In 2003, I was in New York City during the blackout.  In 2003 there were 28.2 million broadband internet lines in the U.S. (1).  By 2010, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 66% of American households had broadband internet access, that’s 76 million households, let alone small businesses and the like. Mobile use has increased from less than 50% to 91% in the same time frame. When our power went out, we went up to the roof of our Canal Street office and watched New Yorkers pouring up north out of Wall Street.  That’s how we knew that something was “up.”  Then we got a mobile phone call from someone’s brother in Buffalo who told us that the power was out up there as well.  Then we really knew that something was “up.”  And then the cell phones went out.  We went outside and news was gathered by word of mouth, snippets of information gleaned together from folks in the street.  People were gathered around portable radios and trying to find wired lines and pay phones that still worked.

Watching the reports of the 9.0 earthquake in Japan and the failure of 2 nuclear reactors and hearing about their planned blackouts had me thinking about electricity when I walked into a small coffee shop that offered free WiFi.  I saw dozens of computers in this tiny shop and I realized how reliant we are on electricity.  Our society is built upon electricity working.  No one reads books or newspapers any more because we receive our information through devices.  We don’t receive bills in the mail.  We communicate with our friends through email and social networks. And that can sometimes work, a tweet I sent thinking of my friends in Japan was immediately answered, but what about when the power’s out?

I’ve never been a survivalist, but I live in California, so a certain amount of preparation seems to make sense.  And now more than ever.

And if you look at the last 15 years as just a directional trend, you see data appearing everywhere. And as computing power increases while the cost for that computing power decreases, we will continue to see more and more. The trick is to avoid the reliance on data at the expense of common sense:

1994:  Long Term Capital Management founded by ex-Salomon traders and Nobel winners Myron Scholes and Fischer Black

1997: Black Scholes Nobel Prize in Economics:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%E2%80%93Scholes

1998: Long Term Capital Management lost $4.6 Billion (when Billions meant something) in 4 months

1998:  LTCM bailed out by 14 financial institutions to avoid a wider economic market collapse:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management

2003:  Michael Lewis’ Moneyball explored stats in baseball (an obsession that’s been going on for a long time, “the practice of keeping records of player achievements was started in the 19th century by Henry Chadwick – http://www.amazon.com/s?search-alias=stripbooks&field-isbn=0785345302)

2003:  “Bringing Down the House”
by Ben Mezrich about the MIT Blackjack Team and the subsequent movie

2007: Housing bubble bursts, which leads to complex financial instruments called CDOs and CDSs to crumble

2009:  Wolfram Alpha’s launch – http://www38.wolframalpha.com/

2009-2010:  IBM’s campaign for data and “smarter cities”

These are just a few select examples… There are many, many more.

Data is here to stay provided we have computers.

http://adage.com/cannes2010/article?article_id=144650

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“Brian Perkins, the chief marketer at J&J, repeatedly sang the praises of the Interpublic Group of Cos. shop and said digital shops are likely to assume more of a leadership role in the future.”
…
“But Mr. Perkins said, “I’d look seriously … and it’s not just an IPG thing, I’d look at taking the holding company private.””
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“Mr. Perkins said he’d also look at investing more heavily in two areas of talent — creative and analytics.”

The move of advertisers from talking at customers to talking about talking to customers to actually talking to customers continues. J&J is to be lauded for their forward thinking in the digital space. Babycenter.com is an oft used case study for how a brand can use a portal to deliver relevant content information to consumers in a way that provides the consumers with value.

On the Babycenter.com website is a staggering statistic, “In the U.S., BabyCenter reaches over 78 percent of new and expectant moms online”

J&J’s goal of solidifying agency relationships with digital shops because it will improve their relationship with their customers and employees and deliver value back to the consumer is a goal that’s well worth pursuing.

The convergence of technology (17-year old Russian Andrey Ternovskiy’s Chatroulette and Google’s YouTube), professionally created content (Lady Gaga and the crew that made “Telephone”), a creative user (Steve Kardynal) and humanity / reality (the folks using Chatroulette).  At 2 million views Steve has a great cable rating for his video remix.

Content continues to get niche-d, remixed, and completely rethought.

Business models shudder and crumble as users gain control, traditional distribution models become obsolete and creative individuals build audiences and share their work.  The hard part is in defining the way to get paid for their works.

On the continuum from “UGC” (user generated content) to professionally produced video content and music, there are “ideas”.  Kernels of content that are satisfying, intriguing or captivating (sometimes in the manner of watching a train wreck, but captivating nonetheless).

iPhone Music from China

These ideas can become full blown “shows” in the traditional sense, as 16-year-old Lucas Cruikshank’s Fred videos which collectively have generated half a billion views turn into a movie.

Does Audience equal revenue? — YouTube phenomenon’s try to cash in. David DeVore manages a business based on “David after Dentist” viewed 55 million times.

Some of this has raised legal issues, as the “democratization” of content has led to tensions between digital rights and fair use.

Certainly, Viacom and Google’s long standing legal battle has epitomized this.  Though, the rumor that Viacom PR people were uploading clips to YouTube, while the legal department was asking YouTube to take them down is widespread, as it is with NBC and their SNL skits.

The “new normal” is the ability to be creative, build an audience, consistently deliver value to that audience and then that audience will happily provide you with capital to continue your creation, in fact, they will likely demand it of you.  Even if you’re giving away the content and creativity at the start to build the audience.  Just look at Twitter and Facebook’s community first, revenue later models…

A quote from Dr. Luntz about “context” provides some scientific rigor to the point:

“The sequential arrangement of information often creates the very meaning of that information, building a whole whose significance is different from and greater than its constituent parts.  Film provides perhaps the clearest illustration of this principle.  The great Russian director Sergei Eisenstein’s theory of montage states that meaning resides in the juxtaposition of ideas or images (On Directing Film, by David Mamet).  Two unrelated images are presented one after the other, and the audience infers a causal or substantive link between them.  A shot of a masked killer raising a butcher knife, followed by a shot of a woman opening her mouth, tells us that the woman is scared.  But if that same image of the woman opening her mouth is preceded by a shot of a clock showing that it’s 3 a.m., the woman may seem not to be screaming, but  yawning.  The mind takes the information it receives and synthesizes it to create a third idea, a new whole.”

Context impacts Authenticity.  If the juxtaposition of ideas and images are inconsistent, authenticity is compromised.  The dissonance of the imagery or speaker to the words impacts that sense of order.  Luntz again, “…show don’t tell…reveal your personality…be the message rather than narrating it, but above all be authentic.”  To be authentic, you have to have the context right.  You have to be consistent, you have to “live the role.”

Context and Authenticity matter in the way that you build your business plan, in the way that you communicate to your customers and to your employees.

In building “consciousness” into business, it is important to truly believe in the changes that you are making, if you do not the authenticity of your message will appear false and customers and employees alike will abandon you.  “Phony” does not work in a vastly interconnected society.  Inconsistencies are too easy to find and too easy to poke holes in, remember Eliot Spitzer?  His downfall was the inconsistency between his squeaky clean image and “holier than thou” approach to cleaning up Wall Street.  Contrast that with Charlie Sheen’s run ins with prostitution and you can see that context works in other aspects of daily life.

Get the context right and be authentic to build upon your vision.

In Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan stated “a light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence.”

The light bulb in and of itself does not hold “content” in the traditional sense, but if you are in a dark room and the light bulb is turned on, it will attract an audience as people seek out the light in the dark.

Ideas are the same way.  As are core purposes of businesses. Expressing a purpose for your business if it was previously unsaid will create a vision for people that interact with you and your business.  The stating of the idea is important.  It’s amazing what you can do by just starting, by bringing something no matter how big or small into existence.

Have you turned on a light bulb in your day?

Creative people like to talk about “thinking outside the box,” which is laudable.  Think outside that box.  Good.  We’re at least getting somewhere.  But you’re still referencing a point, so “thinking outside the box” can be fraught with it’s own problems.  Like focusing too much on the damn box as you’re trying to be outside it.  Am I outside the box?  Am I outside enough?

No, the best thing is a blissful ignorance about this box or any box–an ability to take a baby’s mind’s eye to a problem.  Referencing nothing less than an ideal solution to a problem set before you.  Devoid of preconceived notions.  Free and open to opportunities.

Sometimes in business the most successful are the ones who are not aware of the rules, they didn’t know that there was a box, so they naturally think beyond that archaic framework and they aren’t concerned about whether their often elegant solutions are inside, outside or all around (apologies to Tribe Called Quest).