The Biggest Stories of Our Time, Visualized | Slideshows

via fastcompany.com

Great visuals

Posted via web from Rob Noble

great fridays christmas 2009

Posted via web from Rob Noble

When Google Runs Your Life

via forbes.com

Really interesting piece on google

Posted via web from Rob Noble

The Google Phone Cometh?

via mashable.com

Looking good!

Posted via web from Rob Noble

BBC NEWS | Technology | BBC iPlayer launches Wii channel

via news.bbc.co.uk

Posted via web from Rob Noble

Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba Story | Moving Windmills Project

via movingwindmills.org

An old story I know but still a great one!

Posted via web from Rob Noble

From Russia With Love - SoDA at Russian Internet Week - Society of Digital Agencies

Impressions from Moscow at Russian Internet Week: First let’s talk about Moscow, and ditch the stereotypes, at least some of them. No mafia, at least visible; a mighty city, full of modern design, wonderful classic architecture, world class shopping and hordes of Mercedes, Ferraris and Rolls-Royces. Tall, elegant Russian women dressed to the hilt in wild, thousand dollar platform boots. Contrasts everywhere; from slick, expensive restaurants, bars and clubs that would be hot in New York or London, to monstrously amazing soviet government buildings and old ladies in babushkas. A strangely spotless metropolis, with many of the classic buildings fully renovated to their former glory and unbelievable traffic jams.

From the first moment I landed in Russia it felt different and a little dangerous, although I figured out most of the danger was in my imagination. I was surprised at how many Russians are very tall and good looking, with the classic tough, unsmiling faces of cold war movies and mafia stereotypes, so it was a little while before I realized I wasn’t going to get kidnapped. My invitation to Moscow was to make a presentation of SoDA’s creative work and trends in digital marketing to agencies and clients at Russian Internet Week, the most important annual event for everything internet from digital marketing to infrastructure.

The conference was held in a convention center in the shadow of Moscow City, a huge new development in the heart of Moscow made up of a cluster of extraordinary skyscrapers still under construction. While the conference hall was bustling and busy from day one, it was a small show by U.S. standards, although what it lacked in size it made up for in enthusiasm.

My host, Andrey Anischenko, CEO of Grape, our new member in Moscow, picked me up from my hotel, a short walk from Red Square and the Kremlin, and took me to register. He also asked me if I would say a few words at the conference opening ceremony.

I agreed and proceeded to focus on the novelty of seeing my name in Cyrillic on my badge, which was about the only thing I could translate in the exclusively Russian affair.

I was introduced to Constantine, my interpreter and seated in front of the central stage in the hall.

Quickly a surprisingly large number of people, press and TV gathered around and the official opening was underway, kicked off by the Deputy Minister of Communications. This was clearly a bigger deal than I thought it was going to be, and as the minister read a lengthy prepared speech, I sat in the front row wondering how to wing it. A number of other dignitaries followed the minister and my interpreter pointed out that prime time TV news was covering the event. With the future of U.S./Russian relations on my mind, I mounted the podium.

I introduced SoDA and explained that like the internet, our organization of digital pioneers knew no boundaries, which was why I was there. I explained that our work was not only helping brands navigate challenging digital waters, but redefining the basics concepts of advertising and marketing. I also threw in that it was changing the way commerce based cultures worked. I watched the minister when I said it, he didn’t smile.

Then came the press conference and now I had no idea what to expect.

With a microphone thrust in my hand I talked more about trends in the U.S and then took questions from the fifteen or so press people in the room. All was going well with questions about digital spending trends and the agency business, until I got a question, from a character with a long beard, who looked a lot like Rasputin. He wanted to know why America had conspired to create the “crisis” and why it was a conspiracy linked to the bible and….…I lost him after that. I started to come up with an answer, but he shouted me down and I gratefully passed the mike to my interpreter.

The rest of the day was spent visiting with Andrey and his team at Grape.

They shared with me how they attempt to educate clients and the challenges they face in endeavoring to change attitudes. What came across loud and clear is that they are dealing with many of the same problems other SoDA agencies are facing today, plus those that many of us dealt with two years ago.

The next day I met with the CEOs of a number of top Russian digital agencies.

Attending were Anna Sverdlov, Managing director of ACTIS, Vitaly Bykov, CEO of RedKeds, Alexey Persianov, CEO of ADV, Andrey Vynograd, CEO of TribalDDB Moscow, and Natalya Logutova, Business Development director for Articul.

I told them about SoDA, its members and its mission. They told me about their agencies and the challenges they face. Like Grape they are very focused on educating the client community and showing them that they need to take a fresh look at how they go to market in the light of the rise of digital. They explained how small shops, with a couple of guys in a garage, are undercutting their pricing and how clients are enabling this because they don’t yet understand how to do digital correctly. They talked about the huge pool of motivated, highly educated talent they have just waiting for work and the corruption they face from mid-level managers in companies who demand kick-backs. They explained that they need standards that their clients can use for success metrics, process and legal and how they are tired of giving away strategy and creative in order to get production dollars. They were an articulate, smart group that understands our industry and is struggling with a slow moving client community. They were also very enthusiastic about SoDA and how we can help them accelerate change and awareness.

On Saturday afternoon the SoDA session was the last session of the conference and I was surprised to see not only see an overflowing room of over two hundred, but even to hear that two to three hundred additional people, who couldn’t get into the room were watching the session remotely.

Their interest in the work and ideas of SoDA agencies couldn’t have been greater. After a few nerve racking moments when I was informed at the last minute that they would not be able to accommodate my Macbook, all was well, and with a little ice breaking in Russian, courtesy of my interpreter, we were off and running.

My presentation outlined what SoDA was all about, discussed trends in the US. and ended up with a series of fantastic video case-studies from SoDA agencies Agencynet, Big Spaceship, Firstborn, Odopod, Schematic and Obscura. A big thank you to these members for putting them together.

Overall the reaction was terrific and there was especially enthusiastic applause for the case-study videos.

Now sitting on the plane, as this whirlwind adventure comes to an end, I can’t help but reflect on the energy and intelligence I saw in the Russian digital community. Clearly this is a culture where a lot is happening and where capitalism is on a fast track in all its guises, including digital. The people I met were very informed, bright, worldly, bi-lingual and hungry for knowledge. It seems Russia is digitally where the US was maybe 3-4 few years ago and can learn from our mistakes and experience. This was a wonderful opportunity to live the values of SoDA to the fullest and share knowledge and know-how with members and potential members of our worldwide community of digital agencies. Many thanks to Russian Internet Week, and to Grape, and especially to Andrey and his wife Katie for their wonderful, warm Russian hospitality.

Entering Red Square

Who's this guy?

A million cars & shops

Not scary anymore

My kind of Social Security

The power of the Soviet

Andrey from Grape with his wife Katie and my wife LouAnn

via sodaspeaks.ning.com

Kudos to Tony

Posted via web from Rob Noble

From Russia With Love - SoDA at Russian Internet Week - Society of Digital Agencies

Impressions from Moscow at Russian Internet Week: First let’s talk about Moscow, and ditch the stereotypes, at least some of them. No mafia, at least visible; a mighty city, full of modern design, wonderful classic architecture, world class shopping and hordes of Mercedes, Ferraris and Rolls-Royces. Tall, elegant Russian women dressed to the hilt in wild, thousand dollar platform boots. Contrasts everywhere; from slick, expensive restaurants, bars and clubs that would be hot in New York or London, to monstrously amazing soviet government buildings and old ladies in babushkas. A strangely spotless metropolis, with many of the classic buildings fully renovated to their former glory and unbelievable traffic jams.

From the first moment I landed in Russia it felt different and a little dangerous, although I figured out most of the danger was in my imagination. I was surprised at how many Russians are very tall and good looking, with the classic tough, unsmiling faces of cold war movies and mafia stereotypes, so it was a little while before I realized I wasn’t going to get kidnapped. My invitation to Moscow was to make a presentation of SoDA’s creative work and trends in digital marketing to agencies and clients at Russian Internet Week, the most important annual event for everything internet from digital marketing to infrastructure.

The conference was held in a convention center in the shadow of Moscow City, a huge new development in the heart of Moscow made up of a cluster of extraordinary skyscrapers still under construction. While the conference hall was bustling and busy from day one, it was a small show by U.S. standards, although what it lacked in size it made up for in enthusiasm.

My host, Andrey Anischenko, CEO of Grape, our new member in Moscow, picked me up from my hotel, a short walk from Red Square and the Kremlin, and took me to register. He also asked me if I would say a few words at the conference opening ceremony.

I agreed and proceeded to focus on the novelty of seeing my name in Cyrillic on my badge, which was about the only thing I could translate in the exclusively Russian affair.

I was introduced to Constantine, my interpreter and seated in front of the central stage in the hall.

Quickly a surprisingly large number of people, press and TV gathered around and the official opening was underway, kicked off by the Deputy Minister of Communications. This was clearly a bigger deal than I thought it was going to be, and as the minister read a lengthy prepared speech, I sat in the front row wondering how to wing it. A number of other dignitaries followed the minister and my interpreter pointed out that prime time TV news was covering the event. With the future of U.S./Russian relations on my mind, I mounted the podium.

I introduced SoDA and explained that like the internet, our organization of digital pioneers knew no boundaries, which was why I was there. I explained that our work was not only helping brands navigate challenging digital waters, but redefining the basics concepts of advertising and marketing. I also threw in that it was changing the way commerce based cultures worked. I watched the minister when I said it, he didn’t smile.

Then came the press conference and now I had no idea what to expect.

With a microphone thrust in my hand I talked more about trends in the U.S and then took questions from the fifteen or so press people in the room. All was going well with questions about digital spending trends and the agency business, until I got a question, from a character with a long beard, who looked a lot like Rasputin. He wanted to know why America had conspired to create the “crisis” and why it was a conspiracy linked to the bible and….…I lost him after that. I started to come up with an answer, but he shouted me down and I gratefully passed the mike to my interpreter.

The rest of the day was spent visiting with Andrey and his team at Grape.

They shared with me how they attempt to educate clients and the challenges they face in endeavoring to change attitudes. What came across loud and clear is that they are dealing with many of the same problems other SoDA agencies are facing today, plus those that many of us dealt with two years ago.

The next day I met with the CEOs of a number of top Russian digital agencies.

Attending were Anna Sverdlov, Managing director of ACTIS, Vitaly Bykov, CEO of RedKeds, Alexey Persianov, CEO of ADV, Andrey Vynograd, CEO of TribalDDB Moscow, and Natalya Logutova, Business Development director for Articul.

I told them about SoDA, its members and its mission. They told me about their agencies and the challenges they face. Like Grape they are very focused on educating the client community and showing them that they need to take a fresh look at how they go to market in the light of the rise of digital. They explained how small shops, with a couple of guys in a garage, are undercutting their pricing and how clients are enabling this because they don’t yet understand how to do digital correctly. They talked about the huge pool of motivated, highly educated talent they have just waiting for work and the corruption they face from mid-level managers in companies who demand kick-backs. They explained that they need standards that their clients can use for success metrics, process and legal and how they are tired of giving away strategy and creative in order to get production dollars. They were an articulate, smart group that understands our industry and is struggling with a slow moving client community. They were also very enthusiastic about SoDA and how we can help them accelerate change and awareness.

On Saturday afternoon the SoDA session was the last session of the conference and I was surprised to see not only see an overflowing room of over two hundred, but even to hear that two to three hundred additional people, who couldn’t get into the room were watching the session remotely.

Their interest in the work and ideas of SoDA agencies couldn’t have been greater. After a few nerve racking moments when I was informed at the last minute that they would not be able to accommodate my Macbook, all was well, and with a little ice breaking in Russian, courtesy of my interpreter, we were off and running.

My presentation outlined what SoDA was all about, discussed trends in the US. and ended up with a series of fantastic video case-studies from SoDA agencies Agencynet, Big Spaceship, Firstborn, Odopod, Schematic and Obscura. A big thank you to these members for putting them together.

Overall the reaction was terrific and there was especially enthusiastic applause for the case-study videos.

Now sitting on the plane, as this whirlwind adventure comes to an end, I can’t help but reflect on the energy and intelligence I saw in the Russian digital community. Clearly this is a culture where a lot is happening and where capitalism is on a fast track in all its guises, including digital. The people I met were very informed, bright, worldly, bi-lingual and hungry for knowledge. It seems Russia is digitally where the US was maybe 3-4 few years ago and can learn from our mistakes and experience. This was a wonderful opportunity to live the values of SoDA to the fullest and share knowledge and know-how with members and potential members of our worldwide community of digital agencies. Many thanks to Russian Internet Week, and to Grape, and especially to Andrey and his wife Katie for their wonderful, warm Russian hospitality.

Entering Red Square

Who's this guy?

A million cars & shops

Not scary anymore

My kind of Social Security

The power of the Soviet

Andrey from Grape with his wife Katie and my wife LouAnn

via sodaspeaks.ning.com

Kudos to Tony

Posted via web from Rob Noble

Is Barnes & Noble's Nook a Kindle killer? | Crave - CNET

via news.cnet.com

Let the games begin. 2010 ebook player wars!

Posted via web from Rob Noble

How the iPhone’s App Store Could Stimulate the Flash Economy | Gadget Lab

via wired.com

The question on everyones lips is how complex an app can it compile though? The demos at MAX were hardly state of the art. We shall see.

Posted via web from Rob Noble

SoDA Member Obscura Digital

via youtube.com

Great work from SoDA agency Obscura

Posted via web from Rob Noble

Elect The Jury - 2010 ANDY Awards

via electthejury.com

My friend mike is co-chair of Andy Awards. Those of you from the digital world please help vote, nominate and share with your agencies and industry friends to help form a strong and balanced final jury of 25

Posted via web from Rob Noble

NFL Fantasy Files: The Best Players

via youtube.com

Amazing!

Posted via web from Rob Noble

Microsoft Courier Video LEAKED: Watch Touchscreen Tablet Demonstrated (VIDEO)

via huffingtonpost.com

great video demo of the Microsoft courier tablet

Posted via web from Rob Noble

Apple hits 2 billion App Store downloads - but what are they worth? | Technology | guardian.co.uk

via guardian.co.uk

Mark Mulligan of Forrester noted that "lt took Apple over 3 yrs to hit 2bn song downloads. It took less than 1.5 years to hit 2bn app downloads

Posted via web from Rob Noble

Google Editions

Google Editions is the coming out party for “cloud publishing” where content is purchased, but never physically owned

via blackplasticglasses.com

Great Article about how Google Editions will enable consumers to buy instant access to 100% of the content of a single title (as opposed to a random sampling of 20%) along with the option to order the associated print book

Posted via web from Rob Noble

BBC NEWS | Technology | Future is TV-shaped, says Intel

via news.bbc.co.uk

By 2013 90% of all IP traffic will be video. 60% of all video will be consumed by consumers over IP networks

Posted via web from Rob Noble

Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) Expands Worldwide with New Digital Agencies

Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) Expands Worldwide with New Digital Agencies

The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) today announces the global expansion of SoDA with new member agencies in Brazil, Russia, Australia, France and the UK. The current round of organization expansion wasn't just limited to international firms, with many well-known U.S. digital agencies joining forces with SoDA also. In total SoDA has welcomed 18 new digital agencies maturing the organization with a representation of over 30 top agencies worldwide.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) August 19, 2009 -- The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) today announces the global expansion of SoDA with new member agencies in Brazil, Russia, Australia, France and the UK. The current round of organization expansion wasn't just limited to international firms, with many well-known U.S. digital agencies joining forces with SoDA as well. In total SoDA has welcomed 18 new digital agencies maturing the organization with a representation of over 30 top agencies worldwide.

Additional new members include: Bloc, Colossal Squid, Deep Focus, Evolution Bureau (EVB), GRAPE, Great Fridays, Gringo, IE, Mekanism, Obscura Digital, Profero, Rain, R/GA, SOAP Creative, Soleil Noir, Terralever, and Unit 9. The new members have been invited for their industry leadership and expertise to join an already elite group of SoDA members that includes: 360i, AgencyNet, Big Spaceship, Blitz, Domani Studios, Exopolis, Firstborn, GrupoW, IQ Interactive, Odopod, Schematic, Struck, WDDG and WhittmanHart.

SoDA has grown from its inception in 2006 when 13 agency executives got together in South Beach Miami for Mojitos and engaging conversation about the various aspects of the digital marketing business. SoDA members meet several times a year to discuss and propose initiatives for the business of digital marketing related to best practices, education, and advocacy. In addition to the annual members-only conference, SoDA hosts their signature "unConference" at key industry events each year, including Adobe's MAX Conference, SXSW, and the OneShow.

While SoDA has had an international following since its inception, it began to see more and more international agencies attending industry events in the U.S., and in many cases solely to attend the SoDA unConferences. The result was an engaging dialog on the similarities and sometimes, great differences in the digital business overseas. These valuable conversations led to an acceleration of our membership expansion plans to bring a global perspective to our business.

About SoDA:
The Society of Digital Agencies is the voice of digital marketing professionals with a mission to advance the industry through best practices, education, and advocacy. SoDA is a non-profit industry organization with Adobe Systems as its founding sponsor.

For more information about SoDA visit www.societyofdigitalagencies.org or join the conversation at www.sodaspeaks.ning.com.

CONTACT:
Kendyll Picard
SoDA Communications Coordinator
727.967.9342

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SoDA expands its membership to include more great agencies

Posted via web from Rob Noble