Recent reads -- Next Man Up

Next Man Up
John Feinstein

I didn't have a lot of hope on this one before I started but came away thinking this was probably one of the best football books I've read in a long time. Even better than my previous favorite -- Blind Side by Michael Lewis.

Feinstein does a great job describing how a NFL team works, through the 2004 season he spent with the Baltimore Ravens. Unlike other sports authors he keeps the game descriptions to a minimum. Thank you. There is nothing more boring or uninsightful than page after page of play by play descriptions. (Pat Conroy is famous for this in his basketball novels.)

In short it's basically a great description of how a NFL team works and how it makes personnel decisions throughout the year. It's a brutal sport and a brutal business that somehow many people find endearing.

Recent reads -- Naked Conversations

Naked Conversations
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

I had heard about this book a while ago and have done a fair amount of research on the subject of corporate blogs so there wasn't much in here I had not already heard about. Reading it was more of an affirmation of what I believe, namely whatever you produce has to be authentic and written by someone with a passion for the subject. It can't be a corporate exercise.

I won't say much more since much of what's in the book has been discussed to death but two passages jumped out.

The first is a section on Kryptonite, the lock manufacturer, that faced a crisis when it was revealed on several blogs how someone could easily pick their well-known bike lock with a Bic pen. The authors point out that much damage was done through blogs and the company did little to monitor this and react. In the book the authors finally talk to Donna Tocci, PR manager for the company. Tocci explains, in the book, that she did try to get into the conversation and was "shouted down." She also found that bloggers were very passionate, opinionated and often got facts wrong. "They don't have to check facts or figures like traditional media," she said.

The authors just let this pass and never discussed it any further. Tocci brings up a good point that while it's good to engage with bloggers they can often be reckless and engaging with them can be a losing proposition. It would have been nice for the authors to jump in with some observations of their own on this matter.

The second section that jumped out involved Carly Fiorina's departure from HP. The authors note that no HP bloggers (HP employees who blog) had anything to say about it. Neither did any HP bloggers have anything to say about Fiorina's charges of gender discrimination leveled after she left the company.

Again, the authors just let this drop. I would have like to have known what those bloggers should have said. It seems to me in both instances there's not much to say, particularly if you are an employee of the company. Just because you have a blog it doesn't mean you need to use it all the time.

How to make sure the trains are running on time

A great example of the power of the community in staying up to date.

Last week I arrived at the local train station to discover chaos. The trains running into the city were delayed and nobody knew what was going on, particularly the station master. Yes, there were announcements over the PA but they basically told us that wires were down and no alternative transportation was being provided.

A minute later a gentleman starts reading updates off his BlackBerry. He read off some very detailed updates on what trains were running and when. All very helpful information. I asked him if was getting that off the Web site for the train authority. No. He was reading it off a mailing list generated by consumers.

So here we have a situation where the commuters, the customers, know more than the train authority. Even the station master was grateful for the information.

Thinking local

It's no secret that the one strength newspapers have, despite the online onslaught, is local ads. Even though classified are slipping away quickly, newspapers still have a local sales force that can sell to local businesses interested in reaching a local audience.

Well, even that advantage is slipping according to a piece in today's Wall Street Journal (Click here for full article.)

According to the piece by Emily Steel, local chains are hiring digital sales teams trying to catch up with Web-only enterprises that are quickly rushing ahead.

Here's a good summary of the problem:

Local media companies, because they are based in the communities they serve, would seem to have an edge over Internet sellers when it comes to persuading the diner or corner hardware store to take out an ad. But they have largely failed to convert that advantage into sales. Instead of tailoring their sales to local businesses, many newspaper companies initially focused on selling ads to bigger advertisers who were already buying space in their print products.

And the impact of that approach:

While this strategy allowed them to quickly and cheaply create a customer base for their online ventures, it also limited their growth, because they weren't expanding their customer base. Many newspapers also hurt themselves by simply plopping their papers online instead of creating new Web sites that offered advertisers something they couldn't get in print. Meanwhile, Web companies such as Google and Local.com are growing rapidly because they have made it cheap and easy for local companies to take out ads.

It's hard to have any sympathy for local newspapers anymore which seem intent on just watching the world pass them by.

So what happens if someone is out there?

I've never doubted there's life outside our solar system.

Instead, I've wondered how we define life and what would we do if we found some other "intelligent" being out there.

On the first point there's always been this assumption we need to find water to help sustain life. But that's assuming other life needs water or light for that matter. For a long time we assumed light was also critical but then found creatures in the deepest parts of the ocean thriving without access to light.

On the second point -- what do we do if we find life -- there seems to be someone else asking the same question. (See full article in Seed magazine.)

The article poses some interesting questions including -- who do we send these beings to if they want to talk to our leader? Also -- are we endangering ourselves by announcing our presence to others? Which leads me to believe we should just actively listen but keep our mouths shut.