Here’s a funny, and all too true look at the relationship between clients and vendors…Seem familiar?

This could be adjust to control the walker. And the views could be different based on different surfaces. It’s a little complex to explain the process, you can just watch the video, and then everything gonna be clear.

Waterfalls and fountains are common decoration for public places. But they are not anything but decoration without amusing. But interactive technology will implement this shortage.

It seems like a normal board at first glance, but the interactive technology allows you to add any virtual objects to change the direction of the flow, or just with your body. Therefore, you can enjoy the water in public places and do not have to worry about being wet through.

Even iconic designs can die. This pictorial history of the London Underground Tube map, including the classic diagramatic Henry Beck version, ends with a vision of how it has ended up. Totally messed up. What a shame.

Lorsqu’en août 2005 j’ai créé ce blog, je ne savais pas bien quoi en faire et encore moins ce qu’il allait devenir. De toute évidence, ma principale angoisse du moment était de ne pas laisser croire que je voulais jouer au journaliste. Un débat qui parait à la fois d’un autre temps et pourtant toujours filigrane dans pas mal de conversations en ligne. Le texte qui présentait ce blog insistait donc principalement sur ce point après avoir rappelé que j’entendais rester propriétaire du lieu. Pour la petite histoire, PRland était alors un blog anonyme qui ne présentait donc ni ma photo ni mon nom. Ce qui a tenu très exactement 3 mois, le temps que je participe aux premières fêtes de la blogosphère (les blogdrink, Paris blogue-t-il…)

Aujourd’hui je ne renie pas ce texte. J’en garde même tous les contours mais je dois y ajouter une réalité qui s’est forcément nourrie d’expériences. Et d’évolutions de mon existence dans les médias sociaux : alors que PRland constituait le lieu quasi unique de mon expression sur le web, il s’est quelque peu dilué avec le temps dans le volubilité volatile de Twitter, l’exercice de style imposé sur lepost, les images commentées de Posterous…

Pourtant, dès le départ, mon blog était un laboratoire, un lieu utile pour expérimenter de nouvelles approches de marque, comprendre jusqu’où tenait le mélange des genres vie privée vie publique (big up Mireille Dumas), comprendre les bascules de l’existence virtuelle aux liens dans le réel et inversement. Si j’ai toujours refusé les sollicitations (pourtant parfois exagérément alléchantes) qui m’invitaient à transformer mon hub en “arbre de Noël pour marque” de type billets sponsorisés, j’ai plongé à chaque fois qu’on me proposait de vivre quelque chose de nouveau dépassant la description d’un produit qu’on m’aurait offert. Par intérêt et conviction plus que par éthique.

Mais c’était aussi, pourquoi le cacher, un exutoire parfait, l’endroit où assouvir mon besoin frustré d’écriture depuis que la mission éditoriale était confiée à des équipes que je dirige. Et en quelques semaines, j’ai compris que c’était également une ou deux vies gagnées sur ce qui allait bientôt se révéler indispensable : la maîtrise de son identité numérique là où elle pourrait bientôt nous échapper de façon violente. Je n’avais évidemment pas anticipé que la blogosphère deviendrait malgré moi un levier majeur dans les changements professionnels et une nouvelle communauté personnelle qui ont tout simplement bouleversé ma vie. Et j’avais encore moins compris que j’y dirais tellement sur moi, avec une impudeur et un égocentrisme assumé qui font froid dans le dos en relisant certains billets.

Les expériences de ces dernières semaines m’ont appris des choses majeures. En plus de quelques amis qui comptent, je crois avoir acquis une communauté d’alliés que j’aime bien et qui m’aime bien. Vraiment. Et qui a donc l’exigence de ne pas accepter de dérives racoleuses dont j’ai la faiblesse de penser qu’elles ne constituent pas exactement ma marque de fabrique. Je me doutais que l’attaque attirerait les foules (j’ai rarement reçu -et refusé du coup- autant de demandes d’interview qu’après les papier sur Ternisien ou Morandini) mais on ne me pardonnera pas de jouer avec l’émotionnel. Et encore moins d’en rire. Dont acte. Les médias sociaux manipulent de la matière humaine, explosive, sensible. Tout ce qui s’y passe renvoie à ses propres émotions. Comme dans la vraie vie, s’attaquer aux puissants est louable mais pas à ses pairs. C’est finalement rassurant. Et cette expérience là m’aura au moins permis de m’envoyer en 12 jours 2 “puissants” qui me dérangent et de réaliser dans un délire total la première (et sans doute unique) home made vidéo de ce blog.

Sur d’autres sujets et des programmes plus longs, j’ai pu voir ce que des marques demandaient à leurs agences qui les répercutent à “leurs blogueurs” de façon quasi transparente. J’ai sans doute fait partie de la liste des blogueurs les plus ingérables du moment pour les agences de la place, exigeant du sens aux actions, réclamant du vrai contenu, refusant l’inrefusable dans des “deals” de l’ordre du gentleman agreement qui se muait avec le temps en fonction du contexte de la marque plus que des blogueurs concernés. Il reste tellement de pédagogie à faire après tout ce temps que c’en est étourdissant. Et je continue à apprendre tous les jours des réalités qui me sont utiles dans mon métier.

Mais surtout, j’ai réalisé que je suis ici plus que jamais chez moi. Dans mon espace d’expression personnel. Parce que je n’ai jamais fait de retape. On visite l’endroit sans invitation, je n’en parle jamais dans la vraie vie et surtout j’y ai tout créé (avec l’aide des “techniciens” cités dans cette même page “à propos de” d’ailleurs). Twitter m’a échappé le jour où j’ai rendu mon profil public, on a clairement un devoir face aux lecteurs du Post qui ne manquent d’ailleurs jamais de le faire remarquer, Posterous n’est qu’un feed peu engagé, ce blog m’appartient complètement. Je suis sans doute l’un des derniers à m’en apercevoir : les trolls ne restent jamais très longtemps quitte à préférer les spams en format email intrusif (pas toujours simple à gérer), le nombre de visiteurs et d’abonnés au flux est globalement assez stable depuis 2 ans…

PRland est mon blog, j’y tente donc les expériences qui me plaisent sans engager personne, je pratique à outrance le mélange des genres, je joue de la quasi intégralité de mes paradoxes sans me considérer tout à fait en public puisque je suis à la maison. Celui qui n’aime pas est plutôt invité à aller voir ailleurs y compris dans la réponse aux commentaires que j’ai peu à modérer, c’est d’ailleurs une liberté que je ne prendrais nulle part ailleurs. Vous êtes ici chez moi, je vais essayer d’en garder les clés et de laisser l’endroit aussi propre que possible en restant exactement qui je suis.

Clean It Up. A stop-motion video featuring animated lips that clean up a rundown home. Art by: Goons, a street artist out of Chicago Directed by: Ace Norton Music: Keep It Clean by Camera Obscura.

It seems like every digital marketer and agency is talking about the power of listening to your consumers in the digital space. This is fuelled by an entire industry of online listening technology providers that have popped up over the last few years. They all promise the ability to mine the incredible wealth of information available on blogs and social networks to generate insights about what consumers talk about, what’s on their minds and what language they use to talk about the brand or issues related to the brand. While the technological possibilities seem limitless I have still only seen a handful of clients use the information to actually improve their communications. Earlier this week, Emily Steel from the Wall Street Journal wrote about how Ogilvy helped IBM and Harrah’s do this.  

I would just like to spend 2 minutes on the Harrah’s case study for 2 reasons. First I would like to give the credit for the work to Jim Dravillas and his team. They have really done tremendously inventive work for Harrah’s over the years. Sorry Jim - in terms of recognition I realize the doublethink isn’t quite the Wall Street Journal!

The other thing I want to point out is how the Harrah’s example shows that action is more important than listening. The Harrah’s analysis was surprisingly simple. While we have used online listening technology in the past, in this case Jim and his team simply read the top 50 tripadvisor.com ratings and categorized the topics they saw using common sense. My grandmother could have done this (no disrespect to Jim and the team – or my grandmother). What was brilliant about this case however was that the team came up with clear and simple recommendations upon which they acted by changing the communications. It’s this last step - taking action – which is always the hardest. Listening is easy.

The Esquire Magazine Augmented Reality edition shows how the technique can be used creatively. So many horrible examples out there it is nice to see something cool.

Next week we are hosting the third Webinar in our “Executive Guide to Social Media” series, which is a partnership with the Wall Street Journal.

The session is going to be focused on what to do when a crisis hits and we’re fortunate to be joined by John Bell, the global managing director for Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence and Jamie Moeller, who heads up our global public affairs practice.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Sydney / 11 AM to Noon Hong Kong
REGISTER HERE

Here is a quick overview of what will be covered during the Webinar:

The best time to respond to a crisis is before it happens. That is a communications fundamental. Now in age of Twitter, mobile phones, blogs and Facebook, the speed and style of our response has changed dramatically.

Brands that are used to tightly controlled messages are thrust into the back and forth of social media. Detractors are savvy with the ways of YouTube and inciting crowds. Customers and stakeholders often demand that their brands be more transparent and engaging than ever before.

This webinar will include concrete examples and action plans answering numerous questions, including:

• How can you prepare for a crisis today?
• How do you rally your Marketing and Communications team to use all of the resources of the social Web and effectively manage a crisis?
• How should you assemble a plan?
• What NOT to do in a crisis

So get your crisis questions ready and register now as space is limited and we’ve had more than 2,000 registrations for previous sessions!

Phillip Toledano decided to record the last days of his father’s life through photography and writing. Simple and so powerful. Click here to see the story.

This 3D version of Guernica was created by some mysterious person and uploaded to YouTube. Legie1 who are you? This is amazing.

Update: Thanks to David who left a comment with this link revealing all about the movie makers.

A few months ago, Dustin Curtis wrote an article expressing his displeasure with American Airlines‘ hideous online presence. He also spent some time mocking up a redesigned version of their website. To his surprise, a user experience designer at AA.com emailed him an amazing response describing some of the design problems faced in large corporations. An hour after Dustin Curtis posted the response, American Airlines fired Mr. X.

(CC by ooh.ooh)

A few years ago I was thrilled to be nominated to lead the global brand partnership strategy for the then-fledgling Nokia NSeries brand.  I was the first person at big blue to ever have a job dedicated to this pursuit.

For a number of non-important reasons I was recently thinking about that time in my life, and the valuable things I learned on the fly.  I've never really memorialized those lessons, and my memory isn't getting any better.

A bit of a laundry list, but perhaps a nugget or two you can use to get off the blocks a bit faster ...

1. Before you do anything, you must articulate the objective your partnerships will support.  Sales?  Brand awareness?  Competence in a specific area?
2. Think about the benefits of a brand partnership, including (but not limited to) marketing efficiencies; access to the passion people feel towards your partner's brand; access to new audiences; amplifies your own brand's values.  Be sure to clearly articulate these to internal decision makers.
3. Take an honest assessment of everything your brand has to offer ... audience, reputation, distribution, physical assets, media, etc. Remember, partnerships must be mutually beneficial.
4. This depends on your specific case, but make a list of desired partners, segmenting them in a way that allows you evaluate and prioritize.
5. Remember that partnerships come with risks, including (but not limited to) less control over the message; slower decision making processes; you take on the reputation of your partner - good and bad.  Proactively develop a risk-and-response plan.
6. While partnerships are often thought of as consumer or industry facing, don't forget what they mean to your internal stakeholders.  Build in some kind of benefit to your rank-and-file ... a discount, exclusive access to some content, etc.
7. Long-term partnerships tend to fare better than one-offs, but require dedicated resources to manage and optimize.
8. Related to the above, partnerships based on a single product or service can be fickle, and don't give the relationship time to blossom.
9. If done right (and with the right brand) partnerships can not only amplify the good things about your company, but also help mitigate negative perceptions.

Any lessons you care to share from your experiences?

Hopenhagen allows citizens to become active participants in the climate change dialogue and make their voices heard to world leaders and the conference delegates attending the meeting. The ultimate call to action will be to secure signatures for the “Climate Change” petition in support of the UN, which calls for a climate treaty that is “ambitious, fair and effective in reducing emissions”.

Ogilvy Earth China worked closely with the New York office to translate the campaign for the Chinese audience. The Chinese Hopenhagen website will serve as the campaign hub to give Chinese citizens, government, non-profits and businesses the tools to rally support for a positive outcome at the COP15 Climate Change Conference.

Netizens can also participate in Hopenhagen through popular social networks Douban, RenRen and Kaixin, the photo sharing network BaBaBian and microblogging platforms 9911 and Sina.

We all know them, we all had them. Clients from hell collects the best client horror stories from designers.

The flash mob that was created in New York Grand Central Station is fantastic. The mob was instructed to stand frozen for a total of 5 minutes and then vacate the area. The result was a mass of confusion by commuters and people passing by. My favorite part is when one guy says “I think it must be some kind of a protest”. Who protests by freezing in a train station?

A great example of online networking can be seen in the first international flash mob – the Worldwide Pillow Fight Day. Word spread via Facebook, Myspace, private blogs, public forums, personal websites, as well as by word of mouth, text messaging, and email. This networking enabled over 25 cities in the world to participate in the pillow fight on the same day at the same time. It just reiterates how much communication has changed since the creation of social media. Ten years ago, an impromptu event like a flash mob would have been near impossible (or at least expensive) to organise. Today, the tools we have available to us, the access to people and immediacy of communication is so prevalent that impromptu events like flash mobs are possible. That is why I like flash mobs so much, they are created from the possibilities that social media offers.

So are they selling out? Is every Tom Dick and Harry organising a flash mob to generate publicity for their brand or product, or to create a “viral clip”? The use of paid actors and professional dancing seems to be all that flash mobs are about now, they are rehearsed and perfected and the timing is impeccable. While it is entertaining to watch, the participants may as well build a stage and perform their act like any other street performer. I can’t help but feel betrayed that flash mobs are no longer about the privilege of being connected online, they no longer represent transparency or authenticity, they no longer create confusion, its only about entertainment now. I believe they have sold out, but I guess it was only a matter of time.

Here are my hightlights:

Keynote - Emanuel Rosen did an inspirational job and also just had a well-structured presentation with stories at the center and take-away points that were meangful.Those of us who speak often could learn a lot from his simplicity. He told us what we could learn from non-profits nd the lessons really were relevant. Everyone really liked his presentation.

 

Keynote - Rob BonDurant from Patagonia was the right mix of culture and marketing detail. Here's a guy who totally understands the power of brand, where it comes from and just how to drive folks to conversion at the same time. Too many CMO-types become disconnnected with the nuts and bolts of how marketing works. That won't fly in the social media age.

 
Keynote - Sugarland, Kristian Bush was terrific. (above: Gayle, his manager, Kristian and Ted Wright/Fizz) More than one person told me after that they had never listened to them before but were now complete fans just because of Kristian's enthusiasm and genuiness (and the kickass song they played/showed from their Christmas album.) I had the opportunity to speak with him offline and he shared even more detail about the WOM marketing activity that he does to remain genuinely connected to fans. I loved that he went into Walmarts and secretly hid concert tix, captured it all on a Flip Video cam to post online for fans. What he didn't share onstage about that whole Walmart integration was a simple tactic where he called up Walmart store managers the day the promotion (a DVD) broke to leave them a personal vmail about it. Imagine how that fueled their enthusiasm. His insight about how moments in time become key memories and stories. That led them to create concert-specific posters and t-shirts. I told him how I often use "tell everyone a favorite concert" as a tremendous ice-breaker for groups. (The Cult at Felt Forum in 198x with Rick Rubin on the sound board) Ted Wright from Fizz deserves all our gratitude for connecting Kristian with all of us.

 
Keynote - FTC and social media with Chuck Harwood/FTC, Tony DiResta/legal counsel for WOMMA, Jory DesJardins/BlogHer, Sean Corcoran/Forrester and led by Paul Rand/ the next President of the Board at WOMMA (above: Tony, Jory, Sean and Chuck). All the panelists contributed a great POV and it was especially valuable to get such a thorough walk-through from Chuck Harwood.  Our WOMMA work with the FTC has paid off in such a strong relationship. Ethics will expand again as a key issue and WOMMA's Legal Affairs Group will help protect a lot of brands with our best practices.

General Session - Customer Service with Levis, Bunn, Comcast and Best Buy's Twelpforce. I predict that customer service will become a bigger part of WOMMA in the future. Frank's work at Comcast and John's at Twelpforce/Best Buy have developed pretty sophisticated procedures and teams. Still, I was struck by the genuiness of Tom Asher from Levi Strauss. he had buttons made up for his team with their primary purpose - "I live to make your butt look great" (paraphrasing from memory). His team wants to deliver one level of service for everybody. He shared an anecdote about shipping an urgent package of black jeans to Thailand that only later they learned were for Steven Seagal on set for a movie. Customer Service sits at the heart of word of mouth. Time and time again, we head from customer service experts who see their job as creating vocal advocates for their brands.  

General Session - Academic Panel with Wharton, Tel Aviv University, Fordham, our own Walter Carl from ChatThreads and Brad Fey. Heavy stuff. I was not able to see the whole session but hard lots of the more advanced marketers in the room appreciated its heft and substance.  

Breakout Sessions
I got to as many sessions as possible. Only one truly disappointed. If I were to point our three sessions that had special relevance for me amidst all of the great ones. I would call out:

HP's Kari Homan shared not only about a simple metric they created around the revenue generated by postive word of mouth (and the loss from negative WOM), but she also shared about how they are organized internally. Their Digital Strategy group is a federation of marketers with program managers in 5 segments including mobile and social media. Rather than create a separate social media task force or center of excellence, they have opted for a model where social media is integrated with marketing (is this at the expense of "communications" integration?).

Ogilvy's Kaitlyn Wilkins and Blogher's Jory Des Jardins shared their case for Tropicana whcih was complex and highly integrated. I am obviously connected to this project and therefore biased. Still, this is a great case and both are passionate, insightful presenters.

Yvonne Nava from iTunes oulined how they had used Vitrue's Facebook management software to really optimze how they were using Facbook overall. her presentation ratified a lot of our own embrace of the "conversation calendar" model for engaging fans. ("Conversation Calendar" is a term that Facebook uses to describe the plan of differnt interactions delivered continuously through a brand page.). In iTunes case they have a spectacular well of content (music, videos, et al). Other brands may not have such an obviously valuable content asset but will find that they can program a rich calendar of interactions from media, offers, conversation starters, applications and events. 

Lot of lessons learned over the past week. I returned completely energized (okay, a bit tired) with fresh ways of looking at things. That's what you want from a conference experience.

1. Full Disclosure is a Must: Tweets that are from paid or otherwise compensated advertisers must include a disclosure like (#ad) or (#Sponsor) to be in compliance with the new FTC Guidelines. With that clarity, followers will decide themselves if they want to continue to follow folks who deliver paid messages

2. Relevance Requires Few Ads: users who rent out their tweets will have to do so judiciously both choosing sponsors they care to endorse and keeping them extremely limited. So-called "trust agents" will lose trust, or worse, relevance for their readers if they pump out too many paid messages

3. New Formats on the Horizon: clearly Twitter, itself, is working behind the scenes on revenue (read: advertising vs. premium service fees). Not only that but services like ad.ly will continue to explore acceptable formats. If I can quickly see the paid tweets in my Tweetdeck stream becuase they are shaded differently or feature some other visual marker, that is to everyone's benefit.

4. Advertisers Will Lose Interest: Initially the format will draw the lazy marketer (thanks to Erik Boles and his comment on Scoble's post below). They will seek a reach play and what they really need is a "relevant reach" play combined with some string engagement on another platform. They will seek click throughs form tweets as a measure of success and when that eventually doesn't deliver business success for clients, the fad will die off.

Good Post on Subject From Robert Scoble

Scoble has a good post on Twitter advertising and based on today's NYTimes article on the subject, this will likely become a bigger deal for us Twitter users in the short term.  Robert explains his initial reaction to tweet-based adverts and then his exploration once joining ad.ly.

"But all this stuff makes me worried for the future of Twitter. I think Twitter needs to come out for or against these new ad networks and needs to build a platform that properly identifies advertising tweets via a different color. I’d love to be able to “tag” Tweets using my SuperTweet idea and write “advertisement” in the SuperTweet, which would tell everyone that that Tweet is an ad."

Read the comment stream - it's worth it.

I am a huge believer in Alan Wolk's theory of NASCAR blindness.  Both because I've seen it in practice, and I've recognized it in myself from time-to-time.  With that ...

I don't think it's going out on a limb to say that Dana White and Brian France could walk down Madison Avenue without causing much of a stir.  Which is too bad because one could easily argue that White and France - along with Vince McMahon - know the American consumer landscape better than anyone in the "industry."

If you don't know [it's OK, we don't judge here at Flagged For Follow Up] White is the President of UFC; France the CEO and Chairman of NASCAR.  If you don't know who McMahon is ... well I just can't imagine any marketer doesn't know the name.

By various accounts, collectively these men preside over empires that generate more than $2 Billion (with a B) in revenues per year.  We're talking live events, TV deals, licensing, pay-per-view and merchandise galore.  Sure, business has suffered a bit in the recession, along with just about everyone else. 

There are 290 million people who live somewhere between Los Angeles and New York City.  These guys have it dialed in when it comes to speaking to/entertaining/selling to this group.

So if we (by "we" I mean marketers in major cities) want to create "stuff" (campaigns, creative, trinkets, retail experiences ... whatever) that drive business results, we need to start thinking about what will appeal to 300,000 fans at Daytona, not the cast of Friends.  More like a rabid crowd at a UFC match, less like a star-studded crowd at a Lakers game.

There are a ton of smart, talented and grounded marketers in this country.  The smartest of them recognize a world west of the Hudson River.

Record Attendance and so Many Brands
Attendance: 480+ Marketing and Communications pros from major brands, agencies, technology/solution providers. We have moved past a group of 'evangelists' into a active membership of experts with substantial experience. Intuit, Ford, Tropicana, Unilever, HP, McDonalds, Comcast, Levi Strauss, Best Buy and so many more were there.

Personal Significance: This was my last WOMMA Summit as president of the board. A lot of folks worked to make WOMMA what it is today not the least of which is our great Executive Director, Kristen Smith. Our record attendance and the spike in brands attending (and brands decoming members) pays off on a lot of work from all of us.

Experience Trumps Evangelism
Outside the Sessions: Everyone shared about the programs they have going on. And more than that, brands were talking about how they were training internally and organizing around social media.  Picture a dinner with a major hotel/gaming brand, consumer products good company and a premiere financial services company all swapping stories about how they are organized, how they sell-in programs, how their marcom universe thinks of social media and word of mouth. You would be surpised at how similar some of the organizational challanges are. 

Spontaneous meetings happened in between sessions and sometimes became more urgent then attending one session or another. Folks clustered around the tables set up throughout the exhibit space to share war stories and get advice. I loved the brief conversation with one of the McDonald's twitterers (they have 5) in the bus ride over to the Palms. He and his teammates have a very personal touch. I love that he can reward customers with surprise 'thank you' freebies. 

The exhibitors came as experts with something to offer not hungry salespeople. You were just as likely to sit down with Peter from LiveWorld or Reggie from Vitrue to hear their solution to a social media marketing problem as a colleague from an agency or brand.

And then there was the House Party at the Palms. The suite was outrageous. It gave me a new metric for the huge scale of Las Vegas (where even the morning muffins are the size of a small pie). And the company was terrific. No one got in the hot tub but plenty tried the rotating make-out booth (I know, sounds creepy and outrageous).

Our event hotel was the Paris which I can heartily endorse. We do some work for the parent brand, Harrahs, and this was my first experience at the property. It was all good.

The theme overall was one of experience. Everyone shared what they were doing, not what they observed others were doing or what their latest blog post POV. Here are some great reources that came out of the meeting:

WOMMA Measurement Guidebook: We set out to do this at least year's Summit and here it is - a practical guide to measuring social media and word of mouth programs

The Twitter Transcript: I have never seen this done before and while it may sound ridiculously boring in concept, browse through this as it really captures what peaked participant's interest throughout.  

The Photo Gallery: Great collection that captures in and out of session activity and faces.

The WOMMA Word Blog: Solid recaps of much of the action

(photo: this was taken from the WOMMA Gallery on Flickr)

Avec l’explosion des médias sociaux sur Internet, la donne a changé, l’égocentrisme qui y est de mise a permis de faire émerger des personnalités auto-proclamées incontournables. Et dans de nombreux cas, ça marche.

C’est un système de fonctionnement que l’on peut constater chez quelques grands blogueurs qui s’auto-linkent, s’auto-twittent, s’auto-citent… Jusqu’à émerger en des temps records et réussir à se construire une légitimité y compris lorsque les communautés environnantes ne relaient pas. Mais le système le plus flamboyant est celui qui a été mis en place par Jean-Marc Morandini. Multimédia certes, mais avec une mission d’auto-promotion assignée au web qui cartonne littéralement.

Jean-Marc Morandini, c’est Europe 1 depuis 2003, et Direct 8, Télé 7 Jours… Mais c’est aussi le blog, souvent auto-proclamé premier des classements. Il faut cependant reconnaître à Morandini la qualité d’avoir investi très tôt le web dès le début des années 2000. Pour construire un système qui permet aujourd’hui de créer ses propres histoires “annoncées” sur Europe 1, “analysées” sur Direct 8, “relayées” sur le web… Jusqu’à l’exagération.

Mais pour générer de l’audience, le site de JMM pille assez régulièrement d’autres sites, “oublie” de mentionner les sources, pratique le racolage qui pourrait rappeler les grandes heures de “Tout est possible”. Malgré la horde des détracteurs de Morandini dans les Médias Sociaux, qui conduisent régulièrement à des appels au boycott, en dépit d’un passé télévisuel peu glorieux qui aurait du laisser plus de traces, Morandini a réussi à se construire une solide réputation d’expert respecté voire redouté des médias. Il l’a décidé et n’a besoin de personne pour l’imposer. Il investit les nouveaux espaces pour ne laisser aucune faille dans son système, l’un des derniers exemples en date étant son Twitter qu’il auto-promeut avec insistance.

Cette réalité constitue sans doute l’une des nouvelles briques de mon métier. Sans achat d’espace mais surtout sans passer par la conviction de ceux qui nous entourent, il nous est mis à disposition les moyens de dire qu’on est les meilleurs, directement, partout, sans filtre. Si on le dit suffisamment fort, le ronronnement négatif de ceux qui nous entourent n’y pourra rien ? Je ne m’y résigne pas complètement à y croire et je continue à penser que le système Morandini est bien fragile, soumis à la première vraie vague de rejet sur le net, suffisamment forte pour générer un buzz au-delà du web et éclabousser chaque parcelle de son système médiatique. C’est l’histoire qui nous le dira.

RiP! A Remix Manifesto by Brett Gaylor is essential viewing for anyone interested in remix, mash-ups and the conflict between intellectual property and recombinant culture. It isn’t just an intelligent polemic on 21st century digital culture, it is a piece of work that walks the walk and invites its audience to participate, play around with and perhaps even improve upon the original. Click here to watch the documentary divided up into chapters.

As the departures settled in - compounded by the week’s AP layoffs - I realized that my own response is really based on the vague sense that this period of destruction will be creative and beneficial.

I have no objective reason for believing that journalism will be better off for these changes, and deep down I know that the arguments of pessimists have as much going for them as those of optimists.

Nevertheless I can’t shake the belief that we’re headed in a good direction, even if it the road is painful. I’m not one to proselytize, but here are my articles of faith:

• I believe that media layoffs, impending bankruptcy’s, declining ad rates and subscription revenue, and the implosion of the publishing business model are good things;
• That this destruction is creative and is already paying off for both journalists (albeit the more entrepreneurial-minded) and readers;
• I believe that every laid off journalist is a new media brand and a dangerous competitor to their previous employer;
• That fidelity to long-standing media brands is a waste of time;
• I believe that every day the internet evolves to find new ways to make me better educated, more knowledgeable of current events;
• I believe that this is fueled as much by ‘citizen media’ as it is by professional journalists, media companies and others using new approaches to practice journalism;
• I believe that some people will pay for the content they care about, and that some won’t;
• That enough will pay to fund a few global traditional media brands, even while most go out of business or become shadows of their former selves;
• That the elimination of much traditional media will create a vacuum that will be filled by journalists innovating the practice journalism in ways we are only just beginning to imagine, and that will enrich us all.

Is this blind faith? Perhaps. But I see new reasons to believe in it every day.

Jean-François Rauzier’s opulent hyperphotos involves ’stitching’ together hundreds of enormous high-resolution images. Citadelle 2, which measures 180cm x 300cm, was created from a total of 1,500 images, endlessly distorted and duplicated, depicting the first floor of a grand Parisian residence. Click here to view.

The music is “L’ Hôtel Particulier” from the remix album: “I Love Serge Electronic Againsbourg”

A big thank you to DElyMyth for capturing this at the #140conf – This is the twitter and brand panel feautring me (@jamespoulter) @kodakCB, @msamayoa, @mikemath and @KelloggsUKThanks again to all the panelists. You were legends. I’ll be writing up my thoughts in due course – still digesting!