Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #404

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, Pandemonio, and ResolveTO, Author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see”.

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:

Statistics Canada on GitHub. “I’ve been working more closely with the Federal government of Canada lately, in part because of a digital government conference I launched last year. It’s been encouraging: For example, with Minister Marc Garneau, an astronaut, in charge of transportation, the department is really trying to understand emerging tech and ready itself for change. Another good sign: Statistics Canada published interactive charts on income, population, and occupation on Github, along with code and version history. It’s one thing to be pro Open Data; it’s another to deliver information along with the tools to analyze it. Click in a couple of times and play with the charts.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Epic Games shows off amazing real-time digital human with Siren demo – Venture Beat. “When developers and designers try to make things look real, they stumble across what’s known as the Uncanny Valley — humans that look not quite real enough and creep us out. But tech is getting better; here’s a video that looks almost perfect. The teeth are still a bit weird. More interestingly, this can be rigged up to an actor to record everything, rather than having to animate the virtual human. Within a couple of years, veracity will be a scarce commodity.” (Alistair for Mitch).
I Made My Shed the Top Rated Restaurant On TripAdvisor – Vice. “Is it possible to game TripAdvisor (etc…) ratings? Here’s how to get your restaurant rated #1 in London UK on TripAdvisor, even though your restaurant doesn’t exist.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Netflix Created a Clean, Custom Font That Could Save the Company Millions – AdWeek. “There are companies that design and license fonts, and in the web world, the licensing fees are often charged by impression. So, Netflix designed their own font. Here’s the skinny.” (Hugh for Mitch).
Virtual influencers – JWT Intelligence. “This caught my attention on our internal platform. As part of WPP and JWT, you get to see some cool stuff. Then, I realized that JWT Intelligence had shared this article externally. Kinda creepy. Kinda interesting. Influencers and influencer marketing is all the rage these days. Well, how about this? What if your influencer of choice isn’t even a human? Does an influencer have to human to be cool AF?” (Mitch for Alistair).
Amazon considering buying brick and mortar Toys “R” Us locations – Axios. “Would this be the definition of irony? If it isn’t, am I evil for wondering if this is a viable business tactic? Is it possible that Amazon decides, ‘hey, we want to be in the toy business.’ So they focus and focus on toys, and it winds up being a contributor to the demise of one of the largest toy retailers in the world. Then, instead of just watching that 800 pound gorilla fall, Amazon swoops in and pays a fraction of it’s value for whatever is left? Silly? Not so sure…” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.