Polymer Studios::Web Consulting

Marketing heresies

30. September 2008

In preparation for a discussion called “Marketing Heresies,” which I’m instigating at tomorrow’s UnSummit “unconference,” I’ve tried to jot down a few statements that I hope will spark some discussion. I’m sure I’ll be shouted down on some of these and taken to task on others for lack of evidence, but hey, heresies are beliefs [...]

Is “it” in you?

25. September 2008

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My wife, who is a teacher at St. Paul Schools, has been working with Karen immigrants for the past couple years. These folks come from Burma, but have been chased through the jungles by the Burmese Army for more than 50 years. To a person, the Karen people my wife has met all have stories [...]

A massive, subprime bailout of links

24. September 2008

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Oh my, has it been a week since we last talked? If we follow each other on Twitter, then it’s probably been more like a few minutes, as that’s where I’ve been spending/wasting my time. Which brings us to the first in this cavalcade of content: Graeme Thickins, of DoApp and Tech~Surf~Blog fame, ponders whether using [...]

UnSummit wiki goes live

18. September 2008

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The UnSummit08 wiki is up. From this point forward, the wiki will have the most current information about the event, including: Attendees Location Topics

Announcing UnSummit08

17. September 2008

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Whatcha doing on Oct. 1? Did you clear the day for the MIMA Summit but didn’t get your tix in time? Or are you looking for a different kind of Summit? Announcing UnSummit08, a conference for the rest of us. The disenfranchised. The disgruntled. And those of us who simply failed to register on time What’s the [...]

Social media: What’s keeping you from wading in?

15. September 2008

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There’s a fair amount of hand-wringing on the part of marketing execs over what to do with social media (aka Web 2.0, Social Web). It’s on the news and in the papers, so the CEO hears about it and asks the CMO, “should we be doing that?” And so the lukewarm potato gets handed downward [...]

Cut-and-paste learning

7. September 2008

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It just might be true that everything you ever needed to know you learned in kindergarten. Check out the work done by Commoncraft. They create videos that use paper cutouts and white boards — a process they call Paperworks — to explain complicated software and technology concepts. As someone who has created his fair share of [...]

Four octaves of wonderful strangeness

6. September 2008

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Yma Sumac is a singer who was famous in the 50s. Her particular gift was an amazing four-octave range, which you can hear in this song, Pachamama. It’s from the 1954 movie Secret of the Incas. (via Alejandro at Peru Food)

Windows dressing

6. September 2008

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I’m certainly not the first and won’t be the last to comment on the new Microsoft, Seinfeld/Gates ad. But sometimes, you simply have to vent your spleen. I learned of Microsoft’s Hail Mary attempt to revive Vista a few months ago in Fast Company (”Can Hotshot Ad Guy Alex Bogusky Make Microsoft Cool?“) and remember thinking: [...]

A category 2 hurricane of links

2. September 2008

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Look, you don’t have time to read a full post and I don’t have time to write one. So, let’s just click on some links and pretend we never had this discussion. (It’ll be our little secret.) WSJ Blog: Selling online software (a.k.a., SaaS – Software as a Service) isn’t as easy as previously thought. Requires [...]