INSTANT PEEPING - Instagram data, behaviour, discovery tool

Instant Peeping is a project exploring behaviour and data patterns among Instagram users. 

The prototype works as a real time GPS image discovery tool for selected cities...

including; Stockholm, New York, London, Tokyo and Paris. Take a peek...

http://instantpeeping.com/

Background

With the rise of social media, sharing content and mobile location services, Instant Peeping acts as a real time 

live experiment to generate greater insight and data into the what, where and when of posting habits and user engagement. 

What are the behaviours and how do these differ by analysing various locations and cultures globally. 

In the fast moving, share everything anytime world we live in today, there is a general subconscious misbelief 

that things disappear, content is private or safe and if you delete something, it’s gone forever.

The NSA, Prism exposure by Edward Snowden helped fuel awareness about these sensitive topics. 

Instant Peeping builds on this effect but takes a more friendly approach by giving users a type 

of service or entertainment in the form of a social discovery application, focusing on the phenomenon 

and engagement around the instagram platform.    

Joining The Dotes, 2013 and beyond! Part 1

2013 looks set to be an exciting year and one of constant twists, turns and shifts for brands and agencies to keep on

top of. Due to the never ending and accelerating technological advances, brands and agencies need to plan and focus

on what is coming, rather than just adapting to what is needed or happening today. Having the ability to be agile and

execute fast before others will be based on good R&D, greater knowledge and pre-planning…

with consumer eyes and ROI even more focused on, relevance, innovation and brand betterness.

Below are some topics that I will be exploring more in 2013. Many of the subjects I have been talking about on this
blog before and with clients over the years. The interesting thing is how they have become more revenant today
and are maturing faster than ever, the future is now and how and when brands adapt is the key. 

Mobile is now fully here… there is no should we, but rather… how do we? When it comes to mobile and tablet
development or marketing through the devices, it is not so much about the device themselves, but the power they contain
(such as location tools) and importantly when creating communication or services, relate and design systems around
people's behaviour and lifestyles.

The subjects below are interconnected, so bare with me if the same references or connecting term comes up.

Humanisation

The Internet of things (everything), is a buzz term at the moment and we will be hearing a lot about it in 2013… 
but what about the humanisation of things??? 

As everyone is now using digital and everything becomes digital and connected, how can we humanise technology 
and digital experiences more? It is only natural there will and is a counter culture, perhaps not mass… but niche. 
You can already see signs of companies and brands acting on this, be it the rise of boutique hotels to companies 
that encourage you to disconnect… or companies that create selling points, products and services based on your 
over connection and ability not to handle it. Time is the most valued commodity today!

Building products, services and communicating to people on their terms and around there life is more important than
ever, creating people centric brands and the humanisation of digital is vital to be competitive. To be continued!!!

Authencity also plays a big part of communication to humans. I will be reexamining some cases that handle
these issues well, from brand perspectives through to design aesthetics, semiotics, positioning and message.

Return on Design

Design is back!!! But it never went away I hear you shout! That is true, but there seems to be a greater emphasis
and approach to design which the masses are now aware of and appreciate much more.

The masses and consumers now value and recognise design in other areas than just cars, houses and the everyday
products and household appliances. Obviously this has been fueled by the rise of Apple and it's shift into consumer
products. References can be made to other technology shifts throughout history, such as the car, once a new technology,
just a machine, an engine on wheels that functioned, the form and beauty came later through design and this seems to
be what is happening, especially within electronics, technology, online and digital design at the moment.

One of the most relevant places for this to be seen is within app design and in online generally. Due to the usage
and adoption rates we're seeing UX and UI design become more important to brands, products and services.
Design is being seen as a selling point and a way to build stronger brands and relationships. Companies that offer digital
services have seen their usage rates jump are now building stronger internal teams that constantly improve the experiences.

App development (especially mobile) is seeing fantastic innovation in both function and design, due to the restrictions
in screen size and greater behaviour analysis. App development and UX companies are prototyping, launching, learning
fast and adjusting fast. This model has worked well for Google over the years and is something brands could and should
adopt, instead of redesigning for a year just to find out a rival has got there first or there is a new faster way, technology etc.

Other interesting steps away from pixels in terms of navigation and UX, is gesture control with new products such as
Leap, eye tracking navigation, voice control and something we've been seeing more of in the toy and gaming industry,
brainwave control. We're currently moving into an exciting time where more humanistic approaches are finding there way
into user experience with the use of haptics instead of buttons. Responsive online design will start to become more wide
spread, partly as a way to cope with the never ending devices and systems that are appearing. Digital within the retail
environment also has huge potential. This all adds up to communicating to humans, business to humans and HX...
Human Experience.

To be continued!


Part 2 coming soon, including; Personalisation, Data, AR Evolution, Back to TV, Collaboration
and other hopefully interesting things.

Adobe Digital Museum

Adobe have launched the Adobe Digital Museum, with some of my digital hero's in there...
such as John Maeda, Aaron Koblin and Jonathan Harris. 

Check it out... http://www.adobemuseum.com 

It will be interesting to see how this develops over time, but why flash if this is to grow over
time? Maybe the idea is to re-imagine the environment (tech) each launch, odd since
Adobe are putting so much into their app publishing and tablet publishing tools.

Great content anyway ;-)

The Noteworthy Project

I didn't think I'd ever be posting any Samsung tech, projects or communication here...
but I like this, it's a bit of a different approach, for phone communication anyway.
I've had an an eye on some of the collaborators involved for a while, so it's nice to see
more work from them here, that's probably why I like it.

About the Project

Our potential for human expression is huge, but at some point technology started getting 
in the way of our passion. We’ve been so busy tweeting and texting, we may have
accidentally left behind what makes us human. The Noteworthy Project documents a
series of projects that examine what happens when communication is made by hand. 

About the Emoticon Project


This series of short documentary films explores handmade communication by asking 
six artists to rethink emoticons. Directed by Oscar-nominated and Sundance-winning
filmmaker Jessica Sanders.

More about the project HERE...

Project Re: Brief: Re-imagining Advertising

I've been meaning to post this for a while, if you have an hour this is well worth
watching. If you don't have an hour, find an hour to watch it all the way through!
You will definitely gain something if you work in the fields of creativity and marketing.

Although this is a Google project, it's not really about Google. The main thing to gain from
the film and project is the combination of a good idea or concept working in unison with
a technology or emerging technology to create better communication or even better...
connecting people and connecting to people with more value.

With almost two decades of online communication, digital ads are still being used to 

simply inform more than they're being used to connect, engage or entertain.

Project Re: Brief is a great experiment whereby Google partnered with five of the

brightest "old-school" legends from advertising to re-imagine their most iconic
creative work from a half-century ago for the modern web, for 4 global brands...
Coca-Cola, Volvo, Alka-Seltzer, Avis.

This experiment to re-imagine what advertising can be and push the boundaries of

how creative ideas and our technology can work hand in hand is a great example of

new world advertising. For people that have worked within digital communication 

for sometime, the key benefits and insights are not necessarily new, but there are

still more clients and companies that are still treating banners as traditional static

advertising or un-engaging forced messaging. More people are on the web, surfing

content and being engaged, so the need to create better ads is now a must.

The full potential of the internet has yet to be realised, where it will be in 10 or 20

years is just a guess, but advertising in some form will be present. One thing for sure

is that products and services will be more individually communicated, something we're

just seeing the light of now. But to get to better digital communication with better

values which mean more to people, we must inspire and inform clients and companies

of the changes and how to engage with costumers of today and tomorrow. There're

behaviours, buying habits and values have already shifted, so the main question at the

moment and everyday, has to be the one below...

I'm surprised the basis for this project hasn't been done before, re-imagining older
concepts in a modern world. I hope Google do more, the insights you can get from 
the original idea creators are lessons many creatives tend to bypass these days. 

More about the project here... http://www.projectrebrief.com

Siri - Potential Hacked

Siri Adjusts the Room Temperature

Siri Starts a Car

Siri Sets the Mood

Siri Controls Your TV

Siri Can Do Anything

Siri Can Go Anywhere (See also: Siri Can Do Anything)

 via theatlanticwire.com

Aaron Koblin: Artfully visualizing our humanity

via youtube.com

Aaron Koblin is the bridge between creativity and data.
If you know his work, nothing new here, except he's presenting it at TED!
His work and data visualization is set to become much more relevant in the
next few years, humanizing data and creating more sense through storytelling.

ROME: WebGL: The Technology Behind '3 Dreams of Black'

via youtube.com

The future of the music video. More tech advances by Aaron Koblin ;-)

Volkswagen - Test Drive in Print Ad

I haven't tried this, but if the app and experience works well, it's a winner.
There have been some good cases recently of print & digital integration...
this is a good mix of engagement, involvement, experience and a bit of fun ;-)

Mulberry - Love Blossoms (Valentines Card)

There are plenty of cheesy online digital cards to send to your loved one today, but probably none as
lovely as these specially animated ones created by Daniel Brown for leather heritage brand Mulberry.

WARNING, they might expect a bag as well, and take this digital card as some type of clue.
Which would be a great clue if you do have a bag, online / offline integration ;-)

More info about Daniel Brown can be found on SHOWSTUDIO here...

Use the app to send some flowers here...
xxx

Abby Road LIVE feed...

Watch tourists and fans bring chaos to North London traffic...
http://www.abbeyroad.com/visit

This is a nice simple way to promote a landmark or business... if you have heritage use it and involve people.
The clever thing here is that people were already there doing it, this live feed lets us join in on their fun.

You don't have to wait long until 4 people try to replicate that famous album cover.

Arcade Fire - The Wilderness Downtown

''We used to wait'' - an interactive film by Chris Milk...

Arcade Fire have always been progressive online. Knowing that most people watch music videos online, they

have again opted for a richer and more personal experience. Choreographed windows, interactive flocking,

custom rendered maps, real-time compositing, procedural drawing, 3D canvas rendering... this Chrome

Experiment has them all. "The Wilderness Downtown" is an interactive interpretation of Arcade Fire's song

"We Used To Wait" and was built entirely with the latest open web technologies, including HTML5 video,

audio, and canvas. MORE INFO HERE...

VIV Mag: iPad Interactive Magazine

Wow! This is the shape of things to come!

Check out the first VIV Mag Interactive Feature Spread - iPad Demo here...

NEW Volkswagen iPhone app - Think Blue. Challenge

After the success of the previous Volkswagen GTI racing iPhone app, comes this one for the Polo, with a focus on

car efficiency this time, or rather how efficient you are as a driver... how bad do you drive? How can you save petrol etc?

I doubt this app will have the same amount of downloads though, we're see who wants to drive efficiently...

I may end up eating my words... gonna check it out now for playability :-)

But it will bring attention to one of the main assets of the car. And all cars soon I'm sure!

Previous app case below...

Adobe & Wired - Digital Magazine

As the iPad date to buy gets ever so closer, so does the companies and brands that want to be connected with it...

being first should have a positive reaction! And what better magazine to make the shift to digital than Wired magazine.

I'm looking forward to trying out all the various magazines who will jump into this area, keen to see what the user

experience is like and how it will compare to print and even online experiences. I guess content will always be king though!

More info regarding this subject...

Will Twitter Crumble Under the Apple Tablet’s Weight?

We’re still a couple of hours away from Steve Jobs taking the stage to unveil Apple’s tablet, but Twitter

appears to already be feeling the weight, with timeline delays hitting the service this morning.

As of 11:00am ET, timeline delays for many users have swelled to 4-5 minutes. That means the whole “real-time”

aspect of using Twitter for breaking news is out of play at the moment, which is especially damaging on a day where

so much breaking news is expected (Obama’s State of the Union address also airs tonight).

Of course, such issues are far from undocumented in the brief history of Twitter. It was a little more than two years

ago that a Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld brought down Twitter, then in its infancy. Oh, how times have not really

changed that much.

via: mashable.com

The future of magazines?

via creativereview.co.uk

After all the tablet news recently and a few magazines taking the next steps,
along comes this great article via CR! Within 2 years they think ;-) Click link above!

Posted via web from Greg's posterous

Hermès - Window Installation

via fubiz.net

Simple, engaging... just damn cool! Might go and check this out next week.
Really nice creative thinking connecting with technology ;-)

Posted via web from Greg's posterous

Favorite Places by Google, of course

via youtube.com

Whore houses and drug dealers can also benefit from this ;-)

I read a book recently that suggested having a Google city, for fans to live in.
But who needs a city when you can have the world and also know everything about the people living in that world?

Oh that's Google today!

Posted via web from Greg's posterous

Esquire - The Augmented Reality Issue

Last year I posted a piece about George Lois slamming the Esquire digital cover... catch it here...

Now Esquire has gone one step further with their Augmented Reality issue. This is definitely a brave move by the

magazine and is a way for them to move with the times and have presence in an interactive way. I guess they still

have a large core subscription market, so this is a good way and different way from other magazines of bringing

those readers online slowly, rather than just going full-on into an online version. I like the fact that you will get new

content (extras) by using the AR elements. The magazine becomes more interactive than just a look or read...

I look forward to experiencing this, it conjures up many ideas this concept can be applied to ;-) got any ideas?

Find out more here...