BMB Geek Club

Other uses for potato

The Publican 18th February

Tyrrells set to produce potato vodka.

Not sure if a move into liquor production would be 'all good', but perhaps McCain could produce industrial alcohol with waste potato which could be used in the medical profession!

yet another opportunity to be a little bit greener

it's google but it's black. crazy. apparently it can help you save 750 mega watts/hour. quite clever really. here's a link.

Democratisation of information: good or bad

a very interesting debate here on the pros and cons of democratised bottom-up form of information- gathering, sorting and organising like Wikipedia between David Weinberger who is the author of Everything is Miscellaneous (among other things) and Andrew Keen author of "Cult of the Amateur" it's quite long but worth sticking with (even if you just have it on in the background.

the future of the media, the universe and everything

mostly speculative but fun all the same.

the future of the media, the universe and everything

mostly speculative but fun all the same.

Genius

Open wiki-library idea

Stolen this straight from boing boing. very good trends website. potentially a very useful planner's resource i think:

The Internet Archive has launched a demo of the Open Library, a project that seeks to gather all the information about all the world's books and make it publicly available as a giant books wiki.
While many books are making their way online for free access, most still are restricted or cost money to touch. The Open Library combines links to open resources with information on in-copyright works and enables you and me to review, annotate, correct and convene.

I think this project (which right now seems to point to almost half a million books) is very cool -- it's going to be a major addition to the world's open cultural infrastructure. I have a hunch that it's going to be the primary way many if not most people access books, and I see it becoming an always-open window on the desk of every librarian.

the perils of user-generated marketing

AKQA have launched a YouTube channel for Pot Noodle.  It’s a very simple idea – send us a video of you eating a Pot Noodle and we’ll send you a case of the stuff.  And you might win a PS3 too. This film is a nod-and-a-wink test card movie but it links you to the channel.

Right audience for user-generated content, simple idea, easy to do the film and submit, but only 5 people have contributed.  And those include the launch film and three submitted at the same time.

1800 people have looked at the channel, but only 47 have viewed a video and they’ve garnered only 1 comment.  And this is in more than 2 weeks.

It probably didn’t cost very much but by any measure this doesn’t look like a successful campaign. 

So we all need to tread with caution as far as ideas that require people to send us stuff are concerned.  Some work, but as they become an overused campaign mechanic it will increasingly be only the really great ideas providing real value to people that take off.

Nick

Life'sGoodTube?

Geek and gadget blogs alike have been abuzz over the last few days at the announcement that LG (which amazingly does actually stand for 'Life's Good') have signed a contract with YouTube (now owned by Google) to produce a 3G phone on which you can watch videos, but also record and share them with other YouTubers by uploading them directly onto the site.

The deal marks another alliance between LG and Google. Last month, LG began selling 3G phones with software pre-installed for using Google search, maps and Gmail.

Earlier this year, Apple caused a stir by making a deal with Google to deliver YouTube videos onto the iPhone. However, Apple’s failure to launch a 3G version of the phone, or release it outside of the United States, has enabled its competitors to improve their offerings before its worldwide release. Interestingly, the LG phone is due to be launched in Europe before the iPhone even gets here.

Sonia xx

Digital Article in today's Marketing Week

Son xx

journalistic integrity on american network telly: Mika Brzezinski

who'd of thunk

Branding in social media

or, how to engage with a youth audience in the world of web 2.0: This work isn’t running on Myspace USA any more, but the principle is simple – give the Myspace audience what they quite often want – a platform they can shout loudly from (in this case the site homepage, viewed by millions of people every day) and in exchange get them to put your brand all over their profiles, and so get it seen by millions more. Very simple, very effective. Article courtesy of Mediapost. Cherry Coke 'Invades' MySpace

Friday, Jun 29, 2007 5:00 AM ET

CHERRY COKE this week launched what it terms the biggest-ever brand integration in social media. Visitors to the MySpace home page find a cherry-flavored locale, with vertical Cherry Coke banners on both sides of the page and two display ads that invite them to click through to "own the home page for a day" and "make yourself famous." Once on the Cherry Coke profile page, a "Page Design" contest allows visitors to use a custom-built page editor to "Cherry" their own profile page. Contest participants can submit their "Cherried" page to the MySpace community, which votes for their favorites. The grand prize: the contest winner's profile becomes MySpace.com's home page for 24 hours. According to the agency responsible, MySpace told them to expect 2,000 design submissions during the month-long campaign--and the number was surpassed in just the first five hours. After about 24 hours, the number was up to 16,000. And Cherry Coke had 22,000 new friends.

Bebo boss outlines new generation drama

Found this on today's Broadcast....

Bebo's interactive web drama, KateModern, is part of a new generation of programming that will blur the lines between viewers' real and fictional friends, according to the social networking site's international president, Joanna Shields.
Produced by the team behind US web phenomenon LonelyGirl15, the UK series will appear in four to five instalments per week when it debuts later this year.

It features a young university student in London who faces a dark, mythical force called the Order that shadows her and her friends.

Users will interact with the characters, who will each have their own Bebo profiles.

In a speech to the Royal Television Society, Shields said: "At every stage that a user is involved with the story – whether they're blogging, uploading photos or simply watching the latest episode – there will also be the chance to be involved with the brands that take part in the story."

She added: "You'll have your fictional friends and your real friends and the lines will start to blur and they'll start to interact. The end result is a far more immersive experience than conventional TV and even more engaging and interactive than the "TV on the web"/"Broadcast Yourself" opportunity that YouTube represents.

Shields challenged traditionally linear producers to find new ways of reaching a generation of viewers for whom "the conversation is the content".

"Here is a generation that has been socially conditioned in a universe that runs parallel to the one inhabited by most of us in the media and technology business."

Bebo has secured Gilette & Pantene, Microsoft Windows Live, Disney and Orange as sponsors and their products will be integrated into the narrative.

what the mind of the future feels like

what we can expect in an election next year

here are two campaign films from the US.  They're both designed to get us to a website to find out more, one with a gimick, one without.

In the US at least the set-piece political ad - positive or negative - is becoming supplanted by work like this.  knowing, branded, low-key, 'amateur' and above all quick.  One is official (Billary) and one is from a 'well-wisher' (Barack) but if they both get big audiences it kind of doesn't matter.

We're also already seeing video coverage of candidates on the stump like never before.  Any gaffe, no matter how small, is getting picked up, often on a mobile phone, and posted on YouTube for millions to see.

I'm not sure what the consequence is, but you can bet that where webcameron started, others will follow.  And if we really want to know, we'll be able to find out a lot more unvarnished truths about Brown, Cameron, Straw, Davies and anyone else on the stump...

for what it's worth the 1984 rip-off gets my vote.  it's less original but a lot more effective.