Husani Oakley

Let’s bring some nutrition into cards. That’s something OPC (Organic Playing Cards) probably thought of themselves when they started to create playing cards with various fruit and vegetable themes. Together their team and I refined OPC’s positioning allowing the brand to double down on the things it is already known for. In a collaborative effort, we discussed ways to redefine OPC during multiple strategy sessions. The goal was to clarify OPC’s voice and approach to ideate, produce, and sell products as a community-first brand. Eager to grow and expand awareness the following are some learnings we discovered. Complete Case Study: https://lnkd.in/ewCPvx3T —- Client: Organic Playing Cards Strategy: Max Jung

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Oh boy, so a mysterious third-party is crawling and indexing your site and feeding that to Perplexity. How wonderful :) -> In response to plagiarism allegations, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas says the company “is not ignoring” robots.txt, but does rely on third-party web crawlers "Srinivas said the mysterious web crawler that Wired identified was not owned by Perplexity, but by a third-party provider of web crawling and indexing services. Srinivas would not say the name of the third-party provider, citing a NDA. Asked if Perplexity immediately called the third-party crawler to tell them to stop crawling Wired content, Srinivas was non-committal. “It’s complicated,” he said." #perplexity #google #seo #ai

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TV right now is wall-to-wall "mid." But why? I think a lot of pieces right now are missing the true culprit. For example, this James Poniewozik piece does a fantastic job of laying out what exactly that looks like: all-star casts and highly-competent direction, but familiar and low-stakes. Like a fancy cheeseburger. He, like most pieces on the subject, pins it on the streaming business model. I think there's something else going on that's different about TV today versus when people were glued to The Wire, The Sopranos, or Twin Peaks that goes deeper than the underlying business model. It's our second screen. When I talk to friends about what they're watching, a lot admit they can't watch foreign language TV, or stuff that's too complex, because they have their phone or laptop open. We’ve relegated TV to comfortable background noise. The streaming model gives people what they want, but what they overwhelmingly want is comfortable and mid, not because that's where their tastes lie if something has 100% of their attention. It's because they are calibrating their TV taste to what works for 40% of their attention. I don't have a solution, but I'm pretty sure that's the cause. I don't think Hollywood has lost its spark or financiers have lost their taste for risk. We've lost our taste for stuff that requires our full attention.

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This feels like sensationalist click bait... or did I miss something Ron Fritz 1. Isn't this basically a HOOPs demo app? Is this a change in status quo?Techsoft already effectively provides many examples/apps, and it seems like they will just provide even more and license them out so people can hit the ground running faster. I would think that software engineering firms provide value by gluing together more than a couple of well known libraries. The article also mentions other up and coming libraries that further show this accessibility bar is changing. Shouldn't we make CAD import and visualization more ubiquitous? If this helps make CAD BREP data a standard low bar for software vendors, I think that actually helps the industry. 2. How is this like Carta? Carta monetized and sold inside information without consent of the people who gave that information. Techsoft made a press release. They seem to be transparent about their motivations and goals. Of course any company that licenses something/provides a platform has special information that would aid in M&A. That's the basis for vertical integration moves and in this case what feels like consolidation. It seems more like people can't easily sell a "flashlight app" anymore. 3. Who actually cares about this? Techsoft is in a natural symbiosis with the companies it works with. It won't compete against any major CAD players because it would causes issues with the licensing of the CAD formats. It doesn't make sense to compete against anyone providing real value beyond connecting a few libraries together because they would lose their user base. The parasolid model has nominally worked well. Maybe I missed something, or I'm missing a perspective. I'm happy to not make any real strategic decisions about writing my own CAD importer. There are more interesting problems to concentrate on.

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Great read, and +1,000 to this quote: "As Marques Brownlee cleverly summed up Apple’s WWDC24, 'AI is a feature, not a product.' We are focusing too much on branding AI as the product. AI deserves attention, but end users don’t use AI for the sake of using AI. They use AI because they want to solve a problem or achieve a goal. In other words, integrating AI features seamlessly into the overall offerings to help the users out is more important than throwing starbursts and gradients at them for AI awareness. Most of the time, users don’t even need to know they are using AI."

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Entering any competition is like choosing the mystery box on a game show - you might unveil a grand prize or a gag gift. Yet, the real loss is never picking a box at all. Take me, for instance, hovering on the edge of my seat about the upcoming AAPI Boston comedy festival. When I auditioned, it was with a shrug and a "Why not?"—the kind of reckless abandon you have when you're convinced there's no way you'll make the cut. Fast forward, and here I am, a week out, marinating in a stew of excitement and nerves. But here's the plot twist: Winning? Losing? In the grand scheme, they're just side dishes to the main course of stepping out there. When I sent in my audition tape, it wasn't with dreams of grandeur; it was for the sheer thrill of performing, of sharing a laugh. The realization hit me – if you're holding back from something because the fear of failure looms large, remember the only true failure is in letting that chance pass you by. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, after all. So, to anyone teetering on the brink of "Should I or shouldn’t I?" because they dread the taste of defeat: Just jump into the contest. Whether it’s stand-up comedy, writing, or underwater basket weaving, you’ll either walk away with a trophy or a fantastic story. Both are priceless. Here's to conquering fears and seizing opportunities, one wild audition tape at a time. #TakeTheLeap #AAPIComedy #NoRiskNoReward #mirandism #unapologetic #unapologeticdude

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For the first time, we’re releasing PR benchmarking data for syndicated content. Stacker distributes thousands of stories on behalf of other newsrooms to editors at over 3,000 news outlets who each have the option to republish select stories to their readers (think AP wire, but for features curated from 3rd party newsrooms) Stories are tagged by vertical (sports/news/money/etc) - and when chosen, published to corresponding sections of publishers’ sites via RSS. For the first time, we are starting to release cuts of the success data, benchmarked. If earned PR is what you're after, use this to optimize for distribution. Screenshot is for all data to date from 2024. A few takeaways from digging into the data and supporting stories: 1) Latch on to trending news / current events It’s easy to look at the data and say “we should tell entertainment stories.” Tempting as that is, it’s likely not an option for most brands. But latching on to news stories can work for any niche, and we’ve repeatedly seen this strategy work for teams everywhere from the sleep space (mattress marketplaces covering bed bugs during the Paris bed bug mania of October ‘23) to transportation (Lyft covering economic impact of when Taylor Swift visits a city). 2) You don’t need to stay in your lane You don’t need to be a travel brand to tell travel related stories. We’ve seen fintech companies tell great stories about saving money on road trips, healthcare teams cover getting over jet lag, and so on. Same can be said for lifestyle, sports, money, etc. Which leads to the next point… 3) Have range These are averages, and the truth is, a successful PR strategy will produce stories across all verticals. A trend we’ve seen is that some news outlets primarily pick up Money related content, since they are down a business writer. Others are really only looking for evergreen lifestyle features. So if you want to maximize your reach…. Make sure you are covering your bases. Our newswire syndicates content for hundreds of orgs across all categories - what other cuts would you want to see benchmarking data by?

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My AI Assistant Wrote This Post (And It's Funnier Than I Am) Remember when we copywriters thought our biggest worries were either carpal tunnel syndrome or the overuse of the Oxford comma? Those were the good old days. The future has arrived and it’s just kicked us in the Strunck and White. While we were busy debating whether "moist" was too gross a word to use in our ad copy, AI snuck in and decided to play Godzilla to our grammatically correct Tokyo: 1. Speed: AI can churn out 10,000 words of pure copy gold in the time it takes you to decide whether to use "revolutionary" or “transformative” in your headline. By the time you've finished your first draft, AI has written a novel, cured cancer, and solved world hunger - all optimised for SEO. 2. Creativity: You think you're creative because you once compared your client’s product to a "Swiss Army knife for enterprise data"? AI can generate metaphors so mind-bending, they make Salvador Dali look like an accountant. “Our analytics software is a quantum-enabled psychic octopus that's achieved enlightenment and now interprets your spreadsheets through the lens of cosmic irony and dadaist poetry.” 3. Consistency: Unlike human copywriters, AI doesn't get writer's block or spend hours staring at a blank page, contemplating the existential dread of a looming deadline. It just writes. And writes. And writes. It's the Energizer Bunny of content creation, if the Energizer Bunny could also predict market trends and optimise for voice search. 4. Personalization: While we're busy trying to remember if it's "their," "there," or "they're," AI is crafting personalised messages so specific, recipients will think their long-lost twin wrote it. "Hey Allan, remember that hideously embarrassing thing you did in dorm room 507 on 12 February 1992, around 1130pm-ish? Our app can help prevent that from ever happening again!" Creepy? Maybe. Effective? You bet your last shred of privacy it is. 5. Adaptability: You spent years honing your copywriting craft, perfecting your voice, and developing your style. How adorable. AI can effortlessly switch between the writing style of "Genghis Khan giving a TED talk on Singapore’s supply chain logistics," or "Shakespeare writing GDPR compliance emails" faster than you can even finish rolling your eyes at these ridiculous examples. (I was going to add something about AI copywriters "being practically free," "never takes toilet breaks," and "doesn't sexually harass the coffee machine," but if I keep going, I might accidentally convince myself to outsource my own job to a sentient toaster.) So, fellow copywriters, it's time to face facts. We're becoming as relevant as a floppy disk repairpersons at a quantum computing conference. Or VHS tape rewinders at a Netflix convention. Or any other thousands of tortured metaphors my AI writing assistant is ready to generate at a press of a button. #AIWriting #Copywriting #HumanVsAI #B2Bmarketing

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Elon is a master at inserting himself into the conversation. With one tweet, he inserted himself into the Apple news cycle by purposefully conflating Apple’s own internally developed AI (Apple Intelligence) with that of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Apple clearly stated it’s their own AI model which will be fully integrated into the iPhone operating system. Apple’s AI will run securely within your iPhone device, your information will not be sent to a server. If the AI computation needs to run on a cloud server, it will do so over a new secure connection called Apple Cloud Compute, securely running on Apple-designed servers and Apple-designed M-series silicon server chips. The OpenAI ChatGPT 4.0 announcement was above and beyond Apple’s own AI model. Think of ChatGPT 4.0 as an optional extension to the new Siri AI, similar to extensions on your web browser. You will be asked if you want to send the request to ChatGPT for additional AI processing (you will have to approve each and every time this occurs). Apple also noted that other AI models (Google Gemini, MidJourney, and likely even Musk's own AI company x.AI) will be added in the future to be used as optional extensions to Siri AI. At an enterprise level, Apple will provide controls for companies to disable the use of AI extensions on devices that access sensitive business emails, documents, and messages. Not to mention, every major tech company is integrating AI into their systems. Google Android is integrating Gemini AI, Microsoft Windows and Office is integrating Copilot / ChatGPT, etc. Musk is going to be banning a whole lot of devices if this is the line he's going to draw, but he won't, this is just a masterful PR move by Musk to remain prominent in the topic of AI. https://lnkd.in/gy58u9zu

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🚀 Today marks an exciting milestone for Daffy. A full redesign. We call it Daffy 2.0 💗 After an incredible year of growth and feedback from our members, Alejandro Crosa led our team of talented designers to rethink our member experience from the ground up. But Daffy, we understand that giving is not just a financial transaction—it's a meaningful experience for both the donor and the recipient. While we're proud of the functional and design improvements to the new dashboard, we also hope you’ll appreciate some of the small touches of delight that the team added with this release. These are a few of the key changes we’ve made: 🖥️ Simplicity: The new Daffy interface is divided into three sections. The left side showcases a member’s philanthropic identity, the center focuses on managing your fund with simplified giving actions, and the right side is for discovering and launching charitable initiatives. 🧾 Tax Summary: Now prominently displayed at the very top of the dashboard, ensuring it's always current and easily accessible. 🔄 Enhanced recent activity: Our revamped recent activity section not only tracks all your giving activity, but also provides quick access to the information and actions you need. 👀 Donation Status: Every step of your donation journey is now visible, giving you the reassurance that your funds will have the impact you want. 💰 Contribution Tracking: Whether it's cash, stock, or crypto, you can view the status of your recent contributions and ensure your money is on its way, or has made it to your fund. Daffy 2.0 *is* The Donor-Advised Fund for You™ And if you haven’t tried Daffy yet, there’s no better time than now to set up a better system for giving in 2024. We’ve set out to build a platform to help you be more generous, more often, and we hope you join the thousands of members already on the platform. https://lnkd.in/gykmgr4k #TechforGood #DonorAdvisedFund

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While everyone else is distracted at Cannes, can we talk about AI and creative work for a second? I've worked on many different media products in the last several years from publishing to video to news and podcasting and now spend a lot of my time thinking about the ways that people who make that stuff come together to collaborate and make more of that stuff together. Since we could theoretically say that the work between an individual and a gen AI tool is itself a form of collaboration, I'm fascinated by the rapid and astounding rate of change of these tools that will hopefully enable new creative possibilities for creators of all kinds. But, here’s what I’m wondering: among all these tools that help people write, or create video, or compose music, or summarize news sources, has anyone heard the leaders of these companies talk about books they love, movies that inspire them, or the news sources they turn to on complex topics? And if you’re creating something or you work in media and you’re feeling a bit skeptical or uneasy about where we go from here, my question is: Does this matter? Would it make you feel differently about the products they’re building if they were discerning and interested fans of the kind of work that you or your company creates? Or, if you’re concerned about the copyright issues involved in model training or news source summarization, would this change how you feel about the fair use issues at play? If you believe that qualities like “craft” will become more important in our media products as AI lowers the barriers to creation, would a more public and insightful discussion about creativity and culture from the makers of these tools change the way you feel about the tools and their impact? What's missing in the conversation between the people making the tools and the people they're making the tools for?

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Seb Joseph over at Digiday highlights a few publishers that are hiring for the "head of consent" role. I'm a big believer that privacy can be a significant competitive advantage for advertisers and publishers that put consumer trust first. As Seb writes (referring to the head of consent at two UK companies), "... both roles aim to make the consent management platform more than just a compliance checkbox, and turn it into a cornerstone of their businesses." Companies that are privileged enough to be trusted by their customers will enjoy the economic benefits of deep consumer knowledge and the ability to respectfully turn that knowledge into a competitive advantage. I'm optimistic that more publishers and advertisers will embrace privacy and data protection not only because compliance requirements dictate it, but because they'll win in the market as a result.

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See below what happened in #BloombergTech in SF yesterday! Learn all about the latest in Tech, AI and even Space! Excited for #BloombergTech London that is coming up this October :) Get in touch! #techsummit #BloombergTechsummit #AI #tech

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I’m a little bit of Sci-Fi nerd, more Star Wars than Star Trek. What can I say? If you’re like me, you’ve been exploring and testing #AI tools to become more efficient with your time and make your work output more effective. I wanted to share a few I’ve enjoyed so far: 🧠 Flot AI: I love the memory feature. You can save text from any website (quotes, insights, news, etc.) to use later, and it works across all websites and apps for quick and easy access. You don’t have to organize anything; it does it for you. 💻 GPTWorkspace: This is like injecting steroids into your Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. GPT-40 and Gemini are pulled into Google products, including Chrome, offering enhanced features and better outputs, such as more creative presentations, better writing, and even email support (Gmail). 📽️ Gamma: Gamma is an AI software that can generate presentations, documents, and webpages. You can use your files and prompts, and there are a lot of one-click features to clean up presentations for consistency and style. This is free, but there’s a subscription that unlocks substantially more. I’m also starting to test virtual assistants. Like many business leaders, I can use help with many functions, so I’m hoping for someone to delegate tasks to. I was not paid for this post, but I am open to affiliate programs … 😀

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As I approach my two-year mark as an independent designer, I’ve reflected a lot on my work, challenges, the people I’ve worked with, and share what’s (hopefully) next. MY WORK. I continue to work on many media-related products that fit my experience at Instagram, Twitter, and Condé Nast. It’s allowed me to continue working in areas I love while expanding into other verticals like crypto and cybersecurity. BEYOND DESIGN. Running my own business has taught me invaluable lessons. I've learned to navigate the healthcare system, manage payroll, draft contracts, negotiate, and request deposits. I’m also attempting to master the art of cold emailing and follow-ups without seeming like a pest. THE PEOPLE. The satisfaction I find almost always comes from the amazing people I work with, even if the work isn’t thrilling. This includes founders, business executives, design and product managers, designers, former colleagues, and even friends and family. LOOKING AHEAD… I’m actively pursuing new partnerships with teams and individuals who need an independent designer. Here are some of my strengths and things that interest me. 🖼️ VISUAL DESIGN. In addition to product thinking and UX design, I like working with people who value visual design and craft. When speed-to-market is important, I enjoy working with founders and leaders at properly scoping and prioritizing work to allow for these types of projects to still meet a high-quality bar. ⭐️NEW INITIATIVES. Throughout my entire career, I’ve started almost everything from a blank canvas with lots of ambiguity. Whether it’s shipping MVPs, testing new ideas, designing concepts for pitches, building new teams from scratch, and implementing new processes is something that most fulfills me. 🕰️INVESTING MY TIME. Even as a contractor, I’m as invested as full-time team members. This mindset has been crucial to the success of each of my partnerships. I’m able to quickly integrate into projects and teams, adapt, deliver impactful results, and help them succeed. Like many, I’m interested in products that leverage AI as a means to unlock new possibilities for companies and people. The following verticals are all interesting to me. 🏀SPORTS: I’m a basketball junkie. While these opportunities feel like few and far between, I’m intrigued by sports entertainment, stats, and analytics. 🏠HOME OWNERSHIP. As a new homeowner, I like to think about ways home projects and renovations can improve from many perspectives. 🛍️RETAIL. I appreciate quality, durable, simple, and affordable(ish) clothes, furniture, and accessories. 🛠️WEALTH, PERSONAL, AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. I’m very organized when it comes to my life, finances, and work. I’d like to unlock new opportunities for people to be more efficient with how they manage these things. 📱LETS CONNECT. I’d love to chat! Learn more at dougseidman.com. More recent design case studies are available upon request. Hit me up douglas.seidman@gmail.com or DM me here.

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