Digital Privacy

I am firmly entrenched in the “user beware” view on personal privacy in the digital world.  As I read the article on Apple and Google collecting user data, I came to a “Who cares?” conclusion.  To me, there are many great uses for this data (i.e. traffic on Google Maps as mentioned).  While there are certainly ways to misuse the data, I believe that if these companies were to misuse the data in a way that dramatically affected users, there would be a huge backlash.  These companies know that, and thus, they will do their best to avoid it.  If they somehow do cross the line (wherever that may be), I believe the consumer uproar (and such big companies have so many consumers that they directly affect) will be so great that the government will be forced to get involved.  It often takes a drastic event to force change, and I think that is the only way change in this space can occur.

In fact, I would relate this concept, in a way, to college athletes.  Male college basketball and football players have, for a number of years, generated a massive amount of revenue for the NCAA, universities, TV stations, and a number of other entities.  However, they have never seen a dime of that money themselves.  There are regulations in place that pretend that these athletes are in school to learn and not to generate revenue, and these regulations prevent the athletes from being able to earn money while in school.  Meanwhile, everyone else is able to benefit.  Similarly, all consumers currently have their data—location or otherwise—online.  Facebook, Google, Apple, and many other companies are taking advantage of that and profiting by selling the data and partnering with other institutions so that everyone can profits except those who actually start with the data—the consumers (college athletes).  The reason I make this analogy is that this idea with college athletes has been known for many years now, and the numbers have grown enormously over the past 20-25 years; however, no one has done anything about it because people accept the status quo unless something drastic happens or the government intervenes.  To me, this is analogous to how this digital privacy situation will play out—people will acknowledge the issue, but everyone will just deal with it as is until something ridiculous happens (and as I mentioned above, the big companies will do their best to stay just inside that “ridiculous” level to prevent change).

As a person with two engineering degrees and a computer science background, I certainly travel in the tech savvy crowd at times.  I know a number of people who are much more knowledgeable than I about internet privacy, and I also know a number of conspiracy theorists when it comes to big tech companies and privacy.  I have seen firsthand how diligent these people are, and I believe that they would break a story on something that had serious potential of damaging consumer privacy.  Their blogs and forums already light up with the slightest change in Facebook’s policies, and news travels extremely quickly via Twitter and Facebook (ironically, one of the companies that could potentially take advantage of this data).  As we become even more socially intertwined online, I believe news will travel too fast for something egregious in the digital privacy area to go unnoticed.

I also believe that we, as Generation Y, are not the appropriate target market for anything concerning digital privacy.  As much as I hate to admit it, Millennials have a leg up on all of us.  Even though I grew up with a computer in my house and was a very early adopter of the internet, I pale in comparison to those who have grown up with modern computers in their hands from the age of 4.  Going forward, the next generation will have grown up with mobile devices and social media already engrained in day-to-day lives, and they will have a different perspective on how to attack these issues.  That younger generation will be the ones most concerned with these issues.  Additionally, with the older generation of retired mothers being a segment growing quickly on Facebook, I think many older people will have something to say about privacy issues because they will not understand it as easily—but they will hear about issues peripherally and worry about them as non-technical people.  While they may not understand the issues, I think they will make some noise about it.  My point is, the Generation Y people know enough to understand what’s going on, but (for the most part) they don’t know quite enough to develop a very clear solution—so this is more of an audience to just say “there’s a problem brewing—we should probably do something…someone go do it”.  (again, akin to the general public’s reaction to college athletes and the revenue issue)

Overall, as I said, I believe consumers should be responsible for their own actions.  If you’re not sure about something—or if you have privacy concerns about it—don’t sign up for it.  No one is forcing anyone to sign up for social media.  No one is forcing a smartphone on you.  If you choose to try and keep up with the times technologically, you need to realize that there are some privacy risks and issues that haven’t yet been addressed.  If you haven’t heard about Facebook’s constantly changing privacy policy and the uproar over it every year or so, you’ve been living under a rock.  Even still, it comes down to doing your homework before getting involved with a product that is social by nature.  Personally, I have never believed that anything on Facebook, Twitter, or any social site is private in any way.  The fact that I can still find my AOL website I created around 1993 floating around on the internet sometimes (even though that account was deleted by 1998) taught me that everything is forever.  Based on that assumption, I’m ok with a lot of this.  This is what the internet is.  (To be clear, I do believe that banks and other paid services are more secure with my information.  But I wouldn’t be surprised if they were hacked at some point—I just believe they will be held accountable for something as tangible as a bank account with a specific amount of money in it.)

Creativity Ramblings

Individual creativity is definitely something I have thought about a great deal in the past—most often, in the context of “I’m really not very creative”.  However, I am fairly certain that the majority of those thoughts occurred in the face of a problem that required “creativity”—and when I wasn’t able to come up with an innovative thought within a few minutes, I decided that task was better suited for someone with a different type of brain.  When considering that series of thoughts in light of Lehrer’s article and some more modern ideas on creativity, I believe the way my mind attempts to solve those problems was heavily influenced by the type of education and feedback I received as a child.  I always had an innate sense for numbers, and I was therefore in math classes many years ahead of my age group.  But as I was encouraged to pursue math and logic, I was left with less time to spend on things related to the other side of my brain.  Not only did I have less time, but I also surmise that I received subconscious hints that if I was skilled with numbers, math, and science, I was probably equally unskilled with creativity, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.

As I consider my creative moments in life, I have definitely noticed that the majority of my insights come when I am distracted.  I often have a number of ideas come to me in the shower, and I work hard to remember them once I realize what has come to me.  No matter how hard I try, I believe I only capture about 60% (at best) of what I think of in the shower.  Similarly, I get ideas while driving (at least I used to when I had a job and drove longer distances while still in a morning/evening daze), so I usually have a pen and notepad in my console.  Interestingly, I used to get a number of ideas while lying in bed at night.  As mobile devices and applications have become more prevalent, I have less time just thinking to myself—instead, I am on my laptop, tablet, smartphone, and/or watching TV until I am ready to actually fall asleep.  That level of multitasking has prevented me from having those innovative thoughts before sleeping…which is something I didn’t realize until just now.

Within organizations, I have seen a little of both sides.  As a government contractor, we were generally told to do what has always been done—leaving little room for innovation.  Attempts at doing something new were typically met with skepticism, and they were usually shot down unless there was an extremely low associated risk (even if the reward was worth the risk).  This is because it is extremely difficult to lose a government contract if you stay within the lines and do about 75% of what you promise; however, making a change suddenly opens up an avenue that would allow a contract to be lost.  At my more recent job prior to school, we were asked to sit in a computer lab to facilitate communication and creativity.  This did work to a degree—but when two of the most senior members convinced management that they no longer needed to sit in the group environment, communication fell dramatically from that point forward.  So, at least in that case, it would seem that the environment and a few key players were both important to the innovative culture that they were trying to foster.

I had a number of disjoint thoughts as I read the article, so I will try to address those here.

I think everyone is capable of being creative—in fact, I am guessing that many people have ideas that they forget.  Or, even if they remember them for a short time, they never act on them, and the ideas eventually disappear.  Is a person who comes up with creative ideas—but never acts on them or tells anyone who might act on them—actually creative?

I recall practicing different types of riddles growing up—ones I thought I was terrible at (and ones that the article would call exercising creative thought).  And then I recall getting better at them.  I think I am once again poor at those riddles.  To me, that’s further evidence of the ability to exercise and improve creativity.

Many intelligent people—both past and present—have spoken about mind-altering drugs having a positive effect on creativity.  While I don’t have first-hand experience with them, it is something someone should be able to freely research given the articles position on alcohol and creativity.

My initial thought was that we are multitasking more and more, and that could create more moments of “not paying attention” similar to the ones described in the article that generate creative thought.  However, as mentioned earlier, that level of multitasking may be too much stimulation—even if all in small doses—to allow for the moments I was thinking of.  So instead of increasing creative thought, it could be decreasing it.  In fact, there may be a bell-type curve where some level of multitasking takes one’s attention away from tasks enough to help creativity, but beyond a certain point of that multitasking, it becomes too much stimulation and creativity decreases again.

I think Dr. House is a great example of the exact phenomenon being described in the article.  He doesn’t care enough about conversations unless they directly affect him or his life.  Therefore, when he’s talking to people about something unrelated to his case but also not directly affecting his life, he typically has revelations about his case (and proceeds to get up mid-conversation and walk out).

Relying on the “you just know” idea for when to use one type of approach versus another is difficult.  It means people must trust you when you say you’re doing the right thing.  There are risks associated with that.  Of course, results will help prove the approach; however, results can’t always be obtained, even with the proper approach.  So when the results are not obtained, how does one know if the approach was wrong or if it was just an unfortunate circumstance?  There will never be evidence that proves the appropriate approach under this methodology, and that will just feed further behavior and conclusions that are to be trusted without evidence.  That is a methodology that can be trusted in an environment where risk is tolerable—for example, in startup companies.  However, in established companies, when dealing with people’s lives (in most cases), and in other risk-intolerant areas, evidence is a necessity.  Again, Dr. House gets away with this because he’s dealing with cases that have no other possibilities for cures—i.e. risks are a necessity because there are no alternative treatments and lives are on the line.  In sports, more coaches *should* be more innovative and creative on a “you just know” basis given that they are ultimately judged on their overall results (wins/losses), regardless of how they achieve them (barring any breaking of rules).

The article discusses learning an instrument with the abandon of a child.  I have experienced learning the piano and drums as a child for many years, and I know my experience learning the guitar as an adult has been very different—but I haven’t been sure why.  I know for one thing, I am looking for quicker satisfaction and am unwilling to put forth the effort necessary (that I was willing to put forth as a child).  I now wonder if there is a component of a lack of creativity to it as well.

Musically, I also remember my own perceived lack of creativity.  On the piano, I always envied those who could improvise.  I could play some pretty difficult music as a 16 year old, and I won all kinds of awards in understanding music theory.  But I couldn’t improvise something beyond a very basic level.  Again, I always chalked that up to my uncreative mind—but maybe that’s something that could change if I was willing to work at it.

Paper Topic: Purchase Decision Criteria for Cloud Computing

I plan to explore the purchase decision criteria for cloud computing decisions.  I am curious as to whether the criteria are different between small businesses and enterprises (as they have been with software and hardware in the past), or if the economics of cloud computing make the purchase decisions more similar.

This topic is interesting and relevant to me as I plan to move into the marketing world at Microsoft—specifically working on Windows Azure and other cloud computing related products.  As this is a relatively “new” offering (at least in terms of how the products are now being portrayed and in terms of wide acceptance of cloud computing), I believe this topic is still in its infancy and has yet to be explored.  It is likely that the larger, established companies (like Microsoft) will attack the market at least in a somewhat similar manner to their successful past strategies.  Therefore, I hope to look into this from an outsider’s perspective before joining the company and falling into the trap of doing what has always been done without any good reason for doing so in what should be a new field.

Designing valuable customer experiences for a different type of customer base and a new product offering will be extremely important in the long term.  Microsoft (and the entire industry) believes cloud computing to be their highest growing revenue source over the next few years.  If companies do not accurately assess their customers’ needs and address them, they will quickly fall behind during a growth period.  That lost opportunity may not be something easily regained in the coming years, so it is extremely important to get it right now.

In “SMB and Enterprise All-Up Survey Findings” by Microsoft, they determined that 41% of Enterprises companies have at least one cloud project planned or underway, while Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) are only at 16%.  So, SMBs haven’t embraced the business opportunity yet.  Additionally, Enterprises are more likely to be working on multiple cloud opportunities.  These facts will certainly change purchase decisions.  When looking at purchase decision makers, 55% of SMB IT decision makers claim to be primary decision makers, while responsibility in Enterprises is much more distributed across organizations.  Finally, only 20% of SMB IT decision makers claim to know cloud computing fairly well, while 41% of those in the Enterprise world claimed the same.

These are just some of the facts from a useful article.  I am sure there is more research that will help me address questions for both Enterprises and SMBs, including:

• What are the purchase decision criteria for cloud computing?
• Who are the decision makers?
• How large of a budget do they have available for a single cloud computing project on a per-user basis?
• What types of projects will differently-sized companies address?

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/download/features/2011/01-12CloudSurvey.docx

Social Media

When looking at our current state of Social Media, I think the majority of questions, polls, and other devices used to gain attention and “likes” are generating poor data.  Companies seem to be concentrating more on generating “likes” or something similar in order to tell their bosses or shareholders that they have X number of “likes”, which “typically” translates into Y dollars.  Instead, they should be working at generating affinity and showing them how to “like” their page—because generating somewhat fake numbers doesn’t drive sales in the same way as an organic “like”.

American Express has done a great job of integrating their social media with my life, and I believe that is a way to be successful.  They have made it easy for me to save money by integrating Facebook with my credit card, and they are using data from my Facebook page to help determine where I might like to use that credit card.  Companies must find ways to make it easy to use—people will not continue to come back or share with their friends (which is obviously the biggest key in a social network) unless the benefits are clear and easily realized.

Things a company should know about my social media use in order to help their brand:

•          How often I post
•          How many friends I have
•          How often my friends “like” or comment on things I post (i.e. if they read them and if my posts are valuable)
•          What brands I identify with
•          How much money I make
•          What my shopping habits are like
•          What affinity groups I am in
•          What types of events I attend

Extracting this information probably isn’t all that difficult.  To me, the more difficult problem is using the information effectively.  I think companies have much more of a problem interacting with people in a way that is social, personal, and brand-building at the same time than they do figuring out who to interact with.

Social Media has obviously been an exploding field over the last 15 years or so.  In that relatively short amount of time, the ways in which people have interacted with and engaged with the different social media outlets has changed dramatically—from online forums to Six Degrees to blogging communities to online gaming all before the ones we think of today (Friendster, LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).  Since it, as a field, is something that is based on emerging technology, I expect that trend of change to continue.  Therefore, we should not expect social media, over time, to become stagnant—even in terms of a channel or method of use (though it is certainly tempting given Facebook’s massive market share and popularity).

This idea has numerous implications.  First and foremost, companies currently dominating the market (Facebook, Twitter) must constantly innovate—even more so than a typical technology company.  Startups, for the most part, are not trying to duplicate Facebook’s model and beat them.  Instead, they are trying to find the next great social outlet and beat Facebook to the punch.  For example, I don’t think Social TV necessarily has the ability to become a dominant, life-changing outlet in the social space—but if a company like Miso is integrated with cable set-top boxes (as it has already started doing), and if those set-top boxes begin to control entire living rooms or households, the story could very quickly change.

Additionally, marketers must determine whether this constantly evolving technology is something that will be able to appeal to the masses over time or not.  It seems like social media is something that is more often associated with younger groups—at least early on in a platform’s existence, and at least in some of its more sophisticated uses.  If technology constantly changes the way we interact with social media, there is a chance that we continue to freeze out older populations to these new channels.  Typically, the older people get, the more resistant to change they are.  With TV and radio as the typical advertising outlets over the past 75 years or so, we haven’t had to deal with changing outlets and that effect on the general population.  It may help keep slow-moving social media companies in business (i.e. if Facebook is slow to adjust), or it may counteract the evolving technology directly and work against the need to innovate.  Platforms may need to stay a bit stagnant in order to be attractive to the masses.

Third, marketers must not put all their eggs in the current social media basket.  That is, their marketing strategies that use these different social media outlets must be adaptable to vastly different ones that may come up in the future.  Or, if not, they must be prepared to scrap ideas that may currently seem invincible in favor of new, untested ones as new technologies emerge.

Persona - Monica

Monica is a 33 year old female who lives in suburban Los Angeles.  She is married and has 2 kids—a 3 year old boy and a 1 year old girl.  She grew up in New Jersey with her immigrant parents and a younger brother, and they were surrounded by numerous uncles, aunts, and cousins who lived in the same neighborhood.  After finishing college at a small school near home, she moved to LA.  Soon after, she got married.  While she and her husband initially lived in a more urban part of LA, they moved out to the suburbs as they prepared to start a family.

1. What does she think or feel?

Monica cares most about family.  She thinks about her children and husband first, and she is also a role model for her brother and numerous younger female cousins as the first in a family with many women.  She always needs to have something to do—she doesn’t deal with downtime for very long.  She is preoccupied with making sure her children are taken care of while also making sure she is successful at work.  She worries about her parents, grandparents, and in-laws as they all get older.  She also worries about managing her time commitments between her family and her career.  She aspires to be an ideal mom, wife, and career woman all at the same time, while also helping everyone in her extended family.

2. What does she see?

Monica’s environment is filled with family.  Her parents, in-laws, brother, and cousins are in and out of town constantly.  She has a nanny that comes daily to take care of her children, and that can be a source of stress at times.  She works at a large CPG company in a marketing capacity with very passionate employees who are excited about their company.  She sees her friends on a weekly basis, and most of these friends have children as well.  She has moved from being a more impulsive and free-spending shopper to a slightly more money-conscious shopper over time, especially with the addition of children to the family.

3. What does she say and do?

Monica’s attitude in public is confident.  She always appears to know what she’s doing and where she’s going.  Her appearance is generally fashionable.  While she was always current with fashion trends, she is now desperately trying to keep up with them—she lags behind due to the time she spends with her children and work, as well as weight gain during pregnancy changing clothing for periods of time.  Overall, her behavior towards others is extremely pleasant.  She is outgoing, and at a party, she enjoys attention from others.  At the same time, she doesn’t necessarily seek it out in a group; however, in a group of friends, the attention often finds her anyway given her outgoing nature and overall likeability (and she doesn’t shy away from it).  Additionally, her behavior towards others involves going out of her way to help her family and best friends in any way possible.

4. What does she hear?

Monica is an attentive listener, especially when it comes to important issues.  She is a sounding board for friends, siblings, cousins, and her husband, and they all see her as a problem-solver.  She relishes this role and is successful at it.  Her conversations with her friends typically revolve around things related to their children (schools, sleep patterns, feeding patterns), work-life balance, and their next girls trip (always discussed, but never happens).  Her conversations at work are strictly work-related (clients, technology, sales).  At home, she discusses work, kids, vacations, family, economy/politics, and current news trends with her husband (probably the biggest influence in her life).

5. What are her pain points?

Monica’s pain points center around people as much as the rest of her life does.  She wants her children to have the ideal life, go to great schools, and have good friends.  She will do whatever necessary to make sure that happens.  She also wants to make sure everyone in her family is healthy and as successful as possible—whether that means mentoring her cousin, making sure her parents are happy, or giving advice to her in-laws.  At home, she wants to make sure her nanny gets along with her entire family while also performing her job adequately.  At the same time, she worries about her husband’s balance between work/travel and being at home with the family.  Monica’s own career comes last amongst these pain points, but it is still important to her.  She has a drive to be successful rather than simply making money to help support her family, but she is not willing to travel for work or sacrifice family obligations in order to do so.  Overall, there is a theme to her pain points, and it is balancing everything in her life.

6. What does she hope to gain?

Monica wants everyone important in her life to be happy.  She wants her children, husband, and extended family to have happy and successful lives.  She wants her kids to grow up in a healthy environment and have as many opportunities as possible.  She wants to be successful in her own career, but not at the expense of her family or anything at home.