Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

What if you could re-envision the trading floor with a web 2.0 focus? What if a RIA could expose you to a network of insiders? What is you could analyze Morgan Stanley's extensive historical trading data with your own models? What is Morgan Stanley pushed the envelope of transparency to provide you with more data than has ever been available before?

Check out the Matrix by Morgan Stanley microsite and product overview: http://www.morganstanley.com/matrixinfo/

It is an ambitious new rich internet application that is changing the way people think about the trading floor. Capabilities include advanced data visualizations, human curated (by MS of course) and machine filtered information for the torrents of relevant financial information and news, and social graph/IM/messaging features to connect to a network of your peers. The experience was built using Adobe's Flash Platform technologies, and integrates real-time data, with the delivery of audio, video, reports and rich interactive charts using the Flex framework. Truly revolutionary experience design from a Bank.

Dean McRobie

Data has long been pervasive. Humans seem endlessly intrigued with cataloging and collecting things. We are constantly looking back to look forward. Historical data has helped us prepare for re-occurrences and understand complicated spans of time that may be seemingly unrelated. Data is becoming increasingly easier and easier to collect and it's really starting to pile up.

Numbers by themselves can never tell a story and that's where the fun begins. Visualizing and finding/telling interesting stories with these mountains of data has become almost as important as the data itself.

I am so impressed by both ends of the data visualization spectrum. Taking huge data sets that appear insurmountable and creating visually stunning works of art that allow a viewer to dive into. These often create lasting impressions and let viewers experience the data as a piece of art containing layers and layers of information. Equally impressive, if not more important is the ability to tell concise stories by stripping the data down to its most crystallized form. Making complex data sets accessible and approachable is a task of flawless organization and design restraint.

Here are some recent data visualization pieces that I have found intriguing. Hope you enjoy.

Random Walk. What does randomness look like?

The World of 100. What would a world with a village of 100 people look like? Think beautiful posters with simple vector graphics that related to statistical slices of the world. Gender, Literacy, Education, Food and Computers are just a few.

Roambi: An iPhone app dedicated to the display of data.

Do these representations resonate with you more than straight up text would?

Dwayne Raupp

The Cloud Mirror from eric gradman on Vimeo.

I've been drawn to the new augmented reality stuff that is going around. I think this is sure to be an up and coming technology that'll be used a lot in advertising.
 
I recently came across one in particular that raises many questions: The Cloud Mirror. It's an art installation that brings the awkwardness back into being social. For far too long the vastness that is the Internet has hidden all of those uber personal things we don't want everyone and their mother to know. This installation plucks many unknowns from social media's past and plops them right in front of the user and their friends, putting the redness back into the cheeks of Web nerds everywhere.
 
It also asks the question: How private is social media? Is it acceptable to have one's personal data and information out for all the world to see? Imagine for a second all of this personal data following you around. All of your private info much like a tag cloud around your body moving as you do. It seems a lot like movies we've seen in the past. Stranger than Fiction, for example.
 
I also found the potential really interesting in this art study. There is a lot to be debated within this movie, whether it be the privatizing social media aspect of it, technology evolution, or even assigning barcodes to your identity. All of these issues could be argued in this movie.
 
The Mirror Cloud project's main theme speaks to a good point. In the social media realm, deep recesses of the Internet and the blogosphere, it's not certain how private your data is. I'm not sure if most people just aren't aware that they're making all this data available to the public. I think the majority of the public thinks that it goes to some magical place somewhere. But the truth of the matter is that all of your personal data is housed within a computer probably somewhere in Silicon Valley and can be looked at and anytime, by anyone.
 
All of my Facebook information is up to date and truthful. I even choose to leave some of my images tagged less than tasteful up. But I'm a bit of a rarity. To most people, having distasteful things said about them, weird pictures taken of them, or even false information on the Internet about them could potentially cause a personal social meltdown.
 
The fact of the matter is that there's not trickery involved here. That data was posted by you, the user. It is ultimately the user that has control over what the public sees and doesn't see. I feel that it is often ignorance, or lack of awareness that causes these social shocks when technology uses this data in a clever way.
 
How would you react if somebody broadcast your posts in an open public place with your picture attached?
 
Dave Knoph

As an interface engineer, I care a great deal about accuracy in data display. Whenever I see quantitative info display that is inaccurate not through faulty data but faulty display I can't help but do what I can to tell the uncompromised story. This is why I strive to apply good techniques in order to portray information clearly and find inspiration from designers like Edward Tufte and Jeffrey Veen. Jeffrey Veen is one of the founding partners of Adaptive Path and Google, where he lead the redesign of Google Analytics.

Veen recently published a 20 minute version of his presentation at the 2009 Web 2.0 Expo that neatly puts together much thought on the topic of designing for and building out huge datasets, with both modern and historical examples. Many of his historical examples are things you'll recognize from the likes of Tufte et al, but he pairs them to great effect with recent projects from around the web, including Google Analytics and Gapminder World.

In the video he outlines several important trends, "we are shifting as a culture from consumers to participants, and how technology has enabled massive amounts of data to be recorded, stored, and analyzed." The question for us is how to use smart and compelling visualizations like these with the wealth of data we're gathering to improve the quality of life for users.

Have a look at the video, it's well worth the time and provides a lot of food for thought: http://www.veen.com/jeff/archives/001000.html

Phil Dokas

image credit:  informationarchitects.jp/wtm

For the past three years, Information Architects Japan has been producing stunning visual maps of web trends based on Tokyo's iconic subway system. Their 2009 final beta map is now online.

It's their best map yet for recording the most popular, successful, influential web sites, the sites' ownership, inspirational leadership along with visualizing the interconnectivity of digital trends. As with previous years, there is insider "commentary" based upon which companies (and people) occupy the more prominent stations. Because it is still in beta, the author is seeking feedback -- but hurry because comments close on Friday, April 10th. When the final version is released,  you'll be able to download it in a number of formats and impress your colleagues. Or give a geek a gift: 1000 limited edition posters suitable for framing will be available for purchase.

Previous versions of the web trends maps can be found here:
2008
2007

Do you find these useful? Or are they simply really captivating eye candy?

Lori Laurent Smith

Although not new, the notion of a personal CPM seemed to be threaded through more than a few panels at this year's SXSW interactive conference. Popularized by former Forrester analyst Charlene Li, the PCPM can be loosely defined as the value of one thousand page views multiplied by an individual's influence. More specifically, it's the idea that, if you can quantify the amount of influence someone has in their social graph, then you can use that person as a filter for advertising.

So, if I'm influential within a group of people and I raise my hand by interacting with a brand, then there's a good chance that the people who hold me in some esteem will also be interested in that brand. Presumably, a value would then be placed on my filtering power in specific verticals based on the size and composition of my social graph. From there, advertisers would pay a premium to serve ads to members of that influencer's social graph.

As standards like Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect, and Open ID come into force and become interoperable we will move to a web where the PCPM is technically viable. It's true that as social functionality seeps into every corner of the web "wuffie," as Tara Hunt another SXSW keynote speaker, has dubbed social capital, will be a juicy target for monetization through targeting. But, there are still a lot of unanswered questions to be addressed.

Perhaps as interesting as the idea of the PCPM was the impetus behind its prominence at SXSW. People are starting to realize that there's something fundamentally wrong with the ad-supported business model. When sites as popular as the NY Times, Facebook, and Twitter can't, through display advertising, make enough money to sustain themselves let alone turn a profit, it's clear that change is needed.

There are many pieces to the puzzle of why high traffic doesn't always equate to high profits. Many would argue that Twitter and Facebook are only interested in maintaining growth without compromising user experience. Or, that both have viable business models that just need to be "discovered." The fact remains that these sites have value to many millions of people that is not being converted my display advertising.

Is the PCPM the answer to the problem of monetization and profitability for some of the web's most loved sites? The answer is likely "no." But, that won't stop it from becoming a reality and, I suspect, add a new dimension to the value of display advertising inventory.

Dan Neumann

Barcodes and QR Codes could be a thing of the past. I'm betting Mobile Multi-Colour Composite codes (MMCC) will be the new "barcodes."

The MMCC codes are 2D barcodes that can hold video, pictures, text, ringtones, games or any other multimedia that you might dream up. The embedded clip would play when scanned into a user's phone.

The ability to see a sample of something fast would be a quick sell for me. Maybe a 10 second clip of a music video or a quick trailer for a movie. Or it could be something that has the potential to spread - like a Jeep® "Lost" tie-in a la scavenger hunt style.

With any new technology there is always the fad issue where it's hot one moment and in the bargain, unwanted bin the next. However if there is value behind it, I believe marketers will support this cool technology. The real reason this might stick is that there is an actual use for this technology. Regular barcodes or QR codes are very ambiguous, often lost within our daily routines.

I haven't seen any cool implementation of this...yet. And I've never actually found a QR code in the wild yet either.

What would make this innovation really take off? If you had a product to sell, how would you use an MMCC code?

Jason Law

I just picked up a copy of Data Flow, a 200+ page anthology of data visualization examples from around the world, and I can't put it down. The collection is deep and wide, from the playful (pictured) to the abstract (meandering lines of measurement representing the meandering prose of Kerouac's On the Road) to the narrative (a comic-influenced non-linear story of lives intersecting).

Even better, the book is light on words, save for the concise and insightful intro, a few choice interviews, and five thematic chapter titles -- Datasphere, Datascape, Datanoid, Datalogy, and Datablocks. Simple as they may sound, these titles help make sense the vast world of information design by identifying the most common metaphors by which designers communicate complexity. An inspiring and informative reference.

Sam Cannon

PepsiCo wants you to be able to see what's happening at one of the biggest idea forums this year. They're not only a huge sponsor of this year's SXSW in Austin, they're running a Twitter-based "visualizer" of happenings and ephemera at the event.

Immersing themselves in emerging trends -- namely social media -- is what PepsiCo deems necessary to stay "sharp and innovative" according to Josh Karp, the company's Manager of Digital and Social Media. Their three big brands are individually sponsoring the different festivals and conferences: Pepsi is aligned with Music, Sierra Mist with Film and Mountain Dew with the Interactive Festival.

Hence, PepsiCo built their latest site, titled "SXSW 2009 Twitter Visualizer", specifically for the conference. (Thanks to Chad Stoller for sharing via twitter.) The first page features a constant stream of tweets similar to www.twitterfall.com. The eye-catching data is displayed in a bold, typographic manner. While it looks pretty cool, there's just too much going on to read too many of the actual tweets.

The front page isn't the best part though. Check out the "Swarm" page, which shows tweets as they're posted at specific event locations. All are nicely overlaid atop an animated map of Austin. So you get an idea of how the event is laid out even if you're not there. "Popular" tracks keywords while "Overheard" clues you in on who has sonic ears.

The most interesting part is that it looks to have been designed and built by a two-person team. Though they give props to others on their website.

Are you headed to Austin for the events? Will you be tweeting while there? Or are you following anyone who is tweeting in the midst of the experience?

Sarah Jo Sautter