It’s been five, long, jam-packed days. Koz and I will keep working to post more sights, sounds, and insights from South by Southwest Interactive 2010.
There’s certainly no shortage of interesting spaces where “digital creatives” connect during SXSW to do what they do. Here’s a peek …
Just a quick follow-up to the video clips Koz posted yesterday from Twitter co-founder and CEO Evan Williams’ SXSW Keynote interview:
I can easily see how @anywhere will change the way I use Twitter. It may sound silly, but I also get how it aligns with Twitter’s No. 1 company principle: Be a force for good.
As @ev said yesterday, “Access to information … is about reducing the walls between influencers and the influenced. Democratization of information changes the world.”
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Panel: Dustin Clingman – Full Sail University, Dave Werner – Atmosphir, Michael Agustin – GameSalad, Adam Saltsman – Flixel, Troy Gilbert – Mockingbirdgames, Shanna Tellerman – Wildpockets
Building a game is getting easier and easier, and the panelists build tools to help people without tech skills/knowledge build video games. From simple to complex, it sounds like the video game industry is hungry for new ideas since many games are built upon the same premise – shoot ’em up, explore, etc.
Games don’t have to be just fun and/or entertaining, they have proven to be used to teach very effectively. While it can obviously be used to teach simple tasks, games are tremendously good at teaching individuals organization or organizational models such as world-politics, physics, math, science. If you have trouble explaining your business model to employees, consider a game that teaches them what the elements/values/principles of your model are. When used for good, these games can communicate and engage users in things like the impact of natural disasters, geopolitics, and other significant societal issues.
Some games and systems choose to take advantage of “regular operative conditioning” which rewards you for a repetitive task. It has been proven that people have an innate need to solve things and with things like gambling, people become addicted to the dopamine that is released when they are challenged and rewarded. This is a tremendously effective tool for getting people engaged in your game, but it can also be dangerous if people start working toward “points” rather than pursuing the true purpose of the game. However, reward structures – in the form of points, virtual items, money, etc. – can be a tremendously effective way of hooking people in and keeping them engaged. Feedback, recognition, rewarding, earning, and achieving are human urges that come through in games. You don’t necessarily have to make a “game” in order to incorporate this or exploit these urges.
If you are interested in getting started building your own game, here are a few resources to consider:
There are only two of us, and we’re making it to as many sessions as we can, but if you’d like to see some slides from additional sessions at SXSW, take a look here (if you have access to slideshare.net) – http://www.slideshare.net/tag/sxsw2010
Do mainstream companies get Twitter? Are executives in non-high tech industries embracing social technologies and the communities that form on top of them, or are they scared to death?
A report from the field was delivered at South by Southwest Interactive today by MIT scientist Andrew McAfee, who coined the phrase “Enterprise 2.0.”
McAfee laid out some good news and some bad news about the corporate mindset on the free-form collaboration that is 2.0, and offered some advice on how to talk to your boss about social tools that are evolving around the user:
According to McAfee, social software is maturing and we’re beginning to see more evidence of the business benefits of 2.0 (McKinsey Study, CEO case studies). Only time will tell if a tipping point is in the cards.
For more highlights, see the Twitter stream from today’s event. More at SXSW Report.
Presenter: Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist, Center for Digital Business, MIT Sloan School of Management. Contact: @amcafee, amcafee@mit.edu. Resources: 2.0 Adoption Council
Panel: Melissa Fallon – Davie Brown Entertainment, Chris Hanada – Retrofit Films, Milo Ventimiglia – DiVide Pictures, Wilson Cleveland – CJP Digital Media, Andrew Hampp – Ad Age
Media is increasingly fragmented and more and more people are turning to the web to get both information and entertainment. One of the panelists noted that even TV executives mentioned that their kids don’t watch TV anymore, but instead view shows on the web. Many brands are moving some money over to digital, particularly for online video. However, the perception is that digital is cheap. While many are willing to “work with what you’ve got” you can certainly do better work with better budgets. The challenge with getting those budgets is is that there are few examples out there and many still think in terms of traditional media measurement.
“”Big brands tend to say, ‘give me something that’s never been done before… but I want you to give me examples of how it has successful in other places’,” said Melissa Fallon of Davie Brown Entertainment.
Since paid media is, paid, you are guaranteed eyeballs, but that’s not something that online video can deliver. The real challenge is distribution and syndication. Partner with your existing fan networks to let them share your message. For example, a video series for IKEA was successful by getting the top 10 IKEA fan blogs to post and promote the online episodes (the blog that directed the most traffic got a spot in the season finale). People aren’t going to seek out your show, you have to go to where they are and put it in the channels where they are. However, you can also use paid media effectively to cross promote your web videos.
What is most effective is when you can pair a brand with a creative way to tell a story online. Good content is good content, whether its on the web or on TV – content really is king. The challenge is really determining what your brand is about and then finding a compelling way to tell that story. In a way, Chief Marketing Officers need to be like producers and movie studio execs – they’re investing in something that they want to make sure it is successful. Especially as brands begin building their own content – which is necessary, because no one understands their business or industry better than they do, and they should make sure their brand sentiment is the one that people see.
The challenge for big brands moving forward is that online video and storytelling is now accessible to anyone. A small brand or unknown player in your industry has the same (if not easier access to) things like YouTube and other social media outlets – and if they’ve got a compelling story, they’ll get the recognition and set the bar in your industry. For example, “The Temp Life” is a web series created in 2006 for Spherion. Their challenge was they had trouble building loyalty among their temps. Therefore, the webisodes highlight that the brand knows the jobs aren’t always great, but we can empathize with you.
Finally, big name talent has started to play in the online video and social media space. The key is getting them involved and engaged with your story or project. Right now, it’s not necessarily about the money for them, it’s about collaboration. They’re doing it because it’s fun, its different, and they feel like they can be part of the creative process. When a big name brand is attached, the actors also feel more comfortable that it’s not completely going to flop – there’s money and credibility behind it.
According to Jeremy Gutsche, culture eats strategy for breakfast. Gutsche, MBA, CFA, is founder of TrendHunter.com, the world’s largest network for trend spotting and innovation. He is also the author of, “Exploiting CHAOS: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change.”
It’s Sunday night and I’ve landed in one of the many South by Southwest lounges – with a cold Lone Star Beer at my side and blisters on my feet.
Make no mistake about it: SXSWi is a five-day marathon. The choice of sessions, panels, workshops, keynotes, and meetups is overwhelming. And with two more days yet to go, it was energizing to hear from many of you over the weekend who were following along on Twitter and foursquare. What a great blend of technology and inclusion.
Thanks to a tip from @briansullan, I tracked down Web standards guru and author, Jeffrey Zeldman, and co-author, Ethan Marcotte. Ed Matesevac, @ep3runs, turned me on to Dan Ariely––an acclaimed professor at Duke University and best-selling author of “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions.”I also noted Company partners outside our department tapping into Twitter and retweeting some of our live-blogging. Thanks for joining us!
SXSW Interactive ends Tuesday night and we’ll keep bringing it to you until then.
Just few shots from today, incuding the ScreenBurn at SXSW Arcade and the Women Love Tech Meetup.
Presenter: Sara Summers, User Experience Evangelist for Microsoft
Play is important, particularly in the workplace. Science (lead by Dr. Stuart Brown at The Institute of Play) has proven that a life without play leads to depression, rigidity, and dissocial activities. It’s critical, not just to our well being, but for adaptation and idea generation. It’s proven that play drives us to seek novelty and newness.
Play elicits our best qualities – it inspires empathy, helpfulness, hopefulness, and betters emotions. It’s crucial to visual thinking and processing. Dr. Robert Epstein’s “Shifting” suggests a period of individual ideation, followed by group building and generation produces significantly better ideas.
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” -Thomas Edison
It’s a short blog post, but most of this workshop involved hands on play and brainstorming to illustrate the points made.
This is my 2010 South by Southwest Interactive badge. New this year is a QR Codethat enables attendees to “scan” each other’s codes with their smartphones instead of exchanging business cards. Scan. Download. Export. Follow up.
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