Interesting stuff out there...

Thanks Melissa for these links:

HP & Gwen Stefani
Everyone has something to say. We all have this little voice in our heads that says, "Make something." And now, we all have the tools at our fingertips. We can be the author, the editor and the publisher. We can make amazing things. The "What do you have to say" campaign features great ideas and how-tos, from personalized tour books to professionally designed business materials.
http://h30393.www3.hp.com/printing/gwen.html
TV ad http://h30418.www3.hp.com/index.jsp?fr_story=048bd65106c9b4f93012b25ef39080eeb4781bfc&rf=bm

A pledge to reduce bottled water
http://www.filterforgood.com/

Microsoft Inspiration anyone (follow on from the break up)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knQKdhGmL8s

The intelligent first aid kit
http://www.intelligentfirstaid.com/catalog/index.php/cPath/2

50 bizarre social networks
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029471,49296847,00.htm

iPods That Compose Their Own Music, Almost Here

Thank PSFK:

by Dave Pinter

What if instead of downloading music into your iPod, it could just compose a new piece of music for you. What if it sensed the time of day, season, location you were at, and activity you were doing and based the composition around those criteria?

It’s not so far off from happening. Create Digital Music recently speculated about the coming application of generative music in mobile devices. There are already a host of music composition applications and interfaces merging on the iPhone. Others like the soon to launch Mixtikl from Intermorphic will allow composition, performance, and remixing capabilities right from a mobile.

The next step is blending these applications with generative music tools and a loop library to allow the device to make it’s own music. Artists like Brian Eno have experimented with generative compositions before but have been limited by technology. Eno released an album called Generative Music 1 back in 1996 using early Koan software. Contrary to traditional music making, generative music is all about creatively setting up the parameters to allow for interesting results.

If generative music takes off, it might be sometime in the future that we all question how silly it was to classify music in things called genres.

Create Digital Music

RepairPal, It’s Like Google Health for Your Car

Thanks Techcruch for this post:

Going to the mechanic is like going to the doctor. When something needs to be fixed, for most people there is no easy way to tell if they are being charged the going rate or are being ripped off. Enter RepairPal, a new site launching publicly today where you can get price estimates for different parts and repair jobs for your car. You enter your car year, model, and mileage, and it spits out price ranges for your zip code. For instance, replacing the front brake pads on a BMW in New York City should cost between $158 and $310.

Not sure where to take your car? There is also a directory of 287,000 local mechanics, with each shop placed onto a Google Map. Members can rate each mechanic. Once a repair is completed, you can keep an online service record at RepairPal. It is kind of like keeping your electronic medical record at Google Health, but it’s for your car.

A lot of detailed information is included with each estimate, such as helpful tips, recommendations, and common problems related to that repair. Members can add their own comments and suggestions. But if you need to ask an expert a question, you can pay $9 to have a real mechanic answer your question online. All of these features are designed to help you keep your car healthy.

The startup raised an angel round in the “low millions” last November from James Currier, the founder of Tickle, Stan Chudnovsky, the former CEO of Tickle, Chris Michel from Affinity Labs, and a hedge fund.

The key to the site’s success will be the accuracy of its price estimates. Other sites, like Driverside, which we recently reviewed, also offer repair estimates. But int his case, whoever has the best data will win. DriverSide doesn’t even list the model of my car, much less the particular repairs I need estimates for. When I recently ran RepairPal through the paces with a real list of repairs (Front pads, front rotors, bracket sensor, air filter, spark plugs, fuel filter, marker filter, and oil service) it came up with estimates for all but two items for my model vehicle.

Now multiply 400 different car models X 80 different types of repairs X 17 different model years X 42,000 different zip codes and you get more than 10 billion permutations. It is really a number-crunching problem. The better the underlying data, the better the estimates. RepiarPal gets its pricing data from a variety of sources, including pricing surveys, expert input, car brand data, parts distribution data, labor time data, demographic data, econometric models, and proprietary algorithms. CEO and co-founder David Sturtz, who previously started his own hedge fund, Clear View Capital Management, says:

We want to provide critical information previously only available to mechanics. We can tell you whether to replace or fix your car. For advertisers, they can target by geography, brand of car, or problem. For dealers and local shops, we will send leads. In return, they will be reviewed and rated by members.

Sturtz still has some things he needs to fix himself. Right now, you cannot enter a list of repairs. Each on needs to be entered individually to get an estimate. (Sturtz says that is on his to-do list). And you also can’t get a quote from a mechanic through the site (that too will come later). But overall it is a solid site. The auto repair industry is a $150 billion industry in the U.S. and there are about one billion service visits a year, says Sturtz. All he’s doing is bringing some much-needed transparency to it.

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CrunchBase Information

Japan, Seeking Trim Waists, Measures Millions

Every Australian living within the healthy weight range by 2010? Japan is certainly taking their health seriously... check this out thanks to The New York Times:

By NORIMITSU ONISHIPublished: June 13, 2008

AMAGASAKI, Japan — Japan, a country not known for its overweight people, has undertaken one of the most ambitious campaigns ever by a nation to slim down its citizenry.
Summoned by the city of Amagasaki one recent morning, Minoru Nogiri, 45, a flower shop owner, found himself lining up to have his waistline measured. With no visible paunch, he seemed to run little risk of being classified as overweight, or metabo, the preferred word in Japan these days.

But because the new state-prescribed limit for male waistlines is a strict 33.5 inches, he had anxiously measured himself at home a couple of days earlier. “I’m on the border,” he said.

Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population.

Those exceeding government limits — 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, which are identical to thresholds established in 2005 for Japan by the International Diabetes Federation as an easy guideline for identifying health risks — and having a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, those people will be steered toward further re-education after six more months.

To reach its goals of shrinking the overweight population by 10 percent over the next four years and 25 percent over the next seven years, the government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to meet specific targets. The country’s Ministry of Health argues that the campaign will keep the spread of diseases like diabetes and strokes in check.

For the full article visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/world/asia/13fat.html?ex=1214280000&en=d468ccbc1f23d207&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Mini iPhone Projector - genius!

By Dan Gould - Thanks to PSFK Conference San Francisco for letting us in on this technology. Could this be the future saving grace in BMF meeting rooms?

Time for the daily iPhone post. This is a cool gadget that’s unfortunately only a concept design - at the moment. Honlai, the producers of a tiny LED projector have come up with a docking station projector for the first-gen iPhone. I could see this little device being very useful for presentations on the fly (or impromptu movies anywhere). Hopefully someone will get this into production right away.

http://www.psfk.com/2008/06/mini-iphone-projector.html

Doritos New Game

This post is thanks to Mathieson Typepad

DORITOS LAUNCHES ONLINE 'QUEST' CONTEST WITH MOUNTAIN DEW-FLAVORED TORTILLA CHIPS

On the heels of last year's X-13D name-the-flavor contest, Doritos is hoping you'll munch your way to their new online experience and down a bunch of Mountain Dew-flavored tortilla chips.

Actually, the taste is more limony- 7-UP with salt. But once you find out it's really Mountain Dew, you get it - not that you'll particularly want to. We are, after all, talking about lemon-Lime potato chips without the benefit of a caffeine kick.

But finding out that's Mountain Dew is the actual flavor takes a little work (or would of, if I didn't just tell you). The bags just say "The Quest: Guessing the flavor is just the beginning."

A URL on the package points you to Doritos' branded entertainment unit SnackStrong Productions, but really takes you to Doritos.com, which would be so much easier to enter.

And even then it would be a bad idea, because it's very hard to actually find a link to the Quest experience (it's really at doritosthequest.com, and the packaging should say that) - where you find out you can win up to $100,000 for proceeding in an online adventure where...oh it doesn't really matter. It seemed too involved.

The whole thing seems similar to the far more interesting "Indy Quest" Indiana Jones online adventure game.

Still - an interesting approach to engaging tweens and teens who make up the natural target for both Dew and Doritos (and there's 80's-style synergy here: Both Dew and Doritos are owned by Pepsi).

Kids, no doubt will dig in and see what it's all about.

That is, if they can find it.

http://mathieson.typepad.com/genwow/2008/06/doritos-launche.html

Making people pay for Digital Creative

Must We Give away Digital Creative Works?
by: John Caddell. Cheers to FutureLab for this post.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, spurred on by the recent Fran Ten podcast, this David Pogue post, and most recently a thoughtful post by Scott Goodson based on this column by economist Paul Krugman.
The upshot of Krugman's argument, referencing Esther Dyson's prediction from the early '90's, is that digital creative works will become free, and creative artists will have to make their money from "ancillary" projects, such as touring, personal appearances, licensing, etc.

If this turns out to be true (and the music industry is approaching this state right now), then it has a lot of negative ramifications for the future of creativity.

First off is the fairness question. Here is a simplified digital media value chain:

Digital distributors (i.e., ISPs like Comcast) make money through subscriptions
Directories and aggregators (like Google) make money through advertising
Creators make... nothing?

While the structure of technology allows this to happen, it's hard to look at this picture and see it as fair. I agree that DRM sucks, but is the solution "pay what you want"--a virtual tip jar?

Furthermore, if creating a work of art cannot in itself make money, it will then be difficult to invest much in that creation. While that may allow bloggers to continue (though I wouldn't turn down a few bucks for my work if that were possible), it doesn't bode well for musicians or moviemakers, and, soon, book authors.

If I can make money in personal appearances but not by writing, I will have to limit my writing time in order to, you know, pay the mortgage.

If a band can make money touring but not through selling CDs, they will be unlikely to spend much time in the recording studio, or to spend money on studio effects or gear. Perhaps they will instead simply tape their concerts and compile albums from the live sessions.

If a moviemaker cannot make money from her films because they are freely available on the web, she will have difficulty using any approach other than Dogme 95 in order to reduce costs. And do we want to see Dogme 95-style movies all the time?

The irony is that time put into making money takes away from time to create. Therefore, the output from our best artists is less. Is that progress?

Perhaps this is offset somewhat by the "long tail" of creators enabled by new technology. But I would trade 1000 bad "Nude" remixes for one new album by an artist I really like.

(Photo: pro-copying logo from piratbyran.org)

Original Post: http://shoptalkmarketing.blogspot.com/2008/06/must-we-give-away-digital-creative.html