Carl Setzer

I'm part of a real estate team. We recently created this video showcasing our team and our philosophies. You can see me at the very beginning, then again at 1:38, then at 2:45.  A bit egocentric, perhaps, but I'm fond of it. 

After reading this piece , where the President of PayPal vents about HQ staff refusing to utilize the company's product and tools, I get David Marcus' point. There is a danger, though, with the confrontational leadership statement. Sounding whiny and entitled trends to disconnect you further from your audience, in this case, your employees. Scolding tones need to be used with caution and thoughtfulness.  Undermining your connection or weakening team trust is hard to repair. Ultimately, it's really hard to gauge the effectiveness of one communication without seeing the larger context. Arm-chair quarterbacking is easier that doing the work.

My house has moved into the "unplugged" realm; we stream our content via the internet. Our main appliance is an Apple TV, which we love. Mainly, we prefers its navigation in comparison with our Xbox 360. The one issue many folks might have is what I'll call release lag. It takes a few days/weeks (or more) for a show to make its way to Netflix or the iTunes store. For me, that's really not it an issue. However, it will be for some. Apple has some work to do. Right now, navigating the main screen is tolerable, though a bit clunky. However, with each new app & service, it gets messier. Soon, it will become unwieldy. I want to see the ability to organize this "desktop". Folders will be critical. Plus, I want to have a "favorites/bookmarks" section. It would also be good to let me delete apps I don't want. The range of content amazes and delights me. And the lack of commercials is glorious. And the ability to stream from my iPhone or Macbook ...

I was annoyed when I saw this hit my Twitter feed. , The article references  Food Democracy Now 's response to an article written by the New York Time's Amy Harmon. That an organization that I support  pulled this crap really got to me. We're used to this stuff from the Right, whether Rush Limbaugh railing against a 7th grade Chelsea Clinton not being sexy enough, or the blather about Nancy Pelosi unprettyness, ad nasuem. Yet, Pamela reminds us that both sides of the aisle are happy to partake. Then I remember seeing some of the pornographic representations of Sarah Palin during the "Drill Baby Drill" kerfuffle. Sadly, politics seems to bring out the ugliest in us all. It disappoints me when the Left, in all our drive for equal access, the obliteration of privilege and the like undercut our own message with sexist drivel. For those of us who value reason and debate over petty slings, we need to respond accordingly. Food Democracy Now, I'm deeply d...

Just read " Why Pierre Omidyar decided to join forces with Glenn Greenwald for a new venture in news " over at Jay Rosen's PressThink . So much of this makes me near giddy. The potential: amazing! Combining key stakeholders within both the online business sector ( Pierre Omidyar founded eBay, for you who don't know. And I'd like to think any reader here would know Glenn's work. If not, here's his Wikipedia article. These are the higher profile collaborators. Read the article for a more in-depth list). Not many details released yet, I expect that these are getting hashed out as we speak. their motivations, though, and the backgrounds of the collaborators are what give me the most excitement. This combination of talent presents an amazing opportunity to deeply innovate this space. Both from a financial side (let's face it, modern news has struggled with finding a sustainable financial model) as well as deeply utilizing elements of the modern web cult...

I posted this on my other blog a few weeks back, then thought it would be more relevant over here. So, without further adieu... Reading this at Venture Beat just annoyed the crap out of me: GlassUp raised $100K on Indiegogo — but PayPal is refusing to pay up . This isn’t the first time PayPal has dealt with similar issues, even to the point where their president publicly intervened in a resolution . This troubles me regarding PayPal’s future.  These rules need to significant repair if PayPal wants to remain relevant in this space. StartUps, heck, any business CANNOT operate with random and inconsistent access to funds. I think PayPal’s growth as a purchase transaction processor might be the root of these aggravations. At a brief glance, I see vigorous efforts to protect buyers from fraud. Noble, but hampering these transactions that vary from that model. Policies need to evolve with market changes. Especially market shifts that reflect your company’s goals and objectives. Da...

Some things to meditate on if you market towards the teen crowd. Or if you're a creepy stalker type. Either way, read and get learned. Whatever feelings you have towards youth, their feelings reflect the direction culture is migrating towards. I found this over at Social Media Today .

I like to listen to podcasts on my commute. This got me thinking about how many of NPR's weekly shows would lend themselves nicely to the podcast format. The first show I thought of, though, is Fiona Ritchie's Thistle & Shamrock. It's not carried locally and, unless I find a live stream, I'm out of luck. Providing the whole show via podcast would work nicely. Broadcast the show intact. You can increase your viewership significantly with minimal increased coast. There's great power in allowing timeshifting. I think it'd be a great win for NPR. You?

I love some things about this age. I like sitting in bed working. Getting some calm family time, yet also arranging my day, answering email and the like. And making a much delayed blog update without too much effort. Another "like" is being able to utilize wasted time better. Things like standing in line, waiting for the doctor. I don't sit reading months old magazines; I get work done. Crazy side bar: I've spent the later half of this year working for a real estate company. Same sort of work, whole new sector. I never would've guessed just how tech dependent real estate is. Or can be. Perhaps a piece of this tech utilization is related to locale. We are in a major tech hub. My team lives and breathes via Dropbox and Gmail. Acrobat is additionally critical. Most communication with our sellers is via email, or via website. Thinking of websites and real estate, one thing I spend time researching are Home Owners Associations, water associations and such. People...

I, like so many others, have hit the wall: data overload. There's SO much out there, interesting and readily available. Free, or so for all practical intent; very few barriers. Not too long ago, price helped keep this in check. Our resources to spend on magazines, newspapers and the like naturally limited out data-stream. Yes, we had free at libraries, but content was still limited (by the fiscal concerns of libraries as well as any particular mag being used or destroyed by another patron) and there was the time commitment. Clearly the topography has changed. Content commodified: for creatives, this might be horrifying. I have a bit of that reaction. But this condition needs to drive a focus on quality. We content creators need to create the best stuff we can. And be aware of the subjective nature of "best". But "best" can still be buried within a sea of adequate. The tools for navigating this are still being crafted. I consider the hundreds of email I dele...

I just read a piece over at Cross-Cut about the Perugia Public Prosecutor's use of his office to harass members of the press . Let me start by stating, though I reside in Seattle, I have no skin the Amanda Know case. I don't know Ms. Knox or her family, and have no standing to offer any critique of the case, either pro or con (so please, I don't care to debate it...not my bailiwick, so to speak). So, this is not about the murder case. No, it's much bigger: freedom of the press. This cornerstone of democracy looks to be under serious threat in Italy. I find it particularly disturbing that Mr. Mignini, the aforementioned prosecutor, an agent of the government, is so aggressively seeking to undermine core democratic underpinnings. This is someone who has an inherent responsibility towards these principles. To see him trample upon them pains me deeply. The destructive impact of this in manifold, and not just in Italy. The Committee To Protect Journalists has written to...

As I'm updating my resume and looking over past work, I came across some media tracking spreadsheets I'd crafted. The company is international, but the data I had was (mostly) national (US), with little bits of Canada thrown in. Anyway, what I received were spreadsheets from an agency covering all media stories. The main thing I did with this was break it down by focus (positive vs. negative, for the most part). So, I've been considering what I would do differently now. This is just a stream of ideas, so please understand them as such. I would like to build reports with more depth. Look at regional coverage. Map out city by city, etc, across the globe if possible. Layer this on top of a map. Then with that report I'd break out positive, negative & neutral focus. It's important to note that it's hard to ascertain focus when one doesn't see the coverage. Anyway, I also thought it would be good to look at what's generating the coverage: new products, n...

I've been enjoying Storycorps for years. The ones aired on NPR always seem to touch me, either warming my heart and bringing tears. And each one seems to be my new favorite. I've just discovered the little animated bits that they've been putting together with the articles. This one (below) follows the tradition of becoming my new favorite. The grandmother of this story reminds me so very much of one of my own. So, enjoy!

I sit here watching one of those "save the world and starving children" pitches. You know the ones; watching some child in the ruins of poverty, tears flowing down their face. As I've developed a deep and abiding cynicism of marketing of any stripe, these tend to annoy me (and I'm a liberal). Yet, yet I know the reason these tactics are used; it works. It's what gets people off the couch and to the phone/web. I suppose I should embrace this, the effectiveness. However, I wish that we could become deeper, that we could be reached by the logic and compassion of the need. That we weren't so numb. I guess I shall continue with that wish for some time to come.

Just read on Chris Brogan’s site a serious critique of Amazon’s Cloud Service . Reminded me of an insight I had while researching web presence for a Fortune 500 company. Every company at that scale has a web presence and reputation/status. That extends pretty far down the pipeline, too. Most every company has some presence on the web (I’m sure there are a few that the web is completely ignorant of, but I expect that to be challenging to find). Consider how many people use the web for research. Whether prospective new hires, students or activists, people will find all kinds of information about your institution on the web. Therefore, community management/social media management is critical for a company. At least one person should be scouring the web looking for opportunities to discuss the company, it’s products/services, and address issues. This must be fully transparent, however. Dialog needs to include both the positive and negative. Oh, and yes there are vile trolls out there. They...

I'm watching G4 's Attack of the Show . I've checked out the show, and the network, a few times since they merged with TechTV . I've not been too impressed with G4's programming work, as it seems to mostly consist of reruns of COPs. AOFS AOTS, though, has some interesting concepts. Their focus is tech, in the form of gaming, internet memes, viral video; mainly the goofy and wacky of online life. I like their displayed Twitter stream, and the way they incorporate that and audience reactions into the show. There clearly is preparation, thus some scripting (there are guests for instance). The show seems to be allowed to flow in whatever direction it wanders. They riff off of whatever random tweet comes through. They may be silly & goofy (The show is not for everyone. Shall we say it's a tad bit ribald?), but I think they have glimpsed the future. That we're expecting to be interacted with, not just fed. We have something to say about a broadcast, and that ...

Twitter takes the idea of "executive summary" and refines it to the most diminutive. Twitter's beauty comes from the speed of data transfer, as well as connecting trust agents to incentivize readership. Its downside: sacrificing depth for speed. With the mass of data blasting down the Twitter pipes, headlines replace depth. Finding the valuable, the needle within the haystack stares at us. Thus the value of our followees. The people we choose to follow capture our priorities, our interests and passions. Filtering the grand thoroughfare in this way greatly expands what trade pubs were attempting to do, in the magazine era's heyday. And the internet's grabs array of knowledge becomes more manageable. Or more so.

Earlier this week I read a rather disturbing story, Michael Finkel ’s “ How I Convinced a Death-Row Murderer Not to Die ”. Now, I dimly remember the story from early in the decade (it happened in Oregon). Interesting, from a sociological point of view. However, for me, the story went into some depth on the murder (the subject, Christian Longo, murdered his whole family). Those sorts of details tend to disturb and haunt me. Gladly, I read the thing in early afternoon, giving myself some time to disconnect. Otherwise, my night’s sleep would’ve been disrupted (as has happened after reading/hearing other such stories). This is why I generally don’t watch the news in the evening, and defiantly late at night. If I’m up in the dark of night for insomnia, I avoid both the news, but also “true crime” shows which are so popular. And I avoid all the “mystery” shows, as well as any of the crime-based dramas. Now, some would say this is due to my liberal, bleeding-heart tendencies, or some such r...

Here's a good post raising questions about all those "social media experts". It's easy, I guess, to become bedazzled by buzz terms (Twitter, Facebook, et al). However, if your company is looking to invest actual money in something like this, if behooves you to spend some time researching. One site I learned about from this, though, is Help A Reporter Out . Peter Shankman's effort to connect reporters with good, solid sources. It looks like a great way to help both reporters get in front of real sources (not just PR shlocks) as well as get good PR folks in front of relevant media. One of those real solid "win wins" we hear so much about.

Lately, much has been pontificated online about media hyperbole surrounding the Swine Flu. I offer something of an apologia for the current state of affairs here. Mainly, the issue stems from "the public's" inability to pay attention to anything without an immense headline. Well, unless it has to do with a celebrity's underwear habits, but I digress. My frustration for this element of society goes deep. Television news focuses on the shallow, sound-bite, executive summary. Brief, quick, gone. It amazes me, to this day, that so many people use this as their primary information source. So quick, vacant and empty, full of alarmist notions and language. You see this, however, within print as well. Particularly, headlines. Most of them are barely connected with a story's content. And many people don't read a story past the headline. Long ago, I gave up on this as a source of information. NPR took on a piece of it, as I have often had some commute time. My pref...