Celia is a marvel to behold. Her zest and natural instincts have turned TechDrawl into a leading voice for technology entrepreneurship in the South. I am continually surprised by her unlimited compassion for startups and the real people behind them. She understands a community is only as good as the support it gives. Equally important, Celia has earned the right to be critical of the ecosystem she loves. Through truth, wit and fearless tenacity, she actually has a grander plan for us all. Impressive.

Ben is a legend — literally, he’s the 14th member of Georgia’s Technology Hall of Fame. Authentic to the core, he’s the real deal (technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and investment banker). It’s seldom in any career to have the opportunity to partner with an industry pioneer — founded Peachtree Software in 1977 — and for that alone, we’re honored. Yet the best news is that only scratches the surface. I’ve now firsthand witnessed what makes Ben tick. He knows the biggest vision requires the smallest details, and leadership means you inspire the smallest details by having a damn BIG vision. His ability to evolve and scale to the situation is jaw-dropping to watch. Ben has a timeless relevancy that’s lacking in many of today’s business leaders. Needless to say, I have much to learn.

So, why TechDrawl? The answer requires I share the highlights of our new plan. (Hint: we’ve been working on a major redesign since December.) We’re evolving TechDrawl to take an expanded look at technology and geekery in the South. Our intent is for the South to become the story — meaning you, your companies and the tech community will be pushed, pulled and positioned on the world stage. More on that with the upcoming launch…

We too plan to become the story. Expect BIG things to come from TD51.

The other important piece to our plan is TechDrawl will be incubating technology companies, with most being our own startups. It was important for us to keep our IP-equity flames burning. And as it turns out, Ben had been wanting to jump back into the tech entrepreneurship game for sometime. The outcome is TD51 (the super-secret commercial wing of TechDrawl). We previewed our first company, Mediasode, at the superbly hosted 2010 Startup Riot. For the full vibe, visit TD51.

All of which brings us to Fred Squared… F2 is transforming into a holding company, where we plan to manage our equity stakes in TechDrawl and other IP.  All future work will be under the expanding TechDrawl flags. I’ve assumed the role of TechDrawl’s CEO and Ben is now the Chairman. Randy, Dave and Celia also have key executive roles, but the reality is we’re all co-founders doing whatever is needed to succeed.

With grace, time and hard work, our long-term vision is to leverage Fred Squared as a vehicle to invest in the community we love. Until then, we wish the best for everyone. I hope you do the same for TechDrawl…

Enjoy! (And for the record, Disney-Pixar’s UP was the best film of 2009.)

The story and pre-dev continue to move forward, which also happens to be code speak for spending time with our kids. We’re not sure were this one ends (or goes), but the journey for kidnomi has become a labor of love.  Stay tuned.

The problem is that this game is fairly taxing on computer graphics, so it wouldn’t run in a VM on his iMac. Of course, we tried and received some nasty errors, so we thought we could easily install Boot Camp and run the program natively in Windows. Not so fast. Something caused the keyboard to be too fancy for the base Windows installer to find it. We had three options facing us: 1) buy the new version of the game that runs natively in MacOS, 2) dig deep, prepare for an epic battle and vow to solve it no matter what and 3) give up. Option 1 was far too easy. Option 3 wasn’t really an option at all. Option 2 it was. Solve it we will.

While talking about problem solving might seem obvious and a tired concept, it’s the one thing we all use every day. Here’s my approach to high performance problem solving:

Step 1: Mental Conditioning – Get your head straight and make the decision that you will solve the problem. If your heart isn’t in it, stop here.

Step 2: Issue Isolation - Not just problem identification…  Start by identifying the problem, then isolate the root cause(s) of the issue. Write down the issue(s) and define your success criteria.

Step 3: Research – It’s unbelievable how quickly we can now access vast quantities of good (and bad) information. Start with basic search engines and look for a trend.  Don’t just believe the first person that says they found a fix.

Step 4: Establish Ground Zero – Capture the beginning state (photos, diagrams, documentation, backups, more backups). Make sure you can get back to your control case when your first few fixes cause more problems.

Step 5: Plan of Attack – Write down the steps you are about to take. Pick a technique that fits your problem.

Step 6: Execute – Go for it! Cast aside fear and make it happen. Be aware of everything that is going on. It might be a very subtle clue that provides direction to the final solution.

Step 7: Analyze Results – Look back over what you observed, document your findings and determine if the outcome was a success.

Step 8: Rinse and Repeat 5-7 Until Solved

Step 9: Celebrate – Take a moment to kick back and relish the satisfaction of a job well done. Tell the world about it. Post your solution to the community. Give credit where credit is due.

Step 10: Recap – Look back over your logs and commit your findings to long-term memory. You may or may not encounter the same problem again, but you will most likely have to apply what you learned again in the future.

As I sit, my son is enjoying his new game. It took six iterations, but we got it. The final answer came from some obscure online forum where someone described a process that we slightly modified and it worked. After iteration five, we were a little perplexed and took some time to pray for direction. Sometimes the answers comes quickly, but the ones you remember and enjoy the most put up a good fight.

We’ll also be crowdsourcing ideas for where to take min.fm. We’re noodling features that transform the service into a data aggregator across social media (think me by the minute) and/or de-complicate the whole affiliate grassroots movement.

What would you like to see min.fm become?

Earth update: (Moving forward starts with knowing where you stand.)

Fact 1: Tribes define us. Always have. Conversations free us. Always will.

Fact 2: It’s already happened. The world is ours. There is no one else to blame.

Fact 3: Everything is getting smaller. The mass was removed. Relationships matter.

Fact 4: Attention. If you want it, wow us with something to believe in. If not — next.

Fact 5: Connect the dots: consumers < customers < people < fans < true believers.

Fact 6: Obsession is powerful when shared. Fandoms make (or break) their object.

Fact 7: Foggy? Then catch-up. Cluetrain, Seth and Hugh shine a bright light.

And so a new journey begins. One that brings us all closer to the truth — humans evolve faster than our surroundings. We are far more complex than your marketing. You create what we control. And, we’ve usually moved on by the time your institution arrives on the scene. In a cynical world the only real currency we have is love. (Lust is only credit.) For those select few who get it, we follow with all our heart. For those who don’t, brand-up on this:

Net Fandom – How 10K true believers will change your world!

Belief 1: In an always-on, micro-media culture there is no such thing as blind loyalty. Everything is earned. Each experience enables the next. Remember, the last one is always in danger of being just that.

Belief 2: Thanks to something called social media, we now share the good, bad and ugly of each experience with everyone we know. Especially, the bad and ugly.

Belief 3: Continual conversations combined with choice disproves the idea that customers own your brand. Ownership implies customers care enough to stick around during the bad times. We don’t.

Belief 4: Surprise and delight are now kinda expected, thus their effects don’t last as long. Goodwill is subject to shorter attention spans too. The bar has been raised, so you better wow us.

Belief 5: Again, connect the dots: consumers < customers < people < fans < true believers. You don’t stand any chance of winning if your focus is left of people. Deal with it and change.

Belief 6: All is not lost. We love brands that give us something to believe in — that inspire us to aspire for more. Do that, and we’ll lead the charge for you. We’re your forces of good — the true believers.

Belief 7: Love survives the occasional aggravation. Beliefs trump facts. And people listen to other people. Your true believers persuade the rest to follow. Welcome to Net Fandom.

Fandom [fan-duhm] -noun. ”A microcosm of core fans characterized by a feeling of close camaraderie, belief and purpose with others who share a common interest. A fandom can center around any area of human activity. The advent of the Internet has significantly facilitated fan association and daily involvement.”

Belief 8: A fandom is the single most powerful and passionate entity in this world. Cherish, if your world is so lucky to have one. Our network of influence, grassroots capabilities and contagious enthusiasm are unmatched. Just ask Obama.

Belief 9: Your Net Fandom can create movements or topple institutions, as we are a revolution of the mind. We know exactly how to start, spread and end that in which we love. Your marketing and advertising are illusions.

Belief 10: Yes illusions, but your marketing and advertising are very helpful to us in spreading the word. Think of them as connective collaboration — tools we use to convert people into fans. The mutual benefit being certain fans become true believers.

Belief 11: Your success and our fandom are symbiotic. Fortune and glory are directly tied to the engagement-level and love of your Net Fandom. As we grow, you grow. And most importantly, never confuse the opposite. Just ask General Motors.

Belief 12: Each has a specific role. You create and we control. As the creator, we look to you as the source of what makes the fandom tick. You have our utmost attention. It’s your creation we love and share. In return, we control your reach and popularity.

Belief 13: Your Net Fandom is worth far more than an army of consumers. Products are commodities, and customer allegiances can change on a dime. History favors a small group of true believers. Disagree? Let’s see how unlucky you become without us.

Belief 14: A brand (company, celebrity, politician, religion, etc.) only needs 10,000 true believers to be a cultural phenomena — to start a movement millions will follow. The same 10K keep the flame burning through thick and thin.  Of course, the more the merrier.

Belief 15: A true believer buys a majority of what you sell. Volunteers for marketing, sales and PR. And complains the loudest when needed — while continually providing key input and growing your Net Fandom. Each is as valuable as anyone you pay six figures.

Belief 16: A true believer is the purest form of a viral expansion loop.  Each of us recruits an average of 14 people per year to your brand (7 casual buyers, 5 fans and 2 true believers). Do the math — a 2X repeater that grows in conjunction with your Net Fandom.

Belief 17: As the creative source of your Net Fandom, you must also embrace the idea of open source. True believers want to use your work to tell their own stories. Sit legal, sit — as you remain the inspiration, determine the canon and receive the ultimate credit.

Belief 18: Acting corporate is the fast lane to losing your Net Fandom. We despise ivory towers, being handled and most suits. Be real. Speak human. And above all, be raw. All three are endearing to true believers. Think Kevin Smith, but don’t copy him.

This, and so much more!

Belief 19: You know us as Star Wars and Star Trek. But we’re also Apple, Google, Deepak Chopra, Gov. Charlie Crist, Iron Man, Miley Cyrus, Oprah, Rachel Maddow, Sugarland, UPS, Xbox 36O, Yo Gabba Gabba! — and thousands more… We’re everywhere.

Belief 20: We’re easy to find and love when you join the conversation. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the rest of the social media toolbox have replaced major networks as the great aggregator of people. We’re happy to have a conversation on your website too.

Belief 21: Product features equal about 24% of the reason we love a brand. The total experience from the first buy through service to the next purchase is around 25%. Point being we primarily love a brand for how you make us feel. Yep, 51% is simply belief.

Belief 22: It’s time to tackle belief. If that scares you, you will fail. People want something to believe in. Something that makes sense of all the chaos. The paradox is your brand is not a deity. What we really want is for you to make us believe in us. Wow!

Belief 23: Revenue, assets, liabilities — oh my! (Let it go, Indiana.) In a market that changes on a dime, the only number that matters is your Net Fandom. We directly control your financial success. Invest in us, and the other numbers will be in your favor.

Belief 24: The Net Fandom for 24 floated the show in Season 2. Heck, we even turned cougar-bad into a badge of endearment. Our love complaints made it better. Hacks give us everything we want, but a creator who keeps us guessing while also listening is golden.

Belief 25: Backstory matters. A true believer wants to know every tiny detail. Who, what, when, where, why — and especially howseparate your Net Fandom from the casual customers of yesteryear. We love what you do as much as we love what you produce.

Belief 26: The bigger the universe you create, the more we believe in it. Both in fantasy and fact, we seek to interact with your world. That’s what fans do. The greater the engagement, the deeper our love. Each participation event increases your brand value.

Belief 27: A great story never ends. It gets expanded upon (if only in the Net Fandom), passed down from one generation to the next and eventually re-invented. The same goes for great brands. Together, new beliefs continually form…

Signed: a true believer.

Three great quotes from him during the interview:

1. “Adversity and unexpected speed bumps are the price of innovation.”
2. “Some of the biggest challenges our company has faced are a result of intuitive decisions we made about what was important to invest in.  And we bet the farm behind it.  And it turned out to be much harder than we thought.”
3. “Technology and innovation don’t always come out in linear ways.”

I hope you find this 38 minutes as compelling as I did.  Enjoy!

Much of the research in the marketplace suffers from pretty wide information gaps in the Twitter data.  The one that I (and other pundit-types) find a little shaky in the Sysomos report is their extrapolation on the topic of Twitter users’ age.  While it seems to skew right where you’d expect it – 65% are under age 25 – it’s based on the self-reported data of 0.7% of users.  Not exactly statistically significant, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Here are three key realties every marketer should keep top-of-mind:

Twitter is New:  It might seem like you the marketer has just discovered what everyone has known for the last two years, but Twitter literally has exploded in the last five months – specifically March and April 2009.  To put it all into perspective, 72.5% of Twitter users have signed up in 2009 with 22.7% in March and 19.7% in April.  Growth has slowed since then, but the trend was set.

And what tipped the scales?  You guessed it, the vicious circle of celebrities and media exposure.  Between Ashton Kutcher and CNN, the mold was cast.  Twitter’s newness should lead marketers to somewhat ignore the existing ‘rules of the road’.  Take a hard look at where your organization can benefit from direct customer interactions, and build a Twitter presence around that.  So go for it – you could be the one who develops Twitter’s next killer app!

Most Twitter Users are Not Active: Sysomos laid out a couple especially surprising statistics (at least for me).  First, 21% of all users have never posted a tweet.  Conventional thinking points to a URL-style land grab for names, but my opinion is this is just a ton of tire kicking.  You have to sign up to see the content, and perhaps this is simply more evidence the world is full of voyeurs.  While I’d expect some people to just browse by, knowing that one fifth of the audience is not engaged at all points to the utter fascination with social media.

The second stat that turned my head was simply a quantification of what we all know to be true – a vocal minority contribute the majority of the content.  Statistically, it turns out that 5% of the audience contributes 75% of the content.  Broken down, the research shows 85% of the audience tweets less than once a day, while 1.1% tweet more than 10 times a day.  Also interesting is the correlation between number of followers and tweets per day.  The true tipping point is somewhere between 800 and 1,000 followers when the average tweets per day rise from three to six.

For marketers, this means layering in a quantity versus quality scale.  Ideally you should be aiming to reach about 500 followers who have an active following themselves of around 300-500 each.  And you’d better plan to deliver 4-6 tweets daily from the beginning to solidify your audience.  This enables the core of a Twitter network that can influence buying and other decisions critical to your company’s success.  And, by the way, only 1.4% of Twitter users have 500 followers so you’re in pretty rare air.

Twitter is an English Thing:  While we all recognize 140 characters in German is crazy different than 140 characters in English (my old translations friends always put about a 2.5:1 ratio on German to English), I actually expected more globalization from Twitter.  Almost 79% of content comes from the US, UK, Canada and Australia – in that order.  The first non-English country is Brazil at 2%.  Really? Portuguese is no lightweight language for character counts either…

The surprise for me was both Japan and China are sub-1%.  Looking at the prevalence of mobile devices and the popularity of text messaging in Asia, it’s fair to say this region represents the most growth upside for Twitter.  And if you have a business that lends itself to social marketing in those countries, you’d better be deep in research on how Twitter can help you achieve your objectives.  I’d suggest virtual focus groups, and a deep understanding of the texting trends by county.  This channel could be the turbocharger needed for an Asian product launch.

All in all, the Sysomos data sheds interesting light on the Twitterverse.  As with any research, consume it wholly and then make good, solid extrapolations for your business.  Lay it against your customers’ most important needs and desires to best determine how to grow your business.

Mrs. Edwards stood out. She was the first English teacher that tried to understand me and she was the first one that admitted she liked Math. That was just the connection I needed to give this lady a chance. She knew me too well and could see through the fact that I never read the assigned books. I just tried to find the movie, Cliff’s Notes or talk to the dorky chick in the corner that obviously read the whole thing cover to cover. So, for her, I read my first book all the way. I hate to admit it was Ethan Frome: a 195-page book about nothing. But, I read it for her and for me and I think I even passed the test and book report. That year helped me realize that I wasn’t just that guy that loved Math, Science and fart jokes. I found out I also really loved photography, art and architecture. I even painted a piece of wood with a fish for Mrs. Edwards as a gift for making me enjoy being weird (she loved fishing). Now, I even love reading long fiction books. They just have to be about spies, ninjas or conspiracy.

When I started my Co-Op job at Scientific Atlanta, I wondered how I would fit in. What would a 19-year-old have in common with a bunch of old, coffee drinking geeks? Thankfully, a lot. I found out that there was much more to them than Star Trek and vi. A few of us started a racquetball tournament ladder. Others wanted to get in early on Thursdays for Bible study. I got on the company softball team and played in the intramural volleyball. These personal connections made me love to come to work. Even though I was weird, I found out that there were more weird people out there.

One of my good friends is a campus minister. He always makes fun of me saying that I’m one of the only computer nerds he knows that has a personality. I take that as a compliment and a challenge. The challenge is to see people for who they are and try to find common ground. Embrace what makes you weird and see if your weird gives you a connection with someone else’s weird. Even if they represent the dark side of the force (like English teachers), they might just make you a better person.

So, what does this have to do with Fred Squared? Everything. Life is about people. We want to connect with people that want to make a difference. Sure, we want to pay our bills, but more than anything, we want to see the human spirit achieve great things. What makes you weird? What do you dream about?

Face it.  People (consumers for the SVPs in the house) don’t care about corporate silos, or the executive rational behind them.  What they do care about is having a great experience when they choose to interact with your brand.  The iPod and iTunes are one in the same.  UPS Tracking has a symbiotic relationship with UPS.com.  The Digital World has removed all lines.  Marketing, product usage and customer service are now part of a unified experience.  Fail at one, and you fail at all.  Or said another way — you have to succeed at all, to be a success.

This starts by breaking down the walls.  Allowing and enabling people inside your corporation to collaborate.  And if necessary, removing the old guard who refuses to change.  Once you have a team passionate to work together, the focus shifts to the product-channel sync.  A concept as old as time itself; the sync means you can’t force a square peg fit through a round hole.

Products must be designed and customized for the channel in which they live.  Software should behave differently from a website.  Kiosks are not the same as an IVR-based call center.  An iPhone App can do so much more than a .mobi site.  You get the point.  Great products take advantage of the differentiated benefits of the channel, while also conforming to the best practices.

Obtaining the product-channel sync is not a difficult process.  It’s simply a collaborative one.  Make sure your product engineers and information architects work together.  Ask marketing and IT to co-write business requirements.  Bring in channel specialists to tailor-fit your brand to the medium.  And above all, seek and integrate your customers’ voice into the development process.

Sure, you’ll have to ignore that policy and procedure manual you spent way too much time and money perfecting.  But, the end result will be so much better than the same old connect-the-dots project…  It’ll be a customer experience to remember (drive profits for SVPs still reading).

Turning advice into action:

1. Remove every wall that stands in the way of customer experience
2. Human factors experts are your friend — have them in every channel
3. Every department combines to form one being — say hello to your brand
4. Collaboration leads to satisfaction, innovation and the reversal of extinction
5. The product-channel sync works even better when your customers are involved

You make a ship for the sea, and a plane for the sky.  The same hold true in any business.  If you design your products for the channel, your company will soar high…

We’ve all seen it. Too many times the desire to make an application feature-rich gets in the way of the functionality being usable. You end-up with a bloated feature set that 95% of your audience never uses. (Think Microsoft Office.) In trying to appease every customer type, you actually loose your base in the process.  Given most of us don’t have the market cornered like Microsoft, what’s the answer?

You start by embracing simplicity and elegance in design. If something can be accomplished with one button, there is no need to add the noise of five more. Now apply that same philosophy to every feature of the product, and you’re well on your way to building something people will use.

When it comes to choice, the 80/20 rule still rings true. You only need to solve for 80% of your audience, which should comfortably fit within three to five personas. The other 20% (that matter) will be drawn to the larger halo, and the ones that leave were always planning on ditching you for a niche-ier brand someday.

The same rule applies to product options. Segment-driven choices are a good thing, but too many options only cause confusion. The best products in the world are ruthless in what they cut during the development cycle, as the companies behind them know intelligent simplicity equates to sales. For proof, just look to Apple as led by Steve Jobs.

Once you embrace your core audience, the first thing you’ll feel is a glowing sense of freedom — and relief. Your product now has clarity and market vision (i.e. things that increase sales). The other good news is you just reduced your costs without loosing the majority of your customers.

And that’s mass customization. Welcome to the brilliance of Henry Ford!