VideoLobby

Hi I’m Peter Urban from Smibs. We are excited to announce that our most recent software product, VideoLobby has just launched. We were one of only ten companies chosen to demo new real-time web products at the Real-Time CrunchUp in San Francisco last Friday. We were gratified to be recognized for the hard work we’ve put into creating our software. I’d like to give a big thanks to our team who really worked hard to make this launch possible.

VideoLobby is the next big step forward in independent video broadcasting!

VideoLobby is for video broadcasting what Blogger is for text-based blogging. VideoLobby allows people and companies to create a professional looking, custom branded, live web tv show and integrate it into their website within a few minutes and without any technical knowledge.

See a video overview of VideoLobby!

Article from TechCrunch

Edmonton Journal Article

In the past, if you wanted to broadcast your own show you needed to use a video streaming service and then get a web development firm to add the video to your site and if you wanted any other kind of features such as live commenting or archiving, you’d have to pay to have them implemented as well.

With VideoLobby, you can present your online TV show, either live or prerecorded in a clean and professionally branded template that integrates seamlessly with your website. You simply sign up for a free Smibs account, set up your show and your first episode and you are ready to roll.

Another major benefit is that VideoLobby offers real-time web integration. Your viewers can now have conversations via twitter and Facebook right on your show page which is great service to your viewers and simultaneously helps to promote your show throughout the social web.

Finally, viewers can ask questions while the episode is running live and the host can answer the questions during the show in real time.

Hope to meet you soon on at www.videolobby.com!

The Smibs Team

Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.

Back in the old days before my time, computers were programmed with Procedural Languages. Measure 1 cup of pancake mix into a bowl, stir in 1 cup milk, mix. Heat griddle … well, you get the idea. Everything was spelled out in procedural sequence. And programs were long and hard to maintain.

Then along came Smalltalk-80 which introduced the world to Object Oriented programming. Now we can tell the Griddle object to flip the contents. How that happens is entirely up to the griddle. The goal is to split large programs into manageable pieces (objects) that are easier for people to work through.

Tell Don’t Ask refers to a guideline in Object Oriented programming: tell an object to do something, don’t ask it for private data.

Alec Sharp (1) contrasts procedural and object oriented programming in his book Smalltalk by Example by:

With procedural languages writing something like this was common:

while scanner.has_links_to_visit

link = scanner.next_link_to_visit
webpage_contents = get(link)
process_webpage(webpage_contents)

end

My fingers hurt just typing that in.

Imagine my shock and horror when I realized that example was recently written in my favorite object oriented language: ruby. How could this be?  Was I asleep at the keyboard when I typed in the while loop?

How do we know this code is procedural?  Simple, it asks the “scanner” is there any work to do and makes a decision based on the answer which violates the “Tell, Don’t Ask” guideline.

We can turn this procedural code into object oriented code by using an iterator. David A. Black covers this topic nicely in his book The Well-Grounded Rubyist.  The object oriented version using an iterator turns the while loop into

scanner.each_link_to_visit {|link| process_webpage(get(link)) }

The iterator “each_link_to_visit” quietly hides the details and provides values to the block, one at a time.  The big win comes during application maintenance: reading 1 line of clear code is easier to understand than reading 5 lines of code.  It’s like reading the Cole’s Notes version of War and Peace versus the reading the original version in Russian.

Iterators are a handy-dandy tool for converting procedural while loops into object oriented loops.

Happy iterating,

Alvin.

The negative comment!

You know what I’m talking about. What a nightmare. You post something you really care about, and that you put spent some time thinking about, and someone shuts you down. It hurts! Well, it hurts me. But the fact is that no blogger can survive without them.

Don't Worry! The negative comment isn't out to get you.

More often than not, negative comments spur more interesting conversation. If you’ve written something provocative, something that you think will not only appeal to your audience but that will get them thinking in a new way, negative comments are testament that you’ve done it right! An interesting blog post will usually get an array of reactions.

The trick is, though, dealing with the negative comment properly.

For this I turn to Charlie Four Whisky’s blog on business communication (which, by the way, is great). He wrote about this very topic in his post A Corporate Blogger’s Worst Nightmare: Negative Comments and How to Handle Them.

I completely agree that negative comments provide a worthy invitation for conversation on your blog. A mature response, perhaps clarifying your position and taking the opportunity to get into the finer points of your opinion, can be helpful not only in response to your negative commenter, but also your general reading community.

He also reminds us that we can’t control what others think of us. Why would we want to? You couldn’t be you anymore if you let other’s opinions dictate your beliefs and actions. Negative comments are sometimes inevitable: not everyone will agree with you.

What do you think about the almighty negative comment? Friend, or foe?

PS. I invite you to check out Whisky’s post linked above. Its swing on this topic is geared towards corporate identity, and is definitely an interesting/useful read.

Communicating the latest news, events, or just to stay in touch with customers using web based technologies is a challenge. There are many formats publish the news in: RSS feeds, XML, Facebook, email lists, Twitter.

Do you Twitter? If so, your message will never get to me. My first experience with Twitter was reading lines like: I’m throwing up now; time to feed the cat; my dog just pooped [this is the euphemism] on the carpet.

My first impression of Twitter was it’s just garbage so I never signed up. The “signal to noise” ratio was 0 (zero). Nadda.

Enter from stage right: Paul at YellowPencil. Paul introduced me to a new web service: Dapper.

Dapper home page

The Dapper home page is clean and provides clear entry points for more information. Am I lazy? You bet. I’m going to search for existing Dapp feeds first. Let someone else do the grunt work.

Getting started is easy. For those guys that never read manuals, click on the “create a new dapp.” For those rare individuals that actually read (or listen to) manuals first, click on “how it works video.” The small amount of text and images makes finding these links easy.

Once you get into Dapper, you realize it is like a super translation service. You could use Dapper to find news on “Hawaii all-inclusive vacation” or “Caribbean cruise” through a Google search then combine them into one “signal” and get your news as an RSS feed. Or you could choose an XML format. Or add it to NetVibes.

And if hell freezes over and someone convinces me there is useful content on Twitter, I could add that to a Dapp feed: with a very strict filter to remove the crap.

The Dapp creation process is just as easy as the home page suggests. There is a guided 5 step wizard that prompts and nudges you on the right path. Of course, the last step (number 5) is “Please sign up to save your Dapp.” By the time step 5 rolled around I was convinced I could do this. I definitely like the “try before you sign up” concept.

Dapp also provides features for companies: provide your latest news in a Dapp friendly format and users can easily choose which format to receive it in. You reach audiences that like RSS or NetVibes or Google Gadgets but only have to support one interface.

Reduced work equals more play time. Caribbean cruise anyone?

How do you present news to your audience?

Writing non-profit copy is hardly straight-forward. It must carefully walk the line between polish and formality while setting itself apart from the doldrums of repetitive, tiresome catchphrases like “invaluable contribution” and “excellence in leadership” that seem endlessly interchangeable from organization to organization. It must celebrate the values of its organization without alienating the greater cause to which it is part. Good non-profit copy is the difference between an organization with goals and one who demonstrates unique ambition and drive towards achieving such goals.

All non-profit sectors come with a corresponding vernacular. If we consider environmentally conscious non-profits, words like “sustainability”,”preservation” and “quality” immediately come to mind. But are these words really different from say, a youth-focused group, with phrases like “happier, healthy futures”? All non-profits are united in the celebration of community and an improved global landscape for generations to come. Good non-profit copy highlights the key concerns of its organization whilst emphasizing the greater initiative shared among those who care about improving our world.

Indeed, marketing one’s organization whilst embracing the values of philanthropy requires a particular subtlety and balance. Be certain of your organization’s belief and value systems. If the Mission of your organization seems unclear, ask. Understand the assumptions that your organization makes in its understanding of the world, what the important factors are when your organization forms opinions, and what is at stake when they take action.

It goes without saying that the passion a writer has for their cause comes out in the felicity of their prose. Be clear, succinct, while graceful. Be persuasive, certain, while humble. This subtlety and balance comes with much trial and error, but it also comes with intuition, what do you expect from the writing that surrounds your life? Would you expect any less of your own writing? Hold it to a higher standard. Though deceivingly undervalued, your writing says much about what you, or your organization, are all about.

I think a lot of what I said applies directly to corporate copy. This notion of “knowing your business” is fundamental to marketing strategy, and building a vocabulary that fits your business model can be key to communicating the refined points of your mission to clients.

This equation works the other way around. Non-profits also have a lot to learn from marketing experts in the corporate sector. Check out these two websites, the first (obviously) corporate, the second non-profit.

http://www.apple.com/

http://www.housingworks.org/

(Thanks to Justin, a commenter on our blog, for pointing me in the direction of Housing Works!)

Aside from the obvious scheme differences, both of these sites are attractive, polished, and display information in a concise and orderly manner. Their design beckons further exploration. This type of design strategy has origins in the corporate sector, where the impetus is on selling commodities or services, and where the capability to attract the consumer’s eye and to fulfill their needs is the first necessary step in doing business with them. The non-profit site in this example, “Housing Works”, has clearly taken a cue from how the corporate sector effectively appeals to its target audience, it maximizes on visual appeal.

The non-profit site has also taken a corporate-cue in terms of copy. The tabs on the front page come with short and sweet descriptions of what the user can find through each link. Unlike many non-profit or government related sites where the copy is dense and hard to get through, “Housing Works” maximizes their user interface for friendly navigation. They optimize on fitting graphics and minimize on frustrating, jargon-filled language. In this way, the site appeals to users that might not yet be familiar with their mission and values, encouraging them to click around and become accustomed to the activist sentiments of the organization.

It would seem that the two sectors have a lot in common. Although they are selling different products to perhaps different target audiences, they are both selling in a fundamental way, and each can learn a lot from the other’s approach.

Image source: http://www.housingworks.org/services/

I was reading Garfield comics on dead trees (paper books). Yep I was in elementary school and enjoyed a good laugh at the fat cat.

Last weekend I was tired but not sleepy so I decided to Google Garfield. And up popped the Garfield website.

Two things caught my eye

1. Garfield is still targeted towards kids
2. I can read comics for free without killing trees

So I started reading the comics. Some comics were rehashing old material. Some comics (almost) showed character development as the main character Jon finally found a girlfriend. And I laughed (ROTFL?).

Garfield comic: November 12, 2008

Then the sciency part of me kicked in and I asked myself Am I so immature that I still laugh at the same things I did in elementary school? Or does the Garfield comic work on multiple levels?

Then I looked at the Garfield website again with new eyes. Plenty of cartoon graphics for kids. Some advertising for adults: sign up for Vonage, virtual web hosting, give me your money…

Perhaps some of the comics work on two levels

1. facial expression changes and cute graphics for the kids
2. words in the captions: rating a girlfriend on how fast she can pluck a chicken for those in the dating scene

Out of curiosity, how many urban kids know what “plucking a chicken” entails?

How can a website for kids be “safe” when it includes advertising from a third-party?

Things that make me go “Hmm…” now that I am not in elementary school.

Image source: http://garfield.com/comics/todayscomic.html on November 12, 2008
Page backwards or search for November 12, 2008.

Great Web Copy is a Product of Teamwork

In the comment thread from my last post, Justin mentioned 37 Signals as a model for great web copy. I couldn’t agree more. For those of us looking to write smart, sharp marketing copy for the online software market, I think 37 Signals sets a high standard.

Consider this quote from their homepage:

Execution is everything.

We believe most software is too complex. Too many features, too many buttons, too much confusion. We build easy to use web-based products with elegant interfaces and thoughtful features. We’re focused on executing on the basics beautifully.

Source: http://www.37signals.com

Without getting too technical, I’d like to point out the consistent structural features of this snippet. The use of short sentences helps the copy pack a punch: each statement comes and says only what it needs to. Conventional grammar is abandoned in favour of information-stuffed fragments. The tone of the copy matches the mission of the company. Just like they want to simplify online software, 37 Signals accordingly communicates in a simple, no-nonsense fashion. Their software is friendly, so their copy is friendly.

Which brings me to what I believe to be the most important maxim of writing web copy: match your voice with your company. Short and sweet is nothing if your copy doesn’t have something more, its own unique voice. There is nothing that can improve your marketing better than a thorough understanding of your business’s mission and value system that goes for marketing in person, of course, as much as it does on the web.

My suggestion to web writers is to take the time to accustom yourself with the look and feel of your company, and this ranges from its webpage, to its physical office space, to the people who make the magic happen on a daily basis. Have a conversation with your coworkers about what your company means, what its ambitions are and what its core values boil down to. Write that stuff down, and highlight key words that come to mind. Here at Plainpeak, our philosophy always links back to “Grow Smart”. I find those two words surprisingly helpful when I’m struggling with marketing copy.

Justin also drew my attention to an incredible non-profit site called Housing Works. Next week I want to consider the differences and resonances between non-profit and corporate marketing copy: what can each of them learn from the other?

In the meantime, I am interested in more examples of great web copy. What are your favourites?

Image Source: http://www.avision2market.com/index.html

I figure, though, that there must be some basic know-how for web marketing copy that don’t come simply from practice and meticulous revision. Over the next few weeks I’d like to explore the web in search of online marketing copy dos and don’ts to share with you.

To begin, simply Google-ing “how to write web marketing copy” (yeah, I’m original) comes up with tons of great hits, both from blogs and from actual web-writing sites. One that caught my attention was the article “The Disgustingly Simple Rule for Web Writing That’s Awfully Hard to Swallow” that I found at www.copyblogger.com.

The point of the article is that web content needs to be “simple, succinct, and scannable,” because web browsers have high standards for use-ability and interface, and very little patience for clunky web design. The author encourages simplicity, arguing that web copywriters should economize on every word and phrase. No space or time can be wasted!

I completely agree, but part of the article’s reasoning for this emphasis on minimalism I take issue with: that online copy is somehow anti-intellectual. When it comes to web 2.0 marketing, I think “anti-intellectual” is an incredibly out-dated and unfitting sentiment. Many web 2.0 browsers are clever professionals with fast-paced jobs and, accordingly, fast-paced demands. I maintain that the “keep it simple” maxim stands for web copy, but this new body of online professionals demand something more from web copy. Its the something more I find difficult to describe, whether its a particularly well-tailored message, or perhaps even the voice of the copy (by which I mean, its personalized sound and feel).

So, I don’t think “clear and concise” is the whole story, nor would I agree that web copy is in any way “anti-intellectual.” Next week, I want to look at some successful web copy and try to pin down some more precise “dos.”

In the meantime, do you have any ideas about what the “magic formula” entails?