Jason Nunes

OK, I’ll throw this idea out there, because I’m pretty sure I won’t have the chance to make it myself.

Could someone please create:
A RIA that allows me to write a blog post, and then cross post it to multiple blogs? Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, Moveable Type, My Space… hell, Open Diary, I don’t care.

If you give me a cut, I’ll even design the UI, branding, etc.

Or if there’s something out there that does this well, and is pretty, could someone tell me about it?

Thanks!

So, first off, what’s a “desire path”?

From Fritinancy:

Desire path: A term in landscape architecture used to describe a path that isn’t designed but rather is worn casually away by people finding the shortest distance between two points.

Here’s one from the Desire Path Flickr photo pool:

But can there be such a thing as a desire path when dealing with software, or websites?

I’ve seen plenty of situations where software users have created elaborate real world workarounds to make up for badly designed software.

Stickies all over someones desktop so that they can remember important info, or tasks to be completed:
or printing screen shots of software for reference, so they don’t have to dive into hard to navigate tools…

Can you make the case that these represent user desire paths? The shortest distance between two points–the task, or goal, and the completion of a task or goal?

In landscape architecture, desire paths are communal. One person acts as the trail blazer, and as more and more tread the non-path, a real path emerges. It becomes more and more acceptable to take it. You are basically given permission by everyone who has gone before you. (As an aside, I remember a fascinating video of people crossing a street against a light… it’s like we flock across. One maverick pedestrian starts the crossing, and soon it’s like the rest of us are compelled into crossing. I guess a desire path is a geographical manifestation of this kind of behavior.)

So, do these stickies, and printout books, represent desire paths? They are definitely short cuts. Are they communal? Often coworkers teach other coworkers how to make them, so that they too can short cut the “pain points” of the crap software they are mandated to use. Or am I just pushing the metaphor too far?

Whatev… I’m gonna start slipping digital or user desire path into conversation, and see if it sticks.

From Shelly Palmer:

GENERAL MOTORS will shift half of its $3 billion advertising budget to online and one-to-one marketing within 3 years. That indicates a rapid increase over the $197 million GM spent online last year. The company plans to embrace a wide variety of formats, including gaming, search, interactive applications and more.

More interesting, and telling news for those of us who work in what used to be lovingly called the convergence space. (What was it that was supposed to be converging again?) Apparently GM is going to be focusing $1.5 billion on gaming, search, interactive ads, and more.

I’m beginning to believe more and more in a punctuated equilibrium evolutionary model for the media space. Natural selection is at work, friends. I’m fascinated to see what we all evolve into next…

And, on that note, where is all this interactive ad content going to come from? Traditional agencies (much like some of their big media masters) seem to be stuck in their own tar pits…