Polymer Studios::Web Consulting

“Don’t blint me, bro!”

20. August 2008

The moment of confrontation. Simon Blint (blue shirt, center left) takes on Thomas Hawk and loses. Photo by Thomas Hawk. There can be little doubt about the Web’s ability to promote reputations. But what about its ability to destroy? Consider the case of Simon Blint, director of visitor relations at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art [...]

The infirm leading the blind

31. July 2008

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One of the things I love about the Internet is how it makes possible the most improbable meeting of minds. Take Patrick “Barry” Barr, a Jamaican who spent his working years in New York but retired fairly recently to Lima, Peru, of all places. I met him on Flickr a few years ago and over [...]

Amateur era

4. February 2008

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myRaganTV, a video site for corporate communicators, just posted an interview with Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing our Culture. I have to admit, I was only vaguely aware of Keen’s book and premise, which (if I gather correctly) is that Web 2.0 has shortcircuited the process [...]

Kids rule. No, really.

31. December 2007

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While we adults were geeking out about the potential of Second Life, the kids had their own virtual-world revolution. Brooks Barnes reports in NYT that Webkinz (by toymaker Ganz) had 6 million logins in November. I can attest personally that most of those sessions were probably longer than one hour and ended only with lots [...]

Banking 2.0: Banks Leading the Charge
(Part 2 of 3)

13. November 2007

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In part 1, I gave an overview of core Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, podcasts, wikis and social networks. Now I’ll discuss some examples of how several banks are leveraging some of this new technology to initiate and support deeper relationships with their customers. Wells Fargo fosters an informal, ongoing dialogue with its customers Wells Fargo [...]

Banking 2.0: Core technologies (Part 1 of 3)

24. October 2007

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Web 2.0 has been gaining more and more momentum over the last year or so. Web 2.0 involves taking advantage of internet technology for creating, collaborating, communicating and sharing ideas and information. Things like blogs, podcasts, wikis and social networks are helping organizations forge stronger relationships with their customers. But should you use new technology [...]

Chronic social fatigue syndrome

23. October 2007

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This past couple of weeks has been one conversation after another with prospects and clients about building social Web sites for their unique customer and member audiences. Not that I’m complaining — it’s fun work to imagine how businesses can create communities where they previously had unrelated individual customers. But all this talk [...]