Paul Asensio’s Weblog
Son, brother, husband, father, digital director.In the beginning
If you are anything like me, when you were a child you thought you were something special. In my case I think it had something to do with being the youngest of five children. I was spoiled and praised much too often.
The evidence of the long term effects of ‘youngest child syndrome’ can be seen in the fact that I still believe I deserve to be spoiled and praised much too often. If I wasn’t so vain I’d be perfect!
My son Joseph seems to have been some kind of genetic accident, only taking his DNA profile from his dad. He is a chip off the old block, the spit from my mouth, my mini-me, my clone. My hope is that being the joint eldest (he is a twin) he will escape my syndrome and turn out to be more humble… an improved version… my 2.0. (then I will be perfect!)
I remember thinking I was destined for great things. As a teenager especially I thought I had been put on this planet to be a great leader, a sage, an authority… a sex symbol. Then adulthood came and evidence began to gather that this wasn’t likely to happen and that “the chances” were weighed against me. Just one visit to London made me realise how many people are on this damn planet!
Since their birth I have always thought of Blogs as vain. I think they have youngest child syndrome too. People related to them think they’re cute and entertaining… and so are inevitably praised much too often. The rest of us think they’re vain little brats. I recently attended a digital conference in The Sage Newcastle, and listened to a talk given by a famous blogger. This guy had managed to successfully transfer his audience from his childhood living room to online. His talk was entertaining enough but I couldn’t help feeling blogs were created for this kind of guy. For our kind.
Welcome to my blog.
Street View
Street View has been released in the UK. After years of planning the Google Vauxhall Astras toured the country’s 27 major cities (although you have to question Dundee and Scunthorpe). As well as building up a photographic record of our urban jungles, it promises increased Google Map usability and engagement. Not only can you now view the neighbourhood surrounding that dream house you’ve just viewed on rightmove, get a bearing on where you need to be for that all important job interview, get a more honest perspective of that restaurant you’ve just booked a table at for the first time, but you can spend hours of endless fun trying to spot street arrests, people vomiting after one too mansy and spying on supposed deviants exiting adult bookshops.
For those caught in compromising shots the technology comes with automatic face blur, but because this isn’t always 100% accurate there exists a face or car registration plate alert for those concerned about privacy. If you are worried about stalkers, the bogey man or nasty types armed with swag bags casing your joint you can demand that you house or office virtually disappear overnight.
Four days after its release on 22nd March I heard the comment ”when was it ever the case that you had to opt out of your image appearing on the web?” Very sadly on the same day Jade Goody died and I could not help wonder when was it ever the case that our celebrity obsessed society wasn’t interested in it’s 15 seconds of fame? My brother-in-law was caught near bins outside his Edinburgh apartment and was so pleased he facebooked his achievement for all too see. I for one was well impressed!
Don’t get me wrong, like most sane individuals, I too am concerned about our ever growing “big brother” dressed up as an anti-terrorist dark angel infiltrating our everyday actions from cctv, email and mobile phone records, satellite tracking and god knows what else they have invented in underground nuclear attack-proof labs that we could only ever hope to fathom. But hey, you have to marvel at the brilliance of the idea and its execution. The technology has been around since 2007 and first appeared in the USA, France, Spain and Japan (I toured the backstreets of Tokyo last summer and it didn’t cost me a yen. Only a visit to Yo Sushi for lunch would have completed the experience). Apart from men leaving strip clubs, protesters at an abortion clinic, sunbathers in bikinis, cottagers at public parks, parents hitting their children, males picking up prostitutes, and people engaging in activities visible from public property, it has been generally well accepted.
My biggest concern which fewer people have mentioned (apart from the killing of a deer by a google car in New York state) is the technology and control Google has wielded for some time. Not only have they been deciding what information is being given to us from the results of our web searches for the last decade, but have been holding a record of these, something highlighted in its Chinese operations. Although Google argues that its kowtowing to the Chinese government in censoring its search results are improving transparency it cannot be easy to be the company that set out with the motto “don’t be evil”. Especially now!
What I want to be a master of…
Master of the Universe!
Essential in my job is how to make a website a ‘working tool’; not just something which looks good or pretty (we don’t do this for the greater glory of art), but a tool which offers its owner a return on their investment. The return might be anything, as might the investment. The investment might be time or money, or even better somebody else’s time or money. The return might be to educate, heal, have users purchase, complete application forms, download whitepapers, brand or campaign awareness etc, but more often than not it reverts back to money. The online solution has to work hard for every penny invested in it.
Creating stand-out in a competitive marketplace to achieve this ROI is always a challenge. I have come to believe it is a matter of engaging with users, even, dare I say it, on an emotional level.
Does Web 2.0 (the new digital ’siglo de oro’) help us to do this? What does a Web 3.0 offer? Is the future personalised, semantic and virtual community-based? (Spent 10 minutes with Victor Keegan in the Guardian and he has some interesting in-sight) How will we be engaging in 5, 10, 15 years? How do we effectively and visibly link this to improved ROI? We must be able to sit in front of our clients and say “I can give you amazing returns, because I engage like no other”.
MA he’s making eyes at me
I’ve just signed up to an MA. I’m doing it on creative media practice and should be completed in 15 months.
Since my wife decided to start her MA in English Lit with the OU, I’ve been eyeing up some further education. Not for any poncy reasons; not because I want MA after my name, or to attend a posh bash and throw a mortar board in the air (I wonder what David Cameron would say about the health and safety lefties on this one?) but because I want to master something of the future of the industry I have ended up in.
