Tag: ad astra
-
Third time’s a charm: “The Ad Astra holiday special 3.0”
So it’s a golden opportunity for that classic TV holiday special. You know, the one where production costs are virtually zero because it’s mostly reused clips and stuff shot on one big party set, and various people show up and say hi and we get to hear about what they’re doing now — and their…
-
Change the way you ask for help (DRAFT)
DRAFT! Work in progress, feedback welcome! See the first comment for some specific questions Revised version to appear on The Ideators’ Journey, kicking off a series on collaboration and innovation, perhaps as two posts. Eve’s Ask for help makes a great introduction to a series that Mikal Lewis and I will be kicking off on…
-
“A very special Ad Astra holiday” 2.0
For those of you who have gotten to know me over the last twelve months, Ad Astra (Analysis and Development of Awesome STRAtegies) was a grassroots strategy/culture change project I led at Microsoft. Its positive focus, wiki-centricity, and network-oriented strategies foreshadowed a lot of work on Get FISA Right and the Voter Suppression Wiki; it’s…
-
Make desire more important than fear: “Change the Way You See Yourself (Through Asset-Based Thinking)”
Kathy Cramer and Hank Wasiak’s new book is out, a gorgeous and well-focused follow-on to their Change the Way You See Everything, one of the Microsoft Ad Astra project’s signature giveaways.* In May 2007, we did an amazing two-day workshop with Kathy, Hank and his colleagues from the Concept Farm, and folks from Extreme Arts…
-
CFP08 trip report (2): Dear Potus 08
Part 2 of a series; please see CFP08: trip report for part 1 If the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy community wrote a letter to the next President of the United States about our priorities for technology policy, what would we say — and how would we get him or her to read it? There’s only…
-
It’s over. Isn’t it? Microsoft/Yahoo, continued
“It’s over. Isn’t it?” — the end of Killer Klowns from Outer Space Act 1 ended with a temporary resolution: Microsoft deciding not to “go hostile” and instead withdrawing their offer to buy Yahoo! After a brief intermission, Bill Gates’ announcement of Live Search Cashback is bang-up start to Act 2, featuring guest star Carl…
-
Mashups and teaching dinosaurs to dance
The hot pink beanbag chairs are a dead giveaway: Ad Astra (Analysis and Development of Awesome STRAtegies) and Mashups are in the news! In the Yahoo!?!?! thread, Michael Foster posted about Jessica Mintz’ Microsoft-Yahoo could skip culture clash, relevant no matter how the potential acquisition came out: SEATTLE – Yahoo‘s walls are awash in bright…
-
Notes from underground: Geo Solstice tonight!
Heading out soon to Geomagnetic.tv’s Geo Solstice 2007 at the Gingerbread House in SF tonight. Geomagnetic’s Dr. Spook, who did the pscychedelic Ad Astra visuals and rotating globe, is on at midnight; string art by Andres! The psytrance, dark psytrance, and darkwave scenes are feast-or-famine in SF: sometimes there’s a ton of good stuff going…
-
I love it when stuff like this happens!
Recently somebody who’s interviewing around Microsoft told me that they had brought up Ad Astra in an interview context as a way of demonstrating that they understood viral marketing: “Remember all those hot pink Mashup posters around campus? Well, here’s how we approached it; this was my role; this is what I learned.” And it…