"Ah, the unofficial investor relations department," said a Barry White-like voice approaching my desk. Since Barry White is not wont to hang out at the Tucows offices, I had to assume it Greg Weir, Kahuna of the Content division.
"I know why the investors are commenting on your blog.," he said. "Go to Raging Bull and check out the Tucows discussion."
I did just that and suddenly, the cryptic remark in this comment -- "I've posted your link someplace else where Tucow [sic] investors gather in their dark hole where no one listens" -- made sense. A couple of the most recent postings linked directly to my Mark Cuban posting, which resulted in the interesting comment thread.
I passed the news along to Elliot, who responded. It's kind of amusing and flattering that the investors consider me a guy with an inside track with the high-muckity-mucks...
Figure 1. An example of high muckity-mucks in an organization.
...and doubly so that the CEO and investors are having a conversation via my blog. But hey, communication is what blogs are for, and if it's good for the company, good for our customers and good for our investors, that's cool by me.
For those investors who are curious about who I am and what my role in the company is, here's a quick run-down:
I work in the Research and Innovation department, of which "Boss Ross" Rader is the Director. I hold the longest job title in the company: Technical Community Development Coordinator (sixteen syllables, one short of a haiku), and my broad mandate is to build a community of developers, encourage them to build applications on the Tucows platform. and be the Tucows "goodwill ambassador" to the developers. Simply put, I'm a programmer who also likes to "shake hands and kiss babies", as they say in political campaigns. While I do have an interest in the "suit" aspects of the company -- and really, any employee who doesn't look at least occasionally to such issues in their company is casting their fate to the winds -- it's not my area of expertise or influence. My primary value to the company is as a technologist with wide interests, an ability to communicate, a sizable readership and "mad accordion skillz".
I just happen to be an enthusiastic employee with a blog.
After reading the comments on Raging Bull, it dawned on me that I had now crossed into Scoble Country. For those of you, Robert Scoble is a technical evangelist at Microsoft. While his primary responsibility is to talk to developers, people come to him about all sorts of non-technical issues concerning Microsoft, and he often comments on them on his personal blog, which like mine is not an official company organ.
At the same time, Elliot passed by my desk, and I said, taking inspiration from the Diesel Sweeties punch line, "I am ten ninjas"...
This is available as a T-shirt from the Diesel Sweeties web comic site. Click to see the order page.
"Hey, Elliot! I have a new mantra for this year: I am Ten Scobles!"
He got a laugh out of that.
Office phone:
Google Talk:
The Technical Community Development Coordinator
now it's a haiku.
The fact is most people have never heard of Tucows. As Buddha said, when our ego becomes the center of life's interactions, we have become lost. Those two cows over in Toronto have grown some gigantic egos by thinking everyone is checking in daily to the Tucow's homepage to get the latest news. What a laugh!
I think you forget the ending in your blog. Let me help: Elliot Noss passes your desk after he got a laugh out of your comment, he enters the IR office, he throws the radio against the wall, and says "Don't forget what we are. We are a publicly traded company. I am a machevellian capitalist, and it's time we kick some ass." I know, I am dreaming.
Hmmm.....what i'd give to sit in on a closed meeting in the IR department at Tucows. Let me know if they have any job openings over there. I wouldn't mind getting paid to listen to music. I like Lennon.
- To do good work
- To be known for doing that good work
- To earn a good profit for my effort
...and I suspect that you'll find that mindset is fairly common at Tucows. You'll note that the word profit is present among those goals.There's a lot going on inside the company right now, and there are a good number of internal initiatives currently being undertaken, all with the goal of making us a thriving and profitable company. I'll talk about my own efforts -- in which my responsibility is to evangelize the Tucows platform to developers -- in more detail in a later posting. Work to do, you know.
As for the music, well, as long as we're working, we're allowed to listen to whatever we want on our headphones.
You mention the Buddha, which reminds me of the Noble Eightfold Path, which as "right action" as one of its tenets. What right actions would you like to see?
- More active PR concerning our activities?
- Would you like to be directly contacted, say via email if new developments arise? Would you want to be notified during the "soft launch" or when the launch is made generally public?
- A more official channel of communications for shareholders to voice their opinions and concerns?
- All of the above?
Let me know and I'll pass it along.-OE
Do other Tucow employees get jealous of IR having it so easy?
As far as passing things on, who cares anymore? We are just blogging - something Tucows wants to see more of in the world. Blogging is all and everything. It is fact, fiction, and fantasy all intertwined so why take things so seriously? Let's just keep having fun.
By the way, if you think IR would be more comfortable with foot rests while they listen to their headphones, let me know and I'll drop them in the post.
This is serious stuff here and I honestly think we need to ask if Tucows is a cult or company? Or better yet, is it a cult company?
I briefly want to share my discovery. Listed below are the common characteristics of cults and how they relate to Tucows.
1) Misplaced Loyalty – Tucows is owned by shareholders yet their loyalty is always directed to the “Tucows Family” i.e. employees and partners. Bingo.
2) Isolation – need we say more about the lack of communication? Bingo.
3) An Us Against Them Philosophy – dare I say the name of that other “bad” site called download.com. Oh yeah, the cult always thinks they are inherently better than their enemy. Sound familiar. Bingo.
4) Rules of Silence – IR….Bingo
5) Pride of the Group – we hear so much about “being a part of Tucows” and how special it is. Bingo.
6) Total Commitment to the Leader – Joey deVilla was so flattered when Elliot walked past his desk and commented on his blog. You could see him blush in his writing. Bingo.
7) Don’t Talk about Problems – if members talk about the problem in the cult (or company), they become the problem - sound familiar – no one at Tucows dare says there is a problem. Another Bingo.
8) Avoidance of Sharing Information with the Outside World – do we even need to comment on this? Bingo.
I think it is obvious there are some serious cult issues that need to be addressed at Tucows and I want to thank Joey DeVilla for this blog. I honestly think this blog is simply a way for Joey to reach out for help in the only way he knows possible.