TED.com is a fascinating source sharing new ideas within the technology, entertainment, and design realm. I came across this piece called "If I Controlled the Internet", by LA-based poet, Rives, which piqued my attention as it pertains to user and privacy control in our evolving Web2.0 environment.
The increasing popularity of user-generated media, such as Wikis and social networking sites, has shifted the manner in which individuals and businesses operate, communicate, and educate others. Universal sharing and global networking are becoming increasingly important terms in day to day activities. Not only are users taught to share their knowledge and voice their opinions, but they can also control the information they receive. Web blogs, portals, and feeds allow users to streamline content, giving them the ability to control what they see and hear.
The issue of control is pervasive. Technologies that are popular are the ones that allow users to feel more in control of the content they share with and receive from others. Are we interested in these applications because they allow us to unleash our inherent desire for control? Nonetheless, by allowing everyone to communicate and share ideas, thoughts, and images on a global platform, does that also shift the dynamics of privacy control in the marketplace?
By allowing “weapons of mass collaboration” to freely propagate the Web, the public has observed a movement away from individual content control and a decrease in the user’s ability to restrict private information from being shared and publicized online. With the evolution of the Internet creating this shift from individual to collaborative control, one may ask: who are today’s users, controllers, and owners of online data?
Even if we are “Empires of the Internet”, Rives reminds us that “we are still mortal” and prone to making mistakes. Should we allow our mishaps to be shared and discussed by others; and should we be asking ourselves: when is too much information, truly too much?
View the video here and follow along with the written dialogue below.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
I've got a Crush...on Wine
In celebration of one of the most romantic holidays of the year, I wanted to share with you one of my greatest passions: wine. During this month, there are a handful of articles dedicated to wine and chocolate pairings, wines for special occasions, and even wines to seduce – Tablas Creek Vin de Paille Sacrerouge. Nevertheless, this post is not about to make you reel in disgust at another advertising ploy linked to one of the most marketed holidays of the year. Quite the contrary, it is about a website that encourages you to do something for yourself. Indulge your senses while engaging your mind – at Crushpad Winery, you will learn how to make your own wine.
A brief synopsis of Crushpad Winery is as follows: members can select a type of wine they want to create as seasoned wine experts guide them through a selection of grapes. Wine production experts will carefully create a wine through the members’ descriptions of wines they enjoy and once bottled, a design team will help create a personalized label for the wine. Members can keep wines for themselves or market their wines to interested buyers through Crushpad.
Although this may sound synonymous to other wine making companies, the difference between Crushpad and its predecessors is that Crushpad is online – a virtual production facility and marketplace. Crushpad Winery’s creators describe themselves as “wine industry veterans [coupled] with technology refugees.” The company has also created a virtual community space called Crushnet, where members can view other members’ profiles, learn about their wines, and form a social network based their common interests of wine and winemaking.
This is beginning to sound a little bit like Facebook-meets-Amazon-meets-a-Do-it-Yourself center, and its creators should be lauded for their brilliance. In today’s information age, individuals have a constant thirst for knowledge. With the advent of television networks such as the Food Network and HGTV, viewers are being taught to cook, home decorate, and design – services once only available by industry professionals. Our society has shifted to one of self-claimed experts, and therefore will only pay a premium for personalized services and products that they cannot easily replicate. Marketers acknowledge that consumers are not only interested in customization; today they seek an enhanced service experience aptly named customerization.
Customerization focuses on building relationships through two-way interaction between the buyer and seller. Online communities act as a platform to facilitate this communication; buyers can provide real-time feedback in a casual, forum setting, and sellers can continually adapt products and services to suit each person’s needs. Because these online communities bring together individuals with shared interests, marketers can truly understand its core consumers’ desires and adapt to changing trends in the marketplace at a faster pace.
Social media networking benefits consumers’ thirst for knowledge, the human need for social integration, and the producers’ desire to create better products and services. Building an online community can be considered a virtual product extension – a platform directly connected with the product, attracting and engaging an existing affinity group that feels strongly about that particular product. In retrospect, perhaps Crushpad Winery and Crushnet are Valentine’s gimmicks after all. Both websites do encourage members to get together and crush, but in this case they’re crushing for the love of good wine.
A brief synopsis of Crushpad Winery is as follows: members can select a type of wine they want to create as seasoned wine experts guide them through a selection of grapes. Wine production experts will carefully create a wine through the members’ descriptions of wines they enjoy and once bottled, a design team will help create a personalized label for the wine. Members can keep wines for themselves or market their wines to interested buyers through Crushpad.
Although this may sound synonymous to other wine making companies, the difference between Crushpad and its predecessors is that Crushpad is online – a virtual production facility and marketplace. Crushpad Winery’s creators describe themselves as “wine industry veterans [coupled] with technology refugees.” The company has also created a virtual community space called Crushnet, where members can view other members’ profiles, learn about their wines, and form a social network based their common interests of wine and winemaking.
This is beginning to sound a little bit like Facebook-meets-Amazon-meets-a-Do-it-Yourself center, and its creators should be lauded for their brilliance. In today’s information age, individuals have a constant thirst for knowledge. With the advent of television networks such as the Food Network and HGTV, viewers are being taught to cook, home decorate, and design – services once only available by industry professionals. Our society has shifted to one of self-claimed experts, and therefore will only pay a premium for personalized services and products that they cannot easily replicate. Marketers acknowledge that consumers are not only interested in customization; today they seek an enhanced service experience aptly named customerization.
Customerization focuses on building relationships through two-way interaction between the buyer and seller. Online communities act as a platform to facilitate this communication; buyers can provide real-time feedback in a casual, forum setting, and sellers can continually adapt products and services to suit each person’s needs. Because these online communities bring together individuals with shared interests, marketers can truly understand its core consumers’ desires and adapt to changing trends in the marketplace at a faster pace.
Social media networking benefits consumers’ thirst for knowledge, the human need for social integration, and the producers’ desire to create better products and services. Building an online community can be considered a virtual product extension – a platform directly connected with the product, attracting and engaging an existing affinity group that feels strongly about that particular product. In retrospect, perhaps Crushpad Winery and Crushnet are Valentine’s gimmicks after all. Both websites do encourage members to get together and crush, but in this case they’re crushing for the love of good wine.
Monday, February 9, 2009
One Touch...More (local) Cheese, Please
Forget about the outdoor local farmers’ market this season. Spending a few weekend morning hours in the blithering cold is hardly what anyone wants to do these days. Local foodies, don’t despair. A new online retailer is bringing online shoppers a plethora of local foods via the web. The page is called Foodzie.com, by the makers of Etsy.com.
The premise behind Etsy.com was to allow craftsmen and women to post and sell handmade products through individual profile pages, accessed through the Etsy.com website. While the seller could post his/her products for free, Etsy.com would take a percentage cut of each sale. Likewise, Foodzie.com members can post artisanal produce for free, while Foodzie takes 20 percent of each food sale. While this is a high percentage fee compared to other online retailers, this is a significantly lower cut than the traditional supply chain distribution in the food industry, where small-scale farmers receive less than 25% of the final retail price.[1]
In the early 2000’s, strategists talked about disruptive technologies allowing change to the retail distribution model. With the elimination of the traditional “middleman” and the introduction of a virtual portal, this phenomenon allowed for the distribution and sale of goods via the Internet. This re-intermediation has changed the marketing and supply chain landscape, facilitating the idea of “many-to-many” exchanges. In effect, the use of the electronic commerce is aiming to aid a broad scope of retail supply chain activities, such as forecasting and replenishment, price discovery, and clearing.
What does this mean to consumers? For one, it allows for lower retail prices, because farmers are now enjoying larger margins from this direct virtual exchange. As well, it allows consumers access to a larger variety of artisanal goods. Nonetheless, this shift to the virtual world has definitely put a new spin on the term “local”, as consumers in South Carolina can now enjoy the fruits of labor of niche Californian farmers -- all at the click of a button. However, one may wonder of the carbon footprint effects of this new site. Unless sale and exchanges of goods can be consolidated and streamlined, the local UPS man may become busier than ever.
[1] Jang and Liu, “For the Love of Good Food, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, and Technological Innovation in Localizing the Restaurant Supply Chain”, page 10.
The premise behind Etsy.com was to allow craftsmen and women to post and sell handmade products through individual profile pages, accessed through the Etsy.com website. While the seller could post his/her products for free, Etsy.com would take a percentage cut of each sale. Likewise, Foodzie.com members can post artisanal produce for free, while Foodzie takes 20 percent of each food sale. While this is a high percentage fee compared to other online retailers, this is a significantly lower cut than the traditional supply chain distribution in the food industry, where small-scale farmers receive less than 25% of the final retail price.[1]
In the early 2000’s, strategists talked about disruptive technologies allowing change to the retail distribution model. With the elimination of the traditional “middleman” and the introduction of a virtual portal, this phenomenon allowed for the distribution and sale of goods via the Internet. This re-intermediation has changed the marketing and supply chain landscape, facilitating the idea of “many-to-many” exchanges. In effect, the use of the electronic commerce is aiming to aid a broad scope of retail supply chain activities, such as forecasting and replenishment, price discovery, and clearing.
What does this mean to consumers? For one, it allows for lower retail prices, because farmers are now enjoying larger margins from this direct virtual exchange. As well, it allows consumers access to a larger variety of artisanal goods. Nonetheless, this shift to the virtual world has definitely put a new spin on the term “local”, as consumers in South Carolina can now enjoy the fruits of labor of niche Californian farmers -- all at the click of a button. However, one may wonder of the carbon footprint effects of this new site. Unless sale and exchanges of goods can be consolidated and streamlined, the local UPS man may become busier than ever.
[1] Jang and Liu, “For the Love of Good Food, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, and Technological Innovation in Localizing the Restaurant Supply Chain”, page 10.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Obamarama for a Local Food Nation
Obama is taking strides in the local food movement.
Unlike his most recent predecessors, the newly elected President is taking action in promoting a sustainable local food environment, and has appointed Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa, as Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. Vilsack's interests lie in promoting smaller farms to grow and supply foods at a local level, and plans to shift government support from large-scale "mega-farms" to the smaller, local farm communities. Although certain dissenters assert that Vilsack's true mandate directly contradicts supporting the local food movement, such as his support for large-scale farming to create corn-based ethanol, should we not applaud the fact that the government is taking some action to place healthier foods in schools and support better treatment of farm animals?
I recently came across a blogsite named Obamafoodorama, which follows the President's initiatives in promoting local and organic foods. This blog aims to keep readers up to date with responses from the food community and various socio-cultural groups in light of the President's promise to reform the food landscape. For example, upon learning of Obama's more refined palate, Ruth Reichl, editor of Gourmet magazine, proposed for the White House to hire a new high-profile "celebrity" chef to cook delicious local food. Most recently, the blog has been following Mr. Vilsack's most recent USDA investigations on food testing, which revealed 19 biologists and veterinarians illegally using animal drugs for their own personal use.
Not only has this blogsite been an enlightening source for food-related political drama , it has also made readers understand that this social trend of sustainable local foods is making an impact on the political environment. Academics have long been debating the difference between technological determinism and social shaping, the former idea subscribing to the notion that technology shapes the way humans interact with one another, while the latter points out that humans take technology and end up using it in unforeseen ways, thereby not only changing the way in which technology is used in society, but also the social landscape.
I wonder if the creators of these digital network tools ever thought the President would use this media to enhance his campaign. I'm curious to see whether or not the President is going to take his gastronomical initiatives one step further by creating his own "local food" blog. After all, he did setup a Twitter account to notify subscribers of his daily actions prior to the election. That being said, I'm waiting to see whether or not Obama's next Twitter post will recount experiences of a 100-mile diet and to eat, feel, and act local.
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