media landscaping

Network Journalism Summit Morning Update

I took the 6am flight to NYC and made it just in time for the start of the Network Journalism Summit.  The first panel was about how traditional newspapers are interacting with citizen journalists by creating sites that give them a voice.  The most interesting point to me is that most of these organizations reverse-publish content from the community participants in the print version of the paper.  They all say that this strategy is the main carrot that drives participation in the communities.

John Wilpers of BostonNow.com said that of the 500 community bloggers they have, at least half of them have been published in the paper itself.  He even said that they are looking into ways to compensate these bloggers monetarily, based on traffic, clicks or some other measure of their impact.

My panel went well...I think...but we will have to see what the people say.  You can follow the conference through the tag Netj.  Here is the technorati link that I am tracking the conversation with.

More to come later...

Hasbro Lets Consumers Design New Game

Hasbro is designing a new UK Edition of Monopoly and is reaching out to consumers for input on what cities should become properties on the board.  They are offering live results and it appears that 1,000's of votes have already taken place. 

What I like about it is they have an entire "Join the Campaign" section of the site where they offer PDF versions of posters and provide a whole list of ideas for you to spread the word and get the vote out for your locality. 

Here is the list:

Organise a rally in a public place – make your own placards to ignite the passion of your fellow citizens

Contact your local paper or TV – get the media involved and the message will spread far and wide

Write to your MP, Mayor or council

Tell your friends and family to vote too – every vote helps!

Got a website? – use the buttons here to link your site to the Monopoly one – make sure you tell people where to vote for through!

Start a blog – find fellow citizens to get involved

You can leave a comment on why your city should take the top spot when you vote!

I found a few sites in technorati that are already campaigning, like this one. 

One site, Ordo Ab Chao is discussing the viability of a script that could be written to game the system. 

I found a bunch of blogs complaining that the site was down and it turns out that it is a result of this other guys attempt to stuff the ballot box.

Sad...you can't even have a silly contest like this without hackers trying to screw it up just for the fun of it.

 

Curse of the Camera Phone

A great video from Slate that chronicles the effect of the camera phone on society and the media.  An article on the same subject is here.

Best Local TV Ad Ever

I categorize this ad in the "consumer generated" bucket because it FEELS consumer generated.  Sadly, it was created professionally to run on some local TV station somewhere.  It is so funny, I can't stand it anymore.  I must share....

Coke Makes You....

This is a hilarious Coke Spoof made by some students at the VCU Adcenter.  Way to go guys...

(VIA Advertagg, a Digg Clone for advertising, which was created by Luis Carranza of the AdCenter)

Bank of America UGC

I am so amazed that this is from a bank.  (Via Jaffe)

A Customized Advertising, Marketing and PR Search Engine

Continuing my fascination with Google's Custom Search Engine, I have added a bunch of sites to what I'm now calling the "Advertising, Marketing and PR Blog Search Tool."  Give it a try and bookmark it if you find it useful.

It now searches ~50 great ad/mrkt/pr blogs and I hope that you will participate and add your favorites to it.  Here is the list of blogs that are included so far: (in no meaningful order!)

sethgodin.typepad.com
adpunch.org
burk504.typepad.com
micropersuasion.com 
adrants.com 
adjab.com 
jaffejuice.com 
mariosundar.wordpress.com 
moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com 
mpdailyfix.com 
customerevangelists.typepad.com 
socialcustomer.com 
notetaker.typepad.com 
experiencecurve.com 
coolhunting.com 
bloombergmarketing.blogs.com 
h20325.www2.hp.com 
ownyourbrand.com 
tenayagroup.com 
beingpeterkim.typepad.com 
exitcreative.net 
ck-blog.com 
thebrandbuilder.blogspot.com 
blog.b-k-g.com 
leighhouse.typepad.com 
gregverdino.typepad.com 
threeminds.organic.com
wheresmyjetpack.blogspot.com 
copyranter.blogspot.com 
ducttapemarketing.com 
marketingshift.com 
eschenck.typepad.com 
brandspankin.com 
buzzmachine.com 
heehawmarketing.typepad.com 
beyondmadisonavenue.com 
americancopywriter.typepad.com 
adverblog.com 
adweek.blogs.com 
adpulp.com 
aisforadvertising.blogspot.com 
caffeinegoddess.blogspot.com 
brandautopsy.typepad.com 
digitasbuzz.blogspot.com 
darmano.typepad.com 
blogs.forrester.com 

This by no means is a complete list of the blogs that belong...but is where I am stopping.  Sorry if I didn't add yours, but I can only do so much on my own.  If your favorite ad/mark/pr blog isn't on here then please add it.  Thats why google called it co-op!!

armano's presentation

On my blackberry in a cab and just left David Armano's presentation. I got to briefly meet David and spent a little time with Joe Jaffe. Very cool.   

It seemed to me that the whole point of the presentation was to help the people of Digitas understand the power of conversation and to challenge them to join in.   

He talked about a movie from a few years back called "the doctor" in which a very talented doctor learns from becoming a patient himself. Having been on the other side, he could empathize with patients in a way he never could before. This made him a better doctor.  Basically, there is no better way to understand the blogosphere than to join it. 

That is why I started this blog and exactly why anyone reading this should start their own as well.  If you don't have one...why not?  Go do it, you will be surprised what you learn.

NOTE: when I get to a computer later I will add in links.  Yomoblog doesn't allow me to add links from my blackberry.

UPDATE:  9pm...I'm back in DC and added links, categories and trackbacks

Payola is the Anit-Blogosphere

Stowe Boyd uses his investigative bloggerist skills to help expose the payola scheme that PayPerPost is running.  PPP just raised $3M in first round funding according to PaidContent, so this kind of crap is going to be around for a little while.  I think it greatly damages the reputation of the blogosphere at large.

Basically, PPP connects advertisers with bloggers who are willing to lower themselves to the point that they will blog about a product or service for a very small amount of money.  Stowe signed up for the service in order to find bloggers who were posting these pitches without disclosure.  Didn't take him to long to find that Sabrina's Adventures posted about a service called List'd without disclosure and did it for a meesly $7.  I would like to think that anyone who frequented this blog would abandon it the second they found out she pulled this kind of stunt.

The average American doesn't know much about the blogosphere today.  This is going to remain the same if the blogosphere keeps tarnishing its reputation like this.  VC's...please stop funding scams like this and focus on something sustainable. 

More discussion on HyKu

Cisco's Human Network

Organics Three Minds Blog writes about Cisco's new branding and their new positioning statement of "The Human Network".  Described by Sue Bostrom, Cisco's Chief Marketing Officer:

"The potential of the Internet is being fulfilled by more than the physical network alone; it is the human network where people are connecting and collaborating, enabling ideas and opportunities."

Apparently the interactive ad campaign takes you to the The Human Network Stories page, where people are invited to upload and share how the 'Human Network' helped them achieve something that once had seemed impossible.

What I find really interesting that  Three Minds didn't mention is that the Live, Work, Play and Learn links on the right side lead you to sites that show the Human Network in action.  Most are unrelated to Cisco, while others are created by them.  Each time you click you get a different site.

Here are some sites:

• Favorville.com - a pay it forward kind of thing
• The Broth - a collaborative art project
• whatshouldireadnext.com - Put in a favorite book and it tells you what other books to read, based on other readers lists.
• idealist.org

The Cisco developed sites are:

• thelivinglink.net - pulls in RSS feeds from collaborative sites and great blogs.
• howwesee.com - a tag cloud of photos.  Not really sure where they come from though.

They are really walking their talk here by incorporating the actual Human Network into the campaign.  I didn't quite get the concept at first glance, but after walking through the sites I have a strong grasp on what they are trying to convey...and it feels good.  I support Three Minds view of this...Very well done.