Opening Day of Layer Tennis is today - “Two competitors will swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley” and then we post it to the site live. A third participant, a writer, provides play-by-play commentary on the action, as it happens.”
Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime - “Even though people feel entertained, even relaxed, when they multitask while exercising, or pass a moment at the bus stop by catching a quick video clip, they might be taxing their brains, scientists say. ‘People think they’re refreshing themselves, but they’re fatiguing themselves,’ said Marc Berman, a University of Michigan neuroscientist.”
Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud: Alien Skin Software - “The most important measure of success to me is whether everyone in the company enjoys their work. Money feeds into that, but so does the quality of our products, the competence of coworkers, and happiness of customers.”
Too many people think it’s one or the other or Just Facebook and Twitter - Gary Vaynerchuk talks about why we should see value in all social networks.
(What is Friday Links? Just a sample of some of the best links that were sent around the agency this week.)
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Adobe bringing legendary typefaces to the web - Adobe and Typekit are teaming up to bring some of the world’s most popular, recognizable, and respected fonts to the web. Starting today, you’ll be able to use classics like Adobe Garamond,News Gothic, Myriad, and Minion plus many more on your website — all of them newly optimized and hinted for the screen. [via Aaron]
Freakonomics Trailer - Cool in both visuals and content. [via Jason]
The Mindset of 2014 College Grads - The annual list from Beloit College. [via Mike S.]
Google TV facing resistance from studios - Google’s effort to launch Android-based set top boxes by the end of the year is running into reluctance from content owners skeptical of the company’s business model. [via Rocco]
(What’s this? Friday Links are a summary of some of the links that were sent around the office this week.)
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Devour
Around 25 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. It would take you approximately 1700 years to watch all those millions of videos. So good luck trying to find something worth watching on your lunch break.
Devour is here to help. Using a scientifically technologically artificially intelligently awesomely robotically humanly system (we hand-pick every video on the site), Devour sifts out the best videos and posts the well-curated collection every weekday. Fewer cute kittens, fewer skateboarding nutshots, fewer tween heart throbs, and lots more awesome.
A Review of Verizon and Google’s Net Neutrality Proposal
On Monday, Google and Verizon proposed a new legislative framework for net neutrality. Reaction to the proposal has been swift and, for the most part, highly critical.
Groupon on the cover of Forbes - $500 Million in revenue and profitable. Now that’s how you run a web based company. Now if they only weren’t so eager to take VC funding.
(What is this? These are just a few of the links that were sent around the office this week. Enjoy!)
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It’s been a while, but here are some of the interesting links that were sent around the office over the past week.
Ballmer (and Microsoft) still doesn’t get the iPad:
In no way is the iPad striving to be a PC, but it is because of this—because it’s not running software designed for keyboards and pixel-perfect pointers, because it’s running software that’s simple and restricted, because it uses a slow, but low-power, ARM processor—because of these things that it is so good at the things it does do.
Google kills Wave - Remember when Google announced Wave, and it was going to change the way people worked collaboratively and replace email? Oops.
“Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects.”
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Some of our work for THD won a national Addy. Huge congrats to everyone who worked on this campaign. If you haven’t seen the TV spots you can check them out here.
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Leroy Stick created @BPGlobalPR on Twitter. No, he doesn’t work for BP. In his own words:
I started @BPGlobalPR, because the oil spill had been going on for almost a month and all BP had to offer were bullshit PR statements. No solutions, no urgency, no sincerity, no nothing. That’s why I decided to relate to the public for them. I started off just making jokes at their expense with a few friends, but now it has turned into something of a movement. As I write this, we have 100,000 followers and counting. People are sharing billboards, music, graphic art, videos and most importantly information.
BP is in a tough place right now. Their brand is suffering. What should they do?
You know the best way to get the public to respect your brand? Have a respectable brand. Offer a great, innovative product and make responsible, ethical business decisions. Lead the pack! Evolve! Don’t send hundreds of temp workers to the gulf to put on a show for the President. Hire those workers to actually work! Don’t dump toxic dispersant into the ocean just so the surface looks better. Collect the oil and get it out of the water! Don’t tell your employees that they can’t wear respirators while they work because it makes for a bad picture. Take a picture of those employees working safely to fix the problem. Lastly, don’t keep the press and the people trying to help you away from the disaster, open it up so people can see it and help fix it.
Without getting political, I’ve got to say that I agree with most of what Leroy is saying. BP is trying to save face, to look good, to make things seem better than they actually are. In a situation as bad as this, the best route is to be open and honest, getting everything out in the open, and do everything possible to show people that you’re trying to fix it.
What do you think BP should do?
An Event Apart Boston is going on today and tomorrow. If you can’t be there, you can follow Tweets from those attending at http://afeedapart.com.
For more information on what topics are being covered, go here. Photos from the event can be found on the Flickr group page.
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Seth Godin writes:
The difference this time is that driveby culture is both fast and free. When there’s no commitment of money or time in the interaction, can change or commerce really happen? Just because you can measure eyeballs and pageviews doesn’t mean you should.
In the race between ‘who’ and ‘how many’, who usually wins—if action is your goal. Find the right people, those that are willing to listen to what you have to say, and ignore the masses that are just going to race on, unchanged.
Brands should be more concerned with who their followers and fans are and less concerned with how many.
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