Jump In #24: Flashmobbing and Generation C

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(More info: http://www.ijump.co.nz/ ) We go conga dancing in the shopping mall today, participating in a Flashmob, and asking what's the thinking behind it. It's a glimpse of the future of marketing, when "consumers" are just as likely to create content as to consume it. Learn more about Generation C.

Little bit o'nonsense

Some people, use, commas, way too often, they use them when they, should use full stops, otherwise known as periods, semicolons, colons, even when there shouldn't, be, a, punctuation, mark there a, t , all. 

This is called acommadation.  

Jump In #23: Search Engine Optimisation with Michael Brandon

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(more info: http://www.ijump.co.nz ) ... Michael Brandon from Searchmasters tells us why SEO is important, the good and bad bits about blogging, and giving away your IP as a form of marketing. Plus search seminar attendees give their feedback.

A poem about worms

Do sightless worms soliloquise
And mourn their dreadful lack of eyes
Do they say "I am a man and not a worm"
When good times quickly to bad times turn

And do they think twice
when cut in half
by a passing spade
do they feel afraid?

Tremendous

I've just come back from a business breakfast where I heard Charlie "Tremendous" Jones talk about - well, all sorts of things.

He's a motivational speaker with 60 years' experience in business. Yes, 60.

He talked about being a giver not a thumbsucking numbskull, why reading is better than talking, and how he came to know Jesus.

But more than anything he said was just the fact he was standing there. He's not only in his 80s, he is fighting cancer which he knows will take him sooner or later.

Marie and I bought some of his books and I got him to sign one. He gave me the warmest, most affectionate hug I've ever had from a complete stranger. There is someone who is giving as much as he can until every little bit of life is gone from him. That's more than words can say.

Jump In #21: David Young and Kiwification

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(more info: http://www.ijump.co.nz/ ) Hear how social networking greases the wheels when finding a new neighbourhood, job and home country! Also, lessons learned from the Kiwification blog, a site for people planning to live in New Zealand.

Jump In #22: PlanHQ founder Tim Norton

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(more info: http://www.ijump.co.nz ) A sneak preview of Tim's presentation at next week's Internet Marketing Summit in Auckland. How to: * Market an intangible product on almost no budget. * Communities - join or build? * The practicalities of blogging and video podcasting to build audience trust * How open should you be online?

How long until I'm irrelevant?

Dinosaur roaming in Alberta
Originally uploaded by FrankMaurer

Chris Brogan posted some really good thoughts on the future of social media consultancies, like iJump.

It stimulated some thoughts I've been thinking to life, so I commented. Like this:

I totally agree with your sentiments here. I’m a bit confused - as probably a lot of people are - as to how to put this into practice.

I can indeed see the day when just about everything we’re doing today as a consultancy becomes irrelevant, because our job will be done. This makes it kind of difficult to plan ahead, because who knows what we’ll be doing then?

It also consolidates some thoughts I’m having about early adopters and the problems that happen when systems actually work well (people stop innovating). We kind of need more brokenness to stay unsatisfied enough to keep up with the latest.

Digressing wildly, it reminds me of an interview I heard with the author of a book on Melancholy, which, unlike depression, can be a tremendously creative force.

Just thinking out loud here. Thanks for being the catalyst, Chris!

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There are also some great other comments on the post, too. I promise I'll post soon about what I mean about why being an early adopter can be a problem. Or have I already said enough? Some people say I am too concise... though always in writing, never in person! :)

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Update: David MacGregor has an excellent quote on this very subject (kind of):

"Through history we se an ironic process that Hegel or Marx would have appreciated; a dialectic whereby the success of a culture develops within itself its own antithesis. The more more well-off we become, the less reason we have to look for change, and hence the more exposed we become to outside forces. The result of creativity is its own negation."

See more here!

How can we keep the petrol companies honest?

Pumped Up
Originally uploaded by lincolnose2

With all the news about petrol prices and their steady upward climb, I wonder if we, the people, can demand clarity from the companies who supply us with much-needed fuel.

I'm not a geek. Not really. I don't know much about programming, but I do know a good idea when I see one.

So here's an idea that presented itself to me: a people-powered website that displays the cheapest petrol prices in the country, or in a particular area. (Okay, it's still a sketchy idea)

There are already some precedents in different industries:

* Houseoftravel.co.nz scrapes the websites of airlines for prices, delivering the lowest price
* Interest.co.nz has a staff that manually check the interest rates from each bank, and their community has begun to help with that manual process.

Is there a way of finding out what's the price of petrol around New Zealand, and what the trends are, so well-prepared drivers can not only check the traffic cams before they set out, but also check where the cheapest petrol is?

Is there a way we could make this mobile? Or at least geotargeted?

What mashups are possible? Google maps seems an obvious choice.

Who would benefit, apart from consumers? Maverick players like Gull - the only petrol company to front on Close Up last night - might be interested, if they're open to transparency.

Industry organisations like the AA might also be interested in being associated with this.

I think there are enough of us with enough skill to make this happen. What do you think?

Would have been seventy

Today my dad, Graeme Young, would have turned 70.

He would have, if he had not lost his life to pneumonia and cancer nearly 30 years ago. I wasn't yet four years old.

Because I was so young, my experiences and memories of Dad are very ... fractured. My picture of him has been formed through the memories of others, "you're just like your father" observations (good and bad), and photos.

In the photo I've chosen, dad was just 15 and starting out at what would be his career of printing. He left school - and eventually home - as early as possible. He and his dad didn't get on. At all.

Printing was his life for much of his twenties, until he realised he needed to extend his skills and make up for his lack of education. Aged 29, he completed his School Certificate by correspondence, and over the next few years studied to be qualified as an office manager.

One of my few full colour memories of Dad is a trip to the office he worked in at Wilson and Horton. When you're three, going on four, there's not such a strong sense of narrative, but there are pictures. Warehouses, shelves, offices, big phones, forklifts... it may as well have been Disneyland. It was the world of business, and I keep some of those feelings even today as I venture out in the big world of business. For that trip, I am forever thankful.

Happy 70th, Dad.

Jump In #20: Geekzone founder Mauricio Freitas

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(More info: http://www.ijump.co.nz ) We meet Mauricio Freitas, founder of Geekzone.co.nz, and also a speaker at the upcoming Interactive Marketing Summit in Auckland, May 26th. (More info at http://www.brightstar.co.nz ) Hear about advertising and the power of communities!

How not to get people to use RSS

Make it like a cause that people "should" support...

(as if we didn't have enough things we "should" be doing. As the guys from The God Journey say, you just end up shoulding all over yourself!)

However, it's good to see a clear explanation of RSS and how to use it. If it's not to your liking, you can always check out our tutorial over at iJump.

Why Apple doesn't get social media

I just listened to Jay Moona's latest Media Driving, and felt stirred up to comment.

It's a subject that comes up quite regularly in conversation with others, so I thought it was worth reposting my comment here:

Hi Jay,

Great episode, and I agreed with your sentiments about Apple. They seem to be the great exception when it comes to what makes a company cool.

It’s easy to mistake Apple’s coolness for the openness and conversation that’s happening elsewhere, but it’s really because of good design, and almost dictatorial control - kind of the opposite of openness.

As a recent article in Fortune pointed out, Apple would be in big trouble if Steve Jobs wasn’t there. (Can’t find it online, but it was the cover story towards the end of March. Perhaps it was print-only?)

I disagree with you about Seth Godin, because I heard Mitch Joel interview him recently on Six Pixels of Separation, where he explained why he doesn’t do comments …

It’s because having comments on his site would cause him to self-censor, and eventually shut up altogether. He was pretty open and honest about it. I can cut him that slack because he’s an individual, without a large staff doing his marketing for him. Yes, he’s also a formidable brand and influencer, but hey, he’s still human.

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(More thoughts on Apple - and a great comment thread - over at Dave Fleet's PR and Marketing blog.)