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Again and Again

Nicely done compilation of Apple applications, set to the tune "Again and Again" by Bird & The Bee that I am posting for no reason other than I really like it.

Cognitive Surplus

Great talk given by one of my favourites, Clay Shirky, at the 2.0 Expo. It's a must see, put a few minutes aside to watch it.

One of the key points in this talk of participatory media is that we are still very much at the beginning of figuring out what to do with our ability to collaborate on a mass scale. We're far from figuring out the rules, which is critical to remember. "The physics of participation is much more like the physics of the weather than it is the physics of gravity".

How to deal, then, with a chaotic ecosystem? Experiment, iterate, learn, and try again. Sounds like a good suggestion to me.

Collective Action Just Got A Lot Easier

The title of this post comes from Clay Shirky (it's my paraphrase of his one sentence summary of the book Here Comes Everybody, if that makes sense).

Tools for connecting, organizing and rallying people behind causes and ideas have never been easier. It's a pretty simple concept, and something that has quickly become second nature for those immersed in social media, but I think that we've barely scratched the surface of harnessing that ability for collective action to do good. We always hear that "the consumer is in control", but we haven't seen anything yet.

Here's a great example of how media is changing from something through which to disperse information to becoming a tool for (collective) action. It's a little long, but worth the patience.

"As citizens and as consumers, we may not be able to wield a great deal of power. But when we do things together, our power is ridiculous!"

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

Enchanting Experiences

Thanks to David, I discovered this, which reminded me of how much I miss reading this.

Stuff Planners Like

This might not fetch a $300,000 book deal, but I present to you Stuff Planners Like.

Feel free to add to the list.

As you know, planners like that sort of thing.

1. Ted Talks

2. Moleskines

3. Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

4. Just about anything from Apple

3. Interesting 2007 and 2008

4. Wikis

5. Infographics

6. CoComment

7. Beta

8. Keynote

9. Bloglines

10. Documentaries

11. Flickr

12. Trivia

13. Creative Generalism

14. Slideshare

15. Dan Pink

16. Brand Molecules (but not onions)

17. Analogies

18. Twitter

What did I miss?

(image via something else planners like)

Can't We Do Something About All This Chatter?

Enthusiastic perfume bloggers (yes, you read that right) are unnerving the "experts". How dare they write about perfume if they don't have a trained nose to speak with authority.

This might not be quite what the Andrew Keens of the world are worried about, but I do find the professional/amateur tension most amusing when it also has the element of high/low culture mixed in. Nothing quite like upsetting the order of the Fragrance Foundation!

(One luxury perfume maker sent lawyers after a suburban mom for writing that the perfume was "a little disappointing". Ouch!)

Online scent aficionados have become a force to be reckoned with in the $2.9 billion high-end fragrance industry, which has had a slight decline in sales since 2007. Their interest in mostly unadvertised, limited-distribution brands has helped drive niche sales in 2007 to $253 million, a rise of 19 percent, said Karen Grant, the senior beauty analyst of the market research firm NPD. Niche brands have doubled in volume since 2005, accounting for 9 percent of sales, Ms. Grant said.

Not surprisingly, these critics’ uncensored comments have been anathema to the Estée Lauders and Cotys of the world, industry giants that have relied almost exclusively on advertising and glowing magazine commentary to spread their message and spur sales.

“No question, the industry people are unnerved,” said Rochelle R. Bloom, the president of the Fragrance Foundation, a trade group. “I often get calls from executives pleading, ‘Can’t you do something about all this chatter.’ ”

New Breed

Here's what I'm going to be writing about for the upcoming, next installment of Age of Conversation.

• A New Brand of Creative -- With the changes in the way that people communicate and collaborate online, marketing and advertising companies are needing to reach out and work with a new type of creative team. What do these "creatives" look like. What are their skills? Why do they evangelize digital and new media? And what are the challenges that they face?

It's a huge topic, and I hope to jot down some thoughts here as I work through it.

The list of fellow contributors follows, many of whom you'll no doubt recognize. What a project!

Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Beeker Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Reach Everyone at Every Touchpoint. Twice.

I tried to resist posting a link to the great new website for Yellow Brick Road, but this line was just too funny (thanks Gareth!)

We believe that for a gigantic idea to really live in the hearts and minds of people, you need to communicate through every touch point known to man, not once but twice. This is 720 degree Marketing, a revolutionary new communications planning approach that ensures the customer is totally overwhelmed with messaging from your brand.

Snack on This

You don't have to roam around the plannersphere for too long these days before you bump into another post that challenges traditional advertising and questions the evolving role of planners.

Planners seem to be an inherently restless and bunch, always sniffing out what's next, so it probably isn't too surprising that so many of us are asking the same questions. Most of those questions revolve around figuring out what the right tools now are, given that so many conditions have changed. Everything from the metaphors we use to the models of the future is up for debate.

Generally speaking, design, digital media, technology and social media ("conversations", if you're so inclined) are the sometime overlapping new frontiers, quickly eroding the old model, and there are plenty of very smart people with the vision to see where things are headed, and they want to be a part of it.

One of those smart people is Lee Maicon, who I met a while back while he was at StrawberryFrog. Lee now works for a PR company (DeVries). Here Lee provides insight into why a strategic planner with a background in advertising would make the move to work for a PR company to help start up their Strategy and Innovation practice.

At the last Account Planning Conference, I was struck by the dichotomy of the optimistic view of the brand new world (or is it the New Brand World?) and the great malaise a lot of the (really really good) planners I spoke to there felt. Why is that? It was more than just envy for that guy who quit planning to found Method, right?

It’s likely it has something to do with the pressure that Snack-sized content culture has put on the context and utility of the tools and teams most agencies use to solve the problems we’re paid to solve.

It would be arrogant to say that any one agency or type of agency is positioned better for this change. But…bringing together the craft of planning with that of PR is wonderfully poised to unlock brands’ capital.

I agree with Lee that the "value of brands needs to be unlocked in new ways", and I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from him on this. I'm really glad that Lee will be providing insight from the PR point of view (but not from a traditional PR guy, if that makes sense).

(image via)

New Blog Alert! Carpal Fun

Tammy Yiu, a wonderful colleague, lovely person and very very gifted artist has just started a weblog that you must check out.

She's dived in head first with the posts, so drop by and leave her a message or just say hello. And make sure to ask her about the time she and I built a triceraraptorars.

Digital Structures

"Build digital structures around social ones."

Excellent line from Leigh, whose great blog I just discovered.

It's not about the technology, or the medium, it's about people and culture. Leigh questions whether most people bother to understand networks, culture and the edge, or if they just tack on "social media strategies". I know how I'd answer that question.

Leighs suggestion?

figuring out the whys and the seismic shifts that are affecting identity construction, culture and community.

Leave Some Room

The image for this post comes from a great site that I discovered from Charles. I love the idea of brands leaving room for ideas. DJs and remixers/producers tend to naturally see the world this way. Reading this Fast Company interview with The Pirate's Dilemma author Matt Mason reminded me of just how synonymous remix culture is with DJ culture, and how disruptive it has been for the music business. It's something that I've been a little too close to for so long, that I often take it for granted.

As Matt says, pirate DJs operating at the fringe of the music industry are a great example of crowdsourcing. Value gets created by leaving open enough room for others to play.

Commercial radio uses pirates to find new music, new deejays, and new artists. It's supposedly bad for the record industry because people aren't getting paid royalties for pirate radio. Well, the kind of music that gets played on pirate radio isn't the kind that's played on commercial radio. All the major labels sign the tracks that are hottest on the pirates and release them nationally and advertise on the pirates. The lesson here for other industries is, sometimes it's better not to follow the laws to the letter. Maybe you should let a few things slide.

It's crowdsourcing at its absolute best. You're starting to see that happening in other industries, too. In the video game industry, in the community of first-person shooter games especially, it's just accepted now that you can hack into games and change the code.

Music and gaming are the obvious frontiers for remix/hacker culture, but as Ed points out over at Influx Insights, leaving room for play and adaptibility will migrate beyond gaming as brands loosen up and let a bit of play to occur.

"Malleability" (Ed's term) might either be baked into products, or the expectation will be that they will be messed around, hacked and adapted without permission from the brand (who needs it) The social driver for this is the value of sharing, (and the basis for what Umair calls the "Edgeconomy"), and sharing is it's own reward.

Anyway, over to Ed,

Brands could create whole ecosystems with communities of users who play, develop and share ideas in this way.

Perhaps, it's no longer about a closed box, but something that's open and can be constantly played with and its limits tested and explored.

Temporary Architecture

via City of Sound, an interesting article on "Temporary Architecture". The adoption of an "always in beta" state of mind in architecture?

It's usually the other way around, we apply thinking about the physical world to the way we construct digital spaces and reality, but the reverse is much more interesting.

Architecture has entered another of its periodic bouts of fascination with impermanence. Maybe it's the anxiety produced by doomsday predictions about the state of the environment and, lately, the economy. Maybe it's the quicksilver quality of digital culture, closer in character to sand or water than bricks and mortar. Whatever the source, architects are playing up the idea of temporariness, and even finding solace in it, to a degree not seen since the 1960s and '70s, when several experimental design teams explored what Peter Cook, a member of London's Archigram, called "expendability" and "throwaway architecture."

Vote Apathy

There's a time and a place for everything, except apathy toward a Federal election. Check it.

Some cool features of the site include the "Apathometer", and I like the social distribution tools, as this also lives on YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Digg and MySpace.

OK, who forgot to sign the contract?

From the Wall Street Journal,

For nearly 30 years, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employed a video-production company here to capture footage of its top executives, sometimes in unguarded moments. Two years ago, the retailing giant stopped using the tiny company.

At first, the decision threw Flagler Productions Inc. into a panic. Now it's Wal-Mart that's squirming.

In recent months, Flagler has opened its trove of some 15,000 Wal-Mart tapes to the outside world, with an eye toward selling clips. The material is proving irresistible to everyone from business historians and documentary filmmakers to plaintiffs lawyers and union organizers.

I think all of the footage of manager meetings, in-store video and corporate "hijinks" be made available under a Creative Commons license so we can all have some fun remixing this stuff ;)

Politics 2.0

There has been a lot written (here and elsewhere) on Barack Obama's grassroots political campaign, and how it demonstrates the strength of networked communities to shake the foundations of institutions. The power of bottom up, versus top down (Hillary).

Here's a short video clilp of Barack talking about the power of social media. As Clay Shirky argues, collective organization and action has just become a whole lot easier because of simple tools available to everyone, and the Obama campaign has been one of the most vivid and profound examples of what this could mean for all of us.

We're talking about the man who might be the next president of the United States here! Do you think that the cavemen running global media companies can start to maybe pay a bit of attention to what is going on?!

via Daria

Home Makeover

Sam's Club is offering a Green makeover for your home for the low low price of $44,000.

What's interesting about this (beyond the price!) is that it blends product and experience. You're not only buying some green products, you're also buying into a service and experience. Sam's Club will send you to a far away eco lodge so that you don't have to deal with all the headaches and dust of the renovation. They also throw in a house warming party for when you return, which is to be shot for a PBS show about the project.

During your home's conversion, you and your family will spend time at the eco luxury Inn by the Sea on Crescent Beach in Cape Elizabeth, Maine , selected one of Trip Advisors'® Top Ten Green Hotels worldwide in 2007(airfare included). Completely renovated in the winter of 2008 the 57 comfortably appointed rooms and suites, new spa and fireside lounge, and five acres of indigenous seaside gardens create an atmosphere of true eco luxury that is distinctly Maine. Certified a Maine DEP Green Lodging. www.innbythesea.com

Your home will also be upgraded with your choice of new GE appliances and lighting. GE is committed to creating stylish and innovative household appliances and lighting products that help reduce energy spending and help protect the environment. Choose from a wide selection of dishwashers, washers, refrigerators, ranges and lighting products to meet all your needs for efficiency and savings.

There seems to be a catch though. There's only one of these available for sale, and they seem to have received a lot of requests from people interested.

Dataportability for Dummies

I'm almost certain that none of your friends will ever want to know what Dataportability is all about, but if they ask, point them to this

via

Sadness Can Be Eaten

I smiled and thought of the many (white) lies I've told the twins when I saw this

Lies I've Told My 3 Year Old Recently

When nobody is looking, I can fly.

We are all held together by invisible threads.

Books get lonely too.

Sadness can be eaten.

I will always be there.

(via Tammy via Swiss Miss)

In The Past You Were What You Owned

Now We are What We Share. (Charles Leadbetter).

I'm so behind in my reading that this video will have to do until I have time to read his book, which sounds very interesting. (Thanks Asi!)

Building the Velcro Wall

Over the weekend I met up with the one and only Faris here in Toronto and really enjoyed finally meeting in person someone who I had previously only known through their blog. Faris' weblog is one of my favourites, but as good as it is, I was reminded just how much better it was to actually speak to someone face to face, especially someone as brilliant as Faris.

Our conversation eventually drifted to talking about planning in general, and the future of planning, and the growing sense that we need to be paying attention to things like design and all of the things that go into building the platforms for brands that can help to chang behaviours. Leland has been a big influence in really shaping the thinking in this recently, as has Adrian, and I know that John wrote the book on this. A fantastic post over the weekend from Gareth on the future of planning made me wonder whether Gareth had wiretapped our conversation, as he raises the same points that Faris and I talked about. You have to love spontaneous plannersphere synchronicity.

Perhaps, the role of planning going forward is to think about the environment we are trying to create that will most likely lead to success and what things we can do to create this environment. More about the context and ecosystem, and less about the element or elements within.

I love this role for planning, and how we have the potential to expand the function to include synthesizing ideas that can lead to more than just communication. Thinking of platforms/systems for a brand is something that I've been jotting down lately in my notebooks and scraps of paper. I think Lisa Seward described Connection Planning as something like "building the velcro wall" on which ideas stick, also a good analogy.

Answering the question of "how things are done these days" is what it comes down to, in my opinion (from John's book). It places what we do in the right social context that demands that we frame everything in the sphere of cultural behaviour, not just the communication of a message, and appreciate that those cultural behaviours are strengthened by communication and connectivity tools that are ensuring that we realize our social nature ever more efficiently. Thinking of how ideas will be adopted, worked with and co-opted by people, how they fit into culture, and how we can actually play a role in guiding behaviours is far more interesting (and challenging) than proposing territories for presenting an image.
(image via)

Choose to Reverse This

Nicely done!

Cadbury Trucks

Discuss.
Here's my take. If there is any future left in the film medium and traditional advertising, I hope that at least it will be used to make me feel something.
I hate advertising that lures me with fake promises, or speaks to me in a condescending way, or patronizes me.
I hate advertising that wastes my time, or is just plain irrelevant. But I have no problem with something that moves me, that really makes me feel something.This clip makes me feel (a minute and a half of) exhilaration and joy, in a way that only something like this can. That's what Gorilla did, and this does it too.(Maybe it's the music ;)

Reality Bites

This project reminds me of something similar done a little while back, where the packaging photos are compared with photos of the real thing. Delicious!

I think there should be a huge photographic database of real product shots juxtaposed with the packaging or advertising shots of the same product.

Maybe even a Firefox plug-in that replaces the fake, polished photos with the real ones. That would be cool, too.

Future of Music

I have just seen a video of the most unbelievable music software. It comes from a company called Celemony, and they have developed a way to extract individual notes from an audio performance, which can then be replayed or edited. That's individual notes from a polyphonic recording, which means the notes of a chord progression magically appear, ready to be manipulated in any way shape or form. The video demonstration literally took my breath away.

There's an interactive demonstration to play with here.

I have spent many moments in the studio over the last fifteen years or so idly chatting with other producers and musicians about how amazing it would be to be able to do this, but of course we always thought it was completely impossible. Unreal.

As one of the reviews puts it, this is pretty much the final frontier for sound editing. But as excited as I am for the possibilities (those chord progressions that we spent countless hours trying to figure out, finally laid out in front of us!), part of me is a little sad that some of the mystery of music is gone. Plus, I expect that a lot of lazy producers will just get lazier, it's just too easy to blatantly rip off other peoples music, literally note for note (and transcending the audio sampling of music). Listening to music and then trying to play something similar is a part of how music, or musical genres, evolve. Being able to peek under the hood and instantly see the notes that make up any composition would be too tempting to resist.

via