Archive for September 2009
Data as Art #4 – Martin Löfqvist
Is Obama Clumsy or Personal When Calling Kanye a Jackass?
So Kanye and Obama has been all over the news the last week. As usual, it feels like, no?
Anywho, after Kanye did his show on the VMA's last week, Obama – seemingly not knowing that the cameras were on – called Kanye a jackass. You know that if it would have been George Bush Jr using those words, it would have seemed like he's out of touch with the crowds.
But this time it is The Obama, who's street smart, knows the Book of Faces, crowd sourcing and Creative Commons. Does Obama get away with calling Kanye a jackass since he's a personal guy – a man of New Media?
"Cut the president some slack"?
Posted on September 18, 2009
0 comments
video, government_2.0, Creative_Commons, Popular_culture, 
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Aftonbladet Ruining the RSS Experience
I am all for advertising in RSS feeds. I think it is quite amazing it hasn't evolved further than it has. Swedish tabloid, Aftonbladet, has introduced ads in some of their feeds (maybe this is old news, but I haven't seen it in the feeds I get from them), which of course should be a great way to make a few extra kronor.
However, if you want me to pay by viewing ads, please give me more than the headline and a lousy picture! Now I'll get the cheap feed but pay full price.
Also, Aftonbladet has the possibility to target me really well since these feeds are by topic. However, I think they missed doing their homework when they place ads for London Business School in a feed about entertainment.
I have a strong belief in RSS, but the publishing houses need to take part of the development to make it succesful, and this is down right counter productive.
Uh-oh – 20% of All Tweets Are About Brands
Photo: Somewhat Frank
Marketing Charts reports on Twitter stats published by Penn State University, saying that 20% of all tweets are about brands.
“People are using tweets to express their reaction, both positive and negative, as they engage with these products and services,” said Jansen. “Tweets are about as close as one can get to the customer point of purchase for products and services.”
It has never been this obvious that customer service is one of today's most powerful marketing tools. Make it proactive. Make it part of your core values. True customer service is here to stay.
When Your Message Comes Back to Bite You
Icelandic bank, Kaupthing, went bankrupt last fall during the economic downturn. Below is a video that allegedly was used internally to get the employees fired up. The main message is "Kaupthinking is beyond", which brings out some laughter today. Most Icelanders, however, aren't laughing.
WebGL makes it into WebKit
Achieving rich graphical experiences on the web without 3rd party plugins, such as Adobe Flash/Microsoft Silverlight, can sometimes be a hassle for the designer. And even though I'm a big fan of css, I sometimes find myself in the position where these plugins are essential for the expression and user interaction. As the JavaScript engines gets faster and faster and HTML 5 with the canvas tag around the corner, things are really looking great for the open standards web. Yet, there is something even cooler on the way...
At this years SIGGRAPH, Khronos Group announced WebGL as an official standard, and now the first implementation of it has surfaced in WebKit build r48331. WebGL is a JavaScript binding to OpenGL ES 2.0 which makes it possible to create real time 3D graphics on the web with native browser support. This reminds me of how great the internet is and how the 20 year old http protocol still delivers awesomeness. Check out this video the see WebGL in action:
Will Real-Time Make RSS for Everyone?
Photo: monkeyc.net
These days everybody is talking about real-time. Twitter is real-time (i.e. whenever someone makes an update, it shows instantly - in real-time) and Twitter is on everybody's minds, so that gives the topic a lot of attention.
RSS is not real-time. Your reader gets its updates through calling out to all your subscriptions, asking if there is new information available. Since most of the time, there is no update available, RSS is a pretty inefficient technology.
Enter - real-time RSS, which is created through push technology, sort of like the technogloy used in push e-mail. Whenever an update is available it is pushed to its subscribers.
So what will this mean for the users? Hopefully it will mean that the developers of the RSS readers can create more user friendly apps, which I think is a major issue holding RSS adoption back. I am quite certain that we won't see mass adoption before RSS is hidden behind an app that says nothing of RSS. If we're lucky it will also mean that media puts more focus on RSS syndication - another major issue.
For those interested in the techy bits, Techcrunch posted a comparison between the two existing push RSS technologies.
Data as Art #5 – Charles Broskoski
Pay What You Want for Video Game
I had completeley missed out on this story - popular football manager video game, Championship Manager utilizes a pay what you want-model for this year's issue. You can pay as low as 1 pence and a small transaction fee, and the game is yours.
While the comment section is full of people annoyed by a faulty payment system, the interesting bit is that the manufacturer of the game has realized that the game is a popular illegal download and tried to do something about it.
I think that it is really important to create a paying relationship with your users, even if it isn't full price. And I think this is a smart way to create that and to find out what the willingness to pay is. It is also good pr.
Even though I was late to the party, the offer is good until tomorrow.
Case: Social Media Room for Blossa
Blossa glögg (mulled wine) is one of Sweden's most loved brands, especially around christmas when no family gathering can be held without glögg. Us Swedes love our glögg you see.
Jung has developed the updated media room for Blossa, which was launched today together with the new site and the presentation of the 2009 vintage Blossa.
This is What I Had Time to Read Lately
I often times find social media to be everything but social. This is a good list by Search Engine Journal on how to become a good social media user.
I am foolishly in love with Wired – The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine
[In Swedish]
Ohsohightech is my fave Swedish get-to-know-your-technology blog and this is a wrap-up of their best articles this year.
The debate about how media could make money off the internet continues – an interesting top ten list at Mindpark.