Archive for November 2007

Latest listings on our jobs site for creative thinkers:

Creative Director, Avenue A|Razorfish
Nov 29 New York : Invent the digital future

Consumer Futures Researchers, Nokia
Nov 27 New Dehli and Shanghai : Make trend and consumer research happen

Innovation Project Director
Nov 27 New York : Insights, innovation and strategy development

For singles who don’t have a lot of time to search for their soulmate (or just prefer to do it from the comfort of their home),  WooMe may be the solution to their lonely nights. The new dating site offers remote speed dating on-demand allowing daters to videochat with five potential matches in five minutes using high-quality, in-browser voice and video streaming. Users host “sessions” with themselves on the site, with interested pursuers joining in if they’re intrigued by what they see. Hosts then decide who really “wooed them.” Sure, the process takes some of the romance and thrill out of courtship, but hey - it’s getting chilly out there.

Andrew Delaney, Director of Photography at Getty Images, examines how imagery is changing in the light of crowdsourcing and the ongoing digital image revolution.

- “The internet is not just a place to store and share the imagery – it gives them a chance to make money from them. Regular people compete with established photographers. But imagery is only meeting demand.”

- “In terms of style, we’re seeing a high use of realistic imagery in advertising and editorial – real people doing real things. Above all, it’s authentic. It’s a created reality that suspends disbelief.”

- “We see clichés revisited in photography because we need those clichés – we’re seeing people.”

- “The fact that we now look at the back of the camera makes photography instantly involving.”

As some of you know, we no longer have an ad-rep and are doing it ourselves. We’re looking for some support in terms of advertising, programs and other sponsor-supported content (on and offline). Is it time you advertised on PSFK.com?

On average, we have a senior, thirty-something, creative, marketing and media professional audience. On a good day we get 12,000 page views across the network (see stats here). And here’s a quick snapshot of the sort of companies who visited PSFK.com in the last 12 hours (taken at 12pm EST Fri 30 Nov):

Read the rest of this entry »

Late yesterday, Facebook announced they would be making significant changes to their controversial Beacon program, a new feature that automatically notifies members about the purchases their friends are making on sites like Fandango and Travelocity. In the last ten days, more than 50,000 members have signed an online petition against the program, Moveon.org leading the crusade. Acknowledging its users dissatisfaction (and reflecting the power of the crowd), Facebook modified Beacon so that no messages regarding users’ web activities would be sent without their explicit approval upon each transaction.  Besides the obvious matter of privacy infringement, users didn’t like the idea of companies attaching their ads to the notification messages. While this backpeddling is a big change to the ad strategy that was supposed to “change online advertising as we know it,” Facebook execs are confident users will eventually warm up to Beacon. As the NY Times reports:

 With time, Facebook says, users will accept Beacon, which Facebook views as an extension of the type of book and movie recommendations that members routinely volunteer on their profile pages. The Beacon notices are “based on getting into the conversations that are already happening between people,” Mr. Zuckerberg said when he introduced Beacon in New York on Nov. 6.

“Whenever we innovate and create great new experiences and new features, if they are not well understood at the outset, one thing we need to do is give people an opportunity to interact with them,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, a vice president at Facebook. “After a while, they fall in love with them.”

NY Times: Facebook Retreats on Online Tracking

Think you drink too much coffee? Energy Fiend, a fan site dedicated to all things caffeinated and run by self-confessed addicts, has created a ‘Death by Caffeine’ test to let you find out how much of your favorite energy drink, soda, or caffeinated food would it take to kill you! Choose your ‘poison’ from over 300 items in their Caffeine Database, then insert your weight and press the ‘kill me’ button for your answer.

The time frame answer given is based on the amount of caffeine in your system at once, and the answers are lower than you might think:

According to those caffeine fiendsters:

‘The Death By Caffeine calculators are a way of drawing attention to caffeine consumption - and how moderation is important.’

Test your own limits at Energy Fiend

In 40 cities: www.likemind.us
And the Global Question we’re asking is a little self indulgent:

‘If you ran Likemind, how would you evolve it in 2008 and why?’

Those who can’t make it, why not answer the question at: http://wiki.likemind.us?

A few days ago, Engadget-founder Peter Rojas sat down with PSFK to discuss the recent unveiling of his newest project, RCRD LBL, a network of brand sponsored record labels published in blog format offering free music and multimedia content from both established and emerging artists. RCRD LBL develops its own artistic content as well as serving as a portal to a diverse set of international labels that includes Germany’s Kompakt and U.S.’s Downtown Records (which holds Cold War Kids and Justice in its roster). Along with a growing list of DRM-free MP3s, the site offers commentary, tour dates, music streaming channels, and widgets to satisfy even the most avid music freaks. In the video, Peter also explains the dynamics of working with brands to support this venture.

Click To Play

- RCRD LBL offers a “social media experience rather than a retail one”

- RCRD LBL is geared towards young, tech-savvy, passionate music fans; tastemakers and early adopters.

- Brands are a critical part of the offering. RCRD LBL specializing in creating beyond-the-banner solutions for brands.

- In general, content on the internet is, and should be, free. And with music, which is basically another form of content, if you try to charge for it, there are too many alternatives out there and it becomes impossible to compete.

- The widgetized functionality of RCRD LBL is one of its key features - and all of it can be branded. By offering modular pieces, the site allows users to customize their experience as well as embed their favorite content onto their own sites (with sponsors message).

- Brands have been sponsoring music experiences for years (concerts, festivals, radio). The “sponsor-enabled experience” on RCRD LBL relies on forward thinking brands that the site’s users can identify with (like Puma and Virgin America, to name a few).

Thanks, Peter!

RCRD LBL

Colin Nagy leads a panel discussion on the possible futures for entertainment content and the business models behind them. The panel includes Ezra Cooperstein (Current TV), Anil Dewan (KCRW), Rafat Ali (PaidContent.org), and Kenny Ochoa (Sony BMG).

Click To Play

KENNY- It’s a crucial time right now especially the record labels. It’s very interesting that there’s been such a focus to change in the last year after years of self-denial. We’re in the middle of a very big push on how to deliver content and monetize it. Our business model is based on a full length CD rather than singles. At Sony BMG, there’s less A&R and a greater focus on how we’re going to distribute it. My division (licensing) is the biggest – there’s now more expectations on to deliver revenues plus promote content.

COLIN (Moderator) - How do brands do it in a sincere way? Brands could brands underwrite culture?

KENNY - It’s interesting from an artist point of view especially when you can’t get airplay on the radio or MTV. It’s not often that an ad deal will lead to added sales.

ANIL - KCRW went online in the mid-nineties. Podcasts took off a couple of years ago. For KCRW it’s all about the content. It’s not about jumping on the latest bandwagon – social networking or blogs may or may not make sense for us. As a station known for curating our content we have to consider how we get our content out there.

COLIN: What is the most important platform or medium?

RAFAT – The future of content is whatever you want it to be. It will be everything you see coming along like Twitter. Mobile is the most interesting thing happening today. There’s a confluence in the last 6 months that is trying to bridge the gap between telephone and online. That’s the most interesting thing we’ll see over the next 12 months – especially if Google wins a telecom license.

ANIL – The mobile provides communication plus the internet plus mobility.. We could get our content and put it everywhere, sure – but can we leverage this mobility to create a new type of content or a new type of show… Many people were disappointed with the lack of streaming and podcasting that was put ibn the iPhone.

EZRA - There are a lot of missteps taking place in the industry. For Current, we have created a consumer facing website. Up until now, it was about the viewer-creators but left out the 99% of viewers who just wanted to watch it.