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  • In mercurial, is there a way to disable ALL configurations (system, user, repo)?

    - by Geoffrey Zheng
    On any non-trivial hg installation, the hgrc's tend to contain significant stuff. Is there a way to completely ignore/bypass ALL configurations, from system, user, to repo-level? The use case is to use some hg core functionalities in some automation scripts. Currently, if anything is misconfigured (and I mess with my ~/.hgrc a lot), the scripts will abort for something it doesn't use at all. It'd be perfect is I can just hg <whatever> --config:none.

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  • JsonIgnore attributes not working in ASP.NET?

    - by Geoffrey
    I've got an object in my project with circular references. I've put [JsonIgnore] above the field like so: [JsonIgnore] public virtual Foobar ChildObject { get; set; } I'm still getting circular reference errors when I serialize the object. The only fields that do not have JsonIgnore are string fields and should not cause this. Is there something else I need to do to get JsonIgnore to work? Thanks!

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  • Help me construct this Linq statement

    - by Geoffrey
    There should be a simple Linq query for what I'm trying to accomplish, but I'm producing some ugly code. I have two tables, one of issues and another of issue status. There is a one-to-many relationship between issue and issue status. When an issue is created an IssueStatus is also created with the status field set to "Open" when it is closed, another IssueStatus is created with the status field set to "Closed" ... but issues can be re-opened. It seems like I should be able to write something like this: public static List<Issue> FindOpenIssues(this IList<Issue> issues) { return ( from issue in issues from issueStatus in issue.issueStatus.OrderBy(x=>x.CreatedOn).Single() where issueStatus.Status == "Open" select issue ).ToList(); } This obviously fails, but there must be a clean way to do this? Thanks!

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  • 'Make' command compiling errors

    - by G_T
    Im trying to locally install a program which is written in C++. I have downloaded the program and am attempting to use the "make" command to compile the program as the programs instructions dictate. However when I do I get this error: /usr/include/stdc-predef.h:30:26: fatal error: bits/predefs.h: No such file or directory compilation terminated. Looking around on the internet some people seem to address this problem by sudo apt-get install libc6-dev-i386 I checked to see if this package was installed and it was not. When I try to install it I get E: Unable to locate package libc6-dev-i386 I have already run sudo apt get update Im sure this is a rookie question but any help is appreciated, I'm running 13.10 32-bit. UPDATE: I've tried other suggestions I've found on similar error. All I have managed is a different but similar error. Here is what I get. Geoffrey@Geoffrey-Latitude-E6400:/usr/local/src/trinityrnaseq_r2013_08_14$ make Using gnu compiler for Inchworm and Chrysalis cd Inchworm && (test -e configure || autoreconf) \ && ./configure --prefix=`pwd` && make install checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes checking for gawk... no checking for mawk... mawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes checking for g++... g++ checking for C++ compiler default output file name... a.out checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes checking whether we are cross compiling... no checking for suffix of executables... checking for suffix of object files... o checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes checking for style of include used by make... GNU checking dependency style of g++... gcc3 checking for library containing cos... none required configure: creating ./config.status config.status: creating Makefile config.status: creating src/Makefile config.status: creating config.h config.status: config.h is unchanged config.status: executing depfiles commands make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/trinityrnaseq_r2013_08_14/Inchworm' Making install in src make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/trinityrnaseq_r2013_08_14/Inchworm/src' if g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.. -pedantic -fopenmp -Wall -Wextra -Wno-long-long -Wno-deprecated -m64 -g -O2 -MT Fasta_entry.o -MD -MP -MF ".deps/Fasta_entry.Tpo" -c -o Fasta_entry.o Fasta_entry.cpp; \ then mv -f ".deps/Fasta_entry.Tpo" ".deps/Fasta_entry.Po"; else rm -f ".deps/Fasta_entry.Tpo"; exit 1; fi In file included from Fasta_entry.hpp:4:0, from Fasta_entry.cpp:1: /usr/include/c++/4.8/string:38:28: fatal error: bits/c++config.h: No such file or directory #include <bits/c++config.h> ^ compilation terminated. make[2]: *** [Fasta_entry.o] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/trinityrnaseq_r2013_08_14/Inchworm/src' make[1]: *** [install-recursive] Error 1 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/trinityrnaseq_r2013_08_14/Inchworm' make: *** [inchworm] Error 2

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for November 30, 2012

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Oracle SOA Database Adapter Polling in a Cluster: A Handy Logical Delete Pattern | Carlo Arteaga "Using the SOA database adapter usually becomes easier when the adapter is simply viewed and treated as a gateway between the Oracle SOA composite world and the database world," says Carlo Arteaga. "When viewing the adapter in this light one should come to understand that the adapter is not the ultimate all-in-one solution for database access and database logic needs." OIM 11g : Multi-thread approach for writing custom scheduled job | Saravanan V S Saravanan shares insight and expertise relevant to "designing and developing an OIM schedule job that uses multi threaded approach for updating data in OIM using APIs." When Premature Optimization Isn't | Dustin Marx "Perhaps the most common situations in which I have seen developers make bad decisions under the pretense of 'avoiding premature optimization' is making bad architecture or design choices," says Dustin Marx. Protecting Intranet and Extranet Applications with a Single OAM 11g Deployment | Brian Eidelman Oracle Fusion Middleware A-Team member Brian Eideleman's post, part of the Oracle Access Manager Academy series, explores issues and soluions around setting up a single OAM deployment to protect both intranet and extranet apps. Thought for the Day "Never make a technical decision based upon the politics of the situation, and never make a political decision based upon technical issues." — Geoffrey James Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 10-17-2012

    - by Bob Rhubart
    This is your brain on IT architecture. Oracle Technology Network Architect Day in Los Angeles, Oct 2 Stuff your cranium with architecture by attending Oracle Technology Network Architect Day in Los Angeles, October 25, 2012, at the Sofitel Los Angeles, 8555 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048. Technical sessions, panel Q&A, and peer roundtables—plus a free lunch. Register now. Panel: On the Impact of Software | InfoQ Les Hatton (Oakwood Computing Associates), Clive King (Oracle), Paul Good (Shell), Mike Andrews (Microsoft) and Michiel van Genuchten (moderator) discuss the impact of software engineering on our lives in this panel discussion recorded at the Computer Society Software Experts Summit 2012. OTN APAC Tour 2012: Bangkok, Thailand - Oct 22, 2012 Mike Dietrich shares information on the upcoming OTN APAC Tour stop in Bangkok. Registration is open. Consolidating Oracle E-Business Suite R12 on Oracle's SPARC SuperCluster | Giri Mandalika Giri Mandalika shares an overview of a new Optimized Solution for Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) R12 12.1.3.. As Giri explains, "This solution was centered around the engineered system, SPARC SuperCluster T4-4." The Oldest Big Data Problem: Parsing Human Language | The Data Warehouse Insider Dan McClary offers up a new whitepaper "which details the use of Digital Reasoning Systems' Synthesys software on Oracle Big Data Appliance." Mobile Apps for EBS | Capgemini Oracle Blog Capgemini solution architect Satish Iyer breifly describes how Oracle ADF and Oracle SOA Suite can be used to fill the gap in mobile applications for Oracle EBS. Ease the Chaos with Automated Patching: Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c | Porus Homi Havewala This new OTN article is excerpted from Porus Homi Havewala's latest book, Oracle Enteprise Manager Cloud Control 12c: Managing Data Center Chaos (2012, Packt Publishing). Thought for the Day "Never make a technical decision based upon the politics of the situation, and never make a political decision based upon technical issues." — Geoffrey James Source: softwarequotes.com

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  • Data Management Business Continuity Planning

    Business Continuity Governance In order to ensure data continuity for an organization, they need to ensure they know how to handle a data or network emergency because all systems have the potential to fail. Data Continuity Checklist: Disaster Recovery Plan/Policy Backups Redundancy Trained Staff Business Continuity Policies In order to protect data in case of any emergency a company needs to put in place a Disaster recovery plan and policies that can be executed by IT staff to ensure the continuity of the existing data and/or limit the amount of data that is not contiguous.  A disaster recovery plan is a comprehensive statement of consistent actions to be taken before, during and after a disaster, according to Geoffrey H. Wold. He also states that the primary objective of disaster recovery planning is to protect the organization in the event that all or parts of its operations and/or computer services are rendered unusable. Furthermore, companies can mandate through policies that IT must maintain redundant hardware in case of any hardware failures and redundant network connectivity incase the primary internet service provider goes down.  Additionally, they can require that all staff be trained in regards to the Disaster recovery policy to ensure that all parties evolved are knowledgeable to execute the recovery plan. Business Continuity Procedures Business continuity procedure vary from organization to origination, however there are standard procedures that most originations should follow. Standard Business Continuity Procedures Backup and Test Backups to ensure that they work Hire knowledgeable and trainable staff  Offer training on new and existing systems Regularly monitor, test, maintain, and upgrade existing system hardware and applications Maintain redundancy regarding all data, and critical business functionality

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  • Oracle Value Chain Summit 2014 - Early Bird Registration Now Open

    - by Pam Petropoulos
    Get the Best Rate on the Biggest Supply Chain Event of the Year. Register Now and save $200. Join more than 1,000 of your peers at the Value Chain Summit to learn how smart companies are transforming their supply chains into information-driven value chains. This unparalleled experience will give you the tools you need to drive innovation and maximize revenue. Date: February 3-5, 2014 Location: San Jose McEnery Convention Center Click here to learn more Thought-Leading Speakers Top minds and tech experts across industries will share the secrets of their success, firsthand. Prepare to be inspired by speakers like Geoffrey Moore, business advisor to Cisco, HP, and Microsoft and best-selling author of six books, including Crossing the Chasm. Customized Experiences Choose from more than 200 sessions offering deep dives on every aspect of supply chain management: Product Value Chain, Procurement, Maintenance, Manufacturing, Value Chain Execution, and Value Chain Planning. Unrivaled Insight & Solutions Hands-on workshops, product demonstrations, and interactive breakouts will showcase new value chain solutions and best practices to help you: -  Grow profit margins -  Build products – faster and cheaper -  Expedite delivery -  Increase customer satisfaction You don't want to miss this once-a-year event. Register Now to secure the Early Bird rate of $495 - the lowest price available.

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  • Taking AIIM at Social

    - by Christie Flanagan
    Today we are pleased to have a guest post from Christian Finn (@cfinn).  Christian is Senior Director of Product Management for Oracle WebCenter and heads up the WebCenter evangelist team.Last week I had the privilege of speaking at AIIM’s new conference in San Francisco.  AIIM, for those of you not familiar with it, is a global community of information professionals and got its start with ECM and imaging long ago. With 65,000+ members, AIIM has now set about broadening its scope to focus more on the intersection between systems of record (think traditional ECM) and systems of engagement (think social solutions).  So AIIM’s conference is a natural place to be for WebCenter types like me, who have a foot in both of those worlds.AIIM used to have their name on a very large tradeshow, but have changed direction now to run a small, intimate conference.  The lineup of keynotes was terrific, including David Pogue of The New York Times, Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, and Ted Schadler, author of Empowered among many thought-provoking and engaging speakers. (Note: Ted will soon be featured in our Social Business webcast series. Stay tuned.)John Mancini and his team at AIIM did a fabulous job running the event and the engagement from the 450 attendees was sustained over the two and a half days.  Our proudest moment was having three finalists up for AIIM awards including: San Joaquin County, CA, for a justice case management system using WebCenter Content and Oracle BPM; Medtronic and Fishbowl Solutions for their innovative iPad solutions on WebCenter Content, and the government of Louisville, Kentucky/Jefferson County for their accounts payable solution using WebCenter Content’s Image & Process Management.  The highlight of the awards night was San Joaquin winning the small organization award against some tough competition.In addition to the conversations sparked at the show, AIIM promoted the whitepapers their industry task forces have produced on the impact and opportunities created by systems of engagement and systems of record. The task forces were led by: Geoffrey Moore, the renowned high tech marketing guru and author of Crossing The Chasm; and Andrew McAfee, who coined the term and wrote the book, Enterprise 2.0. (Note: Andy will also be featured soon on the Social Business webcast series.)  These free papers make short, excellent reading and you can download them on the AIIM website: Moore highlights the changes to Enterprise IT that the social revolution will engender, and McAfee covers where and how organizations are finding value in using social techniques to foster innovation, to scale Q&A across the organization, and to connect sales and marketing for greater efficiency and effectiveness. Moore’s whitepaper is here and McAfee’s whitepapers are available here. For the benefit of those who did not get a chance to attend the AIIM conference, I’ll be posting the topics of my AIIM presentation, “Three Principles for Fixing Your Broken Organization,” here on the WebCenter blog over the rest of this week and next in a series of posts.  

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  • SQL Authority News – Play by Play with Pinal Dave – A Birthday Gift

    - by Pinal Dave
    Today is my birthday. Personal Note When I was young, I was always looking forward to my birthday as on this day, I used to get gifts from everybody. Now when I am getting old on each of my birthday, I have almost same feeling but the direction is different. Now on each of my birthday, I feel like giving gifts to everybody. I have received lots of support, love and respect from everybody; and now I must return it back.Well, on this birthday, I have very unique gifts for everybody – my latest course on SQL Server. How I Tune Performance I often get questions where I am asked how do I work on a normal day. I am often asked that how do I work when I have performance tuning project is assigned to me. Lots of people have expressed their desire that they want me to explain and demonstrate my own method of solving performance problem when I am facing real world problem. It is a pretty difficult task as in the real world, nothing goes as planned and usually planned demonstrations have no place there. The real world, demands real solutions and in a timely fashion. If a consultant goes to industry and does not demonstrate his/her capabilities in very first few minutes, it does not matter how much fame he/she is, the door is shown to them eventually. It is true and in my early career, I have faced it quite commonly. I have learned the trick to be honest from the start and request absolutely transparent communication from the organization where I am to consult. Play by Play Play by Play is a very unique setup. It is not planned and it is a step by step course. It is like a reality show – a very real encounter to the problem and real problem solving approach. I had a great time doing this course. Geoffrey Grosenbach (VP of Pluralsight) sits down with me to see what a SQL Server Admin does in the real world. This Play-by-Play focuses on SQL Server performance tuning and I go over optimizing queries and fine-tuning the server. The table of content of this course is very simple. Introduction In the introduction I explained my basic strategies when I am approached by a customer for performance tuning. Basic Information Gathering In this module I explain how I do gather various information for performance tuning project. It is very crucial to demonstrate to customers for consultant his capability of solving problem. I attempt to resolve a small problem which gives a big positive impact on performance, consultant have to gather proper information from the start. I demonstrate in this module, how one can collect all the important performance tuning metrics. Removing Performance Bottleneck In this module, I build upon the previous module’s statistics collected. I analysis various performance tuning measures and immediately start implementing various tweaks on the performance, which will start improving the performance of my server. This is a very effective method and it gives immediate return of efforts. Index Optimization Indexes are considered as a silver bullet for performance tuning. However, it is not true always there are plenty of examples where indexes even performs worst after implemented. The key is to understand a few of the basic properties of the index and implement the right things at the right time. In this module, I describe in detail how to do index optimizations and what are right and wrong with Index. If you are a DBA or developer, and if your application is running slow – this is must attend module for you. I have some really interesting stories to tell as well. Optimize Query with Rewrite Every problem has more than one solution, in this module we will see another very famous, but hard to master skills for performance tuning – Query Rewrite. There are few do’s and don’ts for any query rewrites. I take a very simple example and demonstrate how query rewrite can improve the performance of the query at many folds. I also share some real world funny stories in this module. This course is hosted at Pluralsight. You will need a valid login for Pluralsight to watch  Play by Play: Pinal Dave course. You can also sign up for FREE Trial of Pluralsight to watch this course. As today is my birthday – I will give 10 people (randomly) who will express their desire to learn this course, a free code. Please leave your comment and I will send you free code to watch this course for free. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Training, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Video

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  • Another Marketing Conference, part one – the best morning sessions.

    - by Roger Hart
    Yesterday I went to Another Marketing Conference. I honestly can’t tell if the title is just tipping over into smug, but in the balance of things that doesn’t matter, because it was a good conference. There was an enjoyable blend of theoretical and practical, and enough inter-disciplinary spread to keep my inner dilettante grinning from ear to ear. Sure, there was a bumpy bit in the middle, with two back-to-back sales pitches and a rather thin overview of the state of the web. But the signal:noise ratio at AMC2012 was impressively high. Here’s the first part of my write-up of the sessions. It’s a bit of a mammoth. It’s also a bit of a mash-up of what was said and what I thought about it. I’ll add links to the videos and slides from the sessions as they become available. Although it was in the morning session, I’ve not included Vanessa Northam’s session on the power of internal comms to build brand ambassadors. It’ll be in the next roundup, as this is already pushing 2.5k words. First, the important stuff. I was keeping a tally, and nobody said “synergy” or “leverage”. I did, however, hear the term “marketeers” six times. Shame on you – you know who you are. 1 – Branding in a post-digital world, Graham Hales This initially looked like being a sales presentation for Interbrand, but Graham pulled it out of the bag a few minutes in. He introduced a model for brand management that was essentially Plan >> Do >> Check >> Act, with Do and Check rolled up together, and went on to stress that this looks like on overall business management model for a reason. Brand has to be part of your overall business strategy and metrics if you’re going to care about it at all. This was the first iteration of what proved to be one of the event’s emergent themes: do it throughout the stack or don’t bother. Graham went on to remind us that brands, in so far as they are owned at all, are owned by and co-created with our customers. Advertising can offer a message to customers, but they provide the expression of a brand. This was a preface to talking about an increasingly chaotic marketplace, with increasingly hard-to-manage purchase processes. Services like Amazon reviews and TripAdvisor (four presenters would make this point) saturate customers with information, and give them a kind of vigilante power to comment on and define brands. Consequentially, they experience a number of “moments of deflection” in our sales funnels. Our control is lessened, and failure to engage can negatively-impact buying decisions increasingly poorly. The clearest example given was the failure of NatWest’s “caring bank” campaign, where staff in branches, customer support, and online presences didn’t align. A discontinuity of experience basically made the campaign worthless, and disgruntled customers talked about it loudly on social media. This in turn presented an opportunity to engage and show caring, but that wasn’t taken. What I took away was that brand (co)creation is ongoing and needs monitoring and metrics. But reciprocally, given you get what you measure, strategy and metrics must include brand if any kind of branding is to work at all. Campaigns and messages must permeate product and service design. What that doesn’t mean (and Graham didn’t say it did) is putting Marketing at the top of the pyramid, and having them bawl demands at Product Management, Support, and Development like an entitled toddler. It’s going to have to be collaborative, and session 6 on internal comms handled this really well. The main thing missing here was substantiating data, and the main question I found myself chewing on was: if we’re building brands collaboratively and in the open, what about the cultural politics of trolling? 2 – Challenging our core beliefs about human behaviour, Mark Earls This was definitely the best show of the day. It was also some of the best content. Mark talked us through nudging, behavioural economics, and some key misconceptions around decision making. Basically, people aren’t rational, they’re petty, reactive, emotional sacks of meat, and they’ll go where they’re led. Comforting stuff. Examples given were the spread of the London Riots and the “discovery” of the mountains of Kong, and the popularity of Susan Boyle, which, in turn made me think about Per Mollerup’s concept of “social wayshowing”. Mark boiled his thoughts down into four key points which I completely failed to write down word for word: People do, then think – Changing minds to change behaviour doesn’t work. Post-rationalization rules the day. See also: mere exposure effects. Spock < Kirk - Emotional/intuitive comes first, then we rationalize impulses. The non-thinking, emotive, reactive processes run much faster than the deliberative ones. People are not really rational decision makers, so  intervening with information may not be appropriate. Maximisers or satisficers? – Related to the last point. People do not consistently, rationally, maximise. When faced with an abundance of choice, they prefer to satisfice than evaluate, and will often follow social leads rather than think. Things tend to converge – Behaviour trends to a consensus normal. When faced with choices people overwhelmingly just do what they see others doing. Humans are extraordinarily good at mirroring behaviours and receiving influence. People “outsource the cognitive load” of choices to the crowd. Mark’s headline quote was probably “the real influence happens at the table next to you”. Reference examples, word of mouth, and social influence are tremendously important, and so talking about product experiences may be more important than talking about products. This reminded me of Kathy Sierra’s “creating bad-ass users” concept of designing to make people more awesome rather than products they like. If we can expose user-awesome, and make sharing easy, we can normalise the behaviours we want. If we normalize the behaviours we want, people should make and post-rationalize the buying decisions we want.  Where we need to be: “A bigger boy made me do it” Where we are: “a wizard did it and ran away” However, it’s worth bearing in mind that some purchasing decisions are personal and informed rather than social and reactive. There’s a quadrant diagram, in fact. What was really interesting, though, towards the end of the talk, was some advice for working out how social your products might be. The standard technology adoption lifecycle graph is essentially about social product diffusion. So this idea isn’t really new. Geoffrey Moore’s “chasm” idea may not strictly apply. However, his concepts of beachheads and reference segments are exactly what is required to normalize and thus enable purchase decisions (behaviour change). The final thing is that in only very few categories does a better product actually affect purchase decision. Where the choice is personal and informed, this is true. But where it’s personal and impulsive, or in any way social, “better” is trumped by popularity, endorsement, or “point of sale salience”. UX, UCD, and e-commerce know this to be true. A better (and easier) experience will always beat “more features”. Easy to use, and easy to observe being used will beat “what the user says they want”. This made me think about the astounding stickiness of rational fallacies, “common sense” and the pathological willful simplifications of the media. Rational fallacies seem like they’re basically the heuristics we use for post-rationalization. If I were profoundly grimy and cynical, I’d suggest deploying a boat-load in our messaging, to see if they’re really as sticky and appealing as they look. 4 – Changing behaviour through communication, Stephen Donajgrodzki This was a fantastic follow up to Mark’s session. Stephen basically talked us through some tactics used in public information/health comms that implement the kind of behavioural theory Mark introduced. The session was largely about how to get people to do (good) things they’re predisposed not to do, and how communication can (and can’t) make positive interventions. A couple of things stood out, in particular “implementation intentions” and how they can be linked to goals. For example, in order to get people to check and test their smoke alarms (a goal intention, rarely actualized  an information campaign will attempt to link this activity to the clocks going back or forward (a strong implementation intention, well-actualized). The talk reinforced the idea that making behaviour changes easy and visible normalizes them and makes them more likely to succeed. To do this, they have to be embodied throughout a product and service cycle. Experiential disconnects undermine the normalization. So campaigns, products, and customer interactions must be aligned. This is underscored by the second section of the presentation, which talked about interventions and pre-conditions for change. Taking the examples of drug addiction and stopping smoking, Stephen showed us a framework for attempting (and succeeding or failing in) behaviour change. He noted that when the change is something people fundamentally want to do, and that is easy, this gets a to simpler. Coordinated, easily-observed environmental pressures create preconditions for change and build motivation. (price, pub smoking ban, ad campaigns, friend quitting, declining social acceptability) A triggering even leads to a change attempt. (getting a cold and panicking about how bad the cough is) Interventions can be made to enable an attempt (NHS services, public information, nicotine patches) If it succeeds – yay. If it fails, there’s strong negative enforcement. Triggering events seem largely personal, but messaging can intervene in the creation of preconditions and in supporting decisions. Stephen talked more about systems of thinking and “bounded rationality”. The idea being that to enable change you need to break through “automatic” thinking into “reflective” thinking. Disruption and emotion are great tools for this, but that is only the start of the process. It occurs to me that a great deal of market research is focused on determining triggers rather than analysing necessary preconditions. Although they are presumably related. The final section talked about setting goals. Marketing goals are often seen as deriving directly from business goals. However, marketing may be unable to deliver on these directly where decision and behaviour-change processes are involved. In those cases, marketing and communication goals should be to create preconditions. They should also consider priming and norms. Content marketing and brand awareness are good first steps here, as brands can be heuristics in decision making for choice-saturated consumers, or those seeking education. 5 – The power of engaged communities and how to build them, Harriet Minter (the Guardian) The meat of this was that you need to let communities define and establish themselves, and be quick to react to their needs. Harriet had been in charge of building the Guardian’s community sites, and learned a lot about how they come together, stabilize  grow, and react. Crucially, they can’t be about sales or push messaging. A community is not just an audience. It’s essential to start with what this particular segment or tribe are interested in, then what they want to hear. Eventually you can consider – in light of this – what they might want to buy, but you can’t start with the product. A community won’t cohere around one you’re pushing. Her tips for community building were (again, sorry, not verbatim): Set goals Have some targets. Community building sounds vague and fluffy, but you can have (and adjust) concrete goals. Think like a start-up This is the “lean” stuff. Try things, fail quickly, respond. Don’t restrict platforms Let the audience choose them, and be aware of their differences. For example, LinkedIn is very different to Twitter. Track your stats Related to the first point. Keeping an eye on the numbers lets you respond. They should be qualified, however. If you want a community of enterprise decision makers, headcount alone may be a bad metric – have you got CIOs, or just people who want to get jobs by mingling with CIOs? Build brand advocates Do things to involve people and make them awesome, and they’ll cheer-lead for you. The last part really got my attention. Little bits of drive-by kindness go a long way. But more than that, genuinely helping people turns them into powerful advocates. Harriet gave an example of the Guardian engaging with an aspiring journalist on its Q&A forums. Through a series of serendipitous encounters he became a BBC producer, and now enthusiastically speaks up for the Guardian community sites. Cultivating many small, authentic, influential voices may have a better pay-off than schmoozing the big guys. This could be particularly important in the context of Mark and Stephen’s models of social, endorsement-led, and example-led decision making. There’s a lot here I haven’t covered, and it may be worth some follow-up on community building. Thoughts I was quite sceptical of nudge theory and behavioural economics. First off it sounds too good to be true, and second it sounds too sinister to permit. But I haven’t done the background reading. So I’m going to, and if it seems to hold real water, and if it’s possible to do it ethically (Stephen’s presentations suggests it may be) then it’s probably worth exploring. The message seemed to be: change what people do, and they’ll work out why afterwards. Moreover, the people around them will do it too. Make the things you want them to do extraordinarily easy and very, very visible. Normalize and support the decisions you want them to make, and they’ll make them. In practice this means not talking about the thing, but showing the user-awesome. Glib? Perhaps. But it feels worth considering. Also, if I ever run a marketing conference, I’m going to ban speakers from using examples from Apple. Quite apart from not being consistently generalizable, it’s becoming an irritating cliché.

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