Trendcatching

Chinwag event on Micromedia next week

Great event coming up next week by the guys at Chinwag on Micromedia - Umair from Bubblegeneration.com is going to be speaking so well worth coming along.

Here's the Blurb

It seems like everything's gone micro. As content is disaggregated into ever smaller pieces and syndicated and widgetised at accelerating speed, how is the media landscape being re-shaped, and who are the winners in this scenario?

Are media owners caught between a rock and a hard place? They've got to get their content out there, but context and branding work differently in the world of mashups and aggregators. In turn, the revenues they make from micro media pale in comparison to their staple money-making ventures (print, CDs, TV, DVD, film).

P2P culture is also firmly embedded, with iTunes and other digital retailers numbers' still dwarfed by ripping and filesharing. Now media giants like Microsoft and the BBC are using P2P technnology, but has their deeper modus operandi shifted? Are they fated to be outpaced and outgunned by innovative companies who play by different rules?

In turn, is the profusion of micro-content a recipe for meltdown, with information overload and competing "me-too" platforms delivering little but dumb aggregation which ultimately becomes a headache?

In this, the sequel to our groundbreaking Media Widgetised / Widget Week event in May 2007, our panel of experts will look at the issues and opportunities surrounding the explosion of micro media for publishers, brands, business, and culture more broadly...

If you're in London get your ticket here.

The Return of Myspace spotting plus facebook

Finally got a new phone with a decent camera so going to start doing the classic Trendcatching myspace spotting again.  This one was found in Camden last night - the twist is that bands are now putting their facebook page on their stickers as well as myspace ... interesting development - let's see if we can spot anymore facebook invasion of the band space

Locomatrix - Seriously Upfront GPS Game Platform

OMFG - this is so cool.

Locomatrix is a new kind of GPS mobile gaming platform designed to encourage people to get out and about in the real world, exercise, play games and have fun.  So unique and original compared to the now mostly boring web 2.0 stuff...  check out the video - love it:-)

Songkick - the first "reconstructor" for concert tickets

Umair Haque over at Bubblegeneration has a great name for sites that take individual bits of data or media and aggregate them together in a new "cast" or "stream".  He calls them "reconstructors" and highlights this sort of service as a killer position in the new media value chain. 

A new UK startup called Songkick is a great example of a Reconstructor - they take information about concert tickets from all the major vendors and ticket exchanges and pull them together for you.  You can create your own stream based on your itunes music library or personal preferences.

Keep a look out for these guys - they are going to be BIG. 

Megaphone - mobile + outdoor media

One of the side effects of cheap LCD and plasma screens is that more and more cool digital outdoor media stuff is getting created.  A company called Megaphone has created something especially cool by linking digital outdoor media to mobile.  You basically call the screen on your phone (no java downloads, mobile internet or SMS required) and then play along using your phone buttons - I guess it uses some kind of IVR platform.  Anyway pretty cool and here's some vids of it in action:

The Future of Mobile Music

So in the last year we've seen a lot of big businesses and well-funded startups launch mobile music services.  Mobile is the next big frontier for music - everyone carries a mobile all the time, the new phones all have loads of storage and the ringtone boom showed that there's a massive opportunity when you get the product right.

A couple of years ago, Nokia acquired Loudeye, one of the big digital music aggregators, and has just announced its Nokia Music Store service which its embedding in its handsets and selling to operators.  A startup called Omnifone has launched a subscription mobile music service earlier this year called Music Station which it's selling through operators like Vodafone.  Finally, the Lord of the Ringtones Jamba is now offering full track music on a similar subscription model to their ringer business. 

Thing is they are all offering the same thing really a catalogue of music tracks which you can download to your phone - Woop-de-doo.  If you look at the way people are actually using their mobiles for music then its clear there's so much more you can do with mobile music than this.   People, especially young people, are using their phones to play music out loud when they are out and about like a call-sign or mobile beatbox, bluetoothing tracks to each other,  making DIY ringtones out of mp3s and recording raps and MCing into their mobiles and all sorts of stuff that has NOTHING TO DO with paying money to download a track to their phone.   

There are already some players out there doing some interesting stuff like Mozes which provides a kind of mobile fan club for big music acts, myxertones which provides a platform for Indie music artists, and mjelly which is a ringtones 2.0 kind of thing for free mp3 ringtones and music clips. 

There's a lot of interesting opportunities in mobile music, but it's not going to come from the mainstream, watch this space. 

Coolhunting - Wearable Technology

Is it just me or is the internets getting boring now that we've seen the death of web 2.0 ?   Is it time to look further afield for cool, interesting digital lifestyle stuff?  Maybe the next big thing is going to be about taking connectivity and internet apps and applying them to other things like objects (digital picture frames etc) and clothes.

There's a company called Cute Circuit that makes wearable technology.  They have one project which is a tshirt that can send ((hugs)) from one person to another via bluetooth/ mobile. 

It's a bit like the Nike Airs Marty McFly has in Back to the Future 2 - totally brilliant but nothing like that has ever appeared - in fact we are going backwards with trainers - it's all about the old skool styles.

Like the tshirt says: "This was supposed to be the future. where is my jetpack, where is my robotic companion, where is my dinner in pill form, where is my hydrogen fueled automobile, where is nuclear powered levitating house, where is my cure for this disease"

Maybe people need to start thinking beyond the PC and beyond the web to really do something interesting these days?

Nokia MD4 mobile speakers and the Music-Free Buses Campaign

First there were ringtones, now you notice people playing music through their phone on the bus, or walking along, almost like a call sign. This has lead to people in London campaigning against it like these guys in the video:

They aren't going to like the new Nokia Md4 music speakers accessory which is a pair of amplified speakers which can be bought separately or bundled with potentially all new music phones starting with the Nokia 5300.   

Obviously this little innovation from Nokia is going to mean much louder music being played on the buses.

Obviously if you ask the average teenager to turn off his music he's either going to ignore you, laugh or potentially stab you - so what's the solution?  Currently, they are trying a petition....

In other countries I've been to, like Zambia for example, when your on a bus they'll be blazing music from a massive boombox so there's effectively no problem with people playing music from their own tinny mobile speakers or thru headphones.  Maybe the solution is for people to respond by upping the ante and drowing out whoever is playing music thru their mobile with a massive barrage from their own Nokia MD4s?

Youtube clips of Climate Camp protests in Heathrow

There is an environment protest at Heathrow airport going on at the moment.  In  the era of cheap video recording and internet distribution points you can get a great view of what's going on by watching videos by protesters on youtube.

Lots of different people uploading video of this including Climate Life and ChildofFlewin .   

The Revolution will not be Televised.

Myspace UK sponsorship of 1234 festival in shoreditch

Got some pictures the other weekend of myspace sponsorship of the 1234 free music festival in Shoreditch park.  Not sure entirely how the sponsorship worked, but i think they may have chosen some of the bands off myspace.  The branding was pretty well done e.g. not too in your face with a small logo on the main stage plus these banners below dotted around the festival. 

Freshweave - Ethical Streetwear and Tshirts Online

Get the "I facebooked your mum" tshirt from the pgtips ad here

Freshweave is an online clothing company set up by my brother which sells ethically produced, organic cotton tshirts.  I've seen the tshirts myself and they really are top quality, especially when you compare them to the usual crappy fruit of the loom ones you see out and about. 

The site sells tshirts for both men and women and there's a mixture of plain styles and designs.

 
My brother is trying to get word out about the site so if you've got a blog please link to http://www.freshweave.co.uk and let people know about it. 

I facebooked your mum

Get the facebook tshirt in the new PG Tips Monkey and Johnny Vegas AD

We're currently printing up some "i facebooked your mum" tshirts similar to the one that Monkey wears in the new PG tips ad.  They will be printed on high quality cotton tshirts by the crew at Freshweave and cost £20 including delivery.  If you want one just register your interest here on the form below and we'll be in touch when they are ready - probably in a week or so.  You can pay if you still want one when they are ready. 

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Myspace vs. Facebook pt.1

So we all know that Facebook is for Posh People and now there is a semi-academic paper on the subject.

Interestingly enough, the UK Grime crew like Dirty Canvas and DJ Magic are now dissing facebook online putting things like "Dun Know the Facebook" as their myspace tagline and there's comments ripping it into fb.

Is Facebook the One Ring?

"One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them"

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954, chapter 2

Is Facebook the "One Ring"? 

Facebook statistics

Facebook is kicking up a storm right now, and really seems to be breaking into the mainstream with lots of non college/ University users joining up and the existing users becoming more and more locked in. With the launch of all the facebook platform tools allowing applications to be build on top of the site's architecture there's a good chance of facebook moving way beyond social networking to become a real technology behemoth like Google or Microsoft.   If you're doing research on facebook or have to convince your boss its a big deal here's some facebook statistics for you:

• 25m users, growing 3% per week, which is 100,000 new users per day (up from 7.5m users in July 2007), projected to reach 50m by end of 2007
  
• The fastest growing demographic is the 25 and over age group
• 1% of all time spent on the internet is facebook
  
• 50% of registered users come back to the site every day.
• 60 billion page views per month, 50 pages per user every day
• 6th most trafficked site in the U.S
• 1 bn photos hosted on the site, 6m uploaded each deay, 70k photos served per second, making facebook the biggest photo sharing site on the web
• 1-2 m people are on facebook simultaneously at any one time
• $100m per year advertising deal with Microsoft
• Internal valuation of $8bn, based on projected revenues of $1bn p.a. by 2015

Sources: Facebook Company data, press reports, Kulveer

Technical product manager job going at Dontstayin.com

Our friends at dontstayin.com the UK's most exciting and upfront social networking, photo sharing and all-round community site have a job going for a technical product manager.  The job basically involves rebuilding their site architecture and executing some exciting new features.  Anyone know any good candidates?

http://www.dontstayin.com/pages/jobs

Here's the Blurb...

Established 3 years ago, www.dontstayin.com has grown to be the world’s largest nightlife community, delivering 30 million page impressions per month (March 07), and increasing.

Since the site’s original inception, development has been organic, undergoing constant updates and improvements on a dynamic basis. However, the core database has remained unchanged, and to meet the ever growing demand, fundamental changes will be necessary to the architecture.

These changes will also enable us to reach out to new markets and appeal to a much wider demographic, thus moving away from the current restriction of our nightlife audience.

To help us realise our ambitious goal, we are a looking for a skilled and experienced technical architect to lead our expanding team of developers, and to help us:

• Implement agile development practises to allow for efficient coding, testing and deployment of complex systems.
• A scale-out database and caching architecture capable of supporting millions of concurrent users.
• A new web application, including many of our successful features (social networking, photos, videos, groups, public/private discussion, live chat), plus:
  • Customisable database objects and generic hierarchical linking, allowing users to determine the shape of their site.
  • A templating framework to allow users to control how customised data structures render. Flexible styling will allow skins to be used to alter the look and feel.
  • A streamlined, multi-lingual user interface enabling us to be a truly global information resource.

CV requirements:

• Strong academic background, with a Computer Science degree from a top UK university.
• Several years experience designing and implementing high-volume database systems (e.g. 10,000+ concurrent users).
• Several years experience managing a team using agile methodologies, and test driven development.
• Microsoft technology expertise – C#, ASP.NET, SQL Server.

Benefits:

• Generous salary package
• Share options
• Trendy, spacious office in Brick Lane
• Full Bupa cover
• Flexible working hours

Send your CV to

Myspace jobs

Myspace Europe has a load of jobs going @ http://www.myspace.com/eujobs

UK
Accounts Payable
Network Sales Executive
Sales Executive
Revenue Analyst
Engineer
Development Manager
Director of Ad Operations
Sales Planner
Account Manager
Project Manager
Trafficker
QA Ad Operations
QA Creative Services
Ad Solutions Manager
Operations Analyst
Accounts Receivable
Business Dev
Senior Inventory Analyst
Executive Director of Finance - Europe

France
Business Operations Manager
Directeur Marketing et Contenu

Germany
Business Operation Manager
PA/Administrator - Deutschland

Italy
Responsabile contabilità - Italia
Sales Director - Italia

Netherlands
Marketing Director
Designer - Nederland
Marketing Coordinator - Nederland

Scandinavia
Content Producer - Scandinavia

Spain
Administrador financiero - España
PA/Administrator - Spain

Promoting yourself on myspace pt 1017878676

We've covered loads of different ways to promote yourself on myspace in the past but i think this one is the best yet.  MC Keyes raps and hypes the crowd at hardcore raves up and down the country and does a zeitgeisty lyric called "The Plug" all about his myspace page:

"I need to be noticed
Yo I need to be seen
Now everyone's at it
Come on you know what I mean
I got to get to the top
And I ain't got time to waste
So I logged on to the internet
Signed up to myspace
Jumping on the bandwagon
So you can hear what I do
Making tunes and lyrics
Rocking all of you
So check out my page
Remember its Keyes with two E's
Myspace dot com forwardslash MC KEYES"

You can listen to it here:

Here's what MC Keyes says about how he uses myspace:

"I use it for self promotion for everything 'MC Keyes' related e.g. All my upcoming event's I'm booked at are listed, latest tunes I've done are put up, cd albums I'm featured on etc are listed, I also use the blog quite a bit for posting up lyrics, bits and general rambles for those that want to know.  I've been heard by people all over the world because of it, I frequently get messages of support from people in America, Australia, Canada and even Japan all loving what I'm doing. I even got my first international booking this year in Germany, booked through myspace."

It's easy to forget what an amazing platform for talent myspace and other social media sites are - back in the day the only way to get people to hear your MCing was to hang around the stage and try and grab the mic for a bit.  Thanks to MC Keyes for the clip and the interview.   

 

Promoting yourself on Dontstayin pt1

Just like with myspace, we are starting to see clubs promoting their dontstayin pages on their posters.  Here's one below for Turnmills DSI group found on Old St, London.  For UK clubs getting people on your dontstayin group is probably more important than having them as friends on myspace, and advertising the fact you are on the site no doubt helps. 

This is a great example of viral promotion and distribution leverage - DSI's customers are promoting the site for them!  They could do with creating cleaner URL's for these pages though...  no doubt it's on the "to do" list.

How to advertise your bar using myspace

Hoxton Lab is the old Electric Ballroom just on the corner of Hoxton Square that hosts gigs, club nights, drinking and so on.  They are promoting their myspace profile by painting it across the front of the venue. 

It's right next to the world's largest myspace advert which kind of reduces the impact but its still a pretty radical approach to myspace friend-finding and brand building.  Does it also indicate that myspace is still cool in Hoxton?