This is Remarkable!: May 2008

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:

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

Video Games and Storytelling

Video Games and Sex

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.

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

http://spacecollective.org/peinao/3930/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,

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"

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!

Possible Attributes of Resilient People:

http://www.tompeters.com/entries.php?note=010405.php

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

Zappos Remarkable Hiring policy

http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/taylor/2008/05/wy_zappos_pays_new_employees_t.html#

clipped from discussionleader.hbsp.com

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.)

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.

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.

Storytelling Theory and Practice

Ode: How to tell a great story

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/04/ode_how_to_tell.html

clipped from sethgodin.typepad.com

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.

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 Intention, How 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.

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

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/12536FTOM5CFF

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/

Georges Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations

Storytelling: http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/articles/36drama.html

clipped from www.timsheppard.co.uk

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

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'Generation V' not restricted by Age

http://gregverdino.typepad.com/greg_verdinos_blog/2008/05/to-v-or-not-to.html

clipped from gregverdino.typepad.com

Forbes.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."

Keystone on the Exodus to the Virtual Workplace

http://archsl.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/exodus-to-the-virtual-workplace-part-3/

clipped from archsl.wordpress.com

Assuming I have established a viable case for the 3D virtual workplace in post 1 and 2, what about the actual planning, design and virtual architecture required to support it?

Obviously a personal favorite of mine is Wikitecture, which I think could also be a very useful tool in virtual workplace development, but there are quite a few new tools being developed, such as MIT’s virtual conference rooms that have the potential to make virtual meetings even more effective than real life ones. I think it will be interesting to see what Peter Quirk comes up with in this area as well. His most recent post (found here ) has some interesting thoughts on the topic, especially observing the immediate realities of Second Life interface, and what can be done to improve it for virtual work. The 3D cameras Mitch Kapor recently demonstrated will certainly improve the capacity to more naturally communicate in a virtual world.

Finding people on Twitter

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/08/socialnetworking.twitter

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk

Finding people

Whoshouldifollow.com answers that simple question. Given your username, it will look for other users with some overlap with the people you follow, and suggest them as people for you to follow. Add some of the names there and then repeat the process, and you'll quickly build up a large network.

In Britain, the prime minister's office decides people should be able to find out what their premier is doing; as of today, more than 2,000 people do. During an interview at the SXSW festival in March, audience dissatisfaction with Sarah Lacy's interviewing style with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spills over into silent but powerful discourse among the audience: one calls it a "train wreck". People fleeing from fires in California say where they are; that proves more useful and timely than official goverment information.

Neptune Club 4

Neptune Club 4, originally uploaded by jeanricard.broek.
Builders: Sean Augustus & Tories Canetti

slurl.com/secondlife/Iron%20Fist/205/49/26

Flickr

This is a test post from

, a fancy photo sharing thing.

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

Thesis Presentation

Finding people

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