TMW Ideas

I just received a link to this on the daily newsnight email I receive. I couldn't decide whether to go home and watch this or go to the Hog Roast. Luckily I could click on the link and watch it online, therefore I achieved both!

It's a bit long to watch but it's really worth it. It is interesting when you see the Balendjik channel article as I think they are commenting on the role of the internet in the loss of commmunities in the UK. This group specifically are shown producing a short film on how to live better with people of different nationalities. As the channel is viewed by local people only their programme can directly educate and hopefully influence local people, thus restoring a sense of community.

I think it sounds really interesting and it would be good to try to keep an eye on the study to see if Paul Mason is correct in his view that this will be successful in Belgium but possibly not elsewhere.

Posted by Laura Ball at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Slashdot have a link to an excellent photo essay on recycling used computers in China.

It's fairly low on facts but the contrast between the relative richness in metals of the waste (e-waste is 17 times richer in gold than gold ore) and the absolute poverty of the people doing the work (average salary USD 2-4 per day) is astonishing. Most worrying are the environmental impact of the extraction process by-products and the health of the workers. Given the peak in demand (and price) of most metals markets over the last few years you might anticipate that this industry would have matured into something a bit more high tech than someone cooking a circuit board on a hot plate and collecting the runoff for resale.

Posted by at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This article from the Guardian heralds the launch of Joost.

If you haven't heard about Joost yet, read the article or watch the little film above, but essentially it's an online, on demand TV service from the folk who brought us Skype. It airs shows from several US broadcasting networks such as CBS and Viacom, funded by in programme advertising (just like normal commercial TV). It also features other stuff like communities and audio chat so you can talk about what an anticlimax the last episode of the OC was with someone who actually lives in the OC.

Two things make this interesting to me.
Firstly, the US broadcasting networks seem to be looking for new ways to make money from their expensively produced content. Are they feeling the pressure of a downturn in traditional TV ad sales as advertisers look for more measurable and accountable media. Or is it that offerings like Joost make their viewers watch the ads - a reverse in the trend of skipping ads made possible by services such as Sky +.

The second thing I found interesting, was that when I visited the Joost site, I discovered that they had invited a bunch of bloggers to help test the service prior to launch, and actively encouraged them to write about the service, even giving them pretty screen shots and badges to declare themselves official Joost beta testers. They have also given bloggers the power to invite their readers to become testers themselves.

It all fits together very nicely, utilising the influence of trusted bloggers to spread the Joost word in a transparent way amongst the early adopters that this service will no doubt appeal to most.
Very clever stuff.

Posted by at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Channel 4 are making much of their 4od offering. Having (finally) got my livebox and laptop up and running (cheers Orange) I downloaded it last night.

First impressions? Well, it is very pretty. It is also a bit of a git to use. First, I had issues downloading it, due to getting an error message with my flash player. That, in itself, wasn't too annoying - these things are to be expected, and they do make it very clear that it is in beta. What was annoying was that I had to do a little digging (basically playing “guess the search phrase”) to find this answer -

“We have had many reports of this problem occurring, and after careful research it has become apparent the problem lies with Adobe’s Flash software.”

Well, if you have had many reports, maybe make the answer easier to find? Hmm?

Anyway, that aside, I found the interface itself very slow, but the download surprisingly quick - I downloaded Derren Brown in under five minutes. Some people have reported trouble with downloads, but not me…
(I haven't watched it yet, as I got distracted by Total Recall, but I'll update you on the viewing experience.)

There is a lot of critiscism about the DRM (digital rights management) software embedded in it on the blogosphere, as well as a few other issues.

- it uses peer to peer technology to share the downloads - a clever way of oursourcing bandwidth
- it isn't really that cheap
- it isn't really a step forward from what you may have already.

These comments aside, I think the profile and content thay have will make it fairly popular, and if the initial glitches are smoothed out (which I'm sure they will) it's remarkably user-friendly. A friend of mine reports that his girlfriend has taken to downloading shows and watching them in the garden or whatever, so it may be passing the consumer test, if failing the geek test.

Anyway, another ex-tmwist, Marray Gordon, was kind enough to send me an invite for Joost (here for some background) so I'll let you know how that goes.

Posted by at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This advert is from the early 1980s

In today's money that value according to Measuring Worth could be:
$5,914.95 using the Consumer Price Index
$5,205.15 using the GDP deflator
$7,154.63 using the value of consumer bundle
$5,898.05 using the unskilled wage
$8,552.13 using the nominal GDP per capita
$11,140.79 using the relative share of GDP

whilst in the present it is almost impossible to buy anything less than a 1Gigabyte memory stick which costs under GBP 10, has 62 times more storage capacity and fits on a key ring.

The only place to find 16Megabytes is now on ebay and comes in at USD 0.95.

Posted by at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Not me personally, you understand. Some of my best friends are macs. But this article in The Guardian made me laugh. (Particularly in view of Iain's Flickr group..)

Also very funny is the media placement around it - Banner, MPU, the whole nine yards. Lovely buying!

Charlie Brooker has been spewing vitriol for years now - if you haven't ever seen TV Go Home, have a look….

Posted by at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Outlook 2007 and HTML emails

I reluctantly put this post in the category of Technological innovation. However, it looks like every inch of a backward step.
It's an examination of the proposed method that Outlook 2007 from Microsoft will use to render HTML email.

Posted by at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight Home | Monday 8 January
There are times when I get thoroughly dis-heartened with all the trappings of this modern society and just want to go and live in one of those experimental communities where the participants live like neolithic humans. I'm sure that I'm not alone in this feeling and this time of year is probably a high water point for it. However, one of the things that I never get pi55ed off with is my mobile phone. I'm firmly of the belief that the phone is my servant and not my master and regularly choose not to answer a call much to the surprise of the people around me. And so to the point of this post. The BBC's Newsnight are running a series of items under the banner 'Geek Week' and last night's instalment (the first) was a fascinating and thoroughly uplifting analysis of the impact of mobile telephony on Kenyan society. Not only has the technology allowed Kenya to skip a costly infrastructure upgrade (have you seen the cost of copper these days?) which would probably never have happened anyway but it enabled a number of services that just don't exist in UK like P2P cash transfers.
Check it out on the BBC media player.
Recommended

Posted by at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For a long time people have been trying to crack effective promotion redemption using mobile coupons. Well, Mobile Marketing Magazine reports that finally someone's sussed the tech that allows Chip and Pin systems to recognise unique promtional reference codes. The possibilities for this seem endless, particularly when linked in with Hypertags… Get your thinking caps on people!

Posted by at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The greatest rock mag in the world breaks new ground with a mobile phone application for barcode reading.Robert Price - Kerrang Magazine Now Using Mobile Barcodes.
This is a tremendous piece of technology usage. The possibiliites are endless really.

Posted by at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yet another cracking idea from The Google. (Yep, I just love George W. so much I'm talking like him).

This is a great idea - you can create your own customised search using this tool from Google. Basically you select the sites you want the search tool to concentrate on and users can then use your 'expertise' to find what they are looking for. The potential usage of this is, to use an overused phase, only limited by your imagination but it strikes me as an excellent way for brands to add a little more value for their site users, so long as the tool is well managed and regularly updated. Some clients may have an issue with the search leading users away from their site but I feel that so long as the search results are pertinent and useful this can only be a good thing - i.e. the more a brand can facilitate users achieving their goals online, the stronger the user's affiliation with that brand.

Posted by at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Vaguely live map of trains in the United Kingdom

Switch the station to “London Paddington” and the train speed to “move trains 10x normal speed” and woooo…

While you're at it, enjoy a satelite picture of the area you're interested in…

via geekdinner

Posted by at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A user interface is always a tricky thing and can be one of the fundimental make or break elements of any site build, microsite build, online widget etc.

Whenever we build stuff for our clients, a considerable and very important amount of time goes into designing the information architecture and then from this the designers and information architects work together to develop a usable interface via which users can access this information simply and quickly in a way that is utterly intuitive. Getting this right can mean creating a site that works as you'd instinctively expect and one that…well… just doesn't (sorry your holiness).

Most of us have used amazon and it is an eminently usable site. But what is cool about it is that amazon, being a forward thinking company, opened elements of it's code up to developers so they can play around with it.

So these guys, who have been playing with ways of graphically browsing through large amounts of information, decided to apply their new creation Flowser to Amazon and here is the result. It's not by any means perfect, and it's certainly not accessible. Could it be the next stage of web interface as databases grow, are opened to all and the world's content gets digitised? Probably not but it's an interesting experiment and it's a great example of thinking outside the box.

Oh, and for the design geeks amongst you, you can see a more extensive, if not particularly favourable review of the holy father's website design at websites that suck

Posted by at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Guide to the Worst Places on Earth - Newsweek Entertainment - MSNBC.com

I don't know what this type of content should be categorised as. It certainly blurs a lot of boundaries between news classification but it also makes me feel somewhat confused about 'User generated content'. A term that I think is rapidly losing any meaning it may have had when it was first coined.

Posted by at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Google has made its widget interface public, go grab yourself a widget, there are already stacks in there including the usual suspects like weather and horoscopes but also a few neat ones like a Skype status dashboard:-)

Posted by at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nike's online stuff is awesome. I'm sure I won't have to tell you about Joga Bonito, but while looking for some inspiration for Flora I came across their running sites.

Run London has obviously been a huge success, but have a fresh look at the site, and particularly the community aspect. They have a genius application that allows you to plan, find and save running routes across london, using google maps as the basis. It's a great example of using assets that already exist on the web to add value to your site.

Have a look at Nike Plus as well. Nike plus is the IPod and Nike tie-up that you may have read about a month or so ago. The idea is that you get a special chip that goes into your runing shoe that acts like a pedometer. It uploads all the information about your run - distance, time etc. to your IPod. Next time you hook your IPod up to your computer, it uploads your running info, so that you have a full record of your training. This is brought to life beautifully on the website.

The genius of this is the consistent way that Nike use the website to add value to any campaign. Here you have three things
1. An essentially viral campaign based on brilliant footballers doing brilliant thing with a football, with the community aspect (the chain) as a genius way to get people involved.
2. A community based event, facilitated almost entirely the web and email - with the digital strategy driving people to store, for example. Again, the routefinder brings in the community aspect.
3. A new product, using technology to add value to people's lives, again with community brought into play on the website.

They get a big tick! (Alright, a big swoosh).

Posted by at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another gem from The Economist - the phenomenon of “leapfrogging”. This is the term for a market that is so far behind the technology curve that when they are in a position to catch up, they don't bother with the intirem step more developed nations had to go through and move straight onto the upgrade. For example, the spread of mobile technology in Africa. African business doesn't have the time or money (or stability) to invest in a continent-wide fixed line network, so they have skipped straight to mobile phones.

Similarly, our TV pictures are better quality the in the US, because we got TV later than them so moved straight onto a superior technology.

Anyway, this week The Economist comes with Technology Quarterly - well worth a few bob.

Posted by at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Never email a word doc again. Use Writely instead. No more wrong versions, missed comments etc. And HOW simple? I then started wondering whether something similar existed for excel (god my life is interesting) and found that Google do spreadsheets too. Now I just need to find a Powerpoint webtool and all will be complete…

Posted by at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Really nice snippet from Russell Davies' excellent blog. Click on the Sony example. They have built on the buzz generated around the “balls” ad and made a small site about their new ad. Which looks awesome!

russell davies

Interestingness
There's still a place for Big Ads in the world but something has changed. They have to be any good. They have to be interesting. And if they are interesting that means you can build stuff around them. Two good examples here - one, for Bravia, is a brand exploiting the interest it's created, the second for Honda, is an example of what can happen when you make something people are interested in.

This should start you thinking about what we can talk to clients about - what is interesting about them? How about a video of the making of a Cloth World (Comfort) ad on youtube? Or footage from RAF flights posted on a section of youtube or myspace?

Posted by at 6:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | Is Sony fighting a losing battle?

Is Sony fighting a losing battle?

Sony is facing a struggle over its PlayStation 3, with critics concerned about the processor and the price. Jack Schofield reports on the next stage in the console wars

Posted by at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The PC's 25th birthday | Getting personal | Economist.com

Getting personal
Jul 27th 2006
From The Economist print edition
It has had a glittering career. But are the PC's best days now behind it?

?ENDLESS LOVE? by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie was at the top of the charts. Ronald Reagan was staring down the Soviet Union. And Princess Diana, aged 20, was on her honeymoon with Prince Charles. It was August 12th, 1981?and International Business Machines of Armonk, New York, unveiled the IBM 5150, its new entry in the nascent market for ?personal computers?.
This beige box, with a starting price of $1,565, had a mere 16 kilobytes of memory and used audio cassettes to load and save data. (A floppy-disk drive was optional.) IBM's press release trumpeted the screen's ?green phosphor characters for reading comfort? and ?easily-understood operation manuals? that made it ?possible to begin using the computer within hours.?

Posted by at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Do any of you guys use mobile / SMS for any of your accounts? If so, can you post a bit about it? Sightsavers are looking to set up SMS donation and need to be able to capture donor data at the same time. I know that these guys at Incentivated do a whole range of mobile based stuff and have built a variety of applications to do it. To put this kind of thing together, would we need to partner with a company like this or do we have da Skiwlz?

Posted by at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)