A bit more Sauce
Johnnie and James are developing a workshop to show the world (well London at least) what Open Source is all about and how some of its basic tenets can be applied directly to a marketing campaign, even an ongoing brand approach (see here).
The this area - the examples of Linux and Firefox browser are huge success stories. As one of the articles James links to points out though - this approach requires a release, a paradigm shift, from command and control type structures and methods. Instead a more chaotic approach is adopted which could lead anywhere. Its scary but it can ultimately be far more effective in creating evangelism amongst your customers, and perhaps wider stakeholder groups.
It would certainly be interesting to attend - I wonder if there is any room in the aisles or perhaps they need a gopher? 
A Dose of Humility: Adopting a Personal Tone, Being a Conduit in Blogs, Business and Life
I won’t try to comment on Evelyn’s post in full - I agree with the sentiments but have never experienced anything like the trauma that the Tsunami must have been for her and of course so many others. I therefore shall stick with the one piece that I could closely identify with rather than merely appauld from the sidelines:
In additional to journalism, any perceptive business person can surmise my point is also that the best marketing, the best products, or the best _____ most often emerges if we drop our agendas for a moment and allow ourselves and our companies to be simply a conduit that welcomes our customers with a space to speak and be listened to.
Speak and be listened to…. think about it! Speak and be listened to…
How many times as a customer have you wanted that to happen. In fact how many times as an employee of an organisation have you wanted that to happen? Is this not the essence of truely connecting with someone? And isn’t that what we utlimately desire as human beings: to connect?
BBC NEWS | Technology | Gadget growth fuels eco concerns
This was something that had bothered me for sometime in terms of consumer electronics and particularly power consumption. I have proposed in the past alternative powered devices (although I am not technical enough to know whether they are really feasible) as a niche product but Ebay is going a step further:
The online auction house thinks that its already-established community of loyal users could be influential.
“We really became aware of the e-waste issue and we saw that our 125 million users can be a powerful force for good,” eBay’s David Stern told the BBC News website.
“We saw the opportunity to meet the additional demand we have on the site for used computers and saw the opportunity too to good some good for the environment.”
There are also a number of other issues discussed here not least re-cycling, the cycle of upgrade and displosal of consumer mobile devices and power consumption particulalry of rechargers.
While this is a positive story I think more could be done. There must surely be a market for more efficient devices and more efficient rechargers but why not state this as an absolute vision. Why not try and make energy neutral devices that can self re-charge. Blue sky maybe but surely worthy of a vision piece?
Long Tail TV: Conclusion
Chris Anderson finishes his epic exploration of Long Tail TV with a great little expo:
… But first, let’s crisp up what I mean by Long Tail TV. The definition of the Long Tail in this context is: "content that is not available through traditional distribution channels but could nevertheless find an audience." For the most part, that’s niche content. It may not have been niche when it was made or niche everywhere but it counts as niche now where you live. This could include:
1) TV shows that are made but not broadcast in your area:
- Channels your cable provider doesn’t carry
- Foreign TV
- Local sports and events from places you aren’t
2) Old TV shows:
- TV from the archives, from ancient to relatively recent
- Current shows that you missed and forgot to record
3) Video of any sort that is made but not broadcast (the video found on the Internet Archive’s moving image collections, which ranges from the Prelinger Archives to SIGGRAPH animations, is a great example.)
- Independent films
- Commercials (which are broadcast but not scheduled and findable)
- Amateur video, including news
- Commercial/corporate video intended for targeted audiences
4) Video that could and would be made if only there were a good way to find an audience for it. (Steve Rosenbaum is blogging on this, too). The best sense of what that might be can be found by looking at the online video that’s been made since the broadband web became a reality…..
(You get the idea) Essentially then cluetrain for TV, blogging for TV, microcontent (of a video persuasion) and a worldwide market.
Linked into yesterday’s announcement about VOD and other initiatives like Telewest’s Blueyonder TV, BBC’s offering of online programming, you can see that some broadcasters and network service providers understand this. What I wonder is whether there could be a business model here (I’m very business focused today). Could this be the iTunes / iPod equivalent in video?
I mentioned previously that there are server - client and Peer to Peer models here. In addition I think from Chris’s categories above there remains a distinction between mass consumables (although perhaps less mass than previously) and true niche products/offerings - which I think could well be micro-content or be in the same league as online comics / e-books.
Could this be video blogging or video podcasting?
Perhaps this could link to the kind of issues with online photo storage? I think I end up coming back to digital lifestyle aggregators.
From Quotes of the Day:
Frank Zappa
“Communism doesn’t work because people like to own stuff.”
(that should probably be people in industrialised capitalist societies but I’m being churlish )
BBC NEWS | Technology | Speak easy plan for media players
ScanSoft and Gracenote are developing technology to give people access to their film and music libraries simply by voice control.
They want to give people hands-free access to digital music and films in the car, or at home or on the move.
Great idea - looking forward to seeing this implemented. I wonder how they will get round how to activate voice recognition. I mean if it is always on how does it cope with you having a conversation in the car or on the move?
I’m fascinated to see it in action. I wonder if they could develop voice recognition for TVs - I am always loosing my remote controls.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Web photo storage market hots up
I have been thinking about this aspect of the web for some time - although admitedly on a broader outlook, at, as Marc Canter puts it ‘Digital Lifestyle aggregations’. Photos are an essential place in a lot of people’s lives - they convey meaning, emotion for time and place and can evoke powerful responses. As the article suggests they are also an important form of social history artifacts that offer incredible insight into people.
From a technology perspective it doesn’t appear at first glance to be too much of an issue after all, storing phots isn’t a problem - you just need more memory - and that’s not expensive. The big ‘but’ though is format of the photo and its ongoing compatibility with future formats - something that has caused problems with such projects as the BBC’s Doomsday Book project which was originally stored on VideoDiscs in BBC Micro format.
It also causes problems for people now too. Whilst digital formats are extremely easy to use, in terms of taking and storing personally, sharing digitally and physically can be an issue. My family have hundreds of stored photos but we rarely look at them unless they are stored physically because we don’t have an obviously easily accessable digital viewer to hand (i.e. we have to switch on the PC and look at them there - not convenient - an my father in law leaves the photos on the memory card in the camera).
Ideally then a service that could provide a means of sharing, a device capable of showing pictures to their full effect which is portable, a means of showing pictures anywhere within the household and a means of printing high quality physical prints. And of course a format that is compatible cross devices and future proof.
Not asking for much am I?
Whilst there are a number of firms in and around this area, none of them have really caught the imagination or developed the ‘killer app’.
I wonder whether a service that allows storage and view over TV, mobile, Internet with third party printing and perhaps rental or discounted pricing on a suitable mobile viewing device could be a business model that would work?
Anybody needs someone to help work up a business model?
BBC NEWS | Technology | Cable firms offer video-on-demand
I couldn’t very well not mention this Product launch. Although two points spring to mind from this article:
1) Great new technology which the cable firms think gives them a lead on BSkyB (not convinced entirely but I’ll let it ride) and gives customers a lot of interesting choice and perhaps more importantly control.
2) Telewest get their senior mangement team to deliver a PR launch, very upbeat, very excited pioneering and visionary.
ntl get their anonymous spokesperson (probably Malcom Padley, ntl’s PR Manager) to deliver a few words - although if you read the article they are actually delivering the more exciting service. Its as if they are embarrassed or afraid.
So I would love to have the VOD service tomorrow ( I have actually used the BBC VOD trial and it was brilliant) I doubt I’ll get it given my current circumstance and I would love for once for ntl to actually start creating buzz about their products. They do have other stuff to go fix but products they generally do well - so someone for pity’s sake shout about it!!!
BBC NEWS | Technology | All of the net, all of the time
Bill Thompson’s BBC technology column is always worth a view. His take this week is on pervasive nature of the net given wireless access methods. I think this will invade our lives more and more - the idea of computing and particularly network (internet) access everywhere. As Bill mentions he could use a PDA or Smart Mobile phone and most places now have some sort of wireless connection for a laptop to connect to.
I suspect in the not to distant future Head up displays may well come into being but probably further than I think (well I am a Cyberpunk fan at heart).
For an interesting take on pervasive and ubiquitous computing have a look at Anne Galloway’s blog Purse Lip Square Jaw
BBC NEWS | Technology | Games help you ‘learn and play’
Absolutely. I am surprised that this is such a revelation - whilst the researcher does admit to not being the first to suggest this - I know from experience that this has been happening for as long while. At college we played simulations to understand economic theory regarding absolute and comparative advantage in International trade. When I was studying for my PGCE (teaching qualification) I was also encouraged to make use of games most notably SIM City to highlight how society interacts and social models. The SIMs and Civilisations are merely the extension of that.
So great idea. Agree totally that it should be implemented. By no means new or innovative.
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