Commitment

Steven | Random Thoughts | Monday, 24 November 2008

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Nokia viNe

Steven | multimedia,Random Thoughts | Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Nokia viNe is going to be released This week, according to the website. It’s a very cool app (I did some beta tests) and I’m pleased it’s going to be out there. I’m curious about the amount of data that will be captured and the way it will be shared.

To learn what Nokia viNe is, watch this movie :)

Minor Issues is a commercial whore!!

Steven | marketing, advertising & campaigns,Random Thoughts | Sunday, 09 November 2008

Click and stick: $5

So what’s the thing with monetization? For starters: this blog is my playground and my hobby. It’s not my work. I don’t need it to make money here. It hardly cost me anything (hosting is provided by my buddy Serge .. and I guess I still need to pay him some domain name fees ;) ) except a decent amount of time. The things I learn is what I earn and so are the people I connect to. My reputation, I guess ..
On the other hand, I don’t feel dirty if I make some bucks with blogging. Working in advertising myself I’m quite interested in how blogs can spread your message. And there are many models to that. Paying bloggers is only one way of doing things, and then there’s a difference between display ads or commercial content creation.

As far as I’m concerned, I don’t say no to anything .. by default. This means you can knock on my door as much as you like. I’ll listen. But I don’t guarantee I accept your offer anyway. There’s a big chance I might not.
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I live to code

Steven | marketing, advertising & campaigns,multimedia | Sunday, 09 November 2008

My attention was drawn to this little video

I was asked to post this, more about that here.

It shows a Microsoft Surface developer explaining some stuff he’s done, not too technical but quite passionate and understandable.
Well I absolutely love Surface and I’m quite fascinated every time I see it working on roadshows and stuff (last time on FOWA). I think it’s a truly innovative product, taking into account what technology can do for the user, and not for the sake of technology, so that’s great. In my mind, one of the best ways to innovate is this road: think about how good something could be, and then take little steps to make it happen, until it’s there.

At the end of the video you’ll find a link to www.ilivetocode.com. It’s a quite, well, dry website containing a bunch of links to similar video’s on youTube, and other project pages. It’s a Microsoft driven .. campaign (I guess I shall call it a campaign). They’re not trying to hide their identity, it’s there. You can participate yourself by mailing to a Microsoft email address and yes they even pay me indirectly to post the video.
I kind of like the approach, and see where this is going. They try to gain credibility to have developers explain in their words what they are doing and what it means for them. Microsoft is the company providing the tools, and yes they get criticized a lot, but on the other hand you have all these developers who just do what they love. And in the end that’s what its’ about. I try to avoid holy “what technology is better” wars myself. If you use what you love you’ll end up doing cooler things.

Here’s something from the ethos

“It’s about solving problems, not cutting corners. It’s about finishing what you started. It’s the reason you’re not the only one working until 2 a.m. It’s the common bonds and universal truths shared by developers, regardless of their platform. This is Live to Code.”

Nuff said.

The only thing I’d like to see now is someone new, applying to the program with his/her project, and getting picked up. Al though it feels genuine to me this would prove the case it’s not clearly selected marketing talk, but an idea opened up (although initiated by Microsoft). Case 1 might be just good thinking, case 2 is definitely smart!
So if you got something, or know someone .. let me know.

Beware what you share!

Steven | Random Thoughts | Monday, 03 November 2008

Well, I guess we all come to a point where we kind of doubt whether it’s wise to share a certain piece of information. I just got forwarded an A-class example of how sharing too much might be a bad idea. I paste it in pictures to have the chronology right and because that’s the most lazy way (long live Windows Live Writer + Snipping Tool).

Kyle Doyle vs Niresh Regmi #1

Kyle Doyle vs Niresh Regmi #2

Kyle Doyle vs Niresh Regmi #3

Kyle Doyle vs Niresh Regmi #4

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Why don’t people get it!?

Steven | marketing, advertising & campaigns,Random Thoughts | Sunday, 02 November 2008

That question is kind of the glue of this project I participated in: the age of conversation #2. The idea is to involve bloggers around the globe and write a book together. Yes it’s possible, this is the second edition. Last year about 100 bloggers wrote along, this year the counter stopped at 237. And this year I shared a page as well, titled "Bottom-up marketing".

Well first, this book couldn’t have happened without the excellent effort Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton have put in the project. Kudo’s guys and thank you so much!

image I just ordered my copy at lulu, printing on demand baby! And of course I would be gratefull if you ordered a copy yourself. Not for making me any money, none of the writers earn a single dollar. We even pay out own copy. All profit is donated to a good cause: Variety, the international children’s charity. Last year the project raised nearly $15,000!

So obviously the book is about conversation, and it’s a pretty grassroot aproach so in my mind a very good way to learn about insights breeding inside de minds of people really deep into blogging, community .. organic conversations. But I can’t say to much about it since I haven’t received my copy yet. I’m very curious and excited and let you know what I think about it as soon as I’ve got it. You might want to follow me on twitter to pick my brain ;)

Piet Wulleman spotted 5 Belgian participators so far: Piet Wulleman, Geert Desager, Luc Debaisieux, Yves van Landeghem and me. I think we should do a press release together, but I didn’t came to it so far ..

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