backpack exec.

99 Life Hacks to make your life easier!

Tue, 07 May 2013 11:59:42 -0400

Random Thoughts On My Investments: The Curious Settlement of Yardi v. RealPage

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:29:05 -0400

Random Thoughts On My Investments: The Curious Settlement of Yardi v. RealPage:

On July 2^nd RealPage (“RP”) and Yardi announced the settlement of their litigation.

First things first, my tail risk thesis has been rendered null and void by the settlement. I argued, in my last post, that the litigation could result in large monetary damages, which RealPage had not reserved…

To piggy back of this:

http://www.multifamilyinsiders.com/multifamily-blogs/embrace-enhance-extinguish-how-yardi-could-become-a-monopoly-in-the-multifamily-industry

heyoscarwilde: Solar System Travel Posters illustrations by...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 19:31:33 -0500

heyoscarwilde:

Solar System Travel Posters

illustrations by Luke Minner and Naomi Wilson :: via IndelibleInkWorkshop

Photo

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:16:50 -0500

Musings of a Maté Drinking Woman: Top 10 Hackers of All Time

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 13:57:37 -0500

Musings of a Maté Drinking Woman: Top 10 Hackers of All Time:

asshurtmacfags:

As an elite computer heckeur myself, with over 13 years of underground hacking scene experience, I’m probably the only person in the world who is well equipped enough to write the definitive top 10 list of the greatest hackers of all time. I’m #1, obviously, but I’ll leave myself out because this…

Photo

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 23:06:17 -0500

My First Cell Phone or The Most Pointless Post Ever

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:59:39 -0500

I began dialing the first number I could think of…4 - 0 - I tapped away, swiftly and deliberately like Camacho sparing before a fight. The feel of resistance against my thumb was somehow gratifying, like the satisfaction you get from popping bubble wrap. I remember watching the screen light up with beautiful green digits after every successful jab to the keypad as if my phone was keeping score for me.

With the phone to my ear I began tinkering with the antenna, reaching my apposing arm over my head like a chimpanzee. Never have I been so excited to talk about absolutely nothing with just about anyone. So long as that anyone is on the receiving end of this call and not directly in front of me asking where Dillard’s is -

I’m sorry, what? I’m on the phone.

After what seemed to be hours of waiting for someone to pick up, I finally hear a familiar voice.

Eddie! What the f**k are you doing man?

Of course, this was a dick thing to ask because I already knew what Eddie was doing. Eddie was home, grounded. And here I was asking him to meet me at the mall so I could gloat about my new cell phone.

Collier Companies begins major websites overhaul, signs VelocityGeni.us to oversee initiative.

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:19:59 -0500

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

01/08/2012

Gainesville, Florida - The Collier Companies (TCC), a leading provider in student housing, kicks off 2013 with what will be the largest online overhaul in the organization’s 37 year history.

With an ambitious scope of work, which includes 46 websites and a custom content management system, the Gainesville-based company has decided to bring on the student housing consulting firm VelocityGeni.us to oversee the 22 week initiative.

“The Collier Companies is eagerly awaiting the completion of our community and company websites. VelocityGeni.us is the ideal partner. Our approach of research based design was deliberately planned to maximize the effectiveness of our online presence. Our first community website roll out has demonstrated lead conversion rates doubling historical performance.” Says Jennifer Clince, COO for The Collier Companies

Jason Velazquez, founder of VelocityGeni.us, was previously employed by TCC as the company’s VP of Strategic Initiatives and dedicated most of his 4 year tenure towards research and development for the now realized initiative. The unique circumstances surrounding the partnership has allowed Velazquez to pick up where he left off.

“I am humbled by the opportunity to continue working on such an important initiative. The TCC team has spent considerable time and resources developing what I believe to be one of the most well thought out online strategies in student housing. My goal is to ensure that the next 6 months are a testament to those efforts.” Says Velazquez.

Velocitygeni.us will be responsible for the design and deployment of 44 custom-made community websites, a corporate website, and company leadership blog; all of which will have a mobile version and be tied together by a proprietary content management system, the first of its kind in student housing.

This marks the first major contract for the newly developed student housing consulting firm.

###

Our Mission at VelocityGeni.is:

As the first strategist firm in the industry, VelocityGeni.us inspires a new era in student housing. We exist to push forward the evolution taking place in our industry.

We believe in disrupting the status quo. We believe in progress through innovation. We believe in a better student housing experience for everyone. Join us.

Our Focus at VelocityGeni.us:

Student Housing is in our DNA. It is what we do, exclusively. We are Information Architects. We are Action Strategists. We are Velocity Geniuses. Through this lens, we focus on four core themes:

Direction
Growth
Momentum
Open Innovation

- @jasonvelazquez

VelocityGeni.us Signs Delegation Of Internet Freedom, Encourages Others In Student Housing To Do The Same

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:42:21 -0500

Velocitygeni.us, a student housing consulting firm, asserts its stance for an open and free Internet by signing the Declaration of Internet Freedom (DIF).

In short, DIF describes the need to protect expression, access, openness, and innovation for those who wish to use the Internet.

Controversy over some of the manifesto’s implications, like the right to anonymously post customer reviews, directly relate to important issues in the Student Housing Industry. Though, the overarching message supersedes any financial liability, says Jason Velazquez, founder of VelocityGeni.us.

“It’s a tricky issue. We have strong cause to believe user anonymity has become a business model; leveraging the rights afforded to the people as a means for private profit. The right to remain anonymous, as inconvenient as it may sometimes be, is worth protecting for the greater good.”

Velazquez continues with a call for trust through transparency by urging others in student housing, particularly operators, to consider signing the pledge as well.

“We have a lot left to learn about apartment reviews and the ramifications they have on our industry. But, it is clear we have an issue of trust from our residents. The signing of this manifesto shows support for our residents’ rights to free and anonymous speech.”

The mention of trust, or lack thereof, is a reference to a recent phenomenon where companies have taken legal action against residents on grounds of deformation; forcing review sites to reveal a reviewer’s identity through means of court order.

“The DIF pledge could be used as a means to communicate that such actions violate our residents’ right to free speech and will not be a consideration under similar circumstances.”

Velazquez has been known to publicly criticize review sites that potentially use anonymity to generate large amounts of free user-generated reviews with, as he puts it, “little regard to content validity”. Though, his company’s signing of the DIF suggest that any efforts to end such practices will stop short of infringing on individuals’ right to free speech.

The VelocityGeni.us team plans to release a white paper detailing the affects anonymity has on apartment reviews in the coming months.

—-

Our Mission at VelocityGeni.is:

As the first strategist firm in the industry, VelocityGeni.us inspires a new era in student housing. We exist to push forward the evolution taking place in our industry.

We believe in disrupting the status quo. We believe in progress through innovation. We believe in a better student housing experience for everyone. Join us.

Our Focus at VelocityGeni.us:

Student Housing is in our DNA. It is what we do, exclusively. We are Information Architects. We are Action Strategists. We are Velocity Geniuses. Through this lens, we focus on four core themes:

Direction
Growth
Momentum
Open Innovation

It's Okay to Be King

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 09:16:56 -0500

Mike Evangelist (yep, that’s his name) still remembers one of his first meetings with Jobs. It took place in the Apple boardroom in early 2000, just a few months after Apple purchased the American division of Astarte, a German software company where Evangelist was an operations manager. Phil Schiller, Apple’s longtime head of marketing, put Evangelist on a team charged with coming up with ideas for a DVD-burning program that Apple planned to release on high-end Macs — an app that would later become iDVD.

“We had about three weeks to prepare,” Evangelist says. He and another employee went to work creating beautiful mock-ups depicting the perfect interface for the new program. On the appointed day, Evangelist and the rest of the team gathered in the boardroom. They’d brought page after page of prototype screen shots showing the new program’s various windows and menu options, along with paragraphs of documentation describing how the app would work.

“Then Steve comes in,” Evangelist recalls. “He doesn’t look at any of our work. He picks up a marker and goes over to the whiteboard. He draws a rectangle. ‘Here’s the new application,’ he says. ‘It’s got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says burn. That’s it. That’s what we’re going to make.’ “

“We were dumbfounded,” Evangelist says. This wasn’t how product decisions were made at his old company. Indeed, this isn’t how products are planned anywhere else in the industry.

Excerpt form: Invincible Apple
http://www.fastcompany.com/1659056/invincible-apple-10-lessons-coolest-company-anywhere

robmyers: “There’s no time like the present!” Except there is… ...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:26:00 -0500

robmyers:

“There’s no time like the present!” Except there is…

It’s called the future.

We tend to keep our dreams there so they stay safe. If we allowed our dreams to live in the here-and-now they may be crushed. Or at least bruised and bloodied.

So our dreams are (for most) forever a figment. An ethereal imagining that’s just around the bend. One we can talk about kindly and generously like an old friend we haven’t seen in more years than we knew them. They become legend and they comfort, though we know the secret in our heart-of-hearts: we don’t actually intend for them to become real. We are perfectly content to let them stay this way; out of reach, unblemished, and perfect in their vagueness.

Unless of course, someone else wants to come and make them real for us, and set them gently into our shaking hands. But that’s not possible, is it? And that’s the scary, beautiful, completely unspoken truth.

No, I think for most of us, we tend to do about as well as we can without enduring too much pain. Enough, to where we feel slightly uncomfortable, but not enough to watch a dream die under the harsh light of the present.

Not enough to suffer that, and then to keep on dreaming in the present.

Signals of a great designer

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 07:41:59 -0400

When evaluating design, many cannot distinguish between signals and noise. In fact, to the casual critic, noise is often more appealing - It stimulates senses waiting to be stimulated.

As a designer - web, fashion, product - it is tempting to cave to the needs for validation from ones peers - give the crowd the shouts and screams they are listening for!

Great design fights against the noise.

Design for the quiet majority; the customers and users that rely on your signals to guide them, not noise to distract. While you may never hear a thank you for a speedier website, a well tailored pair of slacks, or a better mouse trap, the signals are out there.

You just have to listen a little harder.

IE Round Up: 6 Companies That Dumped Internet Explorer Support

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:03:00 -0400

Mention Internet Explorer to a web developer and watch the expletives fly; and for good reason, it’s a shitty browser. IE6 ranked number 8 in PC World’s The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time, IE7 is plagued with security issues, and IE8 is a painful reminder of how slow (or unwilling) Microsoft can be at adopting W3 [Webkit] standards.

The decision whether or not to support the Nickelback of Internet browsers is a bit of a catch 22 and, usually depends on who’s making the call. From the standpoint of a business executive, blocking a particular browser version could potentially mean losing a sale or two. Then there’s the web developer, who understands there’s a real expense associated with developing 2 or even 3 different versions of a website simply because the public library hasn’t updated its operating system since the series finale of Seinfeld.

So, what is a freelancing geek to do when a client wants IE6 support? How does one convince the boss that IE7 is the worst thing to come out of Microsoft since Clippy?

Have no fear. Here are 6 great companies that gave Internet Explorer the 1-finger salute and never looked back:

Google Apps

On the surface, Google’s dropped support for Internet Explorer 8 (and below) for many of its services may seem like a convenient excuse (And it is) to prompt IE users (They will) to download ~~Chrome~~ a different browser. But, Google’s recent announcement will surely send shockwaves across the tech world, encouraging other brave developers to come forward with a stance against this 20th century browser-tyrant. ¡Viva la Revolución!

Facebook

Not a fan of Facebook’s new Timeline feature? No sweat! Just use Internet Explorer 7. Last December, Facebook announced its plan to phase out IE7 support for its latest love-it-or-hate-it feature.

Kogan.com

Ruslan Kogan doesn’t technically block Internet Explorer users from buying a new Blu-ray player on his Australian based website, Kogan.com. Nope. He just charges an extra 6.8% sales tax to customers using anything below IE8 (Or allows to bypass the tax by downloading a better browser). Mr. Kogan claims the “sales tax” is to help recoup costs associated with supporting, and developing for, outdated browsers.

Side Note: It seems unlikely that I should ever run into this man but, if I do, I fully intend on kissing him on the mouth.

4ormat

Still think it makes more fiscal sense to support rather than lose a sale? Tell that to this thrifty little bootstrap. 4ormat, a professional portfolio startup, claimed it saved $100k in payroll by giving Internet Explorer the axe; and they don’t mean IE6, 7 or even the yet-to-be-released IE10, but every version of Internet Explorer, past and future.

PayDirt App

PayDirt is a little more than enthused about its complete blacklisting of Internet Explorer, claiming the lack of support is a user feature. That’s right, users of this nifty time-tracking app can enjoy the fact that PayDirt is not not going to un-support all IE versions. Um, what? PayDirt claims the saved development time will allow them to focus on features for “sensible browsers”. A feature, indeed.

Microsoft Office

Wait, what? It’s true, Microsoft recently announced it will no longer support Windows XP and Vista (ergo IE 7 & 8) for the upcoming release of MS Office. Granted, this appears to be more of a sales tactic than a stance against bad technology but, it should be a welcomed change for our under-funded IT departments. Studies have shown it costs companies 5x more to support Windows XP than Windows 7.

Four story victorian homes are for the rich and foolish: a mobile-friendly story.

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 21:02:56 -0400

A new study finds less than 10% of websites are mobile ready.

“Bullshit”, I mumbled just loud enough for the waitress to look back my way. “More coffee?”, she asked. Nose down in my phone, I nudged my mug towards her without so much as a head nod to further acknowledge the question.

How could this be? If 9 out of every 10 sites are — what’s the opposite word for mobile friendly…mobile hostile? — why does it feel like I’m late to the party?

There I am, standing in the doorway holding a cheap bottle of Merlot, hoping no one notices me.

Scanning the room, I watch other guests sip exotic blends as they go on about favicons and swipe-to-view photo galleries. Intellectuals with monocles and top hats, exchanging condescending small talk with the help. “Does your website have an iPhone version yet? No? Well, it should. Mobile is the future, you know.”

It was a fantasy I played out in my mind often.

“Can I get you anything else?” the waitress asked in such a tone I wondered if this was her 2nd, or even 3rd time repeating the question before I offered up something other than a blank stare. “Just the check please”.

I was off to tour the historic district just around the corner.

Mobile on my mind

The row of Victorian homes neatly lined up against the worn brick road like a display of trophies won by old southern money. One by one, they towered over me, as if competing with each other for my attention.

At the end of the block, just before Forsyth Park, stood a particularly impressive display of showmanship.The grand Victorian home casts its shadow directly over a local jogger too busy fighting for his fair share of the sidewalk to take notice. I finally catch up to my group as they gather near the home’s wrought iron fence for, if nothing else, some relief from the unforgiving Savannah sun. Staring into the 4th floor window of the white brick Victorian, I wipe the sweat from my face with the bottom of my t-shirt. “I could totally live here”, I thought. Put my room on the top floor, I bet I could see 3 blocks over with that view.

Ugh, but the stairs…

What a chore it must have been to host a dinner party; having to lug up and down 4 flights each time a new guest arrived and wanted the grand tour. The longer I thought about it, the more upset I became. Why the hell would anyone build 4 stories up when you could just as easily buildout? Then it hit me, like a barrel of the very same brick this ridiculous home was made from.

I pictured the hostess welcoming her newly arrived guests. She points out the imported crown molding surrounding them above as she guides the group towards the stairwell. She could hardly contain her excitement. It was their first dinner party since the build and a grand tour was long overdue. The words marble, oak, and Italy bounce between the walls as the group hiked up the first flight of stairs.

Rounding the 2nd story, the hostess’ voice becomes increasingly loud, as if the sound would somehow mask the heat quickly rising alongside her guests. By the 3rd flight, her long-winded details become short bullet points, attempting to hide how out of breath she was.

The 4th floor was impressive as it was hot. *”Not everyone can build 4 stories up, you know” the hostess said to her guests in a breathy, joggers voice. “I believe we may be the only family on the block to do so”. The architectural feat was little consolation to a group of party guests sweating through their Sunday’s best. Ignoring the beads falling from the hostess’ brow and into her eye, a young man in the group breaks the awkward silence to congratulate the family on a beautiful home.

I continued behind my group, swatting mosquitos and using my shirt as a sweat rag. Our tour guide was explaining why building a multi-level structure was a point of pride to Savannah residents more than 100 years ago. “…it was a true architectural achievement back then. You won’t find too many 4 story homes nowadays, though. It’s just not as popular as it used to be.”

The truth is, it was never a practical design.

The mobile-web monster

I never did learn why so few websites are mobile ready, that morning in the coffee shop. Though, the answer doesn’t seem so important to me these days. Now, I ask myself whether or not designing a separate website for every possible device, browser, and screen resolution is practical? Is this actually what our customers want, or are we just building 4 story Victorian homes out of sheer pride?

Remember 2007? Apple promised to solve all our mobile-browsing woes by delivering a full web experience via something called the iPhone. Google quietly worked on what will later be the largest mobile OS in the world, Android. Blackberry, seeming unfazed by all the disruption, continued to serve watered-down versions of our favorite websites on overpriced dumbphones.

Yep. Mobile was going mainstream with two pretty awesome companies leading the way and we couldn’t be happier.

Then something unexpected happened. Panic began to spread across break-rooms all over the country. Horrific tales of the mobile-web snatching up profits in the middle of the night brought shivers down the spines of our executives. Fortune 500s nervously bragged about yet-to-be-seen mobile strategies, hoping to be spared by the mobile-web monster.

It was a scary time for all of us.

But, of course, the mobile-web monster never did come. And as of yesterday, only 28% of companies on the fortune 500 currently have a mobile website.

Even the company that started it all with the iPhone still serves up the same boring website to everyone regardless of the device we use. It appears Apple had every intention in keeping its promise of a full-fledge web experience for mobile devices. Unfortunately, the rest of the business world has been too busy shoving the mobile-web down the throats of consumers to listen to the message.

So, if I may speak on behalf of our customers, here it is again; loud and clear.

We want your full website on our mobile phones. Not obnoxious redirects pushing us to a watered-down, featureless version.

We want to read the article you post on Facebook without the annoying little chore of exiting your hey-download-our-app pop-ups. (Yea you, TechCrunch)

But most of all, we want you to know it’s going to be ok. Chances are, my smartphone is more powerful than the crappy laptops your IT department issues out. And even though you have a poorly coded website, my modern browser should render it just fine.

Stop trying to solve a problem iOS and Chrome fixed during the Bush administration. Those guys have it under control. Blackberry? Don’t you worry your pretty little head about those jokers. Last I heard they were tricking for dinner, letting IBM feel them up under the table. They will never hurt us again.

Listen, we know how much you love the thought of a mobile site serving, app downloading, business utopia. Just try to be patient. One day a practical solution for everyone will present itself. Till then, let us enjoy your sites without having to click the “View full version” link.

- Written and posted on my iPhone.

robmyers: Love the design as much as the sentiment.

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 09:43:00 -0400

robmyers:

Love the design as much as the sentiment.

After 1.3 Million Pages of (Mostly) Negative Reviews, ApartmentsRatings.com Turns Over a New Leaf

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 18:11:00 -0400

If you haven’t made your rounds in the PR circuit the last couple weeks, you may have missed the announced partnership between ApartmentRatings.com [AR] and RentAdvisor [RA].

Unfortunately, the details surrounding the new found friendship are a bit lacking. Based on the [search result-dominating] press release issued by the pair, AR and RA are teaming up in an effort to improve our communities’ online image by soliciting positive online reviews from our residents.

Their respective roles are succinctly outlined by Wade Hewitt, VP of ApartmentRatings.com:

“Our new partnership with RentAdvisor works in conjunction with our Verified Resident Program and offers properties multiple solutions to solicit solid ratings and reviews, which in turn will be displayed on ApartmentRatings.com.”

I was a bit taken back by how a single sentence could pack my mind with so many questions and red flags. Let’s start with the most obvious, shall we?

Either the copy writer needs a copy writer or I just read a published work with the words “Verified Resident” and “ApartmentRatings.com” working together to complete a sentence.

Can we be honest for a second? AR doesn’t care about validity. It cares about exploiting free content. This is the site that takes any mixture of letters, numbers, and punctuation, as long as it means it can create another page to shove a dozen text ads into. I mean, can I get a little website with my AdSense? Geez. More on that in a bit.

The second and, maybe most audacious of my observations surrounding this pitbull-in-a-chihuahua’s-body of a sentence is it appears as if RentAdvisor will expect us to pay them a shipping & handling fee of sorts for these positive resident reviews.

I won’t get into how this model could quickly turn into implied extortion but, if you find yourself with some downtime, skim through my post about Yelp.

I will, however, walk you through why this is a crummy deal at any price -

Deep Breath…

So, RentAdvisor provides a service (presumably for a fee) that harvests massive amounts of free user-generated content right out your backyard.

RentAdvisor then converts this content into valuable consumer behavior data to use for its benefit (Which at this point is now globally, perpetually, and irrevocably owned by RentAdvisor and its affiliates.) while simultaneously dishing off hundreds of thousands of pages worth of free, hot-off-the-press content to a website that didn’t even think enough of you to throw a hyperlink your way when it allowed the entire world wide web to run through your reputation like a cheap date.

Gasp.

And in a final act of bitter irony, the very same user-content you happily provided in exchange for a few months of not-horrible reviews will inevitably be used against you through sketchy SEO tactics and low-quality, duplicate content with the sole purpose of cramming more Google Adsense ads (that we pay for, by the way) into pages already spilling at the rim with your community’s information.

Does that just about sum up the service? Feel free to use that in your sales pitch.

PS - I’m looking forward to the Verified Resident Program. Truly, I am.

Chapter 2: Extortion, Hypocrisy, and the Man in the Black Hat - The Big Business of Online Reviews

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 03:08:00 -0400

Chapter 2 of 3: Hypocrisy

This is the 2nd of a 3 part post. Read chapter 1 here.

—

It is said a man’s true self is revealed when faced with his unforeseen demise. As deep as our dependency is on the air we breathe, profit is necessary for the survival of any one business. It seems fair to suggest that a situation in which a company faces the probability of major profit loss would prove to be just as illuminating.

When Ideology and Profit Collide

For 13 minutes, on the 13th of May — 2009, the administrative section of vBulletin.com accidentally became accessible to the general public. Sensitive documents outlining strategies to handle an anticipated ‘tsunami’ of customer complaints began making its rounds across internet forums shortly after:

“…if the truth be told, these people do not represent the vast majority of our customers…While what they say is important, and may contain valid criticisms, their comments can often give the false impressions that there are a lot more complainers than there actually are.”

In what now resembles textbook foreshadowing, Steve Machol, Customer Support Manager for vBulletin, offers a warning of potential backlash to his fellow colleagues. He points out that the option of “censorship” would likely “blow up” in their faces…

…And blow up it did.

The following October, Internet Brands LLC, parent company to vBulletin, censored paying customers from posting negative reviews shortly after the ill-received 4.0 version release of the vBulletin forum software.

Mr. Machol posts a public change of policy on the very forum many claimed to be blocked from:

“Please be aware that we will no longer allow posts with non-constructive rants, inflammatory language and trolling on our forums…Such posts represent a distorted picture to current and potential customers…”

While Internet Brands controls the forum software found on over 40,000 websites worldwide, the attempts of censorship backfired on the “new media” company. In a matter of hours, VBTruth.com, a website dedicated to exposing vBulletin and Internet Brands, went live. This, in turn, sparked a post by the popular UK blog The Channel. Cade Metz provided detailed accounts of customers claiming foul play. These are 2 of what appears to be hundreds of examples of published outrage caused by the actions and reactions of Internet Brands.

Truth, it seems, will always find a way to be heard. Even if it’s the accused that controls the very mouth from which it speaks.

Imagine what it would be like to work for a company with the power to suppress its customers’ online reviews at will. Place yourself in the shoes of that company’s leader; feel the weight on your shoulders that comes with the burden of governing the responsibility in an ethical manner. How would you keep that power steered in the direction of your company’s moral compass? Who draws the line that separates the practice of discouraging negativity and the act of censoring truth?

Maybe the burden of such responsibilities are simply too much to bear; the instinct to survive too strong to ignore. I do find it curious, however, that we in the Multifamily Housing Industry aren’t attempting to provide our residents with an outlet to vent their frustrations in an open, uncensored environment. When current alternatives are considered, it appears worth the sacrifice.

In 2007, 2 years prior to being accused of censoring its own customers, Internet Brands joined the ranks of companies like Yelp in the business of online reviews and purchased ApartmentRatings.com.

—

This is the 2nd post in a 3 part series entitled - Extortion, Hypocrisy, and the Man in the Black Hat - The Big Business of Online Reviews. Read chapter 1 here.

Look out for the conclusion coming soon, here at BackpackExecutive.Tumblr

shaneguiter: soupsoup: Business Week cover story, week of Feb...

Mon, 21 May 2012 21:11:29 -0400

shaneguiter:

soupsoup:

Business Week cover story, week of Feb 5, 1996

Ha!

Extortion, Hypocrisy, and the Man in the Black Hat - The Big Business of Online Reviews

Fri, 11 May 2012 22:16:00 -0400

Chapter 1 of 3: Extortion

—

In the spring of 2010, Yelp Inc., a user review website, was sued for extortion - twice. The lawsuits came shortly after a now infamous blog post by East Bay Express entitled Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0. In her post, Kathleen Richards interviews a San Francisco restaurant owner (Unrelated to the plaintiffs) claiming a sales associate representing Yelp solicited advertising packages in exchange for the removal of negative customer reviews. Yelp has vehemently denied any unethical practices and has since been dismissed of all charges in a court of law.

The Multifamily Housing Industry has a Problem

Multifamily housing conferences and forums are dominated by the apartment review debate. The feelings of hostility and resentment seem to be a common theme among our onsite managers.

Our industry leaders — Vice Presidents, Marketing Directors, and 3^rd party consultants — seem to offer a united message of acceptance that can be summarized in one sentence:

Review sites are not going away so, we may as well participate.

Right or wrong, I have to ask why do we continue providing the same ‘copy-n-paste’ style of advice for our onsite teams? When can we acknowledge the elephant sitting beside us at panel discussions? No one wants to appear anti-resident, I get that. I find it admirable that so many management companies have a sincere desire to improve resident relations, even if it means paying a fee to have a voice. But there is certainly something icky about it; and it’s hard to put our finger on just what, exactly, it is.

Many will argue that there’s a problem with users posting reviews anonymously as it lacks accountability. This is a valid point backed by the creditability of at least one university study which suggests transparent, social engagement improves the quality of writing and reduces the amount of extreme (1 or 5 star) reviews.

The issue of anonymity, while important, is merely a symptom. It tells us little on how to rid ourselves of the virus. When a virus goes unchecked, it spreads. And the more area a virus is allowed to infect, the harder it becomes to stop it.

Consider the restaurateur from San Francisco who accused a Yelp salesman of attempting to extort advertising dollars, or the many who stepped up shortly after with similar claims.

Whether the attempts of extortion were direct, implied, or even fabricated is incidental. The salespeople at Yelp understood they had leverage over a group of individuals not allowed to participate in the conversation going on about them in the next room. It is possible, if not probable, that many chose to use that leverage in some form to make a sale.

Despite past accusations, Yelp seems to be a respectable business with a sincere attempt at quality content for its readers. When compared to other review sites, more familiar in our industry, Yelp is the Red Cross of the internet.

But even a heavily funded darling of the tech world can misjudge the power of greed. In the business of online reviews, a company must face the inherit conflict of interest with a model that profits from exposing others dirty laundry.

In April of 2009, two months after being sued for extortion, Yelp opened their door and, allowed business owners to respond to user reviews; free of charge. They continue to generate revenue through advertising packages, while finding a way to remove, or at least reduce, unethical temptations. Lesson learned.

Tonight, I leave you with questions of what if.

What if the small-businesses owners of San Francisco decided it was easier to pay than fight?

What if Kathleen Richards never posted her blog in fear of being smeared by anyone feeling a little light in the pockets?

What if the next major review site decides to focus on the leverage rather than the lesson?

When a virus goes unchecked, it spreads.

Chapter 2: Hypocrisy »

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This is the 1st post in a 3 part series entitled - Extortion, Hypocrisy, and the Man in the Black Hat - The Big Business of Online Reviews. Read the 2nd post here. Look out for the conclusion coming soon, here at BackpackExecutive.Tumblr

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Tue, 08 May 2012 09:53:47 -0400

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