Life's Short. Live Better.

BC Budget Visualization & Graphical Processing

You can download this tool to make these visualizations. Processing.org

BC Budget Visualization Tool from blprnt on Vimeo.

And... Tweets where one "just landed" based on where their Twitter account is registered.

Just Landed - 61 Hours from blprnt on Vimeo.

Social Media, Why Twitter, Why not Facebook. (for me)

A lot of my friends and colleagues ask me why I'm experimenting/using Twitter. They think it's a waste of time. They wonder where I find the time to 'tweet' and why I tweet. 

I'm still trying to articulate it properly.

It may be counter intuitive, but the busier you are, the more value Twitter has. 140 characters forces one to be brief. It's like a 5 second elevator pitch. I can follow industries, people and trends on my blackberry, and get real time (generally) useful information. It all depends on who you follow.

Facebook VS Twitter. I'm a member of Facebook but go weeks without checking it sometimes. I'm on the tail end of the generation who really has embraced it (I'm 41). Facebook is a great social interactive-keep-in-touch-with-friends-and-family-tool.There's is value for Business to Consumer marketing too. We're working on it as a corporation, to engage guests and our customers.

However, Facebook is pure vanilla. As far as being a user...that is. It's like watching TV and Twitter is more like reading a good book. Why? There's great content and blogs on Twitter. Value. Learning. Facebook? I'm looking at "Johnny's" latest photos - interesting, but not usually not a learning experience.

The real value Twitter generates, is an expanded network of people you can choose to interact with. It's discovery. No boundaries of prior relationships, or acceptance on the content creator.

If you're interested in NuclearEnergies (or pretty much any topic) Sure you can do a google search. But why search when twitter consolidates, and customizes for you in an efficient manner. Twitter is like RSS, but more useful, because there is virtually no barrier to entry for members to generate content, and reading on mobile devices is a breeze.

Twitter is here to stay. It's either for you or not. It suits people who have a voracious appetite for information, self improvement and learning.

"Just Landed in _________" Tweets.

This 3D rendering generates where someone is tweeting from and where they have "just landed"......

Still trying to figure out why.....

Just Landed - 36 Hours from blprnt on Vimeo.

Kill your website?

Interesting post by David Armano...makes a good case for a blog VS traditional website. 

Future of Business

Click on full screen for better viewing. Some interesting insights and predictions from Ross Dawson on the future of business.
The Future of Global Business: Implications and Opportunities

View more presentations from rossdawson.

Twitter. Tweeting. Retweet. Why I am a Twit(ter')

I first heard about twitter about June of 2008. My initial reaction was...why? Why on earth would anyone 'mass text message' a bunch of (mostly) strangers? Perhaps there are a lot of celebrities and dotcom millionaires with waaay too much time on their hands. What else could the attraction be? really? Who has the time? 

First what is twitter? It's basically a micro blog. 140 characters, no more, but less is fine. You can follow anyone, and other twitter's may choose to follow you, without permission. 

To discover the value, I can retrace my steps of how I got on the bandwagon. February of 2009, I was in California following the Tour of California  bike race for a few days with some friends. Lance armstrong tweets. My friend Dave, who is far too enamored with Sir Lance tried to convince me that Lance was actually updating from his blackberry all sorts of great insider images and information about the race. There's no way I said. "It's his publiscist Dave! - you're a sucker!

Well, it turns out I'm the sucker. Dave was right. Lance definitely tweets, and it's not his 'peeps'...the real guy. Lance, at the time of this post was the 12th most followed person on Twitter (646,925 followers) and had tweeted 1473 times in the last 6 months, since he started on twitter. That's an average of over 8 tweets a day. Like I said, there's a reason celebrities are the power users.

But where's the real value? For me, it's been a few things. Its like facebook, but not as social and more random. I think Twitter is here for the long term. It's more business and value, less entertainment. The main reason I use it, and barely use facebook is time. 140 Characters is attractive to me. 

As the cliche goes, a picture is worth a 1000 words. Image courtesy of www.applicant.com Click on the image to enlarge.

Oh ya. Follow my innane tweets on @ http://twitter.com/jim_pearson

Live Video Broadcasting, from iPhone...while driving?

This was quite something. The guy (Joel) is was driving down the road and doing a live streaming video cast, from his iPhone. It won't appear live now, but there are probably other "Ustream" feeds to take a look at. 

The implications this has for broadcasting yourself, your company, your service, your cause are incredible. Live information, as it happens.

Future of Oil

Interesting Typad post on Peak Oil, demand for oil, and economic recovery.

Wait until it breaks, then try fixing it.

Why is it that we wait until things are broken before we fix them?

George Bush is a good example. How did he get elected to a second term? 

The economy. The signs in the US were there a long time ago. Why do next to nothing until now?

Relationships. How many of us take preventative measures in ensuring we have good relationships?

Business. How many businesses wait until they are insolvent without taking drastic measures?

Lifestyle. We wait until we are stressed to the max. Then we seek help.

Health. We've got a pill for everything. How about taking a walk once a day, or skipping the junk food we know kills us.

When will human nature evolve to a point where we take steps to ensure good things happen in our lives? 

When that happens, the vacation ownership industry will become a "sought good". Planning to make sure good things happen in your life. What a novel idea.

Respect.

Respect. Its a very commonly used word. I think its more complex than most people give credit. One of the core values we chose for Aviawest, is "Respect the individual" - its the golden rule, treat others as you would like to be treated. 

Simple enough... 

Here are some observations I've made about business and the social dynamic of respect: 

Example...

When 'Rachel' comes to me and says "john" did this, and that's not right" ....yes, if that's what John did, then its not right. Did you see John do that? No. David told me though, and he wouldn't lie. No I don't imagine he would. 

However, the perception of what David saw or heard, is subject to his own 'filters", and its almost guaranteed that what he interpreted is not 100% accurate. 

Then, he verbally communicated the info to Rachel, which subjects the information to one more 'filter' and warps it further. So, by the time it gets to the 3rd person, it is without a doubt, not entirely true. To assume that it was, would in my mind, be disrespectful. 

I see great, smart employees who respect each other in general, make this fundamental mistake over and over again. That's why we need management. Otherwise, all we would need is leadership. 

If you hire good people, who are intelligent and have their hearts in the right place, then TRUST them. They won't always be right, but the goodwill created is powerful and is better than the alternative.

Some other rifs on respect;

 - why do people put their change on a cashier's table VS in their hand?

 - when you work behind a "counter", customers may treat you like dirt? But if you met on the street they would not.

 - why do people cut into lines? But the same people are infuriated when someone cuts in front of them?

I think it's a lack of empathy. How many people if you ask 100, could really explain empathy?