Hee-Haw Transition Team
Obama Photo Sets
Obama Photo Sets
“Back up your argument. Because too many people are telling stories, as opposed to actually looking for the truth.”
"I'd argue that strategy should be a slow, evolving, socialised, collaborative, gradualist process. It should grow out of business decisions, the purpose, the values, the conversations of an organisation. Warren Buffett should be your strategy role-model. Tactics might be the place where speed is valuable."
Social Media and the Tech Entrenpreneur
Featuring CK, Alan Wolk, Paul Soldera, David Berkowitz. How could you not learn something?
CPJ gives some good wireframing tips, this video in regards to Obamabaton.com (which I'll have more on later).
Brands and Subliminal Effects on Behavior
This from Scott Goodson's fantastic new blog on cultural movements.
"This month, Speedo starts filling preorders for the $550 consumer version of its LZR Racer suits worn by Michael Phelps and other world-class swimmers. Promoted as a design breakthrough and worn by the most victorious Olympian in history, it offers a potent blend of functional promise and emotional aspiration. But what about Phelps’s warm-up parka? Never intended for the retail market, the white hooded garment was rushed into production in response to consumer demand, and Speedo USA has already sold thousands of them, at $175 apiece. Surely nobody believes that simply wrapping yourself in the Speedo-Phelps aura has any impact on swim performance, right? Well, whether anybody believes it or not, recent research implies that it might."
The Social Web Delivers the Porn Industry a Blow
Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise, an Internet tracking company, said one of the major shifts in Internet use in the past decade had been the fall off in interest in pornography or adult entertainment sites.
He said surfing for porn had dropped to about 10 percent of searches from 20 percent a decade ago, and the hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites.
A friend of mind recently made the leap from MySpace blogger to a Blogger blogger. Apparently the tasty Newcastle was paying attention.
Nader Gets Creepy. Well, creepier.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rvuF7p2uwE&w=425&h=344]
As if we don't have an odd enough race to this point, we can always count on Nader to make it a little more so. This time by whining about media coverage to a parrot. Unfortunately, the parrot was voting for Barack Obama.
Friday is blog like a pirate day. Arrrgggghh.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muLIPWjks_M&w=425&h=344]
David Armano Feeds My Presentations.
A big thanks to David for placing all those killer graphics on one easy-to-use flickr page. Makes me look smarter.
Account Planning School of the Web...
...makes a triumphant return. Prepare to get schooled, people.
A Free-market Loving, Big Spending, Fiscally Conservative, Wealth Redistributionist.
With all the politics flying around lately, it's probably a good idea to read this article about Obama's economic worldview. It's long, but about the best description I've seen so far.
Back with theWB
Continuing in the Hulu tradition of both moving professional content to the web and innovating past YouTube, The WB launched their own show portal to compete, but also added some nice perks like a video search that allows you to search for text within a show, not just show names, and a show remixer with embedded Adobe Premier Express. Pretty cool stuff. Now if only I watched the Gilmore Girls....
Information and Knowledge
Over at Chroma, Dino is talking about how the way in which we interact with information is changing, and the importance of tacit knowledge to understanding.
"Presence applications and formats that capture "snippets" of thoughts,
data or information are generating streams of data about us and the
world, and the process of assimilating that flow of information is also
resulting in interesting new forms of "knowledge" that don't really
have anything to do with reading books. It's pretty fascinating to me
how knowledge and emotion emerge as a result of patterns in presence
media and the flow of information, and how the network is the
infrastructure for this. One of the most radical implications here is
the notion that in a web of flow, information and knowledge finds us,
rather than the other way around."
Sex and the Olympics
Great article about how the massive amounts of testosterone (in both the men and the women) equals a whole lot of shagging in the Olympic Village.
"There is a famous story from Seoul in 1988 that there were so many used condoms on the roof terrace of the British team's residential block the night after the swimming concluded that the British Olympic Association sent out an edict banning outdoor sex. Here in Beijing, organisers have realised that such prohibitions are about as useful as banning breathing and have, instead, handed out thousands of free condoms to the athletes."
The Functional Collective Conscious
Mike Aruz discusses his theory of the functional collective conscious with a real word example, in regards particularly to a global game called I Love Bees. The notion plays well with transmedia planning, another mode of planning that seems to be gaining more and more steam.
Captcha and I have had some rocky times in the past, but I can't quite figure out if this was a misplaced accusation, or some sort of drunken confession. Maybe captcha isn't feeling so secure?
Me Politico Televisor
Thought only John McCain and the RNC can run baseless attack ads on TV? Think again! Now, from the comfort of your own living room, you can run whatever political ads you want, on whatever networks you want, for as little as 50 bucks (or even less!). Thanks SaysME.TV! And thanks to the bullshit observer...
Designing the Future of Business
From Marty Neumeier, the man who brought us the absurdly amazing Brand Gap prezzer, and one of my favorite little branding books, Zag. Another article describing the future of design as the driver of innovation.
"A company can't will itself to be agile. Agility is an emergent property that appears when an organization has the right mindset, the right skills, and the ability to multiply those skills through collaboration. To count agility as a core competence, you have to embed it into the culture. You have to encourage an enterprisewide appetite for radical ideas. You have to keep the company in a constant state of inventiveness. It's one thing to inject a company with inventiveness. It's another thing to build a company on inventiveness."
Impossible is Nothing
Michael Cera's take on the video that ruined the biggest ego ever created. It's no drunk history, but still, pretty damn funny. Via Mike Aruz.
Postcards from Yo Momma
All the funny shit Momma's say via email and IM to their grown-up babies. Via erin.
A funny one:
Pussy Cat Folks
Mom: Are you watching the MTV Awards?
Me: Nah, don’t really care about them much. Thanks though.
Mom: Oh, well the Pussy Cat Folks are performing. You’re missing quite a show!
University Lipdub
Pretty cool single shot music video from some college kids.
And finally, go join up Blip.fm and friend me. It kicks ass. Like twitter for music. Do it.
Reason in Irrationality?
After the last greatness from the New Yorker, another fantastic, marketing-applicable piece is pushing me kill to off a few trees and actually subscribe to the thing. This time, in Predictably Irrational, Elizabeth Kolbert takes us through how we literally go crazy for Free, many times to our detriment. Whether it's spending an extra 20 bucks to save 5 in free shipping from Amazon or the countless studies that show the volatility of price perception, clearly price is a function of more than just supply and demand, but a combination of our emotions, our dogma and our surroundings. Our industry is consistently selling rational benefits to an irrational decision maker. Great read.
Pantyhose for Men
I believe you may call them Mantyhose.
JWT goes video
JWT has created a channel on Vimeo with a bunch of videos from some of its best thinkers. Some good stuff to chew on, for sure.
From zero to social strategy in five days
Lorie Laurent Smith over at Organic creates a social strategy in five days. This will get its ass kicked by my upcoming post, "How to build a social media strategy in 4 days." Eat that, Lori!
Hulu continues to surpass YouTube
Frankly, I'll continue to sink my head lower from the prediction of a Hulu failure. Clearly they've gotten their heads on straight for now. At what point does quality and experience surpass community? Looks like YT/Google's stagnation may let us find out.
[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/AcTWKQA]
The Future from the Eyes of IBM (in 1975)
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Another new Pomplamoose Tune
Generally speaking, I'm just about always on the lookout for my next musical obsession. Usually that comes in the form of an album bought an iTunes. Not today. Seriously, these YouTube celebs are absolute genius. We see big things in their future. Here's their latest.
Interestingness (and other 21st century skills to teach your kids)
The genius that is a color that is a man called Chartreuse gives a rundown of some interesting folks to follow on twitter in a way that only he can.
The Worst 5 Sky Mall Products
From Brian over at Ask a Copywriter. My favorite, the Pet's Observation Porthole. Yeah, literally.
Growing Good Creatives
Gavin and Kris let us in on the secret of their own genius. Creativity is juice to be harvested. A little creative juice would be a welcome addition to one of these late-night work sessions.
Sleeveface
Like LoLcats, but with more sleeveface.
Moda di Magno
Lovely Lori makes another appearance as an Etsy showcase, and for good reason. She supplied a couple happy gift giving experiences for me already!
The End of the Scientific Method
Does the deluge of information render the scientific method basically obsolete? Does it just make more sense to get better at reacting and classifying information rather than trying to predict it? Interesting argument...
The Design of Everyday Things
"Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we
fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or
whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault lies in product
design that ignore the needs of users and the principles of cognitive
psychology. A bestseller in the United States, this bible on the
cognitive aspects of design contains examples of both good and bad
design and simple rules that designers can use to improve the usability
of objects as diverse as cars, computers, doors, and telephones."
Practice What You Preach
Faris Yakob's presentation on transmedia planning, using a transmedia execution. It's official. I have a man crush on Faris.
In Control of Polls
This is older, but pretty interesting. Komar and Melamid focus grouped their way into art, polling various global artistic preferences to have a painting truly "by the people." Of course, the end result wasn't necessarily so populist.
"It has often been suggested that in contemporary society, polls have replaced politics, and even though the pollsters and statistics professors openly acknowledge that theirs is a limited science, it has been made to function as the true representation of the people's choice. Seemingly the most democratic tool, statistical analysis is frequently used as the most authoritarian one. Rather than articulating desire it constructs it. Komar and Melamid take the polls at face value - literally. This literal-mindedness, coupled with a rather fantastic technology, is characteristic for much of American media culture. The artists reveal the latter's absurdity: The most wanted thing calculated with the help of the polls is precisely what nobody wants - except those who order the poll."
Nike PHOTOID
Nike built an absolutely fantastic mobile application that allows Nike fans to take a photo of whatever they'd like, then uses the colors in the photo to create their next pair of kicks. Feet reflecting the world around them. Cool stuff.
Ambient Lighting
Pretty cool way to use rope lights and not look like a cheap bastard or college student.
Facebook Apps
A rundown of the 50 most active applications on Facebook.
Good Work Finally Makes a Comeback.
All the other stuff is still important, but the bottom line is that doing the nuts and bolts well just isn't enough to stay on top. Be great and the rest seems to fall into place as it should.
"Moreover, the client community maybe starting to remember that better
work delivers better results. Creativity has always been an important
element in powerful communications but never before has the quality of
the work had such a direct effect on the effectiveness of the budget,
and the success of the brand. Because never before has the primary
determinant of consumer reach been consumer engagement rather than
simply ratings. Only a few weeks into the launch of the Gorilla ad, the
number of people that had seen the film was almost double the number
that Cadbury’s had actually paid to see it."
The Coolest Hotel Room Ever. (via BfB)