Reformatted the digital media trends report this year and turned it into an OMG link drop!! YES!!!

As always, it’s in spirit of sharing some of that new school digital intelligence with those of you who are curious and wondering what the ____ is happening in this rapidly changing tech/media/cultural landscape.

With the announcement/rollout of Google+ this past week, which, by the way is taking the digital/tech/social media waters by storm thus far, it was the perfect time to put a link drop together to make your old noggin (yes, that’s your brain) tick!

Please enjoy.

1. Let’s start with Google+. At first glance, have to tell you this foray into social from Google seems super legit. Just the idea of taking “friends” and turning that into “circles” is a powerful concept. That and how the platform is/will be integrated into Google’s overall ecosystem spells for big potential. Jascon Calacanis thinks it can take up to half of Facebook’s audience, and heck, even that rascal Mark Zuckerbrg is on there.

2. All the buzz in the digital music hemisphere is Spotify. This is the Sean Parker backed entity that is competing with Soundcloud, Last.fm, Rdio and such. Their recent partnership with Facebook in Europe and pending U.S. launch definitely signifies the latest expansion in the digital media music business scenario. Some are even predicting that it will mark the end of iTunes for a lot of music consumers.

3. Everyone’s talking big data these days, it’s always been a big business but it’s now the new oil. Privacy issues will remain a debate but people will loosen grip as the data enables an easier/more effective lifestyle.  (Side note: this is the matrix inspiration above!)

4. When it comes to handling it all and multi-tasking, the best thing one can do? Have a routine. Plain and simple. Have always said, discipline is a b*tch but if you can adhere to it, you can become incredibly powerful. See this terrific write up by energy guru Tony Schwartz via HBR.

5. You know the business tech star up scene has past its tipping point when Wired magazine does a huge spread on Y Combinator, one of the earlier and more successful tech start up boot camps. Essentially this is for those guys that are entrepreneurial and know how to code the crap about of things to create products (super awesome developers not at Facebook or Google) but have zero social skills (every developer) and have a hard time understanding culture/behavior i.e. people. That’s where Y Combinator comes in and helps these guys translate their products for people and format a business around those ideas and you know, “drive scale” as they all love to say.

6. See Aston Kutcher’s hot start up picks here via PSFK. Can’t knock this dude’s hustle and vision. He’s plugged in and offers his take on the best start ups. Even digital media guru Robert Scoble thinks he’s dope and on the ball.

7. Interesting to see Hollywood do it’s best to get into the silicon valley story telling racket. The real-life Ari Gold signs a mobile app developer co. out of Silicon Valley. Smart but not sure what Hollywood does for these guys sometimes. As story becomes less about appointment-style viewing and more about the overall experience and what can become interactive.  These Alternative Reality Game story tellers will become more and more valuable to the entertainment marketplace.

8. Now, in Korea you can do your grocery shopping in the subway station. What!? Yup, you can scan products via the QR Code, put in the order and get groceries delivered to you at a later time.  Talk about efficiently living your life! Thanks to 2D code for sharing!

9. Jack Dorsey, the smooth operator and one of the creators of Twitter and the new hot tech company, Square has an awesome statement on what it is to be a CEO. Reminds me of quote I saw in Paris Review once by a writer, “a writer’s life is one of revisions.” Perhaps, a creators and leaders life within an evolving tech and business world is the same?

10. Word on the street from eMarketer is that Social Gaming Revenues will surpass $1 billion this year! As they like to say, WTF?! Yup, this is big biz and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

11. After talking to some of my peoples in the digital tech waters, many are super excited about the AirPlay Apple App. See what Scoble had to say here and see how Apple’s ecosystem is starting to shape out here. This significance is becoming pain snakingly clear. The disruption of the TV set-top box is on it’s way and cable operators/media/Hollywood will be kicking and screaming all the way as their “legacy business model” lose their leverage. Big media/Hollywood won’t be going anywhere.  The rules are just changing.  The way in which we access our entertainment content, what we do with that content, and how we organize it has, is, and forever be changing the next there to five years. For a terrific big picture snapshot of the implications of all of this see super smart VC, Mark Suster’s posting on Future of TV and living room (entertainment) experience.

12. Speaking of how the entertainment experience is going to change, see this great posting on Lost Remote by Cory Bergman on “Why Social TV will be a multi-billion dollar business.”

13. If you are into mobile as in, into how it already has and will continue to be the remote control of our lives versus just a communication device then check out this awesome presentation by Yiibu out of the U.K. on mobile called “The Trouble with Context.”

14. For you “MBA” or “design business thinking” types out there. This deck by IDEO’s Colin Raney called “How to Design a Business” is a must read. Great tips and thinking when it comes to designing a new business model.

If you enjoyed this session of link drop then you can check out the previous OMG Digital Media Trends link drop entry here.

If you are on Google Reader you can follow my shared items here.

If you are Twittering you can follow me/the tweets here.