Being Mark Cohen

Mashable today write about an open standard proposed by the Big G, and other social networks losing ground to Facebook. It’s a bold move which, when you think about it, costs them nothing and is really not that bold Other than that I’m truly impressed though.

Yet another proposed interopability standard. Woohoo. Now we can get Kamikaze Ninja Warrior Guerilla Vampire apps that also run on LinkedIn. One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

This year quite a few of us at work have signed up for Movember. It’s a fun (if not itchy) way to raise awareness and funds for two great causes. So little is done for social awareness of men’s health issues, that the serious side is worth the attention. So if you care about men’s health or want to see whether I end up looking more like a Russian mobster or a balding dude with a patchy Mo, read on… If I get sponsored I’l post photos to my blog and / or flickr

The story:

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I am growing a Mo to try raise some funds and awareness because I’m passionate about men’s health and the fight against male depression and prostate cancer. Why…

• Depression affects 1 in 6 men…Most don’t seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
• Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer – equivalent to the number of women who die from breast cancer annually.
• Men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy of males is 5 years less than females.

To sponsor my Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/au/donate, enter my registration number which is 100920 and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor by cheque made payable to the “Movember Foundation” clearly marking the donation as being for his Registration Number: 100920. Please mail cheques to: PO Box 292, Prahran VIC 3181. All donations over $2 are tax deductible.

The money raised by Movember is donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue – the national depression initiative which will use the funds to create awareness, fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and male depression.

Thanks for your support

Mark

More info is available at www.movember.com.

Facebook is an interesting phenomenon.  If you think about it, it is probably the "in your face" push-nature of Facebook that drives the app’s success.  You don’t say no to the "spam" because the "spam is being sent to you by your friends.  So the platform is driven by its critical mass of people telling each other "check ot this new widget that tells you how likely you are to crap out a winning lottery ticket compared to five of your mates". Click click click.  Now send it to ten of your mates who haven’t received it yet.  It’s like Facebook is the web 2.0 equivalent of those dumb-ass chain letters that tell you your arm will fall off unless you forward them to your whole address book.

I got an invite to another social network today, and it’s the first time I haven’t even bothered looking at the site.  It’s some LinkedIn clone based on the cheezy email that came with the invite.  The reason I deleted it is that I’m at the point where chekcing in on the different sites I read has become a chore.  It’s one more thing I have to do.  Empty the trash, feed the fish, clean the kitchen, fold the laundry, clear the junk mail and go click on all the links so my mates don’t think I don’t like them.  It’s all just entertainment until the social networks step out into the real world and deliver some tangible benefit.  and so far the only one that has actually done that for me is LinkedIn.

A similar thing happened to me with my rss feeds.  I subscribed to more and more and more feeds, until I got to the point of not being able to clear my feeds in a night.  Now I hardly ever subscribe to a feed unless the site has truly impressed me.  I get more of my news from the aggregators and watch techmeme for a 100,000 foot picture of what’s going on.  something similar needs to emerge in the social networking space to realign the cost with the benefit.

I’ve been playing around with photography on and off for years.  At the beginning of the year I did a course called Camera Craft 2, at the Australian Centre for Photography in Paddington.  They run a series of great courses through their workshop.  I’m doing Camera Craft 3 now, which is basically a more advanced course for people who have done the other courses and still don’t know what area of photography they want to pursue

Last week’s assignment was "Still life".  I started off hating it but had a lot of fun in the end.  These are my favourite photos from my "still life" assignment

Sneaking off every Thursday night for a few hours to be taught by an expert, and hanging out with other enthusiasts is great.  It’s a real diversion from my day job, and I recommend an immersive distraction to anyone. 

I went to Ikea this weekend, and bought a stack of frames, as I’m planning on hanging a series of my own photos in whichever corner of the house I am allowed   Digital photography is great, but it’s ten times better when you get your favourite prints in a big size.

Seth just pointed me in the direction of an article on the NZ herald “BBC buys Lonely Planet to expand online content“. Nice one for the BBC, even better for the Lonely Planet crew. A hundred million pound snack for the British monster, and one of the best travel brands they could own – along with established and respected content. Nice move.

I found an interesting “test” related to branding / marketing this evening, via the Never Eat Alone blog. It’s called “Whats Your BQ?” (brand quotient) and relates to a book of the same name, by Sandra Sellani. Ms Sellani’s homepage features her two golden rules of branding:

Rule #1: Anyone who sells commodities must have a branding strategy to survive
Rule #2: Everyone sells commodities

I love the truth of what she says, and the “brand quotient” test is a real eye-opener.