Ericsson and Dave and his machines

A nice critique by Sherry Turkle of a new Ericsson ad (presumedly a series) portraying life with social media and machines that are aware. Hard to know what the brand is saying at this point, but the first installment is definitely pointing toward the dark side.

Some of you are going to look at this video — the story of a young guy named Dave (that's Dave in the picture just above) who's on his way home to an apartment where his stove, lights, vacuum cleaner, microwave and fireplace are feverishly anticipating his return, and you're going to say, "Ahhhhh, let me be Dave. If only I could have a place wired like his."

Others of you are going to want to take a sledgehammer to every lamp, toaster, vacuum cleaner and microchip in the place — and perhaps to Dave.

I don't know which side of the Dream Technology Divide you are on, but trust me, this is a polarizing video.

See the ad and read the critique here.

Community Arts and Social Media

This post on Mashable lists exemplar case studies of community arts organizations using social media to great effect.

As more diverse organizations dive into web marketing, for-profit organizations can learn well from their indie counterparts about experimentation and innovation online. A few notable community and arts groups have been inventive in their use of social media and truly collaborative in their outreach in ways that even the most seasoned corporate marketer can appreciate.

Among the arts and community organizations using social media thoughtfully and in big ways (which aren’t necessarily representative of their limited budgets) are independent artists and companies in photography, film, modern art, radio and craft. They’ve capitalized on the audiovisual nature of the Web to showcase the storytelling and community-building aspects of their work, and the results are worth a pass-along.

http://mashable.com/2009/07/08/community-arts-organizations/