Agencies lack Web 2.0 technology expertise

Posted on 29. May, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Uncategorized   and has   0 Comments

Small multi-disciplinary teams are proven to build the best web experiences. Agency segmentation of creative, media, marketing, technology often makes it impossible to build effective online solutions. It appears the trend is continuing in the wrong direction with agencies outsourcing technology. This means that creative and marketing think up the next great Flash microsite and send the cookbook to China or Costa Rica to get built on spec.

This makes Web 2.0 innovation impossible. New technologies and frameworks, open source code, opportunities like OpenSocial and creating portable content that can “go where people are already” becomes impossible. Additionally there’s the great partnership opportunities; imagine the brand manager that partners with the next Facebook or Twitter before it gets big?

Adweek – VC’s Advice to Agencies: Get Tech Cred

“You have to have world-class creative but you have to have world-class tech folks who can translate that into conversations,” said Kvamme, currently a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s leading VC firms. “…technology is a critical component for success.”

How can agencies better integrate technology?

5 tips for Web 2.0 business presentations

Posted on 27. May, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Uncategorized   and has   0 Comments

The Web 2.0 Internet economy has resulted in countless new innovative businesses and solutions. It’s never been easier to bring a product or solution to market. This sudden spike in new business development has made the market exceedingly competitive. Not because your competition is under pricing you or other typical market challenges; but more because its so challenging to get the right person at the right time to understand your value proposition so you can make a deal. I can’t tell you how many great companies I’ve met with, that after finally getting their one hour face-to-face meeting; left me wondering how I could work with them, what it will cost, how I can share the message with someone that may be able to use them. Honestly I can’t keep track of them all and I don’t try.

I understand that there are many special cases where you may be invited to a direct opportunity or have a inside connection; but for the majority of us the audience could be ice cold. Anything we can do to turn-up the impact and get a slight edge could mean the difference between a big payday and a big waist of time. Here’s a few points to help providers reach customers in the digital space:

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Omnisio lets you synch slides and video

Posted on 14. May, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Uncategorized   and has   0 Comments

I’ve got plenty of slide show sites, social video sites but how do I publish my video and slide show in synch? Omnisio launched last week and allows you to combine video from social sharing sites like YouTube and either upload a PDF of your PPT or point to a SlideShare and synch up your show. It took me about 30 minutes start to finish to upload a video to Blip.tv, set up my Omnisio project, upload my PPT and synch it up. The Flash-based editor couldn’t be easier to use. Users can leave comments at any frame along the timeline anywhere on the screen. My only critique is that the URL links don’t work. Perhaps they would if it where a SlideShare video I’ll try that next time.

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Groundswell & Forrester’s Social Technographics

Posted on 08. May, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Uncategorized   and has   0 Comments

Thanks to Bob Deininger of Fulgent Media Group for pointing me to Groundswell a book by two Forrester analysts to help marketers benefit from social media sites. Features 25 case studies, a complete road map for social strategy, and data from around the world. Learn more about the book, download an excerpt.

Profile Tool: Forrester’s Social Technographics® is a Flash-based profiling tool classifies consumers into six overlapping levels of participation Based on our survey data we can see how participation varies among different groups of consumers, globally. You can profile your customers’ social computing behaviors by age, country and gender and the tool automatically creates the selected demographic profile.

Flash meets Web 2.0

Posted on 05. May, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Web 2.0 Technology   and has   0 Comments

Today MSNBC launched a few new components including Spectra, and immersive visual newsreader experience that merges the news spectrum and the color spectrum into an expansive news viewing experience. With comprehensive live news coverage, striking design, complete customization, dynamic browsing, human body interaction and many other unique features Spectra is one of the coolest information visualization experiences I’ve seen. Check it out!

Open source ad network

Posted on 01. May, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Advertising, Web 2.0 Technology   and has   0 Comments

OpenX is a free ad server for web publishers manage online advertising. It allows you to control your ad inventory, when and where ads appear, select ads based on page properties like keywords, meta and content, and select based on visitor attributes like where they are from and other user data. Ads can come from every possible source including Google Adsense, Ad exchanges etc., and include all kinds of formats such as banners, Flash and rich media (Eyeblaster, TangoZebra etc.).

Google recently launched its own tool for managing ads called Google Ad Manager. What makes OpenX different is that you can install it on your own server, Google’s product is hosted. The PHP based OpenX is free and Open Source. You keep your user data for yourself.

Visible Measures offers powerful solution to measure video engagement

Posted on 01. May, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Uncategorized   and has   0 Comments

The market for Internet video is exploding. Research firm eMarketer projects that by 2011 more than 85% of the U.S. Internet population will consume Internet video, up from roughly 63% in 2006. The last time this kind of viewership growth occurred in a new medium was when the television was first introduced in the early 1950s.

Last night I was on the MITX Technology Awards judging panel and got to see Visible Measures present VisibleSuite, their end-to-end solution for measuring the behavior of the Internet video audience. I saw Matt Cutler and Rishi Dean first unveil VisibleSuite at the DEMO 08 conference in Palm Desert, CA. The Demo conference is great; (more…)