Diatribes by Joah

My SXSW Interactive Guide

First, Some Pointers for SXSW Interactive (particularly helpful for the unfamiliar & SXSWi newbie):

 

1. Live with sacrifices. SXSW Interactive is just like a major music festival. You can't see everyone. Some panels are taking place at the same time. Don't waste time deciding and then miss out due to long lines; just make the sacrifice and get where you need to be early.

 

2. Prepare to wait in lines. No matter how much you plan, if you try to see the best speakers/biggest panel topics/etc. you'll be joining a crowd. So get there early and wait. If there's no line, by chance, then you have time to Tweet and Facebook about how much fun you're having and make your friends jealous. Or get some coffee since you won't have slept much the night before.

 

3. Text. Tweet (DM). Email. Call. That's the order of communication. Get used to it. 

 

4. Enjoy Austin. Pick out at least two types of food you want to get while you're in town, plan meals. Tex-Mex, BBQ, Breakfast Tacos, you name it. Also, check out a couple of shops and buy something for yourself or someone who couldn't make it. 2nd Street District is pretty posh and women-centric; South Congress is the most diverse and will be best for menswear or gift-giving. Try not to pack too many clothes, it'll probably be hot and you'll probably want to take a couple of hours and walk into some shops between panels or meals.

 

Some recommendations:

Coffee – Progress on East 5^th St. or Jo’s on 2^nd Street or Halcyon on 4^th Street

Breakfast/Brunch/Lunch – HopDoddy’s on South Congress or South Congress Café on South Congress or Taverna or Lambert’s on 2^nd Street or Frank’s on Colorado St. or Moonshine on Red River St.

Dinner – G’Raj Mahal off Rainey Street or Park Side on 6^th St. or Haddington’s on West 6^th St. or Buenos Aires on East 6^th St. or Eastside Showroom on East 6^th. or Perla’s on South Congress or Whole Foods off West 6^th St. & Lamar Blvd

Shopping – Women – 2^nd Street & 6^th & Lamar Area; Men – Stag & Service on South Congress; Gifts – South Congress Area; Must See Shops – Mellow Johnnys Bike Shop (Lance Armstrong’s place) and Waterloo Records (one of the last true local music shops left in the US)

Exercise & Health (as if you’re that disciplined) – Run on Lady Bird Lake trail, go to one of Austin’s 22,000 yoga classes, check out Milk & Honey Spa off 2^nd Street for a massage

Other – Alamo Drafthouse – The world’s best movie theatre, check it out if you can squeeze in a film (does not apply to Interactive badge holders only, but you may luck out).

 

5. Set up your party RSVPs before you get here. If you're not on the list before you take off for Austin, you're already at the bottom of the list when you arrive in the nation’s best airport.

 

6. Build in travel time. Either from your hotel or walking, SXSW speeds the world up while slowing transportation down tremendously. Don’t expect to find many cabs after 1:30am unless you’ve called far in advance and given a specific address. Pedicabs are helpful if you’re within a mile of downtown.

 

7. Business cards. Bring plenty. Don't over-share. Make Notes in your phone with contact info, download the Bump app or email/text people the moment you meet them.

 

8. See some shows! If you hover around the Red River area, or check out places like Lambert’s (2^nd Street) or Continental Club (South Congress), you shouldn’t have to struggle to find some good music. Lots of bands play in the days before SXSW Music (if they aren’t on the official roster) and plenty of tech companies bring in great bands and DJs. Bazaarvoice has a great DJ on tap for its party on March 12^th and has arguably the best party location with Lustre Pearl, just a few blocks from the Convention Center.

 

SXSW Interactive Best Bets on Speakers, Panels, Meet Ups & Events: Visit sxsw.com/interactive for additional info. 

 

Start Day - March 9^th

 

“Keeping Loyal Consumers Engaged by Shaking Shit Up”

Ben Lerer, Thrillist CEO/Founder March 9th 2pm

 

“What’s The Next big Thing in Social Networking”

March 9th 5pm

 

A Celebration of American Startups @ ACL Live March 9^th 6:30-12pm

 

Learn for your Employer & Self Day #1 - March 10^th

 

“Can You Tweet That? Social Media & The Law”

March 10th 9:30am

 

“Entertain or Fail: Brands as the New Publishers”

March 10th 9:30am

 

 “Why Rappers Are Better Marketers Than You”

March 10th 11am

 

Ben Casnocha, author “Start-Up of You” & Reid Hoffman, Greylock Partners (LinkedIn Chairman)

“The Startup of You: 21^st Century Career Strategy” March 10th 11am

 

“How Brands Build Advocates by Anticipating Needs”

March 10th 12:30pm

 

“Bridging the Lawyer-Social Media Divide”

March 10th 12:30pm

 

Baratunde Thurston – Director of Digital, The Onion

“How to Read the World” March 10th 2pm

Metabridge & Digby VIP Lounge

March 10th 2:30-7:30pm @ 401 E. 6th Street

Dennis Crowley, foursquare CEO

“Making the Real World Easier to Use” March 10th 3:30

 

“Best Practices for Supervising Millenials” with Betsy Flanagan, VP Social – WellsFargo

March 10th 3:30pm

 

“Your Marketing Sucks: Why You Need to Think Local”

March 10th 3:30pm

 

Foodspotting Street Food Fest @ 2^nd & Congress March 10th 4-10pm

 

“The White House on the Road” with Jose Rico Exec Dir, the White House Initative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics The White House

March 10th 5pm

 

Rainn Wilson, actor, SoulPancake founder

“The View from Inside Rainn Wilson’s Brainstem”

March 10th 5pm

The Cloud Lounge by HP @ The Belmont March 10^th – 12^th 10pm-2am

 

Learn for your Employer & Self Day #2 - March 11^th

 

“The State of Social Marketing”

March 11th 9:30am

 

Steve Case, Chairman – Revolution LLC (AOL, with LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy)

“Tapping Into America’s Secret Sauce: Entrepreneurs” March 11th 11am

 

Google Lounge @ Rainey Street March 10^th 1 11^th 11am-10pm

 

Women in Tech Meet Up

March 11th 11am

 

“Large Enterprise Social Media Professionals, Unite!” Meet Up

March 11th 12:30pm

 

“Brands as API: Connect Differently”

March 11th 12:30pm

 

Customer Experience Meet Up with Sean McDonald

March 11th 3:30pm

 

Social Curation Meet Up

March 11th 3:30pm

 

“Big Data: Privacy Threat or Business Model”

March 11^th 5pm

 

The .net Seven Second Pitch Challenge @ Mohawk March 11^th 8pm-Midnight

Mashable House @ Buffalo Billiars March 11^th 9pm-2am

 

Learn for your Employer & Self Day #3 - March 12^th

 

“Expanding Our Intelligence Without Limit”

Lev Grossman, inventor/entreprenuer & Ray Kurzwell, TIME magazine March 12th 2pm

   

“Content As a Means for Social Change”

Biz Stone, co-founder Twitter March 12th 3:30pm

 

“Big Brands and You: Make the Love Connection”

March 12th 3:30pm

 

Bazaarvoice Party @ Lustre Pearl – March 12^th 6-11pm

 

Relax & Enjoy Austin Day - March 13^th

 

“Pinterest Explained: Q&A With Co-Founder Ben Silbermann”

March 13th 11am

   

“Getting the Most out of Google+”

March 13th 3:30pm

     

Interactive Awards Pre-Party & Ceremony @ Hilton Austin March 13^th 6-9pm

Interactive Closing Party @ Stubbs March 13^th 8:30pm-2am

Fashion Forward Has Become Fashion Follow; Here Are the New Leaders

[The following post originally appeared on Huffington Post.]

I've read biographies about great American leaders since my early childhood. I can still fondly recall things I learned about Ben Franklin, Teddy Roosevelt, MLK and other icons of leadership. The quality that stands out the most is that they all led by doing, and doing first more often than not.

Think about it: Ben Franklin wasn't called "The First American" because he was following in someone else's footsteps. At 42 years of age, Teddy Roosevelt became the youngest president in the nation's history back in 1901. He later became the first president to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Another Peace Prize winner, MLK didn't recall anyone else's dream before sharing his own with the world in that famous speech.

So what does all this have to do with fashion?

Well, through my work in the past few years from launching a pop-up sneaker boutique and creating South by Southwest's fashion footprint with Style X to meeting hundreds of fashion insiders for stories and attending major events like New York Fashion Week, I've come to realize fashion is in a much-needed transition of leadership.

Technology and user-generated content is revolutionizing commerce. Global production capabilities are democratizing quality. Trends are changing more rapidly, but also gaining total reach through the Internet. These aren't the '90s anymore.

The old guard's first question -- whether it's mega-brand executives or esteemed fashion designers or prominent magazine editors -- is always, and I do mean always, "Who else is doing it?"

This is not the mentality of a leader. Instead, it's always about worrying about the competition, gaming the industry, following the trend, and targeting the masses.

The new guard's first question is much different: "No one else is doing it, why shouldn't we?"

It's all about the start-up mentality of finding a gap, creating a niche market, establishing a new trend or behavior pattern and targeting super fans.

From Apple computers to Christopher Nolan's Inception to the Toyota Prius to Twitter to PBS's Austin City Limits to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential election... the new guard and its start-up mentality has deeply impacted and, in most cases, trumped the old guard's approach to established ways of thinking.

It's 2012, and I'm proud to say that I know a handful of people in the fashion business that are a part of a new guard of leaders paving the way for groundbreaking changes to an otherwise stagnant fashion industry hoping for a return to 1990s consumer behavior.

[Author Note: I've invited these leaders down to Austin for Style X and couldn't be happier.]

Here are a few of them and the major industry trends they represent:

Lyst -- For Realizing Social Curation is the Future
Because I fully agree with Macala Wright from FMM; the future of retail will be curated.

Lyst.com is a social commerce website revolutionizing the fashion industry by providing users with a personalized way to discover and shop for fashion online.

"Our curated commerce model surfaces more relevant content and product recommendations for users to shop," said Hilary Peterson, VP of business development at Lyst. "We've been thrilled by the growth which has been driven by connecting more people with products they love."

Refinery29 -- For Understanding That It's Either Go Local or Go Home
Because we live in a global world, but we also live in cities.

"Refinery29's local point of view is a huge point of difference for us; so much of fashion and shopping is local these days from the latest street style bloggers to emerging designers and, of course, boutique owners," opined co-founder Philippe von Borries. "We are building the go-to platform to connect and mobilize consumers to the best in local style and shopping acting as a resource for our consumers and driving awareness and sales for local brands and fashion enthusiasts."

"We get social, and we get what it means to connect to our readers authentically. As a result, we put a lot of care and thought into brand integration and how that impacts the overall experience; ultimately, we prefer to integrate brands only in ways we feel positively add to/enhance our readers' lives," concluded von Borries.

Grungy Gentleman's Jace Lipstein -- For Having True 360-Degree Influence
Because in a sea of so-called fashion "influencers", there are only so many people whom really carry the cards.

"Content is my driving force. When producing thought provoking and substantial content is your complete focus, you will put yourself in a good place," said Jace Lipstein best known as Grungy Gentleman.

Lipstein added, "The most rewarding aspect of what I do is the talent that I am fortunate to constantly be surrounded by. My peers and their brilliance constantly rub off on me and my style."

NAMI's Sarah Nami Ahn -- For Following Her True Passions
Because if we've learned anything from the economic downturn, it's that following your true calling is better than sticking to what you know.

"Life is ephemeral, delicate, and beautiful... all things that were startlingly made aware to me with my brother's near-death (motorcycle) accident; I couldn't spend another moment not doing what I felt passionate about in life, to create art," said Sarah Nami Ahn, who left her Ph.D. in neurosciences behind to launch NAMI.

"My approach to fashion is unique having the background of science; design can be logical, a way of problem-solving to make the most beautiful garment you can with the given variables at hand," she added.

Tortoise & Blonde's Steven & Evan Weisfeld -- For Knowing Family, like Father, Knows Best
Because following in the footsteps of the Olsen Twins and Ari & David Goldberg who founded StyleCaster isn't a bad idea.

"With Tortoise & Blonde, I am able to set the same high standards in quality control by utilizing the years of experience I have in selling eyewear to my patients; the level of consumer confidence is increased knowing that a doctor is behind a company selling Rx eyeglasses, and when needed I can personally address any technical questions the customer may have," said CEO and optometrist Steven Weisfeld.

"I think of it as old meets new school; where my dad is the expert in optometry and fulfillment, I'm able to focus on marketing, strategy and social commerce -- it's a pretty good complement," added son Evan Weisfeld, who is driving the company's outreach to bands like Ra Ra Riot and Jukebox the Ghost.

PR Couture's Crosby Noricks -- For Creating a Network, Not Just a Distribution List
Because the PR industry still has its agency tentacles firmly wrapped around the fashion business, but the game has changed a bit.

"My approach is to strategically drive customer actions in support of business objectives by extend branding enthusiasm through interactive and engaging stories across multiple marketing channels," said Crosby Noricks who founded fashion and retail marketing hub PR Couture.

"Success today requires a commitment of time, resources and creativity to endear the social customer's brand loyalty for the long haul," she added. "We must capture her attention, delight her with information and provide her with shareable tools to demonstrate how her personality, lifestyle and values connect with those of the brand."

My first Instagram photos

It's not that I've not always taken photos of the sky; it's just that I didn't see a reason to alter them before. Credit @baybaysteps and @niraj26 for the change of heart.

Black Friday or Green Monday... Holiday Shoppers Ride the Rainbow

[The following post originally posted on HuffingtonPost.com]

It's not just Santa coming to town, but an epic transformation in commerce. The holiday season gives us a glimpse into the future of shopping behavior, and we're not too far from online shopping becoming the modus operandi of American consumers. Strip malls may never be the same.

According to comScore, e-commerce spending is up 15 percent for the first 39 days of the 2011 holiday season. The nearly $25 billion spent online in that period should not be viewed simply as an indication of lots of holiday cheer. With more online shopping taking place throughout the year, and online consumer confidence tracking with it, the notion of having to go to the store is leaving our collective memories.

Meanwhile, online shopping strategies improve with the proliferation of customer ratings and reviews on brand and retail sites, Facebook fan pages with dynamic shopping apps and mobile device technology aimed at streamlining on-the-go customers.

Etsy, the online destination for all things handmade and vintage, is one of the companies best positioned to benefit from this shift in shopping behavior. The company's remarkable growth under CTO-turned-CEO Chad Dickerson may seem technology-driven, but it's also about consumer buying patterns.

"On Etsy, peak holiday shopping begins with Black Friday and continues through the following weeks. This year our community sold a record amount of goods on Cyber Monday," said Emily Bidwell from Etsy's merchandising team. "Tuesday's sales surpassed that amount, and continue to be strong. In our view it's not about one date on the calendar; it's a time of year when people take advantage of the opportunity to find all their gifts at a value."

And that last word, value, is where it really starts to get interesting. With online retailers being challenged by flash sale sites like Park & Bond, the GQ-Gilt Groupe menswear site, and One Kings Lane, which specializes in housewares, both perceived and real value is on a premium.

Speaking at the Wharton Business School's BizTech event after Black Friday, Edison Ventures' Mike Kopelman said, "the barrier to enter the flash deals business is not high, but the barrier to endure is. "

This may be true, but even if sites like Jack Threads and Fab.com don't have long life spans as businesses, the short-term impact on major retailers and consumer behavior is huge. They are re-writing what value means to consumers, along with companies like Groupon and LivingSocial, which raised another $176 million from private investors recently.

It used to be that Black Friday was a day that consumers knew they'd get the absolute best deal and the most value. That's why the alarms were set and the cars packed with gifts shortly thereafter.

Now there's Green Monday the following week, which happens be called Cyber Week. And Free Shipping Day -- the last day to get a gift delivered before Christmas Eve -- which falls on Dec. 16th this year -- so more price-conscious deals are to be expected. All that said, why worry about being trampled at the entryway to some big box retailer and missing time with the family (or sleep) if that same deal -- if not a better one -- is available the following week or month online?

Perhaps this is a thought one will soon have. But...

"It's not about shopping in person one day, then online another. People are shopping in different channels and expecting the same experience no matter where they are," said Etsy's Bidwell.

Well, OK. So if the Black Friday experience -- at least the fun, shopping-spree experience -- is still desired online, where will consumers go? The main thing that online shopping sites don't provide compared to their brick-and-mortar brethren is a feeling of shared experience and interest. We may all be fighting for that Tickle-Me Elmo or Banana Republic sweater, but at least we're fighting for the same reason.

Lyst.com, a social curation startup that combines features of Twitter with elements of music discovery sites like Last.fm, provides a look at a possible answer. Its members sign up and receive a personalized feed of fashion items relevant to their own tastes. So there you go, reaching for that sweater knowing someone else shares your interest.

"Socially-curated shopping was designed principally to help people discover items for themselves, however, it's now changing the way gifts are bought online as well," said Lyst.com CEO Chris Morton. "Users can now share detailed lists of items they love with friends and family to make sure they get the perfect present as the holiday season approaches."

As the reliance on Black Friday, and brick-and-mortar shopping trips, decreases and the focus on online increases, companies like Etsy, Gilt and Lyst.com stand ready to support your search for unique gifts that come with the backing of a community. But even if it's not them on the front lines, major e-retailers like Walmart and Macy's are certain to adjust to the changing landscape, as well.

Many of these Fortune companies and fashion retailers are already populating their sites with customer conversations in the forms of ratings, reviews, questions, answers and customer stories. The next layer will involve bringing your social networks onto these sites, or vice versa.

Ultimately, you may have to give up that feeling of finding some amazing deal hidden away from the view of others on a Black Friday morning in some back aisle or discounted clothing bin of a big box retailer. In exchange, you'll end up with a lot more time to make your gift purchases backed with the kind of buying confidence that only your friends and family -- Facebook friends and Twitter followers included -- can give you.

Regardless of how it all transpires and what's gained or lost, we should all be pretty excited about the things to come both with the holidays and in the world of commerce.

 

Isn't this why Zuck built it?

Admit it. You sometimes use Facebook to check up on people you used to know. Old elementary, middle, and – most definitely – high school friends. College classmates. Former coworkers. Exes. Yes, exes. No, they don’t all live in Texas. That’s why Facebook is such a wonderful application of technology, isn’t it!?

Anyway, my point is simple: Facebook is a good stalking tool. But this isn’t stalking in the sense of following someone into their apartment building or grocery store. No, that’s real stalking. Like what happens to movie stars. Or Erin Andrews, bless her heart. No, I’m talking about Facebook stalking.

I know you won’t believe me, but this isn’t something I make a habit of (who wouldn’t say that, I know), but I promise you I’m being honest. Long story short, I ended up spending a couple of minutes…seriously, just a couple of minutes…searching around to see what was going on with some girls I dated in the past.

Not to name names or point fingers, but I ended my Facebook stalking session in a weird place because of what I found. I have three main conclusions: 1) I’m definitely at that age where all my exes start getting engaged (I counted three in the last 6 months alone). 2) I'm happy for them, but (and this is the crudest, cruelest thing I’ll ever say) I think I got the best of them, 3) I am a rather pathetic person. I mean would I want my exes looking at my Facebook pictures and making conclusions about my level of happiness, the person I’m dating, the life I live, the places I travel, etc.? Probably not.

But this damn Facebook thing is too damn powerful. I feel like it’s a waste of good technology not to catch up on old friends and flames. I mean that is why Zuck built it, right?

Maybe I should think about creating a category of blogs for regrettable posts. What do you think?

 

[Post-Disclaimer: My girlfriend says she doesn’t read my blog because they always seem to rub her the wrong way, so I’m going to chalk this one up as one of those blogs she won’t lay her eyes on. That, of course, means she will. As The Wire’s McNulty would say with a dumbfounded look, “what did I do?”]

What Steve Jobs Meant to Me

I don’t know what Steve Jobs’ death means to you. I don’t know what his life meant to you either. But I know what it all means to me.

I could try to write a diatribe about Steve Jobs’ impact on our generation. I could write a dissertation about how much of a factor he’s been on American society. But it’d all be a waste.

I say this because the only thing that matters to me right this moment: celebrating what Steve Jobs meant to me, personally.

Perhaps it’s selfish. Perhaps it’s too soon. Forgive me. My girlfriend Deva and I were having sushi and had just returned home while talking about my need for white space. Something a Ph.D. just told me after I did a Myers-Briggs test, too. That’s when I found out about Steve Jobs’ death.

Writing, it turns out, is my white space. As you can see from my lack of blogs posts here these last few weeks, I haven’t had a lot of that either. But Steve Jobs’ death is my source of inspiration right this moment. It’s why I’ve created white space for myself. To celebrate his life and what he’s meant to me.

Steve Jobs wasn’t a quitter. That’s what he meant to me. Seeing him at product announcements or on TV was always a reminder of his inability to quit.

We live in a society full of big problems that continually lack leadership, life-long dedication and sustained passion of self-described “creatives” or academically smart kids.

Many of these young people, unlike Jobs, grew up with well-to-do biological parents, attained college degrees, and have plenty reason to succeed in this world from the start. Still, it’s troubling how many are quitters; how many forget the truly important and big problems their talent is intended for and choose less confrontational paths; paths with much less purpose and far too much pleasure. Not everyone can lead and invent, true. But why so few join and innovate is disheartening.

Sure, Steve Jobs obviously liked nice things and interesting people like the rest of us, otherwise he wouldn’t have been so good at forecasting our desires. However, he always seemed to see the forest through the trees. The big and upcoming problems – albeit technologically focused - through the apathy and bullshit of the small and current issues.

This thinking allowed him to help spawn innovations in entertainment (Pixar), operating software (NeXT) and the music industry (iTunes). He never quit on the philosophy of innovation that he developed as a young man and mastered throughout his life.

Steve Jobs may have dropped out of college, but he didn’t quit doing the college thing: learning. At the 2005 Stanford University commencement, he spoke of the calligraphy class that helped him learn the significance of fonts in design. The impact of that college experience was free to him, but he paid it back to society by creating a computer company that helped us see beyond floppy and onward to flat.

Steve Jobs may have lost his job at Apple, the company he started years before, but he didn’t stop innovating. He didn’t quit serving his life’s purpose. Pixar is just one of the great things that came out of his time away from Apple early on, and we can thank that studio for movies like Toy Story and Up. These aren’t just movies with animated figures to ooh and aah at. These are films with animated characters with real stories to share.

Steve Jobs may have taken a break from Apple after getting pancreatic cancer, but he didn’t take a break from living. He got back on the saddle as CEO and gave us the iPad, further exposed our need for technology products that didn’t just do inherently, but technology enablers that helped us to do more intuitively.

Steve Jobs may have died today, Wednesday, October 5, 2011, but he sure as hell didn’t quit. That means more to me than anything I can buy in the Apple store.

What I learned from the Etsy CTO-turned-CEO

The following post originally showed on the Bazaarvoice Developer Blog.

I’ll be the first to tell you that my background isn’t at all in engineering or software development. I’ve spent much of the last eight years in business advisory, communications consulting and operations roles. Still, one of the best things about working at Bazaarvoice has been working with and learning from highly-talented technology leaders. Mike Svatek, our chief product officer, Scott Bonneau, our VP of Engineering, and Jon Loyens, who leads BV Labs, are just a few of the people I’ve had the opportunity to work with in my first four months here.

But it’s not just the management team here at Bazaarvoice that has taught me plenty about the R&D functions of a tech company; last month I attended an event in New York (hosted by First Round Capital) where the CTO-turned-CEO of Etsy, Chad Dickerson, spoke about building a world-class dev organization. Going from CTO to CEO is not a traditional route even in today’s technology startup environment, but Chad stands out for making the transition amidst Etsy’s rapid growth. Under his watch, the company’s dev team grew from 20 to 80 engineers in around a year’s time and has seen page views go from 200 million to one billion per month. Talk about hyper-growth!

And what exactly did I learn from Chad’s talk? Well, for starters, he’s a big-time fan of Peter Drucker, one of the top business minds of the last century, who is credited with having shaped much of today’s common management theory and executive MBA programs. On several occasions, Chad quoted Drucker, including one of his most famous lines: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

The culture Chad spoke of began with continuous deployment. He was very much in opposition of traditional “releases”, QA, lengthy and multi-layered “sign off” processes and having a single individual tasked with being the official release engineer. He cited each as reasons for delays in innovation and improvements to features that customers want more and more as the company grows, stating, “as you get bigger, the demands for new features goes up.” He shared that one of the job duties for every new engineer is to release code on their very first day on the job and agrees with Clay Shirky that, “process is an embedded reaction to prior stupidity.”

However, whether or not Etsy’s development policies and practices are directly related to the systems we have in place at Bazaarvoice wasn’t as important to me as the way Chad spoke about promoting an engineer-friendly, technology-driven culture. After all, our business models are very different. The culture piece, though, was of particular interest because here at Bazaarvoice we very much embrace many of the same concepts Chad spoke of when referring to Etsy.

At one point, Chad was asked a question about recruiting and he said, flat out, “Do what it takes to hire super stars.” Well, funny he should say that because every week it seems, we’re bringing on first-rate talent for our dev team, from proven technology business leaders to kick-ass coders. The culture here, the culture that enables us to be the perennial “Best Place to Work in Austin”, starts with people and top-notch talent. It also involves optimizing for developer happiness, something Chad mentioned, by finding ways to give our people the satisfaction of finishing a job. Drucker is the originator of that last statement, too.

As a self-described risk-taker, I loved what Chad had to say about this quality, again quoting Drucker:

“People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”

Chad said, “It’s better to be aggressive and make mistakes than be tentative and make mistakes.” Blameless post mortems, Chad said, was the key to creating an environment where small production changes are made daily will certainly lead to minor mistakes, but that small corrections typically address these issues. The tendency to pull back and slow things down was not their M.O., but rather to “roll forward” to progress. I’m a big fan of that mindset.

One of the last things Chad spoke about was doing things to make engineers heroes within the business, which is something customarily reserved for sales guys who bring in the revenue. He said that one of his 2011 goals as CEO is to have every engineer to blog for Etsy, significantly contribute to an open source project or speak at a conference to continue the company’s generosity-filled culture.

After having the privilege of hearing from Chad for two hours, I became doubly enamored with the technology leaders and the team they’re managing here at Bazaarvoice because many of these principles, even if not pulled directly from a Peter Drucker book, are applied in our business.

• Faith in humanity
• Sleepless nights
• Informed risk taking
• Incremental change

These were the four keys to dev team success listed by Chad. I haven’t had many sleepless nights since joining Bazaarvoice four months ago, and I’m comfortable saying the main reason is because the other three keys are top of mind every day.

On Social Media: Communicate First, Leverage Second

The following post was originally written and posted on MCSTEI.com.

On Social Media: Communicate First, Leverage Second

“The first step is to communicate via social media… and then we can start talking about using these new tools as a platform for education.” – Social Media Schools.com

 

The connection between learning and technology is nothing new. Public radio has been a source of education for citizens of the U.S. for decades (think NPR). The television significantly revolutionized the way American children learned in their early developmental years (Sesame Street anyone?). Texas Instruments’ graphing calculators greatly impacted the way math and science teachers taught important math-based lessons. Computers…well, computers do everything it seems.

If we’re using history as a gauge, it’s safe to say social media – the hot new technology development of the decade – will benefit American learning, too. In fact, there are plenty of educators and education-based institutions and organizations already realizing the benefits of going social.

Among them is Eric Sheninger, principal of New Milford High School in New Jersey. Eric can be found on Twitter @NMHS_Principal. If you’re on Twitter (or join today) and begin following him, you’ll join the 13,000-plus others who’ve already done so. A sample of some of his recent Tweets show that he’s found some interesting education-focused blogs and he’s connected with fellow educators around the country to share technology tips.

In sharing why he has made Twitter such an important aspect of his education career, Sheninger said the social networking site was, “the most powerful learning tool that I’ve ever experienced in my education career." And he would know; Sheninger is a Google Certified Teacher, co-author of "Communicating and Connecting With Social Media: Essentials for Principals", an education writer for the Huffington Post, and was named to the National School Board Association’s "20 to Watch" list in 2010 for technology leadership.

Now not every principal or teacher will be Twitter-savvy and become education industry celebrities in the way Sheninger has over the past two years - his blog, A Principal’s Reflections, earned first runner up in the Best Administrator Blog category in 2010 from Edublogs. However, this shouldn’t mean that you should hesitate to join the popular social network and begin absorbing education content and insights yourself.

Some may look at Twitter and say to themselves, “wait a minute, you think this thing that celebrities and pro athletes use to talk about taking their dog for a walk could be a good tool for education?” My answer is 100% yes. Why? Because Twitter is all about listening and sharing: two of the most important things teachers help students learn throughout their academic careers. Listen to instructions. Listen to what the speaker is saying. Listen to how we came up with this geometry answer. Share with your fellow students. Share something about your science fair project. Share with us why you think Hamlet was so conflicted? If all the bells and whistles of Twitter are reduced to these two functions, we can immediately begin realizing the inherent value in having a 24/7, round-the-world social tool to listen to what’s being said and share things you believe have worked in the classroom. Best practices, case studies, lesson plans, curriculum ideas…all of it is up for grabs on Twitter.

There are approximately 150 million Americans on Facebook, many of whom are likely teachers and, millions more, students. Where Facebook is viewed as a personal destination, something done away from the classroom, Twitter – thanks to Sheninger and the thousands of other teachers on the site – is ready-built for professional purposes.

Rockdale, Texas, school superintendent Dr. Howell Wright can be found @howellwright and he has 762 followers. Jill Geiser, a middle school principal in Massachusetts, has 245 followers. Mary Beth Hertz (@MBTeach), a K-6 technology teacher in Philadelphia, has 7,000-plus followers. Whether you have a dozen followers or 12,000, Twitter just may be that powerful learning tool Sheninger referred to.

In late 2010, a study analyzed how students performed when asked to use Twitter to do assignments and found that students who were asked to "contribute to class discussions and complete assignments using Twitter increased their engagement over a semester more than twice as much as a control group." Another study, this one by the University of Minnesota, found that students who are already on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter could benefit from having those sites incorporated into their curriculum.

And it’s not just curriculum that educators can tap into social media to improve classroom performance by students. Edutopia.org writer Fran Smith once wrote, “Schools have always taught kids how to present themselves -- that's why we did oral presentations in the classroom. Now we need to teach them to present themselves electronically. That's why it's so scary to lock these technologies out.”

Karen Cator from U.S. Department of Education tends to agree. "Think about not only incorporating technology into your lessons, but creating more and more compelling assignments so that 21st century skills, the kinds of things students will have to develop in terms of critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, global participation -- that these are incorporated into assignments. The best spaces will incorporate social media, and interacting with others. "

A Mashable article titled, The Case For Social Media in Schools, detailed multiple benefits in using social networking in the classroom including the story of Portland, Oregon, 7th-grade teacher Elizabeth Delmatoff. Delmatoff started a pilot social media program in her class and 20 percent of students school-wide were completing extra assignments for no credit, grades had gone up more than 50 percent, and chronic absenteeism was reduced by more than a third.

While some readers may be thinking that sites like Facebook and Twitter are limited to high school and college students, the reality is that more and more young students are hopping online. Between 2004 and 2009, the amount of time that kids between the ages of 2 and 11 spent online increased by 63 percent, according to a Nielson study. Matt Hardy, a 3rd and 4th grade teacher in Minnesota, has used blogs in his classroom since 2007 as a way to motivate students to write. “Students aren’t just writing on a piece of paper that gets handed to the teacher and maybe a smiley face or some comments get put on it,” Hardy said.

All this being said, the choice to use social media as a way to improve the way you effectively teach students is yours and yours alone. There is no social-media-silver-bullet in education theory or practical implementation. There isn’t a website that has “Facebook-fied” your entire lesson plan for today or presented a top-ten list for standardized test score improvements made possible through Twitter.

Still, Liz Dwyer, an education writer for Good believes, “America's students deserve teachers who've been taught well themselves, and right now, Twitter is the best way for educators to get a continuing professional education.”

For now, all you have is a few examples and case studies like those shared above. It’s up to you to discern the value from these and figure out precisely how you can tap into these social networking sites and develop some social media best practices for the way you teach. The first step, however, is to follow your students (and fellow educators) online and start using Facebook, Twitter, blogs and the like to communicate. If you do choose to get on Twitter, feel free to use the hashtag #ITeachIAm.

After all, this campaign’s true purpose and value is to live on through you, teachers, as a resource for concepts, content and communicating about what it takes to be an effective teacher. Using Twitter and other social media channels effectively, as Principal Eric Sheninger has, is but one way to get started.