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My recent post about the Kendall Square Starbucks Clover Coffee Machine generated alot of interest, particularly from outside the Boston area.  (Currently Clovers are only operating at Starbucks locations in Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco).  Well today I got word from the manager at the Kendall Square Starbucks that baristas from New York City and Chicago have been at her store the past few days training on the Clover in preparation for the rollout of Clover in those cities sometime in April.

http://starbucks.com/clover

As a consumer of many Sony products, I used to say that the investment amounted to owning stock in the company.   Starting with a Walkman, then several D5 portable cassette recorders, moving along to a D7 DAT recorder, several Trinitrons, a Cybershot camera, VAIO Laptops and desktops -  I have been loyal to this brand over the years.     They have recently lost much ground to Samsung (flat panel TVs), Nintendo (gaming), and portable music devices (Apple).   Interesting article in today’s New York Times about Sony’s strategy for success in 2010, how they will compete with Apple and others while trying to recapture market share: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/technology/29sony.html

The Times article highlights the opening of a new Sony retail outlet in Nagoya, Japan and what it means for the consumer electronics industry.

I’ve been using uptime and performance monitoring services for 11 years, starting in 1999 with RedAlert (now Keynote RedAlert) and recently completed implementation of Alertsite’s Deja Click product.   Not only does Alertsite tell you whether or not your site is up, it also provides insight as to how long it takes to respond to requests from users around the world.   For online marketing to global audiences, this is a crucial set of metrics.   Take for example a business selling services not just in North America, but to global markets including Asia-Pacific and Europe.   A site hosted at corporate HQ in New York City may respond well for users in the United States, but what about response time across the globe?

To make a business case to my colleagues that we needed to make investments in and upgrades to not just our own hardware, but that we also need to consider contracting with a Content Delivery service such as Akamai, I needed hard numbers to provide justification for the expense.    Soon after implementing Alertsite’s global monitoring solution it was clear that the site in question had serious response time deficiencies for audiences in Asia and Europe, and we are now weighing our options for either a DYI CDN or contracting with a service.

In addition to response time/uptime, Alertsite has a feature called Deja Click which simulates a real-life user experience by hitting a monitored site through Firefox, examining each element of a page – images, scripts, forms, etc.   The bottom line?  For short money, interactive marketers can achieve a very high return on investment by gaining knowledge and insight as to a site’s performance across a broad, global spectrum of user experiences.  It’s well worth it.

http://www.alertsite.com

Had a chance to meet Jon Lajoie in Austin when I was there for SXSW – Jon is a brilliant comedian with an amazing story that starts in Montreal.    For those not familiar with Mr. Lajoie, here’s a little background:   he first became popular through his YouTube music video “Everyday Normal Guy”, in which he, in ironic contrast to typical rappers, sings about his bland, run-of-the-mill daily activities and his peaceful nature.   That is the essence of his genius – an ability to portray mundane aspects of  the daily grind into humor with mass-market appeal.

Jon’s YouTube videos have recorded over 50 million aggregate views.  That online success has been parlayed into a hit series on FX called “The League”, a show which revolves around five guys who love fantasy football and they will do anything to win the league while dealing with other “everyday” problems.

Lajoie’s Twitter feed had mentioned that the cast of “The League” would be appearing at SXSW, so I took the opportunity to meet Jon.   What’s the bottom line?  Interactive Marketing professionals can learn alot from not just his methodology and general online success, but his philosophy and how it factors into an ability to achieve mainstream success.

The local Starbucks has a Clover coffeemaker.   If you are serious about coffee but haven’t tried this yet, it’s time.   And if you don’t live in Boston, San Francisco, or Seattle, you are going to have to make the trip here.   Why?  It’s absolutely the best cup I have ever tasted.  Last summer when I moved to Kendall I noticed this machine at the local Starbucks, out of curiousity I Googled it before I tried a cup – the first match on my search was a Wired article explaining how Stabucks discovered this technology, then bought them ought so they would have an exclusive.   That investment changed my opinion on Starbucks  – I go to the Kendall Square store at least twice a week for a Grande Kona.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dek2lKcSCQ&NR=1]

I spent five days in Austin at SXSW Interactive and plan on returning next year.  From both personal and professional perspectives, this is an event worth attending.  I was able to reconnect with many old friends and make many new ones, while also establishing many professional connections.   Highlights for me were the panel discussion on Google’s options in China, in which Beijing author Kaiser Kuo spoke of Beijing’s aggressive censorship of online information, coined “the great firewall of China”  Kristina Halvorson’s presentation on Content Strategy, and Mashable’s “Mashbash”.

Special shout outs to @rmmdc, @brianreich, and @fififoum it was great to catch up/meet!