In a recent interview with Robert Scoble on Fast Company TV, Tim O’Reilly mentions the need for a “personal CRM” and goes on to describe all of the features in our dex product.

Tim rightly points out the need to have the collaborative aspects of social networking (allowing people to update THEIR information in MY address book) with the power of CRM (when we met, when we last spoke, how important this person is in my “network”).

Thanks for the great plug Tim!

(credit: video was an excerpt from Fast Company’s video)

This is an open appeal for your help.

As you probably know, we are just about to launch a new website that will completely change how professionals and companies manage their professional network.  It’s like a really smart, connected address book that tells you who you should call and when.  We think its a revolutionary service and a major improvement over the way most companies currently manage their “customer database”.

As part of the product development process, we had to name our new “baby” and after several months of debate, we finally settled on the name DEX.

Last week we received a “Cease and Desist” letter from a law firm representing “Dex Media“, the company that delivers yellow pages online and to your door, telling us that it was illegal to use a name that was similar to theirs.  After seeking a lot of advice and soul searching (crushing), we have decided that we cannot afford to fight this allegation, even though we believe it is false.

This kind of reaction by established businesses needs to change.  While we have openly blogged about our process and as we try to develop our product collaboratively, they pay a team of lawyers to “monitor the internet” and guard them against other people.  I think that lawyers and businesses need to update their “cease and desist” letters from aggressive and threatening warnings to “inform and engage” letters that seek to educate and engage their “potential competition” and their customers, and that they need to get involved in the ongoing dialog that is taking place - whether they are listening or not.

Well, while they’re trying to protect what they have, we’re going to use this opportunity to open up and collaborate even more by “crowdsourcing” a new name for our product.  In case you’re not familiar with the term, crowdsourcing is when you use a network of people to accomplish a task that is often performed by an employee or agent (then called “outsourcing”).  Over the last five months we have received some fantastic ideas and inspiration from all of you who have been following our development process and I think this is the perfect way to engage you to complete the story.

In our business - much like other businesses - a catchy product name is paramount to success.  So, please take a minute to visit the crowdsourcing product page and recommend a smart product name or vote for one of the names that have already been submitted.  It would help us in a really big way, you’d be showing “big business” that cooperation is a viable alternative to protectionism, and you’d be doing your not-so-small part in helping the little guys prevail.

Thanks.

I’m currently at the web2.0 summit in San Francisco (which has been a fabulous conference), and yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with Rafe Needleman from webware.com - the web application blog at CNET - and gave him a demo of dex.

You can his article about dex here.

Rafe’s article got us (albeit briefly) onto the homepage of CNET news:

I receive several invitations every week to join people’s network on LinkedIn.  Some are from past colleagues looking to reconnect, some are from a “super-duper sales guy” who is trying to rack up connections to sell on craigslist, but most are from people looking for work.

Which makes a lot of sense, because that’s when people turn to their professional network.

It’s the old adage “it’s who you know, not what you know” when it comes to finding work, and LinkedIn does a fantastic job of connecting you to that network… when you’re looking for work.  However, there are some problems with this model:

1. Professional information is often spotty. I know of three senior managers that uploaded their professional information and were active on LinkedIn until they found a new job.  They didnt update their information afterwards, because, let’s be honest, who has time for that?
2. LinkedIn “Recommendations” are a good idea poorly implemented. When job seekers are looking for work, they spend a lot of time building a beautiful profile, and then send “recommendation requests” out to everyone they know.  Although similar to a letter of reference, LinkedIn recommendations are used like an online employment bartering system or currency.  I have recieved over a dozen “if you recommend me, I’ll recommend you” emails… not very genuine.
3. It can be a little too obvious. When I first joined LinkedIn I sent out invitations to many people in my professional network.  Several months later one of my invitations was accepted by a senior Vice President of a fortune-1000 company… at 2pm on a Thursday.  Sure enough, two weeks later he was actively looking for a job.

LinkedIn does a great job connecting job seekers and people who are hiring, making finding work through your network much more efficient - even if it does sometimes seem a little desparate…

—-

PS - the invitation above is from my brother who recently graduated with his PHD in biochemistry if anyone’s hiring

I’m back. Five weeks of paternity leave split between our cottage and our home was great bonding time with my infant daughter. I’d do it again tomorrow. Vive le Quebec.

Taking a step away from Mercury Rising offered me a refreshed perspective. I found myself describing the Mercury Grove project to friends and family with no props – no computer, no web sites, no paper. Just talking, active listening and animated hand gestures – engaged conversation.

We have done well to describe dex in industry language, but now we need to focus on the most basic of explanations.

The people I was speaking with are laypeople. They don’t follow the leading edge of this industry and they’re not early adopters. They represent the majority. I realized that if my friends and family can’t repeat the salient points from our conversation, they’ll never tell any one about it, or even think to tell anyone about it.

We need to create an experience that will tell dex’s story in a way that everyone can understand and that people can repeat. Everyone likes to share new stories and everyone likes to sound knowledgeable. We have to refine the details so that people can do both.

Laypeople won’t seek dex out. They will need to hear about dex from a few friends before they’ll even start hearing it (how many times did you hear about Facebook before you were ready to join?) For that to be possible, dex’s story has to be easy and entertaining.

Succinct.

Simple.

Worth repeating.

When I was done explaining myself everybody that I had spoken with said the same thing: Cool, I could use that. Would they be able – and feel compelled – to go and tell a friend about it? Not yet.

There’s always Thanksgiving.

Scott A. and I have had long discussions about how software companies can better service their clients. One thing that we both agree on is that software companies need to be a lot more human and approachable. I was inspired earlier this week when I received a hand written note in the mail from Adam Behringer, the developer behind Bee Doc’s Timeline software. Bee Doc’s is likely a one man show with Adam doing everything. However even being so busy as he must be, he has the time to send me a postcard thanking for buying his software. I don’t care who you are that means something. This is essentially what Scott and I are talking about. In this dis-attached world we need to still be able connect. Here is what Adam had to say about the hand written thank yous on his blog:

First and foremost, I want Bee Documents to be about people. The people who use the products, the people that make the products, students, teachers, artists, film makers, professionals, parents, writers… The list goes on and on. Sending out hand written thank you notes is an example of an effort to make a human connection to customers. The new website will feature customers and their work as much as our product. We’ll continue to seek out ways of bringing humanity, human relationships, and human contact to the center of our brand.

Since the new MG apps (new name not yet released) are changing the game for CRM as it evolves to (personal or business) Network Relationship Management, it will be nice to see what personal touches also come into play. I think that the time has come to change a lot of things about how software companies work. Essentially we need to introduce people and relationships back into the equation at many levels. Unfortunately things have gotten so sterile in the software industry that we are surprised when someone actually reaches out. As far as I’m concerned what Adam did was important and I know that MG will follow along that path as well.

On the app front, Andrew tells me that designs are very nearly finished and that we should be posting screencaps before you know it. That will be great because I have been dying to start talking about them.

I have spent the last several days in Kentucky working out the last few weeks of development for our applications and I am extremely excited about where we are and what the next few weeks will bring.  I think its going to blow your minds!

We (I) haven’t been able to write too much about the developments over the last few weeks - a similar story for Creighton, Andrew, and Mike - but not because we haven’t been accomplishing a lot of really exciting things.

We are just finishing a patent application, the timeline for the last 4-6 weeks of product development and some potential important partnerships - I expect to be able to publish a lot of great content over the next couple of weeks!

As if our project was not enough, Andrew (and his talented team) have launched an amazing website for young outdoor explorers called AndyCamper.  Congratulations to his team for this awesome accomplishment.

Late last week Andrew sent around some amazing designs for the new MG app. (I’m not sure if I can tell you what the official name is yet). In any case, the designs were fantastic and will really push the envelope when it comes to functionality and UI design. Above is a little snapshot of one very tiny part of the UI. I thought it would be fun to have people guess what the individual icons might be. In case, you’re not sure what we are trying to do, read Scott A’s post below.

Click on the image above to see it in a bigger size.

Mike Marker got busted.

I was talking to him on his cellphone at lunch yesterday and we were having an animated conversation about the project when he cut me off mid-sentence.  Turns out he was pulled over by the Kentucky police.  Here is the transcript of what I heard:

“Just a second, Scott”.

Some background noise.

Kentucky Policeman: “Hello sir, can I see your id?”.

[shuffle, shuffle]

Kentucky Policeman: “Well Mike, do you realize that you drove through a stop sign back there?”

Cool hand Mike: “Umm, No I didn’t.”

Kentucky Policeman: “I’ll be right back, I’m going to write you a citation.”

Mike (back on phone): “hello… stop laughing Scott… it’s not funny … seriously….”

Click.

We need a name. Four names really. Okay, maybe five.

So far we’re stumped.

Every decision, every action has been the product of collaboration and passionate discussion, yet this elephant in the room seems to receive sporadic attention, or inattention. It’s the blank screen problem on a billboard scale.

Its seems that this one area of the project has been relegated to our quiet contemplative moments – almost as an afterthought.

This needs to change.

We need a rambunctious, semi-professional stream of consciousness type discussion that can put 50 to 100 names on the table in short order.

No filter. No judgments. Just ideas.