Augmented Reality - TheWayoftheWeb

The meme-ing of Christmas

December 23, 2010 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

I’d been meaning to write about how social networks really do seem to have killed something with regards to blogging – the blog meme. Rather than posting and tagging people to get their opinions, which used to happen a lot a couple of years ago, people are just asking the same questions on Twitter and Facebook. Bit of a shame for longer answers (And the chance to get some backlinks!).

And then Eaon tagged me in a blog meme.Originally started by Rob Campbell.

Bugger.

So, in response:

1/ Best single thing [personal &/or professional] you did/achieved in 2010.

Professionally, the best thing by far has been the fact that rather than sign-on for unemployment benefit whilst applying for every job available, I took the opportunity to try to start my own business. Thanks to a great number of wonderful people I’ve managed to secure some great clients, avoid bankruptcy, and although I’m still speaking to people about potential permanent roles in the future, I can limit it to those opportunities which are truly amazing, and that can stack up against building up my own empire.

Personally, I also have to say I’m immensely proud of finally turning some talk into action, and starting up Digital People in Peterborough. So far there have been two pub meets, with about 15 people coming along to each, plus around 40 people signed up for the old site. So with a new site and a new year, it should be even better in 2011.

2/ Most shameful thing [personal &/or professional] you did/achieved in 2010.

Probably the biggest source of shame has been launching a new business and a couple of personal sites when I have a young family to support and spend time with. The balance between work, my own sites (ORD and FPSPrestige), and my family is getting better with time, but it can definitely be a struggle at times. And as a result, this blog has suffered quite a bit in terms of regular updates providing value to everyone as well as hopefully attracting a little bit of new business. Plus 140Char has been effectively shuttered since October.

3/ Ad industry scandal or scoundrel of the year.

I’m not strictly an ad man, and don’t fancy picking out something from one of the bad advertising lists elsewhere, so I’ll generically call out all of the businesses who typically spend lots of time and money on shiny adverts which promise lots and don’t deliver.

That includes companies who are now claiming to be social or engaged as bandwagon jumping, but haven’t invested the time and effort behind the scenes to make it part of their actual business process. At it’s core social media and engagement is about customer service and conversation, and not pitching someone one week and then sending him a generic PR link-building request the next (It’s happened to me several times as people failed to click on the About page on this site, for example).

4/ Your overall rating for 2010 out of 10. [1 = shit / 10 = showoff]

It’s been a challenging year, and the current economic and political environments aren’t making life easier. But I’ve managed to conquer several obstacles, and I’m pretty proud of both my business, and some of the resulting efforts of my clients. I don’t think 2011 will be easier or any less hectic, but I’ve got a far clearer picture of what I need to be doing, and it seems like the last month in particular has built a lot of momentum for 2011.

5/ What do you think will be the most overhyped advertising related subject of 2011?

Augmented Reality (AR) is a good example of fantastic technology which really isn’t being used very well by a lot of people. (Looks like Forrester agree with me on that one). But I can’t see that stopping more companies jumping on mobile, tablets and technology like AR without stopping to sort out their underlying business strategy and approach first. I’m confident that most magical solutions generally fall back to a base level fairly quickly, and that includes Apple platforms like the iPad and the iAd ad network.

Technology is awesome and something that I truly love, and there are great opportunities in utilising new technology as soon as possible. But if your basic plans don’t work with the most basic of tools, then any new technology solution is just going to mask it in the short term.

Who am I tagging:

Apparently I need to pick on five people and distract them from their Christmas relaxation, so I’ll go for:

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: Augmented Reality, carl lyons, dave cushman, jonathan jacobs, jonathan macdonald, marketing, neil perkin, overhyped technology, social media

Augmented Reality needs to jump the shark

August 11, 2010 By Dan Thornton 5 Comments

Augmented Reality is still the hot new technology which is getting a lot of people excited when it comes to smartphone applications, and there are lots of cool ways it is increasingly being used.

But the best applications are those which actually have a purpose – and for that to happen more often, Augmented Reality has to jump the shark, and soon. (Jumping the Shark defined).

Like most people, I was amazed when I first saw videos of augmented reality apps (and called Wikitude the best app for the G1). And I’ve been similarly impressed with a lot of cool examples ever since then.

But the best applications I’ve seen which I’d actually keep using? How about the US post service augmented reality app for sizing up the boxes I need for posting large items? That’s not to say they can’t also be beautiful, or location based etc – for instance, Museum of London’s AR App.

But these are few and far between – the majority of discussion about augmented reality at the moment seems to be focusing on the technology as the key point, rather than how it can be used.

How to make augmented reality work:

It’s about 18 months since Wikitude first came on the scene – still a relatively short time for new technology, but it’s about time we start taking a mature look at Augmented Reality projects and applications. And we need to raise the bar on what is deserving of our attention. Platforms like Layar allow any developer to create their own augmented reality layer, so just using AR isn’t impressive – doing something really useful or cool is!

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Filed Under: Augmented Reality Tagged With: ar apps, Augmented Reality, better augmented reality apps, layar, mobile, mobile apps, museum of london augmented reality, wikitude ar travel guide

Marketing Week Live – pre-event for bloggers

June 18, 2010 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

So last night I took advantage of a very kind invitation by Marketing Week to come along to a pre-conference meet-up for bloggers.

Partly they were showing off some nice new technology, which I haven’t been told not to mention (and I’ve seen it publicly referenced by the developers), so I think I’m OK to pimp the fact they’ve got a really nice Augmented Reality app produced specifically for the conference, which includes image recognition to save a boatload of time and effort for attendees who own an iPhone. I may have ribbed them about the lack of a Symbian/BlackBerry/Windows Mobile version, but to be fair, the iPhone is a pretty logical choice for an app for a marketing event. And although I’m normally a bit sceptical about the utility of a lot of AR apps, the way they’ve integrated the things you actually want and need to do at a conference is pretty neat.

The other part I really enjoyed was talking to the people behind the event (and fellow marketer/blogger types). I really got the impression that the rise in mobile, social media and new digital businesses has encouraged them to not only look at the large traditional rivals, but also smaller, perhaps more innovative events, and that they’re starting to evolve what they’re doing to offer more value to attendees. That’s as important for an event that’s free to attend as it is for a paid event at a time when most marketing and creative departments have felt a bit of squeeze, and time out of the office is at a premium.

Hopefully the team behind the event also felt the blogger meet-up was worthwhile as I’d love to chat more about their plans for events and their integration of digital and social elements. As someone who attends, runs roundtables and presents, the event space is undergoing the same disruption and changes as so many other industries, and it’s interesting to witness the evolution necessary.

Marketing Week Live takes place on June 29th-30th at Olympia in London, and it’s free to register.

(Disclosure: I had a couple of free beers. I also have friends who work at Centaur Media, but none of them are directly involved in Marketing Week Live as far as I’m aware.)

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Filed Under: events Tagged With: Augmented Reality, blogger relations, conferece, event, iphone app, marketing week live

A look at the future, or just some concept hype…

September 9, 2009 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

Quite intrigued by the new video of Nokia Mixed Reality:

I’ve been following Augmented Reality pretty closely, and how it links with wearable computing, and particularly smartphone usage – hence inventing the term ‘Moborg‘. The idea being that ‘wearable computing’ in the past always required wearing half a laptop strapped to your arm, and that we’re now at the point where a device in my pocket gives me the same benefits.

Nokia’s video could show AR starting to move into a more useful and integrated future – but there’s a long way to go yet, and as excited as I am by the possibilities, I’m also aware that unless there are real practical advantages of an Augmented Reality interface over something more simple and 2-dimensional, then the current hype will soon fade.

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