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The Spork of Tomorrow,
Here Today

The Forgotten Spoon

A recent visit to the deli counter at Target yielded an interesting consumer experience brand extension. It’s a small detail, yet answers a very basic quandary.

Ever leave a deli or carry out without a utensil with which to eat? Enter this little innovation.

Forget Finger Food

The lid of the food container has a small thermoformed cavity that’s roughly the shape of the head of a spoon. In this cavity is a “folded” spoon with a living hinge and a snap-fit tab that transforms it into a fully functional utensil roughly 2/3 the length of a normal plasticware spoon.

Putting a Finger on Innovation

A need was identified and with some simple ingenuity a smart solution was borne. While it won’t change the world, it is genius.

[ image: illig ]

“Freedom of the press is guaranteed
only to those who own one.”

—A.J. Liebling (MagCloud)

A Press for Democracy

So you want to be a print publisher. Luckily, you’re living at the right time in history. Freedom of expression has never been more celebrated and available. From personal broadcasts of text, voice and video messages to social networks, blogs, micro-blogs and podcasts, media options and outlets abound.

A Democratic Appeal

Although digital media is easily distributed, it’s imprisoned by electronic devices and an endless sea of competition for readership. And, often it’s merely scanned, not truly read.

By contrast, published works derive value from their singular appeals: a tactile form, a willing and welcomed commitment of one’s time, a personal gift.

Until now, print-publishing was expensive, with customized items made affordable only via mass production and distribution methods.

Democratic Demand

Traditional publishing and digital print technologies have now merged, offering a vast array of online, on-demand, turnkey publishing and distribution platforms like these, ready to meet your needs:

Lightning Source
Lightning Source, a sister company to U.S. book wholesaler Ingram Book Group, is an online print-on-demand (POD) service provider to publishers. They offer online publishing, production and distribution solutions that can reduce on-hand inventories and warehousing costs by satisfying niche book demands and calls for backlist and out-of-print books.

CreateSpace and BookSurge
Amazon’s answer to on-demand publishing brings their third party connections and distribution acumen to help you develop and distribute manuscripts and other types of media.

Blurb
Affiliated with Flickr’s popular photography management and sharing site, Blurb offers prepackaged, user-friendly templates for a more consumer-oriented solution to book publishing.

Shutterfly
Shutterfly enters the on-demand book and publishing market from its core focus, online photo sharing and management. The seamless port of existing albums into books, calendars and other product templates positions Shutterfly as a solid consumer choice.

BookPrep
HP brings its leadership in on-demand printing to BookPrep. BookPrep allows you to digitize any existing book into a virtual asset that can be ported via the web and printed on-demand as-is, or customized by the consumer.

MagCloud
For those wanting to produce the next New Yorker, Fast Company or Sports Illustrated, MagCloud offers an affordable solution for would-be magazine publishers. MagCloud not only handles printing, but mailing and subscription management as well.

Lulu.com
Lulu provides a matrix of vertically and horizontally marketed offerings, from consumer-oriented photo calendars to hardbound business books and digital media. In an obvious response to Amazon, it also offers the means to buy and sell works.

A Freeing Democracy

Whether you want to target a single customer with an extended one-to one message or hope to take your ideas to market in multiples, on-demand printing solutions offer both prototype and production solutions in a single model.

From individuals to tier one corporations, online on-demand publishing provides another instrument to add to your integrated brand marketing mix, and a chance at real freedom of the press.

[image: tonystl]

Because we believe we can add value
for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.

-Google on their new browser, Chrome

Open Source

Google launches Chrome, its open source web browser, today. News of the release, initially leaked in comic book form then later confirmed on The Official Google Blog, has the Internet abuzz with talk about the demise of Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Chrome is a natural addition—an integrated mechanism to deliver the search giant’s extensive suite of free, albeit ad-driven tools and services.

Open Season

Chrome bolsters Google’s efforts to prevent Microsoft from leveraging Internet Explorer to wrest Google’s position in the search market space.

But whether users adopt Google’s latest development en masse, or not, marketers in every sector will benefit from a viable communication partner offering an integrated delivery vehicle.

[image: ndanger]

“If this isn’t a true definition of community,
I don’t know what is.”

-Bobbie Davis, Family Friend

The Scenario

Nineteen year old Michael Treinen is in the fight of his life. Suffering a relapse of Acute Myeloid Leukemia, he needs a $500,000 bone marrow transplant, but his $1M lifetime insurance limit has been exhausted.

With only a few days to raise money to cover the costs, the Treinan family turned to email, asking friends and family to donate $20 within three days and forward the email to 20 friends. By day 2, several people at Brainstorm had received the plea from the nearby community; some from up to 4 different sources.

More than Enough

The message quickly spread beyond the immediate community and donations came in from across the country. By day 3 the family had raised $175,000. By 3pm day 4, $355,000. By 7pm that day, over $400,000. And by day 5, the deadline, they had raised over $700,000. Today, a week later, the count is $856,000.

The media’s coverage of the grassroots campaign resulted in a state insurance program approving an expedited high-risk insurance policy that would cover 60 percent of the transplant cost.

More than Money

Social networking delivered something else, too. At last count Michael Treinen’s Caring Bridge blog showed 169,670 visits and 3,677 people had left messages via the guestbook. What better encouragement to lift Michael’s spirits?

More than Email

Success in social networking is inspired, launched and sustained by the trusted connections between people. The Treinen’s email pleas were sent from friend to friend; had they been sent from strangers or generated by faceless scripts, the Michael Treinen story wouldn’t have happened.

Whether you make widgets or offer something more philanthropic, social networking demands transparency and an ongoing investment in others. Then, when the time calls for it, your friends—and even people you don’t know—may respond when called upon.

Anticipate More

Under the circumstances, the Treinens couldn’t have dreamed of, much less considered what to do should they exceed their expectations. It’s being placed in a trust fund to cover Michael’s future medical needs and they’ve said any overage will be donated to charity.

The lesson being, be prepared and model outcomes to scale in proportion to the potential explosive power of online social campaigns.

[ Image: Kazze ]