Data Visualisation: SMS Messages

I've posted before about Data Visualisation and this is one of the best I've seen. This is a video by Aaron Koblin from Google Creative Lab, showing a visualisation of SMS messages in Amsterdam on New Years Eve.



Hat tip to Tony Effik

iBurgh

It seemed that for so long there were few practical, useful iPhone Apps available. iPhone users were stuck with gimmicky apps that did little except show off the iPhone's motion and graphic capabilities. Thankfully all that has changed and there are more and more really useful apps coming through the Apple iTunes Store.

iBurgh is a new app that not allows residents' of Pittsburgh (US) to lodge complaints straight through to the city with geo-tagged pictures of potholes, graffiti and other public maintenance issues. iBurgh is part of a new breed of app described by Pittsburgh councillors as "changing the democratic process", through "e-democracy".

The app utilises the iPhone's GPS functionality and lets users pinpoint their exact location on a map while also including a picture of what it is they want to notify about. Their complaint is then delivered directly to the city's 311, or helpline department, with a short description, and time and date.

iBurgh was developed by YinzCam, already famous in Pittsburgh for their impresses iPhone NHL applications, and is available for free download from iTunes.

Bill Peduto, a Pittsburgh city councilman, told the Pittsburgh Business Times: "We want to establish Pittsburgh as the home of e-democracy. Since the invention of the printing press, there really hasn't been a development that gives us the ability to change the democratic process. This is a way for government to be directly responsive to people, instead of waiting for complaints to pile up."

Lance Armstrong Organises a Twitter-Cycle

Lance Armstrong, well known for his love of Twitter, surprised a lot of followers with a tweet last Sunday:

"Hey Glasgow, Scotland!! I'm coming your way tomorrow. Who wants to go for a bike ride??"

And with that the seven-time Tour de France winner invited his fans for an afternoon cycle in Paisley in Scotland. Little did Armstrong realise that his follow up tweet on Monday, "Hey Glasgow - ride's at 12 noon. Location tbd. Stay tuned! Still dialling it in. And yes, I have my raincoat!", would see over 200 fans turn up in Paisley outside the Ashtree House hotel (as well as a huge following on foot!).

Armstrong admitted he hadn't planned a route and just ended up cycling around the town for a couple of hours. After the tour, Armstrong thanked everyone there, saying "Thanks to everyone who turned up to ride in Paisley! I figured we'd have a nice ride for a dozen or so. But 100's came. Haha! Awesome!", adding, "And hope great was it that the Flying Scotsman Graeme Obree came out?? Legend."

Armstrong is a prolific Tweeterer and even went as as far during this year's Tour de France as to cut out all journalists and use Twitter for all his public addresses.

Samsung: Master the Power of the Angles

The latest Samsung online campaign for their ST550 and TL 225 cameras is definitely worth a look. Created by the folks at The Viral Factory, the campaign aims to highjlight Samsung's latest camera models, specifically targeted to the digital savvy, online youth market. Recent research conducted by Samsung showed that a huge percentage of photos are now ‘self-shots’ that people are uploading to their various online / Social Media profiles. With this in mind the camera incorporates an image screen on the front of the camera as well as the back.

The Viral Factory's film is directly inspired by the internet meme , which was all about revealing the truth behind people’s overly flattering profile pictures. Through a cool 'Hot Spot' YouTube video, users can view six different scenarios and characters, each of whom first showing their ‘good’ angle and then reveals the ugly truth. The six characters in question are a troupe of aliens and ghouls, all disguising their true identities for their Social Media profiles.

“The Samsung research revealed that a surprisingly high percentage of photos are ‘self-shots’, so it’s brilliantly obvious to have a screen on the front of the camera as well as the back,” said, Viral Factory founder, Ed Robinson. “These photos are mostly taken to be shared through social media, so our task was to find a relevant idea which spoke to this audience. The ‘Beware The Angles’ meme felt relevant to us, and we thought we could take it a bit further". He added, “Hopefully we demonstrate how even the most grotesque-looking of us can look sexy and cool by using the angles…And offer a couple of tips on how to make the most of the cheats yourself.”

Check out the videos here...


You can also see a video of the phone and its features here...

Rocket Fuel Ad Network Arrives

Today saw the launch of Rocket Fuel, a new hybrid ad network founded by veterans from Yahoo!, DoubleClick, NetGravity, Epiphany and salesforce.com. Unlike existing ad networks, Rocket Fuel bills itself as "the first intelligent ad serving technology platform that combines demographic, lifestyle, purchase intent and social data with its own suite of targeting algorithms, blended analytics and expert analysis to find active customers". The system automatically leverages internal and third-party data using its real-time Progressive Optimisation technique, allowing it to serve a suite of impressions with specific context to each advertiser's individual marketing objectives.

“We saw how important it was to let the data tell you which ad to show, so we let the data tell us what works and what is important. Instead of inflicting on customers thousands of targeting options, we figure out which options are working well and move inventory in that way.” says CEO George John. "Rocket Fuel was founded to disrupt online display advertising with a superior computational approach that blends smart decision making, creativity and science to predict consumer behavior. We understand the last thing the industry needs is just another ad network. It needs a smarter one."

"We believe there is a profound difference between reaching audiences and activating customers," said Richard Frankel, president and co-founder of Rocket Fuel Inc. "For us, it's about marrying many different types of data with advanced technology to create intelligent and dynamic campaigns that reach the people who will buy, blog, tweet or tell their friends about your product or brand. Our goal is to turn passive audiences into active consumers."

Frankel, shows how it works:



Although Rocket Fuel only launched today, it has undergone extensive testing during the last year and already boosts an impressive client list including major brands like Nike, Dell, Microsoft, and American Express. This combined with the capability of reaching 40 million people through 100 million ads per month, are sure to make it an attractive offering to advertisers. So the only question left to ask is do advertisers want another ad network? In my own experience I would say that it all comes down to one simple question; will Rocket Fuel out-perform other networks? If it does it will succeed.

Frankel and John, along with CTO Abhinav Gupta, are ex-Yahoo emplyees.