Sometimes I described the Ad Astra (Analysis and Development of Awesome STRAtegies) work at Microsoft as a sitcom on network TV — most explicitly when we had a “wrap party” at the May Mashup. In this worldview, the Ad Astra narrative is something along the lines of …
Building on the small audience success of Pogo, and the cult fave Project Fabulous, Ad Astra “starring Jon Pincus” started as a late-season* miniseries produced by McKinsey on the butterfly network, and got picked up by the post-merger entity OSMG for the summer and next year. Unfortunately the showrunner who had put the deal together left; and the cancelling of the ensemble-cast Google Compete Executive Workgroup supporting series meant that the solid lead-in we had expected didn’t materialize. So despite steadily-increasing ratings (helped by my role as a recurring guest character on the popular but stuck-in-a-rut Litebulb), unique and valuable demographics, fabulous guest stars like John Sweeney and Kathy Cramer, and great reviews, the network announced in January that it would not be renewing Ad Astra for the next season.
Hmm, well, potentially a reality TV show, or a soap opera, would be a slightly better analogy than a sitcom. You get the idea though. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter/Tune in Tomorrow meets a collaborative version of The Apprentice.
The off-the-charts January Mashup and “Gary Flake, Live at Sammamish” introduced the second half of the season — as well as some new characters — and on-site Mashup specials at the MVP Summit and MiX built a lot of energy. The attempted spinoff Project Venice didn’t get off the ground; on a more positive note, Mashups are big in in overseas market and several Ad Astrans got roles in IdeAgency (expected to be this year’s blockbuster) and other shows.
There was a serious opportunity underlying this analogy. The work Microsoft does and the scale it operates at is a lot more interesting than the scenarios for The Apprentice or most imaginable clones — and the stakes are a lot higher. The people involved are more interesting, generally far more appealing, and much much much more diverse. The artifacts they produce and many of thee challenges they face are a lot more relevant to real people’s lives. So once Ad Astra was at scale it could become possible to produce a network-quality TV series essentially by telling our stories, arranging the non-confidential narrative aspects of our work in interesting narrative arcs. Sure, some post-production would be needed; still, it certainly seems likely to be hugely less expensive the typical cost to produce a network series.
This same kind of cost advantage may well transfer to other kinds of video: direct-to-web, direct to DVD (where lots of other goodies can be included — “see the PowerPoint presentation they were working on!” and hints for effective PPTing), and perhaps even reused in the newly-emerging category of corporate role-playing games. And once you start thinking like this, there are other options as well, especially for Microsoft: a web-based series; content for Microsoft.com [for recruiting and highlighting Microsoft’s diversity] Technet, Channel 8/9/23, on10, MSN, internal use for TCN as a companion to “behind the code”; etc. etc.
What makes this so interesting is that if there are ways to monetize this cost advantage, it potentially means an entertaining, participative, appealing, diverse grassroots organization can be largely self-funding.
Oh well; it didn’t happen with Ad Astra … maybe next time.
Nobody bit when I pitched Ad Astra, so it’s now “on hiatus”. Of course in this world everybody knows that “on hiatus” is code for “looking opportunties to bring the brand back”**. So we did a few summer specials that came off great: “hey kids, let’s put on a show” (high concept: “oh no! the interns are here for the summer … and nobody scheduled a Mashup! can Channel 8, Windows Diversity, the MSR Intern program, and Popfly help the wacky Ad Astra crew save the day?”), the collaborative Harry Potter and the Future of ThinkWeeks.
We also did intriguing ultra-low-budget experiments with community-access media and political theater on the wiki, our blog, Litebulb, and Mini, with the expected extremely mixed reviews. On the way out, I made several cameos at the company meeting, was a “with special appearance by” in IdeAgency’s star-studded launch episode, and had a small part in their “girl on top/soul in the machine”, shot live on the floor in 34.
So it’s a golden opportunity for that classic TV holiday special. You know, the one where production costs are virtually zero because it’s mostly reused clips and stuff shot on one big party set, and various people show up and say hi and we get to hear about what they’re doing now — and their favorite moments from the last year. “A chance to say hi to old friends — and maybe make some new ones????” A few serious moments mixed in, and perhaps some manufactured tension (usually hinging on travel schedules or inadvertant misunderstandings), but basically happy and festive. And low production costs, did I mention that? I remember Queer Eye doing a particularly good one of these; it’s a high bar, but why not shoot for the stars?
An advantage of doing it on the web is that we don’t have to come up with ridiculous plot twists for why everybody’s in town. Oh yeah, and also it can be participative.
So for those of you who were part of Ad Astra — or were in its prequel Project Fabulous and sister series Pogo, or are friends and family, or were fans who never got a chance to get involved — if you get a few moments this holiday season …
Welcome to “A very special Ad Astra holiday!” Drop in, say hi, have some chocolate, eggnog and/or champagne, let us know what you’re up to … and maybe share a few of your favorite non-confidential moments from the Ad Astra experience!
No urgency here; I’ll leave this thread open at least through Epiphany***. Hopefully between now and then most people will have at least one moment when they either (a) need escape from doing technical support (b) want to demonstrate to a relative how easy it is to use Firefox/IE/Camino/the browser on somebody’s new phone or (c) are curious what other Ad Astrans are up to these days. Or all of the above, of course. So, if and when you get a chance, please get involved!
(no, i don’t know what these blank boxes are doing here. looks like a bug. sorry ’bout that.)
And sometimes the cliches, perhaps slightly updated, really are the best wording. So, both in the time-honored tradition of holiday specials, and because it’s what I really mean, I’d like to wish everybody reading this a happy holiday season (now or whenever you choose to celebrate it), and to the extent they apply:
spiffy Saturnalia,
merry Christmas,
happy Hanukkah/chappy Chanukah,
kreative Kwanzaa,
psychadelic solstice,
and/or a happy new year
jon
* because many groups are in budget paralysis from May to August, Microsoft’s FY somewhat mirrors network TV seasons
** just like how in the music biz “broken up” is frequently synomyous with “available soon for a reunion tour”
*** not to be confused with the startup e-piphany.
 Originally posted December 20, 2007
Steven Levy | 20-Dec-07 at 2:38 pm | Permalink
Happy holidays to all, especially a belated happy Chanukah to members of the tribe :-).
Re **: Many bands have made their best music under the same intense creative and personal tensions that also lead to band breakup. The most obvious example is Lennon and McCartney; is there anyone who thinks more than one or two tunes of their entire post-Beatles work matched the quality of Revolver or Sgt. Pepper or…? The Davies brothers (Ray and Dave, The Kinks) were always fighting — probably still are — but created some incredible/indelible music during their battles.
As a musician myself, I think that’s the major reason the Eagles do reunion tours and the Kinks keep re-forming. The music is simply better when they’re together. (I’ll concede that the current Van Halen reunion may be a pure money play, though.)
Sometimes the love-hate relationship drives out better results than mutual acceptance and comfort.
— Steve
“In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed – but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
— Attributed to Graham Greene, The Third Man, though now thought to be an ad lib by Orson Welles
Eduardo Jezierski | 20-Dec-07 at 11:11 pm | Permalink
Jon, please post the Girl On Top/SOTM ideAgency pictures that I haven’t seen your shots!
Happy ____ everyone {insert festivity}!
~ej
PS: I’m in Lao PDR for work, looking at the deep field biosurveillance capabilities, and ___ is therefore *not* replaceable with ‘pizza’ or ‘milk shake’.
Hm… a spinoff show maybe? like ‘one of the cast went off to Survivor, or Discovery Channel, on a different network’ – different setting, similar values?
Evie E | 21-Dec-07 at 11:36 am | Permalink
I’ve poured a little nip of nog in my coffee for the occasion.
I am reflecting on the points made about conflict and greatness. Coming to a related crossroads in both personal and professional life. I think I’ve done some ambitious work over the last few years. I seen my best self rise to meet a lot of hardship over the last year and I do feel proud of all those things. I think in time I will probably say that I was glad to have an opportunity to see what I am capable of.
At the same time, I’m tremendously burned out and longing for peace. I ALSO remember a time where I worked hard on a team and we were in flow. We had each other’s backs, we passed the ball fluidly to whomever was open for the shot and we celebrated each win as a team win. Maybe its just nostalgia playing tricks on me, but I long to get back to that experience.
I want my family life to feel like that too. I’m not saying I want to run my family like a business. I’m saying I want my family to be a good team. I want my family to respect and honor each others’ dreams and work together on them. I feel like we’ve been silo’d just like we say Microsoft is. 🙂
I’ve been writing a lot about the emotional aspects of ideas and change. A common thread from people I talk with is this notion that the term “work/life balance” is misleading. The threads between work and personal concerns are deeply connected. We tend to work out the same life and relationship themes in both our personal and professional lives. At least I tend to.
So I have been consulting for the IdeAgency team and witnessing a team culture that is definitely NOT in flow. At the same time, Steven is right, I’ve produced some of my best work and met some incredibly talented people. Is it possible to produce great work with joyful effort?? I would sure love to think so. But I really don’t know.
I used to joke that I only write well about unhappy topics. I don’t write happy songs, and I don’t write happy poems. So that leaves prose. I would like to start telling a different story. I would like to tell stories about work and corporate life that help people feel less trapped, feel more personally empowered. That was what I loved so much about Ad Astra – our stories. Stories have power. Stories show people how to act differently. So who wants to start crafting a new story about how renaissances happen?
Evie’s Field Trip » Joyful effort | 21-Dec-07 at 11:50 am | Permalink
[…] (I posted these thoughts in response to a thread here: http://www.talesfromthe.net/jon/?p=39) […]
jon | 21-Dec-07 at 12:38 pm | Permalink
hiiiii! (waves)
Steven: agreed; Pat, Deborah and I saw Camper van Beethoven’s reunion in SF, and they almost got into a fight on stage. “Just like old times.” Great show though.
Edward: wow … are you blogging/posting pics about your excursions anywhere? I didn’t get any pics from “girl on top/SOTM”, but presumably they’re up somewhere — anybody have links?
Eve: well said. One thing to keep in mind was that Ad Astra often wasn’t in flow; for example the time between June 2006 and January 2007 where we hit our stride with the January workshops and Mashups. And while as you say we did great work during that period, there was also stuff that didn’t come out anywhere near as well as it could have (the December Mashup leaps to mind). It all looks a lot rosier in retrospect, especially since we *did* start to establish flow and people generally got to new and better roles … believe me, though, at the time it didn’t feel like flow.
Totally agree with the point about stories and being very conscious of narratives we’re crafting: in work, in life. I like the term “balance” because it conveys a positively-stable equilibrium, and tend to use in the more general sense of “taking into account”, e.g., “balancing multiple considerations” … unfortunately sometimes it does have the connotations of trading one thing off against another. Like we’re discussing in the dream job thread, you want to look for the opportunities that advance your career while having it help create and fit into the life you want to lead — and vice versa.
jon
Joshua Allen | 21-Dec-07 at 4:19 pm | Permalink
Happy RamaHanaKwanza! And Chris-mas too! My favorite AdAstra memory? The time when Ken Church demoed a search feature I’d been wanting, and some people with almost no experience with IE or Search mashed up a browser search feature I had been trying to get someone to build. And the stuffed jalapenos that nearly made me choke before I went back for more 🙂
I didn’t see a lot of conflict between adastrans, but maybe I just wasn’t looking. I saw rampant diversity and a high degree of acceptance and open-mindedness, and that was awesome.
Wishing the best to all of you for this holiday and the new year.
Kris Fuehr | 22-Dec-07 at 9:02 am | Permalink
Hey Jon, nice to see your brainwaves out here in the cloud. Hoping there isn’t a desert of innovation wasting away at Microsoft not that you’re gone. I too have left Microsoft in June. Haven’t gone far though, now I’m working on projects from the outside-in. It’s the best perspective I’ve had in a long time. I’m still working on edge marketing (call it Web x.0 efforts, whatever), but I have referred many a Softie to your in a hisorical fashion. I tell them — “You should (have) worked that into Jon Pincus’ newly non-existent group)… I try to let them figure out that there is a gap there…” I did a brainstorm session recently and incorporated a lot of concepts from John Sweeney – “Innovation at the speed of laughter” and I have you to thank for that connection.
I also still have the impression that security/privacy concerns are paralyzing innovation and advances overall at Microsoft and hope that someone can a) disclose a standard methodology for “personalizing” a web (or other) experience without violating the individual’s privacy b) view data on a macro level and act upon it without connection to personal information. You seem to be the man to help that out with your background. Hey, I know!…maybe you could consult back to MS and they can pay you double for what you did there FT? 😉
Take care.
-Kris
jon | 22-Dec-07 at 9:51 am | Permalink
hi Joshua, hi Kris … have some eggnog!
Yeah there really is a lot of incredible technology in MSR and elsewhere that can now so easily be leveraged — and conversely the tools and platforms (Firefox/IE/Opera, Yahoo! Pipes, Popfly, Facebook + Visual Studio, OpenSocial, Amazon’s stuff, Flash …) are so powerful that you can do incredible things without a lot of specialized training. There’s an amazing opportunity here as access to technology gets democratized — finding different kinds of creative and sustainable solutions to tap this is where the huge opportunities are. “Look to the marginalized!”
Kris, sounds like things are going great — glad to hear it’s still proving useful! A lot of my best memories are from Sweeney sessions: the probably-now-lost “clams” video, the “building 7” skits, and “ask for help!” at the office labs offsite … and of course the knife-throwing. I’ve used some of the (simpler) specific techniques, like the “gift exchange” and some of the “pattern” things like group counting with eyes closed. Also just the attitude of being able to get into the brainstorming frame of mind quickly is hugely valuable.
Sure, I’d consider going back to MS as a consultant — in fact I think even made a joke “orange, the new pink!” in my goodbye mail. Agreed about (a) and (b), and the outlines are clear: a fully opt-in system based around a national do-not-track-list with clear and binding rules on data sharing founded on fair information practices the principle that the user is in meaningful control. For Microsoft FTEs, Eric Picard has a good ThinkWeek paper on how a chunk of this could look (although it predated the do-not-track-list). The recent fiasco in which they may have Facebook’s beacon potentially exposed their partner Blockbuster to significant liability illustrates the stakes here. Robert MacMillan’s story a few weeks before Beacon a story (based on an interview I did with him back in May — and my last press with that job title!) says it well:
I love it when I’m right!!!!
Great to see both of you … and have some eggnog!
jon
jon | 22-Dec-07 at 10:00 am | Permalink
Also, back to Eve’s point about narrative: there’s a great quote I first read in bell hooks Teaching to Transgress: “I could make the past mean anything I want, as long as I was honest.” When I’m concentrating on future-looking narratives, I treat the past as a “backstory”: while respecting it and be honest about it, use my current perspectives to re-interpret it in a way that is most useful to me gong forward.
jon
sean o'driscoll | 22-Dec-07 at 6:21 pm | Permalink
Hey Jon, thanks for the pointer, it’s great to keep up with this. As you know I recently announced I’m leaving Microsoft as well to focus on Social Media / Communities strategy consulting work (and writing !). Here’s the announcement if anyone here is interested:
http://communitygrouptherapy.com/2007/12/20/15-years-at-microsoft-coming-to-an-endmixed-emotions/
sean
Mary Alice | 23-Dec-07 at 7:56 am | Permalink
I learned so much from Mashups, AdAstra and Kathy Cramer’s Asset-based Thinking sessions. Each of you contributed to bringing the productive possibilities of collaboration and social networking to further innovation in small and large ways. I’m honored to have been part of this and feel that seeds with amazing potential have been planted. Dan recently posted his newest photography/painting creation on flickr and this Heart Nest relates to the opportunities abound in small beginnings…http://www.flickr.com/photos/colvinart/2126227458/
Mary Alice | 23-Dec-07 at 7:58 am | Permalink
Adding Dan’s flickr page as a hyperlink…
Rob Dolin | 23-Dec-07 at 9:59 am | Permalink
Happy holidays to one and all.
Moira | 28-Dec-07 at 10:49 am | Permalink
Hi all!
This year has been an amazing experience as I met and worked with Jon (and many others of you) to provide a forum that encouraged personal & professional growth and networking. The best part has been watching hope & networking grow in the rank & file of MS.
As for flow, what works for one person may not for another. I fondly remember one large project where I think the team flow was incredible and everyone put themselves forward to drive it to success. My friend was on the same project and he has an entirely different perspective. To him, it was a difficult time with many personal conflicts creating chaos. Creative tension or chaos *can* be a great thing, *and* it is best if used in moderation as it is also peronally abrasive.
As the new year creeps closer, I am in a transition period at work and am seeking a new work challenge. In the past this has made me CRAZY! I find now that I am in a very good space mentally. I attribute the change to such a positive expereince with Jon, Ad Astra, Kathy Cramer & AbT, John Sweeney and many of you who have posted already. I am really looking forward to an incredible 2008!
Moira
jon | 29-Dec-07 at 5:37 pm | Permalink
Great to see you all. Enough with the eggnog alredy; have some champagne!
Sean, please keep us posted on what’s next. I was really impressed with the vibe amongst Microsoft’s MVPs when we did the Mashup at the MVP Summit back in March, and stuff like that doesn’t “just happen”, so I’m very curious about your next direction.
Mary Alice, the comments on Dan’s flickr page really illustrate what we were discussing a few weeks ago about how social networks can really change an artist’s interaction with his or her audience: getting feedback, validation, and contact on a regular basis. The art’s great too — thanks for sharing!
Rob, great to hear from you … how’s that Ted Koppel ringtone working?
Moira, agreed about the different kinds of flow and the potential positive dynamics from creative tension and chaos. Different people and groups have different personality styles; what works for one might not work for another — and especially when it comes to things like chaos (an Ad Astra speciality!) different people have different bars for how much is too much.
Happy holidays, all!
jon
jon | 29-Dec-07 at 5:39 pm | Permalink
Incidentally, I am going to get around to updating the blogroll one of these days (right now it’s just my brother’s GottaBook blog) so thanks all for the links!
jon | 29-Dec-07 at 5:52 pm | Permalink
The top-level bit in my “what I’m up to” update:
The rest of that post goes into a little more detail: how I’ve been spending the time since leaving Microsoft, the role of narrative, the Tales from the Net project that Deborah and I will be kicking off in early 2008, the consulting opportunities I’m looking at — and, especially relevant to this thread, the role of narrative.
In 2007, Ad Astra and Microsoft were the primary source of stress and difficulty — as well as achievement and new friends. Especially early in the year, when as many as a dozen people’s jobs were at risk, and it was not at all clear that any of the projects we had started would go forward, the stress was almost overwhelming for me.
Looking back on it now, though, what really jumps out is how much we accomplished in very difficult situations — and how much we learned in the process. We identified strategic opportunities for Microsoft, many of which are being pursued in different ways. We steadily improved techniques for collaboration online (the collaborative-writing experiments, for example) and off (mashups, workshops). We validated the cultural principles and many of our strategic principles at scale. We experimented with approaches like rapid-fire idea generation and asset-based thinking and figured out how to make them work for us — and got better and better at them with practice. We empowered people by helping them learn skills, create networks, and meet others who were similarly feeling frustrated and marginalized. And so on …
Something else that’s much clearer in retrospect is the value of the network — for lack of a better name, I think of it as “the Ad Astra current and future friends and alumni network”. Because of our shared values, principles, experiences, and vocabulary — and the overwhelmingly high caliber of the people involved — the connections we made are generally likely to continue in the future. This network in turn becomes a shared asset — for all of us, to the extent we want to participate.
Of course, it’s still to be determined whether this is an asset that increases in value over time. I think it’s likely to (especially due to its intersection with other networks — keeping in mind the strategic principle of relating to “the network of networks”). TIme will tell.
In any case: Ad Astra was a transformative experience for me in a lot of ways, and while I certainly would have liked to give it a go for another year, I’m still really happy with how it wound up. Is what we accomplished enough — in conjunction with the other positive things going on — to help Microsoft get out of its (incredibly-profitable, but far less than its capable of) doldrums and start changing the world? We shall see. I hope so and think it’s more likely than not — and in case anybody’s wondering, I’m still holding a lot of my stock. Still, at least to me, there’s a much more interesting question:
Is what we learned and built enough for *us* to start changing the world?
I think the answer’s “yes.”
Then again, I would think that, wouldn’t I?
jon
* a special case of the “holistic system of systems” view, best expressed in my opinion by the sample from Network used in Snog’s Corporate Slave that I reused as the epigram for my Computer Science is Really a Social Science manifesto
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