Tick, tock, tick, tock....

What exactly is time perception?

In an age-old debate, philosophers and scientists alike have had a difficult time pinpointing what it means to perceive time.  Unlike shape perception, color perception, depth perception, pitch, volume, and motion perception, time perception does not involve any one sense.  There are no specific sensory receptors associated with it; it is ephemeral and invisible.  Do life forms possess some special capacity, independent of the original five senses that exists solely to perceive time?  Or do we integrate perceptual knowledge through the senses to paint of picture of time?
             

Some suggest that we do not actually perceive time itself; instead, we perceive events or changes in temporal space and how they relate to one another.  In his seminal paper Time Perception, Ernst Poppel explains that there are a number of elementary aspects of time that fundamentally contribute to how we perceive it: duration, non-simultaneity, order, past and present (tense), and change.   These fundamentals are concerned with time itself, how it is structured and how that subsequently leads us to experience it.  In relation, R.A. Block, identifies four factors that give us the context within which to perceive time: characteristics of the time experiencer, time-related behavioral judgments, contents of a time period, and activities during a time period.  

When considered together, Poppel and Block’s arguments provide a robust, yet complicated, picture of what time is and why we perceive it in different ways.  The faculties needed to fully consider the relationship between time and the perceiver are complex; the interrelatedness between each factor spins an intricate web.  

If one factor changes in some way, another is bound to be affected.  Just some food for thought.  Don't spend too much time thinking about it.  

Start-Ups are like food...?

"In an artificial world, only extremists live naturally."  

I just read a great article here that wraps up nicely an uncommon, but very interesting and important viewpoint on Start-Ups.  See here, http://paulgraham.com/boss.html, for the article.  

Are we meant to have bosses?  Read for yourself and make the decision.  

New Website

Just put up my new site.  Go visit www.getsmarticles.com and read all about my company.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Socialnomics, Part 1

How important is social networking in today's business world?  Knee jerk response would say it is very important for web start ups, but maybe not as much for well-established businesses and corporations.  And what about the mom-and-pop store over on Main Street?  Should they focus energy on wiring their business into the world of twitter, facebook, and YouTube?

Well, consider this: if facebook were a country, it would have the third largest population on the planet.  And consider that within 5 seconds of finishing this post, I will have "shared" the link on my facebook page - it will show up on almost 900 of my friends' newsfeeds with the click of one button.
  

I am currently devouring two books, Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business - by Erik Qualman & Six Pixels of Separation - by Mitch Joel, the President of Twist Image.  Both books expose, and make blatantly obvious, the need for EVERY business in the world to plug in to social media: to not do so is putting yourself at a deliberate disadvantage.  Marketing has never been so easy and fast.  

It is not a matter of "giving in" to some fad that is occurring.  Social Media is here to stay; it has fundamentally changed the way the Western world functions.  And that cannot be argued against.  

I will be doing a periodic Socialnomics blog series over the coming weeks with commentary and personal insight, so check back regularly for more content on this fascinating subject.  You may be very surprised at just how "plugged in" we are to one another.  

IP & the Zuckerberg Scare

Intellectual Property.  


What exactly is it?  And why, in this day and age, is it so important?  Intellectual Property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which property rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions (thank you, Wikipedia).  




I'm no expert on the topic, that's what an IP Lawyer is for, but I can say that intellectual property is a murky subject.  The idea that you can (and need to) formally protect your ideas is quite scary to everyone from the budding entrepreneur to the corporate giant.  Action must be swift to protect good ideas; ideas can be stolen just like anything else.  And a stolen idea doesn't gather fingerprints or DNA evidence.  


I met with an IP Lawyer yesterday and we discussed the issues related to my company.  As a web-based innovation, nothing I have can be formally protected through IP law with the exception of the tangibles (i.e. my logo, slogan, etc).  With that in mind, I am facing a race to launch.  I am currently building a website in my spare time and plan on launching ASAP.  It's a dog-eat-dog world and those with the best marketing and customer base are the most successful.  Websites  launch; imitators quickly follow.  


The recent film, The Social Network, http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/, brings to light the risk involved with intellectual property.  One of the biggest social revolutions in the history of the WORLD (if facebook were a country it would have the third largest population in the world) came about because of a controversial IP battle.  I thoroughly enjoyed the film, but in watching it, I couldn't help but feel a slight fear that my idea could be easily stolen.  


I am currently doing everything in my power to prevent that from happening.  Look for my site to launch soon.