How simple is Web 2.0?

I like making sure we draw lines between simple and accessible, but could Web 2.0 really be as easily explained as this?



The only fault I'm thinking is the x100 - connections are still one to one, just on a mass scale.

Image courtesy of my mate Alex - if anyone knows the original source please let me know so I can give proper credit.

**Update** Turns out I thought the image must have come from someone other than Alex, when it did in fact originate with him. This is not because I thought him not capable of extraodinarily insightful cartoons, more so because, much like Jesus having walked the Earth, the idea deities occasionally walk among us is somewhat hard to believe. There you go. Alex White, genius personified!

Mission accomplished - SMS Coffee

It was a sweet victory for Hyde who will be opening the Dancing Goat Cafe on King Street in the city in two weeks, after having run a drive-through "cafe" from a caravan in Preston for the past four months. Half of his clients ordered their coffees by SMS.

I went along to the Victorian barista championships on Saturday to cheer on Talor Browne who makes one of my favourite cups down at Brother Baba Budan. She got to the finals, which is a fantastic effort for her first competition, I'm more so excited about theemergence of SMS Coffee.

Now that that's sorted, time to get back to saving the world.

Viral; one connection at a time

Earlier this year in one of my regular guises as copywriter-to-the-stars, I wrote an EDM piece for a competition that began "Oh hai." It was a pure-play in my mind at the folk who would know instantly what I was talking about and at none of the people who wouldn't. In hindsight it perhaps wasn't the brightest move to make, but I was feeling something in my gut at the time that Seth articulated really well recently - in order for people to feel like they belong, some people have to feel like they don't belong; to have insiders you have to have outsiders. I wanted the people who got it to understand a fundamental truth about the brand I was writing for. They did, but I also learnt very quickly that the audience I had in mind was smaller than I thought it was - at least for that particular brand.

We live and learn.

Anyway, for those that don't know, "Oh hai" has its roots in LOlcats, made most famous over the past 18 months by the emergence of I Can Haz Cheezburger. Their CEO, Ben Huh gave a talk this year at the Web 2.0 conference (the same conference featuring the inimitable Gary Vee) about the success they have achieved - almost 100 milion page views a month! His take on things is really simple and a great lesson lies herein for marketers, Ben is focused on two things:

1. Facilitating 1-to-1 connections


2. Making people happy for five minutes a day

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Take some time to watch it this morning, it'll make you smile. Oh, found via Dino who is organising this week's BeerSphere in Toronto.

Happy Monday everybody.

Beersphere comes to Melbourne on Thursday, November 13th!

Your friend and mine, Faris Yakob decided to organise a get together in New York of Planners, social media folk, general riff-raff the kind of which your mother warned you about. Obviously we can't all attend that gathering so instead November 13th is International Beersphere Day, where a gathering just like that goes on in your own backyard (if your backyard happens to be one of the places it is being organised.)

Those who call Melbourne their backyard should come along to Red Hummingbird, 246 Russell Street, just up from the corner of Lonsdale from 6:30pm. We'll meet on the rooftop as I'm banking on the weather being lovely (currently predicted to be 29 degrees!), if you haven't been there before you will see a red birdcageover the entrance.


My friend Tim will be there, as will a bunch of others whose blogs I do not know the addresses of. Wait I can probably steal them from Jules...here we go, I am pleased to offer an extra-special invite to:


Pigs Don’t Fly, I Hate Ads , Simon Says , The Gruen Transfer , ProBlogger, Brand DNA , The Wayfarer , PR Disasters , Pixel Paddock, In my atmosphere, The Zeitgeists, Current Issues in Marketing Strategy , FRANKthoughts, Wonderwebby , Marketing Today, Gen Y Marketing Podcast, Marketing Geek , Marketing Easy, A blog about digital media, The Body Shop Activist

...as well as anyone else who'd like to join. Pre-requisites for attending are a) you are not an asshat and b) you like alcohol.

If you're not in Melbourne, take a look below to see if a gathering is happening near you, otherwise you can organise one! Get in touch with Faris or myself, we will steer you in the right direction.

View Map

The Date: Thursday November 13th 2008

[That's next Thursday]

The places - well....

New York [with me]: Obivia, 201 Lafayette Street from 6pm. [Happy hour runs until 8pm and there should be some free Ketel One splashing about too. Don't say I don't look after you.] MAP.

London [with Rachel and Co]: Will meet 6.30pm onwards at the Commercial Tavern, 142-144 Commercial Street, London E1 6NU. We've got the upstairs bar. See you there! Details.

Toronto [with Jason and Dino]: 6:30pm The Bedford Academy, 36 Prince Arthur Avenue. [Featuring interpretive dance by Dino, and late evening partial nudity by Jason.]

Sydney [with Julian]: Sydney Beersphere at 6:30pm, at The KB, 26 Foveaux St, Surry Hills right next to Central Station so there is no excuse. Details.


Berlin: [with David]: Berlin Beersphere is from 7pm at PonyBar (alte schönhauser strasse 44 10119 berlin-mitte). MAP.

Boston: [with Conner and Gareth]: Bukowski’s @ 50 Dalton St, Boston, Map.


Shanghai, Brisbane, Bucharest also going to take part hopefully - will update you once I have details confirmed.

See you Thursday, call me on 0404078686 if you run into trouble. I look disturbingly like the guy in the Facebook link to the right of this post.

Oh, and drop me a line if you're going to come along and I'll add you to the list of blogs above.

A lesson in being remarkable from IDEO

They say: IDEO's Gobal Chain Reaction Experience.

I say: Show me a more remarkable business card from a design and engineering firm.

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I forgot to say - found courtesy of FRANKthoughts' Tamir, who will hopefully be Beersphering with us on Thursday.

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• IDEO Sets Up Ridiculously Large, Continent-Spanning Rube Goldberg Device [Ambition]


• The Incredible IDEO Global Chain Reaction Experience

Three of the best for Marketers

My friend Matt put up a great post - The Ten Best Marketing Tips Ever. I'm not crazy about all of them, but these three are gems:

1. Make your customer service truly remarkable. No, seriously, you don’t understand. Not good. Not brilliant: remarkable.


2. Find time to get active in your industry association. Offer to be secretary and do an amazing job. Do extra stuff that no one wants to do and do it really well. You’ll be a captain of industry in six months.


3. Engage your customers properly, start conversations with them online and offline (you know, like, when they’re in your store) and do it because you want to, not because it’s the latest fad. Smile like you mean it.

Some thoughts:

• Remarkable is such a good idea, and so under the radar still. Take it, eat it for breakfast. Own it. Be it.


• I was telling my new friend Lisa, there's always an opportunity to be a thought-leader, and she's reaching out to small businesses on Queensland's Sunshine Coast and making a really positive impact by just being good. If you're in that area and need a hand, get in touch with her.


• Passion counts for more than degrees and experience and networks combined. Full stop. Look at my friend Jules for proof of that.


• Matt references Gary Vee's brilliant talk from the Web 2.0 conference, which is required reading watching if you're a reader here ("Stop watching fucking Lost!"). The other great insight from that talk is (and I'm paraphrasing) "Listening is one thing, giving a shit is a whole other thing."

OK. Go enjoy the weekend.

Love & Marketing

So it seems Bob Dylan isn't the most obvious place for a lot of people when it comes to great marketing quotes and thinking, I however think there are few better places to start (and let's face it, it's a hell of a lot more fun than mining the books everybody else is looking at.

There's a short piece below expanding on why I think "You can't be wise and in love at the same time" is a great marketing idea.



Also check out:



Love Jones (fast forward to 5:20)

And The HughTrain Manifesto...

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