Disqus - Latest Comments for douglaskarr

Re: The Droid fails AS A PRODUCT when compared to Palm Pre and iPhone

douglaskarr — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:26:34 -0000

Aside from the battery compartment and UI complexity, it sounds like the majority of issues were with the apps. Seems to me that those apps can get updated, though, right? Interesting comment on the HD resolution, iPhone resolution is 480x320, so iPhone YouTube may be playing at a high-er resolution but that's not HD.

It will be interesting to see how the Droid evolves. I have an iPod touch and find that, with tons of apps, the ability to organize the applications to easily find them is frustrating. Does the droid have a means of improved organization other than up/down/right/left?

Thanks for the comprehensive review! I'm on Verizon and have a Blackberry that I love - but am anxious to check out the droid.

Doug

Re: Fred Wilson Dot VC

douglaskarr — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:05:39 -0000

Yes! Yes! Yes! My secret theory is that Facebook is simply AOL 10.0 disguised.

Re: The Ethics, Or Lack Thereof, Of Ghost Blogging

JasonFalls — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:46:53 -0000

I don't assume that. I'm saying when he or she behaves that way, the premise is dishonest. If they are actively involved and participate, then the writer is a writer for them, not a "ghost blogger." My argument is mostly semantics, not philosophical.

Re: The Ethics, Or Lack Thereof, Of Ghost Blogging

douglaskarr — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:26:02 -0000

Aha! Yet you assume a CEO with a ghost blogger doesn't "read the words and never participates in writing his words"?

Re: The Ethics, Or Lack Thereof, Of Ghost Blogging

JasonFalls — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:54:17 -0000

Okay, you certainly have a point. But do you really think that Favreaux just goes off and writes what he wants without direction or editing and filtering through the Obama policy team? I don't argue at all he's a fantastic writer, but without the constant direction and attention from Obama and other senior advisors, the speeches would be Favreaux's and not Obama's.

I realize I might be standing on a bit of a weak leg here and that speechwriting may be an exception area to my rule for consideration, but I just don't buy that Obama just reads the words and never participates in writing his words.

Re: The Ethics, Or Lack Thereof, Of Ghost Blogging

douglaskarr — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:44:26 -0000

Do some digging on Jon Favreaux, Jason. You'll find that the reports have shown that Barack makes little or no edits to the speeches that this wonder-kid has written. "Yes We Can!" was even penned by Jon Favreaux. Barack's speeches to largely minority crowds were even written by Favreaus, a white guy. He's done an amazing job! And Barack continues to shine in his delivery of those speeches - being called one of the greatest orators of our time.

Imagine calling a blogger with a ghost-blogger one of the 'greatest bloggers of our time'. People would have a stroke!

This is the talent I'm speaking to when I say that I appreciate ghostwriters. Not some kid chained to a desk in a third-world country who hasn't ever seen nor talked to the company they're blogging for... a professional writer who does the homework, understands the message and vision, and delivers it effectively.

Re: The Ethics, Or Lack Thereof, Of Ghost Blogging

JasonFalls — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:23:51 -0000

Glad you asked about speechwriters, Doug. If you look at my outline above, the speechwriter falls into the category of copywriter. Obama guides the policy, outlines the talking points, gives direction to the writer, is (I assume) actively involved in editing, revising, etc. (Certainly not to the high time commitment level we might take for our companies, but still.) He does make sure that the advisors around him help filter and revise, but he doesn't blindly walk up and say something someone else believes without it being from his own standpoint.

Writers on TV shows get credit, so I don't see how that works against my point.

I think our biggest gray area point here is on the point of deception. You say "reviews it with you," indicating the named author has a role in the writing. Depending upon how large a role, I don't think it's "ghost-writing". I think it's copy writing. But if the writer pops off an article the named author didn't instigate, had no role in crafting and only reads it over and says, "yeah, I'd say that," that's deceptive in my book. I understand it's not definitive for everyone, but I feel duped if that writing goes live under the named author's byline.

I wouldn't rather read a well-written blog by a ghost writer. I'd rather read a well-written piece by Kathy Writerperson who authors the CEO standpoint blog on CompanyX website.

I don't disagree with you overall sentiment here, just think "ghost blogger" is an incorrect label for what we're talking about for the most part.

Re: The Ethics, Or Lack Thereof, Of Ghost Blogging

douglaskarr — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:23:08 -0000

I've got to ask again, since Obama has speech writers, does this make him a bad speaker? Is he being dishonest? Is it not transparent? Since Conan O'Brian and David Letterman don't write their own jokes, are they dishonest? They don't disclose to anyone that they are reading other peoples' words. I don't believe they lose any credibility doing this.

I think the hang-up here is associating 'deception' with 'ghost-blogging'. They are independent of one another. If you choose to deceive, I'm going to slam you. If you simply have a ghost-blogger who methodically studies you, writes it, reviews it with you, and publishes it with your permission - that's not deceptive.

Keep in mind that many CEOs and executives are crappy writers. I'd rather read a blog that's well-written by a ghost blogger and reflects the message and vision of the executive than not read any blog that provides some insight into the executive of the company at all.

Personally, I've got too big a head to have someone else pen a blog post under my name. But I would not hesitate in recommending a ghost blogger to companies struggling to build a relationship through social media with their clients or prospects.

Re: Judge: Microsoft Banned from Selling Word in the US

NickBurrus — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:43:15 -0000

I have actually. Advanced tables, several tiered bulleted lists, etc, and always was able to print fine with it.

Re: Judge: Microsoft Banned from Selling Word in the US

douglaskarr — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:52:28 -0000

It's apparent that you've never used many of the advanced features, like table of contents, and multi-tiered bulleting. We've had 4 releases of Word that still prevent it from being used as a document editor that you're able to go to print with.

Re: Identifying a social media workflow

morganb — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:32:16 -0000

Douglas, interesting perspective. Part of me agrees, because you can centralize and control the conversation better on your Web site, and you give yourself a better opportunity to convert that conversation into actual business. Part of me says that you should engage people where they're most comfortable and that you risk alienating them trying to "draw them out" just to get them back to your site without any real additional value to them.

I think there is a fine balance between coaxing people back to your site to convert them to actual business customers vs holding authentic and relevant dialog (and building relationships) where the people you choose to engage are most comfortable doing so. Additionally, by demonstrating your commitment to relationships and providing value in the public commons of the community you're involved in you get the benefit of social proof, whereas if you drag them off to your site that relationship or value is obscured. Would love to hear more of your thoughts on that.

Re: Identifying a social media workflow

douglaskarr — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:48:33 -0000

Part of the 'workflow' that businesses and marketers can benefit from is always providing a path of engagement through the business blog or website. It's difficult to hold conversations in all of the destinations above and sustain a reasonable effort.

Always working to 'lead' the conversation back to your site, blog, meeting, etc. will provide you with the return on social investment you're seeking. As well, it weeds out the conversation from the business - conversations with no intent for engagement tend to stick where the they are - but when the audience has intent, they often follow the conversation back to a path for engagement.

Re: Dead Grasshoppers Give Life to Social Media Marketing Campaign

douglaskarr — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:13:17 -0000

I was one of the folks and, yes, I did try a grasshopper. I little bitter, chewy and crunchy... but interesting. I am curious about what the return on investment on this campaign was!

Re: TechCrunch founder launches hardware startup

douglaskarr — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:57:48 -0000

As manufacturing costs continue to plummet, I believe we're going to see a new evolution of hardware opportunities on the market. Flexible manufacturing systems are going to do for hardware what software as a service has done for software. I look forward to the day that I can design my own hardware online and get a prototype sent in the mail.

Re: It’s Official, I’m on the Crackberry

shelia32 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:22:54 -0000

I am addicted to my Blackberry as well. I got the Storm too

Re: It’s Official, I’m on the Crackberry

douglaskarr — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:16:45 -0000

Don't make me have second thoughts! :)

Re: 10 Business Twitter Apps for the Enterprise

douglaskarr — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:11:44 -0000

Along with Radian6, I'd highly recommend Backtweets, an application that 'unshortens' URLs and can alert you when your sites have made it on Twitter!

Re: Top Ten Must Read links of the week

douglaskarr — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:52:29 -0000

Very cool. Thanks for putting me in such great company!

Re: The anti-community list

douglaskarr — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:20:58 -0000

I'm not sure why all of these tools are trying to force irrelevant connections. The power of social networking is that connections naturally happen. Those are powerful, relevant connections based on trust and relationships, not popularity or algorithms.

Re: Why I built Azadi4Iran.info

douglaskarr — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:16:19 -0000

Dr. Ho, not only did you take the time to create the site, but letting people know HOW you did is so much more selfless. You are truly a teacher. Congratulations on the recognition. I'm not optimistic of the outcome of the events in Iran, but I am very optimistic that the Internet is the ultimate weapon for democracy.

Re: Microsoft Pleads Google to Take Corporate Email Market

douglaskarr — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:32:31 -0000

Good point! When I worked at the newspaper, we utilized Lotus Notes. The reason, though, was because we could develop easy workflow solutions on Domino that integrated well. I think the automation and integration capability is key - if Google can provide a platform that saves money, the Fortune 500 companies will begin migrating.

Re: What’s your Organic Search Potential?

Arik — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:22:08 -0000

Thanks for the feedback Doug.

Re: Me, Me, Me and Social Media

douglaskarr — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:22:47 -0000

Hi Arik!

You can always review the State of the Blogosphere. My 2 cents is that you should look at publishing sites of major media and you'll find their Content Management Systems have been upgraded to include blogs. Business growth and blogging is also on a significant rise... pay per click is down and organic search is up. There's higher conversion rates and subsequent ROI in organic traffic - and blogging is the most affordable solution for gaining organic rankings.

Doug

Re: What’s your Organic Search Potential?

douglaskarr — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:12:11 -0000

Hi Sahail,

Some info on Amazon S3. I push all my media files from Amazon now and it's significantly improved my site's performance.

Doug

Re: What’s your Organic Search Potential?

douglaskarr — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:10:13 -0000

Hi Arik,

I mention a great tool above, SEMRush. It allows you to see how your site indexes, as well as look up keywords, organic results and search volumes. You can even review competitor's sites to see what keywords they are gaining traffic from. A free approach is to use Google's Search-based keyword tool but it's not as robust.

Doug