Photo Copyright © Donncha O Caoimh – go to blog / flickr

Like all great concepts it all comes down to bringing two very simple concepts together. PA’s ‘bridge the gap’ between platforms and allow you to ’subscribe’ to a information source (be it a person or company).

Lets look at both points individually.

Bridge The Gap:
Traditional PA systems only allowed a connection between the same platform, like SMSmobile to SMSmobile, newmedia PA’s allow people or companies to interact via many different platforms. This means that when someone sends a PA message from their computer that people (depending on their preferences) can read that message on their mobile, IM, Browser or Custom App.

Subscribe:
The two cornerstone’s of the newmedia phenomenon are subscription and collaboration. Anytime someone takes a traditional media and attaches subscription functionality to it, they have developed a popularity winner. And so it is with services like Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce. Subscriptions to PA’s is known as “Permission Based Stalking“, those creating the PA feeds are allowing their subscribers to ‘watch’ their personal commentary on their lives and interaction to other PA friends.

But are PA’s just a platform for personal use? No. Lets have a look how some companies and organisations are using Twitter for more efficient communications.

The LA Fire Department is using twitter (link to their twitter feed) to give an ongoing commentary on emergencies and situations they are dealing with. Anybody can plug in to learn more about a current emergency situation.

ABC (Australia) Radio National show is giving updates (link to their twitter feed) on programs for their Australia wide radio program.

1-Day is an Australian website (link to their twitter feed) that provides 3 amazing deals every day for 24 hours.

Sky News (USA) is sending the latest news via twitter (link to their twitter feed).

I am using twitter to keep my students studying Visual Communications and Multimedia degrees updated with the latest subject news.

So back to the original question of “So how is this technology changing the way we connect and interact?”

It all comes down to one simple word, ‘presence’! PA’s are allowing people to have a presence in peoples lives that matter to us. It also allows us via subscription to allow others (maybe mentors, celebrities etc) to have a presence in our lives by following their feeds. This can only be a positive thing as having a presence allows us to work on the other foundation of newmedia, it allows us to ‘collaborate’ in a more powerfully effective way, by allowing us to connect quicker and more efficiently.

There have been some detractors of PA’s saying that it is only a passing fad and the next newmedia ‘thing’ will kill it. But I don’t think so!

If you have not tried it – do it today.

Here are some links for you. Twitter – Jaiku- Pownce

Photo Copyright © Melanie J Cook – go to blog / flickr

I had to go to the shopping centre, not something that I relish, to pick up some supplies for the 23 people that would grace our home for an evening of food, games and socialising. I quickly found a park, raced in, purchased the items and exited to my car. Driving away from my parking space I noted in my rear vision mirror two cars fighting for the recently emptied spot. The sight of flying hands and harsh words bemused me enough to stop and examine what was happening within the confines of the carpark.

The Setting:
Imagine a shopping centre with a large carpark surrounding it with rows of potential spaces for cars to park. Now imagine that near the entry/exit doors the carpark is full but the further from the door the more spaces are available until you get to the edge of the carpark where all spaces were empty.

The Action:
So here is what I observed. Cars would pull into the carpark and immediately drive as close to the entrance of the shopping centre as possible, here they would scan for available spaces. None ! So they would drive “around the row” passing many available spots near the edges (but further away from the doors) back to the centre in the vain hope of finding a spot as close to the door as possible. The humour in this is that they spend many minutes driving past available spaces that were only 15 – 20 seconds walking distance further then the spaces they are trying to get.

The Connection:
Although this may seem inconsequential and simple, it shows that human nature is not logical and more often then then not, narrow-sighted. But what does this show us about newmedia? Lots actually

People use newmedia the same way they use a carpark. They enter with a narrow mindset that is focused on one thing, the goal, be it the entrance to the shopping centre or in newmedia the information they are seeking. When someone interacts with newmedia they expect to be able to park not just near the door, but in the shop itself. They expect that you are providing a service that has been specifically designed to fulfill their needs and only their needs. Nothing else is good enough and if you provide a park away from the door, they will go elsewhere. One of the five keys in the formula for newmedia success, is understanding “what is valuable to the user” and allowing the user to execute that value as simply and quickly as possible.

Let me explore this further correlating newmedia with “how we use cars”. There are three different ways that we use a car (and newmedia):
- To get us to a destination
- For the journey
- For Status

Destination:
The shopping centre is the example of the destination, where the carpark or the building is not important, its what is inside the building that is of value. In newmedia this is when you provide information or a service that executes a value to the user. Value is determined by each user and the same information or service can have different values to different users. It is of the greatest importance that before you create newmedia you gain an understanding of the users and their “perceived values”.

Journey:
The country drive, seaside curving road or freeway, its all about the experience. Newmedia can deliver many different and unique experiences to the user. Be it a virtual world, gaming consoles, a video clip on youtube, a series of messages in facebook with a friend you have not talked to for years or even podcamp’s, OpenCoffee and Geek Dinners. Don’t be fooled into thinking that newmedia exists solely in a digital world. Experiences are greatly enhanced with a good mix of digital and sentient. Once again to deliver effective newmedia journey’s you must deliver a ‘value’ to the user. The curving road gives the motorbike or sports car a value to the driver and the view from the straight freeway gives a different value for the different driver. So you must tailor your ‘road’ to the ‘driver’ you are targeting.

Status:
The vehicle has mags a wing and rumbles, you stare as it drives past. Status is something we all long for. Within the newmedia realm it is delivered in many different ways, the blogpost, the technorati ranking, the hits on the youtube video, the ability to purchase that rare item, the ability to purchase the item that others will value, organising events and meetups, association with elevated peers, the person in the street recognising you from your online avatar. Each status item is like bolting on another part to a souped up eyecandy vehicle. If you allow your users to gain recognition and status through newmedia then it will enhance the users experience and successful longevity of the newmedia piece.

Mix and Match Cars:
Better still is the ability to mix and match drive styles. An example is ’social shopping’ that mixes Destination and Journey together. (Plus status for the organisers) Social shopping is where a group who wishes to purchase a specific item form a online group who then approaches the manufacture directly to obtain a better deal. The products are then shipped to a central point, where the group has a ’shopping party’ to accept the goods. This is a great mix of all the styles, digital and sentient.

Conclusion:
Understanding and delivering ‘perceived value’ underpins the potential success of all newmedia. Driving around wasting valuable minutes looking for that 10 second closer carpark is bad value, but not in the mind of the driver. One of the hardest roads for the newmedia creator to go down is that ‘perceived’ is not always the best solution. The reality is, it is the narrow minds of the user that will determine the success or failure of your newmedia project. Create a understanding of your targeted user before you develop your newmedia project.

What do carparks and newmedia have in common? People!

Sound far fetched. Far from it!! In fact this could become the next big wave presenting an easy way for consumers to “tag” real world items so they can organise, purchase or simply gain more information. The technology is already successfully in use in Japan and Korea and Nokia is embedding the technology into its new S60 and S40 models for the Chinese market, a market of over 500 million phones.

Here is a McDonalds chip package from japan with the code on the back (Photo thanks to Chion Wolf – flickr link)

The possibilities that such a simple but powerful bridge between the physical and digital world brings is simply mindboggling! Simply put, anything in the real world can become a entry point to a world of digital information. That is a powerful value concept!!