Archive for May, 2010

We need a system like this in Austin.

I love Storycorps. This one is a stunner. Just in time for Mother’s Day, StoryCorps released this lovely animated version of a real-life Q&A session—Joshua Littman, a 12-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome, questioning his mom.

Q&A from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

I’ve lucky enough to be involved with the creation of the MIX (of which Dell is a sponsor). More to come on that. But a nice post over at HBR on the MIX. Here’s the highlight:

Professor Gary Hamel, one of the most prolific authors in HBR history … (has) launched an online platform called MIX — Management Innovation eXchange — designed to unleash, attract, and highlight ideas from all sorts of people, in all kinds of organizations, in every part of the world, that can help reinvent the work of management itself — or, in their words, "the technology of human accomplishment." Who better to write a new agenda for business than the grassroots leaders who are getting things done every day?

The MIX Manifesto reads as a kind of intellectual rebuttal to the leadership mindset defined by the Fortune 500. The defining challenges for management going forward, it argues, are to "mend the soul of business; unleash human capabilities; foster strategic renewal; distribute power; reshape managerial minds; and seek balance and harmony."

Today, for most of us, those noble goals and big dreams are just that. They don’t have much to do with the day-to-day realities inside most real-world organizations. But we’ve all encountered organizations, we’ve all spent time with leaders in various walks of life, who are making a difference by working differently, who are creating lasting value based on the values they bring to their work, and who are determined to share the wealth their organizations create. The folks at MIX are eager for these grassroots innovators to (ahem) throw their ideas into the mix, and, thus, individually and collectively, help shape a new and more human agenda for competition, business, and leadership.

Adobe is clearly responding to the threat that Apple’s decision makes, not in the consumer market, but amongst the developer community.

A narrow set of consumers care about “Open”. A broad set care about the utility of what they use – what does it cost, does it work better, it is easy. Too often we – those of us in the industry – confuse the customer need with the industry political agenda. Does any customer really notice or care that they are using Flash or HTML 5? No. But as soon as either fails to deliver what they want in any material way, they vote with their wallets.

Adobe’s ad ran in the Washington Post – perhaps a precursor to a broader push in the political arena around anti-trust and regulation.

But developers do care. And Adobe can’t loose them. The message to the development community is clear – we will defend your content and projects, built on our platforms.

Interesting survey results:

A majority of marketers are using social media in their marketing efforts, but most have only been using it for a few months or less, according to other survey findings from SocialMediaExaminer.com.

Nine in 10 marketers (91%) are currently using social media as part of their marketing efforts. However, a significant combined 65% of marketers have either just started using social media (22%) or only been using it for a few months (43%). Another 31% have been using social media for a few years, up from 23% in 2009. Tellingly, only 3% of marketers have no experience with social media but plan to use it, while 0% of marketers have no experience with social media and no plans to use it.