Video on Demand and a Worthy Competitor (Redbox)

Have an opinion on downloadable video? With the introduction of Apple's online video offering, Techdirt is running a poll for market input on how Netflix stacks up against the iPod company's foray into the growing market.

In the world of physical DVD's, the innovative folks at Redbox have offered to give you a free rental just to try them out. You can find their kiosks all over, from Walgreen's to Wal-Mart (parent company: McDonald's Ventures). As of late last year, they had over 6000 locations - more than Blockbuster - and you can return the disc at a different location than you rented it with no penalty.

Best thing about the Redbox business model - every rental is $1/night. Can't beat it - except free, which you can get by entering "dvdonme" when you check out.

Measuring Leadership

Leadership is a topic I'm fascinated by - and I am intrigued by the ways it is measured both commonly and at a higher level. I'm enjoying re-reading Maxwell's book on leadership's 21 irrefutable laws at the moment with a group of friends and would recommend his organization highly.

Different people view leadership as distinctly as any other thing in my experience. I remember sitting on a conference call where a silver-fringed senior manager bristled back at the voice on the phone with a vicious, "what do you mean exactly by servant-leadership?!" She obviously saw it differently than Tom Peters does.

My friend Eric Lannert at i.c. stars wrote recently about the difficulty in quantifying leadership in his non-profit organization. He says for-profits have it easy. Thanks a lot Eric!

The Internet Voter

In the building swirl of issues and debates, you may be wondering just which candidates you might want to vote for. Wouldn't it would be helpful to have a guide to some of the key financial, moral and foreign affairs issues (as well as noting how key they are to you) like immigration, Iraq and definition or marriage along with the relative positions of the candidates? Enter my politically savvy friend Tony who sends us this fourteen-question virtual voter quiz to a sort of online candidate dating service to help sort things out. Try it - it may not be give you the result you expect...

12 Questions with Sharon Taylor on ITIL V3

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which has become the best-practices standard in managing technology, has just come through a much-anticipated revision ("refresh") which effectively transforms it into a new kind of animal. I had the opportunity to talk with ITIL's key contributor Sharon Taylor about the impact of the new version and how it changes the best-practice landscape and the role it now plays in the business of technology. Here's a link to the interview in TechRepublic magazine. Feel free to digg, vote, forward...

Character in Advertising

A friend of mine thought this ad from Hyundai was unusual enough to point out its decidedly narrow-appeal message in a society where commitment isn't trendy. I think so too - interesting angle for a car company.

The more democratic our society, the more its success depends on our collective character. And on keeping our commitments.