Agora Media Group Innovation Blog

(Originally published at Atlantic Free Press)

by Richard G. Kastelein

If we all thought the Facebook and Twitter social media growth phenomena were extraordinary, wait until Social TV hits your screens.

And it’s not as far away as you think — not only with the logical IPTV market, but also terrestrial TV. I recently attended the International Broadcast Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, which bills itself as ’The content creation management delivery experience’. IBC2008 attracted 49,000+ visitors and 1,300+ exhibitors from more than 130 countries. This year is expected to be bigger. Last year, I was part of a team exhibiting at MIPTV in Cannes, and was expecting something a bit similar… but this was almost all about hardware and software and less about the actual formats and programs. However, this was not a disappointment. For embedded in the show there were some jewels… which have profoundly altered my view of Social Media, the future and the implication of reach that will touch billions not millions.
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It was a delight to read about PitchTV by Virgin Atlantic, it’s a great way for entrepreneurs to pitch their business amongst the many travellers which will be aired onboard and also be available on Richard Branson’s blog.

Taken from the PitchTV Introduction page:

We’re now inviting entrepreneurs in search of investment and exposure for their business ideas to upload short video pitches.

Budding entrepreneurs are given the unique opportunity of pitching their ideas directly to the hundreds of top business professionals who regularly fly with Virgin Atlantic. Who knows, you could be watching the next big idea right here! [...]
The community will vote for their favourite video pitches and each month, the winning videos will feature as part of our PitchTV show which will air on our inflight entertainment system – gaining exposure to the hundreds of business professionals who regularly fly Virgin Atlantic. Anyone interested in hearing more about the most popular entrepreneurs’ business ideas will then be able to get in contact and maybe help take their ideas further. If you’re a budding entrepreneur, we’re giving you the unique opportunity of getting your ideas by top business professionals from around the world onboard Virgin Atlantic planes as well online. Who knows – among the viewers might be someone with the power to bring your idea to life.

Read the webpage for further instructions to upload your pitch.

This is a good example of Social Convergence where there’s made intelligent use of the onboard TV in combination with the Web in a social way to create value both for the -relevant- business viewers and the businesses who will pitch.
As said by mr. Negroponte of MIT “Soon every surface will be a display” and Virgin Atlantic made great use of this, a cross-screen/media social business experience.

Following the remark of the editor-in-chief of Esquire with regard to their usage of Augmented Reality in their upcoming cover:

“I got so sick of people talking about old media versus new media. I wanted to prove that print is still kind of cool. I think of it as kind of our job to show people the strength of our medium.”

Do you think Print Media still has a place within the marketing strategy? Are they desperate attempts or can it revive in a more innovative cross-channel manner?

Junaio, the 3D Mobile Augmented Reality platform by Metaio will be launched next week!
Eager to see its capabilities by my own, for now check out their video:

As a user you will be able to augment your world around you with 3D objects. When altered reality the way you desire you can share this information with your friends across social networks, these sort of technologies will ensure that Augmented Reality will be adopted by more and more users.
It’s a playful way to get acquainted with the technology and its possibilities. Aside the 3D capabilities, junaio also offers the ‘standard’ Augmented Reality browsing tools to scan and learn your surroundings.

Will junaio be real competition to Layar’s 3D platform? I do hope so, competition is good for creativeness, let’s see what both companies will bring forth in the near future.

More news during the coming week when junaio will be launched!

Google Wave, two weeks in progress and what an impression!

It’s great to experience the initial stages of a project of this magnitude which is disruptive and innovative as Google Wave.
One of the first things I found striking is being accustomed to get in contact with anybody, be it via email, social network or another mean. This is not yet the case with Google Wave, the amount of invites (thus the slow diffusion / adoption) amongst the potential users is causing part of this slow kick start. As long as not everybody has access to the platform it has an opposite effect.

Secondly, the current buggy state does not contribute to a good and easy initial experience as Google Wave has a learning curve to figure out all the options and possibilities (check out for the many explenatory videos on Youtube concerning Google Wave), for many non-tech-savvy people this is an obstruction and will not motivate.

Thirdly and most importantly, all the Waves and its interactions, I’m having the same kind of feeling which I had in the old days when I was getting acquainted with Internet, email, chat, messageboards and other applications.
The other participants and I are finding out how to applicate Waves in what kind of settings and purposes, educating and pointing out each other and reinforcing the Collaborative Curve in the initial stages of the platform.
It’s the same learning path and discovery, it’s the same eagerness to learn the opportunities and possibilities, it’s the same child-like marveling!

Learning by process and enhancing each others skills will fire up enthausiasm and exploration.

If you want to involve me in Waves or get in touch with me via Google Wave, do add me with gcuccuredduamg [at] googlewave.com , let’s get in touch, share and learn.

What are your initial impressions using Google Wave?

by Richard Kastelein (originally posted on Atlantic Free Press)

It’s only been a couple of weeks since the European Broadcasting Union demonstrated the potential of the HbbTV specification at IBC2009 in Amsterdam. But it won’t be long before Europeans start seeing the results – before Christmas according to some pundits. And once compatible devices are out in the market, they say the speed-to-market of applications developed for the platform will be incredibly short… as the industry looks to new models that embrace open API’s and SDK’s much like Apple has done with the iPhone and the Open Source movement online with enormous projects such as Sourceforge. With an HTML environment activated by a simple red button, in the same manner as a Web portal, the resulting content can be delivered over the IP stream.
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