On a cold winter evening in 1993 I was walking home late through a quiet residential street in Winnipeg when it started to snow. The sky was the perfect blend of dark pregnant grey, with a soft underbelly of street lamp orange. It was cold, but there was absolute stillness. It was the kind of cold you appreciate as a relief from the punishing, breathless cold of a prairie winter. And then, in that perfect, dark stillness… it began to snow. The biggest, fattest, flakes parachuting from the heavens in perfect silence. A miraculous surprise invasion of a million falling angels. In moments everything was covered with a thick blanket of white newness which further muffled the distant noise of late city traffic. I knew it was just snow, but the combination of the weather, the sky, the stillness, the solitude, the random beauty, made me feel uniquely human and profoundly alive.

That moment changed my life: staring up into the infinite white depth of precipitation, catching chip-sized flakes in my open mouth, I wanted to capture the feeling of that moment forever. I wanted to share that feeling of happy alone-ness, that moment of peace, as it was happening. I wanted the world to hear my emotions, to see what I was feeling.

This video of moments, created by Will Hoffman, reminded me that my vision has come true. Smart phones with mobile data plans, a lifestreaming app, and a Twitter account have made ‘limited global telepathy’ a reality less than 15 years later. Everyone can share their moments. They can capture them, catalogue them, edit them, review them. They can publish them, discuss them, rate them, organize them, aggregate them. Sometimes this is just noise, but sometimes it is a profound combination of events that make you feel infinite and human and alive.

Thank you for sharing your moments, Will Hoffman.

[See more of Mr. Hoffman's genius at http://www.anyoneeverything.com.]

Posted via web from Jason Theodor’s Creative Method and Systems Channel

When I first watched the Hosting Your Party video for the launch of Windows 7 I thought it was a well produced parody. I keep watching (for the full excruciating 6 minutes and 15 seconds) for the wink and the nod, some small cue to let us all in on the post-modern irony. But it never happened. For a short while I thought perhaps the digital clock on the oven behind the actors was a clue: the time kept changing between bouncy camera takes. And there was no URL at the end of the video, so again I thought maybe it was a fake. But then I noticed that the YouTube commenting was disabled, which feels like a very Microsoft thing to do. After a short search on Google (not Bing) I found a few badly made parodies and then this: a real link to the global launch party details .

Posted via email from Jason Theodor’s Creative Method and Systems Channel

It looks like Swine Flu is the most over-hyped disease in history. The WHO and other organizations can use this relatively harmless disease as research in tracking how viruses spread globally. And we can be thankful that this ‘practice run’ isn’t too nasty. But the amount of air play and news this thing gets is crazy. My apologies for adding more bacon fat to the fire.

Posted via web from Jason Theodor’s Creative Method and Systems Channel

It’s funny because it’s true.

Posted via web from Jason Theodor’s Creative Method and Systems Channel

It is important to understand all sides to a problem before casting judgment. All too often customer support becomes an US vs. THEM mentality that creates animosity and ill-will (not to mention creative, colourful language). I’ve always liked Get Satisfaction’s approach, and after finding and reading their Company-Customer Pact, complete with beige ‘paper’ and obligatory flourishes, I like them even more. These are simple rules, but they remind us that simple isn’t always easy.

Companies need to recognize that customers are individuals, not numbers. And customers need to remember that a company is made up of people, too (an easy thing to forget when you are in a blind rage). Transparency and respect builds trust.

In short:

Companies: Be human. Customers: Be understanding.

The rest will just fall into place from there.

Posted via web from Jason Theodor’s Creative Method and Systems Channel

Group: jetBlue
Follow these Twitters on their 30 day adventures.
@dcurtis (The 30-Day Flight)
@CartersPage (Cross Country Carter)
@30daysonjetblue (30 Days On JetBlue)
@joedinardo (Twelve Hours in a City)
@clarkdever (Twelve Hours in a City)
@599club (599 Club)
@JetBlue (jetBlue)
@WanderngAramean
@Flyered (aka Terminal Man, aka Brendan Ross sponsored by Wired.com)
@allyoucanjet
@allyoucanjetnow (All You Can Jet News blog)

Hashtags to search:
#jetblue
#12hrs
#aycj (all you can jet)

Got more hashtags or interesting twitter users to follow? Post them below in the comments.

Posted via web from Jason Theodor’s Creative Method and Systems Channel

Something premiered today, and it wasn’t new fall programming on ABC. Instead, it was the first day customers could begin using jetBlue’s (sold-out) $599 All-You-Can-Jet Pass. For one full month, from September 8th until October 8th, 2009, customers with this Pass can become super-frequent flyers. Think of it as a monthly bus pass but for airplanes: jetBlue airplanes. It was a very successful promotion, and prompted jetBlue to halt sales a few days before the deadline, claiming they were ’sold out’.

But something else happened as well. The idea of an unlimited plane pass excited and inspired a frenzy of creativity among designers, photographers, artists, writers, journalists, and others. What sort of adventures could be had? What stories could be experienced, captured, and told? The web savvy among them decided, independantly, to announce their intensions online and broadcast their 30 day journeys through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.

Instead of watching The Amazing Race, I am now following the adventures of a few different teams and individuals as they zig-zag their way across North-America with different self-imposed limitations and goals:

The 30-Day Flight
Dustin Curtis is the first person I heard about who was creating a crazy public challenge out of the All-You-Can-Jet passes. Curtis and his friend Alaska Miller (very cool name) set up this special website where they will be “visualizing the insanity”, interviewing people in-flight, and having adventures. You might remember Curtis as the intrepid designer who wrote an open letter to American Airlines compaining about their online customer service, and posted suggestions and redesigns of their site. He actually got a response. But he has a new airline to fixate on now: jetBlue. His mission is to visit all 42 cities that jetBlue services, in just 30 days, on 83 flights. He has vowed to create a 30 page website, graphically (in a designer kind of way) depicting his challenge. You can follow Curtis on Twitter here.

Cross Country Carter
Carter is a ‘radio personality’ from Florida who is blogging his way to 23 cities in 30 days. He has posted his itinerary on TripIt, set up a blog, flickr, myspace and facebook page, a twitter account, as well as a YouTube channel. He has succesfully covered all his bases, it remains to be seen if he can deliver interesting content to some or all of them as he travels. He intends to fisit 62 famous landmarks, go through 36 time zones, and visit his home periodically to ‘grab more clothes’.

Twelve Hours In A City
These guys, Joe Dinardo and Clark Dever, are the most media savvy of the bunch. They have already hosted a fundraiser, got on the front page of The Buffalo News, and found their way onto CNN.com. On their first day, one of their sponsors, @dunkindonuts, scored them box seats at Fenway Park in Boston. Dinardo complained that he wasn’t allowed to smoke and Dever took a few pictures. You can follow both Dinardo and Dever on Twitter. They also have a 12hr Facebook fan page.

The 599 Club
Jennifer Milano has created a Meetup group a Facebook page for 599 Club members to meet and organize around. 599 comes from the price of the jetBlue All-You-Can-Jet pass. They are aggrigating links and finding places to party. 599club is also on the twitter.

So far the content has been pretty light, but considering the sheer magnitude of initial co-ordination, I will cut them all some slack on the first day or two. I look forward to watching, reading, and listening in to all of their travels.

I am also keenly interested in how jetBlue will be responding to these socially plugged-in travelers. They must know it is a potential nightmare for them, but also a chance to flex some social muscles of their own and come out shining. Either way, they can’t sit back and ignore it. They are already acknowledging some of the activity on their own twitter channel: @JetBlue. In the meantime, CNN has profiled the Twleve Hours crew, Cross Contry Carter is a radio personality, and Dustin Curtis has had a few words with airlines before.

This is the perfect storm of customer support, public relations, social media, spontaneous marketing savvy, and brand recognition. I will be glued to my computer screen until October 9th. Or at least until I am no longer entertained. Not everyone is willing to give them a chance, however. There are internet hecklers and trolls out there who don’t believe anyone should follow a dream, be happy, creative, have adventures in life, or even be online. Dever published the following on September 8, 2009, at 4:35 EST:

Favorite negative comment thus far. Get a real job you viral web 2.0 hippies

I’m sure there are more adventurers out there. If you are one, or you have heard of one, please post them in the comments below.

Posted via web from Jason Theodor’s Creative Method and Systems Channel

In an interview about his new book (Here Comes Everybody), Clay Shirky is talking about group editing on Wikipedia when a television producer asks him, “Where do people find the time?” Shirky’s response:

“Nobody who works in TV gets to ask that question.”

If we could just cut down a fraction of our TV watching, we could free up trillions of human hours to create new and interesting things, or tackle the world’s problems. But first I have to find out which chef got kicked off of Hell’s Kitchen…

Posted via web from Jason Theodor’s Creative Method and Systems Channel

To create an avalanche you’ve gotta make it snow one snowflake at a time.

Robert Scoble explains why big business won’t create the next big thing. Giant corporations want to start with the avalanche, instead of building up to it. Scoble quotes Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, as saying, “We don’t want to work on problems that only affect a small number of people.” Scoble believes that we should be looking for snowflakes— businesses that are tackling the small problems— with the propensity to ’snowball’ over time.

Posted via web from Jason Theodor’s Creative Method and Systems Channel

(For non-Mac users, command-c=copy and command-n=new)

Apple’s special Command Key was borrowed from a Scandinavian symbol for areas of special cultural interest, also known as Saint John’s Arms. But what’s far more interesting are all the nick-names Mac users around the world have called this “Place of Interest Sign.”

Cloverleaf
Splodge
Splat
Box Button
Pretzel
Rune
Puppy Paw
Tic Tac Toe
Funny Thing
Flower
Puppy Foot
Funky
Bug
Curly
Freeway
Open Apple
Super Sprint
Infinity Loop
Bow
Helicopter
Propeller
Cauliflower
Butterfly
Bowen Knot
Clover
Squiggly
Daisy
Beanie
Overpass
Curly-Do

(thanks to http://www.tuaw.com/2007/01/01/blast-from-the-past-the-story-of-the-apple-clover-symbol/ for most of these extra non-wikipedia nicknames)

Posted via web from Jason Theodor’s Creative Method and Systems Channel