"Who is tracking you online? Privacy lost."

Earlier this year, Mozilla Corp. CEO Gary Kovacs gave a Ted Talk where he discussed our loss of privacy when using the Internet. Sure, most of us know that companies keep track of us when we visit. They track what we buy, size, color, price and more. Amazon knows what types of books we like to buy, Zappos knows our shoe shopping habits, Nike tracks our sneaker purchases, and countless other sites “remember us” when we visit their sites; many of them are quite happy to suggest future purchases that might interest us. Most of the time, this is fine. As savvy consumers who frequently use the Internet, we expect companies to gather data to use in their marketing and analysis. And, as business leaders, we know there is gold in the databases.

However, has behavioral tracking gone too far? In this fascinating video, Kovacs introduces a new Firefox add-on program called “Collusion.” Collusion gives the user the visual capability to “track the trackers” – in other words, watch how often our online traffic is monitored by parties to whom we have not given express permission to do so. The scope of the behavioral tracking will likely surprise even the most experienced Web user.

View Gary Kovacs speech on the topic at http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_kovacs_tracking_the_trackers.html 

To learn more about "Collustion" - go to http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/collusion/

Then, consider these questions as part of business operations:

• What are the ethical implications of behavioral tracking? When is it useful to companies? Useful to consumers?
• What are the responsibilities of companies to their users? Should they ask permission? Or do users give implied permission just by visiting the site?
• What are the laws or regulations that affect this type of behavioral tracking? What should the laws cover?

Ted.com Video - How To Buy Happiness

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_norton_how_to_buy_happiness.html

Here is an interesting Ted.com video on Pro-social spending vs. Anti-social spending.

Purpose: Share information related to our Stewardship Principles.
Process: I posted this in my online Town Hall this week.
Payoff: Generate an interesting online conversation about pro-social behavior.

 “Push the big red button! What makes a video go viral?"

What is it that makes videos go viral and reach millions of viewers on the Web? According to Kevin Allocca from YouTube, there are three key factors required to achieve success:

1.      Reaching the tastemakers

2.      Building a community of participation

3.      Creating unexpectedness in the video

Watch Kevin's talk on TED.com at http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_allocca_why_videos_go_viral.html.

It is a simple formula in principle, but it is extremely complex to produce in reality. Yet, marketers and advertisers try time and again – usually in vain – to hit the right formula. However, a recent video segment produced by agency Duvall Guillame Modern managed to achieve all the right elements in its video to launch TNT network in Belgium.

It started by placing a big red push button with the label “Push to add drama” in a town square in an average Flemish town. And then waited to see what happened next. The results were amazing. As of the beginning of May 2012, there have been nearly 32 million views!

See what happens when YOU push the big red button… Watch the TNT Belgium video at: http://youtu.be/316AzLYfAzw

Any Good Ideas?

Any Good Ideas ~ Captain Sullenberger's

Sitting on the runway at LaGuardia Airport today I know that as the plane taxis for takeoff we will just rise above the water and make our way into the air. It is always a moment that takes my breath away no matter how much I travel. Since January 15, 2009 when Captain Sullenberger (“Sulley”) piloted the ‘Miracle on the Hudson River’ this adventure has been even more meaningful. 

Who can forget the sight of that USA Air flight ditching on the Hudson River after it was disabled by a flock of Canadian Geese just after takeoff. Three minutes into the flight Sulley made the decision to land the plane in the Hudson when his engines failed and there was no way he could make it back to LaGuardia or Teterboro Airport on the New Jersey side of the Hudson.

Once the black box of the six minute flight was released you could hear the entire exchange of what seemed to be a very clam conversation. In an interview later, Sulley said he was not that calm but had the responsibility to appear calm for his passengers. What was most surprising on the tapes was a point just 300 feet above the water. Sulley asks his crew, “any good ideas”?  When asked later why he posed that question he stated that he always knew that regardless of how much experience you have, no matter how much you think you know, those around you may have a really great idea that you need to listen to. He always told himself that he would not have wanted to land the plane badly and then have someone say, ‘gee if we had just tried this’….

So always remember that you may have a great deal of experience but there is always an opportunity to learn from others and use your team for collaborative efforts to broaden solutions. If “Sulley” can ask at a moment 300 feet above the freezing waters of the Hudson, then we surely can ask in our pressured time frames too!  Just remember that photo of the 155 passengers safely standing on the wings on the US Air plane on the Hudson. What a moment in time!