RonAmok!

Yesterday, I got a call from Christy Simmons, an intern at Widgenie, asking me to take a look at a new data-display widget service. Since I’ve been contemplating a series on measurement, her timing was impeccable, so I checked it out.

Below is my first chart created using Widgenie. Data entry is as simple as uploading an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV file — the short training video is all I needed to get started.

I had a problem importing the data from an Excel 97-2004 formatted XLS file (created from three different sources (Open Office, Google Docs, and Excel 2008), but the native Excel 2008 and CSV files worked as advertised. Since the service is still beta (and free!), I’m willing to give ‘em a pass on this little annoyance. I used a CSV file exported from Open Office 2.4 to create this chart.

Embedding the chart into my blog was as simple as cutting and pasting some javascript — which opens up some interesting possibilities for content creators.

For example, lets say that you want to publish data that changes from week-to-week. Instead of creating a new chart every week, you simply update your spreadsheet and upload it to Widgenie, overwriting the old one. Since the widget is tied directly to the file on the Widgenie server, the data will always be up-to-date, rippling through to wherever the widget is embedded. I see this as an advantage for companies wanting to maintain live customized dashboards of all sorts of data.

Lastly, Widgenie also gathers stats. Since the widget is both embeddable and sharable, these stats will help you monitor where your data is traveling to and what sorts of traffic it generates. I’ll let you know how this is working for me over the next few months.

So far I like what I see, and this New Media Evangelist plans on using Widgenie to share and analyze data.

Update: I just noticed that the chart is not displayed in Google Reader. This is a little disappointing but hopefully Widgenie will figure out a way to make this happen.

Tags: New Media Evangelist Ron Ploof Widgenie widget widgets review data charts

Yesterday’s New York Times article In House, Tweets Fly Over Web Plan illustrates the intense emotions that surface when the “Get its” run into the “Traditionals.”

Since anyone can now operate their own printing press (blog), radio station (podcast) or television station (qik, Ustream, YouTube), average people now have extraordinary access to traditionally hidden events. The article centers on the ramifications of such access. Today, a Senator with a Nokia N95 camera and a service like qik can take his constituents behind the scenes to broadcast live interviews from the steps of the Capitol. Or, a Representative listening to the opposition’s arguments on a particular bill can Twitter live comments from the House floor. It doesn’t take much imagination to conceive how compelling it would be for C-SPAN to grab those Twitter feeds and scroll them below live video of a House debate! Technically it’s simple. And it’s just the type of thing to give the Traditionals aneurysms.

Traditionals in every walk of life are grappling with the fact that they’ve lost control of their messages. Marketing and PR folks are terrified that rogue content creators can make their lives a living hell. Politicians, who’ve traditionally been able to hide their discussions behind closed doors are afraid that their sausage-making techniques may not play well in Peoria. And the debate isn’t just limited to Washington DC.

Other battles are brewing in corporate America — such as in the area of Industry Standards. For those not familiar with standards and standards committees, they’re simply organizations that help companies build products that play nice with one another. For example, have you ever plugged something into the USB port on your computer and it worked flawlessly? Well, that’s because the manufacturers of the two devices you connected built their products to an agreed upon set of standards — an “Industry Standard.”

Although the nature of a Technical Standards Committees is altruistic, the members that make up those committees are anything but. The only reason high-tech companies invest time and effort into these non-profit organizations is to push their technology as the future standard. And just like a baby-kissing politician, they’ll do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal — independent on the benefits (or pain) it causes the end user.

But what happens if you drop a blogger into an Industry Standards committee? Pioneering Electronic Design Automation blogger JL Gray describes such a scenario in his post, Public Discourse and Open Standards, where the threat of losing control has the Traditionals running scared.

Marketeers, Public Relations professionals, Legislators, Governors, Mayors, Dog Catchers and Standards Committee members can no longer hide behind closed doors. The light of transparency is shining too brightly and is seeping through the cracks of their motives. They will lose control and ultimately lose power — I have history on my side to back up that prediction. But the only question this New Media Evangelist has is how hard they’ll fight before losing the battle? Power isn’t something that people relinquish that easily, and our bloodied past has shown the lengths that people will go to in order to protect their power.

If character is revealed through an individual’s actions when NOBODY is watching, what happens to everyone’s character when EVERYBODY is watching?

Tags: ronamok new media evangelist social media strategist b2b b2b blogging blog coach ron ploof Coolverification JL Gray New York Times Michael Falcone John Culberson Michael E. Capuano John A. Boehner Nancy Pelosi

I first heard of tap code 15 years ago, during an interview with Gerald Coffee, a Vietnam Vet and former prisoner of war. By memorizing this simple chart to the left, POWs could communicate with one another by lightly tapping on the cell walls separating them.

It’s easiest to demonstrate tap code through audio, so listen to this short (less than a minute) little demonstration by pressing the “play” button.

Tap Code Demonstration MP3

Can you imagine trying to convey meaning with such a primitive device, especially in today’s world of instant communications? But that’s when Captain Coffee said something that has stayed with me for all of these years. He said that the best conversations he’s ever had were transmitted via tap code. Wow.

We’re not very good at brevity, are we? I’m guilty of it. Just look at this post. I’m already at 142 words (812 characters) PLUS an audio file, and I’m still not not done yet! We’re spoiled. We don’t think before we write. With all of our advanced Web2.0 widgets, text, audio, and video resources, we’ve become lazy communicators.

Today, there are more creators distributing their content around the world than at any other time in human history. And that number will only go up from here. The pendulum has swung. We’re all suffering from Cyber-hyperventillation.

The main advantage of a service like Twitter (when its actually online) is the fact that it demands brevity. By forcing users to transmit their thoughts in 140 characters or less, words must be used economically; users must write, rewrite, and pare messages to their very essence. It’s not impossible. We just need to look elsewhere for inspiration.

Stan Freberg once described everything a writer needs to know about writing — and he only used 39 characters to do so.

“The perfect word. The perfect sentence.”

Stowe Boyd and Brian Solis have suggested a way to tidy up our digital clutter. MicroPR challenges PR professionals to “Pitch a story in 140 characters or less.” Brilliant. Tapping out tautology. Haiku-ing out hyperbole.

In the age of instant communications, how can we use the lessons of tap code, the constraints of 140 characters, and the words of Mr. Freberg to better communicate with one another?

What can you communicate in 140 characters or less?

Tags: ronamok new media evangelist social media strategist b2b b2b blogging blog coach ron ploof brian solis stowe boyd Stan Freberg Twitter Tap Code Gerald Coffee Brevity MicroPR