uberblog

onedotzero / wow + flutter 11

2011-11-24T10:13:00.004Z

onedotzero is a motion graphics film festival in London presenting the world’s most innovative audio-visual work. It returns this year to London's BFI Southbank from 23-27 November 2011. The opening show was Wow + flutter with a selection of 35 shorts from up and coming new talent.

I definitely preferred those that had a stronger sense of narrative. My pick of the films:

3D No glasses by Jonathan Post

I assumed it was a fantastically funny spoof, but does it actually work?

Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus

A great story in 'info-graphic' style. Again, I loved the feeling it created around wondering how true it might be.

Breakfast Interrupted

A beautiful juxtaposition of order and chaos. There seemed to be a trend toward the hyper-real slow motion, and maybe because there was so much animation, truly real stuff of this film seemed to be far more compelling.

Onedotzero has lost all arts council funding, so if you are in London and want it to continue, try and attend to add your support.

Catvertising gets it 100% right

2011-11-16T16:02:00.002Z

In the week that Sapient Nitro shot themselves in the social media foot with "Idea Engineer", I thought it would be great to be positive and celebrate that sometimes people get it 100% right when they tackle the tricky task of advertising themselves. My current favourite is Catvertising by Canadian advertising agency John St.

Nearly as good as their equally brilliant take on the award video genre 'Pink Ponies'.

Vitamin talent : Ad Agency Bloodline

2011-07-11T15:25:00.013+01:00

The Ad Agency Bloodline by vitamin talent
Interesting agency hall of fame info graphic from Vitamin Talent.

Listed Agencies (sorry if I've missed any):

Agency.com, AKQA, Amalgamated, Anomaly, Arnold Worldwide, BBDO, Big Spaceship, BSSP, Cramer-Krasselt, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Critical Mass, Dare, David & Goliath, DDB, Dentsu, Digital Kitchen, Digitas, DraftFCB, Droga5, Euro RSCG, Fallon Worldwide, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Gotham, Ground Zero, GSD&M, Havas, Hello Design, 72 and Sunny, Huge, IDEO, Jung Von Matt, Luck & Company, JWT, La Comunidad, Leo Burnett, Lowe & Partners, MDC Partners, Mekanism, Mindshare, Modea, Mono, Mother, MRM Worldwide, Ogilvy & Mather, OMD, Omnicom, Organic, Pereira & O'Deal, Publicis, R/GA, Razorfish, Rockfish Interactive, RPA, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sid Lee, Starcomm Mediavest, Taxi, The Barbarian Group, The Eleven Agency, The Richards Group, Tribal DDB, Universal McCann, Venables Bell, Whittmanhart Interactive, Wieden+Kennedy, Wolff Olins, Wong, Doody, Crandall, Wiener, WPP, Young & Rubicam.

Google Trailer 'Zero Moment of Truth'

2011-07-08T14:49:00.002+01:00

ZMOT The message is now a conversation.

Google has started to play the research as PR game by re-spinning some good, but not exactly groundbreaking, thinking about the new purchase journey. Very similar to the heavily research backed "The consumer decision journey" in the McKinsey Quarterly (2009, Number 3). Both pieces of work put real weight behind gut instincts you might have had, and I'd recommend anyone in marketing to watch the video. Essentially, it places the role of 'search' in the research phase of choosing products. More significant is the influence of social media at this point in the consumer journey.

ZMOT is that moment when you grab your laptop, mobile phone or ipad and start learning about a product or service (or potential partner) you're thinking about trying or buying. I'm sure you know what I mean - you probably do web searches like this every day.

Download Google’s free marketing strategy ebook 'Winning the Zero Moment of Truth' from here.

Not in Cannes? Join Cannt!

2011-06-14T12:02:00.004+01:00

Cannt is a week of fun events for all those who aren't sunning themselves in beautiful Cannes. It kicks off with a pint and conversation on Sunday night at the Cannt Gutter Bar:

Welcome to Cannt.
This year, Creative Directors and their agencies the UK over want to thank the many people that work on the projects that make them look good on The Croisette during the Cannes Festival, but don’t get to go.
We have a "Gutter Bar" in East London, and link-ups to Cannes through the "Gutterbarometer" app so popular at last year’s Cannes festival; and through live broadcasts from judges and visitors at the festival.
Its a week of silly, inclusive, entertaining, enjoyable and educational events – bringing a bit of the Cannes halo to everyone involved in making the great work.

Google controls your light bulb

2011-05-11T14:13:00.007+01:00

Google announced Android at home at their I/O conference in California yesterday. It's an idea to let your device control any and every aspect of your home. A new spin on the old war of the living room, the surpizing moment was when they held up an wifi LED light bub that will be launched this year. Tech blog Electric pig gave a nice concise POV on the day of the announcement.

Loads of companies have spent billions on home automation solutions (Intel, Philips, Microsoft, IBM etc etc) but none have done it in this way. Google always seem to try and create an API and ecosystem for developers rather than getting bogged down in standards negotiations. What must really frighten competitors is the speed at which google innovate and bring things to market. I wonder how close all this 'far away' @home stuff really is?

Clearly, Google wants android to be the device that rules them all. Another promising real world integration demo was a mobile connected to an exercise bike. This gave an additional integrated display, access to sensors and shared data. Currently via USB, but Bluetooth must be just around the corner.

Google are already key investors in the tesla, they already have a car that drives itself, so clearly there must another unit looking at automotive integration. That should be a good thing because they are trying to create new open markets that encourage service developers.

The key android weakness that isn't going away, is people unwillingness to part with their money in the way that it happens on Apple devices. Maybe the new cloud based media services (film / audio) are really a way to establish that payment habit.

No stranger to encouraging piracy, what about the free (for now) 20,000 songs in the cloud? And the strange man that presented it? Clearly all the media training that had got his hand gestures so right didn't extend to his facial expressions. Because most of that will end up being pirated mp3, Google must have some automated rights automation ready like YouTube. There's going to be a real geek back-lash, when Google suddenly delete pirated mp3 collections from the cloud! Which is something they'll have to do to at some point to avoid a Napster situation.

Can't wait for day 2. Google I/O conference. (Streamed live to the world via YouTube)

The Smootrix

2011-03-28T13:11:00.008+01:00

Innocent Minimovies Competition

Loving the HD video from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2K. The Lumix 20mm f1.7 pancake lens is real joy for close-ups / faces. Add that to a new hi-res MacBook Pro, and there's really no excuse for not enjoying a few video projects.

First of through the lens is an entry for the Innocent Minimovies Competition to make a super hero smoothie sequel to this lovely ad by Ben Wheatley.

A matrix inspired homage to fruit - "Fruits...lots of fruits"

The Sequel - The Smootrix

Ben Wheatley original - superhero smoothie TV advert

The connected car at internet speed

2011-03-03T12:29:00.021Z

Over 1 million connected cars were sold last year.

Whilst that might seem like a low number compared to members of facebook, it's incredibly important to manufactures. Exactly like mobile phones, future generations of car buyers will place far greater importance on services, software capabilities and ecosystems.

"The game has changed from a battle of devices to a war of ecosystems.The emergence of ecosystems represents the broad convergence of the mobility, computing and services industries." Stephen Eslop, Nokia CEO

None of the car giants want a symbian in their hands, instead they are piling significant amounts of research money into finding the in-car electronic operating systems of the future. So what does the future car software ecosystem look like? And we likely to have automotive app stores?

All the main car manufactures have current offerings, partnerships and research groups focused on inventing the connected car as a source of competitive advantage. Like the mobile phone industry, we can expect a range of competing ecosystems and conflicting standards. While the smartphones are getting smarter, who will win the car interior war? When you consider a built-in navigation system for a BMW one series is an eye watering £2,010, you realise how much value car manufactures need to add to make their own systems compete against laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Nearly all of the research projects or prototypes I've seen so far have a very hardware centric view of the real human scenarios within cars. They are mostly focusing on the obvious things: safety, servicing, driver information, navigation etc. But, as Eric Schmidt observed at Davos, the real future is about technology that "just knows" based on context and history.

"We still think of search as something you type. Perhaps a decade from now, you will think, well, that was interesting, I used to type but now it just knows." Eric Schmidt

Transport, particularly in cars, is a particular form of context and social interaction. The car of the near future is packed with a myriad of sensors that would give it a much better ‘data informed’ guess about what I want. If the 5th screen is public displays, perhaps the 6th screen is about transport?
a
It all comes sharply into focus when you consider services and payment. In the future car, who will hold the key to my bank account! My BMW key fob or my NFC capable mobile? It's a real battle, because ultimately the dominant brand will be the one that owns the billing relationship.

The connected car

View more presentations from Ubermore

Dip stick Telemetrics Competitor Summary

Ford
Leadership in telemetrics has been a large part of Ford's great credibility in North American with Sync. Sync is so important that it's one of the few (only?) sub-brands to be physically badged in the ford interiors. Sync is already in 14 models in North America, based on Microsoft Windows Embedded Automotive. Sync revived the perception of the brand as an innovator and leader. But Ford is struggling to bring the proven technology quickly to the European market, originally promised in 2010...and the hardware it runs on will already look very tired by the end of this year.

BMW
Their current offer is called Assist. All current models are fitted with a mobile connection with a three year free subscription. ConnectedDrive is the umbrella for a number of prototypes and technologies from BMW futurelab. The most surprising and questionable idea is the key fob wallet using near field communication technology. BMW have announced that meego which will become the infotainment platform of their future cars. (Nokia has abandoned meego for a Microsoft partnership) They are releasing 4 futurology documentaries this February on the microsite 'BMW Activate the Future'.

VW Group
Unusually for a German brand, VW have their research group, Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL), in Silcon Valley. Arguably the lab to really watch, they've had many high profile and successful projects - the world first 3D Google earth integrated into current production models, a fruitful partnership with Nvidia and a range of amazing collaborations with Stanford.

Audi
Part of VW group, Audi has their own startup focused in for 'multimedia systems' (MIS). Announced at CES, Audi intended to create an entertainment app store.

"A major area of activity is total control systems. These include the next- and next-but-one-generation MMI concepts, freely programmable instrument clusters and attractive advances in the head-up display, for instance." Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG CES 2011

Hyundai
Heavily invested in a lab and research group thee years ago, co-funded with Microsoft using Microsoft Windows Embedded Automotive. From a user and interface perceptive, whilst not the most attractive, it appears to be the most innovative. At Detroit, Hyundai introduced an array of innovations including configurable displays and really nice haptic input devices. These must make BMW think of re-inventing the tired and awkward iDrive jog wheel!

Mercedes
The king of safety and convenience has ‘mbrace’. A long term partnership with American based innovator Huges Telematics. The platform gave a real step change in capability, but can a single development partner keep up with the pace of innovation in this sector? Fittingly, Mercedes is one of the few systems to offer and in-car and human concierge system.

Where should manufactures focus?

As internet cars hit the mainstream, manufactures will have to become far more agile to the demands of a connected consumer if they wish to be the brand of choice. The battle has started, and the pace of innovation is far greater in the web and telecoms industry. The automotive industry has to move at internet speed by investing in digital experience and experts.

Fine tuning your social mix

2011-03-03T11:23:00.004Z

There is one thing that I miss since the age of mp3 - Obsessive audiophiles.

In the age of vinyl, they existed in numbers. A curious breed of male, album loving, vinyl worshipping obsessives. Their focus was more than a simple quest for pure reproduction. It was a passionate exploration of fidelity.

These guys truly came alive when asked about something technical like the impedance of their speaker cables, how to mount a rega P1 turntable or the optimum warm up times of electrostatic speakers. The ethic was about mixing and matching components to achieve the ultimate, personal and bespoke setup. But, the immediacy of mp3s trumped the quality of vinyls and accuarcy was forgotten.

But should we live without fidelity?
Looking at the social networking world, I ask myself: Where are the valve amps?

A great piece of research from by Paul Adams, exposes the lack of control, immaturity and fundamental shorting comings of today's social platforms in his 2010 presentation ‘The Real Life social Networks’. (Note that Facebook have poached him from Google since this presentation)
Wouldn’t it be great to have a throttle social media to your emotional context?

But nothing mainstream appears to exist like that. The only way you can ‘valve amp’ a perfect social circle is by having an darlek like extermination of people you’re not sure about. There’s either checking your email or not checking your email. Gmail’s priority inbox, at least, is an attempt to recognise the fact that all messages are not equal. But even this has a purely unitary emotionally state.

There are times when I need my close friends, and other times I think I can take on the world. There are times when I want to share my knowledge with a broader circle and more often, when I want to share my personal thoughts with a intimate circles of people. Certain knowledge might be business, other parenting related...where are the cables, dials and components that can fine tune my social mix?

IDEO vs. BERG

2010-09-24T11:37:00.004+01:00

It looks like BERG have well and truly taken IDEO's crown when it comes to good thinking about interaction. These two projects sum it up.

The first clue is the silly names IDEO give their 'explorations' :
NELSON = Web connected Book
COPLAND = Company book club
ALICE = Story Game

The second is the pompous tone. There's an admirably attempt to avoid experience jargon in the likable voiceover of Berg. It's the mark of true insight that what they do seems so obvious and simple.

Third, Berg's idea of putting wireframes into the 'real-life' mock-ups is genius. Like scamps, or drawing, it focuses the mind on the ideas, rather than using the power of slick 'fluff' to convince.

It would be great if Berg could curate a book like Trokias "Digital design".

IDEO : The Future of books

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

Meet Nelson, Coupland, and Alice — the faces of tomorrow’s book. Watch global design and innovation consultancy IDEO’s vision for the future of the book.

www.ideo.com

BERG : MAG+

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

This conceptual video is a corporate collaborative research project initiated by Bonnier R&D into the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices. It illustrates one possible vision for digital magazines in the near future, presented by our design partners at BERG.

Pirata London.com Boatrace

2010-05-26T15:10:00.000+01:00

The Pirata Boat Race

Engagement = Profits

2010-05-26T09:56:00.001+01:00

Most Enagaging Brands
Originally uploaded by ubermore.

Hall & Partners’ Engager™

Richard Owen, Hall & Partners’ global head of innovation, said that using regression analysis the agency found a “0.67 correlation between our engagement model and company profitability”.

www.hallandpartners.com/

www.marketingweek.co.uk/in-depth-analysis/features/custom...

VMM Player

2010-05-19T16:59:00.001+01:00

Where is the internet going?

2010-05-12T13:24:00.002+01:00

....the mash-up of internet, social networks and mobile devices when the internet becomes a continuous added layer onto our everyday experience."
See http://www.layar.com/

Sent to a colleague today, but suddenly thought maybe I'd been playing too much buzzword bingo.

Diesel: Be stupid interactive video

2010-04-01T12:19:00.001+01:00

Diesel: Be stupid interactive video
Originally uploaded by ubermore.

www.diesel.com/ahundredlovers/

Really liked this uniqlo-like 'real people wearing the clothes' video catalogue. Diesel make it their own through the selection of great stupid people. Each person links everyone to their online social digital selves. Shame the the time slide doesn't scroll better, there were loads of characters I wanted to get the backstory, but couldn't manage to pause quickly enough or scroll to them. It' lso be nice to be able to deeplink a friend to a particular frame, so the social stupid stars could link straight to themselves.

Nokia Countdown...

2010-01-20T18:35:00.001Z

From http://www.intomobile.com/
"Nokia (NYSE: NOK) just launched a website counting down to an event that’s going to take place in 15 hours and 30 minutes. It’s got something to do with Ovi, so you’ll have to forgive me for not wanting to stay awake until 3 in the morning..."

http://events.nokia.com/countdown/

Billions: Information can be beautiful

2009-08-15T17:10:00.001+01:00

Billion
Originally uploaded by ubermore.

Came across this great graphic which tries to visualize and put into context the US debt mountain. Giving printing money the fancy name of 'quantitative easing' undoubtedly means that future generations will dispair at our stupidity.

Anyway, the graphic is from a great site you should visit if info pron lights your boat. www.informationisbeautiful.net/

I can't vouch for the accuracy of the data, and neither can the maker:
"I hoping this will be a “living image” that I’ll keep updating all the time. So if you find any interesting, juicy or eye-popping billions, please comment below (with a source). Let’s see how high we can make this image!"

EMAIL: InformationIsBeautiful AT Gmail

Mr & Mrs Lunsons's Anniversary Luncheon

2009-07-20T00:26:00.001+01:00

Mr & Mrs Lunsons's Anniversary Luncheon
Originally uploaded by ubermore.

"Lunch was originally intended as a vehicle in which working classes could escape their job and purchase alcoholic beverages."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luncheon

Seen here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembroke_Lodge

Pitch Criteria

2009-07-09T00:06:00.001+01:00

"One critical area is your pitch criteria. Retained business is every agencies goal, but recession makes it tougher. It's wise to reserve special effort for projects more likely to lead to retained business. That's often an intuitive leadership choice, but equally you can have criteria. That might be around the sectors, incumbent agencies, marketing culture, top-level connections, etc. The most successful agencies seek a non-level playing field....they pick their battles and play to win."

Advice given to an agency last year, don't play fair.

Eyebrows of a thousand faces

2009-07-03T09:52:00.002+01:00

Eyebrows of a thousand faces
Originally uploaded by ubermore.

Lovely project from the an RCA degree show animation student. It featured stereo eyebrow controls. The fader did the height of the eyebrows and the volume know did the angle. Had great fun making different emotional expressions.

RCA Show 2009

Creativesocial Antwerp @ Villa Tinto

2009-05-18T20:26:00.002+01:00

Creativesocial Antwerp @ Villa Tinto
Originally uploaded by ubermore.

Penthouse suite above the high tech legal brothel Villa Tinto in Anstwerp's red light district. Photo taken by Björn Höglund, Creative Director &founder of Daddy using his iphone & panorama iphone app

Panorama is easily the best Panorama iphone app according to Björn. He also highly rated PT GUI Pro for desktop stitching. Terrible name and awful interface, but he said the software rocked - just chuck a folder full of images at it and they get pieced together with great blends and color correction etc.

The Art Of Amazon User Reviews

2009-03-30T14:33:00.005+01:00

Amazon reviews have been raised to an artform by the Sandman. Can the hivemind find the funniest?

"I bought this ironing board hoping it would bring back some exitement into my life. It is designer after all! I placed it up against the lounge wall at a recent party in my house, and NOBODY commented on it! I was so distraught that I kicked everyone out and drunkenly set about the ironing board with a fire axe whilst crying hysterically. Apart from that its ok."

"As a very heavy drinker, I find this ideal as it slips into my suit pocket perfectly. I can sneak a slug of absinthe anywhere! At work, on the tube, at family gatherings, and they're none the wiser. Well, I think one person suspects at work, but im going to make sure they get the sack so its ok."

Update! Thanks to Rob Bevan for the bucket that changed my life

'Although I have used the Dover Parkerburg less since installing our new fangled "Water Closet", I display it with pride, knowing that I own the best 2 gallon galvanized bucket in town. '

SXSWi 2009: Sketchnotes: First Spread

2009-03-23T21:51:00.002Z

SXSWi 2009: Sketchnotes: First Spread
Originally uploaded by Mike Rohde.

Twitter has been on fire with SXSW. So much so, that someone created a tool to filter the conference tweets out. Others started a global "I'm not at SXSW" party, http://www.notatsxsw.com. I didn't use the tool or make the party, but I did come across this great notebook on the interactive channel talks. Give yourself a headache and flip though it with cool iris, preferable on a very large monitor.

If you want more, read the excellent full blog post:
http://www.rohdesign.com/weblog/archives/003039.html

Kutiman - Mother of Mashup

2009-03-09T21:05:00.002Z

Just when mashups were been written off as so last year, along comes a project of napalm creativity. This track, 'Mother of All Funk Chords' had me smiling all the way. A lovable project made from youtube samples by Kutiman.

Pick up by Iain Tait at Crackunit, can't wait to get this into my itunes.

2009: The year to remix paper

2009-02-06T16:47:00.002Z

Over at crackunit Iain Tait thinks 2009 might be the year of the PDF. I'm going more controversial and say the trend is....paper. Early indicators were the gorgeous Moo cards, now a staple in the digital party circuit, and Manolis Kelaidis’ amazing RCA project with conductive inks - blueBook project.

On the 17th of Jan, a glittering array of creative digirati assembled to hack with...paper at Papercamp. The experiments and talks in this unconference reveal a tangible excitement in mixing interaction and print . It's all part of the movement to connect more tangibly the real and the virtual. Making things 'real', whether in terms of presence or physicality makes things more memorable. It's like the shift in attention from recorded music to live performance. More and more of advertising seems to focus on the 'nowness' of performance. Think of Axe 100 Girls, W+K air drop, T-mobile mobbing, AKA xmas card....it's all part of this incessant demand for hyper-authenticity.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

UPDATE: Found some more great paper projects over at infosthetics, "Paper-Based Visualization Competition: The Winner and More"

"Don't let blogging get you down"

2009-01-31T14:23:00.005Z

Confidence In Blog Postings Over Time

View more presentations from iaintait. (tags: digital online

Many bloggers are finding it much harder to post. Twitters immediacy and presence gives a better hit. Meet-ups, coffee and un-conferences feel more real than online fake friends. Iain Tait adds to the dilemma with a window on the personal hell of posting.
Wonder if this was prompted by the feedback on his post on the recent T-mobile mobbing Waterloo ad. What remains refreshing about his blog, is his ability and willingness to publicly wrestle with the issues.

Routes: Discover the Secrets in Your Genes

2009-01-22T14:32:00.002Z

Routes game.com, broadcasting 2.0

Looks like a really interesting transmedia story / game. Seem to pushing all the write social media / game / story angles, plus a compelling cause related backstory. Love the courageous 'self-buzz'feature of putting live-blog entries on the homepage.

Griddle your creative brain at 'The 'PSFK Good Idea Salon'

2009-01-19T18:01:00.006Z

Would love to go to this ubercool psfk event 'Good Ideas Salon' in London. A rhumba of innovators, thinkers and raconteurs in the a fields of mobile, design, publishing, music, collaboration, experiential design, digital experiences, and more

PSFK’s Good Ideas Salon London is a day of presentations and panels around key areas steering innovation and opportunity. For the event, PSFK has curated a collection of the most forward-thinking tastemakers, innovators, and experts from around the world.

The 'Good Ideas & Youth' panel will include W+K digital youth guru Ruby Pseudo. Other speakers of note : Dan Hon, Jeremy Ettinghausen, Mark Earls, Amanda Gore, Matt Jones, Matt Hardisty, Colin Nagy, Simon Waldman, etc. etc. etc. If you're not wowed by the speakers then just check out the attendee list.

Sign up before they sell out at visit http://www.psfk.com/good-ideas-salon-london.

Video archive of previous talks.

Dopplr 2008 Annual Report

2009-01-15T20:32:00.003Z

Dopplr 2008 Annual Report for Barack Obama
Originally uploaded by moleitau.

Looking forward to my Dopplr annual account, although I didn't really travel that much in 2008. Here is one for Barack Obama sent out as a promo. Fantastic bit of bit of information design, can't wait for Virgin to do that on my media bill.

Innocent Marketing platform ideas

2009-01-08T16:18:00.005Z

Brief: Innocent are the gurus of brand engagement, but it’s the less engaged who are their mass consumer. How can Innocent drive loyalty with consumers who just like their brand rather than love it? Here are some marketing platform ideas for broadening the church of Innocent to the less engaged.

Inspired by the essay where I lifted the checklist: “I Believe in a Brand New Religion” by Graeme Douglas. I need to add some slides explaining the '4 Commandments of social media'. If only I could work out how to add notes in slideshare.

Innocent Church

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: innocent brand)

Facebook: Whopper Sacrifice

2009-01-08T15:53:00.001Z

Facebook: Whopper Sacrifice
Originally uploaded by ubermore.

Spotted this via Flo Heiss on Twitter: "finally someone found a use for facebook:"

My next steps:

Step 1: OK, loosing 10 facebook friends should be easy, I want that whopper
Step 2: 10 lost, was actually quite fun, now to claim my whopper
Step 3: Oh crap, I don't live in America...I didn't want it anyway, I was just doing research.

Always amazed how unglobal these global brands really are.

Vonage - up and running in about 3 minutes

2009-01-08T12:34:00.005Z

Vonage - up and running in about 3 minutes
Originally uploaded by ubermore.

Just posted a Vonage Unpacking flickr set today. I'm using Vonage with my Virgin broadband for unlimited UK & international calls. Call quality is great, much better than skype...portable too, local calls from where ever you can find an Ethernet connection.

It doesn't seem too revolutionary, but have to say I'm really impressed with the call quality and mature feature set. For example, I get emailed a voice file and a txt when someone leaves a message. Makes a lot of sense for Virgin users who want a second line outside their bundle.

Should be part of any road warriors travel set. Imagine you're traveling to Singapore. If your room has an Ethernet connection, then just plug this in, use the hotel phone and you have unlimited calls to the UK for free, local rates for mobiles and the countries you've subscribed too. Would save a bundle without the need for a laptop. With Skype, there's the hassle of firing up the computer, poor line quality and shouting into your laptop.

I'd be interested in any feedback from vonage using bloggers / travellers.

Who is tictac Micha?

2009-01-07T11:47:00.001Z

Is that really possible? Took me about half the video to spot the tictacs, groan.

The Ubermore 2008 Agency Xmas Carol Battle

2008-12-15T21:00:00.004Z

Which agency can sing the best carol? Watch London's top digital agencies battle it out. Select your winner at the end of the clip on youtube and see them celebrate. The celebration video with most views at 8pm on Xmas eve wins. Written and directed by Ubermore: Kathrin Burckhardt & Mike Williams.

Watch the youtube clip to vote:
Enter the 2009 Xmas Carol battle:

This years finalists:

Agency Republic - Marketing digital agency of the year
Lean Mean Fighting Machine - Cannes International Agency of the year
Profero
Tonic.

Voting ends 8pm 24/12/2008.

30 Social Networking Terms Forbes thinks You Should Know

2008-12-01T09:31:00.009Z

Micro Mashup: Forbes 30 Terms, Keywordfinder and wordle

The Obama campaign finance victory has pushed Social networking up the business agenda. Forbes just published a buzz word bingo primer. I thought I'd try and create a map to see which common phrases were more significant in the internet zeitgeist.

In terms of words, I find it more interesting that twitter seems to have spawned such a large 'in-the-know' lexicon: twitter, twitterer, tweet, twuffer, twitterzine, reportwitters, twoosh, stream, dweet, mistweet, tweeple, tweetin, twitterati, twitosphere, twitterness

Aggregator : RSS, feed, search, atom, news, subscriptions, download, podcasts, web feed
Atom feed : RSS, atom, attribute, xml, syndication, feed reader, specification, element, feeds, URI
Atom Publication Protocol: Atom Syndication Format, element, atom, xml, protocol, feed, URI, attribute, application, IRI, workspace
Blog blogging search, election, country, video, obama, photos, president, google, interent, bbc news
Blogsphere blogging, search, bloggers, internet, technorati, declan lynch, languages, drops, lotus domino, country
Blogroll sidebar, bloggers, blogging, wordpress, howto, technorati, search, bookmarklet, money, blogroll
Buddy list screen name, my buddy, buddies, computer, buddy, AOL, AIM, download, instant message, dim
Drupal modules, CMS, content management, system, download, user login, developers, packt, open source, search
Flickr photos, photography, camera, search, picture, photo sharing, api, download, application, service
Instant Messaging Download, AIM, internet, Windows XP, MSN, computer, software, ICQ, employees, application
Jabber server, instant messaging, AIM, ICQ, jabber clients, MSN, Jabber ID, protocol, presence, xml
Linkedin business, search, facebook, networking, job, social networking, howto, company, candidates, twitter
Long tail business, amazon, chris anderson, birds, search, google, consumers, products, traffic,niche
Microblogging twitter, blogging, service, Jaiku, social media, characters, video, platform, tweet, SMS
Microformats hcard, hcalendar, xhtml, span, xml, semantic web, abbr, web 2.0, humans, classes
News Feed rss, feeds, news feeds, syndication, headlines, search, business, sports, rss feed, weather
OpenID identity, authentication, foundation, server, user, janrain, google, aol, logins, adoption
OPML outline, language, rss, xml, application, rss, outliner, attribute, xml, feeds, search
Peer-to-Peer p2p, network, server, internet, software, protocol, gnutella, nodes, download, napster
Podcast downloading, audio, podcast, download, itunes, directory, episode, video, software
RSS feeds, reader, news, syndication, xml, video, attribution, syndication, orange, business
Second Life linden lab, virtual world, avatar, SL, game, virtual, residents, dollars, real, grid
SEO google, engine, services, optimisation, search, marketing, business, company, howto, traffic
SMS text, message, bulk, gateway, mobile, ringtones, free, send, messaging, texts
Social Graph facebook, graph, relationships, google, networking, service, twitter, livejournal, developers, zukerberg
Social Networking facebook, networking, network, networks, london, business, bebo, job, web2.0, twitter,
Syndication newspapaers, syndicate, rss, magazines, news, content, free, dictionary, business, search, newsfeed
Tagging products, security, EAS, merchandise, RFID, RRP, stock, price, shoplifting, folksonomy
Twitter service, tweets, facebook, followers, blogging, networking, howto, api, tweet, mobile
XMMP jabber, instant, download, extensible, presence, protocol, ICQ, libpurple, noarch, pidgin

Brand U from Critical Mass

2008-10-14T11:26:00.006+01:00

Thought piece on self branding from logic + emotion. The case studies are A-list bloggers Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble, Seth Godin and Russel Davies. The 'be' rules at the end (be ubiquitous, social, interesting, remarkable and yourself) seem attibutes that some of us may have problems executing.

Brand "U.0"

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: internet brand)

12 presentation tips / winning a pitch

2008-10-08T22:31:00.027+01:00

Advice for delivering the best you can considering everyone else can be better.

1 Develop your own style
Who are you? Why do I want to work with this guy? Don't be an actor, because then the client buys the role you play. Don't copy the 'best' presenter. Bring out who you are. Clients want variety.

2 Content is more important
What you say is more important than slickness. What do you really want to say?

3 Identify your key content points
People remember slogans. Don't be frightened by repetition. Tell them what you're going to say, tell them, and then tell them what you told them. Output the distillation of everything you know. Clients are looking for a point of view.

4 Get on with it
Night before? Hour before? The earlier you start the better you'll be. Give yourself time.

5 Prepare
Nearly everything is in the writing of the script. Get to the point where you don't need the script. Preparing helps you learn. Write the script and then edit. Editing makes you learn.

6 Practise
Say it out loud. The best way to practice is to rehearse with people. It helps you listen and adapt. Clients hate the feeling that you're reading off a script. Use this to prepare for what they might say so you can react.

7 Don't worry
Don't be thrown by mistakes. Everyone should be nervous at a presentation. If you loose your train of thought just say it. Very few people are not sympathetic. What you don't know is not an acid.

8 Practise handovers
All people are buying a team. The team should be interesting, different, complementary, and appear to be able to work together. Team working is demonstrated by seamless handovers. Don't be a talking head. Each team member should feel able to say something naturally. They should be relaxed enough to do it when it's not planned. Teams help each other. The goal is to know and own the whole story, not just your bit.

9 Don't look at the screen
It's been said a million times, but present to people. Don't talk to the wall. Do what you want. It's much better if you present differently.

10 Edit you charts
Bullet points are a reminder not a narrative. Read Edward R. Tufte article "The cognitive style of PowerPoint" to understand this.

11 Don't rush
Don't try and get it over with. Make it last as long as possible. Pace gives people the chance to hear you. The clear space for pace is only possible through rehearsing. (Points 6 & 10)

12 Always have a backup
Assume everything will go wrong and have the physical materials to still make your presentation work. Hard copy, flip charts, pen & paper - whatever works.

Follow these tips and your pitch will make your team appear relaxed, modern and friendly. That is what clients buy.

dare - who is jonnyx

2008-09-09T17:39:00.004+01:00

I had a 'whogothemilk' moment watching this new campaign from dare for Sony Ericsson xperia. Look at the production values on that! I watched for a second time and saw something even more surprising for a web film: emotion, a real car crash, maybe a story and, incredibly, some good acting. Awesome. Let's hope the interaction lives up to the spectacular promise of the trailer.

Cliche: You only get one chance for a first impression

2008-08-29T14:03:00.008+01:00

This is the sort of creative desk I wish I had. The desk is in MassiveMusic, an Amsterdam based Music Consultancy for the Ad Industry. The still is from "This Ain't No Disco", a fascinating blog that features the interiors of agencies [discovered via Cool Hunting].

The aesthetic of the working environment is really important. Great agencies seem to look after themselves and make their ecosystem a manifestation philosophy:

"I don’t think you manage creative people. I think you create an environment for them, and cast the right sensibilities for the right projects. And you avoid getting too impressed with yourself or thinking you have all the answers."
Andy Berndt, Managing Director, Google Creative Labs

Slides from a talk entitled 'Obvious'

2008-08-20T15:41:00.001+01:00

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Paul Feldwick on planning and poetry

2008-07-10T13:28:00.013+01:00

Had a great meal at The Union in soho this week. Everyone I spoke to during the evening seems to have been a member at some point. The Creative Social s were lucky enough to hear advertising guru Paul Feldwick talk about planning and poetry. I normally put poetry into the same bucket as musicals, but my attitude was transformed by his wonderful delivery and great choice of material. He is deep thinker about the mechanics of advertising. His attack on the perils of the 'big idea' seemed particularly pertinent. Not much of his thinking is online, but I did find these articles:

Interview with Paul Fenwick
Brands and Branding
He's the man

Thanks to Mark from The Garden Party who sponsored the evening.

[NOTE] Paul kindly emailed me a list of the poems, my favorite being the sock:

The Shield of Achilles WHAuden
Seasonal Fanfare Adrian Mitchell
O Strange Animals David Hart
Bean Soup John Hartley Williams
New Numbers Christopher Logue
Ode to my Socks Pablo Neruda (trans)

Kodak 'crap, dated and dead'

2008-07-02T16:38:00.010+01:00

The nice folks from schematic.com pointed out this site yesterday. It's displays cloud tags about brands. Go across the brands and the comments seem very negative. Even darling brands like Apple get a kicking. There is something about open forums that attract 'haters'.

It's a much more intelligent version of Youtube comment speak. It's very noticeable that brands with more personality provoke more emotion. Compare BMW with Nokia. Maybe to really stand for something you have to have some people hating you. This observation was made by the developers of stack overflow. They knew they were doing something right when the spoof site crap overflow launched whilst they were still in beta. (Stackoverflow podcast)

Brandtags - nokia, bmw
www.brandtags.net

Cyberchase - digital acceleration game for Partners Andrew Aldridge

2008-06-28T17:06:00.000+01:00

Project: Cyber-chase
Media: Website, blogs, lectures, games
Duration: 4 months
Role: Planner / Writer / Developer
Agency: Partners Andrew Aldridge

A digital acceleration training game played by Partners Andrew Aldridge in 2007 created by Mike Williams and Rebecca Mackenzie. Billed as "A race to be a cyber-ace". The agency competed with six challenges themed around . The tasks were set via the cyberchase blog, with bespoke hints, tips and tutorials on the reading list. An online league table kept everyone abreast of their digital prowess. Most fun was the mobile treasure hunt around Soho.

Speakers included planner Iain Tait, writer Tim Wright, entrepreneur Paul Cleghorn and developer Phil Gyford.

It's not what you say but how you behave

2008-06-10T15:46:00.004+01:00

365 - 238 - in the movies
Originally uploaded by the brownhorse.

“Traditional brands now operate in an attention economy. The challenge is to develop communication strategies and campaigns that are entertaining, useful and social. Brands have to go further than delivering messages and nurture connection. They need to facilitate and orchestrate interaction.

To support the TV campaign we propose to create a series of engaging experiences that aim to elevate [x] from a product [x] to an iconic brand. Making this leap requires the development of a richer set of brand expressions and behaviours. The objective is to build a credible brand personality with which consumers can connect.

The new consumer is increasing in control, but equally they seek fun, playfulness and spontaneity. [x] needs therefore to more experimental and playful in its communications. Earning attention requires a fuller set of communications that are specifically targeted in terms of time, location and behaviour. [x] needs to either enable these experiences or be present by association.”

Telectroscope in New York

2008-05-22T01:29:00.006+01:00

Telectroscope in New York
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

"The Teletroscope is a giant invention that enables you to see right through the earth from London to New York or vice versa. We bet you didn't know there was a tunnel under the atlantic dug by a victorian man called Alexander Stanhope St. George. His great grandson has finished what Alexander started and built the Telectroscopes which will be open 24 hrs a day! More info available at www.tiscali.co.uk/telectroscope or check out the blog: blog.telectroscope.org

Aptly I spotted this report in Timeout (New York), just after leaving "I want to believe" - the explosive gunpowder art of Cai Guo-Qiang at the Guggenheim. Apparently the grand launch is tomorrow morning at Fulton Ferry Landing. If anyone one is near South Bank at 3pm tomorrow, perhaps we could give this amazing device a try.

Flickr set here

The new iphone is coming

2008-05-13T11:32:00.001+01:00

unavailable
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

The signs are all there for a new iphone in June. I suppose this is where the 18 month contract is really going to hurt the early adopters hungry for the proper connectivity of 3G. I've found 3G incredibly patchy in the UK.

O2 completely cleared its stock in days when it introduced a £100 reduction a few weeks ago. I always ask owners for their first impressions, and whilst some say it's not as easy as they were expecting, almost all complain of addiction.

Whilst the innovation is in the user experience, it seems the real genius was the compulsory data plan. It must be a barrier to purchase, but it does mean that any potential developer for new SDK can rely on the existence of a 'as much as you can eat' data plan. Once the 3G version arrives, expect to finally see some really interesting apps on your handset.

McDonald's Big Mac drive thru Rap

2008-05-09T21:10:00.001+01:00

Rewatched this classic after getting this comment "your the retard the lyrics are like this. I NEED A DOUBLE CHEESEBURGER HOLD THE LETTUCE DONT BE FRONTIN SON NO SEEDS ON THE BUN WE BE UP IN THIS DRIVE THRU ODER FOR 2 I GOTS A CRAVING FOR A NUMBER 9 LIKE MY SHOE WE NEED SOME CHICKEN UP IN HERE IN THIS DIZZLE FOR RIZZLE MY MIZZLE EXTRA SALT ON THE FRIZZLE DR.PEPER MY BROTHER ANOTHER FOR YA MOTHER DOUBLE DOUBLE SUPER SIZE AND DONT FORGET THE FRIES! CRISPY! "

Interesting destination

2008-04-22T18:31:00.002+01:00

OFF TAPE FM Selector
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

I seem to keep getting things that point at this....

Petrol boycott in comic sans

2008-04-10T09:49:00.003+01:00

petrol boycott in comic sans
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Is it possible to have a credible idea in comic sans? This is an interesting protest viral - boycott one major supplier and they will be forced to lower prices. The email suggests BP and Esso as the victims. No much effort for me to join in this one...I must remember not to use the 300 million argument next time I get asked to the likely uniques of a campaign.

(See the full text of the email by clicking the image)

Pop-up Alphabet book

2008-04-07T20:30:00.001+01:00

Pop-up Alphabet
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Managed to see and hold a copy of the pop-up alphabet book from Bloomsbury at the Bologna book fair. Very nice, I was asked not to take pictures, so I did a self portrait. Comes out in autumn. 'M' is the best.

Call for entries!! Piechart humour

2008-02-28T17:27:00.002Z

Rick Astley would never
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Please help me by adding yourself and any piechart humour from your hard drive to the pie chart flickr group

www.flickr.com/groups/piechart

Lovely spraycan art - neckcns.com

2008-02-28T10:06:00.002Z

Awesome spraycan art - neckcns.com
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Loved this artwork, assuming it will go on sale quite soon

www.neckcns.com

Control, privacy and terrorist cells

2008-02-26T15:56:00.003Z

People behave differently in groups!

To what extent can social software applications be used to observe, engineer and predict social behaviour? Looking at management theory, organizational behaviour and psychology there seems to be a great body of work associated with the behaviour of groups. Groups are dramatically different to individuals. The focus of marketing practice today is primarily around understanding individuals, but the focus should be on groups. Tools, metrics and methods for groups simply don't exist in the mainstream.

I've observed patterns of emergent online group behaviour that repeat so frequently that they seem be to almost inevitable. Perhaps they are, and these behaviours are driven by human nature. Equally, the way that these groups form, grow and interact does seem too influenced by the interaction grammar of the application. The question I get frequently asked by brands/businesses is a point of view on how to control online social groups. I've tried to put together a theory that distinguishes between the things that can be influenced and the things that are unpreventable. So far, the best thinking on online group behaviour I can find is by Clay Shirky.

Online communities are far older than most people think, stretching back to the early 70's. So it would be very interesting to place the behaviours seen on facebook, bebo etc in a historical context. Direct experimentation to demonstrate theories should actually be quite easy. The really fascinating related area is the network analysis methods being developed by intelligence agencies to spot terrorist cells. Like the original birth of the internet in military technology, I see this type of analysis of online behaviour as potentially the most valuable to businesses in the long term. It would also cause people to re-evaluate their view of privacy. If you knew that the way you interact could be used to predict the nature and strength of your beliefs, values and allegiances, you would probably be far less keen about web 2.0 'contribute' culture.

"John Wayne Gacy Jr" by Sufjan Stevens

2008-02-12T14:04:00.001Z

I had a great evening of indulgence with a musician friend Max last Friday. He played a fantastic range of music, including his own, but the song that stuck in my mine was this haunting and powerful song by Sufjan Stevens. Get some tissues before you listen, it's the first time I've cried watching youtube. It really stops you in your tracks.

Max is primarily a blues guitarist He's been working on a new album that's inspired by "Segu Blue" by Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba

By some weird synchronicity an old friend from Munich, Felix Kemp, did the album artwork and gave me a copy last Summer. It was BBC Radio 3 Critics 'Album of the Year' Award for World Music and is a fabulous album of resonant hypnotic music.

Max has been writing songs that combine blues with Mali rhythms. The sound is really beautiful, hard to place, but is a bit like 'acoustic techno' if that existed. He's aiming to gather an Orchestra to perform and develop these songs. If you're a musician, (fiddlers, pluggers, strummer etc) who might want to join his Orchestra drop me a email or write in the comments.

Are social networks important?

2008-02-07T10:24:00.001Z

Apple II Bootup
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

My first ‘digital’ experience was the Apple II. This was the first mass personal computer (PC) from Apple under the pioneering stewardship of Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniack. It was a PC as we know it, but sans the graphical user interface. The one I used had 64K of RAM, no hard disk, and a 5 1/.4 inch floppy drive that could store 360 KB. It was little more than calculator. The school machine I used was hidden away in the Physics lab in a room with no windows. Switching on an Apple II all you got was a black screen with a prompt. It had almost no software, but it did have a programming language. My first feeling was one of intense interest and curiosity. Thinking about it now, it was rather like buying a notebook and being excited about the idea of literature.

The experience of this early personal computer was one of monastic isolation. It was a toy focused on the creation of computer programs. Like the later BBC micro, the users captured by the machine loved play and programming. These revolutionary machines were the training ground of the lonely pioneers of our industry.

Computers, in this pre-Internet era, were particularly baffling for parents. “He’s into computing” was the standard dinner party explanation. The customary exchange was a silent nod of acknowledgment where both parties knew the line of conversation was at and end. I think the common mental picture was somewhere between a nuclear physicist and a b-list chess champion. Working in ‘interactive multimedia’ during the early late 80's and early 90’s, I found it more convenient to lie, rather than go through the pain of explaining the future potential of digital media.

This year I had my own particular ‘Road to Damascus’. My next door neighbor’s wife leaned over the fence one Saturday and asked me if I was on facebook. This was the first internet conversation I had ever had with a non-native about social interaction. It was a shock after 10 years of equipment recommendations, eBay bidding strategies and web sites for £75. Everybody on my road knows about email, Amazon, eBay and Photoshop. But, facebook had made something different happen in my life. It was something new. I’d only registered it in April 07 because of its phenomenal growth rate. The idea that a new web application could reach and recruit my attractive neighbor’s wife in two months was frankly astonishing.

This was the proof that the computer had ceased to be an isolated geeky toy. It is a social device that connects people. The innate assumption of the digitally literate generation was suddenly real. 'Switching on' isn't a black screen with a dot prompt, but a moment when an individual literally becomes manifest into existence. Numerous surveys and research confer, that device loss for today’s generation is on a par with bereavement. I asked my 9 year old son what he thought a computer was for. He said “Everything, it’s better than a car because you can order flights, and the best bit is that thing where you chat to people.” Communication is such a basic human need, it should be more of a surprise that social networking has taken so long to become mainstream. Facebook may be the site of 2007, but the sheer addictiveness of the experience proves social networks are here to stay.

Everyone knows ‘word of mouth’ is the most trusted way opinion gets distributed. Social networks accelerate and amplify ‘word of mouth’ into a bushfire. Online, this previously invisible and mysterious propagation is far more visible and observable. Marketing has a tendency to focus on how to persuade individuals. A host of established techniques have become the norm, and most large companies have some form of segmentation, pen portraits or persona work to focus their marketing effort. Whilst this helps marketers focus their campaign work, there is often little or no understanding of how messages really propagate and travel through a network structure. The best guess currently popular is the ‘tipping point’, where key individuals can create an epidemic. But many ad agencies I’ve worked with are happy to go with the notion of ‘succeed with the opinion formers and the rest will follow’

Web 2.0 - Flickr cluster finding tool
Originally uploaded by pinhole.

The age of social machines means that agencies have to develop a far more rigorous understanding of network flow. The data is there to view measure and analyze in real time. Insight into these complex mechanisms will be far more meaningful to businesses than simplistic back-of the-cab principles. The need for creativity and great ideas does not change, but the mechanism and potential understanding of their effect and transference has changed forever.

"It's like jelly"

2008-01-31T15:40:00.001Z

Yummy Jelly
Originally uploaded by Muhammed Ali.

The digital revolution hit the music industry the hardest during 2007. Tower records closed its doors. Madonna signed with a tour promoter. Radiohead took control and gave away "In Rainbows". Even the basic commodity, the album, is being eroded by the cherry picking of Itunes and free downloads. People just don't seem to buying CDs and digital sales haven't closed the gap. 20% of online Europeans have downloaded music, but only 2% paid. Music is an industry where content is king and the record labels see copyright as their castle. The walls of Jericho are coming down. Warner experienced a 74% drop in profits during the first quarter of 2006 and they continue to nose dive. A prominent band manager noted in the Wall Street Journal "Sales are so down and so off, as a manager, I look at CD sales as part of the marketing of an artist, more than an income stream." So what does this all mean?

The way people discover and share music has fundamentally changed. The value has shifted from product to the live experience because the recorded product is essentially free. And the film industry is next. One of my oldest friends from university is a global tour promoter. Since becoming a dad, we've seen less of each other. Given this tectonic shift, I thought business must be good, and it would be a good time to do lunch, if only to get back on the guest list. Over spicy noodles at Pho on St.John Street I was surprised by his outlook. Product sales where in a unprecedented collapse, but this meant everyone was now chasing the secondary revenues. From t-shirts to beer cups. Most importantly, without the return from products sales, there was less and less marketing spend to create global music brands. Look at the number of new UK chart acts that tour the states for proof. Diminishing income means that the supply of new mega-bands is disappearing. For his business, there are a dwindling number of acts that are capable of touring globally so he needs to diversify. Although the live experience has become more important, fanship in the future will be far more fragmented and local.

Labels have reacted to this reality by trying to cover all possible revenue streams associated with an act. New artists are faced with deals where they must sell their soul in perpetuity in all formats and mediums known and unknown. Strangely, these '360 branding' contracts resemble the ones I used to have to sign when I worked in the film industry. These 'devil contracts' provide brands with a real opportunity. Why note hire some talent from the army of unemployed music professionals and provide labels to artists that operate on more reasonable terms? It's clearly the wrong strategy to badge venues and name stages when product and service brands can participate and manufacture the actual product. This type of authentic behaviour far better suits the age of social networks. But, its niche and risky, which is perhaps why brands have not started this to date, although some intelligent agencies have.

Over Xmas, I visited another old friend who is the bassist for the Pogues. His daughter was my sons first 'girlfriend' when we shared the same nanny. Whilst the kids played Scalextric and he made spaghetti, I gave him my view on the pogrom facing the music industry. Christmas is a special time for the Pogues. "Fairytale in New York" to a large part, has cemented their annual tour into the fabric of yuletide. Fresh off the tour, Darrel was in good spirits. One of his love songs had been picked up by Hollywood and formed the corner stone to the Hilary Swank romance movie "P.S. I love you". The song is performed by the star, features in the film and is across the credits. As an artist, he was far more upbeat:

"It's like Jelly, mike. There's a bottomless and unending joy and demand for music. It's just shifting and no one knows what shape it will be"

He's probably right. The age of vinyl and 'son of vinyl' CD will very soon been seen as a curious anachronism. The only real victims are the dinosaur labels reliant on these products, and if they become extinct who really cares. Even published music didn't really exist at the turn of last century, and musicians just had to play to earn.

The lesson is that demand will always will be there, but corporate music has been the first fall guy. The result is a far richer, complex tapestry where value is found in experience and hits will be rarer, smaller and more transient. Jelly is the best metaphor I've heard so far. The basic underlying human substance of the experience is the same, but the way business forms around it is changing shape. Who knows what the shape it will be, but largely, the two groups that don't seem very worried are the two most important - those making music and those listening to it.

This thought reminded me of the classic 'mind like water' clip from Bruce Lee. In these times of flux, maybe this is how brands and marketers should think.

The Brand Union Digital Showreel

2008-01-10T17:13:00.000Z

Project: Digital and motion graphics showreel
Media: Websites, intranet, video and projections
Role: Planner / Creative
Agency: The Brand Union

Projects I have worked on at The Brand Union. Clients in the reel are KPMG, The Home Retail Group, Argos, Vodafone and The Premier League.

The Decapitator strikes in East London

2008-01-04T10:33:00.001Z

Originally uploaded by the decapitator.

A serial adbuster is currently on the rampage in East London - the further victims of 'The Decapitator can be found on the flickr set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_decapitator/sets/72157603480986566/

Lord Puttnam interview with Mike Williams - Episode 2

2007-12-13T18:12:00.001Z

In this section of the interview, David gives his views on what the biggest challenges are for major broadcasters, particularly interesting with the new leadership and strategy at ITV

Lord Puttnam interview with Mike Williams - Episode 1

2007-12-12T10:30:00.001Z

Here's Part 1 of an interview I did with Lord Puttnam recently as part of a podcast series for the Creative Social. Lord Puttnam started out in the ad industry golden age, but has returned to ad land as Chairman of a digital agency Profero. Six months into the role, it seemed a good time to ask him why.

The interview has been edited down to five shorts topics that will be released over the next fives days on the Creative Social Blog and PSFK.

I hope you enjoy them, and if you have any suggestions on who might be an interesting person for the Creative Social to approach, please let me know.

Lastly, big thanks to Daniele Fiandaca (Profero COO) for making this interview possible.

pong clock

2007-11-30T10:13:00.001Z

pong clock
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

While the game of Pong plays randomly, the computer controlled players score the time. The left player scores the hours, and the right player scores the minutes, i.e. the right side wins every minute, left side wins every hour.

Txt your flash with now.sms

2007-11-29T17:33:00.000Z

Spent the last hour or so playing with now.sms. I was trying to come with a simple way to have people txt a laptop presentation. Either as a live voting thing, or to mimic the 'txt the stage' mechanic that you find at many big gigs.

"NowSMS is an easy-to-install SMS Gateway, MMS Gateway, WAP Push Proxy Gateway and Multimedia Messaging Center (MMSC) for Windows NT/2000/XP"

I linked my mobile via bluetooth to the laptop, installed now.sms and this allowed me to send and receive txt and mms on the laptop. The content gets stored in a folder, so it should be relatively easy to get a flash player to load this straight from the disk locally. I had to get a bit of help from Angus on the configuration settings, and outgoing MMS remains a mystery, but it did seem to be remakably easy to link screen content to a room full of mobiles.

The software has a 60 days trail and costs around £500 for a licensed version.

Hallucinogenic Taraf de Haidouks

2007-11-28T08:56:00.001Z

loule_taraf_haidouks_03
Originally uploaded by retorta_net.

Went to see the Romanian folk band Taraf de Haidouks (youtube vid) at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Monday. The music was so fast and discordant, it was a bit like looking at a orchestra through a time shifting kaleidescope. The best part was the support band "Forty Thieves" who you can catch on 12th January at The Inn on the green, 3 Thorpe close W10.

'The O2' Hellhole

2007-11-19T15:24:00.001Z

The Dome
Originally uploaded by DaveWilliams.

The Tutankhamun exhibition is well worth visiting, shame it is in the hell hole that is the O2 dome. Maybe it is impossible to do anything nice at that scale, but simple things like toilets not working and a queue of 70 at the only four cash machines seemed something that could be avoided. Maybe its perfect for O2's core customer,but it felt akin to a shopping mall on steroids.

If you go, make sure you listen to the audio tour by Omar Sharif, which really transforms the exhibition. So addictive, I ended up in an embarrassing headphone battle with my son .

News: Massive Fire, East London

2007-11-12T12:36:00.001Z

Massive Fire, East London
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

Amazing, looked out the office window to see a massive plume of smoke. Vague coverage on BBC news 24, but flickr is bang up to the minute. The fire brigade web site reports on an incident on Waterden Road. Looks like a bunch warehouses on google maps. Isn't this where much of the Olympics are going?

Enterprsie IG is now The Brand Union

2007-11-04T23:52:00.001Z

Enterprsie IG is now The Brand Union
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Like a doctor treating himself, it's quite strange to work in global branding company whilst it re-brands itself. I've been working on the website with the London digital team. Essential to have a web presence at launch, so quite a bit has had to be 'descoped' to hit the date. Good as a starting point, but leaves many features and content needing adding over the next few weeks.

"The Brand Union is a world-class global brand agency, comprising 500 people across 21 offices. What binds us together is a deep-seated commitment to becoming masters of the art and science of brand building."

thebrandunion.com

Never Ending - another corker from Poke

2007-11-01T16:41:00.000Z

A really charming site, with a smorgesboard of toys making a big idea. Didn't really understand the rainbow thing I saw in an orange shop window at lunchtoday, but certainly got the point with this. I haven't managed to get to the bottom of this page, waiting for someone to make a 'walk-though' map for cheaters like me. Enjoy!

goodthingsshouldneverend

Youtube halloween costume

2007-10-31T09:13:00.001Z

Youtube halloween costume
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Shame it doesn't have some space to add more comments

Mash-up of the day - chank

2007-10-17T11:57:00.001+01:00

chank
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Blog Action Day : Creative Social interview with Tamara Giltsoff by hobart65

2007-10-15T15:59:00.000+01:00

“On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future. Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means we need you!”

Podcast: Interview with Tamara Giltsoff, MD, OzozLab, Ozocar

There are 3 ways to participate create, pay or talk. I’ve created a pod cast interview with Tamara Giltsoff, facilitated by Daniele Fiandaca (Creative Social). Tamara writes for green / sustainability blog treehugger.com. Treehugger ranks 17th on Technorati and is a real destination site for these issues.

She is also MD of OZOlab.

"My passion, and goal, is to create new businesses that will rock this world and challenge the current paradigm of business practice. OZOlab is the platform for me to do this."

OZOlab is a fascinating mash-up of eco business creation and incubation. Ozocar, a hi-tech New York limousine service using hybrid cars, is the first in a planned portfolio of businesses.

Tamara explains her motivation for ozocar and covers a range of topics including her view on Al Gore’s The inconvenient truth, how marketing and environmentalism make a perfect storm and, most uplifting for bloggers, her faith in the power of conversation.

James Cooper, Three Minutes of Happiness, raised the question that I had on my mind :

“I have a hunch it will take more than Dave but a loose collaboration of bloggers from around the world with something to say could be the start.”

Tamara gives an inspirational view that should encourage us all to believe in the ultimate power of conversation as an engine for change.

Podcast: http://hobart65.libsyn.com/

MP3 Directlink

Lord Puttnam interview with Mike Williams - Episode 1

2007-10-12T17:11:00.001+01:00

Project: Lord Puttnam Interview
Media: Video
Role: Interviewer
Agency: Profero

Mike Williams speaks to Lord David Puttnam about him rejoining the ad industry and asks him what's changed? Thanks to Daniele Fiandaca and the team at Profero for making this possible.

Weekly viewing figures 2002-2007

2007-10-05T14:52:00.001+01:00

Weekly viewing figures 2002-2007
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Must admit I'm a bit surprised by this chart, given my dinner party chatter of "...oh, I completely stopped watching TV". According to BARB roughly the same amount of people are watching, for the same amount of time, they're just dividing their attention. Is it sacrilegious to doubt BARB?

http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/trendreports.cfm?report=hours&flag=viewingsummary

Birthday paradox

2007-09-28T17:35:00.001+01:00

Birthday paradox
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Why is maths and stats so counter-intuitive? There seems to be a huge hole in understanding when marketing meets probability theory. Try this out as your warm-up question in your next meeting. How many people does it take to get a more than 50% probability that some pair will have the same birthday. The first answer I get usually get is anything between 180 and 300. Most people don't even believe the answer...

"In probability theory, the birthday paradox states that in a group of 23 (or more) randomly chosen people, there is more than 50% probability that some pair of them will have the same birthday.

For 57 or more people, the probability is more than 99%, although it cannot be exactly 100% unless there are at least 366 people. This is not a paradox in the sense of leading to a logical contradiction, but is called a paradox because mathematical truth contradicts naive intuition: most people estimate that the chance is much lower than 50%. "

Pangea Day Needs Your Videos!

2007-09-14T11:07:00.001+01:00

Love the idea, but you'd expect a better choice of clips and a crisper edit. Considering this is a standard ploy of user contributed brand campaigns e.g. converse, it's going to be interesting to see how many honestly moving grass roots videos make it to the final show.

Jamais vu

2007-09-12T15:41:00.000+01:00

I went the great art hunt last Thursday:

"Art Hunt II, 6th September
Explore a new selection of hidden galleries and exciting art in and around the back streets of East London - all open late for Time Out First Thursdays. Follow the clues and find your way to the secret after party for prizes etc. Sign up now before word gets out."

Being primarily imprisoned in East Sheen, it was a nostalgic joy to be tramping around the smaller art spaces of Shoreditch. The work that stuck in my mind was from an end year show from some MA photography students. The series that caught my eye was entitled "Jamais Vu"

"Often described as the opposite of déjà vu, jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer's impression of seeing the situation for the first time, despite rationally knowing that he or she has been in the situation before."

The images had people in very ordinary settings, but looking slightly baffled or uncomfortable. I wouldn't have thought is was possible to repeatable portray such an abstract feeling. Not something I wanted to buy, but very hypnotic.

I've not looked at any RSS feed or blog for 8 weeks, and a it's burden to think of the time I'll have to spend the time to get re-immersed. But the removal of something, or fasting, always seems to bring the nature of things more sharply into focus. I stopped ignoring people that don't use online, and a one digital worker confessed they'd also gone '100% offline'. I did the same thing with my mobile for a year. Life before the mobile is barely recognisable.

So, I loaded netvibes for the first time in 8 weeks this morning, saw over 1000 headlines load in 10 tabs and had an intense 'Jamais Vu'. The browser then froze, it must have felt it too.

Rest and refocus

2007-07-27T10:17:00.001+01:00

rest here
Originally uploaded by estherase.

Taking a break to think, expect new things in September

iphone effect

2007-07-24T12:00:00.001+01:00

iphone effect
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Apple vs Motorola vs Palm vs Research in motion vs Nokia

See swivel.com/graphs/show/5145574

McDonald's Big Mac drive thru Rap

2007-07-02T13:47:00.001+01:00

How good is that? Picked up from joereach via matthewwatts. It's currently at 190K views getting around 500 views day. It's only surpassed by the back chat, I've got to learn to speak youtube one day:

best drive thru vid so far good shit i wondr wat u did to not laugh hella hard yourselfs lol

I luv this video!!! I have meorized the whole thing. It is the bomb.

Luckily someone has transcribed the lyrics:

I need a doublecheeseburger and hold the lettuse. dont be frontin son no seeds on the bun, were up in this drive threw order for two. I got the feelin for a numba nine like me shoe. we need some chicken up in here, in this hizzal, rizzal my mizzal extra salt on the frizzle i need a diet docta peppa me brotha anotha for ya motha double double supa size and dont forget the fries.

Mission Impossible screens and walls - in-camera effects

2007-06-28T16:52:00.000+01:00

Project: Mission Impossible computer screens and video walls
Media: In camera effects, CRT screens and video walls
Role: Creative / Animator
Agency: Research Studios / Useful Companies

Design and digital playback of video walls and screens graphics by useful companies, catch the names on the 'true names' of the noclist on the final frame including: Simon Staines, Pablo Rovalo, Mike Williams and John Critchly. The video wall for the CIA room ran live from 15 Apple macs using around 2 kilometers of cabling. Dispite a technical hitch with the countdown clock, this complex scene managed to wrap early.

Thank you Apple for the iphone

2007-06-27T01:17:00.000+01:00

You have to have an opinion on the iphone. Somehow the climate pogrom and Wimbledon have eclipsed the buzz in my uk office, but maybe it's just the eye of the storm. In many ways, iphone is most significant thing that has happened in 'digital' for the last two years. Data services on the mobile have been a really slow burn, but you can see the tide turning with Vodafone finally admitting maybe third parties can offer more interesting services. After all, for a mobile operator it’s just about bandwidth addiction. The 'wow' factor of the iphone is the interface. Walk into carphone warehouse and you enter a world that is tariff and feature obsessed. If apple were a car it would be 'the ultimate driving machine'. So, it's encouraging that the biggest technology hype of the year is centered on this years buzz word 'user experience'. The daggers will be out for the iphone, and it’s inevitable the launch backchat will be centered on the numerous major manufacturing flaws. But, a great idea is out there now - it's possible to make a mobile device that's a joy to use. For this meme alone we should thank Apple.

Nice iphone feature list from theonion

Participation: Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners

2007-06-19T13:08:00.001+01:00

Participation: Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

I've been trying to solve the categories for participation for some time, this chart seems to do a good job. (Sorry about the scale, you'll have to click) :

Creators
Critics
Collectors
Joiners
Spectators
Inactive

I don't know where the figures are from, but they certainly don't look like any site stats I've seen. I assume the figures must aggregate behavior in general. If 30% of Generation Y are creators, then I'm seriously out of touch.

This just seem a different way of looking at an adoption curve - it's always the creators that provide the pull to the rest of the groups. It'd be an interesting exercise to work out best mix for different categories of site. It's quite a common question from clients when dealing with social or contribution sites.

The RCA Great Exhibition

2007-06-18T11:14:00.001+01:00

The RCA Great Exhibition
Originally uploaded by alistairh.

The RCA end of year show is one of the best for years, well worth a trip. It's open for the rest of this week until 9pm. This year the more practical stuff is housed in a enormous temporary structure sponsored by the Conran Foundation.

This much larger space really transforms the exhibition. It somehow has a more workshop feel. Each student has more space and its much easier to move around. For some reasons, it also seems like there is much more work. It's so good, that I going to return so I can spend longer on the more interesting stuff.

http://www.rca.ac.uk/pages/news/rca_announces_the_great_3824.html

My pick was 'The Object of My affection' by Elanor Davies. There are a series of 'one off 'amorphus sculpture blobs made by a 3D printer using data from DNA and personality tests. It was a fascinating idea if you applied it to a family. http://www.thegirldesigns.com/
.

Podcast: Tim Brown, CEO of Ideo talks about design

2007-06-13T11:54:00.001+01:00

I highly recommend listening to this inspiring podcast from IT Conversations.

Tim Brown makes two really great points. Firstly, it's the storytelling around an idea that makes sure it gets made. Secondly, the measure of how good an organsiation can innovate is the speed at which it can prototype.

I've been really struggling with finding a really quick method of making clickable prototypes. I always think there must be a way of using a pen, digital camera and software to do this faster. Paper prototyping is always held up as the fastest way, but I find it just doesn't quite feel like a screen based experience.

What's your favorite package for making an interactive prototype? I heard that windows vista was done in macromedia director.

www.london2012.com

2007-06-04T14:11:00.001+01:00

london-2012-olympic-logo
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

A lot of online chatter has been created by the launch of the new 2012 Olympics logo today. The best comment from BBC website discussion will change the way you see the logo forever.:

"It looks like a cubism picture of a woman with big hair and numerous earings on her knees pleasuring a guy wearing a London t-shirt."

From another chatroom:

"no. no dear god no you have to be kidding me there is no way I'm spending the next5 years looking at a cubist blowjob that looks someone forgot to align the rinting plates."

I'm curious to see how quickly the identity will 'evolve' given this gutter-level feedback from the net.

Creative Social Berlin 2007

2007-06-04T12:22:00.001+01:00

Here's a video from the 'Creative Social 2007' in Berlin. My 60 seconds on chin scratching happens 5 mins, 20 secs in. Worth watching just to hear Nick Currie talking about "being an artist without prices" (imomus.livejounral.com). Quite odd listening to a paid speaker just reading his blog out loud talking about you to monetise the blog.

http://www.creativesocialblog.com/
http://imomus.livejournal.com/

Speaker @ Creative Social Berlin - may 07

2007-05-28T17:09:00.000+01:00

Project: Creative Social Berlin
Media: Conference
Role: Speaker
Agency: Creative Social

Creative Social is a global digital collective founded by Danille Fiandaca (Profero) and Mark Chamber. Highlights of the Berlin Creative Social in April 07. Speakers included Sven Ehmann, Creative Director at Die Gestalten, Nicole Srock-Stanley, Managing Director of Dan Pearlman, Mike Williams, Head of Digital at The Brand Union (formerly Enterprise IG) and Momus, a.k.a. Nick Currie, Artist, Musician and Writer.
(Clip of my talk at 5 mins 21 secs)

The Deep book - magical creatures

2007-05-24T09:41:00.001+01:00

Love the look of this book picked up by Cool Hunting. A coffee table book featuring 220 photos of creatures from the deep. Funny that Flo Heiss, a fellow aquatic fan, should pick up on exactly the same image, I liked the name almost as much as the creature.

It would be even better to see these things in motion, like the amazing deep sea squid

PS3 'You suck' song

2007-05-21T16:14:00.001+01:00

PS3 'You suck' song
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Songs seem very popular in ABL advertising. The Honda Hate comes to mind as one I still can hum. All the craft masters seem to be turning to songs - orange, BK etc.

This user generated 'Sony flame' has some funny lyrics and mixes in some golden vox pops. What surprised me more than the sheer authenticity and anger, was the number of views. I know this can be faked, but that's a big number - 1.6M when I looked.

"Now you know how you killed your brand"

"err..er...um..er....no comment" Will Harris

www.youtube.com.

Stage 6 = Youtube in HD

2007-05-15T12:48:00.000+01:00

A friend just watched Spiderman III on stage 6, as he says "its a screener but amazing quality shot on HD with no one in the cinema..." I think it's been out in the UK for about two weeks.

Unlike youtube, all the South Park episodes haven't been pulled...yet.
Like youtube, enjoy while the good times last.

Originally found via tv-links.co.uk

The agile planner

2007-05-05T01:45:00.000+01:00

Bored of the TV tonight, I ended up on Russell Davis blog looking at his iconic AGP award winning work for Honda. In essence he says agencies miss half the conversation with their reductionist model of idea creation. An iterative approach combing planning and creative execution is more likely to produce great work. The continual surprise is that advertising agencies still aspire to do great work. In the web world, this aspiration rarely exists. Benchmark any set of web sites and you soon discover they deliver an experience like this:

Crap > OK > Awesome [diagram – 95% below OK]

Therefore, web agencies typically recommend that businesses focus on getting the basics right. (see Forrester) In other works, ‘good enough’ is rarely attained online. In contrast, Brand / Advertising thinkers are trained to see this lack as an ‘opportunity space’. For a web company, consistently producing something averagely good is seen as something exceptional. This comes back to the topic of process. The systemic failure of the online industry is classically hidden through management friendly process. The equivalent fictionally functional process is the stage gate/waterfall approach.

AD/brand (focus/creative) vs. web (waterfall) [diagram]

Government IT projects are the best live example of this waterfall planning method. To even work on one of these projects in the UK, you have to adopt a document rich, waterfall approach called Prince2. The litany of failed government IT projects (Passports, Police, NHS, child maintenance etc.) is a sad testament to the lunacy of the flawed and broken development process. At best it produces mediocre results, but usually the output is hugely over budget crap. The key aspect is that the method almost religiously prevents iteration and cross discipline working. The web2.0 answer is agile methods and iterative design, precisely the fluid approach advocated by Russell.

For me, the iterative approach (agile methods) needs structure and guidance. Maybe, for marketing, this is where the re-invented planner comes in – to give form to these structures and guide the direction of progress. The only place where I’ve seen a ‘stage gate’ approach work was my time at Electronic Arts. Here, each milestone was typically focused on functional demonstrations. Describing what you wanted to do (strategy) was not enough, you had to show things working (function). They tended to use very small highly skilled teams at the centre of each game title. The surprising thing was how much a game could change between each milestone. In retrospect, they intuitively used another aspect of agile methods, empowering the team to make decisions. The creative process of exploring a game space during development is one of the most interesting aspect covered by Will Wright in his lectures about spore and the sims.

The key problem for marketing agencies seems to be
(1) How to make advertising ideas that can travel between mediums. i.e ideas with sufficient depth not to be routed in a TV execution. Crispin Porter seems to be one agency capable of doing this repeatedly.
(2) How to organise the execution of digital ideas. TV agencies are use to the production house ‘farm it out’ model. This model still isn’t able to function in the digital space. The commissioners don’t have the craft, and the suppliers don’t have reliable professionalism.

So the challenge is to convince agencies that ‘agile planning’ is the way forward. Execution, particularly in the digital space, has to be a large part of the idea.

Russell proposes that for advertising, producing great work requires a working partnership of planners and creatives to construct the meaningful strategy..
The extension of this idea, for digital, is to use creatives that have an equivalent passion for software. This is why there is such a talent vacuum. Where are the Trevor Beatties of the online world? Firstly, there are very few individuals capable of spanning these three disciplines.

Planning > Creative > Function [diagram]

And secondly, anyone that good is probably less concerned with marketing, and more focused on earning their millions via function.

UK TV Ads getting worse - from TGI via Adliterate via crackunit

2007-04-02T12:25:00.001+01:00

UK TV Ads getting worse - from TGI via Adliterate via crackunit
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Original research from surveys by TGI
Made famous by adliterate.com
Picked up by crackunit.com
Cut and paste by hobart65

Ford Brand film by Imagination - Geneva 2007

2007-03-29T16:00:00.001+01:00

A friend and motion graphics guru, Niel Wilson has just come back from a gig in Geneva for Ford/Imagination. They've made a stunning 'user contributed' brand film that is mixed 'on the fly'. I particularly loved the Minority Report inspired touch screen editing suites, that are used to assemble the content from contribution zones. The content is performed every 15 minutes by two VJ's.

Creative lead from Imagination was Jeremy Maclynn, with a cast of hundreds for this extremely complex set-up.

Big business takes to social media

2007-03-28T10:04:00.001+01:00

Interesting social media survey from Melcrum. It's encouraging to see social media becoming part of the fabric of business communications. Hopefully this means that communications agencies can spend less time educating the client, and more on the difficulties of creating functioning communities.

Source: Lee Smith on talking internal communication

Usage levels of 'social media' from a sample of 2000 global companies:

Blogs 55%

Youtube-esque 63%

Podcasts 43%

Melcrum Press Releas with more deail

Dot bomb 2.0 - corner turned?

2007-03-05T16:08:00.001Z

Users deserting the power houses
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Should I be worried? I've got so used to all the graphs going up, that it was a shock to see this. According to Alexa, users are deserting the web2.0 power houses. They all seem to have saturated in terms of visitors, and in terms of depth, there's a page view nose dive. Does anyone trust Alexa? I need to repeat this across the very fractured Yahoo portfolio to see if they are still growing on aggregate. Need to dust off the 'attention economy' deck....

http://www.alexa.com

Pie Chart humour using slide.com

2007-02-16T11:12:00.001Z

Yes, I want to be Jimmy Saville

2007-02-01T11:47:00.001Z

Saw this ad on chinwag from Propel London Ltd:

"We are very keen to find a special kind of designer who wants to join the design recruitment team here at Propel who thinks outside of the box and is willing to fight for the fresh copy of DesignWeek and Computer Arts. This is a wonderful and unique opportunity to use your design passion and build upon an already established client and candidate database, and really keep me company. Make creatives dreams come true when you make that call offering them their dream job, you will be the next Jimmy Saville."

[flickr pool] 'The computer behind the blog'

2007-01-26T13:35:00.001Z

The computer behind hobart65
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

My over annotated entry into Ian Tait's "The Computer behind the blog" flickr group. Strange that there's such a low pet count - only one cat from Paulpod and not a fish in sight.

Steve Jobs

2007-01-22T11:34:00.001Z

Steve Jobs
Originally uploaded by davegolden.

'sleepwalkers' @ MoMA by Doug Aitken

2007-01-18T10:49:00.001Z

'sleepwalkers' @ MoMA by Doug Aitken
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

Cool Hunting Daily featured this striking installation. Sleepwalkers by Doug Aitken at MoMA. It consists of 8 large projections around the museum and facade. If only it had more projects, it would like an 'inside-out' version of the 'Vision of Japan’ by Toyo Ito Associate Architects. (An amazing video installation at the Victoria and Albert in 1991 where they used over hundred projectors to make a room where you were surrounded by night time images of Tokyo, mentioned here in wikipedia)

‘Sleepwalkers’ features Tilda_Swinton as one of the small ensemble of characters. Hopefully that means the action is a little more interesting than your usual ‘conceptual’ video art. Very exciting to have a the concept, title and setting so closely coupled.

Carnivore project prediction

2007-01-16T15:03:00.001Z

Carnivore project prediction
Originally uploaded by hobart65.

The carnivore project - I'm currently advocating lobster at the carnivore project. A blog meme battle to answer the question 'what's the best meat?' Using google trends I've tried to predict the winner: steak or maybe burger. Prove goole wrong and cast your vote at the online carnivore poll

First round (RED)
Steak vs Ribs : Steak wins
Lamb vs Burger : Burger wins
Sausage vs Bacon : Very close

First round (BLUE)Publish
Hairy Crab vs Salmon : Salmon wins
Shellfish vs Lobster : Lobster wins
Snail vs Shrimp: Shrimp wins

Google trends