Mark's Cheeky Posterous

Mark's Cheeky Posterous http://markdrapeau.posterous.com Let's continue this somewhat profound discussion over drinks. posterous.com Sun, 26 Jun 2011 16:38:40 -0700 Mark Drapeau Launches Publicyte, a Digital Magazine About Innovation for Civic Good http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/mark-drapeau-launches-publicyte-a-digital-mag http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/mark-drapeau-launches-publicyte-a-digital-mag

This past Tuesday, I launched Publicyte, a digital magazine published by Microsoft about the people, places, and technologies driving civic innovation. I'll be the editor-in-chief of the publication, and we'll have writers from all kinds of interesting backgrounds. It's part of my work at our new Office of Civic Innovation, based in Microsoft's US Public Sector group. Check out the site and let me know what you think: http://publicyte.com

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Mon, 04 Apr 2011 05:07:59 -0700 The Non-Profit Mega Bookstore http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/the-non-profit-mega-bookstore http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/the-non-profit-mega-bookstore

Saw some people lamenting the closing of Borders. Yeah, sad. But why can't someone(s) start a non-profit which takes donations, sells coffee, and offers services like mentorship to run awesome urban bookstores? Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, mom-and-pop - they won't do it. Maybe you should do it.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Thu, 13 Jan 2011 06:00:00 -0800 What Happens To FourSquare Mayors When a Place Closes? http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/what-happens-to-foursquare-mayors-when-a-plac http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/what-happens-to-foursquare-mayors-when-a-plac

The famous (and infamous) Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC has been the site of famous speeches, debutante balls, and the occasional dalliance with a lady of the night. But it has been in the news lately because they announced that they are closing one of its more prominent features - the Town and Country Bar just off its lobby, a premiere schmoozing location at noon, night, and very-late night.

Last night I went to a birthday party there, timed well to get some people in Town and Country for possibly the last time ever. Numerous people, tech-savvy socialite types, were "checked in" on FourSquare, announcing to the world that they were there, at that moment, downing cocktails. Thrilling. I will admit, I was one of the bunch.

More interesting, however, is that the "Mayor" on FourSquare, someone I know, was also at the party. He's a longtime fan of T&C and clearly goes there (along with his phone) a lot.

But on Saturday night, his glorious reign as Mayor will end, because the location will no longer exist. Alas, they are most likely moving a Thomas Pink clothing store into that location, and building out a more modern lounge of some kind elsewhere in the hotel.

How does this work, then, in the virtual world? Can he and others protest the closing in a digital space, continuing to check into a bar we wish we could go to? Can people shopping at Thomas Pink check into T&C legitimately? They are, in fact, in the right geographical location.

Is it legitimate to check in to historical places on FourSquare and other location-based services? Its not like OpenTable, after all, where you have to actually check in with a hostess and purchase food... no one's really tracking the location-based game very much, and you can check into things that don't involve commerce, like the infamous alleys and bathroom stalls and apartments people viciously fight over the Mayorships of for bragging rights at hipster tech meetups.

Another question: What if the Mayflower Hotel keeps the name of Town and Country for its brand recognition, but moves it elsewhere in the hotel? It's the same street address, but a different physical location at a finer grain. Is the check-in still the same check-in, or does a new entry have to be created to start all over? Is it fair for the original Mayor to have such a headstart, in a sense, pre-checking into a place that's not open yet?

And more philosophically, what if the name does change, and the location inside the hotel, but customers and fans argue that since there's still only one lounge inside the hotel, that it's the same place. Then, do you have two competing sets of check-in-ers, the old crowd and the new crowd?

This sounds silly, but if FourSquare, Gowalla, and others are going to evolve into legitimate businesses, at some point commerce needs to come into the equation in a serious way. The aforementioned OpenTable has infrastucture, relationships... and trust. It's not clear at all what the Mayflower thinks of FourSquare, and for the moment it doesn't matter. But 9 months from now, if they are offering deals to customers, there shouldn't be this kind of ambiguity.

A fundamental challenge with location-based services, mobile access to apps and information, and digital spaces and augmented reality is that the companies involved with making the software we use to interact do not provide much in the way of thought leadership on these issues.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:01:12 -0700 How To Have The Right Sized Disaster For Ideal Media Coverage http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/how-to-have-the-right-sized-disaster-for-idea http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/how-to-have-the-right-sized-disaster-for-idea

It's hard to escape the story about the Chilean miners finally coming to the surface today. I have CNN on in the office, and they're following the miners one by one. The 18th one is out... the 19th one is out... awaiting the 20th...

It's clearly a touching, emotional story. But why is it getting so much more coverage, and personal, human coverage, than, say the floods in Pakistan? They're roughly equally far away and "foreign," and Americans are equally likely to have no idea where either of these places are nor know anyone there.

In Pakistan, there are over a million people who are homeless, with thousands killed. Is that not more significant on a human level than the Chilean miner story?

My guess is that the disaster in Pakistan is simply too big. How can you get into the human stories when there's just an overwhelming number of them?

Let's think about some smaller "disasters, emergencies, and situations" (DES's). The U.S. wars in the Middle East have a death toll in the relatively low thousands. We don't see coverage of each individuals' life story and photos and family interviews and so on in real time, but it is a tractable enough number where each warrior's name and photo can be printed in the newspapers and on websites. They can all be invited to events and so on.

I think 9/11 is similar. A roughly very similar toll on order-of-magnitude - not dozens (like Chile) and not tens and tens of thousands (like Pakistan). All the families could be contacted. We know who died, and where, and why. Their faces can be shown. They can be honored.

So it seems like there is a relationship between the number of affected people, the severity of the DES's, and the media coverage. Given that the DES is fairly awful, the less people involved, from a strictly media analysis point of view, the better. With less people affected, the coverage will be real-time, human, individualized, 24/7.

If the number of people is too overwhelming, the problem becomes nearly intractable it seems, and what we know of hundreds of thousands of people being affected comes from a big interview or in-depth feature with someone who is "representative" of the people - which of course is probably far from true.

And in the middle, there is a decent amount of personal coverage, even if it is slight (like a photo and name in a major newspaper), yet the event is mainly covered in a general manner.

So, to people on Twitter and elsewhere comparing the media coverage to things like the Pakistani floods and wondering why there is not "equal coverage or treatment," I think that's a big part of the answer.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Tue, 28 Sep 2010 06:56:56 -0700 Can Celebrities Go Too Far In Pushing Their Causes? http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/can-celebrities-go-too-far-in-pushing-their-c http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/can-celebrities-go-too-far-in-pushing-their-c

Today I published a longer piece called Networked Nonprofits: The Eva Longoria Case Study, which is about a recent, massive use of social media by celebrities to raise $540,000 for a Haitian orphanage. While certainly "good" was done, there are also questions about how much tweeting about a cause is too much, and what audiences expect on these new media channels.

There are also some serious questions about the overall value of online advocacy, versus real-life involvement in causes. In the coming issue of The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell writes a piece called Small Change, where he discusses "why the revolution will not be tweeted." After describing and analyzing a similar situation (that of Darfur awareness and fundraising on Facebook), “Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice… It makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact.”

What do you think of these articles? Can people supporting causes abuse social media channels to the point where it becomes information pollution, or do the ends justify the means for "social good"? And what do you think of Gladwell's comments that online channels make it easier to express your support for a cause, to less effect?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Sat, 25 Sep 2010 06:59:06 -0700 SECTOR: PUBLIC - A New Site About Technology For Public Good http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/sector-public-a-new-site-about-technology-for http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/sector-public-a-new-site-about-technology-for

Last week, during the Mashable / 92Y / UN Foundation "Social Good Summit" in New York, I launched a new website called SECTOR: PUBLIC. The focus of this blog is on leading the conversation about innovative social change via technology’s influence on the public sector, public service, and public good.

From my "Letter from the Editor":

Right now, three entities contributing to the public good – citizens, the public sector, and private businesses – are incredibly dependent on each other. Citizens need support from government and the broader public sector, and jobs from businesses. The public sector needs the support of the private sector through products and services, and needs input, ideas, and other contributions from its citizens. And private sector organizations increasingly seek to stand for something more than merely selling products – they seek to help the public sector and contribute to citizens’ well-being.

SECTOR: PUBLIC lives where these three entities meet. If necessity is the mother of invention, there has been no period in our lifetimes during which technological innovation is able to have such a great impact on civic progress. Every day at SECTOR: PUBLIC, we will discuss cutting-edge technology, share public sector stories, and provide thought leadership about how American progress and public good are being both disrupted and benefited by the rapid innovation era we are living through.

Check out a well-received initial post about "Open Government Entrepreneurship" and read our "Geek 2 Chic" interview with the innovative CEO of iStrategyLabs, Peter Corbett.

I hope that many of you find my new website about public sector and public service stories involving technology useful and interesting!

You can subscribe to SECTOR: PUBLIC by email or RSS, and follow the Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/sectorpublic. Learn more about our goals for the site in this Federal News Radio interview.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:49:09 -0700 Education By The Numbers http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/education-by-the-numbers http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/education-by-the-numbers

Edu_by_the_numbers

Really interesting graphic about global education, by the numbers.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Tue, 10 Aug 2010 09:57:25 -0700 In-line annotation on a personal blog as the new "correction" for the subject of a hit piece http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/in-line-annotation-on-a-personal-blog-as-the http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/in-line-annotation-on-a-personal-blog-as-the

Fast Company just ran an article about advertising guru Alex Bogusky called, "Alex Bogusky Tells All: He Left the World's Hottest Agency to Find His Soul." He disagreed with some parts of it, and had comments to make on others. Why lobby for a correction, or get into a tiff with the writer? Just annotate it yourself.

And he did, on his personal blog, in two parts (Part 1, Part 2). Not only is it really interesting to read in-line comments from the subject of the original piece, his annotations are garneringon some level more interest than the original article - just the first part of his material has way more comments than the Fast Company piece. The art of the personal.

Perhaps this is a good reason for famous people to have blogs. Real blogs. Not just Twitter feeds, and not fancy websites for retail stuff. Blogs. Now when someone writes about you, you can tell your side of the story, immediately, in your voice, and also host a discussion about the discussion. In fact, pulling the discussion away from the publication that got it wrong to your own personal media property. Innovative stuff.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Mon, 02 Aug 2010 07:15:19 -0700 Cured Meat: It's What's For Breakfast http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/cured-meat-its-whats-for-breakfast http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/cured-meat-its-whats-for-breakfast

Pastrami_benedict

What's the deal with cured meat? It only seems to be available after dark. All these lovely plates of salumi and other delicacies, served with mustard and wine and tiny cornichons... But why can't I get any for breakfast? When I travel it's always the same hotel room service for breakfast - bacon, sausage, and ham. And not even fancy versions of these. How about scambling me up some eggs with some of those delicacies you're saving for your evening customers? Sadly, I have to check out by 11am.

Well, I took this up with Chef Richard at Charlie Palmer in the very lovely Joule Hotel (Starwood Hotels) in Dallas, TX. He cures the meats himself and takes great pride in it. And they're good - I ate a whole plate. But why can't I have more tomorrow morning before I leave, I asked. Chef Richard was inspired by our conversation - and did himself proud with a special Pastrami Benedict with savory corncake and red pepper hollandaise sauce. Delicious (see photo, next to my copy of Dallas Modern Luxury magazine).

A couple lessons here.

One, business travelers often consider breakfast the most important meal of the day while traveling. Basic hotel chains have figured this out, offering free buffet breakfast with a room or different variations on that theme. But frankly, a lot of high end hotels have fairly boring breakfasts. Think about adding cured meats to the in room breakfast dining repertoire!

Two, this is just great customer service. Chef Richard didn't have to do this; he could have just had a nice conversation and went about his way that night. But instead he was back the next morning writing a personal note to send up with my food. This is the kind of thing travelers remember when visiting a big city with many "good" hotels to choose from. I know where I'm staying - and eating - next time I'm in Dallas: Charlie Palmer and The Joule Hotel.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Fri, 30 Jul 2010 05:44:02 -0700 Best Of: Fake Wikileaks Leaks http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/best-of-fake-wikileaks-leaks http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/best-of-fake-wikileaks-leaks

Last night I tweeted some fake Wikileaks leaks. Here's a summary:

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak bad advice during a Public Service Announcement.

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak the truth behind Santa in a special "Children's Edition."

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak the end of the infamous "Man from Nantucket" riddle.

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak tomorrow's soup du jour.

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak the Salahi's "off the grid" FourSquare check-ins.

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak slowly, drop by drop, on your forehead while you sleep.

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak real-time whereabouts of former SNL cast members.

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak the results of the Nightingale School student body president election.

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak after patiently waiting in line during the seventh-inning stretch.

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak detailed Gym, Tanning, Laundry regimen of the Jersey Shore cast.

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak every Twitter direct message.

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak those night vision pictures you took last night.

BREAKING: Wikileaks to leak BP's oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:53:53 -0700 Government 2.0, Phase 3: Stable Solutions http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/government-20-phase-3-stable-solutions http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/government-20-phase-3-stable-solutions

I've written before about the three phases of open government, or government 2.0 - Surprises, Experiments, and Solutions. Basically, from about 2007-8, open government had a lot to do with "surprises," being surprised that blogging was useful, or using Twitter was okay.

From about 2009-10, the area moved to a phase of experiments, in which it was okay to experiment with new media and other emerging technologies like cloud and mobile, and see how these might enhance government missions ranging from public affairs to intelligence analysis to cross-agency collaboration.

And starting about now and basically 2011-12, I see a phase of solutions. People are finding that (say) Twitter alone, or (say) a Facebook Group alone are not in themselves providing holistic solutions to government challenges. There may be cybersecurity issues, or reliability issues, or interoperability issues, and so forth.

Long term reliable solutions will require a reliable foundation that provides a secure way of doing things but can also interweave new and even unreliable or untested new media or other technologies. To this end, a new white paper called Gov 2.0: Promoting Inclusive, Open, and Transparent Government through Technology White Paper sponsored by Microsoft has been published by HiSoftware.

I wasn't involved in writing this paper, but I did just read it, and it seems to take a more "phase 3: solutions" point of view of government 2.0, one that requires a foundation of something like SharePoint software so that people can be social but also safe. Feel free to disagree, or debate, but I think it's worth a look as a nice contribution to the open government literature.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:15:00 -0700 Government 2.0: The Newest Reality of New Media http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/government-20-the-newest-reality-of-new-media http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/government-20-the-newest-reality-of-new-media

Andrew-breitbart-edit

New media has knocked on the doors of the White House and the rest of the U.S. government twice in the last week or so, but it looks like no one is answering (so to speak).

First, a partial two minute 45 second video of USDA political appointee Shirley Sherrod giving an NAACP speech was posted by influential blogger (Who some people in the media still claimed not to know? Please. He's like the new Howard Stern.) Andrew Breitbart, which led to a knee-jerk reaction to it, and her subsequent firing. No need to rehash precisely what the video content was. But post-firing, the entire video came out, and as it turns out she was saying precisely the opposite of what the edited video made it seem like she was saying... because it was out of context.

Breitbart is blamed.

Second, the "whistle-blower" site called WikiLeaks has posted what it claims are tens of thousands of authentic Afghanistan war documents. White House national security advisor James Jones "strongly condems" this action and complains that the website did not make efforts to contact the government before posting.

WikiLeaks is blamed.

These examples are not necessarily highly unique, but they are recent and back to back. What's common between them is that (1) someone published information, (2) everyone affected is surprised, (3) the publisher is blamed. What's interesting is that (1) is obvious, (2) is outdated, and (3) does no good.

I don't want to call him out in case he disagrees with this, but a wise Department of Defense person commonly says that the new media environment is "not a fortress to defend, but rather a field to maneuver within." I think he is right. Yet, despite some progress towards "open government" or "government 2.0" and an increased use of and reliance on new forms of media (check out DoD's new Social Media Hub), most leaders seem to not completely grasp its impact on the world around them.

The world has changed. Everyone is a publisher and they do not adhere to journalistic standards and other quaint attitudes and rule sets and guidelines. I am not making a value judgement here about what either Breitbart nor WikiLeaks do or did; however, people in the government - not to mention every other person in the civilized world - need to come to terms with the fact that they will do it and will not stop doing it.

The real question is not how to get back at them, nor how to stop them, nor how to regulate them, nor how to control information better, nor any one of a number of other issues that seem to get debated. Those issues are largely irrelevant because they involve "defending the fortress" of information. The issues that are relevant are those that involve "maneuver within the environment" of constantly published digital information.

The true essence of "open government" is not adopting new tools, nor collaborating better, nor even providing better services to citizens. That's all important. But the true essence of open government is adopting a workplace culture that accepts the changed environment of media and adapts to it.

Getting a Twitter account, a blog, and a Facebook fan page is not the end of the race. It's the starter's pistol. It's not graduation - it's the first day of class.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:04:52 -0700 Online Priorities: Blog Traffic vs. Community Building http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/online-priorities-blog-traffic-vs-community-b http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/online-priorities-blog-traffic-vs-community-b

As I get ready to launch a new website, I've been thinking about what my priorities are with it, and how to measure if I'm accomplishing what I want to accomplish. And so, one issue I've been thinking about is whether measuring things like blog hits or unique visitors or time spent on site is important (regardless of community), or if providing value to a community of people I help to build is the most important (regardless of size).

I tend to lean heavily towards the idea of building a meaningful community that I provide value to, and get value out of, online and off. And while, of course, I'll run some analytics to see how I'm doing (I'd be sad if my posts got like, less than 100 hits or something), I'm not really concerned with pageviews. What I really want are new community connections, invites to events where my presence could be useful, and emails where people thank me for consistently producing the website. On some level, sure, 10,000 readers are better than 1000, and 1000 is better than 100. But don't I want to get them organically rather than through some form of artificial insemination? I think, yes.

Look, if your business model is to build a blog that gets lots of pageviews, and that in turn allows you to sell ads, I think that's fine. I don't even have a problem with getting those pageviews at any cost. But I think a lot of people are going about that wrong, tactically. So, here's my advice for pumping up those pageviews and really building a highly trafficked web property. Ready?

(1) Delete your current blog. It's really not worth the effort.

(2) Start a free blog using Blogger or something.

(3) Search Flickr for photos that are legal to use via Creative Commons.

(3b) Make sure those photos are of beautiful people.

(4) Add some personalization using free photo editing software.

(4b) Be creative with lolcat captions ("I POKE U LONG TIEM") or funny mustaches.

(5) Post photos relentlessly.

(6) Get to know everyone doing the same thing and link it all up.

(7) Measure pageviews and sell ads for lubricants and dirty movies.

(8) Count your cash on your brand new yacht.

Operating costs = $0 / year

Time spent working = 4 hours / week (Tim Ferriss would be so proud)

Estimated earnings = $1,000,000 / year

If you think this is silly, well, maybe it is. But when it comes down to it, if the thing you care the most about, if the thing you are most competitive about, is eyeballs viewing your page, why spend time interviewing people at events or researching technology trends or giving opinions about sports? I could beat you out in a tenth of the time with out-of-focus bikini shots that someone else took with a kiddie camera.

Oh wait - you want to do something meaningful? That's cool. Then don't worry about the pageviews and uniques and ad rates and all the rest of it. Worry about great content that builds a community you can activate. I know people who can declare a meetup and fill a huge restaurant with people on a few day's notice. I know people who can turn a city topsy-turvy with a festival. Can you activate your community to do useful and interesting things, or just game them into clicking on links?

I guess the real question you have to ask yourself is, What business are you in?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:27:09 -0700 Entrepreneurial Lessons From Investor Michael Burry http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/entrepreneurial-lessons-from-investor-michael http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/entrepreneurial-lessons-from-investor-michael

Few people saw the gigantic housing/financial crisis coming, but independent investor Michael Burry did - back in 2005. Terrific author Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker and others) has an excerpt from his new book The Big Short in a recent issue of Vanity Fair, called Betting on the Blind Side (double meaning, gotta read it) which is very interesting in itself. But I took a few lessons from it that I think are useful to businesspeople, startup founders,a nd technologists. Here are a few of my thoughts.

Don't be afraid to be different, or original: Burry grew up different; he lost an eye and had a fake one. He was also later diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. He acted differently, he thought differently. He used that to take an original course in life, and make original, insightful investment decisions, even when his investors didn't necessarily believe in what he was doing.

Make a change to something you're passionate about: Burry started his career as a medical doctor, but it bored him. He learned about investing in stocks on the side and got interested in computers. That led to some investing, and also some blogging, and that eventually led to him leaving his Stanford residency to start a hudge fund in his home.

Give valuable gifts and you shall receive them: When he was a doctor, he would blog about value investing and trades he was making or thinking about... and bigger fish were reading his blog and making money off his ideas. But when Burry started Scion (his fund), his first investor was his biggest fan - a big fish in New York. That's how he made his first million.

Don't stop believing: In 2005, Burry started moving a lot of his investing interest from stocks to credit-default swaps on mortgage-backed securities. When many of his advisors became aware of this, they weren't happy and wanted explanations, and even their money back. Burry defended his idea and told them to hang on until 2007, when he made $100 million personally and $750 million for his investors.

Be happy with yourself: After the bubble burst, a lot of things changed in investing and in life. Burry made a big profit, auctioned off the rest of positions to banks, liquidated and then closed up shop to concentrate on his personal life. He ditched his unhappy (enriched) clients, pulled away from the big (unwise) banks, and continues to do is own thing, which presumably pleases him.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:38:00 -0700 It's About Trust: Thoughts on Location-Based Services, Especially FourSquare http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/its-about-trust-thoughts-on-location-based-se http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/its-about-trust-thoughts-on-location-based-se

People in the blogosphere are very interested, and even congratulatory, on location-based service FourSquare's new round of venture funding, to the tune of $20 million. I've used the technology, it's very interesting. It was even "fun" for a time, which I think is important for building communities. And I've seen a lot of new friends and acquaintances checking it out.

But I also have no choice but to wonder - where is it going? In general, the fun aspects of the service - badges and points - are worth nothing, and when they are, there is often confusion about them - for example, numerous blog posts written by people unable to get Starbucks freebies.

In order for this - free stuff for checking in, basically - to work, there needs to be coordination and trust among four groups of people. Namely, (1) the geo-services company, (2) the users, (3) business owners and managers, and (4) line staff. I have personally seen a number of disconnects in which (for example) a manager advertises a special for being Mayor and a waitress has no idea what you're talking about.

I commented as much on ReadWriteWeb's article about FourSquare and its funding, which writer Nick Saint seems to have taken a bit out of context over at Business Insider. But what I wrote is true: I was a bit excited about the company personally, tried reaching out to do something work-related with Microsoft and their public sector business and had trouble connecting with anyone, and then became a bit dejected.

Far from what Nick Saint wrote, I don't think FourSquare will "fail" (I never wrote that), but I do think there's a fairly narrow discussion happening in the whole "geo-app" space. I don't necessarily see why FourSquare or Gowalla or even Facebook will necessarily be the market leader. People generally speak of these three as if they're predertermined.

That's based on the geo-app environment not changing. But it could change very easily. It goes back to trust - who do you trust for local information as an average consumer or user? Something like FourSquare or Gowalla? Or what about something like Yelp (which is now sometimes discussed)?

Let's take this a step further. What other location-based services do you broadly use? Maybe it's EveryBlock + MSNBC. Maybe it's OpenTable. Maybe it's CraigsList. There are probably a dozen or more similar sites that you trust, use, and that contain geo-information about businesses and other locations.

I look forward to seeing a lot more in this exciting location-based services space. From my personal vantage point, I think this: Deploying the app and making it cool isn't the real challenge. Building trust among the userbase is.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Sat, 19 Jun 2010 06:51:42 -0700 Couture for a Cure DKNY Fashion Show - Through Microsoft PR's Eyes http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/couture-for-a-cure-dkny-fashion-show-through http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/couture-for-a-cure-dkny-fashion-show-through

Great photo slideshow of Microsoft people and other guests (but particularly Microsoft people) at the recent Couture for a Cure DKNY fashion show to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Thanks to Tonya Klause for the video.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Sat, 12 Jun 2010 07:18:21 -0700 Is Microsoft cloud computing really "all in"? I made a video. http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/is-microsoft-cloud-computing-really-all-in-i http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/is-microsoft-cloud-computing-really-all-in-i Made a fun video using Google's free tool (remember the Super Bowl commerical?) about Microsoft cloud computing strategy being "all in." What do you think?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:28:22 -0700 Deep Dish on STEM-D High School Education: Chicago Style http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/deep-dish-on-stem-d-high-school-education-chi http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/deep-dish-on-stem-d-high-school-education-chi

Not to be outdone by the historic Chicago Blackhawks win of the Stanley Cup last night, Microsoft put on quite a show today in Chicago.

I had a chance to come up from Washington DC to support a wonderful event at something called the Chicago Academy for Advanced Technology, or "Chi Tech." They just concluded their first year - this place didn't exist 12 months ago! It's not too far from downtown, but it's a world away, and many students who were able to test in to this academy travel from 30 minutes to two hours to get here!

Why? Two years of partnership with Microsoft and others have helped to make possible a unique learning experience. Here, innovative teaching strategies and access to the latest technology are changing modern education. And "digital literacy" is part of that.

In the green room, I got the chance to meet some of the students and administrators and other locals involved with the school and was very impressed. Microsoft's CEO got to spend some time with them before the event, psyching them up before they went on stage. These students are some of Chicago's - and America's - future leaders, and their education helps to expand the pipeline of talented students specializing in science, technology, engineering, math, and design (STEM-D) topics, something badly needed to keep the U.S. highly competitive.

The enthusiasm of the people in the auditorium for this event was overwhelming. And the students have a sense of humor too - one of them, addressing Mr. Ballmer as "Steve," played his infamous "Developers" YouTube clip, causing him to laugh and bury his head in his hands.

When it was his turn to speak, Steve had a lot to say to the students about natural user interfaces, or NUI: "What can you really do by touching your computer? How good is your computer at understanding what you said? It's not just the words that you said - it's the meaning of the words."

Natural user interfaces have many implications: "When you type 'flowers' into a search engine, why does it give you information about flowers, when you might want to buy flowers?" Steve commented.

Microsoft's Kevin Gates from the Chicago office (and a live-long Chicagoan) performed a number of demos for the students and showed off newer technologies like LucidTouch, a see-through mobile device.

Kevin also demo'd Surface apps on a device that - to the students' surprise, Microsoft announced they were donating to the school, along with 10 HP TouchSmart PC's.

Later in the program, Steve was questioned by the students on issues ranging from his feelings about technology and his educational background, to how it felt when Bill Gates hired him ("I was in grad school...Bill called and said, 'hey, remember me from college? We need a business guy...'").

[I also learned that Steve B dropped out of business school after one year to join Microsoft. But he made it clear how strongly he values education!! "I wish I had taken more writing classes!!!"]

What's the big takeaway here? STEM-D is so important to local communities, and to the U.S. as a whole. And students at these ages (15, 16) are at critical moments in their lives where they're deciding what to do next. Getting students like this exposed to the latest technologies in a positive, progressive atmosphere with caring teachers is the best thing that can possibly happen for everyone involved.

Caat_welcomes_microsoft

Chicago_media_arrives

Pre_event_photo_op

Steve_gets_a_question

Steve_meets_the_students_in_gr

See the full gallery on Posterous

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Wed, 09 Jun 2010 05:44:59 -0700 Government 2.0 Movement Seemingly Passes By Twitter, Inc. http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/government-20-movement-seemingly-passes-by-tw http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/government-20-movement-seemingly-passes-by-tw

Twitter_wallpaper

A recent story, titled "Twitter to hire White House liaison to help policymakers 'tweet more effectively'" reported that Twitter, Inc. of California plans to hire its first employee outside headquarters - in Washington, DC. Great idea, except that the position seems like something useful from one or two years ago.

From the Telegraph UK:

The company, which has yet to employ anyone outside of San Francisco, is looking for someone to be the “closest point of contact with a variety of important people and organisations looking to get the most out of Twitter on both strategic and highly tactical levels”, according to the job advert.

The ‘Government Liaison’ will be responsible for helping Twitter understand what it can do “to better serve candidates and policymakers across party and geographical lines”. They will also “support policymakers use of Twitter to help them communicate and interact with their constituents and the world” and help set the culture and approach of a “fledgling public policy department”.

Twitter, Inc. needs a dose of reality here. Besides people like me who were using Twitter and other tools in and near government two years ago and more, there are now countless consultants working inside the Beltway to develop and carry out plans for using the service in combination with other tools for diverse government missions ranging for public affairs to military recruiting to national security. And while savvy senior leaders may certainly meet with someone from Twitter, they certainly don't really need Twitter's help to figure out how to use it for diplomatic relations; sorry, the State Department is better at using new media in a holistic manner than any group I know.

This appears like a company out of touch, hopping on a bandwagon. Good luck with this initiative Twitter Inc., but in all honesty, one person in DC to "advise policymakers on tactical issues" is trivial, and the help is really not needed. (Ironically, the leaders of Twitter are not the best at tactically using Twitter to help their company communicate with stakeholders ... I'd rather see someone like Guy Kawasaki advising government public affairs on creatively communicating.) On the policy side with regard to telecommunications or privacy or related issues, it is not obvious that Twitter is as big of a player as say, Facebook. I'm curious to see who gets this job and how they make the most of it, but if I were Twitter, I'd get a better feel for Washington DC and then rewrite and advertise this six months from now.

What Twitter Inc. line employees really need to do is show up and participate and get some ground truth. I recently attended the wonderful Gov 2.0 Expo (in... wait for it... DC) and Personal Democracy Forum (in Manhattan, not exactly a hardship assignment) events, where people from Twitter could have mixed and mingled and listened and learned. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think anyone from Twitter attended. They must have been busy writing an uninformed job description from a San Francisco ivory tower.

Twitter's chairman Jack Dorsey is perhaps the single employee most in touch with Washington, DC. As I type this he's in town, at least partly for a political fundraiser last night that used his innovative new device, Square (side note: I think Square is revolutionary and totally underappreciated as yet), and he among other things has participated in some work with the State Department and spoke at the Government 2.0 Summit last September. If nothing else, his advice might be more valuable at headquarters than people think.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau Fri, 28 May 2010 08:09:00 -0700 Blog Comments Are Unnecessary For Influence http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/blog-comments-are-unnecessary-for-influence http://markdrapeau.posterous.com/blog-comments-are-unnecessary-for-influence

Four days ago I published a post for O'Reilly Radar called, What Does Government 2.0 Look Like? Well, it's not so much a blog post as an abbreviated white paper. I thought it was a really good post, and then I published it and received zero comments. Not one. And my posts on similar topics on the same well-trafficked site often get numerous comments, and sometimes even many.

So, I thought that perhaps this post didn't really indluence anybody.

But I was wrong. I was also co-hosting the giant Government 2.0 Expo in Washington DC this week, and because I was on stage most of the attendees knew who I was, walking around the halls. Quite a number of people stopped me to say that they saw my post and it really changed how they think, or some variation on that. And meanwhile well over 100 people have shared the article on Twitter alone.

The article generated word of mouth, and was influencing people. Perhaps too much - they didn't quite know what to say about it because it was somewhat outside the box.

Comments on blogs are one way to measure influence, or more generally readership. But they're certainly not the only way. You can generate a lot of comments by being a complete idiot and asking for feedback - lots of people will help you with that. On the flip side you can write something brilliant but outside the mainstream and influence a lot of people who don't have immediate feedback because they need to gestate for a while.

So if you have a blog that rarely gets comments, don't forget that there are other metrics of audience, word of mouth, and influence.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/227513/Mark_Georgetown.jpg http://posterous.com/users/36UMKCg7gAO5 Mark Drapeau Mark Mark Drapeau