tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-367722942024-02-19T04:09:16.171-05:00Scattered AtomsA sunny place for bright ideas.Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.comBlogger118125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-77014651034361775482013-04-07T13:53:00.004-04:002013-04-07T13:56:19.618-04:00#NABshow: Future of Broadcast TV<br />
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; text-align: -webkit-auto;">FOBTV is an initiative started in November 2011 in a Shanghai to select major technologies to be used as the basis for new standards - it is not a standards initiative but a search for new common technologies and an effort to standardize. Mark Richer (ATSC) is the chairman of FOBTV and Phil Laven of DVB is the Vice Chairman. The committee has been tasked to develop use cases, develop technical requirements based on the use cases, issue RFPs and recommend major technologies to be used as the basis for new standards</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The importance of FOBTV is in the fragmented nature of standards: DVBT, DVBT2, ATSC exemplified by the map of current standards you can see here.</span></div>
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The technical committee:</div>
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<ul>
<li>Wenjun Zhang (NERC-DTV)</li>
<li>Yiyan Wu (CRC)</li>
<li>Namho Hur (ETRI, Korea)</li>
<li>Dr. Toru Kuroda (NHK, Japan)</li>
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<b style="font-size: 19px;">Use Cases</b><br />
By Peter Siebert and Jim Kutzner - DTV (Presented by Peter Siebert, from Geneva)<br />
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The following use cases were gathered by the FOBTV comittee:<br />
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<i>1. DVB Scenarios: Harmonized world standard</i></div>
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Have a worldwide harmonized terrestrial broadcast standard</div>
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Support for mobile reception</div>
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Integration with mobile broadband and wifi services</div>
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Support of hybrid services, whjite space and dynamic broadcast</div>
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<i>2. Immersive experience and new services</i><br />
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Resolution beyond HD</div>
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Higher dynamic range video</div>
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Improved 3D experience</div>
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More realistic audio</div>
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Companion devices such as tablets and smart phones (second screen)</div>
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Multiview presentation and screen subdivisions (e.g. with screen size getting larger imagine two people watching two different movies on the same screen via split-screen)</div>
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<i>3. More efficient use of spectrum</i><br />
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FOBTV to be the most efficient standard</div>
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Support of White Space scenarios</div>
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Hybrid broadband/broaddcast scenario including including local storage</div>
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Cooperation/integration with 3GPP/LTE mobile networks</div>
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4. Smart interaction and personalization<br />
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Messenger type applications</blockquote>
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Support of social services</blockquote>
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Targeted advertisement</blockquote>
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Standardized interactivity supporting a wide range of applications</blockquote>
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Integration with other devices<br />
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<i>5. Accessibility</i></blockquote>
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Support of special services (e.g. Braille, clean audio, etc)</blockquote>
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Delivery of accessibility content to second screen</blockquote>
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Dialogue enhancement (ability to remove background noise to focus on the dialogue for hearing impaired)</blockquote>
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The technical committee was formalized in 2012 and will issue RFPs by the end of 2013. They analyzed 61 use cases and the 12 Scenario categories based on the use cases. The technical aspects of mobile broadcasting, spectrum utilization, network interoperability and bi-directional communication under urban-rural dual structure. This last piece is about the ability for dynamic TV and broadcast for internet to have bi-directional capabilities.</div>
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Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV 89109, USA36.1311282 -115.1511191999999836.124715699999996 -115.16120419999999 36.1375407 -115.14103419999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-62582753434878301562013-03-02T15:17:00.001-05:002013-03-02T15:18:50.393-05:00HitBliss: a game changer in advertising sponsored contentHitBliss is coming out of stealth mode four years into its development. HitBliss carries premium content from NBCU and Warner bros (to begin with) and offers an alternative to Netflix and Hulu that completely separates content viewing from advertising: rather than interrupting content play with pre-rolls or mid rolls, users can view ads when they want to accrue credits that can be applied to uninterrupted content viewing. <br />
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This is a significant game changer for a few reasons: 1) users voluntarily view ads and can select which ads to view (the company has spent a considerable amount if time in testing with 159 alpha testers to address any gaming of the ad viewing including software hooks). So I can watch ads on the way to work on my spare time and then view the content at home uninterrupted. 2) because users are "paying" to watch content studios consider this transactional viewing and are more apt to give fresh and Newley released content. <br />
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What do you think about HitBliss? Will it be the Hulu killer? <br />
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Original post on fast company: <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3006471/hitbliss-launches-hulu-competitor-turns-ads-currency">HitBliss launches Hulu competitor that turns ads into currency</a><br />
<br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGGSqyEo62RX_b8wDU8-uUGiWiSr5IHQY_1EXfNf66E96aN72iY9yBNdKJxV-KjIPebIXGa6J9HEm0OAq5Xsvavuj2BuOuessO7S7O_PFbVsasClhZOTxprX1qTqt7cRg2LgaW/s640/blogger-image-2102479972.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGGSqyEo62RX_b8wDU8-uUGiWiSr5IHQY_1EXfNf66E96aN72iY9yBNdKJxV-KjIPebIXGa6J9HEm0OAq5Xsvavuj2BuOuessO7S7O_PFbVsasClhZOTxprX1qTqt7cRg2LgaW/s640/blogger-image-2102479972.jpg" /></a></div>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-41762566851664713032013-02-26T13:31:00.001-05:002013-03-02T15:07:21.589-05:00The great debate: consumer data privacyIs one of the thorniest issues in public policy today and is too sensitive to be left in the hands of any one particular entity (publisher, marketer or otherwise). In the closing session at the IAB ALM, the traditional debate-style panel tackled this hot button issue<br />
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Moderated by Kate Kaye of AdAge<br />
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Panel members:<br />
Tom Chavez - CEO Krux<br />
Pam Dixon, Exec Director, World Privacy Forum<br />
Marc Groman, Exec Dir and GC, NAI (Network Advertising Initiative)<br />
John Simpson, Consumer Advocate, Consumer Watchdog<br />
Mark Zagorski, CEO, eXelate<br />
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<b>"Do not track initiative" is at a standstill and Microsoft's DNT tool by default has be ignored by the industry. If the industry does not want DNT, what are the options we are offering consumers?</b><br />
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Marc: industry is not opposed to additional mechanisms or browser based mechanisms. Notice, choice and enhanced controls are welcome. The proposals on the table and the framework that has been set is troubling. We haven't identified the problem we are seeking to solve and did not think through unintended consequences such as disproportionate advantages to some competitors in the market. So - what is the solution? self regulation with high standards and serious reinforcement. The FTC should play an important role in this. Industry needs more education for consumers and adopt/develop more enhancing technologies. We need scalable solutions that are practical and important to the issues we are seeking to address.<br />
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<b>In a recent Evidon study it was reported that there has been a significant growth in tags/cookies tracking users. Many companies have partnerships that require cookie syncing and publishers may not be aware of the tag complexities this creates for publishers even potentially impacting site performance</b><br />
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MarkZ: we need more transparency on the state of tagging and cookies. The number of cookies and pixels growing should not be something people are concerned about. Cookies are growing because of the additional data used to benefit consumers and publishers. Pixels for content optimization, pixels for better data analytics; site metrics, etc. All this new information is enriched with these additional cookies/pixels. <br />
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<b>There have been recent example in which PII was leaked through AOL and Netflix data breaches. The Ad and Online industry are do not have standards for anonymization. Why?<br />
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Mark: Data security is fundamental to the NAI code just like we look at reliable sources requirements and data retention requirements. NAI does not allow members to join prior to agreeing with privacy compliance and controls.<br />
Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-78256350967831497302013-02-26T12:56:00.001-05:002013-03-02T22:27:00.219-05:00Better data is the new currency - Scott Howe, CEO ACXIOM<b>In this session at the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.iab.net/events_training/2013/alm/agenda">IAB Annual Leadership Meeting"</a> Scott shared how much of a central role data has played throughout his career.</b><br />
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In the late 90s he joined Avenue A/Razorfish and much of his time there was spent figuring out how to use data to enhance running campaigns. He then joined Atlas and used the data they were collecting to launch an advertising network - with only $100k investment they launched a $100M business.<br />
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Every day we face campaign performance issues with our clients who ask for adjustments to the campaign to compensate for shortage in its success.<br />
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<b>Note all data is created equal</b><br />
In a study of conversion performance (lifet vs. untargeted media) a consistent pattern emerges: contextual advertising best in breed yields 132% lift. Best demographic targeting: 550% and Best behavioral: 1235% (!). These lifts demonstrate the yield improvements if you launch data into your campaigns.<br />
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Realistically: if remenant price is $0.50 this isn't such a large impact but it has the potential to be lucrative:<br />
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The economics of ad nets and exchanges:<br />
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AdNets buys ads for ~$0.5 to sell it for $5 to $8.<br />
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Applying the model to a publisher ecosystem can yield the same economics. In a recent partnership with large data providers, ACXIOM was able to leverage behavioral targeting to yield the following:<br />
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<b>What should you do about data?</b><br />
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1. Enhance your data with client and 3rd-part information <br />
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2. Treat data as an enterprise function. The folks in your company looking at (advertising) data should include the folks who work with remenant advertising, feedback loop to the CMS for improvement to the user experience, <br />
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3. Seek partners with data breadth and scale<br />
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Scott claims the multi-variate data lift represents a 5,450% lift (!). Multi variate models generate breakthrough results and can become potential rainmaking opportunities, e.g.<br />
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brand affinity model<br />
auto country of origin<br />
defector models<br />
mini defector models<br />
ownership models<br />
conquest models<br />
auto consumer dynamics<br />
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An example of a integrated data campaign was for a CPG that ACXIOM enhance with their data to better message to their CRM list and determine in0store impact of multi-channel messages. In this example advertiser CRM data was layered with publisher data and other 3rd party data. There was a $20m in store sales lift and 11% share of wallet with a 4% ROI on the campaign<br />
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<b>Pitfalls</b><br />
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Tunnel vision (e.g. just remnant inventory, just social, just mobil)<br />
Operational costs: don't try to hire PHd in data or you will hurt the economics in your organization<br />
Partner selection: make sure you are aligning with real companies vs. innovative features. That your partners can handle the data scale, privacy and security of your data. <br />
Privacy: as the world moves toward increased privacy controls over consumer data - consumers become an underrepresented constituency</attach>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-2381489702769890572013-02-26T11:59:00.001-05:002013-02-27T10:52:53.206-05:00Susan Wojcicki - SVP Advertising Google<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Susan has been working at Google for the last decade on advertising. To susan the importance of online advertising is its role:<br />
funding content (games, videos, etc) that all the world can see<br />
Enabling business driving new business and driving consumers to the products companies sell<br />
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More importantly is the cultural impact online advertising has. She shared a personal photo from a recent trip to a desolate island. She was struck by the presence of billboards posted to buildings and on the streets. In the context of the sea change our industry is going we need to explore where our users are going. Advertising is a B2B business but it needs to follow lockstep with the consumers' trends<br />
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Susan paints a picture of "a day in the life" in our digital future. She describes an environment where our daily interactions are all digital (a self driving car, personalized virtual displays, etc) and presents her view how the ad world will look in the future<br />
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<b>The future of advertising</b> (according to Susan)<br />
Susan presents her four "C" in her vision of the future of advertising<br />
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1. <b>Choice</b>: Ad views will be voluntary<br />
A trivial example is YouTube videos in which there is a fair exchange of content for advertising. YouTube's statistics are showing 70% of ads are true-view ads: users are willingly watching ads and advertisers are creating ads users who are the target of their campaigns will want to see.<br />
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Example: Nike Golf: o Cup Is Safe<br />
This ad is so compelling (9.5 views) that when she paused it in the middle of the ad, the audience was at suspense... In fact the ad is so successful that YouTube now has advertising against the ad...<br />
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Another example is the Samsung "next big thing" campaign<br />
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Youtube will be extending TrueView to Apps and to Games. TV will now be shown against non-video inventory<br />
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2. <b>Control</b>: Users will participate if we provide enough value and control<br />
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Users do not have a clear mechanism to "raise their hand" in what they are interested in. <br />
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3. <b>Charm</b>: Ads will be more interactive and beautiful - at scale. New ad creative and formats need to work well across all ads. Example of a rising star ad, winner of the rising star IAB competition: Cadillac (ATS) . You can change the color, rotate the vehicle, etc. <br />
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4. <b>Connected</b>: Ads will help people connect with brands and each other<br />
Google has been rethinking "how to figure into the new connected world?". They launched the "enhanced campaign" in which advertiser provides the creatives and Google adjusts targeting and platform. <i>I have to note that this is a high touch proposition that many publishers struggle with because it is becoming an expectation that they build creatives for digital campaigns</i><br />
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Susa then poses an interesting example where our current advertising model is lacking. Though the entire audience at IAB works in advertising and "likes" advertising and travels a lot - none of us received any advertising from the hotel where the conference takes place (the Biltmore hotel). It is not due to lake of desire by the hotel but because there is no current model that would allow them to connect with their visitor/guests and provide compelling offers to attract them back.<br />
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5. <b>Calibration</b> All ads will be measured. Clicks will only be one measurement type. We know advertisers care about Reach (Google has the brand activate suite which offers GRP measurement). We also know advertisers are looking for <b>impact</b>. Similarly to how CPC helped display advertising, Google is now integrating consumer surveys into their AdWords. Anyone can set up a survey to run across the web and get feedback and the survey can be attached to a campaign with no additional tagging and fees<br />
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<br />Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-23954592541192501082013-02-25T18:02:00.001-05:002013-02-25T18:15:23.059-05:00Big Data Big Ideas: Tim Armstrong CEO of AOLTim is a seasoned veteran of the digital industry. He frequently gets asked "are you media or technology?" and feels they are one and the same. Tim points to the fact that we have reams of data. You just have to find the relevant data. Big data is still an infant ad every second AOL produces 3x the amount of data in the congressional library. 90% of the knowledge in the world was created in the last two years.<br />
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Traversing the auto industry's timeline helps understand where the online industry is right now.The first 20 years of the auto industry saw a great deal of adoption but without massive changes to physical environment (trains transportation). in the next 20 years car transportation changed commerce. The first 20 years were game changing in terms of perception and the next 20 were game changing in terms of people's habits.<br />
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His point is that the internet is very similar. It is in the first 20 years and those are just the beginning. By 2020 there will be 50b connected devices. Add to that an explosion in connection speeds and we are facing a torrent of data that these devices will produce.<br />
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Tim claims today is the lowest in competition and highest in opportunity in our industry. He is excited about the end of mail delivery on saturdays. This is the first physical change affected by an online economy and confirms we are at the beginning of the physical impacts of the new economy. <br />
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AOL's largest partner is Verizon which does a great deal of CPA based advertising. Tim is a big believer connected the online world with the physical world and points to this relationship as case in point. Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-80109492890757274472013-02-25T14:53:00.001-05:002013-02-26T08:02:19.336-05:00Weather affects everything<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMnt9X1o48SG9Pwg4V2yaD7yOdgvH6tlFR4kqwnBuXbdtjWX5d0y3t13NGkausC0kYtz8sXC1mO7NuhDvUcbTnOseRs9dvVVoe5X9W4g71Dl6Rmjkjw1UvLumeln0qc8y-nSM/s640/blogger-image--123127530.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMnt9X1o48SG9Pwg4V2yaD7yOdgvH6tlFR4kqwnBuXbdtjWX5d0y3t13NGkausC0kYtz8sXC1mO7NuhDvUcbTnOseRs9dvVVoe5X9W4g71Dl6Rmjkjw1UvLumeln0qc8y-nSM/s320/blogger-image--123127530.jpg" width="320" /></a>David Kenny from the Weather Channel (CEO) and Curt Hecht (head of sales).<br />
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David spoke about the direction where the company is going. TWC is in a unique category. The business is based on big data to begin with (weather prediction). Early on there was an understanding that weather data could be commoditized. The notion that you need to create competitive advantage to your data. So the company invested heavily in gathering data and its derivatives (e.g. the acquisition of weather underground).<br />
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The expectation from mobile users for TWC is for instant and hyper local weather information. As climate changes the traditional weather forecasting does not work well. Last summer 61% of the country was in drought conditions and 9.2MM acres charred in 2012 ; 3rd highest in 13 years. This is important to TWCs audience and to advertisers as well. Many consumer purchased are based on weather related patterns.<br />
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The more data fits in to the revenue side of the business the more it plays into the storytelling part of the business as well. Data is not just about the audience but about the weather story itself. TWC has begun naming storms (e.g. #Nemo) the way they name hurricanes. They did it because social media saves lives: people tweet about named entities. There were 800M tweets and photos around #nemo in a 5 day period. <br />
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TWC is now in the business of selling data. Fortunes have shifted in the digital space and TWC believes big data will determine who wins in this era. <br />
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WeatherFX is TWC's weather-intelligent marketing platform. Weather data is conditioned on a local market place. There questions TWC helps answer for marketers are consumer insight related:<br />
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How tdo you feel? Who do you contact? Where do you eat? What do you wear? How do you commute? What do you do? what do you buy? Weather impacts $5 Trillion or approximately 1/3 of the US economy (Penn state U, 2002)<br />
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Weather affects people look at "perfect weather for" on Twitter. It is the social element around weather that TWC has fostered with both twitter and facebook. <br />
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An interesting observation is how weather impacts people differently. 27 degrees in Miami and Chicago affects people in those cities differently.<br />
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The WeatherFX Suite: audience profiling (audience FX), WeatherFX Extender which puts TWC data in a larger marketplace. LocalFX is weather distributed through local media partners. TWC opens up inventory to self-serve and make it available to other local media companies. <br />
<br />Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-18951191127045662342013-02-25T14:36:00.001-05:002013-02-25T15:10:19.131-05:00Big data means big business: Understanding the media and consumer
opportunitiesAmit Seth of Nielsen walked us through a research company's view of big data and its application on publishers and brand marketers.<br />
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His first point was Nielsen's drive to develop a common set of metrics across all the platforms that Nielsen operates on (both the "buy" side of retail and the "watch" side. Nielsen collects data from facebook (who saw the ad), panels and ad delivery platforms.<br />
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Their "cross platform online campaign ratings" - a system with an extensive API that delivers campaign data directly into the advertiser's data systems.<br />
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The data helps understand what watchers buy. When you combine buying habits with analytics which have helped ABC increase the performance of their upfronts. Nielsen now provides campaign audience duplication reports. And recently the understanding of social media. To understand how complex this issue is you need to look at the data created in social media. People tweet about content they view, content which is monitored by Nielsen's other ratings services. Nielsen acquired social guide and have a partnership with twitter to deliver "social TV ratings" - what the social media tells us about the viewers such as social guide, audience affinities,<br />
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Nielsen bridges online and offline worlds via research, interfaces with other systems<br />
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Amit Seth<br />
@aseth<br />
@NielsenWire<br />
flavors.me/asethTiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-31823366997187782462013-02-25T14:07:00.001-05:002013-02-25T18:03:57.737-05:00Silicon Valley meets Madison AvenueMike Abbott of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers delivered a great presentation on this topic. He began describing what big data is. The funny thing is that there is no agreed definition for this term. in a recent study more companies agree on big data's benefits than its definition.<br />
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Mike had led the team the designed big data for Twitter (no small feat) before he joined the VC community. Often he was the person "trying to get the money". He raised $100m in venture capital. During this time he got a strong appreciation for big data and its role at companies.<br />
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Interesting big data stat: 2.8 Zettabytes (ZB) of data will be created and replicated this year. A zettabyte (symbol ZB, derived from the SI prefix zetta-) is equal to 10 powered by 21 bytes or 1,000 exabytes (or one sextillion (one long scale trilliard) bytes). Just 0.5% of worlds massive trove of data is being analyzed. 3% is tagged and 23% is useful if tagged and analyzed<br />
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By 2020, IDC predicts that the digital universe will hold an amazing 40ZB of data. 57x amount of all the grains of sand on all the beaches on earth. If we saved 40ZB onto today's blue ray discs : 424 aircraft carriers<br />
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Between 2012 and 2020 the size of digital universe will double every 2 years. Machine generated data will be a major driver of that growth. <br />
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What is big data?<br />
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Big data is defined by its dimensions:<br />
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Velocity: move at very high rate and valuable in its temporal, high velocity state<br />
Volume: Fast moving data creates massive historical archives. Valuable for mining patterns, trends<br />
Variety: disparate sources create new insights<br />
Relevance: Can you derive relevance from the data?<br />
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The applications for big data are very early Companies that are piloting in customer focus areas are not looking at twitter like data yet. But there is a great deal of experimentation.<br />
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Four of 10 businesses view analytics of it as an enigma. The ROI is not very clear yet.<br />
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<b>How does this apply to marketers and advertisers?</b><br />
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64% of B2B companies said they are having unerliable marketing data such as incomplete records and data integrity issues. Often, after we clean up our data and try to use it we run into privacy issues. These issues are becoming increasingly problematic. Consumers are conflicted. 3 in 10 say companies should never track them. Clearly trackers deployed by websites are on the rise. US consumers keep personal data even from trusted companies such as religion, politicl leaning (US personal information sharing with trusted companies). Americans' online privacy concerns are also in popular online activities such as shopping. At the same time 9 in 10 mobile device users will swap personal info for offers *Mobile users' openness to data sharing for offers)<br />
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How do we combine multiple data sources?<br />
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Years ago the traditional model with Cognos was to move a large amount of data to the data warehouse in order to get insights. Now we can put the data in one place very efficiently and run queries in sync, join information and generate patterns.<br />
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Ad agencies have a role in data. They can bridge gaps and provide a "data hub" to customers. Advertising is dependent on trends and brands have a lot of this data at their disposal. Ad agencies provide a valuable communication conduit between the customer and the brand.<br />
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The market for big data is big. More investments were made this year than any previous year (112 investments). The term big data as a label will change and evolve. It is overloaded and means different things to different people. Some potential new definitions he offers:<br />
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Smart Data: production of persistent data through predictive analytics. Companies are moving beyond BY such as Twitter.<br />
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Predictive analytics: used in fraud systems and recommendation engines. Techniques for this borrow from statistics, machine learning, modeling and other fields to identify and exploit patterns.<br />
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Another area is NewSQL (vs. NoSQL). It describes highly scalable horizontally distributed SQL systems. <br />
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Last but not least is data science and data scientists. There is a shortage in the field and a need to develop and hire data scientists in this new and growing field.<br />
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Other areas that investors are looking into in the VC community:<br />
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Visualization<br />
ETL/Integration<br />
Stream processing and streaming analytics<br />
NLP<br />
Image and video mining<br />
Machine learning<br />
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The VC community is bullish on first followers - those companies that look at innovation and make it a breakthrough of their own.<br />
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First movers have historically had a 47% fail rate<br />
Fast followers on the other hand, have a 8% failure rate and understand customers better<br />
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Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-14138521058134804542013-02-25T12:00:00.001-05:002013-02-25T12:52:09.327-05:00IAB Annual Leadership: Big Data Big IdeasThis week I am at the IAB Annual leadership meeting where advertisers and publishers meet every year to further the vision of a creative, innovative and brand focused industry. I will start start with the feature presentation on big data by Jim Speros of Fidelity Investments<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWXWQpq_435GkYmwcgh3FU4wX0oJuf7DVslY5myu37F4tlkCSrFl296eZvet53RrmW1L4lXj-8LSU7ALwlycWMhrp43wQcMpHb65rpU_KHkLGzMzcDT_oaTvsMd7vUFq8qyWtd/s640/blogger-image-840218813.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWXWQpq_435GkYmwcgh3FU4wX0oJuf7DVslY5myu37F4tlkCSrFl296eZvet53RrmW1L4lXj-8LSU7ALwlycWMhrp43wQcMpHb65rpU_KHkLGzMzcDT_oaTvsMd7vUFq8qyWtd/s640/blogger-image-840218813.jpg" /></a><br />
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The opening story about big data started with this "data" quote: 9 of 10 people think of sex while jogging. 1 of 10 people think of jogging while having sex. <br />
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He then showed a series of commercials from ATT in the 80s "you will". The capabilities promised in the commercial did not yet exist but the became technologies now known as Skype, ezpass, touch screens. The common backdrop to all these technologies is the new wealth of information and data they provide us with.<br />
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The explain the complexity behind big data Jim shared the enormity of big data challenges one needs to understand the scale that Fidelity operates on.<br />
Volume - 17m customers<br />
Variety - social and moile channels, voice recordings, imaged documents and web interactions<br />
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Big data allows more precise targeting (who), more relevant messaging (what), more timely segmented messages (when) and pinpoint people by location (where) all to deliver more efficiency (why). Those are the basic five whys of marketing.<br />
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"Data is becoming as important as raw materials"<br />
Turning mountains of data into insights allows companies to respond quickly and turn opportunities into profitability. Fidelity produced a compelling video about the relevance and importance of data. How data analysis helps answering questions about pricing, opportunity and predictive analysis. The video was part of a fidelity digital campaign.<br />
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Target has been cited is as one of the great big data companies. Target would like to identify a pregnant woman and get her into the store to become a customer for life. Using their guest ID, 3rd party data, analytics and analysis - if you bought soap, cotton balls, hand sanitizer, unscented lotion and vitamin - you are probably pregnant. And they beging efforts to recruit you into their store.<br />
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Simply collecting data is not an end onto itself. Data hoarding without knowing what to do with it results in chaos. Clarifty is the result of making data accessible and easy to digest.<br />
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The issues are:<br />
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Lack of analytical capabilities - not enough analytics inside the company who can connect the dots together. McKinsey noted we will need another 190k people who are data savvy and 1.5M managers who are data literate.<br />
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Siloed systems/no data management platforms - most companies have system that grew up in stovepipes and do not conenct together. To harness the power of big data you need to have systems that work horizontally (calls centers, marketing, etc)<br />
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Access to data - there is a training regiment that needs to be put in place to teach how to use data once it is collected<br />
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Privacy - Big data is the electronic microscope of the 21st century. It allows to peek into consumer patterns and behaviors. There is a responsibility that comes with this capability to prevent a tremendous backlash if we dont protect consumer privacy<br />
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Difficulty keeping pace - new technology, media and services are all shouting for our attention as leaders. You need to become a student of the industry to build critical understanding and rely on other people as well.<br />
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Lack of alignment within organizations <br />
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Too much data - we have far too much data to deal with. Fortune cited last year that from the beginning of time to 2003 we collected 5M Gb of data. In 2013 we will generate that much data every 10 minutes. The ability to absorb that much data is critical moving forward.<br />
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<b>What happens when most companies learn to harness big data and the playing field is leveled?</b><br />
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What are the roles of brands?<br />
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A brand is a <b>trustmark</b> and the most important asset with the consumer.<br />
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A brand is a <b>prmoise</b> to deliver a set of qualities <br />
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A brand is a <b>relationship</b> (think of smartphone and android products) - people are loyal to their products and develop a deal relationship with them<br />
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A brand is a <b>desire</b><br />
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<b>Advocacy</b> is an important part of our world today. When people love our products so much they become advocates for it<br />
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It is as important to keep customers <b>loyal</b> as it is to gain new customers<br />
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<b>The power of emotion in the context of big data</b><br />
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Fidelity is running a phenomenal campaign. They have a video of a 90 year old woman telling a 5 minute story about how she saved money in a jar to jump out of an airplane. The spot is all about what retirement CAN BE if you save for it: <br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/fiedlity.com/personalEconomy">Fidelity personal economy (fiedlity.com/personalEconomy)</a><br />
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Fidelity uses data very intensively but the most important use of this data is finding ways to make emotional connections with their customers. That is the basis for an enduring long term relationship with your brand<br />
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Key take-aways:<br />
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- Friend your CIO<br />
Embrace data and analytics as much as creative<br />
Brands built on deep human insight provide during relationships that transcend transactions<br />
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Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0Biltmore Greens Phoenix33.524758 -112.016205tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-80166947768096705362011-01-10T08:04:00.003-05:002011-01-10T08:32:04.304-05:00Simplicity is powerful<div>The designers at the <a href="http://www.a2591.com/2010/12/minimalist-effect-in-maximalist-market.html" target="_blank">blog site "A2591"</a> remind us that letting your product speak out for itself can be very powerful. </div><br /><div></div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 267px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bqACzg-AwhM/TRPr2iz_EfI/AAAAAAAABOc/GcsxmzcVCt8/s400/08.jpg" /> <div> </div><div>Take a moment to think how this impacts the way you design your PowerPoint presentation or your analytics dashboard. Let your product speak for itself (you in the case of a presentation, your data in the case of a dashboard). If you find you need to rely on embellishments (text, data or graphics) you have entered the arena of chart junk and you should start reading up on<a href="http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0000Jr" target="_blank"> Ed Tufte's musings on that topic</a>!</div><br /><p>Of course there are some brands that are not well established (and there are one or two examples I do not like on the A2591 site). If you find you do not have a good message (as a presenter) or the data does not speak for itself (dashboard/analytics) then you should think twice if you are in front of the right audience or ready for prime time!</p>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-18224775544761036132010-12-08T06:52:00.005-05:002010-12-08T07:08:45.409-05:00Thoughtful InnovationDespite the sophistication of western technology there are too many people who are unable to enjoy these breakthroughs through dispair, poverty or medical condition.<br /><br />Design That Matters is a non-profit that takes a pragmatic approach to lending a helping hand in the most unexpected ways. Over 4 million babies die within one month of birth, mostly in 3rd world countries. Despite generous aid from the western world, equipment donated to help these countries tends to break down within a year of installation. Due to lack of technical knowhow and access to spare parts these sohpisticated modern creations are then rendered useless. Design That Matters partnered with a neonatal manufacturer (Neonurture) to produce an incubator that is made entirely of...spare car parts. Warming is achieved via car headlights, the device is powered by a car battery and the alarms to alert caregivers are car horns.<br /><br />Being aware of the ecosystem in which this device operates resulted in a product that any car mechanic can service yet provides the same level of care as a hospital with the technology for a $40,000 device.<br /><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 450px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://exhibitions.cooperhewitt.org/Why-Design-Now/images/16.jpg" /><br /><br /><a target="_blank" href="http://exhibitions.cooperhewitt.org/Why-Design-Now/project/neonurture-car-parts-incubator"><strong><span style="color:#3366ff;">Click here for more information</span></strong></a><strong><span style="color:#3366ff;"><br /><br /></span></strong>An unrelated but amazing application of technology for good use is the Eyewriter: how a group of tech geeks got together to help a grafitti artist who fell victim to ALS to restore his ability to create. He can only move his eyes yet they enabled him to "tag" a large building off the california freeway.<br /><br /><object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6376466&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6376466&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/6376466">The Eyewriter</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/fi5e">Evan Roth</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-40457867840177024482010-10-15T13:26:00.006-04:002010-10-15T13:47:56.787-04:00The best of the web<a target="_blank" href="https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=df7rw7vz_338cz6ngnd6 "><img style="FLOAT: none; HEIGHT: 198px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5528330581894385986" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIFI8WkvJLjCbojCNqiXqnh1WTI0Zz9G7ErxX8YQCZlON9JEFvEowRDGCVsVXtewqp6PkSPqC7tshyphenhyphenlY1didIXvNgfzKWNaNHYfxfkJyjUOr_f5iCi6E2aGzLVuHyk2aQQ1XTu/s320/sour.bmp" /></a><br>Thanks to my friend, Christian Alicea, I can share with you a presentation that is rich with examples of viral videos, creative use of the online medium and just plain fun stuff!<br /><br /><a href="https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=df7rw7vz_338cz6ngnd6" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=df7rw7vz_338cz6ngnd6</a>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-81196286534144923072010-10-14T17:48:00.003-04:002010-10-14T17:55:09.241-04:00Music VisualizationI have taken a stab at an organic pattern for music visualization. I am using Trapcode Particular and Trapcode KeyNote. Let me know what you think - its an early version and I will be building on it some more.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/15853849?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="491" height="276" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/15853849">Music Visualization Mock-Up</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/tiran">Tiran Dagan</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-69569641704108994992010-10-12T16:59:00.005-04:002010-10-12T17:12:04.282-04:00Lying with FactsWhen was the last time you were presented with data that led to incorrect conclusions?<br /><br />In our digital world companies are amassing data: about our personal preferences, what sites we visits, where we purchase, what we buy, where we travel.<br /><br />Case at hand: Any time you visit a site that has a "like" button you are transmitting data to facebook about having visited that page. Assuming you checked the "keep me logged in" box - the code included with the "like" button uses your loging authentication information on facebook's servers. Who is to tell how that data can be used? What conclusions might be made based on patterns emerging from this data? If my wife vists Etsy.com using my PC's desktop will an advertiser start pushing me ads for arts & crafts in my facebook account? Will a psychographic tagging service start making assumptions about my preferences by drawing conclusions from a subset of data realized through my online behavior?<br /><br />The holy grail of advertising will be when the full circle of conversion can be traversed: from the moment you are a "visitor", as you become "prospect" for a product/service by visiting related site/page and ultimately closing the loop by purchasing the product that was originally advertised-for when you were just a "visitor". This information is powerful and is highly valuable to advertisers.<br /><br />Back to the topic at hand: I will be speaking at a conference in January about analytics and dashboards and would like to enlist your help. Do you have examples where data (facts) were incorrectly used? misquotes? resulted in severe consequences? Or when the right data led to wrong conclusions ("all roses are flowers so all flowers are therefor roses"). Can you share examples of poorly designed dashboards? Data gathering/dashboarding initiatives that died due to politics?<br /><br />Examples can be from any area/field (media, financial services, manufacturing, etc).<br /><br />If I use your example you will get the credit!Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-54091313113186084162010-10-07T13:39:00.006-04:002010-10-07T13:50:41.641-04:00Adobe After Effects: special effectI created the following title treatment using Adobe After effects, trapcode particular and some nifty text vector tricks. If I get anyone to ask for the instructions how I did this, I will create a walk-through. Enjoy!<br /><br /><object width="490" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fErhx4GAVkg?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fErhx4GAVkg?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="490" height="300"></embed></object>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-44014024846930117142010-10-05T03:18:00.005-04:002010-10-05T03:24:23.793-04:00HD-cams in sapceI came across two fascinating videos taken by HD cams fitted to weather baloons. They both reached the upper atmosphere - over 100,000 feel above earth - before bursting. See images of earth like you never saw before!<br /><br /><strong>Luke Geissbuhler<br /></strong>Camera: Go Pro Hero HD<br />Used a cell phone with GPS & Instamapper to report drop location<br /><br /><iframe height="225" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/15091562?byline=0&portrait=0&autoplay=0" frameborder="0" width="400"></iframe><br /><br /><strong>Bear-4 HD Camera Flight<br /></strong>Camera: Canon Vixia HF20 HD<br />Flight time: 2Hrs 45min<br /><br /><iframe class="youtube-player" title="YouTube video player" height="255" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Lie0diOhfdg" frameborder="0" width="400" type="text/html"></iframe>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-5277701859428255462010-09-26T08:35:00.014-04:002010-09-30T09:09:04.698-04:00Get your kids addicted!Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata are a motion animation duo known as <a href="http://www.tinyinventions.com/about/index.html" target="_blank">Tiny Inventions</a>. They have created an incredibly addictive animation titled "Electric Car". If you have young kids at home beware! This video is very highly addictive and will get everyone singing and clapping along, including you:<br /><br /><object width="490" height="360"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11744276&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11744276&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="490" height="360"></embed></object><br /><br />The "making-of" video uncovers the artistic talent they put into creating the movie's sets from scratch using found objects, sohpisticated 3D photography and a workflow in Adobe After Effects that truly pushes the software to its limits. Check this out:<br /><br /><object width="500" height="450" classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab"><br /><param name="src" value="http://www.tinyinventions.com/blog/images/electriccar/electric_car_making.mov"><param name="autoplay" value="false"><param name="controller" value="true"><br /><embed src="http://www.tinyinventions.com/blog/images/electriccar/electric_car_making.mov" width="500" height="450"<br />autoplay="false" controller="true"<br />pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/"><br /></embed><br /><br /></object> <br /><br />If you are as interested (as I am) in how they pulled this off then I have the goods for you! They published a video in association with Red Giant Software who makes the plug ins for After Effects used in the making of most sophisticated motion graphics videos. Here is a link to how they photographed hundreds of set ups to recreate the 3D look and feel and the script based pre-comps in After Effects to achieve true puppeteering of the 2.5D figures.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/videos/redgianttv-video.php?id=55" target="_blank">The behind-the-scenes of "Electric Car"</a></b>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-70205968104165280562010-09-19T10:25:00.004-04:002010-09-19T10:27:43.494-04:00The making of Heroes: Completing the SceneAnother interesting video comes from Stargate - the Vfx studio that works on 24, Heroes, Monk and many other well known TV brands.<br /><br />This is about the CGI work that goes into video effects for Heroes:<br /><br /><object width="530" height="323"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xmo8m2_Ut78?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xmo8m2_Ut78?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="530" height="323"></embed></object>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-69276457846200272992010-09-19T09:34:00.002-04:002010-09-19T09:36:36.160-04:00VFX in Alice in WonderlandThis is a cool breakdown of the video effects from Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp. Most of the film was shot in front of a green screen, an odd experience for actors who needed references to what would appear in the final shot. Notice the frog placeholders in the middle of this video.<br /><br /><object width="450" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/19883"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/19883" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" width="450" height="295" allowFullScreen="true"></embed></object>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-34155132887737886832010-09-13T13:15:00.005-04:002010-09-13T13:18:48.836-04:00One thing the iPad is NOT good forNewsday is running a funny ad in which they demonstrate one thing the iPad is NOT good for:<br /><br /><object width="520" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YfFfqMR6uK0?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YfFfqMR6uK0?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-14462130167613078552010-07-23T06:47:00.003-04:002010-07-23T07:14:59.770-04:00Excel to PowerPoint<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkc5HUrSG2vFdOas2eElDvBDK225sJX9ivepsyRqi43p_9I286U-suePV2hzCI7ZUiSkUCHngT1AxKhJ2kQS1QwZdZEc9SDK0F-APPKzbfc_rF0kLfPXYyb1HgrzJ38K5w2ByQ/s1600/Screenshot.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5497058476893514866" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkc5HUrSG2vFdOas2eElDvBDK225sJX9ivepsyRqi43p_9I286U-suePV2hzCI7ZUiSkUCHngT1AxKhJ2kQS1QwZdZEc9SDK0F-APPKzbfc_rF0kLfPXYyb1HgrzJ38K5w2ByQ/s320/Screenshot.jpg" /></a><br /><div>I developed a VBA application in Excel that creates a powerpoint presentation of nicely formatted slides from the rows in a spreadsheet and released it into public domain. Using powerpoint you can design the layout of each of the pages that will represent a single record adding lines, textboxes, graphics or any other element you can possibly incorporate in PowerPoint. The link to your data is made by referencing the title of the column in the spreadsheet. So, for example, if you have a textbox in your powerpoint template that looks like this:<br /><br />This product require {Req Prod}<br /><br />Then the application expects one of the columns in your spreadsheet is titled "Req Prod" and the value in that column will replace the placeholder string {Req Prod} when you run the program. This is very similar to how Word does a mailmerge.<br /><br /><span style="color:#996633;">Cool feature alert: you can even include a screenshot for each record!</span><br /><br />A sample dataset and template are included.<br /><br />Click the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/excel2powerpoin/">download link </a>to get this app for free!</div>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-43624946879377584912010-07-22T07:17:00.005-04:002010-07-23T07:15:21.446-04:00Free Game: Leetuhl Bear<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOM-br8rAW_BxK43GEaFWCkZtGOLMEWIpwhmGZcx2z3TVw44w0KU_gtGWB6GUxKiQpaRwZs4KW7OBhqsmL-OAnFZz36E1DL24QEuneXD4dsBDx3nEk6HOBxNZBWbbjhkNfpdSi/s1600/Screen2.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 230px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496688238862868514" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOM-br8rAW_BxK43GEaFWCkZtGOLMEWIpwhmGZcx2z3TVw44w0KU_gtGWB6GUxKiQpaRwZs4KW7OBhqsmL-OAnFZz36E1DL24QEuneXD4dsBDx3nEk6HOBxNZBWbbjhkNfpdSi/s400/Screen2.jpg" /></a><br />Over the weekend I took it upon myself to learn how to develop for the BlackBerry platform. The most basic arcade game of asteroids seemed to be a good start. Since my tow year old (Finn) was with me, I gave it a little twist and had his face shoot little bears instead of spaceships and instead of missiles he shoots hearts.<br /><br />If you want to download a free copy of the game to your blackberry, point your blackberry browser at the following link:<br /><br /><a href="http://where.tirandagan.com/finn">http://where.tirandagan.com/finn</a><br /><br />Enjoy!<br /><br />PS: Why the retarded name for this game? Finn loves the show "Little Bear" and prounces it as "Leeh Tuhl Baer".Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-37061885032142826382010-05-29T00:24:00.003-04:002010-05-29T00:26:48.464-04:00Functional Design<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmY5GAhmxudfZbgGQxXJxdJnqcZUN6vG6zfEbXD62N_FheKDcyUMYA4i_74Ij4ItW2WVxYLdrWxdQmBFJ5OcokLGDNPvEhjsS0U0pdaAzs47RXzUXVKEYPUsWj_KoWihHHMC7l/s320/Runtal+Italia+s.r.l.+-+Windows+Internet+Explorer+5292010+122159+AM.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="clear:both;float:left; margin:0px 10px 10px 0;" />That cool looking thing on the wall? Its a functioning heat radiator (<a href="http://www.runtalitalia.it/modules_cms/PrCatPage.php?cc=9&pc=59">Runtal Splash</a>) by italian design firm Runtal. Fancy that!<div style="clear:both; text-align:LEFT"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" alt="Posted by Picasa" style="border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;" align="middle" border="0" /></a></div>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36772294.post-68274911999383874092010-05-13T12:55:00.006-04:002010-05-14T11:13:09.389-04:00NY Video MeetupCheck out the video from the May 2010 NY Video Meetup. I was a member of the judging panel. There were 6 cool products/technologies introduces. The panel included folks in venture capital and we went for the company that presented the most mature business model: Sunday Sky - which produces data drive rich video demos for websites. Imagine B&H running a video that is customized to every single product on their website, based on the information present on the page. They do this by creating a video template that is then executed against the page and remains live so changes to specs and pricing for products dynamically updates the video for the product.<br /><br />The audience went for the company with the coolest demo - Interlude: a non linear music video which allows the user to determine the outcome of the music video interactively in one of 256 possible combinations. To see the Interlude demo move the video to 01:07:00 (one hour, 7 minutes)<br /><br /><object width="480" height="420" id="lsplayer" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.livestream.com/grid/LSPlayer.swf?channel=nyvideo&clip=pla_6bdbb9da-10d8-4a29-a4c4-07e7fa71ef55&autoPlay=false"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed name="lsplayer" wmode="transparent" src="http://cdn.livestream.com/grid/LSPlayer.swf?channel=nyvideo&color=0xe7e7e7&autoPlay=false&mute=false" width="480" height="420" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object><div style="font-size: 11px;padding-top:10px;text-align:center;width:400px">Watch <a href="http://www.livestream.com/?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=footerlinks" title="live streaming video">live streaming video</a> from <a href="http://www.livestream.com/nyvideo?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=footerlinks" title="Watch nyvideo at livestream.com">nyvideo</a> at livestream.com</div>Tiranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13953702595440275201noreply@blogger.com0