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There's an interesting story on Textually about kettles that send messages.

A group that represents the elderly in Australia is looking at some technology that can send a message from a kettle.

The thought being that every time the elderly person makes a cup of tea a message is sent to their children, letting them know that they are OK.

I think the idea of thinking laterally about how information generated by a product can have additional uses is really smart.

Then there's the thought of our products telling us when they need things; cars needing servicing is something we have already, refrigerators needing replenishing is something that's often talked about.

As chip technology gets ever smaller and cheaper, it's possible that most things will have the ability to share information with their owners. Even something as simple as deodorant bottle could send you a "money off next purchase" message when it's running low.

Hopefully, not applications will be as crass and promotional and its worth thinking about what a product might say to its owner if it could talk and how some of those things might be useful.

This might lead to a whole new world for Twitter.


Posted by Ed Cotton Twitter just produced this interesting chart showing the volume of conversations on its network plotted over the duration of the Superbowl.



It's interesting to see what generates the volume and how it changes over time.

Perhaps of greatest significance is the idea that the conversation itself is now its own media.

The user interacting with mass media through new media generates a conversation stream which in itself creates a new media. Opinions, thoughts, ideas and trash talk all fill the airwaves as people participate with an event in a radically new way.

Clearly there are opportunities here for Twitter to align with media brands to scale these conversations and for the media companies to look at interesting new ways for brands to participate.


Posted by Ed Cotton Yesterday's Super Tuesday collaboration between Google and Twitter introduced us all to a new dynamic media form.

Google brought in all the results in real time on the left of the map and Twitter gave us commentary from people and media around the world.



It might not have been as arresting as watching Wolf on CNN, but it was pretty close.

The simplicity of the design and the real time dynamics created something that was interesting and fun to spend time with.

It showed us the mash-ups can have a role and Twitter has a use, after all.



Posted by Ed Cotton Alexis Madrigal has written for Influx a few times and should pending favorable conditions be working in the Planning Department of a large San Francisco agency, sadly the ad world’s loss is Wired magazine’s gain.

Alexis writes about science and space for the renowned tech lifestyle pub, but he is also taking the concept of journalism into the 2.0 world.

If you are interested, you can follow Alexis’s research process on his Twitter account, you can see his inspiration sources from his Google reader account and join his Facebook group.

It’s interesting to see that content doesn’t have to be one-dimensional, it can be seen in many forms; pre creation, during creation all in addition to the finished piece.

There’s a lesson here for all media, all storytellers and planners; there’s gold in everything you do.


 

Posted by Ed Cotton