Digital Ministry: Digital People Profile

Earlier on this week, Denise Shrivell from Digital Ministry was kind enough to profile me for her 'Digital People' segment.

Some of the key elements i wanted to discuss were around where i saw the digital media industry heading in the next 12 months and what the main trends will be...

I wanted to reiterate them here because i really do think they are key areas to watch:

Question 5. What trends do you think the digital media industry will see in the next 12 months?

Open API & Connections between multiple platforms

There are two key benefits to open API solutions, which I think have been evident so far this year...

The first is probably best explained using Twitter as the example. Twitter's open API has been the catalyst for it's rapid growth due almost entirely to the developer built applications.

These apps have unlocked Twitters massive potential with amazing tools such as a little mobile application which acts as an SMS timer that allows you to set a reminder over SMS to call your mum, to more elaborate visual recreations of Twitter like twittervision.com, which shows an animated map of the world and what everyone is doing around the world.

As a result of expanding the uses, possibilities and appeal of Twitter, the API now receives 10x the traffic that the website itself does.

As more companies start to realise that open systems lead to a more creativity, more reach and ultimately more of a competitive advantage, it's obvious that this trend will grow and grow (just this week Tesco in the UK announced they are opening their website API to third party developers).

The second benefit is the ability to allow open connections between multiple websites such as Google's Open Social or Open ID. Eventually we should have one single digital identity that allows us to connect with any website without having to log-out and login each time.

This can increase the fluidity of online ‘surfing' and also aid greatly with information management from a consumer perspective (i.e. not having to fill-out credit card details each time you want to purchase something).

From an advertising perspective, Open Access also releases a myriad of possibilities when it comes to behavioral and preference targeting...

The end of flash and the rise search engine friendly platforms

I think ‘Flashturbation' is frowned upon more and more these days especially with advertising budgets on the decline and the growing need for consumer feedback and commentary to be enabled on-site...

We've been using templates such as Wordpress for our clients when it comes to creating content hubs. It's cheaper, easier and allows for more of an organic build up of interest and engagement rather than just dumping someone onto a flash microsite. Of course the other obvious advantage to doing this is that search engines can easily pick up a feed-based site...

Augmented Reality

I'm still slightly on the fence with this because I have a feeling it could still fall into the ‘gimmick' bucket, however, I've seen some fantastic non-gimmicky uses of this technology recently.

The IBM Wimbledon application which allowed users to point their handsets to a court and then see real time match information overlaid on the screen, furthermore when users point their phone the at food courts they also got information about what's on sale.

Then there's the new ‘Nearest Tube' iPhone application, which uses both your location information along with the iPhone's compass and video camera to show you an augmented reality picture of where and in which directions around you the nearest London Tube Stations are.

These kinds of applications show the real capacity for augmented reality and the versatile practicalities it can lend itself to, above and beyond novel gaming and visual experiences.

See a Youtube clip on IBM's Wimbledon 'Seer' augmented reality application here - and the London Tube example here

You can read more of the Digital Ministry profile here:

http://digitalministry.com/AU/articles/812/DIGITAL+PEOPLE+ZOE+SCAMAN/1