The proliferation of crap content and the rise of content reputation systems

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For a number of years I’ve talked about how we are effectively reaching a world infinite content, and the implications of that. That is becoming more real by the day, as in an economy increasingly driven by search and links, people find new ways to generate content that participates in this new information infrastructure.

I wrote last year about Philip Parker, who created programs that have automatically generated 200,000 books by aggregating and structuring content on the web. I haven’t read any of the books, but I’m told that they are – unsurprisingly – pretty poor, though of possible value to some people. However this is probably at the quality end of the spectrum of auto-generated content. For many years blog spammers have been auto-generating blog posts which have plausible language constructions, so they are picked up by search engines, but in fact are nonsense.

Adding to the morass of content are non-native speakers who lack background and context writing articles that are far more coherent than anything generated by computers, but which are still basically crap i.e. a waste of time to read.

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iPhone live video streaming finally available! Ustream Live Broadcaster now out

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Yet another of the frustrating limitations of the iPhone has been fixed – with the launch of Ustream Live Broadcaster you can now stream live from both iPhone 3G and 3GS phones over 3G or WiFi.

Here is my first trial, using my iPhone as a camera to film the live stream on my screen – hardly great quality but from here the only way is up….

More info on the launch from Ustream, Techcrunch, NewTeeVee, while also news that Ustream competitor Qik has submitted their app to the App store.

Which still leaves my single biggest frustration: It is totally INSANE that you (STILL!!) cannot use an external keyboard on an iPhone.

Charging for online news: applying game theory to the grand experiment

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I was interviewed yesterday on Sky Business about plans by Rupert Murdoch and others to charge for online news and content – the video is below. We discussed plans to charge for content, whether the news aggregators can be charged or blocked, and differences in the Australian news media landscape.

In the interview I mentioned in passing the application of game theory to media strategy. Below is an excerpt from our Future of Media: Strategy Tools framework , which gives an overview of a number of strategy tools for the media industry. In essence, game theory is about mapping how players might respond to each others’ moves.

gametheory_excerpt.jpg

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New keynote speaking topics for 2010

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In my work as a keynote speaker – which despite all my other ventures still takes up a significant chunk of my time, attention, and frequent flyer points clocking – I always customize the presentation and topic to the client and audience. As such, on my keynote speaker website I have in the past posted just a half dozen speech titles with one-sentence descriptions, considering this is enough to provide an idea of what I can speak about.

However I have found that people seem to think that these are the only topics I speak on, so I have created a longer list of speaking topics to provide a better idea of the scope of what I can cover. This includes 10 topics for a general audience and 8 for specific industries. There are of course many other topics I cover not listed here, but these provide a reasonable overview of what I’ve spoken about.

You can see the full list of speaking topics on my speaker website, or below.

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Newshour: the state of Facebook and social networks

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Australia Network’s Newshour program recently ran a segment looking at online social networks, in particular Facebook.

The program features a number of excerpts from an interview with me about the online social network industry.

Here is a brief summary of the key points made in the interview:

* How Facebook has been used to promote Sydney as a tourist destination, resulting in a 276% increase in working holiday visas applications for Americans

* The popularity of social networks was foreseeable (and foreseen), fulfilling a human desire to connect

* Obama’s election campaign redefined both political fundraising and how social networks are perceived

* In building profitable social networks, there are limits to the advertising model however a range of new models are being explored

Leadership event: How fast will Australia’s population grow? Examining the uncertainties in demographic forecasts

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This morning I gave the opening keynote at an internal leadership conference of a major Australian retailer, addressing the topic of Embracing the Future.

One of the key issues for the long-term planning of any large organization is the basic demography of the country. While I spent much of my presentation looking at social change, I started by looking at the state of population forecasts for Australia.

A few months ago Australia’s Treasury department foreshadowed the release of the third Intergenerational Report, which examines the impact of population change and aging. The second report, released in 2007, forecast an Australian population of 28.5 million in 2050, however two scant years later the forecast has been revised to 35 million. This would make Australia the fastest-growing developed country in the world.

Let’s look at some of the figures and uncertainties behind these forecasts. While we often hear that “Demographics is Destiny”, in fact demographic forecasts are fraught with uncertainty.

This first image shows the earlier three population scenarios for this century from the government.

THREE POPULATION SCENARIOS FOR AUSTRALIA

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The next big market after ringtones: Download a new car engine sound

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The inimitable Richard Watson has come up with what just might be a big (and unanticipated) market: car engine sound downloads.

Richard’s fantastic Nowandnext.com bulletins are now openly available after long being a subscription-only service, used by many of the leading creative agencies around the world. To read the latest issue, go to Nowandnext.com and click on the Orange “Current Issue” button at the top left to read the latest bulletin.

What just caught my attention was his article ‘Why we don’t want a quiet drive’ in the Automotive and Transport section, reproduced below.

Certainly electric car engineers have long been aware that cars being too quiet is a significant safety issue. And yes, absolutely, car sounds are personal statements. The sound of a Alfa Sprint (which I greatly enjoyed driving when I owned one) or a Bugatti motorcycle, for example, are unmistakeable.

When you start to need to make a car noisier than it is mechanically, the range of driving sounds will become infinite. You will be able to choose from the sound of any vintage car you wish, or use an entirely new sound, including those of various types of UFOs, choo-choo trains, or chanting monks.

Of course this market is a little way from taking off big time. And it’s possible that there will be regulation on what are acceptable car sounds. However in that case there should also be regulation on acceptable mobile phone ringtones, something almost everyone would agree on :-).

Why we don’t want a quiet drive

For anyone who was looking forward to the pleasant, gentle hum of electric/hybrid cars in place of the throaty roar of internal combustion engines, here is some bad news. The future is something called “synthesised engine noises”. Believe it or not, people want cars to sound like cars and – worse still – quiet cars have been found to be unsafe. Nobody hears them coming.

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The Future of Sales is Social (the rise of social CRM)

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Last week I did the keynote presentation in a webinar run by ITNews and Oracle on How to spark sales using social media apps.

My presentation was titled The Future of Sales is Social. The slides are below, and you can listen to the on demand webinar here (registration required).

Keynote: The Future of Sales is Social

View more presentations from rossdawson.

Taken in the context of many people being unsure about the value of social media for business, it is worth looking at the many ways that social media are directly applicable to the B2B sales process. Just some of those are in this slide from my presentation.

SocialMediaforSales.jpg

I absolutely believe that the future of sales is social, and that social media in their various forms will quickly become central to the way salespeople and sales teams work.

Given my background in high-value client relationships as well as social media I expect to be spending a lot of time over the next while exploring precisely how sales teams can best use social media in successfully engaging with their clients and prospects. I’ll keep you posted.

ABC TV interview: The future of direct selling

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In March I gave the opening keynote at the Direct Selling Association’s conference, talking about the breadth of opportunities in the economy and the role online social networks and communication might play in the future of the industry. From what I learned by preparing for and giving the keynote, I wrote a brief piece Six Key Insights into the future of the Direct Selling Industry.

Last week ABC TV did a short segment looking at the success of the direct selling industry during the downturn, and where it is likely to go from here, shown below. An excerpt from an interview with me was included in the program. During the interview I discussed the perception challenges of the industry, the role of generational change, and the use of social technologies in direct selling.

While it wasn’t included in the final TV segment, in the interview I discussed the emergence of ‘social commerce’ as the likely center of much economic activity, and the potential for elements of the direct selling industry as we know it to morph into creating real in that space. The opportunity is there, however we have yet to see whether the industry will take it.

Mark Pesce will keynote on Using the Network for Business Success

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Among our awesome cast of speakers at SME Technology Summit, our opening keynote speakers Mark Pesce and Tim Pethick are two of the those whose insights I most look forward to hearing. Both have fantastic experience and insights into where technology is today and where it’s going.

Mark’s topic is below. Be sure to get along to see it!

Using the Network for Business Success

The past five years have seen an explosion in the ways we can connect with one another. Just five years ago email was a bit risqué – now people use Facebook and Twitter and Google Wave and don’t even give it a second thought. All of this ‘hyperconnectivity’ means we can be reached anywhere, everywhere, all the time. This has enormous implications for SMEs. More than just supercharging your rolodex, these network connections can become the channels to increased sales and productivity.

The network represents a new force, pressing down from the outside, as your hyperconnected customers (both satisfied and not-so-satisfied) use new channels to spread the word about your products. You need to be there, wherever those conversations are happening, whenever they happen. You really do need to have eyes and ears everywhere across the net. How can a small business afford to do this? New tools make it easier, but to make best use of these tools, you have to empower your employees to use them. Social media in the office is powerful – and a little bit dangerous. But with some simple ground rules, it can change your business.