Links for the Week Ending 2/17/07

More great stuff from around the Web over the past two weeks, as seen from the Top of the Tree…

 There doesn’t seem to be nearly enough time to check out all the cool things I come across on the Web (see my planned Turbo Tax and Zoho reviews – which haven’t been written yet - as an example).  Added to the list this week is newly launched Google Trends, which allows you to do some cool analysis into what people are searching on.  Joe Wikert does some analysis and takes a test drive on his Publishing 2020 Blog.

Apparently Google is going to keep adding to my “to-do” list, as it appears they are adding a “PowerPoint”-like tool to their productivity suite.  Coverage here at Googlesystem, and here at Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch.

And just for Valentine’s Day, Kathy Sierra over at Creating Passionate Users provides an interesting take on business success - perhaps it’s not so much about merit as it is about LOVE.  Kathy’s take is that what is good for the customer is what’s good for the business – an idea so simple it shouldn’t be as rare as it actually is.  Businesses need to stay focused on doing right by the customer, and the rest will follow. 

And that’s it for now…

Links for the Week Ending 2/3/07

Another crazy week, in more ways than one!

Work remains as busy as ever, I completed the 2 week of my EMT-B certification, and a stomach virus swept through our household.  And, to top it all off, the city of Boston made the headlines for a surreal episode involving anti-terrorist task forces and talking fast food.  Here’s what caught my eye this week:

The Aqua Teen Hunger Force “attack” on Boston and 8 other US cities has to have been one of the more bizarre pop culture moments in recent history.  I won’t rehash the details, but commentary and links follow:

• Courtesy of BoingBoing, Mark Frauenfelder makes no bones about where he thinks the blame lies for Wednesday’s incident – the guvmint.
• Eric Rice has some interesting thoughts on the whole incident, when he asks if the reaction to the devices would have been different if the LEDs had been in the shape of Bart Simpson.
• And, if you have no idea what any of this is all about, here’s Boston.com’s coverage of the ATHF “guerilla marketing gone wrong” incident.

 For what it’s worth, while in retrospect the entire thing seems a little silly, I think those who are railing against the “overreactions” of the Boston and Massachusetts authorities are overlooking a couple of things. 

First, while a big deal is made about the fact that the devices had been in place in 8 other US cities, it appears that most of the other cities the billboards were affixed to buildings, NOT to the undersides of bridges and subway platforms.  Also, while some of the devices had been put up for a couple of weeks, the ones that triggered the response on Wednesday had just been put up on Tuesday evening. 

Second, while the media has focused on Turner Broadcasting’s part in this whole event, there has not been much attention paid to Interference, the marketing company who actually planned and executed the event.  The only thing that made my blood boil upon reading the coverage was that one of the guys arrested for placing the billboards was contacted by a representative of the company on Wednesday, as the city was in the midst of a massive police mobilization, and told to keep quiet, and not tell the authorities anything. 

Finally, it appears that there was at least one other, unrelated bomb scare on the Longfellow bridge as the event unfolded, leading to the appearance of a coordinated event of some kind.  It’s fascinating how the whole day unfolded as a kind of cascade of minor events that built into a major event.  My feeling is that the same set of circumstances would have caused a similar reaction in any city around the country, but I’m not sure if that’s OK or not.  It’s just a part of who we are here and now in 2007.

In other, non-terrorism related news, the push towards “software as a service” marches on, with Zoho announcing a new online whitespace called Notebook.  See here for TechCrunch coverage.  I’m going to try it this week, and hope to post a review of the tool shortly.

 Finally, Pam Slim offers up another great podcast on breaking away from corporate America on her Escape from Cubicle Nation blog, this time on facing and conquering the fear of taking that first big step to entrepreneurship.

That’s it for now…look for a review of Zoho Notebook, and some observations on Intuit’s TurboTax web-based offering later this week.

Links for the Week Ending 1/27/07

Some random interesting links I’ve come across this week…

Interesting studies show a trend towards two emerging groups of new entrepreneurs – 20-somethings and baby boomers.  The question is, where does that leave an aging Gen X-er like me?  Courtesy of Jeff Cornwall and his Entrepreneurial Mind blog

More blurring of the lines between Second Life and the “real life” of work, as IBM extends their real-world Lotus conference into the metaverse.  Courtesy of Second Life Insider

Help for budding entrepreneurs and start-up artists is here!  Pam Slim of Escape from Cubicle Nation is collaborating with Startup Nation’s Jeff and Rich Sloan, and John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing to offer a coaching program for start-ups entitled “10 Steps to Open for Business”.  If I wasn’t already taking a class this semester, I’d be fighting for a spot in this one – hopefully this will be the first in a series of similar programs.

Staying in the start-up / small business vein, John Marrioti pens a fascinating look at anticipated trends facing small business in 2007 at Small Business Trends.  One of the most interesting notes is the very first point – that the exodus of talent away from corporate America to the world of small business or self-employment is expected to continue unabated in 2007.

Tara Hunt offers an interesting take on the meaning of economic progress and the metrics used to measure that progress on her HorsePigCow blog.  Tara and her PiC Chris Messina are the drivers behind Citizen Agency, a San Francisco consultancy that’s taking a refreshing approach to a hidebound business.

That’s it for now…enjoy the rest of the weekend, and here’s best wishes for a great week ahead!