IBM Turns to Gaming as Education

There has been talk for many years about how gaming or game theory can have positive impacts on brands, marketing and even learning and retention. Marketers have been quick to apply traditional marketing approaches to the gaming world — product placement, in-game advertising and so on. Educationalists on the other hand have applied gaming snippets to their curriculums — especially as more and more learning moves online — finding benefits in terms of awareness, retention and knowledge transfer. But IBM is taking this a step further … using the closed-world of gaming to create an immersive learning experience that effectively crushes the distinctions between the IBM brand, the service/solutions that they offer and the learning/certification options available.

This game which will provide simulated learning (based on IBM’s new services oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) solutions) is still in beta testing with universities and business partners but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Oh Those Russians!


Boney M
Originally uploaded by architekt2

Are you up for a bit of web fun?

The effervescent Marcus Brown has thrown down the gauntlet to the Northern Planner, pitting Boney M against The Smiths in a do-or-die three round voting extravaganza.

"There is NO contest I hear you say!"

I agree … surely spangly disco is going to win out over dark, poetic narcissism? (oh, wait, this is the ADVERSTISING industry isn’t it?)

But to win, we will need help. You help. There will be voting and there will be research required. There are three rounds:
Round 1: Best Album artwork: (Sunday 9th – Thursday 13th)
Round 2: Best Music: (Sunday 16th – Thursday 20th)
Round 3: Culture influence beyond the band: (Sunday 23rd – Thursday 27th)
We need to find the best examples, the most innovative choices and we obviously need your votes and your help. If you want to be involved in this global campaign, drop me a note or leave a comment.

Distillation of Thought


Walkable world map
Originally uploaded by cityofsound

There is always so much going on … ideas spread with a vicious speed, new sites open and close in the blink of an eye … and the words, torrents of words, flow from the keyboards of the small named thousands scattered across the Internet. And out of this multitude, the one thing that makes us unique that gives us our own context, our name … also has the potential to be commodified. Recycled. Copied. Where in the world do we find a place to rest? To step away from the chaotic clutter?

My friend Stan has a great post that is marvellously quiet. It is part of his monthly Around the Blogosphere series … and it focuses (yes focuses) on one or two ideas that have been powerful enough to keep the words at bay. This month he talks about the godfather of branding, Russell Davies and New York branding consultant Ross Cidlowski. Give it a moment’s thought — you’ll be glad you did.

Is This My Sphere of Influence?


TouchGraph
Originally uploaded by servantofchaos

I found this neat tool on Darren Rowse’s Problogger site.

You can map keywords or you can simply enter a URL. To get this map (and to watch it grow in front of my eyes), I entered servantofchaos.typepad.com.

Not only do you get a funky looking map that shows the sites linking to you (and the sites that link to them), you get a great long list with short descriptions. To do this, TouchGraph calls on the Google search database. BUT … this is not all TouchGraph does. It also works for Facebook — and links to your friends, shows their networks and their photos.

Neat.

Caught Out with Quechup


MAGIC TRICK
Originally uploaded by AtomFilms

This morning I have received a flurry of emails from friends inviting me to join a new service called Quechup. Normally I would jump straight in … but there was another follow-up email warning me to NOT sign up.

You see, this new "service" has been tapping into the Gmail accounts of new registrants and spamming their entire address book WITHOUT authorisation.

Don’t join!

Update: Matt Dickman has a word of advice for all who receive invitations to "new" sites. Many others apologise for the actions of the Quechup fiends.

M20 Goes Solo


Market Sign at Night
Originally uploaded by Trefrog66

A while ago Peter Kim setup a list monitoring the rankings of blogs written by client side marketers. He called it the M20. On the list are some of my favourite blogs — along with a few that I am just getting to know.

  1. ExperienceCurve :: 74 
  2. Strategic Public Relations :: 70
  3. Listen Up! :: 59
  4. BeRelevant! :: 53
  5. Conversation Agent :: 51
  6. Todd And – The Power To Connect :: 48
  7. Flooring The Consumer  :: 42
  8. Decker Marketing :: 41
  9. The Lonely Marketer :: 41
  10. Marketing Nirvana :: 40
  11. Consumer Generated Media :: 38
  12. Churbuck.com :: 38
  13. The Digital Mindset Blog :: 36
  14. Bernaisesource :: 35
  15. Biznology :: 34
  16. Cross The Breeze :: 33
  17. AttentionMax :: 33
  18. Masiguy :: 32
  19. Community Group Therapy :: 31
  20. Buzz Marketing For Technology :: 31

As of this week, the M20 has moved to its own domain. Make sure to update your feeds!