January 2012
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April 2011
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WatchDraftfcb Chicago’s Mobile Platform Manager, Chris Cicmanec (@ccicmanec), sat down with @mjulius4 and discussed his SXSW experience.
Were you there too? Let us know what you think! Tweet at @dfcbfirestarter or comment on this post at fire-starters.tumblr.com
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Chromaroma: Lighting up the London Tubes With Data...
Chromaroma Visualisations from Mudlark on Vimeo.
Chromaroma does a fantastic job of completing the entire loop of making the regular, boring behavior of taking the subway every day fun.
First, the game element is easy to get into and you immediately see your own data using the same fare card you always use. Then, they made an excellent choice of either playing with OR against your friends.
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The Singularity Revisited: A Post-SXSW Outlook on...
As you may recall, the Singularity Theory was a topic at SXSW I was very interested in hearing others discuss. The theory refers to a point in time in our near future where technological progress will become so rapid (exponential) that it makes the future after this point qualitatively different and harder to predict. Furthermore, Ray Kurzweil adds...
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SXSW: Exhausting, In the Very Best Way
Had the chance to sit down with our Creative Director Laura Johnston (@zackarooned) and capture her thoughts on her first SXSW experience [ML]:
What was your SXSW experience?
SXSW was exhausting—there was so much stimulation of ideas, people, parties, things to do, things to learn…literally felt physically and mentally drained in the very best way at the end of each day. It’s taking in a lot...
March 2011
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MapBag: A Proprioceptive Augmentation Device →
An amazing little device to help guide users to new routes and areas around them via directional vibration, essentially creating a compass on the body
Why Does Mobile Video Work? Ask Hitchcock
Here at iMedia Summit, we’re watching demo videos from Rhythm New Media, and it hits me. The demo videos are being shown onscreen inside stills of phones as the speaker (sorry, I’m terrible at names), and the aesthetic is really restrictive.
Wait a sec. Restricted view forcing the viewer to pay closer attention is what we’ve known for years as a convention of form in suspense...
How Mobile Works for the Grammy's
The question is: How do we get people to care more about the Grammy’s?
One major issue is that the Grammy’s don’t have a season, they only have a single event that celebrates the year of music.
So how do they get people to tune into the event instead of the YouTube performance bootlegs?
The recording academy is actually a fairly conservative and traditional organization.
The...
Pret-a-Porter Data →
Ending SXSW is a great time to introduce new ways of looking at data and design. Kevin Hartman was frequently saying (and writing - see earlier post) that this SXSW was about confirming the relationship between designers and data — and how valuable they are to understanding the massive amount of information flowing through digital now.
Data Catwalk is a curated information art Facebook...
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Julia Allison: A Case Study in Cyberbullying
Julia Allison is personally and professionally a handful. And that’s not me speaking. It’s the second line of her bio.
She’s smart, eloquent, pretty, and an internationally syndicated social media columnist working major news outlets such as:
- CNN - MSNBC - VH1
- Fox - E! - CBS
- NBC - CW -...
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The Data View on chevy, SXSW →
Anyone can subjectively reflect on their time at sxsw. But of course our own Kevin Hartman, CI director for Draftfcb, decided to crunch all the panel descriptions into a SXSW word cloud.
The biggest surprise is the correlation between chevy and data, but you can see how that works after you click the link….
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How to make SXSW a better conference next year,... →
Our own Ross McLean talks about what he’s seeing in this year’s super-sized SXSW, and his proposal for using technology and people to drive a better schedule of quality panels next year. Fantastic thinking and well worth a look
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SXSW: Finding Interesting User Generated Content
Got an allstar panel here with people from Dachis Group, Mashable, Facebook, AT&T Labs, and the former Reddit Scientist.
What do you keep track of?
Facebook says that they think in terms of the graph, and all their successes and failures end of coming from how the social graph (edge ranks) of interactions are forming, and adapting the interface to surface the information that people are...
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Go Do Good: DailyFeats Tries to 'Fix the World'...
While meandering through the SXSW tradeshow I ran across a very interesting company: DailyFeats.
DailyFeats has lofty goals. It’s a platform where you, and your social network, share and earn rewards for positive actions (i.e. your feats).
The organization strives to connect their members with:
- Actions that help you live a better and more positively.
- Support from other...
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SXSW: Version 52 was Angry Birds
Talking with Draftfcb Creative Director Stephanie Franke, she had a couple of great insights after seeing the design lead of Angry Birds give a talk:
Angry birds has had over 100 million downloads ranging between free and $3. How’d they get there?
Constant iteration to start: Angry Birds was actually the 52nd game they created.
Continue the iteration: Whether you’re on the web or in...
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Geolocation
“is a digital man in a sandwich board who follows you around.” - Tony Sharpe (@toneesharpe)
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SXSW: Beyond Wordclouds - Using APIs to Identify...
Chris Busse is going through 100,000 coffee tweets over the first 48 hours of SXSW.
He looked at the tool space, was frustrated by the offerings, and decided to begin creating his own tools. Here are the notes and memorable moments from the talk:
So what’s an API? If you use Twitter, and you use it on any other platform, like your phone, then you’re using the Twitter API to get that...
SXSW: Playing Together, Apart, For Success
Had the pleasure of attending yesterday’s panel on parody Twitter accounts including @fakeapstlyebook, @bpglobalpr and @mayoremanuel.
They found that being able to write replies was just as — if not more — important to growing fans than the declarative jokes they posted.
What struck me while watching were the similarities in ad-hoc writing team both AP and BP created to...
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Influence: How Do You Define It?
In an industry where every day we try to inspire groups to action, influence is the Holy Grail, but how do we best define it? Is there one definition that fits all circumstances? Or is it more of a case-by-case basis? How do you measure it? A panel led by Saul Colt (of freshbooks) attempted to demystify and answer these questions and more to paint a better, more complete definition for...
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How Print is the Future of Interactive Design
Mike Kruzenski, Interaction Designer for Microsoft Mobile, presentation contained with theory and examples of how print design aesthetics can be applied to interaction/digital design.
The 6.5 take away - flat is ok. Not all interfaces need 3d/dimensional feeling or a physical analog. Users are more sophisticated than many designers give credit.
Our concept of a desktop stems from Vannevar Bush...
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The Hood Internet - "Invented You Now" (Tre Songz...
From Jam of the Day to Jam of THE DAY! As you may be aware by now, The Hood Internet are gonna light this FireStarter (presented by Draftfcb & Rackspace) candle later on at Molotov Lounge- get your rootin’ tootin’ in advance of the party by mashing the play button on The Hood’s brand newest jam, ”Invented You Now” (Tre Songz vs. Cut Copy). See y’all at the...
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Bucky's Animal Spirit
Check out Bucky’s Animal Spirit at FireStarter, Sunday March 13th from 4-7pm at Molotov Lounge in Austin. RSVP here.
Bucky’s Animal Spirit is a public intervention disguised as an ATM Machine installed surreptitiously in a downtown office building… next to an actual ATM.
I installed this video game in a Troy, NY downtown office building on May 1st 2009 hoping people would...
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SXSW: What is She Doing With That Sheep?
It’s all about the power of innuendo.
Yesterday’s memorable SXSW talk, the one that will be ringing in my mind for some time was “The New Frontier of Social Gaming,” delivered by Brian Reynolds from Zynga. What he’s working in is fascinating: the science of people having fun together on the internet.
Concepts like people playing together at different points in...
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Meet Sam Yagan and OKCupid
Meet Sam at FireStarter, Sunday March 13th from 4-7pm at the Molotov Lounge in Austin. RSVP here.
Sam Yagan
Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer
Sam has spent six years as an entrepreneur, first as Co-founder and CEO of TheSpark.com, Inc., maker of SparkNotes, the world’s leading brand of educational study aids. More recently, he has served as President of MetaMachine, Inc., developer and...
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Zaarly...It's Like GrubHub, but for EVERYTHING (!)
Zaarly is a proximity based, real-time buyer powered market. People can upload and browse offers for just about everything… even for events that don’t have tickets! The possibilities are seemingly endless.
The company is planning to launch their product during SXSW this year, and I for one am very excited. If you want to get in on the ground floor go to zaarly.com and enter your...
Hit or Quit SXSWi App →
While it needs a design facelift, this site is on to something with real-time reviews of current sxsw sessions. The map view is particularly interesting.
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Why it's Smart To Compete Out Of Your League
This week we hear from Draftfcb New York’s, Carly Kouba. Carly is leading up the Institute of Decision Making in New York and she gives us an overview of why brands like KFC and DiGiorno take on competitors that are way out of their league.
Many thanks go out to John Kenny for continuing this fantastic series of videos on how to market to all of us crazy people.
WatchInterview with #SXSW n00b, @Draftfcb’s Director of Digital Media - @EmilyCBrennan
SXSW Mobile Tools Part 2
Just came across a very smart way to connect with others in Austin - an application using SMS to send and receive contact info called Contxts:
http://contxts.com/sxsw
Scroll to the bottom of the page for the special name tag version for sxsw that I absolutely love. It’s done as a mobile web app and perfect for roaming the halls of sxsw. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think!
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The Hood Internet: "Superbowl Jesus" (Kanye West x...
Time for another jam, friends! They’ll be igniting our party in Austin, Texas for SXSW Interactive 2011, but it’s evident as heck on their 2008 mixtape The Hood Internet vs. Chicago that The Hood are proudly based in the Windy City.
Press play below to hear 1/24th of that mixtape, “Superbowl Jesus” featuring Chicago’s own Kanye West, Wilco, and 1985 Bears mixing...
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HackerSwitch
A hacker collaborative in the Netherlands moved into new space, and wanted a unique way to announce to members when the space is open. Being hackers, they created a simple wall switch that, when flipped on, closes the circuit to an ethernet port (yellow). A controller then checks the status of the port, and if the circuit is closed it sends an “Open” message to twitter. Once the...
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The Singularity Theory: Where People and...
Technological innovation is happening at an astonishing rate and shows no signs of slowing down. So what happens when artificial intelligence exceeds that of its architects?
Ray Kurzweil believes we will have to merge with technology in order to keep up. He calls this intersection where people and technology meet “Singularity” and he thinks it’s coming soon. Some people think...
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SXSWi Mobile Tools Roundup
While my previous post on web-based SXSWi planning tools are great for the lead-up, what becomes critical when you’re actually in Austin is the ability to use your phone to keep tabs on not only where you’re supposed to go, but your session backups and even where your friends are as well.
I came across 4 tools - 2 native apps and 2 mobile web apps. Which type you prefer is up to you,...
Rdio SXSW Playlist
Get your jams on with this SXSW playlist curated by Rdio.
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Thoughts from a SXSW Newbie: Tony Sharpe
Draftfcb’s Tony Sharpe, SVP Group Creative Director shares his hopes for a collaborative SXSW experience.
Expectations for SXSW
I think there will be a lot of opportunities for collaboration between different folks that will help us further understand the art of branding within the digital space. It’s getting better, but there’s still a bit of a disconnect and I think we’ve got to continue...
