Eric D. Brown » Blog

Blog Milestone – 4 years old

Eric D. Brown — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:33:58 +0000

My first post on this blog was July 14 2006…exactly four years ago I posted an excerpt from a paper I wrote in my MBA program in a post titled The Strategic use of Human Resources.

Since then, the blog has grown and done much more for me than I ever expected it to do. When I started this blog, I was just playing around with the blog trying to figure out what I should write about.

It’s been a fun four years….in those four years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some wonderful folks online & offline. I’ve written some really good stuff and some really bad stuff (yes…yes I have) and had a lot of interaction with some great folks and some wierd folks.

So…after four years of blogging I’m extremely happy to say that I’m loving being a writer. I’m extremely happy to have found an output on this blog and absolutely thrilled that you read my musings on a regular basis.

I don’t get a lot of traffic…but I know that the traffic I do get is reading some good stuff here (unless they find the bad stuff I’ve written!).

Hopefully I’ll keep writing on here for many more years and you continue to visit & read.

Thanks for joining me in the past and hope you’ll continue to be a part of this blog in the future.

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

About the Author Eric D. Brown is a Technology Consultant, Doctoral Student and Entrepreneur focused on helping businesses and non-profits merge business, marketing and technology. He writes extensively about technology, strategy, people and projects at ericbrown.com. In addition, Eric is an avid & passionate photographer who's work can be seen at Photography Minute and on his flickr photostream. Read more about Eric...

I’m on a list … and that’s a good thing!

Eric D. Brown — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:28:56 +0000

Jurgen Appelo over at Noop.nl has release his list of the Top 150 Management & Leadership Blogs….and I’m on it. As the kids say…Woot! (I think they say that…maybe not).

I’m listed at #56 (wow…not bad for little ol’ me).

There are some amazing blogs and people on this list. The top blogsare people that everyone knows…Tom Peters, Tim Ferriss, Anthony Robbins, Guy Kawasaki, etc.

But look past those ‘big’ names to some of the less famous but equally as compelling authors and bloggers.

There are tons of great bloggers on the list…some of my favorites from the list:

I’m sure there are a few more on that list that I missed…please check it out. You’ll find some great content out there.

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

Would you be missed? Would I?

Eric D. Brown — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:04:36 +0000

What would happen if you stopped everything you do online?

What if you stopped:

Blogging
Tweeting
Facebooking (is that a word?)
Linking
Commenting
Interacting

What would happen? Would anyone miss you? Would your clients? Your Community?

If the answer is ‘yes’…do you know that for sure? If the answer is ‘no’, what can you do differently to bring more value to your clients/community/readers/friends?

I asked myself this very question this morning and couldn’t answer a definitive ‘yes’.

Am I delivering value to you?

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

A milestone – 3 years old (not 4 like I thought!)

Eric D. Brown — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:00:05 +0000

Update – My original post was titled “A milestone – 4 years old”. Apparently I can’t count I started the blog in 2006 so it’s my blog’s THIRD birthday!

I started this blog on July 14, 2006 with a blog post titled “The Strategic Use of Human Resources“. My first post was an excerpt from a paper I wrote for my MBA program of the same title….not exactly the most exciting stuff in the world but it wasn’t bad.

When I started this blog, I didn’t have a plan. I still really don’t. Many people tell me to pick a topic and focus…perhaps they are right. But that isn’t me. Sure, I can focus….but why should I be forced to do so on my own blog? I see this blog as a place to share my thoughts and help people understand who I am. I write about what I want but try to remain within the Technology, Strategy, People & Projects arena.

I have found a few topics that are of great interest to me. Specifically the intersection of marketing & technology and how enterprise 2.0 (and 3.0) is changing and will change business in the future. I’ve also started off The New CIO series where I’m planning on taking a look at the role of the IT group and CIO from a different perspective. So far, I’ve written 3 The New CIO articles and have plans to write one article per week (released every Thursday). The published articles so far are:

So I’ve finished up 3 years and I’m entering the fourth year and I’m going strong. I passed the 400 posts mark in June (~2 posts per week) and 1000 comments that same month. I also bumped over 1000 RSS subscribers sometime in 2009…but never really saw when it happened. Twitter and friendfeed have helped grow traffic but at the end of the day, this blog isn’t about traffic…its about delivering good content to those that like to read it.

Top 5 Commented Posts

My Top 5 visited posts

Would you be surprised if I told you that the top 5 keywords from Google had to do with the these top posts? Probably wouldn’t be. What are the top keywords?

linear thinking
factors affecting productivity
bludomain
blu domain
sitecore review

So…those are the most visited and commented posts on my blog after 3 years…but what about my favorite posts? Here’s a few (in no particular order):

Hope you’ve enjoyed the time like I have. And I hope to be on here for much more time to come.

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

Time for a Mid Year Review

Eric D. Brown — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:00:19 +0000

2009 is half over and its been a pretty good year so far.

What’s transpired this year?

In February, I put my consulting practice on hold to join the Boy Scouts of America full time after working with them for 1.5 years as a consultant. Previous to starting full-time, I’d been leading the Sitecore Content Management System implementation and since going full-time have been involved in some major technology and marketing initiatives. It’s been fun and an education in how non-profits are run.

I’ve just finished year #2 in the Doctoral program. Only X number of years left (i have no idea what X actually is…probably 3 to 4 more years).

I’ve held up my resolutions for the year fairly nicely. I used the ‘three words’ approach (I learned this from Chris Brogan). My words were: Create, Think & Lead. I’ve written more important stuff (at least to me) on this blog than I used to and I kicked off another blog focused on my photography.

My wife’s photography business is starting to see a bit more life. The economy has taken its toll but we are starting to see a bit more traffic and interest from potential clients.

I’ve disconnected from a lot of things that were taking up way too much of my time. While this has been hard to do, it’s been necessary to allow me to focus on those things that will bring the most benefit & value to me in the future.

What does the rest of 2009 hold? I’m not sure…but I’m positive it will be a good 6 months.

I’m anxious to kick off a few projects that I’ve been thinking about and can’t wait to see the results.

I’ve got a couple interesting side projects that have been brewing for a while…they are looking like they might show some signs of life later this year.

I’ve submitted a few articles & papers to academic journals & trade publications…hopefully I’ll hear back on whether they are accepted for publishing.

How has the first half of 2009 been for you?

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

These folks aren't boring

Eric D. Brown — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:08:06 +0000

OK…now that I’ve riled up “America’s Greatest Marketer” by calling him Boring, how about I show some love for some folks who are saying some great things right now.

Check out some of these Blogs for great content:

Amber Naslund – Always writes quality stuff that makes me think.
Chris Brogan – Nuff said. The man can make you think using fewer words than many (check his latest post for an example – 12 words and only five were in the post)
Valeria Maltoni – Great. Stuff. Always.
Bas de Baar – Great blog. Focused on Project Management but has relevance to all areas.
Beth Kanter – Great Blogger writing about Social Media and Nonprofits.
Alexander Muse – The Texas Startup Blog is a must read for any Texas Entrepreneur. Although I don’t always agree with Alexander, I respect what he has to say.
Tim Walker – Although new to Tim’s writing and thoughts, I’ve found he has a great voice. Check out his work on Hoover’s Business Intelligence Blog as well as his personal blog.
Micah Baldwin – if you want to be entertained and forced to think, check out Learn to Duck.

OK…now that I’ve placed these folks on notice, they have to keep the great work going

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

Most Commented Articles for 2008

Eric D. Brown — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:00:22 +0000

I recently installed IntenseDebate on my blog and started playing around with the tools available to me. I noticed that I can easily stats of posts and comments…something I hadn’t really looked at before.

What are my most commented posts from 2008? See below.

Blu Domain: Poor Service Defined – 54 comments
Better to be a Generalist or Expert – 11 comments
Some Thoughts on Sitecore CMS – 10 comments
The Worst Reason for Not Hiring Someone? – 9 comments
Web 2.0 in the Enterprise – 9 comments

In addition to the top commented posts, I can now see my average ‘comments per post’…which is a measly 0.89 comments per post. This is a bit strange since I’ve got 655 comments on 314 Posts…which should be 2.09 comments per post.

After reviewing some of the data, I noticed that IntenseDebates’s numbers are for comments only and not trackbacks (which makes sense). With that knowledge, I guess I’m getting 0.89 comments per post and 1.2 trackbacks per post.

Its amazing that a rant I posted about Blu Domain’s horrible customer service is my number one commented post.

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

Blog Updates – Theme Change & IntenseDebate

Eric D. Brown — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:01:50 +0000

Its that time of year again. No…not the holidays. It’s time for me to change my blog around again

I’ve changed the theme to the Contender Theme and added IntenseDebate to handle comments.

Let me know if you see any issues with the blog and commenting system.

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

The Cost of Bad Data

Eric D. Brown — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:00:53 +0000

Mike Sebastian, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at SourceCheck….and a great guy to boot, has recently had an article published on InsideARM titled “The Cost of Dirty Data to Accounts Receivable Managers“.

I met Mike for a Coke recently and the conversation turned to bad data and what it costs organizations annually. He told me about his recent article and send the link over…and I was amazed I what I read. The article discusses the cost of bad data and gives some interesting statistics, such as:

The Data Warehousing Institute (DWI) estimates the cost of bad or ‘dirty’ data exceeds $600 billion annually. Another study indicates that 2% of contact records become obsolete each month, costing a firm 15-20 % of its operating income

$600 Billion annually!!

The article is an interesting read all by itself…but Mike hit upon a subject in the article that i’ve written about in the past (see Aligning Business & Technology with People and Information Technology Leadership & Alignment for examples). In the article, Mike writes the following:

I am amazed at how very smart business people treat technology-related problems as somehow different. We in the technical world can get immersed in computer jargon, endless acronyms, special handshakes, etc.; keep the conversation on business results. Ask a lot of seemingly naïve questions. If your technical services person insists on giving you technical answers, speak with a supervisor or find another resource – period. Information technology is no different from any other tool in your office; it ultimately supports your bottom line.

Go back and read that…especially the sentence that says “keep the conversation on business results”.

So many times in the IT space, we tend to get off in the weeds about technology and ‘solutions’….when we should be focusing on the business requirements first. The best technology in the world won’t help if you don’t know what the business requirements are or if bad data is clouding your judgement.

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

Tyler Durden on Innovation

Eric D. Brown — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:00:27 +0000

Do you know who Tyler Durden is?

(hint: Brad Pitt played him in Fight Club).

Lateral Action posted Tyler Durden’s 8 Rules of Innovation recently (hat tip to Ma.tt). Surprisingly, they make a lot of sense.

If I had to pick a favorite, it’d be:

Sticking feathers up your butt doesn’t make you a chicken.

Wow….I just typed “butt”. Ok…moving on.

This rule is described as:

wearing black hipster clothing and hanging in cafes smoking Gaulloises cigarettes does not make you creative. Buying a MacBook Pro and an iPhone doesn’t get it done either.

Creativity and innovation are mainly about hard work. It’s about constantly coming up with ideas and thinking through problems instead of vegging out. And it’s about taking action, plain and simple.

This ‘rule’ gets at the heart of what’s wrong with so many things in business and life.

Stop trying to ‘be’ your competitor and start being yourself. Do what’s best for your organization and your team. Create advantage by playing on the strengths of your teams, technology and people.

In short: Be yourself. Do what’s right for your organization and people. Don’t imitate…Innovate.

Eric D. Brown » Blog

Blog Milestone – 4 years old

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

I’m on a list … and that’s a good thing!

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

Would you be missed? Would I?

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

A milestone – 3 years old (not 4 like I thought!)

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

Time for a Mid Year Review

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

These folks aren't boring

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

Most Commented Articles for 2008

Related articles by Zemanta

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

Blog Updates – Theme Change & IntenseDebate

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

The Cost of Bad Data

Related articles by Zemanta

This post was written by Eric D. Brown

Tyler Durden on Innovation

This post was written by Eric D. Brown