Why does Aardvark think I know how to learn to be a stripper?

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After a number of requests from friends I signed up for Aardvark recently. If you haven’t t come across it, it’s a social network for search, where your questions are given to whoever in your extended network is most likely to be able to answer them, as illustrated below.

aardvark.jpg

It’s an interesting idea which has got a lot of buzz though not a lot of uptake yet. I suspect that this approach to social search is more likely to get traction within an existing social network rather than a dedicated one, though it’s possible that it could take off, most likely initially in specific communities.

The nub of how Aardvark works is by using your nominated topics, which can be input either by yourself or others. I entered topics of ‘enterprise 2.0’ and ‘social networks’ and others have tagged me with ‘business’ and ‘social media’.

As such I was rather surprised when I received this email from Aardvark:

(Aardvark) Help someone with a question about *adult entertainment business*

Hi Ross,

Briana/20/F/…..,.. just asked a question I think you might be able to answer,

“What’s the best way to learn how to be a stripper?”

To answer, just reply to this message, and I’ll forward your email along to Briana.

As it happens I don’t know the answer. So why did Aardvark think that I might know?

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Tools for lifestreaming become available

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camera_lifestreaming.jpg

I have had extensive media coverage this week for my forecasts for social technologies for 2016. One of the predictions that has attracted the most attention is that lifestreaming will become commonplace. Many of us will capture videos, images, audio of conversations and far more. This may be to record for our own purposes, to share with friends or family, or to provide access to teh world at large.

The underlying technologies to do it are certainly available, including cheap storage. However the practical tools that make it easy are only just now getting onto the market. It is not easy to rig up automated cameras or head-mounted video recorders and automatically synchronize with online systems.

The latest is a tool specifically designed for lifestreaming. New Scientist says:

Worn on a cord around the neck, the camera takes pictures automatically as often as once every 30 seconds. It also uses an accelerometer and light sensors to snap an image when a person enters a new environment, and an infrared sensor to take one when it detects the body heat of a person in front of the wearer. It can fit 30,000 images onto its 1-gigabyte memory.

The Vicon camera will be marketed to researchers initially at around US$820, and be available to consumers next year.

Interestingly, the device has emerged from the Microsoft Sensecam, which has been shown to help people with Alzheimers and dementia to recall the events of the day. This kind of memory aid could be equally as valuable to the rest of us.

Augmented reality and ID tagging might be the killer apps for video glasses

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Since 2006 I have owned and written about video glasses, including in my Six Trends that are transforming Online and Future of Media Lifecycle framework.

Despite my predictions, we still don’t see many people around wearing video glasses. However I still think it’s going to happen, as I predicted earlier this week.

In the many radio interviews I’ve done this week I was asked a lot about the video glasses. As I explained, there are many applications for video glasses, but augmented reality is the most powerful.

The recent swathe of augmented reality apps on iPhone have shown us the very beginning of the potential of AR. However people don’t want to be always holding up their phone in front of their face.

A case in point is ID tagging, in which facial recognition software identifies people in your field of vision and provides additional information about them. This is something far more easily and less obviously done using video glasses.

The classic scenario is that you see someone you’ve met before and don’t remember their name, but your AR glasses displays their name and any other publicly available information or things that you’ve noted previously next to them.

Imagine when the technologies in this video can be embedded into your glasses. This kind of information could easily get people to start wearing glasses when they go out into social situations.

Social Media Strategy Framework in 11 languages

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Given the extreme popularity of our Social Media Strategy Framework, we decided to translate it into other languages. The translations have been serialized on my blog over the last couple of weeks, and here they are compiled into a single post.

[UPDATE:] Korean has been added – now 12 languages!

Social Media Strategy Framework in 12 languages

(scroll down for frameworks and links to the full post)

English – Social Media Strategy Framework

Chinese – 社交媒体战略框架

Dutch – Sociale Media Strategie Kader

French – Plan Stratégique des médias sociaux

German – Social Media strategische Rahmenrichtlinien

Italian – Schema della strategia relativa ai mezzi di comunicazione sociale

Japanese – ソーシャルメディア戦略構造

Korean – 소셜미디어 전략 프레임워크

Portuguese – Modelo Estratégico das Mídias Sociais

Russian – Структура стратегии в социальных медиа

Spanish – Encuadre de Estrategia de Medios Sociales

Turkish – Sosyal Medya Strateji Çerçevesi

English – Social Media Strategy Framework

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Futurist proved correct! …and today describes the extraordinary social technologies of 2016 (release)

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This morning Future Exploration Network issued this press release (excuse the hyperbole :-) ) I have already done several radio interviews on the forecasts in the release with quite a few more radio, newspaper and TV interviews lined up for the next days – the ideas seem to have struck a chord.

Futurist proved correct! …and today describes the extraordinary social technologies of 2016

Seven years ago, in his prescient book Living Networks, global leading futurist Ross Dawson accurately described the networked world of today, anticipating social networks, Twitter, corporate blogging, crowd-sourcing, personalised advertising, virtual personal assistants and much else that is now familiar to us.

Today, he offers insights into the extraordinary world of technology we will experience seven years into the future.

Ross’s forecasts for 2016 include:

• Many people will wear video glasses as they commute and walk around, experiencing new forms of television, news updates, and detailed information about the world around them and people they meet.

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Social Media Strategy Framework in French – Plan Stratégique des médias sociaux

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Continuing our series of translations of Social Media Strategy Framework, today we are launching the French edition.

See the original post for the full overview of the Social Media Strategy Framework in English and compilation of the framework in 11 different languages.

SMSframework in French

Click on image to download pdf

Please share this with any French speakers who would be interested.

Also be sure to let me know if you can suggest any improvements to the translation.

NOTA: Puisque j’ai vecu 13 ans a Geneve quand j’etais petit je parle Francais courrament, mais comme vous voyez je ne l’ecrit pas bien et j’ai jamais appris a faire les accents sur un clavier, donc je n’ai pas fais la traduction moi-meme :-).

Will Spotify crack open the all-you-can-eat music subscription model?

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Spotify is one of the hottest online music properties of the moment, currently pushing into the US from its home territory of Europe, where it has over 2 million users in the UK and over 4 million users in the continent. Its founder Daniel Ek recently said that it is doubling revenues every month.

The basic model is providing music streaming from a library of more than 5 million songs, through European deals with all the major music labels plus many independents. Ad-supported free subscriptions are available, or full packages for EUR/GBP9.99 or equivalent per month which include ad-free access and the ability to download over 3,000 tracks to your music player to listen to wherever you are.

Early this decade the all-you-can-eat music subscription model was getting some attention. In my 2002 book Living Networks I wrote:

These twin powerful trends of greater access to content, and increased awareness of quality content, can result in greater revenue for these industries, but new business models are required. For example, US music consumers currently spend on average $60 a year on CDs—equivalent to perhaps four albums. If each of those consumers were given the option to pay $10 per month, and in return get all the music they wanted, it is safe to predict that most would take it up, feel they are getting great value, and the industry would double in size.

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Augmented reality shows the path of the sun through the year

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Now here is a new spin on augmented reality apps: just out on the iPhone is Sun Seeker, from Graham Dawson, the creator of the best-selling Oz Weather and Climate Eye.

See Graham’s blog for a detailed description of the augmented reality Sun Seeker app.

In brief, when you look through the camera you see the current location and the path of the sun superimposed, allowing you to see where the sun will be at any point in time during the day (or night). It also shows the sun’s path for the longest and shortest day, or in fact any day you choose. Check out the video.

Uses of the app include looking at property, so you can check out where the sun will fall in different rooms through the year, planning your garden, and photography, for example seeing for the day of an event what time of day will have optimal sunlight.

The app has already been covered in a number of media outlets, with apparently more to come – the ITWire review is very useful in covering potential applications for the app:

ITWire: See the bright side of life with new augmented reality iPhone app

Computerworld: Sun Seeker iPhone app released

Apptism: Sun Seeker profile

[DISCLOSURE: Graham is my brother :-) ]

Social Media Strategy Framework in Japanese – ソーシャルメディア戦略構造

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Continuing our series of translations of Social Media Strategy Framework, today is Japanese.

See the original post for the full overview of the Social Media Strategy Framework in English and list of translations.

SMS framework in Japanese

Click on image to download pdf

Please share this with any Japanese speakers.

Also be sure to let me know if you can suggest any improvements to the translation.

FTC regulates blogging! Insights into the new world of paid influence

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The US Federal Trade Commission has released its long-awaited update to its “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” to now cover blogging and social media.

The headline news is that:

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.

Those contravening the FTC Act can be fined up to $16,000 per post (it has been increased in the last year from the $11,000 that has been widely reported).

In other words, the world of paid influence that we explored at Future of Influence Summit will be regulated and laid open.

This whole thing is a minefield, and I wish had more time to run through all of the issues, but here are a few top-of-mind points that need to be made about this:

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