The MoPR Blog

Two weeks ago I got an email asking to add the “Travel Map” application on Facebook. Now, that’s cool and definitely something I would like to share with my friends. Last week I got a request to add the “pieces of flair” application (Office Space anyone?) where I put pins on a virtual cork board. Awesome! These applications are fun.

Then two days ago I received an invite for the “Which Foreign City Are You” application. Hmm… kind of futile. So, I rejected. The same day I was asked to add the “when will you get married calculator” application. Whoa, definitely not! Reject. Yesterday, yet again, I got an email alerting me to an invitation to join the “Which Terrorist Group Are You” application. Excuse me? Do my friends really want to associate my personality with a terrorist group? This has gotten out of hand.

With my personal in-box filling up with invitations to add Facebook applications – some pleasant, some not so pleasant, I started asking friends and colleagues about their thoughts on adding new apps. Turns out, I’m not the only one getting annoyed with the daunting number of pointless and often offensive applications dominating Facebook.

One of my MoPR colleagues shared how put-off she was when invited multiple times to add the “What Kind of Drunk Are You” application, not to mention the “What is Your Sex Color?” , “What is Your Criminal Personality?” and the “What Underwear Are You?” applications. My colleague was even more appalled at the number of invites she received from friends who apparently wanted to own, buy, and sell her. That’s right; with the Facebook “Owned!” application the creators tell you that you can “Own Your Friends! Give Human Gifts! Put yourself on the market and find out how much you’re worth!” No thanks.

Now, I understand that Facebook is a social networking site, and yes, the majority of things that go on are intended for the sole purpose of having fun. I am also well aware that my own “pieces of flair” application is quite pointless. But for me, the myriad applications are becoming overwhelmingly distasteful and I find myself concerned with the growing number of downright offensive applications, such as Dope Wars: Deal Virtual Drugs to Numerous Towns.

This problem will only get uglier as social network go mobile. People are taking their Facebook profiles on the go; accessing mobile Facebook applications from their mobile phones. While the mobile use of Facebook has been slow to take off (roughly 3% of Facebook’s 70-million+ users use the mobile application), the appeal is definitely there. Apple must agree, having run its ad for Facebook mobile on the iPhone in costly prime time TV spots.

So, are the tasteless apps carrying over to the mobile platform? Not yet. In general, Facebook applications being designed for mobile phones are more utilitarian in nature with most being practical extensions of the core activities we do on Facebook, like photo sharing and messaging. But why? Are we more protective of the information we bring to and send from our mobile phones? I believe we are. I know I am. It’s also important to note that for most people, the cost structure for using the Web on their mobile phone is much different then for using the Web from home, so perhaps this translates to a more cautious approach to the applications we welcome to our mobile devices for wasting time and entertaining ourselves.

I asked some friends and colleagues for their opinions on the kinds of Facebook apps they would want to use from their mobile phone. My coworker Grace is a big fan of the Greenbook application. It helps reduce harmful emissions that Facebook generates through sponsorships. She would be willing to port her favorite apps over to mobile as long as she could control the amount of information being pushed to her via mobile. Grace also noted that she simply will not add just any application because a friend sends it her way stating “it’s just too much! And some of them are really offensive!” She says the same goes for mobile applications and that in the case of mobile, she might be even more selective – opting in to only the most useful apps. My sister, a Facebook newbie, enjoys sending “Good Karma” to her friends, but says that she is repulsed by the “Hot, Cute, or OK” application where people can actually rate the way you look. She can’t imagine using these applications from her mobile phone.

I guess it’s safe to say that everyone has an application that they find amusing and entertaining, but the general consensus seems to be against the unpleasant, and often insulting, applications, especially when it comes to mobile.

For an interesting post on how social networks such as Facebook are changing the way we communicate, check out this recent blog post from MoPR client, Talkster’s James Wanless.

At the end of the day, Facebook is a fun and useful tool that, like all fun and useful things, needs to be used responsibly, whether from your laptop or your mobile phone. My advice to all you Facebook users out there - Think twice before you add certain applications like “what is your biggest turn on” and “hot or not: find the hottest hotties on Facebook” to your profile, because you just don’t know who is looking. A friend could see your “which dictator are you” application and become really offended. Or, the one browsing your profile could be your Mom or Dad, your son or daughter, or even (gasp) your boss.

I’m a big fan of new video service, Animoto (http://animoto.com) – an online video application that lets users create their own professionally produced videos using photos and music, masterfully combined by Animoto to produce a unique piece of art. Leveraging Animoto’s own patent-pending technology and high-end motion design, each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Produced in a widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer. And because they are completely personalized, the impact is even more inspiring.

Upload photos – select music – out comes your own music video!

Animoto Productions was formed by a group of techies and film/tv producers - including veterans of the entertainment industry that have produced shows for MTV, Comedy Central and ABC.

At the heart of Animoto is its “Cinematic Artificial Intelligence” technology that “thinks like an actual director and editor.” It basically analyzes and combines user-selected images and music with the same sophisticated post-production skills & techniques that are used in television and film. And while I fancy myself a creative photographer – this service blows away my abilities when it comes to compiling the photos and organizing them to music. Not to mention – it’s totally automated (in other words – there is very little room for user error).

I tried out the service earlier this year by creating a video short using some photos of my oldest son’s 9th birthday party. His party had a Hollywood theme, complete with red carpet and the party guests dressed to the nines, so the photos were perfect for a slick video slideshow. I uploaded a dozen pictures, selected a rockin’ tune from the Animoto library, and BAM! — Animoto’s video engine analyzed the photos, set them to music, and spit out a professional looking video featuring my photos. My son thought I was a technology genius when I showed him the finished result. His exact quote was, “Dude. That rocks. I’m a movie star.” You can check out that video sample here: http://animoto.com/play/c6eb0f8f69ecf2974f2816cb938efee5

This week I revisited the service to create this video from some of the photos of the MoPR mini-offsite at the Spa at Caesars’ Palace in Las Vegas during CTIA 2008. Check it out here: http://animoto.com/play/E4CuI0xBOvJYW560oRIcWw

Part of what’s fun with Animoto is seeing how it produces fully-customized videos depending on what music you choose. They give you the choice of pulling songs from your personal music library or using one of the songs from their library – so the options are unlimited. Try a mellow song. Then remix your video using a more upbeat song. You’ll get two very different productions. In my personal tests of the service I did find that I preferred the use of horizontal photos to vertically-oriented photos. Given the widescreen format, the horizontal pictures just look better.

If creating the professional looking video with so little user effort isn’t impressive enough on its own, Animoto takes it a step further, allowing users to post the videos to a number of social networking sites, YouTube or even their own blogs or websites using the provided code and simple instructions.

Posting your new video to Facebook from the Animoto site is literally two clicks. And speaking of Facebook, Animoto has a neat Facebook application you can download from the link at the bottom of their homepage: www.Animoto.com, or from inside Facebook in the video application section. With the Animoto Facebook app you can automatically create videos from the photos you have saved in your Facebook albums. The Facebook application has all of the same functionality that you have from the Animoto site, so for those of you who are managing your photos and sharing them using Facebook, this is a great solution for you.

I noticed this week that Animoto is presenting at one of MoPR’s favorite conferences – Under the Radar. Animoto will be participating in Under the Radar’s Social Media and Entertainment themed event June 3rd in Mountain View, CA. I’m going to stick my neck out with a prediction that Animoto wins one of the coveted judges’ choice or audience choice awards at the event (perhaps even both). I know if I was in the voting audience, they would have a very strong chance of getting my vote. The other companies in their category best bring their A-Game!

I think there is a natural progression for the Animoto application to move to the mobile platform; especially with the prevalence of mobile phones with high-quality cameras. I would love to see the company work with Apple to add the app to the iPhone platform. Imagine taking pictures with the iPhone camera, then having the option in the ‘save as’ list to tag the photos for Animoto video creation. Then from the iPhone screen you could open Animoto, select which pictures you wanted included in your new video, pick a song from your iTunes library on your phone, name it, and hit “create my video.” Your videos could be stored on the iPhone, sent automatically to your blog and/or social networking profile pages, or emailed to friends to share.

With the popularity of user generated content sites soaring, Animoto should look to partner with some of the video sites and popular events to showcase user created videos made up of user photos from a particular event. For example, conferences could offer a page showing all of the videos created by users with conference photos. High schools and colleges could add pages to their websites with videos created by students, and sports teams could show off their talents by showcasing collections of videos made up of action shots of athletes in motion promoting the team.

Animoto’s software works flawlessly, is ultra simple to use, and provides real value. The free service is perfect for the casual user and the professional service – which lets you create unlimited full-length videos that you can download and save to your own computer – is a bargain and worth every cent of the $30 annual fee.

BONUS: If you are ready to give the service a try for yourself, here is a special reader discount code that will save you $5 off of the annual service fee: klyrtgvh

Full disclosure, James Wanless is president and COO of MoPR client Talkster, and he’s a friend. But bias aside, he still posted a very interesting piece today about the “revolution” coming in communications.

James points out that the current view of communications is based on silos. For example, most people maintain separate accounts for phone, email and instant messenging (and may have separate accounts for each of these for home and work). This siloed approach means that people maintain a distinct contact list for each service. Even though we can synch and import contacts, the systems are distinct.

This approach is about to be shattered by the needs and desires of a new generation of people who are literally being weened on social networks. James is not talking about Facebook and MySpace users (although they matter a great deal too). James is referring to people like my daughters, who years before they could write their name or had any phone etiquette were meeting their friends and making new ones on Club Penguin. Club Penguin is a social network for kids, and despite it’s video game-like appearance has many of the same attributes of the more grown-up social networks like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.

James asserts that as these children become adults, their expectation of communications will change, forcing the communications platforms to likewise change. In the end what we will have is not a siloed series of communications services, but a singular platform that integrates everything we use and creates portability. Instead of using Outlook we’ll use Facebook. And Facebook will be on our mobile phone too. We’ll use Facebook (or MySpace or LinkedIn or Ning, etc.) as our conduit to communication.

Once that happens, instead of looking up a person, deciding whether to call, email or text, and then establishing the communication, we’ll simply open our friends list, click on a face and voila — we’re connected in the most convenient fashion for both parties. In this environment you have greater control on who and how you are contacted. Business contacts are able to reach you at certain times on certain devices whereas friends and family may have a different set of times and methods. You would no longer need to give out phone numbers, email addresses, etc (although you would probably still maintain them). Thus you would have a better ability to maintain your privacy while at the same time still be very public with your profile. And if you need to change any of this information, you simply update your profile and that information is updated for everyone, much like how Plaxo is building their service.

After walking the floor at CTIA with James and discussing this very subject, I think he is completely accurate. It’s an exciting development, and it’s surprising to me that the social networking Goliaths have not been more vocal about such a change. I am certain that the folks building Microsoft’s next version of Exchange are thinking about it.

One added benefit James didn’t discuss — this could spell an end to telemarketing! And for that reason alone, more resource should be devoted to making this change happen.

Oh yeah, and a sidebar note: I would be remiss in my role as a member of Talkster’s PR team if I didn’t point out that Talkster can already enable this revolution today with their communications platform.

Read James’ post “Giving Voice to the Social Revolution” at the Talkster Blog.