The Agile Publishing Model is based on Dominique Raccah’s theory that:

“building audience participation before the writing and publication of a book was a way to help readers discover new work, as well as leading to greater sales”

This seems to make sense and of course feels true. Build partcipation before you launch is smart and means when you hit activation stage, you already have a willing band of followers. This applies to most industries really, but the publishing industry does always seem slow to keep up.

Raccah told the audience: “We’re going to develop the book and build a community [around it] and the community is going to influence how the book is developed.”

I think it is smart, modern behaviour. So we shall see how it pans out.

You can also see Futurist David Houle talking about it below (poor sound quality but you get the idea)

<iframe width=”529″ height=”269″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/D9PY7EMlfl0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Although Google have gone way beyond challenger status into a market leader across all their products, they still remain incredibly obsessed at the core of their business. Obsessed with delivering technology which enables users to use the web more effectively and efficiently. Obsessed with uniting up all their platforms to give seamless consumer movement across all of them.

This obsession runs deep. I found an interesting article on the Daily Mail which showed Eric Schmidt’s obsession with things which are sadly way beyond his control. (yes – interesting + Daily Mail together in one sentence) In a speech which he made in August 2011, Eric Schmidt criticizes the UK education system for focusing on “luvvy” subjects rather than the nerdy ones. His points are smart though, when we are increasingly in a world which has devalued the written word and revalued technology, why are we ignoring sciences and engineering to focus on the written or spoken word.

According to a recent article in The Guardian, it is actually only England that has fallen drastically behind. In Scotland, computers are linked into every subject and some schools are even giving lessons to takeaway as downloadable podcasts. Smart stuff.

Schmidt is right in his assessment of our educational system. Computer Science, the thing that drives culture today, is sadly missing from the majority of schools. This means our children are missing out on learning really simple programming skills something which every 12 and 13 year old in South Korea has access to.

In recent months, the UK government has indeed started to think about how they do this and it is great to see Michael Gove pick up on this necessity.

“One of the problems we’ve had is that the ICT curriculum in the past has been written for a subject that is changing all the time. I think that what we should have is computer science in the future – and how it fits in to the curriculum is something we need to be talking to scientists, to experts in coding and to young people about.”

Perhaps now as places like the Silicon Roundabout and Silicon Fen boom in terms of new start-ups, we’ll see a nation obsessed with teaching not just computer literacy, but coding, app development and computer expertise. That is surely a good thing.

Each monthly theme will be dictated by three things:

- Being Topical. It might not be a subject people are talking about, but it may be a trait that has been shown through someone or something. For example, I chose “obsession” for January, because it feels like having found myself deep into Steve Job’s biography, that obsession is something we could all learn from.

- Driving Discussion. Themes will be picked for their controversy, but also their ability to drive discussion.

- Availability of material. For whatever theme I pick this shouldn’t be a problem, but each month I will discuss why I chose different themes and what made them interesting.

I hope you like it. Its a new start if you like…

Thanks. Matt

The video from Willem Van der Hoven talks about the creation of great work, which he believes can be broken down into three areas;

1) Surround yourself with great consumer planners
2) Create a team who live the brand journey
3) Be courageous and work for courageous people

Creating Great Work – 3 Bits of Advice from eatbigfish on Vimeo.

Rather than simply bolting this on to their heritage, Burberry are using digital and social technologies to create a new, part to their heritage. A heritage which is more involving, less distant, and completely connected.

To launch a video here shows class and credibility. The House of Radon, who I knew nothing about until I saw this video, clearly have an expert eye for both of the above. In this video, with a guest appearance and as always, really thought provoking insight is Moby. The question that this raises over artistry v creation is really interesting, so watch on.

via PressPausePlay on Vimeo.

Come winter the perception is that there isn’t much to do in Iceland. However, this new campaign from Inspired by Iceland highlights that Icelanders want you to come visit them in their homes and see how the live during the beautifully cold winter months.

It starts with the President who today is addressing the nation. He will be asking his fellow countrymen to open their doors and arms to the world. This is Olafur Ragnar Grimsson’s video address and you can’t help but be moved by the invitation to sample some of his wife’s favourite pancakes in his home.

Inspired by Iceland Invitations from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

It has such a great sentiment that you can’t help but feel inspired by it. Visit Inspired by Iceland for more about the Icelandic people opening their doors to you here.

Inspired by Iceland was an incredibly inspiring campaign to work on. It was a campaign that we found out we had won on my first day in The Brooklyn Brothers office, so it’s success or failure would help to define my role within the agency. Fortunately, the campaign was a global success, pushing Iceland from brink of despair to thriving tourist destination.

This is how we did it:
The country of Iceland had transformed itself from one of Europe’s poorest countries to one of its wealthiest in the space of a generation. After the financial crisis in 2008, Iceland suffered yet another blow when that volcano unexpectedly erupted and sent plumes of ash into the Icelandic air.

The negative press and sentiment surrounding Iceland was turning potential tourists off. The effect of the volcano was felt immediately with tourism numbers plummeting 30% in the two remaining weeks of April, a decline that continued into the start of May.

This campaign involved Icelanders in telling their stories to the world. In July 2010, Iceland hour was created during which Icelanders went online and told the world how much they love their country. Even the Prime Minister got involved!

Within 2 weeks of the launch, over 85% of Icelanders were aware of the campaign. After 6 weeks, over half of the Icelandic public had contributed stories. Within just 10 weeks, the country was perceived as a safe place to visit again, visitor numbers were up 27% against forecasts. The first quarter of 2011 has seen Iceland’s highest tourist numbers ever.

On Facebook alone over 45,000 fans were recruited and over 2 million stories were seen and sent out by fans. Between June and August the live webcams were viewed 60 million times.

In total an additional 73 thousand tourists visited the country from Europe, worth an additional £127.4m to Iceland’s economy. The total campaign expenditure was £2m within this period, giving a short-term ROMI of 62.7:1.

Inspired by Iceland demonstrates how a new model of Social Participation can change both attitudes and behaviours, and deliver impressive commercial results.

Alexis Ohanian: How to make a splash in social media

Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days

Sebastian Thrun: Google’s driverless car

Next week is all about the failure of the average male….