Tim Ostler

Landmark sculptures: virals for the real world

2008-11-24T05:13:00.000-08:00

In the great tradition of the Angel of the North in Gateshead and the troubled "B of the Bang" in Manchester, just announced is the latest landmark sculpture for Britain, a pair of giant equine heads overlooking the entrance to a canal link connecting the Firth of Forth with the Clyde in Glasgow.

It's interesting how, as an indirect result of the largesse handed out as a result of the millennium funds generated by the National Lottery, a new fashion has arisen in the UK for gigantic public artworks that in an earlier age would have been laughed out of court with comments such as "What a waste of money! That could have paid for [x] schools or hospitals".

What seems to have changed is that people recognize the value of grand statements such as these for attracting press attention and visitors to a previously nondescript location. They succeed by exploiting people's natural tendency to marvel about the devotion of enormous amounts of resources to something that is ostensibly useless, but in PR terms (and in some cases, artistic) is anything but.

It's the kind of thing that is so striking that you just have to see it yourself, and tell others about it.

In other words, it's a viral.

The God's New Clothes

2008-11-13T16:07:00.000-08:00

The world is suffering at present because supposedly $3 trillion has been take out of the economy.

What has actually happened is that the $3 trillion was never really there but people had been basing their financial decisions on the belief that it was. When the illusory money was proved not to exist, confidence evaporated. Cue major readjustment, not to say economic panic and collapse.

It would be interesting to speculate how much of the world's economic and political infrastructure is dependent upon belief in the existence of a god or gods. Obviously the churches themselves, together with the economic and political apparatus supporting them. More intangibly, millions of people base everyday decisions not solely on rational or emotional decisions but on "fate" and/or superstitious expectation of various conditional outcomes.

What would the effect be on the political and psychological structure of the world if the idea that any god exists were ever to be finally and conclusively discredited?

On the Theory of Social Media Recommendations

2008-11-09T16:06:00.000-08:00

The view that you are more likely to be interested in things recommended by your friends is true only up to a point. I also value recommendations from people I don't know as it is more likely to provide ideas that are random and unfamiliar to me and offer fruitful new directions. It enlarges the meme pool.

Spare a thought for those threatened by accurate but disruptive theories

2008-11-09T15:58:00.000-08:00

I was watching a TV documentary about the Northern Ireland Troubles, which were treated as now just a historical series of events.

Watching the confident and matter-of-fact way in which former IRA bombers refer to past bombing missions gave me a glimpse of how threatening it must feel if you are a believer and you hear people talking matter of factly about the non-existence of God. What is proposed in each case is a worldview that takes for granted the destruction of the stability provided by something on which you may have built your whole life.

Usability and the financial crisis

2008-10-07T05:13:00.000-07:00

Not for the first time (see Florida's hanging chads in 2000) poor usability is playing a part in earth-changing events. In an article in today's FT Michael Gordon of Fidelity International suggests how the shape of the financial world will change as the result of current events.

"Complexity is out and simplicity is in. Investors want to understand fully what they are buying and where their exposures really are. This is a reasonable expectation in normal times, let alone in the uncertain period that lies ahead. Many financial instruments, their underlying exposures and the leverage within them had moved beyond the understanding of those who bought them and beyond those who had the responsibility of governing the institutions which traded and marketed them. Firms will become more focused on what they feel they can do well and what they can adequately control and monitor."

Enough said.

Times Square as Viral Generator

2006-12-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

“Times Square is becoming, in a way, a publishing platform,” said Peter Stabler, director of communication strategy for Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, an advertising agency that is part of the Omnicom Group. “What happens in Times Square is no longer strictly the province of location. You can experience things that are happening there, even if you’re not there.

"...Hosting events in Times Square, advertisers said, is like buying product placement in a TV show or a movie — except the cameras are held by consumers and the placement is on the Internet.”

Times Sq. Ads Spread Via Tourists’ Cameras

All of which makes me reflect that picture postcards were the first viral medium...