Die Loops rumpeln und funken vor sich hin, Bläsersätze und Synthiesounds rauschen dazwischen, die großartigen Gäste wie Mos Def (toll: gleich auf mehreren Tracks) und Talib Kweli peitschen die Lyrics mit einer wütenden Vehemenz darüber, dass man in der Frühlingssonne aus dem Kopfnicken gar nicht mehr herauskommt. Tracks wie “I will not apologize”, “Singin Man” oder “Criminal” will man mitrappen und mitsingen und alles in allem kann man es nicht erwarten, diese Truppe mal wieder live zu sehen.

Denn darauf kommt es, um zu Questlove zurück zu kehren an: “Ich spiele jede Show so, als ob mein Leben dranhängt - und so ist es tatsächlich.” (Auszüge aus einem sehr schönen Interview mit Questlove bei Intro.de).
Videos sehen, in das Album reinhören und Hintergründe zur Produktion gibt es auf der E-Card zu “Rising Down”. (geschrieben fürs P3000-Blog)

Volkswagen NL has relaunched Snake as a flash game. You move the car with the arrows, for every balloon collected you get a fan more and the snake grows. There’s also happing with the price and you have some apparently funny comments. Sometimes a band appears or some bboys turn up to dance. Very nicely done indeed.

Dabei ist das völliger Quatsch und nicht nur der Spiegel ist dieser frechen Aussage prompt aufgesessen. Sogar eigentlich doch recht gut informierte Start-up-Blogs wie Zweinull, Blognation (Update: Sorry, ebenso, wie ich es beim Werbeblogger übersehen hatte, war mir auch nicht aufgefallen, dass ebenfalls Blognation schon über Betterplace geschrieben hatte) oder Gründernet lassen sich dazu hinreißen, den Claim unkritisch zu übernehmen, viele andere Blogs wie z.B. Werbeblogger folgen.

Dabei gibt es längst eine tatsächlich soziale Community, die den Gemeinnutzgedanken nicht nur als PR-Flagge vor sich herträgt und den Rest lediglich genau wie Facebook, Myspace und Co. aufzieht. Betterplace.org dreht sich nämlich per se um soziales Engagement und bringt Projektverantwortliche aus aller Welt mit Unterstützern (die mit Geld, Zeit oder Know-How helfen) zusammen, die laufend über den Fortgang des Projektes informiert werden. Freundesverknüpfungen sorgen für Vertrauensnetzwerke und machen neue Projekte bekannt.

Nicht, dass ich die Kaioo-Idee per se schlecht finde. Aber mich stört diese Monstranz des “echten Sozialen” - denn das sollte doch wirklich etwas tiefer gehen, als Klingeltöne vermarkten und dann dem Roten Kreuz drei Euro überweisen.

Ich hoffe darauf hinarbeiten zu können, dass dies keine leere Phrase bleibt (Update: Ein Rückblick auf Projekte wie die Roten Blogs oder die Programmwerkstatt für die SPD, dem Mutterblog oder auf die Dinge, die da kommen für das BMAS kann diese Sorge durchaus entkräften), sondern wir tatsächlich als Kommunikationsagentur helfen können, Gespräche im Internet sichtbar und verständlich zu machen und zusammen mit den Kunden Strukturen zu entwickeln, um angemessen darauf zu reagieren und die Crowd-Intelligence da draußen zu nutzen. Die Erfahrung, die wir hier vor allem mit Projekten aus der politischen Sphäre gewonnen haben, sollte dabei durchaus hilfreich sein.

Immer wieder werden wir uns (als enthusiastischer Kommunikationsinnovator) und die Anderen sich (als geerdete und jahrelang-so-machende Kunden) aber dabei klar werden müssen, dass Dialog, Zuhören, Gespräch, Diskurs, Austausch und Gegenseitigkeit nicht einfach nur notwendiges Beiwerk einer PR-Kampagne sind, und auch keine Webprojekte á la “Blogs”, “Communities” oder “Videodebatten” oder was auch immer, sondern tatsächlich eine innere Einstellung einer Organisation und der damit einhergehenden Identität, der Kultur, der Strukturen und des Verhaltens.

(Abgesehen davon kann so eine digitale Unterhaltung aber auch einfach nur ein großer Spaß sein, so wie das hier oder das).

Das soll es an Meta-Überlegungen an dieser Stelle aber erst einmal gewesen sein. Erinnert mich schwer an meine Magisterarbeit - die ich im Übrigen, das wurde ich schon das eine oder andere Mal gefragt, hier gerne veröffentliche, sobald sie durch die offiziellen Stelle am Fachbereich gelaufen und bewertet wurde.

Schließlich wird noch auf die Betreiberfirma Smeet verlinkt. Dumm nur, dass dafür die Domain smeets.de verwendet wurde - ein Unternehmen, das Luftreinigungstechnologie herstellt. Nicht grade ein PR-Gau, aber doch ein witziges Versehen.
Update: Inzwischen ist der Link korrigiert.

Pippa Norris: A virtuos cirlce: Key literature for all interested in the change of political campaigns especially taking into account digital technologies and its influence on politics, including a comparison of different nations and their resprective approach to digital democracy.

[via Falk Lueke]

So, every bogus spammer site, content thief, copyright infringer, porn recycler, link-to-funnny-videos blog and what do I know gets to implement Adsense? Well, their fault. Not that I had wanted to have stupid and irrelevant textads on my site anyway.

Auch die Frage nach dem Geldverdienen mit Blogs tauchte auf - eigentlich könnte Herr Pachulke da ja selber viel zu sagen, schließlich ist ja die Hälfte seiner Seite Werbung . Darüber habe ich gar nicht gesprochen, weil ich (noch) nicht genug darüber weiß. Aber zwei Links fallen mir dazu ein. Robert Basics infernale Blogumfrage darüber welche Blogs warum und wieviel Geld pro Monat verdienen (wo er uns sogar die Rohdaten zum Verwursten zur Verfügung stellt) und der nie verlegene John Chow, der genau weiß, was Suchmaschinen wollen und welche Klicks wo was einbringen. Also, wen’s interessiert, langweilig ist es nicht und ich sollte es einfach mal ausprobieren.

Also, liebe PULK Berlin und studio orange (werden im Impressum der Seite als ausführende Agenturen genannt), bitte das nächste Mal zu Ende denken. (Viele Videos sind ohnehin recylct, wie das “Wasted German Youth”-Video, wo sich Models mit Kaviar einschmieren, andere aber auch wirklich gut, allein, ich kann sie auch nicht zeigen..)

Seit ein paar Wochen kann man den Entwurf des zu verabschiedenden Grundsatzprogramms der SPD auf programmwerkstatt.spd.de bewerten und eigene Thesen veröffentlichen und in den Diskurs einbringen. So entsteht ein Meinungsbild verteilt über Themen und Aussagen, die entweder besonders kontrovers sind (d.h. sowohl Zustimmung wie Ablehnung ernten) oder mehrheitlich angenommen oder abgelehnt werden. Dieses Meinungsbild sowie die neuen Thesen werden in den endgültigen Entwurf einfließen, der im Oktober auf dem Bundesparteitag verabschiedet werden soll.

In meinen Augen ist dieser Ansatz der differenzierteste, den es bisher von einer Partei in Deutschland gab, um eine Umgebung im Netz zu schaffen, um möglichst viele Themen von vielen Nutzern bearbeiten zu lassen. Wenn man nun noch auf einzelne Thesen verlinken und kommentieren könnte, wäre die Plattform noch ein bisschen besser. Jetzt kann man nur hoffen, dass dieser Ansatz von den Leuten auch tatsächlich genutzt wird und sich am Ende die Anregungen im Grundsatzprogramm wieder finden.

“Amerika regt sich auf und Spiegel Online stürzt sich drauf: Der ach so nette Barack Obama, der doch für einen neuen, versöhnlichen Politikstil stehen will, wird mit einem Video in Verbindung gebracht, das Hillary Clinton mit Orwell’s Big Brother in Verbindung bringt. Gar nicht korrekt sowas. Und ganz schön viele Verbindungen. Was ist da also passiert?”

Weiterlesen beim Face2blog.

Lafraise offers an affiliate program for people who promote the shirts. Since I do not only like most of the designs but also the whole community approach of the idea, I decided to put a flashcode into my site (in the sidebar to the right) which shows the recent designs. If you decide to buy a shirt after clicking the banner, I will get 10% of the purchased sum which I can spend on shirts.

It’s a nice idea and just an experiment and since I like the shirts anyway and assume that my visitors will too, I figured why not try it out. What do you think? Are you being annoyed by the animated banner? Do you think it is a smart idea? Or is lafraise ripping me off with poor gratification?

This one’s not bad either, here’s the story: Two girls who want to be supermodels hijacked the diesel page, kidnapped a Diesel sales guy, stole the underwear collection and are now blackmailing Diesel to make them the two protagonist models of their next campaign. They also want to be Diesel renamed to “Heidies”..

Now, they communicate with their fans via the site, e.g. let them vote what should happen with the kidnapped guy. Despite the fact that he gets his legs waxed, his situation is not too uncomfortable really..

If you are a FU student, take part in the survey until january 15th!

The “Center für digitale Systeme” wants to build a place on the web for the students to connect to other students and teachers, share knowledge, experience and documents, get information and news by the administration and the faculty, use it as a calendar and for administrative issues like adress changes and so on.

It’s a pity that I will not be able to make use of this but I am sure within some years these webbased platforms will be compulsive for any modern university and it makes me kind of proud that mine is already starting it. Good luck, people, it will not be easy to handle a project like this, especially not when there are so many people to integrate!

Talking about control through media: Is Digital Rights Management (DRM) defective by design? This is an important issue, everybody should be aware of how much power we give to closed systems and how much free information is good for innovation. Here is more information about Digital Rights Management. While they call it Digital Restiction Management (DRM) is think we should use the term that is most discussed right now: Digital Rights Management.

[via Netzpolitik]

ERCO light design in Hong Kong

About 4 months ago, Cem Basman published an article about the transformation of the company ERCO from a dull bed stand lamp producer to a worldwinde innovator in lighting. A new manager asks his employees the significant question: “What business are we in, actually?”. “Lamps” was the first answer, and he said “no, it’s light”.

This story always has been a classic example for doing succesful business by thinking beyond the obvious. It is a nice telling indeed and it can be beautifully illustrated by the impressing projects ERCO is realizing now all over the world.

Erco light design in TokyoNow for the second part and the perfect example of something I am trying to show in my master thesis: Identities become visible in narrations and those narrations are created in a group dialogue over time. Weblogs are the perfect medium for that.

Four months later, the said new manager, Klaus-Jürgen Maack, comments in the weblog and writes an email to the author, adding further details to the story! Now, a search in Google for “Erco Geschichte” delivers exactly this story, collaboratively written by the weblog author and one of the protagonists.

I am glad having discovered this little piece of identity on the web.
Imagine, there’s much more and every day, people adding new parts to it.

Housewarming with Solo Mobile

Motto: Things get so fast by mobile communication, they almost happen before they even started.

Great and funny spots:
The housewarming
The vigil

Add your face and join the million faces, demand a global arms trade treaty.

An initiative formed by Amnesty International, Oxfam and Iansa.
Or look at some famous German faces.

Interesting idea: There was a free space, right next to a café and a house, in Schwedter Straße. The guys study architecture and set up the experiment of letting people give them ideas for some kind of pulicly used space.

Of course, the nice weather influences their decision: swimming pools, barbecues, bars (”free beer” was an important category..), a little park, social gardening for city kids (great idea, in my opinion), a zoo..

Although I don’t like to imprison anyone, I like the idea of little tigers in my backyard. Let’s see what happens there, probabably some kind of posh apartment house.

Watch some pictures more from Berlin in spring.

He put one of his most skilled multimedia managers to the task: Ross Levinson, boss of Murdoch’s News corporation’s overarching online unit: Fox Interactive Media.

Linked to the FOX TV sales department, he wants to build the way for brands to MySpace. And this is how the friend comes into play: To create friend profiles of products and companies is clearly the goal for this massive cooperation.

I read a very interesting NY-Times article on that subject: Making friends was easy. Big profit is tougher.
[via De:Bug]

Is that going to work straight away?

If we look at labels and musicians and how they use MySpace as the ultimate, most effective music promotion tool, it is thinkable to transfer that mechanism to other products. These products must have a personality though that is attractive enough to make friends with people.

It would be an interesting job for a communication agency as well to turn the brand indentity into a net personality, promotable on MySpace.

For MySpace, it is a thin line between making profit and selling out their users. The success is not natural and users could turn away from the platform to other services like TagWorld, although creating a friends network takes a lot of work and time.

The friends keep the users on MySpace, too many brands could scare them away..

Please tell people about it, write a mail to Fritz-radio and sign the post at Berlin Stadtkind!

Whereever I talked to people about Berlin, almost everybody knew about the massive techno parade that used to attract hundreds of thousands of people: the Loveparade.

After a steady decline in quality and constant trouble in between the organizers, the parade did not take place the last two years. Nobody in the Berlin party community felt really sorry for it, still, worldwide, the loveparade is a unique brand and a strong symbol for Berlin’s underground techno culture.

So, this year, the loveparade will be organized again, by a different team, mainly financed by a succesful gym chain. Which is not necessarily bad. The thought, the loveparade might not be a giant carneval this time is illusionary, although the organizer try to make the people participate in a complicated voting system: You can register and vote for a club who gets to play on one of the “floats” (trucks with PA). In the end a jury decides anyway.

The best event during the loveparade weekend always used to be the Loveradio, organized by Anja Schneider a DJ who also runs a weekly show on Fritz: A 48h party marathon with almost 100 great Djs broadcasted live from a café in the park Friedrichshain. To consider the quality just check the DJ line-up.

The loveradio did not only keep my company during a hole weekend, always putting me into a strange kind of party mood but has always been a nice event with great people out in the park. Please Fritz, do not let it die!

Nike already started a massive internet campaign with “Joga bonito” (Portuguese for “Play nice”). You’ll find many cool movies and a community: www.joga.com (the page with the fastest growing rate of attention lately, as per Alexa.com)

Talk about viral effects: The videos are little masterpieces about how to play beautiful football and the website makes it easy to share. Of course yu can send an email with link, but there’s also a code snippet, people can put into their websites. Here’s an example:

www.nikefootball.com

The spot is taken in Camp Nou, Barcelona and the perimeter advertisers have their little benefit as well.

It seems funny, in the end it is rather sad. More guns than ever sold today. This viral campaign by Amnesty International UK wants to raise attention for an international arms trade treaty which should be initiated by the UN and signed by as many countries as possible.

More info about the viral campaign.
[found via the Chaosradio-Podcast]

So, of course I will backup all my stuff before I go 2.0 but maybe I will be unavailible for some days. Hopefully not.. Hopefully with the Wordpress 2.0 antispam plugin akismet I will get rid of all that nasty poker spam that cost my nerves, other anti-spam methods never worked really.

You see people in the streets holding up signs trying to bring customers to restaurants, shops or even universities. I don´t know what these people make an hour but it can´t be much. Obviously it is worth paying one person for nothing but standing there with a sign, it must be coming back in additional revenues.
Welcome to service country..

Ein interaktives Portfolio über die Online Kampagne für die Bundestagswahlen 2005 hat Face2Net online gestellt. Ein sehr interessanter Rückblick und Zusammenfassung aller Instrumente, Seiten und Strategien, die in der äußerst erfolgreichen SPD-Kampagne Verwendung fanden.

Podcast
TV Debate Livecommenting (amazing, hundreds! of comments!)
My political Blog in German
The blog-platform I am supervising
Convention-blogging
and of course, community management for our volunteers: Rote Wahlmannschaft.

Also, I installed the offline editor wbloggar which allows me to edit blogentries offline. Moreover, Nico writes about interfaces, yes, I think we are entering a new era of information technologies that really enable interpersonal communication.

If you want to join, please go to www.rote-wahlmannschaft.de and become a member! We will send you exclusive information and lots of possibilities to get active for politics (We care about your privacy).

First thing you can do to help: Take one of these banners(click “more” to view all) and link us from your webpage!

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468×60

Anyone who likes is invited to contribute, so please leave me a comment if you want to write. It is in German and of course it is about German politics in these campaign days. It is an experiment as well because I have very clear political opinions but by writing I would like to find out if they are consistent. I would like to say I am realistic but that is only true if you know the whole truth which you will never. So, the more you know, the more difficulut it is to make the right distinctions.

So, let’s blog and find out. Watch me on my way. I am a politcal blogger, too now.

What is it? It has a fixed end, a dramaturgy and a goal: A campaign! Exactly.
Via Sichelputzer:

Certain German Blogs have abruptly changed their layout containing a javascript countdown and a special text string. The countdown will end tomorrow evening at 9.00 pm CET, while the strings are a mixture of music song quotes, sillyness and an entire diversity of freakazoidish behavior.

One of the named bloggers is German blogosphere´s famous writer Johnny Häusler who e.g. is behind Spreeblick and zoomo. Here´s a bio and an interview (in German) about this interesting personality. He has been in media for years and rumours are out that this campaign is the start for a new business idea.
(more discussions at M-E-X , Medienrauschen and Technorati (who just launched a new Beta Version, by the way.)

Anyway, blogging goes business in Germany in general:

Gadgetmania looks for bloggers and Medienrauschen is building a business.

Grocery Store Wars is an outstanding movie. With lots of love for the details the filmmakers Free Range Studio animated vegetables, cans and fruits and made them speak about “Ways of the farm”.

From the pressrelease of the client, the Organic Trade Association (OTA)

Store Wars is the latest outreach effort of OTA to educate consumers about the many benefits of organic products. By spoofing a pop culture phenomenon like Star Wars, OTA hopes to attract a new generation of organic consumers, especially “Gen Xers” who grew up loving Luke, Leia and Han, and are now increasingly concerned about making healthy food choices for their families.

Storewars is a great movie and a great idea. It´s funny, cute, educative and will spread by itself on the internet. May the farm be with you.

Chancellor Schröder decided a week ago that after 9 major defeats of its social democratic party (SPD) in regional parliaments (which are important - we are a republic) it would be impossible to go on since his party and his politics “no more have the trust of the people”. I am working for the online consultancy Face2Net. One of their clients is the SPD, so I am going to be involved with the campaign. September 18th is the estimated election day. This is going to be tough, but exciting. And it starts now.

(Picture from bil.t-online.de)
I think: The social democrats are much more likeable than their stiff conservative counterparts. But to communicate that they are better steersmen for our country is going to be a very difficult task. Most important to me is: People need to know that there is a major threat on the horizon: The black republic. To be governed by a conservative party who has a majority in all legislative chambers for several years means a lot of uncontrolled power, they could even change the constitution.

We will do our best to prevent this black and streamlined republic.

Read about in Buzzwebster.

Hollywood has a new trend: It´s not sports cars, no hummers, no, we´re talking about the real shit: trucks! This is what the stars and leaders of the entertainment industry really need to represent. And it all started with a car that broke down..

(Click to open the movie)

Yes, this is advertisment.
No, Pepsi does not pay me.
I´m just letting them use me to get in contact with my friends..

I did not have too much time to draw an appropriate picture of the millions of creative possibilities to promote movies on the internet, yet I found some nice examples and even scientific material who is giving more prove to the importance of word-of-mouth information flow for movies, especially on the internet and the possibilities to create strong ties to film fans with extra-services and direct communication. The presentation is in German and has been held at the Freie Universität, Berlin, FB Medienökonomie.

And here are some useful links:
Movie Marketing Blog
Thesis on word-of-mouth marketing for movies online
The numbers - Filmbudgets and revenues.
More links are within the PDF