21st century communications and the advent of Web 2.0 have redefined the way we communicate. The social media has thrown down the gauntlet for dialogue and blogs have evolved into one of the most practical and influential ways of communicating. For the world “blog” a search engine flushes out 1,440,000,000 references in just 0.08 seconds. What could be a better illustration of the way communication has changed?
Two monologues do not make a dialogue.
-Jeff Daly, American actor, writer and improviser |
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 Breakdown of US Newspapers The latest article in the German newspaper “Spiegel” gave a good insight into what the future might look like for the US newspaper market. The crisis for printed daily newspapers is rising as circulation and paid adverts are repidly decreasing. On the other hand, accessing information online is booming and Internet newsrooms are putting printed newspapers out of business.  Trend watch: Escalator spinning Read more Towards an ... eco-ionic Consumer!I just found an interesting headline: FROM ECO-UGLY TO ECO-CHIC TO ECO-IONIC.
These are sentences we might want to share when asked about the most updated eco-trends!
Please find here below all the necessary details: ECO-UGLY = over-priced, low-performance, unsavory yet eco-friendly versions of the ‘real thing’ ECO-CHIC= eco-friendly stuff that actually looks as nice and cool as the less sustainable originals - Ecological mobility
What LOHAS express in their lifestyle and selective purchasing power, becomes a future driving wind for strong business – and it blows straight towards an ecological mobility. I remember well when ten years ago the political party Die Grünen joined with ecologists in Germany to call for a fuel price to the equivalent of € 2.50 to make consumers think more about the topic of mobility. There was a huge outcry about this but it did not really develop a new ecological awareness. Why would that have been possible? The price was fine – at that time.  LOHAS - The New HedonistsJust combine the values of the Green Revolution with those of the new hedonists and you are in the middle of the world of the LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability). For years the ecological lifestyle was one of reluctance, low consumption and frugality. But know a new lifestyle is arising within almost all social layers: the lifestyle of health and sustainability. Those people want to know exactly what's in the products. They are extremely aware that goods they are buying are healthy, produced in a socially responsible way and take care ot the environment. But they are good consumers, some of very high incomes and they are hedonists enjoying life.  Blogs in politicsIt is quite interesting to see how blogs in politics are developing. While in Germany the videoblog of Chancellor Angela Merkel is special and therefore praised in the media, in America it is already part of the basic PR strategy to have your own political blog as well as a profile on MySpace or Facebook and videos on YouTube. Barack Obama is probably the political presidential candidate who makes the best use of these new media possibilities.  A great story, reloaded!In this week’s issue of Business Week , writers Stephen Baker and Heather Green updated their famous story about blogs. Their first article , written in 2005, is archived on the BW Website and is still attracting a huge amount of readers and blog links. So, what did the writers do? Update the old beast, naturally.
 Desk for rentThree years ago, Brad Neuberg, a software programmer in San Francisco, decided that working alone in his house was missing something important: the social dimension. Longing for finding a way to mantain independence but having also a community of colleagues to have a coffee with now and then, he hit upon a simple solution: he got a few friends together to share a rental space, as well as printers, fax machines, and wireless Internet, and—like a good start-up founder—branded his creation coworking.  Brave New Word of PR and the need to specialiseThe Public Relations and Communication market seems to have reached a peak in recent years. The professionalization of the sector and those who work within it is already a fact. It is now time to specialise to be able to face the challenges of a whole new PR environment.
- A Language to transform communications
Do you want to learn a new language that will change the way you work in the future? No, it's not Chinese and I don't speak about Russian either. I'm speaking about XBRL - or the language, in which your company most likely will have to report to the financial community and the regulator.
Read more  In a world upside downPortuguese Government fines a small town council € 7000 for using recycled oils to move dust cart. National government justifies it, arguing that by using recycled oils the town council was able to escape state tax laws applied to regular fuel and consequently has damaged Portuguese state finances.  Web 2.0 goes print - usage of qr codes in newspapers
There is a hidden digital world beyond the Real Life. How you enter it? Via qr codes, so called "quick response" codes. All you need is the software, a mobile phone with camera and the source, like for example, a newspaper.  The Importance of ConfidenceIf there is one word that has been used more often around the world in recent months – apart from ‘credit’ and ‘crunch’ - it is probably the word confidence. Everyone understands that the current global economic woes are very real but the question on everyone’s lips is, firstly, how severe are they? And, secondly how much is the situation being made worse by a growing lack of confidence? 
 7 C´s instead of 7 capital sinsTrend Scouts sometimes have quite a job to do it! They are expected to always discover new things and new ideas and support them with the relevant explanations. That's a lot of pressure that sometimes results in quite common explanations. This is exactly what happened to the UK Trend researcher and journalist Charles Leadbeater with his latest book “Welcome To We-Think”. Its about creative chaos and about how to find innovations within bigger corporations. According to Leadbeater, firms have to change their structure and their internal organisation. Innovation, he says, requires the following 7 Cs. - Females spend more time online than male counterparts
We have to change our view on who's the online community. The majority of the online community in future will be women and not younger than 18! Robert Andrews from paidContent:UK reports, that according to eMarketer´s latest report UK Female online audience will be dominant by 2012! Today UK females between 25 and 49 already spend more time online than their male counterparts. 
see illu in original size here Read more - One million Portuguese do their shopping on the net
The Portuguese Electronic Commerce Association data says that 10% of the Portuguese consumers and 25% of Portuguese firms do their shopping regularly on the Net. This information comes from a study developed by the IDC in partnership with Netsonda.  It's the economy, singles!Singles: in the United States they make up 25% of the population, in the UK 22%, 14% of the French are so-called Jimes (jeune, jolies mais seules), and the last CENSIS research institute report says that in Italy they reached 11% of the population. Singles are now an important demographic group of people who by choice or fate live alone. It’s an impressive and interesting figure, if you consider the importance of family as a social institution in Italy. - Attention: Greenwashed!
green*wash: (n) Disinformation disseminated by an organisation so as to present an environmentally responsible public image. Derivatives greenwashing (n). Origin from green on the pattern of whitewash. The Tenth Edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary 
Now, in the Web 2.0 era, it is not enough to appear to have a good CSR/enviromental policy. Companies now have to really mean it. Or they quickly get exposed on the internet. One of the most active and powerful organisations watching out is CorpWatch. Since 1996 the US based CorpWatch investigates and exposes, as they say, corporate violations of human rights, environmental crimes, fraud and corruption around the world:” We work to foster global justice, independent media activism and democratic control over corporations” (CorpWatch Vision Mission Statement). Have a look! One of your clients may show up! - What would Rudolf say today?
In the context of the discussions about emission-free technologies of the future - let´s quote visionary Rudolf Diesel on his 150th birthday: "The use of plant oil as fuel may seem insignificant today. But such products can in time become just as important as kerosene and these coal-tar-products of today." (Rudolf Diesel, 1912) 
- Loans 2.0
On the 14th November 2007 a new online trend arrived in Italy: the peer-to-peer loan, also known as social lending. Two platforms - Zopa and Boober - were launched on the same day stemming from successful experiences in the Netherlands and the U.K. respectively. The idea is simple and attractive: introducing people who need money to people who want to lend some - cutting out the middlemen like banks and mortgage companies. Read more  Is Digital Media Fuelling Brand Narcissism? Last night at Chinwag’s March gathering, the London digerati debated the merits of evolving advertising platforms. Amongst speculation of how disruptive new high-definition, mobile and online platforms could be was the underlying question – does the evolution of communications channels hold any value if they fuel the narcissism of brands but fail to establish meaningful relationship with consumers? - Will an economic downturn affect business commitment to CSR?
As the US market faces challenges following the sub-prime fall out, the effect is slowly but surely reverberating across Europe and that means businesses are looking to tighten their belts. In particular CSR activities will be interrogated to look at how it tangibly benefits their business. What we may see is the corporate world split into two camps, the believers and the non-believers. - Unconferencing the conference: Barcamps
Internationally well-known, but now popping up in Germany are so-called "barcamps" - the standard type of conference of the Web 2.0 community. Unlike nornal conferences, a group of people decide together who should hold a speech. This type of meeting is often called an "unconference" and that marks the democratic nature of barcamps. Attendees either pay themselves or, if they are lucky, the unconference is sponsored... Read more  Careless talk costs lives!“Careless talk costs lives!” was one of the most famous public information messages put out by the British Government during the Second World War. So much so that it has entered in to the country’s folk lore. People still refer to it today as my 13 year old son reminded me by quoting it ironically at me the other day as I was passing on a juicy bit of gossip about a certain football player. - Communicating for Jack Welch
Don’t get me wrong: There isn’t a better job for me than being a consultant at Trimedia. OK, sometimes, I fancy being Tyler Brûlé’s sidekick at Monocle, one of my favorite on-/offline publications. Or maybe – at these times - being the Corporate Communications Officer at UBS would also be quite a challenge. Then I read about Bill Lane. And that guy makes me jealous…
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The Webinar
BloggersWe recognise the enormous benefits of keeping abreast with trends in modern communication and our trend reporters transform their findings into a dialogue with you - via our own blog.
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