The increasingly irregular Web Curios returns after a week’s absence – in the unlikely event any of you are upset at the sporadic nature of these posts, feel free to contact Hill & Knowlton and tell them to stop giving me so much real work to do. Alternatively, why not donate to the “Let’s Ensure Matt Never Has To Work Again” fund? Every penny counts, kids!
But! There is more to the world than football, hard as it may be to believe. There is a gun-toting killer on the loose, we are in the middle of a TROPICAL HEATWAVE – it’s like the Summer of Sam (it’s not like the Summer of Sam). There’s been loads of stuff on the internet, too, which is convenient as otherwise I’d have to pad out the rest of this blog with my inane witterings – thanks, internet!
LOOK AT THE WEATHER! IT’S AMAZING! For the three of you who read this who aren’t in London, feel free to look at your own weather and marvel; everyone else, grab a Cornetto (or other iced treat of your choice – Web Curios does not represent any ice cream manufacturers as yet, but is happy to enter into sponsorship negotiations with anyone who’s interested. Haagen Dazs, for preference) and settle in for this week’s roundup of good stuff made by people far more talented than me (and in all probablity you too – stop looking smug).
It’s been a bit of a truncated week, this one, what with the Bank Holiday and then being in Geneva all day Tuesday (they’re still advertising this watch at the airport, by the way – who in the name of Christ actually buys this crap?), so this Web Curios is going to be pretty light on anything related to my actual job. Like you care. Frankly I couldn’t really care less either – I’m going on holiday next week (to New York, seeing as none of you asked – anyone with tips of anything to see or do feel free to tweet them to me or leave them in the comments below), and am basically just killing time and pretending to look busy til then (NOTE TO MY PAYMASTERS – THIS IS OBVIOUSLY NOT TRUE, I AM DISPLAYING MY USUAL STAKHANOVITE DEDICATION). Which means that Web Curios will be absent for a week or so. Deal with it, and enjoy this week’s fix.
Webmongs! Hello! Look! It’s a brand new political dawn in which the strong are just, the weak secure and the peace preserved – oh, no, actually it’s a hung parliament, a few days of uncertainty and the horrible, ugly prospect of having to go through this bloody circus all over again before the year’s out. You don’t need me for analysis of the situation (for which let’s be thankful; if you did need me for this, it would be a poor lookout for the country as a whole) – get it here instead. If you’re feeling depressed about the outcome, though, why not console yourself by spilling your guts to a bunch of random strangers on the internet? I’m going to leave the last word (for now, at least) on our much vaunted ‘digital election’ to the fine folk from B3ta – the web didn’t change the course of the election or the outcome of the vote (really, it didn’t – IT WAS THE TELLY WOT HUNG IT), but it made me laugh lots. So that’s ok then (warning – audio track contains swears) :
Right, enough of the important stuff. Let’s get back to the frivolous internet rubbish.
It’s hard to know where to start this week. THERE HAS SIMPLY BEEN SO MUCH HAPPENING. Frankly, though, it probably doesn’t matter what I write here (yes, I know that it never matters, but indulge me) given the fact that The Rapture is almost certainly nearly upon us. Look at the evidence – volcanoes, strange lights in the sky, Nick ‘Casanova’ Clegg now a shoo-in at No.10 after proving himself the least robotic and inhuman of our three potential leaders on TV last night…the end times are coming. Frankly it’s only a matter of moments before the skies are filled with smug Christians all laughing and pointing as they are raised up to heaven to watch the rest of us boil in fiery eternal torment (obviously there is NOTHING remotely un-Christian about this image). With that in mind we might as well enjoy our last moments, and what better way to do that than to waste the final precious minutes of life remaining to us by staring catatonically at a computer screen and ‘enjoying’ this week’s roundup of ephemeral rubbish that couldn’t be any less consequential? But before we get started, an amazing photo of a volcano (no, not this one) from the most amazing man on Twitter, @Astro_Soichi:
Two lakes inside a volcano, taken from space. Yes, SPACE.
Do you remember when you were at school and you would come in on a Monday after a haircut dreading the inevitable pisstaking from your classmates? I’ve been reminded of that this week. Anyone would think I had come into work having sprouted horns (not entirely unreasonable; remind me to tell you the story of when I sold my soul to Satan in exchange for good exam results one day), but no, all it is is that I now have short hair. For those of you who don’t know me, I now look like this:
Me, with a friend, yesterday
Whereas before I looked more like this:
Yahoo Serious. Younger readers will have no idea who this is. FIE ON YOU, YOUNGER READERS.
Anyway, enough of this crap. On with the web-related crap instead.
Fellow PR blogger, Hill & Knowlton alumnus and generally all-round good bloke (of dubious football supportership) Adam Vincenzini is embarking on a mission over on his Comms Corner blog. Should you choose to accept it, he’d welcome your contribution to the development of a crowd-sourced etiquette guide for geolocation…things (yes, I’m a Super Mayor who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. In social media gurudom this is known as #irony).
In principle I like the idea, particularly following on from this week’s “UK PR agencies don’t get foursquare” slapping, which saw the Twitterverse explode with PR people signing up and unlooking the Newbie badge.
Here’s another case of #irony though, because my understanding of social media is that it’s meant to be, well, social-like. That means you do it #if_you_want_to. Not because you read it on some marketing blog.
So, #only_if_you_want_to you should follow @HK_London on Twitter, and if you’re #inthebuilding and on Foursquare or Gowalla then check in and also read our Tips. But seriously, only do it if you want to.
(Disclaimer: The author claims a right to start soap-boxing about geolocation applications, the slightly laughable phenomenon of using #hashtags at random in the vain hope the world will follow your lead and start talking about #I_last_had_chocolate_milk_when, and the invention of pretend words like “geosocial” because he has unlocked the Repressed Inner Geek Badge on Foursquare by becoming Mayor of his place of employment. The author hopes his fearless leader is suitably impressed by the dedication)
Hello, webmongs. Happy Friday and all that. As I write, it’s 11:52am and it would appear that EVERYONE on the internet is watching the Beyonce / Lady Gaga lipstick-lesbian product placement extravaganza (otherwise known as the promo for new single ‘Telephone‘). I’m not, though. I am slaving over a hot keyboard to bring you a random, disconnected bunch of rubbish from the internets. SEE MY STAKHANOVITE DEDICATION AND WONDER.
I won’t lie to you, webmongs, it’s been a week of tribulations – who knew babyfaced pop-moppet Mark Owen even had a penis, let alone that he was sharing it with people who weren’t his partner? Shocking. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, let’s get this thing started shall we? The sooner I crack on, the sooner I can start taking furtive sips from the bottle of advocaat I keep hidden under my desk.
SXSW and the ‘Check-In Wars’ – Ok, so ‘wars’ is maybe a little hyperbolic. Nonetheless. SXSW is a 9-day festival covering ‘interactive’, music and film, which takes place in Austin, Texas each year. Basically it’s a great big hipster / techy love-in, populated by the sort of people who only buy music that’s been endorsed by Pitchfork (full disclosure: I am a bit like that). The ‘interactive’ portion is all about new tech and innovation, and ‘features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer’. Apparently.
Anyway, this year the pre-festival buzz has centred on the growing competition between Foursquare and Gowalla, the two companies currently dominating the world of location-based mobile apps. In the unlikely event that you are reading this and don’t know what they are, read this.
Given the fact that everyone in the Western world is likely to have a smartphone of sorts within the next 24 months, a lot of money is being wagered on location-based apps being the next big thing. This week, both the major playors announced new features – Foursquare plugging its analytics tools that will allow businesses to see who is checking in and when, meaning that they can better tailor their promotions to match their customers; and Gowalla integrating pictures and comments to its check-in service adding an extra layer of sociability to the platform. Whilst Foursquare’s currently winning in terms of users, it will be interesting to see the competition playing out over the next few months.
Oh, and you may not believe that these things are ever going to catch on with real people (ie those who aren’t Soho-dwelling generic media wankers), but the fact that Facebook is set to also allow users to share their location should give you pause for thought. This stuff will go mainstream, honest.
AOL Launches ‘Lifestream’ – Another big trend for the coming months that trendspotters (people with sharp haircuts, sharper glasses and dust where their souls should be) have been banging on about of late is convergence – that is, a move towards integrating your different online platforms and identities in order to make them easier to manage. We’ve already seen this with Facebook, MySpace,LinkedIn, etc, all allowing you to synch your status updates with your Twitter account – AOL’s ‘Lifestream’ is an attempt to create a standalone platform that integrates feeds from ALL your social networks into one place. It’s an interesting concept – not sure if AOL has the clout to make it stick, but again something else which we’ll see more of in coming months.
ANOTHER social app: Plancast – This is worth knowing about, if only because it’s an interesting proposition. Rather than an app that lets you share what you are doing now, Plancast is designed to help you share what you will be doing in the future – basically a social planner app. Really simple, but there’s a gap for exactly that sort of service right now.
Lewis Hamilton’s Secret Life – What do you think Lewis Hamilton does in his spare time? Discusses Baudrillard with his suspiciously transgender-looking girlfriend? Contemplates the theoretical beauty of Euler’s Identity? Stares into space as lonely tears course down his cheeks? Nope, none of those. What he in fact does, according to the new Alternate Reality Game for Reebok which launched this week, is recover stolen artworks like some sort of masculine Lara Croft. I’m frankly puzzled by both the backstory and mechanic for this – I’m a fan of ARGs, but this use of Lewis feels a bit bolted on, frankly, and I’m still unclear as to the link back to the brand.
Attach Digital Content to Barcodes – Bit hard to explain, this, but bear with me. This service allows you to attach digital content to any barcode – that means that if someone scans the barcode with their smartphone, having downloaded the StickyBits app, their phone will automatically take them to the webpage associated to that barcode. So, for example, you could link the Lady Gaga video mentioned all the way up there to the barcode on the CD single – meaning anyone who scanned the barcode with their iPhone could watch the video immediately. Now think about the fact that you can create your own unique barcodes, link them to whatever you want, print them out, stick them to things…the possibilities are huge, particularly for guerilla marketing campaigns.
Raising Awareness Of, And Funds For, he Homeless in NYC – a great piece of creative highlighting the plight of the homeless. As someone pointed out to me, though, it is horrendous that people are more likely to interact with a virtual homeless person than give money to a real one.
1) Last weekend the lead singer of one of my favourite bands, Sparklehorse, committed suicide. Mark Linkous was a very, very talented musician – here’s a small example of that talent:
2) To lighten the mood, watch as infinite teddybears invade Worthing sea front (by the amazing Cyriak):
Afternoon, world (note the hubris – ‘afternoon, handful of bored webmongs’ would almost certainly be more accurate). Once again, Web Curios (no movement on the title situation as yet) comes to you on a Thursday, due to my once more taking solace in the comfort of the 4-day week. I used to have a permanent 4-day week in my old job. It was amazing (the 4-day week, not the job; the job was a bit pony), and I miss it very much. I think that going back to a 4-day week would make me much happier and more productive.
ARE YOU READING THIS, BOSSMAN RICHARD MILLER? Eh? Oh. *sulks*
Ahem. Anyway, without further ado, to business!
A Smart Perspective On BBC Cuts – The big story of the week, at least amongst generic media types in the UK (yes, yes, like me), has been over the BBC Strategy Review, published on Tuesday, which recommended a whole raft of cuts to the Corporation’s output to cut costs – most notably the axing of BBC 6Music and the BBC Asian Network, as well as a scaling back of non-programme related content on the BBC website as a whole. Lots has been written on this already, but the above blog post by Adrian Hon is a thought-provoking summary of why the ’savings’ in terms of BBC Online are a nonsense.
Foursquare Partners with Vodafone UK – not massive news, but interesting as an example of how savvy Foursquare are being in linking up with media partners. This is exactly the sort of deal that (they hope) will take them from being the current darling of the early-adopter set to something that normal people know, like and use on a regular basis.
A minor celebrity wearing humiliating underwear, yesterday.
The US Air Force’s ‘Rules of Engagement’ for Blogging – You know that people are taking digital seriously when the US Air Force starts publishing guidelines for its employees as to when they should / shouldn’t respond to blogs or forum comments on the organisation. What’s even more surprising is how measured and sensible the recommendations are – all organisations should have something similar if they are engaging with audiences online. FACT.
Probably the Coolest iPhone App To Date – watch for yourself. Turn your iPhone into an audio looping system. Almost inevitably this will end up with you turning into an annoying git who believes themselves to be the saviour of UK beatmaking – but that’s not the technology’s fault, it’s YOU. Or you could turn out to be the next Beardyman, which would be good.
World Bank Launches Alternate Reality Game – I’ve been saying for years that Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) – basically a fancy way of saying big, interactive stories – are going to be huge. I’ve continually been proved wrong, with a few notableexceptions. Nontheless, Evoke – just launched, commissioned by the World Bank Institute and built by legendary game designer Jane McGonigal, the game is designed to “help empower young people all over the world, and especially young people in Africa, to come up with creative solutions to our most urgent social problems”. This is part of a trend that I think we will see more of in the coming years – people, including Governments, increasingly trying to use fun as an agent of educational and behavioural change. Although hopefully not like this
A few videos to finish…
1) Tokyo Glow – just a gorgous film / animation of Tokyo by night
2) Song of the Week – in honour of the gig I am not going to tomorrow, here’s Madvillain (MF Doom & Madlib) with Strange Ways
3) This has been all over the place this week – a gorgeous Olivo Barbieri-inspired video of a day in New York which looks like it’s been recreated in miniature. Just watch it:
4) Finally a plug for the new spoken word show by the amazingly talented Polar Bear – he’s doing a whole film in spoken word. Hard to explain, but check out the below and, if you like it, take a punt on the tickets. You won’t be disappointed.
