E-republik

I have been active on the new virtual world called: E-republik.
Think you can do it better than Bush? You may have your go. They've made a second world. You must find out what to do with it. I am one of the first citizens of the Netherlands. Real cool because I've started a company that sells weapons, I joined a politcal party and I have my own newspaper.

:-)


have a go @ www.erepublik.com

Busy week

Wow! What a week has this been for me.. Tuesday (20th of November) I went to London to visit the AIB awards. It was real cool to be there. It was in a real nice building The clothworkers hall in London, and the evening was hosted by Mishal Husain, one of the anchors on BBC World.

I never experienced something like that before. For example I had dinner with the Founder & CEO of Mobuzz. A real nice man called Anil de Mello. ( Please check mobuzzTV for it has become a morning ritual for me. ;-) )

It was weird to sit next to all these people as a Student from Amsterdam. I was a bit nervous because I never had dinner with all these people from the working field, they all have their elevator speech ready, and really now what the are doing. I didn't have one ready. Nonetheless it was a good experience.

The 21st I did some sightseeing. Went to The Tower of London, The British Museum, Harrods and Hyde Park. It is a pity I was their for such a small period. I haven't been to all the attractions in London. And it would have been great to see London's night life. Maybe next time.

later this week I'll upload photos to my flickr account.

London AIB Awards

Tuesday the 20th of November the AIB Awards will be held in London. Great news, cause I'll be there helping my dad to film the whole happening. Wednesday I'll be playing the tourist. I might go to the British museum. Never been there. My last visit in London was so busy with other stuff that I didn't have time for the British museum. Looking forward to it, and check my flickr for photos of the awards.

http://www.aib.org.uk

Falling in Between Live

Finally I got it. Since the release (October 29th) I have been looking for the latest album of Toto. Falling in between live is recorded in Paris in March. The DVD is coming begin 2008, so I have a new thing to look forward too. Listening this album will keep me good for a few week.

Interactive Media at best

I found a website named http://www.playmegaphone.com/, They got a real cool idea about using big screens in public places.

`MegaPhone is a phone-controlled, real-time, multi-player collaborative gaming platform for big screens in public spaces ( Time square NY, Shibuya Crossing Tokio).`

These games are real simple and I don´t want to talk about the graphics, but if you´re playing in a football stadium and you´re playing against other football supporters during the 15 minute break it could be very fun.

IBC 2007

I've been working on the IBC for the Association for International broadcasting. I've handed out the channel and sold some of the Directory of Global Broadcasting. I've seen some real nice projects from companies. But the RAI in Amsterdam should shame itself.
The RAI isn't that good at all and they ask terrible prices for refreshments. At the RAI beach you pay about 15 euros for a Hamburger. And it taste like a piece of paper. If you look at 3GSM in Barcelona it's much better organised. I think IBC should move to Barcelona to wake up Amsterdam that their too arrogant. I made a batch to start a rumour and the reactions were great. Where did you get that? Is IBC moving? Where questions that I got a lot. Maybe it's time for Amsterdam to wake up, before the rumour becomes reality.

Axe and Sloggi

These two companies really understand the meaning of cross media. I'm fascinated by the results of Sloggi. Sloggi is searching for the best butt of the world, and has started a community where people upload a picture of their own butt. They even got a videoclip where they promote people to upload their behind.
Axe has also a great campaign where they made a short movie.

you should have a look at their websites.

http://www.axe.nl
http://www.sloggi.nl

IBC

Just like I did last year, I'll be present at the IBC. I'm going to spread the channel for the AIB. While I'm doing this I'll be able to look around at the RAI and maybe I can make some contacts. Just a few more days to go, the IBC will start on the 7th.

Water!

These guys really know how to sell water. Just check their beautiful website.

http://vitaminwater.com/

Been a while.

It has been a while, but I've been busy working. I work now in a restaurant in Huizen. I really like it. Putting up some experience for my planned year abroad. I dream of going to Latin America or Spain. My dad is now in Africa for 2 weeks. I'm doing some stuff for him while he's gone. I've been busy with Babelgum and Joost. For now I think Joost is doing a better job. Joost has a much more natural navigation. But tides can change right?!

The last stage

Today I'll have my last conversation with my teachers. In this conversation I will talk about my future as a IAM professional. I'm not that nervous :-). Next week I'll have updates about my project and Babelgum. I finally got log in details so I can write an article about it.

Pirates Of The Carribean: At world's end

Yesterday night, 11 o'clock I finally sat in the cinema. I was one of the first people in the Netherlands that was going to see the newest Pirates of The Caribbean film. I've been looking forward to see this film ever since I saw the second film. But I thought it wasn't that good after all. The story was a bit confusing in the begin of the film and the end is even worse. I liked the first movie so much, because (except for the cursed pirates) the story could be true. At world's end is a film full of special beautiful special effects. I really liked the way it was filmed and I loved the music of Hans Zimmer. The actors were very good, but I didn't like the story. I would say on scale from 1 to 10 this film is worth an 8.

speedbandits

found an intresting video what tell's us a solution to speedbandits. The Danish are pretty creative with their solutions ;).

Babelgum update

I should have acces on the closed beta testing of Babelgum this week. I'm really curious to see what makes them different from Joost. I should have the login details this week.

MindMeister

Found a great program on the web. It's called MindMeister. It Allows you to draw mindmaps very easily. If your working with a team on a project it's great to use this because your able to share mindmaps with your friends. This way you can do brainstorm sessions online and make clear visuals of the result. Check www.mindmeister.com to see how you sign up.

EyeCam PS3

Sony will bring the follow up of the eyetoy on the market. I don't know the specifications but it looks kind of cool :). In summer Sony will launch the cam. I Hope Sony comes
with another great cam.

Babelgum

Found some interesting stuff on the web when my dad told me about Babelgum. It should be something similar to Joost. I'm trying to sign up as a Beta tester. Check www.babelgum.com for more information.

Joost

I know it's a bit late to write something about Joost. But I remember I didn't write anything about it. I think everybody should have a look at the program Joost. I think it's great. It has a great design. An good human computer interface and you should really have a look yourself. Joost is like the Internet television. You can watch al kinds of programs. Personally I really like the Boom Chicago part. Sign up and download the beta version of Joost at www.joost.com.

Test my TVBGONE

My father bought a TVBGONE from the website, http://www.tvbgone.com. It really is a funny device. Iti can turn TV's on or off very easily. And if you're going to a mediastore in Amsterdam, what would happen if you use this device at the TV section?

url a usb

A new technique which allow you to be controlled by your own shoes. Crazy stuff huh! ;-)

1 word...Fantastic!

It has been 2 days ago that Toto had their show in Amsterdam. I was a show that I'll never forget. It was a two hour during show with great medley's and perfect solo's. Especially Simon Phillips, an idol of mine, had a great 5 minute during solo. The sound of the band was fantastic. The musical instruments of the band members sounded very beautiful. Lee Sklar also did a fantastic job, he is a worthy replacement for the great Mike Porcaro. This gig was again, a show I'll never forget.

Falling in Between

I've been waiting for the 19th of March for 6 months now. Monday finally Toto comes to the Heineken music hall in Amsterdam. Only mike porcaro won't be there. He has some difficulties with his left hand. Lee sklar will replace him. Yes the one with the big beard XD. I've seen him performing with Phil Collins and Lee really is a great musician. So only three days left and I'll see them live again :D. Counting down.....

They just don't get it

"Yo Yo! everybody! respect the police 4 life!" Pfff they just don't get it. The regional police of Amsterdam wants to have more coloured people in their corps.

How do they reach this group of people? The answer is rap.
The police of Amsterdam is organising a rap battle where rap talents can show their qualities. It's like the Idols for rap. But the lyrics aren't the same as the ones of big stars like 50 Cent or The Game, the lyrics are about Respect to the police. The people who call themselves "The Blue squad" are no local heroes. The blue squad only contains people who think they can rap. They are just a bunch of rappers from Amsterdam Bijlmer who told the police that they are really cool! Their not. They made this stupid song in which they rap about how the police needs Respect. And if they want to convince people to join the corps of Amsterdam, this is the way how not to do it.

If you think approaching your target group with a urban tone of voice is cool. Your wrong. You just look silly. Unless you add local heroes in your campaign. In this campaign they didn't. The police tried to promote their urban rap battle by giving away thousands of copies of Cd's, which contains nothing but the worst rap about Respect. I also got a copy at the Amstelstation and I just wondered what crap it was. 100 meters further I knew some people thought the same. I saw hundreds of Cd's in the trash. And everybody in the Netherlands pays tax for this. If some company financed it, I could laugh about it. Now I can just cry about it.

If the police really want to add some coloured people to the corps of Amsterdam. Don't come up with a stupid rap battle about respect to the police. Just say you want coloured people in the corps. Don't make the target group feel stupid by thinking every young person likes urban rap.

Que Pasa?!

Yesterday I signed up at Molinos de Viento ( http://www.molinosdeviento.nl/ ). A private school specified for the Spanish Language. The only thing I miss at my study at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam is that I don't learn new languages. So I decided to learn one myself, at this private school in Amsterdam. I think it's important that you can communicate with people all over the world. And since my English is pretty good I thought I could use some Spanish lessons.

My vision of the Future of the Music Industry

Downloading will definitely take over the music industry. However not in the way it is developing now. I think the whole pay per track and DRM is going to die. I have some experience with DRM and I simply hate it. I think it’s good that musicians get there share but not this way. The future of downloading will be something like Itunes but you won’t need to download the music, you just pay for a subcription to stream the music. You'll only get access the music and you won't need to download it to your harddrive. This will be around 15 euro per month. This maybe seem a low price, cause you get so access to so many kinds of music. But imagine if 3 million people in The Netherlands will use this. That will be 3.000.000 * 15= 45.000.000 million a month! And if the musicians get there share of that 45 million a month. I don’t think you are going to hear them complain. If the user wants to use the music on his/her Ipod or maybe on an other mp3 player. The user needs a gold or premium membership this will cost 20 euro a month. The DRM system won’t be applied to this product. This way, a whole family can take advantage of the music supplied from this system.

I also think in the future the cdshops will be replaced by mp3 shops. Like the ones at Schiphol (airport in Amsterdam). If a new track is published by DJ Tiesto and you are wandering around in Amsterdam you just walk in the shop and buy the track (just like singles), and upload it to your MP3 player. This is my vision of the Music industry in 5-15 years. I think if people can easily download tracks (No difficulties with creditcards or bankaccounts) they eventually will pay for music. I don’t think the P2P programs will die, simply because it is free. But if you give people the opportunity to support their favourite musicians and if you can provide them to get access to (all) the music in the world they will pay for it. And if you don’t bother them with crap like DRM they eventually step over to legal downloads

Iphone

The 9th of January Apple came with their new product, the Iphone. This is a really sexy product. But I'm not sure if people want this product with all these functions on it. It's not a phone anymore. It's like a small computer that calls. I really like the fancy design and the interface of the phone but I'm not sure people want this product for the functions.Maybe business people, but not fellow students of mine. Unless Vodafone or Orange (or one of the other big providers) comes with a great deal, people won't buy this phone. I think we just have to wait for the release in Europe. Another thing is that Cisco owns the trademark for Iphone so Apple just can't call the new product Iphone. Looks like Apple needs to come with a new name.

New job

Working at the Butcher shop is over now. I started a new chapter in my life. Last Saturday I started to work for my dad Jonathan Marks. I find this really exciting and now that I work in the Media world, I can gain loads of working experience. I think this really can add something to my future career. I also have plans for 2007. I'm planning to write more on my blog, and add some articles that I'm working on.