Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Play time at Aaron Yacks's house goes something like this... The kids from around the neighborhood come over. A few crowd around computer #1 and the others crowd around computer #2. They invite each other into virtual rooms and the games begin. Shouting can be heard through out the halls of the house as they yell to each other, "I'm going to go on the next quest, are you coming?"

They are doing what all kids do.
They are exploring together... only virtually.

It's much different than the times of playing blocks on the floor or playing tag in the neighbor's yard. And it's quick to judge experiences that were different than the ones we had. But with new experiences come new opportunities.

There is something to this new play time. The New York Times described it best as co-presence. Both teams are playing their own game, but they are also "talking" back and forth, as if they were in the same room, on the same computer. And because of that, they don't even have to be. They could be across the street from each other. They could be across the world from each other.

The new play time is killing the locationality of friendships.

...because catching up to Firefox and Opera functionality better describes what is happening here. In either case, Microsoft has definitely stepped up their game with this release which allows a ton of new functionality and features.

All of the new functions are neatly packaged and easy to understand, which is a much different experience from browsing through pages of Firefox addons. The Easy Homepage function (see image above) has been incredibly useful and really changes your browsing experience because you tend to use this tab as a navigation page. The page load times seem faster than any other browser I have used to date, probably thanks to the FasterIE prefetching which uses idle bandwidth time to download and cache links so they are ready for you when you click on them. The mouse gestures are fun but this along with many of the services take time to learn and setup, I guess that is why it is called "Pro".

I have tried Chrome, Avant, Flock and other browsers but have always comeback to Firefox. Had it not been acting up this week I probably would not have even tried IE7 Pro. But now that I have spent some time getting acquainted, Firefox maybe knocked out of contention.

http://www.ie7pro.com/

Russ Hopkinson

UPDATE: Contrary to the implication in my post above, IE7 Pro is not developed by Microsoft, it is an independent group of developers based in India. Although there was mysteriously little information on who they were or how much support Microsoft has provided.

image creditSwansea Photographer [Flickr]

In a fantastic post about the different fears of different generations, Laurel Papworth brings this insight to the table:

"Gen Y fear not finding their passion. By not connecting to their passion and with others that share similar passions, Gen Y fear they will not have a voice and will end up being ignored.

Oh and there's no point standing still and trying to figure out something in depth because the world is in state of continual flux, and so you had better keep skating ahead of the changes. Keep changing jobs, careers, stay flexible, until you find what you love..."

It isn't ADD that this generation has, they are just constantly searching for something that will hold their interest and keep them passionate. In the world of information and sensory overload, there is simply no time to waste on the mundane, you have to flip and scan until you land on the exceptional. And it's when children find it, that they prove just how well they can learn, what can hold their interest, and how empowering technology can be.

"My 6 3/4 yr old daughter has given me a very different view into the next information / knowledge age and how different it is from the world I grew up in. Increasingly she's started to spend extended periods of time in front of the computer learning new things, not just playing games or watching videos...

Today she spent 60+ minutes exploring the wonderful world of African Rain Spiders. I watched her use Google, Wikipedia and blogs to read about these spiders, look at images of them and imbibe a huge amount of knowledge. Her mind is obviously able to deal with the hyperlinked world a lot better than her dad's."
David Feldt (Digital Disruption)

Technology is making learning more instantaneous, more exploratory, and more collaborative.

Just to repeat Frontline's Growing Up Online again, we are calling this the "biggest generation gap since rock 'n' roll". Parents are seeing their children embracing technology in ways they cannot relate to. But this is a shrinking gap. As the next generation of parents were raised on the internet and Nintendo, they will be able to identify with their children and be "digital natives" with them. And the question I have is... are we losing anything along the way?

And honestly, I'm not one to talk, as a "digital native" myself:

"You were exposed to technology. I held you on my lap when you were weeks old as I composed my freelance work on an Apple II computer. Before long you were reaching out to play with the keys and on to the what now seems primitive software we got for you. By 18 months you were loading up your own diskettes."
My Mom

But I don't want to come at this from a biased point of view, because I understand this concept. We are dealing with our own limitations. We are advancing faster than the speed of human evolution, so as one skill comes in, another falls out.

"I compare this to the same problem as when people get a GPS. My friends admitted to me, and I admit of myself, that I no longer pay attention to where I am going. You no longer have a visual map in your head of where you are going. You are riding shot gun in your own car, and when the device freezes up, you are completely lost. You have no barrings."
Scott Lange

In this war for brain power and attention, in this world where there is so much competing to for our time, what skills are we losing by creating technology that makes it so much easier.

image credit: Irving Geis

We all love statistics!! Whether factual, misleading, or downright wrong... they are bite-sized and delicious. They make this whole crazy world quantifiable and human behavior easier to deal with. This weeks featured statistic comes from the 2008 Cone Business of Social Media Study:

"93% of Americans believe that a company should have a presence on social media sites and 85% believe that these companies should use these services to interact with consumers."

Hurray for social media, which is continuing to seep it's way into the hearts of consumers and companies alike.

What's Been Happening This Week...

Twitter Continues To Grow Up... Mostly
Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter, got named one of Business Week's 25 Most Influential People on the Web. But what's funny about Twitter's success is that it wasn't intended to be used for what it is now. It's no longer about "what are you doing?", it's about communicating in the fastest way possible to the masses.

A great example of this occurred this week when Laurel Papworth, Australian blogger, decided to pull together an instant consultancy to respond to an RFP from Vodaphone. She put out a tweet and within 4 hours later, she had pulled together 65 people, they had set up a website called The Twitter Agency, and were exchanging tips and strategy via blog posts.

Big Twitter blunder this week came today when citizen journalism falsely reported that Steve Jobs had a heart attack. CNN carried the report, Apple stock dropped, until it was revealed it was false. Could this become a growing trend?

"You've got people who are trying to game the system to (possibly?) game the market or influence other events. The 'news market' will eventually start filtering these reports out, which raises the price of being a reliable news source and slightly degrades the Twitters and iReports as useful sources."
Mike Hudson

Web Apps: Alive, Dead, or Evil?
It was a weird week for the world of widgets and web apps. Mashable basically called web apps a necessary evil. And the rest of the blogosphere couldn't agree on whether the web app was dead or growing. Facebook announced that their apps are now portable to friendster, and Netflix finally launched an API to make their data available for widgetization. But is this all too late... AllFacebook has presented some pretty convincing charts that show a huge decline in web app installation, since the Facebook redesign.

One area that isn't down is mobile apps. Facebook launched a new version of their iPhone app this week. And presidential candidate Barack Obama released an iPhone app to help supporters connect and get involved, stay up to date on breaking news, read up on Obama's position on issues, and more.

Marta Strickland

image credit: point_cat35 [Flickr]

A few years ago, a technically minded (geeky? Who said geeky?) friend offered to set me up with a blog on his personal server. Having kept journals in various forms over the years, I thought, Why not? And hey, good work research.

With nothing in particular I wanted to write about, over the next four years it became a compendium of family and work life anecdotes, not very deep thoughts, links and anything else that came to mind. Few people knew about it, but I was vaguely aware that with very specific searches (eg the name of my band) it would show up on Google, so I was careful not to include client names or even where I worked, just to stay under the radar.

Then two days ago I got a frantic email from my friend (with a subject line that I'm amazed got through my spam filter) saying that while updating the blog software, he'd accidentally wiped away all four and a half years of posts -- about 250 or so. Poof! And he had no backup of his server. Suddenly my lighthearted musings of the last while became more valuable -- there were a lot of nice memories recorded in there that (as every parent knows) don't last on their own. What to do?

Google to the rescue! Knowing that my band name showed up in searches, I started there. Sure enough, it came up, but of course the link itself was useless. On the other hand, the "cache" link... worked like a charm. And best of all, each post noted the name of the post before and after, so with a search string that went something like: "site:www.theservername.net elliottblog blog toronto " I found I could methodically work my way through the posts and extract all the content from them into a text file.

Google as file backup! It was laborious (and Google had lost track of a few of them), but hey, posts with names like "Glove in a Cold Climate" are worth saving. Ahem.

There is much written about the worrisome way that Google is crawling and documenting our online activities, but this is the first time I've really considered it as something with personal benefit beyond getting a decent search result. For once, the idea that Google has been following along behind me like an obsessive court reporter, recording and storing my meanderings, is oddly comforting.

Not that I won't be backing up my own posts from now on.

Elliott Smith

While I agree that the democratization of data is important, there are still significant hurdles surrounding privacy and security. For example, if my small business is in competition with someone else in a similar market space, how much do I trust the cloud with this data? How much can I share without a competitor deducing what I am doing?

While the initial "snooping" concept is simple ... The data is secure therefore they can't see it, what about the in the cracks data. Imagine we are collaborating on a Google document internally for a new partnership in my product space. We have a determined competitor who really wants to find out how to beat us to market. What is they can watch the ad's being served up to me and my employees in some way. What if the information gleaned from those ads (targeted at document content maybe) reveals our super-secret market partnership? Sound far fetched? Maybe not.

I think that the true power of this data comes from aggregating it, smashing it up against other data and then analyzing it. The problem is that doing this kind of data analysis often requires something more than a human mind. Scientists are already struggling with this concept as more and more raw scientific data is made available on the web. What we need is an automated way to look for patterns, clusters, interesting hypotheses in these data.

However, on the flip side, the setup of a business that is not tied to physical location any more. Cloud services like google docs, grandcentral, skype, and zimbra allow people to create a company without a physical office. A globally extended supply chain and global reach for shipping means companies can be created, operate, and grow in a completely virtual way. What will countries do to tax such an entity? How will we deal with this?

Dean McRobie

It depends on the execution.

A site from the Nova Scotia Government uses this method in a unique & very engaging way. The rise of smartphones and their penetration into mainstream consciousness allows the site to leverage it's theme of "everything you need" in what I thought to be a brilliant use of misdirection.

Introducing the Pomegranite, a new *faux* smartphone. Aside from the usual suspects of smartphone options - email, browsing, digital cameras, GPS & an mp3 player, this product goes beyond those options with a projector, a voice translator & a harmonica to name just some of the extras. As you navigate the site to learn about each of the additional features, you're given an option to keep learning more or if you've had enough.. When you've had enough - only then will the full message will be realized...

The sites storytelling, it's fantastic video production, plus other site subtleties - its cleanliness and by calling out often overlooked accessibility options give this site a feeling of authenticity.

http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

It's for sure to be a source of confusion as you're dealing with two completely different topics - smartphones & tourism.. Within Organic there's been discussion whether this idea works - with proponents from both camps. Personally, I loved the misdirection & felt a connection to the message when I was finally realized what the message was.

"Someday you'll be able to get everything you want in a device till then you can get everything you want in one place..."

Damn.. I really wanted that harmonica.

Thoughts?

Patrick Dunphy

I swear that's what these characters are thinking as they twitch for my attention. They know they're cute. The entertainment stops me dead in my tracks. When I finally break the spell and move my mouse, the rollover animations beckon me to look behind door #1, no! 2, no! 3! I give up deciding which to play with first, and just click, waiting with Christmas-like anticipation as to what I will see next.

The Coca-Cola Company blew campaign standards out of the water since launching the original fantasy world called the "Happiness Factory" in 2006.

Drawing viewers near through film is one master of skills; recreating the same level of experience online - and letting viewers touch it and affect it - is a separate challenge. The campaign demanded equality from its online extension in 2007.

These characters were too fun to be shelved and locked away in a non-interactive film. So, the Happiness Factory became the website. Users can explore the characters, play games, and apply for a job.

Let us tip our hats and take note on the technical dances that must have taken place with creative. This high quality, rich animation working within today's bandwidth limitations doesn't happen easily. The load times are at a manageable level, and I should mention that I've seen the loader tens of times, yet I still study the host's reflection and wait for his Roger Rabbit.

The moral of this story: continue pushing for solutions that make the fantasy a reality. Let's practice saying this to each other: "You want that? *OK. Let's work together and we'll find a way to do it."

* This Experience Architect does not endorse meaningless, purposeless nothingness.

Nikki Duncan

I'm not the biggest fan of survey research, as I find that it most often (of necessity) uses leading questions. When I review survey data, I often wonder if respondents would ever think or formulate some of the statements which they are asked in these surveys.

Gen We is a study of Generation Y, and it offers some interesting insights interspersed with commentary which wanders between the inspirational and the utopian. The scientist has clearly fallen in love with his subject. It tends towards the leading variety of research, but it's balanced with first person, one-on-one conversations that ask more open ended questions. Although, I do wish it offered other generations responses to the same questions for comparison.

What I find particularly remarkable is that the authors have placed the entire contents of the book in a free, downloadable PDF on their website. I almost purchased the book on Amazon (for $19.98) after having read an interview with the two authors. But right before adding the book to my shopping cart, I googled their names, which led me to their website, www.gen-we.com.

It's an interesting moment in media, because many content creators (musicians, writers, etc.) seem to be willing to offer free or pay-what-you-want facsimiles of their work as a marketing tool for other, typically higher quality versions of their work.

Should those of us in digital be concerned that our creations might be valued less than their "real world" counterparts? The jury's still out, but I'd argue that we should be somewhat concerned about this perception...

Only 3% of the population defines themselves as classical music lovers, for the rest we are either tolerant or just "don't get it". While some people concentrate their energies on trying to raise that 3% to a 4%, Benjamin Zander believes beyond any reason of a doubt that EVERYONE is a classical music lover, they just don't know it yet.

Zander boldly commits to not playing his musical piece until everyone in the audience realizes their love for classical music. He uses pure emotion and storytelling, as he breaks down a piece bit by bit. He finds commonalities with the audience so that he is connecting on their level. He gets them interested and engaged. And only then does he play the piece, and everyone in the audience "gets it".

Zander's statistic about classical music reminded me of another statistic I saw recently... 58% of people have no idea what social networking is (eMarketer). But I don't really believe that. What I believe is that everyone wants to use social media to enrich their lives and strengthen their relationships, they just don't know how to get started. What I believe is that every company wants to connect with their customers and build a loyal community, they just don't know where to begin.

I used to be content with my peer-appointed title of "social media expert". People will ask you questions when they need to and it makes you feel smart and helpful. But as my love for social media grew and grew, that was when I realized it wasn't enough to just be an expert and wait to be asked... I wanted to be a Social Media Evangelist. I spread my dreams for a socially connected world whenever I get the opportunity. I'm no longer telling people what to do, I'm telling them what is possible...

But maybe, that's not enough either. I want to be like Benjamin Zander. I want to be a conductor. A conductor's power is to make other people powerful, and to awaken them to the possibilities. It's showing, not telling. It's leading, not preaching.

So from now on, I want to be Marta Strickland, Social Media Conductor.

What are you a Conductor of?

(thanks to Jim Bachalo for the link)

It's hard to pay attention to the news of the web industry this week. I've seen digests on other blogs become shorter and shorter. Right now, everything else going on in the world seems more interesting, scary, captivating, devastating...

But if you were paying attention this week, you would have seen an underlying trend, and that is this... social media is growing up.

What's Been Happening This Week?

The Playful But Powerful Google
Google had a few unserious moments this week. It introduced two joke features, an audio preview for YouTube comments and "mail goggles" for G-mail that prevent users from drunk e-mailing by forcing them to do math problems.

But as an ongoing trend, Google continues to be an innovator and a magnifying glass into online culture. They are implementing high-definition imagery and textual advertising into Google Maps. And, ReadWriteWeb had a great article on how one can use Google trends to analyze America's reaction to the debates. Popular campaign words, such as "maverick", saw a huge spike during the debates, as viewers at home everywhere in this nation turned to Google for a true definition.

The Social Network War Is Coming To An End, Or Is It?
It may happen in the next month folks. A battle that has been raging for more than a year might come to a close. As for the first time in US history, Facebook is set to overtake MySpace in traffic numbers. What could this mean? Will Facebook become MySpace like everyone fears?

Better question.. do we even need Facebook? The up-and-comer, Ning, just announced that it has hit the half a million mark with over 500,000 niche social networks. Maybe Facebook and MySpace are they the Netscape and AOL of the 2.0 world? They started the trend, but will fail to innovate quickly enough, as more nimble companies grow in popularity.

Enterprise Embraces Social While Everything Else Falls
Despite reports that half of social media campaigns will flop, there is more and more enterprise dollars being invested in the space. As risky as it may seem, it is far more risky to do nothing. We have 93% of consumers saying they want brands to join them in the space. And we also have compelling statistics to show that their purchase behavior and brand opinion is being shaped by social media experiences.

This space is evolving at intense speeds. We've moved passed the time of "my top 8 friends" and superpokes. Best Buy is building an enterprise Twitter for employees. Digg is flushing out those who are trying to scam the system. YouTube is building in e-commerce options into their site.

The good times are over. RIP. Things are about to get a lot more serious.

Marta Strickland

Content creation. It is undeniably the one of biggest and most powerful characteristics of Web 2.0. Ever since the web became a platform, developers have been providing the tools for consumers to be the creators of:

Video
Music
History
Social Networks
... even Applications

It's become easier and easier for us to create powerful things. Creation is not limited to an elite few, it's available to everyone. And as each week passes, the lines between developer/programmer and common user blur even more. With each week, we are becoming creators of something new and exciting.

So this week, I will be taking a quick look at some tools that have launched recently and some trends that are gaining momentum. What could you be the creator of tomorrow?

Marta Strickland

Now this might seem like a given. After all, we have had consumer-rated news sites like Digg for a few years now. But I am talking about something more than consumers choosing what news articles they find relevant at any given time. I'm talking about tools that empower us to create news in an easy and powerful way.

Earlier this year, CNN launched iReport, a consumer-generated news site that claims to be "Unedited. Unfiltered." I would have to agree considering that the top story according to Google today read Ketchup assassinated. That was probably a fluke, because most of the top stories have to do with the election.

What is great about iReport is that it turns individual citizens with a camera, time to investigate, time to write, and decent basic reporting skills into actual journalists. But, what about something even easier than that, what about something even more integrated into our everyday lives and common citizens?

Well, look what is going on at election.twitter.com. This is a place where our chatter is becoming news. Yes, it is only reading the dialogue of people using Twitter, and yes, it is only focused on the election, but I think this is the beginning of something big. When I want to find out the newest hot items in the upcoming election, THIS is where I go. The site analyzes the firehouse of constant conversation and looks for instant trends that are peaking. It's the consumer-generated headlines in an ongoing news story.

Just imagine what this could be if they started creating portals for energy, the economy, foreign policy, disasters, health, fashion... as more and more people use Twitter, we're not just going to be writing articles anymore, we're going to be creating the headlines.

Marta Strickland

Little Big Planet is one of those games that defies explanation. On Friday, Eric Diem wrote, "I can't find the words to describe what a unique experience this game produces, so I figured it would just be easier to bring in my PS3 in so everyone can check it out."

So he did, and the impression that he left on the office was monumental. Jeff Bossardet confessed to me, "It is gorgeous. I have never been a gamer. For many years now I have thought that it may be advantageous, as an interactive professional, to understand the gaming world from a users perspective. I think I have found my gateway drug I mean game...Little Big Planet."

Why were we all so excited? Little Big Planet isn't just a game. It is a way to make games, mold games, and share games. The only limits are that of human imagination.

In its simplest form, Little Big Planet is a platform game, but it is a game that teaches you how to create your own levels. It provides you with different materials and all the tools you need to turn those materials into moving, changing, and logical objects. These objects can be set to react to different changes in the environment or actions of the players. The result is the ability for every player with patience and practice to create entire video games of their own.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The social element of the game is another side to the revolution. All worlds can be "published", which means they are open for the entire community to play. Those worlds can be rated, tagged, and shared. And, if the world creator so chooses, they can give the objects they create (villains, tools, etc) as gifts to other players to use in their levels.

Some see this all as a bold move in consumer-generated gaming, and others see it as opening the door to other greater deeds in co-creation. But everyone agrees it is a HUGE step forward for the industry. Just look at this guy who defied game-makers expectations and created a working calculator. Prepare to be amazed:

Marta Strickland

Congratulations to Organic's own Fang-Yu Lin on the upcoming release of his DIY book. Outside of the office, Fang's work as a new media artist led him to this latest project as co-author of Switch Craft, a book which marries technology, fashion, and craft.

After two years of preparation and labor, Switch Craft: Battery-Powered Crafts to Make and Sew, the design DIY book that Fang co-authored with Alison Lewis, is finally ready for release on October 28th. The book is intended to introduce the previous niche fashion/wearable technology to the mass audience in an accessible and appealing manner. It's Fang's hope that the book would inspire more professional or amateur crafters, designers and artists to incorporate electronic features in their creative endeavors.

For more information please visit http://www.iheartswitch.com/switchcraft/ (the site is under redesign; a new version will be launched soon).

Definitely check the book out when it hits shelves at the end of the month.

Charlie Zicari

Tonight is the 3rd and final debate for Obama and McCain in the hotly contested US run for the White house. Grueling primaries, surprise running mate announcements, VP debates, mud slinging, name calling. No wonder its easy to overlook the fact that the Canadian public voted last night to elect a new government. Well not really new, kind of the same as last time, but a couple of changes.

In America, each candidate has the best interest of the entire country at heart, in Canada we had one candidate who's key platform is to have Quebec separate from the rest of Canada. In America debates are held behind podiums, or in town hall fashion, in Canada, 5, yes 5 hopefuls say around a table and discussed the country and how they would be the best choice. Oh yea, we also hold debates in both official languages on separate nights though. In America, the VP is a crucial part of the process. The right VP can win an election, or garner momentum, or get you featured on SNL, In Canada, there is a deputy prime minister, but they get picked by the winner, no say by the people who gets to take over should the big guy go down.

In America, its either red or blue, in Canada, it could be red or blue, or orange, or green or what ever the independent chooses. In America, its winner take all, In Canada, its winner takes some, the official opposition takes some, the others take some too...

In case you were wondering, the elections results are shown in this flash app. Canadians went to the polls yesterday and re-elected the Conservative party to a minority government. Which means, if the other parties want to, they can force another election by a vote of non confidence over anything from; senate reform, to economic policy or even where to put an embassy in a foreign country.

Vito Greto

I'm not talking about Wikipedia or even Urban Dictionary. I'm not talking about coming up with words or concepts and actively defining their meaning. I'm talking about a movement in the web industry right now that is going to turn our constant online chatter into a learning machine.

Some might call it Semantic Web and some might call it Web 3.0. But I'm going to throw those concepts aside for a moment, and put it simply...

In the first phase of the web, we created information and accessibility. In the second phase of the web, we worked together to put context around that information. We created meaning around words and our works. We built relationships.

In the next phase of the web we will build meaning around our relationships, ourselves, our interests, and the way everything connects together.

Case in point. In the new school of Semantic Web you have software like Zemanta, what some people are referring to cutely as the blogger's little helper. It seems simple enough... you write a blog post and it recommends images, relevant articles, and places you might want to link to based on common keywords. But underneath, it's an impressive toolset of Semantic goodness: real-time clustering, natural language processing, and dynamic ontologies.

What's more impressive is that the newly launched featureset doesn't just look at keywords, but it puts it all in the context of you. It will scan your photo feeds, your favorite blogs, and your friends. It's taking a highly linear written form (the blog) and turning it into an object-oriented tool that connects your content to the web world... but with meaning.

In the next phase of the web, we won't just be connecting to each other, there will be common interests, shared conversations, or "social objects" that bond us together. For the first time ever, the web will understand why we decide to become social in the first place. And as it learns, the next web will be like a great party host, introducing us to each other and bringing us together into meaningful conversation.

Marta Strickland

It's been another "freak out" week in the world of social media. Many companies are laying people off, but many companies are running full steam ahead... hiring more people, developing more mature features, and (gasp) finding new revenue streams.

I have been somewhat off-the-grid this week at the Web 3.0 conference, which I will be speaking at today. As cynical as some people have been about the title, "web 3.0", I was happy to find many of the news items pouring into my delicious stream are falling in line with the next gen web. I will spend next week going into my definition and more importantly, how it will effect your online experience, but for now, I will just throw this idea out there.

The next generation of the web, whatever it's called, will be more relevant.

What's Been Happening This Week?

We Are The Creators Of Ads
As brands are waking up to realize that social media is having a major effect on purchase behavior, the social networks are waking up to realize that they need to provide better tools. This week MySpace launched a self-serve ad platform that allows users to create display ads and target into very relevant niches of the MySpace community. Google instantly followed suit offering display ads based on the adwords platform.

I still think they are missing the boat by not incorporating actual social content into the ad, a point I've been trying to bring up in discussions at this conference. But in funner ad innovation news, did you guys see that Obama Xbox 360 ad?

More Relevant Roll Outs
As FriendFeed opens the floodgates by incorporating real-time updates, Twitter is working on an integrated search functionality that will make finding those elusive tweet needles in the twitter haystack much easier. Flickr's new homepage redesign brings your friends photo content into main view, but I'm not sure that will be enough for them to catch up to Facebook which has made photo sharing the ultimate social experience.

For The Video Obessed
SNL is getting it's own video website. Let's hope that they finally embrace the social, allowing people to spread the content far and wide, instead of being the big bully in the room. YouTube and PBS are letting people vote via video, setting even new records for the sheer amount of social media surrounding this election. And building off of the MySpace music platform, MySpace launched a new karaoke video function.

As I watch the sun rising over San Jose mountains, I am off to another day of Web 3.0 fun. I am excited to bring you back all my learnings and thoughts, and hopefully you will join in the conversation!!

Marta Strickland

The Dunbar number is the supposed cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable social relationships. Traditionally stated as "150" individuals, the Dunbar limit was never much of a problem. You'd only stay close to a few friends from high school, then only a few friends from college, a few colleagues from that previous job. But through the power of social media we are now hanging onto all of our previous relationships in some form, while also making completely new connections. We are socially overwhelmed on a daily basis!!

Just imagine for a moment, if there was a way for Facebook to just intuitively know that you only want to hear about certain types of information for certain people. Imagine a mobile application that could tell you as soon as you walk into the room with whom you would have the most interesting dinner conversation. How would that change the world of business development? Recruiting? Dating?

The world has turned into a great big networking opportunity, and in a time of social fatigue what we really need is a web that is a great party host. That technology is right around the corner...

Over the next week, I am going to be looking at how the next generation web will change the way you connect, discover, and share with the social online world. I'm also going to be looking at how this movement is going to make marketing more relevant and measurable.

Can we just come to terms with our overpopulation problem? Admit it... this online world is becoming awfully crowded. And it's not just the people you are connecting to, it is the content they are contributing.

13 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. There are over 184 million bloggers world-wide. 55% of active online users have uploaded and shared photos and 16% upload everyday. There is a lot of value in that content.. but there is also a lot of noise.

ReadWriteWeb recently begged the question, "Is Online Noise Really Bad For You?" Noise can lead to unexpected opportunities, personal growth, and training your brain for maximum recall. As much as I agree with them on the need for discovery, it seems like we are destined to become buried in the firehouse.

But what if there was a way to do both? What if the next generation of technology could enable both natural filters and a smarter way to discover new content?

Over the next week, I am going to be looking at how the next generation web will change the way you connect, discover, and share with the social online world. I'm also going to be looking at how this movement is going to make marketing more relevant and measurable.

Radiohead continues to be an internet pioneer with their most recent video "House of Cards" from the album "In Rainbows". Although, it's hard to even call it a "music video" because that implies that some form of video recording occurred... and it didn't.

Instead, 64 lasers were used to capture 3D images by rotating a full 360 degrees almost 1000 times per minute. Two different laser technologies were used, one for close-ups on faces and others for vast landscapes. The result is an amazing feat in data visualization.

Visit Google's Blog to watch the video, see a short documentary, and play around with the raw data:
http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/

Jim Bachalo

Service Magic is a website that connects homeowners to relevant and rated home improvement, repair and remodeling contractors. The site prides itself in knowing what its customers need.

"What really sold me on their service was that they called me today saying that my request hasn't yielded any results and asked if they could help in broadening my search to get results and to search out any other services that I may need."
Jason Law, Sr. Interface Engineer

An organization that calls to inform you that they aren't finding any results is taking a risk, but an organization that doesn't call at all is taking an even greater one. It's too bad that Service Magic isn't able to realize how customer service doesn't just apply to the homeowners they service, but also to the contractors. A quick search on Google will take you to a forum on Pissed Consumer:

"I'm currently a SM contractor and I'M pissed off too!!! Here's a truth, they removed the contractor forum on the web site because too many contractors were slamming service Magic... I have been telling them that if they continue to bite the hand thats feeding them (us Contractors) we're simply going to leave & go to other REPUTABLE services..."

Companies need to learn that customer service shouldn't just apply to the end "customer". It needs to apply to anyone with a keyboard, anyone with an opinion, who could take their bad brand experience to an online forum.

There are some amazing offerings to the consumer that come packaged with the next generation of web technology:

- A Semantic Desktop, for intuitive file organization
- Cloud computing means access to your files anywhere, anytime
- OpenID means not having to juggle multiple username/passwords

It's a personal digital assistant for your personal digital life. It knows about you... your passwords, your interests, your files, and what you don't even realize you are looking for. This personal data will become more cataloged, more collected, easier to access.

The question is... if it is so easy for me to access, who else can access my digital life?

Over the next week, I am going to be looking at how the next generation web will change the way you connect, discover, and share with the social online world. I'm also going to be looking at how this movement is going to make marketing more relevant and measurable.

I know that back in August ThreeMinds wrote about Mad Men and AMC temporarily taking some fan accounts off Twitter. But I had something happen last night that is, frankly, a little creepy, but interesting. After Mad Men last night on Facebook, I commented that I liked Peggy's haircut.

That's it. No last name, no reference to Mad Men.

This morning I woke up to an email notice that Peggy Olson (mind you, a fictional character) was now following me on Twitter. I'm assuming its not a moderator from AMC - but instead a super fan paying attention to Twitter posts that others are Tweeting - and anything MadMen related - signing up to follow the person.

Now I understand content creation - but talk about Second Life? Clearly this person sees themselves as a living, breathing version of Peggy Olson - and wants to make sure they stay in touch with her fans. Has anyone else had an "interesting" case in fan fiction 2.0?

Traci Armstrong

Has this ever happened to you? Has your contextual advertising turned into a contextual nightmare? Maybe you became the butt end of the joke for many blogs creating not the kind of buzz around the brand you were hoping for. Or worse, maybe it has happened and you don't even know it.

This is the problem with depending so completely on keywords. Sure, it seems safe to buy a word like "feet" until your ad comes up right next to a story about "severed feet" or a "feet fetish". To quote all the famous infomercials of our time... there has to be a better way!!

What if there was a technology that could analyze what is really being said on the page? What if there was something that could analyze words surrounding keywords, could analyze sentiment, and could make sure that this ad placement was a prime opportunity to reach the target, not the front page of the Fail blog? Semantic technology will put our ad in the right place at the right time, delivering the right message to the right user.

Over the next week, I am going to be looking at how the next generation web will change the way you connect, discover, and share with the social online world. I'm also going to be looking at how this movement is going to make marketing more relevant and measurable.

image credit: wiseacre photo [Flickr]

Are you ready to party like it's 2009?? It's hard to get in the mood when everything feels like it's falling apart. There is an air of uncertainty about how 2009 is going to shake down in the financial system, in the housing market, but also in the world of marketing and technology. So as the months wind down, the crazy predictions wind up. And no matter who wins the election (although Barack Obama has already won "marketer of the year"), I don't imagine the doomsayers are going to stop any time soon.

What's Been Happening This Week

I Know A Dead Parrot When I See One
Everything is dead, long live everything. Blogs this week have declared a lot of things dead... on the list includes online advertising, the facebook platform, and... blogging!!

The Facebook platform is the most interesting, because I think that rumor is somewhat substantiated. While I have previously stated that branded apps are a marketing wasteland, it seems the new redesign has pushed even general fun app use down. And as ReadWriteWeb has recently pointed out:

"The latest release of Facebook makes it nearly impossible for new applications to take advantage of the network effect.... Facebook has sent a clear message to developers - the platform is no longer a priority."

And even as the landscape for Facebook apps get tougher, you have new marketers jumping on board and proclaiming "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It will be Widgetized."

The Great Social Network Shuffle
The "site" that has proclaimed that it is not a social network, it is a social utility has decided it's time to ditch the 3rd party social utlilities. So what does Facebook care about? Well, according to this week's news... music.

Music? Isn't that for MySpace and imeem? With MySpace numbers dropping and imeem laying off staff, it looks like their might be an opening in the realm of music. But who knows next week... with news that Joost has failed in their new platform, we might start seeing things like Facebook TV and Facebook Film. Then we are really getting into the world of MySpace.

So what will next year be? Will we all get fed up with Facebook and go running to the microblogs or niche networks? Which will die the most shocking death: apps, online ads, blogs (I hope not)? Whatever happens in 2009, it is bound to be terribly interesting, so stay tuned.

Marta Strickland

image credit: marcos_franco23 [Flickr]

It's one of the toughest marketing challenges of recent times... how do we measure the success of social media? I see countless posts everyday where someone says they have it figured out, or that it will never be figured out, but nothing quite measures up to the need. How do you measure the success of a human conversation?

Well, we start with what we CAN measure. We can measure reach. How many people are viewing, clicking, watching, downloading, etc? We can also measure exposure or buzz. Are people talking about us in the blogosphere? What are they saying about our brand?

But it's inside those walled gardens, that everything interesting is happening... how strong is the community? Are they active? Are we changing their minds? Changing their actions? How do they feel?

It's the tough nut of the new marketing conversation, but what if there was a way to crack it?

Over the next week, I am going to be looking at how the next generation web will change the way you connect, discover, and share with the social online world. I'm also going to be looking at how this movement is going to make marketing more relevant and measurable.

image credit: marcos_franco23 [Flickr]

It's one of the toughest marketing challenges of recent times... how do we measure the success of social media? I see countless posts everyday where someone says they have it figured out, or that it will never be figured out, but nothing quite measures up to the need. How do you measure the success of a human conversation?

Well, we start with what we CAN measure. We can measure reach. How many people are viewing, clicking, watching, downloading, etc? We can also measure exposure or buzz. Are people talking about us in the blogosphere? What are they saying about our brand?

But it's inside those walled gardens, that everything interesting is happening... how strong is the community? Are they active? Are we changing their minds? Changing their actions? How do they feel?

It's the tough nut of the new marketing conversation, but what if there was a way to crack it?

Over the next week, I am going to be looking at how the next generation web will change the way you connect, discover, and share with the social online world. I'm also going to be looking at how this movement is going to make marketing more relevant and measurable.

Video games are becoming more and more Web 2.0 (and beyond) every day. With recent releases like Little Big Planet, it's pretty clear that we can expect more and more social networking functionality to be used by the video game industries.

For example, Microsoft is releasing its new Dashboard for the Xbox 360 in mid-November which will allow people do to all kinds of amazing things together. You will be able to create your own avatar (much like the "Mii" for Nintendo Wii), but you will be able to take this avatar into a virtual 'party room' where you will be able to verbally communicate with your friends via Xbox Live.

Instead of only communicating, Microsoft is going one step further. They have partnered with Netflix to incorporate their streaming movie service into Xbox Live. This will allow one person in the party to select and start streaming a movie, which all people in the party room can watch, while communicating with each other in real time. Basically, it's a virtual, multi-person movie theatre.

I've been playing video games since I could walk, I can't wait to see what they do next!

Daryl Brewer

Two weeks ago, I attended my 20th high school reunion at Menlo School in Atherton, CA.  Our graduating class was smaller than most - 86 students compared to the typical 100 - and I remember it being subdivided into the cliques that stereotypically characterize high school.  There certainly wasn't "clique warfare," at least that I remember, but it would probably be inaccurate to say that our class was that much tighter than others before us.

That being said, at the reunion, everyone remarked how high the attendance had been, and we all had a great time.  People had flown in from Southern California, Oregon, North Carolina, New York (me), Taiwan and Hong Kong.  Even a couple of classmates who hadn't graduated with our class, attended.  Some surmised that the high attendance had occurred, because our class was unusually close.  Admittedly, I initially saw logic in this rationale, as our class was small enough that there had been 'inter-clique mingling.'

But I realized that there might have been another, more probable reason for the high attendance: Facebook.

Now this is something remarkable, MTV is getting back into (gasp) MUSIC, by posting every music video in its archive. Looks like the "Hulu halo" is finally making its way into the music video business.

The good part for all web/blog-o-philes? They are embeddable too! So now, when you blog and you make a David Bowie music video reference, you can embedd it... In High Quality!

See it all go down here: http://www.mtvmusic.com/

Bon apetit, and happy consumption!

Lau Ardelean

Time to build a demo to attract users for your new start-up? Responsible for creating a Powerpoint to explain industry trends to your non-tech-savvy clients? Maybe the digital medium isn't always the best way to illustrate the digital medium!!

Look at what Google did with the release of Chrome. They used a traditional print medium, the comic book, to communicate complex technological ideas and reinforces their position as a breakthrough innovator. The concept is novel and fun, but the approach also demonstrates an understanding of the target audience, which happens to be a diverse multi-lingual group.

So the next time you are thinking about how best to describe your new start-up or campaign idea, why not break out of the powerpoint? Pick up a box of crayons, costume, sketchpad. In this overloaded age, don't underestimate the value of an interesting presentation.

Bonnie Chu

Part concert, part game, part karaoke, part goodies. Just brilliant. Luke Buda's Special Surprise web experience won the Favorite Web Award's site of the day back in September. The site just begs to be explored with Pterodactyls, dinner plates, plenty of Easter eggs, and one giant Luke Buda head observing it all.

Casey Riggleman

IDEO Global Chain Reaction from IDEO Labs on Vimeo

Most businesses work very hard to remove risk from the equation, IDEO seems to relish in the prospect of daunting odds and seemingly impending failure. For their bravado they are routinely rewarded with smashing successes.

In a climate where many organizations are hunkering down and reverting to tried and true practices, it is amazingly refreshing to see a group that has such confidence in their team members, methodologies and products. I gladly tip my hat to anyone who is willing to put such complete faith in their work and bare it all, regardless of outcome.

James Vreeland

I am happily theming this Weekly Digest for Halloween. That way I don't have to discuss the economic downturn or the upcoming election. And I don't have to tell you whether Twitter is going to be used for good on election day or whether it is a tool for terrorism. Instead we can spend some much needed time discussion which Halloween Twitter icons we are going to use today!!

What's Been Happening This Week?

Night Of The Living Dead
So what has been rising from the dead this week? Well AOL came back with a new home page design that is much improved and plenty of social features. MySpace is launching a new version of their profiles that are looking far more Facebook-like. And speaking of other news in the digitally dead, who knew it was a crime in Japan to virtually kill your online husband?

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
Some things have been coming back from the dead, others have just undergone some sort of alien takeover. Twitter, or more accurately Magpie, is now allowing users to place advertising messages in their backgrounds. Gmail has added connection to Google Docs and Google Gadgets. Tivo and Netflix are creating a holy alliance for better movie streaming capability. And probably the biggest news of the week when LinkedIn announced that it would be supporting 3rd party applications!!

Body Parts... or anything leftover
Not everything was fitting my cute horror movie theme, but is worth reading anyway. Facebook has had some interesting user stories this week. Turns out that while surfing social networks at work is proving to be a useful practice, reporting that you are sick but then telling the truth (hangover) on your status update is not such a good idea. Other evil Facebook activity that has been occurring pits high school students against each other in the battle for college admittance. Students have been using questionable photos to try and ruin their competitions chances at prestigious schools.

That's it for this week. Happy Halloween!!

Marta Strickland