On the emergence of a new biz model for restaurant:

A LONDON restaurant is tackling the recession head-on by scrapping bills and letting customers pay what they want.

Peter Ilic, who owns the Little Bay restaurant group, will not present a single food bill to diners, leaving it up to them to decide how much the meal and service is worth.

It comes as a number of Michelin-starred restaurants slash prices to entice credit crunch-hit diners, with lunches for as little as £12.

The Trust Art index is a overall/composite success metric for the project, that plays off of the basic stock market metric (change in share price). At any given time, it is derived from the average of the slope of the financial and social trend lines. The Trust Art index should help people understand how the projects are rising in culture.

The first funding milestone is the financial capital needed for the artist to commence work on their project. The total funding goal is derived by each artist and incorporates time spent on the project, as well as the cost of material, travel and the logistics of bringing the work to life. At the end of one year, an artifact produced directly from their project will be auctioned to the public.

In the second in a series of mini-documentaries for Lexus hybrids, Los Angeles-based Boxer Films director Jeffrey DeChausse shows how industrial creations that are green can be as beautiful (or more) than nature itself.

This latest installment for Lexus' online branding campaign, "Solar Trees" :90/3x:30 out of Team One, El Segundo, CA, features industrial designer Ross Lovegrove demonstrating how his designs "take the green concept and create a whole new aesthetic"; solar power is harnessed to create sculptural, and highly functional, outdoor lighting "trees," which function off the grid.

aka-aki is the online community that takes social networking, as you know it from the Internet, and puts on the street. That's why aka-aki does not only consist of this community website but also includes a mobile phone application. The aka-aki mobile phone application shows you on your cell phone details about people belonging to your circle. In the city, in the region or up to 50km away. For instance, when other aka-aki members are there, your mobile phone will show you a photo, mutual friends and so much more. Even other functions associated with an online community like writing messages, saving friends, etc. will work while you're on your way using your mobile and the aka-aki mobile phone application.

Brand history helps. If only because it means that when people come to work at the BBC, or the Guardian or the Economist, or the NME – they have more than likely grown up with it; the understand it as a consumer and they are committed to taking it forward, and make it relevant for their word.

Being great on the web helps – not just in terms of distribution and publishing, but in using it as a tool to engage with your audience – and vitally to let them engage with each others.

I should stress that online is not the end game – but it is the easiest way for a media brand to realise it can be more than a local publication.

And finally – success breeds success. The more things people get right, the more they keep getting right. Simon Cowell (unfortunately some might say) is the perfect example of that. So is the BBC, but then so again is the Tate, Haymarket’s licensing programme and the Economist’s podcasts.

Over the last few years, we’ve explored the trend where new media publications have been working directly with brands to produce advertisements for their products. In 2007 at our first conference we ran a panel with the founders of Flavorpill and Engadget discussing the topic “Media As The New Creative Agencies” (video here) - and since then we’ve highlighted the occasional example.

A new ad for Cheetos by the gang at Boing Boing reminded us of this trend. The blogging team have been working directly with the brand to create video content for the snack and the bloggers were so proud of their post that they explained in detail the process they used:

it's a restaurant in a treehouse and IT'S AWESOME!

Pop-up stores going foodie! Pop-up restaurant, a new trend?

One thing the Underground Gourmet has noticed in this frightful new restaurant terrain is experimental modes of operation. The once-a-week restaurant is one such tactic. In Williamsburg, for instance, two concepts (the Vietnamese Bep, operating Mondays out of the Simple Café, and the pop-up ramen shop Bonjin, serving noodle soups after midnight Fridays at the Korean Dokebi) are borrowing others’ kitchens one night a week, minimizing risk and testing the culinary waters. But this approach also appeals to established restaurateurs and chefs—either as a recession-era tactic to wring extra revenue from private dining space (like Damon: Frugal Friday), or a chance to branch out from everyday routine (like Beer Table’s Tuesday-night dinner). These places tend to share something besides a restricted schedule: a sense of free-spirited spontaneity, and an off-the-cuff dining-club allure.

This image is 100 meters long. There are 178 in the picture, all shot in the course of 20 days from the same spot on a railroad bridge on Warschauer Strasse in Berlin in the summer 2007.

Only a few of the people on the photogrpah seemed to know they were takein in picture

u know flashmobs are gone mainstream when FOURTEEN THOUSAND PEOPLE show up to yours.

You have to acknowledge that the economy isn't going strong when Starbucks begin offering value meals …

On Monday, the gourmet coffee chain that's been losing business at quite a clip of late, will unveil plans for its first value menu: $3.95 will get you a latte with coffee cake or drip coffee with hot sandwich.