play, express emotions, establish authentic relationships, find meaning and express their voice to help change the world.
We refuse to be buzzword compliant. We will not optimize our service to spread like a virus. We will not establish war rooms, strike forces, or respond to requests to figure out how to “harness our communities intelligence” since that was a popular phrase you heard at a conference. The language of military attacks and viral plagues have no place in our community.
Your buzzwords do you a service to describe trends. We do not seek to be a trend. We seek to matter. Touching people’s lives lasts forever – and that is what we aspire to be. Meaningful.
The next time someone asks if our product is viral – here is our answer. Join us today in answering the same way. Maybe being viral is one virus worth curing.
with a great team. We’ve been working in quiet on something that that we’ll be launching later this year.
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