Leaders of the 21st Century

I sat down with some great friends last night eating some Black Cod that I had prepared and cooked.

My friends will know me as a bit of a foodie…

My friends had bought their father and his Austrian wife. All fabulous, as I lived and worked in Austria/ Vienna for 2 glorious years in the early 90’s

Anyway, the Cod was scoffed, the wine taken and we got chatting.

About what I can’t remember now, due to the wine.

Anyway, today I got some great quotes sent to me by Maria’s father.

These… I love from John Naisbitt

John Naisbitt (born Jan. 15, 1929; Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American author and public speaker in the area of futures studies. He is best known for authoring the international bestsellers Megatrends, which was written in 1982 and Re-inventing the Corporation. Megatrends was translated and published in 57 countries and was for many weeks in the first place as non-fiction book in the bestseller lists in the USA, Japan and Germany. Selling more than 9 million copies, it remained on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 2 years.

The new leader is a facilitator

We must learn to balance the material wonders of technology with the spiritual demands of our human race.

We have for the first time an economy based on a key resource (information) that is not only renewable, but self-generating. Running out of it is not a problem, but drowning in it is.

In an information society, education is no mere amenity; it is the prime tool for growing people and profits.

You never know what might happen over the dinner table!

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Citizens for ethical elections

More on Communities Dominate Politics which came via Smartmobs

The Citizens For Ethical Elections members believe that the health and welfare of all humanity, and, indeed, all life on the planet, is best served if the political institutions of the United States are held accountable by an informed and dynamic citizenry. As the cornerstone of this accountability is the American system of free and fair elections among an intelligent and principled electorate, CFEE is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the integrity of this process by leading an ongoing discussion focused specifically on the ethical characteristics of the process and of its participants and stakeholders.

Also I see that Howard Rheingold turned 60 recently. From us at CDB we salute you Howard and wish you many happy returns !!!!

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In the networked world, the only thing worse than being sampled is not being sampled

So I guess we should be flattered.

I worked with Alan Moore for 8 intense months in which we were charged with establishing a Pan-European brand proposition that would help define a new beverage category. Alan’s role was chief creative director for this project. Not only did Alan assemble a unique and highly creative team of package, graphic and communication creative resources, he successfully combined these with internal resources.

Alan developed a compelling and distinctive core proposition for the brand. Alan delivered high quality work on time and within budget. It was a real pleasure to work with someone who was so committed to the mission.

Said Keith Pardy. Keith Pardy, Vice-President, Managing Director Emerging Global Brands, The Coca Cola Company

So its fascinating to see what happens in the world of sampling

I know this has little to do with communities dominate brands. But I wanted to share the level of mediocrity that so many companies stoop to in the world of marketing communications innovation.

So congratulations Coca Cola on such a fine example of your marketing prowess

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Communities Dominate Politics

I was asked recently “what comes after Communities Dominate Brands?” and I answered Communities Dominate Politics.

No more is this clearly demonstrated than perhaps in the US, although Gordon Brown seems to understand that giving up control is a way, is in fact a means to re-engage people with their communities and constituencies.

The Observer asked this weekend in From the web to the Whitehouse

Since the 1960 face-offs between Kennedy and Nixon, televsion has been the dominant medium in US presidential election campaigns. But the advent of YouTube has changed all that. Now it’s the internet that has become the key political battleground for 2008. But is this the birth of a new democraticatising medium - or just a passing fad?

And we wrote about the phenomonen of Barak Obama in The new web politics back in February this year.

And there is plenty to be concerned about as The young disengage with politics

On 5 March this year, an ad appeared on the spectacularly popular video-sharing website, YouTube. The person who posted it identified him or herself as ‘ParkRidge47′ - the place where Hillary Clinton grew up and her year of birth - but the video did not appear to have originated anywhere near that presidential candidate’s camp. An updated version of Ridley Scott’s famous Apple Macintosh ad from 1984, it took the Orwell-inspired original, in which armies of grey-faced workers are lectured to from a vast television screen by a fearsomely Nazi-like dictator, and replaced the face and voice of Big Brother with those of Hillary Clinton

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M7MM ? A thank you to you all

I believe that I live within a network. One that grows and ebb and flows daily.

My belief in the network has been reinforced by the quite extraordinary response to our whitepaper on Mobile as the 7th Mass Media.

From Bejing to Baltimore, India to Nigeria, Australia to Singapore and beyond.

What has touched me deeply is the kind words that many of you have offered for the value in our book and our blog Communities Dominate Brands.

When Tomi and I wrote the book and started the blog we began with a belief not a 5 year plan. And a desire to communicate that knowledge and insight to the world.

There are of course many that prefer not to believe in the power of the network and connected communities, there are those that deny that the world of the mass media is over and that we now live in an interconnected world of mass niche communities of interest.

There are those that do not belive in the fact that business and marketing, knowledge and information creation and exchange are going through a reformation.

And that’s fine. There are those that steal our ideas, well that’s the greatest form of flattery I know.

So to you all ? I thank you for saying that our writing has be “inspirational” or, “insightful” or has helped with a PHD or a thinking about a new business model.

Please keep reading and join in the conversation, it is through converation that we all learn more about the world we live in. And, remember if you want the whitepaper pleae email me

alanm (AT) smlxtralarge (DOT) com

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M7MM ? A thank you to you all

I believe that I live within a network. One that grows and ebb and flows daily.

My belief in the network has been reinforced by the quite extraordinary response to our whitepaper on Mobile as the 7th Mass Media.

From Bejing to Baltimore, India to Nigeria, Australia to Singapore and beyond.

What has touched me deeply is the kind words that many of you have offered for the value in our book and our blog Communities Dominate Brands.

When Tomi and I wrote the book and started the blog we began with a belief not a 5 year plan. And a desire to communicate that knowledge and insight to the world.

There are of course many that prefer not to believe in the power of the network and connected communities, there are those that deny that the world of the mass media is over and that we now live in an interconnected world of mass niche communities of interest.

There are those that do not belive in the fact that business and marketing, knowledge and information creation and exchange are going through a reformation.

And that’s fine. There are those that steal our ideas, well that’s the greatest form of flattery I know.

So to you all ? I thank you for saying that our writing has be “inspirational” or, “insightful” or has helped with a PHD or a thinking about a new business model.

Please keep reading and join in the conversation, it is through converation that we all learn more about the world we live in. And, remember if you want the whitepaper pleae email me

alanm (AT) smlxtralarge (DOT) com

Bookmark to:

M7MM ? A thank you to you all

I believe that I live within a network. One that grows and ebb and flows daily.

My belief in the network has been reinforced by the quite extraordinary response to our whitepaper on Mobile as the 7th Mass Media.

From Bejing to Baltimore, India to Nigeria, Australia to Singapore and beyond.

What has touched me deeply is the kind words that many of you have offered for the value in our book and our blog Communities Dominate Brands.

When Tomi and I wrote the book and started the blog we began with a belief not a 5 year plan. And a desire to communicate that knowledge and insight to the world.

There are of course many that prefer not to believe in the power of the network and connected communities, there are those that deny that the world of the mass media is over and that we now live in an interconnected world of mass niche communities of interest.

There are those that do not belive in the fact that business and marketing, knowledge and information creation and exchange are going through a reformation.

And that’s fine. There are those that steal our ideas, well that’s the greatest form of flattery I know.

So to you all ? I thank you for saying that our writing has be “inspirational” or, “insightful” or has helped with a PHD or a thinking about a new business model.

Please keep reading and join in the conversation, it is through converation that we all learn more about the world we live in. And, remember if you want the whitepaper pleae email me

alanm (AT) smlxtralarge (DOT) com

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Coming to a small screen near you

One of things that Tomi talk about in our book are the profound effects on existing business and distribution models when content becomes digitalised and broadband penetration become ubiquitous. Further in our paper on mobile as the 7th Mass Media, that shifts into an entire new gear.

Its a bit like Captain Kirk asking for warp speed 9. And Scotty rolling his eyes and saying

I never thougt the ship could go that fast Cap’n?

Of course we have have new business models and platforms like MyNuMo or Spreadshirt or Zopa or Artists First or Current TV, Your Encore and attempts to radically move away from the Hollywood Hegemony over what gets made by whom and where it is distributed

Exhibit A Soderbergh’s film Bubble And of course we have world cinema and The film festival that never ends in Jaman.com

So it comes as no surprise that a new company has launched that will distribute Art house films that never see the light of day. Did you know that only 1% of all films made in any one year are ever shown in the US.

In a Guardian article, we are introduced to another digital venture

Independent filmmaker Mary McGuckian’s new online movie site has a tagline that runs “not playing at a cinema near you”. Her MoviePol site, which launches at the end of the summer, is a direct response to frustration at trying to battle past the blockbusters to get her films shown in US cinemas.

Technological revolutions always shift control from incumbent institutions to a wider audience.

Run “virtually” between Los Angeles, London, Toronto and her office in the south of France, MoviePol hopes to be every film fan’s local art house cinema when it launches. Its first films were selected by critics as deserving of a wider showing than they got and include Ms McGuckian’s own Rag Tale, a romance set in the world of British tabloids starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rupert Graves. MoviePol is part of an emerging trend for filmmakers to shun the established industry release pattern and go straight to the web. Independent directors and producers argue that the film distribution industry is monopolised by a small number of executives whose taste and commercial aims dictate who gets to see what. The spread of broadband and the advent of piracy-protected video playing systems is encouraging growing numbers of stymied producers and distributors to bypass cinemas and, as they put it, “democratise” the system.

Continue »

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Mobile Social Networking at Oxford University

Yesterday I was teaching in Oxford on the Mobile Social Networking Course.

With Mr Tomi Ahonen and Steve Jones.

It was a great deal of fun, and I enjoyed myself immensely.

We had a full house and people had come from as far as San Fransisco, Poland, and Asia.

I would recommend anyone that wants a useful, one day immersion into moble social networking that you book your place and come to Oxford.

I looked specificaly at engagement on the mobile platform, built around the 4C’s - Commerce, Culture, Community and Connectivity.

And I also explored why this phenomonen will be lasting and enduring and used music and newspapers as the basis of that part of the course.

Its also a great city!

So thanks to Steve Jones, Peter Holland and Tomi for inviting me

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Mobile the 7th Mass Media - if you want the whitepaper please leave your contact details

Dear Holgar, Reza and Daniel P.

Thanks to you all for asking for the whitepaper on moble as the 7th Mass Media M7MM

Though you are not the only ones, in fact the response has been overwhelming!!!

However for me to get the paper to you I do need your contact details
email me alanm (AT) smlxtralarge (DOT) COM

So please if any one leaves a please send me a copy, I am more than happy to do so but need your contact details.

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