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Category: think
It’s About Intimacy | The Privacy Debate
The big friends request debate.
I got a ‘friend request’ from gentlemen whom I met briefly at a conference. My approach to Facebook is to use it as a place to cultivate relationships:
- of people I know
- have been introduced to by trusted contacts
- or built up a relationship through other social spaces
*moving to the other side of the planet makes this platform a lot more important medium than normal.
I explained my reasoning to said guy of how I use this platform as a more personal network and also gave him links to this blog plus my Twitter as alternative ways of connecting.
Was interested to receive his take on how he thought “false psychology to disconnect the personal from the professional” and how it was a very old way of thinking.
For me, it’s not about privacy but more about intimacy.
Just as the media landscape continues to evolve so does our use of the many platforms available to us. People forget we can decide how we use them. We can define its uses.
How do you decide to use your social spaces? Do you? Is this thing on…?
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A Brief History of John Baldessari | Education, Take Note
How history should be taught.
I hated art history in school (even though art was the only subject in which I excelled in some small way).
Most of it was taught through text with a few pictures thrown in accompanied by the ramblings of a bored art teacher who was trying his best to make it all come alive.
It didn’t work.
Since we now have the technology, get a kick ass icon with a voice of gravel weave a sweet narrative over some impressive visuals. Let it sink in. Then discuss.
Job done.
Well it left me wanting to know more about John Baldessari.
Found in a random tweet from Wellington City Library.
Suing The American Government | Using The Law To Create Sustainability
Achingly important.
“We’re not asking the government for money, we’re not asking for power, we don’t want to take away the industry’s right to profit. We’re simply asking that the government recognize the atmosphere as part of the public trust to be protected for present and future generations and once and for all to govern as if our future matters.”
From Alec Loorz, 17-year old plaintiff on the Federal atmospheric trust lawsuit and founder of Kids vs Global Warming.
The right to pollute the earth vs the right to protect our atmosphere / environment.
American law, your move.
Can’t find any further information about the hearing on Friday 11th May, here’s hoping it was successful, for all our sakes.
From Youth Group To Sue Federal Government For Not Protecting The Environment | Inhabitat
Currency Of Likes | The Social Shopping Experience
Connecting social to the real world retail space.
*If you don’t speak Portugese make sure the closed captioning is on.
Brazlian-based CEA posts images of their clothes on its Facebook site. When fans ‘like’ the items, the total number is displayed on the hangers.
It can either work to validate the choice or run counter to promote the decision to choose a lesser ‘liked’ item.
Whatever, the execution is wonderfully delicious and has potential in other spaces:
- used in the school cafeteria to decide on which dishes to offer
- employed during a conference as an ad hoc voting system on speakers
- operated by branding agencies to shortlist logo designs
Where else could you see it being used?
Originally seen on Adverblog
Hillman Curtis | RIP
Tears for a guy I never met.
I never met Hillman Curtis.
I wanted to.
The three times I visited New York emails were sent to attempt to connect, however, he was always busy with other things.
Busy with his amazingly adept creative offerings which I featured regularly on here (the last included a comment thread between myself and the great man which humbled me to the core).
This man was a mammoth creative influence on me. Raised expectations and understanding of the visual narrative; the simplistic but oh so sweet connection one can create through the video medium.
This guy was a master of his craft.
My last email to Mr Curtis was about a month ago after seeing the video above. I was selfishly asking him about his thought process as he embraced the need to lead a more creative life.
I now understand why there was never a response.
Thank you sir, for your creative offerings to the world.
Thank you for allowing us all to see your work.
Thank you for inspiring.
Thank you.
Think And / Or Smile
Something I hold dear.
This is what I believe in.
My ‘why‘…
To create an intellectual and emotional response in people.
Making folks think and / or smile.
Sometimes I fail.
Sometimes I achieve.
What do you believe in?
Creativity Is Not A Talent | Cultivating Innovation
Habitat cultivates habit (UPDATE: video now blocked due to copyright infringement. Other versions are here)
The above video is a feast for the brain / heart and introduces the conditions for creativity:
- Space—obviously, both the physical and psychological
- Time—half of creating the oasis
- Time—to play with the problem and solving it with something original
- Confidence—to get things wrong
- Humour—getting us from the closed to the open mode/mindset in the quickest way possible
For me the most compelling idea in the whole presentation is that creativity is not an in-built-DNA-traceable-disposition.
It’s something which can be learned.
Cultivated.
Encouraged.
So, do the organisations / companies we create / work for foster the above conditions so creativity / innovation can blossom?
How To Write A Social Media Strategy | Use Cartoons
Seriously!
The above are the images recently used in the internal social media strategy I wrote for the executive team at CORE Education—all courtesy of the fab Hugh Macleod, Gapingvoid.
The focus of the strategy was on:
- inspiring staff—VISION
- offering opportunities to develop their social media education and sustainable pathways for future use—TRAINING
- create success points and reflective opportunities—MEASURE
The vision provides an horizon line. A goal. An outcome focussed narrative.
The training, which all staff will take (managers first of course), attempts to bring everyone up to the same educational mark of social media and digital literacies (even if it’s not what they do).
These two things I’ve been doing for the past six years.
The last point is where the fun and new stuff is. Utilising gamification we’re going to develop in in-house system for tracking and rewarding social (media) participation. We (meaning others with bigger brains than I) might even write a paper on it all.
How do you do yours?
Creatalyst | Releasing My Inner Artist
Images. Words. Soundscapes. Questions.
The opening lines on the about section of the Creatalyst app says:
“The creative process, a business project, even life, is a journey expanding our vision of what’s possible.”
Photographer, mentor and good friend Dennis Hodges, developed this app as a spark to the creative process we find ourselves in day to day.
The categories of Visualize, Compose, Explore, Develop, Deliver, unfold (literally) as you delve deeper into the audio/visual offering.
Used alone, it could simply excite the senses and neurons to reconnect thoughts:
And/or spark new ideas:
There are also deeper options such as favouriting images, deleting them from the image bank, sharing through social spaces, adding comments for yourself and others in the Creatalyst community to read.
I remember Dennis describing the seeds of the app idea on a train journey back from Lucerne to the Zurich, Switzerland (Feb 2011). As the magnificent view offered us lakes and majestic mountainside I was more intrigued by the essence of the idea shared.
Congratulations Dennis.
Not just on bringing an idea to market, but also on making it so engaging.