Digital ID Coach

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future, tools Anticipatory thinking, brainstorming, business, Business/Finance, Coaching, Data collection, Global Business Network, Human communication, Insight, Management, marketing, Military strategy, online account, planning, Project management, Question, Scenario, scenario planning, social networking groups, Strategic management, Strategy, Systems engineering, Technology/Internet, Vendor Relationship Management

Off to a bumpy start

May 29th, 2009

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The whole idea of trying to negotiate a new price with stores and companies is pretty messy. Companies are used to setting the terms and conditions of a sale. They’re not going to understand why they might want to change their stance. Even as customers are more empowered to make offers, and payment systems more flexible as to what works to transfer or exchange value (usually money), we will friction before we see acceptance.

Coaching moment: As a general rule, your negotiating position is stronger at the beginning of the transaction, as shown by the man offering to buy the CD or DVD, and the woman requesting highlights with her trim. The couple at the restaurant have already accepted (and presumably eaten) the food without expressing any hesitation or wish to negotiate price later. That’s not as strong a position for changing significant terms such as price of your meal.

I’m sure that there is at least one company that you wish you could negotiate a different price with. What would your terms be like?

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future, tools exchange value, negotiating, payment systems, price, Vendor Relationship Management, VRM

Videos from the 8th Internet Identity Workshop

May 26th, 2009

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I attended and taped several sessions from the IIW8.

UPDATE (5/2010): Here are all of the sessions listed below in flash, hosted at blip.tv. You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or regular RSS.

You’re welcome to download these files. They are all in Quicktime .mov format, and are generally an hour long. They’re Creative Commons licensed, attribution required (Judi Clark, DigitalIDCoach.com).

Thanks to TubeMogul for distributing these.

Coaching moment: Being curious is great because it generally leads to learning new things. Learning can sometimes be overwhelming. If we stick with our curiosity and ask questions, we learn more. Learning, thinking, and processing new ideas are valuable life skills, and will be extremely useful as our technology-enriched world develops and affects our social, political, and economic lives.

This conference, the 8th one, was a meeting of coders and technologists, facilitators and educators, newbies and experts. If you’re checking this blog and these videos out for the first time, there may well be ideas that you may not have heard of before. Consider yourself ahead of the curve for visiting and wanting to learn more.

Update: I also did a brief (5 minute) Conference Report on the IIW.

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future, history, records, tools Abstraction, Activity Streams, Asa Hardcastle, Curve, Doc Searls, Drummond Reed, Education, Eve Mahler, General topology, Iain Henderson, Identity Quartet, IIW8, internet identity, Internet Identity Workshop, Joe Andrieu, Kevin Marks, Metric geometry, microformats, Science, Structure, technology-enriched world, Topology, Vendor Relationship Management, VRM, YouTube

On Relating to the Marketplace

May 16th, 2009

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Yesterday and today I’m attending a VRM gathering in northern California. This is where conversations are happening–some technical, some organizational, and some theoretical–about putting people in charge of their relationships with the world. One important part of the world is the marketplace, which includes all of the stores and people that we do business with.

The notion of VRM is about enhancing the personal control that we have over our data, our money, and our lives. The people here, many of them developers and marketing people, are discussing structures, formats, and methodologies on how to do things with technology that is all about your needs.

Today, for example, the discussion I’m sitting in is about how to make a personal request for something (like a request for proposal, or RFP). A couple of examples of a personal RFP:

I need new shoes, of a specified size, color and style, in the city that I’m now in, at the best price available today
I am looking to buy a car within the next two months, and only want to know about used cars listed in my neighborhood as they get published, or new cars from specific dealers or people.
I need a ride downtown tomorrow sometime between 8-9am. Is anyone going that way that I could catch a ride with?
Some of my friends are talking about something new. It sounds interesting and useful, and I need to learn about that. I’m new to this subject area.

Some of the questions raised here: is this request shareable or tweetable? is it going to lead to a purchase or is the request just information-based? how do vendors or stores find your request? do (specialized?) search engines fit into this picture? Do you need help building specifications for your goods or services (which somehow implies that you are a qualified and ready buyer)?

Coaching moment: This post isn’t about answers. It’s about thinking about how we recognize ways that we need or ask for things, how we learn, and how technology can help. If you have thoughts on how YOU would like to process this very complex area, please add your thoughts to this post.

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future, records, tools California, personal requests, qualified and ready buyer, request for information, request for proposal, search engines, social media, specifications, Vendor Relationship Management, VRM

VRM and Pickle Ice Cream

May 12th, 2009

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It turns out that ice cream and VRM, or Vendor Relationship Management, have a lot in common. VRM is like the truck that drives into Scoopville in this video.

Here’s a video by Rob Knight that explains VRM pretty well. The whole idea behind social media and VRM is that it empowers people. You and me, our friends, our relatives, people we don’t know, and even people that also represent companies. It’s about people, and it’s about time.

Coaching Moment: Do you use social media like MySpace or Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Flickr? There are many more, but you don’t need to use them all. The current set of sites and tools aren’t for everybody. What’s the worst thing about the current “social media” tools? Each one is proprietary, so you have to find and connect with your friends in each one. What a pain! Think outside the box. What would your ideal network do for you?

Note: There are two conference coming up next week that deal with topics of VRM and Identity. I’ll be blogging both. Stay tuned for updates!

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