Category: Ideas We Like

  • Am I a brand? And is that ok?

    It’s a constant struggle — that balance between bragging/TMI (Too Much Information) and the need to promote our abilities and presence in this chaotic communications ecosystem. We’ve discussed this on several occasions in our “Narrative & Networks in Digital Media” class, driven especially by our reference to Networked: The New Social Operating System. That given…

  • Commerce as engagement? Starbucks pushes beyond classic earned, owned, paid media

    This is the second year that I’m co-teaching our foundational “Narratives & Networks in Digital Media.” graduate class with Mac Parks and Shay Colson. At its core (and also the premise to the MCDM/”Storyteller Uprising”): Successful communication depends on the creation of compelling content and sustained multi-platform  engagement by distributing this content through relevant networks. This…

  • Why I want to help scientists tell their stories better

    “Can girls do that too and stuff?” my daughter Rose asked me, for the second time. We were both glued to the live YouTube feed of Felix Baumgartner’s awe-inspiring freefall jump from the edge of space, even as we were visiting Seattle’s Museum of Flight (which curiously, wasn’t screening the historic event anywhere). My four…

  • My Inner Groove Distortion: compassion 4 compression

    I’m still trying to understand why I did it. Why I purchased vinyl for the first time in decades (first the new Rush album, Clockwork Angels, later the three reissued The Jimi Hendrix Experience studio albums in honor of my son, Hendrix R.), and carted back dozens of decades-old scratchy records from my parents’ basement.…