IBM PRESENTS
A campaign that focused on amazing IBM stories that don't fit into 30 second TV commercials. Besides print, we also shot short documentaries, which were presented in an innovative Flash player that let viewers see bonus content without leaving the main video timeline (they also aired on CNBC). Winner of a 2008 Bronze Effie and a Silver Pencil at the 2008 One Show Entertainment Awards.
Credits
PRINT:A campaign that focused on amazing IBM stories that don't fit into 30 second TV commercials. Besides print, we also shot short documentaries, which were presented in an innovative Flash player that let viewers see bonus content without leaving the main video timeline (they also aired on CNBC). Winner of a 2008 Bronze Effie and a Silver Pencil at the 2008 One Show Entertainment Awards.
Credits
COPY:
First the Virus Mutated. Then It Grew Wings.
It begins in rural China. Chickens pass the virus to a farmer, where it swaps genes with another virus and mutates. Two weeks later the farmer is dead, and before doctors even have a name for what killed him the new virus has spread to a port city. With a quarantine still days away, infected people board ships and planes; soon, cases appear on every major continent. By now the infection has a name: avian influenza, a highly contagious, highly fatal strain of the common flu. Nations close their borders, but it’s too late. In the next three months, the virus kills tens of millions, wrecks economies, throws governments into chaos, eviscerates public health systems, and radically changes life as we know it. Welcome to the first pandemic of the twenty-first century.
It hasn’t happened yet, but the danger is real. According to the World Health Organization, bird flu is currently one of the most pressing threats to global public health, and governments are wrestling with how to respond. Traditionally, to stop a pandemic, you would stop openness. Trade and international travel have long been the allies of infectious diseases, allowing them to spread much further than they would naturally be able to. In 1918, the Spanish Flu circled the globe in a mere nine months, due in large part to cheap and available sea travel; today, it would be closer to three. But, paradoxically, a different kind of openness may provide the best hope yet for predicting, containing, and even preventing pandemics.
Bird flu is a perfect storm: it causes serious illness and is a new strain of influenza against which we have no natural immunity. The only barrier that remains is its inability to transmit human to human, and that is not insurmountable. Viruses mutate constantly, shuffling and reshuffling their genetic code. Thus far, most of the two hundred or so cases have occurred in people in close contact with infected birds, but with a single mutation, we could all be at risk.
That constant mutation also complicates vaccine research. Until a virus appears in the wild, it’s difficult to predict exactly what form it will take. That’s why people who get flu shots can still get the flu—vaccines are educated guesses about which viruses will appear in a given year, and they can be wrong. A bird flu vaccine can’t be synthesized until the virus mutates into a form that can spread human to human, at which point millions of people could be exposed.
So how do we beat it? With a different kind of openness: worldwide collaboration enabled by technology. The Global Pandemic Initiative, a joint effort between IBM, the WHO, and other partners, is establishing a digital library of clinical data on bird flu. Using software developed by IBM and donated to the open source community, the GPI will track cases as they happen, looking closely for signs of mutation. This data will also allow researchers to gauge its potential spread. By keeping health officials one step ahead of the virus, bird flu could be effectively contained.
Vaccine research has also benefited from collaboration. Project Checkmate, a joint project of IBM and the Scripps Research Institute, is focusing on developing virus modeling algorithms that can predict mutations before they occur. Powered by IBM’s BlueGene supercomputer, this research may make it possible to synthesize vaccines before deadly strains appear, closing the window of opportunity for pandemics.
Viruses thrive on openness, though it may prove to be their undoing. Through collaboration, the power of millions of minds is being arrayed against bird flu, a vast improvement on the quarantines and travel restrictions that were the best tools available to past generations of virus hunters. By using technology and open source software to harness global brainpower, there is real hope that a bird flu pandemic can be stopped before it ever starts. Learn more at ibm.com/special
PRINT:First the Virus Mutated. Then It Grew Wings.
It begins in rural China. Chickens pass the virus to a farmer, where it swaps genes with another virus and mutates. Two weeks later the farmer is dead, and before doctors even have a name for what killed him the new virus has spread to a port city. With a quarantine still days away, infected people board ships and planes; soon, cases appear on every major continent. By now the infection has a name: avian influenza, a highly contagious, highly fatal strain of the common flu. Nations close their borders, but it’s too late. In the next three months, the virus kills tens of millions, wrecks economies, throws governments into chaos, eviscerates public health systems, and radically changes life as we know it. Welcome to the first pandemic of the twenty-first century.
It hasn’t happened yet, but the danger is real. According to the World Health Organization, bird flu is currently one of the most pressing threats to global public health, and governments are wrestling with how to respond. Traditionally, to stop a pandemic, you would stop openness. Trade and international travel have long been the allies of infectious diseases, allowing them to spread much further than they would naturally be able to. In 1918, the Spanish Flu circled the globe in a mere nine months, due in large part to cheap and available sea travel; today, it would be closer to three. But, paradoxically, a different kind of openness may provide the best hope yet for predicting, containing, and even preventing pandemics.
Bird flu is a perfect storm: it causes serious illness and is a new strain of influenza against which we have no natural immunity. The only barrier that remains is its inability to transmit human to human, and that is not insurmountable. Viruses mutate constantly, shuffling and reshuffling their genetic code. Thus far, most of the two hundred or so cases have occurred in people in close contact with infected birds, but with a single mutation, we could all be at risk.
That constant mutation also complicates vaccine research. Until a virus appears in the wild, it’s difficult to predict exactly what form it will take. That’s why people who get flu shots can still get the flu—vaccines are educated guesses about which viruses will appear in a given year, and they can be wrong. A bird flu vaccine can’t be synthesized until the virus mutates into a form that can spread human to human, at which point millions of people could be exposed.
So how do we beat it? With a different kind of openness: worldwide collaboration enabled by technology. The Global Pandemic Initiative, a joint effort between IBM, the WHO, and other partners, is establishing a digital library of clinical data on bird flu. Using software developed by IBM and donated to the open source community, the GPI will track cases as they happen, looking closely for signs of mutation. This data will also allow researchers to gauge its potential spread. By keeping health officials one step ahead of the virus, bird flu could be effectively contained.
Vaccine research has also benefited from collaboration. Project Checkmate, a joint project of IBM and the Scripps Research Institute, is focusing on developing virus modeling algorithms that can predict mutations before they occur. Powered by IBM’s BlueGene supercomputer, this research may make it possible to synthesize vaccines before deadly strains appear, closing the window of opportunity for pandemics.
Viruses thrive on openness, though it may prove to be their undoing. Through collaboration, the power of millions of minds is being arrayed against bird flu, a vast improvement on the quarantines and travel restrictions that were the best tools available to past generations of virus hunters. By using technology and open source software to harness global brainpower, there is real hope that a bird flu pandemic can be stopped before it ever starts. Learn more at ibm.com/special
COPY:
The Unholy Army of Darkness: Fearsome Enemy, Great Management Model.
Everyone is covered in blood. The arrow hits dead center, striking the dragon in its neck. It staggers, blood geysering from the wound, then crashes to the ground. "Nice shot, Einar," the druid says to the archer, a delicate-looking elf. The rest of the group gathers around the slain beast: an eight-foot tall swordswoman, a battleaxe wielding dwarf, a strange man with the horns of a bull and arms the size of tree trunks. Congratulations are in order. A world away, across five time zones and three continents, the team celebrates their victory in a flurry of chat boxes.
An estimated 100 million people worldwide play MMORPGs, or Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Set in sprawling virtual worlds, they feature a familiar mix of fantasy and violence, but with a twist: they’re also extremely social and community based, with every character representing an actual human player. Unlike artificial intelligence-dominated games, free will reigns. Players aren’t compelled to do anything—some just choose to hang out—and so they do everything: raise armies, join clubs, set up businesses, cut deals, share information and gossip, and band together to solve complex problems. MMORPGs represent the cutting edge of interactive entertainment. But to IBM researchers, they’re also something else: an innovative new model for virtual collaboration and project management.
So this is work? Kind of. People who play MMORPGs are unconsciously beta testing an entirely new way of getting things done, one that doesn’t require hierarchies, offices, or team leaders. They form temporary groups to solve problems and disband when they’re through. Leaders emerge organically—or they don’t and democracy prevails. People specialize based on need and what they’re good at. Members meet in a virtual space, so they can be anywhere in the world. Doing things this way flies in the face of fifty years of management theory, but then again so have most of the useful innovations of the internet era. In case after case, less structure—not more—has proven to be better for both costs and efficiency.
The benefits for companies are clear. If your employees can organize themselves, you can cut out the middlemen. Flexible staffing means you can put people where they can make the greatest impact and shuffle teams around from project to project. And virtual collaboration both eliminates the need for travel and makes the world your talent pool. These concepts are already at work in emerging fields like microsourcing and open source software development; soon, they may spread everywhere from management consulting to investment banking to education.
Business is changing, but the world is changing faster. And as the full potential of an interconnected global society becomes apparent, the most successful companies will be the ones that can exploit new opportunities to the fullest. Maybe that means collaborating with your customers to develop better products. Maybe it’s competing for hungry young talent in emerging markets like Russia and China. Maybe it’s gleaning new insights from wizards and elves. Whatever it is, you can be sure the competition will be right on your heels.
To stay a step ahead, you need a partner who understands how today’s trends will become tomorrow’s revenue models. A partner like IBM. With unparalleled depth in both business and technology, IBM is in a unique position to understand where this powerful convergence is heading. And with eight worldwide labs, an annual research budget of five billion dollars, and a staff that includes five Nobel Laureates, we can deliver something more valuable than just a PowerPoint deck: results. Learn how to build your own unholy army of darkness (insert evil laugh here) at ibm.com/special
WEB DOC:The Unholy Army of Darkness: Fearsome Enemy, Great Management Model.
Everyone is covered in blood. The arrow hits dead center, striking the dragon in its neck. It staggers, blood geysering from the wound, then crashes to the ground. "Nice shot, Einar," the druid says to the archer, a delicate-looking elf. The rest of the group gathers around the slain beast: an eight-foot tall swordswoman, a battleaxe wielding dwarf, a strange man with the horns of a bull and arms the size of tree trunks. Congratulations are in order. A world away, across five time zones and three continents, the team celebrates their victory in a flurry of chat boxes.
An estimated 100 million people worldwide play MMORPGs, or Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Set in sprawling virtual worlds, they feature a familiar mix of fantasy and violence, but with a twist: they’re also extremely social and community based, with every character representing an actual human player. Unlike artificial intelligence-dominated games, free will reigns. Players aren’t compelled to do anything—some just choose to hang out—and so they do everything: raise armies, join clubs, set up businesses, cut deals, share information and gossip, and band together to solve complex problems. MMORPGs represent the cutting edge of interactive entertainment. But to IBM researchers, they’re also something else: an innovative new model for virtual collaboration and project management.
So this is work? Kind of. People who play MMORPGs are unconsciously beta testing an entirely new way of getting things done, one that doesn’t require hierarchies, offices, or team leaders. They form temporary groups to solve problems and disband when they’re through. Leaders emerge organically—or they don’t and democracy prevails. People specialize based on need and what they’re good at. Members meet in a virtual space, so they can be anywhere in the world. Doing things this way flies in the face of fifty years of management theory, but then again so have most of the useful innovations of the internet era. In case after case, less structure—not more—has proven to be better for both costs and efficiency.
The benefits for companies are clear. If your employees can organize themselves, you can cut out the middlemen. Flexible staffing means you can put people where they can make the greatest impact and shuffle teams around from project to project. And virtual collaboration both eliminates the need for travel and makes the world your talent pool. These concepts are already at work in emerging fields like microsourcing and open source software development; soon, they may spread everywhere from management consulting to investment banking to education.
Business is changing, but the world is changing faster. And as the full potential of an interconnected global society becomes apparent, the most successful companies will be the ones that can exploit new opportunities to the fullest. Maybe that means collaborating with your customers to develop better products. Maybe it’s competing for hungry young talent in emerging markets like Russia and China. Maybe it’s gleaning new insights from wizards and elves. Whatever it is, you can be sure the competition will be right on your heels.
To stay a step ahead, you need a partner who understands how today’s trends will become tomorrow’s revenue models. A partner like IBM. With unparalleled depth in both business and technology, IBM is in a unique position to understand where this powerful convergence is heading. And with eight worldwide labs, an annual research budget of five billion dollars, and a staff that includes five Nobel Laureates, we can deliver something more valuable than just a PowerPoint deck: results. Learn how to build your own unholy army of darkness (insert evil laugh here) at ibm.com/special
WEBSITE & VIDEO PLAYER:
CREDITS:
Role: Writer
Director: Jeff Feuerzeig / Maysles Films, New York
Editor: Tim Wilson / Go Robot, New York
Web Production: Ogilvy & Mather, New York
Role: Writer
Director: Jeff Feuerzeig / Maysles Films, New York
Editor: Tim Wilson / Go Robot, New York
Web Production: Ogilvy & Mather, New York