Engaging with your audience…

July 16, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Here’s a great example of how to engage with your audience, in a way that works:

Rockstar games has proved itself time and again with the Grand Theft Auto series, and now you can be heard in the next game, according to here.

It’s quick, simple, and doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is. And the Privacy Policy and Terms spell out that it’s a promotional/content generating tool by Rockstar.

Next up will be the growing realisation that the internet is available in other places that the United States!

There will always be times when a competition/promotion becomes logistically impossible to run outside one country…but if you can open it up to every country in
the world, why wouldn’t you?

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Forget social networking. The video bandwagon is rolling

July 13, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I’m beginning to think the fad for social networks is going to start to fade shortly. It’s reaching the mass market, and almost every niche is getting blanket coverage by a range of sites. Almost everything you can think of is being covered in one form or another…

To paraphrase from a film ‘ All the great themes have been turned into themeparks” (Bonus points if you can name the film)

But it seems as if the number of video start-ups and press coverage they are getting is growing close to social networking levels. Now that the implications of Googletube are rocking the foundations of the internet, it’s all about live streaming, peer-to-peer, showing your live webcams etc…

The latest one I’m watching is live TV on web and mobile, with ‘a quality image with no buffering or stopping’, from Skinkers. A potential Joost rival/killer:

“it offers the lure that viewers can “‘click’ on a TV advert exactly as they do on the web but while watching your existing TV channels”.

And, Skinkers says, that can all be done without the TV service having to change any of its existing business processes. A version of LiveStation for Macs is being developed.”

And it’s looking less fanciful when you realise it’s using Microsoft’s LiveStation…allowed as Microsoft owns 10 per cent of Skinkers.

More on The Reg.

It’s safe to say that only 5-10 per cent of the new video start-ups will actually be worthwhile, but the good news for social networking fans is that it will allow some time for the chaff to be sorted from the wheat. At which point it’ll be time for consolidation and the bandwagon to role round again.

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Web 3.0 – More like Web 3.wtf!

July 12, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I understand that a lot of people find it easier to collect groups of websites together under the Web 2.0 banner, and save time explaining every facet of social networking, tagging, rounded edges etc.

But web 3.0?

So far, it seems to be the holy grail of turning the internet into a Tron 3D world where everything is accessible by an avatar floating around.

I’d debate whether 3D really is the next step. There seems to be very little which has an advantage to being in 3D besides gaming. And I think that’s probably proven by the discovery of 3DMailbox.

It’s a free email service which merges Second Life with your email account to allow you to send emails whilst your avatar relaxes on beach.

Aside from the fact my first attempts to actually run the program have been scuppered by the fact I’m on a work spec PC, rather than high-end gaming rig (Apparently my graphic card doesn’t support pixel shading in the right way, causing 3D Mailbox to crash), the trailer and information doesn’t seem to offer any reason why using an avatar to surf my email is in any way quicker, easier to better than using a traditional email programme.

And if it doesn’t make my life easier, less stressful, or more productive, then that just leaves the enjoyment factor. And call me cynical but I’d rather be outside in the real world, or immersed in the likes of Rainbow 6: Vegas shooting terrorists, than playing a mix of Outlook and Second Life…

Having said that, if you do get it to work, and you do find it a revolutionary way of enjoying your email experiences, do let me know.

Remember kids. If you can’t justify what you are doing in a couple of simple sentences which explain why it’s great, then go and do something else.

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Is the logic behind blog posting incorrect?

July 10, 2007 By Leave a Comment

There’s an interesting post by Jakob Nielsen, the famous usability consultant, which flies in face of accepted wisdom about web writing and blog posting.

The crux of it is that experts in a field should concentrate on regular, in-depth articles about their field, rather than short blog type posts. The theory is based on the idea that spending time writing a thorough, well-researched piece on a specialised interest, rather than short posts on ongoing blog discussions, as this will be a better way of displaying your knowledge.

It’s based around the idea that blog posts vary in quality, and even if you’re the number one expert in your field, the variability of short blog posts means your worst work will rank below that of lots of your rivals.

It also follows that the longer, more in-depth posts will add more value to a topic, than a quick, 10-second post.

To read more, and see the stupid-clever histogram, click here.

I’m tempted to write an off-the-cuff remark that there’s a place for both types of comment on the internet, but that could land me in trouble with Mr Nielsen…

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