Wikipedia update

My Wikipedia update to the virtual box page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_box was removed within a week of me updating it. I think there are many factors for why this is. First it was my first edit under that username so as a new user my edits could easily come under scrutiny. Second the sentence I posted wasn't entirely true. I said that virtual box now supports Chrome OS, but it technically doesn't officially support it, it just happens to work with the developer version of Chrome OS. So as I thought before, and this only reinforces my argument, that wikipedia isn't perfect, but I don't think it ever tried to be.

Illustrator Progress 3

Progress #3

Original AD

Illustrator Progress 2

Progress #2

Original AD

Illustrator Progress 1

Progress #1

Original AD

Wikipedia Edit

I added a line to the description of Virtual Box:

VirtualBox, with the launch of Google Chrome OS, can now support Chrome.

Update

Illustrator Ad

Ad For Violet Product

Midterm

The future of products and marketing go hand in hand. The success of a product almost never depends on the rational reasoning for purchasing it, but on the success of the marketing. This is because when we buy things, we use the right side of our brain, which is the side that responds to emotions. One future product, known as the Violet uses ubiquitous computing as a revolutionary means at enhancing the ability of the web and communications. It’s a very difficult idea to sell to people and it most certainly will have to permeate the culture through early adopters, before it becomes as common as the computer, which it certainly has the potential to do, albeit maybe not in it’s current form. That is why it will need a unique marketing approach including such techniques, but not limited to creating a culture around the brand as well as under the radar or viral marketing.

The product can tell you just about anything that can be found through the use of the internet. From telling you how many unread emails you have to finding out when your husband or wife left work, it almost has that “machines taking over humans” vibe to it. The culture to create around the brand wouldn’t try to hide the fears people have about a product like this, but to amplify them. Regardless of what people’s moral qualms with the product are, there will be many early adopters of the product. The types of people who would purchase it would be the usual types of early adopters- people who buy the latest technology no matter what the price. Once it gets holding and hopefully positive reactions by these early adopters, we lower the price and allow for it to catch on in the mainstream.

The best way to get early adopters is to get them hyped up and following a product for a long period of time. The best way to start this type of interest is via viral or under the radar marketing. Pay money to place unique types of advertising on popular Internet websites or make unique teaser websites as well. The best types of this marketing are done when you can get people to obsess over the marketing itself. Great examples of this used recently were for the Halo 2 and 3 video games and the movie Cloverfield. They both got these early adopters to build hype and even got the mainstream to get interested before the product launches. For something as revolutionary in a cultural aspect, a product like the Violet will have to most likely stay and early-adopted product for at least 6 months before the average family will adopt it.

There are potentially many ways to go about marketing this product. Potentially by the time this product is released there will be cultural stepping-stones that allow people to accept a product like this quicker. The marketing once it reaches the main stream could easily be focused on home owners. An ad could show off a feature that shows the product knowing that the son or daughter arrived safely at school, or the Violet could tell you that you ran out of milk and Stop N Shop only has three galloons of milk left. The amount of uses for this product as well as potential marketing is simply endless.

The Persuaders

"The Persuaders" begins by questioning the increase in the amount of advertising we typically encounter in our daily lives. How would you assess the amount of advertising you see? Too much? Too little? Just right? In your view, what difference does it make to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago?

I would say I've been bombarded with advertising my entire life, and the question shouldn't be whether it's too much, too little, or just right, it should be whether I feel uncomfortable with the advertising in itself, not how much it is. I find advertising with things I think should be non-profit like politics and prescription medication disturbing, mainly because they are incredibly filled with half truths and lies, and it makes our society as a whole less intelligent and knowledgeable. The only reason we see much more advertising today is that it takes a lot more to get through to us. In a lot of ways we're like cockroaches. If you use enough bug spray on cockroaches, they'll become immune. It's the same way when advertisers bombard us with advertisements- we become immune to them as well. It therefore takes more and creative ads to get our attention.


What surprised you in the descriptions of how much demographic information marketers have about potential customers? What kinds of information would you be willing to share about yourself or your family in order to: enter a contest? Get a discount? Get online? Get a cell phone? Use a credit card? Would you be willing to reveal your name, address and phone number? What music you listen to or your favorite snacks? How much you earn? What medications people in your family take? What kinds of information would you want to keep private and why?

What surprised me was how they put all sorts of information together- census data, credit card statements, online surveys, etc and are able to separate Americans into a few hundred niches/demographics for advertisers and politicians to use to their advantage. They have much more information about each and every one of us then most people I think know.
I have no problem with companies taking my information as long as it is done anonymously. This way companies and politicians can actually figure out what I want, as opposed to trying to figure out what I want based on other people or focus groups, etc.

An example of a company that takes our information is Google. Through the use of cookies they develop a search that is customized based on your past searches. This helps you get better search results, helps Google figure out new ways to improve the experience, and give advertisers a way of knowing exactly what I want.

The only information I would not be willing to give is if the information is not anonymous. If it isn't anonymous, anyone can be able to search and find information about me. This can hurt getting a job in the future, as well as ruin personal relationships with people.

The Myth of Photographic Truth

Here is a cropped image:

I cropped this photo to make the image appear as just an ordinary billboard on a street corner


This is the original photograph:

The second billboard that was originally in the photo gives the image a (hilarious) new meaning. Placing a McDonald's advertisement next to a childhood obesity billboard or vice versa, when McDonalds is often targeted as being a cause for childhood obesity is an ironic and therefore amusing image to take in. Obviously by cropping this image, I was able to take out the ironic social commentary and make an innocent image. This shows that no photograph is truly, truth.

Extra Medium Collage

This is a collage for the medium which is the iPhone/ipod Touch application store. The content of the app store is simply-applications. The message is more important. The app store allows any utility, application, game, phone, email, browser, tools, etc to be brought on the go on multiple devices, connected to the internet, and bringing back the social aspect of technology with applications that require multiple iphone users to be in the same room.

Photoshop As The Medium

Anything that is an extention of ourselves used to communicate in someway is considered a medium. Therefore, Photoshop is a medium. The content of this medium is it is a software program used for photo/image manipulation/production. The message of this product is that it allows anyone with a computer and this program to do high level professional image and photo manipulation and production. The wide use of this an similar types of software as a society impact have made people more suspicious in the validity of any photograph due to the ability in photoshop to manipulate photos in realistic ways. This is also a message.

Questions + Update to Image

In my latest update to the collage I played around with some artistic effects to some of my images as well as playing around with 3D. I wanted to give the collage more of a scrapbook feel, as opposed to the random placement of images before. Also I wanted to make it seem as there was a flow so I made the image that is supposed to represent the content as an arrow pointed to the message coming from the medium.

I have some questions in regards to 3D manipulation. I tried making the digg website into a cylinder shape so as to get the image in a curvy 3D shape, but I wasn't about to get rid of the rest of the cylinder. My other question would just be I feel like there's more I can do with the collage, but I can't think of anything more creative to add to it. then I have already. Any suggestions?

Medium Collage

The medium I chose was the website digg.com. As a user-generated website, the content is made by the users who use the website. With digg.com, the content specializes in news in the form of text, image, and video. This content is voted on, and the news that has the most "diggs" makes it to the front page. The message of this website is simply that with an internet enabled device, any individual can take part in deciding what's the most important and interesting news for all to know.

Three New Mediums

Google Docs

iPhone/iPod Touch App Store

digg.com