Posted by John Horniblow on Feb 23, 2009 in
Design,
General,
User experience The internet may be amorphous machine , somewhat chaotic it breadth and depth but it also lends itself to very fast and quick generation of trends and directions in human communications and where and what people do virtually is able to be mapped as lines , hubs, converging rails and directional lines.
Tokyo subway map
With 882 stations on 14 lines, Tokyo’s subway system is one of the largest — and busiest — in all the world. The system map is a twisted mass of lines and stations. Consider this : Shinjuku one of the largest — and busiest stations in the world is the main hub for 12 different lines that link central Tokyo and its western suburbs. Approximately 3.6 million people pass through the station each day. It has four concourses, eight department stores, three dozen tracks and more than 200 exits.
The images I hold in my mind have of the Tokyo subway system are nothing short of mass commuting on a grand scale with little or no respect personal space and that my idea of crowded pales as comfy . The western concept of the having an invisible barrier that creates an magic space or outer boundary around your body goes out of the window when you hear of whited gloved station attendants, called oshiya – literally, “pusher” politely but firmly shoving people into the cars or with special human” herding sticks” to squeeze commuters onto already seemingly full trains. Its a remarkably efficient mass transit mover of wave of a humanity , impersonal , raw and sprawling.
The Tokyo Subway analogy of where internet traffic and trends converge is wonderful metaphor upon which to begin to put order to the sheer number of cyber commuters , the convergence points of traffic and communications , the conjecture , the posturing , the speculative and the inherent generational morphing that occurs in pockets on the net and then spreads. Information Architects Japan produced a 3rd version of the the map in 2008 ( see above ) presented as an isometric landscape with two layers: one showing the brand evaluation of the main sites, and other layer their interface or usability. The map has changed from the original two maps that looked graphically like the current Tokyo subway map.
What is interesting to note is that map evolves each year and and sites can move from station to station based upon a subjective or even and analytical prediction of their importance, business play, style , audience and get placed on the map relative to the actual physical station it surrounding real estate and it core commuter.
The telling things in 2008 map as noted by IA Japan were :
Google - The Center of the Center:
“In terms of traffic, Tokyo station is the center of Tokyo. That’s why Google (which is slowly becoming a metaphor of the Internet itself) has moved from Shinjuku to Tokyo Station. Google continues to push new modules into the main lines in an attempt to occupy the center circle.”
Dataportability : Unknown, But… : Dataportability.org in Uguisudani
” If things turn out as they seem like they’re going to, the newcomer of the year is Dataportability.org. It has become the center of online identity practically overnight. OpenID, Google, Facebook, Flickr, and Plaxo all opened-up and joined this incredible project. Microsoft probably won’t be happy as Passport (or is it “Passport Live?”) now has no significance.”
Facebook : Just a Hub: Facebook in Nippori
” Facebook has moved to Nippori because, from a broader perspective, Nippori is boring. But it’s still an important station (Nippori is a hub for Narita, Tokyo’s international airport).” Just as Youtube is an important hub.
Yahoo : Ya… who? Yahoo in Tabata
” Along with our speculation that the Yahoo brand will move increasingly into the background as an umbrella for more exciting products and brands like Flickr, we gave Yahoo an insignificant station. Flickr, in Nishi-Nippori, is closer to Facebook (also a strong picture-sharing portal) than Yahoo (Yahoo-owned Flickr is a part of Dataportability.org).”
MSN : Moving Towards a Central Node: MSN in Shinjuku
” MSN has moved to Shinjuku. Lately it has increased its network (see: deal with Newsvine and The New York Times). MSN—unlike Microsoft Live—is doing things right.”
I wonder where the map will shift for this coming year ? For more information on IA Japan’s forth coming trend map for 2009 .
Tags:
convergence,
media,
usability,
user experience,
user interface
Tags: convergence, media, usability, user experience, user interface
Posted by John Horniblow on Jan 14, 2009 in
General,
User experience “An emerging network- centric platform to support distributed, collaborative and cumulative creation by its users.”
- John Hagel
Web 2.0 is such an amorphous terms that defies a hard definition. In the many years that have been talking about and working in in web development and interactive marketing I would often describe the evolution of the web as generational, heralding each leap in concept from media, content, browsers, systems and platforms as contributing generational stepping stones to where we are today. The hyperbolic change that occurred in the early internet years seemed to have generational change each successive year with competing technologies, media companies and battling it out for a controlling position. When the dot com bubble finally burt in 2001 there was a turning point in the web. The point where after a shakeout the ascendent technologies began to differentiate themselves from the raft of “frothy flotsam ” washed up in wake of the the crash. Perhaps the corporate agendas of owning or controlling the web , the antithesis of its organic and free form, had failed. What was apparent at this time was that new sites and technologies kept on revitalizing the digital space in an open and collaborative way.
While the boom was definitively over the web just kept evolving in open way and the transition to Web 2.0 was enabled by the emergence of platforms such as blogging, social networks, and free image and video uploading, that collectively allowed extremely easy content creation, access and sharing by anyone who had a computer and a connection. The barrier to entry of web publishing or content creation was over and the social voice of the digital consumer had begun its transformative ride over traditional media.
If you think Web 2.0 as simply social networking or just about the technical or geek jargon…. you really need to think again. Every aspect of Web 2.0 is driven by consumer participation, from content, its voice, browser development, technology platforms, and an ever evolving digital life. The most definitive trend and primary direction of Web 2.0 is for users to control the content they create, the data captured about their web activities and their identity and their willingness to participate and socialize collectively. The gradual opening or advances in digital standards have allowed for a common interfaces and integration across content and applications allowing a less constrained environment then had previously existed before. Decentralized in its architecture, participation, and usage, Web 2.0’s real power and flexibility emerges from distributing applications and content over many points rather than having them locked down on centralized or controlled systems. Its is truly becoming a plugin and play open environment for digital interplay between content and devices where the consumer experience of media or content mobility is quintessential.
What is very clear is that the Web 2.0 is not a trend or fad, it is not going way or will disappear, its here to stay. What is even more interesting is that the internet development chatter is about the next evolution , Web 3.0 or the semantic web, an intelligent web based on behavioural understanding of the consumers digital actions. What’s going to be interesting about Web 3.0 and will define just how far it can go will be the consumer privacy laws. There’s potentially an imminent consumer back lash looming in the near future concerning the use of known and personal data points surrounding behaviours. 
There are a small number main characteristics that help define web 2. 0 In the marketers world there are a few we should be aware of as these have become part of the mainstream marketing language:
New Media Marketing: a term to describe the building and managing of social networks and online or virtual communities, and extend the reach of marketing to the low-frequency, low-intensity consumer in a cost effective way.
Buzz Marketing: The strategic use of word of mouth, the transmission of commercial information from person to person in an online or real-world environment.
Viral Marketing: The intentional spreading of marketing messages using social networks, with an emphasis of the casual, non-intentional and low cost.
Collective Intelligence or Collaborative Filtering : Essentially what this means is that “users” contributions greatly help build and make the foundation stronger and more popular by adding their content, such as links, comments, forum posts, reviews, rating others, an aggregation of the best work of thousands, then millions of web users (example: YouTube – more comments, more “thumbs-up” the more popularity), and any content contribution really. Without the end “user” the sites popularity goes down – if there is no interactivity for the end user, it’s not collective “anything.” So in short – the site grows organically in response to user activity.
Users Add Value: The architecture of your software development relies on “public” users to add their own data thus adding more value to your application. FireFox, Mozilla , Red Hat Linux WordPress ,(possibly the most used blogging software in the world ) grow in functionality through a network of contributing developers.
“Some” Rights Reserved: Expanding the range of creative works accessible for others to legally build upon and share. The Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to just that. The organization has released several copyright licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses, depending on the one selected, restrict only particular rights (or none) of the work instead of customary copyright, which is more restraining.
The constant Beta: Sites like, Frappr, CafePress, Flickr, FeedBurner…etc. rely on a services evolution or constant improvements and enhancements , New features are packaged up into massive releases, but instead added them on a regular basis as part of the normal user experience.
Rich User Experience: Web 2.0 applications are built of a network of cooperating data services.
When it comes to the driving Web 2.0 technologies we should also aware of:
Aggregation: Bringing multiple content sources together into one interface or application.
AJAX : (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) A combination of technologies that enables highly interactive web applications.
API : (Application Programming Interface) A defined interface to a computer application or database that allows access by other applications.
Embedding: Integrating content or an application into a web page, while the original format is maintained.
Folksonomy: Rich categorization of information that is collectively created by users, through tagging and other actions. (cf. taxonomy)
Mashups: Combination of different types of content or data, usually from different sources, to create something new.
Remixing: Extracting and combining samples of content to create a new output. The term was originally used in music but is now also applied to video and other content.
RSS : (Really Simple Syndication) A group of formats to publish (syndicate) content on the internet so that users or applications automatically receive any updates.
Ruby on Rails: An open source web application framework that is frequently used in Web 2.0 website development.
Tag cloud: A visual depiction of tags that have been used to describe a piece of content, with higher frequency tags emphasized to assist content comprehension and navigation.
Tagging: Attaching descriptions to information or content.
Virtual architecture :The creation of avatars (alternative representations of people), buildings, objects, and other artefacts inside virtual spaces.
Widget: Small, portable web application that can be embedded into any web page.
XML : (eXtensible Markup Language) An open standard for describing data, which enables easy exchange of information between applications and organizations.
Open web: The entire space of the World Wide Web open to anyone to access and participate. This has been the initial domain in which Web 2.0 technologies, applications, and attitudes have developed.
Suggested reading Future Exploration network
Tags:
blogging,
buzz marketing,
collaborative filtering,
collective intelligence,
consumer engagement,
consumer voice,
content,
convergence,
creative commons,
digital life,
digital marketing,
media,
new media marketing,
platforms,
social,
social networks,
user generated content,
viral,
web2.0
Tags: blogging, buzz marketing, collaborative filtering, collective intelligence, consumer engagement, consumer voice, content, convergence, creative commons, digital life, digital marketing, media, new media marketing, platforms, social, social networks, user generated content, viral, web2.0
Posted by John Horniblow on Dec 21, 2008 in
General Welcome The Daily Slice for an insight to the evolving world of Digital Marketing for the modern day marketer. While the discipline is new too many the foundations of digital marketing have been in practice and developing under many other names ( interactive/online/new media/ communications and marketing ) for the past 14 years as the world enters the early days of the Post Information age . The concept for digital marketing is that its not digital just for the sake of being digital but draws upon the analogue and real world challenges of consumer based marketing communications in the context of changing and evolving consumer behaviours. In the Post Information Age the face of the communications world truly is digital and the old or yesteryear idea of convergence media , while still in the flux of establishing a pure convergence , is a dawning reality .
The shift of media from the concrete world of atoms to bits marks this fundimental change. Today we can see the basic structures of entertainment, media, news and information have shifted dramatically : newsprint empires are in decline, the music industry’s formulaic old world business strategy upon which its meteoric post war rise has failed to evolve under the pressure of digital distribution and the consumer right of choice, the video game companies are touted to be the new Hollywood and new battleground for consumer electronics is the digital entertainment and information hub in the lounge room. The age of personalized information and entertainment choices is in its naicent years. The real world emulation of social communications online ( Social Media ) , is defining the power of consumer voice and possibly laying insight to behavioural trends in media consumption. Social Media Marketing is also emerging as one of the most important, if not the most important, source of information for the consumer.
I think there is a lot of credence given to the current line of thought that digital has changed the face of marketing forever. I do think its prudent to say that while consumer media consumption habits have changed and are evolving in this Post- Information Age , digital represents a personal and exploding number of contact points or new channels open to the marketer. The marketing challenge is nothing new : understanding how to reach the consumer with the what, when, where and how , in these channels.
Recommended Reading: while a little old Being Digital : Nicholas Negroponte still is a great starting point in understanding the principals of digital change.
This blog is published and maintained by John Horniblow AKA BladeDigital ™ : On the Cutting Edge
Tags:
art,
convergence,
media,
social
Tags: art, convergence, media, social