The Barbarian Blog

Google+ Hangouts Hackathon Update #5

Doug Pfeffer — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:08:00 -0400

We’re knee deep in code over here.

As mentioned in previous posts, I’ve written out the fundamental states of the app and their accompanying UI bits and transitions. There’s a bunch of stuff that needs to be kept track of, and how it is shared with other participants varies whether you’re a player or the host of our game.

Backbone.js has a great model change signaling system that so far has been playing nicely with the Hangouts signaling system. I was able to walk through my Backbone.js code and just swap a lot of local model.set() calls for Hangouts’ gapi.hangout.data.submitDelta().

The trick here is handling that response from Hangouts’ callback and updating the local data accordingly. I’ve wired that up to the Backbone app in a pretty straightforward manner. Behold, some lightly commented code: https://gist.github.com/2784455.

Google+ Hangouts Hackathon Update #4

Doug Pfeffer — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:37:00 -0400

Nothing major to report in Hangouts Hackathon Land. I’ve been rigging up this giant Backbone.js application to tie into the Hangouts shared state signaling system. It’s not too hard but it’s slow going. Testing is a lot of clicking. God bless the Reload App button ()—that’s a hell of a debug tool. It lets the Hangouts system reload all of my JS assets and re-initializes the state without actually having to reload the whole massive Google+ Hangouts and Gadget infrastructure.

One thing that I should sort out better than I have is synchronizing Backbone model changes with the gapi.hangout.data bits. It’s been relatively straightforward, but I can’t help but wonder if there are some tricky bits that I’m missing. Maybe not; maybe it’s just gonna be smooth sailing! Woo!

Google+ Hangouts Hackathon Update #3

Doug Pfeffer — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:28:00 -0400

It turns out that managing shared states among multiple participants, and coordinating the UI between those people, is really tricky. We knew that, but it was easier to just know it and talk about it, rather than doing it.

I’ve been banging out a big old debug interface for use during development, which lets me easily test different combinations of conditions that will reflect how our actual game will act when it’s a reality.

It’s not pretty, but this is not the pretty phase. This is the phase where I hide from designers. However, for the sake of full Hackathon disclosure, see the attached image to witness how the hot dog is made. The horror. The horror.

Social Media Hot Sheet - Week of 5/18

Earned Media — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:05:00 -0400

Here's our short list of what's hot right now in the field of Social Media. Week of 5/21/2012

Facebook IPO Tops the Headlines

Facebook Launches App Center

Viddy’s Boom Part of a Larger Trend

Tweets of the Week in Your Inbox

Google Hangouts for Fun and Profit!

Doug Pfeffer — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:21:00 -0400

We love an API around here. Instagram, Foursquare (example 1, example 2), Twitter, whatever.

So when Google Hangouts recently announced a major API update we were pretty excited. We were thinking about Making a Thing anyway and participating in this Hangouts Hackathon was just the thing to kick us into action.

It’s a two week sprint, which means we’ll be cranking away as we break in the API and build out our toy. We’re going to make a game. It’s going to look like an old, retro-style TV gameshow. We think that Hangouts will really lend itself to that kind of application, given the emphasis on group particpation and video.

Follow along we we build this thing out and share our learnings!

Talking Memes @Internet Week NYC

Earned Media — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:02:00 -0400

There’s been some great, informative panels this week at Internet Week NYC. Today our very own Kristin Maverick spoke on a panel about memes and how they impact brands. In summary, working with memes can be a very delicate tactic, because by nature, they are constantly evolving as the inside joke gets told over and over. Predicting or controlling that evolution is near impossible, and can easily end up backfiring for a brand. However, there are some clever ways to ride on the coattails of a meme without crossing into risky territory, like with the use of improv Scumbag Steve in the Pepsi Internet Taste Test.

The panel discussion was popular on Twitter, where numerous people shared their favorite quotes and some of their own perspectives.

IWNY x TBG

Lexi Peters — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:02:00 -0400

Hi Everyone,

It’s Internet Week. As always, Barbarians are participating in some excellent sessions. Check below for details and come see us!

Tomorrow, our wonderful Director of Talent, Michele Prota, along with Foursquare’s Andrew Cerda and JIBE’s Joe Essenfeld, will be participating in a 4pm workshop on how to secure a job in the land of Internet companies.

Tues 5/15, 4pm: Hiring 2.0: How to Land a Web Gig

So you want a job at a cool internet gig. How do you make it happen? Come learn from top execs at some of the coolest internet companies in New York, and learn what it takes to break through the crowd to land a sweet gig. From ways to jazz up your resumes to how to conduct a solid interview and more, this workshop has you covered.

Michele will be available to answer questions directly following the session, so stop by and say hi, we’d love to see you!

On Wednesday, Kristin Maverick (TBG Director, Earned Media, will be sitting on a fun panel with Todd Sawicki (Cheezeburger Network) and Rey Peralta, from Mother:

Wed 5/16, 1pm: It Ended up on TV: Memes and their Transition to Advertising

Social networks drive innovation in most fields, but in the age of YouTube and creativity—the Internet is a breeding ground for advertising content that sticks with its demographic. In conjunction with efficient audience and display targeting, the web acts as foundation and test ground for successful campaigns, execution, and results.

Internet Week sessions are hosted at IWNY HQ, 82 Mercer St (btwn Spring and Broome). Full schedule here, and you can purchase passes here.

Hope to see you there!

Pepsi NEXT's Internet Taste Test, The Aftermath

James Murphy — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:00:00 -0400

As we’re sure you can guess – the team has been pretty busy over the past few weeks flying out to LA, working with editors and Funny or Die to complete our latest project: Pepsi NEXT’s Internet Taste Test.

Between three shoots out in LA, endless hours editing and uploading, the team pulled together over 480 videos of our Funny or Die improv actors trying out Pepsi Next for readers like you.

We’re all finally back to normal, caught up on sleep and looking back as to how awesome this really was. We thought it’d be fun to share with you some of the results as well as some pictures and fun facts about the campaign we really loved. Enjoy!!

480: Total videos shot
160: Average number of videos shot over 3 days
4: Sound stages used at one time
237: Wigs and props used to create the characters
3 1/2: Bearded Creative Directors from TBG (We’re counting Benjamin as he was traveling)
20: Improvisors on set each day being hilarious
1500: Approximate number of Pepsi NEXT cans opened on set
1,500,000: Current views of the Rob Riggle Funny or Die video – an impressive statistic as branded content similar to this has never performed this well, earning “Immortal” status.
1: Dark Samurai caught on camera
11: Improv actors filmed without their shirts on
Top media placements who wrote about us: Mashable, ClickZ, Brandchannel, Adweek, Adrants and Huffington Post
Top influencers joined the campaign early on: Greg Clayman from The Daily, Jonah Peretti from BuzzFeed, Funny or Die CEO Dick Glover, Webby Awards President David-Michel Davies and popular entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk
Ranked among the top 10 sassiest brands in social by Mashable

Now on with our favorites:

Social Media Hot Sheet - Week of 4/30

Earned Media — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:55:00 -0400

Politics, social seating, and cloud storage fill the pages of this week's Social Media Hot Sheet, brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Earned Media team. Let us know what you think in the comments.

The Perks of Klout’s New Brand Squads

KLM's Facebook Friendly Skies

Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)

Google Drive: Triumph or Threat?

unknownskywalker: Life of Grass by Mathilde Roussel Organic...

Chris Brethel — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:49:40 -0400

unknownskywalker:

Life of Grass by Mathilde Roussel

Organic sculptures made of soil and wheat grass seeds.

March 2012 Project Update

Greg Kepler — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 22:32:58 -0400

For this month’s project, I set out to redesign this blog a bit. Well not a total redesign, but more of a facelift. I wasn’t able to get to everything that I wanted to update, but I came up with an overall updated design for the blog posts, side bar, and footer. I’ll have to [...]

Social Media Hot Sheet - Week of 4/9/12

Earned Media — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:06:00 -0400

PSFK Conference NYC

Facebook Acquires Instagram

Facebook Timeline for Brands has Officially Launched

When Content Creep is Both a Problem and a Person

Stephanie Henry — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:56:00 -0400

Last Monday, The Barbarian Group’s San Francisco offices hosted a Bay Area Content Strategy Meetup with special speakers Margot Bloomstein and Sara Wachter-Boettcher. In town for the Where Conference and to promote their new (Margot) and upcoming (Sara) books, the two bright CS mavens sipped on wine and chatted about the opportunities and consequences of content’s coming of age in the workplace.

Pepsi NEXT Launches the World's First Internet Taste Test

Jay Zasa — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:18:00 -0400

We’re super excited to announce today the launch of a project we’ve been working on with Pepsi’s newest product: Pepsi NEXT, a cola with real cola taste and 60% less sugar.

Everyone should head over to Facebook.com/PepsiNEXT to participate in the world’s first Internet Taste Test proving the product premise, “Drink It To Believe It.” By clicking through you are entered for the chance for noted LA improv actors do their best impression of you trying Pepsi NEXT for the first time, using information from your Facebook profile.

The Barbarian Group, in partnership with our friends over at Funny or Die, produced the real-time campaign that features Rob Riggle, with humorous (and sanctioned) impressions of notable pop culture figures like Internet mogul Gary Vaynerchuk, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti and a favorite internet meme here at TBG, Scumbag Steve.

The team here is so excited about this launch as it’s an example of how a big digital creative concept, rooted in social media, can launch a new brand to the masses. It’s a highly ambitious idea that, at its core, depends on spontaneous, on-set invention and large-scale video production in near real time.

We’re excited that Pepsi NEXT came on this wild ride with us.

It’s Gonna Be Awesome.

Chet Gulland

Lexi Peters — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:55:00 -0400

Happy Monday everyone!

This week kicks off with our very own Executive Director of Strategy, Chet Gulland, featured in the next edition of the Google’s fantastic ‘Think Quarterly’ magazine.

This issue focuses on creativity and technology, with some great articles by Aaron Koblin and Chris Milk, amongst others. Check out Chet giving kudos to Toyota’s Backseat Driver app in this piece, titled, Why Didn’t I think of That? And he’s in great company, with Rei Inamato, Gareth Kay, Edward Boches and Johnny Vulkan also contributing their thoughts.

Now to the second order of business, Internet Week. Our good friends over at Shelby.tv have submitted an excellent panel idea, which Chet will be a speaker on, if the panel receives enough votes. And this is where you can help! We’d love your voting power to help secure the panel on the final schedule. It’s a great topic + the content will ensure that it’s a thought-provoking session. Check it out and vote here:

The Future of TV: How Consumers and Brands Can Do Both
Join thought leaders from Shelby.tv, IPG Media Lab, Boxee, The Barbarian Group, and PSFK as they dig into the future of TV and explain how consumers can discover the most relevant videos, how brands can create more engaging content, and how creatives can get their work noticed. With the amount of content available, viewers are experiencing a growing need for entertainment curation…

Is Pinterest the next...

Kristin Maverick — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:46:00 -0400

We’ve seen a lot of discussion lately about Pinterest being the next…well, everything. It’s the next Facebook. It’s the next Iran. It’s the next…you really can name it and there’s been a discussion about it.

But what is Pinterest really? The Earned Media team here at The Barbarian Group is here to help answer that question with our newly launched site. Fill in the blank and find out for yourself at ispinterest.com

Social Media Hot Sheet - SXSWi 2012 Edition

Earned Media — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:36:00 -0400

Back at work after another successful SXSW Interactive, the Earned Media team brings you our recap on the biggest and best parts of one of the hottest conferences in the tech industry.

Branded Experience

Ad Agencies

Panel Discussions

Festival Food

Startups

Robotrip Done and Dusted

Lexi Peters — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:47:00 -0400

We’re all finally back from the SXSW trenches, what a great year!

Our party on 3/12 with co-host Tumblr went off without a hitch, with lines down the block hours before doors opening. Highlights included Mr Keith Butters hanging with Kool Keith (and well, Kool Keith hanging with pretty much everyone in the photo booth), Wavves enjoying drinks with Benjamin and the crew after their set, Matthew Dear and his entire live band, and our most epic mosh pit to date.

Overall, 2 venues, 2000 people + 16 bands came out to equal one pretty large evening.

Thanks to our partner in crime Tumblr, our Austin family at The Mohawk and Club DeVille and the one and only transmission Entertainment.

Looking forward to the next. Well, we will be soon as the dust has settled…

You can check the coverage on Billboard, Guest of a Guest, Media Bistro and Vans (though you’ll need to scroll to bottom as Robotrip was one of the first parties they covered of the festival).

Photo credits: Antwan Duncan + Billboard Magazine

Percolate: On Curation and Filtering

Noah King — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:42:00 -0400

If you don’t know about Percolate, you should. It’s a socially-connected aggregation service that helps brands create custom streams of curated content. Two impressive Percolate-backed sites are the American Express Open Forum Tumblr and Reuter’s Counterparties financial news feed.

Percolate released a video this week with interviews from some of the web’s best bloggers/curators talking about the decision making process surrounding a piece of content: does it get re-broadcast or tossed aside.

What is Curation? from Percolate on Vimeo.

Watching this video is a reminder that curation and filtering are two different things. Humans curate. Machines filter. It’s inspiring to hear ace curators talk about the emotion, self-expression, and abstract thought that goes behind a single curation decision. Meanwhile, machine algorithms simply follow a rule set to score and remove content that meets or doesn’t meet specific criteria.

Although watching this video might suggest that Percolate is using a futuristic algorithm that lets computers think less like machines and more like the world’s best curators, the reality is that Percolate’s algorithm is a collaboration between humans and machines. It starts with the content that gets shared the most by people, and it is this sharing data that helps Percolate decide what stories to flag as most relevant.

Why People Share

Noah King — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:08:00 -0500

Understanding social networks and the human behavior within them is no longer a mystery. Rather, there are many detailed research papers that clearly explain how, why, and what people share online and offline. You could spend an entire lifetime studying this research, or you could simply learn about it from Paul Adams, a Facebook employee who deeply understands social behavior. Paul’s writings and presentations are refreshingly straightforward and undeniably enlightening. I recently saw him speak at the Facebook Marketing Convention (fMC) and am still digesting all the incredible information I learned from him.

So why do people share?

Let’s start with the 200 Word Version:
People share online for the same reason they share in real-life. It’s simply part of being human, and our species has improved its chances of survival by learning from each other. These interpersonal relationships are best formed through repeated, light-touch interactions about the things around us. We talk to craft our identity and are attracted to those who are similar to us. We take in lots of facts, but typically want to talk about what we feel. We like and comment on each other’s posts, not as a reaction to the content, but rather as a step towards the people involved. We live with hundreds of relationships, but almost exclusively interact with the same small group of people who make up our inner circle of strong ties. Information spreads fastest and farthest through these close relationships, and far more than through “influencers” who we don’t personally know. We intuitively know how to connect through conversation, and are immediately turned off by brands who talk about themselves too much. Brands who converse, are good listeners, and let us talk about ourselves and our friends are most successful in engaging our attention and providing us with a means to share.

Have time for the 30 Minute Version?
Watch this video of his talk at the fMC convention in NYC on Feb 29th. He covers a lot of ground and makes the subject really fun.

fbmarketingtalks on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Still wanting even more?
Consider reading his book Grouped. It’s written in plain language with brand marketers in mind, so it’s a very concise read that talks about the theory as well as simple ways to implement the ideas in our professional lives.