mindblob

United PEAS of Social Media

- Original picture from Addixon777 + home made transformation -

   

The amazing thing about "social media" is the power that these two words joined together took over the meaning of each word when standing alone.

"Social" is the grouping of individuals around common characteristics, interactions between groups of people, is taking consideration of other's behavior. Many more definitions apply to that word, but in a way the "united humans" side of the definition is probably the one we keep in mind. And here comes "media" basically related to communication and being the vehicle of messages towards as many people as possible, not to say "masses".

Now "social media" pushes us from being readers and spectators of news and information, to being actors and publishers of messages through a completely new vehicle. And we may see "the wisdom of the crowds" as the evolution of individual messages freely embraced by other individuals.

The very first time I understood the power of "social media" was after Noel Davis' terrible bicycle accident just before Christmas 2007. Noel is the father in law of Gavin Heaton, a blogger friend I had met on the net months before. At the time, I didn't know Noel but I was warned by another friend blogger CK that "something terrible" happened. Gavin communicated to friends and family on Noel's web page and a solidarity chain was raised by other bloggers relaying the information and collecting funds to help. Cam Beck created a special page to make donations, David Armano made a visual for the cause, many helped making posts to spread the information. Hopefully, Noel recovered from his accident and I'm quite sure many people still think about him today.

Then, another terrible event tore many of us apart when our friend CK was facing the toughest moment of her life. This difficult moment, brought to our eyes the important fact that there is a link between this virtual world, our emotions, values, good intentions and reality.

More recently, Susan Reynolds a blogger I don't know personally, discovered that she had breast cancer. As a matter of fact, Susan suffered so much from the multiple biopsies she went through that she placed a pack of frozen peas on her breast to relieve the pain. She decided to share her experience with others and launched a special blog : Boobs on Ice. When she posted a picture of her and the pack of peas in such an unexpected place, some of her friends were touched and reacted. In less time than it takes to actually say it many people took action (see the full story on Connie Reece's blog) and a solidarity wave rolled around the planet.

Then a special Frozen Pea Fund was launched to raise money with all benefits going to Making Strides, the breast cancer campaign of the American Cancer Society. Now what if we would all donate the price of a package of Peas to such a fund raising program? Hundreds of Twitter users changed their avatars on a Pea theme. When I see the specially created Frozen Pea Flickr group, I really beleive that there are PEAple out there ready to help change the world.

Today is the THIRD PEA FRIDAY... so if you have not done it yet, go to this link and donate the value of a few peas (or more), because this action is good and is helping an important cause we should all care about. I am sure Susan was happy to see that many were there to encourage her and try to help. Also, I'd like to honor people who lead others in the right direction, to help those in need. Connie, this one is for you -sorry it took me so long to make this post-. Even if we have not met yet, please know that it is a real honor to know you. I am amazed by the mountains you are moving.

I understand that social media is not done shaking positively my vision of this world. These incredible examples raise the definitions to another level. So, whoever still thinks "social media" is yet another trendy notion to debate on, might want to consider this : next time you are watching PEAple from a distance, watch closely and listen... maybe you'll find out that the voice behind each one of them is worth some of your attention. Above definitions, there are people behind all this, connected and sharing experiences. Internet is just a vehicle, let's keep in mind that human beings are on both sides with their hearts and values.

      

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!

   

The Age of Conversation - Teaser

UPDATE : 2 first fresh press releases on AdAge and Social Computing Magazine.
(...thanks for pointing these links out Gavin!)   

 

Look! It's a bird... it's a plane... it's "The Age of Conversation" ! ! ! The O so expected FANTASTIC ebook everybody is already talking about, is almost ready to be launched and to spread the world with its rich, eclectic, collaborative content. The launch day is next monday, July 16th... So, just ONE more unbearable, long weekend to go. Be patient, we're almost there.

To find all the latest details of this incredible adventure initiated by Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton, just click here. Remember: all the benefits of this project will  be donated to Variety, the Children's Charity. Well, it is an honor to be part of this project, really. I created a special AOC page here with an ALPHABETIC list of the authors for your convenience. This list is updated, please let me know if you notice something wrong.

More coming soon !
JUST CAN'T WAIT !

 

PS : In the meantime and if you need to calm your nerves while waiting during this never ending weekend, I'd suggest you to spend some (more) time reading these great blogs. The list here under being the latest updated by Drew himself :

 

LATEST list of the authors :

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Luc Debaisieux
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Robert Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
G.Kofi Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Polinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman
S. Neil Vineberg
C.B. Whittemore

    

Be a part of... "the story"

   

You can now be a part of "the story", a narrative illustrated fresco, incorporating pictures submitted by the readers. Okay, I must admit the plot and scenery are quite surreal, but still... it is fascinating to view characters based on real people. Plus the idea is worth consideration as it could lead our minds to imagine other concepts based on the same principle.

Building a story, music, painting, object, item... piece by piece, with submitted elements. Definitely lots of things still to be done that way.

What would you suggest to "build"?

 

Musicovery

Here is a little find that might please you music and graphics lovers. Musicovery is a web site that offers a selection of music classified by moods and styles. It works like a web radio and lets you see the next few songs it is going to play so that you can jump forward directly to a part of the selection you like better. Check it out, it is really easy to use and fun to see move around.

The selection of music styles include some good classic, jazz and world music references which is not such a common feature on internet fancy platforms. Streaming quality is perfect in lo-fi and also available in hi-fi via a payable option. Unfortunately though, there is no volume control.

Impossible to see this site and not think about Liveplasma a very similar graphic interface focused on referencing both music and movies. Also the great Pandora (featured in a previous post), fully customizable and somehow more detailed in terms of finetuning your own play list moods.

SKYPE video for MAC is out!

Great news for the Mac fans. Today, Information Week announced that Skype video for Apple computers was launched. This means that from now on, video calls between Windows and Mac platforms will be as easy as phoning with Skype. Version 2.0 beta is now available for download.

Coming soon :

Yesterday was full of Apple news as well. Steve Jobs delivered a special announcement from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco (link to watch the full special event). The soon available "iTV" (first quarter 2007), a living room streaming box will soon let you beam your media from your computer directly to your TV. Jobs also introduced the colorful new ipod nano range, the ipod shuffle clip and the launch of itunes 7 with downloadable (and yes legal) movies and ipod games. Pictures of the coming iTV player covered on Gizmodo.

These new products are here to remind us that the link between internet, computers and our homes is growing stronger everyday.

Viral video - CBS definition

CBS definition of "viral video" posted by Joseph Jaffe on YouTube.

Joseph also appears in the video and gives us the perspective of marketeers trying to catch the wave : "If you can't beat them... join them". This explains the rise of internet advertising investments.  But beware... marketers making fake videos take big risk and the issue is that taget audience will either "Laugh with them or laugh at them".

Examples :

- "Laugh with them" : Converse (Made by you).

- "Laugh at them" : Chevrolet Tahoe.

Pandora - The Music Genome Project™

 

As a music fan I love to discover new stuff. The way I used to proceed was listening to all sorts of radios (local trendy stations, satellite radios, internet radios, etc.). Podcasts gave me a new kind of pleasure through keywords research helping fintune the selection.

Then I found Pandora, a customizable internet radio. Pandora is a website founded by Tim Westergren, award-winning composer, musician and record producer who is obsessed with helping talented emerging artists connect with the music fans most likely to appreciate their music. But don't you think this is just another internet radio with topics and channels playing stereotype playlists. This system is open and evolutive and is a real tool to help you discover music you like. Pandora's music discovery services are based on The Music Genome Project™, the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected. It represents years of analysis by our trained team of musicologists, and spans sixty years of music.

All you need to do is register freely, input an artist or song you like and wait for the system to suggest and play similar or related music. You can rate the music to finetune the search. CNET has an "How to..." video that explains it all and an article that focuses on the evolution of Pandora.        This thing is just... FANTASTIC !

Vincent's wave against G(AOL)iath

Athough this is not really news anymore, it is worth being noticed as linked to marketing 2.0.

What could one unsatisfied customer do against a giant like AOL? Write a letter? Hire a lawyer to sue them? Bell doors in his town and start a petition? Nothing? "David against Goliath" one might say. Well, not exactly. Not anymore. That's the story of 30 years old Vincent Ferrari. He had heard that lots of people were having the same kind of problems to cancel their account, so he decided to find out if they were exagerating or if it was reflecting a real issue. So basically, what the man did is call AOL and ask them to simply "cancel his account". Not a problem you think? Not really... it took him 15 minutes to get to a real person and then... the incredible happened. The thing is you can exactly experience what he's been through as Vincent recorded the whole conversation and published it on his blog (just check how many comments he received on his post).

Then the blogosphere takes on the information and as the spread is quite wide, the relay is taken by the press. Follows an interview on NBC, published on Youtube plus an article published on The New York Times. And the story is still getting more diggs every day.

Well, yes... AOL apologized. But what about the mediatic disaster of this experience, now? Whoever worked on building corporate image knows. It's D-R-A-M-A-T-I-C !

So, this relates to the fact that brands and big corporations definitely have to consider their customers more than ever. The reason is that now, customers can speak as loud as them on the internet. And customers have spontaneously more sympathy for other customers, sharing a real experience, than they do for brands or corporations communicating, the same kind of messages over and over again. Small drops making huge waves at the end... waves bigger than the giants.