Ray Kurzweil has a special place in our hearts because of his progressive thoughts on the future and how technology is becoming more integrated into our lives – even at a biological level. Barry directed and produced an excellent documentary about Kurzweil entitled: Transcendent Man. Barry points out that the law of accelerating return is upon us in every part of our lives, as devices such as smart phones are getting smaller. While it took the Gutenberg press 100 years to penetrate daily life, the Internet only took about 20 years, and the iPhone and iPad just a few years.

As a result, the notion of an Ivy league education, where information was previously held privately for the few, is now at the world’s fingertips. As the world’s collective knowledge grows increasingly available on demand, the need for wrote memorization and the existing anti-inspirational education system needs a major reboot. The facts are there for the taking, and the need for teaching critical thinking and creative application of knowledge is the key.

PAULO BLIKSTEIN – Engage

One of our favorite break out sessions involved Paulo’s students from the FabLab@SchoolProject. Ten year old kids were downloading plans and custom-programming robotic, remote control cars – entirely from scratch. Paulo points out that it’s difficult to give up centuries of traditional learning because they feel so right, even though we know we are teaching obsolete concepts in obsolete ways. In his FabLab, the mission is always engagement of the young mind, creative application, and discovery—-the tools necessary to generate the results we need for the evolving challenges of the future.

I’ve seen the crystal ball gazers predict the best and the worst.  Which is right? Time will tell.  But I am betting on the fact that Steve, even as he leaves the active playing field, has already ensured the answer to the best of his genius ability.  He’s given us a  bunch of great tools.   My assumption is that he has done the same with his colleagues.

His legacy is bigger and more enduring than his hardware.  Jobs’ greatest invention was and is his process in which he kept the consumer / audience in mind at every stage.  As Bob DeSena notes in a recent MediaPost article, Jobs shipped us all of that stuff because he bothered to know what, how, when, and why we wanted it. Pretty simple stuff, like knowing your end user, can be incredibly powerful when embraced by the hands of genius.

It’s odd how many companies fail to embrace that Business 101 concept.  I’d argue that the evolution of all things digital would be exponentially further down the road if the words “serve the audience” were painted on every company wall. Hot companies come and go because they often forget who they are trying to reach soon after their initial success.  Take online content. The portals are still baffled by the slow embrace of online content when all they have to do is think audience, audience, audience to crack the code.

Jobs got this.  His audience was the impetus for each product, for each version tweak, and for the beaucoup de “shipping” that was generated by Jobs’ genius and understanding of human demand.  And THAT is why we are talking about him in the same breath as his pioneer compatriots who did the same 100 years ago.

Will it fall apart now? My guess is that the same guy who kept his eye on the prize and executed so successfully, just might have surrounded himself with like-minded folks who paid attention to the master.

panel photo by Adam Betts

After decades of the television business and major brands letting the 18-34 mantra dictate their every move, maybe, just maybe, things are about to change. We’ve said it a million times—the Boomers buy jeans, cars, gadgets, and, well everything. They have disposable income. They influence family purchase decisions. They can be make or break for a brand.

The social networks are where the modern audience consumes, shares, engages, and decides which brands to embrace and which to ignore. Now that we know the senior set is digging all things digital, it will be more than interesting to see if brands wake up, smell the Ben Gay, and reach out to this audience in a personal, authentic way. Senior-oriented social media campaigns? Senior-specific social media platform spin offs? When it comes to brand approach to the far-side-of-sixty crowd, its out with the old and in with the new.

We get asked to sign NDAs from time to time and we spend way too much time analyzing whether it is something we can do. If it isn’t the potential legal minefield that stares back at us from the page, then it’s the notion of keeping track of all the ridiculously broad limitations each and every one of these little documents creates. There are obviously many more reasons we could list here, but in the interest of brevity, we’ve listed our top 5 reasons why we don’t want to sign your NDA.

1. Ideas Are Like Assholes, Opinions, and Scripts in Hollywood…

We hear ideas all day long and chances are, we’ve either heard or thought of something in the neighborhood of what you’re pitching. Unless you have a VERY unique and VERY detailed expression of a genuinely novel notion, there really is little to protect. We live smack dab at the intersection of entertainment, new media, and technology and there’s always a lot of traffic. Our 360-approach to content and distribution literally applies to nearly every conceivable business vertical.— and we want ALL of that business.

Every NDA we sign in one sector could prevent us from doing business in another. Splitting hairs over language and trying to narrow down the sacrosanct from the unprotectable notion, is a time and money suck. That said, if you really do have and want to work with us to exploit your formula for cold fusion and you have the empirical data to prove it, where do we sign?

2. Stealing an idea takes a lot of work.

There’s a saying in our biz: “What works on the page, don’t work on the stage.” You could have the greatest idea in the world, but unless you have assembled the best team to implement and execute this great idea, it will never reach fruition. A great idea doesn’t become interesting until it is put into action and tested to some decent extent. And even then, you best have a credible / stellar team to prove that full execution is around the corner. Look, even Microsoft admits that all of those dorky guys in the commercials invented Windows 7, and yet the company took it to market with little fear of legal reprisal.

3. Most investors today will never sign an NDA.

Talk to any Silicon Valley VC, private equity folks or others holding the purse strings, and you will realize that investors these days will only laugh you out of their office if you bring up the notion of signing an NDA. These guys hear hundreds of ideas everyday. They would have to limit consideration to one pitch per vertical in order to avoid lawyers flying out of the woodwork (and even then, they would get sued). Can you imagine the liability? We’re just the stop before them so we need to follow suit in all but the most extreme situations, like the cold fusion thing.

4. Great ideas cost too much money.

Even if you have a great idea, at the very least you’ll still need to invest some serious coin and sweat equity to get that idea to a presentable level of development. In success, you’ll have to feed the machine until everyone else finds out about your great idea and the masses agree with how brilliant you think you are. Rest assured, we’re too busy realizing our own brilliant ideas to spend the time and money to steal yours.

5. Potential liability? Just say NO.

Every signed NDA out there in the universe provides an opportunity for some anxious lawyer to work his way through the fine print and come knocking on our door because he saw our sexy signature. While there are certainly specific exceptions we make, the general rule is that each NDA we sign has the potential to keep us up at night. We barely sleep as it is.

We live in the age of exponentially fast information exchange. The world is also a bit low on genuinely novel ideas. Let’s rethink how to protect ourselves while making, as opposed to breaking, deals. We know we’ll get some feedback on this one – hopefully from both sides. Let us know what you think. And if you do, in fact, have that cold fusion thing ready to pitch…

As we saw in Episode 3, there are several ways to track audience data.  You can find out, on a very granular level, who they are, where they like to play, and other important metrics that are required to make great content and distribute it strategically across the web.  In Episode 4 we find out why it’s so important to utilize this data and help you create a loyal bond with your audience.  We’ll also look at why it’s imperative to come from an authentic place when creating interesting and relevant storylines for your content.  Remember: the consumer bullshit meter is very sensitive!

Episode 4 features: Jason Feinberg, Suzanne Diamond, Timothy Golden and Zach Jordan

The other weekend, though, I was compelled to at least loosen my grip on the status quo and take a deep bow in the direction of the tsunami that is heading our way. Here’s the scoop. I looked in on my two girls (12 and 10, respectively) when I heard blaring music shaking the foundation.

I opened the door (without knocking because, well, I can). There they were, TV on full blast, watching some show where the latest quasi-pubescent heartthrob, Justin Beaver (I know his name is Bieber, but I do that just to mess with them), was guest starring. Each had their laptop (spoiled like you can’t imagine) on YouTube watching this kid “sing” really deep and meaningful songs. They also had him on their iTouches (is that the plural, or iTouchae?). One was on the phone talking to her friend, who was apparently watching / listening to the same Bieberpalooza and the other was texting about the same. In short, it was a platform agnostic, social networking, wireless, audio / visual, crowd sourced, simulcast of all things Beaver (again, just to make my kids nuts). The only thing missing was this kid live, in my house, rocking out (generous on my part) to my screaming girls and their digitally connected fan club. Of course, that came several days later when they saw him live (and, as we all know, Bieber live is like seeing The Boss live in the late 1970s—only the four hour set replaced by 3 four minute songs, primarily about school and gum). Told you they were spoiled.  By the way, while engrossed in their little BieberFest, they never even noticed I was there.  I hate Justin Bieber.

I think this is what Zach calls “living digital”.

The next day, I was telling this story to a bunch of folks at a charity event. A crowd gathered. I’d like to say that this occurred because I am a devastatingly handsome, social vortex creating, brilliant raconteur. Turns out, they all had their own recent digital life epiphanies. One 27 year old woman said her 22 year old brother thinks she is a digital dinosaur (by the way, this gal knows her stuff).

A youngish grandfather told me how his son’s 6 year old borrowed his Blackberry and asked Granddad how to make an exclamation point. Granddad’s direction to “look for the button with the black dot on the lower left side” was met with (six year old mind you) “Granddad, why didn’t you just say that I should use the ALT key?” Finally, when another youngish grandmother (do I kiss ass well or what?), told me that she saw her 2-year-old grand child “thumbing” a toy block as if it were a mobile phone while playing, the light bulb went off. If my girls and babies are doing all of this now, one can only imagine what is ahead.

Yes, Zach, you are correct. You win. The wave is a comin’, what we think is the future now will encounter obsolescence in moments, and thank the stars that we don’t “only make big splashy network TV shows anymore”. Tech will change story, story will change tech, our willingness to adopt the new will spread endlessly like the universe and alter, impact and dictate all of the above.

That said, a month or so from now when I can have things simply beamed into my head, thereby reducing my mind’s eye to a vestigial, outsourced, hunk of my gray matter, I think I am still going to want to go to the movies. Now if only everyone would stop with the damned cell phones glowing, ruining the moment and distracting me from the Academy Award winning acting dynamo known as Megan Fox.

Crackberry photo: nkpix

In Episode 2, we briefly discuss the various social media tools and technologies available and the importance of customizing every strategy depending on your audience. Episode 3 gives a few specific ways you can find out (1) who your audience is, (2) what factors you need to consider when developing content and (3) the various ways to track and report on your audience.  Once you get to know your audience, take a look at Episode 4 to get a sense of why it’s so important to use this data to create relevant and authentic messaging.

Episode 3 features: Jason Feinberg, Suzanne Diamond, Timothy Golden, and Zach Jordan

In today’s WSJ online, Elizabeth Holmes, writes about how teen retailers like Aeropostale are starting to do a deep bow towards those with the purse strings.  They are adding chairs for Mom so she can more comfortably survive the teen shopping frenzy.  They are creating personal shopping programs, available at mom-friendly times.  Wow.  They understand that their consumer needs to (a) get to the store and (b) have money before they can make a purchase.  Hope springs eternal.

Now, all we have to do is broaden this marketing epiphany and start to apply this power-of-the-purse recognition to all aspects of branding and marketing.  Moms and Dads are as much part of the fragmented digital space as anyone.  They too have a ton of choices.  They too don’t want to be “sold”.  They too exist on line and in self-selected pods on the social networks and passion sites.  As I have noted in the past, Moms buy jeans, TVs, skateboards, cars, and the offerings under virtually every vertical.

If Mom is more likely to embrace Aeropostale thanks to a place to sit, imagine what would happen if they installed a Man Cave. A back room, flat screen, BIG chairs, etc.  I can see it now.  Saturday morning, I wake up, have my coffee and excitedly wake up my girls and say “Hey kids!  Let’s go to Abercrombie!”  I’d be loyal to that brand.

The legendary lion in one of his last interviews which was taped in 2007.  There’s also a great documentary on HBO right now about Ted Kennedy that gives a much more in depth look into the powerful legacy he leaves behind.  For more big thinkers and thought leaders, check out Big Think.

]]> http://www.joedigitalblog.com/targeted-distribution/ted-kennedy-thought-leader/feed 0 http://www.joedigitalblog.com/targeted-distribution/blogging-will-make-you-go-blind http://www.joedigitalblog.com/targeted-distribution/blogging-will-make-you-go-blind#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:04:27 +0000 Peter Schankowitz http://www.joedigitalblog.com/?p=395 Keep Reading]]> While most of us will admit that blogging is at least a tad self-absorbed, rarely have I laughed as hard as I did today when I read Stoney deGeyter’s post boiling bad blogging down to self-flagelance.  Come to think of it, he’s right.  Blogging is a LOT like sex.

As Stoney points out, the compulsion for and the often all-consuming nature of blogging is directly analogous to  the primal urge for sex.  We want it when we want.  We shove it in the direction of anyone we wish.  And once released, we have a sense of calm—regardless of how the recipients feel on the other end.  That latter part does not apply to me.  Ask anyone—-I am a giver.

The beginning blogger, without thinking about his audience, their needs, and the manner in which they want their info delivered, is quickly reduced to a closeted life of locked blogroom doors, interruption and having to explain to friends and family that he will be “right out” as soon as he reaches all five of his readers.  Keep going on that route and you really will go blind.

Stoney rightly points out that along with the personal passion necessary to get attention, in the singles-bar world of blogging, the great blogger puts that passion to work FOR his audience.   Once again blog mirrors life.

You want to be read? You want them to come back to the trough for more?  Deliver more than the self-satisfying blog booty call.  Engage your audience, show them that you genuinely want their comments, and allow their desires, tastes and passions to inform your next session. Don’t be shy.  Ask them how they like it.  It’s natural baby.

If you make them feel loved, wanted, and part of the action and not just a receptacle for your blog, you will get them coming back again and again and again.  They will engage with you and share your blog with everyone within digital ear shot.  Next thing you know, the lady at the table next to one of your loyal readers says that she’ll  “have what she is having.”

Hmmmm.  Funny how that same formula just might work for brands when it comes to engagement and loyalty.  Go figure.

Anime Photo Courtesy of Walyou.com