topicalhuman.com

Podcasting Tips.

SellingPower.com

LifeHacker.com (and article on Bonsai).

Hugh’s thoughts on entrepreneurship. Hugh’s thoughts on blogging.

Doc Searls has a great post on the ongoing spreading of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) regarding Net Neutrality. Check it out.

Apparently any Australian resident travelling to the USA may soon have to submit to having all of their fingerprints stored in an FBI database. There is nothing official yest, but according to the Sydney Morning Herald, it could happen soon. Furthermore, there may be nothing in place to prevent this information to be widely distributed amongst the many US law enforcement agencies. This doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in me, and could seriously make me not want to visit the US while such a law is in place.

In other news, if you are willing to risk your life in ‘conflict zones’, there are apparently lots of business opportunities for the adventurous entrepreneur.

My brother linked to this funny clip on YouTube. I work in sales, so I can relate to this, although when I showed my friend Simon, who is a Horticulturist and trade assistant, he didn’t really get it at all. I guess it needs context to be relevant…

Here is a great link on  being organised - something I need help with.

Cory Doctorow waxes on the tangible commercial benefits of sharing.

Hugh is requesting people write and send him their Minifesto’s. And he is getting some really good stuff through. Just to highlight a few of the good ones being submitted, Seth Godin has an Unforgivable Minifesto, there is a really neat Music Minifesto, and an ex-pat Minifesto which I’m going to forward to my Mum.

Some of this is really very clever. But the cleverest work has been done by Hugh. Not to put too fine a point on it, his blog over the last couple of months has been a bit lean on some of the ‘meatier’ content I had come to expect over the last couple of years. No doubt he has been busy as a result of the hard work he has put into gapingvoid over the last couple of years, but to be honest, I don’t care much. I want to read interesting, thought-provoking stuff, and won’t bother checking sites that don’t fill this need.

However, by opening up his personal media outlet to other people with something useful to say he has probably accomplished the following:

• Gained new fans, perhaps even potential partners and allies, among those who have something to say through submitting a Minifesto.
• Retained the interest of a significant portion of his readership (well, at least me!) by having interesting posts, in a more regular basis.
• Attracts new readers, as some of the Minifesto’s are on subjects I’m sure Hugh hasn’t written about before.

A very clever move by Hugh; I’m sure it isn’t a co-incidence.

Hugh MacLeod has taken a leaf out of John Dodds book, and condensed his excellent HughTrain Manifesto into the HughTrain Minifesto. According to Hugh, it has only about 400 words compared to the 4,500 in the original.

I like this trend…it makes it easier to read this stuff, as we’re all short of time. Especially when it is something as worthwhile reading as the HughTrain is.

For those who may not know, the whole xTrain meme kinda originated with the ClueTrain Manifesto a few years back, a book/website I and many others regard as one of the best books written on how to conduct business in the ‘internet era’.

Seth Godin has a great list on things to look out for when trying to start a business, especially if you’re partnering with other people.

[Update] I’ve just caught up on a whole bunch of Seth’s posts over the last 4-5 weeks. I wanted to link to some of the ones that really stood out to me. This might seem overboard, but he posts prolifically, and I want to keep track of them.

When to Start (a business/enterprise/adventure)

How Marketers Really Think (with cool dialogue from ‘There’s Something About Mary)

Rebuttal of a really crappy, yet common, excuse

Scott Adam’s big theory (via a link from Seth Godin)

I follow a blog written by a thoughtful chap called John Dodds. His post, which he has called the J Train is a marketing minifesto. I’ve printed it out and hung it above my desk. It is brief, to-the-point and informative. Much of it is stuff we’ve heard before, but to see such valid information collated in an easy to read list is very useful. Well done, John!