My WIRED Cover

About three months ago, I ripped the shrink wrap off my monthly WIRED magazine and found a note from the publisher. They were doing a special run in partnership with XEROX around a piece on hyper-personalization on the web. If I was one of the first 5,000, the note said, to send in a picture of myself at the appropriate resolution, I’d get my face on the cover of the magazine. Of course, I’ve always wanted to see my face on the cover of WIRED magazine.

So, I shot off the first pic that came up — a scruffy-looking, vacationing Pete shot through a mirror in a get-away hacienda in New Mexico this year. Very vacation-chiq. Still, my face, my WIRED.

I think it’s a befitting example of the kind of personalization we’re capable of now, that even a publication the size of WIRED can reach out and touch us readers so personally, and it’s something all small businesses can take a note on: how many of us have 5,000 individual clients in our rosters? How long would it take to reach out and touch them each so personally?

Chautauqua: John Harwood Blog

If there was any sarcasm in my post on John Harwood not being able to remember the URL of his new weblog — and there was — I take it back completely. John emailed me today to let me know where to find the blog, discovering the post I’d written on him as he — I assume — gets acclimated to scouring blogs on himself. Thanks, John, for jumping in with both feet and shooting off the quick correction: Political Capital with John Harwood.

I spent just a few cursory minutes reading the blog and the only thing I find missing is any comment system. I did not register for the CNBC site, which could have been the problem. Still, I’d love to be able to interract with Harwood on the site in a more substantial fashion.

Chautauqua Day 5: David Marash

David Marash is one of those Emmy-winning journalists who trucks in a different kind of celebrity than the name-trotting sort headlining newscasts today. He’s a genuine article, deep in voice and language, the rare breed of television media personality who believes in the strength of long-format journalism, reporting stories to conclusion, rather than fatigue, and he’s got the resume to back it up.

He’s most known for his 16-year stint with Ted Koppel on Nightline, winning awards for his coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing and TWA Flight 800. But, when that show was cancelled, he made an interesting move: Al Jazeera English.

[Read more]

Chautauqua, Day 4: Juan Williams

National Public Radio’s Juan Williams is funny.

No, you can’t tell from the picture. Here he looks angry. Brooding. Somber. Morose. He came out on stage and sat in the chair awaiting his introduction for nearly a full minute looking just… like… this.

Scarey.

But then, the humor came, delivered secretly in that NPR monotone taking us all by sweet surprise. Jokes about drugs and penises. Jokes about Chautauquans and good manners. But mostly, he joked at the expense of the media.

[Read more]

Chautauqua, Day 3: Arianna Huffington

In an IM earlier this morning, I told my friend Curt that I would be heading into the Chautauqua lecture by Arianna Huffington. He said, “Heh… make sure you slap her for me.”

I admit. I had the same thought. I’ve always sort of ascribed Huffington with the Ivanna Trump vibe — funky accent, firey speech, not a lot there. Now that I’ve seen her up close, I know that two out of those three are correct. I’m just not sure which two.

Obviously, she was here to contribute to the discussion on media, new media, ethics in media, and media bashing. To be sure, there’s been a boatload of each. But while the other folks in the discussion were from inside the fold, working in traditional media newsrooms and desperately trying to wrap their arms around this non-traditional whatnot, Huffington is coming at it from a different angle. She founded HuffingtonPost.com in 2005 and while she contends hers is one of the highest trafficked sites on the net, she doens’t hold much of a candle to the other representatives who’ve shared the stage with her so far this week. Click on the graph below to see Alexa.com’s rankings comparing her site to ABCNews.com, WashingtonPost.com, and nytimes.com (she’s at the bottom).

[Read more]

Chautauqua, Day 2: David Westin

Let me start by saying that, as far as executives inside major corporations go, my experience heretofor has been that company lawyers are about the last folks you want to invite to the big chair, to Presidencies and Chief-Executiveships. That’s not to say that savvy business people can’t be lawyers too, but those folks who specifically exist to protect the organization by managing relationships vis the law have a strange and wonderful perspective on growth and development of initiatives. They say “no” a lot.
[Read more]

Chautauqua, Day 1: John Harwood

John Harwood was an interesting choice to have kick off the Chautauqua season, and the week one series of discussions on ethics and the media. His focus, in a sort of round-about way, was that political party polarization both feeds, and is fed by, the drive for viewership of a sensationalism-hungry media.Harwood refers to parties as “brands”, and says that in the political sphere, these brands have done nothing but solidify, cementing public participation in a binary system. This simplification is driven by the notion that people, by-in-large, want to know what they’re getting in a particular candidate or party.Historically, Harwood contends that this calcification in the party systems stems from Barry Goldwater’s opposition to the Voting Rights act in 1964. The dems became the pro-civil rights party and the republicans the anti-civil rights party. From then on out, you knew what you were getting. If you wanted smaller governement, fewer services, larger civil defense, and focus on waning deterioration of social values, you were a republican. If you favored increased federal services and gun control, enironmental protection, and abortion rights, you’re a democrat. [Read more]

Two Weeks in Chautauqua, NY

If you’ve never heard of Chautauqua, join the club. It’s one of the best kept intellectual destinations out there. Nestled against Lake Chautauqua in western NY, the annual Chautauqua instituation ranks as my A#1 spot for resting the spirit and engaging the mind.

The Institution is broken into a nine week series, each week focusing on a differnt subject area for exploration. I’ll be here for the first two weeks of the series. The first entitled “The Media & News: Applied Ethics; the second, “The Family: All of a Kind? All Different?” You can read more about the program for 2007 here.

I’ve been doing my usual searches through the blogosphere looking for others who might be blogging Chautauqua, and I’m surprised at the lack of traffic this place generates. I’ll try and pull some of the load here myself.

It’s 4:30 here now, however. There’s a light breeze gusting across our Victorian porch, and that screams “Wine:O’Clock”. Check back later for more!

Santorini - Day 3-4

For pics that go along with Day 3-4, click here.

Woke to the usual tricks: juice, coffee, and carbs by the pool. Dodge and Sophia had a meeting and left most of us to our own designs today. Since we have precious little direction, we were all thankful with John, resident expert, whips out his bad brain and convinces us that we need to pile in the car and go see us some old stuff.

[Read more]

Santorini - Day 2

For pics that go along with Day 2, click here.

Mr. Nikos runs the villas where we’re staying and appears to do all the heavy lifting. When I say heavy lifting, I mean this guy’s a pack mule. He runs up and down the stairs of this place without breaking a sweat, carrying heavy luggage, groceries, laundry, whatever, all hoisted up on his back. We’re embarrassed to be around him. he makes us feel small. This is, of course, not to dismiss his (what I have to assume is his) daughter Georgia, a cute little hyper-tensive that keeps the books and shows us to our rooms. She also brings us Frappes by the pool. She’s a dear.

So, our first morning, day 2, starts with breakfast by the pool. The kind Mr. Nikos delivers a basket of bread, a selection of butter and jams, two cups American coffee and OJ, and sets it all out for us with tablecloth on the small table in front of our door. He’s a real gentleman, this Mr. Nikos, obviously trained at the Empress.

Then, it’s time for a walk with the groom.

[Read more]

Next Page »