David Pogue is bummed that Apple is no longer worrying about owners of tape camcorders.

In the days of olde iMovie, you could export the results back to your tape camcorder. You’d preserve 100 percent quality, you’d free up the space on your hard drive, ready for the next editing project, and you’d have a simple way to play the movies on your HDTV.

Apple, however, is convinced that tape camcorders are dead, and it seems determined to pound nails into that coffin. The company expects you to store all of your video, now and forever, on hard drives.

It’s easy to see why Pogue is upset. Soon, his tapes will be stranded and uneditable. He even vented his unhappiness to Steve Jobs himself a while back.

I must admit, [Jobs] gave me quite a wakeup call. He pointed out that in 10 years, there won’t be any machines left that can play them.

(He also mentioned that, realistically, the only time people really edit their movies is just after they’ve shot them. And sure enough: I’ve been intending to edit my tapes for 15 years now; what makes me think I’ll have time to do it in the next 15?)

Mac and video fans may not like it—especially the part about having to buy a new, tapeless camcorder—but the writing is on the wall. Tape is dead; camcorder manufacturers have been saying as much for years now. And Apple is not about to preserve some legacy jack just for the sake of the dwindling MiniDV cult.

It’s interesting to see this sort of public tug of war over a feature. Pogue knows what he wants and he’s upset Apple is taking it away from him. But Jobs has a point too: Tape is dying. As a company, Apple has to move toward things that show signs of life. That may upset some customers, but it’s still the right move for Apple.

Reminds me of way back when Apple stopped including floppy drives on Macs. People were upset then too. But does anyone look back now and think Apple messed up there?

How can you apply Getting Real-ish ideas inside a big company? Here’s an idea: Go rogue. Pick something and do it under the radar. Create something in a few weeks that normally takes a few months. Do something in a way that works better than the status quo (or shows the promise of working better), Then you won’t need to convince anyone with words — the results will speak for themselves.

Hot off my Axl vs. Frank analogy, let’s go for another music comparison: Imagine you’re the drummer in a band. If you ask the bandleader for permission to do something different, it starts a whole conversation that may result in an argument or your idea being shot down.
 But what if you just do what you think is best? What if you switch to the ride cymbal during the chorus or use brushes instead of sticks? If it sounds good, it sounds good. Everyone can agree on that.

That’s the approach you want to aim for. Take things out of the theoretical realm and put them into practice. Don’t waste time debating when you could be doing and trying instead.

Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation
Electronics retailing giant Best Buy offers one of the most innovative workplaces around. And much of it is because bold employees there decided to go rogue.

For example, Steve Bendt and Gary Koelling are the creators of Blue Shirt Nation (BSN), the massively successful online community for Best Buy employees. Within a year of creating the site, 20,000 (of Best Buy’s 150,000) employees had signed up. They meet there and share knowledge, best practices, ideas for improving the stores, and more.

And Bendt and Koelling did it all under the radar. They didn’t pitch it. They didn’t ask for permission. They just built it. Steve Bendt explains:

BSN started with an idea that we couldn’t get sponsored. When the site went live in June of ‘06, Gary had funded the whole thing on the QT. For the domain name and a year of hosting, it cost a hundred dollars. The software that built the site was free. There was one user, the administrator.


And the site is moderated by the community itself. There really hasn’t been much need for moderation though. Since the launch, BSN has only had to take down a total of three posts. Bendt says fears that executives might have had about letting employees speak openly never materialized:

The fear factor that so many executives seem to have with open forums did not materialize on Blue Shirt Nation. We put the responsibility on the community and said, “Listen, don’t be stupid and take care of each other.”

Words of wisdom there: “Listen, don’t be stupid and take care of each other.” Man, it’d be great to see more companies encourage employees to think that way.

One more thing that’s cool about underdoing the competition: You get to streamline your documentation.

For example, this Sony Handycam manual (PDF) has 40 pages. Compare that to the quickstart guide that comes with a Flip camera:

Click for larger version.

Wow, an instruction manual that actually gets read. Impressive. In fact, it’s almost like the instruction manual is an ad for the product. “It’s so simple this is all we have to say about it.” And I bet there’s a lot less support documentation needed too.

Related: The Flip takes 13% of the camcorder market by doing less [SvN]

Commonly held notion: “The longer I work on this, the better it will be.” Maybe up to a point. But after a while — and it might be just a short while — you’re being overly fussy.

There’s an optimal release point for anything you make. That’s when you should get it out there. After that, you’re just fiddling for the sake of fiddling. And you might even make it worse. Sometimes what you make will be just fine if it’s released after three months — but add another six months (or longer) and it turns into a jumbled, complex mess.

Case in point: “Chinese Democracy,” the Guns N’ Roses album that Axl Rose worked on for over a decade, going through at least three recording studios and four producers. Everyone knew that it wasn’t getting better with more time. In fact, it became a running joke in the music industry. It was just a sandbox for a control freak who couldn’t let go.

Frank Sinatra, on the other hand, was known as “one take Frank.” He’d walk into the studio, sing a song live with a full band, turn around, and walk out. Quincy Jones produced Sinatra and described recording an album with him:

He came in at 2 p.m., and in less than two hours we had rehearsed, had keys and routines on ten songs…Frank is one take, that’s it. If the band’s not in shape, he leaves them behind…he came in at 7, and at 8:20, baby, we went home. None of that three month stuff.

U2 singer Bono always respected Sinatra for that approach too:

It’s all about the moment, a fresh canvas and never overworking the paint. I wonder what [Sinatra] would have thought of the time it’s taken me and my bandmates to finish albums, he with his famous impatience for directors, producers — anyone, really — fussing about. I’m sure he’s right. Fully inhabiting the moment during that tiny dot of time after you’ve pressed “record” is what makes it eternal.

Sinatra’s one take style produced classics. Axl’s dithering produced a pile of mush. We can all learn something from that. It’s easy to fall into a trap of nitpicking over things that don’t really matter. Instead, focus on the essence of what you’re doing. Press record, get it done, and get it out there. (And that’s even more true if what you’re creating is something you’ll get to improve upon after it’s released.)

The new Highrise site features video interviews with customers (the first time we did this was for Basecamp). Here’s a look at the process that went into creating these videos:

Finding subjects
First, we posted an alert inside the Highrise application asking customers to email us if they lived in Chicago and were interested in participating. We got a few dozen responses and started the vetting process (appropriately, we use Highrise to track all the conversations we have with candidates).

During this process, we’re trying to gauge a few things: Who they are, what their business does, where they’re located, what their offices are like, who we’ll be able to talk to, when they’re available, etc. Of course, we’re also looking for people who really love Highrise and are talkative about it. Also, we try to get a well rounded pool of subjects, not just tech/design firms (which often express the most interest).

Setting up the shoot
Once we pick our subjects, we schedule out the shoots, two shoots per day over three days. When shooting day comes, we travel out to their location. Steve Delahoyde from Coudal Partners helms the A/V equipment and does all the editing for the videos. He brings an assistant too so we have two cameramen. (Multiple angles helps give the final cut some more life.) After we shoot the interview footage, we capture some B-roll footage too: people working at their desks, entering the office, talking over some stuff with coworkers, etc. It helps liven up the final product so it’s not just talking heads the whole time.

We usually work pretty quickly. Find a good backdrop for the shot and start filming. We vary between interviewing one person at a time or having two people talk together. Depends on the situation. Sometimes you can get a good conversational rhythm going when people are actually interacting with each other. Also, it’s interesting how often coworkers finish each other’s thoughts and sentences. But sometimes, it’s best to shoot just one person at a time, especially if there’s more of a boss/assistant vibe going on in that workplace.

We begin by having the subjects talk about themselves, their company, what they do there, etc. It’s a good starting point because people are used to pitching their own companies, so it gets the ball rolling and gets them used to the process. We try to keep them off of any talking points schpiel so it doesn’t sound too rehearsed.