Webnotes on the 31th of July 2006

The Other Side of the Tracks looks like a very promising series of portraits of an all-American family, now all we can hope for is that the series will be as funny as the promos.

Robert Scoble, long-time blogger and co-author of the book Naked Conversations, is interviewed by Beet.tv about his coming vlog, which will appear on the net in September.

And there sure is inspiration to gather from REDs paper on Transformation Design (link is to a PDF). Though it takes it start in design, the thinking behind it is quite interesting and inspiring.

Nielsen

Will people really timeshift their viewing? Or placeshift it? Isn´t it just a few tv-freaks who do that? Just another techno-possibility that no real user will adopt? At times I get all weary talking about these new trends, trying to persuade, or sometimes even scare, tv-people to take this new audience behaviour serious. Well, now it seems I have found a great example to use when I have to persuade a non-believer. A good look at Nielsens Anywhere Anytime Media Measurement is probably a good hint about where to look for the nearest future regarding tv-use. And my new argument will be: “Well, if they don´t do it – why measure it?”.

Btw: Seth Godin has a great blogentry on the differences between the quality of measurements on tv/newspapers vs internet.

Two out of three aint bad

The Guardian has three recent articles about new media worth checking out, one about why Top Of The Pops became an obsolete program in a digital world, one about Rocketbooms now former hostess and why she left, and one were this otherwise progressive newspaper show they basically just dont get it anyway. PSFK has a wellwritten, but a little angry, answer to the last article that apparently is following this earlier statement.

The Long Tail

If you are reading just one book this summer, you better make it “The Long Tail”. It´s written by Chris Anderson, who is the editor of the magazine Wired. “The Long Tail” is about what has happened as unlimited choice has becomed the normal state of nearly any shopping experience. Chris Anderson also makes a very well documented case about how it affects us all from businesses to customers, but there is some specific lessons for any media that want a future as well.

The short version of the theory of the long tail is summed up in this, now classic, article.

Furthermore I stumbled over a great example of interest-driven video, with a good production value and high information density. It´s About.com´s About Gadgets hosted by Brett Larson.

Beware

Probably the funniest campaign ever made for sports on tv.

The Office

In the winning recipe of letting the users express themselves, Youtube and NBC is working together on a Make Your Own The Office Promo contest.