http://blog.hirechriscranley.com Helping companies be accountable to their goals and stakeholder communities, one conversation at a time. Available for hire in the following roles: Crowdsource Architect. Animal Psychologist. Spaceship Earth Engineer. Change Agent. Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:20:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="250" caption="Kaiser Permanente - Thrive"][/caption] Disclaimer: As a reminder, the postings on this site are my own and do not represent Kaiser Permanente positions, strategies, or opinions. I am happy to announce that early this fall (September), I accepted a role to help support Kaiser Permanente's technology investment strategy. ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/11/15/kaiser-permanent-thrive/ [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="319" caption="CrowdVine - Meet Smarter"][/caption] Earlier this year, I accepted an advisory and research position with CrowdVine.  CrowdVine is in the "white label" social networking business.  The company helps people in groups, associations, and attending events to meet smarter through their software solutions and associated services.  You can ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/08/01/crowdvine-welcome-to-your-network/ I enjoy the productions from the common craft team.   Here is an excerpt from one of their recent blog posts: Tools, or the the wrong tools, become a risk when they create unnecessary drag in every day work. Often, we've found ourselves wondering if we're using a sledgehammer to drive a ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/06/23/losing-prospective/ The invention of Brand equity was loosely defined in the 90s as intangible value that companies and products held in the mind of a prototypical“consumer”.  Brand equity was driven by a comprehensive brand strategy or brand identity.   Brand marketing enthusiasts featured the difference between a company's asset book value and ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/06/18/web-20-reprioritizing-the-form-of-brand-identity/ How amazing is Tiger Woods!? He is pure focus.   He is pure professionalism.  He is a fierce competitor.  He tolerates no excuses in executing his best prepared plans to the best of his abilities. How amazing is Tiger Woods!? No one was surprised when he sunk the 12 foot birdie putt to force ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/06/17/tiger-woods-fierce-focus/ A friend pointed me to the postcrossing service the other day. I love the idea of this service.  I have many international friends and love to travel.  When I am unable to enjoy these interests, receiving little random notes from around the world sounds like an interesting substitute. I think this is ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/06/12/post-crossing-another-web20-applicapersonal-notes-for-company/ Leveraging partner ecosystems is not new.  Social Media has not reinvented the space.   Regardless of how you are experimenting with social media and partnering to drive customer value, I would recommend to not stray too far from basics.  Here are 3 rules I recommend: Never embarrass your partners in front of ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/05/13/partner-communities-and-social-media/ Why is it that my social media platform smells like my old high school gym locker room? Answer:  56% of US users aged between 13-21 have created "content" online. Oh!  That explains it.  Funny Facebook video below: Idiots of Ants Facebook Video http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/05/13/funny-facebook-video/ The last day of conference treated attendees to some really good KeyNote speakers.   Here are the big ideas I that made an impression on my notebook: Cool new concept:  “The Adopter Class”  These people live on the bleeding edge.  Pros:  They love the new and the next and will willingly sign ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/05/08/more-web-20-thoughts-day-3-last-day/ I grew up on a farm in the country, across the street from my grandparents. The roots of my family's involvement in farming began with their immigration to the United States at the turn of the 20th century.   My basque great grandparents settled in the Imperial Valley via Cuba (they moved ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/05/05/what-does-farm-business-have-to-teach-us-about-sowing-what-you-reap-for-web-business/ Quote from Business Week: Personalization works, and several companies are working on ways to make it work better. Microsoft recently filed a patent application that would use offline data such as credit-card transactions, estimated physical location (from cell-phone towers), and TV viewing habits to serve you a customized ad the next ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/05/04/i-am-more-than-an-ad-unit/ I found a new Twitter Insult Bully.   Hooray!   Guess how many google ads I click on this site? http://web.forret.com/tools/twitter-tq.asp Twitter Quotient for : 'chriscranely' Updates, Followers Babble index - updates for every follower You're alone in the desert, talking to yourself. Hello! No one's listening!! Friends, Followers Popularity index - followers for every friend No followers? You're such ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/05/04/does-your-web20-stink-like-a-high-school-gym-locker/ Is my cloud computing strategy full of hot air? Bubble talk abounded at the conference, but I was amazed when I walked the expo floor.  There were many "infrastructure" service providers offering computing scaling services, build in IT Ops services, On demand storage and CPUs, Ad networks for hire, etc  ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/04/29/more-web-20-thoughts-day-02/ Robot are coming! http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/04/29/the-robots-are-coming/ Yesterday I had the opportunity to have many great conversations about Web 2.0 tools, techniques, and business strategies. Here are a few points that stand out to me: 1. I need business cards! I need a reference flier that describes my services. Old media / traditional networking is still modus operandi ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/04/23/web-20-1st-day-impressions/ When I resigned my management position last fall it was with the intention of learning as much as I possibly can about the Web 2.0 space:  Tools, Technologies, Business Strategies, People, etc.   That discovery had me signing up for all manner of start up services and attending "meet ups" all ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/04/23/tech-nightmare-flash-back/ This week is huge for me, both professionally and personally.   I am very excited for all the its potential.   Yesterday, the highlight was the opportunity to cheer on my running mates virtually, as they raced the Boston Marathon.  Impressive times were had all around as the top male from the ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/04/22/best-week-ever-%e2%80%93-christmas-in-april/ Make work a game and you may need rename it play!  What's wrong with that anyway? One of many cool tips from Jeffrey Fox's Dream Job Book is the idea that if one focuses on the activities that will facilitate success, successful outcomes will result.  In my case this applies to ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/04/16/5-points-a-day/ For the past few months, I have been training for my first marathon.  When I successfully complete the Big Sur marathon in 2 weeks time, I will have many new friends and mentors to thank from the Kstar running club. Long distance running has been a very positive habit that I ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/04/16/businessrunning/ Emmerson said:  "Every man I meet is my superior in some way, in that I learn of him."  I said "But there is sure a lot of crap on twitter." I then said, " Damn you TwitterLocal!  Give me my life back." I then blogged about it and felt better. http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/04/07/wisdom-is-being-humble-but-selective/ One of the best facilitation tools in my toolbox relates to the anti-brainstorming. Here's how it works: Get your group to focus on what your product / process / thing would look like if it were completely broken. Do this exercise out loud and be stunned at the high energy ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/04/01/i-only-understand-10-of-the-words-in-this-sales-pitch-okay-8/ I recently read a summarization of Aristotle's points of virtue. As someone who studied both business and philosophy in college, I find it interesting that the concept of virtue is a best an individual concern. Aristotle defines virtues in reference to their excess. As ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/03/28/virtuemap/ .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } My 1st Art Work, originally uploaded by myjunk. Well, its too late for that, but one of the cool things about having some time to myself is the fact that I ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/03/12/dont-quit-your-day-job/ Contact Me [leads at lucefocus dot com] for more information! I will work on a fix bid basis for "sprint" research projects between 6-10 hours. Get results today! A myriad of information forms are making their way onto the Internet about everything and everyone. Your ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/03/07/a-infoload-trumps-lead/ When I told my wife that I would start a blog to support and augment my dream job search, she was worried. She challenged me with the following questions: Don't you waste enough time on the internet / your computer already? I am not sure I understand how this will help ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/03/07/just-in-time-blog/ While I am thinking "outside the box" on my current job search, I am also a closet compulsive when it comes to playing around with anything web 2.0. In as much as the web 2.0 things I check out also support my job searching activities, then I will highlight ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/03/04/tool-review-jobfox/ Today I listened to an interesting podcast from the Accidental Creative team. They interviewed famed business consultant, Peter Block, who provided me with several quotes for my quote book as follows: Anxiety is the price of freedom. Certainty kills creativity. I was born and everything is else is fiction. I relate well to ... http://blog.hirechriscranley.com/2008/03/04/anxiety-is-the-price-of-freedom/