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Traction #81: American Innovator

Photo above: Jack Dorsey by Art Streiber

Richard Coad [MDB CCO]

The word "innovation" has become the "word de jour." Corporate CEOs say there isn't enough of it. Visionaries say that our country will be hopelessly behind without it. Hundreds of books and articles have been written about it.

Of course, since it seems to be the current bandwagon, bureaucrats are calling for it, even though they don't know how to get it, teach it, find it, and fundamentally fear it.

The great science fiction writer Frank Herbert, author of the Dune series, had an interesting observation about this.

He said, “Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?”

Perhaps one way to better understand innovation is to look at a truly great innovator.

Jack Dorsey is one of the biggest innovators of our time. He has a low profile which probably has something to do with his personality. He describes himself as extraordinarily reserved and shy.  Ironically, he's the man who created Twitter. Some people say he's more of a nerd than Steve Jobs because he's a programmer. Many believe he's the intellectual successor to Jobs.

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categories: Creative, Technology, Traction Newsletter
Monday 07.01.13
Posted by gretchen carswell
 

Traction#76 The end of search as we know it?

BY: Kylea Knecht [Account Services]

Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) have been buzzwords in e-marketing for years now. There are numerous companies that have made a business out of those two little acronyms alone– making sure their clients are the first option for anyone looking for their services online.

But Sean X Cummings says there’s new technology on the block that will result in search spending becoming, “a pointless expense.” In this article entitled “How Siri is going to completely change your job,” [LINK] Cummings argues that mobile marketing is quickly becoming the name of the game. More and more consumers are searching and shopping from their phones or tablets instead of their computers, and marketers have to take that seriously or they may lose their jobs.

Meet Siri

In particular, Cummings says that anyone not taking Apple’s Siri into account in their mobile strategies needs to reconsider. Apple calls Siri an “intelligent personal assistant,” and “she” is programmed to understand conversational speech and find answers to questions like ‘Will I need an umbrella tomorrow?’ and solutions for problems like, ‘I need my oil changed.’ Siri will listen to your verbal question and then provide the best rated mechanic shops within 10 miles in just seconds.

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categories: Marketing, Technology, Traction Newsletter
Monday 06.11.12
Posted by gretchen carswell
 

What would we do without Scott Fahlman?

BY: RICHARD COAD [MDB CCO]

Who, you might ask, is Scott Fahlman? He’s a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1982 he suggested in an online bulletin board that the users type a colon, a hyphen, and a closing parenthesis when their post was intended as a joke. He wrote, “Read it sideways.”  :-) When they did, it looked like a smiley face.

This wasn’t the only solution suggested to the growing problem of users misreading the tone of sarcastic comments. Earlier, another user at Carnegie Mellon posted a hypothetical physics problem that involved an elevator, fire and mercury. Someone responded by saying the department’s elevator had been burned and contaminated, intending to imply that someone had actually attempted the experiment. The trouble was, most people didn’t get the joke. The next day, after the rumors had finally ceased, someone wrote, “Maybe we should adopt a convention of putting a star (*) in the subject field of any notice that is to be taken as a joke.” Of course, it was impossible to know whether the author of the hypothetical physics problem intended the post be a legitimate course of action or a joke.

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categories: Marketing, Technology
Monday 10.24.11
Posted by gretchen carswell
 

Apple vs. Adobe

By Alex Epner

When I first caught word of the debate over Apple not allowing Flash player on their iPods, iPhones, and iPads, I thought it selfish on the part of Apple. From what I can tell, pretty much everything runs on Flash. If I want to watch a video or play a game online, I’ve been prompted more than once with a request to download the newest version of Flash. Since it’s free and quick to download, it’s really no problem. For Apple to just black list them, well, that’s not fair.

Now, I happen to be a long time Apple supporter.  My family is on to our second iMac and I personally have a MacBook Pro.  So to hear about the evils of Apple truly broke my heart.  Investigating the matter for myself, I discovered a short article Steve Jobs wrote explaining Apple’s position on the disagreement.  After reading it, I realized that the argument was much more complicated than I had once perceived.  As Steve Jobs notes in his article (http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/), there are some very compelling reasons for black listing Flash from Apple mobile devices.

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tags: apple vs adobe
categories: Technology
Friday 07.16.10
Posted by gretchen carswell
 

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