Bad move: Disney shutting down Virtual Magic Kingdom:

Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom to Close Doors

On May 21, Disney is closing down Virtual Magic Kindgom. Launched to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Disneyland in 2005, the virtual attraction saw strong enough numbers to keep it running for three unexpected years, but, as producer Seth "Yavn" Mendelsohn explained in a newsletter earlier this week, "the game has lived well beyond the originally intended time it was planned to run."

"At Disney we're still committed to building communities and online virtual worlds – and we're looking forward to providing you the opportunity to enjoy other exciting new experiences," Mendelsohn continued.

That was from Virtual World News (hat tip: Ngaire from the wunnerul world of Habbo). Here's some more from the majorly mistaken Mendelsohn:
That's readily apparent. Disney plans to invest up to $100 million in 10 new virtual worlds, including one based on Cars to tie in to themed physical park expansions. Likewise, at the same time that Disney launched the virtual world, PIxie Hollow, for the Disney Fairies brand, and an accompanying series of toys, Clickables, it announced a new team dedicated to addressing virtual worlds.
Problem? Well it goes directly to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (look at the second chart) appropos Social Networks - sustainability of identity and trust in the host not to pull the plug after members have invested time and energy into building friends, and content and identity.

So today, as Disney launches a new Tween network (on mobiles) ...

Disney set to launch mobile 'tween' social network

MATT HARTLEY

May 15, 2008

TORONTO -- Walt Disney Co. wants to take "tween" social networking mobile.

When Disney launches its new Prince Caspian video game for the Nintendo DS today, it will also unveil DGamer, a kid-friendly mobile social network that will allow users to create avatars, chat and share high scores with friends over a WiFi connection.

I say one thing. Stay away. Don't invest your time and energy and make friends, and create content, and become a brand loyalist, and don't make it your online home, or personalise the space or ... because, as you can see, it can be turned off .

Companies, do NOT start a social media "experiment" where you build brand loyalists and then TURN IT OFF. Seriously. What about the car company - Pergeot no? - who got 30,000 members to build racing tracks etc over about six sims in second life then turned it off. Way to go to piss off 30,000 brand evangelists!

Let me leave you with a comment (one of many) from the Disney forum (thanks again Ngaire):
I can't believe they aren't offering something else that is at least comparable with this many members who enjoy playing every day. How is this not considered a marketing tool for people to plan trips to the parks? I don't know what to even tell my kids. Thank goodness they still have Webkinz and epets, but they will miss VMK a lot. (Krystal Rose)
Well Krystal Rose, you tell them that instead of passive advertising on TV during kids shows and Saturday night Disney Hour, they were invited to be participatory social media guinea pigs, making friends online, learning and playing the games, creating content, and being active brand evangelists by telling their little friends at school all about this neat world. And then Disney decided that the experiment was over and thank you for your time and money and commitment. Then point them to a number of new Disney worlds and ask them to do it all over again, with the almost certain outcome that they will be booted from the new social network media sites again, losing friends again, whenever that social media experiment comes to an end.

Virtual Magic Kingdom comes to an end today, May 21st. Rest In Peace VMK.

VIEW Over 20,000 "save our Virtual Magic Kingdom" petition

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Published about 1 month ago from Laurel Papworth on Laurel Papworth -Social Networks Received about 1 month ago
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From Advertising Age ( hope they don't "expire" the article, I hate it when they do that, heaps of interesting stuff there).

What Accountants Can Teach You About Using Social Media

H&R Block Cast a Wide Net With a Campaign That Included Profiles, Videos, Twitter and Widgets

By mmcilroy@adage.com" title="E-mail author: Megan McIlroy">Megan McIlroy and aklaassen@adage.com" title="E-mail author: Abbey Klaassen">Abbey Klaassen

Published: May 14, 2008

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Tax software isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of marketing in social networks or on YouTube, spaces dominated by movie trailers and goofy viral videos. But H&R Block proved that it, too, can be successful in the space, but it's about matching content to the social community and then making that content valuable to consumers, said Amy Worley, director of digital marketing for H&R Block.
Amy Worley
Amy Worley
Photo Credit: Jonathan Fickies


Ms. Worley was speaking at the latest installment of Advertising Age's Digital Bites breakfast series yesterday and shared successes and lessons learned from H&R Block's most recent social-media campaign. The campaign cast a wide net in the social-media space, with MySpace and Facebook profiles, YouTube postings, a Twitter account, widgets and even a virtual tax office in Second Life.

Most companies, she noted, wouldn't dive into all the tactics at once but her product is very seasonal and "anything we didn't learn in one season, we would have to wait until next year [to try]."

The recent social-media blitz to market H&R Block's digital tax solution produced a 171% lift in internet ad awareness among the targeted audience and an overall brand awareness lift of 52%. H&R Block devoted about 0.5%* of its total marketing budget to the effort. (more)
So I thought I would link here for you, cos the links weren't on the original article:
Awwww I'm lazy you can google the rest...
Funny comment on MySpace:


8 Apr 2008 09:22 AM

Great job impersonating a human & good luck with your goal of world domination!
By the way I put "I hate H&R Block" in Google search and only got 23 returns (including a review on epinions), Not bad. Is this how we we evaluate our brand value in the future - how few Google returns/results we get when we put in "XYZBrand sucks"? heh.

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Published about 1 month ago from Laurel Papworth on Laurel Papworth -Social Networks Received about 1 month ago
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In branding and design, color plays an important role in evoking emotions. It also plays a key role in my life - in general, as well as at crayon, where I'm fortunate enough to be called "Consigliere."

When I joined crayon, I chose Midnight Blue as my official color - I believe I explained that here previously. It's the color of my blog, of one of the many sports coats you'll see me in, and a color that tends to inspire the sort of impression from clients that a consultant wants.

According to Brain Based Biz, Blue signifies:
Confidence, travel, freedom, truth, professionalism, wealth and power. Also tranquility, dependable, acceptance, patience, understanding, cooperation, comfort, loyalty and security. It is one of the most calming colors and is associated with the sky and the sea, intelligence, reassurance, and trust.
In short, it's a traditional, conservative and corporate color.

So perhaps it should be no surprise that my corporate genes have finally gotten the better of me and I'll be leaving the startup life at crayon to join the very blue corporate ranks. In fact, I'll be joining a company that's got one of the most recognized logos in the world incorporating the color blue. Next month, I'll be joining Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), to head the social media efforts there.

My time with crayon has been rewarding as I've had the opportunity to work with some marketing and social media greats like Joseph Jaffe, Greg Verdino, C.C. Chapman, Steve Coulson, Gary Cohen, while just missing working with Shel Holz and Neville Hobson. And it's been gratifying working with clients like Coca-Cola, American Airlines, Audi, ooVoo and more, who are all experimenting with conversational marketing in one form or another.

Now I'll have the opportunity to work with another talented team of communications executives at Ford, as well as Maggie Fox and the Social Media Group, who have been so successful in launching Digital Snippets with Ford.

Of course, it means leaving the Boston area and relocating out to Dearborn. There are so many friends and colleagues that I'll be leaving behind, particularly in the social media field. Having been here for nearly 20 years, it's going to be difficult to move on. You might even say I'm feeling a little blue.

But I'm looking forward to new friends and opportunities, and the prospect of building a solid digital communications strategy from within a company, making a difference to customers, employees, partners and stakeholders. It's going to be a nice ride.

Photo credit: Financial Aid Podcast

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Published 22 days ago from Scott Monty on Social Media Marketing Received 21 days ago
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A decade ago, one of the very first places I found that offering free websites gave everyone access to the same images directory. You could upload your own images, but then everyone else could use them as well.

Goofy, questionable, but free.

I’ve been hosting with Joyent for more than 3 years, purchased 3 different ‘lifetime’ accounts from them. I’ve played around with a hundred website ideas on those accounts, comfortable knowing I can do whatever I need to explore an idea.

Whatever the app; Rails, PHP, MySQL, Facebook, some other crazy technology sounds cool, I know Joyent’s servers are up for it.

At this point, a year after my last ‘lifetime’ purchase, I consider those accounts ‘free’.
Free, as in: I’ve got a crazy idea and some server space, let’s see if this thing has legs.

I suspect Joyent considers them free as well.
Free, as in: Here’s the pricing on our Accelerators when you figure out your idea has legs.
Not free as in: Sharecropping.

“If you’re developing software for the Windows platform, yes. Or for the Apple platform, or the Oracle platform, or the SAP platform, or, well, any platform that is owned and operated by a company. They own the ground you’re building on, and if they decide they don’t like you, or they can do something better with the ground, you’re toast. ” - Tim Bray, 2003

“Perhaps Google is thinking about acquisitions. How much would it be worth to buy companies without having to transition their technology to their platform?” - Dave Winer

“Try to leave App Engine. Or AWS. When you move can you install Bigtable? S3?” - David Young

From its very first iteration, Cullect.com was running on one of my ‘free’ servers. Late last year, I moved it to another, bigger, ‘free’ server. A couple months ago, ‘free’ didn’t cut it any more. The idea had legs and needed room to run. I opened my wallet and and purchased a 1GiB Accelerator.

While I briefly considered moving the app to a different host, I realized Joyent has me locked-in.

Not locked into their platform, but locked into their attitude. Locked into their community, and locked in because I know I can experiment for ‘free’ and when those experiments work, they sold another Accelerator.

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Published 3 months ago from Garrick Van Buren on Garrick Van Buren .com Received 3 months ago
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nbcf-full.jpg

Remember how excited I got over these pink butterfly car stickers? Well, the folks at Autoglam in Australia sent me two … one I used to properly review for you and one to give away!

These stickers are 100% waterproof and weatherproof. Easy to peel and stick. Sparkling rhinestones catch the sunlight perfectly. Can also be used on other surfaces … your mirror, notebooks, computer, window … just know they are not suitable for paint, wooden or fabric surfaces.

Buy them online here (they retail for $8). Or, if you want to stock these in your own internet shop or retail store, know they’re $99 for a box of 20 — and 80 cents from the sale of each one goes to Australia’s National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Now, back to the giveaway!

Here are the contest details:

  • Leave a comment on this post letting me know how far you drive to your oncologist’s (or doctor’s) office — and if you want to get into it even more, include your car’s make/model!
  • Contest ends on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at midnight EST.
  • I’ll randomly select a commenter from the masses and post the winner on Wednesday, July 2, 2008.

    • (Image: Autoglam)

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    Published 12 days ago from Karen Lynch on Pink Ribbon Review | Raising Breast Cancer Awareness Received 11 days ago
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    Plus: Le Loup, Gary Higgins, Bird Names, Habib Koité & Bamada, Killer Whales

    The Pitchfork Music Festival hasn't finished sprucing up your summer just yet. Today we're thrilled to announce that, as in years past, Pitchfork is partnering with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Chicago's finest live music venues and promoters to present a series of free lunchtime concerts in conjunction with our festival.

    While past years' events were confined to one week and held within the Chicago Cultural Center, this year the music heads outside and across the street to Millennium Park's Jay Pritzker Pavilion, while the series expands to encompass a whole bunch of Mondays spanning the summer months.

    "Audible Architecture: Chicago Nightclubs at Noon" kicks off June 16 and brings some truly awesome acts to the Frank Gehry-designed architectural marvel that is the Jay Pritzker Pavilion over the ensuing 10 weeks.

    Folks who stop by beginning at 12:15 p.m. will be treated to the likes of Tortoise, Bill Callahan, the Ex (with special guest Getatchew Mekuria), Le Loup, Gary Higgins, Bird Names, Habib Koité & Bamada, and Killer Whales, as presented by JAM Productions, mP Productions, and such fine Chicago music spots as Empty Bottle, the Hideout, Schubas, Martyrs', the Abbey, and the newly reopened Bottom Lounge. Here, have a look at the Audible Architecture schedule:

    06-16 Bird Names (presented by Bottom Lounge)
    06-23 Gary Higgins (presented by The Abbey)
    06-30 Killer Whales (presented by mP Productions)
    07-07 Le Loup (presented by Schubas)
    07-28 Bill Callahan (presented by JAM Productions)
    08-04 Tortoise (presented by The Hideout)
    08-11 TBA
    08-18 The Ex with Getatchew Mekuria (presented by Empty Bottle)
    08-25 Habib Koité & Bamada (presented by Martyrs')

    The Pitchfork Music Festival itself, as you likely know by now, descends on Chicago's Union Park July 18-20. Three-day passes are sold out, but you can still snag two-day Saturday/Sunday passes for a measly $50, or single-day tickets for a mere $30 a pop. Better hit up Ticketweb soon though, as these puppies are selling fast! And just in case you forgot what you're in for, the complete festival lineup is yours to behold below. [MORE...]

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    Published about 1 month ago from Matthew Solarski <solarski@pitchforkmedia.com> on Pitchfork Media - News Received about 1 month ago
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    Here's another 15 seconds of fame for all your favorite internet sensations you were about to forget about until VH1 airs "I Love the Aughts", which was bound to happen in a month or two anyway. This YouTube video about YouTube videos starts to make sense of the aggressive quirkiness on display in the songs Weezer have released so far from their forthcoming self-titled "Red Album". Rivers Cuomo, long known as an attentive student of pop hooks, must've picked up on the fact that what causes a stir in the Twitter and Tumblr era is stuff with enough warts and weirdness to feel (dangerous word alert) authentic. As Weezer perform first "Red Album" single "Pork and Beans" backed by the old Mentos and Coke experiment, they're joined by "Chocolate Rain" guy, Miss South Carolina Teen, "All Your Pork and Beans are Belong to Us," and many other online celebrities I'm totally too busy and socially active to recognize (yeah, that's the ticket). Hope some of those kids finally made some money.


    [from Weezer; due 06/03/08 on Interscope]

     

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    Published about 1 month ago from Marc Hogan <marc@pitchforkmedia.com> on Pitchfork Media - Forkcast Received about 1 month ago
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    Get in your head

    Whenever I talk about the new enterprise collaboration I always imagine an octopus. The big head of the octopus is where we gather.enterpriseocto.jpg Sometimes it’s a team, sometimes it’s the whole company, but all of us are in the head of the octopus. It’s where we live. It’s where we unify and freely interact. What’s great about being in the head, is you get to leave all your stuff behind and just get to the point.

    But sometimes we need stuff

    That stuff could anything. Stuff is just old information we may need to look at from time to time. Typically it’s inactive and stored. Most stuff isn’t that important but some of it is. Here’s a list of stuff:

    • Documents
    • Data
    • Quarterly plans
    • Files
    • Past meetings
    • Information from other applications

    The Enterprise Octopus has arms that can get the stuff

    Want some stuff? Your arm knows you want it. That’s what it’s there for. They can get stuff while you stay in the head. No need to go anywhere else. Don’t run off now! If we were having a conversation about Q4, we should be able to immediately suck all the relevant stuff from Q4 into the Octopus head so we can talk about it and keep the work going. filingcab1.jpg

    Most companies are headless

    The problem is, there’s no central place for the people. All we have are file generating machines. Email machines. Calendar machines. Word processing, spreadsheet and presentation machines. And many companies purchased even bigger, complex machines to manage the output of all those other machines. In the meantime, we just work around those machines and wonder, “which way to the head?”

    The head

    The new people-focused enterprise wants its head back. They want the place for the people to easily unify and get to the point. You can call this “Enterprise 2.0″ you can call this “social productivity,” it doesn’t really matter what you call it other than it’s going to turn things right-side up. And it’s about time.

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    Published 3 months ago from sam on Go Big Always Received 2 months ago
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    Kevin: This post is correct that traditional media should be all over 'social media' but aren't. However, I think that registration is only part of the problem. Traditional media also don't understand the conversational nature of social media.

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    Published 3 months ago from strangelyattractive on Go Big Always Received 3 months ago
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    Some of you may have read the original Enterprise Octopus post, which introduced the icon and explained the difference between The Enterprise Octopus (people-centric work) and The Enterprise Filing Cabinet (file-centric work). I wanted to take this further by turning on the x-ray and giving you a look at what’s inside both scenarios. First, let’s start with “the two Me’s:”

    Old me vs Me

    The Enterprise Filing Cabinet

    Most companies live and work in the Enterprise Filing Cabinet. They live in a pile of documents, with only a personal typewriter, calendar, mail, flip chart and calculator as tools for working with others. People receive tons of files, paper-clipped to tons of emails. Then they have to launch lots of applications to read those files. It’s not clear where to find anything, what’s happening, who knows what, and if it’s been done before. Like your co-workers, customers and partners are walled off in a completely different universe from you.

    The Enterprise Octopus

    The Enterprise Octopus turns things right-side up. It introduces a geographic head to the Enterprise and it’s in the head where all the improvement occurs. First and foremost, note that it’s a mix of all stakeholders occupying the head. That includes employees, partners, and customers. They’re all in there. They can see each other. Connect to each other. Work with each other. And since the “new me” has a radar for a head, I know how and where to focus my attention with any of these people. The head is where the real future IP is (both the “me” head and the Octopus head). It may be hard to think of this in future-terms now, but I can imagine all sorts of new innovation in the head.

    For you octopus-knowledgeable, the arms of an octopus literally have minds of their own and The Enterprise Octopus is no exception. The arms are not in the head but they are an important part of the system. They’re utilities. They connect to old and existing systems. In this case, they know where to reach to accomplish three different activities:

    1. File. The Octopus knows where to reach to grab the right file and retrieve it for socialization. Equally, it knows just where to deposit something now that it has been created by the social group. The filing cabinet can then do what it does best, manage files.

    2. Compute. There are times when the The Enterprise Octopus needs to use an arm to crunch numbers. Particularly to analyze what’s happening within the head. But sometimes its purely to deposit important data into other number crunching systems (e.g. an ERP system).

    3.