This interactive model of our solar system perfectly and simply demonstrates the power of interactivity as a form of communication. Interactivity is a powerful way to transmit understanding. By getting people to do something, rather than just watch or read something, you can get them to understand things they never would have otherwise. If the moon were […]
Read more "If the moon were only one pixel: the power of interactivity"Sponsored content. Native advertising. Whatever you want to call it, if you do it right, it’s good for the public, good for publishers, and good for brands. Why are people so nervous about it? This is the text, more or less, of a talk I gave at the Digital Media Europe 2014 conference in London this afternoon. […]
Read more "#DME14: How to stop worrying and love sponsored content"This post is the text, more or less, of a talk I just gave in Nottingham for TEDxUoN. The summer that I was eighteen years old, I went on a bike trip to Ireland. I borrowed my older brother’s bike and got my own plane ticket. I was going alone. It was the first really […]
Read more "TEDxUoN: Communication and the power of video games"We all know conversation is a game. Sometimes it’s a game with a very definite prize, like getting someone to think you’re interesting enough that they’ll give you their phone number, or getting someone to trust you enough that they’ll consider your business proposal. Whatever the goal is, conversation is challenging, scalable, and interactive – […]
Read more "Conversation: the Rules"This video embodies all that is wrong with Old Advertising: It’s a genuinely touching piece of visual storytelling. It shamelessly checks every box: Story of separation and longing – check. Set in a pure sunlit rural locale – check. Background characters are handsome/beautiful, all-American – check. Soundtrack is a recently popular bittersweet lovesick ballad – […]
Read more "Why the Budweiser Puppy Must Be Destroyed"Fascinating if true. But I have a doubt. UPDATE: Mike Develin, a data scientist from Facebook, has just published a cheeky critique of the Princeton duo’s research – well worth a read. Recently there’s been a splash about a paper that says Facebook will lose 80% of its users before 2017. The authors, John Canarella and […]
Read more "Science says Facebook will lose 80% of its users by 2017"Valve is a fast-growing business in a dying market. They’re one of the biggest forces in PC gaming, thanks to great games and also Steam, their gaming network/app store/publishing platform. But PC sales are in freefall, so Valve has realized that they are doomed. Doomed, that is, unless they make a play for either mobile devices or the […]
Read more "How the Steam Console could disrupt the gaming market"There’s a very interesting protest happening right now: Six women are climbing the Shard in protest at Shell’s arctic drilling plans. Of course, Greenpeace and others have done this sort of thing before. What makes this different is the scale of the activist media operation around the event. It’s a great example of citizen journalism […]
Read more "Lessons in citizen media from Greenpeace: #IceClimb"This is a transcript (sort of)of an Ignite session I just delivered at the Melcrum Digital Communications Summit in London.
Read more "Kill it With Fire: why Gamification sucks and Game Dynamics rule"Today the Guardian launches a new participative journalism platform, Guardian Witness. Like CNN’s iReport, or pure-play citizen journalism outfits like Citizenside, Guardian Witness allows news readers to become contributors and participate in the making of the news. It’s already getting lots of reactions online. So – will it work? 1. Experience The Guardian has form […]
Read more "Six reasons Guardian Witness will sink or swim"