alphabet city

other two letters just added to the meme.
well done.
here the links:

I am Blog with B

The Diet Pulpit with S

Technorati Tags: Valeria Maltoni, David Armano, Mark Goren, Grigor, IAmBlog, Bizandbuzz, The Diet Pulpit, Alphabet meme, blog meme, alphabet meme

green is the colour of money

Enviroment is becoming a business and, if it will succeed, we have a higher chance to keep our world alive.
Italian newspapers are filled with adv from major utilities company, such as Eni, Sorgenia, and manufacturers of lighting systems, such as Guzzini, Beghelli. All these ads have in common the message: save on electricity through a responsible and efficient lighting system.

Advice such as: do not leave appliances on stand by, adoption of low intensity light bulbs, computer assisted light system, etc.

What I find interesting in the approach is that no one of the company lose time talking about the future of the world, the eco system, etc. They go straight on the saving concept.
The eco concept is in the bodycopy, as an additional benefit.

Is it the same in the US or in other European countries?
Is that a new trend?

Technorati Tags: marketing, environment, eni, sorgenia, guzzini, beghelli

alphabet city

It's time to turn this story into a meme and see what happens.

Valeria Maltoni posted her 4As about blogging.
David Armano did it one year ago with his 4Cs.
Mark Goren set up his 4Ps.
Grigor at Behind the glass describe his 4Ls.

My proposal is to build an alphabet with four words for each letter describing what blog is about.

My letter is I

1. Innovation - to be one step ahead with the latest information
   
2. Information - to get information about the rest of the world and keep my mind open and facilitate the integration
   
3. Integration - to approach others without prejudices, to have conversation with them and share thoughts that generate ideas
   
4. Ideas - to produce ideas that can really have an impact in my business as well in my life

What about you?

Technorati Tags: Valeria Maltoni, David Armano, Mark Goren, Grigor, Alphabet, meme

habitat for humanity

It's almost one month that this community established the badge.
please, go ahead in donating.
click on the badge, make yours a better day.

Technorati Tags: ck, christine kerley, habitat for humanity

a greener apple

i know, and you should know, too: i'm an apple addict.
but you must admit it: this is a bold move.
for the first time ever, steve jobs is addressing the company policy to be a greener company, and a more transparent one.

a greener apple

Technorati Tags: marketing, apple, a greener apple, steve jobs, environment

Age of conversation, the eBook

As you may know, two smart guys (Gavin and Drew) came up with a great idea: to build a book together with 100 bloggers, from all over the world, about conversation.
This has been a favourite topic since a while now, I had my own post about it, too.
But the interesting thing is to gather 100 persons and ask for a contribution.
I sent my two cents about it, titled about conversation.
What I tried to do is to define the structure of a conversation through my own thoughts and some quotes of writers, artists, philosophers.

The proceed goes to Variety, the children's charity

Technorati Tags: eBook, marketing, Age of conversation-the eBook, bizandbuzz

Rome, May 12, 2017

Few years ago, the devil in the internet world had one face. This one:


Scaring, isn't it?

Today, we live in a perfect world where some wise and nice looking guys have made our life easier and better.

This guy has put his hands over the music system, the movie market. Any song you want to download, any movie you want to see, you owe him a royalty. The box office is no longer based on the ticket sold but on the download from his network of web sites. He manages the most important artists and organize their tours around the world and the merchandise. (Rumors say he is keeping Mickey Mouse as a hostage but, as shown in the picture, they are very good friends!!!)

These two guys just bought internet. A stated in this latest news, google just made an offer in cash to buy the whole internet with huge benefit to the end users.

Seriously, don't you feel a little uncomfortable with the power that all these guys are concentrating in their hands?

Technorati Tags: internet, apple, google, doubleclick, youtube, bill gates, page, brin, steve jobs

at home with books

reading is one of the pleasure of life. buying books, too.
then the problem is to make a catalog not to buy two times a title or to get quick reference when you write an article or a document.
this morning i want to spend this space to talk of a software, Delicious library, which make this catalogue in a smart way.
when installed, you turn your webcam in a scanner, pass the book in front of the cam, it reads the barcode and the book in recognized and catalogued with all the details.
it works with the amazon database for us, uk, france, japan, germany and france.
you can catalogue cd and movies, too.
as it is a smart piece of software it work on mac only ;-))

Technorati Tags: books, reading, mac, amazon

to whom pay the royalties?

this morning i saw this smart post by maurizio goetz.
and it make me think about the issue of the copyrights and the battle between the majors and the web.

1. the business of the majors was to invest money to produce a singer or a group and to earn from the lp, cassette and cd sales
2. singers and bands were getting most fo their money from the live acts
3. some of these singers and bands made up a form of pension plan with the right to reproduce their music
4. everyone was living a happy life until technology broken the game

now, my question is should we turn down technology or it's an issue of the majors to change their business model?

Technorati Tags: copyright, peer-to-peer, web 2.0, youtube, ipod

CK's love

This is what i mean when i write about being part of a community.
Check this out.
It's for a special friend and her family.
God bless them.

buddhism and the sharing attitude

since years i've been truly fascinated by the buddhist attitude towards life.
i also attended an introductory course to buddhism in a monastery here in italy, the place where the dalai lama stays when visiting my country.
and in my google page i linked to a site providing daily meditation thoughts.

i wish to share with you the one for today.

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. - Buddha


several reasons to do so:

1. i feel we are part of a community even if a non declared one
   
2. when something happens to one of "us" the support from the rest of the community is immediate and strong
3. this community is based on the rule of sharing
4. it goes beyond any personal believe
5. it grows through the six degrees of separation rule (a link to another link to another link.....
6. it's for a friend of "us" living a tough time
   

am i a bit too transcendental?

Technorati Tags: marketing, buddha, buddhism, six degrees

a quick comment about the annoucement of the deal between apple and emi. you know i'm a huge apple fan and i strongly believe that this company has the leadership is the major changes in the music market as we knew.

with this last move, apple is helping the music majors to save their own business, if the majors will get the message.
if not, i suppose that soon we'll see some business to shut down their premises.

anyway, this deal is a smart move for a reason that many commenters in the us may not have seen.
lately, the european commission on behalf of some european countries warned apple to remove the block to reproduce the songs bought on itunes.
this warning could have driven to serious trouble to apple with huge fine, as it happened to microsoft.

apple move was smarter than it seems: the deal was closed with the major european music label.
a sign of good will to gain some more time.

Technorati Tags: apple, emi, drm, itunes

the dark side of the moon

We do all believe that blogosphere is a pleasant place where meet friends and learn useful stuff and, yes, eventually make some business and money.
Well, that's no longer true to me.
Not after what I read this morning.
At Steve Rubel's place I got this post about a blogger, Kathy Sierra, who received serious death threats.
This is the link to her original post: it's disturbing and scaring.
But do me a favour: read it and think about it.
This seems no longer to be a game.

Technorati Tags: blogosphere, kathy sierra, steve rubel, micropersuasion

Gigamiles or thousands of bytes

This is the kind of a moment when you wish that sci-fi was already reality and you can get transferred across the ocean in seconds.
That kind of stuff that you can see in Battlestar Galactica or Startrek.

Like this one:


Why?
Because last Friday, in New York City, some of the best brains around (and some of them are charming ladies, too) met for a party.

So, what?
I was several thousands miles far from.

And?
Still I'm a lucky guy because when we blog i do not feel the distance.

But?
NEXT TIME LET'S HAVE A WEBCAM!!!

want pictures?

the manhattan connection: it's a fact magic can happen

Pedro and the customer attitude

(Clone, one of my dogs)

Few days ago, before I left for few days out (sorry, no vacation) I saw a small dog known in the neighborhood. He carries a small tag with written on: My name is Pedro, I live in the parking area and I'm not lost. He is used to go around by himself. Well few days ago, he was following a young lady (dog, of course) very far from home. I saw him from the bus and got worried about his chance to get back home alive: he was crossing a very busy street.
The day later I saw him walking close to home in very good shape and safe.

Pedro has the customer attitude, the new customer attitude:

1. he goes by himself
2. he follows his instinct
3. he looks for new experience
4. he knows what he want
5. he doesn't get lost

Do you want to get new customers? Leave your desk and talk to people.
Do you want to retain your customers? Engage them in new experience and keep conversation alive.
Do you want to lose them? Try to put a leash on them. They will bite you.

Technorati Tags: marketing, conversation, customer engagement

Spring cleaning

Next week it will be 5 months since the first post, here at Bizandbuzz.

But as the spring cleaning time is approaching, I decided to self celebrate ( sounds a lot pretending, I know) and got a new layout.

Do you like it?

Technorati Tags: Marketing, bizandbuzz, spring

Jean Baudrillard R.I.P.

Jean Baudrillard has died aged 77.

Thanks for all his writings.

Technorati Tags: Baudrillard

Time is on our side. Or not?

originally updated by Livornoqueen, via Gavin Heaton

We are always running out of time, pushed, pressed and squeezed like juiced oranges.
We do fight to keep the qualitative standard of your job as high as possible.
We do struggle to defend our revenue.
Sound insane, isn't it?
Why it seems so dificult to sit down and think about what we do?
I believe that we would probably be scared of our conclusion.

1. Stephen Denny at Note to CMO published this post about the information overload and its impact on our daytime
2. Luc at Mindblob had this post on the Production trinity and how going short of time impact on its quality
3. Valeria at Conversation Agent had this post on how all our stuff lifetime is shorter than it used to be: better replace than fix

Three different approach but the same question:

where has it gone all our time?

Technorati Tags: time, marketing, web 2.0, Valeria Maltoni, Stephen Denny, Mindblob

The age of conversation

In my own blog, and in most of the others that i read, to open and to manage a conversation is a key issue.
Without a conversation there is no engagement, no share of information, no transfer of knowledge.
Without a conversation, we cannot learn to listen, to give qords their own meaning and not the one we would like them to have.
Without conversation the essence of blogging would be lost as well as the newest trend in a customer centric marketing.
But when we talk about conversation, we should know to whom pay tribute for having created the modern art of the dialogue.
This great book from Benedetta Craveri covers this topic, describing when, where and who was behind this fascinating art.


You can find the book here Amazon and here Barnes & Noble

In the early 17th century, conversation was the newest form of art in the French aristocratic circles. On personalities and gossip as well as on intellectual arguments, conversation came from several prominent women. The most prominent was the Marquise of Rambouillet, whose Blue Room was the most important circle.

Conversation had, at that time, the power to influence writers, their style, their themes.

Is it still true today?
Are we still able to have a conversation with friends, parents, customers?
Do we write as we talk or it is the opposite?

Technorati Tags: Conversation, marketing, customer, Valeria Maltoni

Get into real life (revised version)

When I used to travel intensively to the US of A, I was fascinated by some companies such as The Gap, Starbucks, etc. What do they had in common? They represented the American myth: wearing their stuff or telling about these coffee shops meant looking like the discerning traveller.
Italian tourists were landing in the States with empty luggages and fill them with goods from these companies.
Some of these brands have lost their appeal as of late.
No longer able to identify themselves with the cultural changes in society, they started looking only in their backyards for inspiration.
The Gap launched a division for women 40+ in a country where age is a taboo: something like "my dress is my ID".
Starbucks sold its "third place" experience to save one or two minutes to people in line. What it communicates: take your coffee and run when coffee is a pleasure that takes time to enjoy.
Many others followed the same path.


Some suggestions:


Get clued in -- read marketing books, but read newspapers and magazines as well
Observe -- go shopping and see what people look for and buy
Interact -- don't stop looking around and listening to people
Drive -- those changes, if you can
Experience -- be part of the world outside your office, your facilities
Adapt -- to the social and cultural changes

This is a revised version: thanks to Valeria

Technorati Tags: Starbucks, The Gap, marketing