Archive for the ‘innovation’ Category

« Older Entries

Jane Nation Goes Mobile

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

With somewhere between 10-15% of web sessions now attributable to mobile devices, the OMT group at St. John & Partners has just completed a mobile optimization of JaneNation.com.

JaneNation_Mobile_Experience

Jane Nation Mobile Experience

If you navigate to www.janenation.com, your mobile device will be auto-detected and present a version of the site that’s optimized for your device. Not all of the site content is presented, but forums and the ability to comment once you’ve logged in is available, and if you need deeper access, you can get to the entire site through a link from the mobile home page.

The beauty of this implementation is that the mobile content is pulling from the same database as the website, so administrators can manage content for both computers and mobile devices from a single point.

Kudos to the OMT team who made this happen – Steven, Mark and Jason. You guys totally rock.

Check it out. Get on your mobile device and surf to www.janenation.com.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Posted in browsers, customer experience, innovation, mobile, user interface | No Comments »

Fear of Science Will be Our Downfall

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

What a great quote from Michael Specter, “you’re entitled to your own opinion…..but you’re not entitled to your own facts.” He cautions us about the limitations that are unjustly being put on progress, and the lost potential toward ending epidemics like world hunger, both caused by the influence of mass misinformation and our loss of faith in institutions. Though at times these are justified by a massive fraud perpetuated by leaders in these institutions, facts from credible sources are being lost in this hysteria and the new societal gravity toward fad belief systems.

This is definitely a powerfully delivered wake-up call, and 16 minutes well worth spending…

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Posted in crowdsourcing, innovation, online marketing, social networks | No Comments »

Our Sixth Sense

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Very interesting research into technical gadgetry that can help with real time information processing and intuiting.

Although in its current state this somewhat patched together set of gadgets is a bit clunky, you can see where the technology is headed.

One group this validates are those who have, for years, been developing wearable technology. Here the value proposition is obvious vs. just offering convenience, to which most of the previous development has been limited.

You’ll notice the obvious augmented reality that they’re achieving with a projector vs. the onscreen data display employed with some of the previous iPhone posts I’ve made.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Posted in crowdsourcing, customer experience, innovation, online marketing, user interface | No Comments »

The Next Wave of Augmented Reality

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Obviously I love augmented reality, as evidenced in previous posts. I first posted about it months ago with GE’s Ecomagination commercial on the Super Bowl, and a couple month’s later when magician, Marco Tempest, used the technology to make his slight-of-hand magic even more amazing.

Now, SPRXmobile in Amsterdam has begun exploring a practical application of this technology, as you’ll see in this demo:

Their product, Layar, is a video-mode application that works with your 3G phone and its GPS system, plus a compass and an accelerometer, also both built-in to the phone. These elements work to establish your position on the planet, which direction your phone is facing and its angle or tilt. With that information, the application is able to pull data feeds that are relevant to the environment you’re viewing through the video display.

Wonder what the reviews have been like for the restaurant you’re standing in front of? Or maybe if there are any apartments for rent in that building nearby?

All kinds of relevant data will be available, and presented in a visually appealing, 3D context relative to the environment you’re viewing through your phone’s video camera, turning that view into a detailed and highly engaging dynamic interface.

Here’s the original article on CNN that talks about it.


Lovin’ dis big time, mon.


KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Posted in POS, browsers, customer experience, innovation, mobile, navigation, online marketing, user interface | No Comments »

Project Natal Re-Imagines Gaming

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

It’s kind of like they were contemplating re-inventing the wheel and instead came up with the mag-lev train.

Microsoft is dangerously close to stealing the cool factor away from Apple, not for its PC/Mac war of the ages, but because it is getting ready to shift the paradigm of the gamers’ UI experiences. What’s in the offing is Project Natal, introduced to reporters and VIPs on the eve of the E3 in Los Angeles.

Not being on the guest list, I can’t make any first hand observations, but one of the guys on our team is an avid gamer and Xbox 360 aficionado, as well as being versed in all things gaming, and he had to take a few days off to calm-down after viewing the video feed from the press conference on the Xbox Channel.

This demo and presentation is pretty crazy stuff. A lot of bloggers are disbelieving that Microsoft has really cracked the code on this, at least not to this level.

Here’s another video that shows more of the gaming experience vs. the artificial intelligence that Milo demonstrated above.

That’s enough of a difference that Wii and other gaming systems should be pretty nervous. Although Wii is much easier to master than the current Xbox, and PS3, there is virtually no learning curve with the controller-free gesturing in Natal.  No “A” then flick your wrist while hitting “Trigger” style interaction here. Just do what you’d do normally if you were engaged in the activity and you’re playing. If the AI layer is anywhere close to Milo, we’re talking mag-lev trains, baby!

Can’t wait to see this unfold over the next 18 months.
KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in blogs, browsers, gaming, innovation, mobile, navigation, online marketing, user interface, web conferencing | 2 Comments »

Web 3.0 Thinking is In the Clouds

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Although pretty heady stuff for a simple blog like this, the Aspen Institute recently released an eBook on cloud computing and the affects it may have on society in the coming years.

daybreak_miami

Arguably the ultimate expression of the web, “the cloud” is defined by A.I. as “a vast, always on, accessible, broadband-enabled next-generation Internet that is fast approaching.”

It will be a time where applications and data become a shared and distributed cyber-sea of information, communications and services, and with this evolution comes a huge set of issues around the idea of “identity.” Defining identity, validating it, preserving it, making it hack-proof and building reputation around it are just a few of the issues examined in the report.

You can read the report for yourself, here.

The report concludes by saying, “The cloud will usher in a seismic shift in the locus of control in our culture, and it will have ripple effects in all walks of life—energy, the environment, national security, learning, health care, business processes, emerging markets and much more. The cloud is about open access, rapid delivery of services, the ability to scale quickly and the power of networks. Ultimately, though, the cloud story is not just about computing, communication or information but about empowering citizens.”

A pretty worthwhile read, I guess….

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in bandwidth, blogs, browsers, crowdsourcing, customer experience, innovation, legal issues, mobile, online marketing, privacy & security, search stuff, social networks | No Comments »

Augmented Reality Updated, Magically

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Back in February, I posted about GE’s Augmented Reality commercial on the SuperBowl, and how amazing and promising the technology looked.

Magician, Marco Tempest, has taken this to another level with this interactive card trick, in which both he and the programmed animations are manipulating the environment. The trick you’ve seen before with other story lines, although he does it very well. But the augmented reality is really sweet, particularly some of the actions apparently triggered by hand movements.

Enjoy! Thanks to Mark R. for turning me on to this.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Tags: , ,
Posted in customer experience, innovation, viral campaigns | No Comments »

ONE BILLION DOWNLOADED APPS…

Friday, April 24th, 2009

1,000,000,000!

In 9 months.

app_sales-copy

You can read all the details in TechCrunch.

Apple reports roughly 37MM multi-touch products in-market at the end of Q1 2009, suggesting that there have been roughly 30 apps downloaded for each device.

In 9 Months!!

I think my new colorful metaphor for “fast,” instead of, “faster than a scalded dog,” will now be “faster than an iPhone app.”

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in customer experience, innovation, mobile, online marketing, roi and analytics | 2 Comments »

Sign of the Times

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

facebook_oos2

I’m not a big Twitter user, and only marginally more so on Facebook, but I’m encountering over-capacity issues on both sites with increasing frequency.  I’m sure this could actually be “site maintenance”, but doing that at mid-day is a bit hard to fathom since that is peak-demand time.

I don’t really think of this as a failing on the site’s part.  Sure, they’ve obviously got to increase their server capacity to meet this level of demand, but it’s really a testament to how popular social network sites have become.  According to my Alexa plug-in, Facebook is now the 4th most heavily trafficked site on the web behind Google, Yahoo and YouTube (MySpace is #9 and Twitter #56).

As a user, it’s all still a little unwieldy.  I’ve got friends who post all the time and clog up the pipeline, but I don’t want to drop them, and others who rarely post, and I want to be sure to see their stuff when they do.  A better management system has to be on the horizon for organizing and filtering this mess.

The one thing that doesn’t seem to be on the horizon is a dampening of enthusiasm or participation for posting/tweeting.  Clearly it’s a great way to stay connected, and to grow to such lofty volume levels in such a few years is truly amazing.

It’s like the web has been re-invented all over again.  (thanks, Yogi.  :-) )

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in bandwidth, blogs, customer experience, innovation, online marketing, social networks | No Comments »

Very Cool Visualization of the Web

Monday, April 6th, 2009

This is pretty amazing. Developed by Information Architects, it is a representation of current trends on the internet, using subway “lines” as the interrelated trends, and tracking such things as: applications, publishing, opinion, news, identity, creative, consumption, broadcasting, knowledge, advertisement, sharing, entertainment and filtering.

internet_map_thumbnail

You can see the whole thing here, and read about it at Techcrunch.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in customer experience, innovation, online marketing | No Comments »

« Older Entries

Switch to our mobile site