CrapHammer

web 2.0 enabled brands

Web 2.0 is such a tricky beast to define.  I'm asked quite a bit.  Now more than ever.

Up here in Canada, most people in traditional marketing circles are shocked when I say Web 2.0 is already on its way out.  They are still trying to come to terms with what web2.0 was.  And I can't blame them for being upset or lost as we were never able to define it properly even in its heyday. 

Many people have debated and discussed Web 2.0 as a definition.  Wikipedia gives credit to Tim O'Reilly as defining "Web 2.0 [as] the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."  But this definition is very general to the point of being incomprehensible.

I've tended to build my discussions on Web 2.0 around the concept of sharing data and services across websites.  But this fails to address a number of other views:  Ajax, GUI elements, new color palettes, social media, changing consumer behavior and more.

I'm coming to believe that Web 2.0 is more about a time.  It's a piece of an era in our culture.  And with that culture comes our new relationship with technology, a shift in beliefs, and a resulting shift in design.  This helps to explain the inability to define Web 2.0 and also the unclear and hazy edges that defy an exact dating of its influence.

Design is changing, as with any era or culture.  We can see it in the changing color palettes, the look and feel of websites, a shift to a social community focus ,and even fashion.

And now there's even a collection of logos that are web 2.0 ready/enabled.  I love it.  It speaks to this idea that this is indeed a shift in our culture that leading brands are working to meet and maintain relevance with.

Of course, we could argue that its going to take more than a logo change, but I'll save my cynicism for a later post.

Here is the image on the left.  You can click to view a larger version.

Or you can also check out the the original from gtmcknight

Who is your facebook stalker?

Who is your facebook stalker?

I'm back once again.  Too many posts to post.  Many updates to come.

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CMA my WOM

I was given a free ticket to the CMA Word of Mouth conference today.  Thanks to the Moffitt'ster who is now going to kill me for my rant below.

My CMA Word of Mouth Rant

What gives when a word of mouth conference does not make wireless access ubiquitous and simple?  It's not like every speaker isn't talking about the power of the network to support or even drive word of mouth activity.  And it's not like we wouldn't want little sean to be able to spread the word while on-site.  So why no mention in the literature on how to get on-line???

I have to give some slack as we are talking about the CMA here.  But it's time to wake up!

On the positive side, I got to meet a few neat people as I wandered around hunting down the trail towards the secret WAP password.  In the end, I scored.  The access was pretty bad but it was there.  Okay.  On with the cool findings.

Word of Mouth in Canada

Some really interesting stuff is actually happening up here in Canada.  Who knew??

Nike

• Spoke about the global football (soccer) campaign
• Strong Nike point of view
• Engage your audience
• Involve your audience
• Respect your audience
• There will always be those who don't agree or find fault.  If you are not being authentic and involving your audience, then you deserve to be called out.

	Chevrolet (McLaren McCann) This one surprised me - letsgochevrolet.ca Integrated campaign Online:  create an avatar and use Text to speech technology to tell your story Avatars are amazingly configurable Results (in the first six weeks) 80,000 unique visitors 35,000+ avatars created Average time spent on website:  5minutes 46seconds 5% of chevrolet site activity attributed to viral area
	Monster.ca www.evalu8me.ca Brilliant.  Evaluate your style and value as an employee. Invite your friends.co-workers to evaluate you with anonymity. Limited seeding.  No compensation.  Continuing growth. Amazing tracking and data collection.

Noteworthy:

• Ogilvy and Dove not tracking anything, basically  (most of the Evolution success story was conjecture or quotes from third parties with no access to data.)
• Demographics and psychographics are dead.  Have to go deeper.  Interests.  Passions.  Etc.
• Most lift off viral is fractional.  Epidemic lift is extremely rare.

Image Credit:  NaOH

Unions don't sit around with a finger up their ass

I miss the early 80's.  ;)

Enjoy.  Strong language.  Union PSA parody.

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Take away the porn!

I've been tagged.  Net Neutrality in Canada is an issue.  One that has been quiet for too long.

Mark asks... "[W]hat about the thousands of bloggers who benefit from the free, open and un-throttled internet we’ve become accustomed to?"

Here is a news piece on it.

And here is my old post from our friend the Ninja.

But I think we are taking the wrong tact here.  Someone just has to launch a scare campaign that the big bad internet providers are going to take away our PORN and I'm sure we will get the public outcry we are all looking for.  ;)

Peer to Peer Television

Joost rocks and I've taken WAY too long to post about it.

The idea is to legitimize Peer to Peer.  The way Skype did to free peer-to-peer phone services.  And it's by the same two dudes.  The content is legitimate in that it is from a central source as opposed to user generated or stolen content like on YouTube or other peer to peer services.  I watched the funniest music video yesterday by Basement Jaxx titled "Oh My Gosh."

The question is, if Rogers and Bell can limit the sites on their networks (see net neutrality, above) then what is to stop them from blocking the ports required by Joost?

TheGoodBlogs

I love TheGoodBlogs.  Vernon has done an amazing job.  You may have noticed a little widget on the right side of my blog.  Okay.  I have a lot of widgets.  Here it is to the left.

TheGoodBlogs take my stories and shares them on all the other blogs in my group (Marketing) that have deployed the TGB widget.  In turn, I showcase the stories from other bloggers on my blog.

You may have notice that one of the items in the widget has an orange dot next to it.  This is because I have launched my own personalized "channel".  And I've put the blogs I read a lot in this slot.  So I'm even able to control who I syndicate.  Brilliant.

Tags: netneutrality, canada, swarm-it, TGB, thegoodblogs, joost, p2p

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Private worlds

I recently got back from watching an early release of the movie "Radiant City".  I've  been haunted by its daring approach and the in-your-face quotes from some absolutely amazing urban design personalities.

One quote struck me as particularly relevant to this area of social media.  I am taking this from memory, so please excuse any errors.  The urban design expert I am attempting to quote was speaking of the shift in North American society towards suburbanism.

"People get in their car from inside their garage, drive 2 hours, enter into the garage at work, go up the mechanical elevator and go into their cubicle potentially without ever interacting with another human being.

The front of the houses are a large garage door and a small doorway. The houses are private to the outside world. They are oriented to face the backyard. The world is re-introduced by piping in cable, satellite, internet, etc.

We are creating private worlds. Disconnecting people from each other, and as a result from community."

Which might help to explain one factor in this explosion of social media tools - a feeling of disconnection.  So we turn to platforms that provide us with new ways to collaborate and potentially connect back with society, and as a result, our humanity.  But without having to change our lifestyle.

In discussions with associates and friends, I've come to contemplate three major forces shaping our social space online and offline.

1. Sense of disconnection to real-world community
   • Psychologist James Hillman wonders who is in the net flat. "I don't know who they are, but, boy, I'm on the phone, car phone, toilet phone, plane phone, my mistress is in Chicago, the other woman I am with is in D.C., my ex-wife is in Phoenix, my mother is in Hawaii, and I have four children living all over the country.  I have faxes coming in day and night, I can plug into all the world's stock prices, commodity exchanges, I am everyone, man - but I don't know who's in 14-B."
2. Fragmenting focus/time
   • Media is fragmenting.  Our time is being divided.  Technology gives us the "ability" to spend minutes on one thing, jump to a chat with an old friend across the globe, read a story, pop over to an email alert, all while "watching" a TV show we just finished downloading.  We yearn for ways to better connect in our available time with those around us.
3. Self Determination
   • Control over our own lives/self.  We are coming to desire, if not demand it.

The third point requires a bit of explanation.  For that I turn to Justin and his podcast interview with Alan Moore which offers a very insightful look into our connection to communities by pinpointing a linked desire to control and determine our identity.

"Human beings are highly social animals and have an innate need to connect, communicate and interact.   [...]  We've always had community. In pre-industrialization we were tied to our communities by geography and tradition [...] And external forces shaped our identity. However, in a post-modern world we have many selves. As you undertake a quest for self-identity, this is described as psychological self-determination.  The ability to exert control over the most important aspects of ones life, especially personal identity."

"This means that these people want to have a direct influence over the things that means the most to them. They want to have participation over the things that mean the most to them.  And so therefore, engagement marketing needs to understand these very important principles."

If you haven't checked out his podcast interviews, I recommend you do so.

We have a world in which more and more of us are left "disconnected" combined with this era in which it is up to each of us to determine our identity.  I recall a much earlier article in which I referenced Danah Boyd's work showing youth using social media tools to play with and even create their identities. 

Now I wonder to what extent all of us "adults" are doing the exact same thing.

Tags: engagement marketing, alan moore, social media trends

¹ Found this quote is the rather bizarre but tantalizing music book by David Toop, "Ocean of Sound", pgs 108-109

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Video fame may have to wait

Paul, Gavin and myself got together last night to pull together our first video blog show.  A 3 way extravaganza of wit, insight and new topics of exploration.

The agenda was loose, but did exist.  It began with Kathy Sierra and would work its way through to collaboration, innovation and likely swear words in advertising.

But the technology at play had a few words to add to the mix.

For those of you with 2 minutes and 10 seconds that you wish you no longer had, the embedded result of our experiment is below.