The Big Balloon Race
Posted by goodmind on June 23rd, 2008
Orange, the UK phone company, is sponsoring an Internet Balloon Race scheduled to kick off tomorrow at noon. It’s a whole new take on website navigation, with a little adventure racing thrown in. Every page of the course has two “exits” to choose from, and each site is the equivalent of one internet mile. The point is to travel as “far” as possible, and the winner will receive a trip to Ibiza.
Unfortunately, it is too late to register at this time – as a balloonist or as part of the course as it were;
…users register their “balloon” and they can race from site to site… as for where they go? Sites like this one, can register on their page and put up little balloons, so when people are racing, they go through your sites! (and who knows, some might come back later!)… SO, free advertising for the sites, which give free advertising for Orange, and fun exploring the internet for the users. (via NOTCOT)
Obviously, the whole idea is pretty genius, because everyone (Orange, racers, websites) benefits by participating. More importantly, there’s more than one way to participate; if we’d heard about the event sooner, we’d have registered a Goodmind balloon and submitted Co-render.com to the course.
Update: We’ve actually received word that it’s not too late to join the Internet Balloon Race. Register here.
A Little iPhone Buzz
Posted by goodmind on June 9th, 2008
It was a newsworthy event for ambitious developers everywhere when Apple opened up the iPhone API last fall. So maybe this equally ambitious “iWish” list from Portfolio stands a chance after all – if the open source model can defy the laws of physics that is.
Our favorite fantasy feature for the iPhone is probably the iPal concept;
iPal: Most iPhone users are busy people leading hectic lives, and the least Apple can do for $499 is provide you with a friend and confidant. The iPhone’s iPal should know how to comfort you when you’re down (automatically load laughing-baby clips from Youtube?) and be your wingman when you need a drinking buddy. Have you ever seen an iPhone after a few beers? Me neither, but I’d like to.
Nothing like kicking back a few with your iPhone at the local Genius Bar, getting “brick-faced.”
Cashing in on Co-rendered Ad Revenue
Posted by goodmind on May 29th, 2008
Traditional print newspapers are basically a form of ad-supported content, suitable for lining birdcages. While many titles have tried to transition to the Web using this same model, they have done so unsuccessfully – the consensus apparently being that online advertisements aren’t worth the investment, because ads just aren’t as effective online. Whether this conclusion is valid or not, is beyond the scope of this post.
On the other hand, Knewsroom may be onto something here, by making online advertisements more valuable to the online audience. Maybe people will put up with ads if they get a cut of the revenue.
Like Digg, Knewsroom is a “community directed news publication,” only
“20% of every dollar we generate in advertising gets split with the people who make the Knews happen: writers, readers, evangelists…anyone looking to turn extra brainwidth into extra cash.”
Issues contain reader suggested topics, as well as both original and syndicated content. A sophisticated matrix algorithm is used to determine the top 5 topics and stories for each issue, based on how readers “invest” (vote) on what they think is the top story of the day.
Knewsroom is run on a currency of “watts,” which are earned by becoming an active member in the community, and can be invested in potentially Knews-worthy items of interest. If say, you were to invest heavily in Entertainment stories, and one of your investments made the top 5, you would get a cut of the ad revenue generated that day, credited to your Knewsroom MasterCard.
Plus, aside from the Superbowl, Knewsroom may be the only context where advertisements are welcome and appreciated by the audience.
(via Springwise)
Website Navigation Revisited
Posted by goodmind on May 20th, 2008
Modernista! has upped the ante of what it means for a company to embrace social media, and the transparency of the web. It’s so clever, we’re almost at a loss for words to describe it. Almost.
Basically, the Boston based advertising agency took their own medicine, and designed their website around Google search…but not in the way you and I optimize our content for search. The website is literally a Google page; ranked results and all.
Not only does the Wikipedia page clearly explain what the agency is about (far better than jargon laden website copy could), the Google algorithm guarantees that up to the minute puff pieces on Modernista! are front and center. It’s news generating move that measures and monitors said buzz, pretty effectively we might add.
We can see more companies taking a similar approach to web design, if only for the simple fact that most of us Google what we want to find, even when we know the full URL. Heck, we’ve Googled “Goodmind” just to get to our own website. Not only has Modernista! tapped into a new website format using Google search conventions, but also an additional application for the conventional Google search.
Is the search engine of the future a centralized navigational system? It wont work very well if the Microsoft-Yahoo-Facebook rumors are true…
It’s Easier Said Than Done
Posted by goodmind on May 13th, 2008
Emphasizing the centrality and importance of a well written press release in the field of Public Relations is not nostalgia for the 1990’s, it is, apparently, a fact of life even in the age of SEO and social media. Oddly enough, these all too familiar Web 2.0 realities aren’t a major threat to the newswire/press release method for disseminating information to the right people. In fact, most of these web-based applications create a greater need for a well written press release to get the ball rolling – something we’ve been suggesting for some time now.
PR Newswire (a client) is one of the examples cited in a recent TechCrunch post on the ongoing Evolution of the Press Release. Written by Brian Solis, author of the PR 2.0 blog, the post reinforces the importance of well written text for integration with SEO, as well as providing tips for how even the standard press release format/template can be easily calibrated for re-distrubution on news aggregators, and other social networking tools along the lines of Twitter, or Tumblr.
What is so particularly refreshing about this re-interpretation of PR’s relationship to media is that the “correct” use of social media (as in a killer YouTube video) isn’t treated as the definitive solution;
“…it’s not just about multimedia content, it’s about connecting information across social networks, the people looking for it, as well as the conversations that bind them together.”
The press release format doesn’t have to dramatically transform or evolve into some multi-media medusa of YouTube videos, audio clips, and interactive tools to be effective in reaching the correct audience. Text based releases can of course be supplemented and supported by embedded content, but the “correct” word choice will ultimately play a more decisive role in how a given release is distributed, discovered, and received.
Hopefully, this “news” will find its to the right people in a timely manner, and function as evidence that a well written nugget of information is more than enough momentum to stir the social media pot.
The Code of Co-rendered Conduct
Posted by goodmind on May 12th, 2008
” The ever wonderful John Resig finally posted his totally awesome processing.js code to the web.”
To merit such total awesomeness, this latest instance of transparency for the greater good (via Christopher Blizzard) has done much more than merely reinforce the superiority of the open platform approach to innovation, and improvement. It has also served to advance our own personal theories on the subject of this blog.
As Christopher Blizzard points out in his post, the code was released on Thursday, May 8;
“By Friday, someone had already duplicated the processing.js environment as a XUL program and someone else already created an editor where you can try out processing scripts directly on the web. That’s in one day after the code was posted on the web.”
Depending on your learning curve, it might take slightly longer than one day to absorb, improve, and re-distribute your take on the processing.js code. However, the point is that you can, eventually. The development code, or API is readily available, and so is the requisite information to make sense of it. We can measure the health of co-rendered activity not only by the good samaritan developers who release their precious codes to the masses, but also by the wealth of tutorials, and online resources produced to help the masses “process” the code, as it were.
Perhaps co-rendering, crowdsourcing, or whatever you want to call it, isn’t really so much about innovation through access, but rather education through access. Co-rendering isn’t the archetypal image of some pale 25-30 year old male hacking away at the iPhone API; it’s the middle-aged president of the PTA having the ability to create a flash demo for the elementary school website, advertising next month’s wrapping paper fundraiser.
Utensils for Media Engagement
Posted by goodmind on May 2nd, 2008
While we certainly don’t dispute the thesis of a recent posting on the Po-Mo blog, we couldn’t help but notice a striking similarity between Terry Heaton’s graphic representation of the “Personal Media Revolution,” and the “New Yorgurt Spoon” by designed by Nojae Park.
For comparison’s sake, here is Heaton’s portrayal of post-modern personal media’s relationship to the ad industry;
And here is the new yogurt spoon in action (via Yanko Design);
When advertising dollars are at stake in an increasingly fragmented media landscape, reaching that last bite with a highly focused tool capable of reaching those “niche” markets is true happiness…for Madison Avenue anyway.
What Personality Type Are You?
Posted by goodmind on April 22nd, 2008
Can’t decide whether the glass is half full, or half empty? Then try a more conclusive test to see if you’re really an optimist, or a pessimist, particularly as it relates to your business pursuits, and brand identity. Determine whether the following statement is a pleasant, or an unpleasant truth;
“no matter what kind of company you are, your customers are having a conversation about your products and practices.” (Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com)
No matter which camp you fall in, it’s definitely an absolute truth, one that Salesforce.com has harnessed via their “Ideas” platform. (Making them realists, we suppose). Dell and Starbucks have already begun co-rendering the insights of customers, as brand notoriety is no longer a guaranteed glass half full scenario. In Dell’s case, it’s a box mostly empty.
Blog Id/Blog It
Posted by goodmind on April 17th, 2008
Web 2.0 has arguably made Renaissance men of us all, meaning your prototypical internet user can dabble in a variety of disciplines (writing a blog, producing short films, or microfinancing entrepreneurs), and belong to numerous social networks and that span several distinct niches. Perhaps most importantly, these same tools which enable such Jeffersonian range also enable us to “share” (shamelessly brag about) what we’re up to, in real time no less.
By the same token, time saving technologies/solutions for completing repetitive tasks faster, and more efficiently, generate expectations to match; the classic Catch-22 of most technological innovations. Less time means more volume, and this in turn has created a conundrum where not only the sheer amount, but also the vast distribution of our online activities and acquaintances is so far-reaching that it’s actually more time consuming (not to mention repetitive) to issue constant updates via Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
This, no doubt, is why Six Apart has released Blog It, the first “cross-platform blogging application for Facebook,” which basically means it “helps you tell everyone you know across the web about what you’re creating, not just your Facebook friends”. We like it because it solves the immediate problem at hand, eliminating the repetitiveness of self-promotion, but are somewhat cautious when it comes to seeing what new devilry the personal PR management system will ultimately introduce into the equation.
Do we really need to see a rise in volume of unabashed online self-promotion? Rhetorical questions are not meant to be answered…
All About E-books
Posted by goodmind on April 14th, 2008
The digital book concept has been tinkered with by various business enterprises, but has yet to yield anything worth writing home about. Unless of course you’re a blogger. In our opinion, the idea is solid, could be spectacular, but is too easily bogged down by mediocre execution (ahem, Kindle).
It seems most people, even the folks at Amazon, are content to sit back and wait for Apple to transform and revolutionize the reading experience via compact digital platform, designed specifically to exceed our half-formed, and poorly articulated expectations about e-books. That’s why we were pleasantly surprised to see Storytelling with Google Maps, and even more surprised to learn Google technology isn’t behind the project, it’s merely the vehicle.
Penguin Books has collaborated with Six to Start, an alternative gaming firm, to create an online reading experience unlike any other;
“readers follow the protagonist’s adventures step by step across the world using Google Maps, with text presented in the technology’s information bubbles at each point along the way.” (via Springwise)
We’ll know the concept has truly taken off when Google Maps responds with a fiction section, which would probably be a relief for those literally exposed by the service’s quest for authentic realism.
