Viral Track & Well Played – It’s A New Day – Will.I.am

November 23rd, 2008

I actually wandered on Youtube to find a completely different video, but stumbled upon this instead.

I have to confess that Will.i.am holds a special place in my heart ever since his original “Yes We Can” video. I still remember that freezing cold February day when I saw it for the first time – and got goosebumps.  That video spurred me to research Obama and became an official supporter. It was a big change for me, I was rooting for Hilary, a familiar face and longing to see the first woman become elected.

But something about him just captured my attention.

Little did I know that my research would help spawn a chapter in Grown Up Digital, and that the contacts I would make would eventually have me placing my life on hold for two and a half months while I moved to Chicago to volunteer on the campaign New Media Team. Little did I know that I would make some incredible friends and have profound and changing experience.

Anyway, flashback aside, I was happy to see his latest video, capturing the elation of the election victory. It was posted last week, and I’m not sure if that makes it old news or not, with Viral Videos you just don’t know. I’ve decided that I haven’t seen it, it’s considered new, at least to me, lol. It seems sort of fitting that this experience starts and ends with a Will.i.am video, a nice and tidy way to wrap up the emotional journey of the last few months. Enjoy!

And for good measure, the “Yes We Can” video.

Twitter Moms – Microblogging Evolution Reveals Twitter’s flaw

October 5th, 2008

The slow but steady adoption of Twitter into the mainstream continues to fascinate me.  As the microblogging site continues to get  news coverage and more corporate accounts pop up, it’s pretty safe to say that Twitter has enabled companies to engage in  deeper and more personal conversations without being overly imposing. For the companies that do it right, it has become a powerful tool to connect to consumers and promote brands, one tweet at a time.

The problem with Twitter…

I was intrigued to see and Ad for Twitter Moms on one of my recent internet jaunts. As I curiously poked around the site, I quickly realized that this community, (I’m sure the first of many) has popped up in direct response to one of Twitter’s biggest flaws: figuring out who to follow.

Currently Twitter lets you search for contacts you already know who are either on one of your other social networks, or who you can invite via email. Which is fine, but what about the great people out there who you don’t know, the friends you just haven’t met yet?  The majority of people on my list are people that I’ve never met in person but who I’ve discovered to be funny, intelligent and generally all around wonderful. Since the technology industry has some well-established names, I found it easy to build up a base list. For non-tech enthusiasts who just want to meet new friends with similar interests, I can see the current system as being a huge barrier to adoption.

An end-user solution

Twitter Moms fills this void by allowing users to search for other moms based on interests ranging from motherhood to fashion, technology and business. Hosted on Ning, the community already has grown to over 2,300 members. Members gain access to groups, discussions and events. They even have a growing collection of videos that cover everything from humerous youtube videos, to technical tutorials for members who want learn more about web based tools.

I think it astutely addresses the intimidation factor of randomly following someone you don’t know by giving users the opportunity to ease into a new digital relationship, for example by contributing to a group discussion or commenting on  site content. That way, by the time you follow each other on twitter you’ve already established a burgeoning online friendship that lays the foundation for future dialogue.

I think this is a fantastic idea, and I can definitely see similar communities emerging as more and more people start microblogging. I hope Twitter improves their search data base. Write now you can search via terms in people’s bios, but I still don’t think that’s enough. I mean if i search for “technology” I get hundreds of users, but how do I know which ones would be a good choice to follow?

Corporate Application?

I think organizations will see tremendous value by participating in these types of communities. I mean if you market to moms, you should definitely be watching twittermoms.com.  There will be great opportunities to build relationships through sponsorships and marketing. I mean if I marketed stuff to moms, I would probably give away tons of free products to this group: they’re tech savvy, on twitter and like to engage with other moms online. A good product experience can go a long way, and it would provide plenty of opportunities for feedback and improvements.

The Final Word…

I like how social media empowers people by giving them the tools they need to fill in the gaps in their favorite services. Kudos to the founders of Twittermom who recognized a need and then went ahead and addressed it themselves. :)

Well Played- Penguin UK’s “We Tell Stories”

September 30th, 2008

As an avid reader, I’m always on the look out for that next great book to lose myself in. While many authors have embraced social media and have incorporated blogs and personal websites into their marketing strategy, I had often felt that there was a lot of untapped potential for social media to really captivate potential readers and connect them to new stories. I was intrigued and pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon We Tell Stories, an initiative by the UK division of Penguin Books.

The premise is this:

Over six weeks, Penguin enlisted critically acclaimed authors to create stories that are made specifically for the internet to promote these six  Penguin classics.

The 39 Steps
by John Buchan
The Haunted Dolls House
by M R James
Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen
Thérèse Raquin
by Émile Zola
Hard Times
by Charles Dickens
Tales from the 1001 Nights
The results have been really cool.

21 Steps

The 21 Steps was inspired by The 39 Steps and uses a Google Maps Mashup to tell the story of a man who finds himself embroiled in a murder. Readers follow his journey around the city as he tries to put the pieces together to figure out what was going on. This was a really cool use of map mashup technology as it gave a unique perspective of the character running all around town.

Slice

Slice by Toby Litt, tells the story of an American girl named Lisa (aka Slice) who moves in to a creepy old house in London with her parents. Strange occurrences lead her to believe the house might be haunted, and she decides to investigate. You can connect with Slice and her parents by reading their respective blogs or following them on twitter. It’s a new take on The Haunted Dolls House.

Read Slice’s blog

A teenage girl, a haunted house, a ghost story for digital natives

Read Ray and Lynn’s blog

Slice’s parents, Ray and Lynn, find that an ordinary home exchange can lead to extraordinary discoveries

Follow Ray and Lynn on Twitter

  • If anything it’ll put my mind to rest. Wish us luck. God bless. xxx

  • @mbhulo I’ll show Ray Lisa’s journal when we get back. We’re going to look in the hole at the bottom of the garden.

  • Ray’s back. He’s got the batteries. I told him about the hare and he’s right, I’m overwrought with worry.

Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales (a tribute to the Hans Christian Andersen Tome) is an interactive choose-you-own-adventure type story where readers get to pick out the elements that shape the plot.

Your Place and Mine

In Your place and mine, authors Nicci Gerrard and Sean French wrote their story in real time. For a one week, they spent an hour each day writing the story in real time. Readers could watch the story unfold, as each sentence was created before their eyes. (A tribute to Therese Raquin by Emile Zola)

Hard Times

Matt Mason’s Hard Times is told via online slide presentation, it’s a wonderfully visual interpretation of Charles Dickens’ book of the same name.

The (former) General

The (Former) General let’s you choose the direction of the story literally – by choosing which way you want to either left or right. This one is an ode to 1001 Nights, the famous Arabian tale.

My Two Cents

I loved going through these stories as it showed the evolution of story telling blended with technology. As we continue to get more digital in our every day lives I am eager to see the direction in which interactivity will shape new content. My thirst for stories is never ending, and while I will always love curling up with a good book, these digital experiments captured my imagination in a new way, by putting a technological spin on an old classic.
I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. I should also add that I found this experiment to be successful as I ordered three of the books off of Amazon.

Well Played : Obama & “Unnecssary” Quotations

August 19th, 2008

Short post today, I had actually written this post last week, but had some huge WordPress problems with uploading images. Problem fixed thanks to some blind blog surgery on my part, which isn’t usually recommended but sometimes you just have to close your eyes and hope for the best. I’ve got some awesome posts coming up filled with glorious, colorful images, so check back in soon!

Obama surpasses Kevin Rose on Twitter

Wired reports that Barack Obama has surpassed Digg founder Kevin Rose as Twitter’s most followed person. Over 56,000 follow the tweet updates from the campaign, and more are expected as the announcement of Obama’s running mate is announced.

In celebration, I also give a “well played” to the guy who made this video. Well played sir, well played.


“Unnecessary Quotations”

My friend Dan Smith over at Smithereen’s Blog shared this with me the other day. It’s a blog that tracks and shares the wonder of people who use unnecessary quotations. It’s laugh out loud funny, and I can see this becoming the next stuff white people like.

A sample: