For over a year, I have overheard my peers talking about Nicholas Carr’s book The Big Switch.  But having worked in the IT services and data center market for over 10 years now I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about the concept of Cloud Computing.  As a result, The Big Switch wasn’t on the top of my reading list when it first debuted.  I preferred to spend my precious free time reading about topics I was less informed about.  Over the Thanksgiving holiday this year, I finally got around to reading The Big Switch.  It is extremely well written, with lots of fascinating historical stories and analysis of potential changes to society resulting from technology.  But I think that the description on the back cover – “The Definitive Guide to the Cloud Computing Revolution” – is misleading.  Because, in my opinion the book is not really focused on Cloud Computing. 

Cloud Computing is an almost meaningless term.  Ask 100 people in the IT sector to define cloud computing and you will probably get 100 different answers.  Ask journalists or executives outside of the IT sector and you will get an even further divergence of opinions.  To most people Cloud Computing is anything cool and successful that has happened on the Internet in the past 3 years or might occur in the next 3 years.  From my perspective, Cloud Computing is the idea of large service providers such as Google, Amazon.com and Microsoft offering network-based IT services from massive, centralized data centers.  Cloud Computing has three different pillars to it.  At the bottom is the “Hardware-as-a-Service” concept of selling storage and computing resources in a multi-tenant, virtualized, hosted model with a consumption-based pricing model.  Amazon.com’s Elastic Compute Cloud is the best known example of the bottom layer.  In the middle is a development platform that end-users can use to write new software applications such as Force.com.  At the top are “Software-as-a-Service” applications which have been developed by third parties for commercial use.  Google Docs, NetSuite, OfficeLive are some of the better-known applications that fall into this category.

The Big Switch has less than a full chapter devoted to explaining the concepts I outlined in the last paragraph.  Most of the content is focused on two topics: 1) Comparing the evolution of computing technology to the development of electrical power and 2) Discussing the social, political and cultural implications of the Web 2.0  applications offered on cloud computing platforms.   Nicholas Carr does an outstanding job of addressing both of these topics with an engaging and provocative writing style.  As a result, I would recommend The Big Switch to anyone seeking insights on how Web 2.0 applications such as search engines, mashups, blogging, wikis and crowdsourcing are transforming society.  But to those seeking “The Definitive Guide to Cloud Computing” I would suggest reading a white paper from IBM or a research report from Forrester. 

Cool Map of Amazon.com, Google and Microsoft’s Data Centers in Northwest

Map Credit – Arthur Mount
Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22610/

There are hundreds of interesting stories and theories in The Big Switch.  Unfortunately, there are too many to list.  But here were a few of my favorite examples of how Web 2.0 technologies are changing the world:

• Iraqi Military Tactics – Google Earth and GPS technologies were used by Iraqi insurgents to pinpoint the locations of British troops to increase the accuracy of mortar fire, effectively leveling the playing field with high-tech guidance systems.
• Invading Consumer Privacy – AOL published de-identified keyword search data on 600k+ of its users in 2006.  Within the matter of a few hours reporters at the New York Times were able to uniquely identify the user id referred to as user #4417749 to be Thelma Arnold, a 62-year old widow from Georgia.
• Computers Ask Humans for Help – Amazon.com developed a service called its Mechanical Turk, which allows programmers to hide humans within software code. The turk automatically posts requests for tasks that computers are not effective at (e.g. identifying objects in photographs) to a web site where freelancers compete for the right to perform the work.
• Fostering Terrorism – End-users tend to join online forums, discussion groups and follow blogs of thought leaders with similar ideas.  As people converse more with people that share the same views, their opinions become more extreme potentially leading to fanaticism or terrorism.
• Trending Reading Patterns – Tom Owad, manager of a Macintosh web site, downloaded over 250K wish lists from Amazon.com using a computer script.  He then proceeded to analyze the reading preferences of these people and charting readers of extreme topics on a map of the US.

There is some content directly about Cloud Computing.  For example, anyone who is seeking to better understand the analogy between electrical grids and cloud computing would greatly benefit from Carr’s book.  This comparison has been discussed in IT circles for almost 10 years now.  But Carr is the only person who has actually did the research and provided a detailed analysis of the evolution of the electrical grids and technology utilities.  Three of my favorite sections detailed:

• GE’s Focus on Products versus Services – Chronicles Thomas Edison’s pioneering efforts to develop electrical utilities.  But points out the limitations of GE’s strategy to sell power-generation equipment and power-consuming appliances, rather than to develop a centrally-managed utility which would offer Electricity-as-a-Service.
• The End of the Ice Age – Explains how the widespread availability of electricity quickly ended a massive, global business designed around the transport of ice from the upper parts of North America to various destinations around the world.  The disruption, of course, was the availability of affordable home refrigeration technologies.
• Google’s Data Center – Explains how a front-company named Design LLC quietly negotiated on behalf of Google to purchase 30 acres of land for $2M in The Dalles, Oregon.  Google had a revolutionary idea of placing data centers near the Columbia River, which is source of both cheap hydroelectric power and chilled water to cool the machines.

So in closing, I would say – definitely read the book.  Just don’t expect it to be an expert on Cloud Computing once you are finished.

Google’s culture of innovation is widely admired by outsiders.  And it is a key a reason why the company is able to continually recruit some of the brightest young minds in the world.  Google encourages its employees to spend 20% of their time on creative endeavors – a concept it calls “Innovation Time.”  Many of Google’s most popular products including Gmail and Adsense originated from these independent projects. Google executives have stated that 50% of Google’s new product launches have originated from the 20% of free time employees have to pursue these discretionary activities.   I think that marketing executives should embrace a similar principle for the key thought leaders.

Specifically, I recommend the marketing executives allow their primary content creators to invest 20% of their time developing new ideas and experimenting with social media.  Only 1 in 10,000 pieces of content will go viral, which means that you have to experiment with many different channels and themes to arrive at one big hit. In the Web 2.0 world, the concept of “Fail Fast” through trial and error is the best approach to identifying optimal approaches for introducing new ideas into the marketplace. 

Encourage your thought leaders to experiment with various social media techniques including:

• Blogging (e.g. WordPress)
• Podcasts (e.g. Apple iTunes)
• Video (e.g. YouTube)
• Presentations (e.g. SlideShare)
• Microblogging (e.g. Twitter)
• Social Networks (e.g. LinkedIn Groups)
• Product Reviews (e.g. Amazon.com)
• eBooks (e.g. Change This)

And to develop different types of content

• Commentary on current news and events
• Original ideas and concepts
• Predictions for future trends and behaviors

With different formats

• Interviews with subject matter experts
• Moderated panels or debates
• Individual articles or presentations

One of the most heavily debated topics in the marketing communications segment today is when to send e-mail based newsletters, communications and promotions to customers.  Nearly everyone you meet has a different opinion.  Some experts will tell you to send the e-mails in the morning.  Others recommend lunchtime.  Some experts believe sending on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday is best.  Others take a the view that off-hours – nights and weekends are best. 

So what is the answer – I don’t know!  Nor does anyone else.  The only one that knows is the customer themselves.  Here’s a new idea – Why not ask the customer when they want to be sent an e-mail from your company?  You already ask customers whether they prefer HTML or text?  And which types of content they want to subscribe to?  And how frequently they wish to be contacted?  

Instead of trying to find the one best time to send an e-mail to a large, diverse pool of recipients each with different reading habits and work schedules, why not offer a choice of days for customers to receive e-mails?  You can release multiple distributions of e-mail communications according to end-user preferences.  For example, you might offer a choice of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Sunday.  

I would choose the weekend for most of the e-mail communications that I care about.  I usually spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon trying to catch up on work.  I have much more time to browse content sent by third parties because my phone is not ringing and I am not rushing to go to another meeting.  Others may prefer to have e-mails sent on a Tuesday or Wednesday because their calendar is less rigorous that day.  Some may not state a preference at all in which case you can subscribe them to the default communication date based upon prior open rate analysis.

I always tell people that you shouldn’t hire industry marketing people from industry.  I usually get a confused look because this seems to conflict with the conventional wisdom for hiring these types of roles.   I’ve heard many a technology CEO state that the answer to all the company’s sales challenges would be solved if they just had someone from industry who could speak the customer’s language.  Then without fail twelve months later there is boardroom discussion about how the $300K/year “industry expert” that was hired isn’t making an impact.  Most executives assume that the recruiting process was mismanaged and the wrong person was hired.  However, the true root cause is that the wrong profile candidate was hired into the wrong role.

I encourage executives to answer three tough questions to assess whether you are hiring the right person for an industry marketing role.

#1 – What is the candidate’s True Skill Set?

Often technology vendors try to hire former customers who worked in the IT organizations they supported.  The challenge with such a hire is that it is difficult to transition a mid-career IT professional into a marketing specialist.  Give some thought to these questions:

• Would you hire an executive in finance that has no prior accounting or finance skills?
• Would you hire a corporate counsel that has no law degree or legal experience?
• Would you hire a sales director that has never held a quota-bearing sales role?

So why hire a marketing executive that has no marketing experience?

Most individuals that entered an IT profession have a stronger aptitude for mathematics and science than writing and creative thinking.  Marketing professionals, particularly industry evangelists, must be able to:

• Develop differentiated messaging and positioning
• Write compelling white papers and thought leadership articles
• Create and deliver powerful presentation content
• Perform quantitative analysis of new market opportunities 
• Execute successful lead generation programs

There are lots of people that can perform these functions at a mediocre level of quality, but very few that that excel.  Most candidates from industry underestimate the caliber of skills required to make an impact in an industry marketing role.  Consequently they over-promise during the interview process and under-deliver once on the job.

#2 – Why is the candidate leaving their home industry?

Ideally you are hiring this person because they have extensive contacts, deep subject matter expertise and unique insights on how to solve the industry’s key challenges.  If all of these factors are true then ask yourself why are they leaving the industry?  Very few people spend 15-20 years enjoying a successful career in one industry and then suddenly move into another one.  The fact is that most candidates seeking out jobs as subject matter experts in the technology industry have struggled in their original career field.  Although, I have never seen any statistics, I suspect that most of these mid-life career switchers were actually let go from their previous employers because they were not adding enough value.  Are these the types of under-performers you want to hire for an industry marketing role?  If they were not successful in their chosen career field what are the odds that they will succeed in the technology sector?   Check the candidate’s references to ascertain the true factors behind the decision to transfer into technology.  There are certainly exceptions to the generalizations I outlined above, but in my experience there are very few.

#3 – How broad is the candidate’s knowledge across sub-sectors?

Most people from “industry” actually have a very narrow range of domain knowledge.  This is particularly true of candidates who worked at large companies.  Most of these individuals worked in very specialized organizations with little appreciation of the larger corporate strategy or industry dynamics.  In other words, they cannot see the forest from the trees.  If you are seeking a Retail Industry Marketing Director then you should understand that someone from the Grocery sector will have very limited understanding of the Department Store segment.  If you are seeking to hire a Financial Services Industry Marketing Manager then you should expect that a banker with expertise in mortgage processing will have little to no understanding of the credit card, wealth management or home insurance product lines.  If you are seeking to bring on a High Tech Industry Director then understand that a semiconductor veteran will have limited understanding of the downstream PC or consumer electronics sectors.   Most hiring managers, because they themselves do not appreciate the differences within sub-sectors of an industry, ignore these realities.  Consequently, many companies hiring an expert in one discipline with the expectation that they will easily expand their knowledge to cover multiple sub-sectors.  Such an approach rarely works.

So where should you find good candidates for industry marketing roles?  This is a topic I will explore in a future post.

Corporate marketing organizations are missing a significant opportunity to improve search engine placement by not thinking more strategically about image and file naming strategies.  Search is continuing to evolve.  End-users are no longer restricted to web search.  Yahoo!, Bing and Google are each offering users more ways to search for specific types of content – news, blogs, books, images, videos and shopping catalogs, which means you need to think beyond HTML in content optimization.  By taking a few simple steps in file and image names you can improve placement on these alternative search mechanisms easily.

Your Customers are Using Image Search

Many companies are not optimizing the JPG, GIF and PNG files on their web sites for Image Search.  Graphics teams in marketing communications put meaningless names on image files such as “0001_asfdgtzx.jpg” or “gm000143.gif”  The search engines use both the surrounding text as well as the name of the image file in the ranking process.  By not using a descriptive file name, corporate web site owners are missing an opportunity to attract Image Search users to their sites.  Google’s Image Search is one of the fastest growing search techniques by end-users.  I frequently use Image Search when I am trying to find an image for a PowerPoint presentation or a blog post.  As do millions of other people.  Approximately, 50% of time I am searching for images I will also browse the page it is embedded on.  In the process I have come across hundreds of cool sites that I would not have otherwise been aware of.   If you do a Google Image Search on your primary keywords, how do you place?  Do you show up on the first page of results? 

Meaningless File Names are a Missed Search Opportunity

The same search engine principle applies to file names.  Many marketing communications teams develop a file naming convention for collateral, case studies, white papers, e-books and other PDF downloads.  The naming strategy is usually designed to simplify content management for the corporate marketing group.  The file name is not descriptive, but instead a series of shorthand abbreviations and numbers that tells the marketing team what type of document it is and what the revision date is. 

Forrester Research is my favorite example of this.  They use names such as “0,,55670,00.pdf” for the PDF versions of market research report downloads on their web site.  The file name in the last sentence is a report entitled “Outlook for European Online Christmas Sales 2009.”  I suspect that there is some way to use an abacus, slide rule or binary code conversion tool to derive the file name from the meaningless string of numbers Forrester uses.

Adobe Acrobat (PDF) and Microsoft Office (.doc, .ppt) documents are becoming increasingly common in search engine results.  Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other major search engines each display PDF and Office files along with HTML pages in their most popular web results.  The search engines use both the surrounding text and the file name in their ranking process.  As you may have guessed, meaningless file names are not going to improve your placement in search results.  So why not name your files something more meaningful to your clients?  

Think about the Offline Desktop Experience

If you are not convinced yet, also consider how end-users store and search for files they have already downloaded from your site.   Some downloaders will take the time to rename files on their desktop, but most end-users are lazy just storing the file with whatever name was used on the original web site.  By using a keyword-rich naming convention your collateral will rank high in Google Desktop and native Microsoft Windows File Search algorithms.  Desktop searches often take minutes as compared to a web search which returns in seconds.  Most users lose patience after waiting for the desktop search to complete.  Wouldn’t it be nice if your documents appeared first in the list of search results (above your competitors) because the file names aligned closely with keywords customers search on?

One of the key challenges that marketing leaders facing in planning events/conferences is how to generate dynamic and compelling content that will engage the audience.  The de facto approach to conferences remains a back-to-back series of PowerPoint presentations which are interrupted only for lunch and vendor exhibits.  While formal presentations remain the best way to educate a large audience about a topic, too much repetition in this format will lead to declining audience interest.  I recommend mixing up the format of conference sessions to keep the audience better engaged. 

Alternative techniques to formal presentation sessions include:

• Short video clips – professionally prepared or You-Tube style amateur videos break up the monotony of back-to-back speakers.
• Panels – in which the moderator asks a series of questions to a series of subject matter experts.  If moderated properly can be a strong alternative to PowerPoint.
• Debates – on a controversial topic between two leading authorities.  One takes an affirmative position while the other takes a negative position on a controversial topic.
• Roundtables – in which a small group of participants engage in informal, unscripted dialogue about a particular topic.  Should be facilitated by a well-informed moderator.

A panel can be a very effective technique for sharing information on a particular topic at a conference or tradeshow.  The panel format is becoming increasing popular alternative to formal PowerPoint presentation sessions.   Many have found that the multi-speaker, informal nature of the discussion tends to lead to more audience attention.  However, there are several best practices that should be employed to ensure that the panel does not fall into the pitfalls commonly associated with formal PowerPoint presentations.

Signs Your Panel is Not Engaging the Audience

Here are ten recommendations that I have for panel moderators seeking to optimize their conference sessions:

1. Find interesting panelists – The ideal panelist is very knowledgeable about the subject matter.  He or she should be a recognized authority within the industry or possess strong credentials that generate credibility quickly once explained.  Much like good speakers, strong panelists should be animated using hand gestures and enunciation when speaking.  And what separates a good panelist from a great one is the willingness to be opinionated and to take a controversial position on a topic. 
2. Consider the mix - Ideally you would have panelists which represent different positions on a particular topic.  They should also have different backgrounds or roles.  A sure win is to include an end-user customer.  Industry analysts, bloggers, and journalists are good choices for both panelists (or as a moderator).  Employees from your own company can be effective as well, but I suggest limiting it to one.  Representatives from other vendors, especially consulting firms are also strong choices. 
3. Giving the introductions – Request that the panelists provide their bios to you in advance.  Print out copies for distribution to the audience or have them on a pre-loaded slide deck that can be displayed during the introduction.  Be sure to print out and read through the bios in advance.  Underline or circle the key aspects of the panelists’ background that will build credibility with the audience.  Don’t read the bio word-for-word.  Recite only the important details in your own words.  And maintain eye contact with the audience while giving the introductions.
4. Preparing the questions – Pick some topics that will introduce some controversy and open discussion. Make sure you have at least 1-2 questions in which there will be strong disagreement between 2 or more of the panelists.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions which might encourage feedback about the host of the venue.  Also, I encourage you to be realistic about the amount time you will have.  Be sure to have potential follow up questions prepared if you happen to spark a good discussion that you want to pursue in greater depth.  Sequence the questions so that the most important ones fall second, third or fourth so that you know they will be adequately addressed.
5. Share questions in advance – Give the panelists access to the questions in advance. In fact, I would encourage you to involve the panelists in the development and formulation of the questions.  Many participants are nervous about the unstructured, open format of a panel.  They will perform better when they have greater confidence about the topics being asked.  However, it is critical that you do not create the appearance that the panel is rehearsed.  Panelists should not bring notes with them to avoid the temptation to read prepared remarks.  I suggest asking the questions out of sequence to keep the panelists on their toes.
6. Asking the questions – Definitely take the list of questions with you so you can remember the sequence and improvise as necessary.  But don’t read the questions off the sheet!  You should know them off the top of your head.  Again, make eye contact with the audience during the question.  Ask them in more of a natural speaking manner rather than just reading the exact question word-for-word.  Ideally, you would relate the question to a discussion topic that has been mentioned earlier at the conference or during the panel.  Direct the question towards a specific panelist whose is prepared to begin the discussion.
7. Add your own value – As the moderator you should be more than just asking questions and watching the time.  You should add your own opinion and perspective to the issues.  Ideally you can do this by adding leading remarks on a topic before formally posing the issue to the panelists.  Additionally you should add remarks between or after the panelists have commented.  You should attempt to add remarks which provide an effective transition between the last question and the next one.
8. Limit the Answers – Don’t let every panelist answer every question.  Ask 2 out of 3 to answer each.  Otherwise you will find that you will not have sufficient time to ask a broad range of questions.  Ideally you want your panelists to be competing to get a word in.
9. Take audience questions- With 10-15 minutes remaining in the panel ask the audience if they have any questions.  An alternative approach is to place note cards on the seats of each chair prior to the session start.  Ask audience members to pass the note cards towards the center aisle where someone can collect them for you.  The advantage of the note card approach is that it allows you to filter and prioritize the questions albeit with only short notice.  Be prepared with additional questions to fill the remaining time in the event that you do not receive any appropriate ones from the audience.
10. Record the Panel – Consider recording the panel discussion.  Then have the audio file transcribed.  You can post the transcription on the web for others to read.  Take excerpts from the transcript to use in follow up communications to panelists and post-conference blogs.  Vendors should consider posting the transcript in HTML on their web site to improve search engine optimization.

In my last post I described a best practice that marketing professionals can employ to track, trend and analyze customer profiles.  If you are agreeable to the concept you may want consider extending the profile data you track to a broader set of information.  I would recommend also retaining additional data such as:

• Annual reports and investor filings for public companies
• Presentations delivered at industry conferences
• Case studies published by analysts or other vendors
• Fact sheets from media rooms
• Key press releases issued
• Articles you find in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week or the New York Times
• Bios of major executives

I recommend keeping this type of publicly available information in a separate directory, because it will make it easier to transfer the data if you switch jobs.  Account data specific to your company, of course, cannot be taken with you when you resign from a position.  However, publicly available information download from the customer’s web site is not proprietary and therefore can travel with you to your new employer.

A key factor in any marketing organization’s success is the ability to understand customer needs.  Having a repository of customer data both quantitative and qualitative will greatly simplify your ability to analyze market trends.  For example, if you need to trend requests for a particular product capability or feature, it is useful to have a repository of all recent RFPs from which to start the analysis.  If you need to build a case study for a particular customer, the process can be greatly accelerated if you can quickly assemble everything that you know about the account.

In this post, I will describe a best practice that I have developed over the past 10 years that I would recommend for product management, industry marketing and other customer-oriented marketing professionals.  It is a very simple technique, yet few people take the time to do it.  And it is something that you can do on your own without any significant company-wide effort. 

Start by creating directory called customers on your hard drive.  Then create sub-directories for each of the major accounts (e.g. GE, Toyota, Cisco) your company holds.  Each time you have an interaction with the customer directly or the account team, then store the associated information in the respective folder.  Contents might include:

• E-mail messages (which can be stored by Microsoft Outlook using a Save As…)
• RFIs, RFQs, RFPs and your company’s responses
• Meeting notes taken by yourself or others
• Presentations to or from the customer
• Contract terms and pricing
• Contacts from scanned in business cards or Microsoft Outlook VCF files

If you maintain the discipline to follow this practice you will discover that after a few years you will have accumulated a robust library of information on your major accounts.  Each individual e-mail or meeting note is not significant in and of itself.  However, the aggregation becomes highly valuable as you accumulate data over time.  You may wake up to find one day that your customer profiles are better than those maintained by the sales organization.  People transition between companies frequently in the technology industry.  Sales representatives will come and go.  Even those which stay with the company may switch territories or named accounts.  And it is always nice to know more than the sales organization about a specific account you are discussing…

This past weekend I configured my FiOS TV service to access my @smkeifer Twitter account.  There are lots of cool aspects of the FiOS Twitter widget.  Not only can you monitor the Tweets of people you are following, but you can also monitor all of the Tweets about the program you are watching.  Imagine watching the season finale of LOST, while also monitoring a stream of insights and predictions from other devoted fans.  With these types of widgets the nature of news reporting and analysis could change.  Instead of waiting until after President Obama’s newscast to get expert opinions from CNN reporters, you can see viewer’s reactions to proposed health care reforms in real time.

The Twitter widget opens numerous opportunities for marketers.  First, there is opportunity to feed ads into the stream of Tweets.  Second, users are less likely to switch focus to their computer during commercial breaks if there is something interactive and engaging on the TV screen.  Third, TV networks and brand owners can monitor the Tweets of fans watching a particular show to gain insights into the demographics, interests and opinions of viewers.

There are some limitations to the Twitter widget.  As with any activity performed on a TV set-top box, the navigation process is slow.  There is a noticeable latency between the time a command is entered and the set-top box updates the display.  I also found the process of Tweeting to be frustrating as well.  Without a real QWERTY keyboard connected to the set-top box, the only option for entering text is to selecting characters one-by-one via the remote control.  Verizon does have a new user interface that emulates a mobile phone keypad.  However, it will still take me some time to achieve a Blackberry-like pace on the Verizon remote.

Is FiOS Widget Bazaar – The next AppStore?

Of course, Twitter is just one of Verizon’s portfolio widgets.  Other widgets provide real time information on weather, traffic, sports and breaking news.  There is also a Facebook widget available on FiOS, which you can use to tag programs that you are watching.  Instead of channel surfing to find interesting programming you could request FiOS to display the most popular content viewed by your network of friends this week.   The possibilities become more interesting when widgets are extended to user-generated video.  Verizon has also announced plans to offer YouTube video feeds in the near future. 

This fall, Verizon will be offering a Software Development Kit (SDK), which third party developers can use to create new widgets for FiOS subscribers.  Verizon has announced an open model in which they will not restrict the content of widgets made available on the network.  The result could be a potential of explosion of available widgets, similar to the iPhone’s AppStore, which could revolutionize TV viewing.

Is WebTV for Real This Time?

Forrester Research has categorized these types of activities as Social TV.  A report released last month (August 2009) by James McQuivey stated that

 “Once Facebook, Twitter and other Social Computing platforms are properly ported to the TV screen, a new explosion of media and technology convergence will occur, affecting the product strategies of device makers, content providers and pay TV providers.”

Forrester predicts that social TV users will reach 1 million by the middle of 2010; 5 million by 2012 and 10 million by 2014.  I recall when webTV was launched that there was an overly optimistic forecast of user adoption which never proved true.  However, in the case of FiOS widgets, I think the disruptive technology that legitimizes interactive TV may finally be here.