Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Boeing and Brazilian airplane manufacturer Embraer will begin working together to develop ideas and technology to enhance operations, safety and productivity. Currently the two companies are working together to develop aviation biofuels and extending its partnership is a good fit as competition between the two companies is next to nil. After all, Embraer’s largest airliners are barely as big as Boeing’s smallest.

The agreement signed between Boeing and Embraer marks the beginning of a partnership that should help both companies better compete with European rival consortium EADS, the parent of Airbus. Few specifics were given, but it’s expected the companies will share technology regarding aircraft efficiency and manufacturing, as well as further research on sustainable biofuels.

Last year the two companies agreed to jointly fund research into sugar cane based biofuels, a technology that is well developed elsewhere in the Brazilian transportation system. Boeing, Embraer and Airbus all joined forces last month in an effort to cooperate on the development of “drop-in” biofuels that will require no extra additives or modifications for airline use.

In addition to regional airliners that are slightly smaller than a Boeing 737, Embraer also makes jets all the way down to a small, 4-6 passenger business jet. Both companies are increasingly relying on the use of composites in new aircraft designs.

Beyond the stated intent to develop and share technology between the two companies, the Boeing-Embraer agreement coincided with the first visit of Brazil’s new President to Washington D.C. and is part of a larger push for economic cooperation between the two countries.

Photo of Boeing 767 and Embraer 170: EyeNo/Flickr

Tribal management often involves power struggles. One thing that’s been shown again and again–subjagating another tribe, taking it over–it almost never works. It can take hundreds of years before the two tribes get into sync, if ever.

On the other hand, granting independence to a rising tribe, letting them go–this is harder to swallow but it generally leads to a quick and beneficial relationship between the two new groups.

When Atari was struggling after it was acquired by Warner, many top programmers left, some to start companies like Activision. Activision, ironically, was one of the bright spots for Atari after that. The passion and creativity of the nascent group was exactly what the original group needed.

Or consider the excellent relationship that the UK has with both the United States and India. In both cases, the wars of independence weren’t as nearly brutal or as drawn out as they could have been.

While conventional views of power and authority seem to indicate that you should co-opt and capture other tribes, you can often achieve more by freeing your own people to maximize their vision alongside yours.

Preferred online music service: Spotify and Rhapsody.

How often do you use these services? Just recently, just about every day.

Why do you like these services? Between the two services, I’m able to listen to an almost unimaginable amount of music. They’re not always as helpful on some of the lesser-known new bands, but I’m continually surprised by what I find. It is an endless and never-ending library.

How have these services benefitted you as a music listener? Since the launch of Spotify, I’ve been strangely shocked about just how much things have changed for me in just the past few months. When you realize you can listen to almost anything you want whenever you want, it rattles your sense of normalcy. I’ve never been into illegally downloading music unless it is something live or out of print. So now, everything is out there and basically free and available. I listen to way more music than ever before.

At home I use Sonos, and there is an iPhone app for it. So when I’m home, I basically walk around the house with my phone, changing up playlists all day long. It’s insane. But, even though I feel like a kid in a candy store, I don’t know if this is such a good thing. I know Bob Lefsetz would say it’s the best thing since Les Paul, and I will admit I love using it. But isn’t there supposed to be a bit more sacrifice that goes into choosing music? I know most record labels have been stealing from artists and consumers for years, but I fear we are making music more disposable than ever before. To me, liner notes matter. Time and the benefits of waiting for some things does have its merits. Call me crazy.

How have these services changed your music consumption patterns? I’ve found that I tend to buy more new music (I made a rule: if I listen to something on Pandora or Spotify more than 2 times, I usually buy it) since it is so easy to check out. On the other end, I tend to buy less older music. I mean, I can’t afford to buy every single thing Bob Pollard, David Bowie, and Bob Dylan have released. But I’m sort of a completist, so it’s nice to be able to hear a bit of everything. I hope 7”, B-side, weird compilation stuff starts getting more available in this space. That would be amazing. Above all, I have started buying a lot more vinyl overall. Nothing trumps that.

Name an artist you discovered on these services. Dirty Beaches, The Cave Singers, Wye Oak, The Rosebuds, Iceage, to name some off the top of my head. I tend to hear new stuff all the time. Plus, I’ve been able to get into tons of back catalog stuff of artists that I was already into.

Facebook has unveiled a slew of new features for Facebook games just hours after Google launched its gaming platform.

The first feature, the Game Ticker, transforms the right-hand Facebook Chat column into a newsfeed of friends’ game activity. The column displays what games your friends are playing as well as their achievements and high scores. It’s designed to be social, so clicking on a Game Ticker story takes you to that game so you can play with your friends. And just like Facebook News Feed, you can control which stories appear and don’t appear in the stream.

The world’s largest social network also introduced a new expanded-screen mode for games. Current players of social games will appreciate the added real estate for harvesting their crops or attacking their enemies. The final addition to Facebook’s gaming platform allows users to bookmark their favorite apps or games so they’re easily accessible from the News Feed.

The move is a counterattack to today’s launch of Google+ Games, which debuted Thursday with 16 games, including Angry Birds and Zynga Poker. It looks like the competition between the two Internet giants is getting even more intense.

Delta Air Lines customers will now get destination-specific Living Social deals related to their trips thanks to a new deal between the two companies.

The arrangement, announced Friday, means that customers who book a flight and visit My Trips on Delta.com will be offered deals specific to their itineraries. For instance, if a customer booked a four-day visit to Los Angeles, she would likely receive offers for hotel and travel deals in that city.

The deal helps underpin Delta’s image as a social media innovator in the industry. Delta began selling flights directly on Facebook last August.

Other airlines are also trying to embrace the digital revolution as well. In May, Alaska Airlines replaced its pilots’ 25-pound paper flight manuals with iPads, while American Airlines began giving first class passengers Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets on some flights. Virgin America has also made Google’s Chromebooks available on some flights, has given a plane a Twitter hashtag name and has offered free flights to consumers with high Klout scores.

The Apple-Samsung patent infringement lawsuit is heating up: Samsung’s lawyers have filed a motion for Apple to provide them with a sample of the next generation iPhone and iPad.

Since Apple keeps very tight wraps around all its upcoming products, it’s highly unlikely that the company will comply with this request, at least without a fight. However, recently Samsung was ordered by a judge to give Apple samples of its yet unreleased tablets and smartphones, including the Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Add to that the fact that Samsung has also filed a countersuit against Apple citing several patent infringements, and suddenly Samsung’s claims don’t seem that far-fetched.

Nilay Patel examined Samsung’s request and he found some subtle differences between the two requests: Samsung products that Apple requested to see were publicly announced, while Samsung wants to see Apple’s products which are unannounced and – if you disregard the rumor mill – officially do not exist.

Either way, if the motion is successful, only Samsung’s lawyers – not even Samsung itself – would see Apple’s products, and the chances of any info leaking out into the public are very slim.

The full text of Samsung’s filing is available here.

Image courtesy of Flickr, boedker.

It’s no secret that China is one of our biggest trading partners. In fact the country is second only to Canada in terms of the value of goods traded. But space is one sector of the economy where for all practical purposes no trade exists between the United States and China.

China would like to warm the space trade between the two countries, but officials with the China Aerospace and Space Technology Corporation (CAST) recently admitted they won’t be able to match the prices of California based upstart SpaceX.

Founded by Elon Musk, SpaceX recently announced plans for a heavy lift rocket capable of sending payloads to low earth orbit under the long sought after rate of $1,000 per pound. The company recently received praise after launching the first private spacecraft to be successfully retrieved back on earth after an orbital flight.

At a space symposium last week in Colorado, Lei Fanpei, Vice President of CAST, says he hopes to open the doors to trade with the United States in space related products including solar arrays according to a story in Aviation Week and Space Technology. But in the same article, unnamed officials within the Chinese space industry say they are skeptical of the low prices being advertised by SpaceX. The same officials concede the current generation of Chinese Long March launch vehicles could not match the private company’s low rates for LEO payloads.

China is currently developing the Long March 5 which it says will be capable of delivering 25,000 kilograms (~55,000 pounds) to LEO. The new Falcon Heavy rocket from SpaceX is being designed to carry 53,000 kilograms (~117,000 pounds) to LEO.

Animation of Falcon Heavy Rocket: SpaceX

I don’t know when I suddenly became the person people would start asking about how to make money. I’m not John Chow or Shoemoney, or even Lynn Terry. I make money via the web, but I’m not exactly “that guy” about it. But hey, if ABC News wants to ask me about it, I’ll answer. But then, I’ll answer with the way that *I* think about money making via the web.

Want to know what I told them?

If you want to make money via the web, my five tips would be:

• Grow bigger ears (listening) – the best way I’ve found to help people make money via the web is to “listen at the point of need.” The idea is that people are offering up their interests and requests and desires via the social web every day. If you have what they need, there are opportunities to get into the selling cycle on the spot, instead of waiting.
• Be protective of your community – this is how Oprah succeeded. She grew a community around content that was helpful to the people consuming it, and then she attracted sponsors who wanted access to those people. She then stayed fiercely in between the two groups, making sure her community was always protected, and that sponsors had access on her terms only. Own the relationship, own the money.
• Add more value than promotion – selling is often heavy-handed and based on wanting to close. The real winners are relationship-minded people who make not only the first sale, but all the subsequent sales thereafter. By giving your community much more value (more content, more things they can use) than just promoting your stuff, you win longer term sales relationships.
• Promote and recognize others – in selling and marketing, we talk too much about ourselves. People want to be seen and recognized. Use your platform to point out the good stuff that would appeal to the rest of your community. Mention them. Talk about your customers more than you talk about yourselves.
• Be clear on your ask – when you finally have a hard ask, a request for a sale, then be very clear about it. Don’t ever sidle up to the sale. Never let there be a confusion between your goodwill efforts and your direct need for a sale. Never flinch about it, and never make it a mushy mix of community warmth and indirect sales requests. Just like relationships, short and clear is better than long and convoluted.

Oh, and want to watch the video? Here’s my spot on ABC News money matters.

It’s how I’ve done it here, and it’s how I talk about it when I talk to others about making money. Have you done it in similar ways? How has it worked for you?

Photo credit Kevin Dooley