Seth Godin posted an article on really bad branding a couple of days ago, pointing out some company names that don’t differentiate companies very well: Jewelry Central is a really bad brand name. So are Party Land, Computer World, Modem Village, House of Socks and Toupee Town. It’s a bad brand name because Central...
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I’m currently reading Chris Hunter’s Eight Lives Down, an autobiography of his time in Iraq with the British army as an explosives technician, defusing bombs and IEDs. He starts off every chapter with a quote, and I really appreciated this one: We tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and a wonderful method...
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Just saw this article on Webware about Prism, which is technology for extending applications beyond the browser. Yes, there are times when the cloud is just not available. Very, very cool. We already have Google Gears, of course, and Adobe AIR (on which some amazing apps are being built), and Microsoft’s Silverlight. And I’m...
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Some 3-word phrases are very hard to say. And I’m not talking about the agonizing decision about when to tell your boyfriend or girlfriend that it’s more than just a “like” situation. “I don’t know” seem to be the hardest three words to say, as VC Josh Kopelman makes clear: Why do people feel...
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It’s Friday night and I’m surfing around while listening to the Canucks-Wild game on the Team 1040. The Canucks are just about to lose their fourth in a row and doubt is growing in Vancouver that they’ll make the playoffs. I have to say it’s very, very unrewarding to be a Vancouver fan –...
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Chocolate bunny Originally uploaded by johnkoetsier Aidan recently entered a coloring contest at a local store. The prize was a 5 kilogram chocolate Easter bunny, and Aidan was 100% sure he was going to win. Sure enough, on Friday last week we got a call from the store. Aidan, Ethan, and I went down...
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I recently attended Sharon Faber’s (who has various sites) session at ASCD. Wow, she is an energetic and passionate woman – and she’s primarily passionate about kids learning how to read. I could not have enjoyed her session more. Here are some key take-aways, in no particular order … Most people are unconsciously competent,...
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Chris Colwell is a deputy superintendent at Volusia County schools in Florida, which includes the Daytona beach area. He’s also a soft-spoken hero in the struggle to make American education relevant, rigorous, and effective. I recently attended his session at ASCD in New Orleans. Some of the key take-aways from his talk: Struggling kids?...
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A week ago or so I had the privilege of hearing Alama Powell speak at the ASCD conference in New Orleans. She leads the America’s Promise Alliance, which is built on the research-supported premise that 5 things in kids lives make the difference between successful transition to adulthood, and various forms of failure. Those...
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I was assiduously building my network on LinkedIn today when I noticed the “new people from Premier” (my current company). Knowing that the “new people” are almost never from the Premier that I’m from, I obediently checked, only to find these people … They include an unfortunate individual in the position of interim manager...
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Just got a note from Janetti Chong, the community and content manager for O’Reilly’s web2.0 conference, that they are interesting in having me attending the event as a media partner … and are offering a free conference pass valued at $1500. (I’m sure many, many other bloggers are also getting the opportunity.) I have...
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Leo Bottary is back blogging again, at CSI season two. (That’s Customer Service Insights, of which he has more than a few.) As Leo mentions, he’s finished his masters degree (lucky dog, I’m still in the middle of a long tough slog) moved to New England, and switched his corporate allegiance from Hill &...
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I love this sign I saw in a art dealer’s window in New Orleans last week: I still can’t decide if it’s hilarious (that someone who had a “big sale” essentially typed something in Word and printed it from their computer, and pasted a – dirty – 8.5×11 sheet of paper in their window)....
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The entire purpose of this post is to publish a post while having set up WordPress (the software that runs this blog) to ping (notify) flog blog (the software application that updates Facebook with my new posts when I post them here) every time I publish a post. . . . . . ....
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Just overheard in the dining room … Teresa (my wife): “Aidan, what’s your address?” Aidan (my 4-year-old son): “Aidan.com” Funny little man … funny little man.
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Welcome to Sparkplug 9, John Koetsier's blog on technology, social media, education, innovation ... and anything else that catches my fancy.