Permission To Suck

Can I Get a Witness?

Monday, October 26, 2009

Testimonials are equal exchanges: nothing is more powerful than familiarity with greatness when attempting to strengthen a network. When I ask you to like me, you feel the emotional risk immediately unless I have a network of allies sending a clear message that my greatness is authentic and tested.

Creatives & The Hope Economy: What Do We Do Now?

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

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Ideas are cheap and plentiful and offered like opinions at a political rally. Talent is everywhere, making us indignant that those with it aren’t better off. Yet companies aren’t looking for talent so much as marketable talent nor ideas so much as marketable solutions. Marketable mediocrity is preferred over unmarketable brilliance or talent with low ROI. So should we be appalled when creativity is harvested like feed corn as soon as the network bandwidth (see “The Long Tail”) is wide enough to sift it as though panning for gold?

“Do It Because You Like It” – Dan Pink

Monday, September 14, 2009

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Our default is to be risk reluctant and to think things through to a logical end with no deviation from task. We narrow our purpose and use our craftiness to get to the finish line as fast and as free from criticism as possible – we go with what we know when under pressure. Perform with all eyes on you and you’ll do what it takes not to fail, together with relying on a tested formula for success. ----> In his TED video presentation, Dan Pink gives an outstanding presentation – argument if you will – for what science asserts truly motivates us. Dan explains that there is a mismatch between what science shows and what business does. Business wants innovation, yet motivates us to be formulaic with a narrow view of problem solving.

More Crowdsourcing – Jeff Howe Video

Thursday, September 3, 2009

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In this Video Jeff Howe - contributing editor at Wired - explains the what, why, and how to take advantage of a radically changed landscape. Jeff Howe first brought Crowdsourcing to light through an article in Wired Magazine back in 2006.

CrowdSpring Design – good, bad, or ugly

Monday, August 31, 2009

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CrowdSpring.com is a site that connects crowdsourced design projects with those who are willing to do the work on spec. - which means, do the work with no guarantee of payment. In fact, the odds are that you won't see any money at all. Crowd Spring is no healthier to the Design industry than iStock Photo is to the professional photo industry but it's a fairly ingenious way to harvest the long tail of design. Crowd sourcing has become the public option for media services. PTS in no way endorses CrowdSpring; we're officially neutral but welcome all comments.

Crowd Source This

Monday, August 24, 2009

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This is a marketer's Public Option: Leverage the intelligence of crowds. Collectively we are smarter that any one of us. This is utterly rational until conventional practice leads us to design by committee and the psychotic paralysis of group think. Harnessing the creative horde - without the pitfalls that brought us the Bay of Pigs disaster - is what Crowdsourcing attempts to do. The long tail has caused an atomization of marketing dollars and crowdsourcing is one of the new spray cans.

SOUR ‘日々の音色 (Hibi no neiro) – Co-Created Video

Friday, August 21, 2009

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In this Video: BBH band fans world wide submitted webcam footage for this co-created celebration of the band's music. It's an example of crowd sourcing creative content. Crowd sourcing is somewhat controversial because many professionals feel they are being at once undercut, but also that non professionals, when tapped through crowd sourcing, contribute to the marketing efforts of large companies that return millions in profits without being justly compensated.