Ian M Rountree

Copywriter, Project Manager, Digital Marketing

Absence Explanation and Going Forward

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I like mountains
I like mountains

Why hello there. It sure has been a while.

The last time I wrote anything substantive here was over two years ago, and while I don’t expect that  most of you have hung on the silence waiting for some grand return, I have had enough questions from friends about “that blog I used to run,” that I feel like I should explain what happened. I won’t bore you with a lot of details, but it should explain a bit about why I’ve been so quiet.

There’s a TL;DR at the end, if you’re impatient.

The amount of free time I had changed.

The last two years have been very turbulent. Between changes in my family situation, living arrangements, falling out with some valuable people – leaving one job, not having a job, working for myself, then (recently) being brought on with a new agency (Hello Websites), there’s been very little time to constructively research my work, keep up on trends, and – overall – develop commentary that I felt would be of value here.

My relationship with social media also changed.

While my experience getting attention, growing a readership, and communicating with movers and shakers was valuable, it’s lost a significant amount of luster. I look back at the frantic pace I tried to keep, between managing twitter, Google+, a Facebook page which never ended up with traction (mostly because I barely cared about it), and so on… And none of it is terribly attractive.

I’ve lost my itch to get noticed as a person, to have a following. Because of this, my work is evolving in a positive way.

What does that have to do with this blog?

I used to feel as though I was making commentary here that was valuable to some people, and with all the many changes in priority the past two years have required, that commentary dropped right off the radar. I would expect this of anyone having a reasonably full life suddenly double in workload. Without expecting it, planning for it, or adjusting to it, the volume of things I needed to do elsewhere was vastly superior to the amount of care I had for keeping up with this blog, and balance my other social media involvement fell by the wayside as well.

My needs have changed, it’s as simple as that.

Does that mean I’m done blogging? Well, clearly I haven’t been – so I don’t think I can comment there. You’ll probably see some posts here and there, but they’re far more likely to focus on personal interest than business.

Does that mean this site will disappear? Not a chance. The archives here have entries more than a decade old, that’s nothing to sneeze at. However, changes will be happening.

Going Forward.

  • This site will be getting an overhaul, far more than just getting the new theme I threw on it today. I expect to put more emphasis on Page content than Blog content.
  • My other social media properties are getting some review. My old Facebook page has come down, and my Twitter account will probably get some attention. Others, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and Google+ will get looked at as well.
  • You will be seeing new content here. In line with this site becoming a lot less about “my work” and a lot more about “my self” – there will eventually be a change in direction for posted content.
  • I’m happy to chat about the changes and the past year. Hit me up on Facebook or Twitter, or send me an email – I’m always here.

TL;DR:

If you’re subscribed, connected, following, favoriting, or what-have-you-ing this blog because I used to talk marketing and SEO, chances are the future will disappoint you. There’s a lot of commentary in those areas going around already, and I’ve simply lost interest in adding to the pot. My effort on that side is remaining with my daily work.

If you do feel like sticking around, however, even after this massive chasm of a sabbatical – thank you! I’ll probably start commenting on my field again eventually, but it won’t be the core focus of my personal website.

That’s all I’ve got. How have you been doing this year?

Shutting Down

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Let’s not beat around the bush – as of today, I’m shutting down my blog.

It’s been a long time coming, but I doubt anyone will be terribly surprised. I mean, look at you – you’re here, you’re reading… But you don’t pass it on. You don’t comment. You don’t say hi.

You don’t engage.

I’m not generally a quitter, but I’m not a fan of Sisyphean struggles either. After six years of hardcore blogging, and fifteen years of community management, I’m just not where I wanted to be.

I expected to be writing a book – but I’ve been putting it off.

I expected to have gone back to school – but I’ve been putting it off.

I expected to have more readers, or an appreciable amount of conversation going on, but I’ve put off doing the work that’s needed to be done for that as well.

I put off writing better posts, I delayed building ebooks, I left a newsletter until last.

So, I’m quitting while I’m ahead. I’m done being a blogger.

I’m going to do some reorganizing. I’ll be putting some emphasis on products for a while – I actually got a lot of response from my Connected Commerce 101 page, so I’m going to produce more things like that, and less things like this. I’ll let you know when to expect more – if you’re viewing this on my site itself, use the big black Get Connected box on the top right to subscribe, and updates will make their way to you as they come out.

Turn the lights off when you leave, m’kay? Thanks. You’ve been swell, if silent.

Stick a fork in me, I'm Done
I'm sick of being awk-ward. Grep that?


 

Journalists vs News Items – The Twofold Law of Blogging

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Some people know what’s going on. Everywhere. All the time.

We call these people journalists. They’re the gatherers, the curators. Journalists present the facts, add value and perspective, conduct analysis.

Some people are what’s going on. We see them everywhere. All the time.

Most of the time, when considering these people, we call them celebrities. However, in the blogosphere, we call them link bait. Reference points. News items.

Which one are you?

And do you know which one is better for you? Which one is better for your blog? Not everyone who’s great at delivering information is  good at delivering news for others. Not everyone who delivers news and commentary in a value-added, impossible to replicate way is worthy of news themselves.

This isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s an opportunity to differentiate yourself. If everyone in your industry is trying to be well known – to be the news – you’ve got a clear opening to be the journalist, and report the news. If you can learn to do the analysis, add value, and build a consistent perspective on what’s going on in your industry – and, more importantly, deliver that news to outsiders in a voice and language they’ll understand – then you’re setting yourself up to win.

It doesn’t matter if El Bigname knows who I am.

It matters even less to anyone who doesn’t know who El Bigname is. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who in your industry knows how awesome you are – success comes from outside your fishbowl.

If you’re making yourself a news item, is anyone outside your fishbowl going to care?

And, if you’re reporting the news, are you reporting it to te echo chamber, or into the vastness of the outside world?

Is Google The First Domino Falling Against China?

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Tiananmen on FlickrNews hit the techiverse today that Google may be shutting down Google.cn in response to a “massive infrastructure attack” on its servers in December. Within a half hour of the news breaking on the Google Blog, the tech community rallied. So far Mashable, Search Engine Land and other blogs have the biggest stories – but admirably, the New York Times and USA Today also have good stories up.

All of them focus on one thing; because of these attacks, Google is no longer willing to censor its Google.cn search results and, because of the way law works in that country, might be forced to shut down its operations in China, including Google.cn and its Chinese offices [from the Googleblog]. This is a perfectly valid thing to worry over; Google is big business on its own, and the shift in power creates a vacuum that its Chinese competitor, Baidu, is already moving into – according to Reuters, Baidu’s stock is rising while Google’s is fallig, just because of the announcement of the possibility of El Goog’s moving out [from Reuters]. Of course, the New York Times story about this “Google e-Mail breach” and Mashable echo these trajectories. The USA Today story being tossed about is actually about Google’s apology to Chinese authors regarding its book digitizing, and actually focuses on French President Satrkosy’s insular attitude and protection of its culture.

Again, all valid angles, but there’s something bigger going on here. Here are a few sentiments from Twitter within minutes of the story breaking:

  • @eston – Friend in Shanghai: “Wow, did the Chinese govt just block access to Google? I’m getting GFW’d.” ( @scobleizer, know ne1 that can conf/deny?)
  • @scobleizer – I am meeting with @sagiraju & @prabhe Their reaction to Google news? “Google always does what is right.” “They still act like a startup.”
  • @marshallk – if Google is just using censorship as excuse to fight corp espionage, that’s super cynical & they’d deserve no praise but effect same
  • @stevenjayl – After GOOG, will US gov stand up for US biz against Chinese IP attacks and thefts? How about some “21st Century Statecraft”?

Can you see it? There’s not just business sentiment here. There’s cultural sentiment. And it’s a big, big deal.

Google, like any business dealing in the grey area of international culturally affecting commerce, has no choice but to stay out of human rights debates until they directly affect its business. This did. For whatever reason, someone hit Google, and these other businesses, looking for information about Chinese human rights activists. Regardless of how much or little information they actually gleaned, Google has no recourse but to take drastic action. This much is a given. What isn’t is how much impact this will have elsewhere in the technology sphere.

What Google is doing is necessary, but it’s also getting some press for appearing to be a humanitarian action. Regardless of their previous cooperation with Chinese censors, and their continued cooperation with censorship in other locales, this visible blow struck against the proliferation of cultural insulation looks really good on El Goog. It’s natural – we see a bully knock over the little kids, and when someone – anyone – steps up and says “I’m not putting up with this any more” even if the display amounts to taking their ball and going home, we applaud.

But what if no one else does it?

This is a potentially huge place to gain ground. What if Microsoft steps up and has Bing remove all censoring leans globally? What if Yahoo! shuts down everywhere that refuses total egalitarianism of information? Take it the other way: What if Google turns this into a massive initiative, and everyone else… Just fails to.

Who are we going to back? Certainly not China, with its massive record of oppression. Google? Sure, if this is anything more than just an espionage reaction. Anyone else? Maybe. If they step up.

When you don’t control your PR, you can’t make the play companies have in the past and say you’re “looking into” something for months on end, and expect people to take the pill lying down. You need to react, and react fast. If not, the research geeks activate, and your thinly veiled attempts at grey-speech are whipped off like the curtain from the Wizard of Oz.

So is Google making a play against censorship, or defending its property?

Will other information giants step up and mimic the action?

And, moreover, aside from the human rights issues, does it matter here in North America?

Photo by Bernt Rostad.

Children's Games and Social Media

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Follow the Leader - FlickrI was always crap at Simon Says. I was the kid who could only ever think of three things to have people do – stand up, sit down, run in place – and I’ve learned to mark this down to both an inability to develop internal go-to lists, and a dislike of having to issue mindless rapid-fire commands. Yet as I watch people tweet their lives away sometimes I wonder exactly how useful these skills are in real life? Like learning trigonometry, I had always figured it was something to get good at or avoid, but now I’m not so sure.

Like it or not, Social Media is here to stay. I hope someone comes up with a better, permanent term for what’s going on, because I dislike that buzzword, but there you are. I’m fortuitous to be getting into networking just now, because I have a nearly three year old son, and while considering the things we need to make sure he learns, at the same time I’m watching the foibles of high-powered people online, and seeing a lot of parallel.

One of the many things I dislike about Twitter’s ecosphere is the MLM phenomenon. It sounds like a pyramid scheme on the outside (and runs like one) but the behavior of the people involved, or at least the visible output of the bots, looks an awful lot like Simon Says. Rapid fire information with little available content driving people who are unlucky enough to get sucked in to useless products or a hookup to the scheme. It’s a social failing, but it’s one of those pendulum behaviors – those who understand just enough are exploiting those who don’t yet know.

How many pundit blogs do you read? I don’t specifically mean political pundits, I mean Apple and Google and Microsoft fanboy blogs as well. Notice anything about their habits? Suggesting certain new products, dropping bombs on others. For some reason this always reminds me of Red Light, Green Light.

The less said about Michael Arrington’s apparent tabloidism the better – but the entire leak culture feels like one big game of telephone.

Corporate recruiting feels a bit like Red Rover.

It’s amazing how often this kind of thing happens. Perhaps it’s early training, rearing it’s head on our adult lives. On the other hand, like just about anything, when you know just enough about how these habits form, you can exploit them. And when that gets old, you can become a benefactor and teach others either to exploit the habits, or how to avoid having these habits exploited.

Until you know where your habits come from, and what the tells are, how are you going to ensure you’re not being taken advantage of?

Otherwise, it’s duck-duck goose, and someone’s got their eye on turning you into the next goose.

Photo by Mykl Roventine