John Drake

Great Work

Here's some great work found over at Social-Creature. I won't spoil the scenario--you'll just have to watch--but it's one of those ideas that can go on and on. Kind of like this and this. Entertaining yet focused ideas, for mass-use products, that can keep an audience engaged for quite some time.  

Better Information Management

Well, we just may be collectively overwhelmed... According to this article in The New York Times every American now absorbs 100,000 words and 11.8 hours of information into their brain every day. And evidently, each year we take in 6% more volume then we did the year before.

But our knowledge intake could rise even beyond 6% a year if we discover a more efficient way to absorb stuff. Consider "Information as Matter" a thought-provoking read by information and user-experience theorist Thomas Peterson...

The thinking goes something like this: We get a tremendous amount of information these days through feed readers. But feed readers offer singular points of information, which create bottlenecks. So what if data could be re-structured so we consume it more holistically. After all, we read sentences but we don't analyze each letter. We see physical objects but we don't see individual atoms. Could data be organized in the same way?? Imagine the relevance and ease of access...

A fascinating find over at PSFK. Check out the whole post from Thomas at Black&White.

Great Work

I love it when work just makes me you feel good as you get intrigued by a product. Here's a great piece of work from Discovery Channel and 72andSunny. Go ahead, watch it a few times. 

(Funny side note about Discovery Channel--I've run a fair amount of focus groups in my time and when respondents are asked what they typically watch on TV it seems nearly everyone says: "Discovery Channel." Or "The History Channel." Doesn't really matter the group. Of course, if nearly everyone did indeed watch the ratings would be in the stratosphere but, regardless, it says something about the brand perception of these stations and about how people want others to view them.)

Anyway... I for one am excited to check in on Discovery (for real) and see what's on these days. 

Teamwork, Courtesy of Derek and Tom

Derek Jeter was just named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated, a most deserved honor. If you read the article--and study Jeter's career--you'll mostly be struck by one word: Teamwork. This is relevant to nearly everyone, considering that most Campaign Planning readers work in some sort of team environment...

What's particularly worth making a note of are Jeter's five obstacles to winning. True in baseball and everywhere else teams are at play:

5 Obstacles to Winning

1. Individuals who don't care about winning.

2. Self-promoters.

3. Measuring success by individual statistics.

4. Injury talk (i.e. if you choose to play don't find excuses for failing).

5. Negativity.

Great list.

Adding to this from elsewhere, there is also a really interesting Q&A with Tom Petty in this week's Rolling Stone that touched on similar thoughts...

The article is largely about how important Tom's band (The Heartbreakers) are to him. (Several band members have been playing with Tom since the early 1970s.)

Here's how important they are...

Tom Petty: "I get nervous, to this day, bringing a song to the band. They're tough. It runs the gamut, from being very quiet, not saying anything. That drives me insane: 'Well, what do you think?.... I look for their approval in the songs. When they give me "Good song" it makes my day."

This is famous TOM PETTY we're talking about, nervous to present his music! Makes sense though... The Heartbreakers, while not as well known as individuals, are amazing musicians and Tom knows that success is derived from all of them working together on material. The collective effort raises all. 

Derek and Tom are not only great examples that success is achieved from team play but they enlighten us as to how to think and act in the team environment.