Kimberly N. West - Blog, Blog, Blog...

MC Hammer Reinvents Himself As A What?!?

It's rare that I post twice in a month much less twice in one day.  But this was too good to pass up.

I was on the phone with my buddy Brent Leary who is a well known blogger, Web 2.0 expert, radio and podcasting personality and all around good guy.  He also keeps me up to date with all that is going on in the Web 2.0 world.  He was looking for his column on Black Enterprise's web site when he started laughing.  The conversation went something like...

Kimberly: What's so doggoned funny?
Brent: MC Hammer is now the co-founder and chief strategy officer of a new web venture called dancejam.com
Kimberly: <silent for about 20 seconds and blinking rapidly>
Brent: Are you still there?
Kimberly: Uh, yeeeaaahhh?  forgive me but I don't think of MC Hammer when I think of Internet strategy
Brent: Me neither
Kimberly: Oh, OK, you got jokes now.  Stop playing Brent.
Brent: I'm serious, go to BE's web site, it's the most read story today. 

As he went on to read the rest of the article it felt like my brain was on fire and I couldn't stop laughing.  As I gathered my wits about me and picked my jaw up off the floor I ran to my computer to pull up the article.  There, sure enough, was an article entitled: MC Hammer's Next Act: Tech Entrepreneur.

The article went on to briefly describe Hammer's music career then went into detail about this web venture and Hammer's partners.  Apparently Hammer has had his own personal tutors in the ways of technology from Ron Conway to the staffs at Apple Computer and Silicon Graphics.  Even Salesforce.com guru and CEO Marc Benioff is quoted as saying that Hammer is the most entrepreneurial person he's ever met and admitted that he had consulted with Hammer for low cost marketing ideas when Salesforce.com was in it's infancy.

As Judge Judy would say, this just doesn't have the ring of truth to it.

Don't get me wrong, anyone can learn the Internet and Web 2.0 with some coaching and Hammer just might be an expert in geurilla marketing.  However I, and several technology colleagues all with technical certifications and one or more graduate degrees, just can't seem to wrap our brains around this venture.  One of them, a web analytics specialist and MBA, almost needed oxygen after he read the article.  All this consternation is further compunded by the fact that Hammer and entourage are looking to upstage YouTube and there were some pretty hefty comments in the article...

"The Web site, scheduled to debut in mid-January, will try to upstage YouTube and become the Internet's hub for sharing and watching dance videos."

"There is no high-tech lingo or business strategy that you can talk that is above my head," Hammer boasted during an interview. "I breathe this stuff."

"His success in grass roots marketing prompted Salesforce.com Inc. to call on Hammer for advice in its early days. The company wanted to raise awareness about its online software service without paying a lot for traditional advertising, said Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com's chief executive officer."

"We really learned a lot from Hammer. He is the most entrepreneurial individual I have ever met," said Benioff, whose San Francisco-based company is now worth $7 billion.

"Hammer recognized YouTube's potential before most people he did. Besides putting some of his own clips on the site, Hammer visited YouTube's offices in February 2006 when there were still just a handful of people running the site above a pizza parlor. (A clip of that visit is at http://www.youtube.com/blog?month2&year2006.)"

Could Hammer be an undercover techie?  Have we discounted his prowess as an Internet marketing strategist?   Are we being snobbish because we've been in the business for so long?  Have we all gone stark raving mad?  Conventional wisdom indicates that even Forrester Research analysts doubt that this venture will have any real impact on YouTube.  Only time will tell.

I wish Hammer all the luck and blessings in the world.  If he turns out to be a legitimate strategist and ends up with a successful venture, I apologize for the tone of this blog.  However, the jury seems to be against him and I still can't talk about it with a straight face.

At the end of our conversation, Brent and I both decided to blog on this topic.  To make sure we didn't duplicate any material we didn't read each other's entries until after we had written our own.  I am off to read Brent's entry for this evening and can guarantee that it will be a 'stone gas'.

Ruminating On Turning 40 Or Why Am I Getting These Darned Emails From AARP?

The first one arrived about four months ago.  It was an invitation to join AARP.  I laughed it off.  Must be some kind of random email blast.  Three weeks later I received another one, a month later, and finally, one today.  Is someone trying to tell me something?  I was almost offended.  Hell, I'm only one month away from my 39th birthday - nowhere near the 50 years of age that is the requirement for AARP membership. 

Now my mother has always said that I'm an old soul.  I'll be honest, ever since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to be 35 or 40.  To me, that is when life truly blossomed and all the time you spent before that was in preparation for this incredible life-changing experience.  The world would open up and become this sweet, succulent, ripe fruit just yours for the taking.  I even had a theory on the evolution of a Diva.  From birth to 25 you're an infant.  From 26 to 30 you're a Diva in training.  From 31 to about 35/36 you're a Diva apprentice and somewhere between 35 and 40 you reach full Diva status.  Everything I thought about getting older and approaching Divadom has turned out to be true... But that sure as hell didn't prepare me for receiving invitations to join AARP at 38.

I don't know what it was but something told me to go to the AARP web site and just take a look around.  Giggling, I looked at the different discounts and benefits that are available to AARP members.  Then I started looking at the articles and the assistance that is available to AARP members.  It became crystal clear that we of Generation X and those that came after us are blissfully and painfully unaware of what is ahead of us as we approach middle age and retirement.  To all my GenXers, do you have the slightest idea what Medicare part D is?  You'd better figure it out!  Do you know how much money it will take to maintain your current or desired standard of living after retirement?  You better start doing the math NOW!  Do you have any clue about secondary insurance markets, how many of our elderly have to maintain jobs because they were unable to sustain themselves on pensions and Social Security or the legislation that's currently going on in Washington DC that directly effects those over 50? Did you know that doctors are leaving the Medicare program in droves because of their reimbursement rates being cut?  What about the fact that Social Security doesn't pay JACK and that it is estimated that by the time I retire the funds will be depleted (so should I stop paying into a system that will not support me later?  We'll save that for another blog).  Have you thought about the cost of blood pressure, diabetes, heart, etc., etc., medication?  Have you thought about any of this or do you secretly think that you're invincible and will never have to encounter these issues.  WAKE THE HELL UP.

Why, at 38, am I so concerned about these issues now?  What happens from now to 2017 will have a tremendous effect my and future generations as we age and retire, and we're not paying attention.  I'm one of the lucky ones.  I get professional financial advice and have made provisions for my life after 50 but what about the majority of us who haven't.  As Baby Boomers age and usurp the resources that three or four generations have paid in to and we all age, what will be left for us?  Will legislation be created that will protect all of us or just a few? 

The journey into AARP's web site was an eye opening one.  Everyone, regardless of age, should take a look and educate themselves.  The only inevitable factors in life are birth, aging, death and the IRS.

Excuse you, did you see me standing here? Part 2

In Part 1 of this blog detailed an experience that an African-American colleague and friend encountered at a technology trade show.  In today's rant I'll give my thoughts on her treatment and my take on the condition of race/gender issues in technology.

If you have ever attended a trade show, especially a large technology trade show like COMDEX (yeah, I'm a dinosaur) or CES, you know that it can be a zoo.  Thousands if not tens of thousands of people are trying to get to the coolest freebie or most expensive give-away and don't mind stepping over or on you just to get it.  Add to that an atmosphere that still caters to men almost to the exclusion of women, no matter how many women enter the technology industry.  It doesn't matter that the perceived notion is that we've come a long way!  As evidenced in Part 1 of this entry, reality shows that there is still a huge discrepancy in the way women in our industry are treated vs. guys, and how companies court (or don't court) genders and different races in an attempt to get them to purchase product.

Think I'm overreacting?  The next time you go to a supposedly gender agnostic trade show in your industry ( I harp on technology because that's where I live), count how many scantily clad, leggy, blonde 'models' representing the manufacturer's 'produit du jour' are slinking around the floor.  Watch the many shiny heads turn and feel pulses quicken as 'Candy' approaches some poor stuttering sap and asks if he would like to try the latest widget. Are they really trying to sell product to women with this approach?  After you run out of fingers, toes and other appendages on which to count, add up how many buffed guys wearing only loincloths carrying roses and chocolates there are engaging the female constituents.  My guess is none.

My personal experiences and experiences of female friends and colleagues have included:

·         being physically pushed out of the way at an exhibit where there were few attendees and plenty of room to view the demo

·         ignored at exhibitor booths when I clearly needed to ask questions for a client (Haier and Toshiba, that one is for you)

·         mistaken for janitorial or food service staff

·         listening as a big time executive for a very large tech manufacturer allude in a very thinly veiled comment that women didn’t have what it takes to make it in IT (the 3 women at that conference ripped him a new one immediately after his panel)

·         and my personal favorite – mistaken for a secretary or the bookkeeper while my employee is mistaken for the head of the company

·         being sexually harassed

Quite frankly, I'm tired of going to technology trade shows and being the only or one of the only five women present.  I'm REALLY tired of going to technology trade shows and being one of the only African-Americans there.  We need to realize that these shows, with their exhibit halls and giveaways, are not only great silos of information but also great places to network with colleagues and potential vendors.  Most importantly they are places that spark creativity, generate new ideas and get us out from under the rock that we've been working under.  Plus, can you think of a better place to gather competitive intelligence on your competition and what they're doing?

The way my friend (Excuse you, did you see me standing here? Part 1) was treated is reprehensible.  Unfortunately it is not the first time nor is it the last, that a woman will experience this type of treatment.  It will continue until we are taken more seriously in the market.  But with the mass exodus of women from the technology industry, as recently chronicled is several major publications, we have a serious uphill battle in that regard.  I sincerely hope that we can overcome it.