Edge of the Web (EOTW) 2008
Today was the main conference day of the inaugural ‘Edge of the Web’ conference, held at the University of Western Australia, Perth.
Having such a strong line-up of speakers in Western Australia, coupled with the excellent facilities and organisation at the University Club, has helped move forward the understanding and debate about Web 2.0 and the future of web applications and social inclusion for business, government and recreation.
Some highlights from the morning sessions follow:
1. Keynote: Derek Featherstone
Derek provided a nostalgic trip down memory lane, and reminded us of just how far we have come in the first 15 years or so of the internet. He started off with a quote from Jules Verne:
“Looking back to all that has occurred to me since that eventful day, I am scarcely able to believe in the reality of my adventures. They were truly so wonderful that even now I am bewildered when I think of them”.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth, 1864.
It was a good choice of quote. What was considered science fiction a century ago may be the most basic utility now, but if we reflect for a moment we still maintain a sense of wonder at what was, and what will be. A fun and nostalgic illustration followed:
Gopher browser
Yep – that’s what the internet used to be, and I remember it well! This was the ‘Gopher’ platform on which I first browsed the web at university in 1994, and I remember it as well as if it was just last week. The feeling it engendered was one of exhilaration: that you somehow were able to hop between exotic-sounding resources in different countries, and it didn’t cost a penny. Then to walk out into the streets of North London safe in the knowledge that tomorrow you could pick another resource to tap into… a ‘fantastic voyage’ indeed, to pick up on another Jules Verne theme. (On top of that there was the miracle of a VAX email account and the trauma of keeping up with messages from a whole four contacts online – exhausting stuff).
By way of contrast Derek then gave a live demo of the Radiohead video House of Cards – a great example of a new web application that makes its data freely available, allowing end users to customise their experience with multiple navigation and view options (see it at http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/viewer.html ).
Radiohead - House of Cards video
Looking back at these you see Derek’s point – it is an almost bewildering progression from lines of sluggish text to a 3D, interactive, customisable information superhighway.
Derek made some other pertinent points:
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Progress like this comes from willingness, passion, and commitment
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We need to aspire to the ‘impossible’, and in the process of working towards it we find that we make what was once considered impossible commonplace;
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When in doubt, open it up. Get the information out there and let others bring new ideas and uses for information.
2. Laurel Papworth – How to Develop a Social Media Marketing Campaign
Laurel gave an outstanding presentation on social media marketing that contained a deluge of social tools and websites (all of which she seemed to be an active member of – Twitter, Kwoff, Slide Share, Flickr, wiki.co.mments, Blogger, and many more!).
A key slide was her depiction of influence ripples, showing how links between popular bloggers (or distinct subjects) are created by people at the periphery of each subject, not those main players at the centre (a good example was Deaf Mom (http://deafmomworld.com/), who blogged on the poor service and abuse she got at a drive thru takeaway – a story that quickly found its way onto the main news services at Fox & ABC. Within a week she was meeting the executives of the company who were apologising in person).
This goes a long way to showing the folly of some organisations who think that the only way to promote online is to target popular bloggers or news services with traditional press releases, which they expect to be cut & pasted close to verbatim leading to a controlled and consistent message.
The corollary is increasingly being used by corporations and indeed governments to promote various messages: smart, modern communications and public relations delivered via inclusive, long term, and devolved information sharing and reticulation.
Laurel presented her version of web 2.0 communication & development strategies as comprising of 5 steps:
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Involve
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Create
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Discuss
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Promote
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Measure
A memorable line she presented was (paraphrased!) “To understand the social web you have to live it”. Certainly advice she practices as well as preaches
In reference to promotion and communications online Laurel outlined the need to think beyond the old world of web-based metrics. Success is now much more than just page hits or click-thrus. We must consider the utility of information to people, and think of the niche that our sites can fill. This means we have to build community (starting off with changing internal cultures), rather than sticking with outdated models of simply broadcasting information in a shotgun approach, using static web pages and laborious menu-driven sites . We can no longer just talk at people, we have to talk to (and listen to) them.
This led to a key point – if there is no conversation then the content may as well not exist. After all it is the user community that creates and adds the value! No community = no value = no audience = no ratings = no searching = no point.
An interesting fact that Laurel presented was that this year (2008), for the first time, Australians spent more time online than they spent watching TV (http://slicemedia.blogspot.com/2008/04/australians-spend-more-time-online-than.html ). Given the rise of social networking in the last few years this can only mean that Web 2.0 is gaining serious traction, and the notion of user-generated content is a concept that warrants consideration for professional bodies of all persuasions.
Given this high-volume of societal use the trend is towards using web resources (including within organisations) to discover and manage links and friends/colleagues, rather than focussing on depth of content. This results in three primary roles within socially-aware web sites: creator, responder and host, with different elements within an organisation taking on these roles at different times. What is interesting is that the ‘host’ role (often the ICT department) is decreasing – all they need to do is setup the baseline/structure with which subsequent creator-responder relationships can flourish. Then it is just a case of getting out of the way and allowing the wisdom of the crowd to take over.
Some of Laurel’s useful and entertaining online resources can be found here:
