Chris's blog

In these tough economic times it's getting harder and harder to earn new business as the marketplace for work grows increasingly competitive. No matter what your industry; most likely your starting to feel the pennies, and probably whole dollars, that everyone is pinching.

I'm not sure if they care or if they more concerned with damage control, but Network Solutions actually responded to a negative twitter post I made today. I really got a kick out of it, but since they are an online company it's nice to see that they are utilizing social media from a brand control standpoint.

I was reading one of the numerous newsletters I receive and came across an interesting article by Michael Antman entitled Six Reasons Word-of-Mouth Doesn't Work. The main focus of the article is, and you probably guessed it, that Word-of-Mouth doesn't work. I'm going to look at the arguments he poses and then respond with thoughts about how that would change in the Word-of-Mouse context.

1. Word-of-mouth is inherently subjective

My two boys, Cameron and Conner, are all about games; video games, board games, table games even outdoor games, if it's competitive they want to be a part. One area where I've really struggled is with their obsession of video games and more specifically online games from the likes of Disney.com and NickJr.com. It's not that I really mind them playing, in fact I know it's helping them to further develop their motor skills, but I wish online games were more like those of say LeapFrog where there is some learning involved.

Not that I need to rant about it, but I've become slightly addicted to twitter and much to my dismay something is technically wrong as always. At least this time it's not that damn flying whale.

On my way in to the office this morning I heard one of the most absurd and disturbing announcements from the automotive industry to date; apparently Chrysler will be offering wireless internet as an option for their 2009 vehicles.

MySpace, Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and the list goes on; trying to keep up and maintain all my junk accounts friends status got to be a little overwhelming. At any given time I'd have tabs to an array of communication tools and personal blogs just to stay in touch with friends and family, so I decided it was time to consolidate.

Occasionally you come across a little nugget like this; for all you clients who don't know.

About every 6 months someone comes to LevelTen with the novel idea that online medical records are going to change the world, and their right...sort of. If the medical industry as a whole were to adapt a universal system that would allow universal communication (think XML); then that would change the world. The problem is no system has been established and as such the industry does not want to move towards a platform that may be outdated or obsolete very quickly (think HD-DVD vs.

Respect! Was the first panel I attended this year at 2008 SXSW Interactive Convention, and as a novice I really wasn't sure what to expect or what I would take away. The panel included several key personnel from HappyCog and they explored several aspects of the design and development process.