Lots of months ago I - along with 237 other writers from 15 countries - contributed an essay to the book “Age of Conversation 2″. Since then, I’ve been squirming in my chair like a hyperactive five-year old waiting for it come come out. Well! This week it’s here, and is available for purchase at Lulu.com.

Here’s Lulu’s description of what we made:

This book is a daring challenge to the business community. Gone are the top-down, command and control messages that held sway through the 20th Century. In are a raft of new techniques that start with listening, responding and action that set the scene for a continuing and evolving dialog about brands, experience, business and community.

Like the first Age of Conversation, all proceeds go to Variety Children’s Charity. So when you buy, you’re also doing a good thing.

Enormous props to Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton for orchestrating this whole thing and putting up with all of our nonsense.

Here’s a list of every author you can expect to love in the latest AofC:

A Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi

B Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich

C C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson

D Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner

E Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller

F Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson

G G Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming

H Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber

J J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster

K Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski

L Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux

M Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel

N Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice

O Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz

P Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman

R Rachel Steiner, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen

S Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Sreeraj Menon, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood

T Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman

U Uwe Hook

V Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau

W Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff

Y Yves Van Landeghem

Not being a money guy whatsoever, I’ve had no idea what really is going on with the market lately. I just knew…it’s bad news. Here are some links that helped me demystify our current situation (originally posted on Open Source CU):

1. The Money Meltdown – A simple, clean site that breaks down “Everything you need to know about the global money crisis of 2007-?” Check the right side-bar for daily links.
2. This American Life: Another Frightening Show About the Economy – A superb explanation of “what happened…including what regulators could’ve done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place.” (Thanks to Brandon Ferguson for the recommendation.)
3. Planet Money – Daily blog and/or podcast updates on from the hosts of the above episode of This American Life.

Do you have any to add?

This week I’ll be hanging out with my buddies from Trabian at the Partnership Symposium in Indianapolis. This conference is kind of like homecoming - a collection of good friends from all over the place that I rarely get to see all concentrated in one locale.

Starting tomorrow morning (Oct 1 at 9:00am Eastern) I’ll be broadcasting sessions live over at Open Source CU, so hop on over if you’d like to check it out (or even participate).

How would I sum up last years’ Symposium? I think this picture does the trick.

Last night (bleeding into early this morning) I made some big fat changes to my site. What do you think?

I’m really excited about the new banner, because it gives me a legitimate excuse to doodle now. Hopefully I’ll be switching out new sketches every few weeks or so.

After many requests, I’ve finally added a portfolio (albeit a miniature one) directly to the site. Click it! Fun things happen.

As the title mentions, this new design is a first step. Over the long haul, as time allows, I’ll jazz up the site’s design below the navigation to be just as organic and hand-drawn as the banner. Right now I feel like there’s a slight disconnect. But I’d rather launch now than wait until it’s perfect. It’ll never be perfect, you know.

There’s also lots of content to beef up - including adding more design and commentary to the little portfolio on the right.

My goals with the site are twofold:

1. To be a place for good conversation, and
2. To showcase my design business. Since leaving Trabian in April to go independent, I’ve relied on handshakes, cups of coffee, and pints of beer to be my business cards and marketing. It’s worked well enough so far - I’ve been able to eat at least one whole packet of Ramen a day - but this will help.

Speaking of that, I have a couple of posts in the cannon about kicking off a small business. It’s been a ride. I have a lot of questions for some of you.

So that’s that. As always, I covet your feedback and comments.

One of my coauthors for the second Age of Conversation published the timeline leading up to our book’s release. Because I can at times be a little A.D.D, I’m doing the same thing to make sure the dates are top of mind.

…and so you can get excited about ordering it when the time is ripe:

• May 15 All chapters due
• May 16 Editing/reviewing entries begins
• June 15 Edits/requests for re-works etc. out to authors
• June 30 All copy finalized
• July 15 First design/layout due
• August 1 Layout finalized
• August 15 Lulu proofs in hand, final edits made
• August 21 (or so) Book is released

See? It worked. With May 15th right around the corner, I’m now realizing I’d better get after it. Maybe I’ll echo Terrell Meek’s plan of attack.

This week I’m in Poughkeepsie, New York visiting a client. This morning Ross, one of the guys I’m working with up here, told us this awesome/traumatic April Fools story:

As if labels didn’t have enough variables to stress about, it seems big brands are now competing for their business too. Groove Armada has signed a 360 deal with Bacardi. Yes, Bacardi:

Read more about the deal at The Daily Swarm.

To learn more about 360 deals, read my post “360 Music Deals: Investing in the Experience.”

Unrelated, but hilarious, is this chart:

(video via hypebot)

Treat your mother right:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_rBidCkJxo&rel=1&border=1]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r_PIg7EAUw&rel=1&border=1]

On Monday JetBlue used YouTube to release a response to last week’s runway debacle. In the video, their founder and CEO David Neeleman openly admits their mistakes and explains what steps they’ve put in place to make sure that nothing like this will ever happen again.

What an amazing and common-sensical (might not be a word) response. Watch the video – What other company, especially at the CEO level, has ever been this open, up-front and vulnerable about a mistake like this?

I say vulnerable, for one, because they chose to release it on YouTube where they would be at the mercy of commentors, instead of opting for a “safer” release.

To (almost) quote Paul McEnany from Beyond Madison Avenue:

“You can tell their CEO actually gives a [crap], and the company turned circles to make sure we all knew that.”

As a part of the solution, they’ve also created a Customer Bill of Rights.

Sidenote: This is such a better use of YouTube than using it as a mindless catch-all for “going viral.”

A recent article from Ad Age last week explained that Google is now adding video capability to their primarily text-based AdSense.

This is interesting for a ton of reasons, but here’s just one: they’re implementing this using completely permission-based conditions. Each content-driven ad doesn’t get played unless you, or I, opt-in to check it out. You click play, and the spot plays. Otherwise, don’t worry about it. And the advertisers don’t pay unless you click.

So what all does this mean?

For one, it means Google is directly taking on the networks for their advertising dollars by providing a more direct and targeted alternative to the over-priced and under-relevant traditional television spot.

In television, advertisers pay big to pepper their message far and wide to the masses, fingers crossed that their market demographic 1) doesn’t have TiVo and 2) happens to be watching (and caring) when their spot runs. Google’s model allows advertisers the cost-efficiency of marketing only to those who care.

It also means that everyone’s happy. Marketing Directors are happy, because Google’s cost-per-click arrangement makes tracking referrals and determining ROI easier by leaps and bounds. Advertising Creatives are happy, because their 30-second spot isn’t going to bite the dust after all. And consumers are happy because they get to either do their 2nd-favorite thing, which is to ignore, or their 1st-favorite thing, which is to embrace distraction.

Will people click? Absolutely, as long as advertisers package their message in meaningful (aka awesome) ways. People are already going out of their way to email, blog, and IM worthwhile videos to everyone in their little cyberspace. YouTube pays almost $1 million a month in bandwidth costs. People are watching the stuff.

My hope is that this will further divert advertising from mass viewer crop-dusting, and keep pushing towards relevant, focused, and conversation-worthy messages.