Let’s take out the trash.

1. Reveries.com has a post on trash-bin, book scavengers. These are men (and some women) in Manhattan, who eke out a living by sifting through trash bins looking for books that people have discarded.

2. Fast Company has an article in the February magazine, “Is the Tipping Point Toast?”, which is stirring up the internet marketing industry. The article positions Duncan Watts against Malcolm Gladwell.

Watts posits that marketers spending billions of dollars a year targeting influentials are wasting their money. Gladwell, in The Tipping Point, postulates that trends are established when connectors and mavens come into contact with ideas that can be easily disseminated.

It’s a good article, but I don’t understand what the fuss is about.

I agree with Watts that Gladwell’s Tipping Point taps into the ego of advertisers/marketers–the ego that allows them to believe that if only they can get the cool kids to like their product then the rest of the world will follow. But that’s not the full argument Gladwell is making.

The article positions these two as opposing forces, but I think there is logic to both arguments.

If someone (who I trust) tells me about something (that I’m interested in), I am likely to follow their advice, buy the product they are suggesting, think positively about a service, etc. If I have a first hand experience that is positive, then I am likely to promote that service or product.

Both the Gladwell hypothesis and the Watts hypothesis are flawed because they don’t look closely enough at these two key ingredients: trusted source, something of interest to me.

I don’t have fancy computer models like Watts or well-known brand stories like Gladwell, but here’s my small anecdote.

Darren Barefoot was doing some work for Brother Printers. Brother had a new line of printers it was interested in promoting and they wanted some bloggers to test the printers.

I had a good time test driving the HL-4070CDW.

In internet land, my blog post is a very small blip in the Brother Printer landscape. Although SoMisguided is the first result for the search “brother printer wireless”. But down on Earth, everyone who comes into our office comments on our fancy printer and I mention it’s a Brother Printer and that I like it very much. It does an excellent print job. I also comment that I wish it did more. There are multi-function centres that print, scan, fax, do the dishes and photocopy. Ok, no dishes. I have even gone to Future Shop to check out the other models, and I had a conversation with the sales guy, who provided favourable feedback on the Brother line in comparison to other brands. Since then I have recommended Brother Printers to 2 friends who were looking for new printers. Both bought Brothers. (There’s some fun alliteration.)

So was it a waste of money for Brother Printers to hire Darren and to get a bunch of bloggers test driving their printers? I don’t think so.

Again, it comes down to trusted sources and timely feedback on something people were interested in.

The Year 2008 is going to be one of predictions.

My first public prediction is that poetry is making a resurgence.

I’ve just returned from Alexis Kienlen’s poetry reading for She Dreams in Red and I’m most certain that poetry is on the rise.

Here’s the thing: Poetry needs to be read aloud. People miss out on poetry because they try to read it silently to themselves. There’s no poetry in that method. Find your voice.

Here’s the next thing I re-discovered tonight: Poetry can be made by 3 year olds. By the time we’re 18, we forget that we can use words to do more than order fries.

My follow up thought was that publishers are going out of business. Poetry has never sold well, unless you count 500-1000 copies as spectacular. BUT, micropresses are coming back into fashion.

I received a Miranda July book as a birthday present. It’s spectacular. I love it. A friend showed me Actualities by Monica Kidd from Gaspereau Press. This is a beautifully crafted book.

Book as objet really works with poetry.

I’m in the middle of reading Alison Cader’s book of poetry Wolf Tree from Coteau Books. It’s brilliant.

John Maxwell at SFU told me 2008 is his year for rediscovering poetry.

Something is happening.

Poetry is on the rise.

She Dreams in Red is published by Frontenac House, which has a great, new website (fairly new, last year). David Scollard, publisher of Frontenac House, gave Alexis an incredible introduction. I wish he’d publish it. He said something about why they publish poetry and that it is the pursuit of higher intelligence driving them. He seems like a man entirely clear on why he’s publishing books.

I am digging Pixton.

Create cartoons on Pixton. Cool interface, fun to play with. Give it a try. I’m going to do a series on Sam.

Here’s my first one:
“Sam Goes on Holiday”

I kid you not.

Listen to Hobo_Names.mp3

John Hodgson, PC in the Mac and PC ads. Lists 700 hobo names.
Listen to Hobo_Names.mp3

His website is equally hilarious:
http://www.areasofmyexpertise.com/

(Source: James Sherrett)

Just this morning I was complaining to James. “How heavy do you think my laptop is?”

He said, “About 6 pounds.”

Six pounds doesn’t sound like a lot, but after you’ve lugged it around on business trips and several blocks, 6 pounds feels like 60.

Then this morning Kiley send me this email with the quip: Can you handle it? This is going to push you two over the top …

TECHNOLOGY | January 15, 2008
Jobs Reveals Tiny New Laptop
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs took the wraps off a super-slim new laptop, unveiling a personal computer less than an inch thick that turns on the moment it’s opened.

It’s 3 pounds, man!

Quote: From the Apple site:
MacBook Air is ultrathin, ultraportable, and ultra unlike anything else. But you don’t lose inches and pounds overnight. It’s the result of rethinking conventions. Of multiple wireless innovations. And of breakthrough design. With MacBook Air, mobile computing suddenly has a new standard.

Here are the features. It recognizes movements like the swish used on the iPhone.

Salivating …

If you’re a book blogger or someone who is on the receiving end of publishers’ online marketing campaigns, this survey is for you.

GalleyCat posted yesterday that Publishing Trends is conducting the survey to find out more about how people are approached by publishers, if it is something that people enjoy and whether publishers should keep competing for attention this way or not.

I’m skeptical about how they are going to assess this but I haven’t taken the survey yet.

Give them more data. Take the survey.