Four ideations I can't post and one that isn't ready yet!

So I told myself that I will never post any bicycle related business ideas even if they are not related to my current employer and I am sticking to that.  However I can say that I had four great business ideations today. The catalysts: getting my old bike ready to ride, setting up the burley trailer for my son, riding to brunch at Eldorado Grill, locking up Pooh Bear with the bikes and trailer and riding home much later after a most excellent brunch on the side porch.  It's true, that's all you get! Nothing more than a few key go-by-bike activities.  Those four secret ideas go to my peeps at the grand ole bicycle company.

-now the business ideation that isn't ready yet:

I was thinking about how important avatar's [with real photo's] are to personalization and trust esp in the age of LinkedIn and Facebook. The idea that I can befriend a person through online debate and then end up in their rental car, hitching a ride to Logan, fresh off the end of a conference in the great state of RI is pretty amazing and crazy really.  All that and I had never met the person in the living flesh and somehow was able to pick them out of the conference haystack, say hello and make a create personal connection...plus hitch a free ride 45 miles north!  Now I will stress point this rather bluntly, ALL this happened because of the personal photo/avatar feature.

If that person had used an apple as their icon it would have been no dice for meeting.  Same for those goofy anima avatars. I am all for people expressing their alter egos but it doesn't do much for their favor if their avatar has a mohawk, nose rings, blue skin and tattoo's on their cheeks but in reality that person looks like your everyday average braided leather belt wearing sales schmuck. (you know the guy, in 1997he'd also have a pager or nokia phone strapped to his belt tucked neatly below his gut fat roll)

You get my point, avatars and little images of yourself really matter. They say a lot about who you are, what you represent but more importantly they help people see what you actually look like! In the chance setting you sit down next to a VC and realize they are someone you enjoy following/reading and discussing with you will be better prepared to recognize they are "that person."  And how simple is that, right?!

Now, for real I can't finish this post because I need one photograph. This photograph will be so powerful that you will probably blink-shake_head-open_mouth like the "whaahhzatt!" messenger emoticon. It is a photograph that taught me the power of personalization, the importance of knowing ones audience and the brillianceof the Familiar.  Honestly I texted my sister and asked her to ask my Dad if he had a copy of this photo...somewhere, anywhere! [note they live in Maine, not Wisconsin so I couldn't just drive over and start digging through old dusty boxes]  I asked for any image of this photo, an SMS/MMS quality pic, a pixalated black and white FAX scan send via email would be fine. Heck I'd even take a polaroid via the good old mail company!  But no dice tonight. I could hear my Dad asking, "he wants what...tonight...does he know what time it is???"

In perfect Dad fashion he told my sister that he might look for it tomorrow. She texts back such words of Dad'ness. This means he might actually look for it tomorrow. It also means perhaps the next day or perhaps the next time I call him and bug him. Regardless I can't finish this ideation until I get this old photograph. I can't even begin to explain it and you won't get the full effect without the image so tomorrow or the next day or whenever my dad gets around to looking...perhaps then I will post the ending!

cL

Comments

[Dscofield]

so where's the pic? and where do your folks live in maine? just went over the piscataqua bridge 4x last week - 10/24 to pemaquid to close up the house, 10/27 down to providence/Brown & back (meetings & showing my daughter campus) and 10/29 back to ohio...we love that bridge cuz it means we're close to home...but I won't see it for 7 months :(

[Your mom...again]

fine ill change my linkedin avatar. on the other hand, I really enjoy dishing out fake info on the web as much as I can - especially avatars. call me paranoid but there are about 5 million opportunist hackers out there just looking for the right amount of info to yank and use to rob you of your identity - granted the avatar is fairly useless in this scenario- but thull find some way to leverage it. -MH