Greg Tracy

There was a great Corner Office interview with Mark Pincus in today's New York Times.

In it, he talks about a technique he's used where he required everyone to become a mini-CEO for something important within the company.

I’d turn people into C.E.O.’s. One thing I did at my second company was to put white sticky sheets on the wall, and I put everyone’s name on one of the sheets, and I said, “By the end of the week, everybody needs to write what you’re C.E.O. of, and it needs to be something really meaningful.” And that way, everyone knows who’s C.E.O. of what and they know whom to ask instead of me. And it was really effective. People liked it. And there was nowhere to hide.

The full interview is here.

I just finished reading Seth Godin's "The Dip". A fast and potentially inspiring read to help you understand what is keeping you from becoming great in whatever you choose to do.

I had a couple of takeaways...

1. Vince Lombardi was wrong

One of Vince's famous quotes is, "Quitters never win and winners never quit." Godin does a nice job of squashing this mantra. Not only is quitting a perfectly viable option. But many times it is the smartest option. You can be a fool for not taking it.

The smartest people recognize when quitting is the right decision and when it's the wrong one (when it's just a matter of pushing through a dip). Ironically, by not quitting, you've set yourself up for failure. Smart people quit all the time and go on to win big.

2. Success happens in strange places

Godin argues that, "the dip is where success happens". I love this, and I think it's important to be aware of before venturing into anything new.

If you want to be the best, you are guaranteed to go through a dip. After all, if you there were no dip, everyone would come out on top.

3. The Dip is a dip itself!

I began to find it ironic that I was ready to put the book down half way through. It's short, but it's incredibly repetitive with the underlying messages.

Did Godin intentionally create a dip inside the book? :)

4. There needs to be a startup version of this book

One of the flaws with the book is that it comes from a marketers perspective. There is an underlying assumption that your idea/skill/product has a market fit, and a dip falls into one of eight categories (manufacturing, sales, education, risk, relationship, conceptual, ego, and distribution).

Startups are never that easy if you have not already established a fit in the respective market. It would be nice to see an analysis of dips for startups while they strive to find a market/product/price fit.

The Crunchies Awards has produced a small (but not big enough) debate over Facebook's privacy strategy. CEO Mark Zuckerberg was far too dismissive about user privacy online during an interview with TechCrunch editor, Michael Arrington (video link here).

Ryan Healy agrees with Zuckerberg and tweeted some nice coverage of the debate. Ryan agreed with Zuckerberg's view that privacy is over. I said I didn't. Here's why...

Blogging and Twitter are the not the right data points for evaluating the state of online privacy as Facebook seems to be advocating. That's not the right way to describe how "people are changing". Those platforms are designed for public consumption. They're equivalent to the cork board at the coffee shop and the telephone pole at the bus stop.

The right comparisons for Facebook privacy are the sidewalk chats in the neighborhood, the water cooler conversations, and even the phone. For as long as the human race has been living in the same areas, we've been socializing and sharing stories. And there has never been a doubt about the people involved in those experiences.

With the help of Facebook, we can enjoy these social experiences in brand new ways and without the requirement of being in the same physical location. It's remarkably efficient, but what makes the experience so rewarding is the fact that the underlying social mechanics are the same as in our physical world.

But people aren't changing. The communication tools are. Let's hope Facebook realizes this before its too late.

I was smitten when my daughter told me she had an idea for a web application. We were at the book store and were talking about how expensive it can be to buy books. She thought it would be a great idea to create a website where her friends could list the books they each had and then setup book swaps. And poof! It was born...

Here are the mockups she drew today.

     

Click here to download:

Kids_building_software_emmatra.zip (7083 KB)

I've been building a number of different applications with the Posterous API over the last few months. I've written about most of these experiences here before.

I've used the reading API primarily within Sharendipity, but have also used the posting API with the Ringerous application that lets you post to your Posterous by phone.

The API is very easy to use and works as advertised. And while the simplicity still offers plenty of access to the Posterous platform, I think there are some really wonderful opportunities if the API continues to evolve and adds functionality.

Posterous is proving to be the Uber-Twitter platform, and one of the ways to accelerate the growth and diverse uses is through advanced applications that interface with Posterous content in new ways.

Based on my experience with the API, here's what I'd like to see be improved:

OAuth support for user authentication

This is by the far the most important feature and is really a core requirement for any application using the posting API.

One of the big problems when I built Ringerous was that it required every user of the service to give me their password. I have to post on their behalf on the backend so there is no way to prompt for a password while the user is using the app. Giving up a password is a tall order.

OAuth makes this problem go away.

A search API

Content is king. But only if you can find it. Posterous is a constant stream of great new and timely posts. For applications that are not revolving around a single user, a search API is needed.

A public timeline feed

I'd like to see Posterous add an "explore" call that is equivalent to http://posterous.com/explore/ which is available via the web today.

This page is a fun way to explore the diverse body of content being shared every minute by the Posterous community.

A user subscription feed

Similar to the explore feed, it would be nice to provide an API call for the user subscription feed so it would be possible to present a user's Posterous network of blogs.

Enable granular control for autopost

Currently, the autopost feature is either on or off when posting through the API. Just like email, there are use cases where the user may want more control over the services being updated. It would be nice to provide this feature in the posting API.

Hook up Posterous notification emails

This is likely an easy one. For whatever reason, the email notification system for subscribers is not hooked up for posts that come via the API. This significantly limits the communication benefits of Posterous for group sites.

Provide access to user profile data

The API is missing a user profile call. Providing access to details about the user such as description, thumbnail, and favorites adds a personal touch, a sense of community, and a method for exploring when third-party applications need to provide content navigation tools.

The current API is a great start, but it is clearly geared toward mechanical tasks. It's no mystery that so many of the existing API implementations are utility tools for porting blog content from other vendors.

But there are great opportunities for Posterous and its developer community to add new functionality and experiences to the platform.

       

Click here to download:

Posterous_API_A_wish_list_tagp.zip (116 KB)

The root cause of my (temporary) loss of ten years worth of photos can be found somewhere in this circuitry.

If you've ever wanted to display a photo slideshow of your Posterous media inside your Facebook feed, here's your chance.

Sharendipity recently released support for an embedded play mode for Facebook feeds. That means you can play interactive content - like a slideshow or game - directly from the feed. You no longer need to link out to a different page. You can read the full story on the Sharendipity blog.

Here's how I did it...

1. Create the slideshow app
Using one of the easy wizards, you can customize existing Posterous apps and make them your own. There are a couple to choose from, but in this example, I used the simple slideshow template that transitions through all photo media in a particular Posterous.

2. Share your slideshow from the app page
You can share your new application in one of two ways. You can either use the built-in Facebook share functionality that can be accessed by clicking on the Facebook icon on the app's homepage. Or you can copy the app's URL and use Facebook's post feature to post it by hand.

3. Post it to your Facebook feed
If you choose the "post" option by copying the app's URL, simply paste it into the text box on your Facebook news feed or profile wall. Facebook will automatically recognize it and insert the applications icon.

4. Feed preview mode
When the story appears on your wall or your friends' news feed, it will look just like a video post. The icon will have a blue play button to get it started.

5. Feed viewing mode
As is the case with videos, when you or a friend play the app, it will auto-expand in place and the slideshow (or game) will start!

Go get started...

Filed under  //   posterous   sharendipity  

This implementation of the Posterous API uses the new Google Translate Text-to-Speech capability to announce the photos being shown. Good fun!

Want your own? Use this wizard to customize your Posterous slideshow.

UPDATE: There appears to be a problem with the audio for Mac users. Feel free to comment on your experience and configuration below if you're a Mac user. It will help Sharendipity track the problem down. Thanks!

UPDATE: The audio will work for Firefox users regardless of OS.