I wouldn’t normally focus in on a single blog, especially when I’m being critical, but this time I feel different. I have for some time been frustrated with writings of Ed Brill. It’s taken me a little while to work out why though and then it occurred to me – it was down to the noise-to-signal ratio.
For those of you who don’t know Ed Brill is Business Unit Executive, Worldwide Lotus Messaging Sales, IBM Software Group. What I am writing is not meant to be criticisms of Ed as a person, but in his ability to meet the requirements that I personally have. His job title gives me an expectation that he is going to be talking about how great the IBM Lotus software is, my frustration comes out of my perception of his ability to meet those expectations. I doubt very much whether they are the expectations of most people who read his blog and I am sure it is wholly unfair for me to pick on his blog in particular, but it’s the one that has frustrated me the most.
I’m looking for a signal from IBM that tells me about all of the really great stuff they are doing with collaboration technology. Ed’s blog goes some way to fulfilling this requirement, his job title certainly gives me that expectation.
As with any blog though (mine especially) there is some noise. The noise can just be stuff that I’m not interested in; this is only low volume noise. The noise may be stuff that I definitely don’t want to hear because it is completely unhelpful to me in my situation; this is high volume noise.
If the noise volume is high, the signal volume needs to be even higher so that the signal can be heard above the noise.
So I decided to put it to the test and analysed the last 20 posts on Ed’s site and marked them from +5 to -5. +5 being a great signal, -5 being complete noise. Remember -5 cancels out +5, that’s how noise-to-signal works. Everything about Ed’s family and things like that I scored as 0, they aren’t really noise.
Across 20 posts I go to a signal score of just 7 out of a possible 100. Not a very good signal.
One post in particular I scored as 0. All of the good signal at the beginning of the post was blown away by the high level noise at the end. This one really epitomises the problem for me. I want to hear about the great IBM road-map and that’s what I want to be left with, I want to hear how IBM have sorted out the confusion they caused last year and are steaming ahead. I do not want to be left with the noise about the Microsoft road-map which anyone in the industry knows about – but it doesn’t stop them being perceived as taking market share.
There are two ways of resolving the noise-to-signal issue. One is to increase the volume of the signal, the other is to reduce the volume of the noise. Please Ed can I have a bit more signal and a bit less noise.
Discover more from Graham Chastney
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Graham Chastney 
Hmmm…. speaking of S/N ratio, 10 of your previous posts just reappeared yesterday. You must have changed something that altered what my aggregator code chose for the key 😦
Anyhow, I wouldn’t change a thing about Ed’s blog. IBM stood idly for far too long while Microsoft generated misleading FUD about Notes and Domino — much to the consternation of Lotus customers and partners, who desperately needed IBM to stand up about it. Gates’ remarks at the recent Sharepoint event are proof positive that Microsoft is going to continue doing it — and the wide reporting of those remarks in the trade press make it even more urgent for Ed to take every opportunity to respond.
-rich
LikeLike
Hmmm… I would regard Ed’s old “work” blog at InsideLotus as being more the kind of thing you’re after.
However Ed stopped posting there — it wasn’t really working out from what I can gather. You’re now reading his personal site, which will have some posts about the “good stuff” but will also have all manner of other things. You could always lobby him for some categorised news feeds I guess ;o)
LikeLike
It depends where Ed is aiming his blog really. If he is interested in using it to engage the Notes community, those passionate about their products then they will like his posts. We can all look at things with a different slant and take away the useful information that we need to. What we can’t do is alter someones blogging style as that is personal, it reflects their personality but it may not reflect what you want to hear. I would love to see a “great things IBM do in collaboration” blog (or wiki). I’d also like to see it a little more in the presentations and dealings I have at a professional level with IBM (as you know, for those unaware myself and Graham work for the same company).
LikeLike