A Thing or Two

Collaborative Contexts and Relationship-based Computing

This is not a new slide set. In fact, in Internet years, it's almost old enough to buy you a drink. But even though it's so last year, I continue to be drawn to the discussions around where computing is headed.

This presentation by the guys who brought us Flickr describes how their collaborative computing model, based on a metaphor of relationships between people, "transcends" the current application- and document-based approaches to computing. The result is a rich, immersive environment plus relationships that can be extracted and used in other contexts.

The Ludicorp presentation, "Transcendent Interactions: Collaborative Contexts and Relationship-based Computing," was written by Stewart Butterfield, Ben Cerveny, and Eric Costello, for the 2004 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference.(And I like that it doesn't resemble a PowerPoint.)

Elvis in Post-it notes?

Raleigh, North Carolina communications firm Capstrat got loads of publicity recently with a creative depiction of the King, composed entirely of Post-It notes. After you read the painfully detailed instructions for reproducing this art on your own wall, learn more about the scope of media and blogging coverage this exercise generated.

Hmmm, maybe we should have blogged about the EDGE Design totem pole?

(Photo credit: Capstrat; click photo to see the full splendor)

Lesson: don't use Wikipedia for viral marketing

Boing Boing describes the practice of making bogus entries in Wikipedia for the purposes of viral marketing. Recent entries of this nature were being planted from an IP address in the BBC domain.

Fortunately, Wikipedia's vigilant cadre of participants can delete these kinds of entries to keep it working to its intended purpose.

Hmph. I would have thought the blokes at BBC would have more sense. Wonder how the British public, who fund the BBC, feel about sullying the open source reference site with advertising campaigns?

Viral marketing: the ultimate spread

Talk about a spreadable! Unilever is trying out "Webisodes" as an alternative to television ads to promote its brand "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter," according to an article in the New York Times (free registration required). Their dedicated "tasteyoulove" site will feature four episodes of "The Sprays of Her Life," a soap-opera-like animated show, populated with characters who live in a refrigerator. Unilever hopes this new form of advertising will prove so compelling (cute? innovative? nail-bitingly suspenseful?) that visitors to the site will email the URL to their friends.

I admit, I had to go check out the animation, which pops up in a javascript window. It's got a modern, laughing-at-itself kind of feeling, and looks like maybe Ren and Stimpy drawn by Pixar. See? They already have me spreading the word about their spreadable. Now if only they could have hired Puddy to play the voice of Dr. Cobb...

Can stacking, for a good cause

Canstruction is a very interesting annual competition designed to recognize creative 3D designs constructed entirely using canned foods, with the cans going to hunger drives after the competition ends. This appears to be mostly a national competition, with one city in Canada also participating.

The 2005 winners are well worth viewing, and the slide show on the site reveals a wide variety of past entries.

Square blocks? Round holes? No problem!

This struck me as a somewhat surprising, very creative, and mutually beneficial new program:

Umpqua Bank and Powell's Books launch Umpqua Read Club

Items like this make me think: What kind of unexpected approach might we take to promote the business of our long-term (or new) clients?