Diplomacy in the new millennium’s world of any, where anyone, anywhere can make monumental impact anytime:

Instead of politicians and diplomats, the US government sends Ashton Kutcher to Russia to spark cooperation against corruption and human traficking.

Who’s Ashton Kutcher? Aside from his career as an actor, producer, media entrepreneur and Demi toy boy, he’s the world’s no. 1 tweeter, with the greatest number of twitter followers in the world. Anyone, anywhere can communicate with Ashton (who even inspired a Siberian guy to put a large tattoo of his face on his arm).

Ashton’s job? Reach out to and activate today’s decision makers and people of power – Generation Boss. Political hot-shot pow-wows are out in today’s politics – YOU are in. YOU are the one who can make monumental changes and stop corruption and trafficking, and Ashton’s there to get you moving.

The good people at Tufts University (Massachusetts, USA) are the first to truly realize that we now live in the world of any, where anyone can be anything, and where what’s interesting is not what you have already done, but what you will do in the future.

Therefore, they decided to focus less on CV:s and grades in their admissions this year, and more on assessing applicants’ future potentials.

And of course, what future potential to assess is not best decided by the university itself, but by the good people of Generation Boss.

Thus, applicants were invited to post their own videos on youtube, displaying whatever potential they wished. Not only did the university get to learn about great potentials that they would never otherwise be aware of, they also got the help from hundreds of thousands of judges in the form of people viewing and commenting on all the youtube applications.

I’m pretty sure that the Tufts class of 2014 will be better equipped leaders of the future than any other graduating class, anywhere else.

I’ve written previously about how Sheraton targets smart phone users with WLAN access in their suites, as a survey revealed that 35 percent would rather bring their phone than their spouse through the bedroom door.

Now, a recent UK study goes all the way to bed – finding that 40 percent of men between 18-44 rather log on (with 34 million google hits to “online dating”, who can blame them?) than get it on with their partner in the sack. And a whopping 80 percent say that they could absolutely not survive without logging on everyday (one in four start their day in bed checking their email).

But what about the women? More or less connected? What do you smart folks think?

Recently, the Museum of Contemporay Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles celebrated their 30th anniversary in big style, with Francesco Vezzoli’s performance-as-art “Ballets Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again)”, featuring Lady Gaga and the Bolshoi Ballet, all dressed in Prada.

How was this high-fashion, fine art, performance conceptualized for posterity? Not as a recording of a past event, but in the form of a trailer, of course. In the Expectations society, nothing’s more fashionable and intriguing than a trailer.

Read all about it and watch the trailer produced by my good friend Christian Larson and Jonas Åkerlund here.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might remember an old post where I suggested that we will never see a new Shakespeare, as there is no time for classics to evolve in the warp consumption we engage in, with facenovels, minibooks, etc.

I just stumbled on a new reason: You don’t have to be Shakespeare to write a Shakespeare novel anymore!

Just look at Germany’s most successful novelist right now, 17-year old Helene Hegemann. Her debut novel “Axolotl Roadkill” tops the bestseller lists and is the finalist for one of the country’s most prestigious literary awards.

It’s amazing that such a young, debutant, writer can produce such a mature piece of literature. Well, it turns out she hasn’t really. She’s added the words (letter for letter running up to entire full pages) from other authors’ books to her story.

Being accused of plagiarism, Hegemann bluntly replies that she’s just sampled some inspirations. Just like music artists do. Just like in music, everything’s basically already been written, all that’s left to do is to mix it up in new ways.

You may never be able to break new ground like Shakespeare, because reader warp their consumption, and because Shakespeare and centuries of authors after him have already written everything there is to write. But you can still write a Shakespeare novel, just sample him and make your own remix book! Maybe it will earn you a top spot in the bestseller list and a prestigious literature award.

It worked for Helene Hegemann. News about the sampling propelled book sales even further (maybe because now everyone can be sure that it comprises top notch, classic, writing?) And just like in the movie industry, sales of the sampled books took off, too…

I promised myself not to, but now I just have to vent:

As you’re probably aware, I’m pretty deeply immersed in work on my next book. And it’s driving me crazy:

1. I can’t talk about it. So antinextopian…
2. It won’t be out until late this year or early in the next. And I’m so impatient.
3. I have to travel back and forth across the world (very world of any) and begin to lose sense of time and space
4. Not everyone that I have to meet in the project is as impatient as I am, making me even more so.

Thanks for listening…

Hey all,

It’s been a while since my last post. The other week, I hurried off to that great country in the West. Forgot my stuff and wasn’t able to log on here for a few days. Then, when I tried, the blog was gone! And when it showed up again, it wouldn’t let me in. Maybe in revenge for me not giving it enough attention for a few days?

Impatient as I am, I was running completely mad. And forgetful as I am, I forgot a few of the things I was so eager to write about, so I’ll have to get back on those.

If the blog will let me in again, that is…

‘Til tomorrow!

I meant to write this post yesterday. But I could not, as the earth stood still. There was no way I could log on to this blog, and I soon heard from people all over that chatrooms, fora, search engines and blogs were flooded.

What blacked out the internet and put the world to a halt? You know it, could not possibly have missed it. Less than 24 hours later, more than 5 million google hits refer to it, during which time it has of course been the global #1 online search:

The iPad.

Ending rumours dating back to last August, Steve Jobs went on stage on San Fransisco yesterday and announced that it will be released in March. Shorter (nextopian) demand curve than the iPhone, which ranged from January til the end of June. But more active rumour management before the stage appearance, from last August til now, end of January.

The question, now: Will the iPad top 70 million google hits before the release, and beat the 100% company value increase?

I’ve discussed Saab and their (non-)future several times here in the last year, so, of course, I must comment on the latest news, like so many others.

So before Christmas, I wrote that Saab’s demise is a true sign that we’ve entered the new millennium, where old elephant institutions must not live on forever. And still, Saab, is now resurrected. As a native Swede, I am really happy for all the people involved with the company, and am happy that the national icon lives on.

As a business professor, I am not convinced that this will keep Saab alive for very long. What will a small buyer like Spyker do for the brand? Enhance its prestige? That’s not an easy task, which Saab’s previous efforts have shown. Increase volumes? A muscular giant like GM did not manage, one wonders whether a small actor like Spyker would be better equipped? What will Saab do for Spyker? Increase its mass appeal? If Saab had mass appeal, it would not have died and been resurrected in the first place.

However, I am sure that the death and resurrection of Saab has boosted people’s opinions of and attitudes toward the company (this mirrors a research project we’ve worked on about reactance – when companies are discontinued or merged, people react by enhancing their evaluations of what is about to be lost). But how long will that last?

Will people still see a prosperous future for Saab at the end of this year, a future that is nextopian enough to boost sales now? after all, in our beautiful Expectations society, what matters is not that it is alive now, what matters is what people expect of it in the future.

What do you smart people think?

The resources devoted to the police force have been debated for, well, as long as the police has existed. There never seems to be enough time and manpower to keep crime abay and citizens safe.

But that was the yestermillennium. In the new millennium, resources need not be an issue. Time should be no problem, when you can search the entire world within microseconds and just a click of the mouse, and manpower is in abundande, when anyone, anywhere, can do police work.

In the yestermillennium, only cops had access to mug shots to help identify criminals. In the world of any, anyone can just peruse facebook to find fresh pictures and whereabouts of suspects. In the yestermillennium, only the police could book criminals, now anyone can facebook offenders.

Just ask UK party girl Jennifer Wilson, who got smashed in the face with a beer glass at a club by a girl she’d never seen before. She went to the police, who had no mug shot and did not have enough resources to talk to witnesses and conduct a search for the perpetrator. Jennifer realized that the girl had to know someone who, in turn, knew someone in Jennifer’s party gang, as they were at the same place at the same time. So, she chose one of her party friends, perused the pictures of  her facebook friends, recognized one from the club, perused that girl’s facebook friends, and – presto! – there was the perp.

Jennifer facebooked her, giving the police her identity and address. However, the police did not find the perp at her home and returned to Jennifer with news that they could make no arrest. So, Jennifer called on facebook once again, found out where the perp was right now (good ol’ status update) and informed the police, who finally booked her.