Where's the Love?

I'm spoiled. Why do I say this? As a fifteen year veteran of the technology industry, I'm used to tons of press, lots of analysts, concepts du jour in all sizes and shapes, startups popping out of the woodwork, know-it-all venture capitalists funding dozens of start-ups daily and using jargon like addressable market and discontinuous innovation, daily columns in the Wall Street Journal, and, well, you get the idea....

So what do I see when I look out across the vast $91 billion landscape of commercial printing? I could wax eloquent and use tons of metaphors. Instead, I'll spin-up a best guess statistic. There are probably 1,000 times more analysts for enterprise information systems than for commercial printing systems, easily 100 times more publications, and at least 50 times more trade shows. While we're at it, there are hundreds of forums, communities, and public domain "open source" projects out there in cyberspace. Here's a real statistic: sourceforge.net Registered Projects: 122,467 Registered Users: 1,332,376 (as of today, of course). And that's just one open source watering hole. Boy those geeks sure are busy.....

Okay, maybe enterprise IT is ten times bigger than commercial printing. So, take a zero off all my SWAG numbers. Go ahead. You won't hurt my feelings, or lessen my point. Where's the love? For an industry that soaks up as much of the GDP as commercial printing does, you'd think there'd be more out there.

Why the disparity? Short answer - I dunno (technical term for "no clue"). Perhaps a more pertinent question is what's the implication? So what if there are not hordes of smarty pants analysts, news stories, and/or cover stories of Business Week focused on printing innovations (by the way, that, and all other publications are printed - aren't they?). Here's the so what: This is an inefficient market. Said differently, there are lots of people bumping around that could use more information. Yet, sadly, our "information economy" is failing to produce it. Maybe we are too busy printing the information to share any information about printing. Or maybe there is too little information about printing to print it. Or maybe information about information is more compelling than information about printing. Whatever the case, it seems like we're on to something here at thINK Plaza.

It seems like having an open forum where people can share information, ideas, tips and insights is a good thing. Seems like it may be time to grow our own.

So here is an open invitation. Get your wettest spaghetti noodle and whack me upside the head. Tell me about all the specialty and commercial printing resources I'm missing: all the analysts, the specialty publications, the online forums and discussion boards. Have at! Am I missing something?

Thanks for reading and see you on the Plaza,

Chet the Jet

Just who are WE and why should YOU trust us?

Well, I just got off the phone with a new community member. He's a dealer of specialty equipment and a longtime user board contributor (20+ years!) He had some great questions and even better suggestions about this site. He told me that he liked the concept but was a bit unsure as to who we were and why we were doing this...

You can look at the About Us section of the site (main page) and we'll make it clearer on the site -- but in short, here's the story:

We are REAL market researchers. We've been measuring the specialty printing industry over the last four years on behalf of Hewlett-Packard's Specialty Printing Systems division. Yes, they pay us to conduct surveys -- however -- your personal contact information is NEVER released to HP nor its partners. They use the data and the analysis to help them with their product planning. This year, they asked us to conduct a large survey that covers equipment usage for over 300 models of specialty printers. So, we set up a site, www.Link2Think.com to register people to take a survey.

thINK Plaza is a site that is owned and operated by Catenate, LLC. We are financing this ourselves. Why? Well, its simple. We know how hard it is to ask you to give us your time to provide us with information. And, since information is power, we want to give it back to you. No bull. We've created a site which allows us to gather information and share it back with the very people who gave it to us. And since we're gathering a few thousand people who have a lot in common to take our survey, it seemed logical to create an online community to let you "tawk amongst yahselves" (Linda Richmond, SNL anyone?)

What's the financial model here? Who benefits?

HP pays Catenate to field surveys and analyze the data from those surveys. PLEASE NOTE! HP DOES NOT MANUFACTURE specialty printers. They make INK. They don't have any access to end users since they license their technology to OEMS and OEMS in turn, sell their branded printers (e.g. Pitney Bowes, Rena, Secap, MCS, PRISM, Buskro, Rimage, Microboards, etc.) through Dealers and Distributors. How else can HP know what you want without reaching out? How can smaller manufacturers and dealers know what to carry if they don't know where your pain is? Properly conducted research allows the companies you depend on to adapt to the needs of the market.

Catenate set up thINK Plaza for end users, distributors, etc. of specialty equipment to connect with each other and share information. When the community grows large enough we will accept advertising. But right now, it is free to participate, commercial free. We're building this one our dime.

Frankly, we believe having a community will help us get better participation for our survey work AND we believe that end users, manufacturers and dealers, and media will really benefit from the ability to share information freely.

Where did you get my name, how do you use it?

We bought email blasts from American Printer, In Plant Graphics, Mailing Systems Technology, Dealer Communicator, E Media and EventDV. We also got the MFSA mailing list (as HP is a coroporate sponsor) and OEM partners such as RENA, Buskro, and Secap believe in the project and have entrusted us with your contact information. We've used 1 letter, 1 postcard and 2-3 emails to each source.

We require your address information for two reasons:

1. We don't want spammers in here. This is a legitimate community and we don't want people with axes to grind to ruin the feeling of a community.

2. We would like to send you a thINK Shop Apron and to contact you if you win a prize.

3. Note that you can remove yourself from the community at any time!

WE DO NOT SELL, RENT, or otherwise SHARE your contact information. If there is a survey that we feel is appropriate we will invite you to it, via the community. If you feel that you are the recipient of spam with our name attached to it, please let us know. We will pursue anyone who misuses our name to the fullest extent of the law.

If you would like to participate or have a comment, call me directly or write to me at WCobrda@thinkplaza.com

Thank you, and welcome!

Wendy Cobrda
877-228-3628 x 703