gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

I think an important distinction is that it has to be cool to *other people*. Lots of folks think they do cool things - unfortunately it's only cool within the walls of place creating it.

If you have to convince someone it's cool - it's probably not.

D'accord, Tony, it was also said in the conversation, "Oh yeah, and you're not the one who gets to decide what's cool or not..."

Tomorrow, I am going to wake up and do some really cool shit!!

(Right now, I am going to say my prayers, go to bed and hope I die in my sleep.)

Yes, that puts it pretty succinctly. Jason Calacanis was complaining yesterday that one of the Wall Street Journal's technology columnists put the Netscape Web site down because, essentially, it wasn't cool. And I think that's right -- Netscape aped the Digg-like features, but totally missed the cool factor.

Ever notice how the coolest people in the room are generally the quietest in the room?
Try that with your brand.
No, really.

Perusing the link you provided to Edelman, one walks away also with the sense that what makes something cool is when it isn't about you or your product. It is when the observer says to themselves, this is for me (how did they know?).

Exactly! As I tell clients who want to "Do something viral" - First, create something brilliant. Like those jibjab guys - try 18 times and get better each time and then - Boom - you create something brilliant. ANd people like it and talk about it and pass it along - simple as that really...