A Source Of Inspiration

What a bummer. I realized that i just missed the shooting of the latest work by FarFar and HobbyFilm here in Portugal, downtown Lisbon.


URL: http://www.get-out-and-play.com/

The first time i saw the video at Adverblog it felt somehow familiar, and as i browsed the website it became clear that the real-life snake game was indeed shot in the always beautiful and sunny Lisbon.

The Get Out and Play website features the full HD frame-by-frame video and a impressive behind the scenes involving 1000 people playing life-size Snake at a popular Lisbon square, Martim Moniz.
The mobile gaming concept is further brought to life with a chance to also play Blocks with real people and highlighting the Nokia N-Gage game service for models N81, N82 and N95.

Now i have no excuse to miss Improv Everywhere’s Portuguese mission, even it isn’t done by some wacky Swedish folks (*).

(*) I wonder if any of them is coming to OFFF ?

Interactive Advertising Bureau released the whitepaper “User-Generated Content and Social Media Advertising Overview” (PDF, 3.4 MB), a hands-on guide to social media, focusing on terminology, practices and standarts.

Interesting Snippet by lynetter

The document intends to clear some of the fears that brands and agencies might have on using this dynamic medium, framing the whole UGC movement and reminding brands that user reviews are just like personal recommendation, one of the most effective forms of advertising.

Source: eMarketeer

Blogs, wikis, UGC and Ad Networks are described, with several examples how to integrate advertising with social media. The myth that Social Networks is kids stuff was also debunked, by showing that “more than half of MySpace users were over 35 years old” and “LinkedIn, reports that its average user is 39 years-old and has an annual income of $139,000″.

With all the buzz surrounding social media, it’s easy for brands to jump into the bandwagon, and try to push their messages instead of engaging into conversations with their audience. Marketing author and blogger Seth Godin brilliantly states it on his latest book “Meatball Sundae”, reminding companies that just because they put money into new media that doesn’t necessarily translate into effective customers. Be ready to fail, experiment, optimize and most important, be ready to listen.

The document is a valuable first time reading for professionals that want to get acquainted with social media. For a 17 page paper, it manages to get a good overview that you can enrich with several web resources , such as Paul Isackson’s recent presentation, or from Fallon planer Aki Spicer:

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This entry was crossposted at Interact Congress Blog.

Tickets are sold out for a while, and the new site by José Carlos and Nuno Ribeiro, has released the schedule for OFFF Lisbon’08, so now i can plan my attendance at the meanest and biggest design/technology event ever to take place in Portugal.

With so much to see and so little time, here’s the current schedule:

Also available as a Google iCal for the 3 venues: ROOTS (iCal), OPENROOM (iCal) and LOOPITA (iCal).

See you in Alcantara, Lisbon in a few days.
(Drop a comment and we might arrange a meetup).

hCalendar event:

Great news: finally Interactive Advertising Bureau Portugal kicks off, with an ambitious installing committee .

Ricardo from Elemento Digital did most of the hard work (along with Alain Heureux, from IAB Europe) and got great feedback from the major Portuguese online media players, that are finally agreeing on the urgent need of a reliable institution heading the interactive marketing industry.

In the next few months, IAB Portugal intends to discuss the main goals and business plan, inviting all the players to the table (remember my comment?).
So, if you’re in Portugal and concerned about the future of advertising, have your say at IABPortugal.com.

How about some gaming as a Friday time waster? Well, there’s always the new site from 2Advanced for LucasArts: The Force Unleashed.

Most gamers are all excited by this Star Wars release, that promises some kick-ass physics engine and might even attract not-so-serious gamers, like me. As for the site, lots of video and i guess some Perlin Noise actionscript for the menu fx, something like Ricardo Cabello (mr. Doobs) is doing here.

One thing that always pisses me off is why game/movie websites don’t usually have social features (embed videos, social bookmarking, etc). It sucks seeing a great trailer (above) and then have to look it up on YouTube to embed. Besides, a great opportunity is lost to track their content and interact with their audience with a branded media player.

Interactive design is no longer geek talk, with a MoMa exhibit there to prove it. Yugop (aka Yugo Nakamura), a long time interactive visionary, produced the Elastic Mind website, where you can find interactive inspiration for the next decade, by innovators from the past decade. That simple.

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/

From maps to origamis, mashups or sensory design, it’s like the living encyclopedia of interactive design.
The website features even more works than the gallery exhibit, with photos, videos and description on each project. Ben Fry, Philips Research Labs, GRL and, of course, Jonathan Harries, are all there. There’s a search feature if you can’t find them.
If only NY wasn’t across the ocean …

Several online campaigns have been around in the last few months that used sensorial immersive experiences worth of notice.
In this blog, you’ve seen the ones by Porsche and Arcade Fire, and now 2 more, hand picked from partner blog Osocio.org, to sharpen your senses:

* UPDATE (17/03/08): apparently DoTheTest is a ripoff, with no credit given to original author.

Do the test

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

A witty mind hack and web sensorial campaign by Transport for London, aiming to reduce the number of cyclists that are hurt on London’s roads.
According to the campaign press release, researchers at Harvard University played this trick on some unsuspecting people and over 50 per cent failed to spot the change. This selective blindness is possibly the reason why motorists collide with cyclists.

Check also another video piece from Transport for London, that also plays on mind hacks.

Red Cross Hørselstest

http://www.horselstest.no/english/

This one is creating quite a buzz (pun intended), but you’ll need to have headphones to fully experience it.

Come on, give it a try. And listen carefully.
It’s more important than you might think.

Just two links i ⁽¹⁾ would like to share with you.

The first is a website done by Trevor Harman, and it features a cool concept: What would you do with that extra day every four years.

it’s Project leap year so go out there and say what you’d do with an extra 24 hours.

For the second link i’d advise you to get some 3D glasses and if you are a flash developer with a special taste for Papervision you have the source included.

It’s done by Ben Stucki a Flex Consultant you can read more in his blog and get the source for the project there too .

This is a guest post by Hugo Matinho, our new Flash Developer at Draftfcb Portugal. You can check his blog or follow him on Twitter.