May 2011
1 post
“As information swirls all around us, we have begun to build an attention economy...”
– danah boyd
April 2011
1 post
Haters Gonna Hate: My SXSW 2011 Panel
Visual notes courtesy of Ogilvy Notes.
Speaking at SXSW has been something of a goal of mine for a while now, and I’m proud to report that this year I achieved it.
My solo panel was called “Haters Gonna Hate: Lessons for Advertisers from 4chan” and my intention was to use the things I learned through my love of /b/ as a metaphor for lessons for advertisers. The SXSW planning...
March 2011
3 posts
5 tags
The Problem of Group Management
Visualization of my LinkedIn network, automatically generated through inMaps.
As I have been contemplating SXSW this year, one thing that struck me was that, unlike previous years, there wasn’t a clear “winner” in terms of a new technology or platform.
The reason for all the attention that the technology and advertising industries lavish on SXSW is due to the fact that, for...
“The trouble with the rat-race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”
– Lily Tomlin, via Ashley Simko.
3 tags
Shifting deck chairs on the Titanic
There’s a strange undertone at many of the advertising-related SXSW panels this year. The past few years have involved discussions of Twitter, platforms, transmedia, etc. This year there’s still a lot of that, but it feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of the real issues.
Communication has changed, media has changed, and yet advertisers are still living in the agency-client...
November 2010
4 posts
3 tags
Hacking the Microsoft Kinect →
One of the most interesting parts of all the technological advances we’ve seen in the past few years is how “hackable” they can be (although this is generally not what the manufacturers hope for). Hackable parts allow creative and tech-minded individuals to create art projects - and utility - that surpasses the intentions of the original inventors.
A great example of...
2 tags
What will be trending at SXSW 2011?
Today the latest batch of panelist, core conversations, and presentations were selected for SXSW interactive 2011. I was honored that my session, Haters Gonna Hate: Lessons for Advertisers from 4chan, was selected to be one of these. But would you like to see what topics are going to be getting the biggest buzz in March? Here’s a word cloud:
Some of the biggest topics match with the trends in...
3 tags
4 tags
September 2010
4 posts
3 tags
3 tags
This is Your Brain on Google Instant Search →
It’s undeniable that our interaction with computers is changing our brains, so it’s interesting to begin to anticipate how new technologies (such as Google Instant, which was released yesterday) will change us even further.
3 tags
Design with Intent Toolkit →
Awesome card deck of design patterns and lenses.
4 tags
The Awareness Fallacy →
Excellent presentation by Mark Lester on why Awareness, as a sole focus in advertising, is often ineffective.
The primary point here is twofold: 1) many categories have reached a saturation point at which there aren’t many truly new innovations, and so there is nothing new to be aware of (with a few exceptions, such as Apple in the technology industry), and 2) consumer consumption of...
August 2010
14 posts
7 tags
The Wilderness Downtown →
This music video for Arcade Fire’s new song, made with Google Chrome Labs in HTML 5, is utterly amazing - interactive art with a personalized touch.
2 tags
3 tags
Don’t Become a Digital Dinosaur →
Believe it or not, the biggest challenge I have in my job is dealing not with traditional advertising, but with what I’ll term “traditional digital”. This are those folks who have been making microsites and banner ads for so long that they don’t know how to do anything else - and, unlike the traditional advertising people, are unwilling to admit that there’s something...
2 tags
SXSW 2011 Panels
Me at SXSW last year, rocking a segway.
I’ve attended SXSW two years now, and both times I’ve found it to be the most inspirational, educational, and fun event related to interactive technology and communications. Last year, I decided that, no matter what, I would be submitting a panel for 2011, and now I’ve got two in the mix. They are:
Haters Gonna Hate: Lessons For...
Google Launches "Chrome to Phone" →
Media access is becoming increasingly seamless. Marketers must understand that consumers expect to access data wherever they are, without restriction.
4 tags
Eight Principles of Information Architecture →
Interesting thinking from Dan Brown on eight principles of successful IA (and, I would argue, UX in general). They are:
The principle of objects – Treat content as a living, breathing thing, with a lifecycle, behaviors and attributes.
The principle of choices – Create pages that offer meaningful choices to users, keeping the range of choices available focused on a particular task.
The...
WatchCyborgs are our future, and I’m psyched about it. Check out this amazing robot arm, via Gizmodo.
“The critical thing about the design process is to identify your scarcest...”
– Fred Brooks, author of The Design of Design (via 37signals)
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks...”
– Thomas Edison (via @sethsimonds)
Designing a Persuasive Video Game →
A case study on using game design to create persuasion.
Social Media Use Cases: Arcade Fire →
Interesting case study of how a band launches a new album in the age of social media.
2 tags
3 tags
The Four Phases of Design Thinking →
Really enjoyed this article that outlines the four basic phases of design thinking. Great designers do all four; mediocre designers specialize in only a few areas. This could be a great way to measure the success of a project as well.
Question - Asking basic “why” questions and challenging assumptions.
Care - Empathizing with human needs.
Connect - Synthesizing information in new...
July 2010
12 posts
2 tags
WatchFantastic TED Talk on how the motivation offered by games can be used to save the world.
TED Talk: Can Gaming Save the World?
4 tags
Digital Trends for Media →
Great presentation from frog design on the current digital trends that are impacting media.
View more presentations from frog design.
2 tags
“The beauty of noncoercive curation is that there are so many reasons we value...”
– Cory Doctorow on Coercive vs. Non-coercive Curation
3 tags
4 tags
You Are a Tamagotchi: Turning Your Health Into a... →
This illustrates a few larger trends I’ve been noticing over the past year or so:
Ambient interactivity - automatic data recording/analysis that requires limited or no direct input.
Lifetracking - as everything moves towards digital, we have the impulse to document and track all aspects of our lives.
Gaming - leveraging lessons about engagement and interactivity from game design to keep...
“Digital used to be this thing that was a little more computer and Internet...”
– Edward Boches (@edwardboches) in Closing the Tech Divide
Digital Outperforming Traditional at a Rapid Pace →
I’ve been talking about the death of physical media for a while now, here’s an article that points out that digital delivery has overtaken physical in both books (Amazon’s Kindle marketplace) and video games.
WatchMemeFactory - a hilarious presentation on internet memes and how they spread.
2 tags
Why Social Media? →
Great presentation on why social media continues to be critical for brands.
View more presentations from Leslie Bradshaw.
4 tags
How 4chan is like advertising
Over the past few months, if you’ve hung out with me (especially if I’ve had a few glasses of wine), you may have heard me begin to wax idiotic about something called 4chan. Rather than continuing to bore my drinking companions, I thought I’d record what it is I’ve been raving about in a more coherent manner.
For those of you who are unaware, 4chan (very, very NSFW) is...
June 2010
2 posts
5 tags
What's interesting about the iPhone 4
Based on my Twitter feed, it looks like most of the tech industry isn’t doing much this morning besides hitting “refresh” on the Apple store, trying frantically to pre-order the iPhone 4. While we wait (and remember it’s only 8am in Cupertino folks), here are some thoughts about what’s important about the iPhone 4.
Given the fact that the iPhone 4 was famously...
7 tags
Virtual versus integrated realities
While on vacation a few weeks ago, my husband and I drove about 300 miles - over 5 hours - from Phoenix to Las Vegas. We are both fans of audiobooks, and so while we drove through the feverish desert landscape we listened to Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. I am ashamed to admit that, although I am a huge science fiction fan, I have never read Snow Crash before. I haven’t yet finished it,...
May 2010
2 posts
4 tags
On the value of privacy
Over the past few weeks my RSS feed has been clogged with articles bemoaning Facebook’s changing privacy policy.
To summarize the situation for those who may not have been following it: since its launch in 2004 as a closed college network, Facebook’s settings have increasingly favored making knowledge public rather than private. The definition of “public” has also...
3 tags
Trend School
On Tuesday this week I attended a session of The Intelligence Group’s Trend School here in New York. If you haven’t heard of them, the Intelligence Group is a company that conducts detailed research on younger generations (at the moment that’s Gen Y, although they also look at X and Z) and identifies trends that affect marketing. The entire content of the day was really great,...
April 2010
1 post
7 tags
The iPad and the future of computing (hands-on...
Like 300,000 others, I bought an iPad this weekend. For me it was something of an impulse buy - I have already pre-ordered a 64GB 3G version, which is shipping in late April (I’m hoping to sell this WiFi version then, at a discount of course). However, since I make my living by thinking about emerging technologies and the behavioral changes they engender, I’m justified in the...
March 2010
5 posts
4 tags
The week of the iPad begins
So, the iPad is coming out on Saturday (the Wifi only version, at least; those of us who are holding out for the 3G-enabled version have to wait until late April), and naturally tons of new information about the device is surfacing.
First and foremost, Apple itself released a series of videos showcasing various applications. For the most part they work just the way you’d expect, although...
2 tags
SXSW Highlights
As an addendum to my SXSW recap yesterday, I’d like to share the slidedecks/video from some of the most interesting presentations. Enjoy!
danah boyd’s keynote on privacy and digital culture
Web Video Thunderdome, by Mike Arauz and Bud Caddell
Program or Be Programmed, by Doug Rushkoff
The inimitable Gary Vaynerchuck, talking about companies and love
Clay...
2 tags
SXSW 2010 Recap
I returned from SXSW last Wednesday, and I’ve just now reached the point where I can sort through all the panels, BBQ, tex-mex, and alcohol I consumed and come to some semi-salient conclusions. Read on!
So much has been written about the incredible atmosphere of SXSW that it’s almost pointless for me to recap here, but I’ll try anyway. The simplest way to put this into context...
5 tags
If I Can Dream - How Digital is Changing Our...
This week marked the launch of the very first online-based reality TV show. ‘If I Can Dream’ is a new series from American Idol creator Simon Fuller that takes five Hollywood hopefuls (all quite attractive, obviously) and places them in a beautiful house where they are taped 24-7 as they try to live their dreams. Think ‘American Idol’ meets ‘Big Brother’. This...
5 tags
Digital Strategies for Luxury Brands
I recently uploaded a report outlining the top 10 strategies used by luxury brands to engage with consumers digitally. I wrote this report with my colleague Phil Jackson at Publicis when we were working on the Cadillac new business pitch a few months ago. We didn’t win the business (unfortunately), but I think the presentation has value for anyone who works with luxury brands online. Check...
February 2010
2 posts
4 tags
2010 Trends in Advertising Video
The folks at Miami Ad School were kind enough to record my presentation last Monday (and do some very good editing!). It’s about a half hour long in total, split into four parts. Here’s the video:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Not too bad, right? I’ve been interested in moving to teaching and speaking more, and I don’t think this was a terrible first...