The Flip Side of Technology

I recently bought a new Flip video camera like the one pictured here. It's great for capturing videos of my kids. And while I like it a lot, when it comes to the quality of the videos it captures, it's certainly not the best camera on the market. But it fits in my pocket, is super easy to use and cost half of what a "real" video camera would cost. It's a perfect camera for a generation of Youtubers who want a simple way to capture and share videos - not make "movies."

What amazed me about the product was how simple it is to use. I never even opened the manual and yet in less than 5 minutes I figured out how to do everything I needed to do. It has a simple, minimalist interface, with just a few buttons. Point and shoot. Its iPod-ish looks and ease-of-use makes me think it's the video camera that Apple would build. (iCamera anyone?)

Okay, so why do I bring this up... It turns out the Flip has captured 13% of the market for video cameras. Just as everyone was moving high tech and high definition, and getting super-sophisticated, along comes simple. A product with good usability can win out over a superior product that is a negative experience to use.

Something magical happens when products make out lives simpler and easy. When you can make my music portable you get the Walkman. When you can make watching and recording taped shows easy, you get TiVo. Make it easy for me to load and unload the film from my camera, you get the Kodak Instamatic.

Many of the web's most successful sites are successful because they make our lives easier in some way. They help save us money or make it easy to order books. They help us find things or help us all stay in touch with our friends. Again, many of these sites are not the most beautifully-designed nor are they the most technologically advanced. (Think Craigslist and eBay.)

It just goes to show that when it comes to humans interacting with technology, you can often be more successful by focusing on the humans more than the technology.

Young Me, Now Me

Here's a fun collection of winning photos from a contest where the object was to mimic a photo from your childhood. I really like this one, that one, and the one over here.

Movie talk

Did you know...In the Arnold Swarzenegger "Terminator" films, director James Cameron's original vision for the Terminator was the "liquid metal" (T-1000) version we see in the Terminator 2 sequel. But in 1984 when Cameron made the first film, special effects and computer-generated imagery weren't advanced enough to render his vision the way he wanted.

Along the same movie-making lines, I saw a great documentary the other night on Pixar, the ingenious animation studio responsible for Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and others. The documentary did a nice job of showing the history of the company, how they built an incredibly creative culture, and how, against heavy odds, they championed their vision for how good computer animation could be. I highly recommend it.

CNN Sells Out

What is CNN thinking? They began hawking headline t-shirts on their homepage today (see the little t-shirt icon next to a headline).

So let me get this straight...In the name of turning a profit and looking edgy, one of the most-respected brands in the news business has begun selling t-shirts of their own clever headlines. I don't think I'm overstating it when I say it's a sad day for journalism.

I love the whole world...

I really like this commercial for the Discovery Channel. Oomdeeada oomdeeada. Well done!

Goal Oriented Design

Here's some recommended reading...Ben Hunt makes the case for something called "Goal Oriented Design." It's a clever twist on the famous Jesse James Garrett model that highlights the importance of understanding the difference between user needs and site objectives.

Users, publishers, and advertisers all have goals. Focusing on and balancing the goals of each group is a vital component of effective web design.

Patently Absurd

At Totally Absurd Inventions you can take a stroll through an archive of some of the weirdest inventions and ideas ever to receive a patent.

The Putt 'N Reel. Now why didn't I think of that?

My So-Called Digital Life

I only know about 5 phone numbers by heart. I simply don't need to know them anymore. I store them in my phone once and then don't think about them again. Just as easily I can look up email addresses, get directions, define a word, find that actor's name - all with just a click or two.

The Internet used to be dominated by plain ol' information - an incredible stockpile of searchable facts. (I use the term facts loosely). But it was information about stuff, things, places, famous people. Today it is increasingly about us. Often the information we seek online is now our information in our e-mails, our pictures on Flickr, our videos on YouTube, our friends on MySpace, even that phone number I can never remember.

An old boss of mine was a huge fan of Franklin Covey organizers. She wrote everything down and had tabs for different categories of her information - phone numbers, appointments, meetings, photos, etc. Her life was in the pages of her organizer.

So the idea of "outsourcing our memories" isn't new. People have used paper and pen for years to help them remember things. But today our lives are increasingly online. And the ubiquitous nature of technology and the Web has made organizing and accessing this information easier than ever.

A brand new day

A brand is a powerful thing. A strong branding message ("Just Do It" from Nike or the Energizer Bunny) can say a lot about your product and convey to your customers what they can expect. Your brand can convey to your customers and your external audience what it is you stand for.

But a good brand can also have a tremendous effect internally. A strong brand message (GE: We bring good things to life; Apple: Think Different; Ford: Quality is Job 1) can define an organizational culture and affect how employees feel about the company.

Clarksville, Tennesee just unveiled a new logo and slogan for the city and all of its marketing efforts. Clarksville, which is Tennessee's northern-most city, is now "Tennessee's Top Spot." It's a nice double-entendre that will work well in marketing the city as a destination. But what is interesting is how excited people at the unveiling are about the brand - not only as a marketing tool but how it makes them feel about themselves and where they live.

As with any change, there can be naysayers. Some in Clarksville are saying it's a huge waste of money and Clarksville is not truly tops in anything. It's true, a new slogan and a new logo won't change the city overnight. It doesn't fix potholes or build schools. But a strong brand can not only reflect the current situation, but it can set a tone for the future. A brand can not only communicate who you are today but who you strive to become.

Clarksville, Tennessee: Just Do It.

Hug it out

With over 25 million views, the Free Hugs Campaign is a Youtube phenomenon. As Michele Miller writes:

It's a perfect parallel to building a viral campaign for your business. Watch the video and observe:

* People's resistance to anything free... even if it's a hug

* The breakthrough that happens when one random individual decides to try one

* A tsunami of response once people watch the experience of others

* The fight to defend their right to hug when barriers are erected by "authorities"

If you believe strongly enough in your product or service, give it away for free. In the beginning, no one will believe you. Stick with it long enough, experience breakthrough, and you'll have more business than you know what to do with. And you'll have a band of merry men (and women) who will be your brand evangelists.

I want my WebTV

Oprah did an entire show last month dedicated to Youtube. News programs are often showing web videos. CBS Sports recently made video of the entire NCAA basketball tournament available for free on their website. Political pundit shows quote bloggers and vice versa.

For years people have been predicting a "technological convergence" - the Web and television becoming one. Convergence is actually upon us, but not in the way we thought. It's not the devices that are converging, but the content.

The obituary of the newspaper

The New Yorker has a very interesting article on the death of the newspaper.

Excerpt:

"Today, almost all serious newspapers are scrambling to adapt themselves to the technological and community-building opportunities offered by digital news delivery, including individual blogs, video reports, and "chat" opportunities for readers. Some, like the Times and the Post, will likely survive this moment of technological transformation in different form, cutting staff while increasing their depth and presence online. Others will seek to focus themselves locally. Newspaper editors now say that they 'get it.'"

Did you get Rick Rolled?

Reuters has a blog post on the Web's hottest prank for this year's April Fool's Day - Rick Rolling.

And you can find another really interesting article here.

The digital shoe box

Many of us have a shoe box somewhere full of old photos, yellowing newspaper clippings, and postcards. Maybe letters from back when people used to write letters. Maybe a concert ticket stub or a diary.

These items serve as a bookmark in the passing of our lives. They mark a time and a place that we can revisit later. They help us remember how things were at the time, how everyone looked back then, what we thinking and how big our hair was.

You have to wonder how nostalgia will be affected by the digital age. Our "shoe box" is now vast, but that can mean disorganized. Our old e-mails might be saved as text files on a hard drive or archived in a folder. Our vast quantities of digital photos no longer yellow with age, but they are on Flickr and Webshots and on our hard drives or our cell phones. Great conversations in email or instant messenger, that may have been saved years ago had they been in written letters, are often lost forever.

It's worth thinking about... What you should save these days to mark the time? And how and where should you save it?

Here's a blog post with some tips to get started organizing your digital memories.

Late? Never again!

In what has become a yearly April Fool's tradition, GMail announces it's newest feature: GMail Custom Time. It provides users the ability to "back-date" an email that they forgot to send on time. Wouldn't that be cool?

Last year's new GMail feature was GMail Paper.