I don’t spend all of my time on the road, thank goodness, but I have enough windshield time that I see a lot of strange and boring and interesting and unusual things. I go through cities and the rural countryside and, of course, all of this is basically on the transportation corridor up from the Gulf of Mexico to points far beyond, so on any given day you can see something worth seeing in between the cars and pickups.
Today I passed this guy:
I couldn’t figure out what we’re staring at there and it will probably forever remain a mystery. Safe to say I don’t see anything like that on a daily basis, but maybe you do. This could be a load of something very normal and boring. Medical devices for giants, perhaps. I wanted them, at first, to be rocket cones, but they are just a casing. And they had a fair amount of flexibility to them if they caught some wind. That would seem to be something you’d consider when designing giant rocket cone parts.
I suppose they could be for some high-end, new age silo project, or the cap of an intricate fallout shelter plan. I tried a few Google searches, but came up empty. Where would you even begin? Maybe they will be industrial strength floor protectors, or a new feature in a Katy Perry show. I’ve no idea.
Anyone?
Things to read … because if you didn’t read this stuff, you might not have any idea, either.
There’s some interesting data in this Wall Street Journal story. The Picture Gets Fuzzy at Viacom shares with us that in 2000, shortly after Stewart sat down at “The Daily Show,” the average age of viewers was 29. Now, it’s 45.
So, yes, this is an unsettled time for the Viacom property. But this is also one of those times when change is good. I imagine Comedy Central tilts young again, very soon. Either that or they’ll break with television wisdom in the most unconventional of ways. In either respect, the Daily Show run was a great success with Jon Stewart, if for nothing more than what that statistic implies. And that might be one we seldom, if ever, see again.
Google and Mattel pull the View-Master into virtual reality:
When it launches, kids will be able to explore various 3D scenes, including the streets of Paris and Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay and the solar system. While some scenes like the Golden Gate Bridge include actual images from the area, others like the dinosaur and solar system scene are enhanced with CGI technology to show, for example, what it’s like to fly through the galaxy. There’s also the option of buying additional reels (four for $15) for other immersive experiences.
I don’t spend an awful lot of time thinking about View-Master (but I should). This makes a lot of sense though, doesn’t it?
There’s a common element to all of this high-touch tech. How One College Is Using Tech to Grow Sports Beyond Football:
When the Ole Miss Rebels return to their 26-year-old ballpark in Oxford, Mississippi, this afternoon, the Southeastern Conference college baseball club and its fans will be sharing space with a decidedly modern technology: mobile tracking beacons.
The small devices are becoming ubiquitous in major league facilities, but the University of Mississippi’s athletics department — which has built up its marketing team significantly in the past few years — is the first SEC school employing them, not only to streamline foot traffic but to enhance its rewards program and spur interest in less-popular sports at a school where football dominates.
[…]
For this season, Swayze Field has 21 beacons placed strategically at all entrances and exits, concession stands, merch stores and restrooms. The system, operated by Spark Compass, a mobile marketing platform from Total Communicator Solutions, will help track fan movement at the games, showing how long people stay to watch the action and where lines are forming.
“The seating area is critical…. It gives us the most accurate dwell time,” said Mr. Thompson, a primary catalyst in upgrading the three-year old Rebel Rewards program from one involving staff scanning tickets to a mobile system that produces foot traffic heat maps and other data in real-time.
How are you using this to better serve your customers? That should be the first, middle and last question you ask. Chuck Martin, one of those good Twitter follow types, spends a lot of time thinking about beacons and was just recently writing about this.
Journalism links:
How to make news more reusable
NPR’s Generation Listen
Inside The New York Times Instagram strategy
New rules governing drone journalism are on the way — and there’s reason to be optimistic
How AP is adapting live video for digital
There are five links there, and I’d like to put their principles into a classroom. Wouldn’t that be a fun curriculum.
Maybe, if we could Instagram photos, and then tailor video footage and audio from a drone, someone could finally tell us what that truck up there is hauling.
