Pervasive Entertainment Times

Quote "Leading brands like Nike, for example, are capitalizing on social movements to better understand market behaviors and sources for new inventions, and are even accelerating business ideas that are extensible with utilities they’ve successfully built (like Fuelband). Nike still makes beautiful ads, but its real stocktaking has come in the way it builds products and services with its customers. Others, like Target, are using social platforms to crowdsource design. Others, like P&G, have created joint-venture funds to build up local economies through entrepreneurship. Even more interesting are the efforts of smaller brands like Dermalogica, that benefit from outsourcing infrastructure and bybuilding up value in the supply chain itself. And where government or educational institutions are slow to task, new co-ops and special interest programs expedite development and allow more people and more entities to fail forward, or more productively, to learn by doing."

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The fictional story (had to emphasise its fictionality) has its characters setting up their own Facebook pages and interacting with real-life people as well as other character pages of family and friends. Clues are given everyday that unravel the mystery of who’s the captor, what is he (or she) doing to Christina, what’s the motive and other information that will have you on the edge of your seat.

I’ve been playing along for a few days and it’s a never-ending goose chase connecting the captor’s clues, random things in Christina’s room and the backstories of all the characters. It does get messy at times, but it makes for fun entertainment once you get hooked onto the story and realise that you’re slowly living the world Christina and her family are in."

So is ‘transmedia’ finally growing up. Yes it is. And how will we know when it has finally matured? Probably when we start calling it TV again.

Quote "Nevertheless, I must say I was dumbfounded when another set of recent results were published, this time coming from TripAdvisor’s TripBarometer survey conducted with 35,000 of its users worldwide in January 2013. Of all internet users who used social media to research and plan their last trip, Google+ came in strong second after Facebook with 40% of respondents claiming to have used it."

Quote "But can this work on a mass scale? Or is there something paradoxically tail-chasing about the attempt to exploit the same technologies that people are employing to avoid ads to show them more ads. What’s in it for us? Earlier this week, I was watching TV and spotted the Shazam logo on a commercial for the U.S. Navy. Curious, I whipped out my phone, clicked the Shazam app and was immediately granted the opportunity to watch a handful of Navy promotional videos. Sure, the technology on display was impressive. Shazam recognized the commercial, even though I only managed to start up in time to catch the last second or two of the ad. But I felt no desire to engage further with the Navy brand. That’s not what I’m looking for when I turn to my phone during a moment of boredom or distraction. I’m looking for connection, to see whether my friends are as excited about that awesome dunk LeBron just laid down, or if people are giving the thumbs down to the “Nashville” finale.

Quote "Many people talk about games as stories, and this is certainly the case here. Yes it’s very much a localised game, requiring you to be physically in Dundee to make any sense, but that shouldn’t stop developers experimenting, and it certainly shouldn’t stop collaborations that include other branches of the Arts. Digital storytelling is still storytelling, and anything that encourages individuals and companies to experiment and play around in the space is to be encouraged."

In a world when all the statistics on simultaneous tablet/mobile and TV are indicating a massive increase in the behaviour, why are TV broadcasters and 3rd party providers creating 2nd screen services making very poor experiences for audiences? Can content owners and TV broadcasters make the most of this opportunity or have they lost the battle already? Will Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue or other dedicated 3rd party services run the show and begin own the TV communities that spring up at each episode? What are the best approaches to creating 2nd screen but hasn’t all of this been done before? I try to answer a few of these questions and more raised plus highlight some recent and very old interesting examples.

Disclaimer: any views expressed here are mine and do not represent those of any of my employers, past or present

This article is aimed at producers, experience designers, broadcasters and tech companies making or considering jumping into re-emerged interactive TV now known as 2nd screen. It takes the learnings of broader interactive TV from decades old user behaviour in this space combined with the relatively new additional layer of the social alongside TV behaviour. (it also features some late 2010 introduction extracts also from my upcoming social 2nd screen ebook). There is a lot of information below which hopefully some of it made sense even if you are a user only of 2nd screen services, as it does go behind the scenes. 10 key points covering the back-story, how to improve, process and a bit of where next.

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I'm not a fan of the word "transmedia" but Extension 756 is not only a transmedia project, it has the potential to be transmedia at it's absolute finest. Soderbergh's focus on integrating storytelling into an e-commerce expereince starts with the name of the site itself. "Extension 756" is taken from a line that's spoken by Harrison Ford's character every time he answers the phone in Coppola's still under appreciated masterpiece, The Conversation. 

...But what interests me most about Extension 756 is that Soderbergh has created a personal sandbox that's impossible to create in any other medium. He's given himself a place to experiment with multiple "businesses" at the same time, and have a ton of fun while doing it. When you make a film or write a book you have to write a beginning and an end.

But with Extension 756, Soderbergh can extend his narrative and update the site not only whenever he wants, but also as much or as little as he desires. Because of this, he has given himself a freedom and a control that doesn't exist in most industries, especially studio filmmaking.

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The makers are calling themselves Technical Illusions, and they revealed that there was an internal struggle at Valve between supporters of augmented reality and supporters of virtual reality — and the virtual reality supporters won. However, Valve were apparently keen to make sure that the pair kept all their hard work and were allowed to develop it on their own when they left.

“Gabe was completely behind it,” said Jeri Ellsworth. “I talked to Gabe, and he talked to the lawyers, and he’s like, ‘It’s theirs, make it happen,’ because he could see we were passionate about it.”

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Around 45% of viewers use social media to keep up with the latest show news, while 44% use it to stay informed about air dates and times and 37% use it to access exclusive show information (36% use it to access video and plot clues).

Perhaps surprisingly, functional motives are stronger for teens and young adults with viewers 13 to 17 most likely to use social media to search for show schedules.

Christian Kurz, VP of research insights and reporting for Viacom said: “Globally social media is becoming today’s version of a TV guide for viewers – it is really how they prefer to get their information about the shows they watch”.

Communal factors are the second most common reason for engaging in TV-related social media use. Viewers use social media to share taste (34%), connect with the show (28%) and connect with other fans (28%).

Around 24% of viewers use social media to play games, win rewards and engage in polls and quizzes to do with TV shows. Over 30% said they played TV show-related games on a  weekly basis."

Quote "Sharing: Unfortunately, this is the area where the app begins to show its weakness and where the most improvement is needed. The social conversation elements and share features need to be re-worked from the ground up. All of the content cards offer the opportunity to “thumbs up” and “share”. Even though the user can Facebook Connect their app, the “thumbs up” which looks very similar to a FB “Like” is simply an internal measure of popularity of the card rather than an actual social sharable “Like” to a user’s Facebook timeline. Modification here would create real time exposure to others in that user’s Facebook network that exciting things are happening on the show and in the app, leading to potential discovery by fans and non-fans. The “Share” button found on every content card offers three options for users to help spread the word about the terrific information they are checking out: Facebook, Twitter, and Email. When you select any of the options, a pre-populated and editable text area is generated with a link to the Falling Skies site. One would expect that the link generated from each of the cards where the share button is located to produce a direct path for others not using the app to check out the same piece of content that the user found exciting. This is not the case."

Quote "And we are engaged in a grand social conversation about smartphone ethics and etiquette. An unscientific Facebook survey shows people are thinking about these issues. When shouldn't you use a cell phone? Lari Robling of Philadelphia writes, "Walking. I'm tired of being plowed into on the sidewalk. Driving. I'm tired of being run over crossing the street. Never in a restaurant. Pretty much think of it as going to the bathroom. It's something you have to do, but do it in private." Rachel Ezekiel-Fishbein of Elkins Park speaks for many when she proscribes phones at the dinner table, and Perry Dane of Wynnewood says nix at religious services. Chris Reynolds of Philadelphia writes, "Never use a smartphone in a locker room, or any phone in the bathroom." Bo Child of Princeton Junction says a big nyet for movies. Mitchell Sommers of Lancaster advises against phones in court, "unless you want to see a Deputy Sheriff walk off with it." Lauren Rooney, of Harrisburg, writes, "Don't use any phone while driving or while at a store check out. If it's an intimate or personal conversation, have it in private." As for texts: proofread them, keep them short, and no sexting."

quote "In this single-screen world, users will be able to form 'viewing circles' where friends and family anywhere in the country can get together to watch their favorite TV programs in real time. Using picture-in-picture social and search components embedded in whatever viewing screen each person is using at the moment, everyone in the circle will be able to chat by video, voice and/or text (including seeing all participants in separate windows via webcam); chat with others using social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn; and conduct online searches for information related to the program or commercial they're watching -- all without switching devices."

Quote "But perhaps it is not the creation of new life that we fear, so much as the potential for unpredictable emergent behaviour. Evolution certainly offers that. Take viruses: like Lipson’s machines, these organisms exist in the grey area between life and non-life, yet they are among the most rapidly evolving entities on the planet. They are also some of the most destructive; the Spanish Flu of 1918 killed around 50 million people, and some scientists fear that the emergence of some kind of Armageddon virus is only a matter of time. From this point of view, it doesn’t matter whether viruses are alive or dead. All that matters is that they are highly evolvable and unpredictable."

Quote "Some results were intuitive. Broken down by number of programs, sci-fi programming led the charge, followed by sports, with reality just ahead of news for third place. In terms of pure volume, however, reality competition shows dominated. Interestingly, comedies generated more buzz during finales—The Simpsons and Family Guy both did well at season's end—while dramas like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead got more attention around their premieres.

As always, the burning question is how best to monetize this. Alexandra Shapiro, svp of brand marketing and digital for USA, says that she thinks "social TV is the antidote to timeshifting." Shapiro admits social TV isn't for everyone—plenty of folks just watch TV to relax­—'‘but others are multitasking anyway."

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After downloading an app for the event, attendees can point their phones at different places around David Pecaut Square to see a “virtual gallery” not visible to the human eye.  Augmented reality works by displaying layers of computer-generated information on top of a view of the physical world.  In this case, as they point their phones at different places around the square, they can see works of art on their screens that they can interact with, share, and discuss with others.  As people explore the virtual art pieces, a heat-map will be created displaying where they are and what they are looking at. When the event is over and people are done using the app, what they will leave behind is an entirely new type of digital art: a giant, crowdsourced version of the iconic Lancôme rose spanning the length of an entire city square.  It will be an enormous, virtual mural of sorts that each person has individually contributed to, just by participating.  In other words, it will be the world’s first “human heat-map logo.”"

Quote "When we started the Explorer Program nearly a year ago our goal was simple: we wanted to make people active participants in shaping the future of this technology ahead of a broader consumer launch.  We’ve been listening closely to you, and many have expressed both interest and concern around the possibilities of facial recognition in Glass. As Google has said for several years, we won’t add facial recognition features to our products without having strong privacy protections in place. With that in mind, we won’t be approving any facial recognition Glassware at this time.

We’ve learned a lot from you in just a few weeks and we’ll continue to learn more as we update the software and evolve our policies in the weeks and months ahead."

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Unbeknownst to most consumers, the 350-employee subsidiary of Sony has spent years building up other businesses. It has large divisions that work with TV manufacturers, cable networks, and other content distributors on video recognition technology, and with automakers on systems that help drivers use voice commands to navigate their music playlists. Last year the companyexceeded $100 million in revenue for the first time.

Behind everything there’s still Gracenote’s massive database of 130 million songs and more than 1 million movies and TV shows. But these days, the lookups against that data are coming from hundreds of types of devices, from smartphones to smart TVs to set-top boxes to in-car entertainment systems."

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Unlike the Big Data space, where the action is gradually moving from core infrastructure to vertical applications, the Internet of Things space is seeing a lot of early action directly at the vertical application level. Some notable players like Nest Labs seem to have adopted a deeply integrated vertical strategy where they control key pieces of the product, including both hardware and software, in order to have complete control over the end-user experience (a lot like Apple, which is not surprising considering the founders’ background).

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If you’re a little disappointed at the limited feature set of Google’s Project Glass, there’s a new pair of glasses that might bring all your augmented reality dreams to life. A company called Meta is building a fully hackable headset, complete with visual overlays and gesture detection. Even more exciting, the company has just announced that Steve Mann, a pioneer in wearable computing technology, is joining the team as Chief Scientist.

Meta blew past their Kickstarter goal of $100,000 in five days. Developer kits quickly sold out in the $550 and $650 pledge tier, which is less than half the price of the $1500 Project Glass Explorer Edition. The Meta developer kit includes see-through augmented reality glasses, a depth camera and a software developer’s kit, which includes sample applications and documentation. Meta works with Unity3D, the same graphics rendering engine supported by Oculus Rift, allowing users to pick up and manipulate their own 3D digital objects."

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It’s not hard to imagine more Glass applications, such as applications that display information about the customer a salesperson is talking to, or a task list that stays open in the periphery of your vision, constantly reminding you of what you need to be working on. But the big question is whether any of these applications will actually make you more productive at your job in a way that existing applications can’t. That’s what Workday is still trying to figure out. “The challenge is in adding real value,” Korngiebel says.

For the Glass experiments, Workday is drawing on its experience developing its iPad and mobile apps. The iPad app began as an experiment in designing a touch-based alternative to the traditional organizational chart. What the team came up with was the “organizational swirl.” After much testing and iteration, the swirl became the central interface for its tablet and touchscreen smartphone apps. What the company found is that although many white collar workers and executives have tablets and wanted to use Workday while away from their desks, the mobile apps were most useful for workers that never spent much time at desks to begin with."