Dear FTC. Give Amazon rights to user data and solve the privacy and hacker problems that plague America!

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[Update:] Maybe some people have misunderstood what I’m getting at, so I decided to spell out some of the main points below:

1. Amazon’s Silk browser uses their cloud to put together a web page and deliver an optimized version for a device. The device does not communicate with other data centers, only with Amazon’s EC2 cloud (unless disabled).

2. Although marketed as an optimizer, aggregating and optimizing web pages puts Amazon in a position to protect web users from hackers and nefarious marketers. If used as the sole access to the internet, Amazon can more easily protect user data than any other source (including anti-virus tools).

3. My guess is other companies are already working on a similar cloud optimizer. I would not be surprised to see Google, Microsoft, Apple, and IBM (partnered with Firefox?) release their own aggregator/optimizer.

4. I suggest to the FTC that rather than policing user data, allow the aggregators to gather it, protect it, and sell it to marketing firms.

5. I theorize that when an aggregator abuses user data, it is best to let the free market choose how their data is used by moving to a different aggregation source.

6. All of our problems solved (I know just a tad bit too simple). Enjoy my blog post.

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Looks like Facebook has agreed to be audited by the FTC for the next 20 years. Sounds like the FTC may have a hard time even finding a company to audit how they are using the data they collect. Facebook has been accused of tracking users across multiple sites and selling/using that data with advertisers. This really cracks me up! I remember sitting in a conference room with David Humphries when I worked at Omniture discussing how we could do similar tracking. I was the technical resource for the Business Development group at the time. Of course, it was all about cookie sharing across multiple clients and creating an industry-wide standard for data collection. After seeing 3^rd party “social plugins” offered by Facebook on cnn.com and other sites, it was obvious how they could use that to track users across the internet and use that data for hyper-focused advertising or, as I like to call it, “Marketers Gold”.

FTC Sheriff of User Data

Now, Dear FTC. Please, please stop wasting your money. Please don’t send out sheriffs to patrol the wild west of user data. It’s time to give trustworthy people ownership of the user data and— hear it is — privatize it! Let someone own it, protect it, and, yes, sell it. (Can’t we learn from the history of our own “Wild West?) Let’s face it, all the online marketing companies (and hackers) have been given a free-ride with user data. It is time for some order, and guess what, a company you are targeting for privacy concerns could end up solving all of the privacy and hacker issues that affect America and the World.

Amazon has just introduced their silk browser that uses the Amazon cloud to optimize how the web page is delivered to their browser. All requests are routed through their servers and rebuilt for optimized delivery to the silk browser. I hope you can see the potential here for Amazon to be a guardian of private data and not an abuser. All the data that gets pushed out from a user’s browser would be pushed out through Amazon, and potentially, blocked. Now, here is where you, the FTC, can parcel out the wild west of user data. Let Amazon block ALL data getting passed out and allow them to charge companies to stream user data out from their cloud. If you do this, it allows Amazon to more quickly monetize their setup as a guardian of data. And, guess what, other cloud services that aggregate data will pop up and consumers can choose which cloud they want to use to connect to the internet. These aggregators will be more adept at protecting themselves from hackers and nefarious marketers. At that point, it is just a matter of auditing the data that is passed out from the various clouds to marketing firms (and ensure the marketing firms are not hackers). User’s can choose which aggregation center protects their data better than others, creating a free market where user’s can leave one cloud for another if their own data is misused.

I believe at some point in the future this will be the prominent model of data distribution. We can fight against it, or we can embrace it and encourage it to grow. The internet has been really free and not many expect or want organization applied to it. But I’m sure that Henry Ford would never have imagined the number of laws and the order that has been applied to driving a car Today. This is coming and I’m sure if you fight against it, 20 years from now, many techies will smile and laugh and say “What was the FTC thinking!”.

Learn from Measurement to Accelerate Innovation

At a client I was surprised by one of the concerns they have with measuring web traffic in general. Their concern is not with technology, manpower or budget, the concern is with culture. Their culture is highly innovative and creative and there are hints of resistance to web measurement. This has created concerns that web measurement will not be fully embraced. I was actually a bit surprised by this. I see measurement and innovation, done well, as the next innovation focused disruptor. One of my favorite subjects during my MBA was innovation; culture was always stressed as important for enabling innovation and implementing strategy. Of course, changing culture is akin to turning a large cruise liner. It is a large effort that takes a lot of time. The more I thought about this client, the more I could see the reasons for the resistance. Organization and innovation are polar opposites. The dark side of innovation is free movement, but utter chaos. The dark side of organization is complete organization with no movement. These two sides need each other to operate properly, but leaning to one side or the other depends on the state of the market. Anything with the web, mobile, cloud, etc. as a market needs to lean heavily to the innovative side. Otherwise, as we continue to see in this ever changing world, companies focused on organization bite the dust. My hope is that this client can stop seeing web measurement as another form of measurement and accountability, but as a tool for learning.

We’ve all heard the mantras, “You don’t know what you can’t measure”, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”, etc. These are valid statements that are more on the organization side (needed to take advantage of innovation). They are like the brakes on a car. If you drive a car without brakes how fast are you really going to drive? But any innovative company should be concerned, if these brakes are misused; they freeze up, the car stops moving and the competition passes by. So, yes, there is a dark side to measurement. Measurement is organization, plain and simple. If measurement is used as a way to just show reports and ensure some incremental improvement to the status quo, there is reason for concern. If reports are used in this way the company is merely policing the status quo. The big question should always be, “Am I Learning Something?”. If there is no learning there is no way to challenge the status quo which is necessary for small to big innovations. If measurement is used as a learning tool, it can empower innovation and further accelerate innovation. If used as a learning tool the incremental and LARGE improvements will come because you know your market and your customers. That is what I love about Tealeaf’s set of tools. Yes, you can create some great reports and measure incremental improvements, but the most powerful piece is understanding the customer experience. This puts a real story behind the numbers and empowers innovation. Being able to drill in to individual sessions based on abandonments, voice-of-customer, time-to-complete, customer-struggle, etc. moves it from numbers on a report to a learning experience. My hope here is that eventually this company I am working with will see Tealeaf as an accelerator to innovation and not just another reporting tool. In that way, turning that cruise-liner of a culture doesn’t need to happen. Innovation can move forward accelerated with customer experience learning.

Innovative Culture and Innovative Techniques

So I have had a few questions based on my last post and I want to make some clarifications with this post. In my last post I talked about how Omniture had gone from a highly innovative culture to a more organized culture. I’m hesitant to make this post for a couple of reasons: First, because I have used Omniture as an example for what I have learned on innovation, and I don’t mean to keep pointing fingers, but I learned a lot about how corporations work through observation of their organization while I was pursuing an MBA. Second, because I feel I’m getting a little off task of the original use of my blog site, namely looking at how storing incredible amounts of data is changing the world around us.

But, since I have already digressed in my last couple of posts, I’ll continue the digression and see if I can get back on task in the future. It’s turning more into a blog on organizational behavior and innovation. And I’ll just see where that goes.

So, some of the questions I received:

1. So are you saying that a company can only be innovative if there are no processes in place?

I wasn’t saying that at all. You definitely need processes no matter what the organization. The teachings of my professors and my personal observations of the workplace point out the more you concentrate on organization or “processes” the more you are really inhibiting innovation and locking the company into stagnation. The less you focus on organization and processes the more room you have to innovate but it also creates creating chaos. Going down the dark side of organization you are frozen by the processes around you. It is extremely efficient, but only in so far as the processes allow for efficiencies. Going the other way, down the dark side of innovation, there is utter chaos. No processes are in place to manage what is done or take advantage of what is done. Of course, we don’t want to go down the dark side of either side, so normally there is a line that needs to be smartly managed. It takes a REALLY good manager to understand where the line should be placed and that normally is done by way of where the market is and any opportunities that may present themselves. If a market is just emerging, in flux or uncertain then erring towards the side of innovation and less processes is the way to go. If the market is mature with little opportunities or disruptions then erring towards the side of organization and more processes is the way to go. But erring towards organization can be very dangerous because it is a hard hole to dig out of. If disruptors were to come along, and the organization was unable to move back into innovation, then you may find yourself out of business.

Now some may debate where the market is for online analytics and digital marketing. I think we are still in the beginning stages of the market and there are MANY potential disruptors on the horizon. I happen to think that the future of digital marketing is still up in the air and the prize will go to the most innovative company of the bunch. I wasn’t saying that Omniture is not innovative; I’m saying they are less innovative because processes have been given priority (in many cases) to innovation. That doesn’t mean they can’t change. I indeed hope Adobe learns from past mistakes, finds the innovators, and treats them well. I’ll talk more about how to find the real innovators later on.

Now, I’ll talk a little about Utah culture. I hate to say it, but it’s very true and people need to realize the dangers. You see, for those of you who don’t know, Utah is a very religious state. Take a look at the LDS church and look at it as an organization. It is extremely organized with many processes! The church members love the organization and everything runs like clockwork, as it should, the market is pretty much set for religious practitioners (if you want to see it that way). The Mormons aren’t going to change or modify any of their practices and beliefs to gain market share, at least not much. Anyway, the point here is that a lot of the managers in Utah companies come from an LDS background, and they believe it is not good to question authority. Many people don’t question because it is perceived as being disloyal. One of the main tenants of innovation is to question everything, especially your boss. Also, a lot of Utah companies are successful because they employ a top-down innovation technique i.e. founder innovates and has workers carry out the vision. I think that is why we see a lot of successful start ups in Utah. People are very smart here and willing to work hard. But I also think it is a reason why we don’t have many really big companies here. Because the technique of employing bottom-up innovation is not used once the organization finds success. I honestly think that is one of the reasons Eric Schmidt sees the importance of innovation because he had to struggle through the culture at Novell. He understands that only bottom-up innovation is scalable. Top-down innovation works well at first, but once the top has success; some can be less mentally invested because they have found their millions. It’s the bottom who is mentally invested at that point to innovate, and the top has difficulty giving up that kind of control. So, yea, it’s great that the Utah culture is on the organized side, but don’t forget to nurture innovation in the workplace. I think that is an area where Utah has some issues, but like is said in the Mormon religion, work at it and weak things can become strong (weaknesses become strengths).

Another question that was asked is the following:

2. So what techniques can be used to innovate in the workplace?

This is where it gets fun. There are several things that can be done to be innovative, but all should be used together to find innovative methods.

a. Questioning

In the classes I took with Jeff Dyer the one thing that really stuck out is questioning. Relentlessly questioning the status-quo (which Utah has a tough time doing). Challenging the status quo can put things into perspective and tees up the organization for innovation. My favorite story is the one of Edwin Land. He was taking a picture of his niece with a camera, and she asked to see the picture. He explained that she couldn’t see the picture now, only later. She innocently asked “Why not?” Edwin thought to himself, “Indeed, why not?” and invented the Polaroid camera. It was an outrageous question that challenged the status quo. Without that one question we may not have had the Polaroid camera as an invention. It’s not the question itself that is innovation, it merely spurs the process. But, in most cases, questioning is the beginning of innovation.

b. Observation

Observation is an important skill for innovation and I think this is where Steve Jobs excels. He can understand the details of what the consumer wants by simply observing their behavior. I think he is extremely adept at taking mental notes of how users respond to different interfaces for their products. Rather than looking at data and requests, he understands the details of what a user is experiencing and can hone in to that experience to create some great products. Taking mental notes of how a customer reacts to a product or problem is very important to innovation. IDEO takes this to the extreme by having their designers literally “be” the product and observer the world around them to understand how the world interacts with it. Although not the only technique to innovation it is an important one.

c. Experimentation

Experimentation is not what you would expect. It is not trying experiments on your present problem; it is crossing borders to try something new. This can complicate your life and your field of work, but provides valuable insights that you can’t get in other ways. Experiment by reading up on other techniques used in other industries. Attend conferences that are different from your field of work. Keep interests up outside of your normal day-to-day routine. Explore new worlds!

d. Networking

This one kind of surprised me, but makes total sense. Find smart people in other departments and other industries and meet with them (e.g. for lunch) and discuss their present projects, ideas and problems. Explain your projects, ideas and problems and you may be surprised by some of the insight that comes from others outside your department and field of work. It is one of the reasons IDEO looks for different backgrounds for their designers. It is a way to mesh different ideas and create something innovative that has not been thought of.

e. Associations

Creating associations is extremely important in innovation and it is more of a natural ability. This is a cognitive skill that allows someone to make connections across seemingly unrelated objects. By experimenting and networking one can have a bigger store of ideas, questions and problems to create connections with. The skill of association is VERY important to innovation and is the prime reason why one should experiment and network. The associations between seemingly disparate ideas are often the core of innovation.

That bring up another question that I’ve had, and I’m sure some managers have:

3. So how do I find the innovators in my organization?

This one is actually pretty easy, but can be a little counter-intuitive. There are individuals in an organization who are mainly concerned with the company as a whole. They are interested in the technology and the customer. But these people can often be perceived as a “pain in the ass”. I’m sure you have met the worker that questioned everything around him. He questions the bosses work and where the execs were taking the company. In short he was perceived as a “pain in the ass” and is often perceived as disloyal. This is where a good manager who knows how to nurture innovation comes in. They need to determine if the worker is a “pain in the ass” or a “pain in the asset”. If they are merely a “pain in the ass” get rid of them, but if it turns out they are a “pain in the asset”, empower them and let their ideas take shape and form. Questioning is a big point to innovation. You will be surprised by what they can do because they simply question the status quo. If they also do a good job at observing, experimenting and networking be ready for some great insights. If they also excel at associations, get ready to be rich.

Adobe Omniture Acquistion: Innovation is Key

So I have had some time to think about the Adobe acquisition of Omniture and wanted to relay some of my thoughts on the merger. I, like most, was extremely surprised at the move. This definitely feels like a good partnership, but an acquisition? It was a little hard for me to swallow. When I left Omniture almost one year ago I was asked to drop everything and work on integrating metrics tracking into flash communication server. I had scoped the work, but at the last moment decided I was ready to move on. Halloween was my last day and I got to see the execs rent “little people” as Munchkins for their Wizard of Oz theme. Every year the execs rented midgets and it made me snicker (4 years total).

Like I said in previous posts, I was sad to leave, but Omniture wasn’t feeling as innovative as they had been (at least the department I was in). Omniture does have a strong culture, but that was morphing into more organized and clanish. For most at Omniture it didn’t matter because at some point we were “destined to make it big”.

So, let’s speculate on what happened at Omniture. The one thing that gave me comfort at Omniture was that Josh James was shooting for the moon. He was looking to do 1 Billion in Revenue. I still remember at an Omniture Summit when he announced his vision and Eric Petersen, while explaining the importance of a vision, said soon afterward “I don’t think that will happen, but at least Josh has a vision”. I don’t think Eric was invited again then after. Well, looks like Eric is right, at least in part. The Omniture business unit may still achieve the billion mark, just not on its own now. Josh’s high expectations were comforting because it meant the company was going all the way. We were looking to be the next IBM or Oracle and it was part of our vision. I was on board 100 percent.

If they were shooting for the moon like this why did they sell? Someone was feeling the pressure and I don’t think it was the executive team. Those guys were hyper focused on building the company to be the next Salesforce. I think the execs had confidence that the stock would rebound. Or, I have to question, did they? With Google and others putting extreme pressure on clients to switch and creeping costs they may have been feeling the pressure.

My guess is that the executive team still had the same vision. But with clients leaving for Google and Unica (maybe even Tealeaf) and with the difficulty in keeping costs low, the Omniture board voted to take a bird in the hand. My guess is there was an offer to enhance Adobe’s own position and the Omniture board took the bait. At this point the executive team is just making the best of the decision. That’s what I think happened, but I’ve been wrong before, sometimes very wrong.

I tend to agree with Omni_man Adam Greco about Omniture’s ability to integrate products. They did have a hard time focusing, but I think that comes from the change in their culture. Innovators became gun shy because failure was getting high visibility from an organized-clanish culture. The old innovative culture just plowed through the failures to create some great products. Now there is a lot of finger pointing and power plays. I was very sad to see the change, but I do feel it was the fault of execs who hired management from large companies who were very good at being “organized”. The product and the digital marketing industry are not ready for that type of management. Innovation should have been the focus; it still should be the focus. Rather than hiring externally, Omniture could have hired internal innovators and paid for them to get their MBA. Innovators like Richard Zinn, Josh Ezro, Chris Error and Catherine Wong should have been given that opportunity. Catherine is now a VP over integrations which is good, but who let Richard Zinn walk away? Richard’s combination of innovative spirit and ambition would have spelled super innovative leader with an MBA. If there was someone that fought for him to stay, that’s the person who knows the importance of these types of people. Chris Error would have been an innovative rock star with a few organizational behavior and project management classes.

I recently finished my MBA and after taking a class on mergers and acquisitions I was surprised at some of the mistakes that Omniture made, specifically with Touch Clarity. It was a technology acquisition and all the metrics that would indicate a successful technology acquisition were not ideal. Take a look at linkedin and the talent exodus is definitely not a good sign. a Technology acquisition is all about the people. Keeping the people and allowing them to innovate is the big key. Omniture learned from this acquisition that due diligence could have been better and pre-acquisition integration work would have helped or at least given some warning signs. After the Touch Clarity and Instadia acquisitions, Omniture created task forces to work on the organization and cultural integration of acquisitions (i.e. websidestory). But when it comes to even more horizontal acquisitions like Offermatica, product integrations are a little more difficult. It would have been a breeze 3-5 years ago, but the culture change from innovative to organized-clanish made the innovators gun shy and the bureaucracy was tiring. This is only the fault of management and not the fault of the innovators themselves. Offermatica is a technology acquisition where hopefully the technical innovators stay. As for Adobe, Omniture is also a technology acquisition, don’t forget the innovators.

As far as the product synergies, I think most everyone in other blogs have touched on them. One of the value propositions I was working on when I left was automatic tracking of videos served by flash communication server. Obviously with the convergence of traditional media and the web, this is a great move. They could easily unseat Nielsen for media tracking and push flash as a standard for media delivery. The other tracking pieces are important, but the shot at standardized media delivery and tracking for top media companies is huge.

Overall, I wasn’t surprised to see this move by Adobe, but I was surprised by Omniture’s acceptance. The exec team was focused on making the company into the next Oracle. But with pressures from competitors, the economy, and cost structures my guess is the board voted to sell. I have heard that Adobe is even more business focused (organized) than Omniture. My only suggestion to Adobe is to find those innovators at Omniture and treat them VERY VERY well. Empower them and let them try things that may fail, because when there are failures, that is when they are at their best! (See my article on innovation and failures).