Likeminding Fridays

I’ll be at Likemind in Birmingham tomorrow, so if you’re around come say wassup.

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Something For Saturday

 

 

This weekend, I’ll be speaking at Mediacamp ’07 at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University on Saturday.

 

Mediacamp is being billed as an un-conference digging on games, blogging, casting and new-media. I haven’t spoken at many conferences, let alone an un-conference, but it sounds pretty damn cool.

 

Anton would be joining me up there onstage, but he’s going on vacation. And surprisingly, I couldn’t convince him to skip it. 🙂

 

So if you guys are around, drop by, it’s free to attend and I’ll definitely be making a fool of myself. Which could be interesting.

Press release for MediaCamp is here.

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It’s Goin’ Down In Tinseltown

Some of y’all will remember reading about the absolutely awesome time I had at the PSFK London conference earlier this summer (my notes are here and here), well the PSFK tour bus is on the move again and this time the next stop is LA. PSFK LA is scheduled to go down on the 18th of September, you can read about it and buy tickets here. I would strongly strongly strongly suggest if you’re around Los Angeles that day go. Just go. It will be, without doubt one of the best ways to spend time that day.

And if that wasn’t enough incentive to go, the AdLads have a discount to the tune of $100 to give away to someone, so their ticket will come in at $200. BUT this discount is only valid until the 18th of August (this Saturday). So if you want it email us, telling us why you should have it. If you can convince us, it’s yours. But make sure you go.

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If You Look Closely..

You’ll see me in this video that Charles has put up of Interesting 2007. Was a good laugh (sorry!).

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Chinwagging In The Rain

Was at Chinwag’s Summer bash last week before hightailing home, and although the elements conspired to try and dampen the mood, metaphorically and literally, I think a pretty good time was had by all. I got to hang out with Will, Jessica, Richard, Eaon and David, not to mention the crazy guys and gals of Chinwag. And a bunch of other people.

Suffice to say it was a pretty rocking evening. And in the words of Mr. Gump, that’s all I really have to say about that. Thank you Chinwag for putting it together, and let’s do it again next year..

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Making Time For Chinwagging

We’ve both been busy in the most clichéd of ways, but posts are on the way, I’ve got my June music picks to write up and other stuff to come.

In the meantime, if you’re showing up to Chinwag’s Summer Bash tomorrow evening, say what’s up. And try your hand at a soul shake with one of us. They are pretty cool.

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An Evening With The Dark Side

Last week I was at Chinwag’s latest event, The Darkside of Social Media. It was definitely thought provoking. However/but/etc I was quite disappointed/but not really shocked to see the vast majority of traditional agencies not present on the guest list. But that’s not something Chinwag had control of.

The panel (as listed by Chinwag) consisted of Luke Razzell, Tim Ireland, Mike Barrett, James Cherkoff, Cristiano Ventura and chair Mike Butcher. Be sure to check out Amelia’s and Peter’s blogs as they were there and will no doubt have more eloquent and thoughtful insights.

I found it a little ironic that MySpace and Facebook kindly refused to attend, thinking that they would have various cans of whoop ass opened up on them at the event. Why ironic? In my mind it alludes to a total lack of confidence in the product they’re pushing. As a guestimate, MySpace has 8 million subscribers and Facebook 2 million. If that many people have signed up, and have by and large behaved themselves, would you not at least have the temerity to show your face at an event where by its nature (i.e. it being a communications centric crowd) the audience would be sympathetic to what you’re trying to achieve? I would have thought so. But MySpace and Facebook obviously didn’t. Regardless, it was great to see MSN Spaces represented on the panel.

While all in attendance got the requisite horror stories (and I’m not trying to sweep them under the carpet, just that you usually hear about the same sorts of cases when talk turns to social networking), I think that generally the outlook for social networks that I got from all I talked to was one of cautious optimism. The truth really is that social media is not going to change the way people are, because intrinsically we as a collective body (the human race) are pretty much the same as we were 50 years ago in terms of the good, the bad and the ugly. You still have criminals, whether you’re in 1883 or 1956 or 2007, you still have crackpot stalkers, and you will always always always have freeloading teenagers who will jump on any bandwagon that is a free party and the opportunity to trash someone’s house.

It’s just that now we are experiencing changes in the way our collective antics, good and bad are a) communicated to the general public – hello sensationalist media (funny how when a huge paedophilia ring was busted because of MySpace it was buried in the broadsheets, but the MySpace party house that was trashed was screamed about from the rooftops – more irony) and b) communicated to our friends and their friends and their friends (you get the picture). Because obviously social networks/email/IM/text allow events/news to spread much quicker than say 15 years ago. But people are still people and will always be people. And I feel that solutions weren’t that forthcoming from the majority of the panel, which was probably due to the time-constraint (and no – ‘don’t use the internet’ is not a solution).

I really like James Cherkoff’s statement that ‘The Internet is the real world’ because I’m positive that some people (Hello Daily Mail) like to put the view out that the Internet is a haven for child abusers, terrorists and (as I’ve heard some people put it) generally bad eggs. But it’s not. Yes it makes it easier for such people to communicate but then it does that for all people. The internet is not discriminatory, if you will. But the fact that it isn’t puts a little more onus on the good among us to indulge in what the panel referred to as social self policing. If someone is being a jerk let them know. And be loud about it. It seems like generally, we’re more likely to put up with bad behaviour these days, when you have a punk kid blasting beats from the phone around his neck, people don’t really feel like they can say anything to him, yet all are royally annoyed. Why? Tell the kid to turn it off. He/she usually will, or will go off on an angst-ridden expletive-laced tirade that will showcase his/her intellect and give everyone on the bus/tube/train a good chuckle and a story to tell when they get home. It’s not socialist to give a damn (at this point I realize I may have gone off on a tangent – but there you go).

There are some things though that social media is throwing up that we aren’t used to dealing with and will therefore need to get to grips with pretty sharp-ish. The issue of cyber-bullying is one. Kids (and I know this because I still am one) can be really really evil. And the net gives them an opportunity to hunt in large(r) packs and prey on those who are a little different. So schools (and parents) really need to come up with ways to minimize this. I’m afraid at this stage of the night I can’t offer many suggestions, only comments. Astroturfing and general fake forum-based flashmobbing is another issue that was raised, particularly in the arena of politics – one that is gradually coming to grips with the web and its communicative power, a power that can be abused. Now this idea of creating numerous avatars and indulging in flaming is not new (I’ve frequented videogame forums for many years and the fanboy culture breeds this), but when politicians and members of society who we should hold to a higher moral standard (and who inevitably fail to reach any kind of standard – especially where money and power are involved) start to act like teenagers talking about how ‘Sony ROCKS, Nintendo = trash’, we need to begin to consider how to avoid this.

The issue of child abuse is a delicate one, yes the internet makes it easier and yes children are generally more aware of this kind of thing and aren’t very likely to give out detailed details about themselves online, but it does happen (as was pointed out by an attendee who worked for the NSPCC). And I think a large part of it (and again this may just be my warped opinion) comes down to parenting – or parents showing an interest in their kids’ lives. I started getting online in the mid-late 90s (so I am old school), when the chat rooms on ICQ and later Yahoo were the places we’d do the bulk of our communicating. And I distinctly remember my Mom and Dad taking an interest in how this internet thing worked, and asking me if I had talked to any cool people. It wasn’t invasive, it was inquisitive. And because of this interest, I felt the door was always open to let them know if I was weirded out by anything. If you see the internet as a way to get the kids to shut up and leave us alone, they will a) be insecure about themselves – they’ll think ‘is something wrong with me’ and b) they’ll look for attention from anyone online. And it’s when kids are feeling psychologically vulnerable that bad things can happen.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though, there were those in the audience (like me) that thought the rise of social media is an amazing thing. My reasons? Pretty simple I think, it means I can keep in touch with friends from way back who are all over the world, it means I realize how close to truth the whole six degrees of separation is, it definitely keeps you honest (the whole world can see you now) and the mere fact that anyone is reading this sentence is a testament to the power of social media. Your voice can be heard on a greater stage now. And for me that really is it. The internet amplifies us all, every part of us (and by us I mean humans collectively). So the good is louder, the bad is darker and the uglier is sadly more twisted and ugly. But it really is still just us. And if you think that it’s all doom and gloom, well the internet really isn’t the root of your problem. And yes there are problems that this amplification throws up. But maybe we all have to take the initiative and police our own corner of cyberspace a little. And keep plugging the amazingly cool things that social media kicks up, like for me all the friends I’ve made online, I mean Anton and I wouldn’t write this damn blog had it not been for forums. And things like Interesting2007, and Chinwag, and the ability to meet people who I really have no business meeting like George and Charles and Amelia and Peter and Piers and and the list goes on (and you’re all on it..). And something that wasn’t touched upon is the empowerment this gives you. It makes me feel good. Like really good. And the good will always outweigh the bad, so let’s try and tip the scales a little more.

The stage is yours…

(A big thank you to Chinwag and Emily in particular for hooking me up with a ticket for this event. Make sure you register for the Chinwag Summer Party – it’s gonna be biblical!)

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Interesting 2007

I really enjoyed Interesting2007, like really really. It was great to go someplace and just chill out and enjoy the day and not have to worry about taking notes. It was a totally different experience to the PSFK London conference. Not necessarily better, but different. PSFK was a day of education, Interesting was a day of chilling out and listening. I was flanked in the audience by Will and Charles (who by all accounts was the sharpest looking cat present, check this out), and had an awesome day, drinking too many smoothies (read this and this and know I wasn’t the only one drinking them), being very American and having an all round good time. And I got up on stage as well.

It was great hearing people talk about themselves (y’all know that everyone is really good at talking about themselves), if for no other reason but to sense the passion everyone has in their interests. And my one over-riding impression from the day was the forgiving nature of the audience. I don’t say this because any of the presenters were bad, far from it. But the sense that even if you weren’t remotely interested in what someone was saying, the enthusiasm that spilled across from the stage was something you couldn’t deny. So you loved it that they were loving it. Get it? Good. The Flickr pool will give you a better (picture?, sorry..) idea of how things went down.

Afterwards a number of us congregated at a house that happened to be public, and I got to meet a number of bloggers who I read, including Beeker, Collyn, Corentin aka Organic Frog, Emily, John Dodds, Rob and Paul (not to mention those of blogland I already know, like Faris, Mark and Lauren and my main man Ricardo). Then Lauren, I and the lovely Gemma (Lauren is lovely also, just I already knew that before Saturday) went and had a Chinese (dinner not person) while discussing a number of things, ranging from food hygiene ratings to traffic in urban conurbations, before heading our separate ways as Saturday wound to a close.

The only thing that was less than awesome on the day was I didn’t get a chance to engage in verbalosities with some people I’d have liked to, like Iain and the legendary Grant McCracken. All in all though, a great day.

Let’s not forget this was all Russell’s brainchild. So a big thanks to him and all that spent inordinate amounts of time and effort to make the day an unqualified success. Charles and I have decided we will speak next year. For that reason alone, you should all make sure you get Interesting in ’08.

My ‘insight’ from the day? Simple.

For other views on Interesting2007, click here and keep checking the wiki for updates to video/audio et al.

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Thoughts Enroute

I have words, pictures and some video from the weekend in general and Interesting2007 in particular. As soon as I’ve slept some more, I’ll put them up.

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Notes From PSFK London:Episode Two

(This is a continuation from my post yesterday about my musings from the PSFK conference in London)

Jeremy Ettinghausen – Penguin Books
Marketing now is at the heart of the publishing process, saying the product is too linear has been proven wrong.
The internet is more than just a sales channel.
Your product can do the marketing, if you open up opportunities for it do so.
Penguin are about enabling conversations about books, authors and stories.

(It was a real eye opener for me to hear about how Penguin have almost completely rebuilt their communications strategy to embrace all that the Internet and web 2.0 is about – really refreshing and inspiring for an admitted book junkie).

Dan Hon – Mind Candy
Humans are intrinsically a social species, we crave regular interaction.
Never underestimate or demean the power of good narrative.
Immersion breeds passion – narrative builds ties…
People yearn for a feeling of togetherness, an identity that binds them to others yet still lets them express themselves individually.

(How amazing and mind boggling is the reach of alternate reality games? Breathtakingly ipic and terrifying at the same time).

Iain Tait – Poke
Iain’s post on the 10 reasons why digital is better than advertising can be found on his blog, it’s better you hear it straight from him rather than have me make a mess of his excellent talk. The 10 main points he made are below.

1. You don’t have to do ‘Advertising’
2. You can just do things
3. A ‘just do it’ culture fosters entrepreneurialism – you can fail fast and cheap
4. Egos are (marginally) smaller in digital
5. Online audiences are great – they get ‘it’
6. You can be an inventor
7. There’s less to lose
8. You don’t have to work at a place with 4 middle aged guys’ names on the door
9. You get to work with people who live digital everyday
10. The rules change everyday

Panel: Are Planners the New Creatives? – Jessica Greenwood, Flo Heiss, Liz Sivell, Amelia Torode, Harry Fowler
Be useful to people.
Intelligent ideas are key, regardless of their origin.
Consumers don’t see online and offline as two worlds, they see the world.
We are all creating things, refining them to make them relevant is key.
Think about where your ideas are going, and where they are needed.
An idea is not always a good idea.
Share. Always.

(I felt sorry for Amelia on this panel, she was the only planner and held her own but the discussion often retreated into labels and making boxes to fit people into, rather than people defining their own roles. An unexpected surprise was running into Laurence Parkes when he was asked for his opinion by Jessica – I did work experience at BBH last year and did some work with Laurence, a great guy who’s always willing to listen).

Hugh MacLeod – Gaping Void
A brand should be seen as a social object.
If you wanna have a cool product, you gotta do cool shit.
Smarter conversations = better products.
Harness the power of Viral Mojo.

(Make sure you check out Gaping Void, Hugh’s cartoons are rockin’).

Martin Cole – WPP
Society is profoundly visual and always has been.
We spend more and more time in front of screens, but never really look at them, we scan.
Become a visual expert, make everything you do simple and elegant.
Beauty is key in everything, we gravitate towards beauty in all its forms.

Panel: Change The World – Piers Fawkes, George Parker, Stan Stalnaker, Johnny Vulkan, Russell Davies
The traditional buy/sell model is dead.
Marketing is a failed science.
Middle management at clients use agencies as a crutch.
Consume less, contribute more.
The internet has made the world a greenhouse, be genuine and don’t be a dick.
Creativity, by and large is not applied to business, when it is, everyone knows it.
After the next nuclear holocaust there’ll be cockroaches and ad people.
90% of agencies were always crap. It’s not like something has been changed by the arrival of the Internet.
Working faster is working smarter.
Believe in what you do. Always.
Be honest with yourself. Always.
Take responsibility for what you do. Always.

So there you have it, that’s the words from my notebook typed onto my notebook. Big thanks to Piers for inviting Anton and I to come and blog about the day, we definitely got the better end of the deal and met a bunch of great people and heard some great stuff. If you didn’t make it on the day, I hope this gives you a little flavor of what it was like. And make sure you go whenever the PSFK roadshow rolls into your town next. As the immortal words go, thank you and goodnight.

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