Facebook - coming to a big screen near you

If you were to take a guess as to the subject of a Sony/Aaron Sorkin collaboration you’d be forgiven for this it could be about the Iraq war, the Bush presidency perhaps even the life and times of Barack Obama. But, sadly, you’d be wrong. Sorkin has in fact signed-up to write the screenplay for Facebook – The movie.

As a first step, he’s even posted a note on Facebook: “I've just agreed to write a movie for Sony and producer Scott Rudin about how Facebook was invented. I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I've started this page….. I honestly don't know how this works, which is why I'm here. If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them as best I can. If anyone has any comments I'm glad to listen. And if anyone has any Facebook stories I think they might be helpful.”

There isn’t any more information about the movie on the group page, but there are already 38 discussion topics, 3,842 members and 432 wall posts. So, it’s being taken seriously.
MyTake – The Facebook story has all the elements of a blockbuster, expect the end. With the story the way it is, it’s sort of like The Empire Strikes back – we were all left hanging until Return of The Jedi put us out of our misery. But seriously, it’s another example of the social media world influencing the offline world to the extent that millions of dollars are about to be spent. The interesting thing here is whether or not they will use Facebook as part of the pre-release process – i.e. sharing information, clips and images. Taking it one step further, will any of the stories included in the discussion board I mention above be used in the actual film….questions, questions….

Wake up and smell the .blogspot, we've got an election to win

How important are bloggers? Very... at least the (US) Democrats think so. Well, that's not entirely fair, both sides of the US election are coming to the realisation that bloggers have a lot of power when it comes to spreading the campaign message.

At this year's convention, the democrats gave out 120 passes to bloggers with a whole host of extra bloggers sneaking in without passes. Not to be outdone, the Republicans will be giving around 200 bloggers the pat on the back to get the message out at their conference. For the bloggers at the Democratic convention, things get even better with a Blogger's Lounge at their disposal and even some floor passes thrown in for extra measure.

MyTake - Of course bloggers are important, anybody that doesn't think so, wake up and smell the .blogspot. The money that gets pumped into the election from both sides is phenomenal and there are a lot of smart people deciding where to spend that money. If they give the bloggers a lounge, floor passes and 120-200 passes, it's because they believe that these guys are pretty influencial. So.... Smart people think bloggers are so important that they'd spend US election campaign money to influence them. 'Nuff said.

The Digital Campfire at Outside Lands

At Microsoft, there is a lady by the name of Laura User and she has the job title “Digital innovation manager” and she gets to do some pretty cool stuff. The most recent being something called CrowdFire. The idea is basically this: integrate social networking and technology into a music concert, add the fans and stick the whole thing in a tent. What you get is a central place where concert goers can share photos and videos via social networks, see highlights of the concert, get to the front of the stage without actually being there thanks to live streaming. If that wasn’t enough, Rock God wannabes can try their hand at Rock Band!

Connecting the dots for you, the name CrowdFire comes from the concept of having a “digital campfire” built by the crowd in the middle of the concert. The results of this first effort at San Francisco’s Outside Lands music festival showed that around 100,000 concert goers decided to get involved with the resulting content streamed to TV screens around the concert an online

MyTake – What a great job to have, I think I have to add the word innovation to my job title. This kind of activity just goes to show that social networking is integrated into most of our lives, even areas that we wouldn’t have thought it would be. What was that quote from that movie…"If you build it they will come”…. Well, that’s pretty much what happened, people wanted the facilities and Microsoft gave it to them. I think we are going to be seeing more initiatives like this, but where next – live sport?

You the Ad Man

If there are those that still doubt the power and value of user-generated content, read on. Based on an Australian idea a website called Supevirals has been set up that encourages the average Joe to submit advertising ideas to some of the world biggest brands.

Sure, on the face of it you might think it’s just those ad boys being lazy (apologies my advertising cousin – I only jest) but it’s actually quite clever. Most brands out there have a number of enthusiasts that would jump at the chance to create something for their favourite brand, this idea taps into that passion.

The idea is now headed to the US with venture capitalists after US$3million to get both investors and advertisers on board. The end product is bound to be top notch as VioCorp are the guys providing the back-end technology, which means the user experience is going to be pain free – thus encouraging more people to take part.

MyTake – SuperSmart! I saw a quote recently from the CEO of P&G and it reads: “The power is with the consumer. Consumers are beginning, in a very real sense, to own our brands and participate in their creation.” I fully agree with that statement and I think that Supervirals is an online manifestation of that belief. I wonder what my first advertising idea will be for, something that I have a lot of Passion for …. James Squire’s, there’s a good one.

Kid clicks

As a father (and a bit or a worrier at times) of a two year old girl, my concerns for her are that of every other father – health, happiness, education and all the rest of it. But something that I have been thinking and talking about for a while, is how her generation is going to both use and interact with technology.

More often that not, I find myself I conversations with other parents about the importance of keeping up with technology, gaming, the web – you name it. Being a modern parent is tough… Most parents agree that it’s important to stay on top of all the above, but then there are some that don’t and seem to think that it's a ship that’ll pass in the night…cough…

New research from Nielsen Online revealing the top ten the most popular kids sites goes to show that even those of us that think we’re pretty clued-up could learn a thing or two. For example – ever heard of Stardoll.com? Well, it’s a site that was set up by a Finnish woman who wanted to teach kids how to knit dolls clothes, making its money by selling items of virtual clothing for about 50p each. Others in the top ten are more well-known, including ClubPenguin.com, Stardoll.com, Cartoonetwork.co.uk, Lego.com, Nick.com, Bebo.com, bbc.co.uk/schools, RuneScape.com, Frengo.com and FreeOnlineGames.com

MyTake – When I was a kid, my parents couldn’t keep up either. One week it was this type of trainers, this band and this football player…and the next week it’d all change. The worry is that when you add the ever-evolving tastes of kids with the fast-paced nature of the web you’ve got a hell of a job on your hands. Heck, I only just figured out that Diego is Dora’s cousin! Parents are going to have to be more aware of the likes of Nielsen in order to keep up with online tends concerning their kids.

Miss Sister 2008

Stories about religion and technology don’t come along very often, then right out of the blue, you get two at once. In an attempt to fight the age-old stereotype of the ugly-duckling nun, an Italian priest called Antonio Rungi has announced that he is organising an online beauty pageant for nuns.

Called “Miss Sister 2008”, the contest will be run through Rungi’s blog and will kick-off on 25 September. Would-be contestants need to log-on and fill out a profile form which includes info on them, their life and their work for the church. In addition, they’ll also be required to upload a photo of themselves. A quote used on CNN from the chap organising it reads: "We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits…but being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun. External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn't hide it."

MyTake – Does anybody really know what nuns do anymore? That’s not me saying that nuns don’t do anything, it’s me raising the point that the nuns and Rungi have been thinking about and that probably spawned this idea. He’s going to get his fair share trouble for this, but he’ll also be highlighting to a wider audience the type of work that is being done by nuns around the world. By utilising the wider community on the net, he and the nuns are able to start and sustain a huge number of conversations all across the world – and after all, isn’t this the whole point? The irony is perhaps in his choice of platform, maybe there is a subtler point he’s trying to make…

iWorship

Recent cut-backs have seen many rural churches close with services cancelled. But in a small Australian town, morning worship has just taken a new twist. Thanks to the use of 3G technology, Glen Waverley Uniting Church is broadcasting its morning worship to a number of smaller rural churches, including one in the small town of Beeac.

Although religion is no stranger to the web and mobile technology, this kind of innovation among rural church communities is pretty rare. At the moment, there is no interaction between the churches due to bandwidth capacity, but they are targeting this as the next hurdle to overcome.

MyTake – I really, really wanted to say that God works in mysterious ways, damn it, I’ve said it! There’s no questioning the passion of these Church-goers, this is clearly a part of their lives that they believe in and are willing to fight for. The question I’d ask – where to next? Facebook, Myspace? Why not, it would be a very cost effective way for them to interact and share content.