The New Information Organization Paradigm – People as the Filter

For a good decade, Google has been the king of the Internet. The search engine organizes content based on data such as keywords, links, etc. However, in March 2010, Facebook traffic surpassed that of Google and Facebook continues to grow rapidly with no sign of slowing down. How did Facebook become so important? Will its dominance prevail?

I believe the answer is yes (provided they don’t screw up on execution) but not because the social media network allows people to connect and stay connected. I believe Facebook has found a different paradigm to organize content on the Internet—by using people as filters, as opposed to Google’s approach where data is the filter.

With an overwhelming amount of content and diminishing trust towards corporations, people increasingly rely on their friends and families to filter information. The popularity of customer ratings and reviews illustrates this fact.

While many of the exchanges on Facebook are still personal interactions, Facebook is inching towards the vision of organizing content on the Internet in a new way. From the very early features such as Facebook News Feed to Facebook OAuth (formerly known as Connect) and the failed Facebook Beacon feature (that shared out what your friends purchased), Facebook has been moving its users slowly but surely towards information organized through people.

Such paradigms are increasingly popular. Twitter—the other powerhouse in the social media space—is also wildly successful for the very same reason. People are connected to pertinent information based on who they follow. Flipboard, a top iPad app, took things one step further. Similar to Twitter, the app leverages people in your network to point you to what information to pay attention to. But instead of displaying it in 140 characters of text, the app displays content in a beautiful magazine format, catered just to you.

Having said all this, it begs the question whether Google will become obsolete. My prediction is no. When the television rose in popularity, it didn’t replace print as some had predicted and when the Internet rose up, it didn’t replace television. Different solutions have their own pros and cons. In the end, they have all found their own place in the user’s ecosystem.

5 Most Viewed Articles on the Delvinia Link Pool: Nov 15 – Nov 21

• When Mobile-Phone Payments Go Social
  Technology Review – MIT
• Official Google Voice app for iPhone hits the App Store
  Engadget
• Scan This Product: 10 Brands Test Stickybits Barcode App
  ClickZ
• Target Rolls Out Shopkick’s Geo-Coupon System To 242 Stores
  TechCrunch
• Digital publishing leader launches location-based specific editions
  TechVibes

Click here to see what links we’re sharing this week.

Arcade Fire, The Wilderness Downtown & Transmedia Storytelling

One of the most inspired and compelling web experiences we have seen recently launched on Monday, a collaboration between Google, filmmaker Chris Milk and Montreal mega-indie band Arcade Fire.

This is not the first time we’ve seen Arcade Fire push the envelope of what a music video should be. In 2007, the band released a short interactive video for the title track of their second album Neon Bible on their bonlineb.com site. The viewer could click to control what Win Butler did with hands, or click on his face to reveal the song’s lyrics.

The Wilderness Downtown Experience

The latest interactive Arcade Fire project ‘The Wilderness Downtown‘ described by Google as a “Chrome Experience’, features the song ‘We Used to Wait’ from their new album Suburbs. The lyrics of the song refer back to the days before instant communications when we used to write letters and the anticipation of waiting for them to be delivered. The experiment was built using the latest open web technologies including HTML5, video, audio and canvas. The details of how each technology was used in the project are listed on the Chrome Experiments site.

The experience begins by entering the street address of your childhood home.  Upon launch we see a browser pane open with a child running down a suburban street. Soon, other windows begin to open and we see flocks of animated birds, a Google Maps satellite view and rotating Street View images appear based on the address chosen. I’ve watched this with several friends over the week, and have seen the smiles appear on their faces as they point out the house they grew up in. Its inspiring to see a project on the web generate such emotional response.

One of the most poignant moments happens when they viewer is invited to write a postcard to their childhood selves. After drawing the message with your cursor, the animated birds fly in to roost on the type before flying off into another one of the panes. The song climaxes with animated trees exploding into view on the paved streets within the Street View image captures.

The experience continues by ‘Sending your Postcard Downtown’. The digital postcard has a unique URL that the user is asked to bookmark, this is where they will receive digital postcards from other users. The postcards will also be used as live concert visuals during Arcade Fire’s tour. Some postcards will be made into printed cards on special paper that contains birch tree seeds and distributed at concerts. Plant the cards and a tree grows.

Transmedia Experiences

Its inspiring to see artists such as Arcade Fire break out of the norm and expand upon the idea of what a promotional video is, and to take advantage of technologies to tell a compelling story. We can expect to see much more projects like this is the future, involving combinations of the real-world, web, mobile, augmented reality and social media. The only limits are the artist’s imagination, whether than artist be a musician, visual artist, filmmaker or programmer. The term “transmedia” has been adopted to describe these experiences, as stories are presented across a number of media platforms with multiple paths, entry and exit points available to the viewer.

Digital Touchpoints & the Customer Experience

These transmedia experiences can be compared in scope to the digital customer experience world in which Delvinia operates. The customer’s story with an organization or brand can evolve in any number of ways. What is key is that the digital and ‘real-life’ touchpoints provide a positive experience for the customer whether they are on your website, Facebook page, on the phone to your call-center or walking into a physical storefront. Create a compelling and positive story for your customer to tell.