Sean Howard’s blog, www.craphammer.ca, has been recognized in the AdAge Power150 as a top 25 planning blog. With over 13 years in the digital marketing biz, one that spans consulting gigs for clients like Ice and Lift Communications in Toronto, and starting up his own digital shop @spinglobe, today’s MiCpick curator now helms strategy development for Toronto-based Twist Image as the firm’s new senior account director. Here are his fave picks from the mediaverse.
From piracy to the future of advertising, digital is touted as either the destroyer of traditional media or its saviour, depending on who you talk to. What I find so inspiring about digital is that its impact on the future of society remains largely shrouded in mystery. Even those of us who have lived and breathed digital for the past decade or more are unable to predict its future role in our day-to-day lives. We can only point to its growing influence and reach.
‘Harvard Study Finds Weaker Copyright Protection Has Benefited Society’
It’s hard to think of a traditional media company who has not set out to demonize or point the finger at digital as the source of their financial woes, and every year we read about new proposed restrictions to stop piracy. This article sets out to show that we are benefiting from weaker protections across all the creative production industries. Music production is up significantly as are Hollywood films. Perhaps the traditional media companies really just need to update their business models?
‘Mindblowing #IranElection Stats: 221,744 Tweets Per Hour at Peak’
You may have heard about the US State Department asking Twitter to delay a service outage due to the potential impact on Iranians and their ability to self-organize. In a time when the traditional media channels have had their reporters confined to their rooms, Iranians of all ages are using social media tools to tell their own story. We are approaching 1 million tweets, 2.25 million blog posts and over 3,000 YouTube videos. There are even reports that YouTube has loosened its restrictions on violent images to allow Iranians to share their stories.
My Favorite Thing
In the vein of this article, I wanted to end with something that was posted to the web but three days ago and has already begun a wandering journey from twitter account to blog to Tumblr posting. It is something beautiful and touching that exists outside of any traditional business models. There is no ad to watch or fee to pay before viewing. There is just an artist who knows how to create something that people are moved to share.
