The post Looking for Digital Orange Consulting? appeared first on Paul Armstrong.

Liking the #FollowMe videos – here's mine courtesy of #Vizify : https://t.co/Snzb9vlfaj 

— Paul Armstrong (@paul__armstrong) June 13, 2013

The post appeared first on Paul Armstrong.

Estimated but impressive!  Social Commerce still not being owned by the big guys… :  http://t.co/3QBpJBn8MU

— Paul Armstrong (@paul__armstrong) June 9, 2013

The post appeared first on Paul Armstrong.

For those that don’t know what is ‘Bang with Friends’?

Bang With Friends is the most honest way to create or strengthen offline relationships. We help you break the ice in a safe way with your Facebook friends to discover mutual attraction. With over 1.1M users in just 4 months and over 200,000 successful matches, we’re growing quickly and bringing the fun everywhere!  Users can join now via bangwithfriends.com or get our Android app (we hope to have our iOS app back in the store soon as well).  It’s pretty simple: You login (discreetly) with Facebook – no one sees that you joined. Then, you’ll see a Pinterest-like wall of your Facebook friends (filtered by gender). You can anonymously mark your friends who you would like to bang (it’s secret until they mark you) using the “Down To Bang” button. If that friend marks you as well, we’ll connect you for private messaging to set up your first rendezvous.  In order to increase your chances, you can also invite your friends anonymously through email by using the Share the Love link in the upper right of the website. You just login with your email address and select the friends you want to invite, then we’ll send an email to them that cannot be traced to you.

Sounds like the perfect list creator… Before you were yanked from the App Store, how many downloads had you received? 

We gained over 200K signups in the first week after launching our mobile apps, rising to the category’s top 20 list on our first day. We were pleasantly surprised by the natural traction internationally – Brazil and Germany join the US as top countries.

And what did being yanked from the iTunes Store mean for BWF?

We want to be mobile to make it as convenient as possible for our users, so we’re working with Apple to come to a resolution.

Cagey!  What’s next for you and BWF?

We’ve got lots of work to do in order to make it even smoother to discover mutual interests! Our event in NYC (“Bang With NYC”) was a smashing success, so we’re excited to do more fun events around the world.

Let’s talk about love/sex 2.0 for a bit – it seems like a lot is changing with the introduction of mobile – why is mobile such a disruptor in this case? After all love/sex and the Internet is nothing new…

Mobile allows people to quickly and privately discover other people without a big time commitment. We like it since it makes the actual meetup easier.  One of my favorite stories is from a couple who had been friends for 4 years and never seemed to be able to break the ice. They’re now in a long term relationship and report a very enthralling sex life.

Interesting.  Time is the biggest factor.  Yet cybersex, sexting, virtual sex and now vibrating clothes activated through your iPhone are somewhat mainstream… Do you think we are at the start of revolution or are we most of the way through?

I think we’re in the midst of a shift in how people form and evolve relationships. We still think there’s too much taboo surrounding sex and since it’s a crucial part of healthy relationships, we should be able to straightforwardly say we’re interested.

You have an interesting viral loop going on in BWF, let’s talk about that, what it means for society and what can regular app developers learn from BWF?

The key thing that we’ve learned is to not bullshit people. We love being able to take such an unabashed, honest, and simple approach, whereas many companies sugarcoat everything. People love to talk about BWF and get their friends on it so they can find out who reciprocates their interest.

Unabashed is right!  What is your ‘vision’ for the future of sex and the Internet?

I see technology becoming more and more of a utility instead of a detriment in our search for companionship, sex, and love.

What do you think about the backlash you have seen, what don’t they get about BWF?

We’re just providing a safer alternative to meeting strangers and connecting consenting adults. Many relationships form with sexual interest and we want to have a more open approach than most other options.

BWF seems to be the embodiment of my next statement : sex is getting more social. We’ve got a Pinterest for sex, a Kickstarter for adult toys and I’m sure a lot more stuff I don’t want to Google! Do you think we’ll regret all this in 5 or 10 years time?

Although we include social in BWF, a key aspect is that we keep your participation and choices secret. As a society, we’re opening up more and more, but hopefully in 5 or 10 years time we are considerably more comfortable honest with our desires.

Your mobile phone is like your bag these days.  Describe it to me and why you use what you use.

Of course, I keep our BWF app handy [laughs].  I’m on Twitter and Facebook a lot to post updates to our followers and keep updated on what people are saying about us.  For getting the work done behind BWF, I rely on Gmail, Trello, and am always updating my calendar with impromptu appointments.  Getting around SF or any of the many places we visit can be a challenge, so my Navigation folder is packed with options.  Same with the search folder, which has some apps for finding a last minute hotel room, flight, or what’s going on around me.  When I want to relax or take a break, I use the Browse folder and crack open Reddit, Flipboard, or some of my favorite sites (e.g. a Seattle Sounders blog to keep updated on the team).  Finally, I keep the Clock app in front so I can wake up when I am able to grab a quick nap.

The post INTERVIEW : Founder of ‘Bang with Friends’, Colin Hodge appeared first on Paul Armstrong.

So what is Soo Meta is?  Who is it aimed at and why did you set it up?

While working on our first cool product with our company our children started schools and we realized that education hasn’t really changed for at least the last 30 years. The same tools and methods are being used now as when we went there. Today, kids grow up with smartphones in their palms and of course, to get them engaged and excited we need to change the models around learning!  Education, like journalism and other forms of of knowledge transfer, is very much based on storytelling. We learn from stories a lot more since we remember them better than facts. So we came up with a concept and a video-based technology that allows teachers, students, but also bloggers and journalists to tell immersive rich media stories in minutes by using videos, pictures, text and sound from any source on the web.

You are doing something with content which always makes my Copyright alarm go off – whilst there is no monetisation right now, how do you get round this – especially YouTube issues?

When our users pull media elements from different sources the content remains at the original location; we don’t move them to our servers, Soo Meta just streams or displays it right from there. Each piece of content is automatically credited, referenced and the source is linked, so the viewer can click through to see the original context. We store only the metadata that defines which piece of information will appear to a given moment.

Fair enough.  You are simply helping people curate.  Let’s talk about Polls later and if this changes anything there.  Talk to me about brand – how can they use the service?

First of all, they can use the it for content marketing purposes. Soo Meta’s new format allows them to create engaging pieces of content as [an] addition to their existing blog posts. Since Soo Meta can be seen as a new iteration to blogging it can even replace traditional articles about any topic that is relevant for a given business where the editor uses more videos and pictures and less text.  At the same time the platform’s polling capabilities can be used to measure the impact of a product / service or just to get controlled feedback from fans and visitors to basically any question related to the business.

Ok polls, this is how you make your money.  Talk about that for a second – how did you come up with the pricing strategy – why do you think polls are so important?

Everyone who creates and shares content wants to know how it is perceived, what the reactions are and how it influences a certain community. Comments are a good form of getting feedback but it is not easy to get relevant results for a number of reasons: people are often shy to tell what they think, comments must be moderated (and often there are no resources to do so), users need to sign in for the service, etc.

That’s interesting insight – it’s a bit like gaming comments in a way.  Sounds like it would be useful for anyone to know what’s resonating and then upweight it.  Newsrooms are doing this already in different ways, how do you see them using/liking the service?

Viewers expect visual content instead of long-form articles especially on mobile devices. News organisations can use Soo Meta to supplement news stories with short movies without the contribution of pricey and time-consuming video editing processes. Every journalist and blogger can easily create a visual story in minutes. Also, news editors can poll the audience with the help of the service and get detailed statistics about their reader’s viewing habits, their feedback and their geographic location.

What has surprised you about the early uptake?

A story published with Soo Meta looks easy and simple but creating a complex piece is a complex process as you need to synchronize different types of media and keep your potential viewers in mind all the time. Compared to text editing it’s heavy of course but it’s radically easier than any video editing solution (think iMovie or Premiere).  It was surprising how quickly our users learn how to get started. We’re focusing on a simple-to-use environment but we wouldn’t have thought that journalists and teachers adopt it so fast. We’re really happy about it.

What is interesting/inspiring you right now? 

I’m very much inspired by the idea of reversing traditional learning methods. The model is called ‘flipped learning”: educators move traditional lectures outside of the school: students watch pre-recorded video instructions at home on their own devices while turning the classroom into a collaborative learning environment. This allows teachers to spend the time with problem solving, interactive discussions, quizzes, 1:1 sessions, etc. A simple but great concept!  In this case technology radically alters behaviours and leads to a cultural change: students get much more excited and interested through an engaging form of learning while teachers get extremely motivated because they can start focusing on filling the classroom time with meaningful discussions, a lot more interactions and creative workshops.

The post INTERVIEW : Soo Meta Co-Founder, Tamas Szakal appeared first on Paul Armstrong.

The post BEAUTIFUL THINGS : “Light Leaks” by Kyle McDonald and Jonas Jongejan appeared first on Paul Armstrong.

So with that in mind here are my top 5 picks for animated GIF sites:

5) What Should We Call Me?

Featuring original “Expectation Vs Reality” comparisons WSWCM has a wide variety of images and with over 60,000 Twitter followers a respectable community.

4) I Think I Am Pretty Normal

After a brief (!) hiatus – now back and taking on everyday situations to comic effect.

3) What Should We Call Social Media

Similar to WSWCM but with social media at its heart.  There is some real insight in here for brands…with a huge dollop of snark naturally.

2) London Grumblr

Specifically written for the weary London workers and weary TFL traveller in us all, the variety on London Grumblr will astound you.  Take submissions and has user competitions – keep an eye on them.  Monetisation can’t be far behind.

[Drumroll...]

1) If we don’t, remember me.

Showing the beauty that is often lost in favour of comedy, TWD,RM lends a healing hand to the art of ani-giffing.  Beautiful movie moments captured with a slick quote after each one.  Beautiful and understated.

Honourable mentions : Mr Gif (stunning – goes beyond humour screengrabs to create art), LulInternet (unhealthy obsession with the internet turned pretty), Gif Movie (some truly bizarre stuff  but clearly a lot of love and humour goes into each one), Little Plastic Things (B&W gif-fage!) and naturally… Reality TV Gifs (nuff said).

The post The Top 5 Animated GIF sites you’ve never heard of… appeared first on Paul Armstrong.

The post Now HEAR THIS : Miguel Migs – “Let Me” appeared first on Paul Armstrong.

The post PAID CONTENT : “How to make Twitter the ultimate news ticker” appeared first on Paul Armstrong.

*** Any pitches please go to Journalism tab (see right) or send directly to formoverfunction@gmail.com.   Ta!

The post Journalism : Coolhunting appeared first on Paul Armstrong.