I’m giving a master class on using web technologies to create rich user experiences for mobile devices at the Boards Summit next week. The crux of the class is that the siren’s call of creating a custom iPhone application should, more often than not, be resisted in favor of creating custom mobile web sites. A well-crafted mobile site can work on more than just the iPhone while still allowing access to advanced device features like GPS and the accelerometer. Come on out for a crash course on cutting edge web tech peppered with concrete examples and case studies.

It’s so easy to buy TV media these days even a child can do it. My son Brian spent $2 on Google AdWords to promote his webseries Guitarings (a collaboration with Kyle Gass of Tenacious D) and, after picking his programming schedule and demographic mix, sure enough, on Monday night at 3:19am on Versus, his 30 second TV spot ran, nationally. Haha. Awesome.

Here’s the spot:

I wonder at what point clients are just going to set up an account with Google and make their own media buys?

And ok, so at 24 my son’s not exactly a “child.” But it made for a better opening line to this post.

SPOILER ALERT: You can always improve on something great!

We’re now in our third year of The Barbarian Group’s collaboration with Kashi. We’re calling this release a refresh rather than a redesign. To clarify, think about the project as a house. When you do a redesign, it’s like tearing down a home to its foundation and starting fresh. That’s not what was needed here, for our foundation was already stable, our website was already successful. Think of this release like remodeling a kitchen, it’s an improvement of what was working, and an optimization of what wasn’t. So we put on our thinking caps and many months later, we’ve surprised ourselves yet again!

The countless improvements to the site are too many to list, but some of our favorites include: a redesigned navigation system, a dynamic footer showing the current community activity, a vastly improved commenting system, a simplified sign up and log in system, an improved look and feel, and of course, a ton of IA and UX refinements. And that’s just what the user see’s. The site is faster, more enjoyable, easier to use, and most importantly, easier to find what you are looking for and more likely to discover things you didn’t know were here. On top of this, we are already working on a number awesome super secret features and updates to be launched soon, so stay tuned for those in the coming months!

We love this client, and we hope you enjoy the site!

I’ve had the same position on branded games (and branded apps… and sites…) for a long time.

Read Idea of iPhone Games Attracts Only a Handful of Brands.

I don’t think people typically care about games (or apps) made by brands – especially if the concept has anything at all to do with the brand. There are some exceptions, but they’re rare. If you think your brand is the exception, prove it: build a highly-optimized mobile site and show that people want to engage with you at all from their mobile devices.

If folks do engage, passive sponsorship of (and strong PR around) an in-progress game or app with good legs and a lot of value to users is a great move. Saying, “Hey, we brought you a great game at a lower cost by sponsoring it.” with PR (versus splash screens and heavy branding inside the game) is going to get more traction than anything else.

In the article, Jon Epstein says:

I guess I’d like to see some numbers, and some analysis of how the branding was done, how the audience was modeled, and how the gameplay and download stats coalesce.

Really, required viewing.

- David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again

Not sure about this – neither the qualification that art has to be created without any personal or outside interest in gain, nor the idea that this self- or third-party-interest precludes the ability of something created to also be a gift.

Oh man. Internet week. It’s taken its toll on me, no doubt.

Eight days of intense internet conferences, parties, networking, awards. And, it being in New York, where, you know, we have an office, that means that unlike SXSW, it’s eight weeks where I try and do it all while going in to work.

We have a deep relationship with Internet Week NY. I’m on the Executive Council, which is pretty sweet. It means exciting meetings with the mayor and whatnot, though I always seem to be out of town for those. Still, it’s the one organizational body I can claim to be on that also features John Wren, so that’s something. We also built the Internet Week NY Website, as well as the websites for the sister organizations The Webby Awards and The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. (It is, for this reason, in case you’re wondering, why we don’t enter or win any Webbys. We’ve also built their judging app, and manage their People’s Voice app, so we’ve always felt it would be inappropriate to enter. On top of that, then, we’re a sponsor of the Webby Awards, and no less than three of our clients were having parties this week. All of this meant for a pretty intense week.

Internet Week started off for me last Monday, at the Youtube Internet Week Kickoff party. I had just gotten back into New York from my SF sojurn, so this was a nice homecoming. Good to see people that would become stalwarts of the week like DMD, executive director of the Webbys, and Neil and Roger, the executive producers and owners of the parent company Recognition Media. Also ran into my buddy Tom Clifton from Animoto, Caroline Waxler, Liane Mullin from Modelinia, Rachel Sklar and good old Dennis Crowley of Foursquare fame. Lots others, but it was a super good time, and a bunch of us ended the night over at Tom and Jerry’s, where I think the last people standing after Dens took a bunch of people off to Karaoke were me, Tom, Felicia Williams from NextNewNetworks and Caroline.

Tuesday started with some liesurely drinks with Beth and Aubrey from Digg over at their hotel, and they ran off just as Trammell from Digg showed up, and then Soraya Darabi from the New York Times showed up with Jack Dorsey from Twitter, who it was obviously very exciting to meet, and a few more friends. Then it pretty much did what it does, and the early evening went into the night and the party grew until there were a good hundred or two hundred people there. I was excited to finally meet Elizabeth Spiers, and super duper excited to meet Cecily Von Ziegesar, the author of the Gossip Girl series of books. Man, that was exciting. Liane asked her how well she thought the books translated into a show, and we got to hear her opinions on that which was SUPER INTERESTING, and it was fun to introduce her to THE INTERNET. The night slowly degenerated into a migration over to the original Coyote Ugly bar Hogs and Heiffers, but I left early because I was a responsible adult and I had to get up early to…

Judge the Effie Awards! Bright and early, 8:45, uptown, with some really awesome people to participate in the Grand Jury for the Grand Effie. It was super interesting insightful, and I think we made a good panel of judges: myself, Greg Anderson, Managing Director BBH NY, Minda Grainek, VP/CD Target, Jonathan Mildenhall, VP Global Advertising Strategy and Creative Excellence for Coca Cola, Gerry Graf, CCO Saatchi NY, Rob Master, North American Media Director for Unilver (who I previously had the pleasure of moderating a panel for at the first Webby Connect), and Scott Nesland. In the end the Grand Effie went to Crispin’s work on Whopper Freakout, and I feel good about our decision.

Home and work and a change of clothes and then off to the Effie Awards show, which was super awesome and a good time. Got to catch up with Brian Collins, who was seated at our table and chat about his new consultancy and also Paul Schmidt, who’s now out on his own as Operator. The show was at Cipriani’s midtown, and it was gorgeous and really well done. I’ve been spending so much time over there in internet land that it was good to see ad people again – good long talk with Greg from BBH, caught up with some friends over at TBWA’s Media Arts Lab, Charles Rosen from Amalgamated and Paul Lavoie from Taxi. Yeah! I’d make some comment about the amount of money flowing through traditional advertising compared to internet, blah, blah, but considering that just five days later I’d be at yet another Cipriani’s for an ad awards show, I’d probably be barking up the wrong tree.

Anyway, after the Effies it was back to internet land and we attempted to go to College Humor’s Yacht Rock party, but ran into DMD and Neil and Sklar on their way out, so I decided to hit my local bar, Local 138, and wage what I call “foursquare warfare” and just keep insisting everyone come to where I am. In short order, it worked miraculously. It’s pretty amazing. At first it’s people you know – Mark from Flavorpill, Tessa Horehled of the Atlanta advertising scene, Liane from Modelinia, Lidsay from Ralph Lauren, Danielle from Getty Images. Eventually, though, my pal Aubrey came by with her boss Kevin Rose, of Digg Fame, and then things got crowded and rockin’. Things get blurry, but I remember meeting an awesome interactive producer named Rob and eventually running out to another nearby bar with Eva, Rob, Danielle and some nice dudes we met who made Flash animations.

Thursday brought The Bigg Digg Shindigg with a live Diggnation filming. Mad props to Aubrey Sabala for the VIP Hookup, and it was good to see some peeps – Michael Galpert from Aviary, Tom, Eva, Emma, Caroline, Rex and a whole host of good Digg people – Marshall, Beth, Trammell, Michael, etc. The party was super fun, the band Wallpaper kicked ass, and the live taping of DiggNation was hilarious in that it featured that To Catch a Predator Guy.

Friday saw Aubrey and Eva’s birthday party at 10 Degrees, a bar in the village. We rented out the place and turned it into a good wrap-up-the-week internet party. Had a whole host of good people – a good 20, 30 Barbarians, 10-12 Diggers, some of our favorite journalists like Brian Morrissey, Nick Parish, Caroline McCarthey and Bret Petersel, other ad people from around town and a bunch of the NY internet peeps. It lasted late into the night, things were done, champagne was drunk, suits and lovely gowns were worn and our bar minimum was met. Whew. Thank you! And happy birthday Eva and Aubrey!

Saturday was pretty low key – did get to meet Graham Hill from Treehugger, though, and that was good, as well as getting to see former Barbarian Annie Zags, which was super awesome. After dinner and drinks, Me, Aubrey, Emma and Marshall hit the Social Media Karaoke in the village at Tracy J’s, which was hilarious and drunken. Social media peeeps – karaoke lovers one and all, I swear.

Sunday saw a whole new host of people in town at the Webby Awards Sunset Cocktails for sponsors, judges and winners over at the Thompson LES. Simon and Ian from Poke arrived, and I met the people behind that Beeker video that won. That was funny. Found Mike and Ozzie from Lolz LLC (also props to them for just saying they are an agency. NO FEAR). They are always a wonderfully good time. Talked to Rori from Ascentium for a long time and generally enjoyed the nice vibe. Then on to the NextNewNetworks party where I ran into some good peeps from Wieden + Kennedy as well as said hi to April, Michelle, Felicia and Tim from NNN. It was awesome to see a bunch of their $99 music videos, especially the one by Neil Halstead, who I love love love.

And, finally, yesterday brought the Webby Awards and the following after party. Wow. Sarah Silverman, Lisa Kudrow, Trent Reznor. Saw Harvey Weinstein in the audience, and Rachel Zoe and some victoria secret models and Cameron Diaz and Jimmy Fallon and inventor of the world wide web Tim Berners Lee. Ridiculous. Oh and Alan Cumming! And Martha Stewart! And Charlie Rose! Holy Moly! Took the train over to Hiro with Jeben from YouTube and the Boards Mag crew and Bret from Mashable and a bunch of Barbarians and rocked out through the night to some awesome hip hop band and ?estlove DJing, who was really great. Oh and someone introduced me to Biz Stone and I pretended to not know who he was, but he seemed super nice.

It’s hard to imagine all this is work, of course. And having a company to run during the day meant that I couldn’t participate in many of the daytime activities – Benjamin had that covered with something like 3 panels and 2 presentations (one about GE seemed to go particularly well). But it’s good to get out there – especially when you’re a technology company that everyone thinks is just an ad agency. Advertising people and internet people really do need to hang out more, I think. They don’t really talk too much except through sales people and media people and whatnot. There’s a pretty big gulf of understanding. I’ve learned a lot about this being out in the Bay Area the last few months, and I’m sure I’ll ramble on and on about it more as the weeks go by. I love Internet Week precisely because it affords these sorts of conversations, and because it gets these groups talking in new ways.

Anyway, thank you Internet Week people for a lovely week, and to everyone I met, it was awesome to meet you.

Hey so there is a rad conference next week, put on by Creativity magazine, where a whole bunch of interesting people are speaking/showing demos. Including me, twice. Check out the speaker list, buy tickets, here: http://www.creativitycat.com/

If you are in NYC june 3rd, definitely check it out.