Criticism Uncorked: Often not so bitter as it is good for us.

In the last post from the LM Vision Blog, Ari delineates the power and uniqueness of open criticism in the LM Community. One more thing that I would like to add is the power of protection that arises from this critique.

How can criticism be protection?

-When we have to invest $$$ to build a concept and need to know that a vehicle will meet with expectations and spark the imagination, we would rather know early EARLY on how people feel about the design. This early feeling with little money down, is worth its weight in gold, especially when contrasted to the Hundreds of Millions of dollars that is currently invested in the average new car model program.

-When we are looking to award prizes for designs from all across the world with little knowledge of who is submitting and from where they have come, we can rely on the community to police the provenance and inspiration of a concept. This oversight from people closest to our community is by FAR the best normative control from any misbehavior.

-When someone has submitted a concept that is below par for what is being asked, the community is quick to regulate that designer's expectations thereby protecting the reputation of the remainder of the community and that of the Company itself.

And on and on....

A community is an incredibly powerful way to speak the truth and to police itself if you can bear the weight of the criticism. It is not easy, and we are tried often by the difference of our expectations and the reality of that with which we are met. Often we are more than ready to react preemptively; more often than not we learn the ignorance in doing so.

Adventure Team Motors - WINNERS

Yesterday, we announced the winners of the fourth Local Motors Competition - Adventure Team Motors. After 34 entries, this was an extremely well-competed event and our three winners have much of which to be proud.

#1 Ugo: LM4X (This is his third competition entry, and now a victory)


















#2 Jrejrossi: LM.380P (Inaugural Entry)


















#3 Chezhian: The Crawler (Inaugural Entry)







I have now corresponded with each of these folks and I am not only impressed with the excitement that they are feeling, but with the humility they bring to the process. Keep it up team!

Local Motors and Web 2.0 (Part II of the Series) – “What is the problem with Advertising in a Social Network”?

Last night, I arrived at the meta-conclusion that selling advertising might be a good way to monetize the value locked in a social network.

Let’s look at that in a deeper way.

Put yourself in the position of someone on a social network where you are talking to a friend. (roll dream sequence music…..)

Your profile (songs to listen to, pictures of you, pictures you like, groups you belong to, friends that you follow, updates on friends with whom you’ve connected, etc., etc.) dominate the screen before you even open a live chat session with your friend on line. You are in your element and you are connecting, networking, living…then all of a sudden an ad for a golf shop in Phoenix, AZ steals a huge portion of real estate in your screen profile and some voice over interrupts your chat session. How do you feel?

The ads get in the way.

How strange. But,

Think of a magazine.

You read an article.

(turn a page)

You are fed an ad.

(turn a page)

You look at pictures

(turn a page)

You are fed an ad.

Somehow, when you are not responsible for selecting content on a click by click basis, you can countenance the ads

Not so on a social network….

You log on

You interact

You log off

When I make you wait to watch an ad…..it just feels more intrusive. Ever log onto the Forbes magazine website… Try it now. How badly do you want to get past the intro ad? What about watching a web video on a major news website like CNN of Fox, you want the video you clicked, NOW, (just like on YouTube) and not some unannounced ad first.















































(www.bootkidz.co.uk)

Has the Social Networking Industry subtly uncovered the diaphanous veil that advertisers have hid behind in TV and magazines? Now that control is in the hands of the user so much more, I don’t think that we want to be fed an ad if we didn’t ask for it.

Whoa!

Ooops, not sure that Google expected that when they paid MySpace $900MM in 2006 to buy ad-words in order to serve targeted ads. Perhaps that is why they were disappointed with the results from that purchase.

Again, this is not to say that all internet ads don’t work, but the example is meant to illuminate a trend that popping up an ad in front of someone on a Social Network is a tougher and tougher intrusion to navigate.

Local Motors and Web 2.0 (Part I of the Series) – “Monetizing a Network”:

Over the past week I read a series of articles from Wired magazine and Technology Review (a magazine edited by Jason Pontin, erstwhile editor of the basically defunct Red Herring) both of which were reviewing the roots, status, and future of Web 2.0. In response to that series, this post is the beginning of a mini-series blog on the state of Web 2.0 with intermittent discussions on where Local Motors finds itself.

“Monetizing a Network”

In the past, I have referenced the intention of Local Motors to cross the digital-chemical divide by delivering real product into the hands of paying customers - Product that they can feel, that they can desire, and which can provide real utility in their lives. No change in this intention, in fact only progress and more intense desire.

In contrast, I want to reflect on the current angst in the Social Networking business about the questionable revenue potential in the space. Social Networking, the elephant in the Web 2.0 space, is the process of using the web (and telephony, by extension) to connect users in a social setting, allow them to share interests, to connect to friends, to provide advice, to criticize others, etc.













(http://blog.larrybodine.com/cocktail.jpg)


Social Networking’s growth has been astounding (so much so that many think of it as synonymous with Web 2.0) and its leading champions are the likes of Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, Twitter, and all of the other service businesses that enable their creation (less well-known but important building blocks, KickApps, 37 Signals, Brightcove, Stylefeeder, etc.) In fact, the very space has created new English phrases such as “poke someone”, “throw something up on your wall”, “check my LinkedIn”, etc.

So, to put a fine point on it, the issue is that many folks are wringing their hands over whether or not Social Networking businesses can monetize their popularity. Can they? Well….

What is “monetization” anyway? Basically, it is that pesky phrase governing the conversion of a good or service into money received. Without it, a business is not really a business at all, at least not in the sustainable, free-market, Keynesian definition.

So if the “Service” is connecting people in a social setting, how can/should a Service charge for itself?

Before answering that quesiton, I would like to tantalize you with another burning question. Is a Social Network a service at all? Is it really? Does it really make a difference in our daily lives and our work? I know the quick reaction of Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook) or Tom Anderson (ubiquitous President of MySpace). But let’s look deeper for ourselves. Is it like a plumber? When water is ruining your hardwood floor, or better yet, when you need to drink to survive, a plumber is a SERVICE worth paying for. Is it like a travel agent? When you need to get to college, hug your children, or attend to a death in the family, a travel agent or website is a SERVICE worth paying for. Where does “poking your friends” lie on the spectrum of services worth paying for?

It is hard to say that there is no service being performed in a Social Network, but the examples above question the depth of the value.

So how do these networks Monetize???

a) Fee for entry? Unlikely, as switching costs are so low, and the very idea of charging for social connection is odious to its footloose members

b) Fee for value added-service? Maybe, depends how good. Finding lost friends, connecting for a job, vetting people for a job,…these are value added services but bump into privacy concerns

c) Fee for advertising? This is certainly the most attractive option as the payers are not “the users” but rather “the businesses” who want to reach and to understand the users.

And what is really happening here? In effect, the people who actually make products and services, which all those social networkers can feel, desire, and use, are paying the Social Network itself to get in front of their clients.

Story sounds like the very history of advertising itself, only in this case, there are a couple of twists. Because of user generated content (i.e. because users can share opinions in a very public and potentially-viral setting) the advertising of a product or service can be turbo-charged or turbo-slammed depending on its audience’s impressions. Further, because of the nature of customers connecting to the web, more can be known about the individual customer himself. This targeted info can naturally be helpful to advertisers, but when you are a collector of personal info masquerading as a social network…. there come those troubling privacy issues again.

Therefore, with caveats, this sounds basically like the advertising route might work for monetization, More on that tomorrow.

Before we give up the discussion too fast, however, there may be yet another revenue opportunity….

d) Fee for Product? Now there’s a thought. Why sell the info on your customer? You took it from them, they gave it to you, why not use it? Perhaps Facebook should install plumbing or book travel? Sound crazy? maybe, but maybe not….already MySpace is selling music that it promotes and enables…and that is kiddy-soccer compared to what could be achieved if these networks really got to work making something. Ponoko.com makes jewelry, Threadless makes T-shirts, Cameesa makes T-shirts and even allows users to invest in them, and yes, Local Motors makes cars.

Some strategists may say, stick to your knitting and do what you do best, if you run a good social network, then socialize…if you run a car company, then turn a wrench. Really? I beg to differ. We ALL beg to differ at Local Motors. We build cars, but we also talk to our future customers every day on our site, why pay someone else to tell us what they want. Certainly not a Social Network.

A First Local Motors Location coming clear

This past weekend, Dave, Mike, and I spent the best part of three days in the Mountain West watching, learning, and physically following one of the toughest off-road races in the world, the Best-in-the-Desert Vegas to Reno. For those who have never physically seen an event such as this, when you picture “off-road race”, you should NOT be picturing laborious, four-wheeling, crawls on tough terrain, but instead 120mph passes over vicious terrain by the most bomber, high-wheel travel, well-equipped machines in history…then multiply that by a minimum of 9 hours of action.

























































These vehicles (the “professional” among them at least) are part space ship and part back-country for one of the most excellent combinations of style and function in motorsports. And the racing like golf, and UNLIKE NASCAR, is not only about the winning but also about the sublime beauty you experience on the way to the finish line.













(A competitor descends from the Mountains at 120 mph about 15 miles away)

Taking part on the vestiges of the Pony Express Trail, the Vegas to Reno race is about as close to modern day cowboy and old west history you can experience. Even the race organized food was terrible and the media basically non-existant due to the sprawl of the event, both of which factors added immensely to the authenticity of the sport.

Put all this together and you have a tailor made picture of the backbone of a part of Local Motors’ seed clientele – the people for whom our product’s flame burns brightest. For the past 4 months, we have been exploring the depths of geographic based auto design, and this weekend we have seen the fruits of our labor come to bear. Detroit, Munich, Tokyo, and Seoul are motor cities whose name carries little interest here and whose populations are under-represented, Cities whose spirit run deep in this sport are, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Dallas and citizens from these LOCALe’s turn out in droves. Though they may utilize parts and pieces that come from the world’s mo-towns, their vehicles are unmistakably stamped with the mark of these home-towns.

If nothing else, this post should give you an inkling of where we are targeting our first facility location. Stand by for more information on our location choice in the weeks and months to come, but, after the announcement of the Rally Fighter, consider this a second railroad spike in the ground.

Revelations on Desert Racing

It is hard.

It is tough.

It is the real deal, where finishing is ALWAYS in question.

It has a loyal following of which I am now a new member.

It is perfect for a niche following of LM's first prototype. More perfect than I imagined.

Interestingly enough however it shares one critical difference from NASCAR and F-1 type racing leagues. The events are hard to cover because they are so remote. This means lower sponsorship dollars, and therefore less teams that make money. Not that this money losing process means much to the team owners, they seem to wear it like a badge of courage. To us it appears that the amount that they lose per race (could be $100K loss even if they win) is indicative of the passion that they have to keep coming back. This sport is full of passionate hard-driving athletes.

Tomorrow the race begins and I can hardly wait to share photos.










Note the drink of choice before race day, Won't see that in an F-1 car the day before a race.














But when it comes to go time, the game face is on and the Coors Light goes in the fridge.













Ready for Anything.












Mixing in with the fancy cars!

TSCO Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno Race

Tonight, Dave, Mike, and I finally arrived at our first Desert Race,
and leave it to us to pick the most grueling and challenging one of all.

No, we are not competing this year, but we are hear to soak up
everything that we can.

Though Vegas and its blinking lights looms all around, the focus is on
racing and we are FIRED UP to be here and to be part of it.

In about 24 hrs we will all suit up for a 500 mile trip north across
the desert.

Stand by for updates from the course.

Follow me

Lately Local Motors - especially I and Ari- have been updating the
world of our happenings via Twitter.

Using what is effectively Instant Messaging for a public audience,
Twitter, effectively allows me to update a broad community in one IM.

If you have a free moment, sign up at Twitter.com and then follow both
localmotorhead and LM_Ari. You are sure to be up on the latest and
greatest.

This type of brief twitter update will not supplant the nightly blog,
but it will aide in an improved level of basic awareness.

Check us out there!
Jay
Check out Local Motors' blog at http://blog.local-motors.com/

Net Promoter Score and Big Birthday's

Today my family is celebrating my Mother's big birthday. She would be offended if I told you her age so I will not disclose that this is her 75th....whoops. OK let's keep that to be our secret.

In any case, on her big day she has received many calls from all over the world from friends who want to catch up and wish her well. Luckily, Local Motors has been a part of many of those calls, because those folks have been checking in on us, and have taken the time on the birthday call to inquire how things are going.

Now, I was listening casually to some of these telephone calls as I was attending to my three boys who were eating too much cake, half expecting my mother to relay broad ideas about the company with limited specifics....but NO WAY. My mother was detailing correctly every specific endeavor that Local Motors has taken on and is about to. She discussed our first 3 winners, Filski, Deuxfov, and Dooj, their designs and so much more.

WOW! She has been listening! :)

Anyway, the net promoter score is a metric used to track how many new units each of your current customers sell, and I would say that my mother is in the lead without even owning a product.

Happy 75th Mom and thanks for the shout out, this time next year we will have you in a Rally Fighter so you can really improve the average net promoter score.

What is a successful car company?

You would think that this would be a simple answer.... A sustainable car company that consistently and continuously makes profits, pleases customers and is a good steward of the environment.

On the other hand, it might not be so easy to trim down the definition even to such broad platitudes as this....as my conversations over the last several days have proved.

In three separate conversations since Friday, I have had subtle yet thunderous clues into the mind of our customer and their thoughts on success. It has been more than interesting when I total up the tally.

In no particular order:

1) One person told me that a certain car company that has never made a dollar of profit after 15 years of doing business, is a successful company.

2) Another member told me that a world full of Toyota's is a world in which he would never want to live.

3) And a third told me that the British were most successful in the industry because their companies built great looking cars AND because the companies went in and out of bankruptcy and/or being taken over.

I am not certain what final conclusion to make of all of these comments and whether or not they are related, but perhaps a common theme is that "underdog" status is deeply important in judging the success of a new automotive concept.

That is not all bad, but I just want to add in for the record, that in order for us to be sustainable, we will turn a profit. I do not think that profit and success are mutually exclusive.





















(http://www.memphismemories.org/Topics/Radio_TV/1960s_Network_TV/underdog.jpg)

Visit from Dan Panoz to LM

Today, Dan Panoz, Founder and CEO of Panoz Auto Development, came to his first visit at the LM HQ. Dan and his company are unique in the auto industry for their small scale coupled with their relentless adherance to federal crash requirements. They have proven that it is indeed possible to be small and to produce a product that competes feature-for-feature with any OEM vehicle.

Earlier this year, Panoz and Local Motors formed an agreement whereby Panoz has agreed to assist Local Motors in it vehicle development, especially in the areas of safety. This visit is one of the many recent meetings that this team has used to discuss the plan, the products and the advice from Panoz.

We are proud to have a team of Panoz' caliber at our side in this endeavor and look forward to the development of the Local Motors first prototype with the help of Panoz.

Tomorrow at 2359 - last day of submissions in Adventure Motors

I promised a note about the prizes and here it is.

Three Prizes will be awarded here as per the feverish request of our community:

1st - $1500
2nd - $300
3rd - $200

Perhaps this will allow all of our contestants, who entered from the peace and quiet of their August vacations, the opportunity to earn a little extra spending money to have fun with...or better yet, to apply to their next Local Motors car.

Look for all of the contest entries as they come in and then be sure to vote.

A Note on Web Site Team Building (Part II)

For those of you who have been waiting patiently, I promised a decision, and in fact, here it is:

Yes we will go forward with the changes, but not until we complete a few critical team building steps and adequate preparation.

Here's the deeper story. It is true that many many MANY websites find the urge to "completely clean up their code" at various intervals, and in fact many websites do it every couple of years if not months.

This "re-coring" can avoid the topsy growth of serious website debt whose cost of interest cannot be underestimated - the so-called spaghetti code with which many are familiar...and if you are not yet, you probably get it by now.



















(http://southernfriedfatty.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/spaghetti-head.jpg)



BUT these very same teams almost always discover that several months after the MASSIVE effort, which promised a life of clean code development and smooth product rollout, they were right back to where they started - the framework was not as robust as their community required, one edit led to another, and BAMMM!























So what is it about re-coring that is so attractive?

What it really comes down to is a Human Factor of choosing the best beginning environment that the collective team feels most comfortable working within and then adjusting off that target for each major stage of growth. Therefore, here at LM the team is feeling a need to clean up the code, and so now they must decide collectively on a new framework. TEAM SELECTED. TEAM ROLLED OUT.

Next, we must create a proper estimate for the duration of this change. The rule of thumb is 3-4 times longer than the estimate, so we need to work hard to better understand the business logic of our own "crusty" code, before we put on the rose colored glasses of "1-day" code base conversions. Our team is going to do this and in so doing, they are likely to learn much about how to tackle and to speed any future conversion. The way they are planning to do this is to work the rollout of certain features under to old code base. Painful? Undoubtedly. Instructive? You bet.

After that, they intend to cross-train each other to roll-out discrete but fully functional pieces of the website under the recommended new architecture. These features are best done if and when compared to sections of the website created in the old code base. The difference in performance, speed of creation, reduction of error, and ease of unaided explanation, should be markedly noticeable, or the "waste of time flag" will be flown high and proud.

And finally, our group must rollout, as a team, sections of the newly coded site, one at a time versus tackling the whole site at once with one big key that we turn. 'Nuff said - this is to avoid major heart trauma for the whole team on the "rollout day".

Our team discussed this strategy today, and we agree that this is the best way to preserve a strong and vibrant code base and development team. Watch out for the LM web development team, they are growing stronger by the day, and our leader, who remains on safari in Africa, can breathe easy knowing that the lions may get him, but his team is here to carry forward a STRONG legacy of LM site development.

A Note on Web Site Team Building

It is the month of August and we have not spoken about the aspects of managing a website in quite some time, so let's dig into a nice juicy subject in the summer heat...this subject - like the summer swelter - is sticky like all juicy subjects of great import.

Our web architect is on vacation in darkest Africa on Safari and our team of developers and front end designers is back-filling his responsibilities with exceptional insight and capability.

But what do you do as a CEO when the team wants to explore a big development item while the team leader is gone? The potential rewards of tackling such an item are extremely enticing, and yet the potential negative repercussions in terms of lost time and lack of situational awareness are very real.

As a Marine, I was trained to believe in decentralizing authority so that decisions could be made by the rifleman at the point in the face of an ever-changing enemy when the boss was not available for orders....or more likely was dead. May seem like unrelated training at Local Motors until right now :)















("Point Man", www.25thida.com)


So in our case, the leader is not dead (though safari is no doubt challenging) however he is unreachable, not able to see the problems developing today, and his team - back at the LM "ranch" - are met with some fairly noticeable bugs on the site, a few unsatisfied users, and an increasing "product backlog" (a list of new things that we want to achieve for our users).

Being independent thinkers, our team has come up with some excellent code-based solutions to improve some of the issues at hand, but they could mean major changes to the site - and worse unpredicted difficulty.

They have asked for permission to explore them, and now I must decide.

I have consulted the entire team, reached out to our advisors, had the team speak to one of the advisors, and now am parsing the data in order to make a timely decision.

This is clearly an issue of code development, but perhaps more I believe it to be a Team Building exercise whose lessons will be felt long beyond even the benefits we anticipate receiving if we pursue the big development item.

So, I am all ears. What would you do if you were me? Tomorrow, I will give you an update as to what we decide.

Adventure Team motors

This weekend entries began to come in for Adventure Team Motors and checkups began to appear for those looking to try out their concepts prior to submission.

This is perhaps my most favorite competition concept yet. As a climber, hiker, swimmer, diver, race fan, and basically an activity person, this is a vehicle that I would greatly appreciate having. The ability to take a team of "conspirators" or even just a load of guests to watch the activity, this vehicle has a real utility.

The VW microbus, was so popular just for this reason, and I could see this vehicle being immensely popular in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Denver, and many other cities. What about Dallas, Texas for people getting together to go on a hunting trip?!































Watch over the next week as ideas trade and vote for your favorite concept. This vehicle, I want to own.

There will be a First, Second and Third Place winner, more on that tomorrow.

Big Coverage

In the past two days, we have been covered by no fewer than 10 wide distribution auto blogs which cater to the enthusiasts in the industry.

This has been by far the most amount of coverage in the fewest number of days ever for us.

Here is the summary of the coverage:

-The readership has been fantastic in terms of raw numbers
-The comments on the web have had a LOT of good and a LOT of skepticism
-The blogs have only marginally driven readership to our site

My conclusions:

-People are passionate about new cars
-Some people love our car
-some people hate our car (and want to be sure we know it :))
-some people simply doubt we will build it
-those that read blog quips don't necessarily spend time on our website

In general, we have enjoyed the coverage and appreciate all of the feedback. It only makes us so much more excited than ever to deliver the Rally Fighter and all future LM vehicles to market.

Here are some of the links:

Oh, and another cool thing, Adventure Motors Competition begins on Local Motors tomorrow as the submission period opens. Join us to check it out. Here is the competition brief.


August 6, 2008 CarDesign.ru
Local Motors Constructs First Concept
August 6, 2008 AutoBlog
Local Motors Rally Fighter concept
August 5, 2008 Motor Trend, Wide Open Throttle
Local Motors Selects First 'Openly Developed' Car the Rally Fighter
August 5, 2008 Car Body Design
Article: "Rally Fighter by Local Motors: Prototype Preview"
August 5, 2008 Motor Authority
Article: "Local Motors to build Rally Fighter Concept"
August 5, 2008 WorldCarFans
Article: "Local Motors Selects First Design Concept to be Built"
August 5, 2008 Auto Unleashed
Article: "Local Motors' Rally Fighter to enter production"

Hiring for a global design community - Visas are a hard

Yes it is true, we have posted a job opening for a talented design intern and we intend to recruit from the cream of the community.

We are giving great consideration to current community members. The fact that many members come from the 112 other countries in the world means that we are actually giving great consideration to many people from outside the United States.

This, in turn, means that we will end up interviewing overseas candidates, whose foreign orientation and work is more heavily weighted to those people with whom they were raised.

That part is great. What is not done yet is to explain how to get a visa procured for such an overseas automotive guru. More to follow on this, but let's just say that bureaucracy is in full swing in this country and others.

Our First Vehicle Build Announced Today!

Today was one of our biggest announcements to date.

We have decided upon the vehicle that we are going to build first.

Introducing the LM Rally Fighter.





















Designed by community member Sangho Kim and improved by the entire community and the LM Design Team, the LM Rally Fighter, is a perfect embodiment of the large, lightweight concept that Local Motors has espoused since its inception.

I would like to take a brief moment to exhale here.

[exhale]

Three years ago I left the US Marines to make a difference in US oil end use by starting a company. Jeff and I founded this company on a string, and at the time we had no idea whether the idea would take root. Today, our community has developed and delivered the first vehicle which we are in the process of building. A new way of thinking about the car company, a new way of involving the customer, a new way of appreciating engineering and design. A new way altogether.

I will sleep well tonight.

See you tomorrow for more victories.

Welcome to Michael Hill - The Newest LM Team Member

Hailing from Amarillo, TX on the high Llano Estacado, Michael arrived today as the newest member of the LM team and a significant addition to the Web 2.0 phalanx that Tim has built at LM.












A self-taught and self-avowed lover of the MySQL and PHP in addition to a host of other skills, Michael is an organized and hard charging ball of web-development fire. How could he not be? After all, he served honorably in the US Navy for several years as an able-bodied seaman.

With a love for Drum Corps International and BBQ, Michael is a fantastic addition to the team whose talents and interests offer just the kind of diversity for which each member of the LM team has become known.

When you see him on line, don't be afraid to say hello and to wish him well. We are proud to have him aboard.

Go Local.

Putting the Dream Car Out to Pasture "?"

Such was the title of an editorial in the New York Times last week. Only the "?" was not in the title. The article came close, but did not presume that it was a foregone conclusion that the dream car had - in fact - been put out to pasture. Nonetheless, I encourage you to read this brief one pager and decide for yourself.

In my opinion, the fundamental issue here is that Americans affiliate with their car and that they make a significant decision in their life when they decide what to buy (and what not to buy). Because of this, there is much room with which to work for an auto maker, and especially for a brand new auto maker.

The very idea that one must settle for "small" today, and that it is the job of an auto maker to make people "happy" about the notion of downsizing, is a limited and erroneous notion.

People in this country want their car and the buying process to make them feel good.

Air Base Motors - The Results are IN!

Winner: dooj with the L.A.F. Concept (an air base quick reaction vehicle from Sweden)






2nd Place: Sam with the LM300F Concept (a scorching slippery supercar from France)








3d Place: Ugo with the LM3 Concept (a technical masterpiece of engineering from France)








And congratulations to all who participated and made comments and critique to improve these and each others works.