Tweetup In An Elevator

I was reading through my RSS feeds earlier this morning and I came across this great post by Jeff Pulver.

On Monday afternoon, Jeff unexpectantly found himself part of a 75+ minute tweetup in an elevator, at the New York Times. Jeff was at the offices to attend a discussion on social media and the Haiti Disaster (which incidentally was really good according to Jeff). Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, moderated the discussion and a number of Jeff's friends were there as speakers; including Ann Curry from NBC News and the Today Show, Rob Mackey who is a staff writer The New York Times, Erik Parker who is a journalist that was in Haiti when the earthquake struck, and Jason Cone who is the Communications Director for Doctors Without Borders.

Following the meeting, Jeff was chatting to Ann Curry as they made their way, with 9 others, to the elevator. Without too much thought the 11 passengers boarded the elevator on the 15th floor and awaited the short ride down to the lobby. The doors closed, and their decent commenced. Oddly though, the elevator missed the lobby by about one and half feet below the lobby. What transpired then couldn't have been scripted. Jeff found himself trapped in an elevator with what he describes as an amazing cast of characters. The group included: Ann Curry; Jennifer Preston, Social Media editor of the New York Times; Geo Geller, Jeff's friend who documented the experience; Ann Blinkhorn, an executive recruiter; Phil Thomas DiGiulio, Co-founder of @pegshot; Alex Howard, Associate editor at SearchCompliance.com; Todd McCarty the new Senior Vice President of Human Resources at the New York Times and just a single individual wished to stay anonymous.

The alarm was immediately sounded and building maintenance confirmed they were on the way. What surprised Jeff most was that almost just as quickly, the cameras came out and photos and video were captured. Although signal was bad Jeff was finally able to tweet "Stuck in the elevator with @anncurry @geogeller @holaphil and 5 others in New York Times building." Jeff also commented that the conversations in the elevator were fun and enjoyable, and the experience turned into a pretty amazing and unplanned tweetup and a chance to get to know a bunch of people whom I would never would have otherwise had a chance to spend time with. 75 minutes passed and the doors opened, and everyone went back to their various tasks and chores.

When Jeff woke up yesterday morning he was a little startled to read about his experience in Gawker. Further to this, the story took on and even more surreal feeling when Ann told the story in the opening of the Today Show by sharing the video captured by @holaphil.

If this isn't a clear indication of the level of interconnectivity that we now have as a society, I don't know what is. While people may not know each other in person, may not have a clue what someone else does or even looks like, there is a common thread connecting us. A kind of digital shadow that allows us to all share our experiences and become part of something larger. I think it's safe to say that it is an evolution of the human condition, facilitated by technology.

On Social...

At the end of last year, Giles Rhys Jones spoke at a being digital mashup event. I've unfortunately never had the opportunity to meet Giles but I reckon if this video is anything to go by, there's a serious interesting conversation to be had.

BBC: The Virtual Revolution

This is the introduction to The Virtual Revolution, a new BBC four part series about how the web is changing the world. The show's presenter, Dr. Aleks Krotoski, has already created quite a buzz throughout the Twittersphere with the shows conclusions and comments, and while I wouldn't agree with all of them, I think there's a lot of food for thought. The first episode was on BBC2 on Saturday and there is a repeat this evening. For full details, visit the BBC Virtual Revolution website.

Thanks to Damien for reminding me to blog this :)

Things I Like...

I'm not sure where this came from, or who the original author is, but I absolutely love it!

The Wolfman Facebook App

As the launch of Joe Johnston's remake of The Wolfman, staring Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt, fast approaches, Universal Pictures have just launched a brand new element to their online campaign. The Wolfman Facebook App is a pretty cool game that allows you to choose the side of Humanity or that of the Wolves, and battle to become the most fearsome killer. In the style of a classic AD&D combat game, each battle sees your character grow and develop to become stronger and better equiped. In short..... addictive stuff.

New York Festival's International Advertising Awards

For over fifty years The New York Festival's International Advertising Awards has represented the pinnacle achievement that any advertiser or creative could receive. The awards honour the World's best advertising from over 70 different countries, across all media and platforms: television, cinema, print, outdoor, interactive, design, mixed media, collateral, radio and student advertising. The 2010 deadline for submissions has now passed and the countdown is on to the Oscar's of the advertising world.

There are two things that make the awards stand out from all others. First, the awards draw on the experience of over 250 jury members from 60 countries. Secondly, the awards are judged completely online with each entry assured it receives the proper amount of time and attention, free from outside distractions and unsolicited opinions. The system is specially designed to prevent any scam ads, with the judges encouraged to flag suspected scam ad and write confidential comments supporting their suspicions.

This year the awards have expanded to include the 'Boutique Agency of the Year' award that honours agencies that are not affiliated with a network and have less than 75 employees. A second addition sees the creation of the 'Best New Agency' award to recognise new agencies that have started up in the last 24 months. The new award allows " agencies in business for less than two years to compete and be recognised for their creative achievements, their ability to garner international exposure and the impact their work has on the marketplace".

Details on the 2010 New York Festivals International Advertising Awards for Digital and Interactive can be found here. To get an idea of the calibre of entries that the awards pull in, just take a look at the judging panel!

Digital & Interactive Advertising GrandJury:

• Mark Addy, Digital Creative Director, JWT, Auckland, NZ
• Fernando Barbella, Interactive Creative Director, BBDO, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Ana Caralt, Creative Director, TribalDDB, Barcelona, Spain
• Orlando Cristofalo, Digital Planning & Creative Coordination, GLUE, Argentina
• Christian Daul, Creative Director, Scholz & Volkmer, Wiesbaden, Germany
• Pal Dobloug, Creative Director, Mediafront, Oslo, Norway
• Niklas Fransson, Creative Director, Rebenga, Sweden
• Martin Garrocho, Interactive Creative Director, Grey, Santiago, Chile
• Niklas Fransson, Creative Director, Rebenga, Sweden
• Srdjan Gulic, Chief Creative Officer, Zagreb, Croatia
• Kevin Lee, Executive Creative Director, OgilvyOne, Shanghai, China
• Jungwon Lee, CEO/Strategic Director, PostVisual.com, Seoul, Korea
• Anto Noval, Director/Chief Creative Officer, Hungry & Foolish Creative Products Pvt. Ltd., India
• Edu Pou, Creative Director, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Frédéric (Fredo) Sanz, Executive Creative Director, DoubleYou, Barcelona, Spain
• Doug Schiff, Executive Creative Director, OgilvyOne, Beijing, China
• Gabor Spielmann, Executive Creative Director, Grey, Budapest, Hungary
• Raphael Vasconcellos, Executive Creative Director, AgenciaClick, Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Greg Whitham, Interactive Creative Director, Ogilvy, NZ

Google Xistence

Too busy to Tweet?

Feed up with Facebook?

Just not enough time in the day to record and upload a new video blog?

Or. perhaps all you want to do with the web is play computer games and send emails?


Well fear not, Google Xistence is here to help you out...

Ok, so Google Xistence isn't real, but this video does beg the question... what if it were real? Would you actually know whether it was your friend updating their various Social Media profiles? With the development of the Semantic Web (Web 3.0) and the ever increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence programs, could we one day find ourselves unsure as to whether we were talking to a real person or not?

Probably. At least in my opinion.