Old Media vs New: right debate, wrong question

February 11, 2008February 12, 2008 / Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

“Speech over the radio is as likely as a man jumping over the moon.” – Thomas Edison

I am always reminded of ‘predictions’ like this when someone tells me questions such as “Will anyone read books on cell phones?” or “Will laptops ever become obsolete?” The problem with questions like this is that they frame the debate wrong, or to put it a better way, we frame the question with words that relate to industries that are being redefined even as we speak. Books are not always paper-based, when you consider audio books, eBooks and now books on readers such as Amazon’s Kindle.

In the famous debate (which won’t go away) over film vs digital, Roger Clark, a photographer, tells us the question really is a debate over “film versus electronic sensors.”

In the debate over whether blogs amount to journalism, we get distracted by trying to apply what we know about them -are they both ‘filters,’ or ‘gatekeepers?’ — because both blogs and journalism are changing, and the question becomes irrelevant. You can compare Kevin Sites, with say Brian Williams if the debate was simply one about “Should journalists blog?” but that’s the wrong question. Rather it should be “How best should journalists tell their story?” Sites, if you recall worked for the usual suspects NBC, CNN and ABC, but was last working for Yahoo! (Which re-frames the question, the Yahoo Vs Microsoft issue notwithstanding, “Is Yahoo a news organization?”)

Which brings me back to the “speech over radio” issue. Mobile devices have allowed us to accomplish the moon-jump that Edison though impossible, and it is taking us into new territory. We could debate forever old questions such as “will cell phones replace land lines,” but the real question is whether mobile devices (that may or may not happen to be phones) change conversations. Already micro-blogging, mobile search, and photography are seeing new models emerge thanks to these devices.

At this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, actor-director-indie film guru Robert Redford will speak at an event called Mobile Backstage. His topic is about the “Fourth screen” as a medium for filmmakers. In case you’re wondering what this term means, consider this. Until recently there was a lot of talk about mobile devices being the “Third screen” –after television and the computer. Everyone got very excited about the 3-screen possibilities. Today we are talking of a different set of screens for the entertainment industry: the cinema screen, television and the gaming console were the first three. Mobile devices are the fourth.

From a communications perspective then, put them all together and you’ve got 5 screens, and you could configure them any way to suit your campaign or outreach program. Content will always be fluid, media will always be non-linear, so let’s not get locked in by asking the wrong question. The Mobile World Congress’ theme is “ideas in motion” –not platforms in motion!

Cult of the amateur: provocative idea, wrong lens

January 23, 2008January 19, 2008 / Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

If you loved Wikinomics, you’ve got to read Andrew Sheen’s “The cult of the amateur.” It forces your brain to take a compare the seductive arguments about knowledge democratization, and the decline of social values as a result of user-generated content.

On the face of it Sheen is a cross between Vincent Bryan Key (Subliminal Seduction) and Neil Postman (Amusing ourselves to death) both warning about the dangerous trends in advertising (in 1974), and television culture (in 1986) respectively.

He sees the internet as the slippery slope of literary, moral and cultural standards, and seems to try hard to relate it to amateurism. Indeed, the struggle between old media and its receptacles, versus new media and the infinite pores out of which this new content is flowing is easy to cast as one between the good guys and the baddies.

But it’s not, and I discuss why, here in my detailed review of the book, at ValleyPRblog.

Social Media Resume –its about time

January 22, 2008January 19, 2008 / Angelo Fernando / 4 Comments

Today’s jobs find job seekers because of the profiles and filters they set up long before the job search begins. For HR managers, Google searches and the ability to look at social media profiles of potential candidates short circuit the time between making a short list and making a decision.

I recently had a great discussion with Mike McClary about the rising importance of a social media profile, and the declining returns of a resume. I had written about this for a student newsletter, and it was waiting to be expanded on. Mike, a podcaster, blogger and writer is deep into this stuff. We started calling this resume 2.0 phenomenon the “Social Media Resume” or SMR. (I know it’s gonna compete with the Social Media Press Release.)

The structure of a boring, chronological resume is trapped in the old media world, swirling with ‘resume words’ rather than key words, using chronology, rather than highlights, depending on hype rather than hyperlinks. Isn’t that really odd? It’s the equivalent of sending someone a fax of a print out of he storyboard of your award-winning video, when you could easily send her the URL on YouTube.

The SMR could be enhanced to include links, and new media element. But it’s not even about the layout. Your SMR could be a dynamic thing, a collective impression based on the digital tracks you leave behind. These could be comments on a blog, trackbacks to yours, a Twitter or Jaiku comment, a paper published in college, announcements in a hometown paper about your recent appointment to a board, a lawsuit (in your favor, hopefully), being named on a top ten list, or a book review on Amazon. I just stumbled on the fact that my technology column is picked up by Amazon, and appears in edocs. Amazing!

The old media resume doesn’t allow for this adaptation. Like branding in the 1.0 world, it was all about push, looking cool, and impressive. Personal branding in the web 2.0 world is all about the pull, and about the web of influence you have built around yourself through feedback, activism, networking and participation.

The resume has not been pronounced dead, but it is on life support. The SMR will soon fill its place.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking it in my social media resume…

Marketing in the midst of turbulence

January 21, 2008January 23, 2008 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

There are disruptive winds blowing across Asia too.

In Sri Lanka, Thayalan Bartlett, CEO of JWT writes about how an agency has to adapt its marketing and advertising when facing up to the ripple effects of climate change and the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the U.S.

Turbulent times, he says, are studded with opportunities, and need to be factored into marketing plans.

Encouraging words from an “agency.”

Full disclosure: Being a former employee, I have been asked to contribute to the JWT blog.

Quotes for the week ending 19 Jan, 2008

January 19, 2008January 19, 2008 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“I am particularly glad that The Future of Ideas is now freely licensed. … I’m glad it now has a chance to flow a bit more freely.”

Larry Lessig, on news that his book (published by Random House in September last year), is now available as a free download under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

“I know you are supposed to put the “5 W’s” in the first paragraph of a release, but if it was me, I’d want to see this right off the top.”

Charlote Risch, at ValleyPRBlog, on an announcement of a partnership between CBS Radio and North Central News, a local newspaper in Phoenix.

“We call them lifeaholics.”

Hillary Benjamin, senior marketing director at Equinox Fitness Club, on the provocative ad campaign it launched through Fallon Worldwide, aimed an a professional, urban audience with high household income.

“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

The new definition of marketing, as defined by the American Marketing Association.

“… they followed the rules of the game – but the game had changed. It went from billiards to soccer.”

Jeremy Pepper, on POP! PR Jots on “truth versus blogosphere truth,” commenting on the often misrepresented case about Kryptonite’s PR, and how bloggers rush to contribute to the echo chamber without checking their facts.

“This is a chance for writers to do what they do best–be original and tell stories.”

Writers Guild of America, quoted in MediaPost, on an online site StrikeTV, to be launched in February.

“We are at a huge crossroads in this industry, and they know it. They want to take our entire body of work, and give us this (makes gesture) give us zero for it.”

Luisa Leschin, via video, who worked on all 120 episodes of The George Lopez Show, and was co-exec producer.

Rewriting your job description?

January 16, 2008January 17, 2008 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

The new media will rewrite your job description before your boss does. That’s the reality of many professions, particularly those connected to or dependent on information industries –and which aren’t?

Change is hard, and threatening. Digital culture is fraught with problems as I noted in my assessment of The Cult of the Amateur, but that does not mean we ought to fear or reject it.

Jeff Jarvis, a professor in journalism makes an interesting point (Fighting the future) about naive and dangerous thinking within J-schools right now, about the kind of experimentation newsrooms in print and electronic media need to indulge in to participate in the era of democratized content.

Most jobs today require collaboration and sharing, but digital culture is making us do it in newer ways. Almost every meeting I sit in includes a discussion about setting up a wiki. Photo sharing isn’t just for amateurs or for building albums to share with grandma. Many of the Pros are on to this. I found this picture (on the left) covering the recent California fires. It’s from a collection of images by Alex Miroshnichenko, a freelance photographer based in Southern California, who’s made them available on Flickr. In case you cannot recognize it, it’s a melted stop sign.

Speaking of sharing, Christopher Sessums director of the office of distance education at the University of Florida is someone who blogs on EduSpaces, a social networking site around education. His job description goes as: “Coordinating resources for faculty & administrators to produce online degree programs & courses.” But he refers to himself by two words: “change agent.” His thinking is indeed all about adapting to change, writing on topics such as the future of knowledge portals – how library web sites need to be a cross between Wikipedia and Amazon.

“Imagine a space where librarians upload mp3s, pictures (png, jpg), text (links to texts, outside sources/links), movies (mpg, mov, wmv). Associated with each file “pile” is a place for users/librarians to add comments, additional links, photos, user feedback/conversation.”

More like chief disruptor.

What does your job title say about you? Seat warmer or change agent?

Positioning PCs and Cars for the hoi polloi

January 11, 2008January 11, 2008 / 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.