Tag Archives: society

The Evolution of the Internet Society

ancient_internet

One of the recurring subjects mentioned on the Trendwatch is the parallelism between sociological and historical themes applied to the online – such as the Invisible Hand for example. But the fact is that we’ve never tried to explain why we do it. Why is it important for marketers and online managers to understand what makes the internet, and most importantly, what makes the internet audience tick?
It’s quite simple – we know that the Internet is a Media tool like the Television or the Press but the fact is that it goes far beyond it. The Internet is a society by itself where people are free to express their free will and practically live a life disassociated from their real self. Yes, nothing new there. The reason why we keep analyzing the impact of the Internet, Web 2.0 and Internet Audiences is because the Internet is undergoing evolutions quite similar to our society – from the dawn of time to the classical age. Read More »

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19 May 2009

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Virality 101

Virality 101

Virality is one of those big words used so much nowadays that it’s almost blaze. Clients demand it, marketers sought it, but it doesn’t have an effective study done to show how to obtain it. Of course there is some randomness to it – but it also involves some background and context.

Virality can be obtained via the following formula: Read More »

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10 April 2008

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For a better World… The Social Tools’ True Purpose

Facebooks Causes

Social tools’ usage and potential are far from have been completely explored. This is a fact. Besides their original use – Social Networking for friend aggregation or Social Bookmarking for common bookmarks shared on a webpage – there are subsequent effects and results that have derived from the constant use and reinterpretation of social tools. One specifically comes as a result of peer pressure, generation Y and the Youniverse theory – the rise of a civic and social conscience on the Web.

Surely you’ve come across P. Diddy’s campaign “Vote or Die”. A political service group, Diddy’s group Citizen Change aimed at getting young people to vote. Exercising civic duties is a lost art on younger generations who grew under the influence of disappointed, entertainment driven parents whose disbelief in politicians and economical system influenced the younger people to just not care. Following the words of Bart and Lisa Simpson – “We’re the MTV Generation. We feel neither highs nor lows.” Well, they couldn’t be farther from the truth – this generation simply lacked the necessary tools and influential peer to actually push towards a more civic mind.. Read More »

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14 February 2008

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Mix it good, with Mixi!

mixi.jpg

Who needs face to face communication these days? Created in 2004, Mixi (pronounced Mikushi) is one of the most popular social networking service sites in Japan with over 14,000,000 members by the end of 2007. It’s very much like how most social networking sites work. But it has a few little twists that make it unique from the rest. Mixi is made up of 99% Japanese and of course does not offer an English version.

First off, not just anyone can join Mixi. You have to be a member of the ‘über elite’ and have to have at least ONE friend that already has an account (if you don’t have one, I’ll sponsor you, leave your email in the comments), a bit like GMail was working when it was launched. They send you a friend invite, which gives you permission to access the site. The best part is, as soon as you register the person who sent you the invitation is already in your friends list! Like Tom Anderson, but you actually know them!!!

One feature that I think is great is the Ashiato (footprint) that allows you to see who has been stalking you has clicked on your profile. What a great way to track down your stalker and start a relationship. “Hi, I see you viewed my profile 13 times yesterday. You are genuinely scaring me. Let’s be friends!” Breadcrumbs will be displayed on the members profile that show the exact relationship between you and the other person.

Macintosh shortcuts

Your profile is pretty basic. It shows your name, location, birthdate, interests and blood type. Blood type is a big deal in Japan. I think it’s about as pointless as a zodiac sign. Instead of someone saying “Oh my god, I can totally tell that you’re a Cancer” you would hear “I can so tell your’re AB” and of course the BS of bloodtype compaitiblity exists.

It also has a wall-like feature to it too, where your friends can write really ‘deep’ messages. After reading other friends comments I found it to be a bit different than what you see on Myspace/facebook. None of that “Hey girlfriend! Last weekend was so fun! OMG LOVE YOU!” but more of a positive message like “I like Mika because she’s really nice and makes cheesecake”. So profound and meaningful.

Communities play a big part in Mixi. Much like groups, or “clubs” the user can join a community of his or her interest and discuss same topics while meeting new people. There is a huge range in communities from music groups, fresh beer lovers, and even one for people who love Macintosh keyboard shortcuts. Some groups are private and you need an invite to join.

My thoughts on Mixi: The design itself is good, for the first few days of viewing. Since I joined a year and a half ago the same stale orange color remains, and I hate the color orange (sorry FullSix). However I feel it lacks the organization that facebook does. Most users fail to post their actual photo, or name, scared by the lack of privacy protection, a hot hot topic in the web industry. And it’s not because my japanese girl friends would sell you their dirty underwear online that they want to share EVERYTHING with you! As a result, this makes searching for friends very difficult, but stalking so much fun.

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12 February 2008

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‹‹RWD: Text messaging is 15 years old …

texting

15 years ago (on 3 December 1992) the first text message was sent from a computer to an handset in Vodafone labs.

Since then, text messages have changed our lifes.

All around the world new words and expressions appeared. Early Internet users knew how to save key strokes with shortcuts like “brb” ; text messages gave it a name : SMS language. New language introduced new habits, and text messaging became in a few years a very important part of seduction. In 1997, french rapper Mc Solaar sung: “Times are changing // Pick up! With a cellphone”.

SMS allowed new type of business services to emerge. Alerting gives customer information they need, wherever they are. It has been applied to many contexts: stocks alerts, delivery notification, breaking news, etc. More services are coming: Texting money is now possible in the US, northern europe and quickly spreading in the rest of the world.

And of course, text messaging is a very successful advertising channel: the only marketing channel that allows a brand to talk with a customer at a precise time with a very personal message that has an opening rate over 90%.

What next?

SMS is also a huge source of revenue for carriers all around the world, and they have been fighting very hard to protect it.
Experiences in Africa have shown that instant messaging can replace text messaging, it is probably just a matter of time. Now you have figured out why there is no instant messaging in iphone …

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13 December 2007

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