We must Become a ”Tomorrow Country” says Bill Clinton

Speaking to a large crowd of sales managers and some CEOs in San Francisco last week at the Dreamforce 2010 Convention, former President Bill Clinton said “We live in a world where the way people get information is filtered through yesterday's categories." In other words, we’re making decisions about the future viewed through the lens of the past.

"We are fairly young as a country but our governmental and economic systems are fairly old," Clinton pointed out. "When you get long in the tooth, the institutions that made you great become more interested in preserving their power than doing what they should . . . being innovative."

He used as an example the fact that while the U.S. once held the lead in solar energy, we let the opportunity slip away, and the Chinese and the Germans are now the ones who will likely own it. Clinton said that unless things change, we are on a path to becoming a country in decline.

His solution? America ought to become a “tomorrow country.” We need to adapt to the future. We need to make our plans for the way the world will be five years from now, not the way it was five years ago.

This mindset has led to the extreme partisanship currently impeding our government. "I would like to break out of the left-right debate," Clinton stated. "I'd like to talk about the future."

As a new year quickly approaches, take some time to both personally and professionally think about you and your company's future.  Will you be an innovator and a person/company of tomorrow or yesterday?

Are “Angry Birds” the New Buzz?

If you’ve been wondering when the on-line gaming craze is going to cross over to smart phones  and which game will move from there to dominate the cyber landscape, well, the New York Times thinks they have the answer. In their Saturday edition a front page article describes how the “Angry Birds,” born in Finland, have taken over.

Produced for about a hundred thousand dollars by Rovio, a small Finnish gaming company, it portrays the revenge a flock of really mad red birds take on some greedy pigs who have stolen their eggs. Despite (or maybe because of) the simplicity of the idea, it has been downloaded over 50 million times this past year, and is Apple iPhones best-selling app.  At $.99 per unit, it has generated over 7 million in income.

Imitators have noted its simplicity and addictive nature. It is a game that you might play on the checkout line at the grocery store, or waiting on a delayed flight. It has hada minimal advertising budget and has succeeded by generating that ephemeral quality: “buzz”.

The Times quotes Jesse Schell, a professor at Carnegie Mellon, who studies game design and entertainment technology. “Rovio made a smart choice in making the birds angry. You can smash them into things and it’s O.K.,” he said. “Imagine if they said were cute little birds. It might be kind of funny on some level, but most people would probably be a little repulsed.”

To learn more about “Angry Birds”  Click Here to go to the Rovio web site.

Google Launches new Online Bookstore

c
According to the Boston Globe, there’s a new online bookstore with a familiar name, available to us, where we can now get e-books, in addition to Amazon.com.

This may also a boon to independent bookstores, which the article says will now be able to order online which they couldn’t do from Amazon.com.

Google books will be available through an app. from any electronic device that is online. The only device that is not supported is the Kindle, which is technology
totally owned by Amazon but if you possess an iPad, an iMAç, an iPhone, or for that matter, any “Smartphone,” you’re good to go, with access to over three million titles!

It is further proof of the age we live in, in which our online terminals have access to literally the whole world.c

Biden Unveils new Homeowners Energy Efficiency Campaign

By Richard Earle
Regis Affiliate

We’d like to thank our friends at SmartPower for tipping us off about this release. Last week Vice President Joe Biden announced a new energy efficiency program for homeowners who want to save money, energy, and create jobs for contractors. It’s a three-step program called Recovery through Retrofit.

The program will provide contractors with the with the software necessary to  show  people how they can save money,  and give people access to refinancing so they can easily afford it.  It also sets priorities for the contractors’ work.

“Most consumers do not have access to straightforward and reliable information about their home’s energy use,” said a White House release. “Without this information, homeowners are less likely to invest in home energy upgrades.”

“The Home Energy Score will help make energy efficiency easy and accessible to America’s families by providing them with straightforward and reliable information about their homes’ energy performance and specific, cost-effective energy efficiency improvements that will save them money on their monthly energy bills,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu.