Internet

You Need to Start Learning The Basics of Blockchain

chrisbrogan · October 17, 2017 ·

In the early 90s, you started hearing about the Internet but brushed it off. Blockchain is that same experience coming to you again. Only this time, you can get ahead and learn a bit more before you feel like you’re ten or more years behind everyone else.

I went looking for ways that people are describing and explaining even the basics of Blockchain technology and I put it together here for you. I know that everyone learns differently and that sometimes, we need to see something many times before it sinks in.
Here’s my effort to help you find more information on the basics of blockchain technology so you can start looking for ways it might change your world. There are opportunities here just like the Internet brought us many opportunities. Ignore this at your peril.

The Basics of Blockchain

I love this brief video from Wired where Bettina Warburg explains blockchain to a little kid, and then works it up from there.
Blockchain Explained
Here’s investor and venture perspectives on blockchain.
This is a technical guide from the NIST, (kinda dry but useful)
I like how basic this article by The Fool is.
IBM’s explanation (they’re a big player here already).
This is a fun guide that has a bunch of ways of explaining it.
Here’s a Udemy course that might help. Plus, it’s very inexpensive.
I really like this description of blockchain and they went to a lot of effort to make it for you.
Listed near the bottom of this post are some real world applications of blockchain.
This one is a bit of a deeper dive told through massive slideshare decks.
For those of you who prefer books, get this one by Donald Tapscott.

Audio Learners – Look Here

Great miniseries about blockchain by Fidelity people. It’s really helpful. I like this one a lot.

Prefer a video?

Want it fast? Blockchain in 2 minutes (pretty good, actually.)
Blockchain for Dummies
Blockchain as it applies to Bitcoin
A whiteboard talk can be helpful.
A really nerdy but very visual demonstration of some of blockchain’s details. (Worth it, but you’re getting a computer guy’s take and that might spook some people.)
A conference presentation on Blockchain.

How About Live Events?

I found this guide of conferences and conventions. You might have to do a little research to validate some of the events, but hey, good place to start.

There are Plenty More But Start Here

I’m just saying “hey you, it’s time to get smarter and smarter about blockchain because it’s coming around in more and more ways and you might want to think about your place in all this.”
The goal is finding the gaps where you can use technology to drive better human interaction.

I’ll Help You Get Smarter

My weekly newsletter features ideas and thoughts and actionable concepts you can use for your own business. It’s fun and VERY different from what you normally get. Check it out here:

CBM101117

chrisbrogan · October 11, 2017 ·

Here are the notes from the Chris Brogan Media broadcast for 10/11/17. (You can watch this on my Facebook account).
This live video was all shot using Ecamm Live (client), the best way to do Facebook Live for Mac.
Please note that all links may be affiliate links. If someone is a client, I’ll call that out specifically.

Stories Shared

Yesterday, Bitcoin ALMOST made it to a record high value. This says we might still get there.
Another cool use of blockchain technology? You can create your own loans for people without much of a third part between you.
But if you’re not ready to invest in cryptocurrency, this investment app by Stash has been a lot of fun.
Speaking of investing, you should see what Oracle’s planning in the world of blockchain support.
And as a small business owner, you might want to check out how the Internet of Things relates to your search value.
In Alexa news, the BBC is launching a new interactive show where you can choose your own adventure.
And if that’s not your bag, Google just bought a podcasting technology that helps delivery highly personalized short form audio content.
Keep your eye out for these shifting media experiences. Apple just inked a big deal with Spielberg to create new programming for the Apple TV platform.
My random plant-based story of the day is plant based sales tripled since 2016. This is more than a quick fad, at least so it appears.
In another effort to fend of “porch pirates,” Amazon is willing to deliver packages to your car’s trunk. This is one of SEVERAL methods they’re exploring for keeping your stuff safe.
I’m just helping you out with this one. If you don’t yet know what a “porg” is, this is a good start.
Hey, if this has been interesting, consider picking up my weekly newsletter. It’s all unique ideas by me about how to improve buyer interactions and grow your business. Give it a peek

What ELSE is News?

You want to get featured on the Chris Brogan Media show? Drop me an email: chris[email protected] and let me know what’s news!

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How to Write a Great Round-Up Post

chrisbrogan · May 10, 2017 ·

Three times today, I’ve been asked by a “blogger” to contribute to their amazing “round-up” post, where they query experts for their opinions on some topic that they feel matters to the people they try to entertain with their “writing.” In the last of these posts, I was addressed by my very secret title of {First Name}, indicating a very personal touch in how the person was seeking out help.

How to Write a Great Round-Up Post

Don’t.

The idea almost makes sense. Hey, person who knows something: Come and give a sentence or two of your time about this topic. I’ll collect it all up and then publish it. People will love it!

It’s not true. Make yourself the reader, the consumer of that “content” for a moment. (I’m glad I don’t have to pay for quotation marks. If you and I were talking face to face about this, my fingers would be sore from “air” “quotes” by now.) There’s no reason anyone really wants to read the opinions of a dozen or so “experts” on anything in particular.

What do we want? We want research boiled down into useful data. Far fewer people read the actual survey results that others spend a lot of time gathering and tabulating. Instead, we read the summaries.

But do we want a bunch of people’s random, spat out thoughts on a random topic hurled at us by some well-meaning low-end content producer? No. Never. I’m just going to say never.

Instead of Writing a Great Round-Up Post

Look. Roundup is a weed killer. It’s not a way to convey useful information to someone who might need it. Instead of writing that next great round-up post, do this instead:

Brainstorm a list of topics your reader might actually benefit from knowing more about.
Explain the problem the reader is facing from their side of the story.
Provide some information on potential solutions.
Offer actionable information on how to improve or correct the problem.
Offer a follow-on or next-action that relates to what you sell, where appropriate.

That’s what people want. Much more than your lazy gathering of a bunch of people’s quickly-scribbled thoughts on a random topic.

Some extra reading on the topic of writing roundup posts from my esteemed colleague and friend, Christopher S. Penn.

And if you want to connect with your buyers? Stick with me. Get my newsletter, where I share ways to do better for the people you serve. And stop contributing to the round-up detritus that’s littering the Internet.

Mastodon is Like The Early Days of Many Different Tech Things

chrisbrogan · April 6, 2017 ·

I can’t believe that I’m about to say this: I just started using the new social network, Mastodon. I’m not saying YOU should use it, YET, but I can tell you that there’s quite a buzz about it.

What is Mastodon

It’s a social network, but a distributed one. Instead of us all showing up on a bunch of servers we think of as “Twitter,” we can sign up to a “home” “instance” of a server (I’m using quotes for mortals – developers are already making a face at me, but I write my posts for humans, not code monkeys). I know. Don’t panic. This will take some explaining.

Mastodon is like Twitter. You got that part.

There are MANY home bases for it. The primary one was http://mastodon.social. But that filled up fast and said, “We’re not taking anyone new right now.” SO there’s a list of “instances” (meaning servers up and running that other people have built) and you can sign up to any of these.

Think of “instance” a bit like “that stuff to the right of your @ in your email.

If you’re [email protected] , the account is “chris” and the server is “owner.media.” If you’re [email protected] (I just made that up so don’t send this poor person email), it means your account is bobross and your “instance” is “yahoo.com.”

With me so far?

Signing Up for Mastodon

I picked an instance of Mastodon off this list. I picked http://mastodon.rocks for nearly no reason. It was green, up, and had a few hundred users. Again, it doesn’t “exactly” matter where you sign up.

I can’t tell you which instance to pick. There’s no guarantee someone won’t just close a server tomorrow. It’s wild west time for all this right now. Which raises another big issue. (Kinda.)

There’s No Identity Confirmation

This is also the weird part. I signed up as “@chrisbrogan” on the Mastodon.rocks server, but it only counts there. Anyone can sign up as @chrisbrogan on any other instance, and people wouldn’t know it wasn’t me. (This is why twitter and facebook do a ‘verified’ by the way.)

Now, this isn’t all that weird. I’m [email protected], but I’m not [email protected] and [email protected] etc. See what I mean? It’s not THAT different than signing up for email. We don’t force people to prove they’re who they are when they get an email account.

Should Business Start Using This?

Absolutely not. No. Nein. Do NOT use this. Nyet. It’s too new. It’s too uncertain. It’s too bleeding edge.

Should YOU Check It Out?

I have one unscientific thing to tell you: it FEELS like the early days of Twitter. It feels fun right now.

But fun in that “I didn’t need another social network, but why not muck with it” kind of way. Fun in that “what if these guys get right what ultimately failed at Twitter. Fun in that “there’s just a slight shift in how this is built that’s worth thinking about” kind of way.

Fun because instead of “tweets,” they’re “toots.” Who doesn’t want to toot at someone?

The Early Days

I was into bulletin board services (BBS) back in the day. They were my life. Then AOL. Then early Internet. When we all had to learn things like URLs and email addresses etc, it FELT messy and nerdy and like no grown ups would do it. And then we all did. This feels weirdly like that. Kind of. But I’m not sold.

This could be another Jaiku/Pownce/Plurk/Ello and whatever else.

Find Me on Mastodon

My account is here. Feel free to follow. Who knows if it’s useful. I’m not guaranteeing I’ll follow you back. Because I did that once on Twitter and it was a disaster. So who knows?

And if this is your first time ever hearing about me, grab my newsletter. It’s the best thing I do every week.
Skimlinks Test

A Splintered Web Gets Even More Fragmented

chrisbrogan · March 22, 2017 ·

This morning, after Jacq left for the gym, I spoke to two different bots on my phone. Poncho gave me the weather forecast and a little weird joke. Joy asked me how I was feeling because she wants to help me keep track of my mood and mental health. These are called chatbots and they’re part of one of the new splinters of what used to be called the web.

A Splintered Web Gets Even More Fragmented

My buddy Martin is all into virtual reality. He met a girl he loves and now they’re going to marry in VR. There are lots of people in Martin’s tribe of “VR will take over the world.” Facebook purchased VR platform company Oculus Rift for 2 Billion dollars. Many people are exploring VR as a new and very important medium for entertainment and communication.

I’m excited by voice applications, for one. I’m interested in Amazon’s Echo/Alexa. It’s another angle on the chatbots I mentioned above. Adrian Zumbrunnen turned his main website into a chatbot. It mostly shows off his skills, but the interface is intriguing because it’s NOT the typical web.

In places like China, apps like WeChat have taken over the wide open web. This one’s weird/interesting to me because it feels almost like a step back. Let me explain:
In the old days, there were BBS platforms (bulletin board services). Then came AOL. Then, for some, The Well. Then, for all of us, “The Internet” for nerds. Then, the “Web,” which is the pretty face of the Internet.
WeChat acts kind of like AOL. It’s a self-contained entity. And people in China love it. Because it handles a lot of their needs without having to go searching all over the place for whatever they want.
There were chatrooms, too. I used to be a big fan of IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Then came Twitter. Later Facebook. Then Instagram if you didn’t feel like sharing a post and a picture would do. Snapchat shows up to give us vanishing proof. My son uses none of these because he’s a gamer. He uses Discord. Haven’t heard of it? It’s okay. It’s not meant for you.
YouTube: one billion hours of video consumed daily.
Podcasts: on the rise and then some.
Netflix/Hulu/CrunchyRoll/Plex servers… and on and on and on.

Now Imagine Trying to Reach And Connect With People

I’ve been blogging since 1998. I started because I wanted to share my ideas with like-minded people. It took a LONG time for people to find these ideas. And then it was even longer before it was easy enough to share them. Back then, blogrolls and curated lists were how we discovered like-minded people. But the blogroll is long gone and many attempts at curation fail (while oddly, others succeed).
It’s harder than ever to happen along and discover our tribe. It’s too scattered. And less and less of it is showing up on a web page somewhere. Think about that. The concept of a “page” is becoming less and less valuable to people. Google search throws up its own cards that are often good enough that people don’t have to click through to the original page.
Or you can talk to a bot.
Or you can surface the information via chat.
Or you can get a virtual tour.
Or…
Or…
This choice is wonderful on the one side. It’s challenging on the other. If you’re a marketer, if you run a business, if you just want to find others doing what you’re interested in doing, where do you look these days?
The answer is unclear.
But I know this for sure: if you stay still, you’ll lose your chance to connect. If you don’t explore these new worlds, at least some of them, you might get left behind like the last keyword holder on AOL. And if you don’t peek outside of the standard “web page,” you’re doomed to lose more and more of your potential opportunity to serve others.
I’m exploring a lot of new avenues for reaching people, for serving people, and for keeping information available in a way that will help others accomplish their goals. It’s upon you to do the same, and to stay tuned to the people who are doing some of the experimenting and exploring for you. Because these shifts have already happened for many, and you and I are in danger of being left behind. Again.