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The Message of the Medium

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This December 31st will mark the 30th anniversary of the death of Canadian university professor, philosopher and author Marshall McLuhan.

Over 40 years ago, McLuhan made many interesting observations about mass communications that still apply in today’s World Wide Web, which was launched almost exactly ten years after McLuhan’s death.

One of his most well-known sayings from the 1960s, “The medium is the message”,  seems to describe the Web perfectly.

Observations on Media

“The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village.”

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Signs of a Bad Gift

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Here are some signs that you’ve probably received a bad Christmas gift:

The gift tag says: “To whom it may concern”.

The gift wrapping is mostly duct tape.

It comes with a warning from the Ministry of Health.

The gift requires scratching and sniffing.

Its Best Before Date was last Christmas.

It’s been banned in most other countries.

It’s made completely from toothpicks.

It comes in a six-pack.

It requires ammunition.

The description on the box includes the phrase “hair removal”.

It was purchased from an all-night taxidermist.

It comes with a no-return, no-exchange policy.

 

The first 7,300 days

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According to my calendar, as of today, it’s been 7,300 days, (not that I’m counting). If you do the math and remember to account for leap years, that works out to a handful of days short of 20 years.

So how have the past 7,300 days been for you?

Seven thousand, three hundred days ago, a chap named Tim Berners-Lee showed off a working computer program called “WorldWideWeb”. The overall project he was working on was named “World Wide Web” which beat out his other name choices of “Information Mesh”, “Information Mine” and “Mine of Information”.

Note that the “official” 20-year anniversary was in March 2009. But that marks the day when Berners-Lee first submitted his proposal for the project:

Tim Berners-Lee holds a copy of his 1989 proposal titled, “Information Management: A Proposal” during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of his proposal to create the World Wide Web, at CERN labs in Geneva Switzerland on 13 March 2009. Berners-Lee stands next to the computer he used as the first web server. (Note: my caption. Handout photo contained no caption information.)

Photo credit: Maximilien Brice/ © 2009 Cern

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The Paradox of Price

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Okay, a little Monday afternoon math and no calculators are required.

Consumers want the most value for their money. Value can be defined by the benefits provided by a product or service, divided by the cost of that product or service:

Value = Benefits / Cost

This over-simplified equation shows that for a given set of benefits, as the cost decreases, the value to the customer increases. It might seem that maximum value would be reached if the cost is zero. But if you remember your grade school math, you cannot divide by zero.

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All That Glitters Is Not Gold

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Should you peruse some of the job “opportunities” for Toronto photographers on LinkedIn, you may see these glittery gems:

1. The job: Go to a few dozen used car lots each week and photograph cars for a publisher’s used car web site and print magazine.

Required: an “awareness of fumes, odor, gases, compounds or dusts related to the automotive industry.”

Not required: any photo experience.

Benefits: may get free parking at one of the publisher’s offices.

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Publicity photography minus the publicity

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A few nights ago, I was assigned to photograph celebrities arriving for a fundraiser at an exclusive home in Toronto. The event had set up an arrivals area in a small parking lot off the front driveway of the home, (did I mention it was a large house?). The red carpet was nice and wide, and the area was covered, lit and heated. Perfect, considering it was a cold, dark November night.

Canadian composer and producer David Foster arrives to host a fundraiser for his charity foundation in Toronto, Canada, 19 November 2010.

The three largest wire services in the world were there specifically to photograph the two main celebrities attending. The headlining entertainer for the event would also make for a usable news photo. Other photo agencies and TV were there as well.
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Why You Should Avoid Cheap Pictures

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In case you missed the memo: it’s a waste of time and money for your business to use cheap stock photos.

A company that chooses cheap pictures is fooling no one but themselves. Cheap photography can harm both your business image and your bottom line. In other words, “cheap” actually costs too much.

Here’s some proof pudding:

An eye-tracking study, released by Jakob Nielsen, titled Photos as Web Content, concluded:

• Bland stock images on web sites are completely ignored by users.

• Feel-good images that are purely decorative are mostly ignored.

• Stock photos of generic people are intentionally disregarded.

• Photos of real people, (as opposed to stock pictures of models), are viewed as important information.

• Pictures of key people at a business are very important. Business portraits are always a win for the company.

Conclusion of the study: “Invest in good photo shoots: a great photographer can add a fortune to your Web site’s business value.”

Do your business a favour and call your local corporate or commercial photographer today. A professional photographer is worth much more than what they cost.

 

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