Author: Angelo Fernando

Positioning PCs and Cars for the hoi polloi

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

The war to position “people’s” products has begun.

Intel bailed out of Nicholas Negroponte’s One laptop Per Child (OLPC) project to launch it’s World Ahead program with it’s low cost Classmate PC. Not too long ago, there was such a thing as a Linux-based “People’s PC” in Asia. To most marketers, people’s products aren’t sexy, and don’t make money. So it was only expected when Bill Gates scoffed at the idea of the $100 laptop from OLPC. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft works its way back into the picture.

This week’s big news is the $2,500 “People’s Car” from Tata Motors in India –not the first time a car has been positioned as a people’s car. Henry Ford, who knew a thing or two about positioning, called the Model-T the People’s Car.

While Tata’s ‘”Nano” is all the rage, there’s another competitor aiming at this sweet spot: Bajaj Motors. Most media coverage talks of the opportunity for a people’s car as converting scooter owners to car owners. In Asia, there is a huge segment of commuters who use the three-wheeler variously known as the “tut-tut,” the “auto-rickshaw,” and the “scooter taxi.” Not by accident Tata’s Nano looks like a souped up version of the tut-tut.

Combative use of social media in Writer’s Strike

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Just like anything else in the mass- and narrow media world, the Writers’ strike has some interesting ripple effects . The Golden Globes was canceled, NBC has to refund up to $15 million in advertising, and has got creative with promos, while affiliated industries and their supporting artists –hair dressers, limo drivers, party organizers etc are losing out too.

Of course, everything’s connected to everything else –nothing new if you’re dabbling in social media. BBC is now reporting that YouTube and other video sites are seeing a lift in. viewership.

Which brings me to United Hollywood, the blog for the Writers Guild of America. They have a YouTube site where they chronicle everything they are fighting about, most of which is about being paid for content distributed online.

It gets better. One video, featuring the exec producer of Private Practice announces that WGA is ‘hosting’ an annual short film contest -basically soliciting user generated content (think of the irony here!) on themes such as –are you ready for this?– “why sharing is nice,” “show the moguls why the internet has value..” “why animation writing is writing,” etc. Videos need to be a maximum length of 4 minutes, could be from any genre (even mockumentary!) and needs to end with the line “We’re all on the same page.” The contest ends Feb 20th.

So far there are 92 videos, including this one addressing Rupert Murdock and his “holy grail” quote. Brilliant!

Visualization meets communication – my new job

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A new phase of my career kicked in this week at ASU. I’ve joined the Decision Theater. A perfect fit for my deep interest in technology and collaborative media.

Excuse the brochure-speak, but if you’ve never stepped into an “immersive environment” on the edge of information technology this is it. The thing that strikes me is how useful it would be to apply this blend of informatics and visualization to other disciplines. Marketers and analysts who value pattern recognition will relate to this high end visualization.

If you’ve dabbled in database mismanagement, you know that spreadsheets and bar charts in spiral-bound books don’t quite set people’s heartbeats racing. Which would you prefer: reading a 90-page document on the ‘water atlas’ or moving a slider to see what happens to the community when reservoir levels dip? Data in 3D, and information presented as alternative scenarios make us want to do something, because we don’t live in one dimensional worlds.

Speaking of which, there was a lot of talk in the last year that the web as we know it is quietly gravitating to a “3D web.” For now it’s a visually interactive web, but the visualization part is making quantum leaps.

Let me know if you would like to see what the future of decision making looks like.

Never too late to learn: lessons from a pizza driver

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

pizzaA real estate agent I met last week has an interesting story. He had moved from Washington state a few years ago and got himself hired as a pizza delivery driver. Not to support himself, but to force himself to learn the roads in the Phoenix metro area, fast.

I thought this was a great example of how, sometimes we need to put ourselves at the ground floor just for the learning experience. Easier said than done. We tend to narrow our learning experience: hang out with ‘people like us,’ subscribe to only the content that matches our professional interests (with RSS, iGoogle and other widgets.)

Getting into the pizza business for Steve was not about the (pardon the pun) dough or the toppings. It was about how to reach customers. His future customers!

Quotes for the week ending 5 Jan, 2008

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“You and I will heal this nation and repair the world and finally have an America that we can believe in again in four days time.”

Barack Obama, in New Hampshire, following his win in Iowa. (Quoted in The New York Times)

“Though it’s tempting to get into a race where your aim becomes to reach 1000 followers on Twitter or and equally high number of Facebook friends, it doesn’t offer anything more than a temporary ego boost. “

Rohit Bhargava of Influential Marketing, on one of the three things he plans to do in 2008, including “making better friends.”

“The key is little ‘m’ media – the information, the experiences, and the stuff that we consume and share every day.”

Brian Reich, on how organizations need to change the way they approach media.

“Make no mistake, the Web is taking over. Applications are moving to browsers en masse…”

Washington Post’s 25 most innovative products of the year.

“I equate social networks to snowflakes, no two are the same.”

Tom Whittaker, responding to post by Krishna De on Facebook (which she calls relaxed and eclectic) and LinkedIn (which she says is used by people in Leadership roles.

“It’s very ‘fudgable’ “

Dan Wool, on the Business Journal’s top 10 list of PR agencies in Phoenix using head count as one of the criteria, being flawed.

“Users can restrict who sees their information, and block users”

“Computing Which?” magazine, quoted in Media Guardian, on why Bebo beat Facebook and MySpace among social networking sites.

“Sack the political thug!”

Editorial in Leader Newspapers on Sri Lankan Cabinet minister Mervyn Silva who stormed a government TV station and had red paint thrown on him as he was ‘rescued’ by police. The station broadcast the embarrassing saga live.

Live Blogging Police Officers – new job title?

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New media has made us wear a lot of new hats. It’s also created new job titles such as CBO (Chief Blogging Officer), Manager of Digital Convergence, and Virtual World Bureau Chief (the chap from Reuters, hanging out in Second Life.)

But who’s going to be the one managing (as in snooping on) live blogging at NCAA games? They announced that there will be certain times blogging will be permitted during games. Does that mean there will be a posse armed with wi-fi detectors and binoculars roaming the stands to see who’s thumb typing on a smart phone?

Technologies I’ll be watching

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What’s a “cross browser?” Heard of Wikiversity? How would you operate a virtual office?

For my technology coverage this year I plan to pay some attention to Microsoft Silverlight, or what they refer as to the next generation media experience using a cross browser. Wikiversity, by the folks who gave us Wikimedia bears watching for anyone involved in education and knowledge management.

The virtual office is coming of age. Zoho offers online-offline virtual office features that make Google docs (something I have used a lot) look quite tame. Zohomail has multi language support, apart from calendaring, groupspace etc.

What to look for in social media in 2008

/ Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments

After the mixed bag of social media triumphs and hiccups last year, here are some positive things to watch out for in the new year:

1. Coming clean. Wal-mart’s site, Working Families for Walmart, has moved the project in house, out of PR Agency Edelman. You may recall astroturfing issue over the original fake blog, or flog.

2. Publishing and Crowdsourcing. The book on Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe (to be published by Random House early 2008) used the concept of wisdom of the crowds to create a book jacket.They call it ‘coversourcing‘ and you can participate. Entries close on 10 February 2008.

3. Intranet makeovers. Social networks have given organizations a taste of how to (un)manage employee communications. Marc Wright has a great how to article in the Jan-Feb issue of CW (membership required) about how to dip ones toes into web 2.0 with what organizations already have: the staff directory, video library, a project wiki and a user group.

4. Social media knowledge distribution: Combine the spark generated by wireless book readers such as Kindle and the trends such as the OpenCourseWare initiative (by MIT,) and it is entirely possible for knowledge industries to give users new ways to access content.

5. Niche marketing to cell phones. This is a wild card. A lot depends on how much of social media nodes and features cell phone carriers incorporate into handsets and service plans. Even without their help, as we have more points of access via Bluetooth and WiFi, we could be using our phones to do more. We could ‘attend’ events targeted at small groups, and participate/collaborate live via phones rather than laptops.

Quotes for the week ending 28 Dec, 2007

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“She was wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt, the one with the sassy tongue sticking out.”

Syndicated columnist, David Ignatius, recalling the young Benazir Bhutto, as a cub reporter at Harvard.

“When we do foolish things, they come back around to bite you.”

Arizona Republic reader commenting on the ‘mistake” a Mayo Clinic doctor made in using a cell phone to photograph the tattooed “member” of a patient.

“We bring an energy-sapping debate to a close.”

Warner Music CEO, Edgar Bronfman in a message to employees about making available music in MP3 format on Amazon.com.

“They didn’t want to be part of the conversation; they wanted to be the topic of the conversation.”

Todd Defren on the bastardization of social media where a company like to mark off the check box, but unwilling to engage with people.

“Women must not only be presenting the news, they must be making the decisions that determine what gets broadcast in the first place.”

Katherine Rake, director of the Fawcett Society, commenting on a study that found under-representation of women in newsrooms.

“w00t”

Merriam-Webster’s 2007 word of the year, voted by readers. The word, comprising two zeros between the letters w and t, is an interjection, an expression of joy similar in use to the word “yay,” says MW.

“I have been thrilled, and a little surprised, by the genuine disbelief that a cabinet level agency could have started a legitimate blog complete with criticism and contrary opining.”

Heath Kern, editor of Dipnote, the State Department blog that began in 2007.