a groovyweb

Here is something different on this blog. My experiences, thoughts and learning over the last week.

#BarCampSG4

Last Saturday (21 Nov), I attended BarCamp Singapore 4, organised by Preetam Rai and Kelvin Quee. Sponsored and held at IDA Singapore (also co-sponsored by Yahoo! SG and Hackerspace.SG), BarCamp was open to all. This being my first attendance at a BarCamp, I was not too sure what to expect although I had some ideas, having read some accounts on previous BarCamps.

What is BarCamp? Read on Wikipedia.

BarCamp is Crowdsourcing

Just like the concept of crowdsourcing in social media, most of the topics of the day were suggested by the attendees (pasted on IDA’s wall as shown on photo to the right), then voted by attendees and eventually presented by the attendees. Anyone was free to present on any topic they fancied (technology, social media, creative arts, culture and social sciences) and there were really off-the-wall submissions including ‘How to Present Difficult Concepts to Lesser Beings’ by Coleman Yee (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and one that I rued I missed: Adrianna Tan’s ‘How to Hack Your Own Travel Channel Life’ (thank God for Slideshare). All in all, I enjoyed the sessions I attended, the learning and the impromptu discussions.

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I think we have to agree that traditional offline marketing is still a crucial business initiative even in today’s consumer markets. As much as I am a huge advocate of bringing people online and influencing through great online content and virtual social interaction, digital alone will not cut it. Going out there with road shows, direct marketing with flyers and sales promotions are still expected by the buying public, most especially in Singapore (Great Singapore Sale, anyone?)

Which is great for the economy, especially in the current slumpish conditions. But unfortunately, most businesses want to fast track the route to cash. ‘What is the fastest way to push stock and goods?’ ‘Which shopping season will reap the most money for us?’ Hence, the customer neglect.

Segment and predict the market, yes. Understand the market, NO!

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I am almost finished setting up this blog and happy to welcome you to my new domain!

Why I Went Self-Hosted?

I felt constrained being on the WordPress.com platform at http://groovygenie.wordpress.com, although it is a simple and easy to use blogging platform. The inability to customise themes or add plugins to WordPress.com really felt punishing and suffocated the geek in me. I had to break free!

Web Analytics is Dope

But most importantly, I would like to deepen my learning in web analytics and the only way to do this is to have control over my blog, this blog. I see this as a worthwhile investment, got to walk the talk, baby!

Vanity is Evil

Then again, a really nice URL to call my own is pretty sweet as well! I am using Host Gator for my hosting needs. Highly recommended by tweeples.

Well, things have been going swimmingly well so far, so if anyone need some pointers on setting up your self-hosted WordPress, I am happy to share! Drop me a mail or tweet me anytime.

So I welcome you to the new A GroovyWeb by Isman Tanuri! Do stick around ya’ll!

Yours sincerely,

The Groove Master

Here is something I received last Saturday morning, what I termed as ‘Door Spam’, leaflets/flyers stuck on the front door grille. It is a leaflet for a condominium development. Which one? I really can’t say. This is the second time I have received this leaflet. I cringed both times.

Observe for a moment. What is wrong with this leaflet?

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Updated 13/11: This post also appears as a guest blog post on Penn Olson.

I was recently reading an early chapter of Al and Laura Ries’ ‘The Origin of Brands’ and was struck by this concept:

The world’s best and long-lasting brands were typically created by a divergence from an existing product category and that these brands continue to survive not because of their ‘share of market’ but for being first in the mind of consumers.

Consider these examples of divergence and its disregard for market size of the day:

• What was the size of the cola market the day Coca Cola was launched?
• What was the market size of Mac users when Apple launched their Apple I system?
• How about the size of the personal computer market the day Microsoft launched their MS-DOS platform?
• And when McDonald first introduced the fast-food hamburger to the American public, what was the size of the fast-food market?

The answer to these questions: Zero.

However, these brands have proven they have what it takes to survive and prosper all these years. So, why is this possible?
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