A Pop Star Dies, A Nation Disappears...

Now THIS is social commentary - for the past weeks Iran has been the number one story - now it's faded from the headlines over the death of a washed up, and apparently drug-addled and financially ruined pop-icon who the media have spent the past 20 years vilifying - what's THAT all about? Guess they are mad they won't have him around to kick anymore.

CNN dedicated the whole night Thursday to Michael Jackson, the proclaimed "King of Pop" - Iran was reduced to ticker status. The Iran posts on Twitter dried up, replaced by RIP MJ...

What does it say about our society when a nation is in revolution, trying to free itself from oppression, that world economies are near ruin, and we forget that completely so we can mourn a musician? Yes admittedly a musician who in his prime changed the music industry (some would say saved the music industry with "Thriller" - I own one of those 100 milion copies sold) and pop culture, paving the way for a generation of stars.

Michael Jackson will probably be the last of the great icons - there will be no more Elvises, or John Lennons, or Michael Jacksons - those stars who many remember where they were when they died. Here is an interesting article on that subject from the New York Times carried by my local paper - Fame Will Never Be The Same.

I give Michael Jackson full dues for who he was and what he did, but he was at best a shell of himself when he died and the media revelled in that, spending most of their time the last twenty years vilifying him as a child molester and for being just plain weird - now all of a sudden he was a genius and an icon who will be missed - that's the real story - the hypocrisy and gnat-like attention span of the media, and of society as a whole.

And what of Iran? Has it disappeared from Western consciousness? Is it yesterday's news? Even the Twitterverse has dried up and the number of green avatars is shrinking. Yes, much of the drying up of news is likely due to everything being shut down in Iran, but where has the World's outrage gone? Oh yeah, it's been put aside for MJ. Rest in Peace Michael - maybe now you will have the peace and joy that seemed to elude you in life.

Let's mourn for Michael Jackson and his family, he will be truly missed and remembered by millions of people. But let's not forget the millions of people strugglingto be free either. Time for the media to get their eyes back on the stories that matter - Iran, climate change, the world's failing economic systems and so many more that will impact us in the following days, weeks, and months. Hmmm...

(Map from Iran Tours)

Convergence Culture and Education...

I've just finished reading Henry Jenkins's book "Convergence Culture", and let me just say that if you have not yet read it that you should. His blog "Confessions of an Aca-Fan" should also be required reading for anyone interested in modern media, culture and their impact on what we do day to day. Essential reading for educators.

The book is full of useful information and insights, and I had several "AHA!" moments while reading it. The central theme of the book is that we are in a new media era where it is the consumer that is dictating the content, style and presentation of media and its content, not the traditional "old media" of large companies and defined media steams (radio, TV, newspapers, etc.) dictating when, where, what, and how we receive our content. Henry Jenkins presents a clear picture of the way our learners look at media as a tool that they can and should control, with them dictating the when, where, what, and how of content. Here are some of the highlights of the book for me (all attribution for excerpts from the book to Henry Jenkins):

1. The distinction between mass culture and popular culture - mass culture is a category of production while popular culture is a category of consumption. Popular culture happens when the materials of mass culture get into the hands of consumers - Henry's example is a song becoming an "our song" for example. I like this definition and in my mind there is a definite shift towards popular culture as consumers take things on board for themselves and have much more creative freedom because of the Web and the tools now available to create and consume culture.
2. How the smart media companies seized on convergence culture and became successful because of it and the best example is probably the "Star Wars" juggernaut. Part of the massive appeal of Star Wars and the mythology that has grown up around it has to do with how George Lucas has allowed consumers to craft their own visions of the legend and to expand upon the legend through the creation of their own movies and stories. the book also cites examples of old media organizations who didn't quite get it right by zealously "protecting" their brand and copyrights (we know who you are, don't we?)
3. How convergence culture, and in particular blogging had an impact on the 2004 US presidential campaign. Blogging changed the dynamic of traditional news and public opinion (anyone could now be a political commentator), and changes to campaign funding rules shifted control of the campaigns from the candidates to independent action groups (remember "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth"?). The political scene in the US (and I suspect everywhere in the developed world at least) has been forever changed by the shift to consumer engagement in the use of the media.
4. The biggest "AHA" moment for me was when Henry Jenkins stated that one of his book's central arguments is that the biggest change occurring with media is the shift from individualized and personalized media consumption towards consumption as a networked practice. Boy is this so true! Just listen to a group of learners discussing what they have watched or read, or how the are telling each other about what they found on the Web last night - it's one of the most powerful learning tools we have today - collaborative learning.
5. One of the final thoughts n the book is about education - historically public education in the US (and the same can be said for the education system in Canada) was meant to distribute the skills and knowledge necessary to train informed citizens. This doesn't work anymore - we have a participation gap and citizens today need to be more than informed, they need to be monitorial - not just being able to read and write but being able to participate in the deliberation over what issues matter, what knowledge counts, and what ways of knowing command authority and respect. The ideal of the informed citizen is in trouble because there is simply too much to know. The ideal of monitorial citizenship depends on developing new collaboration skills and a new ethic of knowledge sharing that will allow people to deliberate together. (page 259). This describes for me exactly the issues I am seeing in the classroom with learners - they need these "new literacy" skills of collaboration and information sharing in order to manage the sheer volume of information available today.
6. The problem is that people for the most part are learning these new skills outside of any formal educational institution - they are developing their skills through affinity sites, newsgroups, social networking sites and other new media opportunities - Henry Jenkins actually points out that many schools are openly hostile to these developing skills and go out of their way to stop their development (anyone blocked Facebook recently?). This HAS to stop - it does a disservice to learners - we need to foster and develop these collaborative skills - they are essential to the future of our learners and our educational process.

As you can see Convergence Culture has had an effect on me that I think will improve what I do as an educator - I cannot recommend too highly it or anything else that Henry Jenkins does - if you have an opportunity to read what he writes or listen to what he says, take it...

The Incredible Shrinking Man - Me!!

I weighed in the other day at a svelte 333 pounds. Now that I have your attention (and mine!), this is my public announcement that I plan on doing what it takes to lose weight - and I will be periodically posting on my progress as a way to motivate myself (besides the obvious health benefits).

I don't really have a target weight, but I do want to feel better in my clothes and to feel fitter overall, so I will mostly be eating better and exercising more - there is no easy way to do this.

For me this adventure will bring some fundamental lifestyle changes which I hope I can stick to. We'll have to wait and see. Stay tuned...

P.S. This is my "before" picture:

The Future Of Media...

Wednesday night I attended the ITANS (Information Technology Industry Alliance Of Nova Scotia) annual dinner. The guest speaker was Ken Rutkowski, media personality, strategist and consultant. The theme of his talk was on the future of media. A couple of cool things came out - one - it's gonna be a busy future, and two - I'm mostly there now!

Ken started his talk by describing old media (TV, newspapers etc.) and new media (Web, RSS, blogs, YouTube etc.) and their products - old media's product is content, while new media's product is the audience - the customer is the advertiser (makes sense - hits is one of the measures of success for an online presence). This distinction may be a little simplistic, but it allows for an identification f new media.

Mobile devices, in particular cell phones (smart devices) is where it is at for the future of media. By 2010 there will 2 billion Nokia cell phones alone in circulation - cell phone penetration is growing and in some nations is well over 90%. I've talked about this in past posts and it's interesting to here an industry expert say the same thing. In my mind it's mobile devices that are the future of education, allowing learners to learn where, when, what, and how they want to.

Ken went on to talk about RSS and push technology, how RSS is pushing information - the customer is the product. I'm a big fan of RSS - push technology is the only way these days to make sense of the sea of information that we are swimming in. Content is everywhere - podcasts, YouTube etc.

Ken then did something very cool- the rest of his presentation consisted of him using Skype to contact "some of his friends", industry experts and personalities who shared their thoughts with us on the future of media. His friends included:

• Ralph Simon - creator of the ring tone
• Johnathan Wendel - professional gamer (Fatality)
• James Sun - CEO of Zoodango - a social networking site that facilitates both online and F2F social networking
• Scott Page - former member of Pink Floyd and Supertramp, now involved in Web-based technology allowing bands to communicate with their fans

The common thread from each of these incredible people is that it's content and mobility, along with penetration that is going to be the future of social media. Businesses and individuals need to get out there and be active parts of this always on environment - be part of community.

Thanks to ITANS and the organizers for a great evening and a wonderful dinner. I know that the students that we brought along had an amazing time - they saw a glimpse into the future - where they will be working and living, and that is too cool...

Atlantic Internet Marketing Conference (AIM 2007) Day Two

Another information rich day at AIM 2007. Today's focus was more on the technologies and tools available for companies and marketers to do what it is they do attract and retain customers.

Here are the highlights of the presentations that I attended, followed by my thoughts on the day and the conference.

Secrets of Successful Web Sites

The presenter was Rob Swick, Senior Strategist, AlphaSearch (and one of the driving forces behind AIM 2007).

"The main thing is to make the main thing the main thing" - Mike Lipkin. In other words - focus on what it is you do and do it well. here are the main things for a successful Web site:

1. Planning - Create a plan
2. Create (borrow, steal) rules
3. Strive for structure and simplicity
4. Home page is the main page
5. Understand the team, what they do
6. Fill the Funnel - grow the relationship - be found

Some of Rob's rules:

1. Navigation buttons - 7 or less
2. Tools go in the "tool nav"
3. People don't read, they skim
4. Earlier pages promote internal pages
5. Show it
6. White is your friend - whitespace and white backgrounds are OK
7. If you are not capturing e-mail addresses you are wasting money

Panel Discussion - Understanding Internet Technology

• Managing client expectations is the most important thing - know exactly what a Web page will and won't do
  
• Keep things fresh and updated
• Simplify technology for clients
• Understand costs involved in site design/video production
  
• Communication is essential
• Bridge the gap between client wants and reality
  
• Panel was somewhat anti-geek/anti-technology, more focussed on business processes

Electronic Personality and Positioning

Presenter was Wilma Hartmann from Applecore Interactive

Web sites that work have their own personality - it's all about identity alignment


The total online experience is carried on the following four pillars:

1. Design
2. Content
3. Navigation
4. Functionality

There are things you can control about your Web site and things you cannot control or can only influence:

• You can control
• Domain URL
• Search Engine
• Links
• Partners/affiliates/listings
• Online advertising
• e-News/e-Mail
• Traditional Marketing and advertising

Web 2.0 is like nailing jello to a wall - you have little control

• You cannot control
• Blogosphere
• RSS
• Podcasts
• Social marketing/chat
• Rooms/newsgroups
• Unsolicited listings
• You can influence
• Bologosphere
• RSS
• Podcasts
• Social marketing
• Unsolicited listings

Emerging Web 2.0 values:

• Authenticity
• Democracy
• Innovation
• Co-creation

How do you protect your brand in this fluid environment (thriving in a co-creative world)?

• Monitor (Google/Yahoo, yourself)
• Influence (be a part of Web 2.0)
• Stay true to who you are

Future decisions for emerging media - do we or don't we. For example Sweden has set up an embassy in Second Life. Adopt what works with your personality

Digital Content and marketing in the Multi-Platform World

Presenter was Graham MacDougall, Director of Digital Media, DHX Media

A changing media landscape - much more complex and fractured environment- digital media formats/devices/tools

Major changes in how people access media

Content/Distribution Models

• Blogging - personify brands
  
• Podcasting -fivefold increase in revenue from 2006-2011)
  
• Social networking - 1 out of 4 Internet users access a social networking site once per month
  
• Rich media - Flash, video
  
• Music - now 10% of total music sales
  
• IPTV (Internet Protocol TV - Joost, Apple TV, JumpTV)
• Mobile - 20% of users browse Web from cell and smart phones, but slow growth for now

Graham highly recommended Jakob Nielsen's book The Web Bible - Prioritizing Web Usability

Viral Marketing

Presenter was Sarah Oldford, Online Media Manager, Colour

"You don't find your audience - your audience finds you"

There are now many ways to reach out online. Viral marketing is the phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass on a marketing message

• No defined viral campaign strategy
• No solid best practices - it's constantly evolving
• There is however, trying too hard
• Avoid copying/mimicking existing viral campaigns
• Viral marketing is hit or miss
• Start with the brand
• Look to your marketing messages for brainstorming
• When you have a relevant, fun idea then talk about online

Who has done it well?

• Dove Evolution
• The completely irrelevant site (Burger King subservient chicken)
• The viral video - Bridezilla - actually posted by Unilever to support their Sunsilk hair products -not a real video
• Norelco (Phillips) - shaveeverywhere.com - very funny and directly linked to the product (unusual for viral marketing)

Panel - Which Medium For My Message?

• Understand your audience
• Think like your customer/consumer
• Capability of organization to support channel selected

Mediums

• RSS - push content
• Blogs - highly search engine friendly
• Tagging - Digg, del.icio.us, technorati
• Rich media
• Text
• Cell phones / smart devices

These must all be used appropriately - need to use more than just one technology and possibly multiple formats of the same content (Real, Quicktime etc.)

Blogs are trust mechanisms

Panel - The Good, he Bad, and the Ugly

The final session of the day, the panel reviewed several Web sites of attendee companies and others. They were mostly unkind, finding fault with most, which was interesting, because several of the reviewed sites were created by panel members (which just goes to show you that if you put four Web developers in a room, you will get at least six opinions).

My Thoughts

It was another information packed days. It is apparent that the marketing world is aware of Web 2.0 and is doing its best to take advantage of these tools and technologies. There is still a gap between the knowledge of the marketing professionals and business owners. many are still trying to come to terms with the potential impact and benefits of Web 2.0 and social networking on their businesses.

It will be interesting to see where marketers go next. With the media markets now so fractured, marketers must decide which channels to use to get their messages out. It looks like the Internet is rapidly becoming the channel of choice, and that all types of devices and approaches to making customers aware of what is available will be the next frontier...

Atlantic Internet Marketing Conference (AIM 2007) Day One

Today was a long, full, rich experience with lots of information passed to the attendees. The majority of the presenters gave number-heavy presentations to reinforce their positions on market penetration, changing consumers bases and practices, and a very much evolving marketing art to marketing science. One of the major themes running through out the day was that the consumer was now the hunter with the tools and technologies to find the marketers and their messages, not the other way around.

If I were to include all of the information I received today this post would go on forever, so my intent is to briefly recap each of the presentations that I attended and then conclude with my thoughts on the day. All of the conference presentations will eventually be made available.

Keynote - Yahoo! - New Methods for Online Marketing

The keynote speaker was Kerry Munro, the General manager of Yahoo! Canada. He presented a lot of facts and figures about current Internet usage and penetration in Canada generally and with Yahoo!.ca in particular. here are just a few of the numbers:

• 58% of Canadian households are on line
• By 2009 $16 B Can will be spent on e-commerce
• Over 1 billion people online world wide
• Main use of Internet in Canada by consumers is for research, not purchase
• Yahoo! has 70% penetration - most visited site in the world (Yahoo's words)
• 82% of Canadians have Internet access (second in world only to South Korea)
• The Internet is 21% of weekly media usage but only 6% of the marketing budgets spent
• Canada most engaged country in the world - average of 40.8 hours/month spent online (29.6 hours/month for the USA)
• Canadians are not like Americans - more social, want more entertainment, humour, and sports, use more IM and downloads, higher % of women and teens. Canadians spend less per-capita online - main reason is a dearth of Canadian online merchants
• Internet is the new prime time - from 4 PM - 8:30 PM 70% of the 12-24 age group is on line. They spend more time online than with TV, print, or radio media
• Yahoo!.ca front page reaches over twice as many viewers as the top-rated TV show

According to Yahoo! you need the following to be successful on line:

1. Get online
2. Make the most of your site
3. Market online - branding
4. Use behavioural targeting
5. Make the most of Web 2.0 (a very common theme through out the day)
6. SEM (Search Engine Marketing) - searchers are engaged - 2-3 brands compared before choice made.

eBay - The Internet as Primary Customer Acquisition Driver

Presenter was Jordan Banks, General manager, eBay Canada. eBay was web 2.0 before there was Web 2.0 bringing together communities of buyers and sellers. eBay now has 233 million registered users (Q1 2007), $14.3 billion in revenue, reaches 55.4% of Internet users and has 12,416,000 unique visitors/month.

Only 14% of Canadian retailers are engaged in e-commerce. The following things have had the biggest impact on Internet marketing and marketers:

• Broadband - it's "always on"
• Search - can't fight disintermediation
• Mobile - convenience rules the day
• Social nature of the Web - ignore it at your great peril (less about content, more about engagement)
• Personalization - make it about me
• Distributed content - widgets etc.

The Changing Face of Marketing

Presenter was Jamie Davison, Principal, Modern Media

Now about behaviour targeting and analytics. marketing is changing from an art to a science. Thirty years ago there were 3 major TV networks, today there are 12 major media segments with thousands of choices - mass marketing approach no longer as effective. What has changed is:

• Internet celebrities (Yuma Yuma boy, etc.) - not good content, but available on demand (Democratization of content)
• Web 2.0 - marketing tool increases engagement - Facebook, Second Life
• You cannot just buy people's attention, you must engage them

Who's Clicking You? Internet Attitudes and Behaviours Among Atlantic Canadians

Presenter was Layton Dorey, managing director of Research, Bristol

Authors of the Inside Out Report, Atlantic Canada's in-depth journal of public opinion. This presentation had a lot of very interesting statistics on Atlantic Canada Internet penetration and usage. Here are some of the highlights (all relate to Atlantic Canada):

• 60% penetration
• TV, radio, and newspaper media still strong
• 17% in a social community - Second Life, Facebook, etc.)
• Biggest issue is developing trust in the technology - over 2/3 of all respondents across all age groups do not trust Internet ads or click on them
• 84% never click a pop-up ad
• 84% watch more than 2 hours of TV per day
• 60% spend more than 2 hours online per day

Forget 2.0... Let's Talk Web 3.0 and What It Will Mean To You

Presenter was Frederic S. Gionet, VP Innovation, Bristol

This was the best presentation of the day for me as it was the most relevant and interesting to me. To provide context, the "Christmas Carol of The Web" was presented:

• The Stone Age - Pre-Web
• The Past - Web 1.0
• The Present - Web 2.0
• The Future - Web 3.0 and beyond

Presentation highlights included:

• Second Life was presented as an example of Web 3.0 - immersive, customizable, and engaging
• Devices other than computers will become the dominant medium (smart phones etc.)
• Web will be more instinctive, easier to use
• Web 3.0 (1010/2012?)
• Mobility including GPS
• Internet-enabled TV
• Domination of Web Services
• Digital Paper - interactive/changeable ads
• Smart Billboards/Display
• 3d interaction and collaboration - Second Life. Bristol has an island in Second Life
• User will be King

Integrated Inline-Offline Marketing

Presenters were Chris Keevil, President, Colour and Malcolm Fraser, President ISL

Offline media is anything not the Internet - TV, radio, print, etc.. Customers now harder to reach - due to fragmented media and a move towards personal media.

• 1954 - 74% of families were watching "I love Lucy"
  
• 2007 - 15% of families watching "CSI"

Main points of the presentation:

• Big change in the numbers watching the top-rated TV show - marketing issue.
• More things to consume attention now than ever before
• Hunter has become the hunted - marketers need to be in a place where they can be found
• Must drive traffic to your Web site
• Web site usability is key
• Media has changed - gather and collect information but now must also think of layout and content too

Youcasting - Communication in the Age of the Clever Consumer

Presenter was Jeff White of Brightwhite Design.

A very good presentation on the use of the following online marketing tools:

• Viral video - companies are making YouTube amateur quality video to market themselves
• podcasting
• Word of Mouth - IM/chat - GMail - no advertising - just WOM invites
• Blogging - least expensive/most time consuming marketing tool, but search engines love blogs

The key is building connections with consumers

Beyond The Internet

Presenter was Krista White, Associate Media Director, Cossette Communication Group

The last presentation of the day the focus was on video games, cell phones, mobile media, TV and out of home media:

• Video games now out revenue movies ($10 b to $9B)
• Average age of gamer in Canada - 33
• In game advertising and product placement now common
• Pizza Hut/Everquest - can order a pizza while playing the game
• Ceel phone - adoption low in Canada (61% - Japan - 95%)
• Texting growing
• progressed from SMS to enhanced EMS to multi-media MMS
• Mobile TV growing
• Proximity-based marketing growing - infra-red communication between cell phones/PdAs and billboards/vending machines
• ITV - Interactive TV - 8% of Domino's Pizza's orders in the UK are from ITV
• TV viewing is not declining but commercial watching is - PVRs, VOD (Video on Demand)
  

My Thoughts

A very interesting day - the Internet is the marketing tool of the present and the future. It was interesting to see the knowledge of Web 2.0 and social networking and how marketing has had a fundamental paradigm shift due to the fracturing of media into so many sectors.

It will be interesting to see which sectors and which technologies truly dominate the future. It may be that the fracturing of media will mean that no one technology or media will dominate - cell phones, ITV, the Web, all will have a part to play. Can't wait for tomorrow...

Games Don't Kill People, People...

I've been agonizing for a few days now about whether or not to even write this post or not as by now we have all become massively overwhelmed by the tragic events at Virginia Tech, and the tidal wave of media coverage that has battered us all week. But I have something I want to say, so please bear with me.

What happened at Virginia Tech is a tragedy beyond comprehension, the act of an insane monster, whose motivations and actions are beyond me. But what has happened since Monday has, in my mind been equally as tragic. That happening is the constant, all-consuming media coverage that has taken and created a media cottage industry, and I find it reprehensible. Why is that CNN and the other private broadcasters in North America (the US networks and CTV and Global in Canada), felt the need to trot out for our consumption every canned "expert" that they could find to analyze, go over, rehash, and flog to death the events at Virginia Tech. It was nothing short of a visual and auditory assault, particularly when they broadcasted the murderer's "manifesto". Talk about your 15 minutes of infamy - he is going on 6 days and counting.

But the item that has really hit home for me s the crazy notion that it was video games that drove the killer to do what he did. There is absolutely no evidence that he was a gamer yet "experts" like Dr. Phil on Larry King Live blame video games for the actions of a madman. What about gun laws that allow unstable individuals to legally purchase hand guns, to buy large capacity magazines (in one report the killer was thought to have had 30-round magazines and fired nearly 200 rounds), and hollow-point bullets that are designed specifically for maximum lethality?

As an educator who sees the values of games and gaming as learning tools for engaging the current generation, my job has now become that much more difficult when I try to propose the innovative use of games in my professional practice. Why is there this insatiable need for mainstream media to go on and on about a tragedy, employing so called experts as talking heads to fill in their airtime? Why cannot they just report the events like they are supposed to and then give people the time and the privacy they need to heal?

I don't have the answers, but I do know that the media has to stop their current tactics of inundating us with microscopic details about what has happened - no wonder there are copycats.

To end this on a positive note, please check out my friend Carolyn's blog post "What's Your Secret?". It's an amazing video done by a group of students from my college - it's worth a look and for me puts some perspective on this past week's events. A good way to end...