Web Round-Up W/E 03/04/98
In an attempt to monitor how clumsily we deal with computers and the like, a kind of time-motion study has been set up with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council which will view technology users in their own homes. In order that we are not disturbed in our natural environment, a number of cameras are to be planted in the homes of sixteen families which will record the families’ daily interaction with technology.
The study, A Virtual Ethnography of the Dynamics of Social Change in Relation to New Technology, which is being undertaken by the Institute of Communication Studies at Leeds University, will plant hidden cameras in places such as cocoa tins and children’s teddy bears. Whilst the families have agreed to be filmed, the concealing of the cameras is hoped to allow completely natural behaviour. The researchers are particularly interested in the effects on everyday life of the Internet and services such as email and electronic banking and shopping.
…Interactive advertising in Europe will be a £2.56 billion business by the year 2002, according to a recent report by Datamonitor. The report predicts that interactive advertising revenue will grow significantly as advertisers realise the opportunities of the new media. The increase will be driven by the rapid growth in subscribers to digital television and internet/online services.
A further study by Datamonitor predicts that the sales revenue generated by online content providers which specialise in online shopping, games and training and education services is set for rapid growth over the next few years. It reports that online shopping companies’ revenues will reach £3.07 billion by the year 2002.
…In true anti-consumerist, anti-establishment, reactionary style a growing number of websites are utilising the freedom of speech ethos of the Net by exposing and denouncing what they see as the evils of the advertising industry. One high-profile example of these anti-ad campaigners is a group called Adbusters. Their site, at http://www.adbusters.org, contains spoof images of well-known ads which condemn both the products and the manner in which they are advertised. One example is the Absolut vodka ad seen here.
Adbuster’s manifesto states that: “We will take on the archetypal mind polluters – Marlboro, Budweiser, Benetton, Coke, McDonald’s, Calvin Klein – and beat them at their own game. We will uncool their billion dollar images with uncommercials on TV, subvertisements in magazines and anti-ads right next to theirs in the urban landscape.” And it seems that the mighty multi-nationals are finding it very difficult to stop Adbusters and their cohorts as legal action merely serves to draw even more attention to the ‘perpetrators” websites.
This week’s NetBites:
- Yahoo! has launched a device which lets users know when their friends are online. It is called the Yahoo! Pager and only detects other members of Yahoo!. Find out more at http://pager.yahoo.com/pager/
- In the finest example of Westernisation, the Kremlin is now offering a cyber-tour of its hallowed corridors. Investigate http://www.online.ru/sp/cominf/kremlin/kremlin.html
- This year’s Glasto is warming up with its first website produced in conjunction with The Guardian, the festival’s chief sponsor. The site has just gone live, and can be found at http://www.glastonbury98.co.uk