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Fridays at 8 am. The company is good. The coffee sensational. And the conversation a tip above scintillating.

Where? Single Origin.
Cnr of Reservoir & Mary
Surry Hills

Look out for me or for Emily. Would love to see you too.

Now, I just could not resist this photo.

Sounds like my kind of chilli sauce.

Even if I do feel sorry for Jane.

They say that a change is like a holiday … and one of the most popular and exotic of destinations at present is Marrakesh. But if you are like me and cannot simply jump on a plane and visit, then this might be the next best thing.

Maryam is a great hostess whose blog charts the development of a guesthouse. Along the way she shares her wonder of the world, captures the beauty of the country (and its people) and invites her readers into her amazing and sometimes challenging world.

Right now, Maryam has been nominated for a weblog award. If you like what you see, go along and vote for My Marrakesh. And if you happen to be passing by, be sure to say hello.

In the Age of Conversation there is plenty of talk. Plenty of chatter. But an authentic and trusted voice does more than talk … it incites, it points to action. It leads us to where, perhaps, we are on the edge of comfort.
For marketers, this means pushing ourselves beyond themes and messages. It is more than a clever catch phrase or a quip … it asks us to re-examine the NATURE and METHODS of the work we do. It asks us to "live our brands" in ways that we have never been asked to do. It is less about saying and more about DOING.

John Grant’s new book The Green Marketing Manifesto, which is due to be published any day now, sets out an agenda for marketers who are interested and willing to engage with "sustainable marketing".

One of the things that I like about John’s approach is that he takes a positive approach to what is a difficult and challenging situation. Take a look at his blog and you will see a willingness to grapple with issues — but within a strategic framework and with a practical approach.

Don’t be caught sleeping while the world changes … I have a feeling this book could well be one that we have all been waiting for … now I just have to wait for mine to arrive!

You know, it is so disappointing to find out that the book you just BOUGHT for $70 is downloadable for FREE. Oh, the shame.

You see, I was planning a little tech weekend … and thought I would delve into Ruby on Rails. I had played with it a little last year, but it is all forgotten now. So, in preparation for this weekend, I dropped into the local bookstore and found “Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications” by Patrick Lenz. It is pretty good so far!

But I thought I had just better check the support site for the book in case there were any changes/code revisions. Sure enough there is! The biggest change is that the book is FREE to DOWNLOAD for the next 38 days. If you want a copy of the book, get it here.

Now, if only I had only kept that receipt!

For anyone in Sydney tomorrow, bloggers coffee morning action is taking place at Single Origin, Cnr of Reservoir & Mary Streets in Surry Hills.

We are rocking up a little earlier to chat about InterestingSouth so you will be able to catch us anytime after 7am.

Really? 7am? What is Emily thinking?

I guess it is way to soon to know, but Gooruze may just be what you have been looking for.

Me?

I am only checking it out because Matt Dickman is investigating. But if you want to check out my (currently) barren profile, you can do so at servantofchaos.gooruze.com.

While there has been discussion about the impact of Web 2.0 on the upcoming Australian election (with the use of YouTube for policy announcements and simplistic debate), it seems to me that most of the political parties are using this time to perform some realtime testing of the technology. Not only are websites being overhauled, there are also Twitter IDs, MySpace and Facebook profiles being created. Not for the first time we are openly wondering whether kevinrudd or johnhoward are REAL or FAKE. Perhaps this is THE moment of authenticity in the election campaign.

While these Twitter profiles have been dormant for some time, I would not be surprised to see them spring back to life when the campaigning kicks off in earnest. The folks who run comms for politicians will be looking for any way to squeeze their message through to a saturated electorate come campaign time … and the Web 2.0 tools provide an unmatched (and IMMEDIATE) channel to do so — so long as a receptive community is already plugged in.

And this may be where there may NOT have been enough focus so far.

Building a digital strategy is much more than using a couple of sites/tools. It is more than a YouTube video and a few thousand viewings. It is about facilitating an experience that CONNECTS a community with the personality, energy, messages and actions of a brand/politician/celebrity through digital conversation. It is about input and feedback … and ownership of the debate. I am hoping to see more of these elements appearing in the next few weeks.

But for those of you who can’t wait, check out the Hill & Knowlton Election Predictor (with thanks to Steven Noble). You can play with the figures and reshape the face of the country — and even add it to your Facebook profile. What do you think, a swing to Rudd — or will it go down to the line? We’ll all know soon enough.

Richard Huntington posts a timely reminder that good ideas don’t age with the soon-to-be-published collection of Stephen King’s writings (the god father of strategic planning). If you need a primer on planning or just want to understand the link between brands, strategy and execution, then download King’s JWT Planning Guide from 1974 (courtesy of the generous Staufenburgers). Goes to show that for all we have learned about planning and its impact on advertising and brands, there is still much to (re)learn. This is a great starting point for all DIGITAL strategists — remember the media may have changed, but the concepts remain true.

Also on the reading agenda today is Stephen Fry’s blog. And wouldn’t you know it, he is arguing for an iPhone killer. Not only that, he colourfully writes about the importance of design:

I accept that price is an issue here; if budget is a consideration then you’ll have to forgive me, I’m writing from the privileged position of being able to indulge my taste for these objects. But who can deny that design really matters? Or that good design need not be more expensive? We spend our lives inside the virtual environment of digital platforms – why should a faceless, graceless, styleless nerd or a greedy hog of a corporate twat deny us simplicity, beauty, grace, fun, sexiness, delight, imagination and creative energy in our digital lives? And why should Apple be the only company that sees that? Why don’t the other bastards GET IT??

Wish I had said that!

Noel Hidalgo (obviously a Gemini) is on an open source journey. Literally. He is travelling the world and documenting it via social media as he goes. Interestingly he is actually MEETING up with the people that he has been in contact with via the web.

As he says on his site:

for seven months, he will traverse the seven continents, dive into the seven oceans, and attempt to visit the seven ancient wonders of the world. using a new media voodo (blog, vlog, wiki, flickr, couchsurfing, twitter, myspace, dopplr, and facebook), noneck will harness the collective knowledge of the globe, and report weekly on seven topics of freedom. Before he leaves, he is fundraising US$11.11 from 700 global residents.

To help fund this, you can donate $11.11 directly from his site. In return you will also receive a self published children’s book incorporating the lessons learned from his travels. At the moment he is out of funds in India … so if you want to see the story continue, drop by and kick-in.