You may recognize this as the page you are currently reading

“Bricks and Clicks” refers to an marketing industry term where a company effectively incorporates its physical presence (or it’s “brick-and-mortar” property) with its online presence. Though it is not a very new concept, in my opinion, far too many companies are guilty of not leveraging the opportunities to benefit from the possibilities. Thus, I’ve chosen “Bricks and Clicks” as the new title (or brand) of my blog. While I will continue to blog about the many issues that interest me such as: web marketing, project management, management consulting and interesting topics in the news, I will begin to focus on more topics that touch on cross-channel marketing and integrated marketing communications.

In addition to this shift in focus, I’ve added a few minor tweaks to this blog. For instance, you will probably have noticed already that the banner areas scrolls and hides under certain conditions. I hope that this change will allow my readers to more readily connect with me on the various social media networks as compared to my older contact page. Also, I’ve added my recent Twitter posts, or Tweets, so you can have an idea of some of the stuff I share in that space. I tweet far more than I blog so feel free to follow me there. It should be noted, however, that I still believe that any interface that needs to be explained is probably not an ideal one – so I hope that the new additions are somewhat intuitive. However, if they are not, or you feel the need to send me any feedback (good or bad), please find a feedback tab on the left of the screen and feel free to send me whatever comments you see fit.

In closing, I look forward to the new direction this blog will take, and I hope to continue hearing from you, my friends, as I continue to take unpopular stances on varied subjects. A conversation only becomes better when it involves another voice and opinion. So I hope to have healthy debates and exchanges with most of you in the near future.

P.S. I’d like to also add that despite my feeling that this title represents the type of blog posts I aim to write, Google feels that the term “Clicks” is not suitable for AdWords ads, so my search marketing efforts for this blog will be somewhat challenging. Oh the irony.

Start 2009 off on a positive note.

OK, so 2008 kind of ended on a low note. Home owners in the US got the shaft, banks suffered huge blows, the auto industry went on life-support, newspapers faced harsh reality, and the Canadian political situation went from shaky to uncertain. The blogosphere, including my own blog, has been echoing a lot of messages of an uncertain future, and a stark new world.

Let’s take a break.

Like being in a relationship that you can see is heading south – sometimes it’s best to take some time off and reflect. See the good things around the horizon, and fall in love with life once again. OK, that’s a bit much. The point is, I’m looking forward to 2009. Here are my reasons:

1. Battlestar Galactica’s final season resumes January 16. I’m not that big of a sci-fi fan, but this series won me over instantly. I’m very much looking forward to finding out who the “fifth” is. If you don’t know what I’m talking about – catch up to the series. Like today.
2. Montreal Canadiens playing in their 100th season. I can’t tell you each player’s plus-minus, or their PIM – but there is something truly cathartic about watching a good game. You forget the complexities of work and life – and it all boils down to one thing, the next goal.
3. Finally starting my Web Analytics studies at UBC. I’ve been looking forward to honing my analysis skills for months. Self-teaching can take you only so far, and I’m itching to take that next step.
4. I look forward to stealing some time away for some snowboarding. After a great first season last year, I’m looking forward to not falling on my butt improving this year. Nothing like fresh air to cure a bout of sun-deprivation, I say.
5. Building more meaningful connections and speaking my mind on my blog. I often toss many ideas around in my head about all sorts of things and I blogging forces me to be disciplined about my thoughts and gives me a forum to get feedback from others.
6. Some time off. After a few years of working with a bare-bones staff and going full throttle at Concordia University against political red-tape, I’m taking a few months off to dedicate to my family and studies. It’ll give me a chance to recharge my batteries – it’s been a hard uphill battle getting the university up to speed.
7. Freelancing again. It’s been a good 2 years since I’ve taken a contract, and I have one lined up for the spring. It will be a nice change of pace to work at my own pace, and finally producing work up to my standards.
8. Taking photos. I’ve gone far too long without shooting something of interest to me.
9. Using my new mandoline and sharpening my knives. I look forward to finding some free time to cook some more, especially some okonomiyaki.
10. Last but definitely not least, spending time with my wife and daughter. 2008 has been hectic – I’m looking forward to a slower, and more inspirational pace.

What are you looking forward to?

Happy New Year to all! Drive safe.

On the web, there are no "true" secrets. Everything is archived for all to see.

In 1999, almost 10 years ago, I began tinkering on the web. I built my very first website. It was all very tentative, with no long-term goals in mind. Not for a moment did I think about whether I wanted my site to be archived forever, but it was.

In July of that year, I also started experimenting with Linux and used newsgroups (remember those?) to get technical support. I got the information I needed but it didn’t occur to me that my questions would still be online almost a decade later.

Luckily for me, I only started being active on the web in the late ninetees when social networks were not mature, and uploading large videos was a pipe-dream. There was no LinkedIn, no Facebook, and definitely no Flickr. Despite this, I still managed to write a few embarrassing posts I’d love to take back. What can I say other than I was young and needed to get things off my chest. I wanted to express myself and own something online. I wrote with reckless abandon, wearing my heart on my sleeve, and never thinking about what the web would or could be. Today, considering I work in the web, I’ve emerged relatively unscathed. There are no pictures of me vomiting, no posts threatening any governments, and no photos of my doing anything illegal. That fact has absolutely nothing to do with any foresight but everything to do with the fact I had no where to easily post things like Twitter.

Today is a completely different story.

Every day new social networks spring up. Along with them a multitude of opportunities to forever incriminate yourself or botch up job opportunities. As I enter a new phase of my life where I’m starting a family, I start to look at the state of the web, and I grow a little uneasy. Every time I join yet another social network, I bring along with me the stories of my co-workers and loved ones. My photos and writings about my friends, their families, and their children will forever be archived online on some box somewhere on the web and things will get hairier for millennials.

Millennials are the first generation to very possibly have their entire life documented online. Photos of their birth, their medical history, their Google searches, their favorite shows, their relationship statuses – everything. Their lives are open books. To make things more complicated, archiving is getting more advanced. The web snapshots are getting more refined. The data is more granular and more can be done with it.

What are the implications?

As my generation was brought up learning how to never talk to strangers on the phone, perhaps the children of today will have to be educated at an early age about the possible dangers of social networks (maybe they do this today – I simply don’t know). How will this affect the social networks of the future? Will the trend towards openness and sharing continue? or will there be a sharp downturn as the general public becomes more web-savvy?

Only time will tell. Until then, I’ll err on the side of safety, and think twice (or maybe three times) before I post photos of the office Christmas party.

What are your thoughts?

Update 1: December 29, 1008

During an exchange with Liz Strauss, she brought up an interesting point that millennials would not miss something, in this case privacy, that they never had. I had to give this some thought, and I have to say I disagree with this line of thinking.

The web is littered with design patterns that imply security and privacy. Lock icons, https protocols, logins and passwords all hint that the information contained within the experience has a private aspect to it. I’m quite certain if one were to ask a Millennial if it were OK to read their Gmail – he or she would object, something to the tune of, “no that’s private”. Facebook has privacy settings in order to hide aspects of one’s profile to certain users – once again, implying privacy exists to a certain extent. Furthermore, I’m pretty sure most millennials don’t truly appreciate how much information Google stores on their searches either.

So, perhaps, when it comes down to it, millennials know, deep down, that their online information is… vulnerable… I just doubt they have any idea of exactly how open, or how archived their information is – and even if they did know, should this be really be the case?

A shot of me (right) with my wife Rosalie and my friend Taku from Japan

Hi,

Welcome to my new blog. As you can see, there’s nothing here yet, but hopefully soon, I’ll have a chance to post my thoughts on:

• Web design and development
• New Media
• Marketing
• Web analytics
• …and basically anything I find interesting

Thanks for visiting!

Rommil Santiago