Chapters include topics like Conversational branding, Influence, Getting to work, Corporate conversations, Measurement, In the boardroom, Innovation and execution, Pitching social media and Identities (the topic I wrote a short essay for).

With cover illustration by Chris Wilson and our new publisher Channel V Books (from co-authors Gretel Going & Kate Fleming), i’m counting on you to order a copy once it’s released, specially considering the sales profits are donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Get to know the rest of the authors or follow the Twitter AOC3 list created by  Steve Ponder:

• Adam Joseph
• Priyanka Sachar
• Mark Earls
• Cory Coley-Christakos
• Stefan Erschwendner
• Paul Hebert
• Jeff De Cagna
• Thomas Clifford
• Phil Gerbyshak
• Jon Burg
• Toby Bloomberg
• Shambhu Neil Vineberg
• Joseph Jaffe
• Uwe Hook
• Steve Roesler
• Michael E. Rubin
• anibal casso
• Steve Woodruff
• Steve Sponder
• Becky Carroll
• Tim Tyler
• Chris Wilson
• Beth Harte
• Tinu Abayomi-Paul
• Dan Schawbel
• Carol Bodensteiner
• Trey Pennington
• David Weinfeld
• Dan Sitter
• Vanessa DiMauro
• Ed Brenegar
• David Zinger
• Brett T. T. Macfarlane
• Efrain Mendicuti
• Deb Brown
• Brian Reich
• Gaurav Mishra
• Dennis Deery
• C.B. Whittemore
• Gordon Whitehead
• Heather Rast
• Cam Beck
• Hajj E. Flemings
• Joan Endicott
• Cathryn Hrudicka
• Jeroen Verkroost
• Karen D. Swim
• Christopher Morris
• Joe Pulizzi
• Leah Otto
• Corentin Monot
• Karalee Evans
• Leigh Durst
• David Berkowitz
• Kevin Jessop
• Lesley Lambert
• Duane Brown
• Peter Korchnak
• Mark Price
• Dustin Jacobsen
• Piet Wulleman
• Mike Maddaloni
• Ernie Mosteller
• Scott Townsend
• Nick Burcher
• Frank Stiefler
• Steve Olenski
• Rich Nadworny
• John Rosen
• Tim Jackson
• Suzanne Hull
• Len Kendall
• Amber Naslund
• Wayne Buckhanan
• Mark McGuinness
• Caroline Melberg
• Andy Drish
• Oleksandr Skorokhod
• Claire Grinton
• Angela Maiers
• Paul Williams
• Gary Cohen
• Armando Alves
• Sam Ismail
• Gautam Ramdurai
• B.J. Smith
• Tamera Kremer
• Eaon Pritchard
• Brendan Tripp
• Adelino de Almeida
• Jacob Morgan
• Casey Hibbard
• Andy Hunter
• Julian Cole
• Debra Helwig
• Anjali Ramachandran
• Jye Smith
• Drew McLellan
• Craig Wilson
• Karin Hermans
• Emily Reed
• David Petherick
• Katie Harris
• Gavin Heaton
• Dennis Price
• Mark Levy
• George Jenkins
• Doug Mitchell
• Mark W. Schaefer
• Helge Tenno
• Douglas Hanna
• Marshall Sponder
• James Stevens
• Ian Lurie
• Ryan Hanser
• Jenny Meade
• Jeff Larche
• Sacha Tueni and Katherine Maher
• David Svet
• Jessica Hagy
• Simon Payn
• Joanne Austin-Olsen
• Mark Avnet
• Stanley Johnson
• Marilyn Pratt
• Mark Hancock
• Steve Kellogg
• Michelle Beckham-Corbin
• Michelle Chmielewski
• Amy Mengel
• Veronique Rabuteau
• Peter Komendowski
• Andrea Vascellari
• Timothy L Johnson
• Phil Osborne
• Beth Wampler
• Amy Jussel
• Rick Liebling
• Eric Brody
• Arun Rajagopal
• Dr Letitia Wright
• Hugh de Winton
• David Koopmans
• Aki Spicer
• Jeff Wallace
• Don Frederiksen
• Charles Sipe
• Katie McIntyre
• James G Lindberg & Sandra Renshaw
• David Reich
• Lynae Johnson
• Jasmin Tragas
• Deborah Chaddock Brown
• Mike O’Toole
• Jeanne Dininni
• Iqbal Mohammed
• Morriss M. Partee
• Katie Chatfield
• Jeff Cutler
• Pete Jones
• Riku Vassinen
• Jeff Garrison
• Kevin Dugan
• Tiphereth Gloria
• Mike Sansone
• Lori Magno
• Valerie Simon
• Nettie Hartsock
• Mark Goren
• Peter Salvitti

Can’t wait to read the great thinking from the “fellowship” !

While working for companies with start ups and online marketing and PR, she also helped bring passion to the communities she’s involved, and continued her involvement with Shift as a Super Duper Advisor :).

Photo by redsoda747, all rights reserved

Unfortunately, i wasn’t able to attend the talk where Henriette presented the ideas on the book, but as a big fan of her personal rockband, i’ve asked her a few questions she kindly accepted to answer.

Henriette, Toothless Tiger, avant garde social business expert: who are you really ?
Who am I really ? I am a lady from the north hunting integrity, authenticity, remarkability, creativity, and trustworthiness in business all over the world. I am a first mover within tech and business and how to implement the ways and ideas of the internet in organizations. Heck some people even call me a guru =)

At Shift, we had a first glimpse on “why every company should be a rockband”, that has now been self published as a book. Sounds like there’s a story here, and i’d love you to share how this book was born and the main ideas discussed on it.

Well the book was born because my own book deal in Denmark got canceled. it’s not that I cry myself to sleep every night over it, it just shows that when you’re battling in places where i am battling – the publishing industry does not understand. I have felt it on my own body that publishing houses wants to make everything mainstream. I think mainstream is so incredibly boring and without attitude. It makes everything become normal. meh. Anyway I decided to make my own publishing house (called Toothless Tiger Press), where nothing had to be mainstream – it could be as quirky and strange and wonderful excentric, and all the power over the works had to be in the hands of the author. To make Toothless Tiger Press I needed to have an ebook. People at shift really loved the talk so I decided to work a bit longer on the slides and turn them into an ebook. It collided with my blog post on the 7th of December on 24ways.org – it was a blast and now it’s out there and people are sending me mails to say thank you – it rocks =).

The main idea in the ebook is that the world has changed and it doesn’t look a bit like “business as usual”. Still we conduct business as usual. s. It heavily related on some blogposts I have done on toothlesstiger.com for the past year arguing that “the business of business needs to be more than business”. and that’s the main idea. It’s a way of changing the world. which is also why I hope that everybody will read this ebook and react on it, and spread the ebook like wildfire – in some way – making something more.

Bands have groupies. Companies have …
groupies too and fans. Groupies are the hardcore people surrounding your company and who can’t live without it. Fans are more moderate. You need to work on getting people who purchase your products to first become customers, then to become fans, and if you’re lucky they will become groupies as well.

We’re both very interested in creativity. Bands have it, the web as lots of it, but companies are usually stifling it. Are companies behaving like the music industry instead of focusing in being rock bands?
I think that the creativity is lacking in companies because of control. In some companies it’s extremely hard and I think that some companies are acting as the music industry. let it go man. You can’t control the chaos of the web. it should not be managed – it should be lead. so let go of the command and control mentality, it doesn’t really belong in a rockband (or in the music industry – but I guess they are waking up to see that)

Game time. Match each one of the brands / companies below with a rock band.
(I haven’t given these much consideration so I hope I won’t be held responsible that much)
Nokia : R.E.M
Motorola: Lordi

Nike: MGMT
Adidas: Daft Punk

Ford: Sisters of Mercy
Honda: Nightwish

PriceWaterhouse: The Pogues
Accenture: The Corrs

McDonalds: Hanson
Ben&Jerry’s: spice girls

Pepsi: The Doors
Coke: Janis Joplin

Amazon: Coldplay
Google: Red Hot Chili Peppers

H&M: Abba
Zara: Manu Chao

Head on to Toothlesstigerpress.com and get your piece of a rockband for your company today.

Update:
Added links to the original concept and the talk’s slideshow.

Book cover by David Armano

I am fortunate of being part of this conversation as a co-author, doing my best to promote this initiative (expect a podcast next week), as proceeds of the book, available in hardcover, softcover an a downloadable e-book, will be donated to Variety, the international children’s charity.

Each author contributed with one essay, with mine entitled “A new brand of creative: Things fall apart”. To know more about AOC2, you can check out the site at The Age Of Conversation.

If you appreciate my writings or any of the other authors, you can buy AOC2 at Lulu.com.

Last year, he wrote a book on Actionscript 3, and just when all was set to publish, the whole process went void(0). So what’s a writer to do? Well, of course, in the best spirit of Flash community: let’s opensource-it !

Thibault has now released the full Actionscript book, “Pratique d’ActionScript 3″, in PDF for download. FREE. Not as in beer, but it gets close.
Be a good sport and remind to hit that Paypal button. I donated a cheap 5€, the least i could do considering all the hard work Thibault had. And it’s a fine way to refresh my French skills.

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.

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).

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

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.

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) !