Motivational Speech by Gary Vaynerchuk

The speech by Gary Vaynerchuk at this year’s Web 2.0 Expo in New York is informational, astonishing and really funny at the sime time.

And he’s right: “Stop doing things you hate”.

World’s First ePaper Magazine Cover

“The 21 century begins now” - this is the headline of the october issue of the Esquire Magazine in USA. The Publishing Company has teamed up with E-Ink Technologies to realize the World’s First E-Ink Magazine Cover.

Newsstands have never seen anything like Esquire’s October edition. Its cover blinks. Meanwhile, its inside cover also features a blinking Ford ad. The digital enhancements are all a part of the Hearst publication’s 75th anniversary as well as its attempt to pioneer a new magazine publishing concept. 100,000 of the battery-powered covers were hand-assembled by work crews in China and Mexico. The limited issues of the Esquire Magazine were sold out immetiatly.

What is really surprising that beside the complicated assembly of the magazine, the logistical part was also a big challenge. Due to the hot summer the magazines had to transported in refrigerated trucks.

The technology behind can be compared to eBook Reader Amazon Kindle.

Here is a great video of the cover of the magazine.

And here you find an interview of the CEO of the publishing company.

Share Economy

How open is our economy? Are you willing to share information online? Is Social Media really important for the internet users?

Here are some interesting facts recently published by ShareThis and Forrester.

• Email is still primary channel for sharing – 69% of adults cite email as the primary source of sharing information.
• Less than 1/3 of online adults said they learned about the new content from generally shared content sources such as YouTube, a wiki, or social networking sites.
• 84% of people still use the traditional cut and paste method to share a URL or information
  Though the primary motivation for sharing differs, 81% of adults claim that they share to help others – believing that a person will benefit from the information they share.
• Sharing increases site traffic 2x, thus increasing ad dollars or revenue for publishers
  Men are more likely to share recommendations and videos than women; 77 percent of adult males and 74 of younger males shared news and web links.
• Women are more likely to share products or ideas they like via easy or direct sharing methods (ie texting).

Slideshow of the Day - Mobile Media

My presentation yesterday about “Mobile Media” became the Slideshow of the Day today at Slideshare.net
Nice

Bill Gates in Pyjama

Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in a great Video Marketing Campaign for Microsoft Windows.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/

The Top 20 of Social Networking Platforms

Here are the latest numbers of the Top 20 Online Social Networks.

Besides the well-known platforms like MySpace or Facebook there are some important trends and changes happening right now.
Elsewhere in the social networking space, Facebook continued to narrow the gap on MySpace, a trend we also noticed last month. Unique visitors to the site grew to 38.2 million, representing a more than 10% month-over-month increase and a 100% jump year-over-year. MySpace saw 61.3 million unique visitors – up slightly from last month, but still essentially flat compared to the same period last year. And business network LinkedIn grew 146% year-over-year to 10.8 million unique visitors.

Twitter is apparently growing rapidly. According to stats just released from Nielsen Online, Twitter recorded 2.3 million unique visitors in August (US-only), an increase of 422% from the same period last year. Moreover, visitors to Twitter spent 55% more time on the site on average – a total of more than 7 minutes per user. Those numbers point to rather robust growth for the site, especially considering many of its most rabid users access it through a third-party client like Twhirl or Tweetdeck.

Corporate Social Map of LUMIX Panasonic

Check out the Corporate Social Map of Panasonic Lumix created by Ahead of Time.
In 2008 the term „Social Map“ was highly discussed among bloggers worldwide. Here are some Examples of personal Social Graphs. Since then visualizations of personal Social Maps have been published, shared and discussed by individual Bloggers within the Blogosphere. These Social Maps created an intense discussion about digital reputation and digital identities. For companies a so-called Corporate Social Map is still very new and an unusual methodology, but also very effective and meaningful.

Your company, brand or product is already present in Social Media. You will find customer reviews, voting, rankings, comments or recommendations on different opinion-portals, blogs or social networks. Often people are sharing their positive or negative experiences with your product in public and even send their thoughts to their peer groups, friends or colleagues. A Social Map shows where these conversations take place, how intense the discussion actually is and how you can actively participate.

Definition Social Map:
A „Social Map“ is a visualized Analysis of a digital identity of a person, brand or company. A „Social Map“ shows exactly where a digital identity is created, formed or discussed and sets each element in context and proportions.

Download the full Whitepaper and the Social Map Illustration here:

Ahead of Time organized european knowledge exchange program for japanese delegation

The japanese Knowledge Dynamics Initiative (KDI) sent a high ranking delegation to Europe in August 2008. The topic of the Knowledge Bechmarking Program is called “Driving Innovative paradigm management”. The goal of the management program was to exchange Knowledge-Management, to analyse best practice-examples, and to put knowledge into practice for their own organizational transformation.

The program in Germany was organized by Ahead of Time and included several expert keynotes, company visits and networking events. The japanese delegation met and discussed with experts from BMW Group, Fraunhofer Institute, Swarovski, Nokia Siemens Networks, Siemens and others.

“Monty Metzger and his team at Ahead of Time was the perfect partner for us. Their network, their experience for management travel and close connection to the industry leaders were essential for our benchmarking program. The participants profit from relevant knowledge, new energy and inspiration by meeting innovative leaders. We are looking forward to collaborating furthermore with ahead of time in the future”, says Yayoi Kubota, Head of the Knowledge Benchmarking Program at KDI Fuji Xerox.

About Ahead of Time
Ahead of Time is an international Innovation Agency and provider of high-level management exchange programs, such as Manager Tours.

About Knowledge Dynamics Initiative and Fuji Xerox
Knowledge Dynamics Initiative (KDI) is a think tank team inside of Fuji Xerox. KDI provides
benchmarking, research, and consulting services to their Japanese clients. Since 2000, KDI is conducting a research study and practice with Mr. Rory Chase of Teleos, American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) and Professor Ikujiro Nonaka (Xerox Distinguished Professor, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley). Currently, there are 50 Japanese major companies who are aiming for innovation and knowledge-based management in our “Knowledge Community.”
Fuji Xerox, a joint venture of Fuji Film and Xerox, provides digital imagine and printing equipment to the Asian market. Its products include digital printers, digital copiers, multi-function machines, projectors, engineering plotters, image processing systems, fax machines, and related software.

About KDI Knowledge Benchmarking Program
Since 2001, we have been leading Knowledge Management Best Practice studies with the
Knowledge Community members, visiting companies in the U.S., EU and Japan. KDI has
formed a close partnership with the (APQC), the largest benchmarking and knowledge
management research organization in the world. With this partnership, KDI offers benchmarking studies of leading KM best practice corporations and research results of cross cultural approach in KM. We have studied 26 US companies, 15 European companies and 34 Japanese companies who demonstrated best practice in the field of KM and Innovation.

Best Conferences & Events 2008/2009

I am often asked to which conferences I go and where I get my inspiration from. That’s why I compiled this list of important and innovative conferences for the upcoming months. There’s almost one event per month where you could go to. Enjoy.

Web 2.0 Expo

PICNIC

Mediadays Munich

Web 2.0 Summit

Monaco Media Forum

LeWeb Paris

DLD (Digital, Life, Design)

World Economic Forum - Annual Meeting

TED - Ideas worth spreading

NEXT Conference

The Wall Street Journal presents D: All Things Digital