Am primit de la Irina aceasta leapsa, am preluat-o fiindca se leaga de un subiect care-mi place tare mult: cartile. Si uite asa ar putea editurile sa creezi profiluri ale unor cititori. Pe gratis si la indemana.
1. Când citiţi, pentru a marca locul unde aţi rămas cu lectura, folosiţi semne de carte sau îndoiţi paginile?
Semne de carte sau tin minte pagina la care am ramas. Imi place sa imi creez propriile semne de carte, uneori.
2. Aţi primit în ultimul timp o carte drept cadou şi dacă “da” care a fost aceasta?
Da, am primit. Se numeste “Omul duplicat”, iar autorul este Jose Saramago. E un pic greu de urmarit, datorita felului in care este scrisa.
3. Citiţi în baie?
Niciodata si nu am de gand.
4. V-aţi gândit vreodată să scrieţi o carte şi dacă “da” care ar fi fost aceasta?
Da, m-am gandit. Inca scriu la ea, o sa o mentionez cand e gata.
5. Ce credeţi despre colecţiile de carte de la noi?
Pot spune ca imi plac cele de la Polirom. Dar rar ma orientez dupa colectii cand este vorba de cumpararea unei carti.
6. Care este cartea preferată?
“Crima si pedeapsa” a lui Dostoievski. Nici o carte nu a reusit sa ma faca sa simt ca sunt “acolo” cum a reusit aceasta.
7. Vă place să recitiţi unele cărţi şi care ar fi acestea?
Rar recitesc carti si chiar nu imi vine in minte ce carte as reciti.
8. Ce părere aţi avea de o întâlnire cu autorii cărţilor pe care le apreciaţi şi ce le-aţi spune?
Mi s-ar parea interesanta o asemenea intalnire. Ce le-as spune? Chiar, ce le-as spune? Probabil as vedea in acel moment ce le-as zice. Read more »

In 2009 am reusit sa dau peste cateva carti care s-ar putea dovedi utile oricarui publicitar, dar in special celor aflati la inceput de drum in domeniul publicitatii – fie ea traditionala sau online – sau domenii conexe, cum ar fi PR-ul sau brandingul.

Pot spune ca editura Polirom e o adevarata mina de aur in privinta cartilor destinate acestor domenii. Am gasit in colectia Collegium cateva carti bune de comunicare, relatii publice si publicitate, carti pe care le voi enumera aici:

• Strategia creativa in publicitate
• Cum gandesc si cum vorbesc ceilalti – Prin labirintul culturilor
• De la publicitate la consumator
• Redactarea materialelor de relatii publice

Una din cele mai bune carti de copywriting pe care le-am intalnit este “Copywriting“, de Mark Shaw, pe care o puteti cumpara de la Carturesti. E o “no-bullshit book”, fara detalii inutile, si cred ca ar trebui sa fie prezenta in biblioteca oricarei persoane interesate de sau care lucreaza in publicitate, fiind un adevarat manual al copywritingului.

“Branduri senzoriale” este o carte scrisa de bine-cunoscutul expert in marketing, Martin Lindstrom. Cartea a aparut la la editura Publica, pe site-ul careia puteti afla mai multe detalii – si cumpara – aceasta carte.

We share so much personal babble about us on so many social networks. The internet has become the marketer’s dream, if one knows how to use it in one’s interest.

We’ve started to shed the clothes of anonymity, thinking that the Internet will give us at least a small amount of fame. Those 15 minutes of fame, at least. Or 15 MB of fame, if we move the whole thing online.

I am witnessing – as we all do – a complete renunciation of privacy in favor of a weird transparency that on the long run will affect our relationships, whether they are professional, love or family relations. We’re in a fast-forward medium that also allows us to skip moments. We only want the start and the end, forgetting about what’s in-between.

We share pictures on Facebook, let the whole world know we’re in a relationship with another Facebook user, tweet about things that a decade ago were considered intimate.

That’s why I am asking you: where are we heading? What’s the future of “sharing” and how does the current state affect us on the long run?

Everyone talks about Twitter these days: personal branding on Twitter, making friends through Twitter, finding new stuff on Twitter… Twitter, Twitter, Twitter!

As one of the somewhat-early adopters of this service, I noticed that Twitter is – actually was – based on the concept of simplicity. In time, along with the features introduced by users (conventions like the @ sign for replies) noise was created and the need to separate the interesting, juicy stuff from the mundane, boring things appeared.

Buuut… that’s not the subject of this post. Still, I want to relate to simplicity. We all have a favorite Twitter client which we use on our PCs or Macs. For example, I have two of them: at the office I use Tweetie (for Mac) and at home I use an app I just discovered, called Ada.

Ada Twitter from Madan

Before Ada I used Twhirl on my home computer but it kinda got too bulky for my taste. Many buttons and too many features doesn’t mean an application will satisfy everyone.

Ada is a small, simple, AIR-based app that won’t bother you with notifications while you’re working. The most recent version is 1.20 and you can find it here. It has a few themes that you can use and a drop-down menu from which you can choose what to see: main timeline, mentions and direct messages.

Although it’s pretty minimal and it won’t bother you like other apps, it still lacks some basic features. For example, I think that it wasn’t necessary a button for marking favourite tweets but one for sending direct messages to a tweet’s owner. I also don’t see why a “favorite tweet button” exists as there is no way to see the tweets you favourited through Ada. Or maybe I haven’t discovered it yet…

Another much needed feature would be using different colours for replies and direct messages. This would help out users who follow a lot of persons to differentiate replies and DMs from normal tweets directly on the main timeline.

Anyway, this little app is lovely and I would recommend it to everyone who wants a multiplatform Twitter client based on the concept of simplicity.

A few months have passed since the last time I used Ubuntu and started using Windows XP. Sounds like a confession, right? Why I did that? Because imediately after I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 I got myself a brand new version of the popular distribution and as a bonus I got a low resolution, of 800×600, which really loves to be here, on my computer. It can’t be changed. I went through all the known methods and it’s still there. I manually edited xorg.conf, ran the already famous “sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg” command and still got nothing.

I admit it, I’m not as good as many other Linuxists but this thing made me use XP for a few months because I didn’t want to change my resolution from the NVidia Xserver Settings application every time I logged in. I asked on Ubuntuforums.org but I got the usual answers. And the problem is that this thing is happening to some other persons too.

If you have any idea on how to fix this, please leave a comment. I really need to get back on Ubuntu.

Meritocratia

Comunitatile open source folosesc un sistem de organizare ce pare iesit din comun la prima vedere, dar este de fapt foarte natural. La prima vedere, ati putea spune ca in open source se aplica un stil de comunicare si dezvoltare socialist, dar sunteti foarte departe de adevar. Open Source promoveaza libertatea de exprimare si impartirea de idei si proiecte, lasand posibilitatea oricui de a folosi, de a da mai departe si a modifica un proiect.

As putea lua ca exemplu unul din cele mai dezvoltate proiecte open source existente la momentul actual: Ubuntu. Ubuntu este un sistem de operare bazat pe kernelul Linux si o alta distributie Linux mult mai veche in domeniu, Debian Linux. Canonical a dezvoltat Ubuntu avand la baza ideea de “umanitate”. Canonical, in frunte cu Mark Shuttleworth, au reusit sa isi creeze o imagine de companie prietenoasa, pastrandu-si sistemul de operare gratuit si incurajand utilizatorii sa dea mai departe acest sistem de operare. Pe site-ul ubuntu.com se pot “comanda” CD-uri ce sunt trimise peste tot in lume, pe gratis.

Fac legatura cu Ubuntu si Canonical pentru ca au reusit sa creeze o comunitate ce se dezvolta in continuu in jurul acestei distributii Linux, totul bazat pe un sistem meritocratic. Cel mai bun exemplu este probabil Ubuntu Forums, unde utilizatorii sunt recompensati pentru mesajele postate. Unul din cei mai cunoscuti utilizatori este “Artificial Intelligence”, inscris pe forum de acum patru ani, cu peste 9000 de mesaje postate. In momentul de fata face parte din staff-ul Ubuntu Forums, dupa o contributie destul de indelungata.

Desi meritocratia a fost “inventata” la sfarsitul anilor ’50 de catre Michael Young cu un sens peiorativ, putem observa ca acest sistem este folositor societatii – online sau offline – , datorita faptului ca aduce in fata pe cei mai inteligenti si productivi dintr-un anumit grup. Acest sistem da nastere unor persoane (despre care am putea spune ca si-au format un brand personal) in care comunitatea are incredere. Din pacate, cel mai mare dezavantaj al meritocratiei se datoreaza timpului indelungat necesar pentru a “culege roadele” muncii proprii. Pe langa asta, meritocratia mai poate duce la unele lucruri neplacute, si imprastierea dezvoltatorilor/utilizatorilor/etc. care nu au suficiente resurse sa ii depaseasca pe cei ce se afla pe o treapta mai sus decat ei.

Read more »

I was searching for a file on my computer and I stumbled upon this image:

How many times were you seen as a "triangle"?

I think I made this when I got a small Wacom tablet for my birthday and I played around with it. Anyway, the thing is: how many times were you seen as a “triangle” among “circles”? I am pretty curious about this thing so please let me know: were you seen as a triangle in a positive or negative way?

P.S: I’m sure you appreciate that I’m such a talented person. (I’m joking, of course!)

A few days ago I read something really interesting on Seth Godin‘s blog, an idea that’s been buzzing me a lot lately. The Internet is full. And Mr. Godin is not talking about physical storage, which is continuously growing. He’s talking about us, the Internet users. WE are full. For example, I am feeling full of all the social media/social networks/keeping in touch with friends, reading blogs, etc. And it seems that I don’t find anything new on the Internet lately.

I had an account on most of the popular social networks, including Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Because I felt overwhelmed by them, I started quitting my accounts one by one. At this moment, I am using Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin with their usage exactly in this specific order. The “super-duper” trio.

Theoretically, if we would stop using the Internet for a couple of years, leaving behind everything that’s online and web related, the enthusiasm might return and some really cool apps would be created after this “hibernation”. Although the technology gives us the possibility to create the most interesting things we are “getting used to” the old things and not looking to create some advanced web apps.

Although I was making fun of the “New Year’s Resolution” trend, I decided to give this thing a try and post my resolution.  I have a list of five most important aspects of my life that need to change/improve/add and will be changed/improved/added in 2009. Here they are:

1. Living healthy and leaving behind all my depressive moods that were too many this year. “Healthy” includes food, exercise and why not? a healthy spirit too.
2. I will get involved – much more than I used to – in the open source community and in organizing different events that will take place in Romania.
3. Get back to writing. And I’m not talking about blog posts. I’m talking about “offline writing”. This includes lyrics, too.
4. Really show appreciation to those who helped me in 2008 and will still be there for me in the next years. I was pretty selfish and didn’t show gratitude to those who deserve it.
5. Become completely independent. I want to do this to prove myself that I can do everything on my own, without help from my family or friends.

I hope you will have a lot of accomplishments in 2009 and complete all the tasks you’ve proposed to do for the forthcoming year. What are you going to do in 2009?

Serviciul de marketing afiliat 2Parale

Radu Spineanu a anuntat astazi lansarea serviciului de affiliate marketing 2Parale, tinut in private beta din luna iulie a acestui an.

Prin affiliate marketing se permite monetizarea continutul de calitate specific unei nise. Astfel, advertiserii vor plati pentru actiuni masurabile pe serviciile lor si nu se va mai face plata pentru obtinerea unei audiente.

Am avut ocazia sa testez 2Parale de prin august fiind inscris cu proiectul UnseenRomania in acest program. As putea spune ca am vazut proiectul crescand si modelandu-se dupa feedbackul primit de la utilizatorii din private beta. S-a dezvoltat intr-un timp foarte scurt intr-un proiect promitator ce cu siguranta isi va atrage utilizatori intr-un timp si mai scurt. Partea de administrare a campaniilor e foarte intuitiva astfel incat va veti putea concentra pe ceea ce aveti de facut, nefiind nevoiti sa pierdeti timp sa invatati panoul.

Imi cer scuze ca nu am putut da prea multe detalii dar iata aici cateva linkuri de pe blogul 2Parale care ar putea clarifica posibilele nelamuriri cu legatura la affiliate marketing si 2Parale:

De ce marketing afiliat?

Cum functioneaza marketingul afiliat

Pot sa fiu un afiliat?

Succes celor din spatele proiectului si utilizatorilor!