http://www.plashkes.com Plashkes World Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:13:48 +0000 http://www.plashkes.com en http://plashkes.com/theory http://plashkes.com/following/plashkes.com/theory Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:13:48 +0000 Plashkes World 230905 Education Completed My MSc Dissertation at the University of Bath was inspired a vision (and evidence of) people coming together through technology to effect political change. Exciting stuff. If you want to read the whole thing, it's here. Education Next I am always thinking about next things to learn, and I have a few themes that always keep me interested - I plan to expand on these, but here's a brief introduction to a select group of interests: System theory Institutions Norm prorogation Digital identity http://plashkes.com/hire http://plashkes.com/following/plashkes.com/hire Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:57:19 +0000 Plashkes World 230902 Hire meI do digital strategy, human insights, viral architecture, and experience designMy experience ranges from serial small entrepreneurial success, digital consulting, agency planning, brand development, event planning, project management, account management and more. Offer me a team to join, or the opportunity to build one from the ground up –I thrive under pressure, hit the ground running and work hard to amplify the skills of those around me.My experience ranges from serial small entrepreneurial success, digital consulting, agency planning, brand development, event planning, project management, account management and more. 60/120 minutes free – interested in consulting services? I am happy to sit with the thinkers in your company or work on a your project for an hour, free of charge. If you represent a nonprofit or startup and looking for advice - I am happy to offer two hours of my time at no charge. My online resume is up to date and maintained at LinkedIn Three great references are included behind the votes of confidence tile.Contact: phone, email, social networks pageTracker._trackPageview("/hire"); http://plashkes.com/references http://plashkes.com/following/plashkes.com/references Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:56:55 +0000 Plashkes World 230901 “Simon is a pleasure to work with - a keen, enthusiastic, inquisitive and highly self-motivated digital strategist who hit the ground running on several fast-paced projects, while quickly building solid relationships with his Account and Creative peers. Within a matter of weeks, Simon became our go-to-guy for the latest insights on technology and digital trends.”- Audrey Carr, Director, Digital Strategy, Leo Burnett Toronto “Simon's work the Dog and Pony Studios was simply outstanding. In all stages of a project - from developing the concept/approach/product, to supporting the build, managing clients - his insight and intelligence were nothing but added value. Clients love Simon's enthusiasm. DPS designers and developers value his strong direction and attention to detail. From my perspective, Simon breaks new ground in his thinking and conceptualization of digital approaches and solutions. In a field cluttered with cliches and low-value concepts, this is quite an achievement. Without hesitation, Simon will continue to be Dog and Pony's digital strategist” - Christopher Davies, Owner, Dog and Pony Studios Inc.  “Working with Simon, it became clear to me that he was as much a project manager as a visionary with a deep understanding of the internet and how things work, and should work, on the internet. He would easily identify aspects of our products that had problems, but were so difficult to pinpoint exactly. To this end, development of all our sites moved in a positive direction due to Simon's insight and judgment. I would put my full faith in any project under the creative, editorial, and technical direction of Simon.” -Talha Syed , Senior Web Developer, Kaboose Inc pageTracker._trackPageview("/references"); http://plashkes.com/insights http://plashkes.com/following/plashkes.com/insights Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:56:53 +0000 Plashkes World 230899 Life is digital – in Canada, we spend almost 50 hours per month online - more than 30% of our total leisure time. While information access (usually via Google) still reigns king, social networking sites are set to eclipse in 2010 - winning in time spent and number of visits. When life is digital… what are people doing in their digital lives? Human insights What are your customers doing in their digital worlds? What shortcuts and tools are they using to navigate the digital world? What do they care about, and how can you curry favour (and a positive brand image) by acting to facilitate progress on their digital/life/personal goals? What ARE their digital/life/personal goals? These are just some of the questions to be asked and answered when thinking about human insights as they relate to digital strategy. Smart questions lead to smart answers. Contact me: I’ll quickly tell reveal right digital questions to ask to meet your objectives. Human insight thinking: Identity I think identity is one of the most exciting topics in digital. With more and more people spending big portions of their lives engaging with others online, our self image is increasingly defined by our digital representations. In contrast with the digital personas of the past (divorced from ‘real’lives), the reality today, for many, is that digital identity is ‘real’ identity. This has very interesting implications when you add in other trends mobile, viral and ease of multimedia content creation. Here’s a quick look:Identity and mobile location based social services like foursquare and twitter allow self broadcasting anytime, anywhere. Further, digital (virtual) identity can be tied back to the real world with location sharing. It is commonplace to report back in real time to friend networks about an experience currently in progress. Practical example for brands: the success of failure of a movie is now strongly tied to real time reviews Identity and viral - In a world of digital identity what we share defines who we are - are you a person who forwards funny cat videos to friends? Maybe it’s the most insightful news of the day, or a call to action on an important social issue. Brands can leverage this phenomenon by creating content that people want to associate with their own identity, they will share it with like minded friends, and you might have a viral hit on your hands. Bonus idea: if identity determines what gets shared with friends, we have a massive content filter that is based on identity. How can we use that? How can we change identity values? Identity and easy content creation start with cameras on phones, cheap and fast video editing, and web apps for co-creation; then add mobile, viral and you’ve got a perfect storm that generates millions of creative expressions daily. People don’t take pictures to store in dusty photo albums anymore, they take them with the knowledge that they can immediately share with hundreds (or thousands) of people. Their content defines them: “Who am I? I’m the girl in the picture” ExperienceLeo Burnett – built into briefs and client strategy communications, digital artifact distribution guidance Dog and Pony Studios – in product design, client sales pitches, and viral SEO AType Studios – fundamental strategy, guiding principles Experience It – in simulation design, participant instructions References Internet statistics: eMarketer, Canada Online: Users and Usage, October 2009; Econsultancy, Market Data: Internet Statistics Compendium, October 2009.<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/14414/230899/humaninsight_header_2_905.png" border="0" width="745" height="100" width_o="745" height_o="100" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/14414/230899/humaninsight_header_2_o.png" align="left" /> pageTracker._trackPageview("/insights"); http://plashkes.com/digital-strategy http://plashkes.com/following/plashkes.com/digital-strategy Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:56:53 +0000 Plashkes World 230898 A winning digital strategy is a combination of clear objectives and environmental insights (human, technology, system, and competitive) My focus with digital strategy is to address the critical aspects that most organizations leave lacking: human insights, viral architecture, and experience design. Human insights provide an understanding of motivations and behaviours – both offline and online. Viral architecture leverages the massive network power of the digital world to spread ideas and behaviours. Experience design ensures that whatever action we want to incite is as easy and efficient as possible. A sample of Digital Strategy thinking:the web between the sites<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/14414/230898/brandsitedying2.png" border="0" width="438" height="716" width_o="438" height_o="716" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/14414/230898/brandsitedying2_o.png" align="left" /> Until recently, organized digital efforts focused on the brand.com website (and sometimes the ‘microsite’). Now those sites are dying. People are now spending more time on social network and search sites They use their peers to find content (and link directly to it) and they use Google to access everything else. No matter how great you make your website, it may not be enough to drive traffic and actions. Success for brands has come by adjusting marketing and communications activities. In this environment, success is found through…honest engagement and communication (using the tool of choice for the target audience)creating a story that is easy (psychologically, technically) for people to get involved in, and see themselves as a part of using the brand.com site as a story/idea/media seed factory using the brand.com site to present an edited, amplified version of public actions in social mediacollaborating in acts that reflect current interests, concerns, behaviors of the audience embracing the theory of social distribution – creating digital works designed to be shared Now you've read the teaser. If you're Looking for tailored digital strategy, contact me. Also, check my references, and find out more about hiring me pageTracker._trackPageview("/digital_strategy"); http://plashkes.com/ringleader http://plashkes.com/following/plashkes.com/ringleader Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:56:52 +0000 Plashkes World 230732 I create experiences that engage - organizations, events, art Heads - Toronto's modern idea salon | Heads - People. Ideas. Play We've had coverage in BlogTO and the Torontoist, and strong praise from over 200 attendees for creating a forum to discuss innovative ideas and important issues (a few: food security, arts patronage, artisanal cheese, mobile behaviour) Art Battle - live competitive paintingWith almost 200 people at Art Battle 3, the word is firmly out. Our next event Art Battle 4 is on its way - people love this one, it's pure thrills. Nuit Blanche 2009 - ConstellationDress 30 of your closest friends in slap tyvek painters suits on , cover them in glowing blue LEDs, and lead a crazy train through Toronto's all night art thing. Yes, I did. Nuit Blanche 2008 - Massive ConnectionTriggering users to write messages of love, massiveconnection.com sent more than 10,000 anonymously to their friends -- in exchange for email contact lists. All emails captured then received an invitation to Massive Connection - a celebration of love with live bands in a sea of 4000 glowing, floating 'love balloons'. Never heard of a 'love balloon'? Imagine these same random love messages, attached to glowing LEDs, and inserted in gigantic helium balloons. Massive. Connection. 60 second promo clip for Heads, from Heads 01Heads 01: Heads in 60 seconds from Heads TO on Vimeo. pageTracker._trackPageview("/ringleader"); http://plashkes.com/vision http://plashkes.com/following/plashkes.com/vision Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:56:50 +0000 Plashkes World 230730 We are alive during the most exciting time in human history. We – as a global cosmopolitan – have never before had so much capacity to shape our future. The paradox of our time is that while we have this power, standing atop a mountain of scientific, intellectual, and cultural progress – we stand close to a cliffs edge. And it’s very windy out. It is my view that our progress is on track to destroy us and all we care about. Grim, perhaps – but that same progress also has the potential to save us, and so we must strive to correct our own path, strive to work together for the future.We have built a global mind! Simple ideas spread and replicate at impossible speeds; hundreds of millions interact, evolving into systems that mimic our own powerful brains – together we innovate, discover, create. Through this digital medium our power and capacity as a species is concentrated, and I am so excited about this potential – what do you want to reinvent today?With the right (spreadable) words and ideas we can connect millions, and create a human future. It’s time to get moving. I hope you’re with me. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/14414/230730/sig.png" border="0" width="220" height="89" width_o="220" height_o="89" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/14414/230730/sig_o.png" align="left" /> pageTracker._trackPageview("/vision"); http://plashkes.com/contact http://plashkes.com/following/plashkes.com/contact Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:12:18 +0000 Plashkes World 230912 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/14414/230912/contactinfo_ph_3.png" border="0" width="350" height="260" width_o="350" height_o="260" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/14414/230912/contactinfo_ph_3_o.png" align="left" /> Facebook LinkedIn Twitter pageTracker._trackPageview("/contact"); http://plashkes.com/experience-design http://plashkes.com/following/plashkes.com/experience-design Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:37:50 +0000 Plashkes World 230900 Experience Design is tactical. Once you have objectives, and a strategy – web experience design gets the job done. In my work, experience design always starts with the emotional experience. Where are people coming from? What are their motivations? How did that last page make them feel? What fears or hopes are called up by including this form field or that? It’s a very intuitive process, but the intuition is often about tradeoffs – like trading fewer sign-up steps for the future marketing benefit one's zip code. Intuition checked by dataIf experience design starts with an emotional focus, it certainly doesn’t end there – measurement is critical. We measure to understand current situation and opinion, measure to grasp expectations and perspective, and we measure changes. Click path – how many clicks from most common point of entry to our objective? Are users taking that path? Where are they dropping out? Velocity – we want to keep up the momentum, what questions, instructions, technical steps or other barriers are slowing the viral loop down? Move non essential elements outside the loop. Landing Page Optimization – as entry points to your area of control, landing pages are paid or organic search results, links from partners, or calls to action from email promotion. It's an art in its own right to guess at user motivation, so how do you take into account multiple audiences and create dynamic and reference-filled pages? Segment performance – understanding variance in segment performance is critical. Do people who subscribe to the email newsletter browse twice as long? What is the path of people who search for X vs Y? Multivariate testing – the critical last step to each of the above. Test alternatives and measure! Do as many variation experiments as resources allow. Emotional intuition should guide the test options, but sometimes our best guesses are wrong, and the results come from a design outlier. Even a quick (& surprisingly inexpensive) review of current experience and testing practices can yield big results – contact me for a free consultation, I deliver on experience. pageTracker._trackPageview("/yourpage"); http://plashkes.com/viral http://plashkes.com/following/plashkes.com/viral Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:52:07 +0000 Plashkes World 230796 Spreadable content is KingIn the recent past, web design has focused on being ‘sticky’ – focusing design and content efforts on creating an experience compelling enough to keep people coming back. It’s not like that anymore. People spend more time consuming shared content, more time on websites shown to them by friends, and on sites where user value increases by adding friends. There is a strong connection to identity and human insight here. I work to embed viral thinking at many levels – the more the better. Famous successes of ‘viral loop’ thinking like ning.com layer viral thinking on viral thinking for massive success. For simple video projects this often relate to a call to action, or savvy use of YouTube’s overlay and linking features. Whole applications must carefully balance trust, identity, and convincing the user to invite the right group of peers. Following is a simple viral loop diagram that explains the process of a herd advocacy tool. This work was prepared as a discussion tool for consulting work with ThePoint.com in Chicago. The diagram shows key steps that should allow us to reach a massive audience. 1) The invite message, 2) the evidence, 3) the call to action, and finally 4) triggering many more invites – starting the process over. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/14414/230796/sh_feedbackloops_r05_905.png" border="0" width="792" height="510" width_o="792" height_o="510" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/14414/230796/sh_feedbackloops_r05_o.png" align="left" /> The task of creating viral web apps is a difficult one – the tolerances are very tight, and a small change can make the difference between big success and failure. Fortunately (for most brands lacking technical capacity) our digital world is flush with ways to ‘go viral’. That’s the point of designing spreadable content – hit the right message and seed in the right places, and you don’t have to build a million dollar web application.I love thinking about how to help organizations use viral thinking – contact me for a free consultation, and I promise I’ll get you thinking in exciting new ways. ExperienceLeo Burnett – digital distribution and spreadable content strategies Dog and Pony Studios – client consulting on signup processes and viral SEO ThePoint.com – consulting to improve signup processes and streamline viral objectives Qnext – full redesign of user acquisition process, increasing viral effectiveness and adding 60k users in 3 monthsMassiveconnection – a Nuit Blanche art project, sending crowdsourced random messages of love to over 10k people in Toronto pageTracker._trackPageview("/yourpage");