More industrial design interview goodness over on BW. This time it’s Ross Lovegrove. Read the interview (link) and look at the slideshow (link).

There’s an interesting Brand Channel article being carried on BusinessWeek titled ” Virtual Packaging Lacks Sense“. Couple clips from it here:

On Reputation:

E-commerce is largely driven — and largely limited — by the trust consumers are willing to place in it. Unlike bricks-and-mortar commerce, e-commerce has yet to win the confidence of consumers; it is still struggling to build trust, a weaker form of confidence.

On Consumer Behavior:

Early predictions were that e-commerce would appeal more to our rational natures than to our emotions. …{snip}… But several years ago, a study found that those consumers who do make online purchases are more impulsive than those who do not buy online, that they are less averse to risk (more trusting), and are less brand and price conscious. This expression of trust has an emotional basis, and although it may also be reasonable, it is not completely rational.

On Retail vs E-tail:

Observes Meyers, “There is a certain amount of adventure and change of pace in going shopping, vis-Ã -vis sitting in front of a computer screen.”

Nice piece. There’s also mention of the Gap’s website providing a virtual mannequin and improving the interactivity and sense of adventure mentioned in one of the clips. I recall hearing about it and others a long time ago, but haven’t kept up with them. I’ll need to check out their site and some others to see what the state of the art looks like. When I find something neat I’ll post it here.

Over the weekend my host’s server died and with it my website. So of course they had to bring another server online and restore from backup. Fortunately, I backed up my files right before the crash (and navigated the restoration process with the help of Turtle Meat’s “Fragments” how-to webpage – thanks, mon). I don’t think I lost any blog entries, but I did lose comments on a recent entry about Umbria tracking my posts.

The gist of that lost conversation was that Umbria had previously gotten the attention of a few of us (I knew they sounded familiar) back in June when BusinessWeek’s Stephen Baker posted a Blogspotting entry about them.

Which brings me back to the current circumstances. Having been the on-again/off-again target of amateur hacks looking to cut their teeth on outdated and vulnerable code, it reminds me that should a website say something a corporate entity doesn’t like (e.g. “Burger King’s got the worst onion rings I’ve ever had”), they can’t even employ the services of a hacker to wipe files (not that a corporation would ever do anything illegal). Because assuming, say, I don’t back them up, and assuming my host didn’t back them up, there’s a good chance some netbot has already archived my post. In fact, that was going to be an option in the event I’d lost more than I did.

So two lessons (re)learned. First, back up your files frequently. Second, once it’s posted there’s no erasing it.

Since I’m unable to comment on the BusinessWeek blog entry, I’ll post my response here. Here’s the question posed by Heather Green:

Is there a way to track the growth of the creation and distribution online of music, videos, audio shows from individuals (outside the walls of the traditional studios, networks, and labels)?

I don’t see a way at present to track this growth (which means tracking the content itself), but this seems related to something I posted a few days ago: “Backdoor Content Channels“.

If virtual spaces (MySpace, CyWorld, aso) continue to morph into suites of hosted services, I suspect those services will wind up tracking the content users make available to others. Currently that would primarily be text, graphics, music, video. But as these virtual spaces become increasingly immersive, I see it including 3D content; files for use in 3D virtual spaces or for actual fabrication.

The real problem in my opinion is determining which content is original and which is copied or pirated. People already make lots of stuff “available” that they didn’t create. And I’d guess a significant portion of them would rather that no one know; look at the creative names people use for copied music in order to avoid anti-piracy efforts. So beyond the technical issue of tracking and cataloguing, there’s community resistance. It is a tough nut. And it’s going to get worse .

Having spent a large part of the day doing some programming, I was amused to get back to the site and find an interesting visitor: “http://portal.umbriacom.com/portal/urlClassification“. Turns out the link goes to a closed site (I got a session time out page). Being an inquiring mind I did the obvious: I went to http://www.umbriacom.com … which then forwarded me to this link. “Analyzing online opinions and perceptions“. I guess my comments on Burger King’s lame marketing efforts got more than BusinessWeek’s attention.

Imagine that. A marketing firm watching me while I watch them. Well, take this back with you, Umbria: Instead of your clients trying to be inventive with the marketing and advertising, how about someone telling them to improve their product first? See, all this internet connectivity and MySpace-Friendster-Buzz Oven sharing stuff is a BIG double-edged sword. So if the product isn’t as good as it should be, the negative reactions are going to fly just as fast if not faster, and sales will sink so much worse than they used to in the pre-Internet Age (think Tylenol circa 1982). Heads will spin before they roll. Be prepared.