The way people get their news has been changing for a while now. Printed newspapers are getting left in the dust with their content, readership and profits all lagging behind. The decline has been slow, but steady in momentum. Paper circulation has been dropping about 2% annually for years now, and almost double that in recent reports on their circulation.

What is making the average news-seeker turn to their web browser instead of turning to the good old fashioned newspaper? Well for starters, the web has provided people with a new way to look at news. It has taken the old solitary experience of reading the paper and turned it into a participatory, community based exploration. The web is inherently interconnected. Each article or blog comes with the possibility of the user being propelled on to the next bit of information, related or unrelated. The web is free, constantly updated, easily sifted through and lightning fast.

This quick pace, has forced writing on the web (or at least the good stuff) to be kept pretty short and to the point. The recent popularity of Twitter has edited writing on the web down even more. Twitter asks everyone to self edit. Say what you have to say, only say it in under 140 characters. It allows you to communicate in an immediate and convenient way with your your friends, family and colleagues. Twitter does something more than just that though, It allows you to follow whomever you wish. You can receive updates from your sister in Iowa and follow the BBC or CNN all in one tiny, friendly designed package.

Social networking services like Twitter are the news vehicles of the future. They provide so much connectivity and information, simultaneously. The future of newspapers is uncertain, to say the least. Can they manage to keep their heads above water? I hope so, the idea of relaxing and skimming through the Sunday paper is romantically tactile and would be missed. Maybe if newspapers can find a way to celebrate their differences from their web counterparts, they can manage to endure.

We are very excited to be part of the Baker Artist Awards Website project. In our opinion it is a BIG step for the art world to have taken by moving the entire submission process online to a public forum. As a painter, I can definitely appreciate this advancement. Not only is Baker requiring artists to submit their portfolios digitally (images, video, audio and writing), but also allowing the entire process to be viewable by the public. While the major grants will be awarded by a select committee, and deliberations will be done privately, the people do have a voice. Registered users on the site can vote for their favorite artists, and actually earn more votes by viewing, commenting on and sharing the work they like.

Our hope is that by taking this process online, Baltimore artists will gain visibility from not only the jurors for the Baker Prize, but also from collectors, gallery curators, and all fans of the arts, worldwide. There is no submission fee, and the grants are sizable, so if you or someone you know is a talented Baltimore artist, get your work up there for the world to see!

We want to know what you think! Is this a much needed step forward for an arts organization? Or do you prefer the slide packets, postage stamps and closed door proceedings of the past?

We really love our music here at Fastspot, and for all you other music lovers, here’s our playlist of what we have been listening to over the past few weeks. Hope you find something to add to your collection, and let us know what you are listening to!

David Byrne & Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Heartless Bastards, All This Time
Uh Huh Her, Common Reaction
Giant Panda, Electric Laser
Northern State, Can I Keep This Pen
Lupe Fiasco, Lupe Fiasco’s the Cool
Nas, Untitled
Cold Play, Viva La Vida
The Mountain Goats, We Shall All Be Healed
Dosh, Wolves and Wishes
Flake Music, When You Land Here, It’s Time To Return
The Reign of Kindo, Rhythm, Chord, & Melody
Copeland, You Are My Sunshine
Underoath, Define The Great Line
Brandi Carlile, Live from Boston
Damiera, M(us)ic
A Day to Remember, For Those Who Have Heart
Bayside, Shudder
Alkaline Trio, Agony & Irony
m. ward, post-war
matt pond pa, emblems
jose gonzalez, in our nature
Fela Kuti, Zombie
Tussel, Kling Klang
Bonde Do Role, Marina Gasolina
Dr. Dog, Fate
Ray LaMontagne, Gossip in the Grain
Band of Horses, Cease to Begin
Downtown Harvest, Golden Dragon
The Ting Tings, We Started Nothing
The Sounds, Dying to Say This to You

Other Good Listens:
This American Life (Chicago Public Radio)
The Moth - Show featuring storytellers who tell true stories from their lives; they must be told live, without notes.
The Junkies (WJFK 106.7 FM, Washington, DC) - full of weird lingo, sports, and poker.

Who has a lot of it anymore? For some reason it is always a topic of conversation amongst most of us within the office. Yesterday we were discussing not displaying our time on our desktops. One of our programmers, Zach wrote a nice little clock application that runs through Quicksilver. You use a few short-cut keyboard commands and “POW” a large time stamp displays on your screen and fades away. Removing the time from my menu bar seems to make the day go by faster but I still need to know the time to I can accurately track my time. So this simple little clock is a great solution.

Today at lunch we were discussing wake up times. Questions were:
What time do you wake up?
How far ahead do you set your clock?
How many times do you hit the snooze button?
Do you have a good old-fashioned alarm clock?
Do you use your iphone or ipod as an alarm?

We are always looking for new utilitarian applications to build. So I set up for a little “after lunch surfing” and stumbled upon an iPhone app: Flip Clock. It’s an application for your iPhone or iPod that is certainly better than your old desk clock. The upside is it will only run you $0.99. The downside is that it has a non-sleep mode that eats away at your battery. So ultimately you will need to have it plugged in.

It is another addition to my list of iPhone applications. Especially since I use mine as an alarm I can now use it as a beautiful desk top clock as well.

REMEMBER to use your power supply or USB cable!

Feel free to answer any of the questions above. We’d love to hear your thoughts on time management, utilitarian applications, how many times you hit the snooze button… you never know what may spark the next big idea.

Here is a list compiled by surveying everyone at Fastspot about which Websites / apps / social media tools they were most frequently using these days - and these were the most popular. Enjoy!

1. Evernote

Great way to keep notes synched up between multiple computers and mobile devices. I use it to keep track of my ideas for blog posts - and often add to my notes using my iPhone whenever an idea hits me. Then I can review the ideas the next day at the office.

2. MSN Spectra

A beautiful way to read the news.

3. Vimeo

Great video sharing site - we are using it for some of our upcoming projects.

4. Etsy

Craft shopping has never been so much fun, and its easy to set up shop too!

5. Ponoko

Buy, Make and Sell Jewelry.

6. Hulu

Kiss Comcast goodbye!

7. Joost

More television hits the interwebs.

8. Pandora

A wonderful music matching service - I have personally found some of my favorite new music thanks to my channels on Pandora. Heartless Bastards, I don’t know what I did before I heard your music! Thanks Pandora.

9. Last fm

Another great music listening site.

10. Pownce

Send stuff to your friends.

11. Twitter

Microblogging and networking application - and I am a big fan! Follow me on twitter @fastspottracey!

12. Election Twitter

See what people are tweeting about when it comes to the election.

13. Adobe Kuler

Never put bad color combos together again.

14. Mint

Manage your money. Recent TechCrunch50 winner.

15. Stumbleupon

A fun way to surf the web, as well as drive traffic to your own blogs or sites.

16. Flickr

Best photo sharing site around - hands down.

17. Shelfari

For those of us who still like reading, this site helps make references and suggestions based on what other readers are reading.

18. Reform Revolution

Cool stuff for geeks like us.

19. Design 21

Greater design for the greater good.

Let us know what you are using or visiting - and why you like it!

Fastspot is proud to announce our work has recently won three W3 awards and been nominated for a Pixel Award! It takes great clients with vision and perseverance to assist in these creations, and we thank our clients for their trust in our work - the results speak for themselves.

The W³ Awards are sanctioned by the International Academy of Visual Arts and are the first major web competition to be accessible to the biggest agencies, the smallest firms, and everyone in between. We are thrilled to win 3 of these coveted awards! Baltimore Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau’s Baltimore.org won a gold award for the “Interactive Maps”, American Beverage Association’s Issue Sites brought home yet another award with a silver win, and Discovery Communications / Animal Planet’s “Pimp Your Pooch” also won a silver.

After 1000 submissions, the Pixel Awards has narrowed it down to the top one hundred nominated sites, and the American Beverage Issues sites are a finalist for the Green category!http://www.pixelawards.com/webawards/top5.php Make sure you vote for us for the People’s Choice!

Key people involved in these projects and deserving much acclaim and fanfare and a few beers next time you see them:

Curt Kotula - Art & Technology Director
Amber Shriver - Interactive Design Director
Yianni Mathioudakis - Design & Motion Graphics
Tim Buckingham - Senior Programmer
Zach Waugh - Programmer and Developer
Stacy Spakowsky - Agency Manager

Our very own Yianni Mathioudakis, carrying the esteemed title of designer and motion graphics here at Fastspot, reminds us all how we can use our creativity and talent to lend a voice to the upcoming presidential election.

Yianni’s production company, 3 Sons Productions, recently collaborated with the group Misa / Misa (meaning 50 / 50 in Greek), which is made up of producer / artist Dimitri Mathioudakis (Yiann’s brother and 3 Sons co-founder) and Greek singer Matthaios Roussos, to create this compelling video / song in support of Obama. They bring a unique mix of melodic Greek singing with a new style of production and hip hop, and aren’t afraid of putting out their personal and political views.

Obama is a strong supporter of Greek American issues, and the song and video have been gaining traction in the community as a touch point for conversation and discourse.

The video was created in 2 weeks, with all filming, editing and post production done by Yianni, and he even has a small role in the video itself! How important do you think these kinds of grass roots / media efforts are in a presidential election, and even more importantly, what do you think of the song and video? Share your comments!

P.S. Full lyrics coming soon (for those of you who aren’t fluent in English and Greek).

Here are a few ways to keep an active ear on the Internet for terms or names you may take a particular interest in. For example, if you want to see how much press or buzz a competitor is getting, or how much play a recent press push on your own behalf is getting, consider setting up some of the following recommendations. I use them daily, and I can definitely vouch for their value - not only in maintaining an active role in your company’s public persona, but in identifying new clients, new competition, new fans, or even new problems. These techniques are like putting your ear to the rails, and knowing the train is coming long before it arrives.

How to Listen on Google
Setting up and monitoring Google Alerts is the best way to immediately be notified if content is generated online that pertains to [your important word here]. Configuring Google Alerts is relatively easy, and we have included instructions below. It is advisable that alerts are compiled every few weeks and analyzed for types of new content and tone, as well as what media outlets and sites are picking up the new content.

Open Google Alerts - http://www.google.com/alerts (You will need to create a Google account if you don’t already have one.)

Enter the Search terms you wish to monitor, in quotes (quotes will confine your search results to only include all words included within the quotes, vs. just the singular words.

Set the “Type” to “Comprehensive”. This will ensure your alerts are based on all types of media, content and tags, including video, blog posts, etc.

Set the report to “once a day” or “as it happens”, in order to get the alert as soon as Google has indexed the information.

Save your preferences. Now alerts will be sent to the email account you used to set up the Google account, either as HTML email or text only emails.

How to Listen on Twitter
We advise you to set up a Twitter Account and familiarize yourself with Twitter. www.twitter.com

Go to the main Twitter Search page - http://search.twitter.com.

Enter “Your Important Words” into the Search field - Hit the Search button.

Look for the RSS icon and link called “Feed for this query” in the upper right corer of the search results page, or copy and paste the URL from the search results page into your Google Reader subscriptions.

Repeat for as many terms or names as you would like, and create multiple feeds you can monitor.

Consider using TweetBeep to set up alerts which can be scanned and emailed to you hourly or daily, based on preset criteria - http://tweetbeep.com.

Setting up Google Reader Feeds for Results
Go to Google Reader’s site - http://www.google.com/reader.

Make sure you have a Google account and are signed in.

Look for the Add subscription link in the left column.

Click the Add subscription link and enter search terms OR paste a feed URL directly into the field.

Your subscriptions will be added, and will appear darker if they are unread, and lighter if you have already read the feed.

Bookmark this page into your browser’s toolbar so you see it every day and are reminded to check it out. The email reminders are great to keep an eye on things when you aren’t at your computer, and I make a point of checking my feed subscriptions every day to see what is being said about Fastspot, our clients, applications or sites we are releasing, and other topics of interest.

We also recommend using these practices to assist you in pushing marketing and press out to the community. As you participate and share within these communities, you will create your own social networks, and people interested in your company or brand will begin to rely more on you for information vs. the noise being published by the general public. If you aren’t there to represent yourself, then you are at the mercy of what everyone else is saying.

If you or your company are doing other interesting things to keep an ear or eye on the net, let us know!

Resources:
Just found this great blog post on how to spy on your competition - great suggestions!
http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/10/07/14-tools-to-legally-spy-on-your-competition
Great Twitter Resources! http://www.briansolis.com/2008/10/twitter-tools-for-community-and.html

BALTIMORE, Md. (October 9, 2008) — Fastspot, an interactive design agency, has created a new Web site for Bucknell University, according to Tracey Halvorsen, creative director and principal of the firm. The new site is a key element of the university’s communications strategy to increase national awareness of its academic and intellectual stature.

Bucknell University Home Page

The Web site, www.bucknell.edu, targets primarily prospective students and their parents using a creative approach highlighting the Lewisburg, Pa. school’s strong academic programs and resources, its Division I athletic programs, small class size and intimate and classic campus environment.

“Our conceptual approach for the site focused on accurately conveying these key attributes of the Bucknell brand: intellectual and academic achievement and creating world leaders. For example, we developed ‘Pathways’ as an editorial and creative vehicle to tell specific ‘big picture’ stories about the university,” Halvorsen explained. “Overall, we believe the site now conveys a more sophisticated, worldlier impression of Bucknell,” she added.

“Among our favorite features of the site is ‘Pathways’ located on the landing page where we’ve integrated video, compelling photography and content to tell stories that have become ‘pathways’ for students during their time at Bucknell. We’re also proud of the clean and crisp layout of the interior pages as well as the site’s overall intuitive and easy-to-use navigation,” she added.

Fastspot was selected for the re-design following a national search of interactive design agencies, and the re-design process began more than a year ago involving all sectors of the campus community, according to Roberta Sims, associate director of digital communications for Bucknell.

The new site is the culmination of focus groups, an analysis of peer school Web sites, a review of the site’s architecture, usability testing as well as testing the overall impression of the final design with prospective students and parents, a content audit and technical and programming work to implement the design into Bucknell’s content management system.

Last year, the Web site, one of the University’s primary communications tools, received more than 21 million hits from visitors located around the globe, or more than an average of 404,000 page views each week.

Fastspot has a growing national reputation for its expertise in interactive design with colleges and universities, such as its work for the Maryland Institute College of Art, Albany Law School and the Cleveland Institute of Art. The firm is currently working with Indiana University and Dickinson College.

About Fastspot
Fastspot is a premiere interactive design agency, widely recognized for its strategic award-winning work, collaborative approach with its clients and its ability to deliver successful, long-lasting solutions. Headquartered in Baltimore, the firm works with clients across the country who seek to develop highly creative and complex marketing, advertising or business solutions. The firm has a particular expertise working with associations, colleges and universities, museums and cultural organizations, architectural and technology firms. For more information, visit http://www.fastspot.com.

We have recently been discussing the new Crispin Porter + Bogusky ads produced for PC, not the ones with Jerry Seinfeld, but the ones which have recently appeared, showcasing a myriad of diverse “everyday” people stating “I’m a PC”. The overall reaction to these ads from our point of view has been positive - but what are they trying to say? It seems a reaction to the Apple ad campaign which pokes fun at the PC as being out of date, hard to use, and out of touch (ala the embodiment of Bill Gates). And while Apple has gotten away with this unanswered “call to the mat” for a while now, we suspect lagging sales in certain sectors, mixed with an obvious increase in visibility and ad spending from Apple, has finally driven Microsoft to hit back. Its more of a jujutsu approach, use the aggressor’s power against them, redirecting the energy to the benefit of the defender.

Microsoft is saying “I am a PC, Not Alone”, and putting that statement into the mouths and onto the faces of a wide swatch of humanity, from factory workers to marine biologists to teachers. They are saying, we aren’t special or different or better, we are everyone. Very clever.

It begs the question, which approach is better? If PC is “everyman / woman” and Mac is “the cool guy who everything comes easy for”, who do we all relate to? Apple has always taken a more elitist “creative crowd” approach, which is somewhat necessary for the higher price point and more elegantly designed products. But still, is it better to be part of the crowd or the outsider? Often the outsider is the one we relate more strongly with, in a rooting for the underdog kind of way. But Apple has to watch this approach, are they really the underdog in the public’s eye?

We are asking this question as it relates to you, or your company. Which philosophy do you embrace and why? I think Fastspot is definitely a Mac, and proud of our differences. Our clients chose us because of this difference, and the fact that we guarantee we will bring something unique and compelling to the table. However, as I look at other companies, that do a better job of fitting in, meeting more of the general publics’ sense of perceived need or explanation, I wonder, are they doing that on purpose? Or is it just innately who we end up being?