Luke Wroblewski is a digital product/interaction/interface designer who has written about mobile computing and web design. His presentations provide a good summary of how smartphones are functioning in today's world, how they might be used in the very near future, and what designers/developers need to consider. "The tools are in our hands to really design experiences in a different way."
Presentation: First Person User Interfaces (pdf) "The design challenges and opportunities of interfaces that allow people to interact with the real world as they are currently experiencing "
Below is an interesting infographic from Lumin Consulting that explains the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). Thanks to Cathy Davidson for sharing this on Facebook!
(I missed this one when the buzz started. Thanks to Liz Dorland for the link.)
Museum of Meis a website created by Intel that provides a variety of interesting information visualizations of your photos and other information from Facebook. Below is a video from Intel that gives a preview of what Museum of Me is about. Better yet, take a look at all of the 'Museum of Me' videos posted on YouTube.
I was watching a DVR'd episode of NCIS tonight with my husband and noticed Cisco Telepresence video conferencing system was a player in the story line, as well as a Cisco Cius touch-screen tablet. It seems that on TV, laptops, desktops, and old-fashioned cell phones are history. "Emerging" technologies are woven into the story lines of more television episodes, including CSI, NCIS, Bones, Grey's Anatomy, and others.
The original intention of this post was to discuss the concept of emerging technologies and product placement/embedded advertising on television programs and movies, and share a few interesting examples related to his topic. I quickly realized that there is much more to this story. Why? More people access video and interactive multimedia content when they are on-the-go using laptops, smart phones, iPads, and similar tablets. New televisions, such as Sony Internet TV, are internet-enabled, and many people already access the web content on their televisions through devices such as game consoles or Apple TV.
It is a marketer's dream.
Unfortunately, we might not be ways to "opt-out" of all of the indirect (and direct) advertising that will come our way as we access video and related content across multiple platforms. It won't be as easy as blocking pop-up ads or fast-forwarding the DVR!
Below are some examples of ways some emerging technologies are "placed" in television/film, grouped by company. In the "Apple" section, I've included video of Steve Jobs introducing iAds. Near the end of this post, I've included links that relate to ethical legal and ethical issues regarding product placement and embedded advertising.
Food for thought. I'm still digesting what I've found!
Apple iADMobile advertising that delivers interaction and emotion, 1 billion ad impressions a day, within your app. Apple's iAD isn't really product placement. It is about embedded ads in your mobile devices. "Who wants to get yanked out of their ad?"-Steve Jobs
"iAd is a breakthrough mobile advertising platform from Apple. With it, apps can feature rich media ads that combine the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the web. For developers, it means a new, easy-to-implement source of revenue. For advertisers, it creates a new media outlet that offers consumers highly targeted information." -Apple
As I searched for more information about product placement and embedded advertising, I came across a few posts/websites that suggests that in some circles, this is a hot/controversial topic:
Joseph Lewczak and Ann DiGiovanni, WLF Legal Backgrounder, 4/9/10
FIT Media FAQs (FIT= Fairness and Integrity in Telecommunications Media)
"FIT Media is a non-partisan coalition of health, media and child advocacy organizations and professionals supporting transparency and child protection in embedded TV advertising."
This is an interesting website - FIT Media covers topics such as "Advernews", "Embedded Propoganda", "Deceptive Advertising", and ways that embedded advertising might be harmful. Week ahead: FCC meeting, Do Not Track hearing Cecilia Kang, Washington Post 11/29/10
What is Apple's New Privacy Policy? "Amidst all the glitz of releasing a new mobile operating system and iPhone, Apple quietly updated their privacy policy. Why?"
Michael Kassner, Tech Republic, 6/28/10
FYI: If you have an iPhone running iOS 4 and wish to opt-out of iAD, you can do so at http://oo.apple.com
Xerox Patent Filing Make Product Placement Addressable The Media Buyer, 1/12/10 "The patent describes the system (via GoRumors) as having the ability to alter content within a program based on the viewer. For example, if a character on a show mentions Macy’s, that content could be shown to general viewers. But that small portion of the broadcast could be “marked,” and the content could be changed so that the character instead says the name of sporting goods store Modell’s. That portion of the broadcast would be served to viewers who are into sports. Similarly, if the storefront was shown during the program, general audiences would see the Macy’s store, while sports fans would see the Modell’s store."
"Here’s a dilemma: The guy (”Hacker Croll”) who claims to have accessed hundreds of confidential corporate and personal documents of Twitter and Twitter employees, is releasing those documents publicly and sent them to us earlier today. The zip file contained 310 documents, ranging from executive meeting notes, partner agreements and financial projections to the meal preferences, calendars and phone logs of various Twitter employee".
I think issues related to privacy, security, ethics, and emerging/social technologies need to be discussed more extensively among academicians, industry leaders, students, and the general public. We don't know what we don't know.
