Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Scarcity and Abundance: The Short Form and the Long Now


We've discussed new communication issue eaelier in IQblog: Our Old Language. Now Frog design has an interesting blog post which poses the question “How do we maintain a balance between instant gratifacation and sustainability?” They wonder what kind of correlation there is between how we communicate and how we manage resources (time, mental, physical). Are the thinking and actions behind micro blogging and quick, short communication - totally in the”now”, chipping away at the valuable ideals behind deeper writing, long term projects and sustainable planning for the future? Fascinating and important ideas to ponder here.

They explain:

Micro-blogging diversifies meaning into myriad atoms of communication, a hyper-targeted in-the-moment form of looking at the world by expressing it in real-time. Sustainable stewardship of nature’s scarce resources requires the exact opposite: a holistic, systemic view on the world, and big-picture thinking beyond instant gratification and self-actualization – both of which based on the insight that the “Future” will not happen if we only think about the “Now.” Philosophically speaking, aren’t speed-dating and sustainability diametrically opposed? And practically speaking, if we’re serious about sustainable solutions in housing, infrastructure, product design, and other areas, don’t we have to start with our day-to-day communications? If “Now is Gone” (Geoff Livingston) – how will we ever secure the “The Long Now” (Alexander Rose)?

Of course you could flip the argument and argue that imposing strict structural constraints on communications (as micro-blogging does) can help us recognize and responsibly deal with the scarcity of environmental resources. But that’s only half the truth. The irony is that the more sliced down the content, the more abundant the channels of communication; the shorter the attention span, the more abundant the volume of micro-formats. So how do we as digital citizens stay focused on the future under the tyranny of permanent distraction? How can we pay attention to the big issues, if attention is becoming an ever more scarce resource in a flood of abundant, ubiquitous micro-communications? Or can we perhaps find a way to utilize both scarcity of attention and abundance of communication for managing natural resources?

Source Frog design, PSFK

DIYcity

Comtinuing emerging issue from IQblog: The future of cities. John Geraci, creator of Outside.In, recently introduced us to his latest project, DIYcity, a site and online-offline community devoted to “finding ways people can make their cities work better with the use of emerging web technologies.” DIYcity asks users to share their ideas on how to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability in their cities through user-built web applications (i.e. apps built on Twitter, Google Maps mash-ups, etc). Anyone in the community can submit problems they see within their cities, which others are then encouraged to suggest solutions for and/or develop apps to help alleviate them. The site just launched and is still building its network, but we love the idea and look forward to seeing how it develops. If you’re in the NYC area, check out the DIY New York City group and we’ll see you at the first meet up.

WEB GIANTS LAUNCH HUMAN RIGHTS CODE FOR DESPOT NATIONS

WASHINGTON, DC: Following sustained criticism of their craven compliance with personal information demands by totalitarian regimes, the planet's dominant web trio –Google, Yahoo and Microsoft – have  adopted a new code of conduct drafted by a group that includes human rights organizations 

Members of Congress and democratic rights organizations worldwide have condemned the companies for supplying personal information to authoritarian governments.

Yahoo, in particular, faced questioning by Congress last year for surrendering emails that led to the imprisonment of Chinese dissidents. 

The new code, titled the Global Network Initiative, comprises a set of principles drafted over the past two years. They undertake to . . . 

  • Protect the personal information of their users wherever they do business; 
  • "Narrowly interpret and implement government demands that compromise privacy," as defined by the code; 
  • Scrutinize a country's track record of jeopardizing personal information and freedom of expression before launching new businesses in that country; 
  • Discuss all such risks widely with executives and board members of a signatory company.
Says Google's director of corporate and policy communications Robert Boorstin: "Common action by these diverse groups is more likely to bring about change in government policy than the efforts of any one company or group acting alone." 

While Yahoo ceo Jerry Yang [in what might be a valedictory message] hailed the new principles as "a valuable roadmap that will help ensure that technology and the internet continue to help improve people's lives". 

But dissenting voices say the code does not go far enough. "More serious questions have to be asked about [a participating]  company's legal obligations," argues Morton Sklar, US executive director of theWorld Organization for Human Rights

Sklar wants the code to address whether internet companies are violating US or international laws by complying with requests from certain governments.

Data sourced by WARC from Wall Street Journal Online; additional content by WARC staff, 29 October 2008

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Find the answers to 15 pressing trend questions you’re facing


More on trendwatching.com

Art of OR's

Street artist Invader has covered a large portion of the planet with his iconic video game inspired pixel art characters. He’s installed his tile based artworks in at least 40 cities and 30 countries. These missions aren’t just quick bombing runs either. Invader spends 2-3 weeks in each location placing little invaders in strategic locations. He’s recently branched out into creating large QR Code murals. The juxtaposition of black and white tiles echo his classic invader characters and combine hi-tech digital codes with the very low-tech ceramic tiles. When scanned, the pieces give out hidden messages like “This is an invasion”.

Video interview with the masked Invader below.


More info about this artist here

Source PSFK

Home Sweet Office: Telecommute Good for Business, Employees, and Planet

Ever since OPEC vexed Jimmy Carter into wearing a cardigan, telecommuting has been touted as a fix for what ails the US office worker — the agony and expense of commuting, the drudgery of cubicles, the shortage of family time.  Situation in Russia IQblog: Вне зоны офиса. 

Read more.

Source WIRED, Brendan I. Koerner (brendan_koerner@wired.comis Wired's Mr. Know-It-All.

Multi-Touch Without a Touch Screen vs. Apple


Microsoft has stepped up with a challenge to the Apple iPhone’s lauded multi-touch interface. The PC maker released their innovative SideSight system last week at the User Interface in Software and Technology Symposium. The technology allows users to control actions on a cell phone screen by moving their fingers along side the device. Infrared sensors pick up motions up to 10 centimeters away and translate them into movement on the screen.
Source PSFK

Monday, October 27, 2008

Продолжение нашего совместного проекта с OMI и журналом "Секрет Фирмы": Пятьдесят лет выдержки

В представлении маркетологов человек старше 55 лет неплатежеспособен и поглощен двумя страстями — здоровьем и дачными грядками. Исследование "Секрета фирмы", IQ marketing и OMI (Online Market Intelligence) развенчало эти мифы.

Ягодка опять 
У героини Веры Алентовой из фильма "Москва слезам не верит" жизнь началась в 40 лет. У Нины Артамоновой, учительницы английского из Москвы — в 52 года. 

Когда закрылась частная школа, в которой она преподавала последние восемь лет, Нина Михайловна расстроилась — "всего три года до пенсии, а тут такая напасть". Но вскоре поняла, что теперь может позволить себе то, до чего не доходили руки в 20, 30 и 40 лет. "Раньше я растворялась в воспитании детей, работе и хлопотах по хозяйству. А после пятидесяти неожиданно получила массу свободного времени и зажила активно",— говорит она. 


Продолжение читать здесь

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Our Old Language

Our behaviour and the technologies we use change faster than the language we use (I'm still "spinning" when I'm DJ'ing, even though the only thing spinning these days is my hard drive).

Similarily, old models trap us into using outdated mental constructs to make sense of a world that no longer really fits those models. I'm fascinated by this, and the process by which we collectively abandon those old models.

Journalism and the "news" is a perfect example. Matt over at the Newsless.org has written a series of brilliant posts over the past couple of months that explore new ways of thinking about journalism. An emerging theme is the assertion that the article is no longer the basic unit of the news

On the Web, the lowly, essentially static article often proves an insufficient instrument with which to present stories, yet the basic unit of today’s news site is still the article. For this reason, we still find it difficult to tell our most complex stories well on the Web.

From what I can tell, we inherited this state of affairs from our printed predecessors. When we started news sites, there was just no other plainly obvious way to present news stories, and most of those stories were coming from the newspaper at any rate. So we presented them on the Web the same way we do in print — discrete, self-contained compositions, including whatever context could fit into a paragraph or two, ornamented with photos and graphics.

Parallels to how marketers and brands think about media and communication are pretty clear. For the most part, the discret, self-contained composition has the "creative idea" (or, the television advertisement). Mostly because, well, that's the way it has been, technology packaged it like that, and so on.

Matt has some brilliant thoughts on what the future looks like, starting with the understanding that "every news event represents a data point to another story", and that a richer understanding of the broader topic might generate further interest in that topic. Many of the other data points might not be known to us right away, but it will be the job of journalism to provide that context by using powers of pattern recognition to connect the dots (planners pick up your pencils and get to work, because in marketing that will be you doing the lion's share of pattern recognition).

So, rather than think of articles as compact pieces limited by the physical space they once occupied (in print for instance), and aimed at a target audience of people who knew what the story was all about in the first place because where would you have the luxury to spell out the context?, the job now is to expand our understanding by building richer stories, more layers and a stronger context for the interconnected pieces.

That last point is crucial, especially when thinking about brands and media, since we'll need to make sure that we don't confuse the article (the advertising) from the story (the context, the interconnected ecosystem of nodes that "bubble up" to a something much bigger). For, as Matt says, somewhat echoing a transmedia vision of what the future might look like.

We’ve been wedging our stories into articles for so long, it can be difficult to separate the two. But a big part of the opportunity before us is to start telling grand, complex and unending stories with tools fit for the task.

Nicholas Negroponte: From 1984, 4 predictions about the future (3 of them correct)


Thursday, October 23, 2008

Nomadic Homes



Getting its inspiration from the nomadic Romani people, more commonly known as gypsies, the N55, or Walking House takes urban modular dwelling to a whole new

 level.

Now when you get tired of the neighbors, there will be no n

eed to pack up and move; you can simply walk your house away. We’re not talking a hasty getaway here, the speed of its six “legs” is comparable to that o

f a human walking.

Providing a “green” lifestyle, the N55 has minim

al environment impact as it relies on solar power, windmills, collection of rainwater, and solar power to heat water. I’m not so sure about the composting toilet walking around but hey, I’m sure they thought it through.

If you’re into growing your own green, there is an optional greenhouse addition.

Those in northern climes would most definitely want to opt to integrate the wood burning stove option.

The designers envision an entire walking villages, where the dwellers are not dependent on infrastructure such as roads and utilities. The N55 Walking Houses can travel just about anywhere, as the units move on all terrains.

Although each module is designated to accommodate four people, on a permanent basis, it might feel more like camping, than an actual house.

More photos here

Source Trendhunter

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Monday, October 20, 2008

Friday, October 17, 2008

Бэнкси


Бэнкси о рекламе...

Sunday, October 12, 2008


ВЕДОМОСТИ
«Большая тройка» заразилась вирусом«Большая тройка» заразилась вирусом

«Срочно! Куплю очередь на официальный iPhone 3G МТС. Дорого» — легковые автомобили с такими объявлениями появились на улицах Москвы

На других машинах появились предложения о продаже очереди на iPhone от МТС или даже обещания отдать в обмен на такой мобильник BMW 323-й модели 1987 г. с пробегом 199 000 км. Далее

Эта статья в блогах[?]
sinodov, motto, test_beeline, sci-fiction


Thursday, October 9, 2008

BMW о креативном классе

Мы уже писали о работах Ричарда Флориды, который ввел в широкий обиход понятие Creative Class в IQblog: Если вы до сих пор не знаете, где хотели бы жить, эта книга поможет вам определиться с выбором 
Вот, что об этом думают в BMW

Real Pilots Racing Against Virtual Airplanes

More news on the augmented reality front - Sky Challenge is working on a new sport that will mix real life planes with computer obstacles and competitors. Players at home would be able to compete with real life pilots, flying through a virtual obstacle course that is overlaid on top of real world terrain. The real world pilots would also be able to see their virtual challengers and the computer generated obstacles. Sky Challenge hopes to make this a world-wide event, where anyone could compete from home via their computers.

These kind of games bring up questions of how to navigate in these augmented spaces. How will people in the real spaces discern what’s what? Virtual players could accidentally (or purposely) cause very real problems for the pilots.

Source Gizmodo

Cell Application to Track Your Carbon Footprint

Based start up company have developed a cell phone application which automatically calculates your carbon footprint. Frustrated by the impracticable and time-consuming nature of similar Eco-calculators, Carbon Diem collects speed and distance data via GPS, and identifies modes of transport using a motion-sensing algorithm. The application encourages users to reduce their energy usage, by setting personal energy targets and comparing their results with others. Carbon Diem developers believe their software will help businesses to reduce energy consumption by monitoring employees travel information. Privacy is obviously an issue, but inventor Andreas Zachariah assures the software only tracks carbon impact, not travel paths.
Source PSFK
ВЕДОМОСТИ
Роман с бизнесом

Книга в России не только источник знаний, но и средство продвижения бренда. Специальные агентства готовы написать роман о торговой марке, создать триллер для ее клиентов или основать именную литературную премию

Российский дистрибутор дорогих телефонов Vertu, компания Rush PLC, решил увековечить имена покупателей: каждый, кто приобретет по цене от 26 000 евро телефон из коллекции Signature с корпусом из драгоценного металла, украшенным бриллиантами, сапфирами.
В конце сентября Rush разослала 400 состоятельным россиянам именные «удостоверения писателей» и предложение «вписать свою главу в книгу Vertu». Книгу планируется выпустить к Новому году, когда наберется достаточно героев: каждый получит главу, описывающую его путь к успеху, и несколько экземпляров книги, рассказала Ника Горбунова из агентства IQ-Marketing, разрабатывающего проект. Стиль и жанр главы — на выбор: от мелодрамы до приключенческого романа, говорит Горбунова. Уже нашлось несколько покупателей, признается она. Сотрудник Rush подтвердил информацию о проекте. Далее


Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Wake at Your Perfect Time


The Key to Waking Up Refreshed
Why is it so hard to wake up to a normal alarm clock? Because a normal alarm clock can't detect where you are in your sleep cycle - a continuous cycle from deep sleep, to brief almost-awake moments, and back to deep sleep again. Occasionally, your alarm may catch you at an optimal, almost-awake moment and you wake up feeling refreshed, but usually you grope for the snooze button waking up tired and groggy.
Source sleeptracker.com

"Advertising is the most fun you can have with your clothes on"






















Это сказал  легендарный Jerry Della Femina (на фото),  который раньше был managing director of JWT London а теперь стал...  prime minister Gordon Brown'schief of staff
Source WARC
ВЕДОМОСТИ
Дешевое стало прибыльным

В США становится больше рекламы недорогих продуктов. Так производители и продавцы пытаются избежать падения прибыли

Компания Kellogg собирается продвигать на ТВ дешевые хлопья Corn Flakes и Rice Krispies. Далее

Monday, October 6, 2008

Беслан: искусство возрождения. До аукциона осталось всего ничего!


В маленьком городе Беслан живут дети. Дети, о которых все говорили четыре года назад, и о которых теперь все забыли. А еще в Беслане есть Станция юных техников — единственное место, где занимаются их дополнительным образованием. 
Здесь есть все — от рисования и лепки до занятий картингом и возрождения редких ремесел. А главное — здесь помогают пережить тот нечеловеческий ужас, с которым дети столкнулись четыре года назад. 
Здесь работают с детьми в полуаварийных и практически неотапливаемых помещениях, где зимой можно находиться только в верхней одежде и не хватает даже самых простых материалов. 
Чтобы помочь Станции, мы организуем аукцион, на котором будем продавать детские работы, а также дизайнерские табуреты и другие арт-объекты, созданные специально для этого проекта известными российскими художниками. 
Сейчас главное — успеть до холодов. Времени осталось не так много, но мы уверены, что вместе у нас все получится, потому что главное искусство — помнить и помогать — на самом деле может творить чудеса.
Об участии в аукционе и других способах помочь Станции 
можно узнать по телефону +7(495)500-55-77 
или по электронной почте beslan@iq.ru
Самую последнюю информацию и подробности, вы найдете на сайте проекта!Подробнее здесь Беслан. Искусство Возрождения.


Summary of PICNIC 08


О том, как все начиналось можете посмотреть в IQblog: Итак Amsterdam Picnic 08 день 2

Beat this Video Game, and We’ll Lower Your Insurance

Allstate insurance is testing out a new program, called InSight, that uses online video game tests to identify safe older drivers. Using simple games that measure brain fitness, the company is hoping that gaming proficiency will indicate aptitude with the same skills in real life. One of the games, Jewel Diver: Divided Attention tests subjects ability to track multiple objects at a time. The InSight program plans to offer insurance discounts to drivers over 50 who successfully pass the online tests.

Ars Technica reports:

Allstate is currently piloting a new program which seeks to find out if playing driving video games could make better drivers out of those over 50. If the study shows that it can, the insurance company plans to offer discounts to mature drivers who pass the online tests and the current, single-state pilot would be spread across other states next year. The initial run at the program is taking place in Pennsylvania. Select customers in the state aged 50 to 75 will be brought in to test out the special games as part of a free option in the customers’ current insurance plan. The total number of hours played by this experimental group will be tracked and then accident rates will be compared to a control group that had no contact with the games.

“As Allstate seeks ways to reinvent protection for the consumer, we are taking intelligent risks that are focused on finding new ways to bring value to our customers,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “This innovative approach to improving driver awareness and reaction time has the potential to significantly reduce accidents. That would make the roads safer—and potentially save lives.”

Source PSFK

Assembling Internet Images Into a Garden of Webly Delights

Give Hieronymus Bosch a Mac Pro with two 3.2-GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors and 32 gigs of RAM, unfettered Internet access — and some electricity — and you have Case Simmons and Andrew Burke's You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth. The duo raided image forums like 4chan and 12ozProphet (plus Flickr and Google Image Search) and collected thousands of files to assemble into four mural-sized collages. The series, accompanied by audio composed entirely of samples from the Internet, is on view at LA's Kim Light/Lightbox gallery through November 1. "We crash our computers almost every day," Simmons says. They're gonna need a bigger Mac.

Video Games Will Not Cause the Downfall of Society

The Pew Institute released a new study on “Teens, Video Games, and Civics” last week that provides some great insight on youth and gaming culture and where they meet. Social media researcher Danah Boyd highlights a few key points:

Almost all (97%) of teens play games. They play many different kinds of games and gender is a salient factor.
Gaming is often social and teens often game with people they know.
Parental monitoring of game play varies.
Teens encounter both pro-social and anti-social behavior while gaming.
There are civic dimensions to video game play.
Boyd points out that perhaps one of the most illuminating findings from the report is that the archetypal gamer isn’t the antisocial, Dungeons and Dragons geeks they’re stereotyped as. The near ubiquity of game-playing among teenagers and the growing diversity of gaming experiences is changing the image of the gamer. She explains:

Games are regularly referenced as proof that the world is ending. The stereotypical image of a gamer is an oily-haired, pimply-faced geeky boy with no social skills or interest in human interaction. The prevalence of gaming amongst youth dispels that notion, but there is still a myth that those who game are anti-social. As such, it is often assumed that gaming makes people anti-social, anti-community, anti-civic.

Pew’s findings show that there is no correlation between civic/political activity and gaming. In other words, high participation in gaming does not decrease civic participation…

…Participation in gaming does not cause a decrease in civic participation and, if anything, certain forms of gaming activity are correlated with civic engagement (although causality cannot be determined).

All too often, we blame technology for the downfall of society. Gaming has long been the super demon, the crux of media effects panics. It’s fantastic to have a study to point to that conclusively shows that our fears make no sense.

Apophenia: Teens, Video Games and Civics
Source PSFK

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Friday, October 3, 2008

Песня дня: We will rock you!


Discover KCPK!

Больше чем подарок: IQ на конференции газеты "Ведомости"


Удивляем, заражаем, продаемУдивляем, заражаем, продаем

Бывает и так, что подарок, призванный привлечь внимание клиентов своей необычностью, превращается в товар. На новый 2007 год вместо ручек, блокнотов и зажигалок маркетинговое агентство IQ Marketing дарило «скатерть-самобранку».

Это настоящая скатерть с рисунками на тему новогоднего стола и смешными подписями (упакованная к тому же в трехлитровую банку). Спустя некоторое время к агентству обратилась книжная сеть «Букбери» с предложением выпускать «самобранку» как сувенир для розничной торговли. Далее


CONSUMERS PREFER CHARITABLE BRANDS ... SOMETIMES

NEW YORK: Around 80% of consumers are more likely to buy brands that are associated with good causes, reports a study by communications agency Cone – with the caveat emptor that price and quality are the same as their existing brand of choice.
The 2008 Cone Cause Evolution Study – based on research among 1,100 consumers – also found that 85% of participants more favourably viewed those companies supporting causes they cared about. 
Over 80% said consumers should be able to choose the cause brands associate with, and that it had to be an issue that was personally relevant to them.
By contrast, just 38% had bought a product tied to a good cause in the last year. 
A total of 52% agreed companies should continue to donate to charities even in a downturn, with 25% suggesting companies needed to give more. 
A separate study Cone conducted with Duke University showed that consumers were more likely to purchase a brand after reading cause-based print ads, and that consumers spend longer reading cause-related communications than other ads online.
Data sourced from PSFK; AdWeek (USA); additional content by WARC staff, 03 October 2008

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Biofeedback is the New Black

Biofeedback, measuring a patient’s bodily functions and conveying it to them in real-time, has been around since the 60’s, but has only recently become in vogue. Now it may truly become fashionable.

Merging form with functionality, this concept device lets you wear your emotions quite literally. Colors are produced based on your biometric data. It’s like a 21st century mood ring that lets you see people’s “colorful” personalities. From Yanko Design:

The idea is to create another way to externalize how we feel in a language anyone can understand. Someone walking down the street with flash red might be upset, in a hurry, or angry. A computer keeps track of your colors, sort of a diary of emotions that can be turned into choreographed motion graphic pieces.

The concept reminds us of Doria Fan’s RFID bracelet, which also sought to merge beauty with medical utility. The reporting factor is what makes this truly useful. Keeping track of your feelings–the when and the where–sounds as simple as updating your iPod. This idea has also cropped up elsewhere.  Me-trics, for example, correlates your stress level with the other things going on in your life using a simple mobile interface. Both keep emotional diaries that let you observe trends. Then, you can take action to alter your stress level–unless stress matches your outfit, of course[.

via Electro Plankton]

Source PSFK

Всего 5 друзей и мир изменится...

абсолютно гениальный предвыборный ролик. три идеи: 1) если вам не наплевать на свое будущее и свою страну, надо голосовать. 2) чтобы голосовать нужно зарегистрироваться 3) отправьте это видео пяти своим друзьям, чтобы они тоже не забыли зарегистрироваться и проголосовать. наискучнейшие посылы. но как же остроумно сделан ролик! снимаю шляпу. 

в записи принимали участие: Эми Адамс, Дженнифер Анистон, will.i.am, Кевин Бейкон, Халли Берри, Кейт Босворт, Кевин Конноли, Кортни Кокс, Леонардо ди Каприо, Джастин Хоффман, Энтони Кидис, Эштон Катчер, Эва Лонгория, Тоби Магуайер, Деми Мур, Натали Портман, Элен ДеЖенрес, Ушер, Джовани Рибиси, Форест Уитакер и еще много кого.
Source ([info]atticus_flinch)

Transforming Buildings: Amazing Augmented Reality Video

Augmented reality is a much hyped future technology. The basic idea is that the computer world and the real world will start to blend seamlessly, creating new layers of information over and about things in the real world.

Artist Pablo Valbuena’s work deals with the idea of augmented reality, and plays with viewers perceptions of what is real. He recently performed a video piece called ‘Augmented Space’ on the surface of the Hauge’s city hall. The projection, part of theTodaysArt Festival makes the building seem like it’s constantly transforming into new shapes. It’s really quite amazing.


Source PSFK