When the New York Times hired Ashlee Vance, many enterprise computing PR folks rejoiced. Tired of watching the Web 2.0 hotshots dominate business media stories on computing, they thought, “Finally. Here is a major daily bringing on Vance with the implied message that enterprise computing once again matters.” Not exactly. It was as if people …more
When contrast is so great that it challenges our assumptions, you’ve got the makings of a good story. So it is in The Huffington Post article, “McDonald’s Gets Modern European-Style Makeover in NYC.” Is there a restaurant interior more dreary than the classic McDonald’s? Clearly, the original objective for the seating area was to make …more
Compelling storytelling in business often threads together anecdotes and numbers into a single tale. This dynamic comes across loud and clear in the USA Today article “Utility Turns Table Scraps into Electricity” by Julie Schmit The story focuses on the East Bay Municipal Utility District in the San Francisco Bay Area and its first-of-a-kind treatment …more
Technology Review claims to be the oldest technology magazine in the world, going back to 1899. Coming out of MIT, there’s a certain cachet to the publication as it strives to educate us mortals on emerging technologies. Not exactly considered the magazine for hammock reading during a lemonade summer day. And certainly not a magazine …more
The customer is king in an economic downturn … except at American Express. AmEx has decided to prune its customers that fit under the bad-guy category with a unique offer. Remember in the good old days when the Russians were still a player and your local bank gave you a blender when you opened a savings account. AmEx is …more
No, I’m not talking about Matt Kenseth winning the Daytona 500. Instead, consider what brings the vast majority of folks to the racetrack. It’s the possibility to witness a high-speed wreck. I’ve come to call the type of story that offers up the possibility of a wreck – defining “wreck” as an element of the story …more
The brainiacs behind electronic paper, the $99 computer and making money at blackjack have decided to take on new terrain: Storytelling. The MIT Media Laboratory recently created what they’re calling the Center for Future Storytelling. Demonstrating the science behind the power of storytelling can only advance the cause, even if it’s from a technical bent: By applying leading-edge technologies to make …more
If you ask people what’s the one digital device they absolutely can’t live without, the mobile phone comes out as the clear leader. That’s why you have industry heavyweights like Google’s Eric Schmidt calling mobile advertising the single most exciting opportunity for the do-no-evil guys as far back as 2006 (The Wall Street Journal). It also …more
