carlodemarchis

Mobile apps vs the web - the rugbyworldcup.com lesson

2011-11-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

Working with the International Rugby Board (IRB) for the rugbyworldcup.com digital media project was a great experience for deltatre.
We have been able to put together with the IRB and RWC editorial team a solution that leveraged the full multi-platform landscape with:
High-end website, Mobile website, Mobile apps (IOS, Android, RIM, Windows7), Tablet apps (IOS, RIM) plus activities on social platforms (facebook, twitter, YouTube, flickr).
Rugbyworldcup.com retained the rights for immediate half-time and full-time highlights as well as a delayed full match rerun video-one-demand (VOD) available for free after 24 hours of each match.

There is one very notable outcome in regards to the multi-platform aspect: the usage on mobile platform has exceeded that on the high-end website.

The mobile apps were downloaded on multiple platforms more than 3 million times, video viewed through the mobile apps account to more than 17 million while those on the website dor each only 5 millions.
This is quite a shocking difference and have made us willing to understand why this may have happen.

Please read the original article published on the RWC website
"Rugby World Cup 2011 a mobile digital hit"
(http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/news/newsid=2059653.html).
Also interesting the just published article on the social media experience and stats"
(http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/destinationnewzealand/news/newsid=2060494.html)

All digital media market reports highlights the fact that the mobile revolution is here and that the number of smartphones and tablets is increasing at incredible rate, but this is the first time that we are able to experience it live with a deltatre-designed solution, and in quite a substantial quantity.

There are a series of reasons that contributed to the fact that mobile apps was the way users decided to access video for all matches:

The mobile apps provided video highlights and live match coverage in addition to more standard content
The length of the world Cup (from 9 September to 23 October) is a great reason to access information and video from any device available at different times of the day
The Rugby World Cup was held in New Zealand, with a timezone that made following the World Cup a great mobile experience during the night, early morning, pre-office and office time
Users are getting more and more used to watch videos on tablets and smartphones
For an official body creating a well designed, performant, content-rich mobile app is a great way to dominate the mobile app landscape in each platform
The power of the "app stores" compared to the fragmentation of the web

This last point may deserve a bit of expansion.

Using the Apple App Store as an example imagine how many apps would be available to follow the Rugby World Cup, they would possibly be less than 10 in each market. On the contrary websites following and covering the Rugby World Cup will be much more.

Even without any marketing agreement with Apple, the official app would make the top of the App Store home page (better with some form of marketing agreement with Apple), other apps that would get any attention maybe in the 2 to 3 range, the app store interface does not leave a lot of space for multiple alternatives and the app store home page is strongly focused.
The app store owns the user experience.

Hence we can easily note as the competition is not very high, the official app has all chances to be the best combination of usability, technology and content, the positioning of the official app on the store is optimal.
It's easy to think that dominating the market is very likely and definitively possible, in this case even worldwide.

Obtaining the same results in the web domain is very difficult if not impossible, as the web domain is very fragmented and the number of players in the market is huge.

We think we will lobby to get our clients to invest more in the mobile app space and share the experience from the Rugby World Cup.

Please let me have your comment and feedback below...

The problem with social connected TV platforms

2010-12-20T05:11:00.000-08:00

Is 2011 going to be the year of connected TV?

So many years we are talking about the convergence between different media, even if everybody was focusing on the TV/computer couple, the one that really happened as first in terms of mass adoption, has been the computer/telephone one with the introduction of the iPhone followed by Android based devices and others.

So will see if 2011 or 2012 (major sport events then - Olympics and Euro 2012) at last will see the connected TV explosion - considering that the lifecycle of big screen TVs is much longer than that of mobile phones and other devices.

The scenario is highly fragmented at the moment like for any emerging technology market, hence it is difficult to understand which experience model and business model will dominate the market.

For sure it is important to start understanding which applications will work and how they will have to adapt to different experience provided by a connected TV.

Nielsen calculated in June 2010 how people are spending time online:

http://mashable.com/2010/08/02/stats-time-spent-online/

As expected a lot of the usage is related to social media, so it would obvious to imagine how social platforms would work on a connected TV experience.

Observing how my daughters (16 and 13 years old) use laptops in front on the TV, I realized that they discuss sometimes what they are watching on TV with friends on facebook using their laptops or iPads.

From that I thought about an application running on those platform that would allow users to interact in a virtual space with friends about what they are watching "together" on TV.

I started a facebook app in December 2009 called "I'm Watching it!" but left it over pretty soon demotivated by my friend Alberto's comments about it (it's a useless stupid idea).

As a second step i though: OK then it could be a great app to be integrated into set top boxes and connected TV:

Having a small social (facebook...) bar at the bottom of the screen synchronized with the current TV programmning showing me:

How many of my friends are watching this same program
Who is connecting to watch as an alert
messages and comments of those friends as posted
A way for me to comment like dislike etc... what i see on TV and share it
etc...

That seemed to me a great idea.

BUT there is a but, this works great (possibly) if there is one person in front of the TV and not the full family...

Who amongst teenagers would like to share what's socially going on in his/her facebook/social tribe to the family?

NOBODY, NADIE, NESSUNO...

So we have a problem.

Big screen TVs have been always used as a family/group social viewing device which defeats the possibility to make it as-is a virtual social device as opposed to personal viewing devices who as a paradox enable the virtual-social aspect.

I think the way-out can go in two directions:

limiting these kind of experiences to personal viewing devices (video + social together)
creating dual-screen experiences on existing personal devices (video on TV + social on device)
or as a last option having personal controllers for big screen TV (remote command) each for every person with a small video screen (seems weird)

Will connected TV social apps be for singles only?

Is it truly an issue?

Thougths?

BOOK REVIEW: HTML5: Up and running - Mark Pilgrim

2010-09-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596806033

I expected a book that was more a reference type of reading - i.e. would fast read once and then keep and reuse it when needed - but I have to be admit that this book can be read properly as it really tells you a story about how HTML 5 comes into focus.

I like the small branded mini paragraphs like "Diving in" and "Markup professor" it makes easy to understand the type of content you may expect.

I think it really covers the full spectrum of concepts that HTML5 introduce with good deep and detail even if do not expect a very long hands-on workshop. I think a good balance to make it worth reading fully from end-to-end.

A lot of links in text, i've been reading on Amazon Kindle readers (DX, mac and iPad).

The video section is very detailed, all other section also have the right balance.

I do have an issue with it being a book for all those things that will change as we speak in such a new and browser-depending technology in real life - i.e. video formats.

I may have expected a more mobile/touch device emphasis even if i may understand that Safari leading the pack may simplify things on one and.

Good reading

When auto-publishing is not enough (ReadWriteWeb on facebook)

2010-08-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

Scenario:

ReadWriteWeb is a social media / tech blog (http://www.readwriteweb.com/)
ReadWriteWeb has a presence on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/ReadWriteWeb) as well as an RSS feed, twitter account, iPhone app etc...
ReadWriteWeb was normally auto-publishing content from the blog via NetworkedBlogs to its facebook page

They now decided to take a different approach and posted the following status:

"A housekeeping note: We've ceased auto posting of content to the page in favor of a more curated experience. However, you can still read and share our full stream of content from the "News" tab."

This generated the following debate which i found very interesting:

21 people like this.

Micah Allen Thank you! I wish more high-volume fan sites would do this. Looking at you Mashable and engadget.
9 hours ago · ·
Sean Wiese
I want to "like" this, but would be interested if views/interaction goes up or down. I dont usually visit individual pages for info, just hide from my feed if I dont want to see the postings.
How about an end of day wrap up to remind people ...
9 hours ago ·
Micah Allen Sean, if you don't use an RSS reader for things like that, you really should be!
9 hours ago · ·
Chathri Munasinghe Way to go Richard, Marshall, Sean and team! Good decision :)
9 hours ago ·
ReadWriteWeb @Sean In addition to posting select daily content, Sean, we're also going to be posting questions and other conversational stuff on the news of the day, etc. We're going to strive to make the page as educational an experience as possible.
9 hours ago ·
Dan Frydman Great stuff! TechCrunch take note too. Mini-research here in the UK revealed that one or two posts per day from a company was acceptable. Beyond that and you get ditched. How it works for news sites will be interesting to track.
9 hours ago ·
Sean Wiese @micah I also have RWW in my RSS feed, but there is a level of engagement possible with FB that just reading the feed doesnt allow.
@RWW awesome. looking forward to seeing it in action. new ways to use FB are always needed.
9 hours ago ·
Micah Allen @Sean, interesting thanks for your feedback.
9 hours ago
Sahil Malhan That's the difference in noticed today. I like the idea. Cheers rrw! :)
9 hours ago ·
Rolando Silva So this means there'll still be posts, but just not every single item that sees the light of day on RWW, right? Good move, it seems. I hope Mashable and TechCrunch are watching.
9 hours ago ·
Jeff Johnson I actually enjoy the feed.
9 hours ago ·
Andrew Lin You're one of the few pages where I enjoy the auto news feed - more relevant and informative than Mashable.
9 hours ago ·
Mike Leach Keep the feed please. Drilling down on profiles/tabs not preferred UX for following news.
9 hours ago ·
Teressa Tucker
wish they had two new feeds....one for simple and one complex plus the status bar and ability to comment and ask questions on comments people write in on to be able to add on conversation knowledge by the group as well as the curator.
becau...
9 hours ago ·
ReadWriteWeb Another housekeeping note: To @Teresa's point about being able to ask questions and share knowledge, the wall is now open for fan posting. We'll see how that goes and watching posts closely to make sure content is relevant (not spam or too self-promotional).
9 hours ago ·
Teressa Tucker well abracadbra that was fast...you are nice too..i like you.
9 hours ago ·
Susan Greenberg Am I right in thinking that there is a trend in web talk towards using the word "curated" (instead of "edited")?
6 hours ago ·
ReadWriteWeb @Susan I think of "curated" online the same as in art: you pick the stuff you think will wow them the most. I think of "edited" as taking a single thing and making it better. Option three: semantics! :-) -Seamus
5 hours ago ·
Brian Tingle I'll try to keep an open mind, but I think I prefer the autoposting of the RSS feed.
5 hours ago ·
Susan Greenberg Thanks for the comment on editing, Seamus, very interesting. One could argue that only particular types of editors (eg copy editors) work on one thing at a time, and other editors (eg commissioning) act like curators, and select. Anyway, it just struck me, because I found three or four mentions of "curating" in the last couple of weeks, and didn't remember seeing that particular word before, so I wondered if it was becoming a meme.
4 hours ago ·

Few notes from my side:

Reading the debate above shows how different people have different perception of the issue and react in different ways, there seem to be a consensus towards the choice.

I think realizing that facebook needs its own "tone of voice", different pace in content publishing, and in general a different editorial logic is key for any sort of media publisher, being it a blog or a more traditional content owner.

Also twitter would need a different editorial logic, because it's a different platform and people interact in a different way.

The word "curation" - as i'm saying from this spring - is the new BUZZ in social media, it normally refers to taking content from the twittersphere and select it and use it on your own online property as part of your content or to increase the relevancy of your own content.

All of these should drive us to design systems to help publishers manage these complex multi-publishing new challenges in an optimized way.

BOOK REVIEW: Javascript Cookbook- Shelley Powers

2010-08-02T06:51:00.000-07:00

Programming the Web

By Shelley Powers

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: July 2010

Pages: 560

I've found this book a great tool for everyday Javascript programming updated to the very last trends in HTML 5 and JS frameworks.

It's book (or an ebook better) than you would keep with you on your desktop (physical or virtual) for continuous consultation when you are programming as it contains real case examples and methods for most of today's javascript needs.

I think the author has done a good job of selecting arguments and examples that best serve the programming community.

I do have many different ebooks from the O'Reilly "Cookbook" collection and I find it very useful, even if they require a particular style of reading:

First you go through it with a bird-eye view to understand the content at high level,

then you may be attracted to some specific items that are of immediate interest or which capture you curiosity at first.

Lastly you would reuse the book many different times when you search for a specific matter or issue you are encountering in your daily programming.

My attention was mostly captured by the HTML5 chapters and some jQuery related stuff, as well as some browser and debugging hints.

To be honest even reading the more basic stuff like chapter 1 on strings make you understand the quality of the book and how it could be useful even for simpler tasks.

Great book, highly recommended.

CSS Frameworks

2010-06-21T21:25:00.000-07:00

I've been getting more interested in CSS framework after I read this article on .NET magazine UK

http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/latest-issue/issue-203

I also started looking for good presentations available on slideshare or youTube and eventually find a 3 series amateur video of Nicole Sullivan at Springnet in May 2010 which give a good idea about the concept itself

http://www.stubbornella.org/

Video 1/3

Video 2/3

Video 3/3

Other CSS frameworks are:

Blueprint - http://www.blueprintcss.org/

960Grid - http://960.gs/

For sure we have started using these concept for our websites but still i think we hav ea lot of place for improvements both in best practices and especially in process (making sure best practices are respected and applied)

Some doubts i have are:

1. with these CSS approach are we not breaking the concept of separating content from rendering? I mean if I optimize CSS on one end I'm on the other imposing a lot of rendering informations rules on the XHTML code itself .

2. optimize CSS per page may influence optimization of global site navigation, i.e. we are trying to have one unique sitewide CSS when possible, it's big but t's loaded once and forever will stay in the browser cache - what's better?

3. i think we should always look at optimization as a global concept, hence i'm not 10% sure that vertical optimization is the best approach, i don't care about each single part CCS, JS, HTTP being optimize i want to focus on a more holistic approach

BTW Today is the start of Velocity 2010

http://en.oreilly.com/velocity2009/

To be continued...

How to use yammer in an organization (the deltatre view)

2010-02-09T02:11:00.000-08:00

What is Yammer? check it out at http://yammer.com

As I do believe social business is the way to go, i.e. having a global view of social activities inside and outside the company.

We have implemented yammer in deltatre from some months. We started virally with only a small group to experiment the value it could bring, and slowly enlarged to more users as it made sense, leaving it at discretion of any existing user.

We are now in a phase where we have reached mass adoption in the company, which is good, but create a stronger need for really focused content and some guidelines on how to use ti especially for newcomers.

The way we intend the use of yammer (or any similar social business tool) as a tool for "loose communication".

We normally communicate in a company with different tools: face-to-face, telephone, email, instant messaging... most of it is direct communication.

The problem we are trying to solve with the social approach is that very often companies have walls and direct communication can not bypass walls, hence the result very often are missed opportunities because of communication fractures/failures.

We obviously don't want to spam everybody with global direct communication that will increase the email inbox disease and also we want more people to communicate.

Yammer - especially if using the desktop Adobe AIR app is providing an interface that allow a very loose usage from busy users, you basically check yammer when you have a bit of time and curiosity.

Unfortunately Yammer asks you: "what are you working on?" and for us this is not what we want to know.

We want to use Yammer to let people in the company tell what is happening that may be relevant for others

What should go on Yammer:

deltatre activities related to sport events
deltatre activities related to website launch
deltatre product launch
new contracts/clients
deltatre HR activities and ASD
technical news related or contextualized for deltatre
technical deltatre news
market/business news related to deltatre
anything that I (as any user) believe can be of value for people in the company
yammer can be a good reputation builder - use it with care

What should not go on Yammer:

official deltatre communication (should go through official channels - can be re-posted here for redundancy)
generic technical blogs
threaded replies that are not adding value - followups should be done outside
always consider the value for others not the value for you
yammer can be a good reputation builder - use it with care

Who can post on Yammer:

everyone in deltatre who has something to say of interest for the people in deltatre

Who should post:

people who have key responsibilities

We hope yammer may increase the knowledge level in the company as well as mutual respect and encourage cross-communication.

Comments are VERY welcome

A comment to John Borthwick on charting the real time web

2010-01-07T21:58:00.000-08:00

This post is a comment to John Borthwick's
charting the real time web http://bit.ly/5U2Meg

I do share the worries for how new and complex is tracking user behaviors nowadays, even just considering volume and not quality/semantic. As you mention it seems to be back at the "tracking hits" time back in the 90's where a programmer changing a an imagemap into html would decuplicate your traffic overnight.

There are two factors that are big modifiers:

1. The first one is not really new and started with the emergence of RIA, the transition from web pages to web applications. Even if there is someone trying to standardize i still do believe there is no CLEAR consensus on ho we track user interactions on a web application. Which are the right metrics to produce comparable results cross application? We are still talking about applications hosted by a browser here.

1a. Furthermore the introduction of ADOBE AIR and the adoption of apps like your tweetdeck and other similar always-on apps have make it more complex to track user behavior. Not only, most tracking tools today can not understand where traffic to your web site come from because they can not understand ADOBE AIR apps referrals and they can only track when users come directly from the twitter.com website. (Trying to get my clients "Twitter is only 1% of our traffic" to get this = not easy). What you call the twitter ecosystem is key. Same is true for all other apps platforms (iPhone, Android...). Are we moving towards a "web of apps" too?

2. As you mentioned the switch from the "web of pages" to the "web of stream" - the new paradigm - have also added a new challenge to tracking users and what they do. I remember the problem started way back when the first podcasts and RSS feeds where introduced. Bit.ly obviously provides a key asset here.

I see a space for new companies and tools emerging in this space but on the other side I also see a need of some common standards or agreement in the community to produce something that will also increase the global perceived value of what we are doing. Again as you noted that's nothing bad as numbers being misunderstood, and big media are great at that.

Do you think it also make sense that all new metric tools create their own back end system and sophisticated UI and API, maybe yes... but it would be great to have an open source backend with open API for all...hmmm could be a bit naive as owning data is power.

A small point on the clustered behaviors: taking facebook in Italy that's exactly what I've seen happening, huge fast increase in 2009 driven by the MUST-HAVE-STATUS effect with quite a strong abandonment rate once the fall-in-love period has gone. One aspect is true for all social media, it's very engaging and demanding. You need to be on FB continuously, you need to tweet every day and check what's on or you feel bad. Some people after a while just get tired of it and get the "hangover" effect and enter rehab...

BTW I'm using a small startup that has done something in the area of AIR tracking: airanalytics.net

carlodemarchis from Italy @deltatre a proud user of most betaworks apps/tools (chartbeat, tweetdeck, bit.ly, twitterfeed)

Web 2.0 NEW YORK 16,19 Nov 2009

2009-11-19T21:03:00.000-08:00

I intentionally waited some hours before writing about the Web 2.0 NYC conference so that I will only remember what really reached my inner senses and intrigued me.

Globally it was good conference even if I think that the tagline "The power of less" was not really explicitly coming out from most talks and sessions as I expected, especially by @timoreilly.

Workshops

The first day was about workshops, I found very interesting and practical the Erin Malone @emalone one about Designing Social Websites Part I as it gave a very structured set of patterns to approach the design of social aspects of web sites. This is something I will import into @deltatre workflow.

Being a workshop it also made us work in teams and created an immediate network effect and put people to share heterogeneous experiences. We pitched for a Urban Farming Social Site, the most audience acclaimed idea was vegetables tweeting about being ready or needing water.

Team was composed by Jennifer Carey, Gerardo Lopez, Jim Piccariello.

Web 2.0 NY Workshop - Designing Social Interfaces

View more presentations from erin malone.

Keynotes

Keynotes were good with some peak of interest and some great act.

Tim O'Reilly on The War for the Web. He think they are starting another war (Google etc...) putting again barriers and roadblocks to open web.

Caterina Fake Founder of FLICKR now with Hunch. Interesting conversation.

John Borthwick of betaworks and aggregator of companies among the coolest in the web 2.o space: bit.ly, twitter, tweetdeck, twitterfeed, chartbeat, stocktwits, uservoice etc... Companies selected to be connected at the data level NOT the biz dev level.

Baratunde Thurston and hashtags "A must-see"

Chris Brogan on being open.

Heather Gold on Tummeling. Dennys Crowley from foursquare.

Danah Boyd on Streams of content limited attention

Gina trapani on google Wave

Sessions

It was nice to see ADOBE and Microsoft hand in hand talking about RIA from a Flex/Silverlight perspective. James Ward (Adobe) and Josh Holmes (Microsoft)

Best And Worst Practices Building Ria with Adobe and Microsoft

View more presentations from Josh Holmes.

A second technical session was the one of Dwight Merriman on NOSQL: The Shift to a Non-relational world. Basically presenting alternative non RDBMS systems for storing data that are complementary to existing and spread SQL solutions. They are complementary to relational structures and not replacing them for all those cases when there is no need for relational.

An example is MongoDB JSon based. We already use AWS SimpleDB @deltatre and will keep these solutions under radar.

Technical session on HTML5 and the future of web apps by Tom Hughes Croucher. HTML5 is becoming interesting and getting traction now because of the webkit implementation which is not only fast on computers but is also becoming the de-facto standard for mobile, hence filling the gap and helping delivering rich web app on all platforms.

HTML5 and the Future of Apps

View more presentations from Tom Hughes-Croucher.

Interesting technical session on oAuth for application cross-signon (as compared to openID which for users). We are using it @deltatre for PULSE and for the deltatreCMS.

Jeff Dachis and David Armano Social Business Design. Very structured and well thought concept about an holistic approach to social in and outside the company. This i want to bring in @deltatre and also to some clients.

Social Business Design: Web 2.0 NYC

View more documents from David Armano.

Michael Lazerow on integration of social media with brands and content strategy, practical presentation and use cases.

Building Across The Social Web - The Implications of Social Web Technologies on Social Media Content Strategy

View more presentations from Michael Lazerow.

Rashmi Sinha on lesson learned from launching a product in startup mode and slideshare

Rashmi Sinha

View more documents from tieadmin.

Ignite

Ignite NYC at New World Stage packed theatre was an experience. The Ignite formula (which we should import in Italy) is based on people presenting on different matters with a strict formula 20 slides of 15 seconds each = 5 minutes (They are auto timed so it is really an art to sync the speech with the slides). There is a winner at every event, in this case against a bunch of young and cool presenters it was an experienced lawyer of anti-RIAA cases (music industry) Ray Beckerman who put together an incredible unintentional REAL crowdsourcing experience with simple tools but real participation. Basically debating and getting ideas from blog users about how to confront the case.

Also noted Nora Abousteit from BurdaStyle Social sewing! Lee Sean on saying no to 3d design and yes to 2d design. And the funny guy with the story on Second Life chickens.

People

Baratunde Thurston, Dennis Crowley, Hether Gold, Nora Abousteit, Gerardo lopez, Jennifer Carey, Tony Haile, Beth Noveck, Andrea Vascellari, Stowe Boyd, Brady Forrest, Jennifer Pahlka, Tim O'Reilly, Chris Brogan, Gentry Underwood, Erin Malone, Nancy Duarte, Danah Boyd, Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson, JAmes Ward, Josh Holmes, Dwight Merriman, Tom Hughes-Groucher, Caterina Fake, Rabble, Blaine Cook, Jeff Dachis, David Armano, Michael Lazerow, Douglas Rushkoff, Gina Trapani, Anil Dash, John Bortwick, Scott Berkun, Kevin Marks, Rashmi Sinha, Matt Mullenweg, Ulrike Reinhardt, Lorenzo Dell'Uva

Founders

I had the occasion to meet a lot of "founders":

DIGG: Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson

FLICKR: Caterina Fake

BETAWORKS: John Borthwick

SLIDESHARE: Rashmi Sinha

WORDPRESS: Matt Mullenweg

RAZORFISH: Jeff Dachis

FOURSQUARE: Dennis Crowley

CHARTBEAT: Tony Haile

SIX APART: Anil Dash

ME for now I'm just the co-founder of Chiara&Francesca :)

Memorable

"Do what you do best and link to the rest" Jeff Jarvis

"We need less think-tanks and more DO-tanks" Beth Noveck

"#theworldsthinniestbook" Baratunde Thurston

"Social business design" Jeff Dachis

"We are leaving the web page world for the stream world, that;s why widget don't work" anonymous?

"Being on stage is a powerful BUT fragile situation; needs balance of respect between speaker & audience" Carlo De Marchis

"Tummel" Heather Gold

New York

Some New York Stories:

I saw a man running barefoot in short and t-shirt in 5th ave at 11.30pm, he was a jogger not a bum.

I found a taxi driver Santiago Rossi (64) half italian half dominican. His grand father went to Dominican Republic. They were 10 kids, 7 survived. His father came to New York for first time and visited the Natural History Museum all day long, the next day he wanted to go back: "I have not seen it all"

I sat on a restaurant at the bar for a quick lonely dinner after the conference, a couple sitting close to me started talking and we spent 30 minutes on kids, NYC, rome, florence, iphone and life.

Conclusion

Worthwhile

Social media/tools/space maturity is coming

Content protection is the biggest issue going forward

Google and facebook are the new dominants

Mobile is happening finally

Directory

Photos are at http://bit.ly/w2ephotos

Videos at http://bit.ly/2KOFDx

Slides at http://bit.ly/13Iowh

That's all folks

Italian TV

2009-10-20T00:15:00.000-07:00

A small update on the Italian TV scenario (with possible mistakes...) more to generate a debate then to really inform – I’m not a great journalist :)
Something seems to be moving lately.

Current scenario:
RAI – Public migrating to digital terrestrial (DTTV)
MEDIASET – Private migrating to terrestrial digital with PREMIUM pay on DTTV
SKY - satellite PAY TV
Others... Some new DTTV PAY offerings and some “telco” providing access to broadcasts simulcast (fastweb, alice)

Facts:
RAI has removed its channels from SKY satellites
RAI has a LIVE and VOD portal in MS-Silverlight
SKY has been able to preserve revenues has also during the downturn due to the fact that they were mostly based on subscriptions and not on advertisement
In the UK BBC iPlayer is dominating the online video offering

Latest News:
SKY is offering a new 19euro key to add to any decoder that will inject all DTTV free channels into their offering
MEDIASET is launching in 2010 a new MEDIASET CUBE project to bring all pay content on the web, PREMIUM WEB TV, catch-up TV, OTTV Over the Top TV...
RAI is sleeping (no news)
BBC Canvas project is the new frontier, BBC Trust was advised by Italian consultancy Value Partners

More on Mediaset CUBE
They basically realized that

the TV set monopoly is fading, need to focus on universal access (TV, web, mobile, games console, more...)
hence the TV only advertisement model cannot guarantee solid future revenues alone and may be heavily impacted by
It’s not IPTV, they want to be telco agnostic
They are plan is to launch in 3 phases
- pre-launch Jan 2010 – some PREMIUM channels and some VOD content
- March 2010 – for DTTV subscribers access to all channels on web TV with catchup-TV features
- Nov 2010 – MEDIASET decoder (needs any internet connection) will enable all content on Web TV
Telcos are for now looking and may not be so happy about this model

Question for the market:

What should we focus on, what will impact our business the most in this scenario (not only in Italy)?
Is there a new model emerging or a new technology or a new user experience that we need to consider and become industry expert in time as well as imaging our core products around?

Thanks for taking the time to ready this...
ciao

Grid Layout System for web sites

2009-08-30T23:55:00.000-07:00

In deltatre we started using a Grid Layout System for web sites after we found this enlightning book "Making and breaking the grid" (http://www.amazon.com/Making-Breaking-Grid-Graphic-Workshop/dp/1564968936).
We immediately recognized the value of basing layout studies on such a framework as it did not only add consistency, solidity and productivity advantages but also increased creativity and flexibility of our layouts.
One of the major constraints in the area of design/re-design of web layouts, together woth legacy assets and content, is the IAB standards guideline for advertisement (http://www.iab.net/) - i.e. the standard space we need to dedicate to ad-serving boxes in the pages.
It's easy to see how many web sites based on the typical duality "leader-board in the header + medium rectangle (Mrec) in the right column tend to look very similar and reduce the flexibility of the rest of the page.

What is the Grid Layout System?

Some years ago most web sites were designed based on a certain fixed width of page (one of these initial standards on which by time to time Jakob Nielsen made his fortune) and an arbitrary definition of spaces both horizontally and vertically inside that limited width/almost-infinite height area.
Because of the way layout were implemented with HTML tables the horizontal space was divided in columns, originating templates based on - as an example - 3-columns models (left for navigation, center for content, right for related items and/or promotions). The width of each column was normally adjusted to whatever specific content needed to be accommodated.
Any alternative layout was again arbitrarily defined based on needs.

Other layout design worlds don't work like that.

Other fields of layout design don’t think in arbitrary columns, they work with grids, and these form the basis for the structure of page designs.
A Grid System defines exactly in terms of columns and dividers - or the combination of multiple columns - the horizontal width of any possible element.

Grids are a template, a framework within which creativity can flourish. Too many designers spend time looking at a blank canvas, trying to figure out where elements should be positioned, but, if you have a flexible underlying grid, many such problems are already solved for you. It becomes obvious where and how elements should and can be positioned, thereby leaving you, the designer, with more time to work on graphic design and other page components.

Instead of arbitrarily picking column sizes, grids enable you to create a common visual language throughout an entire Web site, rather than deciding things on a page-by-page basis. Components relate to each other, which makes it easier for users to scan content and develop familiarity with it.

If you want to have a more concrete and understandable example of what a grid is take any printed magazine that you can find at hand, and check it with the grid concept in mind. It will be easy to "view" the grid layout even if you never noticed it before.

Creating the "deltatre" grid (a.k.a looking for the magic numbers)

Four variables are key in defining the grid solution for a web site layout:

Page width
Number of columns
Width of each column
Width of dividers between columns

With the majority of users now having monitors capable of a resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher, the tendency for layouts is towards a width of about 950. For grid design, a 960-pixel total width is a good starting point, because it provides a massive amount of scope for divisions (960 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 20, 24, 30, 32, 40, 48, 60, 64, 80, 96, 120, 160, 192, 240, 320 and 480).
At deltatre we projected a number around 960 and waited the result of the combination of columns and widths to finalize it.

Even if many standards exist at deltatre we tried to find a combination of numbers that was able to solve all our needs and still be optimal for all OS/browsers/users.

Too many columns can result in excessive complexity, so when working on initial grid designs, stick to about a dozen columns. The reason for working with 12 columns (rather than, say, seven or ten) is because of the flexibility it affords you in being able to divide the layout evenly (1 x 12, 2 x 6, 3 x 4, 4 x 3, 6 x 2, 12 x 1) and also in various other combinations. In the image below, the underlying grid is shown in grey—light grey for columns and dark grey for gutters that provide white-space between page elements; the red stripes show how the grid can be divided up.

A clear example of page layout based on the gris is the following figure were a lot of modules of various sizes creates a complex layout but still being ruled by the grid.

The Grid Layout System allows for a very modular and flexible page design and optimize both IA tasks (assign content to areas in a page) as well as development tasks (implement modules to be used in multiple pages and positions in pages) leaving enough freedom and creativity.
Because of the grid a well designed module can be developed once and used/placed in multiple pages in multiple positions without requiring any implementation changes.

After having tested on all OS/browsers, verified the size of video 16:9, checked other standards content elements and checked with most used IAB guidelines Ad units at deltatre we have defined a grid with following magic numbers:

12 columns of 77 pixels + 11 dividers of 6 pixels = 990 pixels total width

Excerpts from Grid design basics: Grids for Web page layouts By CraigGrannell

Twitter MetaSyntax proposal #YSF YouShouldFollow

2009-06-09T23:53:00.000-07:00

This blog post is about twitter...

I've always been impressed and intrigued by twitter simplicity and endless extensions possibilities. It is clearly the most developed/active ecosystem for third-party apps in the social media area today (it's a feeling, I maybe wrong).
See: Mashable twitter list

Apart from a wealth of server-side and client-side apps, we have lately seen the developments of communication activities purely based on the extension or definition around the core twitter syntax.
Just to mention one of the most popular: #followfriday
See how it works http://mashable.com/2009/03/06/twitter-followfriday/
Started by Micah Baldwin

The basic element is the hashtag that is also used by twitter itself and a variety of other apps to understand/measure current trends of hot topics at any time
See http://hashtags.org/

Most of them are very often for humans by humans with no need for extra apps, in some cases then apps are built on top of those hashtags.

I would like to propose the concept of twitter meta-syntax to denominate all similar cases in which something is built on top of the core twitter syntax, maybe is not 100% formally correct but i hope it convey the idea properly.

Around that topic i have often felt the need to give recommendation to some friends/followers about following someone I believe could be of specific interest for them, hence something less generic then #followfriday.

I came out with the idea of YouShouldFollow #YSF to be used in messages with this syntax:
@recipient-screenName #YSF @recommended-screenName optional text

example:

@loic #YSF @scobleizer it will be fun

Which recommend Loic Le Meur to follow Robert Scoble - just for fun :)

What would I do if I receive such a tweet? Depending on who is sending it I would at least click on the screenName to see the level of tweeting of the recommended user is of interest and then decide to follow or not.

There is an obvious consideration around preventing spamming to be done as with other hashtags.

Does this exist already in some form or shape?

If it makes sense I will start thinking about applications around the concept and some form of automation for accepting the recommendation.

To be honest apart from the definitions around it and the need for myself to write it down i'm not so sure this would make any sense or is it at any stage needed, but a formalization of something that we very often do informally may provide some more unified and easiest to diffuse user behaviors that would enrich the platform eventually.

Comments are welcome or best are NEEDED... not sure about it at all...

Follow me on twitter

Is facebook the new desktop?

2009-01-07T01:01:00.000-08:00

I have seen a lot of debate happening around the theme: is the browser the next desktop? Is the browser replacing the desktop? etc...

Will the Browser Eat the Desktop?

http://www.appistry.com/blogs/bob/will-browser-eat-desktop

Techdirt - The Browser Is The New Operating System

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080530/0022021266.shtml

Dobbs Code Talk - The browser is the new desktop

http://dobbscodetalk.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=The-browser-is-the-new-desktop---take-II.html&Itemid=29

Just to mention a few of the hundreds of posts that can be found in the blogoshpere lately.

What I've personally noticed lately, due to the massive adoption of social platforms - but more specifically facebook - by non-skilled users, is that even people with no previous skills, no big interest in computers and the internet, no clear idea of what the social web is are currently spending a lot of time on facebook.

As a result they tend perform many tasks direclty in facebook:

- they can write to friends on the wall or as an email

- they can chat with friends live (IM)

- they can share photos (once they uderstand how to do it)

- they can directly from Facebook record live webcam videos

- they can participate in funny and very often useless quizzies and games

- they can send gifts and other amenities

- they can discover new friends

- they can get Facebook n their iPhone too

... and remember they just do it because they see other doing it and they want to be part of it.

If they use the computer just for fun and just because everybody is on Facebook, why would they need anything more than that?

They don't care about the browser... they don't care about the OS... they don't care about the hardware... they don't need to.

facebook is providing a way for them to just do all of that inside the platform in a very controlled and self-contained environment, they do not need to learn too much.

If they have to learn something it is beacuse they've seen friends doing something more sophisticated and are then prompted to do the same - also not to appear too dumb to their friends.

This is happening even if starting to use the platform and digest the concepts of friends, wall, account, profile etc... is notably not extremely easy for a really non-skilled user.

So we can say with a provocative statement that YES for those users facebook is the new desktop.

On a positive note i think facebook is becoming a good entry point for those users into the world of computer/internet/social web and that is a good thing for us all and for the economy I think, as those users will become more and more engaged and literate about the whole thing - creating value for them and for the community.

As a last provocation thought I also have imagined the creation of a facebook -device where all you can see is facebook (but it's a stupid idea!).

ciao - from a 50cm snow-blessed Torino, Italy.

Multiple-identities and social platforms

2009-01-02T02:33:00.000-08:00

A lot of us today are using various social platforms (facebook, myspace, twitter...) at the same time with a process that is starting to become less and less manageable.
That's why many social aggregators tools/platforms are emerging (friendfeed, peoplebrowsr,...) to help us improve our workflow for the interaction in the social space.
These tools (aggregators) are helping ME - 1 individual - to manage various social tools at the same time - N social tools.
This is good. But... I would also expect something happening that looks exactly the opposite.
1 individual vs. N social platforms = aggregators
1 social platform vs. N individual identities = ???
Start from a fact: every one of us has multiple identities.
I'm personally at least:
- CTO at deltatre
- a dad
- passionate horse show jumping rider and community manager for some groups
- photographer
- musical geek
I've personally experienced some behavioral doubts when posting on various social platforms that I could confuse/bore/piss-off my audience if i mix all of that into a single place...
It'easy to get un-followed on twitter if you start posting about too much heterogeneous subjects - at least if you are not a web2.0 star as @timoreilly or others.

The portfolio of solutions that I have today to solve that are:
1. Create multiple identities on all social platforms that make sense for each identity (fairly unmanageable)
2. Partition the use of social platforms for each identity (i.e. flickr for photos, myspace for music, twitter as CTO, facebook for friends...)

Both are not satisfactory so I'm a bit stuck into creating policies on what to post where and when.

Most social tools try to manage some kind of audience partitioning with the privacy settings but I do not believe this is the right approach, it's not about privacy it's about context.
What I'm asking is a way to manage different context and audiences in the same social platform.
Facebook may be the perfect example of where a solution can be found as it clearly seems to me that they want to be THE social platform and not only one of many.
The best solution would as always be something that every platform/tool can embrace in form of a standard.
I have no solution myself for now :)
ciao

Earthquake in northern Italy - Twitter vs. big media coverage

2008-12-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

We had a medium earthquake yesterday in the north of Italy and I experienced the media coverage both on big news/media Italian sites (repubblica.it, corriere.it...) and on Twitter.
Even if Twitter in Italy is not as developed and popular as in the US, I was able to find immediate tweets as the earthquake was happening from various locations in Italy from Novara to Reggio Emilia.
I was on the phone with a friend from Desenzano del Garda and after a while she sent me an SMS telling me about another earthquake just happening everything trembling again at 23.00 CET.
By the time I needed to check the twitter search page there were already various posts about it and I was able to tell her that it was not stronger than the previous one and keep her informed.
meanwhile repubblica.it needed 15 minutes to just put a single headline on teh top of the homepage announcing it and almsot 30 minutes to have more information about it.

Bottom line: twitter is faster and really working for nationwide events as source of information, the big news/media portals have later on deeper coverage.
I'm surprised that they still do not enter the microblog space consistently as it happens in more mature internet markets.

I used this URL to track twitter for the keyword "terremoto"
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=terremoto
and refreshed when needed.

ciao

ADOBE MAX ILOG Elixir

2008-12-02T15:15:00.001-08:00

ADOBE MAX Degrafa Interview

2008-12-02T04:54:00.001-08:00

ADOBE MAX Andrew Shorten video on COCOMO

2008-12-02T04:11:00.000-08:00

Adobe MAX Milano Social plan

2008-12-01T13:18:00.001-08:00

Adobe MAX Milano, originally uploaded by carlodemarchis.

I was a disappointed for the level of social web 2.0 awareness of the ADOBE MAX conference. Everything else was above average to be honest.
At least for what i have personally experienced...
IMHO
I would advise Adobe to do the following:
0. Declare the social plan
1. Define standard tags for most social tools: twitter, flickr, youtube - something like #maxmilan like now
2. Advertise at the conference (and before) all social presences - Facebook, myspace, twitter, flickr group, youtube channels, other adobe places
3. Advertise tags and URLs at every session
4. Create an aggregated channel from twitter/flickr so that users can follow the conference and also everybody ese may get updates. These would also enable bloggers at the conference to join forces and debate
5. Nurture the community at the conference, contact bloggers and organize meetups
6. keep social spaces updated live from the conference (see http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33753633776&ref=ts)
7. Use Adobe social tools to power the conference
8. Create a best blogger prize for the conference with some adobe prize...

I hope this constructive criticism is well received as I'm just sharing my opinions to improve the experience.
ADOBE MAX is MAX so I may have missed something.

ADOBE MAX in Milano Dec 1-4 - Review Day 1

2008-12-01T12:44:00.001-08:00

ADOBE MAX, originally uploaded by carlodemarchis.

Today ADOBE MAX kicked-off in a rainy and busy Milano @ MIC (near Fiera di Milano).

Event review:
The event has been organized at a very high professional level, the setup is amazing, the keynote stage is like a rock concert 3 huge videos syncd and super audio quality. The catering is superb, truly. Adobe staff very kind.
WIFI connection was lousy most of the day. The conference rooms are without any power connections that are instead in the main community room.
The keynote has been good but not very exciting.

Social activities:
I've been disappointed... will blog separately.

Strategic view:
Client+Cloud, Social computing, Multiple screen (devices)
Adobe Flash Platform -> runs everywhere (almost)
Big push on video (70% to 80% of online is already flash)
Mobile mobile mobile

Technical highlights:
Flash 10
Thermo -> Flash Catalyst bridging the gap between designers and developers
Gumbo -> Flex 4 lots of productivity enhancement and coordinated workflow
CoCoMo
Flash Media Server 3.5
RTMFP

Follow me on twitter tomorrow...

Google Earth, are we losing our imagination?

2008-11-18T07:51:00.002-08:00

I was wondering lately how people are normally using Google Earth and other similar systems.
I've started observing the people I know, I was surprised to notice that, apart from some notable exception, users will tend to visit online places that they know well or that they have been already.
Google Earth gives access to the entire world, incredible locations, wonderful landscapes, hidden treasures and we are confined to watch our home from the sky?
Is it that bad? Or am I totally wrong?
I'm not trusting my observation point of view for this and I've started a Poll to find out what is the real case in the blogosphere.
Please take some time and tell me what is your personal experience (multiple answers allowed):

I'm sure that we will understand better some typical user behaviours after the results of the poll...

Stowe Boyd quotes my last blog on double-screen experience

2008-11-07T00:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2008/11/carlo-de-machis.html

Carlo De Marchis writes about the election, contrasting the work that social media and mass media did. Best insight is that we will likely to experiencing events like the election in double screen fashion for now on...

...

The mash-up of the web and TV is happening on a bottom-up basis, but smart entrepreneurs will be chasing this pretty fast. Charlene Li talked about ITV at yesterday's Defrag conference, describing the same idea: people chatting with each other 'through' the TV shows they are watching. "The future is here already, it's just not equally distributed." - William Gibson.

From Twitter:

stoweboyd @carlodemarchis you made me think for a secondabout 16 hours ago from TwitterFox in reply to carlodemarchis

Thanks Stowe

P.S. Sad that he mispelled my surname :)

US Elections: Quick media comparison analysis - TV wins, double screen rules

2008-11-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

I've just finished "watching" the US elections on TV and with my laptop in front of me.
TV: CNN, FOX, NBC, ABC, BBC, Italian, French, German
Internet: twitter election page http://election.twitter.com/, CNN.com, NYTimes etc....

My verdict (IMHO) is for tonight's LIVE part: TV WINS... but DOUBLE SCREEN (TV + Laptop) experience rules

Why I think TV wins?
The very LIVE moment of when the polls start to come and the countdown to 270 votes start TV is the place wher you get it right and you get it first. Centralized media rules this moment as it is a very CENTRALIZED thing happening. Social media provide a better coverage of before and after as well as printed media may have the best coverage as for consolidated analysis and reports.
Social disaggregated media are perfect to cover decentralized events that are impossible to cover at the same level from a central
Twitter interface was a fantastic experience in terms of feeling he flow of emotions coming through US and the world at large but everything was just a reflections on what we all saw on TV seconds before - adding each own personal angle.

TV coverage
CNN did an impressive coverage especially with the new broadcast technology of touch screen applications and the less needed and debatable hologram technology.

I think we can see the difference between when technology is adding value and when it is just gizmo games.
The use of touch screen with interactive graphics and charts really helps TV clode the gap between the interactive web experience and the passive TV experience. At every very moment there was a lot of information available but the key analysis was needed for one or two states from where the poll just came and/or for the projections and simulation on how the remaining states could behave.

The same technology could apply to sport and video for sport, I see it becoming a standard in the near future also in Europe, I hope they will be able to use it wisely to really change the TV experience.
The magic wall is provided by http://www.perceptivepixel.com/
Read a nice article of last Feb. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020402796.html

Internet big media
Focusing on the LIVE moment, apart from pre-post elections moments.
I think the big sites did just well.
All learned in past years how to cope with technology to really make things work even under extreme peak load and traffic. All had effective ways to provide live updated and deeply detailed stats for each state and county. This kind of coverage has become commodity almost.

Internet social web/media
Social media did well but this time during the LIVE moment they possibly fall a bit short compared to the big guys.
I think social was KEY before and for the elections, bringing people to vote as more than ever in history.
The social media space was definitively more for Obama. The election twitter was really 75% for Obama if not more.
The social web will show again its unique value from now on reporting from al US and worldwide how the elections night will be lived with photos videos blogs and micro-blogs.
Obvious to all that the Obama campaign especially was also a huge social web thing - that I think we will reference in the coming years - there social made the real difference.

Double-screen
I definitively believe that a lot of people have been in front of their TV with a laptop/computer in front of them. I think this is really the - not any more emerging - trend of this latest times.
You follow LIVE on TV and dig deep into things, interact and communicate on the web. There is a clear convergence happening bt surprisingly is cross-media... So humans found a way to make technology converge before technology did that by itself.

Please comment and feedback

Just for FUN will.i.am on hologram

Need a skilled iPhone App developer ASAP

2008-10-30T14:44:00.001-07:00

We do need a highly skilled iPhone App eveloper for an immediate project.
Please contact me if you are interested or if you kow soeone that may fit.

FLEX vs. fast JS in new browsers

2008-10-27T00:25:00.000-07:00

There may be an emerging platform war at the horizon based on processing speed (or is it there already and i'm just the last idiot noticing - very likely).

John Lilly (Mozilla CEO) last week in Berlin @ Web 2.0 Expo pointed out how the new browser trend (Firefox, Safari, Chrome) is introducing dramatically faster JS engine - Chrome is leading the pack and this change how the browser is perceived in the community of developers - a true developemnt platform for serious applications, he envisaged new complex application to be created that would may be not even support IE - not fast enoguh - as they will run only on the new fast JS .

This will for sure threaten the position of FLEX/Flash as RIA development platform at least for power applications. I've seen benchmarks showing that some grpah applications were running faster on JS then on FLEX.

FLEX has a very solid and one-code-runs-all-platforms approach and to be honest I love the MXML programming flexibility and elegance - layout controls are great.

JS does not have a de-facto development framework but many options and combinations Jquery, Prototype, GWT, Y!... and may end uo being less portable on different platform BUT not requiring a plugin (even if flash is really widely adopted EXCEPT on mobile phones).

Silverlight also is part of the family and will work well for those developing .NET.

I've already sensed a certain fight-attitude between FLEX-advocates and JS-advocates and to be honest I HATE this kind of wars - I'm not religious by heart so i get really pissed-off when bright minds lose their time fighting instread of focusing on creating great stuff.

We will use FLEX, JS, Silverlight - whatever make sense -we're agnostic.

2008-10-25T00:50:00.001-07:00

Some days at home then again on the road mid next week... Geneva!

2008-10-23T14:36:00.001-07:00

I'm back home finally eating pecorino and grissini in front of a Corona and this lovely macbookpro

Duane Nickull Adobe Berlin Web 2.0

2008-10-23T09:10:00.001-07:00

Duane Nickull Adobe Berlin Web 2.0, originally uploaded by carlodemarchis.

his guy knows his shit about search engines and flash/flex. He explained how Adobe created a headless flash player - a normal flash player without the rendering part - called ICHABOD. Adobe made an agreement with google and Yahoo so that could run it on their servers to be able to index flash SWF files.
Basically when their robots encounter a SWF file theyr run it on ICHABOD and try to extract serach relevant information.
Not perfect but at least gives the search engine some way in which they CAN index.
What we don't know is if they do and how.
Duane has put together a series of tests based on uncommon unique words that he will run against goggle and Yahoo! search engines for 3 months.
Results will be announced in Milano On Dec. 3rd at the MAX conference.
He also explained various tecniques to increase ranking for google with flash and html.
Very good session.

2008-10-23T04:22:00.001-07:00

Last hours @ Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin

John Lilly Mozilla Berlin Web 2.0

2008-10-23T02:41:00.001-07:00

John Lilly Mozilla Berlin Web 2.0, originally uploaded by carlodemarchis.

Opening Welcome
Jennifer Pahlka, Brady Forrest -- C1

John Lilly in Conversation with Brady Forrest
More good browser are good for the markt
“DATA” secret project what is it about
Firefox not on blackberry for now
OpenID, oAuth? More for web sites not for the browser
Geo is a location awareness extension for Firefox
So Brady is basically asking what should go in the browser and what in websites
Innovation is now more based on social matters than on technical
Ajaxian guys hired by Mozilla
Firebug so important
My question: Does the browser matters for standard users?
It does not today but what is good about chrome is that users will start to understand the difference, 78% of users are on IE 6 and 7 or safari so the browser that came with their computer. New browser have a faster JS engine so they will enable application that will not run on IE and make the difference

Tariq Krim – tariq@kirm.com
Netvibes founder
3 lesson learned
Internet is saturated
social attention is cannibalizing media attention
an an entrepreneur: review your goals – you have two assets: your team your product – good to do b2b deals if its good for the product or the team

Luis Suarez
9 months without corporate email
Lives in canaria – work for NED report to US
Experiment or risk to be hired
From 30/40 emails per day to 20 per week (mostly calendar)
Using social communication tools for business
Private Political game CC and BCC
Transparent on social that is key...
Result is more productivity
ME hanging with the community getting the job done
Social is also with customers... Dangerous? It works.

Patrick McDevitt
There Goes Everybody: Focusing the Power of People and Today's Netw...
Location services
Tele Atlas bought by TomTom
Powerful integration
Enable by a social platform
Managing change in the world
Detecting change with imagery
Change detection through RESEARCH and government data
Detecting change through community – mapinsight.teleatlas.com
Anonymous collaboration tracking Tom Tom data (clouds of data)
DASH internet connected GPS updates traffic data realtime

Dion Hinchcliffe
The network is a big place all your customers and competitors are there. What is the competitive advantage?
What biz model? Peer production, Owning data online, New distribution models to leverage the web as a platform
Social systems
Data can be the true monopoly, produced by crowd...
Semantic web is still there to happen new frontier
2.0 models are changing everything in business product dev, marketing, operations cloud computing, customer service
Getsatisfaction

Berlin Web 2.0 Matin Varsavsky and keynotes

2008-10-22T06:26:00.001-07:00

Berlin Web 2.0 Matin Varsavsky, originally uploaded by carlodemarchis.

Martin@fon.com
Martin escaped Argentina after his cousin was desaparecido to US and to Spain then
The same bank that refused 40k job – gave him a 12M loan for the business...

Saul Klein
Message is – times are rough – but hope is there for people with good ideas – some will suffers stronger will survive
Focus – Don’t Panic
Bootstrap like crazy
Make products that people want
Cut costs. Get to break even
Raise enough capital to stay strong
Saul@indexventures.com

Open source hardware
In Case of Turbulence: Open Source Hardware's Next Challenges
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino CEO and Co-Founder of Tinker.it
Arduino

Leisa Reichelt
Redesign of drupal.org
Open source CMS
Design in an Open Source way
Design by & with the community
Start with a google app form
Openly blogging about the project
Crowdsource wireframing
Online card sorting
Twitter
Wiki
Design by committee vs design by community

Let All Things Be Connected
Rafi Haladjian
Connected rabbits
Violet mirror
Ztamps connected
RFID

Suw Charman-Anderson
Email ubiquitous – serious problem too many emails – 13% get more than 250 – example of lab rats pressing the lever for food – email is a proxy for work – the more email you get the more your status is higher – email is used to cover back
we can improve: inbox as todo items – email collaboration for documents – better use of social tools
IM and chat for instant conversation no email
Reply-to-all whe is it needed
Behavioural change

Ben Hammersley
He invented the word podcast
We are so good but we are losing our time in useless stuff
Message: Wired magazine in UK -> Mistakes: ignored quality, good design, craftmanship – we are good we should build beautiful

CHOICE:
TV – Expensive ultra high quality – Reality shows
MEDiA same
FASHION same
CHOOSE Quality

Berlin Web 2.0 Tim O'Reilly

2008-10-22T02:14:00.001-07:00

Berlin Web 2.0 Tim O'Reilly, originally uploaded by carlodemarchis.

Very inspiring talk about the world of web and the current economical downturn.

KEY TAKE AWAYS:
Is Web 2.0 = Web 2.Over? NO we still have things to do.
Focus on things that matters.

On my question: How to manage company growth so that the focus and energy is not diluted with the growth:
FOCUS on the real thing - even if wat you are doing is moving the REAl REAl thing you can do best is teh same - try to define it and focus.
For O'Reilly was first about books, than online publishing, than conferencing but bottom line aways the same:
Bringing innovation through innovators to a broad audience.

Berlin web 2.0 FEEL Josh Damon Williams

2008-10-22T02:08:00.001-07:00

Berlin web 2.0 FEEL Josh Damon Williams, originally uploaded by carlodemarchis.

More practical session on Interacion audit and the concept of FEEL.

KEY TAKE AWAYS:
FEEEL matters not only LOOK
Interaction audit works
Should look at FLOW not pages
Look for inconsistencies
Clean up
Relaunch

Berlin Web 2.0 - Stowe Boyd

2008-10-22T02:02:00.001-07:00

Berlin Web 2.0 - Stowe Boyd, originally uploaded by carlodemarchis.

Good session on how the second shift in social media is happening and how tools are needed to make it more usable.

KEY TAKE AWAYS:
1. first shift web 1.0 -> web 2.0 - the big media lost control to bloggers
2. second shift web 2.0 -> the web of flow - the bloggers lose control to the flow disaggregated experience
3. Emerging feeds, mini-feeds content does not resides where it's written anymore

What we have done for euro2008.com and have now on uefa.com - the top home page live blog bar is exactly in that spirit... and we launched it in 2007 for IAAF :)

Dion Hinhcliffe - Building Successful Next Generation Web 2.0 Applications

2008-10-21T02:04:00.001-07:00

Dion Hinhcliffe - The risk of web 2.0, originally uploaded by carlodemarchis.

Dion is very good at explaining web 2.0 - the session is good if you ahve a pale idea about web 2.0 otherwise it's a bit too basic. The guy is really good...

Berlin Web 2.0

2008-10-21T01:55:00.001-07:00

Berlin Web 2.0, originally uploaded by carlodemarchis.

I'm tue to thu in BErlin at the Web 2.0 Expo... will update from here

Web-Sense Strategy

2006-11-29T01:05:00.000-08:00

After many studies and discussions - or I should say Rants & Raves - I've come up with a concept that should describe my latest thoughts on the way that official web sites should interact/integrate with Web 2.0 and everything is happening in that area.
I have codenamed this the “Web-Sense Strategy” - nothing to do with WebSense the web security company.

The Web-Sense Strategy is a more global approach to creating content and producing web sites for content owners - typical profile of our clients.

I believe that a global distribution strategy should be embedded in the any web site's production plan and high-level concept.

I have understood that today's scenario is much more different to what we were used in the past years.
Today there are many ways in which users consume content as opposed by the past official-website-monolithic approach.
In the past any content-owner would mainly publish content on its own proprietary website in a typical “one-voice many-listeners” centralized scenario.
In some cases distribution agreements have been put together in a pure B2B manner, i.e. site A would agree with site B to put part of site A's content into site B. In other cases web marketing campaigns would have been organized with specific web agencies or web site networks.
We have to recognize this is history.

Distribution strategies are basically divided into content distribution strategies and site distribution strategies.

Content distribution is about making the content available in as many ways as possible - various media, various platforms, various web spaces...

Site distribution is about making the web site linked and accessed in as many ways as possible - various media, various platforms, various web spaces...

To explain it with an example; if we assume a certain entity XYZ is a content owner (and produce content in various formats) and has a XYZ.com site the two above cases may be simplified as:

Content distribution XYZ interest is to promote the content itself - and maybe the XYZ brand(s) in as many ways as possible also if non-related to the XYZ.com website

Site distribution XYZ interest is to bring as many users as possible to use consume on XYZ.com and derivates - maybe also promoting the XYZ.com brand. Content distribution may partially implement site distribution strategies.

For the each case/client we need to understand if the main goal is to promote the XYZ content and/or the XYZ.com site or better the ratio between the two distribution needs.

I would like to concentrate on Site Distribution Strategies.

The great shift in web site distribution, I believe, is the fact it has become a pure B2C matter or better than the real distribution happens in what is often all the "Social Web" or the "Social network".

The Web 2.0 space or Ecosphere or Social Web is an area filled with emerging platforms/sites that aggregate user generate content (UGC) in forms of tightly interconnected networks. As we know the value of each network is a function of the number of interconnection between nodes, more users participate to the network, more they interact in the network higher is the value of the network.

The latest web success stories have been companies that have created public spaces/ platforms/applications that increase their value for each user that comes to them.

The important question for which I'm lately trying to find an answer to is:
How should XYZ and XYZ.com interact, participate into this?

To summarize the cloud of ideas that are flowing around I've tried to put together a synthetic sentence:

Develop a strong Web-Sense: BE EVERYWHERE.

In practice I believe that what should be done is:

Develop a strong Web-Sense: know the web, use the web, you need to be able to understand what is happening and have strong feelings about what works and what does not work on the web. Never pretend to study a strategy or a new section on the site before being a user of similar tools. For example I think I could not be good at defining the Gaming strategy of a company as I'm not a gamer myself. An alternative is using study groups or external consultants but even if this could be a good starting point if the Web production team is not deeply inside the XYZ web ecosphere it will not work long term. Passion is still the greatest driver to success.

BE EVERYWHERE: you need to understand which web space/platform/application make sense for the XYZ and XYZ.com case and find ways of integrating/interacting with all of them.
This may happen in different ways:
- Integrating into a platform:
  If XYZ needs to integrate into a platform, the technical team will need to come up with a solution that enable some XYZ content to be accessible through the platform and drives users to come to the XYZ.com site.
  An example - apart the obvious generic RSS feed - is the integration of XYZ.com custom news feed or data application into any of the emerging web-dashboard application (pageflakes, netvibes, myYahoo, MyGoogle...). In this case the technical team could develop a widget application that works for all of this platforms.
  Another simple example would be to enable XYZ.com site users to add automatically - through the usage of buttons in specific pages - to their web-dashboard all XYZ.com RSS feeds.
  Also the usage of buttons for each content page that enable users to save the specific page to social bookmarking and tagging sites as del.icio.us or news relevance sites as digg.com. More advanced scenarios would include the creation of mash-ups based on popular platforms and XYZ content and data.
- Interacting into a space:
  If XYZ decide to interact into a web space, this would mean in its simplest form that XYZ editors or data owner would actively participate into those spaces. A more advanced scenario would include the XYZ.com CMS to emebed automatic publishing streams to specific web spaces.
  Some examples include:
  - Editors participating in communities and representing XYZ.com
  - Editors writing blogs on popular web spaces on behalf of XYZ.com</li>
  - Editors uploading photos on popular photo web spaces on behalf of XYZ.com
  - Editors uploading videos on popular video web spaces on behalf of XYZ.com
  It is obviously desirable that the XYZ.com CMS enables editors for these tasks with specific tools.
  The content produced for any web space should not be purely promotional or it would fail the purpose; it should be enough entertaining to prompt the user to know more if the final goal is a visit to the XYZ.com or so good that it promotes the XYZ.com itself.
  I'm against fake user profiles as a tool for marketing campaigns on web spaces, I think it's too similar to spam and should not be considered by well-respected entities/business.
  All rightholders related issues have always to be considered.
  The balance between content and site distribution have also to be kept into consideration as XYZ would not normally agree to give its content for free somewhere else than XYZ.com and drive traffic to the web space instead that to the site.

Host a platform/space:
For some strange reason this approach that is possibly the most complicated and challenging is the first that anybody consider for the XYZ.com case.
It is quite evident that no recipe exist to create a successful community/space/platform and that for one that survive/succeed there are 10,000 that fail.

My advise would be to be more open to external existing and successful platforms/spaces and first study ways to integrate/interact them; Then consider if a blog/photo/video community space fully embedded into XYZ.com would be cost-effective and manageable. Both cases could exist together.

What I believe would really create a meaningful platform/space for XYZ.com and I would stress XYZ ti deeply analyze that, is anything that fully belongs to the core XYZ focus.
As an example if we consider the IAAF (International Association of Athletics) I would suggest to investigate which application/tool would make sense for the athletic sport audience - something to do with training planning or similar and comparison of expected results and methods with other users. To really be adopted and work such a platform should be focused on the user/athlete and what he/she would need to help the daily routine.
I would invest in developing such a web platform free for users and embed into it all social network tools.
In my opinion this would make more sense than create a generic forum.

Become a platform
A scenario that may sound a bit difficult to imagine for official web sites of content owners is the one in which some specific data and services are exposed to the public (not only to selected partners) using SOA (service oriented architecture) solutions. An example of this very popular method is the public APIs of most of Google services (Google Maps, flickr.com...). Other users/developers may then create mash-ups (application built putting together more SOA sources) and embed into their web application those services.
In case of official web sites this could generate a lot of interest and push the site distribution.

There are obviously tons of examples that can bee added and also a lot more thinking is needed before bringing any of these ideas live on XYZ.com.
I hope this article generates some questions, curiosity and actions.

By the way, nothing revolutionary but it was cooking inside for a long time and it needed a space to go.

Credits: deltatre
Copyright: carlo de marchis and deltatre

Dite la vostra sul futuro di HTML

2006-11-19T12:58:00.000-08:00

Questo articolo e' stato scritto per il Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) ed e' stato anche pubblicato su The Web Standards Project, Lachy’s Log, Molly.com and 456 Berea Street.

Ultimamente sul web ci sono state molte discussioni a proposito della recente decisione del W3C di continuare nello sviluppo di HTML.
Posts su blogs e messaggi che sono stati inviati alle mailing lists o inserite nei forums, hanno rivelato molte domande e malinterpretazioni sul futuro di HTML (incluso HTML 5 e XHTML 2), del WHATWG e del nuovo gruppo di lavoro del W3C su HTML.

Alcune persone richiedevano nuove features; altre si chiedevano se elementi attualmente deprecati sarebbero tornati ; alcuni avevano commenti e critiche sulla decisione stessa, il WHATWG o il processo W3C; a altri ancora ponevano l'attenzione sui rischi che WHATWG e W3C ignorassero le necessita' di alcuni gruppi.
Il WHATWG che sta sviluppando la prossima versione di HTML (chiamata HTML5) pensa che sia importante non solo ascoltare tutte queste voci ma anche di incoraggiare ogni forma di commento e rispondere in modo da sviluppare un linguaggio cge soddisfi tutte le esigenze.

Ci sono molti modi in cui potete partecipare. Il modo piu' diretto e' di farvi sentire abbonandovi alla mailing list. Comunque non tutti hanno il tempo di partecipare, o di gestire l'elevato numero di messaggi mandati alla lista.

Alcune persone pensano che gli attuali drafts di HTML 5 (Web Applications e Web Forms) siano piuttosto scoraggianti. Altri pensano che, dato che non possono permettersi di pagare l'oneroso costo della iscrizione al W3C, non sarebbero comunque ascoltati.

Se, per qualsiasi motivo, pensate di non poter partecipare, o non ve la sentite, questo non significa che non dobbiate essere ascoltati.

Il WHATWG ha bisogno di sentire il vostro parere e sapere cosa pensate di HTML.

* Ci sono delle limitazioni in HTML che vorreste vedere risolte?
* Avete idee per nuove features?
* C'e qualcosa di HTML che usate adesso ma che vorreste fose migliorato?
* Avete delle preoccupazioni sul processo di sviluppo?
* Avete dei commenti sull features presenti negli attuali drafts?
* Avete domande su HTML 5?

Qualsiasi domanda, commento, critica, protesta o richiesta e' ben accetta. E' questo il momento di farsi sentire. NEssun commento e' stupido; nessuna domanda e' troppo dura o troppo banale; nessuna critica e' troppo malevola. Se avete qualcosa da dire, siamo in ascolto.

Vi preghiamo di lasciare un commento o di mettere un link ad un articolo che avete scritto. Vi ascolteremo e cercheremo di rispondere.