At a conference recently, a speaker asked the audience for the most important factor in developing a data app. My response: Context. It was thus with great interest that I dove into Age of Context. Shel Israel and Robert Scoble's new book looks at the impact of...
Quick Poll: What's your favorite kind of chocolate? Ask three people about chocolate and you are likely to get at least three different answers. Hazelnut truffles, cherry bonbons, Hershey's kisses, bittersweet hot fudge. (The hot fudge is for me.) A new book makes the...
When I was offered the opportunity to review a new book about LinkedIn I thought I would skim it and pick up a couple of tips for better optimizing my profile or managing my group interactions. I was wrong. The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success is far more useful...
It's always amazing to watch companies spend the bulk of their efforts trying to attract new customers. Great introductory offer! First month of service free! Balloons for the kids! Once they've made the sale, however, the love ends--and many of the same companies...
It’s official: data scientists are cool. And Big Data is the hottest trend in business. But what is Big Data and why does it matter? A new book, Too Big to Ignore, seeks to demystify Big Data and make the case for why companies cannot afford to ignore the massive...
I was watching this amazing TED talk about turning food deserts into food oases. Ten minutes later I was ready to pick up a shovel and dig. And I don't enjoy gardening. So what makes for a great speech? In How to Deliver a TED Talk, author Jeremey Donovan dissects...
A few years ago, my local Shakespeare company started experimenting with theatre in the round. The stage and seating were reconfigured, and the first production launched with great fanfare. Then I spent three hours watching the actors from the side. The director had...
Sometimes the best customer experiences happen by serendipity. I recently pooled my Amazon gift cards to purchase the complete 5-DVD collection of the Best TV Show Ever. When it arrived, I put disk one into the DVD player I rarely use with huge anticipation. Then....
I listened to the TED talk. I sat through a Webinar on the topic. And, last week, I finally read Drive, a book that's been sitting on my shelf for a while. In Drive, author Daniel Pink examines the research and concludes that business has it all wrong when it comes to...
I had the pleasure of talking with author Phil Simon this morning. His latest book, The Age of the Platform, looks at four 21st-century powerhouse companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google) which have managed to grow big while keeping their competitive edges and...