Highway to Helvetica

Local social

2007-09-14T09:45:00.000Z

This week I've seen some interesting stuff happen on local social networks

1. A friend signs up to Facebook, joins a the Brighton and Hove community just in time to see an advert for a 24 hour party that's just finished at a flat she rents out.

2. I find an old friend on Facebook, and the day he accepts my request I notice one of his friends has lost her ipod. Earlier that day I got an email referencing a local flash developer newsgroup, pointing to a local blogger who had found an ipod. It turned out to be hers and it was returned this morning.

Both are good examples of how small local social networks can get interconnected by bigger networks and users experience the effect in a physical as well as virtual sense.

Productivity enhancements for OS X mail

2007-04-27T08:36:00.000Z

I've always liked Mail because it's fast and reliable, but one of the jobs I've never got around to is pimping the interface to make it more usable - until now thanks to being inspired by this screenshot on Flickr.

The components used to create this set up are:

Mailtags - tagging messages and making them time sensitive
Letterbox - provides a three column layout

and lastly the use of smart mailboxes to give fast access to useful messages.

Let's talk about sex....

2007-04-23T14:56:00.000Z

Pornography is generally hidden away from the sanitised statistics relating to web usage, but last October UK Internet users toppled pornography off it's throne of the most 'hit' UK content through their increasing use of search engines. This month in America where 13% of all web hits are to porn related sites and only 7% to search engines, social networking is about to do the same.

It's not surprising that these technologies are so successful as search and conversation have driven the Web 2.0 movement, but it is surprising that whilst the porn industry has historically embraced new distribution channels it only recently seems to have become interested in utilising social networks.

Moo cards

2007-03-30T09:41:00.000Z

Moo is damn cool. They print 100 half size business cards on nice satin card using images from your Flickr account for £9.99. The best thing is you can have 100 different images on the cards with your own personalised contact details on the reverse.

Mojiti - Now with added editing

2007-03-30T08:59:00.000Z

One of the pieces of technology I like demoing is a video sharing engine that can record video directly to the server via a webcam. Digital Natives don't get impressed by technology so easily these days, but offering such a simple video based contribution platform is very slick. My only issue with the end product is that the video created goes live unedited. As someone who has problems leaving answerphone messages in 'one take' I suffer trying shoot a few minutes of video.

However now Mojiti the company who produced the tool that allows YouTube users to add subtitles to their videos have updated their tool to allow video editing too. I really think this will revelutionise how we contribute video online and will drive video based blogging. Great timing for Video Blogging week

Speaking at Learning Technology

2007-02-05T12:17:00.000Z

I ran a seminar at Learning Technology in London Olympia last week entitled 'Learning meets social networking' where I spoke about the influence that social networking can have on learning networks that don't offer collaborative environments. The crux of the presentation was around the fact that whilst most organisations understand the benefits of social networks I've found that many are nervous about implementing them on their own.

The presentation looked at how consumers are experiencing learning on demand via content distributed through social networks and how consumers can be split into groups that defines how naturally they engage with social technology.

I recalled the story of my friends daughter who was banned from using MSN on Christmas Day as her mother wanted her to commit to some 'real world interaction' with family and friends. By six PM she was finally allowed to go onto the network and I mistakenly presumed that none of her contacts would be online at that time on Christmas day. It not only transpired that over twenty of her contacts were online, but she had over three hundred contacts in total that she kept in reasonably regular contact with. This story was picked up the Korean news channel OhMyNews who felt rather sorry for her not being allowed to use MSN on Christmas day!

It wraps up with an example of how we produce learning material for organisations that don't want to commit themselves to providing networked learning communities, but do understand the need to engage all levels of learners with inspired content.

Here are the slides and will I'll try to put a v/o over it if I get a chance over the next few days.

Doctor Martens social faux pa

2006-09-12T09:31:00.000Z

Dr Martens have just released their all flash social networking site freedm2 to beta. The site was created by Saatchi interactive and is an attempt to engage and connect with airware customers. Unsurprisingly the agency is not going to monetise the site, but are trying to change audience brand perception and monitor that change.

I was particularly interested in this project as it's a Flash based social networking site, which made me wonder why they'd chosen that particular delivery format. I was also interested to see if Saatchi had built the site in Flash 9 utilising the new engine to create a more engaging environment.

So after waiting for the first page load I trawled the source code to discover I was in a Flash 8 environment, so let's see what this site is going to do.

The first page provided a view of a grand Victorian London residential street. Why London I wonder, why not Newcastle or Manchester or even Wales? Are DM's target audience going to aspire to this capital grandeur or we're the creative team being a little London centric in their concept? My next mission was to click on the front door, which was really exciting and a loading icon popped up for a few seconds whilst the doorbells loaded. Here I had to register, which was a boring chore. DM wanted my email and my DOB for some reason, which I obviously lied about because I want to protect my identity.

So once I'd managed to navigate the flaky login process I was standing in a dishevelled and dreary hallway looking at a grand staircase, a door and a lift. Clicking on the areas allowed me to access the different zones. Cue another loading icon.

I chose to move upstairs and was presented with a dizzying horizontal scrolling array of weird doors, most of which I couldn't access. Clicking madly to get out of this disorientating environment I end up watching another loading screen until I'm presented with another shabby room. Here I can click on a picture that is apparently a video but it won't play. At this point I notice a new Icon appear on the screen and click on it. I think this is another visitor, but I only seem to be able to contact him via email and am now stuck in this interface. Every time I do anything on this site I have to watch the loading screen crawl up to 100%

So I go back downstairs and try the lift, but it's broken, click on a notice board that’s full of dummy Lorum Ipsum text. I try my last option, which is a door that leads to a cinema. And here the lameness of this site becomes truly apparent when they try to provide a youTube experience. The graphics are really nice as you'd expect from Saatchi but the interface design is weak and the technology is woeful. I wonder if the video content was created by the Saatchi creative team after a long lunch in the pub, most of it wouldn't load and crashed after a few seconds. I notice the audience in the cinema throwing stuff at the screen, and wish I could join in.

As I was trying to leave the house to get a screenshot of the outside for this article I found the music room hidden away in the hallway. Now this space has some pretty big ideas, offering the ability to create your own music using pre-supplied sample loops on a timeline. Now this is obviously where a lot of the budget has gone, and I'm amazed by how poor the system is, it just doesn't work. Stuff won't load the interface is terrible, and the samples are as dreary and dull as the visual environment.

Saatchi claim that this site is in Beta, but I wouldn't have even shown it to the client never mind opened the doors to the public. This is not Beta, this is not social networking, it's is a pretty design that's out of touch with it's audience's aspirations with a shabby backend that makes me wonder what sort of idiot DM thinks I am to spend my valuable time on this worthless website.

My recommendation to DM is to ditch this site, create a social space that really focuses on what their brand essence is. How about a video library of underground punk gigs from the 70's, a photo library of street fashion through the ages, a tool to design your own DM shoes and boots. Brands need to reinforce their essence through content not devalue it.

Tags: Doctor Martens Saatchi Social brand Agency Freedm2

Accessibility is law

2006-09-11T08:26:00.000Z

Well in America at least you can be sued under the Americans with disabilities act if your website doesn't allow people with visual disabilities to read the content through a screen reader. The Target group was the first organisation to fall foul of this ruling.

I was at the d.construct conference in Brighton last week and Derek Featherstone gave a very interesting talk on accessibility issues in the web 2.0 world. He based his 45 minute presentation on the problems caused by the simplest form input field inputs such as login and search, which you can imagine is only the very tip of the accessibility iceberg.

Tags: Web2.0 Accessibility Target brand d.construct

RSS feeds for business

2006-09-07T09:07:00.000Z

This article has a couple of interesting case studies on how organisations have used RSS Feeds to assist the flow of information internally as well as externally.

Talking shop

2006-09-07T08:55:00.000Z

Tips on how to have a better conversation

David Miliband suspends Environmental Wiki

2006-09-07T08:49:00.000Z

Malicious posting and deletions forces MP to suspend write privileges on his environmental Wiki project. I suspect a Wiki is not the correct platform for this ongoing conversation and they will need to look at alternative technologies to kick this off again

Change Everything

2006-09-07T08:06:00.000Z

Vancity a sixty year old Canadian Credit Union have just launched ChangeEverything a social networking site that provides a forum for members to share goals and ideas relating to life changing decisions they have or are planning to make. In an effort to distribute content members are encouraged to tag their goals and place them in defined categories. The really smart (yet simple) method they use to get consistant tagging of content is achieved by autocompletion.

Vancity are being upfront about not monitising the site, and are purely using it as vehicle for getting people to think about change, and hopefully in the process they'll consider financial security. To encourage uptake and participation Vancity are offering prizes to active members.

The system is built using Drupal

The future shape of passwords

2006-09-07T07:57:00.000Z

I'd much rather use the right hand side of my brain to remember security information as opposed to the tradition left hand oriented password systems. This new visually based security system uses patterns instead of letters and numbers.

Back to school

2006-09-06T13:48:00.007Z

Most of my friends kids are going back to school today but according to Harris Cooper, a psychologist at the University of Missouri, children generally forget between 1 and 3 months worth of work over the summer break. Donald Clarke writes more here

Careful with that community

2006-09-06T09:59:00.000Z

Social networking site Facebook is facing a revolt from a growing number of its members regarding new features they released yesterday. The upgrades that allowed members to get information concerning friends and contacts via RSS Feeds were an attempt to try to reduce the number of page impressions the site was generating. A site calling users to boycott facebook on the 12th September has been launched as well a petition to put pressure on the site's owners to remove the new features.

Community owners need demonstrate engagement with members on both technological and social development. A site owner ultimately has a responsibility to the generators of the content, who naturally feel a sense of ownership over the site. Member ownership is also experienced by subscription sites too. One subscription model site owner recounted the experience with regret as he felt he had over a thousand managers!

The irony for Facebook is, that if these new features had been included from the outset, there would probably be more uproar at the prospect of their impending removal.

The photosharing site faceoff

2006-09-06T08:04:00.000Z

A good roundup comparing functionality that the main players in the photosharing space offer. Photobucket is still the market leader even though we seem to hear about Flickr more in the press, but not always for the right reasons.

BadFlickr is a blog set up by a disgruntled ex Flickr user whose account was terminated without any warning or reason. His blog focuses on the number of photos and accounts being deleted by the Flickr team and highlights the issues that grassroots companies who pioneered the web2.0 goldrush have after selling out to big corporates.

Sci Fi Channel promotes BSG3 with webisodes

2006-09-06T07:40:00.000Z

SciFi channel are continuing to use the web to promote the hit TV series Battlestar Galactica by releasing a series of Webisodes that can be downloaded onto a range of devices. SFC are releasing an episode every week for the ten week run up to Series Three launching.

The webisodes have advertising before the actual feature starts.

It's worth remembering that the SFC got into online marketing by accident rather than design, releasing Battlestar Series One in the UK before the US allowing the whole series to be available on the filesharing networks before the US launch. The network thought they had blown the US launch, but the hype generated online caused the US launch to be their biggest ever show.

Everyday

2006-09-05T12:23:00.000Z

Photographer Noah Kalina has been turning his camera on himself everyday for the past six years and produced this amazing film.

Amateur reviewers killing off Yellow Pages

2006-09-05T10:26:00.000Z

Guy Kawasaki writes about the incredible growth of user generated reviews and posts Illana DeBare's comments on how business should respond to this new phenomenon

The science behind the creation of Wikipedia entries

2006-09-05T07:30:00.000Z

Aaron Swartz has done some data-crunching using a rented supercomputer cluster to find out how Wikipedia entries get written. It turns out that there is a cluster of around 500 core editors who tidy up the majority of entries that are created by unregistered drive by posters.

This is interesting data for an organisation who run their own Wiki, as the number of core editors compared to the number of posters is very small.

Over compression kills podcasting

2006-05-04T07:28:00.000Z

One of the great benefits of podcasts is that they enable you to listen to presentations from shows like SXSW when it's physically impossible to attend. Something I find really frustrating is when an audio file is so heavily compressed it causes the speaker to end up sounding like they were presenting underwater.

The problem becomes worse if a presenter isn't speaking correctly into their microphone resulting in the original audio signal having level fluctuations. If the audio file isn't run through a compression utility before it's converted to MP3 the compressed output can be so distorted when the signal drops that the words can't even be understood.

Having worked in eLearning for several years I've released a lot of Flash based content with streamed voice over. The problem we had with audio was that it had to be compressed enough to allow the visual presentation to work flawlessly, but at the same time sound good enough to not cause aural fatigue in the user.

After a lot of experimentation and user testing we opted for compressing the audio to 22,050 kHz at 16kbps. This setting offers a high enough quality for learning material and a small enough file size for streaming. For Podcasting purposes I wouldn't advise compressing your audio files to a lower quality than this.

Luckily if you're at all unsure about compression, you can simply use iTunes to prepare audio files using the 'spoken word' podcast compression preset.

Tags: Podcast Compression iTunes brand

Remixing the four P's of marketing

2006-04-24T12:50:00.000Z

So now the landscape of the marketing world has been transformed by the power of search and conversation what has happened to the four cornerstones of a campaign: product, place, promotion and price?

Place becomes Presence
Not so many years ago shoppers had to go to dozens of small retailers to buy all the goods they needed and as commerce evolved the number of specialist retailers reduced and people needed to go to less shops. The consistent factor in this transformation was that people knew physically where to go to buy the stuff they needed.

The adoption of Internet commerce has created a renaissance for the small retailer, but the landscape has changed in that the customers don't necessarily physically understand where the shop is, because the historical cultural references don’t exist in this new landscape.

So retailers need to help their customers find them and its vital for them to understand the lay of this new land. Understanding how Google page ranking and adsence work is a starting point. These new tools are the signage and adverts that used to attract customers in from the high street.

Product becomes Personalisation
Again going back in time personal service was the cornerstone of a shopping experience. People moved around less and it wasn't uncommon for an individual to shop selected stores all their lives. The storekeeper would grow to understand exactly what the customer liked and was able to quickly provide them with the products they regularly purchased as well as introduce them to new items that may prove to be desirable.

Personlisation saves people time and it makes people feel important to the retailer. This enhancement of the relationship creates a network of trust and makes the customer open to offers of new products or services.

Social behavior online can encourage people to leave a breadcrumb trail that allows a retailer to build a customer profile. For example rating products, previous shopping history and comments all give a good idea on what a customer likes or dislikes. Sites like Amazon are already providing this service and the social product recommendation cuts through our natural skepticism to being introduced to new products.

Promotion becomes persuasion
The monologue has been transformed into a dialogue, but is the brand owner still involved in the conversation? Word of mouth has always been one of the most influential aspects in product sales, but was always limited by the capabilities of the social network. Year on year 'Word of Mouth' has become more efficient at spreading marketing messages as communication networks become faster and more prevalent, but this once powerful tool in the marketers weaponry has now moved out of their control. The conversation is now public domain, and the power of search has enabled millions of people to tap into these conversations.

The companies who will survive this transformation will be the ones who can engage and react to the conversations that their customers are having. They will adapt their strategies and their products to align with their customers expectations, and if they provide the personalised service that has all but disappeared from modern commerce, their customers will be loyal.

Price (static) becomes Price (dynamic)
Why is Wal Mart afraid of Google? The answer is Google's ability to provide such comprehensive price comparison searches that it would undercut Wal Mart's value proposition. In fact price comparison has become one of the biggest factors in driving customers to search out alternative presences on the web. The most flexible producers who can creatively adapt their offering to compete in the market place will be the winners.

Inspired by Sviojkla

Tags: Web2.0 Conversation Marketting brand

Enterprising, but not enterprise.

2006-03-13T16:13:00.000Z

Peter Rip of Leapfrog ventures has written a great article about the issues creating enterprise standard products using public APIs. Web services are generally released without a SLA (Service Level Agreement) and the terms and conditions basically don't offer very much security to the user regarding uptime and support. Service level problems are already evident in a range of online applications, and occur for a number of reasons. Every Saturday morning Spurl.net goes offline for backup, which might be appropriate for such maintainence in the States, but in the UK its a peak usage time. Even Googles own Gmail service has experienced outages that have desperately upset users, so I don't think there's currently much hope in using Web Services for mission critical applications.

Hopefully this situation will change over time, but the companies who host the APIs need to sort out what kind of revenue model is going to suit them best. Peter highlights that one of the major reasons that Google and Yahoo have not released business models for their web services is that their current model is based on 'direct sales' and not 'indirect sales'. A mashup incorporating the Google API is would be considered by Google to be an indirect sale, so there is no model, and companies like Google can't adopt a new channel strategy overnight.

One route Google could go down would be to move the distinction of the customer up a level from the end user to the developer or company that is using the service. There are also a number of financial models that could be adopted including bandwidth usage, subscription packages or simply pay per hits which could provide a healthy revenue stream for supporting 24/7 uptime for the services.

It's inevitable that the Mashup movement is going to move into an enterprise model and quickly in my opinion. If these first movers don't sort decent SLA's there will be a market opportunity for companies to supply enterprise standard web services to support the mashup movement.

Tags Mashup, Web 2.0, gmail, Peter Rip, Web services, Google, SLA

Police told to blog off

2006-03-12T13:59:00.000Z

The Register today reported that the Metropolitan police are the latest organisation to 'encourage' it's staff to stop running blogs. The advice acknowledges that they cannot force officers to stop blogging, but requests that they: "consider the impact of expressing views and opinions that...bring the organisation into disrepute" which incidently makes for ironic reading on the day that Ian Blair is in the headlines for illegally recording conversations with the Attorney General.

This situation the Met have found themselves in is similar to that of a growing number of organisations trying cope with the level of conversation the web is enabling. Rather than trying to encourage officers to stop blogging altogether I would have preferred to see a clear and concise best practice for officers running personal blogs.

It's never a good policy to smother conversation, but most people are happy to moderate it to suit a purpose.

tags: conversation , blogging , metropolitan police,

Mash makes Smash

2006-03-06T20:50:00.000Z

There are two kinds of mashup getting online attention at the moment. The first is the use of open API's like Flickr to create new online tools and the other is the latest Japanese video on YouTube showing that a potato can be peeled in just one second. Now even though I hate peeling potatoes (any other tips gratefully accepted!) I'm more interested in the Web 2.0 kind of mashups. Dion Hinchcliffe wrote today that MashUpFeed is posting 2.63 new projects every day, with Googlemaps being the most popular API used.

The range of web mashup topics is as imaginative as the 2005 mashup trend of mixing contradictory tracks together. In 2005 we were treated to DJ BC mixing the Beatles with the Beastie Boys, we've now got Virtual Places mixing Amazon, Flickr, Microsoft and FeedMap API's to create a brand new mapping/webservice, and with sites such as MyFirstKiss and Run London emerging from the crowd, it's obvious that there's a lot of creative work is going into the production of these new web services.

What I hope happens now is that the bar to entry is lowered, as it has been in many other technologies. Perhaps Garageband for web Mashups could emerge allowing people with modest skills to join in the fun.

Tags: Mashup, Web 2.0, API, Flickr, Googlemaps, MyFirstKiss, MashupFeed