Ian M Rountree

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Reviews

I like to read books. I also like gadgets, apps, and web services. I talk about what I like.

Thoughts from Average is Over

June 6, 2015 by Ian Leave a Comment

On Google Play, where I bought this book, I wrote the following terse book review;

This is not a book that you understand in the first twenty pages.

The concept is pretty simple – boredom and a want of simplicity are keeping us from working with all of the tools we have to build a better world, a better economy, and a better life. However, the volume of detail Cowen goes into on just how that world might look is compelling, dangerous, and a little scary – but in a good way.

I’ve already recommended this to at least 3 people – and will continue to do so in the future.

Average is Over - Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation - Tyler Cowen | Google Play Books
Oddly, I found this book via Imgur – not via a business blog.

The ability to work with and interpret for computers is a big deal – and it’ll continue to be bigger and bigger as computers get better. All those soft skills your councillors tried to foist on you will pay off, if they already haven’t. However they won’t necessarily just pay off with people – they’ll pay off with your ability to be the back-channel between those who understand computer work, and those who do not.

This is a core part of what Cowen is getting at, but the reasoning behind it is very important to understanding the why for why this interpretation is so crucial to developing personal and cultural economic success.

Bizarrely, while this is an economist’s book about computing, and it comes very clearly from a statistical thoroughness I can’t possibly recognize in a book review properly, Average is Over feels very much like a galvanizing agent for knowledge workers. It’s not going to teach you to handle margins, do statistics in any real way, or anything like that. What this book offers is an understanding – from a non-business point of view – of just why the rush in knowledge work is so meaningful, against the backdrop of “normal people living normal lives.” It’s also a fairly damning account of just why the middle class is evaporating – though, thankfully, the book has some things to say about why that’s not necessarily a bad thing either.

What I appreciate most, personally, is that Tyler Cowen is and behaves like a knowledge worker himself.

If you follow him on Twitter, or read the blog at Marginal Revolution, you’ll get a broader sense of what fuels Cowen’s work, and where his passion is; making life better through adding value to information, which should be the knowledge worker’s mantra.

Without becoming too exhaustive, I’ll leave some key thoughts I had from the reading of Average is Over – and hopefully they’ll either spark some discussion or urge you to read the book itself;

  • The “average” being discussed is the middle class, without a doubt. Strangely, how I read this is that – and I’m nowhere near equipped to back it against data – there’s going to be far more room to get into the “have” category none the less, for those willing to do so. We’re not all going to like that, on both sides. Barriers to entry to the have-class are going to relate much more to personal effort in the future than legacy advantages.
  • Elitism is OK, as long as it puts on a polite face. We see this in gaming culture all the time. Even the most staunch “git gud son” players of online games can be the best of people – if they understand, and have the soft skills available, how to manage their environments and the people in those environments. As a force for internal personal development, or even external encouragement, “good enough isn’t good enough” is actually really powerful.
  • Median inflation adjusted income is dropping, have we compared this to an increase or a decrease in consumption? What gets me is that, if needs-and-expenses are also dropping, then inflation might be more related to wants. Again, we’re seeing that “effort” as above, may relate to force of will and personal austerity in some areas. Maybe people who don’t get the Apple Watch are the winners, in other words.
  • Your data is your most valuable and irreplaceable currency – and I’ll probably talk about this a little more soon. Tim Cook (Apple) very recently threw a pooh-pooh at Google and Microsoft for making business out of people’s’ data. What’s interesting about this, as relates to the book, is the idea that aggregates most often trump individuals as far as big-enough-data is concerned, and oddly that makes us safer and not less secure.

There’s so much more here as fuel for discussion. What I’m electing to take away from the book en mass though is the idea that setting your expectations, and then learning how to back those expectations out toward reality, is a killer app in terms of thought technology.

Get Average is Over by Tyler Cowan on Google Play Books – or, you know, that other place that used to be nothing but books and now sends you toilet paper overnight.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: book review, books, business, economics, success, tyler cowen

Enterprise Social Technology by Scott Klososky

August 13, 2011 by Ian Leave a Comment

Solid 3.5 out of 5, but it’s a bit of an odd read – for reasons stated in the video.

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: book review, crowdsourced, scott klososky, social media

Why Genesis Framework Rocks

May 27, 2011 by Ian Leave a Comment

I’ve used the Genesis Framework from StudioPress as the basis for my blog for a couple of months now, and am about to finish the fourth site I’ve developed on it. I need to say this: The framework rocks. Everything from the format, to the support from StudioPress, to helpful tools people have published have helped me cut down my modification and theme building time significantly.

Genesis is slick. Genesis is smooth. And, above all, it doesn’t always look the same – even when you’re using the same elements for design.

Here are the sites I’ve now got going, built on either Genesis itself, or one of its child themes.

The Dowager Shadow - Built on Genesis Framework
The Dowager Shadow
Ian M Rountree - Built on Genesis Framework
Ian M Rountree
Hard Refresh Blog - Built on Genesis Framework
Hard Refresh
Jazmine Rhomyk Gallery - Built on Genesis Framework
Jazmine Rhomyk

Yes. I like blue. Don’t judge me.

Why did I switch from Standard Theme to Genesis Framework?

  • SEO options – unless you’re using plugins, it’s the bee’s knees. Seriously – beyond just being able to designate title and meta descriptions, Genesis allows for built in redirects, which is great for link blogs.
  • Ease of design – Spending a lot of time building sites isn’t my goal – I want to get decent looking sites up quickly, so I can start filling them in with content.
  • Ease of modification – The above being said, I want to be able to iterate my work quickly. If there’s a feature I want to add, or a design change I want to make, I want to be able to make it on the fly. Genesis allows for that.
  • Updates and notifications – Really. What other theme tells you, on its own, when it’s ready to get upgraded?
  • The Showcase – totally for bragging rights. There are a lot of awesome examples in the SutioPress showcase of well-built Genesis framework powered websites. Two – and soon, I hope, three – of mine are there.

Genesis Framework can help wordpress become a proper CMS very swiftly.

Many of StudioPress’ turn-key themes make developing non-standard blogs a breeze. One of the troubles most people see with using WordPress in general is that so many WP-based websites look… Well, like WordPress websites. Getting away from the usual columned layout, and adding some flair is one of the many places where Genesis is a viking.

Check Genesis Framework out – it’s well worth it if you spend a lot of time working with wordpress.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: cms development, code, content creation, content marketing, design, development, genesis, information management, presentation, review, seo, software, studiopress, wordpress

Book Review – Content Rules

April 4, 2011 by Ian 6 Comments

Can’t see the video? Click here: Business Book review – Content Rules

If you’re a content producer of any flavour, you need to read Content Rules by CC Chapman and Ann Handley.

If you’ve read part of this book, perhaps the first chapter through Amazon or the like, and dismissed it as more fluff and cheerleading over content marketing – you obviously didn’t read the entire book.

If you’ve read the entire book, and haven’t done anything with the massive volume of information in it, you’re obviously missing the boat.

Content Rules is making me reconsider some of my personal content strategy.

It’s also making me rethink the advice I give to clients – not only about blogging, but about creating other content as well. I’ve never produced a podcast, written an eBook or a white paper, or created a Webinar. I’ve done video – as above – but I’m not the best at it yet.

The Skinny on the Book: You need to diversify your content.

As I said in the video – barriers to entry for business on the web are falling at an alarming rate. It’s easy enough to set up a Blogger or a WordPress.com blog – or even a simple WordPress.org website and start tossing up content about your business. Getting images on the web is really easy with Flickr, Picasa and other photo sharing services. The ease of use of current web tools have made the idea of “having a website” more of a stepping stone than a destination for most businesses.

And, when everyone’s got something, how does getting that thing help your business? It doesn’t – unless you’re using it better, and doing more interesting things with the tool.

By all means – get a good looking website, have a great design, match your web branding to your other branding. These are givens. What isn’t yet a given (meaning you can win if you do it) is having better content than your closest competitor. Having a more interesting blog, better videos, more engaging webinars, and more entertaining and informational ebooks and white papers.

Building a business position on the web involves some consideration.

Not every tool in this book will help you in every aspect of your content marketing work – some businesses just aren’t right for webinars, or white papers. Some are perfect for it. What Content Rules will help you do is identify which cases fit which content type, and what to do with the content you’re producing to make it more effective in those perfect-fit cases.

The Skinny on The Authors: Why you should care about them.

C.C. Chapman has been doing content work for a number of years – he’s produced a variety of podcasts, worked on interactive marketing campaigns, and delivered some great talks. If there’s a better advocate for content marketing and strategic content creation, I don’t know who they are.
But wait – there’s also Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at Marketing Profs, who produce a massive volume of information aimed at helping marketers do a better job on the web. Ann’s a fantastic resource for content marketing information on her own – nothing said of Marketing Profs as a group. The online seminars they produce are some of the best available, and everything from their blog to their ebooks shines as examples of content done right.

I’ll be keeping Content Rules as a reference book – and I think every web content producer ought to have their own copy as well.


Content Rules is part of the Connected Commerce 101 Book List

A few months ago, I built a social media study curriculum called Connected Commerce 101. Content Rules is part of that curriculum, in the section on New Media Production and Publishing. The books I mentioned in the review video are also all part of Connected Commerce 101 – check out the book list, more reviews will follow to fill out the remainder of the list and – of course – if you have any recommendations to add to the course (or, which might become part of a new course), send them my way by way of comment on either this blog post, or on the Connected Commerce 101 page itself.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Ann Handley, Blogging, book review, books, cc chapman, content marketing, content strategy, ebook, podcast, Videos, webinar

The NOW Revolution Book Winner – Ryan Caligiuri!

March 2, 2011 by Ian Leave a Comment

Ryan Caligiuri, a fellow Winnipeg-based marketer and columnist for the Globe and Mail left an insightful comment on my review of the NOW Revolution regarding social causes and how they attach to social media. Because of that, I chose him to receive my second copy of the book.

Ryan is the new Director of Marketing for Imaginet, a Winnipeg-based application life cycle management firm specializing in Microsoft-enabled web solutions for businesses. I asked him for some insight about how the media and marketing landscape has changed in the last few years – check out the video below for details.

 

Can’t see the video? Watch on YouTube – The NOW Revolution Book Giveaway Winner – Ryan Caligiuri

Update: The Modern Earth Blog has also featured this video, with a bit more background about Ryan and the work he does.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: amber naslund, innovation, jay baer, marketing, now revolution, ryan caligiuri, small world, Winnipeg

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