Use Sizzle and Snazzy Graphics to Keep 'Em Coming Back

Carnegie Mellon University announced an unusual and most welcome contribution to their project devoted to teaching people to write computer programs. Electronic Arts (EA), one of the leaders in computer entertainment, has committed to underwrite the development of the next generation of the programming environment and it will license the use of its graphical figures library from the widely successful SIMS role playing game to be used in Alice 3.0.

Why is this so significant?

Here are three reasons:

1. It will be an easier sell. Teenagers already familiar with the SIMS game will be more likely to give Alice a try because of the characters and association with EA.
   
2. It will be easier to attract more attention to their mission. According to a 2005 UCLA study, the number of computer science majors at US institutions of higher education have dropped by 50% since 2001. That's alarming. While many more students and post-grads learn computer languages on their own today than 5 years ago, it's still a troubling trend for US competitiveness. Without the conceptual understanding and formal education provided by a college degree, fewer companies will hire US computer scientists in the decades to come. The Alice project creates an environment that shows computer programming to be relevant and interesting.
   
3. It will be easier to produce higher quality results for the students. The EA library provides better tools with which to work. Look at the difference in characters below.
   

But don't take my word for it. Show this project to a high school student and ask him or her their opinion.

Visit www.alice.org for more details.

Managing Change

An internal consultant can be one of the most difficult positions to be in says Beverly Scott. The author of “Consulting on the Inside”. She offers pieces of advice to help other consultants cope.

• Understand the business strategy and how you can contribute to the business results.

• Make a point of knowing the business intimately but function on the margins. Build strong relationships but don’t let them prevent you from uncovering the truth.

• Develop broad support by working with multiple levels of the business.

• Channel the company employees’ interest in change to make tangible suggestions that are within the company’s abilities as well as articulating their interests in the future.

• Build confidence with managers by figuring out ways to meet small but important needs.

• Encourage clients to communicate effectively with each other.

• Encourage two way feedback with clients.

• Be accountable for your results and keep your agreements and don’t be disingenuous and you’ll be able o develop credibility in the company.

• Know the limits of your competence; don’t pretend to know what you’re talking about when you don’t.

• Think in systems; recognize and foster interconnections between departments and people

• Stay grounded.

The undercurrent of Scott’s approach is that performance management is based on fostering strong relationships. If you can develop a strong sense of trust and work effectively with an internal consultant, you’ll build a stronger business.

New Sourcing is Closer than You Think

The next time you unwittingly contact a call center don’t be surprised if there’s a Brazilian accent on the other side of the line. As companies respond to market forces, they are finding that South American countries can offer better rates and closer proximity.

In Latin America there will be 730,000 call center work stations in 2008, more than double the 336,000 in 2004, according to Datamonitor. ProNicaragua, a Nicaraguan promotional business, expects the county to get 3,000 jobs. Dell already employs 2,000 in Panama.

A mere five hour flight from the US coast, the Latin American region is in two American time zones. Costa Rica has a strong, well-educated workforce. A social security system ensures background checks can be done easily. The country sells itself as “green and smart”.

Brazil is suspending its export tax on IT hardware and software until 2010, to the benefit of companies such as Citibank and IBM.

If you outsource your business to places where you’re liable to see the greatest return on your investment, you’ll build a stronger business.

Anonymous vs. Open Source

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, predicts that the process used in Wikipedia, in which entries are open to innumerous inputs and edits, will overshadow the process used in Britannica, in which editors review a piece and then an article is published. In his New York Times article "Anonymous Source Is Not the Same as Open Source", Randall Stross also notes that Mr. Wales is concerned about entrusting the "Wikipedian culture" to new individuals. Wikipedia currently offers 923 "feature" articles which have been double checked and edited. However, only about one new article gains feature status per day. Mr. Wales would like to improve this by looking at open source software models. This would perhaps allow both the inclusion of many contributions and a second level of more restrictive policy to prepare for release. According to Mr. Wales, Wikipedia has "'half the model.'"

On the other hand, though Wikipedia is far from Britannica, Jess Bates, a vice president of the Open Source Technology Group who oversees SourceForge.net, the host of more than 80,000 active open-source projects, suggests that Wikipedia is still not an open source, since one individual takes responsibility for the information, though many contribute.

Build a stronger business by listening to industry and customer feedback and evolving your products.

Beware the Backlash

Word of mouth spreads fast, and on the Internet it can spread at lightening speed. While that
can be very helpful if you’re launching an interactive Internet advertising campaign, the pitfalls can be costly.

Reid Goldsborough’s article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Internet Rewrote Rules of Advertising,” highlights the interactive nature of some Internet advertising.

The article cites a marketing initiative by Sony Ericsson as an example of an Internet marketing strategy that backfired spectacularly and that continues to haunt the company years later.

Dave Evans, co-founder of Austin-based marketing technology company Digital Voodoo, , advises companies to go out of their way to be open about the products they are pushing, why consumers should buy into them and what they stand to gain.

The Internet may offer sophisticated, cutting edge possibilities, but conventional business tenets still apply. By being open with your customers and selling real benefits you can build a stronger business.

When Navigating the Internet, Find the Right Search Engine

The Internet is a highly useful instrument for tracking down all sorts of helpful information. But there’s so much information that’s been generated you are equally at risk for getting blown off course from your intended target.

When doing a multiple search, there are effective search engines for the job. One is Dogpile.com ; it provides an efficient system for delivering the goods by conducting a “meta search” which provides results from multiple search engines including Google, MSN, Ask.com, About.com, MIVA, and LookSmart among others.

Other meta search engines include Search.com , Mamma.com, webmetasearch.com, and kartoo.com .

By using the right search engine for the purpose you can find what you’re looking for, save time and build a stronger a business.

Deep Web, Anyone?

As I work with businesses to help them become more visible on the web using eMarketing and search engine optimization techniques, I'm often asked about the "invisible web" or "deep web" whenever it's highlighted by the media.

It's a loosely term that refers to web content often requiring password authorization to access. It's not available without registration and/or payment, so it's "hidden" from the big search engines like Google, Yahoo , and AOL .

Reid Goldsborough wrote in the Philly Inquirer about several web sites that help plumb the depths of the deep web. Here are several of his cited sites:

www.brightplanet.com - informative resource; be sure to check out their faq's.

www.ga.gov.au/oracle/nukexp_form.jsp - an example of specialized knowledge found in a research database

infomine.ucr.edu - search scholarly journals

search.yahoo.com/subscriptions - get a peek at what's in a dozen subscription-only services, such as Factiva, Consumer Reports, and the Wall Street Journal online

turbo10.com - aggregates search results across a configurable group of search engines; works best with Firefox.



In my experience, the deep web is interesting and useful when you are looking for detailed (or classified) information on a particular subject written by an expert. Examples would be industry or company reports for publically traded companies written by stock analysts, tracking down an individual's contact information, gathering scientific data that's privately published.

Metropolitan and national newspaper sites (ones that have the resources to create and maintain archives), often make all stories available for 30 days, and require special access for content that's older.

Yahoo is creating an aggregate site of subscriber-only content from the Wall Street Journal, Consumer Reports, and Lexis/Nexus. You'll be able to get search summaries of the results, but to read the full article, you'll need to subscribe to the source site and pay for the content.

Google has several projects under way that are exposing deep web content to the surface searches because it fits their business model. Google was also a pioneer in searching and indexing non-html content, such as Word docs and PDF files.

When you're building astronger business, you want to be aware of options and resources available to help you.