Don Tapscott: Four principles for the open world

Light entertainment for Sunday afternoon

An episode from the unrivaled Italian 'La Linea', Lineman series.
  La Linea Series - Episode 01 | Lineman Series - Part 1 - YouTube

Kieran Behan of Ireland - what an inspiration!

Kieran is a young, 23 year old Irish olympicon, who suffered two serious injuries after which "doctors told him he would never walk again: a botched leg operation that caused nerve damage and a brain injury that kept him from doing even the simplest things, like sitting or eating."

"And back to gymnastics he went. He swept the floors of his gym to finance his training and jumped subway turnstiles to get to practice because there was no cash to spare. His parents held bake sales, candy sales and carwashes to raise money for him."

Behan is competing in the vault, the horizontal bar and his specialty, the floor exercise, but is not fooling himself into thinking he could win a medal — or even make the finals. He just hopes his tale might inspire others to overcome hardship, whether it is in sports, at work or at home. (more at the NY Times)

On the way to work

crossing Queen's Park. Bliss.

Let the Games begin!

Sent from my Windows Phone

London, well done!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

Come on Hungary!

…and Ireland of course!

Team UK at last but not least!

Beckham on a speedboat! Brilliant!

Great show! Let the games begin!

Beckham on the speedboat

brilliant!

Sent from my Windows Phone

Ah, team UK

Sent from my Windows Phone

And Ireland of course!!!

Sent from my Windows Phone

Come on Hungary!!!

Sent from my Windows Phone

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!!!

Sent from my Windows Phone

Ah London, well done

watching the opening ceremony...

Sent from my Windows Phone

On the way to work…

…crossing Queen’s Park on a crisp & fresh Friday morning. Bliss!

Learning Organisations / Quote of the day

"competition is a form of learning; not a hostile act"
(Learning organisations)
.

How work really gets done

.

Cooperative principle/ quote of the day

"Sociolinguist H. P. Grice suggested that the cooperative principle underlies most attempts to communicate.18 By this he meant that we typically assume that people are trying to be cooperative-by making themselves understood-even when it's quite difficult to figure out what they mean. He suggests that when someone isn't clear, we still search for a meaning that would make sense. This is why communication can work even when, on the surface, it may seem irrelevant or incomplete. So, for example, if someone asks you if you support a proposal and you reply, "Is the Pope Catholic?" most of us will know that you mean "Yes, I do support it." Even though your reply is seemingly irrelevant, we search for a meaning that makes sense given our assumption that you're trying to be cooperative."


Book: Cheney, George; Christensen, Lars Thoger; Zorn, Jr, Theodore & Ganesh Shiv. 2011, Organizational communication in an age of globalization: issues, reflections, practices.

Ad exchanges and their impact on advertisers and publishers

If you work in digital advertising, you probably heard about ad exchanges. If not, in a nutshell they are technology platforms that enable real time bidding for an online ad spot (display banner, video pre-roll, etc.) based on data collected by cookies. The data is matched with the advertisers’ database and/ or account ID’s such as Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo, etc to find the exact people advertisers are looking for.

Let’s say you are a travel company and wanting to promote a Fiji package for honeymooners. Then you could say you are after the following user segment: Female, 25-35, IP address from the Australian Eastern Seaboard (NSW, VIC, QLD), have visited TheKnot.com.au in the last 4 weeks. And Mi9, owner of ninemsn (whom I work for), could deliver it. You find an agency with a demand side platform (or create an account and self-manage) confirm campaign budget and bid for the above segment per ad unit impression and algorithms decide the rest in a split second. If you are the highest bidder, when for example Julie from country Victoria logs onto Australian Women’s Weekly site, she’ll see your travel package appear in let’s say the Leaderboard (729x80 pix) ad unit on the page. Much like in this 2min video case study.

‘It’s an ultra-fast bidding process in which the clearing price for the publisher is 1¢ above the second-highest bidder. Each transaction is completed on average within 50 millisecond.’ (AFR)
So advertisers can buy exactly what they want, and set the price extremely competitively. Popular? You bet. Mi9 forecasts, that they will triple the revenue of their ad exchange in Australia in the next three years.

Any downside to all this automatic bidding fantastic? Think industrial revolution and people being replaced by machines.History repeats?Time to retrain…?

Well, it’s not all doom and gloom though, specialist jobs will stay. High impact, imaginative advertising will continue to be in demand, but a large majority of the data entry, campaign management, high volume/low value advertising sales jobs will likely to be phased out over the next few years to come. (Time to retrain...?).

Clarity

Having a eureka moment (love that word). Just read this article on HBR blogs and I feel like someone just turned the light on...

"avoid working for or with people who don't respect your priorities. It may sound simplistic, but this is a truly liberating rule! There are people who share your values and as a result make it natural to live your priorities. It may take a while to find an employment situation like this, but you can set your course to that destination immediately."

More here:
If You Don't Prioritize Your Life, Someone Else Will - Greg McKeown - Harvard Business Review


.

Effective Team Work & Collaboration

Fab little video that looks at the mechanics of collaboration, potential pitfalls and how to achieve desired outcome.

Effective Team Work & Collaboration - YouTube

.

'How to make a house'

In fact, a Japanese house. More inspiring architecture here.

Quote of the day

“Don’t wish things were easier, wish you were better.”
– Jim Rohn

Quote of the day

“Nothing happens until somebody sells something.”  - Mary Kay Ash, Founder and CEO of Mary Kay Cosmetics

I am on a mission

Are you?

GirlOnAMission - Nicholas Bate

.

Cultural Offering.com: "Liquid meat"

Yumm...: Cultural Offering.com: "Liquid meat"

Quote of the day

“The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity.” - Keith Ferrazzi

Merit

There was this person at a company I worked with in the past, who managed to climb the corporate ladder faster than light, getting from a mere professional to MD within a couple of years. It came to an end recently. I spotted a brief mention on a trade news website that this person is off to greener pastures - due to restructuring (aka. redundancy).

Two thoughts occurred to me:

1. Yet another example that in business we are not irreplaceable (at home, among family - absolutely, in the corporate environment - unlikely)
2. I saw people rise to the top faster due to alliance rather than merit - it won't last. All you need is a change in the reporting lines and unless you are there because you deserve it, you'll be replaced sooner than you think.

Don't aspire to climb, aspire to grow. You'll get further, achieve more and will be happier.

Rainbow in Randwick, Sydney

Sent from my Windows Phone

Men are more influential, but women are less susceptible

"Men are 49 per cent more influential than women, but women are 12 per cent less susceptible to influence than men, and they exert 46 per cent more influence over men than over other women."


More here: Facebook study reveals what makes someone a leader - tech - 21 June 2012 - New Scientist

Super creative outdoor advertising: Push the button

Now this is really creative and with 35M+ views, it has gone viral.

This promotion was created to launch a high quality TV channel, called TNT in Belgium with the tagline 'we know drama'. Would you have pushed the button?

Nicholas Bate - so cool...

Mmmm:

"Beauty in the eyes of the beer holder" - people who think they're drunk, think they're hot

I found this hilarious, not least because of the clever title!

The beer-goggle effect is well-documented - the way that being drunk makes everyone look wonderfully attractive. A new study asks whether the goggles work backwards. Does being drunk affect how we judge our own appeal?

Apparently yes!
According to this study, those research 'participants who were more drunk tended to rate themselves as more attractive'.

BPS Research Digest: "Beauty in the eyes of the beer holder" - people who think they're drunk, think they're hot

Art break

Masterpieces | Louvre Museum | Paris

Liberty Leading the People (French: La Liberté guidant le peuple)


The Paris uprising of July 27, 28, and 29, 1830, known as the Trois Glorieuses ("Three Glorious Days"), was initiated by the liberal republicans for violation of the Constitution by the Second Restoration government. Charles X, the last Bourbon king of France, was overthrown and replaced by Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans. Delacroix, who witnessed the uprising, perceived it as a modern subject for a painting; the resulting work reflects the same romantic fervor he had applied to Massacre at Chios, a painting inspired by the Greek war of independence.

Ford Model T Factory Assembly (1919)

Fascinating to see how they used to assemble cars - silent video from the Ford Factory in 1919.

Quote of the day

'Technology feeds on knowledge and knowledge expands at a phenomenal rate.'
Alvin Toffler: Future Shock (1972) 1/5 - YouTube