Mobile Diner a place where wireless and washington meet….

As many diners know, I usually participate in the “Bad Beat on Cancer” poker tournament held at Union Station. Unfortunately, once again, I was eliminated and did not make the final table. However, there were many poker professionals who joined the fun and it is a great cause.

The video is a little poker chat with Annie Duke. Annie talks about her charity and her efforts as a lobbyist to pass legislation overturning a law promulgated under former Senator Bill Frist (which banned online poker). If Annie ever decides to run for Congress - she’s got my vote!

Bookmark to:

A former colleague sent me this article - “The third leg of the stool” - which appeared in The Hill this week.

We have covered this ground on a few occasions.  However, the fact that the article was written by a well-known K street lobbyist makes it a splendid dish.

Enjoy!

Bookmark to:

Sadly, this is going to be my last post here at the Diner. I will be leaving my firm at the end of the week to go to the Hill, where I will be a legislative assistant for a Philadelphia member, and while I’ll always be a co-founder of the Diner, I’ll no longer be a contributor here.

So, I wanted to take this opportunity to write about some things that have been on my mind and leave you with some parting thoughts. I apologize in advance, but this is going to be an all-you-can-eat buffet, so loosen your belts…

First off- thanks!

I really want to take a minute and thank Chris for inviting me to help him in this venture. About two years ago, when Chris asked me if I wanted to help him out in starting a blog about wireless, I said, “But Chris, you’re the wireless guru, who’s gonna care what I have to say?” Well, Chris picked up his cell phone, held it up, and said, “Do you have one of these? That’s what I thought. You know plenty about wireless.” He believed in me, and I hope that I’ve helped him build the blog and develop a community that’s passionate about wireless like he wanted to! That brings me to my second point…

People in new media are AWESOME!

I suppose that if you are compelled to blog, you have an inherent interest in sharing your knowledge and in learning what other folks have to say. Well, I learned that to be the case pretty quickly working in the Diner. When Chris and I were first starting out, we were inundated with tips and suggestions from fellow bloggers. From Steve Garfield, who showed us how to use our new video camera, to Chris Brogan, who was willing to be our first interviewee, to Jeff Pulver who invited me to blog at VON 07 in San Jose, to Jonny Goldstein and the DC Media Makers for introducing us to folks and letting us get in on some live broadcasting, and to the people at CTIA who asked me to lend a hand when they were first getting into the blogosphere, everyone who does this wants to help others do it too, and I’d just like to say thank you. It’s the inclusiveness of these on-line communities that makes them so profound! Continue Reading »

Bookmark to:

(the photo above was taken at Podcamp DC - analog owners will remain anonymous!)

What would be YOUR caption for the above photo?

Bookmark to:

You think you need a blog… Do you?

You think you need to join Facebook… Do you?

You think your organization needs to get social media and social technologies… Do they?

The answer is NO. In fact, if you want to operate in analog, do not adopt these digital tools. These tools will only make your head spin and the results will be quite ugly.

Analog methods still work. Those direct mail hits that are “successful” when they reach 1% penetration and those advocacy efforts where you get a handful of signatures (for your letter) will get you a “pat on the back.” However, these tactics to reach people are becoming less effective and more costly. These tactics are costing your organization dollars and you are also interrupting people. Millions of folks signed up for the do not call list in the first three months it opened for a reason. Spamming and interrupting do not represent the future of marketing or politics.

Organizations that are seeing the future of media and mobilizing using digital tools will reap the benefits. These folks are now evolving their traditional methods in marketing, customer service and advocacy. They are figuring out what is effective and they will be leaders in this digital revolution.

I think I’m talking about YOU.

update - this post has been edited.

Bookmark to:

So there’s a bunch of chatter in the blogosphere about Comcast lurking on a social networking site and then actually coming out. I’m not going to delve in the back story (those folks covered it) but prefer to look at the situation in its current state.

Currently, Comcast is on twitter monitoring what folks are talking about and then actually engaging some of the twitterati. This is a very interesting move and I applaud it at the macro-level. They are taking a proactive step to deal with customer service issues. I don’t know why other companies who run call centers haven’t figured this out. The opportunities to utilize digital tools to improve customer service are available and most folks are still stuck in analog (not providing free advice on that one).

In this situation, I do have some advice for Comcast:

(1) Whoever is “ComcastCares” be a human. Folks like to connect with people. Add your name on the bio page. We won’t bite!

(2) Follow those that have “Followed” you. In order to “get the pulse” as you’ve stated, you should follow those who are interested in Comcast. Last time I looked 90 people were following and you were only following 11 people.

(3) You cannot please everyone. In some instances, some folks will never be happy (kind of like a condo board where the same folks always complain).

(4) Stay committed. We are already seeing a bunch of corporate efforts online fail because they try to put bells and whistles on their “meatballs” (buy Seth Godin’s latest book). As time goes by, it will be easy to see how authentic you all are towards this endeavor. If you succeed, you will reap the benefits and could serve as a model to others.

Utilizing social technologies to enhance customer service is long overdue and this is a step in the right direction.

Update - ComcastCares has been eating in the diner!

Bookmark to:

This morning I had the opportunity to attend One Economy’s public announcement of their latest initiative at the National Press Club. One Economy is a global non-profit association that uses some very creative approaches to bring broadband to underserved communities across the country. One Economy is led by Rey Ramsey and Alec Ross.Their latest initiative is called “bring IT home America” and it builds upon the great successes of One Economy. On that note, One Economy is already credited with delivering broadband access to 300,000 people and more than 13 million folks have used their online self-help tools to improve their lives. The current campaign has three-parts:
Continue Reading »

Bookmark to:

(flickr photo credit - Philofoto)

In poker, knowing when to hold or fold is crucial.

In fact, Kenny Rogers did a tune (“the Gambler”) that captured it beautifully (you all know it.). However, if knowing when to hold or fold was obvious, Seth Godin wouldn’t have sold a bunch of books related to the topic (“the dip”).

In policy and politics, knowing when to hold or fold is critical too. There are folks that operate in the district of communications who should pick up a copy of Mr. Godin’s book. It could serve as a guide to one campaign in order to help their Party regain the White House. It could also be insightful for some tech companies to move forward on other issues that are more important for generating future revenues.

Going for broke and praying to draw out on your flush (win remaining primaries or hoping to use portable devices in white space spectrum before completion of the DTV transition) may make sense in the short term. Although the long-term damage to your wallet, the Party or your credibility may not be worth that gamble…

Disclosure - Tin Can Communications represents Capitol Solutions (on behalf of the Wireless Broadband Coalition) on federal spectrum issues.

Bookmark to:

Good morning everyone… As many diners know, I’m out here in Las Vegas following the 2008 CTIA show. It is awesome.

On that note, I’ve been covering the show over the years and it is truly an effort to walk the massive show floor. A few years ago you could walk the whole floor and know exactly where each company has a booth. Not the case today. You need a map to find your way around and you may need to drop breadcrumbs.

Lots to talk about and I want to roam around. Accordingly, here are a few thoughts from the kitchen - Continue Reading »

Bookmark to:

Once again, Twitter provides some good ingredients for a dish.

This morning I had a fun exchange with Geoff Livingston who decided to take issue with CTIA’s blog. Geoff raised many issues with linking and stated that their efforts were “spamming the market with propoganda.”

Geoff is a talented PR professional and I really enjoyed his recent book on new media. However, I disagree with him about the speed and velocity that organizations “must” pursue to have success in this space.

As I mentioned frequently in the exchange, one size doesn’t fit all. Different organizations are finding out how new tools to communicate with their respective communities is both challenging and an opportunity. The fact that they are trying is a step in the right direction.

On a related note, different bloggers use and operate their blogs in different ways. Seth Godin doesn’t take comments but Mark Cubin does. I should also add that these folks and others sometimes link but often do not. That is their prerogative and it has not harmed the quality of those blogs. In fact, I like the diversity of tools that different folks and organizations use. If everyone did the same thing at the same speed it would be boring.

Here’s to engaging and having dialogs with your customers. One size doesn’t fit all. In fact, you’ll learn a lot from your community - I do everyday.

Notes -

Tin Can Communications will be working with CTIA starting in April.

Bookmark to:

As some of you know, I was in New Orleans last week attending the Nonprofit Technology Conference. It was my first NTEN conference and I’m already looking forward to the next one.

The first day here was a “day of service.” Basically, folks have an opportunity to give back to New Orleans for hosting us all week. I didn’t know about it until Monday evening when Beth Kanter mentioned being a part of a team that was launching a wireless network (equipment provided by Cisco) at St. Bernard’s Community Center. St. Bernard’s was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina and they are still recovering. Accordingly, I jumped on the chance to join this effort. Continue Reading »

Bookmark to:

Good morning everyone…

This week there may just be leftovers in the diner. As some of you know, I’m doing some guest cooking for Aaron Brazell while he is at SXSW. Technosailor is a technorati top 10K blog and I appreciate the opportunity.

Here’s my first dish on a new wireless coalition that has launched in DC….

Dish Disclosure - I will be doing some blogging for the coalition…

Bookmark to: