Adi himelbloy and paparazzi action
As I wrote yesterday in my Facebook status line- I went out to the Rosa Parks bar With Gilad and Lotem, where I happily met old friends, photographers from all over the media in Israel. They Told me Adi Himelbloy, a young actress/model/talent/whatever, is coming to celebrate her 24th birthday with her friends here.
For me, it was a long time since I've done a photography job for news or culture, but the joy of seeing them all together, with the excitement of all the cameras and the jungle around it made me feel happy.
So I decided to post a video log about the photographers, to show you all some behind the scenes paparazzi talks and actions with some personal laughs, running and un-censored self material.
I have another piece in Youtube I took earlier, a behind the scenes video, i didn't feel should be here, but you're welcome to see how it’s like when photographers are waiting for their subject of work.
Technorati Tags: paparazzi,facebook,lotem,gilad,adi himelbloy,behind the scences,photographers in israel,youtube,video,a video about the photographers,rosa parks,post a video log
The Death Of Skype
Today was the day Skype died for me.
Why am I being dramatic about it, you ask? I'm not. It’s just that today, after talking for 8 hours in my Gtalk app with Singapore i realized few things:
1- i'll use skype only for the Skypeout issue.
2- Skype is no longer the best Voip service in the market- Gtalk is better.
3- I'll use Gtalk for Voip only, I'll use my Gmail service for the IM of it.
4- MSN is still my fav im and has the best video capability, with an ok video.
5- ICQ is just an all free sms system for me.
Next thing for Google in my opinion is the get a Gtalk phone like Skype did, make their app have an "out" option.
Who is a friend
Here in Israel we have an old question that’s dated in the 1950’s concerning the law of return, which means that every jew, from wherever, can come to Israel, become a citizen immediatly, and live the rest of his life here. The question that rised than is known as the "Who Is a Jew" question.
Yesterday at the TIIC - IsraelNetSphere # 5 event i spoke with Omer Perchik and Aviv Revach about the questionof Who is a friend. Omer and I have known each other since this year’s Blogference held last July, and Aviv I know from the Geek Dinner we had with Stowe Boyd a few weeks ago. I asked Omer if I am his friend just because he knows me from these event, or are we friends because we're on the same lists on Facebook. The conversation than came to what happened to the "old" definitions of being a friend- someone you call to, someone you meet regularly, someone you know a bit better (or more) from other people you just know by face, name and some background data.
Omer told me I'm his friend, but i started struggling with the question, or with the new definition of friendship in the new era of social media groups, where a friend is as easy as a request for friendship.
So who is a friend, who’s an acquaintance of yours and who are you just familiar with? (can you describe the difference when the definitions collapse to the same point?)
Omer said that if he was with me in a bar fight he would definately come to my help. I said the same thing even though i'm not sure my recently dislocated shoulder would aprove. It than raised another question in my head: To some of my Facebook friends i already feel some closeness emotions even though I dont know them deeply and although we are meeting only on the comment pages of blogs and on event lists. I asked myself what does it mean.
By default, the questions i ask here are for sociologists. But because I am holding a sociology degree i have to say an internet sociologist would really come in handy right now. But seriously, if any one of you social thinkers has thoughts on this subject please feel free to share because those are questions that by default are considered WIKI questions and are opened to negotiation.
חמש נקודות על המצב
<p align="right">1- כשיש לך כמה בלוגים אתה כבר לא יודע איפה לכתוב.
2- כשיש לך פייסבוק אתה מגלה שיכול להיות והבלוגים שלך איבדו את ערכם.
<p align="right">1- כשאתה יושב ומאפיין ממשק ואז מוצא לך תוכנה שתעשה לך את החיים ממש קלים ואתה יכול ליצור דמו מחומרים שכבר קיימים ברשת אין דבר שיעשה אותך יותר מאושר כי אתה צריך לתת את זה למפתחים ומה יותר טוב מפשוט לתת להם את זה בכפית לפה, זה יותר טוב מצילומסך.
2- אווף, אתה מסתכל על אתרים ונטרד מזה שאו שהם מטומטמים, או שהם לא לקחו מישהו לאפיין להם את האתר ואז הם מטומטמים בכל מקרה או שהמאפיין שלהם מטומטם. כך או כך- מישהו יוצא מטומטם, אבל זה לא אתה, אתה יושב ביציע והשופט הוא בן זונה.
<p align="right">3- אני ממש אוהב את מה שאני בונה בימים אלה והיום היתה הפעם הראשונה ששאלתי משתמשת מה היא תעדיף בחווית הגלישה שתכננתי. הראיתי לה את הדמו שבניתי והיא ענתה לי. באמת התלבטתי בין מה שהיא אמרה לבין מה שאני חשבתי שצריך להיות ואז החלטתי לקבוע כברירת מחדל את מה שאני הצעתי אבל לתת למשתמשים את האופציה לבחור בהגדרות הצפייה. כולם יצאו מרוצים, עכשיו נראה מה יגידו המפתחים.
<p align="right">1- זה נורא כיף שאתה בא בבוקר לאסותא לקחת את האולטרה סאונד כתף שלך, כבר מוכן לשלם חניה כשמכונת התשלום אומרת לך שאתה יכול ללכת בלי לשלם כי רק הגעת לפני רגע והיא לא תגבה ממך עשרה שקלים לשעה הראשונה או חלקה אם היית שם פחות מעשר דקות.
2- נורא כיף לבוא לאורטופד שלך אחרי התאונה, כל החומר בידיים שלך, והוא אומר לך "די, תוריד את החגורה ליד, הכתף שלך צריכה להחלים, אתה מתחיל פיזיותרפיה מחר".
<p align="right">3- לא ברור איך אתה מרגיש אחרי שנתיים שיש לך אופנוע כשפתאום אתה עובר תאונת אופנוע, הכתף שלך נפרקה ארבע פעמים בשבוע אחד, הברך שלך נפרקה, חוליות בצוואר שלך זזו, המותן שלך התחיל לפתח התחלה של קילה, עברת טיפולים כואבים ואתה שוב בבית שלך שנמצא בשכונה נחמדה בצפון תל אביב, עם האוטו של אמא שלך, מתלבט- אם ללכת על אופנוע אחר (שהמחשבה הזו הזויה) או ללכת על אוטו (שהמחשבה הזו הזויה) ואתה מתלבט בין פח לפחת ולא יודע אם בכלל שווה לך.
<p align="right">4- נורא כיף לשבת בבית קפה אחרי האורטופד שלך, לאכול ארוחת בוקר, לעבור על מסמך שקיבלת, להכין אחר ולקינוח להמציא את המצגת הממש מושקעת שהכנת שתשלח למפתחים שלך תוך כמה שעות. זה לוקח לך 7 שעות, אתה נהנה מהחברה, מהאוכל ומהמוסיקה אבל לא בטוח שאתה יכול להרשות לעצמך לכלכל בתי קפה כל יום. כמו הרבה דברים בחיים אתה תמצא את דרך האמצע.
<p align="right">5- אתה חוזר לבית שלך שלושה שבועות אחרי שעזבת אותו לחו"ל ולאמא שלך אחרי התאונה. אתה נזכר למה אתה אוהב אותו ולמה בחרת אותו. אין לך כלי רכב, אבל זה כבר סיפור אחר לגמרי.
Ho Chi Min
This is Saigon.
you can view it large.
stay tuned for my videos from the trip. coming soon to a tube near you.
photo by: Niv Calderon
The Natural Selection of Social Utilities
לילה פה, בסינגפור הרחוקה אני גולש בפליקר אחרי המון זמן שלא עשיתי את זה לעומק. יש לי מחשב חדש, ואני עסוק בלהכניס אליו את כל המקומות שאני אוהב לגלוש אליהם, כל המקומות הקבועים שלי שבין השאר הם רשתות חברתיות כאלה ואחרות. עם נסיעת הבכורה פה של האקספלורר (יאק יאק) התקנתי את פייסבוק כעמוד הבית שלי ואת הג'ימייל כעמוד בית שני.
אני חושב שזה בלבד מסמל את המהפך הגדול שקרה לי, ושאולי קורה כעת לעוד ועוד אנשים שמרכז עולמם הפך להיות בתוך רשת חברתית, כמוני למשל, ואולי פחות נזה, מה שקורה בתיבת המייל הפרטית, או שלא לומר חלילה- מה קורה עכשיו בחדשות למשל.
מעבר לזה, פליקר למשל, היה מקום בו הייתי מבלה שעות על שעות, כל יום, בערך כמו שאני מבלה עכשיו בפייסבוק. מן הסתם, עם המעבר שלי מעולם הצילום לעולם האינטרנט במרכז התעסוקה שלי, מרכז הכובד שלי הושקע במקום אחד באופן יחסי. כל זה השתנה ואפשר להבין מזה שרשת חברתית יש לה כוח על בנאדם רק אם הוא נותן לה את המקום הזה בחייו. עכשיו למשל, אני לא מחובר רגשית לפליקר כמו שהייתי מחובר פעם. אמנם הקריירה שלי והזכרונות שלי שם ואני אפילו מעדכן עם הרבה תמונות- אבל אני מעדכן כבר במקום נוסף, ושיש לו חשיבות עצומה לגביי.
מעבר לזה חשבתי על עוד משהו- ריבוי הימצאויות ברשתות חברתיות גורם להזנחה של חלק מהן. פשוט אין יכולת או אין סבלנות לעדכן בכולן ולהיות בהן באופן שווה.
אומר עוד משהו- אני חושב שהמונח רשת חברתית כבר לא תופס. אני חושב שהמונח יישום חברתי- social utility תופס יותר, כי כל אתר ווב2, אם הוא מוגדר נכון, יש בו איכות חברתית.
אחזור לג'ימייל. אני חושב שהמעבר שלי לדף בית חדש מסמל עבורי שמרכז הכובד עבר מנטלית מקיום של "אני במרכז ויבואו אנשים אלי למייל" לקיום של "אני בקבוצה ואני יכול לתקשר בכמה צורות".
אגב, מצטער שחיכיתם מלא זמן לפוסט, כאמור, טסתי לחו"ל ואני עדיין מתכנן לכתוב על חוויית המשתמש בכל האתרים שהזכרתי בפוסט הקודם.
אני אשמח לשמוע את דעתכם בעניינים שהעליתי פה.
Its night here in Singapore, and after months, I'm enjoying flickr like in the old days where I took my camera everywhere and shot a lot of photos. I have a new laptop, and i'm working on entering new and old favor
ites to my links bar on Avant and Firefox, many of them- social utilities such as Flickr, Facebook, the Cafe, LinkedIn ect…
Moreover, I've decided to put Facebook as my homepage and to "overthrow" Gmail to be my second homepage, for the first time since 2004, when Gmail was introduced to me. I think this move represents a real shift of powers.
Flickr. After months i think, i sat down today and just enjoyed this amazing photo tool called Flickr. But everything changed in my world when i left the photojournalism way of living and got in to the web life. Once, I used to play hours inside Flickr, just like I do now on Facebook, where my real mass is at. All that made me understand that a social utility of any kind has a power over people only if their place in life suits being in that point and place.
Another thing being inside Flickr made me understand is that being in too many places gets some place to get neglected and even more- every social utility is a direct competition to other utilities, even if they're not of the same sort- you know why? because it’s not a competition about the cause or the subject- it’s a competition about the person’s time.
Back to Gmail. I think my shifting from Gmail to Facebook represent a shift of balance from "i'm in the center and let others come to my mail" to an "I'm in a group and can communicate in many ways" state of mind.
I would really love to hear your thoughts about this subject I find very interesting. Originally i wrote it in Hebrew, but then I realized I must share it with as many people I can reach, so please feel free to comment.
Now I go to sleep
Mysapce: A user experience Jungle
Every website has its own user interface. The interface, among other things, is what differentiates it from other similar sites on the web. The UI will determine whether users get to their destination as fast as possible (you want that), it will determine the rate of conversion on their part (to converge between an anonymous user to a registered one), it will determine their shopping experience (and the money you make), it will determine if they tell their friends it’s a crappy site or a great site. One has to be sensitive as to how users feel when they experience the experience. Make no mistake, the experience is engineered, and that’s why, in my opinion, it’s impottant to take experts directly from the field, like bloggers to manage and run a blogging product and so on.
In the next few posts I'm going to write about websites you all probably know, Myspace, Flickr, Youtube, different blog spheres and other web utilities. Some posts would be written from the eyes of the user I am, and some would bring my-point-of-view’s "first contact" about the interface and experience based on my knowledge and experience with websites. So, I went to Myspace.
I’ve never opened a user there, and I still don’t have one. From that point, I decided to check only my first impression from the website, to go through the main pages, directed fully by the top bar and not deal with the registered user’s experience of the GUI, and by the site’s flow. ***(Of course I am biased, it wasn't my first time on the site but I have to say I haven't been there for more than few seconds each time I've visited there). As the title suggests, Myspace is a jungle, and in the next few paragraphs I'm going to explain why. The most important thing about a social utility and web services in general is the registration and sign in box and process, if you don’t do it right, you lose. Once you're registered you won't go back unless you leave the site for good. You'll meet new friends, you'll upload media of any kind and your inbox will grow. In other words, the minute you sign in is the minute you start having obligations. You’re attached, emotionally.
Myspace’s front page does it well. The sign in box is right there in the center of attention. Sadly, some parts from the rest of this big website doesn’t support the registration procedure and it seems someone there didn’t go all the way in terms of understanding how they could help a person register from anywhere. I'll get to that later. So, the main page’s first impression is that it’s too full. Under the top bar are the Videos, probably there with the help of an editor. Below are music and special feature boxes and on the right- "cool people", more videos and sponsored links. On the bottom there’s a big mistake by Myspace- a how-to and where-to-go bar is hiding there and looks like a sponsored links bar. It’s a big mistake, because people already know how links are presented by Google. It has become something regular users naturally overlook and this is what Myspace put there. The rationale behind the spread of the sponsored links is not understood.
Main bar.
Browse, Search, Invite. Indeed, it’s important, but all these options take you looking for people. Why not create a unified page, a center, where you look for your friends, search for love and invite others to Myspace? From a UI perspective, it’s not that complicated.
Video. In my opinion, when you go to a video page you need to give people the “play” symbol in one or two clicks maximum. When you're in the main video page, every click there will bring you to the author’s page where you will have to look for an embedded video or the pics-and-videos links that are actually hiding (unbelievably) at the almost top of the page. Also, take into consideration the fact that every user can change, even a bit, the page’s layout and that the comments box has unlimited space to grow (A scrolling down Hell) and you could say for sure: Welcome to the Jungle. One of the main platforms Myspace uses is the Myspacetv.com. If you end up there any way, why not create the Myspacetv zone as a main space inside Myspace and or replace the Myspace platform to be Myspacetv? Why not let users who use it on an everyday basis, create their space AROUND the TV zone and not start linking to it. Let it be their home.It could save people’s time, effort, headache- AND CLICKS. I wanted to address one more thing about clicks in this website: In order to fully get access to everywhere- you need to sign in. When there’s a link that takes you to a "registered only" zone you will bounce back to the start page in order to sign in and you may feel the link is broken (a lousy feeling you as website owner can eliminate in 2 minutes). A better idea would be to create a pop up window that would sign you in without going back to the start. Another idea is to direct guests to a specially designed page only for guests to register or sign in and than automatically bring them to their destination. Simple and doable.
Blogs. This page is horrible. Not only it’s vertical in nature (everything vertical is a disaster). I tried to enter the first blogs a few times and they're private and blocked by the users themselves. So I'm asking myself, why promote private blogs as the top cohice blogs? Why not create a private vs. public blogs sections? Have no mistake, everything can be made, everything is hand made there. You would think a website would encourage people to stay public and than give them the-top-of-the-list place, but no, you get a no entry page when you click (no-no-no), and it wouldn't help you to be registered, you have to be friends with the writer first. Also, have you heard of the Long Tail effect? It’s there, big time, and go search for your friends on page 37 or somewhere and good luck with that Forums. When the main page looks like that you know that you're going to have to come back to it many times in order to jump between conversations inside your forum or between your favorite forums. Pages over pages with nothing to do that act as a corridor to get you to where you acrually wanted to go. Why?!
Groups. Go to the automotive groups’ page for example. A thing that didn't occur to the Myspace people in the groups’ context is that a first page has to be organized alphabetically by default and not in any other way so to save clicks and help people find what they're looking for as fast as possible. Oh, and by the way- A GOOD SEACH BOX could help.
Events. Guys, choose where you put your Google ads, c’mon. And how do you think events should be organized, by date, right? Myspace people don’t think so.
Music. I don't know… some pages didn’t open or took'm ages… I got tired.
Comedy. Bottom line, all roads lead to myspacetv.com. As I suggested before, I think Myspace should reorganize itself around their TV platform and not the other way around.
Conclusion- Sometimes I feel it’s all about the interface. Most of times it’s true- A website could rise and fall because of UX engineering. Myspace is different. It succeeded despite its mess. At present, it’s the biggest and most successful social utility on the web even despite not being UX friendly. It means the need for what Myspace is giving is stronger than the people’s will to get a good engineered product. There’s a saying: Don’t fix something that is not broken. This is not the case.
-
-
- 6 now online
Recent Readers
-
-
-
מריץ FireStats