How very cool!  Dutch designer Teun Fleskens has created a public seating product that literally rocks.  When someone sits downs it makes the piece move, which would naturally stimulate discussion among those who share the seat.  What a great way to break the ice.

Via Contemporist Read More

Normally I’d have been impatient and irritated. But tonight curiosity got the better of me as I stood waiting in the grocery store checkout line behind a woman with the biggest stack of coupons I’d ever seen.  Yes, I’m an admitted geek when it comes to observing consumer behavior (most of us in marketing are), but tonight I wasn’t the only one watching.  See this woman was making it clear to all those around her that she was getting her entire cart of groceries for under $15. Read More

There’s no question the traditional newspaper business model is facing profound challenges. The number of those willing to pay for home delivery is shrinking and advertising revenues are shifting as a result of increased options for local advertising… meanwhile costs are going up. Daily metro newspapers simply can’t make enough money to support their old traditions and they didn’t embrace or leverage change to their benefit.  Instead they “sold” web advertising as an add on, which diminished the value (plus most newspaper web sites stink).  Read More

I couldn’t help but smile and reach for my camera tonight as I glanced over and saw these two cats laying across my laptop.  They are two peas in a pod.  Elliot is the latest foster cat in the home for wayward animals (a.k.a. our house).
It seems everyone in our house has a soft spot for animals.  In addition to the standard fare like two dogs (both of which have since passed away) and cats (more on this craziness later), Read More

I feel incredibly fortunate.  My family is healthy and happy.  I have a great job.  A comfortable home.  And a little bit of a cushion should disaster strike.
But many aren’t so lucky.
Thankfully my circumstances are such that I’ve never needed to reach out for assistance.   But I’ve had lots of exposure to the enormous need as a result of serving on non-profit boards and through volunteer work.  To see a grown man or woman in need weep because they have no choice but to ask for help….to see staffers weep in frustration because there just isn’t enough to go around….is a humbling and eye opening experience. Read More

I have your Reader rather than a Kindle (I received it well before the Kindle frenzy). And your latest decision makes me feel very good about that.  And would probably sway not only my next purchase of an upgraded device to your brand, but also builds my loyalty your brand overall.  Bravo!

Dear anyone else that cares,
What decision?  On Thursday, Sony Electronics announced that by the end of the year it will sell digital books only in the ePub format, Read More

Textbooks for rent for the semester (i.e. a NetFlix for textbooks.)  What a simple, yet brilliant idea for the times!  And here’s why.
College textbooks (or any textbook for that matter) are outrageously expensive.  Last year we forked over nearly  $1,100 for my daughter’s college textbooks. At the time that seemed way out of whack to me and I attributed it to the specific cluster of science classes she was taking. But since then, I found some eye opening stats:

textbook prices have nearly tripled since the late 80s; Read More

I’m an avid reader…like a 5-book-a-week reader.  And I’m a digital zealot. So I love my Sony e-book.   And my family likes that I no longer have books piled everywhere throughout the house.  I load it with a dozen books at a time and that gets me through a week (or two).  It’s almost always with me.  But the last two weeks it was good old paperbacks that prevailed.
After less than an hour on the beach in Tahoe with my eBook I realized that it is simply not cut out for the beach.  Read More

There’s no doubt that sometimes the ties that bind us together are somewhat odd.  While doing some project research tonight I stumbled upon a wiki (actually a series of them) I hadn’t seen before, but I’ll sure go back again, and may well become a contributor because I laughed out loud (in my kitchen…all alone…with my cat staring at me oddly).
Although I started my night on a business mission to gather data and insights to build a audience segment model,  Read More

You missed out on something special if you weren’t able to attend the first Big Omaha conference last Friday.  Unlike many business, tech and web conferences I’ve attended over the years, this one left the hype, posturing and egos at the door.  Even with the stellar line up of big name presenters like Jason Fried, 37Signals (Basecamp), Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Library TV, Micah Baldwin, Lijit Networks, Read More