January 28, 2008

Who did you have breakfast with last week?

Blogger Robert Scoble was invited by Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook to a breakfast with Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf while all three were in Davos.

Makes my breakfasts with my pal VS at The Four seem pedestrian - even with The Four's legendary toast service.

Federal Government is not Student Government


Really?!?
Photo from last night's SOTU speech.

What will happen in FLA USA GOP Primary?

I think Mitt will win by three.

Love Maps?

Add this site to your list today = Strange Maps at http://strangemaps.wordpress.com.

Tom Petty's LA

There exists in sound a map of Los Angeles, filled with song-lyric street names, neighborhoods, beaches, bars, empty spaces and spaces between spaces. It's a chart that follows more than 30 years in the life and work of Tom Petty, a longtime resident of the city and an undercelebrated rock & roll icon who finally appears to be getting his due. LA Weekly

Pretty cool map and insights into this artist and city.

Seth Godin: Who are these people?

If you look at the numbers, you soon realize that a huge portion of the population apparently:

Has read two books in the last year, Harry Potter and The DaVinci Code
Uses only two websites, Google and Facebook
Visits only a few blog posts a day, and every single one of them is on the home page of Digg
Watches only two or three TV shows, including the Super Bowl
Eats only at McDonalds
Watches only incredibly snarky or juvenile videos on YouTube


Mass phenomena are tricky things. It's true, the typical American reads exactly one book a year. How are you going to predict which of the 75,000 books published are going to be that book?

You can't.

Many bloggers seem to be on a perpetual hunt for the front page of Digg. Sure, it brings you hordes of eyeballs, but then they turn around and leave. What's the point of that, really?

I think that are plenty of tips you can follow to optimize your offering for this fickle mass group. But it's still a crap shoot. Doesn't it make more sense to incrementally earn the attention of a smaller, less glitzy but far more valuable group of people who actually engage with you? And the best part is, your odds of success are a lot better.

Where to be in 2008

The HBR List: Breakthrough Ideas for 2008
Annual snapshot of the emerging shape of business.

Power to the People

Mountain Dew ramps up "Dewmocracy" game with a multiplayer online game campaign, which involves consumers in the quest for the next Mountain Dew flavor, is set to hit a new level when viral voting begins in February at its dewmocracy.com Web site. With the updated campaign, consumers may select three new flavors that will be included in a nationwide product sampling in July. The winning flavor will hit the market by November. Advertising Age