Thanks to today’s ELI webinar, a couple of very cool new digital instruction projects at Cornell University…

Copyright in the Digital Age
This is a class page using customized WordPress MU; notice that it pulls in posts by students for other students to comment on, and even vote on.  Student writing actually becomes publication, right off the bat.  Very cool use of WordPress MU.

Intypes
A community-built database of interior design themes, strategies, and practices, illustrated by images and indexed by folksonomy.  With citations!  I love this and can imagine many, many more applications for the overall template.

Here is my first model review, a church made by Beta2.

-Creativity- 7.5

I like the design, though it is relevantly simple.
-Originality- It’s definitely not the first church made in Roblox. There are plenty of other churches that you can find.

-Size-5

It’s tiny! My camera was smashed up against my avatar’s face half the time!

-Detail- 8

It’s small, but it has very good detail on it. It was definitely perfected.
Once I get through all these aspects, I will cover all of them with a:
-Overall- 6.8

The model’s design was simple, not too overwhelming, but it was small, a little bit too small to be getting a 7.

You can grab a copy of it here.

This just out:  Google releases a new media-friendly newsreader tool called Google Fast Flip.  According to an article in the New York Times, Fast Flip is supposed to draw more readers to online news sites by making those sites faster to load and easier to page through, more like flipping through a newspaper or magazine than surfing the Web.  According to Google, this is what people want from a news-reading experience–and I’m pretty sure they’re right.  Or at least, I’m sure that slow-loading pages are a big turnoff for all Web users, and anything we can do to eliminate them is a step in the right direction.

The Google Fast Flip page looks like a visual mosaic of pages taken from electronic news sources:  the analogy that leaps immediately to mind is a newsstand.  It looks appealing, rich, user-friendly.  Imagine if we presented our libraries’ home pages sort of like this.  Imagine that users could configure a portal that gave them a landing page showcasing thumbnails of half a dozen “favorites” pages that they picked, or that were offered to them by default, either one-size-fits-all or by automatically offering up the pages they visit most within the site.  Or imagine if we just offered an alternative entry point, a side door, that showcased some of our pages and resources like this.  Or…imagine if we just offered this as a custom-build service:  we’ll make a page for you or your class that showcases useful research resources, blogs, websites, and other stuff you want to keep track of in one place.  Including, maybe Google Fast Flip.

Could be pretty neat…

Google Fast Flip Screen Capture

Some online reputation management advice.  I think there’s a good argument both ways:

“The things we forward, tweet, or post send a message about who we are,” Berger says. “And you don’t want the message to be that you’re behind the curve.”

via Don’t Blog or Tweet Anything With More Than Half a Million Hits.

Now, can anyone see a problem with consumers making their own ads?

The World Advertising Research Center (WARC) reports that Coca-Cola is stepping up its social marketing.

Coca-Cola, the soft drinks giant, plans to increase its use of social media around the world, as it seeks to put consumers “at the heart” of its business, according to Jonathan Mildenhall, the company’s vp of global advertising strategy and creative excellence.

Just what, exactly, is the “heart” of Coke’s business? Will they be bringing in consumers to bottle the product in their plants? Invite them to sit in on strategy sessions? Put them in scuba outfits and dump them in tanks of the secret formula?

The only thing the article really mentions is getting consumers to create their own commercials.

Now that’s a good idea. Providing you’re willing to risk time and money on intricate legal matters.

It’s a “breeding tank for copyright infringement,” says Douglas Wood, an attorney who works with such issues in New York. Other lawyers are even more adamant that the risks outweigh any questionable benefits and advise clients not to do it.

In an article titled “Consumer-Created Ads Cause Grief for Companies,” Law.com lists a number of potential dangers including:

• copyright infringement
• defamation
• false advertising claims
• brand damage.

Last year, Subway sandwich cited consumer-generated video clips sponsered by a Quizno’s contest to sue their rival for false advertising.

The entire exercise also requires extensive oversight as hundreds or even thousands of videos must be watched and examined for any trouble spots.

Ah, but then there are the rewards, which are…uh. Well, I guess you end up with between a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand already-existing customers who are now somewhat more brand loyal. Well, maybe not those whose entries aren’t chosen. So — I guess you have one already-existing customer who is more brand loyal.

Good call.

The Daily Mail posted a story on their website about my friend Andy Stanford-Clark, and used a crop from one of my photos to illustrate it. As it happens, I would have been perfectly happy for them to use it (and even to crop it) if they’d asked for permission. At the time I post this, they are not following the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND licence and they are also not linking back to my Flickr page per the Flickr terms and conditions.

Thanks to Nick for bringing this to my attention, and for those who have told me that they’ve posted comments (currently not through moderation) or sent emails. We’ll see what happens.

I’ve posted about my approach to CC licensing images before. In this case, it’s arguably more of a concern as it’s a national newspaper displaying what would appear to be significant ignorance about the morality of using user-created content.

Beyond all of this… if you want to learn more about Andy’s tweeting house, he was featured on the BBC News yesterday – it’s a nice piece, check it out.

i am a voarcious reader and tend to be juggling multiple books and magazines simultaneously.  sometimes, it can prove a bit chaotic, but then there are the serendipitous moments like this morning when the message you need from the universe gets hammered into you at every turn.  the material i was reading couldn’t be more disparate, but somehow the same basic message came through loud and clear in all of them…user participation is what really, truly counts.

for work, i am reading a book about social media and how it is changing the face of marketing.  in it the author says the true power of social media is in the fact that it is user created content and that the true goal of using social media is to create not just content but conversations with the users.  then, in a design magazine i’m glancing over, i find an article about cold war russia and the creativity and inspiration found in the people who modified existing objects to suit their needs…for example, a deflated rubber ball and an old stool leg now became a plunger.  the point was that the user interacts with design and creates their own experience with it.  and, just in case i hadn’t yet learned my lesson, in a book i’m reading for pleasure about an agnostic’s attempt to follow the bible as literally as possible for one year, he relates a conversation with a biblical scholar who believes that the bible is an ever changing piece of work that we, as humans, are creating with god.

i just found it so oddly entertaining to find the same theory staring at me from every page.  design doesn’t stop once the concept becomes realized in the acutal world.  true design continues to evolve and change as users later interact with it.  it’s an interesting concept to mull over and try to fit in my current projects.  and it sure puts a new spin on my usual type of design work – how to create things like posters and business cards that users continue to interact with?

Molti dei 38 e-book prodotti dagli studenti di Editoria multimediale 2009 contengono una pagina di presentazione in cui l’autore/autrice dice qualcosa di sé. Non si tratta di CV veri e propri ma sono un modo per stabilire un primo contatto con l’interlocutore/lettore. Anche in questo caso la fantasia è andata a briglia sciolta: era proprio quello che volevo.

EM 2009 > E-book degli studenti > L. Alberici

Non tutti i 38 e-book avevano una pagina di presentazione dell’autore/autrici. Il file Pdf (4,4 Mb) riunisce quelli che c’erano.

Il sommario di un e-book deve essere visuale o testuale? Dipende. Il file pdf (4,3 Mb) che puoi scaricare riunisce i sommari dei 38 e-book del corso di Editoria multimediale. Le soluzioni scelte sono le più diverse. Alcune sono molto, molto attraenti.

EM 2009 > e-book > i sommari degli e-book di R. Paolucci e R. Parisi

Il file è il risultato di una stampa a 2 pagine per foglio e non contiene quindi link o bookmark.

Il corso di Editoria multimediale 2009 termina l’8 maggio (→ post Il potluck di fine corso). Ho ricevuto 38 e-book: tutti creativi e diversi tra loro. Alcuni davvero belli dall’inizio alla fine. Ho riunito in un file cumulativo le 38 copertine: l’obiettivo, come sempre è dare visibilità e stimolare a fare bene attraverso il confronto del proprio lavoro con quello degli altri.

EM 2009 > e-book > le copertine degli e-book di E. Corea e E. Corradini

Le due copertine che vedi qui sopra mi sono piaciute molto: ma il file Pdf (4,8 Mb) ne contiene altre 36!

è questo il messaggio che ricavo da One in 8 Million, un’iniziativa di The New York Times dedicata alla gente di New York. Ogni settimana il quotidiano on-line pubblica la storia  di qualcuno “with something to say“.  Ma perbacco chi non ha qualcosa da dire? Se gli/le lasci solo 5 minuti per raccontarsi anche la persona più insulsa e omologata ha qualcosa da dire e finisce per essere interessante. Comunque sia è una bella idea:

New York Times > One in 8 Million

Di ciascun personaggio senti la voce e vedi uno slideshow: le voci stesse, con i loro diversi accenti, ti fanno capire che razza di melting pot sia stata e sia tuttora l’America. L’idea mi piace anche perché mi sembra proponibile come tema dell’e-book di Editoria multimediale del prossimo anno: “storie di vita” (ma la decisione deve essere ancora presa).

Thanks to librarian superhero Claire Rivers for reminding me I needed to post this event!   (We’ve been so busy getting this into the local media I forgot I have a blog of my own…)

We’re hosting a free sneak preview screening of the indie music documentary Copyright Criminals tomorrow night, here in the White Stag Building.  If you’re in the Portland area, file your taxes and come down for some free culture!  Movie starts at 6 pm, and is followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker (Kembrew McLeod) and musician and designer Dave Allen.

Thanks for the reminder, Claire–and yes, I’ll post some notes and pictures after the fact, for those who can’t make it here tomorrow night.  If I ask Kembrew nicely, maybe he’ll even donate a copy of the film for our collection…

Next up, some photos from our first event, a panel session on April 1st–wildly successful by all accounts!

Eric Frierson at UT Arlington (along with some colleagues) has put together this terrific short promotional video for librarians’ services there.  I love it!  (Annie, something for our list to show our students!)

In other news, Annie and I taught our first LIB 101 class last week.  I had the flu and had to use a microphone to be heard, but Annie persevered in getting Rock Band (The Most Complicated Video Game In the World To Set Up) running for the end of the class, and that was a pretty good success.  They sang along!  This week, we’re delving into search and wayfinding in new environments:  games, Google, and the library catalog.  Should be interesting.

If there’s one event in the gaming convention circuit that always gets me thinking, it’s GDC. Last year, I spent a lot of time thinking about the ideas presented in the Game Designer’s Rant, specifically Ubisoft designer Clint Hocking’s speech, the video of which I’m determined to find and post later. This year, it seems the hot topic is the idea of utilizing “cloud computing” in the gaming industry, specifically as it pertains to game distribution.

Preamble: A Quick Explanation

To put it simply, cloud computing allows a user (that’s you, by the way) to access data, software applications, or computer hardware through a number of online resources. This allows regular joes to access all of their data from basically any computer, and it allows certain businesses the ability to limit how much money they spend on hardware but treating computer processing like a utility service they pay for based on usage.

To bring it back to games, Valve’s Steam service is a prime example of this. You can buy a number of games through Steam, and that purchase is then stored on the Steam servers. Then, you can go onto any other PC, download the Steam application, and from it, download your game, as well as your saved game data for that game, onto that PC through the Steam application. You have instant access to all of your Steam-bought games no matter what PC you’re on.

Ok, so this isn’t a new concept to most of us affluent on the subject, but now one company has taken it a step further with OnLive, an interesting idea that looks to use cloud computing to change game distribution. How this works is kind of weird, honestly. You can use the service on your PC through a plug-in for your browser, or a small, PSP-sized device that plugs into the HDMI port of your TV. You pick your game through the service, start to play, and the game is then streamed to you over the OnLive service. Mechanically, it works like this: you press a button on the controller. That signal is then sent to one of OnLive’s servers, on which the game itself is housed. The server takes that button input, plays the game for you, and then streams that interaction back to you through the internet.

Apparently this has taken them 7 years to perfect, and all reports of the early beta sound promising. So far 9 major developers are signed onto the service, including Atari, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft. The service includes PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 games.

The Big Picture

The benefits of OnLive for PC/Mac gamers should be immediately obvious; instead of having to spend a wad of cash on a top-of-the-line PC to play, oh lets say Crysis, now all you need is relatively fast Internet connection–which, last time I checked, is already owned by a large portion of North Americans. The hardware requirements to run the game are already met by the OnLive server they’re housed on, and all you need to do is order the game through the service.

I will say, this has serious potential to expand the PC gaming market. One of the biggest road blocks for PC gaming is that some people feel prohibited by the amount of money you need to spend on a gaming PC–though, that depends on opinion, since a decent gaming PC doesn’t actually cost much more than a PS3. By simply asking users to pay their Internet bill every month, this makes PC gaming far more accessible, since it essentially turns any modern computer–including Macs–into a gaming-ready device.

But what is the plausible scope of this service? Unfortunately, the whole thing seems kind of limited. I really only see two groups of people who will really benefit from this service. The first group includes people who own videogame consoles, but don’t game on PC’s because they either find the cost of PC gaming to exorbitant or their current PC is out of date or wasn’t purchased for gaming purposes. Students are a prime example of this, since they buy laptops–often Mac laptops–to take notes and do homework. The second group includes people who don’t game at all, but may be interested in getting involved with it. Now, this could include younger kids who rely on their parents to buy games/consoles for them. Not only do the parents not have to buy expensive PC’s or consoles, paying a subscription fee–which is how OnLive is going to be monetized–is probably going to be an easier sell than paying a large lump sum for a console or games. Just look at World of Warcraft.

Drawbacks

Now that I’ve given the service its due, it’s time to get skeptical. There are a number of reasons this service could flop, not the least of which being pricing. The idea here is that this is going to be a subscription based service, but what will the payment models be? They’ve stated that the resolution at which the game will play on your monitor or TV will depend on the speed of your Internet connection. Does that mean they’ll charge different prices for people in different Internet speed brackets? Will someone with DSL pay less than someone with high-end Cable or T1 lines? This seems a little complicated, and perhaps they won’t nickel-and-dime you that hard. However, in one of those interviews, they did discuss charging different rates depending on whether you’re purchasing, or simply renting a game, and it sounded like the rental method would have different pricing depending on how long you wanted to “rent” the game for through the service.

The bigger issue here is support. Now, let’s keep in mind that 9 major publishers have professed support for this. That’s fine and dandy for PC-exclusive games, like Dawn of War II, but what about console games? There are plenty of highly-popular titles that are either console exclusive (like Gears of War or Metal Gear Solid 4) or first-party titles published by Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo themselves. If those companies are using those exclusive games in order to sell their consoles, then why in the hell would they ever want them to end up on OnLive, a service that would essentially kill any claim to exclusivity those games would allow the Big 3?

There’s another issue here, one that may make OnLive seem like a good idea that’s coming a bit too late. With all of these high-profile third-party games showing up on OnLive, the service is (for now) ignoring a burgeoning new part of the videogame industry: small, affordable, downloadable games, like those found on Xbox Live Arcade or the Playstation Network. Two of the best games of 2008 were arguably Castle Crashers and Braid, both games that were developed and sold over Xbox Live. Now, I’m not saying small games won’t be developed for OnLive in the future (in one interview, the guy does say that there’s a software development kit for the service), but it’s something they’re going to want to jump on very quickly. These small games, as well as downloadable content packs–like the The Pitt addition just released for Fallout 3 a few days ago–are a big part of the industries future, and if they don’t become a part of OnLive, the service may end up looking like nothing but a dumping ground for third-parties who want to make more money off their expensive games.

Anyways, those are just some thoughts. We’ll be discussing OnLive in further depth in the second segment of this week’s User Created Content.

–Ram

It’s been a long time since my last post, though I’ve been thinking about this blog a lot.  Excuses aside, some stuff that’s been going on…

ACRL 2009 was a good time had by all.  It was a real pleasure to see the fruits of the Green Committee’s labors–recycled carpet in the exhibits hall, shower times in the tote bags, few-to-no paper handouts, and recyling everywhere.  Robin Chase’s Sunday morning talk was terrific and thought-provoking.  She also graciously did a podcast, which is freely available.  When I wasn’t staffing the Green Booth I got to a few good CyberZed Shed sessions on iMacros, texting at UC Irvine, and Sony Readers.  Does ALA do these kinds of sessions–short, technology-oriented, practical?  I’d love to see more like this.

My colleague Anne Zeidman-Karpinski and I have maximum enrollment for our Library 101 class focusing on video games, video production, and general visual culture.  25 students in Eugene, with Annie teaching there and me here in Portland.  Videoconferencing, yes.  It’s an all-video extravaganza!  We’re using spring break this week to get our final prep work done for the syllabus and assignment outlines.  Final assignment is a group “TV” program made up of short segments from each student, filmed in the media studies center.  And I just read an interesting interview about games and gaming that might ring bells for some folks who are interested in the strangeness of grown-ups and college students playing games to learn…

I’ve also been working to plan two events in early April:  a panel session about creative professionals working in the recession, and a film screening of “Copyright Criminals,” a documentary by Kembrew Mcleod.

And I’m very pleased to say that Michael Stephens’s awesome “Ray of Light” video for the St. Joseph County Public Library is back up on Youtube, albeit without Madonna’s soundtrack.  Thanks, Michael!

Il 20 e 21 marzo 2009 si terrà a Parma un BarCamp (→ Answers definizione)

“dedicato ai rapporti fra il mondo del lavoro e il web. Idealmente si vorrebbero coinvolgere il maggior numero di attori: le aziende e le istituzioni che offrono lavoro tramite il web e che lo utilizzano come strumento di recruiting, chi cerca lavoro tramite web, chi usa il web come strumento di lavoro quotidiano e chi il lavoro grazie al web l’ha già trovato.”

La segnalazione del ParmaWorkCamp (→ sito web) mi arriva da Aurora Ghini (→ il suo blog): una laureata in Scienze Politiche che ha lavorato con me quando mi occupavo di ipertesti e che da una decina d’anni vive di Internet e per Internet (→ belle le sue foto su Flickr!). Aurora farà un intervento su come scrivere un cv 2.0 per lavorare nei nuovi media. Mi sembra un’eccellente occasione per conoscere un sacco di gente interessante: non lasciartela scappare!

Marco Monti, nostro neolaureato ora felicemente inserito in Yoox, mi segnala un sito davvero interessante. Office Snapshots (→ sito web), come dice il nome stesso, raccoglie istantanee di luoghi di lavoro: qui non troverai foto di reparti di fabbriche (→ post Fuggire dalla fabbrica) ma un sacco di foto di uffici. Ci sono slideshow su aziende grandi e piccole. Ad esempio, ho potuto vedere come sono combinati gli uffici di Adobe a San Jose (California) e ho scoperto che c’è pure un campo da basket:

Adobe > San José > Headquarters

certo, un campo per 3.000 impiegati non è tanto ma in quante università italiane lo trovi?

Oltre alle foto ci sono anche dei video: ad esempio questo tour degli uffici di Google a New York.

? Marco mi suggerisce anche di proporre il tema per qualche e-book che valga come tesina della laurea triennale: ottima idea anche se temo che molte aziende sarebbero restie a far fotografare i propri uffici. Giriamo allora la questione: perché non mettersi nei panni di un neolaureato e provare a vedere cosa le grandi aziende italiane mostrano di sé stesse a chi vorrebbe andare a lavorare da loro?

The User-created content means on-line content which are produced by Internet users by forum or bulletin board system as opposed to copyrighted contents. This term was originated by one of korean portal sites, Daum since 1999. In that time, there were few Online contents. Many korean web sites focused on gathering user activities. So there has developed various bulletin board system such as CrazyWWWBoard, ZeroBoard in Korea. Daum Cafe was success story of the largest online community service. From now on it has 600 million forums and 2.1 billion articles by 22 million users in Korea…….

……. The term, UCC is almost same with UGC (User-generated content), but UCC is older than UGC made in 2005 by trend of Web 2.0. It means korean’s users activity was very strong in cyber space by the fast broadband penetration.

Complete Post HERE

Dug this up from the “Tube” today. Here is Google’s Out-of-Home campaign in Germany promoting their online video service. Very “low-tech” and the creative is pretty simple as well considering it is for the king of web search, but it certainly seems to get the point accross, and would deem this a success in just looking at the people viewing and interacting with it. This is ever-changing content if I ever saw one. Keep sending us that Google cash!     

Whirled is a new social networking site with user created content. That’s right, if you made it yourself then it will be right at home on this website.

At the moment there are an average of 1000 users on there at any one time. Some use it as a chat room; try not to be put off by the incoherent teenagers with satanic avatars, they’re not the only users on Whirled, just the most visible ones (of course if you are an incoherent teen with a devil fixation then the chat room aspect may be just what you’re looking for). Some play games; there are some brilliant games on Whirled, like Bella Bingo which can really help get through those tedious “waiting for a treasury to open up” minutes. And some use it as a way to display the contents of their imaginations; now that’s when it gets really interesting. It seems to me to be an excellent promotional tool, especially as the Whirled management don’t feel the need to restrict external links (like flikr) and although the Terms of Service prohibit junk mail, spam, chain letters and pyramid schemes (and rightly so) using this social site for the promotion of your business is allowed.

I feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface with what I’ve been using it for so far. Here are my ideas of how it could be useful to Etsy sellers:

Rooms

The first thing you’ll need to do is create an account, which is free and doesn’t ask for a lot of personal information. Once you’ve signed up you’ll find that you have a tofu avatar and you’re sitting in a mostly empty room. There are tutorials to help you change that avatar to something more appropriate (mine is a purple ball of yarn) and start working on your room. If you are a graphic artist then this will be heaven for you as anything goes and you can really show off your style for example look at this one Dr Irene’s room. Even if you’re not a computer art person you can always pick up other users’ content in the shop (more about that later) and add a few choice items of your own. Here’s an example from one of my rooms. I used a backdrop that someone else had created, which I bought from the shop, then I took photos of my son’s artwork against white backgrounds and cut them out using a paint programme, finally I uploaded them as furniture items and framed them with frames from the shop.

When you make a new room it spends a few minutes or hours (depending on how busy Whirled is) in the Hot New Rooms section which is on the rooms tab. You’ll find lots of random people wandering through during this time and that’s good. Especially if the room has a huge unmissable link to your Etsy shop, like this spider promo room I made earlier.

Top Tips for Rooms

- There are often room building competitions on Whirled. If you win one you get some serious exposure on the rooms front page and a nice gadget, here’s the details although the last contest was quite recent, I’m sure there’ll be another one along soon.

- When you make your new room, before you publish it, make sure it’s as good as you want it to be and then give yourself 5 stars (you’re allowed to so why be modest?) This will bump it up to the top of the New and Hot list, however be prepared for a lot of grumpy teens to give your room 1 star, just because their Mom won’t let them go to that party on Saturday.

- You get one room for free after which any new rooms are 11,000 coins, this currently translates to around 10cents, I think this is a bargain.

- You can embed rooms using a link at the bottom of the Whirled browser, this means if you have a website and you make a great promo room you could put the whole room on your website.

- I linked to the Spider in Tokyo room from the Etsy forums. I thought it was a more eye catching way of displaying the product.

The Shop

Whirled has it’s own monetary system, it looks complicated, but it’s pretty easy. There are coins which you can earn by playing games or by uploading items to the shop and having other users buy them to put in their rooms. Here’s a book that I uploaded to the shop which is pretty popular. The other monetary unit is bars, these are available at the tiny cost of  10 cents each and are currently worth about 11,000 coins. Whirled has an exchange rate system though so those rates will change, I couldn’t tell you how they’ll change, that’s too much economics for me.

Unlike rooms, items in the shop are searchable from the shop front page so you can add your items and they’ll always be available for other users to see. You set the price of the item you’re selling yourself and there’s a ratings and comments system. Perhaps most importantly, there’s a description box and this is where you could put a little sales pitch and the URL for your Etsy shop. You can’t make it a link, although there’s nothing in the rules to explain why not.

You can make the following types of items to sell in the Whirled shop:

- Backdrops, these would be a great promo tool if you are a graphic designer

- Furniture, this is literally anything that you could put in a virtual room so it’s great for toymakers or people who make household items, for example I can imagine that a bed linen maker could could have a virtual version of their linen on a bed in the Whirled shop and the real life version in their Etsy shop. This is my Spider in the Whirled shop

- Avatars, this is a highly competitive arena and I would say, it’s not for the fainthearted. There are some extraordinary animators working in this field. Of course if you are an extraordinary animator, this may be just what you’re looking for.

- Toys, Games and Pets, I don’t see how these kinds of items could be useful to an Etsy maker, as these are more programmed items. But I could be wrong…

- Images, if you were an Etsy artist you could upload a small section of one of your pieces or maybe have a virtual ACEO?

- Music, I know there are some Etsy musicians, maybe this would be a great place for clips of your work?

- Video, quite an unexplored area for me, but I really think it has potential. A friend of mine was saying only yesterday that we should make a low-fi video of my toys going on an adventure…hmmm.

Top Tips for The Shop

- According to the “comment guidelines” (which are new) it is against the Whirled rules to post an advertisement in the comments of a shop item, however you could post a link to your Whirled room where the virtual item is in use and then have an external link in that room. Just like I’ve done with my spider

- You can make actual real life money from selling items in the Whirled shop (although not much) I tried this when DH and I made an animated remixable snowglobe we made a massive 37cents, although you can’t cash it in until you get at least $50. You might have more luck than we did. In order to do this you must list the price of your item in bars, not coins. Bear in mind that unless your item does something extraordinary it’s unlikely to sell for the equivalent of 11,000 coins. Things I’ve seen listed in bars include musical instruments you can play with your mouse or small games you can add to your rooms.

- I don’t have to tell you to be careful with your work, so I’ll just mention it here in passing. User content sites can be pretty fierce and although the Whirled team frown upon the use of other people’s work in what is uploaded, there are still some unscrupulous types. Don’t give away too much, leave them wanting more.

Groups

There is a groups option on Whirled and so far no group with anything to do with Etsy or Handmade. I simply don’t have the time to be the only manager of such a group, but if anyone fancies joining me I’ll put up the cash (a whopping 30cents) and we could manage a group together. You know where I am.

One last thing…

In the interest of full disclosure I have to tell you that this is my husband’s day job, he is one of the programmers of Whirled. No, that doesn’t mean I get free coins or special favours, it just means I’ve been on Whirled since (very nearly) the beginning and I’ve been playing around with it for a long time. As you can see if you step into my library

If you do join Whirled then come and find me, I could do with some virtual friends my Whirled name is MrsBos.

The Whirled Wiki – the official How To

Anche se il New York Times rimane uno dei principali quotidiani a livello mondiale ciò non risolve i suoi problemi di debiti crescenti e di ricavi calanti. E così si sono adattati a sbattere in prima pagina la pubblicità:

New York Times on-line > 3 marzo 2009 > Homepage

Ma un’altra strategia (complementare alla prima) consiste nel “radicarsi nel territorio” e tra la gente che di solito non legge il quotidiano. Così sono stati lanciati alcuni siti di informazioni locali chiamati appunto The Local (→ pagina web). Se l’esperimento ti interessa e vuoi saperne di più ti segnalo l’articolo di Andy Newman, giornalista del NYT e blogger → Hey Kids, Let’s Put on a Blog!

New York Times > The Local > Fort Green > Hey Kids, Let's Put on a Blog

Chi fa queste edizioni locali? La formula è semplice:

qualche giornalista del NYT + qualche stagista (intern) + lettori = The Local

Può funzionare? Forse sì: in questo modo molti lettori hanno una ribalta su cui apparire. Pensa a quante trasmissioni radiofoniche o televisive fanno lo stesso con successo.

(Provided by DailyDOOH.com : I was told to "jack away" this photo)

So with DSE finished and those whom attended finally starting to get over their hangovers (from the Expo, and otherwise), a lot has been covered by various sources, and with great success. One thing that struck me last week was a screenshot I saw from the Expo. It was the perfect inspirational shot in terms of thinking about how to illustrate the use and integration of social media, mobile media, and Digital Out-of-Home. A little “Tweety” bird chirped, and the photo on the left pop into my attention. Surprise, surprice.. Look who integrated Social, Mobile, and DOOH; LocaModa; You know? The company that “seamlessly extends brands to large consumer audiences by connecting them to additional screens, mobile phones, and social networks…” (per their website), and the recent winner of the DOOH award? Displaying at DSE was a perfect place to show the potentials of integrating these medias into the DOOH / Out of Home worlds.  Here is the case in point where user created content can really be used to engage the viewers. As I write this, something else was made aware to me, as apparently, LocaModa and Danoo already started to test a partnership between the mobile and DOOH world in a serious way, and many of screens couple of months ago. The details are on this PRelease LocaModa Campaign Reveals Most Interactive US Cities. I also stated to the person who forward this to me to “keep exploring the mobile options: as I said, this (mobile and DOOH) is a natural marriage between the medias I think. Touchscreens are still way too expensive and due to the screen placement factor (which will always exist in DOOH), mobile will have to be used as the channel of Immediate Interaction for the foreseeable future. ” That’s some sort of fancy talk, especially considering it’s coming from me under the spell of cold medicine. This is certainly not anything fancy or new for the “insiders,” as even I worked on campaigns that incorporated mobile and DOOH / OOH for years. But the point is, social and mobile media certainly has a place in the Digtal Out-of-Home / OOH world, and is not some sort of gimick as some may think. Social, mobile, and DOOH /OOH medias can truly work together to create some interesting content, and really engage the viewers to feel like they are Part of the message, not just the Targets of the messages. I see this not as a option, but an eventuality in the sectors, where gaming (“notorious” for its ability to engage the user / viewer; one of my favorite pasttime) will also be an important factor as the industry continues to evolve. As the integration and content strategies continue to evolve on these fronts, it will only help to capture more eyes; and fingers as well I guess.

Disclaimer: Justoutofhome.com does not represent, nor is paid by DailyDOOH, LocaModa, or Danoo; Although they probably Should be now.

stiamo parlando degli USA: per motivi che non è il caso di andare a sviscerare, in quel paese è normale andare via da casa per frequentare l’università. E siccome là (a differenza che in Italia) le università sono tantissime e molto diverse tra loro capisci come mai il problema della scelta da parte di milioni di studenti abbia stimolato (da tanto tempo) un business floridissimo fatto di guide, siti web, ecc. Pensa che nel 2005 gli iscritti a college e università erano più di 17 milioni (→ US Department of Education, Fast Facts)

Il sito che ti segnalo oggi si chiama Unigo (→ sito web) e ha la caratteristica di essere gestito da studenti. Ovvio quindi che dia molto spazio a video e foto. Su questa linea (video) c’era già un altro sito: Theu (→ sito web). Ma Unigo non si limita ai video. Ci sono reviews scritte da studenti in cui vengono a galla i pro e contro di infinite università (> 250) e facoltà. Molto interessante anche per capire le differenze tra l’esperienza universitaria che stai facendo qui e quella che faresti là.

Unigo > Brown University > review

Il ritaglio che vedi è una review di sintesi relativa a Brown University: il redattore che l’ha scritta ha usato ampiamente le opinioni di altri studenti (le vedi in blu) con un click puoi leggere la recensione da cui la frase citata è stata estrapolata. Bel modo di lavorare!

Chi c’è dietro Unigo? Un tale di 26 anni e una quindicina di giovani redattori (pagati). Come si regge? Sulla pubblicità. Potrebbe funzionare qualcosa di simile in Italia? Chissà… Ma forse no: molti da noi scelgono l’università sotto casa: una ragione di più, poi, per trovarla una noia mortale che non vale proprio la pena frequentare.

Il ministero della difesa degli USA (US Department of Defense) ha un sito (→ Defense Imagery.mil) dedicato ad accogliere immagini e video prodotti dai militari USA. Lo segnalo per gli aspetti di metodo nella denominazione e classificazione dei file:

• criteri di denominazione: tutte le immagini devono essere denominate in base ad un → VIRIN (Visual Information Record Identification Number: data, corpo di appartenenza del militare, identificazione dell’autore, numero progressivo)
• criteri di classificazione: le immagini e i video devono essere classificate in base a → metadata ed essere associate ad una didascalia (→ caption) che ne descriva il contenuto in base ai tre principi di accuratezza, brevità e chiarezza.

Come mai ti segnalo questo sito? Non solo per i motivi suindicati ma anche per il suo contenuto. Ieri sera ho visto un film che mi ha colpito molto: The Hurt Locker di Kathryn Bigelow (→ scheda IMDB). Di cosa parla? Di cos’è la giornata di un artificere a Baghdad e della dipendenza da adrenalina. Stile da documentario. Magnifico! Chissà se la regista si è documentata anche sul sito del Department of Defense?