by Michael J. Evans on June 26, 2009
in Technology
I read the book Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe a few months ago, and I heartily recommend it. The full title of the book is Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business. Howe is a contributing editor at Wired magazine, and he gave some great examples of companies posting projects or problems on the Internet, with a reasonable monetary award being paid to the person who comes up with the best solution. Thousands of people from all over the world enter some of these competitions. Large corporations have started using Crowdsourcing to find solutions that formerly eluded them altogether, or which would have cost them much more than the “award” ultimately paid to the winner of the Crowdsourcing contest.
I have just taken the Crowdsourcing plunge. I mentioned in a previous post that I’m working with others to create a blatantly pro-consumer news site: ConsumerNews.com. About 36 hours ago I posted a request for a logo on crowdSpring.com, a popular Crowdsourcing site that has lots of creative people such as web designers and graphics pros. The results so far have been impressive. The site lets me rate the submissions and provide comments or suggestions to the creative folks. It also lets members of the public vote on which design they like the best. At the end of a 4-7 day period (you pick the number of days), you choose the design you like best. It’s not unusual for a project to receive more than 80 proposed designs.
If you have the time, head over to crowdSPRING.com and vote on which logo you like best for ConsumerNews.com. You may even decide you would like to try a little Crowdsourcing with your next project.
Tagged as:
ConsumerNews.com,
Crowdsourcing,
crowdSPRING.com
In June of 2008 I attended AlwaysOn’s OnHollywood conference, primarily for the part of the program dealing with online journalism. In one panel discussion, the moderator asked several CEOs of online news services whether “new media”, including bloggers and the 24-hour news cycle, had caused a deterioration in journalistic ethics. The moderator hypothesized that, in the old days, the big, respected newspaper in each city was expected to communicate the objective truth in its news pages, even if it might offend large advertisers or large numbers of subscribers. One panelist called BS on that premise, saying there has never been such a thing as objective journalism. Even if reporters didn’t allow financial considerations to impact their reporting, said the panelist, the stories that were assigned to the journalists and the news agenda of the paper was impacted by financial considerations. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Consumer advocacy,
consumers,
Online news
Mediapost reports that Google will launch AdSense for mobile on Wednesday. Mobile content developers will be able to insert a small snippet of code into their pages; this will tell Google where to display an ad. The ad targeting is contextual, similar to targeting that exists for AdSense partners.
A Google spokesperson said Google is also experimenting on ways to allow advertisers to bid for ad placement on specific applications. Anybody want to buy an ad when an iPhone user Googles the location of the local jail?
Tagged as:
Google,
Mobile AdWords
A recent report from The Nielsen Company contained some interesting statistics. It found that viewers of online video increased 12.8% in May vs. last year. Over the same time, total video streams watched increased by 34.8% and time spent per viewer increased by 48.9%. This shows there are more users, watching more videos, more often. The 20-page Nielsen report on The Global Online Media Landscape is available free, online.
The Pew Internet Home Broadband Adoption report found that 63% of adult Americans now have access to broadband , compared to 55% in May, 2008. Together the two studies suggest that lawyers would be well-advised to incorporate online video into their marketing strategy.
I have found that online video can be a very effective way to communicate with potential clients. Lawyers who use online video to communicate with clients can actually give the potential client a better “feel” for the lawyer, making the potential client more comfortable contacting the lawyer (provided that the lawyer communicates well). Additionally, because viewers have come to expect funny and/or outrageous videos online, it may be possible to create a video that makes your point more vividly in an online video than in a television or print ad. For example, we posted a satirical video which made a strong statement about Yamaha’s failure to adequately deal with the safety problems of the Yamaha Rhino. The video resulted in many views, plus favorable commentary in an article published on News.com.au.
Our thanks to Mediapost’s Video Insider for pointing us toward the Nielsen and Pew studies.
Tagged as:
Online Legal Marketing,
Online Video
Bloomberg is reporting that Maatrixx, the manufacturer of Zicam nasal spray and swabs, didn’t give the FDA 800 complaints it received about side-effects of the recalled products. The products were recalled June 16 after the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers that the treatments may cause a loss of smell.
Tagged as:
Zicam
Online Media Daily reports that Texas lawmakers passed a bill intended to crack down on cyber-bullying. The new “online harassment” statute makes it a felony to create phony profiles on social networking sites with the intent to “harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten” others. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature. The Texas statute, if signed by the governor, will surely be challenged on First Amendment grounds. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
cyber-bullying,
social networking
