Landscape photographer Terje Sorgjerd spent four years looking to create a timelapse of the aurora borealis — also known as the northern lights –, then finally flew to north Norway and spent a week capturing one of the biggest displays in recent years. The final result is absolutely amazing!

The stills were shot with a Canon 5D Mark II along with the Canon 24mm 1.4, Canon 16-35mm 2.8, and Sigma 12-24mm lenses.

The keynote covers relations between people and brands, the evolution of the digital consumer, the evolution of technology and how it changed us, an introduction to contextual computing, adaptive experiences, the Internet of Things, and a few predictions for the next 5 years.

The events was recorded, but I have not managed to get the official video — luckily for us, someone at the front row recorded the entire keynote from their phone.

Find below the full video recording, slides, and an amazing infographic an artist made live while listening to my keynote.

YouTube Full Video Recording:

SlideShare with full audio voice over:

Last but not least, big thanks to Martin Meyer-Gossner from TheStrategyWeb for such an amazing review.

So what do you think? Will contextual computing control personalized experiences and media? Will the government try to regulate the Internet of Things? Will Facebook have the guts to get into display ads?  Will Google finally get one right and build the right experience for seamless social mobility into the Android OS?

That easy enough with a still image, perhaps, but not so simple with video…  Technical University of Ilmenau’s figured it out, just draw a circle around the object you want to disappear and it practically disappears as the image synthesizer reduces the quality of the image drastically, removes your target and re-enhances in just 40 milliseconds per frame, using object tracking algorithms and guesswork to maintain the illusion as a camera moves around in 3D space. The framework’s presently running on Windows, but the team says they have plans to port it to Android soon.

Pretty impressive … I’m trying to figure out the applications where you wouldn’t have to manually specify the object to clear out … like automatically recognizing and removing cans of Pepsi from any video.

Straight from the twisted minds of the Pantless Knights — the same guys who brought you “New Dork” and “I’m on a Mac” — comes “Tweet It,” a reimagining of “Beat It” that pits iPads versus iPhones.

Just #tweetit

Here’re the lyrics for you to follow along:

I told you, don’t write no more letters to me
Don’t wanna read no more, You know I’m A.D.D.
I start to watch Glee, it’s really fast on 4G
So tweet it, just tweet it
You better type, you better do it real fast
Don’t go above the 140 letter max
Remember some devices do not support Flash
So tweet it, while you’re clearin your cache!
CHORUS
Just tweet it, tweet it, tweet it, tweet it
Justin Bieber gets defeated!
We’re all micro-bloggers, with a device
In YouTube comments, we win the fights
Just tweet it, tweet it
Just tweet it, tweet it
Just tweet it, tweet it
Just tweet it, tweet it
You wanna go beyond emoticon frowns
Don’t wanna use a gun, your twitter gets a round
You’re Siskel and you’re Ebert, please don’t put your thumbs down
So Tweet it, just tweet it
You got an iPhone and you gotta be glad
Until you saw your Dad whip out his new iPad
You want an iPatch, gonna be the new fad
So Tweet it, cuz you gotta beat Dad!
CHORUS
[Guitar Solo]
CHORUS
Tweet it, tweet it, tweet it, tweet it
Kids with A.D.D. can read it
Show ‘em, they’re hungry, for your insight
It doesn’t matter, if you can’t write
Tweet it, tweet it, tweet it, tweet it
Get this hashtag retweeted!
Trends that keep rockin’, with you all night
ROTFL from Pantless Knights!
x2

It’s amazing how brands love to use someone else’s big splash and ride it for their own … after the amazing success of the Old Spice campaign, many brands chose to follow the same spot archetype — which should have been somehow trademarked –. Sesame Street launched their Smell Like A Monster. With over 5 million views, this cute spot quickly went viral.

Love the fact that it ends with I’m on a horse, cow… mainly because I found this awesome Axe billboard today that makes fun of the same line.

There must be a cow joke here, but this blog is PG13.

Strangely the official hits on the Youtube channel don’t even come close to the 4 million hits the recently made compilation got.

Original video was removed today, but here’s another copy.

IDEO, respected company for their innovation and product design, came up with 3 concepts for the future of the book.

Nelson reinforces books as critical thinking tools, providing multiple perspectives, references, and current conversations on a single subject. The layers of information beyond the book itself provide greater context and encourages a deeper dive into the book throughout history and into the future.

Coupland addresses the challenge to stay on top of the thinking and writing in our world and professional field that so many of us feel. Readers can easily keep up with “must-reads” by following what colleagues are reading and interact with them through “book clubs” and other social layers (discussions, suggestions, lists, purchases) to help each other share and learn.

Alice explores new ways for users to interact and affect written narratives by introducing non-linear and game mechanics to reading. By introducing the reader’s active participation, this concept “blurs the lines between reality and fiction.” Certain interactions allow the reader to transcend traditional media by utilizing geographic location, communication with characters, and user contribution to storyline and plot.

Out of the 3 concepts, I like Alice the best. The first two don’t provide much vision, they just adapt to our current state. In fact, Coupland even assumes that people will buy books a-la-carte in corporate environment, instead of adopting the new trend of library or all-you-can-use subscription model. Alice in the other hand promotes interaction and engagement, key factors for the future of any digital product or service. It also has implicit AI (artificial intelligence) that personalizes the experience based on history, actions, context, and interactions. Very nicely done.

Shot just south of Paris, France in Linas at l’Autodrome de Linas –Montlhéry, this 1.58 mile oval track, built in 1924, features banks as steep as 51 degrees, which is more than double the standard incline of most NASCAR ovals.

The stunts are just amazing, a must see for any racing fan, and pretty much all men.

The DC x Ken Block Gymkhana video franchise now consists of seven videos including Gymkhana Practice, Bonus Edit, TWO, 2.1; the educational anniversary video, Hot For Words, and now the two part Gymkhana THREE Project. A viral internet sensation, these videos have had more than 70 million views online and received numerous awards. Most recently the Gymkhana TWO video was named one of Ad Age’s “Top 10 Viral Ads of All Time”, a huge honor for DC and Ken; won a 2010 People’s Telly Silver Award, presented by YouTube; earned a Bronze Pencil at the One Show Entertainment Awards in the “Online Branded Entertainment” category, and was #4 on Ad Age’s list of top viral videos of 2009. For more information on the Gymkhana THREE Project including behind the scenes photos and info on Gym3: Part 1 and Gym3: Part 2 check out http://www.dcshoes.com/auto.

A recent YouTube video ad for ink correction fluid brand Tipp-Ex allows offers a custom, interactive experience to viewers based on the product’s key functionality – allowing you to correct your original intention, or to change your mind. The video’s co-protagonist – a hunter/camper – is about to shoot a bear at his campsite, when he instead decides to use Tipp-Ex (taking it from the ad unit next to video) to correct the word ’shoots’ in the video title bar, and instead allow you to instruct what the hunter should do to the bear.

It’s basically Subservient Chicken all over again — well, a lot more basic, but same idea —  but with a YouTube spin. It has more than 50 different endings: dances with, sings with, talks to, hugs, draws, fights, doesn’t shoot, is shot by, loves, kisses, fucks, pisses with, sleeps with, eats, watches TV with, swims with, plays with, shakes hand with, buys, takes a photo of, fishes with, drinks with, rides, plays football with, spanks, farts, is cooked by, breakdances with, cuts, does nothing with, high fives, smokes with, moonwalks with, washes, jumps with, tickles, shows his ass to, seduces.

Interactive brand experience offering viewers a humerous take on the product’s key functionality – allowing to correct one’s original intention, or infact to change tact entirely.

You can watch the intro video here, to go directly to the YouTube: TippExperience

Brand: Tipp-Ex
Agency: Buzzman (FR)

Fake is a new browser for Mac OS X that makes web automation simple. Fake allows you to drag discrete browser Actions into a graphical Workflow that can be run again and again without human interaction. The Fake Workflows you create can be saved, reopened, and shared.

Inspired by Apple’s Automator application, Fake looks like a combination of Safari and Automator that allows you to run (and re-run) “fake” interactions with the web.

Power Users will love Fake for automating tedious web tasks like filling out lengthy forms and capturing screenshots. Developers can use Fake for graphically configuring automated tests for their webapps, including assertions, assertion failure handlers, and error handlers.

All of Fake’s automation features are powered by Mac OS X’s native scripting tool – AppleScript. Which means Fake can be used to incorporate web automation into many other OS X scripting tasks.

Watch the video and see how simple it is … imagine how many hours it can save you … I’m trying my next long expense report with Fake.