If you ain’t makin’ waves, you ain’t kickin’ hard enough!

With creative digital media, distribution is always a challenge. In such a vast space, how do you make an impact? Kick harder? The web is an ocean of infinite size and its becoming harder and harder to make an impact. However, there are certain things you can do to help make an impact. Some ideas with great appeal to me are:

Go Open Source
If you have a nice bit of code that you've been working on and its ready for public release why not release the source code to, or at least a stripped back version. You never know who will come across it and they may even help you by giving feedback on you methodology or approach.

Vimeo it
http://www.vimeo.com is a great place to release video relating to digital media items it's a trash free http://www.youtube.com with social networking where you can add to favorites

Create an iPhone App
The iPhone has had a huge take up with more and more apps becoming available ech day. You can leverage this channel by creating a small free iPhone app that somehow compliments your distribution. Beware though iPhone development is in high demand and an average app can cost anywhere between $20,000 to $30,000 and the demand for an iPhone developer out weighs the supply greatly at them moment. For more on this check this link

Make it social
Explore social media and other channels available such as FaceBook, MySpace, flickr and desktop widgets like AIR, Adobe's Integrated Runtime environment, or in english, their way to make and distribute desktop applications. FaceBook has just allowed commercial registration so companies can use FaceBook for promotion. And Myspace is due for a solid makeover which will pull it back up to spec. One particular widget available now for download by the Moonlight Cinema gives people a quick easy way to check what films are playing with details and images saving opening a browser and navigating to the website etc... check out the Moonlight Widget here

Go Viral
You could also create a viral. This is harder than most people imagine. The key to what makes a good viral is to not try to hard and keep it simple. With a simple idea the viral has more power and is quicker and easier spread and the less production the better. A great example is the Gmail video embedded below.



There is no right or wrong way to distribute digital media however there is a smart and a not so smart way. Simply be aware of the user/viewer/audience in whatever form they may be and try and be original. Good ideas generate good ideas so do research and get inspired. Finally have fun! It's no use bashing your head against a wall with so many fun and exciting thing going on in digital media. Find one and pursue it. Get out there and make a splash!

Design Awards

There are some amazing sites out there and some of the best places to find them are from different web awards. Some of my favorite paces are:

- http://www.dopeawards.com/
- http://www.moluv.com/
- http://www.thefwa.com/


These are just a few of the well established awards out there. I use them for inspiration and hope you get something from it. Who know we might even see your site there!

Twitter commands

Most people only know Twitter as a tool for creating short posts. However try typing in any of the following commands (courtesy of Twitter's help pages) for some interesting feedback from the Twitter system:

@username + message
This is the shortcut to Twitter a specific individual.

D username + message
This will send a message directly to a user's device.

WHOIS username
Similar to the internet WHOIS query, this will give you all the public profile information on a particular user.

GET username
This will find the most recent Twitter by a particular person

NUDGE username
You may be set to be nudged by the Twitter system, but this is a polite way to ask your fellow Twitterer to send a Twitter.

FAV username
This is a nifty shortcut to mark a friend's last Twitter as one of your favourites

STATS
For the more ego centric, type this into your Twitter box and watch the magic happen.

There are numerous startups as a result of Twitter, a few of my favourites are:

http://mrtweet.net
http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com
http://twitpay.me

Rewarding innovation in digital media

The AIMIA Innovatives Program launched across Australia in March 2008 to help digital media entrepreneurs to progress their innovative ideas from early concept stages to commercial launch. The scope of the program covers new concepts for digital content, new media distribution and much more.

The program is a joint initiative set up by the ABC's Innovation division, Deloitte, Intel and GT Law and is offered free of charge to promote innovation in the industry. To date, ten talented Australian digital entrepreneurs have been hand-picked to develop their ideas with technical, business, legal and creative support from the AIMIA Innovatives partners.


We are calling for more entries from people with a radical innovation in digital media who would like the chance to receive support from the program. See the link for an entry form www.aimia.com.au/innovatives or email innovatives@aimia.com.au for more information.

iPhone skewered towards women

I knew there was a reason why I kept my macho Nokia 6120 Classic. According to the latest figures, up to 70% of iPhone owners are women which came as a bit of a surprise.

Theories abound about why this is so. Being a mere male I wouldn't even want to guess at the complex female rationale.

But I do know that Apple would be wise to make sure their marketing strategies are more female friendly. So avoid the tech and spec talk. Instead focus on how the iPhone will help give people more love, time and happiness in their lives. Wouldn't hurt to even picture the iPhone with people using it to express the correct emotional content

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,,24724169-2,00.html