My Other Alter-Ego

Everyone has an alter ego out there in the world. I found out today that I’m lucky enough to have two. My first is my twin out of Rhode Island that is a musician and owns the domain of our names. (I’m still trying to figure out if we are related in the family tree or not…). The second I discovered this morning…Greg the Architect.

I was doing some SOA blog reading this morning when I came across Greg the Architect. This is Tibco’s way of trying to tap the viral and community marketing engine. As attempts by larger established IT vendors go…their attempt isn’t bad. It’s got the humor factor down pretty, I found my self laughing and thinking…”been there” (from both the client and vendor perspective). What will be interesting is to see if Tibco has the fortitude to do more of these and build something behind it. Viral marketing takes more than just a single shot to work…that is where most large companies tend to fall down, not willing to stay the course long enough to see the effect.I do find it interesting how the YouTube clip has no mention of Tibco as the vendor behind the clip. The end of the video clip mentions SOA Now Journal, which is a “thought leadership” site that is authored by Tibco. Tibco is using Greg as a way to drive people to this website. Personally, I have issue with the lack of transparency behind both of these.

Tibco, don’t hide the fact that your doing both of these…it usually burns the audience you’re trying to capture. At the same time, don’t swing the other way and make these both Tibco items. There is a middle ground in there that has to be found…I think there close, but think they need to be a bit more up front with their involvement.

Either way, I found it funny and worth sharing.