At San Francisco's Open Studios, I talked to a number of artists over a five week period - about their work, their dreams, inspirations and how they got started.
One thing that was a consistent theme for all of them was color - vibrant, rich color and it shows in their work. Take a look.
Florence Schwartz-Harlan talks about her art - how she's inspired to paint via happy travel moments from around the world - from Turkey, Italy and Mexico to northern California and France.
San Francisco artist Michael Griffith talks to us about color and his work. What inspires him is the human condition, vibrant color and beauty. He works out of Hunters Point studios and lives in Noe Valley.
Artist Patricia Brown on color and movement. She loves bright, loud and colorful abstracts and paints mostly in art. Unlike Florence who paints from an emotional connection to a place or person, Patricia's work is all "in her head."
Client Answers Corporation (NASDAQ: ANSW) reports Q3 financial results today - revenue of $4.99 Million and Adjusted EBITDA of $1.7 Million. Answers Corporation includes the properties WikiAnswers and ReferenceAnswers.
A few great stats from their results:
Revenues were $4.99 million in Q3 2009, an increase of 40% compared to $3.56 million in Q3 2008.
WikiAnswers average daily page views were 6,336,000 in Q3 2009, an increase of 4% compared to 6,082,000 in Q2 2009, and an increase of 105% compared to 3,094,000 in Q3 2008.
ReferenceAnswers average daily page views were 2,857,000 in Q3 2009, a decrease of 4% compared to 2,965,000 in Q2 2009, and an increase of 7% compared to 2,666,000 in Q3 2008.
At the 140 Character Conference, Mashcast's CEO Scott Page (also former sax player for Pink Floyd), talks to us about mashing digital rich content, such as video under one platform to create incredibly creative personalization - mainly of brands.
Listen to what they're doing and where they're headed. Take a look at the customization they did for me, as an example of some of the things they can do - copy, paste and replay baby. It's very slick.
Fans of Yossi are everywhere, the latest in LA at the 140 Character Conference, held in Hollywood's Kodak Theater late last month.
I really like what this guy is doing. Enter Alek (@freakcast) and his 'live show' gig: Freakcast. He walks me through an online video experience of something he performs live - imagine the video slicing and dicing being done in real-time. He says, think "Quantum Montage." I love LA for this: it thrives on creativity and diving in without fear. (Check out Freakcast on YouTube)
A smattering of photos from the 140 Character Conference last week in Hollywood. Photos also uploaded and on flickr.
Brad Templeton (@bradtem), Debbie Landa (@deblanda), Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver), Renee Blodgett (@magicsaucemedia)
Oz Sultan (@ozsultan), Paige Craig
Jason Shellen (@shellen), Google's Jeff Eddings, John Knowles (@pancity)
Amy Martin (@DigitalRoyalty), Stefanie Michaels (@adventuregirl), Renee Blodgett (@magicsaucemedia)
Dave Winer (@davewiner), Renee Blodgett, Jerry Schuman
Amy Martin (@DigitalRoyalty)
Lan Bui (@bonny), Vu Bui (@bonny), Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield), Renee Blodgett (@magicsaucemedia)
Kevin Pollak, Renee Blodgett, Scott Page (Mashcast)
Mashable's Ben Barr (@benparr)
Alf Lamont - The Comedy Store
Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver)
Dave Winer (@daveWiner)
Oz Sultan (@ozsultan)
MK Timme
Paige Craig
Greg Ferenstein (@wikiworld)
Khayyam Wakil
Marc Salsberry (@wmmarc) and Marla Schulman (@cvinmsm)
Josh Cagan (@joshacagan)
TweetPhoto's Rodney Rumford (@Rumford) and Sean Callahan (@tweetphoto)
At the 140 Characters Conference last week in LA, a few of the Google Wave guys flew over from Sydney to participate on a panel, talk about the latest features and benefits of Google Wave and in general, spread the word among early adopters, movers and shakers in the world of Web 2.0. (developer Alex North joins us for part of the conversation). Video is in parts I and II.
Attorney Glenn Manishin (@glennm) tells amusing lawyer jokes at the 140 Characters Conference this past week in Los Angeles. Scroll down and hit play.
Glenn was on the panel that discussed public policy, legal issues within the context of social media and who owns what on the web.
Says Glenn, "if you ask a lawyer a question, they’ll say, it depends." Well, in this space, it really does depend because there is no law about social media right now. There are doctrines of law that affect social media, you can be fired, not hired, but he asserts, that in many ways, "its still the wild wild west."
Because the wild wild west is abbreviated to www....now what? What about linking? Caching? Twitter? Answers are evolving as we speak. Risks are high but if you don’t take the risks, you also don't yield the rewards.
So, who owns the content on social media networks? Can employers prohibit employees from using social media?
Employers could learn a lot about their employees by not only allowing them to voice an opinion but engaging with them in the process. If you let employees use social media, you can monitor their voice and their behavior. Instruct them out to use it and give them concise guidelines but give up the control. In the long term, that control won't work to serve corporations.
Larger corporations don't just think about the legal risk but also the business risk. Brett Trout (@bretttrout) talked to us about intellectual property law. He says with a grin, "social media isn’t like baby bottles or the phone – it’s a tool you have to use. If your lawyer isn’t using social media, you need to get a new lawyer. You need a lawyer who understands what it is and its implications."
As for endorsements and being up front about what you're doing, we are given this analogy: sharks don't know much about playing badminton but they do know how to hunt & kill.
On copyright and trademark issues, 90% of tweets are repetition of facts that are already public and out there.
Tweets live forever and anyone can see them. There’s a difference between that model and Facebook, a walled community, which means you decide who sees your content.
Normally the copyright rule is that if you use the entire article or quote, it’s not considered fair use. You can use a portion of something for commentary or parady. If you retweet, by definition, you’re basically repeating everything someone said.
By posting something on Twitter, you are not copying it, you’re reposting someone's stuff and as Pete Cashmore once said about reposting stuff, it's great to extend that reach of what you said. Hear hear. Distribution distribution distribution.
@glennm below tells us some amusing lawyer jokes on-site at the Kodak Theater last week.
At this month's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, client Answers.com's Bob Rosenschein talks about the latest growth and why its such a popular answers destination site with KRON-TV's Brian Shields.
At the 140 Character Conference last week in LA, I talked to Kodak's Chief Blogger Jennifer Cisney. She talks to us about her role at Kodak.
I love Halloween.....it was a great opportunity to be purple. This year, I created an image in my mind (mainly because I wanted to be purple) and in that image, alien engineer Sabra from the planet Altran in Galaxy WangaShee, was born.
This character has a deep voice, she's working on open source telepathy, is miffed by the fact that laptops don't come in rainbow colors and the fact that you can't use them to order food for instant consumption.
She is also dealing with a merger back in her galaxy between Sprintikon and Morgishan Wireless, which has resulted in all Altranites being forced into 3 year mobile plans which no longer include free external calls beyond their galaxy. They are contemplating war.
Meet Sabra - I had fun being her and am so into character with this one that I'm half expecting a screen to appear before I head to bed with KitchKong's face on it, asking for her Earth visit progress and his daily question of why humanoids are so mediocre? "Help me understand Sabra...."
Happy Halloween!!
I had a chance to spend some time with the MashCast team at the 140 Conference this past week in LA. They refer to their video mashup as collaborative expression, a new category of communicating that allows for advanced levels of creative and collaborative interaction using video.
They can essentially drop photos into existing video templates or create new ones, updating statements or images daily depending on the situation.
Within a MashCast network, individual artists and businesses can own and manage exclusive online communities, giving them the power to connect their network to all social media outlets (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) for one-button-push, net-wide distribution of select content; grant varying levels of rights, roles and permissions to members; distribute content securely to their subscribers real-time or “on demand”; customize and segment content for targeted communications to different kinds of users. The result? The ability to “own the audience” while opening up new revenue streams for their brand.
A proprietary rich internet application allows subscribers and network operators to pass creative content—video, audio, animation—back and forth to each other over the MashCast network in real time.
Take a look at two personalized videos they did inserting my photo into a video - and this is just one small piece of what they're capable of. You can also click play below.
Is the Blackberry doomed? Check out take from Toktumi. Chart from their post.
Jodee Rich talks to us about PeopleBrowsr's new functionality, launched at BlogWorldExpo late last month.
DIFFA: Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS presents DINING BY DESIGN 2009 at the San Francisco Design Center
November 18 and Thursday, November 19, 2009.
I attended last year and it's a fabulous gathering with inspiring and creative artists. The event, which is sponsored by Castello di Gabbiano wines and Stolichnaya ELIT, will bring together the Bay Area's social and design movers and shakers for an exclusive look at dozens of spectacular, table-top design installations by leading architects, retailers and interior designers.
At the event, they'll have exquisite sweet and savory hors d’oeuvres served by 15 of San Francisco’s best restaurants and food purveyors paired with wines, cocktails and the latest music.
DINING BY DESIGN benefits the Positive Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital, America’s oldest and the city’s largest HIV/AIDS clinic serving thousands and currently planning the world’s first HIV/AIDS Museum and Learning Center.
Tickets for the TABLE HOP & TASTE PREVIEW PARTY on Wednesday, November 18th are $100 and on Thursday, November 19th for a 3-course meal and silent auction - available online or by calling (415) 597-4650.
The Galleria at the San Francisco Design Center is located at 101 Henry Adams Street in San Francisco, between Alabama and 15th Streets.
What's a Renee sandwich you ask? Tim Berners Lee in the middle of two Renee's of course. Renee Edelman, Tim Berners Lee and Renee Blodgett below.
The same two Renee's also sandwich TechWeb's David Berlind
Client Answers.com sponsored Web 2.0 Summit this past week. One interesting way to participate was to create 101+ questions on hosts John Battelle and Tim O'Reilly.
Here's a sample of questions on Tim and John. Technology geeks, execs and visionaries: how many can you answer? Go to Answers.com to have some fun with it, as well as to discover answers to other compelling facts and things.
We also had fun with customized t-shirts - why not? Doesn't everyone Google themselves? Why not Answers.com yourself, even if its merely to find out a bit more about where your name originates from.
Below are CEO Bob Rosenschein and product manager Shaya Loney on-site.
Their traffic is growing, up in September from August according to comScore. Answers.com’s combined U.S. unduplicated unique visitors reached 56.4 million in September.
comScore data for September positioned WikiAnswers as the leading community-driven Q&A site in the United States in terms of unique visitors. That means that Answers.com sites now have a higher audience than major brands such as CNN.com, craigslist and New York Times Digital.
John Battelle interviews Carly Fiorina on stage this past week at Web 2.0 Summit. She talks about her goals, her reasons for running for the Senate and her battle with breast cancer.
Videos below are in three parts.
Microsoft shows us the latest in BING, announced this past week at Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Qi Lu talks about their latest initiatives with John Battelle.
Photos for Web 2.0 Summit have been uploaded.
I interviewed a U.S. Army rep at BlogWorldExpo this week. What on earth was the U.S. Army doing at a blogging conference you ask? Dentists and soldiers alike are blogging, tweeting and hanging out on Facebook, from Iraq and throughout the world.
Check out ArmyStrongStories.com (uncensored they say), their Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace. Click play to learn more.
An overview of BlogWorldExpo through the eyes of video. The summary recap below focuses on the show floor and the vendors rather than the sessions.
Part I:
Part II:
I was at last year's BlogWorldExpo with Jeremy Wright and the b5 Media gang - this year moreso largely as a blogger more than any other role, despite the fact that I didn't seem to have much time to blog.
I was fortune to connect with travel bloggers this year because of We Blog the World, some of whom I met at BlogHer in Chicago this past summer. Gary Arndt (Everything Everywhere) managed to track me down in San Francisco, so we finally had a chance to meet face-to-face the week before heading to Vegas. We got a tad geeky about Canons and light settings. (I love his daily photo). Gary gives me a pose below.
As always, Vegas was Vegas. The gambling energy isn't something I've ever understood, whether its a slot machine or old fashioned blackjack. This year, the inevitable came to pass - attendees were more mainstream than any other year and Hollywood showed up....remember that Ragu was in full force at BlogHer this year and people were following us around pushing creams, lotions, sauces, makeup, perfume, granola bars and designer bags in our faces.
On the one side, you had mainstream vendors, bloggers and promos - everything from gambling woos and tickets to Cirque to the MGM wining and dining four tables of travel bloggers and Jermaine Dupri sitting in as a guest DJ at Planet Hollywood.
I sampled all of it, including time with old timers and geeks. Technorati had a Hilton suite gathering and the best of the always-on addicts were speaking, trolling, dancing and connecting: Chris Pirillo, Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, Scoble, Jay Rosen, Steve Rubel and Leo Laporte.
And there were the heavily entrenched newbies (relatively speaking) who are not only also always-on addicts, but have used social media to leverage all of their respective 'hats,' such as Scott Monty (Ford), Laura Fitton (Pistachio), Jeremiah Owyang and Guy Kawasaki.
And then there were the folks who have become celebs or already were but are maximizing their exposure through social media tools....in that camp, we heard from comedians Chad Vader, Kevin Pollak and Jenny the Bloggess, who converted her lifestyle from working in HR for a christian organization to blogging and talking about sex. She's preparing for a trip to Japan in early November that is being sponsored by a sex company.
I can only imagine the promotion: Jenny boards the plane with a giant sized Japanese dildo in Tokyo to head home and hundreds of fans are taking her picture as she keeps pulling more product goodies from her bag to serve as props.
As she entered stage left for a panel with Vader and Pollak that Guy Kawasaki moderated, she proceeded to excitedly ask the audience to tweet that Guy just got bit on the leg by a zombie bitch on-stage at BlogWorldExpo. It was a line to bring a little humor to her intro not a real ask yet I found myself too tempted not to tweet it....and so I did.
Below Pollak impersonates William Shatner on.......stage.
A few takeaways in 140 characters or less on a disruptive Twitter panel from a group that included FollowFriday originator Micah Baldwin, Jesse Stay, Lucretia Pruitt (Geek Mommy) and Reem Abeidoh (Outrider).
*Focus on relationships and building them will build conversion.
*Social media is about being social.
*Be Yourself.
A group shot of the panel below:
Security had too much time on their hands. I was in one section where they had free brownies and soft drinks and you'd think a brownie in hand was a hand grenade they were fixated on making sure only the orange colored name badges could get a processed sugar boost.
Speaking of processed sugars, I had a meal with Sugar Shock author Connie Bennett. We did a lot of the minus this, add that kind of ordering. Done like a true New Yorker. Authentic New York energy is hard to beat and it's always a joy to dip the ole toe back into east coast waters.
I'm a huge believer in all of the recommendations she tours in her book; tips that will break people free from the battle of the bulge, depression, brain fog and mood swings.
While we're on the topic of food realities and perceptions, SoyJoy was a sponsor.
I hate to knock a company unless it's United, Comcast or HP, so generally when I have a mediocre experience, I simply keep quiet. But given that I still can't get rid of the foul taste of the SoyJoy bars two days later, it's hard not to speak up. I keep wondering if I'm the only person who can't fatham that their bars are food, regardless of flavor (I tasted three).
There was no shortage of sponsored dinners, tweetups and parties -- loud parties. I have to rant a bit about lousy DJs who not only lacked creativity but gave into mainstream bland, blah and generic time and time again.
It's not new - I've been going through the tug and pull of dragging people on dance floors since I was five and the only thing that seems to work is this: give them rap or house even though they don't have a clue how to capture rhythm on the downbeat which is where you need to sit with it with club music, turn the lights down (or nearly off) to avoid embarrassment because they know they can't do the latter and lastly, alcohol and tons of it.
I found myself observing those who were willing to dance when the lights were on and without a bottle of something strong in their hands and realized there was a correlation between how they managed their business or their blog and lights and alcohol.
The majority went for the latter - booze and lights off baby. Clearly, it's easier to be truly authentic and transparent in the name of good social media when its dark isn't it? Ironic to say the least.
I feel bad for the 20-something year old woman who did a very provactive pole dance since that image was likely up on Moby Picture, flickr and YouTube within minutes and there it will sit for easy-to-find searches during her next job interview.
Last note to add in a related category - when the opposite is what it is. I met the Bunny Eared Tee Morris who was giving away his latest book: Teach Yourself Twitter in 10 Minutes.
Funny guy, and the format and style of his book is easy to digest and plough through, although he can't be serious on the 10 minutes if he means end-to-end. Maybe I'm just a slow reader but its 164 pages, so you tell me. It's a great handy resource - I picked up a few tips I didn't know and will likely pass it off to friends who are still shaking their head in the name of: I just don't get Twitter category.
What seems to work exactly as advertised is Yubby, who I finally got to play with alongside founder Vincent Everts -- in from Amsterdam for the show. More about them as I take a deeper nose dive.
Below Scott Monty talks to us about social media at Ford in a dinner keynote with Kara Swisher.
Below Scott Mock of GiftVenture, a service that provides games and online adventure for kids.
The one and only arm below is Micah Baldwin's tattoos (the FollowFriday originator). When I asked about it, he said it was about friendship. Just friendship.
The Skimlinks team flew over from London to let bloggers know about their affiliate program.
Nonprofits and cause related issues were in full force as well - below Chris Noble talks to folks about his cause - you can hear more about people were talking about in a segment on Blog Talk Radio, hosted by Jim Turner on-site.
Sports marketer Louis Howes does a session on going viral with LinkedIn which I attended on the first day.
Jeremiah Owyang did a session at BlogWorldExpo this week on social media trends beyond single platforms and how and where convergence is going to happen. In other words, social everywhere.
And btw, social everywhere can be and is taken to extremes at blogging conferences. A well known photography blogger was telling me that someone tried to shoot a picture of him in a bathroom stall doing his thing.
Are you kidding? That's taking sensationalism and tackiness to another level and it's definitely not a very social or friendly way to build fans or friends.
Says Jeremiah on the social everywhere theme: corporate websites are becoming irrelevant. As we know, research indicates that customers trust each other far more than they do company information.
Now, with available social technologies, customers can communicate directly with each other, cutting companies out of the middle.
How can you evolve your corporate website? Jeremiah quotes Brogan: Fish where the fish are. In other words, go where your customers are hanging out. It will become less and less important to drive them back to your corporate site. Is it really all that necessary as long as the conversations are happening, the impressions are high and as a result, brand awareness and love goes through the roof?
It's important to integrate social technologies within your corporate website, such as aggregating customer opinions into a product page. In the future, your product pages are going to look like a comments page, integrating community support with products in places that matter and will get read.
The way to think about it is an aggregation play which is different than how we measure success today, i.e., direct traffic and impressions to your site. VCs often ask startups for those numbers before they're willing to invest.
Think about it in a continuous thread rather than back to the corporate site again and again. It's irrelevant where....what's relevant is how many times your product was mentioned positively and in how many conversations.
You can no longer just focus on driving them back to your corporate site but everywhere and anywhere the conversations are.
We're asked: WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO MOVE AHEAD IN THE REAL TIME WEB? Jeremiah takes the audience through step-by-step.
Anticipate customer needs
Implement a really robust and active listening program – respond to what people are doing. Only 10% of companies apparently have a listening strategy. Companies are building disparate CRM systems and not integrating or connecting them to their support center.
Empower a customer advocacy program. It's amazing how few companies do this.
Objectives with Listening:
*Tracking brand mentions
*Identifying market risks and opps
*Improving campaign efficiency
*Measuring support efforts
*Responding to customer inquiry
*Better understand customers
*Being proactive and anticipating customers needs
He encourages people to build a platform so customers' voices can be featured and heard, i.e., Intel Insiders, Microsoft MVP, WalMart Mom Bloggers, i.e., give a badge if they have helped others or T-shirts, something people can have on their email signature and their business cards.
As for the below tips, can someone send this list in loud, aggressive bold letters to every airline, hotel and telco company?
*Customers don’t care what department you’re in
*Customer supports issues become PR issues
*Listening cascades to every department
*Customer experiences are often fragmented
Social Personalization is where we're heading. Profiles are already portable and through services like Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect, Twitter Connect and Open ID, we'll soon be able to consolidate everything under one umbrella.
As a result, websites of the future can:
*Provide personalized content
*Provide personalized advertising
*Personalized experiences
What that means that a Sony customer can sign into a Sony page without having to fill out a long form. You'll be able to give Sony access to your Facebook profile in exchange for a better experience.
If you want to increase your marketing funnel, it's going to be necessary to do this, but it has its risks. We don't know what the future of a lot of these services hold nor do we know who will own what in 3 years, but it’s an incredibly connected world so if we're going to be smart about the branding and marketing game, we have to be everywhere.
We dive into augmented reality for a stint - a future world where you can see live video, internet content and the physical world intersect with augmented reality on a mobile device for example.
You'll be able to point your phone to a Hilton you’re passing and information about its restaurant or entertainment will show up on your phone.