Web Ecosystem

In praise of Wikipedia

2008-07-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin is complaining about some of the seemingly arbitrary choices done by the Wikipedia Collective Intelligence .

First let us look at his complaints:

1) The biography of George Costanza is five times as long as that of Tim O'Reilly.

Well I am sure at least 5 times as many people care about Goerge than Tim. Goerge Costanza is a figure of our modern psyche (at least in North America) in the same way Agamemnon might have been for the ancient greeks.

2) IBM and Jones Soda get a mention while Seth's old summer camp does not

Thank god for that.

Going past the misguided choice of examples, I think that Seth raises an issue that is worth discussing. Should Wikipedia be more tightly regulated? or less tightly regulated?

My first knee-jerk reaction would be, don't tinker with it if it is good.

Wikipedia is a miracle, our modern wonder of the world. The fact that a loosly regulated system with no hard incetives for participants has grown to be the definitive reference of our age is amazing. I think that this is due to a very delicate balance of control and loosness that the founders espoused.

If we play with this balance we are most likely going to cause harm as we are moving into uncharted territory and our only point of reference is Wikipedia itself, as no other system comes close to its magnitude in quality and size.

It seems that war between the deletionists and the expansionists is working very well in trimming the body of Wikipedia while keeping it growing in healthy areas.

So the answer to the questions of control, could indeed be "no answer". In other words, create an environment in which different opinions are allowed to flourish and to be combined into a 'wisdom of the crowd' decision that has so far proven wiser than the old encyclopedists.

This of course is all consistent with Seth Godin's own philosophy of digital marketing: create the tools, uleash them, and trust the masses to use them.

Marketing lessons from Elizabeth II

2008-01-02T14:27:00.001-08:00

50 years ago a young Queen Elizabeth took a bold step by broadcasting her Christmas message on television. This year the aging but equally charming and forceful Queen broadcast her Christmas message on YouTube.

The British royal family is the ultimate brand. For nearly a century they have not exercised any power and have served as a symbol of continuity and history for Britain. It is an expensive symbol costing £36 million ($72 million) per annum, even when they are hrribilis.

Elizabeth II has reigned since 1952, and in addition to being the Queen of Emgland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, and Saint Kitts and Nevis; she is:

Head of the Commonwealth
Supreme Governor of the Church of England
Paramount Chief of Fiji
Defender of the faith
Lord Admiral of the United Kingdom
Commader in Chief of the Candadian Armed Forces

The Queen has been a supreme brand manager and she managed with very few missteps to storm many crisis and maintain the dignity, love and respect accorded to the British Royal Family.

There is a lesson for all brand managers in the way the Royal Family was launched on YouTube.

1) Embrace new technology

As with radio and TV before the Royals never shied from using the most effective medium to spread their message.

2) Remain yourself

Do not confuse the technology with the culture of the people using it. Just because YouTubers are mostly teenagers sharing phone recorded clips does not mean that the Queen will be wishing Christmas in cargo pants.

3) Talk to people and not at them

The Queen address is always full of very personal messages that make the listener feel that she cares about him as she probably does. Her very formal presentation is transformed into a personal communication that is very touching and sincere.

4) Show your human side but be authentic

Unlike George Bush 41 showing up at supermarkets, but very much like 43 in his ranch the first TV message was broadcast from the Queen study where she is seen as if she was in her daily routine, comfortable but without affectation.

In the Royal Channel there is footage of the Windsors acting like real humans on Christams day (Chritmas cocktail, family photo, etc).

All this is of course a very studied walk on the tight-rope between humanity and royalty that the Queen has perfected.

5) Be consistent

The message is the same weather you are listening to the radio, watching TV, browsing YouTube, the Queen is not a chameleon that will change depending on the environment, on the contrary her brand will dominate the medium so that you forget where you are and only remember that you are with Her Majesty.

If you visit the Royal Channel on YouTube you will see a very royal presence that overwhelms the YouTube brand.

May your brand be as majestic.

Facebook demographics getting older

2007-12-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

Many of our clients have been concerned that marketing on Facebook will only address the younger segments of their clients.

Here is the proof that this is wrong from straighfrommybrain.com:

From Seth's Blog: Facebook for old people

Social Networking Is Not Just for Kids Anymore -- New Study Finds Even Luxury Consumers Do It | Reuters

2007-12-12T13:48:00.000-08:00

A new study by Unity Marketing shows that luxury consumers are (like all of us) increasingly using social media.

A luxury consumer as defined by the study is somebody who bought a luxury item in the last 3 month:

- Average age 43
- Average income 150000$
- % who visited a social media site in the last 3 months: 40%

Social Networking Is Not Just for Kids Anymore -- New Study Finds Even Luxury Consumers Do It | Reuters

Free Rice

2007-12-11T12:43:00.000-08:00

From the blog of my good friend Nabil, I found this incredible web site:

Free Rice

A word quiz that donates 10 grains of rice for each correct answer. Perfect execution from concept to design. It is a great example of how out the box thinking can lead to wonderful things on the web.

PI2K - Perspectives Insights 2 Knowledge: Absolutely Brilliant : Learn and feed the poor simultaneously

Are Ads as Content the Future of Advertising? » Digital Podcast

2007-12-05T06:53:00.000-08:00

Digital Podcast has a great review of the some of the best viral video campaigns:
Are Ads as Content the Future of Advertising? » Digital Podcast

The includes:

- Blenders
- Bullet proof backpacks
- How-to magazine
- TexMex Restaurant

My favorite is Maine Root campaign for its root beer:

- Cost 20 000$
- Sales growth in 1 year: 500 000$ => 3 000 0000$ (Digital Podcast implies it is the result of the ad).

So basically with good imagination this can apply to any product. The essence of the success of these ads in my opinion are:

- Light hearted approach
- Real product relevance
- Human touch

The big problem that most companies have when attempting these campaigns is that they either:
a) look at them either as well crafted TV ad and try to control every aspect of the creative process, or
b) go for the 'faux' college prank approach

Viewers are getting tired of a) and unless b) is authentically and extremely well executed they find it boring.

Best & Worst of FacebookCamp Montreal

2007-11-08T09:28:00.000-08:00

We (Sequence geeks & cybermarketers) went yesterday to FacebookCamp Montreal.

It was a great event and we met a number of very interesting people who are passionate about Facebook in Montreal. By passionate I include those who hate it with passion and those who are passionately ambivalent.

There are a number of exchanges that made me think deeply about Facebook and social networks and I will be discussing those in future posts, but here is the quick take:

Best Session

Facebook: perspectives futures

Panel discussion with Bruno Boutot, Sebastien Provencher, Martin Lessard and Sylvain Carle.

This was a very useful discussion with great insights:

Martin touched on the central theme of the Social Network's 'revolution' basically giving media-like power to the average person.

Sylvain adds that what he used to do as uber-geek is now available to non-geeks

Bruno thinks "Facebook will never become 'Home' as there are too many poeple". He agrees it has a role as an aggregator of niche communities where users can really be @ home.

Sebastian had a bunch of great ideas but I was too drunk (see best beer award) to remember.

Best Beer

Griffon Red Ale

A true red with all the body and the structure, Boreal Rousse paled by comparision (no pun).

Best keynote

Co-winners Colin Smillie and Roy Pereira

OK they were the only keynote but they did a great job outlining stats and services of Facebook.

Best Application

Telephone from babyTel

Really user-friendly Facebook-integrated voip. Potentially addictive.

Full disclosure: Stephen Dorsey, babyTel president, is a good friend of mine and we have been exchanging ideas for a very long time. But the 'eggphone' is truly a great app, congrats Stephen.

Best Application (honorable mention)

iPlayLike from ilovetoplay.com

I couldn't find it on Facebook but the idea is that you claim that you play Basketball like for example Jean Chrétien and your freind can vote if they agree or not. It basically captures the essence of great Facebook apps: fun, social, light-hearted and totally useless.

In the words of Marc Chriqui from iLovetoPlay the litmus test of any Facebook app is that anybody over 35 yrs should find it to be a total waste of time.

Sorry Marc you failed your own test, since I love your app :>

Best question

Member of the audience to Colin & Roy:
"Who are you guys? and where do you get your numbers from?"

Best Mustache

Thane Calder from Cloudraker

No picture available, but let us say that he does it to save his prostate http://www.movember.com/

Note that Thane's contribution was not limited to his facial hair but he was a great MC for the Marketing segments.

Best Quote

Éric Bolduc zine editor of the wonderful ratsdeville.typepad.com
"Facebook is the blog of my blog"

Facebook Rules

2007-08-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

At least in Canada, Norway, South Africa and Lebanon.

Here are my 5 rules for building Facebook apps:

Rule 1. User is king

Your application or message has to be highly relevant to the users. Facebook is a cluttered medium and the message will not be picked up unless very useful

Rule 2. Make it easy

Create your application in such a way as to minimize the work done by users. Don't force them to fill long forms, download applications, give you unnecessary permissions.
If your application is compelling they will reward you later by providing these things.

Rule 3. Land of the young
While the fastest growing segment on Facebook is 35+, today the density of the network is in the 18-25 range.
This is where your marketing will be most successful.

Rule 4. Be authentic
The culture of Facebook is one of honesty, friendship and authenticity. As a marketer forget your instincts that have been acquired in TV land or even portal land, and try to deliver fun, down to earth, humble, and useful things and you will fit in.

Rule 5. Less buzz more content

Don't rely on graphics, copy, buzz, etc. The content has to be entertaining or useful in itself.

Gmail: A Behind the Scenes Video

2007-08-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

Gmail: A Behind the Scenes Video

Google has created a great campaign for marketing gmail using YouTube.

They launched a YouTube clip and asked users to continue it. Each user can add 10 seconds to the clip. The clip features a Gmail envelope and the instructions are to have the envelope enter from the left and exit from
the right. They will then circulate the addons by random and select the best ones to create the final clip.

No more gambling in Second Life

2007-07-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Official Linden Blog » Blog Archive Wagering In Second Life: New Policy «

"Second Life Residents must comply with state and federal laws applicable to regulated online gambling, even when both operators and players of the games reside outside of the US. And, because there are a variety of conflicting gambling regulations around the world we have chosen to restrict gambling in Second Life"

This means that if you want to build a virtual reality casino you have to build your own.

Time to check Multiverse!

A Second Life for you Wiimote

2007-07-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

My good freind and social networks guru Slah Al-atrash has send me a Wired article about an MIT researcher who is using the Wiimote to control objects in Second Life. This combination allows him to create low cost VR training environments:

Wii + Second Life = New Training Simulator: "Real-world simulations like these are perfectly suited to Nintendo's Wiimote, says MIT research fellow David E. Stone. In fact, he claims the motion-sensitive controller is 'one of the most significant technology breakthroughs in the history of computer science.' Say what?"

There could be something there that not only allows you to resuse your Wii remote but give a seconde life to your second life experience which is cumbersome and hard to learn using the mouse and keyboard.

Facebook News Roundup

2007-07-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

Facebook is growing at 19 time the speed of MySpace in UK

The Independent reports:

"MySpace, bought by Rupert Murdoch for $580m (£283m) in 2005, remains the most popular in the UK, with about 6.5 million users. But its rivals Facebook and Bebo are hot on its heels, with Facebook growing 19 times faster than MySpace.

Although Facebook started out as a site for US college students, it is relatively more popular with UK internet users. According to the internet market research firm NetRatings, if Bebo and Facebook continue to grow at their current rate, they will be as popular as MySpace by September."

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2802586.ece

Facebook apps show extremely high adoption rate

Quantcast is reporting that companies that implemented Facebook apps saw unprecedented increase in user base:

Slide.com tripled its traffic, growing from 312,000 unique US visitors to 1.1 million

HotOrNot.com doubled its daily unique visitors from 289,000 globally to 722,000 (152%).

RockYou, 339 percent globally, increasing, in total, from 286,000 visitors to 1.3 million.

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/07/24/facebook-widgets-cause-dramatic-traffic-increase

Freinds of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sue him for stealing their idea

The Herald tribune reports:

"The owners of a rival social networking Web site are trying to shut down Facebook.com, charging in a lawsuit that Facebook's founder stole their ideas while they were students at Harvard.

The three founders of ConnectU say that Mark Zuckerberg agreed to finish computer code for their site, but repeatedly stalled and eventually created Facebook using their ideas."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/25/business/face.php

Facebook will not look at offers less than 10B$

In an interview with The Deal Peter Thiel a Facebook director provides follwing info:

No IPO for at least 18 months
Seed capital 500 000$
Earnings in 2007 150M$ mostly from ads
Will "probably listen" to an offer of 10B$

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article2131288.ece

CNN-Youtube debate

2007-07-25T19:21:00.001-07:00

CNN has really understood the power of the WebEcosystem. Instead of looking at user generated content as a competitor to the corporate content, and YouTube as the TV killer; they used YouTube videos made by amateurs to create a really relevant, entertaining and engaging TV experience.

Here is a YouTube report about from a great site TechPresident

CNN organised a presidential debate where all the questions where posted as videos on YouTube.
Here is what CNN managed to do right:

1) The questions were great

CNN had 3000 videos to choose from so they could have asked any question they want by simply picking. But all the questions were fun, heartfelt, and having a human face (as opposed to a journalist ;) which forced the candidates to be slightly more sincere.

2) Reached to a younger audience

The rating did not go through the roof however says the New York Times Caucus blog:

"The total audience Monday night was 2,622,000, while the total audience for the June 3 debate in New Hampshire was 2,783,000, CNN said. Both were for the eight Democratic presidential candidates.

Still, Monday’s debate, held in Charleston, S.C., did draw what CNN said was the biggest audience since measurements began in 1992 for a cable news debate of those between 18 and 34, the demographic most coveted by advertisers."

3) Respected the medium

Anderson Cooper kept the politician from going into speeches and forced them to focus on the questions. He added very little editorial content and was just a facilitator between the YouTube questioner and the presidents-to-be.

4) User generated content = better programming

For a week or more before the debate CNN dedicated a full segment daily to look at the questions, they analysed them, interviewed some of the YouTubers, etc, etc. Which was much more fun than their usual Paris-Hilton-feeling-slightly-under-the-weather programming.

5) Make it a "Moment"

CNN made a big effort to galvanise attention around the debate calling it "historic", "unprecedented" and a load of other superlatives. They devoted a lot of time before the debate building up the event as if it were a De La Hoya/Mayweather rematch.
I think they did manage to create the excitement and anticipation that made the event successful.

Some other day I will talk about how we can make this even better.

Here is the full debate.

Growth in Online Video and Social Networking

2007-07-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

Online Video, Social Networking to Drive Global Digital Lifestyle - Marketing Charts: "Online video activities are outpacing the growth in popularity of other digital media, while social networking is quickly becoming the dominant online behavior globally, according to the latest “Face of the Web,” Ipsos Insight’s annual study of Internet and Technology trends."

A new study released by Ipsos insight finds 2 growing trends in users online life.

Globally from all internet users:
- 34% watched video streams online
- 20% visited a social networking site in the last 30 days

It is clear that any companies who wants to benefit fully from the web has to develop a strategy for these 2 activities that are taking a growing share of users online time.

Social networking race

2007-07-04T16:53:00.000-07:00

Here is Alexa ranking of the top social networking sites.

Harvard study analyzes aSmallWorld

2007-07-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

The Complexity and Social Networks group at Harvard posted a paper that analyses the history, market and network of asw.com.

Vancouver Police in Second Life

2007-07-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Police department is dispatching cyber cops to Second Life in order to recruite computer savvy police officers for the First Life.

Insp. Kevin McQuiggin, head of the department's tech crimes division wants to be ready for the prolifiration of cyber-crime in the new Web Ecosystem:

"Any new media that comes out, any new form of communication, crime is going to migrate there."

See Vancouver Sun strory.

Waitrose and Foodie Networking

2007-07-03T22:04:00.001-07:00

The Times reports that Waitrose the UK supermarket chain has announced plans to launch a new website that promises to be the "Facebook of Foodies".

The web site that has suffered more than £1m worth of revamping "aims to become Britain’s premier food networking site by allowing the 1m visitors to its website each month to debate hot topics including fair trade, organics and food miles, and trade culinary tips."

While the concept is great it would seem much more logical to allow users to use their existing social networks rather than creating a prallel network. Other word Waitrose should facilitate the life of Foodies on Facebook rather than become the Facebook of Foodies.

Online tools with offline benefits

2007-07-03T21:44:00.000-07:00

Adam Rifkin talks about building a new Facebook app Booze Mail

What is interesting in Adam's post apart from the fun app is his assesment of current apps on Facebook:

"The most popular apps on Facebook to emerge in the first month of its platform reflect the most popular worldviews in America. Namely the ones that highly value things like social status (Top Friends), media consumption (iLike, Video, Movies, Flixster), mysticism (Fortune Cookie, Horoscopes), and superficial bonding (Graffiti, X Me, SuperPoke, Free Gifts).

... from its earnest beginnings Facebook aspired to use online tools to help people connect offline -- in the real world -- to build more meaningful relationships. What these superficial bonding apps lack, despite being a lot of fun, is a connection to the real world that is offline."

I totally agree with Adam, if we can build applications that really bring poeple together offline, the value to the user is so great that they will make this application part of their life. Allowing users to send each other virtual kisses or kicks in the butt, might be fun for a few hours or days but will disappear the way flashing text disappeared from Web pages (until Myspace brought it back with a vengence)

Yahoo launcing app for Facebook

2007-07-03T21:38:00.000-07:00

If you cant beat them join them. Yahoo has released a Yahoo Music Videos Facebook application.

The application "gets the music info from your Facebook profile and your friend’s profiles and finds a collection of music videos which match the names of the singers and bands you and your friends have listed. From those videos, you can then find videos of related artists, view them, and share them with your friends."

Second Life

2007-07-01T23:26:00.001-07:00

My experience in Second Life is well depicted here

Twitter from the moon

2007-07-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

If we ever get there again.
Stefanie Olsen reports on the Next NASA mission: Twitter and Facebook
NASA is looking into ways to get the public and private companies to participate in its programs.

NASA 2.0??

Why is Toronto n1 on Facebook

2007-07-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

Alexandra Shimo from the Toronto Star writes trying to explain Why is T.O. the capital of Facebook?

Toronto has:
- more members than New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco combined
- 13% of population signed up to Facebook (that is 670,038)
- more groups about it than any other city in the world

Alexander's theory:

1) Toronto has one of the highest penetrations of the Internet in the world
2) Torontonians have high disposable incomes compared with most other Canadians (that does not explain why they beat NY or SF)
3) Social class, as Facebook seems to attract well-todo, do-gooders, with high education. Which fits the Toronto profile (see research paper by Danah Boyd)
4) 4 Universities. Since Facebook started as a university network the students provided the seed that infected the city accelerating the arrival of the fabled tipping point

I find that 3 is the most probable explanation. Facebook is a clean, fun, environment that encourages friends to be nice to each other while staying at a safe distance.

Very Canadian!

The Great Candian Wishlist

2007-07-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

The CBC has launched an experiment on Facebook. It created a group that allows poeple to voice their wishes about the future of Canada.

What they did not anticipate is a passionate, keep-no-prisoners race between highly motivated pro and anti abortionists that involved neck to neck race over many weeks, hacking of Facebook, accusations of bias for the CBC and loads of other fun things.

The www.cbc.ca/wish blog tracked the contest over the weeks.

The group on Face book is here

Results:

Abolish Abortion in Canada
9543 supporters

#1 I wish that Canada would remain pro-choice
8008 supporters

#2 For a spiritual revival in our nation.
4508 supporters

#3 Restore the Traditional Definition of Marriage
4485 supporters

#4 I wish tuition fees would be either lowered or eliminated.
3388 supporters

......

#30 Get Stephen Harper out of Power
464 supporters