marketing

As millions of students across the world go back to school this month, 178 students from 49 countries will turn on their computers and step onto the virtual campus of the world's first global, tuition-free online university.

It is interesting to look back at the various ways that technology has been advertised to consumers over the past several decades. It is particularly interesting to look back at these advertisements when the featured products have been made obsolete. From the BetaMax to the HD DVD the following are a list of the ads from technology that are either in dead or dying format, or those which are no longer in production.

A long time ago, in an Internets far far away, the people were promised a galaxy free of corporate-empire dominance, where the little guy would have a fair and equal shot at being heard, where small businesses could claim riches once envisioned only by multinationals, and where unsung individuals would finally be sung. The playing fields would all be level, and there would be many goals to shoot at.

I’ve been working on a brand new comprehensive methodology in which to chart the evolution of a web distribution channel or platform’s life cycle, called The Tippingpoint Labs’ Life Cycle Analysis. It’s still in its early stages of development, but I wanted to share some of my early hypothesis here in the hopes of sparking a dialogue.

While there are many ways to set-up and manage online events, here’s what’s working well for us in our webinar programme: Weekly events at a fixed time slot (identified through a user survey). Limit events to one hour (timeslot identified through user feedback). A few minutes introduction, followed by a main presentation of 30-40 minutes and 15-20 minutes of questions. Strictly time manage the event (punctual start, completion on time). Beware of time zones - we usually have participants across 10 to 15 timezones. Limit sound to host and speakers. Participants can chat only (handling 100 sound cards & microphones online does not provide a good webinar experience). A chat pod allows participants to introduce themselves at the start of the event. A second chat pod allows users to submit questions. Questions are addresses one at a time at the end of the presentation - never during the presentation. Before the event, speakers are briefed on the use of the Adobe system and a protocol for the event is agreed. After the event, we circulate slides, the link to a recording, an answer to a question not address. There are so many ways to keep users engaged, and gradually build a vertical community around the topic of the webinar.

The Charlie Rose show began a new series on the future of newspapers. The series focuses on how the web is and other new technologies have caused a great shift in the media landscape. Newspapers are struggling to adapt. Overall revenues have fallen three years in a row. These numbers could reach double digits this year. Many advertisers have fled print for the web. Joining him are Robert Thomson, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, Mort Zuckerman, owner and publisher of the New York Daily News and the editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report, and Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute.

Every senior executive knows that business decisions are seldom better than the information behind them. Yet although it is usually lower-level employees who interact directly with the customer, decision makers rarely ask them how, for example, new products will fare. Leaders therefore deprive themselves of information that could enrich their analysis and reduce the risk of ivory tower decision making. Some executives understand that valuable information lies scattered around the organization but don’t know how to retrieve it. Others don’t even try, perhaps for hierarchical reasons or because they suspect they might get answers colored by the desire to second their real or assumed viewpoint.

The most popular post I’ve written to date is a review of prediction market software. Today’s post is going to be the same, but for idea/innovation software (henceforth referred to as innovation software). Trying to even find and identify all the different types of innovation software is difficult because of the different ways people and companies think about innovation. Prediction markets are straightforward; they’re futures markets, so the software is largely the interface between the user and the order book on the database. That is not at all so for innovation software. Different people think about innovation in different ways, which I referred to in a previous post. The list below is likely not complete, but I believe it does pick up the major players.

Sheep aren’t that knowledgeable; they are trading for any number of reasons, and are the “noise” in the marketplace. Wolves take advantage of that, and consequently they look for markets with lots of sheep. With better information, the wolves will easily have plenty to “eat.” The net result is that those noisy markets are accurate markets.

Perry shared many lessons learned, and chose to focus people’s attention on the pitfalls of PMs (in addition to their power). Implementation can take a long time. It’s a change management process. Asking the wrong questions can be a killer, but often the right questions emerge after trading begins. Poor incentive structures is the #1 killer, according to Perry. Don’t suppress the reputational incentives associated with PMs. Be explicit and transparent about how traders will be compensated.

Information workers today are drowning in content — email, newsletters, press releases, and spam — and the problem is getting worse. To deal with this tsunami, workers are turning to RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Although efficient for individual information workers, unmanaged, RSS can wreak havoc on enterprise IT. To prevent problems like bandwidth overload and security infractions, information and knowledge management professionals should implement enterprise RSS solutions. Enterprise RSS turbo-charges the benefits of unmanaged RSS adoption with internal content syndication, filtering, and collaboration. It also provides increased security and reduces IT requirements.

Take a deep breath and relax; building a widget isn't rocket science. But in this nascent world of distributed content, where standards are not yet established, understanding your options along with some generally accepted best practices will help you make smart design and development choices for your project.  So how do you determine what's right for your widget? From timing to technical specs, here's a how-to for budgets large and small, whether you have in-house designers and developers or are looking to outsource, and anything in-between

Discussions during the 1948 Convention of the American Psychological Association led Bloom to spearhead a group of educators who eventually undertook the ambitious task of classifying educational goals and objectives. Their intent was to develop a method of classification for thinking behaviors that were believed to be important in the processes of learning. Eventually, this framework became a taxonomy of three domains: The cognitive - knowledge based domain, consisting of six levels The affective - attitudinal based domain, consisting of five levels, and The psychomotor - skills based domain, consisting of six levels.