Twelve amazing shipping container houses

While a number of resourceful people have converted shipping containers into make-shift shelters at the margin of society for years, architects and green designers are also increasingly turning to the strong, cheap boxes as source building blocks.

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We need to see change clearly from an historical perspective ...

Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers - The McKinsey Quarterly - Hal Varian web challenge managers - Strategy - Innovation

More than ten years into the widespread business adoption of the Web, some managers still fail to grasp the economic implications of cheap and ubiquitous information on and about their business. Hal Varian, professor of information sciences, business, and economics at the University of California at Berkeley, says it’s imperative for managers to gain a keener understanding of the potential for technology to reconfigure their industries. Varian, currently serving as Google's chief economist, compares the current period to previous times of industrialization when new technologies combined to create ever more complex and valuable systems—and thus reshaped the economy.


Interesting point of view from Hill Holiday, the Boston agency

Hill | Holliday

As advertisers, it’s easy to overlook the importance of telling good stories and creating engaging narratives. Data visualization, a fancy way of presenting large forms of information, is something familiar to most of us when using Google Maps mashups or Flickr but it’s also an excellent way to present engaging narratives. Ad Age summarizes some efforts in the space but there has been dearth of data visualization experiences from advertisers to tell stories.


From the Dept of Duh ... But We Are Making Progress ...

Marketers Lag in Shift Online
IBM found that between 2007 and 2008, the proportion of consumers saying they used social-networking tools soared to 60 percent from 33 percent; for online and portable music services it more than doubled to 46 percent; mobile Internet nearly tripled to 41 percent; and access to mobile music and video quadrupled to 35 percent.

In contrast, 80 percent of the ad executives interviewed expect the industry to be at least five years away from being able to deliver cross-platform advertising, encompassing sales, delivery, measurement and analysis.


This is how a Tipping Point .. well ... Tips ...

MediaPost Publications ComScore: Daily Mobile News Consumers Double 03/17/2009
The number of people who access news and information daily on the mobile Web more than doubled over the last year, according to comScore.

About 22.4 million U.S. mobile users checked their phones for news each day in January 2009, compared to only 10.8 million in the year-earlier period.

Those who visited social networking sites or blogs grew even faster--up to 9.3 million from 1.8 million a year ago. The number of mobile subscribers accessing financial accounts and movie information roughly tripled to more than 3 million, while the number of users accessing business news and directories more than doubled to 2.4 million and 5.5 million, respectively.


Must Read ... Must Read ... Must Read ...



The Surprising Economics of Digital Advertising
"A Marketer's Guide to Understanding the Economics of Digital Compared to Traditional Advertising and Media Services" was written by Joe Burton, evp and COO of McCann Worldgroup's San Francisco operation. (It's available at the 4A's Web site, aaaa.org.) Explaining the need for the report, Burton said, "The lack of understanding of the [digital] space is the single biggest friction point between agencies and clients."


And We're Still Discussing The "Value" of Interactive Marketing ... Because ... ?!

Home Internet Access: Continuing To Grow, But Big Differences Among Demographics | Nielsen Wire
More than 80 percent of Americans now have a computer in their homes, and of those, almost 92 percent have internet access, according to a detailed report on home internet access prepared by Nielsen. One year earlier, computer ownership stood at 77.9 percent.


Video Baseball "digicards" Have Finally Arrived - Augmented Reality

Video: Topps launches 3D Live baseball cards, video cards on deck


Just hold the special 3D Live card in front of a webcam and watch a three-dimensional avatar spring to life -- rotate the card and the figure rotates in full perspective. The technology provided by Total Immersion also allows collectors to drop the player into simple pitching, batting and catching games using the computer keyboard. Series 1 cards will cost $2 for a 12-pack while a buck snags a fistful of five. The 3D Live series will eventually feature video. Click through for a video demonstration -- trust us, you'll be amazed at what they've done.


Big Numbers for The Net

US Internet Users - eMarketer
Daily Internet usage among nearly all demographic groups is climbing. Average time spent online by US adults shot up to 14 hours per week in 2008, compared with 11 hours in 2007. Nearly two-thirds of adults claim they go online every day, the majority for more than one hour.

US Internet Users and Penetration, 2008-2013 (millions and % of population)



NOTE TO SELF -- FAST PROTOTYPE, TEST + LEARN ... YES, YES, YES

Agile software development - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Agile software development is a group of software development methodologies that are based on similar principles. Agile methodologies generally promote a project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. Conceptual foundations of this framework are to be found on modern approaches to operations management and analysis such as Lean manufacturing, Soft Systems Methodology, Speech act Theory (Network of conversations approach), and Six Sigma.


IAB Contemplates The Creative Technologist

The Interactive Creative Revolution Is Here! - IABlog
Whether their medium is the written word, the designed image, the produced event, or the software application -- whether their grounding is in science or in art -- great advertising people share a common trait: They know what moves people.


Tough S*** ... The Convergence Also Has Casualties ...

Reactrix shutters — but interactive ads are still coming to a floor near you » VentureBeat

Reactrix Systems, a company specializing in interactive projected advertisements in malls and movie theaters, has folded despite $75 million in venture backing. Last month, the Redwood City, Calif. company spent what remained of a $45 million fourth-round of funding received in 2006, and has so far been unable to sell off its technology and other assets, reports VentureWire.

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I found myself recommending solutions by Monster Media and others over Reactrix time and again in both agency and client meetings. I must not have been alone. The Reactrix solutions seemed stuck in "one trick pony" status. Another indie developer SIA Interactive from Argentina with a large US operation out of Miami has produced far more inventive installations for major brands such as Coca-Cola. And Reactrix -- no offense -- never seemed to rise to that bar.