Talent imitates, genius steals

What You Talkin Bout?

I've signed up to write a chapter of the second Age of Conversation blogbook - contentiously entitled Why Don't People Get It?

I'm not sure who these people are, or what exactly they don't get about conversations - Jason suggested that it refers to the marketing status quo - nor am I sure that I totally get it, whatever IT is, but that's not going to stop me writing something, possibly inspired by Gary Coleman.

[Sidebar:

[Sidebar to Sidebar: Do I actually need to say Sidebar. I guess not. It's obvious. I'll knock that on its head. I think it started because over here in New York people say "Sidebar" when they want to head off on a conversational tangent. It's interesting when conversation picks up self-conscious literary tropes - except for the bunny ears quotation marks fingers thing, as they're never used to designate quotations, which is just annoying. I wonder if I should start saying (parenthesis) in conversation. Probably not.]

Remember when the Segway Personal Transporter was referred to as IT, or Ginger, and people suggested it was going to change the world, and speculation about it got so intense the inventor had to release a statement to people saying it wasn't really all that? The curiousity gap in effect. That's what's so inspired about JJ Abrams Mystery Box idea - revealing what's in the box will always be a disappointment. Especially when it's a gyroscopic scooter.]

Once again the proceeds of the book will be going to Variety - so this is officially a GOOD THING - and this time around 275 very nice smart marketing adverblogger people have offered words - so there's guaranteed to be some great stuff in there, despite my contribution.

Here are the assembled volunteers:

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

Yo Bum Rush The Show

I've summoned the spirit of Chuck D and Flavour Flav to encourage you to buy the Age of Conversation today, if you haven't already and were thinking of doing so at some point.

It's gone on sale on Amazon, which will hopefully get it to a wider audience, and so make more money for Variety the Children's Charity, which is a GOOD THING.

Some of the architects [and friends of] the book have organised a bum rush today to push the thing up the Amazon charts in the hope of capitalising on cumulative advantage and, well, selling even more copies, to make more money for Variety.

So go and do it. It's good for you.

And each chapter is only 400 words, making it ideal for reading in the smallest room.

Pengrin: Non Linear Narrative

The ever experimental dudes at publisher Penguin UK have something new brewing.

Ever since the emergence of the idea of hypertext, literature geeks [like myself] have been thinking about how non-linear narratives might be constructed.

You don't need clickable links to be hypertextual - Nabokov's staggeringly brilliant Pale Fire is a non-linear novel of sorts, where the exegetical footnotes to the preliminary poem are themselves the [meta]narrative.

But if you believe, as I do, that the generation that has grown up naturally creating their own hypertextual narratives as they click their way through the web, that transmedia narratives that leverage the true media behaviours of this generation are coming to the fore, and that people should read more in general because reading is for awesome people, then the time is ripe for another pop at hypertextual literature.

Jeremy has put a teaser post up on the Penguin blog, which suggests they might be up to just that, and with Dan Hon / Sixtostart, masters of the ARG, involved the results are bound to be interesting.

Go sign up here and see what's through the looking glass.

A little less conversation, a little more action

Last year Drew and Gavin pulled together 100+ bloggers to write a book that was sold for charity, raising $10k so far for Variety.

They've got a new one hatching for 08 and are looking for authors and help deciding a topic.

So if you want to blog for good, head over and ping Drew.

Green is Normal

I went down to AKA last night for the launch of John Grant's new Book - The Green Marketing Manifesto.

It was great fun - saw some of the usual suspects, met a few lovely new people, and generally messed about. Although moving on to the End afterwards for raving has made today challenging.

John always staggers me with how he doesn't seem to have notes or anything prepared and then can just talk for 40 mins and sound brilliant. It's such a useful skill - I'm lost without my PowerPoint.

Anyway - the book is going to be awesome - and John is doing a blogger outreach - free books for links - that I'm now claiming as I didn't pick one up last night.

Interesting Snippets

The lovely Lynette has possibly the coolest job in the business - Director of Futures for Google UK.

As Alan Kay said, the best way to predict the future is to invent it and Google is one of the few companies that can lay claim to actually doing so.

Lynette has been sharing her Interesting Snippets via Flickr for a year or so now - they are basically ready made slides to steal looking at the impact of digital - and she's compiled the first year into a book via Lulu, the proceeds of which are being donated to the Battery Hen Welfare Trust.

Ideal stocking filler for that special planner in your life.

Another Sky - Neo-Patronage

So I posted about book sampling, which led me to Cooking with Booze, which led Neil to point me at Daisy Bennett's' unpublished manuscript, which she is trying to get published by crowd sourcing on facebook and blogging and that.

But, as Neil points out in his post, there are loads of interesting experiments in publishing happening at the moment, one of which my mate Carlos showed me today.

Another Sky is a new kind of publishing company:

At Another Sky Press we do things a little differently. In addition to making our books available for free online, copies of our books are sold at cost plus optional contribution. 100% of contributions go directly to the individuals involved in the project. If you dig us, please spread the word.

They call this neo-patronage: you decide how much something is worth after you've experienced it and if you can't afford it, that's fine:

Art should be for all, not for those who can afford it. Contribute when you can, if you can. Don’t feel guilty if you can’t contribute to every artist who you’ve enjoyed. Instead, be proud to contribute at a level that is comfortable to you both ethically and financially.

[Don't you just want to give them money?]

A model recently mainstreamed by Radiohead.

Inevitably with this model you encounter a version of the free rider problem, but I'd like to believe that kindness and decency that lies beneath this distributed patronage isn't a fallacy:

Everyone that puts out a project via Another Sky Press believes in you. We want to share what we create with you and with everyone. With your support we believe we can make the world a better place - one in which art defies commerce yet still manages to put some food in the belly of the artist.

We want everybody to win.

George's Favourite Commercial

I've been reading George Parker's Madscam on and off for a while now [since he very kindly gave me a copy following an impromptu beersphere with Charles, Hugh and Ruby.]

[Btw - the next Beersphere is scheduled for 8th Nov - keep the date and that. I'm just trying to decide on a venue. Any suggestions, please drop me a line.]

It's excellent stuff - as vitriolic about the Big Dumb Agencies [BDAs] as George always is on his blog AdScam - but also full of useful, practical stuff gleaned from many decades as a creative and consultant, delivered in a way that doesn't patronise the entrepreneurs it's aimed at.

And it's hella funny.

Anyway, in it George mentions in passing that the best commercial ever is this spot for VW from DDB:

Think about it. Why would you want to say anything more? You have captured the viewer's attention with the drama of the opening....The announcer's resolution of the mystery is perfect.

So George - this one's for you.

Cooking With Booze

The internet's brilliant.

In this morning's exciting dollop of TIGS we were talking about giving content away for free being a viable business model / promotional mechanic for selling books. Then I had a nice chat in the comments with a chap called James and it turns out he's doing just that.

James has written a dipsomaniac cook book under the nom de plume George Harvey Bone. Since he's a geek, he's also released it online under a creative commons license and done a bunch of other neat geek things like a mobile site - so you can check recipes in the shops on your interphone.

Legendary. The book was launched only 4 days ago so pop over to the site and buy a copy, making you the envy of your less well informed friends and proving us creative commons types right at the same time.

Book Sampling

Picked this up this morning whilst waiting for coffee - it's a book sample: the opening chapter of The Battle for Big School, distributed via postcard racks.

Now it hasn't made me want to buy the book [I don't think I'm the target audience - according to the blurb it's a "fab, girlie read"] but it's still a good idea.

If I was a publisher, I'd have the first chapter of every book I sold available for download.

In fact, I think I'm with Cory Doctorow on this - I'd probably have the entire book available for download, for free, like he does here.

Books are currently in an extremely fortuitous position with reference to the internet, which is disrupting other information based businesses like music and that, because although it's the content that we want, it's the combination of content and form that makes books what they are.

So giving the content away for free makes sense - as Cory points out e-books are "social objects":

It wants to be copied from friend to friend, beamed from a Palm device, pasted into a mailing list. It begs to be converted to witty signatures at the bottom of e-mails.

Which gives you massive reach for no cost. And when it hits the right people, the audience that it's right for, they will go and buy it because reading a book doesn't work on screen.

At least not until we get e-paper sorted out.

Then we'll see, Cory, then we'll see.