Hulu and Facebook Video Stats Increase: Has Online Video Overtaken Television?

I read an article today on Mashable which reported on U.S.A. video content that Google/Youtube, though it remains the top video site with more that 1 million hits a day, may have some competition! The figures for people watching video through alternative video content channels were recently released by ConScore with Hulu (U.S.A. only) and Facebook receiving phenomenal double figure percent increases in hits.

Imagine what would happen to Hulu if they opened their content world wide rather than being a U.S.A. only site! As for Facebook, its not even a video based website and these figures prove social video will be the next big thing. Uploading directly to Facebook is easier because people want to share media and if a friend sends you a video you are likely to watch it because it from a known source.

It would be interesting to see how these figures compare to broadcast networks these days. Has online overtaken Television? If it hasn't I'd be surprised and imagine it won't be long until it does.

For more information read the full article here:
http://mashable.com/2009/11/25/hulu-facebook-video-stats/
Original source from ComScore:
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/11/Hulu_Delivers_Record_856_Million_U.S._Video_Views

Digital Strategy New Look

You may or may not have noticed but this digital strategy website has been given a new look. This new look is based on the Q Limited Branding with whom we are a part of. Q Limited (ASX:QXQ) is a publicly listed company specialising in digital services. We have people who are market leaders in Strategy, Design & Production, Interactive Sales and Advertising, along with Search Engine Optimimastion and Management (SEO & SEM), Email Marketing and Lists generation management and collection and with many more services. If your interested please view our website: www.qxq.com.au

Flash iPhone Apps - Good or Bad?

I recently was delighted to find out that Adobe will be releasing a feature in its new version of Flash, CS5 mid next year sometime that will enable Flash to export to iPhone apps. How good is that? Way to bring the mountain to Mohummad Adobe!

This sounds like a great idea giving all us budding ActionScript developers and designers a chance to develop for the iPhone without learning the XCode Objective C and C programming languages.

However upon further investigation there is a bit of criticism surrounding the authenticity of such an application in terms of how it will perform on the iPhone, how will bugs, testing and debugging work in the Flash IDE and on the iPhone, along with other things such as not getting full access to all the libraries and functions the iPhone offers such as the photo library and finally file size may be an issue due to the fact it uses a virtual machine to run on the iPhone.

These are all speculative thoughts as CS5 is yet to be released and are simply considerations for both Adobe while working on the feature and for Developers when they decide to create an iPhone app, and if so if to use Flash or XCode.

So is Flash on the iPhone is a good or bad thing? Generally I think good. Its defiantly a great advantage for Flash Developers to get their stuff out onto the iPhone though I think it remains to be tested thoroughly by these developers and even your average Joe. Say all the bugs, testing and performance issues were fixed I still think that there would be some advantages of developing your app in XCode rather than Flash such as file size which given the nature of the way Flash will be using a virtual machine to run on the iPhone, Flash will inevitably add file size. However the say there is a right tool for the right job, and I think if you can make Flash work for you on the iPhone then its definitely a good thing. I am a Lecturer at Sydney University and am just wondering about the posiblities of adding an Flash for iPhone component into the course... how would students react and who would be interested, I wonder? I'm sure it would be a good thing for students to learn.

Useful links:
Adobe at MAX
http://cs5.org/?p=359
Adobe's CS5 to iPhone information and videos
http://www.adobe.com/iphone
http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=140566
Adobe CS5 FAQs
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Applications_for_iPhone:Developer_FAQ
Some speculative blog entrys on the topic
http://www.taterboy.com/blog/2009/10/use-flash-pro-cs5-to-build-iphone-apps/

How is Social Media Shaping our Future?

Social media and Networking is undoubtedly changing the way people communicate today. Its easy, powerful, long reached and effective nature reflects societies ambition to adopt quicker and simpler ways of doing things. Social networking is effectively about getting the message across without the noise.

One person who has a valid opinion on this topic is Venessa from Space Collective

Whats important about Venessa's entry is that within the haze of turbulent digital data spat out by the social media cyclone, in order for the individual to decipher any meaning, creditability and relevance from it, we need, as pointed out in the article, "a new approach to thinking in general, a new 'thought architecture'; "

People need to stop thinking of technology as a means to an end but rather a manifestation of the human psyche, that is, we can shape this movement anyway we like so long as we are liberated from any stigma or inhibitions caused from our history or backgrounds. We need to think lateral.

This is where creative art can be of importance. Works by artists such as the links below take these technologies and re-interpret them in a new light giving a new angle which may lead to new though. The thing to remember is so long as we remain critical of these technologies and question how this is benefiting ourselves then we will maintain a self awareness and identity.

Social Media Artist Links:
http://www.gbk.com.au/artwork/1283/video?destination=artists%2Fgrant-stevens%2Fny-la
http://bit.ly/visualize-unibrennt
http://joshblog.net/projects/roktok/roktok.html
http://www.rhizome.org/editorial/359
http://neoformix.com/Projects/OscarTwitterMap/

Creative Anti-Smoking Campaing

In Australia for awhile there has been a heavy graphic Anti-Smoking campaing begining with the grim reaper and the hook TVCs. Now they just use shock factor graphics and stories. Here is a more creative Anti-Smoking campaign from around the world.

Over 30 Anti-Smoking advertisements can be found here