Spark Armada by Nir Ofir

The Future of Media consumption – Creative exercise

Recently I found myself taking a part in few conversations about the future of TV and the video entertainment industry of tomorrow. Those conversation where made with people from the Mobile phone, TV, and internet industries. All of them agreed that the today's TV is changing in different ways and that Mobile entertainment and Internet usage as an entertainment tool are increasing on the account of TV (and Cinema).

These conversations made me want to make a mind map of all aspects (I found) of TV,  Mobile and internet as entertainment arenas for the end user. After doing the mind map I gathered the information in a magic table. This magic table can make every one (Yes! you too) an inventor of new formats, experiences, models or content packages for tomorrow's entertainment era.

All you have to do is to pick an Item from every column in a random way. Then, try to think of a TV/Internet/Mobile show, Contest, event etc that is using all the elements. It's not an easy creative exercise but it is fun. Don't give your self discount, Invent something crazy that will not sound reasonable to you.

This is my take on the magic table:

I picked randomly these Numbers: A 3, B 2, C5, D 1, E 8, F 4

I need to create a concept for a Reality Mobile show in which will be delivered in streaming format. This show will be watched while going out. I will charge a monthly fee and will have to use Celebrities or stars in it. Mmm that’s an easy one :-)

This streaming mobile show will be aired every weekend night time and it is designed for people that are hanging out in the clubs and bars areas at that time. This reality show will follow 5 random people that are randomly selected every weekend in this club area and their prize in this reality show is dating a celebrity. The viewers of the show will be able to watch and help those 5 guys with their mission that involves: Drinking lots of alcohol and doing crazy things. One of the viewers will have the chance to win the same prize too.

What is your future media show format?

Flickr as mobile community translator

Here is a thought I had about taking the community photo sharing concept and flip it to something completely different.

Imagine yourself walking in a strange street on a foreign country. You do not know the language but you really need to know what is written on this sign. You feel that something is wrong:

Now, you have 2 options:

1. Imagine you are taking a picture of this sign with your camera phone and sending it to your flickr account adding the tags: Translate, English.

In that moment, a community of people that are "listening" to these tags using RSS reader (or in a special zone in flickr site) look at the picture and translate it in the comment area in your Album. Either you get an alert by sms or you will surf to your album using a mobile phone browser and see the translation.

2. You can find someone that doesn't know to keep a secret and speaks your language.

Considering a new project

Have you ever noticed the cultural differences while making a conversation with people online? I as an Israeli use different gestures and behavior while "talking" to a Chinese guy using an instant messenger. Sometimes it can create some unpleasant outcomes, especially while trying to do business using online tools like IM, Blogs, Email, skype and more…

For example: In Israel (Updated) from my daily experience, It is common to burst into someone's instant messenger with a straight to the point answer or remark without using a polite "hello" or "hi" to check if the addressee is busy or if he is on a meeting with the screen facing everyone. Is it the same in Japan? China? Finland?

I started to think about this project during my BlogDay project. There I contacted and got massages from people from all over the globe, most of them didn't expressed them selves very good in English (So am I). Every one of them has its own cultural background and Netiquette that can unintentionally create some kind of misunderstanding that will affect the conversation hence the business process, Romantic relation, friendship etc.

It reminds me of the first time I had a business travel to Korea. Before the trip I logged in and searched for information about the business culture over there. I read that it is rude to write in a red pen and that in meeting the hierarchy is very clear – top ranked speak first. I also read about the Business card craze over there so I ran and printed some more…Just in case.

Today, more people do business online. Maybe even without a real meeting. When I say doing business I don't mean buying something in eBay. I mean closing deals! I remember that Loic told me that his blog is helping him get good business deals, people from around the world contact him and sometimes close deals without even meeting him. Hell, he even organized and publicized the whole "Les Blogs" conference from his blog.

I am looking for a large group of people that have an experience in doing business online. I will put up a questionnaire for them to answer and a wiki to gather information and stories. If it will be successful I will publish an e-book with all the information in a form of a guide.

If you think you have a say about international business Netiquette or know people that are doing business online using IM, Blogs, Message boards, Chat and more please contact me at nir.ofir [at] gmail [dot] com.

Tag: Netiquette

BlogDay2005: The Blogal Village

Last night I set in my Japanese car (Made in Europe) and drove to Tel Aviv (Israel) talking with my Korean mobile phone (Go Samsung!) while chewing an American gum. A half an hour before that, I talked to a Taiwanese journalists using MSN Messenger, writing her in English (Hi Effie!). We have talked about BlogDay – a virtual global holiday for all Netizens.

Donald Trump would say that BlogDay was Huge! I think it was more than huge (is there a word for that?) It started as a crazy idea in a small Blog conference in Israel but the results proved to me that BlogDay is here to stay!

Since June 2005 (3 months ago), BlogDay have generated 30,800 new pages in Google. Technorati lists 1329 Blog posts about it and thousands of bloggers from these countries have participated: Israel, Pakistan, US, Singapore, China, France, Hungary, Spain, UK, India, Italy, Ireland, Malaysia, Cambodia, Greece, Finland, Germany, Taiwan, Korea, South Africa, Japan and many more. The BlogDay description was translated in the BlogDay wiki  by bloggers to 15 languages. The wiki got more than 25,000 page views on August 31st; a Greek designer won the BlogDay design contest with his brilliant design to BlogDay future web site.

The A-list bloggers (Mostly Americans) (almost) didn't write about BlogDay. I, as a professional in this field (Blogs, Social software, web2.0 blah blah) was disappointed because I really wanted to read what do they had to say about my project and, because I truly believed that as "main information junctions" they will help me spread the word about BlogDay. Some of them did write about it. I rather some don't.

Today, I assume that most of the bloggers that have celebrated BlogDay are personal bloggers. Bloggers that write about their lives and jobs that are using community based platforms like Blogger or Livejournal in the US, "Yam" in Taiwan, "ioblogo" in Italy or "blogia" in Spain. BlogDay made me realize how huge the market share of the Personal blogs compared to professional blogs.

My "not so wild assumption" is that 95% of all blogs in the world are personal or half professional blogs that are being hosted in some kind of a community portal and the other 5% are professional blogs that are being hosted in independent servers or with services like Typepad (My virtual Home).

95% are personal blogs!  Do you capture the power of this large majority of bloggers? Do you, as I did, understand now that most of blog readers visit personal blogs and not the 5% professional blogs and those who are labeled as "A-list" Bloggers (No offense).

A week ago, me and two other Israeli Blog Platform operators, were interviewed about the state of the Israeli Blogosphere (100,000 Blogs!). I was asked why there are no noticeable Israeli "A-list" bloggers and if the Blogosphere needs them to evolve. I answered NO!
My logic came from the realization that most of the A-list blogs that I read (and that those sat in the room read) are niche blogs that do not appeal to the masses, or in other words, we, the people that are sitting in the room and you, the people who read my blog are living in a small bubble thinking we represent the majority of web users (most do not know the word "blog").

Anyway, and here is my point, BlogDay has proved that in the Blogosphere, like no other media ever, the "ordinary" writers and the "A-list" writers are both using "the first universal publishing system in history" (thanks Steven). A publishing system that do not enforce any hierarchy or editing rules, A publishing system that allow any blogger to take an idea and make a small change in thousands of people from around the world, and make them and himself feel like they are a part of something big.

I did started it with 25 individuals that use RSS to "listen" to my blog.
Thank you for celebrating with me.
Join me again in BlogDay 2006 (You can start helping now!)