2005
Some positive PR for NYC – real facts and real crime reduction
The NYT is reporting on another significant drop in crime in NYC this year. As a child I lived for 5 years in Bridgeport Connecticut and had the opportunity to take the A train to The House the Ruth Built. This was before they even tried to remove graffiti from the subway and it was pretty much a moving crime zone.
Gladwell’s Tipping Point highlights the power of the broken windows theory of crime prevention which I agree with. From the article:
Crime Numbers Keep Dropping Across the City
Crime has fallen across New York City for the 17th consecutive year, with subway crime down by more than 5 percent from last year and the number of recorded murders virtually certain to be the fewest in any single year since 1963, new Police Department statistics show.
There are those who don’t believe in the broken windows theory and perhaps there is evidence that it is coincidence. Unfortunately my current location in Houston is NOT enjoying a drop in crime. The article continues:
New York’s continuing decline is in contrast to some other cities across the nation. After years of falling crime, Boston is now experiencing a surge in homicides. Houston has seen more killings in 2005. In Philadelphia, murders are outpacing last year’s rate. Some law enforcement officials have attributed rising murder rates outside of New York to use of the drug methamphetamine.
In closing this post first congratulations on the measurable results New York City. Job well done. Second, perhaps the next steps are to take a serious look at our probably and parole systems to create continuous improvement. If you are still up for some more reading, here is a good place to start with a brief excerpt:
‘Broken Windows’ Probation: The Next Step in Fighting Crime
… Americans are almost as dubious about the future efficacy of the criminal justice system as they are about the future solvency of the Social Security system. That is why crime remains a top public concern, despite these unbelievable drops.
and
The report being released today by the Manhattan Institute and the American Probation and Parole Association on how to reinvent probation puts probation squarely in the center of this new fight against crime.
Beyond Blackcomb: Microsoft Research on Social Software – This One Has Potential
I previously posted on Snarf, Social Network and Relationship Finder. Tested it. After testing, I didn’t see the value and uninstalled it today. Maybe Narf is a good solution for someone, but not for me. Strike one.
So back doing research I saw this one on the Microsoft research site and I am intrigued by the potential of "Beyond Blackcomb". No beta, no install, but something to keep an eye on down the road.
Beyond Blackcomb: Storyboards of future computing experience
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These storyboards explore using simple forms to spatially display items on the desktop. Important people, conversations, documents and web pages are easy to find, and related items are appear based on the context of the user. |
AdSense Blogs Needed Response – at least that is what my Vanity Searches Suggest
Vanity searches, before we called them vanity searches they were more "competitive intelligence" and "monitoring your position on the Internet". Now they produce random results. The faster our clients syndicate with RSS the faster our name shows up in some …er… unsavory places.
Example: http://www.technorati.com/search/schipul
Some legit. Some not. I’d like to think that google can filter the rank value of inbound links to our properties and not have it affect us negatively in our rankings. And perhaps the sucking sound of RSS feeds from our client sites into splogs may seem harmless, but I for one am glad to see Google taking action.
A new addition to the Quality Score
In August, we introduced the Quality Score along with the launch of quality-based minimum bids, letting you know that we evaluate many factors, such as your ad text and clickthrough rate (CTR) to determine the minimum bid for your keyword. Today, we started incorporating a new factor into the Quality Score — the landing page — which will look at the content and layout of the pages linked from your ads.
Why are we doing this? Simply stated, we always aim to improve our users’ experience so that these users (your potential customers) will continue to trust and value AdWords ads. Have you ever searched on a keyword, found an ad that seemed to be exactly what you wanted, and then clicked on it only to find a site that had little to do with what you were searching for? It’s not a great experience.
Note – awesome fractal image from http://www.fractalism.com
Cheesy Pixel Ploy – and oh ya, we went for it
Oh ya, we did it. Yes we did. $50 bucks and we are officially 10×10. What better way to start the new year than to be part of a PR gimmick for the sum total of $50 bucks.
Sure, I realize that $50 for 10 pixels is silly, especially considering we own a farm of servers that are perfectly capable of sending out a bit more than 10 pixels on our behalf.
Furthermore I am aware that Brad Fallon www.bradfallon.com is mirroring and making fun of the first guy to think of the "big idea" resulting in the www.milliondollarhomepage.com page. But Brad cashed our check, and we got a real link back to www.tendenci.com which does have value. He is having a good Christmas and I have fodder for an interesting post.
And like all great PR stunts, while we are peripheral, as is Brad Fallon, the creator, the strategist, is getting even more coverage. From the reg article:
Student flogs pixels to fund education
A UK student is flogging pixels on a web page to help raise $1m to fund his way through university.
Alex Tew, 21, who will be reading Business Management, says people can buy the pixels to display an ad or a logo on his Million Dollar Homepage which in turn can create a link to their website.
The pixels are sold in squares of 100 to create a tiddly icon. Larger groupings can also be bought to make logos stand out.
Tew told El Reg that the scheme was all "legit and completely above board".
"I think this will mostly appeal to businesses and perhaps larger companies will buy up lots of pixels to have a more prominent position on the site," he said.
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On a personal note, 2005 has been good, bad, and ugly. I am humbly thankful for the good stuff and I have deep sorrow for the truly sad stuff. I am glad to see 2005 move into the past. Happy New Year Y’all!