May 25, 2007 by jenks

socially ever after

remember that hans christian anderson story about the social networking site that came first?

oh come on, yeah you do…. the social networking app that came first, but it didn’t listen to what people wanted, and it wouldn’t let them keep profiles for anything other than people? like that insanely wittty “san francisco” profile that you added because it was a hilarious motherfucker, that then one day mysteriously disappeared, and no more witty san francisco for you.

then there’s the part of the story where the other social networking app comes next. the one that’s kinda ugly and dumb, but it knows well enough to let profiles like “san francisco” stay up, and in fact, encourages bands to create profiles and develop communication and community with their fans that way.

and the story tells of how it was bands that turned the tide from friendster to myspace.

well, i’m barely even on facebook, and i have no idea if san francisco has a profile there or if it’s anywhere near as clever as it was on friendster, but i couldn’t help but notice a very similar story taking place once again where what one social network app won’t tolerate in its clique becomes something that another wholly embraces.

the Facebook Platform, which goes live today, doesn’t just mean that users now have acess to lots of cool new applications within Facebook, but belies a strategy that’s essentially “anti-myspace“:

“While MySpace frets over third party widgets, alternatively shutting them down or acquiring them, Facebook is now opening up its core functions to all outside developers.”

who knows if that will actually be enough to turn the tide again, but either way, the oversight of a dominating sns going about systematically excluding something from its network has been shown before to open up the opportunity for another one to come along and best it by the sheer act of inclusion.

and most of hans christian anderson’s stories do end pretty much the same.

May 23, 2007 by jenks

bright idea for online video content

we’ve been getting quite a bit of coverage in the wake of LIB. a lot of traditional press, a decent bit of blogosphere attention, and a ton of photos (both press and ugc stylie). there are also a couple really great videos that have gotten me to thinking about the future of online media content, and even an idea that could help the desperate newspaper industry in the online space.

eric parsons, a media journalist for the ventura county star made a great audio slideshow of the festival, which you can watch here.

(side note: while everyone’s busy making a big deal about the alleged online video revolution that seems always to be coming, and yet never really arriving, i’m casting a vote for the multimedia slideshow revolution instead. it’s an especially great medium for documentary and journalistic expression, as we’ve been primed on it with pbs and history channel specials. and within the context of online usage, it’s a medium that feels more liberating than online video yet still totally engaging. it allows you to comfortably go off and do other online activities while still being able to take the audio of the piece along with you, and lets you return to the visual part at any time without feeling like you’ve missed anything. it’s kinda like the more versatile “to go” option for the online viewing experience. you can both take your coffee with you on your way or stick around at the coffee shop with your “to go” cup, but online video is the more commitment-requiring ceramic mug you get “for here.”)

crap, that was a really long aside. but maybe i can tie it in after all…

see i liked eric’s slideshow so much because i really feel it managed to capture the breadth of what this event was all about, that i asked to use it for the LIB myspace and website. when i inquired about embedding it, however, the answer from the powers that be at the ventura county star was that all we could get was a url:

http://gallery.venturacountystar.com/videoPlay.cfm?videoID=36

the idea, i’m told, is that the ventura county star wants to keep the content on their site in order to get the traffic over there. the tragic flaw in this logic is that a random link just does not scream “yo! i’m highly dynamic content, i’ve got lots of pretty pictures, and interesting information, you should check me out.”

by keeping the really engaging stuff locked to their site, instead of allowing it to act as a mobile ad “unit” to lead people to the site, they’re kind of shooting themselves in the foot.

i suggested possibly creating a branded frame that could be embedded around the video content, and tonight, this arrived from metrowize.net, like venus from the foam of my suggestion…

brightcove is was totally on the ball with this branded frame bit. [edit: this component of the embed has stopped functioning since i originally made this post. no idea why.] do any of the other video hosting/sharing services out there allow you to do that? they should all be looking into it. cuz the future of online media is gonna require that it has to be able to move! trapping your content on your site is just a waste of effort. if you’da made it emeddable, link-backable, and let your audience itself disseminate that shit far and wide, that WOULD help you generate traffic!

print, are you listening?

May 23, 2007 by jenks

interactive festival

not sure what would be a good weekend to produce a music festival?

should you guess what your community wants?

or….

maybe do THIS?

if you have an opinion on when you’d like to see LIB08 happen, you too can chime in.

in fact, please do.

May 19, 2007 by jenks

post production plague & the Artist Network…belated

LIB07 went off with nary a hitch, and wild success a week ago…finally! i liken the process of working on a music festival to going through labor with 20+ people for 5 months, and when the baby’s delivered it graduates, and moves off to college.

so we ushered LIB off, and in the aftermath, as per usual, i got insanely sick. full on can’t-get-out-of-bed sick, the ground moves when i get up sick, my sinuses are on a rampage sick, there’s a symphony in my lungs sick, etc…. this generally happens after every big production. back when i was managing the circus, we would all get sick after big performances, as if on cue. maybe it’s a matter of immunity being the first to get dumped overboard once the momentum throws a mutiny, or maybe it’s a matter of the celebratory champagne bottles that get passed around the whole crew at the end of the weekend. either way…. it’s been like that for the past week, and i am finally now starting to head in the direction of health once again.

there is a LOT of new news coming up in the next couple of weeks. changes are afoot, and on their heels are a some new projects that i’m gonna be wrapping my head around–and hopefully, a few of them are going to be MY projects, which should also be an exciting change.

– – –

until THEN, however…. i wanted to make a belated little mention here about…

the Spring 2007 Do LaB Aritst Network email that we put out just one day before the festival doors opened. in the ensuing madness i didn’t have a chance to post anything about it here before, but it’s something i’m tremendously proud of, and keep getting prouder of with each issue. (this is the second. the first one came out in Winter 07). we put out this online arts publication showcasing the best of the creativity emerging from the Do Lab’s community on a quarterly basis and i’m very happy to be able to report that as the Do LaB’s email list keeps growing (now, a full 30% larger than it was back when we did the first issue of the AN, just 4 months ago), our open and click-thru rates get higher and higher. the Spring AN email, featuring some kick-ass videos, had the highest open & click thru rates of any of our emails, with almost 3 times as many people actually checking it out as did the first one).

and furthering the community- generated direction that this project is heading, the design for this issue of the AN was created by the winner of the LIB Poster Contest, Albertico Acosta. having different graphic artists within the community participate in creating the AN is definitely something i’d like to continue. albertico’s winning poster entry (chosen by the community’s vote):

April 12, 2007 by jenks

[LIB07] what the hell is a strategy, anyway? #3

very brief tonight:

our music contest page is FINALLY live!

http://lightninginabottle.org/contest

thank you to the undaunted mr. shaw for getting it to work.

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