The Last Superstar
This morning I pulled on my Michael Jackson t-shirt and left for work. As I walked, Michael Jackson’s music blared from buildings, truck drivers honked their horns and waved. One man even shouted ‘MJ will live in my heart forever’.
This is the death of pop as we know it. And I really believe we’ve just seen the last global superstar die.
Not just because his talent is unquestionable, but because he made the most of an age that allowed him to revolutionise pop. MTV didn’t even play black music until love for MJ forced them to.
And in living through a time when media was so powerful but also so narrow, he was able to control its weird beast in a way that nobody else ever will.
Proliferation of media, whilst ultimately good, has just killed the global superstar.
Thank you for the good times, Michael.
Posted by: Simeon at MJ time on Friday, 26th June 2009
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The power of Oprah
Apparently there is no better way of ensuring your product is a success than getting a positive mention on 
the Oprah Winfrey show. We often talk about how there is no more powerful a recommendation than from your friends and loved ones, but it seems that in fact all those graphs we see over and over again in social media presentations are incorrect - at the top of the heap should be an Oprah recommendation (which I've never seen in a powerpoint deck above recommendation from a friend, followed by search engines).
Quite recently Oprah publicly blessed a little known web service called Twitter. In the wake of this recommendation someone at TechCrunch took it upon himself to do some math, based on shaky assumptions to estimate that Twitter gained 1.2 million registered members as a result of Oprah's golden touch.
I think she's secretly a Twitter investor, looking to drive up its potential sale price as it has been rumoured that Google are looking to buy them imminently. Either that or she just really likes Twitter.
Posted by: Ramzi at Time for MacGyver on Monday, 20th April 2009
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Grown Up Digital
A little while ago, I was asked to write a book review for the International Journal of Adveritising on Don Tapscott's latest offering, Grown Up Digital. Its a good read from the author who brought us Wikinomics, but to people who actually have grown up digital it can, at times, feel a bit obvious.
Sadly, the people who need to read this this most, probably won't. Hopefully you'll have a look at the book review, and then the book itself - and then tell people who you think should read it, to read it.
Posted by: Ramzi at Daylight Savings on Tuesday, 31st March 2009
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Cuil's search paradox
One of the things I’ve always loved about the internet is how much it depends on people just putting stuff out there to see if it flies. But with so many talented individuals sharing genuinely worthwhile stuff, you better be pretty sure your
offering doesn’t suck if you’re a brand.
Unfortunately for Cuil, their ‘does it suck?’ filter wasn’t working when they launched their laughably inept search engine. In fact, so utterly useless has Cuil turned out to be that ‘Cuil Theory’ has now arisen as an entire field of research; investigating only those things that suck so badly they need a whole new definition of their own.
Posted by: Simeon at peanut butter jelly on Wednesday, 11th February 2009
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Forget the year of the mobile: 2009 is all about 3D gaming
It seems that 3D stuff is making a comeback – and this time without the nausea inducing headaches which we’ve experienced in the past. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, there was enough chat about 3D gaming/video hardware to create quite a buzz on Engadget, and last week I noticed that my computer downloaded a new patch for World of Warcraft which made the game compatible with Nvidia’s new hardware and software which should bring my Loatheb kills to life. I thought to myself – “Is 3D gaming going to become a reality, or is this the HD-DVD format of 2008?”
I’m sitting on the fence for now despite Sony showing off a functioning demo of a Playstation 3 running games in 3D. But my scepticism won't stop me from dreaming about flying around Northrend, almost being able to feel the wind in my face.
Posted by: Ramzi at Sleepy time on Wednesday, 28th January 2009
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