Nerd Acumen

Google is officially out of the band

August 10th, 2010

You know, I can groan and roll my eyes at guys like Steve Jobs, who, for all his corp-o-speak is at least pretty blatant in his desires to produce a controlled software ecosystem rife with hipster-friendly products wherein Apple makes a big killing… and I can pat the boys in Redmond on the proverbial digital head for all the cute catch-up work they do, making sure the Interwebs are safe for greybeards and AOL refugees who love to forward their grandsons them there 9-11 conspiracy emails, all the while extracting oodles of dough from their customers’ pockets in shelling them over-priced, counterintuitive software… and I can even shake my fist in vain at Mark Zuckerberg for sugar-coating how he’s been pulling down Facebook’s garden walls month-after-month… but Eric Schmidt and Google ought to be downright ashamed of their behavior lately. Eric Schmidt is actively lobbying to destroy the very system that made Google a benevolent empire to begin with, and he’s taking us all down with the ship. A free and open information commons, a vibrant and democratized networked information economy is essential to the future of free peoples everywhere. It seems, upon conquering ‘Free‘, Schmidt and his board of directors have gotten a taste of a new kind of teat from which to suckle, and they really like their new, extra cash-flow. But this isn’t entirely Verizon’s doing, though they are infecting a search giant accustomed to unlimited reproduction with the wonders of scarcity. Ultimately, Google must take a deep breath, step back, and think about what they’re doing – and own up to this unfettered attempt to ruin the Intertubes (Ted Stevens, RIP) and find a way to not be so evil again. (Granted, corporations will always be a little bit evil, but Mr. Transparency himself, Schmidt, could be a little more honest about, right?). We shouldn’t, and we can’t, fall for this gigantic “wink and a smile“. Unfortunately, our congress critters WILL fall for it, while the ‘Murr-khun People kick back in blissful ignorance, scarfing down tasty nachos and watching So You Think You Can Dance.

And it’s no wonder that Schmidt says anonymity is going to die. Our new online identification protocols (brought to you by Google™) will be perfect for accessing the tier-level we registered for with our MSO when we log in.

I honestly thought we could depend on benevolent empire Google to be the last bastion of hope for network neutrality. Boy, was I wrong! I guess that’s why they call them empires.

Angry Mattso is Angry. Google, you’re kicked out of the band. Go play with all your other sell-out friends somewhere else.

Context for the uninitiated:

Tags: Eric Schmidt, Google, net neutrality
Posted in net economics, technology | View Comments

Jane Austen’s Fight Club

July 23rd, 2010

Last Saturday, us LA Mormonites held our 11th annual SM3/LA1 church film festival. An acquaintance of mine by the name of Emily Card wrote and directed this gem of a fake trailer, “Jane Austen’s Fight Club“. It won the festival grand prize hands down, and deservedly so.

I loved the piece so much that I felt it necessary to blast it to the world now that it’s finally on-line (and partly because I want to call attention to the folks who made it and the amount of effort that went in to producing it – I believe everyone involved deserves some real kudos!) My buddy Jeff Dickson spent some long nights toiling away at After Effects and Premiere to give this trailer the polished look it possesses, and I believe it was shot on a Canon 7D (take note of the clear influence of things like Kill Bill, the original trailer for this year’s Kick-Ass, and, of course, the original trailer for Fight Club itself). Gotta love it! Three cheers to video DSLR filmmaking and digital storytelling mashups!

Direct link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2PM0om2El8

(via TwoTurnTablesNMic on YouTube)

Tags: fight club, jane austen's fight club, kick-ass, kill bill, mashups, movies, trailers
Posted in storytelling, web video | View Comments

What they probably won’t tell you about Epic Mickey at E3

June 15th, 2010

Epic Mickey

When Graham Hopper and the boys at Disney introduce the Wii-exclusive platformer “Epic Mickey” at E3 (I think today?), I doubt they’ll mention that, to paraphrase the late Walt Disney, “It all started with a ~~mouse~~ bunch of college interns.”

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Tags: Disney, E3, Epic Mickey, games, interns, mickey mouse, video games, Warren Spector
Posted in games | View Comments

A message for the MCDM

May 11th, 2010

Fellow MCDMers way up there in Seattle, I have a thought to share with you from my new digs in Los Angeles. Consider it my sermon from the bottom of the social media hill.

So, I’m sitting here talking to a fellow MCDMer via IM, and they are lamenting their job prospects to me. Of course, I am also freelancing, it’s a tough economy, etc, etc. Nothing we haven’t heard before.

As we are talking I begin to think that there seems to be this idea floating around out there that since we are the supposed digital media experts, that we can just show up on company doorsteps and pitch to them what we do as new positions, expecting them to completely understand, see the need for our knowledge, and then allocate resources. I’ve had a tiny bit of success with this, but I certainly don’t subscribe to this approach on the whole (plus I kinda got burned by it – though I’ve purged the evidence, so you’ll never catch me doing it again! wink wink nudge nudge).

Truthfully, real connections and genuine relationships need to be established first. You know, you intern a while, or you hob-knob at Social Media Club events, you take a position maybe only tangentially related to what you want, you wash the dishes, etc. You can’t just call on someone randomly and expect results.

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Tags: MCDM, relationships
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The silent unfriend

May 10th, 2010

This post is REALLY long. I’ve included headings that might help you navigate the boring bits, but skip to the bottom because it has the best parts.

This may come as a shock to some of you, but I have a lot of Facebook friends. As of May 2010, I am clocking in somewhere near 1000 connections, though I’m sure that kind of number is far from unheard of on the Interwebs. Still, I’d say it’s significant. I believe I saw a statistic somewhere that mentioned that the average Facebook user has upwards of 400 Facebook friends, although some sociologists get all whiney about the Dunbar number and say you can only ever really have 150 stable social connections and yadda yadda yadda. Listen, we all know there is a big difference between an on-line friend and a IRL friend, though often a personal connection can represent both. In other words, I think the sociologists should find other silly facts to get all uppity about and let us have our social networking fun.

Being a man who works in social media, I find it important to have many Facebook friends for several reasons. For starters, it expands my potential reach and overall presence on the Web (or, if you’re in marketing, it’s the more eyeballs the better). When I produce a new video, write a new blog entry, find something remarkable in connection to a professional venture, or otherwise publish worthwhile personal- or business-related material, my 1000 connections get to see that. And because I’m such an egotist, 1000 just isn’t enough – I ‘Add as a Friend’ just about anyone that I meet (this also helps me remember who they are as well as get to know a little bit about them based on their ‘Info’).

It’s all about reach…

Now, before you accuse me of thinking that my friends are just numbers to me, let me illustrate what I’m really talking about here in terms of online reach: a couple of months ago I had the privilege of producing a video of an awareness event for the Greater Northwest Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Volunteering in this capacity, I found out through the Chapter that the video was to air as part of a special program regarding MS on a local university’s TV channel. Through my on-line social connections I was able to inform a social networking specialist at the local NBC TV affiliate, who in turn relayed word about the event to their thousands of Twitter followers, so those followers in turn could be aware and come out for the event that day. None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for my drive to ‘Add’ everyone I meet, including this TV station’s social media person. Although the our social network indicates we’re Friends, in reality we hardly know one another. But, by knowing her something great happened; it’s got nothing to do with merely numbers – every number is a real person, and good things happen when you’re dealing with real people!

…which brings me to my topic – the silent unfriend, or rather, the sad fact that the silent unfriend even happens.

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Tags: digital friendship, facebook, like, silent unfriend, social media, unfriend, unlike
Posted in social media | View Comments

Awesome iPad tricks every user should know

April 6th, 2010

Now that Apple has introduced their magical new device, the iPad, thousands of new iPad users are tinkering with this awesome new toy and figuring out what exactly it can do. It’s really awesome stuff! I can tell you that I am especially enamored with the iPad, because it has successfully created a technological solution for enjoying computing and digital content in my life where there previously wasn’t a need for one. It used to be that I had to watch movies on my television, YouTube videos on my laptop, or read magazines from some crusty old rack at some crusty old store – or, get this, I even had to get my news from free services available on-line! I know, it’s crazy! But now there’s the convenient to use iPad, and Apple can provide for all of my digital needs for a low, low fee.

And what’s more, I used to need a regular little old iPod Touch or iPhone to listen to music and enjoy the Apple App Store’s enormous selection of “Apps”. Talk about so 2009! Now I can use those same Apps on a screen that’s nearly 3 times bigger, which really helps me because I have such fat fingers! The iPad truly is a magical device, perfect for America.

And books! Let’s talk about eBooks! No longer do you need to get your eBooks from providers like Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Why read some boring black and white, dot-matrix-looking edition of an eBook when you can read it in color on your iPad? Sure, most books are just black ink on white paper, but that black ink on white paper really shines on the iPad! Also, finally my mommy can read all of my favorite Berenstain Bears books to me in glorious color!

Anyway, I’m just really excited that there’s now a $500, stripped-down, content-locked, simplified touch-screen netbook that doesn’t have some pesky keyboard to deal with! I mean, do you ever get crumbs from your chicken fingers in your netbook or laptop’s keyboard? Talk about a nuisance. The iPad eliminates that problem altogether.

Finally, in order to make my life even more simplified, Apple’s iPad requires me, through Apple’s approved channels, to access and pay for a great deal of entertainment, news, and other content services that I once enjoyed for free. That sure makes my life better.

So, now that the iPad has been around a few days, let’s look at some awesome, but little known new tricks you can do with your new iPad:
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Tags: apple, iPad, iphone, iPod, tips
Posted in technology | View Comments

Resetting social connections

March 13th, 2010

The following is… well, it’s something… written specifically for ex-girlfriends and former women I’ve dated, some of which specifically want nothing to do with me any more… however, I think this also applies to any kind of dropped connection, too:

You don’t need to have anything to do with me, I understand that. You don’t even need to be my friend, I also understand that. I screwed up and handled the break-up and/or how I treated you when we dated incredibly poorly, I definitely understand that. I am really crazy, like probably chemically crazy, we can probably both agree on that, too. And, of course, people often just don’t want to associate with exes (or crazy people), I understand and respect that clearly as well.

Nevertheless, I happen to still think you’re pretty cool, so…

What I also understand is that there is often an unhealthy, if minor and mildly annoying, tension – an almost NEED that we artificially create in our minds to protect ourselves – a subconscious (or very concious) game of thinking about how to avoid a person that we previously had some kind of fallout with whenever they happen upon us. At least, that’s what happens on my end. Of course, I know I am not the most popular guy in the world, so your side and your thoughts when seeing me in a room could be quite different, but generally, I think that’s what happens. Negative energy ensues.

But, I also think we all have kind of a common bond, and that’s our mutual associations, friends, and, potentially, future social exchanges of some kind, all of which remains worthwhile. As for the latter, I’m talking “exchanges” of information, business, or maybe even service, in the least. I think we just can’t close the “mutually beneficial” doors that life may present to us from time to time. I know that in my chosen industry, a networker’s paradise, we pretty much never ignore a soul because someday we might be working for them, and vice versa. Even if not financially. You might show up for that community volunteer gig and find out the guy you loath is the one with the clipboard! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: friends, social media
Posted in personal, social media | View Comments

Afternoon Chatroulette usage: the women come out, a little

February 27th, 2010

This is a follow-up to my earlier post, “Chatroulette by the numbers“. (Also, visit that link for more on what Chatroulette is.)

A controversial new video chat service, Chatroulette, has spread like wildfire around the Web, and already major media outlets are chiming in on what it means, good or bad. Now, although I generally agree with its already well-established reputation for being “creepy“, full of mostly males in their 20s masturbating on camera and generally behaving indecently, as a student of the Web and on-line communication, I thought it might be worth looking at Chatroulette as an authentic survey and insta-polling service. Instead, I learned what was actually happening on Chatroulette, and that helped paint a picture for what it’s really all about.

My first study of the service, wherein I informally surveyed users about their usage… well, anyone who would actually take the time to speak with me (as opposed to being skipped – or, as this videographer put it, “nexted”)… proved to me that the service is more than just for the lewd-minded. My survey actually led me to conclude that the primary purpose of the site isn’t just for sycophants to misbehave, but rather, for twentysomething men to go about looking for members of the opposite sex to simply connect with. It that regard, it’s not much different than traditional dating services and from a lot of the behavior that takes place in the social media space already. In other words, it’s not just about sex, but interpersonal co-ed communication (err, I guess that’s sex, too… but I can’t presume most users are actually looking for sexual encounters, in that regard).

Of course, my first study took place late at night, so I felt it wise to take a look at usage during the day as well (I’ll have a Prime Time usage study up eventually… the service is often down due to its newfound popularity during early evening hours). My prediction was that I’d find more females on Chatroulette during the day. Whether that was because more women are supposedly at home and have free time during the day, or more women are taking an interest in the service due to its recent media coverage, I cannot say. It was just a hunch, but it ended up being mostly accurate. However, I must strictly note that this was NOT a scientific study, and based on differences in time-zones, and the fact that several of the women I talked to were in timezones that were already well into evening hours, I’m leaning on the service’s new popularity having to do with finding more women. And more non-US users.

Below are my findings.
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Tags: chatroulette, chatroulette research, chatroulette survey, video chat, web video, webchat
Posted in communication, social media, web video | View Comments