Eco-friendly music festival coming to Atlanta

Note!: This festival has taken place already, but since I've never heard of it, I thought it would be quite interesting to post it here.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Now for some news for the music lovers. An annual Atlanta Concert Music Festival - The Echo Project is coming to Atlanta, Georgia. The eco-responsible music and arts festival will run for three days from 12 to 14, October 2007. This multi-stage event will be held on 350-acres of scenic Chattahoochee river front property on a privately owned 1250-acre farm just south of metropolitan Atlanta.The Echo Project will showcase a revolutionary eco-friendly event production - including carbon emissions, power consumption and creation, alternative energy sources, and waste management and recycling initiatives. The festival has a diverse lineup ranging from hip-hop to rock. Some of the artists expected to perform at the festival include The Killers, Phil and Friends, moe., Stephen Marley, The Roots, Cypress Hill, Polyphonic Spree and lots more. Check their website for more updates.

Source:
http://freebies.mutum.org/2007/08/eco-friendly-music-festival-coming-to.html

Co-creative Commerce

Interesting idea from Charles Savage / paper called Co-creative Commerce
Oct. 20, 2001 – Rev. 7.2
Plug-n-Partnering™ through “Web Services”
is enabling the shift from
the FROWN to the SMILE

by

Arun Gairola and Charles Savage

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Creating opportunities is inherently collaborative and co-creative whereas exploiting opportunities is a competitive process. Instead of the traditional SWOT analysis, we engage in

SICO:
Strengths,
Improvement Opportunities internally,
Challenges and
Opportunities for new business externally

This is why we are clearly going beyond the Porter model and the traditional approaches to strategic planning. We are fast entering the realm of strategic networking and teaming. This is so much more open, fluid and dynamic.”

“This shift can lead to real increases in shareholder value, because we have also increased our stakeholder value. As we have valued (verb) one another, as individuals and companies, we are able to generate even more value (noun) among and between us, especially through our co-creative abilities. This is the new win-win model that creates substantive wealth, not just a pretty but hollow bubble. To get there, we are going to have to think through what is core to our businesses.”
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The 12 Different Ways for Companies to Innovate

Found this litle abstract of a paper, that I am not going to buy but the abstract itself could be helpful to all of us, when lookng at possibilities that companies can innovate in.

by:Mohanbir Sawhney, Robert C. Wolcott and Inigo Arroniz
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2006/spring/14/

In fact, a company can innovate along any of 12 different dimensions with respect to its (1) offerings, (2) platform, (3) solutions, (4) customers, (5) customer experience, (6) value capture, (7) processes, (8) organization, (9) supply chain, (10) presence, (11) networking, and (12) brand. Nissan Motor Co., for example, has innovated along the platform dimension, using essentially the same small engine block to power a variety of models, including an upscale midsize sedan, a large sedan, luxury sedans, a minivan and a sports coupe. Enterprise Rent-A-Car has innovated along the customers and presence dimensions, placing car rental locations in the neighborhoods where people live and work rather than at airports. Together the 12 dimensions of innovation can be displayed in a new framework called the “innovation radar,” which companies can use to manage the increasingly complex business systems through which they add value.

Strategy, and S.T.U.P.I.D vs. S.M.A R T. Companies and Goals

As I am doing desk research on what professionals think of inovation/organisation/ u know what, I have found this little thing. maybe its not that usefull, thou the words STUPID got my attention...

Now, this blog goes on FOREVER, and if u dont want to read it all, just don't click the link under this short abstract:

Author: Jim McCarthy
You have a choice: you can be STUPID, or you can be SMART.

Here is how a STUPID business operates:

Strategy is missing in action
There are too few (or no) measures
Unclear, or no real goals
Plans are not followed through to completion
Internal systems are non-existent – and your business is...
Dead on arrival!!!

What you really need is a S.M.A.R.T business:

Strategy is in place
Measures exist and are tied to strategy
Accurate time frames are presentResources are identified and assigned;
Reserves are established and ready to respond to changes and opportunities as they arise
Tactics are aligned with strategy...With S.M.A.R.T.E.R.

Goals:SpecificMeasurableAttainableRealisticTimelyEvaluateReviseSpecific -
A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal.
To set a specific goal you must answer the six "W" questions:Who: Who is involved?What: What do I want to accomplish?Where: Identify a location.When: Establish a time frame.Which: Identify requirements and constraints.Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/strategy-and-stupid-vs-sma-r-t-companies-and-goals-588270.html

A thought on: DIGITAL MUSIC FORUM WEST

So there it is, a new sort of music conferene taking place in the US, and me, finding some stuff that happened there.

One of the forums was about the future of the mobile music, and everybody is discussing iPhone , Nokia's come With Music etc.
These everybody are well-known people who are working in this industry and have lots to tell.
I guess u get the picture.

Nice insights as to how the future will ( probably) look like and how to prepare for innovation are these:

1.
The next billion people that access the web are going to do so on a mobile phone. That's what we're focused on, rather than trying to create a Mac version.
(Trevor Madigan, Americas manager of entertainment, Nokia)

2.
- The great thing about the Google phone and the iPhone is that people are realizing there aren't two internets for computers and mobile. Over the next five years, we're going to see ubiquitous, fast access, prices for access will come down, and it's going to be very interesting.
(Trevor Madigan, Americas manager of entertainment, Nokia)

3.
- The Google phone is going to force the carriers to open up the cellphone environment, due to its app store and other factors
(Massimiliano Pellegrini, CEO, Dada Entertainment)

Read more herehttp://blog.wired.com/music/2008/10/live-blog-the-f.html#more

Questions and answers: Tim Berners-Lee (creator of the web)

Questions and answers: Tim Berners-Lee (creator of the web)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7300434.stm

The creator of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, answers questions about the future of the web, social networking and personal privacy online.

Q. Lots of people are putting lots of information about themselves on sites like Facebook and Myspace. What would you say to those young people?

Imagine that everything you are typing is being read by the person you are applying to for your first job. Imagine that it's all going to be seen by your parents and your grandparents and your grandchildren as well.

The danger is when you put something into a public space in order to share it with a few friends and in fact you've forgotten that it's actually a public space or that the list of friends is huge or that some of them can't be trusted not to be put it somewhere else.

Q. Are you too old for things like MySpace and Facebook?

I've seen no evidence - either from my point of view or anybody else - that social networking and generally using the net to interact with other people is something that's restricted to young people.

In fact it's very popular with older people. Young people can get on their bikes and visit each other, older people can't.

It may turn out to be more important for seniors than for young people.

Q. A lot of companies are now trying to get a lot of data about their users which they can then market on to advertisers. Do you have a view?

Different people have different attitudes. I myself feel that it is very important that my ISP supplies internet to my house like the water company supplies water to my house.

It supplies connectivity with no strings attached. My ISP doesn't control which websites I go to, it doesn't monitor which websites I go to.

Q. What would you feel if it wanted to do that?

I would want to use an ISP that doesn't. I personally want to feel free. I want to know if I look up a whole lot of books about some form of cancer that that's not going to get to my insurance company and I'm going to find my insurance premium is going to go up by 5% because they've figured I'm looking at those books.

Q. What about your clickstream?

It's mine - you can't have it. If you want to use it for something then you have to negotiate with me, I have to agree; I have to understand what I'm getting in return.

Q. Three major British internet providers are considering introducing a scheme which will in some way track people's web history. What would you say to those companies.

I'd say if that was an option I wouldn't take it. If it wasn't an option, I would look for another ISP.

My personal feeling about an ISP is that I want it to be a transparent connection. I don't want to have to think about the secondary implications of going to a site.

Q There is a choice between opt in and opt out - are you saying you'd prefer opt-in?

My personal feeling is that it should be opt-in, yes.

Q. Because otherwise it can go by default?

I think consumers rights in this are very important. We haven't seen the results of these systems being used.

My own personal preference is that the consumer, the individual person should be protected because individual people and the difference between individual people and the diversity we have between people on the planet is so important.

Streaming Rules And Imeem Rules Streaming

Streaming Rules And Imeem Rules Streaming

http://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/2008/05/streaming-rules.html

Streaming far surpasses any other music related activity on the web and imeem has jumped past Yahoo to become the top choice for listeners, according to a data released this week from Compete. Based on a survey of 1000 music sites:

Def Leppard release single exclusively via Guitar Hero

Def Leppard release single exclusively via Guitar Hero

Nine Lives will be made available to download through the game a week in advance of the singles retail and online release, the first time a band has released a single exclusively through a video game.
The song is the first from their forthcoming album Songs From The Sparkle Lounge and will be available April 24 as part of a three- track Def Leppard song pack.

Nine Lives will be playable exclusively on Xbox 360 consoles a week ahead of its debut in stores and through online music distribution services. It will then be made available through Playstation 3 May 08. The pack will include Nine Lives and classic Leppard tracks Rock Of Ages and Photograph.

Owners of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 will be able to download the Def Leppard track pack. It is the first time ever a band or artist has released a new single ahead of its traditional launch through a videogame.

Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott says, Being involved with Guitar Hero is very exciting for us and adds a whole new layer of appreciation.

I know from personal experience how much more you get into the music by playing the game which is why we were keen to explore this opportunity. Guitar Hero is extremely popular with all kinds of music heads, which includes a lot of our fans and we think releasing Nine Lives this way first is just fantastic."

Goodbye, BitTorrent. Hello, Streaming.

Goodbye, BitTorrent. Hello, Streaming.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/29/goodbye-bittorrent-hello-streaming/#comments

Comcasts decision to cap monthy broadband usage at 250GB is being decried as the end of the Internet as we know it. Maybe so, but it can also be seen as the dawn of the Streaming Era. As the Olympics drew to a close with big numbers - 75.5 million streams (NBCOlympics.com), 40 million (BBC), another 130 million from the European Broadcasting Union, and 100 million Chinese viewers - the networks were already moving on by serving the Democratic National Convention in HD. CBS offered an after-convention netcast with Katie Couric, and CNN promoted full and complete streaming coverage of all speeches.

The Comcast move seems more focused on the politics of the FCC decision to rule out Comcasts filtering of P2P traffic. But BitTorrent and other such traffic is all about downloading, not streaming, and the advent of new look-ahead streaming capabilities in Silverlight suggest that streaming can accommodate DVR-like functionality that makes the value proposition of owning the data on a local drive much less important.

It used to be that having physical control of entertainment and other software was critical to the user experience. Record and film companies kept accelerating the quality levels of their products to stay ahead of the pirates and the growing ability of consumers to capture and archive content off the radio and television networks. But as broadband became more available as competition between telcos, cable, and satellite increased, sharing of MP3s and DVR time-shifting had an oddly counter-intuitive impact.

First, the Netflix strategy made renting movies a less onerous process, with no late fees and a large catalogue to choose from. When Blockbuster and Hollywood Video adopted similar MVP programs, the cable and satellite companies were forced to counter-attack with on- demand offerings that were even easier to acquire and in fact were spooled from servers rather than downloaded to home machines.

This, of course, is the same shift software has undergone from shrinkwrap to service, from Outlook to Gmail, Office to Google Apps, and from the hard drive to the cloud. In effect, productivity apps are now streamed to and the data from the user. With the data stored redundantly in the cloud, we are more comfortable with a streaming situation than with the former illusion that we owned our data locally.