Switching to OpenOffice

Who — besides Microsoft and the other corporate behemoths — does not like open source software or at least the concept of it? I’ve always been intrigued (and inspired) by the power of what Dan Tapscott and Anthony Williams in Wikinomics called “mass collaboration.” So I decided to do away w/ Microsoft Office and try OpenOffice. (BTW, if you haven’t read the book, you should check it out. It’s a great read).

For those of you who don’t know, OpenOffice is the leading open source office software suite, which includes the standard word processor, spreadsheets, databases, powerpoint-like stuff, etc.

If anyone is using it or has tried it, feel free to comment.

Viral Marketing - Elasun Condoms and the Olympics

Wow, this isn’t subtle at all. Although the video isn’t the most creative ever made, Elasun’s marketing campaign to “hijack” everything Olympics without being a sponsor is pretty clever. Here’s an interesting article in UTalkMarketing.

Here are some of the ads, which are pretty good:

Photos from Stephen Hutcheon’s blog.

Democratic National Convention - I’m so there!

It’s finally here, the DNC baby!

Yours truly will be rubbing shoulders w/ the Washington elite and other political junkies come Saturday in the Mile High

So excited. If I grab any good pics I’ll be sure to post them.

Viral Marketing - Response to Matt

Thanks for your kind words Matt! I decided to just post my response to you b/c I think it’s good to know.

I should let you know that I’m not an expert in viral marketing, or marketing for that matter. However, I have heard things from people in the business who know a lot more than me. Common themes have emerged, though, from all the conversations I’ve had in terms of V.M., such as:

-It’s hard to gauge what will become “viral” and what won’t, so unless you have some crazy gift that allows you know what will become “cool” or take hold among the audience, then it’s really impossible to plan.

-However, things that are interactive have seemed to work better, like the example I gave of Paltalk.  JibJab also produced one related to the election:

-Another option is looking for videos on YouTube that have become popular (those that relate to your product or company) and sponsor the creator, like what Dr. Pepper and Stride gum did:

This is sort of a quick response, but I hope it helps a little. If you do create something, send it over to me and I’ll post it here.

The Folly of RCN

To: RCN

From: A disgruntled customer

I’ve been a RCN customer for a total of one week and am already dissatisfied! I’m not sure how it is in other places, but in DC (where I live) the customer service just, well, sucks. The technician who came over to connect me to the Internet decided it would be best to set up the modem in the living room — I was ok with that. The problem is the ethernet chord the guy had wasn’t long enough to reach my desktop in my bedroom, so we had to connect through my wireless router. After a week, I decided going through the routher wasn’t the best of ideas. It turns out I don’t like waiting forever to read e-mails, who knew?

Ok Ok, so the technician didn’t do the best job, but I’m ok with that — the dude was probably really busy, it was humid outside, and I probably wasn’t in the best of moods that day. The problem is their call center/help line. I can’t believe their reluctance to help people, I was shocked! I called them last night to get a technician back to my place to either set up the modem in my room or provide me with a long enough ethernet chord to reach my desktop. The woman I talked to (who had to speak to her supervisor 2-3 times for clarity) said they could not send out a technician until I went and purchased a long enough ethernet chord myself, then they would send a person out!

I don’t understand why RCN wouldn’t send somebody to fix a real problem, but are totally ok with sending them out to connect a frickin’ chord!! haha, I can’t belive it! Anyways, after about 10 minutes of telling the woman that I didn’t think it was my responsibility to buy a chord to connect my computer to the modem — something that I think is foundational and expected of an ISP — she hung up on me!

Am I wrong to hope and think that if I sign up and pay for a service (in this case, a certain transfer rate) that the company would at the very least provide it? Am I asking for the world when I ask my ISP to connect my computer to the Internet? Maybe I am. Maybe I’m just a selfish fool trying to bring down the poor corporate conglomerate.

Web 2.0 - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown twitting at the G8 summit

This lil’ blurb in the Washington Post is all about Gordon Brown and his staff using Web 2.0 technology at the G8 summit.  The power of Web 2.0 tech. is pretty obvious, but this article shows how these new tools are letting regular people experience and be apart of something that they would never had had the opportunity otherwise.

Here’s his Blog/Twitter/Flixr

Viral Marketing - Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment

This VM campaign is an older one that many of you are probably familiar with; however, it’s still very entertaining. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s a video that was produced by Coke and uploaded to YouTube.

It currently has about 6.6 million views! Considering how cheap a vid like this cost to produce, the ROI is pretty clear. Just another example of the power of VM.

Reasoning …

So it’s pretty obvious that I’ve been on a viral marketing stint for a while now. Just so all you know, I’m currently taking an Internet Strategies course for my MA in Communications at Johns Hopkins, which is why I’ve been posting so much about the topic.

I’ll try to bring in some other stuff, but as for now, enjoy! From my stats, it seems as if the viral stuff is pretty popular.

-Chris

Viral Marketing - “Dark Knight”

I picked this up at WhySoSerious.com.

Alex Billington gives a pretty good description of the viral marketing campaign around the new Batman flick, “Dark Knight.”

Viral Marketing - Monks’ record hits top 10 in U.K.

From Canada’s National Post:

There always seems to be an audience for retro-pop music, but a group of Austrian monks who sing Gregorian chants in Latin is the latest example of how viral marketing can launch even the most obscure musical group into commercial success.

The Cistercian monks’ CD “Chant — Music for Paradise” made the Top 10 of the pop charts in Great Britain and Germany because of viral marketing. They were initially discovered because of the video above that one of the monks had produced and released on YouTube.

This story really shows the power of viral marketing.