Today the buzz is about the weather! An unlikely high of mid-60s is expected today, and I find it interesting that the overwhelming attitude is: "This just ain't right." Normally a balmy day in November would we welcomed with fanfare, confetti, and maybe a parade. But after a persistently warm month, today (and tomorrow's) mild temps are greeted more warily. Everybody thinks it's either an "Inconvient Truth" of Global Warming coming home to roost, or a harbinger of a whopper winter full of snow and nor'easters and other unpleasantries. (Hmmm... I wonder what the Old Farmer's Almanac has to say on the subject of "climate change.")

I see in the new NH Business Review (Nov 24-Dec 7) that old friend Katie Paine will keynote the inaugural Breakfast Table event of the Women's Business Center. I've long been a fan of the WBC and their work; my ex-wife even launched a business with their help back in the day. Katie's presentation will be called "Got Blog?" Cost is 37 bucks -- a bargain at twice the price -- and will be held at that new monstrosity downtown they call the Hilton Garden Inn. (Nice to see it's getting used.)

From the opposite page, I see congratulations are in order to state democratic mover/shaker Mike Vlacich on his appointment to director of the state's Economic Development Commission. In fact, Mike, drop me a note sometime, I've got some ideas I want to run by you!

Hmmm... While I agree with Mr. Paul Willax's treatise (page 36) on the sorry state of customer service nowadays, I take exception to his attitude that it's largely a training issue. Give me a break Paul. These "vital front-line employees" of which you speak make barely over minimum wage. They are treated with a modicum of respect at best, or more likely, fungible replacement parts. (I've worked retail; believe me, I know from whence I speak. I like to say I'm "recovering retail" -- it's a 12-step program on rebuilding your self-respect.) Retail clerks have almost no incentive to do anything for the customer beyond give the correct change. Mr. Willax admits "creative compensation" is a necessity, but that's not even enough. The minimum wage needs to be raised -- it hasn't budged since gas was like 99 cents a gallon! Then employeers who want more than fungible parts behind the registers will pay a near-living wage, and the employees will repay them with the customer service we all long for and so seldom receive. Oh, and happy holiday shopping everyone! ;-)

Sitting here at VIP AutoParts on Lafayette Rd. -- the passenger-side rear tire on my VW persistently goes flat, and nobody has free air anymore -- and happened to spot a Wi-Fi Zone sticker in the window! Aside from the 20 bucks gone for the flat-fix, how happy am I?! I wouldn't have even thought to check for wi-fi here. Very impressed! So impressed that I'll give them a shout-out and a link, here. Of course I tried VIP.com first; VIPAuto.com was my second guess. Interesting that the site still uses frames, which is terrible for search engines and bad for some browsers, and it doesn't seem to mention having free wi-fi at their stores anywhere on their site.

And as I sit here, I see on the waiting room TV (tuned into CNBC) that GOOG has topped 500 bucks a share. FIVE HUNDRED. Wow. (Damn, I wish my fantasy portfolio wasn't a fantasy, because I was in on GOOG at 187.) :-p I remember when Google first came out, and I thought to myself, why do we need another search engine when we've got Yahoo? Certainly if Google had failed, the "experts" would have said the same thing in their post-mortems. Entering a market that is already covered and dominated by another is never a great business strategy, but Google didn't listen to conventional wisdom and has now exceeded even their own wild expecations. The elegant simplicity of their site design and their deep-digging search algorithms really set them apart -- it really was a better mouse trap. When you think about it, Google's success follows Apple's in that they both take complex technologies and present the user with the easiest use of those technologies. The click-wheel is to the iPod what the search box is to Google's home page -- plain white and intuitive as all get out.

Speaking of my other favorite stock, AAPL is hitting highs this morning on news that they are working on an "iPhone." Is there any doubt that if anybody can integrate a cell phone with a digital music player, it's Apple?

Thanks to Michael Gurau of CEI Community Ventures in Portland for quoting me in his regular column in Interface Tech News. His piece, "Worth the Investment: PR should be part of every budget," makes a compelling argument for the value of PR to start-ups vs. advertising and other marketing tools. CEI Community Ventures itself is a very interesting organization, a $10m venture capital company targeting small, early-stage businesses in the "under-served" areas of rural New England. Very cool.

This is the time of year that the buzz around town becomes political. Candidates run ads on TV and on the radio, and most of them are obnoxious in their zeal to appeal. But especially in a midterm election, most candidates are relatively unknown; it's an exercise in... let's call it "lightning branding." They're trying to both get name recognition and associate themselves with moms, baseball, apple pies, or some other universally attractive issue. And they've got like, a few weeks, maybe a month, where people are paying attention.

Since politics is the birthplace of "spin," I always find it interesting to see how the candidates position themselves, what they choose to highlight, whether they go negative on the other candidate, etc. I even think it's fascinating to see which colors they use on their signs. Red, white, and blue are obvious; I tend to respect those candidates who use other color combinations or are otherwise graphically creative. In NH, I like the guy who had his name printed on billboards that look like big license plates. And on Rt. 236 in Maine, a local candidate's name is so long, it's impossible to fit it on a billboard. So they broke up the name into like 5 signs, each with 3 letters of the name, then placed the signs along the road in succession at 10 foot intervals. Very clever!

The most obnoxious TV ads seem to be in Massachusetts, where the Deval Patrick candidacy has polarized the constituency. Patrick reminds me of Howard Dean a little -- he's the "different" candidate everyone seems to be buzzing about, one way or the other. He has a very good chance to be the Bay State's first black governor, but does his voice sound like cartoon character, or is it just me? One pro-democrat ad (probably by teacher's lobby?) I thought was particularly effective explained that apparently the commonwealth is now 41st in the country in school spending, behind (gulp) Alabama and (double gulp) Mississippi?! Yow. For all you Mass voters who thought they could safely elect "moderate" republican governors and expect to keep your core democratic values in tact, this is your wake-up call.

Speaking of schools, my daughter is in 4th grade and her teacher is big on civics and government, so they held mock elections the other day in school. Unfortunately, she said she wanted to vote but didn't know any of the candidates. Isn't this what almost everybody says when they don't vote? Isn't there some way around this, like, maybe at the polls there could be a standardized one-page sheet with their positions listed out? Or how about an independent consultant who sits there and asks you questions to determine who you probably should be supporting? I mean, for regular people, i.e., non-policitical-junkies, working a job or two, raising kids, doing laundry, raking leaves, it isn't hard to see how they don't have the time or inclination to learn about the candidates before election day. Then the day comes, and they know they SHOULD vote, but they don't know much if anything about the candidates. It's like sending them into Sears to buy a new fridge -- but there's no salespeople to help, there's no pricing, no features listed anywhere, they're all white and square -- then cricitizing them for not buying one! There's gotta be another way.

In any event, Tuesday could be a very big day. I am VERY excited about the potential for a referendum on the failures of Bush and the corruption of his cronies in congress. I'm heartily endorsing a straight democratic ticket here in NH, and not just for the sake of change -- I've had the pleasure of meeting people like Carol Shea Porter, Jackie Cilley, John Lynch, and I am as impressed with their character as I am confident in their abilities. Please join me in voting a straight ticket on Nov. 7.

That Red Hot Chili Peppers song, "Give it Away," says "why everybody wanna keep it like a Kaiser? Give it away, give it away, give it away now." He's sure not talking about business strategy, but it's good advice nonetheless. Consider Breaking New Grounds, my favorite coffee shop lo these many years. I'm sitting here using our free eCoast wi-fi and sipping Kona Extra Fancy coffee. For those of you without a personal barista on staff, Kona hails from the fertile ashen slopes of Hawaii, is as smooth as it is complex, and oh yah, costs you a tidy $29.95 per pound. Now, they almost never brew Kona for individual sale -- it's a once in a blue moon thing, maybe twice a year. I was trying to decide between french roast and house blend when I noticed Kona on today's fresh-brews menu. "Hold the phone! It's a Kona Day!" Here's the genius bit -- they don't charge anything extra for the cup o' Kona. I have my own mug, so they charged me the regular medium price of $1.60. So this Rolls-Royce of coffees instantly becomes available to the common man! Now, I've already told another Kona-crazy friend about this red-letter day, she'll probably tell somebody else, and of course I'll be reminded to buy a pound as a Christmas present (and one for myself!). BNG (as we regulars like to call it) gets a little buzz of people talking, gives a little something back to its customers by offering a special product at regular price, but more importantly, it solidifies its reputation as the place to go for the best coffee in town. That's good marketing. [Slurrrrrp!] And damn good coffee.

Portsmouth Wi-Fi Planning Meeting

We met on Tuesday at City Hall. Here are some random notes/musings from the meeting.

This year's usership numbers are looking exceptionally strong. I'll report on them once we've had a chance to de-dupe and verify the numbers, but we're looking at another year of serious if not exponential growth, which certainly seems to validate our efforts.

We've now got a plan for how and where to install a mesh network with a handful of access points that would cover the key downtown areas. We're looking at phased implementation in that we need to install the "head" of the network first; that's the most difficult and expensive part of the process. Then, like hangman, we can add arms and legs to expand the wi-fi reach around town.

So the technical part is fleshing out nicely. As for the funding and "model," it looks like it'll be a hydrid of a few different ones. It appears there will be private sponsorship opportunities, perhaps as modest as $2500 (or the cost of one color print ad in a magazine, for example). These will fund our initial rollout. Our goal is to get the head in place about the same time that the kiosk hotspot shuts down for the winter. More details of course will be released when this becomes more official.

If Boston is "The Hub," then is Portsmouth a spoke in the wheel? Portsmouth certainly seemed at the center of things over the weekend as two significant cultural events converged on downtown, and I was happy to participate in both of them.

Portsmouth Criterium
Speaking of spokes, wheels were turning fast (exclusive video footage!) (warning - big file!) on Saturday. My troupe and I rode our bikes downtown, partly for some much-needed exercise and partly in homage to Criterium that we were going to attend. The event organizers hit a homerun by instituting a kids race -- they had 45 kids last year and anticipated 120 kids this year, but at the predetermined registration closing time, there was still a long line of hopeful youngsters. They ended up running double heats for all three age groups just to accommodate them all! The helmet fitting/adjustment booth and bicycle saftey check, both staffed by volunteers, was a really nice touch. In fact, my old friend Billy from Exeter Cycles filled my tires as well as my daughter's. Thanks Billy! Our 10-12 year olds loved that they could do the same lap that the pros did.

Anyway, the day was a smashing success from a spectator standpoint. As for the business side, I was pleased to see in this Portsmouth Herald article that only a few downtown shop owners were lamenting the closed streets, lack of parking, and distracted crowds. Some businesses may indeed suffer a one-day hit on Market Square Day and other annual events, but I've always thought this is short-sighted, and this year, it's great to see that they were the exception as more businesses reported more cash in their registers than on an average weekend day.

Indeed, after the women's race, we grabbed grub at Gilly's and Popovers and BagelWorks (different strokes for different spokes?), and between the start of the semi-pro mens and the finish of the pro mens race, we ate and drank at the Coat of Arms. This all on a day when we wouldn't have otherwise been downtown. I recall there was resistance to another event that closed downtown when the Crit idea was first floated a few years back; perhaps the naysaying business-owners spoke too soon?

Telluride by the Sea
Then in the evening, we attended the showing of The US vs John Lennon at The Music Hall. It'll be coming to mainstream theaters, but part of the experience was the crowd at the Music Hall. People were hissing (who hisses anymore?!) at G. Gordon Liddy, J. Edgar Hoover, and Richard Nixon and singing along (pretty well, thanks to good acoustics) to "Give Peace a Chance." You might say it was WILD, man.


The documentary itself, from a film-making perspective, was excellent. But I was blown away by the content, i.e., what it was like in the late 60s and early 70s. My first and overarching reaction was -- with the FBI involved in illegal wiretapping; the administration stubbornly remaining embroilled in an unpopular, pointless, and unwinnable war, and the encumbent president winning re-election despite his questionable character and performance in office -- ummm, what year IS this anyway?! The more things change, the more they stay the same, apparently.

Mr. Softy is Comin' to Town

The E-Coast Insider Reports... As I noted in this space a few months ago, a local software firm has indeed been bought out by a large -- OK, *the* large -- software firm, yes, Microsoft itself. The local entity is/was DesktopStandard, a 30-something person outfit up Islington St. The deal is signed (but not finalized, hence no official announcement yet) and a dozen or so programmer/developer types are already relocated to Redmond. According to my source, the remainder of the company will reform into a smaller firm, selling the one product in their suite that Microsoft didn't buy. I note this as the 2nd time in the past few months that a whale-sized tech company has snapped up a tiny fish from our eCoast -- recall Cisco bought Meetinghouse for $30 million a while back. It's a ringing endorsement for the eCoast as a whole when world-class companies put up the cash for enterprising local firms. Redmond's gain is Portsmouth's loss; congratulations to the founders and the employees of DesktopStandard!

Did anybody else notice that today, on the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the covers of the three major news magazines? Time and US News & World Report both had 9/11-themed covers, as you might expect. Newsweek, OTOH, chose to cover the story of today's overworked elementary schoolers "Today's First Grade; Too Much, Too Soon" Did anybody else notice this? Does this strike anybody else as weird? I mean, it's a valid and worthy news story, but what makes them put it on the cover on the 5th anniversary of 9/11? I'd love to have been a fly on the wall in Newsweek's editorial offices at that meeting!

One of the unofficial buzzwords lately has to be Ceres, as in the Greek God of Growing Plants, daughter of Saturn, and wife-slash-sister to Jupiter. At the same time that the biggest asteroid in the belt was to be designated an actual full-fledged planet, our favorite local wine purveyor -- Ceres Street Wine Merchants -- was featured in our local paper. So far as we know, there's no truth to the rumor that Mr. Campbell will hold an Interplanetary Wine Sale, with heavenly deals on out-of-this-world wines. But the old man still takes a decent picture, eh?

This is one of my favorite times of the year -- the Little League World Series is here again! And this year, the whole city... state... in fact all of New England... is buzzing about our own Portsmouth Little Leaguers as they take on the world (literally) in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

I love how these kids wear their emotions on their sleeves and on their faces. I love how the games are free of charge. I love how kids slide down the hill beyond center field on homemade cardboard sleds. Most of all, I love how whole communities rally behind their teams.

"Go Portsmouth!" signs are popping up at businesses all over town. Businesses that support local our Little League team at this point may smack of bandwagon-jumping to some, but I think there's significant marketing value in it. Just putting up a sign demonstrates that your business is not only here but paying attention and involved in the community. Our kids' success is also a positive boon to Portsmouth's branding as a destination; in addition to the countless media mentions it generates, the TV broadcast of the last game (the New England championship win over Connecticut) featured a little "intro to the community" complete with footage and demographics. This is the kind of advertising a tourism-based town just can't buy!

People really get into it these days, especially since ESPN. I remember following and being crushed when Saugus, Mass., was eliminated a few years ago. And I vividly remember my own days as a Little Leaguer. Pint-sized as I was, I was relegated to right field and the bottom of the order, but my Babe Ruth team was excellent, and were it not for a pop fly that went into some tree branches overhanging right field (the ball was lost in the leaves for a moment before it landed a few yards in front of me, resulting in the only run of the game), we might have taken the Cape Cod championship and gone to where these kids are now. But I get depressed as I digress.

Sometimes these kids look like big leaguers with the fielding plays they make and the curveballs they snap off. And others they remind us that they're 12 years old and make like the Bad News Bears. They openly cry when they lose and they absolutely lose their little minds when they win. The joy of the game demonstrated by these kids -- and the devotion of their parents, coaches, and communities -- continues to inspire me year after year, even if my hometown kids aren't in the hunt. But since they are, I have 2 words for you: "GO PORTSMOUTH!"

Update: We won today, 6-1 over Oregon, in the first round! Follow the schedule and the results on ESPN or on the Little League's own web site, which is not half-bad.

People are all a-buzz about the old North Church tonight. The original reports were that during tonight's severe, fast-moving thunderstorm, the steeple had toppled into the street toward Breaking New Grounds; these reports were later ammended when out-of-town media realized that the steeple had already been disassmebled a few weeks ago. In fact, it was only the scaffolding that had fallen. No injuries are reported at this time. Still, it's hard to believe your eyes when you see it... With the scaffolding gone, all you see is a big nothing at the top of the clocktower. Well, that, and a wild scene consisting of police and other flashing-lighted vehicles all over... Streets closed to traffic both foot and wheeled... Spotlights shining... Debris scattered in the streets... Unhappy cars with smashed windshields... And TV trucks. (I saw Channel 7 there when I drove by around 9PM.) I expect we'll see a lot more of this action tomorrow. If it had been the steeple itself, it would've been a story just beneath the Old Man of the Mountain collapsing; this church is nearly as iconic as that old stoneface had been! Many people are upset at the very idea that this downtown landmark could have been in jeopardy at all. Apparently it was just the high winds that caused the damage, rather than the lightning that was hitting all over town, so I guess there's no truth to the rumor that a DeLorean was spotted doing 88MPH down Market Street just seconds before. The question now is: Did the kiosk (and our wi-fi base station) survive the crash?! I'll check it out ASAP tomorrow and report back.

Turns out the Portsmouth Herald picked up the Meetinghouse-Cisco deal on Saturday, a day after I was wondering (see last posting, below) where the local story was. Meanwhile, I have it on unimpeachable information that another small local tech firm (yes, this is serious scoopage here, listen up!) will be bought by a multi-billion-dollar multinational. I can't divulge names but my sources say you'll soon see the official announcement from a shall-we-say well-known software company in the Pacific Northwest. Congratulations in advance to those locals who will benefit directly; the only downside is that several talented techies will reportedly be leaving the eCoast as part of the deal.

Speaking of eCoast news, I was disappointed to hear (on account of the fact that I couldn't make it this year) that the eCruise turned out more of an eDock, as thick fog kept the MV Thomas Laighton at its moorings for most of the evening. Looking at the bright side -- at least it didn't hail.

The buzz-about-town today is about the sudden demise of Jack Quigley's Irish Pub. I guess there's an important lesson in this for all you would-be-restaurantuers: Having both a food license and a liquor license is important. With Molly's going to hell in a handbasket under new ownership and Quigley's now gone, Portsmouth's Irish bar situation has gone from abundant to abysmal.

Interestingly, the local buzz is not about Pease-based Meetinghouse Data getting bought by Cisco for over $43 million. The press release definitely went out -- from Cisco, mind you -- because it's been
picked up in the national technical pubs (that's how I saw it), but the closest local news outlet to cover the story is this brief in the Boston Globe. Maybe the local papers will run it as a larger Sunday piece...

In other news, it's the English major in me converging with the tech-geek in me -- Google is now officially a verb, and I'm very excited about it! I note that the brand managers at Google are "OK with it" -- I'd think they'd be ecstatic. Becoming a generic noun (Coke, Kleenex, etc.) can be a pisser, but to become a verb ("FedEx this"... "Google that")? That's the holy grail of branding!

Been meaning to blog about the new local business rag on the streets these days. The new product is Seacoast Ventures, a tabloid-style local business-focussed paper produced by Seacoast Media Group (i.e., The Portsmouth Herald). Editor Michael McCord really took the ball and ran with it... I have to say, I'm impressed. I've long thought that the local dailies could and should do more telling the stories of the many successful local businesses, and I've been disappointed to see the trend of filling our local paper's column inches with generic AP-generated stories. Ventures is chock-full of locals being featured, quoted, and pictured; it's a veritable who's-who of the local business scene! As I told my Dad the Wine Guy as we were reviewing it in his store, the only important locals not in this publication are him and me! (Snort!) Also, I was pleased to see that my friends at Savvy Software were featured; they've got a great story, they're going gangbusters, and they deserve the recognition. They even got a nice color picture.
So a hearty "Bravo!" to all involved in the Seacoast Ventures, um, venture. I'm looking forward to the next issue already! Check it out: Seacoast Ventures. (Note that it's a .net site. Oh well, can't win 'em all.)

Today at the Redhook Brewery in Portsmouth, over two dozen local and nationally renowned musicians will come together for Seacoast Concert for a Cure to support breast cancer research. Last year's event raised over $21,000 in support of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and two local charities. This year's event will also feature a silent auction and raffle, including a Lyle Lovett autographed guitar on eBay! My friend Marisa is the Web Mistress of the site, and my friends at Dynamic Internet are proud to provide free web hosting for this and other great causes. As always, I encourage businesses to support businesses that support non-profits! (Could I say that in a more convoluted way?) I'd be at the show myself, but it's my precious daughter's 10th birthday today. (Happy Birthday Erin! I'm so proud of you!) Anyway, I hope the show is a big success, i.e., makes lots of money. ;-)

It's a beautiful day in downtown Portsmouth -- 75 and sunny with a nice breeze -- what better way to celebrate the coming of summer than by logging onto our free wi-fi hotspot? Miracle of miracles, it was up and running today (we've had some connectivity issues -- signal is strong, but no circuit behind it). But yep, today I'm clipping along at 410kbps.

In other wi-fi news, last night the recommendation of our EDC subcommittee to expand the wi-fi was accepted by the City Council. Here's the official word as recorded in the official council minutes: "Report Back from Economic Development Commission Re: WiFi Referral – Voted to authorize the City Manager to work with the staff and the Chamber of Commerce to implement the plan and to provide a progress report back to the City Council and Economic Development Commission." So now apparently we'll work with City Manager John Bohenko from here... I'm very excited!

Another Rite of Summer -- woo-hoo! The eCruise is back! I'll be on-board... Will you?

I was surprised to read in the Portsmouth Herald this morning that the core wi-fi group -- Dave Gibson of Bay Ring, Steve Singlar of Single Digits, Erik Crago of Port City Web, and I -- had been named Volunteers of the Year by the Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce. So we've got that going for us, which is nice. ;-) Now I know why Ginny Griffith of the Chamber was so insistent that we attend their Annual Awards Dinner! Unfortunately I could not attend due to my persistent Bolivian/Bavarian/Brazilian Flu. (Somebody please put me out of my misery!) BTW, I know Ginny's job description covers a lot of territory, but I believe she's gone way above and beyond on the wi-fi project and even though she's not eligible for recognition from her employer, she deserves a slice of that recognition, too. Thanks for everything Ginny!

Addendum: The Foster's also picked up the story on the Chamber Annual Dinner and ran a great picture (see left) of my wi-fi partners in crime, Dave Gibson of BayRing and Steve Singlar of Single Digits.

Foster's Portsmouth Bureau Chief Michael Goot files this story on our wi-fi project following the EDC presentation to the City Council. (Site registration req'd.) Thanks Michael! The most interesting thing in this story is this bit here: "Commission member Everett Eaton wondered if downtown wi-fi areas would compete with companies that provide residential wi-fi services for a fee, creating a potential conflict with paying and non-paying service. Councilor Tom Ferrini, who is also on the commission, said there is nothing wrong with competition." Here, here Mr. Ferrini!