A nod to Joseph Carrabis: The unfulfilled promise of online analytics

<Side Note>

I'm not sure how I landed here.

• I had poor grades in high-school.
• The career adviser said I shouldn't apply in computer science - I had no chance. I did anyway.
• I loved computer science. I was a hacker - yes, it was me who shut down the mainframe to get exclusive access to finish my homework...
• In 1986 I had to pick an internship. I picked an obscure Unix/C research project with University of Montreal while my classmates headed for IBM/Cobol and Fortran in banks and insurance - I was crazy!
• "Unix will die" they said, "C will never pick up". But I was on the Internet in 1986 - before the Web ever existed.
• Work - Unix sys-admin and Oracle DBA. Then HTTP & Mosaic - it was natural.
• Logs, like any other computer system. Unix scripts to automate; soon enough the data was in Oracle.
• Web development, web strategies, ebusiness, measurement & optimization.
• Needed more business & management credibility - I did my MBA.
  

It's been over 20 years. I'm still a child in a candy store.

< End of side note >

The chasm

The Internet was built on collaboration, the early days of the Web were, as  is  was web analytics. The web analytics industry is at a crossroad. Vendors are fighting for a share of the pie, competing for the latest cool feature while trying to capture as much profits as possible from their clients and locking them down along the way. Newbies are flocking to the field, just as it was some time ago for the Web - anyone and everyone is an expert. Self proclaimed gurus ego are inflating exponentially with the number of "friends" they have.

We are craftsman. We improvise custom solutions to old problems - optimizing processes, measuring success, managing change and politics. We pride among ourselves for finding new clever ways of measuring social media and inventing new metrics nobody else understands when we can't even get five minutes with senior managers to improve their business.

We go at conferences, gang in discussion forums and Twitter to convince ourselves we are so right - we know what's wrong and how to solve it. The "outsiders" can't understand, they don't get it - so we think.

The unfulfilled promise of online analytics

Joseph Carrabis "The Unfulfilled Promise of Online Analytics - Part 1" was thought provoking and several people contributed to the conversation - it's a shame some people retracted or didn't even participate. Joseph, with his unique style and outsider perspective, published the second part. Anyone in the analytics space should read it - vendors and gurus must read it - and comment.

Joseph takes great care in being respectful and always ask for permission and opinion before quoting or talking about someone. As soon as I got his email I took a glimpse at it - thinking I would get back to it later... then I stopped everything else and read the whole thing.

There are several gems in his document:

• Please remove my comment
  It takes a lot of honesty and tact to talk about those who requested their comments be removed...shame on them for a) not standing by their opinion and/or b) not accepting they might be wrong.
  
• The Setup to Fail Syndrome
  "There is also a need to recognize what's achievable when (so people aren't set up to fail) and how to promote faster adoption of an agenda". It reminds me of a book I read: "The setup to fail syndrome", by Manzoni and Barsoux. I read that when, at a particular job, I went from "fame" to "looser" because the context changed (got a new boss). Success is also (mostly?!) a matter of context...
• I'm playing, don't bug me
  "Management repeatedly asking difficult to solve questions results in they're being ignored by analysts until the final results are in. By that time both question and answer are irrelevant to a tactical business decision".
  "This means such institutions - which require experienced practitioners to survive - will only be able to afford low quality/low experienced practitioners to help them. This can be likened to a naval gunnery axiom: "The farther one is from a target, either the larger the shell or the better the targeting mechanism" and companies will opt for larger shells (poorly defined efforts) rather than better targeting mechanisms (experienced practitioners)." 
• Let's find something cool to do
  "We're suppose to be solving problems. But I can't figure out what problems we're suppose to solve."
• Act quickly, think strategically
  I loved the prognosis/diagnosis example and "Investigation takes time and only certain businesses can afford time because unless the science is working at overcoming a business obstacle, it's a cost, not a profit."

A maturity model

I'm grateful Joseph mentioned and acknowledged the usefulness of my work on the Web Analytics Maturity Model to advance the field. When Jim Sterne introduced me during the WAA annual members meeting he said "I don't know how to present Stéphane", referring to the fact I have a technical background and recently completed my MBA... but mostly, I guess, because of my passion for the field and my willingness to share. Others have publicly or privately acknowledge my work and provided honest feedback - positive or not. Ultimately, there is no evolution without collaboration.

I asked Stephane if he believed WAMM provided a metricizable solution with universally agreed to objective measures (I told Stephane that I wasn’t grasping how WAMM becomes an "x + y = z" type of tool and asked if I’d missed something). Stephane replied "…no, you haven’t missed anything, because it is NOT a x+y=z magical/universal formula, that’s not the goal. The utmost goal is to enable change, facilitate discussion, and it’s not ‘black magic’. A formula would imply there is some kind of recipe to success. Just like we can admire Amazon or Google success and could in theory replicate everything they do, you simply can’t replicate the brains working there – thus, I think there is a limit to applying a formula (or ‘brain power’ is a huge randomized value in the formula)."

Then there are "maturity model atheists" - those "who've been there, done that"... Such positions gives very little room for discussion. My feeling is they are standing so high on their pedestal, busy working with the top organizations, that they've lost empathy with those struggling to make things happen - at their scale and with the capacity they have.
One key element to remember is "you can excel along any axis... but to be successful you need to excel evenly along all axes... so far three matrix elements - time, a lack of leadership and realism - have been identified".

"So there better be a 'right way to do it', at least as far as delivering results and being understood are concerned, because without that the industry - more accurately, the practitioners - are lost". I hope we will find this way together, honestly collaborating and being open minded, because I love what I do.

If we don't? "any industry that succumbs to promise and hype will ultimately end in disappointment".

Free or Fee: Gladwell vs Anderson

In a previous post, I explained why WASP isn't free, and recently, I promoted my consulting services with the headline "Web Analytics brain available - for a fee" and I've done my share of inflamatory posts about the utopia of "Free".

Malcolm Gladwell, author of three books I loved reading (The Tipping Point, Blink! and Outliers), replies to Wired editor Chris Anderson and adulated author of "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" (honestly, I read the article and had enough).

I go with Daniel Tunkelang, blogger at SmartDataCollective, who wrote "Malcolm Gladwell to Chris Anderson: No “Free” Lunch", which led me to the New Yorker article "Priced to sell: if free the future?". Tunkelang says:

Ultimately, Gladwell dismisses Anderson as a “technological utopian.” That’s harsh, but I think it’s on target.

I agree.

In his usual style, Gladwell brings very good arguments to go against Anderson's views:

Free is just another price, and prices are set by individual actors, in accordance with the aggregated particulars of marketplace power.

Why are the self-interested motives of powerful companies being elevated to a philosophical principle?

Apple may soon make more money selling iPhone downloads (ideas) than it does from the iPhone itself (stuff). The company could one day give away the iPhone to boost downloads; it could give away the downloads to boost iPhone sales; or it could continue to do what it does now, and charge for both.

Hmmm... Enough said :)

Stéphane Hamel for Web Analytics Association BoD!

Beyond stats, web sites and businesses, there are people. After all, some things don't change that much even after thousands of years. We still want to get around the campfire and listen to the sage, help the apprentice, be part of the group and make our mark. Maybe that's why, in essence, I'm running for the Web Analytics Association Board of Director.

Why I'm running for the WAA Board of Director

The Web Analytics Association provides quality education, develop standards and best practices, conduct research and advocate for issues that advance the industry. Behind those objectives there are thousands of members, some new to the industry, some more experienced. Just people like you and me who seek to help their employer or clients make more enlightened decisions, share with fellow WAA members, learn and advance their career in a fast paced and exciting field that take its roots from a vast number of professional expertise: marketing, statistics, web development, management, communication, design, usability just to name a few.

The voting period for the WAA 2009 Board of Directors election is now open. Votes will be accepted from now until 23:59 GMT (7:59 PM ET, 4:59 PM PT) on Friday, April 10, 2009.

Credit where credit is due!

I've been a member of the WAA since 2005, and from the get go, I felt something similar to my early days in the Web: collaboration and sharing, excitement, passion, vision, innovation in a fast paced industry where I could grow, learn, and leverage my experience and expertise. When I realized Jim Sterne was behind the WAA and eMetrics, I knew I wanted to be part of it. I had met Jim many, many years ago, in the days of the Internet World Conference, long before the Internet Bubble Burst and the current economic downturn. He was an inspiration: motivating, great speaker, very open to share and collaborate. He was very knowledgable about the Web and marketing and already pushing for measurement and accountability.

Since then I met so many great people it would be too long to list, be it Bryan Eisenberg, Brian Clifton, Avinash Kaushik, Bill Gassman, Joseph Carrabis, John Lovett, Gary Angel, Jim Novo, Bob Page, Judah Phillips and a slew of consultants, practitionners and vendors. Now, look at the profile of the people running for the WAA BoD: Anil Batra, René Deschamps Otamendi, Daniel Waisberg, Rachel Scotto, Jonathan Levitt, Matt Langie, Nicolas Babin. I personally met all of them through the WAA and eMetrics, and the choice is very hard: great people who love what they are doing and have a passion for it.

Pay it forward

In essence, "pay it forward" is how I see my implication in the field. That's why I love speaking at eMetrics, being a tutor for the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics, why I'm blogging, Twittering and being very active on the Yahoo! Web Analytics Forum. It's why I've been organizing Web Analytics Wednesdays for over two years. It's also why I have developed the Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP): share my expertise and foster collaboration through the networking and great feedback I'm receiving out of it.

I had to chose a category for the election process. Am I a consultant, a vendor or a maybe more on the academic/research side? In face of the other great people in the consulting category, I don't know what the outcome will be, but the adventure is worth it, and I hope to get your vote!

Live from Omniture Summit: G.Colony keynote, Forrester CEO

Live from Omniture Summit floor, the keynote of G.Colony, CEO of Forrester, just concluded. If you use Twitter, you can follow me at @immeria for live updates.

Height things to say over coffee to a CEO

1. "Your website sucks"
   If you are not using persona, scenarios and analytics you are in trouble
2. "Web is the start of a long voyage"
   From historical file server based infrastructure to the executable internet. The power shifting to client devices and the network
3. "Bits want to be free... bits want to break the law"
   Control is becoming impossible, find out business model around it.
4. "Technology is changing your customer... ...your customer will change your company"
   
   

   Hours per week	Gen Y (18-27)	Gen X (28-41)
   Using mobile:	8.9	5.8
   Playing video games:	4.3	2.0
   Reading magazines (not online)	1.7	2.0
   Reading newspaper (not online)	1.2	1.7
   Using instant messaging	56%	33%
   Using social network	42%	17%
   Watching peer to peer videos	28%	19%
   Blogging	27%	15%

   From this table, it looks like I'm a Gen Y in a Gen X body...
   
5. "Move innovation out of the box and into the network"
   Traditional process: finance -> invent -> build -> package (all done in black box - owned, copyrighted, guarded) -> new widget eventually available
   New process: inventors + financiers + brokers + transformers = innovation network
6. "Great marketing + great technology is the only way forward"
   Examples:
   - Esquire magazine cover ad change (embedded small battery)
   - 3D hologram in company reception hall
   - Ad scan bar ads to use with cell phone photo
7. "You don’t own your customer... your customer owns you"
   No brand loyalty anymore
8. "When it comes to technology do me (and your company) a favor... ...stop being clueless."
   Loved this quote: "Like sex, you can’t understand it until you do it"

My take

Great keynote. Most of those points are pretty obvious, everything was in the way they were delivered!

Cool features on the new WASP site

I revamped the WebAnalyticsSolutionProfiler.com website when I launched WASP v1.0 last week. I'm now leveraging a couple of pretty cool services. The number of innovative services is staggering, but here's a couple I find most interesting.

Kampyle

Kampyle feedback analytics: I've been using it for a while and like it very much. I talked about it many times already. For the site revamp, I have modified the feedback categories and sub-categories to better fit my needs. Each page includes the Give Feedback button so visitors can easily get in touch with me, either anonymously or providing their email. It's a great way to engage the conversation privately!

Get Satisfaction

Get Satisfaction is the "people powered customer support". A mix of discussion forum and trouble ticket system. Again, a great way to be "open" about feedback and issues. I'm also using it as a knowledge base, so whenever I get asked a question through other channels and find it valuable, I simply enter it in Get Satisfaction so it becomes available for my WASP users to see.

User Voice

User Voice might be the "voice of customer" at its best! WASP aficionados can ask for new features and enhancement and vote for the ones they find the most interesting. Right now, anonymous voting is enabled, but I could turn it off if I find there is some abuse...

Beijing 2008: Virtual demonstration for human rights

The Reporters Without Borders cyber manifestation is going on now!

Human rights and freedom of speech

Please take a few seconds to support freedom of speech and human right in China. Read more about free expression in China.

Viral Campaign

From an online marketing perspective, this campaign is interesting and the concept of cyber-manifestation is very well conveyed on the campaign site. Check it out!

When I checked there was 11,400 participants. Spread out the online manifestation!

Taking position for human rights

The Olympics are at our doorsteps, but I can't resist the urge to take position.

Because I can...

The International Olympic Committee roles states, among other things:

• to cooperate with the competent public or private organizations and authorities in the endeavour to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace;
• to act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement;
• to encourage and support the promotion of women in sport at all levels and in all structures with a view to implementing the principle of equality of men and women; 

The IOC, governments and corporations are closing their eyes on obvious human rights abuses.

Lost a son in a earth quake: shut up!

Today, the CBC was reporting they wanted to interview a mother who lost her son in the last earth quake. Just when they were to meet her, the journalists got stopped by police and the women is now in curfew. China wants to show one face to the world, and it looks they are ready to go to any extent.

...China's government-controlled media have largely ignored the topic, and parents and volunteers who have questioned authorities have been detained and threatened...
...It's a subject local Communist leaders have seemed anxious to suppress....

You are Tibetan: no longer!

Last night I watched the movie "What remains of us", a documentary about Tibet, the ongoing cultural extermination of an entire society and countless cases of human rights violations. A Canadian citizen with Tibetan roots took great risks in smuggling a message from the Dalai Lama and secretly using a camera to film their opinions. An amazing lesson of humility.

You are Black: no party!

Even if you are a top world athlete, it looks like you might not be "good enough" to party like the others, as reported by numerous papers around the world.

Chinese police officials have forced some Beijing bar owners to sign secret pledges promising to prohibit blacks from entering their bars during the Olympics next month, a Hong Kong newspaper says.

Join the cyber demonstration: August 8th

Liberty of press is the first step toward improved human rights and liberty of opinion. On August 8th, when we will be billions watching the Olympics opening ceremony, think about what is currently going on behind the scene. More info at http://www.rsfbeijing2008.org

Celebrating immeria.net and life in general

Today, June 4th, 2008

I've been working for 21 years, actively involved in the Internet and Web development for 15 years. Been blogging for over 5 years and posted over 300 messages.

I found this morning that I now have over 500 subscribers to this blog, plus close to a hundred to the web analytics conversations. Although my roots in analytics might date back to the days when I was an Oracle database administrator, or when I was looking at CERN HTTP logs, the graph below clearly show when I started to blog more seriously about web analytics.

Retrospective

• December 2007: Officially became web analytics freelance and entrepreneur while pursuing an eBusiness MBA. Of course there are some constraints, some hard work and some stress, but I've been enjoying the past 6 months like a child in a toy store.
• October 2002: First blog post, in French, where I welcome hypothetical readers and explain what is a "blog".
  
• 
• October 1994: After explaining why it was so important to have a web presence and literally building the first site over nights and week ends, Softimage, then a subsidiary of Microsoft, launched a first website (this version comes from a snapshot in 1997, when I was part of a team dedicated to the web).
• August 1994: First proof of a website I built for an R&D project at Hydro-Quebec
• June 1993: My first archeological presence on the net (a bit scary to still find it!). A message about system administration on SunOS machines.

See my full profile on LinkedIn.

Upcoming dinner with Avinash Kaushik & Mitch Joel

A little anecdote: The first time I met Mitch Joel was at a dinner preceding the eMetrics Breakfast a couple of months ago, along with Jim Sterne and Andrea Hadley. I knew who he was: one of the greatest evangelist in the social media/web 2.0 space. He obviously didn't know who I was... But still, when we met again this week at eMetrics Toronto he perfectly remembered about the "link love" from a post I did weeks ago.

We didn't have much time to chat, but here's what I find amazingly interesting: we met face to face only once and despite having thousand of readers and followers in the online social media space, what might be the greatest reward of all is when you can meet and talk face to face with great minds such as Mitch and Avinash Kaushik.

And the opportunity to have dinner with both of them is coming up on April 16th (note: limited seating/pay your own bills). Of course, I quickly sent an email to Mitch to be there!

Like many others, I exchanged emails and blog comments with Avinash several times (how can he find the time to do all of that!). He is even helping me out as an "angel adviser" for WASP and providing invaluable feedback and advices. The first time I met him was at eMetrics San Francisco last year. I was chatting with him while the new version of Google Analytics was being announced on the stage. He was excited like a little child. That's the second greatest thing in our field: we love what we do, we're passionate... we're just like little boys playing Lego :)

When blogging can kill you

(Update: I incorrectly understood M.Tilley had a blog himself, but it's rather other people who used blogs to rant against his business and him personally. I have made some changes to reflect this position. However, I don't think it significantly change the outcome: someone killed himself partly because of blogging...)

Paul Tilley was an executive at an ad agency. People used the freedom of blogging to foster communication and feedback about the industry and ad agencies, from clients and employees alike. That eventually led to open criticism of M.Tilley's management style and decisions: that may have killed him. Maybe not directly, but it certainly contributed to a chain of events that led to his death.

It's a sad story, please allow me to quote Andy Beal:

...stop and consider the personal psychological harm our words might have on an individual. While it’s easy for us to post our scathing criticisms. we’re often desensitized to the harm we inflict–simply because we’re miles away, safe behind our web browser.

I didn't know M.Tilley, in fact I never heard of him before. But I'm nevertheless sadden by this story. It's at the opposite spectrum of the idea I shared several months ago in my post about "the lonely life of bloggers" where I critiqued a book called "Blogosphere":

...blogs are made by human beings, and are read by human beings... how can this be unreal?

What can the web learn from videogames?

Montreal Tech Watch is one of my favorite blogs (and I have 154 subscriptions in my Google Reader!), and its author, Heri, does really great posts, such as this one. I first met him at a Web Analytics Wednesday last year, he was just arriving in Montreal and came to me to inquire about startups and the technological market in Montreal. A year later, his blog covers technology, innovation and startups in Montreal and has become a must read!

Tonight, I read his coverage of D.I.C.E. 2008 where Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat presentation challenged the concept of "best, fastest, best-looking engine and technology in favor of innovation and emotion."

Technology’ main role is to serve creative talent. Quite frankly, code does not translate into emotion.

It also reminded me of my times at Softimage where its founder, Daniel Langlois, had to build the animation software to achieve his dream of creating better tools for artists.

Despite my roots in IT, I can relate to his call. Web sites are (still too) often the results of technological bells and whistles put together at the cost of finding innovative ways to engage, persuade and convert.

Bubble-burst 2.0

According to John Gartner, we are or will be witnessing pretty soon the second burst of the Dot-com bubble.

It's ridiculous over inflation of Facebook's worth has gotten even the optimistic to say that the emperor has no clothes. Social networking and widgets are cool, but they aren't going to change the dynamics of commerce and advertising.

On this point, I totally agree with M.Gartner. From a financial perspective, the over inflation of some innovations, or in fact, not so innovations than better repackaging of existing inventions, is ridiculous. Facebook is, for the most part, a fancier version of the old closed BBS's environments. While Dot-com 1.0 was all about growing the largest client-base, even if totally unqualified; Dot-com 2.0 is about gaining as more attention as possible. And it appears the concept of "attention economy" is one of my favorite. Except here, the concept is screwed toward pure capitalism based on money and market, as M.Goldhaber flamed about in his post "The Wrong Book". Here's, in short, what Goldhaber says about the attention economy:

It is an economy in the sense that it involves allocating of what is most scarce and precious in the present period, namely the attention that can come to each of us from other human beings.

Could Web 2.0 be something else than rich media, social media, network as a platform, AJAX, consumer generated content and all those fancy ways of reaching the end goal: attention?

Gartner ends his post with:

Blame the ongoing war, the lead-tainted toys, the housing and mortgage collapse, and volatile days on Wall Street. Uncertainty across the board is about to investments Web 2.0 companies hard.

Again true, just like Bubble 1.0 economics, stretched Bubble 2.0 economics will be a thing of the past. What will remain are the concepts and the tools to help businesses, and ultimately people, be more efficient.

Online identity, reputation and privacy

Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, FeedBurner, del.icio.us, Flickr, Friendster, corporate identities... and a bunch of others. Thank God I have resisted the temptation of using Second Life and Twitter! And a newcomer, I'm giving a try at Naymz:

It's like managing our flesh and blood life wasn't already hard enough, now we have to manage our identity in the ether.

While we hear more and more about so called "social network" horror stories or email bankruptcy, a "Giaant", I mean Google, is sticking to its corporate mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". This week we witnessed the birth of the gPC, a simple and cheap solution that totally avoid Microsoft while being enough for most casual home users. This PC is not "built by" Google itself but obviously heavily backed up. And that's not the only battle front for the business "Goood" of the 21st century: gPhone, backing mySQL, OpenSocial (and a first security breach in 45 minutes!), Google enterprise plans and probably other stuff we don't suspect today.

At the same time, while Facebook was an unsuspected player just a few months ago, it is raising to become a data-pit of private information grown to unprecedented scales. It seems that Project Beacon will raise segmentation and one-to-one marketing capabilities to a new level... this will be done within a closed, badly developed, unusable interface... with the consent of its users. My personal experience of Facebook isn't very positive. So far, the 57 "friends" I have in Facebook and the Web Analytics Quebec group that gathered 41 fans in a week haven't proven to be very effective to ease constructive communication (other than the zombies and a bunch of other useless gadgets).

All of those have one thing in common: information concentration in the hands of a few. And these days, information is power. Sadly, history has proven that too much power in one's hand, even with the pure and honest intention of "doing no evil", inevitably ends up in chaos.

Caravanserai of modern times

Last night my wife and I traveled to a different world, that of Loreena McKennitt unique musical environment. It was literally an immersive experience that psychologists call "a state of flow". All elements were carefully orchestrated to provide the highest degree of emotional impact: a pleasing and rewarding experience that made us travel to a different time, a welcomed escape from our fast paced and crazy life.

Caravanserai

One of the song from the Ancient Muse album is entitled "Caravanserai". A caravanserai was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of trade routes. I didn't think about it last night, but this morning I woke up still surrounded by the sound and the mood and it got me thinking about the contrasts of those times and today's age of virtual companies, remote communications, avatars and virtual worlds.

By supporting the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of trade routes, the Web as become the Caravanserais of modern times.

Blog advertising? Act locally!

I was contacted by renowned Quebec blogger Michel Leblanc (in French) who suggested to put advertising on my blog. His idea led to the creation of a new ad network specialized for the local market and fostering links between Quebec's leading blogs. There are a couple of unique aspects to it:

• It's really targeted to local blogs and local readers, with ads about local events and local companies, what François Laroche (in French) calls "social proximity"
  
• It will creates links between leading blogs and globally increase traffic to them
  
• The ad format is unique, a 145x145 Flash pub that will be well positioned in the page layout
• The new ad network is managed by LesAffaires.com, a leading business magazine in Quebec, owned by Médias Transcontinental, largest printer in Canada and leading consumer magazine publisher
• The sponsoring of participating blogs and the revenue model is also quite unique
• Each blogger keeps his own autonomy while being part of a larger "elite" group

For the reasons above, it's much better for me than Ad Sense, which hasn't proved to be very effective. A great initiative that gives a hand to local bloggers. So we'll see how the pilot run goes starting September 20th.

Web 2.0 in the enterprise: a no and a yes

In a recent article, Gartner warned us about the security related to Web 2.0 in the enterprise. Whenever Gartner says something it's like a bird song to the ears of management, especially IT management. Although a good article, it is sure to raise a red flag to managers who don't fully understand what the heck is Web 2.0 and more importantly, the philosophy that goes with it. Frankly, I found that article to be alarmist and I expect it to be used as a "proof" that Web 2.0 is not so great for enterprises, especially from an IT perspective.

Since I wouldn't like to get caught naked by my boss (well... in both senses of the term!), I recommend the fine article from ZDNet: A checkpoint on Web 2.0 in the enterprise by Dion Hinchcliffe.

For sake of discussion, I'm including two charts from the full article. Although long, I strongly recommend it (I already said that, did I?).

"Web 2.0 is an underlying set of principles... that have reached a tipping point that’s enabling brand new business models, unleashing a wave of innovative products, influencing public behavior on a large scale, and in particular, resulting in entirely new types of online businesses."

"... like SOA or SaaS, the ideas represented by Web 2.0 will take years for the majority of the world to embrace and make effective use of. ... Many of these will require serious soul-searching in business, not to mention overcoming the Innovator’s Dilemma, the latter which raises the interesting question of how do you adopt a new way of business that is at odds with your current way of doing business?"

In short, Web 2.0, just like the Web about 15 years ago, is challenging several aspects of the business functions, including IT. It shouldn't be dismissed by fear of the unknown or hiding behind a comfortable status quo that is bound to haunt us for the coming years. The best approach might be to pick a few quick wins, explore and learn even if its only for sake of initiating discussion and sparkling a cultural change... Which would already be something interesting for companies that have a conservative culture.

Thoughts about the Web Analytics industry

I was reading through Avinash's comments about Market Motive and started to do a parallel with an old post I did where I exposed my theory of evolution: from IBM's hardware era to Google information age. The basic questions are: What are we doing? Where are we heading?

The IT era

Logs have been available for HTTP server since day one. It was a normal thing for any network based server to have them. Gopher, FTP, email, IRC all had their logs before HTTP and HTML were popularized by Mosaic in early 1993. Log based analysis grew from the IT department and gradually and naturally propagated to marketing. Those are the golden years of WebTrends.

The Marketing era

There's always that little (sometimes bigger) tension between IT and Marketing, the Ying and the Yang of the web. One doesn't exist without the other. Yet, they speak different languages. They seek for different answers: one is about bandwidth, performance, availability, bugs while the other is about user behavior, conversion, design, usability, etc. Tagging a site and getting self-served insights was like a dream come true for Marketing. No more hard knocking with IT... at least that's what they thought! Now they had even better arguments to kick the *ss of IT 'cause "hey! How can they possibly understand it's so important to validate as close to the user as possible instead of doing round trips to the server?". Web reporting solutions sprung during the Internet Buble and the Omniture, WebSideStory, Coremetrics and a bunch of others grew from their ability to render IT dependent and time consuming reports into easily segmented, filtered and nicely shown reports and graphs.

The democratization era

Google took the world by surprise in November 2005 by bringing web analytics to everyone who wants it. Now any Joe with a blog knows what's going on and companies don't have any excuses for not looking at their numbers. It brought the tool but didn't bring the process and the resources along. The door was wide open for would-be "specialists" to jump on the new buzzword of the day: welcome to "web analytics". Companies that used web analytics with most success are those that implemented the analysis culture internally and consciously invested in resources and processes. For most, however, the tools looks all the same, "why bother and pay for something I can get for free?"... they think. Only the best will survive. ThinkMetrics threw the towel recently, and from what I'm seeing while developing WASP, there will be several other smaller players who won't be able to survive in front of the Google Behemoth.

The bubble

The web analytics industry is going trough a bubble of it's own. Innovation abound, Web 2.0 companies pops at a faster pace and acquisitions and mergers slowly but surely clean the market. Nevertheless, some of the innovative companies that revolve around web analytics, like RobotReplay, CrazyEgg, TapeFailure and others, might be lucky enough to find their niche and complement the major players.

Instead of working for a single corporation, home grown specialists seeks opportunities by becoming freelances or starting "guru" agencies. Peterson's Web Analytics Demystified, Avinash Kaushik's Market Motive are two of the most visible examples. Any serious conference now has it's web analytics track and "the only conference on web analytics you should attend" abound. Be it a Basecamp, an X-Change, continuing studies, or Vendor-X University, education becomes the holly grail of any market growing at this pace. Between all of this, the Web Analytics Association tries to "unites and fosters the interests of industry practitioners, vendors, consultants and educators who use, sell, install, implement, consult, teach or train in the field of web analytics". Not an easy goal for a non-profit organization relying on volunteers who already have their hands full.

What are we doing? Where are we heading?

The tools might be commoditized, but the ability of decision makers to act rather than react will never be. "Competing on Analytics" won't be a brilliant author vision of the future, it will be a mater of survival. "Web analytics" will leave it's "web" connotation behind and become a powerful tool in the arsenal of corporate strategies. We're not talking about "ebusiness" anymore, we're talking about a mater of fact for any serious business.

Get educated, learn from the field and borrow from the experts. Don't fall for the traditional thinking, persevere and innovate with whichever tool you have, but more importantly, innovate with your mind.

What do you think of the web analytics market? Where will we be in 2, 5 or 10 years?

The NextStage of web analytics

I'm often asked about my blogging activities and the time I spend working on WASP. Most people don't understand why I'm taking so much of my free time on "this" even if I'm not getting paid to do it.

The answer is simple: I'm not doing it for money.

My reward is otherwise and goes back to the history of humanity: recognition as in "the state or quality of being recognized or acknowledged". It might sound selfish, but I think it's not: recognition is not something you decide, it's something people give you, just like leadership is determined by your peers. You have to nurture it, to be profesional and ethical in your approach while remaining true to yourself and to others.

What is rewarding to me?

• Knowing I can help others with the things I know, and learn from them for those I don't. A simple comment on my blog, an email with feedback and sugestions, meeting someone in person, etc.
  
• Meeting someone in person who I would have never met if I was not blogging. Be it fellow web analytics practitioners or world renowned web analytics gurus and authors.
• Speaking at conferences like eMetrics, doing research on topics of interest such as the attention economy or having the chance to meet and work with people I recognize as masters in their field of expertise.

One thing leads to another greater one

As Jeremiah Owyang said recently "remember that even the smallest thing will lead to something bigger, and it will snowball" which is akin to Malcolm Gladwell's "How little things can make a big difference".

I had some interesting email exchanges about web analytics and the attention economy with Joseph Carrabis. His extensive profile is impressive, meeting the man is even more! If you haven't met him in person, think of Professor Henry Jones Sr. from the Indiana Jones movie: quite a fascinating character! :)

Think of it, if Jim Sterne is the Godfather of web analytics, Joseph must be Indiana Jones father!

The NextStage of web analytics

One thing leading to another, I met Joseph in San Francisco. Then he helped me out with my article on "The human metric of web analytics" and we continued to exchange on various topics. Now Joseph suggested we work together on a training or a presentation that would convey the NextStage of web analytics. Joseph Carrabis is the chairman, CRO and founder of NextStage Evolution LLC, a company dedicated to predictive analytics, persuasion engineering and interactive analytics with strong roots in the social sciences and behavioral analysis.

Joseph, I'll be honored to help and I'm sure it will be a rewarding experience!

What should eBusiness Architect do?

Whenever I think of something interesting, I create a draft entry in my blog and get back to it later. I started writing this entry about a week ago, and this morning while swifting trough 100+ Google Reader entries, I noticed the post from Holly Buchanan: "If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers".

There was also that interesting discussion thread on the Web Analytics group about "Does a web analyst have to know how an I.P. address is constructed?". Although useful, I don't think it's essential and you can read my opinion and those of others in the discussion thread.

A thing leading to another, I got an email that sparkled some interesting discussion about the role of an ebusiness architect. I also realized some of my co-workers don't know/understand what is my role as a "senior ebusiness architect".

So? What's an architect?

Let's borrow from Wikipedia: "an architect is a person who translates the user's needs into physical, built solution. An architect must thoroughly understand the building and operational codes under which his or her design must conform. That degree of knowledge is necessary so that he or she is not apt to omit any necessary requirements, or produce improper, conflicting, ambiguous, or confusing requirements. Architects must understand the various methods available to the builder for building the client's structure, so that he or she can negotiate with the client to produce a best possible compromise of the results desired within explicit cost and time boundaries."

As we read this definition, it's obvious it perfectly applies to Information Systems/Information Technology and more specifically, to ebusiness and Web initiatives.

Some caveats (and a legal disclaimer)

In some countries, like Canada, job titles such as "engineer" or "architect" are regulated professions. So officially, I'm not a "senior ebusiness architect", I'm a "senior ebusiness advisor". Just like a few years ago, I tried to explain that I was not a "software engineer" simply because I couldn't use that title.

An architect for every soup

There's often confusion around the job titles. Put any of those words in front of "architect" and you've got a new field of expertise and a new career: software, technical, organic, functional... ebusiness, enterprise...

What should an ebusiness architect do?

Simply put, my role is exactly that of an architect: take the business requirements and plan for the solution. A bit too simplistic, let's look more closely at that phrase:

• take: this implies a lot of listening, communicating and explaining the process that will lead to the solution
  
• business: have the right interlocutor and that he/she is empowered to take decision/action
  
• requirements: one of the biggest challenge is the fact that "requirements" are often (almost always!) expressed in terms of "solution". From the requirements, we must strive to understand the initial objective. To take the home analogy, the client knows he/she wants a "3-section with side-panels triple-glass wooden-frame 6 feet by 4 feet window" on that wall, but probably doesn't know how the wall will need to be reinforced to support the 2nd floor. The objective would be something like "The dining room as a view on our garden and we can see really beautiful sunsets. I want the largest window possible as long as it doesn't increase the overall cost of the house more than X$". It's the architect responsibility to read between the lines and translate those requirements into realistic objectives.
  
• plan: It's also the architect responsibility to work within the constraints of time, budget and quality. This implies a vast understanding of the subject and the collaboration of field experts to gather the elements of the solution and mutually challenge the solution to come up with something as efficient and as realistic as possible.
  
• solution: Solutions are mutually accepted compromises. That last point is critical: sometimes it's the role of the architect to go back to the client and explain why the requirement can't be met, or why another approach might be better or at least, satisfy a fair percentage of the goal without necessarily constraining future enhancements.
  

Key skills of an ebusiness architect

Just like the construction architect, the ebusiness architect doesn't actually "build" the solution, but he/she has to take responsibility for it's conception and overlook the work so the job is done according to plans. Strong knowledge of the various work expertise, supporting technologies and best practices, trends and evolution of the ebusiness field, strong analytical skills and be solution driven, as well as acute communication skills are all essential ingredients of a good architect.

The feet strongly grounded in IT, the brain on the business side

One of the most interesting challenge of the ebusiness architect is to "translate" the business lingua into more technical terms, and vice-versa. We often see this latent tension between "IT" and "business", "us" and "them". Sometimes, the ebusiness architect is merely a communication gear between two quite different worlds. Being strongly grounded in IT while at the same time being able to walk the talk of the business is probably the most important role of the ebusiness architect.

Aren't we all founders at work?

For the past few days, I've been reading the book "Founders at work" by Jessica Livingston. An interesting read for would-be entrepreneur or anyone curious about the early days of some of the most successful internet companies. This got me thinking that all of us, in our own way, might be founders at work.

Book review

There's an interesting path from the early stories of Steve Wozniak working on the Apple or up to recent success stories like Flickr. Each short story makes only a couple of pages of interview with the founder: initial idea, funding, good and bad turns and advices to would-be entrepreneurs. That makes up a good and easy summer read.

What I would have loved to see is a short summary of each story key takeaways and a final chapter that could have provided an expert view and some advices to would-be entrepreneurs. "The Art of the Start" from Guy Kawasaki would probably be more appropriate for that.

Idea, guts, luck and connections

Although each story is different, there are some common traits:

• Everybody has ideas, few have the guts to take the risk of turning them into something more tangible.
• Luck is often a factor, although I believe one can create favorable conditions to increase the chances of being lucky.
• The initial idea often derive into something else, more interesting and more viable.
  
• Having the right connections is also an element of success.
• Diploma and experience doesn't seem to correlate very strongly with successful entrepreneurs, although entrepreneurs get more successful with each startup experience.
  

Missed opportunities?

Trough the years, I had some ideas that, given the right timing, the right contacts and a little more guts, could have (maybe) turned out into something big:

• While working at Softimage as a webmaster, I thought of a web site that would feature commercials, short movies, game animations and movie special effects that were done with the products. People would get a synopsis, watch the video, and rate it or send critics. Animators and students were eager to show off their work, so they would have submitted their own videos. I shared the idea with the founder and it was dismissed as impossible... a few months later adCritic was born... That was in 1998.
• While working as a project lead for the redesign of a dozen web sites, we worked with an interactive agency that sent us links to an online prototype. Business owners (marketing &amp; communication people) would print the page in black & white, handwrite annotations for corrections, and fax it back to the agency... with cut-off margins, unreadable comments and bad handwriting! I thought of an online collaboration tool that would allow someone to put virtual Post-It notes on a page and share them with other people. That was around 2000. Check out Fleck.com

A new opportunity?

Now I've got this crazy idea about WASP, the Web Analytics Solution profile, that would ease the implementation of web analytics solutions. The early version, more a proof of concept than anything else, was received with great interest and I got very interesting feedback.

Could there be some business opportunity behind it? Maybe, not sure, but it's a hell of a fun to do it!

What's your own missed opportunity?