We’ve already seen a twitter version “Dad dead. Mom slut. Uncle sux. Talking emo 2 self: 2B? Not? Revenge? GF all wet. Her dad a rat” and Facebook version of Hamlet.

The New York Times posted an interesting article about another high school standard. The author attests that Gen Y readers don’t identify with Holden Caulfield. From the article:

The alienated teenager has lost much of his novelty, said Ariel Levenson, an English teacher at the Dalton School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Holden’s home turf. She added that even the students who liked the book tend to find the language — “phony,” “her hands were lousy with rocks,” the relentless “goddams” — grating and dated.

“Holden Caulfield is supposed to be this paradigmatic teenager we can all relate to, but we don’t really speak this way or talk about these things,” Ms. Levenson said, summarizing a typical response. At the public charter school where she used to teach, she said, “I had a lot of students comment, ‘I can’t really feel bad for this rich kid with a weekend free in New York City.’ ”

Julie Johnson, who taught Mr. Salinger’s novel over three decades at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill., cited similar reactions. “Holden’s passivity is especially galling and perplexing to many present-day students,” she wrote in an e-mail message. “In general, they do not have much sympathy for alienated antiheroes; they are more focused on distinguishing themselves in society as it is presently constituted than in trying to change it.”

In other news about Wikinomics and the Classics, this post brilliantly features customer reviews of products considered by all normal accounts to be spectacular. Some of my favourites:

The Godfather:

When’s an editor when you need one? This movie is so long that I played it on my TV, drove across the state, and when I came back, it was still playing. Since when is a movie this long? Movies are supposed to be 1:30-2:00 hours long. Plus this movie is as boring as a trip to the doctor’s. No good violence, no hot sex scenes, and furthermore, it stereotypes Italians. The only decent movie in this series is The Godfather III.

This is Spinal Tap:

If you’re going to make such an excellent documentary, why make it about about a band that nobody has ever heard of?

Getting similar behind-the-scenes footage on the Who, The Stones, or Genesis would have been a monumental achievment in documentary cinema.

But Spinal Pap?

The Princess Bride

I have no idea what this is. This can’t be a movie because movies are supposed to be good. The story is assanine and unbelievable. The title makes no sense. What exactly is a princess bride who is named after a buttercup. I was made to watch this movie in school and it was torture. Thank you.

Moby Dick

This book is HORRIBLE! Classic, my eye! I would love to know what’s so great about this book. I have seen better writing in a Hallmark card! Boring! Give me a good ole copy of Elvis and Me! A true story that really tugs at your heart strings! I sleep with that one under my pillow! Keep Moby Dick away from my bed!

The Onion AV Club did a nice write-up on how ThinkGeek.com’s April Fool’s joke backfired in a commercially pleasant way. They jokingly posted an advertisement for a sleeping bag based on a Star Wars scene. From the article:

Star Wars fans—and they are still legion, despite over 20 years of nonstop setbacks—fondly remember a sequence in The Empire Strikes Back on the planet Hoth, an arid wasteland characterized by deadly sub-freezing temperatures. In order to save Luke Skywalker from certain death, Hans Solo carves opens the dead carcass of a Tauntaun (described on the Star Wars “Wookieepedia” as an “omnivorous reptomammal” that the Rebel Alliance used for transport) with his Lightsaber and tucks his little buddy inside. Sure, it stinks to high heaven, but nestled under the Tauntaun’s thick skin and warm intestines, Luke is saved from a grim fate.

ThinkGeek’s April Fool’s joke was the unveiling of the Tauntaun sleeping bag, a plush replica of the beast featuring a “built-in embroidered Tauntaun head pillow,” “a glowing Lightsaber zipper pull,” and “the exact synthetic compounds needed to recreate Tauntaun fur.” Funny, right? Because who would want to sleep inside an animal’s, smelly intestines? Answer: The many, many people eager to fork out $39.99, that’s who!

ThinkGeek is now trying to actually produce said device and is negotiating with LucasFilm for the rights. It should fit in well with their other products such as the Star Wars Cookbooks, the R2-D2 trashcan and the Darth Vader USB Hub. And nothing says joie de vivre like a Yoda plush backpack.

The best comment from A.V. Club is by “Hack”, who says “Wow, an idea that was too stupid to fail. Someone deserves to be fired, then receive a huge bonus.”

I was delighted to moderate a panel on “building effective communities at last week’s 2.0 meeting in Toronto.

Joining me on stage were Webby-winning blogger Neil Pasricha of 1000awesomethings.com, founder of GovLoop.com (the online social network for the US government) Steve Ressler, word of mouth guru and social networker extraordinaire Sean Moffitt, Community Leader of the Globe & Mail Mathew Ingram, and Simon Pulsifer a leader of the Wikipedia community (he has made more than 1000, edits).

It was a wonderful discussion. For highlights, please visit #nGenInsight on Twitter.

We are pleased that our colleague Steve Ressler let us know that Govloop has passed the 10,000 user mark. We’re proud to have identified Steve as a great leader of social media within the public sector.  Fed up with the silos that existed across government agencies, including artificial barriers between levels of government, rank and age, Ressler believed there had to be a better way to share information, so he launched GovLoop.com in June 2008.

A revolution is happening in government as the result of a new generation of government employees, the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, and the Obama administration’s focus on transparency, participation, and collaboration. This revolution is often called “Government 2.0” and GovLoop is at the center of this movement.

Since its launch, GovLoop members have written over 1,500 blogs, started 1,200 discussions, posted over 450 events, shared 4,000+ photos and created over 200 videos.

GovLoop members have already:
• Developed a burgeoning “Acquisition 2.0” movement to employ innovative acquisition methods
• Been the leading source of government input into the Obama Administration’s Open Government Memo
• Established a repository of best practices on items including Social Media Policies, Government Hiring and Government Twitter Use
• Launched a top-rated podcast “Gov 2.0 Radio” (http://gov20radio.com) with guests like Tim O’Reilly (founder of O’Reilly media, http://oreilly.com) and Craig Newmark (founder of Craig’s List, http://craigslist.com)
• Helped GovLoop.com win the prestigious Federal 100 award and stand as a finalist for the 2009 ACT Intergovernmental Solutions Award

I’ve been absent from the Wikinomics blog lately, and apologize. Like many bloggers, I’ve spent most of my time on twitter. It’s more immediate and the  forced brevity encourages volume.

It forces some attention grabbing too (follow me @doverd4s).

Anyway, here are some interesting things I’ve tweeted about:

Mass collaboration picked up some old school corner-cutting in Disney films.

If you haven’t seen Auto Tune, check out this video (scroll down).

Good article about old media and a sense of entitlement.

And…I promise to be around more.

Mr. Pink, Steve Buscemi’s character in Reservoir Dogs has many memorable lines, not all of which would make it by our stringent blog manager. In the opening scene, he explains to the other gangsters that he doesn’t feel compelled to tip waitresses, dismissing their plight while rubbing his fingers together… “You know what this is? It’s the world’s smallest violin playing just for the waitresses.”

The readers of the New York Times had a similar reaction to Jake DeSantis, a VP of AIG that provided his resignation letter as an op-ed piece. Now, the letter is well-written and some of his arguments are compelling — basic message is “a deal’s a deal and staff not responsible for the meltdown are being unfairly unpunished.”

The Times editors closed the comments section after accepting 917 entries. I think Mr. DeSantis was suprised that almost all of the commenters pretty much said “don`t let the door hit you on the way out.“ The few that were supportive, tending to agree on the macro level that the government shouldn`t get involved.

The public resignation letter, intended presumably to put a human face on those AIG staffers that were hurt by the meltdown instead fueled a mass collaboration of Mr. Pink sentiment.

We’ve posted before about Guitar Hero; see here, here and here.

Our friend Mathew Ingram pointed out this article that describes how Guitar Hero releases are a bright light in an otherwise dismal music industry. Aerosmith has made more money from the GH sequel than from any individual album release.

From the article:

[Aerosmith's success]… unscores a number of really interesting points. First off, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is nothing more than a “greatest hits” montage for the band, with a bunch of indy band songs sprinkled in for variety. Putting out the game cost Aerosmith nothing more than their signature, agreeing to allow Activision to use their music. Secondly, it proves the consumer is still interested in paying for music. They just don’t want to buy CDs or single tracks anymore. They want interactivity, add-ons, special content and video games. According Microsoft gaming chief Robbie Bach, more than 60 million tracks were downloaded for Rockband, Guitar Hero and Lips over Xbox Live in 2008.

There is an interesting article today in the New York Times about student expectations and grade inflation. Basically, students expect an “A” if they’ve done their best, after all, “they always get A’s.”

Here are some quotes from professors in the article:

“Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark…Some assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.”

“I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C…That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.”

“Students often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in students that ‘if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.’ “

Quotes from students:

“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade…What else is there really than the effort that you put in?”

“If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?…If someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves. If your maximum effort can only be average in a teacher’s mind, then something is wrong.”

“I feel that if I do all of the readings and attend class regularly that I should be able to achieve a grade of at least a B.”

What are your thoughts on this? Have you experienced a similar disconnect in the workplace?

Mark Cuban, who we’ve talked about before (see here, here, and here) has announced an open source funding model. If you want the nutty Internet billionaire (he’s the one that is still a billionaire) to fund your startup, you need to follow some simple rules including publishing your business plan on his blog for the world to see (and comment on).

Mark’s other rules of engagement are as follows:

1. It can be an existing business or a start up.
2. It can not be a business that generates any revenue from advertising. Why ? Because I want this to be a business where you sell something and get paid for it. Thats the only way to get and stay profitable in such a short period of time.
3. It MUST BE CASH FLOW BREAK EVEN within 60 days�
4. It must be profitable within 90 days.
5. Funding will be on a monthly basis. If you dont make your numbers, the funding stops
6. You must demonstrate as part of your plan that you sell your product or service for more than what it costs you to produce, fully encumbered
7. Everyone must work. The organization is completely flat. There are no employees reporting to managers. There is the founder/owners and everyone else
8.  You must post your business plan here, or you can post it on slideshare.com , scribd.com or google docs, all completely public for anyone to see and/or download
9. I make no promises that if your business is profitable, that I will invest more money. Once you get the initial funding you are on your own
10. I will make no promises that I will be available to offer help. If I want to , I will. If not, I wont.
11. If you do get money, it goes into a bank that I specify, and I have the ability to watch the funds flow and the opportunity to require that I cosign any outflows.
12. In your business plan , make sure to specify how much equity I will receive or how I will get a return on my money.
13. No mult-level marketing programs (added 2/10/09 1pm)

So far, he’s received more than 1,500 comments including quite a few promises of impending business plans.

Look, I’ve never been the one to get involved in stuff like this. You can search your inboxes for a long time without finding any sort of chain letter I’ve sent. I don’t ask people to send business cards to dying children and I certainly don’t ask people to join a pirate fight on Facebook.

I’ve relented though on the 25 Random things meme that is stampeding through Facebook right now. Mine are posted below. If you want to share yours with the Wikinomics community, cut and paste yours into the comments section.

1.       I only did one year of competitive improv, but probably learned more business skills during that time than any single course from my MBA. For my Facebook friends that are also clients, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m making stuff up when I’m delivering a presentation.

2.       I had a crush on Vicki Stubing from Love Boat. While that sounds creepy, it was completely age appropriate at the time. It makes my crushes on Dr. Melfi and Nicolette Grant seem a little childish.

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