News
Happy Packages lives on! | Dan | Thought Pie
It's been hard-core few months, as you might tell from the other blog posts and mediasandbox…a lot of fun, inspiring, challenging, and more than anything this project has opened hundreds of doors for everyone involved. A realisation dawned this week that we really are operating at the forefront of the pervasive media industry…things break, people don't understand, it's new NEW stuff!
Our stand looked beautiful, as did Tom's face beaming out from the 42″ plasma screen. People milled around, took the Happy Packages GPS demo for a test drive, asked us what on earth we were talking about and nodded knowingly when we explained the difficulties working with pervasive convergence in multi-platform content distribution systems.
At around 3 or 4 it was time to deliver the 6 minute presentation and face the judging panel, who were:
Sam Ingleby - Digital Communications Programme Manager, Intellect UK
Dan Sutch – Researcher, Futurelab
Paul Appleby, Series Producer, BBC NHUIt was all over in a matter of seconds (360 I suppose) and as the beads of sweat poured down my face my mouth moved of its own accord, parrying everything the judges could throw out - It's a niche product, a playful campaign machine, a response to the enthusiasm shown by modern consumers to engage with their brands…And as it turned out, the cold hearted commercial hard-sell was what done it for us! After a painful few hours wishing the other Media Sandbox participants the best of luck, the announcement was made.
Happy Packages lives on! After an awkward group hug (and some slick high-fives) up on stage the party was on full swing. It wasn't long until we headed to Start The Bus for more, and while I didn't manage to get the barmaid's number (no appreciation for Pervasive Technology it seems) it was night to remember: Champagne, food, friendly back slaps and promises to take over the world. Watch this space.
Iteration 1 - Secret Happiness | Dan | Thought PieIn the Pervasive media Studio, we've listened to what HP told us about releases in Iterations. So the Secret Happiness mobile page is up there and looking skinny.
We're encouraging you to leave a picture of somewhere that makes you happy and a secret about why you're happy there.
Your secret form
http://www.thoughtden.co.uk/secrethappiness/The Gallery
http://www.thoughtden.co.uk/secrethappiness/gallery.phpWe'll be working on it today according to feedback already so be prepared to start seeing some lovely Bristol secrets.
Is it Bluetooth Marketing Spamming? | Dan | Thought PieThere seems to be a debate raging on about whether, Bluetooth marketing being offered by a few companies like, Bluepod media and Blue Broadcast is nothing better than Spamming?
A company company offering the product boasts,
"What if you could tap every potential customer on the shoulder that walks past your door and send them your business card, advert or special offer directly to their mobile phone? What if you could do this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year without ever needing to worry about the cost?" http://bluebroadcast.com/
Does this mean that the service is non-stop and un-relentless? Certain Bloggers have commented that it could be seen as Bluetooth spam or that the unsolicited sending of Bluetooth ads is annoying.
On the Happy Packages Project we're finding that Bluetooth sending/receiving should be a choice made by the consumer, otherwise you could induce Pervasive Fatigue. The bluetooth node should be backed up with certain Peravsive Relations so the consumer makes a certain choice in their head before interacting with their device.
The Happy Fountains are being build on the fact that people can see there's a Bluetooth area around, what the daily theme is (movies, pictures, events) and that there's a black-list which won't re-offer the same content to those opt-ing out.
So are certain companies going over the top with their Bluetooth abilities and leaving people annoyed or should it be regulated more as the airwaves are being ordered un-regulated?
Audiotary Pervasive Relations | Dan | Thought PieThe New Statesman have blogged on how the police are thinking of using Bluetooth. The idea is to Bluetooth gop people close to a current crime scene. The idea being that Bluetooth's short range will only send the 'crime advice video' to those in proximity.
Gopping the underage… | Dan | Thought PieA strange thing happened outside the office last Wednesday. Oceana runs an under 18 night, and out of the blue came hundreds of kids all turned up shrieking and laughing.
So rather than commenting on the youth of today, the price of cheese and other such things, we tried out some Bluetooth gopping with out the support of any Pervasive Relations (P.R). The test also had some different variables to our last gopping experience when we were chased by fanny in town,
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