A Source Of Inspiration

By us, i mean the 275 co-authors of “The Age Of Conversation: Why Don’t People Get It?”, this year’s edition of The “Age Of Conversation”, a collaborative book on the future of marketing, which i was proudly invited to co-author (thanks Drew, Chris and Gavin).

Having blogged about it last year, i haven’t actually reviewed it, something that i should get used to - isn’t it cool when Joseph Jaffe sends you his book to review - as i’m now reading several great inspirations (you can find my current reading on the left). The least i can do to help these great community effort (profits are donated to charity), is to ask my great readers:

Grab yourself a Age Of Conversation book

The Age of Conversation book “brings together over 100 of the world’s leading marketers, writers, thinkers and creative innovators in a ground-breaking and unusual publication.” All of the proceeds generated from book sales and referrals will be donated to Variety, The Children’s Charity. Using the link above, all referral fees will (again) be donated to charity.

This is a global effort, and one more great example of the collaborative power the web has brought to us. I’m truly excited to be a part of this year’s book authors:

Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Beeker Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Ufff. That’s a huge set. More blogs than a feed reader could manage, so a book it’s one of the best ways to get a grasp of their author’s insights. Wait, don’t close the window yet. If you’re not inclined to buy the book, there’s other ways you can help.

• Blog about it, using the referral link to the Amazon
• Twitter about it, with a #AOC hashcode
• Digg Chris post or save it on your favorite social boookmarkeing service
• Talk about it with your friends, by email, IM or by the water cooler.

And let’s indeed have a conversation. I now that with Twitter, FriendFeed et al, you’re probably hanging out at other cool places, but i miss your comments. Drop a line once in a while, so the leprechaun that writes for this site feels appreciated. Thanks.

Having just read Seth Godin’s book Meatball Sundae, it was a lot of fun seeing him showcased in one of his purple cows, the blender video series from Blendtec. Here’s the video:

Altough at first i was expecting the victim would be the whole book, this was a nice take. And again, do buy the book (and please offer a few more to those old fashioned monolitic CMOs you always complain about).

What if all of your delayed book orders arrived on the same day ?
You’ll get a good reading list for design technologists, something to keep you busy for the next 3 months.

So, here’s what came with the mail:

• Meatball Sundae (just offered 2)
• PPK on Javascript
• Creating Flash Advertising
• Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL
• Life After the 30-second Spot
• Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning
• Presentation Zen

Meatball Sundae is the book every CEO should read next year. Or any CMO. Or any senior manager. What the heck, EVERYBODY should read it. And it shipped today.

A meatball sundae is the unfortunate result of mixing two good ideas.

The meatballs are the foundation, the things we need (and sometimes want). These are the commodities that so many businesses are built on.

The sundae toppings (hot fudge and the like) are the New Marketing, the social networks, Google, blogs and fancy stuff that make people all excited.

The challenge most organizations face: they try to mix them. They attempt to slap new marketing onto old and end up with nothing but a failed website.

This book explores the 14 trends that are changing our world and how organizations can either embrace them or be punished by them.

Lynette Webb has just released her “Interesting Snippets” book, available for sale at lulu.com, with part of the profits donated to the Battery Hen Welfare Trust, a UK charity organization.

For those who don’t know Lynette, she has a fantastic flickr set, with slides describing the changes in online and media. She works for Isobar and is a guest author at Future Lab.

Besides being self published, the wonderful thing about this book is that photos are all from flickr users thanks to a creative commons license, with Lynette carefully selecting quotes for the captions on each slide. I often use some of her slides for presentations and even have been inspired to create some of my own, so it’s wonderful she has pulled this digital resource out of the web into paper.

Great work, Lynette (and co-photographers) !

Scarcity is always a straight way to get your campaign a boost. Or so they think at Amazon.de, where they plan to release the german version of “Harry Potter and the deathly hallows” the next 27th.

Instead of lining up at the stores perhaps there’s a better way: open up a huge bookshelf on the Internet, where the user can reserve their “own” Harry Potter book, even weeks before the official release.

You can choose and customize your own book on the virtual shelf, with the exact position of he book being saved, so you can remember were you left your books (i wish i could say the same with real books).

Credits:

• Site: www.hp-buecherregal.de
• Client: Amazon.de
• Web agency: Web Guerillas

Today’s marketers need to integrate crowdsourcing, co-creation and collaboration as part of their vocabulary, as Drew McLellan, Gavin Heaton and fellow co-authors seem to do, successfully releasing their book “The Age of The Conversation” yesterday, a 3 month collaboration between 100 bloggers.

The resulting book, The Age of Conversation, brings together over 100 of the world’s leading marketers, writers, thinkers and creative innovators in a ground-breaking and unusual publication. And in the spirit of conversation, you can follow-up and extend your interest in the topics covered in the book at the Age of Conversation blog — www.ageofconversation.com.

With articles by personal favourites such as Greg Verdino, Cord Silverstein, David Polinchock, Richard Huntington, Tom Fishburne, Gareth Kay or Roger from Creative Think, the book has also some interesting contributions such as a google map with all the authors or the cover by the ever inspiring David Armano.

Over 100 of the world’s leading marketers contributed with a chapter, with part of the profits going to a children’s charity fund. As i’m inclined to save some trees (and it’s cheaper), i’ll get myself an electronic version at lulu.com/ageofconversation.

It’s not as big as Wikipedia, but it’s a damn fine example of “architecture of participation“.