Seth Godin Marketing In Bite Size Chunks
So next up on the list of tasty brain snacks is Seth Godin. I wouldn’t recommend trying to eat him up whole but you can find his ideas shared in the easily digestible formats of book / blog / video and audio book. A mixture of marketing genius and self help guru Seth Godin has offered frameworks that support our understanding of the post TV read/write world. A world where advertisers can no longer command our attention simply by asking for it, a world where the consumer demands respect and authenticity.
He developed the burgeoning idea of permission marketing and refined the thesis in his book Permission marketing: turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers 1999. Permission marketing being the antithesis to interruption marketing, making a call for the end of spamming and traditional commercial media to be replaced with a more interactive, reciprocal and relationship based interaction.
Since then he has gone on to produce some 13 more books on branding and  marketing covering ideas from anthropology, social theory, psychology and cultural theory to name a few. One of the reasons I enjoy listening to Seth Godins ideas – I opt for audiobooks – is that they are accessible, they are not unnecessarily bogged down in academic language with heavy systems analysis or complex matrix to scowl over. The thoughts and theories presented offer an insight into the world of future marketing and put the tools for its creation right in your hands. This is no quick fix for depth of knowledge and vision for your product or service but its a great place to start from.
Seth Godin The Tribes We Lead
Fast Company. Great Reads Over Coffee
FastCompany.com is a regular read for me in the morning with a coffee. With its simple clean format and unique editorial focus on innovation in technology, ethonomics (ethical economics), leadership and design, Fast Company dish out generous servings of forward thinking content that highlights new and emerging business practices and game changing innovations.
Heres a taster (also a plug for Google+) but a great story all the same.
The Dalai Lama’s Social Network Of Choice
“A few weeks ago, the Dalai Lama was invited to Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday party. The South African government, however, had other ideas, and denied him a visa to visit the country. The government refused to give an answer, but many pointed fingers at the Chinese government, which has enormous industrial interests in the country and isn’t too pleased when the Dalai Lama visits anywhere.
In a discussion from Fast Company‘s Masters of Design event in New York, Robert Wong, the executive creative director of Google Creative Labs, talked to senior editor Linda Tischler about how this impasse resulted in two new famous Google+ users.”
Watch the video here
[image Fast Co]
Inspiration From The Do Lectures
Inspiration from the Do Lectures. The idea is simple, DO. The Do Lectures which are freely available online are jam packed full of inspiring stories, well earned wisdom and advice. This tiny band of Do People come together every year on a small farm in Cardigan, Wales to talk about how they do what they do. These are people who make ACTION the only logical step after the IDEA. People who can’t sit on their hands, who have to move to keep motivated and Do to get to the next level. In this world the only way forward is to strive to constantly do it better.
Each speaker takes us on a journey through there personal, business, and ideological story presenting weighty ideas to chew on a light hearted anecdotes to have a laugh at. There’s real insight here for those of us intent on getting out there and Doing things for ourselves. The message is clear. With each interaction, connection, and creative thought that you have Do something that will turn ideas into brilliant realities. Develop it, mix it up a bit, share it around and get it out there. What ever it is that you are doing. Do it.
Why The Best Companies Make You Feel Something. John Kearon Founder of BrainJuicer.
Royal Society Journal Archive Free Online
The Royal Society has announced that its world-famous historical journal archive has been made permanently free to access online. The archive includes the first ever peer-reviewed scientific journal ’Philosophical Transactions’ pub 1665. Other gems include works by Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday and Charles Babbage. As history dictates, the list of women authors is perhaps not as lengthy. Although founded in 1660, women were not permitted to become fellows of the Royal Society until 285 years later in 1945, rather behind the times as women over the age of 30 had won the vote nearly 30 years earlier, in 1918.
That said although not documented widely in terms of contribution women played a key role on the development of scientific inquiry. The first woman to attend a meeting of the Royal Society was Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle, in May 1667. Caroline Herschel in August 1786 was the first women to be published in Philosophical Transactions the paper was snappily titled  ”An Account of a new Comet, in a letter from Miss Caroline Herschel to Mr Charles Blagden MD, Secretary to the Royal Society”. A dig through the inspiring achieves will undoubtedly uncover more of these fascinating details in the development of this hugely influential institution.
The Royal Society’s has opened its archive to coincide with the start of Open Access week a global event now entering its 5th year, encouraging open participation to promote ”free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need [which, in tern] has the power to transform the way research and scientific inquiry are conducted”
Find more here about Open Access week
Enjoy a search through the Royal Society archives here
Sources (Wikipedia, Guardian 2010, Margaret Cavendish Society, Royal Society, Caroline Herschel )
Crate Space Sheffield
Huella have launched a new tool for entrepreneurs and start ups across the city of Sheffield. Crate Space has been developed to maximize on limited resources and highlights great places to meet, work, connect and create. Based on the idea of collaborative consumption the aim is to make use of the coffee shops, cafe bars, gallery spaces and public access spaces in sheffield to do our business. Whether it be to spend a few hours catching up on important emails or meeting up with co-workers for a working lunch, the interactive map highlights the best spots and provides information and contact details to pass on to friends and associates.
Crate Space is in beta development, we are looking for your space suggestions and comments to help build a useful tool to support flexible and networked working. Pop over and say hello.
Visit Crate Space at http://cratespace.co
Facebook page here
Twitter here