Have you noticed all the “funny names”:http://threeminds.organic.com/2005/10/the_new_name_ga.html these “Web 2.0”:http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html companies have?
Take a look at a few new companies that are either or on about to hit your radar:
* “Squidoo”:http://www.squidoo.com/
* “Flickr”:http://www.flickr.com/
* “Yuku”:http://www.yuku.com/
* “Meebo”:http://www.meebo.com/
* “Skype”:http://www.skype.com/
* “Rollyo”:http://www.rollyo.com/
* “Writely”:http://www.writely.com/
* “Qumana”:http://www.qumana.com/
* “Memeorandum”:http://www.memeorandum.com/
* “Gada.be”:http://www.gada.be
* “Zvents”:http://www.zvents.com/
* “Joyent”:http://www.joyent.com/
* “BunchBall”:http://www.bunchball.com/
* “Pretty much anything Techcrunch writes about”:http://www.techcrunch.com/
Now before you start giggling and saying “another sure sign of bubble 2.0”, let’s consider why *having a silly name might be a good idea*. In fact I’d say these companies are some of the smartest on the Net and trendsetters rather than dotcom wannabes.
Month: October 2005
“Daniel H. Pink”:http://www.danpink.com is the author of A Whole New Mind, the groundbreaking guide to surviving, thriving, and finding meaning in an outsourced, automated, upside down world. Dan’s first book, Free Agent Nation, about the growing ranks of people who work for themselves, was a Washington Post non-fiction bestseller and business bestseller in the U.S. and Canada.
He is a Contributing Editor at Wired. His articles on business and technology have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and other publications.
Dan will be the lunchtime keynote at this year’s Digital Marketing Conference where he will be joined “In Conversation” by Tim Doyle, editor-in-chief of canada.com.
*One Degree: Is the Internet a cause or a result of our move from left- to right-brained thinking?*
It’s a little of both. My argument is that the scales are tilting — away from the left-brain, logical, linear, rule-based abilities and toward the more right-brain qualities of artistry, empathy, and big picture thinking. The left brain stuff is necessary, but no longer sufficient. And the right brain stuff is the point of differentiation.
The Internet comes in as a cause in two ways. First, it allows companies in the advanced economies to connect for free with people overseas doing routine, left-brain work for a very little cost. Second, the Internet and certain kinds of software allow us to automate many routine, left-brain tasks such as accounting, financial analysis, and even certain kinds of legal work.
*One Degree: Blogs and feeds and search and social software seem to be working together to amplify the web into a sort of “hive mind”. Do you foresee another kind of thinking that will follow your metaphorical left and right brain approaches?*
The “Digital Marketing Conference”:http://www.the-cma.org/events/digital.cfm is coming up on Thursday and we’re getting pretty pumped up about it. On stage or in the crowds expect to see One Degree Contributors “Ken Schafer”:http://www.onedegree.ca/contributors/ken_schafer, “Bill Sweetman”:http://www.onedegree.ca/contributors/bill_sweetman, and “June Macdonald”:http://www.onedegree.ca/contributors/june_macdonald, Guest Contributor and regular commenter “Mitch Joel”:http://www.twistimage.com/blog/, and past “Five Questions”:http://www.onedegree.ca/category/five-questions interviewees “Jay Aber”:http://www.onedegree.ca/2005/07/13/five-questions-for-jay-aber-president-247-canada, “Michael Seaton”:http://www.onedegree.ca/2005/06/16/five-questions-for-michael-seaton-scotiabank, and Conference co-chair “Michael LeBlanc”:http://www.onedegree.ca/2005/06/09/five-questions-for-michael-leblanc-canwest-interactive.
If you’re attending, please let us know by adding a comment below. And while you’re at it, let us know which session you are most looking forward to. If you haven’t yet registered, you might “want to register now.”:https://www.the-cma.org/events/digitaldetails.cfm
Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be seeing: