Stupidity Can Kill
There is nothing more endangering for our species and Earth as humans' stupidity. Now it appears that working with idiots isn't only annoying but it can kill you. Apparently it is very stressful to work with stupid people. It is a source of frustrations. How do you cope with stupidity. You don't say to someone to stop being such an idiot. It is against social rules. Usually people keep to themselves those frustrations and it can lead to very serious stress and health consequences.
Download the whole article here.
It is similar to being surrounded by people who are negative. We tend to become influenced by their negativity because of our mirror neurons that get us to do the same thing as the person we are watching (it explains infectious yawning). We learn by observing and imitating other people and it all happens on subconscious level. Thus, there is a risk we can become idiotic. Scary, it can happen i situation when we can't really handle the bad atmosphere, and ineffective work caused by lack of thinking, our brain chooses to adapt and save itself a lot of stress. In Rome do as Rome does...Bad idea! Better solution would be to stay patient and clever and wait the stupid ones become influenced and will follow.
Tags: idiocy, team work, mirror neurons
Darth Hilary Vader Clinton
Good recap of presidential race in US
Quote of the Weekend
"The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done." (Peter Drucker)
The Art of Innovation and Bicycle
Innovation is about taking risks and seeing opportuities there where no one would imagine opportunities could exist. Innovation is daring to trasform something that exist into something new. Like this bicycle I've seen this morning.
Who said that you have to stay satisfied with ordinary city bicycle when with a little effort, tree branch, rope, colorful wires and pillow you can create super orginal street cruise. It is excellent!
Death by Power Point
There is nothing worse for your business than bad presentation. There are estimated 30 million presentations each day and around 50% of them kill people. I wrote earlier about the scientific findings showing that power point isn't good for our brains, so I believe we should definitely do our best to improve those power point slides, that will probably never die themselves.
100% Green and Social Fitness
The new fitness centre was opened in Copenhagen - Hello Fitness. It is 100% green - the training takes place in nature. It sounds enough appealing to me! Sports should be exercised outdoors. There is nothing worse than smelly and dampy gym. The Hello Fitness combines the nature with the community. The idea is to create the feeling of support between participants extendend to online community. There is always someone you can exercise with, there is always someone to support you in your efforts. Fabulous idea and the it costs only ca. $20 monthly, which equals one pizza and DVD. The choice is yours :-)
You can also become fan of Hello Fitness on Facebook (it is in Danish only)
The Magic of the Universe
I have borrowed my Nikon D300 to my husband and see yourself what he came back with! Awesome shot of M51 the whirlpool galaxy. Incredebly beautiful og fascinating. I look at the photo and the questions about universe, our role in it are bubbling in my head. It makes me feel so small and kind of scard that I will never manage to find the answers... You can see more of his magic astrophotography on Flickr
Successful Facebook Applications Drive Socializing
Shelly D. Farnham researched Facebook applications and what determines their success. It is very interesting what he found out - applications that become successful help its users to achieve social goals:
"In reviewing the dominant types of applications, it is clear that most of the applications are helping users achieve social goals such as improved communication, learning about the self relative to others, finding similar others, improving self-presentation, engaging in social play, and engaging in social exchanges via gifts and media. Despite its shifting demographics, Facebook is still very much a social arena in the private, personal domain, not the professional domain."
Read / buy the full report here,
Tags: facebook, applications, Shelly D. Farnham
Anti Facebook Song
To all people tired of your Facebook "friends" who spam you with hugs, spells, quizzes and useless application. It is entertaining.
Tags: facebook, spoof, billy joel, song, facebook applications
Media and Ad Agencies - It Is Time for You to Get Married
"It is essential that media agencies have more input into the creative brief" said David Kenny, the chairman-CEO of Publicis Group's Digitas
Being media savvy is really important in the increasingly fragmented and diversified media world. There is no fix solutions and creative ideas must reflect media environment in order to work. It is trivial to say it over and over but we can't make campaigns based on closed communication models that seems to be alive in many advertising agencies. I've attended a couple of meetings where ad agency presented first their great idea and then came up with a couple of slides for media agency - their media recommendation (newspapers and TV), without even giving a thought whether their message can thrive in the given media. Media aren't only about buying advertising space and optimizing reach at low cost. Media are about understanding how and when connect with consumers and establish your brand / message in their lives. Media are about well-thought communication solutions and maximizing your reach via creating social networks or becoming part of them. You can't achieve a success with your great picture and slogan on it that you throw like a bomb on the consumers. Bombs explode and destroy. Media used wisely - connect and build. We, at Vizeum work with connections planning where the starting point is not only collecting consumers insights but understanding human's motivations behind media usage. This is what should drive ideas. Ideas, messages should fit media "personality", otherwise our messages are like bull in a china shop.
"Medium is the message" McLuhan
In my humble opinion, it is not about who takes a lead, it is not about who is more important on the client's partners list. It is about COLLABORATION. Both media and advertising agencies are on the same side. It just makes me sad that we perceive each other as competitors and collect efforts to prove who's better. We should reunite our efforts and talents to create unforgettable and effective solutions. We should get married!'
Photo by *Solar ikon*
Tags: advertising, media, collaboration, David Kenny, connection planning
4x4 About Me...OMG I've Been Tagged!
Finally, there is an interest in my humble persona - I've been tagged by two persons at once! CB Whittemore and Neil.
It is funny phenomena tagging. It is like getting closer to people you know and are curious to know more details about their life. It is about answering noisy questions. We are tagging and getting tagged all the time in offline life. It is always nice to show off your feathers :-)
Four categories and four bits of information for each category. 4 x 4 about me. It includes "8 things you don't know about me"
4 Places I'd love to Live In:
- Trinidad, Cuba
- New York, US
- Krakow, Poland
- Nepal
4 Most Exciting Jobs I've Held:
- interviewer at research company - I've been traveling to some distant and forgotten villages and interview old people about their lives through the last 40 years (that's some kind of tagging!). It was so inspiring to hear those stories. I've many of them in me until today and they guide me in a way through life.
- assistant to psychologist who was conducting an experiment in a deep forest where there were no facilities, like water for example to see whether we can shake off culture when exposed to primitive conditions. I've discovered many interesting things about human beings who can't take a shower every day. One thing was for sure, nature is stronger than culture.
- sales assistant at art gallery
- having no traditional job at all...just living, walking around, talking to people, photographing, reading and writing.
4 Foods I Really Like:
I love most of what I cook. I am excellent cook, but if I have to choose four:
- lamb marinated in home-made pesto
- blueberries
- marzipan
- champagne
&
sus
h
i
4 TV Shows I Watch:
- Heroes
- Californication
- XFactor (Danish talent show)
- Klovn (Clown - hilarious Danish comedy show, it is all but political correct)
4 Books I couldn't Live without:
- Idiot, F. Dostoevsky
- In the search of lost time, M. Proust
- War and Peace, L. Tolstoy
- The Last Cohort, W. Lysiak
4 Things You Don't know about me:
- I was supposed to be tennis star but I've decided to rebel against my parents and destroyed my tennis rocket, only to become...
- ... punk for a year or something - heavy belts, anarchy, Sex Pistol and working hard on making holes in my jeans
- I have 100 pair of shoes
- I have weakness for gambling (which actually lies in my family)
4 Persons I' am tagging
- Mark from Herd
- Charles from Punk Planning
- Paul from Paul Isakson
- Dino from chroma
Tags: tag, 4x4 tags, me
iPhones Make People Google
"We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again," said Vic Gundotra of Google’s mobile operations.
Google reported that Apple's iPhones generate 50 times more Google searches than any other mobile handset.
Via MarketingVox
Tags: iphone, google, search
History 2.0
I have always loved history. It is something fascinating in making the sense out of past events and finding out how those have defined nations and societies. History - the true discourse of the past, that takes past to explain present and get a slight understanding of future. Our history is something that shapes us not only as nations but also as individuals. It is a part of our "we consciousness".
That history is changing today - it becomes personalized. The stories about big events are told through the eyes of real people. Events have no longer an effect on humanity, events influence life of Alice and John.
We save and distribute our history online. In pictures and videos.
Like ERA project, that is online space with individual stories of people who stood up against terror and humiliation of fascism during WWII. The stories told by people who experienced Holocaust are very important in XXI century when increasing number of people denies Holocaust took place and WWII seems like a kind of fantasy for today's teenagers. "The protagonists and eyewitnesses will disappear in the next years. Soon, there will be no other testimonies of the happenings apart from those having been collected, recorded, recounted and written down. The value of eyewitness interviews is unique. No book or film can replace the opportunity of watching eyewitnesses tell their stories of resistance and independent decision to do so."
Or like this 10 minutes video from YouTube that tells the Polish history.
There is also vast amounts of personal stories created and saved online. We save our histories in pictures, on blogs and forums. We create not only the collective picture of history, but we also save the history of our times for the future generations in form of our experiences, emotions, not just numbers and dates. History becomes open to amateurs and it gets additional dimension - emotional. It gets it closest ever to other disciplines as sociology and philosophy and moves it always from historiography approach based on dry facts and dates.
We share, store out stories of the big events. Like April 16th archive documenting tragic events on the Virginia Tech tragedy of April 16, 2007.
We get even more personal by passion on our everyday stories in blogs and collective projects like those projects from UK: History Matters, Pass it On and Your History Here.
Or Yahoo's Time Capsule that is going to reopen in 2020 and reply all submissions it get from people all over the world.
We create the new Youniverse history facilitated by multimedia and Internet. We become ubiquitous and available 24/7. We share our knowledge about history and our personal histories via our networks and communities, demonstrating history is a story tale of herd. The question is, will the history saved on fiber connections survive? Will it be passed on as a immortal meme through new connections driven by links as a new form of story telling?
"Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs" (David Ben Gurion)
Inspired by Historia & Media
Tags: history, sociology, meme, Youniverse
Bomb, Bomb, Bomb...
...John McCain is also convinced that yes, we can...but the future doesn't seem so bright
Tags: us, election, john mccain
What's Wrong with Socialism?
"Socialism is the system that heroically fights against problems that don't exist in any other system"
I couldn't agree more.
Tags: socialism
Quote of the Day
"... social applications are about consideration, not awareness. Blogs, word of mouth, social networks . . . they're about people connecting with other people. You may resist advertising if your finances are tight, but if your bud tells you that new movie is really worth seeing or that the Gap has the cutest new tops, that's more persuasive than advertising. Basically, in a recession, the consideration phase is more important than awareness -- and that's where advertising flops and social applications succeed." (Josh Bernoff)
Tags: social media, awareness, advertising, communication
Companies Need Passionate Workers
What will make difference for companies and take them to the success aren't workaholics, who work their butts off driven by some kind of fear of facing the life, so they fill out their time with work. The employees that will make a difference are passionate workers. People who love their jobs.
"The passionate worker doesn't show up because she's afraid of getting in trouble, she shows up because it's a hobby that pays. The passionate worker is busy blogging on vacation... because posting that thought and seeing the feedback it generates is actually more fun than sitting on the beach for another hour. The passionate worker tweaks a site design after dinner because, hey, it's a lot more fun than watching TV." Seth Godin
The undeniable truth is that we work increasingly in 24/7 style, surrounded by blackberries, mobile phones and instant access to mail. We have hardly time to take a break to breath in. Work becomes habit, worker becomes the slave. And slaves aren't creative. Slaves suffer. Slaves fulfil their duties decently driven by fear of being punished (fired, no bonus, etc.). Slaves don't make a difference. Only passionate workers make a difference. In a world where work is the most time consuming activity after sleeping (for some work takes more time than sleeping), job needs to be some kind of hobby to deliver on to levels - duties and leisure. This is the area where work becomes your passion and as Seth says you'd rather do something exciting connected to your work than watch another silly TV show. The people who dedicate themselves to the job, by loving what they do are the most precious workers. They have incredible engagement that can be infectious and creativity that ignites ideas and new possibilities for companies to develop.
Picture by aussiegal
Tags: Seth Godin, passionate workers, modern slaves, work, corporations
Be Kind Rewind Sweded Trailer
This is so cool. Michel Gondry sweded his trailer. It can't get better.
Tags: be kind rewind, swede, Michel Gondry
Be Kind Rewind
I've seen today Be Kind Rewind and I loved the movie for its appreciation of creativity and freedom of interpretation and expression. The movie creates the new phenomena called "sweding", that originates from Sweden, like Sweden country and is about "re-making something from scratch using whatever you can get your hands on". Sweding is some kind of mashup. It is about being free, enjoying creativity and fellowship. Creating something new and unique without investing tons of cash and having fancy equipments. This the creativity that derives its advantage from being curious, ready to challenge norms and have some fun. Simple things we oversee. Could imagine shooting Rush Hour 2 in the playground in a day? Yes, Michel Gondry shows it is possible,
Great movie with lot of laughs and inspiration for every day routine struggles. 
You must visit film website to experience you Internet being erased and learn more about sweding.
Here is the trailer
Tags: be kind rewind, movie, Gondry, Jack Black
Wave Principles and Stock Markets
U.S.economy is according to some on the verge of the recession, according to others it is already in recession. The stock markets are falling down. Not only in USA, they are falling down across the globe.
Breaking News Alert from NYT
Stock Markets in Europe Plunge 7 Percent
Stocks Open Sharply Lower Despite Interest-Rate Cut
Asian Stock Markets Plunge for Second Day
The experts outdo one another in economical prophecies. Media sound the alarm
about the inflation. Everyone across the world seems to be touched by the problems. I
think it is very interesting to observe. It reminds me of the snowball
effect. The more it rolls the bigger it gets.
It is like with Elliott waves
that show the collective investor (or crowd) psychology and interactions move
from optimism to pessimism and back again. These swings create patterns, as
evidenced in the price movements of a market at every degree of trend.
From
R.N. Elliott's essay, "The Basis of the Wave Principle," October
1940.
"The wave patterns are an organizing
principle for myriad social behaviors, ranging from newspaper sales figures to
the fortunes of national leaders. The reason Elliott waves can tell us all this
is simply because they are direct reflection of human psychology - the rhythms
of human emotion, as Elliott puts it." (I know what you'll do next
summer, New Scientist, 31st August 2002).
Interesting
how the herd behavior and emotions influence even the stocks market. It is
incredible to see how everythink is linked and depend on one another.
Tags: stock markets, elliott waves, herd
Bad Ideas
This is a good week starter - think about it when entering the office.
It is almost impossible not to agree. I've dropped watching TV for some time ago. Its stupidity is killing me, and makes me shout at TV screen due to plenty of bad ideas, so I use TV in very small doses and only if necessary, primarily for research reasons.
I am totally fan of Gapingvoid and his brilliant and witty remarks. They pinch and punch and show the naked truth. It can hurt but it surely open the eyes too. Love it!
Tags: ideas, gapingvoid
Music, 80-ties and Social Sharing
I have found a pretty cool site where you can mix your music - Mixaloo. It made me think about those
Friday evening when I was together with my friend recording music on tape player (Kasprzak - communism's technology miracle) from the most popular and only music radio chart. We have created this way tapes with mixed music that allowed us not only to learn English but also have a contact with the Western world. Then we exchange the tapes in the school to compare one another music tastes and also hoping to get a new song we didn't mange to record. This was 80-ties way of social sharing.
Things hasn't change drastically since then. Youth still define their identity through music and share it, though there are more powerful and faster ways of doing so, like Mixaloo or MySpace, but the idea behind is still the same. It is about being with others and being like others. When I look back at my teens years and compare them with nowadays teenagers, I must admit I have that feeling that teenagers didn't change. Being teenager is about the same issues today as it was 20 years ago. What's different is that teens today live in the different environment. Environment that is powered by technology and suffers from over-supply of choices and possibilities.
It all made me pretty sentimental and I have created by 80-ties play list - enjoy.
(on the picture you can see my teenager pride - my Kasprzak stereo)
Quote of the Day
"I warn you against believing that advertising is a science."
Bill Bernbach
Tags: advertising, Bill Bernbach
Welcome to Social Hallucinations
Tuesday, 15th January, 2008 - social hallucinations were brought to live. Social hallucinations aren't new as such. I've just opened the door to the room filled with things that don't exist. We hallucinate day after day. Selling and buying products that don't exist. Saying things no one believes in, even you. This is liquid reality where hallucinations are the staff of life. I am living in liquid reality where all modem structures are being dissolved and nothing new is being created. Humans have to reconstruct, deconstruct and redefine themselves all the time. It is impossible to have stable, one-faced identity. There are no fast norms you can refer to and feel safe. So, in order to live up to the mashed-up times, I've decided to re-baptize my blog. Social Hallucinations that go hand in hand med liquid reality. Rebirth. Instantly seeking for inspiration and new frame of reference.
OK. I've changed the name of my blog. Why? I love changes, changes keeps me going and add the new energy to my actions. It is like at least once or twice a year I must rearrange my apartment to create the new room for thinking and get some fresh into air into my environment. I am reconstructing my blogging "I" in hope for new loads of creativity invading my brain.
"All affirmations are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense” (Sri Syadasti)
Btw. Media Blog it was pretty boring and generic! :-)
Social Hallucinations got also new domain and you can also find me here: www.socialhallucinations.com
Tags: blog, social hallucinations
Train Your Brain
I just couldn't remember whether I've written about this service or not. I couldn't exactly remember whether I have been on the site before either. I guess it means I should not only become a member but also upgrade my account and train my brain on Lumosity.com. It is a brain fitness program that should help you to to improve your brain performance through a series of exercises. Program is developed in cooperation with leading neuroscientists from Stanford and UCSF and the exercises are proven to have statistically significant effects in improving memory and attention.
I guess Lumosity will become a part of my breakfast.
Tags: brain, brain fitness
Real Leaders Are Rare
Leaders are hard to find. Many wind up director titles on their business cards, but there is no action...just a title. Mike Bowden put it really good:
"Too many times business owners seem to be satisfied spending their careers as managers rather than leaders. When you see real leadership in action, you're left in awe. Real leaders are active, engaged and motivating. They create an atmosphere that's electric - both fun and productive."
Mike Bowden
Found at the Brand Building Blog
Tags: leadership, management
Negativity Refuse Bag
I believe we all need it from time to time. Just take a deep breath and forget about the mean people and bad experiences we met on our way. You can use this bag :-)
via Chroma
Happy New Year
New Year's Eve is just round the corner, so it's time to write some kind of summary of the previous year and peek into upcoming year. And I'm going to this with my left hand. It's pretty hard as I'm dedicated user of my right hand, which now is packed in plastic bag due to severe burn - it's very silly to pour boiling coffee on your hand!
Anyhow, left or right 2007 comes to an end. For me it isn't really end, this is just a check point people set up - time doesn't exist, our clocks don't measure something independent of the universe. Clocks doesn't measure time at all. New Year's Eve and resolutions are just the way of dealing with unpredictable and endless universe.
2007 was a year of Facebook. People went crazy not only with opening accounts but sending messages and creating applications. The number of third-party apps. available on Facebook has hit the 10,000 mark, but less than 20 Facebook apps. that are used on a daily basis by more than 25% of users who install them (via Marketing Vox). Social media were big this year and they will keep on growing, however they are still not mainstream. Mainstream level is reached when your grandfather and marketers get it, but it is not the case yet, but it is getting closer and closer. Marketers begin to look into and we can see more interesting examples of commercial activities that are build upon understanding of humans' needs and behavior.
2007 brought me also a great iPhone experience. I've got my iPhone and it convinced me the mobile will rise from ashes of previous predictions and finally become "the killer device". The phones like iPhone offering multifunctional within one thumb click and giving access anytime and anywhere are the future. Mobile phone are already ubiquitous, we carry and use them 24/7. iPhone adds a couple of steroids to our mobile experience. And I know there are many who will say that there are more phones that have more features and are powerful than iPhone....yes, it is true but they lack two crucial elements: total user centric design (you can access anything on iPhone within one click and it feels so nice to hold iPhone) and being social objects of social desire. I wait also for the next big news about GPhone, it will be exciting to see Google's next move towards taking world over.
My favorite viral video in 2007 was Cadbury's Gorilla. It is simple and cool. And it destroyed for me Phil Collins' song. Every time I hear it, I can see gorilla in front of my eyes.
My favorite and inspirational blogs: Herd and Punk Planning. Thanks for inspiration and keep on doing great job. You are one of those who make a difference.
T
he best quote in 2007: "Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking." Johnny Vulkan.
The biggest chock and disappointment I've experienced in 2007 was when I was called for being to creative and consumer centric....hmm. Apparently flowcharts and GRPs levels are still crucial to media planning. I must have missed something.
What about 2008? Social media saga will continue, mobile will slowly rise and we will keep on living in hype culture where the new things, social media, applications and devices become hypes and achieve status of desirable social objects - like Facebook. Just a few will be able to reach the critical mass and become mainstream. They last until the new hype arrives and steals people CPA (continous partial attention).
The focus on GREEN will be increasing, more talking but also more action - Radiohead's initiative to reduce carbon output of their tours will find followers. Being Green will become the way to demonstrate you are wealthy in Western countries.
Besides the world will carry on, TV will still be there and radio and Facebook. We will forget to turn of the lights and buy lots of unnecessary things. We will make lots of resolution but we will remain who we are :-) - herd animals.
I wish you all wonderful New Year and great year 2008, filled with great ideas and three resolutions:
1) be more green by doing the small things, don't try to save the world but make the change to happen locally - turn off the lights when you leave the office, recycle, reduce the amount of printing, etc.
2) reduce spending on the things, you don't really need and give the money to those who need them. Owning another bag or another pair of shoes will not make any difference for you, but it can change someone's life.
3) be nice to people, smile makes life more bearable :-)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Tags: 2008 trends, 2007, Happy New Year, Advertising, Media, IPhone, Facebook, Social Media
My New Camera
I've got my new Nikon d300, after 3 months without photo equipment. It feels fantastic to hold camera in my hands and look through lens. Through 3 past months I've almost forgotten how wonderful it feels to take pictures, freeze the special moments, faces, so they last forever. This is my play. This is my exploration tool. I can't wait to get out and capture life.
Humans are still Evolving
"The widespread assumption that human evolution has slowed down because it's easier to live and we've conquered nature is absolutely not true. We didn't conquer nature, we changed it in ways that created new selection pressures on us," said anthropologist Dr John Hawks
Read more about evolution progress here
Tags: science, evolution
Never Stop Playing
I have been sick for the last couple of days. My body couldn't handle the pressure and stress anymore. Pretty bad experience, however between headaches and fever, I have managed to reflect over the two terms that were artificially set in opposition to each other - play and work (this is what brought me into the state of being unable to work)
The Western culture regards play as unimportant and silly activity that belongs to childhood. Grown-ups have more serious thing to do. Serious things meaning work. Play stands in in opposition to work, which is so wrong. Johan Huinziga said once that play is crucial to our culture.
“Play is simultaneously liberty and inventions, fantasy and discipline. All important cultural manifestations are based upon it. It creates and sustains the spirit of inquiry, respect for rules, and detachment.”
It is impossible to have satisfying life without balancing both - work and play. Too much work without elements of play leads not only to stress and exhaustion but refrain us from development, from being creative in the sense of finding the right solutions. For me the main difference between work and play can be described by R. Kennedy words:
"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"
Play means not only asking the WHY NOT questions and challenging status quo, looking further into future and imagining unseen and unimagined. Play means also being together, it means being connected with community. Pure work is just selling your soul to routines, duties and never endless deadliness. Work as such is pointless and deprives us of humanity (I know it sounds very hard). First when you mix it with playfulness it becomes something than can fulfill your needs and give you and others satisfaction.
In spite I am be usual suspect myself at the moment, I have hard time of understanding what drives people into giving up on play and turning your life into constant work, where family and friends are put aside, all matters is your inbox and presentations. The tyranny of being the best, of proving yourself? Even when you sick, you don't stop. You hold desperately onto it and turn into bitter, unproductive but responsible worker, who replied 50 emails just before she died. Wow, it surely opens the door to ...hell.
Never ever drop play ...neither me or any of you out there. Life is to wonderful and precious to turn it into routines and duties.
Personally, I have nothing against work, particularly when performed, quietly and unobtrusively, by someone else. I just don't happen to think it's an appropriate subject for an "ethic."
Barbara Ehrenreich
Tags: work, play, society, culture
Post-Human
US Society has gone along way in terms of their interest reflected in Google top searches. Year 2001 was dominated by fear after 9/11 attacks and Americans were looking for finding answers about their future. From Nostradamus through World Trace Center, anthrax to Taliban.
1. Nostradamus
2. CNN
3. World Trade Center
4. Harry Potter
5. Anthrax
6. Windows XP
7. Osama Bin Laden
8. Audiogalaxy
9. Taliban
10. Loft Story
But 6 years after, in 2007 Americans seem to have forgotten about their fears and embraced technology and super powers. Humanity powered by technology rules....iPhone has taken over people's mind along with social networks.
1. iPhone
2. webkinz
3. TMZ
4. Transformers
5. YouTube
6. Club Penguin
7. myspace
8. Heroes (NBC)
9. Facebook
10. Anna Nicole Smith
into post-human phase?
Tags: Google, search terms, post-human, social objects
Learn and Fight Hunger
Great idea for helping to fight against famine - Freerice.com. It is based on simple idea: you learn words. Each time you get it right, you donate 20 grains of rice. Everyone gets something out of it. You learn more English words and people that are in need get food. The small changes matters. This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on the site.
Numbers
I am back. I hope I am back for good to blogging. The last couple of weeks I've been buried in tremendous amount of work. Building insights, crafting strategies and just getting to know in the end that there were numbers and boxes missing. Is it too much to believe that people aren't numbers. I don't think so, but some need numbers, grasping them desperately and believing they are in control because they can measure things. The fear of unpredictable will never vanish and it is natural thing. People always need something to hold on to and numbers are so tangible. I am not against numbers, I just thing that sometimes that stay in a way and encumber big ideas to come forward :-). I love sometimes to break all ties and jump into deep water to face the unpredictable. You never know where the next wave take you.
Radiohead Kicks Ass
Radiohead has got people and music business talking when they've offered their latest album to download and offer people to pay for it the price they want. No label, no promotions. I've been waiting impatiently for the first results, wondering whether music fans are ready for such shift and how are they going to react. The results have proved Radio head has a strong base of fans - there has been 1.2 million downloads, average price was $8 per album sold and it brought estimated profit of about $10 million - all that in just one week.
Music industry is changing in rely to the generation FREE, people who want and expect certain things to cost nothing. Anti-pirate groups chasing them will not change anything, the new sales, promotion model can make a difference, which Radiohead is a good example of.
Tags: music, radiohead, album sales
Do the Green Thing!
I feel like staying green this week. Green makes me happy and I'd love to make you and Earth happy too :-) All you have to do is join Green Thing website. It's just an easy, monthly thing, it is a community that makes it easy and enjoyable to be a bit greener. Every month you'll get a different Green Thing to do. All you have to do is do it. This is exactly the micro change I wrote about yesterday. There are lots of cool videos, you can make friends with people who think green like you. You can see how much CO2 savings you made.
October's Green Thing is Walk Once and in order to make your walk even more enjoyable, you can download cool walking tunes and walking words written by a talented musicians and writers. You put it on your iPod and listen to as you walk...and you can't stop smiling!
Tags: green, environment, micro change, green thing
Blog Action Day
I've had a long at work today and when going through the office I was inspired to writing this post. It was before 10 p.m., empty office, you couldn't find a soul but there was so much light! Light in kitchen, toilet, in halls. Wherever you looked, it was light. I felt enlightened. I was wondering for a moment whether some people has found out that I can be afraid of darkness. But seriously . .We talk a lot about global warming and protest against huge 4 WD tracks. We focus on huge things. We fight against big corporations, we make demonstrations, shout and ... Is this the right way? I must admit, I doubt it. I am against fighting the monsters who destroy Earth. I opt for ordinary people taking their time to pay attention, clean around themselves and switch off the lights. My grandparents who dedicated their life to help orphans used to say, that we should never think that our help will change a world, we should focus on saving just one child, as this is what will make a difference. Our small efforts, our personal involvement and will to influence and change our closest surroundings can make a difference and contribute to saving the planet. Not huge declarations, not manifestos. It is not about words, it is about changing behavior. Our "green behavior" on micro level, on daily basis, like turning off the lights, sorting trash, avoiding unnecessary printing will add up and become to something bigger, something that will create the global awareness of the environmental problems. Changing our behavior, learning our kids to act in green way, influencing our friends to take some action - this is the way to contribute to saving the planet.
So keep on fighting and getting greener :-)
Tags: blog action day, green, environment
Let's Chat
They start with being open but then become overwhelmed and go to F*** word. Good one!
Viewer Voices: Where We Respond To The Opinions Of Our Uninformed Viewers
Tags: let's chat, communication
Bloggers Unite for Earth
On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. There are over 6.000 bloggers who joined the initiative with reach over 4 million readers. The point is to spread the message, focus people's attention on environmental issues.
So if have a blog, just rush to join Blog Action Day to help make earth a better and cleaner place.
You can read more about the action day here.
Tags: environment, blog action day
Weekend Stuff
Here is some pretty interesting and funny links for relaxing weekend with laptop and good Internet connection with a cup of warm tea, good music and warm blanket.
RedFruit farm is looking for manager :-). Great website, especially the movie introducing you to the job.
Talking about jobs. Meet some very innovative engineers.
Dontclick.it. Interesting and addictive project.
Most influential gadgets in the history.
And a bunch of cool ads from YouTube
Great presentation of Nissan Rouge. Roughly speaking, I know what this car can on the road. Besides good creative execution.
I love "The Science of Sleep" movie for it is dreamness. Watching this movie is like being in a dream. Now, Michel Gondry used his expertise in science of sleep for Motorola and made a Razr commercial.
Sensual advertising from Korean Airlines. Beuatifully done. It expresses softness, sensuality and makes you feel safe.
This is not a commercial. This is the piece from the real life. Tony Blair should be thankful and happy to get so much love.
Tags: links, advertising, dontclic.it, gadgets
Power Point Is Bad for Brains
Power point is ominous program. I've hardly been to any presentation where it wasn't used. I'd count on one hand presentations I've given without power point. I have my set of guidelines I use when preparing presentations: people don't think in words, 80% of human communication is nonverbal, it's what I say matters, not my power point slides. And of course Seth Godin's rules: no more than six words on a slide. EVER, no dissolves, spins or other transitions, don’t hand out print-outs of your slides.
Power point is useful but used in a wrong way can be deadly. Here is just another reason why found at Power Point is bad for brains
Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia found
the brain is limited in the amount of information it can absorb - and
presenting the same information in visual and verbal form - like
reading from a typical Powerpoint slide - overloads this part of memory
and makes absorbing information more difficult.Professor Sweller said: "The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster. It should be ditched.
Via Media Influencer
Photo by Erik Mallinson
Tags: power point, communication
Co-create or Die
"We aim at nothing but mutual assistance and collaboration". (Winston Churchill, "Iron Curtain" Speech)
I have been to the very good and interesting presentation about co-creation by Rikke Grundvigt from OMD. Rikke talked about co-creation, the digitized reality where mash-ups are just another form of communication. She tried not only to show the new forms of communication, called co-creation but also tried to answer the question: how media and advertising agencies can find themselves in this new world. How can we become interesting partners in the collaboration process? How can we turn collaboration into our advantage?
I have been thinking quite a lot lately about collaboration, not only as a new form of communication but as an integrated part of the way people work.
According to online Websters dictionary:
Collaboration
Noun
1. Act of working jointly: "they worked either in collaboration or independently".
2. Act of cooperating traitorously with an enemy.
According to Wikipedia
"Collaboration is a structured, recursive process where two or more people work together by building consensus and sharing knowledge in an intellectual endeavor toward a common goal which is typically creative in nature. Collaboration does not require leadership and can even bring better results through decentralization and egalitarianism."
Collaboration means working together, collaboration means co-creation, collaboration means wisdom of crowds. Collaboration means better results, as my great-grandmother used to say: "two heads are wiser than one head" (she was 92 years old).
Collaboration, co-creation are talks of the town. They are the new buzz - let's invite our target group to co-creation! But before we jump into inviting consumers to co-creation, shouldn't we ask ourselves a question: Is our organization ready to work in teams? Do we have culture for collaboration?
From my observations and conversations with people, I think collaboration is huge challenge, due to bad communication (or lack of it), tyranny of "I in front of the computer" culture and "I wanna be a star" syndrome. Hierarchical approach and war of business cards (who has the stronger title) dominates and overshadows the potential laying in collaboration. People, companies, brands locked in their own private worlds choose to take decisions themselves, just to avoid problems and discussions. It is easier this way. This is the way to promote "I", not good ideas or solutions.
Closing the door for the challenges and unfathomable potential laying in the collaboration makes people feel alienated and limits the chance