NYT Servicio "Zoombak". La versión "criolla"; -MapFront-Triplog-, se consigue en el Showroom DePapaya/Geinsys SuperOutlet La80.............

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY/ State of the Art. Zoombak Tracks Your Dog, Your Car, Even Your Children By DAVID POGUE Published: April 22, 2009 Stuart Goldenberg You have to wonder if anyone in Hollywood has ever actually seen a computer. Here we are, 30 years into the PC revolution, and computers in the movies still do all kinds of unrealistic things. Text chatters as it spills across the screen. A wrong password produces a blinking ACCESS DENIED message. Confident technicians, when told to "enhance" a security-camera freeze-frame, somehow manage to zoom into a 640-by-480-pixel image about 50 times. And then there are those tracking dots, those tiny self-adhesive (or skin-implanted) buttons that spies use to follow their targets across the globe. They're such a common plot device, it seems downright unfair that they don't actually exist. Actually, their great-grandparents do. There is such a thing as a GPS-based locator. Today's consumer models aren't quite as small as those "Mission: Impossible" dots, but otherwise perform the same function. And you don't need a beeping hand-held receiver to track the transmitter, either; a Web browser will do the trick. Most of these gadgets cost about $500, $50 a month in service charges and a couple of bucks every time you request a location fix. Trucking companies use them, for example, to manage their fleets. But a company called Zoombak has come up with an interesting, consumer-friendly twist: make a transmitter the size of a 1980s pager, price it at $100 and charge $15 a month for unlimited tracking. (The service price drops even more if you pay in advance, and there's currently a two-months-free promotion.) Zoombak is small enough to attach to a dog's collar. Now, Zoombak won't get rich catering only to spies; after all, if the movies are any indication, another dozen spies seem to die off during every single mission. Instead, the company suggests that you can install its locator on things like your car (in case it's stolen), your pet's collar, your child's backpack, your older relative's glove compartment, your luggage or the lawn equipment that you lend to your low-life neighbor. The company daintily avoids mentioning the screamingly obvious, and much more controversial, uses for the Zoombak: secretly tracking the movements of your spouse, children or employees. The Zoombak can certainly be used this way — it works even when it's hidden inside a glove compartment. But you might blow your cover when you retrieve it for charging every three or four days. And you'll have a lot of explaining to do if your subject discovers the thing. All right then. Suppose you have no ethical qualms, or at least you've managed to squelch them. Here's how it works. The transmitter itself is 2.9 by 1.7 by 0.8 inches, 2.5 ounces, ruggedly built with a waterproof cover for the charging jack (clearly a nod to nomadic-dog applications). It has a single rubber on-off button — you hold it down for several seconds — and a single blinking green indicator light. (It's so small, in fact, that I actually managed to lose the first unit that Zoombak sent me for review; the battery died before I noticed. To lose a tracking device... how embarrassing is that?) At Zoombak.com, you can have all kinds of fun. You can click Find Now to see where the transmitter is at the moment, accurate to within a few yards and displayed on a Microsoft Earth map. Frankly, the map is too small — you have to do a good deal of zooming and panning to figure out what you're looking at — but at least it gives you a choice of road map, satellite view or aerial view (photos taken by airplanes from different angles of the same spot). You can also look at a bread crumb trail of where your locator has been recently, although this information is generally sent to the Web site only once every four hours. (Alternatively, you can turn on "continuous" mode, which generates five-minute bread crumbs in an hourlong burst.) Successive location reports are indicated by pushpins on the map, cleverly filled by fainter colors as they age. You can also set up the Zoombak to notify you, by text message or e-mail, when someone tries to turn the thing off, or when the battery dies. Most intriguingly, you can define up to five "safety zones": addresses or other points with a radius that you specify. You might define a 200-yard circle as OurHome and a two-mile region as CollegeCampus. Zoombak can be set up to alert you automatically when it has left a preset "safety zone." Once you've done that, you can set up automatic, free alerts for those locations. When your trackee enters or leaves one of these zones, you get a text message, an e-mail message or both saying, for example, "Chris has arrived at IrresponsibleFriendsHouse." You can also ping the Zoombak at any time from your cellphone, once you've registered that phone on the Web site. You may feel as if you're doing your taxes all over again — you have to type out your password, a comma, a space and then its name ("1823, Spybot7" or whatever). But in seconds, you get a text message that says something like, "Your Zoombak locator Spybot7 is currently located near 500 West 57th St, New York, NY." It's creepy good. When all of this works, it's awesome. As long as your wily subject doesn't toss the Zoombak into the back of a passing truck, à la "The DaVinci Code," you're getting pure peace of mind for $15 a month. So why wouldn't it work? Why are the customer reviews on Amazon all over the map? First, Zoombak's price, features and reliability have come a long way since its debut a year and a half ago. It used to cost $200, not $100, and there were plenty of technical glitches and missing features at the outset. (There's also a pet version, also $100, which includes a Velcro pouch to attach it to the pooch's collar, and a car-kit version, $150, that includes a cigarette lighter cord as well as a hard-wired trunk-installation kit.) Second, that safety-zone alert system depends on the Zoombak's 15-minute ping schedule. If your dog runs into a zone and then runs out again within 15 minutes, you won't even know it happened. This also means that whoever kidnaps your child or hot-wires your car has at least a 15-minute head start. Finally, and most important, once Zoombak determines its location using GPS, it transmits that information to you using the cellular network. Unfortunately, it's T-Mobile's. As you probably know, T-Mobile's American coverage is not, ahem, blanketlike; huge swaths of this country out West, and far too many smaller swaths everywhere else, have no signal at all. In those areas, the Zoombak falls into radio silence — useless. If I were a car thief or dognapper, I'd set up shop in Montana. That's the biggest downside, but it's not the only one. For example, although the Zoombak has a 30-day guarantee, you can never change its account information. When old Rover finally arrives at the big kennel in the sky, your Zoombak can't protect another family's deserving critter. The Web site needs a lot of design help, too — should you click Save or Finish? Locator or Tracking? — and it's incompatible with the Safari Web browser. There have been plenty of complaints online about Zoombak's Costa Rica-based tech support department, too, although Zoombak swears that that's improved recently, and at least it's available 24 hours a day, toll-free. For some people, there's a certain flakiness to those e-mail and text-message alerts, too. So who knew? There really is such a thing as compact tracking devices, just like the ones in the spy movies. This one is nicely priced, well built and, fortunately, undergoing constant refinement. Even so, Hollywood still has a ways to go before it attains accuracy in its depiction of real-world technology. Just once, I'd like to see the hero of "Mission: Impossible" lose the villain's trail, swat his forehead and mutter, "Dang that T-Mobile network!" To see the VIDEO click here or over image. Go to Pogue´s Posts. E-mail: pogue@nytimes.com. Abrir articulo en el Sitio Web del NYT Copyright by the New York Times 2008

COPYRIGHT © 2007 DePapaya.com Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission is prohibited. All rights reserved.

El ipod va a la guerra.

Published Apr 18, 2009 From the magazine issue dated Apr 27, 2009 Apple's New Weapon By Benjamin Sutherland | NEWSWEEK TECHTONIC SHIFTS To help soldiers make sense of data from drones, satellites and ground sensors, the U.S. military now issues the iPod Touch. Tying the hands of a person who is speaking, the Arab proverb goes, is akin to "tying his tongue." Western soldiers in Iraq know how important gestures can be when communicating with locals. To close, open and close a fist means "light," but just opening a fist means "bomb." One soldier recently home from Iraq once tried to order an Iraqi man to lie down. To get his point across, the soldier had to demonstrate by stretching out in the dirt. Translation software could help, but what's the best way to make it available in the field? The U.S. military in the past would give a soldier an electronic handheld device, made at great expense specially for the battlefield, with the latest software. But translation is only one of many software applications soldiers now need. The future of "networked warfare" requires each soldier to be linked electronically to other troops as well as to weapons systems and intelligence sources. Making sense of the reams of data from satellites, drones and ground sensors cries out for a handheld device that is both versatile and easy to use. With their intuitive interfaces, Apple devices—the iPod Touch and, to a lesser extent, the iPhone—are becoming the handhelds of choice. Using a commercial product for such a crucial military role is a break from the past. Compared with devices built to military specifications, iPods are cheap. Apple, after all, has already done the research and manufacturing without taxpayer money. The iPod Touch retails for under $230, whereas a device made specifically for the military can cost far more. (The iPhone offers more functionality than the iPod Touch, but at $600 or $700 each, is much more expensive.) Typically sheathed in protective casing, iPods have proved rugged enough for military life. And according to an Army official in Baghdad, the devices have yet to be successfully hacked. (The Pentagon won't say how many Apple devices are deployed, and Apple Computer declined to be interviewed for this article.) The iPod also fulfills the U.S. military's need to equip soldiers with a single device that can perform many different tasks. Apple's online App Store offers more than 25,000 (and counting) applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which shares the iPhone's touchscreen. As the elegantly simple iPods—often controlled with a single thumb—acquire more functionality, soldiers can shed other gadgets. An iPod "may be all that they need," says Lt. Col. Jim Ross, director of the Army's intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors operations in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Apple ipod-touch The iPod isn't the only multifunction handheld on the market, but among soldiers it's the most popular. Since most recruits have used one—and many already own one—it's that much easier to train them to prepare and upload new content. Users can add phrases to language software, annotate maps and link text or voice recordings to photos ("Have you seen this man?"). Apple devices make it easy to shoot, store and play video. Consider the impact of showing villagers a video message of a relaxed and respected local leader encouraging them to help root out insurgents. Since sharing data is particularly important in counterinsurgency operations, the Pentagon is funding technology that makes it easier for the soldier on the ground to acquire information and quickly add it to databases. Next Wave Systems in Indiana, is expected to release iPhone software that would enable a soldier to snap a picture of a street sign and, in a few moments, receive intelligence uploaded by other soldiers (the information would be linked by the words on the street sign). This could include information about local water quality or the name and photograph of a local insurgent sympathizer. The U.S. Marine Corps is funding an application for Apple devices that would allow soldiers to upload photographs of detained suspects, along with written reports, into a biometric database. The software could match faces, making it easier to track suspects after they're released. Apple gadgets are proving to be surprisingly versatile. Software developers and the U.S. Department of Defense are developing military software for iPods that enables soldiers to display aerial video from drones and have teleconferences with intelligence agents halfway across the globe. Snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan now use a "ballistics calculator" called BulletFlight, made by the Florida firm Knight's Armament for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Army researchers are developing applications to turn an iPod into a remote control for a bomb-disposal robot (tilting the iPod steers the robot). In Sudan, American military observers are using iPods to learn the appropriate etiquette for interacting with tribal leaders. Translation is another important area. A new program, Vcommunicator, is now being issued to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It produces spoken and written translations of Arabic, Kurdish and two Afghan languages. It also shows animated graphics of accompanying gestures and body language, and displays pictures of garments, weapons and other objects. Procurement officials are making a "tremendous push" to develop and field militarily useful Apple devices, says Ernie Bright, operations manager of Vcom3D, the Florida firm that developed the software. The iPod has already transformed the way we listen to music. Now it's taking on war. © 2009 Open Article at Newsweek´s WebSite. About Newsweek, Inc. Contact Us User Agreement Privacy Policy Rights and Reprint Sales. © 2009 Newsweek, Inc.

GPS en el móvil. ( GR3 con Internet)

GPS en el móvil Por ANTONIO DELGADO Fecha de publicación: 28 de marzo de 2008 La tecnología GPS y la telefonía móvil se unen para ofrecer a los usuarios información geolocalizada, guías de viaje y rutas recomendadas Programas de mapas digitales como TomTom o Route disponen en sus últimas versiones de una opción de navegación en 'modo peatón' Una pizzería en Lekeitio, la farmacia más próxima al cruce de la calle 115 con Broadway, la zona de tapas en Burgos... Guiar al usuario hacia su destino no está sólo en manos de los GPS para automóviles. Los nuevos teléfonos móviles comienzan a incluir navegadores con información útil. Su objetivo es situar las necesidades del usuario itinerante en un punto concreto del mapa. Después de la inclusión en los móviles del reproductor de MP3 y la cámara de fotos digital, contar con un navegador GPS es el siguiente movimiento de los fabricantes de cara a completar los servicios que ofrecen al usuario. Los expertos del sector esperan que durante 2008 más de un 10% de los móviles vendidos incorporen esta funcionalidad. - Imagen: Shinyai - Por el momento, la tecnología GPS es utilizada mayoritariamente en vehículos a motor y en actividades al aire libre. Sin embargo, con la incorporación de los navegadores GPS a los teléfonos móviles de gama media, se espera que las ventas de estos dispositivos superen en pocos años las de los actuales dispositivos, fabricados por marcas como TomTom o Garmin. El motivo es que los móviles con GPS pueden hacer las veces de navegadores para autos. Por su parte, los GPS para automóviles también pueden ser utilizados por los peatones. Los programas de mapas digitales como TomTom, Route, Destinator, Igo y otros, disponen en sus últimas versiones de una opción de navegación en 'modo peatón'. Este modo de utilización está pensado para un usuario que camina por la acera y, por consiguiente, no tiene en cuenta el sentido de la dirección del tráfico ni las rutas más cortas para llegar al destino. Pero tampoco es la panacea, pues en muchas de estas versiones de mapas no aparecen vías públicas de uso frecuente para el caminante como las rutas en los parques, las plazas y los jardines. - - Imagen: Phil Campbell - Modelos pioneros con GPS Nokia ya ha presentado su solución para móviles con GPS destinado a los peatones. La denominada 'Nokia Maps 2.0'. Aunque la gama alta del fabricante finlandés ya cuenta con dispositivos móviles con GPS, como el Nokia N95, el primer móvil en utilizar todo el potencial de este nuevo software de navegación es el Nokia 6120. Este aparato se basa en la combinación de una brújula interna, el sistema GPS y la triangulación mediante las antenas GSM de los operadores de telefonía móvil para geolocalizar un punto. Según Nokia, el 6120 es capaz de orientar al usuario por cualquier ciudad y grabar sus pasos por si se pierde. Esta aplicación incluye información multimedia sobre ciudades a modo de guías de viaje, que en principio es gratuita. Otros fabricantes, como Sony Ericsson, también están ofreciendo soluciones de GPS para peatones. El año pasado esta empresa presentó el teléfono móvil P1i, que utiliza el navegador Wayfinder, un sistema GPS guiado por voz. - Imagen: Jordi Sabaté - Búsquedas geolocalizadas En los aparatos de la gama más selecta, como son los Blackberry o el Nokia N95 con GPS, se pueden incluso encontrar los locales con los servicios requeridos más cercanos al usuario. Ésta es una de las grandes posibilidades que ofrece disponer de un aparato con conexión a Internet y GPS a la vez. El usuario puede apoyarse tanto en sitios tipo Google Maps como en su ubicación exacta (que le proporciona el navegador GPS) para localizar aquello que precisa lo más cerca posible. De hecho, el sistema de mapas online de Google dispone de una versión específica para móviles. Y no sólo los teléfonos móviles están preparados para incorporar un navegador GPS. Después de su presentación en Japón, Sony ha traído a Europa 'Go!Explorer', el nuevo navegador GPS para la consola de juegos PSP. Mediante Go!Explorer se podrán encontrar puntos de interés en una determinada zona, itinerarios predefinidos, configuración de lugares favoritos con rutas personalizables, etc. Está pensado tanto para peatones como para vehículos. Go!Explorer y el disco UMD con los mapas están disponibles por un precio de 119 euros. Nuremberg, la primera ciudad GPS En estos momentos se está probando en la ciudad alemana de Nuremberg un proyecto piloto de geolocalización ciudadana, llevado a cabo por el Instituto Fraunhofer de Circuitos Integrados (IIS). La novedad del sistema utilizado para geoposicionar a los peatones está en que no utiliza los satélites GPS, sino que realiza una triangulación de la posición a través de una conexión inalámbrica a la red local. La ventaja de este sistema, según sus promotores, radica en que en zonas como calles estrechas, el interior de edificios o estaciones de transporte público el sistema funciona. Son las llamadas 'zonas de sombra', aquéllas donde los GPS no llegan. Para este proyecto, se han creado 2000 puntos de emisión por kilómetro cuadrado, lo que permite una exactitud de tres metros de media en el interior de los edificios, y de siete a diez metros al aire libre.

Abrir artículo en elSitio Web de Erosky.

Abrir Sitio Web de EROSKI en el Browser. Información de Copyright y aviso legal © Fundación EROSKI

Abrir Sitio Web de DePapaya en el Browser. COPYRIGHT © 2008 DePapaya.com All rights reserved.

Los navegadores GPS miran a Internet

Los navegadores GPS miran a Internet Autor: Por ANTONIO DELGADO/JORDI SABATÉ Fecha de publicación: 23 de mayo de 2008 Los fabricantes de GPS de automóviles comienzan a añadir conexión a la Red en sus aparatos para mostrar información, vídeos y mapas en tiempo real. Sus funcionalidades adicionales están convirtiendo al GPS en el aparato favorito para unificar las diferentes tecnologías de geolocalización, búsquedas y servicios "online" mientras se conduce. Con la conexión a Internet de modo permanente los navegadores pueden ofrecer mucha más información de manera actualizada y en tiempo real La integración en los navegadores GPS de una conexión permanente a Internet, mediante las tecnologías 3G y wifi, abre la puerta para que estos dispositivos puedan convertirse a la larga en el sistema centralizador de la conducción de los vehículos. De momento ya existen modelos capaces de dar información del tráfico en tiempo real, sintonizar emisoras de radio e incluso ofrecer diversos canales de televisión en directo. Los navegadores GPS son uno de los dispositivos que mayor aceptación han tenido en los últimos años entre los conductores. Se han convertido en un acompañante imprescindible para aquellas personas que realizan rutas turísticas por zonas que no conocen o bien transitan por grandes urbes. También son muy útiles para los profesionales del transporte por carretera. Uno de los factores que más ha jugado a su favor es que su precio ha ido bajando con el tiempo. Actualmente es posible encontrar en el mercado ofertas de navegadores GPS para vehículos por 300 euros. Más allá de la guía de ruta Sin embargo, los fabricantes de estos dispositivos quieren ir más allá de la simple guía de ruta. Poco a poco, van incorporando a los nuevos modelos funcionalidades adicionales que los están convirtiendo en el aparato favorito entre los conductores para unificar las diferentes tecnologías de geolocalización, búsquedas y servicios "online". Hasta ahora, los GPS se han limitado a ser los aparatos encargados de ofrecer la mejor ruta para un destino concreto junto a otros datos de importancia, como la posición de los radares fijos de las carreteras o los lugares de interés, así como las recomendaciones de posibles sitios de ocio. Pero con la conexión a Internet de modo permanente, los navegadores pueden pasar a ofrecer mucha más información y servicios, con el añadido de hacerlo de manera actualizada y en tiempo real. Datos relativos al tráfico o la climatología pueden ser muy útiles para modificar una ruta a tiempo, o para estar prevenido ante cualquier tipo de incidencia en la carretera. Pronto el conductor no sólo podrá saber dónde está la gasolinera más próxima; también podrá conocer en tiempo real el precio del combustible que va a cargar. Esto le permitirá escoger la alternativa más económica entre las varias estaciones que se encuentre en su ruta. Si a esto se le unen las ventajas de la Web 2.0, donde la información es generada por las redes sociales, resulta posible conocer datos sobre las mejores rutas, los mejores sitios donde descansar o los servicios a mejor precio de un modo más fiable e independiente, ya que se tratará de una información contrastada por la experiencia real de otros usuarios. Dash NAVTEQ Traffic navigator El navegador Dash Pronto el conductor no sólo podrá saber dónde está la gasolinera más próxima; también podrá conocer en tiempo real el precio del combustible que va a cargar De momento, en Estados Unidos está a la venta el navegador GPS Dash. Este dispositivo incorpora conectividad a Internet mediante wifi y GPRS, un canal de transmisión de datos utilizado normalmente en la telefonía móvil. Gracias a esta conexión permanente, el GPS Dash puede recibir información y al mismo tiempo enviarla a otros dispositivos del mismo modelo, indicando de forma anónima la posición y velocidad del automóvil. De esta manera se puede conocer en tiempo real la situación de la red de carreteras que se recorre, y así tener noticia de posibles incidentes o de la densidad del tráfico. Estos datos inmediatos muy posiblemente no sean conocidos por las fuentes oficiales y proveedores externos de información. El dispositivo tiene una pantalla táctil de 4,3 pulgadas con una resolución de 480 x 272 píxeles. Su autonomía, con las funciones de red activadas, es de dos horas, no obstante se recarga fácilmente desde el conector estándar del mechero del coche. Su precio es de 400 dólares más una cuota mensual de 13 dólares por la tarifa plana de conexión a Internet. Para el acceso a la información de mapas y rutas, Dash se conecta al proveedor de mapas Tele Atlas y a Yahoo! También utiliza el proveedor Inrix para conocer la información del tráfico. Respecto a otros servicios, desde la empresa fabricante aseguran que pronto será posible saber los precios del combustible que ofrece el portal Opisnet. También se puede recibir la información de otros proveedores de información de ocio como carteleras de cines, guías de restaurantes, etc. Tom Tom ONE Classic Regional Integración con Google Maps Google está trabajando para integrar su servicio de localización geográfica web Google Maps dentro de ciertos dispositivos especiales por su elevada movilidad, entre ellos los navegadores GPS. La integración de Google Maps con GPS destinados a vehículos haría posible mostrar negocios, restaurantes, comercios y todo tipo de servicios en la pantalla del navegador, al mismo tiempo que sería fácil exhibir publicidad "geocontextualizada", es decir relacionada con la posición de los usuarios. Uno de los cometidos más útiles de Google Maps es la información del tráfico en tiempo real que ofrece en las ciudades más importantes de Estados Unidos. Además, gracias al análisis de los datos recopilados a lo largo del tiempo, Google ya muestra la predicción del estado del tráfico a cualquier hora del día para cada una de estas ciudades, haciendo una estimación de qué ocurrió a esa misma hora en semanas y días anteriores. Fruto de la colaboración con otras empresas, Google trabaja para ofrecer el servicio de Google Maps a algunos navegadores GPS de vehículo. Así es posible enviar direcciones a Google Maps desde el GPS instalado en los coches de la marca BMW. Actualmente un dispositivo GPS de la marca TomTom ofrece esta misma posibilidad a través de la conexión TomTom HOME, un software para actualizar y personalizar el navegador. Otras de las empresas que también empezará a ofrecer este servicio es el fabricante de GPS Garmin. GPS Garmin Nuvi 860, GPS con Reconocimiento de voz La televisión móvil llega al GPS El GPS Nüvi 900T de Garmin se dotará a partir de ahora de un receptor de datos que le permitirá reproducir televisión en directo El dispositivo de navegación GPS Nüvi 900T de Garmin se dotará a partir de ahora de un receptor de datos por el protocolo DVB-H, lo que le permitirá reproducir televisión en directo de los distintos canales y cadenas que emitan en la zona donde se encuentre el usuario. De facto, esta cualidad convierte al dispositivo en mucho más que un navegador GPS, en la línea que aseguran los analistas que seguirán estos dispositivos, como pequeños ordenadores de automóvil. Podrá, además de ofrecer las rutas, captar la señal de televisión para los ocupantes del automóvil, así como ofrecer futuros canales de información sobre el área que está recorriendo el navegador. El protocolo DVB-H es una adaptación a los dispositivos móviles similar al que se ha diseñado para la televisión digital terrestre, que recientemente recibió el apoyo de la Comisión Europea. Su intención es posibilitar la recepción de la señal de televisión tanto en los teléfonos móviles como en otros dispositivos de pequeño formato. Está en plena instauración en Europa y es diferente del protocolo que se utiliza en Japón ("one-seg").

Abrir artículo en elSitio Web de Erosky.

Abrir Sitio Web de EROSKI en el Browser. Información de Copyright y aviso legal © Fundación EROSKI

Abrir Sitio Web de DePapaya en el Browser. COPYRIGHT © 2008 DePapaya.com All rights reserved.

Twitter: A Marketer's Duct Tape

12:20 PM Thursday April 9, 2009 Twitter: A Marketer's Duct Tape John Sviokla The Near Futurist

Duct tape is universally useful because it is incredibly simple, almost infinitely flexible, easily available, and cheap. Twitter shares all these attributes. Just like duct tape can be used to repair a chair or make an artificial flower, twitter is a means of communication that can be layered over anything and everything, By now, most of us are familiar with Twitter and its 140-character long tweets. Anyone can use the web and their phone to both send and receive tweets for free. It enables people to send messages directly to one person, groups to self-form, or to send a tweet to everyone who follows you. While some people only follow a few dozen compatriots, Guy Kawasaki follows over 100,000 people and has almost 100,000 followers, as well as creating (with some help) over 28,000 tweets. As a pundit, Guy is using Twitter to build an ongoing audience. By way of comparison, the Boston Globe had a circulation in 2008 of about 350,000 — which is falling at a rate of 8-9% per year. But Twitter can do so much more. As Chris pointed out on his blog, the range of applications is spectacular, from providing truly instant online commentary for any off-line event, to the visualization of Super Bowl tweets developed by the New York Times, to Pepsi's integration of Twitter with geographic information at the spectacularly popular South by Southwest festival, to Whole Foods tweeting recipes. Almost every major media outlet is tweeting, the Apple App Store has over 100 Twitter applications, and there are over 100 other free tools that have already bubbled up. How did this seemingly trivial application created in two weeks by Jack Dorsey back in March 2006 as a way for him to know what his friends were doing grow into this global phenomenon? We think it is because of three critical things: first, the design. Twitter's design is simple, modular, scalable and cross-platform. Instant messaging used to be a youth-dominated phenomenon, but just walk into any business meeting and think about how similar tweeting is to BlackBerry-ing. As social animals, we humans are addicted to communication and understanding how our social group is acting and thinking. In business this is very practical — and in social settings, it is very entertaining. Second, Twitter has an open technical architecture. As Chris has pointed out, it is an example of an application that sits "in the cloud" and is available everywhere. The interfaces to the capability are simple and well defined in their Applications Programming Interface (API), which makes it easy to plug into their messaging capability. Third, and perhaps most importantly, it is very easy for people to join, and to self-organize around topics, companies, individuals, and events. In this sense it is an incredibly "democratic" medium — with all the control at the ends of the network. Our Diamond Fellow David Reed wrote in the Harvard Business Review many years ago about the power of self-forming networks, so potent because of their innate flexibility. Of course there are Twitter doubters, and everything goes through a hype cycle — but the idea of self-organized, peer-to-peer, persistent communication, at almost zero cost, is powerful for coordination and communication alike. Twitter is (and can become) so many things, that we suggest three questions for marketers to think about — but they are only a start: What are people saying about my brand? There are many tools that can help you track how people are talking about your company, customer complaints, or other issues your customers are thinking about. How can I connect and build a direct communication between my firm and all the customers who want to follow our tweets — on their phone, computer, or other device? There is no downside, as long as you put thoughtful effort behind the initiative. What capabilities should my firm have so that we can use the right tools to track topics and conversations being tweeted about in my industry, product or service area, and target market? We believe — as other pundits have pointed out — that this current iteration of the internet is becoming increasingly real-time, populated by many mini-applications like Twitter that we'll be able to cobble together to create functionality. Marketing and sales have always been about communication, references, and word of mouth, and Twitter turbo-charges that age-old human activity. We believe that the new "links" that Twitter creates with its tweets, among and between people and groups, will someday be mined for superior search and attention management — just the way Google uses page links to power its search algorithm today. It is only a matter of time before Google or Microsoft buys Twitter and integrates the functionality into their platform, and tweeting becomes part of how every company communicates and markets. Starting now will give you a jump on your competition. Chris Curran co-authored this post. For an opposing view, see Tom Davenport's post, "Is Twitter for Serious Marketers?"

Abrir artículo en el Sitio Web de Harvard Publishing. Copyright © 2009 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. Permissions Privacy Policy Copyright Information Trademark Policy Terms and Conditions

Abrir Sitio Web de DePapaya en el Browser. COPYRIGHT © 2008 DePapaya.com All rights reserved.

The Next Big Thing for Marketers?

11:38 AM Thursday April 9, 2009 Twitter for Serious Marketers? Tom Davenport The Next Big Thing for Marketers?

A few months ago I was speaking at a marketing conference, and after I spoke on marketing analytics, there was a panel on social media. Larry Weber, who started and then sold a very successful PR firm (and who is on Babson's Board of Trustees), was asked whether there was a role for analytics in social media. "Frankly, I'm tired of analytics," he said. "I got into social media in part to get away from analytics." Well, honesty is good, but I didn't see then — and don't now — how you can do serious marketing through any medium without metrics and analysis. Twitter and other social media may be fun, but are they really serious marketing tools? I thought of this again recently while grading some of my MBA students' papers about an IT strategy for Welch's, the grape juice people. A couple of the student groups suggested that Welch's should embark upon a Twitter initiative. Okay, they get a point or two for being au courant. And to the students' credit, most suggested that it was a low-risk, low-return marketing approach. Still, I couldn't imagine which customers would decide to follow Welch's tweets about its grape juice and other associated products. The busy moms who form Welch's core customers? I don't think so. Do serious marketers spend a lot of time and energy on Twitter campaigns? I doubt it. Sure, go ahead and play around with it — it doesn't cost much. But I defy you to do serious brand management in 140-character messages. I defy you to prove that Twitter users are your typical customer — unless you sell bubble tea or something similar — or that their tweets are a true reflection of their relationship with your company. Let's face it — Twitter is a fad. It has all the attributes of a fad, including the one that people like me don't get its appeal. It has risen quickly and it will fall quickly. It's this year's Second Life — which, you may have noticed, nobody is talking much about anymore. One Daily Telegraph article that did talk about it noted, "While the site is still beloved by geeks and the socially awkward, Deloitte's director of technology research, Paul Lee, says it has been "virtually abandoned" by "normal" people and businesses." Ouch! I had a conversation with an influential business editor the other day that confirmed some of my predilections about Twitter. He said he was "unfollowing" (defollowing?) those who tweet a lot — "It's just become a burden to read them," he said. I, who issue nary a tweet, am clearly sitting in the catbird seat. You have to wonder about a technology when those who use it aggressively are shunned. I'm not as negative about the business and marketing potential of some other social media. For example, because Facebook and MySpace offer the promise of monetizing social networks — though they haven't done so yet, to my mind — they are not to be easily dismissed. And wikis clearly have some value, or Wikipedia wouldn't be so useful. Yet I haven't seen too many wiki success stories within firms, and the ones that do have value don't involve marketing. One smart knowledge manager, Sukumar Rajagopal at Cognizant, told me that he thought successful wikis within companies required that participants in them have strong network ties, and that's not always easy to orchestrate. Another pharma executive who had experimented with them suggested that they require substantial human curation (facilitation and editing) to be successful — which, come to think of it, Wikipedia does too. One conclusion I've come to is that we should unbundle the concept of "social media," because some of its components are much more useful than others in a business and marketing context. Facebook? I suspect it faces prosperity, over time. Second Life? On life support. Twitter? In the long run, not worth a tweet. What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts, but please restrict them to more than 140 characters. For an opposing view, see John Sviokla and Chris Curran's post, "Twitter: A Marketer's Duct Tape"

Abrir artículo en el Sitio Web de Harvard Publishing. Copyright © 2009 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. Permissions Privacy Policy Copyright Information Trademark Policy Terms and Conditions

Abrir Sitio Web de DePapaya en el Browser. COPYRIGHT © 2008 DePapaya.com All rights reserved.