mindblob

Always in BETA - The Conversation Fish

- Karl Long as being filmed by CM's web cam... hi Karl ! -

Imagine you were a fish on misson, in a bowl right at Forrester Consumer Forum 2007. Imagine you could see and hear people there and -wow!- send them text messages to a screen and get instant "live" feedback. What would you actually see? What would you say? Well, the first thing you'd witness is Critical Mass fantastic, audaciously open, conversation experiment : ALWAYS IN BETA.

David Armano and the super team at Critical Mass Chicago are indeed giving us an insightful view on the Forrester Consumer Forum. Letting anyone on the net log onto their open "Always in Beta" site. I encourage you to check it out as this is only a 2 days event (11th and 12th October). CM's blog is here.

As being one of the fishes around the Internet bowl yesterday, I must confess I really enjoyed the experience. First of all the technical aspect, innovative Internet tools (free and available to all of us, provided by UStream). So, no complicated IT server and gear with wires and geeks figuring out the optimal bandwidth in a hidden NASA-control-room-like place. Computer + web cam + Internet connection = that's about it. Well, of course there were some gaps in the video from time to time and the available computer mic was a bit overwhelmed by his assignment (unidirectional might help for next broadcast). But that's not so important, this is Beta, right.

The most important thing is the EXPERIENCE offered there. It opens lots of doors and ideas on how the future of live coverages of events could be. Imagine a phone with super-speed Internet access and a camera and you could broadcast "live" on the Internet from any hotspot. David gave us -fishes- an adrenaline peak when he went "WIFI-LIVE". Walking with his laptop and web cam in the hallways of the Forum felt like being on Neil Armstrong shoulder on July 20, 1969. Wow! David's wifi-walk made me think about this :

 

"It's one small step for man...

one giant leap for Conversation"

 

Congrats guys ! ! ! What an experience! We, fishes, loved it! Thank you for taking us on Enterprise -Critical Mass- spaceship... for a walk & talk on planet Forrester.  Last but not least CM bought 300 Age of Conversation hardcover books and offered them to the visitors of the forum. Now wait a minute... maybe "Beta", means "Conversation"... That's it!

   

Idea saves planet

 

Our planet is in danger, we all know it. Even if we all agree about that "fact", what can we do as individuals to help or influence a positive change? The PICNIC Green Challenge is launching a contest to help fight climate change. They challenge creative thinkers and innovators, to come up with an original idea for a product or service that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 

 

   

They also require from the participants that they present a concrete plan of action to launch their idea within 2 years. The price/help to market the idea is 500.000 Euros, coaching from business leaders and a list of potential clients. The president of the jury is fantastic-Richard Branson, entrepreneur incroyable, chairman of the Virgin Group and the Galactic space project. "This contest is going to help people to realize how much they are capable of,” he says. “Great things really do come out of simple ideas.”.

   

 

Richard Branson together with former vice President Al Gore are also behind a wider project -launched in February 2007- linked to the reduction of the greenhouse effect, the Virgin Earth Challenge. Contest will award $25 million to the individual or group who are able to demonstrate a commercially viable design which will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least ten years without countervailing harmful effects. This removal must have long term effects and contribute materially to the stability of the Earth’s climate. See them on the CBS "Eye-to-eye" TV show here, talking about the reason why of the project.

 

I take a moment here to point the axis we discussed in the previous post. It seems that more and more companies develop green policies to link their businesses to positive intentions for the planet. Well, if the intentions are shared, supported, and driven into reality, then some positive actions could (really) follow. But, at this stage thinking about this process, it appears to me to be more like a talent search/call, than a real collaborative work using the brain/linking power of the internet. Food for thoughts (yeah, again!) - (to be continued...)

 

   SHARED IDEA(S) - DRIVER-  POSITIVE ACTION

 

Do you have an idea that could help?

 

Groovy clicking suggestion

Hey, I saw this little groovy dude weeks ago and even if he has no face, he made me smile. Very well designed character, isn't it? So here it is : "Cool! I’ve been nominated for Blogger's Choice Awards!" Thanks to “Iamsemjaza” who seems to have kindly nominated quite a few blogs.The results will be announced on November 10th, 2007 at PostieCon in Orlando, Florida.

 

Mindblob is nominated for 3 categories on Blogger's Choice Awards :

- Best Blog Design (I like this one, really)

- Best Marketing Blog (yep, seems I’m on that boat too)

- Best Blog about Stuff (what? stuff? Yeaaah... love it!)

      

In other words, if you are bored clicking without excitment, if you have  alien  friends  willing to click but who just can’t or if you feel like testing your new mouse,... please go ahead and practice on this spot and maybe, eventually... change that "zero" over there.  ; )

 

The social experiment... monster

Here comes David Armano's next step after his "What is the story" post. The answers to his original post were various, serious, curious, challenging, interesting and also quite unexpected for some. Like this “three-eyed-monster” that could have been proposed by Stefan G. Bucher... but was in fact submitted by Adrian Lai.

But what I’d like to point out here is David’s analysis of the process he initiated. Here is an extract of his first status :

 

“What can brands learn from social experiments?

1. A passionate community is the lifeblood of your brand.  Without it—a brand is hollow.
2. People want to interact with your brand—to be a part of it somehow, to make it their own.
3. Your community can make your brand better, stronger and smarter.
4. Inviting your community to become an active part of your brand stimulates ideas, creativity and potentially innovation.”

 

Then David explains the path of his thoughts using the metaphor of his original post :

 

“If brands let their communities define them—are they strong brands in the first place?  The answer is yes.  My voice is my voice.  It will not change—I am who I am.  But my thoughts and actions can be influenced by what you say and do.  Are brands willing to do the same?  Does this make them weak or strong?”
...

“The point is that a healthy brand does not live in isolation—just like healthy people.”

 

Once again, thank you for this, David. Yes!!! This is just brilliant! Brands shouldn’t live in isolation – not to mention isolation is almost impossible, taking into account the fact that “WE are the story” and so talk, write, compare, review, comment brands whether they want it or not! So yes, they should “Open the tank”, take (relative) risk and engage conversation. Consumers are the heartbeat of the brands... so their “pulse” is definitely needed inside the Box, right! How could brands live without them?

 

We used to say "Think out of the Box"... and go outside to seek inspiration. Should we now consider "Come think in our Box"? Invite consumers to come inside and help define our brands, boost our own creativity or innovation and eventually help us “produce” interesting content? Wow... talking about “revolution” much?

 

In the meantime, please consider you’re definitely welcome to come think... in this blog-Box... well anytime. One-eyed-Aliens like three-eyed-monsters, naturally.   ; )

UPDATE : Adrian Lai just pointed to my attention that the eyes were from a project going on in NYC. You can check what it "looks" like here (thanks Adrian!).

 

Spreading the LOOP

David Armano initiated a very interesting "conversation" (yes I know... this word has been on many lips lately, but well here it is again) over a simple but extremely smart visual. Just one question: what story does this visual tell to you?

See, as a matter of fact, I just visited David's blog and found myself engaged into the interesting content there, so please let me share this with you.

Let's spread the smiles around!   ; )

 

Evolution, Revolution & YOU

 

Back to the end of December, Russell Davies the UK based super-planner we’ve all read and heard about, had a post on trends for 2007.

Russell and his associates of the OIA (Open Intelligence Agency) were asked by Piers (Psfk.com - ideas, trends and inspiration) to tell them their trend predictions for 2007. Members of the OIA (Emily Reed from Sidney, Jeffre Jackson from Amsterdam, David Nottoli from New York and Russel himself) made a small video to share with us their vision. Basically, they say video on the internet is going to spread and be used on a wider scale (inc. video conferencing, video tutorials, product demos, etc.). Check it out on the video here under.

 

 

Viewing this lead me to 2 different thoughts. My first reaction was to secretly think : “Yes... it’s about time!”. I’ve always been thinking that video was going to be a big hit on the net as soon as technology and bandwidth would allow it. As you may know, for the last 7 years I’ve been running the TV production department of an international advertising agency. When many of my fellow TV producers were worried about the decrease of local productions and at the same time reduction of the average budget to shoot a commercial, I always thought internet would bring new production challenges and demands.

There is a key to be considered by producers, though. We’re not talking about the same kind of productions. When for an advertising film, we refer to shooting in 35mm or 16mm with complete film crew (technically comparable to a cinema shoot), the new film demand is going to be a lot lighter in terms of production: light crew, video, HDV, etc. Making quality films for the internet (...and I’m not talking about the YouTube “Hey dudes, my camcorder and I rule!” kind of films – which can be quite funny, BTW) is as important as investing time and money in the design of the sites. I think there is room there for film producers and professionals. Now, for filmmakers, trading a 35mm film camera for an HD video cam is a bit like what photographers had to consider when going digital. There is a respectable emotional issue underneath, but well... new creative tools and ideas to explore at the same time, not to mention a new market to develop.

 

(35mm film roll - originally uploaded on Flickr by _Silverstar_)

 

Then my second thought went to the OIA itself. I’ve been reading many posts and comments lately on what bloggers could define as :

“The perception that the way we work and communicate is going to change, because of the new opportunities linked to the evolution of the internet”.

Or in other words (in a very business oriented thought): Internet leads to a new communication era where companies will have to consider the consumers differently and offer them more than up front (push) communication and after sales (block) helpdesk (hey masiguy, I'm with you on this one!). Companies will have to open the tank and let their previously called “target” reach them with feedback (pull) and “insights” on their existing and future products. Creating Passionate Users recently published an interesting post entitled “Reverse-engineering user reviews”, which describes how to read and analyze user reviews and consider them from a psycho-social and marketing point of view - (part of the visual hereunder comes from Creating Passionate Users).

 

 

If TIME magazine and their controversial front page: “Time's Person of the year: YOU” was subject to many criticism, at least it did attract attention of the sceptical masses on the new role of consumers. That’s now a fact. Rapid access to information, community building, freedom of speech (ok, ok, we’re on our way!) lead to an EVOLUTION of HUMAN behavior. At the same time, I think that business wise this is (or at least will be) a REVOLUTION within the companies, because they will have to  review their structures and modus operandi taking into account the new dialogue engaged with their customers. (I link back to David Armano’s description of the “Flat vs. Round worlds” as I think it helps visualize sharing ideas from the 2 different perspectives – so extremely brilliant DA!).

 

 

If I’m sure many of us (YOU, right here, right now!) have a clear perception of this phenomenon, change is, nevertheless, going to take (some) time. Time to spread the Round World, time to touch a majority vs (still) a minority, time before reaching CEOs and leaders of the big corporations, and... last but not least, time before they actually take adequate action to “adapt” and eventually restructure their big monster companies. In the meantime, communication professionals whether marketers, advertisers, web designers, have (some) time to prepare and shape their surfboard for the next wave.

 

The OIA is a proposition : light, flexible, international, multi-cultural professionals ready to take action anytime.

 

 

I think there is more to do out of this example. There is a time for thinking, and a time for action. In moments of changes, it is good to pause and look around (many of us know it... Lewis Green, Roger von Oech, David Armano). Because it is difficult (say impossible) to run in a direction, if you know this direction is just not the right one. Take time, focus, gain conviction, then go back to... action.

 

Hint hint hint ! Food for thoughts, guys!
How do you consider the way you work today?

How do you imagine your future work?

    
 

The Global Brain

Talking about trends is definitely the trend of the first month of the year. Trends are like rumors, they’re everywhere. Still some attract attention more than others, reason why I’d like to share these links with you… about trends for 2007 - (thanks to Viaspire for spotting them).

First is the “Radar for 2007” top 5 trends from trendwatching.com, an independent and opinionated consumer trends firm, relying on a global network of 8,000 spotters around 120 countries worldwide. They have a more detailed report, but the complete file is, of course, for sale. Now the 5 trends on focus :

1.    Status lifestyles
2.    Transparency tyranny
3.    Web N+1
4.    Trysumers
5.    Global Brain

I invite you to check the detail of these 5 bullet points as I believe they are worth the read. Nevertheless, I can’t resist to pick number 5 and relay its content here. Although this one might seem evident to most of you, the idea that talents and thinkers are getting connected and that there is something big underneath this idea, is tickling me from the beginning of this blogging experience.

"...We’ve spoken about THE GLOBAL BRAIN before: all of the world’s intelligence and experience, fully networked, incorporating not only the usual suspects like gurus, professors and scientists, but the experiences and skills of hundreds of millions of smart consumers as well. With the 'shortage of talent' that every brand on every continent seems to fear in 2007, tapping into THE GLOBAL BRAIN seems a, well, no-brainer. This year, expect many corporations, small and big, to aggressively court the 1% of most creative and experienced individuals roaming the globe."

Whether we’re talking about “Customer made” , “Generation C(ontent) or C(ash)”, or “Innovation Overload”… one trend is clearly established : compared to business and economic models of the past 10 years, we are facing a major (r)-evolution.

 

Revolution or Evolution? What's your take on this?

 

Z-mutations

 

We’ve probably heard, read and written too much about the Z-List already. Nevertheless, I found a few mutations of the list that lead me to this post. The interesting thing to discover is that they all seem to have one common point : the original and positive spirit is still spreading. Way to go Z-W-B-D-Lists!   Hey... wait a minute, this looks like a Z-List of the Z-Lists.  ; )

 

-    The Z-List   -  “...link-love to the blogs that deserve it”
        (Mack Collier)

-    The W-List  -  “...by women for women”
        (Tammy Vitale)

-    The B-List -  “...is all about bicycles”
        (Tim Jackson)

-    The D-List  -  “...for the dog blogs”
        (Karen Shanley)

 

Note also that  after last week announcement, Seth Godin’s Squidoo list has gone through some sort of mutation. Ray Edwards (Copywriter and Marketing Consultant) has taken over Seth's lens and has now the role of moderator.   -  To be continued...

 

UPDATE :

Sandra Renshaw from Purple Wren (now know for her beautiful Z-List collage) tracked a mobile and interactive mutation on Wiffiti. Original idea comes from Jaynie.K at Beyond Madison Avenue. So, check it out if you are located in the US, this thing is pretty cool. Doesn't work from abroad... unless you find someone to send your message from the sates, right!  ; )

 

 

Seth's Z-List update

Seth Godin just posted an update related to the launch of his controversial Squidoo page.

I'm not going to cover the story of the Z-List again, you can find more about how it all began here. This, if you are just back from a lost island where you spent 3 weeks of delightful vacation out of time... and of course out of the bloggosphere (...sigh!).

I just thought I'd point Seth reaction out, as his "Z-List Squidoo" page was a real enigma to me. I just couldn't understand how the votes were lead -not to say orientated- and was immediately shocked by the way people were sending more negatives than positive votes. This was indeed a complete nonsense and definitely out of the original "Spirit of the Z-List".

Well it seems that Seth himself reckons he didn't expect such an evolution of his Squidoo list. In his post he tries to re-focus his intentions:

"My original intent was to make it easy for people who weren't on the list to be on the list. I knew after I posted the list I found that I'd hear from a bunch of bloggers asking to be added. Alas, I don't have the time or the energy (or even the skill) to figure out which ones to add, so I decided to make it an open list."

Seth also says he is disapointed by the acting of "some bloggers" who tried to "game the list".

"Several bloggers worked hard to game the list I posted, instructing folks to vote other (worthy) blogs down. That's sad.

Several bloggers added their blogs even though they were clearly irrelevant to the point of the list

And many bloggers got their feelings hurt because if there's a list, and you're competitive, then being near the bottom of the list is a bad thing."

As we could expect it, this explains why the votes were irrelevant and not made according to the quality of the listed blogs. Now, from a more personal point of view, this is exactly what I found annoying. The fact that too many people were sending negative votes ineluctably lead me to disagree with the Squidoo list. It is more the votes themselves than the related ranking, actually. But hey... don't misunderstand me, I do like competition, but in an appropriate context, with equity and respect.

Finally, in his post, Seth Godin sends a message to his readers :

"So, I'm looking for a moderator. If you think you'd like to run the lens, promote it, improve it, etc., stop by the site and enter a paragraph in the comments field at the bottom (and I need way to contact you!)."
...
If I can't find someone to give the page to, then I'll probably shut it down. The web is a daily experiment, and this one, like most, was interesting. I'm disappointed that a few dozen had such an impact on the rest of us..."

Unless people (or just someone) think a moderator could make the difference, Seth announces he will shut the page down.

My 2 cents : From a rational perspective, I think there is indeed a limit to the Z-list. The paradox is locked within the list itself. It does ineluctably generate more traffic to the listed blogs as it does to the relay sites. People obsessed by rankings know that and will try to hijack it again, adding sites that don't belong there... in one way or another.

So, is the spirit of the initial idea fading away? Maybe. But it doesn't matter. Why? Because there is one good reason (not measurable) and already highlighted by the Z-List:

New links were made...
and good content was spread.

The auto-filters of the list are the blogs themselves. They are the moderators. Each blog involved has the freedom to keep in touch (or not) with the Z-list members and linkers. The end doesn't justify the means... because there isn't one.

So, yes... the Z-List will probably die-out or mutate (already did!), but definitely not without leaving positive particles around. That's what (imho) counts... and naturally, scores a lot more than any Technorati or parallel rankings.

(Snapshot of the Z-List Squidoo ranking at the time of this post)   ; )

PS : Sandy at Purple Wren just added her personal creative touch to the list. Check it out ! Brilliant idea Sandy, thank you.

PS2 : I'll be out of the bloggosphere for a few days, back next week (no lost island, I promise!) So it is time for me to send you my...

BEST WISHES for 2007!
May all your dreams come true!
Warmest thoughts to Noel and his friends, Jan, Gavin and their family.

 

The spirit of the Z-List

Mack Collier from The Viral Garden – and I think his blog has never been so well named – launched December 12th the idea of the “Z-List”. Now for those of you not familiar (yet) with it, here is a little recap.

Mack originally proposed to bring more “link-love” to great blogs that, for whatever reason, aren't getting their due, link-wise. His idea was to create an open list, built like an internet meme, that bloggers could copy and paste on their blogs. Now, the goal of this was also to influence Technorati’s system of using a blog's number of links to determine its “authority”. And this gave birth to the Z-List growing on the blogosphere right now.

Well, mindblob was lucky to be chosen for the Z-List by Gavin Heaton, just 2 days after Mack Collier’s original post (December 14th). Although I wasn’t really into rankings at all before this happened, I must confess, I’m quite impressed by the evolution of this thing. I checked my Technorati ranking to document it later and here are my observations.

At the time, my ranking was somewhere close to: 128.871 with 14 blogs linking to mindblob (yep, I know... a real z-lister!). Today (only 12 days later), mindblob is ranked : 50.946 with 94 links to here and it is growing everyday.

Thumbs up to Mack Collier (yes, I had to say it!), because his idea is brillant, plus he really launched a viral interference to the Technorati ranking system. It is indeed viral in a way... because once launched, nobody can stop it.
Can anyone tell me where I can find the latest and most updated Z-List?  ; )

Ok now, a few thoughts I'd like to share with you...

First thought :
Technorati ranking is based on links from blogs to blogs. The more links to a blog, the higher position this blog gets to. Although a great reference site, we all know this ranking system is just one way to rank blogs, the Z-List wave could make it a bit more relative than it was before. I wonder if Technorati is going to consider this as relevant and maybe comment.

Second thought :
Thumbs up to Mack Collier (yes yes... again!), because all the blogs linking to the Z-List, link to his blog as well. But honestly, I like this idea, because he definitely deserves it. Can’t wait to see the next Top 25 marketing blogs list on the Viral Garden.

Third thought :
Guess what... Seth Godin’s in the run. He just launched a Squidoo page to add his touch to the Z-List phenomenon. On his “lens” you can vote for “blogs you might want to check out, but haven’t heard of”. Quite a good idea also and probably an ingenious marketing move. And by the way...  yes, there’s a link to mindblob from Seth Godin’s site.   ; )

Nevertheless, Mack Collier noticed Seth’s list and quoted on his last post :

“...it's obvious that he started with the 'Z-List' of blogs that's getting passed around so much, as the basis for the list. It also appears that Seth, or someone else, have added several of the so-called 'A-List' blogs, such as his, Creating Passionate Users, and Gaping Void. I'm not a big fan of that, since I think it dilutes the purpose of the 'Z-List', and as you can see, the so-called 'A-Listers' have mostly moved to the top already.”

To be honest with you, I just don’t know how to read and understand these votes. At the time being, there are 277 blogs in his list. Only 9 blogs out of 277 get positive points, 4 have 0 points, and more surprising : 264 get negative points ! ! ! OK, votes seem to be moving fast, up and down, really. So, I guess we’ll have to wait for a while. Still, there are more negative votes than positive votes. Does that mean that the original list is not relevant? My question is : who is voting on Seth’s Squidoo and on what criteria?

Mack to end his post in a very elegant and clever way :

“But hey, that's the beauty of the community, they can take an idea and run with it wherever they want. The end result is that most of you should see even more traffic and links to your blogs, and find some more good reads, so that's a good thing, and I thank Seth for doing this.”

Last thought :
(oh... I mean, of this post, don’t worry there will be more!) This wave is on the move and indeed, not much can stop it now. But wherever it goes, maybe we should keep in mind the original idea of the Z-List, allow me to say :

“The spirit of the Z-List” : a focus on blogs of interest. 

So, there are two alternatives, really. Either speculate on rankings (oh... did I just do that on previous paragraphs?) or spend time discovering the Z-List blogs. And I encourage you to do so... it is rich, full of stunning blogs, reads and posts, and definitely worth spending time on. As a conclusion and loop, I’ll quote Gavin Heaton (thank you mate! I vote for you too) and his blog Servant of Chaos, who captured, imho, the spirit of the Z-List :

“...have been so excited at what I have found.
It just goes to show that more is MORE.”

What's your perspective on the Z-List?