7 posts
More Slideshare goodness. This week's lot has presentations from various people and companies that span all our areas of interest as a company: software development, gaming, digital projects, next generation devices and consumer engagement. Read on for more.
Signing up for Quora has made me stop and think about whether I live in a connected world. All my friends are online, or at least have an online presence. I have mobile phone numbers and email addresses for my friends, sometimes once, twice over. My friends have presences all over the web, on Facebook and Twitter to name just a few.
Or do they?
I found finding my friends and contacts on Quora quite tough. Admittedly because the service is only beginning to catch fire (or spark at least) but also because my digital connections are nowhere near as complete as I inherently believe they are. With this mind I’ve stopped to harvest my address book, Twitter feed and Facebook friend list to find out where my friends are. How often do I interact with them digitally and in the real world? How easy are they to find and contact? Am I connected?
I can’t remember where I read this, or who wrote it, but I am being stalked by this phrase:
“The Web amplifies the truth about a brand”
For brands, and marketers, this is a great thing if the brand is true. It’s brilliant. But if you’re lying it’s getting trickier. The truth will out.
And this truth machine doesn’t just work on brands. The music industry, movie studios, print and TV companies all know, the awful truth about digital is that it strangles all the cosy inefficiencies out of your business – you know, the ones where your margins used to be – and it’s not easy (and may be impossible) to make up the lost revenue simply by optimising what you used to do for digital platforms. I take no joy in saying that, I’m just saying it’s happening. The Web is a deflationary, flattening monster that’s gonna stamp all over you. The truth will out.
I found this simple and to-the-point presentation of what the future of digital will be like in 2010 by Rob Manson (@nambor). Essentially, we are moving towards more personalised platforms, and we are not just getting connected but staying connected with all the people in our network.
One of the issues that is gaining salience today is that of companies being generous and positive with their work and their information if they want to stay in the game. Jeff Jarvis has a piece in the Guardian on why Google defines the new economy in this matter. In his opinion, there are three main reasons why transitioning to a ‘Google economy’ is inevitable:
Whilst there’s widespread cause for panic in these dark days of global economic downturn (which has given rise to Lingo Bingo in our office around terms like ‘challenging economic times’, ‘credit crisis/crunch/crash’ and ‘we’re all going to hell in a handcart’), there is however a small ray of hope on the horizon for us digital folk.
(Photo credit: Ricardo Carreon)
