Website / Oz in 30 Seconds
Get Up, Action for Australia, the political lobby group have launched ‘Oz in 30 Seconds‘, an online contest for filmakers to create television commercials that promote a better, fairer and more progressive Australia. Winning ads will be aired on commercial television and online (YouTube etc) in the lead-up to this years federal election.
From the site: In 30 seconds, show us a slice of your vision: perhaps it’s a call to action on an issue close to your heart; or maybe an idea that brings us closer to the Australia you want to live in; or your take on a major policy or event, rather than the spin you’ve been fed.
The concept is based on ‘Bush in 30 Seconds’ which ran in 2003 and generated over 1000 submissions and 2.9 million ratings from viewers.
Check it out at: Oz in 30 Seconds
Article / YouTubers star in Barenaked music video (SMH)
The Canadian pop-rock band Barenaked Ladies has enlisted a raft of YouTube’s most famous names to star in their latest music video, Sound Of Your Voice > read the article
Website / Frubalia - Uncle Tobys Roll-Ups
The guys over at Soap have launched Frubalia (working with Morph Marketing) to promote the rebranding of Uncle Tobys Roll-Ups.
Nice execution, engaging games (even for non-kids) and fast load-times. Cool stuff.
Website / RTA - Pimp Our Ads
The task: Create a road safety poster for young people in NSW, to persuade them to look after themselves and their mates on the road.
How: The RTA have developed a tool for users to select an image from an existing library, add type elements, graphics and colour and submit the piece to the competition. The winner takes home a Toyota Yaris and has their poster printer.
Pretty good little tool that loads fast and has a certain engagement factor. Will be interesting to see the uptake of this campaign given the subject matter - is it compelling for 18-30 year olds or not?
Website / Kink Kommunity
3 is trialing large-scale social networking on your mobile here in Australia and the UK. Most of the established communities are moving this way but it will be interesting to see the take-up of a network built in reverse - mobile first.
From the site: Kreate, konnect and share. Kink Kommunity brings the world of Social Networking right to your mobile, and guess what? You won’t be alone! Kink Kommunity Global allows you to chat, post your own video & photo’s, rate, search, build friend lists, tag, private message, and well what ever else you want in real time with real people from around the Globe, we call it Kink Kommunity Global. Get kinking today, luv, Kit (your Kinky hostess).
http://www.kinkkommunity.com/au/index.htm
Article / The dollars will follow (The Australian - IT)
Another interesting article on social networking. How to convert large numbers of users with small revenue into viable offerings - something beyond a phenomenon.
“IT is the sheer pace of growth that is astounding. Piczo will be an unfamiliar name to many readers, yet in just 13 months this networking website for teenagers has grown eightfold, increasing its number of users from 1.2 million to 10.5 million.”
Website / Thomas Tallis Speciality Art School
Visual social-commentary/blogging interface at the front-end of this site. Allows users to read comments, make comments and sort comments in a fun, colourful and easy to use interface.
http://www.thomastallis.co.uk/tallistalk/
Article / Time Person of the Year
Time magazine has named us (you), “Person of the Year”. You have been so named for the massive growth of user generated content filling sites like YouTube, MySpace, Frickr and more. The cover has a mirror on it to reflect the reader and enhance the “You” message.
From the article: “It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html
Web TV / Democracy Player
The Democracy Player, touted as an open source internet TV platform allows users to download and watch all internet TV shows, video RSS feeds, video podcasts, video blogs, or BitTorrent files. At present, the channel guide has over 600 available with new ones arriving daily.
I’d imagine these ‘new’ media players will start springing up everywhere like RSS feeders have of late.
Website / More UGC - Nokia Color The World
Beautiful site for the new Nokia 6131 - allows users via the ‘color my world’ link to create artworks on the fly and submit them to the worlds largest tapestry. Once done, you can name your piece, submit it and even send it to your phone as a wallpaper or to friends to view.
The actual painting feature has been beautifully designed and developed allowing smooth and precise visuals to be created.
The product side to the site features great product simulations built in 3D and also a pretty solid audio experience.