A solitary moment for two

London

As a techno-utopian, I believe technology brings people together rather than disconnecting them.

Received wisdom would have us believe that technology breeds isolation: I've lost count of the number of hysterical Daily Mail articles that warn us that computer-games are turning kids violent. As a child I was told that sitting too close to the TV would "make you go blind". There's a great deal of nonsense spoken about technology, and it's often believed because many people consider technological progress to be the root evil of society.

When I think about how technology is used in my household, the HD TV is like a digital campfire which brings the whole family together to watch films, the Wii is a short burst of fun for my husband and I when the kids are in bed, Facebook connects me to a wider circle of friends that I wouldn't have the time to see, and my mum and I listen to Woman's Hour together on our new Wi Fi radio.

Not only is technology physically bringing people together through new shared experiences, its creating a new way of sharing an emotional experience albeit in some cases on different platforms and different devices. The reactions and the emotions of the people with whom you are sharing the experience with is whats important.

This becomes ever more apparent with the shift towards mobile content sharing devices. As Jan Chipchase shows with this photo of two Tokyoites - on the right of the photo engaged in the same task watching the same television program on their mobile phone each using their own device, with comments passed back and forth. Whereas one screen can compromise the viewing experience, the same content can be shared and hence the same experience.

As technology evolves and content becomes ever more mobile (or 'time shifting'), there are so many opportunities for companies to position technology less as something about individual glory and status but more as a shared emotional experience. Its these kind of positioning that will capture the female heart as well as the female pound.

Are you worth discovering?

Hong Kong

Joanna Wang is one example of such. A Taiwanese singer who was discovered on Youtube, has now hit it big. My friend Karry explained how she was captivated by Joanna’s ‘raw and totally unique’ singing style. Her unassuming, self-made music videos on YouTube traveled the Facebook Funwall circuit and created a cult following among 20-something Hong Kong-ers.

Now that Joanna has signed a record deal and has an MTV video she’s removed most of her old videos. Still her fans search YouTube for her old songs and write to her hoping she will re-post more of her former, less-commercial music.

In a similar vein, here’s someone who, at age 43, has just re-discovered his favorite bands from the 80s on Youtube. “Honestly, it’s all here… you can find EVERYTHING on Youtube. Let me show you this band’s show from 1985…”

When it comes to going digital, there is still a lot of talk about ‘driving traffic’ and ‘click through rates….’

The opportunity: rather than trying to drive traffic to your door, become worth searching for and worthy of being found. Question for our brands: Are you worth being discovered… and re-discovered over and over again?

Dependency or real companionship?

Hong Kong

Every evening it’s the same ritual, sitting in front of the TV together. Under one hand she keeps her cat, under the other is her computer. Kate would do anything for her kitty and she’d do almost anything to save her computer… she still has the old one in a drawer in her desk…unable to part with it long after it’s titanium shell has gone cold. “I’ve lost my memory for all these years! All my photos from before 2006 were on that hard drive. It just went dead one day but I just can’t throw it away. I’m hoping someday it will recover or be resurrected.”

One tends not to think about it until it happens, but the time spent with our digital companions is limited… the relationship might end suddenly, without warning, it might succumbed to a virus or accident, it might experience a slow, heart-wrenching demise. Either way it can be emotionally devastating.

Truth: …it doesn’t have to have a heartbeat to build a deep connection and forge an irreplaceable relationship. Our digital companions at their best are loyal and rewarding… you give/it gives back, it understands your habits and responds to your idiosyncrasies. Probably more like a friend than pet, it can even become a chronicle of your experiences and even a surrogate memory.

A Virtual Room of One’s Own

Hong Kong

Karry is a young, native Hong Kong-er with an old soul. We were talking about her facebook page, her favorite discoveries on the internet, how she feels about her online relationships, when she mentioned a quote she had read recently: “The internet is God; it knows everything.”

It does seem to know a lot…especially about Karry. Online is the place where she goes to write about her inner most feelings, thoughts, frustrations, observations and stories. She explained that she posts her ‘very private’ blog, even a book she’s done, on the internet. The subject matter is so sensitive, she has told only a few of her closest friends about the sites. It might seem strange that something so private should be put into such a public space.

I was surprised to find out that she’d be happy for everyone, even other friends, to ‘find’ her work and to read her blogs. “I am not comfortable going '–hey read this,' to my family or co-workers because if it makes them uncomfortable or offended I have to deal with it. But if you’re searching online and find my blog ‘out there’ that’s ok. And if you don’t like it….that’s your problem. I didn’t ask you to read it.”

I never thought about my role and responsibility as a reader: sometimes I’m invited to admire, even participate, sometimes I’m simply a voyeur peering-in at my own risk.

Online is a liberating, accessible place to think, write, create… but it’s also a quiet sanctuary for bold self-expression: a place to speak one’s mind without second-guessing, without feeling burdened or responsible for someone’s negative reaction. This also implies that it’s an amazing platform for powerful connections…

The Truth: whether you’re a blog or a brand, the key to connecting is being not afraid to take a stand and have a genuine point of view.

Digital First-Playgrounds

London

I remember early mornings when I was young, my first instinct would be to leap out of bed and head for my parent’s room. Then to the television set. Later in the day when the rest of the neighborhood was buzzing, I would be released from the house to play with other kids in the nearby gardens and trees. Now for these tiny tots, mornings mean a mad-rush online.

They look adorable and disarming—bed-heads and pajamas, but the reality is wild horses cannot drag them away from something fun on the computer. And the computer seems to be an treasure trove of fun things. They still play board games like Operation, or make-believe (the two older kiddies are fond of imaginary decorator shops and cafes) or watch TV. It depends where the mood takes them. They will sit and watch Cbeebies on TV but go online to play together at Cbeebies.com. Not necessarily in that order.

Even the 2 year old gets involved. Her 7 year old brother tolerates his younger sisters on Cbeebies.com but when he plays backgammon with another little boy online, it’s for him alone. Ever since his dad taught him how to play a few weeks ago he’s been practicing with a boy in Denmark.

TRUTH: For kids, digital is not a separate channel or touchpoint, but a playground. Sharing, playing, exercising the imagination, winning and losing, getting along and even getting to know people from far-away places and cultures—it’s all played out at the computer and online.

Digital Sustainability

Because of its large quantity of users, it was estimated that if Google had a black background we would save close to 750 mega watts per hour. As a response to this bit of information, Google created a black version called Blackle (http://www.blackle.com). It works exactly the same as its white version, but consumes less energy.

Truth: Just because it's virtual, it doesn't mean it can't be sustainable!

Texting your way to love

If you can't relate...lucky you!

Times have changed. The eloquently written love notes of yesteryear probably won't get you very far these days when it comes to serenading that special someone. Want to learn how to be a text messaging Cassanova? Watch this Super News pod and you too can be Texting Your Way To Love in no time.

Virtual Senses

Twelve years ago I remember being wined and dined by some up and coming dot.com that was hosting a seminar and was trying to get as many digital virgins to invest in their new “virtual mall.” At the time it all seemed so futuristic, and therefore sketchy. I opted to invest in my schooling instead. Lucky call. The dot.com crash hit a couple of weeks later.

Ironically, this new, futuristic virtual mall that I had fabricated in my head as a result of this seminar is a far cry from any virtual mall that I have visited in the last 12 years. Was my imagination so limited that I could only conjure up images of this ultramodern place, with drop-dead store designs where I could spend hours perusing and window-shopping, trying on clothes and playing till my jaw dropped in awe? Perhaps. But I tell you what...never in a million years did it occur to me that a virtual shopping mall came down to virtually an online catalogue. What was the point of that?I guess having online access to stores you otherwise couldn’t is a definite advantage. But I must say, I am rarely enwrapped by a website as I have been by real stores. I have never bought anything online because...”it was such an incredible experience, that I just had to have a keepsake...” This might sound like a pipe-dream for marketers, but I have honestly had those thoughts right before pulling out the plastic.

So what is it about online shopping that’s still missing that human je-ne-sais quoi?

Challenge: How can we translate that ineffable sensation of touch, taste & feel that inevitably moves us to the point of irresistible spending? What new senses can the digital world awake that could possibly replace real-life retail therapy?

They live in the streets, but access technolgy

Buenos Aires, Argentina

New generations were born with virtuality, surrounded by remote controls, screens and buttons. But not everybody has the same access to technology. Having or not a computer or internet access creates a digital gap that impacts and reflects the place each one of us has in society.
In Buenos Aires there are about 4000 children that live in “street-situation”, a cold technysism that means that they don’t have a home, or family. These boys and girls live in groups and sleep in trains or subway stations, parks or church porches.

To survive they clean car windows, dance at traffic lights, some of the sell their bodies or they just beg for money. Needless to say, they don’t go to school, so presumably they are not learning to read and write.

But…a study conducted last year revealed a surprising fact: children in “street-situation” spend at least 60% of the money they collect in accessing new technologies. They get together at cybercafés (places with public computers) and play, chat, download music and communicate with each other. Most of them have an email address, although they don’t have a physical one. Lucas, one of them, doesn’t know about percentages, but remembers: “sometimes five or six of us would get together and we would get hocked in a Counter Strike tournament for hours”.
The study also revealed that by doing so these children are learning to read and write, skills that they are not acquiring in a formal way (going to school).

So the Buenos Aires government is trying an unconventional way to fight against the illiterization issue in “street-situation” children: it is creating Ciberencuentros, an initiative that offers free access to public computers for theses children. The cybercafés will also have dormitories, showers and specialist that will try to use technology to attract these children, keep them away from the streets and (hopefully) teach them skills that will allow them to work and survive.

A buenos Aires goverment offical in the opening of a cybercafe for children in "street situation".

So far, four Ciberencuentros centers have been opened in Buenos Aires. Time will say if this is an actionable solution against illiterization, or if it is just an utopist fantasy of some burocrats.

In a polarized world many gaps divide us, but bridging the digital gap might help us to bridge many others.

30,000 Feet Above Ground, Without Any Feeling

Somewhere between Florida and Texas

I’m sitting on the airplane, tired from traveling, but very happy because I got upgraded to first class. The gentleman sitting next to me seems to be completely engrossed in what he is doing. He hardly even notices me as when I sit down next to him. I look over at him and he has a flat digital screen on his lap. I interrupt him and ask him what that mysterious, hi-tech contraption is. It turns out he is reading!

“I got this digital book a few months ago. You can upload just about any book to it and read it. It’s pretty light and easy and it comes with a case. I travel a lot, so its more convenient than carrying a lot of books.”

The man shows me how to use the book and I tell him how cool it is. “Yeah… but I’m still getting used it.” But by the look on his face, he doesn’t seem too excited about it. I ask him if it’s hard to read?

“No its not that, its very easy, practical… but it just doesn’t feel the same… not like a real book. Maybe it’s a tactile thing but, just that feeling of turning the page….its not the same.”

This man, in all his digital, high-tech glory, simply missed the feeling of reading a real book.

Companies value accuracy when it comes to usages, rtb’s and ‘what’s in it for the consumer’ but for real people, the feeling is just as important.

Implication: As brands and products catch up to each other, and technology becomes a commodity, the one thing that will remain unique and invaluable, is the feeling that we deliver.

Disembodied Voices

Sydney. Those of us who were fortunate enough to study abroad can understand the restlessness you get when you have great friends in other time zones. I, for one, have found Facebook, Bebo and the like to be tremendously useful in finding out and keeping updated on friends and family from around the world. One of my friends, Becky (pictured above in an old photo prancing about with her friends from her alma mater, St Andrews University in Scotland), has been writing for the Economist in Japan and is packing her bags for her next journey to yet another (unknown) destination. I know this because she's one of the many blogs I'm subscribed to. Anyway, I wanted to share with you her most recent post - an interesting way to look at the positive side of the "Inter-web":

"Here it is. The final day before, with the usual ceremony of flights and airports and packing, I leave.

It has been a strange few days. Luxuriating in the Internet and its power to bring me friend's voices and ideas, if not their physical presence.

I wonder if this is how it'll always be - friendships growing, not necessarily through experiences, as much as by me, crouched over my laptop, while Cristian in Argentina or Mina in the Ivory Coast or Orly in California sit before theirs. Disembodied voices from around the world.

And the more places I travel, the more important these disembodied voices become - in some ways, they are more solid and less transitory than the people of my every day. They have become my network, my safety net.

So perhaps more than anywhere, my home is built into the fabric of my computer and the world that it allows me to access. My home is the weird network of people and friends and connections - built through years of emails, Skype chats, blogs and MSN messages. Navigating these friendships is a feat of re-imagination. It gets larger every day - as my Tokyo friends now become absorbed into this network, this network of ideas and disembodied voices"

Digital Butlers en la Casa: Servants or Masters?

US-Latinos are tech-savvy and embrace new technology at a fast pace. They get excited about their gadgets and love to flash them around as status symbols. This is well and true for bilingual, bicultural Latinos, but what about the Spanish-dominant, less acculturated dad who also likes these gadgets? Often times, he doesn’t get what mega-pixels are and he isn’t going to spend time browsing over a manual to try and understand aspect ratios. In comes the Latino household ‘Digital Butlers' – the teenaged kids in the house.

On the surface this may seem like a perfect solution against cultural and technological barriers, but there’s a subtle power-shift between these parents and their kids. All of a sudden parents find themselves dependent on and at the mercy of their savvy, bilingual, smartass teenagers. This is where a relationship dynamic comes into play that’s completely against traditional and cultural expectations. Latino parents are stubborn, strong-willed, and apparently know everything there is to know about the world. For them to feel a loss of control or power to their kids equals being a ‘bad’ parent. It’s a threat to their sense of self-worth. Latino parents sometimes disguise and justify their dependency on their kids by acting as if they’re simply telling them what to do – it’s their way of keeping their power. On the other hand, the kids love it. At an age where autonomy, identity and rebellion fits are commonplace, these Latino kids see it as an opportunity to exert their knowledge and skills over their parents. Some may even loose their sense of respect towards their “lame” parents who, in their eyes, just don’t know what they’re talking about most of the time. As technology advances at a quicker pace and as Latinos become more entrenched in mainstream consumer culture, the power from being digitally savvy is becoming increasingly relevant in Latino households.

Truth
It’s not all about fun and discovery; there’s shaky ground where progress meets tradition, a place where even shiny new gadgets can create conflict and adverse feelings.

Opportunity
Turn digital oppressors into digital butlers for the sake of parents!

What Do You Stand For?

New York

Dan is 28 years old and recently married. He is a corporate lawyer by day and a socialist by night. It sounds like a contradiction but somehow Dan makes it work. Recently Dan became particularly intrigued with an online entity called Anonymous. It’s not quite an organization because all of its members are unknown, hence the name, and nearly impossible to trace. They have no website. No mission. They don’t sell anything. Yet, Dan and many many other people are totally into them. The only proof that they exist exists in messages and videos that people find, share and post. Dan says that Anonymous fights against the things that they believe are unjust and evil. He likes what they stand for and that is enough for him.

Dan found out that Anonymous organized a protest against Scientology and decided that he really wanted to go. Not because he is avidly against Scientology. He has never done anything to protest them before or acted against them in any way. He never really thought about it. But he has so much respect for Anonymous and was motivated by their cause, so he decided he wanted to be a part of it. In his words, he was "moved."

Check out this video of Anonymous' message to Scientology:


Implication: Today there are a lot of different ways to communicate with people and spread news. But the Internet is the only place where Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, and Freedom of Assembly happens in the same medium. The digital world can let brands talk to people or talk with people. But lets not forget that its what we stand for that actually moves people… in every sense of the word.

Knowledge Isn’t Everything

New Jersey

Michael is 27 years old. He is a computer programmer for the state of New Jersey and also my cousin. We were hanging out at a family dinner-- one that Michael tried to get out of because he wanted to watch a very important Mets game. To check the score, he whipped out his NEW iPhone! His face lit up as he showed it to me. I got the feeling that he had been counting the minutes since he got to the house for its big reveal. “I love this phone. It’s amazing. My girlfriend and 2 friends chipped in and bought it for my birthday. It’s changed my life.” Michael said that anytime he needs anything, he checks the iPhone. “This phone has helped me stay in bed an extra ½ hour every morning. I check the weather, my email, google stuff, you name it. Anytime I need to know anything. BAM. I got it.”

A little over two weeks later I hung out with Michael and a few of his friends at his apartment to play Wii. We were all talking and once again, Michael took out his iPhone. I said how Michael looooooves his new phone—but I didn’t get the response I expected.

Michael shrugged and said, “Yeah, but it makes me lazy.” Mike's friends chimed in and said that in they always used to debate about some random thing, argue who was right and get all into it and promise to eventually look up the answer. But now, because they have the answer at their fingertips, they just look it up. It turns out, they actually miss not knowing!

Implication: people are sure to lust after new products as they come out. But for the relationship to last we've got to find our place within their lives. Being an encyclopedia only gets you so far.... lets not take the fun out of it.

Buenos Aires, Argentina: How a virtual tribe went urban

Floggers parties at the Mall

Argentina has 2 million Floggers (people who have a fotolog). This figure is quite a lot considering that it has 40 million people, from which only 17 use the internet. In that South-American country, fotolog.com is the 3rd most visited site, coming only after Google and windowslive.com. Again: quite impressive, if we consider that facebook.com ranks 32nd and myspace.com 33rd.
http://geo.fotolog.com/directory?country=AR

Argentinean Floggers are middle class teens who have account to upload their pictures and videos to then get as much comments and visits as possible. This is key because in this way they might achieve a Gold status, which will prove how popular they are, and, that is the main goal of having a fotoblog.





Cumbio, a girl that through her fotoblog became almost a mediatic starlet. http://www.fotolog.com/gommzza/24750786




Four months ago in a spontaneous fashion, some Floggers decided to organize a “real” get-together for people who knew each other only through their fotologs. The day? A Wednesday. The place? The Abasto Shopping Mall in central Buenos Aires. The event was a success. The news spread like a virus and these meetings became weekly attracting more and more Floggers each week.

Currently, hundreds of Floggers between 12 and 18 get together every Wednesday evening at the Abasto Shopping Mall to continue sharing the interests that, when surfing each other’s pages, they have discovered they shared: techno-music, fashion and “themselves”. They dance techno-music on the slippery waxed floor, take pictures and shoot videos that they later upload into their fotologs .













And, just like this, in four months, a virtual tribe acquired the status of urban tribe.

The Floggers, like any other urban tribe (Goths, Darks, or the very Argentinean “Rollingas”) started expressing and recognizing themselves (in the real world) through a very specific look: strident skinny jeans, wristbands, huge t-shirts spunky hairstyles and aviator sunglasses (even indoors!).








Suddenly, they are visible and identifiable , they have become a cultural reference to the whole Buenos Aires society.

Virtual can go real. Real can go virtual. But, some needs (like people’s need to create communities) don’t change. We all need to belong to something and have symbols that will make us similar to some and different to many. Brands can’t force this process, but can use the cyberspace to become meaningful facilitators.

Don't make me feel obligated

Barbie is 16, she lives in Gold Coast, a residential middle class neighbourhood in Hong Kong (for more info about her, see previous post 'my world narrow web').
We surfed together on the websites she usually visits and we ended up spending most of the time on www.xanga.com.

Xanga is a community website that she uses every night to share what she did and how she felt during the day with... the schoolmate she spent the day with!

'Sometimes my friends, when they are sad, they don't dare saying it at school, but they will on their xanga blog: it's easier and by doing so, they won't make everybody sad'.

'When I check my friends latest posts I can see how they felt today and if I want I can get in touch with them to discuss on msn'.

We are in a world where technology often brings new social obligations:
- You Shall Be Reachable Anytime, Anywhere
- You Shall Accept All Friends Invitations On Facebook
- You Shall Apologize on Your Email Autoreply When You Go on Holiday That 'you will be travelling to places with minimal internet access'...

Yet this use of blogs to share your intimate feelings with close friends works the other way round: You start the conversation with no precise listener, like sending a message in a bottle so that none of your friend will feel obligated to listen to you or empathize, the choice remains theirs to pick up the thread or not.

Don't make me feel obligated!

London: Nokia's Business Anthropology

Nokia wanted to find out what some of their emerging markets wanted from a mobile phone:

They asked people from Buduburam near Accra, Favela Jacarezihno in Rio de Janeiro and Dharavi in Mumbai to design their ideal future phone. Rather than use traditional focus groups they got people to sketch and design what their ideal phone might look like.

The results are amazing. You can click here to see the slideshow. Two interesting points.

The first is how the ideal mobile phone is so much more than a communication device to so many people. It ranged from a survival tool to a stress-coping device to an anti crime device. For Sam, an artist from Accra, his design (in the picture above) is an all-in-one device for high-profile businesspeople or celebrities. It includes a DVD player, mini-laptop, and cable TV, and lets users stay in touch with the world, especially when they are on the road or in a remote area with no electricity.

The second point is the way Nokia designed the research. For the most part, I am not a fan of focus groups: They tend to ask the same old questions in the same old way to the same old people. I like to see research that helps people say what they want to say rather than what a moderator prompts them to say.

In this case the results speak for themselves: Every drawing tells a rich story that explains some facet of what these new customers want from a phone and how the company might better serve their needs. It's the human aspect of this study which is so powerful. By getting people to sketch out their ideal phones, they found out about people's identity, their community and heritage.
This method of research is more akin to anthropology than traditional market research. Its not about collecting data, its about understanding what it feels like to be someone in a shanty town.

Advertising people need to become business anthropologists and let go of this ritual of sitting people in a darkened room with strangers and bombarding them with questions. This results of this anthropological study will transform Nokia's business, that is if Nokia's product people have as much imagination as their researchers.

US-Latino Market: Better late than never?

Recently my dad gave me $900 to purchase one of those new plasmas for my birthday. I have nothing against them, but I just didn’t see the point in spending all that money on a new TV when my old one worked just fine. Still, Papi’s coming to visit next week and I knew if he didn’t see a beautiful plasma in my living room, I’d be in trouble.

So this weekend I decided to suck it in, be a big girl about it and drag my husband off to Best Buy. I’d planned on spending as little time on this chore as possible. But finding the right TV quickly became a daunting task. It had to be worthy of replacing our beloved older model. Maybe we could drown our sorrows in a multitude of high-tech features. And surely pristine picture quality would help ease the pain. After all, if we were going to sell our souls, then that TV better be crafted by the devil himself. Before we knew it we were heading back home with a $1,700 piece of plastic and neon in our car.

Bringing it into the house felt like telling your faithful husband you were leaving him for a hot young blond. We’d been seduced by the pretty plasma and we didn’t know how to tell him it was over. We simply shoved him into a corner of the spare room and tried not to look. There was no time to mourn properly. There were just too many new features to play with.

But the hours passed and the enchantment faded. The new screen seemed unnaturally stretched compared with the comfortable little box we’d been used to. And the picture somehow didn’t seem that great anymore. A friend told us that if we left it on for awhile, the picture would get better. But two days have passed and I haven’t noticed a thing. It just stares at us as if defying us not to love it. And we stare right back, demanding its cold robotic face to give us a real reason to love it. A justification for the price of our souls.

You see, I felt like a sucker, a fool. I was just another mortal who had succumbed to the temptations of technology. And we can’t even return it. We don’t have the guts.

Truth:
Technology is like a drug: you go up high, but come down hard. Buying a plasma TV felt like a relapse after years of staying clean. Best Buy should have a rehab center.

London: My Facebook Fatigue

The latest research from the Future Foundation, presented at the Women & Technology seminar in Dec 2007, shows that whilst the frequency of Internet usage of men and women is similar, women & men use the internet for different things in different ways. For example, women are more likely to have uploaded photos, videos or music to a web-site. Women are more likely to have created a personal blog. Women are more likely to have created and updated a personal profile on a social networking site.

According to the Future Foundation, women use a social networking site on average 3 times a week (compared to 3.2 times amongst their male counterpart). Whereas men are more likely to consider “making my opinion heard”, “sharing views” and “displaying personal creativity” key reasons for social networking, women are more likely to use the sites to form communities and listen to the views of other women.

My own experience of Facebook echoes this. At first, I loved it. I discovered that I could get in touch with people that I had lost contact with. I enjoyed adding them to my growing friend list (which made me feel popular) and discover what they were up to. For a while I updated my profile religiously and I imagined that my contacts would be curious about what I was up to.
However, as my friend-list grows I found myself overwhelmed by updates from my modest list of friends. I began to realise that there is a very good reason I do not keep in regular contact with the extended cloud of contacts with whom facebook shares my updates.

The truth is that I'm not that all that curious about their lives and nor are they with mine otherwise we would have never have lost contact in the first place. Most of the 'status updates' consist of mundane activities of people I barely know any more. Consequently the more friends I add, the less valuable Facebook becomes.

Cory Doctrow was one of the first to debate the diminishing value of social networking: The more people get involved in a social network, the more users are likely to encounter people they'd rather avoid. And whilst it may be socially awkward to refuse to add someone to your friends list, deleting them from your friend-list is practically a declaration of war.

The problem seems to be that Facebook treats a mundane update like 'watching TV' with the same degree of importance as 'Getting married'. Likewise it cannot distinguish between my closest friends and people I've not seen since I was a child but thought it would be fun to add to Facebook.

My own usage of Facebook has declined rapidly after an initial bubble of enthusiasm. I no longer feel a desire to monitor my friends' updates. The barrage of mostly meaningless email solicitations from 3rd party plug-ins. In Cory's words, the social network has transformed into something which has "the social graces of a nose-picking, hyperactive six-year-old, standing at the threshold of your attention and chanting, "I know something, I know something, I know something, won't tell you what it is!"

Obviously the social networks need to find a balance between 3rd party added-value and the proliferating nuisance from third-party extensions. That should be easy enough and a good start, but there is a much bigger opportunity for brands. Brands need to find a way to stay relevant post that initial bubble. I'd like to see a social network which can recognize that not all friends are created equal.

I Beat Up My Fiance

NYC

I’m terrible at tennis, my eyesight is so shocking I can barely see the ball as it whizzes past me. The closest I’ve got to a boxing ring is a self-defense class when I was 11 years old. But this morning, after bagels and lox at our friends' place, I discovered my inner tennis ace, and my hidden boxing champ.



After two victorious games of tennis against my beloved, followed by six outstanding rounds in the ring, where I finished him off with a knockout punch, I was breathless and exhausted. I was in need of a small gym towel and a bottle of water.

Winning was cool, but the real thrill was the physical/digital ability to take on a man stronger and sportier than me.

Challenge: Inspire people to dream beyond their limitations.

Rock Star Lawyer

NYC



Joel is one of those (rare) guys who’s never really been into gaming. But last year he turned 30 and his girlfriend bought him a Wii and Guitar Hero. He is now a self confessed addict. His favorite Guitar Hero song may even make the playlist at his wedding later this year.



Joel works long hours at a law firm, and recently he’s been coming home at 2 or 3am and playing for half an hour before crashing. “I can zone out, it relaxes me.”

After 17 hours of being a lawyer, 30 minutes of being a rock star is just what he needs to finish the day.

Challenge: Don’t just give people something to DO in the digital world, give them something to BE.

HDTV: THE NEW DIGITAL CAMPFIRE

We spend on average 4 hours a day watching TV. Received opinion is that Television is at the root of society's problems.

A day Xploring with a London family highlights a new perspective. At Sarah and Andy's house, the new Panasonic 37inch HDTV has an altar like status. It has pride of place in the living room. It's become a camp-fire for the most sacred rituals of togetherness. It's time after the kids have gone to bed, the first time Sarah has sat down all day and the first time Andy has seen his work after a long day at the office. It's their time. It's the time they will tell stories to each other about the ups and downs of the day in between commenting on what they are watching. It's their time flirt with each other. They snuggle up under their fluffy blanket (reserved only for watching telly) and connect not only to what they are watching but to each other.

Modern camp-fires are lit exclusively for recreation which is the main purpose of the TV room. Staring into the flames of a camp fire is mesmerizing. The TV room is also a good venue for intimate conversation and storytelling. Families connect (and argue) in their TV room. Families share confidences, stories, their fears, their desires.

It seems to me that TVs still bring families together, and yet most manufacturers would much rather sell TVs based on somewhat abstract product feature claims (e.g. clarity, brightness). No doubt we will see a return to these cliches as the Olympic season dawns. But given that the TV room is a mostly female domain I feel that brands would be better off positioning their products as things which bring a family together and forgetting the technical jargon entirely.

(My) World Narrow Web

Barbie, is 16, she lives and has always lived in Hong Kong. She was very self conscious about her ability to speak English, but despite she has never been doing any exchange program or stay abroad, when listening to her, I felt like I should be the self conscious one when it comes to speak english…

I spend a bit more than an hour with her surfing on internet from her room among giant Doraemon and Hello Kitty dolls.

Surfing with Barbie, suddenly the World Wide Web seemed very small.

She spends about 2 hours almost every night on her computer, but most of the time she would use only 2 applications: www.xanga.com and msn messenger.

She has over 150 msn messenger names in her contact list, but only 8 bookmarked websites.

She has 100 plus friends in her xanga.com weblog, but all of them are in Hong Kong.

In such a narrow web, space for brands to get in touch with her seems very limited. She can’t remember visiting any brand website (‘what do you mean by brands’ she asked me back? How refreshing that was…).

Intimacy and proximity are key to get in touch with her in her ‘My World Narrow Web’. From a user perspective the web is often a small and intimate place but few brands take that into account in the way they communicate online.

The Power of Discovery

New York

I had a love affair with my Nintendo Wii from the moment I laid eyes on it. It was a simple attraction at first. I had seen an ad for the Wii sports game and thought it looked like so much fun; instead of going out, I could invite friends over and we’d play Wii tennis! I courted the Wii for weeks. Looked it up online. Checked it out in stores. Thought about spending the money. Then one morning, I woke up at 6 am, waited outside of Best Buy for 2 hours and came home with the Wii.
But since then I have been discovering new sides to my Wii. I can surf the internet on the Wii, buy any Nintendo game (even the original Mario Brothers) by downloading them directly through the Wii... I can even challenge strangers through the internet to a game of Guitar Hero on my Wii. AMAZING. I love that I didn’t know all these features right away. I had to play with it and explore all the elements. I love that I don’t know what I’m going to discover next.

Implication: Seduction isn’t about showing your cards all at once. Leave some things to be discovered and the relationship will last

Digital Urban Legends

New York

This past weekend I went to a family bar mitzvah and like most family events, there was little to do but eat and drink. My mother, after having one mimosa (that’s right, only one) found herself slightly ‘over-served’, which is mom speak for slightly buzzed. She joyously ran to the (empty) dance floor and proceeded to dance some kind of combination between a traditional Romanian folk dance and Kris Kross ‘jump’. Lets just say, it cannot accurately be described. My boyfriend, who is never without his digital camera managed to record this ‘so you think you can dance’ moment and uploaded the footage to youtube so the family could all watch it. We all agreed, including my mother (she has a wonderful sense of humor) that this would go down in the bar mitzvah hall of fame.

But a few days later my mother called me up. “Jessica, I want you to take down that video of me off of the Internet,” she asked in a sullen, nervous voice. I immediately felt badly, thinking that my mom was embarrassed and been hiding it all this time… but I was way off. “Its just that I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m really worried about identity theft.” Huh?

It turned out that for days my mom had been thinking about all of potential disasters that might happen as a result of her Internet debut. What if someone used the video to get her social security number? What if someone saw her dancing and accused her of faking her herniated disk (her very serious back injury). I have to admit I rolled my eyes at my paranoid, baby boomer mother, but of course took the video off of youtube.

But then I got to thinking about my own circle. I too have heard stories about people mistakenly sharing too much online. Didn’t some girl talk about sex and drugs on her facebook page and lost her job because of it? Don’t corporations google people to make sure they are who they say they are? Despite our differences, my mother and I have both heard quite a few urban legends about sharing too much and paying the price.

Implication: Urban legends may not be true, but they still influence the way we act and how we feel. Things don’t have to be real, to be real in their consequences … even in the digital world.

Which One is the true self portrait?

New York:
This is a piece that was featured in the New York Times Magazine last summer of regular people and their not-so-regular avatars. From the moment I saw it I knew I couldn’t bear to part with it. Hardly any descriptions or explanations were included with the photos. But with images like these, who needs words?
I can’t help but wonder what these people are trying to say? Who are they trying to be? Is this how they see themselves? The one thing that is clear to me is that real people can find a freedom in the virtual world that they can’t have in the real one. This is where they dare to dream.
A famous philosopher wrote about the duality of human nature: each person has their socialized self, the person that society and civilization tells them to be, and their true self, who is wild and free. I can’t help but see these dual portraits and wonder, which one is more real?

Implication: Give people the freedom to explore and express themselves without judgment. This may be the only place their imagination can be set free.

Play Games at the Dinner Table

New York.

One of the most buzzed about exhibitions in New York right now is ‘Design and the Elastic Mind’ at MOMA. Sophie and I trekked up to Midtown a few days ago to check it out.

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/

Mind blowing.

And overwhelming, but two projects stuck with me.

Moritz Weldemeyer’s Pong Table is a basic kitchen table. A closer look reveals the table surface to be a giant computer game.



What better way to start the day than sitting down with your cup of Joe, a bowl of cereal and a quick game of Pong with your kids before heading out the door for work.

It’s not such a big leap to imagine your iPhone, enlarged to table top size…. Instead of ‘pass the salt please’ it might be ‘pass that email please.’

And the chair you’ll sit in… why not sketch it in thin air? Motion capture and digital technology will make it for you.



http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/#/235/

But by far the most touching and inspiring project in the entire exhibition is Alan Outten’s challenge to school children to create the things of the future.






http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/#/269/


What good is digital technology without imagination? Children have the most elastic minds on the planet. The best players in the digital world will be the ones who can think like children.

Amazon Found My Wedding Shoes

New York.




This xplorer is getting hitched. As every girl knows, the wedding dress is the most important thing. For me, shoes come in a close second. So over the past few weeks I’ve been doing some serious shoe shopping, both on and offline.

A few days ago I went to amazon.com in search of an overpriced Polaroid camera. Surprisingly, on the home page, staring me in the face were my perfect wedding shoes.

My instant delight quickly changed to weirded out skepticism as I mentally joined the dots and realized that Amazon had been ‘snooping’ on my shoe shopping. It all has something to do with cookies… I’m not techie enough to know for sure.

Amazon new my size, the heel height, color and style I was after. And then right when I least expected it they served my up my ideal shoe, at an ideal price.

I bought the shoes. I love them. But I still feel a little creeped out that Amazon is watching me shop.

Opportunity: Remember your manners! You might get one sale, but you won’t get much respect or love. In the new digital world the nosy snooping neighbors will quickly be shut out. Why not be the ‘gentleman.’

Honesty Is Still The Best Policy

Manila

In this entertainment-crazed town, the hottest draw of the moment is not the latest TV soap or Holywood blockbuster. It's 'The Talented Mr. Montano' (http://delfindjmontano.blogspot.com), the personal blog of one Brian Gorrell, an Australian who once had a Filipino boyfriend named DJ Montano.

Brian started the blog as a way of shaming socialite DJ into paying him the $70,000 that DJ conned out of him during their relationship. The blog has all the requisite elements for a compelling read: tales of sex, drug use, violence and social climbing. The blog has literally been an overnight wonder, generating 70,000 unique views just 5 days after it was started (and the numbers have continued to grow). It has viewers from all over the world, of different nationalities and has generated coverage by the mainstream media as well.

Juice stories aside, what has been interesting about this blog is the tremendous empathy that Brian has received from thousands of faceless stangers. Even without them knowing the full score, they assume that Brian is indeed the victim. Some have even started a Paypal account to take donations to help fund Brian's crusade. Brian's raw honesty appears to be working well for him in this case.

Opportunity: Being honest and transparent is a powerful source of respect. As they explore the digital world, brands need to be prepared to lose some control and tell the truth about themselves, unpleasant as it may sometimes be.

Facebook Cocktail

Kuala Lumpur

This was a menu item that Ai Ming saw in Somo, an upscale restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Aside from being a nice conversation piece, it's also an interesting glimpse into how our online and offline worlds are feeding off each other.

The 'Flaming Lamborghini' isn't a new drink. Neither is it particularly more potent than other cocktails. But framing its potecny as Facebook-grade suddenly makes it a lot more intriguing (which makes you want to try it even more!) Adding tagging to the mix gave the drink a completely new flavor that a physical ingredient might not.

Which made me wonder...what other products or brands could we reinvigorate by colliding with concepts from our digital life? What if we could easily 'mouse over' stains with Tide? What if we could 'tag' Samsonite luggage with our travel history?

Opportunity: Colliding existing real world concepts with digital concepts could lead to fresh ideas

Facebook and other social networks have a strong 'self-branding' aspect to them in that they give people a venue to position themselves. Differentiation comes from having good content and good content comes from having interesting experiences. In that sense, our digital life puts a premium on collecting these interesting experiences.

Which is probably why this drink has appeal. The funny face it claims to give you makes for good content. The kind of content that would be interesting to other people.

Opportunity: If people's experiences are used as content, then brands need to find ways of turning people's brand/product experiences into content worth sharing. 

Mystery Wins

Toronto.

Sandy's teenage son always has a camera in his hand. Just the other day Sandy asked him why had he switched back to using film when he has 2 perfectly good digital cameras?

"I'd rather have the mystery than the knowing."

Opportunity: Anticipation and wonder are powerful human emotions. Bring some much needed mystery to the hyper-instant digital world.

Same gesture, same purpose?

This scene happened on the train between Hong Kong and Shenzhen the 10 million megalopolis created ex-nihilo over the last 25 years over the chinese border.
For more than half an hour I got fascinated how this young couple adopted the very same gesture, while one was playing on his Nintendo DS, and the other putting make up.

Both were observing a reflection of themselves.

As Aisea put it in a previous post from Australia, digital world is mainly about creating and augmenting one's self-identity.

Brands For Hire

Sydney.

For an Xploring project we have for one of our clients, I became a cameraman for the wedding of Kathy and Tim H. 

One of Kathy's friends confided in me that, despite herself, Kathy had become a 'bridezilla'. In her bridezilla-dom, Kathy had hired a small army of photographers and videographers, leaving this Xplorer jostling for positions amongst the swarm of paparazzi seeking to take that 'perfect shot'. 

I decided to move out of the ratrace and stand next to Steve, one of Tim's uni mates, who had brought along his new Sony Handycam to shoot. Curiously, while all the photographers and videographers kept their cameras and lenses trained on the speeches, Steve retired his Handycam back into its carrybag.

"Why aren't you shooting the speeches?", I asked.

"They're better as photos, nobody wants to see this on video"

"Why not?"

"Mate, people want to see movement, that's why I'm waiting for the waltz before I start shooting again"

It reminded me of a group we had for a baby food client, where one mum shared that she didn't bother bringing out the video camera until her baby started crawling. "Until then, it's all pretty boring isn't it? I'd rather take all the nice photos while baby is still getting used to the world".

As technology starts to converge and video cameras become photo cameras and vice-versa, it sometimes can be hard to forget that consumers essentially "hire" products for "jobs" they need to accomplish. The "job" of capturing a moment still belongs to the camera and the "job" of capturing moving pictures still belongs to the video camera.

Research we conducted for an electronics client confirmed that people still carried digital cameras alongside their multimedia phones. Why? Because they were still unconvinced that mobile phone cameras could take 'important photos' (i.e. pre-planned events, such as a wedding, 21st birthday).  

Truth: Brands need to think about what "jobs" their products can accomplish for consumers. Consumers are constantly redefining what "jobs" they expect their digital products to complete. In a world of convergence, brands can often become jack-of-all-trades but masters of nothing - a dangerous place to be. 

"So Old School"

Sydney.

It's a rainy Wednesday night and Puma are throwing a launch party to celebrate a new shoe line at the new MTV studios here in Sydney. Never one to pass up a free drink, this Xplorer made a beeline to the beer queue. It was just another Gen Y-party, as half the room remained in perpetual pose, each camera flash followed by laughs and squeals as everyone congregates to see if their photos are "Facebook quality". 

The theme was "old school" (in the hip-hop sense) and as DMC gave way to the Beastie Boys, it occurred to me that most of the crowd weren't even born when these songs were recorded. Even more mysterious was the fact that the crowd seemed to genuinely reflect upon 'the good old days' as if growing up in suburban Sydney circa-1994 was anything remotely like Brooklyn in the 1970s and 80s. 

Truth: Pop-culture is a permanent, moving mash-up of cultures and time-periods. There is no longer a linear path to 'what's hot right now'. Instead, we live in a universe of infinite 'mainstreams' that make it hard to pin down what really is 'cool' amongst young consumers. 

I quizzed several people about their favourite songs and the response was an eclectic - if not baffling - mix of pop, rap, rock and everything inbetween. Nisha, a proud Punjabi-Australian was channeling British rapper M.I.A. with her mix-and-match assortment of early 90s Reebok Pumps with her ksubi jeans. A browse of her Nokia N-Series music library read like a 'Best of the late 90s' compilation: a little Britney, a little *NSYNC, even a Trisha Yearwood single (how embarrassment). Nisha was at the party with her "gay husband", Joshi, who lamented the lack of any Notorious B.I.G. tracks from the DJ. "I have them on my iPod, I should just go up there and tell the DJ to put my iPod in!", Joshi screamed, downtrodden that he didn't know the lyrics to the song that was playing.

Suddenly, just as Joshi thought the world was to end, the DJ spun onto "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems". Nisha flung her purse at me, took Joshi straight to the dancefloor as they joined a rabble of teens and twentysomethings delicately lip-sync the rap lyrics. Suddenly, the crowd became a sea of digital camera flashes as the second genre of Facebook photos ('the mid-dancing, two-fingers in a v-shape pose') started to take shape. 

Over the course of a few hours, I had seen a phalanx of digital products being used (digital camera, mobile phones, Bluetooth devices... even the DJ was working off a pre-mixed iTunes playlist on his MacBook Pro), but it was all incidental to the partygoers. As far as Nisha and Joshi were concerned, they had photos and videos that would tell the story of their night. Joshi would forget about the songs he didn't like, Nisha would forget about the fact that a girl spilled raspberry vodka on her expensive jeans. What they would keep in mind are the hot photos they took of each other and the good time they had at the MTV party their friends couldn't go to.

Opportunity: Consumers - especially those born after 1985 - are using digital products to create and augment their self-identity. Allow consumers to tell the story they want to tell about themselves. Let them invent and re-invent themselves in the digital space.