I'm finally ready to launch a newly revised and updated paperback edition of '100-Whats of Creativity' and would appreciate your feedback on the concept, content, and cost.
I've recently discovered the on-demand publishing site CreateSpace.com and plan to use it as the publishing vehicle, which will make the book available for the first time ever on Amazon.com!
CreateSpace also has a pretty cool preview tool, which makes contributing your feedback a snap using their online form. You get to download the table of contents and a few free pages, and then I hope you'll take a couple seconds to provide a some quick answers to five short questions.
Most folks are familiar with HungerSite.com and their linked cousins. You visit hungersite.com each day and a small donation is made to feed the hungry. Click on one of HungerSite's category tabs along the top, and you can make additional daily donations toward Breast Cancer Research, Children's Health, Literacy, Rainforest, and Animal Rescue.
Fewer of you are familiar with FreeRice.com, another site that asks you to visit daily to donate rice to help feed the hungry. One of the things I like about FreeRice.com is the fact they make a game out of it. You test your vocabulary by choosing the correct definition from a series of words. For every word you correctly define, a donation of 10 grains of rice is given to the UN World Food Program. Your 'winnings' are tracked in a clever graphic on the webpage that displays how many grains of rice you've contributed. It's a tough game to stop, because you're doing some good with every flex of your mental muscles.
Today I became aware of another site that helps provide food for animals in shelters. Take one part Animal Rescue page from HungerSite.com and stir in a liberal amount of FreeRice.com and you get FreeKibble.com. Like FreeRice.com, this site asks you a daily trivia question and rewards your participation (right or wrong) by donating ten pieces of kibble to help feed hungry dogs living in shelters. Like HungerSite.com, they ask you to return daily in order to repeat the process and answer a new trivia question to win ten more pieces of petfood.
The most interesting bit of trivia about this site is that it was brought into reality by a 12 year old girl named Mimi Ausland from Bend, Oregon. The "About" page doesn't go into much detail about how Mimi put her idea into action, but it says she launched the site on April 1, 2008 and delivered her first round of kibble (240 lbs!) to the Humane Society of Central Oregon on May 14 -- enough food to feed 456 dogs for one day. As of February 3rd of 2009 she's amassed over 50 TONS of kibble through her original site FreeKibble.com, and through her more recently launch feline version FreeKibbleKat.com. The site tally reads over 83 MILLION pieces of kibble have been donated since April of 2008.
Here's a short video of news coverage sharing Mimi's story:
At some point Mimi's project captured the attention of Oregon-based pet food manufacturer Castor and Pollux, the sponsor who now supplies the pet food and delivers it to more than ten shelters in the state (with plans to expand.)
I've said on more than one occasion that there are no "new" ideas -- only creative combinations of existing concepts. FreeKibble.com is a perfect example of that statement.
This is an innovative new combination of ideas from a brilliant young mind. Mimi's concept is making a difference in the world everyday.
I'm going to be eliminating the current Yahoo Group sometime within the next 5-10 days. If you're a member of that Group, your email address has been automatically imported into my new private email list. As with all previous messages, you'll have the opportunity to opt-out from any email sent to the list at anytime.
Frankly, I made this decision based on Facebook's new content policy. I need to ensure that I retain full rights to distribute and control access to the content I worked hard to create. A lot of the content that I have posted in that members-only group holds tremendous value to me, and I wouldn't want Yahoo to flex it's corporate policy and try to claim some sort of infinite permission to post and provide access, as it seems the folks at Facebook are want to do.
If you've been a member of my Yahoo Group for any length of time, you already know I rarely use it to send messages -- preferring to keep info posted on my blog instead. You'll soon see me adopting a more regulated email schedule and providing some exclusive content to list members only. Some things in store for list members:
Free mini-brainstorms in each edition on topics YOU choose
Reduce fees for consulting services
Reviews for media that sparks ideas
First-access to new content
An occasional bit freebie loot given to list members
If you're a member of the Yahoo Group, you're already a member of this new list. If you've not signed-up for the old group, I hope you'll consider subscribing to this new list. I promise not to abuse your time or attention.
Please sign-up today! PS: If you're a member of that Yahoo Group, I'd advise downloading and saving anything you want from the "free" files section of the site. I plan on shutting down that group and its content as time permits, and probably won't provide any additional warning.
I just purchased Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten's "The 100 Best Business Books of All Time" over the weekend. I was suprised by how many of the books I'd read, by how many I hadn't read, and by how many I'd bought and then put on a shelf without reading.
I also noticed some books that I felt were missing from this august list, and few that seemed out of place for being included.
If YOU were going to edit the list, which books would you add -- and which books would you remove in order to make room for your choices?
