Get Shouty


on the tip of your toungue
November 11, 2009, 3:31 am
Filed under: Digital Strategy, Zeitgeist

1 million words

No wonder finding the right one is so hard……



this about sums up today
August 25, 2009, 8:53 am
Filed under: Zeitgeist

blahblah



Where did the future go?
July 14, 2009, 2:48 am
Filed under: Zeitgeist

I’m musing on notions of “Atemporality”, Steampunk with Metaphysics, brought about by Bruce Sterling at Reboot 11.

While he didn’t use any visualization for this talk.  I just wanted to clarify my own thinking.

I’m deeply in the Favela Chic camp myself….



there’s always something
February 11, 2009, 3:34 am
Filed under: Zeitgeist

The darkness of the last couple of days has been a little overwhelming so this was a lovely reminder that where there’s life there’s light.

To donate money: The Salvation Army on 137 258 or the Red Cross on 1800 811 700.

The Victorian Government has established a registration process for people wanting to volunteer in bushfire relief. To register as a volunteer go to the Go Volunteer Victorian Appeal website or call the Volunteering Australia hotline on 1300 366 356.

To help with wildlife rescue please contact Wildlife Victoria.

To offer help with stock fodder and agistment contact the Victorian Farmers Federation

You can also offer horse agistment and hay through the Triple R Equine Welfare Crisis Network, who are also helping with animal transport.

For offers of accommodation for small animals please contact Animal Aid

Wildlife Rescue and Protection Incorporated are also seeking donations to help them rescue burnt and injured animals in the Boolarra and Mirboo North Areas of Gippsland. For more information visit the WRAP website.

To make a blood donation call 131 495 http://www.donateblood.com.au/



i believe in thoroughly drained cabbage
February 7, 2009, 11:50 am
Filed under: Zeitgeist

drain-cabbage



Return of the Real Hero
January 18, 2009, 4:24 am
Filed under: Zeitgeist



a whiter shade of pale
December 11, 2008, 7:52 am
Filed under: Zeitgeist

01iheartc

Whoa…
Today is S…L…O…W
Hangover- Hello!

A cup of joe
Is all I know
To bestow
A healthier glow

(this image and more coffee love from illustrator Christoph Niemann can be found here)



the forest and the trees
December 1, 2008, 9:36 am
Filed under: Zeitgeist

fire-poi

Would you call you clients experts in online?

Would they have spent 10,000 hours devoted to this understanding ?

How about you? Have you spent 10,000 hours?

Malcom Gladwell’s latest thinking in his book Outlier describes the conditions which bring about expertise. I think this can help shed light on why it can be so difficult to get an “I see. I agree” from a client.

It might be this experience lag- not an unwillingness to learn, not a love of another media channel, not an inability to grasp the concepts- that is preventing the uninitiated from embracing new ideas.

The biggest misconception about success is that we do it solely on our smarts, ambition, hustle and hard work. There’s an awful lot more that goes into it than we admit.

This idea - that excellence at a complex task requires a critical, minimum level of practice – surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.

You couldn’t say that it was a rocket science style observation that practice makes perfect, and that concentrated diligence on a task goes a long way to achieve mastery. For me the question is: how can you get people to understand new ideas when the experience gap is so large?

Cramming. The answer has to be: Tutor. Tutor. Tutor. You have to give your clients experience. So that they can get your experience. They won’t have time to practice.

“People don’t rise from nothing,” he writes. “They are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot … It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn’t.”

You need to be the beneficiary for your clients, build extraordinary opportunities, be the hidden advantage to their success and help make sense of the world in the way that others can’t.

We’ve been far too focused on the individual—on describing the characteristics and habits and personality traits of those who get furthest ahead in the world. And that’s the problem,” says Gladwell.  “Because in order to understand the outlier I think you have to look around them—at their culture and community and family and generation. We’ve been looking at tall trees, and I think we should have been looked at the forest.”

Do more than look at the forest for the seeds of success. Plant one.



why can’t we just get along
November 4, 2008, 6:15 am
Filed under: Great Stuff, Zeitgeist

work-together

Noted in the Tate Modern employee area by Neil Perkin.



clear workplace culture
September 19, 2008, 1:23 am
Filed under: Zeitgeist

Found here.

Click image. Read. Laugh.



The Red Thread
September 15, 2008, 8:16 am
Filed under: Digital Strategy, Zeitgeist

According to Chinese folklore, when a child is born they are connected by an invisible red thread (or string of fate) to all who will care about them. As the child grows, the thread becomes shorter, drawing them ever closer to people who will impact their destiny.

I’m loving this term and how it can relate to consumer centric design and service oriented architecture- that you can design systems which, as you move through them, will allow the objects that will help you evolve, be drawn to you.

Some of my recent pulled strings:



    The Game of Life
    September 7, 2008, 11:11 pm
    Filed under: Zeitgeist

     

    For all the God-like powers that video games have bestowed upon us — from slaying armies to pretending to be rock stars — it wasn’t until now that players could actually build life. Spore, designed by Will Wright of Sim City fame, is based on evolution: you start with microbes and customize on up. Seth Schiesel declares it “probably the coolest, most interesting toy I have ever experienced.” Go create your universe.

    Playing God, The Home Game,” by Seth Schiesel

    Gaming Evolves,” by Carl Zimmer

    Contageous special report on gaming



    Company- Customer pact
    August 20, 2008, 12:22 am
    Filed under: Digital Strategy, Zeitgeist


    the great firewall
    August 5, 2008, 9:44 am
    Filed under: Get Activist, Zeitgeist

    Interview with Sophie Peer , Amnesty International, about human rights in China, with a special focus on the Great Firewall of China. By Stilgherrian.

    Other great tips from him:



    almost famous
    August 1, 2008, 7:39 am
    Filed under: Zeitgeist

    How internet famous are you? Type in your name and find out.
    Go here then scroll down.

    Woot! I’m a 57.

    Via: The American Copywriter Boys (and Pablo)



    a whale of a tale
    July 29, 2008, 4:54 am
    Filed under: Digital Strategy, Zeitgeist

    This stock licenced image ( a $5-10 fee) , an illustration by Yiying Lu, is the image you see when Twitter is down. It is called the “Fail Whale” and has moved as a meme into early adopter culture in a big way:

    Wikipeda currently redirects searches to find information to the Fail Whale to the Twitter entry. Sensitive!

    Using Compete.com, Garry Jenkin looked at Twitter’s analytics and saw that in April users had increased 42% and over 1,000% for the year. That’s some big time uptake.

    BuzzFeed has a mass of links to follow including these:

    Is the whale an endangered species? The Guardian’s article last week”Twitter searches for the next step” mentions that “now might be a good time to grab one, before the fail whale swims out of sight for good.”

    And really does it matter? Does it matter that a new technology is fragile and falls over through massive uptake? You can only be let down by something that you have already given your expectations to…

    It reminds me of a great quote from the late great Randy Pausch:

    When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.



    Zombie Marketing
    July 21, 2008, 4:34 am
    Filed under: Digital Strategy, Zeitgeist

    Last Saturday, Sean Howard, Matt Moore & I got together for a rambling discussion around Zombie Marketing:

    Download the mp3.

    Show Notes:
    00:00 – Interesting Moose
    01:20 – Zombie Marketing 1: Crazy Rug Sale Marketing
    02:40 – Zombie Marketing 2: Late Night Ads In The Early Evening
    03:20 – SuperBowl
    05:00 – Angelina Jolie’s Lips
    08:30 – Mobile Advertising
    09:00 – Pharmaceutical Mystery Stories
    11:00 – Beauty Products & White Coats
    12:30 – Science Montage Advertising
    13:55 – The Justice League Of Brands
    14:20 – Product Placement – Gossip Girl
    16:00 – Product Placement – Drugs & Guns
    17:00 – Clothing & Branding
    20:00 – Anti-Zombie Marketing
    21:30 – Not Letting You Love It
    23:30 – Showers
    26:30 – Phone Spammer Bus Burning Vacation
    27:00 – AT&T Outbound Atrocity

    Hosted and facilitated by Matt, it’s part of his ongoing podcast series check them out!



    Content is king, context is queen, and community the soul*
    July 14, 2008, 9:32 am
    Filed under: Digital Strategy, Get Activist, Get Friendly, Great Stuff, Zeitgeist

    Let’s get things straight here. They live on an island in Fiji. They (spear) fish, grow fruit and veg, compost their crap and drink a muddy narcotic and play guitars under the stars. That’s what they like to do.

    And they won a big shiney silver wedge of a trophy. One that declares that Tribewanted is a more innovative and impactful social networking site than Skins on E4, and hold your breath…MySpace. Yes, MySpace, the world’s biggest online network, in a social networking competition. Bloody hell – how did that happen?

    The team try to explain it here:

    I think its hard to see it from the inside looking out – but here are the reasons the tribe members gave when we entered . I think it happened because we’re trying something different. And its starting to work. Very simply its about using a new and exciting way of communicating to make life better. And we’re not the only ones doing it either.

    Not everyone can work on a project that is about building a sustainable island paradise. But we can all take inspiration in this vigorous enlistment of a community, the cleverness of building context in the clear signposts of their distributed messaging and consistently compelling stories.

    John Dodds shared the American Marketing Association new definition of marketing:

    Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

    It’s a big ask to educate our clients on the ever changing world, but if Apenisa Bogiso (Tui Mali) the Chief of Vorovoro can understand it I’m pretty sure I can help my clients get it too.

    *thanks Kris Hoet and Kneale Mann



    broken record
    July 8, 2008, 3:12 am
    Filed under: Digital Strategy, Zeitgeist

    Strategy
    When the brief’s all wrong and you can’t go on
    Its Stragedy
    When the planner cries and you don’t know why
    It’s Stragedy
    It’s so hard to care
    When no-one gets that it’s goin’ nowhere
    Stragedy
    When you lose control and the insight has no soul
    Its stragedy
    When the reason flies and the goals just die
    Plan! It’s a dare!
    With no-one to guide you you’re goin’ nowhere……



    Matt Bai at Microsoft Politics and Technology Forum
    June 26, 2008, 7:28 am
    Filed under: Zeitgeist