SNS Traffic and Privacy in UK

I'd like just to feature this piece of news I found on Cnet.  Apparently keeping users' communication data for one year is not enough.  In future, be mindful of what you send and share with your British contacts on Facebook...  it might be relevant in a very distant future, still TBD.

Sex sells... it sells better if viral

I was on Youtube watching some random news about Berlusconi and Geddhafi playing best friends and at the end of the video I got prompted with a quite sticky advertisement by TripAdvisor.  The idea is cool for at least three reasons. 1) Sex sells.  2) The message is funny and ironic.  3) Everybody got a bad experience in some crappy hotel.
I think this is a good example of a viral marketing campaign.  In fact, the advertisement exactly captures the reasons why everybody will be likely to share this video with his friends, coworkers, etc....
The subject matter of the video (dirty stories in hotel rooms) is universal.  It catches everybody's curiosity.  Needless to say, the outfit of the actress is an essential component of the message itself.
The tone of the advertising is clever and ironic.  Just after 10 seconds you'll find out that "dirty" is used in its literal meaning, out of any metaphor and regardless of the nuances suggested by the dramatic look of the actress.
And eventually, the punch line/call to action:  check the list and send us your experience about dirty hotels.  Well, I am sure that anybody who recently had a bad experience will be happy to be vocal about his complaints.
Therefore, if many people are following the suggestion, this collection of complaints is more than entertaining: it is useful information.
Perhaps, this is a good example of conversational marketing. I find this is gonna be an interesting evolution of the traditional viral campaigns.  I believe that the main feature of this marketing strategy is to get the users to contribute directly to the message, acting as a "collective" testimonial.  I am sure we will have to speak again about conversational marketing...

TOS, in Beta

I've been off this blog for a while. So I decided to blog something about what I've been doing.  I am aware my (tiny) readership is very forgetful... Though, I feel I owe an update.
These last few weeks have been intense.  Among the others, I've been crafting the Terms Of Use and the Privacy Policies of Ukindi.com.  Of course I started looking at other websites' TOS and PP, as a I needed a good comparable. Not so much to use the actual language (which BTW is not copyrightable, as legal language...) but mostly to understand about best practices and market trends... Of course, I chose the best moment to take over this task - the following day I finished my first draft, Facebook took down its TOS... Now they say it is because FB is a democratic SNS.  I suppose it is sort of a revolution -- when did people start actually reading the TOS?
Anyway, I am preparing a second draft... and I start thinking that I will never be actually ready with a final, solid, definitive version of the TOS.  Both the features of the websites and the users' interaction will be constantly changing, and envisioning a thorough  regulatory framework is not easy.
Sometime I wish it would be possible to have legal conditions in BETA... which is basically what the following language is meant to be: "We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or delete portions of these Terms of Use at any time without further notice, provided that the Company will post the changes to these Terms of Use on this page and will indicate at the top of this page the date these terms were last revised. Your continued use of the Site after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms of Use."

33 VIP Twitter Accounts Hacked

Some weeks ago I got an account on Twitter.com - it's just another way to give-up my privacy, of course... but at least it is a fun way to do it - I told to myself - because you decide exactly the personal info you are giving up.  Yesterday, I had to reconsider when I read on Twitter's blog that Obama's and Britney Spears' accounts have been hacked.
Somebody with an extraordinary sense of humor was twittering impersonating the legitimate owners of the hacked accounts... Sometimes, the twitter posts were so strange and non-sense to look absolutely real!

Tag-Lines in a Democratic Internet

 Talking about marketing and brand identity, the debate of these days has been the following:  what is the role of tag-lines in web 2.0.  The issue is more than philosophical -- it is ontological... If we accept the concept that web 2.0 designates a participative community, where users define the tone, the content and the nature of the community, then we should reject the idea of having a tag-line to drive the community towards any preconceived end. This is the underlying idea of an authentic democratic community, where labels and tag-lines are disturbing the purity of the natural identity. Indeed, the community identity is never defined and continuously evolving, wherever the users are willing to take it.
Twitter does not have a tagline, nor does Digg, Blogger, Technorati, Craigslist (if you consider it a web 2.0) et many others.
On the other hand, some web 2.0 services have built their identities leveraging tag-lines and often changing many overtime.
Facebook is a good example - here is its tag-line history:
“Keep up with friends and family,” “Share photos and videos,” “Control privacy online,” and “Reconnect with old classmates.” Now Facebook has a simple message to entice you to sign up: “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.”
Is Facebook managing its tag-line reactively or proactively? In other words, is Facebook reacting to the users' behavior, so to hone the potential of its brand - or - on the contrary,  has Facebook elected to pursue a specific marketing strategy, irrespective to its users?
I understand that, once you have reached the dimension of Facebook, such question become a chicken and egg question...  However, I am keen to believe that the importance of auto-determination of an online community is expected to impact the use of tag-lines (or - at least - the evolution of the same).
Some other examples - Youtube "Broadcast Yourself", and Myspace "a place for friends".
Now, empirical evidence shows that only a minor percentage of Youtube users is actually uploading videos representing themselves, while the majority of the users is just "watching-someone-else."  Most of the users would rather mirror themselves in a tag-line such as: "find-here-the-TVshows-of-the-80s-you-used-to-love-so-much,"  or also "show-your-friend-a funny-video"...  Of course, these are not quite the actual lines to have under a logo... but I mean the content-message of these tag-lines is closer to the community than "broadcast yourself", even though I concede this last one sounds very nice...
Now, I believe you are ready to try this exercise on your own, with Myspace "a place for friends". (Friends? Sure...)
If you are curious to read more tag-lines click here. 

Patents and R&D Personnel: Not Always a Direct Correlation in Europe

Past November the 27th, Eurostat published a research concerning the relationship between patent activity and R&D personnel (find it HERE ) .  The main question raised in such research is the following: does a higher innovation input in form of more personnel lead to a higher innovation output in terms of patents?

Although many Member States fit the correlation, the relationship between patents and R&D personnel does not appear to be straightforward in all of them.  This analysis reveals a number of interesting differences between the structure of research and technological industry countries.  Of course, the research does non include all kind of IP protection likely to be associated with technological innovation. Trade secrets or copyright could be associated with relevant and valuable innovation which would go undetected in this research.  Besides, Eurostat considers only EPO patent applications in drawing the comparison among the multiple EU member States. 

However, if we accept the research methodology, the data provided offer some insights regarding the "ROI" of technological businesses located in different EU countries.  In fact, the figures are presented in break-down according to what sector the R&D personnel belongs, namely Business Enterprise, Government, Higher Education and Private Non-Profit Sector.  Some surprising conclusion could be drawn, if you are looking for the best venue for a tech company... Just a quote: "In 2005 the Italian industry employed about 600 000 people more than the French, but the value added of the non-financial economy in France was about EUR 167 bn higher than in Italy. Whereas in France the shares of R&D personnel and expenditure were nearly three times higher than in Italy, patent activity in 2004 was slightly higher in Italy than in France." 

In other words: French spend more to invent less. Italians monetize less their inventions. 

Namestorming - UPDATED

We eventually picked the name for our service.  The process was lengthy and articulated, involving market research, TM clearance, multi-cultural tests, etc. etc.  Anyway - I'll "give you the baby without the pain of the birth": UKINDI - As soon as possible I will uncover the beautiful story of this name...
____________
After incorporating the company, and before branding the product, it was critical to have some non-biased feedbacks on the name of the service.
Well, some of this feedbacks were not so excited about our name, NexTongue...  Hence we are running a last, final, ultimate and definitive round of name-storming.
We posted our query to a community of creative people, and will grant a reward to the best three names.  If you have a chance, please VOTE VOTE VOTE , or post your proposed name and try to win the reward ---- along with our gratitude - you name what's more important :-).

Super Powers For the New Officer of Copyright Enforcement

On October 13, 2008, the former "Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act" was passed into law under a new name: “The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act ”.  Such Act aims to consolidate federal efforts to combat copyright infringement under the White House’s direction.  In particular, The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act establishes within the executive branch the position of intellectual property enforcement coordinator (IPEC), who will be appointed by the President and will report directly to the President and the Congress regarding domestic and international intellectual property enforcement programs. If you have chance to read through the Act, take a note of the number of tasks the IPEC will perform...  I suppose this is why the IPEC is already known as the Copyright Tzar .

KIDS Act Passed Into Law

The Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2008 is now law.  The KIDS Act provides for an information exchange between the Attorney General and the social networking sites, in order to prevent known sexual predators from accessing such websites.  In particular, Attorney General shall establish and maintain a secure system that permits social networking websites to compare the information contained in the National Sex Offender Registry with the Internet identifiers of users of the social networking websites.  The new law has been promptly embraced by Facebook.     

Europe Aims to Lead the Transition to Web 3.0

Somebody may argue that the Internet is a living creature. In fact, instead of following a linear pattern like other sciences and technologies, the rhythm of its evolution progresses in terms of generations. 

In the beginning there was the Web (nobody ever called it Web 1.0...) and, if you 
are nostalgic about it, you may want to travel in the past and check a 2001 vintage "Google!" search . The exclamation mark was a must-have-it, during the age of Web 1.0.

Then Youtube, Twitter and Facebook took over and here you go with the second generation: the Web 2.0 - the most (ab)used expression to describe the articulated variety of internet services involving users' active participation. But this is history, already.  

In fact, despite the eggheads cannot even agree on its precise definition, the Web 3.0 is a reality.
Moreover, such concept of Web 3.0 has already been embraced by the European Commission , which defined it as the Internet of Things, taking place through wireless interaction between machines, vehicles, appliances, sensors and many other devices. "Web 3.0 means seamless 'anytime, anywhere' business, entertainment and social networking over fast reliable and secure networks," said Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media. "It means the end of the divide between mobile and fixed lines. It signals a tenfold quantum leap in the scale of the digital universe by 2015. Europe has the know-how and the network capacity to lead this transformation. We must make sure that Web 3.0 is made and used in Europe."
I personally appreciate and welcome this attitude and look forward to seeing Europe leading the Web 3.0 revolution.  However, if you actually read the Communication , you may notice that the challenges for the implementation of a fully integrated network deeply involve the European local authorities, the EU legislation and - last but not least - significant investments in infrastructures.  Hopefully, the European bureaucracy will be able to keep pace with the Web re-generation cycle because, just in case you nobody told you, there are already more the a hundred thousand results for the Web 4.0.