A Digado Picasa Slideshow

Problogger on blogging as a story

We live in a world where we’re literally bombarded with information all day every day. There’s nothing wrong with information, or having a blog that is ‘informational’ in nature - but if you want to make an impression on people, be the type of blog that people tell their friends about, that people want to ‘journey’ with - you need something more and ’story’ is one element that can bring this.


In her introduction Annette introduces six types of stories that help if you want to influence others:

* “Who I Am” Stories
* “Why I Am Here” Stories
* “The Vision” Story
* “Teaching” Stories
* “Values-in-Action” Stories
* “I Know What You Are Thinking” Stories

Stories engage people in a completely different way to any other form of communication that I’ve come across and on blogs I find that they can be particularly powerful.

Rather than blogs degenerating into ’spin’ machines I encouraged people to think about injecting personality into them by sharing stories on a number of levels:

# Company or Business Story - every company has their own story. How it started, it’s evolution, it’s successes and failures, it’s lessons learnt and how it’s interacted within it’s industry.

# Product Stories - in a similar way, each product or service within a company has a story. How the idea was born, what needs it was designed to meet, what versions and evolutions it’s been through and how customers are using it.

# Employee Stories - a business is only ever as good as it’s employees and every one of them has their own story. These stories are important as they illustrate what the employees bring to the job that they do (experiences, passions, skills etc) but they also empower the employee and give a personal face to a company.

# Customer Stories - telling the stories of customers (with permission of course) can be a very powerful thing both internally and externally for a business. The interactions a company and customer have are great for learning and education of staff, they help to illustrate the values of a company and if done well can be incredibly empowering for a customer.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/08/25/the-power-of-story-on-blogs/

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/08/29/using-stories-in-blogging/

Seth Godin Redefines the 5 P

Never mind the "P"s. Marketing has five elements:
Data
Stories
Products (services)
Interactions
Connection

STORIES define everything you say and do. The product has a myth, the service has a legend. Marketing applies to every person, every job, every service and every organization. That's because all we can work with as humans is stories. I want to argue that data and stories are the two key building blocks of marketing--the other three are built on these two.

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Seth Godin: Go write a book

First, he wrote a book. You should write a book, too. Publishing a book is easier than it appears (in some ways, like the typing, typesetting, printing, and distributing part) but more difficult in others (like the writing something worth reading part.) Writing a book forces you to be organized and passionate and persuasive. Isn't that worth trying?


http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/what-dave-just.html

tapbot, the immersive story engine

clipped from tapbot.org
Home




TapBot


Building an immersive story engine


Make AI and virtual world technologies accessible to artists so that they can create the future of immersive story entertainment

That's the Big Hairy Audacious Goal ("BHAG"). Of course a BHAG also has a 10-to-30-year timeline. A more immediate goal or milestone is to create an immersive story engine.

Immersive story

Immersive story is dramatic narrative for the metaverse. Immersive as in virtual world immersion - the state where you cease to be aware of your physical self. Basically, how can we use the same technology being developed forintelligent virtual agents and use it for entertainment.

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UberVU Testpost

Weeee?

Last post didnt get trough on blogger did it?

mylifebrand.com

justingibbs.com

Adobe Experience Design

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/xd/inspire/story.cfm?s=25&p=145&c=781

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_design

Keho : the virtual place for Presence Research

Presence is:

"acting/behaving in the VR world as in the real world"

Presenccia Project

"the subjective experience of being in one place or environment even when one is physically situated in another"

Witmer and Singer (1998)

"the illusion of non-mediation"

Lombard and Ditton (1997)

http://keho.pbwiki.com/

Lorraine Twohill, Danny Rimer, Mattias Miksche- Zeitgeist08

A Table of Economies

For years I have been teaching MBAs about Gilmore and Pine’s notion of the Experience Economy and how it could well become the primary source of value creation in the future.

Here is how the authors characterize the difference between the Agrarian, Industrial, Service and Experience Economies:

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I Share therefor I Am

The Coffee Bean Experience

The coffeebean price: $0.01 - $0.02 cents per cup
Grinded beans price: $0.05 - 0.25 cents per cup
Processed beans at coffee corner or McDonalds: $0.50 - $1.00
Processed beans at diner or starbucks: $2.00 - $5.00


http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0875848192/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link

The Adidas Exprience

Fabric of Folly on Collaborative Storytelling

Storytelling is not only one of the oldest art forms in the world (it's probably a photo-finish with cave/body painting and dance), it has also proven instrumental in the adoption of almost all forms of modern mass media. Books, Newspapers, Radio, Cinema, Television; all were swift to embrace the narrative arc as their dominant format. Whilst the internet is still a comparatively young medium, its usage has thus far been dominated by more task-oriented behaviours such as e-mail, search, banking, shopping, research and, of course, the unholy vanguard of so much consumer-facing technology adoption; gambling and pornography.

Read more on Fabric of Folly

Sketching the Future of Marketing

Failure to Launch (SL marketing failures)
http://coolinsights.blogspot.com/2008/05/future-of-marketing-in-age-of-social.html

There is no Business not like Show Business (Advertising is entertaining)
http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=kcUheqdgbcEC&pg=PT13&lpg=PT13&dq=bernd+show+business&source=web&ots=MN6IxwwgxG&sig=DqMXE1T0WbTomyH_exHtIC23FQA&hl=en



Culturenet
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/16-06/st_15th_eno
http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/internet-and-culture/

Blurring the Lines

http://www.ibelieveinharveydent.com/
I liked the example of how The Dark Knight was advertised with a "I Believe in Harvey Dent" campaign. What happened was that posters were put up everywhere prior to the movie launch, which called for the public to "vote" for Harvey (a fictitious character) to become a District Attorney. The campaign also had a website, an ongoing series of videos, and a developing blog that slowly unfurls as the day approaches. Reminds me of another online/offline campaign approach called The Art of the Heist by Audi/Mckinney.

Agents in Second Life: A First Step

Zeitgeist Europe 2008 - Highlights

The Five Steps to Mysticism

clipped from spacecollective.org
1. Awakening - Subject starts to become aware of the presence of something supernatural. Their heart is filled with joy and they have never felt this kind of joy before, yet they cannot see this supernatural being, and they hunger for more.
2. Purgation - Where subject strips away their ego, their self, their whole existence. They give up everything in this life and in the next.
3. Illumination - This is often the final stage for some mystics. The subject sees the visual representation of eternity as heaven & earth, reality & mysticism meet.
4. The Dark Night of the Soul - Extraordinary mystics go beyond the third step onto this one. These mystics have experienced mysticism so fervently, that when they "come back down to earth" they start to have what we can refer to as "withdrawal symptoms" of God's presence.
5. Union with The Other - Having gone through the other steps, the subject now finds themself in the Eternal, they are at union with God forever,
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Jonathan Harris on Real World Storytelling

Windows Vista Lauch: Breathtakingly horrible

WHAT THE HELL?! How fake... how staged. How... pathetic?

Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft; Presentation

Could you look any more awkward? Static, uninspired posture, hands folded - How is this even released, he looks away from the camera in the distance shots... Horrible footage.

Math Matters to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Youtube comment "00:18 kid is like wtf ballmer's a retard"

And of course he couldn;t be more right. Who explains math this way to a 8 year old?

"Gotta have numbers... How many copies of something did I sell? What price did you sell it at?"

What the... did he really say that? Surely that is exactly what an 8 year old is thinking of in terms of math. Great way to underline the moneygrabbing Microsoft image Ballmer

The other Steve (the one from Microsoft)

Steve Ballmer:

"[Microsoft] will successfully continue to fight open source"

"Our house is pretty typical, we have a dad that knows about technology, we have two kids that know even more about technology, and a mother that knows a little less about technology. ... In the basement we have an Xbox, a Micorosft Point and we use MSN search for browsing the internet."

"I like Advertising"

"iPhone? Hahahahahaha"

"Zune is doing remarkable"

The vision of future communication by Kevin Roberts, Saatchi

Sisomo

Bill Geist visits a Bookstore made from a Manure Tank

Tom Peters on Corporate Responsibility


Tom Peters on Corporate Social Responsibility from Tom Peters on Vimeo.

Tom Peters on the Dream Manager

Tom Peters. Listen to him. Damn it!


Tom Peters on The Dream Manager from Tom Peters on Vimeo.

Possible Attributes of Resilient Organizations:

clipped from www.tompeters.com
resilient folks at all levels and in all functions—explicit about so doing
Promote resilience—explicit about so doing
Decentralization!!!!!!!!! (organization structure, physical configuration, systems)
Shadow "emergency organization"—ready to roll
Very serious "War gaming" (better than nothing—unless it leads to false confidence)
Redundancy!

Culture of (1) self-starting, (2) caring and respect, (3) Execution is Priority #1, (4) Accountability-responsibility—100% of folks
Culture of Resilience (as de jure explicit "plank" of organizational values set)
Talk it up!! (but in terms of "growth opportunity"—not fear mongering)
MBWA—e.g., great, intimate communication all the time about everything
Transparency (all in the know, none in the dark)
Financial padding
Excellent equipment (But ...)
Training >>>>> Equipment
Ability to get by for (quite) a while without IS-IT!

Test whole org in uncomfortable situations
Promote an unusually high share of mavericks
Diversity per se!
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Possible Attributes of Resilient People:

clipped from www.tompeters.com
Inner calm (Buddhist-like?); think Tiger Woods
High self-knowledge ("comfortable in own skin")
Breadth of experience—drove a cab, worked construction, ran Alaska tours ... not just a variety of assignments in a traditional career progression.
Sense of, "Ah, my moment" (e.g., Giuliani)
Lover of modestly controlled chaos (bored amidst calm—e.g., FDR)
Reach out effortlessly to a wide variety of people (in general and on the fly)
Bizarrely energetic
Known for integrity, in the sense of "straight shooter"
Hires resilient people per se in key positions! (All senior leadership roles?)
Sense of humor
Empathy ("I feel your pain")
"Cruelty" (Must make tough decisions instantaneously, without looking back; not "confident," but overwhelming sense of urgency to press ahead)
Decisive, but not rigid
Strong individual, equally strong team player
Understands the chain of command—and evades it as necessary
Comfortable being challenged by thinkers, but a strong "doer" bias overall
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Zappos Remarkable Hiring policy

Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit—And You Should Too

After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit!

Why? Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for. It’s hard to describe the level of energy in the Zappos culture—which means, by definition, it’s not for everybody. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later. (About ten percent of new call-center employees take the money and run.)

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Apple Mac Music Video

Kids building a 3D virtual Mars colony using Edusim

Moving closer to a 'Matrix'-style virtual world

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com
Image: Keanu Reeves

Image: Bryn Nelson
Bryn Nelson
Columnist
What if a computer could make you a picture-perfect glass of milk, let you feel the tension as it pulled an ant’s leg from another room, and chat you up with the charisma of Oprah Winfrey? No one machine can do all three — yet. But some sophisticated new projects are showing just how far we’ve come toward creating an “I can’t believe it’s not real” virtual world.

Last month, Brookhaven National Laboratory computer scientist Michael McGuigan told New Scientist magazine he believed a “Matrix”-style virtual world, in which one cannot always distinguish between what’s real and what’s not, could be up and running in just a few years. His optimism derived in part from the impressive ramp-up in processing speed he obtained with the lab’s BlueGene/L supercomputer while running a conventional ray-tracing software program that mimics the effect of natural light.

The result? An eye-fooling virtual beam.

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Phun on the interactive whiteboard or Wiimote whiteboard

Magical Internet Error

clipped from s65.photobucket.com
maintenance_yuku.jpg Maintainance at Yuku picture by comicbase
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Bill Gates sees 3D desktop

Steve Jobs on Microsoft

Bill Gates' Keynote on Windows Vista Launch

How NOT to present.

+ Listing technical properties
+ No Visual Support
+ Bad monotone voice and lacks enthusiasm
+ Viewer not informed of goal and benefits

Present Like Steve Jobs

False Precision: Angel Investments

In a few months Lijit Networks will be two years old. We started the company in a fairly common way, finding employees that wanted that "ground zero" experience, having the seed of a good idea, and finding Angel Investors that would invest and keep the idea alive long enough to germinate. It wasn't easy but we got it done. A question I get a lot from new entrepreneurs is "how do you find Angel Investors?"

Many young startup entrepreneurs tend to look at Angel Investors as a group of people with more money than sense (which sometimes is true) but generally not. They give no thought to the motivations of their Angels, what their Angels should get from the relationship, or simply why the Angel should be interested in investing. Like anything, understanding your audience is half the battle. Don't trivialize your Angels Investment by rationalizing the money isn't important to them; I find that $25K is important to everyone.

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Storytelling Theory and Practice

Ode: How to tell a great story

Great stories succeed because they are able to capture the imagination of large or important audiences.

A great story is true.
Great stories make a promise.
Great stories are trusted.
Great stories are subtle.
Great stories happen fast.
Great stories don’t appeal to logic, but they often appeal to our senses.
Great stories are rarely aimed at everyone.
Great stories don’t contradict themselves.
Most of all, great stories agree with our world view.

Inspired by All Marketers are Liars.

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Ira Glass on Storytelling #3

Ira Glass on Storytelling #2

Ira Glass on Storytelling #1

Using storytelling in your marketing

  • Great stories make a promise. They promise fun, safety or a shortcut.
    The promise needs to be bold and audacious. It’s either exceptional or
    it’s not worth listening to.

  • Great stories are trusted. Trust is the scarcest resource we’ve got left.

  • Great stories are subtle. Surprisingly, the fewer details a marketer spells out, the more powerful the story becomes.

  • Great stories don’t appeal to logic, but they often appeal to our senses.

  • Great stories are rarely aimed at everyone.

Emotion plays a huge part in a sale - especially for a high-ticket complex sale.  The idea of storytelling takes me back to the persona, which I've posted about before.(Marketing 2.0 and IntentionHow Tribal is Your Website?) If you've done the work to determine who your customers are and what makes them tick, then you should be able to make a pretty good guess as to what might interest and engage them. 

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So you'd like to use storytelling in your Marketing Strategy?

clipped from www.amazon.com
Legendary Brands: Unleashing the Power of Storytelling to Create a Winning Market Strategy
All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
The Invisible Grail: In Search of the True Language of Brands
Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices, 2002
Christopher Locke already caught our attention in The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual, but elaborates in Gonzo Marketing on how he finds storytelling should be used. His thoughts are unique and he gives ‘biz as usual’ a good shake.
The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations (KMCI Press), 2000
Squirrel Inc.: A Fable of Leadership through Storytelling, 2004
The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative, 2005
Steve Denning
Various academic articles, by David J. Snowden (See http://www.cynefin.net)
Last but by no means least, I am pleased to mention Dave Snowden.
Blog: http://amokidea.blogspot.com/
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Georges Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations

1. Supplication
2. Deliverance
3. Crime Pursued by Vengeance
4. Vengeance Taken for Kindred Upon Kindred
5. Pursuit
6 Disaster
7. Falling Prey to Cruelty or Misfortune
8. Revolt
9. Daring Enterprise
10. Abduction
11. The Enigma
12. Obtaining
13. Enmity of Kinsmen
14. Rivalry of Kinsmen
15. Murderous Adultery

16. Madness

17. Fatal Imprudence
18. Involuntary Crimes of Love
19. Slaying of a Kinsman Unrecognised
20. Self-Sacrifice for an Ideal
21. Self-Sacrifice for Kindred
22. All Sacrificed for Passion
23. Necessity of Sacrificing Loved Ones
24. Rivalry of Superior and Inferior
25. Adultery
26. Crimes of Love
27. Discovery of the Dishonour of a Loved One
28. Obstacles to Love
29. An Enemy Loved
30. Ambition
31. Conflict With a God
32. Mistaken Jealousy
33. Erroneous Judgement
34. Remorse
35. Recovery of a Lost One
36. Loss of Loved Ones

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The Real Value of Virtual Worlds


Thesis Presentation


From: guest96110a, 11 hours ago








SlideShare Link

'Generation V' not restricted by Age

Friendship2_2Forbes.com has an interesting article by Gartner principle analyst Adam Sarner, in which he explores a concept that he has dubbed "Generation V."   The V stands for Virtual, but has little to do with Second Life (although Second Life isn't excluded by any means.)  Instead, Sarner is writing about a segment of the population that is empowered by the democratization of technology and new means of communication.  And by "generation," Sarner isn't writing about a range of birth years either.

Here's how Sarner defines Generation V:

"Unlike previous generations, Generation V is not defined by age, gender, social demographic or geography, but is based on demonstrated achievement, accomplishments (merit) and an increasing preference toward the use of digital media channels to discover information, build knowledge and share insights."

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