Category: Reading

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Amazon wants to rekindle your reading

kindleYou cannot shake a stick today without hitting an article about Amazon’s new Kindle wireless reading device.

10 ounces and able to ‘carry’ 200 books.  A price tag of $400.00 + the cost of content?  Well if it drives people to read more … than I call it a success, but it’s not the same model of the iPod approach to consumer devices and digital content.
–Too bad Apple’s design team didn’t get a crack at designing this device…its a bit stale looking.

And my latest read is taking a bit longer than usual. An MIT study about globalization … worth every page. Stay tuned!

Tags: Amazon, Kindle, wireless reading device, digital paper, reading, trends

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Education Globalization Network Reading Technology

Latest read: Three billion new capitalists

Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East by Clyde Prestowitz is a good companion to Tom Friedman’s The World Is Flat regarding globalization. At times I felt the chapters could have been written by both authors. Ultimately they complement the globalization story.

Prestowitz was counselor to the Secretary of Commerce during the Reagan Administration and is Founder and President of the Economic Strategy Institute, a thinktank in Washington DC.

Globalization is certainly not new and some issues addressed by Prestowitz may be hard to wrap around completely, but he provides an overview of what has been accelerating … offshoring. To no surprise the destination is China and India. Released in 2005 Prestowitz could not have considered the Mattel lead paint product recalls fiasco just two months old as consequences of globalization. Or was that just bad management on Mattel’s part?

The shift in wealth and power also focuses on banking and oil. Two chapters focus on this impact for China and India … and America along with the EU. What is an example of the impact on America: 100,000+ new cars are registered every month in Bejing? I would like to see the numbers for Bangalore. Think of a billion new drivers wanting to see their country, visit family and travel to see friends.

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Education Globalization Network Reading Technology

Latest read: An Army of Davids

Matt Spaamen recommended Glenn Reynolds’ An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths. Glenn, professor of law at the University of Tennessee is the former MSNBC blogger known by his very popular blog instapundit.

I was looking forward to this book as soon as Matt commented on my blog and suggested this reading. I was expecting a lot from Glenn and feel let down by only finding a few chapters worthwhile. The beginning of Glen’s book is almost a rewrite of Tom Friedman’s The World Is Flat. Another view of the technological advances throughout history that changed the way society and business operate bringing the world closer together for trade, education, culture and art.

He did provide good opportunities on chapters regarding nanotechnology and space research, yet those are pretty narrowly defined markets that require advanced degrees to fully exploit…while the marketing arm of an organization can indeed leverage An Army of Davids to change access to space and nanotechnology from a few to the masses.

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Education Globalization Reading

Globalization: Lessons learned?

China has been taking quite a justified beating in the global press for their product safety crisis. From toys to medicine China is stumbling over its global reputation. Today’s article in the New York Times proves Europe has learned from the mistakes of American toy companies.

Mattel is probably the biggest American company to also take such a beating in the press. They probably deserve it in making the choice to shift production outside the US where they easily have manpower to inspect factories. In China it has proved to be a huge disaster. Where was Mattel’s Quality Assurance on this one?

Mattel is really guilty of not working hard enough to grow their business relationship in China. After all, at some point Mattel executives felt comfortable enough to shift business overseas yet clearly failed to ensure their new relationship was running smoothly. Mattel’s public statement.

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Education Globalization Innovation Reading Technology

Latest read: Made to Stick

What book would be a perfect follow up to The Tipping Point and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell? To prove timing is everything I read Dan and Chip Heath’s new release: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. The book’s authors acknowledge that their book complements Gladwell’s The Tipping Point by identifying “traits” necessary to make your ideas ‘sticky’ with your intended audience.
Made to StickWritten by brothers Chip and Dan Heath they share experiences and research in finding ideas that stick. Chip is professor of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Dan is a consultant to Duke University’s Corporate Education program.

Made to Stick provides wonderful insight to learn how powerful ideas succeed in the face of big obstacles (and people) especially in a stale environment. Take Subway’s series of commercials featuring Jared for example.

Originally passed by PR firms, Jared’s story was brought to life by the Subway store manager where Jared ate while attending Indiana University. The ad campaign was eventually created pro-bono by a firm thinking they would fail. Even Subway’s PR firm did not support this idea. Chip and Dan prove not only how wrong they were, but how powerful the idea has turned out to be for Subway.

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