In response to my post last week on Stanford’s iTunes initiative, several folks wrote to tell me about arts organizations entering the on-line distribution business. Here are a few: The Gürzenich Orchestra in Germany offers concert-goers a CD of the performance as they leave the hall. They now make available the ”best versions” of the […]
Archives for 2005
Stanford on iTunes
Kind of a cool initiative over at Stanford University, where they’ve created a special section of the Apple iTunes music store to distribute audio and video content to the world and to their own. Their overview says the initiative has two parts: a public site, targeted primarily at alumni, which will include Stanford faculty lectures, […]
The rankness of rankings
Urban and Regional Planning professor Peter Fisher offers a wonderful dressing down of five national ”business climate rankings” that seek to define the best places in the nation for business. His primary concerns: The underlying problem with the five indexes is twofold: none of them actually do a very good job of measuring what it […]
Everything’s about a date in Kansas City
The on-line arts research warehouse CPANDA has a new ‘quick fact’ this month that’s bound to annoy the aesthetically pure. Drawn from a cultural participation study in 1998, the summary shows the stated motivations of surveyed Kansas City residents who had attended an arts event in the prior year. The answers shouldn’t shock any of […]
Balancing the triangle at Steppenwolf
This exceptionally interesting case study of Steppenwolf’s first 25 years of growth and dynamic change is a great learning tool for any organization considering getting bigger.
The art of persuasion
Not sure how I missed it when it aired, but a link from the gang at Next Generation Consulting pointed me to the PBS Frontline past series on persuasion and persuaders — in advertising, in media, in politics. Fascinating stuff to watch and learn about high-concept advertising, emotional branding, the science of selling, narrowcasting, and […]
Construct your own marketing metaphor
Researchers have now concluded, through a recent study, that candy is more tempting when you can see it and it’s within reach. Shocking but true. According to the AP report on the study, the researchers ”gave 40 university secretaries 30 chocolate kisses in either a clear or an opaque candy jar placed on their desks […]
Drawing collective conclusions
Two items of interest today that may seem worlds apart, but to my mind are wonderfully resonant: 1) Last night, the Madison City Council voted 15 to 5 to support the refinancing of the Overture Center for the Arts (see my entry yesterday for details). I sat through all five hours of the public testimony […]
Would you buy your own facility for $1?
I often wonder what becomes of those grateful families on Extreme Makeover Home Edition in the years following the gift of a glorious new home. After the unveiling, after the tears of joy dry away, after they clean the yard of stray ”good luck” banners and coffee cups, they must eventually discover what it means […]
The interrupted life
Yesterday’s New York Times magazine explores the interrupted life of the modern office worker (login required). It turns out, as most of us will acknowledge, that distractions don’t interrupt our work, but rather distractions make up the bulk of our work. According to one researcher who measured actual drones doing actual droning: Each employee spent […]
