Facebook alerts x 3

Facebook changing "Fan" to "Like"
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/03/29/facebook-users-will-soon-like-a-page-to-become-a-fan-not-become-a-fan
I wish they would just stick with something and stay with it.

And from http://www.insidefacebook.com/
Facebook Threatens App Developer – TechDirt reported this week that Facebook was claiming trademark infringement over an app that cleans up the Facebook live feed by removing app notices. The script Greasemonkey was originally called Facebook Purity, changed to Fluff Busting Purity after Facebook complained, but apparently Facebook is still unsatisfied. This is even interesting, the report noted, because Greasemonkey is a user script that lives in a user’s browser, something Facebook has no control over.
Ha Ha - yeh I'm sure Facebook didn't like it...... but there isn't jack that they can do about it.
 
 
Did you think Beacon was dead now that Facebook paid the $9m fine? Nope they just waited 2 years to try again;
Pre-Approved Third-Party Websites and Applications. In order to provide you with useful social experiences off of Facebook, we occasionally need to provide General Information about you to pre-approved third party
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=32427
 
 
Hmmm opening the door x 3 for a competitor if you ask me......
 
 
Cheers,
Dean
 

www.LiveAFLchat.com is now live

Look what snuck on to the production server today;


http://www.liveaflchat.com/

Sorry we blew it for the first weekend. Hopefully you can forgive us.

Thursday is the first live game chat - http://www.liveaflchat.com/CHurl/03-29-2010/3062/2383 
Brisbane Lions Vs Carlton

Help spread the word by becoming a Facebook "Fan" at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/LiveAFLChat/254965633406


Cheers,
Dean

Looking to sell http://www.MyPostButler.com

As some of you here know i started http://www.mypostbutler.com/ to help me auto follow people chatting on Twitter about Baseball teams for my work on http://www.livebaseballchat.com/


I've been selling this application for the last 8 months to people who had a similar use on Twitter and wanted to take full advantage of the API but i'm just so flat out on http://www.livechatconcepts.com/ work that i dont really have time to market it properly apart from a few blog posts here and there when i first launched it.

As such I'm looking to sell http://www.mypostbutler.com/ to anyone who wants to make me an offer.

Basically looking to sell the source code, website, both domains/url, twitter username/password all rights to the name etc

So far there are about 400 users out there over the past 8 months I’ve been selling the code (as MyTwitterButler originally).

Original developer is available in case you want to add to the software/make any changes but basically it’s written in .net so anyone can modify the code using Visual Studio 2008.

Email me if you have any questions otherwise get in touch with an offer.


Cheers,
Dean@Cognation.net

BarCampNYC5 is go

The free tickets for BarCampNYC5, Sat & Sun - 17th-18th of April, have just been made available.


Register here - http://barcampnyc5.eventbrite.com/ - be quick though as they will get sold out soon.

The url for this years BarCamp is at http://barcamp.pbworks.com/BarCampNYC5

If you’ve never been to a BarCamp before check out these photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/barcampnyc4 Or one of my many BarCamp blog posts e.g. http://blog.collins.net.pr/2007/11/barcamp-mobile-nyc2.html

If you come, be prepared to give a 30 minute talk.
If you come, be prepared to come for the full two days.
If you come, be prepared to fully participate.
If you come, remember this is an un-conference, what happens here happens because of your participation.

Without a doubt BarCamps are still my favorite tech event of the year, I have never left a weekend where I didn’t learn about at least 3-4 things I had never heard of before. If you are smart, funny and prepared to be involved I hope to see you there.

If you are going here is my mugshot, be sure to come up and say hi.

Cheers,

Dean

Twitter - http://twitter.com/deancollins  

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/deancollins  
Linked In - http://www.linkedin.com/in/deancollins

Is Sprint wimax an option in New York?

More awesome'ner' than an iphone @mashable HTC EVO 4G: Sprint's First WiMAX Phone (time to dump my droid?)

http://mashable.com/2010/03/23/htc-evo-4g-sprint/

To be honest not being GSM is a PITA for when i travel overseas but i bought a spare gsm handset when i moved to Verizon CDMA to get onto the awesome android platform so wimax couldn't be much worse (eg isolated).

Anyone know what the Sprint coverage in New York is like?


Cheers,
Dean

Kinkos is the smoking gun

Lol, without a doubt Kinkos is the smoking gun.

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/03/broadcast-yourself.html

I guess the marketing agencies should have paid out of petty cash rather than receipts (or whatever otherway YouTube found out about this).

lol, who knew that Viacom in the end would be their own worst enemy about ensuring DMCA is enshrined into law forever and ever without a chance of it ever being overturned.

The court will still take a while to rule but basically this fight is over.


Cheers,
Dean

Business Insider and pissing off your web visitors

you might be running a free website but if you dont think your customers are adding value with their mindshare then dont bother asking them for comment (or reading any further).


******************************************

This morning i was reading an article about startup visas on Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-startup-visa-is-actually-a-really-bad-idea-2010-3?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SAI_Select_032310



I posted the following comment
“Wait until these visa recipients find out about the “Heart Taxation Act”, they might change their mind. I’m leaving the USA before 2014 unless it’s repealed before then because of it”

- expat

********************************************
 
Unfortunately the Business Insider spam filter felt something i said was spam?? They have this complicated process where you need to send an email with your username, the article url and your comments then they manually approve it. PITA

I wrote a little snipe basically saying - what could possibly be wrong with my statement above for it to be considered spam.
To which i got the following email from Dan Frommer the editor of Business Insider;

Hi Dean,

Your comment has been approved. Obviously, the inconvenience sucks, but since your comment was left, we've successfully blocked more than 800 spam comments. I'm very happy with a <1% false positive rate. FYI, we use the same Akismet antispam filter everyone else does. But we'll try to keep improving it.

Thanks for reading!

df
******************************************

To which i replied

Dan,

This is the fourth comment I’ve had blocked personally.

I wonder how many of those 800 you blocked were people who just gave up…… and never bothered to send the follow up email?

Think your making up stories here (running my own websites I know you cant confirm one way or the other – don’t brag if you cant prove it and if you are reading the spasm then why not have someone post the false positives automatically instead of asking us to send an email) either way heads up this is the last email I’m sending – get a false value next time I’ll keep my thoughts to myself – if you don’t feel I’m adding value to your website I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.
Cheers,
Dean


******************************************


I guess the reason i'm writing all this is when someone writes a complaint to me about one of my websites i see it as a mjor gift to me personally.

They could have kept it to themselves and not taken the time to complain.

Instead they chose to gift you with some feedback to help you be successful 100 times over. Love and cherish the feedback, and never ever try to justify that you are right and they are wrong.

Otherwise next time they'll probably just choose to take their readign eyeballs elsewhere and your advertisers will surely follow sooner rather than later. No one is too big to say no to even a single customer.


Cheers,
Dean

Sunny "social media"

Stumbled across this via B&T



Innovative? exceptional marketing? or social media masturbation?

Is the ROI trackable at even the highest macro levels?

How many of the 40,000 facebook fans are in the target audience eg. their store carries Sunny Eggs and they made a conscious decision to chose this brand over X brand?


Discuss.


Cheers,
Dean

Why Location Marketing Is New Point-of-Purchase

Why Location Marketing Is New Point-of-Purchase
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=142902
Forget Foursquare or Gowalla: Soon every website and service will be able to tell where you are, opening up the floodgates for location-based marketing and blurring the budget lines for advertisers.

Yeh but....

yes you can rely on a high price purpose built app to tell you when your users are in your store....however - dont forget QR codes located "within the store" from which a customer can snap an image "land on a mobile page" (changed daily so they cant just save the landing page) and receive something of value in return for their participation is the perfect way to combine mobile and location. Still dont know what a qr codes is? check out http://www.Cognation.net/QR  for a 60 second overview.


Cheers,
Dean

Burton does Alice

Tim Burton is a genius.

I know i'm not the only person who will say it this week but i dare anyone who watches his mindtrip interpretation of "Alice in Wonderland" not to agree.

Mia Wasikowska as Alice is a relatively unknown Australian actress but she handles her scenes like a pro; there is just something about her that was just so perfect and honest.

Burton is so much more CS Lewis and insanely crazy than Disney ever could be, so it's much more adult orientated and the fashion is just so sexy and outrageous (alices short skirt outfit when she's in the queens parlour) - who knew both Alice and the White Witch could be so hot and Anne Hathaway was so "je ne sais quoi" i've almost forgiven her for "Rachaels Getting Married".

The 3d effects were so much better than avatar (eg used where suitable instead of obvious like avatar), almost like avatar was the training movie and they are actually getting skillful at it's use now (though i really wonder how many people know this is anti piracy rather than effects).

If you have kids you should see it, if you are on a date you should see it. I guarantee someone would have already seen this movie while tripping and had the best experience of all.


Cheers,
Dean

Music Pirates in Canada

Music pirates in canada in 1897 - http://www.perceptric.com/blog/_archives/2010/3/14/4479882.html
and today - http://www.perceptric.com/blog/_archives/2010/3/14/4479914.html

(if you haven't subscribed to his blog already you should - Tom is a genius....unfortunately he's also crazy :) having said that i've never met someone who is right about so much so often 7-12 years out from today).


Cheers,
Dean

Austrade - AIMIA Digital Media Showcase

It was an interesting mix of Australian companies to pitch yesterday at the 2010 Austrade / AIMIA Digital Media Showcase.

Pretty much a cross section of new media / tech / agencies each with their own spin and levels of international experience.

http://www.e-diary.com/
http://www.blocksglobal.com/
http://www.ekidnaworld.com/
http://www.glearning.com.au/
http://www.jobbag.com/
http://www.netventures.com.au/
http://www.reactive.com/

I think the most interesting for me personally would have to be http://www.e-diary.com/ , basically an app targeted at commercial entities such as AFL, NBA etc  to deliver fully formed html pages directly into an end users outlook/mac etc (didn't mention gmail?) calendars for an entire seasons games including hyperlinks for online seat purchase, fan gear purchase, etc



Unfortunately i found out that the product is purchased as a "agency service" rather than something that is licensed on a SAAS basis so agencies/entities here in the USA cant yet license the tools to do the work themselves but still a very interesting concept that has lots of potential.

http://www.netventures.com.au/ also had a pretty straight forward video streaming proposal (but very successful with some major names in Australia) until they showed some of their neat end user video mashup tools. Basically anyone looking to offer end users the ability to edit video content and the serve up the resulting edits to a fan community, should check them out.

They were also super excited about the ability to stream video content across multiple platforms with the ability to pickup where you left off, eg watching something at home on the pc, then jumping onto your cell for the commute to work without needing to find the location you left off.....nice but i figure this is hardly a game changer... as long as fast forward works easily enough.

NetVentures also mentioned that they have just released their iPad toolkit for publishers looking to offer video onto this platform (uggh it’s a virus and already infested Australian agencies :) .

Like always i was disapointed to hear that some of the presenters are staying in New York... all the way until Sunday... (sarcasm) but that some were planning on spending more than a few weeks for follow up meetings.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - if you are going to sign up for this trade mission you have to plan on spending a month here at a minimum and you have to hit the phones to make appointments before you arrive, hit the phones while you are here, and hit the phones after you return home. Australia is a long way away and you have to have something pretty special to remain top of mind here BUT if you do make the effort with the size of the USA market you can make it big time.

Just ask Antony Mcgregor Dey from http://www.qmcodes.com/ who pitched at last years Austrade trade mission and this year headlined his QR code technology at SXSW and is moving to NY permanently as of April this year.


Cheers,
Dean

Nielsen realise people like to chat online while watching TV

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/facebook-google-and-yahoo-are-top-sites-while-watching-big-tv-events
Americans are getting into the habit of going online while watching television, with 10% or more of viewers visiting social networks, searching the web and browsing content during major TV events.
Recently, when 29% of the U.S. population tuned into the Academy Awards on March 7, more than 13% of those viewers spent time on the web at the same time. For the 2009 Oscars, 25.6% of the population tuned in and 8.7% surfed the web simultaneously. A large percentage of those watching TV and surfing the web visited Facebook, Google or Yahoo!, a trend also seen in this year’s Super Bowl


You only need to check out the traffic at http://www.livefootballchat.com/  during our superbowl live chat - http://www.livefootballchat.com/lfbc-cogchat/churlchat.do?id=2842  to see how people are flocking to interacting on two screens while watching live events.

Check out http://www.livechatconcepts.com/ for details on our other sites.


Cheers,
Dean

www.DirtyPhonebook.com

Love it - dont know if this article is true (eg the backstory is real or just pr spin) but i love this startup idea.

http://www.businessinsider.com/horrifying-and-vile-new-startup-of-the-day-dirtyphonebookcom-2010-3
DirtyPhoneBook.com is a new Web site that allows people to anonymously post comments on ten digit phone numbers.
As anyone who has taken Chatroulette's world tour of genitals can imagine, DirtyPhoneBook is full of vile stuff.
Amid the rare business review or personal compliment, we found personal takedowns, reviews of prostitutes, and a whole lot of racially-charged anger.


As far as the business concept no worse that delivering pet food from an online website...... and how much funding did they get exactly....

Lets face it - the web is a riot and the best thing ever to happen :)

Come on i mean seriously, what is there not to love about this;
http://www.dirtyphonebook.com/comments/718-344-3297

lol it's cracking me up.

Cheers,
Dean

LostRemote - QR article

RE: @lostremote http://disq.us/dkahj  - lol finally. i've only been harping on about QR codes for 3 years.



Is Facebook about to go QR code crazy?
Imagine that you’re walking around a bar. Everywhere you turn you see people wearing shirts emblazoned with checkered barcodes. No one is talking to each other. Instead of dancing and conversing, the majority of the establishment’s patrons are taking camera phone pictures of those around them. ...

Erin Sax Seymour

Just got home from seeing Erin Sax Seymour blow the doors off Cafe Vivaldi.

It still amazes me after living in New York for 5 years that such talented artists in New York have to play such small gigs, these guys should be playing bars 10 times the size.

It must be a tough way to eek out a living while waiting for the "big break". Hopefully someone reading this can recognise their talent.

You can check out a few of their tracks here otherwise check out the video clip below, their cd Good Girlis available on Amazon.

If you are into bluesy country grunge (lucinda williams/jenny lewis etc) then check them out, you'll love them.



Cheers,
Dean

http://www.LiveCricketChat.com

Gilchrist got out in the #IPL and i missed it.

I need more monitors if watching the next 60 IPL matches is going to work properly.

Catch you online at www.LiveCricketChat.com soon.


Cheers,
Dean

I wonder what happened to Frente?

I wonder what happened to Frente?



man i used to burn this cd up repeating it over and over and over and over.....


Cheers,
Dean

Formular 1 Bahrain

Ladies and Gentlemen start your engines......  http://www.livef1chat.com/  is now live.

Please go and register at http://www.livef1chat.com/ today and look forward to seeing you this Sunday for the Bahrain F1 for live in the race chat with your friends and F1 fans from all around the world.

Also if you haven't already please friend us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/LiveF1Chat/262295689336 and forward this page to your facebook friends to get them there this Sunday as well.

Cheers
http://www.livechatconcepts.com/

This is the most powerful think i have read on Twitter

http://jr.ly/z97v 


You think the web is cool.... we're only at V 0.14 at best.


Cheers,
Dean

BMW pulls off an old tablecloth trick

WOWWW !! - now this is how you do viral marketing.

"Ah yes, the old pull-the-tablecloth-off-the-table-without-sending-dishes-flying routine".



I wish they mentioned the name of the agency that came up with this marketing concept, this is brilliant. Expect it to be forwarded by every gear head this side of Pluto to at least 10 of their friends.

Viral marketing concepts like this are marketing dollars to the power of 1 gadrillion.

I'm calling it now, someone is winning an award for this ad campaign.


Cheers,
Dean

Idea Inertia

I love this blog post http://blog.asmartbear.com/your-idea-sucks-now-go-do-it-anyway.html

"My idea isn't good enough yet" explained a friend who is thinking of starting his own company. He was waiting for the idea to be completely fleshed our before taking the leap.
Here's a newsflash: Your idea probably sucks, and it doesn't matter because your business will probably turn out to be something completely different.

Check out the examples in the post about how Paypal and Flickr got started, wow, who's kicking themselves they missed out on those opportunities because the ideas were still embryonic.

Guy Kawasaki has a similar principle in his "Art Of The Start" which is basically get started, your first few attempts you are going to screw them up anyway and the sooner you start the sooner you can get them out of the way.

Great words to live by.


Cheers,
Dean

Banner ads on www.LiveNascarChat.com

The first few weeks for banner ads on www.LiveNascarChat.com are now in.

It's been pretty reasonable, still needs to scale a lot more, but as a baseline, the percentages are exactly where we thought they would be.

For the first 2 weeks of www.LiveNascarChat.com

Impr.     Clicks     CTR
10,912     37        0.34%

Basically across all the sites we seem to be averaging around half to three quarters of one percent in click through rates, which is good and about on target (i think i estimated the click through would be about 1% in the original business plans - especially as most of the ads are awareness ads and you wouldn't expect people to click away from a live chat as often as a website (think tv ads while watching a tv show, you'll notice them, and be aware of them, but might not go straight to the url that very minute).

Also as a comparison for www.LiveBaseballChat.com last season we did

Impr.    Clicks    CTR
60,611   275     0.45%

So in the first 2 weeks of Nascar we did 1/10th of all ads for the baseball season, not bad.

Basically the primary concepts appear solid and now it's just a mater of scaling. We have held off turning on a "viral switch" function for a while as we wanted to make sure the software code was stable and ready for prime time.

It's the same reason why so far we've only spent $50 in facebook ads and $50 in google ads on test spends, we really want to make sure it's stable before we get slammed trying to fix problems - you only get once chance to make a first impression.

(we're still only at about V 0.4 of where we want to be by the end of this year so gives you an idea how much is still out in front).

We'll probably still hold out doing a lot of advertising/press work but with the IPL Cricket tournament/Formula 1/Aussie Rules/Rugby League web sites about to launch it's a good time at  www.LiveChatConcepts.com  :)


Cheers,
Dean

Big Love finale

Wow i cant believe how they finished the season for Big Love. (Dont worry not going to give it away).

Cant wait for next season to start, it's killing me it's another 8 months away.


Cheers,
Dean

Lions for Lambs

I just watched Lions for Lambs, I'm still not sure how I feel about the story, the movie and the acting are great, there were a few weak scenes, but people should definitely watch it.

I'm just surprised I had never heard about it before? Being made in 2007 you think i would have seen it during the cinema release due to it's controversial nature but I honestly haven’t heard of it before I just happened to stumble across it after it had started 5 mins earlier.

Also – don’t do it before you see the movie but after you’ve seen it go check out some of the comments about it on IMDB. It’s almost as interesting an insight into people positions as the movie.


Cheers,
Dean

Apple sucks

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-patents-apple-hopes-will-crush-its-smartphone-competition-2010-3#system-and-method-for-performing-an-action-on-a-structure-in-computer-generated-data-15

My Comments:
Just because the US patent office wants to hand out patents like they are candy doesn't mean the rest of us should care.


None of these patents are worth worrying about until Apple invests the money in defending them in court. Wake me up when this matters.
 
I love this comment from someone else:
"The other option for Apple was to release a phone that would be faster and sexier than the Nexus One or the HTC Desire. But no, they have to go the bully way and keep their new-phones-only-once-in-an-year schedule"
 
 
 
so when does Apple overtake Microsoft as being the bad guys?
 
Cheers,
Dean