From YouTube user "nicylin", hot off the press.
Part I:
Part II:
Via Mobile01
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Coming soon to a TV near you: YouTube XL
Yesterday YouTube released YouTube XL: an optimized YouTube UI for the TV screen. While initial reviews were mixed, I believe this is an excellent move on Google's part to counter Hulu. By targeting HTPC and game console installations out there, Google is eager to invading your living room with YouTube XL. Once again, we see that the line between TV screen and PC monitor continues to blur. Before we know it, the "channel surfing" days of none interactive television may be a thing of the past.
Slideshow of Flickr photos tagged with "Computex" and "2009"
Dynamic slideshow of all public photos on Flickr tagged with "Computex" and "2009".
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Web Community Vlogs in the B2B Environment
The art and science of building strong online communities continue to evolve rapidly, and one of the toughest challenges for web community managers out there is to "keep them coming back for more". Community management and power user development are both important to maintain the health of your online community. However, to jump start a new or stale community environment, an injection of useful and interesting content must be a top priority.
Faced with this challenge last year, I was tasked to re-launch an existing technical community on a new platform and take the current activity level to a new high. This was no easy task. After all, B2B products and services are just not as sexy as the next high tech consumer gadget. How do you keep an existing community base interested and lure them to bookmark your community as a destination site? Further more, how do you make it so engaging that they can't wait to share the positive experience with their colleagues? For me, the answer was in rich media and community advocate personalities.
I am fortunate enough to work with an extremely talented team here at Juniper Networks. After much consultation with my team members, the community vlog was born.
I have to admit, even those of us directly involved with the vlog program were slightly skeptical when it was first launched. Deep down inside, I firmly believed in what I was doing: My thesis in graduate school was on the convergence of video and multimedia PC presentations, and I've never looked back since then. I know webcasting works, I know rich media experiences enhance the learning process. However, I've never applied what I know to a B2B technical community setting before, and my fingers were definitely crossed when the first video was launched.
With the help of our award winning staff producer Kevin Eck and an extremely talented community advocate Tawnee Kendall, the vlog program was a hit. My talented teammates were able to make the community vlogs interesting, yet not cheesy or over the top. Community members slowly began to feel like they know "J-Net Tawnee" personally, and praises began to fly in via PM, email, Facebook and Twitter. Value added contents were presented to the community via short, engaging vlog videos. As a result, we began to see registration, page view and participation increase exponentially.
Under the guidance of our manager Paul Gilliham (a seasoned web professional with some serious site architecture and user experience expertise under his belt), we continued to tweak the program, update content and enhance our user management/ranking programs. Today, the difference between that old community we inherited two years ago and our current community is clearly a contrast between night and day.
The current community vlog on our user promo program is embedded below. For the rest of our community vlogs, check out the Juniper Media Center YouTube Channel. I hope you find these videos interesting, even if you are not in the networking equipment industry.
Faced with this challenge last year, I was tasked to re-launch an existing technical community on a new platform and take the current activity level to a new high. This was no easy task. After all, B2B products and services are just not as sexy as the next high tech consumer gadget. How do you keep an existing community base interested and lure them to bookmark your community as a destination site? Further more, how do you make it so engaging that they can't wait to share the positive experience with their colleagues? For me, the answer was in rich media and community advocate personalities.
I am fortunate enough to work with an extremely talented team here at Juniper Networks. After much consultation with my team members, the community vlog was born.
I have to admit, even those of us directly involved with the vlog program were slightly skeptical when it was first launched. Deep down inside, I firmly believed in what I was doing: My thesis in graduate school was on the convergence of video and multimedia PC presentations, and I've never looked back since then. I know webcasting works, I know rich media experiences enhance the learning process. However, I've never applied what I know to a B2B technical community setting before, and my fingers were definitely crossed when the first video was launched.
With the help of our award winning staff producer Kevin Eck and an extremely talented community advocate Tawnee Kendall, the vlog program was a hit. My talented teammates were able to make the community vlogs interesting, yet not cheesy or over the top. Community members slowly began to feel like they know "J-Net Tawnee" personally, and praises began to fly in via PM, email, Facebook and Twitter. Value added contents were presented to the community via short, engaging vlog videos. As a result, we began to see registration, page view and participation increase exponentially.
Under the guidance of our manager Paul Gilliham (a seasoned web professional with some serious site architecture and user experience expertise under his belt), we continued to tweak the program, update content and enhance our user management/ranking programs. Today, the difference between that old community we inherited two years ago and our current community is clearly a contrast between night and day.
The current community vlog on our user promo program is embedded below. For the rest of our community vlogs, check out the Juniper Media Center YouTube Channel. I hope you find these videos interesting, even if you are not in the networking equipment industry.
Photo Gallery: Canon's G10 Promotional Website
I came across Canon's G10 Promotional Website today while scanning through my RSS reader. This site has been up since April, but somehow it never got on my radar until today.
I really like this promo campaign. Yes, I know I am being sold a camera, but I am willing to go to the campaign site, click around and learn more about the product in order to check out the beautiful photo gallery. Canon has offered the perfect value add content for the demographic interested in the G Series: serious amateurs and professionals who want a solid 2nd camera that's lighter than their D-SLR, but still maintain manual controls and high image quality. Being a Canon G9 owner, I may be partial to Canon. However, the VII Photo Agency gallery really appealed to me. These are the type of shots I would like to create, and this site has provided me with some very satisfying content. When we launched the Juniper Media Center YouTube Channel last year, the idea was very similar: provide value added content for our technical community, and the rest will follow. The key is offer value: tell, not sell, and let satisfied customers and word of mouth marketing work for you.
What's missing from the G10 promo site? Perhaps if it were up to me, I would provide some type of link to a user generated content forum. Another interesting possibility is linking this to an actionable community event (photo contest sponsored by the VII agency maybe?) When the G11 campaign comes around, hopefully a community oriented segment will be included. If a photo contest ends up as part of the campaign, I am sure I will be one of the first to participate :)
I really like this promo campaign. Yes, I know I am being sold a camera, but I am willing to go to the campaign site, click around and learn more about the product in order to check out the beautiful photo gallery. Canon has offered the perfect value add content for the demographic interested in the G Series: serious amateurs and professionals who want a solid 2nd camera that's lighter than their D-SLR, but still maintain manual controls and high image quality. Being a Canon G9 owner, I may be partial to Canon. However, the VII Photo Agency gallery really appealed to me. These are the type of shots I would like to create, and this site has provided me with some very satisfying content. When we launched the Juniper Media Center YouTube Channel last year, the idea was very similar: provide value added content for our technical community, and the rest will follow. The key is offer value: tell, not sell, and let satisfied customers and word of mouth marketing work for you.
What's missing from the G10 promo site? Perhaps if it were up to me, I would provide some type of link to a user generated content forum. Another interesting possibility is linking this to an actionable community event (photo contest sponsored by the VII agency maybe?) When the G11 campaign comes around, hopefully a community oriented segment will be included. If a photo contest ends up as part of the campaign, I am sure I will be one of the first to participate :)
Windows 7 Netbooks/Notebooks at Computex 2009
According to Engadget Chinese, a number of Netbooks and Notebooks running Windows 7 (RC build 7100) are appearing at Computex 2009. Check out Sharp's Mebius PC-NJ70Apro with a sub-screen on the touchpad!
Monday, June 1, 2009
The Social Media Revolution.. So What?
"Social media this, Web 2.0 that, I swear, if I hear about Twitter one more time today..."
Ever had a conversation with a "social media cynic" that started with something like the sentence above? With a large dose of the dot com cynicism still ingrained in a lot of folks, I can understand why some folks feel this way.
So What is the big deal? "Online" Communities have been around since the 300k dial up BBS days, and online chat room have been around for a few decades now. What makes things special this time around?
In fact, people and animals have been forming communities since day one. This notion of "community" and "social" part of the web really is nothing new, is it?
To me, the most interesting part of the so call social media revolution is not technological, but a social change made possible by technology. In short, it is all about the the reach online communities have today. A dial up BBS may get a few hundred folks together, and a CompuServe community perhaps quite a bit more. Today, however, tools of the social web are bringing literally everyone with Internet access together, enabling true democracy on the web. Power of the crowd can finally triumph the elite few. Corporations and public figures can no longer ignore the collective. And pathetic attempts to "fool" the collective have often ended up backfiring on the creators of such schemes.
Enlightened management teams at large corporations have adapted to this new democratic system with great success. Dell's Idea Storm and Starbuck's Idea site are just a few great examples. Gone are the days of Milli Vanilli type of acts. Listen, react, and provide value-add to your customers. In return, you will gain an army of word-of-mouth marketers with results surpassing your most expensive ad campaigns.
Ever had a conversation with a "social media cynic" that started with something like the sentence above? With a large dose of the dot com cynicism still ingrained in a lot of folks, I can understand why some folks feel this way.
So What is the big deal? "Online" Communities have been around since the 300k dial up BBS days, and online chat room have been around for a few decades now. What makes things special this time around?
In fact, people and animals have been forming communities since day one. This notion of "community" and "social" part of the web really is nothing new, is it?
To me, the most interesting part of the so call social media revolution is not technological, but a social change made possible by technology. In short, it is all about the the reach online communities have today. A dial up BBS may get a few hundred folks together, and a CompuServe community perhaps quite a bit more. Today, however, tools of the social web are bringing literally everyone with Internet access together, enabling true democracy on the web. Power of the crowd can finally triumph the elite few. Corporations and public figures can no longer ignore the collective. And pathetic attempts to "fool" the collective have often ended up backfiring on the creators of such schemes.
Enlightened management teams at large corporations have adapted to this new democratic system with great success. Dell's Idea Storm and Starbuck's Idea site are just a few great examples. Gone are the days of Milli Vanilli type of acts. Listen, react, and provide value-add to your customers. In return, you will gain an army of word-of-mouth marketers with results surpassing your most expensive ad campaigns.
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