Take for example, the viral video for Alfa Romeo (see link below). Its not only creepy but borders on seedy.
The point being that what was an original video about cuteness (to some) has been hijacked.

Lets consider some typical traits in viral video’s:

• Cuteness
• Funny
• Peril – My view it is bad to laugh at people that fall over
• Identifiable – Can people easily relate to what you are talking about
• Spontaneous – Remember Jill and Kevin Wedding video we spoke about.

Read more tips here.

There is an interesting article on understanding if viral video clips can encourage traffic to your website here.
Also, click here to read about and view the original Sloth video,  including news on a new festival to encourage associated creativity.
Quote, re: Lucy Cooke’s original video:

Within a week of visiting the world’s only sloth orphanage in Costa Rica last year, Lucy Cooke had made a rough-and-ready 90-second clip that was being watched by more than 160,000 people a day. Her decision to “go and shoot a bunch of sloths” put her at the epicentre of online viral video.

With her original footage still attracting thousands of eyeballs daily, Cooke is now in final talks with broadcasters about producing a full-length documentary. “I posted the 90-second video on my Vimeo site and very quickly it was favourited [sic] and pushed by Vimeo staff,” she explains. “I then put the word out via my personal Facebook page and also my Amphibian Avenger Facebook and Twitter feeds. The video was then tweeted and retweeted by a few key friends who have a lot of fans.

Personally, I believe that the quality of your brand image is essential. Being associated with something that is suspect should not overtake a firms zealousness to become mainstream or current. Then again, some may argue that any publicity is good publicity and that such content is just like flicking through a magazine. Corporate responsibility is also key to keep inline, else a costly law suit could commence.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Following on from my recent article, entitled: The future of News services where I discussed the potential of advertising and subscription funding journalism rather than making exclusive content chargeable, I came across this wonderful R&D work being performed by Bonnier and Berg (Designers and practitioners in electronic and mechanical engineering, industrial design, 3D, animation, videography, visualisation, data-mining, coding and technical development).

From a technical and commercial perspective:

1. The Radial menus provide a very innovative and intuitive way of navigation.
2. I like the idea of considering how the device should behave during idle time.
3. I guess we are so used to a magazine format it makes sense to innovate on a trusted layout.

There are of course the protagonists who will suggest that no one can beat the ascetic feel of paper. I read once that original typed manuscriupts could show the intensity of the writers thoughts as he/she banged away at their mechanical type-writers! It has also been suggested that hyper-linking contributes to laziness on the part of the writer and reader as they can simply place a reference to a location rather than use exqusite terms and phrases.

What devices of this type offer is the greater availability of knowledge. If you wish to enjoy a good book by the fireplace – that is fine too.
What will be great for us humans is the ability to develop a new genre of reading with interactivity and dynamic information facilitating the development of more imaginative/ inference based ideas.

I can see this as product a reality within the next few years. Interestingly, with Apple rumoured to bring out a larger tablet / i-phone device in Jauary 2010, could this help our economies to recover and provide greater content to enrich our souls and promote world harmony? The latter assumes that a more educated world leads to peace.

With Google’s recent encounters with news outlets and Microsoft attempting to ‘cut’ exclusive content deals with traditional media giants what is the future of media.

Is mixing advertising with content a good way to fund journalism?
What is certainly interesting is the repulsion of the public against text (sms) based advertising. Survey’s reveal this to be irrirating. Personally, it is frustrating to watch a 15 second advertisement before watching a video on Youtube or even the scrolling adverts underneath, albeit that you can compromise on how much you can see as there is a shortening/summary button.

Will the tablets usher in a new way of advertising or fueling news content?

The Video showing a mock-up of what a Sports Illustrated magazine could look like is fascinating. It shows a whole new world of possibilities. For example: Sponsored articles, product placement and also affiliation with brands. Surely, that should be enought to fuel any journalist’s salary or media moguls financial outlook. Maybe the idea for charging for content has been considered due to the success of the i-phone. Clearly with 90,000 applications for the latter device, demand is strong for developers to use this technology as an outreach for their content services et al.

Other opportunities include:

• Mobile services
• Gaming
• Interactive Video
• Interactive Music
• Subscription services for specialist content rather than exclusive content.
• Mash-up of content to derive selling opportunities and hardware sales!
• Aggregation around multiple sources is another possibility

With regard to the latter, just look at BizBuzzz, it focuses  on bringing you the best Blogs, News and Entertainment news all from one channel.
On a related note, there has been a lot of debate this year about the future of video streaming. Again, this offers new possibilities for established media outlets. If networks can establish both niche and relevant everyday content in an accessible and high quality format, then we have the start of new convergence strategies – news like you have never experienced news before.

Although the session had an agenda, it suffered from the following issues:

1. Long sessions for each subject  – I could see the expressions on peoples faces, gasping for a water!
2. No time-outs
3. Simplistic use of note taking, for example: A list of issues parked on route on one flipchart rather than using consolidating techniques such as 6 hat or Yellow Post it. NB Over 26 attendees sat in a u-shape room layout and the room was very stuffy after the first hour.
4. Very quick introductions
5. Limited context outlined for the event
6. Other attendees who appeared as interested parties rather than main contributors
7. Loose agenda
8. Strategic importance not communicated
9. A dominance of resolution passing by a large number of supplier attendees
10. Low interaction between the attendees

The two latter items were of most concern. For example, at one point a resolution was agreed regarding the provision of data entities for the deaf. It emerged at the end of the workshop day that the attending representative of the deaf medical team felt shy about contributing. Maybe it was the facilitators responsibility or the structure of the day that contributed to this failing. Or, was it because sometimes people can feel it easier to communicate discretely!? Consider how vocal some people are by email and when you meet them in-person, they are as sweet as pie! It is almost as if they have a different personality or feel more liberated to speak their mind with the protection of the machine in sight, especially if you set-up a masked identification.

Using Twitter  could be one way of bringing greater contributions from the range of personalities in attendance at a typical project or discussion workshop, training session, classroom or website / development / test feedback session / webinar / discussion panel / public meeting.

A practical example can be reviewed here.

Twitter can support

Remote monitoring in the classroom or project workshop session – project #tags via a white board in the classroom
Remote monitoring for distance learners / Attendees – (see below for a list of on line tools)
Opening up discussion to students who would be reluctant to participate.
Collated writing notes can be posted later

The following on line resources can prove invaluable for getting people to engage either in public or via a protected name.

What the Trend?: Learn about what tags are currently trendy – suitable for research

Twubs: Aggregates tweets and imports pictures to help illuminate the topics being discussed.

Hashtags.org: Great at showing you its use over time and recent tweets.

Tagalus: A dictionary for hashtags.

At yesterday’s ‘Future of Online media conference‘, Spotify’s Daniel Ek, CEO suggested that,

The key for us is getting music in to people’s existing billing habits

It is interesting how it all relates to numbers at the end of the day.
For example, Trillions of listeners with a low % conversion rate to paid subscribers will work.
In addition, establishing an easy to access ‘subscribe now’ function can also help.

The stats for Spotify are show a rapid climb, proving that people do want access to such content and its associated delivery flexibility:

Spotify User Growth

NB It doesn’t stop at just being a paid subscriber as consumers can be influenced to buy an artists/bands merchandise, concert tickets or track/album downloads.

If you have a personal website and Google Analytics installed or access to stats from your ISP, you can review the average time that a user spends on your site. Spotify users stayed logged on for an average of 72 minutes per day. With out looking at the detail it is difficult to tell if these is all in one sitting!?

The video provides a fascinating insight into what could follow – i.e: Going for mass appeal with a number of models rather than just backing one.

Another dimension to throw into the mix is the potential of technology convergence. For example, more TV’s are arriving with Internet links built-in. This offers more channels to expose and tempt potential consumers to choose from a variety of models presented, even easier if packaged as part of a TV subscription. For example, Sky offer TV, Broadband and Telephone packages. Why not add a service like Spotify for a few Dollars/Pounds more!

The CEO of Orange Tom Alexander states

the watch phone is the must-have gadget of 2009. It’s handcrafted, exclusively limited, and will turn heads on the high street”, and will supposedly bring “a 21st-century experience to our 21st century customers.

Set up like a normal phone this device has all the normalities of a regular phone, from the sensitive touch screen number and text pad, to the user friendly red and green call and end buttons.

It also has the capability to take pictures however the down side here is that it does not have an accelerometer to tell the camera if it is upside down or not so this would require a twist of the wrist to take right-side up pictures.It also has music player which can be connected to a blue-tooth device, that can also be used for voice calls as well as video calls.

The major downside to this phone is the price, though available on both pay-as-you-go and monthly payment, this phone would range between £500 and £1000!

Being compared to a James Bond gadget the watch phone is simply taking on-screen gadget technology and bringing it to reality, enhancing its features by adding more usability tools.

The harsh restrictions that have been placed on travel regarding flights may be reduced if this new technology proves successful.
The technology that is being introduced takes the form of a new scanner that is supposedly able to detect harmful chemicals in liquids that can be mixed with other ingredients to produce explosives i.e. hydrogen peroxide.

The hi-tech  X-ray technology, which detects dangerous chemicals inside bottles and cans without having to open them, was developed by a team of advanced doctors and scientist including Dr Arnab Basu, and is called the The Kromek scanner. This scanner will  differentiate between different liquids, which to the human eye look similar, by looking at their “spectral signature”.
and will cost roughly about 50,000 dollars (£30,000) each.

According to Dr Arnab Basu, chief executive of Country Durham-based Kromek,

“This is completely new technology in terms of X-rays. It’s like the transition from black and white to colour television…this is taking a big step forward…the product is ready and we have interest from around the world.”

The device works by requiring firstly that an airport security staff to scan a bottle’s barcode before placing it in the machine. An X-ray beam would then be shone through the liquid detecting the unique “spectral signature” of the image recorded on the other side. The machine then uses that “signature” to distinguish between harmless liquids such as water, and potential explosives.

To View Video Click Here.

With the development of this new technology, the future of travel can be drastically improved.

An Alaska-based notebook designer and manufacturer gScreen, aims to solve that problem, no matter where you are, with what can only be described as the PC version of a two-headed hydra: the dual-screen laptop. Now instead of only a compatible dual screen desktop there is now the adaptable dual screen laptop. Where you now can have your browser, iTunes, Tweetdeck, Word documents or any other folders open on a dual screen laptop.

It operates just the same way as a dual screen desktop, where various programs, folders etc can be dragged from one screen with other programs being visible at the same time on the other screen. However the laptop dual screen is slightly different, where the screens can be adjusted, it can be transformed into a single screen with the use of a horizontal sliding screen, (imagine a sliding door).

To View Full Image Click here.

The specs are listed on the gScreen website :

- 2 LED backlit display screens
- Windows VISTA (Windows Vista)/ WIN XP PRO (optional)
- Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26-GHz
- 4 GB of RAM (2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM x 2)
- 320GB 7200-rpm HD
- NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GT with 512MB dedicated memory (or)
- NVIDIA® Quadro FX 1700M Graphics with 512MB dedicated memory
- 9-cell battery
- IEEE 1394 1 Graphics Card Output (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1, HDMI X 1 Mic-in X 1, Line-in x 1, Headphone X 1 PCI Express Card X 1 AC Power Adaptor Output: 19V DC, 90W Input: 100~240V AC, 50/60Hz universal Battery Pack Li-ion 9 cells

Though this laptop is ideal for designers programmers and film-makers, it is easy to see the compatibility of this device and that it allows you to get more work done!

The disadvantages of this device is the power/battery requirement that may be needed to power such a device, and also the price is a major issue, as it is said to cost a shocking estimated $3000 which is roughly about £1500.

The wait for these devices to be avaliable to the public will not be long as the dual screen laptops are scheduled to be released in Christmas.

It is certainly a fascinating insight from a well respected figure from the world of broadcasting.
Jon works for Channel 4 in the UK. He suggests that he straddles between stone-age and the digital age.

Interestingly the BBC have certainly embraced new innovations and have always been at the forefront of using social media to extend what I call ‘the public reach’ to information for our daily lives.

On a recent visit to the US I spoke with a journalist from KOMO 1000 in Seattle:

He described himself as a news gatherer. I had a great chat with him after he had just finished interviewing a group of Boeing executives. I asked him if he was podcasting. His reply was ‘Nah! We don’t do that anymore as none of our listeners were subscribing. I find it far more dynamic to simply record on my iphone 3GS and post directly to YouTube. Then our news service announced on the air that the latest associated new video can be viewed from our website’.

Interesting how content is now being gathered and sent out at the same time.

There is an obsession to make things perfect with the use of technology, there is an idea that everything needs to be fixed or improved upon, but Lizzie Miller proved just the opposite. Posing semi-nude for Glamour, Miller has turned heads, for posing in the magazine without the aid of an airbrush, going au natural!

Just take a look!

With the rise of new media tools to create and manipulate there is the possibility of being anyone or looking exactly the way you want without physically changing a single bone on your body. Thanks to improvements in photo retouching over the last five years, those glossy images have strayed further and further from anything resembling reality. Retouching techniques that were once used mainly to erase blemishes or stray hairs have become tools for radical human body distortion, shrinking waists and vanquishing years, turning models and actresses into leggy dolls of literally inhuman proportions.This is also evident in movies, where actors are digital enhanced using new media tools to suit a character role.

Adjusting images whether still or moving is done so frequently that when there is a rare natural picture like Lizzie’s there is a turn of heads, people raise questions as to why she didn’t airbrush, or people applaud for being so brave and ‘real’.

Even the simplest picture or video is some what retouched, to give the false pretence of beauty, and with the aid of the simplest of media such as a digital camera there might never be another flawed image. You might see it every day and not know, for example with social networking profile pictures seen by so many, has a high possibility that half of the pictures on these pages are in some way adjusted. So, even those with the most basic of computer skills could be able to ‘airbrush’ photos from home.

These adjustment have also been made on the big screen to the actors and actresses that appear to be flawless. The digital changes that are done to these performers can enhance the charters appeal to the audience resulting in a boost in sales. In movies such as Forrest Gump 1994, digital programs were used to remove the legs of an actor portraying an amputee. In the film 300, consisting on the Spartian soldiers, computer generated visual effects allowed the actors to appear more built than usual, sculpting the muscles of the undersized actors and removing any unflattering pounds that might have been present giving the false illusion of perfection.

Though airbrushing can be used in the wrong context and influence the younger generation or even older into believing in an unattainable ‘perfect image’, airbrushing and digital enhancement can be quite useful, for example, creating the image for Imhotep’s decomposed face in The Mummy.

So you decide digitally enhanced beauty or natural beauty ?