Mr.
Matt
Spangler

In a Brooklyn Loft, Twitter Stars Find Common Ground

Don’t know many of these people but love this.  Those who I do know are fantastic including Jerri and the Workshop team.

via 9-bits:

In a Brooklyn Loft, Twitter Stars Find Common Ground

NYTimes covers Studiomates, which, let’s face it, sounds like an awesome place to work. New New Bauhaus, anyone?

Myspace For Sale

I have a strange interest in Myspace. I’ve always been intrigued by it as an example for how successful internet companies can go so wrong, by becoming complacent with product development and innovation.  I wrote about it back in 2009 just as Owen Van Natta came in to try to right the ship. Its been a continuous series of missteps since. 

The recent redesign did a little to reinvigorate it, but it looks like that ship has sailed.  In what is sure to be remembered as one of Rupert Murdoch’s biggest failures, the struggling social network Myspace announced on their recent earnings call that they would be looking to sell the company.

“In an earnings call today, News Corp. officially stated it plans to sell MySpace. During the call, COO Chase Carey said that “now is the right time” to attempt to place the social network “under a new owner.” via Mashable.

It will be interesting to see if any buyers step up to the plate for the company. Clearly it will depend on many factors, the greatest of which is the price that News Corp hopes to get for the struggling company. It is unlikely that it will be as much of a steal as former Aol property Beebo, which was sold as a tax write off for less than $10 million dollars. 

Recently its founder Michael Birch rejoined the company as an advisor to try and have another go at the ailing social network. He obviously believes that what was there was great, but was taken into mediocrity by poor management at Aol. In similar fashion, perhaps Chris and Tom will come back to the company after the sale to try and revive their faltering legacy. I’d like to see em try.

Thoughts on “A New Business Model for Digital Agencies”

Through Mansi Trivedi’s Tumblr, I came upon Mike Arauz’s post.  Not surprised Mike works at Undercurrent.  Josh and Aaron hire sharp cats.

I’ve told a couple of people recently that their strategy driven shop is a business model to emulate and I plan to build a consulting practice using some similar methodologies.  No need for massive production, you can get the ideas MADE anywhere.  We’ll give you the strategic thinking, the ideas, the plan to execute it, the access to resources and the oversight…thank you very much.

I have read Mike’s post on the new business model and I think it brings up great valid points and also has some folly.  I’ll get all whiteboard on this one…

1. The work CAN be done cheaply and quickly - so get used to that and start updating the model around that (pricing, production, what you sell etc).  Clients won’t be stupid for long.  You can build a great site with a CMS on Wordpress in 2-4 weeks with a talented team of 2-3 people

2. The future is outsourced production by agencies.  I’ve seen the work of too many great, cheap, off-shore production facilities recently to think otherwise. Digital agencies paying top dollar for in-house developers in America is a dying model.  You have no R&D or training baked into your process and you can’t possibly compete in the long run. 

Ajax, PHP, all the old code bases, iPhone apps, Android apps, Facebook aps, new widget platforms (AIR etc), Twitter aps, Aps for sites you haven’t even heard of yet.  You think your Flash developer is studying this stuff? Think about it.

3.  Embrace the tools that help get it done. Yes, yes!  Smart strategists, planners and creatives are gonna require a great grasp of the tools available to help develop the right ideas.

4.  Totally agree with sell ideas, not things…but to me the folly is - we’ll execute the idea as well.  Why not sell the 100 ideas, give feedback as they get made and then sell the ability to evangelize those ideas after they are ready to hit the market?

I think that’s basicallllllly what Mike means, Undercurrent won’t actually be excuting, but they will provide the oversight to do so. To me the question is just whether or not that is transparent and how you price it and sell it.

A big miss (even though a bit off topic…)

1. No mention of one of the biggest folly’s out there with digital agencies: The “build it and they will come” mentality.  Everyone loves creating the next cool thing, but few shops plan or spend the proper time promoting, marketing and getting behind the work they create for an extended period of time.  

Its launched, and its on to the next idea.  Making it useful and visible by the people that should (and might) care is rarely considered.

Obviously tons more to say but its great that Mike kicked off a conversation that is bound to continue.

Jackie Mason <3’s Computers

Noah Brier posted this NY Times article about Jackie Mason’s take on new technology.  Whether or not Jackie is an old crumudgeon, his point blank attitude toward current communication trends is a gentle reminder about the continued importance of future technologies that encourage and enable meaningful physical interactions with like minded people and not just another way to tell people where you are at all times.  It reminds me of the recent Louis CK appearance on Conan that got so much attention.

Jackie Mason on the internet:

All the geniuses with computers love to tell you you can talk to people all over the world if you’re on line. Who wants to? You want to talk to people all over the world? People don’t talk to the guy next door… . People are standing in an elevator — do you talk to anybody? A guy calls you up and he’s got the wrong number — do you start a conversation? Do you ever say, “Sure glad you got the wrong number!” You’re gonna holler, “You got the wrong number!” And God forbid he calls you again: you think he’s a stalker, you call the police.