simplicity, choice and news sources

a rather interesting micro-phenomena has been going on in my life. twice in the past week, my good friend napture has been informing me of new media (NM) trends and stories as they were reported in traditional media (TM), or blogs that he had come across.

The first story was coming across uniquefrequency's blog post "Why Generation Y Doesn’t Read The Newspaper And Can They Do Anything?" Now, i posted this about three posts earlier, and actually was blogging live on the IDC conference when uniquefrequency first made his comment. so in some sense, this came as 'old' news even though he informed me one day later.

The second story was when Digital Life ran the story of how Twitter helped a UC Berkley undergrad escape incarceration in Egypt after being arrested. @Techcrunch first posted it on Twitter (of which i subscribe to) about the article that he blogged on Techcrunch. This news comes one week late to me.. and it's interesting because journalists are following the same bloggers / new media evangelists that i follow. which is somewhat natural.. wisdom rises to the top and becomes influence.

we really live in a world of decentralised information, where no breaking story is really breaking for a very long period of time. i'm also reminded that my perception of the world is shaped inherently by the media i choose to consume. which also lies my diellema of choice. there is no way we can read all the sources of information online, and thus doomed to only shape a fractal truth of something that really happened. it's the post-modern state where everything is nothing at the same time.

so how i live my life, is based on the choices i make everyday, what i read, consume and spit back out into this world. just one more blip in the pulse of the intertubes.

but anyway, i digress.. the point of simplicity that i'm a trying to make is that, i have simplified my life with the use of RSS feeds. at a glance i can see all the news and information that i choose to subscribe to. some are more useful than others, some are entirely useless, but at its heart, i chose to subscribe to them.

mass communication models are breaking down, they can no longer hold the control of one way information via broadcast, print, radio.. everything is splintering apart, everything is fragments. media people, corporations and the consumer have to recognise this. that the old way of doing things, the old theories do not hold true anymore in a connected world. new theories have to be thought of, something to explain the things we see.

the vague and loose point that i'm trying to make about simplicity is my own natural evolution in the way i aggregate information. i'm trying to apply John Maeda's laws of simplicity to my own aggregation of information, and the first law, reduction, are wise words to live by.


"The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction."

you can download laws of simplicity wallpapers here

so, do have a rethink of the way you consume information, what you can leave out, and what you can't do without. then think of the process in which you consume that information, and if you have a need to aggregate that information, find out what tools you'll need, if not.. don't bother -)

Hillarious Korean Drummer (Not Drama)

Oh man, this cracks me up so much. It's a tape found in a studio when a Korean band seemed to be shooting a music video (probably in the 1990's)

Just pay attention to the drummer, his expressions are the things that legends are made from!

Omigosh... i soooooo want this!!!

a space invaders tumbler? it really doesn't get any better than this. ah! the simple things in life!

via link

After thoughts of IDC's Directions'08 Panel Discussion

A big topic was the idea of "paying bloggers" from a public relations standpoint, we can't pay bloggers, because that's like paying journalists.

unfortunately, journalists get paid for the writing, and bloggers don't get paid for their hobby.

what we do see is blogs like Techcrunch paying their own writers. Hence, the blog needs to attract enough attention (can you beat TC's readership of 700K++ RSS sunscribers?) to attract sponsorship, or advertising dollars, or some way to sell content and pay their staff writers. not really different from a regular Traditional Media (TM) publication / broadcaster, but i see the business model of information bloggers evolving to something new. something more along the lines of a workable meatball sundae

with reference to "do bloggers have a code of ethics?" it's interesting that Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence open a discussion with bloggers in USA to hear what they had to say.

read their responses here: link and our own code of ethics as Digital Influencers / PR practitioners here

i also thought Uniquefrequency's comments about Twitter were awesome. the example of the airline contacting customers directly via Twitter as an instantaneous, anywhere, anytime feedback channel HAS to be a good thing. i refer also to this post of how Twitter helped save a journalist from incarceration

Finally, advertising should evolve past static banners or even microsites. PR helps connect bloggers and brands together by being real, Digital PR NEEDS to evolve as well, it's not about using traditional methodologies and just treating bloggers like journalists and expecting certain things of them.. at it's heart, if you are only interested in a 'media hit' your bloggers become nothing more than statistics and you're doomed to failure. Brian Solis writes expertly about the concept of PR2.0

embrace the social element of SOCIAL media, understand the communities, be a part of it, add to it, find out what help bloggers need from your clients and join the dots! We're launching The Open Room to do just that, and i am oh so psyched!

Live Broadcast of IDC's Directions 2008

Today's Discussion: Generation Y and the Emerging Power of User-generated Content

On the panel

Uniquefrequency (UF)
Hong Kong Phooey (HKP)
Kenny Sia (KS)
The Compulsive Confessor (TCC)



Qn: Do corporate blogs matter?

Uniquefrequency: You can connect with others and it gives a personal touch to your corporation

Kenny Sia: Some blogs are cooler than others.

Paying off bloggers?
Hong Kong Phooey: We bloggers have to be careful as well, not to cross a line. doesn't put ads on blogs. Readers respect that, if they respect you, they keep following you.

The Compulsive Confessor: I'm open to money

UF: i don't mind taking stuff, but i would disclaim that i am not obilged to say something good about your product

KS: always been brought out for drinks, came to a point when i can make a decent amount. bloggers should not be hard up to receive money or advertising. blogging for money is akin / similar to newspaper advertorials.

is there a blogger code of ethics? can bloggers remain uncorruptible like editorials?

KS: open to reviews, but if you're paid off, its hard to maintain your own credibility

UF: questions about motivations behind the piece

TCC: i think my readers trust me, that's why it might be effective. won't work as a random cold review.

What cool factor do you look for in products?
HKF: usability. Using the Meebo widget, i am available to readers and PR proposals and can find out what might work.

is online the only way forward now?
KS: for me, this is it, but i think it's not the only way forward.. online alone may not work for an ad campaign

TCC: for gadgets, it works because you go online to read reviews

HKP: corporations are spending more time online. but people are not putting money online.

UF: for me, this media is defintely it. i dont read papers. people are the new ones online who are passing information online. younger demographic will replace current traditional media consuming generation.

does new media widen the generation gap?

UF: a month and a half, grandpa got on facebook. grandad read TM to figure facebook out. TM helped connect grandad. but if you don't embrance NM, the gap will then widen.

HKP: family is savvy

KS: Family could not understand why you would live a public life. blogging boom, 2-3 years ago. After malaysian elections, people accept it as a good form of communication.

TCC: most email from folks her age.

online qn on microblogging. will regular blogging take a hit?
KS: Twitter is annoying. finds it too noisy. it might complement it, but it wont kill it.

UF: huge fan of twitter. i think it helps. not gonna replace blogs. Twitter only uses 140 characters, limits. gives example of airline connecting with customers who Twittered: airline sucks!! but responded "how can we help?"

- panel ends -

Perhaps why Xiaxue is more popular than you

you've got to hand it to her. Xiaxue really puts Singapore on the map of the global blogosphere.

by now, you might have seen this video floating around on the Internet:



and if you haven't, well, there it is. it's an iphone "review" by Xiaxue because the producers of her vodcast, Xiaxue's guide to life played a "prank" on her by giving her a fake iphone to review, and when given a real iphone, she completely disses the much heralded holy grail of consumer geek tech.

i won't claim to be a media expert, but i've done filmmaking, studied mockumentaries and probably have an above average media literacy level. there are many clues that suggest that Xiaxue was not at all serious when doing this video, and it's amazing how many people think it's real.

notice an imac in the background? if that isn't meant to be irony and sacarsm, i don't know what is. Xiaxue may type bimbotic and exude that personality on her blog, but you'll actually realise she's pretty sharp when it comes to social commentary, choosing to blog about the little cracks in Singaporean culture, there is no way in hell she would not have known what an iphone was.

even if you don't want to take my word for it, she gives us the expose of the little prank she pulled in her own blog post

and the reason why she's popular is not just because she's just controversial, but also because she totally plays on the personality she's carved out for herself, and is willing to stake her own reputation on the line, and not just get pinged, tomorrow-ed, but also gizmodo-ed and fake steve job-ed now. how many singaporean bloggers can claim that for themselves? she's not in the technorati top 100 for nothing. (last i checked - 6 months ago)

in fact, her real strength doesn't lie in her content, but in her ability to not take herself seriously at all. i think she enjoys getting the attention, but not so much as doing what she likes, when she likes it, and has people around her to appreciate her not for what she does, but who she is. so i guess it's a sort of self-confidence and freedom to do whatever the hell she likes. i d think she'd still blog what she wants to blog, even without the media attention. ie. she's not doing it as a favour to anyone.

Another blogger that has gotten my attention lately is Loren Feldman. he has insulted America's top bloggers and social media strategists (if we can even call ourselves that), for example Robert Scoble, Shel Israel, Michael Arrignton and Jeremiah Owyang. Like Xiaxue, he gets his kicks targeting trends and people who take themselves too seriously. He's not as entertaining as Xiaxue, but he comes across as Mr Angry to everything, but it's a good counter balance to all the hype your friendly neighbourhood social media evangelists (like me) seem to perpetuate.

my point is, if i wanted to read good reviews, safe material, objective material.. i'd read what my old skool PR skills feed to publications and bloggers who are too lazy to write good stories.

and now that my brief analysis of Xiaxue is done, i'll comment a little on what uniquefrequency has blogged about Xiaxue's disservice to the Singaporean social media community.

Social Media. Now with more *SOCIAL!!!*

okay you lot. this sod promised Daryl that he would go down for the Social Media Breakfast @ Frujch last saturday, 29 March 2008. i'm glad i did, i met a bunch of great people, had really good conversations and best of all, i enjoyed myself.

it also got me thinking, as PR practitioners who are evolving, we always talk about "oh yeah, and we can leverage on social media to do x-x & x for your brand / organisation." but seriously, i think it's a whole balloon of hot air. why?

because we focus more on the "media" than the "social".

when we focus more on the media, public relations doesn't evolve, it stays the same and we basically riddle the intertubes with more bad PR, more reasons for bloggers not to want to meet us, more reasons for corporations saying that social media doesn't work, more reason for the public to see us as spin doctors. what we basically do, is spread more PR jargon and out-dated messaging methods on the myriad of "social" media tools at our disposal, be it blogs, forums, youtube, flickr, twitter, jaiku, myspace, friendster, facebook, pownce, plaxo, twhirl.. bla bla bla

you get the idea. that's what i loved about the Social Media Breakfast. i could have gone to NUS to attend Web 2.0 - Emerging Industry Series, and as much as i love Kevin and Vantan, they do such a great job explaining what they do on the blogs and vodcasts, that i needed to challenge myself with something really new, and that was to be more involved in the community that i reach out to when i represent clients, and for my own personal interest of better understanding this emerging media industry.

a simple breakfast gathering, no fancy powerpoint presentations, measurement or videos. this is where SOCIAL media gets very very very interesting. meeting like-minded people, and very different people, this is the stuff that people experience and can talk about.

i know for a fact that there was plenty of socialising at the other event, but i'd like to think the the SMB proves that social media is more about the people and community, than it is about cutting edge technology, new ways of communicating and all the other cool technical stuff. social media, in its essence, is about meeting people, sharing and publishing our thoughts to the intertubes.

so as a PR practitioner, don't be bowled over by the communication tools that are out there, they are important, yes.. they help bridge you and the community together, but what is even more important, is to meet your community, face to face, help your clients meet their fans, their advocates, share some of the insight and joy of working in your really cool organisation to the folks that are fans.

afterall, how difficult is it to say "hello"?

personal tagging

i actually started del.icio.us-ing myself by pasting links over myself, and pasting links on people. something the toolkit didn't tell us we could do -) *smirk*

Nabilah, who i think makes stuff for Frujch


me with ping.sg blogger of 2007, Rinaz


with the infamous DK


some bloggers who've covered or the Social Media Breakfast

1. miccheng - now with more video!
2. ridzuan CEO of widgeo.us, with whom he told me many great things and we had some great conversations about social media.
3. and daryl of course, who organised the breakfast.

and of course big shout outs to other bloggers i met that day
1. DK, yes your arm longer than mine -)
2. Rinaz, you asked me why things are becoming more complicated when it comes to blogging these days, i hope to answer your question soon, but even top bloggers in the US are not spared the fate. -)))
3. Nabilah, thanks for the food and hahaha, perhaps our next meeting will be when Jonpan arranges for one of his schemes again -)
4. Hisham, sorry we didn't get to talk, but there'll be more opportunities!
5. Jerrick, always a pleasure to see you -)
6. Jean, i do hope you get better soon -)

Singapore's best kept fast food secret

Waffletown and i have quite a bit of history together. I basically grew up eating Waffletown as a kid, when mom would buy back fried chicken, mashed potatoes and the awesome waffles with ice-cream home for lunch. maybe i was a pretty spoiled kid. lesse, i'd probably need to have been in primary school if i were to count back the number of years its been since i've eaten their food.

probably about fourteen years.

imagine my excitement when my friends decided we'd actually have dinner there before one of our poker sessions.



Stepping into Waffletown is really a slice of nostalgia. the outlet at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre has since moved to Balmoral Plaza, and it's the only existing outlet left in Singapore. i think most of the crew is still the original staff, and amidst all the fast food outlets in Singapore modernising themselves, Waffletown preserves a lot of that 80's charm



the ambiance is suitably the way it's always been, and it really is a taste of things to come. i was excited to hear how my friends were going re-live a fragment of their past





it may not look like much, but these burgers make no qualms about not being gourmet, and just good plain'ol junk food for the soul



don't you wish you were the one sinking your teeth into this?



i opted for the three piece fried chicken meal.



this was absolute joy. it tasted more local than KFC, and probably reminiscent of the fried chicken you find at western food stalls in hawker centres. but it was so oily, crispy and it just added to the whole flavour of a real 80's diner. the coleslaw and mashed potatoes were just the way i remembered them as well.

and that's the thing that's so amazing about Waffletown, after 14 years, the food tastes EXACTLY the same! it all dawned onto me as i plunged into my first bite of the waffle ala mode blueberry with vanilla ice cream.



the same blueberry sauce, the same waffle batter, and the same non-gourmet ice cream that they've been using for years! consistent good food, despite the changing world around us, Waffletown is in a stasis lock, and a welcome haven for those who remember it.

i've got nothing against gourmet ice cream like Haggan Daaz, Ben & Jerrys, Island Creamery and the multitude of other similar chains, but there's a certain confidence about an establishment that doesn't see a need to compete with other market forces, and change their look, style or food.

it's just the way it's been, and just the way we like it -)

and so the story goes, the band plays on...

this easter long weekend has been a rather strange one of late. in a sense, everything went as it should, everything was great and for most part, i'm happy, glad that i was a part of something.

but still, the saturday was a very surreal one.. i felt a bit distanced from the things that were always around me. family, friends, activities.. it was a feeling of displacement that i couldn't really put a finger on. music seemed to have lost its lustre on me for a period, which is strange, even being around family and friends.

it wasn't a thought that suddenly hit me on the head, but more a nagging sensation that everything was going to end one day, that there didn't seem to be a point in pursuing all the things i had already pursued.

was it sense of totality and finality? or was it one of being unaccomplished?

like i said, i can't put a finger on it, and i do apologise if this has nothing to do with what i think professionally about certain things. but i do think that this is the essence of writing online, to share what's really on our hearts and minds, the things that make us human.

maybe i'm just afraid that i''ll become a machine, and nobody wins against the machine.

Don't bother paying bloggers to put up banner ads

advertising in the past decade or so seems to have lots its edge to disrupt us in our daily lives and take notice. it's not that the creativity isn't there, but i think we just know an advertisement when we see one. it just doesn't disrupt our lives anymore, and when it does, it tends to irk us instead of make us curious.

this is where i think advertising should evolve. it should evolve from just buying media space on people's blogs, magazines, tv and radio spots.

advertising should perhaps learn to involve people, let them experience the brand or product, not just through a microsite, but things like the coke and pepsi test that we still remember to this day, and very possibly still prefer coke.

how i'm not too certain, but i'll leave it to our award winning creative directors to come up with something new.

and this is where i see blog advertisers like nuffnang, adverlets and what not failing to actually give consumers something new. the web just ends up being cluttered with more banner ads that no one really clicks on. does it really help their client base of brands?

i know nuffnang (through my conversations with ming) that they involve their bloggers in a lot of social activities. i like the idea of this, and this is where the brands really get to interact with their consumers, and where i think nuffnang has helped extend a positive brand experience to the brands' ambassadors.

one campaign that has caught my attention is LG's involvement of bloggers at their press conference for the KS20. it's nothing new in blogger engagement, but i just think this is the future, you want bloggers to cover your event, because your consumers are reading blogs as well. there's no running away from it.

so it's just a simple gesture of inviting bloggers to your next media event. just make sure it's something the bloggers want to be invited to. -)

Politik-mon: Hillary + Barack Vs McCain

Hillarious clip of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain in a Pokemon-politik face off!



Barack uses HOPE!
McCain is confused!

joy, i heart american politik.

Digital solutions don't always solve your traditional problems

one of my main gripes is, people expecting a digital influence strategy to be the miracle pill to all your business woes.

the audience exists online right? so why not just reach out to them there? yeah, the proof is in the pudding, but i'm sure every marketer and advertiser has also seen the charts that indicate, the money simply isn't going into digital. markets in Singapore are still holding on very tightly into investing their marketing dollars into traditional media, a paradigm that is slowly losing its audience to a fragmented media landscape.(but constantly evolving, more on that next time)

so anyway, say you do intend to put your money where your mouth is, and invest into digital strategies. you've made the right first step, but digital isn't just a digital carbon copy of traditional strategies. if i may mention seth godin's analogy of the meatball sundae.

traditional marketing, advertising and PR is your meatball. it tastes great, it works well, it's been established that these are the best practices to approaching each discipline. However, using an un-thought digital strategy is like putting whipped cream, cherries, hot fudge and a waffle to your meatball. the toppings taste great, but they really don't make the product any more palatable.

what you want, is a digital strategy that works more like meatball sauce, or spagetti to go with your meatballs, or change your practices, products, organisational structures to become more like a vanilla ice-cream. that's when instead of just getting a single meatball or a single scoop of ice-cream, you get a much richer and fulfilling brand.

so that's all fine and dandy, yeah, great analogy Seth, but what next? (i havent read that far into his book yet, but i'm going to hazard my opinions and guess here.)

in my line of work, i can reach out to bloggers, i can talk on forums, i can get stuff onto facebook, i can do a lot of things that gets the word out to people who are influential and where certain niche audiences exist. but sometimes, we still have a certain old mass media mentality. we want EVERYTHING. and we end up cluttering the web, adding noise to signal, telling stories to people who don't want to hear it.

i suggest, targeting specifically the key influencers for any project, and be open and transparent with them. the advent of this digital age, is that we should no longer need to read between the lines of press releases, or the hidden agendas of media publications.

the blogger is unique, in the sense that, he/she is doing it for himself, whatever their motivations are. but its so deeply personal that hidden agendas can easily become the public scrutiny.

so hence this changes for PR, direct communication. listening to what people are actually saying after you tell them a problem. are we really listening to what people really want to say? i've always believed that by asking the right questions, you'll get the right answer. don't just ask generic things, ask what's really pressing in today's fragmented media. people are calling out for more transparency, more realism, more entertainment, more interactivity. and we've shortchanged them more than we have listened to them

in terms of advertising, was talking to a few creative people in my agency, we all know banner ads are dead. if your marketing dollars are simply going into banner ads, fire your media agency, they obviously are holding on to old-world vestiges.

we talked about interactive microsites, mini games, in-game advertising (think WOW, racing sims, sport sims, metauniverses) but above and beyond, Digital solutions don't always solve your traditional problems. the general evolution of advertising will somehow find its way to be more targeted, so that when you see an ad, it makes perfect sense to you, it doesn't piss you off. it's more like a personal assistant or friend that recommends you something you might have forgotten, or not known about. i guess it's sort of like having a girlfriend who buys you gifts, and if she understands you, she'll get stuff you like. (not she likes)

this evolution can come from the traditional sense, it doesn't always have to be digital. because the problem is not always about where the audience is, but how the audience is perceiving the media around them. HENCE, marketing, advertising and PR all have to meet this mindset change.

people are changing, mass media is probably going to give way to mass micro media. content providers have to deal with smaller audiences, but really serve their audiences, and prove that the audience they're reaching really pertains to what media buyers should be putting their money into. hence.. the conglomerate might be dying it, specialised units is the way of the future. it's easy really, as the market fragments, shouldnt our strategies as well?

Public relations for Public relations

what's the first thing you think of when you think of the public relations practitioner? that he/she is a lying, sniveling rat that fluffs every piece of news and doctors the spin making the media untrustworthy?

i dare say that this is only a fraction of the actual practitioners in the world today, and is only a stereotype borne by popular culture. and yet, the voices of those of us who practice the art and science of public relations is rarely heard, save for those of us who bother to read what's out there. and if you're reading the brilliant thoughts of some of our peers, you'll think twice about labeling PR people.

traditionally, public relations existed best when it was not seen, just like a film editor, you don't see the hundred thousand cuts in a montage of film. it's the art of putting things together coherently so it makes sense.

without public relations, most news would not be reported on (yes, we feed stories to journalists, not just to barrage the news with information about our clients, but there is a lack of journalists, and i'd like to think that a good press release helps a journalist. unfortunately, this can be quite rare.)

i'm not going to paint a pretty picture of the game, if you want to see the distillation of news as a manipulative gesture, i cannot convince you otherwise, but just imagine without the media, most information would be unfiltered, and how could you tell fact from fiction?

the ideal is that journalists report the unbiased truth, and the PR practitioner presents the unbiased truth. it's not being done per se, but PR practitioners have ethics too.. and more than ever, we'll need to be accountable and transparent to the public

all because of the new age of media, social media.

journalists aren't just the ones asking questions, the public is. and journalists aren't just the only ones publishing now, the public is, and the PR practitioner and their clients are. in this increased age where any amateur writer can post their thoughts to the worldwide web, it becomes more of a media literacy skill to decide what's fact and what's fiction.

my desire, is to see people contributing to the web being accountable to their publics. if its not meant for public eyes, lock it up. or don't publish it, write it in a journal somewhere. fiction for entertainment's purpose is of course a marvel, but lying to unscrupulous gain, that's what social media has finally caused media people (journalists, content producers, PR practitioners) to be accountable to the very thing we learnt in our textbooks, the public.

but sometimes i have not so much faith in the publics. i go to youtube, and see violent flame wars, name-calling, cowards hiding behind the mask of anonymity just to say something in self-defence.. people being so close-minded while claiming to be open-minded. just believing everything the first 10 results of google and wikipedia. it is the age of instant information, and less and less ensuring of credible sources.

maybe one day we'll catch up, and instant knowledge will give way to instant wisdom. but that's a long time coming i reckon, for now.. i hope we can educate one another to give and take a little in the online space. our avatars are ourselves as gods on the cyberspace. nobody disagrees with our point of view, and nobody knows what to believe in anymore, except what we say of ourselves, and our peers, and our interests.

so before shooting the PR practitioner off as someone who lies and manipulates, just remember, you are doing your own PR, and quite possibly not even aware of it, making you that much more dangerous.