The final two Global winners have been picked from the Six regional winning teams by the panel of expert judges and the YouTube community. Their two experiments will go to space! Entrants were judged in two age groups (14 – 16 and 17 – 18 year olds) which were broken down into three regions each (The Americas, EMEA, APAC), making six winning teams. With NASA’s help, we’ve attempted to explain why, in the grander scheme of things, each type of research is relevant to challenges that humanity faces and this is how we reached the title question for each experiment.

The six teams travelled to Washington, D.C., where the two global winners were announced (one team from each age group). Their experiments will be performed 250 miles above Earth aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and live streamed on YouTube as part of a global event celebrating science and space. All the teams will took part in a series of activities to honour their achievements, including experiencing weightlessness on a ZERO-G flight.

youtube.com/spacelab

Continuing the theme of 2012 trends, here’s an interview I did recently with TechCityInsider, exploring current trends, what we’ve been up to with Google, the arms race between them and Facebook, and why I think smartphones are going to be the big global story this year.

Another year, and I’ve got another set of predictions for how things may change for us this year. Some of this is just observations of trends, and some are from my personal wishlist. This is what I think we’re going to see more of in 2012.

more real world interactions

We’ve moved on quite a way from vintage 80s clap-initiated bachelor-pad lighting systems, in fact we can now control all manner of media with an array of devices. Now I know it’s not particularly new, but this is only going to become more and more endemic. The internet is going to cross over with real life like you’ve never seen it this year.

The Wii has been around for ages, and it was revolutionary in introducing a new way to control games. Now Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s Play are waging war in your living rooms vying to be your next generation entertainment console of choice. You can tell it to play a certain song or launch a TV channel, and then change the volume or switch channel with a gesture.

In the world of mobile, Siri is changing how you deal with your phone. It’s not just a one way conversation any more – you ask your phone to do something, and it has a think about it, and tries to react accordingly, often with unexpected, and unwanted results.

More and more devices will be able to communicate with you (and it’s not just one way traffic) and with the advent of things like raspberry pi, and the cost of chipsets dropping, we’ll start seeing people experiment with computers in everything. Forget talking fridges and cars, everything will start talking to each other, and it will proliferate massively. We’ve already been there and done it with apps, and look how huge that has become.

So my first prediction, and this is definitely one that’s on my own personal wish list, is that you’ll start to see the potential of making anything connected and smart this year.

more social integration

You’d have to be a blind and mute recluse not to have noticed the buildup of tension and war of words in the arms race that’s developing between Google+ and Facebook in the last year, and expectations are high (and possibly slightly overhyped). In scenes reminiscent of the US and USSR plundering German missile experts after the end of the second world war, the 2 giants have been fighting even more bitterly for the best grads, the smartest business and tech heads, and the most aggressive strategies to own the social media zeitgeist.

This year will undoubtedly see both players pulling out all the stops to try and win your attention, and your all-important ad revenue-generating clicks. Whether it’s ambitious creative projects to capture your imagination, streamlining and upgrading services, better video chat, or more relevant search, you can be sure that they will be neck and neck trying to come up with the next game changer.

more smartphone advances

Stats on mobile access around the world are showing that uptake and usage of smartphones is only going to go increase. In the UK, A recent study by Pyramid Research highlights that by 2016, 90.8% of all mobile phones sold will be smartphones. This is another symptom of the fall in chip and battery prices and sizes, and we’ll start to see feature phones dying out on us, even in the developing world. More people will have the computing power of a smartphone than they will have a home computer or laptop and this is a powerful force that will have inevitable changes on human behaviours.

In the developed world, mobile retail is increasing, I’ve certainly massively upped my use of traditional e-tailers like amazon and ebay on my iphone in 2011, and I can only see this increasing in the future. Stats on mobile wallets show take-up is on the up, and it’s not surprising, we’re a lazy bunch accustomed to taking the path of least resistance, and you can see this in the fact we’re already used to paying by swiping with things like oyster cards, no more queuing. For brands trying to avoid falling behind, it’s especially important if you offer any form of search and/or purchase, you’ve got to make it easy for people to buy when they are out and about, as a busy consumer bombarded with messages and swamped with priorities, you never know when you get a free moment, so every moment out and about is as valuable as when you’re trapped at a desk or in a meeting.

So… pretty soon, everyone will have a computer in their hand, how then, are we gearing our work as an industry towards this? Clearly our design processes need to be more complex in terms of the types of platform we naturally plan for, but we need to also deliver more streamlined services for our audience depending on how they consume the services we create. Developers will need to be more au fait with platforms like Wapple or Netbiscuits for optimised mobile browsing, or for app development with development platforms like PhoneGap (and hence HTML5).

Everyone wants to be a Creative Technologist

I’ll keep saying this, and it should be obvious, but any agency without a Creative Technologist on the books is dead in the water. And by Creative Technologist, I don’t mean someone who simple knows about technology, who’s created a few banners, done a facebook campaign and used the word HTML5 in a presentation, it’s someone who can actually code, who can actually hardwire something, someone who can make ideas into reality.
It’s a sign of how sought after this role is by the number of people (not, in my view creative techies) who claim to speak to language of creative technology and sell themselves as such.

Building on the cloud

The cloud certainly isn’t new, but there has been a progressive shift in how people work. Certainly in the last year, W+W have moved everything into the cloud, from using services like dropbox more for team collaboration and sharing of development files, to github and subversion via services like codesion for production code, Google apps and docs for collaborative document sharing (no more “final_2b_20120113_finalfinal.doc” file names!).
If you haven’t already experienced the workflow benefits in your day-to-day lives, then this year make it a priority to check it out because it could make a big different to how you manage your data and how you work with your colleagues. Certainly for us, it’s very liberating, and makes working for our clients, wherever they are, much easier, and more secure.

Logistics

This is a slightly leftfield one, but I’m firmly believe that there’s a gap in the market, and it’s one that I think everyone would like to be filled. When was the last time you were waiting for a package at home (or at work), and were told that the delivery will be between 8am and 6pm, only to pop out for 5 mins, to then come back to a card pushed through the letterbox telling you to go to a delivery office 2 days from now, 150 miles away at an ungodly hour of the morning. It’s happened to me a lot. Why can’t they deliver when I’m at home, or when I’m out? Rory Sutherland talked about a future where you can be anywhere at any time and have a parcel delivered straight to your hand if you want it there, you’d even be able to see the package on google maps on your mobile homing in to your location as you see a courier round the corner package in hand delivering it to you in the last leg of the relay, no more waiting around. Someone make it happen, otherwise @DHL, call us, we’ll help you.

TV

Finally, TV. Again, nothing new, but this is the year that it’s all going to start happening with the next generation of TV as we know it. after big delays in coming to market due to box manufacturing issues, we should see the advent of YouView -originally the flagship of next gen TV on demand and freeview services, the one box to rule them all – as it enters a market that will soon feel crowded as BT, Virgin and all the other big players introduce their take on future TV. Tv viewing will become more like browsing, with more social apps appearing (forget the red button), more gaming, more interactivity to show, and the best of all, more on demand programming via the iPlayers and 4ODs of the world, all available on 1 device!
This will of course be more counterbalanced with the web becoming more TV-like in places. With sites like YouTube pushing the “channel” analogy as a central pillar of its business plan, we’ll see this logic being pushed across more internet properties, it just makes plain sense.

So in summary, I think it’s going to be an interesting year, not just for W+W, but for you and the technology you start (and stop) using. Happy New Year!

We’ve just posted sixty finalist teams, from twenty two countries, to the YouTube Space Lab channel for public voting. Tell your family and friends to check them all out and get voting on their favourites!

Here are some numbers

40 million+ Video views on the Space Lab channel

13 million+ Views of the inspiring introduction video. The video has topped AdAge’s weekly viral video chart twice (1, 2) and All Things Digital listed it as one of the top 5 viral ads of the year. Our newer Stephen Hawking video is about to cross the 2 million mark too!

51,000+ Subscribers tuning in for our regular space playlists. Watch the latest playlist all about The Universe and Light Speed from Liam and Brad!

80 Countries on six continents from which we received entries

1 entry suggesting we combine a cat and a pop tart on the Space Station to see what would happen…

Vote Now!

Our client list has had a much needed update. 2011 was a great year for WEIR+WONG so watch this space as we’re working on adding more great names to this list!

Incredible news that our Youtube Space Lab videos have exceeded 28 million views in 2011 which makes it THE most popular video on any Google Channel on YouTube for last year! Due props to ATP for the video production!

we’ve had an incredible first week for YouTube Space Lab, over 10 million visitors, and 4 million views of our launch video.

Some of our judges had this to say about the competition

“YouTube Space Lab is a wonderful initiative that will help inspire young minds around the world to take a greater interest in science and the future of space exploration.” - Professor Stephen Hawking, Space Lab Judge

 

“We rely on programs like YouTube Space Lab to continue sparking a fascination with space and the curiosity to find answers to centuries-old questions. We see this competition as a catalyst to inspire the next generation of explorers, pioneers and scientists of space exploration.” - Leland Melvin, Associate Administrator for Education for NASA, Space Lab Judge

The Press coverage has been incredible as well, here are just a “few” links of what people are saying.

AMERICAS

US

• New York Times: Challenge to Students: Have Space Station Run Your Experiment
• New York Times: “A Matter of Gravity: Developing Space-Based Experiments”
• Mashable: “YouTube Wants to Put Your Science Project IN SPAAACE!”
• Washington Post: YouTube launches Space Lab, the latest in crowd-sourcing academia
• Washington Post: “YouTube Space Lab to put students’ work into orbit”
• Huffington Post Green: “YouTube Space Lab Will Send Student Experiments into Space”
• Wall Street Journal: “YouTube Blasts Into Space”
• CNN AM Wake Up Call: “Out of This World Experiment”
• MSNBC: “Hey, kids! Put your space experiment in orbit”
• WIRED: “Entering this Contest Could Put Your Science Experiment in Space”
• US News and World Report: “Lenovo, YouTube Launch Teen Space Experiment Contest”
• The Next Web: “YouTube and Lenovo team up to live stream high school experiments from space”
• PC Magazine: “Lenovo, YouTube Want to Send Students’ Projects Into Space”
• Gotta Be Mobile: “Lenovo and YouTube Team Up to Send Students Science Projects into Space”
• MindShift/KQED: “YouTube Space Lab Launches Student Experiments into Space”
• Tube Filter News: “YouTube Explores Space with NASA, Lenovo”
• AFP: “Students plot experiments for YouTube Space Lab”
• SPACE: “YouTube Launches Space Experiment Contest for Students”
• The Blog Herald: “YouTube Sending User-Submitted Science Experiments into Space”
• Read Write Web: “New YouTube Contest Will Perform Your Science Experiment Live From Space”
• The Journal: “YouTube’s Space Lab to Blast Teens’ Ideas into Space”
• So Entertain Me: “YouTube Space Lab Lifts Off”
• WRAL Techwire: “YouTube Space Lab lifts off with Lenovo, others on board”
• San Francisco Business Times: “Google sets up YouTube space station experiment contest”
• ZME Science: “Google teams up with Stephen Hawking and launches teenage space experiment contest”
• International Business TImes: “YouTube Space Lab Launches Challenge for Students”
• Bootcamp: “YouTube Space Lab launched by Google & Lenovo to send science projects into space”
• Gizmodo: “Hanging with Tutu, Science in Space, and Other Stories We Didn’t Post”
• ZDNet: “Space agencies scanning YouTube for ISS experiment ideas”
• Ubergizmo: “YouTube Space Lab helps students design science experiment in space”
• The Weather Space: “NASA and YouTube joint project aims Students to create Space Lab projects”
• Dawn: “Students plot experiements for YouTube Space Lab”
• Memeburn: “YouTube, Lenovo to send student experiments into space”
• Digital Trends: “Space-obsessed teenagers sought by YouTube”
• MF Monitor: “Google launches YouTube Space Lab”
• Tech Central: “Space Lab competition blasts off”
• Zeenews: “Experiments by students to be flown to ISS”
• Earth Times: “YouTube Space Lab: Students, Space and Streaming Experiments”
• PCR: “YouTube and Lenovo ask students for space experiments”
• Fast Company: “How Many Companies Does It Take To Send A Science Project into Space”
• Tech Crunch: “Lenovo and YouTube Announce Space Lab: The Ultimate Science Fair”
• Universe Today: “New YouTube Space Station Experiment Contest”
• GOOD: “YouTube Space Lab Competition Will Blast Teen Science Experiments Into Orbit”
• ITWire: “Send your student experiment to Space”
• Buzzom: “YouTube teams up with Lenovo to Live-Stream Space Experiments”
• Scribbal: “YouTube Launches YouTube Space Lab, Invites Students To Compete In Space Experiment Challenge”
• Simcoe: “What experiment would you do in space?”
• Creativity: “YouTube: Space Lab”
• Social Times: “Students: YouTube Space Lab Wants to Conduct Your Science Experiments…From Space!”
• Tech Shout: “YouTube Space Lab to take user-generated experiments into outer space”
• Smart Planet: “YouTube Space Lab competition will send students projects into space”
• Bikyamasr: “YouTube, Lenovo launch Space Adventures”
• The National: “Teenagers get chance to put experiments in orbit”

Canada

• CTV.ca: “Canadians to help judge Google space contest”
• Montreal Gazette: “Students plot experiments for YouTube Space Lab”
• Open File: “Quebec’s Guy Laliberte to judge YouTube Space Lab contest”

LATAM

Argentina

• La Voz – Noticias – YouTube lanza concurso de experimentos en el espacio para estudiantes (YouTube launches a contest of experinments in space for students)

Chile

• La Cuarta – YouTube convoca a jóvenes científicos locos (YouTube calls young crazy scientists)
• Emol (ciencia y tecnología) – YouTube llama a estudiantes a enviar experimentos al espacio para transmitirlos en línea (YouTube makes a call for students to send experiments tos space and stream them online)
• FayerWayer – NASA y Google convocan  a jóvenes para llevar su experimento al espacio (NASA and Google invites the youth to take their experiments to space)

Colombia

• Caracol Radio – YouTube puede llevar su proyecto al espacio (YouTube could take your project to space)
• ADN Bogotá (print) – Youtube cree en jóvenes (YouTube believes in youth)
• La Vanguardia (Colombia) – Experimentos a 400 kilómetros de altura (Experiments at 400 km of hight)

México

• Milenio – One of the 5 most important newspapers in Mexico –  “NASA and Youtube  launch call for new generation of scientists”
• El Universal – The most important newspaper in the country – “YouTube invites experiment in space”
• El Financiero – The most important financial daily newspaper – “YouTube launches Space Contest”
• Excélsior – One of the most important newspapers in the country – Excélsior online (920K) – “YouTube invites you to lead a group of astronauts” – (print) – interview with Ricardo Blanco – “YouTube puts you as an astronaut”
• El Economista – Top financial publication – “They’ll send experiments into space which will be seen in YouTube”
• Conecti.ca – Important technology website in the country – “Space Labs Youtube channel for experiments in space”
• International Business Times – The most important business website in the country – “YouTube and Lenovo lead young people to space experiments”
• Paréntesis – Important technology website in the country – “YouTube and Lenovo launch Space Lab”
• Sputnik -“YouTube Space Lab will take the ideas of young scientists into space”
• Alt1040 – “YouTube Space Lab opens its doors next to Stephen Hawking”
• Dgtal Nws – “YouTube encourages young people to experience space in a contest”
• Noiselab – “YOUTUBE SPACE LAB, What would you do?”
• Etcétera – “They launch in YouTube scientific call for young people”
• El Periódico de Tlaxcala – “YouTube invites experiment in space”
• El Diario de Yucatán – “Youth Contest on YouTube”
• El Occidental – “They call on students to “Space Lab” from YouTube”
• El Dictamen – “YouTube invites experiment in space”
• Zócalo Saltillo – “YouTube invites you to lead a group of astronauts”
• Más x Más – “Youtube will launch youths to space”
• Interfase – “Youtube calls for a Space Project”
• CNNExpansión – ¿Te gusta la ciencia? YouTube te busca. (Do you like science? YouTube is looking for you.
• Grupo Fórmula – YouTube lanza concurso de ciencia (YouTube launches a science contest)

EMEA

UK

• The Evening Standard: “YouTube Mission to Final Frontier“
• The Telegraph: “YouTube asks teenagers to design space experiments”
• BBC: “Google and Hawking seek space mad teenagers”
• ZDNet.co.uk: “YouTube to send teens’ experiments into space”
• Cnet: “YouTube Space Lab wants your experiments”
• Tech Watch: “Google announces YouTube Space Lab”
• The Drum: “YouTube launches Space Lab experiment competition”

France

• 20 Minutes : Youtube launches its Space Lab
• 20 Minutes.fr : YouTube launches Space Lab, an international contest intended for teenagers
• France Soir : offline: Science party / online: Science Party
• LeParisien.fr : YouTube challenges budding scientists
• Funradio.fr : YouTube challenges budding scientists
• Commentcamarche.net : YouTube challenges budding scientists
• E-marketing.fr : YouTube launches Space Lab channel
• Maxisciences.com : YouTube Space Lab : the new contest for teenagers that are fond of science
• Zebulon.fr : YouTube challenges budding scientists
• Ibuzzyou.fr  : YouTube Space Lab, a contest for young people!
• Begeek.fr : Make an experience proposal to ISS

Italy

• T.M.News: YouTube Space Lab Contest Begins: Teenagers’ Experiment to Run in Space Station
• Adnkronos: YouTube is looking for young scientists — Space Lab lifts off
• Asca: YouTube launches a space experiment competition for teens
• RAI GULP – GT RAGAZZI : YouTube Space Lab Announcement
• Il Fatto Quotidiano : YouTube & Lenovo: Space Lab, students’ ideas go to space
• Corriere.it : Blast your scientific imagination: if you win, your experiment will be performed in Space Station And on the technologie homepage
• Repubblica Online TV : Your experiment will be sent in the outer space thanks to YouTube
• La Stampa Online : YouTube Launches YouTube Space Lab and invites Students To Compete In Space
• QN Online : Space, Youtube is looking for young scientists
• Tg24.sky.it : Youtube will award students’ space experiments
• RaiNews24.it : YouTube is looking for young scientists
• Punto-informatico.it : From YouTube to Space in two minutes
• Webnews.it : Your experiments in space and live streamed on YouTube
• TG3.it : YouTube Space Lab lifts off
• Ansa: YouTube Space Lab starts with experiments on the ISS

Netherlands

• Web Sonic: “YouTube Space Lab”
• Spits: “Shoot your experiment in to space”

Russia

• RIA: YouTube offered students to submit a scientific experiment for ISS Ria.ru – largest Russian newswire
• Izvestia: NASA has launched a joint project with YouTube Izvestia.ru – web site of the general interest daily
• Klerk: NASA, YouTube and Lenovo have launched a joint project Klerk.ru – news portal

Israel

• Yediot Aharonot

Spain

• Público (10/10/2011) A channel to promote science
• El País.com (10/10/2011) YouTube is looking for future astronauts
• El Mundo.es (11/10/2011) The ISS will carry out an experiment designed by 14 year old students
• ABC (10/10/2011) YouTube  encourages young people to experiment with space through a competition
• Expansión.com  YouTube encourages young people to experiment with space through a competition
• Also in: EFE
• Europa Press (Portaltic) (11/10/2011) YouTube explores the galaxy through its new channel “Space Lab”
• lainformación.com (11/10/2011) YouTube encourages young people to experiment with space through a competition
• Finanzas.com (11/10/2011) YouTube encourages young people to experiment with space through a competition
• Qué!.es (11/10/2011) YouTube wants to conquer space with “Space Lab”
• ADN.es (11/10/2011)YouTube encourages young people to experiment with space through a competition
• ElDía.es (11/10/2011) YouTube encourages young people to experiment with space through a competition
• El Programa de la publicidad (11/10/2011) Google launches “Space Lab” in collaboration with the NASA, ISA to collect images in space
• MásSalamanca.es (11/10/2011) ¿What experiment would you send out to the International Space Agency?
• Quo (blog)  (10/10/2011) YouTube Space Lab
• IslaBit (10/10/2001) YouTube is doing a campaign to find young talents through a programme called “Space Lab”

APAC

Australia/New Zealand

• CNET: “YouTube Space Lab to do science in space”
• International Business Times “YouTube Goes to the Universe – Space Channel Up”
• NineMSN: “YouTube launches worldwide space comp”
• Mumbrella: “YouTube and Lenovo launches outer space science competition for high schoolk students”
• News.com.au: “YouTube launches worldwide space competition”
• Inquisitr: “Google’s YouTube launches the YouTube space lab”

Japan

• RBB Today: YouTube and Renovo seek in space experiments to be performed in International Space Station
• Netorabo: YouTube’s Space Lab channel with NASA and JAXA invites ideas for in space experiments
• MdN Design Interactive: YouTube and Renovo’s YouTube Space Lab invites ideas for in space experiments to be performed in International Space Station
• MyCom Journal: YouTube Space Lab challenges 14 to 18 years old for ideas for experiments to be performed in ISS
• Mainichi.jp: YouTube invites ideas for in space experiments to be performed in International Space Station, aimed at 14 to 18 years old
• ITmedia: YouTube channel invites ideas for in space experiments. Winning application to be performed in ISS, with prize including zero G flight experience
• INTERNET Watch: YouTube and Renovo open Youtube Space Lab project

Korea

• Dong-a Ilbo: “YouTube’s Space Experiment Project Idea Contest”

• Korea Economic Daily: YouTube, Space Experiment Project for Youths

• Seoul Economic Daily: YouTube, “Your suggestions for a science experiment will be conducted in space

• Electronic Times:  “Let us know what you want to test in space” ISS will live stream

• IT Daily: Lenovo and YouTube kick off space project, ‘Space Lab’

• Digital Daily: YouTube-Lenovo kick off ‘Space Lab’

• Digital Daily: YouTube “Suggestions for science experiments will be conducted in space”

• ZDNet Korea: Lenovo-YouTube open space experience opportunity for youths

• KBench:‘YouTube Space Lab’ If you suggest a science experiment, it will be conducted in space!

• EBN: YouTube Space Lab, “My suggestion goes to space”

• EToday: Suggest an idea, YouTube experiments in space

• Herald Media: “What about this sort of experiment in space?” YouTube idea contest

Taiwan

• Liberty Times Online – “Lenovo and YouTube Team Up to Launch Space Lab”
• UDN.com – “YouTube Announces Space Lab Project “
• UDN.com – “Lenovo and YouTube Announce Space Lab Project “
• Sina News – “YouTube Launches Space Lab for Students“
• Sogi – “Lenovo and YouTube Launch Space Lab“
• TECHup Online – “YouTube and Space Agencies Joint Hand to Kick Off Space Lab Project“
• Newtalk – “YouTube Kick Off Space Lab Project Lifts Off“
• Radio Taiwan International – “Google Invites Teenagers to Light Up Passion for Science“
• ZDNet (syndicated from Newtalk) – ”YouTube Kicks Off Space Lab Project”
• MSN 3C (syndicated from Newtalk) – “YouTube Kick Off Space Lab Project“
• HiNet News (syndicated from Newtalk) – “YouTube Kick Off Space Lab Project“
• Yahoo News (syndicated from Newtalk) – “YouTube Kick Off Space Lab Project“
• Yam News (syndicated from Newtalk) – “YouTube Kick Off Space Lab Project“
• PChome Online (syndicated from Newtalk) – “YouTube Kicks Off Space Lab Project“

Hong Kong

• am730: “YouTube Launches Space Lab Experiment Competition”
• am730 Online: “YouTube Launches Space Lab Experiment Competition”
• EFCC Yan Fook Church News: “YouTube Launches Space Lab Experiment Competition”
• Headline Daily: “YouTube Invites Teenagers To Design Space Experiment”
• Headline Daily Online: “YouTube Space Station Competition For Students”
• HKEPC: “Chance To Go To Astronaut Training in Russia; Application For Space Lab Program Now Opens”
• HK IT Blog: “YouTube Helps You To Do Experiments To Space”
• Hong Kong Economic Times: “Join Short Video Competition; Design Space Experiment”
• Hong Kong Economic Times Online: “Join Short Video Competition; Design Space Experiment”
• Joelau.HK Online: “YouTube Space Lab Lifts Off”
• Ming Pao Daily News: “YouTube And NASA Invites Space Lab Experiment Design”
• Ming Pao Daily News Online: “YouTube And NASA Invites Space Lab Experiment Design”
• Oriental Daily News: “Stephen Hawking To Be The Judge Of YouTube Space Lab Experiment Competition”
• Oriental Daily News Online: “Stephen Hawking To Be The Judge Of YouTube Space Lab Experiment Competition”
• Sina News Online (syndicated from Ming Pao Daily News): “YouTube And NASA Invites Space Lab Experiment Design”
• Sina News Online (syndicated from Sing Tao Daily): “YouTube Space Station Competition For Students”
• Sing Tao Daily Online: “YouTube Space Station Competition For Students”
• The Standard: “Small Step For Sparks Dreaming Of Space”
• The Sun: “Stephen Hawking To Be The Judge Of Space Lab Experiment Design”
• The Sun Online: “Stephen Hawking To Be The Judge Of Space Lab Experiment Design”
• Yahoo News Online (syndicated from Agence France Presse): “Design A Good Experiment; A Chance To See A Rocket Blasts Off For Free”
• Yahoo News Online (syndicated from Ming Pao Daily News): “YouTube And NASA Invites Space Lab Experiment Design”
• Yahoo News Online (syndicated from Sing Tao Daily): “YouTube Space Station Competition For Students”

Weir+Wong are proud to present to you our most recent production, working for Google Creative Lab EMEA and YouTube, and in partnership with Psycle Interactive, ladies and gentlemen, we give you…

YouTube Space Lab

We’ve worked tirelessly over the last 6 months to produce this amazing campaign for YouTube and Lenovo, working in cooperation with Space Adventures and space agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

YouTube Space Lab is a worldwide initiative that challenges 14-18 year-old students to design a science experiment that can be performed in space. The two winning experiments will be conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and live streamed on YouTube.  Space Lab is part of YouTube’s larger commitment to highlighting and providing access to the wealth of educational content available on YouTube as well as Lenovo’s focus on equipping students with 21st century skills via information technology.

A prestigious panel of scientists, astronauts, and educators, including renowned professor Stephen Hawking, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s Associate Administrator of Education and former Astronaut Leland Melvin, ESA Astronaut Frank De Winne, JAXA Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and Cirque du Soleil’s founder Guy Laliberté, will judge the entries with input from the YouTube community.

Students in two age categories, 14-16 years old and 17-18 years old, either alone or in groups of up to three, may submit a YouTube video describing their experiment to YouTube.com/SpaceLab.

Get ready for ignition sequence, in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

Launching at 5pm GMT, Monday 10th October 2011

Youtube Space Lab

Since March of this year, on every brief that we’ve pitched for, on every project that we’ve been involved in or produced, every client has requested up front that the final solution is delivered in HTML5. This requirement stretches across a multitude of concepts including broad-reaching banner campaigns, 3d interactive websites, and global competitions. We are usually delivered a brief that includes an outline of the idea, alongside this front-loaded request for the method of delivery.

Naturally we have been intrigued as to some of the reasons for this and after speaking further with our clients they range from:

1. We want our product to be multi-platform immediately, web and mobile are created in the same instance.
2. We want to show off the latest technological capabilities.
3. We don’t want to be left behind.

These are essentially very bad reasons. Reason 1 is frankly incorrect and reason’s 2 and 3 are usually agency specific reasons rather than audience driven.

We feel like there is a lot of mis-information going around about HTML5 that is leaving a lot of people preaching the medium as being more important than the idea. For example – why would a campaign to get the general public to sign up for charity donations be delivered using WebGL when only a smallish proportion of people on the internet can view it?

As mentioned, using HTML5 does not immediately mean that your website will work accross all browsers, web and mobile. It’s a falacy based upon the end goal of the developer community. Eventually we may be able to do this, but for current marketing campaigns – it’s just not going to happen. When using HTML5 or even discussing it, we mustn’t see it as an all encompassing ‘player’ such as Flash, we must look at it as a palette of functionality that works in an uneven pattern accross the landscape of modern browsers. Even for people working within the industry it’s very difficult to get an accurate picture of how web browsers support HTML5. For example the much talked about ‘Canvas’ tag which allows complex interactions within a space on the page is not supported by Internet Explorer versions 8 downwards – which serve over 31%* of the web community. Also, WebGL which has attracted a lot of attention through projects such as The Wilderness Downtown and Ro:me is only partially supported by 40%* of the web community. To put that into context, it was only a few years ago that even with Flash coverage at 85-90% we still faced a job to persuade clients that Flash was the correct technology to use. Now we seem to be disregarding the stats and just hoping for the best.

I recently found this website – HTML5test.com , which allows you to measure how much your browser supports HTML5. I did a simple test of the browsers that I had available. Most of them were pretty much the latest versions so I was quite surprised at the results. Each browser is scored on its ability to support the features and related specifications of HTML5. The maximum score available is 450:

• Google Chrome 13 – 341
• Mozilla Firefox 6 – 313
• Apple Safari 5.1 – 293
• Opera 11 – 286
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 – 141
• Apple Safari (mobile) – 210

I would suggest that outside of the development community the results are perhaps rather surprising. There is simply not one browser that can do it all. We are kidding ourselves that HTML5 is the current solution to every brief.

So what does this mean? The current HTML5 terrain is obviously full of quite a few potholes. Maybe Creative Teams should still just point us to where we are going on our journey and Creative Techs and Producers will navigate. It’s difficult not to be excited about HTML5 and all it’s capabilities, but at the early stages of a project perhaps it is better to be open minded about the method of delivery. What are we saying, how we are saying it and who are we saying it to should be the core requirements of a brief. After we’ve established that – perhaps we can work out TOGETHER the best way to deliver the message.

Having said all that – by no means are we saying that we’re not excited by HTML5 or that we don’t want to use it. We’ll be blogging shortly about all the positive things that HTML5 is adding to the web and where it has been used in the best ways.

*All stats have been taken from caniuse.com