The Idea Farm's Blog

Author, Kurt Vonnegut  In 1956, Vonnegut, though a published author, was one of the 16 million other World War II veterans struggling to put food on the table. His money making solution at the time was a board game called GHQ, which utilized his understanding of modern combined arms warfare and distilled it into a simple game played on an eight-by-eight grid. Vonnegut pitched the game diligently to publishers all year long according to game designer and NYU faculty member Geoff Engelstein, who recently found those letters sitting in the archives at Indiana University. But the real treasure was an original set of typewritten rules, complete with Vonnegut’s own notes in the margins. With the permission of the Vonnegut estate, Engelstein honed the original rules, straightened out the lumps in GHQ’s endgame, and created art and graphic design. Now you can purchase the final product, titled Kurt Vonnegut’s GHQ: The Lost Board Game, at your local Barnes & Noble — nearly 70 years afte...

Obtaining permission to use text involves a four-step process:  1. You must clearly and specifically identify what material you want to use and how you want to use it. Your first stage is to identify the material you want to use and the rights you will need. Commercial Use : If you are seeking permission to use text on behalf of an advertising agency or a company selling a product or service, your use is more likely to be categorized as a commercial endorsement, which will trigger additional legal issues.  2. You must send a permission request letter to the publisher or rights holder. Your permission request letter should give the details about the text you want to use, how you expect to use it, and the permission you want. There are two different types of request letters you can use: • One simply informs the rights holder of your needs and expectations that you and the rights holder will later complete and sign a separate permission agreement. • The other serves as both a...

A legal battle between the Andy Warhol Foundation and the photographer Lynn Goldsmith over a portrait of Prince is at the center of a pivotal discussion about copyright. Blame the appeals court judgment from 2021 declaring that Andy Warhol had no right to appropriate someone else’s photo of Prince into one of the Pop artist’s classic silk-screened portraits.  On May 18, 2023 the Supreme Court sided with a photographer in a dispute with the Andy Warhol Foundation over the late artist’s use of her photos as the basis for his own series of portraits of Prince. The justices issued a narrow interpretation focused on one of four factors used by courts to determine the “fair use” of a copyrighted work and the “purpose and character” of the use. The factors include “the nature of a copyrighted work,” “the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole,” and “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted wo...

Poetry has been used as a glorious expression of sentiment, an avenue for creative idiom, and a of sharing thoughts and emotions throughout the ages. Today, through online communities and blogs, a collection of stanzas can unite people all over the world. Whether you’re a aficionado of classic poetry or more into the modern age, here are blogs and communities perfect for taking pleasure in verse. Deep Underground Poetry This free platform lets you share and publish poems, lyrics, short stories, spoken word and performance poetry. You can also meet other poets, writers and spoken word artists, get critique and improve your writing, take part in poetry competitions and host your own. Every comment you make has a link to your own submissions. Leaving interesting, helpful critique is a great way to get more people to read your work. My poetic side My poetic side was created for the poetry community. Select the "Community" tab to read full poems written by other community members ...

Writing is a means to communicate with a global audience. But how does one manage to write successfully for a broad audience when creating content? Below are some strategies or tips to correct common errors when creating content. The Hurried Edit Everyone has time management concerns and maybe you’ve reread your piece so many times that you’re confident you’ve caught all the mistakes. But taking enough time to thoroughly proofread your post or article is critical. It is essential to good writing. Understand the importance of formatting The structure of your post is important in holding a reader’s attention. Many readers scan or skim articles rather than read them word for word. A big block of text makes this habit difficult and may repel readers.  Tips:  Use bullets and numbered lists when appropriate. These formats are easy to scan and keep readers engaged with the text. Edit to ensure you have relevant information in your article Format links effectively Keep paragraph...

Instagram is Helping You Focus With Quiet Mode Instagram is launching ‘Quiet mode’ to help people focus, and to encourage people to set boundaries with friends and followers. Once enabled, you won’t receive any notifications, your profile’s activity status will change to ‘In quiet mode’ and we’ll automatically send an autoreply when someone DMs you. Instagram users have told them that they sometimes want to take time for themselves and are seeking ways to focus at night, while studying, and during work or school.  With quiet mode one can simply customize hours to fit your schedule and once the feature is turned off, we’ll show you a quick summary of notifications so you can catch up on what you missed. ‘Quiet mode’ is available to everyone in the US, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and Instagram hopes to expand to more countries soon. Instagram Supports Teens’ safety with Updated Parental Supervision Tools Instagram aims to help parents be more aware o...

  According to a NewsLab study, 80% of journalists use social media in their daily work 1 . Journalists told us that they’re using social media to complete a variety of work-related tasks, including story promotion, networking, sourcing information, and receiving PR pitches. Naturally, time management becomes a challenge and social media burnout is imminent. On top of the rising demand for content output, journalists are expected to be always listening and always engaging. Monitoring the latest news and user-generated content and promoting their own stories on social media can take up a large amount of time in a journalist’s day.   So how can journalists find and maintain a balance between staying on top of the latest news, connecting with their audience, and getting everything else accomplished? When you’re checking social media platforms daily for your job, how can you tell when you’ve reached your mental limit? To help you recognize some signs of social media burnout a...

LONDON, Oct. 20, 2022 -- Talenthouse will invest up to $7 million in cash and shares in Nerve, an embedded banking solution for the US creator economy. This is the first time Nerve will be providing their embedded banking proposition on a private-label basis. TalentPlus, Talenthouse's one-stop-financial app built for Creators has partnered with Nerve Banking as well. Through this investment and partnership, TalentPlus plans to introduce in the US in late-November and move into several markets in 2023 including the UK and Latin America to lessen the financial burdens of Creators. Furthermore, TalentPlus plans to add personal banking services to its offering in 2023 across all markets to benefit the Creator Economy. Made possible with the dawn of Open Banking in early 2018, TalentPlus is a vertical banking solution that supplies a financial suite of services for Creators that goes beyond the offerings of commercial banks. The concept emerged from a Talenthouse pilot program called E...

Creator of the world's largest hospitality podcast network, Wil Slickers, recently announced the formation of Amplified Audio, a new on-demand digital audio company devoted to fueling the growth of voices in niche categories. Besides offering end-to-end production and distribution support for creators, Amplified Audio brings a new, tiered fee structure to the market, designed to equalize access to high-value sponsorship deals. "Podcasting continues to grow in popularity with all kinds of audiences, all over the globe," said Amplified Audio founder Wil Slickers. "Hosts are in the ears, homes and cars of their listeners and can cultivate trusting relationships worth their weight in gold." According to Nielsen Podcast Ad Effectiveness data, 69% of podcast audiophiles said they became aware of a new product or service from podcasts, and two-thirds report having researched or purchased a product or service after hearing about it in a podcast episode, according to Com...

Employment in advertising, public relations and related services rose by 2,200 jobs in October, according to the monthly employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also showed the biggest monthly job drop on record for internet media. Ad agency employment also slumped. For the overall economy, U.S. employers in October added 531,000 jobs as the labor market gained strength. U.S. employment in the BLS classification of advertising, public relations and related services increased to 453,100 jobs in October. The ad business banked its ninth consecutive month of growth since ad jobs hit a pandemic period low of 432,100 in January. The October increase in advertising employment came in above September's gain of 1,200 ad jobs. BLS upwardly revised the September figure from the preliminary 1,000 jobs increase it reported last month.This BLS bucket includes ad agencies, PR agencies and related services such as m...