Fifty People, One Question

Ask as many people as possible the same question and see what answer you get.

Simple, right?



A nice simple idea, with really inspirational results. I loved this the first time I saw it, and it's just as good every time after!

The film was shot on an Canon HV20 with a 35mm adapter, using Indifocus rails on a Matthews M25 tripod. he lens is a Nikon e series 50mm 1.8 Shure PG81 with a Zoom h4 unit.

'Rage' Premier

Thursday will definitely be remembered as Arthur's Day but there was another pretty special event taking place across Europe on the 24th. Last Thursday saw the world's first multi-venue interactive premier take place for Sally Potter’s new movie ‘Rage’. The film was broadcast from London's BFI Southbank, live via satellite, to a host of cinemas across Europe, including Dundrum here in Ireland. The film screening was then followed by a live questions and answers session with the film’s writer and director, Sally Potter, and the film's cast. Simon Abkarian, who plays Merlin, and Riz Ahmed, who plays Vijay, were both present with Sally Potter, while other cast members including Eddie Izzard, Lily Cole and Jude Law, all of whom were in New York, participated live via Skype.

Although the film was first shown at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, and was nominated for the coveted Golden Berlin Bear award, it also saw another interesting digital first as an episode of ‘Rage’ was then given a general release exclusively on mobile phones. As well as being premièred in the various cinema venues, people were also invited to watch the movie on their computers or mobile phones on the 24th. These audience members were then able to ask Sally Potter and the cast members questions via text message, twitter or live on Skype.

Sally Potter explained "[that she] instigated this method of having an interactive premiere because I wanted to make going to the cinema a more exciting place, I was inspired by my experience of 'the intimacy of blogging'".

The movie follows the story of a schoolboy who uses his mobile phone to shoot interviews with people working at a New York fashion house. He then secretly posts the videos to the internet. However when an accident on the catwalk leads to a murder investigation the videos and the boy are put under the spot light. Interestingly, none of the cast actually met while the film was being shot due to the one-on-one nature of the interviews. The film was produced by Andrew Fierberg and Christopher Sheppard, with Steven Fierberg as director of photography. The film was edited by Daniel Goddard.

To Arthur!

17:59 ticked over and all across the country pints were raised and toasts declared to one of Ireland's most prolific philanthropists. 'To Arthur!'

Changes In The Media Landscape

I have a huge list of things that I want to write about but the simple truth is that there are not enough hours in the day to do all of them. So in going through this extremely long list I realised that at least three of the items fitted together into a nice three-in-one post. So here is a little snap shot of three of the most important changes that I feel have gone on in the media landscape in the last couple of weeks.

Google's Display Ad Exchange

After much speculation and talk following Google's purchase of DoubleClick (two years ago!), it has finally happened - the Google Display Ad Exchange has launched. Coupled with the usual over-exagerated boasts, Google tell us that the system "will change the way advertisers buy ad space". The move represents one of the most open challenges that Google have made against Yahoo! and Microsoft's display ad marketshares. Up until now Google had relied on its Display network to counter both YAhoo! and Microsoft's display offering, both of which were real 'display' networks.

Having said that, the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange is modelled directly on the AdSense and AdWords systems. Neal Mohan, vice president of product management at Google, said "the exchange is a real-time marketplace that will help publishers, ad networks and agencies buy and sell display space. We want to democratise access to display advertising and make it accessible and open, like search advertising. By bringing publishers and advertisers together in an open marketplace in which prices are set in a real-time auction, the Ad Exchange enables display ads and ad space to be allocated much more efficiently. This improves returns for advertisers and enables publishers to get the most value out of their online content."




Facebook's Beacon Is Gone

Folling the $9.5m settlement of a class-action lawsuit launched against Beacon, Facebook has finally confirmed it will completely shut down the advertising service. Although Facebook has been gradually phasing out the system, it has continued to be used by a number of websites up until very recently. The service, which was originally launched in late 2007, suffered from immediate controversy by utilising the browsing habits of its members while they were on other websites.

In December 2007, very shortly after launch, Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, issued a personal apology for what he called "lots of mistakes in the way the system was handled". In reality, the whole system was a complete PR disaster. The web virtually exploded with concerns over Facebook invading the privacy of its users without their prior consent or knowledge. The result was that Facebook introduced more controls and ultimately made the system opt-in for members.

The settlement itself, which is still pending approval, will also pay $9.5m to create a foundation to fund products that promote online privacy, safety and security. Facebook has said that "we look forward to the creation of the foundation and its work to educate Internet users on how best to control their privacy [and] engage in safe social networking practices."


Web Metrics Reinvented

When it comes to digital audience measurement there are only two options: comScore or Omniture. So the news that these two rivals are planning to launch a single, combined digital audience measurement system is absolutely huge. The companies have revealed that they hope to design a platform that will bring more clarity and confidence to the online advertising market. Essentailly, the system will give both websites and advertisers a unified source for measuring how many visitors hit their sites, how often they visit and exactly who the visitors are.

Specific details of system are as of yet unavailable, however industry experts predict that it will most likely combine Omniture analysis tools and comScore's internet user panels. The question remains however of how exactly they will gather their raw data set. In the past, the two companies have almost always shown different sets of data due to the fact that they have always set out to achieve relatively different goals. This is the main area that it is hoped will be addressed, and that the current disparity between the companies will be resolved.

Interestingly, last week also saw Omniture in the news as it was taken over by Adobe for $1.8 billion (£1bn). Adobe has said that the deal will ultimately help digital marketers increase their ROI through a more accurate measurement system. As any Digital Marketer will tell you, flash is fantastic for (pardon the pun) flashy "nova-style" microsites (short lived, hyped up and ultimately forgettable), but an absolute nightmare for longterm projects due to the inability of search engines to truely index the flash contents. A recent takeover may spell the end for this, however.

TED: Jonathan Zittrain

This is Jonathan Zittrain's TED Talk from TED Global 2009. Here Jonathan discusses the notion that the world feels like it's becoming less friendly. As a Social Theorist, Jonathan thinks the opposite is true. He believes that "the Internet is made up of millions of disinterested acts of kindness, curiosity and trust".

I for one agree. I believe the internet's greatest strength is that people are willing to help other people for no profit or gain whatsoever. People go out of their way to share their own knowledge and expertise just because they now have the tools to do it. The internet is the great facilitator of 'helping'.