what consumes me, bud caddell » What I’m Writing

there’s more time than the present

Bud Caddell — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:07:55 +0000

How do we design experiences with an understanding for how humans perceive time?

I’ve been obsessed with this deck from Matt Jones ever since I posted it last week. Presented with a few days off myself, my obsession was allowed to run rampant. I cherry picked quite a few things from his presentation and then dug a little deeper with the help of a couple books and the internet.

I would have liked to spend a wee bit more time with this one, but I’m trying out this new philosophy of not letting ‘the perfect be the enemy of the good.’

I’d love to hear some thoughts on this one, so donate your two cents in the comments.

kittens and porn, you’re the winner!

Bud Caddell — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:22:33 +0000

I ask a lot from my friends on the internet. Read this, vote here, comment there, share that, those sorta things… And a while back, I asked you to vote and comment on a SXSWi Panel that Mike Arauz and I had dreamed up, Kittens and Porn: You Choose the Winner and you actually did, because it was just announced as a panel for the 2010 SXSW Interactive Conference.

Thanks to everyone that rated the page and thanks to these people that left a comment:
– Rick Liebling
– Adam Abu-Nab
– Blake Robinson
– Nora Geiss
– Shari Doherty
– Heli Rajasalo
– Ken Yeung
– Carmel Hagen

There are lots of humbling names on the list of announced panels (Hugh MacLeod, Dave Armano, Perry Chen, etc); now Mike and I have to make sure our panel is ten-times more entertaining and interesting than anything they’ve got planned.

I promise it will be a raucous good time and I hope to see you there.

Thanks again!

and now for something completely…

Bud Caddell — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:53:19 +0000

1:40 in reminds me what happens when you question an ‘expert’…

I’m on staybattical this week – working on some personal projects and enjoying some sleep. Hopefully I’ll find the time to return some personal emails and reconnect with a few people I’ve unintentionally ignored.

the future of planner reads is in your hands

Bud Caddell — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:38:01 +0000

I’m meeting with my developer pal later this week to talk about the next phase of PlannerReads.com and I need your two cents.

The site’s been live for about a month and a half and we’ve made steady strides growing traffic and contributors (71 in all!)… a big thank you to everyone that has shared the site.

We still have a good deal of work ahead to make the site a truly valuable resource for the planning and strategy community, but we’re committed to seeing this through.

Directions we’re considering (please jump in the comments and toss your support to ideas you want to see pursued)

– More in-depth profiles for the contributors of the site and more information on where visitors can find you across the web

– A rating/leaderboard system for contributors, who is sharing the best content first (best as in shared by other users)?

– A rating/leaderboard system for the sources linked to and shared; what sites are hot for our community this month?

– Adding more interaction to the site: can visitors vote up posts/contributors/sources?

– Adding other sources of sharing; should tweets count towards posts/sources?

– Questions/Polls (is there a weekly question we can pose to all visitors that would be valuable for the community?)

– Editorial, would you like to see more interviews with planners and discussions on the future of the industry?

– Portability, would you like a better conditioned RSS feed or an email newsletter with a weekly round-up of top posts?

Alright, let me know what I missed and what you think in the comments!

*quick tip: use the search on plannerreads.com to find articles about topics you’re interested in, like mobile, for instance.

free idea: bank account partitioning

Bud Caddell — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:57:40 +0000

From the Wikipedia,

Disk partitioning is the act or practice of dividing the storage space of a hard disk drive into separate data areas known as partitions.

Partitions are a helpful way to separate one group of data from another group of data, for example: operating system files from user files (because we know how your sister likes to delete files at will).

And with partitions, you can also set the maximum size of a partition, or the maximum amount of data that will fit in one storage space.

Why don’t bank accounts have something akin to partitions?

After all, money is a lot like data. Well, the way we think about money… Typically when we’re saving money, clumps of that cash represent physical things for us, like a home in Florida and tall black socks to retire in, or a new guitar, or a rent payment. Clumps of data represent somewhat physical things to us, too; like a bad ass song by Abba or a paper on Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, for example.

I find myself wishing I could partition my bank account for things I’m saving up to buy and things I know I need to put money away for every month, like rent. I could set the size of those partitions and any overflow would fall into a standard open partition inside my checking account. I could even set a partition that represents my monthly debit card budget and once I’ve depleted that partition, I’m tapped until I rearrange my data, err my money.

I know what you’re going to say… there’s already an app for this – it’s called a checkbook. But when was the last time you saw a twenty year old filling out their check book ledger? Well, wait, when was the last time you saw a twenty year old writing a check for anything besides rent and utilities?

Hopefully someone is reading this and either 1) running away with the idea to give to a bank or 2) crafting a brilliant comment to completely negate the whole idea.

Choose your own adventure.

time as a material for design

Bud Caddell — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:23:22 +0000

DxF2009, Utrecht: "All the time in the world"

View more documents from Matt Jones.

Time + Data = Story

Lots of excellent stuff here, too much to cite, but definitely worth a spin.

Don’t say I don’t show you new things.

hopes and fears

Bud Caddell — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:53:39 +0000

image credit

Had a phone interview today with a gent named David Parsons about the future of the whole social media thing. David is getting his Masters in Interactive Media and also happens to be one of our Fiesta agents.

David asked an interesting question, so I thought I’d pose it to you, dear reader…

What’s your greatest hope and your greatest fear for the next five years when it comes to the intersection of business and digital technologies?

To be fair, I’ll start us off with my answers to David… (before you rip me to shreds, I had all of ten seconds to make these up, you give it a shot!)

Greatest hope: consumers truly control production. Digital technologies allow consumers to cooperate together and communicate their needs to corporations which (using superior production technologies) can service smaller and smaller consumer segments. Aaron also pointed out that wouldn’t it be nice if companies got better at serving those needs of ours we don’t clearly recognize or ask for.

Greatest fear: companies just get really good at faking it. Astro-turfing, town-halling, fabricating consumer opinion and using it to bullshit a demand (we want our guns to be extra shoot-ie)

dear john

Bud Caddell — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:36:26 +0000

Hi there, John Mayer.

More than 5 months ago I was putting together plans for including you in a groundbreaking use of augmented reality. I actually got in touch (through friends) with people from your record label, your management company, your friends, and even rallied your fans to put the idea in front of you. I know with certainty you’ve seen the site.

But you never responded.

You might be able to guess my reaction today when I found this post on Mashable: John Mayer Releases Augmented Reality Music Video

“Today … Mayer has been able to make music and technology history as the first recording artist to release an augmented reality music video.”

I wonder where in the world you got the idea from?

Not cool, John.

that’s a total balloon boy…

Bud Caddell — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:16:40 +0000

From now on, you should use balloon boy to refer to anything that ends up being less awesome than you had hoped…

For example, “Google Wave is a total balloon boy.”

missing step number two

Bud Caddell — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:43:51 +0000

No, this isn’t a post on Twitter’s business model

We tell our clients that step one is having a point of view.

A point of view that is so strong it is divisive. Or as Mike would wisely say, if your brand is acceptable to everyone, it won’t be interesting to anyone.

Stand on your principles because the rest of the world is unsettled.

As a human being, over the course of 26 years, I’ve stumbled upon my principles. I’ve failed and lost my way enough times to discover the few ideals… those non-real, non-physical notions to which I find myself stubbornly unable to bend even when it would serve the immediate present.

And because you mostly discover these values only after you’ve failed or been otherwise injured, they’re bound to your frailties. Great men are rarely all good (and I’m not even great yet).

Step one is critical. Step two is challenging.

Step two is the most often forgotten, short-cut, or cheated.

Step two is coalition building.

Find the like-minded, engender their trust, and serve your collective purpose.

I have a habit of forgetting step two (and so do most brands).

I often let my own personal failings get in the way of speaking clearly to my principles; I fail to change even when I struggle to change the world around me (and so do most brands).

In other words, let them damn you and the horse you rode in on, but let them hear you clearly… while finding the like-minded and speaking passionately and sincerely to them.

Don’t skip step two.