June | 2009 | Joely Righteous

June 29, 2009

The Hidden Park

As a general rule, I find that 90% of augmented reality is unnecessarily difficult (e.g. you point it at a print out and you see a character etc) and offers little in the way of true value to the user. So I was extremely please to stumble across The Hidden Park this morning.

The Hidden Park utilises GPS to overlay a magical park map over your location. Users are then taken on a journey through the game and can utilise the iPhones camera function to take aug. reality photos. The game is aimed to get kids out of the house, outside and interacting.

I have not yet had the chance to have a full play with this game, but from an advertiser perspective it shows what is capable utilising both GPS and Augmented reality technology. If an advertiser were a good fit this technology could be used to provide an amazing level of value to consumers, especially if we can extend the execution across platforms.

Posted in advertising, Tech | Leave a Comment »

Tags: advertising, augmented reality, GPS, iphone, Tech, The Hidden Park

June 28, 2009

The secret to technological success: Embracing the porn industry

I was having a conversation today with Mal and we were discussing the massive role pornography has played in shaping the acceptance of technology.

This is by no means a new finding people have commented for years on the continuing influence porn has had on mainstream acceptance of technologies, from the VHS vs Beta battle of the 1970′s to the emergence of DVD and the uptake of use of the internet, once confined to governments and university geeks. Would these technologies still have achieved their massive level of uptake had the adult-film industry not embraced them? The odds are that DVD and the internet would still have emerged, however it certainly would have taken a lot longer (which means the human race owes the adult-film industry a great debt for assisting our technological development).

The learning we can take from this is that if you are a technology platform and you want to increase your chance of success aim to please the adult-film industry and aid mainstream society in their ability to access and interact with the adult material they produce. I would wager that if a mainstream search engine returned fairly average results for normal search activity but delivered stellar results for “free porn” style search then they would have a great uplift in their non-adult search activity as a direct correlation.

The irony in all of this, of course, is that society at large pretends to be sickened and disgusted by pornography, they try to block and ban it. Yet we know that, even now, the large majority of search activity is adult based searches.

What are your thoughts? If you a technology developer, have you considered directly contacting someone in the adult-film industry and seeing how you can help them address some of their needs?

Posted in Business, Tech | 1 Comment »

Tags: adult film industry, business growth, development, internet, pornography, Tech, technology

June 27, 2009

This site does not comply with our Global IT Security Policy. If you have a valid business reason for requiring access to this site please contact your IT department.

Every time I see the above message one thought springs to mind, “Why?”

If I were trying to access some type of beast on girl pornography or a site where they pay homeless people in meth to fight each other with rusty blades then I could understand, but I’m not. I’m trying to access normal everyday sites (such as blogs, entertainment sites and media agencies sites) that for some reason don’t meet the requirements of an internet policy. I have experienced this across a variety of workplaces and it always baffles.

Now, harking back to the interwebs of the 1990′s and indeed the early 2000′s I can understand this, the webs was a scary place to go surfing there were many sharks in them there seas and we all had to be scared all the time. Plus there was the matter of speed, connections were slower and a few websites using only a few MB’s was a significant drain.

And you know what, if you work for a day care centre or a government department I can still understand this added degree of paranoia, after all better safe than sorry, but when you’re in an adult workplace where access to the internet is an integral part of your job one would think we should have moved past this.

The primary reason I don’t think global policies make sense is that they do not account for cultural differences and as such may misinterpret portions of sites in other countries. It would make much more sense to write policies country by country based around the needs of the business is that country.

What are your thoughts on these global policies? Have you found them a hindrance when researching or doing work?

Posted in Business, Tech | 1 Comment »

Tags: annoying, computers, IT, security policy

June 24, 2009

Guest Post: Online identities clashing with job prospects

The following is a guest post care of Rose Leonard, of I live with crazy people fame (okay, so she might not be famous… yet, but she will be.)

Recently, I was offered a position in the public service. I will be working closely with a high ranking member of this particular organisation, and as such I will be expected to act in a professional and discreet manner. I expected this, and in the interest of full disclosure, I mentioned in the job interview that I use many social media websites, and that I have a relatively strong online identity. My future boss looked confused by a) social media and b) online identities. He admitted to having no knowledge of the internet.

A few hours after my interview, I received a call. I had been Googled, and my boss was freaking out. I seemed to be broadcasting my entire life to the world via some ‘Twitter’ nonsense. I also had a ‘blog’ that detailed illegal behaviour committed by people I know! (Not by me.) I was quickly informed that if I wanted the position, this would all have to go. The organisation I work for has received considerable negative press in the past 10 years, thanks to Howard, and apparently they just can’t risk a senior official being linked to this sort of thing. I agreed and offered to shut it all down.

However, I feel that they’ve missed the point of my online behaviour. It is an outlet, and has little to do with how I behave in a professional environment. I made no mention of who they were when I discussed the interview on Twitter. I am pretty clear on my blog that the actions committed by the people around me are not also committed by myself.

I can’t help but wonder if this is all fair. How can a man who admitted to having no knowledge of these websites declare them to be unsafe? More importantly, if he openly admits to having a bad public image attached to himself and the organisation, why not welcome a new way to reach people and change? Their website is outdated and confusing. They have no youtube or twitter presence. Instead of looking at a new employee with a strong understanding of this as untrustworthy, why not implement my understanding? He’s demonising something he has no comprehension of, simply because I’m younger than him and therefore less intelligent. (Apparently.)

Posted in Guest Post, lessons, Social Media | 5 Comments »

Tags: clashing, Guest Post, job, new job, online identities, Social Media

June 23, 2009