Community Guy – Jake McKee » 2006

For Community Managers

February 6th, 2006 | Comments | Posted in The Internet

If you manage communities, you will get a kick out of these two sites. Be sure to dig through them, there’s some real content gems in there.

http://www.communityadmins.com

http://www.communitypromotion.com

coComment

February 5th, 2006 | Comments | Posted in Doing It Right, The Internet

The second time I posted a blog comment, I knew that the person who created a solution to easily keep track of all of the comments I wanted to actually follow would be a millionaire. I tried to work on some ideas as I created and expanded BlogFusion. But other than subscriptions via email or RSS, I could never really figure out a good plan. Well, looks like some sharp cats found a solution with their new application: coComment.

When you become a member of coComment, you’ll install a simple bookmarklet on your browser. Whenever you make comments on another blog, you’ll do so using this bookmarklet. Using coComment allow for 3 things:

Capture

First, when you sign into your account on the coComment home page, you’ll be taken to "your conversations". In other words, you don’t have to have your own blog to benefit from the coComment service! In "your conversations", you’ll find a centralized list of all the comments you’ve made on other people’s blogs, with a link back to the original blog where you made the comment. Additionally, you’ll find all comments posted by other coComment members which are related to your original comment – creating a flowing conversation.

How do we do this? Essentially, when you and other coComment users use the coComment bookmarklet to make a comment, the coComment service makes a duplicate of that comment. This copy of your comments, and all related comments from other users, are then automatically displayed in "your comments" on the coComment service.

Share

Second, if you have your own blog, you’ll be able to display a window on your blog called your "blogbox", which is basically a miniature copy of "your conversations" right on your blog. This is not only convenient for you – as you won’t have to go to coComment’s web page to view your conversations, but also brings the value of your comments on other’s blogs back to you and your blog. And lastly, it allows readers of your blog to see your comments, conversations and topics of interest from within your blog.

Alert

As an added bonus, the comment stream generated by your conversations will be available to you not only in your blog box, but also as an RSS feed, so you can track your conversations on your favorite RSS reader, along with all your other regularly updated information. And keep your eyes on coComment for future alert services already in the works – such as SMS, IM and email alerts!

There’s some more info at one of the developer’s blog. Looks to be great stuff. I just got signed up for the beta, so I’ll post again when I know more about the app. This is very exciting stuff.

Moment of Ego

February 5th, 2006 | Comments | Posted in I'm Famous!

You’ll have to humor me here for a moment – I have a moment of ego to bask in!

Being a community liaison, over the years I’ve had a metric ton of photos taken of me out at events, club meetings, and other get togethers with LEGO enthusiasts. Nearly all of these photos make me look like a trained monkey. Hand motions, facial expressions, and other goofy moments leave me looking like I’m a little…slow.

So you can imagine my surprise when I found this photo and it didn’t make me want to change my name. It’s also cool because it so clearly captures the essence of what I was doing at that moment (at least to me) – listening to enthusiasts talk about their hobby.

Being a community rep takes a thick, thick skin!

Friday Finds – Podcast Resources

February 3rd, 2006 | Comments | Posted in Fun Finds

I’ve been cruising the Web looking for cool PSP movies for my trip to Denmark this week (through next). I thought I’d share some of the cool Podcast, video, PSP, and video iPod related stuff I’ve found.

VintageToonCast.com - vintage cartoons for download
PodGuide.tv – a great directory of some cool video content
CommonFlix – For selling and sharing video content
Podtropolis – Not sure how legal this is, but it’s a BitTorrent directory for finding TV shows, movies, etc. for your portable device
Veoh – Apparently much of their 20,000 video content library is in PSP format.
Komikwerks PSP comics – Don’t know yet if any are good, but site holds promise
TiVo Desktop 2.3 – Moving content from TiVo box to PSP? I might just have to give up my Comcast dual-tuner box!

And while I’m on the topic… check out iPod Wizard, a software to change out the graphics on your iPod operating system.

Also, if I noticed that after the announcement of the Disney/Apple deal, there’s a bunch of new TV shows in the iTunes Music Store. South Park, Drawn Together, MTV shows, and Comedy Central stand-up.

Must. Resist. iPod. Video.

… at least until they have a 120 GB version. I have 60GB of music already!

Welcome, StikiPad

February 3rd, 2006 | Comments | Posted in Doing It Right, The Internet

I’ve been playing around with the new hosted wiki service, StikiPad for a bit during their beta. They’ve recently launched and let me say – wow!

If you’ve ever used a wiki before, you know all too well how difficult and confusing they can be. They seem to have come out of the world of Linux, and therefore confuse all non-Linux geeks. StikiPad has done a great job of simplifying the process and making it feel more like we’re used to with other Web based apps.

On top of that, I just got this terrific email from them, post-launch. Now this is how you write a thank you/please help email. Keep an eye on these guys.

=====

Dear StikiPad user,

First off, thanks for being on this ride for us. Whether you’ve just joined us recently or have been with us for over the past three months, we want to send a big THANK YOU your way for helping us build StikiPad into something we’re ready to open up to the public.

Over the past month and a half we’ve created a bunch of new features (http://www.stikipad.com/features/) based off of your requests, suggestions and general comments. Personally, it’s been one hell of a ride. I spent a week and a bit down in the fantastic state of Kansas that allowed Jonathan and myself a bunch of time to sit down, discuss StikiPad’s future and have a few cold beers. If you’re interested, I’ve posted a few pictures from the trip to our Flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/stikipad).

We’re going to begin accepting public accounts very soon, but we wanted to give you a heads-up before we go ahead and do that. And, we wanted to cover two points:

1.) We love our beta users. We understand that you’ve seen some snags or have probably yelled at something at least once over the last few months and we really, *really* appreciate it. As a thank you, we want to offer you a free year on our Power User plan. That’s equivalent to a $9.95/month discount and gives you all the features you’ve been using over the beta testing period. In fact, this has already been applied to your account.

2.) We can’t launch StikiPad without your help. We can write about StikiPad and its features but we can’t convince people to take the plunge and try it out for themselves without your testimonials, blog posts, gossip to your friends, etc. That being said, we officially give you the go ahead to say what you will about StikiPad and spread the word – post screenshots, link to our website (www.stikipad.com), send out some author invitations, whatever you’re comfortable with. We greatly appreciate anything you can do!

As always, we’re open to any suggestions and feedback that you have about StikiPad, ourselves, etc. We’ve still got some things in the works and will be in touch again soon with some exciting new features that we’ve kept secret (it’s going to be great!). Until then, take a look at the tour (http://www.stikipad.com/tour/) for a refresher course on what StikiPad can do for you and of course peruse the full website that’ll be launching within the next day.

Thanks again for all your help!

Cheers,

Matthew & Jonathan

February 2nd, 2006 | Comments | Posted in Business Strategy

Big news to announce today –

After more than 5 years, 38 passport stamps, 3 great bosses, nearly 17,000 fan emails, 1 LEGO book, 2 products I’ve strongly influenced, 450,000 frequent flyer miles, hundreds of in person adult LEGO fan meetings, and way way too many visits to the LEGO company store, I’ve decided to leave the company and pursue another opportunity.

This new opportunity came up pretty quick and is a huge step forward in my career. I’ll be joining a terrific marketing agency in Dallas building an internal practice around consumer interaction. It’s not that I don’t believe in the work we’ve done at LEGO – quite the opposite. I believe in it so much, that it’s time for me to help other companies form relationships with their consumers.

This was not a decision I took lightly – after 5 years, I feel like I have ABS plastic running through my veins. It’s also important to know that I’m happier now more than ever before with the direction the LEGO Company is going, especially as it relates to community of all ages. It’s been a long, hard, tiring road to drive these last years in getting consumer thinking integrated into the company culture, but it’s worked. (I’ll likely be posting more about that in coming weeks)

As you may have seen on my LEGO blog a few days ago, one of my major personal goals has been met this week (adult community featured on the cover of Wired).

Working at LEGO has been the realization of a childhood dream. I loved the brick and the brand before I came to the company, and now I love it even more. I’ll be doing my best as a “private citizen” now to help promote the brand.

Stay tuned on the blog for more about my adventures. If you’re interested in hearing more and you’ll be at SXSW, be sure to email and ask me about the lunch event I’ll be holding (more later).

If you’re interested in how I broke the news to the LEGO community, check my LEGO blog

Tags: Off Topic

Great Johnnie Quote

February 2nd, 2006 | Comments | Posted in Fun Finds

I love this bit from Johnnie Moore:

Here’s my effort: A company that lets its people blog is like a drink on the rocks. There are all those separate cubes in there. They all have separate forms but fit inside the glass.. not neatly, but they’re in there. And when you shake the glass, the chink against other in a way that’s appealing.

If the company tries standardising, instead of celebrating, the diverse voices of its employees… well it becomes like a glass full of crushed ice or just melted water. Space efficient perhaps, but no nice chink… just not as interesting to listen to.

Massively MultiDancing Game

February 2nd, 2006 | Comments | Posted in Uncategorized

Those crazy Koreans have created another massively multiplayer gaming concept

The Audition is the online dance game where all can enjoy the great dance with

simple key note input.

Compete with friends or come up with perfect choreography.

All you need are the direction keys and space bar and you are OK to go!

That’s right, computer based dancing in a multiplayer environment. Crazy.

Tags: Off Topic

Jake McKee is the Chief Strategy Officer and Ant Wrangler at Ant's Eye View, a customer experience strategy practice focused on helping clients escalate their customer experience. With a rich background in customer collaboration, online communities, and fan groups, and Web development, community management, and product development, Jake helps organizations understand how to act like groups of people, rather than soulless money making machines.

In a past life, Jake was the Global Community Relations Specialist for the LEGO Company, where he spent five years on the front lines of customer-company interaction.