Filed under: Zeitgeist
I’m always interested to find out the pathways that people have used to find my site.
Today I met a new member of the Sydney coffee morning blogger crew who had read my site before meeting me. She said that it felt a little voyeuristic. All very interesting stuff.
Interesting and voyeuristic is one of the search terms that continually pops up as an indicator of what people are looking for in Google before they land on Get Shouty. I’ve checked and I’m the third or fourth listing for this search term (ew!)….and it just doesn’t seem to be going away.
The reference point is this post about being featured on the Z-list, and it’s a reference to the line in Sally Field’s Oscar acceptance speech: You like me, you really like me. Innocently enough in that post was a reference to one of my biggest referrers at the time- a naughty cowgirl site.
I’m sure we all have these strange anomalies. Gavin? I’m sure you get them! Sean? How about you? I’m sure fabulous 1st birthday blogger Mack has some interesting ones too.
And the rest of you- what’s the weirdest way you’ve drawn in a new reader?
Filed under: Digital Strategy
Twitter is real loud and demanding. It’s a bit like a hangover on a sunny day- you just want to grab some shades and head for cover.
Twitteroo allows you to draw the blinds a little, even if it won’t make you breakfast or get your slippers.
Not too sold on the whole thing just yet- but joining in on the conversation is the way to tell.
Yesterday was a Bollywood extravaganza on the Blogsphere- very ordinary ugliness, hints at machiavellian plots and threats of foul murder (I just can’t believe what’s going on over at Creating Passionate Users, Kathy is a source of great kindness and support).
….and yet….
I found Elizabeth Perry’s lovely Woolgathering site which is a wellspring of quiet vision and gentle observation. She shares her delicate watercolours everyday and graces us with her mantra: Looking, Thinking, Drawing, Being.
….and yet…
Gavin, Paul and David and a posse of good sorts joined in on a Twitter call for Marsupial Madness- and a show of what makes this community of bloggers great. They , en mass, chose to change their photo personas to the small furry creatures who inhabit my continent- a burst of fabulous silliness.
I’m a big believer that silliness and beauty outweighs ugliness.
In true American Beauty style, being ordinary is a great fear of the deeply shallow and insecure, and that fear expresses itself in many ugly ways. On the Blogshere ugliness can hide, but so many wonderful flowers bloom.
Filed under: Get Activist
Food, activism and technology. Could this grand widget be any cooler?
Much more useful (but not as funny as) this:
The Virtual Fruitcake will not count the days left until Christmas. It will not sing or play classic Christmas tunes. It will not suggest the perfect gift for that special someone on your list. Just like real fruitcake, the Virtual Fruitcake will simply sit there, uneaten and forgotten, until sometime early next year when you find it and throw it in the trash
Love the comparison. 
The collection here of tag clouds shows the popularity, frequency, and trends in the usages of words within speeches, official documents, declarations, and letters written by the Presidents of the US between 1776 – 2007 AD.
Scroll through, have a play- it’s an education.
Filed under: Get Activist
In the rush towards green living, it makes sense that eco-crusaders would eventually turn to the other booming elements of popular culture to get their message across. Today, it’s gaming that’s come over all conscientious.A series of films posted on YouTube uses the form of Machinima – the production of mini films employing computer game characters – to make a serious point for eco-brand of the century Fair Trade. Our favourite shows trade within massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft, in which one character is cheated out of his rightful payment as more and more middlemen get involved. The films make their point nicely, and were produced by Edinburgh-based machinima specialists Strange Company
Equally interestingly, 2007 has seen the launch of what we reckon is the first non-profit publisher of videogames. OneBigGame is aiming to sell videogames in order to raise funds for children’s charities.
By playing games published by the company, according to the website, ‘young game consumers around the globe will effectively be helping their disadvantaged age counterparts across other parts of the world and improving the likelihood that these other children will one day be able to.. do what all children should be doing: play.’
The company will be focusing mostly on small casual games which can be constructed in short periods of time and donated by developers.
‘Any little pet project that you have running in your studio and that you think fits our portfolio is welcome’. The game is then published on the OneBigGame casual games portal.It’s an interesting idea, combining not only the notions of user-generated content and charitable enterprise, but also the potential to become a useful recruitment tool for developers. MTV described it as ‘Band Aid for the games industry’. We hope their office is Bono-proof.
In other news – 42 Entertainment’s Jane McGonigal is constructing an Alternate Reality Game aimed at saving the planet. It looks intriguing, and McGonigal’s past efforts in this area have been nothing more than ground-breaking. Waste time at work, meet new people, solve puzzles and save the planet here: http://www.worldwithoutoil.org/
Filed under: Zeitgeist
Friday night gold:
If anyone can prove me wrong…..
I’d really appreciate it.
It’s a year since I started posting to Get Shouty. As it’s been such an adventure in the Hundred Acre Wood I thought I might let Pooh and Piglet have the microphone (through Benjamin Hoff) to help me describe it:
1 Blogging makes me hungry for my day:
2 Blogging allows me to listen:
“Lots of people talk to animals,” said Pooh.
“Not that many listen though.”
“That’s the problem.”
3 Blogging helps me simplify:
4 Blogging lets me know that there is no one right way right way, there is only conversation:
The Hundred Acre Wood grows for me every day- it’s my thinking spot and helps me demystify Heffalumps and Woozles. Thank you to: Gavin, CK, Paul, Mack, Sean, Emily (and all the Sydney coffee crew), Terry, Russell, Richard, Clay, Luc, Nina, C.B., Marcus, Mike, Cam, Lebowski and everyone who has visited, commented, inspired, provoked, delighted, informed, prompted, educated……and made Get Shouty what it is.
How can you get very far, If you don’t know Who You Are?
How can you do what you ought, If you don’t know What You’ve Got?
And if you don’t know Which To Do Of all the things in front of you,
Then what you’ll have when you are through
Is just a mess without a clue
Of all the best that can come true
If you know What and Which and Who.
I do love having a new job. One aspect of this is learning new things, which I need as a motivating drip feed just to get me out of bed each morning.
You learn a new language with a new job in a new field, and just as the tool shapes the hand of the craft-er, a language helps shape your thoughts.
Moving over from digital creative concept/execution to digital experience strategy/planning has brought me this fantastic new term ‘chart’.
This might be Dumbass 101 but the difference between a ’slide’ and a ‘chart’ seems to me to be rather large. A slide has all the the evil associations of a templated structure, and the presentation style associated with it can be as mind numbingly dull as a verbatim read.
A chart is read differently- a simple glance should allow it to tell it’s story. It’s an exiting and sometimes terrifying process to write- because you know that you don’t have a script that you can see on the day. It really does make you craft your story.
The tremendously talented Jessica Hagy who writes Indexed is a bit of a champ at designing a diagram to tell a story. Smart and funny, she is well worth checking out.
Travelling down to Melbourne last week to pitch I saw the entire Australia Post on the Qanta inflight. Lovely- it’s quirky, real, gentle and proud.
Campaign Brief reports that it’s the first time in over eight years Australia Post has gone to air with a brand campaign, which consists of seven 30 second spots. Two units shot for 16 days in 39 different locations to create these tvcs which brings us up to date with what the company does today. There is a different execution for every day of the week and a media schedule that plays them that way.
I can’t say how many conversations I’ve had about this campaign- what is the call to action? How will it translate into tactical expressions?
I think that the connection thought expressed in the TVC is so much more than just an education piece. It outlines more than just the benefits of the company, like the joy of recieving letters, it really underpinns how well Australia Post understands Australians, the ebb and flow of our daily lives and how we identify ourselves to ourselves.
The website is so dissapointing. There is no reason for ‘everyday’ suddenly to become ‘ordinary’ because it’s online. How did the message change from ‘every day people’ to ‘totally empty workstation’?
Such a wasted opportunity to listen to stories, allow interaction and exploration, and build on a fantastic emotional base.
Filed under: Digital Strategy
The guys over at Three Minds have a mini review about the new Holden CRV site.
I just love this campaign- the TVC is compelling, the music’s hot, I’m loving the line ‘For Everyone you are’, and I’ve been enjoying seeing that offer unpack across some tasty cross media placement, like a fantastic pull out mag in one of our glossy monthly newspaper inserts, which which details a whole bunch of compelling lifestyle getaways and activities.
I do wonder why that offer isn’t involved in the architecture of the site, why the line isn’t included at all? Why all of the different components of the urban lifestyle have been distilled to “Function, Safety, Power”. I’m wondering why the first benefit set is ‘fully functional, family, safety and storage’?
Wouldn’t this be a wonderful opportunity for the brand to ask the site viewer who they are? Why not allowing a consumer, who is reacting to your campaign to tell the brand that vital info before you serve them a piece of information that might really Keanu it: ”whoa- that’s not me- this product is not for me”.
Filed under: Get Activist
I have the biggest long time crush on TED.
He’s not only an advocate of giving back to the community, he does it.
His friends come from far and wide to give the most inspirational speeches
“Icons. Geniuses. Mavericks”
March 7-10, 2007, Monterey, California
Filed under: Digital Strategy
Sean is a legend. He’s brought to life my simple Venn diagram in a way that not only explores how to express the process in a pretty charming way (Lego consumer= tops!) but has increased my own understanding exactly what I was trying to say.
It is not only this:
“the opportunity that presents itself when we look for overlap between the Brand Position, Business Goals, Consumer Interests, and the Promise. Aiming to be inside this area makes great sense. It’s the point at which all the vectors unite.
But this as well:
I see the “Promise” being the tangible manifestation driving out to the community that is populated by content and interaction by and between the brand and consumers. It is the interaction of these two communities, brought together by a Position that bring the Promise to life:
Huggies and parents work together on the Position of good parenting and the Promise of sharing best practice
Dove and women work together on the Position of self esteem and the Promise that beauty is an internal expression.
Loving the blogsphere today!
Filed under: Get Friendly
Not DailyMotion (video sharing pretender), who make you register and then give you crappy code that doesn’t integrate with WordPress:
value=”http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/4EaN3CVd4BvHu7sXH”></param><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true”></param><embed src=”http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/4EaN3CVd4BvHu7sXH“
Paul is one of my favourite things and has written a brilliant piece ranking a couple of hot new entries in the peer-to-peer television network game. Read it here
Thanks Gavin for pointing out the crappy code- sorry to miss you at BarCamp. I got to the bar well before hand and couldn’t quite make the whole camp thing the next day. Whoopsie!
Filed under: Zeitgeist
“If you let someone go online and then don’t let them, you may see a physical reaction just like someone coming off drugs,” Tao Ran, a former military researcher working in an internet addiction treatment centre, told MSNBC.
“Today you go half an hour, and the next day you need 45 minutes. It’s like starting with one glass and then needing half a bottle to feel the same way.”
Yep- I think they have a point with the addiction thing. No quite so sure about the torture though…
