Coté Memo #023 - Hippocratic oath of change management, put an API on it, eating meat-filters
Meta-data
Hello again, welcome to #23. Today we have 31 subscribers, so we're +1 (two are new, so one must have dropped). I'd love to hear what you like, dislike, your feedback, etc.: memo@cote.io.
See past newsletters in the archives, and, as always, see things as they come at Cote.io and @cote.
Sponsors
Come check out cloud hijinks at 451's HCTS conference Oct 6th and 8th. I'll be speaking there on developer relations and marketing. Use the code
MC200to get $200 off when registering. Only one person has taken advantage of this snazzy code, so: come on, sign up!Come hear me yammer on about DevOps: I'll be in Chicago (Sep 23rd) and Toronto (Nov 18th) giving my DevOps and cloud talk with TechTarget
Follow-up
Several of you took up my offer for an invite to the 451 breakfast at VMworld next week. See you there!
I'll also be around VMworld and at the EMC and Pivotal receptions on Tuesday night. I'll be flying home Wednesday night.
Tech & Work World
Sometimes, you should do less
I had a staff meeting today and I was reminded my team that, often, you should just back-down and do your normal work. I'm a helpless tinkerer, so I like to mess around with various processes and systems. For example, I like to get wandering around in sales and marketing often and see what's going on there. (Cf. that Twitter analytics obsession I have.). So, rather than jut the team down some marketing jag, they unanimously responded, "does the company want that?"...which was a pretty fair reminder.
Point being: it's good to remember that most processes are doing just fine, thank you, and don't need you messing with them. There's a sort of Hippocratic oath for innovation and change management in there somewhere.
Contentful
Into APIs? Check out the mashup Contentful is doing with content management systems and RESTful APIs. It seems pretty good; my report on them is up for 451 clients (insert apply for trial text here).
One of their customer references was Playboy, which was kind of odd feeling to write-up, but I did nonetheless.
Also, the TextExpander I mentioned last week got through the copydesk (as it should have!):
Contentful also finds and will find itself competing more with marketing automation services like HubSpot, Marketo, ExactTarget and others that have created TextExpander macros for 'systems of engagement' that are seeking to use content for marketing efforts.
Score!
Fun & IRL
Liverwurst
I ate about 1/4 pound of Liverwurst for lunch today. One of my vegetarian friends once described liver as the filter for the body (chicken, pig, cow), which has always stuck with me. While I was enjoying the oddly delicious flavor, I had to pause from time to time to get that idea out of my head. Good job, Matt.