Repeating What Women Want - How is it Possible?

Here's a neat article on 'What Women Want' that documents the growth of the Lifetime Movie Network. This network launched in 1998. In 5 years it ended up with 4 million subscribers. It now boasts of 334K viewers in primetime network for 18+ women which is considered a prime segment. What I particularly like pulling from the article is this quote:

"Based on hundreds of focus groups and polls, Greco said, “Today’s woman, whether it’s real or perceived, feels like she’s really busy and has a fully loaded, hectic life.” Knowing that, LMN executives are attempting to portray and position the network as a TV destination that allows for a temporary escape. “It’s a place designed specifically for them, where they can take a break and escape, unwind, and have some personal time,” Greco said.

This again exactly maps to the philosophy of this blog - quick moments - that bring pleasure, and a break from everything else, where the experience is beautiful and the technology dissolves into the background. LMN has been experimenting with webisodes , they're getting into their strides with this. What other ways can we leverage technology to give us that momentary break and we can be immersed in the flow of the experience.

A Glut of Women in the News and Making News

Lots of things of interest here. First the website - Newsonwomen is a neat find - a website that is focused on Women in the News. There's nothing more empowering some days than to read about a slew of women who are succeeding, if in doubt about how to succeed take a look here and be inspired. The article that caught my attention is related to a kickoff event called, 'Women Making a Difference in Digital Media'.

While looking at the presenters at the event I found out about Natalie Del Conte and 'Loaded', Natali kicked off an online series around CES season earlier this year. I've just taken a glimpse at a couple of the daily episodes. Its fast, happy, and an E! type of presentation but of technology. Natali does a nice job of presenting the facts and also has quick insightful one liners about 'her' perspective on the technology, position, or whatever. Her philosophy is generally that there are a lot of technology shows about the 'specs' but not about the 'personal experience', she hesitates when saying that women are more attracted to the personal experience as she doesn't want to offend but honestly I think she's onto something. It has the lightweight appeal of glamour mag show, but actually is informative and just the sort of information you might need to have to drop in a technology conversation, or appear tech savvy - but the great part of it here is it is consumable by non-hard core geeks, and will help you stay up to date, with the added refreshment of a female commentary.

Worth taking this podcast to the gym (now if only I could findmy podcast player wire to connect to the PC, and figure out how to download the podcast, and remember to have it charged when at the gym.... any solution for that anyone???)

A Long Quick Moment: SATC

I know this blog is meant to be about Quick Moments and instantaneous moments of happiness brought about by using technology but I can't help but comment on the fabulous evening I've just had. For the first time in my life I attended a movie on opening night that was sold out and it wasn't an action flick but a chick flick - Sex and the City, what else could it be? And the astonishing thing is I cannot recall ever going to a sell out movie where the audience was 90% female.

Now the interesting thing is I have only watched a couple of episodes as we don't have cable at our house. However there had been a vibe building around this movie that suggested it would be an experience.

For over 2 hours this movie held the audience captive - they laughed, cheered, and called out during the movie. There was camaraderie in the crowd. Imagine for years this audience had been watching the episodes in isolation of their homes, and finally everyone was out watching it together. It was absolutely an experience to see this movie on opening night to feel the female power in the theater. What was the magic formula and how can Hollywood produce more spellbinding block busters for women. I certainly hope so. And while it wasn't exactly a technological experience, maybe I can make it count that my friend ordered and paid for the tickets online before the show in fear it would sell out (how right she was).

BTW I was also very pleased to see included in the movie reference to 'Bag-Borrow-Steal' which I mentioned in my post in January. Such a cool idea, great to see it in operation in the film. Now to develop the life style for the bag.

Irrisitable games at Orisnal.com

If you're noodling around on the computer looking for a way to distract yourself and just aren't interested in playing solitare, take a look at the beautiful delicate games at Orisinal.com (that's right it's original but instead of the 'g' there's a trendy 's' in the middle - took me several repeat visits to the site before I remembered that). Peaceful music, beautiful images, and very gently motivated games that flow. There's so many to choose from like the Puppies galloping along jumping balls on the beach, Kola bears moving from bamboo poles in a rainforest, rescuing little duckies falling from the sky by opening umbrellas.
I find the engagement of the games captivating and they provide a little breathing space sometimes during a stressful period.

How to be the Perfect Boyfriend, and other Advice

Videojug is my new quick moment entertainment and yet informative website. It's a video site (obviously by it's name) but it's not a youtube free for all, this is a website that is trying to provide provide professional short videos to explain just about anything and everything, or as they put it Life Explained on Film, they allow user-submitted content but it's reviewed (I assume prior to posting) and they're soliciting ideas on what to make videos on next. I first discovered it when looking for an explanation of Web 2.0, and Wikipedia had a quote from Steven Fry on Web 2.0, which seemed an interesting person to quote given his a british writer/comedian/actor. He presented a short sensible explanation of Web 2.0. I poked around some more and found loads of topics, and put my vote in for a video on how to demonstrate folding fitted sheets (something that I've failed to master).

Today I was pointed to a fabulous clip that sincerely and humorously addresses 'How to be the perfect boyfriend' though I think it applies to all male partners, and 'How to be the perfect girlfriend' - gosh, it's pretty darned easy when you review the videos. Then in the short list of 'love story films' on the girlfriend page was also 'Four ways Office 2007 will make your life easier'

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It's truly wonderful stuff coming from the producers of Videojug. It's definitely a site that makes you try to think of stuff you've always wanted to know but never bothered finding out. Definitely worth a few quick moments indulging in random asks, and being given entertaining and quite often useful responses.

Knowing the Movies are Always There

So who hasn't heard of Netflixs? Netflixs became part of our lives in 1999 when we had our first child. We love to go to movies, we're talking at least two or three times a week back in 99. Once realizing our evenings out where a little less frequent (though we made the most of going to cry rooms which are small rooms in movie theaters where you can take babies and still see new movies) we bought a big screen tv which came with a trial Netflix subscription. We've been hooked ever since. What's not to like about selecting endless films of your choice to be sent to your home, watched at leisure, and no late fees.

My only minor complaint was I'm surprised they haven't done much to evolve queue management over the years. All I want is to be able to say, 2 movies from this queue (mainstream), 1 from this one (documentary/foreign), and 1 from this one (kids). But with a bit of manual management it works just fine.

But what I tried today was an amazing quick moment! I finally got around to trying their Browse Selection (online viewing). I'd tried it a while ago but it was flakey, but now it's pretty darn great - it was a click-click experience with no thinking to install whatever pieces for viewing, and then the show started to stream - great picture quality, sound, etc. I'm hooked, or to be honest I love the idea that viewing content is available to me at the click of a button. I don't know when I'll really find time to watch something completely on my computer but simply knowing it's there waiting for me provides a quick moment of happiness. I had heard it was pretty good but finding time to try it just doesn't happened until now, but now I'm mentally hooked.