The “cloud” is not just about reducing your IT costs. When you think about it, what business calls “the cloud” has been providing us consumers with plenty of flexibility and innovation for years. Look no further than YouTube to see how this innovation is changing the face of what it means to be a “broadcaster” or a producer of “media”.
But for those of us wanting to reach new audiences, create markets or simply just “tell our story”, cloud computing changes the nature of the game – putting us all on the same level as the largest of enterprises. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of cloud or “on-demand” platforms that provide high-end functionality for low monthly or per-use fees.
I take a quick look at some of the best platforms for launching new products in my latest post for The Pulse. Check it out.
Have you ever wanted to see your name in print? Do you have ideas you’d like to share with a global audience? This may be the opportunity that you have been waiting for!
Over the last four years, Drew McLellan and I have instigated and published three books exploring the Age of Conversation. These crowdsourced books have brought together over 400 authors, raised more that $50,000 for charity, and provided many people with the opportunity to see their names and ideas in print.
After our third book, the Age of Conversation 3: It’s Time to Get Busy!, we thought that the series may have reached it’s natural end point. But now, two years later, we believe there may be still more to explore. And this time, it’s PERSONAL.
Once again, we are throwing the doors open. If you have an idea that you’d like to share with us, we’d love to have you join us.
How does this work?
Nominate for a topic area using this form (please choose three topics – as we have a lot of authors to accommodate, we need to ensure the coverage is spread)
We will advise you of the area
Write a 400 word chapter (no longer please) or 750 word case study and send it through
We will edit and curate the flow of the chapters
The book will be produced on-demand and be ready to promoted
If you have a case study that you can share, we’d love to have it. BUT … this needs to be YOUR case study. They need to be projects that you have worked on or have been responsible for. You must include measurable results of some sort. We’re not going to get into the whole ROI discussion … but you need to show how it played out. Please don’t propose case studies based on other people’s work.
Where do I sign up for the Age of Conversation #4?
What happens when you ask Google “Where is Chuck Norris?”. Try it. Click the first link. You’ll find out. And now, imagine if you happened to own the brand that smelled like Chuck Norris. Then you’d know what it meant to be a truly social brand.
As I surf the web, I normally keep a few tabs open with links to the best stories I find. But last week, there were so many that I just had to start writing this post early – or risk Chrome crashing through over work. These were the best five I could find. Enjoy!
There are many who analyse, rate, rank and make decisions based on various “measures” of influence – from Klout to Kred and back again. But Danny Brown suggests that it’s not influencers we seek but instigators.
Most businesses claim to seek out and nurture creativity – yet, in practise, creativity in the corporation can prove to be not only risky but career limiting. David Burkus takes it further, suggesting that traditional organisational structure – hierarchies – kill creativity. Does this gel with your experience?
In Australia, a price on carbon came into effect over the last weekend. Will it mean that our country will be transformed into a post-apocalyptic Mad Max style landscape? Jim Parker shares his vision of this new world order – and it doesn’t look pretty.
I can remember the day I switched over to Google for my internet searches. Before that I had a number of favourite search engines – each with its own specialty. One I would use for searching forums, another I would use for question and answer content. Still another would be used for web page and blog searching.
I quite liked the feeling of control that I experienced in those old days. I knew which tool to use and when. I could find things that other people couldn’t. This made me valuable.
But this process was time consuming. Sometimes I would need to work through many variations of my search terms using two or three different search engines before I found what I needed. And all the while, the clock was ticking.
Eventually I began turning more regularly to Google. It started with a blog search here or there. A boolean search from time to time. But it wasn’t just the results that made me switch. It was the relevance. And it was the speed.
Google’s search far outstripped all the others for speed. The clean, white page offered by Google smashed the slow loading, ad heavy portal offered by Yahoo! It was easier to read than Alta Vista … and it was just more relevant than Ask Jeeves.
But how does Google actually find and return such powerful results so quickly? This infographic explains nicely. And you may just be surprised to know that since 2003 Google has answered 450 billion unique queries that it has never seen before. And only a small percentage are mine!
