Advanced Storytelling

I had a whole big post here about grassroots organizing and the web, using knitters as an example, but dude: One Yarn Harlot post = Hundreds of knitters invading Manhattan. Knitters on the Today Show . Do not mock us.

I've been giving myself a little Web 2.0 tutorial this morning, and ran across this video . Pretty cool, both content-wise and aesthetically. Not earth-shattering, but it did kinda make me go "yes! we are the web! we can change the world!" Kinda.

The Cluetrain Manifesto Maybe I'm just a sucker for anything that calls itself a 'manifesto,' but I can see myself having some really interesting conversations with some of my friends on this. I haven't read it all, but from the introduction: What if the real attraction of the Internet is not its cutting-edge bells and whistles, its jazzy interface or any of the advanced technology that underlies its pipes and wires? What if, instead, the attraction is an atavistic throwback to the prehistoric human fascination with telling tales? Five thousand years ago, the marketplace was the hub of civilization, a place to which traders returned from remote lands with exotic spices, silks, monkeys, parrots, jewels -- and fabulous stories. In many ways, the Internet more resembles an ancient bazaar than it fits the business models companies try to impose upon it. Millions have flocked to the Net in an incredibly short time, not because it was user-friendly -- it wasn’t -- but because...

This post is kind of a continuation on yesterdays's post, a meditation on the intersection between philosophy and business. Blogs and marketing Another Gaping Void blog entry that seems perfectly suited for me and the other PC students. A little late for our 'corporate blog' assignment, but god, does it make me want to get out there in the real world. Basically, I want to figure out what job I have to get so that I can hang out with people like Hugh MacLeod but not have to make pitch calls. Making pitch calls is the third circle of hell. The fifth through seventh circles? Again, I refer to Hugh:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we've reached the flustered-and-idealistic-grad-student-comes-face-to-face-with-impending-graduation- and-the-real-world phase of the year. I found this entry, A Corporate Whole in Philadelphia , a few weeks ago on Daily Kos. It reminded me of two things. The first was a Halloween party my senior year of college where a recent graduate came dressed entirely in white and red (including striped socks), and whenever someone approached her, pulled a Target job application out of her pocket and announced cheerily, "Hi! I'm a Corporate Whore! Would you like to work for Target?" It turns out that this formerly radical lesbian, though still a lesbian, was not so radical anymore, and was actually loving her job as a computer tech at Target headquarters. She'd come to terms with it, and could laugh at it. Still the best Halloween costume I've seen in awhile. The second was in a planning meeting for the annual May Day Parade in Minneapolis. The...

I feel like my last few posts have gotten a bit off-topic--I intend for this blog to be mainly about communicating, not just about myself. Anyhoo... For my marketing friends (I still don't know if I include myself here) I've been meaning to mention the Gaping Void blog for awhile. It's the blog of a London-based marketing guy. It's worth checking out just for his business-card cartoons, but he also links to a lot of cutting-edge web-based marketing people. And I think it's about time for my inevitable monthly link to Framing Science . I think I actually shouted out loud when I saw the Sports Illustrated cover on global warming. Awesome. If there's one communications thing that bothers me, it's preaching to the choir about music, and this most certainly is not. In any sense of that awkward metaphor.