"A" (list) is for Adaptation

From Dare Obasanjo posting what "A list" bloggers are good for

"Reading stuff like Om Malik's Why do we have Facebook Fatigue? is like watching your dad struggle with the TiVo you gave him for Christmas because he’s overwhelmed by “all the stuff it records”.

A generational gap for sure. Again it's the 22 and younger 'born to' network culture (what I am now going to call the Federman principle since the concept is from Mark Federman's research) versus the over 22 year olds who are 'adapting to' network culture.

My Daughter Doesn't Trust Skinny Grandmas

My mom relayed a conversation between her and my 11 year old from yesterday that made me laugh:

My mom:
"I am not liking these photos of me. I look too heavy. I need to lose
some weight before David and Nancy's wedding (my brother and his fiancé)"

My child:
"I think you look good Grandma."

My mom:
"Thanks I appreciate you saying so but..."

My child:
"No really Grandma. I think grandmas should be a little bit chubby. To
tell you the truth I don't really trust skinny grandmas."

The Trouble With Building Brand Experiences In A Networked World

Something I have been noodling for a while having worked on a number of large strategic projects talking about new marketing models and customer experience. So here is where I think the problem lies between 'vision' and 'execution'.

Organizations still suffer from siloitis and are built in verticals. Projects and programs are top down, and within specific departments. This happens for many reasons the least of which is how finance departments tend to delineate budgets.

The problem? Customer experiences go horizontally and across departments. All which equals and ladders up to an overall brand experience. Something a bit like this...



But things are only getting worse before they get better. Here's what is happening in the world of today - Networked customer experiences that become collective experiences and end up becoming a collective brand experience or perception. Something a bit like this...



And agencies generally deal with that one silo called Marcom in an effort to affect overall brand experience.

Things that make you go...Hum......

Everything Is The Next Big Thing

While discussing Facebook hype and the Parakey purchase this morning, Peter articulated the way I have been feeling reading the blogosphere as of late.

"Well if you basically tout everything as the next big thing, you'll eventually be right."

Rogers IPhone Petition

I don't know why, but I find we Canadians (and Rogers customers) amusing. Check this out....

"To: Rogers Canada

We, the future users of the Apple iPhone, living in Canada, would like to see an unlimited data plan at a reasonable price, comparable to those seen in the United States, prior to the Q4-2007 release of the iPhone in Canada.

Read On..."

Holy Craphammer: ucaster Review

cross-posted from the official oponia blog

I was going to write a blog posting about the fact that we launched our first product the ucaster yesterday. I was going to say what it does, how it works etc. And then this morning, Sean Howard of Craphammer sent me his review (with the impressive title 'oponia just spanked my bottom'). Damn. He did such a great review that I am going to forward you all to him (besides, of course I, the ceo and co-founder thinks it's brilliant - so better to hear it from someone else).

Ok, first, my explanation of ucaster.

ucaster:

It’s the hyper simple way to instantly publish content
online right from your desktop. You don’t have to upload it anywhere. Just drag, drop, and you're done!

Great for sharing folders filled with files, photos, and play lists. And the best thing about it? It’s instantaneous to anyone with or without ucaster.

As for the review: here it is.

And here is his powerpoint:




One final note, in Sean's note to me he said that he thought the files were being sent to a server somewhere and was disappointed we didn't have an progress bar. Then when they appeared on his url instantly which was in the Web site of his ucaster, he thought, is this a trick? Not the first person to ask. But nope. No trick. Just a hyper simple way to instantly share.

:-)

Book Du Jour The Black Swan

Apparently the book de jour right now in business and marketing is called Black Swan.

The Black Swan theory?

"In Nassim Nicholas Taleb's definition, a black swan is a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations. Much of scientific discoveries for him are black swans—"undirected" and unpredicted. An event often referred to as a "black swan" is the September 11, 2001 attacks.[1]"

Hum...that sounds familiar. Isn't that what an emergent system is?

"Emergent structures are patterns not created by a single event or rule. Nothing commands the system to form a pattern. Instead, the interaction of each part with its immediate surroundings causes a complex chain of processes leading to some order. One might conclude that emergent structures are more than the sum of their parts because the emergent order will not arise if the various parts are simply coexisting; the interaction of these parts is central."

Regardless if someone names it black swan or white dove, understanding emergent systems have become more important in our everyday business world.

Here is a quote from the paper "Emergent Phenomena and Complexity" that Peter used to put in our presentations talking about the new business reality with clients:

"Emergent systems are those in which perfect knowledge and understanding may give us no predictive information. The optimal means of prediction is simulation."

Why I Love The Artist Formally Known As Prince

Because he is all about invention and innovation.

Love his music or hate it.

Think the colour purple should have remained a book instead of some weird mind metaphor or not

Are able to understand any of the strange soft spoken things he says or aren't

....He is truly the Salvador Dali of the modern music world. And now he gets into controversy with his new CD "Planet Earths’” distribution strategy:

"The U.S. artist has thrilled fans and incensed music retailers in the U.K. with plans to give away his newest album for free in a tabloid newspaper this weekend.

Planet Earth will be packaged with copies of the Mail on Sunday newspaper, which carries a price of approximately $3 Cdn."


(Hat tip to my friend Anthony Hylton who sent me the link)

Wine, Cheese And Group Hugs Make People Happy - Even Robbers

Maybe because it's been that kinda week, but this story which could or could not be an urban legend made me smile. Robber comes in with a gun, goes out a bit drunk, tummy full of cheese and hugs to boot.

Crossing The Generational Chasm

Mark Federman has a theory. He believes that people who are 22 and younger are substantially different than the rest of us because they are the first generation didn't know anything but the networked way. As opposed to say the rest of us who were impacted by digital and had to change and adapt to this new cultural reality. We might live in it, but we don't breath it in an invisible manner as they do - (technology for them being biology and all that sort of stuff)...

If Mark is correct (And I will leave it to him to do a much better job at pointing you to references for his thesis), this is a very important insight that we should all pay a great deal of attention to.

Traditionally marketers look at behaviour linearly. We do X when we are young, then we start to grow up and our patterns start to change to look more and more like the generation older than us. Sure there are some differences but generally speaking, we all follow the same path.

If 22 year olds (who, for any product marketers out there, are going to be 27 in five years) truly have a different cultural reality than the rest of us, what are the chances they will follow this same linear path? If they don't use email and they don't watch primetime TV on the TV or in Primetime, what are the chances that those habits will start to form later on? If they are networked by nature, how is this going to change the way they live and work?

Just some thoughts and questions I've been thinking about for a sunny Tuesday morning....

Quote Of The Week

"Sure my son watches primetime TV.
Only he doesn't watch it on a TV
or during primetime"

New Favorite Cartoonist

Having had many debates with "consultant" types who have never had the pleasure to actually WORK in corporations (and no, doing brainstorming sessions with them doesn't count), i found this cartoon very funny. Geek And Poke, my new favorite cartoon blogger.

The Experience IS The Product

A great article "The Experience is the product"

Some people think the product is more important than the experience.
And other's believe what I believe - that the product IS the experience...

"You press the button, we do the rest."
In 1888, an inventor named George Eastman designed, manufactured, and marketed a camera that changed not only photography, but consumer products—forever. Four years earlier, Eastman invented a new kind of film, roll film, that was much easier to handle than fragile photographic plates. Now, had Eastman taken a typical engineering approach to designing a camera that used roll film, he would have copied the typical camera of the time, just on a smaller scale, providing an incremental improvement on his predecessors. Instead, he focused on the experience he wanted to deliver, captured in his advertising slogan, "You press the button, we do the rest."

Follow The Leader

I was trying to remember the name of a company a friend of mine worked for. Haven't checked for them on linked in but thought it was worth a go. Found 'em and here is an interesting thing. I haven't been using Linkedin all that much because I don't have a premium account and they were making my life difficult linking to people I actually know.

Well well well, not so anymore. I guess the whole facebook thing is stressing them out as they become less relevant as a social network.

I still think Linkedin is more about business, but if following the social networking leader means they make stuff easier for me that was hard before? I am all for it.