In the past few days i’ve been browsing through most of the entries at the One Show and Webby Awards. Maybe one day this blog will have his own “Inspiration Awards” but until then, here’s an extensive selection of my favorite nominations:

Digital Content & New Media

• R/GA’s digital signage project for Club Nokia
  
  
• Yep, iPhone was really huge in 2008. Here’s one app for A4 Driving Challenge (appstore link), developed by Factory Labs.
  
• Another landmark in digital marketing for CP+B, with the Whooper Sacrifice Facebook app.
  
• I’m a sucker for Branded Applications. Here’s ‘Find It‘ developed by Dare Digital for Sony Ericsson, right on time for the next Summer festivals. So, where’s my tent?
  
• A website about design being nominated for a Webby Award on best copy/writing is no small achievement. Design Observer has my vote.
  
• I had to mention an ARG, with a subtle but effective sponsoring by McDonalds of ‘The Lost Ring‘, developed by AKQA.
  
• The Best Job In The World. This one’s a winner. By CumminsNitro Brisbane for Tourism Queensland.
  

INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING

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Following yesterday’s news, i’m sharing a collaboration between blog network Prt.Sc and OFFF, that are inviting all portuguese bloggers to OFFF Screen Challenge and win a chance to be at this renowned festival of post-digital culture, taking place in Lisbon, from 7th to 9th May 2009.

*Disclaimer: As an executive member of Prt.sc, I’ll be judging the entries. That leaves all other portuguese bloggers more chances to win the 3day ticket and show your project at the venue.

The Challenge

OFFF and Prt.sc are showcasing the best of portuguese digital culture: from the garage hack to your web project, OFFF Screen is giving the chance for those using social media to showcase their projects to a wider and interested audience.

The submitted projects are preferably within the broader Catalogue theme “THIS ISN’T FLYING, THIS IS FALLING WITH STYLE · FAIL GRACEFULLY @ OFFF”.  Unleash your creativity, don’t be afraid to fail.

How to apply

Each application must be submitted by a member of  the project that has been writing for a blog at least since December 2008.

Each blog must write at least 3 posts until the 1st of May, related to the project or OFFF Festival, and tagged with  offf and prt.sc. On this date, judges by the OFFF and Prt.sc team will select the 3 best projects. These will be awarded with a 3 day ticket and the chance to present the project on the venue.

Submissions should be sent to offf@prt.sc, with project description, name and contacts, and a permalink to the post announcing the challenge entry.

All posts related to the challenge will be agregated at offf.prt.sc. For further info, contact offf@prt.sc.

Missing the OFFF Festival posts lately?  It’s time with some fresh OFFF news, then:

• Amit Pitaru and James Paterson are in. Some experimental trippin’ expected.
• If there was an A-list for digital creators, if would probably be at OFFF: Paula Scher, U.V.A (United Visual Artists), Robert L. Peters, Chris Milk, Grey London, Stefan Sagmeister, Digital Kitchen, PES, Joshua Davis, Hillman Curtis, Neville Brody, Eva Vermandel, Kyle Cooper, etc, etc,
• Loopita rolls a customized venue for Raster-Noton, the german experimental music label.
• Nerdference panel is premiering, with a lot of D.I.Y. technologies, from open software and hardware, control surfaces, Arduino, tangible interfaces, the works. It’s evolution baby.

So, what’s your excuse to haven’t yet booked your flight to sunny (beach is within walk distance) Lisbon?

P.S.: There’s a open slot for sponsors, a great chance for companies working in creative business to be amongst a creative crowd of +3k and showcase your services.

Having a full day job and being a active blogger, makes it hard to find some free time to give presentations and worshops. But as I always wished for an active Adobe User Group in Portugal, it was hard to decline the invitation by Paulo Moreira, for the next meeting, February 27th.

I’m not really a full scale programmer, but having worked over 7 years with Flash, and being recently seduced by the advantages of web standards, the best i could remember for my session was the subject of Progressive Enhancement, or how to present  rich media experiences while delivering alternate content.

Here’s the meetup info:

RIAPT AUG

I’ll try not to be too technical, so if you’re interested in the subject, please drop by (signup required) . If not, i’ll post the the presentations slides here.

OFFF, The International Festival For the Post Digital Creation Culture will have their 2009 edition in Portugal (7, 8, 9 May), with the new venue at Fundação de Oeiras, with lots of artists and speakers already confirmed. If you haven’t noticed, the tickets have been on sale for a while, but you can still get early bird prices until the end of this week.

Kyle Cooper, UVA (United Visual Artists), Multitouch Barcelona, Stefan Sagmeister, Paula Scher (Pentagram), Renascent, James Paterson (Presstube), Digital Kitchen, Joshua Davis, Karsten Schmidt (Toxi & PostSpectacular), Universal Everything, Aaron Koblin, Hillman Curtis, Si Scott Studio, Chris Milk, Kozyndan, Jason Bruges Studio, Ivan Franco, Neubau Berlin, This Is Pacifica, Alva, R2, Musa Worklab, Robert L. Peters, Suprb and Eva Vermandel are lined up for Roots with more to come the next few months.

The new venue is really close to the beach and will offer better conditions, with lots of space for artists who want to show their work at the catalogue. The Swedish digital media school, Hyperisland will be around (though not as part of their World Tour) for a special workshop and a 2 hours lecture.

Personally, it will be the chance to finally meet the men who inspired me to work in interactive, Mr. Hillman “MTIV (Making the Invisible Visible)” Curtis. Almost 10 years since his first Shockwave Flash animation for Macromedia, it will be a great year to discuss the state of digital creativity with him and the other great speakers.

Photo by sushi-sunday under a CC license

Starting next January, i’ll be posting profiles on the artists and projects, with a few selected interviews so you can get a feel of what to expect at the festival and help you to choose which talks to attend.

Grab your tickets before they’re gone and visit Portugal next year. Besides the great weather and delicious food, we’ll also have a wicked digital culture festival.

Today Russell Davies was at the 10th anniversary of CCP (the Creative Club of Portugal). His presentation was pretty much i was waiting for, but it’s always interesting to meet and hear someone you admire as a blogger and as a planner.

Photo credits: Russell Davies

At the end, i realized that most of the things that were presented have been around for as much as the CCP has existed. As i shared with Russell, a substantial part of the future of advertising has been written 10 years ago, on the remarkable Cluetrain Manifesto.

For instance, on the four main topics discussed:

1. Blurry How media and creativity are no longer clearly defined
   Thesis #6, 19 and 39, are some examples of this blurriness. 11, 31 and 93 would fit also.

   The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.
   
   People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products.
   
   Companies must ask themselves where their corporate cultures end.

2. Interesting (on creating engaging experiences)
   This one’s easy: 75.
   
   If you want us to talk to you, tell us something. Make it something interesting for a change.
3. Useful (being useful to people and providing branded utilities)
   Next one, #76:
   
   We’ve got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some better service. Stuff we’d be willing to pay for. Got a minute?
   
   or on a more lighter tone, #22:
   
   Getting a sense of humor does not mean putting some jokes on the corporate web site. Rather, it requires big values, a little humility, straight talk, and a genuine point of view.
4. Always in Beta (and how software ethos is reinventing marketing and creativity)
   Starting with #17 and ending with thesis #84:
   
   Companies that assume online markets are the same markets that used to watch their ads on television are kidding themselves.
   
   We know some people from your company. They’re pretty cool online. Do you have any more like that you’re hiding? Can they come out and play?

What really puzzles me is how 10 years have passed but companies still don’t get it? More worrisome, is that by looking at the audience of young creatives in the room, it really scared me that most of these folks aren’t immersed on the tools and new kind of dialog that will be their job for the next decade.

Let’s hope CCP and other industry groups have the courage to question traditional media and embrace networked markets and conversations. Once this happens, i’ll subscribe to their membership.

One quick post, sharing a few today’s things.

• 
  After a fast and furious brainstorm yesterday on Twitter, here’s the full list of The 10 Social Media Commandments:
  1. Thou shall not publish partial RSS feeds.
  2. Don’t follow anyone, before starting to follow Scoble
  3. You shall not use n00bie aliases like pawn3d_1982
  4. Remember to renew your domain every year
  5. For six days you shall read your feeds and remember the Sabbath for Facebook
  6. You shall not make Twitter an idol for there is still IM and email.
  7. You shall not steal. Use creative-commons instead.
  8. Honor your reader comments, but feel free to ignore the trolls.
  9. You shall not covet a Page Rank 9
  10. I am Google, your Lord …
• I’m finally attending a Sigur Ros concert tonight. For those who couldn’t make it, enjoy their MoMa concert video.
  
• As promised on my latest Alt.Prt.sc videocast (portuguese only), here’s the link to podcast #5 of The Age Of Conversation, where i team with Efrain, Ernie, Mark, Mike, Cam and Angela, trying to sound interesting with sayings like:
  

  We have to realize that most of the jobs that will be here in ten years haven’t been invented. So it’s hard to set up a curriculum for these new kind of creatives.

  Great work on the podcast, Jay.
  RSS readers have to visit the site to listen the audio

Have a great Tuesday.

Last week i was fully immersed at Shift08, the Lisbon conference on Social and Human Ideas for Technology. First, let me thank the readers who bought the ticket with my promo code, as it awarded me with a golden ticket (full refund). Awesome #1.

The first day was full of FREE workshops, with a guerrilla usability workshop by Andy Budd involving wine tasting, courtesy of Cortes de Cima and Adegga. Awesome #2.

On Thursday, the sessions started with a massive amount were to choose from. As far as i could find out on the coffe breaks, highlights were Julian Bleecker’s Design Fiction and Mark Wuben’s Home Made Ubiquitous Computing (today i’ve realized he’s also the co-author of always useful sIFR). I really enjoyed the session on Designing with common sense, by the folks of AllOfUs. Even more after i had the chance of having a great talk at lunch with Nick and Sandy. Andy Budd closed the day with a great presentation on User Experience, an appetizer for the last day main theme. Awesome #3.

Friday started with another great session by Brian Suda about semantic web and microformats, and the morning ended with our own robotic curator Leonel Moura discussing Artificial Creativity. The afternoon had the most expected sessions with Stowe Boyd and Tara Hunt focusing on social flow and social capital. Awesome #4.

If you couldn’t attend (shame on you), grab the presentations, now highlighted on Slideshare.net homepage as Shift08. Awesome #5.

And did i mentioned that it was a great chance to meet a lot of interesting people, from all over Europe, and start a true Shift movement? Awesome #6.

If further prove is needed how awesome it was, check the video testimonials below:

Loved it in 2006, 2008 was awesome, can’t wait for 2009. A big thanks to all of Shift’s team. Awesome.

Just because we love movies,

And you know that you were portrayed in at least one of these videos.