The Thicket

Hilarious Use of Web 2.0

Anti-Obama Bloggers Blocked by Google???

">Shelly Palmer talks about what this means.

My Commute Would Certainly be Cooler!

Cool vehicle for a cool commute (not that I'd be any "cooler," but I'd be commuting in style).  I found this on Three Minds.  It's technically classified as a motorcycle, has a gas powered electric generator and batteries. Plug it in for 2-4 hours and drive 50 miles.

Drive further and the generator turns on to recharge the batteries. At 350 miles of driving the generator will keep the batteries charged enough for unlimited driving at about 130 mpg. 75 mile trips are about 400 mpg.

At $27,000 - $30,000, Aptera is expected to be safe as any auto.  Plug in for 50 mile trips for $1-$2. Cool!

Biodegradable Home Product Lines, Ready to Rot...

Porter Novelli New York partner, and "Green" marketing expert, David
Zucker has a great quote in NYTimes regarding consumers' interest in
products that offer ease of understanding over "green confusion:
Biodegradable Home Product Lines, Ready to Rot NYTimes, May, 8. 2008

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: NewYork Times, Porter Novelli, David Zucker

State of Media 2008

Embedded Video

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: PaulVogelzang, New Media, blogging, podcasting, videocasting

Gladwell vs. Watts: Past the Tipping Point (via PSFK)

Expertly copied word-for-word from the fine folks at PSFK.
(Read it there by clicking here.)

Last week, outspoken network-theory scientist Duncan Watts brought to life his argument against Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point at the offices of Fast Company. Watts, who’s currently working with Yahoo in lieu of his regular gig at Columbia, argues that the “influencers” whom Gladwell claims, in essence, make our world go ’round, are no more influential than ordinary, non-node individuals. Anthropologist (and PSFK Conference speaker) Grant McCracken was at the talk and offers some interesting commentary in response to the case presented by Watts, whose anti-tipping point theory was featured in Fast Company’s February issue. McCracken’s thoughts:

[Watts] argues that news travels as readily through ordinary people as influential ones. This means that our world is not “hub and spoke”… No, as Thompson put it, networks are democratic. We are just as likely to “get the news” from a friend as we are from a networking paragon.

Even in this narrow form, the Watts-Thompson argument has revolutionary implications for the world of marketing. If their argument is true, it feels like we are looking at a turning point, not a tipping one. Many marketers thought that Gladwell’s model gave them a way to “game” the diffusion effect. All we had to do was influence the influencers and entire markets will fall before our approach…

If marketing learned anything in the 20th century, it is that consumers are smarter than this, that there are no tricks in any case, that the world is not about process, it is stubbornly about content. If the marketer wants influence, the solution remains what it has always been. The answer is to build great products, brands and messages. It is these, and not “memes” or “viruses,” that capture attention and prompt choice.

Looking Authentic

Here's the Southwest Airlines reply to the "Too Pretty to Fly" hullabaloo.
Would you believe it more or less if it was more formally staged?
(I wonder how many takes you need to get it to feel amateur enough.)
Nice response.

Submit Your Story (x10)

We've all recently waxed about the most loved/hated Super Bowl ads but few have noted the ridiculous overuse of call-to-action requests for online content/story submissions.
This tactic doesn't make sense/success in most product/campaign situations.
Ask for and use submitted content only if your audience is already actively doing it and you know how to apply it wisely....and please don't fake it. If you feel that you have to link user submissions to a contest then it's not very real (buzz: authenticity) either.

Sleeveface

I learned of this site, Sleevface, from my friend, Jesse Thomas, and for someone from the album era, this is very cool. Check it out!

Jonah Bloom:Digital March

HERE is Jonah Bloom, Ad Age editor explaining upcoming plans for the digital marketing issue of his magazine.

Zune On Sale at Toys R Us!

I received this as an email today and thought it an odd disconnect.  Not only would I NOT think to buy electronics from Geoffrey and Toys R Us, but the ad is hokey and a little creepy.  When you click on the link, the music is good, but totally unrelated to the Toys R Us demoraphic, and I have to wonder how many kids in this age range are thinking to themselves "hmmm...Zune vs. iPod???, I know, I'll check out Toys R Us for their opinion."

TSA Launches "Evolution of Security" Blog

The Transportation Security Administration announced the launch of an interactive blog, Evolution of Security. According to TSA the “blog will serve as a tool for travelers to share their ideas, thoughts and concerns about aviation security. In turn, TSA will post videos, innovative concepts and other helpful tools while charting feedback.” The use of the noun “Evolution” in their name “speaks to the progression of airport security since it was first introduced in the 1970s, then federalized in the wake of 9/11 with the creation of TSA, and now the need to introduce innovations to enhance security and improve process.”
As blog readers we’ll have a chance to post questions, but direct answers may not come from TSA, but from, as TSA puts it, “ a challenge to all to share new ideas and involve all in upcoming changes.”  Though it means we may still have to take off our shoes at security checkpoints, its nice to know that the TSA is seeking answers and solutions, and is doing what it can to make the flying experience better. 
Additionally, the blog, which launched on January 31st, features a numbers of bloggers whose names range from “Bob” all the way to the very rare “Jim,” (in a possible nod to Nuts About Southwest blog, one of my favorites), and though their names sound ordinary, many of these people are anything but average.  As you read their brief bios, you’ll note that, for example, “Ethel,” “graduated from MIT with Biology, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering degrees, and previously worked with NASA on an artificial gravity system.”  A reminder, at least to me, that I want people like that involved in air travel and safety.  This is a great idea, IMO, for a government agency, to learn from its stakeholders, blog readers, etc., and make changes to its policies accordingly.

Flock is Awesome!

Granted, I may be a little late to this party (story of my life), but while at MacWorld Expo two weeks ago, I stumbled upon the Flock browser booth.  It was just me and the booth dude, so I had lots of time to check it out, ask questions, volunteer for Beta testing, etc. I have to tell you, I'm putting Safari, Firefox, Mozilla, and Camino, all of which I use on the Mac, aside and am lasering in on this cool browser (a new version of Flock has just been released for Mac Leopard and TechCrunch raves about it).  Flock is a Mozilla application and it's geared heavily toward people who use social-networking sites (ahem, which is very much me). I love the “look and feel,” and it has excellent RSS and blog management built in and it seems pretty zippy after startup. Might be worth giving a look.  Be a Flockstar!

Washington Post "Buzz Maps" Track DC-Based Bloggers

The Washington Post has selected blog aggregator site Outside.in to provide Buzz Maps of DC-area bloggers on WashingtonPost.com, according to the Outside.in blog.
A "Buzz Map" (see image, which you can enlarge by clicking), tracks both DC-based bloggers and the places they are discussing in the area. The service also maps the top 10 places mentioned, based on volume in a given week.
The service went live on WashingtonPost.com last week, but not much is there, yet. 63 cities currently comprise the Outside.in database. Outside.in helps marry local advertising with local geo-specific bloggers. EveryBlock, a similar startup (but with much less apparent traction), provides geo-filtered news and data in Chicago, New York and San Francisco, according to Silicon Alley Insider.

Candidates Won't Be Seen During Super Bowl!

FOX has announced that it won't sell Super Bowl spots to any presidential candidates - though no candidate has yet asked for a spot (ahem...sounds like many of the "R's" are out of cash, anyway...).
The game is sold out, and even if additional time could be found for one candidate to buy in, equal opportunities couldn't be found for all candidates, FOX says (via TV Week).
FOX cites an FCC rule that says that a network can reasonably refuse to sell political time in "unique, one-time-only" broadcasts where equal ad time can't be offered to all candidates.
Speculation had sprung up that one or more of the candidates would advertise, based primarily on the fact that Super Bowl Sunday falls just two days before Super Tuesday. 
Dang, now if the game is sorry, we won't have the candidates shenanigans to look forward to like a faux cross in the window, or Bill wagging his finger.