John Naisbitt: "Don't get so far ahead of the parade that they don't know you are in it."

Crossposted from Fremtidens Relationer.

I first "met" John Naisbitt at about 0200 on a Sunday morning in 1983, in the bowels of the US Naval Intelligence Processing Systems Support Activity (NIPSSA) in Suitland, Maryland, USA. Looking for something to read on a slow mid-watch, I borrowed Megatrends from the senior watch officer.

What an awakening! 24 years ago, few spoke of globalization or the deindustrialization of the US, EU and Japan. Few contemplated how hierarchies would be affected by the rise of networking. Nobody said stuff like "the new source of power is not money in the hands of the few, but information in the hands of many." Yet, these concepts and more are the running themes in Megatrends. More to the point, they are the running themes today, in 2007, in The Economist, Fortune, Wired, the Financial Times, and the Hindustan Times.

I wish I could say reading Megatrends was an "A-Ha!" moment for me. If I had been perceptive enough to give the book far more thought, I might have made some very different choices at an age where even small choices have great effect. But I was 21, a Cold War was on, and while I helping run a communication network most civilians wouldn't see the likes of until the late 1990s, I hadn't the imagination to mull over what would happen when it did go mainstream.

(An aside: roll forward to 1995, IABC's International Conference in Boston. Jeff Hallett gives a speech on networked communication that prompts more than one communicator present to think seriously about how networks, the Internet, will affect business. I realize, now, it's no coincidence Hallet is the first person Naisbitt acknowledges in Megatrends.)

So Naisbitt's keynote at CIFS' Don't Stop 02 conference was a must-hear for me. Naisbitt, who speaks without slides, notes, lectern or podium, sketched out several trends or "mindsets" from his new book Mind Set.

Visual on the rise, text receding

Globalization is a big driver here. Globalization means almost any ordinary good can be produced so cheaply that almost no one can compete on price. Quality, too, is no longer the preserve, and thus the competitive advantage, of the few. So design, an entirely visual attribute, and one inherently unique, is now far more important.

• Naisbitt pointed to the trend of "upscale designs for common goods." That's certainly true enough; the Moleskine is nothing but a notebook on design steroids.
• He pointed to the rise of "photography as fine art," noting that while many of us carry cameras around all the time (on our phones), photographs made the old-fashioned way are fetching USD 1.7 million at Sotheby's.
• Architecture: "the most important of the visual arts", taking on new significance
• Graphic narrative: fastest growing publishing area. 9/11 Commission report issued in comic book form

Sequence is the enemy of making connections

4..14..23..34..42.... what comes next in this sequence of numbers? I'll get to it, but first....

Naisbitt explained that, at the end of the 1800s, Queen Victoria was told that London would stop growing at population of 4 million, as it would simply be impossible to remove the droppings of the horses required to service a larger city. Already then,100 tons of dung were carted away daily. London's population today is 8 million -- Victoria's advisors failed to foresee the automobile, even though it had been invented.

Naisbitt: "look at things as a picture puzzle, a jigsaw puzzle. Nothing sequential here. If you look sequentially, you won't make connections."

If you are looking for a mathematical solution to the problem Naisbitt posed, you may as well give up. 50 is the correct answer, and the sequence is the stops on the 8th Avenue Express of the New York subway. "Sequence is the enemy of making connections."

You don't get results by solving problems. You get results by exploiting opportunities

Naisbitt: "people can be divided into opportunity seekers and problem solvers." The Indian IT industry is an example of opportunity seeking. When Y2K loomed, IT labor capacity in the West was tight. So the Indians, seeing opportunity, offered Western companies an enormous pool of IT skills. When the dot-com bubble broke, Western countries slashed their IT budgets -- and the Indians, seeing opportunity, offered to provide the same services as Western providers, but at much lower cost.

Naisbitt calls Hillary Clinton an example of a problem solver. When President Clinton was elected, Hillary Clinton used enormous political capital trying to "solve" the US health-care problem, a problem that simply cannot be solved. He calls Arnold Schwarzenegger an example of an opportunity seeker. Usually, it would have been impossible for him to climb the ranks of the California Republican party to become governor. But by seizing the chance offered by the recall referendum on Gray Davis, he leaped past the Republican organization and was elected after a 76-day campaign.

Another opportunity-seeker is Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx. While US policy makers debated how to "solve" the problems of US Postal Service, Smith saw and exploited an opportunity to build a new, private service based on time and reliability.

More Naisbitt Mind Sets to come in a later post!

Technorati : conference blogging, copenhagen institute for futures studies, desirable roasted coffee, don't stop 02, futures studies, futurists, instituttet for fremtidsforskning, jeffrey hallett, john naisbitt, megatrends, mind set, nipssa

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 01:39pm in Books, Business, Conferences, Management, Society, Writers | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (3)

Australia to tax Second Life revenues

From Andrea Weckerle:

Speaking of currency, Sibley believes that within 12 months or so the lines between real currency and Linden Dollars will really blur, with, for example, debit cards being used in SL. Reuters just reported that Australia is requiring that virtual income be reported as taxable. And the U.S. Congress is looking into this as well.

Until SL gets a lot more user-friendly, I am going to be the rare visitor. But Edward Castronova's book Synthetic Worlds is an interesting look into the economics of on-line "worlds." You enthusiasts should have it on your shelves.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:55pm in Books, Economics | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1)

The Primary Colors

"Blue is a mysterious color, hue of illness and nobility, the rarest color in nature. It is the color of ambiguous depth, of the heavens and of the abyss at once; blue is the color of the shadow side, the tint of the marvelous and the inexplicable, of desire, of knowledge, of the blue movie, of blue talk, of raw meat and rare steak, of melancholy and the unexpected (once in a blue moon, out of the blue). It is the color of anode plates, royalty at Rome, smoke, distant hills, postmarks, Georgian silver, thin milk and hardened steel; of veins seen through skin and notices of dismissal in the American railroad business. Brimstone burns blue, and a blue candle flame is said to indicate the presence of ghosts..."

Thus begins Alexander Theroux's essay "Blue" in his The Primary Colors.. I had a copy, a British first edition, in the late 1990s but, to my real and lasting sadness, left it on a plane in 1998. I was almost through "Red," at the time, which I thought especially appropriate as I approached Beijing.

I've looked and looked for an affordable replacement, but none are to be had. So I've settled for a US first edition, delivered today via Amazon. It is as I remembered: a learned, witty, erudite, quirky, just-plain-weird, look at blue, yellow, red -- the primary colors that, pure or mixed, surround us every waking moment (unless you are blind, of course). Robertson Davies said of it, "he contrives never to stick to the point while never losing his grasp of it."

Viva Amazon.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 03:12pm in Books, Writing I Enjoy | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1)

Bibliophilian Joy! LibraryThing

The neat thing about social media is that, once in a while, some developer comes up with a really sweet, rox-my-sox, idea. And, no I don't mean digg, flickr, or del.iciou.s (I never know where to put the dots).

Today, I lost my heart to LibraryThing. LibraryThing lets you catalog  your books, tag them, then share your library online with other users. It's been around since August 2005. Today, it has 47,670 -- make that 47,671 -- users and a catalog of 3.6 million+ books.

Signing up is easy -- pick a username and a password, no more data required. Adding books is dead easy: type in the last name of the author, and a word or two from the title, and the search engine will quickly scour Amazon and US libraries for options. But you can ask it to scour all Canadian, UK, Australian libraries, and the Amazons abroad. You have a choice of 30 more libraries for those esoteric searches. If it finds the book -- and it will -- click on it and... bang... straight to your virtual bookshelf.

You are limited to 200 books if you are a "free" member. For a paltry $25, you can add unlimited books.

Here is the screenshot of my virtual shelf.... made up of books on my desk that need to be reshelved. Added them in less than 5 minutes, so I assure you it's easy.

So what's the big deal?

Here's the great thing. From any book you list, you can click through to "Social Info." There, you'll find a rank-ordered list of the books most likely to appear in the personal libraries of people who own the same book. Here's list for James Gleick's Faster, which is on my list.

Well, that seems about right.... I own eight of the 16 ... and I suspect this is a far better tool than Amazon's excellent "people who bought this book also bought...." feature.

LibraryThing has a blog, some extra features... Go forth and have fun, fellow bibliophiles.

Here's a WSJ article. Hat tip to Weinberger.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 04:25pm in Books, Gadgets & Toys | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0)

Steve Crescenzo takes aim at Desirable Roasted Coffee... sit down, Steve, you're making the dog nervous.

Steve Crescenzo knows  no greater joy in life than channeling the late Dr. Thompson in the service of corporate communication. But was it an attempt at gonzo'ism that led Steve to turn his big gun on the Coffee? Petulance issues? Flatulence? Bad hair day?

Steve's bill of indictment against moi is as astounding and entertaining as the National Enquirer. Among other nasty things, he says "Jenkins has a thing about print. He can't stand it."

Well, Steve doesn't know me, but those that do will be chuckling at that line. As one of my ex-wives used to say, "It's supposed to be a house, Allan, not a goddamned bookstore." I should be on Jeff Bezos' personal holiday card list.

Let's look at how Steve says I got on his "last nerve" (and...which one was that?).

[Jenkins] was talking about how he doesn’t read anything in print anymore. Well, he actually says he reads two daily newspapers in print, but only because they are so “hopeless” in digital form. “But as soon as they wake up and provide RSS feeds to subscribers, I won’t touch their paper form,” he writes.

No, I never said I don't read anything in print anymore. In fact, 80% of what I read is in print. Like most of us, I prefer to read articles, analyses, literature, cookbooks, letters and Christmas cards in print. Who wouldn't?

But -- at five in the morning, when I start my working day -- I want to see the news now. Since my newspapers hit the doorstep at 6 or 7 am, I'd much prefer to read them online -- rather than waiting for paper? That's hardly a rejection of print.

I say something else that gets Steve's back up; I'll repeat it here:

“In fact, I find myself furious and disgusted every time IABC’s Communication World comes through the door. . . . Since I have written for CW, I know the article appears weeks or months after the blogosphere has thoroughly dissected the issue. Any day of the week, any IABC member can go into the blogosphere and find 50 better articles than CW publishes in a quarter. Note to IABC: Communication World is a benefit only for those who don’t use the Internet.”

Steve believes the blogosphere is just for mutually-congratulatory bloggers stroking their egos. Boy, is he wrong. Are 98% of blogs crap? Yep, leaving about 400, 000 out there that aren't. And, yes, in the PR/comms/advertising part of that 400,000, you generally see better articles, sooner, than you will see in CW. It's just a fact. And -- at the risk of exciting Steve's first stroke -- better and sooner than you will see them in Ragan's.

Steve rounds out his post with what can only be called a self-stroking tribute to his own reading habits.  He loves Newsweek and Time -- fittingly, he reads them while getting stoned on Margaritas, realizing intuitively they are fit only for illiterates -- and he likes his New  Yorker in bed. Me? I got out of that habit when Tina Brown was editor; it was just too kinky. But it's nice with a G&T -- in the den with all the books.

Steve chose to read my post in the most selective way imaginable. He also chose not to link to it, ensuring his readers would not be able to make their own notes. And he doesn't accept trackbacks (so his readers will never know of this post, either).

Come on, Steve. Do better than that. The Doctor would have.

Update: I see friend Shel Holtz has weighed in, and so has John Wagner.

New reader? The original article that excited Steve is here: http://allanjenkins.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/11/will_you_read_y.html

Technorati tags:
Steve Crescenzo
Ragan Report
Hunter S. Thompson
death of print

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 10:52pm in Bizarre & Amusing, Books, Desirable Roasted Coffee, Journalism, Public Relations, Writers | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (3)

Attention Saudi Dawn & Drew Fans: this Book is for you

My September paper copy of Wired has a spread on "countries that censor Web content  -- and what really offends them (oddly, the article does not appear in the online edition).

The list of offenders isn't surprising, but what scares them can be. Saudi Arabia blocks 100% of porn, for example, but also takes a hard line on humor, making it doubly hard for Saudi fans of Dawn & Drew, I suppose. Uzbekistan doesn't like porn either, and bans gmail. China is soft on porn, but bans Wikipedia. The criminals that run Burma really hate email -- and don't even think about eBay.

With so much thuggish cybercopping out there, it's a relief to see that Reporters sans Frontières has published the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents (free pdf download, 1.6MB) to help citizen journalists in benighted countries to get around Big Brother.

"Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.

Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation."

It's available in English, French, Chinese, Arabic, and Persian.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 04:42pm in Books, Citizen Journalism, Civil Liberty, Journalism, Law, Online Media, Society | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Trying Out the Wisdom of Crowds

"Summer Reading" is usually more of a wish than an accomplishment. But I managed a lot this summer; indeed my June Amazon shipment is wholly depleted.

I like to read two or three related books in tandem, for the joy of serendiptity. That doesn't always work, but in July it did, and in a odd corner: how crowds, individuals, and society collaborate and "know".

The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the many are smarter than the few and how collective wisdom shapes businesses, economies, societies and nations. James Surowiecki. Short take: a collection of people with ordinary knowledge will generally make better decisions than any expert.

The Company of Strangers: A natural history of economic life. Paul Seabright. Short take: Most primates are only minimally social. Man figured out reciprocal trust, which allows anonymous transactions.

Blink. Malcolm Gladwell. Short take: if you know (about) what you are seeing, your first instinct is is the right one. If you stop to analyze, you may well go wrong.

I won't give longer reviews; all three have been reviewed to death, by better critics.

A common theme:  Surowiecki and Seabright both support the idea that "financial" markets, composed of independent  "traders"  are better predictors of future results than TV pundits.

One of the markets they cite is NewsFutures, where a punter can "bet" on outcomes of current events: Will Schroeder stay on as German Chancellor? Will a hurricane hit Texas before November 30? Will John Roberts be confirmed?

The thinking is that players, who have definite, though small, financial incentives to bet correctly, will, as a group, bet correctly. No individual will have the "answer". But the collective smarts of 20,000 individuals, with money or rewards at stake, should be a good guide.

As an example, let me show you where I am. I have a stake in NewsFutures. Here was my status a few hours ago:

As you can see, I'm backing Schroeder heavily to be re-elected Cerman chancellor. I'm spitting in the wind, obviously, but the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish papers -- all of whom traditionally have very, very good sources in Berlin, are tipping a Schroeder government.

Right? Wrong? I don't know. The "market" seems to think I am wrong (but since I took this screen shot, the shares have jumped from X$9 to X$29... as the US papers start to pick up on the European analysis.)

I also have a stake in Yahoo's TechBuzz Game. Here, I am on less solid ground, since I am not privy to tech buzz. But I have spotted a hole: there's a hurricane market. Meteorology fascinates me; and weather that affects the South deeply concerns me.

So here I've confidently invested in Rita and Stan (who doesn't exist, yet).

Rita is going to be all over the papers for a week or more. Stan will or won't develop. Still, I won't lose much by giving him a wager.

Now, if you've stayed with me this far, you may be thinking one of two things:

What are the moral implications of "betting" on hurricane strikes (or whatever)? None, that I can see. I don't cause a hurricane strike; indeed, if it looks like the hurricane will die out, I'll take the other position.  I've flipped on the Schroeder thing twice. I lost my butt on Phillippe.

Takeaway: the market is heartless & makes better decisions when it is heartless.

But you aren't affecting anything. Nope, just reacting with great interest.

Takeaway: the "market", given its incentives, is a better news gatherer than any professional news gatherer.

I have a lot of links to fill in here, and will do so over the next day. In the meantime, a Google Search will probably get you where you are going

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:56pm in Books, Communication, Desirable Roasted Coffee, Ethics, Gadgets & Toys, Smart Communities, Social Tools, Society | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (1)

Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs

The incomparable H. L. Mencken used to publish a volume called Americana, in which he gathered newspaper clippings from around the United States that tended to inadvertantly (and hilariously) send up boosterism, yokel-ness, Babbitry, and the general ignorance and benightedness of many of the people we let watch over us.

It's hard to find a copy these days (published in the 20s; I have the 1923 edition), but if you find one, get it.  You'll either like or you will hate it (Hint to red-staters: save your money).

I've no doubt that if Mencken were still with us, this piece would make it into the Americana 2005 edition:

"An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals."

"The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth.

"Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple's divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion."

Link: Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 05:09pm in Bizarre but Expected, Books, Civil Liberty, Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries?

When you remember that political conservatives pretty much run the US, it's unsettling to read their list of the 10 most harmful books of the last 200 years. The first three are predictable, but the Kinsey Report shows up at No. 4.

Take a deep breath and go view the list.

Tip of the hat to things magazine.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 06:05pm in Books, Politics, Society | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Certain to Irritate: What Good Are The Arts? by John Carey

"What good are the arts?" asks John Carey.

David Lodge reviews John Carey in the Sunday Times Online:

"Regular readers will know that John Carey is that rare creature, an academic who writes shrewdly, wittily and economically on a wide range of subjects in a style that non-specialists can understand and appreciate. There is a principle, central to the British tradition of philosophical discourse, known as Occam’s Razor, which forbids the unnecessary multiplication of facts. Carey’s favourite argumentative tool is more like a machete...."

Carey's book machetes, among others, the myth that appreciation of art is somehow ennobling.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:53am in Art, Books, Society, Writing I Enjoy | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Ismail Merchant Gave Me My Comfort Food

Ismail Merchant, film producer and half of the Merchant-Ivory film collaboration, died yesterday, as reported here and elsewhere.

I wasn't a great fan of his films. But his films were often the exceptions that prove the rule "The book is always better than the film." I cannot imagine how Kazuo Ishiguro's novel  The Remains of the Day could have been brought to film more skillfully.

But, for me, Ismail Merchant will always be the cookbook author who refined my love for and skills in making traditional Indian dishes. His Passionate Meals is in near tatters on my bookshelf, and several of his recipes -- Red Lentil Soup, and Kicheri, among them -- I've modified, played with, adulterated and loved so much that they are staples in my kitchen.

Dinner after a client meeting where I didn't get the project... or after a client meeting when I did get the project: Nothing better than Ismail Merchant's Red Lentil Soup. Ideally, with The Remains of the Day on video.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:45pm in Books, Food and Drink, People of Note | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Naked Conversations Interviews Shel Holtz

Naked Conversations, the joint Scoble-Israel venture formerly known as the Red Couch, interviews friend Shel Holtz. Here's a snippet.

"Q. How has blogging changed the PR business?

"Dramatically and irrevocably...and yet, not as dramatically as some of the more zealous blogging evangelists would have us believe.

"For one thing, I don't believe PR EVER had control of messages. But blogging has amplified the power of the audience. Blogs affect organizational communication in terms of transparency, tone, channel, influence...there's not an element of PR that blogging won't affect by blogs.

"But when I read that blogs will replace press releases (as one example), I just have to laugh."

The Scoble-Israel machine also interviewed smart cookies Neville Hobson, Richard Edelman, and Mike Manuel this week.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 06:39am in Bloggers, Books, Communication | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Red Couch Interviews Neville Hobson

Robert Scoble and Shel Israel interview friend Neville Hobson.

"Q. How has it [Nevon]  changed your communications consulting practice?

Totally. My blog is my persona. It is my marketing and brand vehicle. I have no brochures, flyers, traditional website—just the blog. It’s where my new business relationships begin. Others get to know me before we meet. Blogging has produced new professional relationships which has led to new clients."

Neville also comments on podcasting:

"Q. Robert and I are both fans of the Hobson & Holtz Report.  How do you think it and podcasting will change the world?

I’m not sure that the Hobson & Holtz Report will change the world, but I believe it will change how communicators think about different ways in which they can employ new communication media like podcasting in their organizations or for their clients.

Some people say that podcasting is a revolution that will change people’s listening habits. Others say it’s a fad that’s of limited appeal and use beyond geeks and enthusiasts. In either case, you’d have to admit that something that, in just eight months, has rocketed out of nowhere and today got companies large and small interested is a clear signal that this is a medium that will soon become mainstream.

Three factors drive it:

1. It’s easy. All you need is a PC, a microphone, a network connection, some free recording software, a place to deliver it  and a bit of imagination.

2. It’s inexpensive. Podcasting enables you to create and publish audio material that previously would have required a professional recording studio.

3. It's portable. Podcasting dovetails the explosive adoption of digital music players, notably the iPod.

I believe podcasting will soon become a standard communication tool alongside the press release, website and brochure for almost any type of organization – just as blogs will."

Good stuff, as most Red Couch interviews are.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:19am in Bloggers, Books, Communication | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Why We Speed Read Business Books

If you read real books and business books, you've noticed that most business books are unreadable. You might also have noticed that the bestselling business books are unreadable, but can be read in under two hours.

Why so fast? Because business bestsellers are written at a 7th grade reading level, according to Fast Company's recent analysis.

Link: Fast Company | No Consultant Left Behind.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:25am in Books, In Defense of Elitism | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Our Budding Storm Troopers

32% of US high school students believe the press enjoys "too much freedom" and only half believe that newspapers should be able to publish freely, according to a Knight Foundation study released yesterday. 36% believe newspapers should get government approval before publishing stories.

Call me old-fashioned, but I've always taken the Hugo Black - William O. Douglas position that the First Amendment means what it says -- what part of "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" do high school students not understand?

But it's not like they receive much guidance. According to the report, about 30% of adults believe the First Amendment goes too far, and educators report there's little room in the curriculum to teach the Bill of Rights.

Sad reading. Coincidentally, I am re-reading Sinclair Lewis' 1935 classic It Can't Happen Here. Oh, yes it could. Especially when only half the kids in the country think the press should be free.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:55am in Books, Civil Liberty, Journalism, Law | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (2) | TrackBack (0)

Even a Small Blog has Greatest Hits

Moving a blog to a new site means cleaning up the old site. And looking at what was popular and not so popular.

The 5 Greatest Hits at the old Desirable Roasted Coffee:

1) Code of Blogging Ethics at Desirable Roasted Coffee. Bloggers are the border ruffians between Journalism with a capital "J" and "just folks" with a small "j". But partisan rangers serve no one. This code is fence around this blog, saying what it's up to.

2) Dude, Where's My Car (Mazda M3, I mean)? October 27, 2004. Mazda's attempt to run a little bad viral marketing didn't pan out. I was up early that morning and noted the late night postings of some North American colleagues, that's all. Still, that post gets hit all the time.

3) Embarassing Start for IABC Blog... Drop it or Restart. November 24, 2004. IABC's Chairman's Blog has been one of the big fizzles of the year. You wanted to read about it.

4) Neville, Shel Slam Blog Scoffers. December 7, 2004. Shel and Neville, quite separately, take on blog scoffers. I comment.

5) In Search of Robert Sillerman. December 21, 2004. This was a sleeper, but never underestimate the Elvis fans out there.

I would have bet on an entirely different lineup, but there you go!

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 10:52pm in Advertising, Blogging, Books, Desirable Roasted Coffee, IABC | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (1) | TrackBack (0)

In Search of Robert Sillerman

Friend Ron Kattawar knows music. Knows why one dolt can look at a guitar with a blank look and why some one else can take that same guitar and give you love, death, hope, betrayal, redemption, corruption, and resurrection in four notes.

Four notes. Like Robert Johnson.

Ron's a writer. Not published, yet, but so what? I'm not either, and he's way ahead of me.

In Ron's novels, Elvis isn't dead. And his descendants are music-makers that (in a real world) would have spared us Britney and Christina A.

Our goal (OK, Ron's goal, but I am helping): connect Ron with one of Robert Sillerman's representatives.

In Search of Robert Sillerman

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 01:53am in Bloggers, Books | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (2) | TrackBack (0)

Fundamental Shift in Communication -- Albrycht is writing

While Scoble, Shel Israel, Hans Henrik, Jeremy, and Fredrik fray it out over who is really writing an open-source blogging book (update: Jeremy writes me that his is not open source), I am looking forward to Elizabeth Albrycht's January blog on "Moving to a New Communication Model".

Not because I don't think the other projects won't make fine reading, but I like EA's interest in synthesizing the effects of all the recent network tools on the broad range of communication disciplines.

Let Albrycht describe it:

"Over the past few years, I have watched and participated in the changes confronting communications practitioners due to the Internet, the web, mobility etc. -- all of the new networked communications tools. I think something more is going on here than just a bunch of new tools added to our professional communicator's tool kits I believe a fundamental shift in the entire model of communications is now possible.

"I am talking about moving from the old command/control, uni-directional, war-metaphor driven practices of the past to a cooperative, multi-directional model a la the Cluetrain.

And she's asking for volunteers (if you have the right stuff):

"I will be leading a blog week at the International Association of Online Communicators blog in January on this topic. I am currently looking for a few people to join me. Richard Bailey has already said he'd like to, and I need at least three other folks. This will be a very academic, research-oriented discussion, which I hope will offer fruitful paths forward to the creation of such a model."

Read her full post.

Update: her further clarification (which I excerpt here):

"For the primary authors of the week-long blog at the IAOC, I'd ideally like people who feel comfortable moving in other disciplines (than marketing/comms) who could highlight and explain how their work could tie into a comms model. For example, econometrics, game theory, the psychology of cooperation, pragmatism/philosophy, node theory, future studies, etc. etc."

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 08:59am in Bloggers, Blogging, Books, Writing I Enjoy | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)