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For previous issues, please click here. METAFORIX MAIL Volume 1, Issue 1 August 11, 2000 CONTENTS AT A GLANCE: EDITOR'S
MESSAGE: Welcome to Metaforix Mail EDITOR'S MESSAGE WELCOME TO METAFORIX MAIL! This first issue of Metaforix Mail coincides with the launching of the Metaforix Web site -- and it’s wonderful to have you join me in this new adventure. Seven million new Web pages are created every day, so launching a Web site and starting an e-letter shouldn't really be such a big deal. But it feels to me like the first day of school, or a Metropolitan Opera debut, or the opening game of the World Series, or having a baby: So much planning, so much promise, so many unpredictable possibilities! In part, those feelings stem from the fact that Metaforix Mail and metaforix.com are not just ways to connect with clients and colleagues, not just marketing tools or essential parts of doing business -- though of course they serve those functions. What’s more important is that the site and the e-letter are designed to help people and organizations thrive in the rapidly changing environment of the Information Age. Our content is created to reflect that purpose. "Metaforix Mail" is intended to complement the site. We strive to offer timely, valuable information and provocative insights. We want to be welcome in your inbox, a resource you'll use and share with clients, colleagues, and friends. I look forward to your comments, suggestions, and inquiries. Just send a message to editor@metaforix.com Cordially,
Lois C.
Ambash, Editor IN THE MEDIA [a current news article, feature, or opinion piece] "Unleash
Your Ideavirus," by Seth Godin The author of bestseller Permission Marketing has a new new notion: the ideavirus. Godin, who bills himself as an "idea merchant," describes an ideavirus as "a big idea that runs amok across a target population, . . . teaching and changing everyone it touches." This article introduces the vocabulary of ideaviruses, demonstrates how they work, and offers a "Recipe for Your Own Ideavirus." Godin's boldest demonstration of the concept: if you want to read his new book, Unleashing the Ideavirus, you don't need to purchase or borrow it. The entire book can be downloaded for free. To read the full article, click here. To download the entire book, click here. INFORMATICON [a provocative quote, statistic, or piece of data] "The argument culture urges us to approach the world -- and the people in it -- in an adversarial frame of mind. It rests on the assumption that opposition is the best way to get anything done. The best way to discuss an idea is to set up a debate; the best way to cover news is to find spokespeople who express the most extreme, polarized views and present them as ‘both sides,' the best way to settle disputes is litigation that pits one party against the other; the best way to begin an essay is to attack someone; and the best way to show you're really thinking is to criticize. . . . But just as spouses have to learn ways of settling their differences without inflicting real damage on each other, so we, as a society, have to find constructive ways of resolving disputes and differences. Public discourse requires making an argument for a point of view, not having an argument -- as in having a fight." Deborah Tannen, The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words Random House, 1998) CYBERSPEAK [the vocabulary of the Internet age] "DIGITAL": In its literal sense, "digital" refers to the way information is stored as a string of ones and zeros that represent on/off states. In contrast, "analog" refers to a continuous stream of data. To understand the difference, compare the way your clock radio shows the passage of time by a change of display every minute with the way an old-fashioned wrist watch shows the passage of time by the slow, continuous movement of its hands. The clock radio is digital, your quaint wrist watch is analog. In its 1996 edition, Wired Style called "digital" a "90s modifier and metaphor" for "the radical reshaping and restructuring of social patterns caused by digital technology." The new edition, published last year, says that George Orwell would have deemed the metaphor "worn-out." Just as some of us are starting to learn the lingo, techies are starting to consign "digital" to the storage bin -- the linguistic storage bin, that is, not the technological one. Sources consulted: Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age, 1996 and 1999 editions. SITE OF THE DAY [a nice place to visit] Babel Fish In his classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams created the Babel Fish, a "small, yellow and leech-like" creature that removes "all barriers to communication between different races and cultures." In fact, "if you stick a Babel Fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language." Fast forward to the Information Age. AltaVista’s Babel Fish translates search results, Web sites, and short passages of text from English into five different European languages, from six European languages into English, and handles several other language pairs besides. You can also input non-English text using an online "World Keyboard," save translated text, and enable automatic translation of your Web site. Machine translation is far from perfect: Babel Fish likes short, grammatically-correct sentences, properly punctuated and free from slang. Long sentences and passages overtax AltaVista’s servers; texts longer than about 800 words are likely to generate "time out" errors. So human translators are far from an endangered species. Nevertheless, Babel Fish and its ilk bring just us a bit closer to understanding one another. To visit this site, click here. THE FINE PRINT Subscribing and Unsubscribing: You received this mailing because we received a subscription request. Feel free to forward this e-mail to colleagues and friends. To be added to our mailing list, e-mail us at subscribe@metaforix.com. If your e-mail address was submitted without your knowledge or if you wish to unsubscribe for any reason, e-mail us at unsubscribe@metaforix.com. Privacy Policy: We respect your privacy. We will never share your e-mail address with any third party unless we have your explicit permission. For more information on our privacy policy, go to http://www.metaforix.com/privacy_policy/index.html. VISIT US ONLINE at www.metaforix.com. Metaforix Incorporated Reinvent
yourself for the Information Age. Feel free to forward this e-mail to colleagues and friends. To be added to our mailing list, e-mail us at subscribe@metaforix.com. Copyright 2000, Metaforix Incorporated. All rights reserved. Please note that the links contained in Metaforix Mail are current as of the time of publication. Some of them may no longer be operative at the time you access past issues. Click here for the complete Metaforix Mail archive.
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