Lifestreaming: Twitter Helps To Free A Student From Eygptian Prison

via CNN

Quite a story. A graduate student at Berkeley- James Buck- was in Eygpt covering some anti-government protests. He and his translator were nabbed and tossed in jail, and with a one word tweet ("arrested") his network lit up and started taking action to get him out. This may be one of the more powerful examples I've ever seen of how the networks we establish for ourselves online can benefit our lives.



Some excerpts from the story (but check the whole story for all the deets):

"Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an anti-government protest when he and his translator Mohammed Maree were arrested April 10.

On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The message only had one word. "Arrested."

Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt -- the same ones who had taught him the tool only a week earlier -- were alerted he was being held.

Buck's urgent message is proof of the value of Twitter, Stone said. Buck's entry set off a chain of events that led to his college hiring a lawyer on his behalf.

"James' case is particularly compelling to us because of the simplicity of his message -- one word, 'arrested' -- and the speed with which the whole scene played out," Stone said. "It highlights the simplicity and value of a real-time communication network that follows you wherever you go."

Fast Strategy (PfG and IPA)

The IPA (the UK's AAAA's) are conducting a conference on Fast Strategy this Monday 28 April.

Mark Earls, one of the brains behind Planning for Good is taking part in a live contest against some of the sharpest minds in the London Planning scene and needs to build an army to tackle a brief from the Central Office of Information (the UK Government's communications 'client').

Mark has assembled a crack group of planners - Jon Leach (of HHCL fame), Chris Forrest (ex DFGW and now of the research company The Nursery) and Ian Tait (of Poke to work on the brief as the P4G Allstars. BUT THEY WANT YOUR HELP.

Mark wants to demonstrate the power of P4G by involving any of us with internet access (and favorable time zones) to contribute to the the thinking. Here's the deal.

Monday, April 28, 10amBST brief posted on wiki site; responses by 12pm (noon) at the latest. Mark and the team will present at 2pm BST.

Please try and contribute - it will be fun and a great demonstration of the power of P4G at work.
If you're interested please email faststrategy@planningforgood.org and/or keep an eye on Planning for Good.



Details about the IPA event below..

How can you come up with the right strategy fast? A selection of Adland’s finest will be giving practical advice on how to achieve this at the IPA and Times Media Strategy Conference on Monday 28th April.
Speakers will include:

- Tim Lindsay, President, TBWA Group: 'How taking the disruption approach can help you get to the right answer fast.'

- Tim Hames, Assistant Editor & Chief Leader Writer, The Times: 'What planners can learn from those that write the news and the pressures of doing it fast and accurately.'

- Gurdeep Puri, Head of Effectiveness, and Janey Bullivant, Board Planning Director, Leo Burnett: 'How, counter to popular belief, data can help you to get to the answers fast'.

- Jon Wilkins, Founder, Naked: 'Fast strategy in a media environment'.

- Stuart Smith, Head of Planning, Wieden & Kennedy London: 'Strategic and creative dovetailing - Fast'.

- Rob Forshaw, Founding Partner, Grand Union: 'How to develop thinking quickly from a digital perspective'.

These short, sharp and fast presentations will be presented throughout the morning, whilst leading communications consultant Mark Earls; Phil Georgiadis, Chairman of Walker Media; Johnny Hornby, Founding Partner of CHI & Partners, and their respective teams, will be putting into practice what they do best and responding to a highly realistic but fictitious COI brief, set and delivered by Peter Buchanan, Deputy Chief Executive, COI.

You, the audience, will then get the opportunity to vote for who you think is the fastest strategist in town, when these three teams return to the stage in the afternoon to pitch live in front of the audience.

Says Guy Murphy, Chairman IPA Strategy Group and Worldwide Planning Director, JWT, “The most important skill that strategists need to learn in this era is speed. The quality of a strategic answer is now partly determined by the time taken to create it. Slow-baked strategy, no matter how good, can never be great.”

The conference will take place between 9am-5pm on Monday 28th April at the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE.

Networked Self: Axe on Yahoo! Live

Looks like Axe Brazil is using Yahoo! Live to good effect.


I guess it beats lookin' at my channel

*Unfortunately, the dudes here seem creepy. Put a shirt on!

Politics 2.0: 3Trillion.org

Who needs the lame tax stimulus check, when I got a $3 Trillion gift certificate to spend?




3trillion.org, is a web site that gives you 3 trillion dollars - the money American tax-payers are projected to spend on the Iraq war - and use it in a virtual shopping spree for your friends and family. Lets go shopping!

I picked up a few tchotckes including a space vacation, a Wii, the Yankees, the Beatles catalog, and a lil' somethin'-somethin' for New Orleans.

Guilty Pleasure: Subway Crush

Subway Crush is a new missed connections site for all those times you were on the train but just didn't get to talk to that stranger at the other end of the car. Simple really, the site just takes what Craigslist already does and focuses on one area where missed connections occur- and puts a little more attention on web design than CL.

Still thinking about that girl you saw on your way to work last week? Now you may have a chance after all...

Panic Button: Water

Good Magazine explores the stats and realities of our planet's most abundant (and scarce) resource, water.

Fallon Brainfood: The Social 10 Redux

10 Things Marketers Should Know About Social Networking.

On March 26th, 2008, Aki Spicer, strategic planner at Fallon Worldwide, conducted a presentation about social media, using social media, live, across a mashup of social web touchpoints including Fallon Planning Blog on Blogger, Yahoo! Live, NetVibes, Plannersphere on Ning, and Facebook. View the accompanying slides at Slideshare or download the pdf directly to your desktop at Dropio.

Below is the recorded videos (1,2,and 3) and slideshow links of the presentation in case you missed it live on the web:

| View | Upload your own

What is Brainfood?
Brainfood is a monthly all-agency lunch conducted by Fallon Planners. Wide-ranging topics explore trends, business issues, and actionable opportunities for our brands. Moreover, Brainfood offers us a chance to come together, share a beer and some pizza, and engage in a stimulating discussion on a variety of interesting topics that affect our business. Previous topics have included Virtuality, China Rising, Design For All with more stimulating editions still to come.

Ad/Packaging vs Reality

Found a great site, pundo3000.com, which showcases global food products (with their well-art directed "perfect spoonfuls") VERSUS THE PRODUCT REALITY inside the package.

MMmm, tasty.

Introducing Billy Bones

Fallon art director Chris Lincoln, is debuting his new children's book Billy Bones and its now available in USA via pre-order on Amazon, or in UK via LoveReading4Kids.co.uk or via Amazon UK.


*Here's what Little, Brown & Company Books for Young Readers has to say about Billy Bones.

View more Billy Bones BooTube here.

Mass Interactive: We Think

Vid promoting Charles Leadbetter's new book "We Think".