Author name: DanReich

We are the Hip Hop Generation

“I Love Hip Hop” cover
Image via Wikipedia

There was Rock and Roll, Billy Joel, Greatful Dead, Allman Brothers….and then there was Hip Hop. Our generation has grown up with Hip Hop, and along with technology and a few other big cultural game changers, it has defined our time. Our generation.

With the election right around the corner, it seems as if EVERYONE has a say about these candidates and this election. But will the younger voters make it to the voting booths (And I don’t mean the young voters in the video)? My friend is currently exploring this very issue, and it is called Project Youthanized. The issue of apathy within our generation.

It is amazing how many people I know weigh in on the election, yet could not or did not make it out to the primaries. Will they make it out on Nov 4?

Thanks to Jake S for sharing this video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxlwYP0HNdc[/youtube]

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It’s amazing how far we’ve come

A Computer Generated photo of what the Earth w...
Image via Wikipedia

Think about it.

  • A black man may become president of the United States
  • Google and Apple have created devices that are mini movie theaters, maps, newspapers, cameras and so much more
  • I can have conversations with all of my friends at one time via Facebook, Twitter, and Social Media
  • We have power plants that use wind, sun, and the ocean to create energy
  • People have electronic devices installed inside their chest to control their heart rate
  • There is medicine to help people sleep, concentrate, lose weight, and lose pain
  • We can take pictures, in real time, of your brain, bones, muscles, and tissue
  • We can communicate wirelessly from anywhere in the world
  • There are planes that can take paying customers to outer space

I can go on and on.

As the economy begins to slow down, I can’t help but to think about how far we have come and how much further we are going to go.

Recession? Acceleration!

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Building a farm, planting a tree.

Runaway Productions, LLC

You can teach someone how to pick an apple from a tree or you can teach someone how to plant an apple tree.

I planted an apple tree about 3 years ago, when I started a college marketing company called Runaway Productions. Although my personal and direct involvement was extensive, educational and rewarding, the greatest reward came thereafter. I had recent conversations with its new owners, and they are now generating more revenue, breaking new ground, and expanding the original business model.

It may be easy to build something for the short term and for self serving purposes. That in itself may be rewarding. But when you can build something and watch it grow even after you’ve left, you can really experience a much deeper sense of gratification and accomplishment.

Try it. What’s the worst that can happen?

Well we’re living here in Allentown

As I was driving home the other night from Vermont, I was listening to some Billy Joel. The song Allentown came on, and I could not help but to think how disappointingly appropriate the song is for the current times. Today was a mess.

Well we’re living here in…the United States…

Well we’re living here in Allentown
And they’re closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they’re killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line.

Well our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers at the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow
And we’re living here in Allentown.

But the restlessness was handed down
And it’s getting very hard to staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
aaaaaaah aaahhhhh ooooooooh ooooooh ohhhhhhh.

Well we’re waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved.

So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke,
Chromium steel.

And we’re waiting here in Allentown.
But they’ve taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaaaaah aaaaaah.

Every child had a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got.
If something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our faaaaaaaace, oh oh oh.

Well I’m living here in Allentown
And it’s hard to keep a good man down.
But I won’t be getting up todaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy
aaaaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaaah.

GUITAR SOLO

aaaaaaah aaaaaaah aaaaaaah oh oh oh.

And it’s getting very hard to staaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

And we’re living here in Allentown.

The internet is growing up. Please welcome NYTimes to Social Media and the Social Internet

Consider this (courtesy of Wikipedia):

  • September 18, 1851 – The New York Times was founded (although originally named New-York Daily Times).Newspaper.
  • 1995 – The Times has a strong web presence and is ranked one of the top sites. The content is generated by the Times staff.
  • March, 2005 – The New York Times Website has 555 Million page views. Content is still generated by Times staff.
  • 2008 – The domain nytimes.com attracts at least 146 million visitors annually according to a Compete.com study. The Times website ranks 59th by number of unique visitors, with over 14 million unique visitors in August 2008. 
  • June, 2008 – New York Times launches a Beta version of TimesPeople allowing users to connect, share, comment, and review items and content within the NYT site. A social network within the content driven site.

From TimesPeople:

“TimesPeople is a new way to discover what other readers find interesting on NYTimes.com — and to make recommendations of your own. With TimesPeople, you can share articles, videos, slideshows, blog posts, reader comments, and ratings and reviews of movies, restaurants and hotels.”

When we say “social media”, we should really be saying the “social internet”. The internet as a whole is beginning to harness the power of profiles, user generated content, and the social graph. Websites that have traditionally been known for publishing content, are now realizing the importance of social interactions and engagement.

The consumers are the content creators. The creators are the consumers. And now, organizations that have built hugely successful businesses with content creation as its core competency, are adapting to the ever increasing demand for social interactions and collective, community based content creation/sharing.

In The Power of Profiles post by Fred Wilson:

While I am sure the people who work at the New York Times think of themselves as a content company first and foremost, what goes on at the New York TImes website is as much about software as it is about content. And slowly but surely the Times online is becoming social software. That’s a big deal.

The internet is growing up. We are all adopting and evolving with the changing times. Please welcome The New York Times to Social Media and the Social Internet.

NOTE: This article can also be found @ LotameLearnings

Google and Social Networking

Until now, Google has been trying to identify efficient advertising solutions for social media.

And rightfully so.

Social media has become the premier medium for communication and media, and over the past few years, Google has arguably become the face of the internet.

So Google figuring out the social networking issue is a logical and expected event. The only question is, what would such a solution look like?

In a recent BusinessWeek article, Heather Green discusses such a solution:

“Say there’s a group of basketball fans who spend a lot of time checking out each other’s pages. Their profiles probably indicate that they enjoy the sport. In addition, some might sign up for a Kobe Bryant fan group or leave remarks on each others’ pages about recent games they played or watched. Using today’s standard advertising methods, a company such as Nike (NKE) would pay Google to place a display ad on a fan’s page or show a “sponsored link” when somebody searches for basketball-related news. With influence-tracking, Google could follow this group of fans’ shared interests more closely, see which other fan communities they interact with, and—most important—learn which members get the most attention when they update profiles or post pictures.”  

While the above excerpt may not be completely reflective of Google’s new, soon to be, patented technology for “ranking the most influential people on social networking sites”, the basic premise can be understood, with the premise being:

People, actions, interests, ENGAGEMENT and INTERACTION are the most important aspects of social networking sites.

Can a company, whose core technology is based on search, truly harness the power of engagement and interaction? Possibly (and if anyone can do it, Google will).

Can a company, whose core technology is based on engagement, truly harness the power of engagement and interaction? Most definitely (and if anyone has been doing it, it has been Lotame).

NOTE: This article can also be found @ the Lotame Blog

Free Market Economy

Not in one anymore.

Consider this: This is the first time in my lifetime, as well as the lifetimes of everyone in my generation, that we are experiencing something very, very BIG (financially)…or as Warren Buffet put it…

“We are facing financial Pearl Harbor”

The real effects or magnitude of this situation are still incomprehensible to me.

Once this bailout officially goes through, which it will, the financial industry will never be the same. The private sector will never truly be private (at least not for a while), and a socialist economy will begin to take shape. 

Individuals with real ingenuity and innovation in the financial markets, along with strong ethical and moral values will spark new oppurtunities and blaze a path that will hopefully bring us back to that free market.

These heroes will most likely come from my generation, and hopefully, they will not succumb to exploitation tactics in search of quick riches. 

I hope those heroes come sooner, and I hope those heroes make their way to leadership positions within our government.

I was curious to see what the markets looked like from the year I was born (1985) until today. Below is a snapshot that displays General Motors, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1999-present day.

No analysis here. Too busy contemplating the future.

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