Had to laugh at this post for a whole lot of reasons.  Anyway, check out the video at http://dropkicks.co.nz/2007/07/paris-hilton-great-place-to-get-banged.php to see how we’re leveraging off the All Blacks World Cup campaign in France.

Widgets will be ‘the next small thing’ according to this BusinessWeek article. If you’re even just thinking about building a widget, get serious about time-to-market because first to deploy will win if they execute well. I predict a pile up of ‘johnny-come-lately’ knock-offs.

An interesting excerpt: “… these humble bits of code–or applications, as widgets are also known–could turbocharge a third phase in the Internet’s development. In the first, users typed in addresses of Web sites or portals to find things. Then came search engines in the mid-1990s, which gave surfers a faster way to ferret out information and products. Widgets don’t signal the death of portals or search engines, but they’re giving even more power to individuals to become distributors, publishers, and arbiters of content.”

I can see local opportunities in accessing information from trading sites such as Trade Me or Sell Me Free, online wine auctions, pinpoint weather forecasting, reporting from web-based consoles - the opportunities are endless.

I would find this widget useful: “while IBM (IBM) is plugging widgets into its software, including one that lets employees turn their unread e-mails into an audio file they can listen to on the way home from work.”

Update:  If you’re a Microsoft Windows Vista user, here is a wide range of New Zealand widgets.

I’m reading the latest revision of Dr Patrick Dixon’s best-selling book, Futurewise - Six Faces of Global Change. In it, Patrick talks of a six sides cube and seeing three faces at a time. One view shows Universal-Fast-Urban and the other shows Radical-Ethical-Tribal. He comments that “most executives spend their lives looking at the cube from above, at a world that is fast, urban and universal. However a twist through 180 degress presents us with a very different view …”

He talks of the Millennium as a generational divider, the post-millennialist view of the fundamental importance of sustainability. The emergence of micro-advertising and micro-markets lends itself well to the Internet and we are already seeing evidence of this trend in the long tail. He also comments that compliance is dead and explores the new ethical morality.

It’s a must-read business book. If you do buy or rent it, make sure you’ve got the 4th edition.

What’s Hot
Hustle for Autism is happening on Monday, 6 August at SFBH (San Francisco Bathhouse), 171 Cuba Street, Wellington from 6pm thanks to the relentless efforts of blogger Russell Brown and author David Cohen. Tickets are $10 each and available from Working Style Wellington or the Millwood Gallery in Tinakori Road. Here’s a recent Listener excerpt from David’s new book, A Perfect World, lifting the profile of autism in New Zealand.

Down in Marlborough where seasonal vineyard contracting is pivotal to the local economy, the backpackers are preparing for a flood of Pacific Island workers after the introduction of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) work policy. This scheme allows for the temporary entry of overseas workers to meet labour shortages but locals are fretting. With the seasonal work permit scheme ending on September 30, over 1000 seasonal work permits, many issued to backpackers, will be replaced by the RSE. Many believe this will impact the local economy, change the shape of this tourist centre and encourage illegal workers.

Ins & Outs
Burgerfuel Worldwide (BFW) listed on the NZAX on Friday after raising a paltry NZ$5.25M from some 2830 shareholders with an additional NZ$2.75 million from founders Chris Mason and Josef Roberts, securing the necessary NZ$8M equity to list. But I predict an immediate share price drop. Nice burgers though. Update: someone bailed on day 2, ditching their $1000 of shares for $810.

Recent NZX lister, accounting software firm, Xero Live (XRO) could be a good long term buy after recently dropping below NZ$0.88 on very light volumes.

The five cent drop in the kiwi dollar against the greenback has followed a spectacular week in the financial markets with the NZ$0.81 high reached last Tuesday, a 22 year record. And discussion of a capital gains tax on housing profits should be the final straw in any housing market growth this year.

Surely none of my fellow blogging mates would stoop so low as to enter this lame Blog Idol competition. And in TV land, Kay Gregory is off from One’s Breakfast Show. Yawn.

For entertainment
The Warriors game on Friday night was spectacular. I’m enjoying the League much more than the NPC at present.

Check out the locally made and very clever rugby podcasts from The Dropkicks as the Rugby World Cup looms. Get the feed from here.

Finally, if you’re chasing Blue Cod in the Marlborough Sounds, try the chartreuse Berkley Gulp! soft bait. It works so well it should be banned. Remember the maximum number per day is 3. We reached our boat limit easily at a self-imposed minimum length of 32cms on Saturday.

There are many examples where attracting customers via the web is cheaper than by merger or acquisition. And it’s sustainable too, reducing operating costs and minimising waste.

A tipping point is nearing where utilities such as electricity, gas and telecommunications will be completely transacted with consumers, companies and government organisations via the web and the mobile phone. Like all new business models, emerging new markets of consumers will drive and lead change.

The challenge in New Zealand is to reach a new consumer group, collectively known as LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability), also referred to as Cultural Creatives and Conscientious Consumers. Local environmental design agency, Moxie Design, calls them Solution Seekers and measures them at 32% of the New Zealand population. This group is concerned about sustainability, climate change, personal development, fair trade and human rights, the environment and health.

These consumers share some key characteristics. They buy brands with similar values. They are sophisticated purchasers albeit prepared to pay a little more, acknowledging a cost in delivering sustainable products and services. They are brand-loyal and willing to be educated.

There is a collision between advances in technology, a need for sustainable business practices and the emergence of this powerful consumer lobby. Ignore it at your peril.

Video ads are starting to appear on some New Zealand sites allowing television commercials to be reused online, blurring the line between offline and online advertising. eMarketer’s recently released Video Advertising Online: Spending and Audience report projects online video ad spend in the US will top US$775 this year but comments that this is still only 3.6% of total online adspend in 2007. But underpinning this growth is a switch from traditional TV spend that is driving spectacular growth in online placement.

Video advertising offers local web publishers such as Stuff, NZHerald, MSN and Yahoo!Xtra new revenue streams, allows effective reuse of television production and importantly is an engaging web medium as broadband adoption increases.

The transfer of revenue from television to the web allows for highly effective measurement of engagement.

Google-owned, Doubleclick, with their DartMotif video suite of products, is leading the way in New Zealand although publishers are still rightfully wary of a backlash from heavy file sizes and tediously slow load times.

Video is a powerful brand tool, but not all video is made for the web. The recently released and highly engaging Gingerbread Haka was an excellent candidate for online video advertising in addition to the extensive YouTube views, on-site traffic and viral release it enjoyed. However I recommend extensive testing of creative against banners and the all-powerful text links if you’re looking for low cost per click.

What’s Hot
The Gingerbread Haka stormed the web last week generating over 2000 visitors and 3000 page views to the video on this website. The Baking Industry Association’s treatment of our haka was destined to be controversial. Read some of the comments to see for yourself. I wonder if the new Adidas television commercial promoting the All Blacks for the World Cup will generate the same vitriol, or it is ok if it’s for rugby?

Gabriel and Bob from Wellington restaurant Boulot rocked last Friday. The pork is to die for and the service is just sublime. Speaking of cooking, the blatant use of Hayley Holt’s image in a David Farrar’s post caused a stir amongst that blogs’ readership.

Ins & Outs
It was good to see Andy Ellis made the AB World Cup team but a bummer for Piri Weepu. And it seems David Benson-Pope is on the way out if he did know in advance about the sacking of Madeleine Setchell.

And Wellington has an lively undercurrent of exhibitionists if this dogging article on the Wellingtonista is anything to go by. The new lingo makes me feel old.

For your entertainment
You can now see your favourite MP on the net. Tickets to live narrowcast viewing of the Parlimentary Circus are now available. But to do something much more useful, design a teeshirt with The Hinitiative and the Wellington City Mission.

Finally, Raglan artist, Karla Stevenson is an up ‘n comer to collect and enjoy. This piece is called ‘The Old Bach’.

Rightclick and ’save link as’ if you want to download a file of the entire Rugby World Cup schedule for your Microsoft Outlook calendar. Here are the fixtures if you want a link. This may be the most important download you undertake this year (if you’re a rugby nut like me).

I smell the sweet scent of competition in the air. Vodafone has waded into the business fixed line market offering up to 60% off calls from landline-to-Vodafone mobiles (down to 15c). Seems to be a good deal if your office has Vodafone mobiles. You just get them to reassign your business numbers (number portability at work) and it’s free to switch. Here are their call plans.

There’s been a lot of talk about 42 Below as a model for establishing and exit of local start-ups, particularly with the recent market activity around Xero and Burgerfuel.  I’ve been involved in a couple of meetings this week where this article from Valuecruncher would have been useful to table.  Nice analysis, Mark.