Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Many smartphones have for years featured front-facing VGA quality cameras, in addition to the better back-facing cams for snapping (more or less) better photos. However, there aren't very many places in the world where video calls between mobiles have really taken off, and bridging video calls between phones and computers has been virtually impossible.

Fring is one of the pioneers of VoIP on mobile, and first launched its app for the Nokia, Samsung and SonyEricsson supported Symbian S60 OS in 2007. Over the years they have extended the app's functionality by adding support for Windows Mobile, the iPhone, and earlier this month for Android, and for several PC VoIP applications including Skype. So far, however, there has been no support for Skype video calls either in Fring or in the native Skype app available for the iPhone, Android, and a few other devices.

The latest version of Fring for Symbian S60 changes that. By offering full video support for Skype, it has the opportunity to leverage the global, widespread userbase of Skype and finally make front-facing cameras useful, particularly to those on networks like AT&T and T-Mobile that don't offer video calling themselves. Fring works on both 3G for, depending on your data plan, inexpensive calls, and WiFi for virtually free video time. Is this what will finally make mobile video calls popular?

Update: And it didn't take Fring long to add video calling to the iPhone app as well. Because of the lack of a front facing camera, it's 1-way only.

Demo: Video calls on Fring for Symbian devices (YouTube)

Karri Ojanen

I am currently singing the praises of the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen. It ranks right up there with my iPhone, mino HD Flip videocamera, and TechSmith's Morae software .... in making my life simpler; yet, significantly more productive. If you aren't familiar with it, you can see a full demo of its capabilities at www.livescribe.com.

Key features of the pen include but are not limited to the following:
- Capturing what is written in a Livescribe specific journal via an infrared camera
- Capturing audio via a speaker
- Allowing users to upload their notes to a desktop application via a usb cradle
- Giving users the ability to review their notes and the corresponding audio post-session
- Providing users with a friendly approach to sharing session notes (pdf) and/or the corresponding audio publicly or privately
- Providing uploading capabilities for users to share their session with their Facebook friends

How Is It Making Life Easier?
1. Brainstorming Sessions. This allows me to capture team meetings and then share the notes + audio immediately after the session (vs. our current approach of taking a picture with a smart phone, typing up the notes and then emailing them).

2. Usability Testing. It allows me to take notes while moderating usability tests and then share them with team members immediately after each interview. It also makes it easy to search my notes for specific consumer quotations.

3. Doctors' Appointments. It allows me, with the preapproval of my Mom's physicians, to record appointments with specialists that my mother sees for some chronic health issues. As her caretaker and legal guardian, these visits can be stressful and prior to now I was always worried that we might not have caught everything the doctor had to say - compromising her care in some way. On my personal blog, I give some additional tips on how the pen can be used by caregivers.

4. Radio Programs. At lunch today, I heard a great program on Sirius radio about happiness. I took notes in my Livescribe notebook and was then able to load the audio onto my computer when I returned to the office so that I can hear the program again.

I can't wait to see what they come up with for future versions. I recently allowed Russ Hopkinson to play with it. He commented on how nice it would be if there were whiteboards with the same functionality? Think it's in the works....?

So far, my only regret is that I didn't purchase the 4GB version!!

Laura McGowan

Notes: I would like to send a special "thanks" to David Berney who familiarized me with the Smartpen at Forrester's Consumer Forum. You can follow him on Twitter @dberney.

This month, Esquire Magazine launched their anticipated Augmented Reality issue. The issue features an AR cover, where Robert Downey Jr. performs an intro and also a pitch for his upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie. In addition, there is other content, such as a fashion supplement where the weather changes based on the way the user tilts the magazine and the time of day they access the site.

An augmented reality cover isn't necessarily new. GE and Popular Science paired up back in February for the first ever interactive 3-D cover (Threeminds' "Augmented Reality is a Marketing Reality). But the level to which they have integrated it and in a fun, playful way is something for other traditional magazines to pay attention to, especially in a time where they are desperate for print readership.

Esquire is getting some flack for this issue from people who consider it merely a marketing tactic, and they are the first to admit that it's a gimmick. Being gimmicky is not new to Esquire. There was an E-Ink cover last year and a "mix and match" cover in May that allowed readers to mix the faces of George Clooney, Barack Obama, and Justin Timberlake.

Others claim Esquire has missed the whole point of augmented reality. Because the whole effort for a consumer to set up the issue against their webcam and download the software, it is essential to show they something of value. Jack Benoff had some ideas as to what that could be:

"What if Esquire's "fashion spread" allowed people to overlay images of an article of clothing on themselves ( for example ties) so that they could match (or in my case, learn how to match) them with their existing wardrobe. Editorial content could provide tips, tricks and insights. Now, that might provide some real value to consumers looking to make a purchase..."

The New York Observer goes so far as to say that users are so used to gorgeous Pixar movies that they aren't really interested in the gimmick that augmented reality could provide. Still, Esquire is getting a lot of press for this. And that is probably all they need to increase sales.

Thanks to Yee Peng Chia for the link.

Marta Strickland

Twitter and the web at large is up in jubilation over the release of Google Wave today. So much so that the beta invitations have run out and the opportunity to take a "test drive" is selling on eBay for $70 a pop. If you don't already know what Google Wave is Mashable offers a really nice "Complete Guide to Google Wave", which after using can only be experienced not described.

Google Wave is a real-time communication platform with some huge UI bugs to overcome. In order to test out the platform, I started a wave with some of the best minds at Organic and threw them a series of questions to answer, debate, and co-edit. Extracts of which are below:

QUESTION #1: Do you think the "revolutionize e-mail" hype is justified or even accurate for Google Wave?

Kai Wright: I'm expecting a revolution. It's definitely a cool way to send AIM and have group chat. It's hard to learn though - where's the simple Apple-like tutorial?

Dan Neumann: You can't quote me on this, but Wave is waay to complicated for older people. if this is going to replace email my parents will need to be willing to use it

Marta Strickland: My parents are confused by the different functionality within Facebook... what's a comment, what's a wall post, what's a private message. I don't know how they would handle something like this. Even I am a bit confused.

Craig Ritchie: but I remember when email was difficult to understand for people too... it's all about your previous experiencse and how to apply them to new ones. And what's a "poke" for anyway? we'll never know.

QUESTION #2: Is Google Wave going to be relevant and in use by the "mainstream" or at least early adopter mainstream in 2010?

Dan Neumann: relevant yes. useful? maybe not

James Vreeland: i think that it will hit a point where people stop thinking about using it and its just "how you post photos and comments on the site". This UI is way too much for day to day use for most folks, but the underlying engine is way to potent to fade away quickly.

QUESTION #3: Is Google Wave a wiki? an e-mail platform? a chat window? a whiteboard tool? Which one does it have the most opportunity to replace in our daily lives?

James Vreeland: 1 part subethaedit, 1 part basecamp, 3 parts campfire

Craig Ritchie: worst thing you can do is try to bucket new concepts into old buckets. that's why we have such trouble selling these things to clients.

Derek Scott: I'm looking forward to seeing what new collaborative tools are created using the API.

FINAL ASSESSMENT: Lots of quirks and lots of potential. Potential to confuse, potential to revolutionize... if not e-mail or chat or whiteboarding, than at least the ability to get a few co-workers across offices riffing on an idea for half an hour.

Thanks to Craig Ritchie, Kai Wright, James Vreeland, Derek Scott and Dan Neumann for participating in today's experiment. A snapshot of the full dialog can be seen below.

Marta Strickland

Marketers often ask why QR code technology for mobile phones (and other 2D barcode tech) hasn't made it to the mainstream in North America. There have been a few notable efforts, some of which are still ongoing, but for the most part the technology remains esoteric and unused.

There's a very good reason for this. In North America we don't need this technology.

Quick Response (QR) codes were used to solve a very specific problem, inputting URLs. In NA, the majority of people who use their mobile phones to do anything more than make calls have a QWERTY keypad. The main reasons this tech took off in Japan and other parts of Southeast Asia are and not in North America are:

1. Carriers there ensured that reader applications were installed on every device.
2. Most phones in those countries didn't (and still don't) have qwerty - or equivalent - keypads, so using 2d barcodes as a way to quickly link to a site made sense.

It's difficult to find data on QR reader penetration outside Japan and Korea, but to be wildly generous let's assume that in the US it's 5%. Even if this were the case, the potential reach is far lower than it would be if a URL were used instead.

So why are marketers still intent on forcing this tech on the American public? Recent campaigns by Ford and Ralph Lauren use 2D barcodes with little regard for the implications imposed on would be users. In the case of the ford campaign, users would need to perform one of the following actions before arriving at actual content:

"Simply open your phone's browser and download the free app at gettag.mobi or text 'Tag' to 4Ford. Then follow the directions to scan or snap this tag to see features come to life."

At the end of this convoluted path is a video, so why not simply print a short URL that links directly to the video or a mobile site where users can watch multiple videos? There's no good reason.

Given that the same functionality can be achieved with greater reach using a plain URL, use of QR codes as a replacement or supposed shortcut to web-based content adds little value to the campaign. In fact, it likely detracts from it. We don't have barcode reader penetration in NA, but we do have QWERTY keypads which means inputting a URL is trivial.

There are other uses for 2D barcodes that make sense. In particular, expect to see 2D barcodes deployed as part of a POS redemption mechanism for mobile coupons. For more on this, check out this post on the new Starbucks iPhone app.

Dan Neumann

image credit: Wessex Archaeology

That appears to be Google's tactic. A few days ago they announced a new plugin for IE 6, 7, and 8 called Chrome Frame. It's available now as a developer preview so you have to prepend "cf:" before the "http" in all URLs, but for a first release it's admirably cohesive and powerful.

Creating a Better Experience
What it does is replace IE's decrepit page display code and javascript code with Chrome's. Everything else about IE stays the same, appearance, bookmarks, history, options, tabs, everything. It's simply that suddenly IE is as fast and modern as Chrome.

And it really is as fast as Chrome. "Notably, IE8's SunSpider scores with Chrome Frame running equaled Google's Chrome browser, a solid indication that the plug-in effectively turns any version of IE into the speed equivalent of Chrome itself."

Users can install the plugin with a single click, without relaunching the browser, and even without administrator privileges. Websites can go so far as to present visitors with the ability to do just this. (More info is available on Google's Dev FAQ.)

Using the Competition's Downfalls To Their Advantage
The beautiful irony here is that this uses an old Microsoft technology they built in the '90s to make IE more flexible than Netscape Navigator. And yet, here it is a decade later being used by one of their biggest competitors to help usher their dilapidated browser into bygone history. Even better, that same feature is what powers most IE toolbars so it's not going to be closed any time soon.

Fixing What's Holding Them Back
Everything Google makes could be made more easily, more quickly,and with better features if they didn't have to support any version of IE, but especially IE 6 which is still the most popular browser globally (by age it would be in second grade now). GMail uses HTML 5's local database features, GMaps and Latitude use the new GeoLocation javascript spec to locate your position. In doing these, they've shown that they can code around IE's nuisances as we all must, but this takes time, costs money, and is really, really unpleasant. Imagine if Reader, Docs, Calendar could work offline such as when you're on a plane and then when you get connected again they would then sync all of their changes to the server. IE8 finally caught up to all other browsers and introduced support for this (yet IE6 and 7 clearly are not going away). Or what if Picasa let you edit your photos via HTML 5's <canvas> feature? This is already supported to degrees in everything except IE.

Google's stance is that which many developers feel: IE is very literally holding us back and it needs to stop.

Late To The Game
It wasn't until last month -- August 7 -- that Microsoft finally issued a public statement with meat on their thoughts about HTML 5. A whopping 5 years after developers and browser makers started the process! This complete silence had an awful lot of us worried about the thorns IE could present in the future and probably was no small part of Google's decision to undermine IE's stranglehold on its stalwarts.

Giving Us A Choice
IE is not going to die by attrition. No one action or event is ever going to make two-thirds of everyone on the internet give up on the browser they use. This will help for sure, that it doesn't require administrator privileges for installation is an unbelievable coup d'état. Three out of four people on Digg who use IE6 use it because they don't have a choice. Well, they've got a choice now.

I know that from now on all of my personal work is going to include the simple code from Google to use Chrome Frame if installed, and offer to install it if it's not. It's too easy and nightmare-reducing not to!

Phil Dokas

I've been waiting for this one to launch for some time now and it's finally here.

The guys behind Engadget and Gizmodo have teamed up to unleash what they are calling the biggest gadget database ( and hopefully community ) Ever. Known.

I know I'll be using gdgt (pronounced simply as 'gadget') for years to come. Perhaps even as my main resource for reviews, discussions and just info for anything tech.

So what are your thoughts? Good idea? Is this gonna be HUGE or what?

Tyler King

Caterina Fake, who previously cofounded the photo-sharing site Flickr has cofounded a new search engine named Hunch, which launched Monday 6/15/09.

What differentiates Hunch from other search engines is that rather than focusing on delivering an answer to specific questions (Where can I get Chinese takeout, 10018) Hunch seeks to deliver recommendations to less defined questions (What should I make for dinner tonight?).

Hunch starts off by asking you a few multiple choice questions to develop your profile. You can create an account and save your profile, or the Hunch site can keep track of your answers via cookies (of course you'll need to answer the questions again if you use another computer). If you create an account, you have the opportunity to "Teach Hunch About You" by answering even more questions. This information is used to help Hunch make recommendations that are relevant to you and your preferences. Once Hunch makes its recommendations, you can let the engine know if the recommendations were good or not. This data is also saved and used to adjust future recommendations. Hunch uses all this information to group people based on their answers. The next time you ask a question. It will try to give you recommendations based on the group's answers.

Besides the profile questions, when you start your search you have to answer a series of survey question on the topic you are searching. "Do you like spicy food?", "Are you a vegetarian?", etc. These are used to determine your final recommendations. Hunch recommended I make Jambalaya, which I thought was a great recommendation (even though I decided I didn't want to cook at all last night).

While the site offers an interesting approach to search, it will take many users who will have to literally answer hundreds of questions, for the engine's algorithms to be robust enough to actually offer relevant answers - I stopped just after answering my 200th question, and there was no indication of how many more questions there were. Though it might be cool to get recommendations based on what other people - with similar profiles - have answered... is it worth the hours you'll spend creating a profile when you can chat with a friend?

Hunch has also declared it won't share this data, but if the site takes off, it would be interesting to see what other uses this data might be applicable to. Information like this could make targeted ads VERY targeted...

Madi Benjamin

There are a plethora of social media monitoring tools out there now. As they jostle and tousle with each other tantalizing potential clients with colorful charts, demos and trial accounts, I'm still left wondering where this technology will wind up. Will it go the way of the search engines and eventually wind up with just a few mega players? (OK, really one.)

I first started looking at social monitoring tools back in November of 2007. Since then there have been huge advances in the capabilities included in these platforms and some level of convergence in the capabilities in the top players.

Next week I will be representing Organic on an OMMA Social panel called "Choosing a Social Monitoring Tool: How to Find the Right Fit." At Organic we are are continually reviewing tools, and currently using Sysomos. In the review of numerous tools, I've created my dream list for a social monitoring tool:

1. Easy self-service set up of topics and queries.
2. Efficient filtering of topics.
3. Delivery of results in real-time.
4. Sentiment analysis.
5. Trending Data.
6. Comparison to competitive information.
7. Identification of conversation "themes" around a topic.
8. Identification of Influencers or "influential posts."
9. Demographic Information.
10. Respond to and track engagement.

But what exactly does that top 10 dream list mean?

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