Ric Elias was on Flight 1549, the plane that crash landed in the Hudson River in 2009.
As you might imagine, the experience left an enduring impression; Elias says it changed his life.
| Can’t see the video? How sad. This link will make it better. |
My dad sent me this video in June – I didn’t watch it until recently. I can see why he sent it to me then, but I think it’s a message that can do with repeating – frequently – like the review of Steve Jobs’ commencement addresses that followed his death.
Here’s the quote that struck me:
“I’ve not had a fight with my wife in two years. It feels great. I no longer try to be right; I choose to be happy.”
Being right and being happy are not necessarily mutually exclusive – but the key here, I think, is being self-aware enough to understand the tradeoffs you’re making, in how you choose to live your life.
What is keeping you from happiness? And is it really that important?
How do I know? Because it used to be mine.
(If you’re thinking: “What? This is weird. What happened to Erin?” First: Awww, thanks for your thought bubble. But don’t worry – I’ll still be getting my science on as the Museum’s Director of Business Development.)
Here’s the big news: the Houston Museum of Natural Science is looking for someone to fill my former position, Director of Online Media.
Why is this job amazing?
I’m so glad you asked.
First: you would be working at a science museum. That’s probably all I need to say. But if the idea of walking under dinosaurs and through a forest of stunning minerals doesn’t immediately make you want this job – don’t even bother clicking on the link.
Second: the team is fantastico. I’ve been in the marketing department for the majority of my time at the Museum, and they rock.*
Third: There is so much room for growth. We started with a blog, and the position now encompasses web site management, paid search, email marketing and social media – plus whatever else the brilliant lovelies who apply can dream up.
Finally: you won’t find a better, more enthusiastic, geeky, generous and all-around-awesome community of people to interact with (and get paid for doing it). Getting to know, learn from, and help the people who attend our Flickr meetups and Tweetups, post on our Facebook page and read our blog has been one of the true joys of this position – one that I look forward to continuing, even if I’ll now be paid for doing something entirely different.
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| The Museum’s Flickr group is AMAZING. From the HMNS Photostream. |
PS. What what?! There’s also an open position in Youth Education Sales!
PPS. Being as this is more specifically about HMNS than anything I’ve written previously, I should probably specifically direct you to my MUSEUMS ROCK disclaimer (below, right sidebar), which states that “you shouldn’t take anything posted here – on my personal blog – as an official representation of the views or opinions of the Houston Museum of Natural Science.” That being said – the job is open, and it does absolutely rock. So get on it – you only have until December 14 to apply!
*Pun absolutely intended.
This morning I was privileged to speak in front of a group of Houston nonprofit leaders about digital marketing, as part of a panel on The Building Blocks of Digital Advertising for AMAHouston’s Non Profit Special Interest Group.
If you came to the event – thanks! I’ve got links to some of the things we talked about throughout this post.
The panel also included the brilliant Caitlin Kaluza of Schipul, the passionate Suzanne Jarvis of the Living Forward Alliance and the compelling David Brady of the Houston Zoo.
Caitlyn went over the basics of SEO and SEM, which I followed up with the case study from our recent Google Online Marketing Challenge project with the Houston Symphony to give an idea of how the concepts could be specifically applied to non profit marketing.
Click To View Online: Case Study: Houston Symphony & GOMC on Prezi
QR & Marketing
During the q&a, the panel was asked about QR codes – the consensus seemed to be that, while they can be used in a variety of creative ways, nonprofit leaders are hesitant to invest significantly in something that might be gone tomorrow. It sounds like to Zoo is doing some very compelling applications with their holiday giving campaign* and I referenced Lawndale Art Center’s recent intergration with their annual exhibition, The Big Show. Here are my thoughts before visiting the exhibit and after (including photos of how Lawndale integrated QR into the exhibit itself.)
Cross Channel Integration
Many in the audience wondered how they could integrate their efforts online with their existing print/television/outdoor/etc – which reminded me of a conversation we had with Google’s director of global marketing strategy, Thomas Ranese, when we visited the Googleplex last month.
Google is culturally skeptical of anything that can’t be measured – and famously averse to television advertising for this very reason. Which is why it came as such a shock when they ran the commercial below during the 2010 Super Bowl.
| Can’t see the video? That’s no good. Click here. |
By the time they placed the ad on television, it had already become wildly popular online.** So Google started ahead of the game – they knew the ad worked – they just had to find a way to measure results.*** This is something that could work on a smaller scale, with non profits testing potential advertisements as videos on their Facebook pages or YouTube channels, for example.
UH GOMC 2012
If you’re interested in being considered as a client for the 2012 Google Online Marketing Challenge, please let me know! The team will be evaluating candidates starting in January, and I’m sure they’d love to start with a list of great non profits – especially since Google will also be running the Non Profit Impact Award again as well.
Thanks again to everyone who came out this morning!
I hope you enjoyed the event as much as I did! As always, don’t hesitate to email me at erin at erinblatzer dot com if you have any questions – or just leave me a comment!
*They’ve put up temporary signage that allows you to donate directly to the care of the animal you happen to be viewing. So, you can donate money to pay for bales of hay when you’re marveling at the elephants.
**I challenge you to watch this commercial and not be touched by the story. It’s an incredibly effective evocation of the role search plays in our lives.
***They measured searches for “Google Chrome” and assigned the uptick they observed to the advertisement. Which, as Ranese admitted, it’s as satisfactory as something like Cost Per Conversion – but the effect can still be seen, moreso than just running an ad and hoping for the best, which is pretty much the state of things generally, unless you have a budget for market research.
I just got back from 10 days in the Bay area: 7 in San Francisco and another 3 in Santa Cruz. Here’s what I learned.
1. I do not own nearly enough skinny jeans.*
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2. Food is much less expensive than you might anticipate, given California’s reputation for having a high cost of living. Which leads me to my next point…
3. If you have the money, it’s much easier to eat well in California than any other place I’ve been. Nutritional information is always available, and options for organic, vegan, gluten-free and pretty much any other dietary preference are easily accessible, even in fast food restaurants. In Santa Cruz, they have a farmers’ market every day.
4. Despite all dictates of common sense, you can not, in fact, reach the Golden Gate Bridge by visiting Golden Gate Park.**
You can, however, visit the Conservancy of Flowers**** and the Botanic Gardens, as well as get yourself one heck of a wicked blister desperately searching for a cab.
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5. In California, Texan = Rick Perry. (Or W.) Now I know how people feel when they tell my father they’re from California.***
6. No matter where you walk inside the Googleplex, you will never be far from a) free food***** or b) a whimsical sculpture. Possibly several.
7. It is possible for weather to be both humid and cold.
8. Fisherman’s Wharf – at least the part I saw – is a lot like Kemah, times 100. Not a multiplicative increase in quality, just…moreso.
9. The SFMOMA has both a Rothko and Marcel Duchamp’s iconic Fountain. So that’s two walk-around-the-corner-and-have-your-mind-blown experiences. And that’s not even counting the rooftop “garden.”
10. Ice Cream Is Cheap. Fact. ******
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Here’s why I’ll be going back:
1. My friend Brianna lives there. It could be an endless desert occupied by warlike mole people and I’d still go back. Lucky me, it’s actually like this.
2. I missed the following: the Golden Gate Bridge, the California Academy of Sciences****
***, the Winchester Mystery House and Ghirardelli Square.
I thought 7 days would be enough to get it all in – I was wrong. In short: I was incredibly lucky to get to go – thanks to everyone who suggested the best things to see while I was there! - and I can’t wait to go back.
*OK, OK – I don’t own any skinny jeans. And in San Francisco, I felt it. The gap in my wardrobe was like a hole in the butt of your pants – you’re hoping no one notices…but you’re pretty sure they’ve all already mocked you on the internet.
**Related: The 3 miles between the northern edge of Golden Gate Park and the southern entry to the Golden Gate Bridge is way, waaaaay too far to walk.
***Hippies!
****The weather inside this greenhouse – that is specifically created to be conducive to the growth of tropical plants – is better than the weather in Houston. (Hat tip to my friend Melissa for the link.)
*****Apparently, the unofficial rule is that no Googler shall ever be more than 150 feet from free food. Corollary: The Google 15. And yet, I met one of the most intimidatingly cut woman I have ever met – so people are also taking advantage of the gym facilities.
******So…technically, I learned this on the Internet. But I was accessing it from Santa Cruz & pointed to it by Brianna and Jon, who are awesome. And it will forever be associated with their home. So I think it counts. Also: Obama tricks the bridesmaid.
******LEED-certified science museum? YES.
You know, where the Internet comes from.
I leave Thursday. I see Google Friday.* And then I have 8 more glorious days to explore the bay area.
Well, as much of the bay area that I can reach by foot or public transport.
So tell me, dear reader: what should I see?
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| San Francisco Spectator by Vancity Allie |
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| chinatown on a rainy day by eschipul** |
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| San Francisco Sunset by bg3photo*** |
*Eeeeeeeeeeeep!
**I love that, when doing a random search for the most interesting photos of Chinatown on Flickr, I run across a photo by my friend Ed. Of course, knowing Ed’s photography, this makes perfect sense.
***Why can’t Galveston look like this?!
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| Success!* Voting! Art Appreciation! (And how awesome is the mustachioed gentleman on the motorbike? I say: pretty awesome.) |
As promised, I made it to The Big Show at Lawndale – in literally the last hours of the last day it was on display.**
I went to check out their implementation of qr code-based voting on the various works of art – but I’ve got to say I spent at least an hour just appreciating the art itself. I was shocked and thrilled to discover the amount of talent we have here in the local community.
Here are just a few photos from the exhibit***. You can see the full set on Flickr.
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| Epic staring contest. |
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| See that diner scene on the left? We’re going to talk about that in a minute. |
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| Qne of my favorites – because it took me three separate stops to realize this is made of 3.5 inch floppy disks. Yes, I can see that it’s totally obvious. From this perspective. |
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| I’m clearly no modern art connoisseur – but I always wonder why “old snowy television” is such an art show staple. Still, this was interesting. |
I don’t have a photo of the winner – Duet, by artist Britt Ragsdale – because it creeped me out so much that I almost immediately moved on.**** Apparently, that was the idea. Says Ragsdale, “”When you spend more time looking at ‘Duet,’ you realize that it’s extremely awkward.”
This should be in the running for Understatement of the Year.
My innate awkwardness-avoidance mechanism is pretty finely tuned – so I was out of there in approximately 5 seconds. This is unfortunate, because Ragsdale’s explanation of what happens over the full eight minutes of this cringe explosion is actually pretty interesting.
On To The (QR-based) Voting!
Unfortunately, CultureMap didn’t mention the total number of votes submitted, but an email sent out by Lawndale did give some indication of participation. 2800 people attended the exhibition and 165 voted for Duet. That’s almost 6% of the total – and doesn’t include all the votes for other pieces in the show.
Even more luckily, the staff at Lawndale – and particularly Dennis Nance, Exhibitions and Programming Director, are extremely helpful and Nance was willing to answer my incessant questions. Which is how I know that there were about 1500 votes submitted total. Assuming each person only voted once, that’s a 53% engagement rate – enormously higher than expected, and another sign this was a good fit for Lawndale.
But, this comes with a caveat: votes were counted as hits to the various item-specific landing pages, and were not limited by IP address identification or any other mechanism. This means that a refresh would count as two votes, as would scanning the code for the same piece twice from the same phone. In the same way, 50 refreshes or scans would count as 50 votes.
This requires us to scale back the engagement percentage to an unknown degree – but as Nance wrote, while “this system does leave the voting open to any eager artist (or their fans) to hit the refresh button on their browser…I figure if they’re that big of a fan it must mean something.”
While lovely, the prize for being the People’s Choice – essentially, bragging rights + a Lawndale membership – isn’t really high enough to encourage artists to organize mass voter fraud. So my hunch is that the high number of votes really does reflect a high enthusiasm for the idea of voting via QR, whether or not it represents a relatively accurate number of people who voted.
So, here are the questions I initially had about the use of QR in this exhibit, along with my thoughts after seeing the show. The “suggestions” offered are general ideas to consider for implementation like this at a similar org, given adequate staff and time – which are always in short supply, particularly at nonprofits, and even more particularly for test cases – which Nance indicated that this was.
How well does it integrate with the exhibit experience?
The QR codes were located on clear labels that were affixed to white walls near each piece of art. The problem – and this is an exhibit design problem in general, across many museums – was that in some cases, particularly when many smaller works are presented in a grouping, the labels were not obviously correlated to a particular work of art. This made it difficult to know if you were voting for the piece you intended to vote for.
Suggestions: assuming the label locations are fixed, put an image of the art on the “thank you for voting” page that results from the QR vote/scan as well as an option to confirm or reject your selection.
How is on-site promotion and execution handled?
In some cases, pretty well:
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| Duplicates of this instructional sheet were posted frequently throughout the exhibition. This is the first thing you saw when walking through the doors. |
In some cases, not so well:
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| This is a fire escape. If there is a fire, the only thing I’m looking for is that doorknob. |
But all in all – there was much more signage relating to the contest than I was expecting. The codes were prominent and large on the labels, and connected visually to the explanatory signage. So, if your interest was piqued by the weird boxes on the labels – it was pretty easy to figure out what was going on.
When it came time to vote however, a few things got in my way.
First – what am I really voting for? The wire alien robot insect thing is awesome – but how does it compare to the realism of the 360 degree diner scene? Do I give points for weirdness? Social commentary? Beauty? Back to the labels!
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| OK, so this one was on me. It’s on the instructions, dummy! Learn to read! |
Once I found the piece that “moved me most,” the biggest problem was scanning the code.
Before entering, I had deliberately removed my QR reader so that I would experience the voting process like someone who came off the street unaware of the promotion. And there were definitely some issues with operator error.
First, I downloaded the first QR reader that came up in a search – which turned out to be the wrong kind*****. It took me about 5 minutes to get one that would work for this contest installed – but the cell reception at Lawndale was such that the download time wasn’t frustratingly slow.
Once I finally had a reader that would work, I discovered that the exhibit lighting – though quite bright for my eyes – was far too low to get a good image on my iPhone 3GS. Getting an image the reader would accept took about 10 tries. The code was mounted pretty low, so I had to squat to scan it – and the slight shaking from not being fully stable****** created additional issues.
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| This image is unedited – so you can see how dark my phone perceived the environment to be. |
I considered giving up – and I came to the exhibit specifically to vote and write about the experience. I would say that most other visitors are likely not that committed – but 1500 votes are insisting that they are. Although perhaps the average Lawndale visitor has a better phone camera. And more time to sleep.
Suggestions: Make the codes larger, light them more brightly and specifically, or mount them all at average hand-level. Offer a preferred list of popular QR readers for various platforms, to guide people downloading them for the first time. Offer wifi to speed downloads.
The people who participate are invested – how will they be rewarded for participation?
Again, the reward seems to be the participation itself, and the payoff off the winner being announced. Though there may still be some other communication coming to participants.
Suggestions: The people who participate in something like this are telling you they are highly engaged – there should be some recognition of that fact. After the vote is complete, provide a way for voters to input their email or cell number – and then use the data to surprise them with a reward or future experience with the museum. This would also provide a way to count the true engagement.
What will Lawndale do with the data?
There has been no reference to releasing more data or doing anything with it past announcing the winner.
Suggestions: Release an infographic of the voting results – created by one of the participating artists, and send a print to everyone who voted. Add voters to your database of advocates and involve them in future programming through special incentives.
How did it work in practice?
According to Nance, visitors enjoyed the opportunity to use an application they’d never tried before. For people who did not have phones capable of scanning a QR code, staff were available to scan the codes and “vote” for them – which again highlights the issue of duplicate votes.
Nance’s main concern was “whether the code on the label would be too distracting,” as he “didn’t want to take away from an artists work.” There was no visitor criticism along these lines, and I personally did not think this was an issue. But it is a fine line – you want people to be distracted enough to notice the opportunity to vote – but not so distracted that it interferes with their exhibit experience.
Suggestions: Validate each site visit with contact information – allowing dupes to be removed and enabling future contact. Alternatively, allow only one vote per IP address. Make this limitation clear in exhibit signage so people don’t “test” the QR scanner and accidentally vote.
The concept is sound – but is QR scanning the only way to get it done?
Of course not. Paper ballots worked for the Founders; they still work. QR is much easier to tabulate, and provides opportunities for further interaction and relationship building – but may or may not be easier for voters to access, depending on the conditions in which it is presented. However, the benefits of using QR are no different than a URL – and URLs are more recognizable.
Lawndale did not seem to have a problem with recognition or use of the code, however – though it’s difficult to make generalizations here without an accurate number of voters.
Suggestions: Use short URLs to encourage visitors to access the voting page – wider recognition may engender wider participation. Or, create one page with images of the artwork that can be selected to “vote.”
Is the act of publisizing the use of QR codes in itself an effective branding activity – regardless of the actual participation it inspires?
For the people who participate, it’s an excellent way to signal innovation and thought leadership. There’s a lot of excitement around QR right now, so a really unique implementation is a good way to get press and reinforce the branding impact. (A really unique implementation that strikes the heart of a true consumer need is even better.)
And it seems like a pretty good fit for a contemporary art organization with a young, urban audience. Since CultureMap assisted with the implementation, it was a win/win for Lawndale.
But I still don’t think QR is worth a significant investment – particularly for a local org.
And I’m not the only one. The linked article characterizes it as failing ”to solve a problem which never existed” – and that seems about right to me. The barriers to entry seem too high and rate of adoption too low to reach a significant number of people on a local scale. I’m more interested in RFID tags and how closely they can be used to auto-locate and present information to audiences at exactly the right time.
However, Lawndale was able to integrate QR with a minimal investment of staff time or funds – which is the best way for a local organization to experiment. I’ll be very interested to see if they use the technology again next year – as well as anywhere else it pops up.
Many thanks to Dennis Nance, Exhibitions and Programming Director at Lawndale Art Center, for taking the time to (very thoroughly) answer all of my questions about The Big Show and their use of QR.
*And by that I mean: someone actually voted while I was there! And I got a picture of it! Without them noticing! That’s actually usable! With an iPhone!
**Two classes in the same summer session + working full time + this and this = life’s a bitch sometimes, y’all.
***Apologies for the iphoneography. Despite the triple-threat-superstorm-of-hell-muffins that broke out in July, I actually planned ahead enough to bring a legit camera – but not enough to make sure the battery was charged. It’s a delicate balance, my life. Please note: all photos taken with permission at The Big Show 2011 at Lawndale Art Center.
****Please see previous note about not being an art connoisseur. Also in this category: artist Emily Sloane’s “spanking sex tape” which, despite my earlier suspicions – was incredibly literal.
*****This article on SearchEngineLand says it best: ‘The fact that there are multiple QR flavors may necessitate loading multiple apps to read different codes for different purposes. A consumer who feels unsure of which app to use for a code will tend to avoid participating.”
******They call me Grace for a reason.
*******Thanks, iPhone! Thanks, purse dust! You guys are the best.
I am on record as being an enormous fan of Google. I love their product, their philosophy, their approach to philanthropy, their sense of whimsy and the possibility they inspire with their constant innovation.
I love it with an intensity that borders on ridiculous. But how can you not? They have a T. rex on site.
So, the fact that I am actually going to the Googleplex later this month is blowing my mind like a billion megaton atom bomb going off just about every other minute.
Like a super-close supernova on repeat.
Like Acme dynamite in Coyote’s face.
And how am I preparing?
How else? By reading a book. This book, by “Google Employee #59,” Douglas Edwards.*
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| Why yes. Yes, I am. |
Edwards was hired into the fledgling Google marketing department. The fact that Google had one early on is in itself surprising – and Edwards is not shy about recounting the struggles he had finding a place within the organization.
Some thoughts on the book so far:
Google wasn’t always ubiquitous.
It’s easy to forget, now that it’s become synonymous with search, that Google was once a relatively strapped company that people put in the same mental box as Pets.com. Edwards joined the company in 1999 – and his book gives you one man’s view into the process that took Google from potential also-ran to global behemoth. The strength of vision needed to execute that process successfully seems almost superhuman in hindsight.
It’s not easy to be a marketer in the Googleplex.
Or at least, it wasn’t in the early days – before AdWords. Now, they run a global contest to entice current and future marketing leaders to engage with them – but I have a feeling we’re still just the people who pay the bills.
The real power at Google will always be in the hands of the engineers. And since that means GoogleEarth and Streetview and Gmail and Chrome and SketchUp and Reader and Trends and…rock on, Google.
Valuable branding is the natural result of excellent product development.
Edwards early suggestions for marketing activities that would build the Google brand – which at that time was practically nonexistent – were rebuffed, often brutally.**
Having suggested that “In a world where all search engines are equal, we’ll need to rely on branding to differentiate us from everyone else,” Edwards was taken aback by the tumbleweeds that rolled through the meeting in response. Larry responded:
“If we can’t win on quality, we shouldn’t win at all.”
Given that the Google brand is estimated to be worth over $100 billion, Page may have been on to something.***
Efficiency is king.
Ever thought hitting “search” and waiting .005 seconds for a result was just too…tedious? Google did, too. Which is why results now populate as soon as you start typing. Which leads right into my favorite quote from the entire book, regarding Larry Page’s reaction to “systems that ate hours and produced suboptimal results.”
“His burning passion was to help the world stop wasting his time.”
The implementation of that vision is now valued at about 175 billion dollars. Wrap your mind around that.
I’m Feeling Lucky is a fascinating look into the early days of the company – and I can’t wait to see what it’s like now.
Here’s what I’m most excited about doing – compiled from my own high-level geek-awareness of the company and also the advice of people who have been there:
Take a photo with the Google T. rex
Fly across the Google zipline****
Splurge in the Google Store*****
Eat Its-It, a chocolate covered graham cracker crusted cookie with cinammon ice cream served in the main Google cafeteria.
Photograph friends’ searches on the live search wall.
Swim in the Google pods.
If you’ve been to Google, read about something cool we should see, or have a question you want me to ask – let me know!
*I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee #59 by Douglas Edwards.
**Edwards recounts a story in which Sergey Brin suggested that they spend their marketing budget on inoculating Chechen refugees against cholera (an impulse that seems to have later re-emerged as Google.org). As Edwards put it “Spending a million dollars of our investors’ money on a land war in Asia would indeed be a revolutionary approach to growing market share.”
***Not every company has the luxury of being Google – but I think they were incredibly smart to focus on product, given the position the company was in (not that anyone needs my validation on that point) rather than spending their limited (at the time) resources on ads. A takeaway for others though, is that product quality is integral to branding strategy – without solid product or service delivery, you’re wasting money on a branding campaign.
****Is it over a ditch? Yes. Do I care at all? Nope. This. Is. Happening.
*****What’s in there? Not many people know – it’s invitation only. They have to invite you to spend your money there.
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| ^BLATZERING^ |
So. When I got married, I was actually pretty conflicted about changing my name. My last name had been mine for almost 30 years. I love my family intensely, and I’m equally proud of our name.
Nonetheless, I was making this very serious commitment to another person. I felt like we should have the same name – especially for our future children. I thought it would make us feel like our own family – which is what we were trying to create.
Still, I didn’t (and don’t) think it’s fair to expect this identity change to automatically fall on the female. I asked my fiance if he would consider taking my name. I even considered combining our names into something we could both take on anew.*
In the end, I did it. I became Erin Michelle Blatzer** Flis***.
I waited in lines. I ordered new business cards. I changed my name on Facebook**** and bought a URL.
It was all weird. It seems like it should be a small thing – but it wasn’t. Words are powerful, names more so. I felt like a different person for a while. I suppose that I am. And I considered going back many times.
The occasion of my divorce seems like a pretty apt time to go ahead and do that.
This is not something I would normally talk about so publicly – but the address for this space has changed*****, and it seemed weirder to try and pretend like nothing happened.
The process that led to this point has been going on for more than a year now. I have been blessed with the help of some very close, very constant friends who have given me amazing support, wise advice, and the occasional shot of tequila. At this point, I’m feeling (relatively) good.
Happy.
Like myself.
And, I’m pretty sure I’ll stay a Blatzer forever******. It’s who I am – and assuming I find someone who I’m comfortable making a(nother*******) commitment to, I’m sure he’ll be OK with that.
And now******** back to your regularly scheduled photography/internet/book/science/houstonisawesome/etc geekfest.
*That didn’t fly. PS: The combined name? Flitzer. Which is pretty way cool. And possibly even more regrettable, like that shamrock tattoo you thought was the shit in the eleventh grade.
**A second middle name! how fancy! how not hyphenated!
***It was hard enough to change my last name. You didn’t expect me to give up Blatzer *entirely* did you?
****But not on Twitter. Score!
*****Huzzah! The internet is still like magic to me.
******However, I hate to speak in absolutes. Because, as this event so aptly demonstrates, they so often come back to slap you in the face. Also, there’s an editorial I wrote for my high school newspaper floating around out there that is a case study in this, as well as Why Teenagers Should Not Write Publicly On Complicated Ethical Issues. I still blush when I think about it. Seriously. I’m blushing right now.
*******Though this currently seems quite unlikely.
********Well, soon. You know…in the next post.
I was first introduced to Dr. David Eagleman at the 2010 TEDxHouston – where he gave an impassioned, fascinating, inspiring talk on what we can – and can’t – know about science, god and the universe.
As he said ““Doubt is an uncomfortable position, but certainty is an absurd position.”*
We’ve learned a lot about our world and our selves in the last several thousand years – but there is so much more to know. Not just about the outer reaches of space – but also the most personal of spaces: our own brains.
We’re the only organism we know of** that is capable of self-reflection and rational thought – but we’re still not totally sure why. As Eagleman told Stephen Colbert, “A cubic millimeter of brain tissue has as many connections as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.”
In short: it’s a complex organ.
So, I was fascinated to read an article Eagleman has recently published in the Atlantic Monthly annual ideas issue***, The Brain On Trial, where he argues that “human behavior cannot be separated from human biology.”
“Many of us like to believe that all adults possess the same capacity to make sound choices. It’s a charitable idea, but demonstrably wrong. People’s brains are vastly different…
“…Consider this fact: if you are a carrier of a particular set of genes, the probability that you will commit a violent crime is four times as high as it would be if you lacked those genes. You’re three times as likely to commit robbery, five times as likely to commit aggravated assault, eight times as likely to be arrested for murder, and 13 times as likely to be arrested for a sexual offense. The overwhelming majority of prisoners carry these genes; 98.1 percent of death-row inmates do. These statistics alone indicate that we cannot presume that everyone is coming to the table equally equipped in terms of drives and behaviors…”
From this limited quotation, it may sound like an argument for allowing criminals to abdicate responsibility for their crimes – but when you read the entire article, you’ll see that it’s not. It’s more like an impassioned plea to consider the actual reality of what we know about the brain and to use that knowledge to prevent both prevent crime and effectively rehabilitate. Not surprisingly, Eagleman says it best:
“When modern brain science is laid out clearly, it is difficult to justify how our legal system can continue to function without taking what we’ve learned into account.”
So…wondering who carries those dangerous genes? Read on and find out.
*Seriously. Watch this talk. It’s amazing.
**Though it may only be a difference of degree in some cases.
***Hat tip to my lovely friend Kristen Linnenbank for pointing me to it.
QR codes are one of those things. If you’re into marketing, you’re probably sick of hearing about them. If you’re not – you might know them as “those weird boxes that keep showing up on billboards. And Super Bowl ads. And magazines.”
Or, if you’re into the internet, “those glorified URLs that require another app download to use.”
Unlike browsers, QR readers are not yet standard equipment on cell phones. We keep hearing that this day will come – eventually. Until it does* – and who’s to say QR codes will still be the it thing by then? – they strike me as the Laserdisc of the internet. In other words, a not-quite-there format that you might regret investing in.
I might be wrong, of course**. I have a friend who spent years convinced the Internet was just a fad. However.
Turning the mobile in everyone’s hand into a device that augments their life – whether by offering recommendations, location based advice, relevant shopping information, or something we haven’t thought of yet – is the goal. QR codes may be a step on the road, but I don’t believe they’re the destination. Like Twitter, they’re a cool tool to use along the way - but only if it works for you.
For brands with a large, tech-savvy audience segment, a strategy of exclusivity, or both – QR codes are where it’s at. As long as the destination is something more than a standard mobile site. The payoff on the time investment required – from downloading the reader to getting a flat picture of the code*** – has to be greater than typing in a shortlink.
I’ve been thinking about QR codes as we develop new mobile programs for the museum. With a local audience**** and an educational mission*****, I’m not sure it makes sense******. So I’ll be interested to see how Lawndale Arts Center’s new program using them will turn out.
In partnership with CultureMap, Lawndale is hosting The People’s Choice Awards – an opportunity for visitors to vote on their favorite piece in The Big Show, Lawndale’s annual juried showcase of artists that reside within 100 miles of Houston. How do you vote? By scanning a QR code, natch.
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| If you scan it, they will come. The Big Show 2011 From Lawndale Art Center’s Flickr stream. |
This implementation has a lot going for it. People love voting – especially when the content is provocative******* – so barrier of downloading the QR reader may not be as preventative. It’s part of an experience, rather than a random sighting on a billboard or television ad. The audience is youngish and urban, more likely to be early adopters. And they have a media partner – meaning a built in audience and a bullhorn willing to explain how it works.
It also inspires questions: How well does it integrate with the exhibit experience? How is on-site promotion and execution handled?******** What will Lawndale do with the data? Releasing a visualization of the public’s choices versus the curator’s choice would be an interesting application. I wish there had been a way to allow public view of all of the 972 works that were submitted – to see how the public’s top 125 stacked up against the curator-selected final exhibition*********. The people who participate are invested – how will they be rewarded for participation? The concept is sound – but is QR scanning the only way to get it done? Is the act of publisizing the use of QR codes in itself an effective branding activity – regardless of the actual participation it inspires?
Voting is open through Saturday, July 30 – and despite a double summer load of classes and an impending moving day, I’ll definitely be there to check it out.
Have you seen The Big Show – or any other interesting QR implementation? If so, I’d love to hear about it.
*If it does. QR codes suffer from a chicken-and-egg problem. OS’ will start universally including QR readers when adoption reaches a certain level. But it may never reach that level without automatic inclusion. Unlike browsers, which were used prior to mobile and already had universal familiarity. I like the solution offered at Intense Minimalism - but it won’t work unless developers and manufacturers cooperate.
**And if you’re sure I am, you wouldn’t be the first. Please comment and let me know why!
***Often harder than it looks. I have a t-shirt from sxsw with a QR code on the sleeve that took a good 5 minutes to capture flat enough to function properly.
****The percentage of QR code adoption will be much smaller in real numbers for local orgs than for brands with national exposure.
*****When you’re looking to educate, you want programs with mass adoption – not exclusivity.
******Check out this video from The Powerhouse Museum on how to use their QR-based exhibit exploration tool. How many people will go through all of those steps? They tell us: about 1400 so far. When you have millions that walk through your door every year – is that worth the investment? Wouldn’t those resources be better spent on programs a higher percentage of visitors will access?
*******Methinks “Emily Sloan’s spanking ‘sex tape,’” will be a popular choice. Or maybe I’m being too literal. Your use of quotation marks has tipped me off to the possible irony, CultureMap!
********If someone sees the promotion, visits the exhibit expecting to participate – how does it work in real life? Are the exhibit docents aware of it and versed in helping people access the voting process? Is the signage easy to find and use?
*********Or, if they’d just given the public final say – a la The Brooklyn Museum’s Click exhibition, still one of my favorite executions of digital integration in a museum.
