Archive for May, 2011

From the Columbia School of Journalism and well worth a read… the report has some good perspectives… this got me thinking:

The digital media has grown into a landscape in which journalism ethics are viewed as relics of the past. Today, any product can literally buy positive reviews in a blogosphere that, by being penniless, gets easily corrupted. When planning a product launch with their client, advertising agencies often suggest the deployment of a “blogger army” (that’s the official jargon) to spread the right message on blogs and social networks. In the tech world, “Influential Bloggers” often means “Influenced Bloggers”.

The Columbia School of Journalism report sheds an interesting light on where digital medias are heading.  Their economics are in such disarray that publishers are desperate for new revenue models. In this evolution, ethics are likely to suffer collateral damage.

Gilt launches Gilt Taste beta. Love the idea. I’ve bought a few food products from Gilt in the past and it worked out well. Will definitely be giving this a try. Love their merchandising and offers. Gilt quickly becoming my other shopping place after Amazon.

Amazing debut for Linked-In today. The noise around valuations and a tech-bubble doesn’t really reflect the work this team has put into building an amazing brand. These guys put in the hard yards. TechCrunch says it well:

… these are all my observations after ten years of interviewing him about LinkedIn, watching him shake his head at the unfairness of the hype cycle and keep slogging away at building LinkedIn regardless. Hoffman should be the role model for entrepreneurs star-struck by the seeming glamour and ease of Silicon Valley’s consumer Internet world. He’s the living incarnation of the reality of the Valley: It may be easier than ever to start a product, but building a company is just as hard as its ever been.

As for the brain-dead commentators wondering if LinkedIn’s IPO represents a bubble, somewhere Hoffman has to be laughing and shaking his head again. What part of spending a decade of building a business with more than 100 million users that no one hyped, that represents one of the few large-scale working examples of a freemium business model screams “BUBBLE” to you people? These are the same people that said Google was wildly overvalued when it priced at under $100 a share.

Great post from Tony over at The MIX. Key points for taking back your attention include:

1. Let your deepest values become a more powerful guide to your behaviors
   What do you truly stand for? How do you want to behave, no matter what? Keep those commitments front and center through your days, both as a source of energy and direction for your behaviors.
2. Build deliberate practices
   Set up ritualized behaviors you do at specific times until they become automatic. For example, begin by doing the most important thing first in the morning, uninterrupted, for 60 to 90 minutes. Make the start time and the stop time inviolable, so you know exactly how long you’re going to have to stay the course.
3. Create "precommitments" to minimize temptation
   Our capacity for self-control gets depleted every time we exercise it. Turn off your email entirely at certain times during the day. Consider working at times on a laptop that isn’t hooked up to the Internet. Do this for the same reason you should remove alluring foods from your shelves (or avoid all-you-can-eat buffets) when you’re on a diet.
4. Start small
   Attention operates like a muscle. Subject it to stress–but not too much stress–and over time your attention will get stronger. What’s your current limit for truly focused concentration? Build it up in increments. And don’t go past 90 minutes without a break.

Great post from Tony over at The MIX. Key points for taking back your attention include:

1. Let your deepest values become a more powerful guide to your behaviors
   What do you truly stand for? How do you want to behave, no matter what? Keep those commitments front and center through your days, both as a source of energy and direction for your behaviors.
2. Build deliberate practices
   Set up ritualized behaviors you do at specific times until they become automatic. For example, begin by doing the most important thing first in the morning, uninterrupted, for 60 to 90 minutes. Make the start time and the stop time inviolable, so you know exactly how long you’re going to have to stay the course.
3. Create “precommitments” to minimize temptation
   Our capacity for self-control gets depleted every time we exercise it. Turn off your email entirely at certain times during the day. Consider working at times on a laptop that isn’t hooked up to the Internet. Do this for the same reason you should remove alluring foods from your shelves (or avoid all-you-can-eat buffets) when you’re on a diet.
4. Start small
   Attention operates like a muscle. Subject it to stress–but not too much stress–and over time your attention will get stronger. What’s your current limit for truly focused concentration? Build it up in increments. And don’t go past 90 minutes without a break.