I was at a party this weekend and listened to our self-described non-techical hostess introduce me as, “this is Alistair. He does computer stuff.”

Which, while accurate, doesn’t really lead to a rousing chat over drinks.

I began with the usual explanation: “The company I work for makes web performance monitoring equipment.” There were a couple of nods, but mostly the same blank-faced, I-don’t-care look I get when I try to explain a recipe to someone who hates to cook.

I went to my back-up explanation: “You know how you go to a website, and it’s really slow? Or you get one of those 404 errors?” (nods from everyone, with a couple of MySpace and YouTube complaints thrown in.) “Well, we fix that.” A bit more understanding, but not a lot of excitement.

So I tried a new one. It’s not really a new explanation, but as more CIOs and directors get their hands on TrueSight and our Real User Monitoring data, it’s a conversation I’m having more and more. I took a drink, and continued:

“You know how geeks like me are always talking about networks, and computers, and browsers … and you don’t care?”

Vigorous nods from everyone (eager for me to shut up so they can go get another glass of wine or look at our hostess’ spectacular apartment.)

“And you know how business, rather than caring about the geek stuff, worries about people — customers, employees, and so on?”

More nods.

“Well, we let the geeks talk about users, so the business finally understands them. In other words, watching real users makes IT matter to the business.”

Much better. All of a sudden they cared.

It’s true. We used to sell to the web operators who had to handle incidents and answer phones, who lived a life of blame and conference calls. They’re our most active users and eager proponents.

But now, along with those guys, the executives in the company are getting involved. They’re frustrated by the huge disconnect between what the IT team does — servers, networks, and applications — and what the business is about. And they’re looking for ways to get IT and the business working together.
The first step is to get them talking. For years now, IT and business haven’t been speaking the same language. And it’s been a source of huge problems; IT has useful information that business doesn’t care about; and the business has goals for its IT infrastructure that IT can’t turn into meaningful, measurable goals.

As more and more people in an organization get access to Real User data (what we call, Pervaisive Real User Intelligence,) it’s amazing just what an impact it has on the way the organization operates. Not only does it get easier to fix problems and resolve disputes, but businesspeople start being engaged in the IT systems themselves.

I think the British TV show The IT Crowd said it best. I haven’t seen the episode in a while, so some of it may be NSFW. But the first five minutes of this episode pretty much sum up a traditional business view of IT. If you’re in IT, and you’re not talking about real users, the business probably doesn’t understand what you’re saying.

Viacom’s Comedy Central stars, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, should be downloadable for free. And there’s a good, convincing reason for this that all the people involved should agree with.

After Google’s acquisition of YouTube, Viacom’s lawyers started asking for the ever-popular clips of their shows to be taken off the site. And much to the chagrin of YouTube faithful, Google complied.

Several things make this silly. First, both shows are topical. Lost might be good a year from now, but old episodes of John Stewart’s antics are really only fascinating to computer scientists. And second, the Internet postings of their shows are one of the main drivers of their popularity — as evidenced by Stephen Colbert’s collective hacking of Wikipedia and rigging a vote for a bridge in Eastern Europe.

So why should it be free?

Well, not free exactly. There’d be an ad (or ads) you can’t skip. But here’s the kicker for advertisers:

• You’d be able to specify a target audience (in other words, viewers would be asked to disclose basic stuff like their gender and age)
• You’d find out who watched the ads
• You could tailor content to the time it was downloaded and geographic region with great precision
• You could have a call to action (a clickthrough) to the product or service

To an advertiser, this is gold. An old adage goes, “I know half of my advertising budget is wasted; I just don’t know which half.” One of the reasons that online advertising is enjoying such a bull market is that it’s far more measurable than traditional broadcast media because of traceability and targeting. This “free” download of content would fare far better than the traditional advertising model.

Who loses? Well, you could argue that viewers lose a minute or two; but they get the clear conscience and uninfected desktops that come from not using illegal means to get their shows. The networks get a better advertising product. And the advertisers get targeted messages whose effectiveness they measure.

It seems that the only losers are regional telcos and cable providers. The same guys who want to have tiered bandwidth on the Internet (I’m listening to Vint Cerf debate net neutrality as I type.) As the alternatives — VOIP, downloadable TV shows, and the like — become more and more compelling, the traditional models for telcos and regional cable companies are starting to crumble.