Are you designing, making and/or selling products to the Chinese Consumer?

This book takes a shot at understanding how the Chinese look at themselves; their society, how they make personal and commercial choices:

• Why family and social stability take precedence over individual self-expression and the consequences for education, innovation and growth;
• Their fundamentally different understanding of morality, and why Chinese tolerate human rights abuses, rampant piracy, and endemic government corruption; and
• The long and storied past that still drives decision making at corporate, local and national levels.

Highly recommended.

Click for Table of Contents and Overview.

US Patent & Trademark Office has recently published a new patent application of Apple's that reveals they're working on a next generation 3D Holographic-like display system.

In one application, Apple's display system would automatically authenticate a user, greet them and provide a customized desktop for just that user. Something along the lines of how new computer car systems will adjust the seat and controls for a particular driver.  

The Holographic-like displays are based on a projection system and in many cases the impression given is that these systems would apply to applications as diverse as video conferencing, scientific modelling, entertainment and perhaps even forensics.

Think of the (US) TV show ‘Bones’ and their use of a device called holographic ‘angelator.’  One of the unique aspects of this invention is that users won't be hassled with 3D glasses or headgear of any kind.

Modern three-dimensional (3D) display technologies are useful in many area across  gaming, medical diagnostics, flight simulation, air traffic control, battlefield simulation, weather diagnostics, entertainment, advertising, education, animation, virtual reality, robotics, biomechanical studies, scientific visualization, and so forth. 

At the high end of the computational power spectrum, the same technological advances that permit intricate object databases to be interactively manipulated and animated now permit large amounts of image data to be rendered for high quality 3D displays.

Think of the benefits for collaborative multidiscipline design/engineering, sales pitches, retail sales displays, et al? 

And when this tech is integrated in devices such as the iPAD and iPhone - well - good bye 3D TV!

The Bootstrapper's Bible: Guide to Starting a Business with no Money!

This is a free (for two weeks) manifesto for the Entrepreneur with ideas but with empty pockets.

It comes form a great authority Seth Godin former V.P of Marketing Yahoo and now Uber-Marketing Consultant and Author of multiple books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work.

Click here for free copy.

How to do the best work of your life

A book called: The Flinch.

It’s about how to push your own barriers and how to do things that scare you.

Seth Godin called it: “a surprise, a confrontation, a book that will push you, scare you and possibly stick with you for years to come.”

If it’s even that good, the question then becomes, how can you, the reader, make something so great that even you are unsure of how it was made?

7 Steps to the Best Work of Your Life

1. Burn your bridges. I was conscious of the fact that I would never get a chance to publish under Godin’s Domino Project again. I knew that if I screwed it up, I was done. You do your best work with your back against the wall, when you are uncomfortable and you put yourself in freefall, on purpose.

2. Grow an eye in the back of your head. Your blind spots, whether they are laziness or settling for anything sub-par, will kill you. I had people the entire way telling me to make it better, over and over again, until I practically cried and didn’t know how.

3. Be willing to suffer. Forget about the “starving artist” myth. Starving is easy– deprogramming is hard. Because you are a human being, you are programmed to settle in one way or another, and breaking that programming will hurt. Get used to it– it’s the only way to make something exceptional.

4. Be comfortable making something that people will hate. No one will love your work unless it has an opinion– and with an opinion come those that disagree. The first person outside of our little circle that saw the work did not like it at all, perhaps even hated it. This is also how I knew that I had something that some people would fight for.

5. Consider the future. In the future, books either cost $50 or $0. They are frictionless and those that travel the fastest and spread the widest, win. Make your work as close to the future as possible– but only 6 months, not 18 months. If you’re too far in the future, it’s possible no one will get it.

6. Sharpen your idea. This part is damn hard. Only when the idea became “the flinch” did I know that I had an idea that was sharp enough to travel. Every other idea had too much friction, too much difficulty to be expressed. When the idea marketplace is saturated (and it is now, more than ever), your idea needs to be more graspable than ever before, because you only get one chance.

7. All content must be spreadable. Quotes in 140 characters. Links in the text. New phrases that stick in people’s minds. Everything must be a part of your “marketing campaign”– even in a book that’s basically unsellable. The best quote from Godin on this was, “make it a poem that doesn’t rhyme.” There is so much information out there now that your work can no longer simply be commerce– it must also be art.

Clicking here to view.

Raising Angel & Venture Capital Finance.

by Tom McKaskill.

If you are at the start-up stage of new innovative venture and/or potential first time Entrepreneur, then this is a good book on the rising funds side of the equation. Full of hints, where to look and practical approaches.

Click here for free (yes) copy!

Free on-line: ‘Democratizing  Innovation.’ 

by  Prof. Eric Von  Hippel.

One of my favourite books by Prof. Eric Von Hippel: ‘Democratizing Innovation,’ is avilble free on-line.

 Personally Hippel is in my top ten all time authorities on customer centric innovation.

Even if the concept of ‘Innovation’ at the ‘Strategic’ level is newish to you, the book  is well thought-out and easy digestible.

Basically he says – his long term thesis – that customers are not only beginning to own the innovation process, they are – especially with digital products/processes/content  – way down the line in knowledge and knowhow.

Hence companies had better not only start listening to customers, but bring them in as co-innovators, semi-owners of the innovation force from end-to-end.

It’s a good A-to-Z on how to implement such a strategy.

Click here for eish-book.

How Can Strategic Viral Marketing Increase Web Site Traffic to My Blog?

There is so much misunderstanding about viral marketing. Most people think it’s a magical and unpredictable mix of tricky videos, luck and having friends with big lists.

It’s time to stop the insanity!

This is a story taken from the real life experiences of several dozen bloggers all rolled up into one person who is named Chris. Perhaps you share his pain.

Chris looked at his blog stats and frowned. It was so frustrating that despite all his posts full of useful information –  despite all his keyword research –  he couldn’t seem to get more than 10–20 visitors a day to his blog.

Since he was blogging about what he’s building a business that he yearned to make profitable, his lack of success seemed to toll a death knell for his efforts.

Despite his usually sunny disposition, he found himself feeling frustrated and overwhelmed with all the work he was putting into his business with so little result.

Have YOU ever felt that way about your blogging results?

Viral Marketing to the Rescue!

With some mentoring, JoAnne finally realized that what she did on her blog itself was only a small fraction of what was needed to build her thriving business.

The blog is the heart of her business, as it should be, and marketing is the blood that flows through the veins leading to the heart.

marketing a business requires referrals, great resources, useful information, success stories and –  most of all –  raving fans who become evangelists.

JoAnne discovered some very valuable lessons, like…

·         How offering something free can still be a source of revenue

·         How to find out what readers crave and give it to them

·         How to properly use the social networks as they’re intended

·         Fun ways to get readers to do the work of spreading the message

·         Specific techniques for determining customers’ wants and needs.

He came to realize that viral marketing isn’t just plopping up a video on YouTube and hoping it would “go viral.” There is a strategy to causing a message to spread.

It doesn’t happen by accident.

Hope is NOT a marketing plan!

Chris also discovered that you still have to “sell” free. People are more guarded about giving away their email address and less likely than ever to read emails.

As he developed his expert voice, he gained people’s trust. So even his free offers got more attention.

He learned that having a strategic system is the ONLY path to success. Without a plan, she could plan to fail.

Most of all, Chris found out the power of leverage. As other people spread his message FOR HIM because of his articles, resources and partnerships, he found it easy to increase web site traffic.

Now, he smiles when looking at his stats, because he sees more and more unique visitors coming to his blog. He also sees more money coming into his account, because those visitors are turning into paying CUSTOMERS.

Doesn’t YOUR blog need a (click) viral marketing frenzy?

Of course it does!

This resource looks like a book, but in actuality, it’s a month-long COURSE in viral marketing that takes you by the hand and walks you through the best and fastest ways to increase Web site traffic using viral marketing methods.

Take a look at the first week of lessons:

• Day 1: Create a Compelling Squeeze Page
• Day 2: Create a Freebie to Encourage Prospects to Join Your List
• Day 3: Create Your Autoresponder Series
• Day 4: How to Avoid Freebie Seekers

• Day 5: Where to Find Potential JV Partners
• Day 6: How to Approach Potential Partners With an Irresistible Offer
• Day 7: How to Create an Affiliate Program that Attracts Super Affiliates

Strategic Viral Marketing

Strategic Viral, brand driven, marketing is one of the most strategic weapons available in the marketing Arsenal. This weapon, if deployed effectively and accurately, allows you to touch the “core” of your demo with messaging, imagery and a targeted “injection” that connects them with the brand.

With the increasing use of digital & social media marketing, viral “injections” can be achieved on many different levels. The most effective campaign is a clearly defined strategy of continuous messaging through events, promotions, products and branding. Each and every one of these “fuel the passion” for the brand advocates. Never taken for granted, and always “engaged”, the brands that effectively manage this balance and stay “true” to their foundational principles will build a following others will envy.

“Why join the Navy, when you can be a Pirate..”

                                                                                    Mr. Steve Jobs

This messaging must be achieved through a coordinated effort of the marketing force in the field creating the content, and the digital marketing team converting the relevant brand content. I say relevant, as to many brands build digital content for sake of building content, though no true brand connection exists. This is the most difficult part of building a “Viral” strategy, and one that needs a “pipeline” to ensure content is continually flowing, and your advocates are engaged AND interacting. Interaction is the “key” to gauging your success. If all you are doing is building content down a one way street, with no active/mutual engagement with your “core” base, then you have done nothing more than build a mountain of digital content that no one cares about, and may in the long run damage the brand and your base.

Define your “Viral” content Strategy…

Build “Relevant” Content…

Actively “Engage” your “Core”…

Viral marketing is truly a powerful weapon, but make sure you deploy it effectively, and with a strategy before pulling the trigger. Done effectively, watch your infection base grown and the passion for your brand build.

i.Bar installed at London's swanky Soho Nightclub 24

Glass act ... glasses become linked

It has an interactive drag and drop-style display like Tom Cruise's character used in sci-fi flick Minority Report.

And can be programmed to display any image, for example a Stella logo could appear when a pint is placed on it or footage of grapes when you plonk your plonk on top.

The technology - which is still in its infancy - is the brainchild of Danish computer whizzes.

They've come up with dozens of flash animations that react to touch and glasses that are placed on top.

Up until now, the machines have mainly been used for corporate jobs, such as a perfume counter version for Chanel which went down a storm.

But bosses are keen to expand further into the booze market, with big ideas for the future of pubs.

  Luxury Blimp Hotel: Well, Tell Me What You Think?

LIFTOFF! Even though this 'Aeroscraft' dwarfs the largest commercial airliners, it requires less net space on the ground than any plane because it doesn't need a runway. The airship takes off and lands like a helicopter: straight up and down.

It's a sort of flying Queen Mary 2 that could change the way you think about air travel. It's the Aeroscraft, and when it's completed, it will ferry pampered passengers across continents and oceans as they stroll leisurely about the one-acre cabin or relax in their well-appointed staterooms.

Unlike its dirigible ancestors, the Aeroscraft is not lighter than air. Its 14 million cubic feet of helium hoist only two thirds of the craft's weight. The rigid and surprisingly aerodynamic body-driven by huge rearward propellers-generates enough additional lift to keep the behemoth and its 400-ton payload aloft while cruising. During takeoff and landing, six turbofan jet engines push the ship up or ease its descent.

This two-football-fields-long concept airship is the brainchild of Igor Pasternak, whose privately-funded California firm, Worldwide Aeros Corporation, is in the early stages of developing a prototype and expects to have one completed by 2014. Pasternak says several cruise ship companies have expressed interest in the project, and for good reason: The craft would have a range of several thousand miles and, with an estimated top speed of 174 mph, could traverse the continental U.S. in about 18 hours. During the flight, passengers would peer at national landmarks just 8,000 feet below or, if they weren't captivated by the view, the cavernous interior would easily accommodate such amenities as luxury staterooms, restaurants, even a casino.

To minimize noise, the aft-mounted propellers will be electric, powered by a renewable source such as hydrogen fuel cells. A sophisticated buoyancy-management system will serve the same purpose as trim on an airplane, allowing for precise adjustments in flight dynamics to compensate for outside conditions and passenger movement. The automated system will draw outside air into compartments throughout the ship and compress it to manage onboard weight.

The company envisions a cargo-carrying version that could deliver a store's worth of merchandise from a centralized distribution center straight to a Wal-Mart parking lot or, because the helium-filled craft will float, a year's worth of supplies to an offshore oil rig. "You can land on the snow, you can land on the water," Pasternak says. "It's a new vision of what can be done in the air."


Click here.

Stop what you are doing! Get into >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Jeremy Gutsche: Trolling for trends and capturing cool

'You want to converse with Jeremy Gutsche about his work, be prepared to discover a new language.While ‘clusters’ may be chocolaty-almond delicacies and ‘sparks’ a function of electricity in your lingo, to Jeremy they’re the constructs of the massive ‘trend’ universe he’s created online.

The founder of Trendhunter.com, along with his worldwide army of ‘trendspotters’ and ‘cool hunters,’ are akin to modern-day explorers trooping through their local cultural jungles in search of trends. If those same trends show up in someone else’s cultural jungle on the other side of the world, they’re destined to explode worldwide.

At the tender age of 30, Calgary native Jeremy revels in what he calls his dream job, one that, in fact, reflects a number of his hobbies. “Trendhunter.com encompasses all of the things I like to do – random pursuits, new ideas, graphic design and programming, to name a few. I’m doing my hobby and I love it.”

Click here for free copy of his high energy book: 'Exploiting Chaos.'


And click 'WoW' to watch his lecture.

I have no idea what the Bus is all about, but it looks Kool. Purple Cow eat you heart out.

Madness of Crowdfunding: Millions Mingle to Raise Millions

Sounds MAD but Crowdfunding is a recently new way to get microfunding for innovation projects. 


I say recent because it's at least 5 years since the first ventues kickstarted. 


However, they have already raised many billions of dollars from once disparate, now socially interconnected people.


Take what the Crowdfunding website has to say.

'Crowdfunding is very much related to online communities and social networks. The crowd can already exist as a community but they can also suddenly form from disparate groups around the world who all happen to share an interest in funding a person, project, event, campaign, etc.

Crowdfunded networks can assemble and disassemble at any time. This is the primary difference to traditional co-ops. Influence of the crowd is another factor. 

The fundamental principles of crowdfunding are embodied by the Kapipalist Manifesto, written by the Kapipal founder Alberto Falossi.

Kevin Lawton and Dan Marom published the 1st book about the CrowdFunding Phenomena: ‘The CrowdFunding Revolution | Social Networking meets Venture Funding.’ 

Click 'Kickstarter' and see what they say and have done. 


Here's a snippit:

‘At this very second, thousands of people are checking out projects on Kickstarter. They're rallying around their friends' ideas, backing projects from people they've long admired, and discovering things that make them laugh and smile.  Every project is independently crafted, put to all-or-nothing funding, and supported by friends, fans, and the public in return for rewards.

The filmmakers, musicians, artists, and designers you see on Kickstarter have complete control and responsibility over their own projects. They spend weeks building their own project pages, shooting their own videos, and brainstorming 
what to offer as rewards.

Rewards are things like a copy of what's being made, a limited edition, or a custom experience related to the project. This isn't Best Buy, rewards aren't shrink-wrapped and ready to ship. Once the project is funded, the journey to bring them to life begins.

Every project creator sets their project's funding goal and deadline. If the project succeeds in reaching its funding goal all backers' credit cards are charged when time expires. If the project falls short no one is charged.

Since our launch in April 2009, more than 24,000 creative projects have been successfully funded by awesome people from around the world.

But Kickstarter is about much more than money...

Since launching in April 2009:

§  $250 million pledged to projects

§  2 million people have backed a project

§  24,000 projects successfully funded

People come to Kickstarter to build community around their projects. It's inspiring to be supported by people you know, and amazing to connect with strangers who are discovering your ideas for the first time.

The feedback, press, and love that can come with a Kickstarter project are just as valuable as the money raised. Ask anyone who's done it before. There's nothing like it. ’

Crowdfunding Platforms:

1. 1.        Kickstarter
2. 2.        IndieGoGo
3. 3.        GoFundMe 
4. 4.        RocketHub
5. 5.        GiveForward
6. 6.        AppBackr
7. 7.        Crowdfunder
8. 8.        Fundable
9. 9.        Peerbackers 

Or Click here to view 'crowdfunding' in more detail.

'Brands are made in the mind. Products are made in the factory. Design connects the two.'

Would you believe that 'not seeing the obvious' is a designers or marketers most nerve retching experience when they do eventually see something they should of thought of. 


How many times have you said 'I should have thought of that.' Or ''How did they think of that.'

Well, what about decorating your house! Ever thought of decorating the outside?

The Italian wallpaper company Wall & Decò is known for creating exquisite, large-scale mural-like wallpapers that define a room. They are widely used in hotels and restaurants, and for private residences by interior designers.

At the Fluorisalone 2012 in Milan, Wall & Decò introduced a new wallpaper system designed for the outdoors.

Their OUT - Outdoor Unconventional Textures - system is a three-part covering that allows for incredible photographic reproductions and large-scale graphic designs to be applied onto outside walls. The system consists of an adhesive, a technical fabric and a finishing treatment.

The designs introduced in Milan included a Bauhaus look, a black-and-white OP pattern, tile-initiations and even military camouflage. We believe this is an idea that has staying power, and that it will expand and improve as feedback from early users comes in. 

How influential are you in your social-networking or Tweeter accounts?

There's something emerging on the Web called your 'Influence Graph.' How much you impact your interest group.

For PR and Marketing people this could turn out to be a new killer app. For small business and Entrepreneurs this could up lift the chance of success.

Even for big business, higher education and trend commentators, this could give more KLOUT in your favor the social group.

Click here: Klout measures influence on line