The New York Times has published a really cool interactive census map up on its site. It has a number of different ways to sort and visualize the data including population change, population density, various demographics, housing, etc.  It also gives you an opportunity to view all data by state and zoom in on your own zip code.  It’s a very nice and simple tool.

One of these spots is a series called One in 8 Million. It’s some fantastic story telling.  Essentially the series uses audio and photographs to peer into the life of ordinary New Yorkers. With titles like The Walker, The Rookie Detective, and The Bar Fighter each story offers something new and different.

As newspapers focus on profit and forget their mission, the Times does a great job of leveraging the web as a supplement of it’s daily print edition. It adds value instead of giving the store away for free.

Interestingly, the app is not intended to serve as a digital form of the magazine, but as a new way for consumers to engage with the brand. Given Gourmet’s dedicated following and the widespread disappointment with the magazine’s cancellation, repackaging the magazine in the form of an app appears to be a brilliant move. Not only will the app reintroduce a trusted brand in an entirely new way, it will fill the void for dedicated readers who have yet to find a satisfactory substitute. In addition, the app well help the brand reach a younger, tech-savvy audience. The trick will be keeping the content fresh enough to attract new readers and familiar enough to satisfy older fans. With Gourmet’s culinary legendary expertise and reputation, balancing old tastes with new textures should be as easy as cooking “Easy Seafood Paella“.

I gave up reading books that can be found in the business/advertising/marketing section of the bookstore a while back. Most of the books you find in that section should have never been written in the first place: authors rehashing their previous work, self-help for the cubicle crowd, and whatever flavor of behavioral psychology is cool this month. I also posit that the original, interesting books in this section are likely to be rambling, 300 page tomes that would work better as 8 page articles in the New Yorker.

So, with few exceptions, the New York Times Business Bestseller List is dead to me. One of those exceptions is Rework, from the founders of 37signals (and the masterminds behind the best blog in the world, signal vs. noise).

Rework is essentially a collection of a hundred or so brief essays on how they do business. Anyone who has read their blog knows that they are feisty, irreverent, critical, and, in the end, brutally honest and usually right. The essays are no different. From advice on how to nurture office culture, to their thoughts on the futility of meeting and conference calls, they lay it all out there for the reader to do with as they please.

I have a strong suspicion that anyone who read this book and tried to follow their lead word for word would fail – miserably. Taken with a level head and grain of salt, however, the book is filled with provocations that will change the way they go about their life at work.

Here is a brief PDF excerpt from the book. Enjoy.

What’s really interesting is how, with minimal instruction, so many people uploaded similar images.

As a researcher and a cyclist, I was doubly interested in this Slate article about the absence of fixed-gear, or fixie, bicycles in China. (For those of you not familiar with the hipster fixie trend, here’s a quick primer.) While the article is ostensibly about this one product in this one country, it makes a larger point about trends and cultural context.

What is “cool” and “trendy” to one audience can be “weird” and “useless” to another. And this is not just true when comparing Brooklyn and Beijing. In research, subtle differences in demography can have huge effects on the perceptions of a product. Considering the cultural context in which we operate is always key.

Since everyone else seems to be talking about this spot, I figured I’d throw my two cents in. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s simple…Tiger stares into camera. Tiger’s dead father provides the voiceover. Cameras flash. Simple.

Most of the comments I’m seeing are critical, to say the least. Take this New York Times article:

“Did you learn anything?” Earl Woods asks. A valuable question, and one that his son has attempted to answer in his no-questions news conference in February; his brief interviews with ESPN and the Golf Channel last month; and his pre-Masters news conference on Monday.

But the answer to the father’s question appears to be that serial philandering and addiction rehab can be positioned as a commodity — and that you can roll it out in phases leading to the Nike amendment to the 12 steps: a TV commercial.

Personally, I like the spot. It’s an apology, a glimpse into Tiger’s conscience, and a return to the spotlight all rolled into one. When I read the criticism, I have to wonder what people expected. Short of keeping one of their marquee endorsers on the bench, or cutting him loose altogether, this was the only thing Nike could do.

Nike frames him as the fallen hero. Anything else would have been an outrage.

Try it out, if you call 301-763-4636 you can hear bits on information such as how many Americans have dogs or cats, how many shelled peanuts we eat each year, a 152 year old patent for pencil erasers, etc.

The Times article has some of the scripts and recordings for those of you who don’t want to call and have to ask to be put on hold (or you an call the line dedicated to playing the messages without prompts or talking to people (301) 763 2222).

In the rush to go to market with new line extensions and ads and products, there are a few lessons that companies could learn from the idea of Crop Mobs: simplicity, social interaction, providing value, etc. Offer your consumers value and give them a seat at the table.

Check out a Flickr gallery of the Crob Mob here.

Both are interesting examples of non-traditional story telling.

An article from yesterday’s paper says that couples may be experiencing more discord over how environmental to be in their homes. Everything from bathing and grooming habits to eating out are fair game. What’s dangerous for many brands that may attempt to go green is finding the balance of how far to go. The issue has become more than functional and carries strong moral undertones for some consumers. The biggest lessons for brands? They might include:

• Be true to yourself:  don’t expect that moving away from traditional brand identities will work or convince consumers that previously didn’t like your products to convert
• Be true to your intent: believe in the changes you’re making. it’s better to make small changes and realize progress across the entire organization than fix one area while ignoring others.

Remember, as consumers become more vigilant at home and amongst their friends, they’ll see through one shot line extensions designed solely to capture market share.