Are Blogger artists or: Life is about Interactivity
I got the idea from a fellow blogger - thanks Jon - more about you a bit further down (at least one person will read this to the end)
I believe all of us blog because we are addicted to the statistics, checking our hits on the website, may be a couple of times a day (I wrote about that way back in 2003 - http://alwayswow.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_alwayswow_archive.html and here http://alwayswow.blogspot.com/2003_08_01_alwayswow_archive.html). We can check on Technorati (http://wwwtechnorati.com), how many links our blog has.
We look for things to blog, the moment we leave the house or even at home - think about http://www.loopymeals.blogspot.com/ and how he blogs about his daily life and the development of his baby. What a fantastic blogging, how "interactive" we felt and still feel with him.
We also check for comments and well, sometimes, the original entries are a bit provocative to get some feedback.
I for my part enjoy it all and I want to thank all of those that read my blog. But do you know I like most at blogging? Blogging is about interactivity - I had and still have some pretty good conversations offline (well, not really offline, but via SMS and e-mails), and got to know a great many people so far. I learn through all of you and that is great. I also learn from those blogs that I read and I read way too many - I am kind of a blog junkie, I would say.
Why does it turn me on? Well, I mentioned the word already - Interactivity. Across my blog, you can also read a lot about experience economy or the new economy, and delighting customers. And I think that this is linked.
Blogging is like dancing in a disco - Jon said recently that blogging is like a piece of music (Check the link to Jon - http://jstrande.typepad.com/blog/2004/10/are_bloggers_ar.html), a great guy with fantastic ideas whom I met via blogging. I think he is right, since blogging is art. But I thought about it recently and I think that a piece of music that is posted or published somewhere is still not interactive enough.
Dancing in a disco is basically about interactivity - although you can dance pretty much alone as well. You go to a disco, you meet friends and find new friends. You have fun, the music, so loud, is blasting away. You enjoy life, have tremendous fun. The DJ is playing great music - if you don't like it, you go away. Okay - a bit of interactivity is missing, since you don't decide what music to play. But if the DJ is good, he feels the beat, and plays what the crowd requires. He (le's just say, it is a HE) plays music, and let's the guest feel the experience. They scream together, dance together and feel sorry, when the light goes on and the music is over. You don't feel sorry that you spend more than you would if you buy your drink in a supermarket, because it was worthwhile the fun and the experience. It was interactive. You can exceed the fun, and than it becomes a problem, of course, no one is denying this and in this, I agree with Jordan when he wrote about drinking too much (http://macvaysia.blogspot.com/2004/10/drink.html). But I am not writing about drinking too much, I am writing about the experience.
Interactivity exist in a blog as well. You or I want to feel the beat via the comments, and, moreover, I can connect to my "visitors", via their e-mail addresses and enter a conversation, build on the entry and learn. We than develop ideas together, challenge the status quo - see the recent discussion about Jeff Ooi (http://www.jeffooi.com), or you develop a controversy such as happened yesterday about AirAsia (my blog entry yesterday or Kervin's http://kervinphotos.blogspot.com/).
Other companies learn as well to develop interactivity. When Lord of the Rings was produced, the company had the chance to develop the film on their own or involve the millions and millions of existing readers and those that discussed the book on the web via their websites or in forums. They did just that - they shared ideas, designs and layouts with a group of people to capture their input. I believe the movie became a better movie through this. If they wouldn't have done it, it could have been a success or not. But at least, people were invited and involved and might have become ambassadors for the movie.
An example closer to home is Akademi Fantasia or The Malaysian Idol series. How interactive can this be? It brings families together and emties the streets in Kuala Lumpur on a Saturday night. How many SMS were send during AF? 150 million, right? More than 30,000 webpages have been created - think about a movement.
May be a better example is slowly developing all around us - the successor to SMS, namely MMS or, already booming, Internet games. Interactivity - you can play with your buddies. The early stages of this was in ICQ or in the different messengers. When companies get this right, they have a booming business - see the following entry at http://asiabusinessconsulting.blogspot.com/2004/08/real-future-of-mobile-video.html.
Interactivity turns me on. I want to go back to what I learnt during the situation, experience it again. May be even get a different feeling all together. It makes my life a WoW - as the event, the situation bursts full of energy, and I know that I will blog about it, tell my friends about, and create a Word of Mouth Movement. Something Worth Talking About, as Tom Peters loves to say it. This is than better than just being satisfied, or which goes beyond anything ever experienced - scintillating and forever staying alive in my memory - it blows me away (one of my favourite expressions!) - Izuan, does this help as an explanation?
I believe there is plenty more to say, so please feel free to comment. Ask yourself - when was the last time you had a great experience? Something that was worth talking about? Was it something that included interactivity, or was it something else?
I got the idea from a fellow blogger - thanks Jon - more about you a bit further down (at least one person will read this to the end)
I believe all of us blog because we are addicted to the statistics, checking our hits on the website, may be a couple of times a day (I wrote about that way back in 2003 - http://alwayswow.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_alwayswow_archive.html and here http://alwayswow.blogspot.com/2003_08_01_alwayswow_archive.html). We can check on Technorati (http://wwwtechnorati.com), how many links our blog has.
We look for things to blog, the moment we leave the house or even at home - think about http://www.loopymeals.blogspot.com/ and how he blogs about his daily life and the development of his baby. What a fantastic blogging, how "interactive" we felt and still feel with him.
We also check for comments and well, sometimes, the original entries are a bit provocative to get some feedback.
I for my part enjoy it all and I want to thank all of those that read my blog. But do you know I like most at blogging? Blogging is about interactivity - I had and still have some pretty good conversations offline (well, not really offline, but via SMS and e-mails), and got to know a great many people so far. I learn through all of you and that is great. I also learn from those blogs that I read and I read way too many - I am kind of a blog junkie, I would say.
Why does it turn me on? Well, I mentioned the word already - Interactivity. Across my blog, you can also read a lot about experience economy or the new economy, and delighting customers. And I think that this is linked.
Blogging is like dancing in a disco - Jon said recently that blogging is like a piece of music (Check the link to Jon - http://jstrande.typepad.com/blog/2004/10/are_bloggers_ar.html), a great guy with fantastic ideas whom I met via blogging. I think he is right, since blogging is art. But I thought about it recently and I think that a piece of music that is posted or published somewhere is still not interactive enough.
Dancing in a disco is basically about interactivity - although you can dance pretty much alone as well. You go to a disco, you meet friends and find new friends. You have fun, the music, so loud, is blasting away. You enjoy life, have tremendous fun. The DJ is playing great music - if you don't like it, you go away. Okay - a bit of interactivity is missing, since you don't decide what music to play. But if the DJ is good, he feels the beat, and plays what the crowd requires. He (le's just say, it is a HE) plays music, and let's the guest feel the experience. They scream together, dance together and feel sorry, when the light goes on and the music is over. You don't feel sorry that you spend more than you would if you buy your drink in a supermarket, because it was worthwhile the fun and the experience. It was interactive. You can exceed the fun, and than it becomes a problem, of course, no one is denying this and in this, I agree with Jordan when he wrote about drinking too much (http://macvaysia.blogspot.com/2004/10/drink.html). But I am not writing about drinking too much, I am writing about the experience.
Interactivity exist in a blog as well. You or I want to feel the beat via the comments, and, moreover, I can connect to my "visitors", via their e-mail addresses and enter a conversation, build on the entry and learn. We than develop ideas together, challenge the status quo - see the recent discussion about Jeff Ooi (http://www.jeffooi.com), or you develop a controversy such as happened yesterday about AirAsia (my blog entry yesterday or Kervin's http://kervinphotos.blogspot.com/).
Other companies learn as well to develop interactivity. When Lord of the Rings was produced, the company had the chance to develop the film on their own or involve the millions and millions of existing readers and those that discussed the book on the web via their websites or in forums. They did just that - they shared ideas, designs and layouts with a group of people to capture their input. I believe the movie became a better movie through this. If they wouldn't have done it, it could have been a success or not. But at least, people were invited and involved and might have become ambassadors for the movie.
An example closer to home is Akademi Fantasia or The Malaysian Idol series. How interactive can this be? It brings families together and emties the streets in Kuala Lumpur on a Saturday night. How many SMS were send during AF? 150 million, right? More than 30,000 webpages have been created - think about a movement.
May be a better example is slowly developing all around us - the successor to SMS, namely MMS or, already booming, Internet games. Interactivity - you can play with your buddies. The early stages of this was in ICQ or in the different messengers. When companies get this right, they have a booming business - see the following entry at http://asiabusinessconsulting.blogspot.com/2004/08/real-future-of-mobile-video.html.
Interactivity turns me on. I want to go back to what I learnt during the situation, experience it again. May be even get a different feeling all together. It makes my life a WoW - as the event, the situation bursts full of energy, and I know that I will blog about it, tell my friends about, and create a Word of Mouth Movement. Something Worth Talking About, as Tom Peters loves to say it. This is than better than just being satisfied, or which goes beyond anything ever experienced - scintillating and forever staying alive in my memory - it blows me away (one of my favourite expressions!) - Izuan, does this help as an explanation?
I believe there is plenty more to say, so please feel free to comment. Ask yourself - when was the last time you had a great experience? Something that was worth talking about? Was it something that included interactivity, or was it something else?
posted by Andreas @ 6:33 pm
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