Notorious R.O.B. – Conversations on Marketing, Technology, Real Estate

There is a viral YouTube video going around right now, a “parody/spoof” of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” with Alicia Keys.  Here it is, in case you haven’t seen it:

I understand that the people behind the video, one Pantless Knights, were making a parody.  I hope to God that they’re ridiculing the people being held up as examples of successful entrepreneurs by the media.  The intro in the sidebar hints that may be the case:

This is a Pantless Knights tribute to our favorite entrepreneurs (who are all “new dorks”). It’s a spoof of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind,” from the guys behind Grasshopper.com (thank you!). We made it because there’s a new type of dork that is cooler than ever. Look at tech entrepreneurs, hipsters, Computer Science Barbie – they’re all super popular new dorks! Don’t forget to rate, comment and subscribe!

Trouble is, even if Pantless Knights were ridiculing the hipsters and Computer Science Barbies who flock to the latest get-rich-quick schemes that make up so much of the “Web 2.0/social media” world, there are entirely too many slackoisies in that industry making fools of themselves and cheapening the word “entrepreneur”.

Let me rage properly at these fools.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, a couple of folks were speculating about my employment status.  Apparently, I had taken a job at MRIS as the Director of Marketing, and so on.  As flattered and grateful as I am that people take an interest in my ability to pay income taxes I thought it might be time to clarify things a bit.

As I’ve disclosed before, MRIS has been a client of 7DS Associates for some time now.  We have done and continue to work on a number of business projects for them.  One of the assignments I’ve taken on recently is to fill-in as an interim capacity while MRIS searches for a Chief Marketing Officer.  I asked that the mistake about my being the Director of Marketing for MRIS be corrected because MRIS was at that moment trying to recruit a Director of Marketing, and I didn’t want that person thinking that she had been rejected.

I didn’t talk about this because I don’t discuss client matters in public.  Confidentiality is one of our core values at 7DS Associates, along with Competence (we give it our best) and Loyalty (we don’t take on clients where conflict of interest may arise).  We don’t even disclose who our clients are unless (a) they give us permission, (b) they disclose the relationship first, or (c) other ethical considerations mandate that we disclose the relationship.

Something to keep in mind is that Notorious ROB is my personal blog, of my personal opinions.  In some cases, they reflect the position of 7DS Associates, but I simply do not speak for my clients on this blog.  In some cases, our clients agree with my take on things; in other cases, they disagree.  They will vote with their feet if things go too far astray from their own points of view, or if they think our views get in the way of whatever assignment we are working on.

Finally, our client work is between us and the client, and we keep those strictly confidential; only our clients can decide whether they like the work we do for them or not.

I hope that clears up any mystery.

-rsh

I got a couple of requests via email/DM for this so…

This is the rent-buy worksheet I used while writing my latest Inman column (subscription required).  I took it from Khan Academy and then modified it.  Feel free to point out errors, etc. right in the comments, and I’ll modify what I can.

Rent/Buy Analysis Worksheet (Right-click, and “Save Link As…”)

Enjoy!

-rsh

Image via Lovely Petal (Flickr: Samiksha)

On Twitter tonight, Sue Adler (@sueadler) says nonchalantly:

Shocking to find MY town pgs & photos copied exactly on another’s site. Hoping this agent, who I know well, hired someone & wasnt aware. hmm

That ain’t a “hmm” Sue — that should be a, “I’ve been robbed!”  That’s outright copyright violation — a theft of your intellectual property.

I know it happens.  Copyright violation on the Internet is not a matter of “IF” it happens, but “WHEN” it happens to you.  A lot of the violations are these automated spam blogs (“splogs”) that go out, scrape content, put it on a page to drive Google rankings and make a few bucks off of advertising.  In less common cases, it’s someone who just really liked your post or your content or something and thought it’s no big deal to copy the whole thing and put it on their site, as long as they link back to you and give you credit.

Except that it’s not okay, since Google punishes duplicate content.  To be sure, there is some dispute as to whether the original copyright holder gets hit with the penalty or not… but since anyone who claims to know exactly how the Google algorithms work who doesn’t have a valid Google Employee ID is probably talking out of his ass, why take the chance?  It isn’t as if the plagiarist is doing something legitimate to begin with.

As it happens, there are others who are far more expert than I in this area of what to do and how to protect yourself.  So here are a few links you might want to browse if you think someone (or multiple someones) is copying your content wholesale:

• What To Do When Someone Steals Your Content by Lorelle.  This is a fantastic, detailed post, with helpful tips, even a form email to send to the offending party, useful links, and just a wealth of information.  Start here.
• Copyscape.  This is a website that can simplify the effort of tracking who out on the Web is stealing your content.  I’ve managed to find quite a few of my blogposts on random splogs through this tool.  It also has helpful links right into WHOIS and other tools to simplify gathering information you’ll want and need to pursue the matter further.
• Chilling Effects.  This is for those who want to get a bit deeper into some of the legal issues in copyright infringement and piracy.  They also provide a great FAQ on copyright on piracy.
• Splogs: Spam Blogs and Stolen Content.  More of a call to arms, but there’s a lot of great information on this post, as well as links to other useful sites and tools.

I’m certain there are other great resources on the Web and elsewhere.  I’d appreciate any comments sharing ones you’ve found.

Fight Back; Content Theft is NOT Sharing

I know the spirit of sharing on the Web generally and in the RE.net more specifically are very strong.  Many of us are constantly sharing ideas, giving away “intellectual property”, and go to REBarCamps where we give stuff away for free all the time without any expectation of (immediate) gain.

But stealing content outright is not sharing.  I’m not talking about excerpting a paragraph or two to make a point here.  I’m talking about copying entire blogposts, pictures and all.  I’m talking about taking another agent’s local market information lock, stock and barrel and passing it off as your own.  Even if you include a token link to my original post, or put up some little piece of crap like “originally posted on XYZ blog”, you’re stealing my traffic, stealing my ability to interact with readers, and should anyone actually comment on your copy of my post, preventing the community from sharing ideas with each other.

As in all things, you can go overboard with trying to fight content theft.  You can’t live with paranoia all the time.  You have to use your judgment as to whether the offender was trying to steal your intellectual property, or made an honest mistake.

But fight back.  For all of us.  I for one plan on starting.  Have sent one letter so far tonight to a splog operator.  We’ll see if he takes it down.

-rsh

Get yer popcorn here! Fresh piping hot popcorn!

Earlier today, we had a bit of a brouhaha among the Twitterati of the real estate set.  The genesis was this video blog by Greg Cooper in which he blasted Todd Carpenter, attacked him personally, and laid the heavy artillery on to NAR.  Which then brought responses from various members of the RE.net, some friendly to Todd and others hostile to him, and resulted in this post by Bill Lublin.

Periodically, it seems we get one of these little kerfuffles in the RE.net; I personally think it’s pretty healthy.  As far as the specifics of the Todd vs. Greg deal and all of that, the whole thing is likely blown way out of proportion, and others will address the “personal vs. corporate” burdens on someone using his personal channels.  I hear Jay Thompson is working on a post.  Suffice to say that Todd is a great guy, and if any “embarrassment” resulted, I’m 100% positive he did not intend it.  So count me in Team @Tcar as far as that goes.

But the real issue I’d like to discuss is actually from a comment by Ines Hegedus-Garcia to Bill’s post which goes:

But again, that’s not the point – it’s not about Todd, it’s about the flaming of an individual on a public forum that totally crosses the line. (And the fact that is Todd makes it all the worse)

And via Twitter, there are a number of folks who thought Greg’s post was over the top, unfair, and illegitimate.  Criticism, it goes, should be “constructive and thoughtful” of else, not worth the time at all.

This is where I part company with polite society.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sherry Chris at REBarCamp San Diego, 2009

In part 1, we explored the controversies and the issues surrounding what a Real Estate BarCamp should or should not be, and explored the rules and principles of the original tech-focused BarCamp.  At the end of that, I asked three questions:

• What goals are we trying to achieve with REBarCamps?
• Who benefits from REBarCamps?  Who should benefit from REBarCamps?
• What principles and rules help achieve the answers to the above questions?

The answers have been varied, and interesting, and I appreciate the dialogue, y’all.

The heart of the dilemma comes out in the responses as well.  Kathleen Buckley (@kvbuckley) writes:

# What goals are we trying to achieve with REBarCamps?
In my mind REBarCamps aim to help RE Professionals learn about and leverage a wide range of new, largely technology driven tools to enhance performance.

In contrast, Andy Kaufman (@andykaufman) writes:

# What goals are we trying to achieve with REBarCamps?
As organizers, I think we should strive to provide a friction-less setting where participants can meet face to face with their peers who are passionate about the space can interact. As a participant, I want to meet people, strengthen relationships, learn & share knowledge without ‘being sold’.

Is REBC about “helping RE professionals learn about technology”?  Or is it about peers meeting to share their passions?  Can it be both?  If so, how?

Read the rest of this entry »

I am the spirit of REBarCamps past...

Although I wanted to post this sooner, other commitments prevented getting to it before now.  And quite a few of these ideas have been hashed out, particularly in the TQ Radio Show yesterday, but there is something to putting ideas and questions into words.  So here we go.

But first, a disclaimer: Many of you know that I am involved with Lucky Strike Social Media Club, the organization that is putting together REBarCamp NY 2010.  All of the opinions expressed in this post are mine and mine alone, and I am not speaking for LSSMC or for any of the other organizers.

A little background before we dive into it.

For whatever reason, REBCNY 2010 has generated little eddys of controversy from the start.  First, it was over our decision to keep the working committee members to people who had attended a Lucky Strike meeting in person; this, I was told, violates the “spirit of REBarCamp”.  Second, it was over our decision to have a limited number of tracks (approximately 10 out of 80 we thought possible) pre-planned for the benefit of newcomers and more tech-oriented people who may be in attendance.  I was told that this pre-planning violates the “spirit of REBarCamp”.  Then the final straw, it appears, was our thought to offer to sponsors of REBCNY an attendee list.  This, we were told by various people, was completely against the “spirit of REBarCamp” and there was a lot of buzz on Twitter about how worried various people were, about how the new hashtag should be #notabarcamp, and so on.

In all cases, the organizers heard the feedback, considered our decision, and either stuck by our original stance (tracks) or changed our position (attendee list).  Much of the explanation is on the REBCNY site itself, and you’re welcome to head over there to check it out.

This post is not about any of those decisions, nor is it about the kerfuffles that arose in response to any of them.  Conversation, debate, discussion, even argument are all very healthy things, and I rather think the episodes showcased social media in action: listen, consider, and respond.  I’m personally grateful to everyone who raised the issue with me personally, and with the LSSMC organizing committee; it’s wonderful to be in the RE.net where people feel passionately enough on such topics.

At the same time, there’s a lot to discuss here at the level of principles and ideas.  So we dive into that.

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It’s Thanksgiving, and despite our culture’s continuous pull to rename this day Turkey Day or some such and shift the focus to the feasting, I’d like to keep the focus on the actual point of the day: giving thanks to the Almighty, and to family, friends, and others for the life we have.

First, I give thanks for my family and for my two wonderful, happy, rambunctious boys who are sure to drive their mom and dad to premature grey, potential alcohol abuse, and poverty as they eat us out of house and hearth.  The joy they give me is unparalleled, and watching them go from mewling human-larvae to little boys is a profound experience that gives meaning to each and every day.

I give thanks that I am an American and live in the United States.  Even as we march steadily towards European-style socialism and decay, there is still no doubt that this is the greatest country in the history of human existence.  It’s something that people who haven’t lived elsewhere don’t fully appreciate.  In no other country on earth could I have started a company as easily and as quickly as I have here, and been given the opportunities that I have been given this year.  Freedom, sweet Freedom… every single American owes thanks that we enjoy a life that the rest of the world only dreams of.

Which means, of course, that I am grateful to the men and women of the American military.  It is not the Constitution that guarantees our freedom: it is our military.  It is not the lawyers and community activists who provide us with freedom: it is our military.  It is not the politicians, the journalists, the pundits, the cosmopolitan know-it-alls who would guide us to a “better future” who give us freedom: it is the poorly paid, oft-maligned soldiers who the elites think are idiots and morons who do.  The greatest human rights organization in the history of the world is the United States military; they have freed more people from bondage, brought liberation and equality to more men and women, and saved the lives of more human beings than all other so-called human rights organizations put together.  They stand on the wall, face the dangers, and pay the ultimate price so that the rest of us can be blithely ignorant of how dangerous and cruel the world really is.  I am thankful for them, and grateful to them.

I am grateful to the clients of 7DS Associates, my little fledgling venture.  All of them have taken chances with a brand new company, on a guy with an unproven track record as a strategy consultant, and I am profoundly grateful to each and every one of them.  We won’t let you down.

I am thankful for my partner, Jeff Corbett, who is often the yin to my yang, and who puts up with thunderous snoring on the road and a constant stream of dumb ideas.  We will build greatness, my friend.

And of course, I am grateful to each and every one of you, the readers of Notorious R.O.B.  I never dreamed when I started this blog in January of 2008 that I would have even a dozen readers.  I figured this is where I’d just scribble about random things on real estate, technology, and marketing and maybe get a few other weirdoes commenting or going back and forth with me on esoteric topics.  Instead, many of you have slogged through things like a 15,000 word essay on military counterintelligence doctrine and its applicability to real estate sales, and some of you have provided invaluable insight and argumentation that have helped me learn and challenge my own thinking.  NROB is still not the highest trafficked blog by any stretch of the imagination — I think I get about 500 visitors on an average week — but I daresay the Notorious community is one of the most engaged, most educated, most insightful, and most active in the RE.net.  You guys all rock!  Thank you.

Some other things I am thankful for:

• 2009 New York Yankees
• The entire REBarCamp movement
• Robin Skouteris
• Female vocalists, especially in techno/trance music
• Blip.fm, for creating the single most distracting “social media” toy ever
• Dunkin Donuts coffee
• Whoever invented fantasy football
• The engineers at Apple
• Mike, Wendy, and Jeff for one unforgettable (even if you tried, and I have) evening
• The RPR, for providing me with the highest three day traffic total ever
• Mark Steyn, for writing and continuing to write
• Glenn Reynolds
• The Lucky Strike Social Media Club and the regulars who show up, even from California
• City of Philadelphia, for inventing the cheesesteak sandwich
• City of Buffalo, for y’know… the wings
• Mark Sanchez, for reminding me of the limits of expectations on a rookie
• Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco, for reminding me that one year does not make a trend
• The Discount Yacht Supplies store somewhere in Newport Beach area for exemplifying irony
• The Hughes brothers for an interesting angle on real estate brokerage business models
• Verizon Wireless, for not being AT&T

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

-rsh

The science is SETTLED, I say!

If you live in the United States, and rely solely on Pravda New York Times or similar for your news, you’re probably unaware of Climategate.  Basically, the entire premise of the global warming/carbon footprint craze of the past few years turns out to be totally bogus.  From the RealClearPolitics.com overview:

Global warming “skeptics” had unearthed evidence that scientists at the Hadley Climatic Research Unit at Britain’s University of East Anglia had cherry-picked data to manufacture a “hockey stick” graph showing a dramatic-but illusory-runaway warming trend in the late 20th century.

But now newer and much broader evidence has emerged that looks like it will break that scandal wide open. Pundits have already named it “Climategate.”

A hacker-or possibly a disillusioned insider-has gathered thousands of e-mails and data from the CRU and made them available on the Web. Officials at the CRU have verified the breach of their system and acknowledged that the e-mails appear to be genuine.

For even more damning evidence of a conspiracy to defraud the world, pervert the scientific process, and cover things up, check out this post from Australia.  Because they still have, you know, “journalists” interested in investigative journalism there.  One day, we might import some of these useful fellows from Australia to the United States….

While Climategate is a scandal of the first order, and all Americans (indeed, all humans) should care about it, as real estate people, we need to take a look at how Climategate will impact the industry.

Read the rest of this entry »

From Twitter itself (h/t: @mathurrell) comes this amazing piece of news:

Nearly one in five (19%) online Americans now uses Twitter or a similar service to post and share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others, according to the latest survey data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

This figure represents a significant increase over previous surveys that reported on Twitter use. Research in in December 2008 and April 2009 from Pew found that only 11% of internet users preported using a status-update service, while a similar study by Harris Interactive in March/April of 2009 found that number to be even lower, at 5%.

Let’s assume that the research is valid and accurate.  1 out of 5 is an amazing figure in and of itself.

There are, however, two other even more amazing observations that can be made if we take the 20% figure as valid.

First, we may be heading towards a self-balkanized America with no common shared cultural touchpoint.

If 19% of online Americans are on Twitter, and some 73% of all American adults are online (this is from 2006, by the way, so the actual number might be higher), and there are 304 million Americans of which 227.4 million are 18 years of age and older, what we get is that there are some 31.5 million Americans on Twitter.

Well, the #1 highest ranked Twitter user in terms of number of followers is one Ashton Kutcher, with 3.88 million followers or 12.3% of the total Twittering Americans.  That’s it.  in terms of news or information sources, CNN tops the list with 2.79 million followers, or 8.8%.

The implication is that Americans have formed a bunch of small cells of their friends, colleagues, people they know on Twitter — there is no Twitter user/company/whatever that commands the majority of the Americans using Twitter for whatever it is that they use it for.

If social networks is the future of information distribution and communication, then we’re likely headed into a society without a defining common shared source of information or culture.  We’re going to make references, allusions, and jokes that will become increasingly “insider info”.  Gamers will instantly know what other gamers are talking about, while art fans will be speaking mostly with other art fans.  Micro-fragmentation appears to be something we need to think about.

Second, maybe none of that micro-fragmentation stuff will matter because Americans are just plain too dumb to survive in a challenging world.

Here’s the top ten most popular (in terms of number of followers) users on Twitter:

1.  Ashton Kutcher (aplusk)
2.  Britney Spears (britneyspears)
3.  Ellen DeGeneres (TheEllenShow)
4.  CNN Breaking News (cnnbrk)
5.  Twitter (twitter)
6.  Kim Kardashian (KimKardashian)
7.  Ryan Seacrest (RyanSeacrest)
8.  Barack Obama (BarackObama)
9.  John Mayer (johncmayer)
10.  Oprah Winfrey (Oprah)

Seven of the Top Ten (eight if you include Barack Obama, Celebrity President) is an entertainer/celebrity.  Some are celebrities that are famous for being famous — Kim Kardashian for example.

If this is what Americans want, then that’s what Americans want.  Just don’t ask me to think the future is rosy and wonderful on this evidence.

-rsh

PS: Note that adult Twitter users are computer-literate, tech-savvy people over 18.  The supposed creme de la creme of our society, who “get it”.  Oh #*@(%@!