6 Ways to Unlock Your Creative Potential - On Careers (usnews.com)

Creativity is not something that is limited to artists or marketers - every professional could stand to develop their creative side. Creativity is a an exercise in the mental processes in our minds that leads to better more innovative decisions and ultimately better problem solving. This article talks about how anyone can work to boost creativity at work.

“We would all like to become more creative. Enhancing creativity can impact nearly every corner of our work lives – problem solving, ideation, innovation. However, with all we are expected to accomplish on a daily basis, we rarely have time to consider our own creative blueprint – a unique set of “triggers” that can help us harness creative energy. Aligning our creative needs can be a critical step in reaching our potential. But, as we become busier and busier, it seems we have limited time to make room for creativity in our day-to-day work lives. We attempt to adapt to the work-life scenario that is presented, and forge on.”

Ireland National Digital Strategy

Very clever tactic by Ireland's government. They are beginning to incentivize businesses to go online and become more social - a new angle for government. Find article here. 

“The strategy outlines and guides on the role of both society and government to leverage technology for the best results for Ireland. In its initial phase, the strategy focuses on stimulating indigenous economy by helping small Irish businesses expand online, preparing citizens for the next generation of jobs, and bringing the benefit of digital technology to everyone.


Encouraging more people and businesses to get online is the goal at the heart of the National Digital Strategy, wrote Pat Rabitte, Minister of Communications, in the foreword of the strategy. “My ultimate goal is the optimal economic and social use of the internet by Business, Government, and Individuals”, he declared.
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8 Tips For Startup Success Inspired By The Italian Renaissance - Forbes

As my readers may know, I am always for drawing tips and tricks from history when applicable. That's what it's there for! Have you seen my entire marcomm theory derived from ancient Egyptian mythology and story-telling techniques? Pretty cool stuff.

Therefore it is only natural that an article talking about startup tips derived from the Italian Renaissance would peak my interest. This is a very interesting read! I've condensed the tips for your viewing pleasure - but still read the article!

1. Location, Location, Location. Grow your start up where its geographically and socially relevant
2. Attract Talent. Goes along with the location, location, location one above. 
3. Build Funding.  Not a new concept.
4. Utilize Innovation. Also a no-brainer.
5. Focus and Delegation. Don't get distracted, delegate everyday tasks away.
6. Communication. Standardize your practices for your workforce (HR?) 
7. Freedom and Creativity. Let your staff's imagination grow and bring your company along with it. 

The Plight of the TV Refugee

Houston - we have a problem! No one is watching our channels anymore. Where have all the TV refugees gone?

Who actually uses Cable TV anymore - I most certainly do not? I would argue that my generation is getting more and more comfortable with the on-demand capabilities streaming websites can provide (who wants to be told what to watch anymore?) Moving away from the you-only-have-x-channels-be-happy-socialist-dynamic, individuals are turning to online content. The extremely malleable nature of the internet has been more than capable of accommodating new viewership.  

Colorful Digital Solutions to Cable TV's Headaches

Style Haul is a youtube channel, but don't let this fool you - the channel was founded by Stephanie Horbaczewski, the former director of marketing at Saks Fifth Avenue. This isn't your average youtube user channel. With more than 1,800 video bloggers in 81 countries and 72 million subscribers, Style Haul is quite the online media network. In the future, Stephanie hopes to incorporate videos with online stores so that shoppers can see products in action. The popularity of this online channel demonstrates the viability of sustainable digital content distribution. 

“Not only has the internet been able to accommodate television refugees, it is constantly looking for ways to harness video more dynamically. ”

Media overload has made it impossible for consumers to read all of the content they desire. To solve this, our app turns your favorite online news, blogs, and social streams into video. We're using the latest generation in avatar and text-to-speech tech to read and present this content to you so you can watch your favorite content, passively, instead of reading it.

Another digital solution is gui.de (which for the purposes of my own sanity I will spell as "guide" from here on out). Guide's approach is to make convertible the internet's boundless amounts of written information. Instead of reading a news article, blog post or social media post, guide hopes to convert the text to speech WITH accompanying video. The videos, reminiscent of traditional broadcast journalism, give you the option to watch internet content. Instead of scrolling through the morning news as a ritual, you can cue up videos and watch the news in the background as if it were a TV show. This makes news articles more appealing and dynamic. Plus, you can choose which character reads the news to you - man, woman, child, robot etc. 

“Personally I find that impactful news stories, such Iran’s recent election, to be more compelling and relatable when they are read to me by my trustworthy kitty cat anchor...felines are just more trustworthy than humans”

With ads sales continually being dwarfed by internet marketing dollars, cable TV is slowly becoming a thing of the past.  These two examples really point to the fact that Cable TV needs to adapt - not fight against the tide. By no means is it the 11th hour for Comcast or Cox, however a change is coming.  

Cable TV has to find sustainable plans to integrate itself with online media - providing more customization, personalization and relevance to the viewer. Television manufactures have already taken cues on these trends and introduced "smart" TVs that connect to the internet and provide a greater range of materials, interface and connect ability.

It is time that cable giants stop being so lazy. It's time to wake up and smell the 21st century media landscape. 

Google, Blockbuster Movies & NSA's PRISM

Big data is here - and no one knows big data better than Google. It has access to several planets worth of information that is constantly up to date - as people continue interacting with Google's services. 

Proving this point, google recently released a white paper arguing that it had the ability to predict blockbuster movie success.

"70 percent of the variation in box office performance can be explained with movie-related search volume (such as trailers)."

Thats pretty cool. That means - if you want to know if a hollywood movie will be a success - just google search the answer (or at least see what the google-searching public has been up to). If your movie happens to be trending in advance of your release date - odds are that odds are in your favor. 

This topic of big data and access to big data has been actually hot news in the press of late - what with the leak of NSA's PRISM.

Should the government be able to track you online?

Where do you lie in the privacy vs. security spectrum?

There can be no doubt that you are leaving a digital wake behind you, as you click through the web. However a recent Economist article makes a fair point: 

Should the government know less than Google?

I hope you know by now - google has been spying on you. From your youtube views, to the content of your gmail emails - google has been painstakingly going through every word to get to know you better (just like a good neighbor).  

Don't believe me? - click this

If you are logged into your google account that link should send you to a fun little page. Here you can view what google thinks of you - specifically who you are and what you like to search. 

So the argument returns, yes the government is beefing up its online presence big time - but should google really know more about you than your government? Would you rather a private corporation hold your detailed information or a public one?