SDR News

Here's Why the iPhone Keeps Rolling

One of the early morning Tweets that I received (Twitter axmc) concerned an app called Ocarina, the first musical instrument for the iPhone. I put it aside, and did not take the time to look until late in the day - expecting some sort of game oriented midi soundtrack type machine - the sort of thing that provides either a slot machine emulator or a good trip down memory lane for 8-bit gaming enthusiasts.

A pleasant surprise: A musical instrument with no pre-programmed content. An instrument that just sits there until you, the artist, learn how to play it and then.. well, play it.

The iPhone App store can keep on bring in applications like the Spectrum Analyzer, the Spirit Level and Ocarina along with the inevitable games, to-do-lists and horoscopes. A bit of something for everyone - an affordable diversion, with the added advantage that the coupling to social media on the very same device offers the best in viral fanbase extension in the palm of their hand.

It's all about User Generated Content - and you can't get more original or compelling than user generated music. Been that way for thousands of years.

Forcing Function: Obama's Campaign

Today's BlogTalkRadio production of On Digital Media with John Federico featured Deborah Schultz discussing the topic of her Keynote from Web 2.0 Expo NY entitled, "The Death of Grand Gesture". The Grand Gesture is ignoring your significant other until the Valentines Day bouquet, or ignoring your customer until the SuperBowl Ad appears. In the spirit of the almost ten year old ClueTrain Manifesto, the conversation needs to be more fluid and continuous.  Deborah made the point that the opposite of the grand gesture - a trivial flow of noise is not in balance, either. Social Media, carefully and intelligently used builds the conversation.

 Along the way there was a discussion on "have social media such as Twitter or YouTube crossed the chasm into broad adoption ?" No matter how popular or compelling the technology might be to many of us, is it a tool that is moving rapidly into general business use ?

The answer is yes: and primarily through the activities of the Obama campaign's masterful deployment of SMS messaging, email, MyBarakObama.com and similar social network technology overlays. The continuation onto change.gov - and the immediate "Fireside Chat" channel via YouTube on topics of interest (such as the Climate Change message) .

Most SDRNews listeners are already on the early adopter side of the spectrum - but when politicians are able to jump onto Web2.0 user generated channels as effortlessly as the Obama campaign, that's a signal that the chasm has already been crossed.