Anyone else having issues with Tweetmeme? One day it’s working, next day no more retweet buttons next to my posts. The only change that has been made is of course the update for 3.05 and a change to masthead graphic. Any and all thoughts are appreciated! Thanks!

[update 03/04/11]

Still no luck. Uninstalled and reinstalled before and after update to WP 3.1 stable. Picked through the code as well as picked through the main stylesheet to see if changes there might have broken it. #tweetmeme #fail

Who has two thumbs pointing back at himself and is now engaged to the love of his life?

This guy right here!

I updated the masthead. Looks nicer, cleaner and loads faster. I also like the fact that I can now say I employ the use of PNG’s on my site. How progressive of me!

Well, as you can tell it’s been a while since I’ve made any progress here with updating the look and feel of the site. With that in mind, a lot of WP changes have come up since then. Namely WP 3.0 happened and with it came a new default template (widget ready) as well as numerous backend changes. With that in mind, I’m seriously leaning toward doing a heavy modification of the new default theme (Twenty-Ten). I really like the clean lines this theme brings and I’m really digging the integrated drop-down menus with links to child pages and widget support (hoping to find a nice twitter widget to plug-in to).

So it seems I have a plan again so stay tuned for more updates (I promise not to drop the ball again… oh, and I promise I will never die).

When Spring approaches, the first thing that comes to mind is Spring Cleaning. Out the old and in the with the new so to speak. And as I look back over the last 3+ years that unpixelated has been around, one thing that hasn’t changed is the design itself. I think this was in part to back my original goals for the site as a personal blog yet it has started to evolve into something more and as such the feel of the site needs to mirror that. So I’ve started shopping around and seeing what’s been happening in the world of WordPress theme design.

Needless to say, I’ve been out of the loop for a very long time.

So I thought it would be an interesting study to chronicle the journey of this new design. I’ve decided to start with two currently available themes:

Lightword – from http://www.lightword-theme.net

From the author, “Simply clever theme with two or three columns, Adsense support, fixed-width, widget-ready and threaded comments. Compatible with WordPress 2.8+ (including 2.9.x), valid XHTML & CSS.”

Notes: I like this as a simple layout with the posting date off to the left and out of the body. No quite so crazy about the navigation bar or the RSS button but I think it has a lot of potential in terms of being a solid 2 column layout with plenty of space larger article font sizes.

Pixel – from http://samk.ca

From the author, “Dark WP theme with 2-3 column layout, drop-down categories menu, multiple widget-ready placement and feedburner email form integrated, easy to customize.”

Notes: I love the modern feel of this one. It embodies clean lines while keeping content relevant. One that that does turn me off is the all the navigation that hangs out at the bottom. That would need to be taken out and moved over to the left or right-hand side. It does seem to contain a lot of redundant navigation which would need to be streamlined and I would love to see the background glow reduced but have it frame the entire body section.

Right now, I’m leaning toward Lightword for it’s simplicity and and clean layout. I’ve got some ideas for a new logo that’s frighteningly simple. Now in terms of getting this project project started, it’s on the calendar between everything else.

Anyone not living in a cave for the last 6 months has undoubtedly been exposed in some way to the flash vs. html 5 debate that has been raging all across the web. For the uninformed and misguided, the battle is simply one of proprietary standards versus open standards. But this little tiff isn’t as cut and dry as it seems and is poised to change the ways and means for which we not only view rich media advertising but the entire web experience itself.

So let’s start at the beginning. Long ago, Adobe created Flash. Everyone loved it because it let them do things on the web that were typically reserved only for those cool multimedia CD’s and games we all used to play. Now all of a sudden we could do all this cool interactive stuff in our web browser and people rejoiced. Then came the age of mobile (really it was the age of the iPhone). Suddenly we didn’t have access to the same cool flashy interactive stuff we he become accustomed to on our desktop web browser. But then the game changed with the advent of the app and we started to not worry so much about not having Flash on our phones. But in a way, we still missed it a little.

Enter HTML 5 and it’s promises to free us from the chains of a proprietary platform. Or are these false promises? Let’s start with what we are currently seeing with HTML 5.

1. YouTube Beta

YouTube, following in the steps of Google, has unveiled a HTML 5 only version of their media player. Or course, right now it’s only limited to certain browsers e.g. Safari, Chrome, and Opera 10.50. Sure it looks a little clunky and doesn’t do HD but as a proof of concept, it works and it works pretty well. Performance is about on par with other YouTube videos running inside of the old Flash based video player. The player is responsive for something that is completely non-reliant on a 3rd party plug-in.

2. Vimeo Media Player (beta)

Yet another video player venturing out into HTML 5 waters but offers HD along with decent performance and a slightly cleaner looking interface with a few more options. Video players will be the first to take advantage of HTML 5 as they are often easier to put together from a development standpoint and offer greater appeal in terms of everyday use.

3. Traditional Banner Ads

Actually, we haven’t really seen anything yet. But it doesn’t mean it’s not coming down the pipe. Advertisers will rejoice at HTML 5′s ability to walk around Flash blocking software and marvel at it’s ability to cross platforms (and devices) with ease. From desktop to mobile with very little reworking needed, it’s a win for advertisers and publishers.

So all that sounds great but what’s the bad side? For starters, it’s limited to specific desktop browsers and devices (iPhone). Being that’s it’s new, there will be need to be time for people to become accustomed to working with HTML 5. Time to market with out of beta, fully featured applications is going to take some time. Something else to watch out for us browser compatibility. Microsoft is famous for interpreting HTML in their own special way. And while all the uses above sound great, HTML 5 may still not provide the level of interactivity that users (especially people who play those dinky flash based games) have come to expect.

In conclusion, Flash isn’t dead but it’s place in the global market of video players and rich media based advertising is going to change. It’s not going to change with a loud roar but without a sound at all. Most users won’t be able to tell the difference and that seems to be the major advantage here. But, as with all new technology, time and talent will be the judge.

It wasn’t until recently that I gained true insight in how diverse my social media footprint has started to become. This insight came in the form of a simple Google search for my name. I noticed that my all of my social outlets (Twitter, Facebook, and blog) felt fragmented and unconnected. It was at that point, I remembered coming across an article on Mashable about a crazy new startup called flavors.me that was aiming toward developing a simple way to consolidate ones social footprint. For the last week or so, I’ve been test driving it and it’s pretty easy to say that it definitely does what it claims.

I started off obviously by signing up which by far was a very simplified process -

Simply input an email address, create a username and password and you’re ready to start. Upon supplying the required information, you are slingshot to the setup page where you can change the background, layout and text formatting along with setting up the services you want to tie into your flavors.me page.

Supported social services include Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, WordPress and standard RSS with more in the queue to be added.

Overall, the process is rather simple to setup and while it does appear extremely polished, it does also appears to be lacking when it comes to the level of custom configuration available. My hope is that the developers start building in features such as a more refined WYSIWYG layout for text and perhaps better controls for creating scaling background images that don’t require flash (and rely more on HTML 5). As an added bonus though (and one of my favorite features), for $20 a year you can point your domain toward your flavors.me site and you get the ability to embed Google Analytics into your page along with keeping track via the built in reporting engine.

Simply put, it has allowed me to truly consolidate my social media footprint into something that is simple to setup, maintain and provides me with a level of reporting that I have become accustomed to with this blog. I highly recommend this to anyone looking to tie their social networks together into a easily viewable and searchable resource.

It seems the flagging economy has opened our eyes to declines in industries across the board in the US (and worldwide). Especially hard hit has been traditional newsprint and local newspapers. As more and more users have migrated to getting their news online, print media in general has been on the decline. It seems readers are not only becoming smarter about the types of news they consume but are relying heavily upon technology to manage it. It’s not surprising that more and more newspapers are taking their news to the web and as such are taking much of their traditional advertising with them. This has not been an easy transition for print as the struggle to build and support this new infrastructure. It seem their saving grace has been the near uniform adoption of the CMS.

CMS, short for Content Management System, is not new technology and has been around since 2001 (almost as long as the blog format). While they have been typically used by special interest sites in order to manage news and community, they are now being re-purposed as the perfect platform for print and television news to push themselves in the digital space. Easily customizable and with support for added functionality via a plugin architecture, newspapers and television stations have been adopting popular (and free) CMS’s such as Drupal, Joomla, and LaunchPad at an accelerated pace. As with any mass migration of an advertising supported media, news and innovative ways are needed to give advertising their space in this new medium.

Products such as OAS, Yahoo! APT and DFP for Small Business are allowing advertisers to bring their sponsors with them in the move. These products are allowing advertisers to plug in traditional web-based ads into their site with very little effort involved. They allow for end to end management of the advertising process which spans from inventory management, pricing, placement and delivery. They are even providing world-class reporting and analytics which were typically reserved only for the digital agencies and their clients. These tools are providing specialized API’s which allow developers to build custom reporting platform that put their advertisers in the front seat in managing their advertising dollars through near real-time metrics.

Ultimately, what the CMS has done for small town print is give it a global audience and facilitate the rapid dissemination of news in small communities who are slowly but surely trading in their daily paper for something that runs closer to the speed of life. Even my own home town paper, The Daily Citizen News, has made this transition and is looking to take it to the next step which is mobile.

It’s not news that the wireless companies are finally aiming their guns at mobile data usage and inherently it’s users. While users seem to be up in arms over pricier mandatory data plans, it seems they have forgotten how we all got to this point. Phones like the iPhone and the G1 has sparked a mass consumption of data that has never been experienced before and with any widely adopted product that relies on a service to power it, there will inevitably be a cost. Much like a drug, the first hit is relatively free (or low cost). But as more and more users are growing dependent on these services, the wireless providers have gained the advantage that allows them to rewrite the terms.

While Americans are generally more critical of these price changes, we tend to forget that the rest of the world has always paid more for these services.  As a comparison, I looked at Vodafone UK rates for the iPhone and compared to what American’s are paying for similar service on AT&T:

Vodafone iPhone Basic

Minutes – 300
Text – Unlimited
Data – 1gb per month (£2 per MB overage)
Contract Terms – 24 months
Cost – £30 ($48.00 USD)
iPhone 16gb 3GS cost – £149 (@242.00 USD)

AT&T iPhone Basic

Minutes – 450
Text – 200 @ $4.99
Data – Unlimited
Contract Terms – 24 months
Cost – $74.99
iPhone 16gb 3GS cost – $199.99

With the average iPhone user averaging about 500-700mb per month of data use, the Vodafone cap doesn’t leave much room for growth. Especially as more and more apps are dependent on externally accessible data, a users is sure to exceed the limit and incur hefty charges. Along with the reduced minutes and high phone price, it’s clearly visible that the US is still the cost leader in data (and cost per minute for wireless voice) for today’s smartphones. But as more and more US users are taking advantage of this, the backend services that drive these smartphones are unable to cope.

We often praise wireless providers such as Vodafone for providing a solid level of support for data users yet forget what is involved to maintain that level of service which is in this case are pricing controls. But as services continue to evolve (LTE is currently in the pipe for Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone, O2, Orange and T-Mobile Europe starting in 2010) it’s predicted that these pricing controls will adapt to not only provider better growth services to the end user but also to scale to smartphone growth overall which will effectively allow the continued evolution of the mobile ecosystem.

There is no mistaking that the warning bell  has been sounded for the digital agency. As more and more companies are taking control of their own brand using tools such as SEM/SEO, social networking, mobile and analytics tools, the concept of the digital agency is quickly becoming a fading memory.  Most people recognize this but perhaps don’t understand why this happening. The list of reasons is quite large but I would like to focus on what are the top three consecutive reasons why this is occurring.

1. Failure to see the big picture

Digital agencies are mostly transitioning traditional agencies and with that suffer from the pains of any industry in transition. For the digital agency, these pains come in the form of the old guards resistance to change. It’s not that they don’t have a willingness to understand change, it’s their cautiousness that holds them back from innovating let alone staying current. This cautiousness extends not only from product development but extends to operational procedures as well. What this ultimately creates is an environment where agencies don’t take the necessary risks which are the risk to innovate, risk to listen to employee feedback, and risk to adapt. Failure to address these are probably the single biggest reasons why agencies (especially transitional agencies) are presently being phased out in favor of companies taking initiative to meet their own branding needs.

2. Companies who are filling the void

Understanding change is the only way to be ahead of it. Agencies have not only lost touch with the technology but lack the level of understanding needed to make it work for their clients. This has essentially created a vacuum that is slowly being filled by companies looking to internalize and take back control of their brand advertising. More and more companies are filling their ranks with web-savvy users in an attempt to stay current and competitive. With more and more inexpensive tools at their disposal e.g. Google Analytics, SEM/SEO, and social media, agencies are slowly losing their relevance in the advertising space.

3. Unable to cope

I think ultimately, agencies are unable to cope with the level of changes required to keep them relevant in the marketplace. This especially applies to the large agencies who like any large business lack the ability to turn on a dime in an environment where flexibility is key . This in turn means that they are going to be unable to respond quickly enough to the demands of clients looking to them to represent their brand as effectively and thoroughly as possible.

In closing, while the writing is slowly appearing on the wall it is not a concrete fate. While we are seeing the concept of the digital agency slowly being absorbed by the very clients who they represent there is still hope. But this is only if digital agencies can start adapting to new technology quicker, utilizing (and listening) to existing talent, and taking the necessary risks to be innovative for their client.