jaustralia

Oi!

Let me tell you about the Street Sharks. Wait, full stop. Back up.

Let me tell you about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Wait, full stop. Actually, nevermind. If the marketers and advertisers from the the late 80s, early 90s were successful, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, then you already know about the mutant, fun-loving turtles with a penchant for pizza. Cowabunga, dude.

So let me tell you about the Long Tail. Wait, full stop. Too fast.

Ok, let me tell you about conventional business wisdom first. Everyone knows that unless you’ve got the number one or number two market share, you don’t want to be in that market because the 800 lb. gorilla and the 795 lb. gorilla are going to enjoy sitting on your head, suffocating you with 1595 lbs. of gorilla butt, and crushing your will to live. You want to be Coke or Pepsi, not Tab.

Wait, full stop. It’s not true anymore. In this brave new world of Web 2.0, social networking, and ubiquitous connectivity, it turns out that Amazon makes a lot more money in the aggregate selling books about West Qhwyghlym Dialectics Regarding Snipe Hunting With Special Emphasis on Fog and Slimy Rocks Techniques[1], compared to the New York Times best seller’s list.

Think of it this way — Amazon makes a lot of money selling that bottom 90% of the iceberg. That’s the Long Tail, and it applies to lots of things. And it’s all possible thanks to Web 2.0, social networking, and ubiquitous connectivity.

Conditions were not as favorable in the 1980s, and that is why you have never heard of the Street Sharks, which is too bad really. A cheap knockoff of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this band of four rad sharks also ran around (they mysteriously had legs) fighting crime, with pretty much the most perfect catchphrase ever invented, that being the expletive “Jawesome!” uttered any time anything, well, jawesome, occurred. It makes sense, because you know, sharks have big teeth and are all bitey and whatnot. Jawesome!

And because I love the 80s and because I love sharks and because it’s just a natural all-American tendency to root for the underdog, I have renamed an entire island to Jaustralia.

The continent from which this email originates. And by implication, where I am. For the next month. Which is jawesome.

As always, I’ll be simulcasting my trip both on my blog[2] and in email, but in an attempt to spam your inbox less, I’ll try to reserve the emails for slightly more coherent writing, and keep the random thoughts and observations on the blog. To make your life easier, I recommend using your favorite RSS reader[3] to keep up with the blog feed[4].

cheers,

/ac, thinks “Jaustralia is Jawesome” is a great poster slogan

1: And as we all know, West Qhwyghlym is known for its fog and slimy rocks, while East Qhwyghlym is more known for its slimy rocks and fog. Don’t even get me started on Highland vs. Lowland.

2: http://www.chizang.net/alex/blog/

3: If you don’t know what that is, sign up for a free one at http://reader.google.com. In a nutshell, it’s like email for the web.

4: Once you get a reader setup, add http://www.chizang.net/alex/blog/feed/ to subscribe.

5: bonus footnote — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_sharks