Interesting mutations of the digital world

We are all experiencing and enjoying two interesting mutations or developments of the digital world. I decided to share my views on the two in the notes below.

Rise of the micro-curator

Brainpicker, Kottke and many like them are awesome in the range of interesting content they gather and share. They are master curators and little wonder that they have a large number of followers like me.

With the arrival of Posterous and Tumblr, blogging has become easy and curating infinitely easier. This has resulted in the rise of the micro-curator. One can argue that micro-curators were always there. True. It is just that their growth has been fuelled with the entry of Posterous and Tumblr.

Using these tools, regular bloggers have created Lifestream for satiating their appetites to stock and share items of interest. I must admit I too have created one and I am thoroughly enjoying the process. More importantly, it has enabled new entrants in the blogging world to curate based on amazing themes, like this one.

Micro-curators enable information to reach the extremities of the digital world. I liken them to evangelists who spread ‘the message’ to remote corners of the globe. Micro-curators also simplify the presentation of information (signals vs. noise) and provide readers with meaningful information in manageable doses. And as with the example above, many of them cater to special interests by taking on a specific theme. The growing success of Posterous and Tumblr is testimony to this fact. I would urge readers to explore these tools and have fun.

The world is getting local

The digital world has expanded our horizons with tons of information from around the world available at the click of a mouse. It is often used as an example to describe us as ‘global citizens’. That may be so. But increasingly, the same digital world is working strongly in the other direction. It has strengthened all things local. I am talking about conversations I see happening in Facebook and Twitter. I see the actions and connections that these conversations are bringing about. Be it jobs, tweetups, events or replicating actions that have been successful elsewhere. Information may be global in nature, but actions are very definitely local. 

So, what do you think?

(Image courtesy:aldoaldoz)

The Agency is a business

I read this provocative post about the reasons for the decline and fall of the newspaper business in the US. The comments below made by two prominent personalities will strike a chord with anyone who is from the agency business.

Sean Paul Kelley says, “The primary culprit is the same as it is all over the country, in every industry and in government: equity extraction.

Let me explain, in short: when executives expect unrealistic profits of 20% and higher per annum on businesses, something has got to give. It's an unnatural and unsustainable growth rate. For the first ten or so years of a small to medium size company's life? Sure. But when you are 3M, or GE? Unrealistic and ultimately impossible.

That is what has happened to the news industry in America. The excessive obsession with unnaturally high profits has led to a vicious circle of cutting budgets, providing less services, which is then followed by even more drastic cuts.”

Michael Moore puts it across bluntly, “It’s their own greed, their own stupidity,”

Isn’t this true of the agency business, especially in the developed markets?

The unfortunate outcome of all this was that agency operations in booming markets like India were not spared. They were choked to ‘make up’ for the numbers lost in the developed markets. Pay cuts, hiring freeze and mad scramble for all kinds of business were symptoms of this malaise. Managers in the Indian operations of international agency networks were stressed (and stretched) beyond limits, with some of the offices were almost on the verge of a flameout. Now, this is a myopic way to operate.

India, China and other developing countries will continue to be a traditional media market for a long time to come. Read this case of Baidu vs Google if you want to know what I mean. To large corporations that run agency networks, these markets must be to them what California must have been to prospectors during the Gold Rush. However, instead of stripping it bare, they can reap far greater rewards (and bonuses) by nurturing it. Hire more people, train them well and pay good salaries. This is not wishful thinking but an inevitability that agencies will have to follow if they want to survive.

Newspapers in the US might die. Agencies will not, more so in countries like India. The Agency is a business, a thriving one at that. This is because the growth story in markets like India has just begun.  Hey, you never know. In the process of making tons of money, they might even produce some decent work!

(Image courtesy)

Top 10 I wish I had written this

This is my seventh edition and by far the toughest in terms of eliminating some marvellous posts from the list. I chose the most scientific way to prune the list. I tossed a coin (many times over). The posts are not in any order of priority. 

• “A slap in the face” by Steve Henry

Agencies have stopped taking risks and little wonder that most work sucks. A strong message conveyed beautifully in this post

• “To hell with personal branding” by Carlos Miceli

‘Be authentic’ in the social space is questioned by the author as he says that this ‘forced authenticity’ is actually making people to be fakes. I concur

• “One trend in digital we should all try to avoid in 2010” by Asi Sharabi

An obsession with pundits and punters that the author strongly advocates should be dropped in 2010. Made me think and smile

• “Twitching” by Mark Twight

The author kicks our ass wants us to ‘wake the f*ck up’ from the mess of our own choosing. A different kind of self-help!

• “Can a single bottle of soda decimate your company? Absolutely” by Steve Blank

If we start listening to every suggestion (or threat) from a bean-counter, you can kiss your business (and ass) goodbye

• “Why a brand is like an electron” by Andrew Hovell

A wonderful comparision using two subjects that I like most – Marketing and Physics

• “The Creativist Manifesto – Consumer or Creativist” by Olivia Sprinkel

It is about making the most significant choice. Download, read it, save it and practice it

• “Best practices are the enemy” by Paul Worthington

He has taken words from my mouth. This is what I wished to say every time a client said “let us draw lessons from the best practices”

• “Why we travel” by Jonah Lehrer

A genius young mind’s thoughts on travel made me wish I could think like this

• “The next big thing will start out looking like a toy” by Chris Dixon

Disruptive technologies begin their life being dismissed as toys especially in the internet world

(Image courtesy: Jer Kunz)

Why can't women be as free as men?

Paris, Pre-World War I

Gabrielle Chanel is running a fledgling designer hat business. Depression caused by matters of the heart prompt her to take a break in the sea side resort town of Deauville. There she sees all kinds of people - couples, families, aged, rich, working class – who have converged there to take a break. She sees the men moving about easily and having a whale of time. Women, on the other hand, seem to be constrained by their outfit and having a lot less fun.

She asks, “Why can’t women be as free as men?”

Off go the corsets, long layers of clothing and heavy material like fur. Her mind explodes with ideas. The sketch pad, scissors and the clothiers in Deauville are kept busy. She comes up with a style that shocks the populace at that time. She uses linen, a fabric that is considered inferior. Her style knocks of layers and the hemline shrinks. She also shrinks the cost making her dress extremely affordable. Fashion enters the workplace for the first time. The seeds of Coco Chanel are sown and the rest as they say is history.

Greatness begins with a simple question. The question spells the need clearly. The answer to this question is what results in great brands and great movements.  Very often we fail to come up with a simple question and resort to mumbo-jumbo that takes us on a convoluted path down the tubes. You know what I am talking about.

Fortunately for us, the two students below probably asked “How can people find what they are looking for easily on the internet?” 

 (Image courtesy: Chanel  & Google Founders)

The Tao of Fail

Avinash Kaushik (Analytics Evangelist at Google) in this video (courtesy: Daria) stresses the need for companies to fail faster on the web.  According to him, this enables them to rebound faster with a more successful option. And that it could aid even offline activities like TV, Print and so on. I couldn’t agree more. 

Offline world is plagued with failures. Experts say that most campaigns, product launches, start-ups and even movies bite the dust in no time. Dismal, isn’t it? 

While experts try and find a reason for all this, I decided to wear my philosopher’s hat and invoke Lao Tzu. The result is ‘The Tao of Fail’.

If campaign fails, something is lost. If product fails, something more is lost. If company fails, a lot is lost. If TV Remote fails, everything is lost.

If economy fails and the poor lose their jobs, it is only a correction. If economy fails and investment bankers (and CEO’s) lose their bonuses, it is a catastrophe.

When failing in a job, the wise man quietly adds recommendations to his LinkedIn profile.

Faced with imminent failure, a brave and foolish man merely smiles. Faced with imminent failure, an MBA passes the buck, turns approver and signs a multi-million dollar contract to tell his story.

Night is always followed by day. And...er...by night again.

When all else fails, the wise one with a satisfied burp reaches for some more beer.

(Image courtesy)

The liberal side of the digital world

Read this interesting article on creativity in the information age. I came to know that the prestigious Sundance Film Festival is creating a new category from 2010, ‘low-or-no budget’ films. I am aware that low-or-no-budget does not necessarily translate to bad quality. However, the director would surely have cut corners more than he or she would have liked.  Surprisingly, the directors on their part only seem to be enthusiastic. Michael Mohan, one such director with a film made for less than US$ 50K says, "There's an audience for everything . . . if you say I want to express myself and people will see it, yes, that's what in 2010 you can do."

Why is he so optimistic?

The answer is in the article: ‘Ubiquitous communication and cheap digital technologies are empowering the striving artist who steadily cultivates his or her craft, challenging the cliché of the starving bohemian, or the superstar’.

Let’s shift the scene to 37Signals, a software company I greatly admire. In their famous book, Getting Real, they advise budding start-ups not to seek perfection of their product before launch but to ‘Just wing it’. They should know. That’s just what they do with every new launch of theirs.

Companies like 37Signals are not advocating shoddy or below-par products. On the contrary, their destination is perfection. The digital world is the 'liberal playground' to make this happen,eventually.  I am completely fascinated by this and wish it was stressed more often. 

Even the critics and cynics of the digital space will agree that they have been able to reach a much wider audience with their criticisms and cynicism of the digital world using the digital world. 

Wondered why is the digital world such a liberal world? The following is the best I could come up with as an explanation.

Warts and all are what make us real and human. The digital world gives us the freedom to be ourselves. Our imperfections (as well as perfection) are mirrored in this world creating a kaleidoscope of digital impressions. These impressions are at once organic and open, thereby giving the digital world its liberal side. Am I right?

  

(Image courtesy: Len Radin)

What matters is the music, not the box

The auditorium was filling up. The spotlight was on the piano majestically poised on stage. The atmosphere was charged with anticipation. The blokes next to me were discussing the piano on stage, a Yamaha. Their tone was deprecatory. They felt Steinway was superior. I couldn’t help but listen to them as they were clearly audible and oblivious to the fact that people sitting next to them were being disturbed.

Fortunately, the pianist began the recital. The audience were spellbound as the music was simply magical. The pianist ended the recital with a flourish. The audience rose in unison and gave him a standing ovation. The blokes next to me were as enthusiastic as rest of the audience in cheering. I guess, the pianist settled any doubt amongst them conclusively.

It is not about Yamaha or Steinway. It is only music that matters.

People in the business of brands and creative communication (probably in the corporate cesspool too) know that very often the work we do is one big lie. Superficiality rules with the job of ‘sexing up the box’ keeping us busy while being fully aware that the music sucks. When I saw substance being rewarded (for a change) in the form of the audience’s reaction to the piano recital, it made me happy. Nothing beats this experience and therefore I couldn’t help sharing it with you.

The gentleman below, had he been alive, might be in agreement. His MTV Unplugged show was proof of this fact.

(Image courtesy: Pianist – zetson, Kurt Cobain)