This Is Clutch

Truth Be Told

2010-07-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

I am proud to announce an evolution. I love to write and share my ideas with you and now I have an opportunity to do it at a more professional level. ThisIsClutch will now appear at TruthBeToldcreative.com.

Sincerely,
ken

Social Media evolving the 30 second spot

2010-07-14T23:23:00.000-07:00

What happens when you combine high quality content creation with social media? Well here is a clever experiment where creatives produced real-time follow-ups to further engage people in their brand content.

This article is about "a team of creatives, tech geeks, marketers and writers who gathered yesterday and produced 87 short comedic YouTube videos about Old Spice - in real time. They leveraged Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and blogs. Everybody loved it; those videos and 74 more made so far today have now been viewed more than 4 million times and counting. The team worked for 11 hours yesterday to make 87 short videos, that's just over 7 minutes per video, not accounting for any breaks taken.

The group seeded various social networks with an invitation to ask questions of Mustafa's character, a dashing shirtless man with over-the-top humor and bravado. Then all the responses were tracked and users who contributed interesting questions and/or were high-profile people on social networks are being responded to directly and by name in short, funny YouTube videos.

We just brought a character to life using the social channels we all [social media geeks] use every day. But we've also taken a loved character and created new episodic content in real time. This is something new. We're operating on Internet time but with a level of quality you'd get on a TV slot. That combination was what really got many peoples' attention."

The Changing World of Film

2010-07-04T11:25:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that the i"Phone"4 doesn't really make calls all that well, it is a pretty impressive piece of technology. After watching this film I was surprised by the quality, especially considering it was shot and editing without leaving the iPhone 4. The team chose their subject well because the shots they captured would have been near impossible using many other recording devices.

This really got me thinking about how powerful portable technology will be used in the future. From a journalist standpoint capturing, creating and sending a news report from a cellphone has some pretty powerful implications. I'm excited to see how other skilled individuals start to use this technology.

"Apple of My Eye" - an iPhone 4 movie / film - UPDATE: Behind the scenes footage included from Michael Koerbel on Vimeo.

Evolving Teaching

2010-05-17T17:34:00.000-07:00

Dan Meyer talks about the process of learning. He questions our methodologies for teaching and encourages the use of real life examples. His premise explains how we can teach more effectively by changing text books so that students are forced to develop real world solutions instead memorizing formulas.

Will Apple make the same mistake twice?

2010-05-14T15:55:00.001-07:00

I'm fascinated with fail culture and the movement to embrace failure as an opportunity to improve and evolve. It's something American corporate and educational culture has had trouble with for some time. If you've been following the evolution of cell phones lately you'll know that Adobe and Apple have been duking it out over the importance of Flash on the mobile device. Without going into the specifics Apple argues Flash is an old technology and Adobe argues in favor of open markets, a response hinting that Apple must let go of its strangle hold and yield control to developers. There are a variety of perspectives, but the fact is that Apple only has 10% of the mobile phone market and the other 90% of the market share IS supporting Flash.

The bigger question here is not about the success of Flash but rather the ability of Apple to learn from its past failures in the PC business. Didn't they fall to Microsoft because of their hard headed decision to open their operating system to other hardware manufacturers and isn't Job's following a similar path to failure within their mobile business?

Banksy's Grand Scheme

2010-04-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

What makes good art good; and should everyone make art? Banksy answers these questions with great insight and a movie full of hilarity.

This documentary is the Grizzlyman of the art world. Yes it's about street art and actually features footage of Banksy as he tags Gaza and LA alike; but it's really about Thierry Guetta. Also known as Mr. Brainwash, an eccentric (mental) frenchman with a passion for filmming street art.

Thierry was a true ethnographer, he captured everything on film and filled his house with endless boxes of tapes of graffiti artists from Sheppard Fairy to Invader creating their art across the world. He didn't have a plan he just shot. Then the art world started selling Banksy's work at auction houses. He was pissed and knew the time was right to strike back. The problem was Thierry wasn't a documentary filmmaker, he just loved filmming. Thierry took a stab at the film but when Banksy saw Theirry's work he said, "I used to tell everyone to go off and make art; I don't do that anymore."

Now the film get's interesting. Under Banksy's request, Thierry's passion for film turns to street art, but Thierry knows no limits. He hires a team of henchmen and starts producing images for his street art show. The only problem is he hasn't cultivated a style or put any thought into his work, but that doesn't stop the masses from consuming his work. With an endorsement from Banksy and Fairy he transforms into "Mr. Brainswash" and becomes an overnight art sensation clearing over a million on his first gallery opening.

Now the question for me is why were people so quick to assign value to his art? Sheppard got noticed after employing a strategy of recognition equals power. His reputation grew the more people noticed his work, the more it was noticed the more influence and power he gained - his work became a movement based on drawing people's attention to this idea of branding. Banksy has risen by employing a similar strategy - he created thoughtful work riddled with political and cultural overtones. He knows how to express his ideas with wit, tact and creativity - and this film may be his master piece.

At first I was pissed at Thierry for desecrating the art world, in fact I thought Banksy was too; but then I had an idea of what Mr. Brainwash was. He's not an artist, he's part entrepreneur; but more importantly he's a pawn in Banksy's plot for retaliation . The film starts out with an anecdote explaining how Thierry became successful selling vintage fashion. He found a profitable model for buying cheap clothes and marking them up 400%. It worked because people bought it. Well the same was true with his art; but then I thought, what if that was Banksy's plan from the start - after all he did get a lot of investors to spend their money on what has now been outed as superficial art. I couldn't help thinking that this seemed like one sweet victory for a man who has an obsession with almost anything but the bank.

Replay, Nightmare, the Gift m & Food Revolution

2010-04-12T13:14:00.000-07:00

Five well crafted pieces of subtly branded content that makes a good effort to provide a engaging experience instead of jamming another ad down our throats.

Replay Documentary Series: A documentary that re-unites an old highschool rivalry. Well produced and interesting story to develop the Gatorade brand.

Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution: The Nake Chef & ABC pair with Giant Foods to change unhealthy eating behavior

The Gift - A bad ass short strategically placed in a Phillips TV frame.

Nightmares Never Sleep: Nike's branded interactive online game that tests your focus, agility and balance.

Devo Song Study: Listen to samples of the songs from Devo's new album and select 12 of the 16 you want them to include in their new release.

The Currency of Trust

2010-04-07T16:01:00.000-07:00

Craig Newmark of Craig's list makes an interesting prediction about the future of social networking saying "By the end of this decade, power and influence will shift largely to those people with the best reputations and trust networks, from people with money and nominal power." Building a digital reputation is about increasing your expertise, advancing your professionalism and building your credibility.

I've read it a thousand times, if you want to be an expert at something, then practice for 10,000 hours. Well what if there was a way to track your hours of expertise to establish your skill level and credibility? Here's an example. If someone asks me a question about training for a triathalon or becoming a Cat 3 bike racer how do they know I have the expertise to give good advice? Well I use Garmin Connect to record all my work out activities and they can see I biked 600 miles last month, ran 75 and swam 12. They can also use goodreads to see all the training books I've read and see the interaction I've had with members about how the concepts worked for me. Now what if there was a way to rate my experience level or gain credibility points that make my advice more worthwhile?

Last year Y-combinator hosted Cory Doctorow where he explained his idea for something called Whuffie bucks. It's a system for recording and building individual trust. It tracks your interaction with social networks and feedback from your contacts so you can develop your reputation. When I think about my personal career I believe that LinkedIn recommendations have value but I think there's a huge opportunity to create a system for developing an online reputation.

The Future of Magazines Is Here

2010-04-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

Popular Science has been working with mag+ to release a new way to view content digitally. They will premiere their technology with the release of the iPad.

Mag+ live with Popular Science+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

How Much Does Workplace Culture Reduce Productivity?

2010-04-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

What if businesses started measuring the work you do based on the product you create not the hours they see you working. Jason Fried makes a good point, people don't work at work any more. Getting work done means being productive, being creative and that requires focus and thought; but the work place is filled with distractions like meetings, ringing phones, management and socializing. People are seeing this and we're starting to see a change in work behavior. Tim Ferris encourages strategies similar to Jason to increase productivity in the Four Hour Work Week; on the top of the list: get rid of distractions.

Some workers still need a lot more structure than entrepreneurial life can provide but with the advent of software, video chat and other interactive tools I think we're going to start seeing work life moving away from the office and into an online space.

The Value of Online Relationships

2010-04-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

Umair Haque writes an article called The Social Media Bubble where he discusses how facebook and twitter produce artificial, weak connections he coins as thin relationships. The article currently has 214 comments which give some pretty interesting perspectives on how social media is meaningful. Here are a few excerpts from comments that had compelling arguments. For those who still aren't convinced read this article about re-uniting a band for charity.

"There are those of us out there though, who are trying to make it abundantly and transparently clear that a trust network can very well be established right in plain sight, and build on a universal value system of trust, mutual respect, cooperation, and collaboration. I've been working for months to reveal the value and power of building a trust network around yourself, and I've just framed it out."

"the internet has provided the tools to build more trust and more shared experiences in life across geographic boundaries - and that is of enormous worth. The question is whether people use these tools to further relationships - or just grasp for attention from the masses."

"Social media has enabled a great potential to initiate relationships, "it's all about who you know" And that is 100% true. Since I've proactively developed relationships online (NB-mostly with local people) I have created much more opportunities for myself and met more people that I may not have had direct access to before."

"You say "Real relationships are patterns of mutual investment. I invest in you, you invest in me." That's exactly what we do on Twitter and Facebook, we share good information not to promote (maybe a little) but to help others find that information easier while in return they send you good signal to save time. We also discuss in great detail with those "friends" our thoughts, beliefs and opposing views on various subjects. For some of us, this *is* a huge "investment of time, money, knowledge, and attention" that we do unselfishly. This is just as much of a real relationship as one may have with a co-worker or classmate. Some will fade away when they are no longer in the location (or site) but other friendships could stand the test of time."

"Most relationships in social media do not hold constant value. They are not like dollars that can be exchanged at any given point for a (relatively) fixed amount. They hold "potential value" instead of "relative value". For example, you might never realize any value in a certain connection, but then one day when you need someone as a source for x story with which that connection is knowledgeable, or an interview with y company where that connection works, that connection now has an extremely high value. It's the potential that drives these kind of relationships in social media."

My perspective is that social media isn't a fad or a bubble, it's simply in a nascent stage because ultimately it:

1. builds and reinforces our offline connections with people. It lets us continue our conversations, share our discussions and get input from other people in our network.

2. allows us to share things that are interesting and important to us and receive information from others in return.

3. let's us reach out and learn from individuals who previously would have been out of our reach.

Viral Strategy is an oxymoron

2010-03-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

Gareth posted a blog response to an adweek article about measuring viral success, something Faris calls idea multipliers. I like the article and the comments because they tear apart the old school model of advertising that is based on persuasion. It goes hand in hand with the idea that communications firms should be innovating, and calls for the need "to stop using research like drunkards use lampposts - for support, not illumination."

For me a brand or product resonates when it's authentic. That means "being immersed in the cultures they want to engage," or "playing a part in adding to or evolving this culture."

Going viral or finding a smart content distribution platform can be important but finding a way to manufacture viral diminishes the authenticity of the message. As online content continues to grow and overtake traditional media I think we'll continue to see brands intertwining themselves in culture so they are part of the experience instead of someone who is just commenting on it.

Augemented Reality Applications

2010-03-18T17:59:00.000-07:00

We're starting to hear about augmented reality but this is one of the most functional applications of the technology. BMW uses an overlay to enable mechanics to make repairs by overlaying an animation of what they should be doing and the visuals make it as easy as pie to understand what needs to be done.

Content Distribution

2010-03-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

We've seen an increased importance for connections planners or media creatives because buying a 30 second spot is becoming antiquated. Targeting niche audiences and creating meaningful connections with people who care is exponentially more valuable. One thing that I'm starting to see is the merging of a creative idea and a media strategy. Finding a creative way to engage your audiences resonates more than just producing something creative.

Is your content optimized for search? Do you understand and embrace social media? Is your creative engaging, interactive and designed for the more active millennium generation?

According to this article from Business Insider marketing your content to a target audience is shifting from art to science. The fact is you can have amazing content but it will go unnoticed if you don't have a great strategy to disseminate it through those pipes we call the interwebs.

Advertising has seen the advent of the connections planner and media creative who is at the forefront of designing creative solutions to distribute your content. This article makes a few suggestions like
1. design your content with specific audiences in mind,
2. use technology that will allow you to create content at really high quality, and
3. develop a marketing budget that accounts for distribution.

Energy Innovation

2010-02-22T21:50:00.000-08:00

Innovate a new kind of energy, more efficient, more powerful and at the same time reduce our global carbon emissions to zero by 2050. I feel like this challenge has been on the table for a few years now but it's nice to finally get presented with the challenge. Solving the energy and carbon emissions problem simultaneously is certainly the single greatest challenge our generation will face. We have 20 years to invent the technology and 20 years to implement it. Let's get crackin'.

Branding is Dead

2010-02-06T00:20:00.001-08:00

Branding is Dead.

Well at least the way it's been done for the past 15 years. Here's a little remix of Hoffman Lewis (an SF advertising firm) and Naomi Klein (author of No Logo who is well known for anti-globalism.)

Both have a problem with the same thing. Brand culture and brand strategists have spent the past 10 years creating a world of culture, imagination and personality around a world of collapsing innovation and product development.

As products and services lost momentum advertisers compensated by focusing on the company's brand image. For me, the pinnacle of this movement came in '08 when I was recognized with a Jay/Chiat planning award for help on a campaign that boasted bad marketing for a great product. Although the strategy was considered clever, the irony is that the product was the same old crap the company had been creating for the past 10 years. It was another example of spraying a tan onto another pasty dude at the pool. The spray on brand tan that company's have received over the past decade are wearing off and they are getting exposed for their in-authenticity. Companies must continue to think disruptively but they must also tout an innovative, respectable product.

There is good news though. What is emerging from the rubble is a combination of brand imagination and product innovation; a mixture that has the potential to evolve the way we do and communicate business.

This is a call to action to stop branding the empty cow; if you must, look to the hands of the engineers, the architects, the builders; and find brands that are worthy of communications. But in my mind the real opportunity rests in collaboration. If your clients have a lousy product, don't create a more imaginative world to disguise it; help them build something better.

How to Manufacture a Meme

2010-01-27T20:37:00.000-08:00

First what is an internet Meme?

A meme (pronounced /ˈmiːm/, rhyming with "cream"^[1]) is a postulated unit of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. (The etymology of the term relates to the Greek word μιμητισμός (pronounced /mɪmetɪsmos/) for "something imitated".)^[2] Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes, in that they self-replicate and respond to selective pressures.^[3]

So it's viral content that encourages participation. It tells a very brief but revealing story. I recently came across an example that used om nom nom (which was apparently lifted from Sesame Street's Cookie Monster) to explain what a meme is. But when I started thinking about it I found it interesting that meme's aren't manufactured, they just occur; so what I'm wondering how easy it is to go about creating one.

Hypothesis for creating a Meme:

1. Learn how to be both funny and insightful.
2. choose one of the following:
a. select a pop culture event that resonates with a large audience immediately following a highly publicized occurrence; ie. Kanye slams Taylor Swift on the MTV music awards, Christian Bale loses his cool and spews profanity at a set hand.
b. choose a niche on the long tail that harbors a group followers who are passionate about something obscure or interesting; ie. LOL cats, Om nom nom creatures

3. Create an overlay that calls out something insightful or recognizes the essence or true nature of whatever topic you have chosen.

4. Make it easy and enjoyable for others to get creative and manufacture their own overlays that allow them to express their creativity and take part on what might be called "the inside joke."

Humanitarian Design

2010-01-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

It's something all of us entrepreneurs and innovators should be thinking about. Not only how to make a profit but how to help people and how to take care of the planet. It's where capitalism meets altruism. Well Emily Piloton and Project H are at the forefront of making great things with not only great form and function but designed especially with social responsibility in mind.

What if we refocus our business models to think about doing good instead of just looking at the bottom line? It's not a new concept, but rather a business model that has taken some time to prove viable. There is money to be made even when a company is doing great things for other people and the planet.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Emily Pilloton

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Economy

Modeling the Mind: the singularity series

2009-12-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

We're on the path to artificial intelligence surpassing that of human intelligence within roughly 20 years but scientists are re-thinking the path to singularity. There are a lot of different pieces required to re-constructing the thought process and now researchers are trying to find a way to integrate them all.

Although it's pretty nerdy, I've always been fascinated with figuring out how to get a computer to think, solve problems and function like a human mind. These two paragraphs are from Re-Thinking Artificial Intelligence, an MIT article about how scientists are re-thinking and re-approaching an issue that once resolved will bring us one step closer to successfully completing a Turing test, and ultimately singularity.

"After modeling the thought process, the second area of focus is memory. Much work in AI has tried to impose an artificial consistency of systems and rules on the messy, complex nature of human thought and memory. “It’s now possible to accumulate the whole life experience of a person, and then reason using these data sets which are full of ambiguities and inconsistencies. That’s how we function — we don’t reason with precise truths,” he says. Computers need to learn “ways to reason that work with, rather than avoid, ambiguity and inconsistency."

"And the third focus of the new research has to do with what they describe as “body”: “Computer science and physical science diverged decades ago,” Gershenfeld says. Computers are programmed by writing a sequence of lines of code, but “the mind doesn’t work that way. In the mind, everything happens everywhere all the time.” A new approach to programming, called RALA (for reconfigurable asynchronous logic automata) attempts to “re-implement all of computer science on a base that looks like physics,” he says, representing computations “in a way that has physical units of time and space, so the description of the system aligns with the system it represents.” This could lead to making computers that “run with the fine-grained parallelism the brain uses,” he says."

RedScout's Spur - Imaginative Solution Providers

2009-12-02T10:10:00.000-08:00

The aspiration for planners should be "did I create a new reality and will people look at the world in a different way?"

Advertisers need to discriminate because you can't appeal to everyone. Planning is moving from the voice of the consumer to someone who adds imagination, creativity and a solution to a brand or communication problem.

Redscout presents Spur — Episode 3: Are planners glorified researchers? from Redscout on Vimeo.

Faris' 6 Step Approach to Social Media

2009-12-02T09:50:00.000-08:00

Be Nice or Leave

1. Listen - market research, engage cognition
2. Respond - conversations about you are directed to you, customer service, being ignored creates backlashes
3. Nurture - support/ add value to communities that already exist.
4. Create Social Objects - produce something to pull people together and give them something to do.
5. Be Transparent - Expect everything you say to spread immediately
6. Join the conversation - cater a conversation to the interests of other parties.

The vision for social media: Dissolve the boundaries between companies and media.

The future of Digital is Telepathy

2009-11-24T14:35:00.000-08:00

Jason Harris is a great story teller and his recent work isn't an exception. It seems he's experiencing a Faustian dilemma, living in nature and currently attempting to elude technology.

In a moment of reflection he makes an attempt to predict where the digital yellow brick road is headed, "For the last 100 years—from letters, to phones, to faxes, to emails, to chats, to texts, to tweets—communication has been getting shorter and faster, but we are approaching a terminal velocity. Most online experiences are made, like fast food, to be cheap, easy, and addictive: appealing to our hunger for connection but rarely serving up nourishment. Brief gestures of communication can be beautiful, but can also be shallow. So what will happen next? Will we stop at the tweet, or will we bounce back in the other direction, suddenly craving more depth? I’d bet on the latter."

I guess this begs the question, what is the point of communication? A necessary process to create, an attempt to ward off loneliness, or something else? And no matter what the answer may be, does it make sense that a page worth of tweets communicating someone's thoughts over the day is less insightful or meaningful than a page of contemplated thought.

Engaging Your Audience & Learning From Simulated Mistakes

2009-11-19T14:40:00.000-08:00

People use the term interactive pretty loosely and so I've been wondering what it takes to be truly engaging. I recently had a discussion with the creative director of the site World Without Oil and think this kind of interactivity experience has a lot to offer.

About the game: "WORLD WITHOUT OIL simulated the first 32 weeks of a global oil crisis. It established a citizen “nerve center”to track events and share solutions. Anybody could play by creating a personal story – an email or phone call, or for advanced users a blog post, video, photo, podcast, twitter, whatever – that chronicled the imagined reality of their life in the crisis. The WWO site at worldwithoutoil.org links to all these stories. The game encouraged excellence with daily awards and recognition for authentic and intriguing stories."

Understanding behavior. The game sought to uncover solutions to a problem before it actually occurred. The implications are tremendous because we've learned that it's very difficult to change human behavior, and exponentially more difficult when it's on a large scale.

"WWO didn’t only “raise awareness” about oil dependence. By creating a simple nonpartisan framework that focused thousands of people from all walks of life upon this common issue, WWO sparked peer learning and inquiry-based exploration of the roots, outcomes, and prevention of an oil crisis. By “rousing our democratic imagination,” WWO fostered deep engagement and changed people’s lives. Via a game, players made themselves better citizens."

Most often we have to learn from our mistakes before we can change, well what if we could simulate mistakes so we didn't have to suffer the pain of experience real mistakes. An interactive experience like WWO has this kind of potential. "WORLD WITHOUT OIL is a serious game for the public good. WWO invited people from all walks of life to contribute “collective imagination” to confront a real-world issue: the risk our unbridled thirst for oil poses to our economy, climate and quality of life. It’s a milestone in the quest to use games as democratic, collaborative platforms for exploring possible futures and sparking future-changing action. WWO set the model for using a hot net-native storytelling method (‘alternate reality’) to meet civic and educational goals. Best of all, it was compellingly fun."

It seems to me that there's a opportunity to create more simulated interactive experiences that truly engage people; to learn, to brand, to understand.

Interactive Planning

2009-10-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

I attended Planningness last week and want to share some of the great ideas that came out of it. Thanks for a wonderful event Mark.

The best part was the thought provoking and interactive sessions. We had the opportunity to listen to wonderful speakers and then get creative.

One of my favorite videos that came out of one session is the one below, the Failure Awards. In work and life we are intimidated to do the unexpected because of risk of failure. Well what if we celebrated failure as a required part of the journey on the road to success? What if we were open about failure and offered to learn from one another's mistakes? It is a novel concept and one seriously worth considering.

The event was filled with insightful people and there were somegreat discussions; here are all the videos of the presentations and the decks that were presented.

Remix Culture

2009-10-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

Great documentary featuring Girl Talk, Lessig and a few others who want to foster a society that isn't controlled by corporate law, but rather embraces creativity fueled by past culture.

Remix Manifesto
1. Culture always builds on the past
2. The past always tries to control the future
3. Our future is becoming less free.
4. To build free societies you must limit the control of the past.

Tech Crunch 50

2009-09-17T09:45:00.001-07:00

Tech Crunch 50 is an event where 50 pre-selected entrepreneurs have 5 minutes to pitch their idea to a panel of judges who evaluate and criticize their business ideas. This year they streamed the conference live and I thought it would be worth while mentioning a few companies that stood out and who are providing services or products that I will use.

Lissn - Lissn is a communication tool to help connect the people of the world through live, real-time conversations. Lissn lets the user see what the most important discussions are in the world, their local community and amongst their friends. TechCrunch Lissn pitch video Lissn website

Clicxtr -Clixtr turns smartphones into smartcameras by leveraging location based technologies and the rapidly improving quality of camera phones. Clixtr users create events, upload mobile photos, and, for the first time ever, create real-time event photo streams with the users around them. Photos and events are public and can be followed live on the web or directly on mobile devices.
TechCrunch Clixtr pitch video
Clixtr website

Chyngle - Chyngle is the first mobile location-based service to provide a venue branded ultra-local experience for users to interact and exchange value with each other and their surroundings within what we call Ultra-Local Environments Chyngle website

Red Beacon - Red Beacon allows consumers who need a service performed to find and interact with local businesses and professionals.
Tech Crunch Red Beacon pitch video
Red Beacon website

True Innovation

2009-09-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

Below are 3 great discussions by 3 great minds on innovation. They will challenge you to question your process, environment and what you think about the conventions of innovation. Godin, Kawasaki & Semier are the rockstars of innovation and I think they bring home the bacon in these 3 speeches; here's what I took away.

Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain
- You're all creative but your job isn't to "be creative", it's "to ship" or bring your product or service to market. Thrashing early benefits your business because it means you won't sabatoge your work right before your about to send it to market. This human tendency is a primal impulse that we must fight so that we can be successful.
- We are all creative. We try to change the status quo, we come up with a creative idea but never commit to it or execute.
- Being a genius is getting the lizard brain to shut up long enough to over come resistance.
- Do a lot of thinking, scenario analysis, arguement & discussion up front because once you get over the initial hump you are going to finish (ship.)

Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain from 99% on Vimeo.

Guy Kawasaki: 10 Steps to Innovation
1. Make Meaning. Decide you want to change the world for the better. This will make you money, bring you success.
2. Create a succinct mantra. It should be based on why your product should exist. It should be 3 words in length.
3. Jump to the next Curve. Define business in terms of a benefit you provide instead of what you do. True innovation happens because you jump to the next curve not because you get 10% better on your current curve.
4. Roll the D.I.C.E. Is your product: Deep, Intelligent, Complete, Elegant?
5. Don't Worry, Be Crappy. Don't make your product perfect, at a certain point just ship it. Get it out and then start to make revisions.
6. Let 100 Flowers Blossom. Unitended people will use your product in unintended ways. Embrace it.
7. Polarize people. Create passion in people. Some people will love your product or service, some will hate it. It's ok not to be loved by everyone.
8. Churn. Improve your product/service. Create better versions by listening to how people want it to change.
9. Niche yourself. Find a specific market, be unique and be valuable.
10. 10 / 20 /30 Rule. Great communication is simple communication. When creating a ppt deck use 10 slides, present yourself in 20 minutes and don't use a font smaller than 30 point.

Ricardo Semier
It's been 100 years, why haven't we invented a car that parallel parks by turning the wheels 90 degrees perpendicular to the curb? Why hasn't office structure ever changed, why do we still work 9 to 5 sitting in a cube? Why do decisions have to be based on metrics instead of intuition even when intuition works so surprisingly well and metrics are such poor indicators? Here are a few other points made in Semier's 45 minute talk.
- Intuition: When playing chess Big Blue can calculate 4 million possible chess moves in the one minute time limit it has to make each move; yet it still loses to a chess pro who can only think 4 or 5 moves ahead. This analogy equates to business because the human mind has the capacity to make great decsions but corporations do not tolerate decisions made on intuition.
- The capitalist model rewards growth but growth has never been related to the success of a company.

A Tool For Artists and Entrepreneurs

2009-09-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

Kickstarter is a 2.0 tool currently in beta that is allowing creative folks to fund raise for their entrepreneurial efforts.

http://www.kickstarter.com/

PC Fights Back

2009-09-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

Why do brands resonate with people and how are they conflated with culture? This recent Times article PC Fights Back takes a closer look at how Microsoft is battling Apple after the past few years of Apple Ads laying a smack down on the Evil Empire. Faris talks about how Brands are like myths and Ducksworth points out that “brands enable us to make sense and create meaning for ourselves in the social world of consumption in which we participate.”

Lee Clow and Jobs have done things less conventionally and they have manufactured a brand that is based on both innovation and great story telling. But how does perceived power vs. real power play into the equation? What I mean is that Microsoft has a commanding 90% market share of the computing industry and they have stayed out of the marketing game. So much so that some say they feel bad for the poor geeky PC guy who get's tossed around in all the Apple ads. So even though Apple seems like such a dominant brand, history will tell a different story.

The fact is Apple is currently innovative, Microsoft was, but it certainly doesn't have a brand presence anymore. The story we tell and the brand we manufacture as advertisers is only as strong as the product it is supports. McCann's “The Wow Starts Now” could have been a great story had Vista actually wowed people. Now Crispin's strategy is that a PC is for everyone and it's reasonably priced. Great, the problem is that Apple is innovating and we're not seeing anything new from Microsoft. It doesn't matter how creative Crispin gets, their story is still going to have trouble packing a punch.

Good brands incite aspiration. All I'm asking is that Microsoft step up to the plate and get back into the innovation game. Is that too much to ask?

The Art of Manufacturing Feelings

2009-08-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

It's Not All About the Stats

2009-07-29T23:02:00.000-07:00

Americans love statistics, they love to see their results and understand logically and mathematically how they were achieved. It's why we wear heart rate monitors and love fantasty football leagues. I'm one of those people too, I use garminconnect.com to track every bike ride I take so I know my training zones, it's like each ride is a carefully mapped time trial. And I recently used mapmyride.com to compare my cycling rides with riders around the US and the elite riders in the Tour.

I guess that's why it was refreshing to see something new from the sporting industry. I really like the way Versus disrupts the stereotypical approach the US has towards sports - it's about passion, not the stats. It's aspirational and if I hadn't dropped cable like a bad habit I'd probably watch Versus a bit more.

How to Sell yourself

2009-07-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

So check this out, Allison Weiss is looking for some funding for her new EP. She's using kickstart, an initiative where creative people can try to fund their artistic endeavors by creating customized products and provide them for the people who donate to their cause. She's breaking from convention and trying to become a successful musician without the help of big media conglomerates. According to Faris she's already raised $6G.

I think it's smart because she's branding herself and allowing her fans to get what they want most, a little piece of her. It helps that she's succint, funny, easy on the eyes and edits her short well. I like her approach because she's targeting her niche on the longtail by making herself available to the people who like her and her music most.

Alternative Uses

2009-07-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

Alternative Uses isn't exactly the most design savvy website but the concept is a smart one. The premise is creating a community around devising ways to find alternative uses for existing products. Can you get by using your drill as an electric mixer or how about using coffee grounds instead of fertilizer, what about using olive oil to lubricate your bike chain; why not consult Alternative Uses and see what the community says? Much like Instructables it's a great way to propogate smart ideas. You can search by uses or by products and of course submit your own if you have a great idea.

Waste = Food

2009-06-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

A designer and chemist who are taking sustainability to the next level. This documentary is about true recycling and up-cycling, a way to reuse products that restores them to their raw form. Check out the Nike Consider that snaps apart and other products that are made to be fully biodegradable. Some of the key attributes are:
- these products can be fully disassembled
- made from non-toxic chemicals
- are designed to be cradle to cradle.

Entrepreneurship 3.0

2009-06-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

Today's mashup consists of a talk on innovation by Charles Leadbeater and an idea I read in "The Four Hour Workweek," by Timothy Ferris. We live in a world where innovation is just as likely to come about from a professional amateur (someone who is passionate about their "hobby") as it is to come from an innovation or R&D department. Just watch Klunkerz (a doucmentary about the origins of mountainbiking) to get an idea of how this happens. The mountain bike was created out of a real need by a bunch of guys who loved biking in the woods out in Marin, not by the R&D division of Trek.

So how is the approach to business evolving, well I think there is a shift in how a business interacts with the market place and all of it's users/consumers. An entrepreneur can provide people with a platform, tools and some rules and then orchestrate a conversation that stimulates creativity; it doesn't seem like a new idea but it's disruptive to the conventional work place. It's a bit analagous to the open source movement because when passionate people are empowered they are extrememly productive. Even less conventional is allowing the consumer to create content linking the community of users with the company and in essence creating a two way relationship between business and consumer. It's a concept that has made Threadless, Etsy and the Apple iPhone application store a huge success. This is a business model that I think is going to continue becoming increasingly popular.

Quirky

2009-06-11T19:22:00.001-07:00

Quirky has some great implications for entrepreneurial minded designers. As a designer and entrepreneur I know that production & communications are a significant part of the equation if you want to make a profit from your product. If you're more an idea person, a creative mind who's time is best spent thinking up an idea and moving on to the next one then Quirky could be a great way to make your creativity come to life.

DIY urban farming

2009-05-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

Growing plants on my roof is like trying to grow plants in space. For a long time I've been planning to build a green house on my roof in San Francisco. I've tried growing a few plants without the protection and they last two or three days before the wind sucks the life out them. So I was excited to see this new DIY approach to farming that uses a hydration system to grow plants in your windows.

The plan seems limiting at the moment, but what if we adapted the idea slightly and created a facade for a house that enabled plants to grow up the entire front of your house or apartment. With the use of hydroponics and a protective, greenhouse like cover I can see this as a real possibility.

reclaiming public space

2009-05-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

As you stroll city streets you'll realize that construction sites an other areas around town are plastered with repeated advertisements. A large majority of these postings are unauthorized. Streetfest realized this and decided to do something about it. Their mission is to reclaim public space for corporations with private interests, public space should be used by the public.

Ethnography: Project US

2009-05-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

The US has some pretty aweful stereotypes. I can't wait to see how their destroyed and encouraged. Interview Project is David Lynch's new project to get a bit more intimate with people across the nation.

If it sounds interesting here's a clip from one an interview in Montana.

Happiness

2009-05-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

What makes us happy?

Dr. George Vaillant shares insights from his decades of following the Grant Study men.

Invest In Energy: Wind or Solar?

2009-05-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's great to have information before the other guy, especially investment advice but doesn't this seem like a no brainer. Alright, there hasn't been a defining moment that has locked wind in as the energy of the future, but there have been some strong indications that wind gaining momentum. I first started noticing the shift to wind when I listened to this NPR talk about T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oil tycoon, who got out of oil so he could invest in wind technology. Over the past five years the average growth in new installations has been 27.6 per cent each year. In the forecast to 2013 the expected average annual growth rate is 15.7 per cent.

Private investors aren't the only one driving new energy initiatives, the Obama administration is also creating a shift in an attempt to facilitate innovation, progress and employment in the new energy sector. The Social Investment Forum, is a good plac to start. It's a national membership association that focuses on socially and environmentally responsible companies and it tracks their financial performance.

Maybe the answer isn't wind or solar, but rather funds that emphasize alternative energy. Wind and solar don't quite seem to be in a race, but it's surprising to see that the wind power market penetration is expected to reach 3.35 per cent by 2013 and 8 per cent by 2018.

Thinking for Good

2009-05-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

I've been surprised to discover that Taproot isn't as well known as I thought it was. For those of you not familiar Taproot is a non-profit that pairs professionals with other non-profits. The goal is to make it easier for smart people to volunteer their minds while giving to a company who needs a specific expertise. It's a great idea that has worked well for some time now. That's why I was excited to hear about Catapult a product design consultancy focusing on disadvantaged communities. It recognizes that many developing countries are exactly that, areas where progress is needed. Acknowledging these issues and setting out to engineer solutions is a noble cause and a great way to level the global playing field so that developing cultures can begin to innovate. Read more about the founder at dgoodr a blog of positive people and her work on the Hippo roller.

@ Yahoo! Video

Organic Foods have 4 times as many nutrients

2009-05-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

I always thought that the benefit of eating organic foods was mainly to reduce my consumption of chemicals and pesticides. I recently learned that organic foods are a lot healthier because they contain four times as many nutrients as non-organic foods. Apparently this is because organic foods take longer to grow and have deeper and more elaborate root systems which allow the plant to absorb more nutrients. This is an interesting concept which raises concerns about new farming techniques that place an emphasis on growing such large quantities at the expense of the quality of the food.

A New Way to Learn by Encouraging Cognitive Development

2009-04-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

This is an exciting time for the field of education. Over the past two decades we have witnessed an explosive growth in information. The amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist and to use technologies that haven't been invented. Finally, we are starting to see educational techniques that are catching up to this new wealth of knowledge and Scientific Learning is leading the charge.

What does this all mean? Well for starters it means that every child should focus on the core cognitive skills that enable them to develop a more efficient brain. It means thinking about the brain as a muscle that must be exercised on a consistent basis and how “brain plasticity” can help a child to learn more efficiently. It means that we must think beyond preparing students to be great test takers and instead prepare them to be great thinkers and creative problem solvers.

On April 25th, “The New Science of Learning: Brain Fitness for Kids” will air locally on KQED Public Television 9 at 7 p.m. For more on the advances being made in brain plasticity (check it out at BrainFitnessforKids.com). The approach is a refreshing new way to look at educational development. Education is about problem solving, innovation and creativity, yet we don't have methodologies to teach children these skills. We can, however, train the brain to process information the same way we train legs to run a race or fingers to play the piano. We can create actual physical changes in the brain that result in quick and substantial gains in language and reading skills by improving cognitive skills.

The program features the latest information from scientists and researchers around the country. The program also features science and technology from Scientific Learning (www.scilearn.com), including the newly launched BrainSpark Learning consumer offering. Scientific Learning has engineered products based on more than 30 years of research on how the brain learns. Their BrainSpark online learning programs were created from the Fast ForWord® family of products, which have been used in more than 5,200 schools across the country. Designed for children ages 5 to 13, the BrainSpark exercises are designed to produce lasting improvements in brain fitness, focusing on five cognitive building blocks critical to learning success: speed, processing rate, attention, recall and memory, and knowledge (SPARK).

The BrainSpark Learning software accelerates learning by developing the child’s brain to process more efficiently. These products are designed to be fun and engaging and are intended to be used 30 minutes a day, five days a week. The software is designed to provide feedback and put parents in control of the child's learning. The BrainSpark product is a tool for supporting and motivating children to reach their full potential while creating a foundation for a better mind.

Musical Success In A Post Record Label World

2009-04-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

Trent Reznor of NIN talks about monetizing creativity as a musician post record label.

Pyschology of Connection

2009-04-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

The psychology of buying fascinates me, especially when it's based on making connections through touch. Our curiosity might get us in trouble but just think about all those connections we're making.

I grew up with family members who shopped as a hobby and realize how shopping is ingrained in our culture. Like it or not, it's how some of us find satisfaction, occupy our time and fund other parts of our culture. My father and I always laughed at our efforts to outsmart commercials and long before DVR we would talk about how the mute button was destroying advertising. How ironic now that I'm a brand strategist. It's even a little sad that now I'm blogging about my favorite spots. My only hope is that I can evolve what used to bore me. If advertising is here to stay, why not design stories that are engaging and entertaining. With that in mind here are a few ways to communicate better.

This article in Time discusses how touching an object creates a relationship and makes you more likely to buy it. The phenomenon is based on research of the "endowment effect", which states that owning an object creates more value in the mind of a consumer. This is based on the premise that touching an object makes you feel more connected to it. This segues nicely into another article, designing to sell, which lists successful user experience techniques. More specifically they talk about trials as some of the best strategies to lure customers. In an online world we can't always touch a product but we can create an experience that is as close to touching it as possible.

As online selling continues to evolve I think we're going to start seeing techniques for developing a connection. Right now that may mean more pictures, or techniques to create a deeper level of engagement and interaction. In the future it may mean using a holographic projector create a 3 dimensional replica on your desk. It would be great to experience a product by visualizing it as if it really existed

Embracing Your Brand

2009-03-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

If you're a green company that is some how involved with the sustainability movement it's important that your behavior is as green as possible, right? Well a company called Nothing just upped the ante. They've created their entire office out of cardboard. There was a tremendous amount of design that was required because it's extremely asthetic, but an investment well worth it when it comes to proving you're dedication is 100%

In the World of Art, How Do We Determine Who Has Skill?

2009-03-11T09:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I came across this loosely written article about How Art Killed Our Culture. I found the comments to be more enlightening than the article itself, but the most interesting thought was one that surfaced around the idea of post-capitalist art. It raised an interesting question, which is how has pop art been a part of the art movement?

Some have questioned the talent required to produce art created by artists like Worhol and Matthew Barney. It can be debated whether culture reflects art or if art reflects culture, which led me to wonder if a lack of innovation and creativity in society is reflected in the past decade of art. I've been confused by works in the MoMa like foam sprayed on a wall or drawings Barney has done while suspended by a harness. I appreciate abstract art and I want it to push boundries, but I also want art featured in a museum to showcase talent, thought, hardwork and skill. It's no wonder our generation has such an infatuation with Banksy; he not only creates thoughtful works that challenge decisions in society, but I also seldom hear someone comment "I could have done that," when looking at his art.

My relationship with art has been an entertaining one. I was elected into the art enrichment program when I was in elementary school for my clayworking. Early on in college many of my peers were appreciative of my crafty skills that yielded free pizzas & "safe passage." I was surprised that so many people couldn't use scissors to cut a straight line. Later in college, after taking a few drawing & digital art classes I began concepting with Photoshop. After graduating I created sculptures and experimented with mixed media painting. Then I shifted to film with the advent of cheap cameras and software like Final Cut. Although I've loved producing work outside the realm of traditional art, a good portion of what I've created has come from skills that I've honed through the years. Most recently I've worked in the field of engineering and have realized how my creativity translates from art to building. This is my journey through the world of art and despite my dedication my art isn't in a museum; and rightfully so, for the same reason I'm not a pro cyclist competing in the tour de France. I guess my reason for this post is to question how we determine that an artist is truly talented. The line seems to be clear in business and athletics, but what about art?

Monitoring your Carbon Footprint

2009-03-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

I just took my friend Reid's survey about climate control. It got me thinking about how my behavior affects global warming and what I am or can do about it. Shortly after I came across this report by KQED on how children are using their cellphone to monitor their carbon footprint.

I think it's a great idea because it engages younger audiences with the intention of making an impression about the perils of global warming. More importantly it empowers children and sets them down a path that seeks to change antiquated behavior.

programable matter

2009-03-03T12:31:00.001-08:00

Is this for real because I feel like I just stepped into the future?

Mining Thought Streams

2009-02-18T23:11:00.000-08:00

Over the past week Twitter has replaced Google and Wikipedia as my tool for search. Twitturly has been bumped to the top of my list for places to find current events, competing with Digg & popurls and recently learned about Twittersphere that provides a similar service. I monitor Twitterfic and use it to converse with friends just as frequently as IM.

Twitter is expanding at a ridiculous rate and that is giving rise to the notion of mining thought streams. Access to a real-time search engine that allows you to search what is happening right now is extremely valuable. It's a database of intentions that allows us to map our culture but also makes it easier to find (and release) trends and current events. There's a real opportunity for expanding the capability for searching Twitter and I'm looking for them to release an application that allows users to sift, sort, track and anlyze tweets.

Generation G

2009-02-17T13:48:00.000-08:00

Creative vs. selling out, capitalist vs. socialist, greed vs. community service : these opposing forces stand at the forefront of american culture. The greed described in Wallstreet has become very real and personal. Now the assumption that successful business and doing good are conflicting practices is about to change.

Generation G "captures the growing importance of 'generosity' as a leading societal and business mindset as consumers are disgusted with greed and its current dire consequences for the economy." GOOD magazine, promotes a philosophy that aligns business with doing good. The Taproot Foundation, Planning for Good and other such organizations realize that non-profits need professional services and seek to connect volunteers with service programs.

These are great but the concept of Generation G is acknowledging that it isn't enough to volunteer on your free time. What if businesses ingrained this philosophy into their corporate mentality? Putting a $500K cap on the salaries of greedy execs is the beginning of a trend that will change the fundamental principles of how businesses operate.

Here are a few ways corporations are looking to join Generation G:
1. Co-Donate - customer collaboration Google's Project 10^100 is a good example
2. Eco-Generosity - a shift from simply offsetting carbon footprints to boosting the environment. Ecoigo aims for their green car service to be carbon positive and offset double the emissions of their trips
3. Free Love - companies offering free products or services. TripWolf offers free travel guides.
4. Brand Butlers - assist customers in smart, relevant, generous ways. IKEA let's customers use bikes with free trailers to carry products home.
5. Perkonomics - brands that offer perks for preferred customers
6. Tryvertising- allowing consumers to decide on products based on experience, not messages.
7. Random Acts of Kindness - everything from picking up the tab to sending a surprise gift to loyal customers
8. Frigid No More - It’s about return policies that don’t require a receipt from loyal customers. It's what Seth calls learning how to lose. It’s about hotels not charging an extra night for that late checkout. It’s about ditching three-months-notice rules for a gym member who wants to cancel his membership due to illness.

Power meter

2009-02-10T20:43:00.001-08:00

Would you consume power differently if you could visualize how you currenlty use it? I'm a visual learning and it makes sense that it would be easier for me to change my behavior if I could see what areas need improvement.

Google's new power meter seems like it has the potential to change behavior. If I can analyze which of my appliances consume the most amounts of energy and when energy is more expensive then I should be able to better manage my consumption. I think this smart meter would be most effective when I can see my energy consumption in real time. If I can see my energy expenses accruing and then tweak my use, I'll at least be able to see when I'm wasteful. When I know how much I can reduce my energy bill by switching off lights and computers I'll have a greater incentive to walk around the house and make those adjustments. I also like the idea of knowing that I'm using an inefficient appliance. If my toaster or fridge are on the fritz and sucking back energy I want to know that it will actually save me money to buy new appliances.

Augmented Reality

2009-02-04T10:57:00.001-08:00

GE's new Smart Grid campaign produced by Sosia over at Goodby is moving interactive creative in the right direction. You interact with the branded content by printing out a "key" that is used to activate a 3D world that is produced in your webcam. You can blow into your microphone to engage the wind turbines.

Ultimately it's a fancy gimmick (as opposed to an interactive learning experience) that creates brand engagement, but I applaud the effort. It's great to see creatives moving the interactive space in the right direction. I'm still surprised that new episodes of online TV shows like LOST and The Office (if you haven't seen Stress Relief, watch it now; the first 15 minutes are ridiculous) are still using :30 spots. They're missing a huge opportunity to engage viewers with their brand by implementing interactive content. Hopefully ad shops are still playing catch-up and we'll start to see new content start to emerge.

Remix

2009-02-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

DJ's like Fatboy Slim have pioneered the music remix and Girl Talk has built a successful career on it. It's a huge part of video culture too because remixing is an entertaining way to make anything just a bit more ridiculous. It's also a forum for creativity because remixers pair audio samples with all sorts of visuals. Faris recently hired Eclectic Method for the NYC Twestival. They are the fore-fathers of mash-up have been affecting the way we experience media since back in the day. The most recent example of this phenomenon is a meltdown Christian Bale had on-set. It didn't take long for the Bale remixes to pour in.

It's interesting because we love to tell stories, extrapolate and exaggerate; and remixing is great for just that. But it's bigger than an entertaining video. This story is about driving creativity. I'm a proponent of the philosophy that good ideas come from good ideas. Well I guess I picked that up from Lawarance Lessig. He is well know for fighting for remix culture because new ideas come from remixing old ones. His book frames the problem as "a war between an old read-only culture, in which media megaliths sell copyrighted music and movies to passive consumers, and a dawning digital read-write culture, in which audiovisual products are freely downloaded and manipulated in an explosion of democratized creativity." So I guess the question is how do we promote an environment that encourages the rapid progression of ideas instead of stymiing it?

Lessig remixed on Colbert

Lessig @ TED

Christian Bale Melt-down Remixed

Smart Consumption - a new generation of savers

2009-02-02T12:50:00.000-08:00

Is your cart empty? Not if your an American.

Americans don't know how to spend or maybe they know too well; and it's about time for our behavior to change. Here's the problem, we're tempted to spend every chance we get which has resulted in a large portion of us living from pay check to pay check. We are a nation of instant gratification because it's tough to delay what we can have now. The good thing is we've realized it. We're going through the process of figuring out how we can ween ourselves off our addiction to buying. For the purposes of qualifying this I've broken purchasing behaviors into four categories:

1. Impulsive consumption - I got this b/c it was a good deal, or it would make for a hilarious gift for someone.
2. Excessive consumption - I bought a third pair of sunglasses to match my back up purse.
3. Consumption for perceived happiness - This flatscreen is going to be so much more aesthetically pleasing in my living room, plus I watch so much TV this is actually a great investment.
4. Shopping as a hobby - My mom is coming to visit. We'll spend Saturday shopping and then hit the Moma or see a movie on Sunday if we're not making returns.

Ironically, I think this is a great idea for a brand campaign. In fact it's a plan that might even catch the attention of Elizabeth Anne Moore. Why? Because it aims to fundamentally change the way we sell and purchase goods. If the paradox of temptation tells us we shouldn't simply eliminate behavior with undesired results then we should take an approach that embraces what we'd like to change. Businesses are branding themselves as good for the environment, well what if they brand themselves as good for the long term economy.

The premise could be the root of a campaign for a tourism board or luxury good; "We're in a recession dummy, we're gonna be here for a while, you probably shouldn't be booking a trip to Austrailia right now..." More importantly the campaign would focus on smart shopping. Explaining how or if the product falls in line with an established budget, even encouraging the creation of one. Maybe they even facilitate the use of a phone application that enables consumers to prioritize purchases based on need and the consumers finances. This approach has the ability for a brand to transcend normal perceptions: "We're a brand that seeks to make your life better, whether it helps our bottom line or not." Ultimately we have to correct our habit of over-spending and under-saving and it seems advantageous if brands can align themselves with this philosophy.

Do you have a budget? If you do email it to me. I'd love to see what people think is a budget and how they think they should consume (and save.)

Tapping Creativity: The New Model For Advertising

2009-01-20T00:05:00.000-08:00

Fostering an online environment that rallies the creative type is gaining momentum. Online creative competitions don't exactly have large creative shops worried but maybe they should. I wonder how the post digital traditional agency is being challenged by these services that connect clients with a pool of motivated creative talent. A lot of agencies would laugh at the idea, but there's something to be said about tapping the talent of hungry creatives and brand enthusiasts.

Since Doritos asked its consumers to create a TV ad that aired during the super bowl, companies have been jumping on the bandwagon asking their consumers to create content. Most of it has resulted in an enormous pile of b-rated advertising. It's yielded a lot of work that is either off brief or amateurishly executed, but I recently came across a site that has polished its process and just may have a shot at creating the kind of content that matters. Design 21 is a social design network that uses its website to host a variety of competitions. It enables designers, art directors, copy writers and creative thinkers to select projects and submit work. It's organized well and I'm most impressed with the briefs (here's one for FSC) and amount of planning to set up these projects. They also have an interactive forum enabling participants to vote on designs and view the winners and finalists. The ideas and creative work certainly spans a wide range of talent and experience, but a lot of it has been surprisingly impressive.

I think their model is a lucrative idea for a few reasons. First off they take advantage of the accessibility of tools like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Creative Suite. These products are making it easier for motivated individuals to create high quality deliverables with relative ease. More importantly, it harnesses the creative ideas of product enthusiasts and key influencers. These are the people who are dedicated to a product and stand at the epicenter of the brand and they have the best chance of describing it well to others. Or maybe you're of the persuasion that brands will start marketing themselves....

Culture Is Shaped By the Marketing World

2009-01-19T15:37:00.000-08:00

This is an annoying observation but there are a lot of smart and influential marketers who shape the way we think about our culture. Since good ideas come from good ideas I wanted to share the blogs that inspire me. Here's a list of the top 150 marketing blogs as defined by a Twitter search.

There are a lot that I didn't recognize, but here are my favorites:
Noah Brier - http://www.noahbrier.com/
Russell Davies- http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/
Seth Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Faris Yakob - http://farisyakob.typepad.com/

Telling a great story

2009-01-19T15:08:00.000-08:00

We all love pretty pictures and it's the reason why interactive media is so successful. Here's a great model created by New York Times to illustrate and explain how US Airways Flight 1549 went down and was rescued. This news model packs a powerful punch. It's informative, visually stimulating and an efficient system for delivering content.

planned / perceived obsolescence

2009-01-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

We live in a consumer world and as much as I'm annoyed by it I have to admit I'm caught up in it. I'm over the phase of disposing every possession I own like Chris McCandless from Into the Wild, but I still think that our culture needs to do some re-evaluation. Michael Moore is pretty famous for saying media breeds fear and leads us to security through consumerism. The US loves shopping and watching TV, in fact the story of stuff video describes how US culture is defined by the "work, watch, shop treadmill." What's most interesting about their video is how business has designed products for planned obsolescence.

Innovation fatigue plagues our culture. In fact the streets of San Francisco are riddled with discarded technology; TV's, computers and fax machines line our curbs. We're buying new products so quickly we don't know what to do with the old ones. Don't get me wrong, the problem here isn't innovation, in fact I'm proud to be at the forefront and like being an influencer. The problem is that companies design products for obsolescence. The film makes a great point, a vast majority of products are designed for disposal when it's very possible to swap out parts instead of discarding an entire item. Cuba's Yank Tank industry is a great example of being resourceful in an effort to conserve materials.

I think we need to rethink how we design products to expand their lifestyle and create a more sustainable and responsible way to be consumers. I have an elementary school science teacher who is convinced that automotive companies purchased the patents for materials that would make cars extremely safe and nearly industructable. He claims that insurance companies wouldn't have a purpose if the technology was used and I think the same applies to the consumer goods industry. What if we made computers that allowed us to swap out old motherboards or appliances made replacement parts readily accessible?

Citizen Journalism

2009-01-15T15:31:00.001-08:00

I knew about the plane crash on the Hudson 30 minutes before CNN & NYtimes posted it on their website because of Twitter and was able to discover more using their search feature. There's more value than people give credit in this service that increases the ability to share information

Twitter enables search, but does anyone know of a Twitter current events page or application? It seems like there's a continued need to use Twitter to link the little guy to the mainstream. Or maybe Twitter will start making money by selling friends.

Make TV

2009-01-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

I've attended the past 2 Maker Fairs and it's been an amazing resource for engineers and innovators. As DIY culture goes mainstream Make's is broadening their audience and have released their first episode of a series called Make TV. This first episode highlights Cyclcide who supplied creatively constructed bikes that we rode at the Maker Fair and Coachella. Subscribe to their content, I'm sure it will be a good source of creative inspiration.

Maker Profile - Cyclecide from make magazine on Vimeo.

Brand Control

2009-01-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

Wonder why we're such a consumer culture? Maybe marketers have been one step ahead of consumers in understanding the science of marketing. This study has a few good insights into how brands permeate our subconscious.

"Brand choice turns out to be a largely unconscious process," says Tjaco Walvis, who led the one-and-a-half-year study. "But in that process, the brain behaves much like Google. It seems to use a set of rules called an algorithm to pick the brand from our memory that best and most reliably fits our functional and emotional needs at that particular moment. It behaves rationally, but in an unconscious way."

Based on the study, Mr. Walvis concludes that the brain's "algorithm" for brand choice has three elements.

Firstly, the brain selects the brand it has learned is best able to satisfy our biological and cultural goals. We unconsciously select the brand that is the most uniquely rewarding, based on its associations with our goals and the brain's reward centers (e.g. the dopamine system).

Secondly, the brain selects the brand that has shown most frequently in the past that it is able to fulfill these needs. Coherent brands that repeat their promise are more likely to be chosen. Volvo, Coca-Cola and Disney are examples of coherent brands.

Thirdly, the brain selects the brand it has interacted with most intensely in the past. Brand participation creates numerous new connections in our brain, facilitating that brand's retrieval. Nike Plus is an example of strong participation concept.

Brain Works Like Google, New Study Finds - Metals News.com

BioMimicry

2008-12-29T21:23:00.000-08:00

2009 is already becoming the year of innovation. The Rockafellas kept thousands employed after the Great Depression with their passion for innovation. On the book front Market Rebels was recently released and talks about innovation acceptance. So have you considered your next innovation? Have you tried out biomimicry?

BioMimicry is on the rise and a smart way to approach the process of inventing. Reverse engineering isn't a new concept, but stealing from nature is a smart tactic every great innovator should keep on the back burner.

I don't want to make water wicking windows though, I'm talking about the more challenging concepts like creating a flying device devised from hummingbird wings, or creating an apparatus that allows a human to breathe underwater. These ideas are pretty far reaching but a lot of innovations currently in development are taking advantage of this strategy and making great progress.

Video Twitter: 12seconds.tv

2008-12-21T23:20:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought Twitter was starting to gain some momentum the next new thing arrives. 12seconds.tv

Now you can video blog, from your 'puter or celly with video that's 12 seconds in duration. It's the beginning of every second of everyone's life being recorded. I also like Eyejot, Qik & Seesmic, but this is the first tool that positions itself as a form of microblogging.

oh just playing some queen on 12seconds.tv

Mind Bites

2008-12-19T00:44:00.000-08:00

Great quotes w/ an enjoyable visual display

Culture Breakdown: Indirect communication

2008-12-15T17:14:00.000-08:00

Good films always have two layers. The first layer represents what you see and hear: character, events and story. The second layer reveals motive, emotion, insight, a character's moral fiber and their life philosophy. Linking these two worlds is what makes a good film great. The same holds true for personal expression as well as branding and communication.

Can you communicate your desires without directly stating your intentions?

Expressing yourself indirectly has the powerful of bringing proving what you want instead of simply stating it. It exudes authenticity because it requires knowledge and mastery, which is tough to fake.

Lets say you want a new job. You join LikeMind on Facebook and set out to network in the hopes of getting an interview. You show up at the event and you don't describe who you or even mention you're looking for a job. You offer up interesting ideas and add insight with a touch of humor. You aren't networking, you're branding yourself. It sounds like advice straight out of "How to Win Friends and Influence People," but the truth is there is something powerful about avoiding the obvious. It is a tactic that allows you to brush off an air of desperation.

Or let's say you're a marketer and want to create buzz about your knew products and do some consumer research. The best way to turn people off or even piss them off is by trying to sell your product. It's because you're peddling something; but what if you tried to connect with a consumer out of genuine interest? In brand research some of the most interesting insights have come from conversations that consumers have with each other. It makes so much more sense to design a blog or a website that fosters a community and allows you to interact with your consumers. It engages the consumer and genuinely allows them to impact a product or service. It's this authentic collaboration that allows the consumer to shape the company to their needs.

The New News Formula

2008-12-14T12:07:00.000-08:00

What if you could request the news stories you want reported on? The newspaper business has struggled since the proliferation of the internet and we've yet to see how the news business will evolve. We've become disillusioned with big news conglomerates driven by a corporate agenda and we've become familiar with M. Moore's 'media breeds fear' and 'fear drives consumerism theory,' so it's refreshing to see a new news service that is so pure in form.

Spot.us democratizes the news by allowing the public to suggest and vote on the news they'd like researched and reported. I think it's a great idea because it allows the public to direct journalism. Spot.us currently provides the architecture for the public to pay for the stories they'd like to have researched. They can also suggest "tips" that provide leads for the staff of journalists. Once a story is fully funded a journalist hits the field and writes the story.

I think it's a crafty model that could be further evolved. Future services might be based on the Digg model allowing the public to vote for instead of pay for their news. It might also include a more interactive way to suggest and discuss tips on issues that should be covered. Broowaha is a good example of this kind of citizen journalism. So then my question is will these new formats also use an advertising based model to pay for quality journalists? The answer naturally seems like it would be yes; that is, I don't see myself paying large lump sums to fund individual news stories; but we have to find a way to support the journalists.

Spot.Us - Community Funded Reporting Intro

Religion Underground - Super Sunday

2008-12-12T09:36:00.000-08:00

I've never seen ravers with such enthusiasm. In fact these Baptists would put any glow stick wearing, fake ball throwing, break dancer to shame.

Personal Space

2008-12-10T21:07:00.001-08:00

There's all sorts of personal space. There's personal space in a office, personal space while traveling, personal space while talking and we all have different comfort levels. Everyone reacts differently when their personal space is violated; like the other day I biked in a peloton for 4.5 hours bumping shoulders with my fellow riders. Then on the way home through the Marina I squeezed by an older woman on her beach cruiser and she started yelling at me because I was too close to her. Europeans typically are known for conversing at close proximity. Americans stand on average a few inches further away from one another. It's about comfort level and maybe Europeans have become accustomed to interacting in closer quarters. Is it possible that suburban sprawl has resulted in entitlement to more personal space in public places?

Office spaces create the most discrepancy and are revealing of a firms culture to a certain extent. What's with the cube design? Do we need to blocked off from others so we can pick our noses and surf the web at work? Why not open up the office place and foster an environment geared toward collaboration?

I think one of the most controversial places to violate someone's private space in a public setting is on an airplane. I've started asking people if I can put my seat back in an effort to better respect their space. It's a good policy but it can back fire. The most frustrating moment came when someone asked me to not put my seat back, but then the person in front of me jammed their seat into my lap; I was sandwiched on both ends. To make matters worse this person almost broke my laptop screen when it got wedged between the tray table and the table latch. Maybe there's a right and wrong time to violate personal space. Standing closer during a conversation creates intimacy, but jamming your seat into someone's lap should be done with finesse. Check out this instructional to prevent people from violating your space.

How To Keep Motherfu#%s From Putting Their Seats Back from fi5e on Vimeo.

Researching up the right tree

2008-12-02T10:12:00.000-08:00

The new Olso Opera house is a good example of good design resulting from being open minded. For a long time now architects and the city has fought to keep skateboarders off their property, but the architects of this building went against the grain. Wired reported that they actually enlisted the help of skaters to help them better understand the flow of the building to create a design that more seamlessly flows from earth to sky. The building was inspired by two icebergs colliding but a portion of the architectual research came from the help of skate enthusiasts who have a less conventional grasp of building design . I think it's a freshing idea for the space to embrace public use of its grounds instead of fighting it.

Realistic Recycling

2008-11-28T15:47:00.000-08:00

Green Bottle has created a new way to look at recycling. They recently released a bottle that recycles in a matter of weeks. A majority of our bottles for juice, oj, milk and soda are largely not biodegradable. They're made from oil and take upwards of 500 years to decompose. Green Bottle on the other hand consumes about a third of the energy required to make a plastic bottle and has a Carbon Footprint that is 48% lower than plastic.

Now don't get me wrong, this is a great idea and a step in the right direction but it's not enough of a disruption. Why don't grocery stores provide the option to refill bottles.? Instead of creating a bottle that takes less time to decompose, why not just innovate a way to keep the bottle out of the dump all together?

California experiences a Quake measuring 7.8

2008-11-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

What have you done to prepare for an earthquake? If you live in California it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when? We may not be able to hide but at least we can be prepared. Aftershock is an interactive earthquake simulation that will play out over the next few weeks. Participants react to various events that occur during and after a quake. It's an interesting large scale initiative to prepare residents for the real thing.

Oh yeah, the world is ending

2008-11-19T01:00:00.000-08:00

At the end of the year I like to predict what we'll see in the coming year. Actually it's still too early for this list, but it's not too early for my 2012 prediction. I have a feeling you're going to start seeing a lot of these in the weeks to come.

If you aren't familiar with the fear surrounding the Mayan calendar, it predicts that the world as we know it will end in the year 2012. It's a frighteningly interesting prediction because it's odd that a civilization ending in the 9th century would pick such a specific date for the apocalypse. People are paying attention because the Mayan culture made significant scientific advancements and developed an extremely accurate calendar, achievements that unlike Nostradamus' predictions are more substantiated.

The most common explanation of the end is based on disasters caused by sunspots and magnetic fields that will cause earth quakes, floods, etc. However there have been a few interesting discussions that have erupted in an effort to inspire change. Edward Burtynski talked at TED about how he's observed changes in civilazation and goes on to discuss China and how the rapid expansion of civilation is affecting our planet. His research is thorough in showing how rapidly we're depleting our limited supply of resources. He drives the point home when he discusses worldchanging.com and the effort that is still needed to get climate change back on course. His most interesting insight comes when he asks us our "progress" and how civilization is changing. Daniel Pinchbeck has his own hilarious theory about 2012. He dives off the deep end with post modern times and predicts that 2012 will usher in a signifcant advancement in civilization based around a more developed sense of conscious. Of course Hollywood doesn't miss a beat either, they've dumped the concept into another formfitting disaster film with a twist of aliens in 2012 the movie.

So many possibilties, they seem endless, Earthquakes, Evolution or Aliens. Or what about the Matrix hypothesis, we're just living in a computer simulation; or possibly Singualarity will come early and artificial intelligence will take over. Well my prediction is the obvious and unimaginative; we'll see a spike in gun, water and gasmask sales the week before 2012, just like we saw before Y2K; and then life will go on.

Edward Burtkynski - TED

Daniel Pinchbeck - Post Modern Times

2012 Film Teaser

Transport w/ Style

2008-11-17T10:31:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest gripes I've heard about biking as transportation is that you often arrive at your destination in a sweaty mess. Well I've found a solution to your problem. It's called Derringer. These motorized bicycles are going to be hotter than Vespas.

They've strategically partnered with Starck to create a design savvy bicycle that gives you that extra umph. I tried racing a guy on one of these up in Marin on my road bike and they're fast. The SF Bike Coalition recently announced that commuting by bike is up something crazy 22%. I have a feeling that number might increase now that getting places faster and avoiding traffic is going to be even easier and more stylish.

Robot suit

2008-11-15T18:32:00.000-08:00

The Japanese are at least 5 years ahead of the US in terms of technological advancement. So maybe it's a branding initiative of one Japanese firm called Cyberdyne to permeate US culture with it's newest product - Hal5. When I first read it I thought it was a joke, but Cyberdyne is for real. Cyberdyne is the company famously known in the film Terminator as creating the technology that led to robots taking over the world.

The main focus of this Japanese firm is to build suits that facilitate human movement. They provide seniors with the ability to stand and walk, they aid rescue workers in moving heavy debris and allow autoworkers to accomplish heavy moves with precision.

It seems like this recent progression has come about because of lighter robotic materials that also allow for strength without compromising speed or flexibility. Another firm called Applied Motion is working on robotic legs that allow humans to run up to 30 mph. Berekley Engineering is also working on a project that allows people to accomplish tasks with superhuman strength.

I guess it's not that much of a stretch to assume that this is a step in the direction of Singularity.

change is damn right!

2008-11-15T17:32:00.000-08:00

Awesome - our country is already moving in the right direction! I'm impressed with the web 2.0 execution Obama has undertaken to talk to his constituents. This is how government should be run. Change.gov went up the day he was elected and he already has a strong online presence. He has committed to posting a weekly video summarizing what the administration is working on and created a blog to discuss issues. I'm waiting for the interactive component with a system for feedback, blog responses and other ways to get the public involved - brilliant!

I just added the blog to my bookmarks for daily reading and it was a pretty good feeling.

http://change.gov/newsroom/blog/

Proud Citizen

2008-11-14T16:17:00.000-08:00

I am proud to be an American again - check.

I am proud to be a Californian - currently, no comment.

In a time when I'm once again happy where my country is headed I am unable to say the same about my state. One day my kids will laugh that I lived in a time when a majority voted down the right to gay marriage. There are so many reasons it's just wrong. Here are a few well articulated words by Keith Oberman and this is a link to Courage Campaign, a petition to change this decision.

Religious evolution

2008-11-13T08:12:00.000-08:00

TED has created a strategic initiative to combat creationists disapproving of science and evolution. Their strategy is brilliant because it unconventionally embraces religion and seeks to convince people to understand their religion and use it to do good things.

Religion is a way of life that has been shaping our world since the beginning of time. It's tied to ethnic and cultural roots; it drives our communities. It's probably the biggest reason why atheism has been so slow to catch on. I continue to be amazed at how religious followers have lost touch with the purpose of religion. In most instances I feel like people don't know why they do what their religion tells them, they just follow what everyone has done before them. It's no wonder Richard Dawkins released The God Delusion and talked at TED. At the root of religion is the Golden Rule; treat others the way you would like to be treated, yet religious fundamentalists have lost touch with this reality. Jesus Camp is a good look at what some religions are teaching, showcasing how religions are developing more extreme rituals that separate people instead of bring them together. The Charter For Compassion is a recent TED backed initiative that seeks to do the opposite; change the way people think about religion, as a way to build a global community. The core premise is to remind people of the Golden Rule in an effort to unite communities and prove that religion is intended as a framework to help people coexist. It is a refreshing way to think about religion by seeking to change disillusionment and all negative associations currently attached to religion.

Smart Architecture

2008-11-11T22:45:00.000-08:00

This is no doubt a house that will define an era. It's sleek, urban, polished and minimalist. More importantly it's sustainable, design savvy and uses materials that serve a purpose. Fires have been ransacking the hills of Cali but we continue to re-build them out of wood. I can't vouch for the cost effectiveness of concrete and steel but it seems worth it if it saves your house from burning to the ground.

Olson Sundberg recently unveiled this house in Montecito by Tom Kundig. I'm sure it's not for everyone, but I love it. The materials, expansive windows and integration with the terrain make it feel like an enjoyable place to live. I would personally plant a few more indigenious shrubs, but I think the general feel can be an inspiration to the way we design homes in the futre.

Our 10 Dimensions

2008-11-10T23:36:00.000-08:00

As the Hadron Collider is making it possible for scientists to research physics at a new deeper level and so we're just starting to see new findings about subjects like how we understand space and time. A while back I came across a site called the tenth dimension that explained the 10 dimensions and think it segues nicely into this recently published article about new findings on the dimension of time and a theory about holography.

Crank Creative

2008-11-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

Americans have been slow to adopt European sensibilities but that is starting to change and we're seeing an increase in international ideas that influence American culture. The Swiss have an eye for design, the Italians offer sleek fashion and Germans are known for engineering and efficiency.

Well Crank is a US company that falls at the intersection of design, functionality and sustainability. The premise is simple, recycle used inner tubes and turn them into a fashionable wallet. Crank found a niche popular among bike enthusiasts and focuses on re-purposing materials that would have normally ended up in the landfill. It's not a new idea, but it makes sense in a time when raw materials are becoming more scarce.
Crank @ http://www.crankcreative.com

Changing Behavior

2008-11-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

"If you want to change the future, play with it first." World Without Oil recently won a webby for best game in 2007. It's a game that is a powerful educational resource and interesting tool for facilitating large scale behavior changes.

I like this idea b/c there's so much truth to the fact that people won't start resolving an issue until they're confronted with a reality. It's a great way to break our habit of procrastination and start solving problems before we're already two feet in the hole.

From a planning perspective this is a great brainstorming tool. It has the potential to facilitate large scale changes in behavior. We are used to media like movies or television. The Inconvenient Truth created healthy discussion, but World Without Oil is more comprehensive. It's a great use of new media because it encourages interactivity and takes engagement with an issue to the next level. Everyone involved has the potential to collaborate and although the results technically exist in an "alternate reality" it is an exercise that produces real solutions.

I think there are at least two important things going on here:

1. When people participate in a game like WWO they become engaged in a community, it increases their level of understanding and they become more willing to change. This is a powerful tool because it enables people to anticipate a problem and change before the problem becomes a reality.

2. Ideas come from ideas. This kind of immersive role playing environment let's people create solutions for a future problem. Creating a frame of mind makes an alternate reality tangible and that is a great stepping off point for resolving an issue before it manifests.

Learn from Fail!

2008-10-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

Failing is shunned in our culture. It is an activity for losers, a behavior that must be avoided at all costs because with failure comes humiliation and lost respect.

This is all about to change.

2008 has revolutionized the way culture fails. Failing is no longer good or bad, rather it's part of the process; a necessary experience on the path to success. Failing is about learning. Many times I've been told to "Fail early and fail often."

I've been entertained by the FAIL! website, FAIL! flickr pictures and recently came across the history of 'fail' and an attempted explanation of the 'threshold of epic fail.'

Although the video is funny and the website funnier because it's filled with the result of poor judgments, I think it's the beginning of a new way to approach learning and accomplishing great things.

Waassuuuuup!

2008-10-24T23:58:00.000-07:00

Things exist that are greater than brand; this is an example of one of them.

Comedy, culture, human interaction; they all get associated with brands because writers use comical copy to embed their client's products into our culture. I think this short might be an example of something that is greater than the brand it was conceived from.

When this spot first came out "Wazzup" was my new favorite buzzword. It became my default phone answer for the 3 months following its release and I still start emails with it. Sequels are usually annoying but this one has been timed well and I love that it's genuinely transcended brand and product.

Video in the Right Direction

2008-10-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

At the end of last year one of my predictions for 2008 is that we would see the rise of video communication. Adoption has been slow despite the Macbook's integrated webcam and fun applications like Seesmic. The next logical progression is to use your cellphone so you can see who you're talking with and broadcast what you're doing as you talk. Although it didn't look like it was likely to happen in '08, I just heard that Qik is helping iPhone users to stream video.

Their new phone application will allow users to broadcast live video feed. It hasn't been officially released but it on the way and this seems like it can be a powerful, fun, little tool.

Twitter Tools

2008-10-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

I just got back from another technology, branding and innovation summit - exciting times, I know. Most interesting was to hear how interactive experiences are becoming the predominant medium for brand communication. Twitter was at the top of the discussion so I thought I would expand.

The list of Twitter tools and applications is diversifying. It's great because they make Twitter an even more interesting and relevant medium. The people who Twitter provide great insights, interesting links, breaking news, creative perspectives and a slew of other interesting information. The problem is that it's hard to sort through it. Here are a few tools that I found at PR 2.0 that make Twitter more useful.

TwitterLocal is the ideal service for quickly finding active voices within a specific city, state, postal code as well as the vicinity, ranging from 1 mile to 20.

Twinkle is a location-aware network for the iPhone and iPod Touch that helps you discover, connect, and send messages to the public timeline and also to people nearby.

Twubble can help expand your Twitter network. It searches your friend graph and introduces and recommends new people who you may want to follow.

GroupTweet allows anyone who wants to broadcast and share private tweets to a specific group can do so for free using this unique and helpful service.

Twitt(url)y is a service for tracking popular URLs people are sharing on Twitter as a way to identify trends, topics, and new and interesting tools and services. It's basically Techmeme or Google News for Twitter, but for all popular links shared in a given day.

TwitLinks aggregates the latest links from the worlds top tech twitter users.

Gridjit is a social portal that lets you view your web universe in a more visually rich way. It becomes your hub for tracking conversations, interesting people and those they @ frequently, and also provides a central location to post and share.

Twist analyzes and presents trend comparisons and volume between keywords and tags.

Whoshouldifollow.com makes it easy to find relevant, like-minded friends as well as friends of friends based on keyword and validated networks.

Tweet Scan, like Summize (Twitter Search), is a search engine for Twitter. Both services provide the ability to search keywords, company/product/competitors names, users, etc. The services also feature the hottest search trends at that particular moment.

Twitpic provides a bridge from your camera phone to Twitter.

Designing A Rubber Band Powered Boat

2008-10-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

I've been taking a mechanical engineering class and our most recent project was to design & create a rubber band powered boat that would travel 35 feet to the center of a pool and skewer a ring before a competitor. The requirements necessitated that the boat be 2 feet long or less and weigh less than 24 ounces. My teammates and I spent the past few weeks engineering a boat that accomplished the feat. I thought I would share the experience so I've included our deck and a short film chronicling the experience. We also used Google Sites to collaborate and it was a great hub for our team enabling us to brainstorm, hold online discussions, post sketch-up designs & coordinate meetings and materials.

Rubber Band Boat Deck

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: engineering design)

Idea Village

2008-10-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

I worked on a brief for Planning For Good a few months ago. The objective was to help re-invigorate the economy in New Orleans. We submitted an idea explaining how great minds cultivate smart ideas that lay the foundation for creativity and productivity. Flooding New Orleans with a team of innovators and entrepreneurs would enable them to rebuild their city around an infrastructure of businesses headed by brilliant people. It seems the initiative is under way and this film encourages the concept behind the brief.

Are We Still Evolving?

2008-09-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

I recenlty read an amazing article in Seed on Evolution. Here are the highlights:

Humans "showed up" 45,000 years ago and it doesn't appear that we've changed much in those years. It's easy to make that assumption since natural selection chooses the most fit to survive through reproductive success; the problem however is that we nurse our sick back to health. Mating isn't a privilege so even the less fit pass their genes on. Well the Human Genome and HapMap projects are changing what we know about how we're evolving. It appears that up to 10 % of the human genome appears to be evolving, but most mutations have a neutral effect, making them neither fitter or less fit. The HapMap project has found gene variations in some populations that were not present in other geographic areas, but are moving over time proving that genetic drift is occuring.

One of the best examples of recent human evolution is the spread of the mutation for adults who can digest milk. It popped up 8,000 years ago and has spread to most parts of the world, but not all, only 9 of 10 Asian Americans lack the mutation. Hawkes, an anthropolist studying demography and the constraints on our adaptation believes that the global population explosion that coincided w/ the agricultural revolution is the main driver of adaptive evolution. He exclaims that our world has changed rapidly and our DNA is still catching up. Hapmap has provided great insight because it lets us compare parts of the human genome that are different between people; it gives us a glipse at patterns of gene inheritance.

So now for the question at large: Are we getting smarter?

Several different studies have been conducted on the topic. Bruce Lahn an evolutionary geneticist raised some controversial issues because his work could easily be misinterpreted as claiming that brain evolution has occurred in some races but not others. The fact is we know very little about brain evolution and it's difficult to understand how intelligence is selected for. Here is one of his most interesting thoughts about the possibility of the evolution of intelligence: "500 million years ago earth experienced the Cambrian explosion, a rapid increase in diversification of life forms. It may take a long time to evolve certain components, but once you have them, very little evolutionary time could give you great diversity. The brain may take a long time to get to a certain level of intelligence and then, once it's there, it makes possible a cultural explosion."

He goes on to say intelligence builds on intelligence, increasing intelligence, increases the complexity of culture, which pressures intelligence levels to rise, which creates more complex culture and so on.

I'm fascinated by the way humans are evolving and becoming more intelligent. It's clear that some people are smarter than others; but that is somewhat of a subjective statement since there's mathematical intelligence, emotional intelligence, creative intelligence, etc. If we follow Lahn's theory it could be possible that these intelligences are merging. In this way maybe we are moving toward another explosion where the brain becomes able to do exponentially more than it has been. Time will tell.

Slacker Uprising

2008-09-23T19:40:00.000-07:00

Today Michael Moore released his newest documentary called Slacker Uprising which can be downloaded here and watched for free compliments of Mike. It's an effort to encourage younger generations to get out, vote and make a difference this upcoming election. I hope the film helps, after all our president doesn't use the internet and our vice president doesn't believe in dinosaurs.

Greydone Square - Aethiesm & Hip Hop/Hop

2008-09-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

Atheism is hitting mainstream culture and it's getting harder to ignore. I've been interested to see how evolution has shifted our religious perspective and how people from gen X are torn on how religion should be a part of their life. It's also been interesting to see all the content being created by a new generation who is expressing how their views on religion have shifted.

I recently got Compton Effect and Greydon Square (Eddie Collins) is one smart cookie. He's thoughtful, writes intelligent lyrics and tells a great story. He is also very public about his belief of atheism. He mixes great beats and his most recent album has been a success. More importantly, hearing hip/hop embrace atheism is refreshing. His fascination with physics and atheism has enabled him to create a powerful album. The hip/hop category has been littered with drugs, violence, and women cliches; so how will things change now that Greydon is showing that hip/hop raises important issues? Collins, who calls himself the 'black Carl Segan' isn't Will Smith and he isn't 50 Cent; he's a new breed and he's challenging youth to think about who they are. He's had some interesting experience and it shows; his stories and lyrics resonate with authenticity.

Excerpt from Wikipedia on Greydon Square:
Collins grew up in Compton, California, where he was raised as an orphan and would become immersed in the gang culture. In May 2001, he enlisted in the United States Army. He would go on to serve in the Iraq War in March 2004. After returning from Iraq, Collins began attending college in Phoenix, Arizona as a physics major. It was at this time that he began questioning his prior religious beliefs and became an outspoken atheist, posting videos on YouTube and becoming a member of the Rational Response Squad, and of the pro-democracy movement Grand Unified Theory. He has appeared on Nightline in regard to the RRS' Blasphemy Challenge, and his music has attracted fans such as Penn Jillette and Richard Dawkins.

Realistic Approach to Conservation

2008-09-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

Some of the world's problems seem unconquerable these days. Take the energy crisis for example; we could probably sell our SUV, ride our bikes more often or turn in our empties to redeem the CRV, but what's the impact? The problem is that for some reason this doesn't feel like enough; we can't see any impact so we don't change our habits.

Well, what if there was a way to see how our actions impact society? Relight NY is a good start. It's an interactive site that lets you do good and see the tangible results. It lets you adopt a building in NYC and tasks you with converting all it's lighting to CFL. The objective is to get organizations or schools to help make NYC more efficient and help the city conserve massive amounts of energy. Most importantly, it provides a way to see the progress and encourage action to accomplish a goal that will positively benefit the community.

For a while now there have been a lot of good ways to conserve energy, like recycling, eating local food or giving up your car, but the difficult thing seems to be finding a way to get people on board. What if we find more ways to involve everyone, to change habits? Nike Plus allows people to track their workout behavior, compare their progress with other in the community and compete with their athletic friends.

Well now there's a way for you to show off how green you. Wattson is the Nike Plus of energy. They have a transmitter that connects to your electric lines between your fuse box and electric meter that sends data to an alarm clock looking device that you can set up in your house. Holmes is the software this device pairs with that allows you to analyze your power usage and determine ways to become more efficient.

I think this is a great idea because often we forget how much money we are spending by leaving the lights on or the computer running. If we're constantly reminded that we're racking up the bill maybe we'll be more likely to conserve?

Technology reversal

2008-09-12T12:43:00.000-07:00

Apple is trying to be Microsoft and Microsoft is trying to be Apple. Today Apple released Genius, an application that "helps" connect you with music by means of a complex algorithm; and Microsoft released the first film in a series of comedies that is supposed to brand Microsoft as a more user friendly company.

These are my first two initial thoughts.

1. Microsoft, you need to create something that is user friendly; software or a product people love to use, then re-brand yourself. In the mean time, thanks for the parody of what it would be like if Bill & Jerry got injected into reality TV.

2. Apple, I like the Genius play list feature; not because I can't figure out how to make a playlist myself, but because I like to look at the 38,172 songs I have loaded in iTunes arranged with a fresh perspective. I do not, however, like the genius sidebar that insists on telling me songs that I need to buy.

Take Action

2008-09-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

I love it! Here is a powerful message, a strategic campaign that not only urges Californias to take action, it explains why and then provides an easy way to do so. Blue Shield wants to change healthcare for the 6.7 million Californians who aren't covered. They recently produced an entertaining message; this video in combination with placing life size statues around California to make the statement that it's time to do something.

Yes, it' s a compelling message but I like how they've also created a tool for people to voice their opinion by using a feature on their site to quickly and easily send an email to nancy Pelosi.

A Quick Snippit

2008-09-08T09:55:00.000-07:00

Postcards are great because they let people know you're thinking of them. Several companies have offered services allowing people to send cards to one another but this is the first one I've seen that is truly customizable. The best part is that it's simple to use yet highly personal. It's called Postcard.fm and it lets you upload a song and picture of your choice and send it off to someone you know. Share a moment of your life - Postcard.fm

Digtial is the new color

2008-08-27T01:24:00.000-07:00

I listened to an NPR podcast today about Hollywood's reluctance to embrace color filming back when black and white was the standard. A lot has changed and the film industry is experiencing an evolution backed by digital video and equipment and software. The power of the Red One camera enabled this beautiful film that was shot at 120 fps. It demonstrates the power and quality that is more readily accessible to the average filmmaker.

So Many Solutions

2008-08-26T02:43:00.000-07:00

I've become fascinated with design and engineering over the past few months. As a trend design aesthetics have become an important part of a product experience. With the advent of the iPod there has been a shift towards creating something that looks great and provides a superior experience. I think this change has been a long time coming and is a better, more comprehensive way to create a product experience.

I recently started using Fantastic Contraption, a website that allows you to create devices to solve problems. It's a game for engineers, but it was also a fascinating lesson in the psychology of design. The objective is to move an object into a goal area. The premise is to construct a device using gears and materials to overcome gravity and obstacles. Any physics fanatic or mechanical engineer would enjoy the challenge.

The best part about the game is that you can share contraptions that you've built with your friends and fellow builders. What is most interesting is how people come up with such a diverse array of solutions to the same problem using the same materials. It amazed me to see how people think so differently in achieving a common goals. Give it a try and after you solve a puzzle be sure to see how others designed their contraptions.

Check it out for yourself: http://fantasticcontraption.com/

Designing a Merman

2008-08-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Designing products based on something that exists in nature is nothing new. It's funny though because whenever I see a new invention that was derived from an animal part or something I've seen while hiking, I always wonder 'why I hadn't thought of that?'

Here's a great example; a new flipper engineered from studying a dolphin. It is attached to your feet and can propel a human up to 8 mph under water. It seems to me like there are a lot of good ideas right under our noses yearning to inspire design. I think this is a great example of how we can increase our creative efficiency. The Lunocet reminded me how evolving or developing something that already exists is great design strategy.