Community Guy – Jake McKee

Community Moderation Podcast

I just came across the Community Admin Show podcast. Very cool – especially since I’ve been neck deep in moderation issues at work. Great stuff Patrick!

Funny in any language

Fun for a Friday – here’s a hilarious riff on the Ad Agency world.

I made the LAFD Blog!

OK, this is silly, but I’ll share my excitement anyway. As part of my work of advising the LAPD on their new blog, I stopped by the Los Angeles Fire Department blog today and found my name in one of the posts! How cool is it to show up on the LAFD blog??

Moderation Whitepaper

I recently wrote a whitepaper at work that may be of interest to you, fine reader.

The whitepaper is titled “Options and strategies for a safe site and positive experience”, and focuses on how companies can make the decision between pre-moderation and post-moderation of user submitted content. (Pre-moderation is a review process that happens before content goes live on the site. Post-moderation review happens after the content is live on the site)

Read the whitepaper.

Non-Blog Blogs

Lately, the discussion of using blogging software/concepts as the core of a corporate web site rather than a separate section has come up a number of times. There have been several client projects that have just screamed for a blog as the entire site. Sure, the look and feel would be a bit more "corporate", but it’d still be a blog.

This has raised a discussion about what a blog is. At its core, a blog is simply a certain style of web site. Which means a blog can look like anything a client wants, corporate or otherwise.

I started digging around for a few examples of blogs that don’t have a standard "blog" look and feel. Here’s a few of my finds.

• Hill Holliday
• Clip-n-Seal
• OneCommune
  

In the big time – Congress is upset

You always know you’re in the big time, and either fully into societal acceptance or close to it when Congress comes after you…

MySpace and other social-networking sites like LiveJournal.com and Facebook are the potential targets for a proposed federal law that would effectively require most schools and libraries to render those Web sites inaccessible to minors, an age group that includes some of the category’s most ardent users.

"When children leave the home and go to school or the public library and have access to social-networking sites, we have reason to be concerned," Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, told CNET News.com in an interview.

Fitzpatrick and fellow Republicans, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, on Wednesday endorsed new legislation (click here for PDF) that would cordon off access to commercial Web sites that let users create public "Web pages or profiles" and also offer a discussion board, chat room, or e-mail service.

That’s a broad category that covers far more than social-networking sites such as Friendster and Google’s Orkut.com. It would also sweep in a wide range of interactive Web sites and services, including Blogger.com, AOL and Yahoo’s instant-messaging features, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which permits in-game chat.

Fitzpatrick’s bill, called the Deleting Online Predators Act, or DOPA, is part of a new, poll-driven effort by Republicans to address topics that they view as important to suburban voters. Republican pollster John McLaughlin polled 22 suburban districts and presented his research at a retreat earlier this year. Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, is co-sponsoring the measure.

Yet another example of Congress going off half-cocked about something they’ve yet to fully understand. Who wants to bet on whether Fitzpatrick has actually seen MySpace yet?

The three tenets of viral marketing

For many years I’ve talked about three tenets of viral marketing – namely what needs to happen in order to make something "go viral". I realized the other day that I’ve never blogged these tenets so I thought I’d share.

As I’ve found, the three things that make something go nuts and get all kinds of attention… you know, go viral.

Business Books: What do you like?

I read a lot of business books as I try to absorb as much data funneled into my brain as possible. The good ones I’ll even read multiple times.

It’s interesting to see how different the content can be from book to book. Some books are more theoretical (like Creating Customer Evangelists), while others are incredibly tactical (like The Art of the Start).
I’m curious – what style do you like? Theoretical or tactical? Basically, what do you like in a good business book?

LAPD Launches Great Blog

The LAPD has launched a terrific department blog, and it’s well worth a look.

The reputation of the LAPD has taken a hit in years past and I’m confident that the blog will help them to clean up that reputation substansially. The LAPD Police Chief William Bratton has made amazing progress in improving the department and lowering crime in his 3.5 years with the department. (Bratton’s great auto-biography is a fun read – I found out about him through one of the stories in the Tipping Point and the Broken Window Theory)  In one of his blog posts he nails it on head:

The continuing decline in crime in Los Angeles has positioned the LAPD at the tipping point for change.  Our influence can positively affect the communities we serve and vastly improve levels of public satisfaction.  But it is not enough for the LAPD to just continue to drive down crime.  Through compassionate and constitutional community policing practices, we want to enhance the relationship between the Los Angeles residents and police.

Our ultimate goal is for the role of law enforcement officials to evolve from distance protectors and rapid responders to true partners and conduits for meaningful social change.

Quickly, here’s why I think the LAPD is off to a good start with their blog – their content is deep and geniune. With only a few entries, I clearly understand that there’s real people with real issues trying to do good.

(Full disclosure, I’ve been advising the project lead on blogging advice)

Five Lessons from Netflix

This article is a great look at how Netflix pulled off something amazing in building their business: The Five Lessons from the Netflix Startup Story. The article is a long but good read. The short version:

1. Don’t let the naysayers get you down
2. Build operations for a ‘wow’ customer experience
3. Develop three-step solutions
4. Copy the best
5. Focus on rabid early adopters