i noted

Mobile-less mobiles? – Touche from Disney Research

inoted — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:04:02 +0000

Here is a very dry film about a new interface system from Disney Research. Though it’s dry it’s very much worth a watch. The most interesting part comes about 3/4 of the way through the film when they begin to demonstrate using the human body as an interface – no touch screen, no knobs, no buttons, just clasped hands, fingers touched together. There is a lot of interesting stuff about using water too, but what fascinates me is the idea that people will look back on our mobiles in the same way we look back on old school telephone exchanges.

Are you leaning in? Doing something with the New Feminism

inoted — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 13:04:02 +0000

yI’m a feminist. Never had a problem saying that, even in the 90s when it was all about Nuts and you said that at peril of being laughed out of court or ignored.

Go me!

But what does that mean in practice? You probably already have an idea of me as strident and opinionated and defensive just because I said that I was a feminist. But in reality, all feminism means is that you believe that men and women deserve to be treated equally – so if there are two people who are equally as intelligent, with the same responsibilities, achieving the same things they should be paid the same for example. Seems fair right? If it was two men then we would be astonished if they were, unfortunately that situation usually relates to a man and a woman and if one is paid less it will invariably be the woman.

For a while now I think that society has been sitting back, happy with the progress that has been achieved for women, trying to move away from the strident aggressive view of feminism back towards a softer and more malleable view of women. And let’s be clear, woman have been just as guilty of that as men. Here’s a quote that I believe sums it up…

My classmates and I believed that the feminists of the 1960s and 1970s had done the hard work of achieving equal opportunity for women. Now all we had to do was seize those opportunities. Sheryl Sandberg

But the tide is changing, there is more discussion, more questioning, more “Hang on a minute, we thought we were supposed to be in positions of power, earning equal money, something is going on….”

And there are women who actually are in positions of power saying “Hang on a minute, why was it so hard to get here and where are all the other women?” One such is Sheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook. Her contention is that one of the issues is that women habitually “lean out/away” instead of Leaning In or engaging with the difficult situations or challenging opportunities that the business world can throw at you. So she has written a book and started a community www.leanin.org. The idea is that women form small groups to support each other in the work environment to encourage each other to lean in. But more than that it is to understand the environment we are dealing with – innate prejudice from both women and men towards women, different work and negotiation styles, the expression of and the ability to take power and so much more.

I would urge you if you are woman to take a look but also if you are man. There is stuff here that is useful to us all. The New Feminism is about fairness as it always was but it’s about taking a deeper look at ourselves and understanding the more subtle issues underneath which are affecting the environment. And it’s inspirational. And fascinating.

GO you!

Operation Tourneo in Geneva Old Town

inoted — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:44:03 +0000

Imagination’s Team Tourneo have been popping up around Geneva to spread the word about the new Tourneo. It’s been great fun to work on and I think you’ll agree the acrobats are impressive!

Strange goings on in Geneva…

inoted — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 09:54:16 +0000

Twitter and Vine

inoted — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:45:00 +0000

So, as we all know, twitter has purchased Vine, the 7 second film creation app. Cue a slew of brand discussions about “how we can use Vine” . Not surprising. And not surprising either that twitter bought Vine in the first place. After all, twitter is the home of short form content, so short form visual content just makes sense.

It also makes sense when you consider that tweets with content associated are retweeted more than tweets that are not while tweets with infographics (the ultimate short form!) receive 832% more retweets than normal articles and images. (Well, the ones on Bitrebels do anyway).

It’s also good to see twitter doing something to take them to a new level. Weibo, the Chinese equivalent(copy/clone), of twitter has evolved way past its 140 character origins to include all sorts of longer form content and as a result it’s incredibly engaging, dynamic and popular. In fact, having played about with Weibo a bit (via a Chinese friend – I’m good but I’m not that good!) I think Weibo is more engaging than twitter. If Weibo follows the lead of Tencent which is pursuing an aggressive overseas expansion policy via its free chat app, WeChat , the twitter will have to look to its guns. But with properties like Vine under its belt it seems to be moving towards a more content reach space. And that can only make it a more social and entertaining space for the likes of us.

For some great examples of Vine in use check out the following:-

Calvin Klein had actually prepared a whole evening of Vine entertainment with model Matthew Terry
However, when the lights went out they tweeted this image of him doing sit ups. Great use of the moment.

285 Retweets and 121 favourites
Vs
Average of 30 retweets and 13 favourites for the other films they loaded up

Mr Porter shows a clip of their show, but rather than it just being about models, it demonstrates some technology they were using at the show too. Which is very nice experiential technology based on the insight that actually you would rather the models walk more slowly to let you actually see what they are wearing!

And for some non-twitter related Vine fun check out http://www.vine-comic.com

Socialising the Internet of Things at New York Social Media Week

inoted — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:55:41 +0000

Some of my Imagination colleagues have been over in NY for Social Media Week. Jealous, moi?

They took the model we developed over here for Social Media Week in September 2012 stateside to our NY office.

Great speakers at the event and a nice piece from Alex T about whether the internet of things will compromise our ability to lie…

Nah. (But am I lying? follow this link to find out.)

Some mind candy for the New Year

inoted — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 10:35:34 +0000

Here are some fun and interesting things I noted recently that I thought you might enjoy:-

Digipills - download an app with a hypnotherapy basis to help you deal with what ails you. No I haven’t tried any yet but based on how my first week of 2013 is shaping up…

Ingress - A new game from Google in Beta at the moment requires you to choose to either fight or embrace a mysterious, intelligent data that seems to have the power to control human thought. Use your phone to reveal the portals where this stuff leaks into our world and group together to solve the game. I have just started playing and I’m off on a “training mission” at lunch time to find my first portal. Brilliant, nothing’s better than a game and one that uses social and mobile is the bestest.

Social gaming does not pass Go – Ok so that’s an exaggeration but in the spirit of The Sun I thought it might get your attention. Zynga the social gaming giant has closed 11 games including Petville and Fishville – yes Zynga are the evil geniuses behind Farmville. They still have 30 games left so it’s not the end of the world for them, but it is for the gamers who have pumped their money, time and emotion into these games.

Ford Fiesta Studio

inoted — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 08:32:51 +0000

Our latest report from Paris 2012 is the Fiesta studio.

Things, films and going live in social – Part 2 Killa Kela

inoted — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 09:35:45 +0000

As you know, t’s been all go for social media at work recently. Not least because in around 2 weeks flat we filmed edited and launched a film with the sounds of Killa Kela,the beatboxer, and the Focus ST.

Why a beatboxer with an ST? Well, cars lend themselves so well to videos of “hooning” beauty shots and the engine revving. But this car has a special “sound symposer” that has been developed from Mustang technology so you can see why we’d want to make a feature out of that. And then of course there is the target audience magic that has to be applied which makes Killa Kela’s vocal stylings a perfect match to demonstrate precision and power.

Enough of the strategy stuff already. It’s a great film! Hope you enjoy it. And of course, if you do please don’t feel backward about coming forward to share it!

Things, films and going live in social – Part 1

inoted — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:50:07 +0000

It’s been all go for social media at work recently. What with social media week last week and the Paris autoshow starting immediately after that finished I could be described as pooped. In a nice way…

So I thought I would give a little run down in chronological order backwards of the stuff we’ve been up to starting with FordLIVE.

Yes, Zoe and the team are back and they are reporting from the Ford stand at the Paris autoshow. It’s important to us that the stand experience reaches further than the stand itself. Socialising Ford’s content in this way allows people who might never otherwise attend and enjoy a stand to get a flavour of the experience. Hope you enjoy the latest installment!