Tabasco Smoked Oyster Appetizer Recipe

I'm not sure where I got this recipe, but I think it was my brother that turned me on to it. It is an easy and great tasting appetizer.

Ingredients:

• Good quality canned smoked oysters (Crown Prince is a good brand)
• Saltine crackers
• Tabasco hot sauce

Instructions:

Use toothpicks to place a smoked oyster on a Saltine cracker and then add a dash of Tabasco. 

Tabasco Popcorn Recipe

I got this from my barber Gil. He learned to love Tabasco sauce when he was in the service and got this recipe from a bar in Arkansas that asked him if he wanted "Arkansas-style" when he asked for a bowl of popcorn. His family and friends ask him to make it whenever they come over for game night.

Ingredients:

• Good quality un-popped corn kernels (Orville Redenbacher kernels)
• Good popcorn popping oil (Orville Redenbacher's Popping & Topping Oil)
• 6-8 healthy dashes of Tabasco hot sauce (about a 1 teaspoon, I should think)
• Salt to taste

Instructions:

Pour oil and Tabasco hot sauce into a pan until the bottom of the pan is completely covered in oil. Add popcorn until the oil is completely covered and turn heat to high. When corn begins to pop, shake the pot constantly (or use a Stovetop Popcorn Popper). When popping slows, remove from heat and pour into a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt to taste.

Things I didn't Know About Apple AirPlay

I've had an Apple TV for several years now. I often use AirPlay to beam stuff from my Apple gadgets to my Apple TV. With one finger tap I can push movies and music stored on my Mac, iPhone, or iPad to my big screen.

I see now that AirPlay is a lot more open now than it used to be. App developers and online video sites now have the option to incorporate AirPlay. It's come a long way from AirPlay for iTunes-sanctioned content only.

Here are a few Free Airplay enabled apps:

• PBS for iPad 
• TED 
• Skype for iPad 

Streaming HD video from an iPad to an HDTV is done in the background. That's right you can switch over to the Facebook app while the video continues playing. That’s because AirPlay works in the background, continuing to stream media remotely while you do other things. You can even put the iOS device to sleep; so long as it’s got power and a network connection, it’ll keep streaming.

Of course you can control AirPlay playback from the iOS device, but once the streaming starts, you can also just pick up the Apple TV’s remote and control things that way. Once an AirPlay stream is going, it’s not any different from watching a movie on the Apple TV directly. All the basic Apple TV remote commands work, so you can play, pause, fast-forward, and even bring up a chapter list, also skip forward.

The Apple TV buffers as much of the streamed file as it can, this should give you smooth fast-forwarding.

 If the app doesn't support airplay directly there is always AirPlay Mirroring - a fantastic feature of iOS on the iPad. It lets you mirror your iPad screen, and everything that you do on it, to an Apple TV or a Mac computer.

My Visual.ly Resume

Check my visual resume out!

Durian - a love affair

Word Cloud of Medtronic Mission Statement

"Here’s an experiment for you. Pull together your company’s latest annual report, its mission statement, and your CEOs last few blog posts. Read through these documents and note the key phrases. Make a list of oft-repeated words. Now do a little content analysis. What are the goals and ideas that get a lot of airtime in your company? It’s probably notions like superiority, advantage, leadership, differentiation, value, focus, discipline, accountability, and efficiency. Nothing wrong with this, but do these goals quicken your pulse? Do they speak to your heart? Are they “good” in any cosmic sense?" 
-The Hole in the Soul of Business By Gary Hamel

The Kingkiller Chronicles

Just for fun I created a word cloud of the book - The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's the first book of The Kingkiller Chronicles: Day One

Business Cards IRL

Are business cards in-real-life (IRL) on the verge of extinction?

I could not find any statistics on the the number of business cards printed over time, but I have to believe that other, easier ways of sharing contact information in electronic form has caused a decline in business card printing.

Even business cards IRL are making use of electronic data transfer. Frank, an electrical engineering student at the University of Waterloo created a USB business card that will type out contact information when you plug it into a USB port.

One issue that plagues sharing contact information electronically is the many non-standard ways in which we can do this. A variety of sharing technologies (like BlueTooth, email, and apps) on a variety of devices (PCs, smartphones tablets, etc.) result in too many options.

I'v been experimenting with using a QR code (also known as a 2D code) to share contact information. The use of QR code scanning and deciphering is now ubiquitous on smartphones in countries like Japan.

What do you get when you ask Vladstudio to cross a QR code Vcard and an iPhone lock screen wallpaper? A virtual business card.

It is easy to generate your own virtual business card with a free QR code generator. Use your virtual business card as a wallpaper on your smartphone and it's always available to scan by business contacts with a QR code scanner like Scan. Even smartphone apps like Google and Bing will scann and decipher these virtual business cards.

QR code ubiiquity in the USA may take a while longer, but I'm betting that it it happens soon.

Interactive Marketing in a Highly Regulated Industry

I have been asked to speak on a panel at the 2010 MIMA Summit in Minneapolis regarding Interactive Marketing in a Highly Regulated Industry. The case study track breakout session is described as follows:

Health care is a highly reg­u­lated indus­try. Let’s say that again with feel­ing: Healthcare is a HIGHLY reg­u­lated indus­try. That heav­ily influ­ences what the mar­ket­ing and public rela­tions folks can say and do. Yet despite the legal­is­tic hand­cuffs and road­blocks, these inter­ac­tive practitioners are cre­at­ing mea­sur­able results. Healthcare pro­fes­sion­als and non-health peeps alike can learn from their expe­ri­ences. If your man­age­ment thinks inter­ac­tive is weird and scary, just look at what these folks over­come with every day to achieve results!

I would have to say that the description of the panel is pretty damned good. The emphasis on "highly regulated industry" is spot on and I couldn't have stressed it better. However, given this environment what are companies like Medtronic, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross doing in Interactive?

I'm speaking for the medical device industry here. Indeed we create measurable results, but evaluating risk is a big factor when it comes to pushing the envelope. The risk-averse nature of our industry and the lack of clear guidance from the FDA (so far) in the area of marketing and advertising in interactive media can encumber innovative marketing. The paradigm shift the Internet represents to our industries is inevitable and these challenges will have to be contended with in one way or another.

I believe my fellow panelists agree that we have to look to the positive in our efforts. We will continue to educate our organizations and work with the regulating bodies to have the engagement and dialog with our markets the online channels promise.

Interactive marketers are fighting the good fight in regulated organizations - It's been 10 years since the Cluetrain Manifesto - are we taking delivery yet? To find out attend our breakout session - Interactive Marketing in The Healthcare Industry

Open Letter To Netflix

Netflix recently released an official iPhone app. Andy Boxall in his iPhoneFreak Blog post "Netflix Comes to the iPhone" says:

"Previously only available for the iPad, the official Netflix app is now available for the iPhone too, which should see a massive increase in both the amount of downloads and the amount of people enjoying streaming content out and about."

All well and good Andy, but I have to disagree... to a degree. In response I have "penned" the following open letter to Netflix.
---
Dear Netflix,

I know you are contending with some privacy issues in your attempts to serve your customers in an innovative way. You will be relieved to hear that I'm not writing to you to discuss these issues.

Your new official iPhone app enables movie viewing on the iPhone and iTouch platforms, but I don't really think I would seriously watch a full length movie on any of these small format platforms. Maybe it's because my eyes are not what they used to be, but I prefer a larger screen that I can view with others. Call me old fashioned, but I will be surprised if there are a compelling number of users that will watch a one hour TV show or two hour feature film on their small iPhone screens. The iPad would be another story.

However, I think you could do something more compelling and innovative with movie trailers, which are short and lend themselves to a quick review to determine if you want to watch the associated full length movie. Actually, this could be the goal of the app. Heck, I have good friends that seem to enjoy movie trailers over the full length movies themselves.

How about an app that basically enabled the user to manage and view a playlist of movie and/or TV show trailers? It could have some of the following features:

• Add the movie based on the trailer you like to your queue.
• The ability to review the anticipated rating or set your rating of the movie based on the trailer.
• Browse or search trailer playlists by director, actor or genre.
  
• Create your own trailer playlist to share with your friends (social media).
  
• Comment on, subscribe or favorite trailer playlists by others (social networking).

I'm sure others will add additional ideas in the comments below. Please consider these ideas and if you like feel free to name this feature "Wardo's Trailer Playlists".

I continue to be a big fan of your service. Please keep up the good work.

Warm regards,

Ward Tongen

Are Group Coupons Really Such A Good Deal?

Here are six tips and techniques to help you make the most out of group coupons like Groupon, LivingSocial and dozens of smaller sites:

1. Stay local - don't accept coupons outside your normal area of travel unless you are planning to use a coupon during travel.
2. Beware of un-savvy vendors - I assumed that I could use my iPhone app to redeem my coupon only to find out at a local restaurant that they required a printed coupon only. I was turned away. Also be aware that some businesses struggle to handle the surge in customers.
3. Don't collect too many coupons - You can go a little crazy when you are bombarded everyday with such unbeatable bargains. My coupons soon started to stack up and I was in danger of not being able to redeem them all in time. Think twice before buying - pace yourself.
4. Read the fine print and note the expiration date- I repeat "Read the fine print" It's usually short and to the point and may contain rules and conditions that are crucial in making sure your redemption is valid.
5. Return to businesses you like - One of the compelling reasons small businesses use these group coupon services is to drive customers to their stores & restaurants. If you like the product or service it shouldn't be hard to patronize that business again.
   
6. Tell your friends online or otherwise. Buy for a friend. Use the share feature for a free deal. Most of the deals are for local establishments. At LivingSocial, the deal might even end up being free for you if you recruit enough people to the same deal. For some offers, you need as few as three buddies.

Use the latest craze among price-conscious consumers wisely. This combination of social media and commerce may change the way you shop.

Unbelievable Unconferencing at Unsummit 4

UnSummit is an alternative, "unconference," not unlike a BarCamp. That means full participation, full dissemination and free admission — all the things that traditional conferences are not. -Unsummit.org

I have been attending unconferences since the first Minnebar back in the day and I love the refreshing format. An unconference is where people talk with each other as opposed to at each other. New paradigm topics such as the ones that appear on the schedule of the unsummit should not take place in rigid, old paradigm formats. We are moving from a one-way event to a two-way experience.

This event, excuse me... experience, is free thanks to generous sponsors and also held on a weekend day. Even though it is free I think the attendees that give up part of their summer Saturday are more passionate and more highly participatory than the average conference goer.

Next year perhaps we can take a few more ideas into the format. I plucked the following participatory formats from a white paper titled "Possibilities For Transformational Conferences" by Tree Bressen with Debby Sugarman and Sunrise Facilitation:

• Attendees Interview Each Other
• Presenters Learn From Participants
• Fishbowl - small group of people speak together while others listen and witness
• Interview The Panelists
• Panelist Circles - panelists go out into the audience and form circles people to talk more
• Storytelling
• Speed Geeking - basically this is musical chars with panelists

Did you know that most unconference features match the characteristics of the traditional science fiction convention held since the 1930's? We are living science fiction every day. The future is now and I for one love it.

5 obvious things that indicate the iPad is an example of the next shift in computing

I recently was loaned an iPad 3G for a week and used it on a trip to Florida where I did not plan to take my laptop.

I used it for a many things. Some of which I could also do from my iPhone (but not as easily). Mostly:

• Watching & listening to video podcasts.
• Checking email & calendar.
• Reading technical user manuals.
• Sharing photos, podcasts & videos.
• Collaborating over maps and satellite images.

This inspired me to come up with five obvious things that indicate that tablet computing is the next shift (game changer) in very personal computing:

1. Instant-on - Little or no boot up time is required. When a question or issue is raised the tablet is ready to deliver with little or no lag. Immediate gratification.
2. Not just mobile, but conveniently transferable or "handoff-able" - This promotes an information gift culture.
3. Easy to use - little or no instruction to navigate and manipulate information. The touch environment makes navigation simpler and more intuitive than conventional use of keyboard and mouse or touch pad. Simple is good.
4. Transparent - After the novelty of the new gadget wears off users get right to the content. Interacting with the content causes collaboration rather than just presentation. Content is king.
5. Fun to use - There is no reason that something as serious as the next evolutionary step in computing can't be fun. Adoption is compelling.
   

I predict that in less than 5 years we will all be sporting tablet-like devices over notebooks or netbooks.

My Mother Sent Me This 'Warning' Many Years Ago

WARNING

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit .

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

- by Jenny Joseph

Men Who Can't Pee: A Failed Commercial

"Say goodbye to weak stream and hello to a laser beam" -Rhett & Link

Conventional wisdom was turned upside down for a medical device manufacturer. YouTube, a communication medium for the young could not reach an audience of older men with prostate problems. Or could it?

Yesterday I attended another 'unconference', the Healthcamp Minnesota at the University of Minnesota, Mayo Auditorium. Session panel member John Reid, Chief Executive Officer, AbbeyMoor Medical, spoke about how his company used YouTube to market a medical device, the Spanner, a prostatic stent that holds open the urethra, allowing men with enlarged prostates to urinate more easily. Since I work for a major medical device manufacturer, I was especially interested in what John had to say.

The Spanner is intended for temporary use (up to 30 days) to maintain urine flow and allow voluntary urination in patients following minimally invasive treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and after initial post-treatment catheterization. The other alternative for these men is the traditional Foley catheter.

AbbeyMoor hired a couple of comedians from North Carolina to create a "spoof" commercial YouTube video about the product. In the four minute video, Rusty Barefoot, Sr. and Larnold Jernigan, Sr, played by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, try to make a commercial about The Spanner but can't quite get through it without messing it up, much to the annoyance of the director.



The video was a big hit on the Internet and has received over 163,000 views to-date. The Minneapolis Star Tribune picked it up in their article about "The Spanner: Help for enlarged prostates."

During the Q&A, John indicated that he fought idea of spanner video "kicking and screaming." However it turns out that speaking in a human voice was amazingly successful. Much to his surprise John indicated that even doctors (urologists) appreciated the urological humor. He was a convert.

John said Youtube demographics (mostly age 13 to 24) were not the target but that the viral nature of video got the word out to target audience secondarily.

"That suggests the video is attracting two waves of people: the normally young YouTube crowd who finds it funny but then refer the video to people who actually need the product."

AbbeyMoor Medical capitalized on this further by adding a short text caption message to the end of their video: "Share this video with your dad, granddad, husband... and your doctor."

As a startup with limited funds AbbeyMoor Medical has no sales or field staff. Instead they offer an online in-service introduction to The Spanner followed by a Spanner Training Kit and 20 minute online training for physicians and their clinical staff. ('WebEx' Training). The training demonstrates how the office-based stent can be a useful alternative to catheterization for bladder outlet obstruction (BOO).

The HealthCamp unconference discussion then went on to explore how major medical device companies like mine with a large, expensive field presence will need to rethink their resource-intensive sales/field staff model. Much food for thought here.

I firmly believe that it is mission critical for major medical device manufacturers get on board and learn to have conversations with their markets in a human voice. This will lead to changes in how they do business.

(The opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer.)

Google Babel Fish

Google Wave is coming! As Google puts it:

"Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more."

This social media technology is amazing and is eagerly anticipated by many. Google is in the process of launching Google Wave as I post this blog. You can learn about Google Wave at the Google Wave Preview website, but it's pretty technical. I recommend the condensed 8 minute Google Wave Overview.

It is said that "God created language to divide the humans so that they could not work together to build a tower to heaven".

Using Google Wave, and a software robot called "Rosie" you can actually converse over the Internet with someone that speaks another language in real-time. This comes pretty close to what Douglas Adams describes in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Stick a Babel fish in your ear and understand any language.

How will this change the world? Will the world get smaller still? Will Americans communicate directly with Iranians? Will the French reach past their language? Will Google Wave temper our destructive nationalistic tendencies?

I'm not so much hopeful that we will build a tower to heaven, but a bridge to understand our fellow human across our planet.

One can only hope.

Todd Tongen's Silver Circle Award

Check this video out - My little brother, Todd Tongen receives the Silver Circle Award.

"The Silver Circle Awards recognize individuals who have devoted a quarter of a century or more to the television industry, a significant part of which was done in South Florida."

Way to go Bro! Big brother is very proud of you.

The Business Card As Social Media

The printed business card is becoming an anachronism.

a.nach.ro.nism |əˈnakrəˌnizəm|
-noun
1) A thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists, esp. a thing that is conspicuously old-fashioned.

Exchanging business cards is rapidly getting replaced by exchanging Web links to LinkedIn, Google, Plaxo, or online profiles from other business-oriented social networking sites.

There have been several attempts to provide the capability to exchange contact information electronically. Many of the older PDA's had a method to beam contact information via infrared. Some smartphones can transfer vCards wirelessly via Bluetooth. vCard is a file format standard for electronic business cards. Even when the transfer technologies between devices are standardized, the applications have different implementations of the vCard standard and are often incompatible.

I recently discovered the Poken: a new social networking accessory that contains your contact information. You can put your photo, name, email, social networking IDs, screen names in your Poken. When you meet other Poken owners (here's the catch), you touch Pokens to connect. A more expensive, Poken Pulse doubles as a 2GB flash drive making it more convenient to carry. Still, not everyone has a Poken to connect instantly without a business card. I could see where a Poken might be useful given as a promotional freebie (SWAG) at trade shows, conferences, events and expos.

I still hand out my business card. But when I do, it is one of several personalized sets that I customize online at Vistaprint to a particular target audience. Even if they become conspicuously old-fashioned, business cards are still ubiquitous.

The Perfect Ad at the Perfect Time to the Perfect Recipient.

"I want my epitaph to read: He made Cialis ads optional." Paul Douglas said this recently at the first ROI LEADER FORUM for Small Business Innovation and Results in Minneapolis.



As anyone in Minnesota can tell you, Paul Douglas is a well-known local meteorologist and TV personality. Less well known to me was Paul's success as a entrepreneur.

Paul Douglas has created several Internet start-ups, including EarthWatch 3-D weather graphics in 1990, and licensing software to TV stations worldwide. Currently he is focused on Singular Logic, a patent holding company. The goal: to reinvent news and advertising on the web.

"Consumer behavior is best learned when consumers are in control of their content and advertisers listen. Today, consumers are selecting custom content, from choosing where and when they watch their favorite programs to their friend and fan pages on Facebook." Singular Logic

This was music to my ears. For more than 10 years I'v been working in online marketing and love the kind of paradigm change that entrepreneurs like Paul Douglas are bringing to broadcast and other channels as a result of the Internet.

Social media and targeted advertising can work hand-in-hand.

So Paul, if you are reading this please feel free to enlist me in your endeavor. My experience in search marketing and social media are at your service.

5 Blog Copywriting Tips from a Professional Writer

"You're boring! You should do it this way." This was the first advice I got from an old friend of mine, when I asked her to help me critique a blog post I had started to draft.

Sue is a great copywriter with experience in journalism, speech writing, ghostwriting and web writing. I value her advice and came away from our little session with 5 tips to write a better blog post.

1. Your lead sentence should grab the reader. Pull them in. Pick it carefully.
2. Keep you post short. Don't bore the reader.
   
3. So what? What does your message mean to the reader? What's in it for them.
4. It's not about you. Get over yourself. Write for the reader.
   
5. Keep your post focused. Don't go off on tangents.
   

Thanks Sue. Now I'll just dust off my ego and write some better posts.