Get Shouty

The Rodney District contains a highway that leads north of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. It’s one of the most dangerous roads in New Zealand and has a rising death toll due specifically to speeders. The message: Slow down.

The agency (Saatchi and Saatchi NZ):

We wanted to prove how violent the force in a crash was, so we had an engineer calculate what a head on collision would be equal to in grenades. At 125 kph it is equal to 10 grenades exploding. To demonstrate this we blew up a car, collected the debris, reconstructed it with 1000’s of pieces of string and invited people to see it. Visitors included the Deputy Mayor, head of police, TV3 news (one of New Zealand’s main news station) and, but most importantly, a surprising number of 18-25 year old males.

In Defense of Eye Candy by Stephen P. Anderson looks at trends in neuroscience pointing out that how we “think” cannot be separated from how we “feel,” and applies that to web design.

Love these quotes :

“…emotion is not a luxury: it is an expression of basic mechanisms of life regulation developed in evolution, and is indispensable for survival. It plays a critical role in virtually all aspects of learning, reasoning, and creativity. Somewhat surprisingly, it may play a role in the construction of consciousness.”—António Damásio, Emotion and Feelings: A Neurobiological Perspective

In the early 1900s, “form follows function” became the mantra of modern architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright changed this phrase to “form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union,” using nature as the best example of this integration.

The more we learn about people, and how our brains process information, the more we learn the truth of that phrase: form and function aren’t separate items. If we believe that style somehow exists independantly of functionality, that we can treat aesthetics and function as two separate pieces, then we ignore the evidence that beauty is much more than decoration.

measurmentscreatetheirowncontext, originally uploaded by everythingnewisdangerous.

As promised here are the notes I was referring to on the Ad:tech panel. All the research and loads of the thinking were done by the lovely and talented Rachael Maughan at the white agency.

Here’s measurementcamp’s list of free tools:

1. Addictomatic A cool search engine that aggregates rss feeds into a nice visual dashboard
2. Blogpulse Blog search engine with conversation tracker tool
3. Boardreader Search forums and message boards
4. Boardtracker Forum search engine offering instant alerts
5. Buzzmonitor Embeddable widget showing recent instances of your search term
6. Compete.com Comparable site metrics for any website
7. Del.ici.ous Social bookmarking engine. Search by tags and subscribe to feed results
8. Facebook lexicon Searches facebook walls for words and phrases
9. Google alerts Email updates of key search terms
10. Google insights Compare search volume over time
11. Google trends Compare search term trends
12. Howsociable Gives a social media score for your brand, with email updates of your score.
13. Ice rocket Blog search engine with results rss feed
14. Newsflashr News search engine, presenting results in nice dashboard
15. Sphere Related content widget
16. Summize Search for keywords in ‘tweets’.
17. Technorati Blog and social media search engine
18. Twing Discussion board and forum search engine
19. Twingly Spam free blog search engine
20. Twitturly Track what urls people are talking about on twitter
21. Xinu Shows how well your site is performing across different metrics. Also gives a site diagnosis.
22. Quarkbase Fricking cool mashup tool
23. Twitter Grader Enter your twitter username to get your grade and ranking
24. Twist Graph Keyword trends in Twitter. Very cool.
25. yExplore Not strictly social media, but easy access to see inbound links to a page.
26. Trendpedia Excellent blog search engine that graphs results over time.
27. Website Grader Not completely sure how accurate, but cool tool anyway!
28. Yahoo Pipes Err, yeah, can’t believe I missed this off in the first place.
29. Socialmention Real time UGC search engine, with social rank
30. Bit.ly and Cli.gs – analytics for your tiny urls.

I love a bit of fist shaking shoutyness.

I’m taking a week off and stepping down from my soapbox, but I’m happy to share and introduce you all to Peter Bray, who has  been in the digital industry for around 13 years, is a Director of CHOICE (the Australian Consumers’ Association) and the NSW President of AIMIA (the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association):

 
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I am starting to feel a bit numb about social media. I thought I knew what it was, and how to use it, but now I am confused. Really confused. More so than usual.

Recently there have been people redefining what social media is, defining rules of engagement, and generally trying to one up each other in a public display of ego driven “rankings.” Lists of top bloggers, top twitterers, top facebookers and top brands that use social media are deluging down my connection like an empirical tsunami. And a lot of people seem to be riding the wave, while others, like me, are simply feeling a little swamped.

When did it all get out of hand?

Please, please, to all the digerati out there, perhaps it is time for a bit of quiet, humble success rather than screaming from rooftops at every possible moment. It is a long way to fall, especially if you position yourself at the top of the ladder.

It all used to seem so fun, this whole social media caper. It just doesn’t feel the same any more. Social media is in danger of killing the digital star; metrics are undecided; pundits are confused with professionals; flaming is out of control – why is it that social media has all these growing pains?

Perhaps it is something to do with the personality types that are attracted to social media. Could social media provide a way for people who are otherwise socially inept to finally quantitatively prove that they understand relationships? Are the social media experts in fact introverts who are now, through the bright lights of their computer screens, able to tell people how they should behave? Is a pre qualification for being a social media expert the attainment of level 12 in Dungeons and Dragons (sorry for the out of date reference, but I don’t know the World of Warcraft equivalent?)

My point is (if I have one), that social media should not be positioned as the “next big thing” for brands, simply because not only has it already arrived, but the effectiveness when it comes to marketing is very questionable. Social media has some wonderful uses, however given then number of brands that have invested in social media, there is a striking lack of successful case studies when it comes to brand marketing.

We know social media is out there, we are just not sure how to identify and tag it, let alone breed it in captivity. So it seems that people are firing pot-shots, trying to define what social media is and the rules for engagement, instead of simply letting it run wild for the time being.

Social media needs a lot of time to develop and grow, since it is still in the awkward teenager phase. If we are not careful, by creating so many arbitrary rules and restrictions, social media will never mature and achieve its potential. People need to stop acting like overprotective parents. No one owns the social media space, no one is an expert above others, and such activity will inevitably stunt innovation and experimentation in the social media space. Anyone remember Second Life?

I advocate not enforcing any rules when it comes to social media, apart from one simple guideline, that applies not only to brands and consumers, but social media practitioners as well: TRY NOT TO DO DUMB THINGS, BECAUSE EVERYONE IS ALWAYS LOOKING.

Oh, and play nice.

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Peter can be found on Twitter http://twitter.com/peterbray 

I won’t be found in Sydney town until Ad-tech next week. I’m on the  panel about social media measurement and I’m bringing my boxing gloves. See you there!

I recently got a message from my friend Sean who was buzzing after having read Saul Kaplan’s article on “Creating a Passion Economy“.

He got inspired ( as he does so well) and was so enamored with this concept that he asked a bunch of peple to weigh in on their views regarding “The Passion Economy” and it’s role or impact on business, brands and each of us.

I want insight into what this idea of a “passion economy” might mean in the context of brands and our lives. Professionally and otherwise.  Or whether this is even a real force in our world.

The result is here The Passion Economy: opportunity for brands or just a fad? (PDF, 2.3 megs)

And now, a round of applause for the contributors:

Scott Suthren
Ellen Di Resta
Gavin Heaton
Charles Frith
Mike Wagner
Mack Collier
Mike Arauz
Alan Wolk
Peter Flaschner
Matthew Milan

……and me! A sneak peak on my bit:

We live in times where there is great need- and vast resources. Some of our greatest needs are a sustainable vision for the future, purpose, quality of life, and sense of belonging. The resources that we have to meet these needs are just waiting to be harvested: the will of everyday people to do good. I have yet to meet a person who does not want to be part a strong community, contribute to a safer, greener and more equitable world and see all children meet the future healthy and well prepared. So why aren’t more resources flowing to needs?

Please read, share this document freely and join in the conversation!

Newspaper + Sharpie = Poems.  Austin Kleon awesomeness can be found here.

Instead of starting with a blank page, poet Austin Kleon grabs the New York Times and a permanent marker and eliminates the words he doesn’t need. — NPR’s Morning Edition

Sort of like Michelangelo carving away the marble that imprisoned what he saw within.—Cleveland Plain Dealer

One can imagine taking up blackout poetry on their daily bus commute in place of sudoku or the crossword puzzle.— Toronto’s National Post

Some of the results are hilarious, some are profound and even unsettling, but they are never bland or boring.—The Ephemerist

Part “writing with constrictions,” part happy accident, part found art, part design challenge…the collection…gives a well rounded and consistent view into a guy most of us would want to buy a beer. —Radio Exile

Tim Burrowes has had a busy week. He’s been on telly. Mumbrella his blog about “Everything under Australia’s media & marketing umbrella: BETA” has been chockfull of happy clappy (and unhappy slappy) goodness.  He’s been all Warhol like and aggregated and synthesised  us some canned action on the viral video soupy saga that was “The Girl With The Jacket”

• Agency accused of “screwing” the industry over girl-with-the-jacket fake
• Clothing label owns up
• Boss of the agency puts forward positon on the terrirory between deceit and conceit and says truth is overrated in gaining effectiveness.

The chit chat about this campaign has moved over into some quite heated territories at times. I find pomposity and hubris to be rather astonishing. And funny. And compelling like a car crash is compelling.

And it’s never quite as feisty as when the ’social media experts’ biff it out with each other.

I reproduce this almost in it’s entirety:

DR MUMBO: Seth and Zac and Laurel and Britney:

Zac Martin is a remarkably young, talked-about Australian blogger. He writes an excellent blog here.

Laurel Papworth is a remarkably grumpy social media stormtrooper. But she writes a writes a very good blog here.

Got it so far? Good.

So Laurel doesn’t like Seth, because Seth doesn’t allow comments on his blog, which she thinks is bad. So Seth tried to be nice, and sent Laurel a lovely message on her blog. But Laurel was mean to him, put her fingers in her ears, and told him she couldn’t hear him. Then Zac stepped in.

Now you can watch this…

It’s just an everyday tale of life in the Aussie blogosphere…

Six Lessons organizations can learn from the Obama New Media Team.

Here’s the Inauguration Day Tumblr

With the swearing-in of Barack Obama just hours away, we’re excited to announce that we’ve partnered with Tumblr to create a dedicated feed of content to the official Inauguration blog.  We’ll be posting throughout the day and reblogging your Inauguration Day moments.

Share your thoughts, photos, links, quotes, and videos. And see what others are saying in real-time during this epic event.

In addition, we’ll be using Tumblr tonight to liveblog the Neighborhood Ball from the Convention Center in Washington, DC.

http://www.pic2009.org/blog/entry/tumblr

And the Photosynth moments, on CNN and here:  best inauguration synths.

When you have tap dancing, surfing, criminal mastermind,  always being appropriately dressed for dinner and publisher extraordinaire as your basic skill set….logic would seem a little greedy.

(this is for Tim: have you seen this list of famous Penguins? Thanks @Boris for the find)