This is what iDisk and countless others should have been, or are trying to be.

A sharable hard disk you can get to anywhere you have internet.

Check out the link below, and watch the demo
If you decide to sign up, remember this is still in Beta, and you are actually a part of the first release.
http://personalgrid.com/

Everyone is aware of the term widget now-a-days. 15 years ago you would have to be in a business or marketing course in some higher education institution to hear this now common word. In those old days, a “widget” was simply a term for a fictional product teaching the aspects of a business model, and how it may be applied to any product.

Today the popular meaning of a “widget” has changed, it represents something in a particular GUI environment, rather than representing the idea of anything anywhere. In computer programming, a widget (or control) is an element of a graphical user interface (GUI) that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box. The defining characteristic of a widget is to provide a single interaction point for the direct manipulation of a given kind of data. Widgets are basic visual building blocks which, combined in an application, hold all the data processed by the application and the available interactions on this data.

Here is a pointless example:

The widget above, although seems pointless, but it still performs functionality and pulls the user in to interact with specific data. I do keep saying this widget is virtually pointless, but in fact, by saying that, I am actually saying that the possibilities with concept of widgets are almost endless. So the old definition of a widget has actually not changed much. It can still be anything.

Microsites are dead, or should die. Flashy websites are only flashy if someone sees them, otherwise they are just overkill.
Like the old saying, “If a trees falls in a forest and nobody is around, does it still make a noise?”

A microsite only serves a purpose if a user can be driven there by a call to action. The call to action SHOULD NOT LIVE ON THE MICROSITE. The microsite should have applicability. The new consumer is bored with age old, “HERE WE ARE!” campaign. Widgets and embedding them should be pushed for awareness but for the definition stated above. Widgets are not simply web banners, they should engage the user, entice them to interact with a common data source. Data where users know that they are NOT the only person interacting with it.

That is the real point isn’t it?

To let users feel accompanied, befriended, special, and a part of something, and doing this all simultaneously.

Companies have been been preached to by agencies through the years that brand awareness is key. Brand awareness within the digital realm can take on a whole new meaning, but only if it is allowed. Imagine two separate campaigns for the same NEW brand. Lets say it is the exact same campaign, two different digital executions, and with the same budget and deadline:

Execution 1:
This is the old way of presenting information in a creative way revolving around the new brand. The presentation can be accomplished through comedy, an interactive game, images, video, audio, or simply an engaging blog and editorial. To put it generally, there are endless ways to present information, but regardless of the chosen format, the presentation’s purpose is still informative. Then, we put up as many links on popular sites like facebook and myspace, doing some web banners, and any other old-school traffic drivers to this brand-centric microsite or macrosite.

Execution 2:
Now with this execution it almost seems the same as far as content, but no matter what it is the end goal is to use the brand to interact with the user directly and let the user interact with the brand. Using widgets to perform the task the site would perform in the previous execution is the real goal because the widget(s) will serve as the ultimate traffic drivers for the campaign. To put it in layman’s terms, there is no real need for a microsite or any centralized informative location for the users to interact with eachother or with the brand. A widget serves as a kind of microsite itself. Using widget(s) to provide trackbacks in reality removes the need for a centralized campaign location if the location is simply informational. Therefor the users interact with eachother and the brand simply by viewing and embedding the widget(s) from numerous locations.

Both of these executions are relatively bad in the first place, because the campaign should be more than just informational in the digital medium anyway. In theory to compare these executions for the same bad campaign, the success rate for using the widget method would still be more successful than a microsite, blog, or brochure site.

This is because a widget can be placed anywhere. It is pushing information to the users’ locations, rather than pulling users to the location of the information. A widget can also be in different formats and for multiple applications. In theory a widget should be available as a macintosh Dashboard widget, and/or an embeddable website flash or AJAX widget. Increasing the formats increases the usability and in turn the success.

In essence the idea of a microsite is simply a magazine ad with a URL.
Is this something we want to continue to pitch?
Is a new blog something we want to pitch for every different kind of campaign?
Is another social network really necessary?

Seriously! Lets stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Blogs are everywhere and here to stay, and will a new one really suddenly be a competitor for an already established blog URL? In forward thinking, another URL with another link for a user to bookmark is most likely not the answer for a successful campaign.

Think of a campaign that is deployed entirely through widgets. It lives on existing blogs, existing social networks, and the centralized location of the campaign is simply a hub for users to get the widget(s) themselves.
Each time another user sees one of these widgets, a trackback can take place essentially adding to the so-called success of the campaign.

Think of sites that are simply an archive for users to save their favorite widgets.
Del.icio.us would die along with microsites.

I am not saying the bookmarking and URL’s are dead, but there should be or will be, a division between service websites, and informational / product / brochure centric websites. Just allow your common sense to provide you with and answer as to actually which kind of site or service can be served as a widget.

Just to name a few widget centric URL’s:

http://www.widgetbox.com/

http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/

http://widgets.yahoo.com/

http://www.apple.com/itunes/myitunes/

http://www.flickr.com/services/

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/

http://widgets.opera.com/

http://widgets.wordpress.com/

Widgitize it!

Student aid is an important issue.

Looks like Q1 earnings are down for good.

Meat falls off the bone, ya heard!

launch Spectra

now taking applications

 i’ll be waiting for your call. buy this here 

following up on my post a couple months ago regarding sousveillance - 2 snaps and a twist go out to “gazelena” for recent work in turning heads around town. love the leatherette nipples too.

Congratulations to Seed Gives Life partner and Creative Director Michael Ventura for participating in this ongoing joke. “It was fun and I really had fun.” says Ventura in a statement.