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john ratcliffe-lee

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  • March 17, 02:15 PM

    Good Decisions, Bad Behavior

    Every incentive disincentivizes another behavior.

    side effects from trying to turn everything into a game or buying something “green.”

  • March 17, 10:37 AM

    The Gumball 3000

    adamwritesgood:

    The Gumball 3000, the cross-country car race for rich people with fast cars, has a YouTube page.

    hey, i like fast cars.

  • March 16, 11:12 AM
    “If you create (or market) should you be chasing the people who click and leave? Or is it like trying to turn a cheetah into a house pet? Is manipulating the high-voltage attention stream of millions of caffeinated web surfers a viable long-term strategy?”

    Seth’s Blog: Driveby culture and the endless search for wow (via fred-wilson)

    NO.  IT IS NOT.  PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

  • March 15, 09:43 PM

    saratara:

    Ides of March

    too formal.

  • March 14, 12:59 AM

    tonight was like this.

    via

  • March 13, 10:35 PM

    the curving hip, the soothing shade: Almonds

    just a really good photo.

  • March 13, 10:26 PM

    Alex Ratcliffe-Lee: Synesthesia

    Synesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae or synaesthesiae)—from the Ancient Greek σύν (syn), “together,” and αἴσθησις (aisthēsis), “sensation“—is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to…

    file under things you didn’t know about your brother.

  • March 13, 11:51 AM
    “The nearest kind of association is not mere perceptual cognition, but, rather, a handling, using, and taking care of things which has its own kind of ‘knowledge.’”
    Martin Heidegger (via bobulate)
  • March 12, 11:52 AM

    The case for context

    These terms I’ve been using – “intellectual framework,” “systemic information,” etc. – this is what I mean when I say “context.” I’ve pitched you on the consumer benefits of context, but information creators are also slowly beginning to come around to the long-term ROI of delivering context as well, for several reasons. For one thing, our information becomes much more valuable and much more desirable to you as your framework for understanding it becomes better. Jay Rosen has astutely noted the uptick in attention to financial crisis stories after This American Life’s Giant Pool of Money episode laid out the context of the crisis. For another thing, the success of Wikipedia and the enduring popularity of items like “The Ultimate Guide to Everything You Need to Know About Social Media” has taught us there’s a real market for context. There are also significant advertising benefits to having more sophisticated structures for information than “latest updates.” We could dwell on the “why” for a long time.

    if you’re in austin - put down your phone, stop stalking that girl you saw at the bar and go to matt’s panel.

  • March 07, 08:32 AM
    “I feel like there’s this tension that goes on in business and especially in marketing, this conceit that we can take humans—you know, messy, irrational, organic—and somehow cut them open and figure out the binary, rational, predictable, money-making algorithms that determine what they do. You see all this harnessing of science, you know, whether it’s neuro-this or lie detector-that or psychotherapy-this that gets used in the service of, not helping people, but helping marketers crack the nut of what people want, where is the desire center in the brain. You know, that we can learn things about people in a way that is “true”—that is predictable and true, and will determine consumption patterns. I find the idea that we should be able to do that just fascinating, because that’s not the world of people that we live in as people, so why as marketers or designers or producers do we think that we should turn people into things that they really aren’t?”

    Steve Portigal, from a fascinating discussion transposed here. (via chrbutler) (via slantback)

    left, without comment, while i - quite frankly - think about it.

  • March 05, 04:48 PM

    Top 10 Best Roadtripping Songs

    bbook:

    Looking forward to summer already… can’t ya tell?

    1. Sweet Emotion// Aerosmith
    2. Hotel California// The Eagles
    3. Love You Madly// Cake
    4. Where Nobody Knows// Kings of Leon
    5. Young Folks// Peter Bjorn & John 
    6. Run Around// Blues Traveler 
    7. Ramble On// Led Zeppelin 
    8. China Girl// David Bowie
    9. Love and Memories// OAR
    10. Slow Ride// Foghat

    today was that day people in the tri-state started to really hope that warm weather is relatively close.  you could just tell by people’s attitudes, the fact that it was friday and the fact that they decided to wear vests instead of jackets even when it was snowing (i.e. me).

    btw, hell yes to slow ride!

  • March 04, 01:51 PM

    The Newsonomics of time-on-site

    $3.42 vs 10 cents. The Times is monetizing its time on site 34 times better than Facebook.

    definitely click-through to this.  social networks are blowing news sites out of the water in terms of time spent on site but, it seems, aren’t doing a fantastic job monetizing it.

  • March 04, 09:49 AM

    Human-flesh Search Engines in China

    Human-flesh search engines - renrou sousuo yinqing - have become a Chinese phenomenon: they are a form of online vigilante justice in which Internet users hunt down and punish people who have attracted their wrath. The goal is to get the targets of a search fired from their jobs, shamed in front of their neighbors, run out of town. It’s crowd-sourced detective work, pursued online with offline results.
  • March 03, 03:00 PM

    Steampunk Waterslide: 1904 | Shorpy Historic Photo Archive

    regardless of how you feel about steampunk, this looks fun.  and, i could use some fun.

  • March 02, 03:12 PM
    “Regardless, Pollan’s book brought up many questions and thoughts. He speaks of the age of Nutritionism, a time period we are currently experiencing where reductionist science has taken food and divided it up into macro and micro-nutrients (e.g. Carbs, proteins, fats being macro and vitamins and minerals representing the micro) in order to figure out how certain things work. This boom in Nutritionism has perhaps complicated things more than not. I’m not putting down reductionist science but in this case it tends to make a bigger problem rather than a smaller one. What the studies that they do can’t measure is how different nutrients might react along with others. Different combination’s produce different results. We all know too much sugar isn’t a good thing and that it spikes insulin, but if eaten with or after eating fat, the absorption process is slowed. The division of all of these nutrients has produced “food” products that advertise a certain health claim. “Nutritionism is, in a sense, the official ideology of the Western diet” (Pollan 11). Our food has become divided and industrialized in order to fit and supposedly match the fast track of “progress” that we think we are on.”

    Alex Ratcliffe-Lee: In Defense of Food

    when was the last time you saw proper MLA citation in a blog post?  my fam is winning at the bloggin’ this week.

  • March 02, 09:48 AM

    sumrtime:

    This too shall pass. - Ok Go

    so, so good.  reminded me of the breakfast scene in chitty chitty bang bang.

  • March 01, 09:49 PM

    War Grave (via Aerial Photography)

    great find by katie.

  • March 01, 09:43 PM

    Enhanced Salsa

    But aside from making me really hungry, the video also made me think of how certain media is presented to allow for an experience, to make the technology behind it disappear. That oh-so-smooth transition from “video on a video hosting website” to “Salsa Show!” was clutch to making me view this as more than a 40-second clip about a vegetable I really couldn’t care less about and something I wanted to click away from. Movie theaters are certainly designed to be invisible, and I think physical books are as well, providing only the turn of a page as the sole interruption between the written word and the reader’s imagination. Even then, that interruption is the mark of a good book: a “page-turner.” With the boom of electronic reading devices, it’s important to keep this feature in mind; which device will allow you to have an experience with a book, to make you want that salsa and nothing else, and then give it to you?

    my sister is a better blogger than i am.

  • March 01, 04:02 PM

    Danny Kahneman Talks Memory at TED

    Nobel-winning econo-psychologist talks experiences vs. memory at TED 2010

    the average human present?  3 seconds.

  • February 26, 06:33 PM

    Dubai's 2 Million Gallon Shark Tank Is Leaking

    So how long do you think it’s going to be until they can’t afford to keep up all this ridiculous shit they’ve built and the entire thing turns into a post-apocalyptic wasteland with lawless bandits scavenging for all of the luxury items no one is around to pay for? Should be exciting!

  • February 26, 12:44 PM

    soxiam:

    wu-tang crossing the delaware ain’t nothing ta fuck wit’

    my version of a snow day.

  • February 25, 11:50 AM

    SXSW Guidelines For Meeting Me - 1938 Media

    so, i’ve never been to sxsw.  i’m sure if i really wanted to go - i could find a reason to get down there.  maybe b/c the opportunity hasn’t smacked me in the face, i’m a bit of a cynic.  so much noise that any real biz opportunity is probably muted.

    anyway, loren’s being both funny and pretty practical here.  i’d much rather have a unique relationship with someone than try to fly to texas and sandblast a bunch of people just like me with stuff that might not matter.

  • February 25, 12:08 AM

    missmeyer:

    This is dope, kids. “How Many Billboards? Art In Stead proposes that art periodically displace advertisement in the urban environment [Los Angeles].” Basically, this is one of those ideas that you’ll wish you woulda thought of first. Learn more here.

    love stuff like this. so much so that we did the same thing for nj at my old gig.

  • February 24, 11:58 PM

    Letterheady: Interesting Letterhead Designs

    superamit:

    This is a blog deserving of your love, biz+design fans.

    tasty.

  • February 22, 08:55 PM

    Walking in the woods makes you smarter

    bobulate:

    Seth Fischer on giving your brain a needed break, or “attention restorative theory:”

    When you go for a walk in, say, the woods, you’re using a more subtle “involuntary attention” when looking at things like sunsets or squirrels. When you’re in the city, you’re always avoiding that asshole bicyclist, stepping over that pile of human poo, or spending your brain power ignoring the Rottweiler barking at you in the window. Because your “direct attention” is always focused, your prefrontal cortex is always on overdrive, and you end up not being as good at things that you need “direct attention” for, like learning at school or solving problems you haven’t faced before or resolving conflict. In other words, if you don’t take some time to look at a sunset, your brain never gets a break, and that’s not good.

    Before you take a hike, see also: “The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting With Nature“ or the slightly less complex, “The Cognitive Benefits of Nature.”

    to everyone who asks why i don’t live in new york city, here is my proverbial middle finger/your answer.

  • February 22, 05:51 PM
    “I wonder what Proust would have made of our present-day locus of collective fantasy, the Internet. I’m guessing he would have seized on its wistful aspect, pointing out gently and with wry humor that much of what beguiles us is the act of reaching for what isn’t there.”
    Jennifer Egan
  • February 22, 12:02 AM

    Flavian Promo 01 (via mindscopeTV)

    so, this guy, lives downstairs from tooth.  absolutely awesome.

  • February 21, 11:57 PM
    “The deadly power of rushing about wherever I pleased had not been given me. I measured distances by the standard of man, man walking on his two feet, not by the internal combustion engine. I had not been allowed to deflower the very idea of distance; in return I possessed “infinite riches” in what would have been to motorists “a little room.” The truest and most horrible claim made for modern transport is that it “annihilates distance.” It does. It annihilates one of the most glorious gifts we have been given… A modern boy travels a hundred miles with less sense of liberation and pilgrimage and adventure than his grandfather got from traveling ten.”

    C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy. The idea that speed devalues space -and that such a devaluation impoverishes our experience of the world, deprives us of beauty and adventure- seems true to me, and easily demonstrated: think of the spaces of your childhood!

    As a child, you experience the shed in the backyard, the ditch near your house, tree in the park, the sandbox, the closet, the sofa-fort as wonders of imaginative space. They are worlds! When you revisit the worlds of your past, you at once think, “How small it is.” This is not solely because you’re larger; you are also faster, and your mind -restless, impatient, adult- cannot create in those confines any longer.

    Incidentally, art that restores the sense of space I had in childhood is often my favorite art; an excellent example is the work of Joshua Heineman. So is that of Nika States.

    Concerns about distance, beauty, and memory recur in Milan Kundera’s works as well; see, for example, his remarks about speed, memory, and forgetting, or the passage below, from Immortality:

    A highway differs from a path not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another. A highway has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A path is a tribute to space. Every stretch of path has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A high is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.
    Before paths disappeared from the landscape, they had disappeared from the human soul: man stopped wanting to walk, to walk on his own feet and enjoy it. What’s more, he no longer saw his own life as a path, but as a highway: a line that led from one point to another, from the rank of captain to the rank of general, from the role of wife to the role of widow. Time became a mere obstacle to life, an obstacle that had to be overcome by ever greater speed.
    Path and highway; these are also two different conceptions of beauty… In the world of highways, a beautiful landscape means: an island of beauty connected by a long line with other islands of beauty. In the world of paths, beauty is continuous and constantly changes; it tells us at every step: “Stop!”

    Both Lewis and Kundera ascribe a violent and self-effacing quality to the obsession with speed, with compressing the world into quanta to be parsed, itemized, counted, rocketed between; Lewis writes, “Of course if a man hates space and wants it to be annihilated, that is another matter. Why not creep into his coffin at once? There is little enough space there.”

    At the beginning: childhood, when the vacant lot next to your house is larger than any field you’ll ever see, any forest you’ll ever explore, a richer world than you’ll experience again: every tree’s bark captivating, every rock covering a menagerie of animals, every hole the lair of a monster. At the end: total compression, completely instantaneous travel throughout your world, the total collapse of reality into a pine box.

    Between them, one struggles to keep one’s world as large as possible, not to let it close in around one: one’s city, one’s house, one’s television, one’s mind. One must break routines, abandon highways, sit in sand and dirt, walk paths, find alleys with old boxes to make spaceships out of; or perhaps one can translate childhood play into the language of adulthood; one can figuratively push against, smear paint on, write on the walls, postponing the looming singularity by living as a child does: in the present moment.

    (via mills)

    Mills hit’s the spot on this one.  On some days these ideas worry me.  Will I be looking back on a culture that was so caught up on figuring out how to progress?  It’s true speed loves to eat up space, and that’s what makes it so appealing.  Watching dancers on stage move at ridiculous speeds while at the same time covering the whole stage in the process is extremely exciting.  It takes the idea and puts it in a different context.  You are in a theatre where the audience has already quantified the distance and space.  It’s was exciting because they were able to see how fast you can go from A to B.

    My impatience is just a reminder of how fast I want to move sometimes.  What for?  I wouldn’t mind making a sofa-fort again.

    (via tratlee)

  • February 21, 11:53 PM

    tratlee:

    Andrew showed me this one night.  the timing is pretty insane.  It reminded me how cool the process can be regardless of the outcome.  Each picture was finished only long enough for her to grab more sand.

    wow, again.

  • February 21, 11:11 AM

    I See You (via stopkatie)

    i’m not usually into excessive pet photos but katie has been doing a great job taking a photo of mister each day.

    related:  jamie.

  • February 20, 01:23 PM
    “We were at the same table when the chips were checked
    A gamblin +Rebel+ who +Inspects+ the +Deck+
    Just when you thought we would fold our hand
    Against all odds we raised the bet like we changed the plans
    It was live on air but in between station breaks
    I was holdin a pair and just made the table stakes
    Split the demos, put insurance on tapes
    A safeguard against the crusaders in capes
    If I double down they say the Gods are sharks
    If we win against the house they thought the cards was marked
    We draw hit after hit from a royal flush menu
    While the dealer promoted the full house venue
    A spade in the club with the heart to wear diamonds
    The high roller who got credit upon signin
    They look puzzled when I shuffle, most of ‘em stunned by the hustle
    Recourse of bluff game’s your muscle”
    GZA
  • February 20, 11:32 AM

    newsweek:

    vizualize:

    Luck is 50:50 (NOTCOT)

    Something that always fascinated us about Ringworld was this notion of breeding people to be lucky (for those of you who had a social life as a teenager, the book in part was about a future in which many people have to win the lottery in order to have a baby); we have always been curious about whether this would actually work.

    karma really is a bitch.

  • February 20, 01:10 AM

    homeofthevain:

    Alain Resnais, L’Année dernière à Marienbad (poster)

    I don’t know if you know: everything comes apart if you find the strand, and even the shadows lie.

    wow.

  • February 19, 05:34 PM

    MoMA Celebrates Appalachian Filmmakers - WNYC Culture

    That tension of holding the camera while living in the community is at the center of all Appalshop films. Appalshop filmmakers shoot, edit, release, and then, they stay. Relationships change and stories develop around them. “If I do something here, and I think it’s beautiful, but then someone from here sees it and thinks I’ve exploited us, then I have to live with that person,” says Willa Johnson, a 24 year-old Kentucky native and Appalshop filmmaker. “I have to see them everyday and for them to think I don’t love this area.”
  • February 19, 02:30 PM

    “Ladies” by Lee Fields & The Expressions

    everyone chill out.  it’s friday.

  • February 18, 02:30 PM

    Duffel Blog - News, Tips, and Trips: Duffelup Journal 2/18/10 "Thanksgiving 2009 (DC) by John R. Lee

    Note from the Admin: John’s Duffel Thanksgiving 2009 was selected “Daily Duffel” for 2/18/10. Daily Duffel authors are invited to comment on their experiences for the Duffelup Journal. This is what John had to say:


    I created the Duffel to help me visually manage things I wanted to do…

    holler.

  • February 16, 12:55 PM

    technology, culture and commodities.

    from joanne mcneil:

    saying i write about “technology and culture” should sound like “autumn and fall” or “movies and film” but it doesn’t quite yet

    me, in response:

    it will, ppl don’t realize the connection yet. flip side is that those topics - together - shouldn’t be a commodity like “movies.”

    this exchange was the beginning of a few blips on my radar this past weekend about the important connection between our culture/society and the technology that’s part of it.  there is a lot of face-value discussion happening across the web but few areas where we dive deep into why it matters.  people are starting to commoditize technology, especially in terms of communication.  unfortunately for them, it has to matter more.  we have to use it to change the things around us - not just slowly turn it into another crowded pile of useless noise.

    for example:

    • seven on seven - “pair seven leading artists with seven game-changing technologists in teams of two, and challenge them to develop something new — be it an application, social media, artwork, product, or whatever they imagine — over the course of a single day.”
    • ideas42 - (one of their projects) “When it comes to the adoption and application of new technologies, many people are misinformed about technology and its benefits.  Individuals may be misguided by a rule of thumb that results in either non-adoption or misuse.  In the Indian state of Orissa, for example, many rice farmers overuse chemical fertilizers and pesticides on their crops, due to the misperception that the greenness of their plants is positively correlated with improved yields.”
    • day19 - revitalizing LA using their gifts.  bringing culture and the arts, as well as their audiences, to a new part of town.

    so, a quick kudos to the people who are actually doing something good at the intersection of our culture and our technology.

  • February 15, 02:43 PM

    The design philosophy of the AK-47 (via dgray_xplane)

    Don’t design for a perfect world, because the world isn’t perfect. Design simple things that are rugged, reliable, simple and easy to use; things that work even when conditions are chaotic; things that work even when they are mostly broken.
  • February 14, 05:40 PM

    kate (via jratlee)

    from when we first started dating.  off to make some dinner.

    love you, bub.

  • February 12, 10:59 AM

    Stuck.

    me, trying to be a tough guy.

  • February 11, 12:04 PM

    Shoveling And The Tragedy Of The Commons

    …

    Virtually all of the houses with a single occupant or family (as indicated by a single doorbell or knocker) were shoveled clean. Nearly every house with multiple occupants — and most businesses — were unshoveled.

    …

    A common good that requires work to maintain is ignored if there is a diffusion of responsibility.

    emphasis mine.

  • February 09, 02:45 PM

    hybrowse.com

    jakelodwick:

    What have you been up to, Jake?

    …

    I build a generalized platform for these buttons and called it Kwisi, short for “Know When I See It”, and started testing on some friends’ sites (like the Photojojo Store). The name referred to the idea that sometimes you don’t know exactly what you want — you just have to look around and see what catches your eye. When you do a Google Search, for example, you have some word in mind, and you’re attempting to go directly to it. But what if you’re just in the mood to shop? What if you want to see something new, something innovative, or strange, or obscure, or foreign? Traditional web search isn’t that helpful. So I thought I would install this platform on other sites, who would change their whole webstore around to accommodate me.

    …

    My philosophy here is that search engines are 20-year-old technology and we need new ways of navigating the endless data that is piling up every day. To that end, I have committed to Hybrowse as a four-month project. I will continue working full-time on it until May 1st (at the very least). This is not a startup company, it is my attempt to make life more manageable for anyone who feels overwhelmed with data. If you feel that is a noble goal then please play with the site and let me know how I can improve it. Very few things are “locked in” and it’s very easy to make changes, so if you have any opinions, please send them to me at jake@hybrowse.com. I want to know your thoughts; it’s hard for me to see the site very clearly anymore, by myself.

    But before I go, I will make this more interesting and supply some new ammunition for anyone who thinks I am crazy. The crazy thing is this. By May 1st I will have 1,000 services on Hybrowse. Yes, that’s 998 more than I have right now (Netflix and Etsy). I consider this goal “impossible” and will, by any rational calculation, fail hilariously, but I don’t care — I need an audacious goal that gets my adrenaline pumping, and 100 doesn’t do it. 1000 sites. I’m like a local car salesman on tv. “THESE GOALS ARE INSANE!!!”

    I genuinely think the site would be profoundly useful if it had 1,000 services. Picture it. You land on the home page and use the same “overlapping tags” mechanism to discover, say, Swedish housewares stores, then pick one, then browse their overpriced euroshit. Or you sort through Match.com profiles and try to find ones that don’t look like monsters. I don’t know how it will work. But I’m going to do it and I want your suggestions … and this is going to be a very busy couple months and I have to go now, because I suddenly realized I have a lot of effing work to do.

    jake@hybrowse.com

    (ps: Peter Vidani did the site’s visual design)

    this is great, jake.  i really hope you reach your goal b/c the approach is absolutely necessary.  1,000 is a smart number too.

  • February 09, 10:03 AM

    Winter Carnival: This Time I Mean It | The Awl

    so, all the weather hysteria taking place this winter is mainly because global warming is starting to break up consistency in seasons.  winter isn’t winter, all the time.  when it is winter?  people freak the f’ out and make ridiculous graphics and create stupid (albeit hilarious) nicknames.

    my favorite part about this graphic is “impassable roads.”  in a normal person, that’d tell me to say inside and not go anywhere.  for someone like me, i really look forward to driving around in the snow.  stupid and fun, all at once.  proud pillars of the american conscience.

    this one is fun too - reminds me of war games.

  • February 05, 01:29 PM

    slantback:

    It doesn’t matter how amazing the steak is, if it’s served on a cold plate it’s crap. If it’s served with a dull knife it’s crap. If the gravy isn’t piping hot, it’s crap. If you’re eating it on an uncomfortable chair, it’s crap. If it’s served by an ugly waiter who just came in from a smoke break, it’s crap. Because I care about the steak, I have to care about everything around it. (via Contrast | The Blog | The thickness of napkins)

    do it right the first time.

  • February 04, 04:56 PM
    “Silence frees us from the need to control others … A frantic stream of words flows from us in an attempt to straighten others out. We want so desperately for them to agree with us, to see things our way. We evaluate people, judge people, condemn people. We devour people with our words. Silence is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on that.”
    Richard Foster (via azspot)
  • February 03, 10:21 PM
    “We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.”
    Thomas A. Edison (via livejamie)
  • February 01, 10:19 PM

    fun with nicknames

    cthewell:

    So Tooth no longer wants to be referred to as The Situation, as he doesn’t wish to be associated with that D-bag on Jersey Shore.  No argument here.  He came up with a name designed to keep people on the edge of their seats, waiting anxiously for…The Anticipation.  I like it.  But now I’m jealous and want my own bad ass “I go to the gym, now” nickname.  I thought long and hard (that’s what she said) and since I always seem to be meddling in other people’s affairs, I think I’ll be The Complication.  Ratcliffe, I know you want in on this shit, man.  Since you’ve got an infinite amount of data at your fingertips at all times, you shall be known as The Information.  As Woogie will be spending one night a week in The Well now, we mustn’t exclude him.  Since he’s in training for a triathlon, he’ll be spending a lot of time in the gym.  And if he works hard enough, he’ll undoubtedly become The Condensation.

    this made my night.

  • January 31, 04:36 PM

    Surfer Blood - Swim (Live on KEXP)

    first heard these guys on the way down to new brunswick last night.  on radio, omg who knew that still worked.

  • January 31, 03:04 PM

    awash in suburbia.  trying to convince people there is an ipad hidden in the store.  nothing like a little light corporate espionage on a sunday afternoon.

    also, this place is packed.  every single station, product and employee is occupied.  slowly realizing that the jobster is doing a pretty solid job of convincing people that “the music’s not in the piano.”

  • January 31, 11:21 AM
    “Great products are triumphs of taste. And taste is a byproduct of study, observation and being steeped in the culture of the past and present, of trying to expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then bring those things into what you are doing.”
    Steve Jobs (via ecbp)
dot com

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Profile

John Ratcliffe-Lee

Account Supervisor, Digital at MS&L Worldwide
Online Media | Greater New York City Area, US

Summary

I have a passion for helping people connect, share and learn. Currently, I'm focused on helping businesses use digital and social media technologies for external community building, outreach and internal collaboration. At MWW Group, I worked with a team of digital media relations experts to help our clients and colleagues understand and involve themselves online. Everyday, we worked on building relationships within the social media landscape for our clients and help add value to their interactive marketing efforts in the digital world.
Specialties: Usability, Branding, Marketing, Design, Media Relations, Technology, Photography, Writing, Brand Management, New Media, Blogs, Strategy, Corporate Communications, Executive Branding, Public Relations, Digital Media, Social Media

Experience

  • Oct 2009 - Present

    Account Supervisor, Digital / MS&L Worldwide

    Consumer Marketing
  • Jul 2008 - Oct 2009

    Senior Digital Media Specialist / MWW Group

    Managed digital media strategy and execution for MWW's clients. Making sure use of new social technologies always adds value for client brands and their audiences.
  • Jul 2007 - Jul 2008

    New Media Specialist / MWW Group

    Helped today's most relevant brands communicate effectively online. Developed strategic campaigns utilizing digital and social media tools such as blogs, podcasts and other targeted outreach activities that reached and exceed client goals.
  • Jul 2006 - Jul 2007

    Project Coordinator / MWW Group

    Consumer Lifestyle Marketing Division - National media contact for Nikon Inc.'s Digital SLR camera products.
  • May 2003 - Jul 2006

    Owner / False Dawn Industries

    Launched a multimedia initiative; specializing in print/interactive design, web site maintenance, logo design, album artwork, photography, and more. Designs have been shipped internationally and sold in Hot Topic, Inc. stores throughout NY, NJ, PA, CT, and DE.
  • Jun 2005 - Nov 2005

    Interactive Designer / MWW Group

    Created, implemented, and managed web content projects (HTML emails, web sites, digitizing audio/video) for one of the nation’s top ten public relations agencies. Successfully completed this internship by handling strict deadlines and meeting high expectations from clients such as McDonald’s, Bank of America, Nikon, Amazon.com, Continental Airlines, Sun Microsystems, and Roche. Reported directly to the Vice President of Technology.
  • Sept 2003 - May 2004

    Journalism Labs Supervisor / Rider University Communications Department

    Supervised high-technology multimedia labs. My extensive knowledge of industry-specific computer programs, scanners, etc. facilitated student and professor lab activities. Designed Communications Dept. logo used in University publications.
  • Jun 2001 - Sept 2001

    Account Representative / Mokrynski & Associates Inc.

    Demonstrated excellent time management skills and superior problem resolution ability while expediting client purchases of mailing lists. Attention to detail was required for frequent communication between mailing list seller and buyer to insure timely and accurate delivery of mailing list purchases..

Education

  • 2000 - 2006

    Rider University

    Bachelors in Journalism (Multimedia Communication) Major & Advertising Minor
    Activities: Lambda Pi Eta Communications Honor Society, Zeta Beta Tau (New Member Class President, Alumni Chair), PR Society, Men's Tennis, WRRC, Community Standards Board, Interfraternity Council VP of Academics

Additional information

Websites:
My Blog
Honors:
PR News PR People Awards 2009 Finalist, "Tweeter of the Year"
Interests:
cars, comedy, computers, cooking, design, film, literature, music, new jersey, photography, politics, satire, tennis, writing
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  • March 18, 05:58 PM

    The September Issue

    I straight-up loved this movie. It's a fascinating look at the creative process of a team with strong leadership operating at a very high level. The trailer is pretty misleading in this respect...the main story in the film has little to do with fashion and should be instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever worked with a bunch of people on a project. Others have made the comparison of Anna Wintour with Steve Jobs and it seems apt. At several points in the film, my thoughts drifted to Jobs and Apple; Wintour seems like the same sort of creative leader as Jobs.

    Rating: 4.5/5.0 Tags: Anna Wintour   Apple   movies   Steve Jobs   The September Issue   Vogue
  • March 18, 10:43 AM

    Your reality is out of date

    There's a category of information that slowly changes throughout the course of a lifetime. Sam Arbesman calls them mesofacts.

    These are facts which we tend to view as fixed, but which shift over the course of a lifetime. For example: What is Earth's population? I remember learning 6 billion, and some of you might even have learned 5 billion. Well, it turns out it's about 6.8 billion. [...] If, as a baby boomer, you learned high school chemistry in 1970, and then, as we all are apt to do, did not take care to brush up on your chemistry periodically, you would not realize that there are 12 new elements in the Periodic Table. Over a tenth of the elements have been discovered since you graduated high school!

    The blog over at mesofacts.org is a good place to update yourself on this slowly changing information.

    Tags: education   Sam Arbesman
  • March 17, 10:19 AM

    Parallel World

    People fill the floor of their homes with furniture and walls with paintings and pictures. So why are the ceilings left empty? Decorating ceilings was a celebrated art form in the past centuries that somehow got lost through the reductionism of modernism. People don’t look at the ceiling anymore. It’s a dead space. So I wanted to bring a small wink to this space. I also liked the idea that somehow there’s a parallel world which coexists with ours.

    Parallel World by Ji Lee

    (thank you keren)

  • March 17, 10:58 AM

    iPhone apps seeking attention at SxSW

    Got pitched on a couple of iPhone apps while down in Austin. One pitched me with a “Got an iPhone? Come inside and get a $15 iTunes gift card” spiel as I walked to the convention center. I had 20 minutes to kill so I said sure. I entered their venue (which probably cost a ton to rent) and downloaded the iPhone app. Then I had to use it once in front of ‘em. Then they gave me the gift card. Then I exited the building. Then I walked three steps and deleted the app from my phone.

    The other one was an app at the trade show portion of the event that included some sort of location/geo/something-or-other. The woman demoing the app showed me how, using this app, she could pinpoint the location of Andrew, one of the app’s developers. (Andrew was standing right next to her.) Then she started using the iPhone to figure out his location. When it worked, she proudly showed me that her iPhone had spotted Andrew. I commented that this certainly was a great way to determine the location of someone who is standing right next to you.

  • March 17, 01:06 PM

    Elvis Presley, 1965 | Submitted by J. Meredith



    Elvis Presley, 1965 | Submitted by J. Meredith

  • March 16, 04:35 PM

    Health and fitness tips from a trainer

    A long-time trainer shares what he's learned about health and fitness. A lot of good (and questionable) stuff in this list.

    Diet is 85% of where results come from...for muscle and fat loss. Many don't focus here enough.

    If you eat whole foods that have been around for 1000s of years, you probably don't have to worry about counting calories

    Our dependence on gyms to workout may be keeping people fat...as walking down a street and pushups in your home are free everyday...but people are not seeing it that way.

    (via jorn)

    Tags: food   lists
  • March 16, 11:49 AM

    The new rules for reviewing media

    I've noticed an increasing tendency by reviewers on Amazon (and Apple's iTunes and App Stores) to review things based on the packaging or format of the media with little regard shown to the actual content/plot. Here are two recent examples.

    Reviews for the theatrically released versions of The Lord of the Rings on Blu-ray are mostly negative -- the aggregate rating is 1.5 out 5. These are award-winning movies but the reviews are dominated by people complaining about New Line's decision to release the theatrical versions before the extended versions that the True Fans love. A representative review:

    If I were reviewing the movie itself it would get a five. This review is for the product, as listed -- in other words, I DO NOT RECOMMEND BUYING THIS PRODUCT/DVD. This product is being created FOR NO OTHER REASON than to dupe people into buying this movie twice...again.

    Similarly, the early reviews for Michael Lewis' The Big Short are dominated by one-star reviews from Kindle owners who are angry because the book is not available for the device. (thx, jason)

    I have always enjoyed Michael Lewis' books and was looking forward to reading The Big Short. With no availability in the US on Kindle, however, I will pass until the publisher/Amazon issue is cleared up. I actually believe that the availability of an item is relavent when giving it a review.

    Compare this with traditional reviewers who focus almost exclusively on the content/plot, an approach that ignores much about how people make buying decisions about media today. Packaging is important. We judge books by their covers and even by how much they weigh (heavy books make poor subway/bus reading). Format matters. There's an old adage in photography: the best camera is the one you have with you. Now that our media is available in so many formats, we can say that the best book is the one on your Kindle or the best movie is the one on your iPhone.

    Newspaper and magazine reviewers pretty much ignore this stuff. There's little mention of whether a book would be good to read on a Kindle, if you should buy the audiobook version instead of the hardcover because John Hodgman has a delightful voice, if a magazine is good for reading on the toilet, if a movie is watchable on an iPhone or if you need to see it in 1080p on a big TV, if a hardcover is too heavy to read in the bath, whether the trailer is an accurate depiction of what the movie is about, or if the hardcover price is too expensive and you should get the Kindle version or wait for the paperback. Or, as the above reviewers hammer home, if the book is available to read on the Kindle/iPad/Nook or if it's better to wait until the director's cut comes out. In the end, people don't buy content or plots, they buy physical or digital pieces of media for use on specific devices and within certain contexts. That citizen reviewers have keyed into this more quickly than traditional media reviewers is not a surprise.

    Tags: Amazon   iPhone   Kindle
  • March 16, 09:46 AM

    Karl Rove's book vs. REWORK - what the American People need to know

    REWORK, our new book on starting, building, and growing — or not growing — a business was released one week ago today. The book is selling out around the country and rocketed to #3 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list. Thanks to everyone who picked up a copy and spread the word.

    But there’s this book right ahead of it by this guy named Karl Rove. Heard of him? Turns out his book just came out too. And he’s all over the press (well, part of it) pitching, pitching, and pitching.

    We wondered how we could compete with Rove on the bestseller list. We don’t have the luxury of friends in high places. We don’t have national TV exposure. So how could we be Rovian and beat him at his own game? One thing immediately came to mind: An attack ad.

    With a wink and a grin, we present the truth about Karl Rove’s “Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight” and 37signals’ REWORK:

    <embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="never" height="340" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cxnOKDZNA9s&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed>


    Spread the word. Find out more about REWORK.

    Please direct all press/media inquires to Jason Fried at jason@37signals.com.

    (Special thanks to Steve Delahoyde from Coudal for putting this together so quickly. We presented the idea in rough form late Thursday afternoon, and by Saturday morning we had the finished product uploaded to the Basecamp project. We owe you Steve.)

  • March 15, 03:45 PM

    Silvio Berlusconi Knows How To Give A Gift

    Silvio Berlusconi is looking good.What do you get the man who has been married six times and has fathered at least 20 children? Well, if you're Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and your recipient is South African President Jacob Zuma, you get him pajamas and bedsheets. Because you just don't give a fuck, and you probably think it's pretty funny.

  • March 15, 09:22 AM

    But it's better than TV

    At the local health food store lunch buffet, they offer stir fried tempeh.

    I never get it. Not because I don’t like it, but because there are always so many other things on the buffet that I prefer.

    That's why I don't watch TV. At all. There are so many other things I'd rather do in that moment.

    Broadcast TV was a great choice when a> there weren't a lot of other options and b> when everyone else was watching the same thing, so you needed to see it to be educated.

    Now, though, you could:

    • Run a little store on eBay
    • Write a daily blog
    • Write a novel
    • Start an online community about your favorite passion
    • Go to meetups in your town
    • Volunteer to tutor a kid, in person or online
    • Learn a new language, verbal or programming
    • Write hand written thank you notes each evening to people who helped you out or did a good job
    • Produce small films and publish them online
    • Listen to the one thousand most important operas
    • Read a book or two every evening
    • Play a game of Scrabble with your family

    None of them are perfect. Each of them are better than TV.

    Clay Shirky has noticed the trend of talented people putting five or six hours an evening to work instead of to waste. Add that up across a million or ten million people and the output is astonishing. He calls it cognitive surplus and it's one of the underappreciated world-changing stories of our time.

  • March 14, 12:58 AM

    This is a crappy use of Twitter, "@TimMoore"

    tmd posted a photo:

    This is a crappy use of Twitter, "@TimMoore"

    Seriously? Pulling @mashable's feed BEFORE the publication posts its own story? Wow.

  • March 11, 02:09 PM

    Warren Buffett's 2009 annual letter to shareholders

    Worth a read as always.

    We will never become dependent on the kindness of strangers. Too-big-to-fail is not a fallback position at Berkshire. Instead, we will always arrange our affairs so that any requirements for cash we may conceivably have will be dwarfed by our own liquidity. Moreover, that liquidity will be constantly refreshed by a gusher of earnings from our many and diverse businesses.

    When the financial system went into cardiac arrest in September 2008, Berkshire was a supplier of liquidity and capital to the system, not a supplicant. At the very peak of the crisis, we poured $15.5 billion into a business world that could otherwise look only to the federal government for help. Of that, $9 billion went to bolster capital at three highly-regarded and previously-secure American businesses that needed -- without delay -- our tangible vote of confidence. The remaining $6.5 billion satisfied our commitment to help fund the purchase of Wrigley, a deal that was completed without pause while, elsewhere, panic reigned.

    We pay a steep price to maintain our premier financial strength. The $20 billion-plus of cash-equivalent assets that we customarily hold is earning a pittance at present. But we sleep well.

    Here's to sleeping well.

    Tags: berkshirehathaway   economics   finance   Warren Buffett
  • March 11, 11:57 AM

    Promotional letterhead produced in 1984 to coincide with the...



    Promotional letterhead produced in 1984 to coincide with the release of Ghostbusters. I’d like to think Janine Melnitz was at one time reachable on that telephone number.

    Ghost Busters, 1984 | Source

  • March 11, 12:48 PM

    Why Did Nick Denton Truncate Gawker Media’s RSS Feeds?

    Speaking of RSS and advertising revenue, Felix Salmon has a piece on Gawker Media’s decision to switch from full-text to excerpts in their feeds. He quotes Nick Denton from this comment on Lifehacker:

    Gawker Media is an ad-supported company. RSS ads have never realized their potential. At the same time we sell plenty of ads on our website. So, yes, it is in our interest for people to click through if enticed by an excerpt.

    Salmon, in an update, points to this comment from Matt McAlister, who says that The Guardian has seen web traffic go up after switching from excerpts to full-text feeds. I.e., even without monetizing the feeds themselves, The Guardian thinks switching to full-text feeds was a win financially.

  • March 10, 09:48 AM

    A to-do list for the last person on Earth

    Over at Reddit, an epic answer to the simple question "if you became the last person on Earth, what would you do?"

    Hone your skills. You're now the worlds only Mechanic, Electrician, Farmer, Hunter, Gatherer and Doctor. Books are a remarkable resource.

    As previously noted, I love this kind of thing.

  • March 09, 05:14 PM

    Totally righteous "Cove" dudes reported to have caught LA sushi joint selling illegal whale meat

    oscarsign.jpg

    Santa Monica sushi restaurant The Hump is reported to have been caught selling illegal whale meat to its customers. Who went after them with hidden cameras? The guys behind the dolphin slaughter documentary The Cove.

    Image above: Ric O'Barry, right after The Cove won an oscar, during the Academy Awards. BB pal Ehrich Blackhound emailed in the image and says, "I love it when winners hijack the broadcast, and for a txting campaign!"

    His speech, after the jump.

    Ric O'Barry:

    Winning the Oscar is an amazing honor, and it does have a real impact in Japan. But so few people have seen this film, and let's be honest, with the exception of the biggest stars, most people don't listen to the speeches. I wanted people watching to know that they can take action to help end this terrible slaughter. People who text in will immediately get our petition to the Japanese Ambassador to the US, Japan's Prime Minister, President Obama, and Vice President Biden. They can sign right there from their phone. We'll also send them videos they can share and updates on the campaign.

    (via LA Eater via T.Bias)



  • March 09, 08:34 PM

    SXSW Interactive: Because hell doesn’t have enough promotional stickers

    Later this week, thousands of ironic t-shirts will be arriving in Austin for the 16th annual South By Southwest Interactive festival.

    At about this time, it’s traditional for tech publications to publish handy guides to “surviving SXSWi” – packed with useful advice that’s basically interchangeable with that for any other festival since the beginning of time.

    “Drink plenty of water!” “Prepare for some late nights!” “Plan ahead to make sure you don’t miss anything!” “Pack sturdy shoes!” “Always use a condom!”. Useful advice for SXSWi, certainly, but also applicable for Oktoberfest, Glastonbury, Woodstock and the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia (although for the latter, replace ’shoes’ with ’sandals’ and ‘condom’ with ’sprig of silphium’).

    This year, though, I decided to use my experience of past SXSWi’s to produce something more useful. A very specific and completely foolproof guide on surviving this year’s event. And here it is…

    Tip One: Don’t go to South by Southwest Interactive.

    I’m serious. It sucked last year, and it’s going to suck again this year. You’re kidding yourself if you think otherwise. The idea that SXSWi is a conference – or even a festival – for people doing interesting and useful things in technology is a fallacy. In reality, it’s just a non-stop orgy of bullshit fanboyism – a chance for people with stickers on their laptops to go and add more stickers to their laptops; an opportunity for sweaty dorks in Diggnation t-shirts to line up for two hours in the hope of getting Alex Albrecht to – I dunno – sign their laptop, I suppose, or maybe give them another freaking sticker. Even the parties – which are basically the only reason to go – are horrible: the free bars runs out too soon, and they’re always rammed with the kind of people who you could be forgiven for assuming have never been inside licenced premises before.

    “But Pure Volume at 2am is pretty awesome!”

    No it isn’t. You were just drunk. You’d lined up for three months to get in with your stupid plastic entry tag and you had to convince yourself that the experience was worthwhile because the only alternative was to kill yourself. Free vodka Red Bulls are not worth the hassle. Take your lead from the pros: buy a couple of bottles of vodka and a case of Red Bull and host your own party in your hotel room. Except you can’t, can you? Because you’re sharing with your friend Dan and he has to be up early for the “Google Hackathon”.

    “But we’re launching a new app, and it’s going to be awesome.”

    No it isn’t. But I completely understand why you think it will be. With all those fanboys in one place, where better than ‘South by’ to launch your awesome new location-based app?

    Two years ago, Twitter was the undisputed hit of the festival. Everyone was using it – to find parties, to silently heckle panels, to do all the things that one can do with Twitter. Last year those same people were so desperate to find the new Twitter that they mistakenly handed that crown to Foursquare on the basis that a relatively small number of Web 2.0 scenesters used it to find out where their friends were partying. And yet, despite that auspicious start, and a shit-ton of publicity since, Foursquare has failed to capture the imagination of even most early adopters, particularly those outside of San Francisco and New York. Foursquare was resolutely not last year’s Twitter. Last year’s Twitter was Twitter.

    That won’t, however, stop a billion start-ups blowing their entire launch budget on flying their whole team – armed with sacks of flyers and amusing stick-on bugs and branded candy and more fucking stickers – to Texas, confident in the knowledge that their app (with its stupid cutesy name) will be the hit of the festival. It won’t be. It will just be yet another location-based app sloshing about in a sea of location-based apps that may be temporarily useful while a thousand early adopters are crammed into an area of less than one square mile. The moment the festival is over, you’ll be dead.

    Instead, this year’s hot location-based app will be… Twitter. You’re welcome. Call me Nostradamus.

    Last year, while in Austin, I wrote a column for the Guardian talking about the awfulness of the event, saying..

    “None of this is surprising, of course, as it all fits neatly into what social media has taught us – that the moment a service or community gets too big, too mainstream or too commercialised, the early adopters declare it “over” and move on to the next cool, niche thing. And it’s why I really hope that next year one or two of those early adopters will organise – and I mean that in the loosest sense – a user-generated unofficial fringe conference to sit alongside the main event. Ideally it will be a bit nerdier and more businessy, and a lot more fun, than SXSW and will have plenty of space for unofficial “core conversations” and a great product launch or two.”

    Sadly, unless it’s a very well kept secret, there’s no such rival event and this year’s SXSWi will be more of the same bullshit. And for that reason, I’m totally serious when I say that you shouldn’t go. Instead – while your rivals are distracted in Texas, pissing their money up the wall and ejaculating over their laptop stickers during yet another Evan Williams keynote – you should use the time instead to stay at home and work on building your start-up.

    Your liver will thank you, your investors will thank you, and most importantly so will millions of real-world users who really want you to create something new and innovative rather than being sucked into the hype and churning out just a better, prettier Twitter-meets-Gowalla clone for the approbation of your peers.

    Yeah?

    Yeah.

    I’m moderating the “Unsexy & Profitable: Making $$ Without Hype” panel on Saturday at 3:30pm in Hilton A/B.

    See you in Austin.

    (Photo of Gary Vaynerchuk and Kathy Sierra by Randy Stewart)



  • March 08, 09:34 PM

    I find that sometimes the extra effort involved in dressing well...



    I find that sometimes the extra effort involved in dressing well isn’t a burden, but rather, a comfort.

    (Talcahuano, Chile.  Photo by Ricardo Mazalan)

    (Thanks Jon)

  • March 08, 12:00 PM

    Are Jersey’s Food Bloggers Bigger and Badder?


    Zeppelin Hall in Jersey City.

    If you thought the New Jersey culinary scene amounted to “mountain people” cooking squirrel meat, think again! It’s actually thriving. In fact, there are even food blogs in New Jersey! Or so the Times informs us. Of course, we already suspected as much (in addition to the ones the Old Gray Lady mentions, you might check out A Life Vicarious), but is it a little hard to swallow that our Joisey counterparts might just be bigger and better? Says some guy who was formerly at Kellari Taverna and is now at some restaurant somewhere over there: “I’ve been in the restaurant business my whole life in New York City, and in New York City restaurant bloggers don’t exist on the level they do in New Jersey … Here, bloggers are extremely well versed in the industry … They’re very well educated.”

    A Vibrant Culture of Food Blogging [NYT]

    Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

    Filed Under: other cities, food bloggers, new jersey

  • March 08, 05:36 PM

    Find Out Where Your Dairy And Produce Items Came From

    A longtime reader sent in a couple of links to websites that let you find out more about your food supply chain, if you're into that sort of stuff. Where is my milk from? matches carton codes with a list of dairies published by the FDA. FoodLogiq is less user-friendly and requires free registration, but you can apparently use it to track produce from participating growers. (Thanks to Cy!)

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an addict of balance through excess and restraint.

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