John Edwards twitters me nearly every day.

It’s not quite as provocative as it sounds. The John Edwards campaign is working hard to connect and start discussions with people through technology. Whoever is in charge of the Edwards online presidential campaign has a firm grip on the effect of social media and is workin’ it hard.

Visit Edwards’ website and prepare to be amazed. On the home page, there’s a large section titled, “Connect With the Campaign,” which gives visitors a choice of…

...continue to read "Technology and the 2008 Presidential Campaign"

Why publish valuable content for free? This questions has come up so many times over the years we’ve been in business that it no longer surprises me. The answer has been the same since we started Future Now, Inc.

“An innocuous question can hit you where you live. I should have expected one day someone would ask me, “How do you measure your ROI for that?”

If I’m conducting client training on measuring, testing, and optimizing performance, clients have a right to…

...continue to read "The ROI of Free Revisited"

Warren Buffett is hardly the stereotypical newspaper tycoon. He’s never said anything crazy like, “You provide the pictures, and I’ll provide the war.” He’s never tried to pass off the New York Post or Fox News as credible journalism. He never bought MySpace.

So, when we find The Washington Post–where Buffett’s majority shareholder–covering his very public proclamation that newspapers are a bad investment, one has to wonder: are traditional publishers reaching a breaking point or a tipping point?

When Charlie [Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's…

...continue to read "Newspapers: Black & White and RED All Over?"

Don’t you just love buzzwords? In the 80’s, “synergy” was one of my favs. When Nasdaq was a tad closer to 5,000 than it is today, thinking “outside the box” meant you were someone who “got it”. Yesterday, I was hard pressed to choose between “long tail” and “Web 2.0″. But today, Web 2.0 is the clear winner.

As meaningless as the word is (and as much fun as it is to toss around mockingly), it’s being furthered under the guise of a…

...continue to read "Do Message Boards Equal Community?"