Authenticity: The Real-Real Deal

As we mentioned in our previous post about thinkAbout, we’ve been working on a new site for Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore’s new book: Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want.

The book has hit the streets. Which means the site needs to go live. Which means it did.

authenticitybook.com

At coffee a few months back, we were discussing the idea of writing, and the differences between books and digital media. Books, while a great way to introduce an idea and start a conversation, for better or worse have a sense of permanence. Once they’re published, they’re done. Digital media, while not having this sense of permanence, benefits from immediate updatability, the ability to continue the conversation.

With Authenticity, Jim and Joe wanted to introduce the idea of, well, authenticity. To start the conversation. But how could that conversation continue from a digital standpoint? Instead of making a web site that simply sells books (starts the conversation), we created a web site that continues the ideas, thinking and conversation around authenticity. Part of being authentic is defined by how different people interpret the experience. What is “real” to one person could very well be “fake” to another. The authenticitybook.com site is a place to encourage this discussion, and for you to create your own authentic experience through comments, opinions, and contributions.

“Is it Real? Or is it Fake?” and the Real/Fake Matrix

One of the concepts in Authenticity is the idea of “real” and “fake,” and the arranging of these ideas on a matrix. Along the X-axis: is it true to itself? The Y-axis is: is it what it says it is? Something that is true to itself, and what it says it is, is considered “real-real.” Something that isn’t true to itself, and isn’t what it says it is, is considered “fake-fake” (their example: Niketown is neither a place to participate in athletics or a town… fake-fake). With this comes the other two quadrants, “real-fake” and “fake-real.” The “Is it Real? Or is it Fake?” section of the site presents experiences, and gives you the opportunity to vote your opinion on the Real/Fake matrix, as well as add your comments. As more Real/Fake experiences are added to the site, they’ll be mapped on the Real/Fake matrix, creating side-by-side comparisons of different experiences.

Axiom Violation Gallery

Another one of the ideas in Authenticity is “if you are authentic, you don’t have to say you’re authentic. Yet so many products, commercials and web sites proclaim they are the “real” thing, original, and authentic. The Axiom Violation Gallery allows you to submit your own photos, YouTube videos and web sites, and view the gallery of axiom violations. Using existing sites like YouTube, Flickr and del.icio.us, we’re able to create a place to keep and feed all the data. It’s basically one big mashup; using existing technologies together in order to create something new.

Those are just two of the highlights of the site… there’s a lot more from a thinking, content, and technology standpoint that went into the site, but we’ll save that for another time and place. Feel free to poke around the site, and if you have questions you can leave them below in the comments so everyone can hear the answers.

Thanks to Jim, Joe, Scott and Doug for giving us the opportunity to bring our opinions and expertise to the site, as well as being an all-around great client to work with. We’re thrilled to bring our passion for conversations to the concept of authenticity.

Keep it real-real.

UPDATE: AuthenticityBook.com was awarded MashUp of the Day. Thanks Mashup of the Day folks!