eBiz Tomorrow by Chris Salazar

There’s been a lot of hype about Scrapblog and how its new and improved, and a powerful online media experience, but I want more. I guess I’m right around the target age for this (or maybe a little older), and although its favorable, I’m still waiting for a few more features. Of course this is coming from user/customer perspective….I just asked myself, “what would I want?”

Want #1: Combine forces with PayPal and provide users with the opportunity to actually turn these online scrapblogs into real, tangible scrapbooks. Yah, I like the concept of adding to MySpace, Blogger, etc, but having the ability to actually create a tangible product would be awesome! Let’s go above and beyond…and instead of creating a powerful online media experience, lets create the ULTIMATE media experience. And, I’d even pay a premium price for this as well. Of course this means having to join forces with a print company, but maybe Walmart photo or even Yahoo! Photos/Flickr can provide some assistance.

Want #2: Now this is a long shot, but is scrapblog mobile? I know so many people who take pictures with their camera phones. Aren’t pictures from camera phones now showing up in better quality? I’d have to agree! Sometimes, I forget my camera and there’s that one moment when you just happen to catch something with your camera phone, but its stuck there. Without a memory card or fancy cords to put it on your computer, its basically stuck there. Imagine what value it would add if I could send it directly to Scrapblog!

Want #3: Similar to what Flickr has with its comments, it would be awesome to create call-outs in the pictures. Now, I can really turn this Scrapblog into a scrapbook! Call-outs and comments make these types of things more memorable, fun, creative, and original! Pretty sooon everyone will have the same layout and transitions, but not comments! In fact, I can see myself reading these blogs just to see what people say. Wouldn’t you?

Want #4: Is there tagging? Ah ha, wouldn’t it be awesome if I created a Scrapblog of my recent trip to Vegas, tagged it…so others can see as well? Then pretty soon when you search for the tag “Vegas” you’ll see several different Scrapblogs from Vegas. Awesome! WAIT, I forgot, whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. hahaha. Well, at least thats what we thought right?

Now these are just some thoughts that I’m sending out there…especially to Shel, he asked for our comments. Now, I need to take Scrapblog for a test ride…so forgive me if some of these features are already implemented…but if not, perhaps one of them might be a good idea.

I was talking to a good friend of mine (actually he called me to see how I was doing), and mentioned that perhaps I should write a Top 5 or Top 10. Well, its a good idea. This post is just a reflection of why I’m glad I went to college…by the way, it still hasn’t kicked in yet that I’ve graduated. Here’s to my first fun post… =)

Top 5 Reasons Why I’m Glad I Went To College

1. No more homework: Aha! Sigh of relief! Several years and years of homework is no fun! Yet, as much as I hate to say it, the grunt homework, errr I mean homework, helped me learn and prepare for tests. I’d say that it is now equivalent to blogging, except for blogging is fun. Blogging helps me learn about business and in some ways helps me prepare for what I face in the corporate world. Especially, blogging as an intern, I got first hand experience with business professionals, which made me one step ahead of some of my colleagues.

2. I learned how to learn! Because of school, I learned how to study, learned how to analyze problems, learned how to manage projects, and most of all I learned how NOT to give up. Everything in the beginning seems difficult because there are so many uncertainties and potential detractors. Yet, planning ahead and learning how to overcome these problems is what’s important in order to succeed. This knowledge and experience has and will continue to help me as I grow in my career and face everyday work dilemmas.

3. I met some great people…*blushing* Yes, there’s also that other aspect of going to school called the “College Life.” Although I wasn’t much of a partier (instead I spent my time soaking up knowledge from Jeremiah and blogging), I still made time to meet new people at Santa Clara University. No, I didn’t join a frat, but instead I made a few good friends that I will probably keep in touch with for a while, including my girlfriend (FYI that’s why I’m blushing).

4. No school = No Blogging = No Job = No $$$ Of course, if it weren’t for going to school, I probably would not have the job that I have now. Further than that, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into INROADS and I probably would not be blogging right now. I was referred to INROADS by a friend, I joined, and started working at Hitachi Data Systems. However, if it wasn’t for school, I would not have heard about INROADS and I would not have been able to get my job here at Hitachi. Now working full time, I have the opportunity to make some money, but I’ll probably be paying loans for the next 10 years of my life.

5. Without school, I wouldn’t have the same opportunity to reach for the sky! College has provided me with the pathway to reach for the sky. Of course, I would still be able to without college, but its just made it easier now. I am now equipped with the knowledge, added with my will to learn, plus the need challenge myself…I’m reaching for the sky and never stopping. I want to learn anything and everything…I want to constantly improve who I am as a person, scholar, and businessman! For me the sky is not the limit…its the UNIVERSE!

So how’s that as my Top 5 for going to College?

What do you have to add (if you can remember going to college, haha, im just kidding)?

I’m curious to see what you have to say…

Just announced, one of the largest web companies, Yahoo! will offer their users with unlimited data storage starting May 2007. Jeremiah has been talking a bit about the online data storage industry as several companies large and startup have been entering. He argues that companies will pay us to use their storage…SURE, but we get paid at the cost of providing marketers with our personal information. I’m not too sure how the trade off works out, especially for those, like me, who hate telemarketers and giving my information away for free. Yet, I have a feeling this industry will be taken more seriously now that Yahoo! has joined the club…and who knows, maybe Hotmail will join too?

Its interesting how storage in general has evolved in just a few years, starting off with Yahoo! Mail the 4MB version, to SanDisk’s introduction of the 2MB flash card for the Canon PowerShot, to HP announcing the 160GB storage capacity for its PCs, to Apples announcement of the 30GB iPod , and now Yahoo’s unlimited email storage!

Yahoo hopes to set the stage and make it possible for users to have unlimited data storage. Hey, that would be the day, when I’m worried about “how” I’m going to fill my storage, rather than how much I have left. Will I fill it with useless stuff? Probably, but at least I can have the whole cake, and not just a piece of it.

On a serious note, I think Microsoft Outlook needs to take a big hard look at their storage capacity. At least I know for my company, I constantly get annoying email saying I’ve surpassed my storage limit…maybe Yahoo! will enter in the corporate world and be the next Outlook killer? Or how about Google?

Update: Allen Stern questions if it can really be unlimited?

AHA! There’s always a catch….

After reading a very interesting article by Andy Dickinson titled “Tools or Behaviour” he provoked an important point that I think many people miss. He cited Kevin Anderson from the Guardian, who argues that YouTube is not popular because of the video, but there’s something else intriguing about it. Do I agree?

This really comes down to understanding the customer. I’m sure the YouTube guys realized that video was big, but whats even bigger is “Community.” Yes, sure its been a broken record as many many bloggers constantly talk about community…but the reason why they talk about it is not because its buzzy, but because its worthy of a conversation.

Take a look at this snapshot of YouTube’s Community section…they are on to something:

Video has been around for a long time, take News stations (like ABC News), they’ve had News videos for years. Take MTV, they’ve had music videos since before I was born. So, Any is right, its not about the Video per se, and perhaps its not too much about the advertising. What its really about is the users (community) have complete control over what they see, share, save, and post on their own sites (myspace, xanga, blogs, etc). Adding a YouTube video to MySpace is practically dummy-proof…and with even more time, saving a YouTube video into an mpeg file is just as easy.

So where has this concept of sharing evolved? Well, from the earliest signs of sharing, back in the Napster file-sharing days, it became apparent that users want control over what they do online and IF they find something they like they want to send it to their friends, colleagues, family, etc. It’s not about the video, or the blog, or even the podcast…its about empowering the user.

I’d argue that today’s success with community tools and social networking sites is about EMPOWERMENT! The 2000’s era, should be the era of EMPOWERMENT…the years when users were in control, when users formed communities, and when users took over the internet!

I’ve been fortunate enough to have a great mentor, Jeremiah Owyang, who really set a good foundation for me both my career and with community marketing. Although I’ve been out of the Community Marketing circle for a while, it’s still on my mind. Yet, since Community Marketing is such a dynamic place to be in, I begin to wonder who can be a Community Evangelist?

Jeremiah posted some interesting thoughts on the rules of a Community Manager, but here’s my additions (without looking or paraphrasing his thoughts)…

A Community Evangelist should have all of these plus more:

1. Must have Community experience: The Evangelist must understand how to use tools that will interest customers and one must have some experience using them.

2. Must understand the customer: Customers are tricky because they are so diverse. Yet, they all have one thing in common, and the Evangelist must recognize this commonality.

3. Must find a way to indirectly invite the customer in: Let’s face it, all Corporate-driven activities are reaching out to somehow gain a sales lead and/or profit. But, Community Marketing is something different. Instead, a Corporate Evangelist must use community tools to actively engage the customer with other customers, prospects, and experts…as well as indirectly say “Come on over, we have something for you.”

4. Seamless integrate Community Tools with current Corporate offerings: It seems easy, but how do you provide a seamless integration, from a user experience perspective, from one tool to the other and with the corporate website? Or should you? This is a question that most Evangelists should consider before launching a corporate blog and/or forum.

5. Must be the customer: This is an important one. The job of the Evangelist is to provide a voice for the customer, better yet provide a link between the customer and the company. So, this requires one to be very sensitive of customer needs, but also aware of what Corporate goals are too.

6. Must be the company: Also, another important attribute, but it’s true. Again, the Evangelist is the central link between the customer and the company, so he/she must communicate the overall corporate message/goals to the customer. Yet, it cannot sound like a sales pitch, instead it should be very informal.

It seems easy, but it still takes some experience and a lot of intuition. A Community Evangelist needs to have an agenda, but be willing to alter it for the sake of the customer. I would like to congrat Mario Sundar for his new endeavor at LinkedIn, but also send him some “Good luck” wishes. He’s in for quite a journey, but I know he will bring a lot of experience to the company, but better yet, he understands the customer because he is one! He’s already one step ahead…I’m positive that I missed a few things…please let me know what you have to add?

But, now I have a question for all of you…We all know what Community Marketing, a Community Evangelist, and what a Community Manager is, but whats the next generation? How do you go above and beyond the call of duty to satisfy customers? Is it podcasts, is it video, or is there something else, something bigger and better out there?