Another clear and simple description for people who still require convincing that Blogging has a part to play in both empowerment and interactive media. The video suggests that Blogging is ideal for niche audiences. However, increasingly traditional media giants are now opening up their communication channels to help understand opinions and reactions. This is more than a discussion forum, albeit that many are highly moderated - in one sense this distorts opinion. What is important to consider is the term, ‘ground swell’. I still think that the Internet has the power to drive change - the challenge is that at the current stage of Blogging evolution it is still not seen to be a serious contender.

From a corporate Video Podcasting perspective, there is certainly a lot more Corporate Video Content on the Internet.
Take a look at Regonline’s channel. Regonline offer an excellent webbased Training booking system.
Here they can communicate:

• Company President messages
• New features

In addition, a really useful feature is when we see that their website uses Youtube for Client testimonals - They call it Reviews:

Interestingly, personal Vlogging adds another flavour to communicating opinions or is it an excuse for exhibiting. more on that soon!

In the past I’ve mentioned ning - a customisable Facebook type interface. What is really fascinating is the advent and progression of Habbo Hotel over the last 8 years. In Habbo’s case we see that it is age targeted, for example a place for 13-16 year olds.

I believe that Sulake is the company behind Habbo and other Social networking tools. What was really commendable was the way that they organised probably one of the world’s biggest on-line marches to support the UN International Day of Peace on Sunday 21st of September. They counted over 32,000 participants from 32 different countries. An excellent use and demonstration of the power of the Internet.

I also found it interesting to observe that from an interview article with Timo Soinen, CEO of development company Sulake

64% of British kids who use Habbo report that they have friends they’ve never met offline according to your Global Youth Survey. This freaks a lot of people out. What do you think has allowed this phenomenon to become possible?
The whole concept of friendship has new meanings in the online world - in many social online services, having a lot of friends on your friendlist can be considered to be a cool thing. This can also be witnessed in how adults use Facebook and other social networks. When asked about “real friends”, teens’ answers are usually between 4 and 10. But for online services, the answer can be over a 100…

In summary, we’re seeing that the potential for on-line media / new media / interactive web environments is gaining popularity with Teens. No wonder advertisers are concerned about losing revenues from traditional channels. For example, Business Life, August 2008 in an article by Tim Burt entitled, ‘A Question of Survival’, starts off by saying:

A summer of sport and talent shows may keep the wolf from the door but what is the future for network TV…
… Record numbers of TV executives are leaving the industry or seeking a haven in new media companies.

From a US perspective, primetime audiences have contracted from 90% of households a generation ago to about 33% today.

Ironically, it is blockbuster shows, major sporting events and major reality TV shows that are keeping audiences. For example, programmes like, So you think you can dance, Britain’s got talent, The Apprentice, X-Factor and Strictly come dancing, (NB there are international equivalents of these shows too) are successful in keeping audiences hooked. I use the term ironic as a huge audience demographic for some of these programmes are teenagers. Therefore, in the future they will have to have two windows open on their computers, one with a discussion about the show in their virtual world and another with a ‘live’ reality TV programme with a pay per vote option.

Maybe the advert time will be the only time they will have to chat with their parents or carry on chatting with their virtual friends, 90-95% of whom they have probably never met!

Link building is the most important activity which ensures higher search engine rankings. The desired results are gained once the links are exchanged with good websites. The link building may seem to be very easy but it requires lots of research and analysis before embarking on any link building campaign. One can’t go on link exchange spree with any site in view, it requires understanding of linking partners site and possible search engine penalties which may happen in case of link exchange with irrelevant site. Typically, link building services are designed to improve your websites search engine visibility and targeted traffic.

There are basic SEO activities that can be implemented immediately:

• Develop separate pages for services
• Avoid frames and heavy flash in websites
• Add images that says the exact message (Image optimization is also a part of Search Engine Optimization
• Place a complete website site map in the footer of the website - So that the user can reach all the major pages of the website.
• Use unique title and description for each page - This will immediately help the website’s ranking, thus improving search engine result pages
• Avoid use of complex tables
• Use External Scripts such as (Java Script, CSS) to reduce the page size
• Implement headlines on each webpage. This assists in rating identifying what pages are more important than the others on the site, when searched on by search engines. NB To take advantage of this, we also recommend keywords in each page headline.
• Use keywords in the website inner pages urls, when linking or cross-referencing other parts of the web page
• Establishing http://delicious.com/ for global shared / social bookmarking
• Start a parallel blog and forum site.
• Understand the sites sub-domain strategy and implement a separate domain for related sites or partner organisations.
• Ask more related sites to link their first pages to your site, thus allowing your site to inherit ranking from these sites.

NB It is important to understand that SEO is not an instant ‘fix’ or ‘cure’ to improve low visibility sites. Content availability, associated quality and impact on respondents is variable and unpredictable. The nature of the Internet is similar to living networks, this organic penetration is what sustains a websites presence and therefore, ranking and visibility.

Search engine optimisation services can include:

• Keyword analysis
• Page optimisation
• Copywriting
• Search engine submission
• Search engine reporting
• Analytics review - Understanding and optimising pay-per click costs

I was always told never to use the term, ‘Stress testing’ when it came to assuring solution reliability and resilience.
Often user and steering groups are a great way to gather opinion.

I was intrigued by an article by Christian Rohrer. He suggests:

The field of user experience, is blessed (or cursed) with a very wide range of research methods, ranging from tried-and-true methods such as lab-based usability studies to those that have been more recently developed, such as desirability studies (to measure aesthetic appeal).

You can’t use the full set of methods on every project, but most design teams benefit from combining insights from multiple research methods.

3 Dimensions are suggested:

1. Attitudinal vs. Behavioral
2. Qualitative vs. Quantitative
3. Context of Website or Product Use

Read more from his article here.

However, what we need to understand is the various stages of development and their various inputs from participants whether they be developers/ technical or user - the latter can vary from moderate users to power user types. NB Power user types are better for pilot / trial stages.

In addition, there needs to be an understanding of testing stages for web development, for example:

1. Specify
2. Design and agree testing methodology
3. Prototype
4. Refine Prototype
5. Develop components
6. Component Test
7. Systems Test
8. Integration Test
9. Release Test
10. Pilot user test - Normally 10-20% of the entire end user population.

The article also suggests a polarity between qualitative (direct results) and quantitative (indirect).

This test cycle is an ideal application for New media deploying RSS feeds. For example, test status / project updates.

Interestingly, this area of project support or control through say, a project office could be an ideal Project / corporate podcasting application.

Hot off the press! The pictures below were taken an hour or so ago whilst some of the Knowledge Hemispheres New media crew set-up up a video booth for one of their clients.

The concept is to gather opinion and encourage participation with local and national issues.
The client happens to be a council that is keen on capturing an ‘on the ground’ ear of understanding.

Video is ideal for communicating opinion as it:

• Brings a ‘real world’ perspective - for example, a true expression of passion of the subject area
• Proliferation of content - for example, availability of content through a number of channels.
• Rapid deployment / immediate availability - albeit, assuming good quality editing or first takes. NB today’s video recording technology makes it slightly easier to shoot, edit and post.
• Sharing - Although related to the proliferation of content, this is more about compounding or building on a point being made.

With regard to the latter, if an on-line video (you only have to see what is most popular on YouTube), ’strikes a cord’, then discussion, wider bookmarking / referencing and a building of momentum is facilitated. Voting can also be added into the mix.

New technology for mobile phones is worth understanding, e.g: the brilliant video networking tool mDialogue

The latter deploys a wonderful methodology:

Upload Engage Distribute…

In summary, use of video as a corporate podcasting opportunity is both efficient and engaging.
The pictures show some of the Knowledge Hemispheres crew setting up a video booth at a library location, the exercise is to be repeated for 3 days at 3 different locations. The final video will provide opportunities for gathering and verifying wider opinion on a major council and national issue.

Commercial examples could include: communication of key business drivers by a CEO or simply re-iterating Sales strategy and associated progress.

We also need to remember that two-way communication is an essential part of the mix for new media solutions.
Video is a great way to combat ‘death by powerpoint’.

I was first inspired by the potential of Podcasting / New media I read an article in the Financial Times as long ago as January 2003. I had a feeling a that time that RSS would revolutionalise content availability. At the time I manually created my own feeds and was happy to use Blogger.com

The following video is a great summary of what Podcasting is all about for those that want a plain English outline.

I wish more corporates could see the potential for their internal and commercial operations.
This guide can potentially help…