Two different ideas. One post.

Over the last two days I’ve read two things that have really wowed me. Both take things I’ve thought a lot about over the last six months and really push and articulate them far better than I have.

Open Creative Communities

When Piers and I started likemind we didn’t know what it would become. We never explained what it meant to be of ‘likemind’, yet 15 wonderful people showed up. Since then it’s blossomed and spread around the world.

Over the last six months I’ve thought a lot about why we’ve gotten such an amazing response. I have a few theories, but reading “what is an Open Creative Community?” by Mark Kuznicki opened my eyes in some new ways. He defines these communities by “interest, practice, proximity and values,” going on to explain:

These communities live in a hybrid virtual- and place-based geography. They are hyper-creative and produce some phenomenal artifacts of human ingenuity and culture. They are open, in that the barrier to entry is not a membership fee or a geographic line in the sand or a common ethnicity. The barrier to entry is creative citizenship, and you are either a citizen and a participant or you are not, based on your individual relationship to that community’s interests, practices, proximity and values.

After I read that I was hooked. Especially the last bit, “you are either a citizen and a participant or you are not.” The beauty of likemind is that showing up makes you both an active participant and citizen. In the online world, the 1% rule applies: 99% of your users will not be highly active participants. In open creative communities, the opposite is true. By their very design it’s impossible not to participate. In some ways a community like likemind both lowers and raises the barriers to entry by forcing people to self select.

Anyhow, before I go on forever about the article, go read it and tell me what you think.

Death of Zero Sum

Since I went a little long on the first half of this I’ll try to get to the point on this one.

About four months ago I wrote about the relationship between binary code and the rise of ambiguity. Basically what I was getting at is that we live in a much more blurry world and I have trouble understanding how the binary code that sits at the bottom of all digital technology allows for that.

Grant McCracken has brought these idea back to the surface for me with his piece on “Beauty and the death of zero sum”. In it he uses the Dove Real Beauty campaign (which you can read all about in the comments of my latest entry) to show how “in every domain of taste, we are seeing a willingness to expand the tools of judgment and the size of the winner’s circle.” (Just for reference, zero sum means “a participant’s gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant(s).”)

Grant writes:

Zero sum is dying in our culture. The notion that there is one single hierarchy of any kind is now in question. . . . The death of zero sum is especially evident on the internet where it turns out crowds matter more than elites. The new media emerge and they create a multiplication of value, a new superfluidity of admiration. This may be because people are prepared to “pay themselves” in admiration they do not deserve…but if it works, it works. There is nothing in the anthropological rule book that says that a culture may not make every individual an arbiter of his or her own value.

The internet and digital technology are driving a lot of these changes, but they are slowly seeping into the rest of culture. The web has redefined choice, offering us millions of results for each google search. The fascinating thing about those results, however, is that it’s often not the first that you find most useful. Rather, it’s some combination of many that gives you a final conclusion.

It was only a matter of time until that thinking began to invade the other parts of life.

This is probably no big deal for anyone else, but I squeaked with excitement when I looked out of my bedroom window this morning.

And also while I walked to the L train, even though most of what I had to walk through was gross.

I got nothing . . . it’s Monday morning. How ’bout some links?

Alright, it’s Monday morning and I’m not sure what to talk about (but have to get that birthday entry off the front page). I figured some links were in order.

First and foremost, however, is some exciting news for me. As of yesterday evening, if you search for ‘noah’ in Google I am the final result on the homepage. I’ve taken a screenshot to prove it in case it doesn’t last. Ever since the other noah made it I’ve been jealous of his noahness, but now I share a piece of the glory.

Okay, now onto the good stuff . . .

• At this point we all know my stance on this JetBlue thing (by the way, is it one word or two?). Well David Nottoli has been kind enough to break down the lessons of apology marketing from the airline’s fiasco.
• A fascinating take on religion today and what Jesus might have thought of the whole thing. (For the record I’m not really religious.)
• On President’s Day I was hanging out with some friends (the other’s don’t have blogs . . . yet) and we were discussing how funny a set of greeting cards that corrected stereotypes would be. This isn’t quite it, but McSweeney’s Mildly Disturbing Greeting-Card Messages is worth a read.
• Excercise equipment maker Life Fitness announced iPod integration on their new equipment. It’s getting kind of scary how everything has an iPod plug at this point. I can’t remember where I read it but some absurd amount of cars created today come with one (though it may just been an 1/8″ headphone plug . . . which is fine). Have we already hit a point where we can’t turn back from the iPod? Is there a business opportunity for Apple to sell it’s adapter to other companies to use with their products (including MP3 players). I bet that would be worth a boatload of cash.
• Possibly the most absurd of all the SNL music videos this year.
• Grant McCracken breaks down the seven branding lessons of the Dove campaign.
• Why expensive hotel mini-bars are good for you.
• And last, but not least, I highly recommend this great piece on blurriness from Russell Davies.

And that wraps it up . . . Have a great Monday and thanks to everyone who contributed to my birthday book, came out to party, sent me stuff in the mail and just said hello, I can’t thank you all enough for making me feel special.

Ah, the Oscars. The glitz, the glamor, the beautiful ladies in their beautiful dresses, and their dashing leading men. Ah, the tedious, endless lifetimes achievement awards, and the slow, chinese-water-torture drip drip drip of boring minor awards. Yes, I started watching at 9:30, what I hoped was halfway through, what I hoped was just in […]

Ah, the Oscars. The glitz, the glamor, the beautiful ladies in their beautiful dresses, and their dashing leading men. Ah, the tedious, endless lifetimes achievement awards, and the slow, chinese-water-torture drip drip drip of boring minor awards. Yes, I started watching at 9:30, what I hoped was halfway through, what I hoped was just in […]

a bike.
Originally uploaded by tokyohanna.

right outside of Taco Chulo, near Grand and Havemeyer. Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Watch Out
Originally uploaded by chet gulland.

I’m going to point everyone to my friend Chet’s photo stream now. He has the best action shots I’ve seen on Flickr.

Harvard Business Review. Our annual survey of emerging ideas considers how nanotechnology will affect commerce, what role hope plays in leadership, and why, in an age that practically enshrines accountability, we need to beware of “accountabalism.”

Harvard Business Review. Our annual survey of emerging ideas considers how nanotechnology will affect commerce, what role hope plays in leadership, and why, in an age that practically enshrines accountability, we need to beware of “accountabalism.”

You read it right.

This is little more than comment bait, but screw it, it’s my blog and I’ll do with it what I wish.

First things first, credit for the title goes to swissmiss who apparently go it from bb. Secondly, hope many of you are planning on making the party in NYC Friday night (and don’t forget to bring the 8.5 x 11).

Thirdly, this delicious looking treat came from Bubo in Barclona.

Lastly, I wish you all as wonderful a year as my last one has been. As always, if I can do anything to help make it better, please let me know.