Hugh MacLeod is talking about "Objects of Sociability," or what he calls, Ooze. He says "Ooze" is something that allows you to engage with another person. After saying this, Hugh dives into subatomic physics. Why? Because he can. At the subatomic level, things are interchangably waves or particles, depending on what instruments you are using to observe them [somebody far more scientific than me, please correct me if …
Rather/Cuban Combo To Score Points This Fall
Ad Age reports on Dan Rather's imminent return to broadcast news, albeit on a satellite channel with a scant 3 million subscribers. Only three weeks after his bitter break with CBS, Mr. Rather and HDNet announced that he will produce and host a weekly news program, "Dan Rather Reports," beginning in October. "As a team player I intend to give Mark and HDNet all of the hard work, loyalty and fearless, high-quality …
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Everyday Hero Takes AOL To Task
In the Age of Consumer Empowerment (made possible by millions of interlinked communications devices), companies that continue to practice draconion customer service will not only be outed, they will be forced to change, or face extinction. click for the You Tube video While watching Keith Olberman on MSNBC last night, I learned about one such customer's encounter with a customer service agent from AOL that made me …
No Greed. No Need.
Wall Street Journal looks at Craigslist, the free classified service now serving 300 U.S. cities. No one really questions that Craigslist could be bigger -- much, much bigger. The company took in a relatively paltry $25 million or so in revenue last year, while its peers among the Internet's top 10 raked in billions. One industry analyst has estimated that Craigslist could generate 20 times that $25 million just by …
Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery
Blogging phenom, Jason Calacanis, is reinventing Netscape on AOL's behalf. According to New York Times: The new Netscape site, which is scheduled to be introduced in a preview version today, is modeled on Digg, a rapidly growing site focused on technology news. Digg users find items that interest them on news sites, blogs or anywhere else on the Web. They submit links to those items along with short descriptions. …
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Old (White) Boy Network Under Attack
An Ad Age reporter heard some severe criticism of the white bread industry she covers. The president-CEO of Black Enterprise magazine yesterday called for consumer and political activism aimed at increasing the number of marketing dollars spent with black-owned media. Earl "Butch" Graves Jr. said agencies that specialize in targeting blacks often are not responsible for media buying and planning for products bought …
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Garage Philosophy Leads To Big Things
Mark Fletcher spoke about his experience starting ONElist and Bloglines at this month's SDForum in Palo Alto. I like his advise about doing it on the cheap. I am a cheap bastard when it comes to startups. With ONElist I was, you know, $55,000 got us through a million users. With Bloglines it was $200,000 from start to finish. It's so cheap to start and run these web companies, especially if you do it virtually. Like, …
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Ego A Driving Factor In Car Purchases
It seems those crazy kids in Coconut Grove are inventing new ways to sell VWs on a daily basis. The new tool in the automaker's belt is a co-creation site called Ego Index, where consumers rate cars and everyday items for the ego they emit. For instance, anchovies, came in at 50, which is a neutral rating on a 1-to-100 scale. Apparently, anchovies emit no ego. Here's how a CP+B copywriter describes the concept: Each …
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