the art of conversation

SEXIST OR EFFECTIVE?

TV advertising you object to, you can switch off. But when you are stuck behind a bus like this (see below), what are we to do/think? Is this Viacom bus ad ('rear of the year') a clever use of advertising, or is it objectionable?

Some sort of prize is due to Nila, the grocery wholesalers whose vans feature 'sexy' women in connection (tenuous) with a product they are distributing. Is this any different from front cover of Nuts magazine etc? Is it an expression of more liberal or more reactionary attitudes to sex?

The woman who answered the phone at Nila said there were lots of objections to their vans. She didn't like it herself, but she had 'got used to it'. Maybe that is what happens, we may not like it, but we get accustomed to it.

So, in our first artofconversation poll, tell us, are the Nila van images...

a)       effective marketing

b)       sexist

c)    gratuitous

d)  a bit of a turn on ?

                                         

Kevin

BLOGOLOGY

Blogging - is it the new black or is it the new blah? Everybody is doing it, but where is it all going and what does it all mean?

We at Wardle McLean are blog novices. Since blogs a source of many new conversations and we are theartofconversation, we thought we should join in.

The term blog is an abbreviation of weblog, and was coined by Peter Merholz in his blog in 1999, jokingly created the phrase we blog. To conjugate blog as a verb more fully: 'I write meaningful online insights', 'you write crap', 'we blog'.

Blog is such a great word! The language of blogging is evolving, hence this blogology. Please post your definitions below…

• Wannablogger - reads blogs but is just too busy to do one

• Blogeur - someone who writes pretentious blogs

• Blogard - some who is rude online

• Blogged out - having spent hours reading blogs and found nothing interesting

• Blogue - a French blog

• Bloguru - Seth Godin

Seth Godin is the man. He has written the best things about blogs and his writing style is clear and accessible. In 'Who's There' he has started a classification or typology of blogs. There are cat blogs, boss blogs and viral blogs. Which one are you? Read Seth Godin. That's an order.

Kevin

THE ART OF CONVERSATION WHY BLOG?

Why does the world need another blog you might ask? You could also ask 'why are there not more blogs from market research companies?' Given that conversation, discussion and participation are at the heart of our work it seems a natural subject for this kind of medium.

Since the phrase ‘Markets are conversations’ was coined in The Cluetrain Manifesto.  the whole meaning of the term conversation has expanded massively. A great example of this is danah boyd and Jeffrey Heer's paper that looks at what conversation means in the context of photosharing sites, social sites and, of course, blogs. They point out that unlike traditional notions of conversation the recipients in these cases are often unknown, this is a conversation in which the speaker shouts out to an anonymous public who can choose to respond or not.

They ask some very interesting questions: ‘if context is necessary for conversation, how is context transferred, created, and interpreted…? How are conversations initiated…? What are the goals of these conversations…and how are they maintained? And what are the possibilities and consequences of replicability, searchability and persistence?’

With some caveats, these are questions that could be asked of conversation in any medium and that's the debate we'd like to encourage on this blog. As Henry Jenkins says in his latest book Convergence Culture, ( a book everybody should read) in the intersection between old and new media, the future will be hinged on debate, negotiation and participation in a way previously unheard of, as such we'll be watching how the art of conversation changes alongside these emergent trends.