Excel 2010 Data Analysis and Business Modeling Third Edition by Wayne L Winston offers an impressive amount of real applied knowledge within a handy volume. Winston delivers an authoritative and exhaustive tome that functions as a superb reference source — the breadth of material covered is very impressive. It is quite apparent that the third iterations has make for a finely tuned volume. The structure of chapters provide a semi-cookbook style beginning with a ‘Questions answered in this chapter’ section which gives a useful and applied scope to each chapter. There follows very useful hands-on examples, with concluding ‘test’ questions to reinforce the lesson. Chapter length is short and too the point.

Overall, the ‘lessons’ are delivered succinctly and with direct application, which I found very useful. Although it is targeted at Excel 2010 and I am a 2011 on OSX user, much of it was immediately practicable and I could make allowances for slight user interface variances, thus making this a good tool for both Windows and OSX users. This is not the sort of book that you read from beginning to end, but rather a reference source to give you a solution to the problem at hand.

From a didactic standpoint, this volume does provide a good grounding in the principles behind analysis and ways in which you can interpret the results generated by Excel. Although it begins very much as an Excel manual to establish a basing grounding in necessary functions and Excel’s way of doing things it quickly adopts a strategy to address real business modeling and data analysis challenges and chapters gear themselves towards these practicalities. This is a hefty volume and directed towards hands-on business professionals with a specific application.

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In The Art of Community, Jono Bacon tackles the task of explaining how to attract, build and maintain productive collaborative online communities. Bacon has had impressive credentials to author such a book and draws from his experience skillfully. With over ten years experience in the open source community he has the hands-on experience with initiatives such as community manager for Ubuntu, KDE and OpenAdvantage.

The book is organised logically with a healthy selection of applied chapters in designing a strategy, understanding the sociological aspects behind community formation, through understanding community health and dealing with issues that arise. Bacon freely admits that this is an absolutely fluid non-science in constant evolution and stays well to the principles couched in his own experience.

I like the lyrical style of the book. Bacon keeps the prose surprisingly light for the nature of the topic (i.e. he could easily fall to using too much jargon to impact a scientific palour — he effectively avoids this). I like his constant interjections from personal experience and informal language. Sections are kept shorter and readable and he has made an attempt to distill learning into a series of specific and focus points. Additionally he carries a useful thread through his narrative reminding the reader at regular instances of what has been covered and where we should be at in the process of understanding. Notwithstanding this he does not attempt to imply that there is a tried and proven process that will lead to success, instead suggesting that he is sharing one path of many. The definition of this path is well illustrated and logically delineated. The basis is provided for each and thus allow for individual adjustment or judgement of whether it is applicable.

This book effectively combines the philosophical with the technical specifics. Although generally aimed at the strategic level in the chapter on ‘Supporting Workflow with Tools’ for example, Bacon provides constructive and useful real world examples of hands-on use with specific tools, and consistently ties these to the larger principles of change management process in light of the wider principles of assessment and response.

This a useful book not just for those directly charged with the the emerging task of community manager, but also those that have the vision to realise the importance of maintaining community whether they are on the financial or marketing side of the organisation.

I would further recommend this book as a less detailed read for those hoping to quickly grasp the importance of the task and the evolution of the marketplace in the era of Enterprise 2.0.

Also…check out the companion website to the book.

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Tim O’Reilly’s keynote at the Graphing Social Patterns conference seems to have readily accepted the term ‘Social Graph’, recently applied by Mark Zuckerberg to his FaceBook service. Reading Sean Ammirati’s coverage of the talk reminded me of my own reservations about this term. When I first heard it I was a little confused. The immediate question was how is this different from a Social Network? — a term I thought I was familiar with. Realizing that this is tip to graph theory I wondered if referring to a rather abstract theoretical construct helps anyone to understand the Social Network phenomenon. Apparently I wasn’t the only one and Josh Catone raised very similar concerns when he asked, Is it Time to Retire the Social Graph? There is a rather brisk discussion taking place amongst the pundits on this distinction. Josh covers this discussion briefly and concisely. Dave Winer questions whether there is benefit to introducing a new term that doesn’t seem to contribute to the public understanding of a potentially abstract concept. I particularly like his plea “Copy editors, just change “social graph” to “social network.” Robert Scoble weighs in in support of the term and suggests that a Social Network is a rather narrow and shallow entity and that it reflects relationships as they may exist without the aid of services such as Zuckerberg’s, but that graph provides us with a truer way of describing networks (or graphs) that are in fact more abstract communities of shared interest that have arisen through the application of social networking technologies. If I am able to get his gist.

Reflection on and subsequent discussion seem to have moved in two very divergent directions. One follows the marketing tale and wonders if graph is the right term from a market resonant standpoint. I admit to agreeing that graph has little traction let alone stopping someone in their tracks confused — and there are of course those in some schools that figure this is an appropriate form of advertising. I don’t and there are far too many technical terms that can be thrown about to confuse. We need more that allow more people to appreciate and understand abstract concepts, if only for sake of understanding. Social Network works for me — and I sense for many people. Maybe Zuckerberg is trying to differentiate, pontificate or find a niche as a philosopher. He’s already got a service that’s shaking the world.

The other angle on the discussion ponders how the term ‘Social Network’ is as yet rather ill-defined relative to the gap between social network theory and the paradigm shift that is happening with the advent of services such as FaceBook. In this discussion there is a place for discussion of the Social Graph — and reflection on the how theory can help us to appreciate what is going on. That being said, the theory should evolve and I am sure is. Graph does raise the issue and give us pause to consider whether the theory is reflecting the practise.

Update: Looks like the term ‘social graph’ is being cemented in place.

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Web2.0 seems to be a lot about invite-only betas. We hear about them through a variety of media and we patiently wait and often salivate. We sign up to receive invites or even just sign up to be notified when a service becomes more mature. Invites create a buzz and certainly the whole GMail launch strategy made an art out of this marketing strategy. I will admit to being a victim of much marketing. I like my toys. There’s a new service that I stumbled across the other day that allows you to ask for, receive and then share invites to these sacred sites: Mashable Invites.
I have been using the service for a couple days and have been amazed at how fast others share thier invites with you. Its a cool concept. I like getting and I like sharing. This thing actually works. What is particularly important about this process is that it works. Its built on community and sharing and people do just that. Its one more quick response to changes being made in cyberspace.
Its simple to use. You create an account. You can browse through the list of sites that that are being tracked. if one interests you, you simply ask for an invite. Your email is added to a list of people requesting invites. Shortly you will discover that someone has sent you an invite. You can join the beta site. The idea now is that you should return the favour and and go back and send invitations to the top emails on the list. If you send invites and people confirm receiving them, you will discover that your name is raised up the list next time you request an invite. You are rewarded for returning favours. That’s what the site is all about.
So if you are hankering for an invite to that hot new site…check it out.
Oh, and one more thing…(yeah it was a Steve Jobs keynote day) it’s really handy to be able to subscribe via RSS to a feed of the site and you’ll be informed when new sites are added to the invite list.

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Kudos to Nokia for adding the smarts to their cell phones to let a user know to unplug the charger from the wall socket. Apparently this simple operation (presuming people actually do unplug the phones — as opposed to leaving them plugged in and charging all night) will allow saving “enough electricity to power 85,000 homes a year”. From their press release I gather that 1/3 of the energy consumed by cell phones and chargers is by leaving the charger plugged into a live socket after the phone has been unplugged. A simple code addition to add the warning to the phone promises significant energy savings. The big question is, what about all those other non-operational appliances running in the home and still plugged into a live socket? Maybe there is promise in having smarter appliances start to help their owners to learn how to conserve energy. You know? I might even be able to start unplugging my charger without having my phone telling me to do so.

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A great online historical tour of the University of Guelph campus is now available. It doesn’t feature whizzbang flash effects or implement AJAX functionality. Instead, it delivers a smooth and effective tour in a simple and compelling fashion with simple html. It’s pleasingly lo-tech, well executed and a great example of matching technology to needs.
I stumbled onto the link when I was adding the UofG RSS feed to my reader this morning. It’s an obscure link on the University of Guelph website and easily missed, which is my biggest criticism of the implementation. The University should make a bigger deal about their ability to provide a virtual experience of one of the finest University campuses in Canada. The other criticism is that when ‘taking’ the tour there are no credits given for who contributed to the project. It’s a great implementation and initiative and I for one would like to know and applaud those who made it possible. I did a quick search and discovered short stories in back issues of the alumni magazine (I get one of these, but missed the story last year) and in the weekly official newspaper at Guelph. The project apparently stems from the passion of a Guelph alumnus in chemistry, Martin Bosch. He spearheaded the placement of a series of historical plaques around campus and clearly he or someone else felt an accompanying web tour would complement the project. This tour is well overdue. I think this is a great project and superb execution, I only wish that the creators had greater acknowledgment and that the university was making a bigger deal about it.

This of course got me thinking about how other universities celebrate their heritage. The immediate sense is that they celebrate it by constantly canvassing donors and university history focuses on alumni. This is not to say that this is not an absolutely essential exercise, but I wonder about what role institutional heritage plays in the minds of students, both current and potential. How well does the school market itself to its existing and future clients (apologies for those that don’t like the commercial usage, but I couldn’t use the ever increasingly popular ‘stakeholders’).
A quick canvas of Canadian university websites reveals that remembering campus heritage is a mixed bag. No surprise there.
University of Victoria: Features a nice photomontage. I personally love aerial shots and watching the evolution of a plan into reality is fascinating, but I am struck by the lack of people in the story and the broad scale of the perspective.
The University of British Columbia has a goodly collection of online histories. They have collected these into a list. Unfortunately, with this there is a lack of cohesion. You can wander off and explore things at your leisure, but its three levels below the main web level. Again, rather removed from mainstream university culture. But hey, I didn’t know that UBC is just a branch campus of McGill ;-)
Interestingly, the University of Alberta, has collected a series of articles from their alumni magazine into a comprehensive history of the school. They combine a look at the campus and its buildings and the actual founders of the school. Its about the third level down again, but once you find the link and work down you are presented with a thoughtful site.
The University of Calgary advertises that ‘this is now.’ Well, they seem to live up to their slogan. I’m still looking to find out where they celebrate their heritage. I guess the focus is on the future. Searching did uncover a 12 page supplement to their yearbook from the recent past in which the creators lament that the institution does not promote its history more. I sense that this call went unheeded.
The University of Saskatchewan has a short and terse official history page, but promisingly they do point to the prospective students page for promised virtual tours. They are three Quicktime VR panoramas here. Well, at least they are in the prospective area, but they are focusing on current lifestyle as opposed to a sense of embedding the present in the past. I do find this a little ironic given that the banner on every page on the site is currently trumpeting the 100 year anniversary of the institution.
The University of Regina seems to pull a single short page from their undergrad calendar. That’s it. No pictures, no romance copy.
I’ll continue the tour and analysis a little later…stayed tuned for part II

There is a pattern forming here. Many institutions are getting on board and providing neat little glitzy Quicktime (generally) tours of a couple choice spots on campus for prospective students. Some provide good archival research documenting their heritage (usually directed towards alumni — we do need to maintain the connection), but there is a huge divide between these two exercises. I guess that’s why I was so taken to see the Guelph effort. Maybe that’s not how students today are shopping for an institution. Maybe that’s now how students at an institution today sense their place in the larger scheme of things.

Forward thinking is great, but what about a sense of where one sits both spatially and temporally?

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Just because it is absolutely so stupid I feel compelled to point it your way. The ‘Will it Blend’ series of videos demonstrating the sheer blending power of Blentec blenders (like they use at all my favourite coffee shops) takes it to a new level today: blending from the perspective of the blendee. Seriously. Today’s challenge…a digital video camera with video running out through a cable. As the reports state…it records its own death. I will spoil the suspense for you…it does in fact blend…and you even get to appreciate a little of the process (not too much), but what can one expect with a whack of spinning rotors attacking a relatively fragile piece of electronic engineering.

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I observed my first SmackShopping live internet game show today. Building on the last minute bidding fun of eBay, and the social networking/buying power of a large group of committed purchasers, JellyFish offers an intriguing experience.

As a semi-standard demand consolidator, JellyFish has agreements with a wide range of normal retailers who contract to provide X amount of discount for bulk orders facilitated by JellyFish. Purchases earn the discount with is split 50/50 with the JellyFish buyer. So there is a buying incentive through JellyFish. But what makes this fun???

Well, for periods throughout the day, there is a real time games how. ‘Players’ (any JellyFish user) vote on particular products that they’d really like to buy. When the show starts, the product discount increases until the fixed number of units are sold. The game involves trying to be the last buyer in and therefore get the highest discount before the deal is done. The top players are then ranked and points are awarded based on the top ten finishers. In addition, observers can guess at what the final discout will be and get a chance to spin a virtual roulette wheel to win an additional prize.

In the game that I observed, buyers were after a PlayStation 2 game which in the end went at about a 45% discount. The closest guesser then spun the wheel and it landed on SmackShop’s choice. They gave him $50, but possible prizes ranged from a Wii, to various other electronic doodads in the $250–500 range.

Its pretty easy to see how this game can become addictive for those who crave a good deal. It also has a lot to say about the future of shopping. The idea of consolidating demand and getting retailers to bid for your business has been explored using the net by a variety of startups over the past few years. The interesting thing about Smack Shopping is that is that it puts the game right up front, and pinpoints that which makes the eBay experience exciting and fun. The other aggregators made their intention to deliver shopping value clear, but perhaps failed to note that the thrill of the deal is the sweet spot and if you can play it up, you can make a killing yourself.

Lucky for me, Canadians can only wtch Smack Show for now. They promise to open it up to Canucks soon, but right now as many merchants will not ship to Canada they have a made a blanket rule. Canadians can use normal Jelly Fish shopping, and determine whether individual merchants will ship to Canada.

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In the process of doing some a quick market survey I was struck by the tendency of some software publishers to coin unique acronyms to establish their technological credentials. To be honest I am not unfamiliar with this process and did my own fair share of this in another life, but I was surprised when seeing it from the other side.

The basic proposition is this: You find yourself in a marketspace with a number of competitors that, in the eyes of your potential customers, basically accomplish the same task. Higher, faster, cheapper, more efficiently are all wonderful things, but are open to direct comparison and the actual business case is much too complex to address using such simple descriptors. So, what to do? The answer is to describe earth-shattering proprietary process using clever acronyms, some of which may actually contain real words, that suggest that you have a scientific basis for differentiation.

The reality is some of these terms and descriptions of process or method are quite valid and simply expressed in a rather abstract way. Others one suspects are actually ‘full of sound and fury, signifying, not much of anything actually real.’ How can one cut through the marketing smoke?

Examples to follow…

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We had a short spate of conversation at the TAPoR meeting on forms of disaggregation (and I guess corollorarily demand aggregation) when looking at online swap/consolidation sites. I cam across a further swap site this morning that illustrated this concept…and is one more example of the way in which internet collectivization is changing normal modes of economic exchange through contractual intermediation and introducing another layer of rentier behaviour. CellSwapper, is a P2P exchange that connects people wanting to get out of long term cell phone plans with those looking to pick up a shorter term plan without the costs of activation of of cancellation. That is they are trading on that thin layer of administrative costs that carriers demand. The site is unfortunately for me only available to the US, but they are promising broader geographic coverage shorty. A further form of aggregation is demonstrated by the microlending sites such as the two that I mentioned in an earlier post, Zopa and Prosper.

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