Michael Lehman's Independent Innovation

Giving Posterous a Whirl...

Michael_Lehman — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:04:00 GMT

I've just started a new separate blog over at http://independentinnovation.posterous.com/ which purports to be a zero-friction blogging platform.

The appeal, for me, is that I can post blog entries via email instead of having to be connected either to this site or to my Windows Live Writer.

As this will let me post easily from my morning bus commute, I'm going to give this a try for a while and see how it works.

At least, for now, I'll cross-post to both blogs.

7 Tips for Living a Happier Life - from Aesop

Michael_Lehman — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:22:00 GMT

Over on The Positivity Blog, Henrik Edberg, a 27 year old student from Sweden, gives us 7 Tips for Living a Happier Life, derived from Aesop of the "Fables" fame.

Here are the 2500-year-old gems of wisdom (see Henrik's blog for more details):

1. Your wishes may not be all that they are cracked up to be.
2. Learn not only from your own life.
3. Beware of complacency.
4. Work on your own goals.
5. Kindness is always good.
6. What they say might not really be about you.
7. Help yourself.

Wisdom comes when you need it most and often times from unexpected sources!

Putting Things Off - PTO - The laid-back productivity blog

Michael_Lehman — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:05:00 GMT

Ok, this is just too fun to pass up: http://putthingsoff.com/

In Nick Cernis' own words: "Put Things Off (PTO) helps freelancers, entrepreneurs and busy people just like you work smarter, play harder and live the lives they love. PTO talks about productivity, freelancing, running your own business, making money online, setting goals, software, web applications and more"

And he just released his first book, Todoodlist, in which he recommends paper and pencil... something to think about.

Steve Rubel - Three Ways to Mitigate the Attention Crash, Yet Still Feel Informed

Michael_Lehman — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:36:00 GMT

Steve Rubel, with whom (and a few others) I once tried to form a Mastermind group (our schedules never could mesh), has a great new post about Three Ways To Mitigate the Attention Crash.

Summary:

Inbox Zero - www.inboxzero.com - A technique to use "email dashes" instead of on-demand reactiveness
Invest in Search - Both Web and Desktop
Make Unusable Time Usable - Use Audible to listen to business books (I highly recommend that also) and Instapaper.com (something I've got to check out).

Highly reccomended.

Cognitive Surplus - Finally a way to figure out where to get the time to create new stuff!

Michael_Lehman — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:44:00 GMT

Clay Shirky's talk at Web 2.0 Expo this week, finally enabled me to figure out where to get the time to create podcasts, eBooks, etc.... STOP WATCHING TELEVISION (or at least sitcoms)...

Your thoughts/comments? What do you to to make time to create new things?

Web 2.0 Expo - San Francisco - Day 2

Michael_Lehman — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:27:00 GMT

At the Web 2.0 Expo this week. Interesting conversations with people who are at the forefront of moving the world to (and from) the web.

Hanging in the blogger's lounge the energy is amazingly high (and this is during the keynotes!)

Good connectivity, Flip is selling mini video cameras for $60 and the blog/twit-o-sphere is burning!

DM on Twitter (Michael_Lehman) if you want to meet in-person.

Write/Build e-Book in 3 Days?

Michael_Lehman — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:12:58 GMT

The folks over at GET WISDOM! have a blog post today entitled How To Create Your Own E-book in 3 Days.

Day 1: Brainstorm about something you'd personally like to improve and go gather information about that and write/compile your content.

Day 2: Plan your product, joint ventures, and how you're going to build "social proof":

"With out social proof that your
product works, you will have a difficult time selling it.
A majority of people are a little bit skeptical when it
comes to buying info products online so you also might want
to invest in a quality copywriter who is experienced in
writing sales letters for info products."

Day 3: Write a sales letter and plan your "element of scarcity" that will encourage browsers to buy right now rather than waiting.

I'm not sure I can do it in 3 days but I like the challenge!

Technorati Tags: eBook

MIX08 and 41 Blog Success Tips

Michael_Lehman — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:39:00 GMT

I'm in Las Vegas for the MIX08 conference. Part of what I'm doing here is finally, and I promise that I really mean it this time :), blogging regularly again!

So here's the first of many posts this week!

To help out, I'm reading Chris Garrett's 41 Blog Success Tips from 10 Years of Blogging You Can Learn Today.

Build something of value -- something that people want, and something that will be profitable at the appropriate point -- and the world is yours.

Michael_Lehman — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:11:46 GMT

Marc Andreesen, the developer behind the original Netscape browser, and now Silicon Valley pundit, wrote a blog post that contains the essence of success in building a company: Build something worthy!

His overall post is about the effect of the proposed Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo on Silicon Valley's startup "machine". He believes, as do I, that it will have little effect since (a) the big guys aren't acquiring many startups these days and more importantly, (b) don't build a company to "sell it" build a company tha makes something people want to buy!

Big Cartel » Bringing the Art to the Cart

Michael_Lehman — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 02:02:48 GMT

If you are a Independent Innovator you've got to check out Big Cartel » Bringing the Art to the Cart whose motto is: "It’s your money - you keep it".

Costs max $20/month.

Escaping from cubicle hell

Michael_Lehman — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:15:17 GMT

Working from "home" is one of the most common options for the independent innovator and now Inc (via Yahoo) has a article that points to a couple of interesting sites:

http://www.chiefhomeofficer.com and http://www.workingsolo.com

HUGH macleod - GAPINGVOID reignites my microbranding efforts

Michael_Lehman — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:05:15 GMT

Hugh MacLeod, author of the gapingvoid blog/comics today posted an "Important Announcement" in which he comments on how his consulting business has been both the beneficiary of his microbranding/blogging efforts and has taken his focus away from microbranding/blogging.

I too have been having the same scenario play out regarding my blogging and podcasting efforts as I've recently gone "dark" for a few months working on Microsoft Software-plus-Services Blueprints. As Hugh opines, it's recently been on my mind that it was time to re-think the value of the seemingly "frivolous" blogging/podcasting hours I've been slacking up on.

There are many Michael Lehmans in the world. For example, the CFO of Sun Microsystems, a famous film director (he directed Heathers, 40 Days and 40 Nights, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Hudson Hawk, Meet the Applegates and also Airheads.) as well as many other interesting Michael Lehmans who are doctors, and physicists.

However, if you search for "Michael Lehman" on www.live.com, www.google.com or even on the meta search engines like www.metacrawler.com or www.dogpile.com my podcasting and blogging sites are always at the top. Even my twitter site and my facebook site show up not too far down the list in some of the searches!

I even have the job I'm doing at Microsoft in significant part because I started blogging and podcasting 3 years ago.

So, it seems that it is a good idea to put more regular effort into bloging and podcasting that I've been doing given how the value of my "microbrand" has played out in real life.

So, having said all that, I decided I'd actually write a blog entry *before* I added a thank you comment to Hugh's blog and... this is it.

More soon!

Second stage ignition...

Michael_Lehman — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:42:56 GMT

Unlike the plan which I had in place, I've been silent for the past two months going heads-down on a new project. It's been a major push and I'm happy to say it's nearing an end as it will be unveiled next Monday, November 5th, at the Microsoft TechEd : Developers conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Before that happens, I'm at the 7th annual European Shareware Conference, being held in Cologne, Germany, where I'll be speaking on a panel discussion Saturday morning at 9:00 AM and giving an talk about independent innovation on Sunday morning at 10:00 AM.

If you are a MicroISV @ ESWC, I'd love to spend 5-10 minutes with you and highlight you and your products. Ask any of the conference organizers or use the email link and we'll plan a time for an interview.

In addition, I will be ramping up my blogging and podcasting on this site in a major way over the next few months and if you are an independent innovator, software developer or otherwise, I want to help you share your story with the world. Please use the email link to contact me and we'll setup an email, telephone or in-person interview.

I look forward to connecting with you soon!

Independent Innovation is in the air!

Michael_Lehman — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:05:00 GMT

Ok, September has officially started and life is back "in session".

After moving, a great vacation and recovering from the digital debt of being "off-the-grid" for 12 days in a row (a record in recent history!) I'm now ready to continue my exploration of the brave new world of the 21st century.

While I'll be writing more later, I got an email from an old coworker whose email was entitlled "Greetings from Kazakhstan!" in which he told me that he and his wife are setting out to live the Independent Innovator lifestyle. He's always been a surfer on the leading edge and I look forward to hearing, and sharing what I can, of his adventures.

Once upon a time.... the tangled web of the story of CP/M-86, 86-DOS and PCDOS/MSDOS

Michael_Lehman — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:25:00 GMT

Nearly twenty years ago I started a small company which was, at first, called MetaTech and then, after the threat of a lawsuit, changed to MT MicroSYSTEMS to build Pascal compilers. The company was what we now would call a MicroISV and, if the Internet had been available, certainly would have been an Independent Innovation company. In those days floppy disks + Xerox'ed manuals in a ziploc bag were the only distribution method available for software... no one was even using boxes yet! (Note: This is not a I-had-to-walk-to-school-in-the-snow-uphill-both-ways story :) )

A few years later, just before IBM launched the PC, MT MicroSYSTEMS had become successful enough to become an acquisition target for what was then the 800 lb. gorilla in the software business, Digital Research, Inc. The company was sold and I went on to become the Director of R&D for DRI until September 1984.

All this background is to provide some context about why I still care about the "Gary Kildall went flying" story and the discussion which is now going on over on Robert Scoble's blog entry about his interviews with Tom Rolander, early Digital Research employee and author of MP/M, eventual Vice President of Operating Systems at DRI and more.

I won't duplicate what I wrote in my comment on Scoble's blog entry but suffice it to say if you care about the history of the software business, the interviews with Tom are not only good stuff but first-hand straight information from someone who was there, in person!

At Gnomedex 2007 - JibJab - an Independent Innovation success story

Michael_Lehman — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:20:00 GMT

Gregg Spiridellis of JibJab is presenting at Gnomedex 2007. JibJab has been self-funded by Gregg and his brother from the beginning (1999) and, through a lot of hard work, kept it going through the dot com crash and, as pretty much everyone knows, hit it big with the "This Land" political animated video before the 2004 election.

They're just now releasing a new beta of something called "Starring You!" which allows you to put your own head into animated videos and then send/share the results with friends. It's very funny and it appears that they'll continue to be profitable!

Working together when working apart - MIT Sloan Management Review 10 Rules for Virtual Teams

Michael_Lehman — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 16:28:00 GMT

I've been working with one of my fellow travellers on the software bus for 20 years now. He works really hard to keep his identity protected so I won't "out" him but I'll refer to him by his secret identity of "Krow". Krow and I first met when I put a 3 line advertisement in the Monterey Herald in 1987 looking for a programmer to work for my fledgling Pacific Grove, California company Intuitive Technologies which I founded in 1984 after my 3 year stint as Director of Research and Development at Digital Research, Inc., the developers of the CP/M operating system and the GEM graphical environment which was at the heart of the Atari ST. At Intuitive Techologies, we built Mac, Atari and PC software and consulted to the likes of Apple, IBM, Informix, etc. until 1994. One of the first things Krow and I found out is that we can communicate "at-a-distance" via common abstractions and make it work. Tor Nørretrander's book, The User Illusion, claims, and I believe it's true, that communcation using human language is the process of the speaker stimulating in the listener a similar tree of abstractions to the one in the mind of the speaker.

The folks at MIT's Sloan school of management publish a review and in a recent post their 10 rules for making virtual team work:

1. Invest in an online resource where members can learn quickly about one another.
2. Choose a few team members who already know each other.
3. Identify "boundary spanners" and ensure that they make up at least 15% of the team.
4. Cultivate boundary spanners as a regular part of companywide practices and processes.
5. Break the team's work up into modules so that progress in one location is not overly dependent on progress in another.
6. Create an online site where a team can collaborate, exchange ideas and inspire one another.
7. Encourage frequent communication. But don't try to force social gatherings.
8. Assign only tasks that are challenging and interesting.
9. Ensure the task is meaningful to the team and the company.
10. When building a virtual team, solicit volunteers as much as possible.

Having done this, as I said, for more than 20 years now, my experience shows #5 and #7 are the key factors. Decouple, decouple and did I mention, decouple? That's the key. Allow team members to work and innovate independently!

Your thoughts? I'd love to hear your sucess and horror stories and share them! Leave a comment on the blog or use the email link and drop me a line!
Final note: Krow and I are still doing working virtually 20 years later. Last year, we built www.projectglidepath.net and only met in-person once for two days at the beginning of the project.

Gnomedex 2007 - Day 1

Michael_Lehman — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:29:00 GMT

Ok, Day 1 is in the books. The opening speaker got mixed reviews (I missed it due to an early morning meeting) but Guy Kawasaki was almost universally enjoyed.

In the afternoon, I enjoyed Ronni Bennet's presentation about how technology will need to adapt as our population ages. Particularly interesting was her use of special glasses and gloves to simulate the ageing eyes and less nimble fingers of elder people. You can check out the Interactive Aging Simulator to see how the web works for our elders.

I remain convinced that as the population, especially in the Western world, ages there will be amazing opportunities for independent innovators to provide goods and services to a wider and more diverse market.

Today, I'm looking forward to the final speaker, Sterling Allen, who will be talking about alternative energy systems. You can check out more at the Pure Energy Systems wiki and news.

Lunch @ Gnomedex 2007 with Guy Kawasaki...

Michael_Lehman — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:24:00 GMT

By random chance, I had the rare opportunity to sit next to Guy Kawasaki at lunch today at Gnomedex 2007 and give him the card from my new podcasting service business, Business-Podcasting.com. There was an interesting discussion with the folks from Pandora who said that Guy's firm, Garage Ventures, was the key investment that made Pandora possible. Then Dave Winer from Scripting News stopped by to talk to Guy about blogging, RSS, BMWs and minivans.

Guy was the first technology "evangelist", a title I currently hold in my "day" job at Microsoft. It's always nice to see how often people "famous" in this business are still down-to-earth real people.

Pumping it up... Moving and Gnomedex 2007

Michael_Lehman — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:25:00 GMT

Ok, It's been a little hard over the past 3 weeks to find time and connectivity to keep this stream of information going because we had an unexpected opportunity to pack and move the contents of our house! After about 6 weeks of searching via Craigslist and the Seattle P-I, we were amazingly fortunate to find the most awesome new house by driving in the neighborhood where we wanted to live and lo-and-behold there was a house for rent that hadn't been listed anywhere and after a couple of days it was ours! Then, of course, came the never trivial process of packing and moving the contents of our previous home. It was amazingly time consumptive even though we only moved 1 mile! The new house is awesome... here's the view from the front windows

There will be more regular content here now that things have settled down and to start with, today I'm off to Gnomedex 2007! I have attended the previous two Gnomdexes and am looking forward to all the interactions and connections that always happen when so many smart people converge. I'll be Twittering, blogging here, blogging on my Microsoft blog and doing some podcasting for my podcasting service business. If you're at Gnomedex, look me up!

Marketing with your blog: #1 - Writing magnetic headlines

Michael_Lehman — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:43:00 GMT

Independent Innovators face marketing challenges in ways funded startups do not. Most Indies (at least the one's I've met) have extensive domain experience and little marketing background. A blog, smartly written, can be invaluable. How to write a "smart" blog? Read what others have done, experiment and be authentic. Today I'm starting a new series called "Marketing with your blog", based partly on "10 articles bloggers should read" from http://www.performancing.com and my own research. I am quoting some of their original list and adding my own to create this series.

First up: CopyBlogger (copywriting tips for online success) has a great post about writing headlines, a link to headline writing software and pointers to their 8-part "Magnetic Headlines" series.

Do you have any of your own favorites? Leave a comment and let me know!

Independent Innovation - Programmer Style - Software Industry Conference 2007

Michael_Lehman — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:35:00 GMT

The Software Industry Conference 2007 edition is just underway. Bob Walsh, one of my co-travellers on this independent innovation front, has just finshed his talk about Blogging for you Business and, in the process, launching his new brand, 47Hats.

Bob is the author of two books I highly recommend for software independent innovators: MicroISV: From Vision to Reality and Clear Blogging.

47 Hats is Bob's new brand, blog and MicroISV consultancy. Even if you're not a programmer I'd highly recommend checking it out as his blog, logo, and marketing message are great examples of how to do it right.

Good luck on the launch!

Independent Innovation...in Space! (or at least for Space Travel)

Michael_Lehman — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:36:00 GMT

If you read this blog, and I'm hoping more and more of you will :), eventually you'll come to find out that I'm a total Space Travel Nut. One of my prize possesions is an original, I got it in 1970, Apollo 11 flight plan that NASA sent to me after I sent them a suggestion as a teenager and an Apollo 15 flight plan they sent me after another suggestion (a flight plan is motivating to 17-year-old-space-nut).

So what, you ask, does this have to do with independent innovation? Well, today, the New York Times magazine has an article talking about NASA's effort to engage independent inventors in an effort to build new things like space gloves, climbers, etc.

In my opinion, you don't want to miss this article, if only for inspiration.

Live long and prosper.

What's in a name? or how to get a great domain name... PickyDomains.com

Michael_Lehman — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:04:00 GMT

If you're making a living (or wanting to) by distributing your bits over the Internet one of the first things you need to do, after you decide what you want to make, is pick the perfect name for your venture. In the modern age it's more difficult than it used to be. In the past you just had to come up with a great name. Now, you not only need to come up with a great name, you need to make sure the matching domain name is available!

The folks over at www.PickyDomains.com claim

"If you need a great, memorable, easy to pronounce domain name that EXACTLY describes what your website is all about - you are in the right place. This is what we do. We find available domain names that are descriptive, concise and are easily remembered. And if we can’t find one, or you don’t like any available domain names we suggest – you don’t pay anything. PickyDomains.Com is completely RISK FREE."

Here's how their service works:. You deposit $50 and tell them about the site you want to name and what the site does or will do, how many letters or words in your domain you want max, what keywords absolutely have to be in the domain, dashes or no dashes,dot com only or not, can they use slang or not, etc.

There are two cool things about this service:

First, they dispatch your request to actual humans who do the research and then you start getting a list of available domain names via e-mail. If you like any of the names, you register it and tell PickyDomains.com so they can pay the person who came up with the name.
Second, If you don’t like any of the domain names we suggest, they will refund your $50 upon your request. They only get paid if they can find a domain that you register.

Here are some of their success stories:

BadCyclopedia.Com
Encyclopedia of bad things.
Publicana.Com
Press-release service.
DialerQueen.Com
Internet dialers site.
SoftwareJudge.Com
Software review site.
Deprice.Com
A software discounter.
SeniorReady.Com
Senior-friendly home modification for the elderly.
MariMail.Com
Satellite-based email service for yachts and ships.
MuniPages.Com
A worldwide yellow pages type directory.
GetMapped.Com
Peer-to-peer travel site.
CraftAPage.Com
Web-based HTML page creator.
Pictoma.Com
A Web 2.0 Photo Sharing Website.
Defendum.Com
Personal security products web shop.
Roliana.Com
Anime and fantasy forum.
Webtuoso.Com
Software Consulting Company.
WardResidence.Com
E-mail Domain For People With "Ward" Last Name.
ChrysalList.Com
Online Wish List.
CAStrategy.Com
Global Markets Analysis & Trading Site.
VoteTrend.Com
Social Voting Website.
DiverStation.Com
Domain For Diving Equipment Store.
LinkWithU.Com
Micro-Blogging Website.
BeautyMapped.Com
Site that shows where in the world you are regarded as attractive.
FunVisits.Com
A directory/guidebook to visitor attractions in UK.
Smartopreneur.Com
Smartopreneur.Co.Uk
Free marketing advice and tips for startups and small businesses.
Stoxr.Com
Social network about stocks and investments.
Rememoir.Com
Site that helps people write their memoirs.
Seomantic.Com
SEO tool that analyzes semantic core.
RoversRecipies.Com
Homemade Dog Treats Recipe Database.
Artifica.Com
An Umbrella Site For Various Software Developer.
WorstPersonOfThe Day.Com
Web 2.0 site in development.

Disclosure: I have no interest in PickyDomains I just think it is a very cool idea and a service whose time has arrived!

Edith Yeung - Dream Think Act

Michael_Lehman — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:11:00 GMT

I discovered Edith Yeung "Dream Think Act" website via Bob Walsh who went to a recent presentation by Seth Godin in Silicon Valley.

Edith is a former consultant who left the corporate world this year to pursue an independent career as a public speaker and professional coach.

Her post about "99 Life Lessons Learned from Quitting Corporate America" is inspiring and thought provoking.

My favorite is #18 - You are who you believe or say you are.