Trump This, Colbert

With reports of corruption rampant in the recent Russian parliamentary elections (and documented in disturbing detail in this link by a volunteer election monitor), I am reminded that, however flawed, we are lucky to have the greatest and most free democratic system on the face of the planet.  And I am proud of this ...

But then, there was The Donald.

As if the Republican party needed more clowns in the circus that has become the field of 2012 presidential candidates, Donald Trump AKA "The Donald" announced this week that he intended to host a presidential debate on 27 December of this year, in an effort to ... well, as he says:

"I know a lot of the moderators and some are wonderful, and some aren't, but I know the issues better than the moderators," Trump explained yesterday on Piers Morgan Tonight. He added, referring to The Apprentice, "I get great ratings," which should convince any candidate to participate. "Frankly, this debate, with the right people in it, would be very, very successful."

Ah, ratings are the end goal.  Well, certainly, my interest is peeked, and should it come to fruition, I will most certainly be tuning in ... unless, of course, they turn it into a paid-per-view event.

As of 8 December, however, only one Republican nominee had confirmed his intent to participate, Newt Gingrich.  Actually, it might be more accurate to say that all nominees EXCEPT Newt Gingrich have expressly declined the invitation to participate.  The event, and The Donald, has received an endorsement and praise from Sarah Palin, who is resorting to calling "shame" on the candidates who have declined the event.  Well, if Sarah can't turn this around, nobody can.

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Regardless of whether The Donald can really turn out the event (which, given his stature and the fields' incredibly weak showing in real debates, may actually happen), another promising event is the proposed debate hosted by Steven Colbert, of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report.  And while this debate isn't confirmed (he is just hinting at it on his show ... see below), Colbert is trying to buy the January 21 GOP Primary naming rights ... "The Colbert Nation Super PAC Presidential Primary".  Sweet.  Myrtle Beach is hosting Republican debates on 16 January 2012, but wouldn't it be dreamy if they were hosted by Steven Colbert??  I would subscribe to THAT paid-per-view.

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Cloud Traffic in 2015: What is a Zettabyte?

Cisco, the worlds largest producer of internet switches and routers, estimates that that global cloud traffic will increase 12 fold by 2015!.   This is an amazing figure, especially when you consider that traditional data center traffic (yawn) is estimated to increase 4 fold in that time ... a staggering figure in and of itself!  In all, between cloud and traditional data center traffic, data traffic is estimated to reach 4.6 zettabytes by 2015!  Zettabytes!  How big of a portable flash drive will THAT be?

While we will all undoubtedly be using the "cloud" in the future, only 17% of the traffic is estimated to come from the use of emails, web browsing, Facebook and YouTube (seriously, who watches all of those useless YouTube videos?).  The majority of the remaining usage will be from company and research usage.  According to Venture Beat's Sean Ludwig:

"The most notable reason for shifting from local data centers to cloud data centers? Cold hard cash. As an enterprise company uses more servers operated by cloud companies, the cost per server greatly decreases. When a company reaches the 1,000-server mark, the cost differential between using local data centers and cloud data centers is nearly 50 percent."

"One ZETTA bytes!"

Regardless of how you size it up, as an entrepreneur and/or business manager, the cloud is going to be an indispensable part of our lives and our businesses in the very near future.  Plan accordingly or be stuck with the 2015 version of a "dial-up" connection.

NOTE: It does leave me with one question ... once we reach 99.99 zettabytes, what comes next??

The Cisco Cloud Growth Diagram, available through Cisco's white paper on "Cisco Global Cloud Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2010-2015".

Facebook vs Google+: Cage Match

First, there was Friendster, which faded as fast as it hit the scene in 2002.  Then there was MySpace, created in 2003 by former employees of Friendster who saw the potential of the service and realized its grave weaknesses.  MySpace showed potential, especially after being purchased by Rupert Murdoch in 2005 for a paltry sum of $580M, and it seemed poised to become the dominate social networking site for our generation.  But then they both ... faded and died.  Now, Friendster is a social gaming site focused mainly in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, and MySpace was recently sold for $35M to a small group of investors, including Justin Timberlake.  So what went wrong, and is there another big shakeout looming between Google+ and Facebook?

I recently discussed with students at Coastal Carolina University the necessities for creating a sustainable business in today's rapidly evolving global business place.  One of the examples I like to use is Facebook.  How did Facebook survive and even go on to flourish in the social networking realm after Friendster and MySpace failed so monumentally.  I think the answer is in Vision ... setting its sights beyond a social meeting spot to becoming the social web's preeminent operating platform.

Indeed, most people see a social networking sight as an online place to meet friends, share pictures and log personal activity.  Simple, and if you believe the factual aspects of "The Social Network", Facebook started in just this way.  The problem is that our fickle attitudes and "culture of instant gratification" requires sites to provide constantly new and fresh content, otherwise we roam and find more interesting places.  Facebook evidently saw this coming (or learned from the slaughter of MySpace) and realized quickly that they needed to set higher goals.  So, they set out to become the social web's dominate operating platform by becoming integrating in every aspect of our life.  Thus far, they've done a remarkable job attracting 800M users ... without the ability to personalize your background (blue and white is so boring)!

And everyday, Facebook creeps deeper into our lives.  Don't believe me?  When was the last time you downloaded an app or created a profile for a news service by selecting "Sign On With Facebook"?  FB is becoming ubiquitous in cyberspace.  This is evidence further by a recent study by Sociable Labs and reported on TechCrunch.com, which shows just how Facebook has ingrained itself in our everyday internet usage.  The study shows that "50% of visitors to ecommerce sites were logged into Facebook ... using Facebook Social Plugins and Connect integration".  A Facebook spokesperson also confirmed that "88% of Internet Retailer Top 200 retail sites are integrated with Facebook".  That's incredible!

And Facebook is not done.  They have increased their appeal to businesses, going as far as to offer free "Bootcamp" seminars to teach small business managers to utilize the numerous FB features and tap into the immense FB database.  And, although the company boasts that its strategy is simple and focused on growing their core business, recent news (although not recently rumored) is that Facebook is creating its own phone through HTC.  According to AllThingsD.com:

"Code-named “Buffy,” after the television vampire slayer, the phone is planned to run on a modified version of Android that Facebook has tweaked heavily to deeply integrate its services, as well as to support HTML5 as a platform for applications, according to sources familiar with the project."

Whether you like the idea or feel it all could lead to the abuse of power, one thing is true ... Facebook is not going anywhere.

So the big question is whether Google+ has the power and prowess to unseat Facebook as the champion of the social web ... even if the helm is shortly held.  Google has the money, the power, the reach and the ability, but my bet is still on Facebook.  And, whether you like the perceived invasion of privacy or not, I believe that advances in online security, the growing popularity of the "cloud", and future generations openness and willingness to share information is the future of this business, and Facebook is already taking us there.   If you don't like it, disable your Facebook profile ... but good luck logging in to every online membership you have in the future!!

Back Away From My XBox360

This past Black Friday reminded me of two things: 1) I hate to shop and 2) people are nuts.  Before even reading about the chaos around the country after the fact, the tension from Black Friday was felt here at home in Myrtle Beach.  It turns out that an attack in a parking lot of our local Walmart (which is never a good place, by the way, regardless of the day) ended in gunshots and a wounded 55 year old woman.  The attack was eventually thwarted by her 58 year old friend who pulled her own "gat".  The news wouldn't be so disturbing if I, in my infinite selfishness, hadn't sent my wife into the fray that night in search of a mystical $39 Blue Ray player (hey, someone had to stay home with the kids ... and she is arguably tougher than me).   Luckily for us, her common sense prevailed over my nagging for HD movies when she saw the mess in the Walmart parking lot and avoided the situation altogether.

That wasn't the only drama around the country.  According to the the AP, here are other fun festivities you missed out on if you decided to stay put on Thursday night/Friday morning:

• A woman turned herself in to police after allegedly pepper-spraying 20 other customers at a Los Angeles-area Walmart on Thursday in what investigators said was an attempt to get at a crate of Xbox video game consoles. 
• A security guard pepper-sprayed customers seeking electronics before the start of a midnight sale in Kinston, NC.
• Crowds in New York reportedly looted a clothing store in Soho. 
• A man was bloodied while being subdued by police officer on suspicion of shoplifting a video game in a Walmart in Phoenix, AZ.
• A shooting was reported outside a store in San Leandro, CA.
• Shots were reported at a mall in Fayetteville, NC. 
• A stabbing occurred outside a store in Sacramento, NY.

That's enough chaos to encourage me to shop online for the rest of my life.  Let's just hope I can find that Blue Ray DVD player on Cyber Monday. 

Thank you again, Steven Colbert:

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And this is just nuts:

Thankful For ...

Since this is the time of year when we pause and give thanks for those things that we often overlook or take for granted, I thought I would reflect upon the 50 things I am thankful for on this day ... no in any order and not necessarily reflective of overall thankfulness.
Happy Thanksgiving!
1. Opposable thumbs
2. My beautiful, selfless, caring and wonderful wife, Flyura
3. Washable Crayola markers
4. College football
5. Toys that don't require batteries
6. Wrist watches (for not becoming completely obsolete ... yet)
7. Proper merge-lane etiquette
8. Air
9. Soft pillows
10. Netflix
11. Sunshine ... and sunglasses
12. Freedom
13. I.P.A.
14. My fantastic, excitable, and outgoing son, Christopher
15. The smart people at Apple who gave me my iPhone
16. Good running shoes
17. My inspiring, sprite, and energetic father, Pete Sr. (Pappy)
18. 4 walls and a ceiling
19. Jeans that fit
20. Broadband internet
21. A good book of fiction
22. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report Nation
23. Quiet
24. My awesome, fun loving and caring brother, Dave
25. Hard work
26. Saturdays
27. Skype
28. A healthy back
29. 20/20 vision at the age of 40 (albeit fading)
30. Readily available information
31. Close friends ... you know who you are
32. Good nail clippers
33. Good coffee
34. Fantasy Football and Fantasy Baseball
35. Airlines ... for getting us where we need to go, eventually
36. Clean water
37. Twitter, for giving me my news in 140 characters or less
38. The fact that facial hair is a style right now
39. Food on our table
40. GPS
41. Particle physics
42. Mathematics
43. Flipboard
44. My fantastic business partners, Rhett, Emily and Robin
45. The under-appreciated move, 1941
46. My teeth
47. A sense of humor
48. Early post-WWII era music
49. Symmetry and round numbers
50. And of course, this bundle of joy: