second brain

onion tv

Al Qaeda Also Fed Up With Ground Zero Construction Delays

it is tremendously hard for media companies who grew up in one medium to transfer their strengths into other media, as the internet demands they do. Here's one who is doing it pretty well: The Onion. First it was a website. Then a print 'newspaper'. Now, they're doing TV (or A-V or whatever), and I'm relieved to find that they seem to be doing it very well, if the above example is anything to go by. In fact this post is really just an excuse to put something funny up.

home ain't what it used to be

this excellent short piece by jeff jarvis outlines how the architecture of the web is changing, from a collection of websites-as-destinations (each with their own homepage) to a network of feeds:

now that content is distributed this way - displayed in many places, next to others' content - this begins to collapse the notion of destinations on the web. It makes us see the web less as self-contained sites and more as networks. This essential change in the ecosystem of the web is what inspired CBS TV in the US to serve its video in many places; YouTube is its friend (even as CBS' corporate cousin, Viacom, is suing the service). Said CBS interactive president Quincy Smith: "We can't expect consumers to come to us. It's arrogant for any media company to assume that." Right.

unlovely

this new ad for skoda fabia really irritates. You don't know who it's for until the end when the car appears, which means, nobody will remember the brand. It's nice to look at - mmm, cake - but the pay-off - 'full of lovely stuff' - is such a pitifully contrived link back to the car that you just feel let down. It's flamboyantly meaningless, and an extravagant waste of money.

which ever ad agency made this probably feel very proud of themselves, and there will be lots of pats on the back from their peers, maybe even a few awards. They'll be so busy congratulating themselves that they will fail to hear the public's interest and faith in advertising disappear, like air whistling out of a balloon.

face to facebook

although we can all theorize about the web and social networking there really is no substitute for actually doing it, even if it makes you feel uncomfortably like a teacher gatecrashing a student party.

thus it is with my new favourite website, facebook. It would be tedious to list all the differences between facebook and myspace but suffice to say that facebook offers a neater, more organised and clinical world than myspace's shabby glory. First off, you can't contact or look at profiles of people you don't have a connection to (myspace makes a desultory attempt to pretend this is the case but of course it isn't). Second, there are all sorts of clever tools for organizing your friends and contacts into discreet but overlapping networks, just as you often imagine them in your head (my college friends, my work friends, my met-them-down-the-pub friends). Third, it makes the shape of a person's social existence instantly discernible to an observer - your 'social capital' is laid bare, its dense web of connections tidied into easy-to-get bundles.

when you sign up, in common with some other networking sites like linkedin, facebook searches your email address book and tell you which of your friends/contacts is already on the site. Then you can instantly sign them up as your first friends. Inevitably this throws up people you haven't contacted in years. You will find yourself almost irresistibly drawn to contact them via the site, if only to say 'hey look at us, we're on facebook!'.

which leads me to reflect on how these networking sites throw a new light on communication. Sites like this lead me to contact people that I may otherwise never have contacted, not because I couldn't track them down if I really had something to say, but because - well, because I can.

the intuitive way of thinking about communication is this: a person has something to say, then they find the appropriate medium in which to say it. That medium might be the voice, the written word, the telephone or email or smoke signals or something else. The medium carries the message to the receiver, who may reply or may choose not to return your calls, ever. But what the web networking sites show is how the medium can precede the message - I want to use this medium, therefore I'll think of a message to send this person. It's a kind of McLuhanism of everyday life.

mystery solved

i'd been noticing the words 'never hide' stencilled on the streets of central london and wondering who put them there.

then someone sent me a link to this funny film on youtube. Right at the end i saw those words again.

so i googled them, and clicked on the second link that came up - and all became clear.

he didn't buy myspace by accident

in this short piece for Forbes magazine rupert murdoch gets to the heart of how the world of media and content is changing:

media companies don't control the conversation anymore, at least not to the extent that we once did. The big hits of the past were often, if not exactly flukes, then at least the beneficiaries of limited options. Of course a film is going to be a success if it's the only movie available on a Saturday night. Similarly, when three networks divided up a nation of 200 million, life was a lot easier for television executives. And not so very long ago most of the daily newspapers that survived the age of consolidation could count themselves blessed with monopolies in their home cities.

all that has changed. Options abound. Fans of small niches can now find new content they could never before. Going elsewhere for news and entertainment is easier and cheaper than ever. And people's expectations of media have undergone a revolution. They are no longer content to be a passive audience; they insist on being participants, on creating their own material and finding others who will want to read, listen and watch.

geek shall speak unto geek

channel 9 is the name of a website created by microsoft employees as an informal way  of communicating with the outside world, particularly the software development community. It has grown organically into one of the key interfaces between this massive company and its customers. For non-techies like me, most of its content might as well be in a foreign language, but even I can tell that in its design and its tone of voice this site helps perform the impossible task of making the behemoth human.

channel 9's doctrine - a series of principles for employees who wish to participate - could act as an excellent guide for any company coming to terms with how to communicate in a networked, participatory world:

1. Channel 9 is all about the conversation. Channel 9 should inspire Microsoft and our customers to talk in an honest and human voice. Channel 9 is not a marketing tool, not a PR tool, not a lead generation tool.

2. Be a human being. Channel 9 is a place for us to be ourselves, to share who we are, and for us to learn who our customers are.

3. Learn by listening. When our customers speak, learn from them. Don't get defensive, don't argue for the sake of argument. Listen and take what benefits you to heart.

4. Be smart. Think before you speak, there are some conversations which have no benefit other than to reinforce stereotypes or create negative situations.

5. Marketing has no place on Channel 9. When we spend money on Channel 9 the goal is to surprise and delight, not to promote or preach.

6. Don't shock the system. Lasting change only happens in baby steps.

7. Know when to turn the mic off. There are some topics which will only result in problems when you discuss them. This has nothing to do with censorship, but with working within the reality of the system that exists in our world today. You will not change anything by taking on legal or financial issues, you will only shock the system, spook the passengers, and create a negative situation.

8. Don't be a jerk. Nobody likes mean people.

9. Commit to the conversation. Don't stop listening just because you are busy. Don't stop participating because you don't agree with someone. Relationships are not built in a day, be in it for the long haul and we will all reap the benefits as an industry.