Here is a video link to our chairman discussing our SaaS appliance.

On our weekly A/R call, Carter Lusher presented the SageCircle company to a lot of folks at IBM.  Normally this was just a Software Group A/R call, but Sarita Torres had the foresight to include other A/R teams.

First, I’d recommend to my competition that you hold this call and let them present to your teams.  Why would I make such a statement?  Because I view the A/R practice like the economy.  A rising tide raises all boats.  If the A/R practice is more respected by all, it affects our overall credibility as a practice.  His point to back this up was that SC doesn’t do A/R, they help us do A/R better.

He concentrated on Social Media techniques.  Fortunately for me, I already do most of what he recommended.  I can’t say this for a lot of my colleagues, but at least they have an interest.  Also fortunately for me, he said he reads my blog…thanks Carter.

I was really impressed that he is reading about 270 blogs and a twitter feed for many A/R and Analyst feeds that he checks in 15 minutes twice a day.  This is very impressive as I’m not near that fast.  It’s probably because I’m either multitasking or get too involved in what I’m reading.  I also need to cull my twitter list, it is giving me too much clutter.

He also pointed out that you should include social media in your measurements.   I very much agree with this and have been doing it for over a year.

All in all, it was very helpful and I wished it could have gone on longer, but then you would need to take their course in A/R best Practices.

I know some of my A/R counterparts read this blog, and I know you read Carter’s.  Connect the dots and have him help you.

Before I get to the subject matter, I’d like to review the blog issues around language as they are different. Many times it has been pointed out that the Twitter discussions are similar to what we were discussing about blogs a few years ago. These conversations were about the need to do it, platforms, early adopters and so forth.

That was being said about what to do, now what was being said online is different. for a while, there was comment road rage, but that has settled down to civility except in the extreme political blogs where Hitler and genealogy are commonly associated with whomever the other side is.

I’ve noticed some different aspects of Twitter now that it is for the most part mainstream.

Many Tweets are about everyday things, and recently and quickly the language has gone down the toilet, and since I mostly follow analysts and a/r professionals, guess who the offenders are?

I’m a grown up and have heard all the words. In a former life, I’ve said all the words, but if you’re going to come off as a professional, guess what…..this is a very public forum and many are watching.

My uncle told me once that profanity was the mark of an undereducated person to without the ability to properly express themselves. The only thing is that I know some of these folks aren’t undereducated, just under performing with the language.

I have a blog, Linked In, Facebook, multiple internal IBM tools, Twitter, Friendfeed, Plaxo, and on, and on, and on.

Most of these have gained steadily in numbers of friends, contacts or whatever you call them, it’s just semantics for numbers. Sure at first there was a bit of a spke, then the growth either leveled off or grew slightly.

Until this week….

One post about a group that was started by Carter Lusher at SageCircle changed all that. The A/R Twitter Contact directory. It seemed innocuous and logical to join the group.  I’m in that proffesion, and there are a number of folks that tweet about it or converse with others.

My inbox has been full of folks wanting to follow me. Now that is relative in terms of numbers as I don’t draw WSJ type number, nor do I drone on like many on the tool, but the spike is what was amazing.

Credit to Carter for thinking of this as well as the power of community to get together that quickly

Carter Lusher included me on the list, which I’m sure will grow exponentially soon….it is a good resource for both sides of the analyst coin.

ZDNet reports that the iPhone has experienced buggy applications from it’s partners.  I’m not surprised.  Opening up a Stalag type operation to a 3rd party is not a flip of a switch.

developerWorks has many applications from which we work with our partner developers that go through many iterations and or checkpoints.  Many even begin at alphaWorks.  Code has to be tested, retested and put into an environment that can be regulated, adjusted and not cause reputation injury.

I’ll give Apple a minor pass that this is their first attempt at iPhone applications, but I think their company has been around 3rd party development since VisiCalc.  That should give some indication that not all developers stay within the SDK rules, or will play nice with other applications.

Welcome to the real world iPhone.

What is the fallout?  Apple better get on top of their developers and applications to make sure there is some tighter regulations.  Next, they better get on top of their messaging so that the word on the street is not stay away.  I’m guessing that they have the 800 lb. gorilla mode though and know they have the momentum and won’t care that much.

On the developer side, the one that comes up with more than a game is the winner.  Here are my 2 killer applications.

1: synchronization with the top email platforms if they are serious about competing with Crackberries in the corporate space.

2. a landscape keyboard layout

I’ve been away for a while, on vacation with the family in Denmark and Sweden. As always, there’s no place like home. They say the Danes are the happiest people of any country, they are a nice folk, I’m married to one, so I have to say so.

Since half of my family lives there, it’s very familiar. It’s quite easy to get between the two countries now that they have a bridge.

Stephen O’Grady, we caught Pike and Perch in Sweden, they were so big it almost sunk the boat, and here’s my son and me on the boat.

As you can see, there are LOTS of trees in Sweden. We were in a town near Tingsryd. While there, we helped with the canning and distribution some of the 35 kilo’s of honey a family member harvested.

In Denmark, we saw the sights, like one of the kings and a statue of Hercules

Went to Tivoli and rode the rides. Walt Disney got his ideas for his theme parks from this place.

We got to go to the largest weapons museum in Europe. Here I am with a Gatling gun and I also got to see a V-1, the weapon that my Dad helped to defeat in WWII. By now, any reader should know how I feel about guns and the 2nd amendment.

So what happened when I was away? Tony Snow, a great man and a former White House Press Secretary passed away, man knows not his own time. They found 550 lbs of yellow cake in Iran. For the naysayers of WMD in Iraq, they’re in Canada now, but they were in Iraq when we attacked so the CIA and British intel was correct….as well as the 16 words in the state of the union speech prior to the attack.

The Tour de France got underway, Kyle Busch won a couple of races….and I missed my dog.

Did I think about work while away? Mostly about how nice it was that I wasn’t working.

So it’s back to work tomorrow, and the fun of analyst relations. I took a photo of that too… I asked about work in a Swedish animal park, here is his response.