Over the River

When I talk with people, clients, companies, organizations, etc. I’m amazed by how much content - often awesome content - is just sitting around unused. Old brand materials (ads, packaging, signage), physical artifacts (products, packaging, prototypes) and information (historical data, b-roll, photographs) that could be doing a world of good in the light of day are simply being ignored.

It’s time for there to be a good old fashion content harvest. Look around at some of the great content you or your client or your company has on hand and imagine what could be done with it to make it accessible, engaging and exciting to people.

Have examples of every model widget your company has ever produced? Photograph them - show the evolution of the design - and post the photos onto Flickr. Have footage of every CEO speaking at a company event for the past 40 years? Cut it up, mash it up and use it to tell the story of change over that period. Tag it, post it, get it out there. This isn’t hard stuff - it just isn’t always obvious.

“But how will this approach support the current story or key messages?” you might be tempted to ask (although I hope you aren’t). Well, sometimes we get so fixated on telling the immediate story that we forget there are millions of forgotten or untold stories that will spark conversations and build excitement around individuals, brands and companies.

Come on, this stuff isn’t getting any fresher . . .

Technorati Tags: content, brands, marketing, communication

Brokaw started his comments with some self-deprecating humor and jibes at Harvard (where he was accepted but not given financial aid).

MIT, he said, is at the intersection of information technology, the personal computer and the Internet. While he doesn’t understand the inner workings of technology, he does recognize that the introduction of technology will fundamentally change the world. In fact, he sees this as the most transformative era of technology that he can imagine.

He likens this transformation to a second big bang; with all of us looking and trying to determine which of the new planets will support life, watching planets merge (or attempt to merge) and grow to play a larger-and-larger role in our digital life.

One of the things that is striking about the advances in technology, he said, is that it isn’t happening in the darkened cloisters of nerdish wonks. The advances are being driven out in the open by all kinds of people. The power of the transformation available through technology is limited only by our imaginations. As technology makes our planet smaller, it also makes the possibilities larger.

But, he went on to say that life can’t be a virtual experience. What happens, he asked, if we have capacity without compassion; or if speed outstrips reason. It will do little good, he continued, if we wire the world but short-circuit our souls. A bit overwrought perhaps but I got his point.

Brokaw went to to talk about the people whom he’s met who were the most interesting and he ran through a litany of the saints of power and influence. The most memorable people though, he said, were ones whose names he never know (he could have asked them or something – just sayin’): civil rights workers in the 60s, American doctors in Somalia, Chinese students in Tiananmen Square, NY firefighters after 9/11. What made these people memorable was that they were willing to put their lives at risk to make the world a better place for everyone; and, he said – perhaps again with more drama than was needed – technology was providing new tools for these people.

He went through examples of how technology is making a difference and cited Rwanda and Pakistan. He suggested that the tools being used need to always have a human face to help “lower the temperature of fundamentalist rage.” I think I got where we was going with this but not 100 percent. People of goodwill from around the world have been putting themselves at risk to help others for a very long time – often with nothing but a human face to present to the world.

If anything it seems that technology can – while making the process of providing support more efficient and effective – throw up barriers between people that even technology with a human face might now be able to surmount. His point was a good one though as he described the possibility of connecting technology with commitment to help define this generations contribution to the world.

He went on to describe the horrors witnessed during the 20th century and pointed out that we are now living on an even smaller planet where the limits of power have become increasingly apparent. He ticked off a list of the problems we’re facing today – the growing gap between the haves and the have nots, global warming, etc. - and suggested that while we had the technology to deal with these issues (which is questionable) we needed to find the will; and the attention span.

This led to his addressing concerns around the Internet. He feels that we need to think about the source and the integrity of what appears on the small screen (as, frankly we do with information from any source) and his message to the audience was to beware of the unidentified matter that comes from the edges of the blogosphere. Of course this assumes that the blogosphere – like the universe – has edges, which isn’t necessarily the case.

He expressed concern that there are “small media meteorites” that may be the product of imagination, error or malevolence bombarding us every day. And while how we receive information is changing the requirement that information be gathered and distributed by trained professionals remains. I suppose as someone who has spent his life in the traditional media this point of view is understandable; but clearly the rise of citizen journalism is in response (at least in part) to the frustration people feel with the main stream media.

Brokaw likes the democratic nature of the Internet for sharing ideas and opinions, for sharing information and connecting with others and for hearing voices that one might not otherwise hear. The access to information is powerful. He pointed out, however, that the possibilities for distortion, fraud and anarchy are there and that we need to recognize our moral, and intellectual commitment to leave the planet better than we found it by putting our boots on the ground while using technology as an extension of our hearts as well as our minds.

The whole of his comments lasted only 20 minutes or so (about the time I spent waiting in line to get in) and they were generally innocuous. There was nothing unexpected or profound in them (perhaps others would disagree) and they left me with the impression of an honorable man’s attempt to offer his perspective on a rapidly changing world.

Technorati Tags: Tom Brokaw, MIT, technology, media

One of Boston’s best events – WebInno – is on for tonight at the Royal Sonesta in Kendall Square. If you’ve never been you need to go and if you’ve been before you know you don’t want to miss out. As I’ve done for some time now, I’m offering my rundown of the companies that will be on hand and I’ll be following up in a few days to see if I was right in my predictions and assumptions.

Main Dishes

Good2Gether – one of the really nice things about WebInno over the past several months is that there’s been an undercurrent of social benefit in many of the participating companies. We’ve seen Carbon Rally, Make Me Sustainable, GoLoCo and SpotScout to name a few. Good2gether continues this tradition.

The goal is to help connect people and causes. The idea is that they will put non-profits in front of potential donors, volunteers and advocates. It all sounds well and good and some of their launch partners are terrific (the American Red Cross, the National Audubon Society, the MS Association, etc.) but I wasn’t able to get on to really monkey with things.

The company is planning to launch in 11 cities over the coming months, staring here in Boston in April. Given the general economic slowdown, non-profits are going to need all the help they can get to stay relevant and well-funded. I sure hope this is a solid, well-executed and well-received idea.

Expectations that I’ll be wowed: at the moment they’re pretty low. The site looks good and the idea seems strong but there wasn’t much to go on.

Chances that I’m way off base: wicked low

PicMe Photo Sharing – I love taking and sharing pictures. I am totally addicted to Flickr. It’s probably the service I use the very most and find the most satisfying. But is there another category that is as splintered and diverse as online photosharing? I mean you have the big walled sites – Kodak, Shutterfly; the public sites like Flickr and Photobucket; the hybrid sites like Phanfare and into the fray leaps PicMe. How many of these do we need and how many are going to stick around?

PicMe seems to be all about organizing photos. (A good thing for someone taking a few thousand photos a month.) I signed up, downloaded the desktop application and was pleased to see how quickly it found and stacked the few photos on my work PC. I liked that I could see my Flickr contacts but couldn’t figure out how to see my own photos. I scared me that I could right mouse click on a friend’s photo and get the options: “Remove Photo from Flickr” and “Remove Photoset from Flickr.” I was too chicken to find out if that really works but if it does it’s really, really bad.

Sharing photos seems a little annoying as everyone you want to share with has to have the desktop client (which is currently Windows only . . .). Even the old-school sharing sites allowed you to share with just an email address.

Not to be a total gloomy Gus though. This has some very positive points. The ability to see all of my contacts images in a single UI is pretty nice (of course I can do that with the Media Bar in Flock, my main browser). I think PicMe is an interesting application and one worth checking out. I do kinda feel like most people have their imaging workflows more or less together so it will be interesting to see where this fits in.

Expectations that I’ll be wowed: I liked what I saw but didn’t exactly love it. I’m sure it will demo well though and that it will get plenty of ohhh and ahhhs.

Chances that I’m way off base: pretty high I guess. I could see myself walking out of there and wanting to go to town and use it every day.

Jack Cards – Connecting our World Thoughtfully? What might that mean? The home page includes a quote from the Wall Street Journal: [jack cards] “ . . . saves users the hassle of last-minute trips to the card store.” Guess what? I don’t make FIRST minute trips to the card store. In fact, I don’t like cards in general. When I get them I look at them for like a second and say, “Aww, that’s nice,” as I walk to the recycling bin. Clearly I am not the target market.

What’s weird about this is that unless I am mistaken this is the second greeting card company to present at WebInno in the past year. Nichie-nichie or what?

Expectations that I’ll be wowed: On a scale of zero to negative infinity, I would say there is an infinitely negative chance of that happening.

Chances that I’m way off base: If I become a woman between now and this evening I might think this is perfect; but I’m not expecting that to happen (and if it does I’ll be pissed) so I think that speaking for me I have this right.

Side Dishes

Traackr – can I tell you all a little secret? I am a total attention whore sometimes. Not *ALL* the time but certainly sometimes. My greatest aspiration is to be a supahbrand. I spend hours on end clicking refresh. I can’t control myself. The along comes Traaker. It promises to do this mindless checking and double-checking for me. I signed up but I can’t figure this thing out to save my life. I’ve put in my user names multiple times but they never seem to stick. There’s a tick box but it never seems to click.

Expectations that I’ll be wowed: Pretty high actually. I would LOVE to have an easier time of determining how awesome I am. I just wish they’d look at a broader range of sites and services.

Chances that I’m way off base: not that high. This seems straight forward and if it actually works it would be a cool site.

Moborazzi – When I first heard the name I thought of Lego Bionicles. Then I went to the site and saw that it was a play on words “Mob” and “Paparazzi” – two popular and friendly terms . . . So this is ANOTHER way to share photos? This is a service that allows you to take picture with you phone and post it to the Web. Ummmm and this is new how? Most of the photosharing sites seem to allow this and new services like Utterz and Qik are allowing people to do more and more interesting things with their mobile devices.

Expectations that I’ll be wowed: See Jack Cards.

Chances that I’m way off base: Moderately good I guess; maybe this is just what the world needs.

Lingro – first blush – a dictionary? Meh. But then I checked this thing out and man is it cool. You can go to ANY Web site and click on ANY work and get details on the word in a number of languages. How cool is that? I tried it on a number of sites and it worked awesome. Go and try this – it really is cool and I think if like words you’ll like this site.

Expectations that I’ll be wowed: Well, I already am so I guess the expectations that I’ll be wowed are very high. I suspect that seeing it in person will probably show things I didn’t find on my own. I can’t wait.

Chances that I’m way off base: Very low. If I am not as excited after I see this I’ll be extremely surprised.

Yamli – This is kind of a niche but it’s cool never-the-less. Yamli lets you search Arabic Web sites in English. That’s pretty neat. Of course the results are all in Arabic so it lessens the utility a little bit (at least for me since to say my Arabic is rusty is to say the sun is bright). It also provides the ability to type in English and have it converted Arabic on the fly. Here’s an example:
ذي والروس ات مي انجلش مفنس. (In case you can’t read it, it says “The walrus ate my English muffin.) Definitely a tool with potential but it still feels a little rough and the utility could be stronger.

Expectations that I’ll be wowed: I like the idea of being able to expand my ability to search beyond English and to write in other languages so I have high hopes for this one.

Chances that I’m way off base: Total. I could be totally wrong.

Entrecard.com – These are essentially ads for blogs. They kind of reminded me of the ads you see over urinals – kind of weird, generic and untargeted. I have to be honest – the site does a terrible job of explaining what it does. I’ll try to stop by to check it out but man it doesn’t do much for me.

Expectations that I’ll be wowed: I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Chances that I’m way off base: Any time I take an extreme position my chances of being off base go up. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen.

FLIMP – Except for its really unfortunate name this is pretty cool. The site allows you to create video sites very quickly and then distribute them to targets via email. The email distribution this is cool because it allows the site to collect crazy analytics. From a content creators perspective it’s pretty cool. As a content consumer, boy, do I really want all the details of my behavior analyzed so quickly and easily?

I like what they are doing and offering. I like the look and feel of the site and I REALLY like the look of the microsites generated by Flimp. It’s cool, they have awesome customers and it seems to work well.

Expectations that I’ll be wowed: High – I already like this service and am imaging ways to use it.

Chances that I’m way off base: Pretty low.

Stylepath – A neat idea – kind of a personal online shopper/stylist that learns about you and makes suggestions for additional products you might like. If I had a less slovenly sense of style I might find this site really useful but as it is I don’t care as much as I probably ought to. I will say that the site is pretty slick in terms of look and feel and functionality.

There would probably me more in it for me if it allowed my to create a profile based on broader interests – books, movies, music – and made style suggestions based on my similarities with other – more stylish – people who share my taste.

Expectations that I’ll be wowed: For people who are into and care about how they and their space looks it might well be a total “wow!” For me, not so much.

Chances that I’m way off base: I think it’s pretty low.

This is an open call for people interested in participating in Boston’s first (and perhaps the world’s only) air marching band. Unlike a rabble, the Boston Paper Hat Air Marching Band (BPHAMB - pronounced b-fam) will be a credit to the community and its members.

The first BPHAMB event will take place on Saturday, April 19th (Patriot’s Day) at 1:00PM on the Boston Common near the corner of Beacon and Cambridge Street. The event will begin with general aimless milling around, followed uniform craft time (paper hats for everyone!), instrument selection and finally a VERY brief rehearsal.

The proposed route will take the band over Beacon Hill, across Government Center and into Faneuil Hall for drinks and other refreshments.

Please let us know if you are interesting in attending this inaugural march. Send us an email and please note if you are interested in helping to promote, enlist, fold or fabricate our mobile sound system.

This has the opportunity to be totally KICK ASS so grab a friend, a sheet of newspaper, a bring your marchingest attitude down to the Common on the 19th.

I’ve been terrible about writing lately - not only here but on ALL my blogs. It feels really lame but I’ve been busy/on the road and need to rethink my workflow. A lot of the time that’s what it comes down to for me - my workflow. It’s true with photography, with brewing, with work and even with writing. One thing that doesn’t require workflow is fun and one of the things I do for fun is play games. It’s something I’ve been doing for a long time now.

I was playing Dungeons Dragons as a teen years with friends from my town - David Shimberg. Teddy Lazotte, Mike Beaton, Dwayne Officer and my brother Dave. My parents gave my brother and I the first boxed version of D&D for Christmas one year and we were off and running. It didn’t have real dice, only paper chits to cut out and pick out of an envelope or something. We eventually moved to early console and computer games and continued to have fun.

In the mid-80s I went out and bought Nintendo specifically to play Zelda and had an awesome time doing it. I hung on to that for almost 10 years, dabbling here and there with computer games but rarely finding that perfect match of game and system capability. By the mid-90s though I’d made the jump to pure PC gaming (I’d given the Nintendo away while I still lived in SF). I was firmly embedded in PC gaming - willingly shelling out each year for new video adapters and one of the first on the block with a broadband connection.

In the late 90s I get back into consoles with an N64. That was a good system - but for all the improvements, it didn’t measure up to the original Nintendo so I stayed largely a PC gamer. Increasingly I was playing online - Operation Flashpoint, Total Annihilation, America’s Army, etc.

Then in the early 2000s I got an Xbox and Xbox Live. I got it through work for a project (though job) and managed to hook up several of my friends as well. With online multiplayer and voice - it was pretty good and I found myself sitting at the PC less and less for games. That trend accelerated as my kids got into gaming and we found titles for them on both the PC and Xbox.

In 2006 I replaced my PC with a MacBook Pro and so essentially decided to stick to console gaming. Late in 2006, when the Xbox gave up the ghost, we replaced it with a 360 and were happy. We also got a Wii and were happier still. Oh sure, I would install a game on the Mac every now and then - WoW, Lord of the Rings Online - but I just wasn’t cool with spending money every month to play (even though I am willing to pay for Xbox Live).

Then last week Gary Gygax died and there was a whole lot said and written about him and about D&D. Several years ago I’d found the original boxed set my parents bought me as a boy at a yard sale for a quarter. Everything was still intact - including the uncut chits. I decided it would be right and proper to have a game with friends so on Saturday we did.

My brother-in-law Matt agreed to be the DM (he still plays from time-to-time), my other brother-in-law James and his girlfriend Chesley came over as did John Johansen, one of my social media pals. For all of the advances and improvements in my gaming life over the past almost 30 years, sitting around a table with friends and paper and pencils and oddly-shaped dice again was terrific.

Making choices, letting chance play its part, making up the rules as we went along was all great. Working cooperatively, laughing at each other’s expense and taking breaks to eat or talk - it all reminded me what attracted me to gaming in the first place. All of us want to play again and I hope that we will. If you haven’t played around a table in years (or ever) you should give it a try again. There’s something innocent and immediate and engrossing about it that you just can’t get anywhere else.

Earlier today a colleague sent out an email to illustrate how teens are using social media differently. A woman he knows (apparently in her teens) lost the numbers on her cell. Her solution for getting them back was to create a Facebook group asking her friends to post their numbers.

While 20 people have joined the group, only three have posted their numbers - just 15 percent. Is the issue concern with privacy? Apathy?

What do you think?

I’ve been asked to get a sense of how the world of social media is feeling about the economy and the potential for a recession. If anyone has thoughts they’d be willing to share of a sense from their own travels and observations I’d appreciate it very much. You can email me or leave comments here.

I do a little writing on the side. I’m not going to say what kind of writing it is but trust me, it isn’t like this blog and it’s about the farthest thing from my work as you can imagine (so no conflict if anyone from work reads this . . .). My work has become increasingly popular and my wife has been encouraging me to make some money with it.

The thing is, I am not really tuned into business and all that jazz so the idea of dealing with it hasn’t really captured my imagination. But at the same time, I’d love to make a little extra loot. I’ve got the product piece down – and the marketing – but the business end? Not so much.

Now though things are starting to come together. Let me tell you about the ingredients that will lead to my eventual anonymous stardom:

Wordpress.com – as the initial point for publication. Why? Because it’s easy. I have a number of WordPress blogs – some that I host myself and some that I host on Wordpress. Hosting them myself lets me put ads on them but hosting them on Wordpress help grow traffic faster.

Craig’s List – as the initial point of promotion. Why? Because it’s free easy and I can set it up in less time than it will take me to write this post.

PayPal – as my method for payment. Why? Because, well, because it’s simple and when I asked my wife to look into payment systems this is what she came up with.

FreshBooks – as my billing/invoice system. Why? Well, they’re one of my clients and I really like the product (not that I don’t like all my client’s products but there’s not many of them that I can use). It looks good, is simple to use and helps me keep track of things I’m not very good at keeping track of.

A friend who shall remain nameless – as my marketing chum. Why? Sure, I could do it myself but I’m a little too close to the product to promote it objectively. She is not.

As soon as I get some paying customers I’ll be psyched - and with my new systems in place it will only be a matter of time until I am the master of my domain . . .

I’ve asked it before and I’m still interested in hearing from people – how do you handle the business end of your thing (what ever that thing might be)?

When I heard there’d soon be free WiFi on the Worchester line (which is the one I take every day) I couldn’t stop grinning. I considered it to be a potentially life-altering development. A week later and a few opportunities to try it out here’s what I think.

First of all, it is totally nice to be able to get online on the train. I know lots of people already do with WiMax and Mobile Broadband but for the rest of us it’s nice to have an opportunity. It does seem like the program - especially in the early days - is a little confused. I have seen a number of on-train networks: DemoProject, Junctionbox and Commuter Rail Connect.

DemoProject - which gave me a nice strong signal on Friday morning wouldn’t actually allow me to connect with anything. Junctionbox that afternoon gave me a connection and a strong signal but was incredibly slow. CRC is the official network and this morning brought me to the T’s terms and conditions page.

Right now the connection is technically limited to one car. I’ve looked for the network in cars not marked with the on board broadband sticker and haven’t had any luck. I’ll bet if you were in the very next car you could get on no trouble.

I get on in Natick and the signal has been strong all the way into the city. The speed isn’t terrific - 400k down and 200k up but it’s better than nothing. I haven’t seen anyone else using the connection on any of the trains I’ve been on and I wonder how slow it will be if there are 30 or 40 people sharing the bandwidth. It won’t be pretty.

I’ve been using it for pretty light online activity - posting to this blog, IM, twitter, etc. While it might not be the fastest connection you’re going to find it’s free, fast(ish) and sure makes the commute a little more pleasant. Hats off the the MBTA for taking this first step.

I wasn’t familiar with these guys until the wrote asking to use some of my photos for their guides. I’ve been seeing a number of new travel companies recently and like some of the approaches people are taking. I’m a big fan of Untravel, not so much of Urban Interactive and way of Schmap (OK, so the fact that they use my photos for free helps . . .).