New Media Knowledge

We Live in Public: Interview

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:18:59 +0000

By Magda Hercheui

NMK has interviewed Terry Stevens, from Dogwoof, about the film.

NMK: What is the main message of the documentary?

Terry Stevens: The message we took from the film, without wanting to speak for Director Ondi Timoner, is to be aware of personal identity in the wake of the Internet’s revolutionary impact on human interaction. We Live in Public stands as a cautionary tale to members of the Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter generation.

NMK: How do you think this current situation of living in public affects society and individuals?

Terry Stevens: The advent of new technologies and social media in particular has made interaction much easier across greater distances. Distance no longer limits our ability to communicate in the same way it used to. However, new technologies can also limit traditional forms of interaction, isolating people from day to day physical interaction and from one another.

NMK: The documentary argues that there is a price to pay if you live in public. In your opinion, what are the trends in relation to how people interact through social media? Do you believe people are going to become exhausted and withdraw to some extent from social media; or people will increase their exposure to social media in spite of the cost of living in public?

Terry Stevens: Social media will adapt to us and us to it. In the UK, five years ago sites like Friends Reunited were hugely popular. The popularity of this and other sites waned after time and people turned to Myspace, and now to Facebook and Twitter. People will always determine their level of interaction, and new mediums will help to facilitate this as best they can. New technologies have become a part of our lives now, but the way we interact and use them will change as technological advances are made.

NMK: How do you think organisations and institutions can explore positively this given situation of living in public?

Terry Stevens: Our ability to connect with one another is at a level never experienced before. Distance is simply not an impediment to communication. Rather than exploit this through mass marketing in the old sense, organisations should seek to identify specific groups of people and speak to them as individuals. Direct forms of address are available and these should be utilised to engage with people on a positive, personal level.

Josh Harris will be taking part in Q&As on 13^th (18h30) and 14^th (20h30) November at Odeon Panton Street, London.

You can follow the film on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/yk8chz8.

You can also join Josh at the Q&As: http://tinyurl.com/yjmfup4.

See more on the life of Josh Harris in The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/nov/04/josh-harris-we-live-public.

To Be a Better Leader, Give Up Authority

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:02:12 +0100

Professor Vlatka Hlupic

With the deepening economic crisis, increased complexity, volatility and pace of change, it is obvious that traditional leadership paradigms do not work in these turbulent business environments. There is a dramatic need for a new mindset and leadership skills. Traditional leadership approaches have been based on the Newtonian machine model that focuses on hierarchical linearity, a culture based on rules, command and control and formal relationships. Whilst this approach might work well in predictable and stable environments, there is ample research evidence that in dynamic and complex, knowledge-based environments this traditional approach inhibits innovation and decreases motivation and productivity.

In this article, Professor Vlatka Hlupic and her co-authors argue that eschewing control and allowing employees to self-organize can rapidly boost innovation and success at knowledge based firms, even during crises. Although various business researchers have proposed reduction of managerial control as a means of engaging knowledge workers and stimulating innovation, there is little evidence on how to implement such an approach or what consequences are likely to emerge. This article provides compelling evidence from two companies, CSC Germany and ANADIGICS, that if implemented properly, this counterintuitive idea can dramatically improve results.

CSC Germany, a division of the $17 billion worldwide IT consulting and services firm, at first took the usual approach of increasing control and efficiency in response to poor financial performance in 2007, but the result was a further decline. Then the division’s leaders did the opposite, they relaxed control and gave employees the freedom to do things as they saw fit, and the outcome was an astonishing success, with substantial increase in the profit margin in the first and subsequent years. Similar results were achieved in ANADIGICS, an USA based company specializing in 3G wireless technology.

The article describes how this new leadership approach was implemented in both companies and what results emerged as a consequence of this new approach. The authors conclude that relaxation of control can benefit any knowledge based company. This is particularly critical when the company begins to miss opportunities because it cannot understand or respond to market demands, when employees’ creativity is inhibited because they feel pressure from control and when business is facing crisis. In these circumstances, relaxing of the control, eschewing the formal power and encouraging mutualism and interactions is the best way to unleash the power of employees’ creativity and their intrinsic motivation.

If you are interested in knowing more about leadership strategies to benefit knowledge based companies, please send a message to Dr. Magda Hercheui (m.hercheui@westminster.ac.uk). NMK is currently preparing future courses and events and we will take your interests into account when designing these.

Join the debate on smartphones

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:25:30 +0100

Smartphones have been calling the attention of the media these last weeks. The Economist has discussed the expansion of sales of smartphones, in spite of the recession. Access to applications such as Facebook and Twitter are motivating people to invest in more sophisticated mobile devices. The UK police force is also gradually expanding its use of smartphones, in order to increase the efficiency of its professionals and permit officers to access databases at any place, reveals a report from BBC News. It is a matter of fact that there is a big space for creation of applications and marketing campaigns using these new mobile platforms, which are changing the urban landscape.

Associated to GPS technology, smartphones may offer a unique opportunity for creating new forms of exploring localities and integrating the virtual world in our face-to-face encounters. Indeed, they are fostering the emergence of a seamless social experience between online and offline conversations. Media companies are occupying this virtual space with news services of all sorts. The social network applications also foster the impression that these mobile devices are a must.

Read on The Economist: The boom in smartphones

Read on BBC: Police forces adopt smartphones

Smartphones

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:38:29 +0100

Sales of smartphones are going up, in spite of the recession. An article in The Economist discuss the last available numbers and suggests that cheaper models are pushing the sales up, with value migrating from those companies that run the mobile networks to those that make software and provide services. Permitting devices to access social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter is an important feature of popular mobile devices. How is the creative industry reacting to the spread of smartphones? What are the main trends in terms of applications and services? Share your ideas on these topics with the NMK community on Facebook.

Read the article

Mobile Retailing is on the Move

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:26:58 +0100

If I had believed everything that I had heard about new technology, by now I should be holidaying on Mars, driving to work in my jet car and my daughter would be an expert on the hoverboard.

It’s easy to liken mobile commerce with these flights of fantasy. M-commerce has been touted as the next big thing for years. However the reality has failed to materialise. So is the future for m-commerce bleak or is it the next big thing on the verge of taking off? Maybe it’s the Sinclair C5 of the internet.

Above: Ben Dwyer, Actinic

Just what is mobile commerce?

I wonder if like me you have sometimes wanted to buy a small value item but realised that you are out of change. Or, maybe you were away from your computer and remembered that the eBay auction you’ve been tracking for weeks is ending and you’ve forgotten to bid. If you’re anything like me, these are real scenarios. The good news is that there are already mobile commerce solutions that provide solutions to these situations.

In Asia, the use of the “mobile wallet” is a reality. The Tokyo subway already allows for contactless payments akin to our Oyster cards. In Finland, the mobile manufacturer Nokia is trialing RFID and Bluetooth instant payments. The idea is simple; your phone is connected to your bank or credit card. Then when you go shopping your phone uses contactless technology to pay for the goods. Quite amazingly for a new technology, a single framework has already been agreed. The next step is surely world-wide roll out?

According to Gartner, almost 500 million mobile transactions will occur in Asia during 2009. In the Philippines it’s easier, cheaper and faster to transfer money via text message. South Korea is the world leader in true multi-channel retail, allowing orders to be received in-store, online or via mobile and then sent to friends and family.

However, the West is finally catching up. Looking towards Silicon Valley, it’s once again Apple showing the rest of us how m-commerce should work. While many people believe the iPhone revolutionised the mobile industry, it’s the surrounding eco-system that has transformed the company from hardware provider to media vendor. The stats are impressive, Apple has sold 8 billion songs and videos via iTunes, with 200 million being sold direct to an iPhone. The iPhone app store currently has 70K apps available and 1.5bn apps have been downloaded.

According to analysis by the ecommerce consultancy firm Acquity Group, 5% of the top US retailers already have dedicated mobile commerce sites with a further 1% offering iPhone optimised sites or applications. Acquity predicts at least 50% growth in this area within the next 5 years. eBay is leading the way with a feature packed iPhone application providing an optimised experience for its auctions, and impressive PayPal application for transactions and payments.

So, what’s next?

I believe the mobile is the ultimate ubiquitous device. The facts are obvious; a device that just a few years ago was only being used for making and receiving calls has morphed into a camera, media player, mobile office, wallet and more. What’s more, thanks to the investment of the carriers and advances in wireless connectivity, these devices are online 24/7, and UK penetration of phones is over 100% -- more people have two or more than don’t have a mobile.

I fully expect a widespread adoption of contactless payments within the next three years, although not specifically via mobiles yet. The Oyster card has already proved the model works and on the back of this success Visa and Mastercard are planning similar schemes. Already most of our cards contain an NFC (Near Field Communications) chip. The eventual goal is to get rid of the payment card and it’s the mobile that is leading the charge.

Sticking with payments, how may times have you bought something online and wondered how safe the site you are using is? While the banking industry is pushing schemes such as PCI DSS, I can see a future involving the mobile. The vision is this. When you buy online the store contacts your bank for approval, and this is then sent to your mobile for confirmation. That’s a completely disconnected device, separate hardware on a separate network. Without approval the payment is rejected. This would make online card fraud virtually impossible.

M-commerce may not be everywhere and it’s certainly not as wide spread as many predicted. However, its growth is being fuelled by the gradual adoption of pragmatic technical solutions to real problems. There are no flights of fancy involved.

The future with mobile devices is already here. I would expect us all to be using them soon, if we’re not already.

Can Losers Come First?

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:13:53 +0100

Sure they can. If you look at the online marketing world in terms of pure winners and losers, the winners are going to be those companies and websites that reach their goals. And since for the large majority of businesses their main objective is to generate revenue, conversions are ultimately the bottom line in measuring site performance.

Managers, marketers and even online experts sometimes get very hung up on search engine rankings. Even here at Ambergreen we still get the occasional call from the CEO of some big multinational who heard from his wife’s golf caddy that his company’s direct competitor is ranking first in search results while they are only in second or, God forbid, third.

Above: Tino Nombro, Ambergreen

But good online marketers will be able to take a look at the complete picture and understand that while top results in search engines are important (with 80% of people not getting beyond the first page), the top results are excellent in driving traffic, but not necessarily conversions. This is not to say that search engine results are insignificant…far from it. But we can say that there is an array of other factors that come into play and can have a far greater bearing on your site performance (i.e. conversions) than rank.

Elements such as page titles, meta- descriptions, competition, landing pages and a host of other on-site factors come into play. Relevant content, calls to action, internal and external taxonomy and page layout can all have as significant an effect on the rate of conversion as ranking, if not greater.

To keep up with these dynamic developments in the world of online marketing, Google recently implemented a change to their referring string, which tells search engines where traffic to your site is coming from and is a critical factor in your rankings on results. The change in the new referring URL is expected to be rolled out gradually and impact only organic search referrers. But it is indeed a significant and telling change from the global dominator of the search engine market.

Essentially, the change means that Google will now be passing ranking data through the referral string to your site. This in turn lets search engines take into consideration and understand the relationship between KPI’s on differently ranking sites. Does the fact that a site ranks in first three places mean that it has the most traffic? Maybe. But does it mean that it makes the most conversions? Absolutely not. Does a site with high traffic get a higher conversion ratio? Does the number six result actually have the highest average order value?

With the change implementation, all of these questions will become a part of how Google compares your website within its relevant environment and in relation to the competition. With this type of specific rank data, Google can accurately link individual keyword rank to performance, which is a significant change in understanding the true value of a keyword and indicating areas for possible improvement.

How can this change affect your SEO activities? While the transition to the new system will be gradual, it is probably a good idea to first realise that ranking is no longer (and actually has not been for a while) the best way to judge SEO results. It is critical to speak to your online marketing firm and find the opportunities to better understand the elements that truly impact conversions on your site. A strategic approach to SEO activities is still key to making the most out of your online marketing budget and maximising conversions and site ROI.

User Survey 2009

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:30:39 +0100

Please complete our user survey for the chance to win one of two iPod Touch devices or iTunes vouchers.

This will also help us to programme events and courses - and develop new features for the site - to make NMK more useful and relevant to your needs.

Thanks in advance.

Making Money from Blogs: Interview

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:56:33 +0100

Blogging has become almost a must-have for the modern professional and business alike, seen as a good way to issue news and be perceived as a thought leader, with the added bonus of being a great tool for search engine optimisation (SEO).

According to Herve Le Jouan, managing director of Internet watcher comScore Europe, blogs are “increasingly displacing traditional media usage and carving out an ever-increasing slice of the online advertising pie.”

So just how can bloggers make money? NMK caught up with Thomas Vollrath, managing director of domain name registry site 123-reg, to find out.

I’ve seen US stats saying one per cent of US bloggers are earning more than $200,000 a year from blogging. What’s the state of the play in the UK?

I'd say that figure sounds optimistic for the US and it would certainly be optimistic for the UK! There probably is a very small proportion of UK bloggers making serious money, but the vast majority do it as a hobby, as a way to promote and market their main business or - perhaps - as a way to make a bit of additional income.

That's not to say that it isn't possible to make good money from blogging, but it's not necessarily going to be easy either. Just like any other business, you have to find your niche, plan and work hard to make it happen. And even then, it might not.

What are the key ingredients to a successful, profitable blog?

In comparison to traditional web design, sustainable monetised blog design has some slightly different elements to it. Be sure to keep in mind:

It’s all about the content: Content is the heart and soul of every blog. It should be relevant to its audience, interesting and the centre point of any design. If a particular post includes images that’s fine but don’t bombard readers with images all over the page, this will distract them. Make the blog easy to read. Clean and simple designs that put white space to best use are usually the best blogs. Bear in mind that most readers will be scanning posts rather than reading word-for-word.

Owning the blog: There are many free blog production services on the Internet and they are really easy to set up and maintain, all you do is provide the content. However, do bear in mind that the advertising, design and feel of the blog is within the control of the third party so when looking to successfully monetise a blog this isn’t necessarily the way to go. Instead, you may want to buy your own domain as it doesn’t cost the earth and provides complete control over a blog’s content, advertising and design. This way you really can make your blog stand out from a majority of free blog services.

Don’t over-advertise: Obviously, when looking to monetise a blog, advertising is important, but don’t let it rule your blog, this will offend visitors. Use them in positions that will get noticed, for example the top of the page, but use them sparingly.

The importance of navigation: A majority of visitors will see your blog via search engines, links from other blogs and social media sites. When they reach your blog, make sure they can navigate it easily, if they can’t they will leave quickly. Links to categories, bookmarks and recent posts should be easily accessible and also utilise the footer for additional navigation.

For the uninitiated, what are the options for bloggers looking to monetise their blog?

The most obvious option is to put adverts on your blog. You can use an advertising program like Google AdSense which analyses the content of your blog and displays relevant adverts on there. Every time a visitor to your blog clicks on one of the adverts, you'll receive a small amount of commission.

The commission you'll earn for each click is usually tiny (pennies), but if your blog gets lots of visitors it can really add up. This is probably the easiest type of advertising to arrange, as you can sign up to programs like AdSense online and it's generally easy to add the adverts themselves to your blog.

There are other kinds of advertising you can use too however. With banner ads, you usually charge advertisers for the number of times the advert is displayed rather than the number of times it is clicked on. Rather than dealing with advertisers direct, you'll probably want to sign up with an advertising network. They serve as brokers, connecting prospective advertisers with bloggers.

Advertising aside, there are lots of other ways to try and monetise your blog. You can sign up to affiliate programs which pay you money each time you send custom to other sites. For instance, if you write a book review on your blog, you can link to the book on Amazon using an affiliate link. If anyone goes on to buy it, Amazon will pay you commission.

You may also be able to charge for your content in some way - some bloggers have successfully had their blog posts published as a book. Or you might be able to charge for some premium content on your blog - like white papers, guides or tutorials.

Alternatively, look to become part of a blog network. These companies bring prolific, strong bloggers together in order to try and make money.

And if none of that works, many bloggers operate a sort of 'honesty box' system, asking for donations from readers who've enjoyed their visit. This can be a good way to recoup the costs of running your blog, though you're unlikely to be able to retire on the proceeds!

Looking at the likes of Huffington Post and TechCrunch, for example, they’re meant to be blogs but it could be argued that they now just look like news sites. Where do you draw the line between a blog and a news site?

Yes, it's interesting isn't it? If you'd tried to define what a blog was a few years back, you'd probably have said it's an online diary. But I think now it's not always so obvious.

If you're trying to tell if something is a blog, I'd look for a few things. For a start, the articles or posts on there should be arranged like a diary, in chronological order so you can go back through them, from most recent to oldest. And visitors should be able to take part in a 'conversation' by leaving comments and referencing a blog post on their own blog, using trackbacks or a similar function. I'd always expect a blog to have a feed of posts (also called an RSS feed), so the content can be syndicated to other places.

I think the content of a blog is important too. It's not a place to be impersonal, to toe a corporate line or to overtly sell your company's products. If you're a business, the blog is a good way to project the human side of your company. If it's just you blogging, it's a place to tell people about the things you're interested in.

In truth though, perhaps the difference doesn't matter so much these days. Many features which started out in blogs - like people being able to leave comments - have now been adopted by more traditional websites. And as long as it's doing the job you need it to, does it matter what you call it?

Some of the original bloggers are turning their backs on blogging, saying it’s not really truly ‘blogging’ any more. What does ‘blogging’ mean for you and how has it evolved in the last three-five years?

If you ask me for one thing that goes to the heart of blogging, it's the need to be genuine. Blogs are one place where you can't get away with deception or spin - the nature of the blogosphere is such that visitors will see straight through you.

The only way you can succeed with your blog is to be upfront and honest - and I don't think that fundamental truth has changed. Sure, blogging has become more mainstream - perhaps that's in part why people who were in at the beginning have moved on to other things.

There's one other big interesting development though. A lot of bloggers use their blogs to highlight interesting things they've found online and share them with other people.

Over the last couple of years we've seen lots of other services emerge that allow you to do this too. For instance, there's Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, all of which can be used in this way. These services are all very easy to use and are part of the 'real time web' - so other people can see what you've posted, the moment you post it. They also allow you to share thoughts and ideas, instantly and very easily.

What does that mean? Well, nobody can be sure, but one plausible effect could be that fewer people use their blogs as a way to share interesting things they've found online, or thoughts they have, as they have them. We might see blogs used more for longer, more considered posts - so maybe bloggers will start to publish fewer posts, but each post will have more substance to it.

What I would say is that blogging isn't going away any time soon. There still aren't many other ways to publish short to medium-length articles easily and quickly. Lots of individuals and businesses have proved blogs are useful - whether they're looking to make money from them or not.

Has the experience of UK-based tech blog publishing house Shiny Media dented the perception of blogging as a business?

So no, I don't think Shiny Media's demise has really affected people's perceptions. It is not easy to make significant money from blogging in its own right and few people would argue that it is. The collapse of Shiny Media merely underlines that.

What are your top tips on starting and monetising a blog?

· Don't lose site of your content. That's still the most important thing - the quality of what you publish will attract visitors and keep them coming back. And without visitors, you'll never make anything back

· It all comes down to that audience. Your blog's audience is the key to making money from advertising, from syndication, from whatever - without people visiting, you can't possibly make any money at all. So always think of them first

· Find a niche. You can't possibly be all things to all people with your blog, so set out to cover a particular topic and appeal to a particular group of people, and stick to it

· Try different things. You might find some types of online advertising work really well, whereas some don't give you any return at all. So don't be afraid to mix things up a bit

· Work together. There is strength in numbers, so why not join forces with other bloggers? Some of the more successful blogs are run by a team of people, so why not try that?

NMK Podcast - Episode 14 - Aprico

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:16:23 +0100

Aprico provides a service which accesses video from TV programming, on-demand services, podcasts and the Internet, and allows users to create personal channels based on their own interests. As well as tailoring entertainment and information content, APRICO also targets advertising and branded video to the channels its users create, so only adverts relevant to the viewer are seen by them.

Dvorak was a panellist on NMK’s recent “What happens to TV?” debate and we caught up with him to talk about TV advertising, content and targeting.

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Download/Play just this episode using your MP3 player:

Aprico

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Hot Property: Real Estate’s Online Revolution

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:54:27 +0100

The way we hunt for property is changing fast. Just this week, property search site Rightmove announced its iPhone application for mobile house hunters and Gartoo launched – a site which enables users to search for property using keywords. Recently, NMK interviewed TV property presenter Sarah Beeny on her latest Web project, Tepilo, a site which aims to help vendors by-pass estate agents and sell direct to buyers.

The UK online property search industry is huge. Real estate sites received 7.4 million unique visitors out of a total UK online audience of 36.9 million in May 2009. NMK took a look at the latest developments and asked what we can expect to see in the future.

Upwardly Mobile

Rightmove is believed to be the UK’s most-visited property search portal, and its free iPhone application will enable customers to use global positioning systems (GPS) to locate nearby properties available to buy or rent. The app will also include addresses, pricing, agent contact details and pictures, as well as the ability to forward details to other interested parties and access to agents via a “call me” button. Rightmove says it is the first to offer this kind of service in the UK.

“We are very interested in the whole prospect of mobile as a channel to our website users,” said Miles Shipside, commercial director at Rightmove. “We currently receive about 40,000 iPhone visitors to the site each month, which accounts for 95 per cent of our mobile traffic. Offering an app was a natural progression.”

Finding the Words

Also launching this week is Gartoo, from the same people behind Nestoria. Gartoo describes itself as an “experimental property engine” and allows house hunters to search for property drawn from Nestoria’s database using keywords as opposed to the traditional drop-down filter menu approach of many search engines. So users can enter “in need of renovation Kent”, for example, and the semantic search engine will find relevant properties. The company says this will simplify the search process.

“Gartoo is solely about property search, so visitors only see what they’re actually interested in,” said Rubén Martínez from Gartoo’s parent firm, Internet search specialist Lokku. “Full text search capabilities are not new in property search, but our specially-developed search technology will take users deeper into available data than previously possible. We hope to learn exactly what our users expect from the engine and how best adapt to the semantic complexities of their queries.”

Evolution or Bust

Clive Longbottom of analyst group Quocirca said that as the online market for property increases in quality, so will the need for improved search.

“Rather than filling in reams of tick-boxes across many sites, the capability to input natural language searches in a single site that will then aggregate possible matches will be of interest to many,” he told NMK.

Poppy Dinsey heads up business development at property search site Globrix and agrees that competition in the market increases the need for innovation.

“Agents’ own websites are improving and agents themselves are beginning to invest in search engine optimisation (SEO) and buy traffic,” she said. “Generally, it’s the young companies that are able to innovate quickly and react to user demand. I think we’ll see a lot of consolidation in the market going forward, there are too many property websites and they can’t all survive.”