It’s been a while since my last Shamess PromoTion, where i highlight projects created by friends, mostly from Portugal. The project i’ll be describing today was developed by SAPO, where some good friends managed to deliver one of the most solid web applications i’ve seen lately, specially considering that Lisbon isn’t exactly Silicon Valley.
So, what’s Pond ? It’s an aggregator and publishing tool for social media services, that allows anyone to manage their social graph on a single place. You can import your friend list from social web services, merge friend contacts and update your social web status on the web, mobile or desktop.
The wide range of platform support is certainly the highlighted feature: Besides the web, Android, and Symbian mobile apps are available (iPhone soon) and desktop software (Mac, Windows and Linux) will also be released.
Currently Pond supports Twitter, Flickr, SAPO Fotos, YouTube, SAPO Vídeos, Facebook and SAPO Blogs, as well any RSS or Atom feed. It will surely be a great way to introduce the power of social web to a wider portuguese audience, since the application is sponsored by TMN the largest mobile carrier in Portugal (disclaimer: TMN is a Fulllsix client) PT Comunicações and Meo (it will be interesting to see a social app on a IPTV service: social TV).
With smartphones becoming more affordable, growth on the social web will be fueled by mobile web with centralizing services like Pond or Vodafone 360 taking full advantage our digital identities. I only wish i could add more metadata to my friends info, like birthdays, tags or events. Give me that, and i’ll be a happy ? Ponder ?
Taking place in Lisbon, the next November 14th, Upload 2.0 intends to discuss current web trends and their impact on Marketing and Communication strategies.
Organized by a team of active participants on Portugal’s social web, the event gathers several practitioners sharing their experiences and ideas on a series of short talks about the role of new media, consumer empowerment and new models of publishing. From marketeers, students, journalists, bloggers or just people with passion for the new social web, you’re all invited to register.
I’ll be giving a short talk on UFOs (Unidentified Flashy Objects). If you find the title unusual, then show up and listen the rest of the content.
There’s no excuse of being at work (it’s on a Saturday) or being expensive (ticket at 28 / 20 for students). Find all about it at UploadLisboa.com or get the updates at twitter/@UploadLisboa.
P.S.:
Speaking of events, today it’s Ignite Portugal, where Alt.Prt.Sc will be recording a special videocast and my colleague Tiago is giving the Ignite talk “How to manage impossible projects with agility”. See you later.
After asking last month at Google Portugal when street view would become available, they finally unveiled the map feature for the two major cities in Portugal, Lisbon and Oporto.
Now, time to start peeking and find those awkward situations, like the one below at Parque Eduardo VII (you’ll get the joke if you’re familiar with Lisbon).
Since Cannes doesn’t matter anymore, we’d better start thinking about a new kind of awards, that are somehow different from the usual creative masturbation, more in tune with the future of advertising.
Lisbon Ad School and Torke are announcing the first Guerrilla Advertising Awards, showcasing works in categories as diverse as ambush marketing, urban intervention, PR Stunt, ambient media or viral and interactive. And just to make sure guerrilla is for everyone, there’s an Old Croquette Awards, for senior creatives.
You can submit your work for FREE, as a team or on behalf of your agency, with winners announced the next July, 24th.
Disclaimer: I’ll be one of the online categories jurors
Nurturing the needs of geek advancement, 2 great projects have shown up recently in Portugal where technology and creativity meet, with huge doses of experimentation.
Taking the work of AudienciaZero and bringing it to Lisbon, the collective explores alternative media and physical computing every Tuesday, from 19h to 24h, at Geraldine.
A new organization promoting the learning, research and experimentation of digital technologies, bringing together a diverse community on a open environment, exploring connections between art, technology and society.
Both projects take a local approach of the community work by MakeMagazine or CreateDigitalMusic, by Peter Kirn. So don’t be shy and join the Portuguese hackers.
I tried. I honestly tried to use AdSense Competitive Filter to block the ads of one of the most annoying display advertisers in my country.
But Movilisto [Buongiorno] ads kept coming back to my blog. With those pesky “Teste da Morte” ads. And now it got even worse with a repugnant “Máquina dos Peidos” (Fart Machine) ad. The company advertises premium mobile services, and if you google them, you’ll see that consumers aren’t that happy with their shady tactics.
They keep wearing out any credibility of display advertising in the country, and since Google doesn’t seem to provide a decent ad rating tool to users or publishers, I’ll take a stance as a blogger: I’m completely removing AdSense from this blog.
My fellow readers: you don’t have to put up with this ad junk. The amount of their interruption/noise/bad taste is one of the causes of banner blindness and also of the decreasing eCPMs for publishers. And until Google fixes this relevance problem, they are no longer welcomed as an ad network here.
What i can do as a blogger is to share this problem with my audience, some of them working at Portuguese online media companies and advertisers, so they could start demanding Google to severely limit the impressions of Movilisto and provide tools to improve the ad experience. Enough pressure will provide better ad quality, a good way to increase the price of their own display inventory while providing a safe haven to creative display advertising that is relevant to consumers.
What i can do as a blogger, is to ask my readers to protest directly in their blogs or Twitter and let their friends know #movilistosucks.
While browsing the One Show finalists yesterday, i came upon one Portuguese nominee that further explores the bridge between offline and online: Museu Efémero (Epheral Musuem).
The online museum, sponsored by Pampero Fundación (a rum brand) and created by Leo Burnett Portugal, curates ephemeral art spread across one of the most iconic Lisbon districts, Bairro Alto. From street graffiti to installations, the changing nature of daily art is preserved online, where you download the map with the locations along with the supporting podcast. Then head to the uphill streets of Lisbon with your mp3 player and get an inside perspective about the works and artists.
Being Bairro Alto famously know for their bohemian nights, it’s a great way for the brand to create awareness (they’ve just entered the market) among the hip trendsetters on a non-intrusive and creative way. The Epheral Museum is now covering other places in Lisbon and is expected to expand to other cities in the world.
After a few months absent, my favorite Portuguese online magazine has returned. Rua de Baixo launched today their second version, a truly 2.0 release, as the site is being powered by WordPress and it’s still in beta.
Started in 2003, it achieved a recognition as one of the main online references of portuguese urban culture, publishing the latest news, events and featuring a wide range of artists and projects. The quality of their online publishing efforts is testified by their faithful readers and newsletter subscribers and more than 40 contributing writers.
Rua de Baixo V2 Launch Teaser on Youtube
The team/collective did a great job on the new version, with new features and a more acessible website (the old one was a frame nightmare). Congratulations, David Carvalho, Hugo Pinheiro, Mário João Camolas and Pedro Marques and to the tech team at Spirituc.
On the regular sections, you can fin the usual great news coverage of music, with a a new X-Wife video (canIHaz embedded video player, plz ?), the always surprising cult findings, and an interview with the director of with my latest tv series addiction, made in Portugal, Um Mundo Catita.
Even if you don’t understand a word of Portuguese, have a look and bookmark it as one of the main online references on portuguese urban culture.
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.
UPDATE (24/10/08): Paulo reports (in portuguese) that Renova has contacted Todd from ImprovEverywhere and apologized for the misappropriation.
The cat is out of the bag, now. After posting a comment and emailing Renova, the napkin and toilet paper company, and not getting any answer, it’s time to take a stand and share Agent Todd’s frustration.
Renova produced this guerrilla marketing stunt, based on the original Food Court Musical, and didn’t bother to credit the music authors or idea creators on their video. Hey, they didn’t even bother to change the lyrics. At Renova’s corporate blog, they’ve already set the video to private (wonder why), but i’m posting it above, along with the original idea. Just because i care.
Will someone get Renova a napkin to clean this mess, please ?
