Local money, a step backwards in global economics?

Despite being part of the US, the souther Berkshire region of Massachusetts has launched a local currency. Termed BerkShares, the exchange rate is set at 90 cents. That is, $90 will yield 100 BerkShares. BerkShares are printed in several denominations. Local businessmen accept these shares at full dollar value (i.e. 0 BerkShares=$10), thereby giving the consumer a 10 percent incentive for trading locally and strengthening the regional economy.

Berkshire region is not the first to get a local currency of its own. Local currencies are an old idea. Thousands of them were used during the Great Depression, according to Bernard Lietaer, author of The Future of Money and a former currency trader who helped implement the euro. They're a subset of a grouping called complementary currencies, which also includes airline frequent-flier programs.



The motive behind such local money, also termed as social money, is to promote local businesses that accept the currency, thereby building stronger relationships and a greater affinity between the traders and the public.

Local currency first resurfaced in the U.S. in 1991 in Ithaca, New York. Then-resident Paul Glover, now living in Philadelphia, says many of his neighbors were unemployed or underpaid, and he was looking for a way to fatten their wallets. He and a group of supporters created the Ithaca Hour, each one equal to either $10 or one hour of work.

Today there are over 2500 different local currency systems operating in countries throughout the world. LETS, Local Exchange Trading System, being one of the most prominent trading network supporting its own internal currency. LETS originated in Vancouver, Canada and as on the date of this writing there are 30 LETS systems operating in Canada and over 400 in the United Kingdom. Australia, France, New Zealand and Switzerland have similar systems. Time dollars, Burlington Bread and PEN exchange are among the most successful systems in the USA. In Germany, there are at least 16 regional currencies.

Even though these local currencies are treated as illegal in most countries and are under the watchful eyes of their country's controlling banks, do these numbers mean that we are moving back from globalization of economies to localization?

Sources: The Week, Forbes.com, BBC News, Wikipedia. » Continue reading

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Lenovo-Designed Olympic Torch for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing

When everything is going hight-tech, why not the Olympic torch?

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympiad Games of XXIX (BOCOG) in the presence of the International Olympic Committee, unveiled the Lenovo-Designed Olympic Torch for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Lenovo's design, the "Cloud of Promise," was chosen over 300 competitor themes and will be carried by torchbearers around the world in the Olympic Torch Relay preceding the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Lenovo is also the TOP (worldwide) Sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Since its inception in 1936, the Olympic torch has come to represent the history and culture of its host country and city. Lenovo's unique approach for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch incorporates a sleek and modern design with historical Chinese symbolism. The primary theme of the torch’s artwork is clouds, which are intimately associated with Chinese culture, and are often represented in works of Chinese architecture, drawing and painting, furniture and story-telling.

Design of the Torch

The torch, fashioned from a polished aluminum-magnesium alloy, measures 720 millimeters x 50 mm x 40 mm (28.35 inches x 1.97 in x 1.56 in) and is exceptionally lightweight at about 1,000 grams (2.21 pounds).
Additional features of the torch design include:

• Primary coloring of deep red and bright silver, a fusion of traditional Chinese art and contemporary design, blending symbols of Chinese culture, philosophy and art;
• A handle designed not only for comfort, but to emulate the unique sensation of one hand holding another thanks to a coating of rubber-based paint; and
• An embossed pattern of clouds, which represent the ever-developing Chinese culture.

Lenovo's award-winning design team spent more than 10 months on the design of the torch. Altogether, more than 30 Lenovo design specialists were involved in the torch project including the core team of 10. The team was truly multinational, including designers from Germany, Singapore, US, Japan, New Zealand, Italy and China. The experience and specialties of the designers were equally diverse, and included majors in graphic design, chemistry, engineering, materials, anthropology, art and history. For months the teams engaged in intensive brainstorming, including game playing and creativity exercises, to help them look at the torch design from many different perspectives.

And if you enjoy watching videos, here is one for you from Lenovo. » Continue reading

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Black gold for the loo

Your loo-break need not be cheap, anymore. Portugal based Renova, one of Europe's biggest producers of household paper products, has put a diamond-encrusted gold-plated toilet paper holder on sale for $132,000 USD (€100,000 euros).

Hand-made by traditional jewelers in Lisbon, the box's logo plate is encrusted with 148 diamonds to mark the worldwide sale of one million rolls of the firm's novelty black toilet paper.

Whoever buys the toilet paper holder will receive one roll of Renova's black toilet paper every day, for the rest of their lives.

Other items from Renova, worth mention, are toilet paper with moisturising lotion and multi-coloured paper towels. Renova has also introduced toilet papers in red, orange, and green after the huge success of its black toilet paper. » Continue reading

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Samsung's WEP-420 Bluetooth Headset for the upmarket consumer

The Samsung WEP-420 Bluetooth Headset looks elegant and supposedly has a good sound quality, after all, it has been designed by Danish manufacturer of upscale audio products, Bang and Olufsen (B&O), for the upmarket consumer.

The WEP-420's buttons are neatly hidden behind a sliding cover. The special sliding cover increases the overall sound quality of this headset. To enhance its value, the WEP 420 comes packaged with a uniquely designed charger cradle that may be used as an interior decoration item.

Showcased for the first time at CeBIT 2007 in Hanover, Germany, the WEP 420 Bluetooth Headset is available from just $89.99 at Amazon.

Samsung also showcased at CeBIT 2007 the yet to be launched WEP-500 micro headset. It is round in shape and has easy-to-use features. It is expected to be launched this quarter in Europe and Asia. » Continue reading

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Ashes to Asses

When fast bowler Graham Dilley made his England debut in the first Ashes test in Perth in 1979, it was a momentous occasion for him. Unfortunately, the gravity of the situation was fatally undermined when he dismissed Aussie batsman, Dennis Lillee, through a catch by fellow teammate, Peter Willey. The scorecard read: "Lillee c Willey b Dilley" i.e., Lillee, caught Willey, bowled Dilley.

Peter Willey is also part of another famous commentary on BBC. During a Test match between the West Indies and England, Michael Holding was to bowl to Willey. The commentator at the time, Brian Johnston, described the action, quite accurately, as "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey". This would have been a large double entendre as the word "willy" is English slang for a penis. » Continue reading

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Tips on building brand credibility

It was an honor for my blog to be reviewed by Jennifer McLean, Market Communications Strategist and Author of the book "The Credibility Factor", on her Credibility Branding Blog, as part of the "Review My Blog" campaign. She was also the first and quiet quick to review my blog.

On The Credibility Branding Blog, Jennifer McLean gives some valuable insight into the credibility branding aspect of marketing. She also emphasizes on the importance of marketing in any business as opposed to a salesman-driven business.

Is your sales guy running the show? This is very common. The sales guys come in and they want the sale, no matter the cost. And that cost is what I call a "seat-of-the- pants" approach,

Some of her note-worthy posts are Preparing a Marketing Press Release for Editors and Customers and Not Your Boss and Pitching the Big Guys – How to Get Their Attention

In one of her recent posts she even talks about building a brand persona through blogging.

In short, her blog is a great resource for those looking forward to master the art of marketing. You could be a business man, the head of marketing in your company or even a blogger, you will definitely find her posts of relevance to you and for sure you're going to add her blog's feed to your reader.

I'm glad to have made a friend like you through this campaign, Jennifer! The next time I need the help of a marketing strategist, I'm gonna bank on you.

And for those of you readers who got annoyed with the exceptionally excessive links to Jennifer McLean's blog on this post, I'm terribly sorry. I couldn't help but highlight some of the best posts I liked on her blog. Actually, there was more, but I cut it short.

This post was actually scheduled to be published on May 1, 2007, but since it was already ready to be published, I couldn't help but just publish to let you guys know about her blog. It will also serve as a reminder to you that the Review my blog campaign is still up and running. Just 7 days to go before the first roundup of the campaign. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and take advantage of this opportunity. » Continue reading

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Get your social networking and other Web 2.0 profiles in one place

And share them with friends, family, relatives & colleagues on your blog, web site and MySpace using Aggregator Widgets.

I had earlier mentioned about the Wink Widget which helps you organize a list of links to your profiles on various social networks in one place. However, it has some shortcomings.

1. First off, you have to sign up on Wink.com to use the Wink widget.
   
2. It is pretty complicated and takes time to get it up and running.
   
3. It does not let you add profiles from services other than the default ones on the list.
   
4. It's a "blatant Wink advertisement" - Paul Stamatiou
   
5. Since it is hosted on the Wink server, its sluggish and sometimes slows down the performance of your web page / blog and if the Wink server goes down, so does your widget.
   

In order to overcome these shortcomings, Dustin Bachrach created a simple CSS/HTML widget, ShowYourself.

1. It has 25 default built-in Web 2.0 sites/services/networks and also gives you the flexibility to add ones not on the list, the ajax function automatically fetches the favicon image for the sites not on the default list.
   
2. The widget automatically displays a logo beside your AIM and Skype profiles indicating whether you are online or not.
   
3. It uses plain CSS & HTML, no hosting required.
   
4. Lets you customize the colors.
   
5. The favicon (logo) images can be hosted on your own web server.
   
6. There is no need to sign up for anything to use the service.
   
7. There are no advertisements. You just need to leave a link back to the ShowYourself web site.
   
8. Its free!
   

Get yourself ShowYourself now!

Do you know of a better aggregator widget? Share it here, now! » Continue reading

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