Great crew, great clients, what better way to end the week?

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People’s Light and Theatre Company recently held a gala to celebrate their 35th anniversary. We had the privilege of working with them to create a video showcasing their organization, which will soon be up online. The video was a lot of fun to work on, it was great to really dive into what makes them a fantastic group.

People’s Light is a nationally recognized theater company celebrating 35 years of artistic achievement, community engagement and education. They are a rich cultural center for the Philadelphia region and beyond. Central to People’s Light’s mission are their arts education programs, where the experience of theatre is deepened with discovery. They have reached over 450,000 high school students since 1987.

They are truly a fantastic organization, and we’re not the only people who think so. The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and the Philadelphia Foundation awarded them a grant as part of the Engage 2020 Innovation Grants initiative (Philadelphia Business Journal article here). People’s Light was one of 10 organizations around the city to receive a grant, out of more than 60 who applied.

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Looking out at the skyline from the Cira Center

In late April Colleen, Nicole and Jay attended one of PhIMA’s great events at the Cira center. The panel discussion focused monetizing Video online.
“Despite all the hype, video represents just 3% of online advertising.  YouTube has 5 billion video views but is said to make less than $40million from video advertising.  At the same time, few sites have been successful getting users to pay for content and video is no exception.  As video content continues to flow online, what steps can marketers take to maximize revenue and transform digital pennies into dollars?”

Featured speakers included represntatives from Hulu, Tremor Meida, Pointroll and WebMD among others.

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That’s the time we’re living in now, but how about in five years from now? Where will the internet be? What will the new hot thing be? The answer is being foreshadowed by today’s heaviest players.

There’s no denying that Google and Yahoo dominate page views. In fact, according to Alexa, three of the top five most visited websites on the entire World Wide Web are search engines. So what does Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have up their sleeve for innovating the web, once again?

The answer is applications. Taking the internet beyond your web browser. There’s so much more that can be done online than just posting comments, searching for music or buying someone’s used junk. Google has already started heading towards the future of the web with their iGoogle apps. Some of these include Calendar, that allows you to type in events, plans or create a schedule, all right from your web browser. There’s no need to buy software that gives you an everyday planner. And, by simply logging into Google, you can view your calendar from anywhere.

Even your cell phone can run it, along with Google Maps. Not only can a cellphone find your location, give you a map, and tell you directions, but it can now find movie times, food listings, nearby stores and give you directions on how to get there.

Now imagine all of these features, which exists today through various applications, except them being smarter and more efficient. Welcome to the world of artificial intelligence. In the near future, Google’s searches will go beyond just pulling up keywords from their database. Instead, imagine your browser being “intelligent.” It watches what you type in and begins to understand your tastes.

Let’s say you wanted to purchase a new car, and so you started with a search. These days you would need to know exactly the features, name brand or type of vehicle that you want. But instead, let’s say it’s the year 2015. You’ve been using your internet browser for a year now. It knows everything that you like and don’t like. It knows your favorite colors based off of the clothes that you bought on Target. It knows how much money that you have and what type of loan that you can afford based off of a program such as My Virtual Wallet (below). It also knows what type of conditions you live in and how many people will be riding in it by simply figuring out your age and family. A website will take all of this data that was collected in your browser (lets put privacy issues on the side for now) and then figure out the perfect car for you.

This is just one example where artificial intelligence will be able to learn what you’re into, what you look for, and even interpret what you’re trying to say when you search. No longer will you need to take what you’re looking for and try to get it down to keywords. Soon, a web browser will understand what you mean by “I want to purchase a car,” and tailor the results to suit your tastes.

As revolutionary as this may sound, it has already begun to happen. Take the internet site, Pandora, as an example. They build custom radio stations, just for yourself, based off of your musical tastes. So not only are they an internet application (streaming music) but they’re starting to head toward the Web 3.0 way to use the internet:

Pandora still isn’t perfect yet. It’s hit or miss if you like a certain song (you have to give it a thumbs up or down). However, with advancement in technology, search engines such as Google will use the ideology behind Pandora. There will be custom search results based off of your own preferences. So if I were to search for “Buy a Car” at my house, and then went to a friend’s and typed in “Buy a Car,” I would get completely different results.

Overall, the future of the web, or Web 3.0 as some may refer to, will enhance the way we use the net. There will be more web based applications such as Pandora, Calendar, and My Virtual Wallet. In addition, smarter, artificially intelligent powered search engines will assist in finding things on the net that are more tailored to your own tastes. To sum it up, if you were a computer expert and used permissions as a metaphor, the Web 1.0 was Read, the Web 2.0 is Read/Write and the Web 3.0 is going to be Read/Write/Execute.

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Here at Hall Media, we have been working a lot with emerging technologies, such as digital books. Through our research we have seen a growing trend of paper backs turning into electronic backs. There are a number of reasons why book worms would want to make the switch to Pac-Men.

1. eBooks allow authors to quickly release their work, without the run around that a publisher would give them:

Usually it can take 12 months, or even years, for an author to find a publisher for their work and to have them print, duplicate and finally sell their book. This can be frustrating for authors, because they may have a blockbuster work, but no one will ever get to read it.

With eBooks, an author can hire their own editor, have their work finalized, and in seconds upload it to a service such as Stanza or eBay.

2. eBooks can reach a larger audience, while still targeting the right crowd:

The greatest thing about digital books is that it can reach anyone who has the internet or an eBook reader. In addition, the audience can easily search for your book based off of the genre, keywords, or other search criteria. You don’t even need to have a well known name to sell millions!

3. You can fit a million books in your pocket:

Perhaps the greatest feature of electronic books is that if you’re using a device such as an iPhone, Blackberry, Kindle, Sony Reader, smart phone or PDA, you can store thousands of books on the phone and read them right off of the device’s screen. No more lugging around educational text books that weigh a hundred pounds, or trying to pack tens of paperbacks into a bag, only to see them tear and shred apart.

4. Features and Interactivity:

eBooks offer a wide variety of features, such as digital bookmarks and “Find” capabilities, where you can type in a word and it finds it through out the book. You can even virtually “write” in them, by highlighting words or even scribbling in them if you have a touch sensitive phone, such as the iPhone.

5. They Cost Less and Save the Environment:

Well you might not jump on the “Save the Environment” idea, but ideally they don’t use any paper. But the real punch is electronic books simply cost less money. Here are a few examples to prove it:

Amazon.com has their own digital book collection, that works with their own device called the Kindle. Now here are a few prices of books, where the paper back is compared to the electronic Kindle version:

The Da Vinci Code: A Novel (Kindle Edition) – $6.39
The Da Vinci Code (Paperback) – $7.99

Breaking Dawn (Paperback) – $12.64
Breaking Dawn (Kindle) – $11.38

The Host (Paperback) – $10.87
The Host (Kindle) – $9.99
The Host (Hardcover) – $15.59

Overall, for Amazon’s Kindle format, the electronic version sells for about 10% less than the paper back equivalent.

Amazon isn’t the only company jumping on the digital bookwagon. Just recently Barnes & Noble announced that they have purchased an eBook publisher.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble are the two largest book stores, and now both have entered the cyber world of books. But don’t forget about the Apple iPhone, which now has the popular Stanza application which allows people to purchase books and read them right from the phone. But the fun doesn’t end there. Now even Google is jumping on book, with their Android operating system for phones. (Pictured below):

Overall, it won’t be long until books made of paper go the way of the stone tablet, the vinyl record and the VHS tape player, as technology continues to improve our everyday activities.

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Colleen Cottone:

Colleen is always spending time with the kids, and in this day of age, even her family has their own blog that she updates regularly.

Colleen also can’t keep away from the new Google Earth 5.0 that just came out 2 weeks ago. With new features such as historical imagery from around the globe, ocean floor and surface data, and integrated street view, you’ll feel like Christopher Columbus all over again as you discover new places around the globe!

Mickey DeLorenzo (Lead Multimedia Developer):

Mickey gets a lot of design projects, where he has to quickly put together a mock up website in a small amount of time. So when picking the color theme, Mickey always goes with Adobe’s Kuler that allows you to choose one color, and it will build a theme of matching colors and create a custom made pallet based on triads, complimentary, and harmony colors.

We can’t even walk by Mickey’s computer without seeing Digg.com opened up in the background. Mickey seems to always know the most recent stories from the day, thanks to that website.

He also owns, manages, and designed his own website at: WiiNintendo.net. You  may remember him as the Wii Fit Sports Experiment champion.

Nicole Vergalla (Editor):

Being a Final Cut Pro wiz, Nicole utilizes websites such as larryjordan.biz for excellent tutorials on digital editing systems.

She also visits Creative COW for all media support questions and the Apple Forums , where other users are happy to help in answering technical questions. While at work, Nicole could never go without a day of music, and so Pandora internet radio is always opened on her computer.

Being a knitting expert, Nicole loves sites such as Craft Zine where they have inspiring projects, how-to’s and patterns. She also loves Boing Boing for fun and interesting news articles and posts.

If you want to dig deeper into her own personal life, you can view her blog as well.

Kevin Phillips (Interactive Intern):

Kevin’s favorite website for all digital media related knowledge comes from AfterDawn.com, where they have hundreds of tutorials, free software, and technology news.

Other than just software, Kevin knows his computer hardware inside and out. He always buys computer parts from New Egg, where they have fast shipping, the lowest prices, and other intelligent users who rate the products like a magazine critic would.

Outside from the virtual world, Kevin has made an appearance on the Montel Show (though not for family reasons), and even plays the real drums in his band, Silent Dynamite.

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Our own Maureen Hall was caught on camera at this month’s Mobile Monday. At this event, representatives of local mobile companies had 4 minutes each to pitch their ideas. Their ideas varied from mobile phone applications to using GPS navigation for more than just directions. For example, one company had a product which can take content that was created for the web and minimize the design of it so that the same content will fit nicely on a cellphone or PDA.  Another company has a product which can use your phone’s tracking system to find local houses that are for sale or rent.

It’s no denying that the future of technology will be in your pocket. With the iPhone selling over 15 million units, it is obvious that consumers want a PC to go. This opens the door for millions of cell phone centered applications and this will create more jobs and opportunities in this field. There’s no question that Mobile Monday will continue to grow in popularity as more companies realize the potential market out there for cell phone software.

To read the entire article about Mobile Monday, visit the Philadelphia Business Journal.

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Hall Media attended this year’s PAMA Super Bowl Smackdown at Dave and Buster’s in Philly. We sat through the top ten commercials, according to SpotBowl.com (one of many lists out there) and the comments of  panelists Mike Malo of the Philadelphia Eagles, Chris Williams, CMO of Bill Me Later, commercial composer Wendell Hanes and Marvin Davis, the founder of Mode Enterprises.

The top 10 spots were a disappointing cull from an even more disappointing year, but we tried to make sense of what it all meant given the state of the economy and the consumer mindset this year.

There are only 2 reasons to pay $30 million for a slot on the Super Bowl:

1.  You’ve got a new product or idea so big that you want to launch it to the most eyeballs possible (97.5m viewers this year — the most watched Super Bowl ever) and take advantage of the after-buzz.

Sadly, nobody’s launching anything in this economy. Too risky.

2.  You want to tie into the game and bask in the glow of an All-American tradition. (In spite of what some say, the audience tunes in to watch the  Super Bowl — not the commercials.)

As the Eagles’ Mike Malo pointed out, NOT ONE of the top 10 paid any deference to football.  We might as well have been watching Wimbledon Tennis.

So what did America vote for? Lots of “safe” tradition, laid on by Bud’s 3 Clydesdale and Coke’s 2 “Open Happiness” spots. Add in Pedigree’s “Get a Dog” and fully 60% of the list were warm, fuzzy, “Comfort Commercials”. Somethng to turn to in tough times.

Although Pedigree gets extra points from us for having a good web tie-in. Over 2 million have watched the online videos or downloaded iPhone barks — which means 2 million bowls of dog food donated to shelters. But $30 mil for a public service campaign? How much dog food would that buy?

We had a couple of favorites that didn’t make the list: Alex Baldwin taking over the world with hulu.com, and Hyundai taking on the high-end European and Japanese automakers — and winning. Not great. But good and gutsy.

To check out the favorites and contenders for yourself, visit SpotBowl.com!

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Within the last couple of years we’ve been seeing a surge in mobile web browsing also called a microbrowser, minibrowser or wireless internet browser (WIB).

As of 2006 some mobile browsers can handle latest technologies like CSS 2.1, JavaScript and Ajax. Websites designed for access from these browsers are referred to as wireless portals.

Wikipedia has a great chart showing the default web browsers used on the majority of handheld devices.

Below are the 4 main areas of concern when developing your site for mobile devices and how to address them:

(List compiled from W3C)

NAVIGATION – Using the same navigation mechanisms across a service helps users orient themselves and allows them to identify navigation mechanisms more easily.

Users of devices that do not have pointing devices have to scroll between hyperlinks using the keypad. Intelligent grouping, perhaps optimized through adaptation according to usage patterns, can assist usability.

A “drill-down” method, based on major headings, can often provide an effective means of navigation; because of the linear arrangement of content, small screen size and lack of pointing device, it is often useful to provide a means to jump entire sections of content.
At each target of the drill-down navigation an “up” link should be provided to allow the user to jump up an entire section.

BALANCE – Take into account the trade-off between having too many links on a page and asking the user to follow too many links to reach what they are looking for.

The design should aim to provide a balance between having a large number of navigation links on a page and the need to navigate multiple links to reach content.

Scrolling a page when there are many links on it can be very cumbersome, as the scrolling action on many mobile devices selects each link in turn. On the other hand, each retrieval of a navigation page takes time and adds cost, so the number of links on a page should not be minimized at the expense of adding page retrievals.

Design the service so that frequently accessed information is easily reached with a minimum number of page retrievals. Navigation to less frequently accessed information may take more retrievals as a result. A guideline is that users become frustrated if it takes more than four retrievals to reach their objective. Whether this can be achieved depends on the nature of the site and, in particular, how items in menus group together to provide understandable themes.

NAVBAR – Provide only minimal navigation at the top of the page.

Provide basic navigation, which should be placed on the top of the page. Any other secondary navigational element may be placed at the bottom of the page if really needed. It is important the users should be able to see page content once the page has loaded without

Provide the basic links on a single line.

CENTRAL MEANING – Ensure that material that is central to the meaning of the page precedes material that is not.

Many Web pages are designed with significant navigational and other elements at the top of or to the side of the page (e.g. Menu Bars, Breadcrumb Trails and Search Functions). This provides a convenient and well-understood navigational metaphor on large displays. However, on small displays this can result in the navigation appearing instead of the actual content of the page when the page is first retrieved.

Because it is important for the user to gain an idea of the content of the page on initial view, there should be a minimum amount of clutter preceding this – including navigation, decorative images, advertising and other material that is not central to the user’s experience of the page. The user should not have to scroll significantly to find the primary content of the page.

Menu selections can be placed away from the top of the page with a simple link to the selection at the top of the page. Alternatively, use meta navigation on top of the page with simple text links to major sections of the Web site.

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