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Jeremiah Owyang, Industry Analyst and Partner, Altimeter Group shares his forward looking view based on recent research on how large global brands are organizing, and spending on social media.


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Everyone would have thought that publishing secret material like the embassy cables would in itself create so much attention, that no additional pitching would be necessary. In fact, Wikileaks learned that this is not the case. With pitching I mean the term used in PR, which means bringing a topic to an editor´s attention by calling him, writing an email or summarizing the story by writing an abstract.

Originally the Wikileaks founders thought, that all those thousands of people editing Wikipedia and all those bloggers commenting on critical issues, complaining that they never get access to an original source like established media outlets do, all these people would be delighted if they got original source material and they would spread it on the net in no time creating maximum impact.

But according to Julian Assange, this is not what he experienced. Simply publishing source material does not work. I think legal consequences do also play a role, but his conclusion is that non-professional editors only write about topics that display their values to their peers. I guess this is the reason why it is so hard to get coverage on facts that oppose the current opinion of many bloggers (and editors also), which I already experienced myself.

Assange concluded that Wikileaks had to give at least summaries of the source material or in case of more complicated stories, write an article. They actually liaised with editors to give them the material plus story on an exclusive or semi exclusive basis and to spread the embassy cable news worldwide, Wikileaks liaised with major editorial houses in the US and Europe.

A year ago many people watching the development of the internet as a news channel predicted that the internet would lead to maximum transparency. Well yes, there is much more transparency now, but the “currency” on the net (as everywhere else) is still attention, as Google puts it. The Wikipedia example shows that apart from all transparency on the net, news still follow the “old rules” in terms of how to create awareness, and that a lot of the impact (apart from the story) depends on the credibility of the publisher and the awareness he or she can create among the general public, which means inside AND outside the internet.

PS: I really like the Guardian Live Blog on Wikileaks. It´s very interesting to follow the events and comments on Wikileaks around the world in real time and in one place.

This is a very interesting (and funny) piece on the education system in general – what children learn at school in contrast to the environment they live in today. It also demonstrates the power of visualization in presentations and is just a great way to present or capture meeting results etc.

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An Andersen Consultant and a Deloitte Consultant are sitting next to each other on a long flight from LA to NY. The Andersen Consultant leans over to the Deloitte Consultant and asks if he would like to play a fun game. The Deloitte Consultant just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines and rolls over to the window to catch a few winks. The Andersen Consultant persists and explains that the game is real easy and a lotta fun. He explains “I ask you a question, and if you don’t know the answer, you pay me $5. Then you ask me a question, and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll pay you $5.”

Again, the Deloitte Consultant politely declines and tries to get to sleep. The Andersen Consultant, now somewhat agitated, says, “OK, if you don’t know the answer you pay me $5, and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll pay you $50!”

This catches the Deloitte Consultant’s attention, and Read the rest of this entry »

John Cleese gives a short lecture on creativity and how reliable the subconscious continues working even when we sleep. This phenomenom is also known from hypnosis or other states of mind human beings are completly focused on just one thing and loose track of the time. It´s also an interesting piece on story-telling.


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