Update: Be sure to read these comments from an earlier entry.
“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.
There’s a good chance you’ve seen this photo by now: Pictured seated from left to…
Here’s a collection of interesting memes, pictures, an cartoons floating around the internet that I…
Tap to see the source. This is yesterday’s daily New Yorker cartoon, created by Brendan…
C’mon, let it not be Asians this time. Last time was pretty bad. Here’s the…
Jon Stewart’s right, and we’ve been here before. Where we are now, I’ve been before…
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watch this:
The Technical Community Development Coordinator
now it's a haiku.
"Technical Community Development Coordinator Man," way better than some wussy article.
Lola digs the photo of the muckity mucks!
It is interesting to see the inside events at Tucows. What did the IR department have to say? Let me guess. They were in their office with the door closed, listening to "Let It Be" by John Lennon, and still contemplating whether to issue a press release on Tucow's Spyware policies. Ah...then Lennon's words got to the IR people......"let it be man.....everything is fine," they say, "we're Tucows....people know who we are and what we are about."
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.
My own personal career goals are as follows:
...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?
Let me know and I'll pass it along.
I'm confused. I thought "Let It Be" was McCartney's tribute to his mother. LENNON'S tribute to his mother is "Julia."
-OE
You're right. It wasn't Lennon. It doesn't really matter does it? It was the point of the story that counts.
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.
Joey deVilla�s comments above really sound cult-like. After reading them I did a quick search on common characteristics of cults on the Net and what I found is not pretty.
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.
Damn! This is a serious contender for "comment of the year".
Whomever you are, you owe me a new Crazometer and Paranoia Gauge - though truth be told, I've never seen the needles spin that fast nor fly that far across the room.