Life on the Inside: lisapmaxwell.com-- by Nate Winter

Rejoice! The Nate Winter Ad/Marketing blog returns, and with good reason.

A really cool change has gone on at Lisa P. Maxwell, the Chicago creative agency I work for, and lisapmaxwell.com, our website. Last week we launched a pretty revolutionary concept for a website. The idea is that everyone in the agency has a web cam that records live video of his/her desk and streams that footage to the homepage of our website. There, visitors can see what our team is doing and even converse with us via IM-style messages. And we do it all in the name of transparency-- boldly showing the world what goes on at our agency.

Personally, I like the concept. It's original, meaningful and intriguing. Many members of the blogosphere and the Twittersphere agree, so we've received some nice attention. It comes in waves. One afternoon we're inundated with chats from Brasil, the next evening it's people from the UK. And sometimes it's just one guy from Montana. If you haven't seen it, visit the Lisa P. Maxwell site during regular business hours and check it out. It's fun. You'll like it.

There's definitely an entertainment aspect to it. Our site might be the world's most boring reality show. It's unedited and we can't show or talk about client work. Hell, you can't even hear us speak. But maybe the site is also a new direction in online interactivity. There's an unspoken, curious energy around the office from people thinking that this could make us famous. Could we be ce-web-rities in a new evolution of online reality programing known as "ce-web-reality?" (Screw you, VH1! I'm coining the terms now!)

In the spirit of in-your-face transparency, I've decided to blog about my experience from within this new website odyssey. And I'm not alone. Other Lisa P. Maxwell peeps are personally blogging on this, too. I'll reference their blogs regularly as I write more. Stay tuned.

-- Nate Winter

p.s. Feel free to chat me up on lisapmaxwell.com in response to these posts.