This video by Microsoft has not been watched a lot, but it sure demonstrates what kind of digital world we might be getting close to. The neat part is, it’s not just all digital, but a transition from analog experiences to interactive ones.

Watch the part around 4.09 minutes, when the man opens up the newspaper. How different is it from your experience today?

Not that you can scroll through a column, or click on a news item in the newsprint. But think about it: ten years ago, we never thought we would be able to read a newspaper on a phone, did we?

Or use a ‘tablet’  styled laptop in this way. Or take a picture of  an icon or bar code and have it link us to content. Which is what Quick Response Codes allow. (See my twinterview on this for more details.)

The critics of this tend to question how useful a hand-held device will be, when ubiquitous computing will make common objects interactive. “Why would the whole world revolve around a single technology (touch screens)?” asks one person commenting on the Microsoft video. Google probably has answered that, now, with its Android. Watch how its navigation application works.

“The thrill of naked guys in public aside, this marketing scheme did involve a bit of trickery.”

Advertising Age, revealing the story behind the ‘worlds’ fastest nudist’ in New York this week, who turns out to be a guy doing a stunt for Zappos, via an ad agency, Agent 16.

“Look, people the message is this: Do not tell me you cannot do this.”

Josh Bernoff, on how the Groundswell Awards, and how excellence in social media can come from anyone, anywhere.

“If there’s metadata in there, that’s public record.”

Dan Barr, attorney for the Society of Professional Journalists, on the Arizona Supreme Court decision that now requires public entities to disclose Meta Data, the ‘hidden data’ embedded in electronic records.

“A Friday afternoon news dump…”

Huffington Post on the list of visitors to the White House, released on Friday. The list includes lobbyists and prominent people

“It comes down to data and money.”

Story in Fast Company, that ‘Facebook plans to Geo-tag your life’  by linking geo-location information to users actions on the site.

I am in the first chapter of Trust Agents, by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, and can’t help but thinking how the two events  this month are perfect validations for what the book is about.

The Balloon Boy hoax has been condemned by people across the board. But right on its heels comes the other stunt by Zappos, whom no one likes to offend. Turns out this streaker spotted in New York, was an actor, part of  a clever stunt. Which explains the great video (and a YouTube channel). And media coverage.

In both cases the media were duped into carrying the story. Richard Heene, the father of the balloon boy must be smiling.

There are so many mashups around us that we have begun to take them for granted. We tend to see more of the video and music variety -like Everyblock and those that are Obama-based. Google has a tool called ‘maplets’ to use the API of their maps.

How about a mashup of a mug and your Twitter followers? Check this out.

So I was glad to hear that there’s a British competition open for mashups, on three themes: Crime, Environment and Health. The winner gets £10,000!

Details here, and also here

Watching last evening’s live webcast by Bill and Melinda Gates, I liked how Bill zipped past Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, and the Windows logo, to note that these ‘pictures’ don’t compare to something completely different –a chart showing  decreasing infant mortality rates.

I love it when presentations don’t use graphics as a crutch. (Love it when the first slide is not the darn company logo, as if to remind the brain dead in the audience as to who is presenting! Full disclosure: I have committed this crime myself, and know it sucks!)

Love it when someone stops a canned PowerPoint preso and uses the flip chart instead to draw some crude Venn diagram or stick figure to explain the point. (If you’ve not read The Back of a Napkin, I highly recommend it, as I have done before like a broken record.)

In somewhat ironic news, this month, Gates (who owns Corbis) supposedly ‘expanded his stock photo empire’ with a small stake in Eastman Kodak.

“Let the little dogs lap, Mr. President. It’s good for the nation’s spleen.”

Kathleen Parker, on the noise from Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh on Obama’s attack Fox News

“For Rush and Glenn and Balloon Dad, the allure of media attention is too powerful to be curbed by a sense of social responsibility.”

John Del Cecato, of AKPD Message and Media.

“So there you have it. Ignite a future for the high-profile navel-gazers of tomorrow with your own bottle of Twitter wine, which goes for $20 a pop.”

AdRants, on Crushpad’s use of Twitter on wine labels

“It’s winemaking, which is usually for us a four or five person endeavor, mixed with Twitter.”

Michael Brill, president and CEO of Crushpad, the winery teaming with Twitter and the pro-literacy group Room to Read.

“Let’s hope the Millennial Generation isn’t becoming the latest Lost Generation.”

Chad Graham, in the Arizona Republic, on how graduates are worried about the present job outlook, their future and even retirement.

“My ‘maternity break’ will end in mid-November.”

Charlotte Shaff, CEO of The Media Push (who blogged about her pregnancy) interviewed by Linda Vandevrede at ValleyPRBlog.com, on ‘Pregancy and PR.’

“First, I felt that after five years my blogging was getting long in the tooth….”

Steve Rubel, SVP and Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, interviewed by Tech Crunch

“For the people, for the planet, for jobs, for you!”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on the role of the UN, on the anniversary of the United Nations, which falls today –the day the UN Charter on 24 October 1945 was formed.

Video and blogging have never been better suited for each other. I tell my clients to consider using a simple video camera to record events because you never know when it may come useful.

Not just to CYA, but to capture the energy or interaction of a moment that lends itself to a deeper commentary in a blog post.

But in this case, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) using video in their blog to quickly respond to a complaint, was a perfect way to diffuse the situation. The complaint: That a woman had been ’separated’ from her child at a security checkpoint. They use 9 videos to support what they say -and these are also posted to YouTube.

Sidebar: Incidentally, if you are contemplating revamping your web site, the TSA web site is a great example of how to make a web site more social media friendly.  Note the 5 social media elements on the right navigation bar, and the request for feedback via the blog etc.

To get back to the blog: One thing about that blog post that’s easy to miss. Notice how they title the post, and the videos. They are not shy to use the phrase used in the complain, “TSA Agents took my son.”

It would been have so easy to spin it into something else, wouldn’t it? Blogger Bob’s comments come across as being truly sincere, and not just a prepared, lawyered comment.

Just as the aphorism goes that “there are lies, damn lies and advertising,” I wonder if it’s time for someone to come up with one about stunts –especially the PR variety.

Let me be clear. I don’t condemn stunts. In fact it might be construed as another word for ‘tactic’ or creative attempt to make a point.

So I was about to classify this latest ‘underwater cabinet meeting‘ by the President of Maldives as a stunt, but I thought I’d put the question to my readers to check the pulse first. I won’t go into the details here, suffice to say that it takes a bit of effort to get your cabinet to strip down to scuba diving suits –and anchor desks to the coral– to pull off something like this.

But back to the definition of a PR stunt. Here are some past examples that might fall into this category.

• Pole dancing in the streets of Manhattan
• Admitting to a PR stunt -charging for use of bathrooms on planes
• Boy lost in runaway balloon –a stunt that looks like an accident

I know, there are more. But for our purposes, let’s ask if promoting a cause or a brand validates the approach. Governments are quick to blame each other when an international or bilateral crisis arises, calling it a stunt, even though there had been no specific public facing activity. Headline writers find it a useful 5-letter word to spice up a story. (As in this one, that was clearly a misplaced use of money, rather than a stunt).

I would think a PR stunt is anything that

1. Involves an event or a sustained activity that is staged, primarily for gaining media attention
2. Is unusual or controversial
3. Is connected with an extended campaign that does not involve PR or advertising. Behavior modification, for example

The first --gaming the media –can be dangerous, if done to fool the media. If the balloon incident being debated this week proves to be an act of self-promotion by wasting time and money of a sheriff’s department, that’s a dumb stunt, indeed.

The second –is often creative and harmless. The guy who dons a pizza delivery attire and ‘delivers’ his resume (attached to the box) to a marketing director, is clearly breaking out of the old method (email or mail) to get his application to the top of the pile.

The third –wins my approval, hands down. This is what all good (insert the word ‘marketing,’ ’cause promotion,’ ‘advertising’ as a prefix here) campaigns ought to be.

President Nasheed’s course of action seems more like the third category. He has a point to make, and what better way than for a leader of a country surrounded by –and threatened by– water to do this?

“the largest-ever social change event on the Web…”

CNN, on the third, annual Blog Action Day. The topic this year was climate change. According to Blogpulse, number of posts about climate change on a given day shot up by 500%

“Sometimes I feel like we’re a colony of ants who’ve come across a cell phone…”

Peter Hagoort, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands. He was speaking of the way the brain processes thoughts and speech in milliseconds, but scientists still puzzle over how this happens.

“This is punitive. This is not just a matter of, ‘This is for the good of the company or the good of the nation.”

Banking analyst Nancy Bush, on the Treasury Dept, demanding that outgoing Bank of America CEO Kenneth D. Lewis returns about $1 million he received so far this year plus his $1.5 million salary for 2009

“iTunes is a pain in the posterior, and I never use it unless I absolutely have to.”

Sallie Goetsch, (she of the Podcast Asylum, a podcast and blog consultancy) in a contribution to For Immediate Release podcast

“Is print dead? No, but it just got a little less tasty.”

Jen Zingsheim, of Custom Scoop, on news that Conde Naste will be shutting down Gourmet Magazine

“In the surround-sound media environment of today, there is no shortage of places you can go to see an expert’s view of business and where it is headed. What I took from the first day of the World Business Forum, however, was just how important passion is as a common thread in the people (and their organizations) who are accomplishing something.”

Rohit Bhargava, on the World Business Forum

“While 60% of employees use word processing daily, only 42% actually create documents.”

Forrester Research report on technology adoption in the workplace.

“In a real-time, social media world, marketing has to react immediately to the successes and shortcomings of operations, product development, legal, finance, customer support, and the idiosyncrasies of company personnel.”

Jason Baer, on how social media gives everything a marketing focus.

“A turtle travels only when it sticks its neck out.”

Tweet by @lspearmanii

“Hi! This is your aspirin bottle calling. I haven’t seen you in a while…”

Peter Svensson, of the Associated Press, on the technology that connects the pill bottle cap to an AT&T network.

“Does our Cicero even glance at his speeches before reading them in public?”

George Will, conservative columnist for the washington Post, on Obama’s overuse of words and concepts in his speech at Copenhagen.

“Nice headlamps”

Headline of a billboard ad for a Northern Ireland used-car web site, that got the advertisement banned in the UK. The accompanying visual was not about cars…