W3C mobile web initiative - first public draft

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group comprises a wide range of people from the likes of DoCoMo, Vodafone, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Opera and Google. Through the W3C they are working on creating a set of open standards to make mobile internet publishing simpler and more standards based (which is sorely needed...).

They've just published their first public draft of the Mobile Web Best Practicise document. Head over and check it out. They are taking feedback also.

 

Web design gender bias

A recent study by the University of Glamorgan finds evidence of gender gias in web design.

In brief, the study shows that men and women exhibit a "preference for sites produced by people of their own sex", but finds that "94% of the sites displayed a masculine orientation with just 2% displaying a typically female bias". Similarly, "the majority of sites, 74%, were produced by a man or a predominantly male team while just 7% were designed by a female or female team."

Not exactly surprising, but grist to the mill nevertheless. Reassuringly - for us and our clients - Media Catalyst has a healthy mix of both ladies and gentlemen involved in all stages of our process and at all levels of the agency. We're a pretty good-looking bunch too. And quite excitable...

 

Next gen physics + next gen web content

For a view into the future of television (and the future of physics) head on over to The Elegant Universe. It's a 3 hour documentary available in its entirety online, including supporting information, links and extra material. One feature I particularly like is how as the documentary is playing links to extra info display below the video, allowing you to pause at any time and find out more about a particular point.

It's TV yet much better than TV. It's also String Theory, which, for those that have any interest in the nature of the universe, is well worth checking out.

Watch the program here

 

Life and work in Amsterdam - visitors' views

All this week, and all next week, we have two visitors from Sweden in the office; Veronica and Sofia are completing their school work placements with us. We set them up a blog each so they can record their experiences.

I particularly like Sofia's report on her conversation with Reinoud about user-centred IA/ design

While Veronica picks up on the less glamorous aspects of Amsterdam: spreadsheets and streets filled with bags of rubbish.

 

Micropersuasion's 10 RSS tips for power users

Micropersuasion's Steve Rubel blogs Ten RSS Hacks and teaches me a thing or two. Example: "Merge Several RSS Feeds Into One, Then Stick it on Your Firefox Bar".

Go read the full list for details of how to do this... and much, much more!

Nice one, Steve.

[UPDATE] Read the comments on Steve's post for more RSSy goodness.

 

Music videos and marketing

Those clever folks over at Three Minds @ Organic blog about this new video from the Presidents of the United States of America, which was shot using a phalanx of Sony Ericsson cameraphones... it's "the first music video in the world to be shot using mobile phones".

Nice trick. The resultant composited video is pretty cool, but the song itself is lame, lifeless and annoying. It's like a homage to all the worst bits of They Might Be Giants. I appreciate this more as a good creative response to budget restrictions.

Now, consider if you will The Sad Song, which I first encountered a year or so ago:

"The video was created entirely using 15 second jpg movies from my little Nikon Coolpix 775 still camera, reconstructed in AfterEffects."

More restrictions, lower budget, and for my money, better output. I don't particularly like the song, but the overall package hits home like only a heartfelt, personal project can. It's visually and musically more interesting than the PUSA video, which is gimmicky by comparison.

Of course, the PUSA viddy also works as a Sony Ericsson advert. The phones used in the video are recognizable as K750s (he said, confidently), but no there's no overt Sony Ericsson branding. Can't say I can blame them for not shouting about this one... next time pick a decent song.

 

mobile internet information architecture

Last weekend I gave a presentation at the EuroIA Summit about information architecture for the mobile phone. It is a case study  of a project we did for Sony Ericsson: the Women's Tennis Association on your mobile.

Keywords: mobile,internet,marketing,campaign,usability,information,architecture,mobile,usable

 

More robots...

It's been over 2 weeks since our 'robomania' seemed to end with the mention of our own AIBO dog. So I’ll blatantly use this fact to advertise a little soirée put together by an acquaintance:

Robotrock will be held every third Thursday of the month, in the Winston (Amsterdam). Translated from the website:

Robotrock = Kraftwerk to Killers ... Robotrock = DJs ... visuals ... live acts ... Robotrock = Blondie to Whitey ... Robotrock = pop ... wave ... electro ... rock ... Robotrock = not hip ... but fun ... Melomanics live ... Robotrock = Blackstrobe to Bravery ... Robotrock dances ... Robotrock rocks ...

 

My head is tingling and I feel 3 inches taller

Today the WorkMassage people came, as they do every month, and laid their hands upon us.

I think I can safely speak for everyone at Media Catalyst when I say that we absolutely love what these people do for us.

And I love that Media Catalyst provides this service for everyone here (cue Steve Ballmer monkey dance).

What a great way to to end the week.

Hmmm, I look a lot more bald than I thought...

 

Man you gotta move on man

Our client and dear friend, Toon Diependaele, is leaving his position as Director of Digital Advertising at Sony Ericsson for pastures new at Goodyear/ Dunlop.

His colleague, Martin Lundin, came up with an idea to set up a blog for Toon so he could continue to share his insight and energy with us after he leaves.

And we helped him set it up. Yay!

Right now it's filled with goodwill/ goodbye messages from his friends and colleagues.

We'll be watching closely to see what develops...

 

AudioMulch in Amsterdam

Mail from Ross Bencina in my box this morning: AudioMulch is coming to Amsterdam!

Audiomulch is my favourite computer-based music software by far, and has been for years. I love the sharewareness, the cheap licence, the way Ross maintains an open conversation with all his users, actively seeking input for changes to the software and so on and so on. But most of all I like it because - unlike so many other music making applications - the interface just makes sense to me.

OK, it might look a bit mental, but trust me, an day spent with Mulch is worth a week trying to work out the point of something like Reason.

So, Ross is coming to Amsterdam as October's artist in residence at the excellent STEIM, and is planning events around the end of the month, culminating in a "dutch mulch convention" at OT301 on Thursday 27th. Ross is looking for mulching performers - touch him if you're mulchy on rossb-at-audiomulch.com.

Watch the AudioMulch web site for more info.

[UPDATE] The Dutch Mulch Convention is on! Get down there on Oct 27th to catch an exclusive interactive performance by me! I'm performing as Anton Sporz, my Swiss alter-ego.

 

New Songdo City, Korea

Oooo-eee! That city in Blade Runner... they're building it in real life!

New Song Do City, South Korea is going to cost upwards of $20 billion, and be digitized to the hilt. Multi-national currency usage, tax exemption on incomes (!) and multi-national corporations... and much much more.

I'm hoping for flying cars. And robots.

Lots of robots.

"When completed in 2014, the city's infrastructure will be a test bed for new technologies, and the city itself will exemplify a digital way of life, the "U-life." It starts with a resident's smart-card house key. "The same key can be used to get on the subway, pay a parking meter, see a movie, borrow a free public bicycle and so on. It'll be anonymous, won't be linked to your identity, and if lost you can quickly cancel the card and reset your door locks," aid John Kim who leads the U-city planning."

They seem to be having a logo design competition, but the link is b0rk3d.

Picked up via www.we-make-money-not-art.com/

 

World Press Photo selects Media Catalyst for 50 Years website

Media Catalyst has just launched a campaign site for the 50th anniversary of World Press Photo. We also launched their corporate website at the beginning of this year.

This new campaign site promotes "50 Years of World Press Photo" by showcasing all the contest-winning photographs since 1955, and helps raise awareness for the important non-profit work of World Press Photo on behalf of photojournalism. We went for an understated interface that allows the powerful photographs to speak for themselves.

The common factor for the winning photos in the annual World Press Photo competition is that each was taken on a specific date. The stark poster and print campaign consists only of these dates, provoking curiosity and drawing people to the website, where they can discover the rich variety of the winning images.

Michiel Munneke, Managing Director of World Press Photo, explains, "Linking each image to the date it was taken emphasises the historical importance of our activities. The simplicity of the interface never gets in the way of the photographs' power, highlighting World Press Photo's key brand values of integrity, professionalism in Journalism and lack of pretence."

For Media Catalyst, Managing Director Hans Howarth said simply, "It is a pleasure to work with an organisation of such integrity as World Press Photo. We are committed to maintaining a long term, strategic relationship with them, and are very happy with the results of our collaboration so far."

We hope you enjoy the site.

 

Edelman/Technorati Blog Study Findings

Hello, enormous listening world!

So, a couple of weeks ago I fill in this little survey, and now here are the results of Technorati's Blog Study.

Edelman/Technorati conducted the study to: "better understand bloggers’ attitudes towards corporations and PR firms [and] to help clients understand why and how they should engage the blogosphere". Good for them.

To be honest, the thing I like most about surveys is the filling them in bit - sad, I know, but that's just me. I'm usually pretty ambivalent about the actual results.

Why? I find that the multiple choice model forces me into saying things which don't properly represent my opinion. Know what I mean? In this case, the questions seemed to be targeted more at bloggers as individuals - asking questions like 'how do you like companies to contact you?' - rather than at yer corporate blogger like me (straightens tie). So I end up taking the resultant stats with a pinch of salt.

Anyway, I found the most interesting bit of this study to be the page of free form answers to these questions:

• How do companies and their firm’s PR representatives generally interact with you?


• What are some of your current frustrations with companies interacting with the blogosphere?


• How would you like to be approached by companies interested in reaching your audience?

Key themes running through the answers:

• Companies should treat people like individuals, not boxes full of "consumers"


• People are sick of slick PR guff - they prefer down to earth honesty


• Truly *personalised* email is the way forward

And it occurs to me... much of this debate is painted in very "us and them" terms - the humble individual versus the mighty corporation. Companies are only groups of people working together, after all. They got themselves an image problem right there.

Onwards and upwards.

 

OSCON/ Bar Camp Amsterdam

Geekfest comin' to town, y'all: OSCON, O'Reilly's Open Source Convention hits Amsterdam on October 17 and lasts until the 20th.

Moves are afoot to set up Bar Camp Amsterdam as a complementary activity to follow up after the conference. They need a venue! Can you help?

What is Bar Camp? I hear you cry... Wired reported on the first one, if you want some good old fashioned reportage.