skrapnel

Saw this interview with Moby on CurrentTV. It really struck me as true for all media, not just musicians. It’s something I need to keep in mind as I  move forward creating content for people to enjoy. The quote is at about 21 minutes in, or you can just read my transcript of it

“For someone to give up an hour or two of their life to listen to the record I’ve made, they’re doing me a service. I think that the relationship between musician and audience at some point got turned on its head. Musicians started to feel as if the audience needed them. And the truth is I need an audience way more than the audience needs me.  It’s my job to keep the audience interested. Not my job to keep radio interested. Not my job to keep the media interested. But those individuals who are willing to listen to my music interested.” –Moby

I don’t like ads that clutter our public spaces. Being exposed to so much advertising waters down the visual arts.  It’s also intrusive and doesn’t do anything to help lift the human spirit.  The new ad from the campaign “Life is for Sharing” from T-Mobile is the exception.

Capturing the spirit of the Flash Mob phenomenon pioneered by groups like Improv Everywhere, T-Mobile creates a surreal scene in the Liverpool Subway station when over 300 people dressed as normal folk break into dance.  Since flash mobs are frequently photoed, videoed and shared online, T-Mobile’s messaging “Life’s for Sharing” resonates with a younger demographic accustomed to sharing viral videos with their friends.

Secretly filmed, the Life Is For Sharing ad begins when the Liverpool Street Station’s tannoy suddenly belts out LuLu’s 1965 hit Shout and a single dancer busts a move.

But as the the amazing scene unfolds a further 350 undercover dancers, positioned amongst regular commuters, burst into a larger routine.

Gradually more covert players join in with the stunt until eventually nearly the whole station is dancing in sequence.

Celeb Choreographer Ashley Wallen took the dancers through an intensive 80 hour rehearsal to ensure they nailed the performance as they could only film a single take.

via T Mobile Liverpool Street Station flashmob ad storms YouTube – National News – News – Click Liverpool.

I love looking at the smiles on the bystanders’ faces.  Caught up in the moment, you can imagine the joy and excitement they feel. The video makes me happy to be alive.

This photo of the plane crash in the Hudson is so beautiful. It was taken from a mobile phone by a passenger on a ferry who then uploaded it to TwitPic and Tweeted it. Citizen Journalism!

In his post “Who Needs Another Social Network?” on the New York Times Bits blog, Miguel Helft analyzes Yahoo’s new tactic of turning into a social site, and he gets it wrong. Yahoo has always had the foundations for a social network; most of its properties have very energetic communities. Its problem, however, has been trying to figure out how to link all of these properties to create a complete set of offerings for its users. It’s not too dissimilar to the problems we are facing on the whole for the Internet.

At this point in time, Web 2.0 has created disconnected portals in which we store our content: Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, personal blogs, etc. The next step in the Internet’s development will be aggregating and sorting the content we produce into one centralized location. With that in mind, I feel like Yahoo is making a good first step.

By finally trying to link all of its properties, Yahoo is working towards solving a problem that is becoming increasingly more pervasive: too much content. The next step in the evolution of the web will be aggregating and sorting web content so we can find what we want where we want. This quote sums it up:

“We are not trying to be another social network,” said Yahoo president Susan Decker on Tuesday, during the company’s earnings conference call. “Rather, by linking users’ favorite destinations and content, with their friends’ families and communities, we can deliver better relevance on a scale that no one else has achieved.” Two days later, the company’s new chief technology officer, Ari Balogh, speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, elaborated a bit on the idea. “We don’t think of social as a destination,” Mr. Balogh said. “We think of social as a dimension.”

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.