Why ‘Slacktivism’ Matters The following piece is a guest post. Read more about MediaShift guest posts here. We all have at least one social or political issue that gets our blood boiling. The question is whether it boils vigorously enough to incite action. Of course, the majority of us vent our frustrations about these issues at the water cooler and on social media, rather than marching in the streets. We create an echo chamber of like-minded people with whom we can openly share opinions and commiserate grievances. In April of 2014, hundreds of girls in Nigeria were kidnapped from their school by the militant group, Boko Haram. While the idea that a single post on social media could have an iota of impact on a global issue might sound absurd, it can actually be the catalyst for a successful awareness campaign given the right set of circumstances. SLACKTIVISM vs. I see Facebook as the most effective venue because it offers every tool needed to organize.
6 Things That Can Kill Your City's Startup Community Not every tech startup enjoys the luxury of launching in Silicon Valley — or Silicon Alley, or Austin, Texas, or another high-tech hotspot. What’s the solution? Instead of waiting for someone to offer a helping hand, or packing up the U-Haul and moving across the counryy, try taking the entrepreneurial approach and turning your home town into a high-tech startup community. Brad Feld author of Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City, says it can be done. Feld, who has over 20 years of experience as both an entrepreneur and an early-stage investor, is a co-founder of tech accelerator TechStars and knows whereof he speaks. Too often, though, cities trying to build high-tech startup communities make one or more key mistakes that keep their plans from reaching fruition. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. See a common thread here?
What Ever Happened to the Pepsi Generation? | In the CEO Afterlife The concept of a Pepsi advertising campaign designed to capture America’s youth had its roots in the 1960’s. But it wasn’t until the 1980’s that “The Choice of a New Generation” struck 14-24 year olds like a social tsunami. Michael Jackson, the theme to “Billie Jean” and a phenomenal blend of marketing and entertainment drove the Pepsi brand to the pinnacle of contemporary culture. Coca-Cola was so taken aback by the success that they made a colossal error in judgment. They abandoned their century-old recipe and launched “New Coke”. The result was disastrous. Pundits attribute Coca-Cola’s rebound to the reintroduction of Coke Classic and better marketing and advertising. Make no mistake; the Pepsi-Cola brand is still big business. Did you like this?
New Innovative Services in Next Decade: IPv8 services Interview with Nick Hornby (Author of High Fidelity) February, 2015 English author and screenwriter Nick Hornby, perhaps best known for his autobiography Fever Pitch and his novels High Fidelity and About a Boy, returns to bookstores this month with Funny Girl, his first novel in over five years. Set in London in the mid-1960s, featuring a female protagonist who rejects a beauty queen title to instead pursue a career as a comedic television actor, Hornby's newest book captures a brief window of time in 20th century popular culture when over half of the U.K. would watch a hit TV show and the Beatles and Rolling Stones had yet to fully assert their dominance. With his usual humor, pop culture references, and enviable empathy, Hornby has created another cast of instantly memorable characters. Just before departing on his book tour, Hornby spoke with Goodreads Author J. Error rating book. Rate this book Clear rating Nick Hornby: I think anything I've ever done in movies has fed into this. GR: She's also very much her father's daughter. NH: Right. GR: Right.
How Might We Design for Behavior Change? The Lazy Person's Guide to a Happy Home: Tips for People Who (Really) Hate Cleaning I'm always a little ashamed to admit this, but I hate to clean. I really hate it. I mean, there are so many more interesting things I could be doing. And the annoying thing is that when you clean something, it just gets dirty all over again. I've been working at this for a while, and I've realized that "not caring about it" is not an effective solution. 1. 2. 3. 4. So if you dread cleaning (like me) because you're lazy but also sort of a crazy perfectionist and think everything has to be SUPER SUPER clean: it doesn't. 5. So drink a glass of wine while you wash the dishes. 6. I've experienced firsthand the difficulty of getting rid of things because I'm planning to sell my house soon, so I've been cleaning out bigtime. Even More Cleaning Tips for Lazy People: • How To Clean Your House in 20 Minutes a Day for 30 Days • How To Keep Your Bathroom Clean In 5 Minutes A Day • The Stress Free Plan: How To Clean House for a Party • Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families • "Tidy Time" vs.
la-ralit-augmente-au-bureau-ds-2014 - olivier-schmouker Publié le 02/11/2012 à 09:43, mis à jour le 08/11/2012 à 14:28 Notre regard sur le monde va changer... Photo: DR BLOGUE. La réalité augmentée, ça vous dit quelque chose? Sûrement. Découvrez mes précédents posts In Praise of Melancholy and How It Enriches Our Capacity for Creativity by Maria Popova How the American obsession with happiness at the expense of sadness robs us of the capacity for a full life. “One feels as if one were lying bound hand and foot at the bottom of a deep dark well, utterly helpless,” Van Gogh wrote in one of his many letters expounding his mental anguish. And yet the very melancholy that afflicted him was also the impetus for the creative restlessness that sparked his legendary art. And yet the modern happiness industrial complex seems bent on eradicating this dark, uncomfortable, but creatively vitalizing state — something Eric G. With an eye toward the marketable ticker of bad news on which our commercial news media feed, Wilson writes: Our minds run over a daunting litany of global problems. Considering what lies behind our desire to eradicate sadness from our lives, Wilson admonishes that our obsession with happiness — something he considers a decidedly American export — “could well lead to a sudden extinction of the creative impulse.”
La créativité au secours de Montréal BLOGUE. Quand on entend les témoignages aux audiences de la Commission Charbonneau, on peut être impatient de connaître avec exactitude l’ampleur des phénomènes de collusion et de corruption évoqués. Entre-temps, on peut aussi être très inquiets de l’impact négatif sur l’ensemble du Québec et en particulier sur la métropole. « La Palerme du nord », voilà l’image qui risque d’être associée à Montréal si ce n’est déjà fait! Imaginez l’impact sur nos entreprises et sur la réputation générale de la ville… Je crois que miser plus que jamais sur le savoir et la créativité permettrait de redorer le blason de notre ville. Lorsqu’au début des années 2000, Boeing a décidé de déménager son siège social de Seattle, c’est le type d’avantage qui a permis à Chicago de remporter la course face à Dallas et à Denver. En 1997, l’entreprise Toyota décide d’installer une nouvelle usine en dehors du Japon. La concurrence entre les villes est aujourd’hui mondiale.
The Secret to Creativity, Intelligence, and Scientific Thinking: Being Able to Make Connections - When we shared this image from the @buffer Twitter account a while back, it got me thinking. The Tweet resulted in over 1,000 retweets, which seems like an indication that it resonated with a lot of people. There’s a key difference between knowledge and experience and it’s best described like this: The original is from cartoonist Hugh MacLeod, who came up with such a brilliant way to express a concept that’s often not that easy to grasp. The image makes a clear point—that knowledge alone is not useful unless we can make connections between what we know. Lots of great writers, artists and scientists have talked about the importance of collecting ideas and bits of knowledge from the world around us, and making connections between those dots to fuel creative thinking and new ideas. This is a really fun, inspiring topic to read about, so I collected some quotes and advice from my favorite creative thinkers about the importance of making connections in your brain. It starts off like this: 1.
La recette magique pour exporter la Silicon Valley à Montréal Publié le 30/10/2012 à 10:34, mis à jour le 30/10/2012 à 14:11 BLOGUE. La Silicon Valley a fait beaucoup de petits au courant des dernières années. Pour s’en convaincre, on a qu’à penser à Chilecon Valley (Santiago), à Silicon Alley (New York), au Silicon Valley du Moyen-Orient (Amman) ou au Silicon Valley allemand (Berlin). Montréal fait d’ailleurs partie de cette liste des Silicon Valley de quelque chose qui n’a de cesse de s’allonger. Brad Feld, qui vient de publier Startup Communities : Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City, a présenté ses conclusions à la Maison Notman, lieu de rendez-vous par excellence de la communauté techno montréalaise. Les quatre principes exposés ci-dessus contribuent chacun à favoriser la collaboration entre les entrepreneurs.
archives.chicagotribune King Solomon had blintzes for the royal coffee break. By Francis Coughlin I N YOUR EXPERINCE has this year s spring fever seemed to set in and linger late? It always has. In addition to this unhappy prospect, the woes of millions of us who are chronically afflicted will be made the more irksome by energetic quacks of- fering all sorts of remedies for the con- dition. Never mind that the shirker -is in there trying and the cheer leader is only jumping up and down on the side- lines. It's probably no use, tho, to try to con- vince the energy boys they re bark- ing up the wrong tree. And it s a pity the well worn proverbs don't have much bearing on the present situation. job to help meet his current expenses. Ten'll get you one that Solomon didn't go anywhere at all. The old proverbs don't apply any more. I say, let the busybody who goes around calling spring fever victims shirkers keep a civil tongue in his head. rhe big boss, back at the office, is not 1 there anyway.
Une campagne québécoise de crowdfunding amasse plus de 100 000$ Publié le 26/10/2012 à 17:14, mis à jour le 29/10/2012 à 09:03 [Photo : capture d'écran] BLOGUE. [Mise à jour : Ce matin, lundi le 29 octobre, le financement récolté par la campagne atteignait 107 144 $, dépassant ainsi l'objectif de 100 000 $ fixé par ses organisateurs.] Quoiqu’encore en deçà de son objectif de 100 000 $, cette campagne prouve que, même au Québec, un projet bien ficelé est susceptible d’aller chercher des dizaines de milliers de dollars en se tournant vers le financement collaboratif. La Maison Notman, qui accueille notamment FounderFuel et Real Ventures, est devenue le lieu de rendez-vous des entrepreneurs technos à Montréal. Sur la page du projet, on explique que la fondation OSMO a déjà réussi à obtenir un financement privé d’un million de dollars et qu’il lui manque 100 000 $ afin de compléter son montage financier. Avec cet argent, la fondation devrait doubler l’espace de travail destiné aux start-ups au sein de la Maison Notman et y aménager un café.