A Pixie Adventure

Yesterday, the whole agency went on a Monopoly-inspired treasure hunt across London. Glenn Doherty took along a blow-up doll of our creative director, Grant Hunter.



Here are several more photos of Pixie's (mis)adventure. While Grant was having his inflated adventure, I was having one of my own with some of London's finest ...



Don't worry, it was just a gag. When Marcus sent the pic around, however, more than a handful of people thought it was real.

The hunt was followed by a gathering at Jongleurs (a comedy club/disco) in East London. It was a lot of fun, and comedian Jim Jeffries' edgy style made a lot of people laugh and provoked some interesting reactions. See for yourself.

Have an excellent weekend.

Crowdsourcing 101



I'm a big fan of James Surowiecki’s "Wisdom of Crowds", and I also like Read/Write web's blog ... So, when the latter posted about the former's theories you can just imagine my delight.



The post ("Crowdsourcing: A Million Heads is Better than One") reviews several concepts/site and provides some advice for approaching crowd-sourced projects.

1. Crowds should operate within constraints. To harness the collective intelligence of crowds, there need to be rules in place to maintain order.

/>2. Not everything can be democratic. Sometimes a decision needs to be made, and having a core team (or single person) make the ultimate decision can provide the guidance necessary to get things done and prevent crazy ideas and groupthink from wreaking havoc on your product.



3. Crowds must retain their individuality. Encourage your group to disagree, and try not to let any members of the group disproportionately influence the rest.



4. Crowds are better at vetting content than creating it. It is important to note that in most of the above projects, the group merely votes on the final product; they do not actually create it (even at Cambrian House, where the group collaborates to create the product, individuals are still creating each piece on their own and the group votes on whose implementation of an idea is best).

Technorati Tags: James.Surowiecki, crowdsourcing

NBC and News Corp launch YouTube rival

Just a tiny bit of buzz out there about this one ...


Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: TV Networks Launch New Company To Counter Perceived Google/YouTube Threat
And then ...


Staci D. Kramer / PaidContent: NBCU-News Corp.: More Like The Anti-YouTube Than YouTube Killer


Technorati Tags: newscorp, nbc, youtube, video.networks, social.media

The modern mess



If you need proof, just stop by my desk. ;-)



Here are some quotes from the Reuters article, Clutter and mess trump clean and neat

"We think that being more organized and ordered and neat is a good thing and it turns out, that's not always the case," said Freedman.



"Most of us are messy, and most of us are messy at a level that works very, very well for us," he said in an interview. "In most cases, if we got a lot neater and more organized, we would be less effective."



Barry Izsak, head of the National Association of Professional Organizers, disputes the authors' claims, saying they oversimplify and confuse mess with disorganization.



"The bottom line is, the average person feels negatively affected by disorganization in many ways: increased stress, missed deadlines, lost opportunities, that sinking, drowning feeling," Izsak said. "For the average person, disorganization and chaos simply doesn't feel good."



Freedman argues that it is neatness that is expensive.



"People who are really, really neat, between what it takes to be really neat at the office and at home, typically will spend anywhere from an hour to four hours a day just organizing and neatening," he said.



Yet messy people are often cast in a negative light. In one study cited by NAPO, two-thirds of respondents believed workers with messy desks were seen as less career-driven than their neater colleagues.



"If you walk into my office at home, you would think, 'Oh my God, something just exploded in that room,'" said Jackson, the contest winner. "But it's an organized mess. It's a mess I made, and I know where everything is."



Messiness has overtaken neatness as modern lives have changed, the book argues. Many women used to be at home, cleaning up, rather than working outside the house, while jobs used to be simpler and more linear with less multi-tasking.

The new Ning

The relaunch of Ning allows you to build your own social networks in a few clicks.

Arrington is impressed, as am I:

I have to hand it to Ning - it took them well over a year after their initial beta launch to fulfill their promise of allowing “anyone” to create social applications, but they’ve done it. Ning relaunches tonight with new functionality and an interface that allows even the most novice of web users to create their own highly customized social network in moments.

If you haven’t taken the time to try out the new Ning today, Robert Scoble has filmed an excellent demo of the product (basically the same demo I saw yesterday) from CEO Gina Bianchini. There’s a lot of coverage from other bloggers as well.

Technorati Tags: social.networks, startups, ning

Apple TV

If DVDs are doomed, Apple TV could be the grim reaper.

Here are the reviews from the 3 sources I trust the most in terms of new gadgets and technology: WSJ's Walter Mossberg: From PC to TV — via Apple ... NYT's David Pogue: Apple TV Has Landed ... Engadget's Thomas Ricker (who I think is a bit jealous of Walt getting one before him) comments on Mossberg's review.


Technorati Tags: technology, media, apple, entertainment

Alpha of Apollo

Any thoughts out there about this? Here is what Arrington has to say. Here is a review of some demos.

Public Alpha of Apollo Debuts on Adobe Labs

New Technology Enables Web Developers to Extend RIAs to the Desktop

SAN JOSE, Calif. — March 19, 2007 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) today announced that the first public alpha version of Apollo is now available for developers on Adobe Labs. Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system application runtime that allows web developers to leverage their existing skills in HTML, JavaScript and Ajax, as well as Adobe® Flash® and Adobe Flex™ software to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) on the desktop. Apollo combines the reach of Internet technologies with the richness of desktop applications, working seamlessly across operating systems and outside the browser to deliver a more consistent and engaging user experience. The alpha version of the Apollo application runtime and the Apollo Software Developer’s Kit (SDK) can be downloaded for free from www.adobe.com/go/apollo.

Technorati Tags: adobe, apollo, alpha, demos

Social networks: 6.5% of web traffic

From Steve:

Hitwise dug into the the top 20 social networks and found that they grew by 11.5 percent from January to February 2007. They now account for 6.5 percent of all Internet visits. Myspace, an Edelman client, continues to be the big daddy. They have 8x the market share of their closes competitor - Facebook

Technorati Tags: social.networks, research, stats

Twitter

Repeat after me:

I will not blog about Twitter.
I will not blog about Twitter.
I will not blog about Twitter.

Why?

Because, at least for now, it seems like a total waste of time. The last thing I need is a running stream of consciousness from everyone I know and a random group of others. If I want to know "what I/you are doing right now," I'll call you. Otherwise, I've got better things to do. And it is expensive if you don't have unlimited text service for your mobile ... View Jason's latest comments:

Crushed by twitter bill... Ugh. Be careful people!

oh sh@#$%@#$%t... jsut checked my tmobile bill: 2,367 extra messages... $236.70 in extra charges!!! does tmobile have unlimited?!?!?!?! about 12 hours ago from web

I will not write about it again unless there is some dramatic change to their business model.


Technorati Tags: blogosphere, trends, twitter

Bob vs Bill

AdAge's Bob Garfield interviews Bill Gates.

Good stuff in text or via Podcast.


Technorati Tags: advertising, microsoft, iptv