Last Friday, Current TV did something unique with the first debate between John McCain and Barack Obama.
They teamed up with Twitter to put real-time Tweets over live broadcasts of the debate.
My friend Ellyn Angelotti, Interactivity Editor and faculty member at The Poynter Institute, told me about it last week. I missed the first one, but I’m going to tune in this Thursday when they do the same thing for the Palin/Biden debate!
Current breaks ground when it comes to multimedia journalism.
Keep an eye on their progress, because they are always experimenting with innovative ways to incorporate social media tools into tired methods of engagement.
Every now and then, I (we) will be posting commercials and media that we think fits us as a company or what we like outside our industry.
This Dyson commercial is one I like. Simple idea that solves a solution, complex thinking to make it happen. It’s innovative, it’s smart design and they present the solution by expressing the technology behind it in a small package.
This was an experiment for me to find visuals that already exist that have relevance to S16 and Spark.
What I didn’t know at the time is that the music is relevant to what we are doing and why we are called Spiral16. I didn’t make the connection until I was digging deeper into the music and Fibonacci numbers.
The music (just 25 seconds of it) is Tool’s song Lateralus. Here is a little more from Wikipedia:
The band puts an emphasis on the sound of their songs and attempts to reduce the effect lyrics can have on the perception of songs by not releasing song lyrics with any album. Lyrical arrangements are often given special attention, such as in “Lateralus”. The number of syllables per line in the lyrics to “Lateralus” correspond to an arrangement of the Fibonacci numbers and in “Jambi” the metrical foot iamb is used.
So, it’s not going to show up on Unexplained Mysteries or Believe It Or Not it’s one of those strange things that helped me find a hidden connection.
My dress for the Mid-America Emmy Awards is coming to life.
The creative process is fascinating. I have a creative side, but when I see artists work in their best medium, I’m amazed.
My friend Jillian is a fashion designer in Kansas City. She creates custom garments from organic fabric that she dyes herself.
She is designing me a dress for the Emmy Awards this Saturday, Oct. 4 in St. Louis - I’m nominated for a TV news Emmy for a Web site I produced while employed at WDAF-TV.
This is why S16 is a special company: Despite that my nomination is from my work at my previous job, they are sending me to the ceremony anyway. Recognition of achievements independent of business interests helps foster creative development.
Sunday I tried on the bodice, skirt and lining. Tuesday I’ll be back for another fitting after she puts all the layers of tulle into the skirt. This is my first black-tie event and I don’t want to look stuffy, so we’re finding the boundary between formal and fresh. Simple, clean bodice… avant-garde, voluminous skirt.
It’s amazing that what started as pencil on paper has made me feel like a goddess.
Did I mention Jillian is getting married this Saturday? Sheesh!
This is a sketch that was done while on a conference call of what the Spark page of the web site will look like eventually.
The concept is built out and the video/audio is done (shame it’s me doing the voice over). Editor’s note: Stuart’s accent makes us sound fancy and smart. That’s why he’s doing the VO.
I watched this movie a while ago and loved the technology and creative mix that made Pixar possible. It’s a must see for anyone that wants to work at Spiral16 or anywhere for that matter.
We have interesting situations and issues to deal with because Spark is agnostic of industry and vertical. We can work with any company at any level.
This is a marketing challenge and keeping it simple and being open about what we do and how it benefits clients and potential clients is going to be key.
This little “legal pad” diagram is just a quick POV of how we are going to share what we do and what we are going to do in the near future.
Again, we will be posting ideas and possible directions on how we market and express the value of what we are doing.
When you have a platform that doesn’t care about the data source (open or closed) besides the value of the data, you have an interesting advertising and marketing situation. We will be working on and sharing draft concepts here on this blog as we evolve. It will be an interesting process that should be worth following.
This is another sketch on the plane heading back from KC to Seattle.
It’s a branding template of how we might structure ads as we produce them. Simple, clean and focused on a singular POV of what Spark (our software platform) is currently doing for clients.
This is a sketch I did on a AZ trip to show levels of data and how they connect once they are stacked.
The idea is that you can find connections in independent layers once the data is stacked. Each layer can be collected or private, giving new views of how the data connects.
Get real-time Tweets on the election at www.election.twitter.com
Twitter just unveiled a 2008 election-themed page. The page aggregates Tweets on all things election, separates them into categories and updates the entire thing live. It’s like monitter, but more comprehensive.
The popular topics so far today? Tonight’s debate, Katie Couric’s Palin interview and CNN (the only major news outlet to use Twitter to interact with viewers - not spew information. Smarties).
I respect that Twitter is still finding its way, but they need more of these pages. Compare these to Facebook groups, but with real-time audience reaction on your screen.Media outlets, movies, sports teams, corporations, celebrities… they could all sponsor their own pages. Fans can get the latest news and decision makers can see immediate results.
Duh.
Creating group pages on Twitter would obviously increase the functionality of what is (now) a simple conversational tool. Not only does usability improve, but the potential to monetize an ad-free site skyrockets.
Keep an eye on this. It could be social media gold.
Our blog won't bore you. It's not something we have to make us look better than our competitors. It's about sharing who we are as a company... and behind every great company, there are stories to tell.
We know it's the talented people who make up Spiral 16 that make our company special.
So this is where you'll read about us, our product and some of the insane things we do that help us achieve excellence by the end of the work day.
