Category Archives: conference

Mar 15

BarcampBrighton – Portable Information

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A group panel about portable data and information

  • Jeremy Keith
  • Microformats – semantic web
  • hCard is probably the most popular. there is an existing format called vCard. hCard is a 1:2:1 mapping of vCard. Use of vCard info on a web page. same details as in your address book/phone.
  • the idea behind microformats is not that you publish new data, but you have existing stuff in a format that adds semantic fidelity.
  • there are converters out there, eg that take hCard and change to VCard for desktop stuff
  • xfn is another one – a proto-microformat. Tantek Celik/Matt Mullenweg etc. they looked at what was existing and made aformat around it. It was about links and blog rolls. to add more data to that list. It used the ‘rel’ attribute. There are about 14 different values defined. It’s always current relationship.
  • It’s simple to publish. A chicken/egg cycle – to get tools to use/parse you need to get people publishing it, to publish it you need tools to use. So making it really simple gets over the problem as there’s no hardship in publishing.
  • The most important Rel value may be rel="me" to link to all your own bits across the web and back to your bits.
  • Chris Heilman
  • Google Social Graph API allows you to track the relationships. Yahoo is also starting to analyse the hCards etc
  • With companies starting to index microformats, other companies, enterprise systems etc, will start to add things.
  • On the publishing side, if you have a database, contacts etc, put this stuff in and get ready. This is what we have done in Yahoo for the last 2 years.
  • one challenge is if you write lots of things with microformats, is that the data is ‘proprietary’ and publishing in microformats inpacts the commercial viability as the data can easily be scraped. It reduces buy in from the management, so you have to think aobut how you do it.
  • Anything that helps search engines mans people will try and game it to get better results. So use of microformats by mainstream search engines have to consider this, the problems of spammer etc. It’s nice to publish but there are a lot of problems in consuming that need to be fixed.
  • JK challenged that it is a problem of microformats that you can’t establish trust – that it is a problem of the web as a whole, not the format. It’s the problem for any publishing format. There are secure protocols…saying the format is a problem is wrong. If you want to establish truth and trust..then the techs you need to look at are OpenID and SSL etc.
  • Aral xfn – expresses relations in present tense but we publish it. so it may go out of date. There is a temporal dimension to relations. how do we takle dynamic relationships?
  • JK: it is publishing in general – what you wrote a year ago you may not believe it anymore.
  • Aral – xfn and microformats are one aspect of the social network. other things are OpenID, OAuth etc
  • Tom Morris – FOAF
  • FOAF is an RDF vocabulary. built back in 2000.
  • Allows you to describe relationships between people, sites, documents, orgs etc
  • Available on lots of networks, such as LiveJournal
  • There is one relationship property -‘knows’. it used to be knows, knows well and friend, but it caused problems. got rid of the other 2
  • It can be parsed as XML and reuse. You can parse it as RDF as well.
  • But most people don’t write in that sysntax, they can do html. But GRDDL allows you to describe in RDF things that you are already doing on a web page. It automates the process of reading what you have published.
  • Quite widely implemented, and getting easier to parse. Most programming languages have a way to to this and there are tools being built on top of it.
  • Trying to make it easy…a mesh up..getting data and putting it together in one place and ask questions of it.
  • ARal so whe do I use XFN and when use FOAF?
  • TM: use XFN as much as you can. Why use FOAF, if you were representing some data was unique, which no one else uses it. Use html as well.
  • Aral – so why are people here? Why are you interested in portable social network?
  • OpenID: a way of identifying people. Passwords that have to change every week are a weak link. OpenID means that you are an URL.
  • One of the issues – usability is a problem. We’re probably OK entering an URL but it is not very intuitive for the general user. You enter the ID, it redirects to the OpenID server, you add usename and password (which you have to remember). And that is the problem.
  • ClickPass is something from Peter Nixey that hopes to make it simple. You create an account and you can log into the web.
  • It creates a page to let you login into all your places – eg a homeplace to go to first. It uses Open ID to manage it. It happens in the background – you don’t get a change of context, which as a user is important. There is no jarring change of context if logged in clickpass.
  • JK: all of these things are solving small problems, they add to each other and don’t ness tread on each others toes.
  • But what about situations where you want to import a SN, or want to see which of your friends are on a SN. A lot of people do this, others freak. If you do this, part of the reason is you are teaching people to be fished….the other reason is you give something to your accounts as you. That is far more dangerous – allow themselves to be logged in by someone else is bad. It is better to reduce access. So OAuth is a technology that aims to reduce this.
  • There are a lot of SN that do not expose your information on a public site but you need to be logged in, eg email contacts. There are a few solutions to the problem..every big web company came up with their own solution. Google has their option, as does Yahoo etc etc.
  • OAuth is the way to try and standardise the way this is done. Any new website should be doing this standard API that can talk to most of the SN without asking for your password. (showed FireEagle example)
  • Aral – so how nimble is it, how does it impact user?
  • At the moment it is ridiculously complicated to implement APIS for every network, I have to do the main ones. So if we can agree on the standard it makes it a lot easier for developers
  • Alex – my interest is from a social networking POV. people connecting is pretty important for every one. the context and others brings people to a space and keeps them there. So why is portability important? I have a theory that online games, those are forms of networks.
  • In some of the situated social networks, like WOW, then there is a move to look at these things, looking at OpenID, etc, where there is no straightforward way of stating relationships, people want to take skills and bling and relationships to the next space etc.
Mar 15

BarCampBrighton – the morning so far

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I decided last night to come down to BarCamp Brighton, when I saw there were some tickets made available.  A friend was travelling down so I got a lift straight to the campus and arrived just as it was kicking off.  The usual introductions were made and everyone did the traditional standup and give three tags – it seemed about 40% of the attendees had never been to a barcamp before.

My intention here is to attend stuff I know nothing about, avoiding any marketing or social media sessions.  So far, I’ve suceeded.

  • Session 1: Flash and Particles  A badly prepared session that started off poorly, with ramblings about the company website.  It got better as it went through, with some interesting details abut the maths behind the particles and how to apply them which I could have heard a lot more about if time had not run out.
  • Session 2: RDF for beginners Tom Morris gave a revised presentaiton from his original from Semantic Camp.  I enjoyed this as it was clear about how to use RDF, with some concrete examples of the code.  I’m still unsure about the why though, later Tom admitted that use cases still need to be developed.  A list of resources are available at http://icanhaz/swtutorial

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Mar 10

Self-replicating Awesomeness at SXSW

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Deborah Schultz, Chris Heuer, Jeremiah Owyang, Tara Hunt, Hugh MacLeod, David Parmet

  •  DP: Brian Oberkirch put this together – he asked 2 questions. How to market into community without being too marketer like. And how do you build a community around what you are doing?  What does ‘no marketing’ look like? How can we use social media?
  • DS: None of this is about tools or technology, but is about the customers.  Here to talk about some of the subtleties, not about the tactics. It’s about marketing, customer service, product development. the marketing silo needs to be changed, why are they afraid of the opps. This is not telling or selling, this is being in the trenches.
  • CH: what is really bugging me right now is the number of people who are saying to me ‘build me a community’ but this does make a community, it is the interpersonal connections that make it. Social media is not new media, it changes how we relate to each other. You have to shift the way you think about participation. have to change mindset from stop trying to sell me to help make me buy.
  • JO: I do a lot of research on this, such as online community best practices.  it was clear that the ones that let go and let their customers take charge have the thriving communities.
  • TH: "marketing is the price you pay for creating mediocre products". this was a big part of the reason for this panel. [history of her and move and Citizen agency] Looking at social capital – relationships and reputation.   It’s all about whuffie in these communities, what you can give away.
  • CH: you need a patronage model, where there is money, in corps, it needs room to do it in there. there has to be a genuine spirit of giving in there .
  • TH: we talk about doing things that are good for the world alongside the product that will sell.
  • HM: [wine, blogging stormhoek story.] Social objects help drive conversation. when we talk about community, when a corporation talks about it, it’s liek a lever they think they can pull, which is not there. you have a bunch of people who use and talk about the product. they are not the company community.
  • DP: the concept of giving it away for free is a powerful one, that scares the companies away.  Have used Stormhoek as an example, suggesting that companies do this.
  • DS: there are lots of companies for 100s of years…this is a new skillset that is an art rather than a science.  if you are at a small company, where you have a certain amount of control, then you have to get out of the ivory tower. get out to conferences, find the edges.  Larger companies have the problem that they only listen to the complainers, how about listening to the people who love you.   Why do small companies put up an FAQ? why not bring in people who can answer the questions? this is marketing and customer support. get out and flatten it.
  • JO: you can give away things for free, I give a lot of my knowledge for free, make people nervous.
  • HM: James Governer, gives away 90% of ideas, sells 10%. he can only execute on 10% and it works/
  • TH: you can tell people you have knowledge and they will see what they are talking about.  It’s a smart calling code.
  • CH: it’s the because effect. Will It blend gives away entertainment.
  • HM: there has been a paradigm shift from message to social gesture and that cannot be faked.
  • TH: a lot of traditional marketing aims to do a generic spread of message. you throw the net out wide and hope to catch as many. with stormhoek HM saw a great opportunity, of people who were doing a lot of events – its niche, opportunities,
  • CH: it’s not the message, it’s not the brand logo, it’s what it represents. We have to think about the human connections, about being of service to fellow human.

Audience Questions

  • Q: JO – when selecting brand evangelists, how?  And HM – what about Cooler?  A: JO: tools to find them, who is talking online, goign into communities, finding out who is talking the most, customer support forums. go to brand monitoring companies, who do good job of mining the whole place. the main point is that you can find the people, great people to start with.   HM: Kula is South Sea shells that had a story. Talking about the iphone with Tara, what matters is that tara is a friend, we talk about shared stuff. stories are key. tech is still about socialising around objects.  DS: this is about a cultural shift – getting out. Traditional marketing..is not a relationship. in a relationship you can’t ignore until you have something to say. giving away things for free, the whuffie payback comes back way later. this impacts all lines of your business.
  • Q: I understand giving away the small things. what about the big stuff?

    • A: CH: audi are doing a great things. doing a lot of things around the experience, the educational classes, spa treatments.
    •  TH: some people give amazing support and service. 
    • DS: you have to break it down to smaller segments, go local. 
    •  HM: great brands have lots of little small brands, like starbucks. it’s not just about the big thing, it’s all the small things. 
  • Q: how do you actually get some money in the short term? (ref a movie, document)

    • A: HM: put half out there, and if people want to learn more they will buy it. 
    • TH: start telling the story, getting people to start telling his story.  
  • Q: giving away for free reduces perceived value?  what’s the rebuttal. 

    • A: DP..when selling things, I had a client for selling to teenage girls. they wanted to ‘go viral’. I had to remind them they can’t the product can only go viral.  I suggested we find people to talk about it.  My response is not to go to an intermediary. go to the customers.  put it to the people who would actually use it. 
    • TH: it’s not giving products away for free only. It can be the things around it, the experience.
    • DP: audi, free wifi, breakfast, things to do
    • DS: now everyone has a different perspective on audi. it’s nuanced. 
  • Q: can you distill this into a takeaway?

    • HM – social objects ate
    • TH: turn it around, be part of the community, listen, embrace the chaos, find your higher purpose
    • CH: passion for people and product
    • DS: technology changes, human behaviour doesn’t. nothing replaces listening, get out of tower.
  • Q: I work for PETA and what we give away for free is our message? is that annoying?

    • CH: saying the only thing you have is a message is wrong. you are connecting to a higher purpose, to a felling.
    • TH: I don’t remember the emails, shows that you have not connecting.
    • DS: are you giving them something they be interested in or just what you want to sell. Think about you are only talking to these people when you need them – cultivate the connections you have.
  • Q: I work for Kaboom. A lot of the things you have suggested we have done and it has not taken off as we hoped. now I have all these goals I need to reach. What can I take back to explain that this takes time.  The vision is to make a great place to play for every child in america.

    •    HM: they don’t get it…
    • CH : it’s not campaigns, it’s programmes, you have to change the mentality. get qualitative results, people who have heard online and show the stories.
  • Q: Why are you doing this – because you believe or is it a fad?

    • JO: marketing does not exist to hide shitty products, there is a reason.
    • CH: marketing has become associated with sales as opposed to matching product with user.
    • DP: it’s about stories and relationships, helping them work out what they are doing. it’s been a fun ride.
    • DS: it’s a personal mission, not a fad. I’m not a marketer, but a customer advocate. I love that everyone has a voice,
    • CH: it’s about what is your intention.

HM – a story without love is not worth telling

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Mar 09

Sexual Privacy Online – SXSW

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discussing the aspects of Sexual Privacy online.   Violet Blue, Jonathan Moore, John d’Alderio, Zoe Margulis, Jason Schultz

  • VB: fetishes…online allows you to seek this even if you did not seek in real life, but could cause issues. online can be a healthy way to let people express their fetish. Sexuality and sexuality online calls into question our awareness of the outside world and privacy. if people knew how unprivate it was, they may think differently. It’s personal information in a public space, but they may not be aware of it.  Example – Craigslist Experiment, (Justin Fortuny) putting an ad for hard core dom. Response to ads were posted online.  There have been copycats…griefers gaming online sexual identity.  The language used in the ad was very extreme, it was clear to the educators that the original user was not aware of the terms of the scene, that they were playing with their gender identity.   Other examples are a police officer who was a swinger who got fired for having a site with his wife.
  • Moore – has built and worked with SN, thinks about privacy and security of sites. d’Alderio – editor of Fleshbot. Margolis – girlwithaonetrackmind, Schultz – at EFF. to talk about law and how it handles it.
  • JS: Privacy Rights. (in US)

    • Sexual Activity, 14th Amendment -due process, autonomy, liberty.  Griswold vs Connecticut 1965 (contraception), Roe vs Wade  1973 Abortion;Lawrence vs Texas 2003 (home sodomy)
    • to Speak/Associate, 1st amendment. The Chilling effect. Watchtower bible 2002 – registration requirements.  Doe vs Cahill 2005 Subpoenas and disclosure of person; NAACP vs Alabama 1958 membership lists.
    • Right to Search/Read. Sweezy vs New Hampshire, 1957. about being private about research and reading.
    • Right to info privacy, 4th and 5th amendment. Katz vs US 1967 wiretapping; Smith vs Maryland 1979 third-party phone records. when third party has the info then there is no need to protect you.
    • right to be left alone. Sipple V Chronicle 1984. lots of state laws,
    • law has been built up based on fear of government.
    • so who owns info, is it provate/public, when are you newsworthy, can you ever go back if your info is out there?
  • VB: John, what do you think is the most common mistake?

    • JD: my take is that there is no sexual privacy.  privacy is an illusion. we are at the beginning of exploring this medium, in the flush of expressing ourselves is the risk of being found out. Sooner or later it will come out. but we still deserve the right to be left alone. we find ourselves negotiate this daily. A few weeks ago, there was a sexual ‘celebretant’, had uploaded videos to X-tube, was building up a reputation, we got a tip that was posted on Fleshbot, he had made no effort to conceal his identity, he had 3-4 clips, but had the same account details on YouTube, same username. Some blogger had sent a tip. But then he got emails from ‘him’ asking for the post to be taken down as there were lots of people watching his videos and it was causing him problems. Someone had contacted his parents. So, does he have aright for us to take the material down? We decided he did not – he was not polite about it.  There are ways to cloak your id to make it more difficult for people to find out who you are but he did not take any of these steps. 
    • JS: what if it had not made the rounds and had minimum views?
    • JD: if you are making that step and making no attempt to hide who you are..you should expect it.  The case of the Walmart masturbator, videos on X-Tube. It was on Fleshbot and Consumerist, then on Digg., then CNN and local news. it blew up. he wa wearing a university cap and said where he was doing it, he made it easy for people to find him. He started to receive death threats,
  • VB: now I want to bring in the personal perspective that Zoe brings. You simplywrote stories, you did not put photos up, so how did it leak out?

    • ZM: I don’t think I’ll ever know. I got a bunch of lowers, congratulating me on the book with my name.  I freaked out, as I was anonymous. They made me lean out as they had a photographer.   Then I started getting phonecalls on all my phones, I’m ex-directory, not on electoral role, no idea how they got the information. Then the tabloids descended, my neighbours and family were harrassed. My life feel apart, I lost my job, I was told I was not wanted. My IMDB entry has been defaced, my name was removed from the film, All I did was write about sex.
    • VB: what has changed for you, now people know who you are?
    • ZM: The blog is not what it used to be. I was 100% honest, but tried to hide identities of people I wrote about.  I felt violated, I had my finger over the delete button all the times. I could not continue to write the same way as before I had the freedom of anonymity. People ask me to not write about them. I don’t want their lives to be exposed. It is about what I’m up to. I miss blogging so much.
    • JS: would you do it again?
    • ZM: I would lie to all, not tell anyone I was a blogger, I would not trust publishers, I would hide.
  • JM: it is hard. there are technologies like Tor but they are really hard to use. There are 2 ways of screwing up. You can do something stupid (and you have to know what stupid is) or someone you know can do something stupid.  Security is hard – I know of many holes in social networks.  Social Engineering can get the information. You can’t trust other people. Services will hand over information. You can’t even trust yourself.  Everytime you send an email from hotmail (or other webmails) then the IP address gets sent.  It’s like a postal address. You are exposing inforamtion you don’t know you are exposing. As soon as you make one mistake, you tie yourself to that information. It is so difficult.
  • VB: so I want to know, what you think the greatest challenge is, or provides the greatest risk?

    • JA: if you take it as a given there is no such thing as privacy then you can plan your actions accordingly.  We don’t use adult performers real names. It’s down to establishing the boundaries of the right to be left alone.  The internet is mob rule, look at average YT comments.
  • VB: Zoe, what kind of advice?

    • ZM: expect to lose your anonymity, be cautious.
Mar 09

Charlene Li and Revolutionaries at SXSW

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Charlene Li about the changing  of corporations and social media.

  • Examples of the change: the HD DVD key and Digg. Jericho and the peanuts.
  • Shaun Daly was a fan of Jericho drove the change – you had to have something physical that CBS could not ignore. They bought it back, and it’s doing OK. CBS had nothing to lose.
  • New book – the Groundswell. A social trend in which people use tech to get things from each other, rather than traditional institutions like corporations.
  • This has been going on for a while, we have been talking about the revolution for ages and finally corporations are getting it. It’s too easy for people to feel they need to get involved..but they do not know how.
  • we are at a new stage, so are you going to be a radical like Thomas Paine, a founding spark for the US revolution.  Or a revolutionary like Thomas Jefferson. Instead of railing against the problem, he went to solve it, pushing the problem to solve it. The first had hte vision but could not deliver, the second had the process and framework to pull it together.
  • To make revolution stick you need to have frameworks and process.  There are many corporations that want to be part of the revolution but don’t know how. It’s up to us, he have been living it.
  • So going to look at the processes, who are the revolutionaries and some case studies
  • Use POST
  • PEOPLE – who is it, and what are the activities
  • OBJECTIVES – what are you trying to accomplish
  • STRATEGY – plan for how relationships will go
  • TECHNOLOGY – what are you using. this is last.
  • People – we think about a ladder of participation. Inactives. Spectators. Joiners. Collectors. Critics. Creators.

    • Joiners – in the networks, with their friends etc
    • Collectors – collect the good stuff, collate
    • Critics – comment and assess
    • Creators – create the content
  • People – It’s a different mindset between the types. 48% are spectators, 18% are creators. These are categories, not a split. People can do different things in different place. With youth, 39% are creators, 43% are critics. 58% are joiners.
  • People – Age is a major driver of adoption.  (see the data on Slideshare). As people get older, they get less active – it takes them longer to adopt and the content is not necessarily geared for them. But that is changing.  39% of 51-61 adults are spectators though, and they will move to critics or creators. Not everyone participates in all areas and it changes. but you need to know the roles your audience have.
  • Objs – what do you want?  Research can be a lot of listening in the Groundswell. Marketing will change from shouting to talking.  Sales can change to energising, to getting people involved. Support needs to carry on supporting, to listen. Development may change from closed to open. Embrace the customers in the process.
  • Objs: the Talking Objective.  example is Blendtec. Videos on YT, viewers responded. Blendtec have increased sales by 25% to consumer market.  it was George Wright, VP of Marketing, spent $50 on first video.  He had started thinking about how to show people.  Dan Black, Director of Campus recruiting for Ernst and Young. Uses Facebook to recruit college students. Created the page, students were asking questions on the wall. He went to answer them back, in public. He is the head of Recruitment, not staff, not agency. He realised that this is one of the few channels he could have a direct conversation.  There are few people doing this – having a real conversation.  Next. Best Buy Gary Koelling and Steve Bendt. They started blueshortnation.com to connect with people on the front line.  They found it was not great for creating insights for their marketing, but great for understanding the people,, for helping staff.  It has enabled customers and employees to support themselves. Josh Bancroft, at Intel, a geek blogger. They were looking at doing their own wikipedia – corporate were delaying, think it would take a long time. He just went and did it. Got the server and started the process.   Steve Fisher, VP of platform at salesforce.com. They wanted to get customers of salesforce to contribute in how to improve the system. In the system, they had banners that announced marketing stuff. They got 6000 people to say they hate it, which gave them the drive to remove the thing that was not liked.
  • So how to start the change?  Follow the process
  • Case Study – Lionel Menchaca. At Dell. Started off as a product technician, became part of product review PR team. connected with everyone at Dell. Then Dell Hell happened, he started the blog resolution team – to solve the problems, to connect the people. Dell then started the blog and lionel led the team.  Initially it did not go well, lots of issues. But Michael Dell supported him, and Lionel decided to change the way they were doing the blog.   He talked about the flaming laptops, in a real way, sorting it out. this is when it started transforming itself.  Slowly, change happened in the company, looking at what people were saying.  Lionel did not keep it isolated, spread the mindset through the organisation. IdeaStorm was another change – getting feedback into products and innovation. They also have a blog for their investor relationship teams.
  • So how do you find and support the revolutionaries?

    • Find the people who are the most passionate about developing the relationships
    • Educate the executives. What it is, what are the benefits
    • Put someone in charge. It has to have priority, has to someone to be accountable.
    • Define the box with process and policies.
    • make it safe to fail.
  • So you need a framework and policies; start small but think big; make social strategy the responsibility of all; be patient – cultural change takes time.

Audience Questions

  • Q: what are your recommendations about success and assessing impact?  A: we get asked this. you can use a blog to do any of the objectives. make the measures based on the objectives.   Is it supporting, is it energising, is it talking. what are you doing?
  • Q: any pointers for regulated industries?  A: some of the most active clients we work with are pharma and financial. the people who are writing it are the ones who know exactly what they can say
  • Q: how about smaller companies A: B2B is also there. it is more focused, that is an advantage.
  • Q: what about virtual worlds? should companies explore them?  A: it should be avoided, but large marketing spends. it’s a unique environment. there are some great uses inside corporates. 
  • Q: you said that change comes slowly. You showed stealth adoption and education as two methods. Any others?  A: I have a whole bunch of tips (in the books). Executive input, get all involved. you have to communicate and get people to live it every day.  It can be easier internally, marketing has a lot of culture to get through, they want to keep the message pristine, customers do messy stuff which causes issues with marketing.  you need to feel uncomfortable, if not then it won’t move forward.
  • Q: Internal to companies, how do you convince internal leaders. What are you seeing other people do?  A: they can all happen internally.  You have to focus on the benefits. What are you afraid of with information flowing. start small.
  • Q: How do you get people to contribute. A: the companies give feedback about what has been implemented. it shows that they are listening. You have to close the loop.
  • Q: you have mentioned benefits for SEO? Can you expand?  A: search engines weight inbound links. Simple tools are out there. Do it on the main domain
  • Q: all these platforms and tools, what are other things. Q: Buzzlogic, visible technologies to monitor. Forums and bulletins are best – really good and robust tool. It’s not about the technologies but it is how you use them.

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Mar 08

SXSW – ARGS and Games

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Dan Hon, Tony Walsh and Dee Cook

  • DH: ARGS are a new way of telling stories, using all forms. People consume lots of different kinds of medium, there is a different kind of narrative and gameplay experience that you can give people. You don’t have to learn a different control scheme. Interactions are typically the same things you would do in everyday life. you use text and emails.
  • DC: There are no rules about what an ARG is, it’s like playing a murder mystery dinner theatre, for weeks and months, online, in person, on the telephone etc
  • TW: the players can be extremely voracious, hungry for content and always coming up with things that designers may not have expected, coming up with the new story lines.
  • Q: who are the players?
  • DH: the demo data (Perplex City) was 12-80 year old, 50/50 male/female. Live events were surprising, families, etc, the typical audience is not the hardcore gamer.
  • TW: there are different elements that appeal to different types.
  • DC: skillsets can be different for each game,
  • DH: they are a form of entertainment, so the broad questions can be answered in many ways – a broad classification
  • TW: videogame players are very different to ARGs…args can be research based
  • DH: there are differences between the types of gameplay.  ARGS can be more predominately storyline based, punctuated by game-like play.
  • TW: so what are they looking for in an ARG that they are not getting in a videogame.
  • DH: a lot of the successful ones have been toed in with deep brands, deep stories.  Halo 2 (with I Love Bees) can be looked at as a FPS or as part of a real deep story, really good world building. For those that buy into the world, they get passionate about finding out anything about it.
  • DC: In ARGs, people feel they can affect the game world, they can interact with a ‘real’ person. An ARG is often a one shot, have memories and history.
  • DH: WOW as a single player is a very boring game, but playing with friends is a completely different experience. ARGs is similar – large groups, social gameplaying mechanic.
  • TW: so can we talk about some early ARGS
  • DC: Majestic – EA, they started to advertise the game that played you, how it was going to become part of your real life, shut down
  • DH: the Beast – from Microsoft. tied into AI the spielberg movie. it set some principles which some people still think control what an ARG is. It did not say it was a marketing campaign.  The game created a universe online.  In terms of gameplay, there was not really any traditional gameplay mechanic in there. There’s puzzles and collaboration,.  the gameplay that tends to emerge is very social based, than conventional console games. 
  • DC: a big community builder.  
  • TW: the form is always evolving.
  • DH: ILovebees was more of a radioplay, that seemed to be the intention of the writers. it was an audiodrama.
  • TW: a promotion for Halo2. MS did try to do something with Halo3,
  • TW: there’s a huge grassroots community that produce their own games.  barrier to entry is a lot lower than computer and videogame development.
  • Q: what’s the reach and success of ARGS. What are the business models.
  • DH: a lot of the examples have been marketing for brands.  Majestic was a subscription model. Perplex City had a series of collectible cards, which would have clues etc.   I think that everyone is still trying to work it out, there is a lot of scope for brand sponsored content.  In terms of self-sustaining independent it is something that we are working on
  • DC: we still run into the internet should be free idea, so subscription based anything on the web is a dicey problem.
  • DH: it is possible to do so when people spend a lot of time.
  • TW: a lot of teens are looking at free to play games, that can be a model, say in Korean.
  • Q: is what teens expecting in terms of free to play, is paralleled by people wanting to find themselves in a game, eg Lonely girl
  • DH: it did not start out as an ARG, the whole suspense was ‘was to real’. the follow up is Kate Modern on Bebo. the back and forth of setting up tasks, and responding can add a lot of value to the entertainment.    Viral marketing will not get you your mass audience, you have to push people there [RC: it’s my understanding the ARG was started by a fan and then adopted by the creators]
  • Q: How are they useful
  • DH: with channel 4 we are doing an educational game, for 14-16 yos, around online identity and privacy. they can learn important skills.
  • Q: I research storytelling; I look at what is going on with ARGs, what concerns me, is the freakiness of ‘stalking’. blending reality with fiction you get into sueable area.  there is a huge community of susceptible people
  • TW: this question comes up everytime. there is are fine line.  It’s up to the game designers to think about how the game mechanics work. you can’t control, you also need lawyers.  It’s what insurance is for,
  • DC: you can’t anticipate everything, but you can be prepared to react.
  • TW: in videogames you can predict, but the more massive MMO become then less controllable. 

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Mar 08

Steven Johnson and Henry Jenkins

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Keynote at SXSW Saturday. Notes, not a true live blog. Henry Jenkins and Steven Johnson

  • SJ: have you seen another wave of the backlash, the dumbing down?
  • HJ: these things do come in waves and we’re probably overdue. Never underestimate the desire of parents to see their children as dumb, it’s easy to imagine our children as failures as they do things that were unknown to us. Young people are adapters of new media, outside of eyes of their parents. There’s a sense of fear – I said to my some everything i said I wouldn’t. It does not take much, a decline in test scores, a Columbine and that gives a moral panic. There are new literacies that are so powerful but parents do not understand. People want me to tell them it is OK.
  • SJ: I’ve always wanted to see the development of ways of measuring these new technologies. have you seen anything?
  • HJ: the evidence has moved from the anecdotal to the local and we start to see some national stuff. the model is wrong, it started from the assumption of the individual learner, but as we move to the era of collective intelligence, it changes. It is a very different model of how we process information. It starts from the assumption that everyone has some expertise, but not that all know everything.  The challenge is to measure the skills we have to measure the ability to share knowledge.   I had respect for expertise until I got asked to write for Encyclopedia Britannica, then I relasied that wikipedia had got it right.  There’s more brainpower in the collective than the individual. How we work and play is polling knowledge, but that is not how we test young people. It’s about processing knowledge, not acquiring it.
  • SJ: if you spend lots of time in front of new tech, do you ever look at a new tech and say that is just stupid
  • HJ: it’s a momentary flash in my mind. my graining shows me that people don’t do things that are meaningless. the challenge is to find out why things are meaningful. what I think is interesting up to a point only.  You have to start from premise that things are meaningful.
  • SJ: since last time, TV has changed – Lost and the Wire. so which is better? What criteria do we used to evaluate?
  • HJ: the wire has created a layer of complexity over the years. with Lost, much of it takes place online, through the transmedia extensions, through the fans.  the complexity of engagement is part of what makes that compelling. Wire may be the last gasp of an old style TV, whereas Lost may be the first glimpse of new TV. pushes us in new directions in how to engage with TV.
  • SJ: when you look at those fan creations, it’s amazing how much time people have.  One person does this thing, then they upload it, put it in the discussion.  Clearly these people don’t have kids!
  • HJ: we should reverse this. What’s wring with America that these incredibly bright people don’t have opportunities to do this in the workplace. I study pink collared workers-  need quals but their job does not give opportunities and they get this outside. why are those skills so underutilised. how can we harness that creative energy. What we are seeing right now is that people are getting skills in their play that are being applied to the rest. As we learn to live in a knowledge culture, as we develop the apparatus to trust and share knowledge, how do we turn that back into something that can change society.
  • SJ: there’s a Harry Potter fan fic documentary you are in?
  • HJ: I get involved, I talk to lots about this. There is a feeling that people are learning how to read from HP, but there is also people who are learning how to write, via fanfic novels. Also social network learning – through wizard rock/ They are learning to become political through Harry Potter, about rights to write stories, on fair use. It’s a global network of people who connect through their love of the fiction. In a hunting society, kids play with bows and arrows and in an information society, kids play with information
  • SJ: when people talk about this generation, talk about they are under some kind of attack from their media, lets look at what are they like. this is the least violent generation since 50s, the most political engaged, the most entrepreneurial. so do we have a crisis or an opportunity.  People are more engaged in general, on different levels. The idea that there is some kind of reason for a moral panic is very strange.
  • HJ: I’m a total Obama boy (massive cheers). Yes We Can is one of the things that fascinates me. A friend tracks language use online – politicians use ‘I", young people use ‘we’. It is a language of social networks and collective intelligence.  It has a history, it reflects Obama history. It’s a different way of modeling society.  Looking at a recent speech of Hilary, it was all ‘I’, but Obama  – it’s about the process by which he collects information, about how we build this together.  Through the SNS, it’s about a circle around the candidate.
  • SJ: I’ve been involved with OutsideIn for a while, to look at the geographic internet. It was thought that the internet would drive people away from the cities, but the opposite is true. We saw how many local bloggers there were, that blogged about the neighbourhood and community. My one plug, we are about to launch OnMyRadar, a facebook feed, local information. tied into FireEagle. Show me things that are happening here and now. Trying to enable local experts, to pass the knowledge.
  • HJ: the challenge is how to harvest community to share information. We have underestimated high school kids, how many have Lj accounts, learning to write. Can we free young people up to write things up.  Can people contribute to the botton up news. How do we give them the tools to do so,

Audience Questions:

  • one thing i talk to my kids is about the ratio of production and consumption? do you think new media changes this?
  • HJ: Yes. it is increasing. % of young people producing is astronomical compared to others.  Look at Soulja Boy.  He tapped into social networks, got people to share the videos and music. The challenges are 2fold, if 57-60% are producing, what about the ones who do not have access, who do not feel empowered. those inequalities are things we need to talk about.  We have the media being circulated and things can go wrong, what happens when the adults don’t know what go wrong. We need parents to watch their back, to support.  We have to take responsibility to support them.
  • SJ: Create vs Consume is a good way. Parents were coming up to me saying about limiting screentime – the difference between watchign and creating, it is the kindof things that they are doing.
  • Q: how literally should I take the idea of collective intelligence. what individual skills are useful?
  • HJ: collective intelligence – 2 ideas. one is wisdom of crowds, an aggregate model, all independently add info and it is averaged out. the other is about consensus. the levi model depends on diversity, without diversity then the outcomes is flat.  In that model there is no tension between individual and collective, they have to have their own contribution and input.  The difference between wikipedia and youtube.  YT is majoritorian, Wiki, is collective and diversity. On YT different voices are there but are hidden from view.
  • Q:How about cyberaddiction, how people sit in front of a screen for hours and hours.
  • HJ: the minute we use addiction language we are getting the wrong start. stay up all night reading a book then I’m learning. so what do people find so compelling about these activities. Can we make school as compelling. Addiction experts say that what we see are symptoms of depression, the challenge is to separate out tech from real problems of mental health. In China, the government use the word addiction to control access.
  • Q: how are the online relationships change the social fabric.
  • HJ: the social fabric was damaged in 50s – mobility, etc, the internet is part of repairing that damage, it gives us ways to maintain the connections. we meet more people than we ever did before, that is a large social force. we use tolls like sns to manage those relationships. Facebook now sends the CV with it, so it helps.
  • Q: transformative abilities for creation – so how do we balance democratic and commercial.
  • HJ: I’m an optimist. I believe in participatory culture. but if we take it as given that we have it then we will lose it.     we have to challenge the terms we are given. we have to hold companies accountable for their terms they give us that prevents participation.  when communities are commodified, when gift culture becomes UGC with no value, no revenue for creators. I’m excited about the organisation of transformative work, pooling knowledge of lawyers.  We can;t assume the interest of company owners and consumers are the same.
  • SJ: because we come a the world as an optimist, we have used our writings to push for this, we are progressives, in thinking about the world, about where the progress is coming from.  There is reason for hope, looking at positive and empowering trends.
  • Q: pink collar workers – hi level education, not using capacity in the job. what could be done?
  • HJ: we need a workplace that harnesses the skills of these people.
Mar 08

What teens want online and their phones

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Anastasia Goodstein brings together a group of teenagers to talk about how they use mobile and the web.

  • they are early adopters but the tech needs to meet core needs. This is atalk with a panel of teens from ages 12-17
  • What do you like? 

    • Goodreads.com, cos a social network site, plus reviews of books, purevolume.com, signed and unsigned bands, get a taste of a lot of stuff
    • myspace and facebook, cos create own layout and put pictures, customise the design, to communicate with friends and family (sisters)
    • myspace and facebook, more facebook cos it has addons – can make own superhero.  to be connected with everyone at school. Also Digg, Newsforgamers
    • myspace, hi5, to keep in touch with friends and family – especially on holiday times.  Looks for bands/music. Meet new people from school that I don’t know.   (is 12, and is 16 on myspace)
    • myspace, mixmatters – a music website, has artists, plus a mixtape website (datbizz)
    • 17.com, to keep updated with styles, not too good, does not tell you how to do the hairstyles. hipster.com, for playlists and new music.
    • myspace, to talk to friends and family. runescape. chat to people all over the world. (12, but 99 on myspace)
  • What annoys you?

    • ads everywhere, distracting ones. They slow down the computers. On nba.com, ads for Miller between each vid that got annoying – the same things everytime.  Viral attack on myspace. Insterstitial ads are really annoying. Sound files on ads. Taking 6000 years to load – so much crap to load, 800000 video ads that pop up and stay there
  • Are you getting social network fatigue?

    • not changed for me, I just check periodically. With facebook I use more, due to the add-ons
    • when first on myspace, I was checking every hour, going to everyone’s pages. Once added all the pages, then just check occasionally.
    • . when I got myspace (you had to you were a total social loser). They keep updating things to try and make it better but they do not need to  – messages and pictures but it’s not my life.
  • It sounds like myspace is email for you? do you use email?

    • I created my email just to get into myspace. use it to register on sites.  for fanclubs etc.
    • I use email for my sisters, and teachers at school. I email to ask for homework etc.
    • The campus has email to contact teachers and school friends.  For business I have a ‘professional’ address, to get interviews, for reporting.  You have to be able to write an email, as myspace and IM abbreviatyeswords etc. we have to keep the writing skills.
  • Do you use IM

    • no – when younger to talk to school
  • Phones. So what kind of phone, did you want that kind of phone. What do you have on it?

    • Don’t have a phone
    • LG Music phone. Unlimited SMS, I have to text. play tetris a lot, no ring tones, as can;t use web on phones, occasionally bluetooth it.
    • TMobile Blackberry Pearl. It’s connected to email, unlimited testing – use it a lot. Like to play pacman. A lot of ringtones, get them from phonezoo – you can do their own. No web as too expensive.
    • Trakphone – no plan, cost. only for emergencies. so it’s never charged. no ringtones or wallpaper.
    • A older sprint phone, in about 4 pieces on my pocket. nothing special – calls and SMS.   Have emergency games if I was bored out of my mind.
    • A sony exersion. Listen to music, text. I plau games – pacman and dinerdash
    • Verizon LG camera. I use texts (500/month) I pay for this. I need the texts. I have ringtones, $3 and have tetris $5. Don’t have the money for a lot.  Use camera a lot to take pictures and send to friends
    • I can record videos and watch them
    • They said they could not live without (those who had had it a while)
  • How about virtual worlds?  Social networks with avatars?

    • I have one in runescape, a lot of places are trying to copy this. I spend about an hour or so working to be rich in runescape
    • Xbox live is the closest. I play people on Halo.
    • I used to use Ziwinkie, It’s really dull and boring, about 2x a year. It’s noting different.
    • Runescape, Gaia online, played many different MMOs, the cost $50/month is a problem.  the pay to play is dying on me.
    • Ziwinki, I don’t use it anymore.did not want ot play anymore
    • Don’t really use it avatar stuff anymore.

Opened up for questions?

  • I’m from marketing, trying to sell. With UGC, have you done these and what do you think?

    • I did something for YouTube, for AirJordan.  It was pretty easy to use (windows movie maker)
    • If I had a camera I would do
    • I had a video camera, I have done them, just never enter as miss the deadline. It’s cool, when you interact with something they are trying to sell, it is good makes you have a little feel that you have influence?
  • Does it make you respect the brand?

    • If you open up, it makes me respect that company more – makes you feel better that they think you can do as well
  • I’m curious about content -news, political, cause? do you consume that? What would make you do that?

    • reading Digg for news, getting things I’m interested in. YouTube and Digg etc.
    • Interested in the debates, keep up with that. On YouTube, and google news. Wikipedia (they all use wikipedia)
    • The Onion. It’s a kind of spoof..they bring me the paper.  Things that catch my attention are funny, or give a different angle. the news is so dead sometimes, you want to turn it off. Also the Human Rights Campaign.
    • (No one goes to main news pages)
  • (From PETA) do you think you can effect change online, for causes.

    • Grain of Rice donation, I did
    • The school is growing vegetables to sell and donate to a (hepper?). The school donates money to Bhopal, we send cards etc.
  • Would you rather do something physical?

    • Yes, cos you get to interact with people and find out about them
    • I liked the grain of raice, as it hid the cause behind the game
    • Things that are easy to do as far as websites, they can do it from their own home, an easy out to feel like they helped.
    • I have a couple of friends involved with peta, they leave bulletins on myspace. Doing stuff online gets my attention. eg posts about drunk driving, with graphic images. etc
  • (Disney) are you watching shows on tv or computer?

    • I like dramas, Veoh, crunchieworld, a lot of foreign dramas. subtitled
    • ABC family to watch it there – go to the channels sites.
    • I watch the disney channel – TV and phone. Also on web and play games
    • Usually use the DVR.  Also the web
    • Veoh
    • Watch the disney online.  Also ABC family
  • Are their any shows you have to watch?

    • Wrestling. they’re really cute. CSI
    • KyleXY when they on, my mom won’t record.  CSI – love to watch as there never anything else on.
    • anime – if I miss I go to veoh, if they don’t then go elsewhere.  Some spanish drama
  • I’m from the antimarketing world, trying to stop companies in selling you stuff? Would you be interested in pushing back?

    • advertising is always going to be there to help fund the website. I would help a little bit, if I did not see any progress, then back off 😉  Some advertising – a new game of course
    • They need to go with what you are going to. on nba.com I don’t want to see beer. they have to stay on websites like ebay – where you are trying to buy things.
    • it’s bad enough, it’s on TV and billboards, it is important to sell things.  There needs to be in someplaces and not in places. mysp[ace when there are 600 banners around your page is really annoying.
  • I work for an interactive advertising agency. we build a lot of teen and tween brand.coms. do you visit websites like that and what types have you gone to. for online ads, do you play games which are ads?

    • I do like to play the little games,
    • WhatNext – on tv and I had to go to the site.  Maybe.
    • Tropicana – they were giving away free xbox points.
  • I’m from Gamelab. how about little flashgames?

    • addictinggames.com, I like doing that.
    • the computer I use is too old, so won’t work. I like them, but can;t really play them. I think they are cool.
    • go to game sites, play new games,
    • newgrounds. a flash portal to submit games. albinoblacksheep, ebaumsworlds. not blocked on school I will go.  lots of flash games.
    • (they all know how to get round the blocks)
  • Do you go outside?

    • yes. still have friends, go outside, play on basketball team
    • I go to camp, I have a job
    • football. but always on the computer, there’s nothing wrong with that, right?
  • when you make plans with your friends – online, phone or person.

    • sms.
    • in person during school
    • in person or on the phone.
    • there’s a reason they invented the phone – in person or text.
  • have any of you gone to a party base don a bulletin

    • no
  • what don’t marketers get about the web? If you could have a greater say in how brands appear on the web would that be better

    • most adverts are very annoying, unless they are clever. I don’t like ads
    • I like give aways,

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Mar 07

Journey to SXSW

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That was an interesting 24 hours, but not too bad as people who travelled via Dallas, where everything got cancelled due to snow. Getting to the airport took a bus and 2 tubes; on arrival I found that all the check-in desk luggage computers had gone down so there was a small bit of chaos. Everyone was queued up, getting to go to the desks a few at a time. Once there, you gave your details to a runner, who went to one of the 2 working terminals, got the luggage tags and ran back to get your stuff in the system. It took a few hours to correct, but it meant all the crew were also delayed, leading to an hours delay in departure.

One interesting diversion in the waiting was the mouse. Sitting at the bar, a guy came up and announced to the staff there was a mouse running around. He was laughed off a little, so next he came back with the mouse – holding it up by the tail as it wiggled around. The staff had to take it away then 😉 The other setback was the lack of cold water by the gate – meaning non of the toilets worked. Not a good thing when there is a delay.

After that all was smooth. A half-empty flight meant I got a row to myself, it took less than a minute to get through immigration (and no queue), collecting luggage and transferring flights was a doddle. Food, a 2 hour wait, another 4 hour flight (with sleep this time) and I landed in Austin with all the luggage and an easy trip to the hotel.

Mar 05

Keen vs Leadbeater

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Monday night, I wandered over to NESTA for a debate between Andrew Keen and Charlie Leadbeater, to promote the launch of Charlie’s book We-Think. I think this is about the 3rd or 4th time I’ve seen Keen in action and of them all, I enjoyed this the most, as he seemed less likely to try and make cheap shots at the web but got far more into the topic of the evening – the book.

Andrew Keen at NESTA

Some notes:

  • Keen thinks the book is fantastic, the best at making the argument that he does no agree with, that it is a profound book. Keen thinks that individuals will still be the key drivers of innovation moving forward, whereas the book postulates innovation will be more group driven. He agrees with the idea that the true innovators are the nerd, the academic, the hippie and the peasant – but not that they would work together.
  • Charlie thinks one of the key issues is how collaboration and participation will unfold. For many organisations and areas it could take 50 years for this type of innovation to take hold. Four key questions – how far will it go 9into health, education, banking?), how far will it spread geographically, how fast will it spread and whether it will be bad or good for us? On balance, he thinks it will be good, but not necessarily for all.
  • Charlies thinks the web is allowing us to move back to behaviours that were prevalent before the 20th century – folk collaboration, peer to peer distribution etc.
  • There was a whole lot of conversation (and later questions) about whether this type iof collaboration is replacing what the state should be doing or taking back things the state took over. About whether the tools can bring people back to politics – 100 years ago everyone was flocking to politics, now they move away. I’m afraid to say that not necessarily having the political studies background, some of these arguments lost me
  • One of the most interesting audience questions was about how the research and promotion had changed their minds. Charlie confirmed that even when putting the draft on line for collaboration, it did not do the wrok of a professional editor (there were only about 20 people who contributed usefully). Andrew stated that he has got a lot more optimistic since he wrote the book about the future of the web, that the next evolution is likely to see an increase in ‘professionals’ bringing more, to curation and editing, that we’ll get a lot more tools to share this expertise.
  • Andrew discussed the huge problem of anonymity, how it stifles creativity (he qualified this by confirming he means in places where speech and the internet is ‘free’). To be a truly creative place, you have to stop anonymity and people need to be aware of the responsibilities of contributing

    • Charlie Leadbeater

    I enjoyed the debate and the conversation after! A good evening, with some challenges to the mind.

Nov 27

A week in London

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I spent last week in London, the first time I’d been back since I moved to New York. A great week was had, a combination of work and pleasure.

  • had some interviews and met up with some headhunters. I’m back in London permanently from January and this was setting up some things. No idea how it will pan out yet.
  • had drinks with Suw where we chatted about life, work and all things weddingy.
  • Had coffee with Jeremy, one of the panelists with me at SXSW, just connecting and chatting.
  • Had coffee and yummy dimsum with Adam, where publishing was onthe agenda.
  • randomly bumped into Rebecca and had coffee later, looking at the workshops she has been running. I also randomly bumped into Lloyd whilst going to meet Adam; the development of the Tuttle club looks interesting.
  • Went to BarcampLondon3 and had a blast. I was staying with Ian Forrester for that part of the week and ended up having a unsettling scooter ride through London to get to and from the camp. I’ve only ever been on the back of a bike twice before, so not the most comfortable experience – enjoyable in hindsight but a the time I got rather worried for my knees! There were around 130 people at the camp, hosted by Google. Did not make too many of the talks as spent a lot of time just chatting with cool new people. Gave a talk on Games in Advertising and things to watch out for (using this year’s Court TV Save My Husband as an example). Had my first ride on a Segway. Indulged in the food and drink that was provided – definitely the best ‘work canteen’ food I’ve ever had. Watched multiple games of Werewolf. All in all, a superb weekend, thanks to Ian, Amy, the BBC and Google for putting it on.

I think I’m getting paid back for having a good time though. Suffered a a bad nose bleed and nearly managed to not pay for a drink as I was dealing with that instead of thinking of paying. The servers were not too sympathetic when I got back, even though I was dripping blood! They were far more interested in getting their money. Broke the screen on my phone – bad news as it is on load from Palm, so am going to have to pay for that. Have a horrible cold. And the toilet flooded all over the bathroom this morning so spent an hour cleaning that lot up. I think I need to just hibernate for the next few days

Nov 16

Henry Jenkins and Josh Green Opening Remarks

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An opening introduction to the conference.

  • Tex Avery 1953 The TV of Tomorrow – started off by showing the start of the cartoon.
  • the film shows some of the things that are still relevant today – simplifying the TV, specialised devices, disruption to social life, gaming systems,
  • the conference is ‘Futures’ as there can be multiple futures
  • one of the things that seems to be lacking with TV is the ability to get really involved.  But one of the things that has been happening is the move of the content from the TV out to other channels, eg Simpsons sponsorship. Quik-e-mart was an extreme – pushed the TV world out to the real world, into peoples lives
  • TV text has gone into virtual worlds, eg CSI in Second Life
  • The notion of expanding what the TV does is demonstrated by the Wii remote – it changes the mode of interactivity
  • NBC newsbreaker game was an attempt to make news an interactive experience – may not the most compelling but is playfulness with the content.  They did live events with it.
  • Halo 3 has broken records for a game and challenged movies.   It may not be as narratively complex as Bioshock, but has pushed the envelope for marketing – the ad campaign, with the diorama.  It tours as a museum piece.
  • Heroes could be seen as the TV text at the moment that fully realises what is happening, a large scale narrative across multiple channels.  Eg 9th Wonder comic, in the show, a website and now a book as well.   It provides more content than can be put on the air
  • this is part of a larger trend where comics and tv are working together, eg Buffy Season 8.  BSG, Supernatural, all having comics to supplement
  • Extension also extends to branding, eg Geico Caveman.  Characters can migrate across the converged mediascape
  • In advertising, personalisation is looming large.   We are startig to get to that level of granularity; we are targeting smaller and smaller audiences.  It challenges how the audience is understood.  Facebook is at the forefront of personalised advertising, selling campaigns based on profiles.  This can be seen as inappropriate – the data is out in the public but expectation is that it is not necessarily aggregated.
  • Widgets are some of the growth points, it can be better to do a widget than a microsite.  But then you have to approach the audience in a different way
  • Writers Strike: showed the ‘Why We Fight’ video.   One of the striking things is that YT is being used to connect with the public by the WGA; an example of how YT is an alternative comms channel.
  • But YT is emblematic of some of the contradictions of the new world.   Look at how Colbert uses the site and the stuff that gets put on there. 
  • The same media channel is becoming central to the political campaigns,
  • The same distribution allows independent film makers to send their stuff out, connect with fans to see the film…ie Four Eyed Monsters
  • Soulja Boy using the web to drive his rise to fame – the web support meant that when he released songs he got sales
  • see 300Vogue from Luminosity for a great example of a mashed up film.
  • The contradictions of the implicit social contract between fans and ‘content’ companies are coming to the fore this year, eg FanLib.  This was a Hollywood company, but did not respect the fans, they assumed they could co-opt the work not co-operate.   There was a massive response, using LiveJournal to push back.  Although there is an agreement that we are moving towards a more participatory culture, but the terms of this are been ‘negotiated’ at the moment
  • Look at Harry Potter – a huge mass market hit.   Mass media is not dead yet, but we are having a lot of focus on niche content and fandoms.   With HP you got a lot of tension by people putting stuff online, spoilers, people trying to avoid it.   JK Rowling outed Dunbledore, outside of the book.  Fan created media and groups, such as Wizard Rock, HP fan podcasts, HP Alliance taking the books as a starting point for music, political activation.
  • Comic Con is a meeting point of fans and entertainment world  IS the place where companies goes to meet the increasingly influential audience.

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Oct 11

BIF and Mark Cuban by Walt Mossberg

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Mark Cuban  Owner, Dallas Mavericks (among other things)  www.nba.com/mavericks

Cuban is an active investor in leading and cutting-edge technologies and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Prior to his purchase of the Dallas Mavericks, Cuban co-founded Broadcast.com, the leading provider of multimedia and streaming on the Internet. Today, in addition to his ownership of theMavericks, Cuban is also Chairman of the high-definition television station HDNet which he launched in 2001. HDNet is the world’s first national television network broadcasting all of its programming in 1080i high-definition television (HDTV).

  • MC: 1800Vote411,  you all need to vote for me.  I need your votes!
  • WM: is there any guilt about blowing away Wayne Newton,  he’s about 90!
  • MC: yes, there is…he worked hard. everyone does.  I’m doing the waltz….I practiced all day yesterday, I’ll fly  back and do it later.    I’ve lost 27 pounds
  • WM: Why are you interested in buying the Chicago Cubs?
  • MC: there are 100s of opportunities to deliver stuff in a digital universe, and sport and digital not yet joined.  there are great opps
  • WM: the red Sox, they have changed…these guys have won a World Champs
  • MC: people fail to realise this. When I started with the Mavs we were last in revenue and now we are 3rd.  We worked hard to generate the revenue.  There’s a lot of loval stuff that can be done.  There is a direct correlation about marketing and spending on talent
  • WM: the NFL is basically socialism, but how do you become richer?  you can’t spend more money etc on baseball as they have more revenue sharing, you can leverage that?
  • MC: i do not know yet, I’ve not seen the details yet?
  • WM: you were one of the early web pioneers, video, selling it for a bunch of money,  tell us how you think and sustain a great idea.
  • MC: it’s always simple.  I look at myself as a consumer.  I started Microsolutions, I was selling IBM PCs, this was new tech, I was not behind anyone; I looked at coming up with better ways,.  My success was about doing my homework.   In 1983,  I got in touch with Novell, saying it would be good to get the PC connected.  We were one of the first networking solutions companies.   Dell and I used to go head to head all the time,  the most brilliant things I saw Michael Dell do was he would put out an ad every week, the same products, the prices went down.  we were trying to differentiate ourselves, make it better with broadcast.com, we used as our concept being able to listen to indiana basketball wherever you were. In 1995, we used sports to understand the technology, on how use the web for realtime communications.   we started audio in ’96.  we added video, so when big companies wanted to do business meetings, they would have theatres and they broadcast via satellite.  We said we would do it over the net.  in 1998, we could do it over the web.. Dell did it to talk to customers.  Success was about making our customers more profitable and give them a competitive advantage and that is how we made the money
  • WM: we talked with Jason Fried yesterday, about how when you have a product you have to figure out what the product is, what the design is, not build everything or build it for the sake of it, but build for the customers, make it simple,  easy to use?
  • MC: i agree. the challenge with new products is should it be a product or should it be a feature of another.  They do not understand that if you create a product, the other product may add it as a feature..  Does this product create the path of least resistance for the customer to do what they want
  • WM: is video a destination or a data type
  • MC: it is a data type,  it is popular for a few reasons-  they subsidise your bandwidth.  the web does not yet support it at quality or scale level yet. but bits are just bits
  • WM: what about the soviet ministries.  10 years ago, you could design, manufacture and market, i the Palm Pilot.  If it flopped, the you tried again, if a hit you raced to produce more and the next design..  there was this tremendous feedback loop.  Today, so many things have to do with networks, you have to deal with the social ministries, the carriers, the cable tv etc.  Now verizon decide the phones on their networks , the software, the apps and in most cases you need to pay them money to do things.  It has made it harder for the feedback loop.
  • MC: it’s a great question, but not sure if real.   You had to make a choice – DOS, windows, apple. Today you have the choice of OS, Verizon may screw you but MS did the same.   There was ethernet, arpnet, token ring.  it’s not dramatically different.  The companies are being victims of their own mistakes. There are enough networks.
  • WM there are 4. 4 diff orifices as Jobs says
  • MC: and Jobs is the king of the orifices.  The greatest opp now is the developing a new OS.  Vista sucks, mac is what it is, closed.  
  • WM: but you can develop apps….
  • MC: you have great hardware manufactures that come up with all the dev in the PC.   So if you have great PC hardware technology, then opportunities
  • WM: Dell is shipping a Linux laptop, but most cannot use it.  Is there an option for you to take a linux system and finish it.   They are all 80% complete.
  • MC:  It’s the dancing, I do not have enough energy to focus on it.  There should be, you need someone to knock apple and  come up with a different thing.  That’s where the opportunity is.  I just wrote a post about switching,  Never used a Mac product since 89,  until Vista forced me. The Macbook just worked, it’s not that I can’t do a OS backup and restore, it’s  I did not want to.    Most things are now web driven, I do things in the browser. 
  • WM: Vista, they had their world dominating product.  It took them 5 and 1/2 years, and people are not happy, . it requires you to buy a computer….
  • MC: and most is on  the net.   You look at google, any platform . Yes it was a mistake.  I used to call it the n-factorial issue, everything has to work with everything before, and one thing can upset the apple cart.  Vista is being kept alive by corporations.  They tried to make everything backward compatible and there is 20 years work and there is too much bullshit now.
  • WM: Jobs is going to cut everyone off at the knees every 5 years. 
  • MC: he understands the revolution and new devices.  Now you do not care about clock speed etc,  Vista has  more junk in it and it goes slower.  I’m a huge MSFT fan across the board, outside of the PC,
  • WM; has the PC peaked…When I wrote about that, the MS PR team got an editorial against that.  Any mention of this, the PR team get on it
  • MC: there was a day when you were excited.now people look for reasons not to replace,
  • WM: it’s the cellphone?
  • MC: it’s about content where you want and how you want.   It’s cellphone, it’s other devices.  It’s portable, people look for new cures for boredom on travel.   In the house we not spending on pcs, but on consumer electronics, entertainment.  The hardest is to connect TV and music and entertainment.  Everyone wants to push HD over wireless, it is not going to work on what we have.   It’s a race, home networks,   HD networks are increasing faster then the bandwidth.  I’m biased, but that’s why I got into it?
  • WM: why do we need a HD network. 
  • MC: what differentiates us is that you can only receive HD on a HD tv set.    People wanted to watch, there was no content and they looked for someone to fulfil,  I looked at it, in 2001, 2002. The TV was expensive, everyone was saying too expensive and they would stay expensive..  I looked and saw Moores model – it would get cheaper.   I saw that and said there was no content, people did not think it would grow. I looked at the distributors, it was built around bandwidth, they were supporting a number pf channels.   Now I’m growing at 5% a month.  I’m on the basic HD package.  not on Comcast yet,  so call them and ask
  • WM: what kind of programming?   I will watch HD programmes that I may not even like?
  • MC: 70% of men tune to HD first, 40% will watch something in HD even if not liking it.
  • MC: that’s what we had at the start.  We have scifi, we have torchwood. we have news, sports, concerts.  In the past concerts have not worked before well, on a big screen it works well,  all day Sunday all we play is concents
  • WM: how many?
  • MC: we have 7 million subscribers. we pass by 65m homes.  There’s not a lot of HD content.   Networks upconvert and treat consumers as idiots.   They make a deal of networks with HD but not talking about content.   take out ESPN,  us and discovery, there is little in HD. At some point that will be a competitive point
  • WM: is that just physics?
  • MC: no, they gave enough bandwidth.   consumers will know the difference and that will become the competitive level that the number of channels is now.  
  • WM:  you do not think the web can do HD?
  • MC: not yet.  
  • WM: why in France can you get 100mb,, 40 bucks a month.  on FIOS they get 15mb down, the only way to get that.  why cannot we do better?
  • MC: all these companies are public and they get yelled at for making that investment.  The markets is about the big funds, wanting returns, and that will hurt us.  A public company cannot compete, so companies may go private if they need to make investments.
  • WM: so what are you not in?  you have movies
  • MC: landmark
  • WM: I love my landmark 
  • MC: we had HDNet, we started to produce movies, we could make them, distribute on web, , to TV, but not  theatre.   Theatres are still a part of the experience.  Movies need to be an improved experience.  We are  geared towards an older demo.  We bought it so we could control the whole vertical chain. Because we control we can do things differently.
  • WM: so you are Steve Jobs,
  • MC: we want to create things digitally and get it to people where they want.  We have  DVD company,  everything we distribute have no DRM and we are doing just fine.  you can rip and copy but if I see you sell it I will beat the hell out of you.
  • WM: the one  I go to is great, but not all your stuff?
  • MC: it’s for baby boomers, that is how I programme.  it’s programmes for adults. We have 70 locations and 270 screens and we keep on opening more.  We have movies and are going to be doing live events. Mon, tues.Wed are not good nights, so we are looking at programming in different ways.  We are looking at 3D
  • WM: about 3 weeks ago I get a call from Jeff Katzenberg, who I slightly know, he said that 3D is coming back in a good way you have to come and see us.  he said it would be big and everywhere
  • MC: there are going to be over 1000 theaters over the next 18 months.   animation, horror, look at Beowolf.  we are looking at games on ‘TV’ in 3d.  you will see a whole different segment of OOH entertainment because bits are bits.  For example, all Samsung HD Tvs are 3d enabled now. 
  • WM; are your theatres digital?
  • MC: they are both.  The digital business plan not there.   we have it but it is more for special things, and live events
  • WM: how do you motivate your people and your companies?
  • MC: I’m not as good as I was as I used to be a lot more fun.  the first company, we had a company shot, the kamikaze, we all went to the bar.,  I try and make it fun, they have their passions.  Does not always work but we try and make it fiun
  • WM: are Google unstoppable?   their slogan is do no evil
  • MC: yeah, right.    You are always perfect until you are not.  Some 12 year old is coming up with a better idea and it will change.   Someone will come up with a better algorithm, a better way of searching, google is dependent on the PC being the primary device, I do not know if that is a long term bet.
  • WM: but they are about to move to mobile?
  • MC: who knows how that will work, whether it will catch on.  the cellphone outside the home is super competitive.   Google can take advantage, in a way few can, but I still think they are vulnerable to innovation
  • WM: are you going to bid on the spectrum?
  • MC: not going to bid, it is still a shared medium,  it’s not a device connectivity issue it is bandwidth issue.  We still cannot get the bandwidth to work in your homes.  So how much will anyone ever get from the spectrum?.  There will be all kinds of unique opportunities.  The point when things change,  is with 100mb throughput to home, that is when it will change
  • WM: who can do it?
  • MC: Verizon can do it.
  • WM: they are the only ones doing it straight to the house.  they did it too my home.  
  • MC: we depend on the device invented in 1900 to connect.  At the same time we talk about development platforms and APIS.  I talk to them, say give students conenction, give them 100MB, see what they will come up with.  If there was one company I could buy, and I can’t afford it, it would be verizon.  They have bought me and in and talked to me, lets see if they can do things.  If you could hit 100MB today you could hit a GB to the home in the next 15 years
  • WM: is it harder or easier to get funding and sustain a company?
  • MC: it’s a lot easier today, not because it is easier to get funding, but the cost of tech is so small, and the cost of connectivity is so small, even if business is not tech.  You do not need to make the same capital investment.  Sweat equity, IP is a lot more valuable today than it was,  as it is easier to implement than ever before.  Some think about how much money instead of how much work they need to do. The best equity is the customers.  They se the value and want to invest.  If you need to raise capital, start small, get people to see the value and come to you.
  • WM: since you get established and you get going,  Irving Wladawsky-Berger said you near a near death to reinvent youself.
  • MC: he’s right but I try and not wait that long.  I say everyday that there is someone trying to beat me, and i have to work had to stop them kicking my ass.
  • WM: you can never relax
  • MC: that is the fun of it.  it is continuing intellectual challenge and that is the fun
  • WM: what is you next business? 
  • MC: hdNet trying to leverage digital media in new ways,  everyone is so focused on wev when it comes to digital and they are looking the wrong direction.  It’s TV, DVRs, connection in their homes, to movies, looking at ways to leverage it. There’s so many untapped markets, everyone is so web focused that we can do other stuff.

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Oct 11

BIF and Joseph Coughlin by Walt Mossberg

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Joseph Coughlin Director, Age Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology web.mit.edu/agelab/index.shtml

Coughlin is founder and Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab – the first multi-disciplinary research program sponsored by government and business to understand the behavior of the 45+ population as decision-makers, consumers, patients, caregivers, advisors and technology users.

  • WM: you run the age lab.  it’s not trying to solve the process of aging, but is about how society deals with getting older.  I buy things, (new cars, the iphone) so what is wrong with the ad industry that they do target me?
  • JC: aging is quite new,,we have this pop of relatively healthy and wealthy wanting something new and different.  for 100s of years, business, old means poor, sick, old and frail so by 35 off their scale
  • WM: so what demo do the ad goes after
  • JC: 18 to 25, then 35.  the belief is that if I can capture you then I have you for life.  The older will continue to be there  and there is more of us than the young.  business has to do new things
  • WM I’m a research free zone, otherwise known as a journalist!  I think they, the ad people,  are not changing.   It is not a shock that the baby boomers are active, living longer, got money.  Surely they know this.  but there is no disruption to the business.
  • JC: it is not about a new idea, it is knowing that the world has changed around you.  Most do not, they have been here long enough, they do not think they need to change.  most orgs do not pay attention to things that are happening. People get paid to do what they have done, innovation happens next you.  most people do not want to admit they are aging, they want to ignore it.  companies do not build old products
  • WM:  want them to adverstise intelligently to me
  • JC: you want them to advertise to you.  We are looking at aging driving personalisation, style, wealth, etc.  as a result, this is not what companies are used to, a customer that want things from them, when they want to, and are willing to shop around.   the age lab is the only place looking at business, behaviours and technology together.  Baby boomers, are in prime chronic disease time.  Have to manage diet etc.  We developed with P&G a personal tool to allow you to monitor salt etc in prudcts in stores.  In Germany , it may go on your cell phone, but at the moment on your shopping cart in.  EU is older then us, so they are there.  Aging is one of the greatest driver of innovation
  • WM: more examples?
  • JC: countries will reduce in population, some people here are looking at the nursing home, so how can we actually change the house, add a health station, make it as a platform for living.
  • WM: how about a 1 floor house?
  • JC: longevity 1.0 was luck.  2.0 was water, tech and vaccinations,  3.0 is longest – personal responsibility, where you live, save, etc, get 30 years of productive living.  that is the greatest driver of innovation around the world.  on 40 years you will have a workforce shortage in China,
  • WM: so what is the message the companies are getting this?
  • JC: you are seeing it by stealth.  Bud use their distribution network.  People are looking to live longer well, the expectations to live well is the difference.  It’s all about women, they live longer, they make the decisions, they make most the care choices,   Now we have an population that have seen a lot of things and have a higher bench mark to make it exciting.  They have the money to pay things. a premium
  • WM: I was reading in the NYT, the 18-35 demo has changed over the last 20 years, they start making money later.  Does that impact the spending power?
  • JC: if life has got 30-40 years longer, so we have prolonged adolescence.  The fact that you have a degree you are educated for life is wrong.  so where do you continue to work, you will have 2-3 careers, how do you go back to school.   The average 50 yo want to stop working…wnat to stop doing what they are working, they still want to do things.  so how do you want to live tomorrow, it’s all about aging

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Oct 11

BIF and another Maverick panel

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A panel discussion with the 3 previous speakers, moderated by Bill Taylor, you had William Herp. Robin Chase and Jack Hughes.

  • BT: What are the surprising barriers>
  • WH: the biggest challenge, getting the biggest customer group, those who only use airlines and do not think there us an alternative. it is getting all the team to realise there is education to be done before we reach the tipping point to get people to consider it,.  the environment of the public air transport helps, but you have to get people to change their minds
  • RC: using the right words.  thinking about zipcar, you forget there is no much wrestling about using the right words, getting users to understand it.   getting the tight messages
  • BT yesterday we talked about the high concept pitch.  Using the short message.  You use the personal public transport system, a car service with wings, open source meets capitalism.  How do you use the language, is that the pitch that you use?  We use Harvard business review crossed with Rolling Stone for Fast company and every one got it
  • JH it’s all about changing an embedded norm, those are ness changes.  so how do you make people on an individual basis implement the change.  in each of the cases, to get the right message an words is critical.  if the underlying business model has merit, you pull in people and the words will come.  I do not think that any one thinks these models will not happen.  for us, why do people need to go to a place to write software,
  • BT is that your new mantra?
  • RC: I’m testing.  there is power in the words as the words are well crafted and robust.  they are big concepts in a few words
  • WH: one things we found is that there are different things for diff constituencies,  then you throw in time and how things and people change.  in my experience, trial and error has worked well for us.  we build test models.  Car service with wings work at industry.  private travel at airline prices works for customers, they will change as time goes
  • BT: all of you are passionate, there is a tangible product.  how important is it to think about customers buying into you world view?
  • RC: they buy into a quality service, it saves you money, its faster etc,  evangelism , people love it and will talk about it.  they do not buy into what I say, they have to love the service,.
  • BT: about the early adopters?
  • RC we have 3 value propositions and people chose the one they want
  • BT: you have 125k members, doing coding.   What do they think about the future of work
  • JH: some do some don’t they look for what they get out of it, money, learning, to solve problems, they all have an individual need.    We run a high school competition and we do not make money out of it, it is about getting people interested in science and maths etc
  • BT: in an idea driven business, you get feedback from lots of people, and you tweak  what have been tweaks that have been important
  • WH: you need to articulate your vision and be receptive to the feedback.    So far we have been successful in getting everyone to deliver a vision and match inside and outside.  in the previous company, we started off thinking about helping with customer care and we found at pretty quickly that the bigger opps was marketing to them  it was originally ecare and then changed to edialog.  we changed the company as a result of feedback
  • JH: it is not about changing what you are dong as more about being open to listening.   One story was about the members wanting to change the weekly matches we were doing, lasting about 9-0 mins  it would have cost money, I said no.   I went on holiday and when I came back they had built it.  and it was one of the most successful things we do now, the marathon matches
  • RC: goloco is still new, we had a lot of people signing up, bit only 1% were offering a trip.  we redesigned and there are lighter ways t enter, put your favourite places to go and we can start matching on this.  lighter touch
  • BT: what was one of the lessons from your previous companies
  • JH: innovators are very impatient.  you have to give it time.  Topcoder is still new to many, we have to be patient
  • WH: I agree that that is critically important.  One thing I have gotten better at is articulating an idea, get a team rallied around it and then let it go, trust the people to do things
  • RC: continuous improvement, understand the business model, keep on top of it, understand the dynamics
  • BT: there is an ongoing experimentation.

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Oct 11

BIF and Denise Nemchev

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Denise Nemchev President, Stanley Fastening Systems www.stanleyworks.com

Nemchev is President of Stanley Bostitch, a Division of the Stanley Works. The Stanley Works is a worldwide supplier of tools, hardware and security solutions for professional, industrial, and consumer use. Stanley Bostitch is a $600M division of SWK headquartered out of East Greenwich, Rhode Island employing nearly 3,000 people world-wide. Stanley Bostitch is a full-line marketer and manufacturer of professional fastening tools and fasteners serving the global industrial, construction, home improvement, and office products users.

  • we started over 100 ago with an innovation,  with the stapler, the staple stick.  Bostitch.  They started in the book binding business.
  • they still are designing, innovating fasteners, tools, nail guns and the whole works,
  • thinking about the structure of the home, what is the base is a wood frame.  Nails keep them together and that is what I am going to talk to you  About innovating to prevent failures
  • Disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes.   The nail fails the house falls.
  • so how do you solve a problem like this? you cannot do it alone, we need collaboration  We worked with the Government, universities, other industries, such as the insurance industry.
  • now we understand more than most to how a house fails
  • in an earthquake, you get shear force, as the house rocks. with wind, you get shear and you get pull through, with the nails coming out of the wood.
  • the team came up with a disaster resistant fastener, the Hurriquake
  •  the nail withstands up to twice the wind and 50% more shear force
  • you get ridges on the bottom of the nail, and you get twists on the top, with a slightly bigger diameter than the hole.  It screws in  It holds together better.  they put more material where the shear happens to reduce breaking.
  • the nail head is 25% bigger and reduces the pull though. 
  • we are being recognised for the innovations, by Readers Digest, Popular Science.

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