This is something that needed to be done before the kimbro agency even launched its trend service formally in 2006. But, alas, in its original stages in the mid to late 90′s, TrendSights was offered as a complimentary service to stay in touch with clients and potential clients, and to that end I did not protect it with all the legalities necessary to keep it within my company domain.

After working for a while as a mid-sized firm’s VP Sales & Marketing in 2004 and 2005 with an obvious interruption to my business, I lost the domains for both kimbro agency and for TrendSights. Once I returned to private ownership, my answer was to own the domains thekimbroagency.com and kimbroagency.net (dropping the the), and naming the trend newsletter Trendcites.

For someone who is so big picture oriented, I am sometimes a stickler for detail (good for what I do), and was stubborn about keeping the name Trendcites because by definition cites means to name something, to call it out, versus sites which has to do with a location.

However, and I was told this by more than one person at the outset, (no it wasn’t just you) Trendcites looked like Trendcities. You know, what cities have you lived in in your life? It’s taken some time for me to correct, by going to the person who swiped TrendSights as their newsletter name to get it back, and start making changes to my email, the newsletters, stationery and so on….as well as creating a blog in 2007 that rhymed with the newsletter to help correct any misunderstanding from the misspellings of the newsletter (sigh). But, that was so last year. Now it’s Trendsights, matter resolved.

Going loopy after information overload by DeaPeaJay

Plus given the shape of the economy, I had to decide if it was worth making any corrections for. I have my misgivings about things that are published now so freely on the web. We are, if nothing else, a world overwhelmed by too much information, or suffering from information overload.

From Gawker’s “The New York Time’s Paywall: the stakes are small.”

While initially I didn’t agree with paying for content on the web, now I am beginning to think it’s not a bad idea. Media, such as the New York Times, should be well reimbursed by advertising, but if we are to maintain the sanctity of unbiased media or excellence in media then there needs to start being levels of professionalism in media clearly denoted. If it takes some paywalls to make that clear, then that’s the direction we need to move in.

It is my opinion that by having so much openness in the information arena, children, students, designers, educators and researchers have been exposed to rather high levels of crap (if I may be so blunt) and that has done nothing for what is getting put out there professionally. That sort of lack of professionalism is showing up in our schools, television, film, art, fashion, literature, journalism and much product created and put on shelves for us to buy and put in our homes.

That’s a rather sweeping statement and obviously there are many exclusions to it (especially my twitter friends and connections and OTR Gang and other personal favs…I’m a consumer too), but in order to render the high from the low in all things, I say we begin with the web. This is not to say that the newbies out there aren’t creating some rather weighty stuff because they are, and there is more to this movement of ugly design and banal journalism than an overwhelming amount of free web content…it also has to do with the catch 22 we are in economically and our seemingly obsessive addiction to outsourcing our manufacturing to China. Nor do I subscribe to media outlets like Time, Inc’s list of best blogs of whatever year or Twitter’s new thing with curated lists: these are helpful guides and sometimes interesting to peruse, but by no means exhaustive (word of mouth is still the trusted go to guide, by some 70% according to a Neilsen study). Not to mention the venerable Fast Company’s list of 100 Most Creative in Business for 2010 assigning the number one spot to Lady Gaga and including the 13 year old fashionista wunderkin, Tavi: really? Out of all the creative people in the world right now, these two, based on their popculture status are considered two of the top 100 creative people in all of the world? That’s what I call catering to the masses and not looking beyond the obvious (besides which, I’m thinking their deadline for submissions was short based on the intro paragraph’s mistakes in grammar and spelling).

(You can go gaga over Gaga, but when Glee does a better rendition of Bad Romance than Gaga herself, well I need say no more).

Something’s gotta give. My initial two cents is in the realm of taking back ownership of the rightful name of my newsletter, TrendSights. And next I’m gonna go after the guys who are trying to steal my TrendBites blog moniker and eventually get back ownership of the domain name www.kimbroagency.com in addition to www.thekimbroagency.com.

Then, well, you’ll just have to wait for my next announcement, coming to a social media network near you soon :)

So, again, what’s in a name? Take it from me, lots.

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