Kindle competitor debuts!
Now this is cool! You can watch a video over at Fortune by clicking here.
Plastic Logic launches handheld document reader at DEMO Fall 2008 conference. Paper-sized and thin, the device is geared towards business customers.
The Kindle is great, but the Plastic Logic document reader has a larger screen and its thinner.
Crisp images and text in grays and whites are easy to read, and with just a little lag, scroll from page to page easily. While it isn’t ready yet, ultimately you will be able to add notes and sketches to PDFs, CAD drawings, spreadsheets and text documents. The documents will synch from a computer via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or a wired connection. Lithium ion batteries power the display. An obvious upgrade in future versions would be a color screen.
Check out the video where Richard Archuleta, CEO Plastic Logic demonstrates their electronic reader aimed specifically for business users.
I Am Knowledge Worker 2.0
Everytime I go into SlideShare.net, I enjoy exploring the latest presentations. There is a wealth of knowledge and information in there from top minds.
Here is one I found today from Stephen Collins, a knowledge economy and knowledge work consultant, web strategist, information architect and social computing evangelist.
My presentation from the Office 2.0 Conference. It’s a discussion on the changing nature of knowledge workers and how their organisations can help them be better at their jobs and more productive.
Innovation Exercise: Tagged Financial Management
I was using Flickr the other day to upload and organize some pictures I took over the 4th of July weekend, and it got me thinking about how banks and credit card companies should be using tagging, and effective use of Ajax, to super-power their standard web-based service applications.
So, that got me thinking about what if a banking company provided me with a real easy way to categorize all my checking account expenses, if it could remember previous tagging (eg. all Wal-Mart purchases should be tagged “groceries”) and used a easy-to-use Ajax interface just like what Flickr uses. Then, what if it let me create “envelopes” or categories which I could then “link” to each incoming expense. The idea is to create an electronic version of an old fashioned envelop budgeting system. The more data I inputted, the more it would learn and remember, making it easier and easier to manage my expenses.
Tagging through an Ajax interface is such a powerful way of organizing data, and I sometimes find the archival systems on my banking web-interface to be limiting. I really don’t do much with my bank website, and whenever I need to further organize my finances, most people depend on other software. I suspect that an easy way to create barrier of entry for competitors is simply to provide banking customers with an easy-to-use and simple money management tool. I would bet this would be particularly attractive to the coveted college student demographic, who are getting their first credit cards and who spend a lot of mom & dad’s money.
Closer look at alternate-reality games
Earlier, I wrote about a mystery movie trailer I saw before the Transformers movie. It turns out it may be a part of a complex game-based buzz-marketing technique called Alternative Reality Games.
The trailer reveals it’s for a 2008 Paramount film from wunderkind producer J.J. Abrams (“Felicity,” “Alias,” “Lost”), and virtually no other details, so we’re left wondering: What’s the name of the movie? Who’s the villain? What freedom-hating beast(s) — HulkGodzillaKong? the Cthulhu? Taliban evildoers? — would decapitate Lady Liberty?
Joshua Zumbrun writes about the mystery movie teaser that has gamers looking for Alternate Reality games.
Alternate-reality games, for those unfamiliar with the genre, are perhaps best illustrated with an actual example: Imagine you find a Web site. The owner says it’s been hacked and she asks the online world for help. People search the site and find corrupted data files, and a countdown to the year 2552. The site is like many small sites that run into tech problems and need help.
Except the site is fake. The woman is fake. Stay with us here: Her entire world is a fictional creation, a web of fake sites and fake blogs, with more and more mysteries slowly unraveling, as online participants decrypt codes in the corrupted data files. As it happens, 2552 is the year that an alien horde invades Earth in the Xbox video game series Halo. Indeed, the entire fictional world was part of an alternate-reality game called I Love Bees — promoting the 2004 launch of Halo 2 and deepening the mythology of the Halo world — created by a firm, 42 Entertainment, devoted exclusively to the creation of “immersive entertainment.”
Spider-Man's Promo on Google Earth
Here is another innovative way to promote a product. Very creative to say the least, and considering its “geek” factor, probably very well targeted.
In keeping with the vastness of the “Spider-Man 3″ franchise, Sony worked with Google Earth to bring the superhero’s Manhattan world to fans around the globe with a “Spider-Man 3″ layer for the popular mapping application.
The “Spider-Man 3″ layer takes users on a virtual tour of the city, complete with detailed imagery, popup windows for the movie’s more recognizable locations and still photos from the film.
Refreshingly new way to engage people with political advertising
This is fascinating! I can see the power of this technique in advertising. Can you imagine a manufacturer doing this with a popular product, and asking their product users to post replies?
TechPresident contributor Steve Garfield writes about it here.
John Edwards sent out an email yesterday promoting an “emergency” ad protesting President Bush’s veto of the Iraq war bill. The ad, featuring an array of Americans saying “it’s time to end the war,” was uploaded to YouTube (of course), with a twist: Edwards asked his supporters to upload videos of themselves saying, “we the people” in response to the ad. TechPresident’s Steve Garfield wrote that ” This makes it very easy to participate and collaborate with the campaign to send a message to Washington. Anyone with a webcam can post a video response. People are already discussing the ad’s merits, in the comments, on YouTube.” Check out all of the responses; it’s a refreshingly new way to engage people with political advertising. I wonder if this has anything to do with Joe Trippi coming on board…
Non-Profit Guerilla Advertising that will Blow Your Mind
The headline says it all. I particularly liked the Amnesty International campaign pictured below.
This signs says: ‘More than 4000 condemned until death are waiting for their execution. No to Capital punishment’. In case you can’t tell, the guy is sitting in an electric chair.
hands say “wrong opinion.
This last one is part of “a series of transparent ads done also by Amnesty International that highlights injustice and hardship across the world.
The Copy reads: ‘This is not happening here, but this is happening now’”
Make sure to check out the whole image collection.
Getting the job done
Over the weekend, I was doing some research on Gore & Associates, a Delaware company. I came across a quote by a Gore associate included in the second book edition of The 100 Best Companies to Work For in America:
“Why go to someone with a title when you can go to someone with an answer?”
Within the unique Gore environment, it’s a requirement that associates learn how to work with others, not only in their division but elsewhere in the company. Bill Gore believed this aspect of his lattice concept actually could be found in any successful organization, “underlying the facade of authoritarian hierarchy.” His plan was to legitimize this underground process by which he felt the real work gets done. “Most of us delight in going around the formal procedures,” he said, “and doing things the easy way.
Considering their highly collaborative environment, I would be curious to know how the company uses technology to facilitate and empower innovation and creativity. It’s interesting that considering their unique management approach, I had never heard about them in any of my MBA courses.
WSJ: Political Candidates, Fund Raising, Blogs & The Web
Update: The Washington Post has an article on Widgets I missed. Thanks to Rob for pointing out. Rob points out one good example.
While this may technically not qualify as a widget, I did want to call attention to a great new tool courtesy of Justin Hart at My Man Mitt. It allows Romney fans in New Hampshire to follow on an interactive Google map “where they’ve been, endorsements, fundraisers, headquarters and more.†Very cool.
Internet Strategist Patrick Ruffini posted last night about a new widget service he discovered.
I recently discovered a great service called SpringWidgets, which is used to embed RSS feeds on blogs and MySpace pages. Using the service, I built a widget with all the latest headlines from the 2008 Wire you can embed on your blog.
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Attention is growing on the powerful role the web is playing in American politics. While blogs have risen as huge players in the media world, it is expected that the 2008 election will be a wake up call to the power of the blogosphere and the web. Lee Gomez writes about this intoday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal highlighting the fund raising power of the web.
The biggest role for the Web has involved raising money. Barack Obama got 27% of his $25 million in contributions from online donors. Sen. Clinton, the only other candidate to announce the percent raised online, got about 23%. But all the candidates have learned that putting a “Give money” button on the home page of their Web sites usually is both cheaper and more effective than mass mailings or 800 numbers, the two standards for populist fund raising in the days before the Web.
Big Web operations such as Yahoo and Google have learned that the interest in a presidential election, just like the interest in “American Idol,” can, with the right sort of marketing, be translated into more “page views” and thus more advertising. The sites have begun actively recruiting presidential candidates to avail themselves of politically oriented special features, such as a presidential election “channel” on Google’s YouTube.
The effort isn’t just in the U.S. In France, Yahoo’s French home page links to “Presidentielle 2007″ about that country’s current election campaign.
What I would like to see is more non-profits taking these lessons from the campaigns, and using the web to make it easier for supporters and constituents to easily donate to their favorite cause. Among the select charities I trust and support, I have donated more frequently to the one charity that provides a PayPal donate button–Lotus Buds. Why? Because they have a PayPal button on the home page. Every time I get a e-newsletter, I click through and send a donation.
But allow me to demonstrate the other viral power of the internet, and the power of “the Army of Davids” — to be evangelists for your cause! Combine that with the low-cost fundraising power, and you have an effective tool for advocacy.
Lotus Bud International’s vision is to see more Chinese families embrace adoption by educating families in China about the possibilities of adoption, preparing successful adoptive families through parent training, and providing funds for adoption and the education and medical needs of adopted children.
Lotus Buds International is working in China to promote and support adoption among Chinese families to make a difference in lives of children in need of a family.
There are millions of beautiful little girls who want a family. Join Lotus Buds in promoting and supporting adoption among Chinese families to make a difference in lives of children in need of a family.
Here is another favorite of mine:
Opportunities to Serve in 2007: Whether you’ve already taken the plunge and decided to join in a life-changing experience overseas, or you’re still wondering what Short Term Missions are all about, we can give you the information you’ll need along the way. Read more
My point: The Internet offers a tool for committed constituents to join in a charity’s efforts, spreading the message, and even supporting fund raising efforts through the use of widgets, syndication feeds, and other viral web-tools. I saw a perfect example in Rudy Giuliani’s campaign website. Here are a couple embed tools that allows bloggers to fund raise and spread the “Rudy” message on their own blogs. Note: The following does not constitute an endorsement of a candidate.
Non-profits need to start going beyond the brochure website and really harness the power of the internet. There is a lot of good to be done, and a lot of people who would love to join in. Just make it easy for them and empower those who want to support you the most. The investment is well worth the rewards in lives changed.
The importance of a Chief Digital Officer & the outsourcing option
Jacob, a blogger at Silas Notes and staff member at Silas Partners highlights a blog post that “discusses the need for a Chief Digital Officer, someone who is concerned with all the digital communication of your organization.”
These are considerable responsibilities. It’s a bigger job than “webmaster.†It requires both broad vision and technical insight. It’s a role that must challenge existing silos and old habits. It requires interaction with all other parts of your organization. It’s a role for a champion. As such, it’s a senior position, reporting to the top.
Having worked in the online world since 1999, it amazes me that this is the first time I see this so well articulated! I’m seeing a growth of professionals who know how to walk in both worlds, but at the same, I still see so-called “internet experts” who are technology neophyte. Ignoring the importance of this role can be costly to a company and to a non-profit.
I liked how Jacob used the post to sell his employer’s services. I have to agree with him. If you can’t afford your own full-time staff, outsourcing is the way to go. If you don’t know who to hire, outsource. There are plenty of “experts” out there that don’t know what they are doing, and will waste you money. Sometimes, when in doubt, outsourcing can provide you with the hands-on experience to better grasp the needs, before you go out and bring right person on staff.
The most striking part of this position is how it moves among the silos that many organizations create. I see us doing that more and more with our clients. We are “hired†by the marketing department, but by the end of the project we have helped to put together and lead a number of cross-functional teams.
The part that is often missing is the “reporting to the top.†Often we are one or two levels removed from the ultimate and/or strategic decision makers and that is frustrating.
Overall I’m hopeful that more organizations realize the digital communication is not just a way to do what we used to do faster and with more bells and whistles, but a new way of doing things that requires specialized knowledge and management.
I have worked with TriNet Internet Solutions — the company that recently bought Silas Partners. They have a solid team of experts, and did an AMAZING job of helping Focus on the Family — a larger ministry — navigate through the process of getting a cutting edge media distribution platform developed and launched. It was the most enjoyable project I got to work on while working at Focus on the Family. (Note: last sentence edited for clarification)
