ChaosScenario

The Definition of Irony in New Media

In the most recent Republican debate, CNN just got a black eye for not disclosing the political relationships some of the questioners had to Democratic candidates. CNN political director Sam Feist said the news channel did not investigate the political leanings of the questioners (although they presented them as "undecided voters" to the viewing public.)

At a glance, it appears as if this is a validation of the mainstream media's reluctance to embrace new media such as YouTube, which is owned by Google. New media channels are unreliable, they say. Bloggers (video or otherwise) have no fact-checkers, and their content should not be trusted.

But it was the bloggers who scooped CNN and exposed the deceitfully biased nature of the questions. And the tool they used to do it... was Google. - Cam Beck

Update: Marty Kaplan at Huffington Post put together a nice list of contradictions by CNN over their methodology and intent.

Most. Addictive. Game. Ever.

I gotta be honest here.  I rock. Maybe not with a real guitar, but on Guitar Hero III I bring the hammer.  OK, maybe it's just on the easy level that I shred, along with my bandmate who chooses to remain anonymous to safeguard his right to date females, but still, we rock. 

From our lowly beginnings at a night club to playing our way out of some sort of concert for satan (odd, I know), we defeated the game and were consistently told song after song, "You Rock." 

It seems that we're not the only band nerds to make some glorious noise as sales were $115 million in the first week and Activision's shares soared 13.8%, or $2.61, to $21.54, on Tuesday.  Extremely nerdy or fantastically awesome, you play Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade" and we'll talk. - John Herrington

The Age of Conversation

After tomorrow, you'll no longer be able to buy The Age of Conversation hardcover book.

Nor will you be able to purchase the softcover book from Lulu.com.

In fact, the only thing you'll be able to buy from Lulu.com is the eBook.

It's well worth the read, proceeds are going to a good cause, and I recommend buy one or several of these versions if you haven't already done so.

I bought the hardcover for those moments I just need to sit down with it, and the eBook for search purposes.

The good news is that although you won't be able to get a hard copy from Lulu anymore, the soft cover version will be available on Amazon and other online booksellers starting December 14.

However, the booksellers markup is pretty steep (Nearly $15 more!). If you want to take advantage of the price it is now ($16.95 for the soft cover), buy it now from Lulu while you can. - Cam Beck

Fellow authors include:
Gavin Heaton Drew McLellan CK Valeria Maltoni Emily Reed Katie Chatfield Greg Verdino Mack Collier Lewis Green Sacrum Ann Handley Mike Sansone Paul McEnany Roger von Oech Anna Farmery David Armano Bob Glaza Mark Goren Scott Monty Richard Huntington Cam Beck David Reich Luc Debaisieux Sean Howard Tim Jackson Patrick Schaber Roberta Rosenberg Uwe Hook Tony D. Clark Todd Andrlik Toby Bloomberg Steve Woodruff Steve Bannister Steve Roesler Stanley Johnson Spike Jones Nathan Snell Simon Payn Ryan Rasmussen Ron Shevlin Roger Anderson Robert Hruzek Rishi Desai Phil Gerbyshak Peter Corbett Pete Deutschman Nick Rice Nick Wright Michael Morton Mark Earls Mark Blair Mario Vellandi Lori Magno Kristin Gorski Kris Hoet G. Kofi Annan Kimberly Dawn Wells Karl Long Julie Fleischer Jordan Behan John La Grou Joe Raasch Jim Kukral Jessica Hagy Janet Green Jamey Shiel Dr. Graham Hill Gia Facchini Geert Desager Gaurav Mishra Gary Schoeniger Gareth Kay Faris Yakob Emily Clasper Ed Cotton Dustin Jacobsen Tom Clifford David Polinchock David Koopmans David Brazeal David Berkowitz Carolyn Manning Craig Wilson Cord Silverstein Connie Reece Colin McKay Chris Newlan Chris Corrigan Cedric Giorgi Brian Reich Becky Carroll Arun Rajagopal Andy Nulman Amy Jussel AJ James Kim Klaver Sandy Renshaw Susan Bird Ryan Barrett Troy Worman CB Whittemore S. Neil Vineberg Matt Dickman

Drowning in Debt

The national debt as of Nov. 23 was $9.1 trillion, up from $5.7 trillion in 2001.  To put some perspective on one trillion, David Hunnicutt (blog) sheds some light on this.

If you counted to a trillion out loud, one number per second, you'd have to clear your calendar for the next 31,688 years just to complete the task.

Now, let's put a trillion in financial terms.

Let's say it's the year 1, the beginning of the first millennium.  You have a trillion dollars to spend-at the rate of one million dollars a day.  At just before three years, you've reached a billion dollars.  So you keep spending. Now you are in the year 2,000.  Would you believe you'd still have 737 years to go before you exhaust your trillion dollar pile.

The moral of the story is a trillion is a gigantic, unfathomable number, and we collectively have over 9 of them staring us in the face.  According to a Dallas Morning News article by Jim Landers, this debt has been flamed by both parties over the years as foreign countries have been increasingly willing to lend money.  Landers says the biggest lender, China, holds more than $1.2 trillion in U.S. assets as reserves and if they were to move from the dollar to euros the value of the U.S. dollar would be severely weakened and most likely force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to continue attracting the $4 billion a day in borrowing we get from abroad.  The problem is that foreign investments have now surpassed our gross domestic product, which should be a red flag for Americans.

With national debt being such a seemingly insurmountable number, its easy to look to politicians for mismanagement of funds, but I'd be remiss to not look back to the constituents that these politicians serve.  Our nation is operating on another credit bubble that will only grow exponentially this Christmas.

Reuters reported today that U.S. online shoppers set a record on "Cyber Monday". Online shoppers spent $733 million on Monday which was 21% up from last year according to comScore.  With some reports claiming that the average American has over $9,000 in credit card debt, it's scary to think about the number of people that will be paying for this Christmas' presents for the next year or two.

As you're starting to think about getting gifts this year, review these tips from Salve Duplito to avoid the post-Christmas debt hangover and take another step towards eliminating unnecessary debt.

1. Set a budget
2. Make a gift list.  Create three lists: family, friends and work contacts.  See which ones you would like to give a gift to, and which ones can benefit from a simple yet sincere Christmas card.
3. Consider giving group gifts
4. Go homemade. Give gifts a personal touch by making them yourself.
5. Try shopping online.
6. Buy supplies in bulk. Gift wrapping paper, tape, ribbons, boxes and gift cards should be bought in bulk to save money.
7. Choose affordable party venues
8. Look out for sales
9. Pay your bills on time.
10. Keep it simple.  You don't have to overspend to impress.

Overall, remember that most likely whatever you buy this year will be in a trash can in less than 10 years so focus on the reason why you want to give and not how much money you can spend on the gift. - John Herrington

Photo courtesy of k9ine.

Facebook adopts evil opt-in policy

If you haven't heard by now, Facebook has introduced a new advertising platform. It goes beyond just providing a banner image at the top of the page and even just creating a cool profile for your brand or product. It combines the power of social networking and behavioral targeting. Here are some of the features:

• Targeting of your ad by demographics and interest
• Unique ways to get your ad noticed when someone interacts with your ad or page
• Integration of activities on your site with Facebook profiles
• In some cases, ability to purchase ads on a cost-per-click or cost-per-impression basis

As a marketer, this is great. In my opinion, Facebook is really taking it to MySpace by providing some unique ways to deliver ads. I guess I'm in good company as there are a number of companies using the program including Travelocity, Zappos and Fandango.

As a consumer, however, I'm concerned. Facebook is gathering a lot of information about what I'm doing on Facebook and now they've stretched it beyond Facebook to other sites. Of course, there is an opt-out, however

"Facebooks users who make purchases at sites participating in the program have just 20 seconds in which to opt out of having that information published. That’s because the opt-out mechanism consisted of a small pop-up that vanishes 20 seconds after it appeared. After the window disappears, so does the user’s chance to opt out." Associated Press

This is equivalent to those email newsletter check boxes that are pre-checked at the confirmation page of an ecommerce site. Or even when Yahoo! or AOL change your defaults in your browser. There is a day coming when there will be a back lash against internet marketing based on privacy concerns. Tracking, and in Facebook's case, publishing user behavior is not wrong. However, doing it without the explicit permission of the user is wrong. Rather than forcing people to opt out, they should only be participating in these programs when they opt in.

Of course that would diminish the effectiveness of the program. However, Facebook could give incentives to participants with cool applications, etc. They could even restrict use of the site to those who are willing to participate (although I'd argue this is a bit too radical). Tricking people into opting in, however, is deceitful. (Tip of the hat to Just an Online Minute).

- Paul Herring

The Intense Debate is Over ... For Now

After fielding numerous complaints from friends trying to comment on this blog, I've uninstalled Intense Debate, and it will remain off this blog until they fix the flaws that cause people to have difficulties, depending on which browser and platform they were on, leaving comments. When I installed the tool, which still has great potential, I promised that if it made commenting more difficult, I would remove it.

So I have.

I will revisit the tool after it is out of beta or else I get word that they otherwise fixed the problems it was having, but I'll likely test it out on another blog first.

I'd like to especially thank Jim Stroup and Lewis Green, who went above and beyond in helping me pinpoint the problem (information I've since passed along to Intense Debate in hopes that they can fix it), as well as CK, Drew McLellan, Valeria Maltoni for being kind enough to let me know of their difficulties and not giving up.

I honestly hope this doesn't reflect poorly on Intense Debate's brand. They are in beta, after all, and we all know the risks of adopting something in beta. As I said, I'll be glad to give them another shot when they get some of the kinks out.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog. Move along, folks. There's nothing to see here. ;) - Cam Beck

The Disneyfication of America

Scott points out that "Disneyfication" is now an official word in the dictionary. Although the word is used to describe how the principles of Disney's theme parks is being spread throughout society, Wikipedia says it is a pejorative, since the implied ideal is a more diverse way to market and consume products.

Disney isn't without its faults, but I think the outlook is at once too optimistic and too pessimistic. It is optimistic because it infers this transformation is really taking place, and it is pessimistic because it assumes such a transformation would be a bad thing.

Take one moment to consider what certain experiences would look like if they were disneyfied.

• Buying a car
• Shopping for groceries
• Filling up at a gas station
• Filing an insurance claim
• Renting a car

Can you think of anything else that could stand a little disneyfication? - Cam Beck

The Magic of Childhood

Last week, when Drew cued us in to his vacation plans and requested volunteers to write an article for his blog, I immediately knew two things:

1. I would have to write about Disney World, and
2. I'd take the Thanksgiving shift

You see, the first exposer I had to Drew was when CK introduced me to a series he wrote (PDF) on how Disney World is able to keep loyal customers and foster brand evangelists.

I'm very thankful to have made Drew's acquaintance over the past year, so it seemed fitting to give a little bit back to him on the day we're supposed to reflect on and express our gratitude for all of our blessings.

Drew has always been enormously helpful and supportive, and we benefit from his example in kindness, service, and leadership.

Read the article here.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Thank you for reading. - Cam Beck

Also on ChaosScenario:

Brand Magic: Instill a child-like enthusiasm
The Happiest Guy on Earth
Disney Takes Child Obesity Seriously

Thanks for the Meme-ories

Ike Pigott of Occam's RazR tagged me with an interesting meme, and I thought it fitting that it came in time for Thanksgiving. Here's the question:

"Who had a big influence on you and how did that affect the direction of your life or career?"

There are so many people to list, I hardly know where to start. Here are five that came immediately to mind:

1. My parents: They knew when to give me enough rope to hang myself, and when to put the clamps down. I didn't always agree with them at the time and they probably weren't always right (like the rest of us Monday-morning quarterback parents), but they did their best, and they did more than enough to convince me that I could do anything if I set my mind to it. Looking back, I can really see the sacrifices they made on the behalf of me and my two brothers, and I know I can never repay them.
2. Charles Bleum: My History and Model U.N. teacher in high school had one mantra he was well-known for: "Do your job." Jobs change, but our responsibility to do our best in them doesn't.
   
3. 1stSgt Speed: He's they guy who first taught me without a doubt that you don't have to yell to get people to listen. Not so much respected as he was revered, 1stSgt Speed, while the company 1stSgt for 4th Force Recon Co., was a model of integrity, competence, and -- yes -- servant-based command leadership.
4. Clarence Goforth: Probably the closest thing to a mentor I ever had in business, although the venture I worked on with him didn't pan out. Clarence taught me a lot about framing life's priorities and picking up life's subtle ironies, and I carry many of those lessons to this day.
5. My wife: Getting married puts a whole new spin on life's priorities and doing one's job with respect to those priorities. It was Janell who encouraged me to go back to school, and it was she who had to put up with my absolute determination to get as much from it as I absolutely could, even though it took me away from her on most nights over the two final years of my undergraduate studies.

This is the point I'm supposed to tag some people, but I'll give you all something to be thankful for and spare you. If, however, you feel moved to say "thanks" to some people who have impacted your life, don't wait to be tagged to do it. - Cam Beck

The Real Skinny on the Amazon Kindle

A few people have mentioned to me that yesterday's lengthy analysis of Amazon's Kindle strategy might be too intimidating to read, so I have opted to go with Paul Herring's more succinct preview:

"Unless it is subscribed to ChaosScenario, it sucks."

Paul says you may use this analysis anytime you want (and I presume for any device or software that makes use of RSS feeds).

On a related note, how do you feel about long blog posts?

- Cam Beck