El Gaffney

Rolling on MIT’s Floor Laughing

Not yet. But yes, I’m at ROFLcon and from the looks of it so far besides for David Weinberger (author of Everything is Miscellaneous and co-author of Cluetrain Manifesto) and some Rocketboom peeps, I’m looking like the chaperon.

And as “cool” as W+K may be in the ad world, there’s very little street/campus cred gained with this “hostname”:

In fact lots of the Harvard students have crossed out their username (which had been their parent-given names) and put their screen names in their hostname space (which had been blank because they go to school). Dope…I guess.

Mad amounts of blogging and twittering going on. (Yeah, I said “mad”. I haven’t felt this old since Georgetown’s Homecoming two years ago.) That feeling is compounded by the fact that I refuse to put this crap in my system:

It is a pretty funny thing to give to people as they register though (especially for those who’ve seen Idiocracy). It’s starting up in a half-hour over here on in MIT’s Sala de Puerto Rico…and that’s a place El Gaffney can get down with.

Tags: conferences, roflcon, web2.0

Inbox of Immaturity

Immaturity is replaced by unproductivity. (And made up words.) I’m too busy talking about how awesome Facebook Chat is to find silly videos. Maybe it’s just me but as much as it’s been speculated and suggested, I didn’t see this coming. We talk a lot about “surprising and delighting” consumers/users/people in the ad world. Facebook just did so.

Tags: facebook, ioi, web2.0

Do Day: Live with Aki

Do Day is back again with a profile of a super-doer. He’s a dude I’ve talked about before (and thanked) as the founder of Fallon’s planning blog (he is AKI SYSTEMS 2600), a web-maven (who put me onto netvibes and many a YouTube video), a mentor and friend in MN (and still). So of course I was planning on interviewing him at some point in the future but when I realized it was already Wednesday (that 3-day weekend fooled me)—and another week was in danger of passing without featuring someone who has personally inspired me to stop talking about it and be about it—I hollered at Aki. And unsurprisingly, I found him doing something new.

I caught him on his Yahoo! Live Channel (which I encourage you to check out), and I got him chatting for 40 minutes (as you can see by the time-stamps below). Unfortunately there’s no way record a video conversation, so we kicked it old school and IMed with our live images up on screen. As you’ll see, he didn’t even need my “questions” (I’m still learning how to interview); rather, he just riffed some great stuff off the dome. And I’ve got it here for you to feast on…

What’s your philosophy when it comes to doing?
[ 4:30] akispicer I’ll quote yoda: “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
[ 4:30] akispicer Can’t think this stuff to paralysis.
[ 4:31] akispicer Fast to beta…stick and move. And honestly, I dunno if the agency/client pace can afford that kind of speed.

What’s on the web have you been interested in lately?
[ 4:32] akispicer Lately? It can shift every week, I have a short attention span with web toys.
[ 4:32] akispicer This for sure. (POST INTERVIEW INSERT: HE’S TALKING ABOUT YAHOO! LIVE.)
[ 4:32] akispicer I’ve noted that we spent some thousands on a vid conference room here…
[ 4:33] akispicer Noone knows how to turn the damn room on.
[ 4:33] akispicer And suddenly all that is felled by democratic technologies like this.
[ 4:33] akispicer No software…no learning curve…no equipment…no manual.
[ 4:34] akispicer Just click and things work right out of the box.
[ 4:36] akispicer Other than this tech…Slideshare…
[ 4:36] akispicer I like how Slideshare is pooling thinking…
[ 4:37] akispicer I am using Slideshare like a Google…looking up topics and seeing how other people are thinking and
[ 4:37] akispicer responding to the same topic.

What have you been doing outside of Fallon?
[ 4:37] akispicer Outside Fallon…Planning For Good.
[ 4:37] akispicer 1500 of the brightest minds in advertising want to collaborate with good causes and make a difference.
[ 4:38] akispicer Ed Cotton has been taking the lead…others of us chip in
[ 4:38] akispicer I am trying to harness the same model for local solutions.
[ 4:39] akispicer We’ve been learning alot about actually DOING what we push in all our decks to clients.

How do you not get overwhelmed by all the new online technologies (“toys”)?
[ 4:45] akispicer It can take a long minute to check emails, check RSS feeds, click on “time waster” links I get IM’d…

How do you make that minute matter (everything you put into del.icio.us, and on the blog, and that you read)?
[ 4:46] akispicer I definitely notice my attention span shortening…but I try to provide value to clients and others thru
[ 4:46] akispicer client blog posting, trends presentations, and day-to-day strategy decks
[ 4:47] akispicer The time suck pays back when you have to deliver an answer to a complex problem and you have all the refs
[ 4:47] akispicer ready.
[ 4:47] akispicer More of my time is being spent with FILING AND LIBRARY RECALL SYSTEMS
[ 4:47] akispicer tagging, using consistent names and redistributing info to parties that could use it
[ 4:48] akispicer Facebook and blogs serve as a broadcast system so that I don’t have to find the people in my networks, I just
[ 4:48] akispicer have to order and organize for their digestion. Its all about connecting the dots for others.
[ 4:49] akispicer My main issue with newspapers, magazines and TV is that I cannot tag and file and forward insightful info.

How does all this impact your role as a planner (POST INTERVIEW INSERT: Planning Director)?
[ 4:50] akispicer I see my role here and with clients as a reporter, or guide.
[ 4:51] akispicer I like immersing myself into these nets and coming back to “report”
[ 4:51] akispicer Clients and agencies are intimidated by these technologies…and often, they just need a Virgil to guide them
[ 4:52] akispicer I like the process of experimentation and synthesis – simplifying it into language that is universal, really.

So everyone gets up to speed and things don’t get lost in translation (like from acct to creative or marketing to operations)?
[ 4:57] akispicer Well, I think social computing holds the potential to get back to communicating, actually.
[ 4:57] akispicer Take today with Y! Live…the designer hit me up on my channel and we chatted.
[ 4:58] akispicer He answered my questions, he asked me a few.
[ 4:58] akispicer When is the last time the head of a major brand “communicated” directly with a customer/user/prospect/person?
[ 4:59] akispicer Social computing FORCES brands and creators to get out here and talk. It is forcing politicians to do the same
[ 5:00] akispicer It is forcing agencies to learn a new approach…
[ 5:00] akispicer Yeah, I think you and I and many others are digital natives so it is not so awkward to imagine getting on our
[ 5:01] akispicer websites and blogs and talking back. Or risking questions from open web.

Risking?
[ 5:02] akispicer We are a bit more improvisational and free form…that is considered a “risk” by most clientele and brands and
[ 5:02] akispicer politicians.
[ 5:03] akispicer Most brands could never do what Y! Live just did, which is open up the windows and let me and you peek behind
[ 5:03] akispicer the curtain and just hold a one-to-one conversation.
[ 5:03] akispicer And that simple tactic makes me a believer and evangelist…

What other brands are bringing people in like this?
[ 5:05] akispicer Much of the innovation is happening out here, amongst people, not necessarily among the big brands.
[ 5:06] akispicer I liked Virgin America’s recent appeal to the masses to get the DOT to greenlight VA to fly.

And what about Brainfood? That seems like an example of you putting it (all) out there for people (including the competition) to see.
[ 5:10] akispicer I have a fundamental issue with hiding information.
[ 5:11] akispicer We all do so much research and info gathering…only to present to 6 people and store/hide the insights away.
[ 5:11] akispicer Brainfood is really about making what we do open and present before the whole agency.
[ 5:12] akispicer Its also about getting creativity and ideas out of the ghetto of “creative departments”.
[ 5:12] akispicer Everyone at the agency contributes. Everyone is important. Let’s share ideas together. And eat free lunch, too
[ 5:13] akispicer I have found that agencies are packed with pockets of innovators in the interactive basements, in the
[ 5:13] akispicer coordinator desks, in the production offices.
[ 5:14] akispicer And these pockets of energy and passion and insight often go untapped
[ 5:15] akispicer So I view my role as trying to source and direct these pockets to make sparks happen.

Hopefully you all will agree, this seemed like a perfect way to end. Thanks Aki. See you soon…without any travel!

Tags: action, agency, fallon, web2.0

Technology Report from a Not-So-Early Adopter

Lately I’ve been, as the kids say, “getting digi with it.” Actually, we never say that because Will Smith isn’t cool…unless of course it’s Fresh Prince reruns. No not those, the older ones when Vivian Banks is played by Janet Hubert-Whitten. You probably like the U.S. version of The Office better. Oh man, now I’m mixing sarcastic rants and I’m pretty sure stealing from an Onion article too. Anyway, as I was saying, I’ve been trying out (or found) a few different sites/platforms/whatever-the-nerds-call-them over the past week and wanted to give a quick update.

1. Tumblr: I’m leading with this because it’s the one about which I’m most enthusiastic…and late too the game as well! I’ve been “testing it out” for about a week now here. (Yes, I’m still El Gaffney.) And I have to say I’ve found to be ridiculously easy, fast, and fun to contribute. It allows you to post from a variety of places—from the site, a browser tab, a desktop widget, and most importantly, from your phone or BlackBerry. I love the mobility of this format for posting pictures with captions. Plus, it allows you to bring in up to five feeds from outside blogs, twitter, del.icio.us, Digg, VOX, or YouTube. While it doesn’t beg for a long post like a blog (see right in front of you), it is limited in the conversational nature of Web 2.0. You can create groups and follow friends, but people cannot comment what has been tumbled. Regardless, I recommend this platform to anyone whom finds blogging appealing but daunting.

2. Seeqpod: I’ve been telling people about the song “Summertime in the LBC” by The Dove Shack for years now. (Basically whenever I’m talking about camp or early rap jams like Regulate.) I’ve even spent some time looking for it on old mix CD’s (I’m certain I have it so refuse to buy it.) Not anymore, thanks to Seeqpod—a site that lets users search and find audio and video from across the Web. And, what I find really cool is how easily you can share what you find…

3. Tooble: Learned about this one from the incredible Brand Flakes for Breakfast (as well as Seesmic—a video conversation site, which I still need more time to try out but they believe is gonna be huge). Basically Tooble is a technology you download that let’s you import YouTube videos into your iTunes and then onto your video iPod. As someone who doesn’t have a video iPod, I was more interested in getting YouTube videos onto my hard-drive so I could then upload them into powerpoint. See how I had to hyperlink everything in my Georgetown Marketing Association presentation? Now I don’t have to. I can import these videos into my pres and have them play without getting online. My only gripe is that the quality suffers a bit, which could be an issue since many YouTube videos are already a bit blurry. Yet, I can think of a handful of times I really could have used this application. So go for it, presenters!

What do you think? I mean, I’m no Tom Green, but I may need to get myself a new Web 2.0 logo pretty soon. And thanks to Matthew for the inspiration—a post on Blackberry apps. Got any other suggestions of online tech to check?

—
P.S. Is anyone on Pownce anymore? It was supposed be a new great way to share files, links, messages, etc. with people (I think mostly files—music and pdf’ed articles, for example). But if my 15 friends are any indication, this place is a ghost-town.

Tags: reviews, web2.0, youtube

What Are You Doing?

Here’s a Monday Morning Mashup! (You all know how I love that alliteration). So I just got to uploading some recent pictures into iPhoto, including one of a ridiculous truck-limo that was trying to park on the west side of Union Square the other night. Additionally, last week I was surprised to see the VMA’s back in my twitter feed (they’d stopped since the show in September) and the tweets from Lil Weezy and Soulja Boy made my day (or hour at least) so I took a screen grab. Now with these two images together, I’d like to imagine we were all there chillin’ in that monster limo freestyling about the Internet.

Tags: celebrities, web2.0