Hive Health

Nowadays, everyone contributes to the internet. We blog, we upload photos and videos, we join social networks and update our statuses, we tweet. And that’s just the social content – there are news sites, encyclopaedias, company sites, all of which require somebody to upload content and send it out into the vast ether online. At some stage it begs the question, who does all that information belong to?

Social media sites normally make it pretty clear – at least, if you read the Terms of Service (TOS). Do you? Facebook for example says that the users, not the site, own and control their own information. A cursory search through the TOS highlights that we grant Facebook ‘non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post’ – not quite in the spirit of personal ownership, albeit legally watertight.

You Tube is similar, whilst users of Blogger can rest assured that Google don’t claim any ownership of material posted, and you retain all patent, trademark and copyright to any content you submit. It’s not clear to me who owns the comments posted to your blog though – you, or the commenter.

Twitter and other social networking tools are largely about community. In a perfect world, wouldn’t the content you submit to that community be owned by its members? We contribute to build a body that is nothing without our content, but we do it for the good of the community itself. Talk of a non-exclusive worldwide license bursts our happy little commune bubble.

Does it really matter? Well, for the most part no, but occasionally a situation arises where the right to intellectual property is exploited online and the question is raised again. The most recent example is the Cooks Source scandal, where the magazine published an article taken from Monica Gaudio’s blog without her knowledge. When she wrote to them to complain and ask for a charitable donation by way of an apology, the reply suggested she be ‘happy we didn’t just ‘lift’ your whole article’ since the web is considered ‘public domain’, and given the amount of time the magazine spent editing her article, she should owe them money. Charming.

For such highly publicised cases, the online masses rise up in rebellion and exact their own punishment in the form of a social media onslaught – Cooks Source’s Facebook site was hijacked by keen commenters suggesting other atrocities Cooks Source are responsible for (suggestions that they were on the Grassy Knoll etc), and Twitter was inundated with Tweets with the hashtag #CrooksSource. Modern justice can certainly take its toll on your reputation.

It also matters when we upload content for sharing that we have bought rights to but is not our own – sharing and freely downloading music is probably the most prolific example.

Whether we own the content or not, we surely need to take some responsibility for what we display on the websites we ‘control’ – certainly our partners at the pharma companies we work with recognise the need for an element of responsibility for the content we put out for people to read. And it’s not just content – you’re only as good as your last link, as they say.

So, if it matters, it matters two-fold – plagiarism and lack of responsibility being the major crimes to avoid, as perpetrators or as victims. There will always be people who abuse the honourable nature of openness, but for everybody prepared to respect online etiquette the rules seem relatively simple and common sense. In Jeff Jarvis’s ‘What Would Google Do?’ the rule is straightforward – don’t do evil. That should be enough, shouldn’t it?

A couple of blogs ago, Tim mentioned making presentations a little less corporate.

In our industry, we present all the time. Be it pitches, creds for new clients, training reps on something we have produced with their marketers – we’re often found on our feet with a clicker in our hands. But doesn’t Powerpoint sometimes get just a little bit dull?

Microsoft have been working on LightSpace technology. It isn’t quite ready to use yet, but one day it could totally transform the flexibility of the way we present. The device will let you present on any surface at all by taking a 3D image of the room you are in, and even let you pick up a piece of your presentation and carry it across the room to project on something else – if you can’t quite imagine what that looks like, that you can see it on the video here.

The different components of your presentation can also be moved around in space on the surface you are projecting onto. You play with the light, and the system understands what you are doing through motion-tracking sensors and depth-sensing cameras. It’s all gone a bit Minority Report.

Have a look at the video and let us know what you think. Is this the best piece of presenting software you’ve ever seen, or is it a horribly unwelcome distraction that puts tech ahead of content?

We have been exploring gaming.

One of the most important areas that we help our clients with is training – their reps, their HCPs, their patients. Agencies have been creating training booklets since the beginning of time, but we have a few extra tricks up our sleeves that we think makes the whole learning process a little bit more interesting.

Whilst researching new ways of keeping people engaged with training programmes, I was lucky enough to discover this short video of a presentation by the immensely charismatic Seth Priebatsch about the game layer, and more specifically about 4 of the 7 gaming dynamics.

Anyone got any thoughts on what the other 3 might be?

I like to shop online.

It’s a bit lazy I know, but I don’t have to travel anywhere, I don’t have to wait in queues or try things on in a boiling hot changing room, and most importantly I can do all my shopping whilst watching back-to-back repeats of CSI Las Vegas. I have a few favourite online stores, but a while ago I discovered tightsplease.co.uk (popped a pair of Red or Dead Ursula Two-Tones in my basket in case you’re interested).

So, that’s how tightsplease.co.uk got my email address. I have had a couple of the usual ‘this is on offer’ emails, albeit more tailored than I get from a lot of the online stores, but the one that really caught my attention was one that asked my advice.

Tightsplease are deciding whether or not to stock a new product – fake tan tights. Impregnated with a self-tanner, you put these tights on and they bronze your legs whilst you wear them. A bit of an odd one, and understandably the team at Tightsplease were struggling with whether or not this was a product that people would be interested in buying. ‘We are stumped’ they said, ‘and would really appreciate your opinion’.

With an online customer base, a supplier has direct contact with their most relevant audience after they make their first purchase. If used really carefully, this group of people can be mined for advice, but at the same time made to feel less like customers and more like part of a community. Ok, in this case it’s a tights-buying community, but a community nonetheless. The email Tightsplease sent me was in no way intrusive or annoying – it made me feel that not only did they really value my thoughts on a subject so important to them as what they should stock, but also that the products that they do stock are likely to be more tailored to me. After all, I have been part of that process – a member of their team in a way.

Tightsplease aren’t the only people asking their customers to contribute their thoughts. Walkers held the Flavour Cup to ask crisp-eaters what flavours they wanted to see next – I bet anyone who contributed to the competition felt some strengthened affinity towards the Walkers brand, at least for that moment.  ‘Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps’ let the audience choose the finale for Season 8. Again, there are at least a couple of advantages – a better understanding of what your customer or audience want, and customers who feel valued, involved in the decision, and therefore part of your community.

What better way to make your audience feel involved than to ask their advice? If you got the chance, what would you ask your customers?