A few weeks ago, the essay/app Fish by Robin Sloan made the rounds. The main thesis is that we are spending so much time liking but not enough really absorbing the object of this. You can read a write up here on The Verge.

I took some personal umbrage at Sloan’s thesis that I don’t think about what I’m favoriting/liking/hearting. I do think about it, a lot. Some times I like something because the content is about a friend’s achievement, sometimes it is only to show them I am paying attention (a like on Facebook), other times to recognize beauty. There are other reasons too: a celebration about life transitions, something I wish I were doing, nice art I don’t want to forget, or even just a way to say, “hey, I like that idea.”

I do wish there was more I could do though. For my Twitter favorites, I can go to my favorites page. I also have an RSS feed. The same goes for Tumblr (minus the RSS feed).  These are perused with some frequency. Some make me laugh for days or even years later. Some make me smile to see again – a new baby who is now a toddler, or a nice work of art. What I would like is a way to capture these moments, observations and declarations in some visual way to reread and enjoy in someplace more beautiful than a feed reader.

With likes on Facebook, it is a virtual black hole. Who knows where they go? I guess you can go through my activity stream and check ‘em out.  Because these aren’t elevated in the interface, I have become less concerned. The purpose of a like evolves into a different beast. There are a lot of life changes and fleeting moments that get captured, but it would still be nice to remember what it was that I’m celebrating or laughing at or endorsing. Path has done a great job getting at the concept that some of these interactions are positive strokes that need a little expression. There, like Facebook, I am left feeling that these interactions are more ephemeral. I do hazard a guess that going back and having access to these would provide me with that same happy sentiment I get from reviewing the ones in my other accounts.

Back to the main question. How can these be visualized in a way that provides a warm fuzzy for us every day? There is an enjoyment in revisiting these items, and wonder why this isn’t an area that’s been explored.  Is this the equivalent of a coffee table book?

Best Overall

The Spring Standards

Hilton Garden Inn, Friday 1am

They have basically become my go-to band. They have wonderful harmonies, seem to work closely as a team, and run the gamut from sweet folk to more full blown folk-rock. The guy sitting next to me had never seen them before and kept saying “this is incredible.” Yes, they are. This was a 1am show on Friday night after the band had been playing multiple shows every day for several days. The audience was lazing around on the chairs in this top-of-the-hotel cocktail lounge. Every person in the room was captivated despite the exhaustion by the tight performance. At 1:40 the band told the audience that they had been asked to stop playing because after it is a hotel and people needed to sleep. Unlike other performances I have been to at SXSW, people didn’t just pick up and go. There was quite a bit of protest as people wanted to hear more from the group. We were saved by the arrival of Bill Murray and his entourage, who had left the Jack White show to come hear the Spring Standards. Next thing you know, the SXSW staff agrees that the band can perform one more and trio goes all coffee shop set on us and performed an acoustic song from their album Would Things Be Different.

Most Audience Engaging

The Evaporators

Club de Ville, Saturday 9pm

My notes just say “Fan-FUCKING-tastic.” Lead singer Nardwuar the Human Serviette got into the crowd, managed to get people to stop texting and tweeting, and had everyone bow low on the ground. The show was pure revelry from start to finish and featured hardcore fans requesting songs and the band playing them, namely: I Don’t Need My Friends to Tell Me Who My Friends Are aka I.D.M.F.T.T.M.W.M.F.A. It’s also a lesson in what bands have to do to get people to engage with them even in a live space.

Loveliest Show

The Magnetic Fields

ACL Live, Friday 8:45pm

This show violates one my main rules for SXSW music, which is not seeing bands you can see on tour elsewhere, or that are really popular. I just couldn’t resist this! I adore The Magnetic Fields and love their music to no end. This show was much mellower than others we saw, but was delightful in every way. The band played some favorites such as Book of Love and my personal favorite, Come Back to San Francisco. Wonderful in every way.

Most Show-like Show

Sauti Sol

Flamingo Cantina, Wednesday 9pm

This Kenyan band knows how to put on a show, with great jackets, stylized dance moves and natural crowd banter. Singing in a combination of English, French and Swahili, it drew me in and even had me dancing.  I’ve been humming Coming Home non-stop since this show.

Most Unexpected Discovery & Highest Likelihood of Going on Repeat Play

Pillowfight

Red Eyed Fly, IODA Day Party, Wednesday

This is a new project from Dan the Automator, as outlined in this great post on Laughing Squid. When we walked into the day party, we weren’t quite certain what would be playing, but this has been a staple of my March experiences. Knowing that it featured Emily Wells & Kid Koala didn’t hurt and we were grooving away to the tunes. We’ve already bought this and have been listening on repeat.

Other Notable Shows

Miracles of Modern Science – Wednesday 8pm at The Jr

Incredible energy and distinctive vocals all backed by string instruments. Better live than recorded & they just sound great.

Brendan Benson – day show at Swan Dive

Super grateful a friend tipped me off to this day show.  Mellow, but enjoyable.

Imperial Teen -

We saw them twice! Once a day show at Mellow Johnny’s and an evening show at Frank. I have to appreciate a band that works so hard *together.*  They have been in the biz for a while and know how to put on a show.

He’s My Brother She’s My Sister – Thursday 11pm at Valhalla

I’m not a huge fan of this venue but loved this band. They bend genres – folk, 60s era Joplin and a carnival atmosphere. Other than Sauti Sol, one of the only bands who felt really “dressed” for this show – hope they come to San Francisco sometime soon, can’t wait to see them live again.

Library Voices – Thursday 10pm at Trinity Hall

One of the many Canadian bands we saw, Library Voices has infectious, sing-along songs. Seriously, just listen to Generation Handclap and see if it doesn’t echo around your brainpan for days.

Imaginary Cities – Thursday Midnight at Maggie Mae’s Gibson Room

Notes from the show say “Love them. Her voice may be a little Minnie Mouse-ish, but it works. I also love a band that can take what sounds great recorded and make it sound unique and fresh live.”

We each had one key piece of advice:

• Mine – Professional & personal lines blur into one another; show me how they intertwine.
• Kristy Duncan – Remember you’re telling a story. Don’t bury the lead.
• Jenn Jongsma – Proofread, proofread, proofread. Repeat.
• Kevin Lawver – If you want to work on the web, you need to live there.

It boils down to the fact that you need to find a way to bring together the disparate parts of your life across the web. We reviewed the resume and profiles of chemist where an online life isn’t necessarily part of the job. However, in her LinkedIn profile we pointed to the fact that she belongs to different scientific organizations or that when you search for her name you can find that she has attended chemistry meetups. It’s that sort of meshing that becomes attractive to me as a potential employer.

Many of the issues we noted were inconsistency in bios across the web. One thing on about.me, another on Twitter, another on LinkedIn and yet something different on a personal website. While I don’t personally believe they have to be identical, it’s nice where there are thematic ties so that I see who you are reinforced everywhere.

It’s still something I’m working through on my own profiles. I’ve now changed the language on my LinkedIn and personal site here to reflect the Twitter bio, then found a way to weave that into what I do for a living, so I can imbue my work life with a little bit of flair.

Our team did compile a list of related articles and Tweets and have provided a quick link to our presentation within that. That can be found on an open Google doc here.

If you’re going to be in Austin, come see us next Monday, March 12th at 11am. We are going to do some live reviews and provide in the moment feedback to people as part of the process.

This is partially the reason behind this lovely CarlaBorsoi.com redesign! Thanks to the lovely Elea for the design and work behind getting this up.

This year is already in full swing – I’ve got lots of cool research projects on some products in development and further work on ones in preview.

Next week I’ll be chairing the 2nd Consumer Insights in New Delivery Conference in Miami. It is perfect timing as the following weekend finds me in Winter Park for a Rollins College President’s Leadership Council Meeting. While there, it’d be great if there’s a chance to sneak in some time at the radio station.

March brings SXSW and a panel on online identity and resumes. That is being done with the awesome team of Jennifer Jongsma, Kristy Duncan and Kevin Lawver. We’ve been meeting and exchanging a lot of comments already. I’m looking forward to that conversation.  Our panel is Monday morning, so hope you can check it out.

Finally, another side project of mine (along with my lovely husband and our friend Kevin) is the San Francisco Silent Reading Party. We’re having our next event on Feb 9th. Come join us.

The talk will focus on the iPad testing we’ve been doing at AOL for a particular app that we’re launching this year – and how it influenced the product development process — and didn’t.

This year was much more satisfactory than last and didn’t over-twee it. Instead, a little more diversity and a lot more fun.

Top 10 for 2011!

1. Quiet Company, The Marq & Lipstick 24

In my anal retentia prior to SXSW, I listened to 600 bands and made a short list of about 100 that I would listen to over and over again in preparation for the festival. In my notes on these guys I had written “Epic choruses, a must-see.” Dead on in my assessment, the first time I saw these guys this year, I lamented the fact that I was at a show alone and having to dance and sing-along with a field of strangers. Far and away, my favorite band this year. You can’t go wrong with a horn section, guys who dress in tie and jacket to play, and hooky choruses.

We loved them so much we bought the t-shirt and followed them on Twitter. Not to mention, got an immediate shoutout from them on Twitter & answers to a question. Love!

2. Geographer, Betsy’s/Yelp Day Party

San Francisco based bands I haven’t yet seen dominate my top 10 this year – leading the fray is Geographer. Despite a broken leg in the group, they managed to pull off a tight and energetic set that made me want to go see them every possible chance. They are the closest thing to an actual rock & roll band we saw – straightforward and honest.

3. Uccello & The Calder Quartet, The Velveeta Room

SXSW has slowly been expanding their classical offerings. This year had a full evening of modern classical curated by Gabriel Prokofiev (who DJed). These two groups, Uccello, a quintet and the Calder Quartet, were amazing. Modern strings played with verve in a non-traditional venue. We were whooping and hollering as we watched these groups play. The Calder Quarter played some modern compositions that they had especially commissioned, making the evening even more entertaining.

4. Sugar & Gold, Toulouse/SF Embassy Day Party

This San Francisco based band had me mentally grooving and the tight quarters revealed a smile on every face in the courtyard. Eating watermelon and playing keyboards mid-day seemed perfectly natural. Can’t wait to seem them play out and about in town.

5. Yearbook Committee, Esther’s Follies

We raced to this show, only thinking we’d stay for a song or two before hitting another act. I ended up staying for all but one song of their set. They look like they met on a yearbook committee, with the sort of adorable nerdiness you recognize in all those who cut & paste images of everyone else in school. These multi-instrumentalists were interesting – breaking out a cookie sheet to make noise at one point, overlaying it all with sweet vocals. My favorite is their song Watermelon. You’ll be humming it for days.

6. The Limousines, Buffalo Billiards

This group, another SF-based band I’ve yet to see on my home turf, had a great connection with the audience. People were super engaged and delighted to rock out with this quartet. I admit to being obsessed with the lead singers wrist tattoo – super cool!

7. Lord Huron, The Stage on Sixth Street/Paste Day Party

A friend called this sound “retro civil war hipness” and they would be right. However, Lord Huron seems to do this better than most of the bands from this genre and put on an unexpectedly good set at the Paste Day Party.

8. Anamanaguchi, Mohawk (inside)

One of my favorite venues in Austin couldn’t disappoint this year – a kaleidoscope of music and videos entertained me during the set. This isn’t deep, meaningful music, but it IS fun chip bit music. Great for the work day -  doesn’t distract, and you can play along in your head.

9. Capsula, Nuvolo

This was the Spanish Iggy Pop + band. Full of histronics that included walking over to the bar and drinking someone else’s beer, this band proved to be the perfect antidote to the sweeter stylings we had been hearing. Energetic and punk en espanol.

10. The Bangles, Cedar Street Courtyard

I wasn’t going to include them in my top 10, but who am I kidding – the 16 year old inside of me was DELIGHTED to see a band I sang along to driving in my dove gray Monte Carlo in the late 80s/early 90s. They sound pretty much exactly the same and played every song you hoped they would. It was funny, I even predicted they would open with Hazy Shade of Winter and I was right. Also, the most packed show of this year’s festival for me.

Also, there is no way not to give huge shoutouts to my two favorite bands from last year, Jeremy Messersmith and The Spring Standards. We saw both twice again this year – both are on tour at the moment, too. Go see them!

All Shows!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

• Sharon Van Etten, Hilton Lobby
• The Vaccines, AOL Pop-up show at First Baptist
• Or, The Whale, Cheers
• Judgement Day, Sixth Street
• Jeremy Messersmith, The Stage on Sixth Street
• Toro Y Moi, Red 7 Patio
• Lord Huron, The Stage on Sixth Street
• Kopecky Family Band, The Stage on Sixth Street
• Ezra Furman & The Harpoons, The Stage on Sixth Street
• Sondre Lerche, The Stage on Sixth Street
• Eisley, The Stage on Sixth Street
• Ivan & Alyosha, The Parish
• Yearbook Committee, Esther’s Follies
• Ted Leo, Swan Dive
• Yeti Lane, 512 Balcony
• Tahiti 80, 512 Balcony
• Spring Standards, Esther’s Follies

Thursday, March 17, 2011

• Sugar & Gold, Toulouse/SF Embassy Party
• The Head & The Heart, ACC Day Stag
• The David Wax Museum, The Stage on Sixth Street
• The Submarines, The Stage on Sixth Street
• Capsula, Nuvolo
• California Wives, Buffalo Billiards
• The Limousines, Buffalo Billiards
• I Was Totally Destroying It, Easy Tiger
• Quiet Company, The Marq
• The Bangles, Cedar Street Courtyard
• The Sounds, Cedar Street Courtyard

Friday, March 18, 2011

• Maps & Atlases, Cedar Street Courtyard
• The Forms?, Red Eyed Fly
• Geographer, Betsy’s
• Jeremy Messersmith, Betsy’s
• Black Atlantic, Brush Square Park
• Uccello, The Velveeta Room
• Gabriel Prokofiev, The Velveeta Room
• The Calder Quartet, The Velveeta Room
• Chain Gang of 1974, ND
• Sondre Lerche, Central Presbyterian

Saturday, March 19, 2011

• Quiet Company, Lipstick 24
• Mother, Paradise
• Ha Ha Tonka, The Liberty
• The Spring Standards, Base Invasion Parking Lot
• Kitten, Brushy Square
• Anamanaguchi, Mohawk (inside)
• Pujol, Mohawk Patio
• Elephant Stone, Spill
• Intimate Stranger, Maggie Mae’s
• JEFF the Brotherhood, Mohawk Patio
• Ume, Skinny’s

I had the opportunity to speak at a Marcus Evans conference at the end of March, on the intersection of research and innovation. My talk was mainly about the research technique of in-home ethnography (or applied ethnography) and how we use this type of research to drive insights to help the product innovation process.

Over the many years I’ve been doing research, it has become more and more critical to me to actually intersect with consumers in the spheres where they are actually using products. When I first learned about conjoint (which was *the* sexy research technique for a while), the whole sales pitch was around how this recreated a “realistic” marketplace, because consumers are forced to make choices based on variables like brand, price and features. While conjoint isn’t as sexy anymore, the in-home study has risen in prominence as a way to feel very close to consumers.

This is because there is no substitute for seeing someone use your product in the way they do every day. While surveys are useful and provide quick hits for feedback, getting into the consumer’s mind and having a picture of a consumer can change the mindset of a product, marketing or design person. You have someone real to hang your hat onto  — and an ability to see the distractions from your product.

My talk at this conference in March focused on specific exercises for in home interviews that linked to things that we desperately needed to understand – either for search while I was at Ask or on products in the AOL Applications and Commerce Group.

Other talks focused on how to manage an innovation pipeline. It was interesting to hear how product managers take insights and then merge those with industry trends and competitive threats to develop new products. The team at Sunny Delight is doing some interesting work, and I got to hear from Coleman Products and Allstate Insurance too. This enjoyable aspect of this conference was that they deliberately keep attendance low. With significantly fewer people there is a greater opportunity to network and deeply discuss with folks how they area apply their research findings.

It’s always great food for thought to be able to talk to other people who do what you do, but in disparate industries. I’m still mulling over ways that CPG and insurance companies deal with their pipeline and how to apply other innovation tools to our processes.

My favorite is still the Gulf War cocktails, in the Worth Noting section.

Jeff’s move was yet the first of many new things to happen this year. The remaining big ones are all professional and have benefit from his presence.

First off, in January, I switched roles at Ask.com to head up their emerging community of Q&A answerers. I jumped at the chance to put my years of participating in communities online into action as a community manager, not merely a member. Not soon after, however, an old acquaintance (Mike Maser) came a-knockin’ having just left Digg to move to AOL. He offered an opportunity to conduct research among larger audiences and across a wide swath of products. It was a tough choice to leave Ask.com, but I realized the opportunity to have an impact on more products and more people was a professional challenge I needed. After five years at Ask, I bid adieu in late June. Leaving the fantastic women and men of Ask.com was sad, but I look forward to seeing lots of great answers to questions in the Ask.com community.

I began at AOL in late June. These first few weeks yield a vision for the type of analysis and insight that can help a company transform. AOL is a start-around: taking a huge company and turning the tide and all the associated brand imagery built up over 25 years into something new. This is a task that is mentally stimulating and one that will be rewarding. It’s thrilling to be a part of this re-energization of a stalwart so many of us have known. I hope to be able to share some of my philosophies around research here as I delve more deeply into this role. Spending lots of time on airplanes engenders time to ponder research methodologies and techniques deeply – and their application more so.

In other professional news, at the turn of the year, online I met a fellow Rollins alum, John Dick, CEO of Civic Science. He had called to ask a few questions about how I viewed the world of research and through the course of our conversation, we discovered a mutual passion for real time consumer insights, especially among hard to reach consumers (hey teenagers and tech-savvy elites–I’m looking at you!). The Civic Science model allows for polling that can be aggregated in powerful ways to draw conclusions about the marketplace on a nearly inexhaustible list of subjects. This led to me taking a role on the Advisory Board for Civic Science. In the future, you’ll see cross-posting here on CarlaBorsoi.com as I ruminate on data coming from Civic Science’s Millennial Index.

All of these changes are exciting and daunting. It delights me to have these opportunities and appreciate the chance to grow both personally and professionally this year. However, they do mean that I am on the road a great deal and have been traveling extensively this year. You may see me at an airport gate sometime soon. Stop by and say hi and let’s talk some shop.