EIDSON & PARTNERS

A Detailed View of the Inauguration

The link below shows the Inauguration of President Obama in unbelievable detail. The image is a 1474 megapixel photo of the inauguration built from more than 200 photos. The navigation tools allow you to zoom in on snoozing Justices and pick out details of tie pins.

Gigapan

Do You Know How To?

Ever wonder how to...
- Become a ninja?
- Run for office?
- Swing dance?
- Write Chinese characters?

According to a New York Times article , investors are betting tens of millions of dollars on Internet start-up companies like ExpertVillage and WonderHowTo that you want to know how to do those things. These companies are putting how-to content online.

And, it's not just silly stuff. You can view videos about how to repair a pool cleaner by a pool store manager, how to use a miter saw from a custom home builder, how to light your home exterior from a lighting designer at a residential spaces company, or how to improve employee performance from a professional training expert.

What is your expertise? Why not make your own how-to video that positions you as the expert in your field? Put it online, send links of it to your customers and prospects, or send it to media outlets to showcase your availability as an expert spokesperson.

You too can how to.

What Will Follow the Laptop?

I recently heard Michael Smith, the futurist-in-residence for the New York Times, speak.

He posed a great question when he asked, "what will follow the laptop?"  And, he shared some of the product concepts that he had seen.

I thought of Michael Smith's presentation when a friend sent me an LA Times article on text messaging in China.

Interestingly, China is now the world's largest mobile phone market. 455 million cellphone users exchange 33 billion short messages each month.

The LA Times explained that, "China's mania for messaging - particularly mobile messaging - is largely a product of how technology developed (in China). Like other emerging global markets, rural regions of China lacked phones or television as recently as two decades ago. The country modernized just as mobile technology was broadly accessible throughout the world."

In effect, China skipped the land line, the answering machine, the fax machine, the desktop and the laptop.

So, if we want to know what follows the laptop, maybe China can provide a model of what behaviors might be like if we start over fresh.