I’ve been following a thread over on Raph Koster’s blog (Link) that I wanted to call out.

The topic is user-created content.

The title of the post is “Quit being snobby about user-created content“.

You get the picture.

And I figure many of you can already see the battle lines. This debate isn’t new – neither for videogame developers nor many others. I can imagine craftsmen in the 19th century having a similar argument about mass industrially-produced product. I recall graphic designers in the 1980’s debating and expressing concerns regarding their own profession as desktop publishing came on the scene and empowered the masses. Same thing.
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I’m not sure how I found this yesterday, but I’m glad I did. The above video shows a kinetic sculpture titled “Ultima Mudfox” by artist U-Ram Choe which went on display late last year at the bitforms gallery in New York City (Link). The videographer also posted a second video showing another piece titled “Echo Navigo” (Link), and Make: magazine has a pair of videos available as well (Link 1, Link 2).
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BrandWeek posted an Adweek piece earlier this month, “Study: Cyber Presence Key to Sales” (Link), that should be of interest to a wide range of people; not just brand advertisers and marketers. In particular, I found this excerpt relevant to many of the virtual world/product development topics I cover here:

“We are absolutely certain that marketing must urgently harness interactive media and the behaviors it induces. … Consumers expect every brand or service to present itself in some kind of online environment, and expect this presence to be of use or interest and to furnish a substantial or involving experience,” the study says. That experience lies at the heart of consumer engagement, one of the four “pillars” that the study lays out as a general framework for effective online marketing.
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From TED|Talks (Link) by way of Wonderland (Link).

Entertaining.

Insightful.

And something everyone needs to hear.

I skipped it the first time I watched the 2006 TED videos. Wish I hadn’t.

I suppose there are a few people who wonder why I find vending machines interesting and blog about them. I’ll try to keep this short and to the point:

1) Vending machines can fabricate an item on demand. Example: the Pouchlink system (reLink)

2) Vending machines can be significant point-of-sale locations. Example: Automated C-Stores (reLink)

3) Vending machines can sell “niche” products. Example: the Art-o-mat (reLink)
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