This was in my email this morning, spam from LinkedIn.com:<\/p>\n
Joel Burslem is no longer Director of Product Development at Vook<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Means what, I don’t know. Deck chairs on the Titanic. There is no huge surging mass of sub-literates demanding even easier-reading access to the half-shouted profundities of Gary Vaynerchuk. Love him or hate him, the guys lives and dies in video. He cannot be caged by a page, no matter how stylish or expensive or electronic that page might be. The book is a dead letter, so how could the Vook not be an even-deader letter? You cannot even pretend to believe otherwise unless you are in the pay of Brad Inman.<\/p>\n
But: None of that matters. The Vook is instructive because it teaches us a host of interesting lessons about how to fail in business. Big names. Big funding. Design budget. Attractive product that works. Fancy offices filled with bigfoot corporate types. Even Aeron chairs, I’ll bet. What could go wrong?<\/p>\n
Only this: There is no market for the product.<\/p>\n
Remember that “find a need and fulfill it” bit from Business 101?<\/p>\n
Can you name even one person who has confided to you, “You know, I’d probably read more if books were more like television?”<\/p>\n
“I’d sure like to read more books, but the books I want to read are interrupted at intervals by bad actors enacting bad scripts.”<\/p>\n
“What I<\/em> want from books requires a sub-woofer!”<\/p>\n
That’s a disaster from day one, and I have been ridiculing the Vook since first I heard about it. But even now, I can see an actual use for this technology: How-To books: How to build a rocking chair in 24 easy steps<\/em> or The Kama Sutra for Klutzes.<\/em> Those could sell, because they answer a need that can be served by both text and video. Even then, though, they’d be better as web sites — easier to control, easier to revise, etc.<\/p>\n
But let’s go back to the Vook’s original marketing problem and try to solve it in a better way.<\/p>\n
Brad Inman is a choke-point dinosaur<\/a>. His goal was to come up with a “blade” dispenser — a relatively cheap razor Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This was in my email this morning, spam from LinkedIn.com: Joel Burslem is no longer Director of Product Development at Vook Means what, I don’t know. Deck chairs on the Titanic. There is no huge surging mass of sub-literates demanding even easier-reading access to the half-shouted profundities of Gary Vaynerchuk. Love him or hate him, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4,379,6,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-casual-friday","7":"category-disintermediation","8":"category-innovation","9":"category-marketing","10":"category-technology","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9931,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9931\/is-it-time-for-a-second-vook-at-brad-inmans-latest-brain-fart\/","url_meta":{"origin":10213,"position":0},"title":"Is it time for a second Vook at Brad Inman’s latest brain fart?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Believe it or don't, just yesterday I was telling Cathleen that I felt remiss in not having made fun of the Vook lately. The Vook, as you will recall, is Brad Inman's latest attempt to prove that he stumbled onto half a billion bucks by accident. The trouble is, as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7708,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7708\/dont-vook-now-but-brad-inman-has-invented-the-undead-pool\/","url_meta":{"origin":10213,"position":1},"title":"Don’t vook now, but Brad Inman has invented The Undead Pool","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times:Plenty of authors dream of writing the great American novel. Bradley Inman wants to create great fiction, dramatic online video and compelling Twitter stream \u2014 and then roll them all into a multimedia hybrid that is tailored to the rapidly growing number of digital reading devices. Mr.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11133,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11133\/i-went-rummaging-around-the-vook-and-came-home-with-an-education\/","url_meta":{"origin":10213,"position":2},"title":"iPad observation #9: I went digging through the heap of festering garbage that is the Vook and came home with an education.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Vain though it may be, tonight I looked in on my own past posts on the Vook. The writing was better than I remembered it, just exactly my kind of fun with words, but I do think I have been overly... forgiving... of this sleazy little... not vampire, even writ\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7712,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7712\/at-last-the-peoples-republic-of-obamistan-has-an-answer-for-the-yugo\/","url_meta":{"origin":10213,"position":3},"title":"At last, the Peoples’ Republic of Obamistan has an answer for the Yugo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's like a motorcycle, but without the pick-up or maneuverability. Or economy. Or range. Or sex-appeal. I want mine with the Vook option!","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11013,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11013\/apple-tablet-computer-annoucement-liveblogging-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":10213,"position":4},"title":"Apple tablet computer announcement liveblogging now…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"...at Engadget. It's called the iPad... Dear Brad Inman, while you weren't Vooking, Steve Jobs stole your lunch: \"Embedded video inside of articles that can be played.\" Don't weep, though. It's a Kindle-killer, too, as expected: How free does information want to be? The marginal value of digital content is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8218,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8218\/brad-inman-would-someone-be-kind-enough-to-sell-me-some-fur-i-know-mammals-are-warm-blooded-but-perception-is-reality-right-oh-what-the-hell-the-way-things-are-going-id-settle-for-some-fea\/","url_meta":{"origin":10213,"position":5},"title":"Brad Inman: “Would someone be kind enough to sell me some fur? I know mammals are warm-blooded, but perception is reality, right? Oh, what the hell! The way things are going, I’d settle for some feathers!”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Hungry dinosaur. Will Vook for food:","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10213"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10215,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10213\/revisions\/10215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}