Author Archives: mstanton

Share: Maria Perez, Father In Production on ‘Restart’ Movie

Former CBS co-worker Maria Perez is going on a RV road trip adventure with her father, creating a podcast and documentary film along the way. From her promotional site:

Experience… For a retiree and a millennial, it’s a loaded word. After over 50 years of hard labor and starting his life over multiple times and in different countries, for a male immigrant, experience is sacrifice and tiring. For a 20-something, American millennial who has been lucky enough to have had it easy so far, with a bright future ahead of her, experience is planned.

A father and daughter both frustrated by their current situations and looking for inspiration, decide to drop everything to set off across the US for a month. Through this journey they’ll learn about each other and how the people, places and things they encounter are also looking to restart.

Website: http://www.restartthemovie.com/

Perezent Media: http://perezentmedia.com/

restart

Share: U.S. Internet Users Lag Behind In Ad Blocking

According to a recent report from PageFair and Adobe, the use of ad blocking software has increased dramatically in recent years and is set to cost publishers over $20 billion in 2015. Approximately 198 million people across the globe use ad blocking software, according to the report, a 41 percent increase over the previous year. Internet users in China tolerate ads the most while those in Greece are the heaviest users of ad blocking software.

From a post by Statista’s Niall McCarthy, this chart (chart shows the share of internet users using ad blocking software in Q2 2015.

chartoftheday_3716_us_internet_users_lag_behind_in_ad_blocking_n

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/3716/us-internet-users-lag-behind-in-ad-blocking/

Page Fair: https://pagefair.com/blog/2015/ad-blocking-report/
Download report: http://downloads.pagefair.com/reports/2015_report-the_cost_of_ad_blocking.pdf

Share: Science Friction: Robots Will Kill Us All (Video)

Video series by Rusty Ward teams up with FW: Thinking to look at the future of AI and robots. Also see: http://metromemetics.net/share-fw-thinking-robots-will-save-us-all-video/

From the video description:

Open Letter by Future of Life Institute
http://futureoflife.org/misc/open_letter

Scientists Warn of AI’s Dangers -LiveScience
http://www.livescience.com/49419-artificial-intelligence-dangers-letter.html

History of A.I. -LiveScience
http://www.livescience.com/49419-artificial-intelligence-dangers-letter.html

Thanks to Dr. Wolfgang Fink for allowing me to interview him
http://ece.arizona.edu/wolfgang-fink

And thanks as well to Dr. Ben Goertzel for his interview
http://wp.goertzel.org/

How Garry Kasparov Came Back Against AI
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/future-of-artificial-intelligence/

There will be no Cyborgs by Hugo de Garis and Ben Goertzel
https://profhugodegaris.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/nocyborgsbghugo.pdf

Excerpt: David Brooks’ When Cultures Shift

From an opinion piece by New York Times columnist David Brooks, something that plays into the generational marketing gap between Boomers, Gen X and Millennials.

Then along came humanistic psychology, led by people like Carl Rogers, who was the most influential psychologist of the 20th century. Rogers followed the same basic line. Human nature is intrinsically good. People need to love themselves more. They need to remove external restraints on their glorious selves. “Man’s behavior is exquisitely rational,” Rogers wrote, “moving with subtle and ordered complexity toward the goal his organism is endeavoring to achieve.”

Humanistic psychology led to the self-esteem movement and much else, reshaping the atmosphere in schools, human-resources departments and across American society.

In short, American popular culture pivoted. Once the dominant view was that the self is to be distrusted but external institutions are to be trusted. Then the dominant view was that the self is to be trusted and external constraints are to be distrusted.

This more positive view of human nature produced some very good social benefits. For centuries people in certain groups in society had been taught to think too poorly of themselves. Many feminists and civil rights activists seized on these messages to help formerly oppressed groups to believe in themselves, to raise their sights and aspirations.

But I would say that we have overshot the mark. We now live in a world in which commencement speakers tell students to trust themselves, listen to themselves, follow their passions, to glorify the Golden Figure inside. We now live in a culture of the Big Me, a culture of meritocracy where we promote ourselves and a social media culture where we broadcast highlight reels of our lives. What’s lost is the more balanced view, that we are splendidly endowed but also broken.

Full version: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/opinion/david-brooks-when-cultures-shift.html

Share: Adam Wiener On Succeeding in the Media Industry (Video)

From the video description:

When URI alumnus, Adam Wiener, graduated with a journalism degree in 1987, he had his sights set on working for a US print publication in Moscow because of his fascination with Cold War politics. He never imagined he would make a career for himself in a broadcast environment. Wiener now works for CBS Corporation where he serves as the Senior Vice President for Content, Community, and Operations for CBS Local.

Share: Car Drivers Still Tune In To Radio

Even though music downloading and streaming services are becoming increasingly popular, there is still one place where the good old radio reigns supreme: the automobile. According to Edison Research, 84 percent of American drivers use their AM/FM radio at least some of the time, compared to 56 percent who still use their CD player and 38 percent who listen to digital music/MP3s. Radio’s automobile stronghold is likely to erode somewhat in the future as modern stereos capable of playing digital music gain traction in newer vehicles.

From a post by Statista’s Niall McCarthy, this chart shows the percentage of people in the U.S. who currently ever use the following in their primary car.

chartoftheday_4638_radio_still_rules_the_road_n

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/4638/radio-still-rules-the-road/

Share: CGP Grey: This Video Will Make You Angry (Video)

Video uses the term “thought germ” more than meme, but illustrates how emotion ties in as a vector in the spread of ideas – including the birth and escalation of emotion-fueled counter-memes.

Reddit discussion thread about “This Video Will Make You Angry”:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CGPGrey/comments/2yjs25/this_video_will_make_you_angry/

Related: “What Makes Online Content Viral?” By Jonah A. Berger & Katherine L. Milkman
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1528077

Share: L2 Top 10 Brands Using Digital 2014

From the video description:

How are the best brands in the world using digital to stand apart from the pack? L2 lists top 10 innovations from brands plucked from an algorithm that yielded 52 Geniuses and 400 Feeble ranks in 2014:

REI’s ‘1440 Project’ aggregates user-generated content for every minute of the day. Red Bull’s content channel boasts a billion views. That’s more than CNN’s YouTube channel.

W Hotels is replacing room keys with mobile phones, and enabling room service ordering from the W Hotels app.

Swarovski boosts its omnichannel offerings with in-store pickup.

Sephora has the highest score across all of L2 Indexes, boasting strength across all channels (mobile, desktop, in-store, tablet).

Nivea has a stellar marketing program, sending emails with strong calls to action (coupons, contests) and links to commerce.

Mercedes-Benz’s mobile-optimized site provides access to a variety of shopping tools such as an intuitive sidebar and touch-friendly button menus. Viewers can customize cars on the mobile app.

Coach pioneered in-store pickup and continues to provide the most channel-agnostic shopping experience.

David Yurman – who topped L2’s Watches & Jewelry Index – offers expedited checkout and responsive site design.