I'll file this under "warm and fuzzy issue advocacy"

I had a whole big post here about grassroots organizing and the web, using knitters as an example, but dude:

One Yarn Harlot post = Hundreds of knitters invading Manhattan.

Knitters on the Today Show.

Do not mock us.

If the EPIC 2014 video scared the shit out of you...

I've been giving myself a little Web 2.0 tutorial this morning, and ran across this video. Pretty cool, both content-wise and aesthetically. Not earth-shattering, but it did kinda make me go "yes! we are the web! we can change the world!" Kinda.

Marketing 101 Reimagined

The Cluetrain Manifesto

Maybe I'm just a sucker for anything that calls itself a 'manifesto,' but I can see myself having some really interesting conversations with some of my friends on this. I haven't read it all, but from the introduction:

What if the real attraction of the Internet is not its cutting-edge bells and whistles, its jazzy interface or any of the advanced technology that underlies its pipes and wires? What if, instead, the attraction is an atavistic throwback to the prehistoric human fascination with telling tales? Five thousand years ago, the marketplace was the hub of civilization, a place to which traders returned from remote lands with exotic spices, silks, monkeys, parrots, jewels -- and fabulous stories.

In many ways, the Internet more resembles an ancient bazaar than it fits the business models companies try to impose upon it. Millions have flocked to the Net in an incredibly short time, not because it was user-friendly -- it wasn’t -- but because it seemed to offer some intangible quality long missing in action from modern life. In sharp contrast to the alienation wrought by homogenized broadcast media, sterilized mass "culture," and the enforced anonymity of bureaucratic organizations, the Internet connected people to each other and provided a space in which the human voice would be rapidly rediscovered.

Though corporations insist on seeing it as one, the new marketplace is not necessarily a market at all. To its inhabitants, it is primarily a place in which all participants are audience to each other. The entertainment is not packaged; it is intrinsic. Unlike the lockstep conformity imposed by television, advertising, and corporate propaganda, the Net has given new legitimacy -- and free rein -- to play. Many of those drawn into this world find themselves exploring a freedom never before imagined: to indulge their curiosity, to debate, to disagree, to laugh at themselves, to compare visions, to learn, to create new art, new knowledge.

Yeah, you guessed it, they had me at "stories."

Istanbul Grand Bazaar

Update, 10 minutes later: And now, from someone who has obviously not read Cluetrain, and excerpt from a speech I had to read for class, by Bill Marks, VP-PR, Coca-Cola:

Good evening! Thank you Rita for your warm introduction. LA! To those of us from the east, this is ..."the left coast!" The film capital of the world. The place where truth is frequently stranger than fiction!... I guess most of us folks from back East believe LA is not the "Real" world. By the way, those in the pool to bet how long it would take the Coke guy to insert the word "real" in his speech? You can now divvy up the money....As I hope most of you know, my company recently announced a new marketing platform for brand Coca-Cola. Our new marketing platform reflects genuine, authentic moments in life and the natural role brand Coca-Cola plays in those moments. The platform, "Coca-Cola? Real" will be integrated across all of the brand's marketing initiatives and properties.The integrated platform launch includes a new ad campaign, strong music and digital components, promotions, properties, one-to-one marketing initiatives, and new packaging and graphics.

You get the idea. If you have to keep plugging the words 'real', 'genuine' and 'authentic,' then there's a pretty good chance you're not. But what do I know? He heads up one of the most powerful brands in the world.

Blogs and marketing

This post is kind of a continuation on yesterdays's post, a meditation on the intersection between philosophy and business.

Blogs and marketing

Another Gaping Void blog entry that seems perfectly suited for me and the other PC students. A little late for our 'corporate blog' assignment, but god, does it make me want to get out there in the real world. Basically, I want to figure out what job I have to get so that I can hang out with people like Hugh MacLeod but not have to make pitch calls. Making pitch calls is the third circle of hell. The fifth through seventh circles? Again, I refer to Hugh:

Meditations on Corporate Whoredom

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we've reached the flustered-and-idealistic-grad-student-comes-face-to-face-with-impending-graduation-
and-the-real-world phase of the year. I found this entry, A Corporate Whole in Philadelphia, a few weeks ago on Daily Kos. It reminded me of two things.

The first was a Halloween party my senior year of college where a recent graduate came dressed entirely in white and red (including striped socks), and whenever someone approached her, pulled a Target job application out of her pocket and announced cheerily, "Hi! I'm a Corporate Whore! Would you like to work for Target?" It turns out that this formerly radical lesbian, though still a lesbian, was not so radical anymore, and was actually loving her job as a computer tech at Target headquarters. She'd come to terms with it, and could laugh at it. Still the best Halloween costume I've seen in awhile.


The second was in a planning meeting for the annual May Day Parade in Minneapolis. The room was full of the usual South Minneapolis hippie types, trying to come up with a theme for the 2002 parade. The topic of corporate greed came up, and someone brought up the idea of a businessman in a coffin, surrounded by money. Various supportive leftist sentiments were brought up, until one guy in a Grateful Dead (or Peace Corps, or Sierra Club) t-shirt spoke up and reminded the group that he worked in an office, for a company, and that 'businessman' does not equal 'evil.' Very apt, considering this was, after all, a parade run by the In the Heart of the Beast Theatre Company. Running away to a commune is not going to change the world, as much as I'd like to.

Until I got here, every single friend I knew worked for a nonprofit or government. It never occurred to me that I would ever work for a for-profit company. Where am I going with this... I had an interview yesterday with a defense industry technology company that is way to excited about hiring me. The job doesn't fit what I want to do, so I'm not really debating whether or not to take it, but it's a really, really interesting opportunity that could lead to some high-power jobs. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to balance by values and finding a job, whether for- or non-profit. My point is that yesterday was one of those fork-in-the-road moments, where I saw how large the disconnect there is between an organizing meeting at In the Heart of the Beast, and a lobbying meeting on Capitol Hill. I could end up in either.

I'm still here.

I feel like my last few posts have gotten a bit off-topic--I intend for this blog to be mainly about communicating, not just about myself. Anyhoo...

For my marketing friends (I still don't know if I include myself here) I've been meaning to mention the Gaping Void blog for awhile. It's the blog of a London-based marketing guy. It's worth checking out just for his business-card cartoons, but he also links to a lot of cutting-edge web-based marketing people.

And I think it's about time for my inevitable monthly link to Framing Science. I think I actually shouted out loud when I saw the Sports Illustrated cover on global warming. Awesome. If there's one communications thing that bothers me, it's preaching to the choir about music, and this most certainly is not. In any sense of that awkward metaphor.