Internet Marketing Blog

Technology Use & Media Consumption Presentation

I've been doing a lot of presentations lately; here's the most recent. I believe that in order to most efficiently and effectively communicate online, we need to first understand the context within which we are trying to communicate. The success of communicating online depends in a large degree to the extent to which we understand the technology and devices people use to consume media, be it a newspaper or a phone or an Xbox 360 console or an iPod, and how people use those technologies.

Another important aspect to online communication is trying to anticipate trends in order to get ahead of innovation, which can profoundly change the online environment practically overnight.  Our ability to anticipate such changes depends to a large degree on our understanding of history and historical forces. Thus, my presentation begins with an overview of the history of communication:

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Congressional Hearing On/In Second Life

I missed this but better late than never. Jon Stewart lampoons Congress and Second Life on The Daily Show and, as usual, they nail it:

Medicate Me!

Jon Gordon interviewed psychiatrist Jerald Block on his Future Tense program this morning. Block wants to define compulsive computer use as a mental disorder. Some of the symptoms he cites are:

• Seeking psychiatric help
• Excessive - 25-30 a week for entertainment purposes
• Mood symptoms when not able to access computer
• Needing more expensive equipment and/or software on a frequent basis

Three out of four makes me a likely candidate for diagnoses. Though I haven't sought psychiatric help for my computer use, I do spend at least 30 hours a week using my computer.  Granted, most of my computer use is for work, not strictly entertainment, as Block qualified, but my work is extremely entertaining to me, so....? I do get cranky when I don't have access. Check. And I do love new technology and want better better better better. Check.

Still. A mental disorder? C'mon.

Don't get me wrong, mental illnesses are real and real serious but this just sounds like a way for one guy to make a career for himself. It's a sexy, media-friendly topic for which, I'm sure, a large percentage of the public qualifies.

Though I'm extremely skeptical of Block's idea, I have no doubt that extended computer use changes how your brain works. It's pretty well established that the brain can rewire itself, as it were, in response to some obstacle.

So why wouldn't the brain change the way it works based on how it is used?

In high school I was into music big time, played in bands, and was always writing lyrics and thinking about music. I could rhyme on a dime; much like the free-form hip-hop artists do today. My brain thought in rhymes.

Since I began working almost exclusively online, I swear my ability to recall facts and statistics has been shattered. I am so very bad at retaining that type of knowledge because I can always look it up online if I need it. My brain doesn't need to store those things anymore.

But when I was a kid, I had a near photographic memory because I could recite statistics and facts from the back of the baseball cards I collected. I spent a lot of time reading and looking at them.

But mental illness?

Minnesota Council Of Nonprofits Technology & Communications Conference

I've been presenting at the Minnesota Council Of Nonprofits' annual technology and communications conference for the past two years and I will again this year. This year the conference takes place in Minneapolis on Thursday.

It is an all day event and a big production; I've always been impressed with the scope and quality of the conferences. This year, the conference is called Message+Medium+Message and it is largely devoted to social media. There is clearly a demand for information on the topic because the Council had a record number of registrants this year and the event sold out.

The conferences are so good because the Council consistently gets such talented people to participate. Perusing the list of presenters this year, I'm struck by the quality of the people who will speak. Within the social media and Internet technology sphere, here are some of the people who will share their knowledge and expertise:

Aaron Landry will be talking about Web 2.0 basics. Aaron is a prolific blogger. If you pay any attention to the Minnesota blogosphere, you can't help but run across his content. It's clear, too, that he's immersed in social media, from his blog to Twitter to Flickr, he's integrated online communication into his daily life.

Beth Kanter will talk about Nonprofits in the Age of Social Media and she'll conduct a social media game. I've been following Beth's Blog about social media and nonprofits for some time now and I'm continually impressed with her ideas there. She's also a great resource for discovering new and useful social media sites.

The citizen journalism site Twin Cities Daily Planet is represented by long-time Strib veteran Jeremy Iggers and editor Mary Turk. They'll talk about Media Relations in the Age of New Media.

Peter Fleck's wonderfully titled session, Why I Hate Facebook, will address how nonprofits can use social networking sites and, of course, why he hates Facebook. Peter blogs at his PF HYPER Blog. Peter will also talk about perhaps the most important technology of all for social media, RSS, the glue that holds the social net all together.

There are ton more talented people presenting: Check out the sessions and bios pages.

This year I'll be presenting with my Tunheim Partners colleague, Pat Lilja. Our session is called Conversational Marketing: New Media Communication Strategy. Pat and I will discuss how to engage in the conversations taking place on the popular social media sites.

If you're attending the conference, track me down and say hi. If you can't make it, I'll probably Tweet from there, so you can follow my Twitter account, if you like. I'll also be putting resources from our session online and I'll let you know when it's live.

Arthur C. Clarke & The Importance Of Visionaries

The passing of Arthur C. Clarke last week got me to thinking about the importance of paying attention to the visionaries of the world, to those people who think about about the future and try to look beyond the horizon.

Clarke obviously fit the definition of a visionary. He is widely credited with proposing the idea of satellite communications in 1945. The themes of evolution and artificial intelligence that he explored in such stories as Childhood's End and 2001: A Space Odyssey are well worth keeping in mind as our technology becomes ever more powerful and sophisticated.

While I think we should pay special attention to visionary thinkers society-wide, they are particularly important to those of us in the fields of communications because they can get us thinking about where technology may be headed and therefore, how people will use technology.

iPods and DVRs, for example, have fundamentally altered the way in which people receive information by making messages portable and delayable.

I've been planning on writing about books that I think are important to Internet marketing folks, so let me mention a few writers I'd suggest to help think about the future:

• The books of Alvin & Heidi Toffler, especially Future Shock, Powershift, and The Third Wave
• Generations and The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe
• The stories of Phillip K. Dick
• The novels of William Gibson

Are there others you think are important? Add yours to the list in the comments.

Flexible, Wearable, Adaptable Computing

The Nokia Research Center and the Cambridge Nanoscience Center have been collaborating on a ubiquitous computing concept called Morph. The most fascinating thing about the concept is that the nanotechnology could allow for flexible material that can become rigid on demand.

Fool Proof Voting - The Elegant High/Low Tech Solution

NPR's Morning Edition reports today about the continuing debate over whether to use electronic or paper ballots for our nation's elections.

For all my enthusiasm for technology, I have never been an advocate of electronic voting systems and the reason is simple: digital information is fungible, editable, deleteable. Digital information is entirely too easy to alter.

Adopting a voting system that does not include permanent, paper records, is an invitation to abuse.

Democracy is too important to trust machines to handle. But it is not just the very real dangers of hacking democracy with which we must concern ourselves, but the mere perception of manipulation itself. Beginning with the voting fiasco of Bush vs. Gore in 2000, and continuing to this day, a sizable percentage of our citizenry believes that elections have been stolen.

Throw in the questions about the partisanship of Diebold's leader and the fact that there is a lot of money to be made by adopting electronic voting systems, and you've got a toxic brew that helps foster the idea that elections are rigged.

The faith in the integrity of our electoral process is a fundamental ingredient to the health of our democracy.

Thankfully, there is a remarkably elegant and seemingly foolproof system that would address all off the above with a combination of Web technology and paper ballots.

The New York Times published a story about an idea promoted by MIT professor Ronald L. Rivest and mathematician Warren D. Smith that harnesses crowdsourcing to ensure the integrity of our elections. The New York Times article describes the system:

Their basic idea is to allow each voter to take home a photocopy of a randomly selected ballot cast by someone else.

The scheme is low-tech. Paper ballots would be tallied by optical scanners or even by hand. The results would be then posted on a Web site. Using a serial number assigned to each ballot, voters could check the site to make sure that their random ballots were posted and had not been altered or misread.

To discourage vote buying, voters would not receive copies of their own ballots. My receipt would be someone else’s ballot, so I would have no way of proving to a bribe-wielding politician whom I voted for. (There are no voter names on secret ballots, of course, so the random receipts would not compromise the privacy of the voting booth.)

I dunno; I don't see any security holes in their system. It's ingenious. Yet, apart from the Times article, whenever these electronic voting stories appear, Rivest & Smith's system is ignored.

Interruption Advertising

ABC announced this week they would offer select television shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives for free through cable television on-demand services with the caveat that viewers will not be able to skip through commercials.

I understand television is struggling to retain advertising dollars that are quickly slipping through their fingers to more effective media, but this isn't the way to do it.

People are increasingly becoming accustomed to either on-demand advertising and marketing or product placement. The more you interrupt them with advertising that is probably not relevant to their needs, the more you annoy them by wasting their time.

People will probably watch ABC's on-demand offerings, but they will no doubt do what they've always done, ignore the commercials by getting up and doing other stuff while they run. A significant percentage of cable viewers will simply DVR their favorite shows rather than use on-demand service for the very reason that they then can skip over the commercials.

The solution to hemorrhaging ad dollars is not more interruptions, but smarter ads through product placement and eventually, if the technology permits, some form of interactive TV, where, if you're interested, you can click on a product within a show for more information.

I don't know that I have the right answer but I do know that traditional television advertising is broken and the networks and cable channels need to figure it out or more and more entertainment will be produced by the advertisers themselves.

And perhaps that's inevitable.

How Search Engines Work Video

Though this is a 2005 UC Berkley lecture by Dr. Marti Hearst, most of the lecture is entirely relevant and up-to-date today because search technology has not fundamentally changed since then. The lecture is entitled Search Engines: Technology, Society, and Business:

MacBook Air - Ultra-Cool Technology, Flawed Premise

Let me start by saying that I've never owned an Apple computer and I've never been an Apple guy but since the iPod, I've certainly been willing to consider becoming an Apple fanboy. I'm more also likely than most to champion a cool new computer, because I'm fascinated with technology.

So, fresh off the Macworld Expo, I gotta say I've blown away by the insanely thin MacBook Air. I mean, look at the thing!

What first-adopter worth the name could not lust after such a product?

Still, the premise behind the product is that people will want two computers. I don't buy it and wouldn't buy it for that very reason. As Computerworld's Scott Finnie points out:

From the specs, Apple's design decision was to target its new subnotebook at existing Mac users as a second computer for the road. But that's not what people want. They want one computer that can do all things. It's not what enterprises want, they want to buy only one computer per employee. And it's certainly not what home users want. Without the ability to easily expand when you're back at the ranch, the MacBook Air is an amazing prototype without a real market.

  macbook air 
  Originally uploaded by wingfish

But I would definitely use it if we had that Gdrive that I've been ranting about so I could use the MacBook Air as my computer processor, the technology with which I perform all my work, but access my data from a remote hard drive through broadband streaming. In that scenario, the lightweight sub-notebook that flash drives make possible would be ideal for me because I practically carry my computer wherever I go.

I don't think we're that far away from my ideal but there are still obstacles. Though, as Julio Ojeda-Zapata points out, Apple is pushing wireless access hard with this product but the reliability of Wi-Fi connections has thus far hardly been rock solid. He says, "I predict some problems since I have not found any Wi-Fi hookup to be as rock-solid reliable as Ethernet. I've lost count of the times I've plugged in at the office when a wireless connection went flaky."

But I'm perfectly willing and eager to make the jump when the stars align.

Macworld Expo From A Journalist's Point Of View

Pioneer Press technology columnist Julio Ojeda-Zapata has been all over the Macworld Expo and it's been fascinating to watch him microblog on Twitter, and in addition to his tech column for the PiPress, to post to his own Your Tech Weblog and upload video of the expo to YouTube. The video gives you a great sense of what it's like to be there:

Another eBook - Will Kindle Succeed Where Others Have Failed

Okay, I'm skeptical. Why does Amazon.com think they can succeed where so many have failed? I admit, the Kindle's screen looks much more readable than other eBooks I've seen and the addition of WiFi makes it much more usable, especially if you can use it to read newspapers and blogs.

But $399 for it? Especially since it's really just a tool for Amazon.com to sell more books. That's a steep price for an eBook when I could buy and iPhone in that range. And as enthusiastic as I am about technology, maybe books are one of those technologies upon which you cannot improve. Will the thing be comfortable to use when I'm positioned at an odd angle; draped over an easy, for example?

I'd buy it for $39 maybe, but not $399. Here's Amazon's promo video:

TypePad's Updated Handheld Publishing Application

It's been a while since I've posted anything from my handheld using TypePad's mobile app because the last time I tried, everything was messed up, so I just didn't bother.

But I just downloaded and installed the latest version, so it's time to try it out again.

I'm posting from my T-Mobile MDA, otherwise known as the HTC Wizard--really, why couldn't someone come up with a decent name for this thing?!?

The phone is running Windows Mobile Pocket PC and I've got that slide-out thumbboard, so it's pretty easy to type.

The TypePad app gives you just enough functionality to do a quick and dirty post without any frills.

You cannot, for example, assign multiple categories to your post. There is no rich text editor, so there is no quick formatting but I suppose you could wrap such HTML tags as bold and italic around yor text I can't because my keyboard has no angle bracket characters

There is also no option for applying a meta description or keywords or Technorati tags to a post.

One really nice feature, though, is the ability to browse the photos on your phone and include one in your post. This is an exciting photo of my desk at work.

That makes it a perfect app for mobile photo blogging.

Even so, though, I like to keep my photos in my Flickr accout, so it'd be nice to have some integration there.

If this post works, I just may start moblogging more!

UPDATED 11/17/07: Because I'm particular about these kinds of things, I prettyfied this post with the links and keywords TypePad Mobile doesn't allow me to include.

Are You Ready For Internet-Ready TV?

Is RSS TV Coming To A Home Theater Near You?

Joining Microsoft Media Center, Apple TV, and the Wii Browser are an increasing number of products designed to get Internet content to your television. Sony's Bravia HDTV Internet Link TV came out this year:

And HP has their Media Smart TV. The problem with both Sony and HP's approach is that they appear to be taking a "walled garden" approach by using only select content partners or maybe simply burying direct Internet subscription options.

Chumby Hero
Originally uploaded
by drumsnwhistles

On the PSP, for example, you can subscribe directly to RSS feeds and Sony's new Internet-ready TV uses the same Cross Bar interface, but I couldn't determine if the RSS reader is available on their TV. Nevertheless, it's clear that Sony sees the technology as an additional channel for Sony content. That, of course, is only natural but I think consumer's are going to demand the choice to subscribe to their own content channels.

All of this, though, points to what I've been talking about for some time: The Internet will come to television, one way or another.  And it will come through the magic of RSS. There is even a specialized RSS language being developed for Internet TV, called RSS TV.

Ideally, this would allow you to subscribe to any RSS feed you like, so for example, I could subscribe to a video blog like MNStories on my TV or to any YouTube search.

One intriguing device that may point to the future of Internet television is the Chumby. The Chumby is a $200 open source wifi gadget that basically lets you subscribe any Internet content you like. Content providers can create widgets to which Chumby users can subscribe. The Chumby is small, appliance-like device that could easily be at home in the kitchen or living room alongside the coffee machine or on the coffee table.

Chumby Demonstrations

Chumby's Stephen Tomlin talks about the device:

Chumby introduction video:

Chumby playing YouTube videos:

So you can see where this is going. As the Talking Heads might say, same as it ever was; if you provide compelling content, you should be fine. It's a matter of finding out what your target audiences want and giving it to them.   

• New York Times Tech Talk podcast on Internet TV

Android, The iPhone Killer

Google's Open Source Cell Phone Platform Trumps iPhone

Google's making quite a bit of noise.

First, the OpenSocial alliance and now this, the Open Handset Alliance. While not exactly a gPhone, Andriod is Google's open source platform for mobile devices.

Android includes all the software needed to run a smart phone and because it's open source and free, it is poised to seriously undercut both the iPhone and Windows Mobile. Since the software will be free, it will help to drop the price of cell phones and because the platform is open source, it promises to have far greater utility because developers world wide will be able to create applications for the device that will serve any need they imagine.

Lower prices and infinite features? Is it any choice?

Compare that to Apple's and Microsoft's proprietary mobile operating systems and it makes little sense to to use them. (Here's a good contrary view.)

While this announcement has no immediate impact, it will eventually help spur the adoption of broadband, mobile computing. By tapping into the world wide open source development community, the platform will no doubt enjoy remarkable applications and innovations.

Mobile marketing just got a whole lot more interesting.

Android Videos

These are two Google-created videos about Android:

If I Had A Magic Phone

Introducing Android

See Also

• Mobile marketing
• Communism 2.0
• Open Source Manual Writers

What's Up With OpenSocial?

In the short term, Google's OpenSocial effort to codify a standard API for tapping into social networks probably doesn't effectively mean much. But with support from MySpace and LinkedIn and Bebo , among others, the effort could be very significant. It leaves Facebook as the odd man out, with it's proprietary FaceBook Markup Language.

The OpenSocial standard would allow developers to write their code once to be used on all networks that support the API, rather than having to write special code for individual networks. If OpenSocial takes off, and I think it probably will, it will help to add a great deal of value to social networks and spur innovation.

From a marketing point of view, this can only be good because it makes widget marketing a hell of a lot easier.

Robert Scobel interviewed Marc Canter today, whose company makes social networks:

• Google's OpenSocial API Blog

Why Traditional Advertising Is Broken

So I'm watching the Vikings game last Sunday and, for a change, I'm watching it live rather than as I usually do, a half hour after kickoff so I can fast forward through the commercials using my DVR. As a result, of course, I was forced to endure the commercials.

I'm forced to watch ridiculous commercials demonstrating a certain super duty pickup truck's ability to tow a cargo plane. Let me ask you, how often do you find a need to tow a cargo plane?

I get more and more annoyed as the game goes on and I have to watch this carpet bombing of stupid commercials that are absolutely irrelevant to yours truly.

The whole time I'm thinking this whole process is a colossal waste of money and effort. Both myself and the advertiser are losing in this attempt at communication; my time is going to just as must waste as the advertiser's money. I'm not their target market and I never will be and the advertiser is paying millions of dollars for a two to five percent return.

And, you must know, this is coming from someone who really likes advertising; good advertising, anyway.

Someone forgot to tell television advertisers that we live in an on-demand, self-selected world. I want ads on my own terms and now I have the tools to enforce that desire.

This video I found at Marketing Pilgrim nicely demonstrates the problem with traditional advertising. It was produced by Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions:

Web 2.0 Summit Video

These are a few videos (courtesy of Blip TV) from the recently concluded Web 2.0 summit that "brings the intelligence, innovation, and leadership of the Internet industry together in one place at one time. The Summit is known for its interactive format, stressing audience interaction and participation.". The videos feature an opening welcome by Tim O'Reilly & John Battelle, High Order Bit with Mary Meeke, and a conversation with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

Augmented Reality Marketing

Remember the scene from Minority Report where Chief John Anderton walks through a shopping mall and personalized advertisements jump out at him from each store? That's Steven Spielberg's vision of augmented reality:

Spielberg's portrayal of the future of advertising probably isn't that far off the mark, except I'd think there would be far less clutter and the marketing would be less in your face and more targeted and useful and on demand.

Rather than basically having customized TV ads pop out at you wherever you go, think of augmented reality marketing as essentially a transparent overlay addition to your vision from which you can "click" for more information on a given thing in your environment.

Say you're walking through a shopping mall just like John Anderton but instead of getting unsolicited ads popping up at you, you get the equivalent of a hyperlink anchored to the store you are currently seeing. If you select that link, you can get the essential information about the store just as you currently can from Google Maps. You could save that information for later reference. You could view promotional content from the store itself. You read user-submitted reviews of the store. Or you could compare their prices and/or promotions with another store you've already saved.

Or maybe you're walking down 7th Street in Minneapolis passing the famous nightclub First Avenue and you want to see who will be playing there this week. Select the  events calendar that is augmented onto the building and you can see the bands playing this week and listen to a few of their songs or simply order tickets for a show.

About 38 seconds into this video, there's an example of how such an augmented reality might look:

This photo is an imagining of what directions might look like in augmented reality:

Augmented Reality Directions
Originally uploaded by kokogiak

This Flickr user has created a nice mashup of how augmented reality might look as a reputation system.

Augmented reality mobile phone concept
Originally uploaded by Leonard Low

The technology for such a future already exists. There are plenty of people working on wearable computing products, including data glove input devices. Broadband wireless access is growing in major metropolitan areas. The success of the iPhone points the way to the consolidation of Internet-connected communication devices. GPS-enabled cell phone adoption is growing. Camera technology gets smaller and sharper by the minute, it seems. Lightweight, flexible video screens exist. Geographic business data already exists at Internet yellow pages and Yahoo! Local and Google Local.

All of the required technology exists to make this sci-fi vision a reality, it's just a matter of pulling it all together and miniaturizing it to the point  that it's practical for everyday use.

Robotics - The New Internet Marketing Platform?

To date, serious, practical robotics have been the domain of industry and the military:

Ultra-cool stuff but it doesn't do much for me professionally, unless my target market is infantrymen or reconnaissance units.

And until recently, consumer robots have been mainly clever, cute, and expensive toys:

Now companies like iRobot Corporation are selling affordable, practical domestic robots to the consumer market. iRobot sells products that sweep, vacuum,  or wash your floor; they sell robots that clean your pool or gutter.

But it is their new product that has piqued my interest beyond my normal fascination with robots. For less than $500, consumers will be able to buy the iRobot ConnectR, a virtual presence bot that essentially attaches a two-way video to a mobile robot and slaps on a broadband wireless connection so you can visit virtually:

If such products take off, and I'm confident they will because think the ability to use robotics for social purposes has great consumer appeal, then consumer robotics deserves scrutiny as an online marketing platform.

The larger social question is whether such products, by taking over our annoying daily chores, will produce our long-awaited domestic utopia or the sci-fi dystopia we all know and love:

Or perhaps our humanoid companions will simply prove insufferable:

Google Docs Explained In (Ripped Off) Plain English

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Google must really like Common Craft's Lee LeFever  because they've totally ripped off his "In Plain English" gig.

I've posted LeFever's wonderful explanatory videos before and I will again, but I came across this derivative video produced by Google that explains Google Docs, which recently added presentations to the office suite of online word processor and spreadsheets that the service offers.

NOTE: I was wrong! Read the comments below and this correction post that explains that Google hired Common Craft to produce this video:

See also:

• Social Networking Explained In Plain English
• What Are Wikis?
• What Is RSS?
• Communications 2.0 - Marketing With Google Docs