Paladin Studios Friends Launch iPhone Game – Built in Two Weeks! – Jimmy Pataya

Jimmy Pataya

Our friends at Paladin Studios, who we worked with on Twinners in 2007-08, have just released their first iPhone game called Jimmy Pataya. Will we see it on the iPad next?

In this action-arcade title, players jump from an airplane to face an obstacle course called “The Grinder”. By tilting the iPhone side to side, players dodge objects at an increasingly fast pace. The goal is to get as far as possible and earn ample bragging rights!

Adrenaline

“We sat down a day before project start, to come up with a good theme. We went from word games to racers and puzzle games, but settled on a sky diving game,” stated Dylan Nagel, product manager for Jimmy Pataya. As it turned out, that theme was contested. “Next Monday, there were big differences in the way the team envisioned the project. Some wanted an extreme sports game, others were in favour of an anime-style colour matching title.” (continue your reading )

Tags: 3D, app, Derk de Gues, Dylan Nagel, Gamers, Gaming, iPad, iPhone, iphone app, jimmy pataya, paladin, Paladin Studios, unity3d

Future of Marketing on TV – Social TV, TV 2.0 – MARUG Conference 2010

Recently, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to do a lecture / presentation at the Annual MARUG (Marketing Associatie Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) Conference, the largest Dutch marketing event organised by students here in Groningen. There were over 400 students and business participants this year and the marketing theme for 2010 was Experience Marketing (I actually prefer the term Experiential Marketing). Some of my more recent writings and research have been around emerging television platforms and convergent media so I thought it might be interesting to blend it into the presentation and make it relevant for future marketeers. Because this space could very much play a part in their futures.

Also presenting was Andrei Westerink, the Chief Operations Officer and Rick Nijhuis, the Chief Marketing Officer of Worldticketshop – and they both brought some great, fundamental, and very practical situations and technologies from the ‘real’ world of online experiential marketing and high level management strategy.

MARUG Conference 2010 – Presentation – Richard Kastelein – Future of Marketing on TV – Social TV, TV 2.0

View more presentations from Richard Kastelein.

Tags: convergent, convergent media, experiential marketing, Groningen, lecture presentation, LinkedIN, management strategy, marketing event, Richard Kastelein, Social, Social TV, Television

EnerCities: The first serious game on Facebook – Friends from Paladin Studios Launch App!

Kudos to our fine friends at Paladin Studios in Leiden for their release today!

Facebook, one of the leading social networks with over 350 million users, got a Serious Game on its platform today. Called EnerCities, it gets serious about the energy issues of our world. It is a casual city builder created by the Dutch game developer Paladin Studios. The project has a €1.4M budget, and is funded by the European Commission’s Energy Agency.

Rock-Paper-Scissors

“The game is about managing a virtual city”, says Dylan Nagel, who is product manager for EnerCities and co-founder of Paladin Studios. We took several elements from other city builders, and brought it down to the bare essentials.”

Players start with a small grid of nine squares and a limited choice of buildings. They then place structures like industrial plots and residential areas. When done well, the city levels up and grows in size. Each level brings more complexity, but also more opportunities for improving one’s score. Nagel explains:

“We tried to model the game after the real world. The triangle of People, Planet, and Profit is a balancing act which is at the heart of the game mechanics. If the player gets this right, it will reflect in the scores. This makes it essentially a rock-paper-scissors dilemma.”

Paladin Studios App - Enercities on Facebook

Facebook

While EnerCities was originally designed for a standalone website, the choice for Facebook could be the driving factor for making the game successful. Says Derk de Geus, co-founder
and CEO of Paladin:

“We want to create a thriving community, where players compete for the highest scores and share their experiences with the game. Social Networks have the potential to make this happen.”

While the game does not have a persistent world like most Facebook games, there is a simple scoring system that allows players to compare their scores and rankings with friends. De Geus:

“Players can experiment with different scenarios. One time you play the industrial tycoon, the next an eco-friendly city builder. Either way, the decisions are tough and you will need to compromise. The idea is that you play with the world and experience the outcome.”

European Commission

The game is funded by the Energy Agency of the European Commission, specifically the Intelligent Energy Program of 2007. The €1.4M budget covers not just game development, but several other aspects.

De Geus:

“Roughly 20% of that money goes to the game itself. The other 80% is split between educational material, marketing and impact research, with most of the funds going to the roll-out of the game. It is essential that schools and teachers embed the game in their curriculum, and this requires significant effort. It deserves a big chunk of the project’s budget.”

In fact, Paladin Studios is part of a larger European consortium. The partners include educational institutions from The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Slovenia and Greece. In addition, there is an energy agency in Granada and an innovation agency in The Netherlands.

“So far it’s working very well, especially considering the international nature of the team,” says De Geus. “The one thing we had to get used to is the pace of the project. We are a small, agile studio, used to working at a fast pace. Working with the E.C. and educational institutions turns weeks into months, and months into years.”

Paladin Studios App - Enercities on Facebook

Public Beta

The game is in public beta now on Facebook and on www.enercities.eu. While the current focus of the game lies on electricity, other energy topics will be included soon.

“There are several topics, like peak oil and energy saving, that still need to be added to the game. We are working hard to add these to the next release,” says Nagel. “The official release will be early next year. By then we will have the educational platform in place, and the rollout phase will begin.”

Links

EnerCities Website – www.enercities.eu
EnerCities on Facebook – apps.facebook.com/enercities
Paladin Studios – www.paladinstudios.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/paladinstudios, www.twitter.com/enercities
Dylan Nagel – www.twitter.com/dylannagel
Derk de Geus – www.twitter.com/derkdegeus

For more information, please contact Paladin Studios at info@paladinstudios.com

Tags: de geus, dutch game, Facebook, game mechanics, industrial plots, rock paper scissors

Inspiration from PICNIC 2009 in Amsterdam #PICNIC09

One great term I really came to understand at PICNIC 2009 in Amsterdam was ‘disruptive technology’ and I realized that that’s really what really works in terms of building successful startups.

Following the sheep is such a hit and miss proposal. Thinking out of the box… opening up one’s mind to the changing landscape of convergence in media is really the key to being a successful entrepreneur.

My interpretation of Disruptive Technology is… it’s technology that turns an old economic model on it’s head and creates a new revenue model and helps change the behaviour of consumers.

Here’s some talks that really had an impact for me.

Niklas Zennström

Skype founder and now-billionaire Niklas Zennström, stressed in his talk that companies that are willing to embrace and develop disruptive technologies are the ones who can really have an impact and succeed financially. He also talked about being so broke between the time Kazaa failed and Skype started that he was back to working out of his apartment. What a long way he has come in a very short time. Kazaa failed because they were too early and could not develop a viable business model around it. They came up with Skype after they started a platform for developers called Jolt – which was an application building space and someone came up with a early idea of VOIP technology and how it can be used – which led to the development of Skype. And we all know how much impact Skype has had, particularly due to the adoption of the product and service with mainstream US TV such as Oprah and Dr. Phil.

He added that building products and services in Europe is a brilliant place, due to the ability to test in smaller markets (Holland, Denmark etc.) first, then reach out to the rest of the continent.

Now Zennström, worth over a billion euro, has a venture fund at Atomico Ventures, where he helps startups with money and advice.

“Entreprenuership is not a job, it’s a lifestyle.’

– Niklas Zennström

The Lewes Pound

There was another talk by the founders of a complimentary currency called the Lewes Pound being used in the UK, which is, essentially, a voucher or token that can be traded locally as a complementary currency and used alongside pounds Sterling. This was part of the event where there was a strong look at alternative money and local exchange and trade systems that are cropping up around the globe. There was also talk about Transition Towns – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_Towns which focus on banding together to create a lower carbon footprint using various methods. Many of these use a local currency.

Money spent locally circulates within, and benefits the local economy. Money spent in national chains doesn’t. The Lewes Pound encourages demand for local goods and services. In turn this builds resilience to the rising costs of energy, transport and food. The Lewes Pound also benefits shoppers by creates stronger and more local shops, increasing a sense of pride in our community, decreasing CO2 emissions and increasing economic resilience. Furthermore, the Lewes Pound benefits local traders by increasing footfall and local business activity, encouraging people to buy local and increasing customer loyalty, highlighting the benefits of local shopping, bringing attention and attracting visitors to Lewesand minimising card-based transaction costs.

The Lewes Pounds is driven by three main considerations:

Economic: According to the New Economics Foundation, money spent locally stays within the community and is re-used many times, multiplying wealth and building resilience in the local economy.
Environmental: Supporting local businesses and goods reduces the need for transport and minimises our carbon footprint.
Social: By spending money in local outlets we can strengthen the relationships between local shopkeepers and the community. It also supports people finding new ways to make a living initiatives

There is nothing new about the Lewes Pound. In fact, Lewes had its own currency between 1789 and 1895. Complementary currencies have existed since the beginning of civilisation, from the bead money of Papua New Guinea, which still exists, to the WIR, established between the World Wars and now used by 16% of Swiss businesses.

Such currencies are often created by local merchants, government and citizens during times of great economic change, inflation or unemployment; recent examples exist in Argentina and Japan. The town of Berkshire, Massachusetts, has issued over $1.5 million Berkshares into circulation since it started a couple of years ago and is accepted by 300 shops and being adopted by nearby towns.

PIXAR Studios – turned inside out.

Michael Johnson of Pixar – who is the guy who ‘defines’ and builds their corporate culture… Well he was way cool. He looked like ‘The Dude’ literally. But he was all about business and not bowling.

One of the great points he did raise, was his focus on creating a culture of ‘constructive criticism’. That means he helps people direct people in the right direction so they are not wasting time by hoarding a project for too long and not sharing it.

He also added this great quote by Jason Dreamer of Pixar.

“Pain is temporary, SUCK is forever.’

One other point I liked was the fact that management should try and play the role of ‘being the hero’ and that means being the people that help solve the problems, not create them.

Show up and ’save the day’ when you can.

Try and make the staff more VISIBLY better at their jobs.

Pixar’s policy of hiring is to start with the top and the bottom and then the middle will follow. They also do training during work hours… And sell off old gear and computers to staff for highly reduced prices.

With their roots in Apple, they also love beautiful UI’s on their systems… And backups by the minute are standard – their staff NEVER loses work basically ….

IDEO – Internal Social Media

This was interesting for me because I have touched this space – introducing enterprise social media to a startup of 40 staff… And it was really compelling to see how this company BUILT their own internal collective intelligence social media architecture. One cool thing, is they put screens in their lunch rooms that show status updates from their system. This was so people could check up on how staff were improving things, fixing blogs, adding intel etc.

IDEO has 500 employees that do about 500 projects a year, stretched across the globe. Each member has blog, tags, bio, and project pages. The rewards of their internal project were the following – adoption, culture enhancement, abilities developed and more motivation.

The five principals of internal social software.

1. Build pointers to people
2. Reward individual participation – career development, recognition
3. Demand intuitive interfaces
4. Take road more travelled – feed mail, subscriptions, widgets, status updates.
5. Iterate often and early
They also use an anonymous recommendation engine which allows staff to recommend or thumbs down without having to show who they are.

Microsoft NATAL

Microsoft divulged more details about Project Natal, the gesture-control system for the Xbox 360, which has no need of a physical controller. With Natal, gamers move around in front of a camera which captures their full body movements and translates them into game controls. It also has face and voice recognition technology. This is really about gestural navigation.

This also could make it’s way into social TV or TV 2.0. Changing channels by waving your hands around. Customized TV based on the systems’ recognition of who is sitting in front of the TV. Customised tCommerce widgets based on the viewers mood, personality or profile. They are building in artificial intelligence that is extraordinary which includes things like audio empathy, where it can tell your mood based on your voice and make suggestions based on that. And OCR scanning…. Where you can draw a picture or write a phrase and it scans and understands what you have done.

Yeah… It’s a few years away. But everything is moving fast. Faster. And faster.

Nicholas Negroponte

Founder – MIT Media Labs and ‘a laptop for every child‘ . He was probably the most interesting talker in terms of being an overall visionary.

In 1992, Negroponte became involved in the creation of Wired Magazine as the first investor. From 1993 to 1998, he contributed a monthly column to the magazine in which he reiterated a basic theme: “Move bits, not atoms.” Negroponte expanded many of the ideas from his Wired columns into a bestselling book Being Digital (1995), which made famous his forecasts on how the interactive world, the entertainment world and the information world would eventually merge

“Computing is not about computers, it’s about Life.”
- Nicholas Negroponte

“News is not dead, Paper is,” said Negroponte, at PICNIC 2009. “Soon every surface will be a display.”

Tomi Ahonen – Mobile Technology

http://www.tomiahonen.com/

He spoke at PICNIC on “The Next 4 Billion” and referred it to the number of mobile phones on this earth: 4 billion and claims that that number will double, and explained this with some of his theories (6 M, 10 C and the 7th mass media), supplemented with hard numbers.

What was most interesting about Tomi was his emphasis on the emerging markets in Africa and Asia – where usage is rising incredibly.

In fact, there are over 4 billion mobile phones in use worldwide. Compare that to a little over 1 billion internet users and we can really understand the scale of the market.
While everyone is on the iPhone and cutting edge mobile development circles, he wisely recommends developing on all platforms and thinking strongly about SMS and MMS as important markets to develop for.

Tags: #PICNIC09, 2.0, 2009, Africa, Argentina, artificial intelligence, Asia, Atomico Ventures, Being Digital, Berkshire, blog, bowling, BUILT, change, community, corporate culture, disruptive, disruptive technologies, disruptive technology, Economics, Enterprise, enterprise social media, entertainment, entrepreneur, Entreprenuer, entreprenuers, Europe, first, head, IDEO, Intel, internal social software, Internet users, IP, iPhone, ISP, Jason Dreamer, Kazaa, Lewes, Local currency, magazine, mass media, Massachusetts, Media, Michael Johnson, MIT, mobile phones, Natal, network, New Economics Foundation, Nicholas Negroponte, Niklas Zennström, OCR, Open, Pain, Papua New Guinea, participation, Phil, physical controller, picnic amsterdam, picnic network, Pixar, print, Skype, Social, Social Media, Social TV, software, technology, Tomi Ahonen, trade systems, voice recognition technology, VOIP, VOIP technology, world

Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV or “HbbTV” – the European Industry Standard for Social TV? Or Will it go Global?

by Richard Kastelein (originally posted on Atlantic Free Press)

It’s only been a couple of weeks since the European Broadcasting Union demonstrated the potential of the HbbTV specification at IBC2009 in Amsterdam. But it won’t be long before Europeans start seeing the results – before Christmas according to some pundits. And once compatible devices are out in the market, they say the speed-to-market of applications developed for the platform will be incredibly short… as the industry looks to new models that embrace open API’s and SDK’s much like Apple has done with the iPhone and the Open Source movement online with enormous projects such as Sourceforge. With an HTML environment activated by a simple red button, in the same manner as a Web portal, the resulting content can be delivered over the IP stream.

How similar this will be to the UK’s Project Canvas initiative, announced in February 2009, remains to be seen – and it’s still not clear which platform will really rise to the top or if they will, in fact, reach compatibility at some point. But Project Canvas does bring together content from some of the UK’s biggest channels, including the BBC ITV, Channel 4 and Five. They are working on a more ambitious project to bring what is called catch-up TV and a variety of other programming and interactive services to television sets as soon as next year. But the move faces scrutiny as the BBC is a public broadcaster and particularly from Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV which is the leading player in the satellite TV in the UK. In a speech last month, Sky heir apparent, James Murdoch abolutely slammed the BBC as an”Orwellian” institution—a provider of “state-sponsored” news with “chilling ambitions”. There were whispers of an an even more hair-raising Microsoft and the Beeb hooking up at IBC, as the partnership was not ruled out the industry titans.

The great news is, for the web development community, HTML arriving on the TV scene will surely mean flocks of coders, designers and entreprenuers making a transition to the next stage in the evolution of TV 2.0 – which may very well provide the next tech bubble much needed in this recession.

And it looks to be levering as possibly not only an EU standard, but also a global one. Asian companies such as Korea’s Tru2way are already picking up on the new standard from the European ETSI and teaming up with global player Alticast. which offers HBBTV with PVR, a pluggable HTML Browser and Flash modules. And Korea’s Kaonmedia has hooked up with Founding member of the HBBTV initiative – ANT in their latest foray into the Asian Market. And Ant pitched a TV portal running a selection of HbbTV services based on the their Galio HbbTV Platform at IBC 2009.

During the IBC show in Amsterdam, Pleyo takes on Yahoo TV with its browser and widgets engine, which is compliant with W3C specifications and compatible with HbbTV (enabling access to interactive applications issued from broadcasting, Satellite or DTT, and broadband Internet networks), and a few other extensions for interactive TV based on the HbbTV standard. The Origyn Web Browser (OWB) is based on Apple’s Webkit and is more particularly designed for TV sets, TV decoders and other consumer electronic devices.

Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV or “HbbTV”, is THE major new pan-European initiative aimed at creating one standard for the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment to the end consumer through connected TVs and set-top boxes providing terrestrial TV players a platform to keep up with IPTV development in terms of Web and TV convergence.

HbbTV

hbbtvS

Developed by industry leaders to effectively manage the rapidly increasing amount of available content targeted at today’s end consumer, Hybrid Broadband‐Broadcast Services is based on elements of existing standards and web technologies including OIPF (Open IPTV Forum), CEA, DVB and W3C.

The new technology is also called hybrid television because it uses over-the-air transmission as well as broadband connections and can do a lot. It’s terrestrial TV’s play at competing with rapidly emerging IPTV services which are more supple when it comes to Web/TV convergence.

What’s most brilliant about this technology, from the perspective of social media and other developers coming from the web is… it will open up possibilities of using open API’s and SDK’s which will allow independent developers to create customized applications. Imagine watching a sports program that ended with a page of links to similar, archived programs, or to the Web sites of online retailers selling tickets to the events.

HbbTV products and services provide the consumer with a seamless entertainment experience with the combined richness of broadcast and broadband. This entertainment experience will be delivered with the simplicity of one remote control, on one screen and with the ease of use of television that we are used to. Through the adoption of HbbTV, consumers will be able to access new services from entertainment providers such as broadcasters, online providers and CE manufactures – including catch-up TV, video on demand (VoD), interactive advertising, personalisation, voting, games and social networking as well as programme-related services such as digital text and EPGs.

So who else is tapping into HbbTV at the moment? (continue your reading )

Tags: Alticast, Design, Digital television, disruptive technology, entertainment, Entreprenuer, Europe, FiOS TV, future, Galio HbbTV Platform, hybrid applications, hybrid services, industry, institution, Intel, interactive digital television services, interactive TV, Internet television, Internet television services, Inverto Digital Labs, IPTV, LinkedIN, Media, networking, on-demand, Open, Richard Kastelein, Scena 6, social media innovators, Social TV, Sony Corp., web development community

A Marriage Made in Heaven – Social TV and the Hotel Industry?

by Richard Kastelein (originally published at Atlantic Free Press)

Social TV in Hotel Whilst the mainstream media players are quietly pushing their technology and innovation teams to the maximum across the world in a race to marry Social Media and TV, most of the public remains oblivious and left out of the loop, mainly due to offerings being in Proof of Concept (POC) stage or not even… and still on the chalkboard.

However, one sector, the Hotel and Hospitality is one of the earlier beneficiaries from the advances that have been made provision and delivery of TV and other services over Internet Protocol will likely be early corporate adopters of Social TV now that network technologies that include the provision of Ethernet networks in hotels is now a standard requirement. Add a wireless keyboard and an advanced TV remote, you can do pretty much anything.

And buzz is starting to generate in this sector as hotels are coming out of a slump and are looking for new ways to attract the web and media savvy 25-45 year old, Gen X and Y generations who are a lucrative target group in many of their marketing strategies. Social TV in a hotel would certainly be an historical PR victory for any marketing team.

IPTV distribution system in hotels is pretty straight forward… providing high quality, full screen digital TV over an Ethernet network using an existing IP network. Not only can digital satellite and terrestrial channels can be broadcast directly to TV’s anywhere in a hotel – but now there’s the opportunity to implement Social TV as well.

We live in a networked society, and our contact list, for most of us who will never see a cradle to grave job, is paramount. Imagine if you could not only sleep in a hotel, but also create a profile in the social TV network and then find others in similar business paths, or potential new partners right in the hotel… whom you could have lunch with or meet up in a pub. Or imagine you could organize short seminars, get people to sign up and do mini ‘unconferences’ or conferences with others whose businesses can converge with you own.

This is great, not only for the guests, but also for the hotel. They will not only be able to offer better service to their clients, but also be able to come to understand their own demographics more… with a Social TV Facebook social media scenario or clone, there’s plenty of data to be shared to everyone, including the hotel… giving them more opportunity to build better services.

Want to book a restaurant? Do it on the TV. Add it to your bill in the Hotel’s Property Management Software (PMS) program and don’t worry about pulling out a credit card. Feel like going to a concert or sporting event while you are in town? Click or type and buy.

Want to download an iPhone or mobile map application with directions from anywhere back to the hotel and listings of all the offerings of the city you are visiting? Plug your PDA or mobile phone into a USB port and suck it down. Need to book the conference room? Do it on the TV. Need to order some food? Pick up the TV remote and choose from room service or an array of restaurants that deliver in the area.

I could even see, in the foreseeable future, a Wii or Xbox network for gaming and sports in hotels. Why not? Feel like a bit of tennis but can’t book a court? Play your neighbor in room 602. Or shoot at the guys in rooms 562 and 788. (continue your reading )

Tags: adept team player, Agora, agora media, Agora Media Group LLC, API, blog, Broadband, broadband operators, Brussels, BUILT, can technology support, CEO, community, convergent, CTO, Design, digital satellite, Digital TV, Director, entertainment, Ethernet, Europe, European, Evangelist, Facebook, France, France Telecom, future, head, home media, hotel network, IDEO, industry, innovation, innovation agency, interactive services, Internet Protocol, IP, iPhone, IPTV, ISP, kastelein, LinkedIN, lucrative target group, magazine, mainstream media players, marketing, marketing director, Media, media session, media usage, network, network technologies, online open source leaders, Open, Open Source, Orca Interactive, Pay TV, photographer, PRESENCE, pretty straight forward, richard, Richard Kastelein, Sagem, Skype, Social, social media scenario, Social Media, Social TV, SoftAtHome, software, strategist, technology, tennis, Thomson, travel industry, USB port, Viaccess, Viaccess SA, Video on demand, VOIP, web developer, web media, web world, wireless keyboard, world, writer

Social TV — Convergence is Coming

(Originally published at Atlantic Free Press)

by Richard G. Kastelein

If we all thought the Facebook and Twitter social media growth phenomena were extraordinary, wait until Social TV hits your screens.

And it’s not as far away as you think — not only with the logical IPTV market, but also terrestrial TV. I recently attended the International Broadcast Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, which bills itself as ’The content creation management delivery experience’. IBC2008 attracted 49,000+ visitors and 1,300+ exhibitors from more than 130 countries. This year is expected to be bigger. Last year, I was part of a team exhibiting at MIPTV in Cannes, and was expecting something a bit similar… but this was almost all about hardware and software and less about the actual formats and programs. However, this was not a disappointment. For embedded in the show there were some jewels… which have profoundly altered my view of Social Media, the future and the implication of reach that will touch billions not millions.

One diamond-in-the-rough was Israeli-based Orca Interactive (link), who was pitching their Social TV product, which was still in Proof of Concept (POC) and this was their first showing to the general public. Orca specializes in IPTV middleware and applications. But they are aggressively moving into social TV. I spoke to CTO Ofer Weintraub (Ph.D.) on their strategy and the nuts and bolts of the technology on offer.

“This is truly social TV — there is nobody on the market with similar offerings,” said Weintraub. He added there is an SDK (Software Development Kit) available now for select partners, but they certainly would not rule out an open API in the future.

And there is tight integration at the database level with website Trustedopinion.com. I discussed the integration with TO founder and CEO Shahar Smirin — whose site topped a million users recently.

“It’s a natural fit,” said Smirin, who then went on to show his web product and how he’s built a viral invite and social ’consolidation’ framework focussed on opinion where one can pile everyone (all your friends, imported/invited) from most major social media sites and really focus on what your friends think about entertainment (mainly movies and theatre for now).

There is synergy between Orca and TO, but let’s now look at Orca. And why this marriage could take social media truly to the masses via IPTV.

One thing to note… Orca Interactive is owned by France Telecom and the 2008 M&A has positioned this duo to take Social TV to a mass global audience. The acquisition last year means that they are well positioned near the ear of one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators and proprietor of the multinational Orange brand. Orange has a base of almost 200 million customers in 30 countries.

There’s nothing overly extraordinary in the makeup of the product — it’s nothing that Internet social media buffs have not seen before. But for TV users, this is going to revolutionize the way they watch TV… from being a passive, solitary, experience into an active, community one.

Here below, you can see recommendations from your friends on a particular movie or program. You can see related VOD products. You can rate it yourself, you can recommend it to a friend, you can see further information and you can send it as a gift to another person (purchased shows are good for 48 hours).

Here you can see your friends’ profiles, chat with them, send them a gift, see their recommends or send them a message.

Here you can send a gift to one or more friends.

And remember, this will all be integrated with your monthly billing. There will be no need for pulling out a credit card and security issues, there will be no need for digging deep to remember your Paypal password. No, the bill arrives like any other or is likely debited from your bank account automatically these days.

One can also set their mood — and then recommendations will be laid out according to complex algorithms and data mining based on your friends and your own data and viewing habits.
As Facebook revolutionized the way advertisers can niche-target their online demographics, Social TV will profoundly change the ad agencies and marketing departments will offer their wares in the television realm. Neilson ratings seem vague, less targetable and will likely become obsolete in TV 2.0.

Equally as interesting, but taking a different tack, is another gem called NDS (link), partially owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which has a reach to over 107 million pay-TV subscribers worldwide. Their latest product, Social TV was also in POC stage and looks a lot more like ’widgetized’ TV rather than a singular network.

Their model is quite different, but also appealing and unique for a number of reasons. One being it lends itself more to an iPhone app store scenario, with plans for an open API, which positions it well for social media developers and long tail monetization of the social TV landscape. But monetization or not will be decided by the operators not NDS. It also has impeccable design with a beautiful interface.

Obtaining details was a bit sketchy due to their PR person being in meetings and there was, understandably, some hesitancy in getting anyone to go on the record.

However, one of the demo managers did talk to me about some interesting API integration potential with Flickr for instance. If you see something interesting on TV you can be simply one click away from viewing images of that place, object or person. Conceivably the same could be done with the Youtube API in the video space or even Lastfm for music for that matter.

Social networking is also alive and well on Verizon’s FiOS TV and new features are being added such as Facebook and Twitter Widgets. The new Widget Bazaar applications marketplace is located within FiOS TV’s Interactive Media Guide.

Verizon has worked with social media innovators Facebook Connect, Twitter, ESPN, Veoh, blip.tv, and Dailymotion to create a converged Internet-to-television experience that lets FiOS TV subscribers connect with others while watching TV, plus search and view a variety of online, personal PC-based videos on their television screens. Verizon also plans an open development platform (SDK) to permit developers to write interactive FiOS TV applications that will be available through the Widget Bazaar.

Customers are saying they love the new “social TV” Widgets, but they want more. They want to send Tweets, not just look at them. They want to create their own unique Facebook status messages.

According to Shawn Strickland, vice president, marketing for Verizon Telecom, Verizon is working with some popular companies on the Web to create the foundation for a high-quality, engaging Internet-to-TV experience.

A recent report by The Nielsen Company found that there are 87 percent more online social media users now than in 2003, with 883 percent more time devoted to social media sites. Also, the number of American users frequenting online video destinations has also increased by 339 percent since 2003.

Subscribers can Tweet about the TV show they are watching or search and follow their friends’ Tweets. Viewers can also update their Facebook status with their own messages. All of this is simply done via the FiOS TV remote control and an onscreen keyboard.

A Belgian company called Zappware also launched social networking features for its “iView Core” services suite at IBC09. And they had a demo showing how the add-on allows the viewer to connect with friends and family to:

see what they are watching on their TVs
exchange favourite lists of TV programmes and VOD movies
recommend TV programmes or VOD movies to one another
send VOD movie gifts to their friends
lock their TV screens onto one another and watch the same content

Koen Swings, CTO & Managing Partner Zappware:

“Social networking has been a buzz word in the past few years, in particular on the internet. With these extensions to our EPG, VOD and PVR products, we now extend social networking from the PC domain to the TV domain, because we are convinced that there is no better environment for sharing TV experiences than the TV itself. In a world, in which people are continuously seeking to connect and in which consumers are willing to embrace new technologies that allow them to connect better and more often, these social networking features on TV will be highly appreciated by viewers. Operators that include these features in their iDTV offering, will be able to offer their subscribers a cross-platform social networking experience, hence adding value to their triple or quadruple play offer and resulting in increased subscriber loyalty.”

So at the end of the day, this is a win, win, win for all — TV stations get better data on their viewers and offer convergence with web ideas and sites, viewers get interactive community-oriented, social television and can make interesting viewing choices based on mood and network of friends, web-based community and social media sites can make more headway into IPTV and broadcast TV, still the Tour de Force of media, and entrepreneurs and developers find a new medium to develop and monetize via new, open-source-philosophy-driven API and SDK environs.

Richard Kastelein, a social media strategist and publisher, is CEO of new startup, Agora Media Group LLC (link), a new creative and innovation agency based in London, UK. Kastelein has been building online communities for over a decade and is an Open Source evangelist. He’s an adept team player – a publisher, writer, photographer, marketing director, web developer and graphic designer with more than 20 years experience in the development and operation of newspapers, magazines, web media and marketing of multinational, companies in international settings.

Tags: Agora Media Group LLC, Amsterdam, API, bank account, Broadband, Cannes, CEO, converged Internet-to-television experience, CTO, CTO & Managing Partner, data mining, Digital television, Facebook, Facebook Inc, FiOS TV, founder and CEO, France Telecom, France Telecom S.A., innovation agency, Internet-to-TV experience, iPhone, IPTV, Koen Swings, LinkedIN, London, marketing, marketing director, Ofer Weintraub, online communities;, online demographics, Online social networking, photographer, proprietor, Richard G. Kastelein, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, Shahar Smirin, Shawn Strickland, singular network, Social information processing, Social Media, social media buffs, social media developers, social media innovators, social media sites, social media strategist, social media users, Social network service, social networking, social networking experience, social networking features, Social TV, Technology_Internet, telecommunications operators, The Nielsen Company, The Nielsen Company BV, Twitter, United Kingdom, Verizon, Verizon Communications Inc., Verizon FiOS, Verizon Telecom, vice president, Video on demand, web developer, web developer and graphic designer, web ideas, web media, web product, writer, Youtube, YouTube Inc

Mashable – Back to Relevancy

Mark 'rizzn' Hopkins I thought I would pop into Mashable for the first time in months – I decided to leave last year after growing tired of associate editor Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins insistance on using the net’s best social media news and opinion site as a platform for his right wing politics.

I was not the only blogger who did not like the guy. People often commented at Mashable that they were not going to read the publication anymore due to his drivel – which often leverage social media subjects to get across his lockstep, Bush bootlicking political spurts.

Mashable was not a place I wanted read partisan politics, so I left.

I could not find his name on the first few pages at Mashable, then found out he ‘left’ in December last year. Or was sacked by Cashmore more likely.

I made a few irate comments on some of his most pathetic articles and was not his biggest fan as you can see.

Why is the pinhead allowed to continue to scratch all over Mashable with his infantile political opines?
Does mentioning what is happening at Wikipedia merit publication here?
Someone should strap a canine Elizabethan Collar on Rizzn’s to protect him (and us) from his navel gazing, gnawing, cogitations on political matters.
I don’t come to Mashable to read wingnuts. In fact, I come here to read about Social Media.
As part of your international audience… I don’t really care to read about American politico at any rate, never mind when ejaculated by an imbecile whose leg humping attempts at polemic fall far short of the Mashable readership standards.
He can barely string two words together, never mind offer anything of real substance.
If you want to make this place political, then you might think about balancing your editorial – lest you become a de facto cousin of the moronic, littlegreenfootball fascistas and – then some lefty will haul off half the Mashable audience in revolt because you’ve become known as the Social Media’s version of Free Republic.

and

I am more than adept at my job – that’s why I can see you are abusing your position here to further your political agenda.
My political leanings are clear – and I keep them where they belong. They are not ‘Left’ either – I am more of a social anarchist than anything.
I publish a lot of ideas from both sides of the aisle at www.freepressgroup.eu – from a pool of 350 academics, journalists, bloggers and adept writers. So I am – in fact – in a very good position to judge your lame attempts at political analysis… which are nothing more than exercises in partisan propaganda.
Keep yours off Mashable thanks. I think you are trashing the site with the political drivel you write. Stick to what this topic. Social Media

Then there was this one:

When it comes to politics – you should keep your opinions to yourself whilst writing about social media… and don’t even bother to try and be objective. Because you fail miserably.

Let’s rip the not-very-subtle right wing agenda being dumped on Mashable by Rizzn.

First off, I am not surprised you had a ‘hard time’ with high school but am not surprised they let you in any educational institution beyond that.

Barack Obama = link provided by Rizzn points out his middle name is Hussein… and nothing more. Wow… and he’s been the subject of rumours of ‘varying veracity ‘ Rizzn-speak’ for most of them are true.

Rizzn is a prime example of the abuse of ‘speaking with authority’ – if only because he abuses his position at mashable to un-enlighten us with partisan politics embedded in a light coat of social media.

Linking to Michelle Malkin? On Mashable? Please… She adds absolutely nothing to genuine political discourse… Malkin has defended the forced internment of Japanese Americans (she had the audacity to write a book called “In Defense of Internment”) to justify harsher governmental policies today in the treatment of Arab and Muslim Americans. Using her as a source for anything is reprehensible on a Social Media site.

And you say that ‘people on both sides of the ideological aisle worked together to find the truth amidst the spin’ over the the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth? There’s not a chance on that issue. Please. I am sure you and your friends at www.littlegreenfootballs.com worked together on the three Right Wing issues you kindly linked us too…

“Microblogging isn’t a suitable format for complex ideas. “

Um. No kidding.

“Truth isn’t determined by popular vote”

Try reading The Wisdom of Crowds – by James Surowieck and rethink that statement. It’s the backbone of social media and probably the only clear argument or chance that social media has in terms of becoming a tool for mainstream news delivery. In fact, your statement sounds like it should come out of the mouth of a fascist.

“Fleeting thoughts are less authoritative than researched persuasive speech. “

Wow… now that’s completely enlightening… I expect that statement was a rather fleeting thought.

“We Need to Think About This Going Forward “

No. You need to stop writing about politics.

“…despite how impressive my intellect may appear.”

It’s not.

Tags: associate editor, blogger, drivel, Mark Hopkins, partisan politics, right wing politics

Kickstart your life as a Social Entreprenuer

Have you always been a self-starter, trying to solve problems and change the world? Have you started your own endeavor, or significantly transformed the operations of an existing institution?

Social entrepreneurs are the engines of social change and role models for the citizen sector.

I made a proposal based on my concept at www.ishar.es

Ashoka three year fellowships are available here:

Ashoka is growing and is looking for creative, entrepreneurial people to lead major initiatives worldwide. We are looking for people who demonstrate the highest ethical standards, a deep sense of collegiality, and a strong self-image to create positive change.

Vision

Ashoka envisions a world where Everyone is a Changemaker: a world that responds quickly and effectively to social challenges, and where each individual has the freedom, confidence and societal support to address any social problem and drive change.

Mission

Ashoka strives to shape a global, entrepreneurial, competitive citizen sector: one that allows social entrepreneurs to thrive and enables the world’s citizens to think and act as changemakers.

Tags: Ashoka, change, changemaker, changemakers, collegiality, Entreprenuer, freedom, institution, social challenges, social entrepreneurs

Liferay Social Office – Using Open Source Enterprise Collaboration Software in Business.

We are about to test Liferay Social Office interally here at Moho in Groningen.

Link here – http://ww.liferay.com/web/guest/products/social_office/features

This Open Source software almost meets all the parameters I was looking for and I am sure will streamline internal tasking, collaboration and build more ‘teamness’ at the company.

But the biggest hurdle in implementing new software such as this is convincing people to use it. Some basic training is required to make people comfortable using it, and if people don’t feel comfortable with the software, they simply won’t use it. Employees should be given incentives to contribute and the rewards could be either financial or psychological.

Shifting a corporate culture from being competitive to being cooperative is no small undertaking but the staff is young here and more easily adaptable than Gen X’ers like me – and if the software used (built internally or from and outside vendor) has well-built, intuitive and intelligent architecture, the learning curve should not be that steep.

My original synopsis on needs:

The new collaborative work/communication/tasking product(s) should allow management (and staff in certain cases) to:

1. …assign track-able tasks to individual and/or groups of staff and define what is urgent. Include management and staff alerts by email and Gizmo (see #3). The idea is for management to better plan their tasks and duties, that of staff, as well as projects and, most importantly, track the progress. Management needs to see what the team is doing and what they need to do, discuss stuff that they are working on and generally have a firm grip on what is going on and what needs to go on. In my opinion, the current system of email alone is not a very good tool to manage projects and tasks in the company. Especially with current projected and anticipated growth.

2. …create Wikis (with WYSIWYG and Versioning, Revisioning) to start building corporate information database – documents on nuts and bolts of company. It’s my experience that when management and staff take time to write down and better define their role and duties they instantly increase performance. Company Wikis also build an excellent knowledge database for incoming staff and management – thereby making it simpler to integrate new people into the company by providing them with the data needed to do their work and understand the work of others.

3. …instantly communicate with other management, staff and possibly clients and vendors – using free Gizmo (Skype-like tool with Instant Messaging, Two-way SMS, Group Chat, Voicemail, Call Recording, Chat History, File Transfer. Video Calling, Conference Calling) for text-based and audio discussion and interaction in real time. The problem with using email as a core tool for communications is – it tends to create lag time from the top down because of uncertainty if, when, and how emails are being read and interpreted. Trackable, loggable real time communications allow for the instant addressing of issues. The reason for using Gizmo as opposed to Skype is to deter and cut down on staff social communications via the more common Skype.

4. Install an ethos of collective intelligence within the company – which is shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals. This can be done by offering the ability to share news, research, event information via threaded discussion. For instance – a sample thread may be on data and image sources for copywriters for a new artist or concert.
Software(s) should/could have collaborative management of tasks and documents within a knowledge-based business environment so workers can communicate, evaluate, prioritize and study their work load and should:

1. have easy browser based workflow management – with a drag-and-drop modulized user home page for each staff member with all their productivity and information tools at their grasp with integration of built in a news management system, where “company news” can be published on all home pages.

2. have the ability to add or remove application functionality to suit requirements via a dashboard and widget framework

3. have an instant messaging, real time collaboration tool such as Gizmo

4. have a tasking tool to schedule, track, and chart the steps of tasks, projects and duties as they are being completed – includes issue/ticket based worklog, weekly planning and and daily/weekly/monthly timer based recording.

5. inclusion of electronic calendar integrated with tasking tool, CRM and David Infocenter to create visual shared and individual agenda and automatically notify and remind group members of tasks via email and Gizmo alerts

6. possibly have desktop sharing for training new staff and meetings.

7. have the ability to create new permission-based Wikis (with a WYSIWYG Editor for easy content authoring) to create content in a matter of minutes and make updates fast and easy. All relevant editors and lists should have a corresponding “printable version”, which can also be in PDF format.

8. include outgoing RSS for staff and management to allow tracking of tasking, documentation ect. (”subscribe to this feed” button)

9. have integrated file management capabilities; graphics, documents, etc at the project/tasks entry points as project/task attachments. With Versioning, file locking, authoring and classification supported.

10. have user/staff reporting – most active, content creation, etc. as well as export report capabilities

11. have permission system ranging from wide open Wiki -edit mode to granular user and page level access and be able to create custom access permissions for groups of users, as well as control access by different groups at the section or page level 12. have full text search, search by section or sub-section, the ability to tag pages with additional keywords for improved search and display, and control search results based on users assigned access levels. Staff will only view the sections and pages they are authorized to view.

13. have threaded discussion support for projects, procedures, products, ideas, best practices – which can later be added to Wikis

14. have the ability to share news, research, product information via threaded discussion

15. Consider the use of a voting system for contributions to discussions. (continue your reading )

Tags: Collaboration, collaboration tools, collaborative work, content management, control search results, corporate culture, CRM, David Infocenter, Document Library, Enterprise, firewall, good tool;, Instant Messaging;, intelligent architecture, Liferay, Liferay Social Office, Liferay's Message Board, Microsoft, on staff social communications;, Open Source, Open Source Enterprise Collaboration Software;, open source software, real time collaboration tool, SMS, Social Media, social networking, Social Office, standalone products;, Team, text search, web-based collaboration, web-based shared drive

Viewing 'Social Media' Category

Paladin Studios Friends Launch iPhone Game – Built in Two Weeks! – Jimmy Pataya

Adrenaline

Related posts

Future of Marketing on TV – Social TV, TV 2.0 – MARUG Conference 2010

Related posts

EnerCities: The first serious game on Facebook – Friends from Paladin Studios Launch App!

Related posts

Inspiration from PICNIC 2009 in Amsterdam #PICNIC09

Related posts

Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV or “HbbTV” – the European Industry Standard for Social TV? Or Will it go Global?

HbbTV

Related posts

A Marriage Made in Heaven – Social TV and the Hotel Industry?

Related posts

Social TV — Convergence is Coming

Related posts

Mashable – Back to Relevancy

Related posts

Kickstart your life as a Social Entreprenuer

Related posts

Liferay Social Office – Using Open Source Enterprise Collaboration Software in Business.

Related posts

Categories

Recent Comments

Login