CrapHammer

"We will see," they say...

It happened again.  Two days since the inauguration and three people have uttered the words "We will see," in regards to Barack Obama.  They appear to speak from a place of doubt and dread, as if the hope for drastic change was too much to ask for.

I feel the same forces.

But let's look at what this Administration has done in these 2.5 days in office, shall we?

• Launched whitehouse.gov on an open community platform with updates, RSS feeds and more.
• Created the space on whitehouse.gov where non-emergency executive orders will be available for five days of public comment before signing
• Called for a suspension to the trials at Guantanamo Bay
• Signed an executive order for the closure of Guantanamo Bay.
• Created an inter-agency task force to identify lawful options for how detainees are handled and treated.
• Halted the use of torture by America and it's agents.

And last, but certainly not least, he wrote a manifesto in memo form for open government that caused me to break into tears.  It is based on three principles:  Transparency, Participation, and Collaboration.

"Administrator of General Services, to coordinate the development by
appropriate executive departments and agencies, within 120 days, of
recommendations for an Open Government Directive, to be issued by the
Director of OMB, that instructs executive departments and agencies to
take specific actions implementing the principles set forth in this
memorandum."

An Open Government Directive.  Within 120 days.  Holy shit.  But it gets better.  He then directly attacks those who have worked to weaken the Freedom of Information Act.

"In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The Government
should not keep information confidential merely because public
officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and
failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract
fears. Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the
personal interests of Government officials at the expense of those
they are supposed to serve.."

I'm assuming this is legitimate.  It's not yet posted to whitehouse.gov (ironically).  Source: http://www.dowire.org/notes/?p=451

I started this post in answer to this urge to wait and see.  For how long, I have to ask?  Barack has done more in his first few days than I could have ever dreamed possible.  But if we think this is about him, then he will fail. This is about each of us around the world, regardless of our citizenship, and whether we will choose to take action and make our community a better place.

This global crisis affects us all.  And not all of us are so lucky as to have a leader with such moral strength and conviction.

UPDATE:  What am I doing?  I'm going to changecamp.

Long Tail of Branding and PSFK Salon January 30

I'm working on a few posts but in the interim I've come across a few tidbits I felt are worth sharing.

1)  The Elongating Tail of Brand Communications.

Mohammed Iqbal presents a compelling view of the future of brands.  He looks at the growing inefficiencies inherent in traditional media and where emerging trends such as transmedia fall short (an inability to go far enough to "forego the single minded brand proposition".)  His attacks on "Lord Saatchi" and the "one word" approach are a bit caustic but a delightful breath of fresh air.

"Most of the considered reaction was an unequivocal rejection of the disingenuous and un-layered simplicity a One Word Equity exercise leaves behind. Simplifying was one thing, simplicity was another."

I recommend this paper quite highly.  Iqbal applies the economics of the long tail to our world of marketing and advertising.  He looks at where the barriers between supply and demand are eroding and lays out some very innovative ideas around the opportunities that are emerging.

Download a copy of the whitepaper here.

2)  UK - Good Ideas Salon London

Piers from PSFK contacted me about their upcoming Salon on January 30'th.  I have to give Piers credit.  PSFK remains one of the only "trend" firms I still follow.  They offer insights versus making up new "trends" to sell their clients every quarter.  His email to me was also a classic example of how to engage someone like myself.  He reached out to me personally and referenced the collaboration panel as he knows I'm all about collaborative design and research.  I wish just ONE "social media consulting/pr/outreach" firm would learn this lesson as I'm really tired of the form emails.

Anyway, I highly recommend any chance to mingle with Piers and his staff and wish I was in London so I could attend...  ;(

You can find out more here.

Semantic Clustering for Nomenclature Purposes

Sometimes I need help.

Like when I stay up all night on a weekend writing a deck on "Semantic Clustering for Nomenclature Purposes."

All I can say is that it is Matthew Milan's fault. 

Enjoy.

Semantic Clustering for Nomenclature Purposes

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Semantic Clustering for Nomenclature Purposes by Sean Howard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License.