A couple weeks ago, a quick teaser video emerged on the web and many thought that all signs pointed to the sequel to the classic movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The teaser video simply had Ferris Bueller star, Matthew Broderick emerge from behind a curtain and hint “how could he go to work on a day like this”. The full-length video was supposed to air around the time of this year’s Super Bowl, but according to All Things D’s Lauren Goode, Hawker Media’s car blog Jalopnik, discovered it online last Friday. It seems that the rumors were all wrong…well at least technically. The teaser wasn’t about a movie sequel. Rather, it was a promo spot for a car – the Honda CR-V.

Directed by the writer/director of “The Hangover”, Matthew Broderick pulls a Ferris by calling in sick from his work and does all the things he did in his movie, but with a more modern twist. There’s no more high school in Chicago – he’s now playing himself in real life and avoids work with his agent. Next, instead of the favorite St. Patrick’s Day parade and crooning “Danke Schoen”, he celebrates Chinese New Year (well-timed, by the way). Oh, and the topping on the cake? Remember when Cameron’s car gets stolen by the valets in the movie? Well Broderick’s video has that too, except the valet steals the CR-V.

So the video has been definitely upgraded for the modern times, but I’ll admit that I’m a bit disappointed that it’s not for the next part of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Nevertheless, it is a bit funny and doesn’t necessarily focus on the car, but you do see Broderick driving it around Los Angeles enjoying his day off while reminding us about the cool parts of Broderick’s movie.

Below is the entire YouTube video for your enjoyment.

Broderick? Broderick?

by Michelle Lentz

GoGrid has launched a viral campaign to inform and illustrate cloud computing. Now, I’m pretty sure I have my finger on the general concept of cloud computing, but really, how much do I need to know? Michael Sheehan, Technology Evangelist of GoGrid, explained it to me this way:

“The point about “the cloud” is that you shouldn’t have to worry about where the servers are (meaning where the provider of the cloud service is). You could have multiple data centers around the world, but to the buyer of the service, it is just that, a service. And to the end-user, it shouldn’t matter (much like you don’t really care where your Gmail account server is…you probably hit multiple data centers around the world depending on where you are accessing it).”

I found the GMail example really hit home. I think there are a lot of people out there who care a lot about where the data centers are located and such, but the average user? Not so much.  So, back to that viral campaign. GoGrid has several rather funny videos out there, accessible via the fun nohardware.com or via YouTube. I’m just going to post one, as video and I are often at odds, but here are links to the others:

Cloud Computing in Plain English (an homage of sorts to Common Craft), which made me laugh several times

NoHardware.com – video 1, with guns a blazing.

NoHardware.com – video 2, equally as fun and, yes, REAL. That one is posted below.

The point being, of course, is to stop worrying about whether your server is bulletproof and just get comfy in the Cloud.

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ’08 in San Jose.

by Michelle Lentz

I’m not a marketer, really, although I get the concepts. I do know that the space is changing, and changing rapidly. Traditional marketing isn’t going to cut it anymore, and to grab the new generation of audience, marketers need to look to the Web.

One way to do that is with videos that may hopefully go viral. One of the problems with marketing via video is that there is no conversion; once the video ends, the user goes elsewhere. Involver, launching a new pilot program today, hopes to change all that.

Involver offers an easy-to-use and understand web platform for marketers. With a few clicks, marketers can upload a video, add interactive tools, and publish the video out to several places. If you don’t have a video, Involver will work with you to find the right producer to create it. Once your video is created and uploaded, you can add surveys, quizzes, and interactivity into the video, engaging (involving – get it? ) the user.

Finally, you can easily publish the video out to other locations, upping the conversion. For instance, I easily – almost too easily – published a video out to my blog, as well as mailed a video to myself. Involver provides a nice landing page where users can view the videos. Of course, you can also publish it out to YouTube.

Involver is starting its pilot with non-profit Kiva.org and with viral video folks Serena Software. The Serena Software application is interesting. Not only are they pushing the video, but they’re pushing it into a complete Facebook integration, adding in the social media aspect that gets and retains users. Using Facebook and other social media as an extensible platform is key to Involver’s plans.

Involver is accepting applications to join its pilot program and plans to add new companies as they expand to support additional large video campaigns. Involver plans to open access to their video campaign platform later this year.

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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.