Feb 28
links for 2007-02-28
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Feb 28

This is great.  TV report from 1993 about a new fangled thing called "Internet".

You need a computer, and a phone, and all of a sudden you’re part of a new mesh of people….

Whodathunkit? :)

Howard
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Feb 27

Gci_logo
This Thursday I’ll be attending the GCI Digital Media Exploratorium 2007 (now that’s a conference name!) subtitled "Making sense of digital media and ‘consumer generated chaos’" at the GCI offices in London.

Not sure I agree we’re quite at the chaos stage just yet - but maybe they’ll persuade me during the course of the talk and post-talk drinks.

GCI are a PR company who recently formed a dedicated digital PR service for digital media, so it’ll be interesting to see their take on the current state of play as opposed to my own digital marketing approach. GCI do appear to have a blog of their own, but no trackbacks, so I can’t credit them with one :(

If anyone’s attending please let me know and i’ll have a drink with ya! It looks like you can email them on sparker@gciuk.com or call +44 (0) 20 7072 4152 if you’re interested in attending the event.

Howard
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Feb 27
links for 2007-02-27
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Feb 27

Widgets
Mike Arrington over at Techcrunch is reporting that myspace, or rather a representative from Fox Interactive, the firm that owns MySpace, have commented on why they recently choose to block a 3rd party widget from working on the myspace site.

To quote from the post:
"If a widget violates our TOS, we block them…   …Breaches would include any person, widget or software that…   …engages in commercial activity.  Commercial activity includes selling ads on a MySpace page through their widget or software."

Which poses a few interesting questions for digital marketers who are thinking of going down a widget route for a campaign.

As Mike goes on to say, MySpace claim that at the moment they have no plans to charge 3rd parties using myspace to place widgets or build a business upon as a platform, but it looks like if they can stop someone from taking potential revenue from it or make MySpace a less attractive advertising proposition with potential clients, they will block then under the TOS agreement.

This is interesting from a widget marketing point of view - not for desktop widgets - but for widgets on social networks.  What if myspace suddenly decide that YouTube videos are against the TOS and decide to block them from working?  Or a 3rd party media player, or podcast player, etc. etc.  This could spell disaster for those widget providers.

I myself have been involved in conversations where the idea of producing a widget for a campaign has seemed like a great idea, but if this were to happen, and Fox Interactive/MySpace decide to block them, those would never be possible - which would be a shame.  Not necessarily a huge problem, I am sure we could find alternative ways to get around it, but it would be a shame to miss out on a possible highly targetted audience because Fox/MySpace want to control the ads and revenue to recoup their investment so much.  MySpace wasn’t founded on those principles, and neither are most of the web2.0 ideas regardless of their revenue model, so it’s a shame to see this happening in this way.

Howard
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Feb 26

Iphone
OK, so i know it’s not digital advertising/marketing, but hey!  It’s cool and you know you want one.

Apple’s new iPhone advert

Howard
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Feb 23

Ms_logo
As I mentioned in my posts about the FOWA conference, a few companies were there discussing the benefits of the new-ish Microsoft Windows Presentation Framework, or WPF (and it’s web-based cousin WPF/E).  Microsoft themselves, and also the NYTimes.

ReadWriteWeb is reporting today that on top of the NYTimes’ adoption of WPF for their standalone newsreader platform, several other papers have joined in releasing their own, strangely similar looking, WPF based newsreaders as well - namely, The Daily Mail (Oh joy! What a read that is! Can I just add this is in no way an endorsement of the daily mail, it does not enter my household, and literally sends linda into a fit of anger if she reads it’s content for more than 6 seconds), Forbes.com and Seattle Post-Intelligencer (wow!)

So, WPF!  Now, i’ve not really got into this much so far, so I am a bit uninformed, but after a chat with people at FOWA, and reading a bit about it, my first impression is…

…it’s a flash alternative with 3D acceleration.

hmmm..  i don’t get it.  I really don’t.  I know the arguments for saying it’s not a flash killer:
- it runs with direct-X so has 3D support when run as an app
- it’s built from the ground up and runs from native XML based code, rather than a precompiled SWF
- fonts render nicely due to native windows font smoothing (admitedly nice for newspapers)

but aside from that, really, i don’t see much benefit outside of flash.

and, if these apps were built in apollo, rather than WPF, for a start they’d run on MacOS (not to mention linux) as well as windows XP/Vista.  And i know most people out there are running windows, but come on!  if you’re going to build a new internet platform, wouldn’t it make sense to do it for everyone?

ok - so i don’t get it.  but what I do think, is that I BET you the NYTimes and these others got this gig on the cheap with help from MS in the development area somwhere down the line.  I see no other reason why they would use this tech as opposed to flash based stuff.

Please, I invite someone who knows more about this than I do to get involved, because right now I really don’t see why you would go down this route.  Even after chatting with microsoft directly I still don’t get it.

Anyone help?

Howard
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Feb 22
links for 2007-02-22
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Feb 22

Jyte
At FOWA yesterday, the openID presentation featured a site called Jyte as a demo of the login system.

So, what is Jyte?

It’s a complete waste of time as far as I can see.  Fun for a while - but i can’t see what benefit it’s going to have in the long term.

anyway, go check it out if you’ve got five mins to burn.

Howard
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Feb 22

There was a load more that went on at FOWA this year and although the event undoubtedly had a few flaws, overall it was well worth attending to get a view on what exactly is going on in the internet world.  Yes, it’s a bit of an overview at times and not perhaps as deep as it could go, especially for such a captive early adopter audience, but that’s conferences for you. 

Perhaps Bryan Carson will alter the format slightly next year (hopefully there will be another one!) to make it less of a crush and non-stop talk-fest.  Perhaps he’ll get a better Wifi provider as well :)

So, a few mentions to others who spoke at the event:

  • Mike Arrington - Techcrunch - good overview of the state of his side of things, with a brief skip over the whole UK Techcrunch debacle! Good to see him in person though.
  • Khoi Vinh - NYTimes - excellent discussion on digital newspapers and the problems of balancing essential design with new features and editorial demands.  Also a good look at what is possible with WPF/E in the form of their reader app.
  • Stephen Stokols - BT - great speaker!  If you get a chance to see him then so - inspirational talk from such a large telco as BT. Top stuff!
  • Stefan Fountain - Soocial - just plain funny :)  Excellent use of the webcam to give  a live demo. :D  a Plaxo killer?  We shall see I guess.

and hello to a few people I met, hopefully we’ll meet again and thanks for the chats about your services etc…

  • Mike Cummins, AOL - looks promising from you guys - glad to see you’re moving with the times and knocking down the walls of that garden you’ve been in for oh so long! Oh, and looking forward to getting my 1GB memory stick :)
  • John Allwright, Microsoft Expression Team - thanks for the talk about WPF WPF/E - looks interesting!  Still not convinced it’s anything more than a flash killer, but i’ll take your word for it :)
  • James Duncan, Fotango - good to meet you the other night, if briefly.  Am interested in your thoughts on commoditisation, and whether you see this at all moving into the agency environment in any way, shape or form.
  • Deirdre Molloy, Chinwag - nice to bump into you after seeing your name on quite a few blogs recently.  Will definitely be attending some of those events you’re putting on soon.
  • Lizzie Bewick, Spinvox - interesting product - will be good to try it out personally.
  • Lisa Price, Vitamin/Carson Systems - nice to meet you (and someone who knew of this blog! A breakthrough!) will add you guys to my feed list, and maybe even try to submit an article or two?

Thanks
Howard
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