Does Google’s very economic model cause it to violate its principle to “do no evil?”
In all fairness, the same question could be asked of all automated ad distribution networks, not just Google’s Adwords program.
Looking at how the ad networks work, it seems that the more content there is on a subject (that is, the more popular or broad a keyword is), the more competition there will be for producers of that content to get noticed.
Therefore, producers will bid-up the price of an ad on that keyword. Is this the most efficient way for searchers to find relevant results?
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Bainbridge OMPG carries on an interesting exploration on the value of automated ad distribution networks to distribute ads across offline media. That is, does it make sense for advertisers to hire companies like Google, Yahoo or MSN to do their non-online media buying?
(Which brings up another question on how much media convergence is really valuable for brand advertisers -but that’ll have to wait for a different day).
The Bainbridge post talks in terms of relevancy and targeting.
Another angle to bring into the discussion is the supply of online content and the ease with which it can be created. While television channels have proliferated in the last two decades, and video content is ever finding new places to be viewed, it pales in comparison to the amount of content available on the web.
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For comic book fans, X-men fans and all around superhero fans in the project management community a hero has been born: Hiro Nakamura, the 24 year old sales salary-man for Yamagoto Industries in Tokyo, Japan.
Hiro is one of the main characters on NBC’s new show, Heroes. He would be a fantastic project manager.
His communication, risk management or people skills haven’t yet been revealed. But in terms of raw assets, this guy would be value-add to any process or project -from six sigma, to ISO to best practices, Agile, whatever. His super powers transcend project management methodology. They are project management black-belt in the rough.
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Precise and condensed communication is the secret to great project planning.
A project plan starts out inside someone’s head. It is an idea of how to get things done. It then moves from there to a mock schedule, a more fully fleshed out task list of steps that need to be taken. This task list is written out on the planner’s desk or their computer. In larger organizations it may take place within a project management office or project planning department.
The plan may include a whole range of variables like resources attached to tasks, risk margins, acceptable schedule variances.
But these are details.
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Collaboration is a word that is thrown around a lot when it comes to web-based project management. Understanding the types of collaboration out there and knowing what you are looking for, can help you make a better selection when it comes to buying project management software.
Since projects are about people working together to get things done, its natural that web-based project management software facilitates people working together- collaborating. This is one of the most significant innovations of web-based project management software. It is also one of the most casually used buzzwords. Here is a quick guide to help de-code what people are talking about when they say collaboration in project management software.
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Found an anecdote on Mark Cuban’s blog. Highlights the nature of the information on Wikipedia (and the process on its formation).
Along the same note, here’s a link to a now classic Stephen Colbert report on Wikipedia.
I’ve received a lot of feedback to my position on Wikipedia brought about by a recent Wall Street Journal article. The feedback has been productive. Its helped elucidate some of the key differences between Wikipedia and Britannica.
The foremost of these differences seems to be audience expectations.
There is one world, online, where people want to be part of the process of growing knowledge, of being heard and sharing. Knowledge in a particular area, for them, is something malleable and something they use to identify themselves with a community.
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The Wall Street Journal has a tense interview between the founder of Wikipedia and the editor the Encyclopedia Britannica. Raises tons of interesting questions. The biggest one is whether the Wikipedia approach offers readers a source of knowledge? Or is it, in Stephen Colbert’s term, a source of truthiness? Feels true, we’d like it to be true. But it isn’t.
For those who don’t know how Wikipedia works, it goes like this. Someone decides that there should be an entry on a particular topic, say project management software. Or, they decide there should be an entry on a particular piece of software. The author searches around and sees that other vendors of project management software have entries on their products, so why not this particular software.
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DM News online recently published an article by the General Manager of Intuit’s Quickbase. The article is Five Steps to Simple Marketing Project Management.
There are two crucial requirements for project management software which she left out. (While aimed at marketing departments, these apply to IT departments and others, as well.)
1) Scalability. Marketers can deal with a large number of on-going projects involving multiple teams, clients or project portfolios. Make sure your project management software can scale, easily and out-of-the-box, to handle that level of complexity. Report should give you clarity into your projects, helping you get a handle on everything that’s going on. Functionality should be skillfully crafted so that the software remains easy to use no matter what level of complexity you are dealing with. If not, managing the software can become a job in itself -creating more work than its worth.
2) Training and Support. Implementing project management software takes a degree of formalizing workflow. For creatives and other professionals (like software developers) this may be a bit of a change. Your project management software vendor should have a committment to hands-on training and ongoing support to make this process as easy as possible. They should help you map out the process (afterall, they should have experience doing this with other customers before). They should be easily accessible, to hold your hand, as it were, throughout the process. And remain friendly, accessible and supportive throughout the relationship.
She is right on when it comes to simplicity and trying out project management software. If you are looking for reasons to try online project management sfotware, see our earlier post.
All work and no play makes a dull boy, so I need to let everyone know about this cool toy/tool to hit the market. The tool to look at is the I-Tech Virtual Laser Keyboard which can be found on my favorite toy site:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/8193/
This virtual keyboard uses a laser to paint a full size QWERTY keyboard on any surface. You can then use the virtual keyboard like any regular keyboard. No more pulling around a small foldable or tiny keyboard.
This is Star Wars level cool. Enjoy!
