College | Caffeinated

The future, according to the New York Times. Look familiar?

The New York Times is rolling out their Times Reader 2.0 for $15 a month (about $180 a year). Basically, the Reader 2.0 is a new way to look at your newspaper on your computer, powered by Adobe AIR.

Excuse me while I do backflips and bake cakes for the technological innovation in journalism occurring before us.

“Welcome to the future. Your paper is here,” says the Times.

Ummm, no.

For Christmas, I was thinking about buying my dad the Doobie Brother’s “The Captain and Me” on CD. He already has the record, but he’ll surely be ecstatic about hearing the same music in a CD player instead of record player… right?

Probably not. It’s the same thing he already has. Why should he care?

Look at it this way- when a product gets a new packaging, it, well, gets new packaging. In the end, I’m getting the same damned item that I always buy.

La-de-frickin-da, welcome to the future. It looks like the present, but it’s really so futuristic you don’t even know.

Sorry, Times, but your Times Reader 2.0 isn’t the future. And unless you truly make an innovation, you won’t be mine, or anyone’s, paper when the future gets here.

*photo from Flickr use Seattle Miles under Creative Commons license

I trust people by default. You have my trust from the second I meet you. That trust can always be lost, but it can also be strengthened.

I don’t trust businesses by default. Businesses have to earn my trust. They don’t get my trust by default.

Am I the only one that thinks like this? I doubt it. It’s just easier to trust a face than a logo.

Robbin Phillips wrote about her experience with Scott Monty and Ford yesterday. The post, aptly titled “Keeping Promises”, talks about why Robbin would consider buying a Ford- because of Scott. Robbin says that there is “something about ‘knowing’ someone at Ford has made me a sincere fan.”

I think that “something” is as simple as Ford putting a face before their logo. Scott Monty is technically a part of Ford, but more accurately, Ford is a part of Scott Monty. People talk to faces, not logos.

How does your trust work? What is that “something” that will make you trust a business?

*photo credit to Flickr user laverrue under the creative commons license