Moving on to www.digiwedo.net

It's been a bit quite on this site for a while - mainly because I moved from Australia to the UK and had to get my whole life set up again. As part of that, I have moved Digiwedo operations from this site to www.digiwedo.net

I will eventually divert the traffic, when I actually get the time. In the meantime, please head on over to the new URl for more from me

The Twichhikers guide

Everyday we hear of new and interesting ways that people are using Twitter, today I heard about the "Twitchhiker". Basically, it is what it sounds like, it's a guy using Twitter to hitchhike his way around the world.

Said man is a freelance journalist called Paul Smith who is trying to get from Newcastle to New Zealand in just 30 days. Now, there are a few rules that he has put in place for his journey and they are as follows:

• He'll only accept help (lifts, a place to stay and food) from other people on Twitter
• He can’t make any plans further than three days in advance
• He can only spend money on food, drink and anything that might fit in his suitcase
• If there’s more than one offer on the table, he gets to choose which he takes. If there’s only one, he has to take it within 48 hours
• If he's unable to find a way to move on from a location within 48 hours, the challenge is over and he goes home

At the moment, he's currently at the InterContinental Hotel in Chicago and is possibly off to Dallas next, if nothing else comes up. Check him out here and you can also read his blog here, but for now, check out his latest twitchcast:



MyTake - This is some pretty damn interesting journalism and I for one will be following his progress. It clearly demonstrates the global power of Twitter and the sense of community that it has created. It almost gives a renewed faith in humanity, don't it.

Thru-You

This is possibly one of the coolest things I have seen on YouTube in a while, that and I have always been a big fan of mash-up DJ's like The Outlaws and 2ManyDjs. Basically, an Israeli DJ by the name of Kutiman has created a mash-up of a whole host of music from YouTube and created an entire album from it.

The brilliant thing is that he's not used well-known musicians throughout, he's used amateurs, semi-pros and people just messing around that can't even play. The other cool thing he's done is actually used tutorials that have been uploaded by people as part of the mix for the title song, The Mother of all Funk Chords - check out the below.



I tried to take a look at his site, but it's crashed due to traffic, so there's obviously a fair few others that think the same as me. However, he also have a MySpace page you can take a look out and the mash-ups are all over YouTube

MyTake - Collaboration, content-mashing, shaping it your way then sharing it with the world, well now....that's web 3.0 behaviour isn't it. Alright, he's aggregator is probably his mac but the principle is there. He's already a successful musician in his own right, but as our man Mr McCullen said "the medium is the message".

Is there a pot of gold at the end of the skittles rainbow?

There is, and has been, an awful lot of chatter about the skittles digital campaign that's currently underway which is predominantly focused on the use of Twitter. There's more to come from this campaign, so this post might be a bit premature but I wanted to get my thoughts on a post at this point because I think that unless we have "the big reveal" soon, it's going to die off.

If you haven't heard of it, Skittles has essentially changed it's entire website to pull in content from Twitter, Facebook (which features the game pictured to the right) and Flickr. So, the landing page actually features all the twitter chatter about the campaign, which is quite substantial given that the campaign is in full swing and there's a lot of buzz around it. The website also includes some fairly standard product info, a few videos and some pics - which really aren't that special. According to some of the tweets on the feed, the website is actually a copy of Modernista's site and after taking a look, it could be.....then again modernista could be working for Skittles.

There are a couple of posts floating around about the campaign that aren't that complimentary about it, pointing out the exposure of the brand to negative comments (and there have been a few) and the fact that they aren't actually interacting with their audience, breaking the first rule of the social web. But.... I think there's more to come and they have hinted at it on their Facebook page:

Skittles wroteYesterday, at 16:39
Thanks for all your thoughts on the new site. I know there are some lingering questions out there: will they twitter back? Is this site real? Am I causing that smell? Stay tuned for answers to those questions and more. We promise.

MyTake - This campaign hinges on what happens next and I for one am quite excited about what that might be. There's so much chatter around this already, so there's a lot of buzz around the brand which you'd think would spill over to mainstream media, making it a success from a PR/marketing perspective on two fronts. But they need to start interacting pretty soon in order to capitalise on the buzz, or risk losing the audience that they worked so hard to build.

140pedia....needs you

Yet again it's been a long time between posts, but this will change as I have finally started work again after moving half way around the world....promise. Today, the story that has caught my eye is a rather clever, funny and original mash-up of two giants of the modern digital age by the creators of one of the funniest Internet memes.

So what do you get when you mix all this together, well, you get 140pedia brought to you by the I Can Has Cheezburger guys. 140pedia is the result of mashing twitter up with Wikipedia where everything is given a 140 character explanation/or meaning. For example

Cheezburger (thing)
A misspelling of cheeseburger — a meat sandwich made with cholesterol and fat. Also a coveted food of all cats on the Internet.

Or.....

Viagra (Drug)
The little blue wonder-drug of the 90s that let impotent men to cause headaches in their formerly headache-free sig. others.

As you can see, it's very mush in keeping with the ethos of the I Can Has Cheezburger guys in that it's completely irreverent. The site doesn't have that much on it at the moment, but you can submit your own entries and our course tweet your favourite existing entries.

MyTake - It's like a funny, online version of the Oxford dictionary with a social sharing aspect thrown in to boot. Is this going to spread like wildfire, probably. I'll certainly be submitting a few entries.

Facebook me sweetie

OK, more survey stuff, but it's interesting! This time it's a survey about couples publicly dumping each other online. The survey is by a company called Swizzels Matlow, that makes sweets/candy/lollies (UK/US/AUS) so I'm not too sure of the actual link...... "We're sweeter than your sweetheart"??

That aside, the findings are interesting. a whopping 48 per cent of under 18's have publicly dumped their significant/not-so-significant other via social networks like MySpace and Facebook. Add to that that 18 per cent of 22-30 year-olds are guilty of the same crime and you've got some juicy figures.

Now, having dug-up a bit more info online, I've actually found the reason for the survey (see, proper blog this) and it's actually quite cleaver. Swizzels Matlow is the producer of a certain rather popular and retro type of sweet/candy/lollies called Love Hearts - you know, "Hug me" "Flirt" and guess what? They are in negotiating with Facebook to include "Facebook me" and.... they've timed the whole lot with Valentine's day - big pat on the back guys and gals.

MyTake - brilliant piece of PR using a tried and tested tactic. The findings themselves are really interesting if not that astounding. It's proof that more and more of our everyday life is being conducted through Facebook. I remember when the stories about "text dumping" started to come out years ago and guess what - that was way after the tipping point for texting. So guess what, Facebook has tipped.

Facehooked

A new survey out today reveals a couple of boring facts and one interesting fact. The boring facts are that we're addicted to coffee and chocolate.....sounds like my better half (sorry dear). The interesting fact is that the UK is actually "addicted" to Facebook. Facebook is one of the top three addictions cited in a recent survey conducted by the Living Channel to promote the launch of their new show, Rehab. Plug done.

Now, we knew it, didn't we? I think there's something very English about this fact and if we look at the type of behaviour that typified our parents and grandparents, there's probably a lot of similarities about the way we interact on Facebook - check it out:

• Checking your news feed, but never updating your status = Watching your neighbours from behind the net curtains
• Regularly updating your status but not checking what anyone else was doing = Mrs Bucket visiting her long suffering neighbours
• Direct messages between two people about a third = Going round Ivy's for a cup of tea, a cake and a gossip about Dora down the road

All joking aside, when surveys like this come out it's about time for people to accept the importance of the medium, in this case Facebook. With such a large proportion of the population on Facebook representing everyone from the average housewife to politicians, isn't it in fact the place to be? I think so.

MyTake - Next time someone asks "what's the point of Facebook" you can tell them "the same as coffee and chocolate". Sarcasm aside, social networking is just going to get bigger and bigger and will eventually represent a huge percentage of our interaction with each other. Throw in our English eccentricities and you've got a recipe for success.

Next-gen comics

It's not often that you come across a new type of content, but today was one of those days for me. Take a look at this from Marvel. They are called Motion Comics and they are "not quite comics and not quite animation" - sounds like most of the cartoons my daughter watches.



The first Motion Comic to be released will be "Astonishing X-Men" and I have to say, it looks quite interesting. I think I have seen a few things like this before, but the big question is whether or not this actually catches on among a fairly tight community,

MyTake - How often do you see a new type of content, not often (as I already said...bad blogger) which is what makes this so interesting. The other interesting aspect of this is the level of innovation in a fairly tactile community - aren't comic fans interested in actually owning the comics anymore? Will it catch on, who knows, will it help expand the audience base thanks to the huge popularity of the likes of iTunes, who knows....... will it give comic fans another way to get their fix, for sure.

Flashers and flashmobs at Liverpool street

Flicking through a popular free London paper yesterday I came across a story about a flashmob organised via Facebook, mimicking a popular TV for a mobile telco. My first thought was one of amazement at the continued popularity of flashmobs, but then I started thinking about the actual PR idea behind the flashmob.

Flashmobs have been around for a while now and there have been some very successful ones and some not so successful. Most of the successful ones have not been organised by brands or on behalf of brand, they have been for individual causes, or more often than not for no reason whatsoever - think about the Rickrolling event at Charing Cross last year. Now I've yet to make my mind up on how involved the actual brand was in this, as it attracted up to 13,000 people (including some guy that stripped off) and that's a hell of a lot of "willing" volunteers!



As mentioned, it was organised through Facebook and it generated a hell of a result that will surely have some traction for the brand - whether or not they were involved or not. It begs the question, are the social networks opening up to the world of marketing to a greater extent?

MyTake - Brilliant brand awareness and if it was a managed and delivered campaign, then a big pat on the back to all involved. From a marketing perspective, the social networks have always been a bit of a sacred place and the likes of Facebook is littered with cock-ups by a whole host of different companies, but perhaps this is good news for marketers.....build it and they will come.

Are they listening?

Warning to some of my more conservative readers, this video contains more profanities than an episode of Gordon Ramsey's The F Word featuring several big brother contestants..... but it's damn funny.

I was actually in an interview a few days ago taking about launching new technology products and touched upon the issues raised in this video. Take a look and I'll explain.



As much as we'd like to try and deny it, there's a lot of truth in that video. In the interview I was talking about before the video, I was talking about the numerous technology and internet launches that promise the world, don't deliver and use use an Australian phrase "shoot throw like a Bondi tram". Some of the most successful gadgets or internet start-ups are those that are based on real customer insights, those that understand the needs and wants of that audience and then delivers them in a simply, easy-to-use, shiny box.

MyTake - Brands do need to start and listen a hell of a lot more and they need to respond to their audiences, both in the form of conversation and in the resulting products. Social media is probably to most effective testing pool in the world, when it comes to product development brands don't really have a more transparent tool at their disposal.

Fry's top of the tweets

One of my favourite ports of call when it comes to interesting and original news is The Times Online. During my first stint in London I was actually quite good pals with the online time who I have to say have done an absolutely outstanding job. Today I was reading a story about the most popular celebrities on Twitter, which was really very interesting.... for more than one reason

Top of the list was none other that Stephen Fry, which I can actually understand, but other notables include the likes of Lance Armstrong, Britney Spears and Rick Sanchez..... don't worry if you don't know him, he's actually a US news anchorman.

The really interesting story for me isn't who's the most popular, but it's the relationship between them and their audience. What better way of getting your celebrity fix than checking their Twitter feed? It's real (we hope), up to date and actually authored (we hope) by your favourite celeb - what could be better, how can the likes of OK and Reveal compete with that?

MyTake - Is this the gossip mag for a whole new generation, the celebrity's very own broadcasting channel? It could be, and for me if I actually wanted to find out what my favourite celeb was doing that's the first place i'd look. But what about the people that actually are interested in that kind of content, is Twitter at the point where they even know it exists or is this type of usage that actually pushes it right the way through to the mainstream. Time (as usual) will tell

Change is (dot) coming

Like millions of others around the world, I sat and watched in awe as Barack Obama gave his inauguration speech and felt that I was witnessing a genuine piece of history. But, perhaps more interesting than the handover between Mr Bush and Mr Obama is the handover of the websites. Well...more interesting for me. 

I've blogged quite a bit on the success of the Obama web team and their excellent use of social media on the road to The Whitehouse, but what now? Obama's Change.gov is making the transition to the Whitehouse.gov site and it has already been asking for citizens to email in ideas, the best of which will be ranked then put in front of The President for consideration. But what about the Twitter account, the Flickr account, LinkedIn and Facebook? I guess only time will tell.

MyTake - The conversation has been started, so it must continue. I hope that we are going to see an era of openness and honesty and lets face it, this our best chance. The communication platform offered by social media probably represents the most powerful connection with Obama's audience. After all, a man of the people needs to talk to the people.  

Vive la France

What can I say? It's been a bit of a hectic couple of weeks as we've moved out of our house and ultimately left the great land down under. We arrived in France yesterday and picked up our little Kelpie (iconic Australian dog) from the pet transport company - thanks to Swissport Import and Eric over there - brilliant people. 

There are a few things that have immediately hit me as I settle back in to European life, and here's a sample

1) Oh my God its f***ing cold!

2) It feels like Christmas here, the weather, the decorations

3) People are a lot nicer than I remember

4) The TGV and Eurostar is the best train experience ever

5) Central heating rocks 

But, as it all starts coming back to me, as I watch BBC breakfast News (eat your heart out Kochie) and I hear about all the news from this great continent of hours, well....it feels great to be back.

Normal service will resume soon, Tinternet Treats, Video of the week and my usual observations on all things digital.  Off to London for some interviews and meetings today, so if anyone fancies meeting up, ping me!

 

Throwing one last shrimp on the barbie

Less than a week until I leave the Harbour City and as I mentioned in my previous post, I have complied a list of all the things I’ll miss and the tings that I won’t. I have to ay that if I didn’t limited the lists to 10 each, then the “miss” one would have been much longer, while I struggled to finish the “won’t miss” list. At the end of the day, Australia has been very good to me and my family and I have experienced so much in the three and a half years I’ve lived here. Hell, if Australia was just next to Europe I’d probably never leave.

Miss
1) Mateship – you can meet a bloke in a bar and the next minute he’ll invite you to stay at his beach house over the weekend and enjoy a few cold ones and a bit of fishing
2) A spade is a spade – they don’t mess around, it is what it is!
3) The weather and the surf – They’ve got more beaches than you can poke a stick at
4) Thongs (flip-flops) – the are listed on the “appropriate attire” list for flying on Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Air Services)
5) Stubby holders – someone was thinking when they invented that
6) The open road – jump in your car and head out of the Sydney and you get to see some of the most beautiful country on God’s green earth
7) Get up and go – There’s no sitting on your ass in this country!
8) The Harbour Bridge – one of the most amazing structures I have ever seen, I still get goosebumps when I go over it
9) She’ll be right – There’s still a bit of the Wild West out here, so you might just have to make do with a few things
10) Pride – I have never met an Aussie that isn’t proud of their country

Won’t miss
1) TV – Get foxtel or die, the TV here is damn awful
2) David Koch – hands down the most annoying man ever to grace a TV set
3) Baby names – everything gets a “baby name” here – breakie, Chrissy and so on – we’re not 5 years old you know
4) Both barrels but no back-up – it’s not uncommon for an Aussie to give you a piece of their mind and then scamper off before you’ve had time to retort
5) AFL – what is the point
6) The Australian Cricket team – hands down the most arrogant sportspeople on the planet…I’d have gone fishing too if I was Andrew Symonds
7) News – If it doesn’t happen in Australia, it doesn’t get covered – we live in a little place called Earth people!
8) Christmas – it’s just not the same in 30 degree heat
9) Distance – it’s a long way to anywhere else
10) Water shortages – I cleaned my car 3 times in the entire time I had it

So, my fair Australia, here’s to you and yours and all the fun I’ve had, the beers I’ve drank and the mates I’ve made.

All aboard the banter wagon

The London Olympics is a fair way off, and as a Brit heading home from Australia I found this viral by Bullseye quite funny. I’m actually looking forward to seeing the greatest show on earth (sorry Madonna, it’s true) in my own fair (and damp) country. But apparently there are sections of the UK press that have gotten their knickers in a right twist about this, calling it "distinctly odd and morally dubious".



As a pom (POME/POHM - Prisoner of Mother England/Prisoner of Her Majesty) as British expats are referred to out here, I’m quite often at the receiving end of a fair bit of sporting banter, but you don’t moan about it, you play the culture card…. to which I often get the response “what’s that then, warm beer”…thank you Miss Yanco. Or you could point out a few other facts, take you pick:

1) The Wallabies haven’t beaten England in any MEANINGFUL game since before the 2003 World Cup….which we (the poms) won in your backyard
2) The English football team (the game you call soccer) has missed only a handful of World Cups since the comp began, The Socceroos have featured in just two
3) Great Britain finished fourth in the medal tally at Beijing, compared to Australia’s sixth place
4) We won’t mention the cricket……..

My Take - A bit of banter between the Brits and the Aussies is healthy and fun, so I say to the British press – don’t get mad, get even! I seem to remember a certain UK tabloid driving a truck around Sydney with the slogan “where the bloody hell were we? Above you in the medal tally”. It’s a bit different when the shoe is on the other foot isn’t it. But please, I beg you, stop the whining….we’re already referred to as whinging poms.

Tinternet treats: 11:12:08

Hello Thursday, I’m afraid the weather has let you down….I’m normally more excited by your presence, but, well……meh. To today’s treats. First up, it’s the bracelet that every man needs to own. Gizmodo brings us a survival bracelet made of parachute cord, perfect for those moments when we need to rappel down the, er….garden fence after a night out. Second, news from Lifehacker (via TechCrunch) that Chrome will eventually leave beta – better fix the picture editing problems with Blogger then…. Third, Kotaku give a nod to the legend of gaming that is Doom, which turns 15 years old. Last but not least is a solid gold Vertu phone for barons or something. It’s my leaving drinks tonight, so I imagine Friday isn’t going to have its usual appeal either. Anyone based in Sydney that wants to pop down, it’s at the Firehouse in North Sydney

Gizmodo:
Survival Bracelet Made of Paracord For Emergency Rappeling Anytime, Anywhere
Lifehacker:
Google Chrome To Leave Beta Soon
Kotaku:
Fifteen Years Of Doom
Engadget:
The solid gold Vertu Boucheron 150 makes us hate humanity

War games or bore games?

Obama and gaming seems to be a good combination. A while ago I wrote a post about the Obama campaign advertising in-game to entice earlier votes, now I’m writing about a game called “Commander in Chief” that let’s you have a shot at running the USA. The game, which hits the shelves the day Obama is sworn in, lets players make decisions about everything from budget through to health, military and diplomatic.

Produced by Eversim, the game is played out on a 3D world map and even lets you pick your own cabinet. To top it off, you get information from the likes of the United Nations, G7, OPEC, NATO and NAFTA to help you make the right decisions such as invading foreign countries (fail) topple unfriendly regimes (fail) and plot assassinations (fail?). The game is yours for a mere $US39.95, for which you get the play God with the entire planet.

MyTake – sims are always hugely popular, I remember getting hooked on Command and Conquer when I was at University. But do people really want to play a game about running the US? Yes, I think they do. The chance to run one of the biggest modern empires is going to appeal to a lot of people and given that it’ll probably be available on PC, the uptake should be good thanks to the huge install base. The question is – will people be trialling Obama’s decisions to see how they pan out?

Tinternet Treats: 10:12:08

Wednesday, aka hump, aka the point in the week at which we stop hating the week. What have we got today then? First up, news from Gizmodo that Google now has the entire back catalogue of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines available for our perusing. Second, Skype has launched its 2.5 Beta for Windows mobile with improved stability and quality, according to Lifehacker it’s a free service when using the WiFi function on your phone. Third is a bizarre cuckoo clock-inspired loudspeaker clock featured on Engadget that actually pops out it’s loudspeaker a la Cuckoo clock style. Last, probably the best news ever for arcade fans (even better than finding an old-school SEGA GT rally with bucket seats) is that Guitar Hero is coming to an arcade near you. Enjoy your Wednesday - I am in a fairly chipper mood because I spent last night watching Indiana Jones on my mate Greg's 42 inch, 1080p Sony Bravia - nice.

Gizmodo:
Browse the PopSci and PopMech Archives On Google Books' New Magazine Search
Lifehacker:
Skype For Windows Mobile 2.5 Beta Includes Quality And Stability Improvements
Engadget:
Cuckoo clock loudspeaker kicks out the jams, you out of bed
Kotaku:
Guitar Hero Arcade Coming In February

Tinternet treats: 09:12:08

I spent most of yesterday clearing out the remaining crap from my old house before we officially moved in with our friends in fabulous Clovelly, as such there were no treats for you yesterday. But today, Tuesday’s treats were a bit hard to come by, I have to admit. First up we have a gaming helmet that lets you experience blows to the head while playing WWE or some other boxing/wrestling related game. Second is news that Vodafone is allowing customers to recharge their phones through PayPal – very handy. Third, news that PlayStation Home is a mere 9 days away – close your mouth, your drooling over your keyboard. Finally, there’s no stopping those guys and gals from Nintendo as they announce 800,000 Wiis sold in the US last week. Exactly one more week left in Australia before I head back to Europe…more posts to come on that.

Engadget:
TN Games HTX Helmet lets you feel those headshots
Lifehacker:
Vodafone Allows PayPal For Prepaid Phone Recharge
Gizmodo:
PlayStation Home Coming in 9 Days?
Kotaku:
Nintendo Sold 800K Wiis In The US Last Week

Video of the week: 04:12:08

I had a few contenders for the video of the week, including a few very funny ones from the Fail blog, but this one won out in the end. Why? Because the guy is messaging around with a multi-million dollar piece of military hardware – otherwise known as a Harrier Jump-jet…which just happens to be British….. I also love the way that there’s what appears to be a battalion/unit of troops just hanging around waiting for him to do it. You know what, if I had a Harrier, I’d probably do the same. “Permission to buzz the tower….negative ghostrider, the pattern is full”