| Rayne Today Searching for dharma, in spite of the weather...
Cutting out the bloody blog software niche Nobody asked me, but now that I’m a “grande dame” -- having survived my first year in the blogosphere -- I’m going to tell you what I discovered along the way. A software company desiring to carve a successful niche in blogging should offer: 1) Low barriers to entry The software should be able to be installed, launched, used several times a day, updated and renewed by Joe AverageUser. This means it should be no more complicated than a simple piece of word processing software off the shelf. No, not website editing software, not editing software, not graphics editing software. Word processing. The kind even kids in grade school could manage on their own. 2) Support options that are plentiful and responsive Meaning: a lucid on-line tutorial and manual, a thriving on-line interactive support system which responds in four hours or less to requests. If the manuals and tutorials are effective, the need for an on-line interactive support system is nominal. Directed entry option (a.k.a. "wizard" in some applications) might be awfully nice for newbies. (A moderately open or encouraged co-development community will ease pressure on support as well.) 3) Indifference to ISP location Users should be free to host their blog anywhere. Period. No limitations to the “walled garden”. (It’s the “information wants to be free” maxim at work.) Surely a software company can see the advantage to invading, I mean, permeating other ISP space... 4) Intuitive URL’s Livejournal, Radio, Blogspot. Need I name more? AOL Journals. Solve this. Or Google's going to get eat this slice of the pie. 5) Services offered as a value-added proposition A directory to locate blogs (apparently AOL Journals folks have never heard of Blogrings…they sure make it difficult to find somebody’s blog). A service listing recent updates and queries (Why are Technorati and Popdex so popular? Hello?). Options for hosting and storage upgrades. A good portal that permits access to all service and offers the chance to form community around the software or around blogs and content. Services offered on scale: free blogging with advertising, paid without advertising, flexible services with an additional smaller fee… 6) Flexibility for the techie geeks and serious writers Software that allows for a high degree of sophistication in customization by users – particularly those who insist on writing lots of code and tweaking every graphic. Ample space for writers who post thousands and thousands of characters at a pop. (2500 character limit? my eye…) 7) Ease of data entry Allow posting from multiple users in group blog format; permit users to post using messaging, email, cell phones. 8) Ready migration from old platform to new platform Make it brain dead for users to migrate to another blogging software. It’s one of the biggest hurdles for existing so-called A-lister / connector / high-end bloggers; why screw up your traffic and mess with your readers’ perceptions by making a risk-filled migration that might cost a lot of downtime and content? 9) Reliability Reliable and consistent uptime on blogs should go without saying. Comments facilities seem to be horrible across a number of different softwares. If more than half of blogs published rely on comments for encouraging traffic, unreliable comments can seriously damage users experience. Fix the servers or the software, please! I’m not asking for much, am I? Yeah, sure, RSS whatever. If a user can’t start blogging easily and stay blogging readily, what good is RSS? Take a good look around the Salon blogs. Even with a free trial the conversion rate appears to be less than 50%. We’re coming up on blog number 3000 inside 14 or so months. Only 10% to 20% survive and post regularly. Is it Salon’s fault? Hell no; it’s a pretty sweet deal they’re offering, allowing Salon readers to migrate into Salon blogs and try one for free. Is part of the problem the bloggers themselves? In part; some people simply don’t have the drive to write frequently even though it may sound appealing at first. They don't usually make the trial period. You can read between the lines and make your own assumptions. Even a stupid, non-A-Lister blogger like me can do that much.  comment []
DharmaSurfing: The surf isn’t Occasionally I am prodded by well-meaning friends and loved ones who think I must be quite bored or in need of pin money to apply for a burger flipping job or some other equally-stimulating-low-paying position. Here’s what Monster.com has for me to choose from today, were I so inclined:
This is it, everything that Monster.com has posted for a city with a population over 210,000, everything within 30 miles of my zip code. I’m pretty certain that a number of these are already filled, but the company failed to pull their listing off Monster – like the couple of postings for the local marine sales outfit. Their season has ended; if they needed help, they’ve already gotten it and might even be looking at layoffs in the next month. There are more jobs posted for one day, today, The local newspaper lists a few more jobs, but half of them are in healthcare. If I could stand the sight of blood or actually tolerate using medical terminology without being squeamishly nauseous, I’d consider changing careers. I'm wondering how those 378 people being let go by GM-Powertrain will react when they confront this list for the first time.
Damn. I feel their pain. My husband’s boss has asked me twice in the last year, Don’t you want to do something to keep your skills current? Like what? I want to ask him. Point to it, right here on this list. Surely he must see something I’m missing that will fit a former IT project manager with a degree in management (no estimating or construction background, sorry) with the flexibility needed for a dual-career family with two kids. Oh yeah, benefits and a wage that actually covers my daycare costs might be nice. --- [Just an aside: Why is there still a posting for a “Regional Bioterrorism Preparedness Coordinator”? Makes me feel so safe and secure, thirty miles away from a major chemical plant and 10 miles away from an international airport.] comment []
DharmaSurfing: Another casualty Who, me? Nah…I’m fine, just waiting for a call for an interview that should have come last week. The HR contact was generous enough to call me and explain that the project team was having difficulty scheduling time for an interview. That’s not a good sign about this project team, speaking from experience. No, the casualty is another manufacturing plant in this neck of the woods. The recent UAW negotiations found union folks struggling to keep as many jobs as possible; only 378 workers will be “affected” locally. (Don’t you just love euphemisms like “affected”? Yeah. Me too. I’m just another “affected discouraged unemployed worker”; these 378 poor saps will have a year to catch up and earn my title.) 378 more jobs will vaporize, never to be replaced. Workers with no prospects of other jobs in this area; there are very few prospects within a two or three hour drive of this area. This could be written off as the continuing death knell for the automotive industry; the bells have been tolling for over a decade here, waiting for the slow death as the industry bleeds out jobs overseas and suffocates from market share loss to nimbler competitors. The challenge locally is the lack of a replacement industry; there’s nothing here that will take the place of this manufacturing base. No other real manufacturing that’s not related to the automotive industry; no technology businesses wanting workers for their white rooms. It’s going to be grim. There is one little bright spot, more like a little smudge in the soot. The “affected” plant earmarked for closure is part of the Powertrain business for General Motors. There’ve been rumors running rampant that this business will be spun off from GM in the near future. This plant closure could be a sign that GM’s attempting to pare Powertrain to its saleable best. So? What’s so good about that, you might wonder? Another spin-off, more workers “affected”…how’s that good, you’re asking. It’s a real sign that fuel cell-powered cars are not too far behind. Who needs an automotive powertrain based on internal combustion if there’s fuel cell power? And the other little glimmer amidst the smoke is the big piss-off this represents to Exxon. Exxon laughed at GM when GM asked them if they’d like to co-develop the fuel cell technology. There’s lots and lots of cheap oil, Exxon said; so sorry, we’re going another way. I’m laughing at the potential for great irony here. But I know 378 people won’t be laughing about this any time soon. comment []
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