Always in BETA - The Conversation Fish

- Karl Long as being filmed by CM's web cam... hi Karl ! -

Imagine you were a fish on misson, in a bowl right at Forrester Consumer Forum 2007. Imagine you could see and hear people there and -wow!- send them text messages to a screen and get instant "live" feedback. What would you actually see? What would you say? Well, the first thing you'd witness is Critical Mass fantastic, audaciously open, conversation experiment : ALWAYS IN BETA.

David Armano and the super team at Critical Mass Chicago are indeed giving us an insightful view on the Forrester Consumer Forum. Letting anyone on the net log onto their open "Always in Beta" site. I encourage you to check it out as this is only a 2 days event (11th and 12th October). CM's blog is here.

As being one of the fishes around the Internet bowl yesterday, I must confess I really enjoyed the experience. First of all the technical aspect, innovative Internet tools (free and available to all of us, provided by UStream). So, no complicated IT server and gear with wires and geeks figuring out the optimal bandwidth in a hidden NASA-control-room-like place. Computer + web cam + Internet connection = that's about it. Well, of course there were some gaps in the video from time to time and the available computer mic was a bit overwhelmed by his assignment (unidirectional might help for next broadcast). But that's not so important, this is Beta, right.

The most important thing is the EXPERIENCE offered there. It opens lots of doors and ideas on how the future of live coverages of events could be. Imagine a phone with super-speed Internet access and a camera and you could broadcast "live" on the Internet from any hotspot. David gave us -fishes- an adrenaline peak when he went "WIFI-LIVE". Walking with his laptop and web cam in the hallways of the Forum felt like being on Neil Armstrong shoulder on July 20, 1969. Wow! David's wifi-walk made me think about this :

 

"It's one small step for man...

one giant leap for Conversation"

 

Congrats guys ! ! ! What an experience! We, fishes, loved it! Thank you for taking us on Enterprise -Critical Mass- spaceship... for a walk & talk on planet Forrester.  Last but not least CM bought 300 Age of Conversation hardcover books and offered them to the visitors of the forum. Now wait a minute... maybe "Beta", means "Conversation"... That's it!