Panel of fashion marketing experts to discuss the impact of social media at FGI Los Angeles event on May 20th, 2010

By Robin Rowe

International jeans brand Diesel uses social media for "Be Stupid" campaign that urges consumers to take risks

HOLLYWOOD, CA  (Gosh!TV) 5/19/2010 – “No one has it 100% right,” says Fashionably Digital CEO Macala Wright Lee. “Success depends on how a brand or retailer is integrating social media into their overall marketing plan. During New York Fashion Week, Sorel stood out with their Style Coalition (stylecoalition.com) campaign and G-Star did an amazing job with their blogger site.”

Twitter and Facebook have become part of the standard marketing mix as customer information tools and for customer service. E-commerce is evolving into social commerce. “Bloggers with fierce use of Polyvore.com have caused brands and retailers to develop rich media tools to enhance online shopping experiences,” says Lee.

“Social media is a game-changer,” says Fox Rothschild Fashion Law Practice Group chair Staci Riordan. “It gives companies the ability to by-pass the traditional gate keepers of fashion. Social media will change the way clothes are marketed and sold, bringing what’s in stores closer to what’s in season as well as allowing customers to purchase the looks they see on the runways, or on TV, as soon as the show is over.” Riordan is the founder and editor of the Fashion Law Blog (http://fashionlaw.foxrothschild.com).

“I think Burberry is doing a great job with social media, along with smaller companies like Bonobos, which uses YouTube very well,” says Riordan. “Scootergirls have built an amazing cult following on twitter.. I follow many designers and like those that talk about their world,

instead of merely posting what’s on sale.”

The brands and retailers Lee says are doing the best at using Facebook, Twitter and other social media for marketing and brand development are Hayden-Harnett (@Hayden_Harnett), Need Supply Co., Kate Spade, ModCloth.com and LOFT, (@Loft).

“Location based marketing (LBS) and geo-location services such as Gowalla and Foursquare are huge because of their potential to take online customer offline and into stores,” says Lee. “Marc Jacobs, Jimmy Choo and Diesel are all testing the potential of Foursquare. Diesel’s BE STUPID campaign is probably on my top 10 Lists of best branded campaigns in 2010.”

“Social media should not just be another billboard,” says Riordan.  “It’s a way to engage your customer and get to know him or her better. I think licensing will be key in 2011.”

Social media conversations can yield valuable market research, customer insights and competitor information. Lee recommends using social media monitoring tools, such as partner Attensity360.

Fashionably Digital is going to be building the community over the next year for Sense of Fashion, a new client that’s recently funded. Sense Of Fashion (SenseOFashion.com) is an international, social fashion community that is the fastest growing indie fashion marketplace on the web says Lee.

Another Fashionably Digital project are the mobile style apps Stylish Girl + Cool Guy (www.stylishandcool.com). Lee says Stylish + Cool has had over 500,000 downloads from iTunes and have 100,000 active users. “We’re developing a more robust version that integrates geo-location services such as Foursquare,” says Lee.

Riordan is working on a national series of events that address the hot topics in fashion law, including the Design Piracy Prohibition Act (DPPA), managing your fashion company in the new economy, and using social media tools to build brand.

A “Social Media Secrets” panel discussion is being presented by fashion industry association Fashion Group International Los Angeles (http://fgila.org). A panel of experts will discuss social media marketing for fashion, using blogs and networking brand development.

The panel members:

• FashionablyMarketing.Me editor-in-chief Macala Wright Lee
• The-Coveted.com blogger Jennine Jacob
• PRCouture.com founder Crosby Noricks
• Fox Rothschild fashion attorney Staci Riordan
• Stonefield Josephson financial planner Ron Friedman

The event is May 20th, 2010, from 6pm to 9pm at Stonefield Josephson, 2049 Century Park East, Level D Conference Room, Los Angeles.

By Jeff Pulver

140 Conference to discuss what happened to Twitter at SXSW

AUSTIN, TX (Gosh!TV) 3/23/2010 – At South By Southwest 2010 (SXSW), a strange thing happened on the way to the Austin film festival. A community of twitter faithful shifted from sharing everything about everything on only Twitter (and maybe Facebook) and changed their habits to rely on learning about what was happening and where things were happening by using foursquare and Gowalla instead. There were other products and platforms being used including Loopt and GySPii but foursquare and Gowalla were the dominant platforms.

Friends of friends not attending SXSW may have greatly appreciated the reduction of what might otherwise appear as “noise” on twitter about specific happenings at SXSW. However, the unintended consequence of not using twitter at SXSW meant SXSW spent little time as a trending topic. In turn, that may have lowered the buzz and the impact that being a trending topic can have.

In the year since SXSW 2009, a number of friends became passionate and dependent on using Foursquare or Gowalla as the platform to share where they are and what is happening around them. At SXSW 2010, this was taken to a new level. If you’re spending time around your friends, and you have a chance to speak to them almost at will, there is something to be said about only sharing your location information. Then you have the ability to make decisions of what to do or where not to go based on this information.

There were times when one could feel the ebbs and the flows of people moving as they checked into various locations. While most of this is felt locally in the place you are, it also became apparent on the platforms when hundreds of people would rush to check in to a location. There were times when it felt like chasing ghosts. You go to a spot because a friend had checked into that spot only to discover he or she is no longer there.

Foursquare’s introduction of trending places was a good one and a foreshadowing of future features. Look forward to seeing more derivative information shared in the future. It will be the information shared from the first and second derivatives of the core information that will keep people using location based services.

At SXSW breaks, at lunch and the flight home, a typical comment shared was: “I haven’t been on twitter for two days. Not sure when I was on last on Facebook. I just look on Foursquare for what is happening and where it is happening.” This is not the case of one community moving to a new platform just because it’s new and cool. The shift was intended as a means to an end. It was the tool used by people to figure out the who, what, and where things were happening. By the end of each evening, we were not only tired but our phones had no energy left either.

The shift may be a transient one. Moments after returning from SXSW, friends had switched back to using Twitter once again as the default communication platform.

SXSW 2010 will be known as the time Foursquare came of age and the place where at least one community’s dependence on Twitter had shifted. What does it mean to the #140 community, the users of the real-time Internet? The #140conf conference in NYC on April 20^th to 21^st may tell.

• http://140conf.com
• http://sxsw.com

By Gabrielle Pantera

Vivatar DVR 510 Underwater Night Vision Camera sports USB port

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 2/8/2010 – Celebrities who visited gift suite included Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, Lady Antebellum, Mary J Blige, Rihanna, Randy Jackson, Kimberly Caldwell, Lionel Richie, Roberta Flack and Kimora Lee Simmons. The official Grammys gift suite was presented by Distinctive Assets and hosted by Moroccanoil during rehearsals on January 28^th to 30th.

Celebrities could autograph gifts to donate MusiCares Foundation, that provides a safety net of critical assistance for members of the music community in times of need. Let’s take a look at the latest gift ideas.

Tech

Rihanna took one look and said, “Tech toys, tech toys!” The Vivitar Waterproof Night Vision DVR 510 camcorder weighs just 13 ounces, supports 640×480 at 30 fps, an 8x digital zoom, SD slot and a 1.8” preview screen. Waterproof to shoot underwater and at night. The Vivitar DVR 850W can go to five meters underwater with SD memory and a rechargeable LiIon battery.

Vivitar’s latest digital camera is the ViviCam 8027, a compact digital camera with a retro look featuring a leather-clad body. This 8.1-megapixel camera takes still photos at resolutions of up to 3264×2448 pixels and can shoot video at resolutions to 640×480 pixels and 30fps. It uses a 3x optical zoom lens with auto-focus, 8x digital zoom, auto white-balance system, and an anti-shake system.

http://www.vivitar.com/home.php

Palm Pixi and Palm Pixi Plus phones from Palm feature a thin design and fixed keyboard, making it easy to text what you want in an instant. Flip from one open app to another using the touchscreen and intuitive gestures. See friends’ contact information linked together from online sources and social networks in the same view. Choose  back cover designs to express yourself.

http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pixi/index.html

Harman International iPod docking stations. Harman offers audio and multimedia products for the home, car and professional stage.

http://www.harman.com/EN-US/

Gibson USA Reverse Flying V Guitar. Back by popular demand for a limited run of the Reverse Fly.

http://www.gibson.com/Promotions/ReverseFlyingV/

Fashion

Solstice Sunglass Boutique’s spring collections. Carrera sunglass are the hot sunglasses for spring. Check out some of the hottest music videos to find them.

http://www.solsticestores.com/

LA Gear LA Lights sneakers are updated versions of the legendary LA Tech light-ups from the early 90s. Men’s Lights come in White/Silver, Green/Olive, Black/Purple, and Blue. Women’s Lights come in Red and Gold.

http://lagear.com/

Misis Jewelry, imported from Italy, features high quality silver jewelry enriched by hard stones. They make rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings and pins. Their jewelry designs typically include an animal of some kind, such as peacocks, butterflies, and a flamenco. The Misis line for spring and summer features marine life. There are seahorses with shells, octopus, starfish and more.

www.misis.it/

Agapara handbags are a new brand of handbag being debuted in the USA. Celebrities loved the styles and colors. J. Holly International will help launch the brand in the next few months.

Hardcore Elegance offers gorgeous necklaces, bracelets, rings and little boxes. Made of silver and using the crosses and fleur-de-lis in the designs. Jewelry that goes from day to night effortlessly. Hardcore Elegance also makes cashmere sweaters.

http://www.hardcoreelegance.com/

Cape Cod Leather bags are from the best South American leather. Leather briefcases are one of their specialties. Cap Code Leather briefcases, computer bags, messenger bags, backpacks have been seen on TV shows like Crossing Jordan. Reasonably priced.

http://www.capecodleather.com/

Royal Underground rocker chic clothing. Kelly Gray of St John fame and Motley Crue’s bass player Nikki Sixx got together in 2006 and formed Royal Underground, the edgy rock inspired clothing for men and women. Mixing cashmere and antiqued leather with fantastic details on both. They also make jewelry.

http://royalunderground.net

Beauty and Home

Moroccanoil signature sports bag filled with argan oil-infused Moroccanoil Treatment, Moisture Repair Shampoo, Moisture Repair Conditioner, Hydrating Styling Cream, Intense Hydrating Mask, Glimmer Shine Spray and a set of the new Moroccanoil Ionic Ceramic Hair Brushes. Moroccanoil oil is harvested under a free trade program, providing substantial socio-economic support to thousands of families in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco and helps improve the working conditions of rural women.  Moroccanoil products are found in fine salons nationwide. Revitalize hair while speeding drying time up to 40%.

www.moroccanoil.com

Soy Delicious Moisturizing Candles are not only a soy candle. Once the candle liquefies, use the oil as a rich moisturizer for hands, feet, cuticles and elbows. Blow out the candle first so you don’t get burned, then dip your finger into the soy oil. Softens and moisturizes the driest parts of your body. The tumbler is washable and reusable.

www.soy-delicious.com

Dr. Lancer spa services and deluxe spa robes. Lancer Dermatology offers medical grade facials. The treatments are personalized to suit the specific skin care requirements of each patient.

http://www.lancerdermatology.com

MTG Twinklist ultimate foot care packages feature an easy grip handle and the abrasive surface to rid heels of unwanted calluses. MTG also offers a device to help get rid of excess fat. ReFa is coated in platinum with ceramic rings and a 3d-v structure.

http://www.mtg.gr.jp/english/twinklist/index.html

http://www.mtg.gr.jp/english/refa/index.html

Orgasense natural organic skin care for skin rejuvenation  uses Australian and French ingredients. Organsense natural skin care will become available in the next few months in the USA.

Bling Dental makes the Icing 30 Carat Revolutionary At-Home Teeth Whitening System.   Dr. Raymond Frye, DMD, provided a cosmetic dentistry package. The teeth whitening system contains professional strength whitening carbamide peroxide, yet  can be used at home.

http://www.icingteethwhitening.com/

Fancy Feast ultimate pet packages featured Fancy Feast Appetizers, a Fancy Feast Flip Camera, and luxury silver key ring with heart charm. Celebrities signed a Fancy Feast poster to donate to MusiCares. American Idol’s Kimberly Caldwell came by and talked about has two cats. Caldwell says Kya is the nice beautiful one, that her other cat can be mean and messy.

http://fancyfeast.com/

Waste Management highlighted their new Recycling Rocks campaign. They offered an eco-friendly thermos with a built-in filter to clean water.

www.thinkgreen.com

Rock-n-Roll Gourmet Hippie Chips flavors include Sea of Love Salt, Memphis Blues Barbecue, Lime on My Side Cracked Pepper, Woodstock Ranch, Haight-Ashberry Jalapeno and White Room Cheddar. These munchies are low in fat, high in flavor completely natural line of chips. Rock & Pop popcorn with jalapeno is spicy and crunchy. Kettle Korna is the perfect mixture of sweet and salty. Cinnamon Joy is cinnamon and while chocolate drizzle. Chocolate Passion uses dark chocolate drizzle. Musicians Dan and Jean Ehrlich named the chips after music themes. The back of every bag promotes bands and artists.

http://www.rocknrollgourmet.com/

“Of all the award shows in which we’ve been involved over the past 10 years, the Grammys remains my favorite,” says Distinctive Assets founder Lash Fary. “It’s the most talented artists, the best gifts and the most incredible production team.” The Distinctive Assets gift suite was designed Pacific Events of Las Vegas using furniture from Modern Studio Furnishings and floral creations from Tu Bloom Designs. Founded in 1999, Distinctive Assets produces the gift bags and backstage gift lounges for many major award shows and offers product placement.

By Robin Rowe

Drupal powers the Obama White House site whitehouse.gov

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 12/22/2009 – Drupal is a popular content publishing program that the White House uses since Obama took office. The standard Drupal installation uses MySQL. Many prefer Postgres because they find it more robust and faster with multiple connections. Drupal supports Postgres (and Sqlite, too). Let’s install on CentOS.

Installing Postgres

1. # yum install postgresql postgresql-server php-pgsql php-gd
2. # ln -s /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_log /var/log/pg_log
3. Edit /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf  to enable password-based connections:
   #local   all         all                           ident sameuser

   local   all         all                              md5

   # IPv4 local connections:

   #host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32          ident sameuser

   host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32        md5
4. # /sbin/chkconfig postgresql on
5. # /sbin/service postgresql start
6. # /sbin/service httpd restart
7. # su – postgres
8. $ psql -d template1 -U postgres
9. /l
10. \q
11. $ createuser drupal –pwprompt –encrypted
12. Answer n to all questions
13. $ createdb my_blog_name –owner=drupal
14. $ psql -l
15. $ exit

Postgres only has UTF8 encoding, that specifying UNICODE as recommended by Drupal will create a UTF8 table anyway. Since UTF8 is the default encoding, it’s not necessary to specify it in createdb. If Drupal says Postgres is not installed, restart apache. If you install any php modules, you’ll have to restart apache for Drupal to detect them. If that doesn’t help, check /etc/php.d. More Postgres notes.

Testing PHP with Postgres

If you need to check that PHP sees Postgres, create and browse this file looking for a pgsql section:

http://www.my_site.com/drupal-6.14/phpinfo.php

<?

phpinfo();

?>

If you don’t get a connection, try this test code:

http://www.my_site.copg_connect.php

<?php

$connection = pg_connect(‘user=drupal password=my_password dbname=goshtv’) or die(‘Could not connect: ‘ . pg_last_error($connection));

echo “Connected!”;

?>

Installing Drupal

1. $ cd /var/www/html/
2. $ wget http://drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-x.x.tar.gz
3. $ tar xvfz drupal-x.x.tar.gz
4. $ rm drupal-x.x.tar.gz
5. # chown -R apache drupal-x.x
6. # chgrp  -R apache drupal-x.x
7. # mv drupal-x.x my_blog_name
8. # cd my_blog_name/sites/default/
9. # cp default.settings.php settings.php
10. # chown apache settings.php
11. # chgrp apache settings.php sites/default/

Configuring Drupal from the Web

1. http://www.my_site.com/my_blog_name/
2. http://www.goshtv.net/drupal-6.14/

Setting cron

• # vi /etc/crontab
  45 * * * * /usr/bin/wget -O – -q -t 1 http://www.goshtv.net/drupal-6.14/crontab.php

The web page you’re reading was published using WordPress. Here it is in Drupal:

http://www.goshtv.net/drupal-6.14/

More configuration is necessary with Drupal to create a rich media site like whitehouse.gov. Unlike WordPress, Drupal won’t embed images without installing plug-ins. However, WordPress is MySQL only, doesn’t support Postgres. All database CMS systems are slow and require caching to perform well. WordPress has SuperCache. Drupal has Boost which may be faster as it’s static pages.

By Robin Rowe

Using RText because Scite isn't available yet for the Mac

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 12/10/2009 – In this quick tutorial (or “gouge”) we’ll look at how to set up Mac OS X to build free open source Linux software such as CinePaint. Mac OS X offers a free graphical compiler app called Xcode. We’ll download that but not use it as a graphical programming environment. Instead, we’ll do everything the Linux way so that we maintain total compatibility of code across Linux and Mac OS X.

Installing GNU Make in a terminal in Mac OS X

Snow Leopard 10.6, the current version of Mac OS X, only runs on Intel-based Macs. We’re developing on a G5 PowerPC desktop running Tiger 10.4.  It makes little difference what version of Mac OS X we’re using because we’re avoiding relying on anything specific to the Mac when building POSIX code. We’ll build code from a terminal window using the usual Linux commands.

We’ll make the same source code to build on Mac OS X or Linux. Each of these UNIX-based systems are highly compatible at the platform level known as POSIX. The same C/C++ POSIX-compatible code can be built on all systems. Windows can build Linux-based POSIX programs by using a small open source compatibility library called libunistd.

Mac OS X Open Source Set-up Gouge

1. Download and install the appropriate version of Xcode for your version of Mac OS X.

2. In Finder, go to Applications, Utilities and launch Terminal. All the commands shown below are run in terminals.

3. Because there’s a bug in Tiger make 3.78 that can cause builds to fail mysteriously with a memory error message, we’ll also download and install the latest version of GNU make. In a terminal:

1. make –version
2. which make
3. ./configure –help

Using make –version informs us we have the buggy 3.79 version. Using which informs us that make is installed in /usr/bin and configure –help informs us our replacement make will go in /usr/local/bin. We won’t overwrite the default 3.79 make by using configure –prefix=/usr/bin. Doing that is not the UNIX way and won’t work anyway because the installer will bail after detecting a collision with /usr/bin/info (we tried).

Then we’ll use the cd command to navigate to whatever folder we put the downloaded GNU make tarball.

1. cd /Volumes/Seagate-1.4TB/code
2. tar xvfj make-3.81.tar.bz2
3. cd make-3.81
4. ./configure
5. make
6. sudo make install

The basic tar-configure-make-install process is standard for GNU and is sufficient for most Linux-based code. The other commands above are going the extra mile, aren’t needed once we have our PATH configured. We use tar xvfj to uncompress the bzipped source tarball. When we encounter gzipped tarballs, we’ll use  tar  xvfz instead.

Let’s test we’ve got the version of make we want:

1. /usr/local/bin/make –version
2. make –version
3. export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
4. make –version

We modified the PATH in this session so that our replacement make is preferred over the default. We’ll make the PATH permanent by adding this line to our ~/.profile file:

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

To source and test the profile:

. ~/.profile; echo $PATH

4. Install a text editor. Using vi that’s built in is great for quick tasks in a terminal. That’s actually vim, the improved vi, the same program commonly encountered in Linux. An easy-to-read graphical text editor is a good idea for more complicated text editing. We can’t use the popular Linux editor Scite because it has no Mac version due to being dependent on GTK2. We’ll explore building Scite on the Mac in a separate article. For now, install the Java-based editor RText.

Note: The screenshots in this story were created using SnapNDrag on the Mac and edited in CinePaint on Linux.

James May on the Moon, wearing U-2 spacesuit

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 11/5/2009 – “The Air Force has offered to take me up to 70,000 feet where I’ll be able to look into the blackness of space,” says Top Gear star James May, who’s taking a nostalgic look at the manned moon missions forty years later. “At 46 I’m too old, too unfit and too long-haired to ever know what it would be to be an astronaut. The U-2 is the peak of 50s aviation from the dawn of the space age.” To fly in the U-2 to the edge of space, May must wear a spacesuit.

Top Gear presenter James May fulfills a childhood dream of flying into space. Driven by a passion for technology, May seeks out the astronauts and the engineering heroes of the space race, the few who flew and built the machines that may be man’s greatest technological achievement. “Going to space changed the way we look at the Earth,” says May.

James May on the Moon, U-2 spy plane

“NASA’s first space suits were based on the ones worn by U-2 pilots,” says May. He has three days to prepare for his flight in the U-2. That includes experiencing weightlessness on G-Force One, more commonly known as the “vomit comet”. Before his first flight, May notes hopefully that, “At no time in my life have I ever been sick on an airplane.”

May looks at the Saturn V rocket on display at NASA. It’s one of the most complex machines ever made. “This rocket has six million components, even with NASA’s target rate of 99.99% success, they could expect 6,000 parts to fail even on a good launch.”

The idea of using a multi-stage rocket to reach the moon has been around a long time. Cyrano de Bergerac wrote of it in France in 1657 in the sci-fi story Histoire Comique de la Lune. A little over three hundred years later, it was the multi-stage Saturn V that took man to the moon.

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon as mission commander of Apollo 11. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had descended to the lunar surface in the LEM. They had 2½ hours to explore while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. The weight of the fuel necessary to return to Earth precluded landing the Command Module. It would take too much power to lift the fuel off the moon again.

May’s quest includes visits with space veterans including Charlie Duke, Alan Bean and Harrison Schmitt, one of the last to visit the moon. Forty years later, these veterans have become old men. Twelve men walked on the moon. Nine are still alive. Unless there’s a return to the moon, it won’t be long until there’s no man left alive who’s stepped foot on the moon.

Although the United States hasn’t been back to Earth’s moon, in the 21st century unmanned probes from ESA, Japan, India and China have reached the surface of the moon. The United States landed an unmanned probe on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005. Russia, India and China are interested in pursuing manned missions to the moon, but no formal plans have been announced. The obstacle is the tremendous expense of a manned moon mission. The Google Lunar X Prize offers a $20 million award for the first privately-funded team to land a robotic probe on the moon.

BBC America is premiering two more documentaries in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing in July 1969. James May On the Moon premieres Tuesday, November 10th at 8pm ET/PT. Apollo Wives premieres Tuesday, November 17th at 8pm ET/PT. Being Neil Armstrong premieres Tuesday, November 24th at 8pm ET/PT.