Barack Obama, meet Dilbert

And you thought orientation at your job was rough. Imagine having to deal with the White House’s IT setup (and firewall):

Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.

“It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.

In many ways, the move into the White House resembled a first day at school: Advisers wandered the halls, looking for their offices. Aides spent hours in orientation, learning such things as government ethics rules as well as how their paychecks will be delivered. And everyone filled out a seemingly endless pile of paperwork.

I’m picturing the new staff tacking Dilbert cartoons to their cubicle walls and saying, “It’s funny because it’s true!” Sounds like the change we need starts with software upgrades and a trip to the supply room. The president gets dibs on the good stapler.

washingtonpost.com via Daring Fireball

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Time magazine on publishing

booksLev Grossman predicts the future of publishing in a recent article in Time.  Though he concedes that, given the current economic climate, publishing will face some serious challenges in the year (or, more likely, years) ahead, he maintains that “publishing isn’t dying. But it is evolving, and so radically that we may hardly recognize it when it’s done.”

Grossman postulates that the move from paper to digital books and the rise of self-publishing will make it easier for authors to get noticed without going through the traditional process of finding an agent to sell their book to a commercial publishing house. He also criticizes the current (and what he would call archaic) business model that modern publishing still follows, and explains that the increasingly volatile economy will make these methods even riskier than usual.

Grossman’s analysis is not all doom and gloom—though some of his assertions will certainly leave publishers more than a little wary. It’s a testament to way things are and a call to publishers, authors, and readers to adapt because change is coming, whether or not they’re ready for it.

Time: Books Unbound

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Heart and soul…in business books?

Share YOUR story! at myfavoritebizbook.comJack Covert and Todd Sattersten of 800-CEO-READ have hit a nerve with their latest website creation: My Favorite Business Book. Following from their forthcoming book, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, they’ve created a site where avid business book readers (much like yourself!) can share the books that have meant the most to them over the years.

Amid the chorus of “this book forever changed how I do business!”, contributors to the site share personal stories and zealous endorsements:

“In the new-marketing bible, Cluetrain is the old testament, and I am forever a disciple.”—blogger Jeff Risley on The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual

“I feel blessed that I have the opportunity to continue to learn from and dialogue with the authors that helped change my life and launch my business!”—Tara Tollefson, CEO of the Buzz Company on Creating Customer Evangelists

“It’s the ‘bible’ in our office and Tom Peters is the Bishop”—blogger Dennis D. Balajadia on Re-Imagine!: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age

With an easy to use visual format, you can search for the title of your own favorite business book and click the “tell us your story” button on the right-hand side of the page.

So, what biz book has knocked your socks off?

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The Atlantic Launches a Business Page

The AtlanticAccording to MediaBistro’s fishbowlNY blog, The Atlantic has launched a new Business “channel” on its website. From the website’s press release:

The channel will feature original posts, dispatches, interviews and more from a range of experts, including The Atlantic‘s Megan McArdle, Tyler Cowen, Conor Clarke, Arnold Kling, Jim Manzi, Grant McCracken and Bart Wilson.

“The current volatile economic landscape has created an unprecedented demand for insight into the complex issues we all face,” said Justin B. Smith, President, The Atlantic. “With this launch, we’re helping our audience understand the big picture through the lens of The Atlantic‘s acclaimed opinion and analysis.”

Always a treat to discover a new source of business news and commentary.

The Atlantic Business Channel

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The Business Book Revolution

I wrote some time ago on my own blog about the business book revolution that began, by my reckoning, in 1982. I thought it might be interesting to devoted business book readers:

The rise in popularity of business books is what management guru Peter Drucker might have called both a “recent phenomenon” and “totally unprecedented.” One of the interesting things about the business book market—despite its incredible resilience—is how it has tended to fluctuate with the stock market and the overall economy.    

Take the lackluster 1970, for example. During that decade, before the business book revolution, companies hunkered down, just trying to survive Watergate, an oil embargo, recessions, low productivity rates and double-digit interest rates. Few of us in business book publishing can name even one great business book to come out of that period. The stock market lost well over half of its inflation-adjusted value between 1968 and 1974, and another six percent by July of 1982 (the Dow hovered around 800 in mid-’82). The bears ran rampant on Wall Street for 14 years.

The next decade did not start much better—but then came 1982.

For the rest of the entry, follow the link below.

JeffreyKrames.com: The Business Book Revolution

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