How’s this for derivative inspiration? This post is a reaction to John Gruber’s summary of the New York Times’ preview of the new Apple “Device”

Apple seems to serve the will of its customers. It recognizes that customers will find a way to get desired content with the least amount of friction possible. With music they adopted the download behavior of their customers, but monetized it in a fashion that replaced existing illegal and non-monetized methods.

Usually industry execs in the “media sphere” tend to come from that world, and see things only through that lens. They view their customers as criminals always trying to find a way to steal from them. Apple views their customers as Gods, because for a very long time they had so few.

This isn’t to say that Apple pulls a Microsoft or HP and focus groups the hell out of a product. Apple makes products they and their families would like to use and be proud of—that’s a focus group with accountability.

Sure Jobs has a bit of a diva complex and an RDF, but in some weird cosmic way, his pride is actually one of his best assets, contagious but not at all toxic. Think about Pixar. Jobs bought the company from George Lucas and hired people who had a passion for telling stories they could be proud of. Pride in the Jobsian sense is something for which you’re willing to put your name on the line and share it with those close to you. I mean, there’s a reason why Pixar ends their credits with a list of “production babies”; Pixar movies are a family affair from conception to completion to consumption.

If only normal CEO pride was this burdened with humility, and not ego[1]. Bill Gates is probably the only other industry exec that gets it. Sadly it didn’t happen with Microsoft (too big to fail?), but you see it every day in Gates’ foundation work. He’s proud of his work, of his team, and the legacy he’s leaving behind.

Simply, pride for these two men can be distilled into the question: “have I helped make the world a better place?”

1. – This, again, is not to say Jobs or Gates lack ego. They have plenty to go around. It’s just used appropriately: to do well by their customers and by their legacy.

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Why Steve Jobs’ pride is an asset

I think the word Grant McCracken is searching for is Trust. Leaders need to Trust the people they work with, and everything else falls in to place. If you trust that your teammates will make the best decision, and that it’s their reputation on the line (as well as the org’s), chances are they’ll err towards authenticity.

The lack of trust leads to corporate mandates: the minimum flair, the customer service guidelines, the… failed decisions of an executive body out of touch with their audience.

I think we can get back to trust when we shrink the size of the organization. Large organizational bodies trend toward mandates, SOPs, memos, and bureaucratic bullshit. Smaller organizations have to trust everyone on board, also removing anonymity. Mediocre people thrive on the anonymity of a large organization; the ability to do the bare minimum, follow and blame the rules, and clock out at the end of the day appeals to those of us who don’t want to deal.

As a customer, I’ll trust the employee who rolls her eye at the corporate “bon homie” and makes a decision on my behalf, before the employee who flashes his Cheshire smile.

Who would you trust?

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Trust and Authenticity

Have you ever seen an “advertorial” in print that looks like an article, but is clearly shilling exercise equipment or Shamwows? Usually, such an advertorial is accompanied by small print indicating that it is an “ADVERTISEMENT” or “SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT INSERT”. This is because advertising is regulated by the FTC, with the interest of the consumer and with the intent of protecting against misleading claims.

Blogs are new territory, living on the frontier of the internet and Web 2.0. Like the Wild West’s cowboy law, interactions are often governed by implied codes of ethics, or unspoken tradition. Bloggers have posted several variations of the Ten Commandments or Declaration of Independence in an attempt to codify what has long been practiced. My favorite is still Aliza Sherman’s “10 Golden Rules of Social Media”, which I have in front of me every time I open WordPress. What’s missing, however, is some kind of regulatory body to enforce and protect us (the consumer public) from misleading snake oil salesmen.

Here are three reasons why I’m in favor of the FTC monitoring “sponsored conversations” for misconduct:

1. Sponsored posts are dishonest and manipulative. Consumers have now begun to rely on search engines and blogs for warnings of lemons and bad deals, or praise about the next greatest widget. This implicit trust is what undisclosed “sponsored conversations” preys on.
2. Sponsored posts are nothing short of blog spam. While Google’s Gmail gobbles spam for fun, there are no similar “spam filters” for blog posts that clog search engine results like they would our inbox. This is Payola 2.0.
3. If Alan Greenspan discovered that the “market cannot self-regulate”, we shouldn’t assume that bloggers will either. This is where the FTC should step in, if anything enforcing the long practiced tradition of respect on the web.

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Why sponsored Conversations are Payola 2.0

One day, the candidates will elevate the discourse of the electoral population.

One day, we’ll move beyond whisper campaigns that play off fears and destroying national hope.

One day, politicians will hold themselves to their public promises, and to the ethical standards of most normal people.

One day, my turds could be used as renewable fuel in the Delorians we’ll all fly.

Until then, we’ll have to deal with this bullshit that political candidates and the media throw at each other, for their personal amusement.

(via the Slog: Why is Clinton Still Running? “White Americans.”)

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Hillary Clinton: “I’m running for the ‘white Americans’”

Originally written: February 24, 2008. Revised: March 12, 2008.

I’m confused, aren’t you?

It seems as though by 2008, we as a human race should have figured things out. Yet, it seems as though what was expected of this era, isn’t so.

Instead, humans have become insane. Insanity, being that we do the same tired things over and over again, only to expect different results.

We seem to have lost sight of what makes us who we are; stopped attributing value to those things that are most tangible to us. Instead, as humans, we seem to have given our identity to someone else to assess; making something that was once tangible to us, intangible to someone who has no proximity.

We as Bozemanites, Americans, and humans are experiencing something of a cultural identity crisis.

As a possible prescription for this ailment, I offer my Manifesto Confundum (in five points).

1. Bozeman has value that isn’t dictated by Big Sky.

Gentrification is diluting Bozeman into a Disney-esque “Montanaland,” where the architecture and attitude seems more like a caricature of its former self.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s “collection” of Gallatin Valley real estate seems to have inflated property value, and subsequently the cost of living. Discouraging anyone from living here who hasn’t already once (or still) owned a home.

However, the value of the Valley does not come from what others want it to be, but from the character of the people that founded this town. Geniality, helpfulness, and trustworthiness were points of integrity imbued in the area, but now lost on the “snow bunny” crowd.

2. America has value that isn’t dictated by banks.

The inability of Citigroup, UBS, and others’ management of their loans, has caused enormous losses in the stock markets, and hurt our currency’s strength.

The federal government seeing an “economic crisis,” pawns the burden of responsibility for this problem on to the consumer, expecting refund checks to somehow reboot commerce. Evidently, it wasn’t the consumer who caused this problem.

However, America’s value is not in the corporation, but the individual’s capacity to imagine, innovate, and create opportunity where there once was none. It is this creativity that is our greatest export, and yet least encouraged in our schools.

3. Women have value that isn’t dictated by their “lover.”

ASMSU’s Exponent made a serious misstep in both their Jan. 31 and Feb. 7, 2008 issues, when they first allowed an unnamed columnist to tacitly endorse rape, and subsequently didn’t retract the column or announce the dismissal of its writer.

What’s even worse, is that some men still think that women are vessels lacking the capacity to choose or consent, and that men must make that decision for them.

However, biologically, women are human too. And as humans they possess the ability to make rational decisions, and appropriately consent.

4. Humans have value that isn’t dictated through oppression but by their shared, transparent, experience.

In 1948, the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights putting into writing what has long thought to been engrained into our ethical conscience.

Slavery still abounds internationally. Sovereign nations are still committing human and civil rights violations every minute of every hour of every day.

However, citizens (especially American) can pressure their respective governments in to penalize offending nations, allowing all to be free.

5. Printed word and image have immortal value that is only dictated by those who share it.

The information age has been upon us since the 18th century, and has peaked in the late-20th with the dawn of telecommunications. Blogs have encouraged written discourse, documenting a collective effort to determine what it means to be human in the 21st century.

However, printed documentation of our existence is still the most accessible, requiring no power source to view, and only a trained mind to interpret.

We must not take lightly the words we write, or the freedom to communicate those words. Yet we must not also engage in self-censorship, and instead speak boldly the words that must be said, shouting when we’re in peril.

I offer this final proposition: to insure a strong value in anything, concrete or abstract, it must be self-made. To safe-keep the value of that which we might create, we must continue to tread lightly, and speak boldly.

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Whereas…

“A long Democratic battle doesn’t automatically help the Republicans. In fact, it hurts the Republicans in certain ways. Mr McCain becomes less interesting to the media. Stories about him move off page one and grow smaller. TV coverage becomes spotty and short. There are not yet big and deep and unbridgeable differences between the two Democrats and there is plenty of time to heal most wounds (except, perhaps among the young if Mrs Clinton were to win). Continuing to build a profile and lay the predicate for the short fall campaign against either Democrat becomes the challenge for Mr McCain while the Democrats battle it out.” — Karl Rove

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama know this. Which is why most of the debates focus on the minutia (e.g. campaign strategies, traditional vs. non-traditional experience), and exaggerating how the Republicans have damaged this nation.

The fact that the DNC finally has a solid and agreed upon platform before going into primaries says a lot. And you see it in the coverage. Television news networks who play this as a “America’s Next Top President” enjoy the gridlock, because it provides all the tension, drama, and glitz of reality TV that they’ve wanted.

I saw this on Tuesday at our watch party. MSNBC and CNN both had a majority of clips that were not Huckabee/McCain, but rather Clinton/Obama. The networks aren’t going to desert something that has mobilized so many people to vote; it has already become a story they don’t have to sell.

What this means in terms of the “storyline” of the nomination bids, is McCain might engender more desperate tactics to attract news attention. However, Rove is right when he says that the young Dems will feel extremely wounded if Clinton secures the nomination. On an apathetic, semi-rural college campus of 12,000+, I’ve seen more people interested in elections than in the past. I’ve also heard from a lot of people who felt betrayed by the 2004 election, that if Clinton secures the DNC bid, they’re jumping ship to McCain.

Karl Rove’s resumé suggests that he knows what he’s talking about, and is more right than progressives would like to admit.

• Alive! – WSJ.com (via BBC’s Justin Webb which was found via the Slog)

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Rove speaks the truth?

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Knee-jerk vs. Prudence

“Obama is marketing like Apple, Nike or Starbucks. He’s selling an experience. It’s all done with such skill and finesse that as a professional, I am in absolute awe,” says Bierut.

• Obama Wins | New at Pentagram | Pentagram

Armin Vit, a former Pentagram partner, and a bit more adept at the blogging when the subject matter is still timely and people still give a shit about what you have to say, covered this topic in response to a New York Times editorial on the subject.

For each segment of people, the logo changes accordingly, tip-toeing a fine line between cliché and clever, and never crossing to the former’s dark side. The iterations are quickly identifiable and feel genuinely concerned with connecting to the people they are talking to, without pandering. The executions are rather flawless and work perfectly on screen with the detailed gradients and subtle background illustrations. Even the typography is lovingly handled…

• Speak Up › The Hardest Working Presidential Candidate Logo

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Bierut misses the bandwagon

Thus when a photo of a trip to Kenya that Obama kept from the public surfaces, one has to wonder how the generally ignorant American would react to such a photo.

Hillary’s campaign had this to say about the photo:

If Barack Obama’s campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.

Eli Sanders of Seattle’s The Stranger weekly had some extremely insightful commentary on this “blunder.”

First he says about Clinton’s response:

“Her release wasn’t helped by the fact that Obama was in Kenya, not Somalia, at the time the turban photo was taken.”

Then Sanders reprints an excerpt from “Turbans: Don’t Link Them to Terrorism” an op-ed he wrote for the Seattle Times immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center towers:

In SeaTac last week, a man was charged with attacking a turban-wearing Sikh cab driver, calling him a “butcher terrorist.” In Seattle, a man was arrested after he allegedly tried to choke a Sikh, telling him, “You have no right to attack our country.” In Arizona, a man shot a Sikh gas-station owner to death, later explaining to authorities: “I’m a patriot.”

Hundreds of other assaults on Sikhs have been reported across the country, a trend that strikes many as bizarrely misguided.

Yes, Sikhs wear turbans. But they have no connection to the Islamic extremists now wanted by the U.S….

Those seem to be distinctions many are unaware of. John Cooksey, a Republican congressman from Louisiana, recently offered this suggestion for weeding out terrorists: “If I see someone come in and he’s got a diaper on his head and a fanbelt wrapped around the diaper on his head, that guy needs to be pulled over and checked.”

Read the rest of Eli Sanders’ post:

• Obama’s Turban | Slog | The Stranger | Seattle’s Only Newspaper

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Would you like some smear on your politics?

Please email me your letters, with your first and last name, and a mailing address, so that I can forward these to newspapers and our congressional delegates.

Tips for writing letters:

1. Keep them short. Most newspapers have a 200 word limit for signed readers’ letters.
2. Letters to both newspapers and congress need to have your first and last name, as well as the city in which you reside.
• For newspapers, they will also need your address to verify that you are who you say you are
• For congress, they need it to determine if you’re a resident or a constituent.
3. Keep your main point clear. If you have any sub points, keep them to no more than three. Repeat your main point in your closing.
• It helps to “sign-post”- this means stating where you are in your letter. “Firstly, Rehberg… Secondly, he…”, etc.
• Your main point should answer the reader’s question: why should I care?
• Your supporting points should do that: support and complement your main point.
4. This is your opinion. Take a stand and ask for action. Otherwise, why bother writing?

Major talking points to include in your letters:

• Rehberg is not a comedian or a celebrity whose actions only get mentioned when the paparazzi want to sell a magazine. He is an elected official expected to behave accordingly.
• As an elected official, representing a state-wide constituency, his actions impact and influence legislature and attitudes.
• As an elected official of a small rural state, he will never know that his actions offended unless his constituency tells him so.
• Gay people have long been the butt of jokes that in any other minority would be considered racist, sexist, or extremely discriminatory.
• Had this been a racist or sexist comment/joke, Rehberg would be facing a censure from his Congressional colleagues.
• Jokes about being gay have deadly consequences: 15-year-old Lawrence King of Oxnard, Cal. He was shot in the back of the head last week, by one of his classmates who thought the jokes about King being gay were true.
• If homophobia weren’t still prominent in our society, we could let this slide as a simple prank. However the fact that homophobia still prevails and dominates, social discourse especially in Montana

___________

In the Know, The Hill, February 14, 2008
by Betsy Rothstein

Rep. Rehberg’s practical plane joke

When you’re from Montana, it’s hard to find things to do – so practical jokes come in handy.

Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) recently played a gag on Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) on their Middle East congressional delegation trip last month.

Rehberg left an “Idaho Travel Package” on Simpson’s airplane seat.

Contents included a stuffed sheep with gloves attached to it (draw your own conclusions), a Village People CD, books on cross-dressing and sign language and a T-shirt that reads, “My senator may not be gay, but my governor is Butch.”

Rehberg is proud of the gift bag. “I spent a bit of time putting the things together,” he boasted.

Simpson was amused but not surprised that Rehberg was the bearer of such presents. “You can always find those materials in Montana,” he said, laughing.

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Write a letter: Rehberg Talking Points