The one with the most stickers wins (and learning from the students)
Jeremiah shot this picture yesterday. I told someone “the one who dies with the most stickers wins.” according to Flickr I’m far from winning, though.
Hey, I had the best job at Microsoft and gave it all up so I could attend Lunch 2.0. But, Jeff Sandquist is hiring people for Channel 9. So, if you wanna walk around the best company with a camcorder (or work on the dev team) drop Jeff a line. I hear he has some new Channel 9 stickers coming next week so you could be the first to have that on your laptop! (Hey, Jeff, can you send me one? I’ll add it to my collection).
Last night after speaking at San Jose State University, Maryam and I wrote a new talk that we’ll give at Converge South next month in Greensboro North Carolina. Titled “10 ways to a killer blog” I think it’ll be fun.
Speaking of SJSU, last night I talked with about 30 students at the journalism department there. That brought back memories. Anyway, Steve Sloan took me to dinner last night and turned on the recorder so you can listen as we have dinner. I’m getting more used to being recorded almost constantly now. It’s sort of weird having almost everything I do on Flickr or other photo sharing sites, along with even dinner conversations.
One thing I like about speaking at Universities is you learn about how students are perceiving the world and what they are using. For instance, both the instructors and students told me that MySpace is very popular among high schoolers but loses a lot of its appeal in the college crowd. This remains true even among people who used MySpace like crazy in high school. They say they switched to Facebook when they move to college.
These social programs are part of the identity of who they are at those specific times in their lives. The unsophisticated nature of MySpace is attractive in high school, but that doesn’t carry over into college, it seems.
Facebook is trying to get outside of just the college world, it seems. But, that might be a bad thing to do. I’ve had several college students write me and say they are pissed about this decision. They want a program that’s only for college students, and don’t want to see high school students (or adults like me) in Facebook. It’ll be interesting to watch that one play out.
Will Facebook’s attempt to grow its business backfire? The university students I talked with say it could.
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September 13th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Geez, Rober, I try to remove all stickers that I can from my computers. I guess the next time I take any off of any computer gadget I get I will mail them over hill to half Moon Bay.
September 13th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Mark: heheh.
September 13th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
“…both the instructors and students told me that MySpace is very popular among high schoolers but loses a lot of its appeal in the college crowd. This remains true even among people who used MySpace like crazy in high school. They say they switched to Facebook when they move to college.”
————
Does this mean that MS got the better of Google? Google spent 900 million to provide the advertising on MySpace, while MS had to settle on paying an undisclosed, but you can be sure, much much lower price to provide Facebook’s ads. I read that MySpace has 10x the users of Facebook, but Facebook’s users spend more money on goods (on a per user basis). Depending on how much lower MS spent on Facebook than Google spent on MySpace, MS may have gotten the better deal here. I even remember people on Digg.com saying as much when these deals went down.
September 13th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
Ha ha I think Cory Doctorow for one has had you beat for some time now… http://www.toweringflat.com/2005/11/corys_ibook_not_available_on_e.htm
September 13th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Maybe Facebook should come up with a new site, same underpinnings, for high school students. Major brands do this a lot for different age audiences, no? MTV/VH1, etc.
Huh, they could even “migrate” a user from one site to another when they went to college. Enforce the separation in high school, but when they’re in college they can invite high school friends to see their profile…
September 13th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
I’m constantly amazed at the stuff you learn that most everyone in this business already knows. And you say you do a lot of observing?
September 13th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
I agree that Facebook are likely to face a problem. They have created a gated community in which community members feel special. Now the gates are being thrown open and the community members fear the “riff raff” are going to come pouring in. I think that’s the perception that the students are representing to you and right or wrong that’s the percepion that the Facebook team need to address really fast.
September 13th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
LayZ: we’re not as smart as you are. I wish you’d write a blog so we could see just what you know.
September 13th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Here’s hoping that the people behind facebook listen to you Scoble, I’m one of the people that bitched about this thing.
September 13th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
Per most laptop stickers, Pluto-resident Esther Dyson has long-claimed that crown, she was a trend-setter there, before the trend was even thought of as a trend. But laptop stickers, instantly ‘tag clouds’ you as pure solid-ice froth. Laser-etching, well now that’s more the smarty, luxury fashionistic style, a world-away from stickers.
MySpace wanes after an IQ (and/or a life) cements in. Facebook has the model, as it’s an exclusive club. Why not just make new blocked off Facebooks, as if they intermingle, it will kill Facebook.
My prediction, lottsa these ‘grow grow grow’ Webby companies will hit a curve and they won’t be able to manage the post-hype era, and will Planet Hollywood themselves out, maybe with a few embezzlement Krispy Kreme donuts sagas all along the way.
But always room for a new new thing, easy to copy, jazz it up, out market it…nature of the market.
September 13th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
LayZ: we’re not as smart as you are. I wish you’d write a blog so we could see just what you know.
But why, when it’s so much fun to watch you try to push your “BLOGS ARE ALL THAT MATTERS IN EVERYTHING” agenda, and that look of canine confusion you continually get when you find out otherwise.
over.
and over.
and over again.
September 13th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Thanks again for speaking in class. Your insight is greatly appreciated.
September 13th, 2006 at 4:29 pm
Agree with #5. Pathetic as it sounds, I feel comfortable and ’safe’ using Facebook because I know only my peers can access it. Don’t really want high school kids, or ‘real people’ (aka grown ups) meddling. I realise FB has to make money somehow, and I wish them all the best, but pissing us off might not be the best way…
September 13th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
Here’s a transcript of his video. I’m going to be checking it out! (Help Robert!)
===============
Hey we’re hiring!
My name is Jeff Sandquist. I lead the team that creates a little thing at Microsoft called the Evangelism Network. We’re really famous for Channel 9. Channel9.msdn.com is probably one of the number video blogs on the planet with over 3.5 million unique visitors every month coming and visiting it and watching videos to learn about Microsoft technologies. Last few months we’ve launched something new call 10 - you’re viewing the video on right now.
I’m looking for someone to help lead this team for me. Laura, Tina and Jesse are driving content and so forth - they need a leader. Not just a manager, but a leader. Someone that is going to lead the cause for 10 forward. I’m looking for somebody that is totally into, uh, understanding enthusiasts. You know, When I’m thinking of enthusiasts, these are people who are using technology to create art, music, photography, managing videos, their music collections, creating music. People don’t get excited about computing just for the sake about computing anymore. They get excited about taking their passions and applying technology to it.
With 10, we want to create a place for those people. Sometimes telling the Microsoft story, sometimes not. But, if you’re looking for a key lead job, and really helping us drive together what we think will grow into be another top video blogging communities on the web, send me an e-mail. Jeffsand at Microsoft dot com. Put in the subject line “10 Lead Job” and I want you to do two things.
One, tell me about a really interesting problem that you’ve solved with technology. Two, tell me things that you’re really proud of, the work that you’re doing. You know, do it in a creative way. Put it up on a video on YouTube. Send me an e-mail with links to websites of things that you’ve created. But here’s an opportunity to drive a global cause around enthusiasts and technology.
The end!
September 13th, 2006 at 11:50 pm
Well, Shit. It seems I am the only one concerned with the decals on your Laotop,which might say that I am 50 now.
So maybe I will think about decals now. I am planning to move to Panama or Costa Rica now since I am a Libertarian and like the idea of NO armies in the country that I am living in.
Panama seems to have a great Internet which I will find out this coming February, so we will see see. I want to retire and I think that California is not the place to do that
September 14th, 2006 at 1:03 am
As far as facebook, I’m pretty sure this is a clear indication Zuckerman is really pushing to sell his baby. They’ve lost their “coolness” with the users by doing stuff they don’t agree with time and time again, so it’s not going to help their growth or loyalty.
On the other hand, if they create a growth spurt that fakes increased demand, they might finally get Viacom to bite the bullet and drop the 2 Billion they want.
September 14th, 2006 at 1:41 am
Hm. I’m telling you again Robert: Pasting (ugly) stickers on your gear is so 40-years old. I’ve spent a day in an school for young creatives and haven’t spotted a single laptop with stickers. Not one. You need to listen more to Patrick…
;-) Oyvind
September 14th, 2006 at 6:34 am
There is also a flickr group :)
http://www.flickr.com/groups/laptopstickers/
My advise for anybody trying it though would be to check the surface first - the thinkpad will be hell of work to get them off for the next round of stickers.
There is actually one I removed and that is the windows sticker. Reason? Not what you might think: It was reflecting the sun so much that I was disturbed heavily while working.
September 14th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
[...] Scoble liked my picture of him. Ya know, I don’t have a great camera, in fact I was drooling over Brian’s, Scott’s and Thomas’s amazing camera’s at the Future of Web Apps conference. I have a consumer grade camera (no it’s not a Hitachi, so don’t bug me about that) a Sony, and it’s not that great. It fits in my pocket, and I pretty much bring it everywhere. I’m not afraid to walk up to strangers or friends and take their picture, I suspect that’s the difference. I take a LOT of photos, and some of them turn out great. I guess I’m part of the quantity over quality type. [...]
September 14th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
Winning? Hardly! http://www.flickr.com/photos/maryhodder/123208237/
September 15th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
No laughing squid sticker?
http://www.laughingsquid.com/
September 15th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Rob, I have one of those on my tripod.
September 17th, 2006 at 11:41 am
[...] Jeremy has recently had some trouble with MySpace; no surprise there. It’s an easy place for predators to hang out. Now TopLawStudent is recommending that law students pull their MySpace pages if they actually want to get a job. Of course, one has to wonder why a law student would have a MySpace account anyway, after all, MySpace is for teenie boppers! Maybe it’s just law students who think they’re still 17 who have MySpace pages. All in all, I’ve never understood why people (yes, even teenagers) would create an account on a site known for predators. [...]