The River

The personal professional blog of Pamela Parker -- musings on marketing, advertising, media and technology.

Technology

A Non-Programmer’s Adventures In The Internet Of Things

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Besides re-vamping my office setup to allow standing as well as sitting at my desk, I’ve also been working on outfitting my home with lots of Things — Things as in the Internet of Things (IoT).

It started, I believe, with our need for a new garage door opener. Rather than do the simple thing and just buy a replacement, I decided to complicate matters and determined to automate the door’s opening and closing. The idea: whenever myself or my husband pulled up in one of our vehicles, the garage door would open automatically. When we left, it would close automatically.

Handy, right? Well, it started me down the path of Home Automation, which is working out as either amazing, revolutionary and wonderful or frustrating, broken and time-consuming. How I feel about it depends on the particular day. [Read more…] about A Non-Programmer’s Adventures In The Internet Of Things

My Standing Desk Initiative

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I’m sure I’m not the first person you’ve heard of adopting a standing desk, but there’s likely still more to learn. Everyone’s different, after all. Maybe I’ve experienced something that will help you in your own ergonomic working endeavors.

The Rationale

When I was in journalism graduate school at Columbia — one of the most intense periods of my life, work-wise — I experienced carpal tunnel syndrome for the first time. When I visited a doctor to get treatment, he talked about the perils of being a desk jockey and even said that people who sat all day at a keyboard should do strength-training to enable them to handle the rigors.

Since then, we’ve seen study after study determine that sitting all day is “the new smoking,” leading to early adopters experimenting with treadmill desks, standing desks, sit/stand desks, etc. One thing I’ve learned in reading their accounts is that people’s bodies really aren’t meant to STAND all day, either. Therefore, I determined to try a set-up that allowed me to switch positions — not to mention walk around a bit — throughout the day. [Read more…] about My Standing Desk Initiative

On APIs & Marketing

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I’m in the process of editing a piece that’s focused on APIs — that’s application program interfaces, of course. Along the way, I thought I recalled having written something about APIs back in my ClickZ days.

Here’s what I uncovered…

Back in February of 2004 (more than 10 years ago, folks), I wrote a piece called Web Services: RSS On Steroids. At that point, I guess the term and acronym API hadn’t become popular, so I referred to them as Web Services:

Web services is really just a way of exchanging information over the Internet. Instead of using browsers, it allows applications to talk to one another directly using open standard technologies such as XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI.

What can you do with this type of information exchange? The possibilities seem as infinite as your imagination.

And then, two years later, I patted myself on the back for my prescience with a follow-up piece called Attack of the APIs: (I am a complete dork, I know…)

Over the past few months, we’ve seen some compelling uses of these APIs for marketing-related mashups. ClickZ columnist Ian Schafer‘s agency put together a mash-up with Google Maps that let fans of HBO’s The Sopranos re-visit some of the places and events in the gangster show’s past seasons. Nike put together a Google Maps app to plot running routes for its Run London community. And more recently, General Mills’ Nature Valley granola bar brand asked nature-lovers “Where’s Yours?” on a site that uses a mapping interface similar to Google’s. I’m sure there are plenty more I’m failing to mention here. (Feel free to drop me a line if you have some great examples.)

These services have become popular because marketers and advertisers — in search of that elusive “engagement” — have figured out there are two paths to winning consumers’ attention. One is to entertain them. Hence the viral video, long-form advertisement-on-demand trend. The other is to give them something useful with a practical application. APIs can help marketers do both, but they probably lean toward the “useful” realm.

I think what I was talking about there would now be called “content marketing.”

What I totally failed to realize was the impact that APIs would have on marketing organizations operations, specifically allowing them to integrate data from disparate customer touchpoints to get a more holistic view of what’s happening. It’s a topic we are regularly exploring in Marketing Land.

Funny how interactive marketing seems to move so quickly, yet I’m looking back on this stuff — maybe a bit too “out there” for its time — and thinking I wouldn’t say things much differently today.

No More Lost Data: How To Back Up Your SmartPhone

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Every once in a while, I’ll hear from a friend or family member that they’re mourning the loss of their precious smartphone. What’s worse, they’re often wrecked because of all the data — emails, pictures, contacts, etc. — that has disappeared when the phone got lost, dropped or wet.

We are way beyond that, people. We are living in the future. There is absolutely no reason for you to lose important data — or at least not that much of it. If you’re one of these people, let me enlighten you. Techie folks, please know that I’m trying to make this as simple as possible for those who NEED this info. [Read more…] about No More Lost Data: How To Back Up Your SmartPhone

The Future Of The Internet/Web/Whatever

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I don’t even know what to call it. Is it still “the web” if you’re looking at it through an Oculus Rift-type headset? I don’t think so.

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Anyway, Fred Wilson got my attention this week with his musings on how big Internet players are (now that they’ve dedicated themselves to mobile) looking for the new big thing.

Here’s a video he shared where Google CEO Larry Page talks about the company’s future, in a TED interview by Charlie Rose:

Gets you thinking, huh?

SXSW Interactive: Beyond The Hype

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sxsw-squareAs much as people love SXSW, there’s definitely a backlash. Some blame the conference for the ever-growing tide of immigrants to Austin, which is stressing infrastructure and heightening fears about water shortages. Others decry it as just another tech conference, or bemoan the hipster factor. (Can you tell I’m a local now?)

I see more and more people tweeting with dread (myself among them) rather than excitement about the event, so it seems we all need to take it down a notch.

Remember that, at heart, SXSW is still a “festival” — not a conference. Where else would you find panel discussions on things like: “Making More of Ourselves – Sensory & Multimodal UX,” “Unearthing the Atari Graveyard: The Search for ET,” and, um, “Orgasm: The Broadband of Human Connection“? (Heck, there’s even a Ping Pong Tournament.) [Read more…] about SXSW Interactive: Beyond The Hype