Why I haven’t been blogging

January 2, 2009 | 3 Comments

I have had some of you ask why I haven’t been blogging as much recently which hasn’t completely been a conscious decision, but more of a natural change in behaviour.  Those of you who know me well will know that I tweet…..a lot.  When I see something that I really like and want to share,  I post it in 140 characters to Twitter.  Because i’ve already shared it with my community (my quicker community) I don’t always feel the need to then write another 200 words to back up my tweet.  Another reason I have gone quiet is that in the run up to Christmas, I started attending more evening events such as Malcom Gladwell, Adam Curtis at 176, Amplified08, Primal Scream, Chinwag Digital Futures, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Webbys, Us Now film launch, The Future of Music, One Dot Zero, Open 2gether, INQ launch, various Tipped events amongst other Twitter/Blogger meet ups.  At these events, I have met some great people and have been able to develop deeper connections with them quicker through face to face meetings.  I will start to blog more frequently now the holidays are over, but as 2008 became my year of Twitter, I think 2009 will see me do a 360 and go back offline to build more personal relationships.

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Blog, Community, Events, Experiential 

dConstruct 2008 highlights

September 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment

dConstruct 2008: Designing the Social Web On Friday I attended dConstruct in Brighton which is a great conference looking at designing the social web.  For the keynote speech Steven Johnson from Outside.In spoke on the Urban Web.  He recalled a story of a cholera outbreaks in London’s Soho in the 1850’s, which were found to be centered around one particular pump on Broad Street by investigator John Snow and local reverend Henry Whitehead.  Whitehead spent time networking with locals and knew the majority of people in the area, he was able to collect first-hand information as to what pumps households were using in a time when information wasn’t readily available positioning the reverend as the social hub.  He then went on to talk about Radar, a tool that monitors conversations around your local area.  The demonstration was quite impressive so I would advise going to have a look.

Next up was Aleks Krotoski talking about similarities between the gaming industry and the web design industry.  She described types of systems that shape the industry like controlled systems that games designers use to keep the interest of the player i.e. give more as people play more, different levels, unlocking clues etc.

Joshua Porter spoke next focusing on leveraging cognitive bias in social design.  His talk was absolutely fascinating describing how now, designers need to add social psychology tools to their skill set in order to create stickiness.  He described the bandwagon effect whereby users tend to follow others when little information is given to understand a problem.  He also focused on ownership bias, where people will tend to place a higher value of things if they feel a sense of ownership first.  For example, when you visit a website and it allows you to create something from when you first land, you are much more likely to register with that site because you have already invested time.  He gave examples of Geni and Fresh Books both as companies who are using social psychology techniques well within their homepages.

Daniel Burka, Creative Director at Digg and co-founder of Pownce talked about designing for interaction.  He talked about encouraging positive participation by encouraging users to sign up for a site as they encourage trust within a service.   He referenced the site Get Satisfaction who ask their users “How do they feel?” through the use of faces users can use to rate their postings.  He also made the point that when building a site, try to avoid negative competition which is something they found originally with Digg when the same people would always appear to be the top diggers by digging existing content.  He also made the great point that sites have to allow for flexible participation to enable the site to adapt to different data as it develops.

Tantek Celik then spoke about social network portability and also published his presentation here so you can read it first hand.

The highly entertaining Matt Jones and Matt Biddulph then spoke on designing for the coral reef (yes you read that right).  They described Dopplr as a social physics engine, a piece of software that underlines the physics of the world in terms of how things behave.

Lastly Jeremy Keith talked about the systems of the world.  This talk was absolutely fascinating and the podcast will be available soon so I would advise you to go and listen to it as there was far too much information within it to write.

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Blog, Events, Social network 

When a brand just get’s it #2

September 2, 2008 | 6 Comments

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Last week I wrote this post explaining how EA had monitored what was being said about them online (namely a video posted on YouTube) and answered it with an even more entertaining piece of content which was golden.  This stirred up some good feelings from you all about brands who actually listen to what is being said about them by us humble (dare I say it) consumers.  Yesterday I had another of those wonderful touchy, feely experiences that came from a blog post I wrote back in March called `Do brands feel my love?‘  I described how although I wouldn’t neccessarily buy Becks beer as i am not a big fan of the taste, I love the brand because of the Becks Fusions experiences they create therefore I love what the brand stands for.  I questioned if the love I feel for the brand, counted to them as a company even though I am not what they would class as a typical consumer.

Well, I can tell you that the answer is yes.  Yesterday Becks contacted me and said that they were searching the internet to see what people had been saying about the Fusions events they create.  (Firstly, brownie points for listening to what is being said).  They have invited me to their Fusions event this weekend to join them in the VIP area and the after party, as they do actually value me as a consumer.  Now Massive Attack are playing who are one of my favourite bands so naturally I am going to be thrilled a the prospect of seeing them, but a company taking the time to not only listen to what is being said about their brand, engage with their audience and then offer an experience that money can’t buy is bloody fantastic and is something that I harp on to all marketers when I talk to them about how to approach that myth that is `social media’.  I am heading to Manchester on Saturday to the event so I will update you on my time when I get back, but can we please start to see more brands listening to what consumers really think and invite them into a two-way conversation?

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Blog, Brand, Events, Social Interaction 

Heat Maps At Festivals

August 11, 2008 | 1 Comment

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I wish I had this at Glastonbury.  3VOOR12 are testing a new heat mapping service for festival goers as this years Lowlands festival.  Revellers can let each other know which of the 12 stages is hosting the hottest show at any time.  Users download the mobile application before heading to the festival, and from there can vote on their favourite act at that time.  Users can log onto the system to see which venue has received the highest number of votes making it the hottest.  Via Springwise.

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Blog, Events, Music 

Art for good - New York artist asks Londoners how they feel about street crime

June 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment

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Profero have teamed up with New York urban artist Paul Notzold to create two events for Channel 4’s Disarming Britain season.  The events will show Paul’s work projected onto the side of buildings around London showing images relating to street crime accompanied by questions such as “How can we get weapons off our streets?” encouraging the public’s response.  The public are invited to text in their answers which are displayed in real-time alongside the image.  The events will be held in Brick Lane on 26th June and Shepherd’s Bush on 27th June between 9:30pm and 11:00pm For more information on Channel 4’s Disarming Britain week click here.

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Advertising, Blog, Events, Instillation, Mobile 

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