Posting from Facebook

This is really cool - if it works. Right now I’m posting to Channel8000 directly from my facebook account. It’s really interesting when the huge social networks collaborate with the web 2.0 applications. Looking forward seeing what this will lead to.

BBC launches iPlayer

Obviously BBC is really the firstmover then it comes to adopting new technology and adjusting their services to changing consumer behavior. This is really the modern interpretation og Public Service to be admired by media institutions all over the world. They took the first step launching creative archive, and today they launched the  BBC iPlayer giving the british people access to the last 7 days of programming.

Mapping the new media world

Here’s a really fun new way to visualise all the new media companies – as shown on the Tokyo underground
map

Jason Steinberg writes:
“They took the top 200 tech (definitely tech) sites and placed them
along subway lines. The lines are used to group together similar
services. For example along the blue Community line there’s Facebook,
Xing, Vox and LinkedIn. Each one also has a weather forecast and an
incremental web number. The more suns and less clouds represent a
positive prediction about a site’s future.
For those of you familiar with the Tokyo subway system, there are some
really funny (and snarky) bits:
1. Google has moved from Shibuya, a humming place for young people,
to
Shinjuku, a suspicious, messy, Yakuza-controlled, but still a
pretty
cool place to hang out (Golden Gaya).
2. Youtube has conquered Shibuya.
3. Microsoft has moved to Ikebukuro, if you know what I mean.
4. Yahoo is in Ueno, a nice place but nothing going on there.
5. Wikipedia now is in Shimbashi, the place for the square and
hard-headed Salaryman, like the Wikipedia watchdogs.
6. The Chinese line runs parallel to the “share line” which starts
with
the main pirates…
7. Paper info designer Tufte is right below the Federated Media,
right
before joining with the interactive information design circle in a
90
degree angle.
8. “You” are in the Emperor’s palace, in the center of the network.
And, its media friendly - your clients can sponsor it starting at
US$2,000 for one of 10 spaces which will be included on all adaptations
of the map.”

Thanks to Dan for this post!

Do we really want our audience to participate?

Long time ago I started reading Henry Jenkins Convergence Culture, but must admit I skipped a few chapters. But in this rainy summer I promised myself to start reading the last of a series (I turned out to be many) of book in which I have skipped, browsed and jumped inside the last year.

Last night I read the Tarantino’s Star Wars Chapter in Convergence Culture. It is really a brilliant book written by the founder (and Director) of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program.

There are so many wonderful insights in this chapter so I’ll share a few. I love his differentiation between interactivity and participation, with interactivity being the master plan of the sender, based by their intentions, control and responsiveness of consumer feedback and participation being the respons by the reciever shaped by cultural and social protocols.

Another brillant diversity he adresses is how he categories the players in the media industry on behalf on their response to the changing media landscape as prohibitionists or collaborationists. This is perfect because you can take all players in the industry and locate them in eiter direction. Sadly their is a tendency to the classic media players (being music, recordings and film) joining the prohibitionists, and leaving the collaborative respons to gaming, mobile and internet driven companies.

A way where we see this in action is the ongoing debate on whether the movie industry embrace fan sites using content from their backyard? Disney fought for years to prohibit this, but were happy to make children market their movies anywhere else? This just doesn’t make sense. We fight to create Word of Mouth, but as soon as is spreads to Word-of-Mouse - we panic.

The sociologist Grant McCranken says: Corporations must decide whether they are, literally, in or out. Will they make themself an island or will they enter the mix?”

Especially the gaming industry has left the island and they are conquering the world by letting the gamers not just join the game, but co-creating the universes in where they play. It is estimated that 60 % of the gameplay in the Sims is created by users, and we see how MMPOG’s are defined today - not by the given gameplay, but by the social interaction happening between the users, as mentiond before with machinima Tales of the Past 3.

As you can see I love this chapter and it ends by this interesting quote, where the part about renegotiating relationships are very well spoken ” many of the smartest folks in the media industry know this; some are trembling, and others are scrambling to renegotiate their relationships with consumers. In the end, the media producers need fans just as much as fans need them.”

The perfect guide to web 2.0

This is as useful as it is confusing… Go2Web2.0

Wikileaks

This is amazing! Wikileaks is a place on the internet made to share critical infomation, documents and analysis.

In the spirit of the Wiki.  Here’s their own definition:

“Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact; this means our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by non-technical people. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources”

Thanks to Russell

Paranoia 2.0

Found this on Mike’s blog. I think it’s interesting and gives a good perspective to the earlier customer service post. But how much is paranoia and how much do we have to fear data mining? If they collect my data, to make content customized - I love it. But it would be nice to know the agenda of the people collecting it.

Kwik-E-Mart

I love this campaign. It promotes the series, the movie and the eleven 7-11s participating. Love it! I’m absolutely sure this will make people talk!

See the whole FLICKR set here

Customer care in 2020

In my search for a challenge to the MDAS viral video I found this. The video is kind of slow, and the idea about making it in Second Life is fun, but gets pretty annoying after a while. Who want to watch bad graphics for more than 30 Sec? Seeing som of the Machinima made in WOW second life can’t follow that lead.

Anyway. About customer care: This is a fine act of balance though. To care about the consumers, but not to be obsessed with them. That can be scary too. With all the new technology possibilities we have to choose how to activate our knowledge. Google has been on the public agenda for a while concerning issues on collecting data. Joost is heading for the same trouble.

But as I’m concerned it depends on how you chose to use the data. If Google can use my info to customize the ads on my GMail, so I wont get diaper-commercials (not planning to get any kids right now) or holiday-offers (when I’m not going on holiday before the end of august) I will embrace data-gathering.

If it means I can get customized, relevant ads and therefore no annoying, disruptive ads with NO relevans at all. If joost can get my data so the value of each commercial will be multiplied I’ll (or hope I will) receive 1 minute of TV-C’s compared to the 7 minutes often aired today. And that minute will be relevant - Please collect my data! But use it well!

A new challenging client

This week I got a new client. It’s the entertainment industry, so there is challenges, but many possibilities. Very engaged people with a lot of knowledge in their field. But also with lots of space to make a difference and take their communications a step further. I’m looking so much forward to start working with them. Which will be immediately, so that’s perfect.

But after the meeting I received this video from the new client, who probably found this circulating in the danish media/ad-industry.  A video launched by Microsoft digital advertising solutions (I hate their new name - it really sucks), but an interesting video though. And it provokes me that a lot of it is true. So I will see if I can find a video demonstrating that some brands embrace their consumers and listen to their needs so they can create true loyalty. I’ll start looking. Anybody out there got some good stuff on this subject?