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Time's Person of the Year mirrors Business 2.0's top pick for 50 People Who Matter Now

Time has chosen its Person of the Year... and it's you!

America loves its solitary geniuses—its Einsteins, its Edisons, its Jobses—but those lonely dreamers may have to learn to play with others. Car companies are running open design contests. Reuters is carrying blog postings alongside its regular news feed. Microsoft is working overtime to fend off user-created Linux. We're looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it's just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.

Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.

Hm, that reminds me of the last July's issue of Business 2.0, when we ran our list of 50 People Who Matter, and the #1 person was... you!

They've long said the customer is always right. But they never really meant it. Now they have no choice. You -- or rather, the collaborative intelligence of tens of millions of people, the networked you -- continually create and filter new forms of content, anointing the useful, the relevant, and the amusing and rejecting the rest. You do it on websites like Amazon, Flickr, and YouTube, via podcasts and SMS polling, and on millions of self-published blogs. In every case, you've become an integral part of the action as a member of the aggregated, interactive, self-organizing, auto-entertaining audience. But the You Revolution goes well beyond user-generated content. Companies as diverse as Delta Air Lines and T-Mobile are turning to you to create their ad slogans. Procter & Gamble and Lego are incorporating your ideas into new products. You constructed open-source and are its customer and its caretaker. None of this should be a surprise, since it was you -- your crazy passions and hobbies and obsessions -- that built out the Web in the first place. And somewhere out there, you're building Web 3.0. We don't yet know what that is, but one thing's for sure: It will matter.

Nice to know that our older cousin is looking to us for tips. Oh, and don't think we didn't consider putting a mirror on the cover too.

Jet Set Posters

Illustrator extraordinaire Nik Schulz, the man behind L-Dopa, is putting up his incredible collection of posters for sale on the internets with his new site Jet Set Posters. Check it out and prepare to be blown away. This Paris poster must be mine. There's another one that I want even more but I'm not going to tell you which one because then you will snap it up before I've had a chance to buy it.

As painful as it must be for Nik to part with these beauties, I'm sure the he will be at least slightly comforted by the giant haystack of cash that will take their place.

Using humans as pixels (or, Arizona marching band does Radiohead)

A friend sent me a link to this video of the Pride of Arizona (the University of Arizona's marching band) doing a medley of Radiohead songs. Not only was I blown away by the fact that anyone would think to do this, I was blown away by how well the songs translated. But the thing that really mystified me is the pictures made by using the band members and cheerleaders as moving pixels. Sure, I recognize that "OK" at the beginning, but what is the rest of it? Abstract images? I think I would be better able to tell if I had an aerial view and/or some psychedelic drugs.

Check it out and tell me if you can discern the patterns. Parts 2 and 3 are after the jump.

TOMS shoes: Altruistic shopping takes the next step

How do you get people to donate to a good cause? Let them do it by shopping for their own materialistic selves:

While traveling through Argentina, Blake Mycoskie came across canvas shoes that his feet took an instant liking to. He took the alpargatas-- comfortable utility shoes that resemble espadrilles-- reworked them a bit, and started TOMS Shoes.

Not just casual chic slip-ons that were spotted all over L.A. this summer, TOMS Shoes give new meaning to 'two for the price of one'. For each pair purchased (USD 38), TOMS gives a pair to a disadvantaged child in South America. Materials and shoes are produced and manufactured in Argentina under strict 'no sweatshop' guidelines, ensuring fair labor practices and minimal impact on the environment.

An interesting idea... Making charitable giving a fashion choice. Obviously, that's being plumbed with the whole Product (Red) thing, but there's a definite immediacy to knowing that some kid in South America is wearing the same shoes you're wearing, thanks to you. It really puts the aphorism about walking a mile in someone else's shoes to work.

As Shawn says in the comments section of quality blog designverb:

This is such an awesome idea! There are loads of people who would never give money to a charity or buy shoes to send to a needy child, but, who would pay a little extra for a pair of shoes just because it goes to a good cause.

Great idea indeed. Plus, while it's tiresome to go around bragging about how much you're helping the underprivileged, when your friends ask you about your Tyler Ramsey hand-painted limited edition TOMS you can grudgingly admit how awesome you are. Besides, TOMS look a damn sight better than the cheaper Croc.... although I am getting a bit of cognitive dissonance from the fact that some of them come in militaristic camouflage prints.

Dove takes you behind the scenes of the war on women's self esteem

BAG News Notes has a post up about a Dove commercial called "Evolution" in which an average-looking model is converted into billboard candy through make-up, lighting, and Photoshop. I think everyone realizes that models in ads are "airbrushed" (although actual airbrushes have gone the way of the proportion wheel) but I bet not a lot of people realize how radically they get rearranged on the digital surgeon's table.

This is nothing new to me; my years of watching images get retouched to perfection at Rolling Stone taught me to doubt any image I saw in print. One of the most egregious examples was a 1995 cover shoot of Demi Moore by Matthew Rolston. Rolston directed all the post-production himself, and delivered a preternaturally smooth, strangely skinny Demi effigy. I have a copy of the pre-retouched contact at home; I'll post it later for a little compare-and-contrast.

Dove Evolution image borrowed from BAG News Notes. RS cover borrowed from RS Online... Nice dithering, guys.