Flickr in classrooms
FLICKR -- Next academic term is Flickr's time to enter the Media Writing classroom in Tipperary Institute, as a product description technology. The tasking involves progressively deeper involvement with the photo-sharing technology, starting with an abstract description of what the web service does, a detailed description of the Flickr API, and adding notes to Flickr photos.
We have collected photos of multimedia developers at work and will have multimedia students annotate images with relevant information to identify the kinds of apparel people wear, products sitting on desks, and articles in offices. This exercise has a practical purpose--it is designed to develop an awareness of product placement. When seeking sponsorship, promoters need to know how to leverage product placement. Wired explains why:
As consumers turn away from traditional advertising, marketers increasingly are exploiting product placement opportunities in such popular television fare as CBS's "CSI," and Fox's "24" and "Alias." "Nobody watches traditional commercials anymore," says Richard Rizzuto, who heads up a New York marketing firm. "In five years, it's going to be 90% branded entertainment and 10% traditional advertising."
With a little bit of development, a third-year project will bolt object-tracking technology onto a video. Then viewers can use a laser point or mouse to click an item on the video screen--like an iPod skin or a mobile phone--and find more information on it.
Scott Newman, CEO of GoldPocket Interactive, which is pitching such technology to cable operators, predicts object tracking will be widely available to TV viewers by the end of 2006. "All the technology is there. It just needs to be deployed."
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