The last man standing in a world of one.
http://www.slate.com/id/2264478/pagenum/all/
Holy crap

Building Better Bicycle Cultures: Copenhagen’s Bicycle Butlers
http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/08/copenhagens-bicycle-butlers.html
I love Copenhagen.

StS’ Beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQZj5jT0qfU
From the album “First your pants then your shoes” comes this evergreen hit of The Heatless. The band that could’ve gotten it all, but didn’t want to. – Via Hobbers

SCVNGR’s Secret Game Mechanics Playdeck
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/25/scvngr-game-mechanics/
This is pretty cool

Super Awesome Homeless Dude – Menomena
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hscZCLliGXQ

Animal corner
http://cuteoverload.com/2010/09/02/peeky-mcpeekersons-everywhere-get-schooled/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyaU9JKnKiQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjdQa-yc0QM

YouTube – Best All-Star Male Cheer Dance “EVER”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuvRRPq-AtY
You go buddy

If the buzzer won’t work, how will we make her stop?

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What’s this?

A bunch of links to interesting things online – some new, some old. Kettlevision.com is the personal website of Harley Donaldson, a senior interactive designer at VJ Melbourne.

What’s interesting is the way they respond.  They don’t try to resolve everything or make promises they can’t keep. They use real names and even show people what they look like.   They are just really responsive and eager for  conversation no matter how confronting.  And it looks like the community is starting to appreciate the contact and transparency, even if they are really angry.

Some sample responses from Telstra:

Sample Twitter Posts

One important point for Telstra to consider though is whatever tool you use for customer service, there has to be resolution at the end of the day otherwise you may get responses like this:

Wesley Chan says: Mate, I don’t care about how fast you guys tweet… Your response quality is terrible and has helped me very little for the past 6 months. In fact the issue keeps recurring, I have told your team this and you say the same thing, just go ring tech support and surprise surprise they don’t help…Might have to take this one to the TIO.

Telstra uses multiple channels to monitor and respond to customer enquiries and help resolve complaints. The company answers an average 10 enquiries/complaints per day. See http://exchange.telstra.com.au/about/telstra-social-media-channels/ for all the channels Telstra uses.

Other best practice examples of using social media for customer service

Billabong uses its blog to communicate with stakeholders on a range of topics, notably surf, ski and skate events, competitions and teams. The company proactively encourages user participation on the channel. It also uses Twitter primarily to strengthen relationships. New product ranges and offers are also subtly promoted.  See @billabong1973

Harvey Norman uses Twitter to communicate latest deals, discounts and offers. It also uses the channel to answer customer enquiries and to list employment opportunities See @harveynormanau

Woolworths is also asking its customers to share and rank ideas on how to improve products and services and uses a  blog to communicate and engage  members and facilitate feedback.

There are huge opportunities for brands to engage with their customers in social media to offer better customer service and the research is starting to suggest that an integrated multi-channel approach should be the next step for many brands. Is it time to move out of the experimentation phase and give this a good go? I think so.

FUCK OFF, I LOVE YOU
http://www.fuckoffiloveyou.co.uk/
A photographic exhibition of swearing & friendship

Smells Like Rockin’ Robin (Nirvana vs Michael Jackson)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNUTYHJrutw
This is toe-tappin great.

Interactive Infographic of the World’s Best Countries
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/15/interactive-infographic-of-the-worlds-best-countries.html
Ok ‘best’ is a fairly loaded call, but the graph is kinda fun

Complicated Mechanisms Explained in simple animations
http://mytechnologyworld9.blogspot.com/2010/08/complicated-mechanisms-explained-in.html
Bit light on, but pretty cool. I’d not seen the maltese cross one before

Cleese on Creativity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGt3-fxOvug
awesome

Funny Drawings from the Flight from New York to Berlin
http://izismile.com/2010/08/06/funny_drawings_from_the_flight_from_new_york_14_pics.html

Don’t Be Ugly By Accident!
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/dont-be-ugly-by-accident/
Nicely done

Online Idiom Dictionary
http://www.idiomdictionary.com/

—-

What’s this?

A bunch of links to interesting things online – some new, some old. Kettlevision.com is the personal website of Harley Donaldson, a senior interactive designer at VJ Melbourne.

After overcoming our initial excitement (and a fair bit of reminiscing about YoGorilla), Visual Jazz came up with a solid idea to take the brand to the next level by building a fresh and new YoGo Alley. A sweet games portal for kids, YoGo Alley includes an avatar builder, a suite of wicked games and amazing illustrations to boot.

More importantly, the site has a flexible design to allow for further content, with new games and consumer promotions to be added to keep kids entertained by the joys of chocolatey goo while still promoting a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

Environmental and wildlife messages have been incorporated throughout the site to maintain a focus on social awareness, and visits to the new site are also being generated through offline promotions. But mostly it’s the sweet YoGo games that will keep kids (and grown ups!) coming back for more.

So hurry up! Get your chocolatey gooey goodness on and go YoGo!

TypArchive
http://www.typarchive.com/
HEART

Kurt Vonnegut – How To Get A Job Like Mine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbOFYWbVVz8
I’d hump this man’s leg if he was closer. And alive. He’s just amazing and I’ve not heard much from him that didn’t make me want to stand up and applaud.

kitten can’t jump
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBA_lxUiwSg

Icelander’s Campaign Is a Joke, Until He’s Elected
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/world/europe/26iceland.html?_r=1
I hope this ends well, protest vote or otherwise. Wherever there’s that much absurdity, here’s potential.

Static Dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDeFBAT1IEo&fmt=18
I do this to my son sometimes.

The Ghosts of World War II’s Past
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/the-ghosts-of-world-war-iis
Simple idea, but quite nicely done

Google Help : Cheat Sheet
http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html
Kinda handy

Strange Cargo at Kennedy Airport
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/07/30/magazine/20100801-taryn-simon-contraband.html#/all/
Um, cow dung toothpaste?

Dancing Pigeons – Ritalin (flamethrower vs fire extinguisher)
http://vimeo.com/13639493
I guess I’d have never seen this if it wasn’t for the internet.

Wayward Alzheimer’s patients foiled by fake bus stop
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2069467/Wayward-Alzheimers-patients-foiled-by-fake-bus-stop.html
This is one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard.

Media Cubes
http://transmaterial.net/index.php/2010/07/23/media-cubes/
I’d quite like some Media Cubes.

—-

What’s this?

A bunch of links to interesting things online – some new, some old. Kettlevision.com is the personal website of Harley Donaldson, a senior interactive designer at VJ Melbourne.

CreativeApplications.Net | Apps That Inspire…
http://www.creativeapplications.net/
Hey wow, there goes my lunchtime. All week.

What BP Could Have Bought With All the Money They Lost |
http://www.visualeconomics.com/what-bp-could-have-bought-with-all-the-money-they-lost/
Excuse the stupid side scrolling, this is nuts.

Andrew Johnstone
http://www.andrewjohnstone.com/
Sweet photos

http://unevengoogle.com/
I wish I could work out how to make my firefox location bar quicksearch link to this instead of the normal, boring google.

Bertelli • Biciclette Assemblate • New York City
http://www.bertellibici.com/
Lovely builds
And related – The Bike Stylist
http://thebikestylist.tumblr.com/
pretty sweet resource (for bike geeks)

Winter Berlin / Matthias Heiderich
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Winter-Berlin/414331
Beautiful eye for composition (his other projects are great also)

Undercover Karaoke with Jewel from Jewel
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4a87d48fdd/undercover-karaoke-with-jewel
The tell me she only sings at Christmas parties.
This made me smile.

—-

What’s this?

A bunch of links to interesting things online – some new, some old. Kettlevision.com is the personal website of Harley Donaldson, a senior interactive designer at VJ Melbourne.

10 ways to determine if you have social influence

1. You follow 100K people and they all follow you back.
2. You follow 100K people and 200K follow you back (this person has more influence than the previous).
3. You have a low (follower/followee) ratio because you un-follow the majority of the people who you previously followed.
4. You go to the local grocery store and a random person shouts “Hey, I know you! I follow you on Twitter and RT everything you share”.
5. You have a personal Facebook Fan Page (it doesn’t matter how many people like you either. The mere fact that you have one is all that matters).
6. Your twitter CTR is 38% on all the links you share about YOU.
7. Others randomly RT YOUR Klout score (keyword – RT)
8. You get invited to speak at every social media conference (even if you have to pay for your own travel, you still have influence).
9. You check in to a random location on Foursquare and it turns into a Tweetup in honor of YOU!
10. You get your profile image on Fast Company; you Tweet it, it gets RT’d … and the cycle continues.

In case you didn’t get it, I am being completely facetious with this post. I personally think that anyone who considers themselves to have “real influence” just because they have a certain amount of followers or fans is a complete joke. My opinion only.

There are only 3 things that I care about having influence over; my family (and friends), my co-workers and my clients in that order. Everything else is irrelevant.

Sometimes, having that extra follower is just about nee-ner-nee-nering your nemeses.

Sidenote: Barney Stinson (@broslife) just gained his 100,000th follower. It’s gems like “Bros…nude beaches are never as awesome as you think. It’s usually just a bunch of old naked people who remind you of your parents.” that keep me coming back. Consider me influenced.

Thanks Ben for wearing the sash!

Each year the Experian Hitwise Online Performance Awards recognise Australia’s most successful websites based on their market share of visits by Australian’s in over 160 categories. Website owners are not required to be a client of Hitwise to be eligible for the award.

Here’s a summary of some interesting results from the 2009 winners:

• Google.com.au, being the most popular search engine, made the top spot in the Computers and Internet category; alongside NineMSN.com.au and YouTube.com.
• YouTube.com, MySpace.com and forums.whirlpool.net.au made the top three spots in Social Networking and Forums – note that Facebook did not make the list because only Australian websites or those with an Australian base were included.
• YourTV.com.au (provided by NineMSN.com) made it in the top three for both Entertainment and Television.
• Banks took all the top three spots in the Business and Finance category, particularly online banking services, despite other major businesses being listed in this category such as Telstra.com, Seek.com.au, and Realestate.com.au. Just goes to show how frequently people are now using internet banking as an everyday activity.
• Classifieds dominated the top three spots in the automotive category; and it was great to see Holden.com.au making the top spot in the Automotive Manufacturers subcategory – go Holden!
• WorldVision.com.au, PetRescue.com.au and redcross.org.au, made the top three community sites.

Here’s a link to the complete list of winners.

The 2010 winners are expected to be announced in the new year.

NOAH KALINA
http://www.noahkalina.com/
Pretty amazing photos

macro kingdom II on Vimeo
http://vimeo.com/12849638?hd=1
Nicely done – Cheers Barron

Feynman on Honours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j9TmDi0vNY
I like this man

Voice Activated Corgi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUdUmHKVdyU

Ninja Skillz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EWfiWEQnmo

Shut up Legs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2GXeHbsG40

—-

What’s this?

A bunch of links to interesting things online – some new, some old. Kettlevision.com is the personal website of Harley Donaldson, a senior interactive designer at VJ Melbourne.