IanSchafer.com

Is Kodak Missing The Point?

Blink (or skip over what seems like a piece of junk e-mail), and you might be losing all of your photos on KodakGallery (formerly Ofoto).

Kodak just updated it's Terms of Service with the following:

Storage Policy Kodak Imaging Network provides free online storage of images to its members for an initial period of 90 days from the date you first upload an image to your account. To maintain free storage, you need to meet the following minimum purchase requirement within 90 days of first uploading images, and then every 12 months thereafter:

For members with images totaling 2 GB or less uploaded on member’s “My Photos”, the minimum annual purchase requirement is $4.99.

For members with images totaling more than 2 GB uploaded on member’s “My Photos”, the minimum annual purchase requirement is $19.99.

edit And if you don't cough up the dough, your photos will be deleted.

With so many other options on the web, and with those options not even coming close to a policy like this, why would Kodak take on such a policy? Isn't the point of uploading photos to the service to 'share' them easily, not simply buy photos on a semi-regular basis? Doesn't Kodak earn goodwill and branding impressions by constantly driving people back to their website to view photos? Isn't disk space cheaper now than it has ever been?

There's an uproar brewing -- and will be even louder once photos start getting deleted from the site, and people lose their memories forever.

Victor Cho, Kodak Gallery's GM posted an open letter here. But for those of us with photos that have been there since the site was Ofoto (nearly 10 years ago, in some cases), not providing people with an easy way to remove those photos all at once is a horrible choice. If you're in the memories business, deleting those of your customers will come back to haunt you.

edit: Shouldn't they also be counting the photos that other people (like my mom) have bought from the site as a result of me sharing my photos with them? Or does that not count?

Discuss away. Twitter hashtag is #kodakfail.

**update** WSJ weighs in here.

My Latest on AdAge's DigitalNext: Putting 'Media' Back Into Social Media.

AdAge just posted my counterpoint to Josh Bernoff's earlier thoughtful piece about the new ways we should be thinking about Social Media.

Here's an excerpt:

My fellow DigitalNext contributor (and fine fellow whom I greatly respect and admire), Josh Bernoff, recently posted about the baggage that comes along with the word "media" when talking about "social media." He states:

"If you're going to participate in a big social site (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube), call it a "social-network site" (or just a "social network," for short). And you're often better off with a channel or a profile or an identity than an ad in such an environment."

That certainly holds true when developing long-term "social media" strategies for building and sustaining relationships with your customers (and yet-to-be customers), which I certainly hope you are doing. But it does not do justice to what we, as advertisers -- not just marketers -- must task ourselves when it comes to understanding this new era of shared experiences.

Josh closes his post with a point of "... no matter what you do, the sooner you stop thinking of the social web as media, the better off you are."

I strongly disagree. We need to think about it both ways. Allow me to explain.

Click here to read the rest of the piece over at AdAge.com.

Oh No, Domino's! A Social Media Disaster In the Making. Literally.

Blowing up on the interwebtubes right now is a little video made by employees at a Domino's Pizza, somewhere in the US. In a nutshell, it features 2 employees, one documenting the other placing a rather disgusting item into an outgoing order.

Of course, the video was uploaded to YouTube. It was then removed. But not before someone downloaded it and re-uploaded it for the world to (re)see. And now the web-o-sphere is abuzz about never ordering from Domino's again.

Keep an eye on an official Domino's response to this. My prediction is that this will be on each of your local evening newscasts in the next 24-48 hours. And Twitter will erupt with the terms "booger" and "Domino's" and "pizza". Mark my words. Watch it happen here.

Domino's, this needs to be proactively dealt with NOW. Get on it.

How would YOU handle this situation if you were Domino's? Let everyone know in the comments.

UPDATE: There's already a conversation going about this going on my Facebook Wall.

UPDATE 2: Employees have been identified and fired according to PaidContent.

UPDATE 3: Consumerist exposes everything.

UPDATE 4: Holy pepperoni. Apparently there is a whole series of these videos. Each worse than the other.

UPDATE 5: As predicted, the TV networks are all over this story -- within my 48-hour window :)

Foxnews

BBC

NBC TV

UPDATE 6: Domino's responds via YouTube.

UPDATE 7:And now it's on the Today Show:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Flight of the Conchords Lip Dub Nominated For a Webby Award! Vote Today!

Deep Focus and our partners over at HBO are proud to announce that we've been nominated for a Webby Award in the Television category!

The http://wwww.FlightLipDub.com was only one part of hugely successful integrated campaign, but it certainly earned its fair share of social media accolades on its own.

So a laurel and hearty handshake go out to all the fine folks at HBO and Deep Focus that made this site a reality, to our friends at YouTube for opening up their API, and to you -- the fans -- for making some really awesome content. We couldn't have done it without you!

And speaking of you, you can be a part of history by voting for this entry in the People's Voice Award portion of the Webbys. Simply click here to register and vote for us. It's simple. And Bret and Jemaine love to feel loved.

Woo-hoo!

Nokia Launches Ovi (App) Store. Deep Focus Helps.

This would be news in its own right, but Nokia just announced the launch of their app store, the Ovi Store, at the CTIA and Web 2.0 conferences, and Deep Focus is proud to be a part of it.

Deep Focus helped with the launch by bringing in our friends at Howcast to work with us to develop the video you see below, explaining the ways developers can build on the platform and make money.

Check it out. You just might learn something.