Perry

Hewitt

Month: March 2012

  • [Mobile] March Madness

    20% of browser-based (not an app) sports content viewed during the NCAA has been on a smartphone or tablet, according to Comscore.

    I’ve been thinking a lot about the second-screen effect, and how watching a show on a large screen TV is now often accompanied by engaging via a hashtag on Twitter or a viewing a network’s additinal features. But there’s a lot of primary rich media experiences taking place on the phone and the tablet – tablet consumption has the bigger lift — up 94% from the average of the previous three analogous timeframes. Time-sensitive lends itself to mobile consumption and the new iPad is about as close as you can get to carrying your flatscreen around with you.

    Image: bumeistr1

  • Visualizing the #linsanity

    Checking out visual.ly to track the rise and fall of #linsanity – with Obama as top influencer. Great way to see the wax and wane of a topic on Twitter.

  • Serendipitous convergence

    The day after the Berkman Center convened news thinkers to talk truthiness and Alan Rusbridger spoke of the impact of open journalism, KONY 2012 broke all records for viral video.

    All the right ingredients for the perfect social case study of discerning “truth” after the narrative spreads like wildfire. The Guardian asks “What’s the real story?” while Kristof that this scrutiny obscures the key point about the devastation. As the competing narratives unfold, am looking at people quantitatively analyzing the impact to understand more about the inherent risks and opportunities in social news’ accelerated spread.

  • Rusbridger on open journalism

    How can we harness this [digital] revolution we’re living through to provide a better account of the world around us?

    Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian speaking last night on open journalism at the 2012 Goldsmith Awards. See also their contemporary take on the Three Little Pigs…

  • Understanding Truthiness in Digital Media

    Yesterday the Berkman Center hosted a conference focused on defining and dissecting the ways propaganda and (mis)information spread online. As usual, the stellar participants contributed along with the presenters to deliver a thoughtful and provocative event.

    There are already several liveblogs, and Storifies, and a whole host of tweets tagged #truthicon from people able to stay for the full day. The morning session I saw reminded me that amid all the technology excitement (at its annual peak with the Dow high and SXSWi this weekend) there’s a lot to watch out for with the deliberate and accidental creation and spread of misinformation online – there was good fodder here for the tech dystopian crowd. Individuals and institutions need to think about how we educate ourselves in the critical thinking and practical tactics to get the truth out there as we all wade into the fray.

  • Content & design practices from HBO Go

    AllThingsD interviewed Allison Moore, SVP digital platforms at HBO. HBO Go is one of my favorite apps, and provides, just as she describes “an incredible digital experience for our customers…just like they have with our content…wherever consumers expect us to be.” The “wherever they expect us to be” part is pretty impressive, with existing or planned content distribution partnerships with Roku XBOX, and more …

    Another point she raises about how the app design “not only brings in some kind of immersiveness and color and zap… but also gets out of the way.” In web and app design, this is the biggest tension – knowing how to convene users with your brand content, and how to support that convening, and then judging when to get the hell out of the way. Not as easy as it looks.