Hugh Garry

AMV Talk Links

I recently did a talk at AMV BBDO and threw together a page of links referencing the stuff I'd mention. I've noticed that it's starting to get a bit of attention so it's probably a good idea to smarten it up an add a little context.

I'm not very good at Powerpoint. I wish I was because it's a great tool when used correctly, I've just not worked out yet how I can make it work for me. Anyway, to get my 3 main points across I used 3 comedy clips. I idea being that if the audience don't remember what my point was they'll always remember the clip and the point will follow.

#1 Everything is Amazing

My first point was that 'everything is amazing'. A decade ago 'futuristic' meant 'many years into the future'. 'Futuristic' can now mean 'in the shops next year'. There are incredible opportunities to do amazing things with the awesome tools out there... So do them. Start thinking now about what you want to do now because by the time you've finished your brainstorm those tools will be ready and waiting.

That Minority Report Clip

That Awful mind game

That Other mind control thing

That SixTH Sense clip

That Light Touch image

That Projection clip

That Neurosonics Live clip

That Robot folding towels

That Google Job Thing

That Website built on YouTube

#2 The Digital Revolution is over

We are now living in post digital days. A generation has been brought up in this 'digital landscape'. It's all they know. Digital is as much a part of their lives as reading, but strangely we don't see them as being 'readers'. Digital is not a department. The edges of 'real world' and the 'digital world' are getting blurry. Objects are talking to connected devices via RFID, locations are collecting virtual clippings via GPS and it's no longer a novelty for Tower Bridge to have a Twitter account.

That Destinations in decline graph

Those Google Goggles

That WeReward thing

That Layar video

That Wimbledon app

That 3D augmented video card

That Ferris Bueller Twitter stream

That Chalkbot thing

That Printing out the internet thing

That Photoshop thing

That Facebook Like stamp

That Unilever Vending Machine

That Android car dashboard

That Augmented reality in Times Square thing

That BlockChalk thing

#3 Data, openness and honesty

Be open and honest. Share your data. Give your audience a peep behind the doors of what goes on in your company. Avoid clashes by having an ongoing conversation with your audience rather than waiting for flash points. Stop being evil and being honest will be easy. Be careful though, some people do get it wrong.  

That Daily Mail article

That Information is Beautiful thing

That Love40 thing

That Free Data thing

That BBC Artists thing

That Live train map

That Street Crime mashup

That School Scope thing

That Google collection

That Shoe company blog

That Chevy Tahoe advert

And finally.

That Phone thing

What is a Media Inventor?

Will someone in SF please buy Robin Sloan a nice cold beer on my behalf. This is such a brilliant definition.

Also: what’s a media inven­tor, any­way? Here’s my (totally made-​​up) def­i­n­i­tion: It’s some­body pri­mar­ily inter­ested in con­tent who also exper­i­ments with new tech­nol­ogy, new processes, and new for­mats. Allen Lane was a media inven­tor. Early blog­gers were media inven­tors. Right now, the indie video game scene is full of media inventors.

Fun­da­men­tally, I think, a media inven­tor is some­one who isn’t sat­is­fied with the suite of for­mats that have been handed down to him by his cul­ture (and econ­omy). Novel, novella, short story; album, EP, sin­gle; RPG, RTS, FPS—a media inven­tor doesn’t like those choices. It turns out a media inven­tor feels com­pelled to make the con­tent and the container.

Some­thing like that, anyway.

A definition truly nailed and a cold beer well deserved. This is for you Robin...

 

via infovore

What Motivates Us?

This is brilliant. It's only 10 minutes long. Dan Pink's excellent RSA talk on what motivates us is given a superb visual accompaniment. Based on the few times I've seen him talk recently I'm guessing his latest book 'Drive' is going to be a worthwhile read for anyone who manages people.

Dan points to research that dismisses the value of financial incentives in many of today's roles, suggesting there are three elements of true motivation - autonomy, mastery and purpose.

After seeing his TED Talk  I went out and bought his book 'Whole New Mind' and have to say it's one of the most interesting books I've read in ages. The premise of the book is that in a age of abundance the future belongs to 'right brain' thinking. At a time when computers are able to do the 'left brain' formulaic tasks man once did, jobs a are being lost. Similarly, thanks to advances in technology and communications, these kind of roles are increasingly being outsourced to Asia. However, computer's inability to truly understand and replicate 'right brain' tasks involving context and emotion suggests creative roles become more valuable.

I think there could  be another blog post soon about how it's helping my 100 Hour Project.

Reassuringly Wonderful

After seeing this on Russell's blog I felt compelled to share it. I suggest you watch it in full screen, it really deserves it.

As he suggests it makes a decent analogy for what the future of TV advertising could be.

'A few craft practitioners, in a few markets, making highly visible but ambient stuff for a decent, realistic wage'.

There is something wonderful about watching stuffing being made. It's always fascinated me. I remember sitting cross legged on the carpet at Bishop Billsborrow, my eyes fixated on the TV as Derek Griffiths introduced a film about glass blowing via the Play School round window. I was five years old. Why would that be interesting to a five year old? For me it suggested a future of possibility; perhaps one day I would blow glass, make pottery or put the letters in Blackpool rock. These were new things I was discovering about the world I was living in. It was enlightening and very exciting.

We shouldn't question why that was interesting to a five year old though. The question we should be asking is at what point did we stop making interesting children's TV featuring craftsmen at work and start making terrible TV shows for adults about airlines/driving instructors/traffic cops/cleaners/ambulance drivers/bailiffs at work?

Since turning into a grumpy old man I've found myself turning off the TV and tutting loudly more and more. I no longer subscribe to Sky and have recently been using my cognitive surplus to do more interesting things. I really am beginning to dislike the stuff being shoved before my eyes by the people who have the power of the push. All I can say is 'Thank God for the off button'.

My consumption method of we used to call TV is rapidly changing. What used to be pushed at me is now being pulled by me. My viewing is no longer exclusively chosen by Sky, BBC or Chanel 4 (ITV never had a look in) but curated for me by people who I trust like Russell, Maria, Iain, Graham and Zefrank, not forgetting the most excellent Bill and Ted, plus home of a different kind of witty banter Dave who does the DO. And that is to name just a few. There are many more finding me brilliant stuff that I can watch, rate, comment on, review, share, remix and blog about. 

As Clay Shirky points out in his excellent new book when someone buys a TV the number of consumers goes up by one, but the number of producers remains the same. However, when someone purchases a computer the number of consumers goes up by one and the number of producers goes up by one too. We are all co-producing together. We too are making 'stuff'. Kinda 'TV stuff'. It might only be a comment or a blog post, it could be a remix or homage of some sort, but it's 'stuff' and we are making because we are interested and engaged. And thankfully it's taking eyeballs away from TV shows about airlines. 

If there was a TV channel totally dedicated to watching films about 'things being made' I might be drawn back to the big black box in the corner. Even if the shows were paid for and were about 'products'. So what? If they're as good as this then great. Giving us a hashtag to tweet about shows is useless if the shows being made aren't worthy of commenting on. That's not pregress. Neither is making a console for us to tweet in that is glued to your destination site. I think that might be called 'taking progress backwards'. Becoming interesting again would be progress and we know what that takes - 'new balls please'. 

Whilst I'm waiting for that to happen I'll keep looking through my laptop shaped window at stuff being made by my co-creators, as happy as a cross-legged five year old. Perhaps if the pushers of what we used to call TV looked out through their round window they too might discover some new things in the world they're living in. They may not know it but these are exciting times to be enlightened by if they just looked a little closer at what is being made.

Poems and Maps

Our Mike launches his book 'God Is A Manc' tonight and I'm gutted that I can't be there. So, I've made a God Is A Manc Map for him using the words of his poem of the same name.

You can navigatethe poem and its locations via the map. I've added a tiny bit of info about the places mentioned, but I'm sure Mike could tell you a whole lot more should you ever bump into him.

He's a brilliant poet and genius writer who should be handed the keys of Manchester. I'm also very proud of him.

Navigate the whole map via the word here or visit Mike's blog here

View God Is A Manc Map in a larger map

By the way. Did I ever tell you God Is A Manc?.

#godisamanc

Big Questions Small Answers

Rory Sutherland is a very smart bloke whose speaking engagements are always rich with humour and insight. This quote really jumps out from a talk that is well worth giving 10 minutes of your life to.

Snakes and Ladders

I just found this and think it's great. Apparently this Threadless design was inspired by Conan O'Brien's last monologue on The Tonight Show. The final paragraph went something like this...

"To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen."

I'm not sure of the story behind his departure but you can see the full monologue here.

Work hard and be kind. It's such a simple but obvious bit of advice when you think about it. So why do we rarely hear it? You always hear people saying that they achieved their success by 'working hard', but rarely through 'being kind'. Personally, I think there's too much emphasis on the first bit and not enough on the second. Get the second bit right and the 'working hard' bit becomes a whole lot easier. I'm no fan of the 'nice guys come last' school of thought. That line is usually rolled out by people with a very different perspective of success than my own.

I've 'lucked' my way through a great career by creating my own opportunities for serendipity and being nice when the moment arrived. I got my job at the BBC by just saying 'Hi' to a passing stranger. Sometimes it really can be that easy. It always amazes me when I meet people whose default settings aren't locked on 'be kind'. It's quite remarkable how many of them you come across in an average working day. Count them.

Being kind allows me to achieve things I might not achieve otherwise, with the added bonus of keeping the smile on my face through to the end of the day. At the same time I watch colleagues stumble over obstacles left by people who don't know what it means to be kind. It makes the workplace look like a giant game of snakes and ladders. Be kind and good things happen. Don't be kind and you'll inevitable take a fall.

More Minority Report Awesomeness

Minority Report science adviser and inventor John Underkoffler demos G-Speak, the real-life version of the film's computer interface and suggests this technology will be in the homes within 5 years time.

I've talked a bit about this sort of thing before here and here so if you want to see something new check out his vision for the future of editing and media manipulation systems using this kind of technology. You'll find it around the 11 minute mark and it's rather exciting.

Creativity Is Just Connecting Things

via kitsunenoir.com

Manchester Geotagged

via www.flickr.com

Love this Flickr set of the world's most geotagged cities. The images features all the major cities, and some smaller ones, with the locations coming from the public Flickr and Picasa search APIs. Top stuff.