How Marc Benioff sold me a book through free...

The article below - offered free- persuaded me to buy his book...which I had no intention of buying. I'll write a review after I finish it.

The Facebook Imperative Cannot Be Stopped

Posted: 10 Mar 2010 07:35 AM PST

Editor’s note: This guest post is written by Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. In it, he responds to critics of his last guest post arguing that enterprise software should be more like Facebook.

Two weeks ago on TechCrunch I posted “The Facebook Imperative,” which posed a simple question, “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Facebook?” It was the next iteration of the question I asked in 1999 that spawned salesforce.com, “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Amazon.com.” If you have read my book, Behind The Cloud, you are well aware how that one question launched a company, and a movement. Its been an exciting decade. But the real excitement is just starting.

Frankly, I’ve been amazed by the huge amount of responses, tweets, and comments (aka “the ruckus across the blogoshere,” as Joe McKendrick calls it). It only strengthens my conviction that we are about to see the greatest revolution in enterprise software, ever. Well, really, the most exciting revolution in computing, ever. It will create more value for users, customers, and vendors by an order of magnitude over what we saw in the last wave. And, it’s really starting to happen right now. It is realtime. It is social. It is mobile. And, it is about time. Literally, it is about productivity.

I’m energized by the excitement I see for a new generation of collaboration software in the enterprise to replace antiquated Microsoft Sharepoint servers and IBM’s Lotus Notes. I’ve enjoyed seeing my observation—that Lotus Notes was conceived before Mark Zuckerberg—reverberate around the web. But, the reality is the Facebook Imperative contained more than a funny line. It hit a nerve. We are all responding—debating—a question that is an imperative because we all need to take software to a new level, and now is the time. Microsoft and IBM have maintained the status quo on enterprise collaboration software too long, and it’s time for a change.

There are an overwhelming number of you who agree that its time to transform the business conversation the same way Facebook has changed the consumer conversation. We are betting salesforce.com’s future on it. Approximately 40% of companies are already deploying or planning to deploy a social computing platform, a number that’s expected to rise, says Irwin Lazar of Nemeretes Research. Not everyone agrees, mostly the vendors that are milking their cash cows. But, make no mistake about it, this generation of social platforms is very different than the last.

Charles Zedlewski emerged from a long blogging hiatus to argue that Facebook is designed for entertainment—not productivity. Well, that’s not surprising given that he works for SAP, one of the companies I have previously referred to as “innovationless”—in my view they remain the Anti-Cloud. Their actions speak for themselves. Still, I’m astounded that more enterprises haven’t figured out how to tap into the real collaborative power of Facebook and Twitter, and the new social models that they have pioneered.

I consider Facebook and Twitter—and the ability to tap into my network of friends and followers—one the most productive ways I can start my day. Using these new Internet phenoms, I’ve tested new ad campaigns and elicited great customer responses, promoted my book to a large audience of people who cared, and with the help of my network, even named new products—all before I sat down for breakfast. I’m not alone; ask Vinnie Mirchandani for a sneak preview of his new book and read how Starbucks, Avon, and Pepsi are using these new social services to increase productivity in their enterprises. Or, look at how Causes, one of Facebook’s most popular apps, is having a fascinating impact on the future of philanthropy.

While my admiration for Facebook is no secret, the fact is that the Facebook Imperative—much like The Amazon Imperative of 1999—is just a metaphor. Like all metaphors, they are terrific catalysts to introduce an idea and orient people. They are rooted in inspiration, but they do not funnel down to the granular details. And, there are details that make this movement entirely new in practice. The power of this new model is to create the next level of productivity, collaboration, and learning in the enterprise. And, I see it happening now in our own company.

For years we’ve been reading about the potential for institutional memory to transform a corporation into a learning organization. But, have we seen it happen beyond very few unique organizations? A true paradigm shift occurs when the barriers of entry are removed for everyone. That is changing fast. With these new social models, there is a way to immediately leverage the knowledge of an organization. People with expertise and relevance are instantly looped in, can participate in the conversation, collaborate, and make contributions more simply than ever before. That will be the catalyst of this new productivity revolution—delivered through these new social enterprise platforms.

We have deployed Salesforce Chatter internally through our own beta program, and we are now using the social models proven by Facebook and Twitter to run our company. Our new social enterprise is built atop our existing business information and applications. It’s not partitioned off from other enterprise applications, but is an integrated part of it—offering a new view of the data that is more productive and easier to use. Through enterprise sharing models, filtering and discovery tools, users have full flexibility over which people and data they follow—allowing them to fully maximize the value of their own feeds and eliminating the risk of “pollutants” some critics fear.

I have learned more about my own company in the last three weeks using Salesforce Chatter than I have in the last three years. It reminds me of the time we went live with http://ideas.salesforce.com. The awareness I have today of what is happening with our employees, our customers, our products, our customer service escalations, and even the deals we are closing is spectacular. Social computing for the enterprise is about seeing what matters to your company, what is happening with your products, and among your people. It’s about the information you need to make decisions finding you. I’m amazed at the potential of this technology. There is just no way I can explain it to you in writing, so here is an actual screen shot that I took off my desktop to give you an idea of the flow (click to enlarge):

It is time to let go of the past and start to create a compelling future for the software industry. I’m energized by the skeptics. It’s familiar. They all eventually convert to what’s important to customers, or become increasingly irrelevant. You don’t have to look any farther than last week when Steve Ballmer spoke to the University of Washington telling them Microsoft was finally “All-In” the cloud. Well, that only took a decade or two. No more software plus services, now they are 100% cloud too. Sure.

I’m living in the post-PC revolution. I’m in a desktopless world that is about feeds and profiles running in all my browsers and mobile devices, and interacting in exciting new ways. It doesn’t matter if I am in the office, at home, or at Starbucks—I am productive wherever I am. The enterprise is not just going to the cloud, it’s now going social, and it’s going mobile. Facebook and Twitter have shown us the way. Like Microsoft, and IBM, not everyone has to get it yet, but eventually they all will. As they say: Shift happens.

It's been awhile ....

Let's forget about the earlier posts....
Now my focus has shifted.
I'll be starting a fresh.
So, a great video:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuuTlQ0FzEU

Little red riding hood

Lauren at school

Conviction, or Octopus Prime

The experiment continues.

I still don't like the idea of train of thought for a fiction writer. Instead, I am playing with rough structures of form, like and artist's sketch. That is why these efforts are an experiment!

Transformers came out. The movie, not the toys, which have been out forever. Jason, almost four, is YouTube's newest convert.
"Can we watch Transformers again?" he'll say, his eyes gleaming.
"Yes, which one, or all of them?" i ask. Does he understand that the bootlegged previews aren't the movie itself? Of course. But when your attention span doesn't last long enough for a two and a half hour movie what difference do categories make?
"80 miles per hour," I tell my dad. "That is how fast they transform from vehicle to robot." Is it to robot? I haven't seen the movie. Like Jason i have kept my consumption limited to YouTube and the toys. The latter, i feel confident in saying, are taking over the house.
My dad rolls his eyes, careful not to say anything since Jason is in earshot.
"No, i shouldn't know that fact." I don't work in the entertainment industry. I am an adult. I have a graduate degree. 80 miles per hour is still impressive, don't you think?
My dad humors me and Jason both. He didn't humor me so much as a child. I would have heard that the movie was a waste of time. I don't agree. Fiction can be so much more important than fact. Facts change.
Jason is sitting in the middle of the rug. My bedroom is bright from the mid-day sun. His brown eyes are round and focused. Jason is a serious player.
"Jason, we need to go."
"No, play with me. Play Transformers." That means i transform them, he waits. Then i get to be the bad guys, he gets to be the good. Always. Why doesn't mom ever get to be the hero?
I will point out, however, that the bad guys and good guys share the same cardboard house and fill up on the same plastic ice cream. Jason does have a democratic heart.
"You get to be Octopus Prime," he says.
And i wonder what to do. I don't care if Optimus Prime is a bad guy or a good guy in the movie. I wonder instead about the fights he will have once he starts preschool camp next week. The other boys, the tougher ones who have older brothers, know that it is Optimus Prime not Octopus Prime. But will Jason believe me?
"Jason," i say gently, "It is Optimus Prime, not Octopus Prime." He laughs at me.
"You are silly," he says, the giggles unabated.
"No, really. It is Optimus Prime."
"You be the bad guys," he says. "Make this into a gun." He hands me a transformer to be transformed.
"Jason?" I say, wondering if i still have his attention. He ignores me, an indicator of the man he will become. No, that statement isn't an exaggeration. He always ignores me when he doesn't want to hear what i say. Occasionally, he will still argue, but mostly he just continues along his own path. Most of us do. We have learned to courteously reply oftentimes to advice or insights. Primarily, we ignore the message, even as we allow the messenger to deliver it.
I hand him the gun. "Like this?"
"Yes, thank you." Jason is very polite, even for a three year old wielding a gun. He doesn't shoot me, even though i am the bad guy. Instead, he feeds the gun a plastic strawberry.

Politics

Writing is inherently political. Writers portray the world as they see it. Anyone who feels strongly about something is likely to feel compelled to write about it - either to share their thoughts or to convince others.

What can be more annoying than hearing someone wax long and hard on their own political views? And why do writers, merely because they like to communicate, have anything special to offer with respect to political events?

Politics

His eyelashes fring his eyes and flutter when he blinks. His mouth moves, neither compactly nor expressively. It flaps, yet stays within his control. The skin around his cheeks forms in jowels, like a bloodhound. He sniffs, yet he looks for nothing. The skin is clear, but pasty. What do politicians eat that make them look so middle aged and pale? Don't they spend time outside, exercising and getting healthy? That is why Bush won - his face has color.

The clothes always work, the handshake and the smile.

When they get elected they all look alike, don't they? The lines around the eyes, the soft creases at the lips. The smiles, the frown, the tears.

None of it reflects the man inside. Or, indeed, the woman. Time builds a record. But is it real when they create in anticipation of playing their legacy on the evening news? That is why i like Guiliani - he was a man, before he was a polititian. A man = a what?

Yes, i vote. No, i won't disclose for whom. But they all talk, expecting to be heard. How can the heart survive that? Publicity. Designed to win.

The world is full of clutter. Can a single, simple message break through? Do we want it to?

Sometimes i like the illusion better than the reality.

And all of this is fun and games. Writing can be powerful. Sometimes it is scribbles on a page and nothing more.

Anonymity

I am still struggling with this issue. I am also grasping the implications of just writing something and losing control of it - in all senses. Normally, I write and revise over months. Now I write skim and post. Then send.
The post is like sending an astronaut into space - we don't really understand the implications.
For now I resolve the issues by telling almost no one that I am writing a blog - which is fitting. This is a new way of sharing thoughts. Some people just write. I can't do that. Words are too important to me. I can get an emotional release just by writing them - I don't need to share. My way is likely in the minority.
What we see on the page is different from a screen. I need to learn how to tell stories, not just journal.
An online journal - for me - doesn't fully touch at the posibilities of the communication medium.

So, let's try. A different meaning of anonymity.

The boys fell, right in the middle of the street. He seemed too young to cross alone, yet no one ran to help so i did. A car had stoped a few feet in front of him, respecting the crosswalk. As i approached the fallen child i glared at the impatient woman behind the wheel. She glowered back at me, chirping into a cell phone, her windows firmly shut.
I leaned down, towering over the child. Closer now, i realized that he was smaller than my initial impression. His brown eyes were fringed with tears and he had torn both pant legs at the knees. Blood beaded on each scrapped leg.
I sheltered him with my arm. "Are you all right?" I asked, trying to speak gently, as one should to a wounded child. "Let's get out of the street," I continued, willing him to respond with more than a blink.
He stood, stable, even strong.
"Mommy," he cried, as his tears cranked up in intensity. He ran from me, toward a woman now exiting a shop. Her light pink dress waved in a breeze i hadn't noticed.
"Brian," she cried, seeking her young. As he grabbed her legs she spoke to me. "Thank you."
"It was nothing," I replied and walked away.

Privacy and copyright

I want to think about privacy and copyright. Now, i can write this for me - the blog is really just for me. I am keeping it that way, for now, perhaps forever.
Writing is deeply personal - fiction more than any other form. Even in poetry you hide. Yet i can't post my poems here - not without copyrighting them first. And, isn't that wrong? Once you decide to write you agree - if you will let anyone read it - that you open up the inner thoughts that float through your mind. But not so that they can run away with it.
Then what? You try to sell it. If it is worth nothing you can then post it online and hope someone reads it (in which case later on, perhaps, something you write might be worth something. Yet if you post that online someone may steal it.)
I finished a book - and am waiting for comments from friends. Then i try to sell it. I have started a new book. It is coming along quite nicely, thanks.
Sometimes i don't want to hide behind a fictional character - i just have something i want to say. But i don't really want to copyright it first. If i say it so someone will hear it then it has to be worth nothing. Where does that logic lead?
I can write thoughts in a notebook, hide that in a drawer and feel heard. But my expression is illusory.
So i will do this blog instead - and tell no one. Then, i can pretend that perhaps someone, somewhere read it and thought for a second about what i had to say.
It is all just fiction isn't it?
That is the beauty of writing. The words fall on a page, and sit there. One day perhaps someone else will find them and think they understand.