what if..there was a new type of photo album?

picture courtesy memorylanemedia

"She sent out for one of those short, plump little cakes called petites madeleines, which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim's shell. And soon, mechanically, weary after a dull day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place…at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory…”

Perhaps some one can help me with this, because I have been thinking about storytelling,

mem(e)ories and... photo albums;

More and more I (and a lot of people are) am creating memories via not only photo's, but blog posts, text messages, emails etc..

But if I wanna share and file it all, and my mum wants to have her friends look at all the memories, there is no one album that fulfills this need of mine.

There is virtual sharing, blogging and filing, but it lacks the physicality of being able to sit next to a person and leading them past memory lane, adding those little details/stories that are triggered as you relive memories and pass them on to loved ones...

So.....what if there was a hybrid : A Memory album

Basically an album/book/ where I could place (upload to) all my text messages, photo's (digital and prints), mails, posts (and all the feedback, which is a great part of the fun of sharing), twitter entries, postcards, e-cards etc... so I can tell grandkids (lord willin') about the memories they hold for me?

Maybe because I work at a publishing company that I just love the feeling of a book or a magazine placed in my hands.....Maybe I have just not searched very well yet and this type of album is in production already...

Anyways...I can't find it yet....so does anybody have alternatives, or feedback for me?

what if...we collectively expressed our individuality

image courtesy http://www.exactitudes.com/

This post is most def not rocket science but the following hit me:

Why is there not a growth in collective blogs? Doing some basic research (?) shows that blogs are basically social clusters.

Example: Musings of an opinionated sod, is connected to punk planning, to fredrik sarnblad, to

in my atmosphere, to she sees red, to the kevin bacon (egg, beans and chips) of planning russell davies.

Besides the personalized templates, twitters, delicious and last fm thingies and some egotripping, why not all join in on one blog?

It seems to me that the most fun is bouncing ideas of one another and replying on comments.

Yes there is such a thing as a blog roll, and there is facebook and the like, but still...

Perhaps I am just to lazy, but what if everybody just got the same space and posted??

if you like the idea and have a decent name...please post a comment... If you have objections, please tell me those also..

what if...you could create a classic?

So Lil' Wayne has been planning the release of his latest album. As far as hip hop goes, it is one of the most anticipated albums of the year. However there has been a lot of talk on blogs regarding the album and the artist . It's one thing to call yourself the best rapper alive, but the knock on Wayne is that he has not yet produced a classic. That ready to die, reasonable doubt non-disputed, across the board, certified classic type album. Tha CarterIII is suppose to be thát one.

How to achieve such an album? Well there is off course no mathematical formula; it depends on talent, zeitgeist, reviews, sales, etc... stuff that Wayne has and in getting... but still...

Wayne has been doing what every musician has been doing; going in the studio and recording material to the best of his ability. Putting some of it free online, some of it on mixtapes and holding some of it back for the album. All the while having very little control over the process of making a classic. He just controls the process of making an album. Nothing more.

But what if he flipped the process? What if he released control of making an album in order to gain more control over making a classic??

See.. Wayne is a southern rapper (he is from New Orleans, Louisiana), so his style will always have strong southern influences.

Enter Scarface. Undisputed O.G., with kilo's of street cred (enough so, to ruin Lil'Flip career when he would not vouch for Flips credentials in a beef with T.I), musical success and more importantly classic material to his name. Not to mention the guy has a good ear (he was the one who signed Ludacris to def Jam South). Scarface should executive produce Wayne's album.

On three conditions which would have to be told at a live press conference:

1) the album will only be released if 'Face approves;

2) if it drops he has to back it with his full reputation;

3) it has to be released by a certain date.

What would this accomplish? Firstly the album will get a huge boost in quality. Scarface has a lot riding on it, he is the king of the south with a undisputed reputation, as does Wayne (imaging not dropping the album, because 'face says it's not good enough). So the A game will be brought to the table.

Secondly it will eliminate meaningless marketing expenses, which can go into the recording budget. Hip hop will listen when these two state their intentions, and the buzz will be big enough come the last couple of weeks before release (it's like a time relaease capsule).

Thirdly it wil set the bar higher for the rest of the indusrty. Hip Hop is dying (if not commercialy, then certainly creatively). Self imposed control via (still highly relevant) powers that be, will separate the platinum from the bronze. Still no garantuee for a classic. But definite steps towards it? Yes indeed..

It would also be an interesting model for much of business:

What if undisputed reputations were attached to projects?

What if Jobs executive produced products with public right to veto?

What if the Nakeds, Cynics, W+K's, KesselsKramers, CP+B's of the world refused to release their campaigns if the products were not up to par? Would that force companies to better themselves? Or would the hacks just take over??

What if...is as far as it will most likely go, because Lil'Wayne will do his thing, Scarface and Jobs are not that altruistic (but perhaps enough of an egomaniac), business will be as usual, the consumer has bills to pay/other worries and the above thinking has a lot of flaws in it..

Stat quo is popular for a reason...but still I am left wondering.......what if?

Strawberries in January: part 2 hidden in plain site

The Japanese tea ceremony cha-no-yu is an ancient tradition; it's most famous practicioner went by the name Sen no Rikyu.

Amongst many things he became emporer Hideyoshi's favorite tea master, and part adviser on matters of politics and culture.

On a certain day emporer Hideyoshi decided to pay Sen no Rikyu a visit at his house. This news came to the tea master. On the eve of the emporers visit Sen yo Rikyu noticed something; it had started to snow.

Quickly the tea master grabbed all his pillows and placed them on top of the stepstones in his front garden; thus covering them from the snow.

The next day he got up very early and removed the pillows, forming a simple, natural and beautifully clear path for the emporer to take from the gate to the tea masters house. The emporer could not help but smile and appriciate the beauty of nature.

More and more I have come to believe that the coming years will be a time of interaction-design led marketing, with the primary task of making the known/local/mundane/obvious, unknown/exiting/re-valueable, and put back in to the right context for consumers and people in general.

Various books, blogs, thoughts, causes (such as the ecology, economy, human population and health) lead me to this thinking.

So in a series of posts, called Strawberries in January, I will try to explain my views, the origins of them, possible applications for people and also catalogue the thinking of others who do and think along these lines.

A lot of this may be known already to those who read it, so feel free to correct and add something to the posts as they are posted, that will assist and help me in my thinking and writing.

Strawberries in January: part 1

Ichi-go Ichi- e

Transformation Design Library: Slate magazine

image courtesy Time magazine

transformation design is a human-centered, interdisciplinary process that seeks to create desirable and sustainable changes in behavior and form – of individuals, systems and organizations – often for socially progressive ends.

Mr Maschmeyer, over at his new blog has been trying to get an example library started.

So here is an example that I would like to add to the list: Slate's list of the 60 most generous.

The List came about, when in 1996 Ted Turner wondered about the influence the Forbers Richest List had on corporate America. "What if we could make charity as sexy as the Forbes list ?" (in a nutshell) was his idea.

Slate Magazine took up the challenge to find out. with some success. Althought I will admit that their is no evidence that is 100% waterproof.

"Whether by coincidence or not, philanthropy has blossomed since Slate's list was created. In 1996 the top donor gave away $100 million, or $121 million in 2005 dollars. But last year's top donor, Cordelia Scaife May, gave away $404 million, and the list (with 63 donors, counting ties) totaled $4.3 billion". (read the rest of a great article here)

So in the grand tradition of Michelline Guide, Guiness Book of Records, Slate has managed to create (lasting) change in the behaviour of the über-wealthy of America, kinda, sorta.

I guess greed is good, just depends what you lust for...

Salute Slate..

word is bond

picture courtesy NY Times

“No matter what happens tonight, we have nearly the same delegate lead that we did this morning, and we are on our way to winning this nomination.”

Interesting quote Senetor Obama gave last night. Let''s break it down.

No matter what happens = why the hell are you, the voters, even bothering

We have the same delegate lead = It's not you that matters, it's the moneymen, so Yes We (aka team Obama) can, but you (aka the grassroots) will have to wait and see.

Perrhaps my cynical mind reads things into something totaly innocent, but I get the feeling that for Obama you could write down CEO or CMO speaking to their employees or parnters, and then people would find the shadows more believable, because most of us have seen it happen.

“No matter what happens,” the CEO said, “we have nearly the same profit margins, our stockprice will not suffer, and we are on our way to providing our customers with great product and services.”

Yes we will hold ourself to the highest standard, yes we will put the customer first, yes we will forget everything we said before once the power that be seduce us to compromise a bit..and a bit, and a bit...

Aritstole wrote that everything is done with an eye towards something else....but then again, sometimes a quote is just a quote...

Questions anyone?