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The Internet Show 2012

Fri, 4 May 2012 00:00:00 +1000

On Monday and Tuesday of this week @dpallen and I attended The Internet Show in Melbourne.

The show itself is broken up into several tracks including Content Management, Video Streaming and Mobile Apps. But, we spent the majority of our time in Digital Advertising and Social Media sessions, and while most of the focus was on improving Business, there were several speakers from non-profits that were more relevant and engaging to us.

There was a lot of amazing research being presented and I certainly tweeted a lot of statistics that I was picking up. But, to summerise everything we learnt, I'd have to say that the key to social networking success is:

Focus on people, their lives, their interests, their personal brand. This doesn't require special technology, it requires a culture shift. Companies need to open their API — become an open source brand, so that they no longer behave like a gated castle that throws press releases and adverts into the stream hoping to catch a bite. But, become a community owned vehicle by which people can see their own values expressed and amplified.

The most important shift in thinking is to realise that the generation of people on social networks are not consuming traditional advertising the way they used to. This is because people on social networks are less and less influenced by "the mass" as they are by their immediate friends:

Influencers are a myth. We are far more influenced by the 5 or 6 people we interact with the most.

This plays out in a number of different ways. I think once we grasp this concept it changes perceptions and it changes our day to day work quite a bit.

This is a long list, but it's worth reading... From my notes:

Nobody is sitting around waiting for you to release your next product. They are not a 'consumer' or an 'audience', they are people.

Don't try and create a campaign to make people care about something... Find out what people ACTUALLY care about and then create a campaign around that!

Always keep in mind that the brands people associate with supplements their own personal brand. So write content with the mindset "what will this content say about the person sharing it on our behalf".

Relationship principals apply — it's equal give and take. Asking for too much commitment from people (asking them to create a video for instance) can flop if the return for them isn't great enough.

Self-expression is the new entertainment — tap into this.

Pure commodities that compete on price alone will not survive this new era. Brands need to compete on meaning. Have a purpose. You can't plead for people to like you. You've got to have a purpose that is compelling.

Remember that people on social networks want bite-size nuggets of gold. Short REPEAT visits are much more important than 'dwell time' when analysing your statistics.

'Shine a light' on other things (and other people) that are interesting and similar and help to reinforce your identity.

Do experiments, not research. You learn so much more from real people and real behaviour. Stop looking for examples. Start setting examples. Nail the idea and then scale it. Try lots of little experiments, see which ones work and then pour petrol on those things.

Stories spread, facts don't.

90% of everything is crap.

Is your content any good? create content that your staff would be happy to share.

Beware the "Mott The Hoople Syndrome" - talking about yourself to yourself... and nobody else is listening.

SMS still the most popular social media channel. 3 million texts sent every minute during an average EPL game.

Australians use Twitter during the work day much more than any other country in the world. Monday's especially.

Be considerate of the different archetypes with tweet content: 1. THE LOVER - be passionate (no gloss, be personal) 2. THE CARER - be gentle (think mother hen) 3. THE JESTERS - be mischievous (anti authoritarian)

Digital natives - our young people are "generation curation" (Gen C). The intent of curating their digital lives is to control their identity (their personal brand).

Some teens spend hours thinking about their next Facebook status, because they know they'll be judged by it.

Use their friends as filters — too much info being thrown at them. Brands need to pass through the "friend filter".

"I share, therefore I am".

Like-a-holism — Gen Cs are constantly looking for immediate recognition. 79% of social media users expect immediate positive feedback on their posts.

"Memories are becoming hyperlinks to information triggered by keywords and URLs" — Amber Case.

Gen Cs are Time Slicers, not multi-taskers after all.

Bite sized commitment — less likely to take a deep look into information.

Only strong and short pieces of information are able to cut through to the information overloaded Gen C.

A Purchare decision can change in store due to quick competitive comparison on a mobile.

Advertising to lots of smaller niche markets on FB rather than one large one reduces competition.

Lorem Ipsum is a farce. Design should be formed around the REAL message (the real text).

Only 16% of a brand's Facebook fans will see their posts.

92% of people trust #earnedmedia above all other forms of advertising.

88% of Facebook users NEVER return to a brand's page after clicking 'like'.

11 million Aussies on Facebook with an average 170 friends.

Sadly, I forgot to attribute all these quotes to the people who said them. But, I followed a lot of the speakers on Twitter (if I could find them). Here's a partial list of speakers and panalists on Twitter:

@eaonp, @jessedee, @drwarwick, @danpankraz, @datafication, @RichendaG, @cafedave, @joydot, @DigitalMinds, @TheFARMDigital, @GEM_tweets, @daleeastman, @mattho77

To be honest the whole conference felt a bit churned out (which isn't surprising when you look into the organisers — Terrapinn) and the constant changes to the timetable and lack of charging stations was a shame. But, considering those things, this has still been the best conference I've ever attended for work.

Why won't someone help me!?

Thu, 8 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +1000

With the Kony 2012 video trending on Twitter and clogging up many a Facebook timeline, it got me thinking about the many causes in the world that need attention from people, yet are still left wanting.

I've read a couple of articles today from people who have a much greater understanding of what's really going on inside Africa and they seem frustrated by the Kony 2012 campaign. The critique, at face value, is that the video overly simplifies the problem and doesn't tell the whole story. That may well be true. I wouldn't know. But, reading beneath their written words I can hear this message: "Why are Invisible Children getting all the attention? Why not us? We are working so hard and no one seems to notice!"

In April, the organisation I work for will be pitching a tent at a festival to further the awareness of our cause. As a fundraiser I am no stranger to the questions: "Why won't people act? Why don't they see the problem and do something?"

I think the problem actually lies with our expectations. While Social Networks have made the global village a lot smaller, we human beings still feel closest to the things that are closest to us. Let me say that another way: we can only focus on a few things and we have a stronger emotional connection with the things and people that are closest to us (physically and emotionally).

This is true of the people we desperately want to support our cause; but it's also true of us as advocates of the cause.

We are so intimately and emotionally connected to the important work we're doing that it's easy to forget that other people aren't lazy, so much as, preoccupied.

Now, we could pull out our measuring stick and make judgements about the value of what people are spending their precious time on, but to be honest that's something you and I don't have time to focus on.

As advocates of a cause, our job isn't to throw up our hands in frustration about other causes getting more attention. Our job is to advocate our cause.

I love what Jeff Brooks said recently:

If you are serious about your cause, and you need others to support you, you're just going to have to get used to effectively communicating with them -- often at the expense of your own taste, preferences, and liking. That's how the big boys play.

What's in the hopper? Single Origin!

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

I may never actually visit South America and meet the people, but boy do I enjoy the fruits of their labour!?

The particular fruits I'm currently enjoying are the Panama Finca Los Lajones and Nicaragua Limoncillo, both of which have been dried, shipped and then roasted in Sydney by Single Origin (a.k.a What's In The Hopper).

I ordered the Nicaragua in the hope it might be the mystery coffee I mentioned in my last post and I threw the Panama in my cart because I've never had coffee from Panama before.

Sadly, the Limoncillo is not the droid I'm looking for. But, it sure is tasty!

The Single Origin website describes the Limoncillo as Zesty and I'd have to say that's an understatement. I'd describe it more like "a cup of grated orange peels with a hint of yummy coffee poured over it". It's definitely the kind of up-and-go flavour that will snap you out of that sleepy morning stupor!

The Panama, on the other hand, is a quite something else. It's as if the Limoncillo is the loud extravert at the party with the bright orange suit and the Panama is the quiet, yet sophisticated, introvert standing in the corner wearing Hugo Boss and thoroughly enjoying their glass of Penfolds Grange.

It's an understated flavour, but it's not like the El Salvador Alaska I had recently — bland and lifeless. The Los Lajones has got plenty of flavour and character and I've really been enjoying it as a pour-over.

I love the Single Origin Roasters brand — bright orange with a good dose of wicked-warn — and their online shopping experience was nice and simple, and being able to choose the roast (medium or light) of the the beans was a nice surprise too.

These were both good coffees, roasted well and topped off with an effortless shopping experience. Great job guys!

On your marks, get set, review

Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1000

Introduction

I love coffee. As in, my wife is a little worried about me kind of love. I used to hate the stuff, until one day a couple of friends undertook an intervention and forced me to drink a flat-white WITHOUT sugar!

A while later those same friends introduced me to syphon coffee and I have been drinking syphon and chemex (filtered) coffee ever since.

For the last couple years I have been trying a lot of different coffees, from different roasters and I thought it might be fun to start a journal of my tasting experiences.

So, what better way to kick things off than by reviewing some coffees by one of the friends who performed the intervention in the first place!?

Disclosure

Before I give you my early review of Sleepless City Roaster's latest batch of Single Origins, let me first disclose that SCR's roaster, Tim, is a very dear friend of mine and he sent these to me without charge so I could tell him what I thought. But, I've decided to publish my notes here as well.

With that little disclosure out of the way, let's get down to the royal biznik!

The Process

I ran all 5 of these coffees through a syphon, using a medium grind, one after the other until I had all five glasses sitting on the table side by side.

I used 13 grams of coffee and about 250 grams of water.

This is by no means a "scientific" process and I'm sure any true coffee taster would cringe at my methods. But, I wasn't going for what's considered proper; I was going for a process that's a bit closer to what someone at home might perform when making a coffee for themselves.

The Coffees

Tim sent me 5 coffees:

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe GR2
Brazil Daterra Sunrise
El Salvador Finca Suiza
Kenya Gethumbwini Estate AB
Guatemala San Julian COE #13

The Taste

Let me say right up-front that these coffees were magnificent drinking (even at just 3 days after roasting). They were all very clean, with no hint of bitterness whatsoever, almost even verging on sweet.

I've had the Guatemala San Julian COE at a well-renowned coffee shop here in Brisbane and I had found it a bit off. I don't know much, if anything, about roasting. But, it seemed to me like the flavours were there and wanting to get out, but couldn't. Whereas, the SCR roast was full flavoured and was surprisingly good. I say "surprisingly" because I don't normally enjoy Guatemalan coffees that much. This one was full bodied, full flavoured and very easy drinking. It was close to the Kenya Gethumbwini in flavour, but slightly less fruity.

The El Salvador Finca Suiza was a nice surprise too. I had previously tried this same coffee roasted by a well known Melbourne outfit. They discribed the taste as "hot strawberry jam and cream". Though, I personally found it to be a much darker flavour than that description. The SCR roast was warmer and much more like "hot strawberry jam and cream".

The Ethiopian Yirgacheffe was just as it should be — acidic and vibrant. It's not a coffee that I'd recommend to people who like lattes — it's a pretty gnarly flavour [read: very acidic].

The Brazil Daterra "Sunrise" was new to me. I haven't really tasted much Brazilian coffee before. But, I found the Sunrise to be a bit more earthy and nutty than the other samples in this bunch. It was a lovely coffee. But, it paled in flavour compared to my favourite of the bunch...

I had first tried the Kenya Gethumbwini Estate AB as a chemex from a well-known Sydney roaster a few months ago and it was just delicious. It is a full flavoured coffee that's bright and ultra fruity. It's possibly my favourite Single Origin coffee, with the only exception being a Costa Rica Finca Las Lajas "Black Pearl", which has a similar flavour. The SCR roast really hit the nail on the head for me.

Side note: I really ought to find some Kenya Cup of Excellence considering how much I enjoyed the Gethumbwini.

The Conclusion

My first experience with Tim's roasting was an unknown Nicaraguan coffee that tasted just like toffee. He and I are both still trying to figure out which one it was and I am getting increasingly excited that Nicaraguan "season" is almost upon us. Needless to say, the anonymous coffee was amazing and I have continued to be impressed with the Sleepless City Roasters product ever since.

SCR recently got an award for their roast of the Costa Rica Finca Las Lajas "Black Pearl" and I have no doubt there'll be more awards to come.

I like filter coffee (syphon, aeropress, chemex, pourover, etc), so it stands to reason that I like Single Origins. They're not for everyone, especially if you have an espresso machine at home. In that case, I recommend you check out SCR's Crowd Pleaser blend.

But, if you are like me and you do enjoy intricate flavours, these 5 coffees are worth running some water through.

Coming up...

I have two single origins from Single Origin (a.k.a What's In The Hopper) in the mail. So, expect another review very soon!

Married

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +1000

The last time I posted to this blog was August 2011. I guess you could say I was a little distracted:

James & Tiana Angus — 6th January 2012

No Distraction for You

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:01:00 +1000

I’ve been doing more and more photography at work lately, and I’m really enjoying it. But, I’m finding that I’m forgetting to check some essential things while on location — most notably, distractions in the background.

We’re just about to kick off a campaign called "Each One Matters" and I got the job of taking the photos that feature in the campaign. But, it wasn’t until we got back to the office that we noticed a number of things about the shot that we didn’t like.

Fortunately Adobe Photoshop CS5 has some great tools built-in to help remove objects from photos and I spent the afternoon cleaning up the shot.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the content-aware tools in CS5 yet, make sure you read this tutorial

Fluff Generator

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +1000

There are few things that I find more ridiculous (and hilarious) than marketing fluff. By that I mean the needlessly vague and grandiose language used in many tech sales pitches. It’s intended to get you excited about a product. But, almost always confuses and alienates the reader.

This morning my boss asked me to decipher a 9 page pitch from the "Chief Marketing Officer" of a new venture. I’m going to assume this is probably a couple guys in a garage who spent 9 pages of fluff (and my time) to tell me they’re building a niche online directory and I should be excited about listing our organisation on it.

But, I found it to be a perfect example of marketing fluff and thought that maybe I could post an excerpt with merge-fields ready to go for entrepreneurs who need a quick copy/paste solution to their marketing collateral.

How’s this for shakespearian genius:

[webappname] is an internet based system designed to fill the communication and collaboration void in [industry]. Through innovation in internet and mobile phone based technology, [webappname] seeks to effectively connect, empower and mobilise [businessname] to work together for the advancement of [corebusiness].

Yep, it’s so vague that you can apply it to almost any Web-App, Industry and Business combination.

There’s a lesson here: cut the fluff. If your sales pitch doesn’t get to the point quickly, then you’re probably turning potential customers away.

If you want to boost your reputation, do it through testimonials from existing customers. No one likes the person who can’t stop telling you how great they are — don’t be that person.

Be concise. Be honest. Tell people who you really are and what you really do, and do it quickly.

Coding on Cloud9

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:00:00 +1000

I had the distinct privilege of writing a guest post for the Uber Global blog this week (They are the parent company of Jumba, who now host most of my websites). The post is titled “Is the future of coding in the Cloud?” and uses the new web-based Cloud9 IDE as a talking point for where web-development could be heading in the future.

I have been playing with Cloud9 for a couple of weeks while developing a new Ruby on Rails web-app for SU QLD. As you may gather from the blog post, I’m pretty impressed by Cloud9 and I’m really excited by what it signals for web development - coding from anywhere, at any time. But, not 12 hours after I submitted the blog post to Uber, Google had a guest blog post of their own, from non-other than the Lead Developer of Cloud9.

In the post, Rik Arends outlines some of the ways they are working to improve the offline capabilities of Cloud9 (so you can code when a web connection is unavailable). This is quite timely, considering Google’s Chromebooks announcement at Google IO this week - any self-respecting developer who wants to build Chrome Apps on a Chromebook is probably going to need a web-based IDE to do it!

But, it does shock me a little that it’s not Google announcing a web-based IDE. I have to admit that I always thought Google would be the first to bring code-editing to the browser. I mean, they have something like 10,000 engineers, who are all working on the next web-technologies. And, as I type this article up in Google Docs, I’m conscious that they know how to build a web-based text editor...

In saying that, I guarantee you Google are paying A LOT of attention to Cloud9, and I think Rik’s appearance on the Google blog is a sign of that. Who knows - and I’m just spit-ballin’ here - but, I wouldn’t be surprised if Google announced the purchase of Cloud9 and the Ajax.org team in the next 12 months. It would certainly fit perfectly into their ever-expanding product portfolio of web-apps.

The web is Google’s space and I doubt they’ll waste much time releasing their own IDE. Whether that’s a freshly painted Cloud9 or something brand spanking remains to be seen. Either way, someone at Google is working on this and I can’t wait to see it.

The Good Ship Internet

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +1000

Over the past few months I've been slowly and sporadically making my way through Jonathan Zittrain's book, The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It.

The title fooled me into buying the kindle version and I really thought I'd thoroughly enjoy it. But, after only a couple of chapters, lots of big words and very little actually being communicated, I started to lose interest.

Jonathan's basic premise is this: That PC's are good because they're like lego - you can make your own "awesome", whereas iPhone's are bad because they're like toasters - you get what you're given.

He posits that innovation comes when the freedom and tools for innovation are made available for all people and this is what we must protect where the Internet is concerned. If we keep going down this road of commoditised (and locked down) technology, how will our children's children continue to innovate on it?

He's right of course. What makes the Internet so good is that anyone can be involved. There are no gatekeepers and there's a relatively low barrier to entry compared with most technologies. Tools are cheap (if not free) and the information for learning the skills is readily available.

But, we do stand to lose this great ecosystem of innovation. Various assaults on the internet's freedom are going on right now: The U.S. Net Neutrality debate, App Stores, Pay-walls for online newspapers, The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the shift away from PC's to appliance-like mobile devices.

The feeling I get from technology commentators like Jonathan is that there is a series of things taking place in society that signal a slow-demise of the freedom of the internet and I share some of his concerns. Ironically though, we're arguably experiencing one of the greatest periods in technological innovation right now.

The corporates are throwing cash at innovation. They are marketing it at the everyman and they are pocketing exorbitant amounts of cash (and so the cycle goes...). But, while we may be experiencing a spike in innovation, it is being locked in a vault, "safe" from prying eyes and inaccessible to people who can build on that innovation in new and interesting ways.

I've said before that Knowledge is Power and I think that applies to what we're talking about here. The corporates are stock-piling knowledge at a high rate and in so doing they are hoarding power.

Of course, my first reaction is to go and compile my own Linux kernel. But to be honest I'm not sure that will solve mine or anyone else's problems.

Joking aside, it is a bit of a big ship to steer, particularly when none of us plebs are at the helm.

Are we too late? Has this ship already sailed (what is it with me and ships today...)? I don't know, and I don't really feel like Jonathan has nailed it either. But, I do believe that change starts with the individual. The more web developers and technologists share back with the community, the better.

So, with that, I'm off to continue creating a little piece of the internet, building off the back of many other people's innovation...

What I Will Not Be

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +1000

I guess I must have written this in 2003-ish, after deciding that I wouldn't ever want to inflict the pain of a divorce on my own future family.

Sadly, today I got bad news about my dad's second marriage and it just brought back all those same memories and emotions.

Tears fall and whittle away at my heart's call for answers and you know that

I can't describe how it feels...

So slow these tears fall harder, as you tell the nightmare unfolding and

I can't describe how it feels...

Thought this wouldn't happen, perhaps I never thought at all. Didn't see it coming. Hurts more than the hardest fall.

Do we amount to nothing? How could you let us tear apart? The feeling's over-whelming. What resides within your heart?

When I grow up this soul will not reflect of you. I'm not tied up to generations of abuse. And I'll stand tall committed to the very end. When I grow up I'll love my best-friend.

It's not easy to forgive and forget the pain and the heart-ache

and I can't describe how that feels...

I know that I must let go and let Love take hold of this family

I can't describe how that feels...

Thought this wouldn't happen. Perhaps I never thought at all. Didn't see it coming. Hurts more than the hardest fall.

Do we amount to nothing? How could you let us tear apart? The feeling's over-whelming. What resides within your heart?

When I grow up this soul will not reflect of you. I'm not tied up to generations of abuse. And I'll stand tall committed to the very end. When I grow up I'll love my best-friend.

It's not great musicianship or recording. But, it does mean a lot to me.

Download the MP3