Digital Lab Live’s 2013 SXSW Coverage

The Official White House Tumblr: The White House, Tumbling Things

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:55:40 -0400

The Official White House Tumblr: The White House, Tumbling Things:

Nice content strategy prez. Whoever made that infographic deserves a raise.

We see some great things here at the White House every day, and sharing that stuff with you is one of the best parts of our jobs. That’s why we’re launching a Tumblr. We’ll post things like the best quotes from President Obama, or video of young scientists visiting the White House for the science…

Video

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:39:26 -0400

HAH HA HA laughingsquid: Supercut of the Best Fake Websites...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 11:41:44 -0400

HAH HA HA

laughingsquid:

Supercut of the Best Fake Websites Used on TV Shows

Oh, How Pinteresting!: Introducing Pinterest Web Analytics

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:28:40 -0400

Oh, How Pinteresting!: Introducing Pinterest Web Analytics:

pinterblog:

Bloggers, businesses, and organizations often ask us, “what are people pinning from my websites?” These website owners help create the content on Pinterest and we wanted to help them understand which pieces of content people find most interesting. Today, we’re pleased to announce Pinterest…

Are Telenovelas missing out on using hashtags to create conversation?

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:00:05 -0400

By Sergio Leiva

At one of the most interesting talks I had the pleasure to attend last week at SXSW, How Twitter has changed the way we watch TV, most of what was being used as examples came from the american TV market. However, one of things that resonated the most with me and that left me thinking about how we are approaching our digital strategies in Latin America is the fact that, according to the speaker, sports, reality TV, dramas and large one-time events are the biggest drivers of social interaction on Twitter.
If you stop to think about these four genres for a moment, you might realize that telenovelas are a mix of almost all of them (leaving only sports out), and being especially heavy on the drama and the one-time nature of its serial content.

At the talk, we were shown examples like The Walking dead or the much talked about House of Cards. However, I couldn’t stop thinking about how Telenovelas might just be missing out on something huge by not including hashtags or other ways to create conversation around their content.
Those of us who’ve had the pleasure of growing up with telenovelas, know that every episode (just as it happens with Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead) is a mix of drama and “can’t-wait-to-see-what-happens-next” kind of content.

What would happen if we were not only creating hashtags for our telenovelas, but also letting our audiences decide what will happen to the villain at the end of the story? (In any case, we all know the evil step-mother will either end up dead, reformed or in the loony-bin).
What if we were to create twitter handles for each of the main characters and have them give us clues as to what will happen to them or simply to enable conversation with the audience?
Telenovelas seem to me like the perfect conversation sparker that no one wants to admit to watching but that could be a goldmine in terms of interaction over different social platforms like Twitter.

Panorama panel for Google Glass.

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:13:05 -0400

Panorama panel for Google Glass.

Sx6s

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:11:18 -0400

Experience all that SXSW 2013 in 6 second Vines at http://sx6s.vineviewer.co/

Live gaming Tournaments were done everyday to highlight product...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:40:29 -0400

Live gaming Tournaments were done everyday to highlight product launches.

Hungry hungry hippo kinect

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:32:46 -0400

Hungry hungry hippo kinect

Ouya Keynote - Kind of disruptive

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:55:00 -0400

Julie Uhrman, founder and CEO of Ouya sat down with The Verge Editor-in-Chief Joshua Topolsky to discuss the company’s enormously successful Kickstarter campaign (raising $8.5M) and their vision to disrupt the video game industry, with crazy affordable prices and an Android-based OS that lowers the barriers for development.

Ouya promises to make gaming in the living room as accessible as smartphones have made it everywhere else. Ouya isn’t just a console, it’s a platform that is based on the Android OS, which means it’s much easier for independent developers to make games for than Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo consoles. Less barriers for development mean more titles for casual to hardcore gamers, at cheaper price points.

By expanding types of games beyond hardcore blockbuster titles like Modern Warfare 3 at a $60 a pop, Ouya hopes to bring casual gaming back to the living room for gamers of all skill levels. This was a point that Uhrman stressed most throughout the discussion. Casual, light hearted games, like Angry Birds, should not be relegated to tiny screens. We should bring it back to the days where we all played Tetris in the living room together.

Ouya isn’t trying to dethrone the 3 major consoles, yet. They position themselves as an additive device with games that major consoles won’t have, but you’ll still need the majors for the blockbuster titles that require more powerful hardware.

The device will be distributed to Kickstarter backers in May and be in big box stores this summer for $99.

That said, with that kind of vision and accessibility, one would think that the talk would have been a smash hit with the crowd of developers, gamers, and futurists. But reviews were definitely mixed as Uhrman didn’t go much beyond their vision in the Kickstarter campaign and some updates on product development.

Still regardless of how the talk went, you’d be hard pressed to find any person who played a pre-PS2 console, who isn’t excited for Ouya.

The gaming industry has matured, and like the film and music business, it’s time to lower the barriers for distribution and discovery of great content.

Beam was a telepresence device on wheels.

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:05:28 -0400

Beam was a telepresence device on wheels.

Olloclip sells iPhone lens accessories. For $70 users can have a...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:04:19 -0400

Olloclip sells iPhone lens accessories. For $70 users can have a fisheye, wide angle and macro lense.

A 3D printed shoe ‘made in the future’ with...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:05:19 -0400

A 3D printed shoe ‘made in the future’ with Shapeways, a Makerbot competitor, was the perfect size.

The Evolution of SXSW (Infographic)

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:38:29 -0400

Tech geeks, film fanatics, and music lovers UNITE! It’s that time of year again when we all descend en masse to Austin, TX for ten days of panels, screenings, and parties. That’s right. We’re talking about the one and only, SXSW. What started out as an alternative music festival in 1987 has transformed into a breeding ground for new technologies and creative ideas.

Here are some interesting facts we discovered:

Since 2010, SXSW Interactive has boasted more attendees than SXSW Music.
Most of the attendees of SXSWi are between the ages of 21-40.
More than 50% of the attendees work in creative or management.
People at SXSWi have deep pockets! A quarter of the attendees have a combined household income of $100,000 – $200,000.

The Evolution of SXSW infographic by jrayvision.

via NewsCred http://bit.ly/WQAYQ7

We salute you, Nick Cave

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:21:00 -0400

If we’re talking about Art & Inspiration (the track that I am covering), I couldn’t possibly miss ‘A Conversation with Nick Cave’.

Nick Cave is arguably one of Australia’s most well respected musicians, artists, writers, poets - his songs have been the muse in one of Australia’s most famous ads for the Sydney Opera House, and he famously corrupted Australia’s golden girl, Kylie Minogue, when they sang the duet, ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’ on his ‘Murder Ballads’ album. So seeing him front row, slumped into a velvet chair casually chatting to Larry Sloman about his life was a memorable moment.

Does he look this cool around the house on a Sunday?

He entered the stage in Nick Cave uniform - black suit, white shirt, two big gold pinky rings, a pair of sunglasses and slick back, black hair. He left me wondering whether he ever wears track pants around the house or he is simply an eternal picture of cool.

Early bouts of restlessness

Cave talked about growing up in rural Australia, where his mother would push him outside to go and play and explore until the sun went down. He revealed his own sadness that children today don’t get to experience the same level of freedom. He spoke about his dream of leaving rural Australia for the big city of Melbourne, where there was promise of culture. But he was disappointed when he reached Melbourne and discovered that it too was void of culture.

“We felt deprived. We felt culturally deprived. And all we dreamed about was going to the big city, Melbourne or Sydney or somewhere like that, where there was some sort of culture. There actually wasn’t any culture there. Then when we got to Melbourne, we dreamed of going to England, where there was culture. There wasn’t culture there, either…culturally life has just been kind of a series of disappointments”.

His restlessness never ceased - after Melbourne it was London, after London it was Berlin, Brazil, Japan…and the list continues in search of something more.

The ‘anti-chick magnet’

Cave describes growing up as an awkward kid who was an ‘anti-chick magnet’ - as soon as they saw him coming in his skinny black jeans and Hawaiian shirt, they ran. Ironically, he looks like most of the people you would pass by in Williamsburg, not someone from rural Australia in the 1960’s. So what else to do to get the ladies, than join a band? And it worked.

A young Nick Cave

A feeling he was on the outer

There was a sense from Cave that he has always felt slightly misplaced. When he was in rural Australia, he felt like he should be in the city. After he was expelled from school and sent away to boarding school, he occupied his time with art and music rather than friends and sport. He went to art school for two years, produced one piece of work and failed. And in his early days, he felt his music was never accepted. There was always a struggle - be it with the physical world or internally with his own demons and imagination.

“I spent a lot of my time butting heads with other people’s lack of imagination”.

The process of writing is a painful one

I have always believed that some of the most talented artists, writers, musicians that the world has witnessed are some of the most tortured souls. Their ability to feel things at such a deep, emotional level has given rise to some of the most beautiful lyrics and poems. Cave is no exception. He describes the process of song writing like giving birth to watermelons. Unlike writing a book, which he found easy because you get on a role and just let the words flow, writing songs is a painful extraction of memories you’d prefer to bury.

“You should write in third person so you can talk about how you feel without actually feeling it”.

But it’s songs like this that come from exactly what he describes.

Sitting in front of me, talking about his struggle with drugs and depression and his lack of musical talent, it couldn’t have been clearer that he is human like everyone else. Especially with the Australian accent. Yet he carries with him an aura that makes him somewhat of an enigma - unapproachable, intimidatingly cool, effortless and self-assured.

“The imaginative world to me is more reliable. I have more control over it. And in some ways, it’s more interesting”.

There are few people who will have such an impact on culture or music or art as much as Nick Cave, so to be in his presence was inspiring and clearly something the audience relished as they left the room with a smile.

‘The Ship Song’ by Nick Cave, used by the Sydney Opera House in their 2012 campaign

The Making of a Meme

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:46:00 -0400

In October of 2011, White House photographer Diana Walker went on assignment to capture photographs of Hillary Clinton. One of these photos was of Clinton in sunglasses, gazing down at her Blackberry. The photograph ended up in a spread in Time Magazine, but didn’t generate much immediate response.

….Until April 2012. After a few drinks at a local gay bar, DC-dwellers and good friends, Adam Smith and Stacy Lambe came across the now-infamous photo of Clinton and decided to start a Tumblr, Texts from Hillary (http://textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com/). Within a few days, the Tumblr became a world-wide sensation. Smith and Lambe shared their surprising - but somewhat deliberate - journey through creating a popular meme.

Keep it simple. Smith and Lambe wanted to make the meme easy for them to create and for viewers to consume, so they kept each post to two simple images and concise copy.

Have a distribution strategy and create channels for discovery. Both Smith and Lambe have their own personal Tumblr followers, so they distributed Texts with Hillary to those people first. Then, they used their background in marketing to reach out to people in the media to cover their new tumblr.

Publicly acknowledge your fans. Rachel Maddow proclaimed that Texts with Hillary was the best thing she’d seen all week, so they created this:

To get Jon Stewart’s attention, they also created this:

Make a graceful exit. After only 30 posts and being invited to create their own Text from Hillary photo by Clinton herself, they realized they had reached the end of their meme journey and said goodbye to their readers. In doing so, Smith and Lambe allowed readers to think fondly of their Tumblr, rather than grow weary through over-saturation.

Original photo by Diana Walker for Time and Kevin Lamarque for Reuters.

Teen Bullying in the Digital Age

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:14:00 -0400

From Tyler Clementi to Erin Gallagher, it’s difficult to ignore recent media coverage of cyber-bullying and its perceived link to teen suicide. After learning about the challenges parents face when raising toddlers in the digital age, I had to attend “Growing Up in the Age of Facebook” to understand how social media has affected teens, and gain insights on how marketers can use this information to empathetically reach teens. Speakers for this panel included Emily Bazelon (Senior Editor at Slate and author of Sticks and Stones), Danah Boyd (Microsoft Research and NYU), Ben Keller (op-ed columnist for the New York Times) and Jason Rzepka (SVP of Public Affairs at MTV).

How has the internet changed this generation of teens’ lives, in relation to online bullying and drama?

Boyd didn’t believe that the internet was to blame for the so-called bullying epidemic, and that the media plays an important role in creating alarmist stories. According to Boyd, research has shown that bullying rates have not increased with the inception of social media. She emphasized that it’s important to define bullying, which she classifies as ongoing, systematic psychological warfare and physical aggression towards another person. Bullying is often referenced in media as isolated incidents of meanness and cruelty, but it’s important to make the distinction between what is actual bullying, and what is not.
According to Boyd, when both adults and teens agree on the definition of bullying, research shows that there hasn’t been a rise of bullying because of the internet, though its coverage in media exacerbates this so-called epidemic of bullying. Regardless, bullying still exists, although its severity is questioned by Boyd
Keller disagreed. While he admitted to having less of a scholarly approach than Boyd, he believes that there is a general increase in meanness, aggression and polarization - though doesn’t believe the internet is the sole villain in this. He believes that the crowded nature of this space gives people the incentive to shout controversial things to get attention, and that social media rewards partisanship

How has MTV used their authority among teens to address bullying?

Since 2009, Rzepka’s team has been doing research and launching campaigns targeting teens, focusing on sexting and cyber bullying specifically. They saw an opportunity to launch a different type of campaign, as they felt that the existing messages were shallow, panic-driven, and probably wouldn’t resonate with teens today. The came up with A Thin Line, an organization that showcases scenarios of cyber and offline bullying, with opportunities for teens to step in to help their peers

Does the media amplify assumptions of increased cyber-bullying?

Boyd agrees that yes, the media puts the ownership of bullying on the internet, and that they’ve propelled a narrative of victims and villains. This has caused new legislation that has pushed educators to prosecute and punish perceived villains of bullying, as opposed to trying to understand and fix the problem, which Boyd believes is an ethical responsibility for people in power
Keller believes that in some aspect, there is a tendency in media to oversimplify stories. Journalists search for narratives and trends to leverage in stories, and right now, that trend is bullying. There are formulas for earning more traffic online, which further incentives media to dramatize stories

How can the media and marketers who reach teens address these problems?

Boyd believes that there are nuances and complexities to these bullying stories that need to be addressed. She believes that current efforts for and coverage of these stories over-value the victims and demonize the perceived villains. She wants readers to challenge “lazy journalists” and ask for more complicated, nuanced stories that properly define bullying and are more careful in linking instances of meanness to teen suicide
Rzepka believes that we should empower young people to support one another, and create programs where bullied teens can reach out to peers. MTV has dedicated years to creating campaigns that positions peer-to-peer bullying aid as the cool and right thing to do. He doesn’t believe that we’ll ever eradicate cyber bullying, but wants to make access to help easier

Hype vs. Reality: Takeaways from SXSWi 2013

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:34:00 -0400

Digitas has a new data visualization tool called SODA that they used to take us through the history of SXSW from Johnny Cash to Elon Musk as we celebrate SXSWi’s 20th year anniversary. Let’s take a deeper look at the current trends & hype as analyzed through social data.

2013 Top Trends:

The People:

In 2004, there were 3,200 SXSWi attendees. In 2012, the interactive festival had over 24,569 people. This year, 27 thousand are estimated to have been in attendance.
Of the people that visited, Texas, NYC, and California were the top 3 states most people came from.
The average SXSWi attendee is on average are young, affluential decision-makers. Their average at 1,226 Twitter followers & 632 FB friends

Top Breakout Personalities

1st: Elon Musk got 10K mentions on Twitter

2nd: Grumpy Cat most mentioned

Top Trending Topics:

1.) Data

Why? Big data is all the rage except this year it’s focused around the “Quantified self.” It’s all about tracking your own behaviors to actually make changes to your real life.

2.) Entrepreneurs

Why? This year was all about bringing the startup culture and mentality to big companies or other organizations that may not be what most consider a “startup.” It was about instilling the startup culture in us all.

3.) Digital/Physical

Why? It’s also called the “Digital Backlash.” In previous years big social apps have been the heroes (Twitter, Foursquare, highlight).
This year it was much more about “hardware” or items that can marry the digital and physical worlds.
Think 3D printers, Leap Motion, a fantastic motion interface for your computer that puts connect to shame and it’s only $79 dollars, & OUYA, the $99 free-to-play game console built on Android releasing in March.

4.) Space

Why? Space exploration is much more accessible now & people are encouraged to think big. Just like Elon Musk does

The Cool Brand Stuff:

The theme was “Go Big or Go Home” for sure but let’s take a look at what most people talked about when it came to brands.

Task Rabit van (fur bus that gave away free stuff)

GE Brilliant brew - a coffee truck that printed and made cool patterns in your coffee!

LYFT - carpooling app that lets people share cars but they couldnt get cars to Austin, so what do they do? Wear giant pink mustaches and give people piggy back rides of course!

NASA - literally brought a telescope that is set to release in 2018

My personal favorite brand experience from this year’s event?

Game of Thrones of Course

Finally want to see want to see where people are going the most?

Check out the live data via Foursquare here:
Weareherenow.org/austinlive

Google Glass competitor Telepathy showed off their stuff to Guy...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:49:45 -0400

Google Glass competitor Telepathy showed off their stuff to Guy Kawasaki and BBDO’s Scott Rodgers.

Hologram? Avatar? Creepy yet innovative approach to customer...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:18:51 -0400

Hologram? Avatar? Creepy yet innovative approach to customer service from @3minnovation