KitchenGarden went to the round up of science and commerce at the #SWOCC_nl conference on Social Media, People and Brands. Science men Daan Muntinga and Fred Bronner reseached COBRA’s (Consumers’Online Brand Related Activities) and the effect of Posters and Lurkers on eWOM. Still with me?

Scientist make you think in models. That comes in handy when you have to explain the behavior of people on the web. Like as postings about qualities and specs are specific for people searching something. And postings on service and experiences are specific for people that want to share their experience on a holyday, a camera, a concert or whatever what. Sort of obvious you might say but it helps to put the world in a model.

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The new service, created in Google Labs , adds a long-missing piece to the search pie.

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That’s not so good news when you’re a marketeer handling a clients crisis on Twitter, Facebook, the customer site, several messageboards and so on. Maybe the company gets a lot of negative attention in the press and you are trying to control the conversation. Let’s say a certain company does not have many (online) options for customers to respond to their products or services: Sidewiki now gives them a place to spread their thoughts (positive and negative) whether the website’s owner likes it or not.

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Some things picked up from Gerd Leonhard at PicNic09: Open is the word. Open source, open network, open doors. It means an immense energy getting unleashed. And if managed well it means profit. But it also means chaos, not being in control. As a brand you can not control the social media. But you can behave in a way that people trust and they might even share things with you. Like their preferences or idea’s for improvement. The future will be an extreme reputation economy. Trust is the key word. Sharing the business model. Get used to it.

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The digital task force of the Westergasfabriek is the UPlabs (Urban Park Laboratories). It is fresh and young and this is the first operational project. Several other project combining Urban Space with web, culture and community are being rolled out and will be operational before 2010.

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Nike’s mission is to “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. (And if you have a body, you are an athlete),” said Michael Tchao, General Manager of Nike Techlab, at the wonderful Westergasfabriek venue of PicNic09. Inspiration can be invoked by measurement and competition. And so the iPod is transferred into a pedometer (counting your steps) and data is sent to a website to record and compare your efforts. Doing so co-brands Nike with Apple, creates a community and motivates the user to run. And as we all know, that will wear out your shoes.

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The Kodak sales cowboy Jeffrey Hayzlett knows how to present a major makeover. No more film for consumers but technology for businesses. And on the side still some awesome consumer products (camera’s). Typically a 2.0 story: ROI is Return on Ignoring (the customers wishes) and a Chief Listener is in the control room to feel the worlds reaction on every move they make. Stop advertising and put all your money in listening, crowd sourcing and above all: service. Kodak survived a major change that way.

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At PicNic09 both Alice Taylor (Channel 4) as Kevin Slavin (Area/Code) stated that games will get out of the room. Mobile devices enable that. And since gaming is about interaction you might improve that by organizing synchronized experiences. In the new games you fulfill missions in the real world, like finding a message in a certain place. If you happen to recognize other players at a certain location, the game touches the real world. And this might make you fanatic.

Of course, higher framerates and better graphics are the common topics amongst gamers. But the major improvements in gaming nowadays is a better interaction. First we controlled the game by pushing buttons on a little box, then ergonomic controllers with motion feedback came, the Nintendo Wii made mum move silly in the living room, and than smart camera’s interpreted your movements and used them in-game. These optical recognition devices now learn to read your emotions. At PicNic09 Peter Molyneux showed a demo of the game Milo in witch characters on screen react on your physical behavior. Spooky real.

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