Are you ready to take a trip? Back to your childhood home...while watching a music video? In the latest web language HTML5? Huh? Yes, I know...it´s enough to do your head in. This is very cool technology being flaunted! So...get ready because the latest video to go viral is so unlike anything that has come before it, that you just need to see what a few million people have witnessed already this week. If your have Google Chrome or Safari on your computer use either one to pull up www.thewildernessdowntown.com.

If you liked it, then check out the short interview on NPR with it´s creator Chris Milk to get a bit of the backstory.

 


Transcripts of NPR interviews are available on their site....go to www.npr.org for great audio. And lastly, not a bad marketing strategy by the band either!

        

Detecting sarcasm in writing is difficult because there is a total lack of intonation and facial expression. Sometimes writers will highlight their sarcastic comments by adjusting their script. More often than not though, you´ll need to look at the context to determine whether something written seems at odds with the surrounding information. I came across the below post...<< MORE >>

¨You wake up and check your email on your bedside iPad — that’s one app. During breakfast you browse Facebook, Twitter, and The New York Times — three more apps. On the way to the office, you listen to a podcast on your smartphone. Another app. At work, you scroll through RSS feeds in a reader and have Skype and IM conversations. More apps. At the end of the day, you come home, make dinner while listening to Pandora, play some games on Xbox Live, and watch a movie on Netflix’s streaming service. You’ve spent the day on the Internet — but not on the Web. And you are not alone.¨

Does this sound like you? OK....only 50% you? Doesn´t matter, because it´s becoming increasing more common and if you´re in the business of selling or marketing a product or service today, you might want to read on. That excerpt is from a recent article in Wired. Check out the the full article on Wired for Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff´s take on why apps killed the web along with the implications.

The cause, they argue is ¨...driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule. And it’s the world that consumers are increasingly choosing, not because they’re rejecting the idea of the Web but because these dedicated platforms often just work better or fit better into their lives (the screen comes to them, they don’t have to go to the screen). ¨

What new ways of thinking about your marketing strategy are going to result from this?

Happy thinking...and if you´re like me, you´ll find that the notebook feature on the iPad is great for tapping out notes on the road (or in your living room) and then quickly turning them into emails. I figured out a while back that the medium I use really influences the way I think...so more often than not, I use a keyboard, not a pen. You?

        

What does that mean? I wasn´t sure either, but I found this TED Talk delivered by Seth Priebatsch last month in Boston to be quite interesting. Maybe you will too. I´ve embedded it below for you to check out, but before, you may want to sift through the glossary to remind yourself of the meaning of a few phrases. Today is the last day of August, so I understand if you´re still in the process of adjusting back to reality. I had a lovely, fun and relaxing summer and I hope you found time to do some of your favourite things too.

Without further ado....the glossary!


they just suck: they´re not very good at all
the crux of this presentation: the main theme/idea of the presentation
mindshare: the development of consumer awareness and popularity
in a very granular fashion: to build something up one piece at a time
this is so deep-seated in our psyche: rooted in our subconscious
they have systems where you have to level up: to reach a new level, gain greater attributes, and learn more abilities. It usually involves earning enough experience points.
trying to find Boardwalk: Boardwalk is the most expensive piece of property in the English version of Monopoly


OK, one other thing, at 3:17 he explains the importance of the game layer succinctly. Listen closely and follow him by reading along.

¨The game layer is all about influence. It's not about adding a social fabric to the Web and connecting you to other people everywhere you are and everywhere you go. It's actually about using dynamics, using forces, to influence the behavior of where you are, what you do there, how you do it. That's really, really powerful, and going to be more important than the social layer. It's going to affect our lives more deeply and perhaps more invisibly.And so it's incredibly critical that at this moment, while it's just getting constructed, while the frameworks like Facebook, like the Open Graph, are being created for the game layer equivalent, that we think about it very consciously,and that we do it in a way that is open, that is available, and that can be leveraged for good. ¨

        

Photo credit: Max Earle

The last working day of July is here...and what does that mean for the majority of my readers? In two words; summer holidays ! Don´t let that freakish bout of hail yesterday confuse you...what was that by the way? It´s that wonderful time when Barcelona empties out, and people are getting ready to go to their favourite place to spend time with their favourite people.

More than likely, the last thing on your mind is English...but stop....working on your English doesn´t have to be work...that is, if you carefully select your material. I am a strong believer in the power of increasing your English consumption by focusing on your areas of interest. So with that in mind, here are five tips that will definitely prevent your English from getting rusty this August.

1 Find an English podcast that interests you and subscribe to it on iTunes. If your English is advanced, please don´t limit yourself to ESL type podcasts...go for it ....by looking in the American section in iTunes for an exhaustively wide choice of podcasts. I absolutely love listening to The Moth Podcast, where you hear people telling real-life stories on stage. Here´s a link to their website where you can check out what they´re about and listen to some stories.

2 Chances are that wherever you are this August, Wi-Fi will be too. So log on and read one English article a day. Traditional news sources are fine, so are magazines and portals that bring everything together. If you´re into social media and WEB 3.0, then make a habit of going to mashable to keep abreast of what´s happening in multiple spaces.

3 Go to TED or FORA to watch interesting videos of speeches and interviews uploaded daily. If you find it hard to follow, access the transcripts that are online with all the TED talks or go to the BBC for their Words in the News section where you can listen to a current news clip, read the transcript and have selected vocabulary item explained.

4  To keep your English current and conversational, find a blog that interests you, start to follow it and join in the conversation. I am into marketing, so I have Seth Godin´s blog in my personalised alltops page. His posts aren´t long, they´re usually thought provoking and he does them daily. Perfect!

5 Read a book. In English. There is no better way to broaden your vocabulary and possibly your mind! In the last week I read Presentation Zen Design by Garr Reynolds (excellent resource...if you take your presentation skills seriously) and Little Bee, a novel about refugees in Britain. What will you pack in your bag? For a wider selection of English books than FNAC in Barcelona, I recommend Come In and BCN Books .


I wish you a wonderful, restorative and happy August and I´ll be back in September.

        

How can you tell if the colour of a Golden Rum is due to ageing or colouring? What does the rise of air-conditioning globally have to do with the increase in popularity of Aged Rums? The answers to these perplexing questions and countless other insights about Aged Rums will be revealed in a unique exploration of premium and super-premium rums from the Caribbean. I will be presenting a two hour workshop where the roots of rum will be traced and then your senses will take an unforgettable journey as you observe, nose, taste and compare a selection of premium and super-premium Aged Rums from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Venezuela.<< MORE >>

Marketing differentiation strategy meets the Aged Rum market along with information on the upcoming Aged Rum Appreciation Workshops in Barcelona in July 2010. << MORE >>

It´s back...and this time bigger than it´s initial appearance last December. That´s right, the agenda and details for the 2nd TEDx Barcelona were recently made available. It´s happening on July 7, 2010 and you can go to their site to look at the agenda and register.

Hope to see you there!

        

Business English Coaching´s Intercambio program connects executives and professionals located in Barcelona who wish to improve and practice their English, Castellano or Catalán with other like-minded professionals. Register now and BEC will search for a well-suited partner for you from our database of registered professionals seeking intercambio language exchange partners. / Programa de Intercambio de Business English Coaching conecta ejecutivos y profesionales con sede en Barcelona que deseen mejorar y practicar su Inglés, Castellano o Catalán con otros profesionales afines. Regístrese ahora y BEC búsqueda de un socio muy adecuado para usted de nuestra base de datos de los profesionales registrados que buscan socios Intercambio de idiomas.<< MORE >>

The crisis in Jamaica has abated (on the surface)...Here´s a situation that calls out not only for the right kind of leadership, but also the right kind of followers. Not dissimilar to many situations faced in business, right? So, what makes a movement happen? << MORE >>