What I'm reading...

Inspired by johnmoore (From Brand Autopsy) here's my pile of books.

Don't Think Pink by Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned is at home at the moment - also it's sitting next to The Runes of The Earth: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson.

I should just work through them in order but I keep ending up dipping in and out - so not good.

Must read less - not more this year!!

Was going to limit it then bought the Scoble/Israel piece... doh!

Universal Declaration of Optimism...

Reading a new blog today courtesy of johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)- Pig Wisdom Blog.

Check out this story about optimists

It’s as simple as this: There can be no leadership without optimism. To be a leader, you must have followers—people who willingly and enthusiastically commit their hearts and minds and sweat to the attainment of your vision.

Can you imagine, for even a moment, that anyone would commit so much of himself or herself to a person who is pessimistic about the future?

Yep - think we can all agree with that one.

The future is going to be great!!

What's the point of a tie...

At last...

Someone please tell my Mum...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4735270.stm

Need a new blog name...

OK everyone - thinking hats on please.

PDG will be completely transformed into Chemistry Digital very shortly - and we need a new blog.

www.ilovechemistrydigital.com just isn't cutting the mustard - so what do you think?

Suggestions below please.

Current plan is to archive // redirect this site to the new one - we could register ilovedpdg - but that would be a bit sad really.

How about www.its-chemistry.com?

I love RSS feeds...

It's very important to keep reviewing your news aggregator.

How many feeds are you ignoring at the moment.?

Which ones are you really excited by when you see there's a new post?

A point well made here at horsepigcow - I took the advice and now I'm a big fan of Kathy Sierra as well.

Google roll ad model into print...

Google really are smart aren't they, if they were at school they would be the class swat, sitting by teacher shining apples!

They have now rolled out their advertising auction model into print, they have pre-booked space in publications and are selling it to the highest bidders, you only pay a bit more than the guy who bid below you!

Google - tick VG, go to the top of the class, oh...you're already there - git!

Check out the article

Podcasting - apparently it's good...

I was never sure about our podcasts, we experimented with the medium quite heavily last year and although enjoyable in the end it felt a bit like pissing in the wind. Good experience though and made us revisit the way our web site works.

Click here for a successful podcasting story

The long tail...

Half of Korea’s Preschoolers Use Internet Daily - from TP Wire Service

Wordcloud analysis...

Found a cool tool to create a wordcloud from your website.

Interesting to compare this blog:

communication - marketing - podcasts - davidcoe - wilson!

...with the PDG website:

customers - good - people - work... obsolete?

Look behind the numbers...

A good point from Tom Peters about how statistics are used / measured as part of the US economic "story". I'm sure the same points are valid over here in the UK / Europe.

Tom links to an article in Business Week which investigates what's really going on in the knowledge-based economy - compared to "standard" economic indicators such as GDP / Savings / Trade deficits etc.

These measures were appropriate in the early part of last century - but are they a true reflection of the current R & D investments that globalisation, outsourcing, IP etc. have introduced into the equation?

It's a different world - so maybe we need a different view here? How long before you hear or read something as sensible as this in MSM UK (I'm guessing 12-18 months)?

(...not sure what the hell this has to do with marketing and design? But I think it's interesting!)

It's not the size that matters...

We are always trying to convince people that less is more when it comes to presentations, unfortunately they dont always listen. Check out this article from Garr Reynolds.

If Darth Vader used Powerpoint...

The world would be a much worse place that's for sure...

Check out Darth's PPT at Presentation Zen

Eric Weaver makes a lot of sense...

Link here for a very good post about where some DM agencies don't get it yet!

After giving the guys at the American Marketing Association a really hard time Eric outlines a really good 10 point plan for engaging with "real customers" in today's networked, joined up - "real world".

(Not to be confused with the strange world where delusional marketers still think that people sit around waiting to be interupted by an advert or a piece of DM - just to give you a chance to tell them about your fantastic new product or service!)

Wow - I've finally seen an elephant fly...!!

Life's too short not to go see this... go now!

OK - the elephant's actually trampolining - which isn't really flying... but it's still pretty impressive.

I'm only a recent Rocketboom convert - just go see this - it's the first item on this daily vlog.

Words fail me.