Dividing up elephantine-sized projects is something I totally dig, and it's always the result that is the most stunning. So when I stumble across a new company or platform that is bringing forward this type of solution through crowdsourcing, I get pretty excited, particularly when it benefits the non-profit sector (easily crushed by large tasks that they lack the resources to address). By divvying up a daunting task, responsibility, or problem into micro pieces, not only is the cost and workload distributed, but also the good effects. Here are a couple of cool companies that I'm following:
The Extraordinaries The Extraordinaries, a micro-volunteer network offers a platform to connect non-profits with skilled professionals. Non-profits submit requests…
There are many uses for Twitter - connecting with people, sharing status updates, promoting events, sharing content, generating support, finding employment - but one of my favorite uses of Twitter is to tell a story. Twitter can be used to engage your audience in your brand, and create a participatory entertainment environment in the service of your brand. Twittering Mad Men, Helen Klein Ross of Brand Fiction Factory (@BettyDraper@AdBroad) and Michael Bissell of Conquent (@Roger_Sterling@Bissell) refer to this as Brand Fiction. Read on to learn how they brought the AMC show Mad Men to life in the world of Twitter (earning them a Shorty Award), by employing Brand Fiction. …
One of the most frequent questions I'm asked is "What have you been reading lately." With increasing frequency, folks are beginning to inquire about what Podcasts I listen to as well. So I thought I'd share a list of my favorite podcasts with our readers. These picks run the gamut from design, to technology, to entrepreneurialism. Some of them are not updated as regularly as I'd like, but they are all thought provoking, interesting, and inspiring. You can find them all on iTunes.
The Accidental CreativeThe Accidental Creative podcast addresses how to thrive in the create-on-demand world by instilling practical, everyday practices that help you stay prolific, brilliant and healthy in your life
When I last blogged about webfonts back in March 2009 there was no clear-cut direction that type foundries or browser developers were headed with regards to using real fonts on the web. Designers were fed up with using the same short list of system fonts on their websites, and the only options at the time that allowed the use of non-system fonts were using images or Flash/JavaScript-based workarounds. In the last few months there have been many interesting developments, with two options currently leading the race.
@font-face and WOFF The @font-face rule has been around for over 10 years, first making an appearance with CSS2. It has remained largely under-used due to differences in each browser’s font…
The gang over at SmallerIndiana, have posted all of the video content from the Bigger Ideas Conference. If you missed the event, head on over here, to catch-up on what you missed out on.
I thought this was a pretty interesting presentation by Mint CEO Aaron Patzer. The same Mint that just sold to Intuit for 170 Million. He shares his thoughts on selecting co-founders, how to dole out equity, what to pay employees, etc. It's a pretty revealing look into Mint's early days.
The slide presentation, compliments of TechCrunch, can be found below.
Startup Building 101 -
I recently stumbled across Screenr, an online screencasting tool that offers "Instant screencasts for Twitter." True to its word, Screenr is a very easy way to capture screencasts and then share them on Twitter OR anywhere you'd prefer on the Internet. The application works in a very similar way to Jing and Screenjelly and desktop applications like Captivate and Camtasia, but Screenr ends up owning the content, posting the screencast to it's own unique URL and to a constantly updating public stream.
However, I'm not exactly sure what, if anything, this screencast recorder has to do with Twitter. From what I can tell, absolutely nothing. But I guess that's one way to draw mass appeal to a new product: say it's for Facebook…
This weekend, I had the opportunity to moderate (which is a bit of a stretch) a panel discussion on Web 2.0 and the future of software development at Camp Hern. Camp Hern is an informal gathering of mid-career executives and seasoned business leaders that takes place in various locales every year. This year's event took place from August 28-30 in Chicago, IL.
Our expert panelists for the discussion were Jason Fried, of 37 Signals (developer of BaseCamp), and Chris Baggott, of Compendium Blogware (and one of the founders of ExactTarget). The discussion was highly interactive and felt a lot more like a casual conversation, rather than a typical panel discussion. We gathered around an outdoor fireplace, at our host's home in…
About a month ago we wrapped work on a UX project for a web based health and fitness tool called Graphite (site launching soon). The tool helps users achieve weight loss and maintenance goals by tracking the calories they consume (eat) and the calories they expend (exercise).
The advantage Graphite has over more 'full featured' competitors is its simplicity (most competitors include things like exercise videos, fitness groups, profile pages, competitions, recipes, blogs, forums, calculators…). By being very intentional about limiting functionality, Graphite minimizes the effort and cost involved in integrating the tool with one's life. The painlessness of adoption ensures that users utilize the tool more frequently, and decreases the odds of attrition over time.
The simplicity of Graphite is of great benefit to its users. But, it was…
