#collaborative viewing

[humanengineers]

BLOCKCHAIN 101: WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

BLOCKCHAIN 101: WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

Source | talentorganizationblog.accenture.com | NICOLE KNOTT

What is blockchain, how does it work, and what role could it play in the evolution of human capital management (HCM) technology?

Mention the word “blockchain” in polite conversation and you may as well be speaking in Greek. With my new blog series on blockchain, I aim to demonstrate the value this relatively new piece of platform…

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[gigidowns]

The battle for the living room is on, with tech giants Apple, Google, and Microsoft, and social kings Facebook and Twitter all jockeying for your attention on the TV screen. But the war for the first-screen (Xbox, Apple TV) and second-screen experiences (on your smartphone or tablet) is only beginning in earnest, with upstarts such as GetGlue and Shazam entering the space everyday. Could Pinterest soon be throwing its hat in the ring too?

Read more: Why Is Pinterest Poking Around In TV Land? at Fast Company

I had the benefit of reviewing a series of second (and third) screen TV collaborations recently, which covered everything from predictive gaming to responsive programming and it did seem as if choose your own adventure viewing would help keep the dollars flowing into appointment-style broadcasting.

In light of everything I've seen, Pinterest would need to be cranking on some seriously disruptive mobile "listening" technology, and there would need to be seriously compelling-enough reasons for viewers to interact. Perhaps both of those things are underway but that does feel like an awfully long shot.

[gigidowns]

Crowd Gaming Stadium Event | Angry Birds

When I worked at Disney Online, we had many conversations about the future of MMOGs and theater-entertainment. Nosing around LA's many misused and dilapidated theaters, we couldn't help imagine a world where tickets and concessions were sold, bums firmly in seats, for 3-hour gaming contests and events, beamed on massive screens and on the Web. 

Well according to AdWeek, this weekend at the Formula One racetrack in Singapore, Rovio is launching an Angry Birds crowd game that will be played with live audiences.  

As AdWeek puts it: So you’ve already conquered every level in the Angry Birds game, bought a few Angry Birds stuffed animals, have plans to see the Angry Birds movie, and can’t wait to enjoy some Angry Birds along with your daily Starbucks. Now, the game’s creator Rovio is giving you a new way to conquer the birds’ porcine adversaries—no finger-flicking necessary.

Oh, let's not forget you can also fly Angry Birds (and FinAir).

More fun with Angry Birds and T-Mobile below. PS. how much do you think Disney execs are hating the fact they don't own this brand yet?

[gigidowns]

Get Glue Gets Into Sponsored Content

According to AdWeek, GetGlue is joining forces with Entertainment Weekly to integrate a series of rewards whenever users "check in" to particular TV shows and movies.

If you're unfamiliar with the app, the five-year old company (with 1.2MM users), creates a sort of social layer over broadcast entertainment. Much like Foursquare users check into places, GetGlue allows people to have a collaborative, community experience of something they're watching on TV.

Pretty compelling stuff, even if appointment style viewing is falling out of favor. Why? Because programmers and event planners still love live events. And whether those live events are broadcast on a network or on VEVO (or any second or third screen for that matter), people still want to "tune in" and witness something together. Being in the moment and being able to talk about it is massively compelling on a basic human level, which is why connecting the dots between live programming and community tools like GetGlue is well worth the attention of brand marketers and content creators alike. 

[gigidowns]

Collaborative Viewing And Opt-in Interactive

Quick summary of a couple of key players in the collaborative viewing space and some of the brands that are playing with these tools to create some interesting new ads (think: Pepsi, Old Navy and Shazam). What I wanted to highlight was the author's closing point, which I utterly agree with:

Creating a more interactive and engaging brand experience that can be delivered through a traditional medium is a compelling idea. Because consumers opt-in to the experience, they, in essence, become direct participants within the commercial experiment itself.  This may indicate a fundamental shift in the way brands market and measure the effectiveness of their traditional media spending.

Read more of How New Technology is Shaping Traditional Media

[becpaton-blog-blog]

Here's a demo of the Junkyard Jumbotron, created by Rick Borovoy at MIT's Center for Future Civic Media. It's a cool app to allow you to gang up multiple screens (phones, tablets, flat panels), running any OS, and turn them into a single, joined display. It's very clever: you arrange the screens as desired and then display a web-page with a QR code on each of them; snap a picture and send it back to the server and the server takes any image you feed it and splits it across the screens. No client-side software needed, apart from a browser.