July 2007

Did anyone else squeal with glee when The Spice Girls announced their 2007 Reunion Tour? Was I the only one?

Once again, I’m showing my age around here. At the ripe old age of 30-something, I am officially older than 92 percent of my co-workers at PlattForm. I’m older than my boss. I’m older than half of the officers around here. And I’m old enough to be my 19-year-old intern’s, uh, considerably elder brother.

Just last week I had a conversation with someone in Client Services and it went a little something like this:

Them: “Dude, who are you listening to?”

Me: “Fleetwood Mac.”

Them: “Oh-mah-gah … I love HIM!”

It was at that exact moment I died just a little bit inside. But I quickly decided if you can’t beat ‘em, mock ‘em. Take my intern, for instance. He seems to be a quick study. He’s eager to learn and not jaded by years of advertising abuse. And he’s quickly become the little brother I never wanted.

He had the nerve … the gall … the chutzpah to march in my office the other day and announce how exciting it was to be the new kid on the block. He then likened himself to a new puppy that everyone wants to play with while I, on the other hand, was an old worn out dog.

Had I not just invested $500 in Botox injections, the look on my face would have spoken volumes. So I did what any good 30-something boss would do, I threw my Emmy at him and told him to get out.

Get this! The median age within the walls of PForm is 27.25 years old … and that’s actually down from a year ago when it was a whopping 28.5. I have Jordache jeans older than that!

But there is a method to the madness around here. PlattForm knows the best people to promote/advertise the college industry are recent college grads. They’re ready, willing and able … sort of like my intern.

Which reminds me … I need to tell him what I want … what I really, really want is a Tall, Skinny, Caramel Macchiato ASAP and for him to pick up my new Prada shoes at Nordstrom’s.

by Ryan McBee

For those of you who are not in the know, the Proofers are now known exclusively as The ProoFTrooP. The ProoFTrooP was born out of the depths of the grammatical core. Arranged by the mysterious forces of Stet and Syntax, and formed over millions of years of intense heating and cooling, we have risen up from the bowels of the earth to establish a sense of order in an otherwise chaotic PlattForm world.

The haunting of the ghost Aunt Jemima was noted by the ProoFTrooP several months back when we first caught “wind” of her. The ghost of Aunt Jemima operates in a very peculiar manner. Her presence is not so much felt as it is smelt – around and within the ProoFTrooP headquarters. Intelligence reports and various covert operations organized by the ProoFTrooP have revealed many disturbing details about this sticky soul.

She sweeps the halls of PlattForm with no sense of control or regard for her pungent odor and its effects, and the ProoFTrooP continue to battle against her attempts to distract PlattFormers from their work – putting thoughts of IHOP and other maple-oriented activities into our collective head. But we march onward into the piles of content and client revisions, even as she attempts to make our arms stick to dockets and sends breakfast-filled gusts of her sweet-scented haunting … anything to keep us from our work. Even the Ghost Hunters won’t touch this one … its too sticky.

The latest field reports indicate that Jemima is no longer contained exclusively by syrupy smells. On July 12, there were several reports of her haunting the QA/PR/BI hallway with the sizzlin’ smell of fake bacon (facon), and there are rumors that she has had a history of such transformations into other breakfast-oriented aromas.

However, On Friday the 13th, Jemima took the all-too-obvious opportunity to make a quantum leap into an overwhelmingly onion realm. This was a signal that Jemima is becoming more aggressive (and a bit cliché), and that her hijinks can no longer be tolerated. The ProoFTrooP is currently coordinating with BI to remove her, once and for all.

Web 2.0 has been getting a lot of attention lately. Some are heralding it as the future of the Internet. There are seminars taught on it. There are even some companies requiring it for job applicants. All of the attention doesn’t go very far in actually telling us what it is or what it does, though. More confusing still, there’s no actual definition anywhere out there, not even from the coiners of the term, that spells out what Web 2.0 is, so you’ll find hundreds of different interpretations of it strewn across the Internet. So what is Web 2.0? Inquiring minds want to know.

The name would suggest that Web 2.0 is a new version of the Internet. This is not exactly true. Web 2.0 is a new philosophy behind Internet applications. While there are some new technologies that are bringing in the Web 2.0 era, many of the technologies that form its building blocks have been around for years. The new philosophy is basically a shift in the expectations of what will define Internet usage and technology in the years to come and represents a better understanding of the special characteristics of the Internet as a place to conduct research and business.

According to this article by Tim O’Reilly, who originally coined the term, the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is the difference between Netscape and Google. Netscape was built as a tool for accessing the Internet. More generally, it was something that all computer users knew and understood – a desktop application that did something new. It even tried to emulate the computer desktop by creating a “portal” page: a collection of links, news articles and information that would serve as a base of operations to conduct research or business on the Internet.

Google is as much a piece of software as Netscape; but the differences are astounding. Google is contained entirely on the Internet. Netscape was for Windows or Mac users; but Google was for Internet users. Anyone, with any operating system or browser, could access Google. Netscape did exactly as it was programmed – users had no real control over what the browser actually did; but Google actually used other people’s web pages to figure out what pages were about and rank them in its search results. Google didn’t fit into any of the pre-existing boxes of what computer users knew and used – it was something totally new designed specifically for the Internet. Web 2.0 is essentially about using the Internet for things that only the Internet can deliver.

Displaying information may have been sufficient for Web 1.0, with web pages behaving like magazine articles; but Web 2.0 requires that web pages display and receive information. Personal web sites have been upgraded to blogs, where readers have a chance to respond to what they read and interact with other readers. Online encyclopedias have been replaced with the Wikipedia, which allows users to add or add to articles as new information becomes available. User interaction and contribution are key to Web 2.0.

So is Web 2.0 really a new paradigm, or is it hyped-up semantic nonsense? That all depends on the context. As a description of what’s already happening on the Internet, it’s spot-on. Companies like Google and Yahoo! are what Microsoft and Macintosh were fifteen years ago. As a buzzword on a résumé, Web 2.0 doesn’t really mean a lot other than pointing out that the person in question uses Google a lot. Don’t be taken in by the hype! Mind the difference.

I was running some errands last weekend at my second-favorite store, SuperTarget (About which I could devote an entire blog; seriously, I can get a bag of shredded cheddar cheese, windshield wiper fluid, a designer T shirt, and “Reno 911: The Complete Fourth Season” in one place!) when I noticed the back-to-school ads were already starting. I recall being a child and feeling a wave of despair wash over me as the “Back to School Savings!” ads started peppering the Sunday paper. The glory days of summer would be drawing to a close, although the days seemed just as long as when the summer started. Was it over so soon? I had barely slurped down my quota of “suicides” at the little league park for the summer. (For the record, the ill-termed brew was created by running your cup under every spout at the fountain, mixing Coke with Sprite, lemonade with Mr. Pibb, and so on.) Soon I would have to start picking out a new metal lunch box, featuring the newest craze. (My favorite was Pac-Man. I think I held on to that one for a few seasons.) I’d pick new boxes of crayons, always opting for the Crayola 64 crayon collection, featuring the ingenious in-box sharpener; get an updated Trapper Keeper, and ultimately resign myself to the fact I’d be getting back to the rigorous daily grind. Second grade can be tough like that.

Now that I’m mostly an adult, I have been living in a non-summer-break-world for years.
Gone are the days of laying around the pool, staying up until 3am, and sleeping until noon. You actually have to take a day of personal time if you want to do that during the week. I tend to take for granted that whole-back-to-school feeling because I don’t consciously feel like I’m clinging to those last precious moments of summer.

It’s interesting to discover that working in the educational sector, every day is back-to-school season. I suppose that is one of the great things about our industry. In certain educational settings you have to wait until fall to make a change for the next phase of your life. In high school or college, we tend to take that for granted. However, at PlattForm, we’re in the business of constantly changing people’s lives, not just in the fall. It doesn’t matter if it’s the last days of summer or the deep freeze of winter (of course it’s always sunny in southern California, so our clients down there can disregard that part of the sentence); someone’s ready to start going back to school. Textbooks are purchased, revised work hours are planned, and people are setting themselves down the path to a new life. And it happens all the time. What could be cooler than that? (Aside from a Pac-Man lunch box, of course…)

by Matt Kluemper
If it seems like Google is taking over the world, well, that is because it is well on its way.

Search and Google – now a worldwide powerhouse – is evolving into the telephone, providing users with search results even if they are miles away from a computer.

Can’t find the movie theater? Craving late-night pizza? Who ya gonna call? Call 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411 for you lazy folks). This new service with Google is only in the experimental phases, but it looks like it could be propelled into everyday use for confused travelers and more.

It’s pretty simple – all you do is call the number, tell the nice voice recording on the phone what city and state you are looking for, then the name of the business. Can’t remember the name of the business? All you have to do is tell the recording what type of establishment you are looking for.

Example of a simulated phone call I had with Google on Sunday:
Matt: [Dials number] Hi, Google!
Google: Please say your city and state.
Matt: Olathe, Kansas.
Google: OlAAAthe, Kansas. Please say the name of the business or category of the business you are looking for.
Matt: Movies.
Google: [Subtle noises that sound like dial-up Internet – eee errrr kssh gong gong] Top search result for movies in Olathe, Kansas.

Google proceeded to tell me the top eight search results for movies in Olathe, Kansas. Once I decided on the closest movie theater to me, Google even directly connected me to the theater so I could get the movie time for Transformers! (I know, that movie is soo last week). The point is, I didn’t even have to get up to get to my computer to find out where the movie was – I just called them.

Too socially inept to talk to even a voice recording? Well, Google has that covered, too. Just text Google what you want. This is a little more difficult (involves remembering commands like “map 500 n. rogers rd olathe ks” to get a map of PlattForm’s location), and requires a cheat sheet provided by Google.

However, in a matter of seconds, you can get the map to the movie theater, pizza place or anywhere else that floats your boat. (You can get lakes, too.