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i-design 08 - 3D to 5D

The first panel discussion broached the topic of 5D, the developing area of immersive design that touches on themes around sensory experience, virtual reality environments and design that is not just digital and not just virtual, but rather a hybrid of the two.

Online Advertising Bucks Flagging Market

The industry received a welcome boost this week with the news that Internet advertising revenues rose significantly in the first half of 2008, despite tough economic conditions. NMK quizzed the industry on what we can expect for the next year.

ITV’s Overlay Advertising Trial Panned

Troubled ITV is experimenting with ‘automatically placed overlay advertising’ to help revive flagging revenues. NMK’s Chris Lee canvassed opinion from around the new media industry about the move.

• More Web 2.0 Needed In Schools
• UK Council for Child Internet Safety Launches
• US Presidential Election Gets Social
• i-design 08 - Brendan Dawes, My Interactive
• i-design 08 - Simon Waterfall
• YouTube gets into Top Gear
• Goldfarming for Fun and Profit

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• US Presidential Election Gets Social

  Last week, Twitter launched its US Presidential Election microblogging site and, with social media likely to play a big part in the outcome, politicians this side of the pond should be looking closely at its impact, experts say. more

• Media Landscape vs. Media Ghetto

  Katie Streten argues that even now, digital media is viewed as a poor relation to other media, but that digital professionals are partly to blame for this state of affairs. more

• Approaching the Crossover

  Crossover is a series of ‘innovation labs’ for creative professionals from a diverse range of backgrounds: game developers, tv and film producers, web designers, animators, theatre practitioners and others. more

• Marketers Cautious Over Social Media Spend

  Social media marketing has been high on the agenda for many communications experts. Most marketers can see how the Internet has revolutionised the way the general public communicates, but many are still unsure whether they can leverage this technology to push brand messages. more

• Brief Encounter: Alterian

  One company that believes it has developed a way to start measuring social media is Alterian. We speak to David Eldridge, CEO of the marketing software firm about how businesses can combine both profile and usage data to create a better, tailored user experience. more

Related Events

What Happens to Newspapers?

When: October 28th, 2008
Location: Zigfrid von Underbelly, 11 Hoxton Square, London, N1 6NU
Price: Reduced to £25.00 if you are eligible for a discount.

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Social Media for Business

When: July 3rd, 2008
Location: University of Westminster
Price: £175.00 Reduced to £150.00 if you are eligible for a discount.

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Beers & Innovation 12: Clients in the Wild

When: November 20th, 2007
Location: The CC Club, The Trocadero, London
Price: Reduced to £25.00 if you are eligible for a discount.

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Beers & Innovation 6: Social By Design (NMK)

When: November 14th, 2006
Location: Albannach, 66 Trafagar Square, London WC2N 5DS.
Price: Reduced to £15.00 if you are eligible for a discount.

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My So-called 2nd Life (NMK)

When: October 24th, 2006
Location: 01Zero-One, Hopkins St, Soho, London W1F 0HS.
Price: £80.00 Reduced to £50.00 if you are eligible for a discount.

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Social Media Drives Procurement

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The inexorable rise of social media and social networking sites continues apace, affecting purchasing decisions even within the disciplined confines of IT departments, according to a new report from IT Toolbox.

The report found that IT professionals said social media sites such as blogs, sites with reader-contributed reviews, wikis and open forums were the most trustworthy source of information online when it came to making purchasing decisions. Such sites ranked ahead of editorially driven sites.

In addition, the report found:

• • Executive decision-makers spend nearly 3½ hours per week consuming or participating in social media
• • Nearly two-thirds of IT professionals who were surveyed believe that social media content and user-generated tools have made for a more informed purchasing decision
• • IT decision-makers and influencers trust user-generated content more than traditional content sources
• • IT audiences now spend as much or more time consuming or participating in social media as they do consuming editorial media or vendor content.

Vendor websites remain the most-used source of information regarding purchases, with 61.5% of respondents using such sites as part of their research. User-generated content was is referenced often or very often by 42.5% of IT professionals, while editorial websites and trade magazines were used often or very often by 40.7% of respondents.

Sixty-four percent of respondents said that social media sites had made for a more informed purchasing decision. Only 11% disagreed with this statement.

However, such sites don’t necessarily make purchasing decisions any faster or more efficient. Only 40% felt that it did, and 25% said that it had not.

Reasons for using social media sites to research buying decisions

The results were compiled from 2104 email responses to the survey. Sceptics about social media, journalists and editors might find some hope in the fact that all of the respondents were members of the IT Toolbox social network site, arguably making them unrepresentative of the IT profession as a whole.