Readwriteweb‘s recent  addition of the “Readwrite Cloud” blog has been a real godsend for me and probably others who are faced with the task of creating products with “the cloud” in mind.  It seems like every product discussion I have, overhear, or read about these days involves a cloud component.  How can we “use the cloud” or how can we “cloud-enable” a product isn’t really how that discussion starts, though, and I think that it’s worth getting past some of the technical considerations and discuss what the cloud means really means for users and those of us who seek to please them.

Much like the now unfashionable and perhaps defunct “web 2.0″ label, “cloud computing” can mean lots of different things, but I think it is fairly simple if you look at it from the perspective of the end-user (as us Product people should always try to do). For me — in a nutshell – it boils down to a “where/how/when” question of access to data, content, or applications. Take this interesting company, for example:  http://www.zumodrive.com/.  As far as a “cloud” play for media, it can’t get any simpler, and there are lots of options for users for this kind of service. So how do they differentiate their product?  Well, its a subtle but interesting twist, pointed out here in this article on TechCrunch:

… the service includes a slightly different twist-ZumoDrive tricks the file system into thinking those cloud-stored files are local, and streams them from the cloud when you open or access them.

That might seem like a strange feature, but if you think about it, its terribly clever — users, even savvy users, aren’t yet completely used to/ and/or comfortable with the “cloud” concept, and by mimicking a boring old file-system, they bridge the gap between the users expectation and the real value of the service.  So, this got me to thinking… what’s a good short list to think about when you are developing products for the cloud?  Well, here is a short list…  I’m sure I’ll change my mind about what should be here as things progress, but this seems to me to be a good starting point.

1. Access – This is an obvious one, but it can’t be understated.  Users will use the cloud because it gives them access across time and space (whatever device, whenever they want)
2. Synchronization – While this is related to “Access”, there is a subtle difference.  Synchronization means that if I DO something or change any data via any interface or device, that change MUST exist across all devices and interfaces as soon as possible.
3. Trust – This is a big one, and recently, a lot of the bad publicity Facebook has been facing is driven by this issue. Users have to trust that their data is safe and private, end of story.  Something to consider here from a product standpoint, is allowing users to back-up their data. Also, companies should make it their policy in their EULA that if they go out of business, each user will receive a back-up before the doors shutter… that would be a big one for me if I was going to do anything really important in the cloud.
   
4. Openness – This is related to the Trust issue, but its slightly different in that what I rally mean is creating products that can share data with other applications and services, but also to keep the barriers to moving data entirely to another service simple and easy. Just like customer service 101 says that you are never nicer to a customer when they are leaving, the same should hold true for cloud-based services.

I recently read this quote somewhere, and unfortunately, I didn’t Evernote it (no attribution… so sorry!), but I did remember it.  I think its a good one…

Cloud Computing is not about Amazon, Its about how you reach your customers.

When it comes to my blog and thinking and writing about things of interest to me (and hopefully others), I obscenely violate of the best practices that I enthusiastically promote to all those I work with – “generate ideas, quickly share them, iterate, optimize, repeat”.  Well, I’ve decided to stop violating this practice and share an idea that I’ve had rattling around in my head for quite a while: Productonomics. The idea is not especially revolutionary or even very original (the title may make some of you cringe – it even does me sometimes, but hey – it’s catchy). It may be that I am just collecting a sub-set of ideas or putting a slant on concepts that have permeated my industry for a long time, but I think that my approach narrow and unique enough to add some insight and value.  Most importantly, I have found this way of thinking to be very useful and productive in a very practical day to day kind of way. I strongly believe that that all companies and “product people” can benefit from taking a step back and looking at problems through different lenses, and the lense that micro-economics provides is very powerful and insightful for those of us who need to make decisions on a daily basis about “what people want and how we build it”.

I got so excited when I started to pull together these ideas that I went out and registered the domain and had all these delusions of grandeur of having the “Productonomics” blog taking off and getting me a book deal or something… well – for now, I still own the domain, but I’ll just post here on quiet little timjmitchell.com and set the categories of those posts to “Productonomics”.

Recently, I’ve been trying to sort out my social media universe (insert joke here). Anyway, the last time I really thought about this stuff (maybe a year ago?), there a few and options, and now the bad news is that there are endless  options.  What I’m really talking about is managing multiple services and identities,  and  figuring out which service does what the best and how it all comes together.  I’ve come to a some conclusions for myself on how all of these pieces fit together, and it might be helpful for others to see one persons’ approach.  The first one to figure out is the two big ones, and how they should or should not interact.  Basically, I’m getting tired of seeing status updates posted twice in FB because people have their accounts linked, and I’ve stopped it, but for more reasons that just the annoyance factor.  I think I’m violating some kind of twitter etiquette by blogging about it – which is what Fast Company said Scoble said, but the post they link to on Scobelizer doesn’t actually say that… but really, I couldn’t care less, but you know there are rules, I guess.

Facebook vs. Twitter

The first real issue I had to resolve for myself  was to understand the relationship of these two services for me, and how to change my social networking behavior to match an optimal usage of each.  What I discovered (after 2 weeks in a sensory deprivation tank) is that Facebook = Fun, Twitter = Work.  That’s really an oversimplification, but its accurate.  Ultimately, it boils down to the nature of how each network is built, and the fact that I’ve been on Facebook much longer. The reality is that I like to use Facebook mostly socially to engage with (and joke around with) my friends.  Some of the things I say and do on Facebook I wouldn’t necessarily want broadcast to the world, which is what Twitter does best, IMO.

For me, Facebook is (or at least I’d like it to be) for friends, sharing links photos and videos, and frankly, for joking around.  I have discovered that my Twitter profile is, in a way, much more important for me as a public communication tool and identity.  Anyone can see my Twitter account and follow me (spammers aside), and I like it that way. As an internet professional, I must maintain a discipline (much as I must on my blog) to not divulge or say anything that would be harmful to the company I am working for (and as a result myself), but also, as an internet professional, I believe its imperative for me to share information and be an active and integral part of the internet. I would guess that more people will see a Tweet from me before they ever see my blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Facebook profile. For me, Twitter is about acquiring knowledge, promoting what I do, and sharing ideas.  Those are some big concepts for 140 characters or less, but it seems to be the best platform. I think a lot of other people agree with me, and I see a lot of posts out there that share the same idea, like this one from Cogblog:

“Because Twitter is for sharing information with the world and Facebook is for interacting with friends, Facebook has an inherent virality that Twitter does not have in their current model. “

I know there are a lot of twitter fanatics out there who are adamant that it shouldn’t  be used primarily a “broadcast” tool very actively and dynamically, as is expressed in this post on Twittip.  For the record, they are right in that Twitter is a much more compelling service if used as two-way communication, and I’m starting to actually figure this out…  the “Lists” feature and the now intergrated Retweeting are going a long way to make the communication aspect more compelling.

I came to the conclusion that Twitter is really good at being a big part of and promoting my blog. Using http://Twitterfeed.com, I pull in items I have “shared” from in Google Reader, and now I have a very clean and flexible way of sharing articles via Twitter. Then, with the Twitter Tools WordPress plug-in (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/) I can auto-generate a blog post whose contents are a weekly digest of my Tweets Example: http://timjmitchell.com/2009/11/20/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-11-20/. This solves another problem… I have decoupled Facebook from Twitter, since I hated having to hit both networks with the same post. Once a week, I simply share my digest blog post on Facebook – - there is still integration, but its much lighter weight, and it promotes my blog and Twitter account in a much better way. I also display my Tweets directly in one of the side panels of my blog, I have a large “origami bird” follow icon always present, and every post has a “Tweet This” button provided by the “Tweet This” WordPress plug-in (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tweet-this/). Twitter is now the primary way in which I promote my blog or communicate with other bloggers. I often forget to set up proper Trackbacks, and Pingbacks are becoming too un-trusted and associated with SPAM. Twitter is natural for not only promoting a post, but also for directly commenting or indirectly commenting via your own blog posts via @replies #tags, or even direct messages. I also simply cross-post to my Tumblr blog from WordPress, and again, I allow my entire Twitter stream to appear on my Tumblr profile… this is a no-effort way to promote my blog and Twitter profile to another online community.