New iPhone May Make Books Social

In a recent post for the IPG Emerging Media LAB, I delved into the future of book publishing and how social media advancements through devices like the iPhone 3G S and the Kindle could advance the glory of reading into the digital realm. Check out the IPG LAB post here!

You Can’t Judge a Kindle By Its Cover

With the launch of the new Kindle 3.0, Amazon is moving the wireless book industry forward with a larger and more comfortable screen. But, there is a problem here. With the possibility of the Kindle really taking off in the near future, what does this mean for the book cover industry?

One of my favorite things to do on the subway in New York is see what other random people are reading. I like to compare people’s shoes with their books and see if the girl in stilettos has an eye for Truman Capote or if the man in the suit and tie is consumed with Hunter S. Thompson. If the Kindle really takes off in the way that Amazon would like, scanning the subway for interesting people and literature would loose it’s most important feature – book covers.

The Kindle is plain. In fact, it doesn’t even look like a book at all. It’s more like an over-sized piece of plastic. What will this do for those random moments when we can peak into peoples lives through a glance at the back of their reading materials? Of course this is all easily done online with sites like Good Reads, but through a computer and on website it all feels a little less personal and edgy.

What will happen when we can’t see what anyone else is reading?

Life will go on, but hopefully someone will think of a way to make book covers display on the back of a Kindle – that would be cool!

Let’s Bring LA Some Tweet Transportation

The next step in social media transportation looks to be Tweeting transportation. In a recent episode  from the BBC’s Digital Plant I learned about the IBM Hursley campus bus – that Tweets! This bus, that’s used at the largest software development lab in Europe, will send out Tweets regrding real-time stop locations so people know exactly when and where the bus is coming. This “smart bus” sends information on its location and number of passengers back to a server that integrates this service with Twitter and various other applications for people using the system. By tracking the number of people on the bus, it can also determine how much carbon is being saved by its passengers.

While this technology isn’t used in many places, I think it would be the coolest way for Los Angeles to hype-up it’s much criticized transit system in a cheap n’ chic way.

Just like the popular food truck Kogi, that Tweets its food stops to crowds of followers willing to drive across town for a Tweet taco, so too could the LA bus system. While the buses don’t have food to offer, they do have a more effective time schedule to share and ways to save the planet – and for LAers on the go – that is completely worth it!

Enjoy Your Cheap Internet – It May Not Be Around Much Longer

Last Thursday Time Warner Cable announced that it has temporarily halted plans to increasee the cable costs for their heaviest Internet consumers.

Their plan was to introduce a tiered payment system where those who consumed around 20 videos a month or 100 gigabytes, would pay $150 monthly bill.

Luckily there was a loud outcry in the community and public officials against this price increase – an increase that some claim to be a simple power play. While Time Warner Cable insists that this price increase is strictly to cover upkeep costs for wiring etc., others argue that with new technological advancements in the “Internet Provider Arena” like Docsis3, cost are actually dropping.

So why is Time Warner Cable looking to charge more? Because they can.

Unfortunately this may only be the tip of the iceberg in what could turn out to be quite the battle. With major player like – the government – Time Warner Cable – and Comcast, major price wars will probably be a thing of the future.

One interesting point brought up in the recent NY Times story about this, is that one reason Time Warner Cable is interested in raising pricing for those consuming large quantities of online video, is to hinder the consumption of online video – so not to deflate the consumption of cable television.

There are many slices of this Internet pie to be dissected – this is simply one issue of many in the cost battle of cable providers.

What Does Web Design and a First Date Have in Common?

Navigating to the homepage of a site with too much information splashed across it is on par with meeting someone for the first time, and having them immediately spill a lot of unnecessary personal baggage.  The website, like the person, may be in dire need of close friends, but they’re going about their first impressions the wrong way. Few people get through more than a few sentences on a homepage, so an unnecessary mountain of text that greets first time users is like flying the “freak flag” a little too early.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that aesthetically simple sites like Twitter and Google have a mass of followers. For one thing these sites offer a great service, but they also come across as carefree and easy to understand – qualities that many find beneficial in people. On a first date, we’re encouraged to keep things simple and not to divulge too much personal information – so as not to scare anyone away. This doesn’t mean that our personal information is not interesting to the potential prospect; it’s just not necessary on the first date. This same standard should be applied to homepages.

As the Internet advances on a daily business, and as websites take on more accepted social norms, the lines between human behavior and design structure will blur. After all, humans are behind this Internet curtain – at least for now.

Peek into the Future at the IPG Emerging Media Lab!

Last week our class visited the IPG Emerging Media Lab - a place that gives a peek into the technological landscape of the future. After learning about the cutting-edge technologies that are sprouting out of brilliant minds, here are a few of the most fascinating things I learned about:

• The Modern Refrigerator: Somewhere to store food, with a computer/TV on the door that could display RSS feeds for recipes or kitchen needs and possibly (in the future) RFID tags that can inform you when you’re out of milk!

• HOME: A playstation video game/space/SNS that provides private spaces for players to have conversations with friends or even work through homework with professors. This is a game where players can shop using micro-purchasing and where advertisers can incorporate their latest campaigns inside virtual malls showcasing storefronts with the latest trends. This takes shopping and advertising to a whole new level.
• 3-D Television: This is such a trippy experience. With airplanes flying at you while strangers walk towards you, 3-D television is a very cool concept, but probably not practical due to the fact that it makes you cross-eyed – not a comfortable feeling for long periods of time.
• Qik.com : This is a great site that displays the potential future of live streaming video. By the end of this year most phones will be able to record and stream video live onto Facebook or other sites using the Qik.com system. All the world is stage…

In closing, I was fascinated by all the toys that the IPG Media Lab had to offer and I look forward to the possibility of returning for another visit and peek into the future!

Drop Drop Drop.io is HOT!

When I’m not inhaling the daily social media sandwich or assisting in media and marketing at Ovation TV, I  spend time exploring communication strategies for my stepfather’s alternative energy venture. One of the most frustrating aspects of of this used to be the exchange and collaboration of large files online. I tried downloading various programs to help with this, but it wasn’t until I discovered Drop.io that I found an easy solution. This site provides free and easy access and exchange of documents online.

While there are many programs and sites out there that provide document exchange and sharing online, I find that Drop.io is the most user friendly one I’ve seen. It is incredibly simple and yet still provides a myriad of  options like chat, e-mail, voicemail, conference calling and podcasting  in addition to file sharing. What’s even cooler is that it provides people with their own website to load document onto that they can share and send to whomever they please.

For a small business owner or freelance communicator, this is an ideal solution for simple media exchange.

We’ll all I have to say is that I’m pleased – very very pleased indeed!

Google Autopilot Caught Me!

While crusin’ my morning e-mail I noticed a new Google feature – Google Autopilot. Apparently I would no longer have to reply to all my masses of e-mail – Google could do it for me. Woa.

While sitting there contemplating the insanity of technology and the new media future, I flinched. I don’t want a computer speaking on my behalf.

Five seconds later it hit me – DUH!

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY a la Google.

Whew! I’m so glad that’s not real. I can’t imagine ever wanting a technology like that….but wait. Last year Google’s April fools day joke was about editing e-mail that has already been sent aka going back in time. We’ll today we can catch and edit e-mails already sent using “undo send.” While this function isn’t as advanced  as their joke (works for only a few seconds,) it follows a similar concept.

So I’m wondering if the idea behind Google Autopilot is actually plausible…we’ll see….

A NEW RESUME FOR THE NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE

The cut and dry, one dimensional, black and white resume that we all all know very well is getting a digital makeover thanks to Visual CV. This site is the latest online tool to help modernize the old fashioned resume for today’s new media generation.

Visual CV is a free site that allows users to create an online resume that contains video, audio and photographic components to update ones paper resume into something that more accurately relates to and displays the modern media environment.

It seems like such a simple idea, but because the concept is new many employers probably won’t be familiar with this type of resume – therefore standing out from the pile in this economic crisis might be ten times easier with a Visual CV.

This site provides the tools to highlight ones digital assets or even digitize ones mainstream skills in a new and modern way. I give Visual CV major props for coming up with something I wish I’d thought of!

TEDxUSC Had Some Great Ideas and Surprises

So USC hosted it’s own independently organized TED on Monday – and it was fabulous!

I’ve been watching TED online for a long time, so going to an actual TED event was a dream. There was a great line-up of speakers throwing discoveries and life questions all over the place:

• What can we learn from creating a black hole?
• How can a fictional character created from theater and multi-media inspire and change lives?
• Where is facial capture technology going in the future?
• What does living in a biosphere for two years teach us about the planet and eco-systems?
• How can music bring us closer?
• Will the ocean help us feed the planet’s next generation?
• What can we learn from Tribes?
• Will video games one day make us cry?

These are just some of the questions posed and answered on Monday.

After the conference there was a reception where I was serendipitously introduced to Marzio Nessi, the ATLAS technical coordinator at CERN. He works with Marukus Nordberg, who gave a presentation on how he coordinated the resources for the ATLAS experiment . Nessi and Nordberg (both incredibly delightful people) spoke to me and my classmate Nicole about how CERN used open source intellectual collaboration to bring ATLAS to a reality.  Their work at CERN leading the collaborative efforts of many physicists and other people to make the ATLAS experiment a reality (not for money – but just because they wanted to) reminded me of open source projects online. That idea of care free efforts and collaboration offline was a great inspiration.

Nessi also mentioned to us that he had known Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the world wide web twenty years ago. He remembered how at CERN they kept thinking about how they needed a simple way to exchange documents and information – and bam – his colleague came up with the web (in some form or another – I’m sure I’ve completely summarized this great feat to a mere sentence.)

Nicole and I were quite surprised when we realized how close Nessi was to the creation of the very application that will eventually support our careers and perhaps lives.  But what was even more surprising, was when Nessi mentioned to us that he had shot video at CERN and asked Berners-Lee to put it on the web. At the time Berner’s-Lee thought that was impossible. But, within a short period of time, Nessi’s video was uploaded (first ever) in ten second increments!

Wow! While Nicole and I were frozen in amazement, Nessi smiled and said that the web, and all that comes with it, came from simple needs – like the need to share information.

Maybe that was my favorite takeaway from TED.

Sometimes big things come from very simple needs.

Successful products fill simple needs, and as a blooming entrepreneur I too hope to one day fulfil a simple online need.

Thanks Marzio Nessi!