Jason Fried of 37 Signals likes the side business idea. At SxSW a few weeks ago I spoke about starting a side business instead of quitting your job. Build something on the side. Give it a go and see what happens. If there’s something there, then take it to the next step. It’s hard to point to a business that launched huge and has been successful. Most of the big winners in our industry started really small and grew …
“Read The Freakin’ Manual” Sayeth Rubel
The manual Rubel speaks of--"Social Computing: How Networks Erode Institutional Power, And What to Do About It" from Forrester--costs $299. So, I think I'll pass. However, I will study the chart, he kindly provided. …
Continue Reading about “Read The Freakin’ Manual” Sayeth Rubel →
Back Scratch Fever
Jim Hanas, a freelance editor and writer living in New York City, found inspiration in heirarchy-flattening social bookmarking sites and has now brought the concept to life in an arena that means something to him (and others like him). Digg.com has been making a lot of noise lately, and spawning a lot of imitators. Not only has the site’s method of allowing users to promote stories to the front page given Slashdot a …
Oh, The Irony
Novelist and former CEO, Tom Evslin endeavored to write a review of John Battelle's book, The Search. John Battelle is a strong supporter of having most everything searchable. Therefore, Evslin was surprised to see this disclaimer at the start of the book: The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by …
Finally, A PDF That Pays
From Kottke: 37signals has published their latest book, Getting Real, as a PDF download that they are distributing themselves. After more than a day, they've sold over 1750 copies at $19 apiece: If you do the math, that's ~$33,000 in sales in one day. I don't know what the advance would be on a book like that, but they've got to be approaching it, and if/when they reach that figure, the profit margin on subsequent …
Can Creativity Be Taught In Schools?
This article in BusinessWeek doesn't deal with creativity as the advertising business knows it, but the idea that kids today need to be taught to be innovative thinkers. In an interview with Sir Ken Robinson, he talks about the importance of nurturing innovative solutions in the classroom: Creativity is the latest buzzword in the corporate world. What's your explanation? The world is changing so quickly that …
Continue Reading about Can Creativity Be Taught In Schools? →
Make Syd’s To Go
In the middle of a meditation on MySpace's role in breaking out new bands, Syd Schwartz looked into his crystal ball... From my perspective, the landscape shift in social networking will be primarily based on one thing–portability of the user investment. It should be easy to simply pick up your lists of friends, bookmarks, tags, blog posting, favorites and other social networking assets and move them to a NEW social …
Stop What You’re Doing. Do Something Else.
Chris Perry, Senior Vice President at Weber Shandwick is one of the PR heavyweights laying it down on Morph, "the Media Center conversation." Are you listening to the market and adapting your communications to become part of the conversation? Or are you even looking in the right places to understand where your message may be heard? We need to make sure our colleagues aren't sitting comfortably at their desks thinking …
Continue Reading about Stop What You’re Doing. Do Something Else. →
