Monthly Archives February 2010

I’m one of those people who believe that things are almost always simpler than we think. Too often we make things less clear as we try and describe things – we make them hard to understand with a fog of language that hides a lack of conceptual rigor and clarity. We – all – get caught in this as we try and engage the language rather than the underlying concepts.

I had lunch with a prospective client last week; she has a company that offers a SaaS component that integrates two components in enterprise HR systems.

So we sit down and I ask her to explain what she wants to do; she gives me an explanation.

She has been – abstractly – interested in ‘socializing’ her apps, and recently she’s been hearing from customers that she needs to “make them social.”

We’ve all got TSA horror stories (my favorite is the time at MCO that I was threatened with arrest for moving some of the plastic tubs from one line – where there were lots – to our line – where there were none).

Here’s a horror story with a small social media angle…some screeners in Philadelphia forced a disabled 4 year old’s parents to remove his leg braces – then had him hobble through the metal detector. His parents were (understandably and justifiably) infuriated, and after a local newspaper columnist covered the story…

On Friday, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said the boy never should have been told to remove his braces.

TSA policy should have allowed the parents to help the boy to a private screening area where he could have been swabbed for traces of explosive materials.

So I have a bunch of hobbies, and – shockingly – am on email lists or discussion boards for many of them.

That’s the core power of social media – the ability to find and join highly specialized conversations that are specifically relevant to you.

On one of my email lists today, one of the members – not a frequent contributor, but a participant – jumped into a conversation about a $2,000 product another of the listers was thinking about buying.

He is subscribed under his corporate email – he works for Leupold, a competing manufacturer in the space – and he gave a precise and thoughtful critique of the product that was being considered, informed by his professional expertise.

He wrapped up by hinting at some products that were currently under wraps,