The Evolution of Digital: Era of Curation

08 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by in digital media, environment, social media

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A Discussion at the Hamptons Institute, July 16, 2011
Presented by Guild Hall in Collaboration with the Roosevelt Institute

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQisu6SguJg&feature=player_embedded]

Televised on CSPAN and available online at YouTube, this conversation  between new media leaders includes some worthy perceptions and conclusions about the long arc of digital technology. The forum’s focus delves into how consumers and brands are connecting through new platforms and looks at what may be next in digital media.

In discussion are Christine Cook, SVP Advertising Sales of The Daily, David Steward, President and COO of 20×200/Jen Bekman Projects, Michael Kelley, Chief Marketing Officer of AdGenesis, Anthony Risicotto, General Manager, Tremor Media and moderator Michael Gutkowski of Hearst Corporation.  Each of these panelists has invested more than a decade as executives in key technology roles for multiple corporations—each are contributing innovations and tools that are advancing the digital conversation.

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“Longing for the Light” provides poetic start to summer

26 Sunday Jun 2011

Posted by in poetry & poets, Uncategorized

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It finally felt like summer, with light and sun pouring in as Seattle’s ACT Theatre quickly filled for “Longing for the Light,” Copper Canyon Press’ Summer Solstice Reading, the devoted audience leaving the balmy evening for a dark urbane interior.

Poet Heather McHugh

Notable poets from distant corners of the U.S. filled the stage, bringing with them considerable light and a summation of wordful colors.

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Ann Patchett resists the flirtation of a new idea….

21 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by in literature, writers and writing

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…which invariably arrives as she is just coming to critical point in a book half completed. These ideas appear coy and bright, bringing out the charm of a new flame, urging her to dump the tired out book she has been working on for oh however long. But Ann Patchett resists, finishes work in progress and lets this new idea languish for a bit, perhaps to see if it is really worthy. Such was the case with State of Wonder.

State of Wonder is not and never will be Bel Canto,  perhaps her watermark novel. But Ann Patchett is still Ann Patchett and reads a spell-binding, evocative tale from State of Wonder leaving the audience amazed at the real-life adventures Patchett encountered while in the Amazon doing research for this latest novel. After all, few among us know the stench of an attacking Anaconda or the sounds of a jungle river, less still where the machete is found on a river guide’s boat.
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Pull is the New Push

19 Sunday Jun 2011

Posted by in best practices, public relations, social media, technology

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The best thing about talking to many people from different places is that all manner of things find their way into conversation, allowing me to discover what I know…sometimes my opinions have changed and I may not have quite caught up myself.

Case in point: I recently was discussing growth plans with a small manufacturer and taking a look at their structure, I saw they were really pushing their products out in a traditional way, with on the ground reps seeking just the right places to sell merchandise. Yes, they have social media, yes they have other marketing in place. After this examination and conversation I realized that I don’t see a future in ‘pushing’ products—so much points to ‘pulling’ buyers or prospects or clients to an organization. Of note also is that over the last decade I have witnessed the almost complete abandonment of on the ground sales forces, driven by lots of complex factors, but still concluding with the same simple reality.

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Green Teams and New Dreams

13 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by in environment, Social Change, sustainability

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqu1uG7e7gI]

I was invited by EcoMaven Alex Steele to participate in U2’s Green Team–Seattle was the 5th city on the concert tour to implement an on ground crew to encourage recycling and educate on green initiatives designed to reduce the U2 tour carbon footprint.  Effect Partners, a Minneapolis, Minnesota company that is occupying the unique space of turning intentions into actions, orchestrated the U2 Green Team effort. Other Effect Partners projects include making recycled plastic shirts for the Black-Eyed Peas, “So Much to Save” initiative for the Dave Matthews Band and Jack Johnson’s “All at Once” encouraging individual action. Bono and U2 were even better than the real thing.

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Postcards from Terra Firma

23 Monday May 2011

Posted by in Uncategorized, writers and writing

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About a decade ago I encountered Ann Patchett’s novel, The Magician’s Assistant. It was in a stack on a bookstore table and commanded my attention in the curious way that books sometimes beckon. When I read The Magician’s Assistant, I was captivated. How did this novelist paint such a curvy road with so much care and luminousity, yet still hold surprises until the very end?

I reviewed The Magician’s Assistant and then, re-reading the review, thought that perhaps the author might wish to see it—so on a whim, I drafted a short cover letter and sent it away, in care of the publisher, like my grade school teacher taught me.

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Richard Ford on Writing

16 Monday May 2011

Posted by in poetry & poets, Uncategorized, writers and writing

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What can be said about a man so calm and charming that it seems perfectly reasonable to store manuscripts in the freezer or plant a 38mm bullet through an unsavory book? The author himself demonstrates the answer when he reads from his upcoming novel, Canada.  What can be said is the gentleman can surely write. In a few short minutes Richard Ford takes listeners down a windy path, introduces us to a family and splays open their history, from a happenstance beginning to the worn features of lives habituated by compromise.

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Loop this way, please

02 Monday May 2011

Posted by in digital media, Social Change, sustainability, technology

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Net Impact and Colorado University Leeds School of Business with sponsor Ball Corporation created a sustainability competition this spring, awarding $12k in prizes.

Over 60 teams from prominent US colleges and universities tried to solve this problem:  how can municipal recycling collection be increased? University of Washington Foster School of Business students answered this challenge by designing a mobile application which maps recycling locations and motivates users by showing where nearby recycling bins are located, adding facebook and geocaching quests and then completing the Loop with partnerships and mobile advertising. Their Loop mobile phone application took first prize, $7,200 and the bragging rights over the likes of University of Southern California’s Mendoza School of Business (2nd Place), DePaul University (3rd place) and other competitors including, USC, Bainbridge Graduate Institute, Kansas, University of Virginia.

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Setting the Mantle Aside for an Evening

23 Saturday Apr 2011

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As Dr. Jessica Burstein of the UW English Dept, introduces Joyce Carol Oates, the room grows still. Surely the credits are remarkable and even perhaps incomparable—over 50 novels and dozens of short story collections, the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. Her works Black Water, What I Lived For, and Blonde were all finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2003, Oates was honored with the Common Wealth Award for Distinguished Service in Literature. For brevity, here I omit listing her purview at Princeton and other extensive recognitions…

Joyce Carol Oates’ quiet presence filled the room as Seattle’s Benaroya Hall audience sat in on a discussion of Oates work, skillfully and unobtrusively led by Dr. Burstein. But for starters, Oates took off the mantle of her achievements, making it clear that her role was not to distribute wisdom, rather it seems she casts sidelong glances at her worldly accomplishments, not owning them in a way that explains her light touch in discussing her writing process and the consistently unusual choice of topic for her works.

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Touching Ground

22 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by in environment, sustainability, writers and writing

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In January 2006 I interviewed Julia Butterfly at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Nevada City, California. I walked away from this interview with hope and commitment to change that I still carry today, so this Earth Day, I’d like to revisit Julia Butterfly and her inspiring words.

Over 6.5 million trees were cut down to make 16 billion paper cups used by US consumers in 2006, using 4 billion gallons of water and resulting in 253 million pounds of waste.

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