I put in the Google search “Chris Knudsen” every so often to see how my nature search ranking is doing. chrisknudsen.biz is number one for the term “Chris Knudsen” I guess that’s not too surprising given that there aren’t that many guys in this world with my name. I know of one other Chris Knudsen in Utah. I run across people who know him all the time although we have never met.

The number two result for “Chris Knudsen” on Google is my photo album I posted on the Daily Herald’s Snap Photo service, which is strange to me since the page has no content other than my name and it beats out a lot of other heavy content pages. Anyway, check out some of my photos here. I love photography! As a matter of fact, today I am picking up a Canon XT Rebel. If I had a little more cash I’d pick up the XTi 10 megapixles but 8 will do for now. Its going to rock!

I’ve been using Skype for a couple of weeks and it rocks!

If you aren’t using Skype I highly recommend you download it today and give it a try. I have found that its not only great for making calls but its a better IM application than AIM.

You can reach me on Skype at chris.knudsen. Give me a call sometime!

The ALA is celebrating “Banned Books Week” September 23rd through September 30th. Google has joined in the festivities with their own page dedicated to Banned Books Week.

I think someone should put together a “Banned Search Results Week“.  

I love the way they think at Google…

I usually blog about business stuff so let me apologize in advance for this political post… 

I recently started reading Orwell’s seminal work 1984. I am stunned by the parallel nature of that book and the time we now live in. It is truly prophetic.

In reviewing the news online Sunday morning I came across this article titled Big Brother is Shouting at You from the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper. In the book 1984, Big Brother (Or BB in newspeak) is the all seeing all knowing personification of the totalitarian government.

In the above mentioned article, the camera’s in and around London (there are literally millions of security cameras in London today) are now being outfitted with speakers so that those watching you can now speak to you. If this sounds too weird to be true, then click on the link. I am not kidding - I am not making this up.

The article states several things that make me very nervous:

“The system allows control room operators who spot any anti-social acts - from dropping litter to late night brawls - to send out a verbal warning: ‘we are watching you’.”

“This isn’t about keeping tabs on people, its about keeping the streets safer for the law-abiding majority and helping to change the attitudes of those who cause trouble. It challenges unacceptable behavior and makes people think twice”

Notice in the article that they never talk about illegal behavior. They talk about “anti-social” behavior. So the London Police are now guarding against what they define as anti-social behavior? I wonder if protesting this system would be considered “anti-social” behavior?

In the book 1984, legal but unacceptable (anti-social) behavior earns you a trip to The Ministry of Love where a bullet is promptly passed through the base of your skull. Problem solved.

First they watch you, then they talk to you remotely - when does that become not good enough? What’s the next step beyond watching and talking to you?

Since 9/11 our rights have slowly been eroding. We might be making ourselves more secure with the Patriot Act and NSA homeland surveillance but at what cost? Benjamin Franklin said: “They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

How far is too far? How much are you willing to give up to Big Brother in an effort to defend “freedom”? Are you willing to lose your freedom for safety?

By the way, if you have not read 1984 you need to. I wish I could send a copy to every address in the UK. They need a good wake up call. I think America needs it too.

I use to work at Speaking Roses as the Vice President of eCommerce and Technology. It was one of the best and worst employment situations of my life.

Years ago, the Company did a reverse merger in an effort to raise millions, which means they are now publicly traded. So you (and everyone else) can see how bad they are doing by clicking here. How this Company continues to operate at a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars per month with little to show in sales is beyond me. I never understood it when I was there and I still don’t get it.  The Company has now blown through $10 million with virtually nothing to show for it. Its a very hard thing to watch.

I just read that the board hired a new CEO. Looks like this guy jumped the Associated Foods ship for Speaking Roses. Best of luck Alan Farrell.

By the way, the management team page is completely out of date. John Winterholler, Brad Whittwer, Ted Lloyd, Mike Glauser and Bobbie Downey have all been out of the company for some time. Looks like someone needs to update the Web site.

Check out Judd Bagley’s article in this month’s issue of Utah Business (registration required). The article is titled “Best of Business” and covers a lot of developments in the state. I wish he would have mentioned Rossignol’s recent headquarters move out of Colorado to Park City.

Judd also has a feature in this month’s issue of Connect Magazine (no registration required) along with Janet who writes about VoIP. Both articles are great. 

I won’t mention who else has an article in Connect this month - I’ve already shamelessly plugged it enough!

Mike Arrington at Techcrunch has been following developments at Podango.

Have you?

Podango is one of Utah’s high potential start ups. Check it out!

I recently went way back into my files to find a business plan Jeremy Hanks and I wrote in 2003 (the plan got us to the finals in the UEC in 2003) for a company that would manufacture mass customized outdoor clothing and equipment. After digging up the plan I read over it again (I am using it as an example business plan in my Westminster entrepreneur class) and realized how wonderful this idea really is. In my class lecture on Monday night I talked in great detail about the plan and fell in love with it all over again.

Mass customization is giving the customer the ability to build their own product within a set of manufactures predetermined options. For example, when you order a Dell computer you are buying a mass customized product. 

Don’t confuse mass customization with customization. Mass customization applies rules and parameters to customization to make it cost effective. Mass customization is scalable where full customization is not. Giving the customer a product experience that they define inside of parameters that a manufacture defines is the future of product development.

When researching the plan, we came across a great little company in Eugene, Oregon that is mass customizing outdoor clothing. The company is beyondfleece. We actually traveled to Beyondfleece in an effort to feel out the owner and to see if he would be interested in selling the company. Our plan was to win the UEC in 2003 and use that as a catalyst to raise money to buy BeyondFleece. We’d then apply all we know about Internet marketing and manufacturing and take the business to the next level.

Well, we didn’t win the UEC and we didn’t raise the money needed to buy the company. I honestly think if I could raise the money I’d like to go back and give this another try. Anyone have a couple million I could borrow?

The first Internet start up I was involved in as one of the co-founders was GearTrade.com. I loved GearTrade. Working in that start up in 2000 is some of my fondest work memories I have. 

GearTrade is an ASP provider of used and close out outdoors equipment. GearTrade gets in the middle of the transaction by managing the financial exchange between the buyer and the seller. Its a great model.

In 2001, we merged GearTrade with Weboutdoors and then sold it the next year to Wildcat Technologies out of Seattle. Wildcat (we called them “Wildkitty”) then sold GearTrade to Park City-based Backcountry.com who still runs it today. Backcountry uses GearTrade as an outlet for their returned and overstocked goods. Its a great fit.

If you go to GearTrade.com you will see that Backcountry is working on a new design for the site. It looks great. I’m glad to see that John and Jim are still committed to GearTrade’s success.

I really miss the outdoors industry.  Maybe someday I’ll open a gear shop and sit around all day doing nothing. Sounds kind of nice.

You can catch my Connect Magazine article online by clicking here.

I hope you enjoy. Please let me know your thoughts.