… and is there anything else the digital world will be talking about today?
Month: January 2010
Are We Living in a Reboot Culture?
By Sven Larsen (@zemoga)
Ever heard the phrase “creative destruction”?
It’s one of the more applicable oxymorons in digital culture.
There are many people who believe that the Internet fosters this particular type of behavior … that is, destroying old business models or ways of doing things and replacing them with more efficient (or at least different) ways of doing things. Apple‘s iTunes store is a perfect example of this, replacing the old model of going to a specific destination to buy environmentally unfriendly pieces of plastic with a digital alternative that can be purchased almost anywhere. A creative solution that ended up destroying the old business model of the music industry and (arguably) a change for the better.
The last ten years have seen a tremendous abundance of examples of this process. Craig’s List destroying traditional classified advertising. Mobile phones destroying the need for phone booths. Pornography websites replacing the need for creepy Times Square theaters. Well … you get the idea. Read more
Is Content or Crowdsourcing the Next Big Thing?
By DJ Edgerton (@wiltonbound)
What if you could make your own Star Wars movie and not get sued by George Lucas? Or record your own version of the Beatles “Let It Be” and not have to ask Apple Corp. for permission? Would the world be a better or worse place?
It may seem like a strange question to ask but it’s actually a major issue when it comes to creating digital content. The mantra of the web has always been “Information wants to be free.” But the counter argument put forth by many is that “content is king” and needs to be protected by its owners/creators. And there is ongoing debate about open versus closed systems. Companies like our client, the Mozilla Foundation and entire operating systems like Linux have been built on the idea that intellectual property shouldn’t be hoarded. And there’s a very good argument to be made for the idea that services like Twitter and Apple’s iPhone apps store owe a lot of their success to making their APIs freely available to developers. Read more
What's Next After Google?
By Sven Larsen (@zemoga)
I’m catching up on some reading thanks to a few business trips. One of the volumes I was most looking forward to consuming is Ken Auletta’s GOOGLED, a comprehensive history of the search giant. While I’m just a couple of pages in to it so far, I can tell the book is going to provide some unique insights.
A passage from the book that really caught my attention was a quote from Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian. “The internet makes information available,” opined Varian, “Google makes it accessible.” It’s a concise summary of Google’s business but it also captures the essential struggle for all of us in the digital communications business – how to take raw data and turn it in to something compelling for consumers.
It’s my strong belief that as social media becomes more and more integrated in to our lives, accessibility will become more and more of an issue. Already, we’ve seen celebrities (both real and web versions) deleting Facebook pages and declaring Twitter blackout periods. In almost all these cases, it’s not the constant demand for content that these services require that is cited as the problem. It’s keeping up with the massive flow of information the other way. With literally millions of tweets and Facebook postings what are we supposed to pay attention to? Read more
It's All About the User Experience …
By Dan Licht (@thedvl)
Here’s a great example that shows how focussing on the user experience can lead to innovation in even the most mundane product. You can read more about the thinking behind this redesign here. In addition, to the environmental benefits this design provides I bet it would significantly reduce the number of driver-pedestrian whereever it was installed.
What classic products does your company make? Could their user experience be improved by a redesign or tweak?
What Embodies Innovation More …
… than Lego? The company that sparked a million kids’ imaginations has also been a leader in adapting technology like augmented reality and 3D animation. Their latest offering is Legoclick a new community devoted to innovation. Check out this awesome short film they created to give users a little taste of the site.
Do You Know the New Rules of Marketing & PR?
By Sven Larsen (@zemoga) Did you get a Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com giftcard as a holiday gift? Wondering what to do with it? Don’t worry, we’ve got a recommendation for you (yes, it’s shameless plug time).
The Biggest Consumer Trends for 2010
TrendsSpotting’s 2010 Consumer Trends Influencers: Predictions in 140 Characters
View more documents from Taly Weiss.
By Dan Licht (@thedvl)
The folks at Trendspotting have put together this interesting slideshow on some of the trends they see in consumer behavior for 2010. Interestingly, the presentation itself embodies one of the biggest trends we see coming this year, the “twitterization” of information. In a 140 character world who needs white papers anymore?
How Are You Feeling, America?
By DJ Edgerton (@wiltonbound)
Do you think the glass is half full or half empty? Or to put it another way, what’s the zeitgeist (that’s a fancy German word for the “spirit of the times” in case you were wondering)?
It’s a question that’s looming large in my mind these days. I started off 2009 with a letter
How to Jump Start 2010
By Sven Larsen (@zemoga)
How are you motivating yourself and your team in the coming year?
As we all workshift, freelance, consult, and work in new ways, this seems to be a bigger and bigger issue for managers and client-agency relationships. That’s why I was excited to receive my copy of Daniel Pink’s new Book, DRIVE in my mail this