Thursday, August 27, 2009

History Lesson

What's in a name? 3DVE used to be called 3D Conferencing. The history behind this is fascinating...at least the way I embellish it is. The original company was started by two gentlemen whose first names both started with the letter "D". But, calling your company 2D in this century means you are either really out of touch or you have a serious Southpark addiction. By the way, here's an artist's rendering of me done by the artist James Whalen of Hawaii which in no way indicates that some of us really are addicted to Southpark.



Further introspective thought by the founding fathers to establish their goals for the new company gave them the concepts of "Defining", "Designing" and "Delivering" virtual conferencing for their customer. DEFINE - Help the customer understand what they are trying to accomplish and offer them options as to how they can painlessly achieve their goals. DESIGN - Customize a Solution. Establish roles and responsibilities. Put into place the technologies and people that can meet and exceed the needs of the customer. DELIVER - a world-class conference, meeting, webinar or virtual event that makes the customer look good. Voila! - 3D Conferencing. The name was all about service and had nothing to do with the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify a shape. Then again, I could tell you about how the founders conceptualized that we are offering multiple dimensions of conferencing and merging different synchronistic technologies into a seamless orchestration of communication medias which are independent of the physical boundaries we exist in. Or, I could tell you that a third guy whose name also began with "D" joined the partnership. The truth is actually, all of the above and it was a delightful serendipitous confirmation that the start-up company was on the right track.

Fast forward to now and our recent name change from 3D Conferencing to 3D Virtual Events (3DVE). It's time for a change. We still do conferencing but our forte has blossomed into the high-touch virtual events that our customers need to make the right impression, at the right time in a professional, worry-free manner. I'll talk more about how we accomplish this in future blogs.

I like the change because our new name says so much by saying so little.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

21st Century Digital Boy

I really like technology. I buy approximately one computer a year, I am on my third iPhone, I’ve owned countless BlackBerrys, and I spend most of free (and a good amount of work) time researching what will be next.

But good luck trying to contact me on any of them because as much as I love them all, their specs, features, applications, and accessories, they all just bring me somewhere I’m terrified of going.

Yes. I really like technology but I am afraid of the virtual world.

It’s endless in size, hard to understand, and not always friendly. I guess it’s similar to an exchange student from Denmark.

It’s also always reinventing itself almost every day, creating more content, more places to sync with other places requiring another username and password to remember only to forget.

I’d simplify if I just knew where to start. Somewhere I could be stay informed without a half dozen e-mail addresses. A place that doesn’t require bribing an IT guy to set up my phone. A world where people I haven’t talked to in 10 years aren’t considered “Friends”.

Maybe my iPhone has an App for that.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Everyday

I recently discovered the YouTube video Everyday. You may have seen it used or reproduced in car commercials before, though I can't for the life of me imagine why. It's taking something very personal, the aging of a single man, and twisting it into a cheap ad. I'm not sure why car companies feel the need to tug heartstrings when showing their commercials, considering the majority of feeling you get in a vehicle is frustration from rush hour traffic.

Anyway, I thought the video was amazing. Following to his site, I looked at the most recent photos he's taken over the last three years. Apparently, Kalina plans on continuing the pictures until the day he dies, uploading a new video on the tenth anniversary and every five years following. Assuming he lives a life free of fatal accidents, this will be a truly inspiring piece of work. Already, even after a mere nine years, it's an astounding piece. To see someone age with the same gradation we would see from friends and family makes the viewer feel like they've always known Kalina, and knowing he's actually a stranger makes it all the more interesting. If you've never heard of it before, even if you have, check him out.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Face Bags

The Onion recently reported on a new line of fast food products where the consumer eats his/her meal by strapping a bag of pulverized food to his/her face.

If you aren't already aware, the Onion is a satirical "news" station (originally just a paper) that writes fake stories for entertainment. The thing is, I can guarantee you a think tank in the US has considered this a viable marketing option. If ever rising obesity rates are any indication, I can see us getting to this point (are we already there?) more quickly than I'd like to admit.

This problem goes well beyond food, it involves laziness in general. If society thinks something is too hard, too time consuming, or not immediate enough, someone will create a solution and capitalize on it. The question is, where is the line drawn? When we're the floating blob people from Wall-E? When do responsible marketers and inventors need to say, "You know what? I don't need a robot to zoom around my house and vacuum my floors,"? Just something for everyone in such positions to think about.

When do you consider our well being over your pocketbook?

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Tweeting Marines

The Marines have just passed a ban on Web 2.0 use for a year. Their reasoning? Tweets, status updates, and YouTube videos could be compromising soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. I can see how this might be a problem, YouTube videos in particular. If the enemy could take a small amount of information from a large number of Marines they might be able to piece together things like location, numbers, equipment, etc. Knowing any of this information could be extremely detrimental to Marine operations.

That said, all internet usage by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is already monitered. There are restrictions on what can and cannot be shared, and consequences to face if that information is leaked. Could this Web 2.0 ban be to simply divert resources that have been keeping tabs on Marine social sites into something more constructive? I doubt it's a single soldier in a tent watching over all incoming and outgoing messages, there must be teams of people at work. I can agree, it certainly seems like a better use of resources to have them doing something else.

Still, we get a lot of information directly from soldiers right now. Very little of it, if any, could be used by the enemy to procure game changing information. What we get from them is unadulterated news, something untouched by US news outlets. I think we can all agree that kind of honesty is hard to come by when news stations feel the need to put a positive or negative spin on an event.

Web 2.0 also allows citizens to keep track of loved ones in the field. I have a friend in the Army who uses Facebook freqently to keep all of us up to date on what life is like in Iraq and, most importantly, whether or not he's still alive. I suppose I could live if I didn't have daily knowledge of his health, but without Web 2.0 I wouldn't have monthly (or even yearly!) knowledge of how he's doing.

This is ground the Marine decision makers are going to have to tread carefully. I can't imagine the soldiers are happy about it, much less their loved ones. We'll probably hear more about this in the near future.