Art Thiel has a great article lambasting Frank Chopp and other arguably ineffective Washington State Legislators.
There are definite arguments against funding the ridiculous arena package the new Sonics owners proposed. But then it’s equally insane when the same people ignore their previous arguments to support the same package, but with the Huskies as benefactor.
Anyway, intresting read.
I know, it’s supposed to be a political statement from Italian Anarchist Artist Graziano Cecchini, as “Every ball represents a lie told by a politician.” But imagine if every one of these had your company’s logo on it? Now that would be good PR.
I don’t usually do this, but I’m plugging a charity fundraiser a friend of mine is hosting for another friend of hers. The event benefits a guy who did not have health insurance, and suffered a pretty severe head injury. In a lot of ways, this is a unique fundraiser because you can actually see and meet the beneficiary of your generosity. Heck, you can probably choose which bill you want to pay. Here are the details:
Location: SodoPop – 2424 1st Avenue South, Seattle, WA US
Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 8:00pm
Here’s a link to the evite. And here’s all the info you need to know:
Hey all! This evite is a two-for-one deal (1) Join us for a kickass party and (2) Support our dear friend Orion with some seriously steep medical bills.
The party: Killer bands. Stellar DJ’s. A charming MC to delight and entertain. Drinks. Dancing. Friends.
The background: Orion (whom you may know from such favorites as North Hill Bakery, The Hopvine, Uptown Espresso, or just being an all-around sweet and stand-up guy) took a really nasty spill on his bicycle, losing several teeth and fracturing some bones in his face. Without insurance…we’re talking about five-figure bills. No joke- add insult to injury, squared.
The benefit: Stunning art will be auctioned. Incredible gift certificates will be furiously bid upon. Drinks are hosted but all tips are donated to the cause, capiche? So bring your checks and your cash, dig deep into your pockets, and with only a $10 cover for the best party in town, everybody wins.
Please forward this evite, and we hope to see you there. If you must send your regrets, you could also consider sending $! Simply make a check out to "Relief for Teeth," and mail to our PO Box at:
Relief for Teeth
1463 E Republican
Mailbox B55
Seattle, WA 98112
When you think of industries with technological tools at their disposal, but that go unused in the realms of customer service and consumer experience, the airline industry really does stand apart.
Think about this. These guys all know the exact number of people who will be getting on their planes. They know where everyone is sitting, and exactly what time the plane will sneak away from the gate and into a line ready for takeoff. Yet somehow, none of that knowledge makes it to the marketing or customer relations people.
Here are 3 things that I think would improve my personal flying experience.
1) Real Time Updates of Security Lines.
Every airline knows how many people are leaving on each plane, and they know which gate each plane is leaving from. Therefore, they know that within a 2 hour period, exactly how many people will need to go through a security checkpoint. They can also look back at past data and see how many people went through that checkpoint a day ago, a week ago, a month ago and a year ago. And they know how many people will be working. Based on this, they should have no problem giving you an estimate of how long it should take to get through security. They should be able to show averages over periods of time, as long as a fairly real time estimate of how the day is going in comparison to other days. This will give me a much better idea of what time I really need to be there.
2) Let Me Choose My Seat Based on Who’s on the Plane.
I’m sure this will get the privacy advocates in an uproar, but I’d love it if I could build a little public profile of myself inside the airline’s account system, or even just let it access my Facebook account. Then when I choose my seat, and I see all the seats available, I know not to choose the one next to the mom with the 2 little kids. Not only that, you can give the kids their own section, in the very back and behind a curtain.
On a different track, another 6 foot guy would know not to choose the seat next to me because we’ll inadvertently be playing footsie all flight long. Plus, if you got really imaginative, you could put in your profile if you are a chatter or a sleeper, so those who like to yak all flight long can be placed on the wing or in the baggage cargo area. If it’s all voluntary and optional, and the technology is there anyway, why not use it? Think about it – if there are 2 seats left to choose from, and one is between two 120 pound women from Thailand, and one is between two 320 pound brothers from Green Bay, I think I should get to make a wise decision on which one I sit in.
3) SMS Updates
I don’t see any reason that I can’t subscribe to SMS updates. Often, a bar or restaurant is far from my gate. Let’s say I’m a considerate flyer, and get there 90 minutes early thinking there’s going to be a security line. But, since there was no line, I slide right through and now have 85 minutes to kill. Well, when they decide the plane is going to leave 30 minutes later, I want to know via SMS while I’m sitting in the restaurant, not after I’ve given up one of 2 power outlets in the whole airport to shlep down to the gate.
I’m sure there are 100 ideas so I’m looking forward to hearing some of yours.
I’ll be on the road for a few days and likely offline, but I want to leave you with a web site that you could easily spend a few hours on over the next few days.
With all the talk about Social Media, YouTube, Facebook, etc… we sometimes forget about the really cool Guerilla Marketing efforts that were (and still are) so important. The kind of things that deliver shock and awe to a mass of potential consumers not expecting to be marketed to.
It makes me think about the stupid restauarnt in my neighborhood that lost my business forever yesterday by putting a paper flyer on my windshield on a rainy night, so that when I got up in the morning, I had to stand in the rain and peel soggy, nasty paper off my car before driving to work. And then I see these campaigns from Blog.GuerillaComm.com.
And then for fun later, also check out WebUrbanist.com. Another neat place for finding unique products.
It’s probably fitting that in the craziest year of NCAA Football I can remember, the LSU Tigers travel 90 miles down I-10 to win the National Championship in a stadium wiped out 2 years ago and in a city that’s used to double or triple Baton’s Rouge’s population.
And I won’t go on a total rant here, but hasn’t this college football season finally convinced everyone that SOMETHING has to be done. Among my 4 or 5 solutions, here’s the one I think would be a breeze to pull off.
This accomplishes several things:
There are better options, but this one seems so dang easy to implement, I don’t know why you wouldn’t do it as a replacement to the ludicrous system that only satsifes people who work at the NCAA.
So here is what that would have looked like this year:
Dec 8 – Some combination of USC (Pac 10), Oklahoma (Big 12 upset winner), Ohio State (Big 10), LSU (SEC), West Virginia (Big East), Virginia Tech (ACC), and some combination of Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Hawaii and Georgia.
So, your Dec 8 could have been: Ohio State (1) vs West Virginia (9); LSU (2) vs Missouri (6) or Kansas (8); Virginia Tech (3) vs USC (7); Oklahoma (4) vs Georgia (5). Now that would have been a fun Saturday of football.
But anyway, congrats to LSU. Geaux Tigers.
So, I want to be clear that I’m not bashing Google with this question I’m about to pose. I’m trying to gauge if my reaction borders on paranoia, or if it’s justified.
Here’s the situation. On Wednesday I was on GoogleChat with a friend who talked about watching the movie "The Big Lebowski" with friends that night. The next day, Thursday, just about exactly 24 hours later, ads for Big Lebowski T-Shirts showed up in my Google Mail.
To be clear, I am not anti AdSense. I think it’s great. Contextual advertising is an amazing advancement. And I am also not naive. I know that IM’s do not dissolve into the vapor. I understand that anything I ever put in an IM (or SMS for that matter) is archived forever on someone’s server, poised and ready to ruin any chance I ever had at getting elected to public office.
But here is my issue, and again, I am asking you if I am over-reacting. If the ad for Big Lebowski T-Shirts had showed up while we were talking about Big Lebowski, I wouldn’t have blinked. Even if it showed up in the next hour. But a full day later hints to me that they have some sort of psychology behind these ads, that they are using some sort of AI to read and analyze everything I type in a day, run it through an algorithm, and shoot me marketing messages that will trigger some sort of recall mechanism from the day before. I can’t explain why, but that weirds me out.
I know, it’s not enitirely rational. But something about it doesn’t quite sit right with me. I guess I feel it starts to open a Pandora’s box. Sending me a Mariners Ticketmaster ad if I am reading an email about baseball from a Seattle IP Address is one thing. But building a complete profile about me, keeping track of everything I google, everything I write, everything I receive, and every ad I click on, then throwing specific ads that attempt to predict my behavior or trigger responses….well that borders on invasive.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to hearing your own thoughts on this.
I’m playing with some stuff from Voki.com this week. Check out how to build your own Avatars as well, and I’ll be figuring out how to make them do cool stuff here.
(Contributed by Garrett Galbreath, Snohomish Bureau Chief)
I always wonder what the "no comment" comment really means. I think in most cases, it means:
"Yeah, I was involved but I am not saying a thing" (the "screw you").
Or
"Yeah, I was involved in some manner, but I refuse to say anything because you are going to blow it way out of proportion" (pleading the Fifth)
But what about when you can’t be reached for comment? You aren’t necessarily a major player in a story, but it is obvious that you would have some insight that may prove enlightening. Of course there is the possibility that you might slip up and reveal something that you didn’t intend to. Hence, I give you this story from the Seattle Times:
The part that I am most interested in is the sixth paragraph from the bottom:
"Other prominent ex-Mariners, like Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner and Dan Wilson, could not be reached for comment."
The smartest move these guys could make is to not answer the phone for six months or more. Screen all calls. Don’t let anyone get the chance to slip you up…
And by the way, if you were a steroid dealing low-life who had access to the Mariners locker room, would Raul Ibanez and Jamie Moyer be on your list of guys you had to contact? Probably not…
