Posted by Marshall Sponder on May 14, 2009 | Link It
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When I blog I write in my own voice and people come and read my posts if they want to; I think of this as my own Voice, it’s technical and probing.
When writing for Publications I found that naural voice needs to be modified to the needs of an existing readership, and that’s been an adjustment for me, still adjusting, in fact.
ConversationAgent.com had a post, today, on writing for the customer, it made me realize the customer is different, to some extent, for different publications, and my Voice, writing voice, needs to adapt.
Btw, Data Stories at Google NYC, is happening tonight, it’s a SEMPO event.
Posted by Marshall Sponder on May 06, 2009 | Link It
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This is post, mostly, about the state of mind for doing effective Analytics work.
Have noticed, that, what I consider to be my best work, often gets done when I can afford to be playful with Analytics and when there’s room to focus vs. Being Diagnostic.
It’s almost as if, being present, mindful, alert, yet relaxed, at the very same moment, is that optimal “zone” from which to operate out of.
Steps to reach that place might be different for each person; tried to mentally note what did it for me.
Analytics work can often be full of dry and tedious, diagnostic details and procedures, and I suspect, the very nature of Analytics might interfear with creativity; but in some cases, it enhances it.
One case would be doing diagnostic tasks to learn how campaigns are set up and run, how a business works. The detail work can be a grounding mechinism, after a while the details gets internalized, freeing energy up to be creative with.
What I am finding is there needs to be a systematic, diagnostic underpinning to Analytics but we also need move past that, think creatively, to come up with something important, almost as if it was seen for the first time.
I guess that’s why I like watching Monk, or earlier, Colombo; a lot of Analytics is detective work, but the best detectives are creative thinkers, who use their grounding in diagnostics to take them to a new insight, new level.
Posted by Marshall Sponder on April 21, 2009 | Link It
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I’m on a panel this morning at Bloomberg LP on Leverging NYC Resources and will approach the advantages of being an Entrepreneur or Startup in New York City. As mentioned in my last post, I’ll focus on New York as a Social Media Hub: New York that’s unique from any other place in the world and a much better place to be, now, than the Bay Area, for example, which is in worse shape than NYC in terms of Job Loss, etc.
New York City is the Social Media Hub of the World:
There’s more Meetup groups in New York than anywhere else; In fact – I’m convinced there’s more professional opportunities to connect, especially in the Technical and Arts communities, than any other place, and some of the Meetups I’ve gone to have been packed full of Influentials and great information including:
Over by my table, before Marshall Sponder, Web Analyst and Artist, plopped down with his juicy burger, and as Oz Sultan, Digital Strategist side, hugged me, I met Shaman D’Souza who is “in transition” — AKA unemployed and hungry! Because she was so lovely and because I have been there, I’d like to take this opportunity to pimp her out, as they say… She has tons of consumer marketing experience with all the fun stuff that goes with it like event planning and being able to speak like a human to people. She’s very outgoing and vivacious — strikes me as business-fearless. Shoot me an email if you want her contact info. Moving on — bullet time! Let’s see what John Gerzema, AKA “Bubble Boy,” had to say:
The Metaverse Meetup is a valuable place to both find out about the Virtual World Community that lives in NYC area, but also, to find very talented programmers who are able to work on innovative projects, and often that’s not easy to find – but that’s just the kind of technical resoruce you’d want and need as an Entrepreneur. I enjoy the impromptu meetups that sometimes happen with this group, like the one in Williamsburg this Sunday afternoon featuring some well known Virtual World personalities.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg outlining initiatives to retrain financial services workers.
Under a program unveiled on Wednesday by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the city wants to invest $45 million in government money to retrain investment bankers, traders and others who have lost jobs on Wall Street, as well as provide seed capital and office space for new businesses those laid-off bankers might create.
The plan is intended to stem a potential exodus of banking professionals from the city during the restructuring of the financial services industry, which has been the city’s economic engine for decades, and to speed the industry’s recovery, which will take at least several years, officials said.
he city’s Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) plans to announce a new initiative to partner with a number of local start-up workspace companies. These office space providers rent desks, cubicles, conference rooms, and other resources to new and small businesses that aren’t yet ready to take the full plunge into office space in a notoriously expensive market.
According to a source in the city’s venture capital community, the agreement means that participating workspaces will provide discounted services and event space access to the city in exchange for promotion and publicity. Basically, this means that instead of actively developing rival shared work spaces–which could undercut existing private ones–NYC EDC will primarily collaborate with the ones that are already there.
A media relations representative from NYC EDC confirmed to CNET News that there would be an announcement on Wednesday but declined to provide any details.
The source said that initial partners in the agreement include Sunshine Suites, Nutopia, and New Work City, among others. But the partnership’s first hub will be at 160 Varick St., in the SoHo neighborhood, which had already been selected by NYC EDC as a collaborative workspace.
And another type of meetup that I often find helpful to attend is the various Social Media Breakfasts (Jeff Pulver and Social Media Club both put on breakfasts on a regular basis).
New York is a Great Place for Startups …
Another thing about the New York Technical Community is the great resources it has just for Startups, in general starting with Ultra Light Startups (recently referred to as Self-Help for Startups, by Businessweek) and where I recently spoke on Ultra Light Web Analytics – which takes place at For Your Imagination, on W.27th Street in Chelsea part of Manhattan. Ultra Light Startups focus on those beginning a startup and wanting to connect with others who can help them or collaborate.
When you get a little father along with our plans and have already formed a business and have funding, you can get your business looked at by a panel, while the audience watches, at The Hatchery; as the site suggests Unique technology companies Submit to pitch at the Hatchery and in return, they receive priceless guidance and feedback from successful Entrepreneurs.
It’s interesting that “Conversations” are defined and mapped by Mailana and the most important conversations are being revealed by tools like this, from a Twitter follower.
Another Web 2.0 tool that can help you idnetify influentials and what to talk to them about is MicroPlaza which allows you u Discover relevant information filtered by the people you follow on Twitter. If you can hone in on just those relationships that you indentify or know of you can find out what’s happening, almost before anyone else does.
Yet, the technical abilities of the platforms I just named, are not that reliable and insecure, and yet, we’re using just these very tools a lot more often now – but that’s a topic for a different post than this one.
