generation

"Stealth mode" Loopfuse to be unveiled

Loopfuse has been actively selling to customers and blogging about its successes for nearly a year now. Yet such is the industry - where open source has become so mainstream that we often neglect the rise of truly innovative software - that it's not surprising that IDG missed Loopfuse until now. We forgive you, IDG! :-)

Regardless, if you haven't heard of Loopfuse or started using its (or a competitor's) marketing automation software, you need to correct this fault. Immediately. Here's what it does:

Lead generation products track the activities of potential customers on a company's Web site and use factors like their job titles and activities on the site to assign "lead scores," which help salespeople to target their efforts. The products work in tandem with customer relationship management software.

This is, in part, what open-source Loopfuse (as well as proprietary products like Eloqua) does. It's more than this, though this would be enough.… Read more

You, there. Step back from the Webcam

Corey Delaney, you're making us all look bad.

Last week, the Web became all too well acquainted with this Australian teenager and the sunglasses he refused to remove. On a Melbourne-area newscast, an anchor interviewed Delaney, 16, about the bacchanalia he'd hosted at his parents' house while they were out of town--and the $20,000 fine the police served to him. He responded with the most obnoxious flavor of awkwardness imaginable. Within due time it was all over the likes of YouTube, leaving the viral-video hordes to wonder if it was real. (It was.)

What happened? YouTube fame, … Read more

Net users are becoming their own reputation managers

With everyone becoming a producer in the YouTube age, self-branding ("The Brand Called You") has evolved from a fancy to a necessity.

Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame have shrunk to 5 seconds of microfame, and in the contained public arena of social networks, amateur paparazzi--thanks to the viral nature of social media--have the power to grant celebrity status. That, in a nutshell, is the thesis of Clive Thompson's poignant piece for Wired on the rise of "microcelebrities."

As Facebook walls make personal communications open to the rest of your trusted network, even your … Read more

Virtual extras get own personalities

The behavior of computer-generated crowds in movies and video games could soon appear much more realistic, thanks to new software that gives each character a complex personality of its own.

Read the full report at Technology Review: "Virtual Extras"

Trends 2008: Will 3D printing finally go mainstream?

Everyone wants to be a designer. That's the value proposition of JuJups.com, a new online service claiming it will allow consumers to design their own personalized and customized 3D content. 3D printing, as the underlying technology is called, is a form of rapid prototyping that builds up three-dimensional objects by "printing" successive layers of materials (polymer, cells, sugar, etc.) on top of each other.

As a recent Wired story points out, 3D-printing technology has been around for a while, mostly used by professional design firms and design-intensive businesses such as automakers, handset makers, and aerospace companies. … Read more

The one thing (question) for a better world

In fin d'ann?e mood, saving the world is en vogue -- and asking the "one thing" question obviously, too.

Inspired by Leonardo DiCaprio's gloom and doom documentary "The 11th Hour," OnEarth magazine asked a panel of leading scientists and activists to "move beyond bleak diagnoses and offer concrete proposals for a sustainable future:"

"Which one thing would you do to save the world?"

You can view it on YouTube or read a transcript of the entire conversation here.

In a similar vein, but slightly modifying OnEarth's impetus (and … Read more

Study predicts rise of 'circular entertainment'

A new study from Nokia predicts that by 2012, a quarter of all entertainment will be created, edited, and shared within peer groups rather than being generated by traditional media.

Jointly conducted with the trend research firm The Future Laboratory, Nokia's study asked trend-setting consumers from 17 countries about their digital behaviors and lifestyles. The company also used information gathered from its 900 million customers as well as views of leading industry analysts.

"From our research we predict that up to a quarter of the entertainment being consumed in five years will be what we call 'circular.' The … Read more

Conversation 2.0: Social marketing and you

Here's a link to a presentation I gave last week. Forgive me for the "conversation 2.0" moniker but it's a catchy way to pinpoint what's happening right now in the world of marketing. Marketers and brands have always had conversations, but at a much slower pace and mediated by professional parties. That's no longer the case. Conversation 2.0, that is, the Web 2.0-enabled conversation, shifts places and times; it is ubiquitous and doesn't pause--it is, in all senses of the meaning, a "never ending conversation."

Thus, "social … Read more

Is HoneyShed the end of the future of online advertising?

Call it branded entertainment, advertising-as-content, or just brand-vertising: obviously inspired by TBS' veryfunnyads.com, which according to MediaPost claims more than 73 million views since launching last year, brands and advertisers are teaming up to push the envelope of online advertising even further. Recent example: Publicis Groupe, Droga5, and Digitas have joined forces to quietly launch what they had already announced in May this year--a site dubbed HoneyShed on which advertisers can air brand-specific programming. Clips can be shared by viewers via e-mail or embedded on blogs and other sites. HoneyShed also offers instant e-commerce: "I want it." … Read more