Category: Uncategorized

This is still one of my favorite projects, ever.

"The Obey campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology.  The first aim of Phenomenology is to reawaken a sense of wonder about one’s environment.  The Obey campaign attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the campaign and their relationship with their surroundings.  Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with Obey propaganda provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer’s perception and attention to detail.

The medium is the message."

Link.

(iTunes) (MP3)

Ok, that was fun.  Had a chance to chat last week regarding social networking with a bunch of great folks, including:

• Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of All Things Digital
• Law.com bloggers and co-hosts, J. Craig Williams and Robert Ambrogi
• Eric Goldman, Director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law

Here’s a quick overview, courtesy of L2L:

"Social networking sites have reconnected old friends and former colleagues, created  networking ties and have rekindled relationships all over the world. On Lawyer2Lawyer, we will explore privacy rights, intellectual property issues and even defamation and cyber bullying, all rising from social networking sites and discuss the popularity of these sites and the legal issues surrounding the online world of social networking."

This podcast was part of a series done by the LegalTalkNetwork (standard disclaimer: neither am I a lawyer, nor do I play one on the internet).  Here’s a link to the show.

Starbucks new strategy to attract customers has left a bitter taste for at least one customer.  John Moore, who worked as a marketer at Starbucks for over eight years, takes issue with the new Starbucks $1 cup o’ joe, which undercuts both McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts prices, according to Reuters.  John writes:

"In a bigger shift in marketing strategy than spending millions on national television advertising, Starbucks is now selling short-sized cups of brewed coffee for a $1.00 and offering free refills at Seattle-area locations…Oh My!.  A low-price strategy is indeed the quickest pathway to commoditizing and marginalizing coffee back to being, well, just coffee."

Read John’s full post regarding the new Starbucks strategy here.

I have to concur: unless Starbucks is modifying its strategy to be a low-cost provider, per Porter, this would seem to go against their historical approach to providing an "experience" to their customers.  What do you think?

Holy cow.  I had no idea how much of a productivity drag was it was having a dirty screen.  Here’s a site with a utility that cleans your monitor.

Crossing the Chasm is the title of the 1991 book by Geoffrey Moore that describes how technology products enter the mainstream.  Moore posited that although many tech products are often gobbled up by the innovators and visionaries, they then often languish in a "chasm" that lies between those same early adopters and the mainstream.  Wikipedia says:

"Moore argues there is a chasm between the early adopters of the product (technology enthusiasts and visionaries) and the early majority (the pragmatists).
Moore believes visionaries and pragmatists have very different
expectations."

A huge part of that chasm crossing is having a critical mass of "references" who are similar to the prospective buyers who give prospective mainstream buyers confidence that a product will work for them, too.

Check out today’s post by David Pogue of the New York Times, Explaining the Macintosh Surge.  It’s spot on.  (Read the comments, too.)  It wasn’t just one thing that has brought Apple to where it is today.  It’s a combination of things, including:

• The marketwide move to new machines triggered, frankly, by Vista (gotta buy something)
• Awareness of Apple through their media activities (both ads and coverage)
• Mainstream (read "non-geeks") comfort with Apple’s iPod and iPhone
• An increasing number of "reference" customers that span across demographics

Is this another example of patience and persistence paying off?

Okay, wide-eyed fanboy time.  Apple’s banners for the big Macworld show read "There’s something in the air."

Dave Winer is lusting after a "a wifi-based iPod that synchs without tethering to a laptop or desktop, or a new iPhone/iPod that synchs over the cell network."

Steve Rubel is betting on "over the air online partner services for laptops, iphones and ipods. Think Kindle."

My pipedream:  "Something in the air" is enabling iTunes radio on the iPhone over the network.  (How cool would that be in the car?)

Ok fans and trolls…your turn…

photo: appleinsider

In the context of the Gizmodo social hack, Seth writes:

"Anonymity is the enemy, whether it’s online or walking around a trade show with a clicker in your pocket."

I vehemently disagree with Seth’s statement.  Here’s why.

Seth’s viewpoint of "anonymity is the enemy" only works if one is secure: physically, financially and emotionally.  Unfortunately, there are still many, many people in the world where that is not the case.  Here are three:

• Whistleblowers
• Political Dissidents
• Victims of violent or family crime

For any of those groups, anonymity is the means through which they can effect change.

In some cases, for those groups, anonymity is the thing that’s keeping them alive, literally.  On that note, I want to make a shout out to the TOR Project.  The TOR site says:

"Hundreds of thousands of people around the world use Tor for a
wide variety of reasons: journalists and
bloggers, human rights workers, law enforcement officers, soldiers,
corporations, citizens of repressive regimes, and just ordinary
citizens. See the Who Uses Tor? page for
examples of typical Tor users.
See the overview page for a
more detailed explanation of what Tor does, why this diversity of
users is important, and how Tor works."

What Gizmodo did was a social hack, not unlike a flashmob or Santarchy. 

It was not a crime, as Seth called it. 

If someone turning off a TV is a crime to get up in arms about where you live, consider yourself very, very fortunate.

Mr. K describes himself thusly:

"Mr. K spent 15 years in the software business. He became
disillusioned during the dot com boom (fortunately before the crash)
and decided to pursue a career as a teacher.

He is currently teaching math to selected low performing eighth graders at a middle school in east Los Angeles.

This blog is an attempt to capture, in a human form, how he tries to teach."

1) Stories

2) Art

3) Tech

Lots more on all three in the coming weeks and months.  Stay tuned…

(spoiler)