The 7th Chamber

P. Viddy

Andrew John Collins — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:17:21 +0000

It seems like yesterday I made my weekly trip to the iPhone app store and stumbled across a new app with 35 odd reviews, that app was called ‘Instagram’, and what an amazing app it is. It transformed any ordinary iPhone photograph into a thing of visual beauty with the added bonus of being able to share your creation across social networks. Instagram is the perfect example of how Social Media can be integrated into creative pursuits such as photography and give everyone the impression that you know just how to capture the perfect shot.

As the $1bn Instagram sale to Facebook snowball begins to slow, it seems another contender has emerged with a similar formula for success, it’s called ‘Viddy’ and you may have heard about it. Viddy uses the same filter type system that Instagram made popular and allows users to upload their video content straight onto their Facebook, Twitter or YouTube page. The app is being backed by celebs such as Will Smith and Jay-Z, alongside this was the news that Zuckerberg himself signed up, that turned a few heads.

Viddy could well be the next big thing to become snapped up on the social media market, maybe MySpace could make a comeback, who am I kidding, this could never happen. Regardless I am sure Viddy will be a vital part of any smartphone owners life within the next few. It’s simple, fun and gives everyone the chance to gain more ‘Likes’ because you slapped a preset filter over some raw footage that you shot of your baby crying or fat auntie falling over.

The app already has an estimated worth of $200 million and has only been operational for 1 year, that’s a pretty impressive startup. It’s the kind of app I can see Apple snapping up to add to their own devices, one thing is for sure, it’s not an app I would want to hide, like I wish I could do with Newsstand.

I wonder if P. Diddy has Viddy, he could get all giddy filming his kiddy…

…That was random…

…Sorry, I was thinking aloud.

And now…a video, which contains bad language but regardless of this is hilariously funny.

Employee of the Month: Lewis ‘Fresh Prince’ Salawu

Andrew John Collins — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:03:48 +0000

The life of a Media Executive is hard. The endless Hard Facts meetings. The long hours spent calculating figures and spends. The endless jibes of the Creative team who, upon completing their work for the day at precisely 11:59am, retreat to the nearest watering hole citing ‘inspiration’ as their reason for vacating the office.

This doesn’t have to be the case, and sometimes, just sometimes, an agency recognizes that much maligned individual. The individual in question being our resident Will Smith look a like, Lewis Salawu.

Having had his head hidden before 3 (yes 3!) displays for the last month under a veritable mountain of work following a shake-up in the staff structure, it is only fair that 7th Chamber’s inaugural Employee Of The Month goes to him, in recognition of his hard work, organization and good looks (in the eyes of our Financial Controller, he is angelic). So, bravo Lewis! May your hair always resemble that of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, and your Adwords skills remain unparalleled. We’re counting on you hombre.

iPad – The Future Of Education

Darcy Mitchell — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:51:58 +0000

The iPad, that trinket of the time strapped businessman, is not just good for playing BIG SCREEN Angry Birds and aimlessly surfing the Web. Oh no. Coming good on its promise to revolutionise the way we read and work, Apple has now turned its focus to education – using the iPad as flagbearer naturellement.

And it seems to be working. Though there is, admittedly, a high initial cost in purchasing the unit, the low cost of eBooks means that pupils using iPads are not encumbered with a bag full of pricey academic tones when navigating from class to class.

And the kids also love them. Working with a revolutionary interface and sleek Apple technology undoubtedly stimulates the mind and enthusiasm when in a classroom setting – a statement backed up by good old-fashioned statistics. Pupils from within the Riverside district have shown a 30% proficiency increase when using iPads in class, up from 60% to a whopping 90%.

The software now available on the iPad has also made a big impact on the way educational faculties approach technology. iTunes U offers an extensive collection of video lectures and course materials from some of the world’s most respected educational institutions – including Yale, Harvard and Cambridge. The Khan Academy, that much admired bastion of online education, also has an iPad app.

So, despite all the furore over Apple’s expansion into the realm of education, there remains a certain amount of cynicism surrounding its use as a educational tool within the classroom. One key factor to consider is cost. iPads may be a viable option for affluent college students and private sector schools where class sizes are kept low, but equipping a state school with £400 tablets is not an option where public spending is being reduced in every sector across Britain. The solution? Low cost tablets, of which Android already has a wide selection in development. But take away the allure of Apple products and what do you have? A classroom resplendent with surly, bored teenagers? We’ll have to wait and see.

Pinview

Darcy Mitchell — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:59:44 +0000

Timeline is great. But its linear design can cause problems; high volumes of content can see your witty and thought provoking status updates lost in the Facebook ether. And then how are people meant to know how awesome and prescient with your posts you are?

Well, fear not. Pinview is here. Opening your profile in a grid format, Pin View is a feast for the senses, allowing its users to browse images and video links far quicker than the current Facebook Timeline allows.

This writer having tried out the Facebook app for himself, it is apparent that the Facebook user experience is significantly enhanced when filtered and managed with the Pinterest format. It’s easy to browse a huge amount of media, ranging from friends updates to Fan Pages, without navigating the sometimes clunky navigation path that clicking through to external links presents.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the Pinterest model presents an awful lot of information on your screen. But instead of overwhelming its users, it instead presents an unique opportunity to curate and manage content.

Collaboration between social media companies is always interesting. In an industry where many act as rugged individualists, forging their own path, cooperation is somewhat refreshing to see. Now, if they can just introduce this Pinterest makeover to eBay and Amazon…

Raising The Dead? Just Add Coachella

Darcy Mitchell — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:35:40 +0000

Many of this writer’s musical icons are deceased. Not through some morbid fixation with the dead, but because, as the saying goes, the good die young. It’s also a lot easier to obtain iconic status if your fans memories are of you,forever preserved in the throes of youthful abandon, as opposed to shuffling around in slacks and slippers.

Coachella 2012 took hero worship to a new level last night however. Not content with becoming the first festival to offer full streaming on all its main stages, they exhumed the corpse of Tupac Amaru Shakur and reanimated him with the wonders of CGI technology.

This wasn’t some Frankensteinesque reawakening though – although that story is far more newsworthy and if, by some macabre black magic, it did happen would certainly demand more column inches.

No, Snoop Dogg wisely avoided disturbing any deceased hip hop stars graves and turned instead to the wonders of modern technology when pondering a question which plagues us all at some point in life – the question being ‘What dead rapper do I duet at Coachella with?’.

The surprise performance by Shakur quite rightly stirred up some emotions via social media. Pop sensation Rihanna described the performance as ‘one of the best nights of my life’ to her Twitter followers, whilst buxom beauty Katy Perry confessed to crying over the set.

Others pondered the tact of projecting a hologram of a dead man in front of tens of thousands of people, branding it as a publicity stunt and disrespectful to the musicians memory. This camp of thought was further strengthened by the emergence of @HologramTupac – a foul mouthed parody account aiming potshots at contemporary rap artists as we speak. We’ll be honest though, his tweets are pretty funny.

So, was it right to project such a hologram? Will our loved ones receive a hologram of ourselves to projected onto our graves when we pass away? Did Katie Perry actually cry? These are all questions, that much is true. But will this move herald a comeback for all those musicians physically incapable of performing beyond the veil? We hope so.

The Death Of RIM

Darcy Mitchell — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:10:36 +0000

It’s always sad to see a once great company being swept into the windless doldrums of the tech community, gradually leaking its lifeblood out onto Silicon Valley until stumbling to a dark place where, upon considering what could have been, it dies, forgotten and forlorn.

That was a little melodramatic. But hey, it’s Monday and this writer has had not nearly enough coffee.

So, Research In Motion. They really nailed messaging and multitasking software Blackberry Messenger in the 2000’s. They were also responsible for the first phone which truly connected with the asset rich, time poor businessman, allowing captains of industry to recline before an Infinity pool whilst staying connected to the office at all times.

But this was a different time, specifically between 2007/8 when RIM and its Blackberry device had its heyday. The encryption it offered on all messages and emails sent through its handsets was undeniably attractive to businesses, and all was well at RIM Towers for a short time, though it’s important to remember this was a time when the iPhone was incapable of handling encrypted email services and Android was but a figment in Microsoft’s imagination. RIM was on top, and it looked like it could stay that way.

But as is the case with all unchallenged kingpins, RIM got a little too complacent, a little too lazy when developing new software and models for their line of smartphones. Why change a winning product after all? Well duhhh RIM, it’s technology you’re dealing with – not a pair of Levi’s or a Magimix, whose strengths lie in their heritage – their collective formulas having remained unchanged for the last 50 years.

And it is this complacency that has resulted in the situation RIM currently face: a turgid business model resplendent with unimaginative, tired phones. For the top end business user who wants a sleek multimedia interface as well as business functionability, there is iPhone. For the financially aware mid level customer who wants access to an App Store, there is Android. Where does RIM fit in this brave new tech world? We are uncertain. We can only hope that, somewhat phoenix like, they rise out of the ashes of their own self-destruction.

Click, Comment And Share

Darcy Mitchell — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:08:36 +0000

It’s not enough to just post engaging, informative content. There is, after all, a reason why publications like The Guardian and Mashable award their frequent commenters with the accolade of ‘top commentor’ – whatever that means. Comments mean engagement. Engagement means more shares, and more shares mean increasing your readership. Huzzah!

And now, Google want in. Because Google+ was such a rip roaring success(!), the search engine giant are introducing a new comment platform for website owners, allowing them to fully index EVERYTHING you say about ANYTHING. They’ve already got your Facebook comments. And now they’re coming for the rest of ye!

This is just one of many of Google’s developments in the social space – a commenting platform is but the tip of a great big Google iceberg. And admittedly, there are flaws with Facebook’s current comment platform service – if Google were to add a more streamlined service to their arsenal, their abject failure to make Google+ a service worth using would perhaps be forgotten. Well, not quite. But you know what I mean.

The Return of Friends Reunited

Darcy Mitchell — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:31:16 +0000

There was a time before Facebook. Think back my friends, to the prehistoric mists of social media. A beast dragged itself from the primordial ooze, grew legs and started to procreate. That beast was Friends Reunited. And now, it’s back.

Conceived by Steve Pankhurst as a way for his heavily pregnant wife to keep in contact with her friends in 1999, a year when this writer was still running about in short trousers, Friends Reunited had amassed a total of 15 million members and was sold to ITV for £175 million – a well publicised move given the subsequent losses made by the media company upon resale.

And before the subsequent domination of Zuckerbook, Friends Reunited proved itself to be quite adept at what it did – literally reuniting old school friends, past colleagues and even old flames, the latter of which were responsible for the break-up of many a marriage and the subject of many an indignant Daily Mail article.

So, what’s new? What have Pankhurst et al done to refurbish and revamp its tired interface and justify the respawning of an old behemoth? Well, the answer is: not a lot.

But this is where Friends Reunited’s strength lies – its format is familiar to those of bewildered by the constant updates made by Facebook, much like a well worn sweater or a comfortable armchair. And lining its crosshairs up to the 40 – 60 year olds who rode the first wave of Friends Reunited hype is the natural move – is there any social network who could pose a serious challenge to the Facebook monopoly after all?

Well, at this moment in time, probably not. But could Friends Reunited be a success once again in that particular trope of society, the 45-60 year old eager to reconnect once again? Possibly. Watch this space.

Facebook Values Your Privacy… Or Does It?

Darcy Mitchell — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:38:31 +0000

Employers want your Facebook log ins. And Facebook want to keep your details private… or do they? A new revision to Facebook’s privacy policies have caused an enlightened few to raise a few questions, the main reason of concern being the omission of the word ‘privacy’ in favour of the worryingly vague ‘data use’ for use in the terms. So it’s ‘data use policy’, not ‘privacy policy’. Cause for concern?

It should be. The best way of illustrating it would be with an example – when you install an application like Words With Friends, you agree to share personal information with the app. Fair enough? Well yes – it’s worth it just to rub it in the faces of your friends when you post ‘ZIT’ and mysteriously amass 72 points. BUT, with the new ‘data use policy’ in place, Facebook can access your personal information if one your friends decides their work efficiency could be massively improved by the installation of Farmsville to their Facebook account. Yes, you heard me correctly. Their account.

Now, this spells trouble – particularly for German Facebook users who, upon combing through this policy with brutal Teutonic efficiency, identified and started a petition against the flaws in the new terms – which can be found here. And with over 32,000 signatures, it’s gathering force.

So do you believe you should be dragged into some unspoken contract that your friends are making? We don’t think so. Come on Facebook users. Wake up and smell the intrusion.

Social Networks – Feeding The Narcissist Within All Of Us

Darcy Mitchell — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:20:29 +0000

All of us could be accused of having been a little vain when it comes to managing our online presence. Asking your friend to NOT post that unflattering photo to Facebook? Guilty. Selectively editing those emotionally charged tweets you sent to that girl at 3am the morning after the night before? Ok, you’ve got us there. Social media offers its users the chance to edit their lives and thus present a warped sense of their own existence – an opportunity unavailable to earlier generations. No feature epitomises this more than Timeline Review – a feature that allows Facebook users to curate their walls as they see fit and, perhaps more importantly, acts as a firewall to embarrassing content.

For vetting potentially volatile content, this is all very well – potential employers have been checking Facebook profiles for years. But it heralds a new development in social behaviour, fuelling narcissism and displays of cynicism otherwise unobserved in Facebook and Twitter user’s personalities.

What makes this revelation even more interesting is studies undertaken on narcissistic personality traits, directly linking enhanced levels of self image and exhibitionism to large amounts of Facebook friends – a sentiment which rings true in this writer’s ears. The more Facebook friends you have, the more likely you are to display these behavioural traits.

After all, there comes with the receiving of every Facebook friend request an undeniable sense of satisfaction; the fulfilling of some online consummation, some recognition of your value as an online connection. The more requests received, the greater this sense of achievement – causing narcissistic tendencies to be exacerbated as a result.

The relative anonymity one enjoys behind our Facebook persona also allows for the cruel dismissing those we might treat better vis-à-vis. A coldly typed photo caption here, an unfair comment there – what may seem (in the perpetrators mind anyway) innocent can have a lasting effect on the targets of such casual abuse.

So it becomes clear that we live in a world of peculiar disparities – a world where damaging personal information can spread like wildfire (see Tulisa for more details), yet our ability to utilize smoke and mirrors when controlling such information (online anyway) has never been more formidable. It is important therefore to remember the reason behind the the birth of social networks – they’re here to forge new relationships, as well as cement existing ones. We all know someone whose acquaintance we have made via the medium of social media, and it is this inherent power to connect people that we must remember, lest we turn to the dark side. Don’t feed the narcissist inside of you. Keep your activity clean, and whatever you do, don’t make it mean.