[courtesy gapingvoid]

Adam Tinworth’s taken media owners and publishers to task for their little-understood and poorly-implemented attempts to ‘do community’ in a terrific post: Why Media Gets Community Wrong

Most media people don’t realise that blogging is a community strategy. They think of it as a publishing process and, perhaps, as articles published with a particular tone of voice. They certainly don’t think of it as a conversation.

Adam’s post is particularly focused on journalists and publishers, but it’s woefully true of brands’ and brand-owners’ approach to online communication - and the source of much frustration when dealing with clients!

Building a load of forums on your website doesn’t tick the ‘community’ box. I know you think it’s absolutely fabulous and incredibly modern to have a ‘community’ section on your site, but as Adam points out “making that your only point of community interaction with your readers is roughly like inviting some guests round - and then not letting them out of the guest bedroom.”

Or adding a blog, which you think is oh-so-web-2.0 - except that you don’t allow comments. Or if you do, don’t participate in the conversation. Or listen to what your commenters are actually telling you. Because, after all, it’s much more important to have control over what’s published, and to ensure that only the nice stuff gets posted, than to actually engage with your reader, isn’t it?

To really, genuinely engage with your readers you have to embed it [community] in everything you publish to some degree

And for brands, this is no different. Community isn’t a place. It’s about people. People own their communities, brands don’t. And whether you’re a media owner, a publisher or a brand (or all three), isn’t developing a relationship with your reader or consumer the ultimate goal? And which relationship would you rather be in - one where you’re talked at, or one where you partake in two-way conversation?

Image is everything. Sucks but it’s often true. And nowhere more so than in the political sphere - whereby the image projected via TV/video coverage can frequently sway voters more than any carefully-written manifesto.

This isn’t anything new. Kennedy and Nixon were neck-and-neck in the polls until their famous televised debate of 1960, when the power of these televised images was revealed in post-debate polls.

Political candidates today know the power of image, however whilst they might try to harness this for themselves via carefully-orchestrated campaigns, today the real battle takes place via the stuff they don’t control.

Massive amounts of pro-Obama content on Youtube undoubtedly played a significant role in his galvanising of popular support (and being dubbed the President of Youtube). And Hillary Clinton’s integrity took a severe kicking when various videos debunking her claim to have endured sniper fire in Bosnia racked up millions of views on Youtube.

Video footage can still make or break a candidate’s reputation - except that now the power to capture, edit & distribute content is in the hands of the many, rather than the few. Jamais Cascico has written a really thought-provoking piece examining the potential dangers this opens up:

What happens when not only have the tools of documenting the world become democratized, so too have the tools for manipulating our interpretations of reality?

Cascio predicts that we’ll see a rise in participatory deception - the deliberate propagation of manipulated video footage to discredit given individuals or groups. Although he believes such fakes wouldn’t last long before being debunked, an onslaught of clips propagating a given rumour would nevertheless have a definite lingering effect.

It’s the flip side to the Participatory Panopticon. The Panopticon was Jeremy Bentham’s model for a prison in which all inmates could be watched at all times - and has come to take on the broader meaning of the modern ‘Big Brother’ society where we’re all under constant surveillance. Except that in the participatory panopticon, we’re the ones voluntarily undertaking the surveillance - constantly watching everyday life, capturing it, and posting it online. And rather than ’surveillance’ (from above), this has been termed ’sousveillance’, or watchful vigilance from underneath.

The online attention market wields massive power - so it doesn’t seem unlikely that the Panopticon should evolve into a Decepticon - I just wonder how long it’ll take before this becomes a fully-fledged reality…

[ Open the Future: the Participatory Decepticon - via PSFK ]

Hence blog hiatus.

And overflowing inbox.

So lots of things I’d ordinarily have blogged about are a bit, well, old hat.

NESTA Innovation Edge

[photo courtesy of ]

Like seeing Tim Berners-Lee, Bob Geldof, Charles Leadbeater, Sam Pitroda and Gordon Brown (yes, that Gordon Brown) speak at the NESTA Innovation Edge Conference, as well as catching up with Neil, who’s already blogged the day.

Tim Berners-Lee was utterly awe-inspiring (the phrase “that’s why I invented the web” was a particular standout) and his discussion of his Web Science research initiative absolutely fascinating - the central point being that it’s not about technology in and of itself, it’s human behaviour enabled and facilitated by technology:

The web really has to be thought of not as a system of connections between computers, or even as links between web pages, but really as humanity connected.

[ See the rest of the session on Web Science at NESTA ]

The World’s First Internet Balloon Race

Or the World’s First Internet Balloon Race (as others have already observed).

Beautifully executed, it deftly brings the joy of the real-life balloon race into the digital space, encouraging participation by offering all manner of elegant widgets and applications to users - and best of all, engaging site owners as partners in the whole event.

It’s not just viral, social, web 2.0, or whatever other buzz words will no doubt be attached when describing it. It’s bloody genius. And utterly delightful.

Naked Anonymous

Or Untitled Anonymous, the recent anonymous art exhibition put on by Naked, featuring pieces submitted by employees from across the agency (including an exceptionally underwhelming entry from yours truly)

Conceived by the always-fabulous Kyle and Hass, it was a fantastic experiment and experience, and fantastic to see everyone from all different disciplines get involved. In their own words:

We wanted to see how well creativity would function when it has to speak for itself, stripped naked of everything but the expression – no title, no statement, no background.

So we briefed everyone who works at Naked London (the strategists, the creatives, the founding partners, even the cleaning lady) to create a piece of original art to be shown in an exclusive, one-night-only exhibition.

The twist was that every piece of art would be shown anonymously and without a title (this would all be revealed in a special online gallery the following week).

Phase two of the project has just gone live and the creators, titles, statements and inspirations have all been revealed.

You simply click on the work to discover the information.

So, just a few of the things I would have blogged, but, er, didn’t.

Normal service should now resume - back to your regularly scheduled programming…

Love it.

[ thanks to my mate Edd for pointing this out! ]

Honda’s ASIMO is one of my bestest most favouritest things EVER (although thing seems too cold for something as humanoid as ASIMO)

The technology and the sheer human touches in the creation of ASIMO never cease to amaze me, I just think it / he is incredible, and utterly and completely delightful.

So it was even more utterly and completely delightful to see this video of ASIMO conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) - including world-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma - in ‘Impossible Dream’

Now, I completely and utterly love ASIMO for being a phenomenal feat of technological engineering, with such amazing humanoid touches, but it’s also a fantastic example of Honda carving access into otherwise totally unexpected or unrelated spaces and areas, and building powerful brand associations in doing so.

This performance wasn’t just a one-off PR stunt though. Honda donated $1 million to the DSO to establish the ‘The Power of Dreams Music Education Fund’ as part of a 5-year partnership to promote and support music education for children - for whom musical education would otherwise be totally out of reach, due to lack of funding.

It’s great to see a brand idea actually being put fully into practice rather than just an ethereal strapline for an ad campaign…..and even better when it involves robots!

[via engadget]

Slightly alarming friend suggestion appeared as part of the ‘people you may know’ feature on Facebook…

Schulze & Webb (declaration of interest - Matt Webb is a mate) have launched Olinda, a social radio

Olinda is a prototype digital radio that has your social network built in, showing you the stations your friends are listening to. It’s customisable with modular hardware, and aims to provoke discussion on the future and design of radios for the home.

Social Networks in Physical Products

Six lights on Olinda show when a close friend is listening to the radio, using wifi and Radio Pop, the BBC’s website for sharing ‘now playing’ information. Each light is a button: you can tune in to listen along with them, discovering new stations via your social network.

Consumer Electronics learning from the web
On the Web, users are in charge of customising and adapting their experience … Olinda attempts to learn from this. Its hardware interface already joins the base unit with the friends module. By buying extra modules – or by making their own using the open interface – listeners can adapt their product over time, perhaps adding a remote control or recording

So bloody clever, yet so beautifully simple, and elegant. We’re increasingly seek greater integration of our offline lives with our online lives and social networks, and to be able to extend and customise our applications, services and products as we choose. So Jack & Matt have looked to embrace the online experience & marry this with a physical product.

It’s a cracking example of how everyday appliances could become fully networked, social appliances - with open APIs and modular design encouraging further modification and innovation. How long before this becomes the norm, and it’s an integral part of our standard repertoire of consumer electronics….perhaps where iPod become We-Pod?

Thanks to the lovely Bobbie, Dan & Rachel for helping to sort me out with a last-minute ticket, I was able to attend Gamecamp 2008 on saturday, which I hope will become a regular / annual occurrence.

Although the open plan nature of the venue (the pimptastic Sony 3Rooms) meant that sessions ended up spilling a bit over into one another, it was otherwise an absolutely perfect space for an unconference. And the fact that the event sponsors provided a shedload of consoles didn’t go amiss…I can confirm that Rockband totally ROCKS.

As is always the way, I couldn’t go to all the sessions I’d have liked, and inevitably some of the most valuable time was that spent hanging around chatting with people, swapping ideas and thoughts with friends old and new.

As well as learning a hell of a lot in a more general sense about the wider world of gaming (I’d not call myself an avid gamer, but would definitely express a fondness for ARGs and pervasive gaming), it was a brilliant exercise in getting to think more creatively, and ponder the application of play to communications.

Play is fantastic. Play gets us to have fun, think, and wholly engage with a given game or exercise. I’ve blogged about a couple of fantastic examples of using play/gaming to communicate a given proposition or product (Penguin’s We Tell Stories and Nine Inch Nail’s Year Zero) but the various sessions definitely reaffirmed more than ever that play can be such an effective means to communicate…..far more than simply advertising TO someone.

The simply amazing venue was another phenomenal example of branded communication - the branded space did more to communicate the Sony brand to me than any advertising ever could. The bright colours throughout the space and integration of Bravia screens throughout allowed me to experience the ‘Colour like no other’ proposition more richly than a TV ad, however stunning, could do. The sleek, modern, but playful design of the whole space let me experience the importance Sony places on aesthetics / form as well as function; allowing me to try Sony products let me ‘live the brand’ (to use a wanky marketing phrase) far better than an ad ever could.

Experience - whether it’s a branded space, event, game or whatever - is powerful; and I’d argue communicates far more richly than mere advertising ever can.

[ see my Flickr set for more photos of Gamecamp @ the Sony 3Rooms ]

Oh fuck.

Ah well, to cheer me up from the general Borisness of it all, off to Gamecamp tomorrow (well, later today really).

Although Boris will still be mayor.

Fuckbeans!

[ image courtesy of lolboris.com ]

Like many (most?) music lovers, the artwork always used to be a core part of the album experience…which has largely fallen by the wayside as I listen to music pretty much exclusively digitally - with my CDs and 12″ sitting on the shelves, or boxed up out of the way. I indulge my love of album artwork from a distance, via Sleevage and the like.

My other half was showing me the design treatments for the new album, which prompted reflection that it was a shame that the finished design would end up either unseen - or only briefly glimpsed - by many; who either download their music digitally, or then rip the CD to mp3 and shelve the CD to gather dust (like me).

Although you can search iTunes using artwork, the small compressed imagery is clearly no comparison to the richness of a 12″ sleeve (and to a lesser extent the CD case). Despite fantastic efforts by artists like Beck to innovate in their use of the physical product (offering users stickers to design their own covers, and upload their own designs for the second pressing) Wired described album artwork as a “dying art form … [which] has been dying a slow death for decades”. So it’s thrilling to see a glimmer of hope that album artwork is beginning to be redefined for the digital age.

More and more designers have been exploring more varied digital techniques to bring the album artwork to life - such as DVD-style menus and liner-note fly-throughs (as on Gnarls Barkley’s latest release). Death Cab for Cutie’s latest release on iTunes in the US includes a $3 package of a digital booklet, bonus tracks, and “making of the album” videos. Nice start, but I’d hope that digital artwork & extras would be a standard inclusion - artwork used to come as part and parcel of the physical release, not a paid-for extra.

In Japan, Warner have been trialling their Wamo service, allowing mobile phone users to access a bundle including ringtones, videos and artist interviews as well as the album tracks. Better.

However Radiohead, once again, have really attempted to embrace the digital medium, with the widget which accompanied the now-infamous In Rainbows (which also featured several pots of gold)

I say attempted, because as pointed out at Sleevelessness, it’s a bit clunky. But the spirit is there, and it’s a good first step in trying to realise the digital potential for artwork to complete the full album experience.

And a note to Discovery, realising the potential for digital artwork doesn’t mean insane animated gifs.

[ via PSFK ]