If you’re an NPR fan, follow them on Facebook, Twitter, the web or radio, it’s definitely worth the three minutes to fill it out and give your feedback.

I suggested adding the Facebook “Like” button to their web posts because it’s a great passive way to share their stories without being invasive on someone’s wall or requiring them to include a comment about it, as Facebook links often require (or so it feels).

I’m curious to see what the results are.  If they post it, I’ll be sure to include it here as an update.

The New York Times has a different kind of interactive infographic (information graphic) these days. And I like it because it’s a departure from what we’ve come to expect of visualized information in the last couple of years.

While modern infographics have become useful tools, many are two dimensional and only capture a singular moment in time.

The interactive above (click the image to see it live on the New York Times site) visualizes the Facebook buzz around the World Cup in South Africa using photos of the players themselves who are widely talked about.

Scrub across the timeline and you can see how the conversation flows between these players and their countries.

Infographics have quickly transformed the way that we communicate raw, boring data. Gone are the yesteryears of piecharts and graphs.  But in the short time that the modern infographic has taken storm on sites such as GOOD, the visual format is becoming stale.

This is partly because there are so many people visualizing information now, and also because the speed of information allows us to create and share content so virally that there’s an over-saturation of visualizing any data.  In fact, because data is processed so fast thanks to modern technology, the information on an infographic yesterday can be dramatically different than one created today, as can be visualized in the interactive above.

The challenge is in thinking of a unique visual, then having the resources – particularly time and talent – to create them before the data becomes out-dated. Or as the New York times did, create one that takes you across time so your information doesn’t get old, but rather builds a unique story beyond the sheer number of data points that individually, are meaningless snapshots.

I’m a sucker for anything that transforms traditional ways of thinking into novel, interactive and beautiful design.

Diacarta — a visual calendaring app — is one such tool.  To quote @raymondpirouz‘s description on Twitter, Diacarta is:

An iPhone calendaring app that uses iconography to visually segment the day’s events

In short, Diacarta takes the traditional horizontal timetable of the likes of Outlook and Google Calendar and visualizes it on an analog clock.  You create activities by selecting one of nearly 60 icons, then dragging the event to a selected hour during the day.

Single-tapping allows you to view the event details, while double tapping on a scheduled icon allows you to edit the details.

I’m impressed with the unique approach to calendaring.  What I like most about the idea of this sort of calendaring is that I’m able to visualize my day as I’ve learned to tell time.  It’s much more  intuitive than a time-stamped entry on a list in Outlook.  Just like the planets move in a circular motion, so does time around a clock.  Even digital clocks have a 12-hour (or 24-hour) cycle, although you only see the present moment.

Another benefit for such a visualization is that I can observe and get a different perspective of how I use my time as a fraction of a 12-hour day (currently you can only see 12-hour increments, which makes sense given the way a clock is designed).  And because of the visual nature and my need to see that I actually fill my day with meaningful tasks, I find that I’ve scheduled my commute, sleep and even meal times.

Given these benefits, there’s definitely room to grow for this app.  Here are some ideas, although I’m sure some of these functions are planned for version 2:

• Syncing – Most of my meetings need to be on a traditional calendaring system anyways… just because the rest of the world is.  [Dicarta has tweeted that this will be available in version 2.]
• Customization – The ability to choose from a library of themed iconography. Alternatively, a way to upload your own icon sets.
• Repeating Tasks – For routine items, I’d like to schedule them at once and incorporate choices like monthly on a particular day, weekday/weekend only and expiration dates.
• Map Integration – Clicking on an address from the detail view opens Google Maps or any GPS app of your choosing, and navigate you to your next event.
• Phone/Address Book Integration – Clicking on a phone number asks if you’d like to dial the number or add to your address book.
• Web Integration – If a URL was included as part of the description, Diacarta launches the page in Safari.
• Email Integration – Associate (or tag) an email that lists details of the meeting, and pull up that message in Mail for viewing.  This would help  to quickly and easily refresh one’s memory about what agenda items, for example.
• Calendar sharing – Share the data on your calendar with other app users much like Google Calendar does, and allow for others (with appropriate permissions) to add to your calendar.

Three big ticket items would really push Diacarta — or any calendaring item for that matter — over the top of the innovation curve:

• Linked Data – With linked data and the semantic web driving new technologies, it would be great to see a passive integration of the information a user enters, web links, geo-location data and individual behavioral trends.  For example, if I include an entry for a Costco trip, the app would know which Costco I usually go to, and if I schedule my trip for 8:00 p.m., Diacarta would be smart enough to alert me that I would only have a half-hour to shop there instead of the hour I indicate because it would have crawled Costco’s website.
• Geo-location – If you check-in via Foursquare or Gowalla at a location, then it automatically knows to make your task or event complete.  Even better would be the ability for the iPhone to sentiently notify your location to apps like Diacarta, Foursquare and Gowalla.
• Social Sharing – This is already integrated into many mobile apps and websites, so it would be seemingly simple to add.  The ability to share an even to a Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn stream, or even add a photo to build into the Diacarta library.  For a calendar event that involves a public place (like Staples Center), it could add a photo icon of Staples Center.
• Marketing – While I hate being marketed to, I see an opportunity for a brand to “purchase” an icon for given demographics.  For example, an activity like running could have a Nike Running icon integrated, particularly if the scheduled item is the Nike Women’s Marathon.

Diacarta is available from iTunes [link opens iTunes] for $1.99.

A recent post at BusinessInsider reads  “One huge bummer about e-books: No one can see how smart you are“, citing that publishers find the transition to e-books the beginning of the end for them, as well as retail bookstores. The reasons cited in the article appear to be two-fold:

1. the cover image as a marketing tool becomes benign, and
2. books on a shelf in someone’s home serves as personal testimonials to the value of the book.

The real bummer here is that book publishers are not seizing the opportunity to transition a reader’s behaviour to “show-off” from their intimate living rooms to “sharing” on the vast Social Web.  The two reasons above are simply excuses that will likely fail at buying traditional publishers time.

Book publishers and sellers alike could instead be spending their efforts addressing the demise of the printed book (glass half empty)… or rather, the rise of the e-book (glass half full).

Cover art is dead?

Far from it, in fact.  Cover art is now more important than ever.  With e-book readers like the Kindle and iPad, publishers have the opportunity take a single image, and create a dynamic cover that gives a potential readers more than a singular visual impression.

With smartphones and tablet readers, the cover can become like a movie or video-game trailer that entices your imagination using moving visual and audio cues.  Albeit from magazines, here are two very different examples of how animated cover art can draw the consumer in.

A recent New Yorker cover by Jorge Colombo illustrated entirely on the iPhone app Brushes:

And an even more dynamic experience is this opening sequence for an iPad publication:

A movie poster never sells a film as much as the movie trailer or review does. So why should a book cover or poster have to? No longer will you be able to judge a book by its cover…

Exhibitionism drives the digital landscape.

Social media and networks thrive on the fact that people like to share about themselves, as well as share things that they find interesting. Publishers should be making these two factors work in their favor.

First, virtual applications like Visual Bookshelf (by Living Social) in Facebook, have a much greater reach than any guests that will walk through my study at home. Someone with 200 friends can easily share tips about the 100 books on their shelves much more quickly and passively, than they can with 10 friends at a dinner party.

Hannah is a Facebook friend whose bookshelf I've never seen. In fact, we've never met in person, but know each other thru a mutual friend. Nonetheless, I've grown to trust her and her taste in books, and have recently begun reading "The Elegance of the Hedgehog".

In fact, Visual Bookshelf expands one’s community beyond their immediate social network friends to the 52,000+ fans of the app on Facebook, or 1.3 million fans [2008 data] on its site.  And virtual social applications become more intimate as friends discover what books I may have on my nightstand… not just my bookshelves.

The integration of Visual Bookshelf and Amazon.com is a key example of how publishers can transform consumer behaviour by encouraging instant one-click (print or electronic) book purchases.  The one-click sell rate for a cheaper e-book will inevitably surpass the sales of higher-priced print books as consumers become increasingly accustomed to instant, hassle-free purchases.

Readers know what sells best.

After all, they did buy your book.  So let them share their favorite experts, whether it’s 140 characters  at a time or in 40 word snippets.  One day soon, e-books will allow people to share any section (of limited length) from a book directly to Buzz, Twitter or Facebook, for example.

A snippet that rang true to one reader could be the bit that sells the book to someone else.  Or if a reader is curious about a book and wants to find out who in their network has read it, linked data will one day be able to give you customized feedback.

Amazon sort of does this already with the “People who bought this also bought…” feature.  Netflix does this very well with movies, but has thus far lacked at building an active engagement on existing social networks outside the Netflix platform.

Then imagine tying in a New York Times book review to this social media chatter. The possibilities for truly integrated and digital marketing only keep growing.

Besides, how many of those books on your actual bookshelves, have you actually read?

Together, the e-book and social Web lets you prove your “smarts” through your ratings and reviews… to the billions who have access to the Web.  Nevermind the dozen friends who will walk through your house this year.

If any organization should be worried and recreating their business strategy as a result of e-books, it would probably be public libraries.  How will they deal with brick-and-mortar operations if the “information” they’ve traditionally collected becomes completely available for loan online?

UC Irvine hosted a budget write-in this week and I can’t imagine why we’re still putting pen to paper.

While delivering letters in bulk to our state legislators is much more civil and respectful than the protests and disobedience that have been observed around UC campuses this past month, aren’t there more innovative, collaborative and effective ways in which to communicate our dismay with the state of the State and University?

After all, isn’t the University of California the top public institution in the world?  Don’t we produce Nobel Prize winners and Fulbright Scholars, life-saving research and game-changing technology?

Advice to UC students.  Take what you know best — Facebook, YouTube, Twitter — and turn it into a campaign that legislators can’t ignore, toss aside, or hand to an aide to craft a scripted response.

The write-in would have been a good opportunity for student leaders to flip out their mobile phones and interview each other about the personal impact the fee hike will have on them come the new academic year.  It was a chance for students to plead their hardships, share their personal stories, and talk about their needs… and to tell their stories through a new medium to legislators and public citizens alike.

If just a 1,000 students from each campus joined a Facebook fan page or custom website that integrates Facebook Connect (or the like) and allow students to voice their concerns online – that would be a collective power of 10,000 voices telling their story to the public. The public and media can then help pay it forward and tell tens of thousands of other people how devastating the fee hikes are.

A letter only goes to one person, and your voice may or may not ever be heard.  But new media content can be shared, redistributed, repackaged, emailed, linked, tweeted…  The same effort put into a letter can be put into a message that has the potential to be heard across the world.

And all it takes it the one story that becomes viral.  The one story that tugs at the hearts of the voters of California, the philanthropist across the globe, and the legislator who votes on the UC budget.

How about a video profile of how much it costs to be a bio major:  How much are your textbooks?  What additional lab fees do you pay?  And how are you able to afford the expensive rent around Westwood, Irvine, Santa Barbara?

Letter-writing campaigns didn’t even work in my time as a UCSA Legislative Affairs member or ASUCD External Affairs Chair.  What worked were the face-to-face meetings with the educational committee members, staffers for the legislators or better yet the legislators themselves.

Today, students have the best tools at their fingertips: new media and social networks.  Whether it’s a student, parent, professor or staff member speaking, why aren’t we using these innovative communication mediums, which are either no-cost or low-cost, to effectively lobby the State and its citizens?

A collective voice is a powerful thing when used the right way.

Protesting and rioting may have worked in the 1970s.  But times are different. Technology is different.

The UC’s budget is an obvious mess, and I have strong personal opinions about it.  What it boils down to though, is there’s plenty of blame to spread.  But I don’t think it’s too late to make a new media move — the right move — to influence change from the ground up.

Picket signs, the wood sticks and magic markers to poster board is so last millennium, and so un-ecofriendly.  If you want to be heard, to be green, to be innovative with your message, take a lesson from the 2008 Presidential elections.  That wasn’t that long ago…

Marketing and branding were about pushing your message to consumers. You sold them what they never knew they wanted.

Marketing used to be all about the product or service. What made your product unique from anything else on the market? What was the value-add in your version versus a competitor? Did you have the best price or experience for the money?

Branding was all about the image of that product or service. What perception did you want your customers to have about your company? What did customers feel about consuming what you had to offer?

NOW

Marketing and branding are responses to real-time customer demands and needs. Customers are telling you what they want. You are listening – more than ever – to the consumer, instead of dictating to them what they can or cannot live without.

Marketing is now much more than the product or service.  While people still connect with an object such as a particular coffee brand or airline, it’s not enough to sell how tasteful your peppermint latte is or the extra 6-inches of legroom compared to a competitor.

Likewise, branding is now about customer interaction (not to be confused with customer service), corporate social responsibility, online culture and community, and much more.

Making this shift to social media isn’t an easy move. Wait too long to get on the bandwagon, and you’ve lost your first-mover advantage. Act too fast, and you may not have a well thought-out strategy.

So how do you know whether to jump into the next new web trend? How do you evaluate your presence in that landscape? How do you use the new media tool in such a way that no one else is using it? Thinking outside the box and being innovative with the new media tools will help in setting your company, brand and product apart.

Whether it’s a mobile app, interactive website that has nothing to do with your product and everything about your consumers, there’s definitely a niche that you can create for yourself within your industry that will accomplish the original goals of branding and marketing.

Here are a few new media integration examples that are successful at tying together “new marketing” and “new branding” into the digital customer experience:

Sonicare: Adopt-a-Tooth

The Sonicare Facebook application keeps the user engaged over and over again by encouraging good dental hygiene through a “pet” tooth.  Take better care of our “canine” and be privy to special gifts and promotions.

When someone takes action with their pet tooth, it can appear on their friends news feeds, and is always visible on the owner’s profile.

In today’s social network landscape where the popularity of social gaming such as Mafia Wars and Farmville are growing exponentially, it’s smart for a brand to jump into the arena with the right interactive app.

Coke Zero Facial Profiler

Coca-cola claims that Coke Zero has been one of the most successful product launches in its history. In the two years since its release, Coke Zero has sold nearly 450 million cases and is available in more than 100 countries. So why not take this success and broad reach to connect your fans online?

That’s exactly what cokezero.com does. The site says nothing about the product except for a wordmark that includes the tagline “Real Coke Taste. Zero Calories.”  Instead, their site is home to the Facial Profiler application, which uses Facebook Connect to troll tagged images of you to help find your look-alike.

The premise? A social experiment: If millions of people like you enjoy Coke Zero, then there surely is another person that looks like you that enjoys Coke Zero.

USAA Mobile App

Your new media presence doesn’t always have to be through a web browser. USAA takes personal finance management to a whole new level with their iPhone app. Unique features include:

• Deposit@Mobile — Depositing a check is as simple as snapping a photo.
• ATM Locator — Find the closest ATMs.
• Loan Calculator — Estimate monthly payments on a loan.
• Rental Car Locator — Find the nearest Avis, Budget or Hertz location.
• Accident Checklist — Record accident details to help you file a claim.

That is the question that Personas, a project at MIT, asks.  It’s a kind of Doppler Radar for your Web presence.  Here’s what my Personas looks like.

It leaves me wondering… what’s so “illegal” about me?

I don’t think there’s anything you can decipher or definitively pull from the Personas analysis.  But it is a great way to take an alternate look at your personal brand on the World Wide Web.

Here’s an analysis for Liz Pulliam Weston, a personal finance adviser, and contributor to MSN.  Liz’s presence is much more diverse, colorful, and spans 29 dimensions (versus my three).  If nothing else, it says that her brand touches a wide-spectrum of interest and very broadly on the Web.

And why not type in your corporate brand as well and see what comes up?

[Hat-tip to Sam Kaufman]

In homage to of one of the best movies we saw in theatres during these 98 days – (500) Days of Summer – we sought out Tom and Summer’s “bench” at Bunker Hill’s Angels Knoll Park.  (But not before we grabbed lunch at our favorite Phillipe’s first…)

Here, @PadrePablo explains where we are:

Apparently we weren’t the only one’s with the idea as we saw other couples strolling… asking themselves “Is that the bench?” or declaring “That’s the spot!”

This is the 360° view of the park from Tom and Summer’s bench:

And here’s a 180° view of Los Angeles from the park:

If you’re so inclined to do the same,  LA Times has an article and Google Maps tour of all the sites from the flick.

-Philip L Graham, Publisher, Washington Post

I had several conversations this week about how Communications Directors and other media relations folks can use Twitter to interact with the printed press.   Interesting topic for a few reasons:

1. All indications are that the printed press is of the dying breed;
2. Using a 2.0 tool to connect with 1.0 media seems like an oxymoron;
3. New media communications is about getting information out quickly, and interactions surrounding it.  Print offers neither.

My colleagues and I stopped using news wires, primarily because of the cost associated with their services.  The same effort that it takes to write a press release and submit it through news wires can easily be used to broadcast yourself by serving as your own news service.

Communications needs have changed, as well.  I find more value in the interaction and feedback with our constituents on our blogs and social networks (primarily Facebook).

All this said, many journalists are adopting 2.0 tools in order to save their 1.0 business. Just this week, the New York Times appointed Jennifer Preston (@NYT_JenPreston) the New York Times’ first Social Media Editor.  Both the Times and Washington Post are doing a great job using new media and multimedia tools, and creating unique content using free resources such as Google maps and API calls.

So how do you find the reporters/journalists that best fit your communications needs?  Try these resources.  (If you have other ones, let us know by leaving a comment!)

• @muckrack – Muck Rack is the best repository of journalists that I’ve seen so far.  You can sort by beat, news outlet, or even recent tweeted photos.
• @wefollow – We Follow is a user-powered Twitter directory where Twitterers self-identify their areas of interest or affiliation through tags.  It’s not as easy to search by beat or outlet as Muck Rack, but you may find some unusual suspects here.
• Media on Twitter – In addition to U.S. journalists, Media on Twitter has lists of journalists and news media Twitter accounts in Australia, Canada, France, India, Malta, Mexica, Russia, South Africa, Thailand and the UK.

By the way, if you’re a major newspaper needing a Social Media Editor, tweet me @sherrymain.  I’m interested… and interesting!

It’s good. You can spare 39 minutes to watch it!

From the YouTube blog:

Since polio no longer exists in the developed world, many assume that the crippling disease has been eradicated. Sadly, this isn’t true. Polio is still a reality in the world’s poorest countries. Created by our friends at Google.org and Vermillion Films, this captivating 38-minute film brings to light the global challenge of polio eradication and tells the story of those who are on the front lines helping the most vulnerable — children under five living in some of the world’s most destitute regions.