marketing geek
In this short interview, Michael Zimbalist, head of R&D at The New York Times, talks about the natural interoperability of Print and Mobile content. He also explains how comprehensive metadata annotation of content can make it “smart,” freeing it to become “device independent media.” This is the promise of the Semantic Web as The Times sees it.
The Semantic Web will be critical to search and consumption of Web video.
Logic + Emotion’s David Armano is brilliant at producing marketing and social-media concept visuals. This one clearly captures some of the most important steps to brand loyalty (Heaven), or disloyalty (Hell):
These instructions come from a 1944 CIA manual on how to sabotage a business:
(1) Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
(2) Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.
(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
(5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
(7) Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the juris diction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.
I think this is standard management practice in the corporate world today! I’m sure I don’t need to point out how incredibly ironic, and wrong, this is.
Thanks to David Weinberger.
Email inefficiency is probably a major contributor to the technology Stress that some of us experience. My business partner and I have often joked, sometimes seriously, about clever auto-responders to help filter the daily load. Here’s a couple of funny ones that I, ironically, got in a junk email:
1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. I may be a little moody so be prepared.
2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.
3. Sorry to have missed you, but I am at the doctor’s having my brain removed so I can be promoted to our management team.
4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from vacation on 4/18. Please be patient, and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.
5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first 10 words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.
6. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again.
( The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over.)
7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system.
You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.8. Hi, I’m thinking about what you’ve just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.
9. I’ve run away to join a different circus.
10. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as ” Sharon ” instead of “Steve”.
