Six key considerations for succeeding with digital transformation

This is a summary of the six key points from a talk I made in Shanghai (with Tencent) on behalf of Econsultancy on strategic management issues in digital transformation.

In addition, I've given my first reflections about the Chinese digital market.

Customer centricity

In today's internet-enabled world, in particular for B2C brands, it is no longer optional to be customer centric.

For luxury brands that are servicing internationally traveling customers, these clients must be considered a single and same customer wherever they may be. 

Communications,  especially for ecommerce companies, must be evermore personalised and relevant to increase the chances of opening emails, clicking on links and engaging in conversation, much less in creating conversion. 

The case of GILT, the luxury flash sale site, is exemplary, where the company produces 2,500 different tailored versions for its daily email blast.

Building Trust

Whether it is as an employee listening to his/her management or customers listening to marketing messages, there is too often a gap between what is said and what is done.

The latent gap between what is promised and what is being achieved is not just a waste of time; it is undermining credibility and trust. Brands are being judged on what is being done. 

Moreover, to the extent that brands are wishing to create favorable word of mouth, brand marketers must pay attention to the fact that the "buzz" is created when people (i.e. peers) say what brands are doing.

Create meaning, find your voice  

Brands need to stand for something, a set of de facto values that are differentiable and relevant.

That point of difference ideally needs to resonate with a deeper value system, with a stronger sense of purpose and meaning than purely delivering a great product or service. 

In a world where marketers and marketing messages, in general, are less trusted than peer advice, brands need to stand out, find a distinctive voice and not fear taking a position or having an opinion. 

Digital centres of excellence

The way a brand or company is organized is of particular importance when considering the digital transformation. Where should the digital expertise be lodged? 

The answer depends on the relative level of maturity of the company. Ultimately, digital needs to be embedded within and throughout the operations.

In an advanced digitally oriented company, the digital center of excellence serves to enhance innovation, anticipate the future, trial embryonic options and choose and invest in larger scale systems. 

One of the keys to success is the profile of the individual running this department. He/she must be able to convince his/her peers and championing the transformation at the highest levels of the company, all the while, being credible and persuasive with and a role model for the younger geeks, programmers and marketing managers.

The 5E's of the new marketing

Before considering increased investment in digital marketing, the basics need to be excellent. 

The product, at the right price, in the right location, needs to be optimal and optimized.

But, in today's world, the 4Ps of EJ McCarthy, on which we have all been trained, need to be enhanced by new levers, which I call the 5E's, focusing on engagement, exchange, emotion, experience and essence. 

And, the engagement starts with one's employees.

Be digital

In order to get digital, it is important that at the top management level, executives be digital.This means, ideally, that they are actively using the different channels and platforms themselves on a personal basis. 

How many of the top board have a large personal social media following or maintain their own blog? Moreover, is there someone on the board who can be the digital evangelist with credibility and business acumen? 

Since words structure our thoughts, are the executive titles reflective of the change that senior management wants to see happen? For example, who is the chief troublemaker in your organization, capable of calling the CEO to task when he/she does not exhibit the appropriate digital mindset?

For companies taking wishing to upgrade their digital efforts, the key is finding an effective blend with traditional marketing methods (events, advertising…) and making digital just a natural component of the marketing mix. 

However, unlike other traditional marketing methods, the successful adoption of digital necessitates profound cultural change. Change does not come easily. It starts with concrete steps and actions.  And, those behaviors and actions must be adopted, in priority, by top management.

Some topline observations on China...

If China is a large and complex market and is often thought of, overseas, as a nation of copycats, the digital marketing practitioners in the West would do well to wake up to the vibrant Chinese market. 

The most difficult barrier in understanding the market is, surely, the language.  However, the penetration level of mobile and the prevalence of micro-blogging are beyond impressive. Adoption of the QR code is widespread. 

Penetration and choice of micro-blogging platforms is much deeper and more competitive than in the West. I find the voice message functionality particularly enticing, arguably making the conversation experience superior to Twitter's. 

If ecommerce in China is already large in absolute volume (#2 only to USA), the growth rates in ecommerce are also very impressive. According to the McKinsey report, Chinese ecommerce has reached $210bn in 2012, or an estimated 5-6% of total commerce in China, with a compound annual growth rate of 120% since 2003. 

Of course, challenges remain of moving from offline into eCommerce and of changing senior management mindsets.  Yet, the acceptance and willingness to drive eCommerce is now totally generalized.  Again, we are seeing different forms and functionalities in how eCommerce is being developed. 

Meanwhile, if ecommerce payment in China continues to prefer COD, the different third party payment systems are becoming more accepted and encouraging more online payment (Alipay, TenPay, ChinaPay…). 

The future of ecommerce in China is bound to be extremely vibrant.  Time will tell about who gains the upper hand in retaining and managing the personal data. 

In summary, the Chinese market is in massive growth and flux. None of the big players may lie on their laurels as there continues to be disruption, dislocation and innovation.I cannot wait to delve further into the market on my return in the Fall.

Econsultancy currently has a range of services available that can help guide organisational change, business restructuring and digital transformation strategy. 

The Pinterest Roadmap Revealed

The rise of Pinterest wasn't all cocktails and cupcakes. It conquered huge scaling challenges to become the world's keepsake box. Now as the we ditch the desktop for mobile, how will Pinterest evolve to connect us with the things we love? Today Pinterest's head of engineering Jon Jenkins gave a surprisingly candid look at the past and future of Pinterest journey to build the interest graph.

Now Pinterest is a team of 140, with 70 engineers, $338 million in funding, and a massive headquarters in San Francisco. But at the start, it was just the three co-founders Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp, Paul Sciarra, and a single engineer.

2010: "The Year Of The Creation Of The Business"

Pinterest began as a few guys with a mission "To help people discover the things they love and then do those things in real life. With only one engineer, it was almost lucky that Pinterest didn't become popular yet or the whole thing could have come crashing down.

2011: "The Year Of Scaling Challenges"

Jenkins says that "traffic was doubling every month and half" and provided this traffic graph, though with no X axis about exactly how many page views the site receives. He explained that the site wasn't exactly built to last at first. "It was originally written in Python, but when you build a website [for a small user base] you don't think about modularity very much. And when a million people show up on your door step you're just trying to keep the thing from falling down."

2012: "The Big Year Of Mobile"

In August it released new versions of its iOS and Android apps that would serve as the modernized foundation of the future of its business on the small screen. Pinterest began learning how people used the service differently depending on their device. For example, in the daytime it sees a lot of phone use as people try to discover new things. They might walk around the grocery store with a recipe pin open on their phone to help them find ingredients. "Then in the evening we see tablet usage increase significantly as they're trying to make that recipe" Jenkins says.

2013: "The Year Of Adding A Lot More Value To Pins"

Pinterest this year began showing related pins when you pinned something, and providing pin recommendations via email. It also launched expanded pins so recipes would show ingredients, movies would show reviews, and products would show prices. Most recently, it began using the feed editor to recommend more content to you. With big plans afoot, Pinterest also rewrote its entire site — not to handle traffic, but to let multiple engineers enhance it simultaneously without tripping over each other and causing non-stop bugs. "How can we create modules that let engineers go in and work without screwing over the other developers?" He's convinced that the new modular Python architecture "will allow the organization to scale."

The Future

Looking forward, Pinterest has five big projects its working on:

Building The Interest Graph:  Unlike other social networks, Jenkins says that "Pinterest isn't fundamentally about connecting people to other people. It's about connecting people to interests."

For years you had little but your own brain and the boards you browsed to find pinspiration. But now Pinterest is lending a helping hand thanks to a ton of data analysis. "Pins can't exist unless they're assigned to a board. Out of those boards, we try to identity interests through collaborative filtering, associative rule mining, natural language processing to provide discovery. I can pin five shirts I like and Pinterest derives my interest in fashion." Recommendations could make Pinterest even more addictive for hardcore users, and help it retain newbies until they're hooked.

Scaling Big Data: "Figuring out how we're going to scale the data repositories for pins will only become more complicated as we grow internationally" Jenkins said. That why he says "we're hiring pretty aggressively" in areas including machine learning, data mining, operations, and infrastructure.

Making Pins More Useful: Expect more pin types to gain expanded information like recipes did. "Useful" could also end up as a euphemism for "buyable". Pinterest is renowned for driving traffic to ecommerce sites. If it could bring more of the shopping experience inside its site and apps, it could provide value to users while also arguing that it deserves a revenue share or commission from merchants.

Bringing The Grid Onto Mobile: Pinterest's best known and most frequently copied element is its masonry grid design which allows for rapid intake of visual information. Now it's trying to get the infinite scroll part of the grid to work on small screens with limited storage. "It's easy to load things but your phone gets very angry with you if you don't unload things", Jenkins says. There's also be a bit of bringing the mobile onto the grid, as Pinterest tries to take what it's learning on mobile back to its website. That could include touch capabilities for touch-enabled laptops like the Chromebook Pixel.

Creating A Platform Foundation: "People keep asking 'When are you going to release an API?'" Jenkins wouldn't give a firm answer but did reveal a bunch of details. "We are working very closely with a very select set of partners to figure out what the API is that we should release. We are going to work with content providers to offer extended functionality so they can understand how the content they produce is being used in the Pinterest system. Content providers want distribution. If we can help them understand what resonates they'll be happier, and Pinners will be happier as well."

Don't expect it to be rushed out "I might be overly rigorous in how I think about APIs. I want them to be extremely high quality" Jenkins says. Taking a dig at Facebook and Twitter, and following a similar thought pattern as Google+'s Vic Gundotra, he says "I don't want to make mistakes other companies have made where they release APIs and then have to pull them back. I wouldn't be proud of that."

Today, Jenkins says that depending on what external traffic monitoring site you look at "we're a top 15 site in the US and higher than that in terms of apps." comScore currently pegs it at 48.7 million global monthly users. And while you might think Pinterest is a big popularity contest, Jenkins says that if you talk to long-time users, "many of them pin for themselves. They're not using Pinterest to put on a show or posture externally. People view it as an act of self-expression."

Just because our world is being digitized doesn't mean we've lost our desire to collect. If Pinterest executes on this roadmap, it could build tree big enough for us all to nest in.

How to produce PDFs on Magento orders using a grid bulk action

We recently worked with a client who wanted to be able to print a pick list for orders placed in their Magento Store. Magento has a number of features that enable quick, printable versions of order information to be saved, or printed. However, it appeared that all of the options required the order to reach a certain point prior to being able to use them; for example, "Printing Packing Slips" or "Print Shipping Labels". Both require a shipment to be raised, and as the client wanted to use this as a picking slip, we didn't want this to have to happen.

Whilst these solutions didn't offer exactly what we wanted, they did provide a template and an idea of the functionality we required. We wanted PDF downloads and we wanted to be able to select multiple orders at once and not have to click into each separate order to create the PDF.

The only change required to the invoice template was that we weren't interested about billing information, and we required comments written by the customer whilst going through the checkout process.

So, we faced two challenges. Firstly, we needed to add a mass action to the orders grid. Secondly, we needed to create a multi-page PDF – depending on how many orders had been selected on the orders grid.

As mentioned, Magento already has a series of mass actions that can be applied to orders from the orders grid page.

As with all plugins, we need to start by creating a new folder in app/code/local/

We tend to keep all of our custom extensions together and use the Branded3 namespace, so we start with /app/code/local/Branded3/

Next, we're going to add the folder for our extension. Let's call it PrintPicking, and place it in the Branded3 namespace at /app/code/local/Branded3/PrintPicking/

Suffice to say, you can call it whatever you want.

We'll split things down a little from now on for better understanding…

Adding a new mass action

There are two ways to add a new mass action to the orders grid. The first way is to extend the Sales Order Grid (Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Sales_Order_Grid). We'd do this by doing something like the following: /app/code/local/Branded3/PrintPicking/etc/config.xml

Extending the Sales Order Grid is quick and easy; it's also pretty dirty. The reason being – other plugins could already be extending the Sales Order Grid and adding new features. Features you might want to be using. So, you might need to extend their class and this then leads to dependency in your plugin which isn't really something we want.

As with many programming solutions; there is always more than one way, and this solution will also leave other plugins to take control/add to the Sales Order Grid. We achieve this by using a Magento event instead. Specifically, core_block_abstract_to_html_before.

It's worth mentioning that it's always best practice to use event/observers whenever you can because it's future proof. Whilst a core class such as Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Sales_Order_Grid is probably unlikely to change, the core event won't, and we can keep adding events on top of events.

So let's go ahead and look at the code that we need to control this. As suggested above, we're looking at adding an event hook and pointing to our own observer function. Firstly, the config.xml for our extension – /app/code/local/Branded3/PrintPicking/etc/config.xml

As you can see, we tell Magento that we want to bind to an event. Specifically the core_block_abstract_to_html_before event. We enter the observers block, and define a new class – Branded3_Printpicking_Model_Observer, and hook up the method addActions. We also define that the model exists so that we can add an Observer (referenced in the event observer).

This means we can go ahead and make our observer next /app/code/local/Branded3/PrintPicking/Model/Observer.php

Here, we define our new Observer Class and our method addAction. We get the Observer Event Block and check for the MassAction widget, and check that it is the MassAction for the Sales Order Grid. If it is, we add a new item to it – our new mass action. As we're adding a block, it's worth using a unqiue name (first parameter of the $block->addItem call).

This gives us a new item in our drop down – "Print Picking Labels" – and sets its URL to route through to our eventual new controller. The controller is going to provide the action – i.e. creating a PDF for us to view / print / download.

Hooking up our mass action to actually do something is the next step. We've already defined a path, so let's put the correct files in place.

Creating a PDF action

We need to create our new controller and action.

At /app/code/local/Branded3/PrintPicking/controllers/adminhtml/ lets create an IndexController.php file.

Here, we create a new class that extends Mage_Adminhtml_Controller_Action. We call this Branded3_Printpicking_Adminhtml_IndexController and we can define a new action. Based on our route, this needs to be getPickingAction().

Since we have the ability to select multiple orders, the first thing we need to do is get all the order ID's we've passed through to this function and find the relevant orders.

From here, we pass off the order information to a PDF model. As we're not dealing with Shipments, some information isn't available if we used Mage_Sales_Model_Order_Pdf_Abstract & Mage_Sales_Model_Order_Pdf_Items_Abstract – as we'd need to be looking for the order/invoice that the shipment had been created on, so we'll go ahead and override these with our own methods.

Create the following two files: /app/code/local/Branded3/Printpicking/Model/Pdf.php and /app/code/local/Branded3/Printpicking/Model/Pdfitem.php

Here we can go ahead and override the two classes mentioned, so we end up with class
class Branded3_Printpaicking_Model_Pdf extends Mage_Sales_Model_Order_Pdf_Abstract
class Branded3_Printpicking_Model_Pdfitem extends Mage_Sales_Model_Order_Pdf_Items_Abstract

We can then call these from our controller.

This means that we can override the _drawHeader method (for example if we want to add or remove any information) and we can also override the getPdf() method in order to change complete layout.

We need to also tell the PDF class to use the Pdf class as its Renderer.

As mentioned above, there are some issues around how we can get order item information from an order. To do this, we can override the getSku($item) function found within Pdfitem. It should look like:

As stated in my introduction, we needed to add customer comments to the PDF. This added an additional issue, as we noticed that the site had the One Step Checkout extension running. Luckily, One Step Checkout makes this easy. You can load up an order object and call the function getOnestepcheckoutCustomercomment().

Now you should hopefully have all the component parts to put together your new module. Moving on from here, you can now look at changing Branded3_Printpaicking_Model_Pdf & Branded3_Printpicking_Model_Pdfitem to update the information required in your PDF.

If you find yourself up against any problems implementing any of the above, simply leave me a comment below and I'll get back to you.

BY Douglas Radburn AT 1:24pm ON Wednesday, 31 July 2013

Doug is our Senior Web Developer, and all round development expert. Having gained some informative insight and technical experience at two major digital agencies after graduating; Doug brought his knowledge and skills to Branded3 in 2009, and has been solving our development dilemmas ever since.

15 tips for making your product images work harder

Great product imagery can do a lot to improve online retailer's conversion rates by showcasing products in the best possible light, and highlighting key features for shoppers. 

When used well, they can also educate shoppers about a product, and a more informed customer is less likely to return items bought online. 

Here I look at 15 ways to improve product imagery, with lots of great examples from ecommerce sites... 

Make them big

The results of these A/B tests suggest that bigger images mean more conversions. And it certainly makes sense. 

Some sites have relatively small images, so it can be hard to get an idea of items when you hit the product page. Not so Zappos, where you can see this shirt in all its 'glory'. 

Make them zoomable

This may seem obvious, but a few sites still don't do this. For some products, clothes and shoes particularly, you can't expect customers to make a decision to purchase based on one simple photo; they have to be able to see the detail.

At $340 per square foot, you'll want to take a closer look at this Alexander McQueen rug for example: 

Then there's the type of zoom tool to consider. A common approach is to have the image zoom as you mouse over the image which is OK, though it can be fiddly on tablets and mobile. The mobile version of the Rug Company product image is unusable for instance. 

Multiple images please

Unless it's a DVD or book cover (and even then, there's more you can do with this), then people are going to want to see products from a range of angles. 

Here's a good example from Zappos. These 'Hipster Chukas' can be viewed from seven different angles so the shopper can get a good feel for the shoe, see the tread etc. 

Also important is to show multiple images when there are different colours available, and Zappos does this too: 

Why not try 360 views? 

This way, customers can see all the way around in one shot. Look at this example from IGC (Investment Gun Company). See it in action here. 

They're useful for plenty of products, such as these football boots on the Adidas website:

 

Show me what's on the inside

Product images should help shoppers to see the product in more detail, as this is often easier than reading explanatory text.

Here, Macy's shows the inside of this leather case, so shoppers can see the various compartments to help them decide. 

Here's another good example from diapers.com, showing just how much you can cram into the diaper bag: 

Don't neglect images on mobile

People do shop on mobile, and it's growing fast. So retailers need to do enough with images so that shoppers can get a 'feel' for the products they're viewing. 

Here Nixon's responsive site, viewed on mobile, provides good quality images from a range of angles: 

High quality images please

All images should be good enough to showcase the products effectively, but there is a particular need for this on luxury sites, to sell the quality and craftsmanship of the products. 

Here, the images on Hotel Chocolat have sold these chocolates, for me at least: 

The same applies to this handbag on Mulberry.com: 

Though amateur is sometimes good...

This image used on Etsy is for homemade items, and is presumably shot using the seller's children (or some she borrowed from a neighbour or something).

While the photo is less than professional quality, it still showcases the product well, and actually reinforces the homemade feel, giving the product more authenticity.  

 

The same principle applies for eBay listings. In the example below, potential buyers can see the actual laptop, as well as the fact that it switches on, looks OK, and the power cable is there. 

Show products in context

Showing them in context helps shoppers to relate to them better, and shows how they can be used. Here's an example from BabyCenter: 

And another from Firebox, just to show how your VW Camper Van tent will look when you pitch it: 

Help people to interpret images

People need to be able to get a sense of size, so displaying next to everyday items can help. Another way to do this comes from ASOS, which shows the size of the dress the model is wearing and her height so people can get a better idea: 

Show me how it works

This series of images (and video) from Lakeland give users a good idea of how this breadmaker works: 

Optimise images for fast loading

One drawback of having high resolution product photos is that it can slow down page load times, so compressing images where possible is one way to reduce the file size and lose a few kilobytes from your website.

Show me the back and sides of the product

This is useful for electronics good, so shoppers can see the various inputs on the product at a glance, so the image answers questions customers may have about scart sockets and the like. 

Here's a good example from Pioneer: 

Don't forget your Alt tags

Alt tags describe the images when they fail to load, and makes them more accessible. 

These tags also have SEO value, as they are indexed by the search engines, and can turn up in image searches. 

Every product image should contain a descriptive alt tag, not just a stock number. 

For example, if you look at the above image on Walmart, this is the source code: 

<img alt="" id="Img2" src="http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/02/22/65/39/0002226539826_AV_60X60.gif" style="border: 1px solid rgb(244, 123, 32);">

The Alt tag doesn't tell me what the image is, and it doesn't tell the search engines either. 

A few quick tips: 

• Describe your images plainly. 
• Don't go crazy in an effort to cram in loads of keywords. 
• If products have a serial number, add that to the tag. 

Make them pinnable

If people want to share your product images on Pinterest, make it nice and easy for them with a 'Pin It' button.

People looking for visual inspiration on Pinterest are then more likely to find your products. They can then click straight through to the product page. 

Here, Anthropologie has added the button to its product pages: 

It has also used 'Rich Pins' which allow for price and other information to be shown on Pinterest: 

Evan Spiegel And Bobby Murphy Say Alleged Snapchat Co-Founder Never Had Equity

Snapchat co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy have said in new court documents that alleged co-founder Reggie Brown never had equity in the company.

In February, Brown filed a suit against Snapchat claiming that he has been robbed of his stake of the company. Since then, we've heard from sources and court documents that Brown was heavily involved in the early stages of the company. Spiegel has even admitted that Brown came up with the idea for a disappearing-messages app.

Now, we've learned that, despite his significant involvement, Brown may not have had equity in Snapchat.

In the summer of 2010, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy had just completed their sophomore and senior years at Stanford, respectively. They were working on a startup called Future Freshman that would help high school kids get advice and help with applying to colleges.

Spiegel and Murphy split equity in the startup, but it failed to gain traction and the two eventually gave up on it in March 2011. 

In April, Brown, self-described as close friends with Spiegel at the time, came up with the idea for a disappearing-messages app. Brown went to Spiegel with the idea and they recruited Murphy to join them and program the app, initially named Picaboo.

In the summer of 2011, the three were living at Spiegel's father's house, on Toyopa Drive in Los Angeles, and decided to rename Future Freshman LLC as Toyopa Group LLC.

"We discussed that change together," Brown said about renaming Future Freshman LLC Toyopa Group LLC, but he notes, "I didn't understand it as the same company."

In a July 13, 2011 email, Brown sent Spiegel a draft of a press release for Picaboo, in which he wrote, "Picaboo is a licensed product of the Toyopa Group, LLC."

Despite understanding that Future Freshman was renamed to be the Toyopa Group, which owned Picaboo, Brown seems to have thought he had equity in the Toyopa Group, as Picaboo was his idea and he was working alongside Spiegel and Murphy on the project.

Spiegel and Murphy seemed to think that they had all of the equity of the Toyopa Group, as it came from their joint venture, Future Freshman.

When asked in his deposition if he thought that Brown knew he had no equity in Future Freshman, Murphy said, "I don't know what he believed. All I know is that, again, he was invited to join us that summer, do some work."

One night that summer, the three had a drunken argument over Brown's role in the app; the next morning, they talked more level-headedly about Brown's contributions.

"Essentially, they were talking about switching me out for a different marketing person," he said in his deposition. "So, you know, I had to protect myself. Who is not going to protect themselves in that situation?"

A source told me in February that Brown would go out constantly, partying at all hours and not working on the app, while Murphy coded and Spiegel worked on design. The source says Brown added virtually nothing to the team beyond the initial concept.

On August 11, 2011, Brown filed a patent entitled, "Timed, Non Permanent Picture Messages for Smart Phone Devices," that listed his home address and contact information as the sole contact information, and listed Murphy, Brown, and Spiegel as the co-inventors, in order.

On August 16, Brown, Murphy, and Spiegel had an argument on the phone during which Spiegel was offended that his name was listed last. Spiegel hung up and allegedly changed the passwords and forced Brown out of the company. After the call, Spiegel texted Brown, writing, "I want to make sure you feel like you are given credit for the idea of disappearing messages."

"In the last phone call before account passwords were changed, the point of that was, again, Evan and I had a prior conversation in which we expressed concern that [Brown] would ask for equity," Murphy said in his deposition. "And we knew that he had the original patent applications in his control. So in that phone call we wanted to hear what he thought he was entitled to given the work–given the work he had done. He, I would say, exaggerated that. And Evan [Spiegel] hung up and I think he–I don't remember specifically what he was asking for, but it was a lot more than we would be willing to give him.

"He claimed that he had created the original idea and that he had designed the ghost," Murphy continued. "And there was some disagreements between Evan [Spiegel] and Reggie [Brown] about what that meant."

After Spiegel hung up, Murphy says he stayed on the phone and listened to Brown, who Murphy says asked for equity "somewhere in the range of maybe 30 percent."

On May 6, 2012, The New York Times' Nick Bilton wrote about Snapchat and its prowess as a sexting app in the first major media coverage of the app.

On May 8, Brown emailed Spiegel to settle the matter. "I understood both then and currently that my role in the process was of a different nature, and was thus willing to accept a significantly less portion of equity than either of you," Brown wrote.

He said he spoke to patent lawyers, who told him "due to the provisional patent application…I still currently own a third of SnapChat's IP."

The patent Brown filed has not been approved by the U.S. Patent Office, and could have been removed by Brown, Spiegel, or Murphy at any time.

"In the summer, we had discussed a 40-40-20 equity breakdown; I am, however, willing to negotiate on this," Brown continued in his email. "If we can come to an appropriate agreement, I am willing to forego the process of litigation."

Brown is now suing for a full, undiluted third of the company—which would currently be valued at around $267 million. His claim is mainly based on the patent application, which has not been approved, his initial idea for the disappearing photos app, and his early role at Picaboo and the Toyopa Group.

So far, we haven't seen any evidence of a written agreement stipulating how the equity of the Toyopa Group was to be divided. We may get a bit closer to the truth at tomorrow's hearing, during which a judge will rule on Brown's Motion to Disqualify Quinn Emanuel from representing Snapchat.

Brown's representatives, Lee Tran & Liang, filed the motion because Brown spoke with and sent documents to a Quinn Emanuel lawyer, Anthony Alden; Alden later said Quinn Emanuel would not be representing Brown, and a few months later, Snapchat hired Quinn Emanuel. The firm has erected an ethical wall, shielding Quinn Emanuel employees from discussing anything related to the case with Alden, but Lee Tran & Liang argue that this is insufficient and that Quinn Emanuel should be disqualified based on precedent.

The legal documents, which are at times dry but do feature a naked man gesturing to Brown during a deposition and a brief mention of my female colleague Jordan Crook and myself, are below.

  

The six documents filed by Snapchat, totaling 185 pages, on July 19, are below in what I think is descending order of interest to readers:

Snapchat Lawsuit July 19 Docs by TechCrunch

The five documents filed by Brown's representatives, Lee Tran & Liang, totaling 120 pages, on July 25 are below in what I think is descending order of interest to readers:

Brown July 25 Docs by TechCrunch

Disclosure: I am currently a rising senior at Stanford and the president of the Stanford chapter of Kappa Sigma. Brown, Spiegel, and Murphy were all members of Kappa Sigma at some point during their time  at Stanford. By the time I joined the fraternity, in the spring of 2011 (my freshman year), Murphy had graduated from Stanford, and Spiegel and Brown had left the fraternity.

I have never met Brown. I've met Murphy once. I have gotten to know Spiegel since the spring of 2012, mostly through interviews for TechCrunch. This in no way affects my objectivity or ability to report on this lawsuit or the company.

Censorship or surveillance: which keywords are flagged in China?

What do censorship and surveillance programmes look for? What can this tell us about internet usage in China?

Can we contrast with the perceived surveillance state of the West? What are the implications for a company in the Chinese market?

Unsurprisingly, there are lots of questions still to be answered about the state of the internet in China.

First Monday has this month published a very interesting paper, presenting an analysis of data from a year and a half tracking the censorship and surveillance keyword lists of two instant messaging (IM) programs used in China.

I thought it would be useful to sum up what Crandall et al. found, so you don't have to read the whole thing. Although this study looks at IM clients, there are certainly findings that can be extrapolated across public services, such as Baidu and Sina Weibo.

So first let's look at the results

 

General government guidelines

First thing to say is there's little overlap between keyword lists picked out for censorship and surveillance by each client.

Of 4,256 unique keywords, only 138 terms were shared in common between TOM–Skype and Sina UC. This lack of overlap suggests that government authorities don't provide a standard keyword list.

The paper states that previous studies have similarly found little consistency in the implementation of censorship in Chinese blog services (MacKinnon, 2009) and search engines localised for the Chinese market (Villeneuve, 2008a).

How this flexibility arises is a question for further research. Although there are some themes that occur regularly… 

So what keywords were under surveillance/censored? 

The keyword list related variously to Chinese politics (human rights etc), socially sensitive content (pornography, gambling etc), people (dissidents), sensitive events, technology (spyware, URLs etc) and other miscellaneous topics. 

Some keywords were particularly specific, such as instructions and locations related to Jasmine Rallies (pro–democracy protests which took place across China in early 2011 after the Arab Spring). 

Also included were specific names of dissidents and, interestingly, neologisms (nascent words that often vary by region and are often used when discussing sensitive issues). 

This is often fairly significant when it comes to some form of 'filter bubble'. How will sensitive issues be discussed or researched with this narrow targeting in place?

Within the 'people' theme, the most prominent category references members of the CPC. Keywords in the "social" theme were mostly relating to illicit goods and services, which included narcotics, weapons and counterfeit goods; and 'prurient interest', which was mostly pornography and prostitution.

On the flip side, some very general terms were included, for example, TOM–Skype lists included 'Chinese people' and 'internet'.

With surveillance this broad, there's a question as to how all this data is used. Is this simply another variable to add into the mix, qualifying some other data points? 

Below you can see a couple of figures showing political and events categories, and the sorts of keywords that were subject to surveillance and in some cases censorship. 

    

Swift updates to keywords under surveillance or censorship

One of the features of both sets of keywords was the speed at which they were variously updated to take account of current events.

Here's a good example:

In March 2012, the son of a high ranking CPC official was killed in a car crash outside of Beijing. Two women in the car were injured, and all three were reported to be naked. Photographs of the Ferrari began circulating online.

The incident was politically sensitive as super cars were ripe to stir up public criticism over government corruption and inappropriate behaviour.

Within a day of the crash, reports emerged that searches for 'Ferrari' and other related terms had been blocked on Sina Weibo, Baidu and Soso (Dao, 2012). Chinese state media did initially publish a story about the crash, but a Global Times article was later removed.

TOM–Skype surveillance keyword lists were updated within a few days of the event.

How does this effect companies?

Publishers of news or internet portals rely on cooperation with state–owned media for content. Sina Corp.'s annual report for 2011.

[T]he PRC government has the ability to restrict or prevent state–owned media from cooperating with us in providing certain content to us, which will result in a significant decrease of the amount of content we can publish on our websites.

We may lose users if the PRC government chooses to restrict or prevent state–owned media from cooperating with us, in which case our revenues will be impacted negatively.

This reliance on state media leaves CPC powerful enough to control the industry (perhaps precisely the opposite of past situations in the UK).

MacKinnon (2009) examined how 15 different Chinese blog service providers filter and delete posts. The conclusion was that censorship of user generated content in China is highly decentralized, and companies are responsible for their own conduct, having a big impact on how censorship and surveillance is carried out.

Is censorship receding?

The most recent updates (late 2011) to the censorship lists for most TOM–Skype versions reduced these lists to a single keyword, effectively eliminating censorship.

Surveillance–only lists are still active.

Similarly, in September 2012, most of the Sina UC lists were reduced to a single keyword. Only some usernames remained censored and under surveillance. It is notable that authorities have moved to enforce real name registration on microblogs and other online services.

It is possible that Sina UC has implemented surveillance on the server side that the study could not detect. The study posits that Chinese IM programs may be moving to surveillance of particular users and sensitive topics, while public platforms like Baidu and Sina Weibo experience greater pressure to filter and delete sensitive information.

 

Microsoft and Skype

Skype (now Microsoft owned) and TOM Online established a joint venture in 2005. In April 2011, Skype acknowledged perceived sensitivities:

… We understand that Tel–Online Limited is obligated by the government to provide this filtering and storage. We received significant negative media attention as a result of these practices, as well as a security failure relating to the storage of these instant messages. Further news reports concerning content filtering and the apparent lack of privacy of communications in China and other countries are attracting political attention in the United States and Europe. Such attention could develop into legislative action resulting in additional legal requirements being imposed on us.

Skype does not alert users to these potential risks. With Microsoft Corporation's acquisition of Skype in October 2011 for $8.6B, there are now questions to be answered by Microsoft as to the transparency of data collection by its services.

Microsoft's close collaboration with the NSA has somewhat changed the West's perspectives on censorship and surveillance in China. Surveillance is undoubtedly happening on a wide scale in US and Europe, and it can be hypothesized that censorship in China is waning, at least in IM clients.

What do state officials say?

The study gives a quote by Wang Chen then director of the Information Office of the State Council and the International Communication Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

It is obfuscating enough to suggest the legal framework can be shifted as required. 

We are following the overall thinking of combining Internet content management with industry management and security supervision; combining prior review and approval with supervision afterwards; combining technological blocking with public opinion guidance; combining hierarchical management with local management; combining government management with industry self–regulation; and combining online monitoring with off–line management. We have set up a pilot management system that integrates legal regulation, administrative supervision, industry self–regulation, and technological safeguards. 

Conclusion

It's obviously unscientific to extrapolate the findings from this study across public platforms. However, there are many other studies out there. 

At the very least, surveillance of usage happens very broadly, and failure to self-censor can leave big platforms and news outlets stranded without access to government information and support. 

There must surely be many companies who take risks in the Chinese market, mostly due to public fears around lack of transparency (see Microsoft), but recent NSA revelations mean that these fears have spread across all markets.

Censored subjects are fairly open secrets, with the lists found in this study not surprising. The internet cannot fail but shed light on many markets and governments previously, to some degree or other, cloaked. 

Methodology

TOM–Skype and Sina UC were chosen because these two IM programs implement censorship (and surveillance in the case of TOM–Skype) inside the client software. Collection of the keyword lists began in April 2011 for TOM–Skype and August 2011 for Sina UC. Collection ended end of January 2013, with the latest changes occurring on 20 December 2012 (TOM–Skype)/11 October 2012 (Sina UC). 

The software binaries of the clients were reverse engineered to get keyword list URLs and encryption keys. Each keyword was translated from Chinese to English by a fluent Chinese speaker and accompanied with descriptions of the political and social context behind the keyword.

The first big PureView battle: Nokia 808 vs Lumia 1020

See our launch story for the Lumia 1020, our previous analysis and our review part 1 for some background to this feature, but in summary:

With a little help from some fancy javascript (if you're viewing this on a mobile screen then you're probably advised to stop and go find a laptop or desktop - you'll need the screen width and a mouse or trackpad will help!), here are direct comparisons of a number of test photos and subjects. And don't worry, I'll hold your hand all the way in terms of drawing conclusions.

Each of these tests, although I was varying the subjects and light conditions, were aimed at answering the question above, i.e. looking at the amount of detail that the two camera phone flagships can discern and reproduce.

Test 1: Hazy sun, pond scene, sign with gull(!)

Here's a full scene from our local park, centred on that very worn sign and perched gull out in the water in the middle distance, use your mouse or pointer to compare the results from both devices directly:

Download original file: Nokia 808 PureView | Nokia Lumia 1020

Discerning which photo is 'better' here is tricky - the 808's image looks too muted, while the 1020's looks too vivid, though I admit that the latter looks more attractive overall.

In order to discern 'oversampled' detail/'pureness', let's crop in to the centre of each shot and we can compare directly again, down at the pixel level:

I'd say that the above comparison demonstrates the main differences between the two PureView sensors/systems - there's very clear artificial sharpening on the 1020 image, while the 808's looks more 'natural'. However, whereas lesser (e.g. Samsung Galaxy S4, iPhone) camera phones sharpen to disguise the fact that they haven't got enough raw detail in the first place, it should be emphasised that the Lumia 1020 sensor has got the detail, it just chooses to exagerate it. Whether or not you prefer extra sharpening is entirely subjective, of course.

One aspect of the PureView 'system' is, of course, that 'lossless zoom', whereby each device can zoom up to 3x, down to the 1:1 pixel limit on the sensor, without having to 'make up' detail or interpolate (as other devices do). Here's the same scene, but using the PureView zoom in each case:

Download original file: Nokia 808 PureView | Nokia Lumia 1020

Results when at 3x zoom on the Nokia 808 always seemed a little disappointing - I think I get too used to the oversampling benefits and then, when they're taken away by virtue of being down at 1:1 on the sensor, suddenly I'm back in the realm of 'normal' sensors! The Lumia 1020's sensor and processing algorithms are better optimised to work well when zoomed in like this. Yes, the results are slightly artificial, but when there's no oversampling going on, a little processing is perhaps needed.

Let's look closer, though. Again, let's crop into the centre of each photo to see pixel-level differences:

Yes, the sharpening artefacts are slightly unplesant to the eye, but you can't deny that the text on the very worn sign is easier to read in the 1020's crop.

Test 2: Hazy sun, fairground ride in middle distance

Here we have a fairground ride about to be full assembled. Some pretty and colourful graphics though - the ride was a good 100 metres away, so this is an extreme test for each device. There's no full scene shot here, I was only interested in using the PureView zoom in each case:

Download original file: Nokia 808 PureView | Nokia Lumia 1020

Typically muted colours from the 808 again and rich, over-vivid colours from the 1020. Let's look closer with a crop. As before, use your mouse or pointer to compare them:

This is a fascinating example because the 1020's crop looks, immediately 'better', yet all of the improvements are due to the image processing in terms of colour and sharpening. Again, the jury's out - would you prefer ultra-natural, muted, or enhanced, colourful, eye-popping?

Test 3: Murky, overcast, cafe stall and shops beyond

With plenty of rain about and still spitting as I shot this, and with murky, indistinct light, here's an outdoor shot of a Costa cafe eating area and plenty of shop detail beyond it, again use your mouse or pointer to compare the results from both devices directly:

Download original file: Nokia 808 PureView | Nokia Lumia 1020

Both devices did a good job of capturing the scene, though both made it look lighter than it actually was! In order to discern 'oversampled' detail/'pureness', let's crop in to the centre of each shot and we can compare directly again, down at the pixel level:

A tough call again - I think I prefer the Nokia 808's 5MP version of the scene. My gut feel is that non-zoomed oversampled scenes like this are best on the 808 - the detail gathered with almost zero artefacts or colour distortions is staggering.

For interest sake, here's the same scene, but using the (3x) PureView zoom in each case:

Download original file: Nokia 808 PureView | Nokia Lumia 1020

Not a lot in it again, perhaps the 1020 has the edge in this 'zoomed' state? Again, let's crop into the centre of each photo to see pixel-level differences:

The same story here - some fine judged algorithms in the 1020 to bring out detail from 1:1 pixel data, though I do find the noise and artefacts just a little distracting. These zoomed shots are asking a lot of both devices though, and no other competing smartphone can get remotely close to the results here. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is the only phone which can not only match, but exceed the PureView devices in some of these tests, and that's because it's essentially a standalone camera with optical zoom, with a smartphone grafted into the body. Watch this space for tests of the Lumia 1020 and 808 against the S4 Zoom and other current smartphones in due course.

Test 4: Low light, dusk, street scene

Nokia has made a big thing out of the improvements in noise handling and detail in low light, so I started to fully exercise the devices by ramping down the light levels. This was just after sunset, though the light wasn't sufficient to budge the Lumia 1020 from its default ISO 100, interestingly. Here's the full scene, use your mouse or pointer to compare the results from both devices directly:

Download original file: Nokia 808 PureView | Nokia Lumia 1020

This is perhaps the Lumia 1020's first misstep in my handling. The shot from the 1020 has a blue 'cast' which simply wasn't there in real life. Note that these photos were all taken on full 'auto' - I dare say that some fiddling with white balance could have corrected it, had the 1020 been my only camera phone and had I had the desire, etc.

In order to discern 'oversampled' detail/'pureness', let's crop in to the centre of each shot and we can compare directly again, down at the pixel level:

The sharpening algorithms in the Lumia 1020's camera also come a cropper here, look at the brickwork of the house in these 5MP images - although the 1020 version looks immediately clearer, you don't have to examine the image for too long to realise that the clarity is a visual effect and not 'real'.

Here's the same scene, but using the PureView zoom in each case:

Download original file: Nokia 808 PureView | Nokia Lumia 1020

Not much in it, apart from the aforementioned colour cast, so let's crop into the centre of each photo to see pixel-level differences:

We're deep in image processing subjectivity here, but note a few things in the images. The central car looks much better in the 1020's version, with details nicely sharpened and made visible - look at the wheel trim in particular. However, the brickwork again looks too artificial in the 1020 image, it seems that sharpening algorithms don't like bricks! I'm also curious about the greenery behind the house - it has a different character in the 808 and 1020 versions - which do you prefer?

Test 5: Night time, street lights only

Here's the full scene, taken two hours after sunset, with just artificial lights - the Nokia 808 went to ISO 800, the Lumia 1020 seems to have set itself at ISO 4000 (which I didn't know was possible!). Use your mouse or pointer to compare the results from both devices directly:

Download original file: Nokia 808 PureView | Nokia Lumia 1020

As usual withe the OIS-equipped Lumia range, the longer shutter time in the 1020's case, plus the increased ISO means a much brighter image. In real life, I'd put the perceived brightness of the scene between the two, so no winner here. But in order to discern 'oversampled' detail/'pureness', let's crop in to the centre of each shot and we can compare directly again, down at the pixel level:

The Lumia 1020's image is revealed, at this crop level, as being pretty stunning. Yes, there's digital noise in the image and yes, it all looks brighter than it did in real life (to my eyes) but the level of detail and information that's being pulled out of such an extreme low light shot is very impressive. 

PureView conclusions

There's a very definite theme running through my tests here. I can answer the starting question easily enough. "Can the Lumia 1020, with its slightly smaller (though BSI) sensor and image processing differences, deliver images that are as good as those from the existing Symbian-based Nokia 808?" On the whole, yes. Though there are huge subjectivity caveats here because of the differences in how images are processed. Remember from the postscript on one of my recent editorials:

With all these comments about image processing, it's a fair question to ask why any of it is needed? After all, surely a photo is a photo and the camera application should just present what it 'sees', pixel by pixel?

Sadly, things aren't quite that simple (they never are). Down at the pixel level, each only picks up (thanks to a conveniently placed filter) one colour, either Red, Green or Blue, along with a measure of illuminance. What then happens is that the camera's electronics combines the data from these raw coloured pixels using a Bayer filter, to produce a somewhat blocky, blotchy 'pixellated'(!) image. In addition, there's also random noise and uncertainty from the sensor pixels, especially in low light, where even individual pixels make a difference and where we're firmly in the realm of quantum mechanics.

So, we've got a pixellated image with sensor data that's a little random in places as well. Taking this and producing a photo that looks good to the human eye is the realm of 'image processing'. The aforementioned N8 and 808 partly achieved their results by having large sensors and thereby reducing the amount of 'after' processing needed. Smaller camera units such as that on the Lumia 920 and 925 require a little more help - mainly edge enhancement to restore fine detail that has been lost in the Bayer grid pixellation, plus noise reduction to smooth out the 'blockiness' and random pixel variances.

Thus, even the Nokia 808's 'natural' look still represents some processing, albeit very neutral in nature. Whereas a conscious effort has been made in handling the data from the Lumia 1020's sensor to emphasise colours and detail (through sharpening). Possibly this is response to industry trends and devices like the iPhone and Galaxy S4, both of which tend to emphasise the same things.

The end result though is that the Lumia 1020 does live up to the Nokia 808's heritage. It just interprets the (captured) world in a slightly different way. Nokia is betting that more people prefer the extra processed look than prefer the colder, more neutral colours and detail from the N8/808 generation. Do you think it's right? Comments welcome!

Notes / PS

1. I should also emphasise again, in light of any criticisms of images from both devices above, that it's all relative. These two smartphone cameras from Nokia are (the 'freak' S4 Zoom apart) significantly better than almost all the competition. It's true that, for macro shots, devices like the Galaxy S4 can excel, but for general purpose shots (and note that I haven't even tested the Xenon flash yet) the two PureView devices are effectively in a class of their own.

2. One benefit of the processing in the Lumia 1020 being 100% processor-based is that it's fairly trivial for Nokia to tweak the algorithms used in a simple update to its various camera applications. 

3. All 1020 shots here were taken in the Nokia Pro Camera application. Watch this space for the next part of our Lumia 1020 review, focussing(!) on the stills camera in more detail.

4. Many thanks to Rafe for his help with managing the images and integrating them into the page in such interactive fashion!