3 Paths Toward A More Creative Life Everyone can learn to be more creative, but to become very creative, I’ve come to believe you need to lead a creative life. In watching my best students, in examining the lives of successful entrepreneurs, and in seeing the process of the great Native American artists who I know, it is clear that how they live their daily lives is crucial to their success. I realize that it sounds very “zen-y” (which is OK by me), yet I come to this realization not through a search for spirituality or clarity but from simple observation. Creativity is in such demand today that when we apply for jobs, when we join organizations, or when we just meet other people, we are asked to present our creative selves. But we can’t do that unless we understand the nature of our own creativity, locate the sources of our originality, and have a language that explains our work. It’s a work in progress, of course, but here are three specific ways that can help you lead a creative life. 1. For good reason. 2. 3.
Maker Cities There is a great deal of momentum behind the Maker Movement. I have previously written about making in schools and in libraries. One thing is clear, people enjoy making stuff like 3D printer bunny rabbits or mobile apps for disaster preparedness, but there isn't necessarily a shared vision for where this movement is headed, or what potential it may hold. So how could a diverse community of makers work toward a shared understanding of what is possible and focus on a common goal? Creating a Maker City — even if it's just a thought experiment — could serve as a useful tool for understanding the potential of this movement. The Maker Movement is influencing the city, and our lives, in five key areas already. In the past 10 years, we have seen the emergence of accessible community spaces where people can get together and make stuff. In addition to libraries, a few schools on the cutting edge have adopted a hands-on, project centered method for teaching.
Τροφή για τη σκέψη / Food for thought Why Innovation By Brainstorming Doesn't Work Eleven men and women file into a conference room and take their places around a large table. Coffee cups and pastries are assembled in front of them. George, the leader, steps up to a large whiteboard and scrawls across the top “SOAP STORM SESSION 9/18/12.” “Okay, let’s begin,” he tells the group. “Let’s just start free-associating. The meeting continues for about an hour, with more words and thoughts added. This scenario takes place every day in office suites around the world. The conventional wisdom that innovation can be institutionalized or done in a formal group is simply wrong. You can see this clearly from the responses to “clean laundry” in my example. As I said earlier, the team should have been given the day off to do laundry. This was a mega consumer insight. “The technology actually existed for the dissolvable laundry detergent package,” says Dropps’s Remy Wildrick, who calls herself the pragmatic side of Propper’s creative mind.
More Mobile Location-Based Campaigns Seen Using Geo-Fenced & Geo-Aware Strategies by MarketingCharts staff The study also analyzes how different verticals used location-based targeting, finding that restaurant (43%) and retail (32%) were the most likely to use geo-aware and/or geo-fenced strategies, while political (73%), auto (70%), and telco (69%) advertisers gravitated towards targeting based on DMA/Zip/Zip+4. Overall, the campaigns that used location targeting were twice as effective as those that didn’t, per the report. Among the different tactics, geo-aware and geo-fence mobile programs produced the best click-through rates, while audience-targeted campaigns fared worst. About the Data: Verve Mobile describes geo-aware and geo-fencing strategies as follows: Geo-aware: “Geo-aware campaigns use real-time location data to deliver specific, often dynamic, messages to the user based on their distance from the nearest retail location or proximity to a particular location.” Geo-fencing
About Me California flag from www.ultimateflags.com Fourth-generation Californian, with thousands of stories from travels in 36 countries and hundreds of lessons learned from living, working and successfully navigating Greek bureaucracy for 16 years as an unmarried non-EU citizen. Newspapers and the wider public call me an American in Athens, which was the name of my original blog. I first came here as a solo nomad when Greece still used drachmas and natives were hospitable to foreigners. It was winter, so I saw no islands or beaches, nor had I fallen in love with a Greek, run away from adulthood, bought a house or any of the other clichés. Four months later, I was back in Greece with nowhere to live, no job, no permit, no connections, no family or boyfriend to help, no Greek language skills, no funding or inheritance, no rent-free or mortgage-free property, and no parents or safety net back home. Why I’m qualified to write about Greece It’s not just research, it’s my life. Mission It aims to:
3 outils pour mieux gérer ses données personnelles sur Facebook Entre les applications, le journal/timeline, la photo de couverture, le graph search, la localisation, les messages privés et les publicités ; les mises à jours officielles de Facebook s’enchainent et ne se ressemblent pas, à un détail près : toutes concernent l’accès à nos données personnelles. Evidemment, lors de toute mise à jour, le réseau social réadapte sa charte de confidentialité en conséquence, limitant ainsi toute réclamation des utilisateurs quant à la diffusion des données fournies par nos soins lors des inscriptions, publications, identifications et autres. Sauf qu’en 2007, apparaissait une problématique majeure qui ne cesse de hanter les utilisateurs: Facebook s’ouvre aux applications diverses ce qui augmente la notoriété du réseau social, et décuple en parallèle l’accès aux données personnelles. L’exemple le plus signifiant est l’application Take This Lollipop qui en 2011 a fait couler une certaine quantité d’encre numérique. App Advisor Et les applications dans tout ça ?
s February 2013 Trend Briefing covering the consumer trend "VIRGIN CONSUMERS" NEWISM is not only about the accelerating pace of innovation, it's also about fueling consumer appetite for the new, which has never been higher. Mainly, hyper-competition has led to the ‘new’ no longer being seen as a tired marketing ploy from old brands. Instead, new products and services ARE now actually often more surprising, more convenient, more intuitive – and thus better – than established alternatives, if there are alternatives to begin with. And the ongoing megatrend towards consumers demanding brand honesty too – which new brands unencumbered by legacy can embrace more quickly and effectively than anyone – means that new brands are often more trusted or even respected than their familiar, historied counterparts. Just look at the tech sector (the ultimate NEWISM poster child): in mid-2012, the Ouya games console raised USD 1.2 million less than 24 hours after its launch on Kickstarter.
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Business Models on the Web | Professor Michael Rappa Business models are perhaps the most discussed and least understood aspect of the web. There is so much talk about how the web changes traditional business models. But there is little clear-cut evidence of exactly what this means. In the most basic sense, a business model is the method of doing business by which a company can sustain itself -- that is, generate revenue. The business model spells-out how a company makes money by specifying where it is positioned in the value chain. Some models are quite simple. Internet commerce will give rise to new kinds of business models. Business models have been defined and categorized in many different ways. The basic categories of business models discussed in the table below include: The models are implemented in a variety of ways, as described below with examples. Business models have taken on greater importance recently as a form of intellectual property that can be protected with a patent. Hear the podcast: Audio | Transcript Things to read: