Word to the Word

A Tale of Hawks & Mockingbirds

The expression “hawkeye” refers to the ability to focus and see well into the distance with clarity. Watching the bird atop the light pole reminded me how hawks can possess such amazing vision …

Geolocation War Raising the Stakes

Don’t look now but the Foursquare vs. Gowalla showdown is getting more intense with the added intrigue of major suitors expressing interesting in perhaps purchasing one of the two clear standouts in the geolocation landscape …

Tiger’s Better Late Than Never Crisis Communications

or the first time since his sex scandal broke, Tiger Woods faced the media without any preconditions for 36 minutes. Frankly it was 3-to-4 months overdue. If he had been this forthcoming in the early stages of the scandal it probably would have never spun so far out of control …

Geolocation Train Picking Up Steam … Are you on right track?

Geolocation has been a buzz word in communication circles for some time now. GPS-enabled devices are commonplace today among even the least tech-savvy consumers. But it is the potential of geolocation apps that has those of us in the communications world drooling …

Can Google Create Enough Buzz to Swarm Facebook & Twitter?

After the disappointment of Google Wave, I feel a little gun shy about buying into all of the hype of what Google plans to do with Buzz …

Pants on the Ground All Around

Posted by randy on January 15th, 2010

Even if you are not an American Idol fan, it would be tough for you to not have heard references to “Pants on the Ground” by General Larry Platt. He closed out the Atlanta section of auditions in grand style by wowing America with his ode to young folks pulling their pants up so they won’t be “looking like a fool”.

The performance has spawned hundreds of covers on YouTube and even Jimmy Fallon did his own rendition on NBC as Neil Young. Sure it is a catchy tune but there has to be deeper reason for why the nation is responding. It could in part be the eccentric personality of the 62-year-old Platt. Seeing a geriatric hip hop artist with some comedic dance moves is certainly engaging television.

But I believe the public’s general consensus that the style of droopy pants has played itself out is driving the phenomenon. Even inside the hip hop subculture there is a growing disdain at the fashion statement. It has lost its edge and has become its own comedic fodder.

So what can we learn from the “Pants” phenomenon? If we have a message that can be tied to the cultural compass which is both entertaining and well-positioned (and let’s be honest, right now you cannot be any better positioned than on the #1 show in America) then you have the opportunity to connect with a wider audience than you likely can imagine. Do you think Platt’s friends & family ever dreamed he would become a cultural icon overnight?

Right place .. right time … right message.

How Colt Gained His Character

Posted by randy on January 13th, 2010

First off, I have to offer full disclosure that I am indeed an unapologetic Longhorn fan. It may not have been my alma mater (Liberty will always be #1 in my heart) but having married a Texas Ex, having covered the program on a daily basis for 6+ years and having lived in the state for two decades I have some strong ties to the program. Consequently this year’s BCS Championship game was a jovial time in our household.

But even in defeat, Colt McCoy displayed the kind of character we rarely see exhibited these days in the moment of complete frustration and failure. Having stood on the sideline with an injured shoulder watching his team crumble to Alabama, the last thing he probably wanted to do was a postgame interview on national television. But just watch how his character is revealed by his comments amidst this heartache.

These days he recently became engaged and is having his shoulder treated before he embarks on his NFL career. In the meantime, he sat down with one of my former pastors in Austin, Mac Richard. My wife & I were involved in the early days of Lake Hills Church when it was just a new church plant meeting in a middle school cafeteria. We love seeing how God is using Mac & LHC to impact Central Texas. And this interview Mac conducted with Colt & his father Brad McCoy offers some great insight into how this young man’s character was cultivated.

Raising Our Voice Above the Noise

Posted by randy on January 11th, 2010

As I write this post, I am preparing to speak on behalf of a group of neighborhoods at a school board meeting. I’ve spent the past few years training others how to present their cases to often hostile audiences. Now is the time for the teacher to practice what he preaches.

In the board meeting, we expect a large & noisy crowd of folks fighting to keep the district from moving ahead with an unpopular plan to tear down and not rebuild the high school where my wife graduated. The “Save Klein High School” is well organized and appears to have forced the administrators to reconsider their decision. It is a turn of events my group fully supports.

Unfortunately I represent a smaller & less vocal contingency that will be trying to sway the board in a completely unrelated manner. The challenge will be to make a strong statement based solely on school data and common sense in an emotionally charged and perhaps raucous setting.

The advice we give clients in such situations may surprise you. We counsel some of the largest corporations on the planet that sometimes a whisper can be more effective than a shout. In our society where most folks have a television on while listening to an iPod while texting a friend on their phone and surfing Facebook on their laptop, we have become accustomed to white noise surrounding us. So when we have silence introduced into the discussion …. it can stop us cold in our tracks.

The next time you are having trouble yelling over the top of your student’s stereo or being heard by a hostile customer, try rocking their world by pausing with a smile and then whispering a statement. You may be amazed at the results.

The Spectrum Showdown

Posted by randy on January 5th, 2010

There are battle lines being drawn and heavy artillery being mobilized as broadcasters prepare to go to war with the wireless industry over control of the spectrum.

What’s that? The idea of spectrum allocation makes your eyes glaze over quicker than a PBS documentary on the fascinating life of slugs? You are certainly not alone. In fact, most Americans do not even know what a spectrum is. Simply put, it is defined area on which transmission waves ride for television, radio, satellite, wireless devices and countless other uses. Unfortunately there is not an infinite supply for the FCC to manage.

For years, television and radio stations gobbled up most of it with their analog signals. Conversion to digital technology helped broadcasters be more efficient with the spectrum and it was a good thing since mobile phone usage was exploding. As more & more technologies emerge there is an even greater demand for the precious commodity.

Enter FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and his decision appoint a special advisor to look into slicing up the television spectrum allotment even more to create new wireless opportunities. As you might suspect, this has not gone over well among the handful of media conglomerates than own the vast majority of all American stations. Mark Aitken of Sinclair Broadcasting immediately ranted to TV Technology magazine that “it’s clear that they (the FCC) are gunning to shut down broadcasting.” Obviously that is an exaggeration but it exemplifies the feeling of many broadcasters.

On the other side of the argument, you have wireless providers drooling and the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division calling for the changes to help create new options for broadband providers to handle the skyrocketing demands of smartphone users. The DOJ’s Christine Varney tells Information Week:

“Given the potential of wireless services to reach underserved areas and to provide an alternative to wireline broadband providers in other areas, the (FCC’s) primary tool for promoting broadband competition should be freeing up spectrum.”

So what are the implications for those of us who don’t live and die by frequencies on a daily basis? Whichever decision the FCC makes it will either have a strong impact on the services that TV stations can offer or it may curtail technological developments and overcrowd our existing wireless infrastructure. There are no win-win scenarios in this battle.

On one hand, my twenty years in television has me very sympathetic to their plight on the heels of their forced upgrade to digital that cost them millions upon millions of dollars. But on the other hand, we have to face the fact that only an increasingly smaller group of Americans get their television signal from over the airwaves. Most either use cable or satellite to receive their programming. And as smartphones and the next wave of wireless devices grow more common by the day, we are reaching a point where something has to give. Is the best use of our spectrum into the future tied to the aging television industry or to wireless? I think the answer is obvious. But it is essential that as we make room for new technology that we don’t cripple broadcasting in the process.

Bringing the Tech Horizon Into Focus

Posted by randy on January 4th, 2010

The beginning of a new decade tends to inspire thoughts in me of where we might be headed technologically and how that will affect communications. I am anxious to see what is revealed at CES 2010 in Las Vegas. But I am thinking even further into the distant horizon.

I was one of the early adopters of both Facebook & Twitter (especially for someone my age). I admit I found both intriguing early on but grew tired of both well before they exploded in popularity in the mainstream. Once they both finally became a part of the daily routine for most Americans many new uses for the technology emerged and I found myself reinvigorated. This has led to question whether I am dismissing some new web apps and devices too early.

Perhaps the next Twitter will actually be a refinement of an existing technology. Apple has established itself as the premier tech company in the world not so much on the new concepts it develops, but for how they greatly improve existing technology (i.e. iPods, iPhones, Final Cut Pro).

Jenna Wortham of the New York Times recently served up “Five Tech Themes for 2010″ that focused on things like the death of the traditional home phone line and saving notes on the web. But three of her choices have the potential to have a direct impact on how we communicate to each other and the world:

Mobile app stores continue to evolve from kitschy collections of games and novelty programs into robust catalogs of applications that push the limits of what a cellphone can do. So where can we expect to see the next big innovation? External attachments. So far, Square, a device that plugs into the audio jack of a mobile phone, turning it into a credit card machine, has made the splashiest entrance into the market, but that is just the beginning.

I find this area of special interest since we are reaching the point where we have a fairly standard size of handheld devices. To truly take advantage of chip technology inside there is limited space for attachments. Biotechnology and healthcare devices seem to be getting the majority of attention right now. But I could see real potential for churches & businesses as well.

Location, location, location: Start-ups like Hot Potato, Foursquare, Grindr and UrbanSpoon have generated a lot of buzz for their forays into the mobile location-based arena, but it’s only the beginning — particularly in light of the new geo-location features made available to developers and users on Twitter. It’s likely we will begin seeing many more useful location-based applications.

OK, I’ll admit that I am seriously down with location-based apps. I love being able to put my daily experience in context to my immediate environment and sharing experiences with those who drive the same roads and buy groceries at the same place as me. Taking the GPS technology and using it to reach your most prized demographics has a potential to be huge as devices become more prevalent. I have a feeling by the start 2011 that location-based apps will become a major part of our handheld experience.

Web TV: As my colleague Nick Bilton pointed out a few weeks ago, ditching the set-top box and watching TV online is little more than a few clicks away. But while his set-up was admittedly more complicated than simply connecting your laptop to a big screen, it will get easier in 2010. In addition to start-ups like Clicker and SetJam aiming to make it easier to find what you want to watch online, Apple may even start peddling a monthly subscription service that would allow television companies to deliver TV programs via its multimedia software. Companies are getting into the game with services like Comcast on Demand Online that allow customers to watch thousands of TV episodes and some movies via their Web browsers.

As a broadcasting veteran, I can tell you that the TV industry has been anticipating the day when our online experience renders traditional broadcasting pointless. Frankly I was expecting that day to arrive years ago. The proliferation of broadband has helped inch us closer but the experience of watching the web on a 5o” LCD in your living room still hasn’t eclipsed cable or satellite … yet. Many industry insiders thought Apple TV would be the tipping point. But it remains nothing more than a novelty. The growing popularity of Hulu has proven we are much closer.

The collapse of the traditional broadcasting will be devastating for my former colleagues much the way the web is close to rendering newspapers extinct. But it will bring the cost of distribution for churches and other businesses down to a level where anyone can get into the game. That it is both exciting and daunting at the same time. The high cost of broadcast air time has kept the choices limited to those who could at least do a decent job of producing content. But this will change the paradigm completely even more than YouTube or Vimeo.

The key to each of these successes will be finding a standard that is comfortable to everyday users who have become accustomed to simple but powerful. The key to success as the transition to online video content continues is to be prepared to produce compelling programming that will stand out in the midst of a sea of mediocrity. That requires forward thinking and planning. And the start of a new year offers a perfect time for such forward thinking.

The Football Squeeze

Posted by randy on December 28th, 2009

Much to the relief of the BCS fat cats, over the Christmas holidays the college football world shifted its attention away from the lack of a playoff to the shocking retirement and then subsequent “indefinite leave” of Florida head coach Urban Meyer. His declining health due to the demands and stress associated with sitting atop his profession have forced Meyer to re-evaluate his priorities in life. And as often is the case, such evaluations reveal some ugly facts as he described in his news conference on December 27th:

It’s something that started about four years ago. It was chest pains that became rather significant two years ago. Whether it’s stress related, I was very concerned. I know there’s a great basketball coach that lost his life at Wake Forest. I started to become very alarmed with that. And then I’m a person of faith, and I just wanted to make sure I had my priorities straight. A lot of times coaches do not have their priorities straight. You put business before God and family, you have a problem.

The last sentence is especially profound. I came to a similar realization a few years ago when I recognized my career in television sportscasting was making it difficult to be the type of husband & father that my family deserved. Even though I often felt like the most fortunate man on the planet being paid to the do something I loved, it was coming at a very high price. The nights & weekends when I was working made it nearly impossible to spend any quality time with the ones I loved most. From my perspective today, it really wasn’t much of a sacrifice compared to the joy I have today investing time in the lives of my children. But at the time, it was a gut-wrenching decision.

Apparently it was too gut-wrenching for Meyer to overcome as just hours before he was set to formally announce his retirement he attended a practice with his team and he had a change of heart. And you’ll notice an interesting perspective he brings to the discussion in regard to his players:

I made a comment about how proud I am of this football team, the way we go about our business. To see that come out this morning, for I guess I’m a southerner now for us southerners it was kind of cold, and to see them come out with a great attitude and great work ethic and just go to work, I admire that.I know I’m dealing with some stuff, and my family comes first. That’s never been an issue. That’s non-negotiable, that I want to make sure I do right by my family. My second family are my players and our staff, and to see that was the moment.

So essentially he placed his “co-workers” on a pedestal alongside his family and their health concerns. That’s where from a distance it would appear that he hasn’t completely re-focused his priorities. Apparently their heartfelt hug of his crying I’ve known and worked with football coaches from the NFL down to the high school level and the 100-hour work week is an occupational hazard of that industry. I have seen many of their families pay the price when coaches don’t make carving out time with their wives & children a top priority. The sport can be a narcotic for some coaches that is more powerful than anything they can control.

Hopefully for Coach Meyer and his family he is able to turn to his faith in God to avoid getting squeezed by own passion for the game.

Bringing Tablets Into View

Posted by randy on December 27th, 2009

Just as we started feeling comfortable focusing on handhelds to communicate, Apple is about to force us to rethink the future. Over the course of the past few months there tech world has been awash in rumors that Apple’s upcoming tablet device will revolutionize how we interact with technology. Alexander Wolfe of Information Week is among those trumpeting a wave of change:

Hey, doesn’t anyone remember the Windows-based Tablet frenzy, circa 2002? So the big deal this time is that Apple will legitimize the platform, particularly for business users. Indeed, I believe mobile Webpads could edge out netbooks–and even debuzz smartphones somewhat–and become the big alt.platform story of 2010.

While riding along a creek on some trails with my son today, it struck me that while I had been churning along focused on the technological advances of 2009 that 2010 has the potential to be an even more pivotal year.

I am old enough to remember when major changes in technology occurred via decades instead of months. Today we can’t afford to dig ourselves to deep into the latest trend or we may find ourselves wondering who pulled the ladder out from behind us.

When I was a kid, we received our most timely and relevant news and information through a television screen. By the ’90s, the desktop screen became many of our primary sources of fresh info. Today, most of us consider our phones as our first screen of contact. And while I doubt smartphones get pushed to the curb anytime soon, it is not tough to imagine how a tablet could be especially effective in business settings or even among creatives.

As for the Apple iSlate (or whatever they call it), we don’t even know if it will be a fully functional touchscreen version of a MacBook or just an oversized iPod Touch. Most have assumed the former but CNET’s Dan Ackerman isn’t convinced:

The last several rounds of Apple tablet rumors, however, point more decisively towards an iPhone or iPod Touch style device. The Financial Times reports that Apple is planning a press event on January 26 in San Francisco, while the Silicon Alley Insider claims several app developers have been asked to prepare large-screen versions of their current iPhone apps.

If the ballyhooed tablet proves to be just an oversized iPod Touch, then I still wouldn’t dismiss the potential impact on how your target audiences might react. You want your message where your audience is receiving it. As we look into 2010, strap on your helmet because this could be a fun ride.

Word Up

Posted by randy on December 15th, 2009

As if the world needs another voice to cause even more congestion in the chaos, I am stepping back up from the world of micro-blogging to the longer form once again. While I am far from backing off my Twitter fix I am looking forward to expounding upon my more concise concepts.

Thanks for indulging me even if for just a few seconds.