RedPost/Kit is going to cost about $549 (to start, it'll come down), has a 19" screen, 60% more pixels than the 15" PanDigital, a distinctive metal frame (which I like better than the wood, but that's just me), and is 100% hackable. Is it worth the extra $249 over the PanDigital (which doesn't have Wifi) for all of these features? I guess I'll find out. I think it is, but I may be biased.

Also, RedPost/Kit will be available for purchase within 2 weeks at most. Finally. I first planned to launch it May 1. I'm following Microsoft's release timelines now (quasi-Vista was first promised for late 2002 but was finally more or less fully launched in early 2007).

A larger photo's available here.

Is this an effective way of communicating in the era of marketing 2.0?

I saw this post on Treehugger about NJ's carbon footprint and was curious how Indiana ranked. Some numbers (from the U.S. EIA, as of 2003):

• Indiana ranks 6th in overall CO2 emissions (TX, CA, PA, OH, and FL are higher)
• 6th in per capita CO2 emissions (if my math is right, WY, ND, AK, WV, and LA are higher)
• 49% of our emissions come from electric generation, 24% industrial, 20% transportation, 4% residential, 3% commercial
• Indiana's CO2 emissions have increased 15% since 1990 (see graph)

Here's a link to the video (Flash 8 required).

Harvest

Oh, and to plug their software more -- it is really great. I can track all my employee's (and one contractor's) time, categorized by project and activity type. They also have a mac widget, which is quite handy.

Thanks Harvest! You rock!

But digital signage is not television; it is not an entertainment medium (even though it can be used as one), but a communications method. Companies that use digital signs to endlessly rebroadcast advertising content are forgetting to take into account their customers' mindset, and reason for coming into the store in the first place.

Netflix was #1 on their list.

You may not be aware of it, but there is a big battle going on between Netflix, an innovative "web 2.03 company, and Blockbuster, a company that for most of its lifetime made the majority of their profits off of people returning videos late. To Blockbuster's credit, they have been changing (because they've had to because Netflix is kicking their butt), but change is hard when you've depended on lazy, forgetful people for your profits for so long.

Customers rate Netflix so high because of their software design model, which is entirely customer-focused. They employ an innovative, fast iteration software development process. Every 2 weeks they make major updates to their software. They test their features, instead of arguing about what any one person thinks will work (how many meetings have you been in when that happens?). They actually test it out live, getting feedback and data from their customers. 10-20% of the ideas actually survive:

"In the case of the Toolbar Beta, several of the key features (custom buttons, shared bookmarks) were prototyped in less than a week. In fact, during the brainstorming phase, we tried out about five times as many key features -- many of which we discarded after a week of prototyping. Since only 1 in every 5 to 10 ideas work out, the strategy of constraining how quickly ideas must be proven allows us to try out more ideas faster, increasing our odds of success."

And really, which family looks happier (the pictures above are from each company's respective website)? The Blockbuster family looks aloof and emotionally distant from each other, with the wife trying to reach out to her husband who cares more about the movie than her. And none of them are touching the popcorn, it's just there to try to make them feel like they're having quality family time. Contrast that with the Netflix family, who are happy, emotionally bonding, physically touching, and having plain old good family time.

IMG_0062

Originally uploaded by eKan1

Click here to see a bunch of photos I took. The event was a big success, with lots of room to grow. I'd estimate we had over 1,000 people over the 4 hours. It was great. Now I'm tired and am going to go have a beer.

RedPost/Goshen : Old Bag Factory

Originally uploaded by eKan1

There's now the seventh RedPost in Goshen at the Old Bag Factory.

For pictures of all the RedPost/Goshen locations, click here.

Howdy! My name is Jon Glick and I am the first full-time employee of the RedPost. I'll be helping with software development and numerous other tasks around the RedPost office.

Although I originally hail from Madison, WI, I have spent the last four years in Goshen and, consequently, have come to think of this town as my new "home"... at least for now. I graduated from Goshen College in April with a degree in Communication and a minor in Graphic Design and have been doing web-related work off-and-on ever since I completed my first, albeit primitive, website in 8th grade. When I'm not hard at work I enjoy biking around town, canoeing around the Dam Pond, working on all kinds of side-projects (bike, garden, etc.) and listening to copious amounts of Led Zeppelin.

Honestly, I'm thrilled that the opportunity to work for the RedPost came my way. It seems like a great match for my current skills and ambitions and I couldn't be happier to work for a business that is environmentally conscious and deeply involved in the community. Plus, I get to bike to work every day.

Check out:

• First Fridays website (with map & event info)
• Goshen News article
• The Truth article
• Indiana Arts Commission article

And be sure to show up tonight from 5-9 pm tonight to enjoy music in the streets, eat at local restaurants, and shop in stores that are open late. There's also all kinds of special activities like knitting in the street, massages, dance classes, beer- and wine-making demonstrations, an organic food tasting, and more.

Apparently anything that distracts the driver from looking ahead at the road for more than 2 seconds significantly increases the chance of an accident (I guess I shouldn't txt while driving...). These signs rotate through up to 10 images every 6-8 seconds. Billboard companies are rushing to install as many of these new billboards as possible before they're regulated by state legislatures (once you have a billboard up it gets grandfathered into future legislation and is very hard to remove).

On a side note, Indiana was considering a law to allow digital billboards in this state (I blogged about this before). The bill passed both houses, was signed by the Governor an April 25, and goes into effect this July.

Grant and I chatted for awhile about RedPost and then he apologized but said he really had nothing to sell me, he wasn't sure how to even categorize my company.

I just thought that it was funny for a salesperson to call me and then tell me there's nothing he has to sell me. Very un-sales like. Oh, and I'm not knocking on Grant, he was genuinely interested and clearly knew more than your average salesperson about technology.

I happened to learn Dvorak a couple years ago (thanks Transmeta for paying me for that) and I like it a lot better than Qwerty, I think. I can't really type Qwerty very fast anymore, although I can type Dvorak quite fast, I'm just not sure if it's faster. When I have a lot of typing to do, my hands don't hurt like they used to, either.

Anyways, the interesting part of the Freakonomics post was the argument that Qwerty survived because the market chooses the most efficient solution. But it's all a bit murky, because Dvorak was actually created after Qwerty, depending on who you ask. There have been entire books written about this very issue.

As a first project, Jon, the newest employee here at RedPost World Headquarters, added front and back buttons to the RedPost/Goshen web feed. So now you can browse forward and back without having to wait for the whole thing to cycle thru to see a particular poster. Good work Jon.

The benefits of buying local (even if it costs a little more in the short term):

• Better service
• Better for the environment (less gas spent on shipping)
• Better for local economy
• My favorite one: if something goes wrong, I can hop in the car and in 15 minutes be talking face to face with my vendor

Anyways, I'm not really adding anything to the whole Buy Local movement, I'm more just confirming that it's good for my business.