Greetings of the (silly) Season

Received in an email from Fernando Barrio:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the Northern hemisphere’s winter solstice holiday, practised within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or the choice to not practice secular or religious traditions at all…and a
fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contribution to society have helped made our country great (not to imply that our country is necessarily greater than any other), and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform or sexual orientation of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration of the original greeting. It implies no promise from the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and it is void where prohibited by law and it is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.

This wish is expected to perform as expected within the usual application of good tiding for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish a sole discretion of the wisher.

LOL.

Christmas blessings to one and all

Charla and I just walked home from some last minute Christmas shopping in Marylebone. Of course, we passed some homeless people along the way. I keep thinking of how sad it is that so many people will spend Christmas without loved ones beside them. My Christmas blessings to everyone who feels sad and alone tomorrow. And to those who do have something to celebrate, have a jolly good Christmas and make the most of it!

Leading "Buzz Marketer" shows how NOT to do it

The other day, I received a request from a well-known "buzz marketer" (who shall remain nameless) to plug an organisation (which shall also remain nameless) on Blog Friends and/or on my personal blog. However, I politely declined. The organisation sounds like it's doing great and philanthropic things, but I'm not personally involved or engaged with it. And as all good bloggers know, blogging (and Blog Friends) is, at heart, about being transparent about one's personal passions.

The difficulty that this reknowned consultant seems to be experiencing is that of making clear distinction between (a) being paid for expressing his opinions in the context of an explicit, contracted mandate and (b) informal chats over coffee that touch on his subject of expertise, but where the value exchange actually goes both ways. He knows that he "knows it all", so his voice is surely the only one worth listening to. (Naturally, he will carefully explain to his anyone who will listen that marketing is a conversation. ; )

To get to the point, I believe the above phenomenon may explain this excerpt from Mr Buzz Marketer's part of my exchange with him:



Readers, please excuse his profanity, but poisonous boils are best lanced. This is the season of goodwill, and I bless this poor fellow and everyone else suffering with negativity.

UPDATE: I would like to point out that I am not referring in this post to my good friend James Cherkoff of Collaborate Marketing and Modern Marketing blog. By contrast to my correspondent quoted above, James doesn't just talk about respectful and authentic relationships but also engages in them online and offline.

A long overdue apology

Back in the spring, I made much of my plan to co-author a grand series of posts on Startups and Identity, and indeed published the first few posts with my stalwart collaborator Nic Brisbourne. However, the sheer intensity of focus and effort required by my startup company i-together has fatally distracted me from this blog in general and the post series in particular. I kept hoping I'd find the time and brain space to get back to the series, but things are just getting busier (and more exciting!) at i-together.

So—I admit defeat.

My sincere apologies to Nic, my other prospective co-authors and you, my readers if you were looking forward to the rest of the Startups and Identity series.

Hopefully the New Year will bring me some new weaverluke-blogging mojo, but I think it's time to lay to rest that post series.