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Google's Gmail team launched this collaborative video project a few weeks ago. The search engine giant asked fans to create short videos of themselves passing a Gmail envelope from left to right in a creative way. After more than one thousand submissions from more than 50 countries, here's what they got. Pretty neat!
Steve Jobs' Grave
Originally uploaded by donatreides.
Is this a Nano?
Earlier this month I posted about Lhadon Tethong's online fight for a free Tibet and NowPublic.com's $10M news. We interviewed Tethong and NowPublic's Actual News Guy on Webnation (on CP24/Citytv & online) this past week, so check out the show above and here. For all the links, please visit citynews.ca/webnation.
As for the smurfs, they do make a "brief" appearance in this episode as well ;). Enjoy!
Fellow Mac chick iJustine certainly nailed AT&T in this video. No one needs a 300-page phone bill in a box (incidentally, I'm hoping someone does an online Phone in a Box parody set to Dick in a Box, sign me up for a part in that).
What's even more frustrating than thick bills is how tech companies package products. I recently bought a Logitech USB-powered headset and I needed a pair of heavy duty scissors to pry the tech toy free (it's like Logitech didn't want me to call my mom on Skype...perhaps, just perhaps, they're in bed with telco giant AT&T ;-).
I have to write this post to save my mom (and other caring peeps) any heartache. While scrambling to pack last Thursday night for a weekend in PEI, I jumped on my computer during the late quiet hours in my house to catch up on email. I clicked on a link from a good friend of mine, a link that had no message but "This is really weird." The link led to a page with a title "Who is Amber MacArthur?"
Like any savvy web person, I clicked the play button. The video, which to a sleepy me, appeared like a regular ole sensational news story from Miami about a serial killer. I guessed that it was just a raunchy coincidence that my name was associated with the sickness of it all.
Towards the end of the video, I paid a little more attention when I saw my name written on a parking garage wall in "fake blood." Following that, the personal details got a little, well, they hit a little too close to home (name, gender, age, occupation). And, I must admit, I was pretty freaked (maybe something to do with having a very open relationship with the web and being very tired).
It sunk in pretty quickly (OK, it took 10 terrifying minutes!) that "Giving your friend the Dexter treatment" is a whacked-out viral marketing campaign for a TV show (in other words, you can input any victim's name, gender, occupation, etc.). I still don't think it's very funny. I tried to explain the whole campaign to my mom and warned her to pay no attention to such an email link, but I'm afraid she now thinks the Internet is evil. I told her that TV is evil, web people wouldn't create such a thing ;).
P.S. Yeah, yeah, I know that Dexter is supposed to be a great show (heard it from a few peeps so far). I just wanted to write this quick post to get the word out that the viral marketing campaign might be too "sick" for its own good.
Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri and Vimeo.
I don't know where you work, but things like this don't happen "one night after work" where I make my living. I mean, we try to have as much fun as possible but the collaborative lip syncing video project just hasn't hit the newsroom floor (go figure!). And more bad news for all of us, there are no jobs available at Connected Ventures (nonetheless, big thx to Ernie for the link ;-).
Leo and I are using Ustream.tv Sunday nights to broadcast our live podcast, so I'm trying out the embed feature (so far, so good ;).
1. ClubPenguin.com, a virtual playground for kids (and animated penguins), sold to Disney for $350M. The company is based in British Columbia.
2. NowPublic.com, a crowd-powered news site (AKA citizen journalism), received $10.6M in financing. The company is also based in British Columbia.
3. Treehugger.com, a popular (and my favourite) green-friendly blog, sold to Discovery Communications for a reported $10M. The company's founder is a Canadian from Ottawa.
In my humble world, our video podcast commandN is celebrating its 100th episode tonight in Toronto. We are accepting million-dollar purchase offers, or simply show up and raise a glass or two with us at our party. All welcome.
