New year, new ideas: What matters now

You know I like Seth Godin's ideas, here's another free book of ideas curated by Seth.

As we all think about what the future holds for us, about new directions and new challenges for 2010, it would do us all good to spend a moment and read some or all of the contributions to this e-book. Just like the old style department stores, there's something for everyone here.

My current favourite thought: enough. It ties in with my idea for Christmas: I wish you enough.

But download the book and read some of it first...

managing a brand is an oxymoron

A cross posting of a comment on SamNZed's posterous

Managing a brand is an oxymoron as you rightly observe Sam.

And that's the problem that people like the ad agencies have gotten us into, they propound the concept that they can manage a brand, and yet it's entirely invested in the public/user/fans/consumers.

And secondly it's also where the haters get enmeshed. Where the 'brand' values are not contiguous with the experience then the consumer 'knows' and the chinks start to appear and get larger until the brand does match the experience.

Brand managers are cat herders, sometimes it looks like the cats are going where you want them to, but it's not because of the herder, he's just at the back throwing shapes whilst the cats do what they want to.

Please post any commentary on Sam's posterous account

270 seconds to find all about web 2.0

Actually, maybe not for dummies at all.

It's a paradox, the ideas communicated in this video are simple and yet obtuse.

But considering it only lasts some 4.5 minutes it does a fabulous job of outlining some of the changes that face us as the internet becomes a huge part of our daily self.
Whether we want it to, or not, the interweb is becoming tightly integrated into everything we do. The video goes a long way to highlight just how [important] and why that is.

No training necessary, just click play. Please.