10 posts tagged “mobile”

I had a chat with a friend last night about what “Web 2.0″ is.  He, a young marketing exec, thought that it was basically a programming term and that since he wasn’t hearing it that much anymore, it’s kinda a dead trend.  Oh no, I told him.  It’s much more than a marketing term for programming.

Basically I separated Web 2.0 into 3 areas: Design, Programming and Community.  I said that any one of the elements, done correctly, could qualify something as up for a Web 2.0 label, but a combination of the three ensured it.

• Design
• I am writing a creative brief today and started digging around to see if I could find some references for aesthetics I am partial to.  In doing so, I uncovered this nice writeup that summarizes some of the typical design elements found in a “web 2.0″ site.
• http://f6design.com/journal/2006/10/21/the-visual-design-of-web-20
•  Programming
• I told my friend, if you hear the words Ruby, Python, Drupal or AJAX used, you are dealing with a Web 2.0 site.  Of course, many other programming languages are used to achieve the kind of drag and drop feel of a Web 2.0 site, but these are the big ones lately.  These are also nice languages to see on a developer’s CV if you are hiring them for a job, as, even if they are not experts in any of the languages, they are forward thinking.
• Community
• How happy am I that the accidental career path that I wandered onto has become such a superstar in the industry. :) 
• Users are #1 in the Web 2.0 era.  You have to figure out a way to not only provide ways for your company to hear and communicate with your audience/users, but to actually listen and value their input.  Voting, focus groups, user enhances product design - the list is becoming infinite in the ways a company can immerse itself it it’s audience and become better for it. 

Let me know if I missed any major facet of Web 2.0.  I think most characteristics will fall in these buckets though.

Now that Web 2.0 has become normal, the fun begins.  Virtual worlds, user-centric design and strategies, MTV and video game raised kids becoming executives and generally blurred lines between companies and users are just the beginnings of a new era of business.  Web 2.0 isn’t dead, it was just the beginning. And I am excited for things to come.

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Tags: web2.0, design, mtv, video games, virtual worlds

Those of us who understand the positive aspects of online play need to help shape the climate online in the next couple years. Gone are the days of bragging about how your child knows so much more about technology/computers/internet than you do. More and more of our lives are being spent online. Let’s treat that sea change with a bit more respect than simple awe/wonder.

If we don’t want EVERY brand space online to be blatant consumerism with no message or goal, we have to be proactive about preventing that from happening. We must work toward not just calling out the bad sites, but creating and commending the good sites. And not just ones that give lip-service to more holistic goals - ones that actually step up and do it.

I ducked out of the Kids and Teens talk at the Virtual Worlds conference last week in order to see a young girl doll brand case study. Oy vey, was that a hard one to sit through. The developer giving the talk continually talked sarcastically about the girly brand that he developed, which showed me that he didn’t respect the audience and community the site was trying to develop. How can you create a great community if you don’t care about them?

Through his talk, he talked a couple times about the core values of “Empowerment” etc that the site’s founders wanted to convey in the virtual world. But almost in the same breath, he would reiterate multiple times that the only purpose for the site was to “sell more dolls.” Makes you wonder if the brand managers of those dolls know and care how their brand is being conveyed to conference audiences and their online community.

If “to sell more dolls” is truly the reason that the parent company wanted to launch this world, fine. They certainly are not alone. But that doesn’t mean all the other sites that will be developed in this category have to be like that.

Sesame Street’s Panwapa world is a cool approach to get into a space that is bound to be crowded in the next 2 years - preschool to early readers, 4-7 year olds. Kudos to them for being there before anyone else with a solid idea for a world (and not just the mindless wandering and silly games that make up almost every world in this space).

Whether we like it or not, a child is assimilated into the tech space earlier and earlier as the years go by. To pretend that this isn’t happening or block the kids from sites on a micro level is not the way to improve the situation. It’s the ostrich effect and doesn’t improve anything for anyone, especially the kids.

People who grew up with technology are now having kids. These younger generation parents have less or no aversion to introducing their kids to the online/tech coolness that they have grown up with. As producers of content (be it for a marketing purpose or pure creative), we have to develop for the parents AND the kids. These younger parents will still want the educational aspects that the past decade of attentive parents wanted, but the younger parents understand all of this on another level. Many of them understand that you can have fun, build relationships, and develop as a human online. They also understand the importance of design, navigation and user interface in your online experience. AND they will, directly or indirectly, teach these concepts to their kids.

Hopefully the content will start to catch up with paradigm shift that is happening world-wide as I type. Is your content up to the task?

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Tags: panwapa, sesame street, proactive, virtualworlds,

Visionary Panel - Where the Platforms Are Going Next
The media has been largely dominated by one virtual worlds platform but innovation is coming fast and furious on multiple fronts from multiple vendors. This one-of-a-kind session brings together the visionaries of the major platform companies for an interactive discussion on the future of the virtual worlds platform.  Join us for a session you won’t want to miss.
- Christopher Klaus, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kaneva
- Raph Koster, President, Areae, Inc.
- Michael Wilson, CEO, Makena Technologies
- Hui Xu, Founder & CEO, HiPiHi Co., Ltd
- Stephen Lawler, General Manager of Virtual Earth, Microsoft
- Corey Bridges, Co-founder, Executive Producer, & Marketing Director, The Multiverse Network
- Mark Wallace, blogger , 3pointD.com (moderator)

What does the future look like?
- A Common App is needed - so that all the worlds are not so compartmentalized and there is greater portabilty
- More incorporation of Social Networking features and games
- Usability hurdles need to be dealt with - the average person still finds most VWs to be too difficult and there is little being done for the mobile platform
- Controlled Identity management to all you to manage all of your identities in all of your worlds, with your own criteria for privacy and transparency

3D/Social Search Fans
    - “3D is a red herring” Raph Koster
        - we should be talking about 3D not as the next big thing, but as an aspect
        - More important question is regarding what we are using these space for and ding inside of them
        - 3D doesn’t work for everything - shopping market

Hui Xu, HiPiHi CEO, brought up how non-multiculti the crowd was
- he felt that culture blending and learning form other cultures was the biggest potential for these worlds
- No standard language exists to discuss these spaces yet, we don’t have a multi-lingual tool to bridge the gaps and we don’t have the world view mind set to talk theoretically yet.

The web migrated monetization models
= Subscription > Commerce/Ads
- vws have to do the same
- Migration needs to be Ads > Goods > Services
    - new toys are helping this transition
   
QQ (?) service - IM, Virtual E-commerce

Mobile Phone banking is very big overseas now

Local search is an opportunity to monetize
- ads need to excel in AI to raise relavancy

Mirror worlds will be the link to the Mass market
- Education contexts
- MS Live maps - Accurate to 4 inches
- Real versus Imaginary
- Melt content - reenact a bank robbery from earlier

“We are in the bookstore business - not the fiction or non-fiction business” - need to stop seeing everything as mutually exclusive

“Blogging in 3D is dumb” - Raph Koster

Representationally Agnostic
- data will show up how the user want it

3D is hard form many populations to grasp
- kids, older, etc
- it is not the holy grail

We need to jump over the now and next and think about later

Wii-mote and Hardware is helping innovation
- 3D mouse

Multiverse is sketchup compatible

Language - vulcanization of cultures
- there are translators for vws

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Tags: areae, hipihi, multiverse, kaneva, future, kids, tweens

I’m jumping the gun– but I’m giving ya’ll a weekend heads up. Ms. Joi Podgorny and I will be starting a podcast regarding kid communities, kid media, online media, and entertainment. Why? Because I strong arm her into thoughtful chats nearly every day (or vice versa)– and (if you’ve followed this blog at all you’d know–>) I love to ramble, and she does too. So, between me & joi, you’re gonna get a HUGE dose of everything-ness (and yes, that’s my new technical term).If you are interested in participating in our adventure, let us know.

We’ve already started a “wish list” of contibutors (and if you and I have previously spoken, or you’ve ever come into contact with this blog –> you’re probably already on that wish list).

Podcast. Modcast. Tween Cast. Kid cast. Us-cast? « Izzy Neis

Brilliant Suess-esque title of this post from Izzy and of course wanted to alert everyone that this is what we are thinking. I am a podcasting junkie and thought it was high time I added my (and Izzy’s) voice to the dull murmur of voices online. Plus, I have yet to find a good podcast about the kids online business. If you know of one, please let me know.

So, starting this week, Izzy and I are going to record one of our weekly chats about kids online and share it via rss with all of you. Like Izzy said, the format we want to try is the two of us, a guest and a online-kid-centric topic, so if you are interested in also being recorded talking about kids online, let one or both of us know.

Wish us luck and stay tuned!

technorati tags:IzzyNeis, podcast

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I was thinking about something a bit this week and thought that I would share it on my blog.  Apologies in advance if the ideas are still in the less than solid state.  Basically I have been thinking about the future - that the web, emerging technologies, cell phones, social networks are not really trends, as some people think of them as.  They ARE trends, in that when a new example of one comes around, it’s all anyone talks about for a while (can you say iPhone? Facebook? Club Penguin? Webkinz?).  But the fact that the larger population is even paying attention to these sorts of things, let alone the amount of attention those people are paying, in greater numbers is the phenomenal thing.

It’s this move, from trend to habit, that I have been thinking about lately.  No longer is it only the early adopters using new technology, websites and gadgets.  Now, in ever-increasing numbers, the rest of the population is starting to early adopt as well.  Trends are assimilating themselves into peoples daily lives.  I received multiple emails and messages today from friends that claimed the only way they remembered my birthday was via Facebook or MySpace alerts.

It’s because of this assimilation that we, as producers, need to move ahead in our thinking.  We have to have innovation of product and service on our minds at all times.  Me-too products and services are too old the second they come out.  We have to think about cool ways to take this new tech culture our societies are adopting and make new ways of learning, entertaining and existing. 

One example is mobile.  Mobile has come to mean cell phones.  But the new iPod Touch released yesterday has a wifi browser on it.  Still a small screen, but browser capabilities.  Many people are adopting this portable, surf anywhere mentality - but the devices and sites aren’t keeping up.  We need to think about how that switch will affect our content offerings and how we design.  Normal cell interfaces that access online are still around and will be for a while.  We have to design for that as well. 

But we also have to think about how the future users will use it.  Are the users using their phone browser for different activities than their normal browsers?  If they are watching video, is it certain kinds of videos?  Are there demographic differences in the kind of content consumed?  What are new ways that we can use this more portable means of accessing the Internet that will work for any phone interface that the user uses?  International cell users can give great insight here, as can pre-existing, albeit small US cell content networks. 

How can we move past simply identifying the next trends and start predicting habits?  How will we help future users to push the boundaries of how they are communicating?  What are you doing to this end?

technorati tags:clubpenguin, webkinz, iphone, future, mobile, cell

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Lord knows I will be able to this month and next. And I am not complaining, far from it. I have always wanted to travel, both professionally and personally. Whoa, am I getting my wish now.

So, I wanted to put my travel schedule up so that if any of you were in any of the towns when I am there we can grab a coffee or beer (or any other beverage you like). I love company and if it keeps me from watching the local news in my hotel room - even better!

London - 9/16-9/24
- Various meetings

NYC - 9/26-9/30
- Tween Mashup, co-paneling with Erin Reilly

SF/Bay Area - 10/3-10/11
- Online Community Summit in Sonoma
- Virtual Worlds 2007 in San Jose

Shanghai - 10/31-11/5 (? actual dates)
- various meetings

If you are in any of those places (or within rental car driving distance) let me know! (joipodgorny at gmail.com)

And because I am a google apps fangirl lately, I made a google calendar with my “Joi is not in Chicago” schedule. I know, I know - but it’s handy for friends and family!

technorati tags:travel, shanghai, nyc, london, sanfrancisco, conference, mashup, ypulse, tween

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Back in March 2006, I was able to go to the first meeting of the Ready to Learn Partnership. This is a government funded initative that has been going on for years, aimed at leveraging media to help kids learn. The very nice grant (millions of dolars) helped develop such preschool favorites as Sesame Street, Between the Lions and 2 new cartoons launching this Monday, 9/3 - Super Why! and Word World.

Super Why! is super cute. I love the animated characters who are voiced by kid actors. Just adorable. And the Three Pigs episode they have on their site is pretty good. I can totally see the early reading initatives being used. I found myself wanting to watch a 3-6 year old watch it to see how they reacted. Their site is pretty and ratehr developed for a new show. There is an interactive map, games and an super-hero/avatar maker. Here’s my Super Joi:

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Word World looks much better in CGI than 2D, how I viewed it in early 2006. The characters seem likable and I have always loved the idea of the merchandise, where the characters are plush toys and their letters stuck togetehr to form the word. Having taken care of little ones over the years, my first thought was lost pieces, but I am sure they have thought of that in the past year and a half. Their site is still quite a limited marquee and not living on the pbs network site yet. I am sure that will change soon and I lool forward to seeing their offerings.

God, I love preschool tv and sites…

technorati tags:pbs, kids, wordworld, tv, super-why, rtlp, preschool, cartoon

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Ypulse.com, the leading independent blog for youth, teen and tween media and marketing professionals, today announced its lineup of speakers for the Ypulse Tween Mashup. The Mashup conference, produced by Ypulse.com in partnership with Modern Media, will help media and marketing professionals understand how to reach tweens using technology in a multi-platform world.

Kyra E. Reppen, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Nickelodeon MTVN Kids and Family Group’s Neopets will provide the opening keynote focused on the original youth-oriented virtual world, while Renee Hobbs, Professor of Communication and Director, Media Education Lab, Temple University, will present the luncheon address focusing on MyPopStudio.com, a media literacy project for girls. Additional confirmed speakers include:Our speaker lineup just keeps getting better and better - these are media and marketing professionals who are immersed in what tweens are doing digitally every day.

* Jim Bower, CEO Numedeon (Whyville)
* Bryon Cahill, Editor, READ Magazine, Weekly Reader Publishing
* Molly Chase, Executive Producer, Cartoon Network New Media
* David Card, Vice President and Senior Analyst, Jupiter Research
* Mark William Hansen, Director, LEGO Group
* Mattias Miksche, CEO, Stardoll
* Daniel Neal, CEO, kajeet
* Izzy Neis, Online Community Manager for Kids/Tweens/Teens, Star Farm Productions
* Joi Podgorny, Kids/Tween Internet Community Expert
* Erin Reilly, CEO, Platform Shoes Forum (Zoeysroom.com)
* Denise Restauri, CEO, Allykatzz.com
* Addie Swartz, CEO, B*tween Productions

This is the first b2b event to specifically focus on how 8-13 year olds
are using technology and what media, marketers and .orgs are doing to
reach them,” said Anastasia Goodstein, Ypulse founder, editor and
co-producer of the Ypulse Tween Mashup. “Our speaker lineup just keeps
getting better and better - these are media and marketing professionals
who are immersed in what tweens are doing digitally every day.”

In addition to the growing roster of esteemed speakers, the Ypulse
Tween Mashup will include a panel with tween boys and girls who will
share their top tech picks, likes, dislikes, and more.

Ypulse Tween Mashup to Feature a Keynote From Neopets and Speakers from kajeet, Cartoon Network, LEGO Group, Whyville and B*tween Productions

Great conference at which I will be speaking/facilitating. Definitely come if you are in te NYC area.  It is being done in conjunction with Digital Life NYC, so tons to see, hear, etc.

technorati tags:tween, kids, conference, newyork, ypulse, mashup

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Virtual Worlds News: Habbo Partners with MTV’s AddictiveGames

Virtual Worlds News: Disney’s Toontown Switching to Ad-Based Model

Virtual Worlds News: Barbie Girls Growing with 50,000 Members per Day

I am watching all this kids virtual worlds stuff quite a bit lately and thought I would share my sources.

technorati tags:habbo, nicktropolis, club-penguin, mtv, addicting-games, disney, toontown, barbiegirls, webkinz, tween, kids, online-community, virtual-worlds

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I called it at least 6 months ago, possibly a year ago. But I will put it here in writing for proof: Bebo is the “next big social network”. That’s right. I said it. Hopefully I am not wrong, as I hate being wrong. But I think I am right here. And Molly Wood from CNET’s Buzz Out Loud apparently said the same thing as well.

You want proof of my prophecy? Well, the tea leaves show:

• Nice user interface that feels like a mashup of Facebook and Myspace.
• although virb.com is much nicer in this space, they don’t have the critical mass in users yet.
• Community voice that is a little snarky, but not to an annoying degree.
• Rates of growth that are equal to or greater than Facebook
• Itunes integration coming soon
• Proof of concept is strong in Ireland and England where market penetration is rather high in the teen/early-twenties demo.

So, if I am wrong, it won’t be the first time. But signs are pointing toward it.

I’m on there at http://fizmo.bebo.com

Joi Podgornyhttp://fizmo.bebo.com/

technorati tags:bebo, myspace, facebook, itunes, apple, online-community, tween, virb, teen, music

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