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August 18, 2009

A Momentile Lapse of Reason

Momentile is a new site / app / social networking photo image platform - just launched in alpha; I was fortunate to get an invite to the early days of Momentile's iteration and final polishes towards beauty. All this and an iPhone app to boot. Su-weet.

Momentile has similarities to MoBlog in that it is a perfect in its simplicity: take a photo and upload it. Boom - you're done. The idea is to build a visual mosaic of your life, a photo a day, another version of the emerging online phenomenon of the 'narrative of habit' seen in evidence across sites such as Daytum and 43 Things, and likely more; the idea that a ritual act creates expression and implies a tale to be referenced or inferred.

And, you know? I quite like something about this site's attitude - casual, cheerful, knowing, ironic... Your sign in button is labelled 'Kenny Login'; the site tells us that it thinks 'flickr's poo don't stink' so if you're looking for more bells and whistles for your images than this platform provides - go there instead, no hard ones, baby.

But it's that very irreverence and fast-loose play that gets them into the trouble for me.

Momentile's a social platform (natch), working on a minimal text - maximum image basis. You can share these images you take and you can enjoy the images of others like (or unlike) you through the platform's offering, via SMS or iPhone app, but here's the rub: the social thing has been horrendously mis-packaged and mis-presented for users.

The problem lies with the terminology of the product. The words - all important in this neck of the social woods - have, in my opinion, been ill-chosen.

So, you can follow people on Momentile, right? They can follow you. But you know how Twitter got there first with the whole following thing, well... Well, Momentile have decided to be different: you don't follow people - you STALK them.

Yes.

That's right.You stalk them.

And they can all stalk you.

So I suppose that's ok. The stalker is also a stalkee, so there's a real levelling here, no power-relationships to make the stalking thing seem weird or off...

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!

That is not ok. I don't want to be a stalker. I don't want to be stalked. Let's be clear - I've never been stalked; I've never stalked anyone. It's just not for me on either side of that fence. But here's the thing - I don't sit on that fence either. I don't have ambilvalent, feelings about stalking as a prospect. It's not a 'meh' issue for me. It's bad. Stalking is bad. I'm sorry, but the word has pejorative meaning for me, and I think for many others. And I don't think it's one that can be claimed back by the good guys.

I imagine the meeting where 'stalking' was decided as their alternative to following... "OK guys, we know we want people to be social and basically follow each other, right? But we can't have following. Twitter has following. We're different. We promised the VCs we were different, so... we can't have followers. So brainstorm time: other things that people do like follow..."

"Chase." "Tail" "Creep" "Show interest" "Watch" "Hunt" "Stalk" "Prey upon" "Groom"...

"Wait, Scott Back up there. You had it!"

"Groom?"

"No, 'stalk'! People stalk each other right? If you're on Momentile and you follow someone you 'stalk' them. Awesome."

<A room erupts into applause>

Did no one stand up and say - "Sweet jesus christ, people! This is the worst idea I've ever heard! No one - NO ONE - is going to want to talk about their stalkers, how many people they're stalking, how they started stalking Stephen Fry and he stalked them back...!"

Who was in that room? Besides the imaginary Scott... I find it hard to imagine the group that found consensus on this one.

But found it they apparently did.

So, I agonised about this post. Having written it full of cheerful invective I suddenly thought - ok, I've been invited to help test the alpha site - it's a work in progress, do I really have a right to criticise this site? But, on consideration, - I've told you nothing you couldn't have found out via their iPhone App and pages. I'm not criticising the central concept or the functionality - indeed I like both of those. It's just the stalking thing. 

I've already written to Momentile about this - and forewarned that I've written the blog - and had a reply that takes my comments on board; they say that a lot of people basically like the fun / funny aspect of the stalking. So am I way off base here? Have I totally lost my sense of humour and fun? Would you happily sign up to start stalking friends and other strangers?


Keep th' faith,
Article Dan

PS The song that sprang to mind as I wrote this:

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Filed under  //   applications   photography   Social media   stalking   start ups   web  

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July 16, 2009

Crazy little thing the web (oh please make it stop!)

This web thing. Crazy, right? Just so much of it; so many networks, socials, twitbooks, facefeeds... Virals are good, viruses are bad... Criminey, how's a guy supposed to keep up?

Don't panic. Pete Codella's here. And he's gonna sing you a song that will fix your fuddled little head right up about this whole crazy web 2.0 communities thing

OK. Did you see it through to the end? And you're still able to read through your tear/vomit-filled eyes? Good.

So, first thing here is not to think about how that's 2.57 minutes of your life that you're NEVER going to get back (that's right, it's not even three minutes long, baby - how's that for proving time is relative?). You gotta think about how you'll never actually be Pete Codella. You're not him. He is. Pete Codella is Pete Codella so you don't have to be. That there's a cautionary tale in 2.57 agonising minutes. There's few horror movies as effective in 10 times the time. You might still go camping in the woods, swimming in the sea or fool around with your girl whilst reading from the Necromonicon, but you're NEVER going to think about turning your IT presentation into a quirky music video!

Pete's blog to accompany this... piece... states 'I’ve been reminded that creating a different kind of product for your industry helps set you apart.'

Yes, Pete. You have truly set yourself apart. To recap: Viral is good, virus is bad, and shit awful is shit awful no matter what kind of twisted spin you want to put on that sucker.

Keep th' faith,
Article Dan

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Filed under  //   FAIL   Humour   Marketing   Video   Virals   web  

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May 22, 2009

The web explodes the bindings, not the stories

I recently found myself defending Multiplatform (see the web) as a medium for unique content in contrast to television. 'What's the point of it?' was the central argument. 'It's bullshit.'

Now, I'm not saying there's not a river-load of stink running through the online landscape; there's a lot of crap out there, much of it amateur UGC, but a fair portion also content created by 'professionals' in the media who haven't grasped the concept of this new medium as being more than a conduit for the old medium and the old message, and, by that measure, a second rate one full of second rate ideas.

True - the narrative styles of old media may look underwhelming online, and many of the attached apps, factoid pages, 'extra clips' and half-arsed social media / games are as useful as a wooden barbeque, but that's missing the point.

"For those viewers watching in black and white, the pink ball is just behind the green." - Ted Lowe (Snooker commentator) 

Stop looking at the web and internet as a place where the old story doesn't work as well and has to be clumsily apologised for. Criticisms and complaints, while 'valid enough' when using old paradigms and models as the basis for the criticism, are entirely off the mark. You're trying to tell the time with a sliderule and getting cross when you miss your train. 

Instead of thinking about how the content you've been making for the last 60 years doesn't quite fit the NEW platform and getting frustrated with trying to make it work, try thinking about how you can be creating NEW types of content that does work online, that's meant to be online.

The web is not made for television. Despite what the iPlayer would have you believe. The iPlayer is changing the way we consume television - schedules are dead - I give it ten years before on demand has killed the old model of drip-fed, dictated-release content. But the iPlayer is not (yet) creating new content for a new medium.

Multiplatform has constraints, yes. Especially for the previous models of content. But it has so many opportunities for story-telling, for interactivity, for extended, exploratory, free narrative journeys.

Have a look at the recent Penguin Books project http://wetellstories.co.uk/  - particularly The Former General - six original stories (narratives) commissioned to create interactive story experiences. Some are more successful than others, but the Former General tale works particularly well - the nuances of shifting detail and prose depending on the direction of travel - elements of shifting memory, truths and unreliable recollection... An effective and original approach. Ostensibly placing an old medium (novels / short stories) into the new medium of the web. But again: not really. 

I'm drawn to consider the act of placing the collective narrative of oral tradition into one volume of The Odyssey under the nom de plume Homer  and binding it. That process immediately created a new offering - consistent content - a definitive narrative to be consumed and transmitted in a new way. The orally transmitted Odyssey likely travelled and continued to evolve with embellishment, slights of memory and confusions - the original mash-up. Constantly evolving content immediately divergent from its sister in print.

This is what the web does: it explodes the bindings; the web returns us to a more oral tradition model of content creation and re-telling. The internet and web have already comprehensively exploded the 'bindings' of the music industry's album model (only a relatively recent model in and of itself) - it will also explode the binding of 'recent' narrative forms.

I'm not saying that's going to be the new bowl of soup for everyone. It's not. TV and authored narrative from experienced story-tellers will remain a valued commodity. But now there's a new way you can try too. It's early days. It's only 20 years old fer christsakes. Give it time to grow up, for the people who've grown up with it to find their voices, their way of telling stories in a new way, of communicating ideas on a different platform... It's going to be great.

                                                            ------------------------------@----------------------------

Anyway - some content for you. I originally wanted to just post these two films that take the Occam's Razor of shortform video to the subject of life. The first is more obviously artistic - it's a fiction, it's a narrative; entirely experiential; a life flashback. Not unique in concept, but beautifully done. Tell me where this would sit on Television...



This second piece is an older film (you may well have seen it before), a simple portrait study by a guy who took a photo of himself every day in the same passport photo format for eight years, then put them all together to a ferocious soundtrack. A friend of mine said of this: "You can almost feel the wind rushing through your hair as you watch it!"



Again - its an art piece, not a narrative in any sense other than it charts the passing of time in a very visual way. Again - where would it sit on television? Some might question its worth (it works for over a million people online).

Whatever you think, let's not write off Multiplatform as a waste of time and money just yet, eh?

Keep th' faith,
Article Dan

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Filed under  //   content   Multiplatform   Narrative   New Media   Rant   Video   web  

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August 13, 2008

Tim Berners-Lee up to semantics

The man, the legend, the 'Father of the Internet', Tim Berners-Lee, is giving a lot of mouth to the concept of the Semantic Web at the moment. Web 3.0 as you might have it. But whenever I hear about it it's either quite abstract, or slightly... I dunno.. obvious?
 
If you watch this clip you'll see what I mean.
 
What does it mean?
 
Lots of info online.
Lots of personal info online.
Universal internet single sign on (one password kind of thing)
Search engines will return queries results that 'intelligently' use the info about you on the web (location, favourites, employment, interests, friends interests etc.) to yield more user-understood responses.
 
But it doesn't seem all that far from 2.0 as i understand it - certainly [Berners-Lee] doesn't seem to advocate an evolution over the next 5-10 years that strikes me as completely counter the trends we already witness evolving today. Then again, maybe that's the point - 'as I understand it' is NOT as a real techie would understand it. I'm a user, not a coder, so I guess it's easier for me to assume that abstract futures will come good. Like sci-fi films with flying cars... Still nowhere near happening.
 
So, all I know is that the web should be getting smarter.
 
Or at least the users are getting dumber, so the web will always seem smarter.
 
Keep th' faith,
Article Dan

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Filed under  //   internet   Semantic Web   Tim Berners-Lee   web  

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August 8, 2008

Cross Media (multiplatform and 360) projects presentation

Not sure if this will embed in my blog. Gonna give it a shot anyway.

The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of Cross-Media
View SlideShare presentation (tags: game book comic film)

Excellent guide to the past, present and (a little) future for
multi-platform media projects. I love the emails and sites seeded within
shows, hidden away for fans to find - the key being REWARD for the fans
persistence and zeal. If you set up a site within a show, you gotta make
that site's content outstanding AND credible within the universe which
directed you towards that content. That's the key to take away from this -
make the content WORTHY of your audience. Don't just do it because you think
you should. Do it because you believe in it and because it makes your
product a richer treat to consumers.

Anyway - I bet this is a load of code on the page, so just in case, here's
the link:
http://www.slideshare.net/christydena/the-who-what-when-where-why-and-how-of-crossmedia?src=embed

Article Dan

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Filed under  //   Cross media   internet   Marketing   Multiplatform   Slideshow   Social media   web  

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July 13, 2008

12 seconds of fuck all?

Would you look at this: http://12seconds.tv/

Now, I don't want to be a killjoy, the grouch in the bin of 2.0, but surely, surely, SURELY this is a massive waste of bandwidth mascarading as video micro-blogging? Twitter for video? I just have my doubts about this kind of twattery. I mean - browse around the videos. It's like Seesmic but without the conversation. And Seesmic's bad enough as web-waste goes.

This really puts the 0 in web 2.0

OR...

It's excellent. Shortformidablé! 12 seconds of humanity in all it's web-cammed glory. Video Haiku. Peppy picture poetry.

So far, browsing, I have seen some amusing takes on the form - 12 second burps, 12 second songs, 12 second cum shots... No, wait. That wasn't there. Maybe it should be. Is there a rule that says I can't post up 12 seconds of porn? YouPorn condensed. Cut out the boring bits. Boom!

12 seconds. A man can get a lot done in the love department in that time. Just ask my partner.

We've gone from 12 seconds of fuck all to 12 seconds of all fuck. These guys should pay me for this kinda gold.

Keep th' faith.

Dan

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Filed under  //   12 Seconds   Bad taste - don't read this   Humour   internet   porn   Social media   Video   web  

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