Monday, October 17, 2005
October 17 Carnival of the Capitalists
Welcome to part two of the second anniversary celebration of Carnival of the Capitalists. In case you missed the first part, at BusinessPundit, be sure to check it out. The first CotC was hosted two years and a week ago by Rob. His brilliant idea led to all this. The second was hosted by me. I’ve done most of the implementation and management of CotC. Many other fine blogs have hosted editions of CotC, and I thought I would try listing and linking all those that still exist toward the end of this post. If the entries in CotC don’t leave you fully sated, you might check them out.
My apologies for the behind schedule completion of this edition. The biggest drawback has been Deb being quite sick, me being somewhat sick, and Sadie being her intensive self. Since we’re all volunteers hosting CotC, there’s not much room to complain. As the coordinator, I just like to know if there’ll be a delay, rather than being left wondering if the hosting has fallen through completely.
When I have hosted in the past, I have given up any attempts at categorizing entries. That’s not required, but I believe readers find it helpful. I’d be interest in knowing if that is or isn’t the case. Indeed, this edition of CotC is a big opportunity to comment and provide feedback, which I intend to invite more than once in this post. This time, I went through with categorization, which I found adds a good bit of effort. I also selected for special attention posts I particularly liked or found significant. This doesn’t mean other posts are not worthy. In some cases it was tough excluding others from “recommended” status. It’s possible if I went through the whole bunch over again, the mix would change with my mood. Take my recommendations for what they’re worth. Those entries will be first, and I will note with each one the category where I would otherwise have placed it.
Some entries don’t have a category. See, one of the jobs of a CotC host is to weed out off-topic entries. This is tough for two reasons. One is the inherent difficulty in telling people no, especially if they are well-liked bloggers, or if their posts are of general interest, “on-topic” or not. The other is that “on-topic” can be in the eye of the beholder, and can be expanded or contracted to some degree.
What is on-topic for Carnival of the Capitalists? Anything on the broad topics of economics, business, and capitalism (in the theory and philosophy sense). Broken down further, you could make an extensive list including but not limited to economics, taxes and tax policy, monetary policy, finance, accounting, investing, management, business operations, business in the news, entrepreneurship, advertising, marketing, business law, human resource issues, regulation…
It’s a big range. Something for everyone.
I’ve seen people list what is on-topic for CotC and include politics. No. It’s not. However, it’s going to appear so at times, given the unfortunate tendency for the political environment and process to bear on economics and business. In this very edition lies a post on tax policy that of necessity mentions reactions right and left. Another proposes to categorize people by economic outlook, and of necessity compares and contrasts political outlooks that may not match as one might expect. Neither of these could be mistaken for a post about “politics” per se.
The other main requirement is that a post submitted for inclusion in CotC consist of substantive original writing, as opposed to being primarily a link or collection of links, or citation of another source, with little or no text contributed by the author of the post. Sometimes the line is fuzzy or in the eye of the beholder. I was lenient in this regard, but I have hosted in the past and rejected posts that were essentially “hey, go look at this article I’ve linked, you’ll like it” in nature.
I decided to do an experiment. As I went through the entries, I found some that might be construed as off-topic. What do you think? I am including them in their own section. No offense intended to the authors, as indeed there are some excellent entries among them, including a couple I’ve had second thoughts about. I decided to leave all of them and let the readers opine. This is the second group of entries below; nearly a position of honor, and I am encouraging people to go, read, and make up their own minds.
Note that I have included this edition of CotC in The TTLB ÜberCarnival, and hope that future CotC hosts will do so as well.
I’ll save further commentary for the end of the post. Other than the first two groups, the categories appear in the order in which the first such entry came in. Within categories, entries are in order received, more or less rewarding the earlybirds. Not that I can talk. Where entrants supplied descriptions/summaries of their posts, I have often used those, as is, edited, or expanded, in the descriptions below. In some cases I used quotes to indicate the text came from the post author, but I was inconsistent. Ah well. Here you go…
Host Recommendations
This is an excellent post that Skip summarized as follows:
“In my experience and based on my own management style, managers seems to focus on one of three areas when making decisions: past performance, current state of things or future predictions.”
It fits with things I have observed, and before I had finished reading the post, my conclusion was similar to his.
Category: Management
A random walk through the world of buying small businesses
This is an informative post business brokers and some of what’s involved in buying a business. It brought back memories of my father seeking to sell his business. It was done through an attorney, but the confidentiality aspect was as important as described in Foobarista’s post.
Category: Business
Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog
This post, of both managerial and personal interest, reminds us that our goals have context, depending on our perception of reality and the influences that have shaped us. Can our context change?:
Category: Management
New iPod & iTunes, It’s the Integration That Matters
Apple’s announcement of the new iPod with video playback and iTunes with video distribution along with Disney/ABC’s announcement of downloadable TV programs is an important stage in the development of Apple’s integrated system of hardware, software and content distribution.
Category: Business
Speaking of business experiments, this entire site is a fantastic one, with posts inspired by and publicly documenting a challenge to create a new business and requisite identity within a brief time. In this case, great advice on choosing a business name. One of my rules of thumb is to pretend you are answering the phone, repeatedly, using the name you have in mind. Another is to Google it before you ever use it, to see what else people will find if they search your name, and to see what uses, if any, it may already have been given. Of possible interest, there is a followup post on naming, including links to posts and resources elsewhere.
Category: Marketing
An exploration of what was and was not in Apple’s recent video iPod announcement, and how their strategy compares to the PVR and season DVD models.
Category: Marketing
Rate your neighbor’s economic attitude
Here’s a concise table to help you classify your friends’ and neighbors’ economic attitude as Type A, B, C, or D. It’s a fascinating way of looking at where people fall, and as Steve notes, there’s a difference between economic and political outlooks.
Category: Economics
This is an excellent discussion of business basics; accounting for all your costs when determining profit and whether the effort is worthwhile, and the realities of pricing. Nothing like a homeschooler’s small enterprise to remind us of the fundamentals.
Category: Business
Why Management is Really Like Math
This post looks at why every person claims to be a good manager, and why they are often wrong. There are skills to be learned and tools to be used, and not in a “one solution fits all” way that make for bad management.
Category: Management
TAX REFORM PANEL STIRS UP HORNETS NEST
In which they ponder the support for bad tax policy from the right and the left, in light of reactions to ideas floated by the Tax Advisory Panel.
I’d been thinking of writing about this myself, when Deb brought it to my attention. The AMT must go. It amuses me that they are trying to adjust to make it revenue-neutral, rather than sucking it up. It amuses me that they would go after a “third rail” tax policy preference item like the mortgage interest deduction. The economic implications and regional housing price differences matter too much for an arbitrary, non-zero ceiling on the deduction. I think the frenzy is indeed indicative of deeper tax policy issues.
Category: Taxes
Off-Topic?
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, these are entries that at least initially struck me as off-topic. There are at least two that I would tend, after reflection, to label as category of Management or Business and include.
What do you, the readers, think? Do these belong? How would you classify them if you were hosting Carnival of the Capitalists? Comment away!
Demolition, Scrap Metal and Salvage News and Info
Pictures of Demolition, Wrecking, and Concrete Crushing Equipment
Cool pictures of various equipment used in demolition.
Diversity Management, Equality, Equal Opportunities, Affirmative Action, News & We The People!
“The article is about Racism and Psychology and is appicable in the context of Diversity Management.”
A tale of one conference panel
“Everyone is talking about diversity on conference panels, so I give a behind-the-scenes look at how one panel go populated.” Interesting post about attempting to maintain diversity while populating a panel at the BlogHer conference.
Planning The Perfect Event: Jennifer O’Neill
“Your Business Blogger recently attended the annual fund raiser for the Baltimore Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC). The event was flawless (or made to appear so, which is even more impressive). When planning your next event or evaluating a get-together, consider this four part test which every good, SAFE party has: speaker, audience, food, entertainment.”
A discussion of how technology-dependent we are as bloggers, and as a society these days.
Economics
Andrew Hughes, creator of Carnival of Computing and past CotC host here and there, takes a look at this mysterious guy who controls the price of gasoline.
Are dense cities economically inefficient?
Explores whether the high cost of living in dense cities like New York are the result of economic inefficiencies.
Review of new paper by Emory profs Paul Rubin and Joanna Shepherd applying accidental death statistics to prove that tort reform actually reduces the incidence of accidental death. Why the counterintuitive economic result?
The Prudent Investor - Seeing Too Many Bubbles
M3 and Public Debt Hit Record Highs - Refco Disaster Will Add Still More Liquidity
Despite the last 11 interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve which led to an increase of 275 % the amount of money in circulation is growing at an ever increasing speed. In combination with the general worsening of economic indicators and major disruptions in the financial markets the likelihood of a recession seems to become a surefire bet. I know in my house we’ve been wondering what Greenspan is thinking, the last couple rate increases, so it’s interesting to learn of the contrary way the money supply has been going, increases notwithstanding. It sounds a bit grim.
Does the latest CPI release indicate that inflation has returned?
Comments and questions on intellectual property rights and “public interest,” in the form of a primarily excerpt and link-oriented post.
Internet Business and Business Blogging
The editor of Blawg Review, who’s hosting Carnival of the Capitalists next, discusses the attention mainstream media is now paying attention to blog carnivals as blog networks, in the context of two recent internet deals.
Why CNET Loses From AOL’s Acquisition of Weblogs Inc
A thoughtful analysis of the impact of the AOL purchase of Weblogs Inc. on CNET, with a bit on Gawker Media for good measure.
BPWrap - A Different Point Of View
Some CEO’s seem to be blissfully unaware that their websites are as much help in selling as those new clothes the Emperor wore. Good commentary on the importance of design and usability for an effective company web site.
Investing, Finance and Accounting
This post, first in a series, looks at and opines on uncomplicated investing strategies discussed in a Kiplinger article.
Art as a really alternative investment
This looks at the rise of new fine art investment funds. But are they a good idea?:
The Good Faith Estimate (Part I)
If you’re interested in the workings of the mortgage business, or in obtaining a mortgage, this lengthy, detailed post will provide you with a great deal of information on the finer points of how you might be misled, and what fees may or should be involved.
Barry Ritholtz looks at the ongoing debate between fundamental and technical analysts, and in light of that failure of fundamentals to see where Delphi Automotive was headed, even up to the last minute.
A Recap of the Week’s Events At Refco
Blogging the Refco story as it happens from the Refco press release on Monday to near bankruptcy on Friday and the cost of losing confidence. $430 Million in related party transactions is a most impressive chunk of change to overlook.
Taxes
“Some state tax data may show the rich are getting even richer than we thought.”
Marketing
Christopher Carfi discusses the consumer and competition implications of Apple’s Video iPod business plans.
Another Offer That’s Too Good To Be True...Or Is It Really That Good?
“I just received in the mail another offer that looks great! Maybe too great. That’s the problem, it’s too good be true. Where’s the small print? I know somewhere in here there’s a catch. The time is likely right for an honest offer, an offer that’s sincere. No fine print. No catches. No exceptions. No cute marketing. No cleaver concealment of greater payments or term commitments.” Deceptive marketing as lousy marketing.
Do these jeans cost enough to make me look trendy?
A humorous-yet-disturbing look at the world of jeans sales. The fact is, designer jeans that cost over $200 per pair fill a market niche. It’s just sad that we have that niche to fill.
How one music shop has increased its CD sales while every other music store is struggling today. Brilliant marketing approach, if only the RIAA would catch up.
To market something through blogs, become a blogger and engage other bloggers in conversations. Befriend them. When you have something you need some blog press about, ask them to blog it. There’s no shortcuts. Just be real.
Customer Evangelism & Accelerating Revenue: Best Interests At Heart
If product and company awareness and rational ROI spreadsheets are not enough to drive sales, then what is? Marketers often forget the point of marketing is accelerating revenue and this post looks at key revenue accelerators including customer evangelism.
Management
Rethinking Theories of Compensation
How can you unleash the power of demotivation in your workplace? Ironman at Political Calculations excerpts The Art of Demotivation‘s advice for setting fair compensation practices in the workplace. This is essentially a link post. However, it points to and excerpts some amusing stuff.
Creating a Culture for Collaboration
This post identifies obstacles and offers strategies/approaches to consider when implementing collaborative technologies and moving to a more collaborative culture.
More or less, organization levels
Many companies pride at their flat organization structure. These days, (and for a few decades now), flat is in. But, most, IT companies in India are not flat, they have a fairly high number of levels. A small analysis into why this is so.
Organizational Culture, Improvisation, and Success
Following a serious naval defeat in 1797, a Spanish government official wrote down some thoughts about management. His points are still very relevant today.
The title reminded me of Leia’s advice regarding control of star systems in Episode 4. However, the actual description of this cautionary post is:
Policies are knives that cut both ways. An analyst wishes to work only three days a week. The math works in her favor at vacation time, against her at the end of the day.
Business, or hard to classify more finely
Media’s Shifting Business Model
Like many businesses, cable news has outsourced some traditional activities to their customers/viewers. But is this a good move?
Technology & Business Reinvention
Progress with Internet Communications
It’s been 46 days since Google Talk launched and there have been developments to improve internet communications. Now MSN and Yahoo are changing the rules.
Old Flight Attendants Win Discrimination Lawsuit
Older, less shapely flight attendants who sued Virgin Blue Air Lines over hiring discrimination won, but was this an appropriate outcome? If so, when would it not be?
Should Baseball Put a Third Team in New York?
Discussion of the economics of baseball and the whether the personal income per market differential for New York is so great that baseball should put a new team in New York to “level the playing field” - response to a post on Economics Unbound Blog.
TrendTracking: Library Resources, Small Biz RSS Feeds, More
On some level, this is a “link post,” highlighting small businesses and business resources. However, there is extensive commentary about each link to mitigate the linkiness, and you may find some of them interesting or useful. As Anita says:
Each month I get a ton of requests by small business owners and bloggers to “call out” something new or a site or a product of interest to the small business market. I used to tell people “no” until I realized that I could put together a half dozen notable announcements or events for the small business market and post them in a single post once a week. I post things that probably would not get mentioned in the mainstream media. The reaction has outstanding, and I feel I can do something to help the small biz market. So I would like to feature one of these weekly posts, called “TrendTracking” posts. And of course I encourage people to send me announcements of something notable for small biz, and I will gladly add anything newsworthy to the list.
That’s the entries for this edition.
More commentary to follow, but first I will post what I have to get it out there.
Now that I sit down to complete this, I am trying to recall what I’d intended to say.
CotC has been quite a ride. When we started, blog carnivals were few. As our inspiration was the original, Carnival of the Vanities, since CotC took off, it has inspired others. I am regularly asked for advice on starting and running a blog carnival, and I’d been thinking of putting that advice into this post. Perhaps it can wait. Perhaps it can go on the CotC master site at some point. Which is another topic; the need to and plan to update or transcend that Real Soon Now.
That will probably take the form of a blog. One benefit to that would be to archive each edition of CotC a few weeks after initial publication. Going through the list of past hosts shown below, it was striking how many of them no longer have their edition of CotC available at the original link, even if the main blog still exists. I’d not checked lately, and was surprised at how many were dead links on the Past CotC page.
The idea of a traveling carnival is to share the glory and traffic with a variety of blogs, as well as sharing the effort. I would not want to change that, so the only source for seeing CotC would remain each respective host long enough to generate most of the traffic involved. Later a copy would go on the CotC administrative blog (for lack of a better description) to be archived in presumed perpetuity, whatever happens to each respective host.
While the host of a given week’s edition spends between a couple and a dozen hours, depending on how they do things, I average upwards of a couple hours week in and week out. So it was that Rob and I started talking some time back about the possibility of generating revenue from CotC. From our perspective, it made sense; have a good idea, build it up, then get some kind of sponsorship or advertising. It’s an awkward thing, compared to advertising on or sponsorship of a blog, as it lacked a fixed site, apart from the simple CotC page there for reference. The primary action takes place on a different blog each week. So we’d envisioned sponsorship to be divided between us and each host blog.
Rob’s feelers for long-term sponsorship didn’t pan out, so we broached the idea in the form of a free, test “sponsored by” text ad in an edition of CotC. This provoked more animosity than we’d expected. Shouldn’t the host be the one getting the money? That kind of thing. We backed off, but kept thinking about it. My thinking is that a CotC blog in place of the existing page would at least allow for advertising there. We have other ideas for content at such a site, tying into CotC and the effort at bringing good business and economics blogging to a wider, more “mainstream” audience.
I sometimes get bored with managing CotC, even though it can be gratifying, and it’s cool being the nexus. Hosting this week regenerated my excitement. Or perhaps it was the sheer quality of the entries. If what I do with CotC were work for a client, I’d be billing as much as $200 a week for it. Making anything from my efforts would be nice, and would presumably quell it feeling burdensome at times. Not to mention how much I could use the money…
So I ask the readers… Is it wrong for Rob and I to try to monetize our involvement in CotC? Does it matter what form that takes? Is it wrong to try to generate a stipend for hosts as well? Wrong to not include hosts if the opportunity to do so presents itself? Should I be doing this for no other reason than the bloggy joy of it, and making a name in the service of the business world?
Please comment if you have any thoughts on monetizing CotC, the future of CotC, or changes to the CotC home site.
[More commentary coming here. Below is a list in tribute to past hosts...]
Hosts for CotC may be easy to find, but that doesn’t mean we owe any less gratitude to the many who have taken a turn at it. Here are past host blogs, linking those that still exist:
BusinessPundit
Jay Solo’s Verbosity (now at Accidental Verbosity)
The Noble Pundit
Insults Unpunished
The Accidental Jedi (now at Accidental Verbosity)
Professor Bainbridge
Truck and Barter
HobbsOnline AM (now at BillHobbs.com)
A Penny For...
samaBlog
The Bejus Pundit (now Cadillac Tight)
The American Mind
A Special Kind of Stupid (still there, but passworded against a troll)
Ensight
Unpersons
Winds of Change
Deinonychus antirrhopus
The Trommetter Times
Tasty Manatees
War Watch
The Nanopundit (now D.F. Moore)
Catallarchy.net
TJ’s Weblog
The Entrepreneurial Mind
Admiral Quixote’s Roundtable
Crazy Pundit
Chicago Report
Knowledge Problem
Conglomerate
Brain Brew Radio
Clay Whittaker
d-42.com
Startup Skills
Small Business Trends
The Window Manager
Blog Business World
EGO
pc4media
The Outsourcing Weblog
The RFID Weblog
Business Opportunities Weblog
Business Evolutionist
PoliBlog™
Dispatches From The Frozen North
The Mobile Technology Weblog
New Dog Old Trick
Joe Grossberg
voluntaryXchange
Crossroads Dispatches
Drakeview
The Big Picture
Will Pate
INCITE
Trader Mike
Social Twister
Lachlan Gemmell
XTremeBlog
Management Craft
Odyssey of the Mind
Ashish’s Niti
Weekend Pundit
The Raw Prawn
Coyote Blog
Blogcritics.org
Beyond the Brand (now John Winsor)
Law & Entrepreneurship News
Gongol.com
Peaktalk
AnyLetter
Ideologic LLC
Slacker Manager
GalaTime
Byrne’s MarketView
Business BlogCasting
CaseySoftware.com
Multiple Mentality
The Club For Growth
Political Calculations
Local Small Business Marketing & Advertising
View From a Height
Strange Brand
rethink(ip)
WILLisms
Wow, that’s a lot! Some of them hosted more than once. There are many more, as well as some familiar faces, virtually speaking, lined up almost a year ahead. The host list appears to go to July 17, 2006, yet there are a few beyond what is listed, waiting to be added. I got sidetracked during my move, when I was offline for several days.
