Oh, the choices…

So, class is officially over!!! While I’ve definitely enjoyed the semester of reading some great books and learning about the Web 2.0 world, I can almost taste the salt, sand, and coconut (you know…like the beach)…that feeling that always comes with the last day of class and the first day of the summer.

I’m sharply brought back down to earth, though, as I realize that this isn’t college… it’s grad school, oh, and the real world. So, no spending weeks at a time on the shore, no spur of the moment mid-week road trips to Dewey or last minute plane rides to Florida. But, hey, a girl can still dream, right?

In the effort to not let my brain turn to a margarita-soaked mush (hey, work gets slow in the summer), I plan to continue writing this blog. Obviously, my focus will change a little bit, but I definitely plan to read some new books, stay current on the technology in my field, and most importantly, expand my knowledge of my division’s products.

Regardless of what I end up spending my free time doing, though, I will have to make conscious choices to decide what to spend my extra hours that were previously spent on doing school work on. On top of the previous list of what I would like to do, reality says that I have a wedding in 5 months to finish planning and a condo to move into in the next 2 weeks. Each one of these huge processes entails numerous smaller choices. We just went through the agonizing process of choosing paint colors. Any couple who’s ever done it can attest to the fact that the overwhelming choice of 50 different shades of beige is enough to drive the most loving relationship straight into the ground. Ok, so I’m being a little dramatic, but seriously…the fights that paint can provoke from an ordinarily sane couple… Chris Anderson calls this “The Paradise of Choice,” I would venture to call it “The Hell of Choice.” While choice can be fantastic when you’re looking for that specific book on the long tail of Amazon or searching for that lost classic love song your grandparents loved to use as your first dance on iTunes, 50 shades of beige is a little excessive.

The Long Tail… whole lotta crap or whole lotta good?

Chris Anderson answers these questions and others in his book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. The Long Tail can be described as the niche strategy of certain business such as Amazon.com or Netflix. The distribution and inventory costs of these businesses allow them to realize significant profit out of selling small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items, as traditional retailers have always done (see Walmart or Best Buy). The group of persons that buy the hard-to-find or “non-hit” items is the customer demographic called the Long Tail.

My favorite chapter in Anderson’s book is chapter 9, “The Short Head: The World the Shelf Created for Better or Worse.” Anderson analyzes the way our society has adopted “hit culture” as a fiber of our being. We are drawn to hits, we always are striving to have the best – or the next “hit” as those who make music, movies, books, television shows, etc. strive to make the hits for us. The way our society primarily shops, in bricks and morter stores, is a clue into our gregarious nature…the fact that we actually like to do things together. So, there is something innate in our culture of mass consumerism, similar to the way the population clusters around large urban centers.

Anderson explains the irony of our nature to group together and how it relates to the long tail “These population spikes – the great cities of the world – exist because the cultural and economic advantages of being around lots of other people more than compensate for the costs of urban living. One of those advantages, ironically enough, is massive variety in every possible niche.” It truly all clicked here, especially with my life and why I always have been a “city girl.” Although sometimes it’s unbearablly crowded, expensive, loud, the traffic is terrible, and all I want to do is get away to the beach…all the advantages far outweigh the negatives. Where else can you go see an incredible art show, shop for funky jewelry, buy a bunch of cheap fresh flowers, eat Ethiopian and then have sake cocktails at the hip new sushi bar? You can spend your Saturday doing all those things only if you live in the long tail of urban space, of course.

The Long Tail really does seem to be the future of internet business as mass consumerism is replaced by niche markets. Or, as Tim O’Reilly said it best in his article What is Web 2.0,  ”Small sites make up the bulk of the internet’s content; narrow niches make up the bulk of internet’s the possible applications. Therefore: Leverage customer-self service and algorithmic data management to reach out to the entire web, to the edges and not just the center, to the long tail and not just the head.”

O’Reilly contends that the success of eBay and Amazon and other giants is derived from their key principle of embracing the power of the web to harness collective intelligence. While it is certainly true that eBay has grown because of the collective actions of its members and Amazon has grown because of its innate principles of user engagement, I would argue that the success of these companies has equal to do with their commitment and catering to niche markets – to increasing the length and breadth of the tail, if you will.

In his accompanying blog, Anderson writes about current events in the digital world and how they relate to his Long Tail theory. This week, he asks if human-powered search should abandon the long tail.

David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR considers himself a fan of Anderson’s groundbreaking theories and followed his blog before it became a book. He notes that some of today’s most successful Internet businesses leverage the long tail to reach undeserved customers and satisfy demand for products not found in traditional physical stores. “Anderson shows that the business implications of the long tail are profound and illustrates that there’s much money to be made by creating and distributing at the long end of the tail. Yes, hits are still important. But as the above businesses have shown, there’s money to be made beyond Harry Potter, Green Day, and Pirates of the Caribbean” Scott says (p. 18). My favorite tie to Anderson, is what is Important to us as marketers. Scott argues, it’s the long tail – where instead of thinking from the short head or a “one size fits all” solution, we should be thinking in a much more targeted, strategic way, where we go after these niche micromarkets with precise messaging. This lesson can be applied to marketing communications across all industries, and not simply “early adopter” technology industries. We should all take a hint from Anderson and Scott and strive to market to niche segments of the long tail.

 

 

Social Networks, Big Brother, and Other Musings on Smart Mobs

In Smart Mobs, Howard Rheingold introduces the concept of smart mobs, a form of self-structuring social organization through technology-mediated, intelligent emergent behavior. According to Rheingold, smart mobs are an indication of the evolving communication technologies that will empower the people. These growing technologies include the Internet, computer-mediated communication such as Internet Relay Chat, and wireless devices like mobile phones and personal digital assistants. Methodologies like peer to peer networks and pervasive computing are also changing the ways in which people organize and share information.

A smart mob is a group that  behaves intelligently or efficiently because of its exponentially increasing network links. This network enables people to connect to information and others, allowing a form of social coordination. One reason for the rise of smart mobs is the ever decreasing cost of increasingly powerful microprocessors which have allowed them to permeate throughout society — they are embedded in everything from boxes to clothes. Depending on how the technology is used, smart mobs may be beneficial or detrimental to society. Rheingold warns of the use of the technology by some to create a society similar to the one seen in George Orwell’s 1984 or by terrorists for their malicious purposes.

The Smart Mob blog details a new, real-life example of Smart Mobs in Lojo. Shorthand for locative journalism, LoJo is the name of a project launched by a team of Northwestern University graduate students to study the intersection of journalism and emerging location-based technologies.

These students are developing a multi-platform project that depicts how Chicago might change (economically, environmentally and socially) if it wins the 2016 Olympic bid. Through their project, the LoJo team hopes to create interactive and informative mobile experiences that push innovation in journalism.

As they learn how location-based technology and place-based narratives can enrich a journalistic experience, the LOJOCONNECT.COM blog documents their progress and provide opportunities for others to engage in the discovery process.

Using the bouquet of emerging mobile and location-based technologies (from GPS-enabled mobile phones to interactive online maps), locative storytelling provides multi-media content that enhances a user’s connection to a given place. At its best, this kind of interactive media gives users increased entry points, and more control over, any given story, thereby enabling deeper and more vibrant experiences.

Wikinomics…or how mass collaboration has already changed everything

I found Tapscott and Williams book Wikinomics to be a thorough exploration of open sourcing and mass collaboration in business. According to Tapscott and Williams, Wikinomics is based on four ideas: Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Acting Globally. The use of mass collaboration in a business environment, in recent history, can be seen as an extension of the trend in business to outsource: externalize formerly internal business functions to other business entities. The difference however is that instead of an organized business body brought into being specifically for a unique function, mass collaboration relies on free individual agents to come together and cooperate to improve a given operation or solve a problem. This kind of outsourcing is also referred to as crowdsourcing, to reflect this difference.

In their first chapter, Tapscott and Williams introduce the modern concept of Wikinomics, “Millions of media buffs now use blogs, wikis, chat rooms, and personal broadcasting to add their voices to a vociferous stream of dialogue and debate called the “blogosphere.” Employees drive performance by collaborating with peers across organizational boundaries, creating what we call a “wiki workplace.” Customers become “prosumers” by cocreating goods and services rather than simply consuming the end product. So-called supply chains work more effectively when the risk, reward, and capability to complete major projects including massively complex products like cars, motercycles, and airplanes – are distributed across planetary networks of partners who work as peers.”

The book also discusses the seven new models of mass collaboration:

• peer pioneers 
• ideagoras 
• prosumers
• new Alexandrians
• platforms for participation
• global plant floor
• wiki workplace

In one of Tapscott’s blog posts this week he announces a new section on the Wikinomics website that calls attention to Wikinomics in action. It’s essentially a blogroll or link list of sites that epitomize the Wikinomics principles. The list contaiins the usual suspects, Amazon, Digg, YouTube, Second Life, but also features some cool and different sites not mentioned in the book.

Marketocracy attempts to find the best investors in the world and then track, analyze, and evaluate their trading activity. Encyclopedia of life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about all life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Radiohead remix lets visitors remix their own version of the band’s new single then post it on the web to be voted on by fans. Sermo is the social networking site for physicians where doctors around the world can share research, case studies, and observations. On Ponoko, aspiring designers can create a mockup of their choice and have it manufactured by professionals. Finally, Kluster enables users to work together to solve problems big and small, from a small marketing campaign to a large invention.

The book is coupled with a blog and a wiki, a now completed playbook contributed by a community of readers and experts. Below are several key quotes by contributers to the “missing” chapter of the book.

 “Any open system has the capacity to respond to change and disorder by reorganizing itself at a higher level of organization. Disorder becomes a critical player, an ally that can provoke a system to self-organize into new forms of being… chaos is necessary to new creative ordering.” – Margaret Wheatley 

“Wikis are not about bottom-up management, they are about round table solving of solutions where titles are null and void, where intellects win and where ideas are valued, not ruthlessly critiqued…Wikis change the paradigm… the goal is a refined idea…. not an idea beaten into consensus!” – Todd Dunn, Wikinomics Playbook contributor 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Future of Google

In chapter 10, “Google Today, Google Tomorrow,” Battelle notes several challenges Google will need to overcome in the next few years – “Can it continue to innovate in the face of treacherous competition? Can it keep its most productive employees despite their own personal wealth? Can it learn how to partner with outside companies who find Google’s loose approach to business confusing and dangerous? And finally, can the triumvirate of Schmidt, Page, and Brin hold it together…” (p 230).  

Some additional questions come to mind, such as, will Google succeed in the ever-elusive
“Semantic Web” or the “Perfect Search”? Will Google finally become known as a true media company, not just a “search” company? In Battelle’s blogpost this week, he muses over “the age-old conflict that Google faces between being a pure navigation service – ‘We get you where you want to go’- and being a media company – ‘We get you to our properties, where we make more money if you stay.’” According to Battelle this conflict is a very real, urgent, and present one. If Google succeeds in this venture, they will become a true media company that effectively competes for your attention and monetizes it with advertising, not one that gives you your search results and sends you on your way.

This week, several news stories involving Google and its apparent still-bright future have emerged. Google plans to be a significant player in the display ad market in the next year, considering YouTube, the company’s “brightest light.” Tim Armstrong, Google’s North American president for advertising and commerce, said Google’s advertising platform will evolve over time so that it won’t distinguish between search and display ads. Google is just waiting on regulatory approval to complete its proposed acquisition of DoubleClick Inc., “a transaction that would enable Google to make a more aggressive push to expand beyond search ads into the market for graphical display ads such as banner ads. “

 In other Google news, the company plans to unveil a new ad service to web publishers to manage their online ad sales, another tactic Google is using to broaden its reach in the online advertising world.

In Google Apps news, Google has updated its applications for business, schools, and other organizations including a new interface, group chat from the browser, an improved contact manager, color-coded message labels, and bookmarkable messages and searches.

Batelle notes an important part of Google being Google…it’s culture.

Today, an interesting post on TechDirt discusses problems that could arise from the merging of two company cultures, in this case Yahoo and Microsoft, and references Google as a prime example of the importance of culture in a corporation (even if Google is an extreme example). This post links to Grant McKracken’s blog, who argues that corporations are inherently cultural and ”when things go bad in a merger or an acquisition, the problem is sometimes not with the mechanics, not with the infrastructure of the deal.  The problem is with the superstructure of the deal, the ideas, practices and cultures that must now be brought together for things to work.”

“Just Google It”

In the first half of John Batelle’s  The Search, he begins to detail the story of Google’s extraordinary and rapid rise to fame. Batelle has followed Google and its founders’ successes from a mismatched computer stack in a Stanford dormitory to the media darling/hottest internet company in the land.

Two of Google’s innovations that have dramatically altered the way we are accustomed to searching, include Page Rank and adwords. While the name “Page Rank” is trademarked by Google, the patent belongs to Stanford University, where Google founder Larry Page and later, Sergey Brin, conceptualized the 1995 research project that eventually morphed into their company. Page submitted his first paper on Page Rank to dismal reviews,  leading to rejection of publication. Page and Brin’s next paper detailing Page Rank was published later in 1998. They called it “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine” and Google was born.

As explained by Google, “PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves ‘important’ weigh more heavily and help to make other pages ‘important’.” Although Google continues to devleop its search technology and other factors contribute to search results, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of Google’s web search tools.

Adwords is a cost-effective method of search advertising that enables even cash-strapped small businesses, or any ordinary person for that matter, to buy key words for as little as 1 cent per click.

“Just Google It…” This phrase, once applicable to internet searching, now holds a wealth of meaning as Google’s interface can take the place of software, email, news, and more. In Nicco’s webcast for this week, he talks about Google’s strategy to move the application layer, once reserved for hard drives, over the Internet. So, now, with Google docs you can write papers, plug data into spreadsheets and design presentations, in addition to uploading documents for storing or collaborative projects, all for free. It is even possible to download a free, fully customizable software package via Google Pack and to create your own personalized Google homepage to boot.

Since Google is attempting to challenge even the software market, I wonder if we will ever be comfortable with moving everything online. Perhaps I’m biased as a Microsoft employee and avid user of Office 2007, but I’ve also been used to using Office for papers, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. since middle school when I had to start typing and turning in papers. To me, Office equals ease and comfort. 

I’ve also suffered through countless nights attempting to complete work online on a spotty internet connection. For those of us who live in the city, especially in older homes, reliable Internet is never as accessible or easy as it seems no matter what provider you’re using. I also travel frequently and I’ve noticed lately while working online through airport and hotel Wi-Fi connections that sometimes coverage is not as reliable as when I’m at
the office or at school. I also do a decent amount of work on planes – I’ll type up a spreadsheet, paper, presentation, etc. I don’t need an internet connection to complete any of those things. In general, I’m just not comfortable with having to be online to complete daily task.

Google’s future in the application market remains to be seen….however, it seems that “Just Google It” has staying power as being synonymous with searching. Just as we still blow our noses with “Kleenex,” clean our ears with “Q-tips” and “Xerox” to make copies, we will continue to “Google” to search the Internet.

Blog or Die?

In the second half of Naked Conversations Scoble and Israel continue to vilify traditional one-way marketing, while hailing the blog as the “revolution” of how companies communicate with customers. In chapter 9, the writers finally admit “blogging has its prickly issues.”

Shel’s newest blog post on social media seems to pick up right where the book left off, “Regular social media followers understand that Microsoft, for example,  does not, think with one mind, but with nearly 60,000 of them that GM does not speak with one voice or language, but with over 275,000. The 85,000 or so Intel employees do not march in step with each other and their taste in the drummers marking cadence is quite diverse. So if you blog with transparency and candor about your corporate job and the guy down the hall is devising a character blog by a talking moose to extend brand, he or she may hurt the brand or simply waste company resources, but that effort will not hurt yours, and that is why, in the long run, the simple, interactive credible path will prove to be the wise course for most companies whose employees take pride in their products and services.”

While Shel’s post is natually well written and thought provoking, several questions arise. While these thousands and thousands of employees all have different, and no doubt, interesting perceptions and viewpoints of their company, is it realistic to assume all of them, or even a large chunk of them, could blog or social network while maintaining the neccessary order and structure of the company and without significant legal ramifications? When does the conversation become too large and spread out? Doesn’t it cheapen the merit of blogs and convolute an already communications-saturated world. Though supposedly “anyone” can blog…should “anyone” blog?

This week on PR 2.0, a blog post aimed at PR professionals, Brian Solis asks, “Should PR Agencies Blog?”  BL Ochman offers a list of some new far from boring blogs and answers the question “Should Every Company Blog?” with an emphatic HELL NO

So, is it “blog or die?” “change or die?” Or even, “blog or become irrelavant?” I would venture to say no. I’m not going to deny the importance of blogging as a tool in corporate communication, I do argue that it is just that – a tool, not neccessarily a “revolution” as Scoble and Israel claim. Blogs cannot and will not replace “traditional” integrated marketing and PR strategies (many of which are far from traditional). A company interested in maintaining or devleloping an open channel of communication with its customers and constituents as a whole can utilize corporate blogs as part of their strategy. However, blogging cannot stand alone and cannot replace certain important marketing functions, at least not yet. While Microsoft marketers do use blogs, podcasts, streaming video,and social networking as part of an integrated strategy, we unquestionable still use direct marketing, email, events, promotions, PR campaigns, traditional sales pitching, etc. And we are an actual technology company – we cannot forget about those companies who are not and whose customers are vastly different.

The population of blogging and blog-reading citizens still pales in comparison to television viewers and even newspaper readers. Many companies with traditional cultures and traditional customer bases will not neccessarily convert their key constituents into blogosphere participants. Many of our grandparents or even parents have still not completely grasped the concept of PCs. How are we supposed to explain to them now that they have to participate in the world of blogging to maintain relevancy and to find out what’s going on in the world? This brings up a key example of companies who should not feel pressured to craft a blogging strategy – those who count the older population as a key demographic.

While I certainly believe blogs and Web 2.0 practices are still in the growth phase, the fast pace of technological development in general and web development specifically, raises some important questions about the near future. What will be the next “revolution” in marketing, PR, and business in general? It is certain that some other innovation will soon come along to either supplement or flat out replace the value of corporate blogging and the methods in which marketers and executives speak to their customers. When this happens, will blogs fade away as quick as they appeared or will blogging persist Will those who haven’t caught on to blogging be left in the dust or will they simply be able to move past the era of the blogosphere and jump on the next hot trend without skipping a beat?

Response to Robert Scoble & Shell Israel’s “Naked Conversations”

In the first half of Scoble and Israel’s “Naked Conversations,” the authors tout the blog as the newest corporate strategy for connecting with customers and all their key stakeholders while encouraging readers to ‘join the conversation.” The authors detail real-life case studies of successful business bloggers and offer advice to prospective bloggers

Scoble and Israel use Microsoft as an important case study, and continue their discussion of the corporation’s blogging efforts throughout the first half of the book. By developing a strategic and open blogging policy, Microsoft has embarked on the important task of healing its damaged public reputation. Slowly Microsoft is regaining trust from its constituents, transforming itself from the “evil empire” to a more open, trustworthy corporation. Through the eyes of the authors and several key blogging innovators at the company, this transformation is taking place because of blogging. According to former Microsoft blogger Lenn Pryor, when interviewed by Scoble and Israel, ‘Today, Microsoft is building relationships, while six months ago we were losing them’ (18).

In chapter two, the authors introduce a simple but powerful quote, relative to all developments and technology, “everything never changes.” While blogging is rapidly catching on (it is one of the fastest growing technologies in history) and shifting the way we communicate, in the larger scheme of things, it still hasn’t caused the kind of impact some predict. As the authors note, we won’t be able to measure the true impact of this new ’blogosphere’ until many years from now when we can see how business conversations have really been altered.

The authors define blogs in the context of six important elements, a combination of which is not found in any other medium. A successful blog must be: Publishable, Findable, Social, Viral, Syndicatable, and Linkable. For new bloggers, these pillars are an important start to building a successful blog. According to the authors, bloggings most important advantage is that it lets you listen to what your stakeholders and the public in general are saying about your product as well as allowing you to join the conversation.

I found Chapter 6: Consultants Who Get It, to be one of the most interesting and applicable chapters in Scoble and Israel. For those of us always searching for fresh tools and campaign ideas, this chapter offered some good advice from consultants specializing in blogging as well as from the authors. The authors bring up some important questions at the end of the chapter: Is blogging marketing? Consultant Toby Bloomberg believes blogging can be integrated into a companies’ marketing mix, because marketing and blogging are both about forming customer relationships. Scoble and Israel disagree. and claim that that instead of simply merging or integrating blogging with existing marketing campaigns, we should be

As with all new technologies in the Web 2.0 generation, questions arise with utilizing blogging as part of a Marketing or Public Relations Strategy. Perhaps I am biased since I am a Marketing Specialist for the “Evil Empire” Microsoft, but encouraging corporate executives and employees in general to blog seems to be one of the only logical steps to regaining consumers’ trust. Sales naturally branch from trust. I left my job as a PR and Marketing Specialist at an IT consulting firm that was extremely weary of participating in Web 2.0 practices. Everytime I mentioned blogging or social networking as a new strategy, I was outvoted. It was a very drastic change leaving a tech company still stuck in their old school ways to come to a tech company that openlyencourages marketers and all employees to blog (within corporate legal boundaries of course).

While there may be no clear metrics yet for measuring the impact of corporate blogging, I believe its impact can be measured simply by the comments readers leave, the blog posts others are writing and what they’re actually saying about the individual and company, and the company/executive’s Google rankings. According to Scoble and Israel “Google Juice” or the ranking a blog appears in a search engine, is vital to getting attention and awareness in the blogosphere.

Similar to how managers and executives were unsure at first of how to measure a PR campaign’s results ( some still struggle with it), it will take some time and catching up before we are able to truly measure a corporate blog’s
effectiveness. It definitely goes beyond ROI… the investment in this case, is not money, but time. And, although some would argue that a busy executive’s time is equal to money, the time and thought that goes into writing a blog post are tough to measure. I think we would all agree after writing several blog posts for this class, that it’s far from easy sometimes to find the time and the interesting ideas to post on our blog to make it actually worthwhile to readers. Honestly, after all this, I still felt a little skeptical about blogging until recently… I think I’m finally starting to
believe though, partly thanks to Scoble and Israel.

The Beauty of the RSS Reader

I can’t believe I just discovered this!….all this time I’ve spent precious hours going to my favorite websites and blogs while eating breakfast, lunch, taking a coffee break, etc., I could have been getting this same material delivered right to my Outlook or Google Reader page. I think I’m in love. For someone who works in the high tech industry, I sure have been out of the loop! Check out my shared items at http://www.google.com/reader/shared/11904683093872464818

While it would be an exhausting feat to read through every single one of these 500+ items per day, I’ve taken Nicco’s advice on a more manageable strategy. A few times a day when I have a minute to spare, I’ll go through the new items in Google Reader and glance at the headlines. If I don’t have time to read the ones I’m interested in, I’ll put a star next to them and come back to them later.

It still beats visiting all 30 something of these webpages every day, which would never happen. This way I get to read what I want and I can pick and choose what is most important or what I have time for.

Response to Cory Doctorow- Essential Blogging

In the first chapter of Essential Blogging, Cory Doctorow et. al. provide an interesting and accessible primer to those unfamiliar with the blogging concept. In his introduction, Doctorow injects humor and his first-hand experience with blogging into his writing to assist readers in grasping the concept and importance of blogging. One of my favorite quotes reminded me of myself and the way I’ve always devoured everything I could get my hands on in the way of articles and information (although lately it seems I have been slacking due to a packed schedule and being seriously over-extended)… “I have always been an avid infovore and a promiscous communicator, ingesting factoids by the netload and excreting them over anyone who’ll hold still. I love learning new things and before I had a blog, I’d write myself little notes and pass along choice tidbits to friends by email.” Now that I have officially entered the “blogosphere,” I look forward to having a space to pass along all those interesting articles and tidbits of information I find.

 Doctorow describes the important elements of a blog as the title, picture, posting, quote, link, discuss link, and attribution. This information will be helpful when starting to write my own blog.

I checked out the blog Doctorow contributes to, Boing Boing which I found extremely hard to keep up with and very few posts by Doctorow himself.  I counted about 20 posts in one day. However, I also checked out Doctorow’s personal blog, Craphound and discovered he just had a baby, which could explain his lack of posts.