Xellular Identity - All About Mobile Content & Marketing

NYT: People and Their Avatars

The NYT published a beautiful series of portraits by Robbie Cooper in this weekend's magazine about people and their avatars, in virtual environments such as Second Life and Everquest. Follow the link for more pictures

The interesting is to witness how the created avatar is very closely tied to the personality of its creator in one of two ways:

• The avatar can be based on the user’s true physical appearance by keeping the same external characteristics such as color of eyes and skin tone, style of haircut and more...
• The avatar can present a desired but imaginary appearance: thinner, younger, more muscular, curvier, the opposite sex and more...

Klonies For Adults? -Yes!

I was reading some very interesting bloggers' opinions about the Klonies service at Skype by Jean Mercier and by Phil Wolff and wanted to answer both. As my comment was becoming longer and longer, I decided to post it here and offer a bonus - Klonies pics!

Before actually addressing the points raised by both Jean and Phil, let me provide some background info for those of you who are not familiar with Klonies; Klonies are a new service of personalized Avatars by the mobile solutions provider Comverse, that enables the creation of Avatars from a big content library of body types, eyes, hairstyles, hats, glasses, moods, clothes, branded accessories, etc., which can be used in traditional web forums, as well as to extend this experience to the mobile arena. Comverse has created a mobile Caller ID service, by which a user can create his Klonie either on the Web or on his mobile handset. Klonies let youth segment do something they could never even dream of doing before: create expressive avatars that represent them on other people’s phones. Klonies give the users extended means for self expression: they define how they are seen by their friends, on their phones.

Both Jean and Phil talk about the workplace and the adult Skype users segment; both raise a certain feeling of discomfort with the young looks of the Klonies; this feeling is associated to the older users (of Skype and in general).

As a member of the Klonies team at Comverse, let me share some insights: at a trial we had at a European TIER 1 mobile operator a few months ago, we received very enthusiastic responses from young adults (19-24) and adults (25 and up) participating the trial. Both young adults and adults participants replied that they find the Klonies content to be appealing and fun to use and that they would be willing to pay for this mobile service.

As for the Klonies looks, yes, Klonies are good looking and juvenile, as they are primarily targeted to the youth mobile market. Klonies are good looking as they are our alter ego, our “wanna be web\mobile persona”. Klonies are also means for playing with our identity. Over the web we can “try” different characteristics as if they were different outfits (or costumes), we can express hidden parts of our personality that we don’t expose in daily life, such as our desires.

As for "rugged", "mature", "experienced", "damaged", “fat” avatars, the question is who would want to have his exact body shape and look to be his\her web representation? Imagine yourself this situation: I’m a very cool teenager but my face is all covered with pimples. Would I want my avatar to be polka dotted as well? -of course not! Would I want to have a button that adds zits to my avatar’s face? -no!! Nobody thinks zits are a good way to promote yourself. We all prefer to show an improved image of ourselves. If an “add a zit" option exists in the avatars building studio, and I’d deny its existence because I want my avatar to look cool and hip (who wouldn’t?!), my friends would say I’m lying about the way I look. The bottom line is that no button that adds flaws is welcome in avatars world. Better not have this possibility\option.

And last note about the Klonies looks - we are working on different skeletons to address different market tastes:

Also, different cultures have different conventions of how to present our body and how to pose:

 

Thanks Jean or sharing your thoughs and Thanks Phil for raising great ideas (I tried to reply to all of them at the comments section).

Gaia: Avatars Online Social Network

I was going through my feeds and was excited to read Gigaom’s post about Gaia online avatar social network.

First, a few words about Gaia for those who are not familiar with it; Gaia is an online world with a series of virtual cities where Gaian avatars can socialize (up to 100 in a single space), with apartments they can own, and treasures they can find with no combat, whatsoever). I have been familiar with Gaia ever since I entered the avatars business and learned the avatars market and offering of those days.
However, stumbling upon avatars websites is very common on the web. The real excitement is to be able to get usage numbers. Fortunately, Wagner James Au (correspondent for Gigaom) managed to bring us the usage numbers of Gaia online social network:

• 300,000 log in daily, according to the company; average unique visit is two hours a day.
• Average concurrency: 64,000 users. Maximum: 86,738.
• 85% of users are based in the US
• 10% are English-speaking but non-US (with 5% a nebulous Other)
• Breakdown by gender: 55% Girls - 45% Boys
• About 20% of subscribers put up their real life photo in their avatar profile.
• Number of Gaia gold “millionaires”, as of last week: 1385
[via Gigaom]

Putting the numbers on ice, one of the interesting features that are worth to notice at Gaia is the incentive mechanism where users get incentives for participating in the online community’s life:

“A unique innovation is the way the company distributes its virtual gold currency: instead of selling it for real money (as with There) or allowing its trade on the open market (as with Second Life), Gaians are automatically given gold for participation: You get gold for posting on the Forums, for riding events, for uploading content, for exploring the world. Subscribers are rewarded for engaging in Gaia, in other words— and the reward incents them to engage in Gaia even more.”

To summarize, every avatar social community that succeeds is a win for the entire avatar business. Way to go Gaia!

Mobile Phones as Multi-Functional Accessories

Based on a survey of U.S. users who have a wireless phone, comScore Networks, released yesterday a study that analyzes differences in behavior and attitudes among the following key wireless consumer segments:

• The Cellular Generation - Ages 18 to 24, these young adults grew up with cell phone awareness, experiencing cell phones as a part of their everyday lives.
• Transitioners - Ages 25 to 34, these people fall in between two distinct groups: those who grew up with cell phone knowledge and those who did not. Cell phones began to infiltrate everyday life during their teen years and early adulthood.
• Adult Adopters - Age 35 or older, this group was not exposed to cell phone until adulthood. Adult Adopters tend to have the most functional view of cell phones, with many requiring just the basics and showing limited interest in emerging technologies.

""During the past decade, cell phones have dramatically changed the communication habits of American consumers," said Serge Matta, senior vice president of comScore Telecommunications Solutions. "While the youngest consumers grew up with the technology, those just a few years older did not, resulting in some pronounced differences in attitudes and behaviors towards cell phone usage across the various user segments. As cell phones continue to evolve in terms of design, functionality, and features, it is vital that cell phone providers and manufacturers understand the differing needs and desires of these distinct consumer segments.""

Cellular Generation Views Their Cell Phones as Accessories

"Cell phones offer far more than simply a means of voice communication. They can provide entertainment, convey social status, and express one's individuality. While consumers in both the Cellular Generation and Transitioners are likely to view their cell phones as multi-dimensional devices, adult adopters tend to have a more functional view. Approximately one-quarter of both the Cellular Generation (26 percent) and Transitioners (25 percent) said that "trendiness" was of high importance when selecting a cell phone, as compared to just 10 percent of Adult Adopters. Additionally, 41 percent of Cellular Generation consumers strongly agree with the statement "I like my cell phone to be personalized" with options such as color schemes and ring tones, while only 19 percent of Adult Adopters feel the same."

[via Cellular News]

Forgot Your Password? Try A New Identity

Danah Boyd has written a very interesting post about youth's tendency to forget things, like their login passwords etc and their approach when being locked out of mySpace/Xanga/Blogger happens:

"Sara created a MySpace using an email address that she made specifically for that purpose. After vacation, she couldn't remember her MySpace password (or her email password). She created a new MySpace page using a new throwaway email address. When i asked her if she was irritated that she had to do this after investing time in the previous profile, she said, "nah.. I had too many Friends that I didn't know anyways."

"Teens are not dreaming of portability (like so many adults i meet). They are happy to make new accounts on new sites; they enjoy building out profiles. (Part of this could be that they have a lot more time on their hands.) The idea of taking MySpace material to Facebook when they transition is completely foreign. They're going to a new site, they want to start over. [...] Some teens chew through IM handles like candy; their nicks are things like "o-so-funny" rather than the first name, last name standard that seems to pervade professional worlds. It's not seen as something to build an extensive identity around, but something to use to talk to friends in the moment."

[via zephoria]

Forgetting the password and creating a new account is a great opportunity to start over a new account with a new profile, i.e. a new identity. It is even more appealing for youth because adolescence is the age when many 'roles' are being tried/played with as part of the process of constructing an independent (from parents) identity.

in contrast, let's keep Cyworld with its 'real-name policy' and huge success among teens and young adults in mind...

Relevance Marketing - The Messengers

Sony Pictures is a great example of clever segmentation of target audience and a great example of leveraging segments’ needs and behavior to promote a new product; in this case, the upcoming thriller movie "The Messengers".

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“To promote the upcoming supernatural thriller "The Messengers", Sony Pictures has included in its dossier of digital-marketing tools a ringtone only young consumers can hear.”

"The ultrasonic ringtone -- ringtones that are audible to teenagers but not adults -- are a featured aspect of the film's promotional campaign, which is geared toward a teen audience.”

Understanding youth’s need to belong to a peer group and the place the mobile phone holds in the lives of youth as a tool to make a personal statement about themselves, Sony Pictures is promoting its new movie through a ringtone that only teens can hear. Besides having a thematic relevance to the movie since “the movie's story line about a young female protagonist insisting she hears voices that her parents cannot hear”, the ringtone has huge relevance to youth’s psychological and behavioral needs.

And Sony Pictures don't settle down with just ringtones to promote the movie,

“Along with the thematically-integrated ringtones and online interactivity, Epstein [executive director, worldwide digital marketing strategy, Columbia TriStar Marketing Group] also noted a blog on the Weblog community Xanga and an eventual 1-800 number as other communicative features tied to the film's marketing efforts. The hope is that it feels like one continuous conversation with Jess [the main character in the film] -- you see her profile on a social networking site, you call her and IM her -- as she draws you into her current situation," said Epstein, noting the intent of the campaign is to have users transcend a couple of digital mediums.”

And if you're interested in more about relevance marketing and youth - here's a link and my previous thoughts about the ultrasonic ringtone.

SMSing Under The Dinner Table

Hi everyone,

The forth part of the mobile youth trends coverage will be posted to next Thursday due to the mobileYouth Tends Summit that will be held tomorrow (Friday 24th of November) at the Tower Hotel, London. If you’re thinking of attending - I’m sure it is worthwhile.

Looking for mobile news related to youth I’ve found a very amusing research related to the American holiday season held by T-Mobile which shows how mobile has created new family dynamics at holiday dinners and family gatherings.

In the survey:

• 70% of young adults (ages 18-22) and 56% of parents surveyed say they've made or answered wireless calls during a holiday gathering.
• 35% of young adults say they've read or sent an e-mail or text message under the dinner table during a holiday family gathering.
• In addition, 67% of parents and young adults now agree that it is ok to use their mobile phone during holiday gatherings. Moreover, 73% of people surveyed agree the mobile phone can improve the holidays by keeping people in touch with those not there in person.

[via Cellular News]

One thing wasn’t very clear and changes my opinion entirely (regarding the described findings): whether “using their mobile phone during holiday gatherings” means “SMSing under the dinner table” as the title given by Cellular News implicates. If we’re talking about literally texting under the dinning table, sneaking letters without accidentally getting caught - you might say I’m too conservative… I think it’s pretty rude to sit with your family and text to friends under the dinning table. That’s me. As Dr. Tracy Wellens said, it might “include more people than ever before at family gatherings”. Yet it seems more like bonding with teenager’s peer group at the stake of disrespecting the people who made a big effort to be able to sit together at the dinning table… How about waiting for after dinner to reply?

****

And don't forget to drop by next Thursday for the last part of my "mobile youth trends" coverage!

MocoSpace

The other day Justin Siegel of JNJ Mobile shared that MocoSpace has just gotten a facelift. My test drive of this social software raised a few questions which Justin kindly answered and I decided to publish them here.

The first thing that intrigued me was the added value for MocoSpace mobile\web users, having other MoSoSo in the mobile neighborhood:

Justin: Today, there are no sites that offer people the combination of communication, self-expression & content sharing available on MocoSpace. The added value for MocoSpace users is that with MocoSpace they can now enjoy the benefits of finding friends (chat, browse profiles), staying connected to them (mobile email, messaging, guestbook), self-expression (personalized profiles, blogs, favorites, photos, videos, etc.), and content sharing (photos, videos, blogs, wallpapers, etc.) all on 1 great site available from virtually any device including mobile phones, smart phones, and personal computers. 

At MocoSpace, we think that it's crucial to incorporate several "best practices", which include

• safety features that allow members to protect themselves and allow site admins to monitor and address abuse issues
• a design that facilitates navigation and minimizes clicks
• broad handset support (wap 1.0, 2.0, xhtml)
• free and premium service options
• privacy levels for members
• customer support & help sections

MocoSpace’s competitors come mainly from 3 distinct areas. First there are the Web content competitors, ie MySpace, Youtube, Facebook, etc. These are sites with lots of content and big existing social networks. Second are the Web communication competitors MSN, Yahoo & Google.  These companies will continue to roll out mobile offerings that cover email, chat, and IM. Third, are the early mobile competition primarily led by WAP chat sites such as AirG and Jumbuck.

Regarding MocoSpace’s placement at the MoSoSo market:

Justin: MocoSpace is in an excellent position in the MoSoSo market thanks to the strength of its product offering and also its location, i.e. North America. In the US, unlike Asia for example, there are not many if any players really taking aim today at what we are doing in terms of breadth and depth of their offering. Some companies are offering photo sharing or chat, but none are offering a product that truly combines the notions of connectivity, communication, and content they way MocoSpace is today.

And some thoughts about the future:

Justin: MocoSpace will continue to enhance its existing features to further enable communication as well as content sharing & creation. Without giving away too much about our product roadmap, I would suggest that our next area of focus will be music.

Mososo is such a broad term that covers so much ground, it's practically impossible to try to predict it's future because the "it" is vague and continually changing. That said, the future of this category of sites and services is going to be huge, it's going to be ad supported, and it's going to obliterate the remnants of operators' walled gardens. I think it will take the idea of connectivity to a new level in terms of people always feeling plugged in to their friends, peer groups, etc. I'm not a big fan of the pursuit of the "killer app" beyond voice and email. However, I do think that MoSoSo is probably the closest we've come to a killer category. I sure hope our evolution as an industry didn't peak with Crazy Frog!

Don't Let Your Private Life Hang Up By Your Career

These tips for job applicants concerning your mobile self expression were caught in one of my news alerts:

"Your cell phone is ringing. If you are job hunting, the person calling may be your future employer. If it is, you have obviously impressed them with your application or stellar resume -- you don't want to ruin your chances by handling the call unprofessionally.

"In recent years we have found a majority of applicants list only their cell phone number for direct contact. However, some applicants are too casual when using their cell phones. Often, recruiters are greeted with voice mail messages that should never be heard by a prospective employer."

"While the latest trend is to personalize your ringback tone with the hottest music download, usually it does not reflect a professional image. Your friends and family may enjoy listening to your favorite song before you answer, but a prospective employer may not."

"Select an appropriate voice mail message. Keep it short and include your full name so the prospective employer knows they have reached the correct applicant."

[via KOTA]

The article describes the inevitable encounter of the professional and private spheres. While it advices to pretend that we don't have a private life, I think that if someone calls my personal mobile phone, it is only natural for the caller to be exposed to private aspects of my life\personality.

Very popular online news narrative is the story of applicants who weren’t hired due to facts\personal opinionswritten in their personal blogs\mySpace profiles etc'. Also, many experts advice us to be very careful with what we put online. While I agree that we should think before publishing personal content online -- if someone knocks on my door in the middle of the night, why would he\she be surprised to find me in my polka doted pajamas?! Should I deny having one or quickly change to my business suit? -- I hope you all agee that this is ridiculous; Likewise, if someone calls my private mobile phone, he\she have to realize that he\she is stepping into my personal world and that he\she will hear my personal greeting or my personalized ringback tone. We all have a professional persona and a private one at the same time. By no means it should disqualify an applicant from getting hired for the job.

Having said that, if this still bothers you, you don't have to get rid of your ringback tone. Today, you can have multiple ringback tones and multiple voice mail greetings set according to the person calling you. So you can set up “How I wish you were here” for your girl\boyfriend and “Work All Day” for your prospective employer. There's no need to hide.

Interviewing Jan Kuczynski on Mobile Music and Youth Trends

Welcome to the second part of the mobile youth trends and behavior coverage. Today, Jan Kuczynski, Associate Manager at the Wireless World Forum, who is also the co-author of the mobileYouth 2006 report will be visiting here! Jan has been with Wireless World Forum for almost a year with a focus on emerging mobile trends and technology. Prior to joining W2F, Jan spent two years in snowy northern Japan and one year in the sunny south of France “I can personally recommend the Jurançon sec to anyone into their white wines”.

For those of you who missed the first part of the mobile youth trends coverage: Nick Wright, Jan's colleague, visited Xellular Identity last week and we had a great conversation - you can read it here.

Well, enough said... Jan, the stage is yours!

-Hi Jan, how are you?

Good thanks, Xen. Thanks for inviting me at Xellular Identity!

-How’s the weather in London?

We’ve been really lucky recently actually - it’s another bright and sunny autumn day!

-What got you interested in mobile?

I’ve always had an interest in the latest technology, but I suppose I really fell in love with my mobile when I spent two years living in Japan. There were some great handsets and services over there which kept me busy during my daily train commute. I would always be using my mobile to shop on Amazon, check maps using GPS or just browse around. Since I came back to the UK, I’ve stopped using my mobile so much. I still like to keep my eye on some of the new mobile developments back over in Japan - though sometimes it makes me just a little jealous…

-What takes up your time other than mobile?

Reading (I’ll have to look into your recommendation of Murakami’s “Wind-up Bird Chronicle”!), rugby league, skiing and getting out of London now and again to see the rest of the world. I’ve also been in big trouble with my housemate recently for repeatedly stealing their new Nintendo DS with tetris!

-Today’s topic is mobile music - do you use your mobile as a music player?

Actually, I don’t! The biggest deal breaker is that my handset doesn’t have a regular headphone socket. I really hate the standard headphones that come bundled with most ‘music phones’ these days so I would only use my phone as a music player if I could use my headphones. The other issue that holds me back is the lack of a good all-in-one music service that will let me use my mobile music on my PC and not cost me a fortune in data charges for OTA downloads from my phone.

-OK, not a mobile music convertee yet ;) but you’re a music fan, right?

Yes I am - and so it was fun to do research into the new trends in youth music consumption and try out some of the services that are so popular with today’s teens - in fact, I even went to two concerts of artists that I found out about on MySpace!

-Does music take a different role in the lives of teenagers and adults?

Yes, it does. As we grow older, we tend to have smaller groups of close friends, but for teenagers, friends, peers and social groups are the most important things in their lives. Music is a powerful social tool for teenagers - it gives them something to talk about, social status from knowing about the newest and coolest bands and the type of music you listen to can even define which social group you belong to (in my school you were either a metal-er or a raver based on your music tastes - I’ll let you guess which one I was ;) ).

-What are the key drivers for music’s appeal to youth?

Youth don’t just play music - they explore, display and share music. Firstly, youth can only use music as a social tool if it’s up-to-date, so unless youth constantly put feelers out to explore new music, they get left behind. Secondly, teens like to display their music tastes - whether it’s through their CD rack, their Coldplay t-shirt or simply by turning up their headphones so everyone can hear. Thirdly, youth like sharing music as it earns them social currency and reinforces peer bonds - that’s why teenagers spend time and effort burning compilation CDs for their friends.

-Has the way youth consume music changed over the last 10 years?

The key drivers haven’t changed - youth still want to explore, display and share their music - but the music industry itself has undergone a big transformation over the last few years. Music formats have shifted from analogue to digital and sources of new music have become more diverse. When I was younger, there was only one music chart, one MTV and just a handful of radio stations for youth. Now there’s the internet, a whole spectrum of music charts and channels and more and more specialist music genres (HipHopera or Neo-Rave anyone?).

-What music services are most popular among teens?

The most popular teen music services now are internet services which help youth best explore, display and share their music in the new fragmented, digital music world. Some services focus on improving one of these aspects (for example, Last.fm focuses on exploring, BBC’s Musicubes are a new way of displaying and Kazaa is mainly about sharing), whereas some enhance all three. MySpace, for example, is all about exploring for new music through a social network, displaying your music tastes on your homepage and sharing new tracks with a community of peers.

-How can we make mobile music more appealing to youth?

I think we need to move beyond the “mp3 playback” mindset to make mobile music a competitor for other popular youth music services. Just adding mp3 playback to a handset doesn’t exploit mobile music’s potential to let youth explore, display and share their music.

I’ve started to see some great new mobile products and services which do exactly that. For exploring, mobile technologies such as QR codes, image and audio recognition provide really interesting opportunities to use the mobile to discover new music. For displaying, there is a growing market for Bluetooth speakers which help youth make a display of their music collection, and there’s a great handset called “Neon” in Japan which shows the track title and artist in glowing LEDs along the side of the phone. For sharing, Vodafone have developed a DRM system where young people can swap music over Bluetooth, MMS, infrared and memory cards and there are some new music services that let youth share playlists with friends.

Mobile music has great potential, but I think it’s only by using mobile technology to build on the key drivers of exploring, displaying and sharing that we can make mobile music services more appealing to youth.

Thank you Jan! :)

* *** * *** * *** *

Next week there will be a new guest visiting here and talking about the art of marketing mobile services for the youth segment. Wanna know who??? - don't forget to tune in next Thursday to find out!

Cyworld Insight from Plus Eight Star

Just finished reading Alan Moore’s interview with Benjamin Joffe of Plus Eight Star, on a new report about Cyworld.

I wanted to highlight 3 interesting observations Benjamin made regarding topics that I’ve covered here many times in the past:

Personalization as a major revenue generator:

"You mentioned best practices, what is there to learn from Cyworld for
foreign community services / social networks?
To start with, the richness of the Cyworld service itself can support the product planning of foreign services. Among the most interesting aspects are Cyworld's business model relying on micro-customization, which concerns not only avatars but the whole page with music and many other functions. Also, the mobile aspects of Cyworld can certainly inspire companies who wish to step into this next 3-billion dollars industry'."

The use of ‘real name policy’ vs. anonymity online:

"The key point in Cyworld is its 'real-name policy'. Basically you need to use your real name associated with your official ID number to register. This has become more or less a standard among South Korean Internet services. It is a bit counter-intuitive, but real name policy does not damage free speech, it brings responsibility, courtesy and a lot of benefits for users themselves in terms of trust in the information they can find. We faced the same elements when doing a benchmark of best practices in online 'serious dating' services: trust and reliability brings a very high value to services.

Another very important aspect that sets Cyworld apart from 'western style blogs' is that minihompy are about social and emotional presentation of the self, while Western blogs tend to be rather intellectual. It is very different to have an 'online self' and a 'public journal'. This has an important impact on economics as users want to present the most attractive online self for their friends, and friends and emotions do not have a market price!

Users' value in Cyworld:

"In Cyworld we found the following drivers:
a). Not being left behind
b). Their creations
c). Their relationships
d). Their image"

[via Community Dominate Brands]

I really encourage you to read the full interview, it's a worth reading so don't miss it!

Interviewing Nick Wright on Mobile Youth Trends

For quite some time I was thinking about covering a wider scope of the mobile youth trends and behavior. Reading and looking for a body of knowledge, I got to know Nick Wright, a Research Associate at the Wireless World Forum, who is a co-author of the mobileYouth 2006 report. Nick has a BA in English and has worked in film journalism, English teaching and publishing. He joined Wireless World Forum in 2006 after a year living and working abroad in Russia and Turkey. Having made an incredible gesture, Nick will be my special guest at Xellular Identity during the month of November. First, I will be publishing the email interview conducted earlier, and later on Nick has agreed to answer your questions(!)

Well enough talking, let’s give Nick a worm to the stage!

Getting to Know Nick

-Hi Nick, how are you?   
Great, great to be here :)

-What brought you into the world of mobile?
What appealed to me when I joined Wireless World Forum 2 months ago was the consumer focus inherent in their approach to research. I had just finished a period teaching English to kids in Russia and Turkey and I knew the importance of appealing to young people and getting their attention. When I joined I knew as much as the next person about mobiles but within a very short time I discovered that this was an area where huge leaps in development were possible on a daily basis. It’s an exciting area to be involved in and it’s rare to see an industry so passionate about the possibilities that their medium offers. What we are trying to do with the mobileYouth report is refocus that passion to keep it relevant to the youth consumers so that all that energy isn’t lost.

-Other hobbies, fields of interest?
I’m an avid film buff but I temper the long time spent sitting in front of the screen by keeping active though running, rowing and yoga. Recently, it’s been an exciting time for me since the London Film Festival has been showing all over the city. The new, the strange and the classic jostle for attention around London and I’m frankly spoilt for choice. Last Sunday it set a world record for showing its much-anticipated, completely unknown “Surprise Film” on 50 screens at the same time (including a hospital, a prison and some lucky person’s living room). It turned out to be Robert Altman’s hilarious and touching new film “A Prairie Home Companion”, his first for 5 years. It was worth the suspense!

-3 birthday wishes?
1) A solution (or a basket of solutions) to solve the climate crisis we’re facing right now. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth comes at an all-too convenient time.
2) The persistence to train for the London marathon for next year
3) The Complete Stanley Kubrick Collection on DVD.

-What did you get for Christmas last year?
A Russian chapka from my parents: I was in Moscow teaching English and the benny hat wasn’t doing the trick any more!

mobileYouth

-High influence of the peer group, the need to build an independent personality, search of identity… adolescence was always about those burning questions, so what has mobile to do with it?
The relationship between youth and their mobiles is not necessarily based on being “fun, cool, or entertaining”. It’s a key social tool employed in the dynamics of the peer group. Youth consume mobile products - as they do others - to make statements about themselves and their relationship with their peers.

Self-expression is such a key aspect of young people’s lives that they would rarely choose a non-branded alternative over an identifiable brand. 98% of teens for example would choose a brand/logo designed T-shirt over a plain one.

Mobile is most importantly a symbol of belonging to a group, both as a physical product (you must own a phone to be part of our group) and its communicative possibilities: texting is essential to youth not because of the content (very limited) of the texts themselves but because each text is a reaffirmation and a reminder that “I’m with you”.

If mobile operators are to make the most of this underlying desire for social interaction amongst youth peer groups, then they need to ask how they can benefit youth and improve their communication. So far the emphasis has been more about giving young people things to play with on their phone which don’t enhance or build on existing behaviour. The result is, at best, small-scale adoption and faddish blips but no long-term successes beyond texting.

-How is the mobile phone changing the lives of teenagers?
A pretty broad question! I think it’s fair to say that it’s allowed youth to remain hyper-connected at all times, to the extent that 14% of US mobileYouth surveyed admitted that they couldn’t live without their phones. Other surveys point to the fact that an increasing number of young people are bing admitted to clinics as “text-addicts”. Overall, youth may be building up a dependency on mobiles which have increasingly become a sign of social status and self-esteem: many admit to feeling depressed if they pass a whole day without receiving a text.

We found something similar in the recent vox pop survey we caught on camera last week. One person admitted that he didn’t know “how people survived before mobile phones” and almost all admitted that they loved texting. If you’d like to see what other information we gathered from the video interviews please visit this link.

However, overall it is fueling the more extrovert and allowing shyer teens to communicate more easily. One of the more interesting findings is that mobiles have come to take the place in youth culture traditionally held by cigarettes. They provide or allow private communication, the activity is carried out largely unsupervised and they effectively create a rare private space for youth to interact in.

The most popular aspects of the mobile are features that can be adapted to suit the needs of youth. Texting is easily understood (though it needs practice to reach the blurry speeds of some of the more proficient) and adaptable to the stage where adults find the language unintelligible. Wallpapers and handset choice allow for personalization which allows youth to express themselves and advertise their identity as part of their peer group.

One of the reasons for the low adoption of new mobile services is because youth cannot access the service easily either due to budget or the difficulty of setting up the service to begin with. One of the key factors in reaching the youth mass market is the ease of use of a service which allows it to become widely accepted across peer groups.

- Is there a special usage of the mobile phone when it comes to youth? Usage patterns? How youth’s usage/consumption of mobile services differ from other segments?
Youth are compulsive texters, as I have explained. Globally they spend four times as much  on texting  as the average mobile phone user (US$ 6 a year compared to US$ 1.5 across all ages). 29.8% of their ARPU is on data services, compared to 11% across all age ranges. There is a lot of room to exploit future data services for the youth market as long as operators exploit existing youth behaviour rather than churning out technological features that have little relevance to kids’ lives.

-What is the market size of mobileYouth?
Currently youth from 5-24 make up 28.1% of the mobile phone ownership market. They spend US$ 130 million on mobiles which is 24% of the total spend on mobiles for all ages. Youth spend on data services is US$ 38 million and, importantly 80% of that spending is on texting. Youth spend on data services is 43% of the total, which shows just how heavily they rely on text as opposed to voice to communicate.

-Do culture and orientation influence mobileYouth behavior? How?
Although we argue that the underlying social drivers behind youth consumers are broadly similar, there are superficial cultural differences that have often been given too much emphasis when, for example, some industry professionals dismiss Korean and Japanese youth markets as “gadget-obsessed”.  These markets are far more developed in their adoption of the mobile internet and the uses of camera phones but these are all easily explained in other terms that the Japanese being obsessed with technology.

Japanese and Korean youth have even higher levels of mobile data service ARPU than youth globally: 47.6% of mobileYouth ARPU was data, compared to the global average of 29.7%. One of the most popular mobile services in Korea is a mobile social networking site named Cyworld, which is essentially an extension of MySpace in that it allows youth to create their own virtual rooms and literally buy furniture to decorate it. It’s hugely popular (90% of Koreans in their 20s have used the service) and provides a perfect environment for youth to fulfil five of their basic social needs, as we identified them: Social Networking, Communication, Status display, Personalisation and acting as a Behavioural Platform.

To explain: Social networking essentially allows youth to keep connected to all their friends, reconnect with older friends (as in the case with Bebo, a UK-based social networking site for school students, for those children forced to move school) and meet new people with similar interests.
Communication is simply the ability to communicate via as many routes as possible: text, voice, IM, PM, e-mail etc. Cyworld allows consumers to interact in all these ways.

Status Display and personalisation are shown by the ability to adapt and personalize in a way that shows off the young author’s identity, likes and dislikes (specifically related to music), friends, profile and the customizable room. As in real life, the virtual world holds virtual objects that convey status in the same way as branded Nike trainers or ownership of the latest music does in real life.

Ultimately, since so many youth are on Cyworld, it essentially forms a behavioural platform for youth as well. By this I mean it presents a set of rules, perameters and structures for youth to interact around. A great way for youth to advance their status is to become a master of a certain behavoural platform. Specific sport varieties are also behavioural platforms so, for example, if you are a great skateboarder you will be given a higher status amongst your skater peer group. In the same way, collective familiarity with a certain platform, when everyone has access to it and understands the “rules”, tends to strengthen peer group bonds and the attachment to the platform itself.

Thank you Nick! :)

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For the second part of the interview and more insights about the mobile youth behavior, the mobile music market, and the future of this market - don't forget to tune in next Thursday!

Korean Avatars Market Review - Part IV (Mobile Avatars Offerings)

Recently I was asked to give a presentation about the Korean avatars market, trying to understand the craze and predict other mobile markets’ behavior. Knowing it might interest some of you, I’ll be publishing the content of the presentation at this blog. Due to the length, I’ve been posting it in a few parts every Thursday. If you missed the opening, here’s the link to the first part, second part and third part.

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Mobile Avatars Offerings

The medium of avatars is naturally focused on community, since users need an audience to present their character. As such, avatars can increase operator's attractiveness using its viral affect to mobile operators. Also, operators can use avatars in order to utilize the loyalty established by online communities.

However, the mobile industry had stumbled upon barriers to provide a mobile avatars offering: the mobile internet hasn’t reached the web’s speed, latency, and user interface. Also there’s a big difficulty in implementation.

Having said that, there are already some players in the Korean mobile avatars arena. The first player was NEOWIZ which began supplying mobile avatars to KTF in August 2001, to LG Telecom in April 2002, and SK Telecom in August 2002. According to company’s reports, mobile avatar sales grew to over 2 billion won per month in 2004 (which are about $1.5 B).

The second player was NATE. SK Telecom's Nate launched its avatar service in October 2002 and provides avatar service similar to those provided by web portals. This move was the result of the wired-wireless convergence with SK Telecom’s acquisition of a Korean web portal. Nate offers clothing brands for avatars, providing its users with replicas of the genuine clothing lines. The fashion and consumer brands companies enjoy the advertising by increasing actual product sales, while NATE profits from avatar sales.

What avatars demonstrated to the mobile industry is that mobile phones are a strong extension of self for many users. By personalizing the mobile with avatars, the mobile becomes much more than a communication tool. It has become an extension of either how the user views himself\herself, or would like to.

To summarize, avatars should be linked with other services and not just be a cute application to play with. Avatar service has been generating sales related to community-based services like gaming, forums, chats, IM, and minihomepies. Integrating the web and mobile increases the usage of avatars provide the ability to use the digital identity created practically everywhere.

Korean Avatars Market Review - Part III (Avatars Offerings)

Recently I was asked to give a presentation about the Korean avatars market, trying to understand the craze and predict other mobile markets’ behavior. Knowing it might interest some of you, I’ll be publishing the content of the presentation at this blog. Due to the length, I’ve been posting it in a few parts every Thursday. If you missed the opening, here’s the link to the first part and second part

                                ***

Avatars Offerings

Consumption of all kinds of online content has extremely grown in Korea ever since broadband internet service became popular. I’ll also add here a little piece of valuable info I got last week (Thanks Melanie) to get the idea of “heavy connectivity” that was discussed last week: on average, Korean Internet users spend 12.2 hours online per week and participate in 3-4 community websites!

South Korean users were the first to adopt avatars as their web representation. Respectively, the demand for avatars has grown with the fast adoption of online social interactions in a bodiless, ageless and sexless sphere. This amorphous presence has evoked the need to establish a visual presence by nominating a visual representant.

Most of the avatar providers are portal companies which entered the avatar market to upgrade their web offerings. This companies recognized that avatars can increase revenues by promoting more frequent and longer visits and by serving as a bridge to additional services. Only later down the road service providers realized that avatars are a consumer goods which should have a business model of their own. The avatar service evolved to a pay service which increased the quality of the offerings.

What makes the avatar phenomenon so interesting for many, is the fact that so many users are willing to pay to dress their avatar with clothing and accessories. Understanding that the avatar has a major role in self-representation in the social world over the web, service providers offer only a basic avatar. Many times the basic avatar doesn’t wear more than pajamas or a fig leaf. Service providers understood that users want to have an avatar that resembles them as much as possible, so they offered premium content for extra charge.

The major avatar providers in Korea are NEOWIZ (SayClub), Cyworld, Daum, MSN Korea and Yahoo! Korea.

NEOWIZ operates one of the most popular avatar sites - SayClub. SayClub has over 20 million subscribers which are equivalent to nearly 50% the population of Korea! Neowiz launched the first avatar service in 2000 and has occupied one of the leading positions among Korean internet companies offering avatars and games ever since. According to the company’s reports, Q1 2006 avatar revenues reached $2.4 M!

NEOWIZ was the first provider to employ an “avatars distributed for free, clothes and accessories sold for small amounts” business model. According to this model, users can buy designer avatar clothing and other premium content, with licensing fees being paid to actual consumer brand. This has led to the reality where Korean avatar owners spend more money on clothing for their avatar than they do for themselves. In a society where most of interactions happen over the web – this makes sense.

MSN Korea launched its MSN messenger in 2003 which includes “dynamic avatars”. Dynamic avatar changes according to the typed emoticons or certain words like ‘happy’, ‘angry’, etc’ in the chat window. Dynamic avatars require server capacity which is equal to the online games; which makes it harder for small portals to provide similar services. MSN Korea offers users a “multi avatar feature” which enables the user to employ up to 4 avatars. The displayed avatar depends on the chat partner. To initiate the service, users need to pay cyber money.

The last major avatar provider, which got a lot of coverage after its entrance to the U.S. market, is Cyworld. Cyworld is a social networking leader in Asia with localized sites in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, owned by a subsidiary of SK Telecom, the country's largest wireless provider. The Cyworld service is a combination of minihompies, online communities, music downloads, picture sharing, messenger and eBay. Cyworld’s users have avatars that visit (by linking) each other's "minihompy" [= a miniature homepage that looks like a 3D room which contains user’s blog, photos, and virtual items for sale]. Cyworld users also buy and sell music, ringtones, and clothes for their avatar. They can also buy skins to furnish their virtual minihompy. The service is free yet a big part of the content is available only for a fee, paid in virtual currency. Cyworld has astonishing penetration rates with 90% of the 20-year-old Koreans.

Daum, another major avatar provider is one of Korea's largest portals. Currently it has more than 35 million subscribers.

Next week - I’ll be talking about the next big thing... avatars entering into the mobile arena! So don’t forget to tune in on Thursday.

Korean Avatars Market Review - Part II (The South Korean connectivity culture)

As I told you last week, I was asked to give a presentation about the Korean avatars market, trying to understand the craze on the web and predict other mobile markets’ behavior. I started to post it in a few parts every Thursday. If you missed the opening, here’s the link to the first part and now let’s move forward to the second part:

                                           ***

South Korean connectivity culture

South Korean users were the first to adopt avatars as their web representation and very quickly it has turned to be a very prosperous market for avatars providers. To understand this phenomenon we should look into the South Korean connectivity culture.

South Korea has quickly become the world's most wired nation. A friend of mine who just got back to Israel after being relocated in South Korea for 1.5 years shared that he "couldn’t grasp how much the web had to offer until I got to Korea. You suddenly realize how FAST it can be! An average South Korean apartment has a high-speed Internet connection of 8 megabits per second” - which, just for the comparison, is 8 times the typical broadband speed in U.S. households. That's FAST!

But we’re not only talking about the speed. Korean broadband penetration leads the world being one of the fastest, and its subscription rates which are among the lowest in the world. 78% of the total Korean households or some 11 million homes, have broadband accounts. This makes Korea a fertile land for broadband services.

Massively multi-player online role-playing games or MMORPGs are one of the beneficiaries of Korean broadband’s high penetration. These games form entire fantasy worlds (and economies), where players meet, interact, and even fight (together or against one another). All is done by using their avatars, their web representations. MMORPGs where the first arena where the need for having a personalized self-representation was understood and answered.

The demand for avatars has grown with the fast adoption of online social interactions in a bodiless, ageless and sexless sphere (at MMORPGs and elsewhere on the web). This amorphous presence has evoked the need to establish a visual presence by nominating a visual representant.

Service providers, on their behalf, entered the avatar market to upgrade their web offerings, recognizing that avatars can increase revenues by promoting more frequent and longer visits and by serving as a bridge to additional services; wherever you go, you take your avatar with you. For the different Korean Avatars offerings you'll have to tune in next Thursday... :)

Korean Avatars Market Review - Part I

Recently I was asked to give a presentation about the Korean avatars market, trying to understand the craze and predict other mobile markets’ behavior. Knowing it might interest some of you, I’ll be publishing the content of the presentation at this blog. Due to the length, I’ll be posting it in a few parts every Thursday.

***
Email, IM, VoIP, P2P file sharing, online social networks etc’... we all use these to communicate with other people. It makes our lives easier, it extends our availability (and our working hours) and it makes us manage more "mediated" relationships than we used to have in the past; meaning we communicate more through emails\mobiles\IM and less in person, face to face. Having said that, we should examine the influence of these medias on our lives and what we gain from them.

One of the key attributes of the internet is that users are liberated from their body, age, sex and occupation. For many, this is a major attraction while others loathe the lack of boundaries. Either way, users need to supplement information that otherwise can be gathered easily, like age, sex, personal traits etc’. To do so, users adopt a personal referent that stands for them over the web. It can be a screen name, a user ID number, an email address… Yet many users find that a graphical representation provides a better service for this purpose.

That graphical representation is what we call an avatar. An avatar can be based on the user’s physical appearance as close as possible, if not identical, to how he\she is seen in real life or, in contrast, present a desired but imaginary appearance; a manga fairy, a medieval warrior, cute Hello Kitty... Anything or anyone. Thus, avatars empower users. Avatars are users’ alter ego.

Also, users can change their avatars frequently to better fit their mood and the actual settings.

Scholars have found major interest in the self-representation over the web mechanism, and dealt a lot with the following questions:

• Does web self-representation resemble to the real-life self-representation?
• How users manage consciously and unconsciously their self-representation over the web?
• What message users want to promote about themselves?
• How users read and decode this visual information?

Moving to South Korea...

South Korean users were the first to adopt avatars as their web representation and very rapidly it has turned to be a very prosperous market for avatars providers. To understand this phenomenon we should look into the South Korean connectivity culture. So don’t forget to tune in next Thursday for the second part.

WeeWorld Now on AIM

Congratulations to WeeWorld people for steping into AIM with their WeeMee avatars. Now AIM users can have their personalized WeeMee as their AIM expression. This is great news for the entire world of avatars. :)

And here is my Weemee:

 

No Mobile? No Social Life

Noted - the mobile is the yardstick of teen's social life:

"78% of 11 to 17-year-olds believe having a mobile has given them a better social life as it meant it was easier to keep in touch with their friends. By contrast, many young people - especially teenage girls - admit they would feel unwanted if the day passed without their mobile ringing."

[via BBC News}

In my days it was getting invited to better Friday's nights dance parties\hang outs...

Mod Your Mobile

As a personalization evangelist, I've been familiar with ringtones, wallpapers and screensavers, colorful shells, Klonies as your Virtual mobile persona, mobile jewelry... Also I've been familiar with the fact that this is a major personal need of adolescence. But this is something I haven't seen yet... (and thanks Darren) :)

"'Mod' is short for modification, it's big in Japan and it's going to be massive over here. Show us what you can do with a tube of glue, some paint and a bit of imagination."

[via Orange UK]

To encourage users to express their creativity (ahm ahm...), Orange UK even has a prize winning competition for best 'modders'. Having my unique handmade mobile HS might make me want to keep it longer; yet if the modding didn't turn out as I wanted or I accidentally spilled too much glue on the screen - mom+dad are gonna need to buy me a new one...

   

Itzle - Nice but Lacking (a lot of) Sex Appeal

Tom pointed me to this social tool I wasn’t aware of. Itzle is a new tool that gives you a visual presence while visiting at a webpage “as if it were an actual, physical place”. The aim is to meet other people in the same virtual location and communicate. Tom also points out that He sees it

“as the reincarnation of Odigo's base idea: while being able to IM with your friends, how do you make new friends?

the idea was that you would see on the Odigo 'radar' people being on the same web page as you (you could further drill down to sex, age, spoken language, etc), as well as leave notes for other to see on the web page.”

My criticism is about the visual appearance: the Itzle avatar is nice yet very schematic. The personalization options are very basic and only allow you to change the colors of the hair, shirt, pants and text. The user can't even change the most basic option of all customizable web identities - determining his/her gender. Today, with a huge market of web avatars, this is just not enough. If this seems redundant, just think how would someone attract others into initiating communication while visiting the same webpage when they all look the same??! Would you just try avatars randomly? I don’t think so.

It’s nice, yet this browser add-in will have a tough time gaining popularity with the proliferation of social apps in the online neighborhood and with its avatars' low sex appeal…

Girls, Throw Away Your Diamonds (and Get A Plasma)

Girls, if you haven't already done so, throw away your designers shoes, diamonds and romantic vacations in favor of plasma TVs, digital cameras and personal gadgets...! Cuz these days, tech replaces diamonds as girl's best friend. Also, according to a new U.S. study, commissioned by cable television's Oxygen Network,

"the next five years women see themselves increasing their activities in six tech areas: digital cameras, cell phones, e-mail, camera phones, text messaging and instant messaging."

[via Reuters, InformationWeek]

I say this tech mania is a replacement, to a certain extension, of the fashion mania. Both are a personal statement of skills, knowledge and status; And both function as a language of signs, symbols and iconography that visually communicate meanings about their users/ owners. However, since at the internet era our communications is more mediated and less direct/ F2F, we need new  and reliable signs which would indicate (to others) our skills, knowledge and status, as fashion always has been doing.

Stardoll: An Avatar Or A Doll?

Successful consumer brands allow customers to assign their own meaning to a product or service. This gives them the opportunity to project themselves to others, to get a feeling of self-expression. To provide greater added-value, consumer brands usually use celebrities to promote themselves.

Stardoll has taken the power of celebrities being brands themselves. Instead of dressing your avatar or paperdoll - the way it's called there - with brands you can choose Brad Pitt, Halle Berry or any other celebrity out of a list of 400, and get them dressed from a very limited collection. [I don’t know how they got the approval of all these celebrities to use their faces... Anyhow, copyrights and royalties aren’t my issue here].

The celebrities are a sure attraction no arguing here. Yet, instead of using the power of consumer brands and engage it with the need for expressing the personal identity on the web, these avatars are taken to the childish world of play and fantasy. I’m offered to play with my favorite celebrity’s paperdoll, dress it up, identify with it and become the celebrity during the playing time, just like when girls play with their Barbie dolls or boys play with their action figures. This is why they’re called “dolls” rather than “avatars”: you can play with it for certain time and that’s about it(!). There's no other outlet for your paperdoll, like different messengers, web communities and in the future - the mobile… Having this restricted outlet, this service can only be targeting the segment of 5-13 yrs girls, during the dolls' period of glory, and therefor the sweet pinkish tones of the website.

Anyhow, it is an interesting example of combining web identities and consumer brands.

Technorati Tags: stardoll, avatars, paperdolls, celebrities, consumer brands, self expression, marketing, web identities

Teen BuzzTones

we all agree that the mobile is more than just a mobile... it's also a personal statement about us, about our tastes, fashion, lifestyle etc… and not just the mobile itself; ringtones have played a major role in this trend as well. If you think about it, music is actually a fashion and personality statement as well, so the combination of mobile and music as means of conveying a message - turns the ringtone into a powerful tool for self expression purposes.

Having said all that, how can the latest teenage trend of using a high-pitched sound which can’t be heard by adults as a ringtones* (so they can use phones during classes) fits in this equation?

This high-pitched ringtone, a.k.a. TeenBuzz, is a personal statement as well. A teenager who uses it conveys the following message:

• I’m cool
• I’m tech savvy
• I’m very in - I’m familiar with all the latest trends
• I’m part of a social group - the group of teens who use the mobile in class (= I’m not a geek)
• I’m reinforcing my belonging to that social group
• I’m more interested in my friends than in the class/teacher
• I’m willing to take risks in class, but in a smart/sophisticated way

All that in a single action of changing the polyphonic ringtone to the high-pitched ringtone during class!

I wish that in my school days I had a cool toy like that! :)

*Mosquito

Technorati Tags: mosquito, teen buzz, youth, mobile trend, mobile behaviour, ringtones, self expression

Reality? Check

"Klonies Blogging Idol" is still running... Causing the participants to nervously bite their nails not knowing who’s winning since many friends want to get the chance to try the blogging thing. For those of you who haven't heard about it, I'm looking for blogging talents among the Avatars Group, to get them blogging in our upcoming Klonies Blog. So let me introduce you to my fourth guest, Tom Sella, a dear friend of the group, a Klonies addict, a regular reader (I didn’t pay him to do so I swear) and a great blogger. Well, enough talkin’... Tom, knock ‘em down!

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Several years ago I had a couple of paperback Asimov’s Journal (after looking it up, I think it is Asimov’s Science Fiction zine) editions, or something to that effect. These were collections of short science fiction stories by (I think) both known and lesser-known authors.

One story that I particularly liked was one which, among other things, described a message answering holographic video phone, where your (today more commonly known as “avatar”) attendant would answer, and filter messages. Both the complexity of the system, and unsolicited messages (today more commonly known as “SPAM”), were described, where one would try to fool the other to reveal its true identity – the avatar as message filtering service instead of the targeted “live person”, and the message as SPAM, instead of something of importance to the “live person”.

This would seem to be more science than fiction these days, in so many aspects. To forego the subject of SPAM and SPAM filters, we are now making daily progress in manifesting and/or changing our personal representation. We do this in our instant messengers, e-mail, blogs, and when Klonies and SeeStorm have it their way, on our mobile phone.

How long would it take to bring us, our personal computers, and mobile phones, technology just as recently described as being used in movies, where one can come into the studio, and with no makeup and no special effects, appear 25 years his younger, or in fact, anything else? To judge from technologies brought forth by Logitech [videos here and here], combined with avatar technologies like Klonies, possibly not long at all.

As one Israeli child song goes, with a little twist “whomever stands behind in front of me, does not know who I am”.

P.s. if anyone can remind me of the author of the story, and where it may be found, I would be grateful.

Technorati Tags: tom sella, sciense fiction, avatars, mobile avatars, asimov, seestorm, klonies, logitech,

A Virtual Face Lift

Just saw this one on Yahoo Answers:

Q: Why do you like avatars?

A: “To tell you the truth, I'm just not that great to look at. I'm not the ugliest, but I am getting older and I would rather avoid the signs of aging. An avatar suits me for this purpose.” (Brigid_01)

Avatars - cheaper than a face lift and a lot more effective in our digital era...

Technorati Tags: avatars, yahoo + avatars, virtual identity

Human Visual Stories

As you probably got to know me by now, I’m really fascinated by the online culture that is growing and developing, and especially fascinated by one of its biggest phenomena, the Avatars.

Once in a while I look for new content on avatars, posts, discussions, apps… whatever my hand reaches – or better said - whatever my RSS aggregator reaches… :) This time, I came across a conversation over WrongPlanet.com forums, asking the community whether “avatars strongly affect how you read a person's posts?”

Before posting here a few answers which I liked, I’ll give you my answer. Of course avatars affect the way you read a person’s post! Over the web, this is the first visual impression we have on a certain community member\ blogger. As a first impression, it plays a major role in managing our impression in the eyes of the other. In everyday life, we need just one look on a person on the street or in the subway to hold an opinion regarding who is he\she, what is his\her lifestyle, economic status and even some notion regarding some personal traits (we can observe aggression, tenderness, exhaustion, suspicion, shyness…).

I’ll confide here and tell you about a little game I’ve had since I was a little girl with big eyes and shy character hiding behind pink plastic glasses… One of my favorite things, especially when I’m on train or waiting to a doctor’s appointment is the people around me. I’ve always liked to examine people and guess who they are, where are they rushing to, gather as much as possible info to learn their story…  (everyone has an interesting story to tell, you just need to look\ listen close enough). I know it isn’t polite to stare, so I try to keep my inquisitive looks invisible… Sometimes I play the little game with a variation: I try to guess who lives in a certain building or house, especially those very very very old ruined buildings with high and narrow windows and rusted blinds. To me the most interesting is the tension between things that are emphasized and things that leak from the side, exposing deeper layers… like a very tidy man, looking like he’s on his way to a job interview, straightening his tie, combing his hair. Everything about him says tension and order but his shoes are powdered with dust… that say it all – he’s trying to make an impression of a tidy man but he doesn’t really have a pedant soul :)

Well, enough with those nonsense and back to the Avatars… :) So, as I said, the visual appearance of things helps us gather so much information on the object of reference (no matter if it’s a human being or an artifact). It has a crucial part in determining our approach and opinion on a given object (is it safe? Can I trust? Am I in danger? Do I believe? Am I repulsed by something?). Especially when it comes to the web and we need to establish our approach and are given so little solid info we can rely on.

NeantHumain: “have noticed someone using a different avatar now (don't remember the old one, just know it's different), and it changes how I read the tone of their messages and how I perceive them as people, too. I often don't even remember someone if they change their avatar or think they're a whole new person. I was just wondering the perennial question: Is anyone else like this?”

Baby: “my avatar is a picture of one of my tattoos, so it’s me whether it reflects badly on me or not.”

aspiesmom1: “Many people's nicknames are confusing to me, or maybe mean something to the person but not to the community as a whole, and so I associate people with their avatars. When they change them it throws me off completely. The avatar itself however, doesn't affect how I view the person.”

Theman: “Well, the answer is yes. That's why we pick them, they say something about who we are, and consciously or unconsciously everyone is influenced, to what degree is debatable but it is impossible not to be.”

As an ending note, I’ll ask for forgiveness if someone got offended by what was supposed to be an invisible harmless investigating look… it’s just for the sake of the human story lying there that fascinates me. A great human story which sometimes I get carried away with… hey, life is the best show you can get around town! :)

Your Xellular Xen

Blogs - THE Stage of our Lives

It was very interesting to read a techie guy like Stowe Boyd writing about life and Philosophy… :) for a Theatre groupie like me, the greatest thing was to read his views on our theatrical personas in blogging and in everyday lives. Stowe writes that:

“By becoming bloggers and writing […], our self can become larger than life. Some magic that is buried in the human psyche makes the figures leaping about on the stage a representative of something larger than that single person. The actor, writer, poet, or artist is a sort of shaman, responding to a higher calling. And, as such, I believe we lose something of ourselves in exchange for the experience. Our personas are not our own, truly; we are part of something larger. And that larger thing includes both dark and light sides.“

Not just the blogger, actor, writer, poet or artist… I think we All have a persona\ a role\ a character that “leaps about on the stage” and is presented to the world. This persona is built from several roles we hold in life (a blogger, a woman, a student, a daughter…) which build our self esteem and the sense of who we are. For example, if you’ll ask me at university: “who are you?” I’ll probably answer: “an M.A. student at the department of Theatre Arts”; asking me the same at my hometown neighborhood will get me to say: “I’m Dr. Mendelsohn’s oldest daughter”. Both answers are right, accurate, and different. Both are parts of my persona, among other roles.

When it comes to famous people, it’s easier for us to assume that they have a ‘public’ persona in contrary of a ‘private’ persona. We know that a celebrity has a different “face” when getting in front of the public or when talking with a close friend. (And what is more interesting than getting a glimpse of the private persona, like on a paparazzi pic?!) But if you think of it for a moment, we all have “different” personas: we act differently when we are at work, at the supermarket, at the movies or at home… Even at home, far away from the public’s eye, we might act (i.e. behave and play a role) differently in front of our parents or in front of our naughty kids. (“Not in front of the children” rings any bells? BTW, that is basically a theatrical ACT…)

As for the blog-sphere:

“People know us through our personas, and they expect us to stay in our roles, and to play our parts. If we have done a good job of portraying ourselves, up here in the limelight, then they will be surprised -- maybe angry -- when we step out of character: and I mean character in both the theatrical sense and the sense of 'person of good character'. And sometimes they will be angry when we do things in character, because the role we are playing is not always the hero in the story. […]”

Stowe describes the response of the readers to the public persona. Readers get angry when the blogger’s persona isn’t linear\ coherent\ consistent, when bloggers “step out of character” or step out of the desired theatrical plot. The interesting question here is why? How come there’s a difference between our acceptances of the multiple celebrity’s personas and our refusal to treat the A-list blogger (like Robert Scoble, Dave Winer and others mentioned by Stowe) the same way?

The difference is the medium itself. A blog, or better said a Weblog, is first of all a kind of a public diary. So it gives the reader a sense of intimacy and closeness to the blogger. A closeness which he\she doesn’t get when watching a movie star getting interviewed (on TV, magazine etc…). So we assume we’re getting to know the blogger’s private persona. We don’t realize, or maybe don’t want to realize, that a blog is a ‘public diary’, a stage. As a stage, it is a place to present a role, a mask, a character. It always brings inner truths with it, as an actor brings his experiences and his feelings to the role. At the same time, it is an act. That is why it can be criticized by the public, or better written by Stowe Boyd, that is why

“it's not us that define the character we are playing: it's the larger group, the world beyond the footlights”, “so they become public property, not the possession of the bloggers.” “Whatever we bring into the role, into the role, becomes a prop. Even it is 'ours' in some sense -- like a personal relationship, or a project, or some idea -- once we bring it on stage, it is no longer personal.”

Realizing that blogs are the new theatrical stage would make it easier to maintain our blogging relationships and to synch our expectations as bloggers and readers.

MobFashion

Well guys, you probably remember the last post on men and their mobiles... I know that some of you were a bit mad (and even pinged me about it).So to be fair, I'm gonna write about women's mobile fashion from as well… :)

What you can see here is C'Élégance (pronounced cell-egance), a jewelry for your cell phone. With  this cute thing we can all personalize our mobile to better express who we are... (and you now the rest...) :)

[via the Mobile Diva - Darla Mack]

***

People gather information when deciding with whom to pair up to prevent investing time and genes with a bad-genes partner; or in Darwin's words - sexual selection. I know I know… people don't present to the public our health charts and medical prescriptions, so how do we do that? Health condition and fitness are demonstrated by visual cues and behavior (remember the men and their luxury gadgets?).

I'll get to the mobiles in a sec, don't worry, but before that let me say another word... To complicate things a bit, there are fake signals which we all use, like make up, push-up bras, wigs... I'm sure you can come up with dozens of exapmles. So the natural tendency, when selecting, would be to rely on hard to fake signals. Genuine signals are signals which ONLY fittest women could communicate. And here's where FASHION comes in the picture.

How a woman dresses and what mobile she owns are more than a successful self representation. Fashion forces a woman to look good while sending signals of her knowledge of the rules of fashion. That is a real signal because being always in fashion requires qualifications that are much harder to fake: being alert to social conventions and being well equipped with financial resourced to achieve it. [If she makes money or comes from a rich family means she is has good genes for survival in the modern era.]

Fashion is changing rapidly while introducing so many new accessories in so many fields. We don't only have cosmetics, hair style, clothes and shoes, we also have jewelary, bags and all kind of mobiles and personal gadgets as well. This makes it even harder to be always up-to-date. Harder means a sincere cue for sexual selection, and it causes a wide scale of accomplishments: from a fashion pro with the latest mobile to the fashion beginner without it.

So fashionable girls, this is the new mobile fashion... go and grab some! Present it to the guys... hopefully it'll make wonders! :)

Big Little Helpers

A bit late, but I just had to comment on something I’ve read on Ad Age. The recent post of “Media Morph” covers the phenomena of Avatars, from marketing point of view. Yet it did that only to a very poorly extent, the concept was so reduced and badly presented…

First, Avatars are a visual mean of self representation in a limited environment, where we can’t use our physicality as our representation. The environments vary from virtual games, to chats, instant messengers, forums, different social softwares and they have even reached the mobile sphere.

Avatars can be used also for interacting with friends, like in more evolved instant messengers (IMVU for example), or like in virtual societies (“Second Life” for example). On these platforms, avatars can have all kinds of interactions with other people’s avatars: they can go on a date over a cup of coffee, shake hands, hug or kiss... Avatars can have formal interactions like buying or selling stuff too. Whatever comes to your mind – your avatar could interact for you!

And to the marketing perspective: Since avatars are our representation, we want them to be as close as possible to the way we are, as close as possible to what we wish to be. That is why from consumer’s perspective, there is no difference between branded content for  avatars to other branded merchandise (clothes, gadgets, cars… you name it). Whatever brands we own in real life we’ll probably want to have for our avatars as well. Here lies the big benefit to marketers - make branded content to be used in the virtual sphere. This can advertise and promote the consumer brand in real life. But it could be another major route for revenues.

So, don't just go underestimating Avatras (or you'll get me writing another post about it! ;-))

Self Portrait Tuesday

I was playing around and found a very interesting web community – The Self-Portrait Tuesday. Each member posts a self portrait on his\ her blog on Tuesdays (as often as wanted) and sends a trackback to the Self Portrait Tuesday Blog. There is also a Flickr group filed under the same title.

I watched dozens of self portraits and I felt admiration for the self exposure that people are willing to have. Yet it should be noted that on the process of taking pictures we stage ourselves (lighting, angles, colors, compositions, etc…). So the outcome is less invasive than a spontaneous paparazzi photo taken on your worst bad hair day. Moreover, there is also the "editing decision", i.e. which pic to upload or to destroy. It’s like willing put up an act on stage – the actor reveals something private about himself (his pain, his joy…) and he puts a mask, a role, a character at the same time. In this duality of hide-reveal, we express ourselves in a very genuine way.

I decided to publish an avatar, a Klonie of myself. Your first thought might be – “she’s hiding, this isn’t a self portrait”. But if you really think about it – every decision we make says something about us. Oscar Wilde phrased it (so much better): "Give a man a mask, and he'll tell you the truth." the mask lets us loosen up and expose hidden parts of the personality. Because we’re putting up an act\ a role we allow ourselves to unleash some inner restrains and express ourselves (“that’s not Xen, that’s Hamlet”). I'll say it allows more libidinal materials to come upon surface and become less hidden. So, next time you change your Avatar into a sexy diva or a Manga worrier think what kind of emotions are you restraining in your life. Or you might consider taking some martial art lessons…

Technorati Tags: self portrait tuesday, exposure, avatras, Oscar Wilde, Flickr Group

Theatre, Peacocks and Mobiles

Yesterday the spring semester has started and I spent the entire day at university. It was so great! The huge library (always gives me perspective…), the classes, the cafeteria and the so WEIRD people of the faculty of arts (especially the eccentric acting students)…

While changing classes and buying coffee I was talking with a new class mate. Naturally, conversations always reach topics like fields of interest and career. And you probably guessed right - I found myself talking about (mobiles and) the need for self-expression, which btw I thought is a basic term in the field of arts…

My classmate argued that the need to externalize one’s identity is only a male need. The purpose is to get mating partners. And it can be examined in theatrical terms. The spectacle is the display of male strength and quality, i.e. his manhood, i.e. his financial power and status. The audience is mixed and contains both genders - potential female mates and rival males. The stage is the stage of his life. The actor is a male playing himself on the role of his life. Instead of walking around with his bank account balance, the male has the best props to convey the same message: he carries (and displays to the audience) as often as possible (without loosing credibility and looking ridiculous) his electronic consumer goods (you name them…), expensive watches, tie pins, lucrative fountain pens or mobile phones. All of these are elements in a coherent message about himself, about who he is and about his male qualities. But this act isn’t put up together for the sake of art. There is no fashion statement either. It is merely a good ol’ animal like behavior, like the peacock displays his feathers to communicate, to declare his male quality.

A little note before continuing - even though the mobile is a mean of audio communication, its visual appearance is what communicates in the example here. Carrying a Nokia N-90, a Mobile ESPN or a Nokia 3100 says different things about the character on stage.

Nice observations, yet I argued… we all use different props to say something about our nature, taste, character, life-style and economic status. Yet we don’t need to treat this visual communication as “primitive”. That is the essence of visual communication, and it can be used to gather information and\ or to convey a message to a potential mate but not only; Think of all those circumstances in life where we gather visual information regarding the counterpart (selling\buying, job interviews…). And these “props” aren’t any different than other means of visual communication, like body language, or fashion statements etc. So, next time you're shopping for a mobile - think what it says about you! :)

Name-Expression...

Hi everyone,

As you probably noticed - the scenery has changed here, and for those of you who usually notice little details, there’s more than meets the eye, a lot MORE than new colors and templates…

Friends, I decided to share with you something personal that happened very recently in my life. My husband and I are getting a divorce. I know that it is very sudden, and it came as a huge surprise to all the people who got to know us as couple… and yet, the decision has been made, the procedures are in process, and this is the right thing to do.

On Saturday, the morning after the decision to break up was made, I felt the extreme urge to change everything here, at my blog. First, there was the name issue. I realized that I’m no longer “Xen Dolev”. But until I’ll have the official papers I can’t officially change my name back to my maiden name “Xen Mendelsohn”. So, for now it’ll be just “Xen”. It’s not that bad actually. But then, I noticed that my name is writen all around (!), so I started changing it everywhere I could... Yet there's a major problem with my blog’s URL since it contains my "old" name in it: “http://XenDolev.typepad.com”. If that is not enough, everyone in the blog sphere knows me by that name and URL...! [For the URL problem, I really need a “redirect link” - If someone knows how to make one, please leave me a comment or an e-mail (thanks!)].

I realized that a name says something about us too – it’s not just something we use as a username or as part of an e-mail address. Think of a social gathering where people mingle: it really makes a different statement if I introduce myself with an academic title (B.A.? Dr? MD?) civil title (Mrs.? Miss?), first and last (last name by marriage? maiden name?) or just by my first name “Xen”. Thinking about it, my beloved Klonie has a very big advantage not having a last name… :)

Well, if I can’t just personalize my name yet, I would then personalize my blog to better express myself! Suddenly my life and my work blend into one another and I really FEEL the extreme desire\ need\ urge to reinvestigate my identity and to express myself as the genuine Xen, as I know she really is. At this moment, my Klonie here really expresses the way I feel now… :(

Hey Doll, Bratz is Calling

The other day I was reading Darla Mack's post on the new Bratz mobile phone. The makers of Bratz have joined forces with Ztar Mobile to launch a new MVNO targeting young girls. It’s a full-featured Sony-Ericsson T290 handset which has an exclusive Bratz content.

Bratz is a great example of how consumer brands have found a new way to distribute their branded merchandise through the most personal channel – the consumer’s mobile phone. This enables the consumer brands to have a close relationship with their customers. Not less significant, the brands gain customer’s loyalty as well - girls don’t change their mobile handset at the same tendency they change branded dresses, t-shirts or accessories. There is an added value for the operator as well; the operator gains diverse and unique content for its customers. This way, the operator positions itself as having high value for its end-users.

From consumer’s perspective, there is no difference between branded mobile and its unique content to other branded merchandise (clothes, gadgets, cars… you name it). Yet, whatever brands we own in real life we’ll probably want to have on the mobile as well. What some don’t realize is that the only reason to buy Diesel instead of an anonymous pair of jeans is to express our taste, lifestyle and personality. The hell with the price, bring me my Gucci to the mobile!! :) And, we don’t use only one accessory for that purpose; we build the message of “who we are” from the total look, which includes all the accessories available. For girls,  it is only natural to want to have the Bratz mobile, the Bratz T-shirt and the Bratz school bag as well. All together would make her girlfriends “wow” and want to be around her cause she has the coolest stuff ever.

So I’m sure that in the upcoming weeks, all parents and babysitters among us will get their chance to examine closely this new HS, to realize that the Bratz doll doesn’t have a nose and to memorize by heart Bratz’s names… Parents - watch out, or you’ll find yourself closing deals for early bed-time for a new Bratz mobile, and girls know how to play tough!  :)

Technorati Tags: Bratz, MVNO, self expression, brands, mobile content, Sony Ericsson

Who Wants A Pimpled Avatar?

Lately, I see everywhere I look around, a new avatar service emerges to the world. This week I came across the Imstar Instant messenger’s 3D avatars. I’ve looked around their demo site and even downloaded the messenger (I really love playing with new apps).

With Imstar’s 3D avatars you can personalize the shape of the body and face to really look like yours. Then, you can try out different clothes, make up and accessories of different brands, buy them if you like the way you look or sell items if you’re tired of that ol’ dress. The other day, I saw great pics published by Heather Meadows, who tried to build her Imstar avatar to look just like her – as much as possible with Imstar’s 3D graphics.

Imstar’s avatars are really great, but the question is who would want to have his exact body shape and look to be his\her web representation?

Imagine yourself this situation: I’m a very cool teenager but my face is all covered with pimples (it happens to the best, right?). Would I want my avatar to be polka dotted as well?

–of course not!

Would I want to have a button that adds zits to my avatar’s face?

–no!!

Why?

-Cause nobody thinks zits are a good way to promote yourself. We all prefer to show an improved image of ourselves. If an “add a zit" option exists in the avatars building studio, and I’d deny its existence because I want my avatar to look cool and hip (who wouldn’t?!), my friends would say I’m lying about the way I look. The bottom line is that no button that adds flaws is welcome in avatars world.

So, have Imstar guys lost their minds adding the option to make fat 3D avatars? Not really… There are segments that will welcome a very realistic avatar to represent them on the web. These people don’t want to upload their real picture and get the inevitable exposure. Think about the dating scene, for example. When flirting on the IM with a potential date we’ve just met, we want to show our best and to protect our real identity at the same time. After gaining trust, we’re ready to provide more details about ourselves and we’re more confident to send a real pic of ourselves. So in our online lifestyle, even not-so-perfectly-looking-avatars have a role. But cool-looking-avatars have a so much bigger role…!

Let Your Avatar Call in Sick for You

I was reading Stowe Boyd's post about face-to-face technology (a.k.a. F2F). He thinks that real time F2F technology will be the next hit, using video chat through PCs and mobile phones. According to Stowe Boyd, the only hurdle is the lack of interoperability which is needed to be cleared out of the way. Looking at Google’s last moves, it’ll happen sooner than we think. Stowe also brings great examples of situations when you would prefer to use F2F communication.

I’m sure F2F will become more popular over time, but what about all those instances that you don’t want to be totally exposed? Like when...

• You’re calling sick from an exotic island or you're really sick in bed with high fever.
• The phone has woken you up and you don't want your partner to see your puffed eyes, your messed hair and your polka dotted pajamas.
• You’re answering the phone in the toilet (I know, nobody does this kind of disgusting things… absolutely n-o-b-o-d-y…).

I believe there’s another channel of communication that we should consider here, and that is communication through Avatars.

Avatars are our web representation. We can personalize them to better fit our look & feel; we can choose their clothing, hair styles, accessories and scenery… absolutely everything! The ease in changing appearance allows us to use this sphere to explore ourselves. In every social encounter we can change our appearance\ characteristics: a hippy, a gallant cavalier or a rapper, and define who we are and who we aren't.

But actually, we can use these avatars for communication everywhere: on the web (IM, blogs, forums, greeting cards, signatures), on the mobile (wallpapers and screensavers), on daily interactions (business cards, ads, bumper stickers… you name it). Think of the day that your Avatar could stand in for you absolutely everywhere…!

What would that give us? Avatars can stand in for us when we don't want to disclose ourselves. They can easily represent us when we want to separate our real life from the social impression we want to make. So next time the phone wakes you up, friends would see your neat and tidy Avatar. I guess when you’re reading these lines now you come up with a lot of more good examples too.

We can communicate using Avatars on the web and in real life when communicating visually. The mobile phone links between these worlds. And this is where the Mobile Avatar is utilized to bridge these spheres. A Mobile Avatar can be your caller ID, so when you call a friend, he will see your personalized Avatar on his screen, just like on the web. This way, your web representation could serve you over the real world as well. Needless to say, that you can use this avatar wherever else you want (like on your business card, etc…).

So… back to F2F communication. Avatars aren't F2F communication by all means; they are just part of widening visual communication. Yet, Mobile Avatars will integrate the web and the real world.

Anonymity

Anonymity on the web was among the hottest headlines lately... splogs, spammers, Wikipedia’s pains, Bush’s new law prohibiting US citizens making annoying comments (which led to discussions about freedom of speech…). So, what is there regarding anonymity that is so appealing to many? What is there that provokes so many emotions? 

Anonymity gives us the freedom to speak out without fearing from criticism or social rejection. It also sets us free from inner restrains. Anonymously, we can be what ever we want because anonymity means freedom; anonymously, we can say things that normally we don’t let ourselves say out loud (about anything, really). As an aside note I’ll say that anonymity is sometimes exploited to spread malicious rumors and gossip that is published against people (this is how tabloids work).

Anonymity is also a detour to facing with the difficulty that lies in saying hard things right in the face. It’s easier for us if someone else would say it for us - and that mysterious John Doe isn’t us… right? ;-)

Leaving the gossip on ice, if you think of it for a moment, when anonymous, we actually hide our identity and reveal an inner truth at the same time! We reveal something that otherwise is berried underneath, too fragile\delicate to expose on daily life. As said before, even the shiest people when anonymous, loosen up and express inner dimensions.

With so many pros, why should we expose our real identity?

A Thought on Blogs & Avatars

The other day, I was asked by a well known blogger this question:

Is this you?

I answered: "Yup, that's me."

All day long I was hearing the question in my mind over and over again: "is this you? ". Then, it suddenly came to me! I don't know if you thought about it before, but I've realized that your blog is part of who you are. Your blog is another way to introduce yourself on the web. A blog is just like an avatar that represents you or stands for you on the web sphere.

Like an avatar, you can personalize it to better fit your mood, and to better express who you are...

So, we have an icon\an avatar\our web-representation, which we can edit\manage\manipulate to master the message we want to promote about ourselves.

But (there's always a 'but', ha?) does this blog self-representation resemble to the real-life self-representation?

-To a limited extend. Can they (blog and real-life self-representation) co-exist??

You Are What You Pretend To Be?

Well guys, I don’t know what about you but I just love trying different personalities while on-line. Most of you would probably say that I’m a fraud… But if you think for a moment - trying different personalities is just like trying out different costumes for a costume party, trying out different clothes at the mall or in front of the mirror at home – we experiment different characteristics or personalities to explore ourselves.

I’ll give you another example: Avatars are used to stand-in for us when we’re online. That is why a lot of people want their avatar, their web self representation\alter ego, to be as close as possible, if not identical, to how they are seen in real life. But can they really do that? I mean, who hasn’t experienced the pain of “self-creating” a digital image\web persona? Who doesn’t remember how difficult it is to decide which pic to upload, what witty lines to write while on-line?

You probably run into chats like this all the time:

Night Rider: knock knock…

Crazy Diva: who’s there?

Night Rider: who do you think I am…?

Crazy Diva: do I know you?

Night Rider: maybe… I’m the man of your dreams.

So who is really the “Night Rider”? A mysterious suitor or your shy hometown neighbor? Have you noticed that over the net everyone is “the most”… the most attractive, the most beautiful, the most sexy, the most cynic, the most charming… or at least “more something” than in real life? Assuming that this self representation isn’t artificial, how come there are differences between self representation over the net and self representation in real life? The characteristics are supposed to be constant, aren’t they?

Maybe here comes the resolution to self representation “pains”. Avatars are not just our representation on-line. Avatars are also means for playing with our identity. Over the net we can “try” different characteristics as if they were different outfits (or costumes). We can also express hidden parts of our personality that we don’t expose in daily life, because we simply are too shy or unconfident to expose them.

Back to the Night Rider: your neighbor can be both shy and a great suitor at the same time. On daily interactions he’s probably just too shy to let himself express the romantic sides of his personality. So the different self representations are all real.

Or in a MUD participant’s words - “You are who you pretend to be.”

So, keep trying out different outfits, keep playing around with your Avatar, let your imagination go wild, and feel free to express who you really are… But who are you really?

Labels, Lables...

Lisa Stone brings a great discussion about constructing person’s own identity over the blog-sphere, particularly over the community of Mommybloggers.

Instead of using stereotypes, like “Mommyblogger”, Stone suggests “to give people the opportunity to define her or himself. In other words, shut up and ask first. Which requires listening. Label later, if you must, but only once you can do so with the full opinion of the label-ee.”

I couldn’t agree more with Lisa. We should construct our own identity regardless to society’s common stereotypes. It can be noted though, that stereotypes are engraved so deep in our culture, that even when protesting against them, Lisa addresses herself (or constructs her own identity) with the label mommyblogger. Maybe getting ridden of those unwanted thinking patterns isn’t that easy for us? Or isn’t possible?