Change Agents

In some of the more exclusive advertising creative departments, writers and art diectors are envious of colleagues with a Lion or a Pencil to their credit, knowing they might have been just as lucky if it weren't for that idiot client/creative director/account guy/director. According to The New York Times there's a different kind of envy at work just south of San Francisco. Almost anywhere else, Reid Hoffman would be …

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Evan Williams, or Evhead as he is known, is a serial technology entrepreneur with down home values. ValleyWag calls him "a nice Midwestern guy." Hey Denton, that's how they grow 'em in Nebraska. Williams' recently bought out his investors in Odeo, the podcasting startup he founded after selling Pyra Labs (the maker of Blogger) to Google. Denton, of course finds Williams' largesse foreign and naive. Williams is …

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Vermont's Champlain College--a private, baccalaureate institution that offers professionally focused programs balanced by a liberal arts foundation--has created a brilliant program for budding entrepreneurs. It's called BYOBiz, or "bring your own business." According to Burlington Free Press, 15 students started in the program this fall. National Public Radio's Marketplace says one student in the program, Ben …

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The San Francisco Diggers of the 1960s used to feed the hungry in Golden Gate Park between theatrical perfornances. But there's a new group of Diggers in the Bay Area these days. And The New York Times says they just got VC funding for a video production unit. In 2004, Jay Adelson, 36, and Kevin Rose, 29, started Digg, a fast-growing Web site that allows users to play editor by submitting links to news accounts …

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Senior decision makers at Yahoo appear to have a thing for old Commodores songs. Liz Gannes, a staff writer for GigaOM has this scoop for us: Yahoo is in the process of setting up an in-house incubator in an attempt to hold onto its expensive talent, sources say. The project, called Brickhouse, will be led by Flickr founder Caterina Fake. Big companies are no longer the safe havens they were during the tech bust. …

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In an effort to make Upstate South Carolina (the site of BMW's only North American manufacturing plant) even more influential in the automotive industry, BMW has joined forces with Clemson University and the State of South Carolina to develop the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research. This New York Times story sheds light on the cozy relationship between Clemson—a state institution—and …

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The girls of 3iYing - a market and design strategy firm that specializes in marketing to girls ages 15 to 25, have some news for marketers who blindly follow the sex sells rule. In their "The Girl Improved" column in Business Week, they specifically take on American Apparel and Abercrombie & Fitch. Although the maxim "sex sells" may have ruled for years, from a girl's perspective the erotica in marketing is …

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Shawn Corey Carter, a.k.a. Jay-Z, 36, is president and CEO of Def Jam Records. For most mortals that would be an all-engrossing position and a magnificent accomplishment. But Jay-Z is on another level. He's also one of the owners and founders of the Roc-A-Fella empire, which includes Roc-A-Fella Records, Roc-La-Familia, Roc-A-Fella Films and Rocawear. And he owns part of the New Jersey Nets and the 40/40 Club, an …

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