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June 29, 2007
Letter From the Magazine: Cultural Conflicts
A few days ago, Alan M. Webber, one of Fast Company's founders, stopped by our offices for a visit. He talked about a recent trip he'd made to Tanzania, where he toured a traditional village. The men still hunt animals for meat, he noted, and the women dig up tubers. Although the villagers know about modern conveniences like matches, they still choose to twirl sticks into stones to start a fire. The very idea of innovation and change is threatening to them, Webber observed.
As Americans, we can be just as stubborn--and conflicted--about maintaining our way of life. And that's understandable. We enjoy a degree of freedom, choice, wealth, and economic opportunity that is unparalleled in history. Who wants to change that? We know that the consumption of fossil fuels, for instance, holds risk. But no one really suggests we give up our cars or planes and go back to the old days. Does that mean that we are embracing change or that we are stubbornly holding on to the way things are?
Posted by Robert Safian at 6:59 PM
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A Fast Company Exclusive: Phil Knight Goes Hollywood
Nike's founder hoped his sons would come work for the multi-billion-dollar empire that he started in the 1960s by selling sneakers out of the trunk of his car. Maybe they’d even run the company one day. But that was not to be. “They made that clear from the beginning,” Phil Knight told me recently. They had to find their own passion.
Time passed, and life took a painful turn. And now, following the death of his older son, Phil and his remaining son Travis are working together for the first time. But not in athletic shoes. Despite the fact that neither has ever made a feature film, they're creating what they hope is the next great animation studio -- Steve Jobs, are you paying attention? -- called Laika Entertainment. Between production costs and a sprawling Nike-like campus that's in the works, Phil has committed about $180 million so far.
Fathers and sons. Legacy and tragedy. Grand ambition and a high-stakes gamble. The story of how Phil and Travis Knight wound up in the movie business is a surprising and intimate portrait that explores a number of universal questions. How much should a parent push or help a child? How does a child balance independence and the opportunities created by his parents?
The story -- The Knights' Tale -- appears in the July/August issue of Fast Company. It hits newsstands tomorrow.
Posted by Chuck Salter at 4:47 PM
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Bottled water: Answering a Math Question
A reader of “Message in a Bottle,” my story about bottled water from the new issue of Fast Company, asked a question about the sales and pricing numbers in the story. He didn’t think they added up — if we buy 50 billion bottles of water a year in the U.S., and spend $15 billion on that water, well, that comes to 30 cents a bottle for water. But you never see a bottle of water for 30 cents.
I emailed him an answer, but for other readers curious about the math that sometimes goes into a story, I’m posting my explanation below. I’m happy to try to answer other questions people have about the story, either emailed to me or posted at the end of the story.
And for those who missed it, NPR’s “All Things Considered” had an interview about the story on Thursday’s show. Robert Siegel asked good questions.
Here’s the explanation of the bottled water sales and cost numbers:
Continue reading "Bottled water: Answering a Math Question"
Posted by Charles Fishman at 4:05 PM
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Positive Deviance — A Surgeon’s Notes
It’s hard not to be both amazed and irritated by the career of Atul Gawande. Most of us struggle along in a single profession; Gawande is at the top of three demanding professions at once.
He is best known as a staff writer for the New Yorker on medicine.
Gawande writes with elegance and insight — at least in part because he’s a Harvard-trained surgeon, on the staff of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
And he’s the author of two books, Complications and Better, on how medicine and doctoring work, both of which have become bestsellers, and both of which show for us ordinary patients how medicine is both more human than we’d ever guess, and more amazing.
At its core, Gawande’s writing is about work and workplaces. For people working in medicine, their performance is always right in front of them: Did we, the patients, get better, and happily so?
Gawande’s current book, Better, is specifically about how to do better at work. It concludes with a bracing and simple prescription for what Gawande refers to as positive deviance — “five suggestions for how one might make a worthy difference, for how one might become...a positive deviant.” That is, how to do things differently in a way that lets you perform better, or more potently, no matter your job. Gawande’s thinking was inspired, in part, by a Fast Company story on positive deviance.
Gawande’s suggestions are aimed at doctors and medical students — they are detailed in a commencement address he gave at Harvard Medical School in 2005 — but we’d all be better at our work, better at taking care of ourselves, our customers, and our colleagues, if we follow them. Here’s a summary from the book:
Continue reading "Positive Deviance — A Surgeon’s Notes"
Posted by Charles Fishman at 3:50 PM
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Wal-Mart and Home Depot Join the Green Group
Recent articles about Home Depot and Wal-Mart have detailed the efforts these chains are making to bring green products to their stores as well as what they themselves are doing to decrease their impact on the environment. When the two biggest retail chains in the country want something, people listen.
Home Depot's initiatives are centered mostly on re-branding some of its current product offerings under its Eco Options program. Over 60,000 products claimed some sort of green quality, but Home Depot prudently narrowed the list down to 2,500. While that may still be a large number, it seems the company has a fairly rigorous process for determining whether a product should be included in the program. The problem is there are no standards for judging the environmental impact of items like spark plugs or rugs.
Who should determine these standards? The government? An independent agency? The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency are responsible for the Energy Star energy efficiency labeling. Standards on other products vary by state. It's a huge undertaking to figure out what exactly makes a product green, but it's necessary so we don’t get the kind of exaggerated claims Home Depot experienced at first.
Continue reading "Wal-Mart and Home Depot Join the Green Group"
Posted by Liz Webber at 12:34 PM
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June 28, 2007
For Nonprofits, Google Marks the Spot
Google rolled out a new program Tuesday to help nonprofits use its Google Earth tool to tell their stories through interactive maps. Along with some technical expertise, Google is offering up free versions of its $400 software to 501(c)(3) organizations through the Google Earth Outreach program.
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The project crystallizes some pre-existing partnerships between Google and some nonprofits that have already used the web tool to create their own "layers." These are basically digital sheets of icons, photos, text and other goodies that are blanketed over Google's satellite maps, which currently cover about a third of the Earth's surface.
Once you download the free Google Earth software, you can open an organization's layer file to view its map presentation. For example, you can open a mapping Google helped the U.S. Holocaust Museum make in April with photos and testimonies of the genocide in Darfur.
For regular users, Google Earth and Maps used to be more about "look ma, I can see our house!" than about charity, but Hurricane Katrina was a "turning point" for the software developers, according to Google Earth and Maps Director John Hanke. In the wake of the disaster, Earth displayed the effects of the flooding and was used by relief workers and families to rescue those who were stranded.
At Google, software engineers can spend 20 percent of their time on their own projects, Hanke explained, and they opted to work with over 100 public service groups in the last year to help them link "global issues to very specific, local realities" on Google Earth.
"This is a classic case where doing the right thing was a very good thing for our team and for the morale of our team," Hanke said at the New York launch event Tuesday.
Google-posted an hour-long video of the launch on its very own YouTube.
Posted by Elise Waxenberg at 4:34 PM
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June 27, 2007
Geico’s Gecko Gets Action
So here’s a question for you ROI vs creativity freaks out there: Is the growth in Geico’s market share --- the only player in the auto insurer category to achieve double digit growth over the past four years --- a function of its massive media spend (a whopping $501M in measured media, nearly twice that of any other insurer), or of its clever advertising? You’d have to be one of those effete “we never watch TV” types not to have seen Geico’s gecko, its disgruntled cavemen, or its B-list pitchmen spots at least once or twice over the past year or two. And if you watched the NBA finals, you can probably recite the scripts.
Advertising Age today documents the stunning results the company has gotten for its efforts. Meanwhile, we went behind the scenes at the Martin Agency, an ad shop in Richmond, Virginia, where the campaigns were hatched. So what is it? Engaging advertising or sheer ubiquity? Or something even more radical: a great product?
Posted by Linda Tischler at 3:10 PM
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The Sound of Silence, or A Hypothetical on the Demise of Internet Radio
Internet radio underwent a "day of silence" yesterday to protest the impending royalty rate hikes that will be levied on Web radio come July 15. The protest was orchestrated by the SaveNet Radio Coalition and included popular stations like Pandora, Rhapsody, Live365, and LA-based KCRW.
The controversy has been brewing since March, when the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board determined that webcasters would have to pay a per-play fee (instead of the existing -- and much preferred -- method of allowing small webcasters to pay a percentage of their revenue). Adding insult to injury, when the increase goes into effect, it will be retroactive to 2006 -- imposing rates that, in many cases, far outweigh the yearly revenue of Internet radio stations. (To check the math equations done by some incredibly ambitious Consumerist commenters, go here.)
Continue reading "The Sound of Silence, or A Hypothetical on the Demise of Internet Radio"
Posted by Aimee Rawlins at 1:16 PM
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June 26, 2007
Dell Does Its Little Turn on the Catwalk
Dell welcomed journalists to Macy's Herald Square today for the unveiling of a super-neat new mystery product. Seated next to a makeshift runway in the juniors department, we writers/bloggers/etc. chattily speculated about what the next big thing was going to be. Was Dell going to unveil an iPhone competitor? Or maybe some other kind of spanking-new gadget?
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What we got was eight models clad in all-white coats, bodysuits and thigh-high boots strutting down the catwalk as a projector flooded the area with various hues of the rainbow.
So what the heck was that all about? Dell's new Inspiron notebooks, obviously.
"What you're seeing is Dell in transformation – a different Dell," said Alex Gruzen, senior VP of consumer products, before defining each of the words in the line's new pitch: "Yours Is Here".
Why make the next design innovation color? (Because I know when I was watching the Dell guy replace my motherboard for the second time, all I could think was, 'gosh, I wonder why they don't make this in sunshine yellow.')
"Choice of colors is the beginning of taking personalization to the next level," says consumer marketing VP Zita Cassizzi.
The eight cover colors include a shiny, Mac-ish "Alpine White" and seven "micro satin" soft finishes in Jet Black, Espresso Brown, Flamingo Pink, Midnight Blue, Ruby Red, Spring Green and Sunshine Yellow. (If you're into the plain-old Dell gray, sorry, you're out of luck.)
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Besides the new shells – which you're pretty much stuck with once you buy, so choose wisely – there isn't too much different going on with the basic notebooks, which start at $769 for the 15.4" model. The overall design is similar, but a little sleeker; one neat new feature is free online back-up of 3 gigs for your first year. Other upgrades will cost you, but with the new notebooks you can add spruced-up perks like an integrated webcam, hi-def displays and integrated mobile broadband with service from Sprint, Verizon or AT&T.
If you want to upgrade to a sleeker box, you can pony up $1299 for the ultra-thin Inspiron notebook, the XPS M1330 "world's thinnest 13-inch notebook" at 0.9 inches thick, weighing just under 4 pounds with the battery in.
Right now the new Inspirons are only on sale online and at Dell kiosks, but if you want to play with them, they'll be on display at Macy's for the next two weeks, wedged between ladies' swimwear and Au Bon Pain.
UPDATE: Consumerist artfully captures the Dell "fashion show" on video here.
Posted by Elise Waxenberg at 2:37 PM
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iPhone's AT&T Plans Revealed
Today, AT&T and Apple announced the cell phone plans that will be available when the iPhone launches the night of 6/29. The three plans have differing costs depending on the amount of minutes, from $59 to 99. All plans include unlimited data and voicemail. There are a varing amount of minutes per month or for weekends. All feature rollover minutes. The plans require a two year contract.
While this price is affordable, with a surprising feature of unlimited data, the question of whether there will be a rebate of some kind has not been answered. Does this plan meet your expectations? Will you buy an iPhone?
Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 9:02 AM
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June 22, 2007
When is a Company Too Innovative for Its Own Good?
Maybe when it invites you to send a cartoon character in your place for a job interview.
According to Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, that’s basically what employers like consulting firm Bain & Company, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Verizon are experimenting with. The companies are hosting job recruitment events on Second Life, an “online digital world” that’s somewhat reminiscent of the popular “Sims” computer game -- except in Second Life, you walk around as your own character, or “avatar,” interact with other users all over a huge map (some of which is modeled after real brick-and-mortar places), and spend real money (that's right, like the green kind).
And now, some big companies are playing with the idea of hiring in Second Life, which is kind of like a game, kind of like a culty digital world, and is definitely at least a little weird. My question is, why would you want to recruit employees in a computerized plane, where they "show up" as cartoony characters with funny names and answer questions via IM? Is this really the best way to scout talent and take on folks with hotly demanded interpersonal skills?
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A Microsoft interview - WSJ Online |
The pros, says WSJ’s Anjali Athavaley, are that it shows the companies' progressive edge, busy execs can "attend,” and it's cheaper than setting up real-life events (which I can believe, having attended more than one corporate recruiting event at which mountains of lovely hors d'oeuvres went noticeably uneaten -- you can furtively eye the mini eggrolls, but you can't schmooze with one).
Cheap you can't really argue with, but what about the waste of time futzing with superfluous software? Dressing your little avatar in a pantsuit doesn't represent the kind of tech savvy necessary (or even desirable?) for a job, unless the job is … designing avatars. And while it's peachy that execs can “attend” a digital meeting, someone needs to explain to me why companies that staff employees all over the world can't dispatch one to a real-life auditorium for 30 minutes.
There are other cons the article mentions: The cyber interview "isn't as personal as a traditional interview." Oh, really? I think it's slightly silly that on-campus recruiters expect your typical college student to whip out a smart $300 suit for an interview at school, but I'm going to go ahead and say that this is still better than the virtual alternative, in which, for example, you could fish for your resume and accidentally hand your interviewer a beer, as happened to one virtual job seeker.
Continue reading "When is a Company Too Innovative for Its Own Good?"
Posted by Elise Waxenberg at 6:13 PM
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When the Red-Eye Becomes the Green-Eye
Last week, UK-based low-cost airline easyJet announced it had designed an aircraft that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent. They call it the "ecoJet" and claim the design could become reality by 2015.
Sounds great, right? Then easyJet starts to break down the math behind the emissions reductions. Ten percent comes from upcoming changes to air traffic patterns in the European Union. That's not really something easyJet can claim credit for. The greatest reduction, 25 percent, comes from the jet's "open rotor" engines, which has a larger fan blade diameter than current models. Apparently this technology has been around since the 1980s OPEC oil crisis, making one wonder why it hasn't been put to use before this. The final 15 percent comes from the plane's lightweight material.
Naturally, environmentalists are skeptical at best. There is some debate over whether 2015 is a realistic goal, or whether airplane manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus will even build such a plane. Moreover, growth in the airline industry is likely to offset any gains from more efficient planes. Besides an increase in the number of planes in the air, it's not as if the industry is just going to get rid of all its fuel-guzzling jets as soon as a greener solution comes along. Most planes are used for decades before being scrapped, although chief executive Andy Harrison claims easyJet's aircraft have an average lifespan of 2.3 years.
Continue reading "When the Red-Eye Becomes the Green-Eye"
Posted by Liz Webber at 2:07 PM
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June 21, 2007
Martha, Squared
Martha Stewart is throwing her mega-brand power behind the self-styled “Apple” of carpet, FLOR, to sell a new line of its square, eco-friendly home carpet tiles in Martha-approved colors and textures.
FLOR was founded in spring 2003, and after a couple of years of manufacturing carpet tiles that do-it-yourselfers could easily install and recycle for free, Martha Stewart came a-knockin' to coordinate an "exclusive" set of carpet designs to help mildly apprehensive home decorators safely mix and match their bisques, moons and gingers.
I stopped by Martha Stewart’s Chelsea loft-cum-office-cum-showroom yesterday to check out the modular carpeting, where a senior licensing exec from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia told me that the company is making “very small babysteps” into the world of “green” products. “It’s our foree into the market,” she said.
The “Martha spin” – including nine color collections with “vegetal” hues and one stripe pattern inspired by “antique needlepoint” – is basically a “more curated group of the same thing” FLOR already sells, according to Barbara Costas, VP director of design textiles at Martha Stewart. The Martha seal of approval helps consumers “mix with a little confidence,” she said.
Posted by Elise Waxenberg at 6:03 PM
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PUSH the Future (4)
Fourth lesson from PUSH 2007
Traditional media are being replaced by…something
Want to know what life is like here in Traditional Media-Land (that would include newspapers, magazines, television news, radio)? Here's an executive summary, courtesy of Amy Mitchell of the Project for Excellence in Journalism:
--The news industry entering a phase based on diminished capacity. News organizations reducing ambitions, branding and organizing around specialties.
--The old economic model is crumbling. The circle of advertisers, audiences, outlets, is being broken up. And advertisers more dissatisfied with traditional dynamic and results.
--Web journalism is doing more to develop immediacy, brand, and customization. But there's no clear model of what works, economically or otherwise. All the talk is about user-generated content, but there’s no focus on how money will be made.
--Solid non-traditional competition is emerging, operating at much lower cost than traditional media.
Sounds fun, huh?
Posted by Keith Hammonds at 4:20 PM
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Al Gore's $100 Million Makeover
When you pick up the next issue of Fast Company magazine, Al Gore will be serenely looking back at you. We were fortunate to have Good Morning America do a quick mention of the story -- check it out here. (The video screen for the segment is to the right.) The story will be available in its entirety early next week on FastCompany.com.
As all the cash register sound-effects clearly indicate, Mr. Gore has generated a significant amount of personal wealth since he left office; this in itself is not entirely unusual for someone who enters the private sector after a lifetime of public service. Money has long been a tonic for former politicians who leave, or are invited to leave, their jobs -- think symbolic board posts, memoirs, corporate keynote speeches, a lifetime of hefty honoraria. And, after his dramatic 2000 nonelection, Gore might have limped along to just that sort of life. Significant wealth alone does not a Fast Company cover subject make, however.
In what may be one of the greatest brand makeovers in history, Gore has become an international darling, hailed as a visionary on everything from climate change to Iraq. He's an Academy Award winner, a best-selling author, a front-runner for the Nobel Prize, and a concert promoter who turned out to be a bigger rock star at this year's Grammys than the rock stars themselves.
But what no one is talking about is that Gore has also become a stunningly successful businessman and entrepreneur, using the Petri dish of business to explore his deeply felt ideas about how the world works, doesn't work, and could work better. (In addition to being associated with two of the most successful technology companies in history, Google and Apple, he has also co-founded a cable network and an asset management company, both boasting radically new, and profitable, business models. They are becoming quiet forces in their respective fields.) And this, in many ways, has fueled his extraordinary comeback.
If I believed in the concept of a “natural”, I'd say Al Gore is about the most natural entrepreneur I'd ever met. Instead, we make the case -- with his help -- that a lifetime in government actually prepared him to take full advantage of the possibilities that exist, at least in theory, in the private sector. But he brings a tremendous ability to the table -- some of the very same stuff that tripped him up as a candidate. (If you've seen An Inconvenient Truth, you know he can handle, and prefers, complex data. Tough to get a soundbite out of him. Especially if he doesn't want to give one.) He's also a person of immeasureable charm and persuasiveness; he can work a room and a Rolodex like few others. He's deeply introspective. He's got the guts to invest his own money; he's hands on, yet trusts his partners and team members. (He credits them with much of his success. In every meaningful way, this is their story, too.)
For nearly two months, I've watched crowds filled with people of every size, shape, color and perspective clamor to get a chance to greet the Veep. Just to touch him. He was the star attraction at the Tribeca Film Festival's opening gala; he conversed effortlessly with programmers at an Adobe conference -- he'd circled the globe presenting his slideshow and attending meetings at least twice in the time it took me to write the piece. The "robo-candidate" of Y2K is gone -- he appears relaxed, happy in his own skin, passionately engaged in issues he gets to choose, with an agenda he gets to set. As a result, he's reenergized both his fans and his detractors -- nobody is neutral on the subject of Gore -- to powerfully emotional debates on everything from the issues of the day to his weight. And, he is the subject of endless political speculation. Will he? Won't he? (We give our own best guess in the story.)
It comes a surprise to everyone except the people who know him and work with him, that Gore has turned out to be such an extraordinarily nimble entrepreneur. And yes, he's made a tremendous amount of money. But this profile -- a business tale hiding in plain sight -- is how he did it.
Stay tuned.
Posted by Ellen McGirt at 2:07 PM
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June 20, 2007
Energy Bill Heats up Washington
A controversial energy bill hit the Senate floor last week and remains contentious, despite concessions from automobile makers and lobbyists. The bill aims (among other things) to raise fuel economy standards - from 27.5 miles a gallon for cars (a number that has not changed since 1983) to 35 miles a gallon by 2020. As reported in The New York Times today, auto companies have finally come to terms with the bill's existence, although they are fighting for more gradual increases, which Michigan senator Carl Levin proposes in an alternate bill. Levin's measure would raise the required miles-per-gallon to 36 by 2022. This bill has been harshly criticized by environmental groups like the Sierra Club, who referred to as a "poison pill."
As the lines have been (murkily) drawn between the two sides, environmentalists have found some strange bedfellows: SAFE, or Securing America's Future Energy, a coalition of corporate and former military leaders who are dedicated to reducing the United States' dependence on foreign oil. This coalition, which includes executives from FedEx, Southwest Airlines, Goldman Sachs, and Dow Chemical, believes that America's extreme oil dependence "represents a direct and urgent threat to American economic and national security," according to General P.X. Kelley USMC (Ret.), in a recent press release.
Continue reading "Energy Bill Heats up Washington"
Posted by Aimee Rawlins at 7:04 PM
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PUSH the Future (3)
Third lesson from PUSH 2007:
Some problems can’t be solved. Period.
"I'll lay it out: There is no hope for peace between Israel and Palestine." Michael Barnett of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs didn't pull punches. "There is no hope for a negotiated settlement. Nothing good is going to happen. In fact, disaster is looming. And if you buy that, then you have to ask, what comes next? What do you do when there are no prospects for peace?"
Uh, wow. No hope. It was a shocking moment at last week's PUSH 2007 conference. As Americans, as human beings, we're so unaccustomed to believing that of anything. We embrace hope; we can fix anything. That may be our national competitive advantage, ultimately—our belief that with creativity, ingenuity, and passion, no problem is beyond hope.
Barnett ticked people at PUSH off, even though his facts were inarguable (and all the more chilling in the wake of this week's insanity with Hamas and Fatah). But this was part of the day's message, an echo of Clyde Prestowitz's prediction of a world without America at its center: In this increasingly more complex world, some things will just turn out badly. Barnett thinks Israel and Palestine could end with escalating extremism and mass ethnic cleansing; or an end to Israeli democracy; or (least likely) growing Palestinian strength that forces an integrated, binational state.
And the United States likely won't have much to do with the outcome. "Every single door we think is open to us," Barnett said, "is, in fact, a dead end."
Posted by Keith Hammonds at 5:30 PM
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Tony Soprano for President?
As FC's Danielle Sacks explored in this month's Fast Talk, much of the 2008 presidential campaign is being fought on the Web with the growth of online fund-raising, grassroots organizing, and viral video. This week's must-see clip comes courtesy of Hillary Clinton's camp. The Hillraisers juiced up the search for the campaign's song (Since when do campaigns need songs anyway? And what was Nixon's -- "Suspicious Minds"?) by quickly turning out a spoof of the most talked about TV event in years, the The Sopranos finale.
There's Hillary waiting in the diner booth, Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" in the background, the unnerving jingle of the door bell, Bill asking for onion rings (the Sopranos' last supper), the sinister character watching from the counter and heading into the bathroom, and, of course, the sudden cut to a black screen.
Reaction on the blogoshere has been mixed to say the least:
"[A] stroke of freakin' genius" raved Rachel Sklar on The Huffington Post.
"One of the dumbest pieces of advertising I have ever seen," sniffed Lindsay Beyerstein on This Modern World.
"Speechless," stammered Time.com's Ana Marie Cox.
I thought it was amusing and certainly provocative but also tone deaf. How wise is it for a presidential candidate who's often characterized as the ultimate ambitious politician to equate herself with a monster like Tony? And to allude to such an ambiguous if artful ending? There's no avoiding one dark interpretation in which Tony - or Hillary - gets whacked. That's easy ammo for her opponents. Hillary's team let their cleverness get the best of them, and their brand -- I mean, candidate -- took a hit.
Posted by Chuck Salter at 5:29 PM
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PUSH the Future (2)
Second lesson from PUSH 2007:
The energy problem is bigger than you thought.
James Kakalios is famous (well, anyway, he's the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question) for calculating the force needed to actually "leap over the Empire State Building in a single bound." He is a professor at the University of Minnesota who wrote "The Physics of Superheroes," which considers cartoon superheroes from the standpoint of physics.
But Kakalios is also an actual physicist, a solid-state experimentalist who has worked to improve the conductive properties of amorphous semiconductors for solar power applications. And other cool stuff. Here's how he thinks about the world’s energy crisis:
First, it is a crisis. World oil reserves will be exhausted within a single generation; we’re right at the peak of oil production. Meanwhile, world energy consumption is predicted to increase by 50% in next 20 years; China is adding the equivalent of the United Kingdom's energy demand every year. The problem isn't just about oil; if all the world's power plants were nuclear, our supply of uranium would be exhausted in 10 years. Plus, atmospheric CO2 levels are the highest recorded in 400,000 years. Methane and carbon fluoride also increasing, and that may be worse.
Posted by Keith Hammonds at 5:19 PM
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PUSH the Future
I'm back from the 2007 PUSH conference in Minneapolis. PUSH, an annual event in its fifth year, is sort of what Fast Company would be if we were a floor show instead of a magazine (which is why we're a sponsor): It brings together voices from economics, social policy, technology, demography, art, and design to construct a window on the future of work, business, and society.
PUSH is essentially an upbeat celebration of that future, replete with song and dance and passion. But it's not naïve—and the picture of our future that emerged at PUSH '07 was complex, daunting, and yeah, kinda scary. Over a few of these blog entries, I'm going to give you the headlines:
1. America is no longer the center of the universe.
That's not a terribly new idea—but it's somewhat shocking to hear it embraced by a guy who used to be Ronald Reagan’s secretary of commerce. Clyde Prestowitz advises Presidents and CEOs alike on the state of the world, and he seems to revel in the role of The Republican Who Speaks His Mind. And what’s on his mind is this:
Posted by Keith Hammonds at 5:10 PM
| 1 Comment
June 19, 2007
An Agile Update for Mansueto Digital
Two weeks, ago, with the launch of a new look for the FastCompany.com homepage, I wrote about our company division, Mansueto Digital (FastCompany.com, Inc.com, and IncTechnology.com) and its adoption of agile software practices as a metaphor for business strategy.
Here's an update: we've been running one of the most complex projects ever undertaken in business journalism, called the Inc. 5,000, using a variation of agile known as a scrum.
Scrum is a rugby term -- it's the clutch of guys on the same team "binding together" around a ball. The heads of one team are literally interlocked with the heads of the opposing team. Great way to communicate fast and efficiently -- but every once in a while someone gets pummelled in the crowd.
Scrum's a pretty complex metholodogy and we're newcomers, so we scaled it down to start -- we kicked off with a weekly meeting to determine our priorities, then ranked them for the coming two weeks. (The "Sprint Backlog" in Scrum terms.)
Small blue index cards recorded each task. After three hours, we dispersed to do our own work. Management (me) signed off and promised not to interfere until the next weekly meeting. In the meantime, every morning, the team gathers for 15 minutes with our Scrum Master -- (David Grossman, Director of Business Development) for a standing meeting. The team literally stands so we can keep the meeting short. We ask only three questions of everyone: What did you do yesterday? Is anything getting in your way of what you're expected to do today? and, What are you doing tomorrow? Wikipedia has a nice summary of how the process works for software development.
So far, no problems have arisen, but I'm sure they'll come up sooner rather than later.
Ironically, our agile methodology hasn't worked out as well this last week with a major software development project. The core of agile, as I see it, is a trust-worthy team. Managment can afford to give staffers great freedom in executing a project (with only intermittant opportunities to review the work in progress and change course if need be) if, and only if, they really trust their people.
Which is not so easy when you're hiring a group of expert developers to build a complex software platform. Since we're investing a small fortune to get this project done, we've had no shortage of great vendor choices.
That said, the world of open source development, and in particular the Drupal community we're working with in building our social network, is filled with both great creativity and big egos. After all, why would someone choose to become an open source developer, giving away much of their work for free, if they didn't have strong faith in their own abilities?
How is the average non-techie manager (like me) supposed to tell the difference between bluster and genius? It's not easy.
The agile process can help you catch weak performers early and correct their mistakes. The fewer mistakes that emerge at the weekly or bi-weekly show and tell for management, the more trust you build. And the more rope you can give the developers during the next "sprint."
We're not there yet with our social networking scrum process -- partly because the team is still in flux. We're nine months into a project that's probably going to run three or four months to get to where we're happy. It's exciting stuff -- our readers will love the end result, I'm sure. And with any luck, we'll build the trust with our software vendors that's necessary to run a great scrum. I just hope to not get too badly pummeled in the process.
Ed Sussman is the president of Mansueto Digital, which runs FastCompany.com, CompanyofFriends.com, Inc.com and IncTechnology.com.
Posted by Ed Sussman at 8:49 PM
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Tech Meets Sex: Innovative Technology Could Lead to More Intimacy in the Bedroom
If you can't take your partner away from his videogames, you can incorporate yourself into his routine in a way that's fun, and could get pretty steamy, for you both. That seems to be the aim of Intimate Controllers, a thesis project created by NYU grad student Jennifer Chowdhury.
The project involves building game controllers into underwear so that players have to touch each other in order to play. The idea is to construct controllers in a manner that will bring couples together instead of breaking them apart.
Jennifer cites her first and foremost point of inspiration as the phenomenon of 'gamer widowhood': a situation she describes as "where man plus videogame lead to very sad woman, or even worse to woman giving man the finger and leaving him." Writes Jennifer: "I wanted to create a type of video game play that would center around a couple's intimacy and where two people would touch each other in order to play the game."
She describes two other catalysts for the project, the first being the evolution of video game controllers, through which people have gone from having to use their hands to having a hands-free experiences, or experiences that require people to move their bodies to play. The second is an exercise given to her class that required students to create any kind of interface that could work as a networked objects pong controller, while sending it left and right values.
Jennifer's response to the exercise was to embed sensors into a bra. "I made a pong controller that was made from a bra. The mapping for the controller was simple - touching the left breast made the pong paddle go left and the right breast made the paddle go right."
She also created a controller to be worn by the man, in the form of a pair of boxers that has 6 sensors. The operation requires the man stands behind woman giving each partner access to the other's sensors.
The controller is structured so that as players move to higher levels in the game, they necessarily interact with each other in a manner that is more physically intimate.
The project consists of fSRs, atmel chips, Xbees, clothing and a flash game -- while Jennifer originally planned for her controller to be used with existing video games, after not finding any games that were appropriate for her purposes, she had another student, Sinan Ascioglu, program a game for the project.
Whether this particular project is really going to take off commercially remains to be seen: for one thing games would have to be developed that suit the nature of these 'sexual' controllers. From what I could see, apart from the sexual nature of the players' interaction with each other, the game itself didn't lend itself to being too exciting or active -- it seemed to consist of a bunch of shapes floating across the screen.
Developing physical, but less explicitly sexual controllers, is another direction in which the devices could be developed, as couples who want to interact or be intimate through video gaming might not always want to interact in a sexual manner.
Whatever the outcome, Intimate Controllers is undeniably an innovative endeavor, one that has got people thinking along the desirable lines about how technology can be used to better relationships.
Posted by Saabira Chaudhuri at 3:42 PM
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June 18, 2007
Blockbuster Chooses Blu-ray -- Is the Format War Ending?
The high-density optical disc format war is slowly tipping in Blu-ray's favor. Blockbuster has announced that they will support Sony's format over the HD-DVD format. Though some stores will still carry HD-DVD, all of the Blockbuster stores will have Blu-ray. This, coupled with Blu-ray maintaining a sales lead, makes it seem that Sony's high-definition format may win the war.
Thank goodness.
As I have stated before, I dislike format wars. I have a hi-def television with no hi-def disc-players. Since there are no clear leaders, there aren't enough manufacturers creating players and bringing down the price on the players. I will not buy a $500 player or a $300 player that doesn't have full capabilities. I will not buy an HD-DVD player knowing I will also have to buy a Blu-ray player. But it seems that is changing.
With any luck, in one year all of the Hollywood studios will support Blu-ray and then all players will have full capabilities (1080p picture, true-HD sound) at $300. And then I, and many others I suspect, will finally jump-in.
What will it take for either Blu-ray or HD-DVD to come out in the lead? Will one format have to conform to the other in order to be successful?
Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 12:28 PM
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Ad Legend Dan Weiden on Authentic Branding
My reporting for the article Who Do You Love? led me to Dan Weiden, co-founder of Weiden + Kennedy, one of the world's largest independently owned ad agencies. From its base in Portland, Oregon's Pearl District, W+K has launched unforgettable campaigns for Nike, Coca-Cola, ESPN, Honda, Miller Brewing, and Old Spice, among many others. In an interview in his corner office, Weiden conceded that while he rarely thought about authenticity per se, the attribute was at the core of all of the agency's work. Some excerpts from our talk:
FC: What's driving our hunger for the authentic?
Weiden: As our relationships become increasingly complicated and superficial, our longing increases for things that are really genuine. Much of it has to do with the overabundance of marketing—every flat surface is trying to sell us something. And with the Internet, there's so many voices vying for our attention.
FC: So in world that's saturated with marketing messages, how does a brand demonstrate that it is, in fact, authentic?
Weiden: Authenticity comes from having a real passion for the thing. When we first started working with Nike, we didn't bother with focus groups and planning. We were just a group of people who were absolutely turned on by sports and athletes, and what Phil Knight was creating, and we just wanted to turn other people on. We weren't trying to manipulate anyone. We were trying to share something that we loved. It was that simple.
FC: What must marketing folks absolutely get right to create an authentic brand?
Weiden: In our business, creative people have to internalize the brand. They have to almost channel the brand, so some part of the organization can come through in a human way. The whole issue with authenticity is that it has relatively little to do with technique, and everything to do with honesty.
FC: Why, then, does The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, with its fake newscasts, come across as authentic?
Weiden: Fiction is often more authentic than fact, because fact rarely reveals anything of import, whereas fiction is fully capable of showing us fundamental human truths. Jon Stewart delivers a fake newscast, but he is authentic. His humor strips away all the phoniness of politics and the pomposity of the network news.
A genuine, unscripted moment is so rare in politics. I remember when Richard Nixon met Mao, he was asked what he thought of Mao. Nixon replied that Mao's fingers were really well manicured. Reporters lambasted Nixon for what many claimed was a shallow and trite observation, but I thought it was so human. Nixon made the mistake of saying what he genuinely thought.
FC: How has Nike managed to continue to be perceived by many as authentic, even though the brand is so ubiquitous?
Weiden: I don't know why companies do this, but they like to list attributes that describe their culture. And the one attribute that consistently shows up on Nike's list is the word "honesty." Nike's values are the values of an athlete. It just embodies the athlete's heart and soul. No matter what the sport, the athlete comes first. When Nike talks running, it talks runner to runner. They are who they say they are. And they're not afraid to use language that only a runner—or a skateboarder or a golfer—would understand.
In the early days, Nike wouldn't allow a print ad to run more than once. When I pointed out that that was incredibly inefficient, the reply was: You wouldn't continually send the same letter to a friend, would you?
I once put a picture of the great long-distance runner, Lasse Viren, over my desk, in an effort to write a piece of copy that would make him laugh or at least respect what was said. I really think that honesty comes out of talking to some one, rather than some group.
Posted by Bill Breen at 10:24 AM
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June 15, 2007
Proud to Be Green (With Envy)
We here at FastCompany pride ourselves on the fact that our offices are in 7 World Trade Center, a building with gold-level LEED certification. So when EcoGeek published a list of the world's Top Ten Green Skyscrapers, it came as a great surprise that our new home didn't make the cut.
What really adds insult to injury, however, is the fact that EcoGeek's list claims the Hearst Tower (coming in at No. 6) was the first skyscraper in New York City to receive gold-level status. That's just not true--we beat them by a full six months. 7 WTC received its gold rating on March 8, 2006 while Hearst didn't get there's until September 22, 2006. The only difference is that Hearst is the first in the city to be certified for "core and shell and interiors," meaning the building structure itself and the individual floors were all done by the developer. 7 WTC is only "core and shell;" each tenant is responsible for the design of its floor. I don't see too much of a difference.
These distinctions won't matter for much longer anyway, since the Bank of America Tower is about to one-up both of us by being the first NYC skyscraper to receive platinum-level certification next year. The BOA Tower, which also made EcoGeek's list at No. 3, employs a lot of the same concepts as 7 WTC and the Hearst Tower but will also use natural gas fuel cells to create on-site electricity and sunlight-sensing LEDs for more efficient lighting.
Posted by Liz Webber at 4:02 PM
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Cracking Open the Sun. At Last.
A single minute of sunlight striking the earth provides enough energy to meet the needs of everyone on the planet for a year. Which means that a day of sunlight provides 1,440 years of power.
We just don't harvest that power very well. (If you don't count oil and coal as "solar" power, which in some senses, they are of course.)
Last night, at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Philadelphia, Jigar Shah, who is at the forefront of cracking open the power of the sun, stepped from the pages of Fast Company and appeared at the first "Fast 50 Dialogue" open-house to explain why solar-generated electricity is finally taking off.
Shah, just 32 years old, is the founder and CEO of SunEdison, which in four years has become the nation's largest generator of solar power. Who is buying SunEdison's solar electricity?
Whole Foods and Staples
California State University and the City of San Diego
Costco and Kohl's
Wal-Mart
When you've got Wal-Mart and Whole Foods as eager customers for the same alternative energy source, you're doing something new. The remarkable thing is that SunEdison's solar success has nothing to do with technology. It's all about a business breakthrough.
Jigar Shah did a classic mind-flip on solar energy -- turning it from a pain-in-the-neck for companies, into a way of solving problems.
Continue reading "Cracking Open the Sun. At Last."
Posted by Charles Fishman at 9:19 AM
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June 14, 2007
Open Source: The Future of Film?
Digital Rights Management is a hot issue nowadays. Labels, artists and producers complain that they're losing money and being denied adequate copyright protection. This has spurred the development of security measures in an attempt to lock up, or at least control, digital content. The problem (if you're one of the people losing money anyway): there are more people out there intent on breaking the system than there are those intent on saving it.
The inevitable question that comes to mind: should DRM advocates just accept that the concept, although still relatively new, is fast on its way to being an anachronism unless modified in light of the Web's increasingly communal culture?
With every new protective technology comes the codes to promptly break it; with every new security measure comes the tools to infiltrate it; and with every step forward, the road to strictly proprietary digital content just seems to get longer. There's a strong cyber community out there that believes that the Web should be an open forum of shared information. And this community is willing, even waiting, to fight back against those who thwart the course of its mission.
The situation really isn’t that dissimilar to the ideals that spurred on Robin Hood and his band of thieves -- take from the rich and give to the poor; or in this case to the greater community.
Of course there are exceptions, and not all artists are against the idea of doing away with DRM. One film project that is actually using the idea of open content to its advantage, and in fact as its basis, is A Swarm of Angels.
Conceived of by digital filmmaker, Matt Hanson, A Swarm of Angels is a revolutionary, futuristic film project, the aim of which is to create a £1 million film that will be distributed to over one million people using the Internet and a global community of members. The film will not be protected by any DRM, will be freely shareable, and will not be created for profit -- all proceeds will go towards the next free community production.
Posted by Saabira Chaudhuri at 6:53 PM
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The NCAA is not a Fan of the Blogosphere
Or at least the ones who don't have express written consent to reproduce or retransmit any accounts of the game or descriptions thereof...For those of you who don't know, Brian Bennett, a writer for the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, was ejected from the press booth during the fifth inning of the College World Series on Sunday for live-blogging the game between the University of Louisiana and Oklahoma State.
Here's the Courier-Journal's story, and here is Bennett's blog retelling the event. Naturally, bloggers, especially ones covering sports, are up in arms about this, including the official blogger for the NCAA. A good look at the legal precedents of the issue can be found at the Sports Law Blog, which was featured in last October's Best Blogs column, and may be come more important as the newspaper is considering taking legal action.
Although there have been numerous other live blogs of other sports events, apparently the NCAA decided to start clamping down. It's an extremely myopic position to take, especially in light of all the new opportunities technology has created for disseminating live events, drawing more attention to them, and opening up new sources of revenue. In their infinite wisdom, the NCAA probably realized that there are millions of people out there who would pass up watching a game on TV or the Internet in order to risk carpal tunnel syndrome by constantly hitting the "refresh" button on their browsers. Why watch when you can read snark?
Even the New York Islanders, not exactly known as the most progressive of NHL teams (case in point: Nassau Coliseum), will even have a dedicated area for bloggers starting next season. While it looks like it's a bit of a publicity stunt, and remains to be seen if they'll let them live-blog games, it's at least an acknowledgement that there's new ways to reach the kagillion or so sports fans out there (less so for the Isles), and even some of us mainstream media types are trying to use new techniques to engage them (such as Rob Curley, who was profiled by senior writer Chuck Salter last year). Check out Deadspin's amusing interview with their PR rep.
So listen up, NCAA: I don't think letting bloggers do play-by-play in the press booth (which, by the way, is done all the time by people watching games on TV--Just ask Bill Simmons) is going to diminish the rights of those broadcasting the game. If anything, it's going to enhance fans' experience, by giving them another, unique voice providing commentary. Unless you like listening to Tim McCarver.
Or would you rather the bloggers take a page from Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam? "In Saigon today, according to official sources, nothing actually happened. One thing that didn't officially happen was a bomb didn't officially explode unofficially destroying Jimmy Wah's Cafe. Three men were unofficially wounded, and two men whose identities are still not known at this time are unofficially dead, although the police, ambulance and fire department responded to what's believed to be unofficial at this present moment."
Posted by Michael Prospero at 12:03 PM
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June 13, 2007
The Music Industry: No Longer a One Trick Pony
There was a time when all a record label had to worry about was making hits. Good hits paved the road to successful albums, and then the label got paid--really paid. As holder of the majority of the publishing rights of music artists' songs, label executives where in a perpetual phase of not having to think about how to make money. But that was then, and this is now.
Now is the time when the recording industry is truly embattled. With CD sales on the costant decline and the surge in digital musical sales making very little impact on the overall bottom line, the recording industry could use a saviour.
The savior du jour happens to be Chris Lighty, CEO of talent management firm Violatar, and most notably, manager of superstar rapper 50 Cent. As reported in the Wall Street Journal today, later this month Lighty goes into business with Warner Music Group to launch Brand Asset Group, a consulting firm that will aid record labels in structuring product endorsement and equity deals--like the ones Lighty brokered for 50 Cent with Mark Ecko Enterprises for a clothing line and with Vitamin Water for the Formula 50 sports drink. The money an artist made on branding, touring, and licensing deals normally went to the artist and his management team, similar to the way it works with an athlete. But now, companies like the one Mr. Lighty proposes, will cut record labels in on a piece of the action.
"If the next 50 Cent comes along and the label that signs him doesn't get a part of all that brand extension, shame on them," Mr. Lighty recently told Samantha Marshall of Crain's New York Business.
Lighty isn't the only one hoping to change the recording industry into the music industry. Mark Pitts, president of urban music at Zomba Label Group, is always thinking about how his artist's music will fit into advertisers' youth marketing plans. Warner Music Group is also calling itself a music-based content company nowadays, with plans on foraying into film and video production. Other labels are venturing into network series and reality shows based on their artists. Long gone are the days of being hitmakers. Labels are in the business of entertainment, where today entertainment means making a hit that works well for radio and the club, as well as for ringtones. It also means making videos not only for MTV and BET, but for the YouTube and MySpace generation as well. What it mostly means, is thinking about new and novel ways of doing business and creating excitement about an artist.
It's sort of like the deal Prince brokered with Verizon Wireless recently. The artist's new single "Guitar," from his upcoming album Planet Earth was made available for free download on V CAST, as a direct-to-mobile release for anyone who participates in an online demo of Verizon's new Song ID music identification service. This was weeks before the single was available on radio and before the album picked up Columbia as a distribution partner, as reported in Billboard.
Related Links:
Why the Music Industry Needs A Makeover
Branding the Music Artist
The Long Tail of Music
Music Marketing 2.0
The Future of Music
Way Behind the Music
Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 7:34 PM
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Design in Dubai: Authenticity Angst
It's true what you've read: Dubai is like no other place on earth. I had a wonderful time. But I won’t be one of those folks urging vacationers to check out the all-inclusive deals on Travelocity.
For one thing, for six months out of the year, the place pretty much uninhabitable. In late May, it ranged from 102 to 104 degrees during the day. From June through November, the heat is nuclear. Not just hot as hell, but humid as a jungle --- an interesting trick, considering it’s desert as far as the eye can see.
How bad is it? The Indians and Philippinos were complaining. Folks who can afford it, skip town. The hotels’ occupancy drops precipitously. Busboys take holidays back to Romania and Goa.
And for another month, Ramadan pretty much shuts down the town. “My friends were horrified,” said one British publisher, whose guests forgot to check their holiday calendars before booking a flight. “They couldn’t even be seen drinking a bottle of water in their cars without getting into trouble.” Hard to have a vacation when all the fun stuff --- like eating and drinking – can only happen after sundown.
But, I hear, the place is quite lovely during the remaining months. The beaches are superb. The water is warm, and the hotels are first rate. I’ve never experienced such consistently warm and attentive customer service, from waiters to shuttle bus drivers to customs officers (who actually make jokes and welcome you to their country!) And they’re not just grubbing for tips, which seem to be in short supply.
They say the Emiratis are a naturally hospitable people. I have no reason to doubt that, although it was hard to judge by this trip because I could count how many natives I met on the fingers of one hand. Only 18% of the population in the city is native. “In 5 years, you’ll have to pay money to see a local,” says the head of the heritage foundation. All the work of the country is done by guest labor. The Sheik’s pronouncement that he has 180 nationalities living and working together in peace seems to be true. It’s a truly multi-culti society, revolving around a shared language – English.
Tolerance rules the day. Supermarkets are filled with delicacies from other countries, so the Indians can get their curry and the Thai their furry little fruits. What’s lost is a sense of what is truly Emirati. And that’s beginning to be the source of some angst.
For example, when you get to the lavishly-appointed duty free shop (replete with life-size gold palm trees), you realize that, apart from dates and stuffed camels (another continuing motif; the camel is to Dubai what the moose is to Minneapolis), there’s nothing much that says “authentic Dubai” to buy for the folks back home.
When you're hauling home cheap booze from a Muslim country, you know it’s a problem. The sheik is worried.
Continue reading "Design in Dubai: Authenticity Angst"
Posted by Linda Tischler at 10:00 AM
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June 12, 2007
Design in Dubai: Unreal Real Estate
Forget strife in the Middle East: The biggest story right now in Dubai is real estate. To start, there's the most mind-boggling housing project is on the planet, the The Palm, the luxury home development made by dredging sand from the ocean floor and turning it into palm-shaped tracts of luxury housing. It will soon to be followed by The World, a similar land-fill project in which zillionaires can each buy the ‘island’ of their choice -- Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Africa, etc. -- for about $10M each. Some 40% of the world’s dredgers are now in Dubai. That means there's a lot of property to move, so the city has become one big real estate showcase. 
Everywhere you look, there are signs advertising condos. The airport. Billboards on the highways. On the Emirates airline entertainment channel. In endless free-standing kiosks at the Mall of the Emirates. There’s The Lagoons --- a tract that advertises “a lush waterfront landscape” on Dubai Creek. There’s the Fairmont Palm Residence, which touts a luxury 4 bedroom villa for 18,000,000 AED. (about $5M). And there’s Palazzo Versace Dubai, a 130,000 square meter hotel and condo complex, which will include 215 suites, restaurants, and a day spa, all of which will be furnished with an exclusive line of products from the Versace Home Collection. That 'lifestyle' sideline has been the engine behind the recent turnaround in Versace's fortunes.
There will also be 169 exclusive condominiums, of which 50% have been sold prior to release.Who’s going to buy all these? Who knows? Maybe they should talk to Michael Shvo. But prices are escalating, just like they did in Miami before the recent crash of the overheated market there.
Rashad Bukhas, the head of all Dubai museums, says that two years ago, condos were selling for about $250 AED per sq ft. Now? $1200 AED per sq. ft. for the same type building. The area around the Emirates Tower, he says, will soon be the most expensive square mile in the world.
Dubai is handy for Iranians, who can’t get into the US from Iran, but could get in if they had a Dubai address. And it’s great if you’re working for Halliburton or SOM. No taxes! Golf! Tennis! Horseback riding!
The downside of all this growth? Horrendous traffic. As Greg Brandeau, CTO of Pixar, said, “This is like Sim City in real time.”
Continue reading "Design in Dubai: Unreal Real Estate"