this blog is moving to wordpress

Just in case you do read the blog from RSS or Google reader take note it's moving / has moved to wordpress. The full blog address is http://blabinteractive.wordpress.com, however you can always subscribe to the masked address: blabinteractive.com

No offence to blogger. It is a simple service which works. However, some of the additional features of wordpress do make your blogging part-time hobby easier to handle.

Thanks for following.

Taking stock of the 'clog'

If you've read my previous BLAB then you would know what I am speaking about. I see little value in one directional blogs that exist to complement one's CV. They're nice to have but the with all clutter around, there is little other reason for their existence and time investment.

Hence, after more than 240 posts and 800 days of existence I'd like to take stock of who reads any of these blog posts. Simply comment/ email/ RT with @karlgalea in the tweet / tag me in your facebook status.

I may even set a disclaimer of a minimum interactions before giving up on clogging!

Thanks for reading (and making this more of a clog).

"Clogging" is the new blogging

Why do people blog, tweet or join a network for that matter? Some join because they'd like to have something to say, others really do have something to say and the rest just enjoy joining in.

If your blogging is about attention seeking there is harsh competition in the Attention Economy and you will soon realize that with all the other attention seekers (coupled with the great information clutter), you're in for some hard work.

If your blogging is about what you have to say, rather than about you, then it's all about content. Great content could make some noise.

Finally, there's 'Clogging', it's the new way of 'blogging', unrestricted to the blogging media. In essence, it is when the community blogs. In the latter type of blogging, neither the blogger and nor the content is at the centre. It's the community that makes or breaks it.

Clogging is not limited to blogs. Yes Clogging does happen when a community of people decides to set up a blog, however clogging also happens when anyone ReTweets, Tags, Likes or Diggs content. Suddenly it becomes an online discussion, a clog! Over the past year my clogging increased and my blogging...it's irrelevant to you and me what happened of my blogging career.

So in conclusion, if you want to add some value to this blog...help me make it a good clog, else it's only worth some time of attention and possibly a good post.

How design driven are we?

In 2007 I read 'Design' by Tom Peters and his Essentials Series. Back then, I had bought the book simply because it carried the term 'design' on its cover, in big bold type. 3 years down the line I realize that the best creative people are not those doing 'creative' work but the others who manage to be creative in the coldest of 'office jobs'. The latter manage to turn a boring job into a 'design' oriented career. From the likes of Steve Jobs to the smallest self-employed business that manages to change 'the way we do things'. This presentation is a good taster and a useful reminder.

Design Thinking for Startups - Are You Design Driven?

View more documents from Amir Khella.

Blabs of the Day

Some BLABs that managed to make it through the clutter of the first 5 days of 2010:

Google launches Nexus One
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/01/05/GA2010010502777.html

Apple acquires Quattro
http://mashable.com/2010/01/04/apple-quattro-wireless/

Trendwatching.com issues January Trend Briefing
http://trendwatching.com/briefing/

A decade in review by AP (via @Phaoloo)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/specials/interactives/_national/decade/index.html?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=MULTIMEDIA

Do you live social? (via @AlexGrech)
http://ow.ly/STa9

What we can learn from the Top 10 Viral Videos of 2009
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=141235

Yet another attempt at monetizing content...through twitter:
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=141294

Rants about wasted advertising space

With the holiday season round the corner, much of our marketing budgets will go to the Christmas and NYE's campaigns. I will not go into the the topic of commercialization of the holiday season, and the advertising clutter it brings with it, however, a drive around the island and a scan of the local print and online advertising initiatives makes you shout at the 'Wasted Advertising Space'

Rant #1: If it is ok for the newspaper on Sunday, it is not ok for the long-standing billboard throughout December
Basic marketing rules state that an outdoor banner should not contain more than 5 words. I will be counting the paragraphs of text and essays which some of our billboards feature.

Rant #2: If it is ok for the newspaper, it is not ok for the dynamic online space
Better use of the online space hints at making the most of what the medium provides. We sometimes limit our websites to a passive information catalog. The result is as simple as the passive medium: passive response (if any)

Rant #3: An out-dated message implies an out-dated brand
With all the advertising messages we get to watch/listen to each day, the out-dated once are the most undesirable for both consumer and brand. Let's count the out-dated advertisements in January!

Rant#4: It's a holiday not a trade fair
Yes we have targets, yes it is THE season, but it is not all about your brand. Really and truly it is never about your brand, so if you intend to shout out loud, keep your audience in mind.

Enough rants for the week. Back to positive thinking!

Today is MoMo day for the 2nd time in Malta

I will be attending the second round of MobileMondays. The first round saw the launch of the MoMo chapter in Malta, two interesting presentations and some quality networking time.

The second edition of MoMo in Malta will see yet another good speaker and a showcase of a Business Project. I hope to have some time to review the 2nd MoMo in some more details.

More information about MoMo at this link: http://www.momomalta.org/

The URL revolution: A wider World Wide Web.

This longish post was featured in the November issue of Technology Sunday, a monthly supplement of The Sunday Times in Malta

The World Wide Web was conceived some 20 years ago. It is the true embodiment of boundless information which may be retrieved across the globe. Today, the web consists of at least 62.4 million websites which is roughly 8.5 thousand new sites for each day the web has been up and running.

The web resides on the Internet. The Internet was born in the US in 1969. It was born amid fear of conflict and war between the east and the west. Today, it connects 1.6 billion people from the east, west and elsewhere.

Locally, the Internet has also brought about big change. Approximately 108 thousand households and business are connected to the Internet and this does not take into account those of us who access the Internet through their mobile or Internet keys. Hundreds of businesses own a website and hundreds of thousands of us own a Facebook profile.

All the above gives the world reason to celebrate the Internet’s 40th birthday, but surely it does not stop here. There are billions of people who are not yet online.

Primarily some of the biggest third world countries lack the necessary infrastructure to access this amazing tool or enough funds to purchase an Internet connected device. Mobile operators in these countries have teamed up to make up for the lack of fixed infrastructure and users are accessing the Internet for the first time through their mobile phone. The ‘One Laptop per Child’ campaign attempts to provide a simple yet connected laptop to children who have till today never gone online.

So as social as we make the Internet to be, as unbounded and limitless as it is described by the definition of the WWW, the Internet still has some limitations and room for improvement.

In the Internet’s 40th year, ICANN, the Internet’s corporation for the assignment of domain names and numbers, announced the introduction of non-Latin characters in web addresses. So far, more than half of current Internet users had to switch their non-Latin based keyboards to key in a simple URL or email. Even though these users where able to include non-Latin characters in the first part of their email or website, the last few characters, also referred to as the top level domain (TLD), had to include Latin script.

As from next year, the Internet will see domain names and emails in full non-Latin script. Countries like China, the Arab-speaking countries and Russia will be the first to benefit from the new non-Latin scripts in their country codes. Web masters in China may do away with the ‘.cn’ at the end of their addresses and replace it with its equivalent in the new Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).

The move is surely positive for those users who are not as conversant in English or at least, familiar with Latin script. On the other hand, some of the current users, many of them probably residing on this side of the planet, fear this move may hinder the openness of the WWW and create linguistic boundaries.

The truth however is that the popularization of the Internet has made it a social reality and a reflection of what takes place offline. In the real world, some people simply do not understand each other, whilst others make it a point to be conversant in a number of languages. Offline, multi-national companies and global brands have multi-lingual identities which are translated online as country (or at least market) specific websites.

Big countries such as China and Korea did not wait for ICANN to come up with this idea. They have found turn around solutions which allow their many users to key in domains in their own language and be redirected to the original domain.

Apart from the societal aspect of ICANN’s move, the introduction of non-Latin script URLs will mean different things for different players. First of all, as early as today, the move will give rise to a wider range of domain names and therefore create more business for Domain Name registrars. Governments may use IDNs to re-brand their online identities and make the Internet more accessible to the native speaking users.

Marketers and brands should be on the alert to secure any new domain which comes close to their current online addresses. Whilst the new IDNs may offer an opportunity to localize and personalize online brand presence, any user may be faster in purchasing the brand’s IDN version of its online address and trick users through a fake website. The latter is often referred to as a ‘Spoof’ website and may become a security concern, at least initially.

On the technical side, the new IDNs are not as straight forward as the Latin-script domains we have been using for the past four decades. Some online players will need to tweak their popular applications to accept non-Latin scripts.

40 years down the line it is once again conflict (of languages this time) that is possibly about to trigger another big Internet revolution. ICANN’s move has caused mixed reactions in the blogosphere, however, as complicated and difficult as this new online development may be, it’s bridging the gap between the online and offline, making the Internet a better reflection of the real world.

40 years of internet: the basics in steps.

Nothing new, but worth a listen to remind ourselves where online is coming from...

Why some people don't get social media...and why they will get it soon.

I have recently attended Alex Grech's workshop on Social Media. The presentation was music to my ears because it very nicely captured the many thoughts relating to interactive 'marketing' and some new real life insights, some of which triggered us to set up BLAB in the first place.

All throughout the presentation I toyed with one question in my mind: "Why don't we all get it (social media that is)?" Why do you get web masters who aren't yet on the web, on facebook or twitter amongst other social media. Why aren't brand executives urgently concerned about the opportunity that they are missing out on? And finally, why do we consider online (and social) strategy as a cheap marketing alternative which can co-exist by the side of the actual publicity budget?

Adage's article on big brands complaining with Twitter about individuals using their brand name as their personal tweeter identity says it all - the 'old school' brand executive thinks he/she is in control of the brand value, but they're not...the average consumer is. Social media simply amplifies the consumers' dominion on your brand. It has been there for a long time, since consumers discussed their purchases. Nothing has changed except for the technology enabling the discussion.

And the sad news is that it is so obvious...we ignore it.

1 year on, thanks to Blackberry, there is a 25th hr.

Vodafone is celebrating the first anniversary of the BlackBerry® Solution in Malta. We had reviewed the launch of the solution back in October of 2008.

Since 2008, we have seen a number of Blackberry devices running around on desks, in meetings and offices. Since launching in 2008, Vodafone introduced the Pearl and Curve models followed by the Bold. Over the months, Malta has seen several new Curve models and the iconic popular Storm, which was Blackberry's move in the touch-screen market.

I am a biased ambassador of Blackberry, however, you may do the math yourself, benefit from celebration goodies and ask the many Blackberry users about what it actually means to own a Blackberry. Some say that with Blackberry there is a 25th hr!

So happy birthday Blackberry in Malta.

more info: http://bit.ly/1vm7z5

VIRAL - Google does it

When Google launched Gmail it limited it to the initial batch of users and their friends - resulting in exponential take-up

Prior to its Google Wave launch, Google goes a step further. It now uses Twitter (not facebook, not Orkut (Google's own), not any other tool) to spread the word - resulting in...up to us all really!

Here goes my tweet:
karlgalea Just requested my Google Wave Invite! Get yours at http://www.google.com-wave.... - #googlewave #googlewaveinvite

Tomorrow, you will not access facebook.com

This is a longish post about how Augmented Reality could revolutionize the virtual space as we know it. The post was featured in the September edition of Technology Sunday.

Today, you probably start and end the day with Facebook. If not you, 70,000 locals do. Facebook, and all the other social media tools, changed the way we consume the web. Prior to that you would read the news on timesofmalta.com but now you get to read a news headline because someone else posts it. Today, you can just get the snippets of your favourite websites on your profile in the form of widgets or boxes. iGoogle is the perfect example of how at least 65 million webpages need to rethink their strategy for staying in touch with you. Similar tools allow you to even do away with Google’s humble homepage.

The social web has re-defined the World Wide Web and added a social context to it. Everything is social. Every site or item which goes online has a social value. Users tag it, post it, blog about it and share it in all kinds of ways.

Tomorrow, the web will experience another wave of innovation which will revolutionize the way we interact with content and communicate with each other. Augmented Reality (AR) will fragment the social web into layers of data, sitting on nothing more than real-time video streams of the real world. We will access the web as layers of information overlaid on the real 3D objects (or people) they relate to.

Before, online games were played individually, through the browser. Then came the social web - our friends could join the game too and play with us in real-time. Eventually, we stopped playing games on the specific web-pages and simply played any game through our favourite social tool.. Tomorrow, we will be playing the same game but the protagonists will not be 3D images which represent objects or users, we will have real objects and real people moving around our screen. They will be fed through the camera of our mobile device (whatever the device may be) and an application will overlay computer graphics on the real-life video feeds.

Actually, we are already seeing hints of this today. To launch the HTC Magic in one of the markets in which it operates, Vodafone has used an AR application which allowed two teams to compete head to head by tagging their rivals through image recognition of coloured shirts using the device itself.

In 2001 the first AR Browser was launched. The browser acted as an AR based interface to the web. Though innovative, the RWWW system was not very practical due to its cumbersome AR hardware which included a head mounted display. 7 years later Wikitude implemented a similar, but more compact idea on a mobile phone. The more recent browser combines location data with Wikipedia entries. This year a similar concept was implemented through Layar. The browser builds on Wikitude’s concept by reducing traditional webpages into content layers sitting on top of each other and overlaid on the real world video feeds.

However, what is most important is not how all this is done but what it really means for us. AR complements the convergence of online and offline worlds. Online social networks are really a reflection of what happens in the offline world. AR blends the real (offline) world with the online information and services. Rather than a reflection, the web will gradually become part of what we see when we move around the real world.

In practice, AR will allow us to consume the web in a completely new way. When in a big crowd, I could poke you without logging onto the Facebook homepage by simply nudging your real-life image, fed into my device through its camera. Paypal’s changehowwepay.com envisages a future in which I could scan images of any product at the supermarket and ‘drag’ them onto my virtual shopping cart.

Industry leaders are aware of all this and they are doing something about it. At the 2009 International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), AR will not only be discussed in context of scientific and technological advancements but also as part of a wider initiative to make the most of AR technology in arts, media and humanities.

Needless to say, if AR had to become the standard way of web consumption, once again, brand managers would have to re-think the way they put their brand in context of the real world. The fancy online spaces which they have invested in have already been humbled by social networks which feed content from them to our social profile, doing away with the nice design on the brand’s site.

However it is not all doom and gloom. If the social web made brands social and helped them to relate to us through our network of friends, then it should only get better. AR will put brands in context. Tomorrow, brands will not only be able to relate to our circle of friends but also customize their message in context of what we wear, where we go and what we see. In parallel, we will probably see the death of the traditional webpage.

Recap: B2C Strategy 2.0

I came across this conference I had participated in, the slides of which are available at this link: http://www.mca.org.mt/infocentre/openarticle.asp?WsAppId=590&id=1238&pin=podfk5465g4v6e5r4g6

The presentation is almost a year old. I'd like to revisit it and check what's still valid!

Two weeks to go to the iCentre competition

The iCentre is again inviting creatives to submit the next TV ad. The competition closes on the 30th of September.

New/Re-designed Websites

A number of agencies are re-vamping new online spaces for all sorts of brands. What hit my inbox this week:


Designed by NIU for Ok Ltd. Visit website at ok.com.mt


Designed by ICON for Stephanie Borg. Visit website at stephanieborg.com

Taking the 'ego' out of ego-centric

There are two modes of expression, ego-centric and x-centric, which sounds and should be a lot like 'eccentric' however allowing space for the x to be anything (be it customer, purpose, motive) but your ego.

What's the benefit of the latter?

Primarily, it's not about you;
Secondly, it's not about you and can give in to other complementary or opposing ideas. It follows from the belief that collective ideating is better than individual.
Thirdly, it's not about you and so leaves room for feedback, criticism and listening which otherwise you wouldn't bother to give attention to.

It's harder than we think to take the ego out of ego-centric and be open to alternative viewpoints. It requires questioning all the time whether you stand for your ego or your objective above anything else!

MoMo Malta launching today

Today MobileMonday (MoMo) will be launching in Malta. Event details below:

Date of launching event
Monday, 14th September 2009, from 18:00h to 22:00h

Venue: The Palace Hotel, High Street, Sliema SLM1542, Malta

Speakers:
Jari Tammisto
CEO/President, MobileMonday Global
Madanmohan Rao
Director of Educaton Project, Mobile Monday. International Consultant, and Speaker in over 60 countries.

Topic: Mobile Industry in Malta - The State of Play

Registration:
Attendance is free and only by invite. Register Here

Says it all in one big blab - Why 2.0 is not a number or a fad

15 minute catch-up

I am catching up on a number of emails and readings. For a change I'll list what I catch-up on below:

23:10: Old School Music by Lauryn Hill at MTV Unplugged. Music is interactive and definately a marketing tool so make sure to listen to as much music as you can!

23:13: Remember Technology Sunday? Well I hope to be able to write some more on the suppliment or elsewhere. Doing some thinking on a possible topic.

23:14: Networking is useful. It starts off from the fact that collective intelligence is more powerful than individual so I've just accepted a LinkedIn invitation from a friend who now works in telecoms like i do.

23:18: Sorting deadlines for some forms I have to fill in.

23:23: Discover new ventures. I planning to post some more interviews about new projects and just got one in my mailbox. Will hopefully BLAB about it shortly.

23:24: Last minute...

23:28 (exceeded catch-up time by 3 minutes) Staying hungry - checking on what to read/study in the coming year

23:30: (2 more minutes) Some more posting about the latest happenings at ICON which emails me regularly with fresh new projects: ICON just launched 'a fresh, SEO-efficient portal' for local artist, Stephanie Borg: http://www.stephanieborg.com/steffiborg/home.aspx

23:32: Back to work!