Not Dead Yet! Just a Little Diminished Around the Edges!

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Lyn Bunch

I love the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, circa back in my callow youth, where they were collecting bodies from the ‘Black Death’. If they weren’t dead, a quick bonk to the head speeded up the process. I think in today’s media world we are seeing this played out over and over again. I confess I had bought into this talk, but I think there is still some life ‘in the old girl yet.’

What gives me hope is that baby whom cover the industry are starting to see the patterns that are evolving that show some various tracks key newspapers are taking to ensure their survivability. My favorite is from Alan Mutter of Newsosaur who in his recent article “What’s Next for Newspapers” highlighted three paths that could offer some hope for newspapers and newspaper staffs who are looking for some relief.

Alan’s three possible paths to the future he labels as: Farm It, Milk It and Feed It. He has plausible representations for each, and it makes for a great read. This has been made all the more urgent in trying to move towards a recognizable future for newspapers with the decision of Rupert Murdoch to split his media empire into two segments – print and everything else. That news was met with a round of – “it’s abut time” and the blessings of the market with an upturn. If anyone really understands the future of media it is Rupert Murdoch. Whatever sentiment he had for his holdings was dashed with cold water after the media circus in England that has stained his reputation. His head is now ruling his heart…and his pocketbook.

In the next post I’ll start reviewing these options, and perhaps have some additional ones to through on the discussion pile. Back soon…now for a viewing of Monty Python on my iPad ap. A great bargain for a few bucks, and a few moments with some lively songs and the Knights Who Say Nea always leaving me smiling.

Lomography – Analogs Having Fun in a Digital World

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Lyn Bunch

“Lomography, an Analog Company Surviving in a Digital World” is a blog article by Jenna Wortham in the April 26 New York Times in the Technology section. I was struck by the title of a subject area I live in – Analog people coping and growing the Digital World, but I was totally unfamiliar with Lomography. As a consultant, I work with organizations to help integrate their people “Analogs” with their new digital surroundings and processes. I also work on guiding companies to bridge to our old Analog world and their adoption of digital strategies. Sometimes I feel like a luddite, but then I’m really a geeky nerd of the lower-high level order. I like digital things, but I like people more. Making them play well in both worlds is how I earn my living as a consultant now.

I am a child of two worlds, both the analog, now code for human side of things, and the digital, which is where the world is rapidly moving. Often the two worlds don’t mix well together, especially for boomers like many of my friends and associates. Having purchased one of the first iPhones (day 2) I am a card carrying geek, and that is how many of my friends, and family saw me. The gadget king is at it again. Now everyone in the family has iPhones, iPads and we Skype on the weekends with our family in Texas. We’re bought in!

Though I have all the digital tools I earn my living by helping others integrate them into their lives, their businesses, and help them survive a dark side of digital implementation…distraction, and a sense of loss of real human interaction. The question of personal productivity and multi-tasking is also now open for discussion. Not every gadget or digital process really makes us more productive research is recently finding.

That is why I loved this article by Jenna Wortham. It captures the true sense of ‘surviving in a digital world by humans/analogs. In 2008 my 20 year consulting practice branched in this arena and I became the Analog Sherpa. My tagline was, and still is…”An Analog Sherpa for a Digital World.” Now you can see why this article impacted me so much.

With the bankruptcy of Kodak recently the challenge of surviving a digital onslaught is high, just ask daily newspapers – or the USPS whose volumes are about to send them down, at least for a re-tooling.

Where did Lomography come from? Lomography started 20 years ago in Austria, by a group of photographers and artists who stumbled across a cheap Russian camera called the Lomo that used 35-millimeter film. The Lomo camera produced unique and charming photographs that often contained artsy blurry streaks and were oversaturated with color due to the camera’s body design and construction.

Matthias Fiegl, one of the artists who went on to found the company started smuggling Lomo cameras back from Russia to Western Europe in the early 1990s and sell them among his friends and then host exhibitions to celebrate the art photographs.

In the age of skype, cheap digital video cameras Mr. Fiegl found something different – sharing actual prints with all of their unique flaws from the film and cheap cameras. Retro was back, and suddenly it was different and cool. People got hooked. Now a large Facebook community is organizing Lomographer meet-ups around the world. Instant is out, and unusal is in. Waiting is a part of the attraction for the Lomographers.

They still use digital cameras and the iPhone – instant is not verboten, but the fun of seeing something later, and not perfect is even more cool. The digital world and the analog world can co-exist side by side…and be cool at the same time. There is hope for the Analog Sherpa in this digital world…and I’m still cool to boot. Cool!

Pinterest – Social Media for ‘Unsocial People’

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Lyn Bunch

I’m a consultant helping businesses adopt digital technologies for their businesses. My client base is heavily made up of senior executives, most who have little personal experience in social media. To say that they have little personal use for it would be an understatement. I understand, these are my people after all, but my other people -my family is heavily invested in social media, but personally and professionally. They have helped me to see the ‘light.’

I am on Facebook since 2008. I joined so I could understand the dynamics of the FB since I was recommending it to my clients as something they should be using in their integrated marketing mix. I might as well have been asking my clients, senior executives like myself, to strip naked and walk through the streets. Their kids might do it, but they certainly weren’t going to.

“Social Media for the Unsocial Person” – what a great tagline for understanding the intersection of senior execs and introverts – older ‘quiet’ people – ‘my people.’ I fashed one recent morning with that thought in my head and wrote it down. I thought that like myself, many don’t understand how they can use and have fun with social media. Not wanting to express themselves in words, or divulge ‘secrets’ about themselves, there was something that could work – and in fact was working for me.

Over the last several weeks I have discovered Pinterest. Like many of my ‘discoveries’ it came from my personal idea factory and digital brain trust – my family. I don’t know who was first to invite me to Pinterest, my eldest son or my wife. Both are huge on the net, and both have great writing and visual skill sets. I love visual things, and color. I dress with lots of color. Thank God, my wife checks me each day before I leave or I would have been arrested by the fashion police for some infraction of good taste.

What I did find is that I liked what I saw and I immediately got into looking at all of the visuals, first in the men’s clothing category. I started ‘repining’ and liking things…wow this is easy. Then I started finding that others commented on my ‘pins’ and ‘likes’…maybe I do have an eye for these things.

As a male, I feel a little funny about being excited about something that has been heavily adopted by women. About 82% of active users are female, but then women make up a majority of all social networking sites and spend 30% more time on sites than men according to Nielson. So why does it excite me – again I am a visual learner. I listen to audio books for pleasure, but always fiction, and mysteries and action are a majority of that. I have an extensive business library, but few business audio books – they just don’t sink in for me. This has been critical for my understanding of ‘me’ – give me images or go home.

Since Pinterest skews so heavily to a female audience as of now, what about a more manly version. There is a new sites that offers men their own versions – I’m waiting for the scratch and sniff version myself. These new sites is Manteresting and Gentlemint. Designed by men – we can now look at tool chests and bacon cheeseburgers among other interesting choices. I’m full right now, and one big tool chest is enough for me, so I don’t think I’ll be jumping on this macho bandwagon soon. This could be a real hard sell for men, so I think I’ll lurk for awhile and stick with Pinterest for now.

When you take a look at the female demographics – which are similar to other social media you might be scarred until you understand that women account for 85% of all consumer purchases – that includes everything from healthcare to autos. Wow, a nice tight audience for your goods and services, and it is proving successful for a number of businesses who have jumped in. Visuals sell products – my 30 years in the advertising field has been well spent – I finally learned something, and it has be reinforced.

What does all this mean – visuals excite, and visuals sell. It’s a great new niche for many businesses to help them in their marketing efforts. For those of us who really want to be ‘social’ it is painless and no need to bare our souls to others. Like something, pin it, and it to your boards and others can share. A great way to spend a few hours luring over goodies you would like to have, used to enjoy or didn’t know existed.

Pinterest is a great way for everyone, including those of us on the male side of the spectrum, to become ‘social’, now it’s time to check my Facebook page, though don’t expect any status updates – those I mainly keep to myself. Introversion runs deep and ‘quiet’, but I enjoy seeing and hearing of my friends exploits – check out my ‘pins’ and you’ll understand me better – that’s all you get from me. Social media for unsocial people – that certainly describes me, and my relationship to Pinterest. Check it out, especially all you shy people.

A Generational View of Social Media

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Lyn Bunch

Having two sons who are digital natives who live and work in the digital and social world has helped me to bridge the gap in media worlds. As someone who now works as a consultant in helping my legacy media peers understand the transition – this cartoon helps say it all. For my sweetie on our 39th Anniversary – yousay it all for me!

Non Sequitor for February 24, 2012

An Ode to the Typewriter

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Lyn Bunch

Time for a Big Shift

Today in Mashable I read about the end of an era, one with many memories for me. The last typewriter will roll off the assembly line in Mumbai, India. Godrej and Boyce has shut down their production lines. India had been one of the last bastions of the typewriter, but even there the addition of computers made the manual typewriter obsolete.

I had my first typewriter in Junior High School – a totally manual, non-correcting typewriter. I quickly learned the use of easy-erase typewriter paper. The only problem is that it tended to smear a lot, so it was hard to get a very clean looking paper. By college I had graduated to a portable electric typewriter with correction tape. Progress of sorts, but still no spell check, and doing footnotes was a real challenge. Writing a paper of the fly was not an option. The drill was – library, 3×5 cards, draft, final draft with footnotes, and final copy. Writing papers was hell.

In grad school I opted to get a Xerox, my Alma Mater Company, automatic typewriter to use in my MBA dissertation. A big move up, but still used large floppy disks, and the screen as very small. In 1980 I bought an Apple II computer, and my life changed forever.

As I have posted in the past a number of manual typewriters are still in using – mainly by younger hipsters who are in their nostalgic phases – with many more to come. For me, the passing of the typewriter is another of the signposts to the past, to a simpler time…what the hell am I talking about. Writing papers and research in the ‘stacks’ was never fun, and this has been written on my Mac with spell check. Life is good! Rest in peace my old trusty manual typewriter; you deserve your long earned rest.

Now just In: Never Mind – Gawker has dug into the story and found that there are still production lines in China, Japan and Indonesia making typewriters. The saga will live on for awhile longer I guess. They could be very helpful when the power goes out, or your batteries die, which mine do all the time.

SXSW – Where Freaks and Geeks Rule!

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Lyn Bunch

A Walking Billboard for SXSW

This years’ major event for geeks and freaks of the digital world just ended recently in Austin, Texas. I’m sure they are still cleaning up after their digital messes and the subsequent music gatherings that followed just days later. For several days this was the digital and entertainment center of the earth. I’ve never been, but Austin is dear to me since my digital son and music daughter-in-law are there raising their daughter in all things digital and musical.

Why is this event special? The NYT article “Reality Crashes the Technocrats’ Party” this last week captures some of the feelings about the event, with a good dash of well deserved ‘snarkiness.’ The digital aristocracy have made this their place, and the very combination of rhythm bereft men, it is mainly men, dancing and partying after days longs digital presentations is amusing to say the least. I’ve gotten some insights on the presentations from my son who has presented there every year since 2007, this time in a solo event on the topic of ‘bot love.’

It is in Austin at SXSW, the acronym commonly used for ‘South by Southwest’ that many of the recent and future changes arriving on the scene in the digital world are unveiled and discussed, and celebrated with copious amounts of liquid cheer a the parties and bars held all over town. The author draws an incredible vision of the sight of all of these ‘digital technocrats’ drinking and dancing, most without a shred of real rhythum. I shudder, since I too suffer from the same maladies, and as a result I seldom drink much, and never dance. I think somewhere there is a restraining order on my regarding the matters.

This has become more and more important to how I conduct my own business. After consulting for over 20 years, mainly in the sales and marketing arena, I now find that my clients are really struggling with how to engage with these ‘digital technocrats’ as well as their customers who have been shifted into the new digital business stream. Everything is different now, and these people are the key to success in this new digital world.

My role has become that of the guide to helping human beings, mainly boomers like myself, understand these new digital thought leaders, and to find ways to harness their output for their organizations. This has really been a two-way translation course – helping the ‘analog’ bosses understand their digital native employees, and helping the digital natives understand their analog leaders and to be able to communicate with them via analog skills sets. So far, so good. It all seems to be meshing well. Now as far as those dancing skills for our tech gurus – I’m not going there, no expertise here to deal with any of that. You’re on your own there!

Happy Data Privacy Day!

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Lyn Bunch

With all of the holidays we celebrate, both solem and profane, in the United States I knew I could not keep track of them, but today I found the ultimate topper. Today is the fourth annual celebration of (ta dah!!) Data Privacy Day! Not only is this a U.S. holiday, but it is celebrated around the world as well – who knew.

I found out about this special day on the Google website in a missive from Alma Whitten who is the Director of Privacy, Product and Engineering, Google. She’ll be celebrating the day in Washington, D.C., the home of all of our best secrets and secret keepers. If you can’t attend any of the meetings that will be held today and this week while she is in Washington, don’t worry, Google will make the data and images available online later. So much for secret.

I know that Google does have dozens of privacy initiatives that should help protect our data and passwords, but I find it a little ironic that these meetings are being held in the most secret porous places on earth. With hundreds of thousands of ‘Secret” and “Top Secret” clearances the place should be a virtual vault, but the Julian Assange provide it to be more like a colander.

Before the Web it was easier to keep secrets, and fewer people had access. As a junior Army officer I held a NATO Crypto Top Secret clearance. When I read those documents, which were on paper, I had to read them in a secure room – one with no windows. Now I can see the same stuff on laptop, and hope I don’t leave it behind at Starbucks. Thank goodness my clearance stayed behind when I mustered out of the Army at the end of my term.

Enough rambling – get out the confetti and noise makers – and Happy Data Privacy Day from your friends at Google – what’s a little secret among friends anyway!

Bring Your Newtons to the New Digital Revolution

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Lyn Bunch

Apple Newton - 'My Precious'

I found an article from Dominic Basulto that really hit all of my ‘analog’ buttons. After gorging on the news and shiny tools at C.E.S. last week I found his “Making Sense of the Retro-Digital Movement” very interesting and delightful. With our major journey into the digital world it is nice to see that there is some push back away from the light into a darker analog world.

I have developed a specialized consultancy based on a lot of what Dominic alludes to. I try to guide normal or ‘analog’ people through the mysterious digital world they find themselves in. Most of the analog offspring were ‘born digital’, and at worst they are fully functioning hybrids who can live in both worlds. As an early adopter (geek to most) from the 60’s I find myself at best a ‘hybrid’ – and I have taken on the role of guide or sherpa to many of my brethren – thus I became the ‘Analog Sherpa’ – no costume needed, thank goodness.

Dominic has seen that there are retro events that show that many of the ‘digitals’ are adopting analog tools – like carrying their iPads with covers that look like old books. I can’t wait to see the first ‘steampunk’ iPad – perhaps it will look like an old Newton with Hopalong Cassidy stickers on the back. As a lifelong gadget freak, a Newton was just about the only thing I didn’t buy- though I coveted it.

So what does this mean? Dominic posits that the retro-digital movement is a sign that the digital and analog worlds are started to merge. With so many seniors now on Facebook the divide between the generations is decreasing – to the distress of their grandchildren. Technology is here for everyone; there is no escaping it – not even in your isolated cabin in the Idaho woods. Wi-Fi for all is the new battle cry. Onward my analog soldiers, drop that dial-up modem and ‘get real.’

Disneyland Is Always Tomorrowland

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Lyn Bunch

Over the holidays I got a real blast from my past with several articles regarding Disneyland. Many of you know that I spent my college years working at D-Land, both undergraduate and graduate years. It is also where I met my wife. I tried to sell both of my sons on working there, but alas, they would have none of it. Not cool anymore.

The Frank Rich editorial in the NYT “Who Killed the Disneyland Dream?” highlights the promise of Disneyland, circa 1956, as the representative place where all could come together and share what would be called ‘the happiest place on earth.’ The live metaphor for his tale comes from a 30-minute film made by Robbins Barstow, an amateur filmmaker who documented his family’s trip to Disneyland in 1956. The film has recently been admitted to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

The Barstow family won a trip to Disneyland sponsored by the 3M, and a condition of the trip was to make a film of their journey. The film shows the promise of D-Land, an egalitarian world that was available to all. My first trip to D-Land came that same year as a 9 year old…and it was wonderous. Rich’s point is that the promise of Disneyland has changed over the years, as Disneyland itself has changed. What has not kept up with that original promise is our economy and unshakable faith in the promise of a better future. In 2011 we have been shaken, our economy is not robust, but the Disneyland dream is still as real as ever.

You can see that the Disney folks continue to push that dream in another article from the NYT – this one on the work that is done to keep lines moving and the guests entertained while waiting for one of the nine rides the average guest will experience in a single day. Their goal is to boost that to 10 soon, with the expectation that great experiences will bring their guests back more often. Give them what they want and they will return.

The last article in my reading this holiday period had to do with the closing of the park over the vacation due to over crowding. Yes Virginia, there is a capacity level to the park. I know because I was part of one of the first tests back in 1967 when we fanned out to count heads at a designated time on the 3^rd Saturday in August, which was the traditional busiest day of the year. I don’t know how the Disney folks made it up to their potential guests, but I’m sure it included some ‘pixie dust.’ Disneyland teaches us all how to market, listen to our customers and continuing strive to make our buying experiences better. I learned that lesson a long time ago…and I still have some ‘pixie dust’ stored away for emergencies myself.

The Ghosts of Christmas Past – Gone but Not Forgotten

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Lyn Bunch

I love this time of the year, the Christmas lights, the food and the fire in the fireplace. Holidays in Southern California have their own timeline, and this year for extra cheer we have the deluge of the century bearing down on us. Time to make merry and stay dry, and time for another log on the fire.

Another reason I look forward at this time are all of the lists of things past and things future. I enjoy the prognostications of what is to come, and what we saw. In this climate both real and economic it is exciting to see some glimmer of good news on the horizon. Good news, even potential good news brings positive actions, and that is what we need. The forecasts are looking up and I rejoice at their prospect, but then I am chastened by forecasts past that have not brought the results foretold. Pardon the language, but I’m also watching ‘A Christmas Carol’ to get myself in the mood.

OK, this year is the resolution to save all of the forecasts in a folder and then review them at the end of the year. Just like Ebeneezer at his counting table I will keep tally of who was naughty and who was nice, well in his honor, just who was naughty.

To get myself in the mood I read today’s list “You’re Out: 20 Things That Became Obsolete this Decade.” Now I feel old, and then contemplate just how fast things come and go. It seems like just yesterday for many of these items. Here’s a quick recap of those things that will not be missed – OK, some of them will be missed:

VCRs & VHS Taps
Travel Agents
The Separation between Work and Personal Life
Forgetting
Bookstores
Watches
Land Line Phones
Maps
Phone Calls
Classifieds in Newspapers
Dial-up Internet
Encyclopedias
CD’s
Phone Sex via 1-900 numbers
Film and film cameras
Yellow Pages and Address Books
Catalogs
Fax Machines
Wires
Hand Written Letters

Now I really feel old. Time for some liquid Christmas ‘cheer’ to deaden the pain, and to help me forget. I worked in many of these fields, and there is no going back. Bah, Humbug!

Analog Sherpa

Media, Marketing & Management For A Digital World

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