New Saturday series where we'll be reading the news together.
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Localism: Eat, Work, Pray, Love Edition is the counter and co-existing movement to the global economy:
- Scientists found that once they strayed from North American and Western Europe cuisines, the ingredient pairing argument didn't hold water
- The problem with trend tracking, says Grant McCracken, is that it's become a very promiscuous word used to describe all kinds of observations
- The role of meditation in mental health goes beyond spirituality
- US teenagers are sharing passwords as a sign of affection
Read the full post here.
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From 3 equations to taking people with you: what top leaders are writing and new leaders are reading:
- Successful entrepreneur Chip Conley is tallying up emotional equations as reviewed by Dan Pink
- Bob Sutton reviews Taking People With You by David Novak
- Two interviews with Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson
- Tech entrepreneur Caterina writes about engineers without borders and Monoculture
Read the full post here.
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To Know but Not to Understand is one of the edges in the context of big data is asking the right questions. There are many implications for media, distribution, curation, and business trade:
- The Atlantic publishes about David Weinerger and the Science on Big Data. Like all other kinds of data, scientific data has increased exponentially thanks to the changed economics of deletion, sharing, and the fact that computers have gotten smarter
- Technology Review says the way people copy each other's linguistic style reveals their pecking order
- There's a race going on to find a common model of trust. Welcome to the reputation economy on CNBC magazine looks at the repercussion of what people say in social media on their brand equity
Read the full post here.
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Ends, beginnings, the dangerous effects of reading and too much buzz was a fitting title for a year end post to talk about:
- Stowe Boyd offers counter points to the tech blogosphere being dead or how to stir a tempest in a teacup
- In the Dangerous Effects of Reading, David Tate invites pause and reflection on our daily consumption habits
- Social media provides huge opportunities is too much buzz, says Schumpter in The Economist
Read the full post here.
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Digital as body language, content as style speaks to the maturity of digital and social media even as it's still unevenly distributed:
- Liberty London Girl reveals how she got her start in a very competitive niche: fashion
- Quora moves beyond writing to curating content
- Tom Fishburne on the 12th day of Christmas illustrates a retail trend
Read the full post here.
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Blending personal and business on Facebook is felt as a gravity pull despite some well publicized success stories. Early reactions to the much anticipated new timeline could drive users away from the platform:
- Lifehacker shows how to use Facebook's new timeline feature and hide your embarrassing old posts
- The Next Web explains some creative ways to feature posts and images on the timeline
- The New York Times reported, there are Facebook resisters who opted out
- Daniel Gulati at Harvard Business blogs says Facebook is making us miserable by constantly comparing ourselves to others
- Business Insider publishes some highlights of Facebook revenue numbers in anticipation of the company's IPO
Read the full post here.
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Connecting online access and offline availability is changing product, place, and pricing in new and interesting ways:
- Zipcar connects cities, transportation, and technology - and turns a profit
- UK supermarket Tesco is connecting technology with retail, using ambient marketing with mobile commerce in Korea and rolling out free Wi-fi to its Extra stores
- Patagonia went on record on Black Friday asking people to reduce, repair, reuse, recycle, reimagine
- Karl Lagerfeld shared his technology habits and how he uses various tools for his work at LeWeb
Read the full post here.
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Building a platform that respects brands and users alike is another way of looking at digital convergence where intent meets share and search:
- Platforms as brokers that align the interest of the three interested parties in a search: users, marketers and publishers.
- Junk information can lead to a new form of ignorance. So don't blame the information for your bad consumption habits.
- People are becoming very conscious that their data is valuable to marketers.
Read the full post here.
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Digital convergence between content and ads:
- To build a digital platform that is sustainable, brands will need both, durable content -- in the form of articles, stories, or ads -- and short bursts of interesting bits that keep the audience interest
- Provide something useful, and you will be able to start getting engagement and establish your brand as a destination site, thus raising awareness
- Percolate comes in to help brands and businesses find their online voice with customers
- Disney acquired Babble Media, a parenting platform featuring more than two hundred mom bloggers based in New York city
- Styleowner is letting customers express themselves creatively and get positive feedback from the community
Read the full post here.
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In the first episode of business and technology trends, we took a look at:
- how being product focused in a startup is key -- the real value comes from building something that solves a real problem, executing flawlessly, and doing the right thing
- how you can get paid through a website without paying credit card fees -- Dwalla is Is moving $350 Million and wants to completely kill credit cards
- data mining is the new Holy Grail of marketing, put Plexus Engine on your list to watch
- IBM found that iPad users are buying almost twice as frequently as other mobile users
- the concept of small might turn out to be an advantage when it comes to organizing friends -- watch this space for more in coming weeks.
Read the full post here.
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