Culture

Culture — No Comments
16
Jul 10

Summer of ’10: Bellycam Barbie and Oldspice

When we look back, I hope the BP Oilspill will be part of the story – and I hope we’ll call it that, rather than the Gulf Oilspill. The story will be dark, kinda like the 70s. Malaise. Lots of young people out of work – and they want better. I do too.

The global economy was limping along, wars still simmered in Afghanistan and Iraq, not much seemed to be improving for anyone. In the US, the Tea Party in Iowa compared Obama to Hitler in a billboard. Republicans frothed at the prospect of saying hell no to everything, a basketball player’s move from Cleveland to Miami briefly eclipsed all news and about anything; a dozen Russian “sleeper” spies accused of blending in and doing nothing in the US were deported; it was hotter than hell in Virginia and we even had a small earthquake to remind us that the earth itself really can slip from beneath our feet. I felt it. First in my life.

The Oldspice guy was there too.

Then again, maybe we’ll forget all that. Maybe when we look back, this is what we’ll see:

Business Trends / Connected Society — No Comments
7
May 10

Future of spin from the guys who do it

In this video from PRWeek, Edelman PR CEO Richard Edelman and Ogilvy PR CEO Chris Graves discuss the future of their industry. I know and have enjoyed conversations over the years with Richard. I don’t know Chris, who used to be a journalist.

A few key take-aways:

1. Both talk about how companies now create their own content. Edelman hired former BBC Global News head Richard Sambrook to do that for Edelman clients. That’s a massive shift – instead of trying to spin stories through media, PR firms are now helping companies tell their own stories through their own channels. Richard repeats what’s really the essence of all my work at We Media – every company is a media company.

2. Industry trend: Giant PR/Ad/Marketing conglomerates like WPP, which owns Ogilvy, pitch their “one-stop, full service” advantage over little guys; and Edelman, strictly a PR shop – though hardly a little guy – pitch the benefits of working with a focused specialty firm that isn’t bogged down competing with itself for other kinds of billings.

3. PRWeek editor Steve Barrett didn’t ask the tough question that people who don’t work in PR would ask first: Isn’t PR still a dirty business built to help companies like BP look better than they really are? Is PR different in the digital age, or does it just apply different tools and techniques to do the same old thing?

4. Compared to the leaders I know at U.S. media companies, both men, and their companies, strike me as much more in-tune with global issues, trends, insights and information flow. I’m on the board of the World Editor’s Forum, an international journalism association based in Paris. It is next to impossible to persuade Americans to participate in WEF activities unless they are invited to speak.

Art & Design / Beautiful / Music — No Comments
3
Dec 09

This is still lovely

I saw this a few months ago. It’s a nice way to ease into the day. Slows me. Breath-taking.

Everything about it stirred my interests. It added to my desire to visit Japan; pointed me to the band Barcelona, which is now one of my regular “go-to” stations on Pandora; and it added to my growing desire to get back into photography – an old passion going back when I was 14. When I was a newspaper writer I shot photos – not because anyone thought that was a brilliant cost-savings but because I loved to shoot. All of which leads me, naturally, to the Canon 5D Mark II. Although .. i’m also wondering about the new 7D, with a smaller sensor but faster performance and what sounds like equally good video.

Shooting video – *good* video – would be new for me. I’ve been reading up. Sounds like the biggest hurdle is lighting – and good mics.

Mobile Life — No Comments
21
Mar 08

The survey says: Americans love their cell phones more than their landlines.

Trend spotters say: Yes, I knew that. See: Americans favor cell phones over landlines

Business Trends / Journalism — No Comments
14
Nov 06

It’s the product, stupid

Newspapers are failing, and my friend and advisor Alan Webber knows why: the problem isn’t technology, shifting business models or all the other excuses newspaper executives like to talk about. The problem is lousy products.

From Alan’s Nov. 13, 2006 post:

What’s happened, I think, is that newspapers have stopped asking the right questions. They’ve stopped provoking public conversation about the great issues of our time. They’ve stopped seeing themselves as provocateurs of public discourse. … Why do movies, the Web, TV, get to have all the fun? Ask all the good questions? Carry all the inspirational, challenging, provocative answers?

Ouch.

Culture — No Comments
7
Aug 06

Ah, The Simple Life: Mixed Reality Events

Via Smartmobs, here’s another event taking place within SecondLife, a 3D virtual world. This is the part I love: “Visitors will be able to listen to audio and video, attend live mixed reality events …”

Now my head is hurting – damn, a new phrase I’ve got to learn to avoid: Mixed Reality Events.

There, I said it again. See, the harder I try, the worse it hurts. Even to try to forget is to get sucked into a mixed reality event. Where’s the Advil when you need it?

Let’s just call this a What The Bleep incident. This must have something to do with quantum physics, which both fries and un-fries my unworthy brain at the same time. Where does “live mixed reality” begin or end? Howard Rheingold, can you help? I think live mixed reality used to hang on the wall somewhere in Plato’s cave.

Source: Smart Mobs: Howard Rheingold in “Infinite Mind” broadcast in Second Life today

Business Trends / Connected Society / Culture / Links / New Tools — No Comments
5
Aug 06

Links for August 5, 2006

Recent Links [rebelpixel productions]

I’ve been “wandering” online a bit more lately, rarely with a destination in mind, and rarer still to reach one. This morning (it’s Saturday – boys in the basement getting their fix of KidsWB) – Jon Dube’s Technorati cosmos and tagcloud caught my eye during a brief stop at CyberJournalist.net, which led me to wander over to Six Apart to browse the MT plugin collection there, and then on to WordPress to check out the plugins there. No conclusions – it looked to me like MT had a bigger collection, but that may be wrong – WP has plenty. And, at any rate, I somehow wound up here, and intrigued by Markku Seguerra’s Recent Links plugin, which I hope to play with. So far I’m pleased with WP, but the default Links generator for the sidebar is NOT one of its strengths. Meanwhile … I’m liking Diigo more and more – it’s also a hnady way of collecting links and then posting a few in a daily “links” post.

wp-recent-links is a WordPress
plugin (hack!) for adding a links blog to your WordPress–powered site,
similar to kottke.org’s
remaindered links.

Wired 14.06: The Rise of Crowdsourcing

From the June issue of Wired, which, sorry, I did not devour as soon as I got it. … The strength of weak ties is the value of a broad, expansive network that includes many different skills, capabilities and perspectives. This fits precisely the goals of the We Media Network, and it’s the exact opposite of what happens through traditional professional and trade associations, in which networks may be large but are also homogenous – monocultures vs. communities or ecosystems.

“This shouldn’t be surprising, notes Karim Lakhani, a lecturer in technology and innovation at MIT, who has studied InnoCentive. “The strength of a network like InnoCentive’s is exactly the diversity of intellectual background,” he says. Lakhani and his three coauthors surveyed 166 problems posted to InnoCentive from 26 different firms. “We actually found the odds of a solver’s success increased in fields in which they had no formal expertise,” Lakhani says. He has put his finger on a central tenet of network theory, what pioneering sociologist Mark Granovetter describes as “the strength of weak ties.” The most efficient networks are those that link to the broadest range of information, knowledge, and experience.”

    Blogs / Business Trends / Deals & Dealmakers / New Tools / Tech — No Comments
    17
    Jul 06

    Is the Net boring?

    A VC: Are You Bored?

    • Mark Cuban thinks the Internet is boring, Fred Wilson thinks otherwise – and this is my first bookmark with a Firefox extension called Diigo that sways me toward Fred’s perspective in terms of technology. But if we’re talking about content, utility, or creativity – then I’m with Mark. The volume of content has exploded, with diminishing returns. Blogs and same-as-the-other-guys big media sites dominate our attention, but I want to find sites that suck me in, that astonish and inspire me, that keep me up late. Yes, they are out there, and I’d have to think there are many more than I know about. But on a day-to-day basis, I don’t find them. COuld be I don’t try. And I find myself enjoying the Net less and less. - post by anachison
    • July 17, 2006 – This is my first sticky note with Diigo … and I’m also trying to figure out how to blog via Diigo. I’m not there yet …  - post by anachison