Apple iReader coming soon
Scoble is blogging again, and it’s about a device coming from Apple in the near future, he’s naming it as the iReader. Apparently it’s a device that will work with the iPhone bluetooth connectivity and will extend the native iPhone capabilities by connecting more devices. Including the iReader. Partners in the project include Amazon, Google and Cingular.
Read more about the amazing discovery over at Scobleizer
Of course it’s already a day later in Australia…
Filed under Tech Devices | Comment (0)The Wisdom of Micro-Crowds
Speaking with the folks over at Tumri.com the other day got me thinking about a new phrase that I’m using, “the wisdom of micro-crowds.” The concept is an expansion of the base theory discussed in James Surowiecki’s “Wisdom of Crowds” and is going to be an important targeting factor for any company that is targeting advertising at consumers.
Micro-crowds are gatherings of many people, often distributed across the globe, often only acquaintances or strangers, but they gather in clumps in order to share information and interests. People have many micro-crowds to which they belong, it might be a friends network on MySpace, it may be an avatar based grouping as in Second Life, but it might also be a speedy and very loose affinity group as in Twitter. The interesting thing about micro-crowd wisdom, is that it is reliant upon a somewhat sketchy tipping point created simply because like-minded people have glommed together in some way.
The idea of using the intelligence of micro-crowds to target the right ads to the right people at the right moment, is a cousin to the “distributed creative development” concept discussed in the March 27, 2007 “Online SPIN” newsletter penned by Joe Marchese.
An example of this micro-targeting and micro-crowd wisdom is the evolving thing that is Twitter. You can reach me on Twitter at twitter.com/briancaldwell
Become my friend and I will let you in on some fun things that are happening here in San Francisco.
Twitter is already writhing with anticipation and experiments. You should create an account and play with the platform simply so you can stay on the edge of the age of web immediacy.
Micro crowds develop “authoritativeship”, where knowledge of products, events, services, skill sets … micro-memes … enables consumers to zero in on what they want to consume with the comfort of knowing that their micro-crowd has created positive buzz around the subject. With micro-targetable ad platforms that feature contextual, behavioral and intuitive prediction, the social eco-sphere which renders micro-crowd wisdom can provide a platform for extremely personalized advertising/consumer relationships.
“Distributed creative development” relies on crowd wisdom to generate new content. Memes are started and followed according to the media available to the micro-crowds (which are formed from friends, colleagues, acquaintances, clients, etc.) and these memes are targetable events. If a gal in Boise, wants to develop a vlog that creates electronics product reviews as content, she attracts a micro-crowd and this in turn generates an opportunity for very specific ad delivery that should, in theory, deliver much higher EPC or ROAS rates than “traditional” ad targeting platforms like DART.
So I am calling 2007 the year of micro. Micro-Micro-publishing as with Tumblr, micro-targeting as with Tumri and micro-crowd wisdom as with Twitter, will drive the creation of many new and wonderful things this year. I’m personally looking forward to what emerges from the current noisy mess.
Filed under Web 2.0, Web Marketing | Comment (1)Justin.tv made the front page SF Chronicle
After his tremendously fun outing at 111 Minna last night, Justin awoke to find himself splashed all over the front page of the SF Chronicle this morning. I think his concept might be attracting just a wee bit of attention. Rock on buddy.
Justin.tv, a very strange thing just happened
I’m watching Justin.tv a few minutes ago.
I see him getting interviewed by a gal, and it turns out she is the vlogger for bub.blicio.us, a blog that I sometimes take photographs for. In the background is a guy, who turns out to be Brian Solis, the guy who runs bub.blicio.us and someone whom I’ve never met face to face.
I watch the interview end and the whole cast of characters starts talking about how they are going to SFBeta in a few minutes. Which happens to be where I’m headed now.
Justin.tv just acted as a proxy for my eyes, so I now know what Brian Solis looks like, so I can recognize him in a few minutes.
What a strange feeling.
Now I’m posting this before Brian even arrives at 111 Minna, where we are all about to learn more about some great web 2.0 companies in San Francisco.
Filed under Web 2.0 | Comment (0)AdBrite launches another killer app, BritePic
AdBrite dropped another new product on the make-money-with-your-website crowd today, as they unveiled BritePic, a new way to monetize your embedded images.
Basically they’ve created a means for anyone to replace the lazy old <img> tag with a little javascript and lightweight Flash player, so you can add more functionality to the image, including monetization and social sharing.
See the demo here: (it’s got a zesty soundtrack)
Way to go Phillip and the AdBrite team, you’ve done it again.
Filed under Web 2.0, Web Marketing | Comment (0)Congratulations to Found Agency Pty Ltd
My friends Zak Asani and Tim Macdonald disclosed yesterday that they have sold 51% of their Search Engine Marketing agency, FoundAgency, to Photon Group for just over A$1.6 million.
Based in Sydney, these two blokes have built a fabulously successful SEM practice that attracted a lot of attention from clients and prospective buyers alike.
Congratulations to you both!
(Tim is on the right)
