The following is a commercial that I’m not being paid to post, and should not imply endorsement. It’s called “The 4th Screen“.
Congratulations Nokia, that’s clever marketing. You got me. Not just me, but many others: there were several copies on YouTube, and even a copy shot on someone’s cellphone at a convention somewhere. Mega-viral.
The hype around cellphones is well known, and possibly well deserved. There’s no such thing as being “out of touch” anymore. You are now always near a phone no matter where you are in the world (well, pretty much…). This means you’re always near help, always near the comfort of your family and friends, and always near the information grid that connects us all. Staggering that this technology is so young.
What strikes me as odd about the ad, however, is the theory of non-mobile technology as isolating. Worse, they imply that any interaction we think we’re having isn’t real; at least not real enough for them. This, of course, ignores Web 2.0, love letters to the net, the way culture and education have been transformed, etc…
… but I digress. I’m being touchy about the “but it was virtual” line. I’ll let it go now.
What I find fascinating about the evolution of the cellphone is that it’s quickly becoming what we had only dreamed it could be: a portable computer and all-purpose media device. When people think about cellphone evolution they often think back to the giant bricks of the 80s (remember the term “car-phone”?), but even if you narrow your focus to the last decade or so you can see some dramatic changes:
Color displays became standard
batteries last many days without recharging
even the cheapest new devices connect to the Internet now
all phones have cameras in them with higher megapixel ratings than the best digital cameras of a decade ago
There are really only three steps left:
Make the screens resizeable.
Create software to easily overlay lookup data on whatever the camera sees.
Eliminate all proprietary power and data cables.
Sound like I’m aiming too high? I’m not so sure… even five years ago I never thought I’d see a cellphone with a battery that lasted a few days without a recharge. Technology’s growth has a life of its own.
The evolution has been sudden, and yet we hardly take notice. In a real way the shape of humanity, of how we spend our days and how we communicate, is out of our control and out of our perception. Twenty years from now we may stop, look around, and be completely baffled at how we became the people that we are.
This is me playing a little “Sympathy for the Devil”. In this case, I suppose the Devil would be the Disney Corporation.
As I’m typing this I have YouTube open in another window going through a playlist of old Fats Waller tunes from 1943. Some of you may have been following my Twitter feed where I post the “Song of the Day”. If you go back through them, you’ll notice something: there’s no bias toward any style or era.
There may have been a time where people defined themselves by their specific musical tastes. They only listened to Punk or Classical or Rap. That’s who they were, but in the 90s we started hearing something new: people saying that they listened to everything but “X”. People didn’t bother with a strong preference anymore. As the availability of music increased with portable players and specialty radio stations, all styles became of equal value.
Of course, there’s always something you don’t like, but the same applies to food. Personal taste.
Now, with the Internet’s uncanny ability to make all media from all time equally available, another area of identity has been lost: time. Modern music is what it is, and its in the best interest of record companies and content producers to really push the new stuff, but the idea that new music is somehow better is pretty old-fashioned now.
Now, with the rise of things like Creative Commons licensing and the impossibility of effectively regulating distribution of media online, the availability of our media for future generations will be preserved (whether we like it or not). This massive body of artwork that makes up our cultural heritage is growing every day, and in a real sense we are as connected with 1943 as we are with 1983 or 2003.
For some, this is great. Here’s Lawrence Lessig’s rant on Free Culture, for instance, that prompted the “Free Mickey” campaign:
For others, this is a big problem. A few years ago the Disney Corporation were known for keeping a death-grip on how and when their media is used and distributed. Even today they still dictate to retailers when they are allowed to sell copies of their movies from any era, and actually tell people to take their movies off the shelf when they’ve decided people shouldn’t be able to buy them anymore. If they could keep people from selling copies of Snow White second hand they would, and if it were up to them, they’d buy the rights to every bit of media everywhere and hold those rights forever.
Some have objected to this phenomena. But you know… can you really blame Disney? In the face of a culture that increasingly remains aloof about the new stuff and don’t feel like they should pay much for the old stuff, how is a company whose brand is intimately linked to old classic stories to continue to make a profit?
They did find an answer, and oddly enough it had nothing to do with beating their customers over the head with rights enforcement. All they had to do was encourage a community around their brand.
If you look at what Disney does these days, they focus on personal interaction with their brands. Current virtual world endeavors include:
…and those are just the virtual worlds. In 2006 they established Disney Cruise Lines, and this won’t be the last “immersive” product they come up with!
Disney is understanding something here that few others are picking up on: the future of branding will be inextricably tied to how well you enable your customers to touch the past. We’re moving into the era of experiencing media, rather than simply absorbing it. Those who provide and capitalize on experiences will survive the information age quite nicely, regardless of how “retro” the audience becomes.
It makes me wonder if we’ll even bother with a term like “retro” in twenty years.
Headlines about virtual worlds just from the past week.
This is the second week that I’m giving it a shot. Last week was a real long list, and this one is even longer, so I’ve attempted some rough categorizing.
This time I decided to include some stories that go a little further afield, including stories about marketing, kids worlds, and some human interest stuff. My summary and commentary follows each link.
Disclaimer: As with everything on my blog, the opinions expressed here are mine and do not reflect on Clever Zebra, the vBusiness Expo, my friends, my family, my cats, Spiderman, etc etc etc… k here we go:
A second income on Second Life
Kind of a “we just noticed Second Life exists” article. Good if you’ve never heard of selling virtual goods.
Virtual Advertising in Second Life
Press Release, and their website is pretty amateur, but looking at the video it looks like they might be providing some decent low-budget solutions.
Nortel Acquires DiamondWare to Launch Enterprise World
This is inked to Project Chainsaw that we’ve been telling people about in Clever Zebra circles. It sounds like they’ve integrated extremely sophisticated audio tools. Here’s the video overview:
Presidential Candidates Ignore Second Life
So last week politicians were trying and failing. This week they aren’t even trying. This is me, shaking my head hoping that the world snaps back into focus.
Nielsen: Virtual Worlds Lead for UK Kids
If your business targets the youth market, this week’s news carries one message: get into virtual worlds somehow, or die.
Nerds Only
Pirates of the Caribbean virtual world getting mobile spin-off
Much is touted about marketing and product development for cellphones, but I can’t relate. Still, people are producing content, so if you’re a developer it’s something you absolutely need to work into your model.
Just Leap In Puts a Virtual World in Your Browser (The Startup Review)
User-created content, looks like it ran really smoothly, and was very simple. Promising, but as with all things in this arena we have to remain in wait-and-see mode until we can determine its usefulness for ourselves. Very cool demo reel though:
New Virtual World Headquarters Opens on Virtual Worlds Day August 20
Press Release. The Association of Virtual Worlds, an online social community for people who just luv them virtual world thangs, has a virtual headquarters. Odd that it took this long, now that I think on it.
Google’s Lively Unloved
Yet another writer screaming: “I don’t understand anything so everything must suck!” The guy doesn’t even get Second Life… and he still thinks he should be typing in public.
Reality Check: GT Academy Moves From the Virtual World to the Tarmac
This will be interesting. They’re taking the best drivers in a video game and putting them on the track. Will they crash and burn, or will they rock? What will this teach us about games as learning environments, or as places to talent scout?
Sociological Oddities
Woman Attempts To Kidnap Ex-Virtual Boyfriend
Only been happening in chatrooms and social spaces forever, but since it’s virtual world related I’m sure we’ll hear all sorts of crackpot theories now on how people’s sense of reality are being distorted…
While I’ve met some incredible people over the last few weeks in the real world (many of whom I will be blogging about soon) I’m interested in meeting some people in the virtual world right now. Specifically:
Do you know someone who owns a small business in real life that has a virtual world presence?
If you do, please leave a comment or email me at info@calebbooker.com.
Why do I want to know?
Right now there is no faster growing demographic in North America than the independent entrepreneur. Especially here in Canada, the idea of going out there on one’s own and building something out of nothing has caught on in a very big way. These are the world’s true adventurers, courageously risking it all in the name of something they believe in.
But…
Out here on the newest frontier of business and technology, they are rather under-represented. There are many growing small businesses that create virtual world products or services, but the number of real-world small businesses that are able to harness the power of virtual worlds is dismal.
This is largely because most small businesses are focused on their immediate surroundings. Most of the Second Life based businesses are entirely focused on creating virtual products or services because that’s where their customers are.
So then, is it even possible for a business in the real world to use virtual spaces to access their customer base? It’s hard to “go local” in a virtual space right now – the dreams of “augmented reality” where every real-world location has a virtual counterpart, and vice-versa, are a bit far off.
This, however, is only a schizm in the way we think about things. It’s not an actual problem. There are dozens and dozens of ways small businesses can achieve serious benefits from virtual spaces right now (I rambled off a half-dozen in a rather disorganized blog post a short while ago). The question is how to make these solutions accessible to small business.
That requires some exploration. I can theorize and act like a happy little pundit forever here, or I can do something real like investigate what’s already being done. Thus the request for your help.
Barring this, I’m just going to have to start building virtual world presences for my real-world friends myself. I hope I don’t have to do that, frankly… I already work full-time! LOL…
While I’m not 100% sold on the term “Web 3.0″, Ann Marie Mathis makes some absolutely brilliant observations about customer service in this presentation. If you care about your customers, and want your customers to care about you, a few minutes with this presentation will be well spent. (Full screen version here)
