tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74424556261202366312024-03-08T09:01:24.045+00:00will lion | blogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger162125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-70057440311357705462009-03-01T09:50:00.000+00:002009-03-01T09:51:36.053+00:00the fish with the transparent head<object width="400" height="334"><param name="movie" value="http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/flash/syndicatedVideoPlayer.swf?vid=transparent-fish-video-vin"></param><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"></param></param><embed src="http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/flash/syndicatedVideoPlayer.swf?vid=transparent-fish-video-vin" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="400" height="334"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-45630386999177893202009-01-15T10:39:00.003+00:002009-01-15T10:49:39.158+00:00quality adwords<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SW8SkVtbDwI/AAAAAAAAEMw/x7HvWv06oIg/s1600-h/untitled.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 351px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SW8SkVtbDwI/AAAAAAAAEMw/x7HvWv06oIg/s400/untitled.bmp" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291468502695874306" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">(click to enlarge)</span><br /></div><div><br /><div>and generally quality campaign: <a href="http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/tv-ad.html">TV</a>, <a href="http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/">site</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aleksandr-Orlov-Founder-of-Comparethemeerkatcom/55085907066?ref=s">facebook</a> & <a href="http://twitter.com/Aleksandr_Orlov">twitter.</a></div><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-90350823479860090902009-01-08T14:17:00.006+00:002009-01-09T12:09:06.720+00:00like glowing ants<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1XBwjQsOEeg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1XBwjQsOEeg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object><br /><br />This is global air traffic in a 24 hour period as captured by satellite (and they all seem to be going to London.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-24848827046280870172009-01-07T13:28:00.006+00:002009-04-08T11:29:02.034+01:00google new year<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SWSvNvR3tZI/AAAAAAAAEMo/XqJ1_kVOBGQ/s1600-h/google_new+years.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 245px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SWSvNvR3tZI/AAAAAAAAEMo/XqJ1_kVOBGQ/s400/google_new+years.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288544513004385682" /></a><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">The <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">genius</span> of Google’s advertising is that it <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">doesn</span>’t look like advertising while probably doing a better job than most advertising. It’s so functional, so straight-up. It <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">doesn</span>’t even feel like false altruism where you know that your wallet will have to appear at some point. <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/landing/newyears2009/">It’s just lovely, simple and it perpetuates the use of Google</a>.</span></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-26142180434801308012008-12-11T18:06:00.029+00:002009-01-07T16:38:01.710+00:00what's digital and why you should apply<div>Something I did for the folks over at <a href="http://adgrads.blogspot.com/2009/01/dare-to-go-digital.html">AdGrads</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3096020808/" title="100 percent digital by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3041/3096020808_8ec9345afc.jpg" width="450" height="450" alt="100 percent digital" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It might be overstated (there’s probably always going to be the “‘</span></span><a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article663654.ece"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">bed, bog, bath’ element</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">”) but Mr Billingsley’s comment is almost certainly right: we’re going to be digital advertisers because the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">world is now digital, </span><a href="http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2008/02/the-street-as-p.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and getting more so</span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What does all this digital malarkey mean for people looking to get into the communications business and, before we look at that, what does digital mean anyway?</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">One of the lovely insights of </span></span><a href="http://www.daredigital.com/grads.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dare’s grad video</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – where the parents of Dare folk gloriously fail to define what their children do – is that pinning it down is tricky.</span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Part of its slipperiness is that things just keep shifting. Facebook was born in 2004, YouTube in 2005, Twitter in 2006, the App Store in 2008 etc. The only constant is change.</span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The other thing about ‘digital’ is that it’s polysemous – it has multiple meanings. </span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It’s used to refer to electronic media (web, screens, mobiles, ipods, nike+ shoes etc) but also, and more importantly, the behaviours those media have unleashed and fed: interaction.</span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There’s an important difference there that Jeremy Bullmore expressed perfectly in Campaign when he said,</span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139); white-space: pre-wrap; text-decoration: underline;font-family:-webkit-monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size:13px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3095214225/" title="all about interactivity by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3023/3095214225_9f0b8391b1.jpg" width="450" height="353" alt="all about interactivity" /></a></span><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:-webkit-monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: normal; font-family:Arial;">There are two important things there for grads trying to get into the industry. The first is, “whose roof”?</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Most of you will have been concentrating on the big above-the-line ones. That’s a good bet for a digital future as long as that ATL agency gets digital, which means they aren’t just talking about it, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">they’re doing it </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(hmm, a black sheep has just popped into my head.)</span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">On the other hand, another good bet are the agencies whose best is yet to come: the digital ones, primed as they are to thrive in the coming digital ecosystem. </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And now for the second important bit of Mr Bullmore’s quote: if you’re worried about applying to a digital agency because it’s got the word digital in it, don’t be: as he says, it’s not really about tech, it’s about interactivity.</span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And what's that? It's </span></span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2846374322/in/set-72157604490685881/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">spreading the intelligence more evenly between people who make stuff and people who consume it</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. Sometimes </span></span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">it’s</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/diesel-interactive-store-window-sculpture"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">only</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5xOyf97O3Yo"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.daredigital.com/extranet/lynx/blow/main.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">little</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, sometimes </span></span><a href="http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">it’s</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.nowitis.com/images/politick/web/3_26_08/barack_obama_website.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a</span></span></a><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/ITunes_8_on_Windows_Vista.png"><span style="text-decoration: none; color:windowtext;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">lot</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. </span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This interactivity let’s you do a lot more than you can at your typical traditional ATL agency. Or to reunite that idea with its owner:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); white-space: pre-wrap; text-decoration: underline;font-family:-webkit-monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size:13px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2573449654/" title="we are not an advertising agency by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2110/2573449654_7c59452fdd.jpg" width="450" height="353" alt="we are not an advertising agency" /></a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:-webkit-monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: normal; font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I think that's really exciting (and Mr Tait has 9 more great reasons </span></span><a href="http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/iain-tait-of-poke-on-ten-reasons-why-digital-is-better-than-advertising-at-the-psfk-conference-london.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">digital is better</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> for those interested). In digital you’re unshackled from </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">just</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> doing TV, print and radio to all sorts of exciting things <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">like </span></span><a href="http://microsites.audi.co.uk/r8launch/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">sites</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, </span></span><a href="http://www.sonyericsson.com/findit/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">applications</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, </span></span><a href="http://motionflow.eu/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">blogs</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, </span></span><a href="http://www.gettheglass.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">games</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_films"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">branded</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.whoisjohnny-x.com/index.aspx?en-gb"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">content</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, </span></span><a href="http://www.entry-hamburg-hafen.de/86/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">widgets</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, </span></span><a href="http://www.britishairways.com/travel/drsleeppodcasts/public/en_gb"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">podcasts</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, </span></span><a href="http://flickr.com/groups/nikondigitallearningcenter/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">social</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Apple-Students/11147074409"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">things</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and <a href="http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/">experimental stuff</a>. </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> And a lot of this (not all) is actually useful to people; <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">it's </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/garethk/planning-needs-some-planning-presentation">additive rather than</a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2616530208/in/set-72157604490685881/">interruptive</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In my experience grads tend to think of digital as something on-the-sidey and techy. Maybe it once was. Now it ain’t. Technology is so ubiquitous, so </span></span><a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AJ_eBJtHxmsC&printsec=frontcover#PPA53,M1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">‘ready-to-hand’</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, that it’s </span></span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2636903303/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">becoming</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><a href="http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2008/10/the-invisible-web.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">invisible</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and when that happens it gets </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_comes_everybody"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">socially interesting</span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In other words, technology and culture used to be separate, increasingly they are the same (look what you're doing now.)</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It’s a brilliant time to get into an industry that’s only going to grow (</span></span><a href="http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12684861"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">even in these tough times</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">) and that’s much more about interesting interactive ideas than it is about tech.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Go on, apply!</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;">Obviously I am biased but <a href="http://www.daredigital.com/apply_now.htm">this would be a good place to start</a>...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;">(For those wanting more, I suggest you have a <a href="http://www.will-lion.com/digitalbites/">play in here</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/business/media/14ad.html?fta=y">read this</a>, <a href="http://interestingsnippets.tumblr.com/">canoe back up this</a> and <a href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/peter_hirshberg_on_tv_and_the_web.html">maybe watch this</a>. That should be enough to be getting on with.)</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-71797759161192982902008-11-10T16:02:00.006+00:002008-12-25T13:28:53.964+00:00a good, good guide<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1075/540218208_6e2dea2d05.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 333px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1075/540218208_6e2dea2d05.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfch/540218208"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">matthewfch/flickr</span></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfch/540218208"><br /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.goodguide.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "></span></a><a href="http://www.goodguide.com/">GoodGuide is great</a>. It helps you find healthy, safe and green products. And - most importantly - it's now available on the iPhone. The fact that it's on the iPhone isn't the important bit. It's that it can be used at the point of purchase, which I'd imagine impinges much more on buying decisions than the memory of the site from home or work.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-75491364841991743842008-11-08T00:02:00.004+00:002008-11-08T00:10:16.045+00:0050,000<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SRTXSnDJq_I/AAAAAAAAC-Y/Vkn_sZUI7CI/s1600-h/flickrstat.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 221px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SRTXSnDJq_I/AAAAAAAAC-Y/Vkn_sZUI7CI/s400/flickrstat.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266070579022769138" border="0" /></a><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hit 50,000 hits today on Flickr for <a href="http://www.will-lion.com/digitalbites/">digitalbites</a> and not much else happened so I thought it was worth a post. Good times.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-40206628961493405042008-11-07T23:01:00.009+00:002008-11-08T00:10:47.865+00:00getting creepy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SRTWhOxtPDI/AAAAAAAAC-I/XSSEzZMp7zo/s1600-h/google2084.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 363px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SRTWhOxtPDI/AAAAAAAAC-I/XSSEzZMp7zo/s400/google2084.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266069730693561394" border="0" /></a>New technologies can look like magic. That's Douglas Adams speaking.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But magic comes in two shades: black and white (which if the last posts are anything to go by seems to be a minor <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">obsession</span></span> at the moment). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The black stuff indicates some dark intention; the white stuff a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">benevolent</span></span> effect.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">New tech goes the same way. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorm"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Phorm</span></span></a> looks black. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Genius"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Genius</span></span></a> looks white. But, in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">essence</span></span>, they both do the same thing: use our data to sell more effectively.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And there's going to be a load more black technologies as <a href="http://will-lion.blogspot.com/2008/01/web-breaks-out_14.html">the web breaks out</a> and evolves into an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things">Internet of Things.</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Throw into the mix that data capture will get a whole lot smarter not only because of new ways of getting it (through GPS, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">RFID</span></span>, accelerometers and the like [<a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/view.html?pg=4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">SPIME</span></span></a> devices]) but because our increasing desire for personalisation means absolute transparency (that's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Kelly_%28editor%29">Kelly</a>), and you have some really quite creepy tech around the corner.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Stuff that knows about YOU. Where YOU are. What YOU like. Maybe even why YOU like it - and tense changes of all those. It's gonna get freaky.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The challenge is to tweak and present these technologies from having a perceived dark purpose (I <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">don't</span> really think <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2597663807/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Phorm</span></span></a> does) to being understood as benevolent. We need to fuzz them up.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-68179960638515468092008-11-07T22:52:00.001+00:002008-11-07T22:54:31.604+00:00art from code<div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.booooooom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/booooooom_artfromcode_07.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 500px;" src="http://www.booooooom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/booooooom_artfromcode_07.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.booooooom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/booooooom_artfromcode_05.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 500px;" src="http://www.booooooom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/booooooom_artfromcode_05.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">from <a href="http://www.booooooom.com/2008/11/06/keith-peters-art-from-code/">here</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-88394913673460602362008-10-30T16:48:00.000+00:002008-10-30T16:49:29.804+00:00unfinished swan<object height="302" width="400"> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1807754&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"> <embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1807754&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="302" width="400"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/1807754?pg=embed&sec=1807754">The Unfinished Swan - Tech Demo 9/2008</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user780137?pg=embed&sec=1807754">Ian Dallas</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/?pg=embed&sec=1807754">Vimeo</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-53999718849395946822008-10-17T22:43:00.005+01:002008-10-26T10:45:46.045+00:00clients paying agencies to advertise agencies<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2008/10/17/ftad460.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2008/10/17/ftad460.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">So the FT will shortly be running ads to warn against slashing ad budgets. Says Frances Brindle, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">FT's</span> Global Marketing Director, "There is considerable evidence to suggest that companies that continue to invest in advertising in tough times emerge stronger than those that don't." <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's all correct but there's just something lovely about clients paying an agency to advertise agencies.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-66257008123434275552008-10-17T15:20:00.009+01:002008-10-26T10:48:41.636+00:00turn left where the telephone box used to be<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/59/197800487_86c2121966.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/59/197800487_86c2121966.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/storem/197800487/sizes/m/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">storem/flickr</span></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/storem/197800487/sizes/m/"><br /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thought it might be nice to record the Stage 1 IPA talks for selfish future referencing and for anyone else interested. They are a series of talks that aim to cover some of the essential truths of the communications industry. My posts will be pithy and I'll add bits in sometimes, esp. if there's a jump-off to psychology.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first one was by industry legend <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jeremybullmore">Jeremy Bullmore</a>. Here's his talk, triple-distilled:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>A man asks for directions to a shop in a small town. The postman tells hims to go up the road and turn left where the telephone box used to be.<br /><br />Why has the postman failed in his communication? Because he makes the assumption that the listener knows what he knows. Or rather, he fails to appreciate the listener's knowledge is not the same as his. This lacks a word in English but it's something like empathy. Psychologists, however, do have a term for this faculty, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">theory of mind.</span> Using clever methods - like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally-Anne_test">Sally/Anne task</a> - it is possible to see this mental trick coming online around the age of four in developmentally typical children. Autistics never master this. The point: communicators need a theory of mind - or the ability to see events through the eyes of those they are communicating to - in order to be successful.<br /><br /></li><li>Passive audiences were never passive. Audiences have always actively understood communications, it's just that before digital they never had a way to express it; digital makes stuff that has always happened <a href="http://will-lion.blogspot.com/2008/09/buy-product.html">explicit</a>.<br /><br /></li><li>There are no such things as messages. There are stimuli and responses. <br /><br /></li><li>The best creativity elicits the best contribution from the receiver (the artist rules his subjects by turning them into accomplices)<br /><br /></li><li>There is no dichotomy between creativity and effectiveness in communications. Effectiveness is the end; creativity is the means.<br /><br /></li><li>Advertising creativity makes client's money go further. Anything outside of that definition is not creativity.<br /><br /></li><li>Brand body language is what people read. When the body language doesn't match the communication, there's a problem. <br /><br /></li><li>Good brands make you feel safe, they release you from anxiety (mostly likely <a href="http://will-lion.blogspot.com/2008/09/buy-product.html">because of problems with information in market economies</a>)</li></ul></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-34731291545132465042008-10-17T13:44:00.003+01:002008-10-17T13:47:52.455+01:00digital britian<blockquote>"Our ambition is to see Digital Britain as the leading major economy for innovation, investment and quality in the digital and communications industries. We will seek to bring forward a unified framework to help maximise the UK's competitive advantage and the benefits to society." </blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Stephen Carter, UK Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-6017057015480868072008-10-17T13:41:00.002+01:002008-10-17T13:42:53.303+01:00clarity crunch<blockquote>"My favorite time to manage is during a bust. It brings more clarity about what your customers need and what your priorities should be."</blockquote><div style="text-align: center;">Sergey Brin<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-81003387090884935472008-10-16T13:46:00.001+01:002008-10-17T09:01:30.325+01:00i love data layering<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre; font-family:Arial;font-size:10px;"><div><br /></div><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LV6l8AvjtqE&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LV6l8AvjtqE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span><br /><br />...especially if it's in 3D.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-37315998040606556602008-10-10T17:22:00.007+01:002008-12-17T16:23:16.933+00:00believing real<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3017/2786940690_cb263d0223.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 442px; height: 293px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3017/2786940690_cb263d0223.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>One of the first things I think when I see something online, and one of the first things that gets banded about on comment lists, is whether or not something is genuine, rather than set-up, faked, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">CGed</span> etc. If it's genuine, interest soars; if not, interest dwindles (usually).<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />With this in mind here's a variation on Kelly's idea:</div><blockquote>When content is faked, it becomes emotionally worthless.<br />When content is faked, stuff which isn't fake becomes scarce and valuable.<br />When content is faked, you need to show people things which are not faked.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">I'd add on that some stuff that's great is faked (e.g. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Cadbury's</span> Gorilla; clearly that's not a real ape drumming away). It's when stuff is faked and needn't have been (or could have been done for real) that the emotional bottom drops out.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-20379403248540259482008-10-10T12:12:00.015+01:002008-12-11T01:50:43.513+00:00rebel selling<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/R6y2HoqvqzI/AAAAAAAACqY/woFhc4aebhE/s400/lastfm.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 476px; height: 251px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/R6y2HoqvqzI/AAAAAAAACqY/woFhc4aebhE/s400/lastfm.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span>This is a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">screen grab</span> from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">LastFM</span> before they <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/17/AR2008071701389.html">ruined</a> <a href="http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/news.php?id=263917">their</a> <a href="http://www.last.fm/group/Bring+back+the+old+Last.fm">design</a>. Putting that to one side for the moment, the interesting thing about it is that, after 'rock', 'alternative' came in as the second most popular tag. A <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">screen grab</span> from today shows much the same pattern.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />[Aside: It's interesting how 'seen live' is a major label too. Like <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2786940690/">Kevin Kelly</a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2786940690/"> has said</a> when stuff gets superabundant it gets cheaper to the point of being free. When this happens things that can't be copied become more valued by both the ordinary people, hence the tag's popularity, and record companies, hence the money in music now being in touring.]<br /></span></div><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SO87E_24pnI/AAAAAAAAC90/sse3chyPJXc/s1600-h/new_lastfm.bmp"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 458px; height: 383px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SO87E_24pnI/AAAAAAAAC90/sse3chyPJXc/s400/new_lastfm.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5255484247211812466" border="0" /></a><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;">There is more than a strong whiff of irony about one of the most popular tags being 'alternative': 'popular' and 'alternative', at first blush, cannot operate in the same place in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_function">Gaussian distribution</a>.<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Now, it could be something particular about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">LastFMers</span>: they might be alternative sort of folk. There's that. It's <span style="font-style: italic;">part</span> of the reason the 'alternative' tag is so big. But, there's a greater truth too: </span>'alternative' is the driver of capitalism and culture.<br /></div><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin" title="Mikhail Bakunin">Bakunin</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche" title="Friedrich Nietzsche">Nietzsche</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Sombart" title="Werner Sombart"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Sombart</span></a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schumpeter" title="Joseph Schumpeter"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Schumpeter</span></a> all saw capitalism not for the homogeneity it created but as a fundamentally creative (and thus destructive) system. Capitalism and culture can be stated as the effort to escape sameness.<br /><br />But you get information problems here. There are too many alternatives. Just like brands are there to <a href="http://will-lion.blogspot.com/2008/09/buy-product.html">help solve this problem</a>, so certain things become pin-ups for 'alternative' to avoid the crippling effects of having too many alternative things. These things are then popular for being alternative.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> Here, then, 'alternative' and 'popular' <span style="font-style: italic;">can </span>operate the same place on a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_function">Gaussian distribution</a>: everyone is trying not to be mainstream. </span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />(Another irony here: <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">counterculturalists</span> believe they are rebelling against 'the system' when they are most probably contributing towards it, because rebellion is in the very spirit of capitalism. This could be problematic: "</span>Not only does it distract energy and effort from the sort of initiatives that lead to concrete improvements in people's lives, but it encourages wholesale contempt for such incremental changes [<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rebel-Sell-Counter-Culture-Consumer/dp/1841126551/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Rebel Sell</span></a>])<span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-14584069499884900122008-10-07T13:04:00.007+01:002008-12-17T16:29:28.055+00:00why psychology is so important<div style="text-align: justify;">The mind has evolved to solve certain problems that kept cropping up in evolutionary history. Part of that is a general intelligence to work stuff out (be flexible) that history hasn't prepared it for. However, there are lots of other things that are more specific and muddy general intelligence.<br /><br />When I say psychology is not the same as philosophy now but vital to it, what I mean is that without an understanding of the mind, we cannot get a good understanding of reality. We have to know the mud to remove it.<br /><br />All knowledge gathering without an awareness of the mind's natural biases is the straight line in the diagram below. Knowing how the mind works allows you to travel along the bendy line, circumventing the mud, and obtaining unfettered knowledge. Close eyes, deep hum....<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SOtSU5ILy-I/AAAAAAAAC9k/_vrN9CzBBrU/s1600-h/lens.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SOtSU5ILy-I/AAAAAAAAC9k/_vrN9CzBBrU/s400/lens.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254383909143825378" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-53097102009425863832008-09-17T18:55:00.004+01:002008-10-10T11:55:51.927+01:00buy-product<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/2744778055_aee2f82a69.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 459px; height: 298px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/2744778055_aee2f82a69.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/2744778055/sizes/m/">thomashawk</a><span style="font-style: italic;">/flickr</span></span>
<br /></div>
<br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The short version of this post is:
<br />
<br />Selling on social networks can only be a by-product (hence the title 'buy-product'. Geddit? Oh dear, I am sorry) of the activities occurring on those sites, never a primary activity.
<br />
<br />The long version is this:
<br />
<br />In market economies there are two big problems with information: it's (occasionally)* inadequate and it's superabundant.
<br />
<br />Why is information inadequate? Because you only know how good something is after you have bought it, so how do you choose between alternatives?
<br />
<br />Why is there too much information? Because everyone wants a slice of the pie making those alternatives and the market gets flooded with products or services and thus information about those. <a href="http://will-lion.blogspot.com/2008/03/choice-and-fishbowl.html">(How do you choose between one-hundred types of olive oil</a><a href="http://will-lion.blogspot.com/2008/03/choice-and-fishbowl.html">? You don't for the most part. It's crippling. You move on.)</a>
<br />
<br />Add in the fact that this competition strips profits to the bone and you have three pretty good reasons for why brands should (and do so successfully) exist: to remove doubt about quality and ease the process of <a href="http://will-lion.blogspot.com/2008/03/choice-and-fishbowl.html">otherwise crippling</a> choice for people who want to buy stuff, and pump scarcity (and thus juicer profits) back into things for people who want to sell stuff.
<br />
<br />However, in the spirit of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Herd-Change-Behaviour-Harnessing-Nature/dp/0470060360">several</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0349113467/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223316426&sr=1-1">recent</a> books, solutions to the problem of inadequate and superabundant information can also be solved by [dramatic pause] <span style="font-style: italic;">other people</span>. And more effectively because trust in other individuals is second only to personal experience itself.
<br />
<br />Other people can literally 'test' products and services for you before you buy them yourself (by buying them themselves) and help narrow down the choice for you (by having had to narrow down the choice for themselves.)
<br />
<br />People have probably been doing this since information in markets got to be doubly-dodgy. Nothing new in the behaviour. It even has a 5-syllable name: recommendation.
<br />
<br />However, what might be new is that hitherto implicit recommendation could be made explicit and more useful with a dash of digital. Making stuff explicit seems to me to be the formula of the successful things in recent web (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Facebook</span> makes social relationships explicit, blogs records thoughts that would otherwise only exist in conversation or the mind, LastFM records the wake of your audio, StumbleUpon ossifies your digital discoveries etc.)
<br />
<br />How would this work? Social networks would allow self-expression at a much finer level of detail allowing libraries of music, films, books, <a href="http://will-lion.blogspot.com/2008/07/digital-fitting-room.html">clothes**</a>, etc that people have honed (not harvested automatically, which was the problem with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beacon_%28Facebook%29">Beacon</a>). (Eventually content could be brought within such networks, so they operates as hubs of digital content.)
<br />
<br />This in itself could present recommendations based on content (like<a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatsnew/"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">iTunes</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Genuis</span></a>) but also those made by other people in your group of friends. These recommendations wouldn't really be recommendations but comments/ratings tagged onto things by people. 'This track is awesome' could be really useful from someone who you (or your computer) knows you share taste with.
<br />
<br />Picture time:
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<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2846372394/" title="digital demographics by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 451px; height: 304px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/2846372394_0edb198d22.jpg" alt="digital demographics" /></a>
<br /></div>
<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2582357996/" title="FriendFeed > Google ? by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 454px; height: 331px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3261/2582357996_b8a01a8084.jpg" alt="<span class=" error="" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" /></a>
<br /></div>
<br />One of the nice things about such a system is that it's lovely for people, providing stuff they might be interested in. However, there is also an opportunity here for social networks.
<br />
<br />Another picture first:
<br />
<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2611861180/" title="untarnished social networks by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 460px; height: 309px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3222/2611861180_1fd97b4355.jpg" alt="untarnished social networks" /></a>
<br /></div>
<br />And now I am going to quote myself, which is probably a bit <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">wanky</span> but here we go from a few posts back:
<br /><blockquote>"When people use Google, they're looking for information. When they use Amazon, they're buying (or researching). The ads are working here because people want information, it's welcome if its good enough.
<br />
<br />When they use <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Facebook</span> (or any other <span style="font-style: italic;">social</span> media) they're expressing, communicating and interacting with others (being social not being cognitive). The same ads aren't working here for the same reason you'd be a bit miffed if someone marched into the pub, dropped a sausage in your pint, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">yaddered</span> on about how delicious they are and, by the way, how they are half-price at the moment."</blockquote>The point is that in the social space clumsy selling (ads) is not welcome: the communication gets tarnished by it, so it's ignored and disliked. But, that is not to say that selling as a by-product is out of the question. Links to things - and charging the producers a little for those links - suits everyone.
<br />
<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">* I put 'occasionally' in brackets because as soon as information is partially inadequate it gets perceived at wholly inadequate.
<br />** Self-generated recommendations will probably work for clothes; other-generated recommendations won't work as well. People like their clothes to be different (but not too different) from their peers.</span>
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-87634995146855825822008-09-11T08:24:00.010+01:002008-09-11T12:42:56.074+01:00negroponte's predictions<div style="text-align: justify;">Prediction is usually a dubious business: things are way too uncertain and we just don't know what we're going to know in the future ('unknown unknowns' in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Taleb">NNT</a>'s terms). That's why <span style="font-style: italic;">Being Digital</span> by Nicholas Negroponte, which came out in 1995, is all the more freakish in its prescience.
<br />
<br />Here's a smattering of things I liked, with the occasional few words after each from the perspective of now.
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2846374322/" title="moving intelligence through media by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 447px; height: 313px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3201/2846374322_2816d2ce26_o.jpg" alt="moving intelligence through media" /></a>
<br />The tidiest way I have seen the 'receive -> interact' paradigm change articulated.
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2845543003/" title="computing isnt about computing by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 449px; height: 300px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3070/2845543003_3e7d08ea4f.jpg" alt="computing <span class=" error="" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" /></a>
<br />Basically, Apple's strategy and success.
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2845542545/" title="pulling bits by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 451px; height: 321px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3113/2845542545_cf22ce3a99_o.jpg" alt="pulling bits" /></a>
<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">RSS</span>, Google Reader...
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2846373532/" title="touch, the dark horse by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 450px; height: 338px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3204/2846373532_a340fce699.jpg" alt="touch, the dark horse" /></a>
<br />Creeping in more and more. He also talked about "the tiny hole or two in plastic or metal, through which your voices access a small microphone" (p.159). This is still proving difficult.
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2846372394/" title="digital demographics by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 450px; height: 303px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/2846372394_0edb198d22.jpg" alt="digital demographics" /></a>
<br />Things like Google Reader's Top Recommendations, Amazon's recommend emails and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">iTunes</span>' <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Genius</span> represent this one quite nicely. Although still some way to go here.
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2846371670/" title="digital on-demand by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 450px; height: 450px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3202/2846371670_9fb5361409.jpg" alt="digital on-demand" /></a>
<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Hulu</span>, BBC <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">iPlayer</span> and all the underground antecedents to these.
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2846371338/" title="the global social fabric by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 450px; height: 338px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3062/2846371338_1661ac8dd9.jpg" alt="the global social fabric" /></a>
<br />This idea - communication <span style="font-style: italic;">as well as information</span> - is rephrased a lot by pundits. What's impressive about this is that it saw the value of social online before it was made explicit with, sorry, nasty phrase coming up, Web 2.0.
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2845537827/" title="the peeling boundary by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 457px; height: 314px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3283/2845537827_8a7a1df35e.jpg" alt="the peeling boundary" /></a>
<br />Blogging seems the best example.
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2845536917/" title="the process by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 450px; height: 304px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3056/2845536917_34408f9a7d.jpg" alt="the process" /></a>
<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Radiohead</span> is <a href="http://will-lion.blogspot.com/2008/07/radioheadness.html">my favorite example</a> of this at the mo. (Also see <a href="http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2008/07/radiohead-first-ever-bitcast.html">here</a> for what bitcasting - another of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Negroponte</span>'s babies - is all about and how <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Radiohead's</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">House of Cards</span> 'video' is likely to have been the first example of this).
<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2845536335/" title="laws for atoms by Will Lion, on Flickr"><img style="width: 451px; height: 301px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3188/2845536335_d86cf7db2e.jpg" alt="laws for atoms" /></a>
<br />Very broadly gets to the nub of all the legal issues bouncing around online.
<br />
<br />And a few others that <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">didn't</span> make it into <a href="http://www.will-lion.com/digitalbites/">digital bites</a>:
<br /><blockquote>"Clipping bits is very different from clipping atoms" p.59</blockquote><blockquote>"On the net each person can be an <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">unlicensed</span> TV station" (p.176)</blockquote>One word. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">YouTube</span>
<br /><blockquote>"...bits that describe other bits...will proliferate in digital broadcasting. These will be added by humans aided by machines, at the time of release...or later (by viewers and commentators). The result will be a stream with so much header information that your computer really can help you deal with the massive amount of content" (p.179)</blockquote>tags, labels etc
<br /><blockquote>"automobiles will enjoy another very particular benefit of being digital: they will know where they are" (p.216)</blockquote><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">SatNav</span>.
<br /><blockquote>"The important point is to recognise that the future of digital devices can include some very different shapes and sizes from those that might naturally leap to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">mind</span> from our current frames (sic) of reference. Computer retailing of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">equipment</span> and supplies may not be limited to Radio Shack and Staples, but include the likes of Saks and stores that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">sell</span> products from Nike, Levis and Banana Republic."</blockquote>Basically, the web breaking out from behind screens, which I have thought about <a href="http://will-lion.blogspot.com/2008/01/web-breaks-out_14.html">here</a>. Nike+ is the golden example of this right now. A continuation of this idea:
<br /><blockquote>"When this happens in a tiny format, all "things" can be digitally active. For example, every teacup, article of clothing, and (yes) book in your house can say where it is. In the future, the concept of being lost will be as unlikely as being "out of print"</blockquote>I like the nod to long tail stuff at the end there with "as unlikely as being out of print"
<br />
<br />(<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Skepticism</span>: the book, being widely read, could have prompted people to work on the things <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Negroponte</span> predicted ('invented'), giving the impression that the book is farsighted when it may have been prescriptive to future-makers)
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-35357165283168753842008-08-22T15:54:00.008+01:002008-12-17T16:58:35.971+00:00digital uses more neurons<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3060/2283550273_df1d3731c5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 321px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3060/2283550273_df1d3731c5.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:78%;" ><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rizzato/2283550273"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">rizzato</span></a>/<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">flickr</span></span><br /></div><br />There is a lot frothing up on how the Google Generation (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2670366345/">which is actually a very misleading idea</a>) is full of a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2619919180/">bunch</a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2670343917/">of</a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2670343917/">cognitively</a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2619855132/">myopic</a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2619885688/">and</a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2618968915/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">depthless</span></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2618976999/">individuals</a> just skimming from one digital distraction to another. And somewhere in that there is probably some truth for some people.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">But the assumption that the endpoint of new web behaviours is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">neuromush</span> is wrong. History teaches us that any new technology brings with it a grimly predictable cohort of detractors. It also teaches us that for every game-changing innovation - the alphabet, writing, printing - humans didn't end up mentally crippled but enriched, seriously enriched, in fact.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">That's why - in the same spirit as <a href="http://astore.amazon.co.uk/will-lion-21/detail/184354637X/026-5711188-4870837"><span style="font-style: italic;">Everything Bad is Good for You</span></a> - it's nice amid all this gloom to know there are some historically alert digital optimists. Digital culture is such a massive improvement in many aspects to 'receive' culture*. As Don <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Tapscott</span> and Anthony D. Williams put it in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Wikinomics</span> (p.47),<br /></div><blockquote>Rather than being passive recipients of mass consumer culture, the Net Gen spend time searching, reading, scrutinizing, authenticating, collaborating and organising. </blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">So in that respect, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google">Google is not really making us stupid</a>. Perhaps, quite the opposite: all this new media may cause more cognitive sweat than the media before it.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Rewind ten years, people would read a book or an article and that was that. A few might make notes. Only a handful would write about it and publish, and typically on a professional basis. Back to today, and the same book or article generates way more thought than it would have done a decade earlier. Digital culture uses more neurons.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Added to that, what is also omitted from the view that the new represents a mental downgrade is that while we are <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynetter/1479883940/">outsourcing certain brain functions to silicon</a> we are gaining literally superhuman abilities in the process. The critics focus on what is lost and ignore what is gained, like memory.<br /><br /><a href="http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/when-i-was-youn.html">As <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Faris</span> has neatly put it</a>,<br /></div><blockquote>I think increasingly, our brains are less like databases and more like index servers</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">And it's better that way because actually I can store more, not less. My memory isn't atrophied by the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">internet</span>, it's augmented. And that's the mark of some of the most transformational technologies: they extend our ability to keep information alive by outsourcing it.<br /><br />*This is clumsy. Some digital stuff is obviously sit-back too.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-4933892274325065612008-08-22T15:35:00.002+01:002008-08-22T15:40:13.355+01:00aquajelly and airjelly<embed src="http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1155269982" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="videoId=1517401883&playerId=1155269982&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swliveconnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" width="456" height="412"></embed>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-19674724231998788152008-08-21T23:26:00.001+01:002008-12-18T14:11:11.882+00:00more fragments<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3153/2591757639_de0cfbb97e.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 299px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3153/2591757639_de0cfbb97e.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blentley/2591757639">blentley</a>/flickr</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Why is advertising in social media not really working out? Because of a silent assumption that got forgotten in the move from trad to new media.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">You can deploy car and beer spots during football matches; ads for age-defying cream and Heat during <span style="font-style: italic;">How to Look Good Naked; </span>stuff for DIY during Grand Designs...I could go on.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">And this makes a lot of sense. By knowing what your audience is like you can be more selective and hope your ad is hitting a bigger group for whom it is more relevant, rather than just splattering it randomly across the schedule.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This model has been carried across to the Internet, with superb success for Google who worked out how to automate the process with AdSense.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">However, one of the things the traditional model never had to worry about was <span style="font-style: italic;">what </span>the audience were doing. It didn't have worry because it knew: they were listening to something, or watching a show, or standing on the Tube, or whatever.<br /></div><br />Because the model had this silent assumption when it was transferred to the new medium it got forgotten. The hidden fragment got left behind.<br /><br />What are the audience doing online?<br /><br />When people use Google, they're looking for information. When they use Amazon, they're buying (or researching). The ads are working here because people want information, it's welcome if its good enough.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">When they use Facebook (or any other <span style="font-style: italic;">social</span> media) they're expressing, communicating and interacting with others (being social not being cognitive). The same ads aren't working here for the same reason you'd be a bit miffed if someone marched into the pub, dropped a sausage in your pint, yaddered on about how delicious they are and, by the way, how they are half-price at the moment.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">So <span style="font-style: italic;">what</span> people are doing online is probably as important for click-through rates as <span style="font-style: italic;">who</span> they are.<br /><br />I haven't thought about specific examples yet for social networks, but essentially companies selling in this space should assist with communication and expression, not clutter it.<br /><br />The Internet isn't one medium, it's fragmented media - and not just by <span style="font-style: italic;">who</span>, but why <span style="font-style: italic;">what</span>.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-31920709183367733512008-08-20T10:21:00.005+01:002008-08-20T10:32:44.918+01:00smarter reviews<div style="text-align: justify;">Once mobile internet gets properly off the ground, lots of shopping in the real world will change. It will change because prices and reviews - things normally all the way back at home - will suddenly be at your fingertips in stores. The buying decision is going to get another brain contributing.<br /></div><br />But reviews have their problems.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Say I am swotting up on a new book I have heard is rather tasty or investigating a new camera so I don't have to mashup (read, lazily appropriate) others' photos on Flickr. I read a load of book reviews on various sites. For the camera, I come up against some sites wanting my money for their opinions, others with more reviews than I can possibly read and perhaps a couple of blog posts from some real keenos.<br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><a style="font-family: georgia;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKtW5vu4I_I/AAAAAAAAC8A/d-K3IXKEXOE/s1600-h/slide4_600,400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKtW5vu4I_I/AAAAAAAAC8A/d-K3IXKEXOE/s400/slide4_600,400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236374541813949426" border="0" /></a></span><br />Here's my beef with all of this.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKtYXIoEmwI/AAAAAAAAC8I/Pji36jiOAi8/s1600-h/slide6_600,400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 420px; height: 314px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKtYXIoEmwI/AAAAAAAAC8I/Pji36jiOAi8/s400/slide6_600,400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236376146224126722" border="0" /></a></span>'Old' media stuff is dense and long but trustworthy and rich. It's also one person's view normally.<br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKtZq6xjwPI/AAAAAAAAC8Q/i9LbRS8JfZA/s1600-h/slide8_600,400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKtZq6xjwPI/AAAAAAAAC8Q/i9LbRS8JfZA/s400/slide8_600,400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236377585614831858" border="0" /></a></span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Customer reviews are helpful because they are likely to tell it like it is; they have no reason not to. Except some people can't tell it like it is even if they want to, making a chunk of customer reviews unhelpful by being unreadable, like <a href="http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/2008/02/10/tom-tom-tom/">this beauty</a> from the BBC's gleefully entertaining <span style="font-style: italic;">Have Your Say</span> (<a href="http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/">distilled here</a>).<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKtbOU9GVJI/AAAAAAAAC8Y/Ddrvh55KR8M/s1600-h/slide11_600,400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKtbOU9GVJI/AAAAAAAAC8Y/Ddrvh55KR8M/s400/slide11_600,400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236379293449606290" border="0" /></a></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And even when people can get their thoughts in order, how do you know that what they like you are going to like? So you look at quite a few of these, try to average across opinion. That's a bit time-consuming. One quick way to do this is to look at things like the 5 stars on Amazon.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKtcVkJTcgI/AAAAAAAAC8g/jgIOB0974sQ/s1600-h/slide14_600,400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKtcVkJTcgI/AAAAAAAAC8g/jgIOB0974sQ/s400/slide14_600,400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236380517298041346" border="0" /></a></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is beautifully quick but often rather unhelpful: it doesn't tell you all that much. Added to that, fans swarm in and leave in their slaver pages of universally positive reviews. In its most extreme form this sort of review takes binary form.: thumbs up or down, cool or not, rotten or fresh. Essentially, the problem with taking lots of data and reducing them, is that it can only provide a dirty average.<br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKteImEOeEI/AAAAAAAAC8o/8GNubvq5ht8/s1600-h/slide16_600,400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3AhKmAd-0k0/SKteImEOeEI/AAAAAAAAC8o/8GNubvq5ht8/s400/slide16_600,400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236382493498570818" border="0" /></a></span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Basically, the problems of reviews are that we have work hard to find them, when we do there is too much information overall and there is a poor summary of it. We need something that combines the best bits. Basically, something that is quick but rich:<br /></div><div style="width: 425px; text-align: left;" id="561367"><br /><object style="margin: 0px;" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=end-1219192662670569-8&stripped_title=solutions-to-current-review-problems-presentation&pid=48abe48681f9e461"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=end-1219192662670569-8&stripped_title=solutions-to-current-review-problems-presentation&pid=48abe48681f9e461" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="font-size: 11px; font-family: tahoma,arial; height: 26px; padding-top: 2px;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So all the power of collaboration is used. All the time spent reading and cogitating is stripped away. The in-depth, expert stuff is there if you want it. And, most importantly, the reviews become a whole lot more powerful by taking into account who has left them.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This has probably been thought up somewhere before. All the same, I don't see this kind of thing anywhere. And it is the perfect sort of review system for mobile: lightweight, powerful, visual, personalised and genuinely useful.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442455626120236631.post-20869522564365085272008-08-13T10:40:00.005+01:002008-08-13T11:23:57.107+01:00transactive digital memories<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/32/62043518_8c69e2259b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 337px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/32/62043518_8c69e2259b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kendrak/62043518"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">kendrak</span></a><span style="font-style: italic;">/<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">flickr</span></span></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>"Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."</blockquote>Samuel Johnson had the idea of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactive_memory"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">transactive</span> memory</a> down before <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Wegner</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Giuliano</span>, and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Hertel</span> formally brought it to the table in 1985.<br /><br />What it acknowledges is that there's memory in our heads, and memory that's elsewhere, usually other people's heads. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Transactive</span> memory is the smearing of a reality to a number of different minds to lighten the load on one.<br /><br />Swap out the 'other people' in this arrangement and swap in the Internet. Feel familiar? As Clive Thompson <a href="http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-10/st_thompson">said in Wired</a>, "Almost without noticing it, we’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">ve</span> outsourced important peripheral brain functions to the silicon around us."<br /><br />Just as the nature of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">transactive</span> memory in relationships or groups is only <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">conspicuous</span> by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">someone's</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">absence</span>, so it is when we are away from the Internet. Our memories are now neuronal and digital. Sounds rather <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">cyborgish</span>, doesn't it? But a hefty chunk of my memory - names, numbers, dates, addresses, quotations - are all outsourced.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Wegner</span> and his mates should broaden their research to see what's going on with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">transactive</span> digital memories.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2