Getting ready for TED 2010 ...

As we are getting ready to watch TED 2010 via live webcast, I came across this related post on the Social Media Workshop ...

TEDActive 2010: Desert Diaries - The Social Media Workshop

(TEDActive 2010. February 9-13, 2010, Palm Springs, CA. Credit: TED / Michael Brands)

Maybe it was news of the blizzard onslaught back on the East Coast that made our 20 Social Media Workshop attendees so nonchalant about the chilly air in the high desert this morning. But the weather today was nothing to shrug off, and it was admirable that it was faced with such pluck ... and then just awesome that everyone brought such interesting stories to share!

We brought a bushel of our own leads ...

• What's "raising awareness" really worth?
• Social media and the Super Bowl
• Can real viruses teach us how to make content "go viral"?
• The rise of social media is a return to the natural order
• What's the real effect of the Facebook "Cause"?
• Black holes don't "lurk"
• How to be a lady online

... and our friends brought even more of their own:

We learned how being a social media rock star has its ups and downs. We learned how Twitter can help you stay one step ahead of your political opponents. We learned about "whuffie." We learned about the difference between The Beatles' success after Ed Sullivan and Susan Boyle's success after Britain's Got Talent. (We learned a lot about Susan Boyle: she's authentic; she's archetypal; she was edited well.) A 10-second, one-act, one-man play taught us about the future of face-to-face conversation. We learned about the 7-38-55 ratio and heard a lesson that drilled home the importance of good writing. And we learned that "anything can happen at launch, including porn."

Posted via web from mick's posterous

Jaron Lanier at the RSA - "You Are Not A Gadget"

One of the things I really enjoy as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (the RSA) is attending their thought-provoking talks and conversations. Last night Jaron Lanier was talking about his new book, "You Are Not A Gadget". He is a computer scientist, composer, visual artist, and author.

As the talk synopsis said, Jaron is worried that " Individual creativity has begun to go out of fashion. Machines, specifically computers, are no longer just tools to be used by the human mind - these days, we treat them as if they are altogether better than humans."

In essence he is saying that we should all be pro-internet, pro-technology - but there are certain myths (e.g. "everything that's best is free", "social networking is always a good thing") and certain problems (e.g. "our gadgets/technology drive us not the other way round") that we should fight against. Only by challenging these can we nurture individual creativity (and thus further develop our own humanity).

Jaron wrote an article for the WSJ earlier this month - and rather than try to further explain his proposition, let me extract a couple of paragraphs from that article ...

"Most people know me as the "father of Virtual Reality technology." In the 1980s and 1990s, I was a young computer scientist and entrepreneur working on how to apply virtual reality to things like surgical simulation. But I was also part of a circle of friends who tried to imagine how computers would fit into the peoples' lives, including how people might make a living in the future. Our dream came true, in part. It turns out that millions of people are ready to contribute instead of sitting passively on the couch watching television. On the other hand, we made a huge mistake in making those contributions unpaid, and often anonymous, because those bad decisions robbed people of dignity. I am appalled that our old fantasies have become so entrenched that it's hard to get anyone to remember that there are alternatives to a framework that isn't working.

Here's one problem with digital collectivism: We shouldn't want the whole world to take on the quality of having been designed by a committee. When you have everyone collaborate on everything, you generate a dull, average outcome in all things. You don't get innovation.

If you want to foster creativity and excellence, you have to introduce some boundaries. Teams need some privacy from one another to develop unique approaches to any kind of competition. Scientists need some time in private before publication to get their results in order. Making everything open all the time creates what I call a global mush.

There's a dominant dogma in the online culture of the moment that collectives make the best stuff, but it hasn't proven to be true. The most sophisticated, influential and lucrative examples of computer code—like the page-rank algorithms in the top search engines or Adobe's Flash— always turn out to be the results of proprietary development. Indeed, the adored iPhone came out of what many regard as the most closed, tyrannically managed software-development shop on Earth."

You can read in full Jaron's article here.

What was also interesting was that Nico Macdonald, the RSA's event moderator, encouraged the audience to comment and ask questions in real time via twitter, complete with its own hashtag. Here's a sample of the stream ....

@ThinkAboutArt Thanks to Jaron Lanier for stating that artists deserve the dignity of their own creative work!! http://bit.ly/8Q4CpP #rsalanier

@mahemoff "The Machine Stops" is one of the most prescient things ever written acc to Lanier #rsalanier

@milwardoliver Interesting thought out of #rsalanier that children on facebook have their growing up recorded in digital form without the ability to forget.

@mickyates "The geeks have created a world that benefits geeks - so others are denied chance for own personality formation" Jaron #rsalanier

@tomux @melex #rsalanier. It's like a health-food movement for the internet generation. We should eat more broccoli.

@petemarcus Economic model of 'free' doesn't work. Web does not provide bounty if you give your stuff away for free. #rsalanier

@petemarcus Originally PCs allowed consumers to also be creators. New devices like Kindles only make us consumers now. #rsalanier

@melex #rsalanier Lanier concludes that he's not anti-tech per se, but is against 'ritualistic, anti-human design'. Hear hear, sense at last.

@mickyates It's not a problem with the internet - that's brilliant - it's the dogma of the "open/free culture" of web 2.0 that's the issue! #rsalanier

So, quite an event - and an exercise in the new (social media) and the old (the RSA - or more completely the "Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce - a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress", founded in 1754) that was fascinating in its own right.

The RSA's founder, William Shipley, would have been proud!

Posted via web from mick's posterous

The evolution of blogging

An incisive blog from Om Malik at Gigaom ....

"Dave Winer’s ability to peer into the future is uncanny. He was talking about a river of news long before the current activity streams became popular. He was evangelizing RSS long before there were blogs. I could go on and on about his prescient observations, but it’s his warnings that are especially prophetic.

For as long as I can remember, he’s been warning that users of new social web technologies need to be in control of their own destiny. He sounded the alarm about Feedburner and how it was hijacking an open standard, RSS, and inserting itself between content creators and consumers. And he’s long cited the need for open social communication platforms, often voicing his displeasure with newer services such as Twitter.

People have ignored Winer at their own peril, as two events over the last week have made clear. First was the shutdown drama around a little-known URL-shortening service called Tr.im. While it’s since been resurrected, the incident showed me how by championing these URL-shortening services, we’re essentially putting the entire link economy in the hands of companies that are skating on thin ice during the peak of summer.

Second was FriendFeed becoming a Mark Zuckerberg Production thanks to a $50 million buyout by Facebook. The likelihood of Zuckerberg & Co. shutting down the upstart social aggregation service has brought into the spotlight the misalignment between the needs of online communities and the companies that provide them.

The cynical me believes that it’s foolish for any of us to expect that Web 2.0 companies be in the business of providing services for charity. They are, after all, for-profit entities and when opportunity arises, everyone looks out for themselves. That’s just the way of the world. But somewhere between my cynicism and people’s Utopian desires lies a happy place. It’s called the blog.

Blogging: The Evolution

Late last year, following the Bombay terrorist attacks, I wrote about Twitter’s growing influence as a source of breaking news and how, in order to make sense of it all, we need more context. The best place to provide that context is now in blogs. To be sure, most people view Twitter as a microblogging service, but I’ve always seen it as micromessaging service — and the more I used it, the more I realized what a disjointed conversation it can produce.

As Twitter has become increasingly ingrained in our everyday lives, its value as as source of information tidbits has become clear. Think of it like that plate of chips and salsa you get before the entree arrives: tasty — spicy, even — but not entirely satisfying. Meanwhile, blogging has become the main course — the source of context. And the evolution into that role has injected new life into the blogosphere.

Earlier this week, while at dinner with Matt Mullenweg (Disclosure: Matt, a close friend of mine, started Automattic, whose WordPress platform powers our network. Both Automattic and the GigaOM Network are backed by True Ventures, where I am also a venture partner.), we talked about how many amazing blog posts we’ve read in just the past month alone, such as:

• Anil Dash’s post about the Pushbutton web.
• John Gruber’s piece about the censoring of the iPhone app, Ninja Words, by Apple.
• Danah Boyd’s post about Twitter and teens.
• John Borthwick’s essay about the real-time web and new distribution networks.
• Robert Scoble’s post about the shortcomings of the Twitter platform.

And these are just the ones that I hastily jotted down on the back of the dinner receipt. Now it would be easy for “blogging” to be satisfied with this information-sharing role. But that won’t be enough. Blogs need to evolve even further.

Why? Because the nature of content sharing (call it publishing) and content consumption is changing."

Read the rest of Om's article ....

How Teenagers Consume Media: the report that shook the City

From the guardian.co.uk Business ...

This is the full copy of the research note written by Matthew Robson (aged 15 years and seven months), an intern at Morgan Stanley, which caused a stir after it was published by the bank.

• Radio

Most teenagers nowadays are not regular listeners to radio. They may occasionally tune in, but they do not try to listen to a program specifically. The main reason teenagers listen to the radio is for music, but now with online sites streaming music for free they do not bother, as services such as last.fm do this advert free, and users can choose the songs they want instead of listening to what the radio presenter/DJ chooses.

• Television

Most teenagers watch television, but usually there are points in the year where they watch more than average. This is due to programs coming on in seasons, so they will watch a particular show at a certain time for a number of weeks (as long as it lasts) but then they may watch no television for weeks after the program has ended.

Teenage boys (generally) watch more TV when it is the football season, often watching two games and related shows a week (totalling about 5 hours of viewing). A portion of teenagers watches programs that are regular (such as soap operas) at least five times a week for half an hour or so but this portion is shrinking, as it is hard to find the time each day.

Teenagers are also watching less television because of services such as BBC iPlayer, which allows them to watch shows when they want. Whilst watching TV, adverts come on quite regularly (18 minutes of every hour) and teenagers do not want to watch these, so they switch to another channel, or do something else whilst the adverts run.

The majority of teenagers I speak to have Virgin Media as their provider, citing lower costs but similar content of Sky. A fraction of teenagers have Freeview but these people are light users of TV (they watch about 1 ½ hours per week) so they do not require the hundreds of channels that other providers offer.

Read the rest of the article ...

Q&A with Clay Shirky on Twitter and Iran

From the TED Blog with Chris Anderson

an NYU professor Clay Shirky gave a fantastic talk on new media during our TED@State event earlier this month. He revealed how cellphones, the web, Facebook and Twitter had changed the rules of the game, allowing ordinary citizens extraordinary new powers to impact real-world events. As protests in Iran exploded over the weekend, we decided to rush out his talk, because it could hardly be more relevant. I caught up with Clay this afternoon to get his take on the significance of what is happening. HIs excitement was palpable.

What do you make of what's going on in Iran right now.
I'm always a little reticent to draw lessons from things still unfolding, but it seems pretty clear that ... this is it. The big one. This is the first revolution that has been catapulted onto a global stage and transformed by social media. I've been thinking a lot about the Chicago demonstrations of 1968 where they chanted "the whole world is watching." Really, that wasn't true then. But this time it's true ... and people throughout the world are not only listening but responding. They're engaging with individual participants, they're passing on their messages to their friends, and they're even providing detailed instructions to enable web proxies allowing Internet access that the authorities can't immediately censor. That kind of participation is reallly extraordinary.

Which services have caused the greatest impact? Blogs? Facebook? Twitter?
It's Twitter. One thing that Evan (Williams) and Biz (Stone) did absolutely right is that they made Twitter so simple and so open that it's easier to integrate and harder to control than any other tool. At the time, I'm sure it wasn't conceived as anything other than a smart engineering choice. But it's had global consequences. Twitter is shareable and open and participatory in a way that Facebook's model prevents. So far, despite a massive effort, the authorities have found no way to shut it down, and now there are literally thousands of people aorund the world who've made it their business to help keep it open.

Read the rest of the article ...

Why will twitter (or its children) be around for a while?

I've been using twitter for a couple of months now - and I admit I am getting a little addicted.

But, stepping back, I can see that people use twitter for different things, and that is why it appeals. It seems to have got serious critical mass, because of these many and varied uses:

• gathering news from different services, both general (e.g. BBC, CNN) and topic specific (e.g. photography).
• selling their services - especially in the social media arena
• building their brand - either via image and content enhancing tweets, or responding to customers
• internal communications in big organizations
• creating a network of folks with similar interest (e.g. I am deep in Glastonbury Festival at the moment!)
• or just plain chatting, with old and new friends

But however you use it, it seems to me that there a few fundamental characteristics of twitterespace that will last a while

1. It is a "generous" environment, where content, sharing links, movies and pictures is the key - and where re-tweeting (the comments of others) is a major pastime.
2. It is a "friendly" environment - people are polite, flame wars are very rare - and when spammers try to take over the twitterspace closes ranks fairly easily and quickly.
   
3. It is a "concise" environment, where the 140 character limit actually helps define and frame issues and comments in an extremely efficient way. Everyone seems to think quite carefully before posting.
4. It is a "gateway to networks of all kinds", rather than a destination in itself. It links people with many different external sites and activities
5. It is an "instant" environment - always on, and requiring real time attention.
6. It is "fully searchable" - to find out more about individuals you meet, links they propose, references they make.

No wonder that the CEO of Google said this week that Twitter is winning in instant communication ...

Keep on Tweet'n

From Nielsen Online, by Michelle McGiboney

Twitter.com is continuing to grow in popularity and importance for both consumers and marketers. It is no longer just a platform for friends to stay connected in real time, but it is also evolving into an important component of marketing strategies. Companies such as Comcast and Zappos use the network as a way to create and sustain customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Comcast’s, Frank Eliason, director of digital care (whose Twitter alias is ‘ComcastCares’) has become the face of the company’s Twitter customer service initiatives. He uses Twitter to address and resolve customer concerns and complaints, and in the process is helping to foster a positive brand image through developing important customer relationships.

Because Twitter has such a wide appeal, it has experienced remarkable Web traffic growth. Unique visitors to the site increased 1,382 percent year-over-year, from 475,000 in February 2008 to 7 million in February 2009, making it the fastest growing site in our Member Communities category.

Twitter Most Popular among Working Adults

Twitterers (a.k.a. Tweeters) are not primarily teens or college students as you might expect. In reality, in February the largest age group on Twitter was 35-49; with nearly 3 million unique visitors, comprising almost 42 percent of the site’s audience. We found that the majority of people visit Twitter.com while at work, with 62 percent of the combo unique audience accessing the site from work only versus 35 percent that accessed it from home only.

Read the rest of the article ...

Time Management in the Age of Social Media

From David Allen, on the Business Week Blog

"These days I'm asked frequently about the role of social media in personal and organizational productivity. The question is timely, as the major social media applications have millions of users and are still growing fast. Also, the phenomenon is closely tied to e-mail, which itself has presented major challenges to professionals in time management and keeping an appropriate focus in their work and life.

The most obvious issue about social media: Is this a useful way to spend your time, or is it a sinkhole of attractive distraction? It could very easily be one of those one minute, and the other the next! It all depends on why you're doing it, and this must be evaluated moment to moment. It's an important distinction to make for yourself, because focus is probably your greatest asset that you can control. You must be judicious about where you place it and what you let grab it, thus reducing your effectiveness.

Bear in mind that the most potentially productive activities (e.g. meetings) can undermine your control and focus if they're not carefully managed. And some pursuits that are commonly viewed as "time-wasting," such as random Web surfing or Facebook socializing can be productive, if you use that term in the broadest sense of achieving something you want.

Someone noticed that I was now on Twitter and said: "How can you be productive on Twitter?" My simple answer: "If I want to have Twittered, then it's productive!" I wasn't trying to be facetious. The truth is, if you're taking a vacation to relax and you don't relax, then it's an unproductive vacation.

Why would I (or anyone) want to "have Twittered," or be involved with any of the social media at all? There is inherently some sort of magic between the lines in much of it that seems to have struck a chord in so many of us. I attribute this to the transparency, connectedness, and immediacy that social media offer, which are key attributes of quality relationships—something humans crave at a basic level.

Looking at if from a more tactical, practical perspective, it seems there are three main reasons that it can serve people well:"

Read the rest of the article ...