Web of the future

Posted on June 11, 2010 by ElliotOwl

Cade Metz’s article gives us a very comprehensive idea of the Web experience of the future, and the various directions that the Web and new media in general can (and probably will) be moving into. From the “sharing and collaborating” nature of Web 2.0, future Web promises a more immersive experience, where the web does the work for us and the online space is redefined. I would pause at this point and remind myself that Web 2.0 is still developing and evolving as we speak, but that doesn’t mean that future Web hasn’t begun to rear it’s mysterious head. Metaphorically speaking, Web 2.0 is like the hip young yuppie who is trendy and stylish and goes out every weekend to socialise and party (these two may or may not be mutually exclusive). Future Web is like the three-year-old prodigal son who can already play the piano, guitar and drums and makes little colour-coordinated Lego cities complete with an extensive theme park (underwater roller coasters included) and an impressive physical infrastructure to withstand Haitian-sized earthquakes.

Metz talks about the different areas that the Web is developing. There is the Semantic Web, where machines are taught and programmed to think multi-directionally, much like human thought. Essentially, it will produce search results that are most relevant to us (weighing results against our personal preferences, calendars, buying habits etc.). Then there is the proposed 3D Web that allows us to physically be immersed in a virtual world, much like Second Life. The Media-Centric Web proposes to let us search for media with media, rather than keywords. The Pervasive Web is a full integration of the Web and real-life. An example given was how your windows at home could be programmed to respond to weather changes, opening and closing as directed by the Web.

All these Web systems encourage us to think about different modes of using the Web, and of inputting data that can in turn be translated to fit into these new systems. How quickly can this catch on? More importantly, what does this tell us about the state of social media marketing? I think it is safe to say that we can expect the Web experience to be much more personal and intimate, and I should expect that it would come to a point where a brand can literally talk directly to their consumers, as one would with a best gal pal. These new Web systems are already under development and there’s no telling what new technology we are going to be privy to next month, next week, or even tomorrow. New media marketers must therefore allow themselves to imagine the impossible and think laterally. Understand that information is no longer being consumed in a linear top-down fashion, but instead, is a fluid, organic system of give-and-take between media consumers and producers.

The Real World: virtual communities vs real communities

Posted on June 7, 2010 by ElliotOwl

Here’s a project I’ve been working on in recent months:

The Real World is an exploratory documentary project about the validity of virtual communities as “real communities”. This project focuses on flash-mob communities in Melbourne, Australia that are based online. It features two communities that have been very active in recent years planning and executing annual activities that are attended by hundreds, sometimes even thousands of participants.

While these communities are based online (in both cases, on Facebook), they have also managed to project physical presence in real life. The question is: does this make them a “real community” in the traditional sense?

Zombie Shuffle

The Melbourne Zombie Shuffle is an annual organised event that sees hundreds and thousands of the undead shuffling/crawling/lurching through Melbourne city streets. What began as a (relatively) small gathering of zombies in 2006, has exploded into an unstoppable force in recent years. 2010 brought about highest number of zombie participants, with a reported 4,000 – 6,000 zombies wreaking havoc throughout the city. The community exists on Facebook and all interaction leading up to each event, as well as photo and video dissemination occurs almost exclusively online. See: Melbourne Zombie Shuffle 2010

Pillow Fight

The Melbourne Pillow Fight is an extension of the annual International Pillow Fight Day, held in cities around the world like New York City, Toronto, Barcelona, Seoul, Paris and of course, Melbourne. 2010 marked the third anniversary of Melbourne Pillow Fight and saw about 400 deadly serious pillow fighters participating, fully armed with their feather pillows and flannel . This community also exists online and all communication is made via Facebook and word-of-mouth. See: Melbourne Pillow Fight 2010

Find out more on The Real World.

Hipster marketing

Posted on April 23, 2010 by ElliotOwl

Young people are a difficult group to sell to. Trends and fads are changing every single time you turn around but one thing stays constant: young people are impressionable. They are the one group of people you would most expect to identify with a label and spend most of their time adapting and changing to ‘fit in’.

So how do you sell something to them? Pedestrian.tv is a great blog that I really love following to keep up to date with popular culture. They provide interesting up-to-date information about film, music and youth culture. Ash had written an amazing article (with some fantastic examples) about “Hipster Marketing”. For those who are not familiar with the term, I did a quick search and pulled this up off Wikipedia:

“Hipster is a slang term that first appeared in the 1940s, and was revived in the 1990s and 2000s often to describe types of young, recently-settled urban middle class adults and older teenagers with interests in non-mainstream fashion and culture, particularly alternative music, indie rock, independent film, magazines such as Vice and Clash, and websites like Pitchfork Media.^[1] In some contexts, hipsters are also referred to as scenesters.^[2]

“Hipster” has been used in sometimes contradictory ways, making it difficult to precisely define “hipster culture” because it is a “mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior[s].”^[1] One commentator argues that “hipsterism fetishizes the authentic” elements of all of the “fringe movements of the postwar era—beat, hippie, punk, even grunge,” and draws on the “cultural stores of every unmelted ethnicity” and “gay style”, and “regurgitates it with a winking inauthenticity” and a sense of irony.^[3]“

I personally understand hipsters to be urban youths with interests in ‘underground’ music, film and art.

The article does a great job in identifying this particular target market (one with spending power that smart businesses may certainly profit from), and provides some stellar examples to back it up.

From the article:

“I think the answer lies within the brand’s intent. If you try to engage Hipsters by mirroring their culture and imitating their ever-evolving aesthetics you’re bound to fail. There’s nothing more contrived than some middle aged marketers approximation of youth – it can result in some truly cringe-worthy shit.”

“Hipsters by definition are trend obsessed and materialistic (stereotypes again, sorry) … what was once considered a counter-culture built on individuality is now Planet Earth’s prevailing youth movement. Read any broadsheet critique on the entitled, lazy youth of today and Gen-Y is pretty much interchangeable with Hipster. It can be confusing sometimes.

But if the backlash to hipster posturing teaches us anything it’s this – you won’t woo the kids simply by turning up late to the party. You have to orchestrate the party.Take a leaf out of Apple’s book and create the culture first then let them come to you. Oh yeah, free drinks won’t hurt either.”

Some great examples that were featured:

Social interaction and new media technologies

Posted on April 22, 2010 by ElliotOwl

I was just reading an article on The Huffington Post today about the prevalence of mobile phones today. From the article:

The frequency with which teens text has overtaken every other form of interaction, including instant messaging and talking face-to-face, according to a study released Tuesday by researchers at Pew Research Center and the University of Michigan.

Three-quarters of teens now own cell phones, up from 45 percent in 2004. Of those who own cell phones, 88 percent text, up from just over half in 2006.

I’m fascinated by how modes of communication have evolved from then and now: from carrier pigeons, to old-fashioned letters with their wax seals, to the telephone, to the Internet and e-mail, and to texting on a mobile phone.

There has been much discussion over the years about how new media technologies (like the Internet and the mobile phone) may affect communication and social interaction. There is a great discussion about this issue here, where the author says: “Many authors, particularly Robert Putnam, have discussed a large-scale social trend toward an increase in privatism, which is the tendency for people to spend time at home instead of outside in public spaces.” He writes about his personal observations of human interaction in a normal social setting, and concludes that in spite of the fact that new media technologies might place us all in our own little private bubbles with our iPods, iPads and smart phones, it makes up by connecting people in an fascinating manner we wouldn’t have even dreamed ten years ago.

I have to admit that I am one of those who tend to get caught up in my own little private bubble. While I am aware that it is probably quite unhealthy, I am connected on Blackberry Messenger (a instant messaging service for Blackberry users), WhatsApp (an instant messaging service for Blackberry and iPhone users), Twitter, Facebook and Gmail 24 hours a day. I check my Blackberry every few minutes for new texts or emails and I sleep with my Blackberry under my pillow – though, the vibrate mode is turned off when I go to sleep so I don’t wake up every time I get messages coming in from people in different timezones. I have turned into a news freak: I want/need updates about absolutely everything. And I’m not just talking about updates from my friends about what they are having for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have begun to feel incomplete when I haven’t gotten my news fix for the day: which country has been devasted by what natural disaster, what new prototype is going to be left where for which tech blog to find, which bands are coming down for what festival that’s going to be held where.

The fact that I feel like my day will go to absolute shit if I have forgotten to charge up my Blackberry to full battery the night before is probably a sign that things are going a little too far for some. Sometimes I think, what the fuck, are you for real?! They are movies to be watched, people to meet, essays to write and footage to be edited, and all I’m worried about getting my news fix? I must be going crazy.

But then I think, where was I four years ago, before I owned a smart phone? I was never a newspaper reader. I was so out of touch with current affairs that I felt embarrassed to call myself a Mass Communication student. I was out of touch with friends that I called “sisters” in primary and secondary school; I had no clue what they were doing or whether they were still in the country to begin with. My Blackberry (and the iPhone I owned before this) turned that all that around. I can now spew random bits of trivia (thanks to OMGFacts on Twitter), am completely up-to-date with news back home in Singapore (thanks to TodayOnline’s daily that gets sent straight to my email), and am fully aware of new social media trends (thanks to Mashable’s RSS feeds). I find that this new-found knowledge – which some may/have called “information overload” – has opened a whole new world for me. I am more aware and educated. Best of all, I find that I have so much more to talk about, to friends and people I’ve only just met. Small talk doesn’t feel so difficult as it did before.

So do new media technologies affect social interaction? Sure they do. But in a bad way? Certainly not – or at least, that’s what I think. If anything, new media technologies has provided even more avenues for social interaction by connecting more people in unthinkable ways.

ElliotOwl

I write copy, manage ideas, and design communication plans for a living.

Tag Archives: new media technologies