Sometime over the Autumnal Equinox weekend, I noticed I had fallen out of love — with a man, New Zealand, and well, just about everything. Everywhere I looked, all I saw appeared rorted, munted, or just plain shonky, to use the vernacular. Almost two months later, strolling through the new Tender is the Night exhibition at City Gallery, an exhibition that asks us all how it feels to fall in and fall out of love, I noticed a stirring, an awareness that this state too had passed, and there are so many things I’m excited about and looking forward to sharing. Here are just a few:
1. Tender is the Night is a wonderful counterpart to City Gallery’s recent Roundabout° exhibition, which explored big love, aroha, and compassion in a selection of contemporary art from around the world. This one draws in close and even dares to get a little wet while exploring the complex and intense nature of personal desire, love, longing and loss across both time and place.

   I’m always drawn to Ukiyo-e, literally “the floating world,” the elaborately colourful woodblock prints from the Edo and Meijii periods of Japan, and this exhibition includes some wonderful examples. Right next to — and inspired by — the shunga, a sexually explicit subcategory of Ukiyo-e, is one of my favorite works in the exhibition, “Hungry Ghost with Dragonfly Jar,” (pictured above) a gouache painting by contemporary New Zealand artist Kushana Bush.

   The other piece I fell in love with and just wanted to hang out with all afternoon is by another young artist from New Zealand, Francis Upritchard, “Wife” and “Husband” (below). At first glance, I was struck by the emotion on each face and the tensions between them. Only after a while did it become apparent how splendidly they were crafted from other animals in the form of recycled fur coats and gloves.

   

   Tender is the Night runs 7 May – 17 July 2011 at
   City Gallery Wellington, 101 wakefield st, Wellington, New Zealand
   Related events:
   Curators’ Tour (The awesome Heather Galbraith) Friday 27 May, 12.30pm
   Open City Friday 8 July, 6–9.30pm Entry $10/$5 concession (including City Gallery Friends)

2. First Light bach Energy Solar Decathlon Entry 2011 at Frank Kitt’s Park through May 22, 2011.
   
   This should be number 1 in excitement level, but since I wandered over after checking out Tender is the Night, I’m reporting in chronological order. New Zealand is graced with all the forces of nature in such abundance — sun, wind and water — and it’s crazy that our homes and buildings are not making the most of them. One of my projects and passions this year is designing a regenerative family house here in Wellington, and I have been disappointed to see best practices in the area have been so far, not so great. Thrilled to find a team from Victoria University has designed a beautiful, energy-efficient, fully solar-powered bach (NZ summer vacation house) called First Light House that’s been selected as the first Southern Hemisphere contender in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011.

   First Light pushes the edge in renewability, and most excitingly, has done it by partnering with local providers and manufacturers. Which means the capability is here, and it’s up to all of us to demand it in our designs and purchases going forward. Alas, the audio in the video of my tour of the house’s impressive systems by Victoria University student Zach was hard to hear due to the NORML concert taking place across the park (which is kind of excellent in its own way). So check out the intro to First Light House yourself in their video below, updates on their blog, and in person at Frank Kitt’s Park in Wellington through May 24 and in Washington D.C., USA Sept 23—Oct 2, 2011.

3. Our Choice, the follow up to An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, transformed from book to app by Push Pop Press, for an excellent interactive reading experience on the iPad. The interface that strives to emulate printed books disappears, and the interaction begins to feel native and intuitive. All media flow into one seamless whole; the project envelops text, image, interactive graphics, audio, animations and video as appropriate to communicate the message and further the narrative. It’s also important and worth your time for all the actionable solutions for renewable energy, conservation, business, and governance it offers. Mike Matas of Push Pop Press gives a compelling demo below. Kudos to all involved, and I hope their creation software becomes widely available, soon!

    

4. Louie Schwartzberg’s TED Talk on the hidden beauty of pollination
   I spent a lot of time in the Sonoran Desert last summer, photographing cacti blossoms and even a few bats. But never once did I see their amazing pollination ritual, featured in Schwartzberg’s video below along with hummingbirds, monarch butterflies and more. Schwartzberg says “Beauty and seduction, I believe, is nature’s tool for survival, because we will protect what we fall in love with.” I dare you to watch the video below and not fall in love with everything in it.

5. Long Now talk with Tim Flannery on evolution.
   This episode of The Long Now’s Seminars about Long Term Thinking, one of my favorite podcasts, introduced me to Australian biologist, Tim Flannery, and now I can’t wait to read his books: The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth, The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People, The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples, and Here on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet. Yes, I’ve ordered them all. 

   There’s so much richness in his talk, it’s worth at least a couple of listens. But my favorite parts come in the question and answer period, when Tim Flannery explains that love is an evolutionary outcome:

   “There are powerful forces at work that result from that cruel and amoral mechanism called ‘evolution by natural selection’ that creates this thing we call love between human beings. The bonds between species and the bonds between individuals. All of that — that’s an evolutionary outcome.”

   Stewart Brand: “That sounds a little warm and fuzzy.”

   Tim Flannery: “Well, why should it? Everything about us, every manifestation of life is a result of evolution by natural selection. Love is a part of that. It’s part of the bond that keeps civilizations together. We can have love of country, love of our environment, love of other people. This is part of the evolutionary outcome.”

   He then goes on to explain that we’ve gone through a period of being “future eaters,” expanding our powers and capacities without having awareness, wisdom or understanding how the global system works. We’re in a race between true intelligence and our technical capacity.

   Here’s to expanding our wisdom and intelligence to create happy outcome for living beings!

Though the exact history of the pie is not clear, it represents not only a preference for sweet foods but two other great American addictions: litigation and corn. Originally called derby pie, Tippins changed the name to dixie pie to avoid litigation with Kern’s Kitchen, who has defended a registered trademark for “derby pie” since the 1950s. In The American Century Cookbook, Jean Anderson notes surprise that there are no records of recipes of this traditional dessert (as pecan pie) before the early 20th century and that it may have actually been created by Karo corn syrup’s economists. If they didn’t originate it, they certainly popularized it, as nearly all recipes call for Karo by name. The ingredients also include bourbon whiskey, which is made from corn.

Here in New Zealand, you’ll find variteties of golden syrup on the grocery shelves rather than corn syrup. I first assumed that “golden syrup” was a euphemism for golden corn syrup, but it’s a thick form of inverted sugar-syrup made from sugar cane, also known as pale treacle. In this pie however, you’ll find organic grade B maple syrup, because that’s what was in my cupboard, and it tastes delicious with both chocolate and walnuts.

Decadent Deep-South Dark Chocolate Walnut Pie

Deep-south here refers to New Zealand as much as the US as my ingredients were not traditional. But the crunchy and custardy textures and flavors hit all the right notes of my dixie pie memories.

Crust
Confession: This year I bought fresh pastry dough made by the wondrous Marie of the organic La Patisserie de Marie & Nico in Miramar, Wellington because it’s the best I’ve ever tasted. (And because last year the pie dough making took the better part of a day.) If I hadn’t, I would have used Martin Bosley’s shortcut pastry (adapted from Rachel Taulelei’s 12 September Newsletter for Wellington’s City Market, where she describes her own pie entry, the delicious ‘Four and Twenty Titi” pie that was my first taste of the distinctive muttonbird) below, not only because it sounds simple and good, but also because he was one of the judges.

50g flour
a pinch of salt
70g unsalted butter, chilled
ice-cold water

Put the flour and salt into a bowl and add the butter in small chunks. Cut into the flour with a small knife and rub with your fingertips until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. It only takes a couple of minutes to do this, but you could use the food processor if you prefer. Sprinkle a little cold water over the crumbs and bring to a rollable dough (it should look slightly crumbly but firm enough to roll), adding more water if needed. Cover in plastic wrap and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes. Cut the pastry in half and roll it out on a lightly floured kitchen bench, then line a 22cm/9″ pie pan, leaving a good amount of pastry overhanging the edges to be trimmed off.

Filling
1 1/2 cups (150 g) walnut pieces or halves
1/2 cups walnut halves
2 ounces (57 g) organic dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 large eggs
1 cup gur or jaggery (unrefined sugar made from raw sugarcane juice)
1 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons (25g) salted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier (Typically bourbon is used, but this turned out great.)

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and place the oven rack in the bottom third of the oven

Melt the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, then set aside.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl, then whisk in the jaggery (sugar), maple syrup, melted butter, vanilla extract, and stir in the melted chocolate.

Place the walnut pieces across the bottom the crust and pour the filling over the walnuts. Arrange the walnut halves in on top of the pie in a decorative pattern.

Place the pie on a baking sheet and bake for 50 to 60 minutes until the filling is puffed up but still wobbly when gently shaken. If the pastry edges are getting brown, cover with foil to prevent burning. (I could have done this a little earlier.)

Remove from oven and allow to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

This pie features additional dark chocolate drizzled on top, but the walnut design is pretty on its own too. I presented a big bowl of delicious Kohu Road Vanilla ice cream along with the pie, which was not the most brilliant choice for an all-evening event, as the ice cream melted into a bowl of soup early in the evening (see below).

And now to start thinking about next year… if you have any recommendations, let me know! In the meantime, I’ll study KCRW’s Good Food Pie-A-Day series and piecasts.

Thanks Stephanie Jaworski for the pie history lesson and inspiring chocolate pecan pie recipe.

Wellington is blessed with relatively abundant water, and therefore most people take it for granted and spare it little thought. I just returned from the Sonoran Desert, where it is always top of mind that water equals life, and started to wonder about the water sources in my new home. Where does it come from? How does it get to us? What happens in between? I was excited to discover a municipal water tasting as part of the Wellington on a Plate Festival, and that it was moderated by Simon Woolley, whose Antipodes Water was a happy discovery on a reconnaissance trip through New Zealand to decide whether I’d want to live here. Abundantly wonderful water was one of the reasons I did.

Where does it come from?

Wellington draws water from different sources for delivery throughout the region, using waters from the Tararuas and also the Pakuratahi Forest catchment in the Rimutakas via a tunnel through Wainuiomata. The Kapiti Coast is supplied from bores and rivers.

Petone’s untreated artesian water is a source of pride for its residents, and Te Puna Wai Ora (Spring of Life), the Petone municipal public bore, is used night and day by people who lug 20 litre containers to fill for domestic use.

Sculpture fountain over spring water bore at Moore Wilson store on Tory Street, Wellington, New Zealand

Tory Street in central Wellington features a 470 feet bore that was once used as the basis for a soft drink factory. A magnificent bronze fish and tree sculpture marks the spot where the bore has been reopened for public use at Moore Wilson’s. (Water carrying vessels may be found upstairs for purchase in the variety store.)

How does it get here?

The Greater Wellington Regional Council collects and treats drinking water and sells it to the city councils that supply water to homes and businesses in each city. Water, wastewater and stormwater services are actively managed by Capacity Infrastructure Services Ltd, a CCTO (Council Controlled Trading Organization) jointly owned by Wellington City Council and Hutt City Council. Homeowners pay a targeted rate annually for water based on property capital value but can choose to install a water meter and pay for actual usage.

How does it taste?

I had heard that Wellington has the best tap water in New Zealand, Petone has the best tap water in Wellington and the Buick St fountain has the best artesian water in Petone. Is all our regional water the same? We blind-tasted 12 waters at room temperature, all gathered within a day in glass tester bottles and served in wine glasses at the lovely Osteria del Toro. We were provided with helpful tasting notes on what to look for:

1. Clarity. Is it bright and sparkling? Are there any particulates in suspension? When swirled does the clarity change?
2. Aroma. Are there any obvious chemical odours? Some can be introduced for purification process. Some are innate such as hydrogen Sulphide – which can indicate volcanic activity.
3. Taste – Mouth feel. Does it coat the mouth evenly or are there sharp notes in the water?
4. Flavour. We taste sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. What flavours can you taste? Are there flavours of chemicals or is there a metallic taste?
5. Natural flavour. Is there any indication of the presence of these flavours – such as what you experience when you drink from a stream in the bush?
6. Length of the flavour. Can we taste the flavour long after we have swallowed? Does it linger or does it disappear immediately?

Though I had hoped to suss out subtle differences in terroir, feeling the variations in pH and mineral components, my palate’s vocabulary consisted mostly of lovely, nasty, burning, soft, heavy, salty and furry. Our wonderful host Simon found a leathery note with many of them, but I didn’t get that either. The unanimous winner was a selection from the untreated private bore at Ruth Pretty‘s home property in Te Horo, Waikanae. This may be the secret to her successful catering and food business — it definitely makes me want to attend one of the Wellington on a Plate events or cooking school at her place.

Nice (the top 3 are the picks from the whole group tasting… My personal order was 1,3,5,4,2):
1. Spring at Ruth Pretty’s home in Te Horo, Waikanae untreated. Notes: mild, alkaline, soft
2. Lower Hutt tap – aquifer, ph adjusted slightly with lime, unfiltered. Notes: heavier water, sweet aftertaste
3. Tory St bore at Moore Wilson’s. Notes: soft, lovely
4. Petone Buick St bore. Notes: no nose, lab-like, distilled water
5. Brooklyn Spring, untreated private spring. Notes: nice, syrupy

Neutral:
6. Pump bottled water, a wild card selection Coca-cola from Blue Springs in Putaruru Notes: not clean, unpleasing
7. Upper Hutt – collected surface water, treated. Notes: crisp chlorine nose, gentle taste, something not so nice at the the end note.

Nasty:
8. Karori, Wellington treated tap water. Notes: salty, heavily treated
9. Otaki, Kapiti Coast treated tap water. Notes: chlorine nose, burns my nose, unanimously disliked
10. Waikanae, Kapiti Coast – highly treated tap water. Notes: chemical sweetness, universally disliked
11. Whakatane – Braemar Springs – another wild card selection of treated tap water from up North. Notes: furry on the palate, chlorine nose
12. Carterton, Wairarapa – treated tap water. Notes: Janola nose but mild on the palate

Why so nasty?

The chemical smell and taste of the treated tap water comes from chlorine, which the Greater Wellington Council typically adds at 0.6 to 0.8 mg/L, acknowledging the aesthetic guideline value for adversely affecting the taste and odour is 0.6 mg/L. Lucky Lower Hutt has chosen to opt out of treatment as the water comes from a secure underground aquifer. While chlorine’s effectiveness in killing bacteria that cause water-borne diseases like typhoid and cholera has saved lives, chlorine also attacks our beneficial internal bacteria, disrupting our digestive and immune systems. When chlorine interacts with organic matter, it creates disinfection byproducts which are associated with bladder and colorectal cancer (the most frequently diagnosed and second most common cause of cancer death in NZ) and linked to artherosclerosis.

Another troubling component that you can’t smell or taste is fluoride, which gets added at the GWRC water treatment facilities Te Marua, Wainuiomata and Waterloo treatment plants. Only Petone and Korokoro, supplied from Hutt City Council’s Rahui reservoir receive unfluoridated water. New Zealand was the second country to begin fluoridating their water to improve dental health, but scientific evidence now points to swallowed fluoride causing harm and providing no benefits. (A rational compliation of research is available at Second Look.) Many dentists who once advocated for fluoridation now oppose it.

Wellington’s mayoral election is coming up in October, 2010, and I have read each candidate’s reassuring positions against water privatization. The folks from Capacity I talked with at the event said privatization of water here was simply a non-starter, there was no mandate for it. I’d love to know if any support ending spending taxpayer money on mass medication with fluoride and exploring healthier alternatives to chlorine treatment (such as ozone or UV).

Until that happens, the best options for health and taste are to collect your water from a private or public bore, live in Petone or Korokoro to receive untreated water, or install a reverse osmosis or distillation system to the water coming into your home. I was surprised to see Kapiti voted to continue fluoridating water in June, and that it’s become such an emotive issue rather than one based on scientific evidence. I’d love to read your comments on Wellington water quality and policies.

Other interesting droplets from discussion with Simon and the table while tasting:
• With sparkling water, the amount of bubbles are usually more an indication of how clean the glass is rather than how much carbonation the water has. If the glass is truly clean, you won’t see many bubbles at all.
• Even more than the total amount of dissolved solids, water flavor is affected by how much salt. Fiji and Evian have about the same amount of solids, but Evian tastes much saltier and heavier.
• Old pipes and fittings can leach heavy metals into your water. Let it flow for about 60 seconds to flush them or at least enough to fill up a mug before using to drink or in food.
• Heat is the major factor in delaminating plastic containers, therefore the concern of water bottles sitting in cars. Many pasteurized products are also heat treated in their plastic packaging – what are the effects? And will plastic water pipes turn out to be better or even more problematic than metal over time?

Delighted to connect with artist Monica Moreno aka SonikaMonica from Barcelona at her studio in the flamin’ artichoke in Featherton, New Zealand. She introduced me to the wonderful phrase “Donde hay pelo hay alegria” – Where there is hair there is joy, the theme of her upcoming exhibition at Roar gallery in Wellington, 29th October – 14 November 2009. Her sculptures and paintings exude the colorful exuberance of Alexander Girard and embody an untamed joy both reverent (exploring ideas of inner peace) and irreverent (Cinderella with hairy legs).

All I knew about Max Gimblett when I learned he was leading a sumi ink workshop in Wellington was that I liked his “Low Tide” installations at the Asian Contemporary Art Fair and Asia Society in New York and his lustrous signature quatrefoils.

I arrived at Capital E for Max Gimblett’s sumi ink painting workshop to see the chairs arranged in a circle that resembled an ensō, which would be our first painting exercise.

Max introduced himself as a mad monk (affiliated with the San Francisco Zen Center) whose monk name means “Diamond Brush Awareness”, and stated we were now a group, a Gestalt, and to speak only to the whole group and the centre of the circle, not to each other. Furthermore, he stated he is very intuitive, and any resistance would not be helpful. Of course, that just made me resist like crazy. But it all dissolved the moment we picked up our brushes and began our wild ride.

We began with the ensō [Max's, mine], and made several attempts each. Max paints like Tibetan Buddhist monks debate, animated with kinetic punctuations. He describes it as automatism, “one stroke bone” and “all mind and no mind”. Think very clearly of what you want do before you start, and then let go and free your mind while doing, “a little like making love.”

We expressed koans in ink. What was your face before the face you were born with? Then we dove into Jungian typologies and cognitive processes: thinking, feeling, intuition, and sensing. Which one is the hardest for you to reach? That one’s your shadow. What is your dominant process? (I’m an ENFJ, in case you’re curious.)

Between each exercise we held up our paintings for each other to see and comment upon into the circle. By the end of the hour, we’d produced quite a body of work and harmonized into a group. Afterwards he walked around and discussed our work with us individually; above are some video clips from the conversations. We also discussed the edge vs the centre, an idea Brian Sweeney explores in depth at nzedge.com and one that captivates me as a recent migrant from NY to NZ. His last advice to me was if things weren’t working, to add a little red: “Red always makes things zing.”

Max is currently has exhibitions of new work at Paige Blackie Gallery, “White Stone Clear Water,” in Wellington (19 May – 20 June 2009) and at Gow Langsford Gallery, “Full Fathom Five” in Auckland (5 May – 29 May 2009). His work was included in the Guggenheim Museum’s exhibition The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia (recently completed, but interesting presentation online).

• Max Gimblett’s website
• Max Gimblett on YouTube
• Max Gimblett discusses life as he thinks
• Max Gimblett in Art World, February 2009 by John Yau

NB: Good source for Chinese calligraphy brushes and Chinese Traditional Medicine in Wellington: Wellcare Chinese Medicine Shop 215, Left Bank, Cuba Mall, Wellington, 04 382 9451.

I’m glad to see the government’s chosen to delay Section 92A of the Copyright Act until March 27 and suspend it entirely if no agreement can be reached. It needs to be repealed. Here are reports from Computerworld, InternetNZ and The NZ Herald.

On Monday, I visited the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington for a discussion on ‘first fictions’ with the writers of two of last year’s most highly praised debut novels here. Mary McCallum (The Blue ) and Susan Pearce (Acts of Love) explored the themes and process of creating their books with Kate Duignan, also a New Zealand novelist. They are all new to me, and I am intrigued to read The Blue, about life in an isolated whaling community on Arapawa Island in the Marlborough Sounds in 1938.

Kate asked great questions, stimulating a lively discussion. One interesting commonality she brought up was that both authors created protagonists that live in small, isolated communities who start out feeling as if they had already failed in life. That resonated as a theme I see recurring in the way New Zealand describes itself in its own media.

Later that evening, McCallum won the Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction and the Readers’ Choice Award at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards for The Blue. Another prize-winner I’d like to check out is Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning, a publication tracing the career of this contemporary painter whose exhibition of anthropomorphic birds in luminous palettes with the same name drew me back multiple times.

Meanwhile, back in New York, the NYT reviewed a new book about a Boston girl who married a Maori man, Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story by Christina Thompson. Will have to download the first chapter and see what I think for myself. (By the way, the ability to freely download first chapters of books is one of my favorite features of the Kindle, which has become an invaluable essential for this traveler. If you want to keep reading, then you buy and immediately download the rest directly from the device.)

Antipodes map by Daryl Cockburn.

Location based MyMaps GeoBlogger

MyMaps GeoBlogger makes it easy to blog from Google Maps and create a geo-aware RSS feed. Perfect for adding a location context to your posts. Trend from chronological towards location-based.

(tags: locative blogging googlemaps location-based geo-aware geoblogging)

I fell in love (again) with New Zealand and Australia over the holidays. (I’m sorry too!) But I couldn’t believe people put up with their bits being metered. Even coming from laggard U.S., I felt like I was sucking bandwidth out of a cocktail straw.

Hotels charged $30 a day as an ante — a few YouTube shorts is all it takes to reach the daily limit, after which you pay for every mb. (Exception: Hotel So with free broadband wifi.) Forget about uploading all your photos. Cafes with wifi charged high fees too. Few non-geek friends had broadband at home.

Immediately after I returned to the U.S., things started looking up down under. Australia’s getting faster and cheaper broadband with a new undersea cable, and NZ’s making changes too. Good on ya!

Meanwhile, in the UpSide down, Time Warner’s starting to test pay-per-bit pricing. Other providers are watching closely. And still other providers are watching us closely. With immunity! Feh.

These developments get me really chuffed:

Facebookers net wi-fi – Wireless & BroadBand

FRUSTRATED by the NSW Government’s stalled free wi-fi project, a group of Facebookers have decided to start their own. It was inspired by futurist Mark Pesce (Mob Rules!) to create a free wireless network, which the group hopes will one day cover Sydney and make it easy for anyone to enjoy the convenience of free internet access for quick tasks such as checking email.

(tags: wireless WiFi socialnetworking networking Meraki free meshnetworking markpesce sydney australia)

Free Sydney Wireless – SydneyFreeNet

What if there was free Wifi across the whole city of Sydney, Australia? It is perfectly possible. And YOU can help make it happen. The Technology: the Meraki wireless mesh hardware, cheap, easy to set up and easier to share. Sydney is bootstrapping right now, and you can say “I was part of the free Wifi revolution in Sydney!” We are not related to Meraki in any way – we are a collection of individuals who are interested in changing the world, one neighborhood at a time.

(tags: free wifi wireless sydney australia, meraki mesh)

TheFreeNet – Aotearoa | Google Groups

We want to build a free community wireless network with our neighbours, using our spare bandwidth.

(tags: wellington nz newzealand freenet mesh meraki wifi free wireless aotearoa)

TheFreeNet – mesh wi-fi in Wellington metropolitan areas

At the end of the day you will be hard pressed to find individuals who can afford sharing their bandwidth in the current New Zealand broadband landscape. In this country there’s no concept of “unlimited” bandwidth. People are still being charged in plans that go from a minimum of 1GB (yes, believe me), going through 5GB, 10GB and so on.

(tags: nz newzealand aeotearoa wifi internet freenet wellington mesh meraki pay-per-bit bitlimits)

Ironic Sans: Idea: Scientist Valentines

Darwin, Sagan, Newton, Einstein and Curie do valentines greetings.

(tags: scientists valentinesday funny woo)

The Coming Ad Revolution – Esther Dyson

Social networks create a trusted environment for reaching high-value, frequent purchasers of airline tickets, electronics, clothes or other items. Where does that leave less-frequent buyers? Looking to their friends rather than to advertising for advice.

(tags: advertising socialnetwork facebook experts walledgardens communities)