April, 2009

Farewell, the American Century. A very interesting perspective.

Tim O’Reilly, web 2.0 uber-guru, wants to re-invent the book. He uses powerpoint to do it. Yuck. His book is about Twitter. A powerpoint book on Twitter? Can anything be sillier? Nick Carr writes for an erudite magazine full of long articles and he takes the piss out of Tim very effectively. Make sure you [...]

So it’s been ten years. For a few years, I was like a latter day Karl Marx scouring the newspapers looking for evidence that the revolution was underway. Now, I don’t bother anymore. There’s lots of marginal stuff, many organisations that are dipping their toes in the water. But for the most part, like say [...]

Not a firm ally anymore!

From Rough Type But a whirl does not a relationship make. According to a study out today from Nielsen, most people who sign up for a Twitter account bail within a few weeks: Currently, more than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, [...]

Will Rudd, Swan and co be emboldened by Darling’s popular move? Alistair Darling’s decision to introduce a 50 per cent tax rate for high earners next April is backed by a majority of voters, according to the first post-Budget opinion poll. The Populus survey on Wednesday evening shows broad support for the main Budget measures, [...]

It can be a ruthless world when it comes to protecting your brand, the Times reports: Bankers, London’s favoured sons during the boom years, are now far more likely to be associated with greed and ineptitude than success. Their diminished standing is to be underscored by a rebranding campaign for the capital aimed at diverting [...]

Barry Ritholtz reports on a fascinating discussion with his publisher: What really surprised me was their reactions to two of the quasi-news opinion programs — The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Glen Beck Program. After Oprah, these two are (apparently) amongst the biggest book sellers on TV.  Like Oprah, Glenn Beck has a loyal audience, [...]

She’s right. Encyclopedias are not appropriate for university studies.