Notes from the PR and New Media Summit

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I’m at the PR and New Media Summit in Sydney, organised by frocomm. The delegates, drawing on frocomm’s market presence, are primarily in-house PR people, with a good represention of government departments as well as corporates. The initial show of hands on how many people read blogs (a few), write blogs (almost none), listen to podcasts ( fair few), or create podcasts (reasonable smattering), indicates most here are here to learn. Australian organizations have In the main been slow to engage externally with social media, though more case studies are becoming visible.

Ross Monaghan’s engaging opening presentation gave a broad overview of the scene, including showing the audience Michael Wesch’s marvellous Teaching the Machine video. He also shared results from a survey the conference organizers had recently run, with notably 55% of CEOs saying they couldn’t see the value from new media. He did use quite a few examples of how organizations including Southwest Airlines, General Motors, and others, though unfortunately no Australian cases.

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Device convergence in our pockets

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An interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled Is that a computer in your pocket? examines how mobile phones, PDAs, portable computers and more are converging. It quotes me as follows:

According to Ross Dawson, chairman of the Future Networks think tank, other obstacles will also frustrate users looking for a portable mobile computing solution. The first is the limitation of existing small screen technologies to give a satisfying viewing experience. The second is the need for a more efficient means of inputting data on the device or through accessories such as fold-away keyboards.

He adds that the usability of a mobile for computing functions is also dependent on whether you must hold it to your ear or not.

“When you do that you cannot see it. Although more people are using ear buds or Bluetooth, they are still the minority. If you are making appointments when speaking to someone you need to have a separate interface”.

While there are many issues at play here, the interfaces to mobile devices are probably the most important factor in how they will be used in the future. I’ve written before about the role of video glasses and portable displays in making mobile devices more embedded in our lives. Similar issues of interfaces and immersion apply in home entertainment and living online.

I absolutely believe that mobile devices will be central to our lives and even entertainment, however first the interfaces for input and output must become seamless and compelling. The current generation of mobile devices and peripherals is on the verge of that becoming reality.

Trends in the Living Networks has been Slashdotted…

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The recent Slate article on the future of libraries, together with the Extinction Timeline referred to in the piece, have been slashdotted.

For those not familiar with this term, Slashdot was the first of the user filtered websites, and has always proudly sported the moniker “News for Nerds”. When I wrote about it in my 2002 book Living Networks, it was already a focus for the technology community in finding out what was hot news. To be “slashdotted” meant to be linked to from Slashdot, and the massive ensuing traffic often resulted in servers crashing.

Today servers and bandwidth are far more solid, so sites are less likely to fall over. Moreover, attention has shifted to the new generation of user filtered websites and services such as Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and many more. However Slashdot still has a devoted following in the tech community, it remains a great source for what is important, interesting, and quirky, and it still gives a massive boost to traffic.

Startups carnival 2008 – judging the next generation of startups

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The energetic Vishal Sharma of VS Consulting Group is running a Startups Carnival over the next two weeks, bringing together a promising field of Australian technology startups. I am a judge for the carnival, together with Justin Davies, and Duncan Riley of Techcrunch fame – bios for the three of us are here.

Detailed applications from 23 Australian startups giving insights into their strategy and situation have been received – the full list is here. I’ll keep you posted on some of the insights and results.

How to dodge tax sensibly

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We are currently hiring a new finance/ admin person. One of the impacts of online job classifieds is that it is far easier to apply, and so you get far more applications than when people had to write and post a letter. For another position we’re advertising, for an Extremely talented office/ events/ digital media assistant, we’ve received over 150 applications in the last five days – a few very good, and many just not worth looking at.

However there are occasional compensations for the work of going through many resumes. One application for the finance/ admin position included the following in her career history:

XXXXXXX Finance Service in China

(a professional financial consulting company, handling tax dodging sensibly and regular accounting operating for clients)

As an accounting clerk/ admin officer

Ahem.

Great review of Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in Sydney Morning Herald

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An article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled Facebook up to it by doyen technology journalist Graeme Philipson gives a great review of the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum from last week, excerpted below.

Until now, Web 2.0 applications have mostly affected individuals. Companies and government organisations have largely retained more traditional methods of communication. The primary collaborative technology for most organisations in the modern world has become email, which is very much a Web 1.0, or first generation, internet application.

That is now changing. Web 2.0 applications are increasingly finding their way into the enterprise. This phenomenon has, inevitably, been dubbed Enterprise 2.0. That term was invented last year by Harvard Business School professor Andrew McAfee, who has emerged as something of an international authority on the subject. Last week I heard a remarkable presentation by Professor McAfee on the state of play with Enterprise 2.0 worldwide. His talk was beamed in via Skype from Orlando, Florida, where he was attending an enterprise search conference. He spoke to 200 of us assembled in a conference room in Sydney’s Luna Park to discuss Enterprise 2.0 in Australia.

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The event I attended where we heard Professor McAfee’s words of wisdom was the grandly named “Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum”, run by Sydney company Future Enterprise Network (FEN). FEN (futureexploration.net) is run by Ross Dawson, who has become one of Australia’s leading internet gurus in recent years. He also runs regular events on the future of media.

In addition to the insights from Andrew McAfee, the article covers the points raised by Euan Semple, who drove the BBC’s move into social media, and the many real live practitioners of Enterprise 2.0 who are in Sydney. It discusses the reluctance by some to embrace these technologies, but also suggests that this shift is inevitable. This is probably the best one-stop review of the event – have a read!

BRW Digital Edition: new-style journalism and some insights into Web 2.0

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BRW magazine’s annual Digital Generation Flagship Edition came out today. It’s an excellent report and review of the digital space in Australia. Foad Fadaghi, the technology editor of BRW, has come to the media business from the research industry, having held senior analyst and director positions at Frost & Sullivan, Jupiter Research and IDC. This way of looking at the world results in the BRW Digital issue showing how journalism at its best is becoming a lot more like analysis, creating real value-add and insights that can’t be found elsewhere.

Data in the report (with a few snippets available here) includes market shares in online publishing (Google #1 at A$389 million with 89% growth), relative online ad revenues (e.g. NineMSN earns $99 million), surveys of corporate activities in online advertising (e.g. 37% of companies measure their online advertising ROI), shares of online social networking advertising (MySpace wins at 75%), and far more, complemented by a neat visual map segmenting the players in the Australian digital media market.

The report’s article on Web 2.0 draws extensively on an interview with me, with quotes from me as below. The article goes on to cover in more depth some of the players in the space.

The costs involved in web 2.0 development are so low it has spawned a large number of small one and two-person companies that can be profitable with a small user base, Future Exploration Network chairman Ross Dawson says. This means web 2.0 development is unnoticed by venture capital and other investors.

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Will libraries disappear in 2019?

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Slate magazine has published a very nice slideshow titled “Borrowed Time” about the past and future of libraries. On the final slide it refers to the Extinction Timeline created by What’s Next and Future Exploration Network, where we had put 2019 for the extinction of libraries. Slate writes:

Ross Dawson, a business consultant who tracks different customs, devices, and institutions on what he calls an Extinction Timeline, predicts that libraries will disappear in 2019. He’s probably right as far as the function of the library as a civic monument, or as a public repository for books, is concerned. On the other hand, in its mutating role as urban hangout, meeting place, and arbiter of information, the public library seems far from spent. This has less to do with the digital world—or the digital word—than with the age-old need for human contact.

Absolutely we are shifting into a world where experiences and physical interactions are becoming more important than ever. For example, shopping in shops will never disappear. We will create new spaces where we can meet and interact. We are yet to see whether the spaces where people spend their time are those based around books and collected information.

Lloyds TSB pilots social media

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James Gardner, head of innovation at Lloyds TSB, writes consistently on his blog Bankervision, disclosing some of the key issues involved in innovating in a major bank. In a recent post New ways of collaborating at the bank, James writes about how Lloyds TSB is piloting social media such as blogs. Some excerpts from his below show how blogging can change how corporations work.

We have one blog, for example, that documents the trials and tribulations of a member of the team that is implementing the social media pilot for us. Along the way there have been a couple of roadbumps, of course, and this particular blog offers the opinions of the team on the ground as things have gone wrong. It is a very positive and welcome read. Quite often, one doesn’t have a deep understanding of the real issues that caused the problem in the first place. Sometimes, you want the details without all the unpeeling that goes on before you can get them. This is a blog that does that.

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Interview on the state of applying Web 2.0 to organizations

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In the wake of the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, Smartcompany magazine has published an interview with me titled Web 2.0: Our winning ways. It begins:

Entrepreneur Ross Dawson is a leading international expert on the way businesses are using web 2.0 in Australia – and he has good news.

After lagging behind our international counterparts in the enterprise 2.0 stakes, Australia is starting to catch up in its use of blogs, wikis, social networks, social search and virtual worlds.

Ross tells Amanda Gome what’s hot, how businesses are benefiting – and what’s destined for the 2.0 dustbin.

A few brief selections from my responses to the interview:

At last I am very encouraged. The response from people at the conference shows there is a lot happening. Up until now organisations have been shy about putting up their hands and talking about what they are doing. Up until now there has also been disparate things being done by different users in different departments. But now things are being squarely addressed by executives at the top of the company so people are prepared to talk about it.

Companies are striving to create more value from the participation of their employees, customers and suppliers by using web 2.0.

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