Dropbox updates Terms of Service

Dropbox announced on their blog today an update to their Terms of Service (TOS) in response to some unhappy customer feedback. Previously the TOS wording gave the impression that Dropbox was claiming ownership rights over customer data. This didn’t go over well, so they have revised the language to be more clear about their intentions.

I’m glad because I really like Dropbox. There are other cloud storage and sync services out there but Dropbox has really executed well with ease of use and reliable sync across multiple devices.

We’ve never been interested in rights broader than what we need to run Dropbox. We want to get this language right so that you’re comfortable using Dropbox with no reservations: what’s yours is yours.

If you’re interested in getting a Dropbox account use this link to join and we’ll both get extra storage as a referral bonus. You can sign up for a free 2 GB account and then upgrade to a paid account, or just stay at the free level.

Website Planning Guide

A helpful post over on Smashing Magazine about planning a web site. There are some good principles to think through, including:

• Needs & objectives assessment
• Alignment with marketing
• Roles & responsibilities
• Content
• Site design & structure
• CMS (Content Management Systems)
• Ongoing maintenance & updates

I’ve had people ask me “how much will it cost to build a web site?” That’s like asking a home builder “how much for a house?” — there are so many variables involved, and it all depends on what it is you want to accomplish with your site. It could be anything from a simple one page ‘brochure’ site to a complex database-driven e-commerce machine.

Some content options to think about when considering what your site might need:

• Articles
• Blog posts
• Advertising
• Discussion forum
• Images
• Documents (usually PDFs)
• Audio
• Video (embedded from YouTube or Vimeo, or self-hosted)
• Flash animation (I don’t recommend it)
• Content feeds/integrations from other sites
• Photo gallery
• Twitter stream
• Facebook ‘friends’ list
• RSS feeds
• E-commerce
• Forms for contact, quotes or something else
• Physical products (how many?)
• Digital content (what kind and how many?)
• Email newsletter
• Event calendar
• Event registration
• Search
• Social media sharing links (Twitter, Facebook, etc)
• Personnel directory

Planning and building a web site is much easier when you’re clear about what it is you want from the site.

Mac App Store open for business

This morning Apple opened the Mac App Store. This is like the App Store for iOS devices (iPhone and iPad) except it’s for Mac computers.

It’s available as a download for Macs running OS X Snow Leopard. Go to Software Update (Apple menu) and download the 10.6.6 update and the Mac App Store will be installed as a new application in the Dock.

The difference between this and the iOS App Store is that software developers can still sell their apps independently, either through retail channels or directly over the web (and keep all the revenue), or they can leverage the App Store and the added exposure it will bring (and take 70% of the revenue – Apple keeps 30% to cover costs).

This could turn out to be a great deal, both for Mac users and the software developers who sell to them. Tons of added exposure for Mac software, and one place for potential customers to browse for the apps they want. The big selling points are easy discovery of apps and quick download and installation to your Mac. One thing I like about the iOS App Store is the ability to look at screenshots and user reviews, so you can get at least some idea of what an app is like before you install it. And like the iPhone and iPad, you’ll get a notification when there are updates to apps you have installed.

This is a huge change to the software sales model, and one that I think could be very successful. I think the software developers will find a lot of value in it, and if so I wonder if something like this will eventually materialize for Windows apps as well. The concept of a central software marketplace is a proven winner for mobile devices, and I don’t know why it couldn’t succeed for desktop and laptop computers as well.

Blogging service reliability

Pingdom.com published results from their reliability tests across the major blog hosting services (Google’s Blogger, WordPress.com, Posterous, Tumblr and Typepad). They tested between October 15 and December 15.

Bear in mind that this represents the hosting service offered by these providers. If you’re hosting your own installation of WordPress through another web hosting company, for example, then this would not apply.

Results

1. Blogger
2. WordPress.com
3. Typepad
4. Posterous
5. Tumblr

Working backwards: Amazon’s product development

I like this strategy for assessing new product ideas at Amazon.

There is an approach called “working backwards” that is widely used at Amazon. We try to work backwards from the customer, rather than starting with an idea for a product and trying to bolt customers onto it. [...]  For new initiatives a product manager typically starts by writing an internal press release announcing the finished product. [...] If the benefits listed don’t sound very interesting or exciting to customers, then perhaps they’re not (and shouldn’t be built). Instead, the product manager should keep iterating on the press release until they’ve come up with benefits that actually sound like benefits. Iterating on a press release is a lot less expensive than iterating on the product itself (and quicker!).

Werner Vogels wrote about this in 2006 and detailed out a few points:

• Start by writing the press release
• Write a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document
• Define the customer experience
• Write the User Manual

He said:

The Working Backwards product definition process is all about fleshing out the concept and achieving clarity of thought about what we will ultimately go off and build. [...] Once we have gone through the process of creating the press release, faq, mockups, and user manuals, it is amazing how much clearer it is what you are planning to build.

A little more reading on the Working Backwards concept can be found at this article on shmula.com.

Apple #1 in consumer satisfaction for 7 years

For the 7th straight year, Apple leads in the American Consumer Satisfaction Index’s PC category.

Apple continues its dominance, leading the PC category by a wide margin for the seventh straight year. Customer satisfaction with Apple’s computer products, including the iPad, rose 2% to an ACSI of 86—the highest score ever for Apple. The company now has a 9-point lead over its nearest competitor. No other company in the ACSI has as formidable a lead within its own industry. Innovation and product diversification, along with strong customer service, have long been at the center of Apple’s success.

Mac wins in consumer satisfaction, record sales at Apple

CNNMoney.com reporting today that Macs lead in customer satisfaction for the seventh straight year, with a score of 86 compared to a PC score of 78.

“The biggest asset Apple has had for a long time is its commitment to innovation,” said David VanAmburg, managing director of ACSI, an Ann Arbor-based research group. “Others are improving, but the whole world watches Apple when it comes up with its new products each year.”

Even big companies, where Windows PCs and Blackberry smartphones have been the standard for so long, are seeing Macs, iPhones and iPads show up in greater numbers, with workers abandoning company standards and demanding something better. It’s partly the ‘cool’ factor, to be sure — Apple’s products are brilliantly designed and marketed to appeal in this way — but cool without substance isn’t cool for long.

Mac Sales Drive Apple’s Best-Ever Quarter

Also mentioned in the article is record sales in the recent quarter for Apple’s Mac computers and iPad tablets — sales were up 61% over this quarter last year to a record $15.7 billion.

Remote-Controlled Marketing

I recently received a box from BMC Software, an enterprise software provider focused mostly on Business Service Management, whatever that is.

The box was a marketing effort, presumably targeted at professionals who would likely be interested in BMC’s offerings, or at least willing to have them in for a dog-n-pony and introductions to other ‘players’ within the organization.

In the box was a 1/10 scale remote-controlled Ferrari Enzo. A cool little toy, I guess, if you’re into that. Even had a sticker with my name on each door. I assume they’ve done their homework and determined that their market is at least partially populated by people who like remote-controlled cars.

So what’s the clever marketing trick employed by BMC?

They didn’t include the remote control with the car—the thing that makes it go. If you want the remote you have to call BMC and agree to a meeting.

So the marketing here is interesting. I don’t know what these cars sell for, but it’s not trivial like a postcard or some other routine mailing that these companies do. They actually spent some money here, which makes me think they needed to be pretty targeted in their approach, right? Know your market, spend those dollars wisely. But this marketing campaign assumes a few things about the recipient:

• He/she is likely to be in the market for BMC products and services
• He/she is in a position within the organization to influence high-dollar software projects
• He/she might be encouraged to contact BMC and maybe even buy something simply because BMC so generously provided him/her with a non-functioning plastic toy car

I’d be interested to see the ROI on this campaign. Is someone really going to be influenced to do business with a vendor because they got this thing in the mail? It doesn’t even work. Maybe this pays off for BMC, I don’t know. Strange bit of marketing though, in my opinion. I gave the car away.

Business Continuity Planning & Disaster Recovery

Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR) are the kinds of things nobody really wants to work on. Planning for the unlikely seems like a waste of time, until the unlikely happens. What we’re looking at here is just the technology side of things, but there are larger business concerns as well, such as personnel, facilities and communications.

If you rely heavily on technology for work or play, it’s a good idea to spend some time thinking about—and planning—what you will do in the event of a disruption. At the bottom of this post I have provided links to some other resources that may be helpful in your planning.

BCP involves figuring out how to keep your operations running in the event of a disruptive incident: a fire, earthquake, hurricane—or even something relatively minor, like a computer hard drive failure, an extended loss of your network connection, or theft of critical equipment.

DR is a subset of BCP and deals with protecting the business in the event that all or part of its systems become unavailable for an extended period, or entirely unusable.

Control Measures as part of a BCP

• Preventive Measures (anti-virus, physical security, passwords)
• Detective Measures (system diagnostics programs, audit trails)
• Corrective Measures (data backups, redundant systems, spare equipment)

Here are a few checklist items that might help in thinking through various scenarios:

• Computer
  • keep a current bootable clone on hand (system restore)
  • spare computer to boot from
  • spare hard drive on hand
  • daily/hourly file backups (file restore)
  • consider using laptops for remote working
• File sharing access
  • server with a backup to restore from
  • online file service (redundant copy)
• Email Service
  • personal email accounts (Gmail, Yahoo, ISP)
  • have more than one account, most are free
• Data network
  • redundant secondary internet connection (DSL, cable)
  • home network for remote option
  • wireless access cards for the computer (Sprint, Verizon)
• Voice network
  • cell phones

Some questions to consider when making your plans:

• If my computer crashes, how will I continue working?
• If my shared file access/server becomes unavailable, what will I do?
• If our office is inaccessible (flood, fire) where will my team work, and will they have the tools they need to conduct business?
• If my data network goes down, what’s my backup connectivity option?
• How will we communicate our alternative plans to customers and business partners?

BCP and DR Resources

Free Disaster Recovery Planning templates
(www.securityprocedure.com/14-free-disaster-recovery-plan-drp-template)

Disaster Recovery Guide (www.disaster-recovery-guide.com)

DR Planning (www.drplanning.org/portal)

Disaster Recovery World (www.disasterrecoveryworld.com)

Social Networks & Privacy

The Wall Street Journal reporting this morning that Facebook, MySpace and some other social networking sites continue to share (read: sell) users’ personal data.

From the article:

The practice, which most of the companies defended, sends user names or ID numbers tied to personal profiles being viewed when users click on ads. [...] Advertising companies are receiving information that could be used to look up individual profiles, which, depending on the site and the information a user has made public, include such things as a person’s real name, age, hometown and occupation.

All of these sites are doing it to some degree, but Facebook seems to be the worst offender.

For most social-networking sites, the data identified the profile being viewed but not necessarily the person who clicked on the ad or link. But Facebook went further than other sites, in some cases signaling which user name or ID was clicking on the ad as well as the user name or ID of the page being viewed.

It costs a lot of money to run an environment like Facebook or MySpace – infrastructure, servers, bandwidth, site maintenance, programmers, support staff, administration, legal, marketing, etc. There’s no free ride, so they look to make a buck off whatever assets they have — in this case, it’s their users’ capacity to spend. I don’t use Facebook or any of the other sites, but a lot of people enjoy it so I hope they can find a business model that will work without treating their customers like dumb consumatons.

I wonder what would happen if Facebook offered a paid membership option — say, $5 a month — with the assurance that paying members would never have any of their personal info used for any marketing purposes whatsoever, no advertising would show up on their pages, etc. I wonder how many Facebook users would pay for that.

Recent Facebook Statistics state that there are more than 400 million active users, and that 50% log in daily. So you have about 200 million people on there every day. If only 5% of these daily users opted for the $5/month account, that’s 10 million users at $5 per month = $50 million monthly revenue. And that’s just from these membership fees, not counting other advertising or affiliate income they may have.

Could Facebook survive on $50,000,000 per month?