ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

Video: the Cassius singing mouth iphone app

Props to Nick Burcher for sharing this.

 

Cassius - I Love U So
Uploaded by edbangerrecords. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

New start for RBI Elevenses

I have taken over the running of our weekly knowledge sharing events Elevenses. Today was the first one for a while - now on a Tuesday rather than a Thursday. Will post more on this shortly, but in the meantime, thanks to @adders for his post and for pointing to this video . . . the topic of today's session was What can we learn from viral videos

 

What they want, when they want it - in print

Enjoyed this article by Steve Hewlett on how newspapers can make money from content.

Steve highlights the latest development from the Independent, the i - a 20p daily tabloid for commuters.

Why is this interesting? Because it is trying to provide content in the right format, at the right place and time, as summed up in this quote . . .

His i is designed specifically to meet the needs of a particular group of consumers at a particular point in their day. It is in that sense perhaps better thought of as a "service" for people who do want news, information, analysis and even comment but delivered in a way that suits them when and where they want it.

The idea of a paper for commuters is not a new one obviously, but the idea of providing a more tailored service for a particular group of readers like this is interesting.

Let's face it, newspapers desparately need to reinvent how they engage with their readers so it is good to see some experimentation -- let's see if it works.

So what makes content viral?

Some great points here from Jonah Peretti.

Jonah Peretti Viral Meetup Talk

Drawing lessons on your Nintendo DS

Interesting to see Nintendo will be launching a game which has more to do with learning than game playing. This kind of development blurs further the line between gaming and learning and is a really interesting area in terms of user engagement.

 

Video: how Oreo built a hugely popular Facebook fan page

Some interesting insights here - not least the fact the brand goes where the people are and not the other way around.

 

Kraft Foods: How Oreo Learned to Fish Where the Fish Are, presented by Beth Reilly from GasPedal on Vimeo.

 

Blog action day: message in a bottle

Today is Blog Action day 2010 and the focus of today's action is water.

Really enjoyed the TheHRD's post and his efforts served as a reminder to post something myself (I love how technology - in this case Twitter and blogging platforms can be a force for good).

I'll keep it short and sweet: in the UK we have perfectly good tap water which we can filter if we so wish. So why the need for bottled water? Check out the video below mine . . .

 

Gap Reverts to Original Logo After Social Media Backlash

Gap has announced on its Facebook Page that it is scrapping its new logo design efforts, acquiescing to a torrent of criticism coming primarily from Facebook and Twitter users.

via mashable.com

Interesting to see the role Twitter and Facebook played in this U-turn by Gap - the ingenuity -- fake twitter accounts, logo generators etc >> people really care.

Trying to find my lost Blackberry

UPDATE: After a call to lost property last night I find that no one has handed it in. Will try again tonight but I suspect it has gone for good. I'm absolutely sure that I would have reclaimed my Blackberry if I had been able to talk to someone at Weston Super Mare.

I left my Blackberry on the train last night - or at least I think I did. It got caught up in the paper I was reading and I left the paper on the train.

I didn't realise I had done this until I was halfway to my house from the station. As I got off at Bath Spa and the train was travelling to Weston Super Mare and I knew my seat number I thought I would call Weston station and ask a member of staff if they could locate it.

A couple of years back I left a bag of video kit on a train and the station staff (at Sutton, surrey) were incredibly helpful - phoning down the line etc. I ended up getting the kit back on that occassion. So, knowing how helpful staff can be I assumed I could call Weston station for help.

But no. National Rail Enquiries and First Great Western (who run Weston station) do not have - or rather give out - numbers for stations.

The only way to contact the station is to ask a member of staff at a station (Bath Spa in my case) to phone for me. I wasn't told this until quite late on last night.

So, today I found out the train ended up at Weston Super Mare at 21.50 and then went to a depot near Bristol to be cleaned. I won't find out if the Blackberry has been found until 6pm - that is the time each day when Bristol lost luggage receives left items from items left on trains in the Bristol area for the previous 24 hours.

If you leave something on a train and you realise before you are too far away from a station, get the staff to call the next station.

I still can't believe the public cannot call a train station direct.

Stephen Fry, the Windows phone and emotional engagement

OK so Stephen Fry talking about the Winsows phone is somewhat of a surprise as he is a big Apple fan but what is really interesting here is the way he talks about emotional engagement . . .

Is it fun to play with . . . we like to feel the pleasure of using the things we buy, says Fry.