08 | Groundwork | Four Observations: Proximity

December 27th, 2011 by bruno boutot
The Internet is a place. It is a weird place in which proximity is determined by interest, rather than a space in which interests are kept apart by distances. It is a place in which nearness defeats distance.
David Weinberger
The Net is a place #

Let’s begin with a process we know very well: Advertising. #

New-Slide10
figure 10: The advertising process #

  • First it must be noticed among the clutter of thousands of ads that we see every day.
  • Then it must keep our attention to make sure that we read or view the whole message.
  • It must summon an emotion, because emotions are the only paths to memory.
  • This emotion must be positive enough to engage us.
  • This positive emotion must be attached to the product.
  • This product-emotion must be anchored in the viewer’s memory.
  • And then, tightly packaged with all this, there must be some kind of spring that will unwind at just the right moment: a delayed push to action.
But the smallness of the display area is not the only reason ads have to be engineered this way. #

New-Slide11C #

figure 11: Traditional marketing #

A good ad is first an imprint device and then
it’s a vehicle to make a buying decision travel through space and time. #


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New-Slide13 #

figure 13: The traditional content process #

New-Slide14 #

figure 14: The Web media content process #

New-Slide16 #

figure 15: Proximity is only in the hands of the users
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  • RSS
  • email,
  • Twitter, etc.
The small hollow ovals are there to represent the users’ decisions to receive these alerts.
It is important to understand that these alerts are not a return to the traditional media process of sending content. The only function of these alerts is to bring the users back to our place where we can use all the advantages of proximity. #

New-Slide15 #

figure 16: What proximity changes #

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