Why Marketers Should Care. By now you may be asking yourself, “Well that’s all well and good… but where is the clutter-clearing, super-interesting marketing application I was promised?” Well for me, it all starts at the end of the application’s official description, where Mr. Knauf and company, in an abrupt and seemingly self-conscious reaction to the aforementioned high-minded phraseology, come down from the clouds and throw the pragmatists in the audience this juicy bone: “Additionally, Fluid Nexus can be used as a hyperlocal message board, loosely attached to physical locations.”

The low hanging fruit here is clearly in the event marketing space – where countless applications for the technology easily come to mind. From basic messaging and exclusive mobile invites to celebrity chats and innovative crowd games. With this approach a marketer wouldn’t have to worry about wireless network coverage (a problem that comes up more than you’d think). Other benefits to the technology (over existing mobile messaging channels) include exclusivity (be in the know), cost (once the app is downloaded use is basically free to both the marketer and consumers alike) and the ever intangible and equally elusive “buzz factor.”

Fluid Nexus on Android, early test. from Nick Knouf on Vimeo.

Not that I wanted to anyway: the iPhone is too expensive for my projected users, and the fact that the development so far has proceeded in such a closed fashion has entirely turned me off of any iPhone development.

Here are Ogg Theora versions of all three Fluid Nexus videos: Fluid Nexus Project video, Critiques of Networks, Technical Details.

Critiques of Networks—Theoretical bits for Fluid Nexus from Nick Knouf on Vimeo.

Technical Details for Fluid Nexus from Nick Knouf on Vimeo.

But here is the final video about the project that I showed at the end of the workshop.

Fluid Nexus Project Video from Nick Knouf on Vimeo.

And here’s the final presentation, in OpenOffice format.