friend and former colleague thomas zorbach also talks about one of their most recent projects, an ‘alternate reality game‘ (arg) surrounding the launch of zoë beck’s new thriller “das alte kind“. read the whole article here (in german).

link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg

update: best buy trying to fire employee over evo versus iphone video

(via techcrunch)

here is the making of and more on david wilson’s blog.

get the new ‘radio retaliation’ album via amazon music or via itunes.

more about thievery corporation and on wikipedia.

(via jeremiah owyang)

“join us in our mission to set a guinness world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours! set a guinness world record, enjoy a better web. sounds like a good deal, right? all you have to do to help us set the record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours is get firefox 3 now – it’s that easy. we’re not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome. please download firefox 3 by 17:00 utc on june 18, 2008. that’s 10:00 a.m. in mountain view, 1:00 p.m. in toronto, 2:00 p.m. in rio de janeiro, 7:00 p.m. in paris, madrid, berlin, rome and warsaw, 9:00 p.m. in moscow, and June 19, 2008 at 1:00 a.m. in beijing and 2:00 a.m. in tokyo.”

i wrote about the incredible customer evangelism around firefox earlier and the spread firefox initiative when it was launched in 2004. firefox 3 download day – guinness world record is part of spreadfirefox.com, an amazing community driven word-of-mouth marketing force spreading the word about the world’s best web-browser.

“welcome to spread firefox. you are our marketing department, a diverse community of people tired of swatting popups, chasing spyware, combatting identity theft and installing security updates you could set your watch to. You have a vision of the 21st century web and are ready to push it to the world, wresting control from a monopoly that has let it stagnate [...] as a small, non-profit organization, the mozilla foundation has very limited resources at its disposal to market firefox to the world. spreadfirefox was created to fill this void, and was founded on the same principles of community involvement that drive the development and testing of firefox. we believe there is nothing that a large community of enthusiastic volunteers can’t accomplish, and this site exists to unite the community into one cohesive marketing force that even competitors with unlimited resources can’t compete with.”

i’m one of these enthusiastic firefox fans and happy to spread the word about the world’s best web-browser, the tool i use the most everyday. so far and within just a couple of hours firefox 3 has already surpassed 2,3 million downloads …

join the firefox 3 download day – guinness world record and enjoy the best firefox yet.

robin hilton wrote a report on yesterday’s word of mouth marketing forum at the warc wom forum blog. the conference provided a mix of case studies, theories and how to’s, starting with what word-of-mouth marketing is “giving people a reason to talk about your product/service and making it easier for that conversation to take place” (source womma) to wom as a discipline, read more.

a couple of my friends were there like paul marsden and martin oetting but i was hoping to find some more material from this conference online like blog posts, slideshows or video material. hopefully some of the speakers or participants will provide more information for the ones who couldn’t make it there.

(via goviral newsletter)

on another note, check out this article on “common word-of-mouth beats ‘highly-connected’ influencers” from the december 2007 issue of the journal of advertising research.

“we find that trying to track down key influencers, people who have extremely large social networks, is typically unnecessary and, more importantly, can actually limit a campaign or advertisement’s viral potential,” said james coyle. “instead, marketers need to realize that the majority of their audience, not just the well-connected few, is eager and willing to pass along well-designed and relevant messages.”

the study reinforced that consumers respond more to messages that are unique and trusted. in addition, consumers who believe they are capable of performing the advertised behavior are more willing to pass along information to friends and relatives within their social networks. coyle added that this isn’t new. “it’s always been this way. what’s changed is that digital media makes it so easy for everyone to forward messages to contacts within their social networks. for most everyone, digital media just extends a very human desire to help others.”

(via guy kawasaki)

this clip is actually michael wesch’s video response to this web 2.0 video. michael wesch is an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at kansas state university and recently gave an interview at john battelle’s searchblog.

michael wesch “web 2.0 … the machine is us/ing us”

also worth watching: epic, identity 2.0 and dance, monkeys, dance.

(via björn’s all new alles gut? blog and robert scoble)

[tags: web 2.0, michael wesch, cultural anthropology, digital ethnography]

with its melting pot of international influences, washington dc seemed a natural place for the birth of thievery corporation in 1995 – the dj-duo rob garza und eric hilton. it’s not easy to describe their kind of music, let me call it downbeat with elements of dub, reggae, triphop, brazilian, house, indian sounds, lounge-jazz, bossa, global beats and a bit of percussion … got confused? then just listen to these masters of the soft grooves and funked-up rhythms.

find out more at www.thieverycorporation.com